Features

Student of the Month: Klarissa Hudson

February 19, 2013 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

In a world filled with inequality, there are a few that decide to take a stand for the oppressed. The Human Rights Campaign recently held an essay contest for youth to share their experiences with gender inequality in their own lives.

Sophomore Klarissa Hudson submitted an essay to this competition and will soon attend a gala dinner hosted by HRC to honor her win. SLAMedia interviewed Klarissa about her essay and other related topics.

SLAMedia: Tell me a bit about yourself.

Klarissa: Well, I’m 15 and a sophomore at SLA. I have a sister here who is a senior. I
am in love with stuffed animals. As long as they’re cute though. I have
more than 25 in just my room alone. I enjoy singing, dancing, and being
silly at times. I write poetry as well as stories; but I do write essays
and pieces when required in school. On free time I read real books and
manga to pass the time. Other than that I’m a pure athlete; in a way.
I’m in love with doing sports and trying to do them whenever given the
opportunity.

SLAMedia: Do you enjoy writing? What do you write about?

Klarissa: Yes I do. I usually write on many different things. There are books that I
used to write in school just to give my friends something to read and
keep them coming back to see what happens next. Then I write in like a
journal to get out the day to day frustrations and problems so I’m not
keeping all my emotions inside. Other than that I write essays and
papers that express how I feel on a topic with some examples.

SLAMedia: What inspired you to write your essay?

Klarissa: I actually had my friend Ray and teacher Mr. Block convince me to do it.
Umm, well once I got started I tried to think of my views on the topic. I
know friends who aren’t straight and I combined their stories with my
experiences as a straight female who is friends with LGBTs.

SLAMedia: Your essay talks a lot about LGBT equality, I assume you’re a supporter, correct?

Klarissa: Yes and no. I do not support per-say the actions and things they do. But I
do support that they deserve the same rights and equality that we have. I
have no problem with knowing and hanging out with LGBTs. I love them
and some of my closest friends are LGBTs.

SLAMedia: Did any personal experience help you in your writing process? If Yes, how so?

Klarissa: Umm, yeah. Just having LGBT friends who had to go through hardships. Also,
being a friend with them has earned me some experiences. I used them in
my paper to help convey what goes on and how I feel with my views. I
won’t disown my friends because of their choices because I love them and
care for them. I only wish them the best and stay a phone call away if
they need me.

SLAMedia: Your essay certainly seems well polished and done, who were your supporters in the process?

Klarissa: My supporters were Joshua Block; my teacher, and Rahed Albarouki; my best
friend. They really helped me alot with this whole essay.

SLAMedia: Anything you would like to say to them?

Klarissa: I just want to say thank you. If not for them I wouldn’t of entered the
contest at all. They gave me the confidence to try and helped me through
it. I owe my second place to them. I’m lucky to have them both in my
life.

Sophomore English teacher Mr. Block reached out to all of his GSA (Gay Straight Alliance) members in an email explaining the contests. It was the first email that he got that specifically asked for student submissions as a part of an official Human Rights Campaign contest.

“It’s good to have them write for an audience,” he said. “and I’m trying to create more experiences like that.”

A few students answered back, one of them being Klarissa. Through a good amount of collaboration, Klarissa crafted an essay that won her the competition.

Interview by: Jesús Jímenez

Concerts In Philly: A Teen’s Perspective

February 14, 2013 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Ryan Harris

Staff Writer

Philadelphia — known for it’s large amount of history and diversity, is also known for it’s multiple concert venues; with the many teens who frequent them.

Philadelphia is home to such concert venues as Union Transfer, World Café Live, The Blockley, and Philadelphia’s oldest: The Electric Factory.

“The diversity of genres and acts that the city brings in is incredible” stated Sophomore Dylan Long.

These venues have welcomed artists ranging all genres of music from hip-hop/rap, rock, metal, indie, jazz, folk, etc.

Even the same venue can host a wide range of musicians.

“I’ve rap and hip-hop concerts in the same venue I’ve seen bluegrass concerts.” said Senior Tucker Bartholomew.

The venues can range from smaller, for a more intimate vibe, to large stadium concerts for many big name solo musicians and bands.

“I love The Electric Factory, but The Northstar Bar is nice too because it’s a really intimate scene.” replied Senior Sasha Sapp.

But some people can feel differently.

“All the events get sold out in an hour since the venues are so small. There are huge venues but they are too huge.” stated Senior Marley Utzig.

Yet the fun almost always comes with a cost.

Tickets can cost anywhere from as low as eight dollars, for places like Kung Fu Necktie, or jump to as high as fifty dollars for places like The Electric Factory.

While some scrape together their ticket money from things like allowance, babysitting, and Christmas money; others are much more fortunate.

“I pay nothing, because someone buys them for me. But the prices aren’t too crazy, around thirty-forty bucks for the people that I want to see.” stated Sapp.

In addition to these multiple venues, other public spaces within Philadelphia have also been used as concert venues over the past few years.

The Ben Franklin Parkway has been the home of the annual 4th of July celebration hosted by Philadelphia’s own, The Roots and backed by artists like Hall & Oates and Jill Scott.

The celebration is one of Philly’s largest outdoor events, raking in nearly 500,000 each year and all for free.

Just last year, Philadelphia had the pleasure of housing the Made in America concert, hosted by Jay-Z himself.

Taking place in the Parkway as well, acts such as Pearl Jam, Drake, Kanye West, and even Run DMC played in a two-day concert all to an audience totalling around 80,000 people, from all over the country.

The concert only cemented the Philadelphia’s already large appreciation for live music, making it a “must-see” for many musicians as well and a great convenience for the citizens that love them.

“We have tons of awesome fans that make artists love coming to Philly.”

Hallway Fashion Lookbook: A pop of color

February 13, 2013 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

From the runway to the SLA hallways, students and faculty members have been sporting the trend coming up this spring 2013: a pop of color brings punch to SLA hallways.

Photos by Dalena Bui

Quicken Loans 2013: College Edition

February 8, 2013 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Jacob Lotkowski
Staff Writer

Compared to the college price previous to 2008, the financial landscape looks drastically different for recent graduates.

As the college going rate in this country increases–the price is increasing with it. Although college is becoming more expensive every year, students are still expected to absorb it’s price.

The SLA Perspective

Junior Jamie Murphy worked over the summer at Almaz Cafe. During this time she put away all the money she made into the bank.

“My savings are going towards car insurance while in college,” says Murphy.

Junior Delena Bui has been working at a nail salon for the past few months.

“I receive my checks and put the money into my checking account, and I’m saving the money for college or as an emergency fund,” says Bui.

What You Can Do

Debt after college is almost inevitable, but students can better manage their personal finances to minimize their overall debt when they graduate.

Monetary loss in college falls into lifestyle choices and bad spending habits. A basic understanding of how money works can help you make smarter decisions with your money.

Formal money management can enable you to be more accountable for your money by tracking spending and setting savings goals.

Checking Accounts

Making a checking account before you go to college will save a lot of hassle for the first few months. Your parents can transfer money onto your card, and when you get a job you can put the money you earn onto it.

Checking accounts are for money you plan on depositing and withdrawing often. You choose this account because it is free of many penalties that saving accounts will give you.

On the contrary, checking accounts will give you almost no interest. You only put your money in this type of account so it is easier to manage.

Money Tracking
You can use a website like Mint.com. Mint is a free online service provided by Intuit, and is a secure way to track spending across all of your accounts.

The core services of Mint are tracking are:

Bank balances
Credit card transactions
Investments
Loan transactions

In addition to not being in the dark about where your money is, you can also set budgets and and get reminders to pay bills.

Combining the tips above, you can be accountable for your own finances and be better prepared to fight imminent debt through college.

Why do we put up with Social Media?

January 31, 2013 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By: Sara Nesbitt

Staff Writer

If it is talk to family, complain about your ex-best friend, or stalk people by looking at their pictures– social media is an unavoidable part of our lives.

Or is it?

Facebook has over 1 billion users, Twitter has 500 million–it might seem like everybody is on these networks. Some users might not be as excited about social media as you think, and some aren’t even using it at all.

Senior Heather Campbell deals with this because she would have nothing to do with Facebook if it wasn’t for her friends and family overseas. She lived in New Zealand last year, and talks to her friends there through Facebook– but she can’t avoid getting distracted.

“I spend a lot of time on it just doing nothing.” Campbell says, then added, “I also hate how everything is so public.”

Junior Isabela Aznar has a similar situation. “Social media is important to my life because it’s how I talk to my family in Mexico a majority of the time,” she said.

Aznar also had her objections. “I don’t like how self-centered social media can make people, and how it has made people less social and less active.”

Some people take these problems so seriously that they deactivate their account — or never sign up in the first place.

Junior Dalena Bui had recently deleted her Facebook account saying, “I only go on there to waste time.”

However, for all the negativity about social media, some people are using it in productive ways.

Andy Carvin, a senior project manager for online communities working for NPR, is a big fan of Twitter, and other social media networks. Carvin uses social media to decipher things all over the world posting pictures, videos, or status’ on Twitter asking to public for their input. He has over 85,000 followers, and they all help him with his job by contributing their thoughts, ideas and actions.

Without social media, his job would not exist, and all of his important discoveries wouldn’t exist either.

So you use Facebook to talk to family, Twitter to complain about your ex-best friend, or try to avoid both altogether– there’s no way to ….