Granger high school

Tri-Color TimesAn open forum for student opinion and expression TRICOLORTIMES.COM May 2012 LIV-7

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The new drill team for the new school yearBy Curtis HughesEXCALIBURS have come to the end of another successful year at Granger. The team was able to compete in regions, and for the first time in two years, state. The drill team was invited to the Anaheim Convention Center in California for the National Drill Competition. The drill girls took second in their character routine, and soundly placed first in their mili-tary routine. But now the season is over, and the competitions are done. Nev-ertheless, there is a never a break in the action for the X’s. Beginning in May, the drill team for the 2012-2013 school year will start their training. Twenty-two members strong, they look

armed and dangerous. Sheilamani Phouthavong (11) is a returning member to the drill team. When asked about prepar-ing for the new season, she said, “I am excited about getting to know the new girls and starting off fresh. This will be my 3rd year as an Excalibur, and I am ready to work! You know!” Phouthavong is looking forward to a lot this upcoming season. “I am excited for Annie (An-drea Cahoon (11)) to come back and help lead the team. I am also excited for my friend Rosie Phetphouthay (10) who tried out last year and didn’t make it, but definitely made it this year,” said Phouthavong. Justine Harmon (10) is joining the Excaliburs for the new year,

and said she is excited to dance, but more than anything is excited to compete. “My favorite routine to watch and the one I hope to be in most is military.” There are new coaches being brought to the team along with new team members. For the new season, the X’s have added a new coach, Nicole, to work with Rachel and Ms. Lago in creating these amazing dances. “Some of the girls on the drill team who are graduating this year who won’t be on the team with us say that no matter what, they are pretty sure we are going to have a great coach, so everything will still be great,” said Harmon. Another new Excalibur will be Leah Nelson (10). “It’s my first year, and I’m super

excited!” she said. “I’m very happy to be on the team, especially with Cheyenne Riley (10). We have been best friends since the 4th grade, and we have always wanted to dance together,” Nelson said. She said that her favorite dance is also military, and she hopes that she can make the routine with her best friend. The drill team here at Granger has always been a great big fam-ily. The team will participate in practices and retreats over the summer to grow closer and stron-ger before any competitions start. Soon all the new members and returning Excaliburs will all be best friends.

Leah Nelson (11) and Shelia Phouthavong (11) are two of the girls who will be on drill next year.

By Karen GarciaSOMETIMES when students get a job, they get so excited when they get their money that they be-gin to leave school behind. When the money starts coming, the grades start dropping. Work schedules start to take over homework time. So homework gets impossible to do, and then you come home from work late and tired, so you get less rest. Then next morning you wake up late. Then not only is your grade getting lower, but your CPA drops as well. Esmeralda Esquivel (12) said that she used to put work before school last year when she first got her job at McDonald’s. “I really needed the money last year at that time, so I slacked off in school,” Esquivel said. This year she cut back her hours at work because she needed more time for school. While some students stress out about working and going to school at the same time, others can handle it well. Jessica Ri-vera (11) said that she is getting good grades and going to work at the same time. She said she never got too many hours at work, so it didn’t inter-fere with her assignments. So now she feels good, because she has good grades and a little cash on the side. Students should remember that school should always come first, because if they want to make money, they should get good grades. Then they can get a career where they won’t get exhausted to make some really great money.

Tough call

By Alan LopezMOST OF the students here at Granger need to make up a lot of their credits or need to make up citizenship. Many students say things like ‘Oh I’ll do it later,’ or ‘I’ll just make it up during senior year.’ With all the credits that need to be made up, it can become very stressful and time consuming. It takes more time to make up credits than to simply earn them while just going to class and do-ing your work. “I wish I hadn’t sluffed so much and just stayed in school, passing all my classes so that my senior year could just be messing around

and home release. Now I have to suffer and stay after school an ex-tra hour and make up packets,” Omar Miranda (12) said. Many people think it’s easy to make up packets last minute. For some it may be easy, and they pass the pre-test on their first try and never have to worry about it again, but for most, that is not the case. Some people fail every test, and end up working on some very thick packets. “I didn’t think it was going to be such a huge, thick packet to make up, but I guess I was wrong,” Alex Salcedo (12) said. Citizenship is also something

students choose to try to do at the last minute. There are some stu-dents who have to make up citi-zenship from 20 hours up to 100 hours. What’s even worse is that every student always wants to wait un-til the last couple months to make that up which is very difficult. “I have to make up like about 60 hours in two months, and I’m not so sure that I’m going to be able to do it, but I’m going to try my hardest,” Salcedo said. Then there are some students who don’t have to make up any-thing, and they get to mess around all senior year. “I remember when I would nev-

er go to school during my sopho-more year, but I still passed all my classes with D’s because I knew I was going to end up regretting it later,” Chaky Xayavong (12) said. Procrastinating is not a good habit to get into, but sometimes it just gets to you. As teenagers, there is a lot to deal with in life, and sometimes school doesn’t seem like it is im-portant, but it is very important for your future. You have all your life to have fun, but only if you get a good job! So try your best to not procrasti-nate, and do the work you need to do for your classes!

This article is almost finished, I promise

In our last issue, we stated that the new Granger High School would house grades 9-12.This was a mistake. Granite School District continues to compile data regarding the decision to change Granger High School from a three-year school to a four-year school. A survey can be taken online by anyone who wishes to comment on this proposed change at: goo.gl/BUfgu. And to collect additional information, a postcard mailer will be sent to parents in the Granger network. Both will be completed by May 20 when the issue will then move to Granger High School’s com-munity council.

Correction

May 2012, page 2 VOL. LIV Issue 7

Opinion by Miranda LopezTechnology has been present day’s way of communicating for the past ten or so years. We’ve been using phones, computers and other electronics to interact with one another. Today’s society has made tech-nology easier for us to use and be able to contact one another if needed. For example, if you left your hat at your friend’s house, that’s not a problem. Just text them with your cell to let them know you’re coming back to grab it; or if your friend moved away, you can still talk everyday via texting and Facebook. Even though technology has made communicating with each other easier for us, it hasn’t always been like this. Way back in his-tory we wrote letters to each other to communicate. Weather it was to write a letter to invite someone over for ‘supper’ or writing a love letter to your other half. I bet you don’t even remem-ber when you picked up a pencil to write someone a letter. That’s probably because you never have. Writing letters is a lost art in today’s society. Nobody really thinks about writings letters be-cause, what’s the point when we have electronics that will send messages instantly, which is so much more convenient. Technology is a big part of to-day’s society. Not only has it taken over the art of writing letters, but also our lives. It’s what our lives depend on each and every day. We are all practically addicted to it. Not going to lie, I would probably die without my phone and Facebook. Then again, I’m one of those peo-

ple who have to have my phone in my hands at all times. We don’t even think about ever picking up a pencil unless we’re in school or at work. That’s be-cause we don’t ever feel the need to use a pencil. Post offices are going broke because no one really needs them anymore unless we’re receiving school grades, bills, or advertisements. Over the past few weeks I’ve decided to start an old trend from the past. I picked up a pencil and began to write letters with my boyfriend who lives back where I used to live a few months ago. Yes, we still talked and texted ev-ery day bit what we wrote in the letters was a surprise. It was cool to have new letters’ in the mail. It was different than reading a text. Instead of just being another hun-dredth text that day, it was a long message that needed to be fully read out to see what it all had to say. It was like receiving a new package every few days. Texts and Facebook messages are dif-ferent where you don’t need to reply right away. With a letter you actually have to sit down and think out what to say in return, in-stead of what just what comes to mind first. Writing letters was also reliv-ing a lost form of literature. If it wasn’t for technology advancing so fast we’d still be writing letters today. I believe that writing letters should be written more often be-cause we’re losing forms of lit-erature every day. So, maybe one day if you’re bored, put down the phone and pick up a pencil and write a letter to an old friend or family member.

Letter writing isa lost art

By Judith RupayGRANGER boys soccer team has gone through some changes from last year to this year. Coach Opie has decided he wants to take things to the next level. The ranking system gave him an idea that things could be better. The change was going to be tough, but it was better for the team. Last year he saw that they would critize the team for the way it was running. “Last year was a nightmare,” Coach Opie said. The ranking system is divided into many different ways for im-proving technical, speed, tactical skills, and they also do drills to decide how they will be ranked for the games they will be play-ing. The rank decides the playing time the players get. “I think it’s a good idea, and it shows what the coaches want from us, but it has it flaws,” Dy-lan Cobb (12) said. Many of the players have their comments about it, most say it was a good idea to start it, but

some don’t agree. “It pushes me to try harder ev-ery day, but it should also push everyone, not just me,” Jorge Mendoza (11) said. “The ranking system is good because it shows which players are dedicated and which are not. I think dedication is the key,” Cobb said. “The system has some ups and down, but there’s more downs than ups, but it’s good because it forces us to go to practice,” Mc-kay Chesnut (11) said. Others have their opinions on whether the people who made the rank should be on top or not. “I don’t like the ranks because it puts the people who aren’t ready to be in varsity on top,” Erwin Contreras (10) said “The soccer players must earn their playing time,” Opie said. The ranking that every player earns decides whether they will play varsity or JV.“It’s a good idea, but we don’t know how to work, and some

progress has been shown,” Luis Avila (10) said. Many of the play-ers on the team played last year, and they think that some improve-ment has been shown. Motivation and dedication is the key, and many of the players as well as the coach agree with that. Last year many of the players weren’t motivated to go to prac-tice. In some ways the ranking system gets them to go to practice every day. “Mostly everyone comes to practice, we are trying but it’s not working that well,” Mendoza said. “I see younger players work bet-ter, and now more people come to practice,” Opie said. “You have to show who you are and battle for your spot,” Avila said. Every day during practice they do many drills that the ranking systems are made up of, and they get ranked on performance. “Some of the drills are good, but others are pointless,” Cobb said. Many of the soccer players think that the ranking system still puts some of the favorites of the coach on top. “No one’s favorite to me, and the ranking system eliminates any favorites,” Opie said. He hopes that next year many of the players will get used to the system and will understand the ranking system. Coach Opie wants to continue using this sys-tem for the upcoming years.

Taking it to the next level

A few of the soccer boys dressed up before a game.

Granger’s cover girl model

By Karen Garcia AMONGST Granger High School students is one who is now a cov-er girl model. Valeria Moreno (11), also a cheerleader, won a modeling competition to be a cover girl for Quinceanera magazine. Moreno said that she feels so happy because her hard work fi-nally paid off. She said it wasn’t easy keeping up with school, cheer, and modeling. “I barely even had time to eat, that’s how busy I was,” Moreno said. Moreno said that her mom was the biggest motivator she could have had. “My mom is my every-thing. She’s the one who kept me motivated and told me I could do it all along,” Valeria said. Her mom was also in pageants and modeling when she was younger, but wasn’t confident enough, so she helped Moreno

with many things she had been through already. When competing, she had to learn a dance and perform, prac-tice her modeling walk and smile. She said it was a lot of fun, espe-cially with the other girls thwhow-ere in the competition also. She loved working with those girls and said that they were all like a little family. When the day of the competition came, Moreno said she put in her all and had to trust in herself. She said that her mom also gave her some good ad-vice just in case she didn’t win. She performed her dance and did her modeling walk, and the judges really liked her. When Valeria was announced as finalist along with four other girls, she said she was extremely nervous, yet happy at the same time. “I thought I was going to win Miss Congeniality since I was al-

ways waving and smiling and just being myself,” she said. As other girls were winning certain places, she said she was just really happy for them and she clapped for them even though she wasn’t called yet. “When it came down to just me and one other girl I was just so nervous and the judges made it more intense with their intense pauses and finally they recognized me as the winner,” Valeria said. “The girl who gave me my sash and my crown saw I wanted to cry and told me to hold it, but I didn’t listen to her I cried anyway. It was my time to shine,” Valeria said. She will be cover girl of the June issue of Quinceanera magazine. She thanks Granger for having such supporting people and for believing in her. “I felt so proud to represent Granger and Latina girls,” she said.

Valeria Moreno (11) is a cover girl for Quinceanera magazine.

May 2012, page 3VOL. LIV Issue 7

Tri-Color Times Staff

Granger High 3690 South 3600 West West Valley, UT 84119 385 646-5320

The Tri-Color Times serves as a student forum for student opinion and student expression. The views expressed herein reflect neither the opin-ions of Adviser John Carlisle and Granger High School, nor those of Granite School District. The Tri-Color Times invites and publishes letters to its editorial board; all letters will be edited for taste, length and legality.

Journalists JournalistsViridiana Aguilera

Oscar Arriaga-ValentinBriana BauerShanice Boyd

Maria CamarilloAbigail CartmellGloria CastanedaJessie CisnerosTristan CookRosy DonosoKaren Garcia

Alejandro GarzaCindy Govea

Kevin GuzmanSelina Haro

Curtis HughesAdis JasarevicAlan Lopez

Miranda LopezTakia Owens

Leslie PlascenciaCalvin RankinJudith Rupay

Yasmin SalgadoRita Soto

Anayeli TorresBrenda ValdezErick Vargas

Shelby WilsonMaria Zuniga

EditorAida Uzierbegovic

Online EditorBrittany Edwards

Copy EditorAlejandro Garza

Photo EditorBrooke Rigby

Managing EditorTaylor BaileyLogo ArtistJose Olmedo

Terell vs. Wild: Prepared for anything

Garrett Terrell (12) is a survivalist for fun.

By Calvin RankinTHERE is a man at this school with a passion for a very unique hobby. Garrett Terrell (12) is a sur-vivalist. Terrell is a man who loves to go up into the mountains alone with only the bare necessities. “It’s called bushcraft. It’s taking camping to the next level,” Terrell said. “You just take the bare ne-cessities and live off the land.” Bushcraft, as defined by Wiki-pedia, is the long-term extension of survival skills. Terrell got started with this rug-ged lifestyle while he was young. He was in the Boy Scouts of America, an organization that teaches boys many skills that could help them in life, including camping. He decided that he liked camp-ing so much that he would take it

to the next level. Among the few items that he takes are his knives and a sleep-ing bag and a few other things. He does not bring any food, water, or a tent. He finds his own food and water using vari-ous hunting tech-niques. When he is in the quiet solitude of the mountains, he also hunts. He hunts for food and to pass the time. “I hunt rabbits using snares and bigger game such as deer using a bow. I only bowhunt when legal though,” Terrell said. Terrell likes to go up to the

mountains to hang out and just get away. He said that it is very peaceful.

He goes almost every other weekend. He recommends bushcraft to anyone interested. He not only goes into the moun-

tains to hunt and to get away from society, but to test knives that he makes using the old leaf springs

off cars. He makes these knives by hand and forges them at his house at temperatures of up to 3,000 degrees Far-enheit. He uses an-cient methods of steel work-ing to make these knives i n c r e d i b l y strong.

After he is done making them, he will head up to the mountains. He then tests his knives by throwing them, smashing them against stuff and many other ex-

treme methods. He does this to make sure that his knives can withstand any-thing. After he is done testing though, he will usually sell the knives at prices of 50+ dollars. “They can hack through branch-es, use them to carve, and even throw them. They are very strong and sharp,” Terrell said. His knives range from 5” to 20” and have handles that are usually made of wood, but can be made with many other materials. He got started with knife mak-ing when he did martial arts as a child. He wanted a sword, but decided that since they were too expen-sive, he would learn to make his own. He plans to continue making knives and camping to the ex-treme for years to come.

By Maria CamarilloMOST OF the teachers at Granger have a student to do some of the stuff they can’t do during class. Whether it’s sorting papers, cleaning, or just getting stuff for them, they’re still helping them out. But should the students really be getting a grade just for helping out the teacher? Nic Ruzhilo (12) is a TA for the career center and he likes be-ing a TA because you don’t really do anything, just take notes out to classrooms. “Being a TA is very useful and it gives you time between classes to finish up or do your homework. It is also cool because you get to choose your own lunch,” said Ru-zhilo. Salvador Armemta (12) is a TA for the career center, too. He got this class because he is

on track to graduate, so he doesn’t need to worry about other class-es. “I like it because I can work on other work from other classes; I also wanted to be a TA because I don’t need any required classes to make up, so being a TA gives me time to finish up work that I need to make up,” said Armemta. Teachers might appreciate that they are not the ones who need to be walking around taking notes to different classes. So that is why they get students to be their TAs and give them credit for it. Mr. Pace doesn’t mind having a TA in his class. “They actually help me a lot because I’m always busy with the school store, and I can’t be do-ing both things at the same time,” said Pace. Unlike other teachers who just

have their students sit there and do nothing for the whole class time, his students are up and do-ing something for him. Like Pace, there are a lot of oth-er teachers who like to have TAs around because they help them do things that they don’t have time to do on their own. Mrs. Petty in the career center thinks having TAs is a helpful idea because she gets a lot of help from them. “They run notes, and help or-ganize papers. I like having them so that way I don’t have to run all around the school to just take a note to some student. Because I still have to watch the career cen-ter,” said Petty. Some of the students might think being a TA for a class is fun because you don’t get to do any-thing, but most of the teachers ac-tually have stuff for them to do.

One of the career center TAs.

Earn credits as a teacher’s assistant

Check the new shops at city creek

By Viri AguileraCITY CREEK Center, which opened on March 22, 2012, is the newest addition to our downtown. City Creek Center is located at 50 South Main Street, is open Mon-day to Saturday from 10 am – 9 pm. This $2 billion center took five years to create, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. With all the construction going on, people were able to see all the work that went into this new mall. The con-struction was very public. Building this center was a very creative process. Running through the middle of the center is a man-made creek, which is a recreation of City Creek. The creek that runs through the mall starts at an 18’ waterfall that is located next to the food court.. This shopping and dining center is comfortable for any weather, in the summer the rooftop is open and in the winter the top part of

the shopping center closes so the snow won’t interfere with shop-ping. According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, City Creek is the only enclosed shopping center to open in the United States in the last six years and the the only regional shop-ping center to open this year in the United States. Since the shopping center bare-ly opened, most people just go walk around and look to see what stores are at the mall. The shopping center varies from high end stores to stores you would find in any other mall. For example some of the higher-end stores include Tiffany & Co. and Coach. The shopping center also has stores that you would find in any other mall like Forever 21 and Macy’s. If you’ve to been to City Creek you know how ridiculously long the checkout lines are, yet even

knowing how long the lines are, people still want shop there. There are many new stores in the shopping center that we didn’t have here before. One of the new stores is the cosmetics store Lush, which sells handmade cosmet-ics. We didn’t have a store like this here before, so it is exciting to have it in our new shopping center. If you are not in the mood for shopping, there are also a lot of food places to choose from. The variety of food ranges from Mc-Donald’s to Texas de Brazil. Next to the food court, there is an amazing waterfall. While eat-ing, you can enjoy the view of the waterfall from inside the food court. This new addition to downtown has brought so much attention. People from near and far have come to experience the new shop-ping center.

May 2012, page 4 VOL. LIV Issue 7

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By Maria ZunigaWE ALWAYS hear kids say, “I need a job.” “I want a job.” We all want or need jobs for different reasons. A lot of us just want to work to get a car, clothes, shoes, accessories, electronics, etc. Of course everyone would like to alwyas have money to get whatever they want, but there is another way to use that money. “It is a great way to save up for college,” Emina Mehmedovic (10) said. We all think different and are going to use our money for whatever we want, but think about the choices there are. “It is a lot harder to find jobs now, but it is not impossible,” Corina Fuentes (11) said. It is hard; there are lots of peo-ple who do not have jobs, but a job is not going to come knock on your door. You have to get up and look for it. Everyone always wants to work at the mall, or just simple places. Think about it. There are many people who ap-ply for those. Chances are that not even half of those who applied will get hired. “Get a job that is worth do-

ing, and have fun,” Mehmedovic said. Go out and look for places that you think that you actually have a chance of getting hired. Find a job you like that way you enjoy working. “If you want a job you can get it, if you did not get it at one places, there is always more places,” Mehmedovic said. Whenever kids go to an in-terview, I am sure that most get even a little bit nervous. There are things we have to remember to say or not to say. Listen to people’s advice--that way you get just a little closer to getting the job. “Dress nicely,” Fuentes said. “Remember to dress to impress.” What you’re wearing really counts, so be presentable. “Be confident and smile,” she said. It may be kind of hard to smile because of how nervous we get, but try your hardest to smile. That way you look and feel more confident. Another important thing to re-member is a lot of people want jobs during the summer. If you do too, it is a good idea to start look-ing and applying now.

Are you working or is it another lazy summer?

By Abby CartmellNICHOLAS Flamel is consid-ered to be the best of the alche-mysts ever to live. He was born in France in 1330 and died in 1418. Or did he? Some claim that Nich-olas and Perenelle, his wife, have empty graves. Is this the work of grave robbers or delinquents? Or

are Nicholas and Perenelle walk-ing among us? They would have to be well over six hundred years old. That’s ridicules, of course. Or is it? Josh and Sophie Newman are twins living in San Francisco, working in a bookshop for Nick and Perry Fleming. Everything is

going fine; their parents are out of town and they work in a bookshop with a popcorn machine. Then John Dee shows up and, quite literally, blows up the bookshop. And everything Josh and Sophie know is turned upside down. The twins follow Nicholas Flamel on an extraordinary ad-venture, starting in San Francisco and continuing to France, Eng-land and even to the legendary lost civilization of Atlantis! On the way, they meet William Shakespeare, Joan of Arc, Saint-Germain, Billy the Kid, Niccolo Machiavelli and even the gods of old! Can Sophie and Josh escape John Dee and his Dark Masters, or will the earth be doomed to Armageddon? Read the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel and find out! The first book in the series is The Alchemyst (2007), then The Magician (2008), The Sorceress (2009), The Necromancer (2010), The Warlock (2011) and finally The Enchantress (2012) are the sequels. On November 19, 2009 it was announced that Lorenzo di Bo-naventura had bought the film rights to the series. The script has yet to be written, however. The series has spawned online games as well; The Codex Mas-ter, The Challenges of the Elder, and Quest for the Codex.

The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott

By Adis JasarevicAFTER a total of 50 finalists and many exciting events in the Keys to Success assembly, five contes-tants were chosen at a chance to win an iPad. Each one was called down in order to pick a key that could po-tentially unlock a box that held the prize. One by one, the contestants walked up to the box and turned the key, each one hoping the key they picked would win them the

iPad. After the first four contes-tants try their keys and fail, the crowd begins to cheer as Richie jumps into the air with joy know-ing that he is the final contestant with the last key and the “for-sure” winner. As Richie begins to talk he is speechless, feeling accomplished and proud of himself for earning a 4.0, he is handed the iPad and given a congratulations for ac-complishing his goals in school this year.

Richie Mok (10) is this years keys to success winner

Keys to Success winner gets an iPad