Welcome 2017

Well, it's another new year, and I try again to be a regular blogger/journal writer. I taught the lesson in Relief Society today on goal setting, so I need to work on my own goals. My plan is to write to the family history prompts on Sundays and write my own thoughts about what I'm doing, reading, and learning on Wednesdays. As I say, I will try.

(short pause to make the type font on my computer bigger....I am becoming a fan of only reading from my Kindle because I can make the print large enough to read with ease...and I love that I can make fonts on my computer bigger as well)

So, I have this jar with prompts in it to help write a personal/family history. I'm going to just pull out a prompt every week and we'll see what happens.

Today's prompt: Between the ages of 5 and 10, what were some favorite activities?

Hmmm....

We lived in Abilene, Texas during those years, at a trailer park, first in a small trailer where Karen and I shared the only bedroom and mom and dad slept on a fold-out sofa. When I was in 1st or 2nd grade (I can't quite remember), we bought a much bigger trailer and I had my own bedroom. Looking back, I realize that it was about the size of most walk-in closets, but it was mine and I loved it.

What did I like to do? The trailer park was filled with kids and we had adventures. We rode our bicycles all over the park and played and played. I liked pretending we were in a school or an office, and we created our own "telephones" and "typewriters" by drawing "dials" or "keys" on pieces of wood, then "typing" or "dialing." We also did a lot of running and jumping--jumping off the roof of the shed was especially exciting. After we got the bigger trailer, we had the biggest yard and the corner lot. It was great for chasing and running and playing. Our trailer park also had a giant swings to play on, and a swimming pool. During the summer we swam every day.

I remember Aunt Gloria coming to visit and her and mom helping me learn to swim when I was bout 5 or 6. I loved being in the water.  But once, I was playing in the pool and wearing an inflatable tube around my waist. I tried to dive and managed to get myself upside down with my feet in the air and my head under water. Because of the tube, I could not flip back upright, and I panicked too much to think of just sliding out of the tube. I guess my little legs were frantically kicking in the air, because my mom, who was nursing a bad cut on her knee and should not have been in the pool, had to jump in to save me. I still remember the horror of being unable to breathe...

At some point in those years, one of my friends got a horse, and since there was a field beside the trailer park, we went riding a few times. I enjoyed it, but I was never very good at it, and I quit the day the horse headed straight for a low-hanging limb and tried to knock me off. I jumped and avoided a collision with the tree, but that was the end of my equestrian efforts.

The summer I turned 10, we moved to Arlington, Texas. The new trailer park was not nearly as nice, and had no pool, but we soon became friends with the von Bose family, and adventures on their 10-acres in Dalworthington Gardens began. They had a trampoline! It was so exciting. They also had woods filled with trails, and a pond, and a cliff, and so many wondrous places for kids to explore and run and play. It was paradise, and we spent many, many happy times there. My mom soon became best friends with Pat von Bose, and their entire family took us under their wing. My dad was not active in the church, but we had the von Bose's as our mentors. Pat seemed to know absolutely everything about the scriptures and the gospel. I remember mom reading books Pat loaned her and talking with Pat and her husband, Bob, for hours.

Their daughter, Kathleen, became my dearest friend. I remember the first time I went to their house, she showed me around, and explained that her oldest brother, Joe, was on his mission, and the house seemed lonely without him. I was dumbfounded. They had NINE children. How could their home every seem lonely?! To me their house was a gigantic place. Bob was building it himself, so it was not finished out, but the basics were present--and every child had his or her own bedroom. The whole concept amazed and impressed me. They also had a balcony (but no rail yet) and Kathleen's older brothers would jump off the balcony onto the trampoline. I never, ever had the guts to do such a thing, but it was impressive to watch.

My other favorite place was the Farm in Fairfield where Nannie and Papa lived. Most of my best memories were made there. Nannie and Papa were the most wonderful grandparents--I always knew that they absolutely loved me and thought I was wonderful. And there was so much to do on the farm with my cousins!! We built thousands of sand castles (and probably lost hundreds of Nannie's spoons that we used as shovels). We hiked the sand bed roads to the Henderson Place. We rode in the back Papa's pickup to feed the cows...then there was the time that David Dean thought the calf sleeping in the field was alone, and needed to be petted. So, David approached the lonely little thing....In a flash, Mama cow wheeled around and headed toward her baby at top speed. We were just sure David was done for...and screamed from the back of the pickup, "Run, David, Run!!!" Thankfully he made it, but we all learned that calves are always in their mother's vision, and walking toward them is dangerous.

Sleeping at the farm was always an adventure. Little girls slept on pallets on the floor. There were sometimes six or eight of us lined up. When we got older, we slept in the beds in the back room (if they weren't taken by adults), or on couches. The back room had two beds, one dubbed "the pit" because it sank in the middle and no matter how hard you tried to stay on your side, sometime in the night, everyone rolled to the center. The other mattress had two troughs and a high middle, and if you had to sleep three to the bed, the center person was always rolling off that high spot. If you slept on a couch, you were in the living room, next to Nannie and Papa's room, and the spot where early-rising Papa would come first thing in the morning. Once he was up, your sleep was probably over. If you stayed perfectly still, he might (might) be sort of quiet. But if you moved, he assumed that you were awake, and would begin talking--loudly. In the winter, he loaded up the cast-iron stove/heater with wood first thing in the morning, and no one could sleep through that--the banging of the cast iron doors and the thumping of wood being thrown in and moved around made further slumber.
impossible.

I don't describe all this as a complaint of any kind; looking back, it was all pretty hilarious. We loved Papa and he loved us and we all loved spending time with each other at the farm. The greatest game was hide-n-go-seek chase--at night--in the total darkness. We would divide up into teams and one group hid while the others counted, then gave chase. You can hide very well in the darkness of night in the countryside. We would often just lay down in the pasture and wait for the searchers, then jump up, scare them half to death, and run like crazy for home base. There are only a couple of problems with laying in a cow pasture, the grass itches, and you have to be very careful of cow pies...I remember the time when Darrell and Ricky were the last ones out and no one could find them. Then suddenly they jumped out at us and we all shrieked. They had crawled in a ditch to get near the rest of us and then basically terrify us.

Another favorite activity at the farm was climbing the hackberry tree that grew next to the house. A gigantic wisteria vine had grown up all through the tree and it provided us an way to get into the tree. The tree itself was much too tall for us to even have a hope of reaching a branch, but the vine changed all that. I was enormous and strong. We climbed all over that tree. I remember David and Barry using it to drop onto the farmhouse roof, and almost all of us used one of the vines as a Tarzan rope to swing out of the tree, yelling at the top of our lungs. I was not a brave child, but I was certainly impressed with my cousins' derring-do.

Of course the stories from the farm are probably endless, but these are a few of the things I loved as a child. I was and am blessed with wonderful relatives--especially with the world's greatest Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, and cousins.

Personal History as Family History

Obviously I haven't posted in ages, and what is coming this year may not be of much interest to everyone, but I'm going to try to write a personal history. To accomplish that, I found a list of questions on FamilySearch.org and will be writing in response to one of them every week. If I can get into the habit, maybe I'll write other things as well, but this is a place to begin. So....

1   What is your full name? Explain why your parents gave you that name.

    My name is Sherry Lynne Wodraska Neaves. I really have no idea why my parents named me Sherry Lynne except that they liked the names. My middle name begins with an L because both of my parents had L middle names—my mom was Shirley Laverne (I have her same initials) and my dad was Wilbur Lee. 

    My last name is Bohemian, from the part of the Czech Republic that is called Bohemia. My dad’s father’s family came to the United States in 1856 and first settled in Michigan. Later, they moved to South Dakota and that’s where my dad was eventually born to Edward Alois Wodraska and Edna Irene Perkins in 1929. The Wodraska’s still spoke Bohemian when my dad was a child, but I met very few of them and never learned any of the language. Dad never shared any with us either, so I’m not sure how much, if any, that he knew.  The Wodraska’s were musical, because somewhere there is a photograph of the family band. I think they had uniforms and they were playing all different kinds of brass instruments. 

    I did not know my dad’s father well—he died in 1967, when I was only nine years old. We did visit him a couple of times at his farm in South Dakota. I think he raised wheat. He lived in a little wooden house that seemed to me to be out in the middle of nowhere. South Dakota is flat plains with few trees and the horizon goes on forever. I remember Grandpa burning dry corn cobs in his wood stove to keep the house warm—there were a couple of trees near the house as wind breaks, but certainly none to cut down for firewood, so he burned corn cobs. I’m sure they grew lots of corn on those big farms, as well as wheat. 

    I also remember that Grandpa was hard of hearing, because Mom and Dad had to yell at him. That seemed very odd to me as a small child.

    Grandpa came from a large family, but I don’t remember meeting many other Wodraska’s. I do know that in his generation (or the one before) some of the family moved into town. They changed the spelling of their last name to Woodraska—maybe to make it easier for everyone else to spell. Those that stayed out on the farm kept the first spelling. From what I have found in my little bit of family history research, Wodraska is not the correct Czech spelling either. I found an older spelling of Vodrazka, but I don’t know if that is the Bohemian spelling or not. Maybe as I do more research, I will find out.

    As an adult, I have never met an Wodraska’s, but I feel fairly confident that anyone with the name is a relative. 

Books--I LOVE BOOKS!!!

Rather than posting on my blog (as you probably have noticed, it's been more than a year….), I read (and read and read and read). In fact, I would rather read a good book than do almost anything else. So, today I came across the following ratings system at The Gifted Guru, and I have decided that I can at least rate the books I read and share my thoughts with you….

This is Lisa's ratings system, but I am going to adopt it. Here are the parameters:

5.  Drop everything and buy this book. Go without eating dinner if you need to.  You not only need to read this, you need to own it.  No home library will be complete without this book.

4. A must-read, but check it out of the library.  Original ideas, well-written, at least some crucial knowledge.  A single read may be good enough, so borrow – don’t buy.

3. Read this if you have lots of time to read and aren’t that picky about what it is you’re reading.  May have some valuable information, but the writing is sub-standard or dry, or the information is not that valuable or unique.

2. Don’t read this. Just don’t.  Unless you know the author, it’s not worth it.

1. Not only should you not read this book, no one should read it and no one should have written it. The fact that trees died to print this book is a travesty.

Books I've been reading lately: The Skystone series by Jack Whyte--all about the Arthurian Legends--these are excellent books and I am really enjoying them. However, be warned that there are nine (9!) books in the series and once in, you gotta keep going. Right now I am on book 8 (The Lancethrower) and still enthralled with the series. I give them all 4s. 

A couple of 5's for me: Persuasion by Jane Austen, and Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose. 

What are your 5s?

Not everything, but at least something

I know, I know...I need to write about my three vacation summer and my amazing family and lots of other stuff. But, rather than just feel guilty, I thought I'd share the talk I gave at church yesterday. Please let me know what you think....

I’ve been thinking about this talk for a long time. Like many of you, I have some friends and relatives who wonder whether or not God exists at all, and others who aren’t quite sure how to tell if God is talking to them or if their answers are just wishful thinking. So, in the short time that we have today, I would like to address these issues.

When talking with those who insist that you cannot “prove” the existence of God through the intellect or science, I think of a letter written to a child by Albert Einstein. Though he did not adhere to any particular faith, Einstein acknowledged that: “everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe -- a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble.”

The prophets tell us that anyone with even a small desire to learn of God, perhaps no more than Einstein’s conviction that a vastly superior spirit exists, can receive a testimony of our Heavenly Father,  and His son, Jesus Christ. According to Alma, we begin with a simple desire to know. In Chapter 32, he says: “If ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you.” In other words, if you just want to know, even a tiny bit, that’s a place to start.  Then Alma compares faith to a seed that we can plant. He speaks of allowing the seed, or the word of God to grow within us. That involves studying the scriptures, prayer, listening to the gospel as it is taught, trying to do what is right. When we do this, and we don’t allow our doubts and fears to stop us, then faith will begin to grow within us and we will know that it is good.

I know that many people have come this far in the process of knowing God, but then they stumble. They just aren’t sure if their answers, their experiences with God, are real or just wishful thinking. To answer this question, I refer to the words of Moroni. In Chapter 7 he says: “all things which are good cometh of God.” Then he explains how to tell whether something actually is good. “That which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore everything which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God,and to serve him, is inspired of God….it is given unto you to judge, that ye may know good from evil; and the way to just is as plain, that ye may know with a perfect knowledge, as the daylight is from the dark night. For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil…every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ, wherefore you may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God.”

To restate Moroni simply, everything good in the world, comes from God. Everything that helps us do right, comes from God and it all testifies that he is real.

So, where do I see God? In all good things (which for me include chocolate and anesthesia) In every bluebonnet by the highway in the spring. In every snowflake that falls, in the birds that fly and the grass that grows. Several years ago, when we actually had an autumn and the trees burst forth in radiant color, I thanked the Lord every day for the beauty around me. (by the way, Texas trees actually can change colors, they just usually get all the wrong weather—hot, hot, hot, blue norther, frozen--so that they go from lovely green straight to brown, dead, fallen.) I see God in the faces of people—the tiny ones in the nursery, the crazy teenagers in my classes, all of you as we meet and talk together. I hear Him in sacrament hymns and primary songs. It’s not just wishful thinking. The warm, happy feelings we get during those songs are a testimony of God.

And how do I know that his answers, his inspirations, are real and not happenstance? They always lead to something good.

One year at girl’s camp, we were preparing lunch and realized that we would soon have rain. Since we needed to finish cooking over the fire, we needed the rain to hold off for a bit. So, we prayed for it to wait until we finished lunch. We cooked, we ate, we cleaned up, we went into the tent, and the rain began pouring. Just a coincidence? Not to me.

                On my way to the grocery store, I pulled into the parking lot and received a distinct impression that I needed to go to a different store. That seemed kind of silly, since I was already at a store, but I looped around the lot, exited and headed to the other store. The kids asked what I was doing, and I told them that we were supposed to go to the other store, but I didn’t know why. I found out when we got there. Our old neighbors were in the second store. We hadn’t seen them in a long time and we had a wonderful visit. Coincidence? I don’t’ think so.

                I often receive impressions about things I should do. And they are always good things, so I know  they come from God. I’m sure my students are grateful, too, because sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night with a strong impression that they need chocolate. Luckily WalMart is open at 6 a.m. and I can stop by on my way to school.

                God reveals himself to us in many ways. As I have mentioned, the earth itself and everything in it testify of their creator. Through the Holy Ghost, he impresses our minds with what we should do. All of us who have been baptized and received the gift of the Holy Ghost can be constantly guided by Him if we are worthy. These methods are quiet, and the skeptical among us might dismiss them as wishful thinking or coincidence. But they are real.

                Many of these experiences fall into what Elder David A Bednar, of the Quorum of theTwelve, calls the tender mercies of the Lord. He says that “we should not underestimate or overlook the power of the Lord’s tender mercies. The simpleness, the sweetness, and the constancy of the tender mercies of the Lord will do much to fortify and protect us in the troubled times in which we do now and will yet live.” Often God’s tender mercies give us the strength to go on, to continue striving.

 One of the tender mercies God showed me came in the form of an audible statement.

                When I was in high school, our seminary teacher repeatedly told us that it was time to develop our own testimonies, and to stop living off the convictions of our parents. We needed to pray and know for ourselves that The Book of Mormon is true. Funnily enough, I was already pretty sure that it was true, but I thought maybe I should ask for an “official” answer. So I prayed. And prayed. And prayed. For a while it didn’t seem like He was hearing me, but I guess He wanted me to understand what I already knew. Finally one night I heard a voice clearly and quietly say: You already know this. He was right. I did already know.

                I won’t say that I never have doubts. But I know the way to learn, and I know that if I allow that seed to grow within me, my testimony can continue to grow. I study and I pray and I try to follow God’s commandments. I know that anyone with a sincere desire to know God can know Him and feel his presence in their lives.

One of the Nine Percent

As a happy person who now has a Master's Degree, I am one of the nine percent of Americans who hold this degree. (28% have bachelor's, and only 2% have Ph.D.s)

Here are a couple of pictures. More words and pictures to come later.....

Catching up a little bit....

I know that I haven't written anything in ages, so I thought I would share a little bit of what I have been doing. I've been doing graduate school.....lots and lots and lots of graduate school. I now have only two finals standing between me and a Masters of Education from Southern Methodist University. I will graduate on Saturday, May 12, God willing, and I am SO HAPPY!!!! I have loved my professors and my classes, but I am exhausted, and I'm ready to be finished. And, don't ask if I intend to get a PhD--the answer is no. More grad classes in English, yes, but not another degree, just more learning for the joy of it.

To start, I've decided to share a set of poems with you, along with a stop-action video I made about how I think high school students believe poetry is created. Both of these were assignments for classes this semester. I share the poems with some trepidation, because I have never thought of myself as a poet. However, I am pleased with how these turned out, and even if no one else likes them, I do. So, if you like them, please leave a comment and tell me, and if you don't, please don't tell me. I wrote them from my heart and they express some very tender feelings. I don't see them as publishable, but I think they are pretty good. Here goes:

This first one is an homage to e.e.cummings, one of my favorite poets:

                                                            r     r    i    a  

                                                        a                         g

                                                    m                               e

                                                For                                to

                                                                               suc-

                                                                                ceed,

                                                                                         we

                                                                                                n

                                                                                                e

                                                                                               e

                                                                                              d

                                                                                            3:

                                                     M e                          God,

                                                                 &    Michael

 This one came about because I keep hearing people say that God is always serious and stern. I don't think so. Have you looked around?

 To those who wonder….

Elephants and squirrels that fly,

Jelly fish and octopi,

Of course our God can laugh…

Hear the loud hyena howl,

Kookaburra, hooting owl,

Of course our God can laugh…

He who made the mustard seed,

Prickly pear, and tumbleweed,

Of course our God can laugh…

Talking donkeys, parting seas,

Plagues of frogs and fires and fleas,

Of course our God can laugh…

Each and every tiny flake

complete, original, unique.

Gleeful with creative joy,

Of course our God can laugh…

Mighty Everest, sinking knolls,

All in all,

Paradoxically enthralled.

Of course our God does laugh.

He laughs and laughs and laughs….

I don't know about you, but I love LOVE, to read. These are some thoughts about my book friends.

 

Some of my favorite people live only in books.

I enter their worlds with scarcely a look

back into mine.

I see Jane touring Yorkshire, Elizabeth at Pemberly,

Anne and her captain before they set out to sea.

I so admire Newland, who sacrificed happiness

for the sake of his children, whose lives he did surely bless.

Ma Joad kept the family together as best she could.

Gatsby loved Daisy, something I never have understood.

The Archbishop cared for his flock oh so tenderly,

He and the rest share their thoughts and their lives with me.

Earnest, Eliza, Hamlet, and Tiny Tim,

Marlow and Marmee, Scout and her brother Jem.

They’re not just in books, they’re people I know.

       And I feel so bereft,

                when the story ends

                            And they go….

I haven't written anything about my mom....I just couldn't find the right words. But in working on my poetry assignment, I came up with this. It expresses a little bit of what I've been feeling and thinking....

 

I notice the birds more,

now that Mom is gone.

She was always the one

who pointed and cried:

Look over there,

Do you see it?

I didn’t then.

But now I do.

The bright red cardinals

were her favorites.

But she loved them all.

And, by osmosis I think,

I learned one or two.

When threatened, Blue Jays fight back—

they show up in droves.

Mockingbirds sing from the tops of the trees,

and are blithely unconcerned with human sleeping habits.

Mourning doves coo softly,

so serious in their formal gray suits.

I remember last summer, when we watched 72 pelicans

fly over Surfside; of course we counted them.

One time we searched (and searched and searched)

for the tiny golden-cheeked warbler in Lost Maples park.

Thank goodness for the experts who pointed him out.

We never did find those woodpeckers near Huntsville,

nor get a glimpse of the Canada Geese in the marsh.

(we did see seven alligators, though).

Together we tramped through the underbrush, or sat on the front porch,

Always watching and waiting and listening to the birds.

But now I must listen alone…..

                                        Or maybe not

     My children and grandchildren also love Nana—and her birds, too.

This one is not meant to aggrandize myself, only to express the idea that I, and all of God's children, have tremendous potential, but I think sometimes our potential almost scares us, and we back off. 

I think I could be

something great.

But sometimes, I’m afraid.

I see a glimpse of the

amazing—

But I hold back.

Why?

I try to imagine eternity;

what I could be…

I can’t wrap my mind

around it all.

And yet, I want to see,

I want to be,

Something great.

With the help (lots of help) of Michael and Kara, I also created a couple of videos. Poetry Magic is posted on Google Docs. You can see it at: Poetry Magic


The other video features all three of my grandsons, but at this moment, I can't figure out how to upload such a huge file, so I'll ask my technical director (Michael) and get back to you on that one.

The third big project was a WebQuest, which is a research project for my students that uses information on the web. Here is the link to Create Poetry Magic  Be sure to look at all the pages--there's a great picture of Jamie near the end.

Well, that's about it for school this semester. I took the comprehensive exams on April 14 and I both survived the experience and passed the test. It is not something I would like to repeat, but I'm proud of myself for my accomplishments.

We Won! We Won!

I have the great privilege of being the assistant coach for our school's Academic Decathlon Team and they ROCKED THE HOUSE at our regional competition this past weekend. It was fantastic!!!
We rode the big yellow school bus down to Lufkin (in East Texas) and spent Thursday-Sunday in a lovely Holiday Inn Express there. The kids have worked soooo hard, and it really paid off. We won our region and now we're prepping for state next month in Houston. Here is the official rundown of all our medals. A GREAT WEEKEND!

As you will see if you read the results, AD competes in 10 categories. We won medals in 8. In Lang/Lit, every member of our team won a medal. Read the results and be impressed with the terrific kids at Grand Prairie High School.

Medals won at Region 12 Competition by the GPHS Academic Decathlon Team:

Overall Team: Gold Medal—first place for the GPHS Gophers

Individual Overall Ribbons and Medals:

Varsity Division:

4^th Place: Derric Edwards

2^nd Place: Jamilla Obsiye

Gold Medal: Lupe Regalado

Scholastic Division:

5^th Place: Ana Rodriguez

3^rd Place: Houston Chapman

Gold Medal: Kaelin Cali (this is the second consecutive year that Kaelin has been the number 1 Scholastic competitor at the regional competition

Honors Division:

5^th Place: Christopher Sherrill

2^nd Place: Christian Rodriguez

Gold Medal: Martha Alvarez

Science:

Varsity Division:

Gold medal: Derric Edwards

Scholastic Division:

3^rd Place: Houston Chapman

Gold Medal: Kaelin Cali

Super Quiz—Individual:

Varsity Division:

2^nd Place: Lupe Regalado

Gold Medal: Jamilla Obsiye

Scholastic Division:

2^nd Place: Ana Rodriguez

Gold Medal: Kaelin Cali

Honors Division:

2^nd Place: Martha Alvarez

Gold Medal: Christopher Sherrill

Super Quiz—Team Relay:

Gold Medal—Grand Prairie High School

Super Quiz Team—Combined Relay and Written Test:

Gold Medal—Grand Prairie High School

Economics:

Varsity Division:

3^rd Place: Lupe Regalado

Gold Medal: Derric Edwards

Scholastic Division:

Gold Medal: Kaelin Cali

Honors Division:

Gold Medal: Christian Rodriguez

Language and Literature: (every member of the GPHS team won a medal in this category—nine out of nine)

Varsity Division:

3^rd Place: Derric Edwards

2^nd Place: Jamilla Obsiye

Gold Medal: Lupe Regalado

Scholastic Division:

3^rd Place: Houston Chapman

2^nd Place: Ana Rodriguez

Gold Medal: Kaelin Cali

Honors Division:

3^rd Place: Christopher Sherrill

2^nd Place: Christian Rodriguez

Gold Medal: Martha Alvarez

Music: (GPHS won 8 medals in this category)

Varsity Division:

2^nd Place: Derric Edwards

Gold Medal: Jamilla Obsiye

Scholastic Division:

3^rd Place: Ana Rodriguez

2^nd Place: Houston Chapman

Gold Medal: Kaelin Cali

Honors Division:

3^rd Place: Christian Rodriguez

2^nd Place: (tie) Martha Alvarez and Christopher Sherrill

Art: (GPHS won 8 medals in this category)

Varsity Division:

3^rd Place: Derric Edwards

2^nd Place: Lupe Regalado

Gold Medal: Jamilla Obsiye

Scholastic Division:

2^nd Place: Ana Rodriguez

Gold Medal: Kaelin Cali

Honors Division:

3^rd Place: Christopher Sherrill

2^nd Place: Martha Alvarez

Gold Medal: Christian Rodriguez

Speech:

Scholastic Division:

2^nd Place: Houston Chapman

Essay:

Varsity Division:

Gold Medal: Lupe Regalado

Honors Division:

Gold Medal: Martha Alvarez