Happy Holidays from Highlands StuCo!

Christmas is right around the corner and the Christmas spirit is in all of us!  Highlands’ Student Council would like to wish you a very, Merry Christmas or Mele Kalikimaka as we say here on the islands!  We are scrambling to get our Christmas Dance 2017: “Willy Wonka’s Winter Wonderland!”  together as well as balancing our own Student Council Christmas bonding activities.  But, it will all be worth it when we finally see the fruits of our labor and it’s Christmas time here at Highlands and all over the world!  Danni, 8th Grade Vice-President

Xmas Teacher Appreciation: Coffee & Cocoa Bar!

What's the best way to give back to our teachers while spreading the holiday spirit?  Why, a Xmas Coffee and Hot Cocoa Bar of course!  On December 19, the teachers and staff members awaited a special treat in the Front Office as they signed in for the day.  As teachers picked up their morning mail and did their office business, they treated themselves to Starbucks coffee and hot cocoa along with various toppings.  Christmas themed decorations filled the office with cheer!  The teachers and staff also entered in a raffle to win Jamba Juice gift cards, super cool elf hats, and all kinds of Xmas swag!  Holiday treats such as cookies and assorted pastries were also available. You could see the joy on the faces of our teachers and staff members making for such a heart-warming, memorable Xmas activity!  Taylor, 8th Grade President

Kindness Week 2017

Kids these days are either growing humps on their backs, growing mushrooms on their head, or have frowns that need to be turned upside down because of all the stress induced by the end of the quarter. So, to brighten up people’s day and change this dispiriting atmosphere,  Kindness Week has arrived to rain smiles and happiness among these joyless students! What’s so special about it is that it only happens once a year and small actions transform into something beautiful like the cherry blossoms in the Spring! Once the Kindness Week forms were passed out at the beginning of the week, students took it as a joke just so they can earn the special treat. But, as time flew by we grew closer and closer together as a school with each random act of kindness bestowed! Our formula for success was 1,000 x 16 Acts of Kindness = 16,000 Awesome Deeds!!! By the end of the week, absolutely everyone had a smile on their face -- not because they stuffed their face with ice cream, but because their hearts were filled with happiness and gratitude ;) Thanks to everyone who showed kindness and good deeds... After all, no act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.  Natania, Spirit Committee Chairperson

StuCo Xmas Bonding: Secret Santa!

Santa, are you keeping secrets this year? Who could it possibly be?! The Highlands Student Council started off their “3 Days of StuCo Xmas!” with a very suspicious activity... StuCo Secret Santa! Student Council members randomly chose their marks and as a result, received very top secret information about them! Knowing how hard it is to find presents for them, it’s also incredibly nerve-wracking to not tell a person that you’re their Secret Santa! Well, the day FINALLY came for the big reveal but first we had to get our Elf Names at the sign-in table, raise hands for those that wrapped their own gifts, raie hands who had the best gift wrapping and the ugliest lol, and finally guess who was our Secret Santa actually was! Though it was quite suspicious and a bit sneaky, StuCo Secret Santa sure brought bright smiles, loads of laughter, and love love love all around!  Bianca, Student Government President

OSCAR Work Day

Leading and running activities all year leaves a lot of fun memories for students, especially for the members of Student Council! One way to share, keep track, and remember the activities of the 2017-18 school year is to document them in our OSCAR (Outstanding Student Council Awards Recognition) portfolio. Since we had many, MANY, activities in the first semester, our Student Council historians put together an “Oscar Work Day”, a day when we meet up after school and create crafty pages filled with all the activities so far this year. Each Student Council member signed up for an activity to make a page for: for example, one of the pages I signed up for was the “Student Leadership Conference” that StuCo attended to in the summer. Making this page returned many fun memories while summing what the activity was about, what we did and learned there, and looking at all the pictures again. Other things we did on Oscar work day besides making craft pages, was a newly added tradition: Sumo Challenge! We also revived a StuCo classic: Ninja! as well! I love crafts and bringing out my creative side, and what made Oscar work day better was that I got to spend it with my StuCo family. :))  Jenna, Assembly Committee Chairperson

Full Council 1

On Friday, December 1st, the Highlands Student Council hosted the Homeroom Representatives for the very first Full Council meeting of the year! We have these meetings every semester, where all the Homeroom Reps share their concerns and ideas to improve the school. Everyone sits by teams and discusses 3 issues: student concerns, team concerns, and school life concerns. Homeroom Reps collect this data from their perspective homerooms and document them on the Full Council form provided the week before. Some of the ideas presented were very useful and will be shared with our Administration in the coming weeks.  They’ll give us actionable results and hopefully will in turn improve our school.  Overall, Full Council 1 was a success and we were able to make Highlands Intermediate an even better place to live and learn!  Brandie, Student Government Treasurer

6th Grade Orientation 2017

The 6th Grade Orientation was a great experience for the Class of 2024!  All 8 Pearl City Elementary schools got a taste of what it’ll be like next year for them as Middle Schoolers -- as full-fledged 7th Graders.  As a 7th Grader, they’ll be choosing an Elective Class for the first time so all 7th Grade Electives -- band, PE/Health, Chorus, Ukulele -- put on a show to try and persuade them to take their classes! The best part of the day might actually have been the Campus Tour which followed the Elective performances.  Small groups lead by our very own Highlands experts showed them every part of campus and what to expect as a 7th Grader.  The Orientation ended with the annual Q&A session hosted by the Highlands Student Council. After the Orientation, we believe the 6th graders finally felt a little comfortable in a place where they soon will call home for the next two important years of their lives. Caleb, Co-Assembly Committee Chair