The counseling department is very different this year due to several new faces, including Ms. Rosie Garcia, who will be working with all freshmen and some sophomores (whose last names begin with the letters “A” through “L”).
Garcia graduated from the U of A with her bachelor’s degree in psychology; later, she earned a master’s focusing on school counseling. Before coming to Pueblo, Garcia worked with early childhood cases—home visits in the Amphitheater School District for children up to the age of five.
After volunteering much of her time as a grief counselor for families, Garcia committed to an internship at Catalina High School, which inspired her to want to help adolescents.
Garcia said, “I feel very welcomed at Pueblo already. I truly want to build relationships with Pueblo’s students, and I really want to be a resource for them and help them in any way possible.”
She added that she is passionate about working with children and foresees herself working with this age group for many years.
“I love the students [at Pueblo] so far!” Garcia said. “They’re awesome! I knew this [school] was going to be a great environment!”
Among several new faces at Pueblo, the Warriors welcome our new counselor, Ms. Rachel Bopp, who comes all the way from northern Virginia to join the Pueblo community.
Bopp worked as a counselor for five years at Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia prior to her big move to the Southwest. She said that the arid desert weather in Southern Arizona was a huge factor in her decision to move three thousand miles to Tucson.
Bopp said, “I love helping our youth population and helping them achieve their goals. I really want to help them remove any barriers that are in their way of achieving these goals.”
She added that so far she loves it here at Pueblo. However, she did express concerns about “juggling all her tasks while being available to 500 students.”
“The staff and students are very respectful, helpful and welcoming,” Bopp said. “I plan on staying here for a long, long time.”
More than one thousand Pueblo students participated in this year’s Card Castle Building Leadership activity on Friday, Aug. 14, during all seven periods, in an effort to increase team work, bring about self-awareness and learn campus responsibility.
Ms. Marie Little, auto teacher, brought this activity to Pueblo from previous trainings at various other schools. A year ago, she asked her CTE (Career and Technical Education) colleagues to take it on as a group lesson in order to reach more students.
“Mr. Mario Reyes [an intervention specialist at Pueblo] and I did this same project at Howenstine High Magnet School with the entire campus as part of a community-building activity, and it was wildly successful,” Little said. “It made a lot of sense to bring it to Pueblo.”
Mr. Pete Pederson, who teaches graphic arts and yearbook, delivered the debriefing at the end of each period, which provided our students a deeply meaning of the day’s activities.
Junior Alejandro Carrazco said, “After Mr. Pederson debriefed us, I fully understand the learning objective of the activity. We were here to learn and understand that we can overcome our obstacles. We weren’t able to talk, but we learned through other means to communicate.” He paused and said, “We learned that there are alternative ways to talk to one another.”
All students of CTE teachers and Ms. Kari Warner [student council advisor/science teacher] participated in this event.
Mr. Somoza (center in plaid shirt) with group of students
This spring semester welcomed several new faculty and staff members to the Pueblo community, including Mr. Ernesto Somoza, our new Communication Media Technology teacher.
Somoza attended the University of Arizona where he earned his bachelor’s degree in photography while minoring in art education.
While attending the University of Arizona, Somoza worked for the campus’ newspaper, The Daily Wildcat, as a photographer. The significant amount of hours that he invested while working for the Wildcat (and later with Red Bull as a photographer) was enough for Somoza to earn a CTE teaching certification in photography.
After graduating from college, Somoza took his first teaching position working as a special education teacher at Utterback Middle and later at Oyama Elementary School.
Eventually, Somoza saw an opportunity to teach photography, and this position eventually brought him to Pueblo.
“I wanted to find a job that was close to home and one that I got to teach photography and graphic arts,” said Somoza. “It’s exciting coming to work [at Pueblo] because I’m teaching what I truly love.”
Somoza is teaching a new class here at Pueblo that educates and trains students about enrolling in communications media technologies courses.
“This class hopefully breaks the monotony of how school is set up,” Somoza said. He added, “This class helps students understand basic concepts while making them more creative while adhering to the Common Core.”
Although Somoza came in at the beginning of the second semester—and the class is something both new to him and his students—Somoza remains optimistic and positive.
“So far, my experience at Pueblo has been great!” Somoza said. “The students are enthusiastic, and that makes me excited to teach when I see that they are excited.” He added, “I’ve already seen students’ creative levels increase, and I can just imagine where they’ll be by May.”
Somoza’s goal for the remainder of the school year is to ensure that his students are prepared to enter the appropriate communications art class next fall.
“I’m hoping that when students leave this class in May, they’re able to amaze their next teachers,” said Somoza.
Somoza also has hopes to see more students, especially the underclassmen, enroll in his class as they prepare for the communication art electives.
“I would encourage students to take this class if they are interested in taking classes like photography or graphic arts,” said Somoza. “This class is about going more in depth with the outstanding programs that are offered here at Pueblo.”
Pueblo’s advanced theatre students participated in the Southern Arizona Festival of Theatre at the University of Arizona on January 24, to compete against other drama programs in Tucson area high schools.
Senior Andrea Martinez won three superior ratings, qualifying her for state in Phoenix. She performed monologues from Jake’s Women by Neil Simon and The Scottish Play by William Shakespeare.
Martinez said, “It was an overwhelming experience! I got to spend this moment with people who have the same passion as me. This experience taught me a lot about myself.”
Ms. Sarah Sutton, Pueblo’s drama teacher, said, “I knew during rehearsals that Andrea Martinez was doing really well. I was and am very proud of her.”
Pueblo’s drama students who attended the festival performed solo monologues, small group plays; musicals, and duets.
Sutton began preparing her students after winter break, which involved daily practices to be competitive by late January. Her students selected their own material that they wanted to perform.
Senior Santos Barbosa said, “Everyone there tried their very best and had lots of fun.” Barbosa said that he performed a duet from the play/movie, The Producers called “We Can Do It”with his drama class peer, Gilbert Becerra, a junior.
Sutton said, “I’m hoping that we continue this tradition each year. I’m confident that this year’s beginning students will eventually be in competition with other drama students across Southern Arizona.”
