Clubs and Activities at PHS!

June 10th, 2016

By: Sandra Hernandez, Ariana Segura and Piedad Carrera

FFA:This year FFA has sponsored a lot of fundraisers, among which are the plant sale which brought in over $3,600; the auction, where they raised over $13,000; and the Give to Gift of Blue, which accumulated enough money to buy 10 jackets for the freshmen this year and also next year. Finally they had the Adopt a Family, which provided food and gifts for 3 of our local families in need. At their banquet, they honored 6 graduating FFA seniors and other members. They were recognized for their proficiency, as well as for their hard work and dedication to FFA and their outside of school projects. Our FFA members participated in 17 different Career Development Events this year. These events were ranked from Districts to State level. Also, they received an award at State Convention for raising their membership 10%.  But wait, FFA is not just about competitions. They also get to travel. This year, 12 of our FFA students went on the Oregon Agricultural Tour where they spent 5 days traveling throughout the Oregon Coast visiting 13 different agricultural companies.

Leadership: Phoenix High School’s Leadership Class is one of the many electives that Phoenix High School has to offer to its students. The class is taught by Jessica Flores, who is a basketball coach as well as a math and health teacher at our school. In the class there are currently fifteen students made up of fourteen ladies and one gentleman. The class is designed to help students become better leaders and help improve our school/community. This class is responsible for all of our assemblies and spirit weeks! This year they successfully planned our Spirit Kick Off and Homecoming assemblies. They also coordinated the Homecoming Spirit Week. The class also hosted a movie night, for which they played When the Game Stands Tall in the big gym.To raise money for leadership, the students have sold cake pops at football games and hot chocolate for the Day of the Dead Run. Their most successful fundraiser this year was the Fall Carnival and Haunted House, which brought in about $600. They are currently brainstorming new fundraiser ideas for next year.

Advisor Reps: For the first time our school tried something Advisor Reps. The Advisor Reps were a representation of each advisory class. They meet every two weeks with our principal, Mrs. Hale to give feedback on what the students liked or what they wanted to change in our school. Our principal and the advisors would come to an agreement. They also came up with new ideas to try during our  advisory classes. One of them being the circle talk, where the class got in a circle and talked about different topics, like what they did during their spring break, what they need to do to get their grades up, and even how they are doing that day.

Ukulele Club: Phoenix High School gave students the opportunity to start their own clubs. One of the new clubs students wanted to start was Ukulele Club. The Ukulele club Performed at the Farm to School Garden party and Luau. The Ukulele Club was created  by Taran McGuire to teach students and even staff how to play the ukulele. The purpose of this club is to create an environment where people can learn or jam on the ukulele and grow together as a community.

Gamers club: The Gamers Club is sponsored by Mr. Shunk. Emilio Mojarro, as well as Mr. Shunk, wanted to have a place where gamers could meet and do what they love most, play games. Not only that, they also created this club to maybe meet some new friends. Gamers Club is a place for students to enjoy gaming. They talk about games, systems and new releases. The Gamers Club often discusses different genres of games. The main goal for this club is to meet every other Friday to play games.

Relay for life: Relay for Life began meeting in February. They raised $831 for the American Cancer Society and about $300 of that was through selling Footprints with PHTV agreeing to match those sales!  In addition, Culinary Arts donated cupcakes for the members to sell.  Candy, suckers, greeting cards and Crepe Flowers were sold as well. On May 14th, our Relay for Life members met with 16 other teams at SOU for inspiration and games. They managed to keep at least one team member on the track at all time, and walked a total of more than 200 laps.

PHTV: Jeff Rhoades is the advisor and teacher for our  PHTV class. It is one our many media classes. To be part of our amazing PHTV crew, students must take Media 1 and Media 2. Our PHTV crew host our news channel every Monday during advisory. Students work on their skills of editing, lighting and sound mixing. Not only do students broadcast our school news, but also make videos of school and outside school activities.

Deca: DECA had a very good year: Not only did four of our students qualify to compete at Nationals, but they also had a very successful year in terms of improving their skills. These clubs helps students build professional skills, strengthen their leadership skills, meet new people and communicate better with others. This year Madelyn Gearhart, Audrey Hazel, Emi Weiss and Aishwarya Vellanki earned the privilege to travel to Nashville, Tennessee and compete at Nationals. They all did a great job. In fact, Aishwarya was a finalist in her event, ranking her in the top 20 in the entire world for that event. Mr. Carvalho, the DECA advisor, says, “I am extremely proud of all the members this year and I will greatly miss the seniors who were in DECA the past four years.” DECA is a wonderful club that will open the door to many opportunities. If you aren’t already a member, we highly suggest you think about joining.

Math Team: The math team is another one of the great clubs Phoenix High School has to offer its students. The students compete in math meets. Usually math meets consists of four events and each competitor will take part in two events to acquire points for his/her team. Each event is routinely a three-question quiz testing a specific skill such as geometry, algebra, trigonometry, etc. Students are able to pick their strengths and weaknesses. There is also a team event in which students learn the importance of teamwork and helping one another to solve a problem. They also compete at Southern Oregon University where students have the opportunity to win money and qualify for State. If you like math or are interested in joining, talk to Mr. Dougherty; he is always looking for new people to continue the team’s strong performance at the math meets.

Peer Mediation: The Peer Mediation Program was started sixteen years ago by John Cornet, a Phoenix High School teacher. The program is designed to help students at our school who are involved in any type of disagreement to come to a peaceful resolution on their own. Some of the many topics that the club helps with include gossip/rumors, depression, bullying/harassment, and friendship/relationship issues. The Peer Mediation Program has many types of training opportunities. Some of these opportunities include psychological prompts for conflict, suicide intervention, grief and loss seminar, and athletic teams disputes workshop.. There is also the possibility of receiving honors and recognition if you are a part of this program. It’s also something that would look great on a resume. “I would recommend students to join the program – it looks great on college applications,” said Yasmin Conchas, a member of Peer Mediation. Anyone is able to join and no experience is necessary. Don’t think you aren’t welcome if you’ve been a disputant in the past. They’ll still welcome you in.

Dance Crew: This year we had the opportunity to reintroduce a dance club at our school. The girls and boys meet after school to practice their dance routines. They don’t compete yet, but are hoping to do so in the future. The Dance Crew has performed many times at our assemblies and they have done an amazing job performing. This club has helped students gain confidence, meet new people and get out of their comfort zones. If you are interested in joining, all you have to do is get in contact with the coaches. There is no experience necessary.

Speech and Debate: Speech and Debate is a class and a club that you can join here at Phoenix High School. Similar to athletic sports, speech and debate activities are challenging, competitive in nature, and require regular practice, coaching, dedication, and hard work. There are different kinds of debates and speeches for Speech and Debate. There is the single speech where you are on your own and the team vs. team debate. This one is a little different from the single speech and debate. This one includes a team of two people who are either on the affirmative side or a team on the negation side who go head-to-head and debate which side of their topic is better. This year members were able to travel to Portland to compete. This club helps students gain many valuable skills that they will use throughout their lives. If you are interested in joining this club/class talk to Mr. Rodreick.

My Future My Choice: My Future, My Choice is wonderful club that allows our students to go over to the middle school and talk to the younger students about sex and  peer pressure. Their goal is to educate the younger kids so that when the time comes they are prepared and able to react the way they want. This club is great and will make you feel accomplished for educating younger generations and helping them make their own choices. This club teaches you how to develop your speech, leadership and teamwork skills. It’s a great club, and it would look great on college applications.

Craft Club: “Crafter’s Club is for creative people who enjoy making things from different mediums–paper, beads, yarn, cloth, etc. The club is inspired by a love of creating beautiful projects, as well as a desire to promote the arts and skills that are useful and have a rich history, like sewing or knitting, but are no longer taught in a mainstream way,” said Ms. Bryan, the sponsor of this club. When the club meets, they work on whatever they want to do. They try to create a relaxing and welcoming environment. It’s a great club to take a part of and meet great new people.

Culinary Arts: Culinary Arts is a class where students learn to prepare all kinds of dishes, This year the class had an “Egg-off” where they had to prepare an egg-based dish, the winner of this event not only got a good grade but they got a gift card to Dutch bros. They also made breakfast dishes and were beginning to get into baking. Mr. Janousek refers to cooking as “the great equalizer.” This class is very fun and recommended to all those who like to try new things and meet new people.

Digital Journalism: Jeff Rhoades is the advisor and teacher for Digital Journalism. Digital Journalism is a class that requires advanced skills in video production, photography, and basic writing skills. Before this class, there was only a yearbook club, with meetings after school and on some weekdays during lunch with around five students. Digital Journalism is an opportunity for students to flourish with their media skills and potentially lead to careers for their future. The students create a wide array of stories and projects that demonstrate high levels of journalistic integrity, skills, editing, lighting, and sound mixing. The students also work on our yearbook; each student is assigned pages that he or she will be responsible for. This year, Mr. Rhoades was also able to introduce a new website for the school: PHTVNews.com; this website is used to inform our students/parents about everything that is going on in our school/community.  The students are assigned to write an article for the website as a team of three almost every week. If you want to join this wonderful new program, you’ll have to take Media 1 and Media 2.

 

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