FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK: We have gotten off to a great start at the high school this year. With a full week of classes, Meet the Teacher Night, numerous sporting events, and Opening Convocation, we’ve packed in a lot! We are all very excited about the year ahead. Our student body has grown to our largest high school enrollment in our history, with many new students from around the Cincinnati area, and new international students from China, Korea and Guatemala. All of our new teachers are off to a great start and it is exciting to have Adam Cool—a 2001 graduate and “CHCA lifer”—join our math department. I look forward to the year ahead and am excited to see what God will do among us! If you want to stay in touch with life at the high school this year, check out my blog at http://chcahsprincipal.blogspot.com.

THE PRINCIPAL’S STUDY: A monthly Bible Study will be led by Dr. Nicholas for parents in the CHCA community (not just HS parents). It will meet the second Thursday of each month at 9:30 a.m. in the HS Office area. Our first meeting will be September 8 and we will discuss our course of study for the year. Bring your Bible!

HS CHAPEL: Our chapels will again be on Wednesdays at 10:13 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. and 9:35 on Block Schedule. Parents are welcome to join us for worship and teaching. The top two rows of the Lindner Theater are reserved for visitors. The opening series of the year will be on “Not.A.Fan.” Join us if you can and even if you can’t, ask your student about our discussion!

EARLY DISMISSALS: Just a reminder – if leaving early, students should bring a note from his/her parent to the HS office before the start of the school day. The note should include the reason and time for early dismissal and a telephone number where the parent can be reached for verification. At the time of dismissal the student must report to the office to sign out. This helps eliminate class disruptions caused by calling students out of class over the intercom.

SOS T-SHIRTS AVAILABLE: Are you interested in a SOS shirt? We have a limited supply of our new shirts available for $12 each!

SOS SERVICE FAIR! We are hosting a Service Fair to display all of our SOS groups for this school year! Come check them out during homeroom and lunches on Thursday, September 8. At the end of the school day we will have a kick-off party in the SOS room. Everyone is welcome to attend for more information on SOS and for refreshments!

ONE-DAY MISSION PROJECTS: This year your student has three opportunities to earn their mission trip credit on any of these one-day Cincinnati Service Projects! Our dates are: November 1, January 20, and February 17. See the brochure for more information and a permission slip.

GUIDANCE

Greetings to all of our students and families! We hope that everyone had a restful and restorative summer break. We want to extend a special welcome to all of our incoming freshmen as well as our new students. It is truly a joy for us to have the opportunity to partner with each of our families in ensuring that your children have a successful school year.

FRESHMEN: Fall timeline for freshmen (we will be meeting with the freshmen and reviewing these):

SOPHOMORES: We will be contacting the sophomore families within the next couple weeks to arrange small group meeting times with the counselor. This meeting with the families will include a discussion of the college planning tool Naviance, college visits, NHS opportunities and college searches.

COLLEGE GUIDANCE: Be sure to check out the Forms and Topics page on the guidance website. You’ll find many links & information related to the college process!

JUNIORS

WELCOME TO COLLEGE GUIDANCE! Juniors are now transitioning into a very important stage in their high school career – the college search. For their remaining two years at CHCA, they will receive guidance from their college counselor assigned by last name:

Mrs. Marianne Borgmann: Last Names beginning A-K (Marianne.borgmann@chca-oh.org) ext. 346
Mrs. Monica Chapman: Last Names beginning L-Z (Monica.chapman@chca-oh.org) ext. 364

CINCINNATI SUBURBAN COLLEGE FAIR: Oct. 5 at 6:30 p.m. The fair is hosted by a consortium of Cincinnati independent schools: CHCA, Cincinnati Country Day, Seven Hills, & Summit Country Day. Attendance at this event is strongly encouraged of all students, especially juniors as they continue to build their college list. See the list of colleges that will be attending

JUNIOR COLLEGE PLANNING NIGHT: Make sure this date & time are on your calendar: Tuesday, November 15 at 7:00 p.m. The College Planning Night for juniors and parents is mandatory because we don’t want you to miss this important overview for the college process. We are planning a new interactive format this year which we’re very excited about – more on this later! A variety of colleges representing public, private, Christian and very selective schools will be our expert resources to help you and your child successfully navigate their college search.

SENIORS

Welcome to your child’s senior year! Your college counselors are so excited to see this class enter into their senior year. We’re ready to walk alongside your student as they select their colleges and progress through the application process. We encourage you and your student to stay in communication with us throughout this time – questions are encouraged! Very important: be aware that colleges will be communicating directly with the students during this time – so it’s critical that the student lets us know about college requests or any additional information that is needed. Keep those communication lines open, plan ahead, and especially keep God in the conversation, and you’ll find the process to be very rewarding and enlightening.

COLLEGE ESSAY & RESUME: Although Ms. Schurig’s English classes had an earlier deadline to submit their college essay, these students & all others still need to submit their essay to their college counselor AND schedule a 10-15 minute meeting with their counselor by September 23. We look forward to meeting with you to give you our feedback from the college perspective. You can schedule this meeting by e-mailing your counselor or stop by the guidance office – Mrs. Vallo has access to the counselor calendar & can arrange this for you.

COLLEGE APPLICATION MARATHON: As we enter into the busy application season, we are providing two Sunday afternoons in the library for students to complete their college applications. One of the college counselors will be there to answer questions and concerns that may arise. The first of these will be Sunday, September 18 from 3:00-6:00 p.m. The next marathon will be held on Sunday, October 23.