Category: Features

On February 24th, 2019, Mr. Starace and his wife welcomed their baby boy, Roen. For the remainder of the semester, Starace will be on paternity leave to care for the newborn, leaving his freshman and sophomore classes to Ms. Garzona.

Ms. Garzona grew up in the Bay Area and came to Sacramento State for undergraduate education. After graduating, she began her teacher training at Rosemont High School.

Starace asked a former colleague, Mr. Predko,  for recommendations of teachers to take over for him as a long term substitute. Ms. Garzona was his Predko’s first recommendation. “[Mr. Starace and I] met up and decided I would be a good fit!”

Having begun to teach at C.K.M. on February 18th, Garzona has begun to acclimate to the C.K.M. campus and her classes. “I am used to Rosemont, so it’s a little different here, but it’s been going really well.” She states that Starace’s help and assistance has made her feel as if she is “not going into it alone.”

“I feel like I have a really big role to fill. But, I feel prepared. He is really helping me with things.”

She will be teaching two sophomore HISP World Cultures classes and a freshman geography class. Starace gave her lesson plans and advice for his sophomore HISP classes, but she has designed her freshman geography course on her own. “I taught [geography] last semester at Rosemont, so I have some experience with it already that it’s not too difficult.”

Garzona is confident and optimistic about the semester ahead and feels well-supported by Starace and her colleagues in the social science department.

On Friday January 28, the long-awaited results of the ASB board elections were announced and C.K.M. welcomed their new board, including Secretary Mackenzie Crall, Treasurer Nicole Fong, and Vice President Izzy Veran. Certainly a board of capable and confident ladies, and headed by none other than Adelina Hernandez, the new ASB President.

If Adelina could tell her freshman self that she would become the ASB president in her junior year, she would be speechless.

“Some part of me had always wanted to run for president, but part of me was too intimidated to think it would become a reality,” said Hernandez. Now that it has in fact transformed into reality, she realizes that her newly established confidence in her leadership skills came from being captain of the JV girls water polo team and having in-class presentations.

Being ASB president is not Adelina’s first time in a leadership role. “I was a part of my middle school’s student council, however, it held much less responsibility than ASB does,” she said. “My sophomore year at C.K.M. I was captain of the JV team. For the past two years I have worked as a coach for the American River Water Polo Club where I ran the noodle ball portion (kids 8 years and under) by myself.”

Her qualifications for the role of ASB president did not stop with coaching gigs. Over the summer, she attended the Sacramento Leadership Conference as a part of the Chicano Latino Youth Leadership Project (CLYLP). One of the workshops she participated in included a mock campaign for a hypothetical school, in which she was one of four candidates that presented to a panel of judges that ranked the mock campaign as a whole.

At the conference’s conclusion, Adelina was runner up for the Ambassador of the Sacramento Region for the CLYLP class of 2018. “[It was] an opportunity that I would recommend to all Latino/a sophomores and juniors interested in political careers or academia,” she said.

During her campaign for president, Adelina says she didn’t face as many challenges as one would expect. “I ran against Jayden Greenfield, who is one of my good friends, and there were no hard feelings or any drama during the campaign period,” said Hernandez. “Jayden ran a good campaign and I started to get nervous that I didn’t have enough posters up compared to Jayden.”

Towards the end of election campaigns, Adelina said she gradually felt less and less nervous, and soon her focus was turned away from elections and towards finals. When asked what her reaction to hearing her name on the intercom Friday morning was, Adelina exclaimed, “I was really happy and excited!”

Though it has been a few weeks since she was elected, Adelina says she is already thinking ahead for the future of C.K.M.’s class of 2020. Her first priority is reviving the financial state of the junior class by introducing more fundraising events, which she elaborates would allow more financial freedom and stress relief when we need to schedule two of high school’s most momentous events, Junior Prom and Senior Ball.

She brought up that last year, she became interested in introducing productive change to the school after the controversy surrounding a racist science project brought attention to the lack of diversity in the HISP program, a problem evident in the ASB classroom as well. “At the end of this year I want to advertise ASB as an option to anyone when choosing classes,” said Adelina. “Right now the class is HISP-dominated, leaving us without proper representation of the school.”

While taking on the responsibilities of ASB president can be no easy task, Adelina said she is already having fun despite being only a few days in. “I have a great board with Nicole as Treasurer, Mac as Secretary, and Izzy as VP. It’s a little nerve-racking having to do the announcements in the morning, especially after I dropped the phone on my first day, but the old board helped calm our nerves.” Regardless of first-day nerves, C.K.M. is certainly fortunate to have Adelina as the ASB president for the end this year and coming school year.

With over 100 followers on instagram, @officialckmbaby has taken McClatchy seniors by storm. JumanJi, the newest C.K.M. icon, posts updates on their activities over the weekend, opinions on events, as well as important senior news.

But the rising question still remains: who runs @officialckmbaby and for what purpose?

I reached out to JumanJi through Instagram direct message, searching for any kind of clarification about the account. After receiving a handful of “goo goo, ga ga’s,” I was able to get a few questions answered.

The account would not disclose any information about themselves other than the baby has joint custody between three unidentified McClatchy seniors.

“We won’t reveal who we are,” one owner said. “Keeping the account anonymous makes it entertaining to watch everyone investigate who we are, it’s just more fun that way.”

An owner explained that “JumanJi’s upbringing was the result of an effort to create something exclusive to the class of 2019, which really just started off as a joke with a baby we bought at Walmart.”

“I thought it was kind of funny when I first saw the profile requested to follow me back in December,” said Emily Robinson (‘19). “I’ve tried to figure out who might have created it but I really have no idea and I think thats what makes the account even funnier.”

@officialckmbaby requested a disclaimer informing that it is an exclusive account for the class of 2019. “I feel like my debut in The Prospector will bring new fans and I am so ready,” said an owner. However, “JumanJi will not be accepting any accounts that do not meet the requirements, [being a McClatchy senior].”