Entering her second year as a writer for The Downey Legend, senior Esther Rodriguez has high hopes. As a sophomore, she heard about joining Newspaper during the morning announcements and her English teacher, Mr. Kraus, encouraged her to fill out an application and display her knack for writing. This inspired her to apply and see if she could make it, which she did. Rodriguez joined in hopes of improving her writing skills, becoming less shy, and learning to write in more detail. To her, the best part about being on the newspaper staff is finding out about interesting, random things going on around the school. “There are things you would not know just coming to school, but being in Newspaper you learn things that aren’t common knowledge,” Rodriguez said. “We are the eyes and ears of the school.” In her down time, Rodriguez enjoys reading young adult literature, writing fictional stories, and spending quality time with her cell phone on websites like YouTube, Tumblr, and Twitter. Besides being in Newspaper at school, she is also a new tutor at Downey High’s Writing Center. Writing as much as possible is important to her because she dreams of one day being an author. Along with chasing her aspirations of writing for a living, after she finishes high school, Rodriguez also looks forward to attending a university such as UCLA, San Diego State, or UC San Diego and obtaining a degree in English. Next summer, she will also be going on a missionary trip with church to Japan. Although her head is full of thoughts about the surreal future, for now Rodriguez is focusing on her schoolwork and activities and soaking up her last year as a high schooler.

Juan Munguia, a 17-year-old social butterfly, is one of the new photographers to join The Downey Legend. Munguia took this opportunity to improve his skills as a photographer and is striving to show people things they have never seen before. He aims to start shooting some behind the scenes material this year. Although he describes photography as a “cool little hobby,” he has made it his personal mission to make sure every photo he takes is close to perfect.   Not only is Munguia a photographer, he is a food fanatic and a dog lover. When he isn’t snapping pictures of his husky, Mishka, or chowing down on pastrami fries from The Hat, he is spending quality time with friends or playing basketball. Munguia’s friends would describe him as an outgoing guy who would do anything for others. He isn’t afraid of making new friends and stepping outside of his comfort zone. He plans on spending two years at Cerritos College and then hopes to join the fire academy. “Being able to help someone is amazing,” Munguia said “but being able to save their life is even better.” He hopes to accomplish his lifelong goal of becoming a firefighter in the next 10 years.