A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2017
SCHOOLS
STAFF PHOTO BY JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
Robby Shea, right, was an entrant in the Peace Poster
contest. Here the Armand Larive Middle School student
poses with his grandfather Armando Reyes at the Lions
Club meeting.
Students envision a
future of peace
By JAYATI
RAMAKRISHNAN
STAFF WRITER
Four students were hon-
ored Wednesday, Dec. 6
for their thoughts on peace,
and the way they encour-
age others to think about it
too. The Hermiston Lions
Club recognized the local
entrants of the Lions Club
Peace Poster contest, four
students from Armand
Larive and Sandstone mid-
dle schools. Students were
asked to depict the theme
“the future of peace.”
Jose Muniz, Moi-
ses Reyes Purcell, Robby
Shea, and Amy Wooster
were invited, along with
their families, to the Lions’
meeting, where they were
treated to lunch and got to
display their posters for the
club members. Each stu-
dent received a certificate
for their participation.
Wooster’s poster was
the winning piece, and will
now be submitted to the
multi-district competition.
She received $25 for her
win.
Lions President Pro
Tempore Charlie Clupny
said the contest has local,
state, national and interna-
tional levels. The winner of
the international contest is
invited with their family to
accept the award with the
United Nations.
“Our dream is that one
day we hear that one of our
entries had made it to the
international competition,”
Clupny said.
Wooster’s
drawing,
done in colored pencil,
depicted a missile turning
into a dove.
Wooster,
a
sev-
enth-grader at Sandstone
Middle School, said the
piece took her a few week-
ends of work. This is her
second year entering the
contest.
She said she was happy
to move on to the next
round.
“I don’t know if I’ll
win, but it’s fun,” she said.
Wooster’s
parents,
Sandy DeBano and David
Wooster, said the whole
family enjoyed thinking up
potential ideas for posters,
but this one was Amy’s.
“We wish there was an
adult contest,” DeBano
said.
The Lions Club also
honored two commu-
nity organizations, and
awarded them with dona-
tions from a recent auction.
The Blue Mountain Com-
munity College Founda-
tion received $11,068 from
the Lions Club, to be used
for the Precision Irrigated
Agricultural Center.
The Lions also donated
$500 to Made to Thrive,
a local organization that
funds activities for stu-
dents whose families can’t
afford them, such as sports
and music. The program
is tailored to each student,
and more than 300 kids in
the community have bene-
fited from the program.
The donation was from
the Don Horneck Memo-
rial Fund. Horneck was an
agronomist who worked at
the Hermiston Agricultural
Research and Extension
Center. He passed away
unexpectedly in 2014.
Phil Hamm, a Lion’s
Club member, said a schol-
arship was set up in Hor-
neck’s name after his pass-
ing, to help an Oregon
State University agronomy
student. The scholarship
fund is now worth more
than $100,000, Hamm
said.
Teachers concerned about
impact of Washington
schedule on academics
By JAYATI
RAMAKRISHNAN
STAFF WRITER
S
ome
Hermiston
teachers are con-
cerned the switch to
Washington’s athletic con-
ference is impacting the
way the district makes aca-
demic decisions, a teacher
said at Monday’s school
board meeting.
Joshua Linn, a fifth-
grade teacher at Rocky
Heights
Elementary
School, said that two cal-
endars were circulated
to staff for the upcoming
school year, and that on
both schedules, the dis-
trict’s spring break was
now the same as Washing-
ton state’s — and different
from that of the surround-
ing districts in Oregon.
Linn said many teach-
ers were concerned that
the switch to the same
spring break as another
state — which he said was
to accommodate those
teachers that coach sports
and will now be coaches
in the Washington system,
would negatively impact
the teachers and students
in the rest of the district.
“Teachers don’t have
the same spring break as
their children,” he said of
Hermiston teachers who
live outside the district.
Linn urged the board
to be careful that they
weren’t making decisions
based only on athletics.
“It sounds like when
you say, ‘do what’s good
for the kids,’ it looks like
‘what’s good for sports
programs,’” he said.
The board also hosted
members of the Hermis-
ton football team, which
recently won the OSAA
5A state championship,
and members of the Future
Farmers of America vet-
erinary science program,
who recently took first
place at the state competi-
tion and will now compete
at nationals.
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Hermiston High School junior Canden Gutierrez works on his pre-calculus homework after school Thursday at Hermiston
High School.
Stanford, Yale, now Princeton
Student
explores social
justice, college
opportunities
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
STAFF WRITER
Even though he’s not
sure where his post-high
school path will take him,
the wheels in Canden Guti-
errez’s head have been turn-
ing since he was in middle
school.
“If you come from an
underprivileged group, you
have to advocate for your-
self,” he said.
With a budding interest
in social justice and a curi-
osity about what college has
to offer, the Hermiston High
School junior has spent
summers educating him-
self about various courses
of study, attending camps at
colleges around the United
States.
The first, two years ago,
took him to Stanford Uni-
versity to learn about biosci-
ence and biotechnology. He
spent last summer at Yale
University.
At that camp, Gutier-
rez said, the groups were
divided up into “capstones,”
each of which focused on
issues such as sustainable
development, social entre-
preneurship, global health
and international develop-
ment. He was placed in a
group that focused on gen-
der equality.
“Everything
centered
around different goals,” he
said.
Gutierrez already has
another goal in mind for this
summer — a seven-week
program at Princeton Uni-
versity.
The
program,
“Leadership Enterprise for
a Diverse America,” admits
100 students from across
the country who come from
low-income or underrep-
resented backgrounds. The
application, which Gutier-
rez is currently working on,
is due Dec. 12.
“The program tries to tar-
get low-income kids who
they know (are) capable of
attending those schools,”
Gutierrez said.
He said the camps are not
so much a way to build up
his résumé as to give himself
an idea of whether he’d like
to attend these schools, and
to get a feel for the school’s
ability to assist its students.
Gutierrez has received
some scholarship funds to
attend those camps, but has
raised much of the necessary
money on his own.
While he knows he wants
to attend a private college
and is interested in going
to the East Coast, Gutierrez
says he has much left to fig-
ure out — including what
he’d like to study.
“At the moment I’m still
lost like every other stu-
dent,” he said with a laugh.
———
Gutierrez’s teachers have
noticed a work ethic they’re
sure will take him far.
“I’ve been teaching 11
years, and he’s certainly
the most self-motivated stu-
dent I’ve ever encountered,”
said Tammy Fisher, Gutier-
rez’s Advanced Placement
Language and Composition
teacher.
Fisher said that to find his
passion for the English lan-
guage, Gutierrez has had to
overcome some hurdles.
Fisher said Gutierrez
began school only speak-
ing Spanish, and was in the
English Language Learn-
ers program until middle
school.
She said he pays atten-
tion to nuances of language
many would ignore.
“Prepositions are really
hard for English language
learners,” she said. “But
instead of just picking one
and going with it, he always
takes the time to look it up
or ask.”
Fisher has also noticed
Gutierrez’s
inclination
toward social justice.
She recalled an assign-
ment where the class was
reviewing a news arti-
cle about President Don-
ald Trump’s plan to rescind
protections for Deferred
Action for Childhood Arriv-
als recipients.
“Canden was so inter-
ested in the content of the
article that he did more
research,
and
decided
he wanted to further his
response in the form of a let-
ter to an Oregon legislator,”
Fisher said.
Fisher said Gutierrez
ended up sending his let-
ter, which detailed his sup-
port for and perceived value
of DACA, to Rep. Greg
Walden.
She recalled another time
when Gutierrez was looking
out for others.
This fall, when Mexico
was racked by earthquakes,
he led the effort to raise
funds for those affected.
“Canden stepped right in
and researched relief orga-
nizations we could support,”
Fisher said. Between his
own efforts and his involve-
ment with the National
Honor Society, she said
that he put together a coin
drive and NHS is wrapping
gifts that will go toward the
project.
“He used his voice to be
a voice for someone else,”
Fisher said.
———
Gutierrez said he has
been thinking about col-
lege since he was in middle
school.
“My
mom
always
insisted that I continue to
higher education, because
she never had that opportu-
nity,” he said. “So she kept
pushing for her kids.”
Gutierrez said his father
is supportive, but also wants
his son to be realistic.
“Pretty much my whole
life has to revolve around
academics,” he said. “Grow-
ing up, it was regular for my
dad to say, ‘We’ll go work
on the farm,’ or ‘We’ll go
pull weeds.’ There wasn’t a
heavy focus on homework.
He sees it as helpful to take
the education path, but not
something you can rely on.”
Gutierrez said while he
understands that perspec-
tive, his views are a little
different.
That view led him to
join Generation College,
which allows students to
learn how to apply for col-
lege and scholarships and
to visit local colleges and
universities.
“Everyone there under-
stands their circumstances,
but they’re not going to let
that define them,” he said.
“Our standards are pretty
high, but how can we meet
them, regardless of the
circumstances?”
Through
involvement
with that group, as well as
the National Honor Soci-
ety and Family, Career,
and Community Leaders
of America, Gutierrez has
honed his leadership skills.
“(Canden) asked me
yesterday about internship
opportunities,” Fisher said.
“He said he didn’t know
what kind, but he really
wanted to do something to
make a difference.”
Fisher said she’s sure
Gutierrez will do that,
regardless of where he ends
up.
“I expect nothing but
amazing things from him,”
she said.
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