Disabled Students Collect Donations for Needy Animals

By Clerene Palean

The Adult Transition Program teaches students with disabilities between the ages of 18 and 22. The program focuses on teaching the students functional skills like learning safety while out in the community and job skills.

The ATP participates in a lot of volunteer work through the Rotaract Club. Around the holidays, staff and students come together to brainstorm which organizations and charities they are able to gain donations for. COVID has hindered the options since most organizations are only taking money donations. Luckily, ATP found Ally’s Animal Rescue to be this year’s donation organization for the holidays, collecting blankets, towels, crates, and unopened food and treats for the rescued cats and dogs in Tijuana, Mexico. FUHS ATP teacher Kathi Pope wants to thank everyone who has helped make the Ally’s Animal Rescue donation successful for the FUHS ATP students. 

JROTC teams compete

Senior Hannah Ramos, juniors Fatima Alvarez and Michelle Alcibar, and sophomore Lilly WIllis earned second place in the North Torrance Marksmanship competition on Dec 4. Team leader Alvarez won three individual medals, Ramos won two individual medals, and Alcibar won one individual medal. 

The JROTC Cybersecurity team competed for about five hours on Dec. 10 in the Platinum level round of state competition. The team awaits the final results, but if they finish in the top 25%, they will advance to the national level of competition.

Photographers Win Reflections Contest

By Sofia Matin and Addam Sapien

Senior Skylar Bush and sophomore Evelyn Arreola were winners of the 2021 Reflections Contest. This year’s theme was “If I Could Change the World.” Bush and Arreola’s work will compete at the district level. 

Bush won the Photography Award of Excellence. Using her brother as a model, Bush depicted the younger generation leading the activist movement. She wanted to portray the younger generation as a society in a state of protest and rebellious action. “Young people make the difference,” Bush said.

Sophomore Evelyn Arreola won the Photography Award of Merit. When Arreola took a photo of her friend’s eye, Arreola as the photographer is reflected in the pupil. She also took a picture of custodians Glenn McAninch (left) and Rigo Macedo (right) as they picked up trash on campus. Using the editing website PhotoPea, Arreola took the photo of sophomore Melanie Hernandez’s eye and overlaid it with the custodian photo.

By photographing McAninch and Macedo, Arreola aimed to capture the often overlooked staff members going about their everyday routine which consists of selflessly working to ensure that the conditions and environment at FUHS are clean and taken care of.

“The message of my photo was that humanity still exists after all the negative problems that we go through,” Arreola said. “I was trying to convey that the small things could change a young mindset, or even adults with the custodial staff. After all the things that happened with COVID, other kids still don’t believe in humanity but it’s still there.”

Speech & Debate teams prepare for busy winter season

By Kara Kim

Sophomore Amaya Moreno knows that being able to connect personally with a speech allows the speaker to deliver a more powerful performance. So when she learned that her duo script with sophomore Sofia Morales was about cancer, Amaya knew she would be able to connect with the material.

Moreno and Morales duo is a piece called “A Time for Dancing” by Davida Wills Hurwin. 

The script is about a 16-year-old girl with cancer and Sam, her best friend. The performance is narrated by Sam. The cancer patient has already accepted her death while Sam is struggling to accept the news.

“My grandma got breast cancer during quarantine and my grandma is my best friend,” Moreno said. “So me being the character Sam, the best friend who’s watching on the sidelines like ‘how am I gonna get through this,’ it’s relatable for me.”

They submitted their duo via video for competitions in the fall, but they might choose to perform the piece live on Jan. 22-23 at the Peninsula Invitational. Although there were many difficulties while filming, Moreno says that she is not nervous about performing.

“For us we know that everybody else is also still learning, so there’s no reason to be afraid because everybody is at the same place you are or has been there before,” Moreno said. “You still get nervous, but you learn to be confident in yourself and in your abilities enough to perform.”

The Debate team was successful at the Nov. 20 Glenbrooks Tournament. Sophomores Isaiah Jung and Mackenzie Mauldin finished in the Top 16 among 180 teams in the Varsity Public Forum contest. The sophomores beat the No. 1 seed during the tournament and competed at the varsity level among mostly seniors across the country.

Sophomore Audrey Bae received a 7th place speaker reward in the Junior Varsity Lincoln Douglass and qualified for Top 16.

The next Speech and Debate competition is at Arizona State on Jan. 7-8. Some team members will participate in the Jan. 22-23 Peninsula Invitationa. On Jan 29-30 the team will compete locally at the Orange County Speech League Spring tournament. The team plans to travel to UC Berkeley in February and attend the OCSL State Qualifier on Feb. 26-27 which will determine whether the team advances to the state championships.

ComedySportz Show on Dec. 16