Important News about Miami Dade College

 MDC’s admission application fee has been increased from $20 to $30 as of October 18, 2010.

 Students will be charged a $3 per credit beginning in the fall of 2011. This “access and parking” fee will automatically be included with tuition. For instance, a student taking 12 credits will be charged $36 that semester. All parking and access fees will go toward construction, the hiring of public safety patrols, parking attendants and operational expenses college wide.

 The Miami Culinary Institute, the first public program of its kind in South Florida will open its door in January, 2011. The eight-story building located at the Wolfson Campus includes a state-of-the-art food and wine demonstration kitchen, three floors of kitchen laboratories and fine dining restaurant overlooking the port of Miami. The program plans to have 100 students by January. Visit: www.miamidadeculinary.com

 New program for quicker degrees: The Wolfson Campus initiated two programs that will allow student to earn their associate degree in one year! Tracks are offered in information technology and business administration. The program is comprised of four-week classes, rather than the traditional 16 weeks. Classes are set up in a virtual and traditional way, where the course materials are delivered in face-to-face personal settings, as well as in online sessions. All the classes are mapped out before so that students completely understand and are fully aware of their responsibilities. Students are offered orientation, advisement and other sessions where they can discuss their concerns with faculty members and advisers. For more information contact:
~ Mr. Eugene “Chris” Kinnaird, Dept. Chairperson, (305) 237-3928, ekinnair@mdc.edu
~ Mr. Pierre Carrasquilla, Business Coordinator, (305) 237-3498, pcarrasq@mdc.edu

 Miami Book Fair International- eight days, more than 300 authors, hundreds of exhibitors an millions of books!!
November 14-21, 2010 Street Fair: Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 19, 20, 21. You are all invited!!!

UF Priority Deadline

The freshman application deadline is November 1. Please submit the completed online application at www.uf.edu no later than the end of the day (November 1st) to be considered on-time. Freshman applications received after November 1 will receive a decision on a space-available basis only.
Few students are admitted purely on academic merit. While the potential for academic success is a primary consideration, UF's comprehensive holistic application review also considers personal essays, academic awards, extracurricular activities, family background and home community. All information in the applicant's file, academic and non-academic, is considered in relation to the size and strength of the applicant pool for that class.

• Submit your online application, including essay and résumé sections, by November 1, no later than 12:00 am (midnight) Eastern Standard Time. Applications received after November 1 will receive a decision on a space-available basis only. www.uf.edu

• $30 application fee, submitted online or mailed by check or money order. If sending fee waiver, choose check or money order option and attach fee waiver.
• Arrange to have official high school transcripts sent to UF (please see Mrs. Pulido in Attendance)

• Arrange to have official ACT plus Writing and/or SAT scores sent directly to UF from the testing service (UF will accept SAT/ACT scores until December from the testing agency)

Posse Scholarship

Please congratulate the following Felix Varela students who were selected as Posse Scholarship finalists. Now they select 10 students after an interview with the university. If selected as a Posse Scholar they will receive a four-year, full-tuition, merit-leadership scholarship worth approximately $160,000.

This is a great accomplishment since they were chosen from over 900 nominated students.

Jessica Fernandez- Mount Holyoke College
Sohaib Ahmad-University of Pennsylvania
Fatimah Abdullahi-University of Pennsylvania

Help the Band Win some $

We need help!!! Please help us win.... we really need the money to keep the band program growing. When you click on the link http://www.wkis.com/marchingbands/
scroll down to find Felix Varela HS. Click on the video, when the video screen shows up write the letters and numbers your going to see below the video then click vote. We really need your help.

Band of Mystery

This past Saturday October 25, 2010 the Band of Mystery performed in competition at the Hialeah Showcase of Champions. Our band students performed extremely well.

Not only did they accomplish all of these great achievements, but they also were awarded first runner up in the evening with a score of 86.00. This is an amazing accomplishment considering that the one group ahead of them is about three times the size of ours. This score of 86.00 is the highest score in Varela history and places us first overall in our county over all schools and first in the state in our class.

Superior:
-Drum Majors
-Percussion
-Woodwinds
-Brass
-Auxiliary
-Music
-Visual
-General Effect

With Distinction:
-Percussion
-Visual
-General Effect
-Music
-Drum Major

Best in Class
-Drum Major
-General Effect
-Music
-Visual

1st place in Class 3A(we are really a 1A) 1st Runner up for the evening.

The last local event we will be performing at is this Saturday at the FIU Stadium For the FBA District Assessment. Please come out and support OUR band program!!! We will be performing at 4:15pm this Saturday.

Please congratulate any Band students you see, they are doing amazing things.

2010 Homecoming Queen

Please see the story aired on WSVN Channel 7 on Melissa Valencia, our Homecoming Queen.

Varela 2010 Homecoming Queen

Office Employee of the Year

Congratulations to Ms. Ada de la Cruz who was named the Varela Office Employee of the Year.

The Princeton Prize in Race Relations

• Since 2006, the Princeton University Alumni Council of South Florida has sponsored an awards program for high school students - .
• High school students involved in activities that are helping to improve race relations in your school or community are encouraged to apply.
• A cash award of $1,000 will be awarded to the first prize winner and certificates of accomplishment will be presented to other students worthy of recognition at a distinguished ceremony.
• The first prize winner also will be awarded a trip, in spring 2011, to the Princeton University Campus for the Princeton Prize Symposium on Race, where he/she will attend a two-day conference with other winners from around the country, local high school students, Princeton faculty, and Princeton Prize volunteers.
• Information regarding the scholarship application process will be provided to the Senior High School Student Services Department Chairs, at their Technical Assistance Meeting on November 9th.
• Attached is a copy of an article about last year's winners.
• Applications are available at www.princeton.edu/pprize and must be postmarked by January 31, 2011.

Hispanic Scholarship Fund

• The Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF) works to provide financial support to Latinos going to college and educates students and families about the resources available for paying for a post-secondary education.
• The goal of HSF is to double the rate of Hispanics earning a college degree and significantly reduce public expenditures on social services, health, law enforcement and other social programs.
• Over $195 million in scholarships have been granted by HSF to date to the Hispanic community.
• To this end, HSF is hosting the "College is Possible" event on Saturday, October 30, 2010, at 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon, at Miami-Dade College - Kendall Campus that is FREE and open to the public.
• Presentations will include information on preparing for college admissions, and researching financial aid and scholarship opportunities.
• During the College Expo, participants will receive information about career and post-secondary education options.
• The attached flier has been distributed to the College Assistance Program Advisors.

Celebrity Scoop Night

Celebrity Scoop Night

Come see Ms. Navarro, Mr. Galardi and Ms. Fins
scoop ice cream for you.

50% of all profits that night will go to the Miracles for Madison Fund

We will also have Dollies for Madison available for donations!!!

Haagen Dazs
At the Falls
October 5th
6pm-9pm

See You There!!!!

National Hispanic Recognition Program

It is a privilege to recognize Lainie Velasquez who has been selected as a 2010-11 National Hispanic Recognition Program Scholar by the College Board.

This year the NHRP is recognizing 5,000 students selected from a pool of over 200,000students who took the 2009 PSAT and identified themselves as Hispanic/Latino.

We are very proud of Lainie.

Journalism Teacher wins National Award

The Dow Jones News Fund has named Elizabeth Cardenas, Journalism teacher at Varela as one of four Special Recognition Advisors Award Recipients.

All winners will be honored at the JEA/NSPA convention in Kansas City in November.

We are very proud of Mrs. Cardenas' efforts, which benefit both the students and communications industry.

CONGRATS, Mrs Cardenas