EIS students in universities

Last year’s Graduate students of Escuela Internacional (EIS) that are in universities say that the university is very different from school. Many of these students studying in United States (USA) came last week, some after their final exams, for summer vacation.

“University is much harder, even though you have fewer classes” said graduate student Oliver Echeverry who now attends Southeastern Louisiana University.

“The teachers are different because many of them don’t care about homework” says graduate Paul Ritter which now attends Perdue University, and added that “they only care about the mid terms tests and the finals tests and projects.”

“You don’t get to know each person in the different classes because there are too many of them. Some classes have about 80 students!” exclaimed graduate Gabriel Aguilar who attends a community college in Baton Rouge Louisiana

“I think university is easier because you have fewer classes” said graduate Henry Romero which now attends Universidad Tecnologica de Honduras (Technology University of Honduras), and adds that “the problem is that if you take fewer classes you are going to take more time to finish your career studying.”

“Some students must have a high grade because that’s the only way they can keep their scholarship or play well so they can still have their sports scholarship” said Paz

2004 graduate students attend many universities from USA and Honduras. “About 90% of the students are continuing their studies in universities” said graduated Andres Paz

“I haven’t been studying because I want to go to France, and I need to study French before going there” said graduate Paola Canahuati.

“I’m working right now because that way I could pay the university” says graduate Henry Romero.

In the class of 2005 seniors more than 50% of the students were accepted in United States universities and colleges. Among them, Student Council president Doris Hernandez was accepted to Harvard University

The year is ending

The seniors’ school year end last week and the rest of secondary in Escuela Internacional Sampedrana will end May 24 after bimestrial exams. Many of the students are happy that the year is ending said junior Jose Ortiz.

“At last we have completed our eight months of studying in this year for school” said junior Jose Duron.

“It has been a tiring year because we started it with a lot of homework in the first bimester” said junior Kwang Woo Jeon.

Ortiz said that “I was waiting for a lot of time for vacation to come and now I won’t have to wait more.”

There also many students that end their school year because they exempt the bimestrial exams such as junior Rosa Terecero said Duron

“I felt this year was very long because we saw many different topics in the different subjects this year” said sophomore Daniel Delgado.

“It has been a good year because we have applied many new things this year and we have been a little less flexible” said principal Reina Rojas and added that “we are also planning for next year, especially for those taking the Advance Placement (AP) courses. Many students still need to pay for their courses.”

“I thank God that I finished this year well because I passed all the classes since the third bimester” said junior Dennis Vallejo

“I have learned many things that before I didn’t understand” said freshman Iris Cerella and added that “next year I would try to get better grades.”

“I don’t think I’m going to pass this year because I have flunk 5 classes said junior Ana Bendeck, and added that “I’m going to try to pass three classes, because that way I only have to recuperate two classes and it would make it less stressful.”

Some students are going to flunk this year, and must take the recuperations exams and if they do not pass it, they would have to stay in summer school.

Bimestrial exams

More than 90% of the juniors, freshmen and seniors prefer no to have bimestrial exams.

Many people do not like bimestrial exams because they say that you take too much time studying and they make you sleep late.

While others say that this bimestrial exams makes your grade rise because the accumulative grade is 70% and that way you can raise your grade if you have an accumulative grade of 87% (61/70) to a 91% final grade with the bimestrial exams.

A lot of people also want this to be eliminated because they think the schedule would be shortened.

Its an extra job for the teachers to do these exams said junior Jose Pavon, and also said that they also get stressed of checking a lot of tests in a short time.

The best thing to do is to make exams that are worth 20 percent because that way it would please both the want who want exams because this exam could still help raise this grade. It would work for the ones that do not want because that way they would study less because there would be less content.

Another solution may be divided the bimestrial in a mid-term exam and a final exam. Both tests will be worth 15% of the grade and that way they would have to study for one part, and then for another.

Turn for Tennis

National tournament of tennis starts today and some Escuela Internacional Sampedrana students are participating for first place. The event will take place in Club Social Hondureño Arabe (Arab-Honduran Social Club).

Representing in the junior category are junior Jose Raul Duron, sophomore Stefano Kafati and junior Andrea Abudayeh.

In the first round, competitors of S.P.S. and Tegucigalpa play against each other. In the second round the competitors can be of the same place the player is representing (i.e. Tegucigalpa against Tegucigalpa).

Last year Abudayeh got between the first three places of the competition in the women’s category. Tegucigalpa won last year’s first place in both categories

“We proudly represent San Pedro Sula (S.P.S.) and I pretend to win first play in order to go to this year’s Central American tennis competition” says Abudayeh.

“This time I will do my best to win first place for San Pedro (S.P.S.)” exclaimed Duron and added “I’ve been having training real hard this two weeks, and my efforts would be seen today after school when my first match begins.”

“Some of the competitors are hard, but with a hard concentration and a lot of courage, we may win the matches” says Kafati.

“I think San Pedro Sula will be greatly represented by Jose, Stefano and Andrea” says junior Mario Castro and added that “we students have to support our friends so they can win.”

Tegucigalpan competitors arrived yesterday in order to get a good sleep for today’s competition.

Plant Donations for junior social work

Juniors of Escuela Internacional Sampedrana (E.I.S.) donated plants for social work and moved them up to the greenhouse area on Friday, April 29, 2005. Each junior was required to bring 6 green leafed plants, 4 flower plants, and 1 palm tree, for a total of 11 plants.

Although the plants are considered donations, not bringing them would result in loosing social work hours that the student can not make up later.

Junior Erick Ramirez, who did not take the plants, said “I can’t believe that we can’t make up the time lost for not bringing these plants, they are supposed to be donations, and we should not be affected for not bringing them.”

The deadlines for bringing in the plants have been changed several times. First the plants were required to be turned in at the beginning of April. Then it was changed for April 14, this date was changed because it contrasted with other social work activities. The final date was ultimately set for Friday, April 29.

Junior Jeffrey Mollinari said, “Finally at least they kept to the date, I’ve had these plants since 2 weeks ago when they were originally set to be turned in.”

According to Jeffrey Mollinari, the disorganization of the people in charge of social work has affected students who are sometimes accused of being irresponsible and disorganized.

The plants are going to die if they give them a proper treatment said biology teacher Jessie Willing and he also commented that the ones that had less life expectancy were the flowering plants

The plants are to be planted in 3 weeks in a public school and in the E.I.S. campus

“We should have given the plants the day we are required to plant them” said junior Andrea Handal and added that “the way they have less chances of dying.”

Cool rooms in warm temperatures

Air conditioners are already in use in Escuela Internacional Sampedran (E.I.S.) since the beginning of this week. All the air controllers have been given to the teachers for them to turn the air conditioners on.

Temperatures in the classrooms have decreased from 37º C to 18º C and less in some cases.

“Both us and the students are happy of having air conditioners because many of us couldn’t work with very hot temperatures” says Jesus Collantes and adds that “last year the temperature was lower that this year for about four degrees.”

“The air conditioners would be there for future generations as well” says principal Sor Reina Rojas and comments that “with the air conditioner we eliminate the short schedule and that way we will have more hours of school

Classes are colder than last week said sophomore Jose Hernandez and added that it was better to end the day at 2:00 pm and be with air conditioners than leave at one without the air conditioners.

The air conditioners were supposed to have been given since the week after spring break.

The air conditioner installers said there were too many air conditioners to install before the time there were supposed to be given because they had to install for secondary and primary.

“It’s not fair that we had one week without air conditioners and we were leaving at 2:00 pm, we should have one week with air conditioners and leave at 1:00 pm” demanded junior Yasmin Vasquez.

Some students like junior Marcela Valle are saying that classrooms “are too cold for us because they are in very low temperatures.”

“I prefer to be cold than to be hot” says Vasquez.

Basketball team is traveling tomorrow and they are
Ready to win


The ABSH basketball tournament starts this Thursday and the Escuela Internacional Sampedrana (E.I.S.) teams are traveling tomorrow to the tournament that takes place in Tegucigalpa. The teams are playing for the first place in bilingual schools in Honduras.

The categories in which the participating teams are: the freshmen, which are people form ages the youngest age in secondary to 14, junior varsity team, ages 15-16 and the varsity team from ages 17 to the oldest age in secondary.

Both male and female categories are going to play.

The rivals of the E.I.S. will be announced at the tournament said sports coordinator Juan Santamaria.

The school teams participating are from Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula and la Ceiba. The other places don not participate because they are not part of the ABSH association.

“The hardest team we are playing against is The American School of Tegucigalpa, especially in the varsity category” says junior varsity player Maria Duron

“We hope to bring first place for all the categories” says Asthor Rubio varsity trainer, and adds that “we have great players in each team that will give us the victory.”

“We are training hard in order to get the trophy because that way we could give some trophies for the E.I.S. this year” says Kevin Romero three-point shooter of the varsity team.

“There haven’t been many first places in soccer or volleyball this year” comments Romero and adds that “we may have lost the AASCA (American Association of Schools on Central America) tournament, but we wont loose this one because the participants are less hard.”

“The freshmen teams have a great motivation and are ready to give everything they can in the game” says freshmen coach Marisol

Night of Stars

The first big musical contest that juniors social work are holding in Escuela Internacional Sampedrana (E.I.S.) this Saturday, is going to take place in the E.I.S. Cafetorium at 5:00 p.m.

“The best singers and bands of San Pedro Sula’s schools are invited to participate in this event!” exclaims junior Yasmin Vasquez, and adds that “the winners will get fabulous prices.”

“In this event you will see a lot of music genres because of the wide variety of contestants” says junior Emma Lopez

“Social work is doing this contest because we are raising funds to make a greenhouse for our social work year as well as other generations of E.I.S.” says Juan Paz, junior social work president.

It is the first time junior class does this event. They have done the talent show but more than 90% of the bands and singers participating are from E.I.S. In this event more than 15 schools are participating, and many E.I.S. bands are not allowed to participate. They can just be invited guests.

“We are receiving donations from many of our sponsors, like Pepsi, in order to lower our expenses” says social work guider Fatima Bravo and adds that “we are also trying to make as much publicity as we can, but some students aren’t cooperating”

“We are working hard to make an outstanding decoration in the Cafetorium” says Lopez and adds that “the problem is that the Cafetorium is too big and we don’t have a lot of time, and some people aren’t doing what they are supposed to do.

The menace starts next week

Progress reports are going to be issued to students from 18 to 22 of this month in Escuela Internacional Sampedrana (E.I.S.)

Those students who have a grade lower than 70 will get a progress report starting next week. “I’m sure that I’m not going out next week because I will a get a lot of progress reports” says junior Erick Ramirez.

“Even though there are many high scores than last year, there are still a high number of people with low grades” says Jesus Collantes, math teacher

“There is going to be a lot of progress reports for this bimester because people tend to do lower their grades in the last one because the year is about to end” says principal Sor Reina Rojas and adds that “students must do their last effort to get better grades. They shouldn’t get satisfied with the minimum passing grade they need.”

“I’m just tired of doing too much homework. Teachers should issue less homework” says freshman Maria Duron.

“It’s alarming the great increase of progress report I need to give this bimester” says Stephen Ellis, United States History teacher.

“We also get tired because of the hot temperatures” says junior Ramirez and demands that “air conditioners should be turned on by now, instead of having them turned off.”

Air conditioners cannot be turned on because the date in which it should be given is not until next week said Carlos Cruz, air conditioner installer. He also commented that the air conditioners must be tested before giving them.

Champion’s league tension increase

As the semi-finals are decided

The European Champion’s league (most important soccer tournament in which the best European teams play) is reaching its end as the semi-finals were decided this Tuesday and Wednesday. Chelsea, A.C. Milan, Liverpool and PSV Eindenhoven classify to the next round.
Milan won by a global marker of 3-0 against the Italian team Inter of Milan. In the first game they won 2-0 as the local team in Guizeppe Meatza Italian stadium. In the second game they won 1-0. The second game was suspended because the Milan goalkeeper Marcus Dida received a hit from a firecracker that was thrown by the Inter fans.
“It was a great game” says Jorge Pagoaga Escuela Internacional Sampedrana (E.I.S.) “but I still wanted the Inter to win” added Pagoaga. “Milan had always the classification in its hand” says junior Jorge Canahuati.

Chelsea won against Bayern Munich by a global marker of 6-5. In the first game Chelasea won 4-2 as visitor in the Berlin stadium. In England, as local, they lost 2-3 but because of the first result they qualified.

“It was a great game with a lot of goals” said sports coordinator Juan Santamaria. “It was hard to predict who was going to win” said junior Jose Raul Duron.

Liverpool, a British won by a “tight global marker of 2-1 against Juventus (Italian team)” said junior Duron. In the first game, Liverpool won 2-1, and in the second game they tied 0-0. “Juventus was the one that had to win because it’s a better team” said junior Felipe Lardizabal. “Liverpool fought well for the qualification” exclaimed Duron.

“The PSV Eindenhoven of Netherlands won surprisingly 1-0 against the Frecn team, Olympic of Lyon in the last game” says Lardizabal. The global marker was 3-2. Lyon only had to tie 0-0 or 1-1 but the PSV won by a goal at the last minute.

Making the band

Erick Ramirez, Dennis Vallejo and Jeffrey Mollinari three Escuela Internacional Sampedrana (E.I.S.) students are trying to make a band since the beginning of the year. They all have the same passion to make music and now they are achieving their goal

This goal started since Aug. of 2004. Up till now they have their band complete. Mollinari is the bass guitar player, Vallejo is the lead singer, Ramirez the guitar player and its newest member Alejandro Rodriguez, a high school graduate which plays the drums.

The band has not been able to play live because it was completed recently and there is no event for our band to play said Mollinari. “We could play in the battle of the bands (a big band contest) but we aren’t ready enough for it.” Said Rodriguez

The band initially started with seniors Fernando Penavad as the second guitar player and senior Diego Zeron in the drums. “We left them because they played in other bands and we never had time to practice our songs” says Ramirez

“They played well, but we needed to practice” says Vallejo “they taught us how to play the guitar in a simpler way” adds Vallejo.

“We haven’t been able to practice with the new band because there are always events that must make us postpone our practices” said Mollinari.

“I can’t criticize the band because I haven’t seen it play yet” said Mr. Izaguirre Music teacher.

“We are going to do a lot of practice this vacation” said Vallejo

Catholics worried

Escuela Internacional Samedrana (E.I.S.) Catholic students and teachers are worried because of the fragile state of Pope John Paul II, maximum chief of the Catholic Church. The Pope was diagnosed with an infection and high fever. “I don’t want the Pope to die” said freshmen Maria Duron.

The Pope has gone through various operations since February and many medics have been treating him in the Vatican City, the place where the Pope leaves, recently. “Since this year he has been more susceptible to diseases” said Duron.

“Pope John Paul II is in a very weak state and his running a great danger of dieing. All of us Catholics must pray for his wealth so that he could get better” said Tita Caraccioli, Human Virtue coordinator.

“The Pope has been sick since February” said junior Sofia Peña “and since that time he hasn’t be able to recover completely.”

“The Pope is saint and a noble person. He doesn’t deserve to die. I would prefer to die in his place” said junior Dennis Vallejo.

“The Pope is too old and he has passed through many problems” said Grethel Echeverry E.I.S. graduate student and added that “maybe it is time for him to stop suffering and join the kingdom of heaven.”

“I don’t know a lot about the Pope because I’m not Catholic but he seems to be a good man” said junior Luis Rivera and also commented that “it may be a great loss for the Catholics because it is one of the most important persons for them.

Long vacation and homework

Junior students of Escuela Internacional Sampedrana (E.I.S.) are stressed because they are having very long projects shortly after spring break. “I was enjoying spring break when I realized that I had to do a project for Honduran History and got worried” said junior Dennis Vallejo.

“I assigned my projects Monday after bimestrials” said Mrs. Sandra Acevedo, Honduran History teacher, and added “that way they could start working before spring break and finish it.”

“I didn’t want to work after bimestrial exams because I was too tired from studying and sleeping late” said junior Jose Pavon.

“We were given very long homework” said junior Luis Rivera and argued that “teachers don’t like us to rest, that why they give us homework.” Stephen Ellis, United States History teacher said that students could be able to do the homework by parts and finish them in time.

“It’s almost impossible to do homework in spring break” said junior Nelson Carcamo and added that “this is the only time I go to the beach to have fun with my friends. I prefer having fun than doing homework.”

“I didn’t want to do homework because I saw it was too long” said junior Flor Espinoza.

Some students like Yasmin Vasquez finished their homework before spring break that way they could not be worried when they return from the trips many people took.

“Many people went to the beaches of Omoa, Tela and Ceiba in Honduras” says junior Carcamo “and some didn’t have the chance to take their books to do their homework.”