March 6 Pep Rally

BY: JEREMY SHISHKIN 25’

In addition to competitive sports, SOCES also has many clubs, extracurriculars, and electives that are as vigorous and achieving. The Pep Rally on March 6 gave all of SOCES high school students a preview of these teams.

Starting off, the school introduced Chef Avila and the Culinary Arts elective. Chef said that Culinary Arts at SOCES is a great elective and even gets students scholarships. Their demonstration consisted of 4 teams of 2 who each had a box of mystery ingredients and had 50 minutes to make a meal with them.

While the culinary teams were preparing, Ms. Gordon introduced the AcaDeca elective and the competitive team. And the science bowl. Then, 5 competing students from science bowl were selected to answer questions and compete with SOCES’s top science, math, and history teachers. The 5 students were: Chris, Russel, Khusanjon, David, and Barbara. The 5 teachers were Ms. Fayngersh (teaching AP Calculus and high school math), Mr Zaynor (teaching high school Chemistry and Ap Physics), Mr Barash (teaching High school history + Speech and Debate), and Ms Gordon (teaching Avid, English, and Academic Decathlon). The competition consisted of Science-Bowl-related questions with topics ranging from math and science to history, art, and economics.

By 5 questions in, both the students and teachers were tied in points. Both teams answered each question correctly.The teachers and students really knew their stuff.

Finally, the students took the lead on the 6th question. In just a few minutes, our science bowl students had 10 points. Ms. Rogers even said “Our teachers are doing a great job teaching our students!” By now, the students were 5 points ahead than our teachers.

The final score was 17-11 with students having 17 points, only answering 3 questions wrong. This was just a hint shown of how hardworking our Science Bowl Students really are. We wish good luck to them in future competitions.

Next, we got an intro of our SOCES speech and debate team. High school students got to witness a mock debate between two teams. One team was Carla and Abi arguing that Valentine's Day is a better holiday. The other team: Junia and Aya argued that Halloween is a better holiday. As both teams had 1 minute to state their opinion and then argued with each other, the crowd got to decide which team had a stronger argument. Although both teams had great points, Junia and Aya won the first argument based on the crowd.

After the debate, everybody got to hear a few words from the new Speech and Debate president: Anthony Casas. He said that he is very excited and proud of new and familiar members finding their voice this year.

Following this was a preview of the SOCES Robotics team. Their Demonstration involved a robot with a claw controlled by a remote control avoiding cones, grabbing some of the cones with the claw and stacking them on a pole. It was amazing to see the creativity and effort put into building and designing the robot. The Robotics team put it together and made it fully controllable. The Robotics team is a great addition to SOCES and we hope to see them succeed more.

As the culinary competition was just finishing up, SOCES Speech and Debate had another debate with the same teams as before on Werewolves VS Vampires and which ones was superior. The two teams argued some more and brought up really strong points. However this time, Abi’s and Carla’s debate was more popular based on the crowd’s opinion and the Vampires debate won.

By now, the Culinary teams have finished their dishes. The plates were judged by the same teams of Science Bowl students and teachers. All plates were vegan. The first dish was made by chefs: Nathan and Miles. It was ramen noodles, tomatoes, pesto cream, zucchini, and parmesan. The second dish was made by chefs: Ariana and Amanda. It consisted of ramen spring rolls, and sriracha and lime sauce. The third dish was prepared by chefs: Tilly and Liz. It was a delicious stir fry and teriyaki. Finally, the last dish of chili ramen noodles was prepared by chefs: Jake and Grace.

The judges all got a chance to try and rate each dish. The students came to a collective decision that the spring rolls were the best dish, and when it came to the teacher to decide, they collectively decided on the spring rolls as well. Ariana and Amanda won.

This concluded the SOCES Pep Rally. It was great to have a preview of many of the SOCES academic teams and electives. We all look forward to the success of SOCES and especially the talented students!