EIS wins first places in Basketball nationals

The varsity boys team from Escuela Internacional Sampedrana (EIS) obtained the first place in an "exciting game" according to Mr. Juan Santamaria, head of the sports department. The tournament that took place in Tegucicalpa contained participants from schools of San Pedro Sula, Tegucigalpa and La Ceiba. EIS won the first place in the junior varsity girls category.

The most exciting game was the final of the varsity boys category where EIS fought against the American School of Tegucigalpa. EIS and the American School had been in the finals a year ago here at EIS, and the American School won the first place.

Everything was ready, the ball was tossed and both teams began to play. In the normal time, American School had taken an advantage 33-30 and the final buzzer was about to come. "The 20 last seconds of the normal time were the most exciting" according to Astor Rubio, EIS coach.

American School of Tegucigalpa won 33-30 and the ball was in posession of the EIS team. As the team advanced, they tried to shoot three-pointers but at first they failed. When the American School fans started the countdown 8...7...6...5..., and at 4.02 seconds from the game to end, Roger Brito, junior, made the three pointer that inmediately woke up the EIS fans that had lost all hopes on this game.

On extra time, EIS easily defeated the American School "Eagles" and the new champions rised. All the court was filled with joy as the EIS varsity boys had won the final game against Tegucigalpa.

The Junior varsity girls also won the final game against Tegucigalpa and were undefeated in the whole tournament. They did not lost one single game, which crowned them as the new champions.

The EIS varsity girls team, that had been the champions for many years, lost the final against the American School of Tegucigalpa and broke the tradition.

Winners from EIS brought the trophies to San Pedro Sula and celebrated in their home town. The two first place trophies were two reasons for Mr. Juan Santamaria to be happy. "I had full confidence in my athletes and knew that excellent results can be quite unexpected, but as long as they play well to the end, they will always reach their goals."

New STUCO was elected!

Student Council (STUCO) representatives for school year 2005-2006 were elected Tuesday, April 19, in the first period. National Honor Society (NHS) students and previous STUCO members helped to distribute the vallots to each student in the first period so they can vote. The results were "surprising" according to Mrs. Willing, biology teacher.

The Stuco Presidency was won by Giordanna Kafati, defeating Renato Chamorro. David Echeverry, junior, said that he "expected Renato to win, because the majority of juniors voted in his favor, but Giordanna did a better campaign in the other grades."

Running for vice president were Rachid Maalouf, Emil Kawas and Max Chamorro. Again, "Max was expected to win because of his records on STUCO and his experience," according to Doris Hernandez, senior, but the winner was Rachid Maalouf that has proven that he has become a popular figure among students, because he did no campaign and actually won. The election for the vicepresident took place on Tuesday, were Rachid and Emil tied, and on Wednesday, when Rachid declared himself the winner.

One of the most expected positions was the chairman of sports. Nour Kafati, a "talented student who has proven to be creative and athletic" according to Mrs. Willing, won the election to William Canahuati, that did no publicity neither a campaign due to a personal trip he did on those dates.

The surprise came when Coralia Nuñez, junior, competed the position of Chairman of Activities against Nicole Kafati, freshmen. "All the odds favored Coralia, because of her experience and personal records," said Kafati, "but at the end I was pleased and surprised to know that I had won the election by the majority of votes."

Other important results were obtained by Ernesto Interiano, junior, that defeated Carolina Rivera in the competition for Treasurer, and by Eduarto Interiano that won the Historian position, previously occupied by his brother Ernesto last year.

"The elections were a success and I hope that next year we can see some changes or improvements around the student body. It is the responsability now of the new elected members to do everything as promised and complete their tasks well," said Mrs. Willing.

Seniors 2005 say goodbye

"One of the most talented senior classes" according to Mr. Renato Chamorro, Social Studies and Development Teacher, is leaving the Escuela Internacional Sampedrana (EIS) campus. On May 12 students from the 12 grade at EIS finished their last bimestral exams and the door for their university education was opened.

According to Mr. Jesus Collantes, the 12 graders will "definitively leave a mark and an example for the new seniors 2006, and as well for other students in the high school."

A week before their bimestral exam week began, these seniors had the opportunity to say good bye to their teachers from nursery, elementary and high school, their friends and classmates, and the school officials that have guided them through the hard journey. "Thanks to all the teachers that supported us all the way", said Doris Hernandez, senior and stuco president.

People including teachers, parents, and other students from high school said good bye to the seniors in a "sad way, but feeling very proud for them" said Kevin Romero, junior that had was supposed to graduate this year.

All year these seniors had been involved in many activities, like the senior lunch, the senior breakfast, the field trips to Cortes at Phillip Berkling's beach house, and social work activities.

These seniors were also very contributing with many poor sectors in San Pedro Sula (SPS). Mr. Chamorro agrees that "this year seniors worked very hard to get their social work hours and contributed fairly with the poor sectors of the city".

In the area of discipline, this seniors obtained a few number of detentions in relation to last year seniors, according to the office record. "I agree that this year seniors were not calmed, but tried to do their jobs well" said Mr. Chamorro.

Seniors will have their prom dance on May 28, and their Graduation ceremony on June 3.

Award Ceremony for the best!

An award ceremony took place during the last period of Tuesday, May 3, on the Escuela Internacional Sampedrana (EIS) Cafetorium. More than 200 secondary students were recognized for their best academic achievements, as well as discipline and punctuality. Students, teachers and parents were gathered in this event, were only the students with best grades and best discipline were named.

The event was "a ceremony were only the best students were awarded, leaving no space for mediocre and lazy students" said Mrs. Alcantara, praising these students for obtaining good grades, honorable mentions, and good discipline records. "Students awarded in this ceremony should be role examples to others that have the intelligence, have the will to arrive early to class, but are too lazy to overcome".

Mr. Collantes and Mrs. Rivera were the hosts of the event. The event started by everyone singing the national anthem and then the hosts explained each award deeply. Some awards that were given out to students were: Perfect Attendance, the three highest grade averages in each class, Excellent Behavior Award, IOWA test award, Honor Roll mention and Principal List.

Mr. Collantes and Mrs. Rivera called the students according to their sections. Each group of students was awarded with three teachers and the principals handing the folders, with the respective awards inside them.

The ceremony was paused several times and students gave presentations to the parents and teachers present. Such presentations included: a dramatic presentation by the tenth grade drama class, a poem recited by Dennis Vallejo and Nicole Vaquero, a special presentation by the Oratory class, another poem by Francis Verdial, and a violin performance by a recognized honduran violinist.

After the awards were given out, it was time to award a father and a mother from the audience, and it was done by a lottery. The father that won was Mr. Altamirano, father of junior Daniela Altamirano. The mother that won was Mrs. Verdial, mother of freshmen Audrey Verdial and senior Francis Verdial.

After the parents were prized, teachers had their turn. The two teachers that won prizes in the lottery were Mrs. Hernandez and Mr. Izaguirre, art and music teachers respectively.

After all these prizes were given out, students were dismissed home and parents enjoyed a small snack at the lobby on the Cafetorium.

Escuela Internacional Sampedrana (EIS) junior varsity girls won the first place in the recent Association of Bilingial Schools of Honduras (ABSH) National Basketball Tournament. In the picture, Maria Duron, member of the team, carries the trophy won at Tegucigalpa.

Picture taken by: Jose Raul Duron

Air Conditioners have been a major issue these last weeks. Fortunately, now all classrooms have Air Conditioners, like this one in the chemistry room, and classes will be more enjoyable.

Picture taken by: Jose Raul Duron

New ideas for next year

School year 2005-2006 is comming up, and students are tired of the same old policies. After a short poll I made to 20 high school students last week, these are the results.
Do you like the shoe color policy (Only black or white shoes)?
Yes- 4 students- 20%
No- 16 students - 80 %
Do you like eating in the hallways?
Yes- 12 students- 60%
No- 8 students- 40%
Do you like or dislike the short schedule (Leave school at 1:00 p.m.)?
Like- 17 students- 85%
Dislike- 3 students- 15 %
Would you like to use cell phones, mp3 players or discmans in class (Not in an unnappropiate way)?
Yes- 20 students- 100%
No- 0 students- 0%
After analyzing these results, many students vote to change some of the old school policies. "Shoe color doesn't affect out learning", said Erick Ramirez, junior. "Eating in the hallways should be permitted as long as the trash is sent to the trashcan at all times", said Erick.
The Short Schedule is now very difficult to abolish after the installation of new air conditioners, but "it will be more enjoyable to leave at 1:00 p.m.", said junior Juan Paz.
All these comments should serve as ideas for a best school year where students can enjoy learning and forget to worry about secondary issues.

Where are the books?

Students seem to don't care, and right now, in the last week of April, they are not turning their books in. Many teachers want students to turn their books in before the bimestral exam week comes up. This will avoid later confusions and less time to do the bimestral exams.
We are almost over with this school year and now its time to "wrap all up, finish our last works and tests, turn in our books and do our bimestral exams", said Mrs. Alcantara. Somehow, many people are losing their books "like it always happens at the end of a school year", she remarked. The school administration, in the form of announcements is trying to get all students to turn their books in or paying them right now, and avoid paying them later in bimestral exam week. What is the real reason for students not turning their books in?
Mrs. Alcantara responded, "Students just don't care to pay their books and don't take care of them during the school year. They lend their books to any friend, which is not supposed to happen because the school purchases enough books to everyone". In response to this last comment, Mrs. Escobar said, "Sometimes books dont suffice for every student and sometimes they have to share, and this is why sometimes books are getting lost. I am not justifying student behavior though."
Students by now should have everything ready to avoid problems at the end of the school year.

What Happens when Team Players Miss Classes...

The Escuela Internacional Sampedrana (EIS) inside its goal to raise new leaders also "wants to form competitive athletes that can succeed in many sports", according to Mr. Vair. Basketball, Soccer and Volleyball are the three main sports that EIS offers. Athletes that belong to teams from the spoken sports often travel a lot to participate in friendly games, practice games and even national and central american tournaments. How can a student that travels in the name of the school to represent it be expected to work, study and hand in papers when they come back?
Students often miss two to three days of classes when they travel to National or Central American tournaments. Every student is expected to fill out a form with each teacher about the work they are going to miss, the tests they need to study for and the projects they need to start working on. When a student travels with that paper full of tasks they obviously don't concentrate while playing their sport, or they totally concentrate but don't do any of the work expected for the day they come. Athletes in that position need to think and decide from one of two options. "Or they play with a total concentration and forget school work, or they keep reminding themselves that they have plenty of work to turn in the day they come, and don't concentrate in their sport team", according to Elias Khoury, Association of American Schools of Central America (AASCA) team member for the three sports.
This problem affects both the students and the school. Students oftenly do not turn in work, because in the form it says that work can be handed in a number of days after they come back, but "many teachers expect the work to be handed in the day we come and its practically impossible because we have no time" said Elias.
When team players miss classes they totally mess up their agendas and get out of track in following school work precisely. Many sport members do not like to travel this much because they are at risk of lowering their GPA score or accumulating too much work.

Editorial: Student Mediocre Attitudes

School year is almost over and many students are now full of enthusiasm and putting the best of each of them to finish this school year with honors. A great number of students though is suffering the consequences of a year full of parties, hang-outs and distractions, as they work hard to reach a grade that will pass them with exactly sixty percent. Students with this attitudes do not contribute to the prosperity of our country that as the days pass by, feels the need of new professionals to help it overcome. We can even find this attitudes in the Journalism class. But, what causes these students to be like this? Many students feel proud of only passing their grades with the exact passing grade. These students think that as long as they are not flunking they can live and enjoy high school.
The reality of these students and these attitudes will come once they enter their university. The level of demands from teachers to students is higher and that encourages the university student to work hard. Students that passed high school will be terrified and not used to work as much as teachers expect you to do.
Why do students come up with excuses of not doing their work? School classes end at 2:00 pm. Lets call 11:00 pm as the latest hour that a student can work. Students have 9 hours to do all their homework daily, that if you analyze it well, is a lot of time. I am a normal student with normal problems that every student faces. I get home at 2:30 pm, have lunch, take a small nap, go to the gym for an hour, go to tennis classes for 2 hours and come back home at 7:00 pm. I then have 4 hours to do my daily homework, or study for tests and quizzes. I have managed my time wisely to study for those complete hours and maintain a GPA of 90%. I spend most of my afternoon not home, but if you arrange a schedule and follow it exactly, you can find a way to study in the night and complete all homework before 10:00 or 11:00 p.m.
I think we are now downhill from the 2004-2005 school year and that's not an excuse to drop our grades. We should finish this year with the best of ourselves and then enjoy our happy months of vacation.

STUCO Elections are Coming up

Student Council (STUCO) Elections for year 2005-2006 are next Tuesday, April 26, were many high school students wish to gain positions like president, vice-president, treasurer, historian, chairman of sports, public relations, activities and others. This Tuesday, all secondary students will receive a vallot were they must choose their favorite candidates. Publicity started the week from April 18 to 22 and many students, like junior Louis Rivera, already have their candidates. "I'm voting in the majority of the positions for my friends, because I've known them for a long time and know that they will perform their jobs well", said Louis.
Running for STUCO presidents are Renato Chamorro and Giordanna Kafati. Renato, who had been in STUCO this past year, told us that "Responsability and Organizations are part of my virtudes that will make me the best STUCO president choice." On the other hand, Giordanna said that "As STUCO president she would do anything as possible to be a good president and have a good relationship between the authorities and the student body".
Controversy has also influenced the elections. Running for senior president were juniors Elias Khoury, Eugenia Diaz del Valle, Cloe Bueso and Audrey Handal. Two out of four juniors withdrew their candidatures for different reasons. Cloe Bueso now runs as Chairman of Public Relations, and she changed her mind because she "expected better results running as Public Relations". Audrey Handal also withdrew because of personal problems.
According to Louis "publicity plays an important role in an election and I think it will be more intense next Monday", a day before the elections. All candidates are ready to face the choices of the people and only the ones considered best by the majority of the students will win.

Thumbs up for Music Festival

Escuela Internacional Sampedrana (EIS) Juniors working for Social Work organized a Music Festival Saturday April 23 at 5:00 pm. Students from different schools in San Pedro Sula and other major cities as well as other participants were gathered together in an event backed by the slogan "The best juvenile voices sing for you". According to Mrs. Fatima, Junior Social Work coordinator, the event "didn't gather the amount of money expected, but was a success thanks to the organization that the juniors made possible throughout the week".
At 5:00 pm Eugenia Diaz del Valle and Roger Brito, masters of ceremonies, began the event and called each performer one by one. Music varied from pop to ballads and even rock. "In the middle of the event there was a break where all the audience as well as the performers could enjoy delicious treats", said junior Eugenia Diaz del Valle, " And allowed the jury to take their decisions". The event had an "excellent decoration, organization and competition", said Lucia Garcia, mother of participant Salvador Fernando Garcia.
The event ended around 9:00 pm with the satisfaction of all juniors, participants, and audience. Mrs. Fatima says that "around 30, 000 lempiras were gathered in this event, which is not much comparing to the 46,000 we made at the conference, but it is always helpful to contribute to Social Work projects. We worked hard for this money and it was in this event that juniors worked the best". Next Social Work activities for juniors include a visit to an orphanage and reforestation around the school.

Air Conditioners vrs. Short schedule

Air conditioner installations have introduced the short schedule again after being delayed for two or more weeks. The air conditioners are supposed to be ready by April 25 and meanwhile, a short schedule will be followed. Classes will start at 6:50 a.m. and will end at 1:00 p.m.
Superintendent George Takas had promised that this year the short schedule will be ignored because of the installation of new air conditioning systems. “Because of the delay in the air conditioner installations and because of the awfully hot weather, we have no choice than establishing the short schedule until the installations are completely done. We hope to have air conditioners in every class by April 25” he said.
All air conditioners are already placed in each classroom, but their is still some testing and procedures left before installations are complete. Students and teachers are desperate to have air conditioners working. Nelson Carcamo, junior, says “it is awfully hot without the air conditioners but we are already used to support this hot weather until 1:00 p.m. as we have done for the last years”. New teachers such as Mrs. Acevedo says that “I’m already waiting for these machines to start working, because hot weather doesn’t help students nor teachers”.

Strange visitor surprises MUN team at La Ceiba

A group of Model United Nations (MUN) members that were about to sleep on the night of Thursday April 7 were surprised by a “drunk person that opened the door of their hotel room” according to Eugenia Diaz del Valle, MUN member.
A group of students traveled to La Ceiba to participate in a MUN convention with students of Mazapan school. In the convention, students will “argue and debate about current events and current problems that occur around the world” according to Eugenia Diaz. After a day of hard debating, the MUN members went to their hotel room and got ready to sleep, when the stranger entered the room of MUN members Eugenia Diaz, Giordana Kafati, Stacy Aguilar and Hanna Park. “We were about to sleep when this guy entered and we all got scared. I called a friend that was sleeping in the room above us, while some of us were crying. We started to talk in english to confuse this guy, and he talked back in english, responding that he wanted no trouble and that he would leave.
MUN members were translated to another hotel due to the unconfortable situation lived in the first hotel. The convention was a “success” according to Eugenia, and “besides that problem, everything went as normal.”