WRITTEN BY AIDEN ORANTES
Academic Decathlon is a school team that usually meets on weekends, and ends up going to competitions all over SoCal. This year's team is led by Mrs. Guerra, who’s in Room 311. The Ssssource recently got the chance to interview one of the team members, Nicholas Caban. When being asked about why people should join Academic Decathlon, he had this to say, ”There’s some good opportunities for scholarships. For me personally, I joined because I realized I wasn't the best student, and Aca Deca helped me become a better student. At some point, I left because it was too strenuous, but rejoined soon after.” Aca Deca was always intriguing to The Ssssource, since some students carried a few extra textbooks after meetings at school. So, we asked about what they usually do in Aca Deca, and what they read to prepare for a competition. After some thought, Nicholas said, ”You are given seven packets, made by English majors, and given a topic/time period. For this year, it’s all about the American Revolution. Within these seven packets, they cover art, economy, literature, math, music, and social studies. In November, there’s usually a scrimmage, as well as a test. There are 3 categories of students for Aca Deca, which are Varsity, Scholastic, and Honors, although the official team is made up of nine people.” How could this program improve someone's studying and their life in general? What are the pros and cons of Academic Decathlon? Nicholas answered, “There's many pros about Aca Deca, you join a community that cares about you. You learn multiple life skills, and if you do well enough, you can get college recommendations. However, there are multiple downsides to Academic Decathlon such as having to work hard, seven textbooks to study, and this can eventually lead to stress and anxiety.” Unfortunately, many people from the Aca Deca team are graduating this year, so they may need more people to fill in for the people who are leaving. So, if you would like to end up getting more college opportunities, as well as getting some better study habits, consider joining Aca Deca next school year. WRITTEN BY: AIDEN ORANTES
Creative Writing Club usually meets at lunch on Wednesdays and Fridays, and is usually held in Room 315, with the sponsor Mx. Aiden Brown. They always give each member advice with whatever they may be writing about, from sci-fi, reality fiction, and more. Speaking of the sponsor, I had the chance to ask them some questions about the Creative Writing Club. When asked of the purpose of the Creative Writing Club, Mx. Brown answered, "The purpose of Creative Writing Club is to give writers a place to gather, to write ongoing stories, start new stories, and think and talk about writing with other people who are interested in it.” Mx.Brown, who's pronouns are they/them, had their own motivations for starting and giving the students on campus access to this club. ”As you know (as a member), I have been a creative writer, with the novel I’m working on, I’ve had the story in my mind since I was 11, and having folks to share writing with has been instrumental in my life, as have stories and the telling of them, and I love that I get to facilitate a space like that for you guys." However, Mx. Brown didn’t start this club on their own. VAAS students had a hand in the birth of this club. They said, ”I believe it was Achillies Ordoña and Nova Garner, though something tells me Avery Nored was with them. I remember not even letting them finish their sentence because I was so excited to sponsor it. When I first got hired at VAAS, that was the first thing I wanted to do, either a class, a club, or a writing center of some sort.” Being a part of such a special club and surrounded by creative Vipers, Mx. Brown has the opportunity to make wonderful memories. When asked what was their favorite memory from being the sponsor of creative writing, Mx. Brown responded, ”Oh my goodness, that is a tough one…I think during National Novel Writing Month, when we did the cabin challenge, that was really fun.” The cabin challenge for NaNoWriMo is when students are split into 3 separate cabins (Horror, Mystery, and Romance), and they compete against each other to get the most points. Anything they write during this period gets them points. During this cabin challenge, the club ran a special event inspired by NaNoWriMo with a twist. As Mx. Brown stated, ”It was Achilles' idea, but essentially they extended the (cabin) challenge to be all writing…So, we tallied our total word count for the month, we counted anything from personal writing to academic writing. It could be on paper or pencil. The students within the club were split into three cabins…The points were tallied up from each work that the student made, and whichever cabin won would get a prize.” WRITTEN BY: SAMARA CHAVEZ
Key club isn’t a club only available at VAAS. Many other schools have their own Key club, as it is a student-led organization. Key club gives students the opportunity to help the community and develop leadership skills. Many weekends of the members are filled with volunteer events. However, that’s not all the members do. Key club members have many days where they meet up with the Key clubs from other schools to show their dedication to the organization. They’ll practice the Key club cheers in a circle, trying to perfect them. Afterwards, the chants stay stuck in members’ heads for the rest of the week. One of Key club's most interesting events so far has been the DCM Division Night Market held at Northridge Park. On October 29th, the different Key clubs brought all sorts of food to sell. There was horchata, Thai tea, and agua frescas, just to name a few. Some delicious sweets were Porto’s cheese rolls brought by Granada. “I really like the Jollibee chicken because it was crispy,” shared Lena Roubinian, a member of the VAAS Key club. Another notable food was the homemade tamales brought by the Monroe Key club. The night market gave members the opportunity to share and enjoy food from their cultures. Key Club officers also enjoyed the night they set up. The Key club prepared a ceremony to award the hardest working member of the month. In this case, a club officer earned the stunning certificate given to those special Key club members. The winner, Axel Angeles shared, “I had fun and it was nice to win an award.” The clubs also sang and had dance competitions. The voices of members singing along to "Polaroid Love" reverberated across Northridge Park. The day ended with a competition with the sister Division, in the form of cheers. The loudest and most energetic would be the winners. And of course, VAAS's division won!! WRITTEN BY: Samara ChavezIt’s October, and that means it’s Breast Cancer Awareness month. This month is dedicated to encouraging women to take mammograms and normalize speaking on these health issues. Earlier this month, Med Club and its members came together to try to spread a little bit of pink around campus. Some of the members grabbed their brushes and painted a beautiful poster that allowed other Vipers to join in. During lunch on the 19th, students were free to come down to the quad and sign the Medical club’s poster to show their support. Members also worked together to create pink ribbon pins for our fellow classmates.
Lee Boch, a member of the Medical Club, shared their struggles with making the pink ribbons, “I poked myself a lot (with the safety pins), but it was a lot of fun.” The end product of that dedicated time and effort was visible throughout the school. In the hallways you can occasionally find students wearing those pins on their lanyards. WRITTEN BY: JILL LUNA
One of the many great clubs here at VAAS is the Guitar Club. This club allows guitarists, musicians, or anyone interested in music to come together and share their collective passion and interest in guitar and music. Member, Light Ramirez, says that the club allows them to “hang out with friends” and “explore guitar experiences.” A word from the co-club sponsor, Mr. Chan, says that Guitar Club has the intent to get people to hang out and “have good vibes” while including people who have guitar experience, those who don’t, and anyone who just appreciates guitar. If interested in checking out the club, Guitar Club meets on Wednesdays, during lunch, in room 113, sponsored by Mr. Teele and Mr. Chan. WRITTEN BY: Zachary buenaventuraDebate club is a club that fosters critical thinking, strengthens communication and objective thinking skills, and practices patience and tolerance. Debate clubs meet every Monday at lunch in room 314 with Mr. McMillin. Students learn to promote problem-solving and innovative thinking. This club helps students to build links between words and ideas that make concepts more meaningful. Debate club students are taught to research and synthesize complex topics and information.
Every week they exercise creativity and implement different ways to claim, reason, and support a certain argument. Some of the recent debates they have had over the past two weeks are, “should we abolish the British monarchy”, “gun control”, and “cancel culture”. Life skills that they learned in debate club are public speaking, even though it’s just a couple of students and a teacher in the room. This club builds confidence and is able to deal with a lot of pressure. Students find this club very engaging and exciting because they have a platform to express their opinions and the ability to back up those opinions. Winston Ordona, a member of the debate club and the debate team, said, “I can express my creativity in this club because I can write and write to express my creativity and come up with impromptu arguments on the spot. It’s quite fun. I learned about how to use specific skills for debate such as note taking.” He would recommend any student “1000%” to join the debate club. Julia Cervania, member of debate club and the debate team also said, “I feel that debate club is very fun and it’s a good community to be in. I can express my creativity in this club through sharing my unique ways to speak my mind and get a point across. I have learned to think on the spot and to stay calm when in fast paced environments. I joined debate club because it seemed like it would be a cool experience, and it would help me develop good speaking skills.” Mr. Mcmillin, the sponsor of Debate club and the coach for the Debate team had this to say. “I was given a speech class that had a new student, Jocelyn Garcia, who was part of the Lake Balboa debate team. She wanted to rejoin her team, which was not possible. The criteria for entering a new school into debate required ten students minimum, so I asked around and found a large population here at VAAS that wanted to join. I used the Debate Club to gather that interest. I got in touch with the immaculate and legendary J Flo, in charge of Los Angeles Metropolitan Debate League. He let me know what I needed to do to get involved and how to get the team going. I got training and attended a weekend meeting and tournament. Then I had to meet with Ms. Hanock and Ms. Guerra to figure out funding and options for debate team. I am positive that the team will improve, and we will eventually be able to take the State and National Championship.” The debate team went to their first debate tournament last November 5th at Royal Learning Center. The team is composed of many members that are in the debate club. The teams performed exceptionally well for their first time. With the level of preparation and experience they had compared to the other teams, they were able to stand toe to toe with the other competitors there. Winston Ordona was awarded 3rd place speaker for the rookie division. They will definitely be returning to future tournaments to showcase their improvements in skills each time and bring home many wins to the VAAS community. The next tournament will be December 9 through California State Long Beach, and they will surely aim and succeed to make us vipers proud. |
EditorJaden Fiske AuthorZachary Buenaventura Archives |