The Matador: January 2016

Page 1

FOCUS

LIFE&ART

“ Color TV: Minorities and the Media” p. 6-7

“El Niño Fashion” p. 9

SPORTS

“New Year’s health resolutions” p. 10

THE MATADOR

SAN GABRIEL HIGH/JANUARY 21, 2016/ VOLUME 61 / ISSUE 5

WWW.THEMATADORSGHS.COM/801 S. RAMONA ST., SAN GABRIEL CA 91776

Poets perform at San Gabriel Get Lit qualifiers, compete for position on school’s slam team

Photo by Sunny Chen

Freshman Shirley Fung recites her classic poem, “I Must Call Back That Part of Me.” Ka t h e ri n e H o o n g San Gabriel High School’s fourth annual Poetry Slam featured student poets who competed to earn a place on the school’s Get Lit poetry team. English teacher Cady Burkhart and her sister, Dottie Burkhart, introduced Get Lit, a national poetry competition, to Alhambra Unified School District schools such as Alhambra High School and Mark Keppel High School. The Get Lit program and curriculum have spread to almost all the English classes at San Gabriel High School and the San Gabriel Get Lit team has started making their way through competitions. Hosted by Paul Mabon and Alex Luu, the Poetry Slam was held on Jan. 19-20 in the auditorium. Around 650 students from 18 English classes competed in order to perform their poem on stage. However, there would only be a few chosen poets per class.

The poets were graded according to their accuracy, originality, emotion, story, and truth. Judging the performers were Georgia Daniels, Rhoda Dizon, Cady Burkhart, Dottie Burkhart, Jordan Volgo, Robert Huynh, and Jessica Sandercock. “There is so much competition this year and it keeps getting better and better. The decision will not be easy for the judges and me,” Burkhart said. During the event, the audience was able to vote for their favorite poet by texting a name to a given number. At the end of the performances, the voted top poets were senior Justine Salazar for the first day and senior Madelyn Areyan for the second day. A total of 41 students made it on stage but overall, only six poets will be chosen to join the Get Lit team where they will compete against other schools in April 28-30. The final roster of the official Get Lit team will be revealed in the future because the judges have yet to decide.

Students enter GOT GAME contest Lu Yue Wang San Gabriel High School’s Video Game Design class will have a chance to showcase their skills and creativity in the STEM Fuse “GOT GAME” competition after May of this year. As it is their first competition, the students are working hard to develop their very first game. Every participant has spent the last semester learning about game design and how to use the curriculum-standard design program, Construct 2. “I’m really excited, since this is a new experience for me,” senior Lillian Liu said. “I’m really excited to just show people that I can make video games that are fun.” All participants will design and build their own original, PG-rated game using Construct 2. After their game is ready for publication, participants will send in their files to the STEM Fuse Arcade Site where millions of users will be able to play the games and vote for their favorites. According to STEM Fuse Arcade, the games will be judged on creativity, originality, overall game design and quality, game complexity, enjoyment, and voting on its website. The first place winner and the People’s Choice Award winner will receive a “$100 dollar gift card or one Personal Version of Construct 2 ($130 value), and a free GAME:IT curriculum subscription.” The second place winner will receive a $50 gift card and third place winner will $25 gift card. “[This competition] definitely gives [the students] a chance to gain more experience and to express their creativity,” Qui Nguy, Video Game Design instructor, said. “I am intrigued to see what type of storyline they can create. Especially since a lot of gamers, hard gamers, say that they can create games, but we’ll test them and see if they can actually do it. And by having this competition, it gives the students a chance to compare their game to their peers’.” According to some students, the competition is a way to gain more experience and further their skills and knowledge of the video game design industry. They appreciate the chance to test out the field and gain an idea of what it is like to work as a team and put together one cohesive product. “I remember in the beginning of the year Mr. Nguy told us that video game design isn’t an individual ‘thing’ because you have to work with a lot of people,” senior Tiffany Vuong said. “And at first I thought ‘yeah of course,’ but I didn’t realize how much you really had to work with people until we actually started to work on the game. It’s been a really great experience.” Nguy is considering to have his class participate in this competition again next year. From what he has observed from his students so far, Nguy feels that the competition could stay as a part of the curriculum. “We’re going to try to make it grow, especially now that this is the first semester I get to see how the students work with this assignment and with the program, Construct 2,” Nguy said. “[It] is difficult for some students, but most of the time this is where all the students help each other out. I’m excited for them, we’ll see how it goes.” All games submitted by San Gabriel high school participants will be available to play after May 21. Anyone can vote for their favorites at the STEM Fuse Arcade website. Until then, these participants are hard at work constructing their projects.

Cha debuts at San Gabriel as new counselor Mari o Mand uj ano

Photo by Sunny Chen

Maritza Cha is the new addition to the school’s counseling staff following Jacqueline Herrera’s relocation to Oregon. Cha will be taking charge of students with last names starting with A-F. As a University of California, Los Angeles alumni, Cha acquired a bachelor’s degree in political science and a minor in education. Soon after, she attended California State University, Dominguez Hills where she graduated with a master ’s in education and counseling. Cha worked for the Los Angeles School District (LAUSD) as a teacher and college counselor for seven years at Garfield High. She then joined forces with a number of other educators and created a pilot school under LAUSD. Having undergone “a lot of work that required the sacrifice of many breaks” to start a pilot school and then witnessing her students graduate was an impactful triumph in her life for she

found joy in their success which ultimately resulted in her decision to become a school counselor. Before joining San Gabriel High School, she was working as a counselor in Northrop Elementary. As much as Cha loves her occupation, she also enjoys traveling and practicing photography. Her favorite parts of the world that she has traveled to were Cambridge and London, England. Cha is currently focused on accomplishing her set of new year goals, which include making sure students are on track to graduation and to college. “Everyone has so far been very lovely and supportive and I can tell that students are involved and that teachers genuinely care about what they do,” Cha said. As a counselor, she describes assisting students in assuring they graduate as fulfilling. “My policy is that my door is always open,” Cha said. “I try my best to attend to requests as soon as I could.” Counselors are a vital part of the journey toward graduation, and Cha approaches all tasks with dedication.


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.