From the Desk of Dr. Davis
Dear GWHS Family,
Winter may often be cold and blustery outside, but despite adverse weather conditions we've managed to keep life heating up at GWHS! Our athletics programs have excelled (Sweet Sixteen appearances for both boys and girls basketball!), our National Merit Semi-Finalists have become Finalists, our students shone at our annual Academic Awards Night, and so much more.
Our Patriot Post - Winter Edition is our chance to showcase all that our students have accomplished in the season of chilly noses. We hope you'll be just as impressed with how amazing they are!
With Patriot Pride,
Dr. Dackri Davis
Principal | George Washington High School
IB Learner Profile Trait
With each issue of the Patriot Post, we highlight an attribute from the International Baccalaureate (IB) Learner Profile. The Learner Profile describes a broad range of human capacities and responsibilities that go beyond academic success. Each characteristic implies a commitment to help all members of the GWHS community learn to respect themselves, others and the world around them.
To be an inquirer, we nurture our curiosity, developing skills for inquiry and research. We know how to learn independently and with others. We learn with enthusiasm and sustain our love of learning throughout life.
Winter Sports Highlights
What an incredible winter season for GWHS Athletics! Our student-athletes showcased their dedication, talent, and competitive spirit across all sports, making this a season to remember!
Girls Basketball - CHAMPIONS AGAIN!
Back-to-back City League Champions with a perfect 10-0 league record and a 16-9 overall finish. The team’s hard work and resilience led them to an impressive Sweet Sixteen appearance. What a season!
Boys Basketball - Sweet Sixteen!
The boys had a strong season, finishing third overall in the league with a 15-10 record, punching their ticket to the Sweet Sixteen. Their dedication and grit showed all year long—well done, team!
Wrestling - The Future Looks Bright!
GWHS Wrestling sent multiple competitors to Regionals, and the boys' program took a big step forward by adding a JV team. With a young and talented roster on both the boys' and girls' sides, GWHS wrestling is on the rise!
Girls Swim and Dive - State Qualifiers Shine!
The team had a fourth place league finish and sent multiple swimmers to State:
Mina Doebele – 500 Freestyle
Maya Stone – 200 IM (eleventh overall), 100 Breaststroke (eighth place)
Kate Newsome – 100 Fly, 100 Breaststroke
Greta Bellamy, Maya Stone, Kate Newsome, and Evelyn Merson – 200 Yard Medley Relay (fifteenth place)
Unified Basketball
The GWHS Unified Basketball season rocked! GWHS placed second in the Special Olympics Regional Tournament, and again placed second at the State Tournament on Friday, March 7. They also placed second in the Competitive and Recreational brackets of the DPS Unified Basketball Tournament. Congrats to our Unified Athletes for all of their hard work!
National Merit Finalists and Commended Students
GWHS is extremely proud to announce its five National Merit Scholarship Program Semi-Finalists from the Class of 2025 have all become Finalists! GWHS boasts the second-most National Merit Semi-Finalists of any DPS high school. Our National Merit Finalists are (from left to right): Luca McMurray, Charles Camp, Kate Taylor, Caroline Mabey and Samuel Holland.
In addition to its five National Merit Scholarship Program Finalists from the Class of 2025, we have seven Commended National Merit Scholarship Program students! Each year, about 34,000 students who scored in the top 2-4% of students who took the PSAT/NMSQT the previous October are selected as Commended students. Our Commended students are: Matthew Abrams, Owen Craig, Brian McHughs, Isabelle Sabo, Lindsay Sieja, Oakley Thomas and Adam Wang.
Students enter the National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the PSAT/NMSQT in October of their junior year. The 16,000 National Merit Semi-Finalists are the highest-scoring students in each state, representing less than one percent of each state's high school seniors. To become Finalists, students must fulfill additional requirements, including demonstrating high academic achievement in rigorous coursework, submitting an SAT or ACT score that confirms their PSAT/NMSQT score, and providing a resume of their extracurricular activities and volunteer work.
Academic Awards Night
A huge thank you to everyone who joined us for our Academic Awards Night on Tuesday, February 18! We are filled with pride for our students and absolutely loved celebrating their hard work and dedication. This year, we had over 500 Honor Roll recipients and more than 300 students earning the Academic Achievement Award. These numbers keep growing each year, showcasing the outstanding achievements of our students and their unwavering commitment to excellence. Our Patriots continue to shine brightly in the classroom, and we couldn’t be more thrilled with their success. Congratulations to all!
GWHS Model UN Club
GWHS's Model UN (United Nations) Club is in its second year, and we're very excited about where our club is going. More and more students are showing interest in this academically stimulating extra-curricular, and we want to continue this upward trajectory. Model UN is a place where students begin learning about international relations and how each nation has its own self-interests which might be in direct conflict with policies of the United States. Now more than ever, we need to highlight the complexities of our world rather than thinking in limiting or archaic terms. Model UN Club does just that by having students assume the role of a diplomat from any country outside the Western-aligned world, including Russia, China, Iran. So far, our members have participated in events held at CU Boulder, Valor Christian High School, and Cherry Creek High School. We have meetings weekly in room 133 during lunch. Students interested in joining Model UN Club should email Mr. Parker at alex_parker@dpsk12.net!
GWHS Students Build App for CU Anschutz Lab
The Coding Capstone class at GWHS developed a PC, Mac and web-based application to help a research laboratory at CU Anschutz manage its inventory. The application is actively used by numerous lab employees and is now being set up for a second lab at CU Anschutz. It currently manages over 10,000 inventory items. The class divided into teams to build the front end, back end and lead the data integration process. Last year, multiple labs at CU were caught off guard when a commonly used inventory website for research labs transitioned from a free model for non-profits to a paid service. We stepped in to provide a free alternative that can be used by research labs worldwide. In January, we met with the lab manager and senior research scientist to ensure our app was meeting their needs and to go over new and updated features for our next version release this month.
National Honor Society Updates
The GWHS Chapter of National Honor Society (NHS) has been busy bettering our community! Hosting and supporting everything from a pre-Valentine's Day blood drive to conducting a canned food drive for our Food Pantry, read what NHS students have been doing in the latest NHS newsletter HERE.
"Mean Girls" Taking the Stage
The Patriot Players have been working hard all winter to get ready for "Mean Girls." This musical comedy comes to the Nancy Priest Auditorium Thursday, March 13 through Saturday, March 15. Our cast and crew of more than 50 students have been rehearsing and working on all aspects of the theatre arts. Our actors are singing beautifully, learning complex dances, and creating some hilarious characters. Our tech crew has been toiling to craft great sets, props, costumes, lights and sound. This musical will feature live music performed by students and professionals, and conducted by Greg Cooke.
The story is familiar to many- Cady Heron (Alison Pellet) may have grown up on an African savannah, but nothing prepared her for the wild and vicious ways of her strange new home: suburban Illinois. Here she takes on Regina George (Eva Perak) and The Plastics (Rhiannon Coleman and Sophia Vorhauer-Rubalcave), a trio of lionized frenemies controlled by the charming but ruthless Regina. But when Cady devises a plan to end Regina’s reign with her new friends Janice (Cora Wetherby) and Damien (Adin Kobrin-Brody), she learns the hard way that you can’t cross a queen bee without getting stung.
Join us at the GWHS Theatre Thursday, March 13, Friday, March 14 and Saturday, March 15 for a fetch musical comedy..."Mean Girls"! Shows are at 7:00pm, with a 1:00pm matinee on Saturday, March 15. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students and staff. Click HERE for details, and click HERE to purchase tickets! Contains some mature language and suggestive situations. Not suitable for young children.
GWHS DECA Goes to State Competition
GWHS brought fourteen students to the 2025 DECA State Career Development Conference at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs Sunday, February 23 through Tuesday, February 25. Our competitors included Ivy Manno, Samuel Holland, Diego Holguin, Ben Zemel, Addy Melton, Max Watada, Max Resnik, Andrew Retting, Rafael Ramirez, Aiden Gillard, Blu Novak, Caroline Mabey, Madison Poch and Roxanne Thaw. The students competed in various role play events, where they had to analyze real-life business issues and come up with and present their solutions. The events ranged from Principals of Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Business Law and others. GWHS had seven qualify for finals and two students, Diego Holguin and Ben Zemel, qualify for the International Career Development Conference in Orlando at the end of April!
Students Demand Action Day at the Capitol
GWHS Students Demand Action (SDA) traveled to the capital on Thursday, January 30 for Advocacy day. A day hosted and organized by the Students Demand Action team to meet legislators and hear their latest opinions and plans regarding gun violence legislation. The SDA group got to hear from legislators like Senator Tim Sullivan–whose son tragically passed away in the Aurora Theater shooting– and their plans to address crucial next steps to combating the devastating threat of gun violence to our teens. The GWHS SDA team learned a lot from this experience and is always trying to learn about new opportunities to help be a part of a change dedicated to ending gun violence, not just in schools but across the US as a whole.
JROTC Archery Team Success
In February, the GWHS JROTC Archery Team competed in the National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) Colorado State Archery Tournament. The team of twelve placed third in the state and four archers placed in the top ten in the state as individuals: Kent Pelham placed sixth, Grace Gwah placed seventh, William Breault placed eighth, and William Chona placed ninth. These four archers qualified for the NASP National Championship match schedule for May!
Elite Patriot Dancers on the Come-Up!
The Elite Patriot Dance Team, led by Head Coach Taryn Jones and Assistant Coach Tatum Connor, have been booked and busy this school year doing both in-school and community events. Along with the performances at ten basketball games and the DPS League Cheer Competition, they have been invited to multiple community events such as The Re-Grand Opening of the Denver Central Library and The DPS Black Excellence Banquet. Other schools have reached out and requested the team perform for their in-school events, including Florida Pitt-Waller and Merrill Middle School. There is much more to come from this uprising Dance Team! Upcoming events you can see EPDT perform are Culture Fest (at GWHS on Tuesday, April 8) and Future Fest at Downtown Denver Civic Center Park!
GWHS Teacher Wins A to Z Grant
One of our wonderful Spanish teachers, Ms. Soldner, was recently given a $2,100 award from the
Denver Public Schools Foundation to support the purchase of literacy materials for our World Language department. Ms. Soldner says, "I have been able to provide countless reading materials for my students, which has greatly enhanced my experience as a teacher as well as my students' learning, all thanks to the DPS Foundation grant monies." This award came from the Denver Public Schools Foundation’s A to Z Grant Program, which funds materials, resources and opportunities that fall outside classroom budgets, and have a lasting impact on students. The A to Z Grant Program has funded more than $3,000,000 in support to DPS schools in since the program’s inception in 2006. Learn more about DPS Foundation and support the A to Z Grants by clicking HERE.
GWHS Shines at State Tournament
Our GWHS Speech and Debate team, currently ranked sixth in the nation, took home the most individual titles in team history at the State Tournament Friday, February 28 and Saturday, March 1! Our five state champions include:
Caroline Mabey and Cade Ramirez - CHAMPIONS in Policy Debate
Lindsay Sieja - CHAMPION in Informative Speaking
Adam Wang and John Sheehan - CHAMPIONS in Public Forum Debate
Alison Pellet - CHAMPION in Program of Oral Interpretation
Ava Jacobson - CHAMPION in Poetry
Additionally, out of 50 entrants, 33 advanced beyond the preliminary rounds:
Sam Holland - Second in Humorous Interpretation; Runner-Up Champion
Avett Proctor - Fifth in Humorous Interpretation
Adin Kobrin-Brody - Sixth in Humorous Interpretation
Devra Caplan and Gabi Fox - Sixth in Duo Interpretation
Riyan Smith - Sixth in Original Oratory
Ingrid Zuniga-Boyle and Kamila Jenkins - Policy Debate Quarterfinalists
Yoale Amanuel and Ben Parsons - Policy Debate Quarterfinalists
Tatum Lezotte - Eighth in Informative Speaking
Abby Guhman - Eighth in Dramatic Interpretation
Naomi Nicholson - Ninth in Program Of Oral Interpretation
Sophie Wohl & Ezra Botteicher 9th in Duo Interpretation
Jordan Glockner and Lola Van Remortel - Ninth in Duo Interpretation
Matthew Abrams - Tenth in International Extemporaneous Speaking
Syd West - Eleventh in Original Oratory
Graeme Elson - Eleventh in Dramatic Interpretation
Lydia Tsao - Twelfth in Poetry
Greta Bellamy - Lincoln/Douglas Debate Octafinalist
Maggie Duffy and Diego Holguin - Public Forum Debate Octafinalists
Penelope Stewart and Brenton Burness - Public Forum Debate Octafinalists
Sophia Stambuck - Lincoln/Douglas Debate Double-Octafinalist
