Boys & Girls Club of Cypress’s second week of their annual summer program, “Celebration of Nations,” focused on a variety of activites from different cultures and countries around the globe from June 22 to June 26.

Members enjoyed an “Around the World” dress-up day, participating in a “Soccer World Cup,” and creating a variety of unique crafts and cooking projects.

The club took an optional field trip to Knott’s Berry Farm on Tuesday and Wednesday. Fifth grade member Sophia J. said “Going on the Knott’s field trip was awesome! It’s fun to be able to hang out with your friends from the club somewhere new and exciting.” On Friday, the members worked up a sweat and had a great time taking a fitness class from Zumba instructor Kim Coltey.

The week’s culminating activity was an Olympic Day event. Olympic Day commemorates the birth of the modern Olympic movement and is celebrated nationwide with events that support healthy lifestyles and well-being. It encourages youth to get active, learn about the Olympic ideals and discover new sports and games. Members received medals for competing in a variety of “Olympic events” such as balloon archery, javelin throws, hurdles, and more.

To learn more about the Boys & Girls Club of Cypress summer program or for registration information, please call 714-527-2697 or visit online at www.boysandgirlsclubofcypress.com.

Los Alamitos resident, Madelyn “Dolly” Payne recently received the Lee Brennan Scholarship awarded to outstanding Southern Pacific Association California divers. She is the fifth McCormick Diver to win the honor since its inception in 1999. Her brother, Adam won in 2012.

Lee Brennan was a top student athlete from Aliso Viejo excelling in diving as well as football, wrestling, and track. He died in a car accident on his way to Arizona State University where he was to be a member of their diving team. His dynamic spirit lives on through the good works of his parents Leo and Bev Brennan who sponsor scholarships in Lee’s name.

Payne was awarded the scholarship based on her ability to maintain excellent grades (she is a 2015 Los Alamitos High School Valedictorian) while competing as a top Varsity athlete in both diving and tennis. She won the Sunset League Individual Diving Champion Title three years and won the team title all four years along with fellow Los Al students who train with McCormick Divers in Long Beach.

As a 3 and 4 year old, Madelyn spent time at Belmont Plaza Pool while her brother Adam was diving with McCormick Divers. Initially, she would sit by coach Debby McCormick who knew her by her nickname, Dolly. She has been Dolly in the diving world ever since.

She first learned how to swim at Water Safe in Seal Beach when she was less than a year old. As she grew and took on more activities she stopped swimming lessons. But she was afraid she would “forget my moves” so she took swimming lessons at Belmont Plaza Pool while her brother was diving. Since she was so young, she was put into the Tiny Tots program. Even though she had the skill level, she was too young for the Advanced Beginner Class. Being relegated to Tiny Tots, she pretended she couldn’t swim. It only took the staff a couple of lessons to realize she was playing them and that she was already an accomplished swimmer.

Just before she turned 5, her family moved to Sydney, Australia. There, she was able to enroll in Advanced Beginners as a five year old while her brother trained with Australian Olympic Diving Coach Chava Sobrino. Within a few months, she too started diving. As the youngest diver on the team, she was a trailblazer. Swim coaches raised concerns about letting someone so little dive. In response, Sobrino started a “Nippers” program designed for young divers like Dolly.

When her brother started diving in Southern California, he was able to compete in 7 and under competitions. However, when Dolly started in Australia, Diving New South Wales had only 11 and under age group categories and a Novice Level with no age limits. Dolly competed against 15 and 16 year olds in her first dive meet. This prompted officials to change the ages to 13 and under and 14 and older. Even with that, Dolly was holding her own, competing with divers twice her age.

Luckily, her family came back to Southern California on home leave in June each year where she was able to train for a week with McCormick Divers at Belmont Plaza Pool. This was also around the time of the Annual Lee Brennan Memorial Meet in Crown Valley. It was at this same meet where she just earned the Lee Brennan Scholarship that she won her first dive meet when she was able to compete against divers her own age in the 7 and under and 9 and under girls events.

Dolly continued training with McCormick Divers when her family relocated back to Southern California in 2007. She will be using the $3,000 scholarship at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she will be a member of the diving team.

Oxford Academy in Cypress had a student Kaitlyn Allen-O’Gara win a national high school debate championship at the 2015 National Speech & Debate Association National Tournament on June 14 to 19 in Dallas, TX.

Kaitlyn competed in the Senate Chamber of Congressional Debate against hundreds of students from all over the country. She argued passionately for campaign finance reform and against the war powers act in the final round, earning her the best overall score from the nine judges in the final round.

Kaitlyn is coached by Oxford Academy Director of Forensics Jon Williamson. She was one of only three female national champions among the numerous events, which highlights the difficulty of her accomplishment. By winning, she also achieved auto-qualification to the 2016 Tournament of Champions and 2016 NSDA National Tournament.

Congressional Debate at the national tournament is sponsored by the Stennis Center for Public Service Leadership, who will be inviting Kaitlyn and Jon to Washington D.C. to meet public officials and provide input on policy change.

A video of the debate is available online at www.//livestream.com/accounts/847769/nats15stream2

Kaitlyn is the team president at Oxford Academy, where she competes in a variety of debate events. She has placed at the State tournament in Congressional Debate and Parliamentary Debate, and was the undefeated champion of the La Costa Canyon Winter Classic in Public Forum Debate. She is the reigning Orange County Champion in Impromptu Speaking and Extemporaneous Speaking.

Kaitlyn was a national qualifier in 2014, reaching the semifinals in the House Chamber of Congressional Debate, and reaching quarterfinals in Impromptu Speaking.

Oxford Academy’s Speech & Debate team has evolved into a nationally competitive program, qualifying students to nationals in each of the last three years. Their students in 2014 took 2nd place at the State Championships in Parliamentary Debate. Oxford’s speech and debate program has been heavily supported by Oxford Academy Principal Ron Hoshi.

The Woman’s Club of Cypress (WCC) presented scholarships to three outstanding local high school students during its June meeting.

·         Louis Malpica – Cypress High School; $850

Louis plans to attend California State University, Long Beach next year and major in business management.

·         Hiseo Lee– Cypress High School; $850

Hiseo plans to attend University of California, Los Angeles and major in biology.

·         Jinnie Kim – Oxford Academy; $800

Jinniewill attend Cornell University and major in biochemistry.

The fourth presentation was the Darlie Wasicek Scholarship Award, which comes from an endowment from a WCC past president. It is awarded to a student in the field of performing arts, such as dance, music, vocal, or drama.  This year the Theatre and Dance department of Cypress College selected an outstanding student in the field of drama to be the recipient.

·         Jennifer Lynn Creamer; $1,000

Jennifer plans to continue her studies in acting.

“Continually striving to make a difference in our community, these annual scholarships help our students with the ever-increasing costs of a college education,” said Woman’s Club of Cypress Scholarship Committee Chairman Sue Fardette.

Kaitlyn Allen-O’Gara of Oxford Academy won a national high school debate championship at the 2015 National Speech & Debate Association National Tournament, held June 14-19 in Dallas, Texas. Kaitlyn competed in the Senate chamber of Congressional Debate, competing against hundreds of students from all over the country.

Preparing teens to be effective leaders in their local communities and lives beyond school, the Youth Center will be having their 3rd Annual Leadership Academy from July 7 to July 23 at the nationally top-rated non-profit’s location in Los Alamitos.

“The goal is to provide upper class high school or teens in their first year of college specialized training on how to handle real-world challenges outside of school,” said Youth Center Office Manager Julie Rubin, who is the project manager for this year’s academy. “Course participants will learn about self-reliance and self-efficacy in a real world setting.  We can provide mentors and internships as well.”

Youth leadership has been defined frequently as the ability to envision a goal or needed change, to take initiative or action to achieve such goals and to take responsibility for their outcomes, while working well and communicating effectively with others. “The Leadership Academy gives candidates unique opportunities to prepare to be responsible, effective leaders within their local communities and in their young adult lives beyond school”, said Youth Center Executive Director Lina Lumme.

While partnering with educators, local business professionals and residents the Youth Center’s academy provides free training in seven workshops including self and social efficacy, goal setting, auto maintenance and knowledge, financial skills, home economics, and career skills.

Only 20 candidates ages 16 to 18 years old are selected to participate, and each will be matched up with a mentor for guidance during the academy and on-going (as necessary) upon completion. Each youth will be offered internships to gain real world workplace experience and job skills upon their graduation. They additionally will come away with a 2015 Leadership Academy Certificate of Completion, letter of recommendation, written goals, resume, professional photo, bank account (upon parental approval), and peer-to-peer friendships.

Instructors include a professional counselor who will instruct on such things as overall well-being, self-esteem/confidence, conflict resolution and community involvement. Goal setting with Dreamboard, a popular website, will also be taught on July 7. Workshops on auto maintenance and knowledge will be taught on July 9, followed by financial skills including budgeting/savings, using an ATM, credit card and checking account management taught respectfully by a financial planner and a Southland Credit Union representative. The last three workshops include career skills such as resume/cover letter writing on July 16, home economics such as laundry, preparing a meal, food safety and shopping at ChefTech Cooking School on July 21. The second career skills workshop with interview techniques and strategies along with dressing for the workplace will be held along with a professional photo session upon academy graduation on July 23.

For more information about the Youth Center’s Leadership Academy, please contact Julie Rubin at 562-493-4043 or via email at Julie@theyouthcenter.org.

With many tears of nostalgia and joy, Cypress High School’s Senior Class of 2015 said a heartfelt goodbye to one another this past Thursday. The hardworking and diligent young women and men of the Centurion student body fought through a very demanding and long school year to make it to this point in their academic careers, but with graduation comes a new set of obstacles.

The hardest of these obstacles would be the pain of having to let go and say goodbye to all of the friends that one has made throughout their four year journey from childhood to adolescence.

The other would be deciding what to do after high school, and planning for the path that lies ahead.

“It’s all just so unreal,” explains Cheyenne Wheelwright, as she speaks on her emotions about finally making it to graduation. “I had to go through a lot this school year. The hardest challenge that I had to overcome was one of my advanced placement classes’ for my school. It was a Statistics class. It was the last thing that I needed to pass in order to make it to graduation. Luckily, I had a great teacher to teach me throughout the school year. His name was Mr. Montrella.

“He was by far the most inspirational and influential teacher that I had at Cypress High. This was because he was so patient and caring to all of the students. He actually cared about us making it to graduation. He cared about our lives, and our futures.”

Wheelwright, under the guidance of professor Montrella, saw her dream come to fruition, and wound up passing her course with flying colors to reach her graduation.

When asked about where she sees her life going after graduation, Wheelwright expressed with much flavor and pizzazz, “my dream is to go to college and major in Culinary Arts. I want to be a chef, or a baker of some sort. I love to cook.”

Wheelwright plans on attending Cypress College this upcoming fall semester.

Over 640 seniors made it to Cypress High School’s graduation this year, according to assistant principal Joe Saldana. “The thing that I am going to miss most about this 2015 class of seniors is their enthusiasm,” states Principal Saldana. “My only hope is that the students continue to follow their dreams, work hard, and never ever give up.”

Class Valedictorian Brenda Paulis delivered a very inspirational and heartwarming speech that proved the notorious fighting spirit of Cypress High School true. Her never say die message had the entire audience screaming in pandemonium, as a sea of people dipped in orange and blue school colors filled Handel Stadium to the very top.

Police actually had to be called in to regulate how many more graduation goers could go to celebrate in the bleacher tops of the stadium.

“This was a close knit group, and a very good group of kids,” said Robotics teacher Michael Manning. “They developed lifetime relationships, and that is what is most important. I know that they are all going to do really well out there.”

The point that Manning made about developing lifetime relationships reigned true in the young life of Wheelwright.

“I’m getting kind of emotional, and am trying to keep it together,” says Wheelwright. “I am going to miss the school’s environment, the students, and my friends. I am going to miss the karaoke singing tournaments at lunchtime, and most importantly, I am going to miss being able to just be a kid. I don’t think that I will be able to do that once I get to college, to just be a kid. I don’t ever think that the environment or feel of it will ever be the same. I don’t think that I will be able to do that once I get there.”

Still, Wheelwright’s views on the end of her high school career aren’t all sorrows.

“I am still excited to be done and to pursue my cooking career. I am ready to use what I have been taught.”