The question that everyone asks themselves from the moment they step foot in high school is, what am I doing after this? Some have their plans in place early on, and others don’t figure it out until graduation. Regardless, we all go somewhere. Here’s where some of the 2011 SJHHS alumni are now.

Tracy Parco:

Tracy was Editor-in-Chief of the Express Newspaper last year for her senior year and has now moved on to Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. She is majoring in Communication studies with a minor in Marketing and is hoping to study abroad in the Netherlands. According to Tracy, “the best part [of college] is that you get to do everything on your own time. College makes you a lot more independent, which is nice.”

Jake Muck:

After high school, Jake attended Saddleback College and is majoring in English with an emphasis on creative writing. He is currently studying abroad at Oxford, England and plans to travel to Germany, Ireland, Rome, and France. “The best part about college is the opportunity to take full responsibility of your education and what direction you want to go in. The worst part is the cost and the parking,” said Jake.

Chloe Strumpf:

Chloe is currently attending New York University, majoring in Music Business. The best part of being in college is “shorter school days and meeting new people with the same interests as you,” said Chloe. The worst part  is “walking to class in the winter weather first thing in the morning, but I can’t complain,” said Strumpf. Her plans for the next five years are to study abroad in Prague junior year, finishing school, and traveling more.

Joe Palmer:

Joe is currently attending Saddleback college with plans to transfer to California Polytechnic State University with a major in Engineering. “The best part about college would have to be the opportunities that come with it. Plus, my early days start at nine, which is a plus,” said Palmer.  “The worst part is all the homework; it’s very easy to procrastinate with the reading, projects, online homework and midterms to study for,” said Palmer.

The Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) camp is a unique leadership program brought to SJHHS by Interact Club that gives Juniors an opportunity to meet new people and participate in fun activities like tree climbing and zip lining. The camp will be held at Idyllwild Pines from April 26-28.

RYLA was started sixty years ago by Mike Arnold who was a board member in the Capistrano Unified District and is now sponsored by Rotary Clubs and is run by RYLA alumni. Rotary is a large organization that rallies certain people to encourage ethical standards and build goodwill in the world. They currently employ over 1.2 million members spread across 200 countries and 33,000 clubs.

The curriculum included in RYLA is: communication skills, fundamentals of leadership, ethics of positive leadership, building of self-confidence, conflict management, and elements of community and global citizenship.

“It’s really great and everyone loves and they really get to go out of their comfort zone and meet people they wouldn’t normally speak to,” said Brianna Baptiste, President of Interact Club.

The main purpose of RYLA camp is to teach kids how to be leaders by coming out of their comfort zones and inspiring change in their communities by promoting leadership skills. The activities revolve around team building where the campers will have to perform trust activities with high ropes and climbs.

Joe Snedeker, who has been the advisor for Interact Club for two years, also expressed his admiration for the program as he described it as “an opportunity to come together with different schools throughout the Orange County area, to establish relationships and talk about leadership and what it takes to be a future leader.”

Snedeker also said that RYLA is a positive high school experience that many students will look back on later in life and appreciate the opportunity that was given to them. Snedeker also said that he has a lot of students come back from the camp refreshed with a break from studying for AP tests and finals with friends that they continue to keep in touch with.

To participate in the camp, students must be Juniors willing to interact with others and challenge themselves in team problem solving activities. There is no financial input or minimum grade requirement to apply for the camp.

Clash of the Classes has been a school tradition since SJHHS opened, and the festivities that come along with it bring a break from routine and some healthy competition for students. Last year, however, the classes got out of hand with the decor and the excessive trashing of the campus was seen as a disruption.

“We got really competitive with our decorations last year and some of it looked tacky,” said Jordan Hall.

Due to this, administration and ASB banded together to come up with some stricter guidelines for this years-and those to follow’s-events.

All four classes came back to the campus at night to hang decorations with their class color to try and grab the attention of other classmates and the judges. This year, there were some changes in the rules regarding what they were allowed to do. The following limitations are:

1. No chalk on campus

2. No streamers

3. No touching La Pata

4. No pool/stadium/tennis courts

5. No rooftops

6. No obstructing roads

7. No covering other classes decorations

8. No removing/defiling other classes decorations

9. Responsible for taking down your class’s decorations

Although some students were bothered by the limitations, stating that they take away from the enjoyment of the event, students seemed to have no problem avoiding these. They even came up with more creative decorations than previous years.

The junior class hung purple silverware and plates where most of them eat lunch, and the senior class (in accommodation to the rules, but not the other classes) morphed signs from other classes into ones of their own; i.e. a J made by the juniors into a 2013.

According to Hall, last year, the decor was “all in good spirit” and overall the classes had a great time with the event this year, despite the new rules.

Wavves, a surf punk from San Diego, was started when lead singer and guitarist Nathan Williams dropped out of college, quit his job and moved back in with his parents. Looking for something to do to escape his extreme boredom, he began to record songs in his parents garage using the trial version of GarageBand.

After a month of recording, Williams had enough songs to fill two entire albums. Wavves, released in 2008 and Wavvves, released in 2009. These albums were both praised and criticized for their extreme lo-fi sound and lack of any audible lyrics.

Williams soon enlisted old friend Ryan Ulsh to play their couple first shows. After extensive touring in 2008 and 2009, and some lineup changes, Williams and newly joined bassist, Stephen Pope, and drummer, Billy Hayes, recorded their biggest and arguably best album, King of the Beach.

King of the Beach was a huge departure for Wavves, with a more pop and summer sound, as opposed to the lo-fi and fuzzy sound of the first two albums. The album was met with high praise from various music critics, including Rolling Stone and Spin magazine. They later recorded an EP called Life Sux. Yet another departure from the band’s previous work, Life Sux has a more dark sound, less pop and more alternative. Life Sux shows the diversity and growth demonstrated by this band over the years.

With new touring drummer Jacob Cooper,  Wavves released their new album Afraid of Heights on March 26. The album explores themes such as isolation, paranoia and depression through songs such as “Demon to lean on” “That’s on me” and “Everything is my fault”. This album sounds like it is coming straight from a 90’s alt station along with the likes of Weezer and Nirvana.

When discussing the band’s frequent change in sound, Williams has said many times that “I don’t want to make the same record again, I don’t think people wanna hear the same record again either”.

Songs to hear: 1. Bug 2. Post Acid 3. TV Luv Song 4. Dog

]]> http://sjhexpress.com/ae/2013/05/01/artist-to-know-wavves/feed/ 0 http://sjhexpress.com/feature/2013/05/01/experts-find-teen-rebellion-fully-normal/ http://sjhexpress.com/feature/2013/05/01/experts-find-teen-rebellion-fully-normal/#comments Wed, 01 May 2013 19:15:12 +0000 Shane Battis http://sjhexpress.com/?p=1493

During their last years as minors under adult supervision, teenagers have shown a thorough inclination to rebel against their authority figures both at home and at school; but what is the mental drive that makes these youths behave the way they do?

This urge to strike out usually starts around the age 10 where a typical child wants to break away from the surveillance of his/her parents and learn more from peers and redefine their persona. However, the major resistance does not emerge until the teenage years between ages 15-18, when teens are far more fervent in their search for a new identity and for new outlets to separate themselves from their parents.

Some of the more radical adolescents choose to spend time with wilder friends that drink, do drugs, and make a nuisance of themselves in their neighborhood with the false hope that these actions will make them resemble an adult, but in actuality it really reinforces the stereotype that youths of our age are senseless and immature.

According to an article by Jeanie Lerche Davis, the prefrontal cortex, which is the judgement center of the brain, develops throughout the teenage years so at this point kids are now learning and testing their skills when they start to notice flaws in their parents. Teens then synthesize their new interpreting skills into ideas that are often displayed with exotic clothing, music, makeup, tattoos, and other loud forms of expression.
Jessie Novorr, a Junior here at SJHHS, expressed her natural inclination to defy her parents. “I walk to the beat of my own drum,” she said, “I don’t like to really follow anyone.” Novorr also related a few incidents in which she and her mom got in a few fights over simple things like her grades or clothes she wanted.

According to Teen Health, arguments over subtle things like this are very common as teens are often angered by parents who do not give them space or let them do the things they want to do while parents are intent on keeping their kids safe and unsure about new changes they want for themselves. However, these outbursts tend to lessen over time as parents learn to accept the independence of their kids.

In the season of 2010-2011, the boys Varsity Golf team won CIF for the first time setting the standard for the program in the years to come. However, the two best players of that season’s team, Eric and Owen, graduated after the historic victory and left the team. After two seasons of losing hope that they can win CIF again, the Varsity Boys Golf team has finally made a stunning turnaround with a 6-1 record so far.

Drew Lichty, one of the top players of the Varsity team, is optimistic about this season. “I think this year we will be really strong. I believe we’ll go to CIF” said Lichty.

Lichty thinks that this season will be better than last because the team has six Seniors and two Juniors, “I think we’re just going to win everything” said Lichty. He also admitted that his game has not been in its prime lately but he believes he will step it up and start shooting much better scores soon.

This season has also gained two new editions to the team as Assistant Coach Stagna and Boomer have integrated themselves into the team and brought a new set of skills to the team. Lichty said that he likes the coaching and that Coach Stagna has brought a lot to the team.

The Junior Varsity team has also done very well this season holding an 11-2 record for “A” matches, completing the season completely undefeated in league matches. They also came in third place in a recent tournament at Lake Elsinor out of 26 other JV teams. This season has been very different from the past as this year’s JV team has taken on a total of thirteen players which has allowed the team to split into an “A” and “B” team. The “B” currently holds a 3-1 record.

Because the Varsity team is mostly made up of Seniors, the JV team has expanded to train a larger diversity of players that will eventually fill the gaps in the Varsity team next year.

Due to its popularity and its classic nature, it is a book that has sometimes been read over and over again. The story of Jay Gatsby’s desperate quest to win back his first love reverberates with themes of the American Dream, the importance of honesty, the temptations of wealth, and the struggle to escape the past.

Some people fear that the movie may cause an issue with English classes next year teaching the novel.

Diane Tucker, Junior and Senior English teacher at SJHHS, believes that, “The movie is going to definitely affect students in a positive way. I believe that having somewhat of a visual of what the characters look like will encourage them to read the novel. They can for sure use the movie in projects next year and would be a good idea to somehow incorporate the movie in it.”

Many fans of the novel are also extremely excited that the movie is coming out very soon, and are looking forward to comparing the movie to the book.

Even some of the Junior English classes at SJHHS are planning on seeing the movie. All of the AP Language and Composition teachers have been discussing to meet up at a movie theatre and watch The Great Gatsby with some of their students after school, sometime in May. Even Seniors, who read the book last year, are re-reading the novel and planning on seeing the movie with their previous AP Language and Composition teachers and fellow Juniors.

“ The Great Gatsby is a book that is a classic, and is a piece of history that represents a special time period of the twentieth century, and is a piece that everyone should read”  Said Tucker.

For many high school students it would be really hard to pay for college or even think about college without there being scholarships. Scholarships are a grant or payment made to support a student’s education, awarded on the basis of academic or other achievements. Many local communities now are giving away scholarships to high school students that apply for their scholarship program; Communities like Mission Viejo, Ladera Ranch, San Clemente and many more.

For example, Coral Thrift shop located in San Clemente hands out $2,000 scholarships to worthy high school applicants. Sandy Murray, representative of Coral Thrift Shop said that, “All high school seniors have to do is go to their guidance counselor and apply for their scholarship.Then the thrift shop looks at the senior’s grades, family life, community service hours, and goals that they would like to achieve in the near future. We then choose a handful of the applicants and give them the scholarship during their senior award ceremony at the end of May.”

Coral Thrift shop also holds a special luncheon sometime around the second week of June for the applicants that they have chosen.

Murray also added that, “ We have received about twenty-nine applications, from various high schools, eight are from SJHHS. We hand out approximately twenty scholarships. Our main goal is to be able to send as many high school seniors off to college as we can.”

The thrift shop has been serving their community for about 49 years and will soon be holding their 50th anniversary next year. They have volunteers between the ages of 50 and 90 years old. The shop is open from Mondays through Saturdays from 11:00 to 4:00, and are open to any kind of donations; such as clothes, jewelry, furniture, and much more.