POGGA Interns
Jessa Marfal
January 31st, 2010
I have no idea what to write about. So I am going to talk about my feelings about North High School and Hiatt Middle School merging together. Recently, the school board announced the idea of putting the students of Hiatt, into North. Upon hearing this, I was REALLY frustrated. The thought of all those kids being put into our already small school makes absolutely no sense to me. I feel like we already don’t have enough rooms, for students to be in. If they move Hiatt into North, they want to put all middle school and freshmen students in the first floor leaving 10th, 11th, and 12th grade students on the first floor. I think that there will be NO room for all the students. It would leave the class rooms overcrowded and uncomfortable. We already do NOT have air conditioning, which makes a room of 15 or 20 kids EXTREMELY uncomfortable. Also, if a were the parent of a 6th grader, a 12 year old, the idea of my child being in the same building as 12th grader, an 18 year old, I would feel uneasy. Even if the student didn’t have classes with the older kids, before and after school would still be a problem. Overall, I think this idea is ridiculous. If they need to use Hiatt for the East 9th grade academy, they should bus the Hiatt students out to Goodrell and Hoyt, also on the east side, not North.
February 7, 2010
Last Friday, February 5th, we had our Holly movie showing. Things went pretty well through ought the movie, but when it came to the discussion part, I don’t think the maturity level was where it should have been. I don’t think a lot of the guys took it as seriously as they should have and they didn’t answer the questions appropriately (except for a few of them). I’m not exactly sure how to deal with this problem, I can’t force them to take anything seriously, but at the same time, at the age they are, they shouldn’t be so juvenile. It upsets me a little in the way that they don’t take these things seriously; even in Asian group they don’t always answer things the way they should be answered. I’m not sure what to do, but once these guys graduate, they’re going to need to grow up.
Helen Dao
February 7, 2010
On Friday, We had an event for a film showing. We watched Holly. I think that it went very well. The movie gave us a lot of information on human trafficking. I didn’t expect a lot of people to come but we had a great amount of people. The only part I was not happy with was the floor. Oh my, my body was really sore from the hard wood; eventually I got up and took someone bean bag. Everyone seems to enjoy the movie though. We had a really good discussion until some people took it as a joke. I think that I have a better understanding of human trafficking after watching this movie. I surely recommended watching it if you haven’t. Also tonight is the super bowl, Fun. Hope the saints win! Next month we will also have a film showing, I think we will be showing Gran Torino. Come and watch. Monsoon will update you reader on the date and time. Thanks for reading Loves One.
Diana Inthaboune
January 31, 2010
What starts with the letter “F” and ends with the letter “S”? It is given at the end of every semester of a high school or college course. It is usually counted as a good percentage of a person’s grade and it is one of the most dreaded thing to do during a school year. If you haven’t figured it out yet, yes I am talking about finals. Finals are over stressed. It is also over exaggerated and is very much hated by a big portion of the students and teachers. Some people say they will study during winter break for their first semester finals but that’s not what usually happens. The real truth is that you lose sleep the night before the final studying your butt off to pull an average grade. Why do we do this? Procrastination has been a big factor in school now a days. Or so in my eyes it is. It’s a bad habit to do and to break. I know this because I procrastinate all the time. I think it’s time to try to break that. Starting with little things like homework, and assignments. You should too!
February 7th, 2010
It’s February and two things happen during this month. For this blog I’ll talk about what is of only a couple of days away. Let me give you a hint, it’s celebrated on the fourteenth. Figure it out yet? Of course, it’s VALENTINE’S DAY! For some people this day is filled with card giving, tons of chocolate, love, romancing, and even the saddest day ever. For those who have a certain someone to celebrate Valentine’s Day with, it’s usually a good day. For those who don’t either one could care less or two go depressed over it. I honestly think that this day was made one day when the economy wasn’t so great (kind of like how it is now) so that corporations like Hallmark and Hershey’s can make up for a bad couple of months in a short time. Like black out (day after Thanksgiving), except with candy and cards. Now a-days the gifts have gotten a little more extravagant. Surprising each other ,with new cell phones, cameras and such things. Whatever happened to the home made paper heart cards? I guess they’re still there but things are just so advanced that it’s easier just to go buy a pack of 24 Valentine’s card for a dollar. Another thing about Valentine’s Day that I highly, and I mean HIGHLY disagree with that commonly happens in young couples is that they are pressured to have sex. Usually this happens by one of the partners of even friends of the couple. They both shouldn’t be pressured into doing this and yet it still is going to happen. Some couple’s will be smart about it and wait until they are both ready and some will just fall under the pressure.
Leslie Chareunsab
January 31, 2010
Hey is Leslie! On Monday and Tuesday the Des Moines Public Schools had to finish up finals. Then on Wednesday 2nd semester started and I like all my classes. Besides my 7th period because it’s super boring. I was thinking of changing it to something more fun. But anyway one semester is gone and another one to go until I’m a Junior. It’s so crazy how time just flies by so fast like you don’t even notice at all. Well now I’m just focusing on starting the semester off right and do all my homework on time and try not procrastinate anymore. It’s a new semester to stay on top of everything. I was lucky enough to have passed all of my finals this semester because they were pretty hard. The most I had to study for was chemistry. But I’m so glad I passed that class with barely a B. Now I’m in physics, which that teacher she is pretty intimidating, because the first thing she told us was “Physics is harder then Chemistry” that pretty much freaked me out. I have to focus on that a lot speaking of it I have homework tonight to do! Oh goodness, and other homework as well. So I have to go and get to it see you guys later! Goodbye! J
February 7, 2010
This week just went by so slow. Usually it flies by fast but not this week. On Friday we had an event where we watched the movie Holly. It was a fun event even though not that many people went. Just watching a movie talking about it with friends was fun enough for me. It didn’t have to be a huge group. The movie was very educational and interesting. It gets me thinking how people can just do that, to lower someone else to make them like they can control them. And I was thinking if I wasn’t born here in the United States I could have ended up like Holly, the girl from the movie, all alone with nowhere to go and have to go back to the life that I didn’t want. I’m so grateful for what I have, and have been blessed with. It’s truly a movie where kids, even adults could learn from. On Saturday I had to wake up early to go to this Upward Bound meeting in the morning. At the meeting they talked about how our grades and how they affect us and the program. Also they had a guest speaker come talk to us about domestic violence, and relationships, and STDs. It informed me on how unsafe sex can be and that the best choice is to just wait until I’m ready. And not follow the crowd because they think it’s cool to go sleep around like its nothing. Well Valentine ’s Day is coming up in the next week or something and I just don’t like the “holiday”. It’s not even a holiday it’s a made up day to just sell things and make people feel bad about themselves, that they don’t have anyone to love. But then again it makes people feel good to show how they feel about their partner. Well just to say I don’t have to have a partner to have fun on valentine’s day all I need is my friends to keep me company. Last to say my birthday is coming up in 8 days!
I’m super excited! I’ll be turning 16 finally! I can’t wait to get my license when I’m done with drivers education so I can drive myself around so I don’t have to depend on my parents to take me places. I guess I don’t have that much to say anymore so look out for my next blog. (: -Leslie.
Nancy Truong
February 7, 2010
On Friday, we had a movie and popcorn event. The movie we watched was Holly. I thought the movie was pretty good, but the ending was disappointing. The movie was about a 12 year old Vietnamese girl who was being sold for prostitution. The movie takes place in the villages of Cambodia. Over all, I would say the event was a success, but there are things that could have gone better. I thought there was going to be more people coming to the event, but we did have a good amount of people. I thought the discussion could have gone better. No one was really paying attention and participating in the discussion. There was a lot of talking during the movie also. Next time I think we should stop the movie while we’re watching it and discuss what has happened so far, and what we think will happen next. I think we should do that because, if we just discuss it at the end people could forget some parts in the movie. And for the evaluation sheets, I think the questions should be more multiple choices because some people might not like to write or maybe there just too lazy. Some of the questions should be about what happened in the movie also, so we could see who was paying attention and who wasn’t. I hope our next event will be better.
API Youth Council Intern
Johnny Truong
February 7, 2010
Human trafficking was showed in Holly and I think that it isn’t right to do human trafficking. People are taking advantage of little kids that got sold because their family couldn’t afford to pay off debts or many other reasons. I would be like that guy and not try and take advantage of little kids, I would try and help out many girls as much as possible but she is right when we buy these kids it is only supporting human trafficking. If I can’t help out from that then I would try other ways to help support other kids like our school is trying to help out Haiti get jeans for people in Haiti. After that earthquake we really need to step up our game and help learn where earthquake and other natural disasters will happen so we can help move or try and get them out of there as quicky as we can. So many people died from that earthquake and it is very sad that it happened. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to my family members and like all of those other people that did die was part of other peoples family. There are so many thing that needs to be changed and these things cant be fixed in one day, so anyone can help out by just stopping the wrong things that people do. One person can do a lot.
Tony Thonesavanh
January 31, 2010
The second semester started really late due to the delays of snow days and finals being pushed back but now I’m finally almost done. I have a few things before I have a smooth ride for the rest of the semester. I have to pass Econ but that shouldn’t be hard. One of the biggest things I have to do is audition for commencement speaker. We have to audition a 3 minute speech and they can take up to three speakers. Hopefully I’ll be one of them. Not that many people signed up so that should make it a lot easier. Also I’ve scored brownie points with the judges so hopefully they’ll play favorites.
Senta Vuth
February 7, 2010
About the Holly movie, my reactions about the movie we’re I learned what human trafficking what but I never imagined what it looked like. While the movie was playing there was a lot of disturbance that made me kind of mad . I wished I would of brought the people that I knew were going to watched the movie.









