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SLA Media

SLAMedia is a publication of the news for the Science Leadership Academy community. Writers come from the student body in 10th, 11th, and 12th grades. We work in unison to create a functioning paper with biweekly postings on a variety of events.

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seniors

Laptop Life and Times

May 13, 2013 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Jesús Jiménez

Staff Writer

High school is the ultimate obstacle for teenagers. When students enter through these doors, it is expected they will receive their fair share of drama, friendship and an immense amount of work that will haunt them throughout the next four years.

Fun Fact: This picture was taken two years ago.
Fun Fact: This picture was taken two years ago.

The latter applies directly to the community of SLA. Behind the amount of conversations you have over the internet and all the projects that were definitely not completed at the last minute, there is someone, or rather something that you owe it all to: your laptop.

We, teenagers, ages thirteen through eighteen, are as reckless as they come and it is not expected that we will suddenly be responsible, capable adults when an electronic device is trusted to them for the remainder of our time here.

Quite of few things can happen: You might tip a soda bottle in the direction of your keyboard, crack a screen after slamming your top-case a little too hard or even drop it on your very first day. While most of these incidents are preventable, the consequences of mistreated laptop are apparent by senior year.

Our laptops look and feel alienated from the rest of the school. To put this into perspective, recall the Pixar’s WALL-E. If you were to compare the aged trash compactor WALL-E to the much more sleek and fast, then you could get a glimpse of how bad they have it.

Senior Breeanna Noi had a good run with her Macbook. It was two months to prior May that the issues started to arise. She accidently spilled lemonade on her laptop during the busiest season of the quarter. “All the times I was forced to work on benchmarks and projects made me want to stay away from my computer,” said Noi.

Nearing the end of her high school career, she only had one comment to make about her computer. “I hate technology.”

Unlike Noi, Senior Alex Johnson had a different approach on laptops in general. “I don’t like Macs,” he admitted. “They have a very short life span. Plus, they’re outdated and have underpowered hardware, too.”

Johnson doesn’t bother bringing his Macbook to school anymore. He leaves it at home and does all his assignments on his own PC.

Very soon, seniors at Science Leadership Academy won’t have to worry about any heart wrenching trips to the Tech Lab, any benchmarks gone terribly wrong or the infamous spinning beach balls of doom.

The final Laptop Turn-In is right around the corner. Regardless of when students are graduating, we can all reminiscence on the first day we got our laptops, excited that we were to be apart of SLA’s culture and community.

Filed Under: Features, Uncategorized Tagged With: 2013, Class of '13, laptops, seniors

Seniors Share Their Interests, Expertise with Capstone Clubs

October 19, 2012 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Jenn Wright

Staff Writer

SLA students in SLA Community Involvement Club volunteer at MANNA
credit: Sam Lovett-Perkins

Clear your schedule, because new groups are hitting the scene this fall at SLA — and many of them are courtesy of this year’s senior class.

Senior Capstone projects are the final project every SLA student must complete in order to graduate. As a culmination of four years, it’s supposed to draw the core values and be a representation of an individual student’s learning.

For some students, this leads to them starting a club. While many proposals haven’t been officially approved yet, these groups intend upon making them into their projects.

Capstone projects are often the result of students turning their outside experiences and passions into a school project. For some students, that means getting others to do what they already love.

Senior Sam Lovett-Perkins has founded the SLA Community Involvement Club (CIC). “I want this club to be a unified group of people that all care about their environment,” he said.

Following the buildOn program being discontinued at SLA, Lovett-Perkins spoke to wanting to keep the energy alive for volunteerism within the community.

To complete a Capstone project each senior must have a mentor, whether in school or out. Interests overlap often between teachers and students that generate collaborations like Senior Sasha Sapp’s Book Club with English Teacher Meenoo Rami.

“…[the project] allows students, parents and teachers to come together and share their love of books and community,” says Ms. Rami, “It just made sense that it would work great as a Capstone.”

In an unusual double interest, two Model United Nations groups are forming. Both hoping to attract members, Seniors Heather Campbell and Allison Patterson are working on separate Capstones.

Although very different from one another, they share a common aim–making the SLA community a more cultured place.

Senior Chelsea J. Smith’s Latin Dance group has already begun practicing. She has a solid group attending, but she knows that it can be hard to keep members involved. “I can’t force anybody to come to practice,” she acknowledged. She plans to be strict about attendance.

Being fall, the outlook for each looks good. Lovett-Perkins hopes to continue legacy for CIC by asking underclassman to try out leadership roles.

As for the Latin Dance group, Smith says that it could go on past this year “…if people have the commitment it takes.”

Lovett-Perkins said of volunteering, “I want people to be there because they are interested and that’s the best way to get people to come to things and be motivated,” then qualified, “self motivated.”

Each Capstone club hopes to extend the joy and learning to the students who sign up.

Filed Under: Features, Uncategorized Tagged With: capstone, clubs, seniors

Just Blood, No Gore: SLA Seniors Host Blood Drives

December 9, 2011 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Jenn Wright

Staff Writer

It’s red and makes people faint. It stars in movies and is in every body.

American Red Cross website with info for First Time Donors

Blood is an afterthought for most people, unless you are in extreme need of more of it.People with diseases like Sickle Cell Anemia or victims of disaster and accidents depend on getting more of it.

This year, SLA will host two Red Cross blood drives of it’s very own. Seniors Uyen Ngyuen and Gisela Giolafina will host one on December 13, 2011 as well as Senior Shalia Wallace’s on May 22, 2012, all as their Senior Capstone Projects.

In conjunction with the Red Cross, SLA provides the people to donate and the space as well as a few student volunteers.

Wallace, already a certified blood drive volunteer, is hoping to spread the word about Sickle Cell and plans on having an information meeting to raise awareness.

Right here in Philly, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) has one of the largest Sickle Cell treatment and research programs in the country.

According to their website, “sickle cell disease is the name of a group of inherited blood disorders that is characterized by chronic anemia, periodic episodes of pain and other complications.”

Blood drives are becoming something of an SLA tradition. Last school year former Senior Aimee Long (‘12) organized one with the Red Cross. Unfortunately, nurses from the Red Cross declared a strike on the day the drive was supposed to take place.

Despite the setback last year, these seniors all hope the tradition continues.

“I want to get more donors than the past years,” Wallace said.

Things potential donors should know are, they must be 16 or older to donate and if taller than 5’4 at least 110 pounds. Sixteen year-olds need a signed parental consent in PA.

Ngyuen advised that all donors should  “have a lot of fluids, drink a lot of water and eat a lot of iron food like spinach, red meat and raisins.”

Walk-ins for students over seventeen are welcome, but you might not get your preferred time to donate. If you’ve donated before you are encouraged to bring your Red Cross Donor Card to speed up the registration process. Any questions can be answered by Uyen or Gisela by email or in person.

Donors for December 13 are encouraged to recruit donors for Wallace’s drive in the spring.

 

Filed Under: News Tagged With: blood drive, capstone, seniors

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