Monday, October 26, 2009

Latino Summit


"Gather up and learn, about Latinos, and education!"
by Elma Gonzalez


For more than a century the Latino population has been important part of California's community. The number of Latin immigrants to the United States has increased; as a result the number of Latin students enrolled in California schools -specially in southern California- has increased considerably. Despite this growth, the number of them who graduate and go to college has not seen a significant increase. But why? With Latino students making up almost half of the student population in CA, the San Diego County Chicano Federation (SDCCF) formed a committee to answer this question. They began by monitoring the educational progress of the Latino youth in the SD Unified school district. In 1982, SDCCF held an educational summit at SDSU to identify "points of concern regarding the low academic achievements" of Latino students. In 1997, they held another summit to revise these points. The result was the establishment of the SD County Latino Coalition on Education.

Since then, the coalition has directed 14 Latino Summits in San Diego with the goal of improving Latino Academic Achievement. Alberto Ochoa, a member of the committee that organizes the event, explains that the primary goals are "...to create awareness through statistics, to close the achievement gap between Latino students and white students, and to increase the academic rigor in classes offered to Latino students."

Although SOH students attend the summit as spectators every year, it was not until last October 17 that more than twenty SOH MEChA students led by Ms. Flores took part in this year's summit by presenting information and expressing their opinions to over 200 students, parents, teachers, and administrators. At the summit, important figures in our community spoke about the barriers Latino students face; they explained possible reasons and solutions for these obstacles; and they called the community to action by encouraging them to support the Latino in acquiring a college education. The event proceeded to workshops in which students were able directly to express their opinion on conflicts faced by Latino students today. Some students narrated personal experiences about obstacles they had faced or were facing.
By this description you might imagine several presenters speaking in front of an audience for
 five hours -not a very exciting experience-, but being a Latino student myself, I found 
most of the information presented there to be rather shocking and unbelievably inspiring. Every slide in the presentation showed a disappointing low number of academic achievement in Latino students; but trust me, there is nothing more motivating than someone telling you you can't do something-and I believe that was the point of the whole event; to annoy us, open our eyes, and force us to do something about it.

It is for this reason that I highly encourage students to attend future Latino Summits. More importantly though, I encourage students to set higher goals for themselves, to go to college, and to turn those statistics around and set high standards for future Latino generations.
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*For more information on the Latino Summit and similar events contact Ms. Flores or Mr. Rodriguez, MEChA advisers.

Wildcoast/Costasalvaje

Community gathers to clean the environment
by Martin Zazueta

Every year the the Tijuana River Valley Regional Park gets packed with all sorts of trash that flows down from Tijuana during the rainy season, causing devastating damage to the valley's plant and animal life. The worst part is that the trash and raw sewage comes every year due to the geographic settings of Tijuana, which is located at a higher elevation than southern San Diego causing a water runoff: all the sewage of Tijuana comes in causing the river valley to fill up with tires, bottles, styrofoam, and countless other junk that flows in from Tijuana. To combat the problem Wildcoast, an environmental non-profit organization based in Imperial Beach, has been working to get community support to help clean-up the Tijuana River Valley, and that's just what they've accomplished.

Dr. Arias, Southwest High's engineering teacher, coordinated with Wildcoast to have the cleanup project director, Paloma Aguirre, to give a Powerpoint presentation to SOH students in which they were made aware or reminded of the severe crisis that has plagued the river valley. Many students were shocked at the large extend of the problem. One student stated: “I knew it was dirty there, but not that dirty”. At the end of the presentation Ms. Aguirre had the teachers assign the students a letter to write to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to urge for more federal support of the issue. She also had a call to action inviting the students to come on Saturday October 24, 2009 from 9a.m.-12 p.m. to the last clean up of the year before the rain comes back.

With this call to action Ms. Aguirre stated “Because Southwest is so close, and is in fact the closest school to the River Valley, I think it's important that the Southwest High community leads the way in our efforts”

So, last Saturday that's exactly what happened: at least 20 SOH community members went out to clean-up the trash. Seniors such as Football player Carlos Troche and Academic Decathlete Joseph Dancel came to put in their part, while at the same time were earning community service hours for graduation and for college applications. Even Freshmen showed up to do their part. Dr Arias showed up as well and speeded up the trash collections by going on the trails with his truck to collect filled bags, tires and any other big pieces of collected trash.

Apart from SOH, several other high schools from throughout the county such as High Tech High, and members from several universities came to help out the community. At the event there were well over 100 people cleaning up the River Valley. But even with these people helping, a greater effort across the board is needed from the Sweetwater District board.

Pearl QuiƱones, board member of the Sweetwater Union High School District was also present on Saturday and was also shocked at the sight of all the trash saying that “this is just something one has to see for themselves to understand the magnitude”. Ms. QuiƱones says that she plans to have Ms. Aguirre give a presentation to the rest of the Board and hopes to champion an effort to have the Sweetwater District involve all the schools and organize a monthly cleanup project for this “affects all of us directly”.

Well even though the problem is far from solved, the wheels are in motion to generate a bright clean future, the question is whether you'll “make it happen, watch it happen, or wonder how it happened”, and is this case, only the those making it happen are needed. If your interested in making things happen, you can do your part by volunteering at Wildcoast events, or with any other non-profit organization, you can also write a letter to any of your area's elected officials urging them to take action. For more information visit the Wildcoast website at http://www.wildcoast.net/

Cost of College Rising

Dont end your Edu with IOU's
by Jasmine Straw

It's about the time that Seniors should be applying for colleges. But what about the cost?

This fall the student fees for CSUs have increased. It was said to be $306 for undergraduates, $354 for students getting their teaching credentials, and $376 for graduate students. This rise has put the annual cost to a little over $4,000.

Without the price rise, CSUs would have to make class cuts, program cuts, and class size increases. Some students think the increase was valid, that they are paying for teachers with good credentials and a school that gives good higher level education, but others think they are being punished for wanting to later make a difference in others lives.

Many students who receive financial aid are seemingly unaffected by the increase, but those that aren't receiving it were stressing out to find ways to pay for their classes. Some students that were left in the dark about the price increase were struggling even more with only a month to a few weeks to pay for their classes.

Going to a community college was an option that some students had considered because of this event. Community college tuition fees is a smaller hole in your pocket to deal with, but it might take a longer time to get out of there.

REMEMBER THIS - Start applying for scholarships and grants NOW! Don't wait until tomorrow, you might miss out on a great scholarship. It's free money and less money that you have to pay yourself.

9 Simple Rules for your Trick'o'treating teenager

Halloween safety even applies to Raiders
By Bob Chan

As children, we thought of Halloween as a special time and looked forward to this holiday with great anticipation. We remember last year's great fun and imagine what we would like to see happen this year. This can be a fun time: parents and children share thoughts and ideas involving their creativity, and can be a time for enjoyable healthy communication between parents and children. They can brainstorm together to come up with good ideas for costumes, how they might carve a pumpkin, and what type of treats they would like to give out to others. This is a holiday that parents need to plan ahead for, but also children and parents need to plan ahead together.

What happens to parent child communication about planning ahead for Halloween as children grow into their adolescent/teen years? To parents, I’m sure you have noticed that your adolescents share less of their lives with you. They have often replaced communicating with you with talking to peers about many of their concerns. This is appropriate for them developmentally, but sometimes teens may try to exclude you from all important decisions, ideas, and activities. As much as they may tell you that you’re old fashioned and don’t understand them.

Teens may be ready to give input about what rules are needed and do some negotiating with their parents about rules and consequences for breaking them. But, they still need you to hold them accountable to the rules and follow through consistently with the consequences in order to retain a sense of balance, and to feel cared for and loved. Since a lack of impulse control can be appropriate at this age, acting without thinking, Halloween pranks gone awry, trying alcohol (or even drugs), and transportation mix-ups are likely to be the main safety concerns on this special night of the year

1. If trick or treating, go with a group.
2. Never enter any homes to wait for candy.
3. In case of an emergency, always bring your cell phone with you while trick or treating
4. Avoid wearing costumes that are too sexy or provocative that might attract unwanted attention.
5. Make sure you know the difference between having a little fun and vandalism. Many teens use Halloween as an opportunity to toss eggs and pull pranks on neighbors. This can cause damage and unwanted long term problems.
6. Bring a flashlight with fresh batteries.
7. Stay on well-lit streets and always use the sidewalk.
8. Remember drivers will have trouble seeing trick-or-treaters. Only cross the street as a group in established crosswalks and don’t assume the right of way. Just because one car stops doesn’t mean others will.
9. Check the candy, you don’t want to eat something that could be dangerous.

Follow it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lady Raiders Tennis Team

Lady Raiders on the road to victory
by Omar Arce


Tennis is considered one of the most elegant sports. A "lady-like" sport if it can be said, but the Lady Raiders Tennis team show that sweat, power, and aggressiveness are needed to play this elegant sport. These ladies combine elegance and power to smoke their competition. Raiders Digest had the opportunity to interview Yasmin Garcia, a sophomore in the varsity team. With a record of 13-12, Yasmin is one of the best players in the team.

RD: What are your expectations for this year?
YG: I expect that we win a banner this year, and I hope that I can keep my position as the number one player.

RD: How many matches have you won?
YG: 13 out of 25.

RD: How is the school doing so far?
YG: We are number the number two in the district. Olympian is number one.

RD: What do you like about tennis?
YG: I like the fact that I can have fun and lose my stress just by playing.
RD: Who is your favorite tennis player?
YG: Myself: I like to watch tennis matches but I am not too into it.

RD: When is your next home match?
YG: This Tuesday. It's our last home match.

As the season comes to an end, Yasmin and the Lady Raiders Tennis team will play to the end, point by point, set by set to win a banner for the school.

Any questions about the team? or Yasmin? Leave a comment in the article.