steinmetz star star 2012.pdf · jesus, salutatorian yara garcia, and the other eight students who...

Congratulations class of 2012

Valedictorian Lauren DeJesus, Salutatorian Yara Garcia, and other IB students at top of class

The Top 10 graduates of the Steinmetz Class of 2012: (Back row) Yara Garcia, Lauren Dejesus, Williams Blanco, Brianna Harris, Lizbeth Gomez

(Front) Lucy Licona, Daria Gonzalez, Samanta Balbuena, Malene Sanchez, Andrea Cortez

Good-bye Dr. Madon

Best wishes to our graduates!

Steinmetz StarVolume 77, Number 7, June 2012

Graphic by Shanna Arceo

To Dr. Eunice Madon, principalFrom COL John BaynesAs an instructor who has worked in many

places in this country and overseas, I have been privileged to work for many experienced and excellent leaders. And you are one of the best I have ever worked for — including a couple of 3 Star Generals and many 2 Star Generals! Yes, Steinmetz is a “big monkey” to manage and you have done it with style. Steinmetz’s counselors, teachers, lunchroom staff, security, and maintenance staff will all miss you and your style of leadership.

Being a principal is a lonely job ... deci-sions must be made every day that affect all ... and you have done it ... and done it well. We must thank you for your guidance, dedication, leadership, attention to detail, and manage-ment! You were successful and Steinmetz would not be the “Best in the West” without you. We will miss you.

To the Class of 2012From Dr. Eunice Madon, principalI’d like to offer a heartfelt congratulations to

the Class of 2012. Four years ago, you entered

Steinmetz as girls and boys. Over the last four years, you were challenged by rigorous academics. You have formed your own supported opinions about the world and its people. You developed

skills that you will call upon as you enter the next stage of your lives. You are graduating as young men and women. Congratulations and best wishes for much success.

By Star staff

While hundreds of graduates deserve recognition for their hard work, new learning, and good grades, the

Star points to the Top Ten as the best of the best.

Class of 2012 Valedictorian Lauren De Jesus, Salutatorian Yara Garcia, and the other eight students who rank in the Top Ten, were all part of the rigorous International Bacca-laureate (IB) program at Steinmetz.

Not only did Lauren Dejesus, Yara Garcia, Daria Gonzalez, Andrea Cortez, Williams Blanco, Lucy Licona, Brianna Harris, Saman-tha Balbuena, Lizbeth Gomez, and Malene Sanchez excel academically, during their years at Steinmetz they participated in extra cur-ricular activities and made lasting friendships.

Lauren Dejesus will attend the University of Wisconsin on a tuition-paid Posse schol-arship. She is planning to major in biology.

“IB is very stressful and I didn’t have much ‘me’ time for the past four years,” she told the Star. In addition to her studies, Lauren ran four years of track and three years of cross-country.

“There are a bunch of struggles,” she said. “School is only one part of life, but when you’re in IB, it becomes your 24/7 and you have to put everything else on hold. It’s worth it, but it made me a homebody. I didn’t have enough time to be a teenager.”

Her advice to other students is to avoid drama, especially other people’s drama, be-

cause “it’s not worth the headache.”She said that in the IB program she learned

not to procrastinate, and that “kidney’s are awesome, my favorite organ!”

Lauren said she liked all her teachers, and especially enjoyed English class, with math and art being her worst subjects.

“I try not to take everything for granted,”

she said. “Appreciation is one of the great-est gifts.”

Yara Garcia will attend Illinois Wesleyan University.

“Working hard finally paid off, it was very hard staying on top of my work,” she said.

“At Steinmetz I have met a lot of people that I have become close to. My division is the best. I think a lot of people might see us like we are a bunch of nerds, but in reality we are all so goofy, and ridiculously funny, crazy and active. For four years I have spent all my time with the same people, and sometimes I get tired of them but all of my best memories of Steinmetz are with them.

“A lot of the times in class all I heard was ‘Chicken butt,’ ‘Why not?’ ‘I’m tired of this,’ ‘Can we just do nothing?’ and more. One thing that we IB students did was complain, complain, complain, but we got through it and it feels great to say ‘I am done with IB

testing!’ “We have hung out numerous times out-

side of school. We have gone to the beach, played soccer at the park, gone trick-or-treat-ing, filmed hilarious clips for class, had movie/video game days and more.”

Continued on Page 4

Longer day won’t help most students

Kaylee Sherrod wins $1,000

Response to attendance editorial

Junior Kaylee Sherrod won first prize in the Chicago Farmer’s Market reusable bag art contest. She received $1,000 and her design on this year’s reusable bag.

2 Steinmetz Star June 2012

Star News2

Steinmetz StarSteinmetz Academic Centre, 3030 N. Mobile, Chicago IL 60641

773-534-3030, Star office x 25241; [email protected]

www.steinmetzac.com (“Steinmetz Newspaper” link)

Principal: Dr. Eunice Madon Assistant principals: Mr. Jaime Jaramillo, Mr. Donald Mendro, Ms. Lynne NuzzoBudget director: Mr. Paul ChaseStar adviser: Ms. Sharon Schmidt

2011-2012 Editors-in-Chief: Tetyana Prannychuk, Crystal Phillips2012-2013 Editing Team: Jennie Czahor, Judy Czahor, Amanda Gidney

Journalism class reporters, Room 333, 5th period: Ricardo Arroyo, Anyssa Ascencio, Lupita Ayala, Mateusz Baranowicz, Javier Barrera, Lucas Burrell, Destiny Carpenter, Jasmine Colon, Brigette Diaz, Haywood Gandy, Desiree Garcia, Cristia Hart, Nayeli Hernandez, Briana Mitchell, Filip Palka, Agnieszka Pasterczyk, Crystal Phillips, Monserrat Rafael, Yazmin Ramirez, Brittany Rob-ertson, Antonio Rodriguez, Juan Rodriguez, Chantesha Rogers, Jonathan Ruiz, Armin Skenderovic, Jazalynne Velez

Newspaper club reporters: Shanna Arceo, Denzel Brown, Jasmine Cadiz, Kiara Davidson, Jennifer Czahor, Judy Czahor, Lauren DeJesus, Javier Delgado, Amber Dukes, Wendy Flores, Stephanie Garriga, Amanda Gidney, Julia Gonzalez, Alexa Hamer, Tavonna Howard, Malica Lacy, Jordany Martinez, Tabitha Morales, Desiree Reyes, Maria Sanchez, Nailya Sanchez, Saremm Saenz, Julian Salgado, Noreyma Salgado, Stefanie Stelmach, Justyana Szczech, Shem Stasik, Jeremy Valentin, Jalan Veal, Miguel Varela, Quijna Walton, Salma Zaghdoud

The Newspaper Club meets on Thursdays after school in Room 333. There is work to do over the summer.

Summer meetings: If you would like to join the staff for meetings in July and August, email us at [email protected].

The Steinmetz Star welcomes letters to the editor, corrections, comments, and bylined articles from all members of the Steinmetz community.

Printing: Mr. Hugh Hefner’s June 2011 donation to the Star covers the costs of printing the paper at NewsWeb Corporation, Chicago. •

By Jennie Czahor [The following is a copy of the speech that Jennie presented to the Chicago Board of Education on May 23.]

Some think increasing school time is a great idea, and that it will enhance students’ education, but in reality, it’s a detriment to the lives of a majority

of students and staff for a number of reasons. To begin, these students and faculty members have

families that they need to get home to, and if these people live far away, it will be even later in the day that they get to see their children, spouses, siblings, and friends. They will be missing out on the quality family time that they need to build strong, supportive relationships with.

Some high school students are parents, as well, and need time to be there for their children. These people also have other jobs that they want to get to, and if the school day is lengthened, they will either need to push back their hours, or work less.

We need to think about those students who are in clubs, sports, or in some other after school activity. Think about how late some will be staying for practices and games, and how exhausting that will be. Also, those who get a lot of homework, such as IB and AP students, will have less time to complete their assignments, especially if they have after school activities.

At my school, this means that next year’s seniors (and the seniors in years to follow) aren’t going to have the privilege of 8th period lunch, which is a tradition that Steinmetz has been carrying on for many years. It’s not about having the ability to leave the building an entire period early, but how the students utilize the time.

Seniors have used that time to go to a job, stay home and help with siblings, complete assignments, and do their gradua-

tion requirement of 40 service learning hours, so even though it might seem like a small thing to many people, taking away that lunch period would actually harm some of the students.

Those who are proposing this idea can’t put themselves into a student’s shoes. They also don’t take into account the mind-set of certain students. They won’t see that what they believe is going to help will actually be a detriment to the learning experience.

You can’t lie and say that students, specifically high school students, will want to be in school that long without ditching

or just not coming to school all together if they aren’t go-ing to consider tolerating a longer school day. You could argue that those who resist change are destined to fail, but we’re teenagers.

Some of us live in our own little bubble of solidarity, and that’s ok, because we are in a time in our lives where we can explore our interests, and we can learn to change, but we change when we can engage in things that inter-est us, or when we do things that we must, like take up a job or complete service hours or extra credit work. We can change and grow socially by going to our afterschool activities and still get home and do homework or what we need to do with the school hours we have now.

When thinking about the grade-schoolers, they’re simi-lar to the high school students, because they won’t want to pay attention, either. Their attention spans are short, and teachers aren’t going to throw a parade every day to make sure students are paying attention. They won’t be

able to deal with change anyway. My mother works as a cafeteria woman at a grade school, and when she switches the white milk bins around with the chocolate milk bins, they panic. Children are very uncomfortable with new things, and moving in to a new grade next year, as well as a new time schedule, will be very rough.

This extra effort and money should be put forward towards children who need it, like special-ed students, those are the ones who truly need the additional time and focus. As for what grade school children should be doing

with the extra time, they should be at home, spending time with family, or out playing and blowing off steam, because, otherwise, they’ll become agitated and aggravated, and you’ll have a misbehaved child on your hands.

The same might as well apply for high school students, too. We just can’t be in school for this long of a time. After-school involvement is heavily stressed, anyway, but we won’t be able to do that unless we are given sufficient time after school be involved.•

On behalf of high school students throughout the city, junior Jennie Czahor spoke to Chicago Board of Education President David Vitale and CPS CEO Jean Claude Brizzard, at 125 S. Clark Street. Although many elementary school parents spoke at Board meetings against the longer day, Jennie is the only Chicago student who protested at a Board meet-ing about the issue this year. She signed up for public participation at 8:00 a.m., then was made to wait until 1:30 p.m to speak. Students on a field trip from Kelly High School stood with Jennie in solidarity. After Jen-nie’s presentation, Mr. Vitale merely responded by saying he heard the same things from his daughter, who is also a junior in high school. The schedule for Steinmetz students next year is 8:00 - 3:30.

May 17, 2012The May Star included an article about

senior graduation requirements: “Ceremony should be for all graduates,” by Miguel Va-rela. I believe it is important that this article be put in perspective.

The administration is expecting all se-niors to attend school 90 percent of the time in order to cross the stage. Remember this means that students are expected to attend school 9 of every 10 days.

In a typical month, students already re-ceive two or more non-attendance days. In the month of September students’ first attendance day was the 6th, and students did not attend on the 23rd and the 30th. In the month of October students did not attend the 10th, and the 28th. In the month of November students did not attend the 10th, 11th, 17th, 24th, and the 25th. And finally in the month of December students did not attend from the 26th – 30th.

So in the first four months of school there were 121 calendar days, 90 week days and 72 days of student attendance. In or-

der for a senior to cross the stage he or she was expected to be here 65 days between September 1st and December 31st. This is little more than every other day per month.

To call the administration policy unfair is laughable. Education should be every student’s top priority and learning cannot take place if you do not participate. In my opinion the 90 percent rule should be ex-tended to be cumulative for all four years.

All the data show that student perfor-mance and student success is directly tied to student attendance. Our own school shows strong trends between high achievement and student attendance. These achievement numbers are seen in grades, test scores, scholarships, and college acceptances.

The staff at Steinmetz wants all students to be successful and to go on to achieve their goals. The first step towards success is to be present. Come to school, go to class and participate in the process. You will be surprised at how much you will get!

Sincerely, Susy Sullivan, teacher

Performers put forth huge effort

The Imperative Unity of a Single Organism

By George Vazquez

Ihn order for organisms such as ourselves to flourish and be hap-py, we have to receive the right

amount of love, nutrients, disci-pline, and positive reinforcement for the things we do that promote selflessness.

If we were to all receive these things — which we definitely should — we would grow up to be kind, caring people.

The people you and I know today which act in a cold or uncar-ing manner are victims of getting raised in an environ-ment that promotes not being nice to each other, but only worrying about themselves because it is the safest way to go.

But, if we as a society were to transcend our artificial boundaries such as race, skin color, economic status, sex, religion, and social status, wouldn’t it be clear that we are all humans simply wanting to find our niche in the world?

We fight wars because we think we have to. We commit crimes be-cause we are afraid of each other. We argue with each other because of our differences.

The society we live in today imposes on us negative ideas. On television, we see action shows that exhibit violence and antagonists that have to hate the protagonists. We see sports games that in the end only mean that the team who wins is

more superior physically and more in touch with luck. We see comedy shows that no matter what, mock something or someone. But, of course, all of this is entertaining to everyone on some level (some higher than others).

The sometimes unfortunate thing is that we all walk away with something of every experience we have. When we watch violence on television, our tolerance of

violence weakens a little. When we cheer on our favor-ite team, we hope the other team messes up. And when we laugh at the fictional character that broke

his leg after doing something stu-pid, we lack empathy because we laugh as if we’ve known the real pain of getting hurt. Sadly, this isn’t even the real world.

The real world experiences we encounter everyday are far more sub-stantial than those we see on televi-sion. But, it is far worse when we see the kid getting bullied and walk right past him/her; a person cry-ing and we don’t even think it’s our problem; and when we hear the ig-norant comments our friends make and do nothing to educate them.

Fortunately, there are good things we can walk away with sometimes. When we leave school, we walk away with more intellect than when we arrived. When we meet with our friends, we find ourselves happy

By Jennifer Zeszutko, teacher

Hear the Steinmetz Beginning Choir performing “Rolling in the Deep” in a virtual concert by clicking a link on the school website — www.

steinmetzac.com.A virtual concert is a new way for musicians to

create and expand a live show using Internet stream-ing. The technique has been popular amongst col-leges that often stream their live concerts for friends and family out of state and partner colleges overseas. Bands such as U2 and Metallica have also hosted virtual concerts as a way to help connect with fans on a more elaborate level.

As music technology grows, the ability and ease with which people are sharing music has become a musician’s dream. I saw Metallica streaming a live concert while I was in Sweden last summer and an-other virtual concert from Northwestern University this past December.

With the ongoing renovations in the auditorium I figured our beginning choir could do something similar to a virtual concert for our spring performance. Although not streaming live, you can still listen to our performance by clicking the link under “Announce-ments” on the Steinmetz website. •

Beginning Choir performs first virtual concert

By Justyana Szczech

The show must go on, is how the famous phrase goes. Yet to be able to

fulfill this quote it’s absolutely painful on all types of levels: mental, emotional, and physi-cal, especially for clumsy people who fall down numerous times, like me!.

Putting together a play takes a lot of energy and commitment, but the benefits are absolutely phenomenal, from how you feel when you are preforming on stage to having fun backstage. You feel great day in and day out and it carries on with you for weeks!

Take my word for it, I am happiest as can be from all my experiences from the play. As we worked on the play, we went through all kinds of waves of emotion. Most were great, some not so fun, but the overall mood from it was fun, exciting, and unbelievably, deliriously happy.

If anyone would like to participate in any future plays,

Mrs. Meunier would love to have you next year. But beware, you have to be able to put froth a lot of effort, and come to practice as much as possible. Don’t worry — practices are fun.

All the people involved were fun, especially the seniors. Janet, you were funny the entire time, Lewis, you were awesome so easy to be around. Natalia, you were so cool, and amazing

as the wind! Geremy, you were so fun to be with, easy to talk to and very helpful whenever there was a nervous breakdown. You were awesome to be with backstage. I learned so much from all of you. •

What we have to do is look at the person next to us and the

people all around us for a single day and simply think, “You

are my brother. You are my sister.”

Some members of the cast of “The Search for Delicious,” performing their afternoon show on May 17. Drama club sponsor, Lynda Meunier has revitalized the school’s theatre program. Before the production of “Delicious,” it had been many years since the last school-wide play.

that we have a place in the world where we could be. When our par-ents smile at us, we walk away with their smile in our hearts. When our family comes back from the war, we feel more grateful than ever.

It is not the time sit on the bench in this point in time when ignorance is being portrayed as okay, nor is it the time to assume our world prob-lems will go away with a prayer to our Father or a letter to our congress.

You’ve all seen how we can tackle

problems like Kony as a collective. But, instead of joining the enthusi-asm to stop a horrible man, let us all come together as peaceful, loving human beings to save each other from the suffering our pioneering lives have endured. We do not have to riot to change our misfortunes. We do not have post posters to change the way people think.

What we have to do (and this is the easiest thing in the world) is look at the person next to us and

the people all around us for a single day and simply think, “You are my brother. You are my sister. You are unique. You are powerful. You are beautiful. And I want to see you smile forever.”

No matter what we do or say or think we cannot ever, ever, ever deny the fact that we are not machines and that we are all, each and every one of us, a slightly different colored leaf on the same tree under the same sun. •

June 2012 Steinmetz Star 3

Star News 3

‘I B going to college!’

Top Ten students worked, played hard

Lauren Dejesus Daria GonzalezYara Garcia


Star Seniors4

By Salma Zaghdoud

The International Baccalaureate Program (IB) is a rigor-ous course, which consists of college level classes from junior year to senior year. It is a very tough program to

get through because of constant homework, projects, essays and testing.

Though many people get a chance to play in the sun during the 2011 summer, we had to stay inside to finish our extended essay, TOK essay, or our internal assessment. Every year students constantly dropped out of the program and we are now left with 23 amazing people in the IB senior class of 2012.

I believe that every single one of these people deserves recognition for their ambition and hard work: Samantha Balbuena, Williams Blanco, Amando Calderon, Jessica Con-neely, Gabriela Corral, Christopher Cortes, Andrea Cortez,

Laron Croft, Lauren Dejesus, Amber Dukes, Yara Garcia, Stephanie Garriga, Daria Gonzalez, Lizbeth Gomez, Brianna Harris, Lucy Licona, Kelly Martinez, Anna Omelyan, Carmen Perez, Malene Sanchez, Stephanie Tapia, Kathy Zavala, and me, Salma Zaghdoud.

As a class we went through some extremely difficult ob-stacles, and were often on the verge of breaking, but we had each other’s support along with our amazing teachers, who

made us the people that we are now.They, as well, cannot go unrecognized: Ms. Ochwat, Mr.

Arroyo, Ms. Perez, Ms. Barnes, Ms. Sullivan, Ms. Mark, Ms. Smunt, Ms. Dominguez, Mr. Pereyra, Ms. Mittleman, Ms. Ferrarini, Ms. Patel, Ms. Chaparro, Ms. Daughenbaugh, Ms. Kokoszka, and our amazing division teacher, Ms. Rezny.

Without these teachers we would not have gone as far as we are now. We are prepared for the future, and we are confident that college will be a breeze because we already got a feel of it in high school. As a class we all plan to attend college.

Sadly, since some of us have been together for four years in the same class, it is hard to face the reality that we are all splitting up, some going as far as Oklahoma and Idaho and some of us are staying right here attending great universities such as UIC, Roosevelt and DePaul.

This is it; we are on our own, with the right survival skills to keep going wherever our future takes us. •

Most of the IB graduating seniors with division teacher Rachel Rezny

We went through some ex-tremely difficult obstacles, but we had each other’s support.

Continued from Page 1 “I can truly say that I will miss everyone one

in the class. Going to Prom made me realize that the end of our high school days are truly over and that makes me quite sad.

“To Division 240: I will miss you guys so much and your silly jokes. Lets hang out as much as possible before we part ways! From: The Nerdy Bookworm.”

Daria Gonzalez will be going to University of Illinois to major in biology. She’d like to become a pediatrician. She said she is inspired to do this after three near-death experiences.

“I’m very proud of myself, and the hard work I put in these four years has paid off,” she said. Daria played softball for three years, volleyball for one year, was on the track and cheerleading teams for one year, and partici-pated in the recycling club.

“It was extremely stressful having a job, do-ing sports and being inIB,” she said. “I would go to school 8-3, work from 4-11 and do home work from 11-2 at times and do it all over again the next day. This was junior year, my

senior year I quit the job and focused more on school. It was best for me, I realized so much after having a job what life was about.”

Like most of the Top Ten students, Daria

lost a lot of sleep.“It was a struggle to keep up — having to

get home at 5:00 and prepare for the IB exams. It was extremely stressful. My hair is falling out

still! Trying to have a social life was difficult, but doable, I just didn’t get sleep.”

Continued on Page 6

All IB graduates are ready for college

LaRon Croft, Northern Illinois University

Armando Calderon and Carmen Perez, Wright College

Anna Omelyan, Wright College

Kelly Martinez, University of Illinois at Chicago

Gabriela Corral, University of Illinois at Chicago


Star Seniors 5

Amber Dukes: Oral Roberts University, Tulsa OK

Stephanie Garriga, Roosevelt University, Chicago

Stephanie Tapia: DePaul University, Chicago

Salma Zaghdoud, University of Illinois at Chicago

Jessica Conneely, DePaul University, Chicago

Christopher Cortes, Wright College

Katherine Zavala, Wright College

Top Ten students worked, played hard

Andrea Cortez

Williams BlancoLucy Licona

Malene Sanchez

Samanta Balbuena

Lizbeth Gomez, Brianna Harris


6 Star Seniors

Continued from Page 4 She pointed to several outstanding teach-

ers: “Mr. Pereyra taught me how to love biol-ogy and changed my studying habits, an amaz-ing teacher. Ms.Smunt changed how I write completely! The best English teacher I ever had. Ms.Rezny — awesome to have someone to count on, with anything. Ms.Barnes and Mr.Kotchera for improving my Spanish a lot.”

Daria said she learned many lessons.“I learned how to prioritize, who and how

real friends are, how to lose and win, team work, how to socialize, not give up and how to study.”

Her advice to other students is “work really hard if you want scholarship money to get in the school you want. Join as many sports/clubs as you can, take rigorous classes and learn to get alone with people!”

Andrea Cortez will go to Wright College. “I particularly struggled as a senior because

I had to juggle so much,” she said. “With track, work and IB, I had many late nights with homework, labs and essays. But if I had to do my senior year all over again, I know that I wouldn’t change a thing because what I have done has opened so many doors for my future.

“Academically, I have achieved so much that I feel so proud of myself, but personally, I have had so many memories with the IB class that I wouldn’t have had with any other class.”

Andrea said her favorite memories are the times she hung out with her friends.

“Those memories are priceless,” she said. “For example, when we dressed up for Hal-loween junior year and went out for candy. We actually made a short video. It was hilarious, by the way! The time I lost a friend in Target, the times my friends feed me or gave me rides, and when we chilled all day and got annoyed with each other, and just recently prom was great: going in the limo with my buddies, dancing with random people I have never seen before, all these memories will make me miss Steinmetz.

“Hopefully I will keep in touch with these people! Even though I managed to have fun, everything was not fun and games. There was also a lot of stress involved because of IB. But now that I think about it, I am proud that I made it through, because it was worth it.”

Williams Blanco will attend Southern Il-linois University.

“Being placed in the top 10 feels good to be recognized for all the hard work done,” he said. “When graduating you will stand out and people will see me as a very studious person and be noticed for my hard work.”

“My parents don’t speak much about it but I know that they are proud, and later in life doors will open up for me. I believe I am very prepared for college by pulling through the

IB program. I will be ready because I chose to do the hard work now then later on down the line.”

Lucy Licona is going to Brigham Young University-Idaho where she would like to study physical therapy. She played soccer for one year, ran cross-country for four years, and track for three years.

“My favorite memory would be all those good times spending time with friends,” she said.

Lucy also explained how difficult it was to get enough rest.

“I rarely had sleep,” she said. “I would be really moody at my house because of lack of sleep, and my IB work would be affected. It was hard to study for tests. I would try so hard.

“I sacrificed so many things. I would rarely go out with friends or watch TV. I would say my junior year was the hardest I had the

ACT and more work like the extended essay and International Assessment and the Labs. It was hard, but it was really worth it when I look back.”

She said every teacher helped her devel-opment.

“I usually liked hearing about teachers’ experiences when they were young, seeing what brought them to become teachers,” she said. “I got really into reading plays this year in Ms. Smunt’s class. My favorite play was ‘Taming of the Shrew.’ It was super fun go-ing to Navy Pier to see it. I hate math! Sorry, Mrs. Sullivan.

“So, lessons from high school: Be more open minded to new thing and don’t ever procrastinate. To underclassmen: Never give up on school, try hard to get good grades, and stay out of trouble.

“And one more thing, thanks to my class-mates. You are the best. I will miss you. These two years have been the most chaotic and at the same time fun. I love you.”

Brianna Harris will attend DePaul where she will study Business Management. Like many of the top students, she participated in track for four years.

“Track has been an amazing experience,” she said. “It was a lot of hard work and I wanted to quit everyday but I loved it too much. I love my teammates (past/present)

my coaches and how much I’ve gotten better as a runner over the years. It will be very hard to say goodbye.

“Track made IB a little harder. I had late meets at times and I had to bring my home-work along with me and do it in between races. It was exhausting, but I kept my grades up and even received an award as a Scholar Athlete.

“There were a lot of struggles I had to over-come. I was struggling with my social life a lot. I could not spend as much time with my friends (going to eat, shopping, etc) or even eat dinner with my family because I had to study. It was hard because I felt lonely at times. I also could not bake as much because I didn’t have the time. I had to tell myself it will be worth it in the end and if I sacrifice now, I will be rewarded later.

“My best subjects are biology and litera-ture. I love to read poems and novels and I am a pretty good writer. I also am really fascinated with human physiology and anatomy.

“My advice to underclassman would be to work hard. The harder you work the more op-portunities will be available to you for college. Do not get side tracked with drama, friend-ships and boyfriends because in the end most of the time you will never see those people when you leave Steinmetz anyway. Focus on you and your future.

“Ultimately, I want to be pastry chef and open my own bakery. In 10 years I see myself as a multi-millionaire with a chain of bakeries, a world traveler, married with three children.”

Samanta Balbuena is going to Wright Col-lege.

“Completing the International Baccalaure-ate program has been one of the best experi-ences and decisions I have made,” she said.

“I feel very fortunate to have had the op-portunity to meet beautiful people with so much spirit. They’ve made such an impact in my life. I will never forget all those nerdy conversations, endless hours of studying for biology class, the excitement of being under pressure, and our Facebook family.

“Also, I will never forget my teacher, my coach, and my friend, Mr. Pereyra. I admire his passion and love for what he does. He’s always spoiling the entire team and having a wonderful character with each of us.

“After spending most of my lifetime with my IB class, and having to learn how to deal with each other, I’ve learned how to appreciate you all. You’ve become an important part in my life. Forever and ever IB love. “

Lizbeth Gomez is planning to attend Wright and then Western Illinois University.

“This year, I was involved in track and field,” she said. “Like always, it was an ex-traordinary experience to see the girls grow as a team, but to also see that I grew as a person, as a student and as an athlete. Being involved in an extracurricular activity made managing my IB classes that much harder because I wasn’t used to that much work at once. Regardless, I enjoyed the experience of doing what I love the most because it taught me exactly what I have awaiting in college.

“One of the teachers that I admire above all is Ms. Smunt. She has gone above and beyond not only to teach the senior IB English class, but also the rest of her classes. Not only did she push us to our limits, she made sure that everything we did in class was important to our rigorous curriculum. Not a day was wasted in her class, and that motivation that she had for the class was clearly visible. Wherever her students go after high school, we will all take her in our hearts because she has engraved so much in us already. She should know that she made English class enjoyable for me and all the students.”

Malene Sanchez will attend DePaul. “Steinmetz gave me the chance to get to

know some amazing friends, not just in Divi-sion 240,” she said. “The most unforgettable memory was meeting my special someone, Alexander Garcia. When times got hard dur-ing those sleepless homework nights, he was there supporting me. So I would like to thank him for everything!

“High school for me was a time when I created memories with my friends. For three years I was a member of the track team and for two years I was in cross-country. To balance sports and IB, I taught myself how to manage my time and organize myself; the two main things I feel confident about while attending DePaul University this fall.

“I realized my hard work was worth it because I got $26,000 in scholarship money. What I’ve learned throughout the process is to never let anyone underestimate your abili-ties, just do your work and it will pay off.” •

National Honor Society members

Scholarships offers to seniors

With ten new seniors in-ducted on May 30, the National Honor Society

includes 44 seniors. The induction program included

NHS President Christopher Cortes’s message, and speeches on scholar-ship, service, leadership, and char-acter by Lizbeth Gomez, Williams Blanco, Stephanie Tapia, and Sa-manta Balbuena.

Dr. Eunice Madon, principal,

also addressed the students and their families. A reception in the cafeteria followed. Teacher Beth Perez spon-sors the NHS.Senior NHS members

Juan Agustin 213 Viviana Atempa 212Kassandra Badillo 249Samanta Balbuena 240 Catherine Beltran 249Williams Blanco 249 Diana Cabrales 249

Dayan Castanon 271Giovanny Castillo 218 Olivia Cazares 249Gabriela Corral 240Christopher Cortes 240 Andrea Cortez 240Lauren Dejesus 240Geric de la Pena 233 Amber Dukes 240Edwin Duran 214 Martin Espino 213Yara Garcia 240

Stephanie Garriga 240 Lizbeth Gomez 240 Daria Gonzalez 240 Brianna Harris 240Fernando Hernandez 215Vanessa Hernandez 249 Nichelle Johnson 234 Jared Klein 249 Lucy Licona 240 Dedee Lunjas 249Benito Martinez 215Kelly Martinez 240

Karen Marure 249Michelle Molina 232Tabitha Morales 230 Marlene Nunez 230Alicia Padilla 211 Agnieszka Pastercryk 215Carmen Perez 240Patty Rivera 216Malene Sanchez 240 Armin Skenderovic 216Stephanie Tapia 240 Kindeli Williams 249

They truly came the furthest By Lydia Ryan, teacher

It’s difficult for me to think about a certain group of students without being overcome with emotions. They make me so happy

that at times I will laugh to myself on my car ride home just thinking about what Earl said or what Lucinda did or what Edwin wrote. Or my eyes will flood with tears when I think about how proud I am that Carlos is going to Purdue or that Nichelle and Manny will be in the same dorm at U of I or that I get to attend orientation with Alicia and Ghely. These people are so much more than students.

When I became a teacher, I wanted to build special, meaningful relationships with students. ut I didn’t realize that I’d fall in love with a group of kids. I feel so blessed for the relationships we have with each other—they are rare and unique and beautiful. These students have taught me how to be a great teacher. They taught me what life is re-ally like for many people in this world. They taught me about tattoos. They taught me that sometimes a batch of brownies makes the world so much better. They taught me that you can deep-fry pizza rolls. They taught me that certain people can be

your family even if they are not, technically, your family. They taught me that black girls’ hair gel is brown because their hair is brown … duh, Ms. Ryan. And they taught me that I was born to be a teacher: their teacher.

When we first started our US Empowered journey together, I told them that at the end of it all they would be able to say with confidence “I came the farthest.” I knew all along that they could become beyond successful And when I look at the people they are today, I know I am right. They truly came the

furthest. I know Changa will be a world-class chef, and Rolando a successful paramedic. Megan will be the cosmetologist everyone wants to go to, and we will read about Chris S.’s heroism in the newspaper. Chris Hall will publish poetry and songs, and Jocelyn will make people healthier and stronger. Yaritza, if she can ever act like a lady, will help criminals turn their lives around. Armon may even il-lustrate some childrens’ books. Gio will heal the sick and Meosha will either educate our young people or be a cheese connoisseur. Violet will figure out what she wants to do… and she will be really, really good at it. And then there’s Derek, too.

I love these students. They will forever be my students. And I will never forget the

time we spent together at Steinmetz. Although our journey here at Steinmetz is coming to a close, I look forward to our future together. Earl, Carlos, Gio, Jocelyn, Edwin, Manny, Chris, Changa, Lucinda, Nichelle, Megan, Armon, Meosha, Ghely, Alicia, Rolando, Violet, Derek, Patty, Chris, and Yaya: I am more proud of you than I have ever been of myself. I am dedicated to you eternally and I love you very much.•

Ms. Ryan and her senior US Empowered students

Salma Zaghdoud 240 •

Seniors Vanessa Hernandez, Patricia Rivera, Michelle Molina were chosen for National Honor Society this year.

Ten seniors, twelve juniors, and ten sophomores were inducted into the National Honor Society on May 30.


Star Seniors 7

Division 211Alicia Padilla- Concordia University $56,000Violeta Ramirez- Blackburn College $2,000Division 212Viviana Atempa- Devry University $12,000Division 213Martin Espino- Roosevelt University $28,000;

Dominican University $27,200; Concordia University $30,000

Rolando Ramirez- North Park University $20,000; University of Illinois at Chicago $5,000

Division 215Fernando Hernandez-Johnson-Wales University

$22,000; Culinary Institute of America $3,000Agnes Pasterczyk-DePaul University $26,000Division 218Givanny Castillo- Dominican $38,000; University

of Illinois at Chicago $3,420Clarissa Chepillo-Martinez- Lewis University $20,000Janet King- Roosevelt University $6,000Filip Palka- Dominican University $33,200Marco Silva- Illinois Institute of Technology $104,000

Division 230Olga Martinez- Concordia University $18,000Tabitha Morales- DePaul $18,000; St. Xavier Univer-

sity $60,000; Concordia University $56,000Marlene Nunez-Concordia University $52,000Division 232Michelle Molina- North Central College $11,100;

North Park University $19,200; Dominican University $19,600; Grand Valley State University $29,600

Division 233Geric De La Pena- Dominican University $42,800Christopher Hall- St. Xavier University $28,000;

Loyola University (New Orleans) $28,000; Augustana College $56,000

Desiree Taylor- Concordia University $18,000Division 240Jessica Conneely- Concordia University $52,000;

DePaul University $31,000Gabriela Corral- DePaul University $26,000Christopher Cortes- Illinois Wesleyan University

$56,000Andrea Cortez- Dominican University $34,000

Laron Croft- Northern Illinois University $16,000; Walmart Dependent Scholarship $13,000

Lauren DeJesus- University of Wisconsin at Madison (POSSE) $118,000; Bradley University $36,000; Con-cordia University $56,000; Roosevelt University $16,000

Amber Dukes- Lakeland College $22,000; Oral Rob-erts University $28,000; Communication Arts Scholar-ship $2,000

Yara Garcia- Dominican University $47,200; Knox College $56,000; Illinois Wesleyan University $52,000

Stephanie Garriga- Roosevelt University $20,000; Northern Illinois University $2,000

Lizbeth Gomez- Valparaiso University $50,000; Northern Illinois University $6,000; North Park Uni-versity $24,000; Western Illinois University $4,000; Con-cordia University $56,000; DePaul University $34,000; Comcast Leaders and Achievers $1,000

Brianna Harris- DePaul University $26,000; Chicago Merchentile Exchange $1,000; North Avenue Business Association $1,000

Lucy Licona- Brigham Young University (Idaho) $4,000

Kelly Martinez- Northern Illinois University $7,000Carmen Perez- Northern Illinois University $3,000Malene Sanchez- DePaul $26,000Stephanie Tapia- Golden Apple $23,000; Concordia

University $30,400; DePaul University $34,000; Do-minican University $24,000; Columbia College $12,000; George Williams College $20,000

Salma Zaghdoud- Concordia University $52,000; Dominican University $42,800

Division 249Diana Cabrales- Dominican University $43,200Jared Klein- Illinois Institute of Technology $70,000;

Ball State University $8,000; Fordham University $82,400; Marquette University $48,000; MS Society $1,000

Deede Lunjas- Lewis University $40,000; North Park University $20,000; Northern Illinois University $3.000

Karen Maure- DePaul University $18,000Charnae Turner- Xavier University (Ohio) $56,000;

Illinois State University $20,000; Northern Illinois Uni-versity $3,000

Grand Total: 2,532,920.00

What will you remember about Steinmetz?

By Lupita Ayala

Five months ago, in the middle of my senior year, I transferred to Steinmetz from Benito Juarez. I was new to this

school and the north side neighborhood. At first it was difficult because I moved

from somewhere where I had lived my whole life and transferred from a school I attended with all my friends for three and a half years.

Soon I met new people and it wasn’t as bad as I thought. People were friendly. I started to make friends, and not only that, but I started

By Anyssa Ascencio

I’ll always remember the freshmen year food fights. They were hilari-ous. Everyone would either start

running to take cover or hide under the tables. There was one week when we had a food fight everyday. But it wasn’t much fun when the following week we had cold lunch all week.•

By Matt Baranowicz

Iremember transferring here my junior year from Elmwood Park. At first I thought I wouldn’t like

it, but then I met Asia Kuczynska, my beautiful girlfriend.

My best memory of Steinmetz is being with her everyday. She put up with a lot of my crap, but I’ve learned how to be a better boyfriend and I treasure her.•

By Javier Barrera

The best thing about my high school years was when I met my girlfriend Em-ily in my 3rd period class senior year.

She helped me with a test the first week of school. For some weird reason I felt a con-nection with her right away.

I love her so much and her laugh. We un-derstand each other even with the most simple things. Who would ever thought after helping me out with my class she would become part of my life. Now she is the most important girl in my life. •to feel more comfortable here. Over time I

started to like Steinmetz. I’m glad that I am going to graduate from a great school.

The best memory that I’m taking from Steinmetz is a great friend, Jessica Torres. In so little time we became best friends. The funny thing is that we met in the lunchroom. She was one the first people I met when I trans-ferred here. She showed me around and we talked more and more and noticed that we had things in common and we started hanging out and became best friends.

I will always remember her, and I’m thank-ful that she was a great and special gift. If it wasn’t for her I wouldn’t know anything around Steinmetz. She’s been there for me these few months —to listen to me, to give me advice, to support me, to protect me, and to make me smile when I’m upset. That’s why I love her so much.

I wouldn’t pick any other memory better than meeting a good best friend. •

By Tetyana Prannychuk

My favorite memories at Steinmetz were in journalism class. Mrs. Schmidt has made me realize that

I love journalism.I’ve had an awesome time writing for

the Steinmetz Star and have had fun spend-ing time with my friends and my favorite teacher! •

To friends and staffFrom Tetyana I would like to send a shout out to all my

friends at Steinmetz who have made me feel loved and missed when not there! I’m going to miss everyone but I’m sure we’ll all keep in touch.

I would also like to send a shout out to all my wonderful teachers who have helped me become a better student, especially Ms. Schmidt and Ms. Szulkowski, who have made me a better writer!

Good luck, everyone!


Star Seniors8

To Lily Jimenez, Nicole Garcia, teachersFrom Lupita I want to shout out to two of my very good

friends. They’ve both been there in our crazy mo-ments when we hang out. They make me laugh all the time — about dumb things and jokes about anything. I can trust them with anything. They are both good friends and good listeners. I really appreciate them and care about them and think that since there my two best friends they deserve the biggest shout out!

Another shout out to two of my favorite teach-ers. They are very caring, brilliant and smart. Since I came to this school they have supported me with anything. They understand me when I need help, and have taught me a lot in this semester. The two classes that I had with them I worked hard. That’s what they taught me — to work hard and stay on task. That’s why these are my favorite teachers and they deserve a shout out. To Ms. Sharon Schmidt and Ms. Maribeth Ward!

To friends and EmilyFrom JavierI want to give a shout out to Los Mafiosos,

who I had lots of fun with this year, and, of course, my baby Emily, who I love a lot.

To Freshmen Connection leaders, From Judy Czahor

I wish that you guys were all juniors, and that there was a work program at Steinmetz again so that we could all spend the summer together one last time.

I can’t thank you all enough for being some of the sweetest work colleagues that I’ve ever dealt with and not to mention some of the most genuine people I’ve ever met.

All I can think of are great laughs, amazing stories and warm hugs (not just because it was sometimes 90 degrees most of the time.) I know all of you will be incredibly successful and happy in life. It stinks that this is such a bittersweet ending. I love all of you.

To Tetyana Prannychuk & Crystal PhillipsFrom Judy CzahorYou guys have done such a great job as co-

editors-in-chief of the newspaper that I feel hon-ored to follow in your footsteps as one of the new editors-in-chief along with my sister. To be able to succeed after you feels amazing, especially since your legacy can be picked up, carried on, and never forgotten.

Even though we had few conversations, they were always entertaining. Thank you both for being such wonderful people. I’m definitely go-ing to miss you.

To “Search for Delicious” castFrom Justyana SzczechGeremy, have fun. No failing any classes,

or else I will get you. You’ll do fine. It’s you, after all. You get away with everything! You’re really cool.

Janet, you are so awesome and funny. Have a great time in school. I know you will do great in medicine or learning to be a nurse. I kind of lost this little fact about you, but it doesn’t matter. I believe in you! Have fun on campus!

Natalia, you are so nice and funny. You are so cool to talk to. Have fun. I know you’ll do great! You are a great singer!

To all seniors, bye bye. You all will do great. FYI: I’m good luck!

To Nikala KeltonFrom Quijna WaltonFirst off I want to say you’re the best. I am

so happy I met you because ever since I met you I’ve looked at you as a sister.

I am so thankful for all the advice you have given me through the year, whether it had to do with the boys or just petty drama created by females. Regardless of what it was you always treated me like a little sister.

I am going to miss you so much. I love you, Sis, and I wish you the best in college.

To senior swimmersFrom Jalan VealEven though I was only on the team a little

while, I loved it. Salma was a very great captain. I love talking to her. Each time I do she leaves me with smile on my face. She motivated the team to not just believe winning is everything. “Win or lose, we’re having fun. Steinmetz team is number one.” That quote is my mind set!

Lequeshia is my best friend. She always makes me laugh. She is funny (of course), pretty, silly, and a great swimmer. I wish she could stay here with me, but good luck.

Now, Nikala is something else. Every time she got near someone you automatically smile just because you saw here.

To teachers, IB family, all seniorsFrom Amber DukesI would lime to send a shout out to my one

and only White Girl! We have been through ups and downs for four years, but you have always been there for me. If there was no one else there, Barnes was there and I will always love you for that!

The next people are my two favorite English teachers — Mrs. Rezny and Ms. Smunt. These teachers have been influential in my life in many ways... I will really miss them!

I will also miss my IB family! We all have a love and hate relationship but I really do love them all.

And finally, for all of my regular students/homies! I love y’all too! Especially my sisters and brothers!

To Amber DukesFrom CJ DukesI had a great first year in high school with

you. You helped me with everything I ever needed. I love everything about you. You’re so inter-

active and ambitious and everyone enjoys your presence. You are such a great girl.

Even though you’re leaving for college, we will still be incredibly close. You are the greatest sister in the world and I don’t know where I’d be without you. I love you so much.

By Lucas Burrell

One of my favorite memories during my years at Steinmetz would have to be the senior lock-in. We were able

to play basketball and have all the snacks we wanted. Pretty good night. •

Loving the laughter, friends, and basketball

By Destiny Carpenter

My most memorable moments hap-pened everyday I spent laughing, talking and enjoying quality time

with all my Steinmetz friends.•

By Jasmine Colon

Being a transfer student and coming into this school after the first six weeks of the year was hard. I was overwhelmed

by a completely new environment but because Steinmetz welcomed me and made me feel comfortable, it became easier for me to adjust as a student here.

Although I found myself missing my friends and old teachers from my previous school, I’m truly grateful for all the people I’ve met and became well acquainted with. Now, I can look back at my high school memories and include another fine school to all my high school ex-periences. I have no regrets being a Steinmetz student because I’ve achieved here to my full potential. I want to give a shout out to Stein-metz high school in general for making my senior year possible. Thank you. •

By Brigette Diaz

During my four years here I have had many unforgettable memo-ries. I had many great teachers who

taught me many things I won’t forget: Mrs. Schmidt, Mr. Cave, Ms. Bates, Ms. Mark, Mr. Amdouni, Ms, Zacharia and many more.

I also met real friends I won’t ever for-get, staring with my two main girls Natalia Escalera and Denise Blanco. You girls have really been the best of friends, the kind you can go to and won’t judge.I honestly can’t think of something that would of made my years at Steinmetz better.

I’m ready to start college and go out to the world. I’m leaving happier than ever, for the facts of being part of Class of 2012 and making my family and boyfriend proud. Thanks to all the staff for all your hard work. •


Star Seniors 9

To Haywood Gandy, friends, DesireeFrom JasmineI want to give a shout out to Haywood, my buddy

with whom I’ve shared every class with and whom I’ve become more than acquainted with. He is someone I’ve considered a guy best friend and is completely unique from anyone I’ve met.

To my girlies that I’ve kept in touch with throughout the school year — I love you all and am happy to have met you. Let’s hope that high school is not the end of our appearances together. You are all lovely and beautiful young ladies and I will always remember every indi-viduality about you.

Lastly, I want to dedicate a huge shout out to my look-a-like cousin and best friend, Desiree Garcia. I don’t even know where to begin with you because of so much that we’ve encountered together.

We go way back from our grandparents staying in touch, to our parents growing up together and now you and I are just history from the same blood that repeats itself. You are one I can truly call family and despite our minor altercations, there’s never been a time to where you’ve turned your back on me.

I wouldn’t just call us cousins, I accept us more like sisters, not because we look alike to many but because of the bond that we’ve created. I am grateful for a person like you in whom I can open up to about anything without having to worry about you judging me or tell-ing me otherwise.

I now believe the saying, two opposites attract because despite our differences, we couldn’t be a happier team and create a family-friendship love this strong. You are my partner in crime and I wouldn’t change anything about that! I’m looking forward to many more memories to embrace with you in the future and I can’t wait for this summer! We’re going to party, party, party.

You have my trust, my heart, and my companion-ship for as long as you want it. Always and forever will love you, my Desi.

To Star staffFrom LucasShout out to the Star gang — Jazzy V.,

Jasmine C., and hungry, hungry Haywood G. Thanks for making this year a memorable one with all the fun we had. And Haywood, you still have to show us what you learned to cook from the Food Network channel.

Peace, Young Luke 12345678969#OKC

To family, friends, counselorFrom DestinyMy first shout out goes to my mommy.

There’s an endless list of things she’s done for me and I appreciate them all!

Next, is to my personal therapist/ coun-selor Ms. Moumji. You are truly wonderful and have great patience dealing with me. Se-nior year would have been extremely difficult without you. Of course a big shout out to my little sisters Nikki, Niqe, Kittie and Thea. You spoiled brats are a handful. And to my good friend Torrian. Shout out to friends, teachers, associates and the class of 2012.

To Lucio HernandezFrom Denisse Freyt

I’ll never forget the guy I met junior year. We were good friends, my best friend, and now my boyfriend, my prom date ... Lucio

To friends and staffFrom Jasmine ReeceI really

do not know where to start, so many people have made my four years here in the METZ amazing, from friends, to counselors, to teachers and even staff members. Some specifi-cally I love so much are Ms. Ryan, Ms. Moumji, Ms. Mark, Ms. Schmidt, Ms. Laura, Ms. Russo, Fena, Dr. Frierson, Ms. G, Mr. Cave, Mr. Everage, Sam, Richie, Ms. Gonzalez, and most of all my SQUAD.

They all know who they are. There are way too many names to type, but my journey with you throughout these halls, especially my Boo, Donneka Anderson “Yea, we Did Dat.” Mwuah, Jazzy loves you!

To my favorite studentsFrom Sharon Schmidt, Star adviserYou are part of a long, proud tradition of

publicizing the valuable people of Steinmetz. Hopefully, you see the importance of your service to your school and your growth as writers. I hope all of you continue to pursue journalism. You already have a good foundation.

I loved working with reporters in fun and funny 5th period, after school, just randomly in the halls, and in Room 333 at times when you were supposed to be in your other classes. (Thanks, colleagues, for letting that happen sometimes.)

It was a pleasure getting to know you all, se-niors on the Steinmetz Star. If it could be possible I would say you were all my favorite students.

Tanya, you are the most dependable staff member I’ve worked with yet, and I will miss you so much. For two years you’ve done excellent work on the Star. You have been willing to do anything that needs to be done for us to have a good paper and you do it all very well — report-ing, writing, and editing. I’m only sorry I didn’t ask you to do more. Thanks for bringing much joy to all your teachers.

Crystal, I want you to return to us. You’re talented and special, but you don’t know every-thing yet. Please come back. We love you here.

Saremm, you’ve got more enthusiasm and real meaning in your journalism work than anyone I know. I’m privileged to know you. I’m proud of your hard work and I admire you so much. I loved your beautiful photos and detailed writing. It means a lot to me that you chose to fill your already busy life with extra curricular work on the Star.

Destiny, Destiny, Destiny. You pushed me and I liked it! Thanks for your clear commu-nication, intelligence, and logical attitude and expressions. You’ve made a strong impact on the Star these past two years. I wish you success and willingness to learn.

Excellent reporters Agnes, Lucas, Jazalynne, Lupita, Antonio, Desiree, Ricardo, Jasmine, Brittany, Briana, Anyssa, Juan, Monserrat, and Jon also did a great job covering many interest-ing stories.

Although staying somewhat private in our raucous “staff meetings,” Chantesha, Nayeli, Brigette, Matt, Filip and Yasmin regularly added to the Star’s complete coverage.

Haywood gave regular smiles to all staff members. Armin shared his passion.

Miguel and Shanna provided some strong opinions and awesome photos. Kiara, Jeremy, and Megan could always be counted on for additional perspective.

Amber and Salma contributed well-written pieces throughout the year. Thanks to George, Janet, Stephanie, and Alexa for your senior year work, too. We’re grateful you found the Star a place to share some interesting news and photos.

Enjoy your summer. After four arduous years you deserve it. When you get back to school, please remember a few journalism lessons when writing your college papers:

Lead with what’s important. Quote others. Paragraph often. Editing helps. Proofreading is a necessity.

I’ll remember you always. Your words in the Steinmetz Star, Volume 77, Numbers 1 – 7 keep you living on here forever.


Star Prom10

To friends and staffJessica TorresAs we all know senior year has been an amazing year. It has

been very tough, but along the way we have those who made things all better.

I want to send a shout out to the security guards. Toby: You made senior year so fun. Our long funny talks at lunch with “Our Crew.” You made our days better. When I was upset or had a bad day all I did was walk into 8th period lunch and I couldn’t last 10 minutes without laughing because you and Our Crew always knew what to say. You treated me like a friend and not just a student and for that I thank you. You’re awesome! You’re a nice, caring person and I will never forget you.

Richard: You’re the best, just plain and simple! Walter: Oh, Walter. Well you made this year interesting. You bothered me

probably more then my sisters, but you are a cool person. I will never forget you. Ms Gonzales: You’re an awsome person. It was so fun having you at lunch making fun of Toby.

Shout outs to my favorite teacher:. Ms.Bates, Ms.Mark, Ms.G. Wow, where to start? You are like my parents. You all took me by the hand step by step. When I needed help or just simply wanted someone to talk to because I felt down you were all there and I love each and everyone of you for that. You did much for me. When I wanted to quit, you helped me pick myself back up and keep going. You all kept me out of trouble. I will never forget anything you have done for me. You each have a very special place in my heart.

To all my friends: Olga, Cupcake, Magali, Marlene, Steph, Tabitha, Vikki, Mireya, Cody, Sabrina, Stephanie, Alfredo, Chris, Vianca, Natalia, Jorge, Nikki, Megan, Tracy, Chiva, Malica,

Kim, Eeyore, Ashley, Chicken, Torrian, Ive, Tiarra, Roberto, Javier, Antwan, Brandy, Crystal, Gandy, Johan, Lucio, Fret, Nina, Reyna, Sara, Zuraima. I love you all, you’re all amazing! You made this last year the best. You all had my back and you all made this an unforgetable year. (If I missed anyone I’m sorry!)

To Ariel, Lupita, Lilly, Monse, Juke: You were the ones I told everything to. You all told me everything we kept each other close, I love you guys like family. I will never forget about you. You all know I will always be here for you no matter what, all you have to do is hit me up. You all made me laugh, as well as made me mad, but it’s cool. I guess that’s what made our friendship differ-ent and crazy. Tough love. Keep in touch, cause if not I’m going to blow up your phones! School is almost over it’s time to party. I love you, my banana. And Ariel, YWTD.

Class of 2012, we made it!


Star Prom 11

To KeyshlaFrom Stephanie MunozI love having you as a sister. You should have a great summer

and enjoy it while it lasts, because you’re starting college soon and you going to be busy like crazy. We are going to have a crazy summer break. Love always, Stephy

To Frank BlandDanielli PerezShout out to my dearest Husband. Wow! The year is finally over.

Frank, you have so many dreams and thoughts on what to do in life; I know you will do well after you graduate. I wish you the best in everything you do and I hope to hear form you after graduation. I love you, Buddy! We’ve had our mini fights and many laughs. In the end we had a great time and I’m glad to call you mine.

To friends and teachersFrom Alicia PadillaI want to send a special shout out to Vivi, Dayan, Ghely,

Jocelyn, and Gonzalo. Thank you guys for all the support and friendship that you gave me. I love you. We’ve been through many things together, and I’m going to miss you so much.

Another shout out to Manny, Carlos, Jefferson, Rolando and Fernando. Thank you, guys, for laughing at my jokes, and thanks for being my friends. I love you and I’ll miss you a lot.

An enormous shout out to the person that supported me, and is going to keep supporting me just because she is amazing. She has gave me the courage and help to achieve my goals. Thanks Ms. Ryan for your dedication. You’re a wonderful teacher.

Finally the most important shout out to the two persons who help me and guide me everyday to be a wonderful person — my mommy and my boyfriend. I love you both with all my heart.

Thanks to all the teachers and staff members of Steinmetz for all their support. We did it seniors, finally graduating! 2012! Congrats and I hope everyone has a future full of opportunities and happiness.

To Miguel Varela and Shanna ArceoFrom Michelle MolinaYou guys are truly wonderful friends. I don’t know what I

would do with out you. We have been through so much over the four past years and we’re still friends. I hope we continue to be friends throughout college. Thank you guys for always being there for me!

To Nicodemius MylesFrom LeQueshia Milton I would like to shout out to my best friend for two years, Nick.

Love, LeQueshia

To friendsFrom Andrew MaggitDon’t really want to leave nobody out, so shout out to “every-

body” in the Metz.


Star Prom12

To NataliaFrom Francisco BolanosHey, its me, Fresa. Where do I start? We barely

met this year because we were doing the show, but it was enough time to get along with you. I may have acted goofy at times, so sorry if I got annoying.

Don’t forget about us just because you’re leav-ing us behind here. Remember that we don’t get to live forever, so enjoy life to the fullest all the time, even if you go through tough times you can always get yourself back up.

By the way I like your singing. I see a talent there. Before I forget, sorry for scaring you. Juan, Charles and I are going to miss you.

Take care and congrats, you finished with one of the biggest stages of your life. Congrats to all graduating seniors.

To friends and staffFrom LaQuisha NicholsDear Dear Jazzy, Boobie, Lequeishia and

others, I just want to say I appreciate the loyalty y’all showed me throughout our friendship. I love y’all the same amount even though I have individual relationships with you all.

Lele, you were my friend as soon as I found out we had the same name. Jasmine, we grew close out of nowhere and our similarities caused our friendship to grow from there. Bernette, you ain’t got it all, but I love the fact that you don’t care about how anybody feels about your personality..

All of you make me laugh and I have so much in common with each one of y’all. Even if we had bad times, I would over look them because you three are very special to me, and I will never forget you, never!

I want to give a shout out to Dr. Frierson and Ms. Russo for helping me accomplish everything that I have and being patient with me.

Also I just want give a shout out to the whole senior class, all of my guy friends and to all my Y.B.B. girls. We made it. Class of 2012!

To Javier BarerraFrom Desiree ReyesWe met this year in algebra because you were

slow your freshmen year. We had a lot of fun times there and in and my 8th period class. You are awesome. I’m going to miss you.

To friendsFrom Kisha Walker It’s going to hurt my feelings that my best

friends are going to leave this year! My Best Homie: Earl! My Homie, best friend, sister: Desi Taylor. My New Homie: Luis.

Y’all keep your heads up! Go to college! Enjoy y’all selves. Miss y’all, love y’all!

To friends and teachersJessica MolinaI want to send a shout out to all the Class of

2012! We made it! Now, it’s our time to shine. I also want to send a shout out to all my friends, especially my BFF Cinthia, who has guided me all these four years of high school. And thanks to all my teachers, including Ms. Mark, who never gave up on me.

To teachers and friendsFrom Fernando Hernandez Something I will always remember about

my years at Steinmetz is Ms. Ryan and all my great teachers I had for the past four years. Also, Manny Gonzalez and his famous red cheeks, and to all my friends I know and hang out with. Y Ay Saludos a Los Mafiosos De Parte De Changa! Y Compa Kevin y Compa Jose y todos los Mexicans.

To family, friends, teachers, boyfriendFrom Diana MolinaClass of 2012, we finally made it to the end.

It was hard, but it was all worth it! I want to wish everybody nothing but the best!

My high school years have been amazing with everybody I spent it with. High school had lots of drama, rumors, heart breaks, lovers and ev-erything you could think of it. I want to thank all my friends that stuck with me since freshman year, and for those who came in my life through these four years.

My teachers, my mom, and my boyfriend and friends who didn’t let me give up and pushed me to finish what I started. High school brought me so much drama! I’m going to miss everybody and I hope to see everybody in the future. The memories I have with everybody I will keep with me everywhere I go. For those who I lost as friends for something small, I still had an amazing time with everybody! Good luck, 2012. I will miss you!

To Malica and softball seniorsFrom Sarah LandorI would like to send a shout out to my love,

Malica Lacey! As you already know, I’m going to miss you like crazy! And congratulations to all the seniors I’ve met this year through softball like Amber, Kaila Guzman, Gee, and Patty. I’m going to miss you guys! Congratulations, Class of 2012.

To seniorsFrom Vikki GonzalezI’m so proud of all of my seniors! You lucky

jerks made it! Thanks to you, Tracie, Desi, Yeya, Monse, and Heather, I’ve had such a fun high school experience.

Even though it brings me to tears to think that I won’t see you guys everyday, I’m glad you guys are moving on to something bigger and better. Can’t wait to go to your college parties! I love you guys! XOXO Vikki

To friendsFrom Donald SteeleI want to shout out to all my homies in Stein-

metz. I don’t want to leave anyone out so there will be no special names. Y’all mean something

to me. I’m going to send a shout out to all my Steinmetz fans and haters. you all motivated me to be the 1 i am today.. thank you!! Donald Steele

From Manny GonzalezI want to send shout out to the whole class

of 2012 and for hanging on this whole year. I also want to send a special shout out to Ms Ryan for helping the whole 5th period class even when we would act like jerks. I wish all the graduates luck with their futures!

From Julius PaytonI would like to give a shout out to my best

friend Garlen Adams and my good friends Kauti-sha Fraser and Brittany Robertson.

I hope that high school has been a delight for you over the past four years. I’m sad to see you three leave but I know its only to better yourselves and prepare for the world ahead.

Don’t forget about me.

To Ms. Karen Gold, Ms. Alice Bratko, and Ms. Kim Mosgaard-Zacharia

From Ms. Sharon SchmidtThe three of you leaving just knocked out a

big chunk of the heart of the English department. You will all be missed so much. I’m happy for you, though, that you won’t have to deal with the crazy changes to the curriculum (imagine teach-ing English without emphasizing literature!) and the increasingly insane expectations for public school teachers.

I admire all of you for your good work over so many years. You’re an inspiration.

To Division 249


Star Prom 13

From Ms. Beth Nickels PerezIt has been a pleasure seeing you grow and

become the young adults you are now. I’m so excited to see you graduate and move on to more wonderful things. Don’t forget about Steinmetz and me in the future — come back and visit and keep in touch! Love, Ms. Perez To Jean-Nicka, Ilse, Salma

To friendsFrom Maria Sanchez I’m giving out a shout out for my buddies. I will

miss you all. I can’t believe you are graduating! I am going to feel so sad, but happy! Congrats, you guys! If you guys hear someone screaming for you for sure it will be me!

I want to give out a shout out for by taco! Jean-Nicka Biasbas! She is the one senior I trust with my whole life. The girl I trust the most. But wait she isn’t a girl anymore. Once you step on that stage you wont be no high school girl but

My second shout out if for Ilse Castellano . Cholo, I will miss you! You’re such a cheater! I want to get a rematch! I will be so proud of you once you step on that stage. Get your diploma, and start your life. You will be in front of so many things. So many possibilities, those opportunities, the real world. When Tracy reads this she will get so gelouse. She thinks I’m stealing you from her. But it’s her fault, she introduced us. You’re a great friend. Congrats.

My third shout out is for my swim team captain, Salma Zaughdoud. You taught me so much. You made me realize so many things, like the way to go through things. Next year the swim team won’t have someone to yell their lungs off to. I know for a fact that I will miss you. Not only me, but the rest of your team too!

To Division 240

From Ms. Rachel Rezny I wish you all the best in college and your

future endeavors. I have seen you all grow into such wonderful young adults these past four years.

You are not only my students, but people who I admire, respect, and love! I will miss you dearly and remember I will always be there for you. All 23 of you are family!

XXOO, Mrs. Rezny

To APES and IB Biology students, and senior athletes

From Mr. Abel PereyraThere is this one incredibly difficult thing

about being a teacher that no amount of educa-tion or professional development has been able to address. In fact, nobody even mentioned it to me at all when I became a teacher.

I am referring to the crushing emotional ex-perience that we teachers have each June when another group of people we have collaborated with for the last four years dashes out those front doors … for the last time. It is something I have never gotten used to … and hopefully never will.

I would really like to submit a “shout out” to every individual senior in my precious IB Biology class; and also to all of you patient souls in my APES class; and, of course, to the shock-ing number of senior athletes on my teams this year. [More to athletes on the sports pages]. But that is a lot of people, and to do all of these individual messages justice would require an entire Facebook page.

To the Recycling TeamFrom Ms. Tara DunneYou guys are amazing! Thank you for your

hard work this year. You prove to me every week that a small group of dedicated and committed people can make a difference in this world.

To all graduating seniors, Division 240 and 249, and retiring staff

From Ms. Tamara JabourA special shout-out to all the graduating se-

niors! This year I really have enjoyed getting to know and working with many seniors that I didn’t know before this year through the college and career center. Congrats to all of you!

I’m really going to miss “my babies” in Divi-sions 240 and 249. I watched you grow and mature from young freshmen to the strong young adults that you have become!

Go out and conquer the world. You all have a lot of talent and each of you can be successful in anything that you want to achieve. Don’t be afraid of any obstacles that come your way, tackle them and move on. There is way too much out in the world to see and learn from, so don’t let anything get in your way!

Happy Retirement to Dr. Madon, Mr. Mendro, Ms. Pham, Ms. Gold, Ms. Doral, Mr. Kowalczyk, Ms. Mosgarrd and Ms. Bratko.

Enjoy your retirement, do all the things that you’ve “put on hold” and catch up and much needed rest and relaxation! Thank you for all your years of service to the students of Steinmetz.

To Lucas Burrell and Jose OrcasitasFrom Mr. Toby UrianDon’t forget what we all shared and learned

in “Real Talk.” If you ever need advice or an opinion I am here. I also want to give a shout out to my 8th period lunchroom table. You guys know who you are. We had some interesting discussions. Good times. Congratulations to all the seniors.

To Amber DukesFrom Ms. Nicole BarnesTo my daughter: I can’t believe you are already

graduating! I will be honest, there were days I didn’t think you would make it but you have grown up so much since your freshmen year. I am so proud of you and I wish you nothing but the best of everything as you enter the next stage of your life! Watch out Oral Roberts, here comes Amber Dukes!

To all the retireesFrom Mr. Jaime JaramilloThank you for your many years of dedication

and service to our students, colleagues and com-munity. Your hard work will impact generations of families for years to come. I wish you the best during your retirement and hope everyday is filled with rest and relaxation.

To Mr. Don MendroFrom Ms. Sharon SchmidtWe’re sad that you won’t be around for a few

more years. But while you won’t be here on our small scale, I hope you will continue to fight the good fight for public education in a city-wide or state-wide arena. You’re someone with much cred-ibility behind you from your years of experience and your strong support of teachers.

Remembering the fun and hard work ...

By Haywood Gandy

My best memory of senior year is my 5th period class with my friends and Mrs Schmidt. •

By Filip Palka

Something I will always remember about my years at Steinmetz is Mrs. Schmidt always telling me to do my

work. •

By Agnes Pasterczyk

Iwill always remember the amazing friends I got to make and some really cool teachers. I learned so much here, not only education-

based things, but most importantly who I am and who I’ve grown up to be. •

To friends and familyFrom AgnesI want to thank all of my friends for all the

fun times we had together! I’m going to remem-ber you all.

I’d like to thank Ms.Schmidt for being the coolest and greatest teacher ever! She made this year really amazing and she gave up so much for us. Thanks, Ms.Schmidt! Also, Ms.Buckmaster — best teacher ever! Just sayin’ !

Thanks to my family (especially my amazing mum; I love you!), friends and teachers. My four years were really amazing.

By Briana Mitchell

Honestly my best year here at Steinmetz was freshman year. I made a lot of cool friends. We always had each other’s

backs in school and out of. We always made sure we were still focussed in class, but we also had laughs and jokes. It was great to know that I’m ending my high school journey with wonderful friends and people I trust. They always seem to challenge me to put forward my best and I thank them for that. •

To Ms. Ryan, Yasmin, Miguel, Olga, and other friends, entire Class of 2012

From Violeta Ramirez

Just four years ago we wore our green polos for our first day of high school. We were excited, ner-vous, anxious, and probably even a little scared. These four years in Steinmetz have built many of us. We made promises, found love, built friend-ships, and learned life values. Now the time is here with just a few days away from graduation and a mix of emotions.

I am thankful for all the hardworking teachers who motivated me. A special thank you to Ms. Ryan for being my main motivation. I love you, Ms. Ryan.

I don’t stress it enough how thankful I am to you for being so helpful and caring. I am sorry if I got on your nerves at time, though. You’re the most caring teacher, thank you.

Yasmin, I love you and I am so happy we have made it this far. I am truly proud of you and I am honored to have such wonderful high school memories with you!

To Miguel, who gets on my nerves most of the time, you are an amazing friend.

To the two most amazing guys I have met in high school — Carlos and Derek. You both have been truly wonderful! We have had a three-year friendship and it has been so fun.

To my best friend Oga Gutierrez, who I have had ups and downs with. You are priceless! I am so thankful for your friendship. We have done a lot of crazy stuff together. I cherish every memory. But this isn’t the end for us. College together should be very interesting. I love you, best friend.

And a special shout out to my parents and boyfriend, for being so caring and of great support.

Also, Amaris, Michelle, Giovanny, Edwin, Rolando, Miguel, Shanna, Daniela, and Angelica — thank you for making my high school experi-ence wonderful. Good luck to the class of 2012!

To friendsFrom Olga MartinezSenior

year has been the greatest. Through it I made great friends, though there was drama but it’s all in the past. This school has changed me very much with help of my friends. They helped me real-ize who I really am and helped me express myself.

The people who I cherished the most are:Octavio Valdez — My babe, I love you so much.Veronica Duenas — My twinMarlene Nunes -— Who always feeds meMagali Garcia — Brought out my wild sideStaphanie Agron — Who informed me about every movieGeric De LaPena — with your Asianness xD and the stuffed CarebearTeen Wolf — who brought out my geekiness.Pooh bear — snuggleeeeesssss.Jessica Torres — We’re artiissstttsssTanya Prannychuk — Kitty kitty, meeooowwPiinkaaayyyy — Your artistic and poetic selfKennnnyy-chan — Don’t be a meanie.Josh — You never brought me a sandwich.Josylin — How do you spell “summer?”

And whomever I missed, sorry. I’ll miss everyone and thank you for everything. I really hope we can keep in touch. I love you so much, all of you. I hope you live out your lives to the fullest. And I’ll always be here for anyone that needs me. Class of 2012!

To Lucas BurrellFrom Quijna Walton

Dear Lucus (a.k.a Future), Even though we’ve only known each

other for a short while I’ve had a crush on you since I saw you. You have a great personality plus a great smile, and the fact that you’re cute just makes you a total package.

The fact that you’re leaving leaves a bitter-sweet taste in my mouth. I’m happy you’re leaving and starting your future, but it saddens me to know we won’t have much time to get to know each other.

Congratulations, Lucus. I wish you the best in whatever you do after graduation. Sincerely, Quijna (a.k.a your future)

To friendsFrom Tabitha Morales“My crew” as Russo calls you — Steph,

Mars, Vero, Tanya, Malica, Magali, and Geric — I love you guys from the bottom of my heart!

To friends and StaffFrom Donneka Anderson

Some things I will always remember about my years at Steinmetz are suspensions and get-ting into trouble. I will never forget how I was on the expulsion list and how I made a 360 to get back on track and graduate this year.

I will always remember the teachers and staff that looked out for me and I will never forget the security guard we had our freshmen year, Kenny Poole, and the wonderful office clerk, Juanita.

I want to give a shout out to my boyfriend, Jarvez Williams. Shout out to my two best friends, Brittany Robertson and Jasmine Reese, and my

2012 friends — Lucinda Horton, Chantesha Rogers, Meosha Monroe, Jessica Griffin, Donald Steele, Frank Bland and all the rest of the 2012 graduates. We did it, y’all!

Shout out to my favorite teachers and staff: Ms. Rivera, Ms. Walker, Ms. Cotto, Ms. Michalik, Dr. Frierson, Fena and security guard Sam.

Saving the best for last — shout outs to my (GYT) Girls Group) and Mr. Pereyra. Thanks for being the most nice and most convenient coach.


Star Seniors14

To Jazalynne, Jasmine, LucasFrom Haywood I would like to give a shout out to Jazalynne

Velez, Jasmine Colon, and Lucky Lucy Burrell for being some of the coolest people I’ve met this senior year. We had a lot of laughs and good times.

Lucy, only time will tell if you can beat me in 2K12.

To friendsFrom Armin Skenderovic I just want to wish everyone a great sum-

mer. For those going to college and those who

have chosen the military. I wish nothing but the absolute best for you all.

I leave to Marine Corps Recruit Training the 18th of June and I will be back late Sep-tember to raise hell for 10 days.

To all of you (including teachers and staff) who I recognize as friends, I love you and be safe!

Remembering the fun and hard work ... Wonderful teammates, teachers, and friends

By Monserrat Rafael

I remember all the time spent with the girls in track and cross-country. It was awe-some spending all these years with you

guys. All of you will be in my heart forever. I will also never forget my coaches. •

By Yasmin Ramirez

The good times I’ve spent at Steinmetz are priceless and will remain unforget-table. I know I’m going to miss high

school. I can honestly say these have been the best four years of my life.

When I walk out of this school I’ll be thankful for everyone who motivated me everyday to show everyone my best. Ill be proud of who I am and the lady I’ve become.

A memorable moment junior year in French class was meeting someone who is very special to me, Adolfo Rodriguez — my amazing, caring, and lovely boyfriend.

I’m thankful for having you in my life. Thanks for showing me you care. Thanks for your support, your love, and everything you’ve done for me. You’re one of a kind and I know I won’t find anyone like you again. •

By Brittany Robertson

My most memorable moments of high school were how all of my classmates got along in the begin-

ning of the school year, but unfortunately everything changed and all true colors were brought to light..

Over the years we had competitions — boys against girls in water fights.

The few students I remember and was close with were Donald Steele, Destiny Car-penter, Paris Royal, Jessica Griffin, Andrew Maggit, Antwan Elliot, Robert Metcalf, Frank Bland, Damariya Shelby, Jasmine Reese, Donneka Anderson and many more. Sorry if I forgot to name you! •

To friends and teachersFrom BritannyI would like to give a shout to my set, BSM

— Donald Steele, Andrew Maggit, Frank Bland, Lydell Anderson, and my ladies Chan-tesha Rogers, Jessica Griffin, Brianna Harris, Jasmine Reese, Donneka Anderson and Destiny Carpenter. Man, those moments we had were memorable! I love you all!

I also want to give a shout out to Mrs. Schmidt, Mr. Everage, Mr. Torres (for always keeping up a funny conversation), Mrs. Ramos, Mrs. Rivera, Miss Laura, Miss Gonzalez, Amy, Dr. Frierson, Mrs. Walsh, Mrs. Mottram and many more. I appreciate all that you have done to keep me excelling to complete my high school years!

By Antonio Rodriguez

Something I will always remember about my years at Steinmetz is my good grades. I always maintained A’s and B’s during

my years at Steinmetz.•To Ms. Bates, all seniors, Olivia FloresFrom AntonioI want to send a shout-out to one of my fa-

vorite teachers here at Steinmetz, Mrs. Bates. I really enjoyed your class and you taught me and the rest of the students a lot about art.

Shout-out to all the seniors who worked hard to have the privilege to graduate on stage and make their family proud.

Shout-out to Olivia Flores, the love of my life, who has been my girlfriend all through high school. I love you.

To teachers and Magheen JosephFrom Alfonzo JonesMy favorite memory at Steinmetz is when

we won the Basketball Conference Champi-onship.

I want to thank some of my favorite teach-ers: Ms. Egan, Dr. Frierson, COL Baynes, and Coach Dowling.

Lastly, shout out to my girlfriend Magheen.

To staff, friends, and AlfonzoFrom MagheenI’ve only been here for a year and I enjoyed

being here as a senior. I met great students and teachers. I’m truly glad I attended Steinmetz.

I would gladly like to thank my counselor, Ms. Ocampo, and some of my teachers — Ms. Egan, Ms. Ramos, and Ms. Grant.

And shout to my friends Kiara Davidson, Christian Ward, Jerome West, and to my ugly boyfriend Alfonzo Jones.

Class of 2012 — Let’s go!

To Lauren DeJesus From Braulio LagunasI just want to say I’ve had a wonderful year

with you, and I’m ready for the years to come porque I know you’ll be there helping me up when I fall, laughing at my bad jokes, and liking squirrels with me! I love you, and I’m ready! We are greater than distance.

To Braulio, From Lauren Braulio, my pasia, my Forrest, my best

friend, the love of my life! Let’s just say the past year has been really crazy and I’m happy that it’s been you that’s experienced it with me.

Thank you for always accepting me. You’ve taken me at my worst and my best and you always take care of me. You’ve been my founda-tion and I couldn’t be more thankful.

I love how you’re always honest with me. You keep me grounded. I love how you make me laugh, even when I don’t want to. I love how you introduce me to new things, you’ve helped me grow up.

I’m really proud of you! You do a lot for everyone without asking questions. You’re a good friend, a great brother, an awesome son, and a beautiful person. I don’t know what I would do without you.

I know that next year is going to be compli-cated with me leaving and all but I love you too much to let anything or anyone interfere. No llores, no llores! We’ve shared too much! Even though we’re completely opposite and we don’t agree on things sometimes, you’re my everything. You always make me feel better and me gusta! Tu es mi corazon and I love you too much. Love, Lauren

To BrittanyFrom Latia Curtis First, I’m going to start off by saying that

I’m going to miss you girl! Everyday I’m getting sadder because the day is getting near that you will leave us all.

You were always happy and in a playful mood that made anyone’s day when they were around you. I’m going to miss you cracking me up in 4th period... whenever I was sad any day your goofy moments made me forget what I was upset about without you even knowing. I thank you for that.

I know that you can’t stay with us forever and that you have to go start your new and exciting life, so I wish you the best. I know it’s going to be hard when we say our last good-byes because the best kind of friends are the ones that you share good times with, and you have shared many of those with me and the people who you have met and touched over the past years you been at Steinmetz.

So often we walk around with the weight of the world on our shoulders, but we will never know when you’re hurt or in pain cause you always keep a smile on your face. It was nice getting to know you and you sharing memories of humorous interactions that you had.

Love, Latia (aka TiaBoo)


Star Seniors 15

To Coach P.From MonserratThank you so much for being there for me

all this time. Thanks for all those times when you gave me advice when I needed it the most. Also, I would like to say thank you for being more than just a coach , you where like a dad and not only to me but to all the girls in the team. You were always making sure that each and every one of us was okay.

I really don’t know how to express how much I will miss you. I hope you keep coach-ing because that’s something that comes to you naturally. Love you, Coach P. To friends

From Yasmin RamirezI’m thankful for the friends I made in

this school. Thankful for having an amazing friend, Angelica Orihuela. I love you! You’re the best! I’m thankful for having you in my life. I promise you that our friendship would remain forever real. I love you BFF!

I want to send a shout out to Miguel Va-rela. Even though we would disagree on a lot of stuff I still love you. Shanna, thanks for being a true friend, and for trusting me on many things. I love you! Amaris M. and Michelle M. I love you girls!

Violeta, I love you. You’re my other half and even though we argue all the time you know I love you so much. I can’t explain it!

To Yasmin, Giselle, friends, staffFrom Angelica Orihuela

This shout out goes to the whole class of 2012 and to a couple of teachers: Ms. Egan, Mr. Greco, Ms. Ward, and Ms. Ryan! Thank you all for that extra help and push I needed.

There have been two special people I’ve met during high school —Giselle Jimenez and Yas-min Ramirez. I will not forget any memories that I’ve made with Giselle. I’m thankful for

meeting her. She gave me that extra push during junior and senior year.

Shoutout to Isabel, my 5th period, Haywood, and Violet. I love you guys!

Keep in touch over the summer:

[email protected]

What would school be without romance?

By Juan Rodriguez

Even though I was here at Steinmetz for two years I can say that I had a really amazing two years and met a

lot of nice students and teachers. •

By Armin Skenderovic

B y far my favorite memory of all is sophomore year when I began talk-ing to Daria.

We went through a lot in our high school days. We faced many obstacles, but we never gave up on our love for one another. I’ve known Daria since 4th grade and fell for her the first time I ever laid my eyes on her.

No matter where life may take us, I will always love her and everything we have. She is one of a kind and she is my favorite memory everyday I’m with her.

I love you, Daria. •

By Jazalynne Velez

Something I will always remember about my years at Steinmetz is having 4th period lunch my junior year with

Kayla, Anabel, Tookey, Izzy and others when everybody got along and it was drama-free.

Another thing would be meeting my boy-friend Eddy. I met him sophomore year and now we’ve been together for one year and four months, the only best friend I have in this school.

And my last memory would be my 5th period journalism class — my favorite class — with all the good times with Haywood, Lucas and Armin. •

By Chantesha Rogers

My most memorable moment in high school was when all the girls and boys used to leave during 7th

or 8th period to go fight each other in front of the school. •


Star Seniors16

To Tania ToledoFrom JuanI would like to give this shout out to my

amazing girlfriend, Tania. Even though we have been going out for seven months I can say that we are not the perfect couple ever but yet we are not as bad. Even though we have had our ups and down you have taught me a lot of things and supported me a lot. You have been there for me though thick and thin and never given up on me.

Thanks, babe, I love you.To teachers, friends, and EddyFrom JazalynneShout out to Ms. Schmidt and Ms. Mark,

my favorite teachers. To my boyfriend Eddy and friends Karina, Tookey, Raiden, Anabel, Kayla, Derick, Haywood, Lucas, Denise, Brian, Armin, Jasmin, and Desiree.

Class of 2012 we made it! Good luck and I hope we all remain friends.

To JuanFrom TaniaI would like to give a shout out to Juan Ro-

driguez who I met this year, and who since then has been a big blessing. More than a boyfriend, he has been my best friend, that shoulder I lean against when I need someone.

These past months together have been cru-cial for both, yet we always find the way to work out whatever is on our way and to bal-ance our differences.

We’re not a perfect couple but we try our best to keep going each and everyday that passes, we have made so many beautiful memories together. I believe that it has been the best year of my whole school career just for the simple fact that I met him, and that will be the most beautiful memory I will always keep.

Thanks for being there for me always and just remember that you’re my world and that I’m looking forward to our future. I love you, Juan.

To teachersFrom JuanFirst of all, I want to start by saying that I

had a really amazing year here at Steinmetz, transferring was the best decision ever. I met some really good people and had some pretty awesome teachers. I would like to give a shout out to Mr. Kotcherha. When I first started at Steinmetz I never though that Spanish was going to be this fun, but yet he proved me wrong. He made learning Spanish very fun, thanks Mr. Kotcherha.

My second shout out is to Mrs. Stubber. I had her for my junior year. I can really say that I also had a really nice learning experience with her. She was very serious, but fun at the same time. Thanks, Mrs. Stubber, for all the support and for being such a great teacher.

Last but not least I would like to give a shout out to Mrs. Schmidt our newspaper CEO and teacher. I learned a lot of things with her, and even though she pushed us hard to do our work, it got done all of the time. Making the newspaper was pretty amazing. I never thought that I would have a chance to publish an ar-ticle, but dreams do come true. Thanks, Mrs. Schmidt, for being a great teacher.

To friends, staff, and ArmandoFrom Jocelyn CeronEmotions, drama, broken hearts and lies! We

have learned a lot from each other. I always knew that I would look back on the times I cried and laugh, but I never knew that I’d look back on the times I laughed and cry. The time has finally come to walk in the world all alone to leave behind the books and the hallways where we’ve grown. I feel prepared for the real world thanks to all my teachers like Ms.Ryan! (A shout out to the Us Empowered Class of 2016!)

And to Ms. Dunne, Mr. Dowling, Ms. Domi-guez, Ms.Mark, and to all the other teachers I have had. Also, I want to send a special shout out to everyone who was there for me in rough times like Vanessa, Thalia, Ghely,Gonzalo, Genesis, Diana, Javier, Alicia, Eddie, and Israel. Thank you guys so much! I love you mucho! You change me for the better! I have learned a lot from you!

I know things will change after graduation but I want you guys to know I will always be here for!

Finally, a special shout out to you, Armardo. We had our moments, some really rough ones! But at the end we still here next to each other. Remember, it’s not always rainbows and but-terflies, it’s compromise that moves us along. I’m happy we are leaving everything behind and having a fresh new start. June 16, 2012. I’m going to miss everyone.

To Jocelyn CeronFrom Armando CalderonI want to give shout out to the most impor-

tant girl in my life, Jocelyn. I have known you for about ten months, ever since I first talked to you the day before the half marathon. Ever since then we have gotten closer and closer.

We had our challenges, but that just makes us stronger and I want you to know that I love you a lot.

If I could I would go through time to the future to June 16, 2012, because that date just isn’t coming fast enough.

I dedicate to you the song Linda Mujer be-cause tu sabes bien que te quiero. You’re a funny, amazing and beautiful babe. And remember I ran a Marathon To-get-her because there ins’t anything I wouldn’t do for you. I’d run 26.2 miles just to get to you.

To friends and teachersFrom Lucinda HortonTo all

whom I am thankful for, I’m in tears! I have so many people to thank throughout all of my years in the Metz: Ms. Lydia Ryan, Ms. Perla Ocampo, Ms. Gina S., Ms. Tara Brownlee, Ms. Marcie Buckmaster, Dr. Frierson, and so many more that I cant name.

Also my best friend Shardaisha Norwood, and all of the Brick Squad brothers and sisters who have been there for me through thick and thin, who have made my days great and terrible at the same time. I’m screaming thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you for sticking your leg out and helping a sista.

Oh, and just because Ms. Schmidt, also who I love, told me to shout out to Earl Billingsley I will. Thanks for having my back. Also, thanks to all the staff and security that loved them some Cinda.

To teachers and friendsFrom Shardaisha NorwoodTo all the people that made my years at

Steinmetz worth it all! To Rachel Rezny for being there for me, to Gigi, Ms. S., for always giving me the truth regardless of whether I wanted to hear it or not. To Ms. G. (Sassy), always there for a laugh whenever I needed one. To Mrs. Schmidt, for making me feel like I’m always a part of the mix. To Ms. Ryan, for always giving me a push that I needed. To Ms. Buckmaster, for our times through sophomore year. To Ms. Russo, for everything you’ve done for me in my senior year. To Dr. Frierson, to Ms. Ocampo, and to all the other staff who helped me.

To my Bestie Lucinda Horton, I love you to death, hun. To my BF Keshyra Cohn for always getting me into situations, and to all my 2012 seniors who made the year what it was through good and bad times. I’m ending this shout out in tears! I love you guys!

To Hether, Priscilla, and JoseFrom Jenniffer Banderas

I’m so happy that Heather Duffy, Pricalla Roldan, and Jose are finally graduating! I’m go-ing to miss you guys so much!

I’m so glad I met you this year. I have so many great memories with you. I wish the best for you in the future. I hope you have an amazing time in college and in your great careers. I thank you for making this a good year for me. I also thank you guys for all the support you gave me when I was going through a hard time. I also thank you for the most amazing and greatest year ever.

I will miss you a lot, but I hope to see you in the future. I love you guys.

Happy Summer from the Steinmetz Star Staff

What would school be without romance? Academic success and personal growth

By Shanna Arceo

My most memorable moment of my high school career was meeting my best friends in the whole wide world,

Miguel Varela and Amaris Molina. It was in 4th period biology, seriously the start of some-thing amazing.

We have become so close that we went from being three individuals to one person, SAM — which stands for the unity of our friendship that is Shanna, Amaris, and Miguel.

I love you guys and I’m going to miss you so much! •

To Michelle, Amaris, Miguel and othersFrom Shanna It’s been a long four years, and in those years

I have met some amazing people; some whom I known from elmentary school, and some who I just met.

Like Michelle, for instance. Michelle, you have seriously become a great part of my life and I am so thankful to have you in my life. You are an amazing friend who people take for granted.

Amaris, we fight all the time. Some of the things we say to each other aren’t so nice, but deep down inside you will always be a part of me. You’re my best friend and I love you so much.

Miguel, you have been the greatest friend that anyone could ever ask for. Although, at times you can be a pain, I love you. You’re very different and I love that about you. You never let anyone stand in the way of what you want and I envy that. You’re the part of me that makes me feel brave and courageous.

To everyone who went to Locke School, I love you all so much, especially Daria, Armin, Yasmin & Anyssa. To the Class of 2012: We did it!

To my teachers, Ms. S, Mr. Kotchera, Mrs Schmidt, Ms. Ocampo, Ms. Jabour, and Ms. Ryan: Thank you.

By Janet King

Something I will always remember about my years at Steinmetz is the first time I was in a play. I enjoyed

working on it and meeting new people. The third time we performed “Search

For Delicious” I got hit in the head with a bucket and hit in the mouth with a play rabbit. I lay on the floor and continued performing like nothing happened.

It was so funny because people heard a noise when the bucket hit me, thinking it was part of the play. Man, I will always remember that! •

To friends and staffFrom JanetI can’t believe senior year is about to be

over and some of us will be heading off to college or doing something productive in our lives. I can’t believe high school went by so fast. This school holds so many memories to all of us.

I still remember the first time I walked into Steinmetz my freshman year. I was so scared, but then I heard Sam say, “Whoa, here come class of 2000 and never.” And that made me laugh and think to myself there is nothing to be afraid of.

High school has really changed me, along with the friends that I met through out the years who I am going to miss when we grad-uate. There are plenty of people I would like to give a shout out to, like the teachers, counselors, coaches, and swim teammates, but I don’t want to leave anyone out but I am going to name a few.

First, I would like to give a shout out to Nikala Kelton. We’ve been friends since our freshman year. This year we found out we were related and we are so close and always have each other’s back.

Second, I would like to give a shout out

By Saremm Saenz

Before starting high school all my teachers told me it was going to be fun, but now that I’ve lived them

for four years I can say they have been the best years of my life.

I thank my parents, all of my teach-ers, main office staff, and counselors who have been there for me and have encouraged me through all these years to not give up.

Everyone told me how hard it would be for me to be a mother and a student at the same time, but here I am standing strong and proud. A few more days and we’ll be through and so glad.

Because we’ve made it ,we’re the class of 2012. We’ve passed every test, every obstacle, and made every decision. I’m so excited.

Words can’t express how I feel about myself. I’ve done it. I’m a student, moth-er, and worker. I may not have made all the right choices in the past, but I sure did take a good one that drove me to where I am now.

I am now looking forward to a new chapter of my life and that is college. I’m going to miss Steinmetz, my second home, the place where I learned it all, where I discovered myself, and felt sur-rounded with so much love from friends and teachers. •

To Mrs. SchmidtFrom SaremmMrs. Schmidt, I love you! You’ve been

such an awesome teacher and friend. I want to thank you a lot for everything you ever did for me — your support, caring, and help.

Ever since I joined the Steinmetz Star staff, I discovered a whole new hobby that I enjoy to the fullest. It was one of the best decisions I’ve made. You’re my inspiration. Love, Saremm

To SaremmFrom Daniel Saenz I just wanted to give you a little message

saying that I’m super glad that you’re going to graduate. (You’re lucky as hell!)

I love you. I want to thank you for the few times you helped me out with my homework.

But not just that, I also want to wish you that you have a lot of good luck in college or whatever it is that you want to do best. Keep your head up and never show a white flag.

By Salma Zaghdoud

5 most memorable moments:5. Getting hit in the face with a vol-

leyball. (Thanks, Gee.)4. Falling down the stairs junior year in front

of the school.3. Bus rides back to school after competitions.

Oh man, those were the most fun!2. Learning about evolution: “Margret they’re

in our house.” And our bones: “Look, mom, my knee finally came in!” Who knew biology would be so much fun?

1. IB senior ditch day, May 22, 2012. •To friends and teachersFrom SalmaI would first and foremost like to send a shout

out to my IB family in Division 240. Being with you guys for three years is making it extremely dif-ficult to leave, and go our separate ways. Gosh, you guys, I love you.

I would also like to send a shout out to my four-year love known as the swim team. Not being a part of you guys is heartbreaking, like you can’t even imagine. It is so sad to let it go, especially because I loved it so much, and I loved you guys so much. Everyone in the swim team knows that though I will not be swimming with you guys next year I will be back, and be by your side for as long as I can, I can never let you guys go.

Mrs. Sullivan and Mr. Henry, thank you for everything you guys have done for me as my coaches. Without you guys believing in me as much as you did I would not have become the strong swimmer I am today.

I also had another love for four years and that would be the Girls Track Team. Never in my life did I expect myself to run, and thanks to a little push, I found I was capable of doing it. I would like to send a shout out to all the Girls Track Team members. Not being a part of your team is also heart breaking. All our fun moments, cheers, and support will be missed immensely. But you are amazing and you will do amazing next year, and I will be there cheering you guys at the finish line, sadly not as a competitor but as your biggest fan.

Mr. Pereyra you deserve a shout out for being such an amazing coach, who believed in me so much, more than I believed in myself. Coach Michalik, Egan and Coach D also cannot go unrecognized for their support and help.

My Biffle Paulinka Ciepiela (polska) you are freaking amazing and dealt with my craziest mo-ment, it will be sad not having you walking down the hall with me, or listening to me going on and on and on about my issues, but you will not be missed as I will see you every day, you better do good your senior year my little one:]. Make me proud!

Shout out to my little dolls, Daria, Diana, Steph-anie, and Lauren. Gosh, IB or life would not have been the same without your craziness in my life. I love you guys so much. Lauren, “once upon a time.”

To all the friends I made at Steinmetz, (don’t want to forget any names but you guys know who you are) — I love you guys. Without you my high school experience would not have been the same.

Ms. Mark, you know what I have to say: I love you. Dr. Madon, you as well, will be missed. I wish you an amazing future outside of Steinmetz. To my graduation class of 2012: Congrats! Ms. Schmidt, thanks for letting me join the Steinmetz Star. You deserve a shout out for being so encouraging.

to Ciara Gold, my little big sister. I love you, girl. We met this year and we are so close like corn bread.

Briana Taylor, my evil twin, I’m going to miss your crazy self! Meosha my boo, I’m go-ing to miss the fact we bring snacks for each other. Olga Martinez, my picture taker, sweetie heartie, oh yeah I will miss you! The cast from “Search for Delicious,” man, it was fun work-ing with you guys. I will miss you!

Mr. Sloan, thank you for allowing the Steinmetz Poetry Club to perform at LTAB this year. I really appreciate you! Ms. Cotto, I met you this year because of the poetry club, and you are an inspiration to me. I want to thank you for all the things you and Mr. Sloan have done for me. I will most definitely miss you from the bottom of my heart. I will also miss my 8th period Spanish class with Ms. Cotto. Man, they make my day with all their jokes and how Ms. Cotto tries to “treat” people.

So I just want to say to the ones I met this year and throughout my high school years at Steinmetz, even though we don’t talk now or probably won’t talk ever again, I want to wish you the best of luck in whatever you are going to do in your life! We are the Class of 2012!

To Ms. Munier, Ms. Diaz, and Ms.

Szulkowski: I want to say I really appreciate you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for allowing some of the students to participate in the play. You all worked very hard and it showed through out the performances. Thank you so very much for what you have done for me. You are all so kind hearted and sweet and fun to talk to. I will truly miss you when I graduate from high school.


Star Seniors 17

Gemini: May 21-June 20

Cancer: June 21-July 22

Leo: July 23-August 22

Sagittarius: November 22-Dec. 21

Capricorn: December 22-January 19

Aquarius: January 20-February 18

Pisces: February 19-March 20

Virgo August 23-September 22

Libra: September 23-October 22

Scorpio: October 22-November 21

Aries: March 21-April 19

Taurus: April 20-May 20

Best college majors

Marcelino and Jorge, hardworking soccer players

Good luck, girls!

By Coach Abel Pereyra

This year I face the loss of so many senior athletes that I can’t let you leave without mentioning how

much you have meant. I have known so many of you since your freshman year! That is four whole years.

This note is a simple good-bye and good luck to all of you wonderful ath-letes. Although I am super excited for you and the bright futures that you all face, I want you all to understand that you will be sorely missed. So, good luck to you always.

Rest assured, you have left your mark on us here in this place. •

By Donneka Anderson

Ijoined the track team as a senior because I wanted to be a part of the team and wanted to get healthy

and fit. My counselor Ms. Michalik and my boyfriend inspired me to do this activity.

Twice I placed in the meets. I came in 3rd place for Shot Put and came in 6th place for Discus.

Track has been very beneficial to me in many ways. I have to say the most is that it has helped me stay on track in school with my grades and made me decide to do a complete turn around this year. I love track and hope to be on the team throughout my col-lege years. •

Even 1 year helped

Excellent football players: Christopher, Lydell, Laron

By Jennie Czahor

This is just for fun; you don’t need to base your future on a horoscope. Follow your heart, do what you want! •

History, philosophy, economics, business, management, political science or international relations, medical and legal studies, military or navy academies, mathematics or statistics, area studies (Latin American or East Asian).

Journalism, marketing/marketing analysis, medical school, business school, teacher’s college, scientific researcher, computer tech-nology.

Journalist, translator, public relations, market-ing specialist, business management, law school, teacher’s college (specifi-cally elementary school), media and communications, advertise-ment.

Art, film, music, lit-erature, psychology and welfare studies, neurology, human resource studies, anthropology, divinity school (priesthood, nun-nery), philosophy, modern language studies or linguistics/translation.

Computer engineer-ing, medical school, law school, military academies, translation or creative arts, political science, international rela-tions, diplomacy, public administration, business administration, leadership studies, area studies (East Asian or Latin American), marketing and man-agement studies.

Computer science, engi-neering, or law school, accounting, financial studies, math, business management or econom-ics, medical school or in computer science.

Accounting, finance, math or other scientific majors, teacher’s college, teach-ing English as a second language, or literature, communication and

Physics, chemistry, computer science, medical school, military academies, law school, communication, market-ing, business or human resources.

Psychology, communica-tion, marketing, cross-cultural studies or area studies (African studies or Latin American stud-ies), NGO studies, social welfare, community health or sociology, biology, medical studies, veterinary studies or pharmacology.resources.

Medical school, law school, biology, chemistry, physics, political science, international relations, economics and business management, computer science and engineering.

Business administration, advertisement, architec-ture, engineer, landscape design, technological design, political studies, communications and broadcasting.

Advertising, interior design, researcher, graphic design, engineer, archi-tectural design, business management, English major, creative writing, journalism.

By Nicholas Kotcherha - Campora

Marcelino Lagunas and Jorge Mejia were our only senior varsity players. Marcelino was one of our leading scorers and Jorge was our outstanding goalie. Thanks for your dedication and hard work. We will miss you. •

2012 Captains:Samanta Balbuena Monserrat RafaelLucy LiconaJazelyn ViruetMost Valuable Athletes: Giselle Jimenez and Tiarra McGeeSprinter of the Year:Brianna HarrisDistance Runner of the Year:Cintia GarciaMost Improved Athlete:Fanny ReyesMost Dedicated Athlete:Samanta BalbuenaStudent Athlete of the Year:Monserrat RafaelTeam Spirit Award: Heiddy Rodas

2012 Track Awards

By Coaches Tim Mcnulty and Miguel Ochoa

We would like to highlight three senior football players.

Lydell Anderson: Played only one year for Steinmetz but he made it count. He proved to be a leader on and off the field. He played both sides of the ball, scoring six touchdowns on offense as a tight end and one on defense.

Laron Croft: Played all four years in the program and was a stellar stu-dent athlete. He is graduating with an

above-4.0 GPA and is headed to NIU. On the football field, he had a nose for the end zone. Nearly every time the ball was thrown to him he found a way to get his team six points.

Christopher Santiago epitomizes what we look for when it comes to being a good teammate. Chris took care of his many ROTC responsibilities and was still able to be committed to his teammates. Over his football career he rarely missed practice and never pointed fingers or let down his teammates. He was a positive presence for every practice and game. •


Star Arts & E., Sports18

This is just a small sample of the incredible group of senior athletes we have this year. Pic-tured before their next race are Salma Zaghdoud, Daria Gonzalez, captain Sammy Balbuena, Lequeshia Milton, Katherine Zavala, Lizbeth Gomez, and captain Momo Rafael.

By Coach Susy Sullivan

Veronica Duenes joined the swim team her freshmen year. Her freshmen and sophomore

years she struggled because of her asthma, but persevered to improve her swimming skills and increase her strength and endurance. Junior year, Veronica developed into a leader for the team. She traveled to North Grand for practices because we were with out a pool. She worked with the freshmen to help them develop their strokes and she supported Coach Henry and I in keeping the office or-ganized.

Senior year Veronica came into her own. She stretched to race in longer and more challenging events. She or-ganized the new swimmers

and helped them learn the different strokes. Her heart, dedication and enthusiasm will be missed. Good luck, Veronica!

I remember Salma Zaghdoud’s freshmen year. She would watch swim practice, but would not participate. Her big sister was on the team, and Sabiha, Coach Henry and I would prod her to swim. Finally in October, she joined the team, and even competed in a number of meets. Salma got the Swim Team bug.

Her leadership skills and dedication to the sport grew each year. Junior and senior year we could rely on Salma to swim any event, and to encourage the team to do their best. Even when we did not have a pool, Salma worked hard to keep the team spirit up and to improve her skills. She is a great athlete and a great leader and we will miss her. Good luck, Salma! •

Dedicated, enthusiastic swimmers

By Coach Dave Henry

Kevin Clark was a very enthusiastic member of the boys swim team off and on since his sophomore year. When he was present, he would swim any event and

loudly cheered for the other swimmers in the other events. His energy and smile will be missed. Ruben Ares joined the team this year and made great improvements. •

Heart of cross country team: Juan Agustin By Coach Jennifer Egan

Often times, many people think of the MVP as the player that scores the most or comes in first all the

time. However, there are special occasions when the MVP is behind the scenes. For the Steinmetz Boys’ Cross Country Team, that young man is Juan Agustin.

Juan started with the team as quiet fresh-man and finished his senior year as a leader. Juan was the person I could count on to help organize the team for drills or get practice started if I was busy with something else.

His dedication served not only as an ex-ample for the rest of the team but as moti-vation for the team to do their best as well. Juan never gave anything short of 110% each practice and each meet.

The void that will be left by Juan is im-mense and next to impossible to fill. While you can coach technique and skill, you can-not teach heart. Thank you Juan for all of your contributions on and off the course. You will be missed, but never forgotten.•

Good luck, girls!

Even 1 year helped

Leaders in water polo By Coach Gerald Cole

Christopher Cortez was Steinmetz’s first water polo captain.

A senior, he accepted this respon-sibility with pride and enthusiasm, leading the team in exercises and warm-ups daily and modeling great attendance and learning. He loves the water and took to water polo like a fish takes to water polo. Christopher took on several roles on the team and did great for a student who, like all of the players, had never played water polo before.

William Castro was our rock on the team. He was reliable, always worked hard, and could do ten times more push-ups than the rest of the team combined.

He was our primary shallow end goalie and once he got the hang of it few water polo balls were brave enough to try and score, his quick hands and fearsome roar enough to deny all but the hardiest of attempts. •


Star Sports 19

By Coach Brad Dowling

Jeff Williams loves basketball as anyone who knows him can attest.

Jeff was only able to play basketball for Steinmetz his senior year, as family matters pre-vented him from participating in past years. He successfully made the team, which was a feat in itself, as it is very difficult to make a varsity team if you have never played organized basketball previously.

Jeff had a lot to learn having never been a member of the program before. He struggled picking up the offense and defense, but always showed up willing to try again the next day. When other players were not paying attention Jeff was doing his best to try to figure things out. He wasn’t successful all the time, but you could al-ways count on him to try his best.

He was very coachable, and didn’t complain about his lack of playing time, or point fingers at his teammates. He always supported his team-mates, and was as happy as anyone when we won. In the limited time he did play he did have some moments where he excelled.

It was a pleasure to have him on the team, and I’m glad he will have the memory of being a varsity basketball player at Steinmetz for the rest of his life. He’s a good guy and great teammate.•

Basketball standout: Jeff Williams

Jeff Williams, #44

Veronica Duenes, Salma Zaghdoud

By Coach Nicole Barnes

Ahuge shout out to Isabel Camarena, the lone senior on the girls’ soccer team this year.

It was a pleasure having you on the team the last two years. You really helped bring a calm demeanor to a normally crazy team and you were phenomenal at leading by example.

You will truly be missed, but I am fully confident you will be successful in whatever you choose to do. Best of luck! •

Soccer captain Isabel Camarena

Baseball’s hardest worker: Sean Smith

By Coach Renato Roldan

Sean Smith was the hardest working player on this year’s team.

I dragged him out of the halls his junior year. He was always in trouble with his best friend. He joined baseball this year and became the most improved player from beginning to end I have ever seen.

He played center field and had a 20-game hitting streak. •

All senior volleyball players will be missed By Coach Darrin Sorokti

A s Steinmetz’s Volleyball Czar I have the responsibility of preparing the upper-class athletes to compete at the varsity

level. But that also means that I have to suffer the loss of graduating seniors from our volleyball family, an emotional toll that I underestimate every June..

Seniors from my girls team have left indel-ible marks on our program and will be sorely missed. Jessica we will miss your fiery spirit and competitiveness. Meosha we will miss your funky sense of style and your beaming smile. Nikki we will miss your unique blend of maturity and goofiness. Megan, it is hard to imagine a more passionate personality. Heather,

I know your quirky, upbeat worldview will take you far. And Patty, I doubt I will have another player who could be genuinely more sweet and sassy than you.

Guys season only recently ended and perhaps I have yet to think about how each of you will be missed. One thing I know is Kevin, Alex, Luis, Gio, Manny, Carlos, (heck even Geremy) — You guys always put team before yourselves. Any success we had was not because of any one of you, but because of all of you. Some people never learn that lesson; please don’t forget it.

As always seniors, my hope is that you con-tinue to play into your adult lives and that you never forget to come by and play with Big-TallUglyGirl/OldManSorokti. •

By Coaches Justin Everage & Nicole Barnes

We would just like to say thank you for the tremendous work you guys have put in through the

years. Of course, we have had our ups and downs, and a fair share of disagreements and fights, but through it all we have remained more of a family than anything else.

Kelly — You are truly one of the best point guards we have ever witnessed, and we wish that you would take that same determination and put it to good use in everything that you do. Just remember ... Use your powers for good, and not for evil!

Ciara — We have watched you grow into an amazing young woman. You have transformed from a razor-bearing freshman to a powerful force to be reckoned with on and off the court. You and those dimples will be extremely missed.

Catherine — We enjoyed your dedica-tion and your willingness to always get bet-

ter. We wish you great success in all that you plan to do.

Ariel — You are truly going to be missed. From spending all those hours in the gym shooting around, to all the conversations we had about life, we have definitely watched you mature into the person you are now.

It is so impressive to hear from random people how much you have changed, and we really commend you for trying to be a better person. The passion you have for basketball is something we never want you to lose, and we wish the best next year!

Amber — For four years, you have been the anchor of the team. Your dedica-tion and leadership pulled together a some-times volatile group of people and somehow got them to work together as a team. Your passion and determination will be missed. Oral Roberts is gaining a true treasure!

While we are sad to lose five awesome ladies, we know the future will be bright for all of you! •

Lady Streaks basketball Softball memories

By Stephanie ‘Gee’ Garriga

As a four-year softball player, I have seen the struggle, dedication, and love that are found within this team.

It truly is heartbreaking to see all of this to come to an end. I have developed a strong bond with not only my coaches, but also with my teammates. I got to share this ex-perience with other four-year players, Kayla Guzman, and Patricia Rivera. Also, wouldn’t be complete without the other seniors Am-ber Dukes, Carmen Perez and Malika Lacy.

Softball was not all fun and games, but we had to get down and dirty in some of the toughest weather, like rainy days. Many of the girls showed their dedication by show-ing up to all the games regardless of the weather, and played through their injuries. I would like to thank all of my teammates,

who made this experience memorable, as well as my amazing coaches who made me the player I am today.

Ms. Russo, through all of your yelling and craziness, I still love you and you make the varsity team shine. Ms. Chapparro, thank you for my nickname “Gee,” it re-ally stuck with me through all my years. You are amazing and thank you for everything. Mr. Everage, thank you for your help when I needed it, and for your guidance, whether I was doing something right or wrong. Can’t forget, Coach Blue, you made this experi-ence so much fun with your constant jokes and your fun youth.

Thank you guys a bunch and I will miss you so much. I know the team will do just fine in the future with you as coaches. I will always have this team in my heart as team-mates we all had our ups and down, but in the end we all played together as a team.•


Star Sports20

Correction: In our May JV soccer article we neglected to mention JV goalie Brenda Bustos, who played throughout the season. It was the mistake of the adviser, not the reporter. The Star regrets the error.

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