BY JESSICA LOPEZ
At the Texas Public Service Association regional contest in Austin, the Police Explorers won first, second and third place medals and will be advancing to the state competition. Competitors had to complete a difficult obstacle course and compete in mixed martial arts (MMA). The Police Explorers will compete at state in Domestic Disturbance, Opening Statement, Crime Scene Investigation, Female Obstacle Course, Felony Traffic Stop, Defensive Tactics, First Responder, and the Fire Fighter Agility Course. ”First they tell you a license plate number that you have to remember, then you have to complete an obstacle course that consists of doing push-ups, running through cones, jumping hurdles, crawling army-style, and sprinting the rest of the way," senior Jazzlyn Mendoza said. "Then you have to tell them the license plate number letter for letter.” Only people involved in the Police Explorers after-school program got to compete at the competition. About 20 to 30 of the police explorer participants were there along with SWAT and Felony Step. The Police Explorers have been to two competitions so far, with the help of their instructor Thomas Sierra and working with Judson High School. Not only is this a after school program, but it is a class. The Police Explorers' next state event will be in April. BY JESSICA BROWN
Impact has several different meanings. There's the meaning in the dictionary, and then there's the figurative meaning. But for a certain group of students, the word "impact" means water quality and water conservation. At Wagner, Impact is a group that works with the San Antonio Water System (SAWS) to come up with new ideas on water quality and water conservation. One of the team's tasks involved testing water samples for E.coli and bacteria. "We were trying to clean up one of the lakes at a local college," junior and team member Eathan Oyerbides said. "That included testing the water, taking field trips so we could understand how the water is stored, basically how everything plays a part. And we had to find a way to clean it." The team has put in months of preparation for a meet that took place on Tuesday, February 10th, where they showcased an original design for an improved water filtration system. And the meet had good results that made teacher Mike Kliewer, one of Impact's sponsors, happy with how it turned out. Along with preparing for the meet, the students in the Impact group also had projects and field trips that the group went on. But for students such as senior Meghan Harms, even with all the work involved with the team over the year, Impact has not negatively affected her grades. "Last year they were helping build homes for Habitat for Humanity," Harms said. "I like the people in the group, and I also like that the team is interesting." BY ADRIAN CHAVEZ
Business Professionals of America held its regional leadership conference at Medina Valley High School in Castroville, Texas on Jan. 25. Competing in various workplace skill assessment program events, students from area high schools participated in events such as fundamental accounting, payroll accounting, fundamentals of web design, computer modeling, presentation management and lots more. Of these, six Wagner students qualified for advancement to the state Leadership conference. Qualifiers included Daniel Rios, Isaac Quinn, Kenneth Shango and Edward Voyce, who as a team placed second for Network Design; Ariel Griffie, who placed second for Prepared Speech, and Brycen Adams-Brady, who placed first in Computer Network Technology. Six students also qualified as state alternates. In PC Servicing and Troubleshooting, Carlo Guyo qualified as first state alternate, as did Hector Jaimes in Computer Security and James Hunt in Graphic Design Promotion. Video Production team members Manuel Perusquia, Brajahn Vialdores, and Ted Zamora earned fourth state alternate. "We worked really hard at it," Hunt said. "I'm really excited to compete at state." BPA advisor and Wagner teacher Rodney Neal also commended the efforts of the rest of his individual competitors, including Sabrina Zavala (Fundamental Word Processing), Juan Gutierrez (Presentation Management Team), Amy Garcia (PC Servicing and Troubleshooting), Ricardo Diaz (Computer Security), Christian Smalley (Java Programming), and Fabiola Rodriguez (Banking and Finance). "Overall, it was a great showing for Wagner BPA," Neal said. BY EATHAN OYERBIDES
Every year, it’s the same question: what do you get for Valentine’s Day? You could do chocolate. Or flowers. You could be predictable. But this year, cheer would like you to get a little more creative. “You write a little message to someone, and write down which class to deliver it to, and we put it on an Orange Crush bottle," sophomore cheerleader Norina Alvarado said. "You can send a Crush to your crush." And, Alvarado pointed out, it doesn't matter if you don't have a significant other at school to send a Crush to. "Some people are pranking their friends," Alvarado said. "Or for teachers, you can do them for your co-worker.” Cheer will be selling the bottles for $1.50 during all lunches Monday through Thursday and delivering on Friday Feb. 13. All proceeds benefit Wagner Cheer. BY ARMANDO DOMINGUEZ
On Saturday, Jan. 31, Wagner UIL team members had a meeting at MacArthur high school. Several students placed, such as Sierra Gonzales, Bonnie Robinson, Tomas Rico, sophomore Gustavo Gonzalez, and sophomore Rachel Windler. Gonzales, Robinson, and Rico all placed in Calculator Novice, with Gonzales in 5th, Robinson in 7th, and Rico in 9th place. Windler placed 6th in Headline Writing, her first attempt at the event. “I thought that I could do better,” Windler said. “I wish that I could have placed higher, but it was just a practice meet. That’s what it’s for. I’m supposed to learn from it so I can do better next time.” |
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