The School Newspaper of Southwest Career and Technical Academy.

Southwest Shadow

Southwest Shadow

Southwest Shadow
Helping the team practice for their next match, club adviser Jose Gomez thinks about his next move on the board. The team will be playing Sierra Vista HS for their next game on Tuesday, October 22. “There are lots of kids at other schools that are at a high level, but so do we,” Gomez said. “It just comes down to how long you have played the game for. I think practicing on the daily, even for just thirty minutes, helps a lot in terms of gameplay.”

Chess Team Back On the Board After Five Years

Johnny Tao, Staff Writer
October 12, 2024
Players of the SWCTA Chess Team will compete against students from other schools.
Scanning into her AP Human Geography class, sophomore Hareyna Tecle holds her ID up to the scanner. The scanners have been introduced in most classes since last Friday. “I feel like it’s productive,” sophomore Hareyna Tecle said. “It’s a really great idea; it’ll be a nice way for us to check in and for teachers to do attendance, more easily and more accurately.”

Administration Implements Attendance Scanners In Classrooms

Jon Escala and Rheyland Simon
October 9, 2024
Teachers are now using new attendance scanners, replacing the traditional way of taking attendance.
A single entrance point gate is being built around the school, just outside of the G building entrance. The gate entrance has been up since the first day of school and has since expanded to the bus stop. “[The gate is for] safety and tracking too, so we make this place the safest that it can possibly be for everyone inside of it,” Assistant Principal Eric Gant said.

Campus Entrance To Become Single, Gated

Natalia Klonowski, Staff Writer
October 8, 2024
Admin will be able to easily monitor one entrance point, instead of two.
As students find their academic paths, Janelle Kelly discusses the importance of having perspective in planning for the future. “Sometimes you have to step away from what you're in the midst of and look at the big picture,” Kelly says. “Ask yourself, where am I going? What am I doing? Why am I doing these things?”

Students Navigate Their Future with Strategic Academic Planning

Isabella Sandoval and Natalia Klonowski
October 4, 2024
By planning with counselors, students are making choices about their education in order to stay on track for their post-secondary choices.
Outlining her shoebox project, sophomore Jaylene Motes leads her group, showing them how to cut out their future classroom. “It’s teaching me ways to make my future students feel safe around me and in my classroom. I like that our class is engaging, that everyone is friends with each other, and that I can talk to my teacher, and that's how I want my class to feel,” Motes said.

Teaching and Training Students Create Miniature Classrooms

Andrew Baier and Kevin Zhao
October 3, 2024
Freshmen, sophomores begin to design their dream classrooms.
Demonstrating the correct piping technique to his class, Chef Michael Hadobas goes into intricate detail about piping roses. Mastery of this technique made it easier for the students later on in the unit. “Knowing exactly how to hold the piping bag is important because just a couple of degrees off can totally change how the finished product looks,” junior Addison Marsh said. “From Chef, I also learned how to move the nail around so that you weren't making more work for yourself and just letting the nail do the work for you.”

Baking & Pastry Students Explore Cake Decorating Techniques

Johnny Tao and Jaden Espinueva
October 3, 2024
With the guidance of Chef Hadobas, the students learned all the skills included in the Cake Decorating unit.
Participating in a fingerprinting activity, senior Roxana Huve assists fellow club member Branden To with applying his own fingerprint to a CD. "I love being able to find and identify fingerprints," Huve said. "It [was] so fun, and looked really nice afterwards."

Criminology, Forensics newest club on campus

Donovan Allan, Staff Writer
October 2, 2024
Club activities include fingerprinting, analysis, and guest speakers.
Focusing on the monitor, junior KJ Palacios participates in a game match. While Palacios was a member of the Esports club last school year, he decided not to participate this year. “Even though it was fun, I wanted to spend my junior year working on my resume for college," Palacios said. "It’s not that I left for any bitter reason, I just wanted to do other things.”

Esports Club ushers in new additions

Donovan Allan, Staff Writer
October 1, 2024
Esports Club introduces new games to their roster.
Playing on their newly purchased Ping Pong table, PE coaches Anne Kalenowicz and Michele Schmitt rally back and forth. Other pieces of equipment were also ordered to encourage students to exercise. “These are activities that they can continue throughout life,“ Schmitt said. “Our job as a teacher is to introduce them to all these different games so that they have options going forward in terms of working out and such.”

Girl’s PE Switching to Daily Exercises Instead Of the Mile

Johnny Tao, Staff Writer
September 27, 2024
Female students will now focus on daily body conditioning activities alongside their usual sport, as opposed to running the mile every two weeks.
After signing up to volunteer to make posters, senior Janna Bouffard sketches out a design which will later be painted and hung in the hallway to promote Movie Night. Student Council began selling tickets for $5 starting September 17th and will stop on September 27th in the cafeteria. “I’m glad I got the opportunity to help,” Bouffard said. “They should get more recognition on the posters because they often tend to be overlooked in the hallways.”

Student Council To Screen ‘High School Musical’ for Annual Movie Night

Mason Rafferty and Angel White
September 25, 2024
Student Council shares the process to selecting the homecoming movie and theme.
Completing a poster, sophomores Alejandro Merino and Yara Ahmed are preparing to promote today's event. They had finished decorations for the event after weeks of work. “Yara and I worked hard to finish this poster before we had to hang it up,” Merino said. “We all have to make designs and then get them approved by our supervisors before executing them. I did the sketching and she did the painting so we could collaborate effectively”.

Student Council Prepares for Upcoming Sophomore Picnic

Brooke Weyandt and Celia Evangelista
September 24, 2024
Class of 2027’s Student Council is preparing for the first sophomore-only event.
Handing out certificates to Key Club members, President Ella Abliar congratulates each member that successfully fulfilled their service hour requirement. In order to become an inducted member of the club, members have to complete the service activities to earn their required 50 hours. “I was honored to pass out these awards to all these members who are exceptionally hard-working students that truly showcased the embodiment of Key Club,” Abliar said. “I was happy to see people having fun and showing off the hard work they put in, and my board also did amazing; they helped out a lot, and it made me extremely happy to see that they were just as passionate as everyone else.”

CLUB PREVIEW : A LOOK INTO THE WEEK OF SEP. 23

Joy Ryan, Staff Writer
September 23, 2024
TSA starts mock competitions, HOSA hosts guest speakers, Key Club continues service activities and RTC preparation.
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