The Cristo Rey Torch Issue 5 Cristo Rey Atlanta Jesuit High School * 680 W Peachtree, Atlanta, GA 30308 Friday, June 3, 2016

Ms. Beam: No Longer a Che-mystery Jada Milligan

Staff Reporter

Melissa Beam is one of the sophomore chemistry teachers as well as one of the biology teachers for the freshmen. Ms. Beam attended UNC Asheville and then UGA for her graduate degree. She has been teaching for around 16 years now and can’t wait to get to 17. Prior to joining the Cristo Rey staff, she taught at Milton High School and St. Pius X Catholic High School for four years each and at Alpharetta high school for seven years.

Ms. Beam enjoys teaching, but when she was younger, teaching was the last thing she wanted to do. “I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do, but I did know that I definitely did not want to be a teacher!” Before Ms. Beam became a teacher, she had various jobs such as working at the YMCA and working as an administrative assistant, but they didn’t necessarily “speak to her.” She also volunteered with a life teen group at church and while volunteering to tutor for a friends service she discovered that she was pretty good at teaching science. Ms. Beam started working at Cristo Rey Atlanta because she was intrigued by the mission and liked what the school stood for. She especially liked the idea of the corporate work study program and her favorite memory since coming here just happens to be Draft Day. Cont. on A2

Ms. Huff: Forever Young

Melanie Mata Staff Reporter Ms. Huff balances a wide range of responsibili-ties throughout the school. She meets with students one-on-one and counsels them through whatever chal-lenges or obstacles they may be facing. She also works with classes through her Guidance class, where she provides college and general "life" advice. Not only does she help students, she helps out faculty and staff by taking on additional responsibilities such as substi-tuting, staying after school, and acting as "nurse."

Ms. Huff first became interested in this career after working in admissions at Oberlin for four years! She made the switch to high school because she en-joys being able to talk to young students. She also en-joys working with teenagers because she feels as if she gets to stay forever young with them. Though we all love and appreciate all she does to help us, many peo-ple do not know much about Ms. Huff. Cont. on A2

A2 SCHOOL NEWS

Campus Ministry In Action

Malcolm Delfish

Staff Reporter

It's a Thursday and you just happen to

be walking into Fr. Kenny's classroom. What

would you see? You would see the Campus

Ministry members and the current director , Mr.

Soares , in the middle of a discussion, of course.

This discussion would cover a multitude of sub-

jects such as the liturgy, student retreats, ser-

vice projects, and pastoral care. Meanwhile, you

would be welcomed into the warm and friendly

environment as if you'd always been there.

Members of Campus Ministry are active

in schoolwide liturgies. They read the gospel

and scripture verses. While campus ministry is

the main source of helpers during mass, every-

one is allowed to help. They also play a role in

school wide retreats. For example, the freshmen

and sophomore retreats were orchestrated by

the campus ministry. Cont. on p. C1

“Ms. Huff” cont. When she first started at Cristo Rey, she had a lot of pressure on herself be-cause there was only one counselor. Besides the big transition from admissions office to counselor, she had to work long hours and had only herself to rely on since we had limited cir-cumstances.

Besides helping us with our problems and giv-ing us advice on life, Ms. Huff is also a part of many clubs at school. She is a moderator of Girls Who Code Club and even assists in Cross Country. In fact, Ms. Huff ran for the first time this year in 2016.

We have all received help from Ms. Huff even if we think we have not. She doesn’t just help us with our personal problems but with our futures. She wants to make sure all of us get into a great college/university and achieve great things when we get older.

Ms. Huff isn't just an advocate for us but also for animals who do not have the ability to defend themselves. Ms. Huff has been a vegetarian for nine years now and believes in saving the animals not kill-ing them. Ms. Huff loves the outdoors and doing things like biking and hiking with her family.

Our counselor is a major part of our school and without her we wouldn’t be the school we are today.

“Ms. Beam” cont. She said that she enjoyed the cooperation of the community at the event and she enjoyed seeing the reaction of the students when they received their job placements.

Since starting here, she has learned a few things from her students such as, what “shade” is and how to throw it, how to use her iPhone, and how to be a more flexible in her teaching. Ms. Beam says that her flexibility allows her to accom-modate for the different learning styles of her stu-dents and it allows for a laid back and interactive environment in her classroom. Throughout the year, she has gotten to know her students and witness the famous “light-bulb moment” they have when something clicks after working so hard on a difficult topic. Ms. Beam wants her students to know that she finds these moments rewarding and that they are part of the reason she keeps teaching.

B1 CWSP

Behind The Scenes Look At New CWSP Grading Policy

Benton Thompson IV Staff Reporter In September 2015, Cristo Rey students began re-ceiving individual Corporate Work Study Program (CWSP) evaluations from their corporate job sponsors. These evalu-ations were used to give students praise and constructive criticism based on their performance at the workplace. Stu-dents were evaluated on a scale of one to five, one denoting a need for improvement in a specific skill set area and five denoting an above average performance. A few of the cate-gories that students were evaluated in were communication skills, technology skills, responsibility, and initiative. The CWSP staff have decided to bring forth a new change this year by transforming student work evaluations into an academic grade that will be counted in the academic progress reports and end of the year GPA. Students are not only graded based upon evaluations given by their supervi-sors, they are also graded on their promptness, profession-alism, dress code, and overall CWSP performance. Although some students are jovial about this new change because it will help increase their GPA, others feel that this new change will have a negative impact on their grade. Sophomore Maria Khai says that she believes that this change is a great way to ensure that students uphold a level of professionalism; however, it is unfair for those students who do not particularly excel in the Corpo-rate Work Study arena. Sophomore Abraham Duarte-Perdomo says that “it’s an easy grade as long as you listen to the adults. Everything hat they require us to do is are what we should be doing anyways.” Overall, the transition in CWSP policy has prompted both positive and negative responses from students.

Workplace Experience Naol Hulufe Staff Reporter

Ninth grader Bryan Tinoco-Hernandez works

at Ernst and Young and loves his work place. He en-joys working there because his tasks are interesting and challenging. His daily tasks are checking the printers to see if they are properly set up, waiting for a task, and chatting with his supervisors and other workers.

Like most of us, Bryan had a lot of challenging tasks at work. The most challenging tasks were a scanning project which took him three days to com-plete and Project CEO final presentation. Even

though the tasks challenged him, these tasks has im-pacted his life positively. These tasks have prepared him for college and future careers. Although Bryan had many challenges at his workplace, he has gained many skills that will help him throughout his life. First and foremost, he said that he gained confidence and trust. Advice he gained from his job is to, ¨trust people around you because they are not strangers, they are your friends¨. He learned that trusting people is important especially when you work with them. Working at Ernst and Young has helped Bryan develop a wide range of beneficial attributes, such as the capacity to take re-sponsibility, develop time-management skills, and overcome shyness with adults.

C1 OPINION

“Campus Ministry” cont. from A2 Pastoral care is one of the main focuses Campus Ministry meetings are dedicated towards. This usually consists of speaking with someone like Mr. Soares about religious questions, whether it be one on one or at a retreat. Any student can receive pasto-ral care and it is open at all times. Campus Ministry also participates in service projects. One of the more com-monly known ones is the CRS Rice Bowl. A few members of campus Ministry went to a meeting concerning the Rice Bowl. Afterwards they went to each class dis-cussing what the Rice Bowl was and what we were supposed to do. As you know the CRS Rice Bowl was a major success. So while you may not hear of such big projects all the time, Campus Ministry has done plenty.

The Life of a Child Soldier

Kennedy Harris Staff Reporter

Most children don’t think about all the pain children from other countries experience. They suffer on a day to day basis and no one hears their cry. According to the Human Rights Watch , many African children both male and female are taken hos-tage and are compelled to become child soldiers. The females are forced to have children and become wives for the older soldiers. Often when the child soldiers try to escape captivity they are killed. Some are successful at escaping. When they escape the brutality of the capturers some of their tribes do not accept them anymore, people look down on them and begin to judge. Many child soldiers become orphans after they escape because their parents are dead and no one wants them. Sometimes people raise money to help the children get back on their feet. This is the story of one girl who suffered these tragedies at a very young age that was first reported by War Child. Agnes was only ten years old when she was abducted from her family garden. When she was twelve she was forced to have children with one of the commanding officers. Later on when she was thirteen she escaped and was reunited with her sister. It was extremely difficult for her to get back into society and be whole again. This is one example of a distraught child who was forced to be a soldier. Can you possibly imagine what the other soldiers must have felt? With your help you could give a donation as little as a penny and make an escaped soldier’s new life just a little bit better. At Cristo Rey Atlanta, we are striving to be men and women for others. Consider the story of this one

child. Imagine if we all stood up and fought for the children of abuse and torture such as this. We could all

make a difference.

Thanks for reading! Have a great summer!