Volume 4, Edition 3 November 2011Los Angeles Leadership Academy

The VoiceSurprise, Surprise!

LALA’s students never ex-pected a surprise like the one they received on Thursday, No-vember 10th. On this special day ten chosen students received a free I-Pad 2 given from Comerica Bank for having the highest ac-cumulative GPA. Five seniors and five juniors were honored. Paola Sanchez was the first student to receive her I-Pad 2 and said, “It felt surreal, it didn’t click in that I had actually received one.” The second winner was Hillary Chavez who happily stated, “I was surprised, I heard rumors but never thought I would get one. When

they called my name I was grateful.” The third senior to re-ceive the I-Pad 2 was Marcela Zaragoza who said, “I was ex-cited! Humbled and grateful.” Pamela Fuentes and Fran-cisco Mendez were the fourth and fifth seniors to receive the amaz-ing I-Pad 2, but were away on a fly-out to Hope College in Michigan. They were not at the High School when their names were called, but were notified via telephone. “I had three people text me about it and still didn’t believe it until the school called Hope Col-lege to let me know I had won. It wasn’t until then that I became extremely excited,” Pamela said. Francisco Mendez had

By: Francisco ContrerasStaff Writer

Editors-In-Chief:Stephanie SerranoRuth Galaviz

Photo Editor:Pablo Espinoza

Staff Writers In This Issue:Angelica AjanelTito BlatnikHillary ChavezFrancisco ContrerasPablo EspinozaCristina GarciaAmanda GonzalezNeftaly GonzalezMarvin Gutierrez Yareli JimenezFrancisco MendezNatalie MoralesSamantha RamirezZulma RamosRenee RivasPaola SanchezStephanie SerranoJose VelezJoy Woo

Faculty AdvisorPhyllis Rosen

Printer:Gardena Valley News

his own view. “I didn’t believe it at first, but when Mr. Greg Kern from Hope College told me it was true, I was excited.” The five juniors included Zuleyma Guillermo, Emily Wong, Adriana Soto, Anthony Matta and Joy Woo who energetical-ly had this to say, “I felt as if it was a dream or like Inception.” These students all worked hard for this surprise and en-courage others to so the same. This same event will take place again next year, with twice as many I-Pads being distributed. As senior Kimberly Bara-jas said, “I’m so freakin’ jeal-ous! But at the same time it makes me want to work harder.”

First Step To Success

LALA’s seniors - as a team - applied to their first four colleges on October 12, 2011. As all 48 seniors applied to California State Universi-ties, they also applied to the EOP (Educational Opportunity Program). Applying to the Cal States is complicated. You need your of-ficial transcripts, SAT scores, fam-ily income, social security number, and last but not least, responses to the dreadful EOP questions. The day began as soon as the bell rang. Students met in Cafeteria 2, received their tran-scripts and were assigned to a room. Half of the seniors were sent to the BTOP Lab and the oth-er half were sent to Room 100. The students that were sent to the Btop lab were lucky because they were using the brand new com-puters that worked fast. On the down side, the room was hot throughout the whole day and made some of the students a bit uncomfortable. The other half of the se-niors in 100 struggled to get the internet to cooperate with them,

adding to the stress of the day. The students were moved into Cafeteria One to use the white lap tops which worked; finally all the seniors began their applications. After hours of inputting in-formation into their applications and clicking “next” for the fiftieth time, the seniors were done with their first four college applications. It was a good idea that the school decided to dedicate an entire day for the Cal State ap-plications because without the help of our teachers and Erin they might have gone crazy. The EOP part consisted of five essay questions that for many students “were a drag” since they had good grades and did not have to apply through EOP in or-der to get into a college. But for students with low grades, the EOP program might be crucial in gaining them admission. “I didn’t like doing it, it be-came a drag and I ended up doing it at the last minute,” said Jose Velez. As our students begin hear-ing about acceptances to the CSU’s (see accompanying box) we con-gratulate them for this achievement.

A PARTIAL LIST OF ACCEPTANCES AS OF NOV. 23

CSU Humboldt - Amanda Gonzalez, Hillary Chavez, Susan Ruelas, Cris-tina Garcia, Brenda Solis, Ashley Chavez

CSU East Bay - Ruth Galaviz, Pamela Fuentes, Maria Hernandez, Stepha-nie Serrano, Paula Alacorn, Brenda Solis, Natalie Morales, Angelica Aja-nel

CSU Dominguez Hills - Zulma Ra-mos

CSU Los Angeles - Genesis

CSU Long Beach - Genesis

CSU Northridge - Natalie Morales

By: Cristina Garcia and Angelica AjanelStaff Writer

News & Features

2

Destination College

On October 29th a group of students visited Pomona Col-lege for a college fair called Des-tination College. The trip was hosted by the Fulfillment Fund, a new program to the Los An-geles Leadership Academy. The Fulfillment Fund is a program for the 11th grad-ers to provide support like col-lege counseling and scholarships for students to graduate high school and continue to college. The students arrived at L.A.L.A. early in the morning to take a bus to the Pomona campus. When they arrived they were treat-ed to a large courtesy breakfast. An assembly was held where the head of the Fulfillment Fund and an alumni from the program gave some inspiring words, asking us not to give up on our dreams. From the assembly we were split into

groups, and went to the workshops. The first was a student led questionnaire, where we were able to ask the students about their ex-perience, ranging from application processes to life on campus. In the second workshop we analyzed music, deciphering lyrics and find-ing the meaning. The third work-shop was a class called A+, the concept being that the class helps students become A+ students. The last two workshops, music and A+, were less workshops and more actual classes. It was like entering a college class for a day. Half way through the day we had lunch provided by Panda Express, looked at the representing colleges, and explored the campus. At a final assembly prizes were awarded. We then exited the assembly, got onto the bus, and headed back to school. The returning students agreed that Destination College was extremely worthwhile – and not just because of the free food.

By: Tito BlatnikStaff Writer

AdvisoryBy: Stephanie SerranoStaff Writer

Students of Los Angeles Leader ship received some impor-tant news regarding advisories. The student body was informed about the new changes on Novem-ber 14, 2011, and the changes were put in effect just the next day. In hopes of making adviso-ry the most useful for the student, advisory now will be split into regular advisory days and teacher office hour days. The purpose of the change is in to provide student with more time to work on class assignments and to get as-sistance from subject teachers in areas where they are struggling. It is expected that students who have low grades in classes take the time given in advisory, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, to

go seek help from teachers. Those who don’t need any help should stay in their advisory and work or help tutor peers. Some teachers feel as though students just have to practice actually doing homework in a good working environment. This change was also made because teachers felt as though they were being expected to do too much. Most teachers have to prep for more than two classes and they spend time after school working on

lesson plans or correcting work. Just because they werent teach-ing students doesnt mean they weren’t be-ing productive. Administration took this into c o n s i d e r a t i o n and therefore im-pelmented this new schedualing. For students

whose work is satisfactory, the school day now officially ends at 3:30. Students who have been as-signed to mandatory tutoring are picked up from advisory by ROE staff.

Fly-Ins By: Paola SanchezStaff Writer

The absence of our college guru, Erin Kim, has not stopped many ambitious seniors from ap-plying to colleges that offer fly in programs. Colleges use these pro-grams to allow a group of diverse students to visit the college and gain a first-hand account of what it feels to be a student there. These fly in programs are very competitive, yet many of the seniors have been able to go to different colleges. Natalie Morales and Marvin Gutierrez were the first seniors to get accepted into a fly in program, one that involved them taking a long plane ride to Pennsylvania to visit Franklin and Marshall College. Then senior Hillary Chavez had the opportunity to visit Oc-cidental college. She stayed there three days and three nights and says her host was “very nice and honest when she answered my questions”. Hillary says Occidental is certainly at the top of her col-lege list. She and senior Marcela Zaragoza have been accepted to visit Kenyon college in Gam-bier, Ohio, a college she is also very interested in attending. The three musketeers Paula Alarcon, Renee Rivas, and Stepha-nie Lovos visited Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona. Pau-la says, “they (students who attend GCU) act like teens; they run around the halls chasing each other”. The girls were able to meet other seniors and juniors from Wisconsin, Nevada and Col-

orado while at Grand Canyon. One of Paula’s favorite things about the campus was the basketball arena. “It was frea-kin’ AWESOME!” Paula exclaimed. Recently, Pamela Fuen-tes and Francisco Mendez flew into Hope College in Michigan. Pamela shares that she loved Hope and that it is certainly a col-lege she is going to apply to. One of the things she likes is Hope’s tradition called the Donut Run. “Students stay up from midnight to two in the morning and run over to a lo-cal shop where they give out free fresh baked donuts. Delicious.” I also had the opportunity to visit a college on the East Coast, taking my first ever airplane ride to Boston, Massachusetts, to vis-it Tufts University. The program was called Voices of Tufts and I can honestly say they provided the best sneak preview of what being a student at Tufts is like. Tufts students are described as “smart and quirky” which I think is a spot on description consider-ing our beloved math teacher Bri-an Mayer is an alumni from Tufts. My favorite part was go-ing on a scavenger hunt around campus because it allowed me to appreciate the campuses’ beauty. All of us who had the op-portunity to visit colleges expe-rienced things so far beyond a mere website. We were able to ex-perience a campus with all of our senses, and that’s what makes these fly in programs special.

Seniors with GPAs at or very near 3.0 have been busy applying to the University of California schools with the No-vember 30 deadline at hand. The UC application is a de-manding one and College Counsel-or Erin Kim came back from her ma-ternity leave just in time to whip the seniors’ personal statements into shape. Erin is such a stickler with the seniors about this process be-cause she herself is an application reader for UCLA and knows inside-out what the UCs are looking for. LALA has six alumni who are thriving in the UC system.

The following seniors are to be congratulated for the achievement of being UC eli-gible and working so diligent-ly to submit their applications: Ashley ChavezMarlene GuillermoJose VelezNeftaly GonzalezRuth GalavizFrancisco ContrerasFrancisco MendezMarvin GutierrezMarcy ZaragosaJasmine PradoGilbert RodriguezHillary ChavezPaola SanchezStephanie LovosPamela Fuentes

By: Phyllis RosenAdvisor

UC Applicants

3

News & FeaturesFashion Show

By: Hillary ChavezStaff Writer

A black carpet was rolled in the middle of the main hall-way as the first annual fashion show took place on November 8th, 2011. This show was hosted to show students appropriate ex-ampleswhat they should wear to the Homecoming Dance as well as to heighten interest in the event. There were 20 Homecoming “models,” a mixture of students from all grades. The students were: Manuel, Britney, Marlene, Anthony, Jose M., Marvin, Emily W., Brenda Solis, Marcela, Pablo E., Zu-leyma, Anayanci, Valeria G., Valeria B., Zitlalli, Linda F., and Pablo S. As they walked in pairs out of a room and on to the black car-pet, their names and type of clothes

they wore were announced through a megaphone. Students lined-up around them, cheering them, often surprised by the people who would walk by in formal clothes. When the models reached the end of the carpet, their pictures were taken. There were many high-lights right from the start of the event. One was when Al pretended to be one of the models and took off his jacket to “show-off” his clothes. Then Bob walked comi-cally across the black catwalk to-wards the other side of the hallway. At the end of the show, Jose Martinez “modeled” in a pur-ple flowered dress and brown wig while students wolf whistled at him.The school definitely appreci-ated the models that were brave enough to walk on a black carpet to model for the rest of the school.

The six week long bas-ketball tournament ended with a big game, the alumni vs. the cur-rent boy’s basketball team. This event was held at the Los Ange-les Leadership Academy basket-ball courts on November 9th. The tournament started in October. Families and stu-dents came out to see their kids and their fellow classmates play basketball games against each other. These weekly games led to the big final Homecoming game. The point of the final game

was to invite the alumni back to the school and have them play a basketball game with the current team. Among the alumni who par-ticipated were: Junior Rodriguez, Jesuser Hernandez, Blas Marti-nez, Arthur Salcedo, Ellis Arkliss, and other blasts from the past. A large turnout of fans made this game a great suc-cess and the cheerleading squad was there to cheer the teams on.Our current boys’ team won the game by a wide margin. But both teams played hard and had a great time in the process. We hope that this event hap-pens again next school year.

Homecoming Dance

By: Renee RivasStaff Writer

This years first ever homecoming dance was a huge sucess. The Vegas theme met ev-eryones expectations of a good time and ranked as the big-gest school dance by this year. The ROE after school pro-gram held the dance in cafterias one and two. The money prof-ited went to help the sports clubs buy uniforms and equiptment. Each cafe had its own DJ which fit everyones need to “bust a move”. Poker tables were set up in cafe 1 to boost the vibe of casino. All these simple details where all important to make the night spe-cial but not as important as the an-nouncement of homecoming court. It was a close race between Karely and Yarisma for homecom-ing queen but in the end Yarisma De Leon won homecoming queen 2011 and her king was Manny Ortega. This dance was a good ex-ample of how slowly but surely we are gaining some school spirit. Hopefully this dance sparks up a sense of community and more people will attend future dances.

BasketballBy: Smantha RamirezStaff Writer

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News & Features

Posse Gets Serious

Four of the nine Los Ange-les Leadership Acedemy Posse stu-dents are now eligible to be chosen by their selected college for the Posse scholarship. Posse is a non-profit organization that chooses groups of ten students to enter se-lected colleges as a posse and pays for all four years of their college education. Of those four LALA finalists – Ruth Galaviz, Hillary Chavez, Jose Velez and Marcella Zaragosa - only two decided to make the commit-ment for early decision. This means that if they are accepted they will not apply to or consider any other colleges. Hillary and Ruth had colleg-es that they were more interested in pursuing so they opted out.

Marci and Jose were excit-ed enough about Kalamazoo and Tulane University to decide to fol-low through and are awaiting their meetings with the college admis-sion directors. Jose Velez commented,” You feel pretty awesome when you’re picked out of 2,400 stu-dents. “ Marcy is not very concerned that the decision “is binding.” She is very confident about the excellence of Kalamazoo. Jose Velez believes that this senior class performed so strongly in Posse because, “This is one of the strongest senior classes that we’ve ever had.” If that’s the case then the under-classmen need to step up their game and make LALA exceed past generations. Congratulations to Jose Velez and Marcela Zarago-sa. Best wishes and good luck!

More Than a Teacher

This year LALA has made a new addition to its English depart-ment. At the bottom floor next to Mark’s room you will find the school’s new 9th and 10th Eng-lish and writing lab teacher, Ms. U. Ms. U, Nkeichi Uchemefuna, was born in Long Beach, Los An-geles and moved to Cerritos when she was in the 2nd grade. She at-tended Gahr High School where she participated in her schools news-paper. By the time her senior year came around, she was the editor-in-chief. She enrolled into Cal State Dominguez Hills for college. There she majored in English and made her decision to become a teacher. “I like English and I like kids, I thought I could teach kids in a fun and amusing way,” says Ms. U. But she didn’t always want to be a teacher. As a freshman in college she originally wanted to be a law-yer. Teachers continually came into her classrooms offering students who were interested in teaching the chance to go and observe profes-sors. After going to an observation she fell in love with teaching and

immediately changed her mind. Today Ms. U lives in Cer-ritos. She is not married and has no has kids and she hopes it stays that way for a while because she is still young. She is happy with her job, she commented, “I like this school because it is dif-ferent. It is so small and there are more motivated students.” Ms. U has both her fun and her serious side. Her favorite place in the world is Disneyland, but she also advises all of her students at LALA is to take school seriously. We hope that she feels welcomed and enjoys teaching here at our school.

By: Yareli JimenezStaff Writer

section. (If you couldn’t figure that out, your math scores are going to be a problem.) This year’s high-est LALA scorer so far has been Ruth Galaviz with a score of 1730. ROE’s SAT prep class has already begun meeting and is led by Maria, a former ROE tutor. The classes take place in the BTOP lab on Tuesdays and Wednes-days for three hours. There are currently more juniors than se-niors taking the class, as most se-niors are finished taking the SAT. Junior Joy Woo said she is attending because, “I want to do well on my SAT’s.” The juniors are begin-ning to focus on college and re-alize that they need as much preparation as possible to score well on these critical tests.

Juniors Get Serious

The SAT test is know for haunting the lives of high school juniors and seniors. This three-part test (Math, Reading and Writ-ing) is an essential part of the col-lege application process, second in importance to a students GPA. Whether you are a good test tak-er or not, you are bound to take this test at least once in your life. That is why our school is provid-ing SAT prep classes after school. What goes into an SAT score? you may ask. The SAT test does not necessarily measure how smart you are, but how good you are in logically taking a test. This is a four hour long test that is ex-tremely tricky, often dull in its choice of reading passages and sometimes confusing in its use of language . The test is graded on a 2400 points scale, 800 points per

By: Joy WooStaff Writers

By: Angelica Ajanel and Cristina GarciaStaff Writer

Civil Disobedience

My parents wanted me to have the experience of witnessing a civil disobedience, of seeing that it could be productive and safe. So we went, on November 27th, to Occu-py LA, to be part of the huge gath-ering to rally support to their cause. After nearly two months, Mayor Antonio Villaragosa had said it was time to evict the Oc-cupy movement from City Hall, giv-ing notice that on November 28th at 12:01, an eviction would begin. My family and I spent all day Sunday at Occupy. NOFX played an acoustic set during the afternoon, debuting a song in support of the movement. Eventually as night set in, the music died down and Occupy’s largest assembly was held, an esti-mated two thousand in attendance. Ron Kovic, Vietnam veteran and activist, spoke in support of the movement and offered solidar-ity. The movement’s statements of non violence were read, along with Instructions on how to par-ticipate in civil disobedience and still avoid a violent confrontation. Supporters from San Fran-

cisco, Occupy the Hood, spoke in support of the movement, as did others. After the general assembly the crowd dispersed and waited. At around 12:00am the people filled 1st street, blocking traffic and marching. The cops formed ranks in the streets, blocking people from leaving in certain directions. Even-tually the cops moved in, but only made arrests of those who would not leave the streets. Only four were arrested for not leaving the street. Villaragosa didn’t order the police to tear down the encamp-ment or arrest anyone in the park, though he didn’t call off the evic-tion completely. He hasn’t said ex-actly when he plans to carry out the eviction, only that it is imminent.

By: Tito BlatnikStaff Writer

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News & Features

LALA Gives a Helping Hand

Devin and Jennifer Stovall started T.V. Bikes, Lincoln Heights’ very own all-purpose bicycle shop, last summer with only $400 start-up money. Since then T.V. Bikes has developed into more than a business-it has become a hotspot for the youth of Lincoln Heights. Stovall moved from San Fer-nando after he noticed there was not a single local bike shop. Since the age of nine, Stovall “al-ways wanted to have my own bike shop” and that is what he did when he moved to Lincoln Heights. He was married, unem-ployed, and only owned a few parts at the beginning. With the help of a close friend, he devel-oped his vision for T.V. Bikes. Many young teens come to the shop to hang out. Stovall sets a “chill” and “friendly” environ-ment. Natalie Morales said, “The people there are very friendly

T.V. Bikes in Lincoln Heights

and Devin will help you in any-thing whether it’s a broken brake, flat tires, or installing new bike parts. He”s the guy to do it.” Customer Anthony Jee said of the shop, “It’s alive!” T.V. Bikes is usually crowded with the youth who are heavily interested in the “fixie trend”. They love to come over to

the shop and talk about bikes. Stovall said of his store, “Its 90% labor.” The intent for the shop was to provide a hands-on work-ing environment. Employees Jaime Simental, Steven Rios, and Frank Hernandez work closely with the shop’s customers because Stovall wants to provide more than a lo-cal bike shop; he wants a support-

By: Zulma RamosStaff Writer

the opportunity to get involved.Parents were given service hours if they donated canned food, a great opportunity to get hours eas-ily. Each advisory was provided with a sign in sheet so that stu-dents could record the number of food can they donated. Aadvi-sors turned the sheets into Cindy who gave hours to the parents. The school collected 271 cans, not even half of thel goal, but the best the school has ever done.Al’s advisory once more won the competition; they collected 141 cans of food. In second place came Tanya’s advisory they with 53 cans. Hopefully, next year oth-er advisories will make greater contributions and our total will be greater than it was this year. Congratulations to Al’s advisory who won a delicious pizza party for their effort and contribution to help the needy.

Black FridayBy: Marvin GuiterrezStaff Writer

Students at Los Angeles Leadership High School anxiously waited for the holiday season. For the majority of the students try-ing to save a few bucks on any-thing, Black Friday is the day to spend their annual savings. Black Friday is always the Friday after Thanksgiving. The rea-son why its called Black Friday is that it’s the day in which companies are “ in the black”, meaning that their profits are soaring up. Many LALA students were thrilled for this Black Friday since a lot of stores opened up much earlier than usu-al. Wal-Mart, for example, opened

at 10:00 pm. on Wednesday. Amanda Gonzalez planned on going to Citadel to buy clothes and electronics for herself and “con-sidered” buying gifts for her friends and family. She expected to spend about six hundred dollars on this shopping spree, a lot of money to spend for a seventeen year old. Senior Ruth Galaviz be-gan Black Friday waiting in a long line at Kohl’s Alhambra store. She and her family got there at 11:30 and the line was already snak-ing around the building. Still, the wait was worth it as there “cra-zy bargains” to be had. She got jeans, leggings, blouses, slippers, hoodies - a nice new wardrobe.

By: Amanda Gonzalez Staff Writer

The can food drive this year was run through the Leadership Fundraising Committee. The col-lection of cans started November 7 and it ended November 22nd. The school’s goal this year was to collect 1000 cans, and adviso-ries had the goal of collecting 50 cans. All the cans collected were donated to help needy families in the Lincoln Heights area through the Neighborhood Council. The Leadership council hoped this event would get stu-dents to participate and give back to the community. Students should be encouraged to reach out to the larger community and the purpose of the can food drive was to help all those people that can’t afford to have a decent Thanksgiving meal. Leadership Council wanted to give students and their parents

ive environment where custom-ers have the opportunity to learn more about fixing their bikes. If you’re the type of buyer who desires the latest and great-est bike merchandise, then T.V. Bikes is the place. They have a great range of products - from handlebars to crank sets, to bike rims and even bike frames-a new addition to the shop. A reviewer at Yelp.com said, “If you don’t see any new bikes, don’t threat... ap-parently Devin is a direct dealer of Micargi bicycles and can supply fix-ies, cruisers, tricycles etc. if they are prepaid within a day or two.” Owner Stovall will always do his best to satisfy your needs; just let him know what you need and he will find more than what you hoped for. T.V. Bikes also services wheel-chair, strollers, and just about anything with wheels. Devin re-ally wants to give back to the community and help the youth. He has a big heart and an open mind. He and his bike shop are great additions to the community.

A typical Black Friday scene, at Wal-Mart.

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News & Features

Los Angeles Leadership Academy began assigning man-datory tutoring on November 15, 2011. Students who received D’s or F’s on their first quarter report cards are required to at-tend from 3:30 until 5:00pm, Tuesday through Thursday. Students are escorted from their advisories, to Café #1, where ROE divides the stu-dents into different groups. Do LALA students need tu-toring for four and a half hours in a week? Does the tutoring program need to be more flexible with time? Should teachers start to take faster actions if they see their students struggle? These are questions

By: Pablo EspinozaStaff Writer

Under a 2.0? Got’chathat bring out strong opinions.Many of the students in ROE’s afterschool tutoring complain that they should not be in tutor-ing, while others are glad to re-ceive the time and resources to do well in their assignments. “My goal is for students to understand the importance of ac-countability. Every student starts with A’s. We want all students to be eligible for college and that cannot happen if you have D’s or F’s,” said program supervisor, Abeni Carr, in explaining the goals of the program. Abeni believes that the tu-toring program is already working more efficiently than it did last year. “I was a tutor last year,” she said, “And I think that because we are picking up students and teaming with teachers to get assignments, we are able to serve students better.”

When asked, has tutor-ing helped - and, if not, why not - LALA’s student, Adriana Ve-jar responded, “ ROE has not helped, it is a waste of time, be-cause I should be with teachers.”“I would be on my way home helping with chores and baby-sitting,” Yarisma De Leon said.

Senior Trip

When high school students walk onto a college campus, they are amazed by the liberties and the cool college activities they wit-ness. They see students studying on the quads, the beautiful build-ings, the cool people, the clubs that the colleges have. Almost always, they’re inspired to do bet-ter because they want a piece of it. LALA has gone on great college trips thanks to a grant that we received. Through this grant our students have been able to visit col-leges and universities like: Chap-man, Loyola Marymount, UCLA, UC San Diego, Pepperdine, Soka, Cal State Fullerton, Woodbury, and many more great schools that our students might want to attend. t But it’s almost December and LALA students have not yet taken one of these inspiring field trips be-cause of the absence of the person who organized these trips: our school’s college counselor, Erin Kim. As most students know, Erin has been on maternity leave for most of first semester. Many were left to think that there would be no college trips this year. When Erin finally came

back to school, she was asked what was happening with col-lege visits. She replied, “ I am in the works of scheduling col-lege trips for the seniors for next month, to Redlands and Whittier.” This means that seniors can visit two colleges before they finalize their college applications, can see two more colleges that are here in their own backyard. This Thursday Seniors will be visiting both Whittier and University of Red-lands. Last year’s seniors loved the University of Redlands; LALAs own Victor Chavez, goes to Redlands. But what about the oth-er grades? They want to vis-it colleges, too. Not to worry, our great college counselor has planned for the juniors, sopho-mores and freshmen to have their college visits day next semester. For the underclassmen, this second semester trip will be their chance to see and experi-ence life on a college campus. These trips serve as wake up calls for LALA students. Without them, some students never get woken up and apply themselves to school. Seniors, enjoy your vis-it. Maybe Redlands or Whit-tier is the college for you.

By: Jose VelezStaff Writer

Reading to the Littles

The Leadership Coun-cil made a visit to the elementary school on the 17th of November to read to the first grade children in the school. The visit was part of outreach activities to make a posi-tive impact on the community. The high school students were divided into groups and sent to different classrooms. From there, they were given a small group of children, groups of 4 or 5 to a stu-dent, who were then seated to be read to. The Leadership Council will

continue reading to the children of the elementary school every month. The high school students hope that by interacting with the elementary students they will build a support system between schools. “It was pretty cool, we read books to little kids and gave them stickers. It was heartwarming to give back to the community,” said Jose Velez, who was reading a Cookie Monster book to the kids. Zulma Ramos thought, “It was fun, they were really engaged in the Elmo book that I read to them.” Some of the children were shy but in the months to come will learn to open up to the Senior Li-ons.

By: Neftaly Gonzalez Staff Writer

“I think it is almost a waste of time because most of us are wasting our time mess-ing around.” Chris Laguna. Geometry, Algebra 1, English 11 are the classes that lead the majority of LALA stu-dents to mandatory tutoring.

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News & FeaturesThe Bridge Between Nature and LALABy: Natalie MoralesStaff Writer

This year’s freshman class has been by far one of the lucki-est. With new events like “The Aids Walk,” and Homecoming; not to mention the new IPad tradition, these freshman have definitely a lot to look forward to. This year, when a new program called Nature Bridge was offered to LALA, the faculty felt the freshman class should be giv-en the opportunity. Nature Bridge is a three day two night camping experience in which both students and teachers are given the oppor-tunity to bond with one another. Roger Lowenstein, the founder of LALA would like the stu-dents to be able to have opportuni-ties and a real connection with nature the way he had while growing up. However, when growing up in a community such as Lincoln Heights, students have to be giv-en the opportunity, the tools, and above all the time to mature. Many upperclassmen disagreed with the idea of choosing freshmen to go on the trip, and preferred either the junior or senior class to go. Regardless of the doubts, the first half of the freshmen left on Sunday, November 13th and returned Tuesday. Aside from the tired faces, there was an at-mosphere of disappointment and distress among the students. Apparently, a couple of freshmen decided to vandalize the camping ground, including the

tents and bathroom stalls. Despite the embarrassment the school was obligated to overcome, neither Roger nor the teachers were able to blame the students. Instead, teachers were told to work harder to instill a meaning in the fresh-men. The seniors however, were infuriated. “Its disappointing to see opportunities being thrown away like that, it ruins it for everyone,” says Amanda Gonzales. For many teachers like Ash-ley, it was a moment of bonding with her students. “I got to share an experience with them I would have never got by just teaching,” she said. Although there were a few bad apples, they did not quite spoil the bunch! A great group of students really took full advantage of the experience. Veronica Romo said the best part of her experi-ence was perhaps the bonding be-tween the class, “some of us got really close, you could really say we kind of became a big family.” Despite the embarrassing incident, the students and teach-ers seemed fairly content with the outcome of the trip. However, the bridge between nature and LALA has not been fully built. Hope-fully, the students will learn from their mistakes and begin tak-ing full responsibility of not only themselves but also their peers. Roger would like for students to remain in tact with nature. Next year, he feels the students should be challenged, Yosemite perhaps?

Soccer Underdogs

With only six play-ers , LA Leadership Girls’ Soc-cer Team defeated LA High by an unbelievable score of 5 -1. Coach Miguel Arriaga set up the team’s first game against LA High, feeling certain that he would have a complete team with the determi-nation to win LALA’s first victory. To the team’s surprise, only six girls showed up to the game Saturday morning : Kimberly Barajas, Cristina Garcia, Yarisma de Leon and Eby Rosa , who were helped by Maggie and Jenny villa. “ When we arrived at the field I felt as if we were playing

against a whole football team,” said Captain Kimberly Barrajas. LA High field a complete team at first, de-creasing LALA’s chances to win.LA High scored the first goal. They had an uber complete team which ro-tated players every fifteen minutes, unlike LALA whose girls were forced to keep fully playing their positions. Shortly after the second half started, Eby Rose scored LA-LA’s first goal. This was followed by three consecutive goals by Cris-tina Garcia and the fifth, scored by Jenny Villa . The final score was 5-1, an amazing LALA victory. Good luck to our girls soc-cer team - keep up the great work!“This goes to demonstrate;” Coach Arriaga concluded, that “ its not al-ways about quantity, but quality”.

By: Cristina GarciaStaff Writer

Led by Lana the for-mer Laker girl, Dance Club, the newest after-school activ-ity, has taken LALA by storm. After three weeks of classes, the fifteen dedicated dance students (including six boys and nine girls) are incredibly enthusiastic about this new class. “It’s really fun,” Evelyn Robles, Melissa Tavico and Lupe Ortega were quick to agree. “It’s a great work-out. It’s exciting!” Melissa told The Voice. “It helps you express yourself and teaches new moves, “ Evelyn added. The class has been work-ing on two dances: one to the Chris Brown song, “Beautiful” and

the other to a number by Beyonce. Performances of these dances will be on view at the ROE Showcase on December 9. The club will also per-form at the Lincoln Heights Christ-mas Parade. The dances for that event have yet to be developed. All the dancers were uni-versal in agreeing that “Lana is great.” The Voice looks for-ward to seeing her crew perform.

Dance Club By: Phyllis Rosen

Advisor

Debate TeamBy: Stephanie LovosStaff Writer

L.A Leadership Academy has a Speech and Debate team for the first time this year. The Speech and Debate class was established by Al Schleicher to promote speaking and leadership skills as well as greater school pride. The class focuses on the importance of body control, use of voice and diction, and analysis of the audience. Students write speeches to in-form, persuade, or entertain. Al’s instruction stresses organization, selection, and arrangement of ma-terial, and use of transitions and rhetorical affects. In addition to learning these techniques, debate students put their knowledge and skills into action by competing against other schools. The first “taster” of debate competition was at Arcadia HS. The team was over whelmed by much more experienced teens in business suits and a majority of Caucasian and Asian students. The LALA students were far from their comfort zones and tried just to get through the day. In all, they gained confidence and even managed to

win three ribbons. In the second competitive debate, the categories were ex-temporaneous speaking, original oratory, and impromptu. This time the debate was at Gabrielino High School and again LALA students won ribbons and developed their skills. The next tournament will include the more formal Lincoln-Douglas style of debate, which is what is currently being empha-sized in Al’s high-powered class. Best of luck to these courageous and loquacious students.

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News & Features

I am the Great Cornholio Beavis and Butthead is an American television series created and directed by Mike Judge. Judge also does the voice for the two main c h a r a c t e r s .The television series origi-nated from a small film known as “Frog Baseball” and concent ra tes on two socially awkward teen-age boys that many see as ex-tremely dumb. MTV signed Judge to de-velop the show. T h e show premiered in 1993 on Com-edy Central. UPN then aired the show all the way until 1997. Now, on October 27th of 2011, the show has been revived and has captured a new audience of mil-lions of teenagers and adults. New episodes of Beavis and Butthead air every Thursday night at 10 O’clock p.m. on MTV. Mike Judge is happy to say that his show has been a great success. He credits peo-

By: Francisco ContrerasStaff Writer

Big Bang Theory

Some months ago “The Simpsons” were cut off the Fox 11 station and “The Big Bang Theory,” started to air from 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm. I wasn’t really happy about this change because I really liked watching “The Simpsons” every-day, until this new strange sitcom aired and booted “The Simpsons” off the air. I never really tried watching the show, and usually turned the T.V off in agony. Un-til one day I watched a whole epi-sode and fell in love with the show. “The Big Bang Theory,” is an American sitcom, created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady. The wonder-ful part about the show is that the setting takes place in Pasadena, California. The five main charac-ters in the show are Sheldon Coo-per, (theoretical physicist) Leonard, (experimental physicist) Howard, (Aerospace Engineer, MIT), Penny, (waitress) and Raj, (astrophysicist/Cal Tech employee). The show is hilarious in many ways, and makes the audience want more. The Big Bang Theory has become one of America’s most watched shows. One humorous part of the show is that Howard Wolowitz gets made fun of because Sheldon, Lenard and Raj have their Ph. D.s but he doesn not. His edu-cational studies at MIT have made him the laughing stock of the show

By: Francisco MendezStaff Writer

since Sheldon and Lenard attended CalTech. The show is also know for its description of sex as, “the dance with no pants,” or “bazinga.” Although “The Simpsons” aren’t on the air anymore, I believe that Fox 11 has made the best re-placement. “The Big Bang Theory,” has made me glued to the T.V when-ever it’s on. I really recommend it to all because it has lightens my evening after a tiresome day. As a TV critic, I give the show a 10/10!

ple’s affection for the show to come from the fact that Beavis and Butthead symbolize what ac-tual High School students are like.

I recently watched two epi-sodes of Beavis and Butthead: “Super-size Me” and “Bathroom Break.” I found the shows to be extremely funny because in “Su-per-Size me” the two main char-acters thought they could be-come famous and get “chicks” by eating ev-

ery day at Burger World. “Bathroom Break” was ri-diculously funny because the boys found a way of legally stay-ing in Burger World’s restroom during working hours, and this is all they had to say: “This is cool.”

Upcoming EventsSenior Fieldtrip- Dec. 1st

50’s Dance- Dec. 2nd

SAT- Dec. 3rd

Cash For College- Dec. 7th

ROE Showcase- Dec. 9th

Toys For Tots Six Flags Trip- Dec 11th

Support the LALA School Events to help promote school spirit.

AmericanHorrorStoryBy: Stephanie SerranoStaff Writer

FX’s new series, Ameri-can Horror Story, follows the Harmon family which consists of Ben, who is a psychiatrist, Vivien, his wife and Violet, their seventeen-year-old daughter. The background of the story is that Vivien gives birth to a stillborn while living in Boston. Grief-stricken Ben deals with this by having an affair with one of his students. The family moves to a restored mansion in Los Angeles, unaware that the house is haunted. Ben and Vivien try to rekindle their relationship as Violet, suffering from depression, finding comfort with Tate, one of Ben’s patients. This T.V. series is full of twists and turns, leaving the view-er at the edge of their seat. It is a bit confusing because both the shows’ characters - and the view-ers - can’t make the distinction between theliving and the dead. People that are living find themselves interacting with those from beyond. Those viewers who have just tuned into the series will be a bit confused, so the produces advise them to catch up on previ-ous episodes before watching. This show is recommended for mature audiences only due to the graphic nature. Viewers can tune in to American Horror Story by watch-ing FX, at 8:00pm or 10:00pm.

FX-Channel NumbersCh 248 Direct TVCh 205 Time Warner Ch 136 Dish Network

“Take Care” ReviewBy: Samanth RamirezStaff Writer

On November 15, 2011, the anticipated album of Aubrey Drake Graham finally came out. His soph-omore album is called “Take Care”. The album contains 17 songs and the deluxe version has two other songs. The album was written back in his hometown Toronto, Canada, and is also dedicated to his hometown. The album has different types of collaborators. They in-clude Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, Birdman, Andre 3000, The Weekend, and Stevie Wonder. Drake’s new album is about his life experiences and his fam-ily issues, which he expresses in one of his songs called “Look What You’ve Done”. In that song Drake complains that he keeps on telling his mom to stop smok-ing but she doesn’t listen to him, just ignores what he is saying. The whole album overall is well produced and is a great follow-up to his successful debut album.

From left to right: Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco, and Johnny Galecki