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Del Dios Middle School October 2013
Dragons Support their Teacher with Purple Love! Read more on Page 4
Dragon Counselors Extraordinaire Keep you Up-to-Date on Pages 5 & 6
Volume LII
Mayor Abed Visits Del Dios By Leandra Heyveld, Staff Writer There was a lot of buzz around campus on October 1st, 2013 when Mrs. Adkins announced that the Mayor, Sam Abed, and City Councilman Gallo would be on our campus for the day. There were other special guests including the superintendent, Janet Walters. Mrs. Adkins spent first and second period showing them around our campus. Then, during nutrition the students in ASB who ran for president as well as the Journalism staff got to have a meeting with the guests. The ASB members told the mayor about Del Dios and our Dragon culture. Then the students went back to their third period class. It was time for the Journalism crew to interview Mayor Abed. He gave great answers, so enjoy the following statements from Mayor Sam Abed. Question: What advice do you have for students? Mayor: “Work hard and get the highest grades you possibly can. That is the goal because if you don’t get good grades, you’re not going to be able to go through high school and college. That is why I’m glad to see the 2.5 minimum requirement here. Also, get the best education and you can learn not only in school, but after school as well. Get prepared and get good grades.� Question: Is there going to be some changes to any parks or public buildings such as Kit Carson Park?
Photo by Kora Shaw, Staff Writer
A picture with Mayor Abed, City Councilman Gallo, and ASB members during their meeting in the library. Mayor: “No. But of course we need to have an open mind about how we make the best of our public facilities. We have a lot of different interests and we need to try to accommodate everyone’s needs. There were some ideas about a water park in Kit
Carson, but the community didn’t want it, so we’re not going to do it. Again, we always need to have an open mind.� Continued in Issue 4
Champions of the DRAGON Pillars By Mrs. Murphy, Editor-in-Chief
CST Debacle! Second Grade Teacher Cheats on Test! National News on P8
Table of Contents P2 Events P3 Feature Story P4 & 5 Campus News P6 College P7 Career P8 Local News P9 Sports P10 Puzzles P11 Leisure P12 The Back Page
Each year four students from our school, as well as the other middle schools in Escondido, are honored as Students Champions. For Del Dios, this is not only an honor it is a big responsibility because being a Student Champion means being an example of the DRAGON Pillars. First Year Dragon, Juliana Lopez, is going to be a doctor. She is DETERMINED to go to college and achieve her goals because Juliana's experience with her own doctor's RESPECTful ways have inspired her to do the same for others. The future Dr. Lopez is definitely on-track as a Champion of Determination and Respect. Second Year Dragon, Gaby Grimaldo, knows that in order to ACHIEVE her GOAL of becoming a forensic scientist she's in for a lot of science classes. The only way to get there is by setting
Photo by Michael de Neve, Student Champion Video Editor
"Kind of a big deal," with Gaby Grimaldo, Eric Campuzano, Eduardo Torres, and Juliana Lopez at DDMS filming the 2014 Student Champion video. very clear goals and achieving them one at a time. A good support system, being organized, and maintaining her focus is what will keep Gaby on her path. Future Detective, or Dr., Grimaldo is an outstanding choice for championing the pillars of Achievement and Goals. Eduardo Torres knows exactly how to prepare for college and career. As a Third Year Dragon,
Eduardo knows that OWNERSHIP over his school work and a NO-EXCUSES attitude are going to ensure his success. As the founder of a peer-counseling group on campus, Eric Campuzano Lopez exemplifies ALL of the Dragon Pillars and represents Del Dios as our final Student Champion.
Dragons Getting College & Career Ready By Skylar Heyveld, Staff Writer On September 26, Del Dios held Career Day of 2013. It was a great event and the students obviously enjoyed it. Career Day included many speakers, anywhere from journalists to a retail worker at Costco. The variety and diversity of visitors definitely inspired many of the students to follow their dreams and not to let anything get in their way. We interviewed a couple of students to see what they thought. “The three visitors that I went to were the social worker, retail, and the police department. Of those three speakers, the retail would have to be my favorite speaker.� Ben Lee, a second year at Del Dios said. Ben also explained, “Before Career Day, I was interested in joining the military when I grew up. Career Day showed
me a new range of options and that I could do anything if I followed my dreams.� The next student we spoke to was Katelyn Bandrum, a first year dragon at DDMS. She told us, “The three speakers that I went to were the artist, retail, and the hair dresser. My favorite part about Career Day was meeting all the new people and speakers that I got to listen to.� Katelyn also commented, “A job that I am interested in is being an artist. The artist that spoke to us at Career Day influenced me because he said to never be afraid to be yourself and don’t hold back.� Career Day was a wonderful event that was put on by Gear Up and several Del Dios staff members including the Counselors. Gear Up also provided the snacks that were given to the speakers after Career Day during the reception. All of them worked really hard and deserve to be recognized.
While the students were learning in their sixth period classes, the visitors went to a reception at the library which was meant for guests to go, relax, and enjoy a few snacks after talking with many students. The speakers at Career Day talked, laughed and had a great time meeting new people. At the reception, Mrs. Ayles, one of your counselors here at Del Dios also explained how much they appreciated the speakers being there. All of the visitors took time out of their day to be at our school to educate students about being college and career ready. Mrs. Ayles also thanked all of the staff and Gear Up members who helped out in planning Career Day. To learn more about the guests who spoke at Del Dios at Career Day, turn to page 7.