Falconidae

Congratulations to our veterinary students and their teacher, Mrs.

Erin Abramoff, for producing two adorable baby goats after success-

fully breeding their mother, Coco, who has been a part of the veteri-

nary program’s live animal menagerie for awhile. The babies were

born on campus on January 14th, at 4:00 P.M., assisted by the sen-

ior veterinary class. The babies, named Aphrodite and Athena, will

eventually be sold to an approved mentee when they are old

enough to leave their mother. Veterinary student Jenesis Mena

cares for the babies, bottle feeding them every four hours. “I was

very hesitant about breeding Coco since I knew it would be another

huge responsibility, however, I am happy I did. Aphrodite and Athe-

na will start off the “Falcon Awesome” herd, and I’m very excited to

see what the future holds for this amazing program,” she comment-

ed.

On December 13th, the Bio-Medical Academy’s H.O.S.A.

club took a fieldtrip to the South Miami Headstart facili-

ty. This was the eighth consecutive year that HOSA has been

delivering smiles to the less-privileged children served by

the Headstart program. While

visiting, HOSA mem-

bers participated in fun holiday

activities like story time, game

time, arts & crafts, and sing &

dance time. During the event,

HOSA members were responsible

for one or two children, and it

was their job to make them smile

and have fun! Even Santa Claus

joined in the fun by arriving with

bags full of gifts to personally hand out to the children and

taking a picture with them. This event was possible only

through the generosity of the students in Mrs. Driscoll's

Health Science 1 & 2 classes and the HOSA officers & mem-

bers that donated stuffed animals and supplies for the chil-

dren.

John A. Ferguson Senior High, Miami, FL Dr. Lisa Robertson, Principal

Volume 6 January 2014

Kids “R” Us

No Goal’s Too High Where Falcons Fly!

Three Ferguson photography students received awards in this year’s highly competitive Scholastics Art Awards. The awards ceremony was held on Sunday, January 26th, at the Perez Art Museum. The students were: Mauricio Delaguila- Honorable Mention Santiago Saiki- Silver Key Bernadeth Tolentino- Honorable Mention

Photo Magnates

H.O.S.A. Holidays

Two of the winning photography

entries.

Getting a Kick Out of Being a Falcon

Our Girls Varsity Soccer team is District Champions! “Demonstrating a domi-nating possession and pace of game, unified cohesion of tactical teamwork, and an impenetrable defensive stance, the Lady Falcons came away with a 1-0 victory on Thursday, January 16th, over South Dade; the winning goal being scored by Natalie Valderruten. This is a tremendous moment for the entire team, and all are to be congratulated for their efforts,” commented Coach Richard Lopez. In a recent development, on Tuesday, January 28th, the girls defeated Lourdes Academy to earn them a spot in the Regional Championship game vs. St. Thomas Aquinas High School. “The Lady Falcons came away with a 1-0 victory and advance to the Regional final match on Fri-day night. The goal was scored by Brianna Austin with the assist from Theresa Brimo,” Coach Lopez explained.

Falconidae, Page 2

Volume 6

January 2014

Our very own Gabriella Francis is a published author! Her book, Crestfall-

en, was recently published by Archway Publishing and is available on Ama-

zon, Barnes and Noble, EBay, and Kindle. Gabriella started writing when she

was only ten years old. Her inspiration for Crestfallen came after reading a

series titled, Hush Hush, where fallen angels were the main characters. She

expanded on the angel theme for her novel, using many different types of

angels in the plot. The novel took Gabriella seven months to write and six

months to publish. She contacted publishers listed on the covers of other

teen novels to find a publisher for Crestfallen. About the novel, Gabriella

tells us, “Readers will get a suspenseful story with action, adventure, and, of

course, romance.” She is already hard at work on the sequel to Crestfallen.

“The sequel continues the story of Destiny and Jared as Destiny discovers

more about herself than she ever thought possible,” Gabriella explained.

Junior Adrian Santos came in second place in this year’s Nation-

al Stemfuse “Got Game” programming challenge. Adrian creat-

ed a video game called Chroma Sur-

vival. It took him five months to pub-

lish the game starting from scratch.

He hopes that it will get noticed by

established software designers who

will give him tips to improve the

game and possibly assist him with

getting it published on a large scale.

“The goal of the game is to survive

waves of robots. You earn money as

you destroy them which enables you to purchase weapons,

gadgets, upgrades, etc.,” he explained. Adrian was awarded

$200.00 for his second place prize. This year, our IT Academy

had 5 teams submit games.

Programmer’s “Got Game”

Junior Matias Caceres (pictured below, at left) became Fergu-

son's first wrestler to make it to the GMAC finals. He also took

2nd place at the tournament! Matias trains six days per week

both here at Ferguson un-

der the direction of Coach

Monroe Owen and with his

private coach, Nestor Vero-

na. He also eats very

healthy food such as egg

whites and chicken breasts.

“I am training to win a state

title. I am hoping that win-

ning the title will allow re-

cruiters to see me in action

and hopefully offer me a college scholarship,” Matias said. Right

now, however, he is enjoying the competition and the victories.

“It makes me very happy to win, especially with my family

watching in the stands,” he added.

Author Far From Crestfallen Over Being Published

The Girls Varsity Soccer team poses with

their District Championship trophy.

Mat Magic

On Saturday, January 25th, students from Ferguson's SECME team competed against students from 29 other public

and private high schools in Miami Dade County in 9 events and earned the following accolades:

Second Place: Bionic/Robotic Arm Competition

Second Place: Mathematics Challenge

Second Place: Essay Competition

Third Place: Brain Bowl Competition

Third Place: Egg Drop Competition

Falconidae, Page 3

Volume 6

January 2014

On January 18th, MAO members attended the FAU math

competition. Ferguson came in first place in Miami Dade

County and fourth place overall! The participants who

placed were:

ALGEBRA 2:

Nirav Sookhai: 11th place

Christian Flores: 15th place

ALGEBRA 2 TEAM:

3rd place (Nirav Sookhai, Christian Flores, Smita

Bhattacharjee, Ann-Katrin Valencia)

PRECALCULUS:

Navin Singh: 11th place

CALCULUS:

Sanchit Bhattacharjee: 1st place (A perfect score!)

Vishnu Tanguturi: 9th place

Calculating County Champs

Math Honor Society members pose proudly with their multiple trophies earned at the

FAU math competition.

SECME students posing with their trophies (left)

and with their bottle rocket entry (above).

Excellence in Engineering