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Andrew Jimenez at Crossroads

Sep 9 2011 6:19AM Posted by Andrew Jimenez

My adventure at Crossroads has started. I’m loving Crossroads and the new people and environment. Adapting to the transition from public to private schools wasn’t as hard as I thought. I’ve gotten the chance to meet all my new teachers and I am getting to know the campus. My classes and class schedule remain the same except for geometry because I will be taking accelerated geometry. I have met the staff, counselors, and deans at crossroads. I even have a mentor, which is a senior at Crossroads who helps me with getting to know the school and answering any questions I have. The whole school is reading a book called “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot. This book is about an African-American woman living in the United States around the 1950’s, whose cells were an indestructible and gave a huge advance in science but they were taken from her without asking. After she died, her family was really poor and could’ve used the money but don’t find out about her cells until many years later. I have ordered and received all my new textbooks. I am prepared for my school year at Crossroads!

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Cristina Martinez

Sep 9 2011 6:15AM Posted by cristina martinez

This summer has been like no other. I’ve spent most of my summer attending a student orientation program. Where I met fellow Pacifica students, as well as getting a feel of what the classes and school work was going to be like. The other part of my summer has been devoted to reading, but more importantly understanding my summer reading.

I recently went to Pacifica to get my schedule and I was amazed by all the classes that I will be taking my first year. I’ve never taken an art class and I’m excited to see what that will be like, but I’m most thrilled for my honors English class. I’ve read over the class course books, and I cant wait to start reading them. I’m even thinking of running for student government. I look forward to starting my freshman year, and encountering all the new challenges and experiences at Pacifica. I’ve had a great summer getting ready for my first year. I’m excited to start my high school experience. Wish me luck!

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Mario Portillo

Sep 9 2011 6:11AM Posted by Mario Portillow

I am Mario Portillo Summer is nearly over and I am three weeks from starting school. I am most excited about all the students and teachers I will meet during this school year. I know for certain that I will acquire new dreams as well as achieving old ones. I have a feeling my new experiences at my high school will provide heart warming memories as well as helping me achieve goals I couldn't achieve before. I am ready for the challenges that wait ahead and am very anxious to start school.

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Update on Going to Crossroads

Jul 26 2011 2:28PM Posted by Andrew Jimenez

The clock is ticking and I am now only a month and a half away from my first day at Crossroads. I get more and more excited each day. A couple of days ago I had a meeting with the dean for incoming ninth graders, Mitch Kohn, and he helped me set up my new schedule for Crossroads. My new classes are French 1, English 1, World Civilizations 1, Geometry or Geometry Honors (Depending on how I did on the placement test), regular P.E., Biology 1, Film Studies, Community Awareness, Connections, and three free periods. My schedule might be changed later into my year because community awareness is a semester class on how to get students started on community service. I look forward to French 1 because it is a new language and gives me the chance to become tri-lingual. I also look forward to connections because connections a class where students speak about their lives and open up and I hope this will help me make my voice heard more. Every day I at Crossroads I learn more about it. In my meeting with Mitch, Mitch taught me the crazy schedule at Crossroads. Crossroads has alligator, bear, and cow days. Each day the periods switch around except for the periods after lunch, which are depending on what day it is. The more I learn about Crossroads, the more I look forward to going to my new school and my new environment.

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Cristina Martinez is going to Pacifica ...

May 8 2011 11:34PM Posted by Cristina Martinez

After all the hours of studying and preparing for private school admittance, I was thrilled to be accepted to Pacifica.

The preparation process was difficult and stressful, though we had some of the greatest teachers helping us through it! Tutoring was the best part of the whole process. Mr. Olivas made math tutoring fun. We would have math torturing in the morning. He would help us understand things we didn’t and he taught us many new mathematical concepts. English tutoring was especially fun.

Mr. Hill helped us memorize vocabulary words and had us read amazing books by outstanding authors. We read King Lear which was really fun because we were all assigned our own characters to read. In the past I would have never imagined that I would be reading and actually understanding Shakespeare.

The most challenging part was preparing for and the actual interview process. Before every interview I was really nervous, but during the actual interview the pressure just melted away. After the first couple of interviews it became easier because I knew which questions to expect. The preparation we did before the interviews helped as well!

When the acceptance letters from the schools arrived, I was thrilled opening up the packet from Pacifica. While opening the packet, little glittery stars fell out. It was cute and something I didn't expect. It was exciting. Getting into Pacifica was life changing; looking through the packet was astonishing. I cant wait to start Pacifica next year!

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Arturo Garcia - 2nd semester at Pacifica

Apr 24 2011 10:54AM Posted by Arturo Garcia

This second semester of my Sophomore year has been fantastic. Currently I'm on Spring Break and will have one more week of this much needed break. I feel as if after the break, the last five remaining weeks of school will pass by quickly like a roller-coaster since Finals will be here soon.

I feel more like a chemist now that we are doing more chemistry related things like calculating the volume of a gas needed in order to create a certain mass of something. This class has made me believe that I should definitely pick a science related major.

I have not liked nor have I been excited for reading the Pauline Letters and General letters because they are all really similar and overlap in teachings. We just need to read the letters by James, Peter, John, and Jude until we read the much awaited for apocalyptic book known as Revelations. I have always been interested with things related to the end of times.

My Latin teacher has taught me so well that I feel prepared to study Latin on my own. I can express myself in more complex ways, and I can even read books in Latin now. Even though my school only requires 3 years of a foreign language, I will take Latin for all of my four years here.

We have finished A Tale of Two Cities, among other books that we have been reading. We have not written many essays, but we are being prepared for AP English 1 next year. Although English is one of the subjects that I least like, I actually feel excited to take AP English next year.

Algebra 2's easy contents make me feel more at ease on acing the mathematics part of the SAT. I like my Algebra 2 class because I feel like it has been super easy.

History, my least favorite subject, has been pretty interesting since we focus only on things related to war and tension between the late 1700s up to the early 1800s, which I deem fascinating especially since I desire to join the CIA. We have read controversial texts from the late 1800s and early 1900s of which I find interesting that gained much popularity. As we learn in this class, I feel like we are not merely memorizing history facts, but as if we are in a movie theater observing the movie of how man has progressed through the ages.

Last Wednesday we played against another school that I applied to, Brentwood. It was an exciting deadlocked game that ended in us losing with a score of 2-1. A few weeks ago I had to umpire a softball game, but I enjoyed it so much that I feel further encouraged to become an umpire as my part time job. Interestingly, our baseball team is tied in first place for our division with two other teams. I'm excited that one of our players that was injured for over 2 months is now returning.

I am sad that the school year is almost over, but I am glad that I will be returning next year for more learning. For the first time in my life, I will spend a massive amount of time this summer doing independent learning on some things for my enjoyment while still living life.

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Mario Portillo - accepted to Harvard-Westlake Fall 2011

Apr 24 2011 10:44AM Posted by Mario Portillo

I am so glad I got accepted to Harvard Westlake! I know this will open so many doors leading to new opportunities. I will have experiences I never knew I could have, and my choices for careers are expanded to unimaginable numbers. I look forward to meeting great teachers and extraordinary friends at my new school. I can't wait until the next school year starts!

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Andrew Jimenez - accepted to Crossroads Fall 2011

Apr 24 2011 10:24AM Posted by Andrew Jimenez

My name is Andrew Jimenez and I am a thirteen year-old boy who has the opportunity of a life time to get to go to private school. The whole process has been tough but has taught me many new skills. My teachers Mrs. Carter and Ms. Kopelevich helped me a lot and Mr. Hill taught me how to write and analyze literature. I am very excited to attend Crossroads next year. With many new skills I have learned, I hope I will be ready for private school. I look forward to the new environment, the rigorous curriculum, and the new skills and habits I will develop. I expect harder classes and harder work from Crossroads. I also expect students who love to learn and many new experiences at Crossroads. I will keep you updated!

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Frank's Junior Year at Crossroads

Apr 5 2011 10:59PM Posted by Francisco Sanchez

Being an 11th grader is not as easy as I thought. Classes have adapted to new standards that expect more rigorous minds. Yet it has been a great year. I've had opportunities to ease my mind and take a break from class with the Environmental Outdoor Education (EOE) program that Crossroads offers. This year alone I went on two trips already and plan to take a third one at the end of the school year. I hiked for 5 days in Joshua Tree, and spent 5 days in the mountains near Mammoth. It was the first time that I saw snow. And it was so much fun! The pictures that I posted on Facebook, were seen by some of my friends from my old middle school. They saw the pictures and told me how lucky I was and that they wished that their school offered trips like that. It definitely is a great program offered by my school, which teaches its students about nature and how there is more to enjoy than just city life. Besides EOE, I also decided to do more. I took Cross Country this year, and it was a great experience. I had fun trying it, and am glad I did it. I've improved running a three mile course. At the first meet, I ran 3 miles in 33-38 minutes though at the last one, at about 23 minutes. With so many options at Crossroads,there are many temptations of what to take and do. I hope to try even more activities next year because it will be my final year. I can do many things and take a variety of classes, and all I have to do is be willing to try something new. I'm really glad to be going to my school, as I've been able to experience so much, and grown so much. It is a bit sad that its almost over, but I still have one year, and I hope to do as much as I can!

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Joel's Junior year at Harvard-Westlake

Apr 5 2011 10:45PM Posted by Joel Argueta

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Junior Year! It’s tough. Even I have to admit that. Taking challenging classes while trying to succeed in all of them, preparing for the SAT (which I have already taken), and starting the college process is stressful and time consuming. I am glad it is almost over. My grades are less then I expected and I am sort of struggling in some of my classes. The reason why I'm not loving this year is that I am taking classes that aren't my favorites. These classes - History and Spanish and English, I am forced to take. On the other hand, I am looking forward to next year because I don’t have to take a history class or a foreign language class. I have to take and English class next year but the rest of schedule I will enjoy (one math class and 4 science classes).

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