20 February 2009
News&Features around
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CAMPUS
Skills USA goes gold Gotta Skill? The kids in Skills USA do! On Saturday, Janurary 31st, Davis High School, Skills USA members participated at a regional competition in Ceres, CA. There were at least twenty-five other schools competing at this competition. Five students placed in this competition. Ana Gonzalez, Dillion Ovalle and Kyle Ertner all earned gold medals in the Architectural Design category. Aaron Esselman was a gold medal winner in the machine technology. David Tellez, also earned a gold medal in advertising design. “There is drafting and computer project and, in competition they just like give you a project to do and you do it,” said Senior Aaron Esselman. This competition was the first of three. If a member places in the regional contest, then he or she can move on to a state competition. If a member places in the state competition, it allows he or she to move on to a national competition. “I enjoy the competition part of Skills
USA, where you get to compete a g a i n s t other people from other areas,”said Esselman. Skills USA is a club at Davis High School, in which the members work on projects specific to their category of competiton. There are about ten kids in the club and they meet on Wednesdays or Thursdays, usually after 8th period. In their meetings they put together portfolios, which showcase their work for the judges of these competitions. All five of the students who placed in this competition will move onto the state contest which will take place April 23-25 in Fresno, CA.
Golden Girls’ and Boys’ State delegates chosen at Davis Delegates were chosen for the American Legion California Golden Boys’ and Girls’ State on January 23. Nine girls and seven boys were nominated by counselor recommendations. William Rutherford was chosen as delegate for Boys’ State, Roberto Rosas is the first alternate, and Jeff Cox is the second alternate. Payton Smithers is the Girls’ State delegate, Shannon White is the first alternate, and Christina Zuniga is the second alternate if the other two are not able to go. All of the nominees were interviewed by members of the local American Legion post. The students were asked about their participation at school, to describe themselves, how they feel about current issues in America, and to name local
William Rutherford
government officials. After all of the formal interviews, the students were notified of their position. The purpose of the Boys’ and Girls’ State is to teach our youth the duties, rights and responsibilities of American citizenship. Each student experiences how a government works by dividing into the Federalist and Whig parties, creating a council, developing a platform and debating controversial issues. “It is a place to have a great learning experience,” said Richard Baum Assistant Principal who conducts the Girls’ and Boys’ State at Davis High. Boys’ State will take place at California State University, Sacramento from June 20th to June 27th 2009 and Girls’ State will take place in Riverside.
Payton Smithers
Davis band ensembles compete at Oakdale High On Saturday, February 7th, Davis High School’s Winter Ensembles competed at Beyer High School at the local competition. The Ensembles included the Percussion Ensemble, Drumline, and Color Guard. Color Guard finished third place in the Scholastic A Class, and the other Ensembles both finished first place in their respective fields. Another competition took place on
February 14th at Oakdale High School, in which the Color Guard finish fifth place and both the Percussion Ensemble and the Drumline finished first place in their respective fields. Each competition is under the group organization of the Central Valley Guard and Percussion Circuit, a regional organization of local band and percussion ensembles.
The first true male Spartan
Are you man enough to be Mr. Olympus? Davis Leadership is preparing for the Mr. Olympus competition, which is open to all senior boys who want to prove their worthiness to be a true Davis Spartan. There will be a talent, modeling and questioning portion in the show. Each contestant represents a club or sport on campus and his presentation will help promote his club. The participants of Mr. Olympus will walk on the runway with a female escort. The event will be held on March 6 th from 6 PM to 9 PM at Davis.
It will be held right along with this year’s Prom Expo. Vendors from various stores will be present to give discounts and show booklets of their dresses and tuxedos to buy for the prom. The boys will be wearing tuxedos from the vendors to help promote their store.
Science Bowl gets ready to buzz in Question. Buzzer. Question. Buzzer. Round after round of elimination. On February 28th, the Science Bowl team will have its first competition at Johansen High School at nine in the morning. The categories are a miscellaneous assortment of science topics. There are two teams; five people per team. The first Davis team is comprised of Seniors Matthew Gonzalez, Lamarr Nelson, George Labaria, and Juniors Joshua McAllister and Kyle Ertner. There is a second team of five Davis students that will also be competing. They have been practicing every Wednesday for two hours with Advisor Dan Eisel. They practice questions from every category but mainly work on how to compete. They learn how to press the buzzer with quick reactions and when to answer questions they may be unsure about and they are now practicing coordination and interaction within the teams. “I have been really impressed. They have really improved,” said Eisel.
They are going against about fourteen schools in all day elimination rounds. After all of the preparation, this is where they show their knowledge. Many of the questions are hard and have not been studied by the contestants. Even Eisel has problems with the questions. Yet, the contestants are expected to bring up all their knowledge. There are fluctuations of adrenaline all throughout the day. “I think we will place at least third in the competition,” said Nelson, who is in his third year on the Science Bowl team. Eisel has high hopes for his team, yet it is all up to their reactions and the questions asked. “On any given day, you can do poorly,” he said. Labaria is excited about the competition and is happy to have joined Science Bowl no matter what happens. “It allows me to apply my knowledge in various fields of science,” he said.