Spring 2019 Newsletter OXNARD UNION HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT High Expectations of Powerful Futures for EVERY Student! Visit us online at www.oxnardunion.org OUHSD: 309 S. K St, Oxnard CA 93030/ (805) 385-2500 1 Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 HHS ALUMNI: AMELIA REALZOLA 7 OUHSD District Directory 1 OAS STUDENT: EMILLIE CUEVAS 8 Message from the Superintendent 2 OAS ADVERTISEMENT 8 ACHS STUDENT: GABBY JOSE 3 OHS STUDENT: CRYSTAL PEREZ 9 ACHS ALUMNI: PHILLIP COOKSEY 3 OHS ALUMNI: SCOTT WHITNEY 9 CIHS STUDENT: ADRIANA DIAZ 4 OMCHS: MELISSA AGUILAR AND LESLI LOPEZ 10 CIHS ALUMNI: RANDY ORTIZ 4 FHS: DARK NEIGHBOORHOOD 10 CHSOA ALUMNI: ELIZABETH SLAGEBOOM 5 PHS STUDENT: KELLY ESPINO 11 CHSOA ADVERTISEMENT 5 PHS ALUMNI: CARLOS ALDRETE 11 FHS STUDENT: ALMA AVENDANO 6 RCHS STUDENT: MADDY HOOD 12 FHS ALUMNI: ANA PENA 6 RCHS ALUMNI: MIKAELA HUNTER 12 HHS STUDENT: JUAN MARTINEZ 7 RMHS STUDENT: MASIEL MARTINEZ 13 HHS STUDENT: JENNIFER MARTINEZ 7 RMHS ALUMNI: DARCY TAYLOR 13 OXNARD UNION HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT 309 S. K St, Oxnard CA 93030 / (805) 385-2500 OXNARD UNION HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT Adolfo Camarillo High School Frontier High School Pacifica High School 4660 Mission Oaks Blvd, Camarillo CA 93012 545 Airport Way, Camarillo, CA 93010 600 E. Gonzales Rd, Oxnard CA 93036 (805) 389-6407 (805) 389-6450 (805) 278-5000 www.camarillohigh.us www.frontierhigh.us www.pacificahigh.us Principal: Mathew LaBelle Principal: Christine Mahone Principal: Ted Lawrence Channel Islands High School Oxnard Adult School Rancho Campana High School 1400 Raiders Way, Oxnard CA 93033 1101 W. Second St, Oxnard CA 93030 4235 Mar Vista Dr, Camarillo, CA 93010 (805) 385-2787 (805) 385-2578 (805) 394-4750 www.channelislandshigh.us www.oxnardadulted.org www.ranchocampanahigh.us Principal: Roger Adams Principal: Kathy Greaves Principal: Bryan Martin Condor High School Oxnard High School Rio Mesa High School 1101 W. Second St, Oxnard CA 93030 3400 W. Gonzales Rd, Oxnard CA 93036 545 Central Ave, Oxnard CA 93036 (805) 385-5885 (805) 278-2907 (805) 278-5500 www.condorhigh.us www.oxnardhigh.us www.riomesahigh.us Principal: Kathy Greaves Principal: Richard Urias Principal: Mark Contreras Hueneme High School Oxnard Middle College High School 500 W. Bard Rd, Oxnard CA 93033 4000 S. Rose Ave, Oxnard CA 93033 (805)385-2667 (805) 385-2540 www.huenemehigh.us www.oxnardmiddlecollege.us Principal: Adrian Ayala Principal: Maricruz Hernandez 2 Message From The Superintendent Dear Students and Families: It can be easy to convince ourselves that our students start out each day with a good night’s sleep, in a comfortable bed, with a healthy breakfast and come from a safe and loving home environment. And while that is true for many, the reality for some of our students is very different. This edition of our newsletter is dedicated to telling the stories of students who have overcome tremendous obstacles in their lives. Thousands of our students are from families living below the poverty line. Hundreds arrive at high school for the first time not speaking English. We have students who come from homes where domestic violence is com- mon. Others’ parents are field workers whose grueling schedules and hard work leave little time for support with school. And a few of our stu- dents are homeless. The students profiled in this newsletter all have one thing in common: Superintendent: fierce determination. They have achieved extraordinary accomplishments Penelope DeLeon despite the odds against them. They are winning major scholarships, earning our highest honors and giving back to their communities. As their superintendent, I could not be prouder. I know I speak for our entire faculty and staff when I say to them: You inspire us. We also profile our great OUHSD alumni in this newsletter. We stand on their shoulders, because they paved the way for our success. Our esteemed alumni include the Chief of Police in Oxnard; the leader of one of our county’s biggest non-profit organizations and an assistant principal in one of our high schools. There are stories from many others- some of whom recently graduated our schools and are on to college. The accomplishments in this school year have been many- indeed, we began the first of our safety and security im- provements from the $350 million school facilities bond. Though our district and schools continue to set the bar for excellence, we wanted to dedicate this edition of our newsletter to the individuals who demonstrate the strength of the human spirit and remind us why we do what we do every day. OUHSD Administrators OUHSD Board of Trustees Superintendent of Schools Assist. Superintendent, H.R. Dr. Gary Davis, President Dr. Penelope De Leon Dr. Robert “Rocky” Valles Karen M. Sher, Vice President Beatriz R. Herrera, Clerk Assist. Superintendent, Ed. Services Assist. Superintendent, Business Services Dr. Steve Hall, Member Dr. Thomas McCoy Mr. Jeff Weinstein Wayne Edmonds, Member Newsletter design: Rafael Cahue ( SIS RMHS) Spanish translations: Jesus Lopez-Varela (OAS Guidance Tech) and Rafael Cahue Writer: Tim Gallager ADOLFO CAMARILLO 3 Gabby Jose, HIGH SCHOOL A long car trip for the Camarillo High School wrestling team. Most of the girls resting, sleeping or on the phones in the back seats. Not Gab- by Jose. “I’m up there in the front seat talking to coach,” she said. Gabby is a lively, talented senior at Camarillo who has continued the Scorpions’ long run of successful girls and boys wrestlers. She won the CIF-SS Girls Wrestling Northern Division Championships in February and advanced to the state tournament. She had to do it because a member of last year’s team told her (jokingly), “You’re going to make it to state or I’m going to beat your (bleep).” Whatever the motivation, Gabby realized the dream through hard work and determination. Last summer, she dedicated herself to more training and more running. The coaches at Camarillo helped drive her success. And now she helps them on the drive home from meets. But Gabby is about more than wrestling. She is all about creative writing, photography, persuasive writing and history. She’s particu- larly proud of a piece she wrote about immigration. After high school, she plans to attend San Diego State or UC Davis. Her love of sports and school have helped her with time management because she couldn’t do it all without using her time well. Her family sup- ports her. “When I first got into wrestling, my dad was supportive, and my mom was like, ‘You’re going to get hurt.’ But now they are always behind me.” Ultimately, she would like to study abroad and perhaps even teach abroad. Phillip Cooksey, Phillip Cooksey can’t tell you what he will be doing five years from now, but he can tell you he will be working on a problem. One of the most celebrated graduates from Adolfo Camarillo High School recently earned his PhD at Carnegie Mellon after doing his under- graduate work at Cal State Monterey Bay. Asked what he is going to do with this tremendous education, Phillips pauses a long time before answering, “I’ll be trying to look for what problem I would like to work on.” He has researched the roles of underwater vehicles and thinks it would be useful to have them explore the ocean floor, the currents, pollution in the ocean and how climate change is affecting all of this. But there’s also the research he has done on artificial intelligence and the creation of a robot soccer team. Phillip was a typical Camarillo kid growing up in the small town, riding bicycles with his friends and hiking in the hills and mountains nearby. At ACHS, he received lot of direction on careers from the Regional Occupation Program. He went to CSUMB to pursue a de- gree in computer science and Information technology and helped pay his way by working in the IT department on campus. Through his college career he did research on autonomous underwater vehicles and their ability to track and follow underwater cliffs. In the summer of his junior year, he accepted an undergraduate research position in the Robotics Institutes Summer Scholars (RISS) program at Carnegie Mellon University. There, he worked with Dr. Paul Scerri in the Cooperative Robotics Watercraft lab and devel- oped a computer vision algorithm on an Android phone to detect spherical targets and used the detection algorithm along with a sim- ple controller to navigate small airboats into what would one day be charging stations. Philip graduated from CSUMB in 2014 with a B.S. in Computer Science and Information Technology with a concentration in Software Engineering and with a minor in Mathematics. He was awarded the Provost’s Award for Exemplary Academic Achievement during graduation and was accepted into the PhD pro- gram at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, PA. His academic research and career have taken him to presentations in Spain, Portugal and Vancouver. After successfully defending his dissertation in April, he was hood- ed in May at Carnegie Mellon. What’s next? “The interview pro- cess is as much about them inter- viewing me as me interviewing them.” He’s certain there will be numerous turns in his career as “our rapid pace of change in sci- ence and technology does not have a long trajectory. That’s how I see my future. Solving a lot of problems in different areas.” 4 Adriana Diaz, At the end of a speech at Channel HIGH SCHOOL Islands High School in which she talked about her past and future plans, Adriana Diaz slipped into a language that most of the audience did not understand.