Help the LASA archery team score and soar

The LASA archery team’s annual Score and Soar fundraiser is underway! With the generous support of friends, families, and businesses, we are able to:

➡ offer financial assistance so any student can participate,
➡ buy and repair equipment like target faces, arrows, and bows,
➡ help cover the cost of tournament entry fees, and
➡ defray travel costs to State and Nationals.

Please consider a donation of any amount to support our 75+ LASA archers. You can make a one-time contribution or sponsor an archer and donate money based on their score at an upcoming tournament. No amount is too little — every dollar counts.

Your support is vital to maintenance and growth of our archery program; thank you!

Donate today!

Raising Healthy Raptors: Helping Your Child Learn to Manage Their Anxiety

At the last PFLASA meeting, there was a discussion about student stress and anxiety, especially since returning from winter break. While anxiety is often not a pleasant emotion, it is most certainly a normal emotion which serves a purpose. Here are some resources that can help us support our teens to learn life skills to manage their anxiety. Remember, anxiety itself is normal and anxiety disorders are treatable.

1. Does Anxiety Serve a Purpose?

2. Tons of Free Resources for Executive Functioning Ideas

3. Managing the Anxiety Waves and Addressing Anxiety in Yourself and Your Student (both presentations)

4. Anxiety and Anxiety Disorders in Teens

LASA Students’ Blanket Drive A Smashing Success

On January 23, 2026, Augustus McCormack and Ibrahim Abdulazeez successfully organized a blanket and emergency supply drive as part of their FBLA Community Service Project. The drive was aimed at supporting individuals experiencing homelessness in our local community, especially during colder weather. Through donations and community support, they raised $300, which was used to purchase blankets and essential emergency supplies that were distributed directly to those in need. This project shows the impact of student-led service initiatives and reflects LASA’s mission of leadership, service, and community involvement.

Mardi Gras Great Gathering Open to ALL CLASSES

Do wait and miss your chance to dig out that costume and have fun at the upcoming Mardi Gras Great Gathering, open to all classes, on Friday, Feb 13th!! No bad luck there, just some good partying and mingling!

Grab your tickets today!

If you would like to submit a Great Gathering, there’s still plenty of time! You can submit it here: tinyurl.com/ggatherings
Great Gatherings is an amazing community builder – you will find the peeps you want by your side, especially during senior year!! Question? Email greatgatherings@pflasa.org.

2026 Project Graduation Call for Volunteers

We hope you will consider volunteering at the 2026 Project Graduation all night lock-in at the East YMCA on June 1-2. We are asking for adult volunteers across all grade levels to help by volunteering for a shift (or all night) during the event. It is a fun event and the volunteers have a great time!

Location: East Communities YMCA
Starts: Monday, June 1, 2025 at 10pm
Ends: Tuesday, June 2, 2025 at 5:30am
Sign up now!

Feel free to reach out with any questions/comments at projectgraduation@pflasa.org.
We will set up a couple of Zoom calls closer to, to explain the flow of the night and our needs.

Thank you for your kind consideration!
Manue Reynolds and Maya Gamble
2026 Project Graduation Co-Chairs

How to Make the Most of Your Summer Planning

Wednesday, February 4th
7-8pm

Colleges are very interested in what students are choosing to do outside of the classroom, and for LASA students, summer is the ideal time to dig into your serious activities. They are looking for meaningful work, which can show up in different ways (i.e. internships, pre-college academic programs, shadowing, etc.) Colleges are looking at community impact, intellectual curiosity, and what matters to a student (and how they are choosing to address that). We’ll talk about how to think creatively about where to look for opportunities, the timeline, potential application process, and how students can set themselves apart with their activities.

Purchase your ticket to join us!

College Planning for 9th/10th Graders

Thursday, January 22nd
6:30-7:30pm

Research shows that understanding the college admissions process early helps students build the confidence and skills they will need by the time they apply to colleges during their Senior year. Families often have questions about when to start and how to support their student without adding pressure if they start earlier in high school.

Yvonne Espinoza, CEP, is a national college counseling leader with more than twenty years of experience and has over a decade of experience supporting LASA students and families. In this session, she will walk families through the steps they can take in 9th and 10th grade to help students learn more about themselves and align coursework and activities with their personal interests and college goals.

The event will end with a Q&A for the audience to ask questions directly.

Tickets available at pflasa.org/store

Reminder: Ways to get connected and Stay in the know

Here’s a quick reminder on various ways that you can access useful information about LASA!

Join the PFLASA Facebook Group:
Make sure to answer ALL security questions AND agree to the group rules!
The PFLASA facebook group is a great place to ask questions, find posts about school-related events, and connect with other LASA parents and guardians asynchronously. For security reasons, we require several automated security questions in the joining process. You must answer all security questions and agree to the group rules in order to join the Facebook group. If you tried to join and were rejected, it is not because we don’t love you. We do love you and would love to have you join us. Try again, and remember to answer all security questions and agree to the group rules. (HINT: This is best done on a computer, so that none of the required bits fall off the screen.)

Other ways to get connected:
If you haven’t already done so, here are some other great ways that you can get “in the know” about what’s going on at LASA. The Grade Level Google Groups will become more important as college applications and graduation approaches, but they are also used to communicate about upcoming events and opportunities from freshman year onward.

Subscribe to the Raptor Report: https://pflasa.org/news/subscribe/
Join your Grade Level Google Group by sending a blank email to one of the following that corresponds to your graduation year:
lasa2029+subscribe@googlegroups.com
lasa2028+subscribe@googlegroups.com
lasa2027+subscribe@googlegroups.com
lasa2026+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Check out the PFLASA website for lots of great info including a list of upcoming meeting dates, volunteer signups, committee and event descriptions, teacher resources, and the storefront where you can purchase tickets for great gatherings and masterclasses.

You can find more detailed information about all of the various ways to stay in the loop here: https://lasa.austinschools.org/parents/stay-connected

Lunch & Learn This Friday: Be an Informed Voter

Friday, January 23 from 12:05-12:55pm in the library. Pizza will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis to enjoy during an informative lunch talk open to the entire LASA community, including parents! This PTSA Advocacy program is an excellent primer for future voters and a helpful refresher for registered voters, offering insight into how civic participation shapes our communities. Please join us – register today!

LASA Literary Magazine: Call for Submissions!

Are you a student writer, artist, or photographer? Are you a student looking for extra credit in English class? How about both? Submit to the Composer for a chance to be featured in the 24th annual edition of LASA’s very own magazine. We review written works under 10 pages, digital and traditional art, and photography! We do not accept works produced by artificial intelligence.

Email your submissions to lasacomposer@gmail.com or to Editor julia.bednarsf@stu.austinisd.org today!