Emily Browning
Junior Staff Writer

In years past, yearbook-signing parties have been incredibly popular. It’s an opportunity for students to not only get their yearbooks, but also spend a little time with their friends and start getting signatures. Not to mention they get to miss part of class.

On Thursday May 21, 2009, A-TECH held its yearbook-signing party for its students. The students missed half of their block class period, either second or fourth, to receive and pass around their yearbooks.

Students could not get signatures from their friends in different grade levels, because the students were separated by grade, they were able to take advantage of the situation to talk to and sign their classmate’s yearbooks.

Overall, the yearbook-signing party was a success.

“It went a lot better than last year’s,” said Publications teacher Mr. Carder. “By having them [the students] go outside, we were able to have them line up without clogging the halls.”

“I think it went really well,” said Chief Editor of the yearbook Jesse Sutherland. “It introduced an awesome yearbook and it was cool to see everyone’s excited faces as they opened their books and began writing.”

Every year, students look forward to a wonderful signing party. It’s part of the reason they buy their yearbooks early. Each year, the yearbook advisor finds a way to make the party a little bit better.

Tyler Livingston
Copy Editor

With all the constant chatter about the Apple iPhone, it’s easy to forget that BlackBerrys are indeed the most popular phone in North America, consistently outselling the iPhone every year.

The folks at Research in Motion (RIM)—the company that owns the BlackBerry line—have been busy lately, rolling out new devices just a few months apart.  This summer is sure to be packed with new BlackBerry releases on the most popular networks in the United States: AT&T and Verizon.

On Friday, May 22, the new BlackBerry Curve 8900 shipped to AT&T stores nationwide.  The release of this device in particular was important to many long-time BlackBerry users and new customers alike since the Curve model is BlackBerry’s most popular series of smartphone.  The new Curve is now available from AT&T for $199.

The next BlackBerry to be released will be the Tour on the Verizon network.  RIM has not announced an official release date for either of these devices, but it’s fairly certain that the Tour will be available in June or July of 2009.  The BlackBerry Tour will include 3G but not Wi-Fi, and it will have an improved 3.2-megapixel camera over the 2.0-megapixel camera found in the current BlackBerry Bold.

The BlackBerry Onyx is very similar to the Tour: the design is almost identical—the only difference is that the chrome band that lines the device is slightly more prominent on the Tour than it is on the Onyx.  As far as features go, the Onyx will provide the improved 3.2-megapixel camera and 3G as well as Wi-Fi.  Wi-Fi is the only advantage the Onyx has over the Tour.  The BlackBerry Onyx will be available through AT&T.

AT&T will carry the next summer BlackBerry as well, entitled the “Gemini.”  It will most likely not support the 3G network, but it will include a first for any BlackBerry: an optical trackball.  All current BlackBerry smartphones feature a small trackball in the center of the device that the user rotates in order to navigate menus.  BlackBerry’s optical trackball will not be a ball at all, but a flat circle where the trackball used to be and will operate much like the trackpad on a laptop.

There are also rumors that BlackBerry will be announcing two new touch screen devices in the near future: the Storm 2 and the Magnum.  Little is known for sure about the Storm 2—it is unclear whether it will be available on Verizon or AT&T in the US.

The BlackBerry Magnum will be an AT&T device and it seems that it will combine a touch screen with a physical keyboard.  This is a combination BlackBerry has never experimented with, but it’s sure to spark an interest in consumers and business people alike.

With all of these new Berrys being introduced to the market, everyone is bound to find one that they like.  BlackBerry should have no problem remaining the continent’s most popular cell phone brand.

Alexis Hanselman
Senior Staff Writer

On Saturday May 23, popular country singer Taylor Swift came to the Mandalay Bay Events Center for her first headlining tour, Fearless. Kellie Pickler and country band Gloriana also came with her.

The concert started at 7:30 p.m. with, opening act, Gloriana. They are a new country band hoping to make it big in the music industry. Gloriana had a set of five songs, most of them being from their new EP or Extended Play. They were pretty good for an opening band and were a great way to start off the concert.

Next singing on stage was Swift’s closet friend, Kellie Pickler. Most people may remember Pickler from her “Idol” days, but now she’s a famous country singer. Pickler walked on the stage with a black tank top, skinny jeans, and some killer silver, sparkly, stiletto heels. She ended up taking them off towards the end of her set. She did a very excellent job singing some of her most famous hits, one being “Red High Heels.” All in all she sang ten songs and did a good job. She was a terrific way to continue the show.

Finally, after Kellie Pickler, the main artist, Taylor Swift, was up. She began her portion of the concert with “You Belong With Me.” Throughout her set, she sang all of her popular hits, like “Teardrops on My Guitar,” “Love Story,” “Pictures to Burn,” “Tim McGraw.”

Swift had plenty of dress changes. She also liked to give a little story for most of her songs. She talked about some real experiences and really connected with her audience. She made the audience laugh, say “awwww,” and nod their heads in agreement to her opinion of boys.

Half way through her portion of the show, she moved to the middle of the audience to sing a couple of songs. She walked her way back through the crowd and stopped to take plenty of pictures with fans, hug fans, and sign autographs. To close the show, Swift sang “Should’ve Said No.” Halfway through the song she stopped to have a somewhat drum battle with a extra on the stage. To end the song and show, she stepped into the rain on stage just as she does for her music video for the same song.

Swift sang for a good hour and a half. The concert didn’t end until 11:30 p.m. The concert was absolutely amazing. There were so many different things going on between the costume changes and set changes. It was by far one of the best concerts of this year. Hopefully Las Vegas will see Taylor Swift again real soon.

Photo Courtesy of Mr. Knoeppel
One of Waters’ preliminary blueprint designs for the award-winning house design.

Kim DeGuzman
Research Editor

Senior Russell Waters recently won a construction contest for his program area, Computer Aided Drafting Design (otherwise known at A-TECH as CADD).

He created a two-story house, laying the blueprints out on the computer. Waters’ design was selected out of approximately 1,000 other entries for second place.

“It was pretty awesome,” said Waters. “But I had no idea that I was going to win. It was a really cool surprise for me.”

“Russell is very talented,” said CADD teacher Mr. Knoeppel. “He’s been working hard all year, so this award should come as a well-deserved reward.”

Waters won a $2000 scholarship and $100 in cash money for receiving the award. Waters plans to continue CADD in college in order to achieve his goal of becoming an architect.

“That’s going to come in handy for college,” said Waters, suddenly breaking out into a lopsided smile. “Architecture is really cool to me and CADD has helped me become better at design.”

“I’m glad this happened for him,” added Mr. Knoeppel. “It is a pretty good note to end the school year on.”

By Kristiana Trinidad and Iun Chen
Junior Staff Writers

On May 21, National Honor Society held its yearly induction and recognition ceremony.

The ceremony began ten minutes late, at about 6:40 p.m., and ended close to 8:00 p.m. This ceremony inducted new freshmen and sophomores to the organization and acknowledged members who have successfully met the requirement throughout the school year.

To be recognized at the ceremony, members must complete twenty-one or more service hours, attend at least eighty percent of NHS meetings, keep their GPA of or above 3.5 and keep a clean disciplinary record.

After the Pledge of Allegiance, led by former president Karissa Dold, the ceremony proceeded with installing the new officers. The officers from the 2008-2009 school year stepped down in order to give their positions to the newly elected 2009-2010 officers. The newly instated officers are: Jessica Lee as President, Carmen Puentes as Vice President, David Gloria as Secretary, Siddarth Raich as Treasurer, and Cheresa Taing as Historian.

Before the new members were inducted, the new officers explained the needed traits to be an NHS member. Those traits included leadership, character, scholarship, and service.

All forty-five freshman and fourteen sophomores’ names were called. After each name was called, each new member was given a certificate and a pin. They lit their own candles, which were given prior to the ceremony, from the larger ones in the front.  While this occurred, a PowerPoint presentation was shown with the new member’s name and what he or she looked forward to in NHS.

“It’s an honor to be in NHS,” says new inductee, freshman McKenna Murray, “It’s cool to be able to say that I have a high enough grade point and I am motivated enough to be in this club. It is a very prestigious club and it’s going to be fun, so I’m excited,”

First and second year members were given pins. Second year senior members received a pin along with a set of blue and gold cords to wear for graduation. Third year members were awarded with a medal and a set of cords. Senior girls were also given a rose.

Afterward, a video of some of the National Honor Society events was shown. A few members of NHS also went up to the podium to speak about their experiences at some of the events this year. The people who spoke were David Gloria with Kimberly and Ashley Caoagas, Kameron Vanwoerkom, Brianna Vargas, Jesse Sutherland, and Carmen Puentes with Parker Junger.

Karissa Dold, the former president, and advisor Ms. Silverman finished the night with closing words.

From there, everyone was invited to go to the reception in the SAC for food. The foods included meat and cheese platters, Bagel Bites, lumpia, chips, shrimp cocktail, cookies, veggie platters, cupcakes, and punch.

Sports Are A Good Thing

Junior Staff Writer
Omar Zepeda

There are no sports at A-TECH, a fact that bothers many students. Having sports at A-TECH would allow student athletes to save time driving and create a better environment in the school. There would be more school spirit and students would be proud about coming to A-TECH.

If current A-TECH students want to play sports, they have to go to their zone school. This means that many of our current athletes have to spend an extra hour or so driving before they can even begin the time-consuming practices. Offering sports on-campus would be much more convenient for these students.

Sports create a better school environment. They evoke more school spirit because students would be excited to support their team. Some students say that A-TECH is boring because there is never anything going on. If there were sports, the students would have something to cheer for and support. A-TECH would still be known as a great academic school and it would have sports for the many athletes attending the school.

Kevin Vargas, freshman, says, “We should have sports because all of the other schools have sports and I do not think it is fair that we should have to go all the way to our zone school for sports”.

Team sports at A-TECH extremely impractical

Emily Browning
Junior Staff Writer

A-TECH should not, under any circumstances, have its own sports teams.

The concept of sports teams at A-TECH is unfeasible for many reasons.

First off, the immense distance between A-TECH and students’ homes. Since A-TECH is a magnet school, many students here have a twenty or thirty minute commute to and from school, so staying after school for sports (and missing the bus) is often impractical.

“I don’t really mind them,” sophomore Amanda Tuzinski said in regard to sports, “I just don’t have time.”

And it’s no wonder. Tuzinski doesn’t get off of her bus until after four thirty, and spends the time between when she gets home and when she goes to bed doing nothing but homework.

Another good reason to not have sports at A-TECH is that A-TECH is not a sports school; it is a technology school.

“[Sports] would interrupt our education,” said sophomore Grace Lovelady, “which is the most important thing at this school.”

“Sports will take students’ focus away from their grades,” stated freshman Zach Taylor. “They will just bring in a bunch of stupid jocks that we do not need.”

Students who attend A-TECH are here for their program area. None of the program areas include “sports.” The majority of A-TECH students already spend most of the night doing homework. Adding any kind of sport would take away time they could have used for homework, forcing them to loose sleep. Let’s face it, A-TECH students are just more interested in academic extracurriculars such as mock trial, forensics, and varsity quiz than they are in any kind of sport.

Plus, most students at A-TECH just aren’t all that interested in sports. Students who are really into sports already play them at their zone schools. A-TECH shouldn’t have an after-school activity that includes away from school competitions for only a handful of slightly interested students. In fact, considering A-TECH’s relatively small size, it seems unlikely that it would have enough athletes to form a football team, never mind tennis, swimming, baseball, and basketball as well.

By Allison Neighbors
Editor-in-Chief

When we arrive at A-TECH as freshmen, we are all told to join clubs and get involved because it will make high school a great experience. Unsurprisingly, most of us do decide to join at least one club. It’s a nice way to make friends, and it looks good on a college resume—although that doesn’t seem to be the reason to join a club until at least junior year of high school.

Some of students decided to join as many clubs as possible, to throw themselves into the “high school experience,” and live to the fullest. Then there are the rare few who decide to never join a club. Some join a club go for one meeting, and never return.

Nicolas Rosa is one of those seniors who participated in an almost ridiculous number of clubs. Rosa participated in forensics, mock trial, R.E.S.P.E.C.T., Future Business Leaders of America, and student ambassadors. Juggling more than one club overwhelms some students, but not Rosa.

“I definitely think being in more clubs made high school better,” said Rosa. “I made friends that I’ll never forget. Joining all the different clubs was a great decision and I would not change that choice I made. However, being involved in so many clubs makes it really difficult for me to leave it all behind and pursue my future. I’m going to miss everyone that’s made high school the way it is for me.”

While she participated in several clubs,Amanda Renfroe was not a part of such an overwhelming number of extracurricular activities that getting homework done seems impossible. Renfroe participated in National Honor Society and Graphics Club.

“I wish that I would have gone to one Board Game Marathon and see what all the hype was,” said Renfroe. “But I had a great time in high school. I love all the teachers! Everyone was just so amazing!”

It is very difficult to find a senior in this school who has not participated in ANY club or activity. Christopher Forte is, however, one of those rare few. He never really participated in any school activity that wasn’t required of him, except for the few times he attended chess club.

“I don’t regret not becoming active at A-TECH,” said Forte, “because it would have been too much work and I’m lazy. I’m active outside of school, so I don’t need to be involved in the school activities here.”

Forte did say that he was going to miss Mr. Johnson the most, saying he was a great teacher and really funny.

It seems that no matter how actie seniors were during their four years of A-TECH, they all came to the same conclusion. High school was a great experience and extracurricular activities were just a way to enhance high school.

Iun Chen
Junior Staff Writer

At the end of each school year, seniors are rewarded cords by the clubs or classes they participated in.

“Clubs here at Advanced Technologies, for as long as the school has been opened, have had cords,” says Ms. Price, A-TECH’s dean. “Each club has requirements for cords and who receives them.”

Senior cords are given out to seniors who have met the set requirements in certain classes (like band, leadership, and forensics) and clubs (including FBLA, Key Club, and SkillsUSA). The requirements are determined by each club or class and its advisor.

“It’s just an award that they have met the requirements for,” says Ms. Price.

Each club has different colors for it cords. Because cords have two colors,  some clubs or classes may share a single color, but not both.

Cords are not free. Some club organization pay for cords, and others have the students buy them. A set of cords is about five to six dollars each, depending on the amount that is purchased.

“When you look at graduation, our seniors are very decorative in cords,” says Ms. Price. “Most seniors have at least one.”

Seniors who participate in multiple activities at school will wear multiple cords at graduation.

Casey Goodwin

Editor-in-Chief

After four years of hard work, it’s no surprise that A-TECH’s graduating senior class was eager to be recognized for its many achievements.

At Senior Awards Night on Wednesday, May 20, A-TECH’s seniors were given public recognition for their scholarships and achievements. Many seniors were also recognized for their outstanding performance in a club, program area, or subject area.

The night started at six, when seniors and their families poured into the gym. After thirty minutes of talking and picture taking, the seniors were told to take their seats, which had been assigned alphabetically.

After the special awards were read out, each senior who had recieved any other recognition or scholarship was recognized for that particular achievement. Finally, Mrs. Diamond announced the valedictorian and salutatorian candidates, the winner of the Maverick Award, and the male and female winners of the Principal’s Award.

Special Recognition and Awards
DECA…..Jeff Goyer
FBLA…..Cassandra Hudec, Edwin Huitron, Kayla Johnson
John Phillip Sousa Award…..Camille Garner-St. Martin
Journalism…..Casey Goodwin
Key Club…..Elaine Tan, Emily Hong
Mock Trial…..Sheila Tajbakhsh, Brianna Lamanna, Victoria Scolpino
National Forensics…..Henry Castillo
National Honor Society…..Karissa Dold
National School Orchestra Award…..Kevin Brady
R.E.S.P.E.C.T……James Stutsman
Skills USA…..Yosemit Xolalpa
Student Ambassadors….. Karissa Dold, Nick Rosa
Student Council/Leadership…..Kimberly Vanni
Ronald McDonald House Charities…..Elaine Tan, Brittney Coleman

Program Area Awards
Business And Finance…..Jeff Goyer
CADD…..Alex Chan
Computer Graphic Design …..Emily Garbon
Computer Science…..James Morgensen
Information Technology…..Yosemit Xolalpa, Terina Terlizzi
Legal Studies…..Natasha Daulat
Pre-Engineering Technology…..Adam Wolverton

Academic Subject Awards
English…..Joy Castiglione
Foreign Language…..Melody Daniel
Math…..Justin Lietz
Science…..Jacqueline Scott
Social Studies…..Emylia Terry

Valedictorian Candidates
Emily Garbon, Ashley Huggins, Amber Lunsford

Salutatorian Candidates
Emily Hong, James Morgensen, Justin Lietz

Maverick Award
Alex Chan

Principal’s Award
Kimberly Vanni, Nick Rosa

By Allison Neighbors
Editor-in-Chief
This year’s prom theme was “Music of the Night,” which is a song performed in the musical “Phantom of the Opera.” It would make sense for A-TECH’s prom spirit week to be related to “Phantom of the Opera.” However, it seemed to be completely unrelated to the actual theme of this year’s prom.

Monday was Lazy Day, where students and teachers wore sweats and comfortable clothing, Tuesday was Pattern Day, where student wore patterns to school, Wednesday was Dress to Impress Day, where students dressed in business casual clothing, Thursday was Shorts Day, where students wore shorts, and Friday was Class Colors Day, seniors wore blue, juniors wore red, sophomores wore green, and freshman wore yellow.

There were minimal students who participated in the spirit week, or it could have been that the spirit week days were so obscure that no one noticed when students were actually participating.

The only day of spirit week that actually had exhibited some spirit was the Class Colors Day. At least that day divided the classes and made them compete for the most students dressed up. Out of all the spirit weeks that A-TECH has had in the past four years, this week definitely seemed like the most random and non-applicable week of all.