Brandon Sanchez, class of 2012, has been awarded the NROTC Scholarship. He will receive between $180,000-$200,000 for the college or university of his choice.
Brandon was selected from a pool of 155 applicants in the state of Arizona and is ranked as the number 1 candidate by the U.S. Marine Corps.
Though the NROTC scholarship covers many expenses, including tuition, books, fees, uniforms and living expenses, the benefits of selection into the program extend much further than educational funding and financial assistance. For those with both the desire and ability to begin a journey filled with honor, courage and commitment, becoming a Marine-Option Midshipman represents a unique opportunity to find direction, purpose and, most importantly, your place among the few as an Officer of Marines. (www.marines.com)
Pueblo is proud to announce that Class of 2012 Seniors Damen Romero & Michelle Godinez are 2 of 20 student athletes in the state of Arizona selected as semi-finalists for the Wendy’s High School Heisman Award. We are very pleased to have a male and female selection this year.
Damen Romero & Michelle Godinez
This award honors well-rounded young men and woman who excel in learning, performing, and leading in the class room, on the field and in the community. They will both find out in December if they have been selected as finalists.
Finalists will be brought to New York City for Heisman Weekend activities and the Wendy’s High School Heisman Award Banquet in which the two National Winners will be announced nationally on ESPN.
Congratulations to both and way to represent Pueblo!
Pueblo science students took 1st place at the 1st Annual Trebuchet Competition at UA on Sunday October 30th sponsored by Raytheon, MESA, and the Physics Factory. Warriors competed and beat teams including Salpointe and adult engineers.
Pueblo trebuchet fired 98 meters hitting target dead-on on second attempt. 1st attempt was only 3 feet off.
Pueblo Warriors Trebuchet Winning Rig
Competition was to design, construct and fire a trebuchet (gravity-powered catapult) for distance and accuracy. Competition took place on the UA Mall where over ten teams competed from various schools and groups including Salpointe Catholic High and a team of professional engineers.
Teams were given four shots (2 for distance and 2 for accuracy.) Pueblo’s range was around 100 meters. Despite having the option of pulling target back in to have a better chance of accuracy as most teams did, Team Pueblo was so sharp that they set their target at the maximum distance they fired previously and still hit the 7 foot by 5 foot target dead center 98 meters away. This is the length of about a football field! Here’s a short video of winning shot:
A big crowd gathered at the UA Mall and the team definitely represented Pueblo well.
No team was more efficient in setting up and launching within the 3 minute time limit than Pueblo. No team showed more spirit than Pueblo. No team showed the most character in helping other teams than Pueblo. No team deserved the win more than Pueblo.
Pueblo Warriors Trebuchet Team
Student participants were:
Maricela Bravo (Freshman), Cecilia Machado (Freshman), Zelin Pallanes (Freshman), Raul Ballesteros (Junior), Rafael Lopez (Junior), Aaron Barrera (Junior), Rodger Seratt (Junior), Bill DeLaRosa (Senior) & Arthur Hernandez (Senior).
Thanks to everyone for your support and encouragement. Special thanks goes to Diane and Mark Bouchard for financial, carpentry, and engineering support.
We are very proud to announce that our very own Mariachi Aztlán de Pueblo High School won the 2011 TAMMIES Award (Tucson Area Music) for the best Mariachi Group in the city.
This award is voted on by the Tucson community and was presented to the group at the 18th Annual Tucson Area Music Awards ceremony held on August 31 at the Rialto Theater.
2011-2012 Mariachi Aztlan Group
Congratulations to all Mariachi Aztlán members for their hard work and dedication that resulted in them earning this award!
If you’ve graduated from an Arizona high school in the last two decades, you owe something to Carmen Cajero, the 90-year-old former state legislator who died Sunday.
Money.
And perhaps the fact you got a diploma in the first place.
That’s because until the 1980s, Arizona high schoolers had to pay for their textbooks. It was Cajero who, 72 years after Arizona became a state, finally convinced her colleagues it made no sense to charge high school students to go to school.
Carmen Cajero
She inherited the quest from her husband, Bernardo, who was president of the Parent-Teacher Association at Tucson’s Pueblo High School.
Bernardo "Nayo" Cajero
Their daughter, Olivia Cajero Bedford, said he learned of kids who did not come to school. She said he would get a list of absentees and visit the parents.
“They would tell him, ‘We’re embarrassed, we can’t afford the textbooks, so we’re keeping our children home,’ ” recalled Cajero Bedford who, like her mother and father before her, now is a state legislator.
“That became his mission: to run for office and change the law,” she said. Bernardo Cajero was elected to the Legislature in 1966 but died seven years later, no closer to his goal.
His widow, Carmen, 56 at the time, persuaded the Pima County Board of Supervisors to appoint her to finish out his term. And she continued getting re-elected every two years.
But Cajero, a Democrat in a Republican-controlled Legislature, said in a 1984 interview that she’d had no idea how difficult it would be to accomplish the goal.
“Even with the budget surpluses we were running in those days, in the area of $40 million a year, everyone said we had to save that money in case there was an emergency,” she said.
For Cajero, the emergency was there for children in her district. “They sent me letters. They even sent me their bills from the (school) bookstore.”
It took until 1984 for the political winds to blow in Cajero’s favor.
A gubernatorial commission on public education supported free texts as one of its recommendations. And Gov. Bruce Babbitt called on lawmakers to provide the necessary funds.
Governor Bruce Babbit with Carmen Cajero
But what may have finally turned the tide is that House Majority Leader Burton Barr signed Cajero’s bill as a co-sponsor, giving it the official blessing of the most powerful elected Republican in the state.
Former House Minority Leader Art Hamilton said it also helped that Cajero — unlike other legislators, including himself — did not use the textbook issue as part of any larger political agenda. “They knew she just cared about the issue,” he said.
That helped her overcome an effort by Sen. Jacque Steiner, R-Phoenix, to tack the issue onto her own legislation to require students to stay in school through the 10th grade, two years longer than required at the time. But Steiner was willing to provide free texts only to those whose family incomes qualified them for the federal free-lunch program.
“When Jacque introduced her ‘only for the needy’ bill, I blew my stack,” Cajero recalled. She said those classified as needy may actually have more available cash than the working poor who do not have the benefit of welfare, food stamps and free medical care.
Hamilton said Cajero also used her position on the House Appropriations Committee to ensure Southern Arizona — and the University of Arizona in particular — did not get lost in the budget negotiations. He said she would “beat the crap out of the rest of us on making sure the U of A got its money.”
She was known for her frugal living style, trying to stretch legislators’ pay as far as possible. During sessions she lived in a travel trailer set up at a Phoenix mobile home park. Cajero retired from the Legislature in 1996.
She also is survived by another daughter, Monica Cajero, and two grandchildren.
State senator Olivia Cajero Bedford didn’t have to look far from home for mentors. She credits her parents Bernardo and Carmen Cajero with having instilled in her a passion for civic engagement and public service.
The family’s history of public service started with Olivia’s father, Bernardo “Nayo” Cajero. The Morenci native settled in Tucson and opened a barber shop in the historic barrio known as “El Hoyo.” It attracted a steady clientele of neighbors, local politicians, teachers and prominent community leaders.
He entered politics encouraged in part by individuals affiliated with the civil rights organizationAlianza Hispano Americanaand members of the Democratic Party. In 1968, he won a District 10 seat in the Arizona House of Representatives. His work as a precinct and city ward committeeman, and his popularity as an astute businessman and president of Pueblo High School’s PTA, made his election an easy victory.
In January 1973, Bernardo passed away following a series of heart attacks, just as he was beginning his third term as a state representative. Gov. Jack Williams left it to the Pima County Board of Supervisors to select his successor; Carmen Cajero, his widow, was selected to finish his term.
Assuming office, Carmen matched Nayo’s zeal and soon established her own solid reputation as a skillful and smart legislator. Her calm but firm manner won her numerous friends and the respect of colleagues, many of whom fondly called her La Paloma.
She was a champion for the elderly, the poor, women and children. She was particularly proud of introducing an education bill that had been first favored by her husband. The bill called for free textbooks for Arizona’s high school students. She fought for this bill for more than a decade; it was finally passed and signed into law in 1985.
In the 1990s, she introduced a bill that provided state funds to the University of Arizona for bone marrow and cancer research. With her support, the university’s Cancer Research Center was established. She also supported funding for a clinic in her district to help victims of water contamination and pollution. The National Honor Roll of State Legislators acknowledged Carmen for her leadership and efforts to promote and protect the rights of women.
