Thursday, December 9, 2010

Trojan TimesIssue #4 Volume XXXVIII

Holiday season calls for open minds and hearts

Editorial

Page

6

Trojan Life

Page

3

News

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2

When seniors move on, CTAA looks for new talent

Mililani students march in Veterans Day Parade

Sports

Page

7

Varsity Cheerlead-ers place first in OIA West Division

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Chio, Frifeldt

and Shima earn MHS spot

at theVex Robotics World Championship

INDEX

Chio, Frifeldt

and Shima earn MHS spot

at theVex Robotics World Championship

Chio, Frifeldt

and Shima earn MHS spot

at theVex Robotics World Championship

Chio, Frifeldt

and Shima earn MHS spot

at theVex Robotics World Championship

By Shan Yonamines.yonamine@trojantimes.org

For the first time ever, a Vex Robotics game was hosted at MHS by Indus-trial Arts Teacher Timothy Pregana. Sophomores Richie Chio, Curtis Frifeldt and Austin Shima were named the overall winning team of this competition that con-sisted of 24 teams from 11 public and private schools. It lasted from Nov. 5 to 6 in the MHS gymnasium. The win-ning team earned a chance to represent MHS and the state of Hawaii at the Vex Robotics World Champion-ships, which will take place next year in Orlando, Fla. Before the competition began, each team’s robot had to meet certain criteria. “The inspections make sure that you have all Vex Robot-ics parts, or parts that are al-

lowed by the rule book,” ex-plained Chio. Robots must also be no larger than 18 inches in width, length and height and cannot have any sharp parts that can damage the playing field or other ro-bots. After passing inspec-tion, the winning teams’ ro-bot moved on to compete in the 42 qualification matches. “They’ll divide the team up, they will never give a school a slight advantage,” stated-Pregana. “You pretty much fight your way up to what-ever, all you’re trying to do is get yourself a higher rank-ing,” he continued. During the qualification matches, the robots had to complete a task which varies every year. “The Vex Robot-ics Round Up game is a game where your robot must pick up inner tubes and place them on a pedestal to score points,” said Frifeldt.

For bonus points you may also climb the ladder which is located in the cen-ter of the playing field. “You must complete this in a two minute time period with a 20 second autonomous time period,” Frifeldt continued.

During an autonomous time period, the robot must act on its own accord, without someone controlling it. After completing the 42 qualification games, the

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

Vex Robotics Team; top row: R. Chio (10), C. Frifeldt (10), C. Dailey (9), N.Ogata (10), D. Macato (10), T. Fernandez-Dizon (9), R.Taketa (10), bottom row: A. Shima (10), E. Mendez (11), G. Galvizo (9), G.Yoo (9).

Photos courtesy of Industrial Arts Teacher Timothy Pregana

Beyond the border: Foreign festivities during the

holiday season

Page 8

Students from Kaiyo High School get a peek at the dailylife in MHS

Page 4

Feat

ure

Troj

an L

ife

On Nov. 11 the Stars and Stripes speckled and lined the avenue as far as the eye could see, before it bent out of sight. Children ran up and down the crowds of spectators on both sides of the crowded street, handing out more flags to everyone in sight, all gathered on the sidewalks to watch the 65th Annual Wahiawa Veterans Day Parade. Mililani students from the Interact and Leo clubs both marched in the parade, which ran from Ka’ala Elementary School to Wahiawa Regional Park, along California Avenue. “We wanted to help cel-ebrate Veterans Day,” said Sophomore Brayton Acoba, an Interact Club member. “I thought it was pretty fun that all these people care about the veterans,” he con-tinued, referring to the pa-rade The parade was estab-

lished in the 1940’s. The Interact Club march-es with the parade regu-larly. “We’re marching with the Rotary Club,” said club President Mallory Hayase. “We have different Rotary Clubs and different Interact Clubs, so Mililani is pushing ourselves out there to sup-port this.” Marching ahead of the Interact Club was a color guard from the 25th Infan-try Division, stationed at Schofield Barracks. High schools from around the is-land were involved in the parade. Campbell, Kapolei and Leilehua, among others, had Junior Reserve Officer Training Course units, or JROTC marching in the pa-rade. These units are made up of students interested in a potential career in the military, who participate in military style drills and ex-ercises, including marches and physical routines. MHS also had a presence in the parade through other organizations. Boy Scouts

from MHS and members of the Civil Air Patrol from MHS marched in the parade as well. Beverly Alexander, a ju-nior and member of the Civ-il Air Patrol (CAP), stated, “I thought it was a great honor to represent the veterans that day and it made all the hard work worthwhile cause it was for a good purpose.” Rachel Bogue, a Sopho-more and CAP member, had similar sentiments. “I en-joyed being a part of some-thing that recognized the many people who fought and died for my rights and privileges,” she said. “I liked marching in honor of the veterans, people like my parents.” As for march-ing in the parade, “The best part for me was marching with the CAP color guard. It was fun getting to carry our squadron flag,” continued Bogue. The parade concluded at the Fred Wright District Park, where several speak-ers, including the com-

mander of Schofield Bar-racks and Representative Mazie Hirono, remarked on the holiday and supporting the troops. The Grand Marshal of the parade was Shigeo Kawa-moto, a 97 year old World War II veteran of the famed 442nd Japanese-American Infantry Regiment and a

By Matthew Raabm.raab@trojantimes.org

By Reid Imamurar.imamura@trojantimes.org

With registration com-ing in January, underclass-men must now start think-ing about the classes they will be taking in the 2011-2012 school year. “There are a lot of new classes being added next year and they are different in subject mat-ter,” said Registrar Jeffrey Lum. Classes such as Ad-vanced Placement (AP) World History integrated w/ Honors English 10 (As of this year, AP World His-tory can only be taken with regular English 10), and AP Computer Science taught by Russell Robison will give students a chance to recieve a more in depth understand-ing of these subjects, yet at the same time introduce

them to new concepts, expe-riences and skills. Algebra Topics will be offered, giving students more instructional time and in class assistance from the teacher. Not only will new AP and basic core classes be of-fered next year, but classes that introduce students to real world jobs. AP Microeconomics will be taught by Cynthia Tong and will teach students about the nature and functions of produce markets, factor markets, and the efficiency, equity and role of the gov-ernment. “I want students to get a good understanding of resources and economics across the world and with-in the United States,” said Tong. Along with AP Micro-economics, Tong will be

teaching AP Macroeconom-ics. This class will teach stu-dents about scarcity, oppor-tunity costs; specialization; functions of any economic system and supply and demand. “I hope to gain knowledge on economics that will help me for college and get a major in business,” said Sophomore Marc Siler. Registration for next year will begin on Jan. 11 for the class of 2014, Jan. 12 for the class of 2013 and Jan. 13 for the class of 2012. Stu-dents will have an hour-long period where they scan the classes that they will be tak-ing to go on their schedules for next year. The new classes being offered next year will give students a unique learning experience along with the skills they will need for the future.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1scores of the teams were calculated and MHS was named the overall Oahu Central Vex Robotics Tournament Three Team Alliances Champions. “Honestly they prac-tically live here, from 2 to 5 Monday through Friday they’re here and on Saturdays from 12 to 5, and sometimes Sun-days.” said Pregana. The students’ robots must be prepared for all the tech-nicalities associated with Vex Robotics. Even though MHS came out on top, they are constantly trying to im-prove their robots for up-coming competitions. “If you have a good robot, you’ll go through 10 to 12 revisions,” said Pregana, a revision meaning a modi-fication. “When you go

lifelong Wahiawa resident. This year’s parade was the largest Wahiawa has seen so far, with more participants than ever before. Partici-pants came from across the islands, but they all came out in support of their vet-erans in a strong display of solidarity.

Interact, Leo clubs march in Wahiawa Veterans Day Parade

2011 school year offers new classes for students through a revision you’ll find a new speed trick or some kind of a program, an advantage and you’re going to make the modifi-cations, and that involves just tearing your whole robot apart and redoing,” stated Pregana. The teams from MHS competed in the Pan-Pacific VEX Robot-ics Tournament on Dec. 2 to 4, where the winning teams, along with the winners of the Vex Robot-ics Round Up game, will be qualified for the World Championship. “(Prega-na) only wants to send the best,” said Chio. The winning team continues to make improvements to their robot to better rep-resent MHS at the World Championships.

Matthew Raab| Trojan Times

2 Thursday, December 9, 2010News

Mililani Boy Scout Troop 164 participated in the Wahiawa pa-rade. “I marched in the parade to honor the veterans who died and gave their lives for our country,” said Sophomore Kodey Gratz, who held the American flag for the troop.

ing 24/7, but some have yet to be installed to the back-bone. Also, monitors in the administration offices have not been installed, but should be complete by Christmas.

Alarm Hawaii has re-cently installed 75 security cameras around campus. Several cameras are record-

These cameras are placed in common areas, and have been approved by the State DOE and School Community Council (SCC). They are now only played back when an

incident occurs. The main purpose of these cameras is to ensure the safety of MHS students.

To The Point

Compiled by Caitlin Kelly

3Thursday, December 9, 2010 Trojan Life

By Jonalyn Bate j.bate@trojantimes.org

Several subjects including production, dance, certified stage construction, costume and set design are taught by the Central Theatre Arts Academy (CTAA). Anyone is welcome to sign up for this program, male or female. Although there are a va-riety of people who audition for CTAA productions, most are females. “We open up auditions for everyone, we have more girls come out than guys,” said CTAA Direc-tor Jamie Stroud. Stroud selects the plays depending on how many male actors there are. “I try to find a show that incorpo-rates more women because you have more women. But if you look at the numbers you still have to fill the guys’ spot,” she explained. The few male actors that

By Shan Yonamine s.yonamine@trojantimes.org

The theme “Snow in Paradise” will be incorporated into Winterball this year, which will be held on Dec. 10, at the Pacific Beach Hotel Grand Ballroom. The committee and court plan to incorporate the theme into the program. There will be traditional Winterball activities, such as dancing and centerpiece giveaways; however new features have been added to the program that will relate to “Snow in Paradise”. “I think the theme makes it a little bit different, ... visually it’s going to be different,” said Winterball Committee Head Jeni Nishimura. “Hopefully it will be a little bit more Hawaii centered, so people will feel more at home,” she continued. Students hope to see “Snow in Paradise” weaved into the program in different ways. “When I think about snow in paradise, I think about like white Christmas like a white Hawaii not so much of the traditional like the red and the green thing I think that they should make the decorations more

Friday, December 10Doors open from 6 p.m till 7 p.m.

2010 MHS WinterballPaci�c Beach Hotel

Grand Ballroom

have auditioned this year are mostly seniors. Some of the senior actors have been in plays or under CTAA with Stroud since they were freshmen. “Most of our male senior actors are the ones that have been in the plays because they’ve been involved in it so long,” said

will be graduating so there will be fewer males than usual. However, there are always new faces and tal-ents that come along. “A lot of them are going to be heading out because it’s their last year, but there’s always somebody coming in,” Stroud said. “I mean it’s always (that) some peo-ple leave and great people come,” she continued. On the positive side, many actors who have au-ditioned will be able to re-place the seniors in upcom-ing years. “We were lucky last year because we had a number of people audition and none of them were se-niors. Excellent, excellent talent, they were juniors and younger,” said Stroud. Even though there will be many senior males gradu-ating this year, there are new talents to be developed.

Sophomore Kamuela-Dawn Napoleon, a member of CTAA. In the “Laramie Project” there were only four male actors. “I believe that out of the four guys we had, three of them were seniors,” Stroud said. This year those seniors

of a white thing,” said Junior Sidney Fowler. Students also want the atmosphere to exemplify the theme. “I hope to see snow and a lot of bright lights because it’s like in paradise,” said Sophomore Brooke Yoshimura. Aside from the theme, students hope to see lots of entertainment “There’s more than just eating and the dance,” said Fowler, “I think we should incorporate more than just the court,” she continued. “Snow in Paradise” will also be seen in a performance by this year’s Winterball court and centerpiece giveaway. “It’s going to be like a local Hawaii game,” said Nishimura. The theme was chosen by the committee. “They wanted to be different and they wanted it be a little more unique this year,” said Nishimura. Though many new elements have been added, the menu will be similar to past years and other than the court performance, no entertainment has been finalized yet. The doors for Winterball will open at 6 p.m. and close at 7 p.m. The entire event is scheduled to be done by 10:30 p.m.

ASMHSPresident

Seasons greetings everyone. Now that it’s December, our second semester is coming to a close. On Nov. 12, Kaiyo High School came to visit. A great big thank you to all of the vol-unteers and entertain-ers for your support, it was a lot of help. There was no sen-ate meeting in Novem-ber and the next one will be on Jan. 25 dur-ing period one. Also, we recently had a Thanksgiving four day weekend, where we all were re-minded of the impor-tance of family and friends (and of the bar-gains on Black Friday). Starting the month of December was the World Aids Awareness day. We all received a red ribbon to show our support for this cause. Following this is one of the biggest up-coming events: Winter-ball! The bids started in the middle of Novem-ber and finished on the 24th. Winterball is on Dec. 10 at the Pacific Beach Hotel, and it’s going to be lots of fun. I would like to say thank you to the volunteers, Winterball committee and Ms. Nishimura, the committee adviser for their hard work and dedication to this big event. Finally, starting on Dec. 9 till the 14 will be the semester exams. With the semester end-ing on Dec. 16 we will be returning to school on Jan. 4. Happy Holi-days!

Sharmaine Lee

To The Point

For the second year, MHS participated in the Shoebox-es for the Homeless Program, sponsored by Chinen & Arinaga Financial Group Inc. Students filled shoebox-es with toiletry items such as soap and toothbrushes to donate to the homeless. This year, 133 boxes were collected, surpassing last year’s total of 45 boxes.

Compiled by Caitlin Kelly

Aven Santiago | Trojan Times

Seniors Kyle Otani, Lucas Bender and Jesse Butcher work on the set of The Laramie Project. They are a few of the seniors who will be leaving CTAA this year due to graduation.

CTAA experiencing decline in male actors

Committee plans “Snow in Paradise” themed Winterball

Students all around the world have things that make them different, whether it’s style, the things they learn or their personality. On Nov. 12, the students of Kaiyo High School in Japan discovered their differences from MHS by getting the opportunity to tour the campus. These selected students are part of a fishing pro-gram at their school, which allowed students that were juniors and seniors to visit Hawaii. “We weren’t really chosen by person to come, it’s more like if you are a sec-ond year, you automatically get to come,” said Junior Hi-yato Nakazaki. The students from the school landed in Hawaii, not by plane, but rather, by boat. “We took about two weeks to get here,” said Nakazaki. Instead of just learning the core subjects taught at school, students aboard the boat learned about things in the fishing program. “While we’re on the boat, we learn about different fishermen things such as watching for other ships, on deck safety and other sailing hazards to

be careful about,” Nakazaki continued. The first thing Nakazaki and the other students no-ticed about Hawaii was how green it was. “Hawaii is very pretty, everything is so open here, with a lot of plants and trees everywhere,” Nakaza-ki said. “In Japan, the city is so busy and stuff, not pretty like here.” Schools here in Hawaii are also very different in siz-es, compared to Kaiyo High School. “Your high school is a lot more spread out than us,” Nakazaki said, adding, “The campus is pretty big compared to ours too." Hara Takashi, a teacher at Kaiyo High School add "This school is very big but our school is very small. Our students are 200 people total," he said. Many may feel that the dress code is strict at MHS, but some students at Kaiyo disagree. “Everyone here is so laid back, like with their clothes,” Nakazaki said. At Kaiyo, students are required to wear the same uniform to school every day until they are third years (se-niors) where they change to a blue uniform that distin-guishes the upperclassmen and underclassmen. The un-

derclassmen uniform con-sists of a white collared shirt and navy blue pants that are not form fitted, while the upperclassmen’s uniform are made of a shinier, sleeker material similar to polyes-ter. Upon landing in Hawaii, the students went around the island like most tourists in Hawaii would. “The first thing we did was go shop, eat and take lots of pictures,” Nakazaki said. Just like many students in Hawaii, the students at Kaiyo enjoy doing the same activities as students here on the weekends and breaks. The tour guides that were showing the students around had similar reactions as well. “They were just so different than us,” said Se-nior Kellie StephensonPino, “Just how they looked and the types of games they played showed how differ-ent they are to us,” she con-tinued. With the visit from the Kaiyo High School stu-dents, glimpses of different lifestyles were viewed. The perspectives of schools from other countries were also ex-perienced.

By Zora Ha z.ha@trojantimes.org

Junior Takuya Funabashi

"There is a lot of things that make (Mililani) interest-ing. There was a lot of things to do."

"This school is very big but our school is very small. Our stu-dents are 200 people total."

TeacherHara Takashi

Matthew Raab | Trojan Times

Students from Kaiyo High School demonstrate flag signaling, used to communicate between boats at sea. Simultaneously moving to the whistles of their teacher, they used flags to spell out various words such as "Mililani" and "Japan".

" Hawaii is very pretty, everything is so open here, with a lot of plants and trees everywhere. Everyone here is so laid back."

Junior Hiyato NakazakiQ: So far, what do you think of Hawaii?

Q: What are some differences you've noticed between MHS and Kaiyo High School?

Q: How do you like Mililani?

Students from Kaiyo High School visit MHS

4Thursday, December 9, 2010Trojan Life

5Thursday, December 9, 2010 Features

Teaching: A career worth a second thoughtFreshman Micah Ishikawa wrote an iSearch paper on a ca-reer for English Teacher Steven Schick’s English 9 honors class.

By Micah Ishikawa

“Think twice.” This was educator Dean Kajihiro’s response when asked what advice he would give to a student contemplating a career in teaching. His an-swer was as unexpected as it was concise. Clearly, his words will never be used as an inspirational quote on a calendar or as a recruiting slogan for the Department of Education. Why would a teacher who has devoted twenty years to his job offer this seemingly discouraging advice to a high school stu-dent? Fortunately, Kajihiro did not stop with that pithy statement. A few more min-utes of conversation revealed his deep commitment to his profession. It became appar-ent that while the decision to become a public high school teacher is not one that should be made lightly, it can be an extremely rewarding career

choice. Kajihiro is a Mililani resi-dent who teaches 11th grade Modern Hawaiian History and Constitutional History at Waianae High School. He is one of approximately 9,164 teachers in the Hawaii pub-lic school system, teaching in 282 public schools (www. 2.ed.gov/programs/teach-erqual/hqtplans/hi.doc.). According to Janet Fine, author of “Opportunities in Teaching Careers,” teachers are responsible for preparing lessons, teaching, evaluating students’ progress and grad-ing homework. After school hours are spent at faculty or parent meetings. Kajihiro says that every evening he spends one to two hours cre-ating lessons and a half-hour correcting papers. Fine stat-ed, “Teachers go far beyond the traditional 40 hour-week to meet the demands of their calling.” While teachers are able to see the rewards of their ef-forts, they experience stress that makes their job more difficult. Some of the dis-advantages are a low rate

of pay, personal restrictions, poor teaching facilities, heavy workloads and out of class responsibilities (Fine 81). The average salary for a Hawaii public school teach-er is $51,922, but after ad-justments are made for the cost of living, the average drops to just $31,922 (www.associatedcontent.com/ar-ticle/5610332/public_teach-er_salaries_us_state_rank-ings.html). According to Fine, “Many teachers give up within their first five years of teaching,” (83). Although there are nu-merous challenges for the public school teacher, (Fine 80-81) reports that there are also many rewards. Teach-ers often find enjoyment in using their creativity to plan lessons. Kajihiro said he gains a great deal of satisfac-tion in “helping (students) understand how the world is and what the world is like and to help them grow and prepare them to become an adult.” If teachers want to travel abroad, the profes-sion also provides foreign exchange opportunities.

Students can begin pre-paring for a teaching career in high school. Kajihiro en-courages self-reflection. As a student, he asked himself the following questions: “What am I good at? What are my skills and abilities? What are my interests?” After high school, a stu-dent will need to earn at least a bachelor’s degree to become a teacher. In Ha-waii, University of Hawaii at Manoa is the only school accredited by the National Counsel for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). Hawaii Pacific University and the University of Phoe-nix offer master’s degrees in education (www.education-degrees.com). Prospective secondary school teachers take courses dealing with education, ado-lescent psychology, test and measurements, methods of teaching and student teach-ing (Fine 30). “Ferguson’s Careers in Focus: Educa-tion,” reports that student teachers complete class-room observations and a period of student teaching

under the supervision of an experienced teacher (153). After earning a bachelor’s degree, an applicant takes the PRAXIS Series Exam as part of the certification and licensing process required by many states (www.ets.org/praxis). In Hawaii, pro-spective public school teach-ers submit an application to the Hawaii Department of Education (DOE). New educators must complete four consecutive semesters of probation to be eligible for tenure (doe.k12.hi.us/personnel/TeachingInHa-waii/). Applicants must be licensed before starting pro-bation. When asked what he enjoys most about being a teacher, Kajihiro responded, “In a way, you are almost like a parent as a teacher. You have the second greatest influence on someone’s life.” His most memorable mo-ments illustrate this point. Kajihiro said that one day, he was informed that a student who was doing well in his class had committed suicide during a school break. He said, “This was one of the worst experiences I’ve had.” This tragedy made him real-ize how important it is “to influence people for good … to help students along, to question what is the mean-ing of life and why it is im-portant to live your life to the fullest.” Some time later, another student confessed that he was thinking of kill-ing himself. Kajihiro report-ed the student to the office, angering the teen for betray-ing his trust. Eventually, the student contacted Kajihiro to thank him and tell him how he had been a positive influ-ence on his life. After talking to Kajihi-ro, it is obvious that his ad-vice to “think twice” is not meant as a cynical remark or a grim warning aimed to discourage students from becoming teachers. Instead, he explained, “Think twice, because it’s not a job, really.” For him, teaching is a calling that requires a great deal of dedication, but one that has immeasurable rewards. Kaji-hiro admitted, “Even though it sounds corny, it makes all of the extremely hard work worth it.”

The “season of giving” is upon us once again, and with that comes numerous holiday sales. Events like these confirm the fact that our society is absorbed with the idea of giving and receiving gifts. It’s nice that people are willing to sacrifice some of their money so their loved ones receive gifts during the holidays. But what about the people who don’t want, but need? The holiday spirit doesn’t truly come alive until we open up our hearts to the ones who need it the most. There is no doubt that it is fun to receive gifts at Christmas. I used to be guilty of being concerned with what I received, and one particular year sticks out in my memory. It was in 2004 that I decided I could not live without a Tamagotchi Connection. I would say, “Mom, did you see that commercial for the Tamagotchi?” or “Mom, I think that Tamagotchi is really cool,” as I tried to drop “sly” hints. After months of pleading, I was overjoyed to open a box on Christmas

Eve and find one inside. That was back when I was around ten. I had already heard that it was good to want for others instead of wanting for myself. However, I didn’t really practice what I had been told, or even given it much thought. I figured, “well I’m just a kid, what am I going to do?” About three years after the Tamagotchi (which I had lost by then), I was waiting at a bus stop in Mililani. A cup of soda that someone had left was sitting beside me. Then, a lady in shabby clothing with a shopping cart asked if she could have it. I said “sure,” while thinking about how crazy she was. This lady proceeded to dump it in her hair and use it as a shampoo. At the time I was a little afraid, but I was also confused. What events in her life had brought her to that point? When I was in bed at the end of that day, something was different. The image would not quit replaying in my head. I was feeling something, but I wasn’t sure what. Now I know it was not a feeling of disgust towards the woman, but

a feeling of guilt. I had not been doing enough to help those in need, even though they had been right there in my community. These people, who much of our society tries to avoid, are actually people just like us. They were once newborn babies, being held in the arms of their mothers. They were once elementary school children, just learning how to spell their names. They were once high school students, worrying about what their future held. The only difference is, along that line, some were not as lucky. After that experience, I started to realize that items don’t bring happiness. I realized that there really are people out there who are forced to live in such awful conditions. I never pictured myself as a greedy person, but that short encounter made me think differently. There I was, worrying about insignificant things like cute clothes and the social hierarchy of middle school, while more people than I could’ve imagined were worrying about the next time they would get a meal. If we all learned to give

in an unselfish manner, then we could save many from a sort of living nightmare. Not knowing these people is not an excuse to just blow them off; in fact it should be even more of a reason to give. What if firefighters wouldn’t save anyone but their loved ones, or if lifeguards wouldn’t rescue anyone but their mothers? It sounds ridiculous, but it’s pretty much what we’re doing when we push the well-being of others aside due to our own self-centered reasons. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to keep acquaintances in your thoughts. However, they probably don’t need a bundle of gifts as much as those who can’t even find a permanent place to stay. During this month, and for the rest to follow, revive the holiday spirit. Be more aware of these issues, push your preconceived ideas aside and open up your mind. Whatever it is that you choose, we have more than enough power to change the lives of the people who need it the most. It’s about time we use it.

Charitable Christmas : Giving is the best giftBy Caitlin Kellyc.kelly@trojantimes.org

Trojan Times

The Trojan Times is a monthly production of the Newswriting staff of Mililani High School 95-1200 Meheula Pkwy.,

Mililani, HI 96789

To voice an opinion or any concerns, feel free to submit a letter to L205 or to b.sewake@trojantimes.org. The Trojan Times re-serves the right to edit letters as they see fit. Please type your letter and clearly state your name, grade level and period one class.

The mission of the Trojan Times is to be the student

voice and to publicize events, share in the suc-

cesses of students, promote the hard work of the faculty and capture the dedication

of organizations.

Editor-in-ChiefBianca Sewake

Assistant EditorCaitlin Kelly

Design EditorMatthew Ambrosecchio

Business ManagerJessica Antonio

AdviserMr. Christopher Sato

PrincipalDr. John Brummel

StaffJonalyn Bate

Zora HaReid Imamura

Chanel KawasakiElla MacaraigJudy Mossman

Jacquelyn PerreiraMatthew RaabAven SantiagoShan Yonamine

6 Thursday, December 9, 2010Editorial

The College and Career Center will be closed during winter break. Please plan accordingly.

ATTENTION SENIORS! Turn in your applications and/or transcript requests, including online. A copy of scholarship letters should be sent to the front office for recognition in the graduation program.

UH Community College Application Community college may be your first step. It provides quality education, more personalized attention and lots of opportunities. Popular programs fill up quickly, turn in an application as soon as possible.

Financial Aid – Available Online January 1 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) foundation for the college financial aid process. Request forms or complete the form online after January 1 at www.fafsa.gov.

Registration Information Registration for next school year’s classes begin in January. Colleges like to see a rigorous course schedule.Check the website of prospective colleges and plan your schedule accordingly.

SAT and ACT Underclassmen, juniors especially, be aware of upcoming SAT/ACT dates. Visit Collegeboard.com or actstudent.org, sign up for the appropriate test. Our school’s CEEB code is 120-197.

C&CC College Awareness Week from January 10-14 Come to the dining lanai during lunch to get information from colleges.UH Manoa, UH West Oahu, UH Hilo, Heald College, Hawaii Pacific University, Performing Arts Outreach College and Kapiolani Community College will be attending. Come and check it out!

Quest for Success C&CC, in partnership with the Rotary Club of Mililani Sunrise, will be coordinating a field trip on Thursday, Jan. 20. This mini “career fair” will feature 50 businesses. The current students from the engineering, law and medical schools and local area colleges and universities. More information will be forthcoming. Check Edline for updates.

Running Start The Running Start program is a unique partnership between the DOE and the UH system. Come to C&CC for more information, or visit www.hawaii.edu/runningstart.

Important Upcoming Dates PSAT Parent and Student Night Dec. 13 at 6:15 p.m. in the cafeteria

College Awareness WeekJan. 10-14 at the dining lanai during lunch

Financial Aid NightJan. 19 at 6:30 p.m. in the cafeteria

Quest for Success Field TripJan. 20 from 8:30a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

College Goal SundayJan. 23 at 1:00 p.m. in the cafeteria

With many years put into perfecting the sport of bowling, Se-nior Leihulunani Sia-fuafu has played a part in MHS’ recent OIA Champions and HH-SAA Runners-up titles. Siafuafu has been bowling for nine years. What first got her inter-est in bowling was the fact that it was a chal-lenge. “I never knew that bowling had so much more to it, which is having accuracy, skill, concentration and dis-cipline, which makes bowling challenging. From then on all I want-ed to do was learn.“ MHS Bowling Coach Kellen Inafuku would have to agree, with the progress he has seen. “I don’t know any-one else at this school that can bowl like her, when she’s bowling you can really see how having a good attitude affects her,” he said. Before every game, she always prays to re-mind her of her roots and to reflect on how far she has come. After-ward, she likes to have a pep talk with the team to get them ready. “I have a talk with the team telling them to stay strong, have fun and no matter what, don’t give up.” With her final season over, Siafua-fu will continue to bowl with the Lee-ward Jr. Bowling Club.

Performing to the tunes of “All I Do is Win” by DJ Khaled, “Baby” by Jus-tin Bieber, “We Run This” by Missy Elliot and “The Dougie” by Cali Swag Dis-trict, MHS’ Varsity Cheer-leaders won first place in the OIA West Division Competi-tion, held at Moanalua High School on Saturday Nov. 6. Out of more than 20 schools, MHS managed to get first place. Radford took second and Kapolei placed third. Head Coach Rene-sha Kierstedt was thrilled with the team’s victory. “My first reaction was ‘Oh my God they did it.’ Finally there was ... evidence for them to see that they can be better than that. We had some difficulties, and they came out top. That was a great experience,” she said. They performed one original routine with a num-ber of mixed songs for the competition, which was no longer than two min-utes and thirty seconds. Their routine consisted of both chant and cheer. Routines are not just

that, they need practice so they can be perfect. “Lots of practice, rest, team bond-ings, that’s pretty much it. We usually have a lot of fun during practice,” said Senior La’Precious Richardson. They underwent months of practice and preparation. “We’ve been preparing since summer. We got to prepare our girls to be well mentally, physically and emotionally, they have to be able to do

it, love it, get used to it. And that’s probably (what) this team has that other team doesn’t,” said Kierstedt. Though cheerleading is a team sport, individuals en-gaged in it must posses cer-tain skills. “Some of us go to open gym. Some of us have cheerleading outside the school like we have All-Stars and we just have practices for school everyday,” said Junior Amanda Bejerana.

7Thursday, December 9, 2010 Sports

By Ella Macaraige.macaraig@trojantimes.org

Varsity Cheerleading takes first in OIA West Division

Mof the MonthTrojan

The MHS Varsity Cheerleading squad preformed their routine at the OIA West Division Champion-ships Nov. 6. After their victory, the team moved on to the state championships on Dec. 5.

Kierstedt was impressed with this year’s varsity team, “This year’s varsity team is ‘beast,’ that’s how I call it, I’m talking about their strength, emotional tightness. No matter what happens they’re always try-ing to help each other to that ultimate goal,” she said The team worked hard to reach the top, overcoming injuries along the way, and was able to put on a show.

By Caitlin Kelly c.kelly@trojantimes.org

MHS alumna Ciera Se-nas, class of 2005, was never one to take her family for granted. This family oriented athlete was a part of Hawaii Pacific University’s (HPU) NCAA Division II Softball College World Series Team. Senas has also received sev-eral honors, with recogni-tion as an All Pac West First Team member being one of them. She credits her fam-ily, who has always been supportive, for her success. Senas began playing soft-ball when she was five years old, her grandfather being her first coach. She has three sisters, Chasity (Mililani ’06), Chanelle (Mililani ’08) and Courtney (Mililani ’10), all of whom play softball as well. Being the oldest sibling, Senas took it upon herself to serve as a mentor for her sisters. “I feel like I influence them, so they watch every

move I make and being the older sibling I feel like I have to push them too,” she said. Senas’ parents have always been supportive of the sport. “My fam-ily played a big role in (my athletic success). They sup-ported me throughout my whole high school soft-ball career,” Senas said. It was her parents’

dream for their daughters to advance to the World Series. However, tragedy struck in Feb. 2010 when Senas’ father passed away after a long struggle with bone cancer just three months be-fore the World Series game. Her strength was tested during a time of difficulty for her family, but she kept her father’s words in mind. “He

taught me to always fight until the end. You always fight and push and strive to do your best, and because of that I think he pushed me to be a better person,” she said. Therefore, when HPU walked away with the title, it had an increased value. “He’s the one that pushed me, because him and my mom always talked about how one of their daugh-ters was going to bring them to the world series. I was always motivated to go. And my senior year, he wasn’t here but he had the best seats in the house and we made it,” Senas said. Though she has since graduated from HPU, Senas continues to carry on the softball tradition by coach-ing the Junior Varsity team at MHS, while also working as an educational assistant. With the support of her fam-ily, she hopes to pass the leg-acy on to younger players.

Ciera Senas, an MHS alumna , an educational assistant at MHS and a champion former Trojan softball player.

Senas succeeds in softball, life with family’s support

By Zora Haz.ha@trojantimes.org

Juyoung Song| Na Mana Poina ole

Caitlin Kelly|Trojan Times

8 Thursday, December 9, 2010Features

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Celebrating the holidays

around the worldAs December rolls around, one can find many fes-tive holiday decorations practically everywhere. Although the norm here in the U.S. is to celebrate Christmas-tree, lights, presents and Santa Claus-many other coun-tries have their own customs and holiday traditions.

u t r l h i t a : By Matthew Ambrosecchio and Bianca Sewakem.ambrosecchio@trojantimes.org b.sewake@trojantimes.org

The Norwegians have several festive holiday figures. Gnomes, to be exact. Legend has it that one named Neisse guards all the farm animals and plays tricks on c h i l d r e n who forget to leave out a special porr idge for him on Christ-m a s . T h e r e is also a g n o m e -like goat n a m e d J u l e b u k k who bears gifts. http://www.s a n t a s . n e t /a r o u n d t h e -world.htm

It is an Italian tradition for family mem-bers to pass around the “Urn of Fate”. Each member of the fam-ily gets a chance to select a gift from this bowl. Chil-dren look forward to

“Epiphany” on January

6, where a folktale tells of

a witch named Befana who rides

on a broomstick, leaving presents

for children at their homes.

http://www.santas.net/aroundtheworld.htmIn the Philippines, Christ-

mas is a popular holiday. There are many decorations, and it is a time for family gath-erings, exchanging gifts and mak-ing lots of food. Typically, there isn’t much sleep on Christmas Eve, as the celebrations are still going on. On Christmas Day, families and friends wish each other a Merry Christmas and have get-togethers, where people bring different foods.http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Tagalog/Cynthia/festivals/philippine_christmas.htm

Although Christmas is not one of their more popular holidays, the people of Korea still celebrate it. Lavish decorations can be found around the community and

work places. Cards and gifts are exchanged, and some homes have a tree decorated similar to

what we have in the U.S. A family dinner is planned and the gift exchanging is

not materialistic, it has some kind of meaning behind it.

http://christmas.lovetoknow.com/Korean_Christmas_

Traditions

Although December 25 is not a nation-al holiday, they still enjoy celebrations.

Usually, on December 23, families buy and eat “Christmas Cake”. Around this time, it is be-

lieved to be a time of romantic miracles, so young girls and boys usually reveal their affection for the other. Couples

and close friends exchange gifts such as teddy bears, rings, scarves and jewelry. The elderly couples usually see shows of famous actresses and singers at different hotels.http://www.tanutech.com/japan/jxmas.html

ITALY

SOUTH KOREA

JAPAN

PHILIPPINES

NORWAY