Student interviews

Interview: Cassandra Cerrato

By Travis Phillips

On October 19, 2005, Cassandra continued the day like any other. She got up to go to school, and started the day by eating her favorite breakfast, Lucky Charms. While she was enjoying her breakfast, her mother got an unexpected phone call. Cassandra looked up with curious eyes to see the shock on her mother’s face. “What’s wrong?” Cassandra whispered. Her mom didn’t respond with an answer, but instead sent Cassandra to her neighbor’s house, where she spent the remainder of the day.

She came back to the house to see most of her family. She found out that the man her aunt divorced came back in a jealous rage. He shot her aunt several times, including her uncle and her grandmother. Her uncle was killed instantly, and her grandmother was put on life support. The family decided to take her grandmother off life support. She was able to see and hear but not move. Luckily, her aunt survived the incident. This was a very sad moment in Cassandra’s life and one she will not forget.

Interview: Daniel Aquino

By Edgardo Chilin

The person I interviewed is Daniel. He told me his favorite memory. When he was around ten, he visited Mexico with his family. He said he was walking around his aunt’s neighborhood. He was walking towards the end of the street when a wild dog suddenly appeared out of nowhere. He started to run, and the dog chased him down. He ran to his aunt’s house. He was about to run into the gate when he tripped and fell, scraping his arm. His family heard the noise and came outside to scare the dog away. This, he said, was one of his funniest memories.

Interview: Abraham Riviera

By Stephanie Melara

Abraham enjoys playing soccer. He has been playing since he was two years old. Even now, it’s his favorite sport. One of the reasons he plays is because it distracts him from any problems he may be having. For example, whenever he has a bad day, when everybody seems to be getting on his nerves, he’ll play some soccer to just forget about everything. After playing, he is in a much happier mood. Abraham plays in a league outside of school at Exposition Park. In a few weeks, he will be playing for the Junior Varsity Soccer Team at Foshay because he just got a spot on the team.

Interview: Edgardo Chilin

By Daniel Aquino

Edgardo and I didn’t talk much, but from the things he told me I can say that he has many skills. One of his skills is that he can solve most Calculus problems that are given to him. I learned that Edgardo has a dream of becoming an engineer. I can honestly say that he will become one in the near future, even though he said that he wants to start his career as a nuclear engineer with a six-figure salary after attending a four year college. He is going to have to work hard for that, but it is something that he will learn on his own.

Interview: Harold Mendez

By Roderick Richard, Jr.

I interviewed Harold Mendez who is proud to be a student at Foshay High. He is 14 and lives with his mom and brothers. His happiest moment was when he went to Guatemala with his family. Even though a lot of times his family had some problems, he has been strong ever since. He wants to attend college at USC. He’s not sure what he wants to be yet, but he knows that he wants to be remembered in a healthy way.

Interview: Lucia Godoy

By Pauline Welcome

The person I interviewed was Lucia Godoy. From the interview, I thought Lucia was a very cool person. She is very kind and funny. What was so interesting about Lucia is that she plays soccer and all kinds of sports.

Interview: Travis Phillips

By Cassandra Cerrato

Travis and Daniel were best friends. They went everywhere together, until school ended. At the end of sixth grade, he said goodbye to Daniel, excited about the next school year. As he was getting ready for school, he grew worried when he didn’t see Daniel. He thought to himself, “He’s probably sick or something. I’ll call him tonight.” Later that night, he called Daniel, anxious as the phone rang.

“Hello?” Daniel answered.

“Hey, Daniel. It’s me Travis,” Travis said back.

“Oh, hey man.”

“Why didn’t you come to school today?” Travis asked.

Daniel hesitated and said, “I moved to Manual.”

Travis, hurt and shocked that Daniel told him nothing, replied, “Oh okay, catch you later.”

And just like that the conversation was over. After that Travis, went all that week missing his best friend Daniel. Until one day, he met his new best friends Steve and John. It was November of his sixth grade school year. One day in class he was misbehaving and got detention. While he was in there he noticed a couple of boys who seemed to be twins. They started talking and introduced themselves, and realized they had a lot in common. They became best friends and hung out at nutrition and lunch. They practically went everywhere together. For Travis, Daniel was a loss that was made up for with the gain of meeting Steve and John, and that was the happiest day of his life.

Interview: Shiffarah Villaneuva

By Sarady Merghani

Shiffarah was born in Belize. Her mother abandoned her when she was eight years old to go on a year-long trip. Left alone, Shiffarah was forced to take care of herself and her younger sister, who was three. She had to take on the responsibilities of the house and cook, clean and feed her little sister. While spending her childhood years being an adult, her inspiration of manga kicked in. She began reading books such as the Death Note and Shugu Chara. In fact, her favorite manga book was Naruto because it had a lot of action and that was interesting. Manga kept her happy and inspired her to start drawing her favorite manga characters.

Interview: Robert

By Darwin Chavez

On December 29th, Robert’s niece Katy was born. Robert described that day as being the happiest moment of his life. He remembers the night when his sister was in labor. He was not at the hospital when Katy was born, but he wished he could be. When I asked Robert what one of his favorite memories with Katy was, he said it was when his niece slapped his Mom. The whole family was amused.

Interview: Roderick Richard, Jr.

By Harold Mendez

Roderick Richard enjoyed elementary school very much. He said his favorite thing to do was to play ding-dong ditch on other classrooms. One time he got caught because one of his friends tripped on his shoe laces, which caused them all to fall. The teacher saw them and took them to the office. Roderick didn’t take this seriously. He laughed about it. Then the school called his mom. Roderick still wasn’t that worried. His mom just gave him a long lecture, and that was it. He kept playing ding-dong ditch and getting caught didn’t stop him.

Interview: Ana Ordonez

By Iris Maldonado

Ana is 14 years old and is currently living in Los Angeles. She’s proudest of her mother and thinks of her as a role model. Her mother works hard six days a week, leaving only Sunday. That’s the day she pays bills, rent or even buys food. Her mom gives her everything she needs even though she barely sees her. Sometimes, Ana’s mother plans a day out on Sunday to spend time with her. Her mother inspires her to do her best in school and when making important decisions.

Interview: Iris Maldanado

By Ana Ordonez

Ever since Iris was little, she considered her dad Luis to be one of the most important people in her life. He has influenced her in a good way. Unlike others, he never stopped believing in her during difficult times and would give her advice when she needed it. He would try to motivate her to graduate, get a good job, and to be successful in life by telling her stories about his childhood, like when he had to stop going to school in 8th grade because his parents had health problems and other struggles in life. One of the things that her dad taught her is to always be precise on the things she wants to accomplish in life. This is why when it comes to making important decisions, she thinks twice. Iris hopes to repay him by having a good future and making him proud.

Interview: Lois Campos Ochoa

By Mario Arguello

Louis Campos Ochoa’s favorite hobby is to listen and play music. He plays four instruments: piano, guitar, bass, and drums. The first instrument he played was piano at 7 years old. He also sings and makes covers for other artists, a great way to start as a musician. He likes his personality as a musician. It’s fun, like me. I’m a musician too.

I started to know him in 8th grade. His best moment was when he met me and his other friends. He was happy about making new friends. His saddest moment was leaving 8th grade, because many people that he hung out with left for other schools. Some of them went back to where they were born.

Interview: Rogelio Santana

By David Yira

At the young age of 16, Rogelio Santana experienced the happiest moment of his life. He was astonished when he looked outside of his window and saw a guy holding his dream bike. He went to look closer, and it was true. This “random guy” was selling the $700 speed bike for only $40. It was unclear where he obtained it and why he was selling it, but he was. Without hesitation, Rogelio purchased the “awesome red speed bike.” To this day, Rogelio still has the bike in his possession, and considers this event as the happiest moment of his young life.

Interview: Stephanie Tobar

By Jocelyn Castro

Stephanie Tobar was a sad 9-year-old girl. That was the age she found out her parents were getting divorced. After she found out, she became depressed. She was too young to understand and didn’t know how to react. What made this even worse was that she found out her parents were splitting up because her dad cheater on her mom with another woman. “I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I went from being a fun little girl to someone who only wanted to sit alone in a room looking out a window,” said Stephanie, remembering her time before therapy.

When her mom found out about Stephanie’s depression, she quickly sent Stephanie to therapy. “I went for like two months,” Stephanie said. After going to therapy, she began to see a change in herself. She no longer wanted to stay alone inside, but would rather be outside playing with friends. Even to this day, even if you don’t know her, you can see what a happy girl she is. Whenever you see her, she is dancing, laughing, jumping around, and being happy. Stephanie is always seen with a smile on her face. She has learned to live to the fullest, not letting anything bring her down.

Interview: Eduardo Badill

By Steven Pham

Eduardo Badill regrets yelling at his mom. If he stopped, the house would be happier, Eduardo said. By this, he means the house would be a more peaceful place to live in. When he argues with his mom, his brother cries. When that happens, it makes the whole argument even worse. If he could change the past, he would build a better relationship with his mother.

Interview: Stephanie Melora

By Abraham Riviera

Stephanie Melora isn’t like most kids. Most kid’s proudest moment is learning how to ride a bicycle. Her proudest moment was getting into the University of Southern California’s Neighborhood Academic Initiative (NAI). She applied and got accepted. In high school, she had to apply again and was accepted again. She was very excited to hear that she has an opportunity to go to USC. Now, she plans to work hard to get a scholarship.

Interview: Edward Gonzalez

By Eduardo Marin

Edward Gonzlaez is only 14 years old, but he has already lost someone very important to him: his mother. His happiest memory is thinking of her. He remembers everything about his mom, like how she kissed him goodnight every night, how she treated him, and how she loved him. Although he loved her very much, he doesn’t think he made her happy because he did “many stupid things” like being disrespectful sometimes.

One day he came home from school and his mom wasn’t acting her usual self. A few months later, his mom was hospitalized. He played songs of Ricard Argona for her, because that was her favorite singer. Unfortunately, he fell asleep one night hoping to see her in the morning, but she passed away that night.

Interview: Abraham Riviera

By Jasmine Taylor

Abraham Riviera gets scared when he’s left alone at his house. About two years ago, all of his family left when he was asleep in the house he currently lives in. He was asleep and no one woke him up. When he finally woke up, he was terrified and began to cry.

Interview: Leslee Perez

By MaryAnn Cabrales

Leslee Perez used to live right next door to her favorite aunt. Leslee would wake up around 7 a.m., run to her aunts house screaming, “Tia Chioh, Tia Chioh, Tia Chioh!” She was always extremely excited to see her aunt, because her aunt was extremely important to her. She was a close relative to Leslee that took care of her when she was an infant. Leslee considers the morning routine her favorite memory because it was when she was happiest.

Interview: Sarady Mergani

By Shifarah Villanueva

Sarady was born in Africa and grew up in a country called Sudan. As a child, Sarady says that she never knew much about her father. Shortly after her birth, he moved to America in order to receive his degree and finish his studies. However, Sarady describes her childhood in Sudan as a “beautiful experience.” When her mom told her they would be moving to America, she felt scared and uncertain. Then she met new people, including her estranged father. In the future, Sarady wants to be a children’s doctor and has a dream of building a children’s hospital called Mergani’s Children’s Hospital. She also sees herself having a family: a husband, one girl and two boys. “I would like to die of old age,” Sarady said.