미주중앙일보 - 미주 최대 한인 뉴스 미디어

[Student Reporters] JROTC - What is it?

“One, two three four...” resound students as they come marching, clad in green uniform. On campus, they are reputed among students and teachers alike for spinning rifles, calling cadences, and marching in aggressive and systematic manner. They are students enrolled in a program called JROTC. Junior Reserve Officers‘ Training Corps (JROTC) is a national high school program that was created as a part of the National Defense Act of 1916. Students in the program often face discrimination from their peers and teachers alike, who harbor the misconception that JROTC is a strictly military program. However, JROTC’s mission statement is “to motivate young people to become better citizens.” Contrary to popular belief, the program does an excellent job of fulfilling that mission. “JROTC is not a recruiting program,” clarified Colonel Rogers, the instructor of Fairfax High School‘s Lion Battalion. “The Army has recruiters to do its recruiting. JROTC is a leadership program that provides students with opportunities to learn discipline and patriotism, among other important values.” JROTC classrooms have different sets of textbooks for students of different grades. Some of the materials taught in these books include leadership, first-aid, financing, time management, and United States history. As cadets, students are taught basics of becoming well-informed citizens of America. The program is offered as an alternative to PE courses. It also has unique opportunities not offered in any other program. National academic bowls, summer camp, city-wide drill competitions, and essay contests are just a few of the many opportunities students can choose to participate in. LAUSD’s All City Competition, in particular, selects the top ten cadets of the city through a rigorous process of examination, marching, and oral presentation. These cadets earn the prestigious position of being a part of the “All City Staff”, and receive benefits such as scholarships and influential letters of recommendation to colleges. Many students in the program also choose to participate in armed and unarmed drill teams and color guard. “Most importantly, I feel at home here. We‘re all part of a family,” said Flor Alfaro, a JROTC student. “I can always come here to do my homework, eat my lunch, or just to hang out with my friends. Students that aren’t in JROTC don‘t have that privilege.”

[Student Reporters] Online SAT Lectures Launched in Korea

Recently, Korean educational websites have started providing online SAT lectures through recorded videos. Few examples are Masterprep, Expertprep, and Wisesat. Almost all the teachers there are popular, renowned lecturers from institutions and academies. Furthermore, most of them had studied abroad before and are already familiar with giving online lectures. These SAT online educational services are considerate to students. For those who do not know which lessons to take, the sites provide some free samples and offer one-on-one consulting to analyze students‘ weakness. Moreover, understanding the difficulty of assessing on Internet, the SAT sites also give DVD delivery services. Finally, for students who plan on going to American colleges, they contain other useful information such as SAT dates, SAT columns, ways to get into desired college, and many more. While online SAT lessons are recent trend, online lecture service itself has been popular for many years among Korean students. Internet video lessons not only are cheaper than classes in hakwons, but also never digress. Moreover, students can take these lectures whenever and wherever for multiple times. However, despite these benefits, online lessons have some weaknesses. For example, the efficacy of such lectures depends solely on students because there is nobody to force them to concentrate. In addition, students taking Internet lectures can’t ask questions at the spot, unlike in hakwons. However, Sung Wu Park, a middle school student who uses online lessons says, “The lectures are so well-explained that questions are unnecessary. If students do have questions, they can always ask by e-mailing the lecturers.” Haemin Park, a high school student who also takes lessons online agrees. “Those recorded lessons are very detailed and informative. I have never been to hakwons before, but I always managed to get good grades using them.” Most students who have taken online lessons before were enthusiastic about the new SAT video lectures. Even students who have never taken lessons on Internet expressed high interest in online SAT lectures. “I have never used such utility, but I‘m interested in taking these SAT lessons on cyberspace,” said one International student of Garrison Forest Academy, “I’ve been thinking about studying SAT on my own, and I think these online lectures are going to be very handy.” Nowadays, especially when hakwons are so expensive, SAT educational websites can be a helpful alternative to institutions and academies, only if students have enough motivation to concentrate and care for their grades. I hope these SAT webs complement the weaknesses of other preexisting educational sites and become helpful to students.

[Student Reporters] Time to Take the Rachel‘s Challenge

Rachel Joy Scott was known as a sweet and gregarious girl. She had a premonition that she was going to die young, but she knew that she would somehow have a great impact on numerous lives. After the news of her death, many students from Columbine High School told her parents that she made a huge difference in their lives. Her acts of kindness, such as standing up for a bullied kid and sitting with a neglected student during lunch, averted suicides and comforted ones who were mourning. Of course, Rachel was unaware of these strangers’ background stories. She wrote in her essay, “People will never know how far a little kindness will go,” and those acts certified her own theory. Several diaries of hers were discovered after her death, which contained her theories and beliefs. Reading her entries, one could tell she was a devoted Christian, caring, and compassionate. “I have this theory that if one person can go out of his/her way to show compassion, it will start a chain reaction of the same.” Though she admitted that her theories may sound fantastical, she stood steadfastly, and ultimately substantiated them. Determined to carry out Rachel‘s theories, her dad created an organization called “Rachel’s Challenge”, which presents an assembly about her life and her message to the world. It is meant to motivate the audience to treat its peers kindly. On September 22, 2009, Hoover High School held a Rachel‘s Challenge assembly. Unlike other assemblies where students typically display ruckus behaviors, the Rachel’s Challenge assembly had its students calm and attentive. The presentation provoked many emotions, mainly because of the lives Rachel had and has considerably transformed. Most of the students and teachers responded positively, claiming that Rachel’s Challenge was an inspiring and influential presentation to teenagers. “It changed my perspective. I already knew that people should act kindly, but Rachel‘s Challenge was a good reminder,” said Angela No. However, some disagreed. Rachelle Manookian said that although the intention of the assembly was really good, it was “too cheesy at the end so some people were not taking it seriously.” Rachel Joy Scott wrote that she “didn’t want to be labeled as average” on the cover of one of her diaries. Don‘t be an average Joe. Stick out as an individual by starting with an act of kindness to another: will you take this challenge?

[Student Reporters] The Yellow Ribbon Program - You Are Not Alone

Jimmy was a senior in high school and grew up with most of the people in his graduating class. Unfortunately, barely anyone could testify this fact. Ever since middle school, Jimmy was never the social type and was constantly excluded from activities. He grew to understand that he was meant to fly solo in school and that he was a “loner”. Jimmy had caught the flu and had to miss a week of school. When he returned, Jimmy did not expect a grand party but at least someone, anyone, to realize that he had been missing from his classes. Not one of his six teachers welcomed him back nor acknowledged his returned presence. Jimmy thought he never asked for too much. But he did not understand how not even one person cared. Jimmy made his way to the medicine cabinet in his bathroom. He felt there was nothing more to live for. High school, the glory years for some, and for others the hardest time to overcome. When teenagers feel like they cannot overcome hardships, many turn to suicide. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for young people in the West between the ages of 15-24. “That statistic is too high,” Nathan Park, 17, stated. “Our age group is still too young to give up and lose hope.” Glendora High School has lost one of its students to suicide this month. Vincent Giovanazzi, 17, was a senior and had touched many lives during his time at Glendora High School. As the news was heard that Vincent passed away, students, teachers and many others were extremely devastated. “Vincent never seemed like he was unhappy. He was always smiling,” Michael Brown, 17, said. “I guess he hid his pain behind his smile.” During the third week of September, the famous Glendora High School torch was lit in memory of Vincent Giovanazzi. Because of such tragedy, Glendora High School consistently promoted the “Yellow Ribbon Week” for national suicide prevention. The Yellow Ribbon Program is based on the premise that suicidal feelings are not about death, but rather about ending pain and that it is okay to ask for help. The program was designed to show that students will always have someone to talk to and that they have permission to reach out for someone who is willing to listen. Many professionals believe that The Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention Program should be promoted more often and taken seriously. The U.S. Surgeon General has issued a call to action to address the growing concern of suicide by focusing on awareness, intervention, and methodology. Many lives can be saved by simply reminding peers that there are resources to turn to in times of need.

[Student Reporters] Are You Really Coming to Teach? How to keep those who aren‘t out.

My middle school hired its first foreigner when I was in eighth grade. The whole school was hyped about having him come teach. Most expected him to be great. But fact was, he didn’t know what he was doing. As time wore on and he began realizing the students didn‘t understand the bulk of what he was trying to teach, he ended up handing out crossword puzzles for us to fill out in class. While the students were busy filling out the boxes, he would sit in the front of the classroom doing nothing. Then, this summer I went to one of the few big rock concerts held in Korea. The majority of the foreigners who came were English teachers working at schools or private institutes. My friends and I were able to overhear a lot of what they were saying, considering most of them were drunk and talking at the top of their voices. Their conversations were mostly about their jobs and how it was a piece of cake. By the looks of it, most of them barely knew about the English language, never mind teaching it. But they joked about how easy it was to get a fat paycheck by speaking a few words in English. This got me thinking: is Korea’s English education industry really this messed up? Turns out, it is. Educational institutes, commonly known as hakwons, hire most of the white Canadian/American college grads who turn up for job applications, sometimes without even completing a decent background check for criminal records and fraud diplomas. This lack of employer censoring is one reason why so much news about foreign English teachers molesting their students or being former convicts get air time. And although regulations have been set by the government in an effort to screen unqualified foreigners from getting teaching positions beforehand, much of the private industry is taking little notice. The number of drug addicted English teachers and students in South Korea is on the rise, according to the Supreme Public Prosecutor‘s Office, and cases of foreign teachers coming into class under the influence has become more and more common. However, this just might be the nature of the industry. Joseph Foster, currently working as an English teacher at Daewon Foreign Language High School, believes that the problem lies not with lackadaisical regulations but with market supply and demand. There are too many Korean parents out there who want their children to be taught by white Americans and too few foreigners to go around. Currently, there are seventeen thousand foreign English teachers employed in Korea. The number has risen threefold over the past seven years, proving how high market demand is for these teachers. And the rate at which they are coming in is only increasing. So who’s to blame? The government might have failed to screen every single criminal from coming in. But laws can only go so far. Ultimately, it‘s the employer who has to take responsibility. They can start by actually doing checkups on the people they hire. Doing this will, at least, keep fraud college grads and convicts from teaching our children who knows what. There might be a shortage of foreign English teachers in the market. But that doesn’t mean the employers should start hiring drug addicts. Education is more than just business. Education is parents handing over their children to strangers. Profits might be enticing. But profits aren‘t everything. And employers have a responsibility to their clients: to provide real education in a safe environment.

[Student Reporters] Club Rush Showcases School‘s Diverse Campus Life

Students flocked to the quad when the bell rang after the fourth period. Not only was it lunchtime but it was also Club Rush Week. Club Rush is an annual week-long event at Cypress High School where clubs, new and old, set up stands to meet the student body for the first time since school has started. This year’s Club Rush took place from Monday, September 14th to Friday, September 18th. It was a great opportunity for clubs to find new members and for students to get a taste of all the different activities on campus. At each table, club officers were present to answer questions that prospective members had. “What kind of club is this?”, “What do you do at the meetings?”, “Do you have any field trips or events?”, and “Are there any club dues?” were typical questions asked. This year’s new clubs made their first appearance during Club Rush. They were Immigration Nation, Math Club, Mormon Club, The Pacific Asian Volunteer Association, Well Done, and others. Immigration Nation, a club working to raise awareness for the Dream Act, spread around fliers to inform students about giving undocumented students a chance to gain legal statuses. “A lot of people that signed up for our club actually made it to the first meeting. I was surprised,” said Michael T., an officer of the club. The Pacific Asian Volunteer Association stood out with the many green-shirted volunteers waving miniature flags. Math Club acquired members by offering help to students with their homework problems and with the American Math Competitions. Club Rush was an important helper in getting the word out for all of these new additions to campus life. Continuing clubs also worked hard in preparation for Club Rush in order to reach out to more students, more effectively. Clubs such as Interact and Key Club displayed their large banners to grab attention and scored pages of sign-ups. Make-A-Wish counted up to more than six pages full of names, email addresses, and phone numbers. Robotics Club showed off their robot and its carrying skills with which they won third place at last year’s Innovation Competition hosted by Fullerton College. “We’ve never had so many people at our meetings. I hope they‘ll keep on coming,” said Rocky N., founder of Robotics Club. Other clubs sought members by giving out candy, requiring applications, or simply showing enthusiasm under the hot afternoon sun. As a new school year has begun, so have many clubs been born, changed, and developed. Club Rush will continue to serve as the showcase of extracurricular life at Cypress High School.