“This is the third year that Gahr is part of theYouth Summit. It is a wide plan providing unity and leadership conferences to students,” Manuel Cruz, Dean of Students, said.

Schools that participated were Whitney High School, Artesia High School, Cerritos High School, Tracy High School, Carmenita Middle School, Fedde Middle School, Haskell Middle School, Ross Middle School and Tetzlaff Middle School.

Students who attended Youth Summit learned through many activities how to spread school unity within their own campuses.

“I thought Youth Summit was real good and educational. It gave me an insight on people’s feelings and emotions,” Susana Iturbe (12) said.

Activities consisted of balloon ice breakers, presentations, relay races, and skits about serious problems occurring at school such as bullying, drugs and alcohol abuse.

Cruz, Miguel Canales and the Gahr students who participated in the summit, decided to  take the Youth Summit a bit further and bring the program home onto the campus of Gahr.

“This program promotes school unity through individual interaction which means a more united campus regardless of ethnic diversity,” Cruz said.

This new organization on the Gahr campus is called Bridge Builders.

The organization’s mission is to spread peace, love and unity to our extremely diverse student body.

“Bridge Builders is unity and bringing people together,” Kelsey Sousa (12) said.

To start off and get recognized by the staff and students, Bridge Builders had a lunch social on top of the rally platform yesterday.

It was just a casual social gathering where students got to know each other a little bit better. They talked about many subjects, played games and listened to music.

Hopefully, after having more of these lunch socials, Bridge Builders will move on to discuss more important topics and go into deeper conversations with the students. This should bring student unity to our campus.

“I want to see the Gahr campus to look like a kindergarten classroom where fun and games unite the school,” Cruz said.

The picnic was held on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 on top of the rally platform.

If you are interested in school unity and want to learn more about the Bridge Builder’s program, do not hesitate to go out and bring your lunch with you to the next social!

“I thought the crowd at McTeachers Night was pretty good. I was glad to see that there were way more people than I expected! I definitely enjoyed watching students come and support the seniors. It made me happy to know that there are people out there that want to support us,” Sharlene Ocampo (12) said.

Many students from freshmen all the way up to seniors, went to support their favorite teachers at McDonalds.

Several teachers went to participate and work in this awesome event, including Martha Gardea, Grover, Bear, Christina Moreau, Canales, Im, Svenneby, Steffen, Vu, Ramirez, Flores and Burneson.

“I liked seeing the teachers at work. To me, I saw them through a different perspective behind the counter not speaking so much HAHA. Personally Mrs. Moreau was my favorite teacher working there. I went pretty late, yet she was still up on her feet running around trying to make sure everyone had great service,” Angie Chavez (12) said.

Teachers worked  shifts such as frying fries, sweeping the floors, cleaning the tables, selling deserts, working the drive- through window and working as the order callers. Service was magnificent and students enjoyed having the teachers serve them for once.

“I thought that the decorations were very well done and well thought out,” Natalie Romero (12) said.

With all the lights, glamour and decorations, this dance was one not to be forgotten.  Accompanying the terrific DJ was the guest performer Mann.  With one of his hit singles “Buzzin”, Gahr was honored for him to attend this dance for the students.

“Wow, I was so excited to see Mann there and I got to have my picture taken with him. It was most definitely a memorable night,” Monica Burling (11) said.

The outcome was much more favorable than that of last year’s. There were over 200 tickets sold!  With music videos playing on five different screens to coincide with whatever song was playing at the moment.  Either way the dance was a great success.  The desserts and beverages were appetizing.  Among some of the snacks were tuxedo cake pops and secret agent cake pops.  In addition, there were drinks like water and soda. It is safe to say that the guests were well looked after.

At the dance came the crowning of the homecoming king and queen.  Xiomara Hernandez (12) was crowned queen and Connor MacDonald (12) was crowned king.  We all wonder what goes through the mind of these nominees as their names are announced.

“I was somewhat worried that when I would go up on stage, I would trip,” MacDonald said.

We must all give thanks to  our wonderful ASB.  Without them, Gahr would not have had the opportunity to have the wonderful experience that was bestowed upon them.

Sanchez began the discussion by talking about the basics of her job; like being voted into office, how long the terms are, how the House of Representatives are supposed to be close to the people.

She explained how a single term in the House of Representatives is two years and a single term for in the Senate is six years. Linda Sanchez has now served nine years.

Sanchez explained that one can be from any background in order to run for Congress. one does not have to be born here, one just needs to be a U.S. citizen.

Sanchez then started talking about her life. Linda is the Representative for the city of Artesia and represents 650,000 people.

She talked about how her parents were immigrants from Mexico and she is one of seven children in her family.

She talked about how she did not always want to be in Congress. Before being in Congress, she was a third grade teacher.

“I wasn’t really impressed with the other candidates,” Sanchez said.

So instead of complaining, she came up with the idea that she could run, so she did and won.

Sanchez works crazy hours and even on holidays and weekends. Her normal schedule ranges from 10 to 12 hours a day. But it is all worth it because she gets to help people.

Sanchez explained that she is unique because she is a woman in a mostly male job, she is Hispanic where she is surrounded by Caucasians and she is young where most people are in their 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s.

During breaks, Sanchez likes to spend time with her two and a half year old son.

This makes Linda Sanchez  even more unique than others because she is only the eighth woman to have a child during her term in office.