By Nala Smith
One of our custodians at Garinger High School would like to thank the students and staff for supporting him while he was in the hospital recently.
“Mr. Butch” was in the hospital for having an allergic reaction to some antibiotics that his doctor gave him. He ended up at VA Hospital in Salisbury, North Carolina on February 15. He stayed for 10 days and did two months of recovery at home.
While he was in the hospital, the students and staff were calling him, came to visit him, sent him cards and made him feel loved.
Mr. Butch said that really felt like they cared about him and he appreciated that so much.
Month: May 2013
Life in Vietnam
By Khon Kosor and Hung Rocham
Have you ever stepped foot in Vietnam?
Vietnam is an eastern Asian country near the Pacific Ocean. Once you step your feet in Vietnam, you can visit beautiful places.
If you go into the villages, there are many tribes which are the native people in Vietnam. You can learn about their culture and how they live their lives.
The native people in Vietnam are called Montagnards, which means “mountain people.” In Vietnam, most people speak two languages, which is Jarai, the native language, and Vietnamese, which is the second language that we learn in school.
School in Vietnam is very different from the U.S. Most kids walk to school or ride bicycles. There are two different sessions of school, which are mornings (7-11 a.m.) and afternoons (1-4 p.m.)
We have recess during school time, but there is no free lunch in school. If you want food during school, either you bring it from home or buy in the small stores around the school.
Some of the teachers in Vietnam are very strict. We have to wear uniforms, but if your uniform is dirty or your hands are dirty the teacher will hit you with a long and thin stick.
In the villages, most kids do not have an education. Most Montagnards do not go to school because their parents cannot afford it, so they start working at an early age.
Life is hard in Vietnam but it is also a beautiful country to visit. Most kids enjoy their lives during night time. The moon is very bright. Most kids come out and play around midnight. They light up a fire and just enjoy their time. You can hear every sound. We let our dogs, chickens and other animals just run around. We get fresh water from a pond or river that is about 20 minutes or more from our home.
It so sad how kids in Vietnam miss out the opportunity of education and in the U.S people have free education and many don’t take advantage of it.
We should be happy what we have here because in other countries most people do not have what we have.
Wildcat baseball struggles to score
By Ma’Lik Berginer
Baseball has been a struggle at Garinger High School.
For the past four years we have won a total of 14 baseball games. Year after year it has been loss after loss.
At times, we were led to believe that it was the players who were disobedient and disrespectful. But that wasn’t the case. Since I arrived at Garinger when I was a sophomore, I have realized many things. I witnessed some coaches who didn’t want their players to succeed, some teachers who wouldn’t teach and much more.
The sad part about the start of this season is the fact that we did not get a coach until four days before our first game, and we had a total of three practices.
That is not fair when there are other teams who have been practicing all year to prepare, yet we have three days to get it together.
Coach Lorenzo Graves said he saw “some hard working players who give their all…I hope the best for them.”
Next year, he plans to start training early.
“We will win. Best believe that,” he said.
Yes, the odds have been stacked against students who go to Garinger High School, especially sports wise, but I also have seen athletes make it out of here and become something great.
Take me for example. I’m going to N.C. State as a red-shirted walk-on for the football team. Darius Dobson is going to Wingate University, Kemmi Pettway is going to UNC Chapel Hill and Donquarious Howie is going to UNC Charlotte.
In the future, I think Garinger students will have a better chance at success. Maybe not this year, maybe not next year but in four years it will become a completely different environment here at Garinger High School.
I see the change happening now, so I look forward to seeing what’s next.
I hope it all changes for the best.
From struggle comes strength: Wildcat football
By Demitri Johnson and Yahya Abdur-Razzaq
In the past four years, the Wildcat football team has won 12 out of 40 games, has had four different head coaches, and just last season fell 0-9.
Many people believe that the Wildcat football program is a joke; other teams tend to schedule them for homecoming in order to have an easy win.
Well, this upcoming season, they plan to turn that around.
The Wildcats are lead by coaches Alston (Head Coach), Pope (Asst. Head Coach), Stovall (Offensive coordinator), and Brumfield, Neeley, Scott and Jordan (DB and Line coaches), who all have a strong ambition for winning.
They are trying to change the morale here at Garinger.
“We must have structure, discipline, commitment, effort, knowledge, courage, wisdom and intensity in order to become a winning program,” Coach Pope said.
The Wildcats are not only concerned about winning games; they are also concerned about the community and establishing more school sprit here at Garinger.
“We plan to have cookouts and raffles to get more people in the stands,” Pope explained.
The one advantage that this team has is that it has a good core group of players returning, mostly lineman that plan to have a major impact.
Lineman who were the Achilles heel of the team last year plan to turn that around this season.
The Wildcats have a bad taste in their mouth, one that they will never forget and hope to never taste again.
Will this be the season that the Wildcats turn it around, or will it just be another fail?
If you want to be part of the positive change on the football field, the team holds practice every Monday through Thursday after school. The coaches ask that you have your grades intact and come ready to work.
Send us your prom photos
By Eric Salinas and Linda Soth
It was a night to remember!
The music was bumping and people were dancing like there was no tomorrow.
The prom was held at Grand Central on May 4.
It was a phenomenal and amazing space to roam around and just party with your close friends.
The prom started at 7:30 p.m. and sadly ended at 11 p.m., however, the moments people experienced still live in the pictures they snapped.
We want you to share your pictures. Please email them to esalinas8589@cms.gaggle.net.
Tell us the name of the photographer and identify the people in the photo from left to right.
Will you graduate in June?
By Miriam Pasquier
The Senior Exit Project is one of the biggest requirements for seniors in order to graduate from high school.
Students start on their senior exit project their junior year, when they first decide on their topic and create a research paper. The research paper can only be 6-8 pages long and it must display intense research about their topic.
When juniors transition to their senior year they start working on creating a product based on what they learned in their research paper.
The product is the hardest part of the senior exit project. Most seniors stress over their product and speech presentation; it requires 15 hours of effort, which is shown and recorded in a log.
These products are then presented to a panel of judges who grade these products and decide whether or not the product is good enough to get a passing grade. The most nerve-wracking part of the presentation is knowing whether or not the judges like your product because their grade will determine whether or not you get to graduate in June.
A senior from Garinger, Pedro Navarro, presented his product last semester. His project was about crime rates in Charlotte. He created a Web site that showed the problem of the crime rate in Charlotte and offered various solutions.
He was very anxious and nervous to present, but once he got it over with it was the biggest relief in the world.
“Don’t be nervous, and it is easier than what people make it seem,” he said.
Another senior from Garinger, Jermaine Delph, is going to present his senior exit product next week. His product is about being able to start high school at a later time, such as 8 a.m.
He surveyed various students with the question, “ Would you like school to start at 8 a.m.?”
Obviously, students would prefer to start school at this time because it would give them a chance to sleep in.
If the senior exit project were to be removed as a graduation requirement, more students would actually be able to graduate.
Most students do not like this project and dread the moment that they become seniors because of this nerve-wracking requirement.
Garinger gives blood May 2
By Keonna Wilson
Community Blood Center came to Garinger High School on May 2.
Students registered in the auditorium then headed to a large donation truck to lie down to give blood. The blood drive ended at 1:30 p.m.
Students gave many reasons for donating blood. Danielle Polston said she planned to donate because her blood type can be used to help babies.
I spoke with Ms. Lenora Tibbs, one of the staff who works Community Blood Center.
Q: Where does our blood go to?
Ms. Tibbs: It stays in the community and goes to the local hospitals, for example, Carolinas Medical Center.
Q: What if you have a infection in your blood? Can you still donate?
Ms. Tibbs: You cannot have any diseases. You have to be healthy to donate blood.
Q: How do you get your blood to flow?
Ms. Tibbs: Being well hydrated.
Q: Can you estimate about how many people have donated blood?
Ms. Tibbs: Garinger High School is close to three hundred pints since they started to have drives.
Q: What is the reason for donating blood?
Ms. Tibbs: Giving back to the community, and since Garinger High School has a high African-American population, we have the potential to help many Sickle Cell patients.
Garinger seniors help build home
By: Yahya Abdur-Razzaq and Savannah Wilson
Did you know Garinger high school students and staff are helping to build a house?
The house is for Habitat for Humanity and will go to a disadvantaged family of four when completed.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and Habitat for Humanity are in a partnership called Senior BuildUp. The program is for seniors from across CMS high schools to come together to build a house for a family in need. Garinger is striving to raise $2,500 to help the project. A Garinger student also worked at the site earlier this spring.
Once Habitat finds a family in need of a house, the family has the opportunity to help build the home. That means students who are helping to build the house get to interact with the future residents of the home.
Out of the 19 students from CMS high schools, senior At’Lea Byrd represented Garinger at a student workday March 6. She worked for five hours on helping to build the foundation.
“It was fun and enjoyable,” Byrd said.
In order to raise money, the Garinger community has sponsored staff versus student basketball games, sold Autobell car wash tickets and has given teachers the chance to pay to wear jeans each Thursday. So far, Garinger has raised $ 600.
A phone-a-thon aimed at Garinger alumni is another way that seniors are going to try to collect donations. Seniors will spend a couple of hours calling former Wildcats during the evening of Thursday, May 9.
Garinger is taking donations from the community as well and plans to spread the word through Facebook and Twitter. Donors also may contribute online.
For details about the project, visit www.seniorbuildup.org. To make a donation for Garinger’s fund drive, click on “Central Zone,” then “Garinger High School.”
The Cultural Fair
By Eric Salinas and Keonna Wilson
On March 28th the feel of success and enjoyment was present in the cultural fair.
A large crowd was attracted by the scent of the diverse types of food, vivid colors from different flags and music from different countries. The cultural fair is an event that started in 2012, at Garinger High School it has been arranged by Ms. Perreras.
This portrays the great cultural diversity that is present in our school.
Students and teachers that volunteered were a great part of this event. Many of them made expositions of the country they originated from or the country that they were interested in. Some people even brought some of the traditional food from their countries and they also wore some of the traditional clothing.
Attendees were able to learn new things from different countries.The event ended with the performances of some of the students who volunteered.
The woman behind Kemmi’s success
By Pedro Segundo
“It’s very easy to work hard when you’ve got someone pushing you,” said Kemmi Pettway.
From a very early age, Kemmi has been pushed: pushed by life, pushed by his coaches, but most importantly, pushed by his mother.
His mother is the person who always saw something special in him, the person who would push him to be better than the rest and the person who would motivate him at the hardest of times.
From a very early age, Kemmi saw struggles in life, and everything he has experienced and gone through is what defined his character and the person he is today.
Kemmi, 18 and a senior at Garinger, remembers when his mother took him to work with her. He remembers when he had to spend eight hours waiting in the booths while his mother worked in a fast food restaurant.
His mother bought him the first football he ever owned.
“She always pushed me to be better than the rest, not just average,” Kemmi recalled recently. Even when things were not looking good for him, at times when he felt like giving up, he never did because his mother motivated to keep going, to keep trying and not give up.
That perseverance has finally paid off. Earlier this year, Kemmi was accepted to UNC Chapel Hill, where he will play football and major in business. The Charlotte Observer featured his successes in a Sunday article in February, explaining how a recruiter visited Garinger to sign him on.
Being recognized on the field – and in the media – were two of Kemmi’s long term goals.
Education, however, always comes first.
“School is my priority; football was just a way for me to get into college without having to worry my mom about college loans,” he said.
His mother is still paying her college loans to this day.
To put it simple, his mother is his role model because she pushed him to be what he is today. Now that he is off to Carolina, his motto is “Work hard or stay home.”
Behailu (Ba-HI-Lou) offers creative edge
By Diego Araujo
Ba-HI-Lou is how the “Behailu” in Behailu Academy is pronounced.
This academy in the nearby NoDa neighborhood focuses on finding your voice and transforming into an artist.
The academy specializes in a variety of artforms that draws a faithful group of Garinger students each week.
For example, there are classes that teach students hip hop dance, computer animation and even drawing or painting.
It is a non-profit organization whose number one goal is to help people find and express their voice. Local artists teach the classes based on their skill.
Deedee Mills, the founder of the program, guarantees that once you join the academy, you will certainly enjoy every minute of Behailu and discover something new of yourself.
David Gamble, a student that attends Garinger High school, says he enjoys Behailu very much because of the energy it gives out towards the community, the freedom it offers and the creative learning experience.
Lexus Williams, also a student at Behailu, recommends the program to people who want to learn new skills and says the people in it are creative, open-minded, and fun.
Check it out!
Are you interested in helping the community and discovering art? Behailu Academy will be open to the public during the NoDa Studio Tour this weekend.
The tour is 6-10 p.m. Friday, May 3rd and 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, May 4th.
Visitors will get to see one-of-a-kind art work by the young artists, such as drawings, paintings, photography and live performances. The event is FREE.
Behailu is located at 451 E. 36th St., Charlotte.
Details: http://www.behailuacademy.org
Ask Homegirl
How do teenagers nowadays deal with bullying?
How do we handle this situation if we are ever exposed to it?
Gray-C
Home girl has never been bullied so I can’t speak from experience, but what I do know is that bullying nowadays has actually gotten worse. Students feel “Lame” or “Un-cool” because they go tell an adult or their parents. I honestly think what should happen is that the victim should stand up for themselves and not always depend on the adults. Which leads to another situation: teachers and staff at the schools really don’t enforce bullying as well as they should.
If you know anyone being bullied, or witness someone being bullied, be a friend and help out.
I bet they can’t take two on one!
Home girl out!
Ms. Hendee gardens in Haiti
By Kimberly Monge
It is our normal daily routine at Garinger High School to learn the objective with help from our teachers.
Instead, one of our teachers was selected to go to Haiti for a couple of days to help other students.
The teacher selected was Ms. Hendee, an Earth and Environmental teacher. She was chosen to go because she wanted to help others and experience new things from other cultures.
On Friday, March 8, early in the morning, Ms.Hendee met up with people from UNC-Chapel Hill at Charlotte Douglas Airport. They were on the way to Haiti to run a health clinic, and Ms.Hendee was to help the children at a children’s home put a garden in on the rooftop.
Ms. Hendee stayed in Port-au-Prince, at an orphanage home called New Hope Haiti Mission. During those days, the whole group planned to run a health clinic for the children who lived at the orphanage.
“When the earthquake hit in Haiti in 2010, I wanted so desperately to go. However, a mentor of mine mentioned that I would not have a skill to bring and would take jobs away from Haitian people,” Ms. Hendee said.
“I didn’t want to go back to Haiti until I had a skill. Garinger taught me how to garden. I brought that skill to the garden in Haiti and learned even more.”
In Haiti, their morning breakfast was spaghetti, fried chicken and heavy eggs with boiled plantains, even though the traditional meal for Haitians is rice and beans.
The water from Haiti was polluted so nobody could drink or bathe in it.
Ms Hendee said that the surprising thing is that all the groups had to be sitting inside a cage when a vehicle was driving them to a location. Otherwise, it was a long walk because they had to wake up early in the morning with the young girls so they could get water for everyone in the orphanage. It was an hour walk to go to the river and go back to the home, get dressed and go straight to school.
Ms. Hendee said the education for Haitians is expensive because it is a private school. If students wear the uniforms inappropriately or if the students are late to school, they are suspended for one week.
In the New Hope Haiti Mission, six teenagers take care of the other children. Two older boys named Macintosh and Ricardo take care of the children’s school work and every night they would put the children in prayers before sleep.
Four older girls named Anel, Daniela, Joelle and Marie Carmel, make sure that the children eat their food and clean the house. The saddest part is the oldest boy is almost 18 years old. In a couple of months, he will have to leave the orphanage and start out to search for jobs like the adults.
The leader of the orphanage, Scott Salvant, is living in Haiti with his wife April and their five children. He said that Haiti is his new home.
Salvant is trying his best for the orphanage; lately they have been having some issues.
The orphanage does not want to add more orphans because recently they have added two young boys who physically abused some girls and were kicked out. The girls that were abused were having nightmares and were frightened to go outside.
After she returned, Ms.Hendee set up a Skype call with her 4th period class and AP students. Garinger students met Salvant and Macintosh, Ricardo, Anel, Daniela, Joelle and Marie Carmel.
The orphans told the class that they would love to come to America; one of the eldest males wants to work here as a doctor.
They said that they love to play soccer and basketball and one of the things they enjoy is watching soccer matches on their mini TV/radio.
Ms. Hendee is happy with the outcome.
“It was an opportunity to expose myself and my students to a different culture. I also was able to serve in knowledge, experience, and relationship building. I feel so blessed I was able to go and cannot wait to go back,” she said.
Spring Concert
By Ashlee Galbreath
Did you enjoy the winter concert?
If you did, you will enjoy the spring concert.
If you didn’t attend last time, come enjoy the concert this month.
The concert will be at Garinger High School on May 15, 2013 at 6 p.m. in the auditorium. Watch your classmates show off their talents in dance, chorus and band.
The dance program is run by Ms. Haith. It’s her first year at Garinger High School and she has brought new styles to dance at Garinger with different types of choreography and themes to the pieces that the dance class performs.
She was really excited about her first concert in December. Now, she is even more excited about the spring concert.
“The kids have grown as dancers from the last concert,” Haith said.
Students in her class know that Ms. Haith really enjoys her classes and teaching dance. Watch out for dance when you come to spring concert because they have something exciting to show the audience.
So come support your Garinger Wildcats in this last show of the 2012-2013 school year. It is free and it will be worth your while.
Garinger’s second Art Gala is May 9
By Timothy Roseboro
Come out, come all to see your fellow students present their artwork such as painting, origami, realistic art pieces and personal works from a select group of students.
The event is 6-7:30 p.m. May 9th in the atrium.
Hors d’ouevres will be served by your very own cooking class.
The Rambler 