At Uni High, we strive to foster an environment where everyone, inclusive of race, color, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, political beliefs, ability, language, and religion, will feel welcome, visible, and heard.

Sprabitat and the PTSA will be selling the remaining jewelry from this year's Silent Auction at half-price during lunch on Thursday, April 24.  Necklaces, bracelets, and earrings are all marked down to $2.50 apiece.  Students and staff may pay for jewelry with cash, check, or Venmo. All proceeds will be divided equally between Spring Initiative and the Uni High PTSA. Find some great deals and support two worthy causes at our Spring Jewelry Sale!  

Take the mic and share your poetry in the library on Wednesday April 23 at 3:15 p.m. All are welcome to perform their own work or the poetry of a published writer. Sign-ups are first come, first serve on the day of. Please reach out to Harrison if you have questions. We hope to see you there! 

MPAG and Uni's Asian American Association are seeking submissions for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (May 2025). Please review the poster contest guidelines here before designing your poster. The top three winners will receive $50 prizes. Collaborative submissions are welcome (note that collaborators would split the prize money). Submissions may be created digitally or as physical art pieces (and then scanned with a high resolution).

The last Math League competition has an Algebra focus and will be held on April 29 during Uni period in room 206. Any grade level is welcome.

The Uni 8th Grade Math Team earned 1st place in the 2024–25 Illinois Math League competition,  Boyou Huang earned a perfect score and is a State Champion. Aiden Kim and Bryan Zhao were top students in the region. Alex Caesar, Neil Roy Choudhury, LJ Lamera and Joseph To received state honors.

Uni subbies excelled in the MOEMS competition. Boyou Huang received the Dr. George Lenchner Award as Global Champion, achieving perfect scores in all rounds. Aiden Kim earned distinction as a high scorer; Neil Roy Choudhury was recognized for excellence. Joseph To and Alex Caesar earned honorable mentions.

The Uni High School Math Team placed 3rd in the 2024–2025 Illinois High School Math League after 6 rounds. Congratulations to Boyou Huang, Anthony Yang, Jonathan Chen, Renee Wang, Sriharish Kannan, Michael Wu, Chloe Lee, Leo Yan, Ruijing Tang, Krish Sundareswar and Aiden Kim (Subbie) for their outstanding cumulative scores and state level recognition as national honorees. 

Special congratulations to Boyou Huang, the Champion with the highest score, Anthony Yang for 2nd place, and Jonathan Chen and Renee Wang for 3rd. Renee Wang, Anthony Yang, and Boyou Huang earned perfect scores in Round 6!

In Subbie Track, Jack Trisler won the discus with a toss of 131'6" and set an new middle school discus record.  Follow teammate stud Frances Burlew finished 3rd in the shot put with a toss of 26'7", good for 2nd all time in our middle school records.   Burlew dominated the discus winning with a heave of 88'2" and second all-time for our middle school, second only to our current high school record holder Emma Hoyer.  

In Girls Soccer, the team competed in the Urbana High Tournament and defensive specialist Ellie Rosch was named All Tournament Team.  Rosch's defensive leadership held Urbana to one goal and Herscher to three goals. 

Boys Tennis competed at Bloomington Invite and Freshman Jameson Lafave won the #1 singles bracket winning the championship match 6-0, 6-0.   In the singles #2 bracket, Josh Persiani earned a 5th place finish and Robert Gao and Kyle Fan finished 5th in the #1 doubles bracket.   

The Uni Faculty Organization supports Uni High’s commitment to fostering pedagogically diverse and honest educational experiences and providing safe, inclusive learning environments for every student. Recently, we've seen troubling federal government directives and attempts to coerce educational institutions into acceding to the administration’s political demands. These actions spurred us to articulate our values as a union—values that are under threat. We invite the Uni community to read our UFO Statement of Values, and to stand with us in defense of the education and dignity of Uni students.

Thanks so much to all the Uni staff, students, and parents who helped support our second St. Elmo Brady Day collaboration with Booker T. Washington STEM Academy! I appreciate the time and energy our school community devoted to planning, leading, and supporting this year's activities. 
We hope to make St. Elmo Brady Day an annual tradition, and we'd love feedback about your experience this year so that we know what aspects of the day worked well and what we can improve upon next year. To share your thoughts about St. Elmo Brady Day, please fill out this form.

In preparation for Teacher Appreciation Week, the PTSA is planning to run another competition among all students to see which class can write the most thank you notes to Uni teachers!  The competition will run from Tues., April 22, to Thurs., May 1, in the Uni High Library.  All supplies will be provided at the PTSA's thank-you-note table! Students in the winning class will each receive bragging rights plus a free popsicle at lunch!  

Students -- Wednesday, April 30 will be the last day to earn library points! These can be redeemed for books during the semester AND during our flash sale at the end of the year. Stop by the library to boost your point total ASAP.

Reminder: Points can be earned by answering trivia questions, attending SLACers meetings, or helping out with random library tasks (ask Harrison for more details).

In the fall, Uni launched a new initiative--U 'n' I--for students to keep track of their Uni-sponsored community service hours to be recognized at the end of the year. Please remember to complete this form documenting any previously unreported Uni-sponsored community service hours by May 1. Students who complete 10+ hours of community service and one reflection will receive a certificate and be invited to an ice cream celebration in May.

Are you a rapper, a DJ, a beat maker, or an R&B singer? Or do you aspire to be any of the above? Illinois Hip Hop Camp 2025 (June 9-13, 2025) is open to students ranging in age from current 5th graders to current high school seniors. To learn more about Illinois Hip Hop Camp, take a look at this brief NPR (WILL-TV) Prairie Fire documentary based on last summer's camp. Registration is open now until May 9 (link to registration form and more info). Scholarship support is available (contact Adam Kruse at akruse@illinois.edu). 

The Arabic High School Program will take place from June 15 to June 28. This is an introductory course in Modern Standard Arabic for high school students with limited or no prior knowledge of the Arabic language. Students will experience campus life, learn a new language and earn two college credits! For our 2025 program, we were awarded a generous grant from the Qatar Foundation International. Scholarships are awarded to students based on financial need and/or academic merit. 

Information here: https://linguistics.illinois.edu/languages/summer-institutes/arabic-high-school-program

The PTSA has extended the deadline for contributing to our new cookbook:   "Uni_ted Around the Table: Celebrating Uni Kitchen."  We hope to feature a “Potluck Dishes” section, a “Seniors" section of family favorites for students to take to college, and a “Freshman Pie Contest” section, but we need your recipes to make these sections possible!  Please submit your recipe(s) along with a brief note about the significance of the dish(es) and appropriate section(s) by May 1 to:  https://createmycookbook.com/projects/uHW6EbAxo

The PTSA is planning to honor our Uni teachers in several different ways during Teacher Appreciation Week: special snacks on Monday, treat bags on Tuesday, a brunch on Wednesday, student thank you notes on Thursday, and thank you notes with monetary gifts on Friday.  We invite Uni families to contribute as they are able!  To donate food or time to the Wednesday brunch, and to contribute money towards the Friday thank you notes and gifts, please follow this link: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0445AEA92AA64-56248671-teacher

Trigger Warning: Suicide

Early intervention for declining mental health can be an important prevention measure for suicide. If you or someone you know are at an immediate risk of suicide, please dial 911. We are here for you. You matter and we value you.  
If you are having thoughts of suicide or suicidal ideation, please contact the resources below:
• National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: 988
• Call Blackline support prioritizing BIPOC individuals: 1800-604-5841
• Crisis Text Line: 741741
• The Trevor Project LGBTQ Crisis Hotline: 1866-488-7386
• Trans Lifeline: 1877-565-8860

The Uni counselors see students for a variety of different reasons: scheduling, connection to outside resources, mental health counseling, academic supports, summer opportunities, future career exploration and more. If you're interested in making an appointment with your counselor, please contact them directly or fill out the "Counselor Appointments" form.