Expeditions students explore their passions

By Cindy Aviles

Staff Writer

Expeditions classes allow students to explore many subjects they are passionate about. There were many diverse classes that presented at the Celebration of Learning on May 11, giving students and parents from Summit Public School: Rainier the opportunity to see what other students care about and what they have worked so hard on during Expeditions.

AP Art: Taught by Eli Cetto

The AP Art class at Summit Rainier is full of talented and ambitious students striving to achieve college credit for their work. The class is taught by Eli Cetto, a professional artist from the Bay Area. She has pushed students to reach their full potential by offering constructive criticism to make sure each student has the best portfolio when submitting to the College Board.

Visual arts 2 — On May 11, during the annual Celebration of Learning night, students from the AP Art class were able to showcase the work they have been producing in class for the eight weeks of Expeditions.

VISUAL ARTS 1 — Journalism teacher Elizabeth DeOrnellas looks at some of the art produced by Rainier senior Max Sanchez.

Intro to Art: Taught by Eli Cetto

Students in this class are given the chance to create art in various mediums and are taught the basic skills of composition. During this class, they were given the chance to learn new things and to create meaningful pieces.

Students in the Intro to Art class presented a range of pieces.

Here’s what some students had to say about their work:

Rainier freshman Sophie Gao said, “Art is fun and suffering.”

“I like art because it’s like a fun class to take and also you get to try new things that you don’t really get to do, I guess,” Rainier sophomore Angel Chavez said. “There are also different types of art, and sometimes we get to do different art styles. It’s just a fun class.”

Rainier freshman Gabriela Morales Garcia said, “I made more than I expected, and I had a lot of free time to make more art.”

“Art makes me feel happy. I like art because there’s no boundaries and no limits,” Rainier freshman Elliott Alejo said. “What inspires me is a community itself, what other people lay out in front of me.”

Here are some additional images of the art created by students in this course:

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Yoga: Taught by Regina Garcia

Students in the Yoga Class created posters that displayed different yoga poses, how to do them and what their benefits are. Here are a series of posters that the students made, describing meditations and poses:

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Holocaust: Taught by Lissa Thiele

In this class, students speak deeply about what the Holocaust was and about the impact of other traumatic events. During Celebration of Learning, small artifacts and posters that the students created were on display.

This picture shows the creativity the students put into their project.

The exhibit displayed a series of images from Japanese internment camps.

FullSizeRender — Students created a gallery display for visitors.

FullSizeRender (3) — Rainier sophomore Andy Nguyen discusses the exhibit with seniors Anthony Nguyen-Pham and Hunter Lindstrom.

Here are additional images of the exhibit created by the Holocaust course:

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Human Sexuality: Taught by Lia Pinelli

In this class, students talk about the reproductive system and are given a space to talk about things in Human Sexuality that might seem uncomfortable to talk about to others. They learn a lot from this class, which is basically a sex education class, and their presentation included such topics as how to handle coming out and how parents can learn to have conversations with their children in a comfortable and accepting manner.

20170511_192251 — Rainier sophomore Katherin Vasquez explains her slides on healthy relationships to the parents.

20170511_190731 — Students talk with the parents about the reproductive system to normalize terms used in Human Sexuality.

20170511_185233 — Teacher Assistant and Rainier senior Maya Jaquez gives a small speech about Human Sexuality and her experience in the class as she introduces the class.

Girls Rising: Taught by Lia Pinelli

This class allows girls in our school to come together and talk about issues that women face. This class allows girls to grow a small community that helps them personally. They talk about issues that they might face and how certain issues can be handled.

This program shows the names of the students in the Girl Rising Class who gave a series of presentations about problems that women face and created videos related to women’s issues.

Rainier freshmen Madelin Morales and Lariza Flores give a presentation about girls and education. This presentation explained how some women take education for granted, while many girls around the world don’t have access to education. Many women face barriers just to receive education and jobs.

The Girl Rising class attracts a crowd during the Celebration of Learning.

Rainier junior Faith Martinez gives a presentation about abusive relationships. She created a video with a series of interviews. People interviewed were given a scenario of an abusive relationship and students answered if it is an abusive relationship or not. A hot line for abusive relationships is also given at the end of the video.

Staff Writers Ashley Venegas, Cristian Trujillo, Isaiah Garcia, Max Sanchez, Ariana Medina, Alex Bonnett, Harmandeep Dhaliwal and Janniven Hernandez contributed to this report.