Leaving Argentina

Well, that’s it. Five months of confusion, five months of growth, five months of happiness.
Five of the best months of my life.
Last spring, when I decided to go on a five-month exchange program to Salta, Argentina, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. In fact, for a while before I left, I wasn’t even sure I wanted to go, afraid I would miss my friends and family too much.
But right now, looking back, I can’t seem to believe that I ever had a doubt.
During my time here in Salta, I have felt such a mix of emotions — from uncertainty to fear to joy — and now I know that all of it was worth it.
Although I had taken a year and a half of Spanish classes at Davis High School,  I hardly understood anything when I first arrived. I had to ask people to repeat — or say it slower, or explain it in another way — so many times that I wanted to cry. I guess I’m not used to being looked at like an idiot.
That lasted for about two or three months.
And although there were some really fun times mixed in there — like a few fancy birthday parties and just hanging out with my host family — for the most part, those first few months were pretty tough.
But then all of a sudden, I could understand when people talked at a normal speed. I could join in conversations and not have to focus all my attention on not losing track of what people were saying. I could start building relationships and really getting to know people.
It feels amazing to be able to listen to the same sounds I heard five months ago and now understand their significance. When I have something to say, I can go ahead and say it instead of searching for vocabulary I don’t know.
I think this and my relationship with my host family have been the best parts of my trip, along with the suuuuuper good food — like empanadas (pockets of meat, cheese or vegetables), locro (sort of like a stew with beef and vegetables), asado (grilled beef), and Argentinian ice cream — great times with the friends I’ve made here and
Not to mention the confidence I’ve gained from becoming so close with people who don’t even speak my first language.
Before I left Yakima, I knew I was going to be homesick for the U.S.
And now, before leaving Salta, I know I’ll be homesick again.
But this time, I’m going to be homesick for a new home. My home in Argentina.

— Hannah Besso is an incoming junior at Davis High School and a member of the Herald-Republic’s Unleashed journalism program for high school students.

From Plymouth Colony and Nazi Germany to the Yakima Valley

My ancestors were some of the lucky ones.
Some six million Jews were killed during World War II, but my family on my mom’s side managed to escape.
On my grandma’s side, the Cikvesvilis had been living in Germany as a Jewish family at the start of the war. By that time, the Nazis had started rounding up Jews and other minorities in concentration camps. In 1935, Germany passed the Nuremberg Laws, denying Jews many of their basic rights.
Three years later, in November 1938, Kristalnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, occurred. Kristalnacht was the night during World War II when non-Jewish Germans destroyed the businesses and homes of Jews throughout the country. At this point, my ancestors decided it was too dangerous to stay.
But by that time, Jews were not allowed to leave the country. Still, somehow, my great-great uncle was able to obtain counterfeit Iranian passports for the family, and they got on a train out of Germany as if they were leaving for a picnic.

My grandmother was 2 years old at the time.
With almost no belongings and hardly any money, they escaped to some family living in Turkey, which was neutral. There they rode out the war until 1947, when they moved to the United States. to join my great-grandfather, who had been able to get to Cuba and from there to New York.
It was in New York that my grandparents met, and the rest, as they say, is history.
My family on my grandpa’s side was originally from Spain. As a result of the Spanish Inquisition, they moved to what is now part of Greece. Then, in the early 1900s, my great-grandfather moved to the U.S., settling in New York.
That makes me a third-generation American on my mom’s side of the family.
But on my dad’s side, my ancestors came to America just a few years after Plymouth Colony was founded.
They settled in Deadham, Mass. and, in 1636, built their house, known as the Fairbanks House, the longest-standing, wood-framed house in the U.S.

The family eventually moved to New York and then Minnesota, finally settling in Montana. That is where my dad’s dad grew up, on a cattle ranch on the plains.
Grandpa moved out to California after serving in the army for a few years after World War II. There, he met my grandma, who had moved from Kansas during the Dust Bowl in the 1930s. They had six kids, the third of whom was my dad.
Many years later my parents met in the Yakima Valley and fell in love.
And even though I come from such a diverse background, I don’t think either defines me, really.
I am a combination of each, a hybrid of my ancestors with my own experiences and personality.

— Hannah Besso is an incoming junior at Davis High School and a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed journalism program for high school students.

My grandpa, Michael Besso, reading from the Torah at his nephew Kenny's Bar Mitzvah in the mid-1950s. A Bar Mitzvah is a Jewish right of passage.

Argentinian Adventure

By the time you read this, I’ll already be in Argentina.
But as I write this, just two days before my Feb. 23 departure date, I can’t imagine what it will be like. One thing’s for sure, though: it will be an adventure.
I’m participating in a five-month exchange program through the American Field Service in the beautiful town of Salta, Argentina.
Salta, located in the northwest part of the country, is warm year around with temperatures usually in the 70s. The city is surrounded by breathtaking hills on one side and scorching desert on the other.
About the size of Seattle, Salta looks like an old Spanish town and was part of the Incan Empire long ago. I hear the people there make a habit of staying up all night and eating high-quality beef at every opportunity.
I will be staying with an Argentinean family while I’m there as well as attending high school in Spanish. My host family has a daughter my age and two boys that are 13 and 11.
Last spring, at the end of my freshman year at Yakima’s Davis High School, I decided I wanted to go on an exchange program sometime during my high school career. My mom went to Brazil when she was 16, and I figured if she could do it, then so could I.
Although many students go abroad during a gap year between high school and college, I decided I didn’t want to miss a year in between.
Right now I’m 16 and still a sophomore. Since I am planning on doing the intensive, full International Baccalaureate program at Davis next year, I figured missing junior or senior year wouldn’t be an option.
And since I want to learn Spanish, I decided Latin America was for me. Argentina looks beautiful, and people who have been there tell me it’s amazing.
I’m looking forward to living in a different country, learning a different language and experiencing a different culture.
And although I’m sure it will be an amazing experience, I know I’m going to miss everyone in Yakima muchisimo.
That’s Spanish for “A LOT.”

— When she’s not studying abroad in Argentina, Hannah Besso is a sophomore at Davis High School and a member of the Herald-Republic’s Unleashed journalism program for high school students.

Happy Hanukkah

Only a week till Christmas!
Whether watching TV or reading the newspaper, Christmas is the constant theme these days. The 25th is almost here!
And it seems like just about everyone at school is excited.
But for me, the big winter holiday has already arrived. Come and gone, actually — although it didn’t last just one day.
While most people are out late shopping for last-minute Christmas trees and presents, my family is sitting around the dining room table, watching the last of the Hanukkah candles burn out. As the last one flickers and dies, we all smile and exchange “Happy Hanukkah” for the eighth and final night.
Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, has been celebrated in my family for as long as I can remember. Each year around the end of November or beginning of December, it’s time to take the menorah, or Jewish candle holder, down from the top shelf and begin the hunt for the “good” matches, the ones with wooden match sticks.

We make sure to stock up on potatoes and Hanukkah candles, grabbing a couple bags of gelt, or chocolate coins, from one of the few stores in Yakima that carry them.
We ready our frying pans and bring out the dreidles — toy tops used in traditional Jewish games — in anticipation of our favorite holiday.
For us, this is normal, just another sign of the holiday season. But to many, these rituals are totally different from their own holiday experiences.
Sure, most people know the story of Hanukkah, or at least know that it is a Jewish holiday. But in a town where the celebration of Christmas seems taken for granted, Hanukkah is lumped in with Kwanza, added into holiday greetings cards and winter concerts almost as an afterthought, if at all.
Winter break — or Christmas break, as most people call it — doesn’t even coincide with Hanukkah, not that I’m complaining about two weeks off from school, but you get the point.
Hanukkah, which ends tonight, just isn’t part of most peoples’ lives here.
And that’s OK, too. After all, one of my favorite parts of this time of year is the Christmas carols.
My family has found ways to adapt. For example, we put up “Hanukkah lights,” a string of blue and white lights which we fashion into the shape of a Jewish star. We also return the greeting “Merry Christmas” with the same.

I even helped a friend decorate her Christmas tree this year. And I sing just as loudly on “Silent Night” as I do for the universal “Jingle Bells.”
This is my favorite time of the year, and it has as much to do with the latkes, or potato pancakes, as with the warm feeling you get from talking with friends by the fire as snowflakes float by the window.
Even if there are stockings hanging from the fire place.

— Hannah Besso is a sophomore at Davis High School and a member of the Herald-Republic’s Unleashed journalism program for students.

Student Rabbi Daniel Brook lights the Hanukkah candles while Olga Laskin, 12, looks on.

Off the field

Touchdowns, tackles, fumbles, punts, first-downs, time-outs.
A lot happens on the field.
Ticket-taking, gate-keeping, cheering, watching, marching, announcing, fundraising, setting-up, tearing-down, cleaning-up.
A lot goes on off the field, too.

Every Friday night during football season, as the players work hard to play their best, others — mainly volunteers — are working just as hard to make sure everything goes smoothly on and off the field.
At Yakima’s Davis High School, for example, athletic director Bob Stanley, 44, estimates at least a dozen people are needed to run the game — and that’s not including the people who help with setting and cleaning up or selling concessions for the hundreds of fans that typically attend games at Zaepfel Stadium.
Hosting a home football game is no small task. The players on the field are only a portion of the action. Lines must be painted and tickets sold. Popcorn must be made, cheers must be shouted, and fight songs must be played. And at the end of the evening, garbage must be picked up and gates locked.
The Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team recently tackled these aspects of Friday night football festivities, the activities that happen off the field, before, after and during the game. Here’s a look at the hubbub happening off the field.
— Colleen Fontana, Davis High School

Athletic trainers
Before the Rams take Clasen Field, Jeannie Martin and her team of West Valley High School students trainers are already working to prepare the players and carrying medical supplies, water and ice to the sidelines.
Martin usually arrives two hours before game time to assist injured athletes, supervise stretching, tape ankles and ice strained muscles. The 37-year-old has served as the school’s athletic trainer for 11 years.
She teaches courses in beginning and advanced sports therapy, and some of her students plan to pursue a career in this — or a related — field. During games, she works with seven to 10 student trainers, all of whom have taken her class and some of whom are members of the school’s sports medicine club.
What does she like most about her job? “That it’s different every week.”
What does she like least? “The long hours.”
— Lindsay Burns, West Valley Junior High

Ticket-takers
In a small wooden shed at the gates of Zaepfel Stadium, Debra Reis and Julie Stephens are ready to take tickets.
Even though it feels freezing cold inside the little shed, they both seem enthusiastic and energetic, ready to welcome people to the game.
Their shift starts at 7 p.m. and lasts until half-time. The busiest part is the first hour, between 7 and 8, when lines stretch past the ticket booth and back toward Eisenhower High School.
Stephens has been a staff member at Ike for more than 20 years. Reis has worked at the school for four. Both are in their late 40s and work as registrars. When Ike has home games, they work the ticket booth.
High school students who are members of the Associated Student Body — and have ASB cards to prove it — can enter home games for free during the regular season.
Most of the people in line are students and their families wishing to show their school spirit and support their team.
However, parents of former players, family friends, community members and other school supporters who just enjoy football come to buy tickets and watch the game, too. Reis and Stephens get to know the regulars and share jokes with them as they go by.
— Sean Nagle-McNaughton, Davis High School

Safety and security
Ready to hold the line between high school rivals stand security guards and police officers.
Their presence serves as a deterrent to potential problems. Usually, there are no serious conflicts; most students are happy to wander across the field to talk with their friends that go to the rival school.
In fact, the worst offense Yakima police officer Jonathan Cordova, 39, says he has ever seen at a game was a drunken spectator.
In addition to officers and guards, there’s an ambulance ready to take care of any injured athletes or spectators at every football game at Zaepfel Stadium.
On cold nights, paramedics are in an enviable position compared to the officers and guards providing security. While security staffers have to walk around to make sure students and spectators are following the rules, paramedics can spend their time watching the game from inside the warm ambulance, ready to provide first aid and support if needed.
— Sean Nagle-McNaughton, Davis High School

Marching band
The host team’s marching band performs at every home football game.
These performances provide entertainment during the game and serve, according to 15-year-old Keelan Smith, a trombonist and sophomore at Eisenhower High School, as practice for competitions.
For band members, the appeal of performing at the game is the live audience. The student musicians take pride in the band and work hard to perform well. In fact, their preparation starts during summer when most students are enjoying vacation. In fall, the Ike band practices after school twice a week and numerous Saturdays.
Game days, the Ike band arrives at the high school at 5:30 p.m. and leaves after the game ends, typically after 10 p.m. The only time the band leaves early is when there’s a band competition the next day and members need to get a good night’s sleep before leaving as early as 5 a.m. the following morning.
Seventeen-year-old Ike senior Darion Roth, a saxophonist and the senior drum major, says he would like to see more people coming out to attend the games and support — not only the football players — but the marching band.
Before the start of a home game at West Valley High School, band director Ron Gerhardstein is as busy as the head football coach, overseeing his own players — the musicians — as they warm up.
Unbeknownst to many football fans, the band practices as often as the football team.
“Marching band takes a lot of time,” says the 44-year-old Gerhardstein, who’s served as West Valley’s band director for five years. “We rehearse during first period each morning, and we rehearse on Tuesday evenings from 6 to 8:30.”
And on game nights, the West Valley band’s 111 members arrive an hour before game time to change into their uniforms, stretch and warm up.
About 45 minutes before the game starts, they line up and march over to the stadium. They perform the national anthem and school fight song for the pre-game show, give a half-time field show, and play at other times throughout the game itself.
“My least favorite part of game nights is trying to get 111 students to pay enough attention to the game so that we can play music when the time is appropriate,” Gerhardstein says. “If they don’t pay enough attention we (lose) our opportunities to play.”
— Sean Nagle-McNaughton, Davis High School, and Lindsay Burns, West Valley Junior High

The announcer
High in the stadium, up in the announcer’s booth, Adam Eldridge isn’t visible to football fans. But he’s certainly heard by them.
The 34-year-old is the voice of the Rams.
He’s announced athletic events for 12 years altogether, including five at West Valley High School. In addition to football, he announces soccer and basketball games, too.
Eldridge arrives 45 minutes before game time to check in with coaches on the pronunciations of players’ names and touch base with other folks working the game.
He says he doesn’t do the job for the pay.
“I get great seats, and it’s a covered area,” he says. “I enjoy the spirit and just watching the student athletes perform.”
— Lindsay Burns, West Valley Junior High

The photographer
Though a recent leg surgery keeps Jim Hauske at field level, shooting pictures, the 63-year-old spent more than 20 seasons as a spotter for the Rams.
As a spotter, Hauske reported the numbers of the players who made tackles and caught passes to the announcer in the booth. But the past few years, since retiring from teaching, Hauske has become the unofficial photographer for many West Valley High School teams.
He’s a mainstay at football and other games, wandering the sidelines taking action shots of players. These photographs are often given as gifts to student athletes at team banquets.
A true fan of football, Hauske enjoys watching the game, cheering for athletes, and seeing people he knows.
Hauske says, “My least favorite part about the job is when fans get knit-picky on games and times, and when they argue about mistakes.
“Everyone makes them.”
— Lindsay Burns, West Valley Junior High

Concessions
Popcorn and candy bars go out, and money comes in.
Surrounded by a variety of treats, and stepping around boxes of Lightning paraphernalia, volunteers in the concession stand work to keep fans fed and happy.
“The most popular item tonight was the caramel suckers,” says 52-year-old La Salle High School parent Mary Adkins, following the Oct. 2 home game against the White Swan High School Cougars.
She works the booth to help complete the 30 volunteer hours required of each family that has a kid or kids who attend the Catholic school. Plus, she says, it’s fun.
However, concession workers arrive at home games as early as 3 p.m. and often stay until 10:30 p.m. for clean-up.
“It was basically nonstop,” Adkins says of customer-flow during the game.
But the work reaps a worthy outcome. The thousand or so dollars that come in each home game from concession sales goes to help La Salle athletics.
The candy itself helps energize the crowd on cold football nights.
“They just want anything sugary,” Adkins says.
Same thing is true at White Swan High School, where junior Alex Craig, 16, serves as one of the two concession stand managers. Students from different grades get to work the booth during designated home games, earning money for their class.
Funds raised go toward activities such as each grade’s senior trip.
— Colleen Fontana, Davis High School, and Tedra Kay Spencer, White Swan High School

Cheerleaders
As the final gun sounds, Grizzlies fans explode with cheers, relieved to pull out a 21-20 victory over the Davis Pirates. And these ecstatic cheers are led, of course, by the Sunnyside High School cheerleaders.
Throughout the entire Oct. 9 game, Sunnyside’s homecoming, the crowd was way into the game and cheering with excitement, just the sort of crowd cheerleaders hope for.
“It means a lot to us when you cheer along,” says Sunnyside cheerleader Sydney Wutzke, a 15-year-old junior. “It makes us feel like we’re doing our job, and it helps out with the guys a lot. It makes them feel better when there’s a spirited crowd.”
The Grizzlies were down the entire first half of the game, making a huge comeback in the second. Still, the score was touch-and-go for much of the fourth quarter.
Says Wutzke, “You just have to push through it and keep everyone positive … ”
On the football field at White Swan High School, when the Cougars are down, cheerleader Brigida Walker, a 16-year-old junior, says the same thing: You gotta stay positive.
“I just encourage my fellow cheermates to keep cheering because even if we don’t win we’re still winners at heart,” Walker says.
There are those times when the home team walks away without the victory. But after any game, 18-year-old Sunnyside cheerleader Taylor Daniel, a senior, says, “I feel tired and excited, and I usually have fun whether we win or lose.”
Wutzke agrees, saying she loves “everything” about cheer. “I have a lot of fun with everyone in the crowd, and dancing and stunting,” she says.
These aren’t the only reasons to cheer, however.
Wutzke is dating Sunnyside quarterback, Andrew Daley, a junior. She says she tries to cheer for the entire team equally. “I try to keep it even,” she says, “but of course I have that soft spot for him.”
— Hannah Besso, Davis High School, and Tedra Kay Spencer, White Swan High School

Fans
The deafening roar from the crowd is immediately followed by the equally as loud bang of a cannon, signifying a touchdown.
“Boom!” a fan calls loudly as the cheerleaders begin to lead the standing student fans in a cheer.
Bundled in blankets and letterman jackets, breathing warm air onto their numb hands and staying close together for warmth, they still yell with gusto.
Flashes of blue and silver collide as students bounce along, waving their hands chaotically in the air even after the echo of the cannon dies away.
For football fans at Marquette Stadium during Friday night home games, the cannon is essential. It’s La Salle High School tradition to fire it after each touchdown. Just ask Jeff Hayes.
“My soul purpose here is shooting the cannon,” says the 45-year-old, who’s watched his two children graduate from La Salle, but still faithfully returns for the cannon every football season.
What can he say? He likes “big bangs.” And he’s not the only one.
“My favorite part is when we score touchdowns, and the cannon goes boom!” says 17-year-old La Salle senior Chelsea Adkins.
Victoria Gonzalez, also a 17-year-old senior, agrees: “When I hear the cannon, I get all excited and scream!”
Along with the home team, the cannon keeps fans coming back.
“As long as we have the cannon,” says Hayes, “I’m gonna be here shooting it.”
Now, there’s no cannon on the football field at White Swan High School. But, walking up the stairs on the bleachers, the school colors — red, black and white — flash underneath the Friday night lights.
Chelsey Sheppard is usually up there, too. She hardly ever misses a home game.
The eighth-grader at Mount Adams Middle School goes to football games with her parents and older sister, a White Swan sophomore.
“I love the White Swan Cougars for so many reasons,” the 13-year-old says. “They are my life. When the team loses, I lose. They have been my team since I was 3. … I love the Cougars, and we are strong.”
— Colleen Fontana, Davis High School, and Tedra Kay Spencer, White Swan High School

Cleaning up, tearing down
At Marquette Stadium, where the La Salle Lightning play home games, clean-up relies mainly on volunteers — and Teresa Barry, the Catholic high school’s dean of students.
While many fans flood the field for post-game prayer and coach Jack McMillan’s “atta-ways,” or shout-outs, Barry makes herself responsible for tidying the seating area.
She has some help. Before the game ends, the announcer usually asks people to clean up the area around them. While parents usually manage to comply with this request, Barry says, oftentimes, “the students forget.”
The amount of time it takes — and size of the mess left behind — depend on how many people attend the game. And the more people that help, the faster clean-up goes.
“If I have some people who help out I can finish in 10 (minutes),” Barry says. “It takes longer when there are things like nachos that make a mess because there’s more to clean up.”
Other elements of post-game clean-up involve emptying trash bags, a job that parents typically take on, and storing the cheerleaders’ boxes behind the stadium. Family members and friends of cheerleaders help with this. And the job usually requires two people to carry one box.
Barry’s grateful for all the help she can get.

“It’s our responsibility to clean the stadium,” she says. “And I kind of miss being able to go down for the prayer time.”
— Kateri Town, La Salle High School

Working: choir teacher

By HANNAH BESSO
UNLEASHED STAFF
Four years, four choirs and one African drumming class.
That could sum up choir teacher Nichola Blink’s career so far at Toppenish High School. And yet, she’s done so much more in her short time there. Many say it’s easy to see the difference she has made.
“You should have heard what it was like before she came. It was a little embarrassing,” says Arlee Volz, 65, the piano accompanist for Blink’s school choirs. “But now, she directs kids, she talks to kids, she says she’ll do anything to help them get into college and do whatever they want to do.”
It’s been that way since her first day on the job, according to superintendent Steve Myers.

“On the first day that she began teaching choir she had an unbelievable connection with the students,” he says. “In just a short period of time, the quality of the musical performance has really improved.”
Blink’s path to get here included many stops. Between kindergarten and her senior year of high school, she moved 18 times.
“Sometimes that was schools, houses or countries,” says Blink, who was born in England but has been to the Middle East, Canada and, of course, the U.S.
She graduated from high school in Oregon, went to Oberlin College in Ohio, and got a postgraduate degree at the Cincinnati Conservatory.
Prior to teaching in Toppenish, Blink, who lives in Yakima, taught at a charter school in Toledo, Ohio, while also singing opera.
At the charter school, geared to students who had been kicked out of the public school system, “I saw how the arts program really made an impact on them,” Blink says. “So I decided to go to (the University of Washington) to get a more international program. I wanted to start a program from the bottom up … somewhere they would let me do it my way, and Toppenish was open to it.”
Blink says that although she likes singing opera, she finds teaching more rewarding.
“When I sang opera, it was very fulfilling and I loved it, but it was all about me,” Blink says. “Whereas when I taught, I could see how music could change young people’s lives, and it was a way to give back that was much more fulfilling.”
What do her students have to say?
“She would help me on a lot of things, like technicality and the proper way to sing, and she’s also taught me how you can command the stage and how you have to go out there and have confidence,” says Emmanuel Rodriguez, a 15-year-old sophomore in Blink’s elite choir.
“She really has a huge passion for the students and to be able to teach them. She polishes the students until they shine,” says Adrianna Garza, a 17-year-old senior in Blink’s elite and treble choirs.
“I think what I like most about Mrs. Blink is that in her choir classes she makes sure that you understand that she means business. You have to follow her rules, and yet you’re having fun,” says 18-year old senior Sarah Story, who is a peer tutor for the beginners’ choir and is in Blink’s elite, treble and audition choirs.
“She’s one of the people I want to be like when I get older,” Story says. “She lets you know that she cares about you and not just her program. She cares about you and if you succeed.”
During her tenure, Blink has transformed the Toppenish High School choir from a group of about a dozen students to a program with more than 200 students in five different music classes, including an African drumming class.

To encourage more students to join choir, she worked out with the advanced weight-lifting team and ran with the football and cross-country teams, talking up her program.
“I did that because I wanted them to see that you should try new things even if you’re not sure that you’ll be good at them,” Blink says. “So they saw me struggle and keep trying, and I got better. And then I brought my choir to sing at the football games and I had (the football team) come join choir. So my first year I had 15 students, and by my third year I had 243. And I’ll have more this year.”
Blink likes to listen to jazz, Latin, folk and world music.
“I love music that has lyrics,” she says. “It doesn’t have to be English. Being a singer, I definitely love the human voice.”
Her husband is a teacher, too. David Blink is the director of Instrumental Music and Jazz Studies at Yakima Valley Community College.
“It is our lives,” he says of music. “Our students, in a way, are like our children.”
Says Volz, “She really believes in those kids. She doesn’t let them get by with anything but the best.”
Blink likes to keep the focus on her students.
“I love teaching because it’s constantly challenging me to be a better musician, be compassionate, and think outside the box,” she says.
“My students are probably my biggest inspiration, seeing them strive to overcome obstacles and achieve dreams.”
Her work has impressed the superintendent.
“She has been magnificent,” Myers says. “What it does show is that if you have the talent and skills as a teacher, and you can relate to students, the sky is the limit. Our students are reaching for the stars.”

—  Hannah Besso is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. She attends Davis High School.

Working: lifeguard

By HANNAH BESSO
unleashed staff
Splashes echo around the pool as members of the West Valley swim team jump in on a Tuesday afternoon in January.
As they begin warming up, they are closely observed by 16-year-old Taylor Healy, a West Valley High School junior and lifeguard at Lions Pool.

At the end of January, she had only been on the job for about a month. But that was long enough to know that she wants to do this for a while, probably until she goes off to college.
For Healy, her high school job isn’t just about the money. She likes it that she’s doing something meaningful.
“I have an opportunity to make a difference in someone’s life, like if they need help,” she says.
To prepare for the job, Healy had to complete a seven-week lifeguarding class, which met twice a week for three hours. She learned how to jump into the pool to save someone from drowning and how to remove a person with a suspected spinal injury. Knowledge of first aid and proficiency in CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) are mandatory.
Although she doesn’t get any health benefits and is paid about minimum wage — $8.55 an hour — Healy says, “I love the staff a lot and the people I see every day. It’s pretty relaxed, and I love the water.”
Not everyone is cut out to be a lifeguard, according to Nathan Vanderhoof, 20, the aquatic supervisor at the Yakima Family YMCA.
“It takes someone who is reliable, responsible, someone who’s passionate about the job and who likes people,” he says. Also, “It’s really important that they can handle high-stress situations.”
It’s critical to have a lifeguard on duty at all times, Vanderhoof says: “You really need someone supervising outside of the pool, with no distractions.”
Lifeguards aren’t always fully appreciated, he adds. Although they are responsible for people’s lives, they make about as much as fast-food workers.
“We get a lot of new lifeguards who think it’s going to be easy, but it’s difficult to keep your attention on the pool for such long periods of time,” he says.
Jeri Berube, a 17-year old senior at Selah High School, says some things come with on-the-job experience.
For example, “I know how to deal with certain situations, how to cope with co-workers and how to properly take care of a pool,” she says.
Berube has been working at Lions Pool for more than four months. Like Healy, she went through the lifeguarding course.
“You have to be a strong swimmer but you don’t necessarily have to have good technique,” Vanderhoof says. “You have to be able to get where you’re going and tread water for extended periods of time and, of course, know the proper technique for saving people.”
Healy hasn’t had to jump in after anybody yet. She says a good day on the job is just “being able to guard” without any kids running around breaking the rules.
“I really haven’t had a bad day yet,” says Healy, who ultimately wants to become an assistant physical therapist or a dietitian.
Meantime, if there’s a downside to her current job, it might be the humidity and temperature in the pool area.
“It’s just so hot all the time,” she says.

• Hannah Besso is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. She attends Davis High School.

Fresh Faces: Austin Wagner

Name: Austin Wagner
School/year in school/age: Davis, freshman, 15.
Activities/Hobbies/Clubs: Wrestling, video games, football, track, fishing.
Favorite food: Babyback ribs
Favorite movies: “Braveheart.”
Favorite books/writers: Authors C.S. Lewis and Pearl S. Buck, and books are “Hatchet” by Gary Paulson and the “Eragon” series by Christopher Paolini.
Favorite music, musicians, or bands: Nickelback, rock, and country.
What is your most treasured possession? My wrestling medals.
What’s your favorite place to go in your hometown? The movie theater.
What would you do with $1 million? Buy a nice house.
Three words to describe yourself: Athletic, easy-to-talk to, friendly.
What is your greatest achievement? I took state for wrestling last year.
Worst fear: Drowning.
Greatest wish: To have unlimited wishes.
When and where were you the happiest? When I went to Hawaii.
Where and how do you see yourself in 10 years? At Stanford University School of Medicine.
— Hannah Besso, Davis High School

“Reflections” honors young artists and writers

By HANNAH BESSO
UNLEASHED STAFF
Proud parents, prouder students.
Both attended the Yakima School District’s PTA “Reflections” celebration Monday night.
Contestants could submit a photograph, drawing, essay, poem or other creative work under the theme of “wow.” Categories depended on grade level, which ranged from first to twelfth.

The contest culminated Jan. 12. A room filled with people — some forced to stand in the crowded Eisenhower High School cafeteria — applauded enthusiastically as student after student was called to the stage, presented with a certificate and gift, and had their picture taken with superintendent Ben Soria.
Seventy-five students were recognized with awards for their work, but only 14 Outstanding Interpretation awards were given — one for each category and age group. These 14 submissions will be sent on to participate in the state level competition.
“When I was sitting in my first-period class, I heard on the morning announcements that the theme this year was ‘wow,’ and the story of my freshman year came to mind. Whenever people hear my story they’re like, ‘wow’, so it fit,” says 17-year-old Davis High School senior Colby Klingele, who entered in the high school literature category.
Her story definitely hit the mark; she won Outstanding Interpretation — the highest honor — for her essay titled “Every Freshman’s Nightmare.”
“My freshman year my mom got breast cancer,” she explains. “We went to live with my grandma, but then she kicked us out, so we were homeless for a while there, while I was taking care of my mom.”
Klingele enjoyed having her work noticed: “It feels pretty good because I like writing a lot and a lot of people don’t know my story, so it’s good to get it out there.”
Courteney Franz, a seventh-grader at Lewis and Clark Middle School and an Award of Excellence winner in the junior literature category, says she likes “being able to write on topic, and being able to write something and have someone read it and recognize it.”
The “Reflections” contest was established in 1969 by the National PTA. Throughout the years, more than 10 million students around the country have participated.
“I think it gives them another outlet,” says Teri Walton, president of the Yakima PTA. “Schools don’t focus on art as much anymore, so this is a good opportunity for them.”

Walton has been involved with “Reflections” for 10 years.
“I like to see the kids get excited about the art,” she says.
D’Arcy Rowe, a West Valley Junior High school library aide and “Reflections” chairwoman, has been involved in the program for 17 years.
“I just love seeing the children’s faces as they come up on stage,” she says. “And I love seeing the talent we have here in Yakima.”

— Hannah Besso is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. She attends Davis High School.

Festival of Lights

By HANNAH BESSO
UNLEASHED STAFF
Glowing candles, sizzling latkes, spinning dreidels.
These are all signs of another year and another Hanukkah.
Also known as the “Festival of Lights,” Hanukkah is an eight-day Jewish holiday celebrated around this time of year. The exact dates change from year to year according to the Hebrew calendar. This year, it starts the evening of Dec. 21.
For Kirsten Kaplan, a Jewish 16 year-old junior at Eisenhower High School, the holidays are both a time to celebrate and a time to give.
“When I was younger I always looked forward to the presents and the gelt (chocolate coins),” she said. “ But now, I just like seeing my family as they open their presents.
“I like to think of it in a similar way that others probably think of Christmas: a time of giving and of joy,” Kaplan said. “It’s just a time to be with family and give gifts.”
Hanukkah is one of the most well-known Jewish holidays, and carries great significance in the Jewish community.

When the Syrians were finally defeated by the Maccabees — a small group of Israeli guerrilla warriors — and the Jews cleansed the temple at Jerusalem, they could only find enough oil to last a day. The process to make more oil would take a full eight days.
According to the story, the oil miraculously lasted all eight days until more oil was available, and the Jews were able to keep the lamp lit.
Hanukkah is the celebration of that event.
“It’s part of our tradition, and it reminds us of the time when the Syrians desecrated the temple,” explains 30-year-old Andy Laufer, a local doctor. “We found the oil that lasted eight days, and that’s when we light up a candle each day until the days are gone.”
In every synagogue, hanging over the ark that holds the Torah — the first five books of the Bible — is a light that must always be lit.
There’s discussion whether the real miracle is that the oil lasted eight days or that this tiny group of Israelites was able to overcome the vast Syrian Army.
Samantha Orshan, the student rabbi at Yakima’s Temple Shalom, said Hanukkah “is a commemoration that against all odds this small group of Jews was able to fight and survive. … More than anything I think Hanukkah is about the survival of the Jewish people.”
Orshan also said Hanukkah is special because it is one of the few Jewish holidays centered around a mix of history and miracles.

“It shows that God is not limited by the scope of our imagination,” said Orshan, who goes to school in Los Angeles and travels to Yakima once a month to lead services at Temple Shalom. She left Dec. 17 for Israel, where she plans to spend a month during the holidays.
“There will be something cool about going to the Western Wall during Hanukkah,” she said before she left. “The Western Wall is the outside wall of the temple in Jerusalem, and it’s all we have left of the temple the Romans destroyed (in 70 A.D., more than 200 years after the miracle of the oil occurred). It will be really cool to go there during Hanukkah and see what it once was.”
At the heart of Hanukkah is the nightly lighting of the menorah, a nine-branched candelabrum. Eight candles represent the eight nights that the oil lasted. A ninth “attendant” candle is used to light the others.
Many families exchange gifts each night. Other customs include eating foods fried in oil, such as latkes or potato pancakes, playing with the dreidel, a four-sided spinning top, and giving gelt, gifts of money and chocolate, and chocolate coins, to children.
Family is a big part of this celebration for Jews everywhere. Laufer, originally from Venezuela, regrets the lack of relatives here in Yakima during the holiday.
“In Venezuela, there is family. That’s important,” he said. “You light candles together and say prayers, and the kids usually get presents.”
Despite this, he said, during Hanukkah, “I feel connected to everybody else and closer to Israel.”

— Photos and story by Hannah Besso. Hannah Besso is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. She attends Davis High School.

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