Volume 4, Edition 4 December 2011

Los Angeles Leadership Academy

The VoiceEditors-In-Chief:Stephanie SerranoRuth Galaviz

Photo Editor:Pablo Espinoza

Staff Writers In This Issue:

Paula AlarconFrancisco ContrerasPablo EspinozaCristina GarciaMarvin GutierrezNatalie MoralesSamantha RamirezZulma RamosRenee RivasPaola SanchezStephanie SerranoJoy WooMarcela Zaragosa

Faculty AdvisorPhyllis Rosen

Printer:Gardena Valley News

Kaboom!

By: Natalie Morales & Paola SanchezStaff Writer

On December 8th, a new playground was completely con-structed and upgraded for LALA’s Elementary School. This event was called “Kaboom,” based on the company that donated all the equipment and a lot of the volun-teers to set up the playground. People of the community were asked to pitch in and help build

the playground. Volunteers from Warner Brothers’ Music, including members of the group My Chemi-cal Romance, joined the Kaboom and neighborhood volunteers. As the workers began the construction, the children were taken to the high school to bond with the leadership students. The playground project manager, Danielle, told the Voice that she felt deep excitement

about the project because she feels that, “We are saving play.” For two months, Dani-elle and her team met weekly with the kids, parents and the community collecting ideas. Ever since the elementary school opened, there has been a concern that the resources for the children were lacking. The middle school building, where the pri-mary is, has been modified just to suit them with smaller chairs, tables, and toilets. The play-ground was the one exception that continued to worry parents. With very cramped spac-es, and only one slide, the chil-dren often crashed into on an-other on the bikes or fought over who would go first on the slide. The playground is now very colorful and extravagant. A vibrant mural, designed by the Warners’ Music staff, provides an eye-popping background. There are a variety of play activities for the children now, and parents are extremely happy and a lot less worried. As volunteer Angie Gray observed, “It is amaz-ing how a group of people can come together and build this play-ground where there was nothing.”

Posse ScholarsBy: Joy WooStaff Writer

This just in; seniors Marcy Zaragosa and Jose Velez have both been accepted for a Posse scholar-ships. Marcy will attend Kalamazoo and Jose Tulane University, both re-ceiving full four year scholarships. On December 6, Marcy headed towards her interview and was called shortly after about be-ing accepted to Kalamazoo. Mar-cy told her family the good news, and her mother burst into tears. Marcy asked her mother why she was crying. “I’m proud of you, but

it just hit me how far you’re re-ally going to be,” her mother said. Marcy commented that, “I felt like I finally got what I wanted.” She is still obsessed with her Posse school so she is determined to do her best. Soon after, on Decem-ber 12, Jose Velez went to his in-terview for Tulane University. His mother prayed to the Virgin Mary before the interview hop-ing that the Virgin Mary would help Jose win the scholarship. After the interview, Jose went to the record store where he works. Two hours later he got the

call that he had been accepted. Jose later commented that, “It felt like I final achieved something in life.” Erin excitedly called Rog-er with the good news, proof of her predictions that “this would be our school’s Posse year.” All that remains for Mar-cy and Jose is go to the Posse awards ceremony on January 6th. Marcy and Jose are the first students in the history of our school to be accepted as Posse scholars. We’re all so proud of their achievement.

News & Features

2

More than a TeacherBy: Renee RivasStaff Writer

Sheila Beitman, this years new biology teacher, explained how she came across LA Leader-ship Academy: “I actually went in for an interview at another school and when I didn’t get a call within three days I found out the prin-cipal at the other school had re-ferred me to Linda.” Sheil believes that everything in her life hap-pens for a reason and thought it was fate when Linda called . Sheila grew up in Tor-rance and attended Cal Poly and San Luis Obispo. Before coming to work at LALA, Sheila had her doubts.” Before my three months of working here I didn’t know what to expect since I was unfamilar with the school and the area,” she told The Voice. Once Shelia saw the campus she fell in love with the essence of the school, the class sizes , the fac-ulty and the administration. She got on board and was excited to watch students “overcome challenges and become more knowledgeable in biology. “ She teaches AP as well as standard biology here at LALA. The one thing that makes Shelia unique from other teachers at the school is that she doesn’t let anything hold her back - not even her high frequency hearing loss which causes her to have her trademark accent. “ My teacher always told me you can let the wave drag you out into the ocean or you fight against it,” Sheila ob-served. That has been her motto when she’s faced with hard times and these are a few words of wis-dom that she shares with students. Some of Sheila’s hopes for her students this coming year would be to take advantage of be-ing able to do retakes because not a lot of students do. Sheila wants to help further her students in biol-ogy and prepare everyone for col-lege by giving them the resources needed to do so. She is a great addition to our LALA community.

Basketball’s Back The NBA Lockout grew out of the expiration of the Collective Bar-gaining Agreement (CBA) between owners and players and caused a great amount of pain and anger for millions of basketball fans. The 2005-2006 Collective Bargaining Agreement was set to expire this year, so team owners decided that this was the perfect chance to demand changes to their previous agreement . The last CBA shared revenues with 57% going to players and 43% for the team owners. Now the owners wanted the CBA to be divided equally, 50% for the players and 50% for the owners. The lockout lasted a bit over four months due to the owners dis-like of how the Basketball Related Income was being circulated. The BRI includes all the income received by NBA purchases including game tickets, jerseys, NBA apparel, etc.

The whole debate was basi-cally a greedy dispute between mil-lionaires (players) and billionaires (owners). In the end, both sides compromised - players will receive 53% and the owners will receive 47%. The 3% difference was estimated to value about 120 million dollars. When asked about his reac-tion to the lockout, rabid LALA bas-

ketball fan Pablo Espinoza stated that he, “ will not watch any Laker game” because “ Kobe Bryant is go-ing to continue to play basketball.” Most LALA students would vehemently disagree with Mr. Espi-noza. All basketball fans are delight-ed to watch their favorite players back in the game when the Lakers play the Bulls on Christmas Day.

By: Marvin GutierrezStaff Writer

Lion Cubs Visit the High School On December 8th, 2011 the cubs from the LALA’s Primary School came to the High School. They were brought here by some parent volun-teers as well as their teach-ers while their new playground was being cons t ruc t ed . The L e a d e r s h i p class was re-sponsible for entertaining the kids. While they were here they had their lunch, divided between Cafeteria 1 and 2. The other Leadership students were upstairs in the basketball

courts reading to them and some were playing kickball. The kids in the Cafeteria were drawing their Christmas gifts to mail to Santa.

The kids seemed very en-thusiastic about their surround-ings. Many were very entertained

looking at the new farm and the plants. It encouraged them to start planting their own garden. All the Leadership students

were happy to have them over. Senior Maria Her-nandez thought that, “It was very entertaining hav-ing them over and definitely bright-ened our day with their presence.” Another Se-nior, Stephanie Lovos, agreed with Maria. “I felt all warm and fuzzy having them here,” said Stephanie. The Leader-ship Council did a great job keeping them entertained

and we are all grateful for them com-ing. We hope they make a visit soon.

By: Samantha RamirezStaff Writer

On Sunday December 11, students from the high school and middle school marched together in the Lincoln Heights Christmas parade. The parade was organized by the Lincoln Heights Neighbor-hood Council took place down Broadway. It started at around noon and all the people march-ing finished at around 2:00 p.m. LALA students were asked to be at the DMV (the starting point) at 9:00 am, which might have led to the poor turnout. Both Leadership classes were asked to attend, the

soccer teams, the basketball teams, and the cheerleaders. The cheer-leaders really showed commitment, with only two members absent. However, for the rest of the teams and leadership classes only a hand-ful of students decided to show. The students who DID show up represented our school well. The march along the thirteen long blocks seemed to be a breeze. “ Even though not a lot of people went, the parade was still fun,” said smiling senior Paula Alarcon as she remembered her participation. The parade consisted of many floats, vehicles, and even horses, but mainly it was people

who marched. Lincoln High School, of course, made it’s presence known with their outstanding band and traditional Aztec Dancers per-formed all throughout the parade. After the marching ended, there were events and activities set up in the parking lot of Bank of America - a mariachi performance, pictures with Santa Claus, and food. The purpose of the pa-rade was to bring together Lin-coln Heights Community mem-bers in a Christmas spirit. “I was nervous at first, but then when it was over I felt like we did a good job,” said Joy Woo about cheer-ing in front of the community. The Christmas spirit was definite-ly felt as people gathered to see and root for community members.

Christmas ParadeBy: Marcela ZaragosaStaff Writer

News & Editorials

3

Lights OutBy: Francisco ContrerasStaff Writer

Unexpected damag-ing winds struck the people of Los Angeles, California, on Wednesday, November 30th. Winds of up to 97 mph struck many areas of Los Angeles in devastating ways. Some woke to find a tree on their car and some to find out that their roofs had been blown away. Even more un-expected was the closing of sev-eral schools in los Angeles county closed due to the power outage, including LALA High School. Students had many different views on the decision to cancel school. Becka, a sophomore at LALA said, “It was cool because there was a project due on Friday and it gave me the weekend to do it, but overall it sucked because I didn’t have power for most of the week. “ Another sophomore, Al-lan John said, “Damn! Like literal-ly damn! Hijole, due to the power outage on Thursday we could have still had class, you know by using candles rather than going home.” A LALA senior, Enkhbat B said that the power outage let us realize that America is nothing without electricity and is sure that most people felt the same way. Marlene Guillermo, anoth-er senior at LALA had this to say, “I feel it was stupid that we got called in for school to only stay for 40 minutes, I had no candles.” Many students were not only out of power in school but also in their homes. Helpless without their phones or their computers, some even drove to restaurants to charge their electronic devices. Students were not the only ones frustrated about the power sit-uation - teachers also shared their frustration. Math teacher Bryan May-er said, “It tested the mettle of the administration on how to operate under unforeseen circumstances.

New Year’s ResolutionsBy: Pablo EspinozaStaff Writer

2011 is almost at its final day and 2012 - the year people expect the world to end - is on its way. Los Angeles Leadership Academy students have begun to plan New Year’s Resolutions. New Year Resolutions should be goals, not just to per-fect oneself, but to improve one’s environment as well. LALA students should step up in the community to become leaders who create positive changes. “Having goals that you try to reach make the next year better,” commented Francis-co Contreras, a senior at LALA. Setting goals is a great way to start organizing yourself, while at the same time teaching consis-tency and responsibility. Writing your goals on a piece of paper that you will see on a daily basis helps you stay in touch with your goals. New Year Resolutions are always talked about before the New Year is about to begin, but do they disappear afterwards? It’s easy to talk the talk, but it’s hard to walk the walk if you cannot remember your di-rections. Many people decide to write down their New Year Reso-

lutions, but eventually lose their goals or simply throw them away. “I think Resolutions are a “promise” people no longer follow after about the first two months of the next year,” stated Becka Garcia, a sophomore of LALA. “My resolutions are to lose weight and to buy more vampire books,” respond-ed Joy Woo, a junior at LALA. “Work hard to save for college and to save mon-ey for car insurance,” stat-ed senior Amanda Gonzalez Most seniors are striving to finds ways to make ends meet for college, but they should not forget to help out their community before they leave. Even though they have been accepted to college, it does

not mean that they should just wait until they leave. They should try to leave a legacy that inspires the rest of the remaining classes to strive for excellence and to get their acts together academically. With the recession going on and the Occupy Wall Street protes-tors representing the 99%, people should not have new possessions on top of their list for their resolu-tions. If you are fortunate enough to have a household, food, friends, and family, do not buy into the ma-terialism of the 1%. Be grateful for what you have, and be thankful to be who you are. Two-hundred dollar earphones can make you happy for a while, but helping someone else is more rewarding and longer-lasting.

Winter FormalBy: Joy WooStaff Writer

This years Winter Formal will have a Masquerade theme. Hosted by the Junior class,Massquerade will be held on January 13th, begin-ning at 6pm and ending at 10 p.m. Students should be aware that the ticket prices will be $12 for singles and $20 for couples. Only seniors can run for King and Queen, and juniors can run for Prince and Princess. Food will be served as part of the admission price. Donations of food and decorations will be grate-fully accepted by the junior class. Students should be dressed for-mally and masks will be provid-ed if you can’t bring your own.Emily Wong, a Junior representative and dance organizer, elegantly said, “Come join the pleasure of luxury.”

Leadership Council once again has stepped up to give to those less fortunate. The fundrais-ing committee pushed consistently to adopt a family for the holidays. The committee distributed a Christ-mas wish for this needy family list as soon as they got it to advisories, Tuesday of last week. The family consists of six members who are in serious need of help this holiday. Since the whole school was assisting the same family there was some confusion among the teachers and students. How-ever nothing stops the students and some teachers from help-

ing and providing the materi-als necessary to help this family. All the things that students donated were sent to the organi-zation for a Wednesday Dec 14th gift wrap. Many students com-mented that this project was way “cooler than the can food drive”. The whole school com-munity was in the Christmas spirit that could not wait to bring the item of their choice. All students that partici-pated were rewarded with free dress Friday Dec 16. And teachers will receive appreciation rewards for their help. Special thanks to all students who took the time to bring something and to Mark, who was so kind as to buy a microwave!

LALA Gives Back

By: Zulma RamosStaff Writer

News & Features

4

The famous R&B artist, Trey Songz, released not one but two mixtapes. Lemmeholdabeat2 and Anticipation II were released three days after his birthday on November 1,2011. He was not done! He also released his album Inevitable EP a couple weeks later. Those that are Trey Songz crazed know that he wanted to be a rapper but became an R&B singer. In his mixtape Lemmeholdabeat2 he continued to do his popular “Trig-gamixes” which is when he remixes original songs with his own lyrics. Many are surprised at how talented Trey actually is at rap-ping. Fans are used to more of his soothing R&B songs, but I wasn’t surprised by his talent. Some people actually prefer his raps more than listening to him sing about stealing “your girl”. Album Inevitable EP has only 5 songs but mixtape Antici-pation II has 11songs. Both of the mixtapes have his usual R&B melo-dies. I would love to choose a fa-vorite but I can’t. Trey continues to use some of his popular phrases in these albums, except for one

of his songs “Top of the World” which is more about his home. Not many R&B singers stick around for long. He has been able to keep grabbing the audience’s at-tention by throwing in rap songs and more than one mixtapes/album in one month. I can defi-nitely say, “I Can’t Help But Wait” for the next album to come out!

Trey SongzBy: Paula AlarconStaff Writer

Teen Mom 2By: Stephanie SerranoStaff Writer

Teen Mom 2 is back on MTV for it’s second season. The show follows four teen moms and view-ers get to see what happens the years after the babies are born. It has become a popular show since it contains what the audience is look-ing for - drama. The moms in this show are always dealing with parents, baby daddies, future boyfriends and, of course, fi-nancial stability. The teen moms start with Jenelle; she is the infamous bad girl, who’s mother offers an ultimatum: choose between her own son, Jace, or her bad boyfriend, Kief-fer. Jenelle gets in a lot of argu-ments with her mother and is often kicked out of the house. Leah is the only mom who is married and has twin baby girls. One of her baby girls has a strange condition that requires her to go to various doctor appointments. Her

husband struggles with trust-ing her, since she had one affair. Chelsea, is a single mother with a daughter whose relationship with the father of her child Adam is rocky. Her fam-ily is supportive of her but they do not like the fact that Adam in not fully committed to them. Lastly is Kailyn who has a son with Joe; they had a falling

apart and now she has moved on to see-ing anoth-er guy. Kai-lyn is often conflicted b e c a u s e she has to hide her new beau from Joe. He doesn’t l i k e

the thought of his son be-ing with some other guy. This show offers viewers more than just the “reality” dra-ma that they crave. Girls espe-cially could learn a thing or two from watching the struggle that these teen moms go through raising a kid and still not being fully responsible for themselves.

The rapper Clifford Jo-seph Harris Jr. better known as T.Icame out with his own show in-cluding his wife and six kids.The premier aired on December 5th, 2011. The show is filmedback at his home town Atlanta, Georgia. The show is about all the struggles he’s been through andhow his family struggled while he was in jail. It shows how heputs his family first before any

T.I. and TinyThe Family HustleBy: Samantha RamirezStaff Writer

type of business. The first showis when he is released from jail and he surprises his family bynot telling them when he’s com-ing out. When he gets out hethinks of ways to give back for the 11 months he was in jail. Heattends his two boys Major and King football games. Then atthe end he surprises his wife Tiny with a lot of gifts and a niceromantic dinner. The whole fam-ily is happy to see him back. To watch this awesome show you can see it on VH1.

The 12th of December is the Virgin Mary’s birthday. Many celebrations occur on that day, in-cluding Aztec dancing, mariachi , banda as well as praising proces-sions. The praising of the Virgin Mary has amounted to so much that Univision has successfully at-tracted an audience for a Virgin Mary show of its own - “La Rosa de Guadalupe” airs every Wednes-days at 10:00pm on channel 34. The Spanish show con-sists of “ true life” stories that are played by Mexican actors and ac-tresses of all ages. The shows be-gin with a hardship that commonly has to deal with drugs, sex or eco-nomic problems a family is going through . The protagonists of the shows are usually young adults

By: Cristina GarciaStaff Writer

that get into deep trouble and haven’tyet realized that they are on the wrong path of life. Their par-ents, like any other parents, try to save them from falling into a worse scenario that can lead to extreme consequences. But their sons or daughters don’t seem to find rea-son in what the parents have to say. After several attempts of trying to get their son or daugh-ters to reason, the parents give up and plead to an image of the Virgin Mary. Miraculously, the next day the protagonist who is having hard-ships discovers a beautiful white rose just lying there. Later when the show is at its climax, the pro-tagonist feels a strong wind close his or her eyes and suddenly real-izes what he or she is doing wrong . Every episode is different but at the end of every show you find yourself re-thinking and connecting your life to the episode’s dilemma.

La Rosa De Guadalupe