Making a Change with Pocketchange Class of ‘16 alumnus Reyn Aubrey works to change the future with his new micro donation service, PocketChange. Already a successful businessman, his most recent endeavor aims to connect people with worthwhile charities to donate to.
MIlilani High school | ISSUE 6 | March 8, 2018
Mahalo to the Mililani Times for providing opportunities for our excellent high school and the Mililani community to connect. There is always so much going on in our wonderful neighborhoods, and the Times is a great way to stay informed. This is also a tremendous learning experience for our students to understand the importance of good journalism and communication, as well as building important job skills in marketing, advertising, and project management. I am proud to be a supporter of this endeavor and hope you enjoy reading this issue. I also wanted to take this opportunity to wish all my neighbors a safe and happy 2018. I have truly appreciated your con�nued support as your Senator and look forward to represen�ng you through the year. My door is always open and you can reach me and my staff at 808-586-7100.
EDITORIAL
| M arch 8, 2 0 1 8
Stop Wasting Time and Resources by Tyler BIrchard | 2019birchardt@mililanihs.k12.hi.us
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ver the past month, we’ve seen the Hawaii school system, as well as schools around the nation, become embroiled in controversy. Locally, at MHS, we’ve had two threats within two days. One on Wednesday, Feb. 7 and the other on Thursday, Feb. 8, causing some students to miss school and disrupting the normal flow of the week. To many of us, these were just inconveniences; slight distractions from our day-to-day routine. Later on in the month, on Feb. 18, America experienced one of the worst school shootings in its history, leaving 17 killed and 14 injured. The Parkland shooting and the issues that it brought up have been plastered all over
national news. Yet for the majority of us, they were of no real consequence. We checked our news feeds and apathetically took note of another mass shooting, giving it a bottom spot on the long list of national crises we face. This insensitive attitude is what I believe is the problem. As teenagers, we are the ones most likely to be affected by the shootings and bombings that plague America. Yet as a whole, we are the group that seems the most indifferent. It was us that scrawled the bogus threats across campus that have resulted in a massive waste of police resources. Other schools across the state have gone through the exact same thing. We bury the
real threats in a sea of fakes and treat everything with the same lack of care, slowly desensitizing ourselves to everything. As a whole, we need to start caring a little bit more. The second we accept the threats as normal is the moment when we seal our own fate. The threats are never real until they are, and once we realize that what’s going on is not the result of another practical joker, it will already be too late. We need to stop the false threats, and the callous subculture that encourages them, and pay just a bit more attention to the peers who may be in need. I believe that together, we can change our outdated attitude and make sure that we are as ready as possible for any disaster that might come our way.
The Effects of recent hawaii school threats by kamaile fitzgerald | 2018fitzgeraldk@mililanihs.k12.hi.us
Mililani Times’ mission is to inform the community of news, people, and issues of concern. Community. Responsibility. Dependability. Editor-in-Chief Camille Nevarez-Hernandez Community Editor Maiya Ezawa
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Raena Guzman
Student , Choreographer, PErformer
Chloe Fong | Mililani Times By Chloe Kitsu |
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2020kitsuc@mililanihs.k12.hi.us
enior Raena Guzman has taken on a new role as a choreographer for the Na Leo Choir at Mililani Waena Elementary School. She spends her Wednesday and Friday afternoons choreographing the choir’s songs for their upcoming performances held throughout the school year, and aims to give the students new experiences. “So, actually Na Leo is the Mililani Waena choir, it’s their concert choir that they open up to grades three through five, and it’s an after school program so the kids stay there on Wednesdays and Fridays and they learn about reading music and singing songs with a group,” said Guzman. Guzman was offered to be the program’s choreographer through her relationship with one of her teachers at MHS. “So, the director for Na Leo, Jenny Taira, her sister is Cari Taira, the acting teacher here. And I choreographed for the acting classes because I T.A. (Teaching Assistant) for the acting classes. So, Ms. Taira, the one at the high school, recommended me to Ms. Jenny at Waena
because they were looking for a choreographer for their upcoming events,” said Guzman. Not only did she get the position through these connections, she also earned the position through her hard work in class. “Actually, my sister, Cari Taira, noticed that Raena stood out in her drama class, and recommended her to me for the position. Cari recognized that Raena had great potential for choreography, and was also a natural leader with kids of all ages,” said Na Leo Choir Director Jenny Taira. While working with the elementary schoolers, Guzman found unexpected challenges in working with a different age group than she normally does. “They have so much energy and it’s just a lot to funnel them and put them in the right mindset to be working on, ‘Let’s do this, at this specific time,’ so most of it’s just having them get their concentration and things like that are the hardest part. They’re really great, they’re very open to trying new things, especially
because I was new to them at first. They were really open to me being a stranger and teaching them dances,” said Guzman. While Guzman has had no professional dance experience, she has been able to rely on her creativity and the knowledge she gained while participating in various musical productions to effectively teach the elementary class. “I’ve never taken a formal dance class ever in my entire life, but I’ve done musical theatre since I was a freshman and I guess that’s my only kind of formal training that I have,” said Guzman. “So it’s crazy that I’m even doing this, I think of myself as an amatuer, but people are asking me to do things that I wouldn’t be expecting myself to do.” Guzman’s love for choreographing came from the results of her work. “I think after my first thing that I choreographed, I realized that it’s really interesting seeing other people do things that come out of your brain, because I think that I have kind of a weird imagination in a way. And I think people can
do things that maybe they can’t always do, but when the final product is good and done then it’s completely a sense of, ‘Wow I did that,’ or, ‘Wow I helped put that together,’ and that’s why I decided to continue it,” said Guzman. Throughout the process of choreographing for the program, Raena has grown not only as a leader, but as an artist. “I think Raena has gotten to be more assertive and command more leadership with the students, and has also gotten more confident and creative in her choreography. The more she has gotten to know the students and what they are capable of, her ideas have grown and choreography has become more complex,” said Jenny Taira. For Guzman, the response from the students has been the most fulfilling part of the job. “I think the most rewarding part is actually the students because it’s really funny because I always see them everywhere. Like I was just working at carnival over the weekend, and I saw at least four of the students just from the choir. And they all say hi to me and they call me Ms. Raena and they always ask me about what we’re doing in our choir. I think just having them know me is rewarding in itself,” said Guzman. Overall, Guzman hopes that through her choreography the students take in not only the art, but the experience. “I really just want them to feel like they’re accomplishing something or like learning new things because that’s all you can really give to the students is new experiences and new friends, and things like that. So when I teach them, I hope that I’m pushing them out of their comfort zones too and I hope I’m allowing them to try things that they’ve never tried before, so they have that sense of experience,” said Guzman. The Na Leo Choir continues to work hard in practice for their upcoming performances.
By Connor Tribble |
2 0 18tribblec@ mil ilan ihs.k 1 2.h i.u s
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ith more tragedies seemingly hitting the world every day, people all around the globe rely on charities to help them get through rough times. Over 14 million people are displaced from their homes every year due to natural disasters and over one-ninth of the world’s population lack enough food to lead a healthy functioning life. However with so many charity organizations, finding the right one can be a challenging task. MHS alumnus Reyn Aubrey realized this problem and decided to act on it. His solution was to create a micro donation service that could make charity easy for everyone called PocketChange, which he is now CEO of. “PocketChange’s purpose is to make change easy, we want to empower everyone to take action on causes that they care about, when and where they care about it most. And we want to help them make the most impact possible on those causes,” said Aubrey. Essentially, the idea involves linking tragic events and videos on Facebook directly to an organization that can do something about it. “As someone is scrolling through their newsfeed, they see a post that’s talking about a cause. Our AI technology analyzes the post and determines the cause that that post is talking about; it matches that cause with the most impactful charity. Then our users can instantly micro give $0.25 to $2.00 with two clicks to support that cause,” said Aubrey. From a young age, Aubrey had an inkling for making money. At the age of six he started a lemonade stand, hiring his friends to run it while he promoted his beverage around a local recreational center in a flash outfit. Later on, realizing that he had the potential to make something out of his skill, he took business classes in high school and even joined a venture acceleration called, ”Blue Startups,” to help jumpstart his career. From there, he started a business involving selling bracelets that he made out of recycled soda tabs. “The entrepreneurship and marketing
Camille Nevarez-Hernandez | Mililani Times
class started PopItHawaii—the big (deal about) that business was being voted one of the top five products in Hawaii that year,” said Aubrey. Shortly after this business venture, in which he made $10,000, Aubrey started selling hoverboards, creating the company HoverboardHi at the age of 17 and making $100,000. “I started HowerboardHi because I saw a bunch of online influencers with them, and realized no one had them and just filled the gap,” said Aubrey. Although Aubrey enjoyed his smaller businesses, he knew he wanted to make an impact on the world in some way with his talents. “I knew I loved business, the entity, the process, but not with the end goal of having money to buy useless things I didn’t need. So I decided the next company was going to be focused on helping the world. An organization that helps raise funds for the causes that matter most, and actually puts them towards solutions to monumental problems,” said Aubrey. “The idea started in a very cliché location—the shower. I’d been thinking about how to make a difference in the world, and many of the original ideas just popped into place. Best shower I’ve ever had.” With this in mind, Aubrey created PocketChange, and quickly found a place for himself at the University of Denver, Colorado after graduating from MHS. He gathered a team of like-minded entrepreneurs to help him with his new mission. “Our founding team is currently myself, CEO, Christian Dooley, Head of Marketing, Apoorva Bapat, Head of Natural Language Processing, and Jon Duvarney, Head of Design,” said Aubrey. “Christian - he’s my cofounder, the dude who keeps me sane in the insanity of this business. He’s the one who really helps cut to the middle of what matters most. Everything would fall apart without Christian. He also calls me out when it needs to happen, and keeps me on track if I’m dreaming a little too much.” Finding the right charities to donate to is essential to using PocketChange, so that anyone using it can be easily directed to the best charitable organization for their chosen cause. “In terms of charities we work with: that’s the most important part. We have a team of charity researches that look through every public charity out there to determine which charity is actually able to ‘solve’ an issue,
and who can do it the most efficiently. I say solve in quotes because the problems we’re tackling are wicked problems that can never truly be ‘solved’, you can’t solve racism or poverty or climate change, but you can nearly eradicate them—make it such a non-issue that it’s not something that needs to be focused on,” said Aubrey. As the team continues working on and developing PocketChange, they want to extend it beyond Facebook, so it can be reached and used by an even larger group of people. “Imagine if everywhere you interacted with something inspiring, from all your social media to email, on YouTube, blog posts, news articles, or when listening to Spotify, PocketChange was there to help you take action,” said Aubrey. “An organization that empowers people to take action all over the world. An organization that helps raise funds for the causes that matter most, and actually puts them towards solutions to monumental problems. I want people to trust us, to know that they can do something and we’re there to help them. If we go really down the road, PocketChange becomes the action platform for everyone everywhere.” Aubrey hopes not only to help the world by supporting causes with PocketChange, but also to bring young entrepreneurs into the world of business and give them a fighting chance. “I just love it. Absolutely, down to my core. I think if you find something you love, there is no reason not to do it. It’s important to me because the playing field is even. No one can tell you anything, because the only thing that matters is the market. Business makes me happy. We’re living in the greatest time of entrepreneurship ever, and because I love it so much I would be an idiot if I did anything but spend every ounce of energy in me pursuing that,” said Aubrey. Aubrey plans to have a fully finished project by March 1, launching PocketChange by mid-March. It will only be available as an extension on Facebook at first, but the team hopes to expand as they continue. With a team consisting of 22 people and over 600,000 charities analyzed in 2018 alone, they are consistently growing and hope to bring the needs of the world into the light. They will be putting out new information regularly on their website www.pocketchnge.social/cs.
Aubrey is attracted to the level playing field business provides, finding enjoyment in proving those that doubt him wrong. His favorite quote, “watch me,” shows his drive to challenge himself and accomplish things no one ever thought he could do.
SPORTS
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| M arch 8, 2 0 1 8
National Signing Day: 10 On Their Way To Collegiate Level
Photo Courtesy of Tehani Furuta (L-R) Seniors Jodi Lillie, Karlin Wurlitzer, Tehani Furuta, Tayzha Furuta, Dayna Nishimura, Gabrielle Hackbarth and Hannah Gamble. by megan schend el 2019 s chen delm@m i li lan i h s.k12 .h i.us
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ational Signing Day, the first Wednesday of February, marks the day that high school seniors can sign a National Letter of Intent, signifying that they agree to all the rules of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, and will be playing at the collegiate level with their future college. This year, MHS was represented on National Signing Day by almost a dozen senior athletes, including Chaylyn Navares, Dayna Nishimura, Gabrielle Hackbarth, Hannah Gamble, Jodi Lillie, Karlin Wurlitzer, Tayzha Furuta, Tehani Furuta, Jessica Ostrov and Julia Ostrov. They signed with a wide range of colleges, consisting of New England College, Idaho State University, University of Indianapolis, Oregon State, California State University Bakersfield, Chaminade University of Hawai’i, University of Hawai’i at Hilo and Hawai’i Pacific University.
“It was such a great experience. I was so blessed to have this opportunity. It marked the official signing to our next chapter in our lives, realizing that we are this much closer to coming into the real world. Lots of relief knowing that all of our hard work paid off throughout the years of training. (It’s a) once in a lifetime experience,” said Tehani Furuta. For most of the studentathletes, signing with a college was something that they had dreamed of since they were very young and had worked hard for over the course of many years. “I wanted to play soccer during college because I felt like I invested so much time in my life. At the age of five, playing for over 10 years, I just felt like that’s what I wanted to do as a little kid. I worked really hard to get a scholarship so that I could play collegiate,” said Nishimura. However, their success came not only from dedication over the years, but also from actively
coordinating with possible college options in the months preceding National Signing Day. “I emailed them (college coaches) at the beginning of the year because I was going to an ID camp and knew they were coming. It was a two-three day camp where we did drills with college coaches and then scrimmaged. They watched me throughout the whole ID camp and then talked to me at the end and said that they were interested and we just went from there,” said Nishimura. National Signing Day gives student athletes the chance to be in the spotlight and commemorate the beginning of the rest of their lives after high school. “National Signing is symbolic of a commitment to a school and team that you have a responsibility to perform on and off the field, (and) in the classroom, to the best of your ability,” said varsity girls soccer head coach Ray Akiona. Nishimura added, “All the student athletes who committed to a
school were introduced one by one and signed their National Letter of Intent. After, your friends and family who came, get to see (you and) got to lei you.” Many of the student athletes that signed, chose to attend local colleges in order to stay close to home while still getting to experience college life. “Even if I wasn’t getting a scholarship, I probably would’ve gone to HPU. I really want to stay home and be around my family and friends,” said Tayzha Furuta. Lillie added, “I wanted to be able to go away and experience somewhere else, even though it’s still Hawaii. I just wanted to go away and experience being away from my parents and home without being too far away.” National Signing Day presented many student athletes from MHS and across the nation the opportunity to take the next step towards their lives after high school, in addition to kicking off their collegiate career.
7
NEWS | March 8, 2 0 1 8
Kaapana Takes on DCI Casper Troopers by Alicia Getty |
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oncert Band and Marching Band Director Derek Kaapana is expanding his reach as a band designer by working with Drum Corps International (DCI), particularly the Casper Troopers, in summer 2018. DCI is a non-profit marching band organization formed in 1971 with the intent of creating a unified platform for the world’s most highly trained marching bands to display their expertise. The yearly event spans from May to mid-August, with participating corps performing and touring the United States. “For teaching groups like this, I enjoy seeing how more selected students take instruction. It helps me to understand what I’m doing as a teacher—how I explain things, how I write for different groups. It helps me to just better understand myself and I think, for me, that’s what I enjoy the most. I do like flying out and getting to work with other people, but it made me such a stronger designer and choreographer that, when I get back to Mililani and get to work with our marching band, I feel like it makes that a lot more interesting and a lot better,” said Kaapana. Kaapana is a part of a group of band visual organizers and designers that includes the Mililani Color Guard Director Susan Sagawa, along with people they networked with while in Indiana. “One of the people that are on our design team, he works with groups in drum corps, had asked me back in 2014 if it was something I was interested in doing; and I said definitely because that would only make me better as a teacher—getting
to experience things at that level,” said Kaapana. All participants undergo a careful selection process, and must be able to contribute to the group. Interested students under the age of 22 can audition to be a part of the Troopers. “During the audition process you’re able to choose the absolute best people that had applied to be a part of the group. So you don’t get the normal things that would happen with any school band, where you have such a wide range of skill and talent. Everyone is pretty much at the same level so you can talk to them, teach them and write things in a way that’s more appropriate because you know the level that everyone’s at,” said Kaapana. Kaapana has assumed the position of brass body writer and tech for the Troopers, which requires him to adapt to the dance and performance abilities of the group members. “Choreographing just means that whatever the designers put onto the field, if there’s elements that need to actually be choreographed. Let’s say some parts of the music, it sounds like their bodies should be doing certain things, not like forms or movement, but just like a plie or a lunge or something—then that’s stuff that I would write in for them,” said Kaapana. Kaapana doesn’t hesitate to initiate peer-led learning. Mililani Color Guard Captain Senior Kayla Tamayo often assists with the teaching and execution of color guard choreography. “Mr. Kaapana trusts student leaders to assist him in teaching other students. Rather than trying to teach 150 students at once he splits the work among responsible
Timothy Won | Mililani Times Marching Band Director Derek Kaapana prepares for his new role as an educator. The experience gained with Casper Troops will be brought back to MHS. students,” said Tamayo. Student’s aren’t the only ones learning and improving. As someone who did not have a dance background to begin with, Kaapana has been able to develop his skills through consistent practice. “I know that there are strong students we have that do take dance, like Kayla takes dance and some other students,” said Kaapana. “I translate (ideas) to people that are good at dancing, I feel like that kind of thing helped me to become a little bit better.” Being involved with a group off island has allowed him to adopt a more inclusive viewpoint of what it means to direct a marching band. “What I’ve learned is that the activity is evolving in such a way that it’s continuing to push not only my self and other teachers, but push the students also to do more things. Marching band has changed from being
marching from point A to point B and playing music, and now is starting to incorporate a lot more elements in it, including dance,” said Kaapana. As the time spent practicing and performing grows, so does the students’ abilities. Kaapana is able to witness this growth within his students. “Seeing it at day one and then seeing it at the end is very rewarding because you see how much that they understand and you see that they start to connect with the music and connect with the audience a little bit better,” said Kaapana. The Troopers will have their first tour performance in June. Kaapana is currently in talks with the Troopers visual staff, gathering information about the current progress of prospective Troopers to gain a better understanding of what he can contribute to the Trooper Corps.
The clubs and organizations at MHS hosted food booths at the carnival to fundraise for their respective activities. From the Marching Band’s teri burgers, to First Robotics’ quesadillas to JROTC’s plate lunches, there was a wide range of food options to cater to different tastes.
The various games provided by EK Fernandez allowed people to test their skills to win prizes. In the Water Race game, children battled each other to be the first to fill their respective station by aiming a water gun at a target, the winner of which would receive a prize.
4th annual
mililani carnival
By Caitlin barbour |
The annual Mililani Carnival attr around the community, serving a attractions for all ages. From foo there were a wide variety of activ
2 0 1 9barbourc@ m ilila nihs.k 12.hi.us
Photos by Timothy Won & Carlos Prado
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ince its return in 2015, the Mililani Carnival has continually proven to be able to bring the community together for a weekend of excitement and laughter. With changes to the line up of rides and school booths, this fundraising event came back full force this year on Feb. 16 to 18. “The biggest changes have been, throughout the years, the number of booths that we have on the school side. And we’ve kinda just tweaked the layout, if you will, just a little bit, to make it a little easier for people to get around. And we found a good happy balance of the number of booths that we have on the school side, so that it’s still Fred Murphy. The money raised will go towards various school improvement uneven eating area by the cafeteria and library.
racted crowds of people from as a family friendly event with od, to game booths, to rides, vities to enjoy.
The Wave Swinger, one of the various rides offered at this year’s carnival, is a favorite of children and adults alike. As the ride begins to spin, the seats lift off the ground and swing outward, offering riders an exciting new way to see the surrounding Mililani area.
Every year the MHS parking lot is transformed into a fairground for the Mililani Carnival. Fitting in the rides and booths in the central campus, the school is opened to the community for the three day event.
A staple to any carnival, the carousel is often the ďŹ rst ride any child will try. With twinkling lights, nostalgic music and two rows of colorful horses to ride, onlookers are attracted to the sight of the carousel in action and the smiling faces of the children riding it.
Be Kind Be Cari n g
Be You
(L–R) Haley Evile (11) and Alyssa Yamada (12)
Chloe Fong | Mililani Times
YMCA Hosts
dollars. Each individual branch goal is set by calculating how much money is given out in the form of financial assistance or scholarships the year prior,” said the director of teen programs and community engagement Bryan Murphy. The many volunteers that help to run the ASC dedicate their time and effort to help others experience what the YMCA has to offer. “I actually do not participate in any of the YMCA’s programs anymore but whenever the ASC comes around someone always contacts me to be a teen volunteer. I started because my By Maiya Ezawa 2018ezawam@mil ilani h s.k12 .h i.us swim coach asked me to do some call nights, and after that I guess I never stopped,” said Guzman. Sophomore Krysta Reese added, he Mililani YMCA holds their Annual Support Campaign (ASC) from late-Jan. to “I’m involved in the YMCA’s teen program, which includes teens who are interested in mid-March to raise funds for those who community service and previous participants of cannot afford the full price of their programs. The nation-wide fundraiser consists of a number their Leaders in Training program. This year our teen goal is to raise $10,000.” of volunteers who call households around the The teenage volunteers, as well as the adults, area and ask for donations, aiming for an overall often stay until nighttime to call and get funds goal of $405,000. Last year, they raised over from friends, family and local businesses. These $871,250. The YMCA offers a wide variety of programs to the community, including swimming donations are tax deductible. “Each year we do some sort of goofy bet or challenge with the lessons, daycare and fitness classes. teen team; strangely they’ve all been related “The YMCA creates this environment where to my appearance so far, but like the saying kids can be anybody. Their multiple programs goes, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ If they succeed and classes give children a chance to learn this year, they get to shave my head and dye things and participate in things that not every my beard. The fact that they are closing in on child has the opportunity to do. The YMCA this goal—close to $7,000—ahead of schedule, opens doors for the future, creates outlets of makes me both exceedingly proud of their work expression and widens the lengths kids can achieve,” said annual top teen campaigner Senior and a little terrified for my soon to be ‘new look,’” said Murphy. Raena Guzman. In addition to the ASC, the Mililani YMCA This year the Mililani YMCA had similar goals holds various other to last, with their efforts focused on contacting fundraisers to regulars and finding new sources of money. assist those who “Last year the Mililani YMCA raised about would like to $60,000 and that is our goal again this year. The join programs YMCA of Honolulu—all but may not nine branches, plus our Metropolitan office—raised just over one million
Annual Support
Campaign T
Mia Nava | Mililani Times
be able to afford it. “There are fundraisers at the YMCA like Splash Dash for the younger kids, bake sales, teen dances, teen sports night, zumbathons, special yoga offers, call nights and carwashes. Each YMCA on island has an overall goal which they want to reach and all the monies raised go straight towards financial aid,” said Reese. The programs and activities put on by the YMCA have a lasting impact on those that participate, allowing them to reach out to the community. “I started as a swim student when I was only four years old, joined their swim team when I was nine. I’ve been in and out of their child care programs, fitness classes and at one point I even did ‘spirit dancing’ there. Basically I’ve done it all, and growing up in the YMCA the people know your face, they know your parents, they become like another family,” said Guzman. Murphy added, “I truly believe places like the YMCA are becoming more and more important in our communities. At our core, we are a place where people can simply come together for positive reasons.” The annual YMCA ASC is their biggest fundraiser throughout the year, and helps to subsidize the costs of membership for those in need through scholarshiplike opportunities. They plan to continue this annual drive.
(L-R) Katarina Portello (9) and Chloe Kelly (11) contact those in the Mililani community.
ctso brings
it home wins 27 medals in state competition
By Jenna Nakanishi |
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2019Nakanishij@mililanihs.k12.hi.us
rom Feb. 21 to the 23, the SkillsUSA, Distributive Education Club of America (DECA), Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) and Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) clubs competed in the Career and Technical Student Organization (CTSO) competition, which consists of numerous events in different categories that are designed to test specific job or trade focused skills. “Having the chance to compete and lead my school into this competition has been an amazing experience and opportunity to see where my fellow students and I can apply our skills to bring our schools teams upwards,” said SkillsUSA President Senior Nicholas Shaw. For each participating club, the way in which they compete is different and caters to the professional focus of their respective organizations. For SkillsUSA, this focus is technology based, for DECA it’s business,
for HOSA it’s healthcare, and for FCCLA it’s public and human services. “Each student chooses an event based on their interest, whether it be a team or individual event,” said HOSA President Senior Maya Kirihara. “On the day of competition, we all go to our designated testing areas and then after that’s done, there are symposiums and round tables that students are able to go to. The following day is the awards ceremony and that’s when we find out if we placed in our event.” Despite the differences in competing, each club has a similar goal to win medals for Mililani and get the most that they can out of the experience. “My goal for this competition was to see as many of SkillsUSA Mililani receive a medal as possible. Each of my members has a talent to showcase, and I strongly believe that each deserves to be rewarded for their determination to win and hard work. With the competition behind
us, I would consider this goal accomplished,” said Shaw. Kirihara added, “My goal for this club was to make sure that everyone had a good time and had a new learning experience. I hope that the underclassmen take this experience and learn from it so
they can improve next year at competition.” For DECA, the experience was a little different in that they did not have as much experience in the competition as other groups. “I think the goal for the club was to get back out there and challenge ourselves because the last time Mililani DECA competed was, I believe, in 2010,” said DECA President Senior Chance Castro-Wong. “I personally wanted to show everyone that we are Mililani High School and we’re here to kill it and represent.” While the specific ways in which the students prepare for the competition are different, depending on the organization they are competing with, the process is generally similar. “To prepare for the competition, our students train outside of class within our specific categories to make sure we understand the theory and
application of our competition,” said Shaw. This training can include reading textbooks or doing presentations depending on the event the student is competing in. Kirihara added, “The day before our competition, we all basically study all night at the hotel.” During this preparation, the students
encounter numerous challenges that they must overcome before competing. “The biggest problem that we faced was stress and anxiety from the pressures we put on ourselves and the feelings of self doubt in our abilities. I believe, however, that as we pushed forward into the competition, those who were originally worried were inspired and determined after seeing their fellow team members show confidence in themselves,” said Shaw. The challenges faced made the experience of the competition even more memorable. “I’m very proud of everyone for dedicating themselves to this competition. Although everyone was very anxious, we all persevered and tried our best,” said Castro-Wong. Kirihara added, “I am so proud of everyone in my club. Many of us placed in the top three this year and will be going to nationals in Texas. I also feel like everyone became closer as friends and that makes me so happy. Even though some of us didn’t place, we all tried our best and made memories and that’s all that really matters in the end.” By the conclusion of the competition, a total of 13 HOSA members, three DECA members, 24 SkillsUSA members and seven FCCLA members won medals. The national competitions will be held across the nation over the summer, ranging from Texas, to Georgia, to Kentucky.
Go online for
a full list of results mililanitimes.com
total medals
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By Taylor ann Ono | 2018Onot@mililanihs.k12.hi.us
This year, a group of friends at MHS have come together to create something special: a play, written, produced and directed internally called “God of Death.” The leading students who produced the play include Seniors Akira Reas and Chris Pascua, Juniors Kenji Reas and Aaron Catalan, and Sophomore Marcus Otaka. They utilized past skills that they’ve learned from other productions and their own ideas. “The play is about the god of death, Hades. His family has been shunning him and talking about him behind his back for thousands of years, and he finally comes up to them and gets in a fight with them and leaves his position. He’s like, ‘I’m not doing this job anymore,’ and Death just leaves entirely, so no one dies anymore. There’s a lot of crazy antics, and the gods are like, ‘We gotta fix this, we gotta get this right, we gotta kill people again,’ to make things normal. It’s really wacky, there’s a lot of silly things going on,” said Akira Reas. The play was a new and challenging experience because it was the students’ first time writing a script. “It’s a lot of fun. You have to actually make the play meaningful so you can’t get carried away with fun stuff. We have to think, ‘So what’s going to make people want to see this?’” said Kenji Reas. Akira Reas added, “It’s all new to me and we have to find out what giving each character a voice is like. When you’re writing everything you have a couple ideas. Like you think, ‘Hades is the hero and he’s a protagonist, and his evil brother, Zeus, is not a good person.’ That’s all we have to go off of, but there’s 15 other gods we’re writing for, and we’re like, ‘Who are these people?’” Auditions for the play were held in January, and rehearsals began in early February. “We’re going to have cast bonding pretty soon, we’re going to get everyone together. We have a girl, (Senior) Grace Welch, she’s doing our promotional art, she’s going to be doing posters and stuff. We have a guy writing some
trailers for us. I think people are going to like it, we’re coming along pretty well,” said Akira Reas. Through all the hard work and rehearsals, relationships between the writers grew stronger, especially between siblings Akira Reas, Kenji Reas and Marina Reas. “Like all siblings I assume (our relationship is) pretty good, pretty great. Me and (Akira), we communicate ideas a lot. He’s like the main spearhead of this project. I just help with straightening out ideas and what not. I love my brother, it’s good,” said Kenji Reas. Akira Reas added, “It’s brought us all a lot closer. Mostly my siblings ‘cause my little sister is in it too and we’re honestly a lot closer than we were. We’re talking a lot more, we’re more open with each other. I think ‘cause we used to have our lives sort of completely separate, like entire worlds different from each other. Our friend groups are different, but now all of our friend groups are coming into the same project because there’s so many people working on the play. We’re all actually like a family and we can talk to each other about things, but even as friends we talk and hang out a lot too.” Being in charge of the play has also given the students the opportunity to experience theatre on another level, teaching them new things and reaching new heights. “Honestly, I’m a pretty hard critic on my own writing so I would be lying if I said I was like super confident in the script. But I think that that drive against yourself, like perfecting what you write is what’s going to make people, hopefully, enjoy it at the actual show,” said Akira Reas. “My dream is to be a director. I want to be up there, I want to get into movies and all that.” Catalan, who plays the role of Zeus, added, “I’m pretty proud. I didn’t think this was actually going to come true. It is insane to me, it’s like ‘Whoa, we’re actually getting a play done,’ and it’s made by us and no one else. It’s pretty amazing.” The show will be held at the MHS cafeteria, and is planned as a single showing on April 20.
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NEWS | Ma rch 8, 2 0 1 8
Students Practice Spanish Through Pen Pals By Chanelle Ca mero |
T
2 0 2 1c amero c@ mi li l a n i h s.k 1 2 .h i.u s
Mililani Times
comics
he level three Spanish classes of MHS assigned their students pen pals for the second year in a row. The pen pal students are from differents schools including, Waipahu High School, Leilehua High School, Lakeview High School in Columbus, Nebraska, and World Wise School in Manzanillo del Mar, Colombia. “The purpose of the pen pal letters would have to be to get more practice in on speaking Spanish and making it fun by talking to someone that’s your age,” said Sophomore Sarah Olivieri. Writing to pen pals helps students with their Spanish and benefits them by giving them more opportunities to practice their grammar. “I think the main
purpose of this is just improving on our fluency in the language because we can study vocabulary all day, but it’s significantly harder to form the words into sentences and writing these letters gives us the practice we need,” said Senior Alexis Kelly. Through these letters, the students are able to share their cultural values and personal lives with one another. “We write about a lot in our letters with the theme usually having to do with what we’re learning at the moment,” said Kelly. The pen pal project helps with both MHS’ Spanish classes and Colombia’s English classes. “Having pen pals all the way from Colombia is so cool because they’re trying to learn English and we’re trying to learn Spanish
and there’s no one better to learn from than those who speak it so it’s a great learning opportunity for both of us,” said Kelly. Additionally, the students at MHS and Colombia also exchange videos of themselves. “There is also a sense of mystery of who their pen pals are. Our Waipahu and Colombia pen pals use Flipgrid and we are able to record short videos to send to each other. This allows us to actually see and hear them, which you don’t get from just the letters, so we like this new way of communicating. It’s also great because students are practicing their communication standards and skills in various platforms,” said Spanish teacher Osiris Santos. Olivieri added, “The videos are about one minute and
rejected ice cream flavors by c hae le y w in kle r |
The race by k amaile fitzg e rald |
thirty seconds long and are in Spanish and English.” Although the letters and videos have taught the students a lot, there have also been some setbacks. “Some challenging parts is getting the letter back and not understanding a sentence or a question. Also in the Flipgrid when we make videos for each other, it is difficult to understand since they talk so fast,” said Olivieri. “I ask my friends in the class to help me figure it out and if they can understand what my pen pal is saying on the video. Whatever I can’t understand, I will ask the teacher for some help or use a Spanish dictionary.” The pen pal project will continue for the rest of March, along with a Skype session where they can speak face to face.
2 0 1 8 w i n k l e rc@ m i li la ni hs.k 1 2.hi.us
2 0 1 8 f i t zg e ra l d k@m i l i l a n i h s.k 1 2 .hi.us