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Spartan Nine Slide Through Districts

TJ Baseball moves on to the Elite Eight in the state playoffs.  
by Marc Houghton
Photo by Ryanne Mollo

    The Spartan baseball boys showed some perseverance and had a number of clutch performances in getting past the district round of the playoffs on Saturday, May 3rd. After blowing by Skyview in the first game by a score of 10-2, TJ battled a talented team from Cheyenne Mountain into extra innings, and came out with a 4-3 victory.
     TJ was a little slow to start with the bats in their first game against Skyview, but they stayed patient behind great pitching from Sophomore Brennan "Bubba" Henry and saw their hitting come alive. Henry had consistent control all game, and allowed only two runs in five innings. Freshman Chris Van Dyke pitched the last two innings and shut down the Skyview offense, leading to a final score of 10-2. The Spartan offense showed the same talent they have all season against Skyview, and they were confident going into the second game behind their ace pitcher Dylan Smith.
     After beating Mountain Range in their first game, Cheyenne Mountain carried some momentum into the deciding match-up against TJ. Both teams were fighting for a spot among the final eight, as the winner would go on and the loser would go home. Both teams came out strong in the first inning, Cheyenne Mountain scoring two runs in the top half, after two solid hits from the top of their lineup. TJ manufactured one run of their own in the bottom of the first, bringing the score to 2-1, where it would stay until the sixth.
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Spring One Acts

One act to show a world of talent.
by Spencer Snell
photo by Ben Gilliland

    After a performance like Chicago what could TJ Drama possibly have up its sleeve? Why, Spring One-Acts, that’s what!
    The One-Acts are student written and directed plays that are presented on the 7th 8th and 9th of May. One-Act drama at TJ is a different style of play consisting of only one act, hence the name. One-Acts are a competitive version of theater where four student directors' plays are chosen and the students cast, direct, write, and work tech without any help from the teachers. The four plays face off in groups of two per night, and one play from each night advances to the final round. On the third night the two top plays from each night compete, a vote is taken and the final play is chosen. The best part about all this… admission is free!
    Four teachers,  Eileen Adair, Sudi Stodola, Michael Palmieri, and, Jaqueline Hudson-Raila judged and selected the finals plays. “After an entire lunch period of discussing the merits of each play, we ranked the plays and came to an equitable decision. While we didn’t all agree on which ones were the best, we did agree that we had a fair decision-making process,” said  Stodola.
    They decided on the top four One-Acts and they are: Tangled by Natalee Pinson, 3:33 by Sinjin Jones, Angeline by Chris Wolter and 2012 by Dan Rios. Auditions were the April 10 and rehearsal began on April 14.
    Student Director Jones said,  "3:33 is a story about when three grizzly murders are committed, one man must find out who the culprit is… before he loses it himself.”  There is also a manic murder mystery, and a zombie outbreak.  Curtain opens at 7:00 pm tonight.
 

Taylor Hargrove, a Lifelong Spartan

A journey to the pros…and back again.
by Michael Mankoff

    For Taylor Hargrove, who has been there and back, there is no place like home.
     “It was the spring of 1997 and our baseball team just beat Pueblo East in the State Semifinals. We then went up against a Pueblo South team for the 4A State Championship and lost 8 to 5,” recalled 1999 Thomas Jefferson Graduate Taylor Hargrove. As a sophomore in high school he dedicated most of his time to playing the game he loved, baseball; and many of his teammates did the same. The 1997 team composed of mostly sophomores had given up playing other sports to pursue the dream of a State Championship. Among these young men was Roger Ross, older brother of 2001 TJ grad and current Baltimore Raven Cory Ross.
    It was a series of unfortunate events that cost TJ the State Championship; however, it was the turning point in Hargrove’s young life. “It was the most devastating thing because my whole identity was placed into this sport,” he said. Baseball had defined him all his life; if he was doing well on the diamond then he was happy, if he was doing bad then he wasn’t happy. This holds true for the majority of student athletes, although Hargrove describes his infatuation as something greater. “We let our performance on the field dictate who we were as people. I received all my satisfaction from my success on the baseball diamond,” he said.
     However, Hargrove evolved with the help of his pastor Eric Hause and a Christian Evangelism conference he attended in the summer of 1997 in Washington D.C. It was an emotional ride as he committed himself to being a servant of God with the belief that he must give up his dream of playing professional baseball to do so. To Hargrove’s benefit, this was not the case. “Instead of using the gift God gave me to play for myself, for the first time in my life, I wasn’t playing for me but for God,” he explained. Now that he wasn’t playing for his own fame, stats didn’t matter to him, and the reason why he played was because it was God’s gift to him as well as his love for the game.
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Students and Teachers-At the Same Time

With six new student teachers at TJ this semester, Spartans are being educated while helping to educate.
by Morgan Dorn
photo by Manny Perez
    With the opening of this semester, Thomas Jefferson High School gained some new students.  But these are not your typical students – they are seven new student teachers, at TJ to educate Spartans, while they practice the craft of teaching.
    TJ’s current student teachers come from the University of Denver, the University of Colorado and from Metro State College’s Teacher Quality Enrichment program (TQE), which is designed to give student teachers an urban teaching experience.  In return for hosting the teachers, TJ gets money from a grant that has helped in redesigning courses.  This year the stipend is being used to fund tutoring labs, vertical learning between TJ and middle schools, and the professional development of current teachers.
    “Fall observe; take education classes; observe winter; teach Spring – GET JOB,” student teacher Spencer Wagner’s description of the student teaching process.   Wagner attends the University of Denver and is a teaching under Aimee Witulski and Tim Owens in the math department. At first, student teachers observe the classroom goings-on, daily activities, and teacher-student interaction to learn how teachers teach, act, and work with students.  The teachers do this for an entire semester before they are able to get their field experience, where they are actually teaching the class themselves.
    Thomas Jefferson is a prime environment for learning how to teach.  “The best way to learn it, is to do it, and the best place to do it is here,” said Mark Smith the coordinator of student teachers at TJ. They are in an environment varied student types where Smith says, “…they get to experience it all.” 
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TJ JROTC Among Best

Thomas Jefferson JROTC placed second last week in the All-City JROTC Comprehensive Exam Competition, a first for the uniformed Spartans.
by Morgan Dorn
photo by Manuel Perez

    The All-City Comprehensive Exam Competition pitted the TJ JROTC (Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps) against nine other schools in the Denver district on April 10th at TJ. 
    The competition is based on an exam that covers basic knowledge of military, every-day, and historical concepts.  The cadets are tested on this knowledge based on their Leadership Education Training level, or LET, and the scores from each unit are combined for an overall average for the corps.  The LET levels correspond with the number of full school years cadets have been active in the program, and include levels one through three, as seniors are not tested.
    Each JROTC Corps in the Denver district took a similar exam on April 10th; the scores were then taken to the Director of Army Instruction for the Denver Public Schools for assessment.  After the scores of the exams had been tallied, the mighty Spartan JROTC proved to have an elevated level of expertise, coming in 2nd place overall, dominating South, who came in 3rd, and following closely behind 1st place Kennedy.
    The win meant much for the Spartan cadets as a corps.  “It’s more of a pride thing. We will achieve not individual recognition, but team recognition,” said Major Joe George, the retired Army Instructor who heads the TJ JROTC. “This is a first for us.  Kennedy got first place, but we beat out all of even the heavy hitters,” said George. 
    Spartan Cadet Corporal Daniel Cole, an LET One and freshman at TJ, was also excited by the accomplishment.  “JROTC is going to help me get to college, and I want to be in the military so it’s good practice.  The marching, the protocol, the style of leadership, preparing for the test, these are all things that I have learned from JROTC, and will take with me for the rest of my life.  Our success in taking the exam shows that motivation and dedication will take us, take me, anywhere I want to go,” said Cole. 
    The high marks on the exam also will help to gain TJ’s cadets more points toward winning the Denver Board of Education Trophy, which is awarded to the Denver JROTC program with the most combined points from other JROTC competitions throughout the school year.  TJ’s JROTC will find out whether or not they won the trophy after the All-City JROTC Competition held on May 1st.

Seven Days in Maui

TJ Student Participates in Reality Show
by Christina Danek

    An excursion to Hawaii held more in store for one TJ teen than just sunshine and surf.
    From January 8th –13th, 2008 TJ Senior Jasser Mohamed participated in the making of a reality show called Gospel Journey Maui, put on by Dare to Share Ministries International. The trip involved getting together six young men and women between the ages of 18 and 23 of all different faiths, and encouraging them to talk about their beliefs. Mohamed explained, “It’s a show where we go down and live in Maui for seven days, and do activities every day, and they ask us a question of the day. How did life start? Is there a universal God? Why do you believe what you believe? The message of the show was not to prove that Christianity was right, or Islam was right, or Mormonism. They just wanted us to come together in the environment of Hawaii’s beauty, and have us sit down and be ourselves with each other.”
     Dare to Share (D2S) was founded in 1991, and is headquartered in Arvada, Colorado. The Maui expedition was the second Gospel Journey of its kind, and the original Gospel Journey was nominated for Outreach Magazine’s 2006 Best Outreach Resource. Dare to Share’s ministry is that of bringing faith and the gospel to teenagers. Since teens are often at home watching MTV and different reality shows, a proposal was made to make a reality show that involves religion. “On those shows there are always people doing challenges and fun activities, and in a way that’s what GJ Maui was. Every day we’d ask a question, and we’d talk about God and challenge ourselves to understand one another, but in the end we were ziplining, rappelling, snorkeling and surfing, too,” Jasser recalls. Read more

2008 PMI Scholarship Winners

TJ Computer Magnet students are rewarded for their efforts.
by Ben Gilliland
photo courtesy of Stacey Fornstrom

    On Saturday April 5, the Project Management Institute (PMI) awarded multiple scholarships to Computer Magnet students from Thomas Jefferson and North High Schools, and two TJ students were also awarded the title of Project Manager of the Year for their final projects in their Computer Magnet classes.
     At TJ, seniors in the Computer Magnet program take a Pathways class, sponsored by PMI for high school students. In the class no new skills or concepts are taught, rather the students are to apply all of the knowledge that they have learned over the past three years in the Magnet program. “Pathways has been a good fit here at TJ. We wanted a class that let the students choose what they want to do.  As a teacher I just provide support,” said Pathways Teacher Stacey Fornstrom.
    For the past several months Magnet students have been working on their final projects in their Pathways class, building a successful web-based business. “There is no set curriculum for this class. The students had to come up with the idea themselves and it's up to them how they design and create their website,” said Fornstrom. All of the students in the class applied for the PMI scholarship. They had to fill out an application where they explained their project, told how they would use their computer skills in the future, and said what extra curricular activities in which they participated. There were ten students, from both TJ and North, who were awarded the scholarship.
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2008 2nd Semester Finals Schedule Announced

FINALS SCHEDULE
Spring of 2008
Draft

Monday, May 19th through Thursday, May 22nd
Normally Scheduled Day

Friday, May 23rd
Period 1- 8:00 to 9:10 (Final)
Period 2- 9:15 to 10:25 (Final)
Period 3- 10:30 to 11:40 (Final)
Period 6- 11:40 to 12:30 (Lunch)
12:30 to 3:00 Test make-up and Tutoring

Monday, May 26th
Memorial Day – School is closed

Tuesday, May 27th
7:30 to 8:00 (Study Period)
Period 4- 8: to 9:10 (Final)
Locker Clean out 9:10 to 9:30
Period 5- 9:30 to 10:40 (Final)
10:40 to 11:30 – Test make-up, tutoring
Period 6- 11:30 to 12:20 (Lunch)
12:20 to 3:00 Test make-up and Tutoring

Wednesday, May 28th
7:30 to 8:00 (Study Period)
Period 7- 8: to 9:10 (Final)
Period 8- 9:15 to 10:25 (Final)
Test make-up- 11:00 to 12:10
Period 6- 12:10 to 1:00 (Lunch)
1:00 to 3:00 Test make-up

Thursday, May 29th
Finals review, Grade Check, test make-up
Period 1- 7:30 to 7:51
Period 2- 7:56 to 8:17
Period 3- 8:22 to 8:43
Period 4- 8:48 to 9:13
Period 5- 9:18 to 9:39
Period 7- 9:44 to 10:05
Period 8- 10:00 to 10:30

Friday, May 30th – Teacher Work Day

 

Prom in the City

TJ Prom 2008 lights up the city.
by Asia Dorsey
photo by Asia Dorsey
 
    Held at the Exdo Event Center on 35th and Walnut, most attendees agree that Prom 2008 lived up to the flash and brilliance of its theme: Prom in the City.  

    TJ seniors (and some underclassmen), were welcomed to the annual formal event by a flaming and fabulous red carpet and a bumping sound system. Upon entering Exdo the first things one notices are the three giant screens playing music videos. Next is the  non-alcoholic bar, serving up the tastiest looking concoctions, complete with maraschino cherries.  Attention is then drawn to the fashionable couches, centerpieces, and of course the dance floor which is lit up like a psychedelic Christmas tree. 

    Everyone was dressed to the nines and looking extra glamorous for their red carpet premier. There was an abundance of stylish outfits to take in while folks danced to the eclectic and tasteful collection of music being played by the DJ.

    The dance was complete with conga lines, on-stage dancing, and of course all the Mr. TJ boys giving an encore performance to Ice-Ice Baby, which was quite  the event. There were times when the floor was completely vacated as couples mingled and chatted, and other times when it seemed like there were so many people moving and shaking that they had to take up dancing on the ceiling to combat the limited space.

    Finally, the event the crowd had been waiting for . . . Cheria Cauley and Krubiel Workie were crowned Prom Queen and King 2008. The crowd went wild with applause and the dancing again commenced. It was a very special night indeed with some TJ seniors coming out of their shells like they had never before.

    But the night was only beginning for TJ Prom goers.  Stay tuned for a detailed rundown of the whole After Prom experience.
 

Thomas Jefferson Journal Selects Staff for Next Year.

2008-2009 TJ Journal roster set.
photo by Manuel Perez

    Since its inception in 1960,  the Thomas Jefferson Journal has had the distinction of being an elite high school newspaper, receiving many awards and boasting teams of talented writers.  Recently the publication has decided upon its newest staff to carry on this strong tradition.  
    The newly appointed members of the staff for next year will range from sophomores to seniors. The new staffers are: Jasmine Kabera, Lauren Abrams, Matt Kleberger, Martha Alvarez, Mike Montgomery, Samuel Thomas, Robert Lampert, Theresa Bradley, Andrew Briss and Jake Hazan. The returning members are Rhea Boyd, Keenan Moore, and Scott Bruskin who will come back to the Journal as reporters with one year's experience under their belts.  The finalized staff members have yet to be given their future section assignments, because the editors are still deciding who will work where.
    The editors who have been chosen based on their experience and their qualifications for each section have been selected as well. Manny Perez was picked as the Living and Arts editor as well as the Photo Editor for next year’s staff. Perez’s pictures have been a staple of the newspaper's for the past year and he will return next year in the same capacity.
     Katie Bone will be a new addition to the newspaper next year and will be replacing Christina Danek as the Copy Editor.
  Asia Dorsey will be the editor for the Community section as well as the new People section editor, which will highlight teachers and outstanding students in the TJ community.
     Following in the footsteps of the likes of Malcolm Glenn, Erin Coleman, Turia Lahlou and Ben Gilliland is next year’s Editor-in-Chief, Vince Crespin who will be editor for both Editorials and Headline News departments. “When I was told by the current editors that I would be next year’s editor-in-chief, my first reaction was to smile.  This was something I really wanted and was excited to receive. My second reaction was the thought of all the talented writers who have come before me at this position. People like Ben, whom I have known for years, and Turia, are awesome writers, as well as Malcolm and Erin, whom I never had the chance to meet, but who both have achieved a lot in the journalism field since graduating from TJ and moving on from the position. So needless to say I was ecstatic when I received the news,” commented Crespin. Read more

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