The Sunset Crusader

VOLUME 40 ISSUE 3 THE MIAMI SUNSET SENIOR HIGH JANUARY 2018

FBLA Shapes the Next Generation for the Business World

By: Riley Rodriguez
Staff Writer
"The spark of passion ignites the
fuel for innovation"-Craig Gro-
schel.
A survey was conducted
that revealed what 21st century
employers were looking for in
new business graduates- they
wanted people who could com-
municate, work in a team and
have presentation skills. Out of
this study, a project was born,
and it is called SPARK.
SPARK stands for,
“Students of the future are-
prepared, articulate, resourceful
and knowledgeable.” SPARK is a community
service project that was developed by the FBLA
chapter of Miami Sunset in order to help pre-
pare the next generation of students for what’s
to come in the world of business.
SPARK is divided into three main parts.
To teach students the ability to work in a team,
solve problems and make decisions, and com-
municate effectively.
When designing the project, skills em-
ployers were looking for, were divided into
three sections. Each section has some sort of
presentation to go with the topic, whether it
was a PowerPoint, skit, or interactive discus-
FBLA at Jorge Mas Cansoa Presenting SPARK
sion. FBLA made sure to make it concise and
simple for any age to understand.
“SPARK is meant for everyone, it
doesn’t just come down to business. Whether
you want to be pursue the arts, technology,
education. These are skills that are important
no matter what career you choose.” Amanda
Gomez, President of FBLA comments.
After months of research and rehears-
al, FBLA took SPARK on the road, their first
stop was Jorge Mas Canosa middle school.
“Because this is the first time our
chapter has done something like this, we de-
cided it was best to start with
middle schools to see how it
would turn out, and eventually
branch out.”
With a turnout of a hun-
dred people, the FBLA officers
presented SPARK and the audi-
ence was very satisfied. Ms.
Lorente, head teacher of the
business academy and FBLA ad-
visor of the school commented
on the performance saying, “It
was great! I really thought the
presenters were really into the
presentation and it was very
lively in the audience.”
SPARK wasn’t just a presentation
that helped the audience, it also
helped the presenters of the project overcome
some of their obstacles. Hurma Aziz, an under-
classmen intern for FBLA explains her experi-
ence working on the project. “SPARK really
helped me over come my concerns of public
speaking, it felt great standing on that stage,
connecting with the students and educating
them on something that I believe is important.”
The development of SPARK took a lot of
hard work, but there were also memorable mo-
ments that came along with it. Angelina Buena-
ventura, an officer, gives an insider on what re-
hearsal was like.
Continue on page 2

Miami Sunset Senior High Future Business Leaders of

America Excels at Local Competition
By Jake Fernandez Place in Digital Video Pro-
Staff Writer duction

Miami Sunset Senior The following are names for

High’s Future Business Lead-
ers of America (FBLA) chapter
is celebrating their 10th anni-
versary this year. Their
“Decade of Excellence” contin-
ued with another outstanding
performance at the FBLA Dis-
trict 26 Competition, which
held its award ceremony on
Monday, January 22, at South
Dade Senior High School.
The following winners quali-
fied to represent Miami Sunset
at the Florida FBLA State Lead-
ership Conference in Orlando
from March 16-19, where they
will compete against approxi-
mately 4,000 of the best FBLA
members from around the
Sunshine State in various
events.
Hurma Aziz, Freshman, 1st
Place in Introduction to Public
Speaking
FBLA Miami Sunset State Qualifiers at the District Ceremony at South Dade
Mohammad Aziz, Junior, 1st
Place in Help Desk
Angelica Batista, Sophomore,
1st Place in Introduction to
Business Presentation
Emily Miranda, Sophomore, 1st
Place in Broadcast Journalism
Katherine Espertin, Junior, 1st
Place in Client Service
Annette Rodriguez and Veronica
Alvarez, both Juniors, 1st Place
in Social Media Campaign
Paul Salebe, Sophomore, 1st
the picture. From left to
right:
Paul Salebe, Veronica Alva-
rez, Annette Rodriguez,
Katherine Espertin, Angelica
Batista, Jacynthia Galvan,
Justin Gonzalez, Hurma Aziz,
Mohammad Aziz, Jasmine
Botello, Alejandro Gonzalez,
Victoria Puceddu, Alfonso
Castillo, Emily Miranda, Sejul
Place in Introduction to Parlia- Phanord, Amanda Gomez
mentary Procedure
Quote of the Month
Amanda Gomez, Junior, 2nd
Place in Public Speaking
Jasmine Botello, Junior 2nd
Place in Sales Presentation
Alejandro Gonzalez and Justin
Gonzalez, both Seniors, 2nd
Place in Business Ethics
Sejul Phanord, Senior, 2nd Place
in Emerging Business Issues
Alfonso Castillo and Victoria
Puceddu, both Freshmen, 2nd
THE SUNSET CRUSADER SPORTS AND CLUBS JANUARY 2018 PAGE 2

Miami Sunset Girls’ Soccer Team is on the Right Path

By: Mohammod Aziz
Staff Writer
Soccer is one of the most
successful women’s sport in
America and that inspires Miami
Sunset’s soccer team to work
hard to be one the most success-
ful high school teams in Miami-
Dade County.
Head Coach Omar Torres
and Coach Maricel Castillo have
been leading their girls to a great
season so far. With 15 games in
the season, the girls are on the
right path. Coach Torres stated,
“We have had some losses, but
this season is about building the
team up.”
This year, there are a to-
tal of 21 girls on the team. Most
them are freshmen, which
speaks well for the future. For
some girls, this is their first time
playing soccer or even a sport.
However, the girls have a lot of
enthusiasm and they believe that
this year will be a great stepping
Miami Sunset’s girl’s soccer team prepares for game
stone for them.
Coach Torres believes that
the team should invest more time in
fundraising and work on their com-
munication skills with some “team
bonding.” He feels a closer team off
the field will play better on the field.
Take their sec- use soccer as a way to motivate
ond game them to pursue a healthy lifestyle
against Terra and obtain scholarships. She also
Environmental wants to host a soccer clinic on
as an example. school grounds that would train
It was a great little kids how to play soccer.
improvement
Overall, the team is look-
compared to the ing to finish the season strong
last time the and take the momentum into
teams played. next season where experience
Sunset took the and knowing each other better
mercy rule loss should turn them into a district
the first time championship contender.
around, howev-
er, in match
number two
they scored a
goal on Terra Did You Know?
and only lost 5-1. The earliest known New Year
celebrations were in Mesopota-
Coach Torres hopes that
mia and date back to 2000 BC.
his athletes graduate with a higher The early Romans used March
level of confidence. He also hopes 1 as New Year's Day. Other cul-
that by playing soccer they will de- tures used the autumn equinox
velop a positive attitude about life. or the winter solstice to mark
Coach Castillo hopes her athletes the new year.

Miami Sunset Girls Basketball Miami Sunset Presents

Team Making Strides SPARK to Middle Schools

By: Victoria Casterlo

Staff Writer Continued from page 1

Miami Sunset’s girls’ basketball team

may be smaller in numbers, but on the court
they play a pretty big game.
The girls’ basketball team has under-
went a rebuilding year this season. They re-
ceived new talent from various places includ-
ing four new players, Gisselle, Po, Genesis Vidal
-Figueroa, and Ashlee Pena. These players,
added to star veterans, Sabrina Paulino, Ashley
Alcivar, Gwen Gibbs, and Victoria Castrelo,
have made the team a challenge to play against
for their opponents.
Ashley Alcivar, captain of the team
said, "South Miami was our best game because Miami Sunset Girl’s basketball team warms up on court, prepar-
we fought to the end, we were acclimating our-
selves to a new team and we didn’t have our mates are thinking so we can be more in sync.”
coach at the time. We proved that we are capable
of winning." a new coach, Tony Hill. Coach Hill has had expe-
Like all sports teams, the girls' basketball
team has many challenges to face and a lot of goals
that the girls have yet to achieve. The team’s big-
gest goal as of now is to end season better than
how they started. The girls also hope to win more
games than they did last season but if they come
together as a team and do better than they’ve
done in the past, they will consider it a big
achievement.
Alcivar said that the team’s biggest need
for improvement, is in basketball knowledge and
skills because there are still girls on the team
without much basketball experience. Alcivar add-
ed, ''Our team needs a lot of improvement in com-
munication and trust. The team needs communi-
cation among each other to know what their team-
ing for game.
This year the girls' basketball team hired
rience with basketball at other high schools, and
has even coached girls who made it to the
WNBA. The coach so far has brought new
knowledge, new skills, and a new attitude to the
team. He has been working with the girls teach-
ing things they didn't know before, improving
the things they did know, teaching them new
drills, techniques, and also showing them the
proper attitude and sportsmanship.
The team's biggest strength this year is
confidence. The girls walk into every game with
their heads and their expectations high. This
year will be a great year for the girls' basketball
team, win or lose. This will be a year for im-
provement and growth.
Botello hosting team bonding game at JMC
“Creating one of the scripts for SPARK
was awesome. Screen writing is something that
I enjoy doing and being apart of something and
watching it come to life was very fulfilling.”
Jasmine Botello talked about her experi-
ence during rehearsal. “It was a lot of fun, prac-
ticing with the girls for our mini skit we had.
The skit was meant to teach the students the
do’s and don’ts of job interviews. We wanted to
give it a light, funny feel but also, be effective by
teaching them something.”
Jorge Mas Cansoa is only the beginning
of what’s to come from SPARK. FBLA plans on
branching out the project to other middle
schools and even high schools for the upcoming
year. Gomez, goes into further detail of what’s
to come.
“We plan on expanding the project and
having more presenters to help. This is a pro-
ject that we believe could change and help our
community. Making a difference can start from
THE SUNSET CRUSADER SUNSET & LIFE JANUARY 2018 PAGE 3

New Year, New Me: Why New Year’s Resolutions Fail

By: Angelina Buenaventura eating less junk food. This allows

Assistant-Editor
At the beginning of
2018, it is a time where we
start to reminisce about the
year behind us, and begin to
think about the new year
ahead of us. The start of a
new year seems to be a great
time to begin a new chapter
in your life, this is when we
see a lot of people making
the infamous New Year’s
resolutions.
There is one thing
that most of us who make
these resolutions seem to
have in common, and that is not being able to keep
them. Why is it that most New Year’s resolutions
fail?
The most popular resolutions are the ones
involving losing weight, saving money, eating
healthy, and quit smoking. All of these seem like
reasonable goals that people should set for them-
selves, but there are a couple problems with the
way people set them.
The goals we are setting for ourselves are
extremely broad and unrealistic. Some also make
the mistake of setting multiple unreachable goals
for themselves, which is a recipe for failure.
For example, when people make the reso-
lution of losing weight, they usually are not able to
keep up with it because they do not take into con-
sideration the steps that are necessary to achieve
the goal, and only focus on the end result.
Dr. Stephen Graef, a psychologist at the Ohio
State University Wexner Medical Center said,
“We might really try to shoot for the moon too quickly
and that doesn’t work out, or not only do we want to
go to the moon but we want to go to Mars and Nep-
tune and Saturn. And if we try to do all of those, we
don’t have the mental and physical resources to be
able to accomplish that.”
There are tips for creating realistic resolu-
tions that will allow you to make a plan within a time
timeframe.
The American Psychological Association pro-
vides us with five steps in making a smart resolution.
Start small, change one behavior at a time, talk about
it, don’t beat yourself up, ask for support.
When thinking about resolutions starting
small is always a good idea, instead of focusing on los-
ing those 20 pounds focus on being more active or
you to do all the smaller steps
that you need to do to reach your
final goal.
Focusing on multiple
things you're trying to change at
one time could be a huge factor
in why you are not able to keep
your resolution. This can create
disorganization, confusion, and
goals clashing with each other.
Trying to accomplish
one thing at a time can lessen the
risk of failing. Talking with oth-
ers and asking for support can be
a great help. If you have a friend
or family member cheering you
on, or going to the gym with you
can act as an amazing motivation.
Lastly, if you miss a day at the gym or over-
spend at a store the first time do not beat yourself
up. Messing up when trying to change something
you're so used to doing is normal. Perfection is un-
realistic. You might get so mad at yourself for no
reason and then end up giving up after your first
mishap. Expect to mess up a couple times and to
learn from it and figure out what the cause is so you
can come up with a solution.
If we all start making smaller goals for our-
selves that leads to a bigger one and realize that
making mistakes is normal and can even help you
reach your goal then we might all be able to say that
our New Year’s resolution became a reality by the
end of 2018.

Color Guard Competes for the First time in 5 years

By: Victoria De Campos
Staff-Writer
After a hiatus of five years,
Miami Sunset Senior High’s color
guard team is back and ready for
competition.
There first competition is on Jan-
uary 27 in Boca Raton in Olym-
pia Heights High school.
Color Guard is a mix of lyrical
with hip hop dance team but
with rifles, flags, and savers in
the routines. They participate in
football and basketball games.
It’s a place of opportunity, to
learn leadership and how to
work as a team.
Sunset’s Color Guard
works hard, especially when it
comes to competition. They ded-
icate themselves and stay almost
every day after school until 6
o’clock. Ashley Gonzales, Cap-
tain of the Color Guard team,
tells her reasoning as to why she
joined.
“I joined Color Guard because
I missed being part of some-
thing at Sunset, so when the
team came up I just decided to
sign for it, and never thought
that I was going to fall in love
with it. My favorite thing about
being in Color Guard is having
basically like a family that en-
joys doing the same thing, hav-
ing fun doing it together and
having that kind of bond.”
The color guard team
performs many tricks whether
it be dancing, with flags or ri-
fles. There is a lot of skill that
gether, having competition put a
name in Sunset and bring the
spirits up again” says
Gonzalez
The team is looking for-
ward to experience competition
and bring up Sunset’s reputation.
We wish the Sunset Guard luck
on their competition.
goes into it and practice.
Riddle of the Month
“The hardest thing about
being in Color Guard is being
A murderer is condemned to
hit by a flag, riffle or saver.”
death, he has to choose be-
said Gonzales.
tween three room:
Gonzales also gave us a
the first is full of raging fires;
sneak peek of their perfor-
mance on the pep rally, saying the second, assassins with
that it’s going to be a lot of loaded guns;
hype and how it will be nothing
and the third, lions who
that you have never seen be-
haven't eaten in years.
fore.
“I have been waiting for
Which room is the safest ?
this since last year. My main
goal was to bring the team to- Answer on page 4
THE SUNSET CRUSADER
Student of the Month
Vanessa Andrade
What activities, sports are you involved in?
Vanessa: I’m in National Honor Society,
English Honor Society, Science Honor Soci-
ety, Gay-Straight Alliance, Art club, Dream
in Green committee, Athletic Training, and
Work Experience Program. Previously in
Soccer and Math Honor Society, Dual En-
rollment Program.
How do you manage to be involved so
many extra-curricular activities?
Vanessa: I am a very organized, mission-
oriented individual, having these qualities
provides me with the motivation and drive
to participate in so many activities. Alt-
hough juggling a job, extracurricular activ-
ities, and school is a very stressful task I
am aware that in the future all the obsta-
cles I currently face will pay off into a suc-
cessful career.
What advice do you give freshmen for their
high school career?
Vanessa: I advise freshman to get involved
in as many activities as they can handle. It
is extremely important to be an active stu-
dent, participating in clubs/sports intro-
duces students to new, enticing people
that share the same interests. Being in-
volved in activities also looks profession
on your college applications giving the stu-
dent a greater chance of being accepted to
a school of their choice.
What is the one thing you’re going to miss
about Sunset?
Vanessa: One thing I will miss about Sun-
set are the people I had the pleasure of
meeting. This not only applies to my
friends but as well as the facility and staff.
In my four years in Sunset I have acquired
a tremendous amount of respect for all
faculty and staff does.
What are your plans after high school?
Vanessa: My plans after high school are to
attend a university, preferably the Univer-
sity of Florida locating in Gainesville, Flori-
da.
Who inspired you to be, who you are to-
day?
Vanessa: My mother has inspired me to be
the person I am today. My mother never
graduated high school, so it is extremely
important to her for me to do so. I study,
and work, and dedicate myself to my stud-
ies for the happiness and joy that it will
bring my mother. She raised me, cared for
me, and loved me and now it is my time to
show her that her years of parenting and
guidance have accomplished something
important.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Teacher of the Month
Theresa Wright
Theresa Wright, an English Literature teacher
at Miami Sunset Senior High, is this year’s
teacher of the year. After teaching for well over
fifteen years, and she’s traveled across the
world, previously living in places such as Lon-
don and Jamaica, acquiring helpful skills
throughout in which she spreads upon her stu-
dents. In her free time, Wright enjoys reading
and simply relax..
How have you helped your students excel in
literature?
Ms. Wright: “I help my students excel in litera-
ture by using various teaching strategies to try
and appeal to the way students learn. I also try
to provide real world materials which show
how art imitates life.”
Do you teach your students anything to help
them excel in life as well?
Ms. Wright: “I try to teach by example - good
manners, honesty, and humility are life skills
you can take with you forever. No matter
where you work or live, I believe these quali-
ties are invaluable.”
Did you have any previous jobs?
Ms. Wright: Previously, I’ve had a few jobs: a
clerk in Jamaica, a marketing manager in a jew-
elry company in New York, and I also worked
in a bank in London.”
Did anything inspire you to become a teacher?
Did you have any influences?
Ms. Wright: “I was inspired to teach by the re-
ally bad teachers I’ve had throughout high
school, also by my English Literature teacher
who came from England. He had some very
nontraditional classroom antics that im-
pressed me. It encouraged me to dare to think
outside the box when teaching.”
What was the most difficult barrier you’ve over-
come in your career?
Ms. Wright: “I would say that trying to teach
students who have little or no English skills is
difficult, as I speak very little Spanish. Commu-
nication becomes a significant barrier.”
Has there ever been a student who’s stuck out
to you? That you’ll never forget?
Ms. Wright: “There have been several students
who’ve made lasting impressions on me. Some,
because I was concerned for their safety be-
cause of the lifestyle they chose or were in-
volved with. Others because they had so much
hidden potential that they either didn’t realize
it or were too lazy to tap into it. And there
were those students who you know one day
would do great things with their lives. Every
year brings new stories to tell and lessons to
learn.”
JANUARY 2018 PAGE 4
Club of The Month
GSA
(Gay, Straight, Alliance)
Interviewee: Charlie B. Morales (VP)
What is the purpose of GSA?
To create a group that everyone can join,
regardless whether you’re gay, straight, bi-
sexual. This is meant to be a place where
everyone can come together and spread
awareness about the community.
What events to you have planned for the
club?
We want to host a flip flop drive, create
AIDS awareness pamphlets.
Who started GSA in Sunset and why?
Ms. Wright started it last year. She had a lot
of friends who died during the AIDS epi-
demic during the 80s/90s and she wanted
to bring awareness and unite everyone.
Why do you believe that this club is im-
portant?
There are a lot of stereotypes in the gay
community, and we wanted to bring aware-
ness and unite each other to show that we
are just like everyone else. Love is love no
matter what, and that shouldn’t change
how you see each other.
Are there any requirements when joining
this club?
You have to have at least a 2.0 GPA and
have an open mind because we have a lot of
discussions.
Do you believe that there are problems that
people face in the LGBT community?
There’s a lot of sexual harassment and dis-
crimination in the community. Even at
home they face discrimination. Specific cul-
tures don’t accept our community and that
can take a toll on the person.
If there was one message you could spread
to the school in regards to GSA, what would
it be?
Join it! We are always open to new mem-
bers, we plan on having fun meetings where
we talk openly about topics, plus you get t-
shirts for 5$
Riddle Answer: The Third Room, because
the lions are dead from starvation.