Granger high school

Tri-Color TimesAn open forum for student opinion and expression TRICOLORTIMES.COM May 2016 LVIII-8

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Ridiculous alarms deprive Lancers of sleepOpinion by Taylor WolfleyONCE I stopped bleeding under my eye, I realized I needed to get used to this new sleep schedule.

I have been having an issue with sleeping in lately.

I would go to sleep late at night and wake up super early. I have seen that this habit makes me very sluggish during the school day, and I needed to change that.

My morning routine would start with my first alarm going off at 4:30 a.m.

I would then decide to snooze that alarm until my 5:15 a.m. alarm went off.

This continued until I finally get up around 6:00 a.m.

All of these alarms were just part of my sleeping schedule, and I was used to it.

Little did I know how nega-tively this was affecting my day.

I always had friends, family members, and even teachers ask-

ing if I was OK. My response to them would always be, ‘I’m fine, just a little tired.’

I hated being so slow and tired all day and yet, I still did nothing to change it.

The same alarms would go off every morning, and I would have the same routine of snoozing them until I knew I had to get up. This only made me have a hor-rible attitude and just be mad and tired every single day.

A lot of people did not appre-ciate my attitude during the day. I would always be snippy with people or get angry at the small-est things.

I’m usually a very happy and positive person, but when I was trying to wake up at 4:30 a.m. every day, I wasn’t particularly in the best mood all day. I wanted to change that.

One day, Mr. Carlisle chal-lenged me to turn off all of my

alarms, and have just one alarm for 6:45 a.m. I was very hesitant to try this, because of my horrible snoozing habit, but I took him up on it.

That night, I went home and turned off all my alarms and cre-ated one new one for 6:45 a.m.

I was very nervous for the next morning, not knowing if I was going to snooze the alarm or not.

I was also scared because my mind was not used to waking up that late.

I knew that my brain would act on its own, and snooze the alarm. The worst thing about me snooz-ing my alarms was that I would never remember doing it, thus making me believe that I could continue to hit the snooze button.

As I suspected, my mind told me that I could snooze the alarm, thinking that it was only 4:30 a.m. I was then 30 minutes late to first period, and all Mr. Carlisle could

do was laugh with at my first at-tempt at this experiment.

I had Mr. Carlisle for first pe-riod every day, so we made an agreement that while I was test-ing this new sleeping system, he would not mark me tardy. I was very grateful, obviously.

The next day was worse than the first. My brain just could not get used to breaking my habit of snoozing my alarms.

This new sleeping schedule was not working out, but I did feel way more rested, and more energized during the day.

As I continued to try to get used to this new alarm system, my mornings became more hec-tic. My morning routine was now extremely rushed: taking a show-er, getting dressed, doing my hair, making my lunch, and getting my backpack ready was very stress-ful.

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Early GraduationBy Angel G. Figueroa IT’S CLOSE to the end of the school year, and for most seniors, that means graduation.

Although, some students don’t want to wait until their senior year to graduate, and they have good reason to do so.

“Well, I decided to graduate early because I’m smart enough and I have good enough grades to do it,” Dominick Wiley (11) said. Wiley only needs seven more credits until he is done with high school.

Also, he also has a good rea-son to graduate early before all of his classmates. “When I graduate I’m going to get a scholarship for doing so, and that will help me with the college that I plan to at-tend as well,” Wiley said.

By getting all of his credit early, he has another advantage that he is looking forward to. “Other students would enjoy early breaks. I guess I would like that too, so I’m looking forward to that,” he said.

Wiley thinks that working hard and getting good grades is the way to do this. “I didn’t know about graduating early, but I still worked my butt off to get the grades that I have today,” he said. “Finding that out just made me push even harder to get better grades and to get all of my cred-its.”

Nicole Baker (12) already graduated this year, and she has been out working for college.

“I got all my credits, and I thought it would be nice if I start-ed to work to save up for college. That’s one of the main reasons.The other reason is that I was done with school,” Baker said.

Although she got out of school, she’s been working full time. “I been working and noth-ing really has changed. I don’t have any free time, and it’s all for college,” she said.

Although she graduated early, she wouldn’t recommended it to anyone in school.

“In my opinion, I wouldn’t tell anybody to graduate early be-cause it’s like the same thing, but without your friends,” she said.

Another disadvantage is that she doesn’t know what’s happen-ing in Granger.

“I have no idea what’s going on at Granger,” she said. “Like school dances, events, and worst of all, getting my cap and gown. I didn’t even know the date to that and if it weren’t for my mom, I would’ve forgotten all about it,” she said.

Although graduating early seems like bad idea to some stu-dents, others might find it easy to start their lives and go into the work force.

In Baker’s case, although it seems like a lot of hard work right now, she knows it is going to get better.

Taylor Wolfley worked hard to start a new sleep schedule. It took a lot of adjustment to her habits to stop snoozing and use only one alarm.

“Every morning was a challenge: each involved a lot of stress and anxiety.”

This was all because I refused to not snooze my alarm. I was starting to get angry at myself for not being able to wake up on time. I was irritated because I was currently losing the challenge that Mr. Carlisle gave to me.

Then I remembered that I have been on that new sleeping sched-ule for only a few days, whereas I had been using my 4:30 a.m. alarm for three years.

I just had to be patient, and that is very frustrating to me; I am the most impatient person you will ever meet.

The best thing about this was that people were seeing a differ-ence in my appearance, and so could I.

I was no longer drowsy in classes, and felt great.

Every morning was still a chal-lenge; it involved a lot of stress and anxiety.

I hate to be late, so being tardy

almost every morning was hard for me.

In the mornings, it was a rush to get everything done in such a small amount of time.

The thing that saddened me the most was that I no longer left

myself enough time to even try to make breakfast. But once again, it was my own fault.

The weekends were Heaven with no alarms at all, but I started to notice that I would wake up on my own at around 6:45 a.m. every Saturday and Sunday morning.

I then knew that I was finally getting used to this new schedule.

It has now been a little over a month since I started this experi-ment, and I have noticed that I am slowly getting used to waking up to my alarm.

Now don’t get me wrong, I still have my horrible days when I

am rushed because I snoozed my alarm. I had my worst morning by far recently.

I woke to my alarm, and no surprise: I snoozed it, by the time I actually got up was around 7:15 a.m.

I hurriedly got in the shower. I was extremely rushed this par-ticular morning because this was

the latest I’d ever snoozed the alarm, and as I was getting out of the shower, I was moving too fast for a wet area, and slipped com-ing out of the shower.

I hit my face on the corner of the counter, and got a nasty cut under my eye.

It was in this moment that I re-alized I really needed to get used to my new alarm.

All in all, getting two extra hours of sleep has really paid off, I’m now always alert in my classes, I have a good and happy attitude all the time, and I have re-ally enjoyed it.

I would challenge anyone who has alarms set ridiculously early to try this experiment, I won’t lie, it was hard to get used to, but you will not regret it.

It has such an amazing impact on my mood for the whole day.

That extra sleep is worth all those hectic mornings in the end.

May 2016, page 2 Tri-Color Times VOL. LVIII Issue 8

Strive for success

By Marcelino Montes MANY OF the students here at Granger High School want to be prepared for their next year in high school or for their first year in college. It takes careful atten-tion to detail to prepare for goals that far in the future.

The students may also have goals for outside of school. Some kids will be working out and training to get ready for their next season in the sport they play. Oth-ers will be finishing up their last year in high school, getting jobs lined up, and getting prepared for college.

Jorge Vargas (11) just simply wants to get prepared for his se-nior year and graduation.

He plans on getting into the school success class to get started on some credit recovery.

“I am more than willing to go the extra mile to get back on track and be prepared for graduation,” Vargas said. He also plans on coming to morning soccer con-ditioning in the preseason to be ready for tryouts.

Fabian Montes De Oca (12) plans on going to Salt Lake Com-munity College for his generals and transfer out to UCLA after that.

One thing Montes De Oca wants to do is retake the ACT so he can get accepted in the univer-sity he wants to go to. But before he can do any of that, he wants to study like crazy to make sure he gets a better score on the ACT.

He wants to have a reliable job and some money saved up before moving on to college to be better prepared for life’s challenges af-

ter high school.Fernando Landin (11) has his

mind set on doing great things his senior year.

He wants his senior year to be his best year here in high school. He is on the wrestling team and wants to place at state this year.

His season just ended, but Landin is already getting set for his next season. He wants to be more than just physically ready, but also mentally prepared for the new season so there will be noth-ing holding him back from reach-ing his goals.

Deshawn Perue (12) has al-ready started to get prepared for his next year at college. He has already started to fill out the FAF-SA application so he could have a little extra help paying for col-lege. When he is in college, he wants to make sure he gets to all of his classes and earns the best grades possible. “I want to try and participate in school events. I also want to tryout and hopefully make the soccer team in college,” Perue said.

Aujalique Arrendondo (12) has been one the people here at Granger that has taken advantage of the benefits of college applica-tion week. She applied to three different colleges that week such as Salt Lake Community College, Dixie State University, and the University of Utah.

“I thought college application week was very helpful because it was where I took my first steps to prepare for college. And the best part about it was that it was free,” Arrendondo said.

She has already applied for FAFSA and has started to plan out how she is going to handle finan-cially tough situations when she’s in college.

These Lancers have taken the first steps toward their new and improved lives. With planning and luck, they’ll make it.

Lancers find role models in their peers at GrangerBy Justin ThurmanSTUDENTS have a tendency to make friends at Granger, but there is always that one best friend that students would look up to, similar to a role model.

Role models sort of act like a best friend, since the student may have known since elemen-tary school and have been friends since.

Students often learn from these friends either in a good way or a bad way, depending on who is that friend or role model. Usually, students can usually find their role models either outdoors or through Facebook if they trust them and go to Granger along with that student.

Although there are many good ones, there are always the bad ones that make a huge turn-around for the students. These ones are preferred to be avoided as they may misguide students and should possible stay away from them.

Billionaires too had role mod-els, Mark Zuckerburg, Co-found-er and CEO of Facebook, took his inspiration from his role model, Steve Jobs. Bill Gates, Founder

of Microsoft, attributes his suc-cess to his role model, a man named Warren Buffet.

Although role models are meant to act like people that are like an inspiration to the people they focus on, some are not meant to be best friends and simply just wish to change the life or at least change the way the student acts. Or, just may not the student to feel that they are alone.

Though some people find this ridiculous, teachers and even the counselors and also the principal had role models when they were young. Although unknown, their role models probably inspired them to become what they are now. Administrators are an ex-ample as they usually take advice from others higher and wiser.

They usually scale from young kids, from elders. So it’s like tak-ing advice from a five-year-old kid, to having it make more sense and taking advice from an elderly.

Most people need role models for two reasons, inspiration and motivation. Most entrepreneurs usually take inspiration from other business owners and tries to follow what the owner did.

For motivation, the business might be going down, charts are suddenly taking a turn when one business error screwed it up. Usu-ally this is when someone in the company would either quit, or help the owner with motivation saying, ‘You can try to fix it,” usually helping or not.’

Or, another example is coach-es, usually the coaches at Granger will either motivate or inspire students to do better, either lift-ing that extra weight, or giving it their all during the big game or either trying to motivate them to run that extra lap, without taking a break.

Others are usually the actual teachers, knowing that students are failing and trying to help them out. With either the actual assign-ment, extra credit work, or maybe that test that they messed up on really badly because of that tricky story problem.

Role models can be anyone, as they just probably either want to help the student by helping them pass, try to gave them the moti-vation to give in extra effort, or just wants to help with their social skills. Sometimes it’s nice to just get a hug from a “mentor.”

Students are excited by what is in store for them.

May 2016, page 3 Tri-Color Times VOL. LVIII Issue 8

Juniors have some helpful advice for sophomoresBy Jelani NelsonSOPHOMORES, it’s time to pre-pare for becoming a junior. Being two years from graduating high school seems super cool, but now graduation is getting closer and closer. The class of 2017 is here to help the class of 2018 succeed the next year ahead.

“Never give up. Being a junior is harder than you think,” Steph-anie Lim (11) said. Freshman and sophomore year are just to pre-pare students for their junior and

senior year. Junior year can be hard; it’s

not something to mess around with. “It’s not the year you want to start not going to school or not doing your homework,” Emily Brown (11) said. There are some things kids have to start thinking about.

Not only are students here to help sophomores, but there are teachers that are here to help as well. Teachers who teach juniors know how to handle their classes.

They know what is coming up for their new classes for next year.

“Make your junior year count. The more work you do your ju-nior year, the easier senior year and college applications will be,” Ms. Webb said. Taking certain classes are great for your junior year. Ms. Webb’s ACT/College prep class is one to take.

Juniors do have stress on their hands. They have to take ACTs, think about college, think about what they want to do for their fu-

ture career, and make sure they have all of their credits to be on the path to graduate.

“Take it seriously. Don’t try to hurry to get everything out of the way and focus on yourself,” Aariel Edwards (11) said. “Take some deep breaths and go with the flow. Always be you.”

Junior year is the year to cre-ate challenges and try new things when it comes to high school.

Try joining a club. Granger has a ton of sports and clubs to

join. Teachers are always here and so are counselors.

Try harder classes if the class-es now are boring and too easy.

“Start taking hard classes, like AP. Start getting used to harder classes because colleges will see that. College classes aren’t easy, so trying harder classes and get-ting used to them will help with college in the future,” Mr. Stones said.

Good luck to all of the new juniors.

Editor in ChiefKaitlin CluffCopy Editor Tina Huynh

Social Media EditorSkye Rouse

Photo Editor Kailee Justesen

Tri-Color Times Staff

Natalie AionoMyranda AlcasPablo Arellano

Kimberly ArmetaMorgan BardZeus BricenoEmily BrownKaitlin Cluff

Salinaw EatonAngel Figueroa

Fancisco GallardoAshley Garcia

Veronica Gonzalez

The Tri-Color Times serves as a student forum for student opinion and student expression.

The views expressed herein reflect neither the opinions 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.

Granger High School3580 South 3600 West West Valley, UT 84119

(385) 646-5320

Tina HuynhIsabel JacksonKailee JustesenJessie MartinSaira Meza

Marcelino MontesJelani Nelson

Madisen NelsonHayley Rigby

Lisandro RiveraSkye Rouse

Justin ThurmanTaylor Wolfley

Reporters Reporters

Relay for Life is making a big differenceBy Hayley RigbyRELAY For Life is a fundraising opportunity to help raise money to help end cancer.

“With the support of thousands of volunteers, the American Can-cer Society is helping save more than 500 lives a day,” as stated on the relayforlife.org/westvalleyut website.

This shows how incred-ible the fund-raiser is for people with cancer or for people who know someone with cancer.

People enjoy this event because it is not only mak-ing a difference for people with cancer but it is also a lot of fun and the whole family could enjoy this event.

There are many different activities that took place that made Relay for Life more inter-esting for younger participants.

“There are teams and each per-son on the team takes turns walk-ing around the track, since this is a team event participants do not have to be there the whole time but people find it hard to leave,” as stated on relayforlife.org/west-valleyut.

Many students were at this event to show their support for the school and for people with cancer.

These students feel like it is their job to be there to support others and to help make those with cancer feel like they aren’t alone in their fight against cancer.

“My favorite part about the relay for life event was when we were playing the water balloon toss game because it was fun.

I would go for sure go again,” Chris Tagaloa (10) said. “This was something everyone would enjoy and something everyone would remember for a long time,” Tagaloa said.

Multiple people came to show support and enjoyed the small ac-tivities that had taken place.

Not only were students here to support their school but also other people and some businesses were at this relay for life event.

“Relay For Life is such an

amazing event, not only is it fun but it also helps support and give to people who need the help with their hospital bills or any of that stuff,” Simon Tagaloa (11) said. “I really wanted to just get out of the house and be a part of this event,” Simon said.

People were happy to come out and enjoy this event with many fun activities.

Although the relay ended a little early, it was still fun for everyone that went, and they were happy to walk the track to support the cause.

“This is something I wish more people would have been able to experience be-cause it was a lot of fun, and I would definitely go again, it was fun because I had a

lot of friends there to hang out with. I saw on the website that there was going to be a luminaire thing, but they never did it. I was pretty bummed,” Lonise Tu’uao (10) said.

This is something many peo-ple enjoy being a part of. They not only love the activities that happen but they love the how much the cause helps out those in need of support and help.

Relay For Life is an amazing event that should continue for a long time.

Buy a yearbook @ jostensyearbooks.com$45 until April 30

Lancers are thoughtful, empowered, and connectedBy Kaitlin CluffTHOUGHTFUL“Showing consideration for the needs of other people; showing careful consideration or attention.”

This is the definition of being thoughtful, but to Lanc-ers, it means a lot more than that.

Students are always trying their best to be thoughtful in any way that they can.

“I don’t think it’s hard to be thoughtful. Just doing something once in a while can go a really long way,” Kim-berly Rushton (11) said.

There are a lot of opportunities throughout Granger for students to be thoughtful.

“Sometimes I’ll hold a door open for someone or clean up someone’s garbage that they left at lunch, just anything to kind of help some people out,” Rushton said.

Lancers also have tried to show being thoughtful by improving their attendance or just being more thoughtful in class.

“There are a ton of kids who are so disrespectful in class, even if they are on time. I personally think it’s an-noying. It’s not that hard to just be respectful while you’re in class, and do what you want on your own time,” she said.

Students can model being thoughtful just by being re-spectful to their teachers or other classmates by not being a distraction.

“I think the best thing you can do is think about a sim-ple thing that can make someone’s day,” Rushton said.

EMPOWEREDJorge Hernandez (12) feels empowered in so many ways here at Granger High School.

“I feel like all of my teachers and my coaches have made me feel like I can do anything,” Hernandez said.

Teachers and administration have a big impact on whether students feel empowered.

“Not only do teachers help me out, but many of my friends who are much more intelligent than me are always there to help me if I need it,” he said.

It’s not always just a one-person job to achieve being empowered. It can take many people and a lot of effort.

“My counselor helped me find scholarships. She really cared about me and my future. We met a number of times to talk about scholarships, being on track to graduate, and she even changed my schedule so I could have a couple of fun classes my senior year,” Hernandez said.

Students are taught to lead by example. It’s clearly ap-parent that many teachers and administrators are empow-ered at Granger.

“Many teachers at Granger are very talented and suc-cessful. For example, Dr. Van Tassell was a geophysicist. He is super smart and worked with an oil company that made a lot of money,” he said.

When Lancers have such amazing examples to follow, becoming empowered is not as hard as it may seem.

“Anyone can be successful if they work hard and have that desire to achieve what they want,” Hernandez said.

CONNECTEDEvery Lancer knows that the goal of this year has been to exhibit thoughtful, empowered, and connected behaviors.

One thought that comes to many Lancers’ minds is how they should go about achieving this goal.

“What do you mean by being connected? I’m connect-ed through extracurricular activities, I’m a part of Madri-gals,” Tim Leatherwood (12) said.

This is the problem that Lancers are having. Lancers aren’t exactly sure in what ways they can be connected, or what ways “count” as being connected.

The administration has reiterated that it has to do with attendance and doing well in class.

“I’m late sometimes because of traffic in the parking lot, but I’m mostly on time to my classes. I try my best in class and have a 3.8 GPA. I also push myself by taking concurrent enrollment and AP classes”, Leatherwood said.

Lancers are trying their very best, but other than when it comes to attendance, Lancers don’t really feel like they’re being recognized in the ways they are exhibiting these other qualities.

“If I’m not on time to class or have a bad attendance re-cord, then teachers say I’m not trying, and that’s not true,” he said.

Students are thankful for the efforts that the administra-tion has put into making this year great in terms of school spirit and personal motivation, and they are showing their appreciation through their effort.

Relay for Life was a huge success.

May 2016, page 4 Tri-Color Times VOL. LVIII Issue 8

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Goodbye to some Granger administratorsBy Kimberly ArmentaTHROUGH out the year Ms. Callahan, Dr. Gatti and Mr. Jack-son have worked hard to make Granger a better school.

With the skills they have to offer, they can explore more op-portunities and have multiple op-tions in doing so when thinking of other career options.

“I can either go back to a class-room as a teacher, I can possibly stay here as an administrator or I go to another school as an admin-istrator,” Mr. Jackson said.

Teaching is something Jack-son won’t stop doing, he will just fight for a job at a school.

“I came from Cottonwood and with the contract of the intern-ship, and the district promised me a teaching job, so I won’t be with-out a job, but it’s not guaranteed back at my school,” he said.

Although Mr. Jackson might not be teaching or leading this school anymore, he will always be a part of Granger’s family.

Once a Lancer, always a Lanc-er.

“That’s what really sucks, not moving forward and getting a job in administration. So my future as a teacher is kind of up in air. I could always be taking another position as an instructional coach. They might have some of those jobs open,” he said.

It’s not always promised to have stable job, but it just takes courage and willingness to keep moving forward.

“I’m kind of just taking my mind off this, smiling and being positive, because there’s nothing I can really do. I’m going to give the school the real me, the guy that works hard, finishes strong and sets an example for the kids. That what I’ve always done,” he said.

Positivity is something ev-eryone needs to keep up the hard work.

“I’ve never really been a be-liever of ‘It’s who you know.’ It’s what you do with what you know. I think I’ve done a good job. My experience at the school has been

very interesting. It’s very exciting because it’s something new and there’s always a lot happening,” he said.

There will always be advan-tages of being a teacher or an administrator, they will never run out of things to do at work.

“I’ve enjoyed my time here I think it’s been a great experience, and I think that’s the hard part of being in an internship is that you invest yourself into the kids and the school. I would love to stay, I’ve become loyal to Granger and I love it,” he said.

The school is grateful for the effort and energy that he has put into Granger. The students and the staff will miss him.

“Ms. Callahan was perfect, she did her job amazingly well. She was really nice to everybody and always knew how to talk to ev-erybody. She always wanted the best for her students and was al-ways pushing you into being suc-cessful,” Jose Lucena (10) said.

Not only was she a good ad-ministrator but also was very good with the Granger students.

“She was just something you never had in your life, someone who understood me and motivat-ed me. She even got to the point where she fed me. She has done something in my life nobody else has done,” he said.

An encouragement and sup-port is what all the students need to keep walking forward and to being successful.

“I’m moving to Cyprus, the district just makes a move. They decide where they think people would be the best help. It’s not a choice that you get to make they just move you,” Ms. Callahan said.

Ms. Callahan isn’t all that ex-cited to have to leave Granger High School, or her Lancers.

“This is my third year as an administrator here at Granger and I’ve loved it here. It’s been one of the most fun schools, and I like all the kids here. Its always busy, there is always something going on, I like that,” she said.

“I really like it here and it’s hard to just pick up all your stuff and just go to a new school. Having to meet all the kids all over again the parents and the teachers. I feel that now I just got to meet a lot of people, and I don’t really want to start all over again,” she said.

It can either be good or bad but it’s all about the experience.

“I am going to miss the kids the most, because like I said I have gotten close to them. I am also going to miss the school spirit here. It’s like getting bigger and better through out the years,” she said.

Sometimes things happen un-expectedly, Dr. Gatti is also leav-ing Granger next year.

“I have been here for five years and the biggest change I have seen was moving from a re-ally old building to this wonder-ful, beautiful, magnificent build-ing. Granger kids will always be Granger kids, they are great kids and they are always respectful. So I haven’t seen much of a change there,” Dr. Gatti said.

Dr. Gatti has been at Granger high school for so long that he hates the thought of switching schools.

“I found that as you go from school to school, the relationship part with the kids is always the same. Because the kids are just all the same, what you will have to do is meet a new group of adults. My experience has been positive, I have no regrets, and no com-plaints about Granger its been a great place for me,” he said.

Starting all over again can be hard, but there is always a reason behind it. Dr. Gatti knows that it’s going to be very different when he leaves as well.

“I’m from West Valley, and I just like the genuine side of a west-side person. I’m sure there will be a lot of that at Taylorsville as well, but I know that here I will miss the certainty of knowing ex-actly where we stand,” he said.

These administrators will be loved and remembered for all the hard work they have done.

“I flew out to South Virginia on the last week of January. I went by myself. I always try out by myself.”

A big opportunity can lead to a significant change.

“It’s going to change every-thing, including my lifestyle. The guys already on the team lift and practice twice a day, every day. My whole life is going to con-sist of working out and playing/practicing soccer. When I went out there to try out, the players were lifting, practicing, and do-ing homework. That’s all they did,” he said.

Opportunities like this never come easily, and they usually come through a lot of hard work and other factors.

“I had to have good grades first of all, connections, and last-ly you do have to be good or no one is going to take you,” Zapata said. “I’m only going to school in South Virginia for one or two years, after I’m going to be trans-ferring into another university that is in Division I because the

school I’m going to for my first year is Division III.”

As long as you work hard enough, anything is possible.

“It’s hard, but it shows you can do anything. People think you can’t do anything but if you try, dreams do come true,” he said.

“I’m going to have to leave my family, my friends, teammates, coaches, my clients because I work as a barber. I’m leaving every one; I’m starting all over. What makes it worth it though is that I’m going to be getting my education and my degree. I get to do something I love, and if I wanted, I would go pro. I will have the opportunity to do it. It should all be worth it,” he said.

Brandon has worked hard not only to achieve his goals, but to attain the respect of others. Many people believe in him and support him.

“It’s a great opportunity for him, he’s going to do great things in life. Even if he didn’t receive the opportunity to go to Virginia, anywhere he would’ve gone, he’d

still be doing good. He deserves it a lot because he worked hard for this to achieve it,” Rebeca Pina (10) said.

These types of opportunities ought to be taken seriously, since they are rare, and are worth every minute.

“For Brandon Zapata, it’s a great experience for him to be continuing his soccer career and also his educational career. The chance of going to college in any ways whether it’s for soccer or academics is an opportunity that everyone needs to take. Brandon Zapata has worked really hard for this opportunity academically as well as physically with soccer. We wish him the best of luck,” Coach Okeson said.

In order to make dreams a re-ality students have to work hard, and go out of their way to ensure success.

“I think it’s great because Brandon worked really hard to practice soccer so he could go to college. He’s gone to a lot of training camps. He’s gone to a lot

By Ashley GarciaBRANDON Zapata (12) has been offered a great deal for his upcoming future.

Playing soccer all his life, he’s been training and working hard for this life changing opportunity.

Brandon has been given the opportunity to play soccer at Southern Virginia University.

As he plays, he will have his tuition already paid on a full-ride scholarship.

“I started around first grade. My parents made me start playing soccer when I was little. After my first game I instantly fell in love with it and started playing ever since,” Zapata said. “I’ve been on and off. I’ve had my phases where I stopped playing and my phases when I was super into it.”

Zapata went to South Virginia and tried out to play and be a part of their soccer team.

“My coach in Virginia told me to go try out, and I was nervous, I wasn’t used to the idea but I’m pretty excited now because I’m starting a new lifestyle,” he said.

Zapata will play for Southern Virginia Universityof tryouts that are out of the state to make sure it happens for him. He didn’t wait for somebody to give it to him,” Coach Eden said.

It’s not uncommon for students at Granger High School to earn the chance to play a sport for the college of their choice. Zapata is a prime example that with perse-verance, and a desire to succeed, Lancers can reach accomplish all of their goals, no matter how im-possible they may seem.

“I think it’s sick because he’s a hard worker. He’s worked his whole life playing soccer and improving. He’s also worked on good grades and it’s all finally paying off. I’m proud of him, it’s sick that one of my friends are go-ing to the east coast to play soc-cer,” Jose Adame (12) said.

It just goes to show that hard work really can pay off for Lanc-er athletes.

Girls play soccer in the fall, and boys play in the spring. There’s still time to try out for the Lancer soccer teams in the 2016-2017 season.

Trust Lands Moneyfrom it.

“It’s disappointing that kids don’t know about Trust Lands. There probably wouldn’t be [a Latinos In Action Club] without that funding, we should do some-thing to thank them. Kids would be grateful if they knew,” said Brandon Maya (12).

Upon being told what Trust Lands is and does, students were surprised but glad that the word is getting out there, because it is im-portant for the students to know where this money goes and how it benefits them.

It is very beneficial as well in the ACT prep classes. “I think it’s good because the programs aren’t available a lot, and that’s some-thing that we can have and pro-vide,” said Ms. Webb.

“I think the money should be used in an academic matter as well as a social matter, and I think it’s important that people know that they can apply for this money.”

Trust Lands is able to take ap-plications from public places like hospitals and schools that are in need. They use the money for im-portant programs that they might not be able to provide otherwise.

“People should know because it’s public land and money, and it’s important,” said Webb.

Trust Lands continue to sup-port and benefit Granger and the students and staff every year, and it is to improve grades, atten-dance, graduation rates, and the community as a whole.

By Myranda AlcasTRUST LANDS is under a gov-ernment agency that gives land and resources in exchange for money that is then given to pub-lic hospitals, libraries, correc-tional facilities, but mainly pub-lic school systems kindergarten through twelfth grade.

Granger itself gets money that is used for special programs pro-vided here at the school like the ACT prep class and Latinos In Action.

“We get money from the state and this next school year we will be getting about $202,000 that will go towards our programs,” Granger’s principal, Dr. Dunn, said.

The money at Granger is used for programs like ACT Prep, LIA, AVID, and even the freshman academy. It is very focused on writing, reading, math, and sci-ence as well.

More specifically, the money helps pay for things like AVID for teacher training as well as confer-ences for LIA. Teachers must sub-mit what they are going to do, and once they get their submission approved, they can apply for the money.

“We want it out there because the school community council decides where this money goes, so it’s important for the students to know where the money goes,” said Dr. Dunn.

Not a lot of students or even staff really know what Trust Lands is, or how Granger benefits

Ms. Webb appreciates all the benefits that come from Trust Lands funds.

May 2016, page 7 Tri-Color Times VOL. LVIII Issue 8

Seniors last will and testament for the end of high school Opinion by Francisco Gallardo MANY SENIORS want to be out and graduate already but don’t realize that it’s the last time for everything.

One day you’ll be at your last Friday football game or prom.

One day it’ll be the very last time you walk onto that field for your very last game with your team.

One day you will look back and remember the last test that you took in high school.

One day you’ll be eating your last high school lunch with the friends who saw you grow up.

One day you won’t be walking in the halls with your friends any-more. Soon you’ll realize that you can’t see your friends as easily as you once could.

One day you’ll walk out those four doors for the very last time, and you’ll realize that the friends you made millions of memories with will most likely lose touch.

You’ll look back and remem-ber wanting to leave early, that you couldn’t wait to be done.

One day you’ll forget the memories you had with friends until you see a picture with them and those memories come rush-ing back.

So cherish, love, and have fun your senior year. Don’t be afraid to make new friends, be the one who say’s ‘Hi’ to that kid in the hallway. You never know the dif-ference you could make.

Don’t think that it’s easy, be-cause it’s not. Don’t slack off.

Take advantage of everything

that’s here at Granger. If you’re interested in a sport do it, because if you don’t, you will regret it.

Have a plan; make sure you take all the classes that you want. Granger has so many opportuni-ties that aren’t taken advantage of or even known about.

Don’t be a follower, do the things that you will love, don’t do the things that your friends are doing.

Know that the kids you started high school with, may not be the kids you leave high school with.

Everyone goes their own way senior year, you will see yourself fading away from really close friends that you thought you would never lose.

Strive for graduation. Imagine eight hundred kids all crowded in

one place, waiting to hear their names called so that they can walk across that stage.

Look forward to this moment and know that you are the one that ultimately got yourself there.

Look forward to your parents’ tears of joy, and the happiness and accomplishment you feel for yourself.

If I have learned anything this year it is that teachers are there to help you.

Teachers are the reason we are able to get where we are.

If you need help, ask. It’s not a bad thing to ask for help in life, because it shows that you are willing to do better and make up for your bad decisions.

‘Senioritis”’ is real: I’ve felt it. It’s that point where you want to

quit. Don’t give in to it, because all it does is put you behind.

Everyone can sit there and tell you to do better, but it doesn’t matter if you’re not feeling the motivation to succeed.

Only you only know where you want to go.

You have that fire in your heart to push you through.

Stand your ground and be suc-cessful, not for your friends, nor your family, but for you.

Most of all, do every single thing that you want to do, don’t leave high school with any re-grets. You really only do it one time.

Do what you have to do to reach your dreams. “How can sky be the limit when there are foot-prints on the moon?”

the red tunnel. If they’re blue, they line up in

the blue tunnel. “The first thing to do is get

yourself cleared for graduation meaning to pay off all your fees and fines including to get all the credits you need in order to grad-uate. The second thing to do is get your graduation application in, thirdly is to get your cap and gown. But you can’t get that un-til you have turned in your graduation application. In terms of getting ready for graduation, invite your guests. We’d like you to be dressed nice, we don’t want people to think we’re not taking gradua-tion seriously,” she said.

There is going to be a graduation rehearsal on May 27 at 7:30 a.m.

That is where the seniors will get their cards; and without their cards, they can’t walk.

It is mandatory, meaning all seniors HAVE to attend the prac-tice.

“The gowns do sometimes come out wrinkly when taken out of the box, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to iron them or hang them in a steaming room. However, you may not decorate your cap. All the caps have to look the same,” she said.

Seniors have the opportunity after graduation to enjoy the school one more time.

“We have graduation night for the seniors. It’ll be right here at Granger throughout the school. There will be food, pool games,

magic tricks, and activities all night long,” Dr. Dunn said.

Graduating high school is just the first step.

“The advice I give to the se-niors is in today’s world is to con-tinue with education. High school is not the end of an education. The

high school diploma is a gateway to the next step in preparing yourself for the future and upcoming op-portunities,” he said.

Every Lancer who is graduating deserves to have their name heard dur-ing graduation.

“One of the things that has been an issue at graduation is the crowd noise. We understand this because our Lancers are graduating and everyone including all families are

excited. Sometimes we do have families that go beyond with cheering for their graduate, and it runs into the next name to be said. The thing is, we want everyone’s name to be heard. When people bring really loud noisemakers (air

By Ashley GarciaHIGH SCHOOL has come to an end for the 2016 class, full of memories and accomplishments throughout the years.

As well as friendships and re-lationships that will be cherished for the rest of their lives.

All the hard work has finally paid off.

Graduation is Friday, May 27 at 3:00 p.m. at the Maverick cen-ter.

After three years of high school, girls and boys now have the chance to wear either a blue or a red gown during graduation.

“We’ve been doing the mix of girls and boys for the last two years,” Ms. Parrish said. “We line them up according to how many on each side and we try to get each boy and each girl in red or blue because as they’re walking we want that pattern coming to boy, girl, boy, and girl over and over again.”

Seniors will receive a little card; it will either be red or blue.

It will have their names on it. If they’re red, they line up in

Here’s what seniors need to know about graduationhorns or drums) we try to stop them but people slip them in any-way. What they don’t understand is when they’re using those noise-makers; they’re blocking the next person’s name from being heard. That next person has also worked hard to get there. We try to ask the crowd to celebrate their graduate but to do it in reasonable way. All graduates deserve to have their names heard,” Ms. Parrish said.

Granger has about 600 people graduating this year.

It has been the biggest class of graduates Granger has had in a long, long time.

Speaking at graduation might be a challenge, but it is definitely an honor.

“It’s huge honor to be chosen as a Valedictorian, and I am very thankful to my parents, teachers, administrators, and friends for making high school one of the best experiences of my school career, which truly isn’t that long since I have a lot of schooling left,” Vanessa Bustamante (12) said. And she knows that it’s re-ally all about hard work.

Fact check this copy editor’s adviceOpinion by Tina HuynhSENIOR year is supposed to be fun. Of course it’s supposed to be.

One of the proudest moments of your entire life is when you tackle thirteen years of school to get rewarded with a diploma that has your name on it.

You get to walk the walk of fame and wear an oversized gown that you pay thirty dollars for and don’t even get to keep in the end, but not that we really want to any-way.

Senior year is as great as ev-eryone says it is.

It’s exciting to move on with your life and really start to be your own person. It’s the time when you finally get to come out on top.

For some, senior year is filled with home release periods, se-nioritis, and being half an hour late to class and counting that as a success because at least you came at all.

For the rest of the class of 2016, the typical day is filled with AP/CE classes, after school activities, and sporting events to attend or win.

Most likely, it’s a combination of both. We’re all lazy and suc-

cessful when we want to be. That is truly the epiphany of senior year.

Despite that, I think all seniors can agree on one thing: your last year goes by insanely quick.

You always think that you’ll have a lot of time to do every-thing you want to do, but the next second, you’re walking across the Maverick Center stage in a cap and gown.

You leave school regretting the things you didn’t do instead of the things you actually did.

If I had it my way, I would’ve gone to every football game, ev-ery school dance, and been a lot more involved than I was.

After you leave high school, you’ll go to football games and not know anyone around you except for the people you came with.

Your last year in high school should be your best year in high school.

It really isn’t the time to debate over whether or not you should try out for the basketball team or join student government; it’s the year to do things instead of pic-turing yourself doing them.

You can really enjoy senior

year, as you should, but at the same time, it’s the most confus-ing, stressful time that you’ll ex-perience so far.

“What college are you going to?” “What’s your major?” Tu-ition, tuition, tuition.

It’s terribly miserable having to constantly think your life away about your future all of the time.

The most stressed I’ve ever been in my entire life was when I was taking the ACTs.

That doesn’t even compare to how I feel when I think about col-lege and my future.

It’s scary, new, and exciting all in one to go forward from here.

It’s been a long time coming, but and I think we’re all ready to leave. I don’t think any of us can do another year of high school, honestly.

High school is nice nest to stay in that’s safe, familiar, and com-fortable.

I think I speak for the entire senior class when I say that it was fun while it lasted, but it’s even more fun to move on to better things and have even better expe-riences.

I think we all are looking for-ward to everything in store.

Vanessa is excited to speak at graduation.

May 2016, page 8 Tri-Color Times VOL. LVIII Issue 8

The students at Granger are talented in many different ways such as singing; this Granger High student did one of the most difficult songs to sing and nailed it.

“I won first place from singing ‘I Will Always Love You’ by Whitney Hous-ton.

I’ve been prac-ticing since Decem-ber because there are so many high notes that you have to hit in that song,” Giovanna Aguilar (11) said.

“How I learned the song was I’d listen to her and how she’d project it and go off that. When I won I wasn’t expecting it, I was just doing what I love,”

Aguilar said. She’s not the only one who

feels that way.

“There are many people who love to sing on stage because it’s doing what they love, And some

people do it to feel that audience-artist connection and feel the pos-itive vibes. “I think that the show

was so chill and had such good vibes,” Katreena Panotes (10) said.

“It was awesome when we won sec-ond. We weren’t expecting to win and out of so many contestants, too,” she said.

“I think that re-hearsing makes you more nervous than it actually is,” Pan-otes said. “The best advice I can give is if you have talent show it.”Some students act

like performing on stage is no big deal. However, for other people perfoming on stage is one of the

By Skye Rouse MANY PEOPLE have different kinds of talents, especially here at Granger. Each year Granger has a talent show where students get to show off their skills.

This year there were many new and exciting things, that aren’t usually in every show. This year there was a student who did jam skating, a guy who recited a monologue, and a huge group of guys that performed Fiji Island dances.

“What got me into jam skating was that I used to dance and I got sick of it, but I’ve always been re-ally good at skating so I tried it, and I fell in love with it and kept doing it,” Jaden Romero (9) said. “I’ve been skating for four years and I think anyone can do it,” she said. “I wanted to show people what jam skating is be-cause not a lot of people know,” Romero said.

Granger High School Lancers have a lot of talentmost terrifying things they will ever do.

“When we were on stage my number one thought was to be fearless because I have stage fright, and it worked because we won third,” Samantha Sabanag-ic (12) said. “We choreographed the dance ourselves like a week before tryouts, then we tried out, then after that we had like a week to practice and get it perfect,” she said. “When performing, just be yourself, and don’t worry about what others think,” Sabanagic said.

Granger’s Got Talent has been one of the best talent shows that Granger’s had in awhile. It was fun, cultural, and exciting. The crowds were very pumped while cheering for their peers. Although it did run a little longer than planned, “It was good for school spirit,” Dr. Gatti said in an email sent out to all the teachers.

The first Lancer that finishes with the correct answers wins a dollar (because the G-Cards are gone)! Details in J102.

Granger showed off all of its talented Lancers at the talent show.

Dramatic Lancers kill it at region

By Morgan BardTHIS YEAR’S region competi-tion went amazingly for the Ad-vanced Theatre class.

The black box production, The Incompetence of Creativity by Angel Herrera, is moving on to State and won first place in the one-act competition.

They also won first in sweep-stakes, which is the overall scores. A lot of the people who competed in theatre went to state. Very few didn’t make the cut.

Robert Nunez (12) and Mela-ny Rivera (11) are one pair of the many that had the chance to com-pete at state.

“I’m really comfortable with how we’re doing but, we can al-ways improve,” Rivera said.

They performed a gender swapped version of the death scene from Shakespeare’s Romeo And Juliet.

“I wasn’t really nervous,” Nunez said. Nunez and Rivera won a medal for straight superior.

Region was definitely only the first step to victory for these amazing actors and actresses.

Students unfamiliar with re-gion is can look on the www.uactt.com website where it will list a variety of information on re-gion competition and state com-petition.

“Region gives students an op-portunity to prepare a variety of scenes and monologues as well as musical theatre pieces and pan-tomimes,” as stated on the www.uactt.com website.

This is definitely a great op-portunity for actors to show what they know about theatre.

Another one of these very talented actresses who moved to State is Bree Johnson (11).

She performed a classical scene with a partner.

“Region was a lot of fun, and it was fun doing a scene and having a scene partner,” Johnson said.

She felt very accomplished when she went to medals round.

“I wasn’t as nervous as in the past,” Johnson said. “I was a little nervous before the first round.”

Sadly, she didn’t win a medal for straight superior, but she did perform as well as she possibly could along side her partner.

Sadly, they didn’t win a trophy for first, second, or third place, but they placed in sixth being way high above the following school.

Ms. Anderson feels really proud of her team. She feels that there’s no other group that can top this year’s group.

Now, they are preparing for the next, and final step.

Interested Lancers should know that Advanced Theatre au-ditions were held in April, and the drama department is off to a great start for 2016-17.

For any more information, go to the www.grangertheatre.com website where they have loads of information on auditions and previous activities. Drama socials and lunch activities are lots of fun and worth following even for stu-dents who aren’t in drama.

Melany is happy with the outcomes of region and state drama competitions.