Castillo Bids Farewell to TJ

Thomas Jefferson’s college advisor will offer her expertise to a new group of students next year.
by Christina Danek

    After one successful year advising TJ students on college and financial aid, Future Center Coordinator Cynthia Castillo is moving on to her next challenge, at Abraham Lincoln High School. Castillo has had a widespread impact on TJ faculty, staff and students alike, so the Thomas Jefferson Journal investigated the reasons for the change. Read more

California, Here He Comes

Teacher Nathan Silver leaves TJ to join wife in California.
by Sinjin Jones
photo by Manuel Perez

     As many around the halls are privy to, six-year TJ English Teacher Nathan Silver is moving on and up as he prepares to join his wife in California. On the eve of his departure, Silver reflects on the time he has spent here and relates his plans for the future.
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Kaufhold Wins Thomas Jefferson Ballistics Competition

On April 24th and April 25th, a vicious battle of mind and mechanics raged on the soccer field of TJ, pitting student against student, and even student against teacher.
by Morgan Dorn
photo by Manuel Perez

    Nelson Vore’s Physics students took to the battlefield Thursday and Friday April 24th and 25th to apply what they had been learning all year long in his Physics class: mechanics and projectile motion.  
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TJ Alum to Host Fundraiser

Derrick Martin will host the Derrick Martin Spring Sportsfest to support the Thomas Jefferson Athletic Program.
by Matthew Mankoff
photo courtesy Baltimore Ravens

    Baltimore Ravens cornerback and Thomas Jefferson graduate Derrick Martin has announced that he will be hosting the Derrick Martin Spring Sportsfest on the weekend of May 31 as a fundraiser to benefit the Thomas Jefferson High School Athletic Program,
    In addition to fundraising, the event is designed to expand the athletic knowledge of children in the community, and to give all members of the community an opportunity to meet Martin and several other celebrities from the National Football League.  Other athletes attending already include TJ alumni and Baltimore Ravens running back Cory Ross, the Dallas Cowboy’s Evan Oglesby, and the Baltimore Raven’s Jamaine Winborne.
    The festivities will begin on Saturday May 31st at Thomas Jefferson High Scool with free kids football and cheer clinics.  The football clinic will be run by the professional players, and will focus on many of the offensive and defensive techniques and drills that are taught in the NFL.  The cheer clinic will concentrate on the basics of cheerleading, including jumps, motions, and tumbling.  Both events are for students in grades 1-8, with the football camp limited to the first 150 registered participants, and the cheer camp will be limited to the first 75 participants.
    Later that night there will be a “Pros vs. Joes” basketball game at TJ that will feature the NFL players against some local basketball players in the area.  General admission for the game is $7.00; however, those who choose to obtain a VIP pass for the event can attend a pre-game reception and receive courtside seats for $50.  Business sponsorships are also available and can include being able to participate in the basketball game as a member of the  “Joes” game, as well as receiving T-shirts and autographed footballs.
    The Spring Sportsfest will conclude on Sunday at AMF Monaco Lanes with a Celebrity Bowling competition as well as a silent auction.  The price for bowling, food, and drinks is $25 per kid and $50 per adult, and includes an autograph and photo session with all of the professional athletes. Read more

Rebel With A Cause

Venturing outside the comfort zone.
by Heather Brenneman

    This summer, I will be embarking on the journey of a lifetime. Come June 22, I will be departing to New Orleans, a broken and hurt home of many, where the 2005 category five Hurricane Katrina left millions without homes.
    I feel the need to explain that I have lead a relatively sheltered life. The term “sheltered” is not always a negative connotation though, especially in my case. The fact is that I was born and raised in Denver, and the farthest I’ve ever been from home is Illinois, when the family took a road trip there to get my big sister settled in to her new college life. That was four years ago. In that one trip, I went through Iowa and Nebraska. While my mom stayed in Illinois at the Holiday Inn, my step dad and I roughed it in the car for a few days, trekking through Ohio. This past fall, I went on a plane to Illinois, and the farthest I got away from home was a layover in Atlanta. In my seventeen years, that is the extent of my travels.
     The longest time I have ever been away from my own bed would be the week every summer I spend at summer camp, fifty miles south of Denver. If necessary, I could go home without trouble. I guess I just prefer to be at home. Just last summer, I was supposed to go to a camp in California for summer camp, but I couldn’t bear being so far away from home for so long.
    This summer, in 32 days and counting, I will be stepping out of my own personal boundaries to the new world beyond my comfort zone.
    Hurricane Katrina destroyed thousands of homes, killed at least 1,836 people, and yet the storm could not damage the spirit of the people who lived in this town full of hope. On the coasts of Louisiana, the federal flood protection system failed in more than fifty places, flooding 80% of the city for an extended period of time. Even now, two years later, the city is not yet rebuilt, and thousands are still without homes. With a death toll of at least 1, 836, Katrina ranks as the deadliest natural disaster since 1928. With $81.2 billion in damage, Katrina was also the costliest natural disaster in recorded history. When the levees of New Orleans broke, I didn’t realize that one day that storm would change even my own sheltered life.
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Preston Presses On

Mary Beth Preston retires after 33 years of teaching.
by Julia Harrington

    The atmosphere of Mary Beth Preston’s classroom is a welcoming one, where students and faculty are invited to be themselves as she shares her knowledge, humor and stories. Clearly, when Preston retires this year she will be greatly missed.
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Denver Nuggets Season Wrap-up

The Nuggets season comes to an end, with another early round elimination.
by Scott Bruskin

    The Nuggets have once again been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs; however, I don’t think anyone is shocked, as this is the 5th straight year that the Nuggets have been ousted after five or fewer games.
     The most recent debacle came at the hands of the Los Angeles Lakers, who were the Western Conference’s number one seed. Led by perennial All-stars Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, the Lakers were overwhelming for the Nuggets, as they were able to exploit them for what they are, and that is a terrible defensive team. The Lakers were also able to contain the league’s second best scoring team (statistically), as the Nuggets’ half court offense was mediocre at best. Needless to say, something must be done. I believe the blame should fall on Carmelo Anthony, who is supposed to be the team’s “franchise player”, who is playing like more of a selfish, ball-controlling superstar. Countless times this year Anthony has forced up no hope, 18-foot jumpers that, to Melo’s shock, don’t fall. And when one out of his 10 shots happen to fall, Melo gets the idea that that was a good shot, so he shoots it again.
    Just look at Kobe Bryant; he was once regarded as a “ball-hog”, and that is why the Lakers had not accomplished anything since Shaq left. However, over this summer, something clicked and Kobe realized that he needed to utilize his teammates in order to advance in the playoffs. The Nuggets have much more talent than the Lakers; however, the Lakers have a much better superstar than the Nuggets. That is why the Nuggets lost.
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Shakespeare Festival: Big Fun, Big Success

"Action is eloquence."
by Sarah Heath
photos by Jacquelyn Hudson-Raila

     Every year Denver Public Schools hosts a Shakespeare Festival in the spring. This year TJ teachers Jacquelyn Hudson-Raila and Carole Fulkerson took a Freshman Lit X class as a companion to their SpringBoard studies and the dance, choir and strings classes to the festivities. Guess what? They dominated. Read more

Alice Weeda Bids a Spartan Farewell

TJ says goodbye to one of its finest of all time.
by Ben Gilliland
photo by Manuel Perez

        For 18 years English teacher Alice Weeda has been mentoring and inspiring students at Thomas Jefferson High School, and she will be greatly missed by both students and faculty as she leaves for retirement at the end of the school year, putting an end to her 28 year teaching career.
    Weeda was born on November 2, 1946 in Denver, Colorado to parents Renie and Bertha Zoetewey. Weeda has 12 siblings, eight sisters and three brothers with whom she spent her childhood here in Denver, and she went to Denver Christian High School where she graduated in 1964.
    After graduating from high school Weeda attended Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she received a BA in education in 1968 with a major in English and a minor in German.  During her senior year, she married John Weeda.  After a summer in southern California during which she took another class in German at Long Beach State, she and her husband moved to Athens, Ohio where she taught German for two years. “It’s funny really. I never would have gotten my first teaching job if I didn’t have my minor in German,” said Weeda. In 1970 she moved to Oak Park, Illinois, near Chicago, where she lived for over eight years and taught high school English and German for three years before starting her family. She has three children, Chris, Rachel, and Ben (all of whom are TJ graduates). Now she also has two grandchildren, Naomi and Joaquin.
   Weeda returned to her hometown of Denver in 1979 but did not resume her teaching career until 1984 after a 12-year break to raise her children. “I always wanted to return to teaching. I just wanted to wait until my youngest had started school before I returned,” said Weeda. She taught a semester at North High School and four years at Montbello High School before coming to work at TJ in 1990. “I came to work at TJ because the yearbook advisor position was open. If that wasn’t the case I probably never would have worked here,” said Weeda, who was the yearbook advisor at TJ for ten years, from 1990-2000. “I loved being the yearbook advisor, but after becoming the department chair for the English department I just couldn’t handle the extra workload. So, I handed off the reins to Mr. Coleman,” said Weeda, who has been the chair of the English department intermittently for at least ten years of her TJ tenure.
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8th JROTC Battalion Awarded Prestigious Plaques

TJ’s men and women in uniform shine.
by Morgan Dorn

     Thomas Jefferson’s 8th Junior Officer Training Corps (JROTC) Battalion was highly awarded at the Annual Denver JROTC Review and Awards Ceremony, which was held on April 30, 2008.
     The Battalion was recognized for the commendable honors that they achieved this year in the JROTC program.  The awards included a Plaque for the JROTC-DCTA Essay Contest Annual Award, TJ JROTC’s most prized of all the awards they have won this year.  The essay competition is a written essay, where all of the JROTC cadets from the city are judged based on their responses to the same writing prompt.  This year’s prompt was, “JROTC helps me deal with peer pressure,” to which the students were to explain how this statement applies to them.  The essays were judged at the battalion level, by TJ JROTC instructors Major Joe George and First Sergeant Carl W. Gray, and then at the City level, which is where the award was earned, after the battalion beat out nine other Denver High Schools.
     JROTC was also won plaques for 2nd Place in the Comprehensive Exam, a competitive test based on general knowledge of cadets in the Denver Public Schools, an award for Outstanding Supply Operations, and an award for Most Improved Battalion from the Director of Army Instruction, a special award from Lieutenant Colonel Perry Roberts, the head of all the JROTC Battalions in Denver.
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