November 26, 2014
The SIS Herald Free for all Geckoes!!
Issue 3, volume 1
SIS International Feast
The SIS Thanksgiving Feast
is coming up on the 26th of Novem-
ber and many people of the SIS com-
munity are trying to find out what to
make for the feast. SIS plans to have many kiosks set up sepa-
rately by nationality, and expects most of the food to be from
Asian cultures. This Thanksgiving, just like any Thanksgiving,
it's important to know what you're thankful for. This is exactly
what I asked our headmaster Mr. Bray. He responded as fast as
I finished the question answering, “I'm thankful for the parents’
support we have here at SIS because without them, we’d have a
very hard time getting by.” When questioned about the reason-
ing behind having this SIS feast, Mr. Bray responded,
“Everyone will celebrate their different ethnicities that make up
SIS. We plan to have many ethnic groups present from different
nationalities, and maybe some costumes.” The purpose of the
SIS Thanksgiving festival is to celebrate the different ethnicities
that make up the SIS community and to give thanks to anything
you have in life, such as family and friends. Although Thanks-
giving may not be a holiday in most countries outside the US,
SIS connects its students to this important holiday. No matter
what country you're from, you should always be thankful for
what you have in your life. -By John Stewart
Turkey Raffle!
If fruit comes from a fruit tree, where does a turkey
come from? A poul-tree. In the SIS annual turkey raffle, you
could win a turkey. Every year SIS holds a raffle, giving each
student coupons for them to sell for one dollar. The winner of
the raffle is almost never the person who sells the most. I re-
member a student selling about 120 dollars worth of coupons
and we all anticipated a victory for him. The number drawn was
nowhere near his coupon number. The person who ended win-
ning that raffle only sold 1 coupon. That day we all knew that
this was our favorite raffle of the year.
Just, don't let that stop you from selling
coupons! I advise you to sell as many
as you can, not for the sake of winning
the turkey, but to help raise money for
future events. The turkey is just a bonus
if you win! I mean, who doesn’t want a
delicious turkey? You know what they
say; turkeys are musical and the most
musical part of them? The drumstick.
-By Allen Cepeda
Fall Bash
The SIS high school student council hosted
an event called the “fall bash” on Friday, No-
vember 14. The fall bash is a dance designed to
let high school students interact and let go of
their stress for the night. The bash was origi-
nally scheduled for November 7, but got can-
celled due to the SAT
preparations. The ticket
was 5 dollars each and a
5 dollar late fee was
charged if the student
didn’t get picked up on
time. The bash included
finger food like lumpia, barbeque sticks, and
cookies. It also included a movie and a dance
floor. The movie, About Time, played in Ms.
Hampel’s room while the dance floor was in the
library. There were also three supervisors: Ms.
Andrews, Ms. Peterson, and Ms. Hampel.
The student council hoped to see at least 30
students at the bash and hoped to raise $200. In
fact, 45
students
went to the
bash and
$280 were
raised.
This fund-
raiser also
helped
stucco raise enough money for big future events
like the annual prance (prom-dance). The high
school student council advisor, Mrs. Bray, is
very proud of the outcome of the bash. The stu-
dent council
worked very hard
and got every-
thing completed
on time. The bash
turned out to be a
great success.
-By Jennifer Tan
2
The SIS Herald
Knights overcome
Geckos Last Friday, our SIS jun-
ior varsity volleyball team was
in the finals against MCS and it
was a very close game. The first
set started off slow, but when AJ
Hudkins got his power serves in
while MCS had game point (24),
they finally caught up to them.
However, SIS ended up losing
the first set 24-26. They would
also go on to lose the second set
14-25. Captain AJ says, "It was a real good experi-
ence to play with this amazing group. My favorite
part of being on the team is having all the good
laughs we had, and everything that we accom-
plished together. We did well and second place is
actually pretty good." AJ Hudkins and Grace Choi
received an all star award for the SIS White team.
On SIS Blue, Jun Bum Huh and Cindy received the
same. Both teams have improved since the begin-
ning of the season and both have learned a lot.
Coach Mili says, "I hope the players that played this
year will return next season and I hope the eighth
graders play on the MISO teams in High School.
I'm very glad to say that I loved watching them im-
prove since the beginning of the season and will like
to see them play outside of school for the love of
volleyball! Till' next season!"
-By Adele Hudkins
Boy’s Varsity Volleyball
They say winning comes from hard work
and dedication.
To put forth
blood, sweat, and
tears into every
action on and off
the court deter-
mines a team's
success. Famous
athletes could go
on about work ethic and other trivial things, but
what they always forget is team chemistry.
Tommy Choi, a hitter for the undefeated MISO
boys varsity team here at Saipan International
School said, “Team chemistry is what brings us
together and is how we pull off tough wins. We
are critiqued by each other in a way that helps us
do better, rather than bringing the team down.”
Choi’s opinion definitely is true. With a 14-0 re-
cord, advice from this guy is effective and
backed by the raw data. I also know this is true
because I am on the team as well and I’ve known
Tommy for years. As I was wrapping things up
with Tommy, I asked him one last question.
“What is volleyball to you?” He said,
“Volleyball to me is a team sport which requires
each individual player’s effort to strive. This is a
game that brings players together and builds
stronger bonds within not only the team, but the
family."
-By Allen Cepeda
The SIS Herald
Swimming Competition in Qatar Two Swimmers, Takumi and Victoria, from SIS will go to
Qatar for a swimming competition. The competition begins on De-
cember 3, 2014. It will last for 5 days. “My personal best is what I’m
going for and I will try to leave a score that will stay in my record”
said Takumi about his expectations of the competition. This competi-
tion is open to the top swimmers from around the world. They devote
their whole lives to the sport. It’s an opportunity to these two swim-
mers, Takumi and Victoria, into a worldwide competition. Victoria
said, “I feel nervous competing with top swimmers, but I’m so proud
that I can represent myself and my islands in big competitions. I also
hope to make CNMI proud and bring back new techniques that I learn
from the big competitions.” These two
swimmers will represent the CNMI in
the competition. We wish them good
luck and hope they bring back some
good news from the competition.
-By Lu Song
3
MISO Girls Volleyball is Underway!
High school volleyball season will be starting up in
January and practices will begin on the 24th. Non-mandatory
practices are 3 times a week: Monday, Tuesday, and Thurs-
day. 36 girls are trying out for the teams. There will also be
some practices during Christmas Break to help the players
get back into shape. Ms. Athena Andrews will be our head
volleyball coach this season. She, along with coach John, will
run the practices and Mrs. Mili will also help coach during
games if she is needed. Once January comes along, there will
be 2 practices on Monday and
Wednesday and games will be on Tuesday and Thursday.
There will be 2 teams: varsity, which is more focused on the experi-
enced players and improving their skills for competitive playing, and junior
varsity, focused more on getting newer players more play time while teach-
ing them how to improve. Mrs. Andrews has also said "We ultimately want
to win, but have fun at the same time." Each team will consist of 12 players
but if we add more the maximum would be 15. When asked about what she
wanted to overcome by the end of the season, Mrs. Andrews answered, "A
group of girls that work well together and can overcome obstacles and have a
positive attitude over all. I hope we have a great season ladies!"
-By Adele Hudkins
4
The SIS Herald
Q & A About Mathcourt with Mrs.Ayeras
-By Minjin Jang
What is Math Court?
an annual competition that promotes mathematical skills in the
CNMI. The participants have to go through a rigorous series of
test which they have to answer correctly in a short period of time.
How many students joined this year?
Originally, we have 75 students, middle school and high school
combined but due to some reasons, the SIS team has trimmed down
to 68 students which is still the highest number of participants we
have ever.
Are you satisfied with the result?
Very proud indeed! I understand that all of our SIS students have
more than two activities going on after school, but we still manage
to have a positive turnout this year.
What do you want students to do?
Come to practices more, be on time for the competition, and follow
through their commitment to excel in math.
Are there any improvements from the past year?
Students become more proactive in math. They see to it that joining
the competition is not only to get CAS hours but to bring honor to
our school, as well.
Do you want to say anything to the students?
For all our “Mathletes”, you are doing an excellent job for Math
Court. I admire your persistence and commitment to aspire for
excellence in the field of Mathematics. Know that, your SIS family
is beaming with pride for all the worked you have done. Good luck!
SIS Starts
Mock Trial Club Mr. Bray is starting a new club in SIS,
the Mock Trial club. Mock Trial is a competi-
tion where groups of students simulate a real
courtroom experience. It works exactly like
the court system. Each team is made up of stu-
dent lawyers and witnesses. The lawyers try to
draw information out of witnesses from the
opposing team in order to prove their case.
The case changes each year. There are various
questioning techniques and rules of evidence
the students will need to learn. The witnesses
are mostly there to act, but they also play an
important role. They need to be able to answer
the opposing lawyer's questions without dam-
aging their side's case. The competition is held
in the actual courthouse where the team from
SIS will go against different teams from other
schools each round. The CNMI Bar Associa-
tion assigns an attorney to the case. Who the
lawyer is will be revealed closer to the compe-
tition. However, lawyers can always request to
work with a team, so it could be someone fa-
miliar to the school community. The competi-
tion is usually held in March or April of each
year. We will begin practices after school once
the case is published and we are assigned a
lawyer. Mock Trial is an exciting opportunity
to learn about how our justice system works
and to learn what a courtroom attorney does
on the job. For student lawyers, they get a
chance to see what it is actually like standing
in a real court room and to speak in front of
judges. For witnesses, it is a chance to learn
and develop acting skills. Join us in Mock
Trial! It will be a fun event.
-By Yeeno Marshall
The SIS Herald 5
English & Literature Project When walking through
the high school building, one can
see many posters hanging out on
the wall. Those posters were made
by the juniors and seniors for the
term project they did for Mr.
Lee’s classes. The purpose of cre-
ating these posters is for students
to get familiar with the AP terms.
The terms are the same for each
poster. Why? Because every student from the class was assigned
the same terms. However, there is a stark difference between the
terms on the juniors’ posters and the terms on the and seniors’
posters. The juniors did English language terms but the seniors
did the literature poetry terms. Both classes have some terms in
common because they’re really important for both AP courses
and will probably be on the AP exams in May. Since everyone
in the class was doing the same terms, the teacher graded this
project with respect to the neatness, structure, organization, and
readability of the poster. Mr. Lee thought Daniel Lim’s group
did really well on their poster. He suggested that the students
should make the words bigger on the posters so that they will be
coherent, which will help improve their grades. The terms that
appeared in this project cover 10 to 20 percent of the terms a
student needs to know for the AP course. It is recommended that
everyone, especially sophomores, look at those terms. They’ll be
helpful for your future AP courses
-By Emma Zhang
Second Language in SIS Mandarin Chinese is the most
prominently spoken foreign language.
Chinese classes have the highest number
of students out of all of the other lan-
guages. SIS has Chinese teachers that
teach students Chinese. However, there
are also other languages are taken by stu-
dents through an online program called Rosetta Stone (Japanese,
Korean, Italian, Tagalog, Portuguese, predominately Spanish,
and many others). Students who take Chinese classes study with
a Chinese teacher while other students study Rosetta Stone. Stu-
dents taking Rosetta Stone class have to finish two units each
quarter and every lesson should have above a 90% to be consid-
ered a "pass." Rosetta Stone class is a self-study class. However,
some students have run into problems. Jier, a sophomore here at
SIS, said, “Sometimes I cannot understand what the words really
mean because the program only shows pictures.” Jier, along
with some other students at SIS, are having trouble completing
the assignments due to the difficulties the program exhibits.
Hopefully, SIS can pay more attention to some of these prob-
lems in the second language program, and bring new ideas for
the next year. -By Lu Song
6
The SIS Herald
Come to Wonderful SIS,
Little Geckos! Have you ever seen an advertisement
about the little gecko program in Saipan In-
ternational School? For starters, the little
gecko program is an education program for
very young children between the ages of 3
and 4 years old. It was designed to benefit
some faculty members like Mrs. Ruszala.
Her kids go to Brilliant Star, because SIS has
no class for children under the age of 4. She
has to rush to Brilliant Star School after
school to pick up her kids everyday.
For this program to be successful, SIS
needs at least ten young kids; so far, there are
only 6. Their teacher will be Mrs. Basa, and
luckily, Mr.Bray knows some people who are
on Saipan with kids-educational license who
are currently not working. The teacher will
teach the students basic things like: how to
use a toilet, why students have to raise up
their hands when they have a question during
class, and many other activities as well.
Therefore, they can be educated enough to
arrive in kindergarten or elementary school
prepared. Little geckos will have class in the
pre-school room next to Mrs. Bray’s room. I
really hope that this program will be success-
ful so that SIS
can have more
fun with little
kids.
-By Minjin Jang
New Students This month, our school got four new students.
They are Christina Kim, Boomee Park, Watanabe Shion,
and Sophia Shi. All of them enjoy going to school at
SIS. They all think that learning at SIS is fun. Christina
Kim, one of the students who came in this month, has
gone to school here for the past 2 years. She went to
Whispering Palms School (WPS) at the beginning of
the semester and came back this month on November 1.
When asked why she came back, she said, “No offense,
but the classes are very easy there. I came back to chal-
lenge myself.”
Three out of the four students are non-native
English speakers. They found the courses they are tak-
ing to be a bit hard. The new girl in high school, Sophia
Shi, is Mrs. Jang's neice (Mrs. Jang teaches Mandarin
and Music here at SIS). She came to our school because
she heard that SIS was the best school on Saipan. Wan-
tanabe Shion, the new middle schooler, is a Japanese
girl who came here to learn English. She likes the edu-
cation here, but will only be with us this year. The
youngest among these four new students is Boomee
Park. She is a 3rd grader. She likes P.E. class and all the
sports they play in that class.
During the interviews with the new students,
one of them suggested that we should have a cooking
class for students so that we can gain experience not
only in academics and sports, but also in household
functions. When asked what they would change about
the school, 3 of them wanted a cafeteria with air condi-
tioning and one of them wanted a gym so that she
wouldn't get tanned. These suggestions about how SIS
should change are also shared among other students at
SIS.
There’s a picture of the new students provided
below. Don’t forget to say hi to them and wel-
come them to our school.
-By Emma Zhang
The SIS Herald 7
What Matters to You?
What matters to you? To some
people, that question could be very diffi-
cult to answer. However, for the 11th
grade class at SIS, it proved to be an
easy one; a question that didn’t have
very many different and long answers. I
asked the class as well as a few office
staff members what mattered to them
and, not surprisingly, many people had
similar answers. Out of the 25 people I
asked, 20 of them said both friends and
family mattered to them. Some people,
like Jennifer Tan, simply answered that
life matters. DongHee Im didn't include
family. He only said that eating, sleep-
ing, studying and socializing were the
only things that mattered to him. Mr.
and Mrs. Bray both had the same an-
swers. They both thought that the things
that matters to them were the school
community, friends, family, each other,
and their house in Turkey. "It’s obvious
that family and friends are the only
things keeping people together,"
preached Allen Cepeda. “I’m thankful
for life, my family and friends. Without
these things, I wouldn’t be where I am
to-
day.”
As
most
peo-
ple
see
the importance of family and friends,
it’s always good to be thankful for the
things that matter to you the most. After
all, without them, would you be the
same person you are today?
-By John Stewart
What am I Thankful for? -By Jennifer Tan
“ I’m thankful for my fam-
ily who brought me to
SIS.” Claire Park (3rd
Grade)
“I’m thankful for my
family, and friends.”
Prunella Pelligrino
(8th Grade)
“ I’m thankful for life.”
Minori Yoshida (12th
Grade)
“I’m thankful for my
class.”
Tony Kim (6th Grade)
“I’m thankful for every-
thing.”
Shirley Qian (10th Grade)
Rampant SAT Cheating Affects SIS Students Back in October, a few students from SIS decided to
take the SAT, a test usually required for entry into American
colleges and distributed by the Collegeboard. These students
had been studying and devoting their time and effort toward
this test in order to do well. However, the test has had a his-
tory of cheating. Thanks to rampant cheating on this test by
many groups of people (Asians accounting for a considerable
number of cases), some students from SIS had their scores
delayed. Daniel Lim, one of these students said, "When I did-
n't get my scores back with the others students' scores, I was nervous. I visited
the Collegeboard website every single day. [They] noticed me two weeks after
the release date. That make about four weeks." Daniel Lim knew he had done
nothing wrong. "I was more worried that my scores would turn out to be worse
than I thought they would be." Later, Daniel did some research and found that
an increase in sore of 400 points or more could arouse suspicion from the Col-
legeboard, especially for international test-takers. Daniel's scores were released
eventually, but he was not entirely pleased with them, so he will take the test
again. However, one of the seniors at SIS, Bob Kim, has still not received the
scores from that test. Hopefully, the Collegeboard will release his scores soon
so he can use the score for his college applications.
-By Qunitin Ramsey
Destino Peru Garage Sale The Destino Peru members are having a garage
sale as a fundraiser for their Destino Peru trip. The garage
sale is going to be at SIS on December 6th or 13th (date
currently undetermined) from 6:00 AM to 10:00 AM. The
Destino Peru members need to be at school by 5:30 AM
to set up the booths. Members are going to bring things to
sell from their homes. In the past, previous trip members
usually brought books, toys, and clothes to the sale. Each
member of the Destino Peru team is expected to generate
around $60 to $100 in revenue from the sale. Some mem-
bers from the previous year had made over $200 from the
garage sale. The money each member makes will go to their spending for the
trip. That means if one member made $100 from the garage sale, it is $100 less
he or she needs to pay for the trip. The garage sale has been held at SIS for the
past 10 years and has always been quite popular. Everyone is invited to come to
the next garage sale and buy the products. If anyone wants to sell, please call/
contact SIS to reserve a space for $20. Please confirm it as soon as possible!
-By Yeeno Marshall
The SIS Herald 8
Does SIS
Really Want
a School
Uniform? The matter
has been brought up
to the student body
before, but what do
they actually want? A
recent survey of 40
high school students
revealed their opinion
on the issue. Out of
the 40 people sur-
veyed, 32 responded
with, "No" (all of the
seniors said no).
Their
rea-
sons
var-
ied
greatly from, "It's too
expensive," to "I take
joy in choosing my
clothes," to
"Uniforms kill indi-
viduality." Only 4
thought that uniforms
should be imple-
mented at school.
Clearly the student
body of SIS high
school is very much
against school uni-
forms. If the school
board or the student
council mentions the
issue, this statistic
should be considered
before any decisions
are made.
-By Quintin Ramsey
The SIS Herald
STAFF
Writers:
Allen Cepeda
Yeeno Marshall
Jennifer Tan
Quintin Ramsey
Emma Zhang
Minjin Jang
Adele Hudkins
John Stewart
Lu Song
Layout:
MinJin Jang
Editor:
Quintin M. Ramsey
Sources:
SIS SCOOP
SIS Facebook
Advisor:
Mrs.Aysem Bray
Saipan
International
School
P.O BOX.
503121, Saipan,
MP, 96950
Tel: 670 2889660
Headmaster:
tim.s.bray@gmail.
com
9
This month virtue was initiative.
Middle School
Virtue Award
Guy Yeon Kim (6th)
Hannah Chan (7th)
Jun Bum Huh (8th)
High School
Virtue Award
Tiana Ranjo (12th)
Jennifer Tan (11th)
Kerrian Callaghan
(10th)
Chenoa Bunts Ander-
son (9th)
This is SIS official face-
book page. There are lots of
information and pictures
about school events.
This is a video that was
made by Aysem Bray about
SIS. It is only about 2 min-
utes.
This is Mr. Bray’s youtube
page. You will be able to
find some videos about
ETC at SIS, students lunch-
time, etc.
Best Photo of this Month
Jaden Castro (3rd Grade)
won the Pacifica Art Contest
in age 6-11 category. He got
$200 in cash and gifts from
Pacifica Insurance Under-
writers Inc.