We’ve made the decision to pre-emptively cancel our scheduled night of service for 2/12/19. With less than 20 of us able to attend, that seems to make sense, especially with still sloppy roads and the threat of more incoming weather. I did reach out to CCFB to ask about options for another date this spring. …
December and January are great months for reflection as we close one year and start another. For me, that’s often sparked by visits from former students. I’ll be sharing some of those updates here on this page, asking them to share what they’ve been up to, the lessons they’ve learned and applied in their lives, …
December and January are great months for reflection as we close one year and start another. For me, that’s often sparked by visits from former students. I’ll be sharing some of those updates here on this page, asking them to share what they’ve been up to, the lessons they’ve learned and applied in their lives, …
Magnetos, join us for a night of service on Tuesday, February 12th, from 5:15-7:30 PM, at the Clark County Food Bank. We need about 50 volunteers to work with teams of other Magnetos and staff to sort and/or repackage bulk donations for distribution to local families. If you’d like to do this, sign up here: Magnet Night …
Performing in front of a packed house in CHS room 116 on January 23rd, Magnet sophomore Joey Stanley wowed the judges with his soulful interpretation of The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost, winning the 2019 CHS Poetry Out Loud (POL) competition. Congratulations, Joey, as well as to all the other contestants and the six school competition …
See below for important dates and deadlines related to this year’s CHS MST Magnet admissions process. Our application goes live by the end of next week. For more information about the admissions process, visit our admissions page: MST Admissions Portal
On December 10th, 2018, the entire Magnet senior class presented their summer internship work and projects to the Camas School District school board and community at the Zellerbach Administration Center. After the poster fair, staff, students, and community convened for the regular school board meeting to hear formal presentations of internships by seniors Abigail Jiang and …
Ryan Gompertz (CHS, ’11) was among the first 32 brave Magnet pioneers who joined our brand new program in its inaugural year of 2007. Like many of those 32 curious students who joined us that year, we were also just trying to figure out who we were as a program. I distinctly remember when Ryan …
We’ve made the decision to pre-emptively cancel our scheduled night of service for 2/12/19. With less than 20 of us able to attend, that seems to make sense, especially with still sloppy roads and the threat of more incoming weather. I did reach out to CCFB to ask about options for another date this spring. They offered up June 11th as a replacement date, so I told them we would take that day. Mark your calendars for that date, please! We’ll regroup after the snow and insanity of winter is gone and give it another shot. Thanks as always for your willingness to serve!
December and January are great months for reflection as we close one year and start another. For me, that’s often sparked by visits from former students. I’ll be sharing some of those updates here on this page, asking them to share what they’ve been up to, the lessons they’ve learned and applied in their lives, etc. For this post, I’m sharing with you some insights from Riley Hein, CHS/MST class of 2014.
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The analytical thought process that the MST program aims to develop, as well as the opportunities to embrace the research process, will definitely help students in their lives after high school. It certainly translates well to studying a STEM discipline in college, but will be useful regardless of what students want to do after graduating (4 year college, 2 year college, trade school, military, mission, etc.). I would just tell them to remember the skills they have learned in high school (regardless of what they want to do) and do their best to apply them once graduating. And be humble, because it’s pretty incredible what the other people you meet will know or bring to the table skill-wise (again regardless of the career/school path you take).
While at UW, I majored in bioengineering and was also a cadet in the Army ROTC program on campus. During my junior and senior years, I worked with several doctors in the Emergency Medicine Research Lab at Harborview Medical Center (downtown Seattle). The project I worked on sought to further understand the blood coagulation process, specifically with the respect to a drug that is commonly used for trauma patients experiencing massive hemorrhage. The efficacy of this drug, known as tranexamic acid (TXA), was previously identified to decline the later it was administered to patients in need. The cause for this decline in efficacy is still a mystery to doctors and scientists in this field, so my project specifically explored whether this trend was due to the concentration of several integral blood clotting proteins. During my senior year, I also worked with several doctors from Madigan Army Medical Center to create a device for service members suffering from non-compressible truncal hemorrhage. Traditional tourniquets are effective for stopping blood loss from extremity hemorrhage, but the areas around the groin and abdomen pose a challenge due to their physical geometry. My team and I designed an “internal tourniquet”, which could be inserted near a site of injury in the abdomen and subsequently inflated (the device featured a balloon of sorts), thus applying pressure to the entire cavity. Upon graduation, I also commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the US Army and moved to Fort Benning, GA to begin completing my basic officer training. After I complete my training here, I will move to Ft. Hood, TX for my next assignment.
December and January are great months for reflection as we close one year and start another. For me, that’s often sparked by visits from former students. I’ll be sharing some of those updates here on this page, asking them to share what they’ve been up to, the lessons they’ve learned and applied in their lives, etc. For this post, I’m sharing with you some insights from Abbie Younkin, CHS/MST class of 2013.
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Hi Magnetos,
My name is Abbie Younkin. I graduated from CHS in 2013 and went on to major in Biology with a Chemistry minor from Seattle Pacific University. I always thought that medical school was the route that I was going to (and had to) take. I had pre-health advisors that really pushed the idea of medical school, but as I progressed I realized how many other career options there are in healthcare, science and medicine alike! Here are some other paths you may consider if you are unsure that medical school is right for you:
The list could go on but I have considered and researched almost all of these paths at some point in my life, so if you are at a crossroad or have questions, please feel free to reach out to me. I am currently working as a Patient Care Coordinator for Providence in Spokane, WA where I work with physicians and our clinical team to create treatment plans for chronic patients. This often ranges to diabetic education to cancer treatment options. I am also pursuing my Masters in Healthcare Administration while I finish up prerequisites for PA school. I have explored a lot of options and it is okay to not know exactly what/where you want to be! Just be wise and keep your options open to possibilities you may not have considered!
I would also HIGHLY recommend medical mission trips or any mission work possible! Last summer I spent two months in Vietnam serving over 8,000 patients in rural communities. We set up a mobile clinic in a different site each day and provided optical care, medical consultation, physical therapy, medications, vaccinations, and public health services with physicians from the Seattle area. It was an absolutely humbling and amazing experience that completely affirmed my love for medicine and serving those who need it most. Please consider serving those even in your local community as it will give insight into suffering and humanity at its most pure.
Please feel free to reach out to me with any thoughts or questions you may have and I would be happy to offer any advice possible!
Magnetos, join us for a night of service on Tuesday, February 12th, from 5:15-7:30 PM, at the Clark County Food Bank. We need about 50 volunteers to work with teams of other Magnetos and staff to sort and/or repackage bulk donations for distribution to local families.
If you’d like to do this, sign up here: Magnet Night of Service at CCFB Sign Up To be clear, you’ll need to provide your own transportation, and you’ll also need to have your parent/guardian fill out the Volunteer Registration form that I’ll collect from you before the event. Please deliver those to me in 710. Come on, Magnetos, let’s do this! See below for more info:
Arriving at CCFB
For travel options and directions to the facility, click here. Please arrive 5-10 minutes before your shift. Check in at the front desk when you arrive. If you are arriving after hours, please ring the doorbell at the main entrance. The volunteer orientation begins promptly at the scheduled start time. If you arrive late, please check in with a Volunteer Shift Leader for directions.
Safety Guidelines
You will be turned away if you are wearing improper footwear as you will be working in the warehouse. Shoes must have closed toes and heels (no sandals, clogs, slippers or high heels).
All new volunteers are required to complete a Volunteer Registration form. If you’ve previously volunteered here and have submitted a form, you’re fine.
All volunteers are required to sign in and out on the Volunteer Service Log as a way to track volunteer hours.
Parents and/or guardians are required to sign Volunteer Waiver forms for first-time volunteers under the age of 18 years.
If you have cold symptoms or open wounds, please do not show up to volunteer.
Temperatures in the volunteer areas can vary. Layers are recommended.
Check out the video of one of our past service nights at CCFB:
Performing in front of a packed house in CHS room 116 on January 23rd, Magnet sophomore Joey Stanley wowed the judges with his soulful interpretation of The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost, winning the 2019 CHS Poetry Out Loud (POL) competition. Congratulations, Joey, as well as to all the other contestants and the six school competition finalists, including two other MST sophomores, Tyler Stanley and Kate Staddon! Bravo!
In order to advance to the school competition, he and the almost 30 other students first had to qualify in their respective English class competitions. By virtue of winning the school competition, Mr. Stanley would have advanced to the regional competition, held last week on January 24th at the ESD 112 in Vancouver, WA., but since he was unable to attend the regional competition, this year’s runner up, Bailey Grubbs, had the honor of representing CHS at this event. Congrats, Bailey! And thank you for your awesome interpretation of Marge Piercy’s To have without holding.
On a historical note, this marks the 12th anniversary of CHS involvement in this national recitation/interpretation contest. We estimate that approximately 475 CHS students have participated in the school competition, not to mention 2000+ students in the various classroom competitions held at CHS over the last 12 years. Long live the spoken word!
See below for important dates and deadlines related to this year’s CHS MST Magnet admissions process. Our application goes live by the end of next week. For more information about the admissions process, visit our admissions page: MST Admissions Portal
On December 10th, 2018, the entire Magnet senior class presented their summer internship work and projects to the Camas School District school board and community at the Zellerbach Administration Center. After the poster fair, staff, students, and community convened for the regular school board meeting to hear formal presentations of internships by seniors Abigail Jiang and Christopher Xia.
Ms. Jiang, who just completed her third year of work on this topic in the labs at Washington State University Vancouver, continued her work with Dr. Allison Coffin where she studied Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) commonly caused by exposure to excessive noise from occupational or recreational sources. In her own words, “Sensory hair cells are damaged by this acoustic trauma, and NIHL is permanent in humans. One known mechanism of noise-induced hair cell damage is oxidative stress and the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in hair cells.” The overall aim of her project was “to identify antioxidant compounds that attenuate noise-induced hair cell damage by limiting ROS production, utilizing zebrafish (Danio rerio) as a model organism.” The findings of her study, due to be published in the near future, are summarized here: Exploring Antioxidant Drug Therapies for Noise-Induced Hearing Loss
Mr. Xia worked on a team at CID Bioscience in Camas, WA., to control and effectively measure ethylene levels affecting avocado ripening. According to Xia, “As avocados ripen, they develop an index of dry matter, which is regulated in the market. It is inconvenient to analytically determine dry matter of avocados, so I worked to help develop instruments that easily measure ethylene and dry matter, which gives avocado farmers greater efficiency in their avocado production.” See his full write up of the experience and process here: Controlling Ethylene and Ripening Avocados
Congratulations, seniors, on completing your internships and moving one step closer to graduation!
Ryan Gompertz (CHS, ’11) was among the first 32 brave Magnet pioneers who joined our brand new program in its inaugural year of 2007. Like many of those 32 curious students who joined us that year, we were also just trying to figure out who we were as a program. I distinctly remember when Ryan came to me during his sophomore year in the program and told me, “Mr. Greene, I like science, math, and engineering and all, but I’m not sure I want a career in it …” “Perfect!” I said. What a gift to figure out at such a young age what you DON’T want to do with your life.
Ryan continued on in the program and was very successful in it and at CHS, but he stayed true to his realization, charting a course forward that would help him achieve his dreams. One such example came for him when he returned home from his freshman year at UW and ran as a 19 year old 2012Democratic candidate for District 18b of the Washington House of Representatives. Though he didn’t advance to the final ballot, his candidacy inspired him and others to keep seeking and pursuing change.
Fast forward to 2018 and this past week when Assistant Attorney General Ryan Gompertz, Esq. was sworn in as an attorney in Olympia in the presence of the Supreme Court of the State of Washington. Bravo!
Congratulations, Ryan, on staying true to your realization and vision and being sworn in as a lawyer. We are all so proud of you and look forward to tracking this next phase of your journey. Cheers!
Interested in learning about a new career, helping close the gender gap in the workforce, and getting some free snacks during lunch? Bring your lunch and a friend to the Girls Represent Lunchbox Talks! The DECA Girls Represent campaign aims to encourage girls to pursue careers lacking female representation. These Lunchbox Talks are a series of inspiring and informative talks delivered by female professionals in underrepresented fields. The talks will take place during A/B Lunch in the CHS Library on most Tuesdays in October. Everyone is welcome! Speakers include:
10/2 – Dr. Carolyn Long (Local candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives)
10/9 – Dr. Kiki Sanford (CEO/Entrepreneur & “This Week in Science” Podcast Host)
10/16 – Dr. Cynthia Cooper (Professor of Molecular Biosciences at WSU-V)
10/30 – Dana Lukens (Former Military Staff Sergeant, Current Director of Global Logistics at Emerald Kalama)
We are proud of these CHS Papermakers! Congratulations goes out to Angela Xu, Abigail Jiang, Maia Kawamura, and Monica Chang (left to right), who have been recognized as National Merit Semi-finalists based on their PSAT scores from last year. Way to go, Magnetos!
The National Merit® Scholarship Program is an academic competition for recognition and scholarships that began in 1955. In early September, about 16,000 students, or approximately one-third of the 50,000 high scorers, are notified that they have qualified as Semifinalists. To ensure that academically talented young people from all parts of the United States are included in this talent pool, Semifinalists are designated on a state-representational basis. They are the highest scoring entrants in each state. NMSC provides scholarship application materials to Semifinalists through their high schools. To be considered for a National Merit® Scholarship, Semifinalists must advance to Finalist standing in the competition by meeting high academic standards and all other requirements explained in the information provided to each Semifinalist.
