November 8, 2023 552 PM
College Trip
By: Samantha
This weekend a group of seniors and juniors from Marfa High School were taken on a trip by the Alamito foundation to UTPB and Texas Tech.
Friday morning we arrived in Odessa to take a tour of UTPB. The tour was led by a UTPB senior who is majoring in psychology and is on the cheer squad. Many of us students did not like UTPB, due to the fact that it was dry, small and plain (although our tour guide was extremely funny and sweet).
After the Odessa campus, we were taken to the college of engineering at UTPB in Midland, a brand new, more impressive campus.
We then went to eat at Rosa’s Cafe, where we ate with Laura Navarrete and Hannah Ibarra, former MISD students who are attending Midland College. After we ate we drove to Lubbock.
We got to Lubbock and went straight to Spirit Halloween, not even to the hotel, and most of us spent the majority of our money on Halloween costumes. Dustin got a Navy sailor costume, Andres got one of Bob Ross. Fern and I also got matching cop and inmate costumes. We tried convincing Zach to get Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz dress, but he did not follow through with the plans. We did some damage at the mall, then finally went to go eat. The wait at Olive Garden was about 30 minutes, so we didn’t feel like waiting. Luckily, there was a Raising Cane’s Chicken right next door. We all walked out after deciding with Caroline not to wait, not thinking we forgot anything or ANYONE.
A few minutes later, Coach Ojeda ended up walking into Cane’s and telling us that we’d forgotten her! She said she came out of the Olive Garden restroom and asked the waiter if we had been seated, she told her no. They looked around the whole restaurant, and we weren’t in there. So, she correctly deduced we were next door, and she came to find us.
Then, finally, we went to the hotel where we checked in. Curfew was at 10:30 that day. The hotel had a beautiful pool where we decided we were all going to go hangout. The guys arrived last and saw that the girls were staying dry because it was really cold. So, they had the bright idea to all jump in the pool. We walked back in the room to get blankets. By the time we got back down, Diego was asking the front desk lady for a towel. She very rudely told him the pool was closed.
So, we began to make our way back to the pool to gather our stuff. The receptionist was walking out behind us as she yelled, “Y’all have one minute to get out of the pool, or I’m calling the cops!” The guys were very upset because the gate to the pool was open and there was no signage. Like, how were they supposed to know? She was yelling that there was supposed to be a lock on the gate, which there wasn’t! Eventually, Caroline came down and had a few words, telling the front desk lady that we were “so, so sorry, and felt very bad,” and a nice, adult lady like Caroline made the desk lady change her tune immediately. After lights out, the boys Doordashed three different meals in four hours, between 1:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. Coach Ojeda got no sleep, and the boys ate wings all night long.
That was the end of our Friday. Saturday morning was the Texas Tech campus tour. We were gifted goody bags that came with TTU solar eclipse glasses. So, during our tour we actually stopped and got to watch it. We took a very long, detailed tour of the TTU campus. I fell in love with it. There were a crazy amount of people who attended this tour. I’d say there were about nine different groups with like 15 people or more in them. Diego was in charge of picking where we ate that day for lunch. He picked some burger place called Twisted Root. It was very mid.
We got to the hotel room at about 2:54 p.m. and had to be out and ready by 4:45 p.m. for that night’s football game against Kansas State. There was no time to take a nap, and let me just tell you Fernanda was not happy. To even drive by the stadium was an amazing experience. There was no parking for the bus, so Coach O dropped us off with Conner and Caroline. The feeling of getting off the bus and seeing all the college students walking around all dressed up for the blackout football game made me extremely excited for college. As we walked in the stadium, we immediately saw the corn dog and pretzel stand. I think I can speak for both Fern and Lore that the pretzels were mid.
Walking to our seats, we were already so keyed up in a sea of red, and they had THE song playing for us seniors: “Back in Blood” by Pooh Shiesty. Zach, Fern and I looked at each other and automatically felt hyped by the vibes. The whole game they had good songs playing, to the point where we found their playlist on Spotify and stole it. There are SO many things that happened at this football game that I could speak about. The jumbotron had a lot of cheering fans and showed a number of prospective boyfriends (the men’s track team cheering!) for when I matriculate.
Fireworks went off each time the Raiders scored, which was very cool. There was a moment when Air Force planes even flew over us. The theme was blackout so everyone was in black, and it was also their homecoming. Since it was their homecoming, Fern was extremely excited to be able to see the masked rider ride her horse through the field. But she didn’t, she was there, she just did not perform this act. Fern was disappointed. Overall the game was an amazing experience, and I think I could say we all loved it. I am already applying to Tech, but this made me want to apply even more and got me excited to attend college. This is possible because of Caroline and Connor Travis, who provided us with an amazing experience as chaperones on behalf of the Alamito Foundation and Marfa ISD.
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NHS
by Messiah and Isaiah
This month’s news article we will be talking about the National Honor Society. On September 27, 2023, the National Honor Society inducted nine people, including these two reporters: Messiah Licon, Isaiah Ramos, Piper Donaldson, Ava Flores, Amaya Gomez, Raven Martinez, Kayla Vasquez, Issac Nunez, and Ximena Morales. We decided to ask Mrs. Donaldson, who is the NHS sponsor, what the NHS is and what its role is in our school. She explained, “Membership in the NHS makes someone a part of a National Honor Society, with all students all around the nation who maintain a high grade point average, who do certain things with their community or their school and better themselves. It’s an elite society that students can be a part of.”
Our next question was, “What does the NHS do for its members?”
She answered that the NHS “looks good on college applications and makes you eligible for scholarships and also gives you bragging rights.”
Next we decided to interview the president of the National Honor Society, Senior Samatha Martinez. She was inducted into the National Honor Society her junior year and has been elected president of National Honor Society this year.
The first question we asked was, “What was a good memory from your time in the NHS?”
She answered that she has enjoyed the “inductions and being able to take my cap and gown pictures with the cowl.”
We asked, “What is your favorite thing to do in the NHS?” Sam said she enjoys helping set up events and working with others.
Next, we interviewed Jack Marquez, who was inducted into the National Honor Society his junior year and was elected treasurer for this school year.
We asked, “What was a good memory from the NHS?”
Jack said that being inducted with all his classmates and it being a big honor to be inducted was special.
Then we interviewed Jaidan Villa; he was also inducted into the National Honor Society his junior year.
His best experience was: “How I reached out to a professor in Sul Ross for an event. I think it’s cool how I was able to do that and switch it up from how it’s been these last few years.”
Finally, we decided to interview some of the new inductees into the NHS. The first new inductee that we interviewed was Raven Martinez. She said, “Well, now that I am in the NHS, I am excited to start working with the other members to plan events with them to get to know each other better.” When we asked her how it felt to be inducted, she continued on, “I’m happy that I got in. I worked very hard, and I am also happy there is a big group of people this year!”
The next new inductee we decided to interview was Piper Donaldson. We asked what is something she is excited for now that she’s in the NHS. She answered back, laughing, “I’m excited to be in it!”
Then we asked, “How do you feel about being in the NHS?” She responded back, “Good. I used to be really lazy. My junior high years I did not turn in any of my work, and then in high school I realized I was pretty smart and my hard work paid off to be nominated for the NHS, and now I’m excited about the scholarships so I can get out of Texas!”
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Cold Weather Sets In
Flavio
The days are getting colder here in Marfa. The weather is shifting from the once hot and lively summer to a cooler and calmer autumn. This is causing students at Marfa ISD to suffer the cold mornings. Some have brought up how students should be allowed in the auditorium during these cold mornings. Because this year class starts 15 minutes earlier and some students arrive by 7:30 or 7:40, the cold is already becoming a problem.
Coach Alferez, the superintendent of Marfa ISD, has answered a few questions for us about leaving students out in the cold.
He explained, “We do not allow students into the auditorium in the morning, but we do make the band hall available if it’s snowing or raining. If the temperature outside is so severe, such as if it’s around 30 degrees, 32, they can come in. You know the official number is 35 degrees, you’re inside any temperature below that. We’ll open up the band hall.”
That got me thinking about how things have changed so I asked, “Why are students allowed in the band hall, but not the auditorium?”
“We don’t wanna use the auditorium in the morning for specific reasons –– it’s still being remodeled. We are going to use the auditorium for events such as award assemblies or kind of parent meetings. We’d rather have you inside the band hall … It’s also because the band hall is bigger, but at the same time, we also want to take care of our auditorium. In the morning, students come in with drinks, coffee, juice, water and breakfast.”
With the interview done with Coach Alferez, I found out that the temperature that allows kids inside is 35 degrees, and that the band hall is the only place to go if it drops down to that temperature, which will surely be every day come winter time. Coach’s answers were reasonable, but the temperature should, in my opinion, be raised to 40 degrees, as students are already shivering in poorly-planned outfits in the mornings!
