Bringing home the gold
April 19, 2013
Downey High School students participated in the State Skills USA competition held from April 4 to April 7 in San Diego where they faced three days of intense challenges. The statewide competition gave students from all over the state of California the opportunity to show off their leadership and occupational skills in various categories and brought home five gold medals, five silver, and two bronze.
The competition held more than 1,200 contestants, including students who joined together to strive for victory. The Skills USA contest allows high school students to debut their skills and talents in categories ranging from carpentry, photography, math, prepared speech, and other various categories.
Seniors Jesus Laurean and Zulema Zarate both thrived in the Regional competition, allowing them to advance to state and compete in the photography section. The two students did not realize they were capable of receiving such praise from a highly acclaimed competition and were both successful, each placing in their category.
For Laurean, it was his first year participating in the regional and state competition. He showcased a great amount of talent with his camera and received a gold medal.
“I was stressed out and hyped at the same time because I knew it was a huge competition and I was competing versus the best in the state,” Laurean said. “I was most nervous about the field test, which is where they give you an assignment to shoot and one hour to edit. It was fun and very educational; it taught me a lot about individualism and gave me confidence.”
Zulema Zarate, yearbook photographer and Advanced Photography student, applied her years of skill and threw herself into the photography section, proving to be a fierce competitor.
“Mrs. Cordova made us all participate in regionals and I made it to state,” Zarate said. “I was surprised I made it this far.”
She was prized with a silver medal bringing honor to her school and her photography teacher. Along with his gold medal, Jesus Laurean will also continue on to Nationals and compete among the highest and skilled students of the country.
Junior Fransisco Flores competed in two categories, the quiz bowl which is a team effort that includes answering several trivia questions regarding current events and other miscellaneous information, and intro to engineering. Successful in both, Flores took home the silver in intro engineering and received a gold medal for the quiz bowl.
“I knew what I was doing, but during the quiz bowl I felt a little less confident,” Flores said. “I was nervous that I might mess up during the quiz bowl because you lose points and that brings your entire team down. That’s what I was most scared of.”
Upon receiving a gold medal, Flores will also compete in Nationals that will be hosted in Kansas City, Missouri. Other gold medalists include Shelsey Padilla, Elisa Shimada, Clare Cho, Jessica Shaffer, Gia Marciano, Minji Kim, Joyce Kang, Cecilia Godinez, Isel Medina, Judy Mendoza, and Paul Salazar.
The competitors who reigned victorious in the state round will continue on in attempt to claim more gold and silver medals at the National Convention in Kansas City Mission this June. The students, both anxious and excited, will continue to aim for the ultimate gold medal, bringing pride to their school and themselves.
As her time at Downey High School reaches a conclusion, senior Gabby Sanchez is thrilled to be on The Downey Legend as Co-Editor-In-Chief for the 2013-2014 school year. She originally joined the school newspaper the previous year at the suggestion of her Honors English 10 teacher, Ms. Kasner. Kasner saw Sanchez’s writing potential and was glad she applied. Once Sanchez was accepted, she noticed how being part of a school newspaper only improved her writing. “Its definitely given me the opportunity to constantly practice and better my writing,” Sanchez said. “but mostly it's given me an idea of how a journalist would write as opposed to how I would write an essay for an English class.” Eventually, her passion for journalism, and writing in general, started to grow. She became more and more dedicated to the craft of providing newsworthy stories for the student body to enjoy. Now as she juggles AP courses and a leadership position on the newspaper staff, Sanchez wants to make sure that the hidden stories on campus are published, but that also, all staff members respect each other so that being newspaper is more thrilling than dreadful.
Although Sanchez is a senior and college is on the horizon, she is still not sure exactly what university she wants to attend; however, she does have a general view of what she wants her college life to be life. “I want to go to a college that will fulfill my needs, expand my horizons, and expose me to wonderful, weird, and mind boggling things,” Sanchez said. “Honestly, I just want to be somewhere I wouldn’t mind spending another four years.” Although she isn’t particularly sure what she wants to do after college, Sanchez wants to make sure that she lives on the East Coast, doing something she is extremely passionate about. On her days when she isn’t pondering life and her future, Sanchez enjoys gluing her eyes to her iPad screen, watching Netflix movies (her taste in movies is eclectic, ranging from the deeply emotional foreign films, to the goofy comedies featuring Seth Rogen, Will Ferrell, and James Franco). Aside from spending time viewing films, Sanchez also enjoys the company of her dog, Mia, whom she absolutely adores with her whole heart. At the end of the day, Sanchez is confident that whichever path she takes will be because her passions will lead her to the happiness she so craves in life.
This year will be her first and last with The Downey Legend, so she hopes to make the most of it. Her goals for this year are to get more students excited about the online newspaper, thus gaining popularity for the site. Aside from photography, Lira plays guitar and plans to one day travel the world.
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