Presbyterian Pan American School

JANUARY 26, 2014 •VOLUME 11 • ISSUE 4• KINGSVILLE, TX 78363

Eagle X-Press

Girls soccer plays in local tournament

by Arantza RodulfoStaff Writer

Lady Eagles basketball shows improvementStaff Writer

by Merry KimEditor-in-Chief

Boys basketball beats Juan Diego Mission, 66-56by German Penaloza

by Merry KimEditor-In-Chief

by Magdiel AlanizStaff Writer

Eagles 4H prepare for annual livestock show Seniors take part in class-wide

project

Students manage high school and college courses to benefit their futureby Alejandro HerreraStaff Writer

Photo by: Merry KimSenior Yannick Habimana jumps to rebound the ball.

2014 is the 63rd an-nual Kleberg-Kennedy Junior Livestock Show. It will be held at JK Northway in Kingsville. There is actually two different competing sec-tions, homemaking and animal, and there will be many participants from different schools, the community and Pres-byterian Pan American School’s (PPAS) 4H as well. January 30 is the day that judges will look at animals and decide which will advance. Ten lambs will participate with ten students. Robin Harkey is now in charge of 4H. Harkey majored in biology and horticul-ture. She has lived in Kingsville for 10 years.“I didn’t know what to

expect since I just came in. But I am impressed with students by their good behavior and feel honored,” Harkey said.She also said that she is not really looking for any price this year since this year is the first year

of attending the show but focusing on learn-ing experience by show-ing the animals and de-veloping confidence.Students from PPAS are in the progress of preparing for the show and making sure the

lambs are in good con-dition for the show.“I’ve always attended the livestock show since I was in animal science class at PPAS. I am not nervous as my first time but I think all of us will do well at the competi-tion because we’ve been preparing well with our lambs,” said Ju-nior Samantha Zelaya.Homemaking part is consisted of photog-raphy and cooking.“I am preparing for the photography part as well as the lamb competition. I don’t know if I will do well in the competitions, but I know for sure that I am going to enjoy them. It is a fun experience for me,” said sopho-more Reyna Martinez.

Being a dual credit stu-dent is not only a privilege but it’s an honor. It requires a great deal of responsibil-ity because not only do you have to keep up with your high school course-work but college course-work as well, said School Principal Ellie Perez. Students from Pres-byterian Pan American School (PPAS) are tak-ing English 1301, English 1302, Economics 2305, Math 2412 and Math 2413 at Coastal Bend College. “It is a pleasure for me to take dual credit class-es. I know that it is a lot of extra work but these classes will help me to finish my college studies faster,” said Edwin Man-

rique, senior at PPAS. The students that are taking dual-credit classes are Carlos Aguilar, Fer-nanda Aleman, Yvonne

Borrego, Hyun Suk Choi, Zack Duran, Estrella Gal-van, Andrea Garcia, Se-bastian Guerrero, Hefzi Jimenez, Jinghan Li, Ed-

win Manrique, Ana Mar-tinez, Gyeonghui (Merry) Kim, Angela Moreno, Igor Ngabo, Susana Parra, Francisco Porras, Libni Robles, Francine Umu-mararungu, Rene Villavi-cencio and Jun Sang You. “Taking classes at Coastal Bend is hard but all my effort is go-ing to be reflected in the future,” said Andrea Garcia, senior at PPAS. Senior Advisor De-siree Alegria said that this year has the highest number of students at-tending college classes. “Being a Coastal Bend student is a great respon-sability for me because I have to take my regular classes plus my dual-cred-it courses,” said Carlos Aguilar, senior at PPAS.

A new se-nior class proj-ect was intro-duced this month. “Red, White and Green,” by Michael Nelson Miller, is the title of the book that the seniors will be reading for this project. They will have the chance to get to talk and ask questions to the author of this book, Miller, who is a member of Presbyterian Pan American School’s Board of Trustees. The book is about the Mexican devel-opment during the sexenium of the President Manuel Avila Camacho in 1940 – 1945. “I like this book, especially when the author talks about the radio,” said Se-nior Edgar Garcia

“Because it tells how instead of go-ing to a group of people, they used the radio to com-municate to the whole country.” Senior Dan Mu-gisha said that he is very excited be-cause this is the first time that he gets to know the author of the book he is reading. “I think I am go-ing to ask him a lot of things of how he got all those details and about the way he wrote the book,” Mugisha said. This project will be after final exams but before graduation. “This is a chance for the seniors to prove that they are capable of writ-ing and speaking academically at a good level,” said English IV teach-er Diane Garcia.

Presbyterian Pan American School (PPAS) boys’ basketball team has been playing with many other school teams throughout this season and now they are facing the end of the season for 2013-2014. One of the last games was on January 13th. They had a home game on Monday against Juan Diego Mission from McAllen. Despite Coach Daniel Navejar’s reminder to all the play-ers that the important thing during games is to try to have fun, PPAS occupied the victory with the score, 66-56. The game started

with Zack Duran’s shot. Duran is a senior on the varsity team. Navejar said that he was very proud and im-pressed with the boys because of their skills. “I think the game went well. The boys played together as a team and showed good control,” Navejar said. However, there were some fouls made from the PPAS Eagles team. Some of the play-ers had to stay out for some time. “It was a little hard to play. I can say it was a challenge because of my lack of defense but I learned more from this

game,” said Yannick Habimana, team captain. Throughout the whole season, Navejar pointed out Habimana as a tal-ented player on the team. “He is a good team player. He doesn’t get a temper during games and he hustles. Be-cause of his knowl-edge of the game, level of skills, I think he is the best player on our team,” Navejar said. He also said that he wanted to thank all the senior players for the experience that he shared with them and hopes to see the under-classmen next season.

The last girls’ soc-cer games for Presby-terian Pan American School (PPAS) were on January 10 and 11. The Lady Eagles played against five schools dur-ing the two days of the H.M. King Tournament. The five schools who played against the PPAS Lady Ea-gles were H.M King, Corpus Christi Miller High School, Tuloso-Midway High School, Alice High School, and Corpus Christi King High School. The Lady Eagles won, 2-0, against Corpus Christi King

High School. Sopho-more Mariana Gomez and Senior Hefzi Ji-menez were the two who scored the goals. The Lady Eagles tied, 1-1, against Al-ice High School, with one scored by Jimenez. The team tied, 0-0, against Corpus Christi Miller High School, and lost, 3-0, to H.M. King High School and, 2-0, to Tuloso-Midway High School. “Yes, we won one game but we enjoyed all of them,” said 15-year-old Freshman Henriette Mbambaw, who plays defense on the team. Also, she said that she enjoyed the tour-

nament because she played most of the time during the games. 17-year-old Junior Monica Ruiz, who also played defense on the team, said that the tour-nament was very fun and exciting for her. “I think we got bet-ter with every game. I believe the tourna-ment gave us an op-portunity to in little things that matter,” said Reili Cantu, Coach of the Lady Eagles. Cantu also said that the next tournament will not be easy, but with hard work and dedication, everything could be possible.

Presbyterian Pan Amer-ican School (PPAS) has had a busy sports sea-son and the Lady Eagles Basketball team is not the exception. On Janu-ary 13, 2014, the PPAS Lady Eagles Basket-ball team had a game at home against Juan Diego Mission girls’ basketball team, which ended with a result of 35 – 45 and the loss to the PPAS Lady Eagles.

“The result of the game was acceptable because sometimes we have to lose, and that’s how we can improve,” said 16-year-old sopho-more Mariana Gomez. The PPAS Lady Eagles basketball team is led by Coach Ryan Martinez “They play good, but we can do better with more practice,” Martinez said. On January 14, 2014 the Lady Eagles went to Palm Hurst to play anoth-

er game with the win to the Lady Eagles, 46-37. “The games were ex-citing and fun but we could have had a better result”, said 15-year-old Freshman Hen-riette Mbawmbaw. Martinez said that he thinks that the girls have played very well dur-ing the whole season. “We had a lot of fun and we learned a lot, even though we also had hard games,” Gomez said.

2013-2014 Coastal Bend College Dual Credit Students.Photo by: Alejandro Herrera

Photo by: Merry KimFreshmen Ember Ayala working with her lamb to pre-

pare for the livestock show.

FEATURES&OPINION

Campus Ministry hosted school talent show

by Nerina CruzStaff Writer

Eagles X-Press Staff: Adviser, Desiree Alegria. Editor-In-Chief, Merry Kim. Staff Writers, Magdiel Alaniz, Lisset Campuzano, Abiel Cardenas, Nerina Cruz, Alejandro Herrera, Fernanda Ibarra, Sabrina Kambanda, Ainee Martinez, Maggie Otero, German Penaloza and Arantza Rodulfo.

by Lisset CampuzanoStaff Writer

World Wide New Year celebrated in diverse waysby Maggie OteroStaff Writer

by Ainee MartinezStaff Writer

by Abiel CardenasStaff Writer

Students attend Welcome Back

dance

by: Fernanda IbarraStaff Writer

ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT

Holiday recognizes Martin Luther King’s achievements

Student Council member named Student of the Month

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters brings great computer effects

People from all around the world celebrate New Year in diverse ways. It might be on a dif-ferent date or include different traditions, but all of them share the same purpose: cele-brate the beginning of a new year and be thank-ful for the things that occurred the last year. In Mexico, the Unit-ed States and Rwanda, New Year is celebrated at midnight on Janu-

ary 1, when the peo-ple join in their fam-ily, have dinner and some of them make a New Year’s resolution. “I enjoy wishing a happy new year to my friends and family,” said Roger Rugwiro, senior at Presbyterian Pan Amer-ican School (PPAS). Sara Mendoza, 14-year-old freshman, is from Oaxaca, Mexico. Mendoza said she celebrates New Year by getting together

with her family, hav-ing dinner and eat-ing 12 grapes on New

Year’s Eve, making a wish or purpose ev-ery time she eats one.

Martin Luther King

From left, Freshmen Alejandra Lara, Abdymeli Garcia, Elda Gonzalez and Mariela Lopez at the dance.

Photo provided by: teaser-trailer.com

Photo by: Nerina Cruz

Senior Igor NgaboPhoto provided by: louisianaweekly.com

The sequel of Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief, now directed by Thor Freudenthal, Per-cy is about, the demigod son of Poseidon, who went to an adventure among the Bermuda’s triangle (Sea of Mon-sters) to find the golden fleece (that can heal and revive every per-son or thing) to repair the barrier that kept the camp safe with the help of his new brother, Ty-son, half god, half Cy-clops, and his friends Annabeth, Grover, and some zombies to stop the plans of Luke to revive Chronos from

death in the tartarus and complete the prophecy. Percy too has to confront if he is still a hero and obstacles in the voyage like a gi-ant Cyclops, a Krak-en, and Luke’s men. The movie too has many references to real

companies such as UPS (OPS only seen for demigods) which chief is Hermes, the mes-senger god or vehicles driven by the Graeae. And mythological ani-mals such as hippo-campus and chimeras. Portrayals of the

characters include: Logan Lerman: Percy Jackson, Alexandra Daddario: Annabeth, Douglas Smith: Ty-son , Leven Rambin: Clarisse , Brandon T. Jackson: Grover, Jake Abel:Luke Castellan, Anthony Head: Chiron (as Anthony Stewart Head), Stanley Tucci: Mr. D , Connor Dunn: Tereus, Paloma Kwiat-kowski: Thalia, Nathan Fillion: Hermes, ac-cording to: www.imdb.com. The movie was great in the computer effects and projection of mythological char-acters making this mov-ie great for families.

Every month the principal of Presby-terian Pan American School, Ellie Perez, chooses an exempla-ry student as the Stu-dent Of the Month. The student selected should be showing that he or she is an outstanding student. The student of the month for the month of January is 16-year-old Se-nior Igor Ngabo. “I am proud of myself for being the Student of the Month because that’s the result of all the work I been doing at PPAS.” Ngabo said.

Ngabo has been at PPAS for a year and a half. He had been in many activities such as track & field, bas-ketball and theater. “I didn’t expect to be the Student of the Month. I was really surprised because I couldn’t imag-ine it was me, the

one who was cho-sen by Mrs. Perez. I feel really honored.” Ngabo is also a mem-ber of the National Honor Society (NHS) and he has been part of Campus Minis-try. His favorite sub-ject is pre-calculus. Ngabo plans to attend Mary Hardin Bay-lor in Belton when he completes his se-nior year at PPAS. “I choose Ngabo as the Student Of the Month because he has been a leader for the senior class and for the student council, he also show me that he has great leader skills and great char-acter.” Perez said.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is celebrated on the third Monday of Janu-ary, promoting equal rights for all Ameri-can citizens regardless of their background. Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, Geor-gia on January 15, 1929. During his studies in Boston University he met Coretta Scott and mar-ried her on June 18, 1953, according to www.new-georgiaencyclopedia.org. In 1954, King moved to Montgomery, where a year after the bus boycott took place; which became a full accomplishment on No-vember 13, 1956, because it desegregated buses to let African-American peo-ple traveled without giv-ing up their seats, there-

fore it made King an active leader of the Civ-il Rights movement. According to www.week-lyreader.com, on August 28, 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., King gave one of his greatest speeches “I Have a Dream” congre-gating around 200,000 people. A year after, on July 2, President Lyndon

Johnson signs the Civil Rights act that prohibits any type of discrimina-tion and segregation on public areas, a valuable achievement for King. King was recognized on December 10, 1964 by re-ceiving the Nobel Peace Prize. Four years after this event, on April 1968, King was assassinated by James Earl Ray at a hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. Months after his death, Mrs. King asked for a day for her husband to be recognized as Mar-tin Luther King Jr. Day because of his achieve-ments for his fight for African-American rights. In 1976, the federal holi-day was endorsed but it was not until 2000 that this holiday became observed in all the states, content from content.time.com.

The Presbyterian Pan American School (PPAS) began the year with a Talent Show, in which the students showed their talents. Singing, playing music and comedy acts were the talents the audience appreciated on January 10, 2014, at the Students Union Building (SUB). Seniors Sarid Ra-mon, Edwin Man-rique, Ulysses Irach-eta and Freshman Jose Garza were singers. “I didn’t feel ner-vous during my perfor-mance, because I have practiced almost ev-ery day,” Ramon said. She said that she dis-

covered her singing talent when her father taught her when she was a kid. After listen-ing to the singers, there was comedy show by Freshman Ariel Lima

and Alejandra Lara. It gave the audience a big laugh. Lima said that he felt happy when people began to laugh during his performance. “I had never practice

my talent. It is natural for me to make people laugh. And maybe I’m going to use my talent to be on TV shows or be an actor,” Lima said. The talent show was concluded with a musi-cal duet by Senior Sam-uel Godinez who played the guitar and sang and Junior Magdiel Ali-nez played the violin. “During my sang performance I could express my feelings and I hoped the audi-ence perceives it. I feel comfortable and ner-vous at the same time. I participated in the talent show to enjoy myself because playing the guitar and singing are one of my favorite things,” Godinez said.

Freshman Jose Garza showcasing his talent.

A new semester has began and Presbyte-rian Pan American School (PPAS) stu-dents celebrated the new 2014 semester with a welcome back dance on January 11 at 6:30 p.m. at the Student Union Build-ing (SUB) on campus. “I am happy to see my friends again and dance with them,’’ said Fresh-man Alejandra Lara. The dance was orga-nized by the Student Council members, who ordered Wing Stop for students. Ana Vasquez, ju-nior and member of Student Council, said that Wing Stop was a good success. The junior class was in charge of the

concession stand with sodas, nachos, chocolates, and oth-er kinds of snacks, all which sold out. Also the students bought a lot of so-das and waters at the junior store, said Ju-nior Monika Ruiz. ‘‘After the soc-cer tournament, the girls and I were tired, but it didn’t stop us from going to the dance,’’ Ruiz said. Senior Ulysses Ira-cheta, who was in charge of the mu-sic at the dance, al-lowed the students to dance to all kinds of different music. ‘‘The good music made me dance with my friends,’’ Lara said.Ruiz said the dance ended at 10 p.m.

Photo by: Fernanda Ibarra

“What I like the most about New Year is being with my fam-ily and sharing spe-cial moments with them,” Mendoza said. On the other hand, China’s and Korea’s New Year’s celebra-tions are based on the Lunar Calendar, a calendar based on cycles of the lunar phases. Therefore, ev-ery year they celebrate it on a different date. This year, it will be on January 31, and

will be considered as the Year of the Horse, according to www.chinesenewyears.info. They have a big din-ner, fireworks and they also get togeth-er with their family. Xuemeng Chen, 16-year-old sopho-more, from China, said she likes the traditional New Year’s dinner. “What I like the most about New Year is hav-ing fun with my fam-ily,” said Junior Yurim Lee, from Korea.

From left, typical celebration in the United States, China, Mexico (bottom row) and Rwanda.

Photos provided by: cnn.com, mexicocooks.typepad.com, ownbond.com, newtimes.co.rw.