By Jesus Vargas
LAUSD USC MaST High School isn’t a school that is run by students, but the students here have really decided to take their high school experience into their own hands. From sports clubs to fundraisers, most extracurricular activities are created by students and carefully planned by students.
My name is Jesus, and I am a student at LAUSD USC MaST High School. Since my first day of high school I felt that I was part of something much bigger than myself. I could feel that family atmosphere as soon as I stepped foot on campus. But what I wasn’t able to see is what was going on behind the scenes. USC MaST, as I like to call it, can easily be part of a list of the top 10 schools with the least amount of funds in Los Angeles. There is virtually no money coming in to help our students. But this issue has not stopped us from reaching our goals.
We do not have a gym, so our basketball and volleyball teams practice outside on the concrete. We do not have a grass field, so our soccer and softball teams practice out on the concrete. We do not have a track, so our cross country team runs around USC. We don’t have money for uniforms or for the use of facilities, so we fund raise. We sell chocolates outside of school and sell food and snacks throughout lunch. While other high school students socialize throughout lunch, we sell snacks! Definitely not the most exciting thing to do. But what can we say? We’re athletes and as athletes we have the duty to be athletic. Yes, we’re willing to sell snacks in order to be athletic.
Just about a week ago, we had a sports banquet in which all of our athletes were awarded medals. As you can probably tell, we raised money in order have this banquet happen. I myself am part of the sports club at my school and provided fund raising ideas. Week in and week out some of our members sold pizza and nachos, while others sold cake pops. The banquet was a total success! Many of our families, along with family members, came to have dinner and had a great time. It felt more like a family reunion, to be honest. Enough money was raised so that every single student athlete received a medal and certain outstanding players received MVP medals.
Students obviously do not run USC MaST, but as you can see, our students make sure that we are not left behind. We understand that our society believes that money makes the world go round, but we at least attempt to make things move with the little money that we fund. And although we may not have state-of-the-art facilities in which to train and play, be sure that we will continue to FIGHT ON like Trojans.
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