Student Life

New members for West Linn staff

Alex Sisca
October 19, 2012

Wen Kuo:

Previously working at Beaverton’s international school and Portland’s international school, Wen Kuo, Chinese teacher, is pleased to be a part of the West Linn High faculty. Kuo finds the staff and students very hard working.

“The teachers are very professional and the students are highly motivated to learn,” Kuo said.

Kuo grew up in Taipei, Taiwan , making her school experiences unique. According to Kuo, elementary school teachers had authority and were respected. She was taught in an old fashioned style. As a child she was taught obedience and there were many academic pressures. The teacher were allowed to hit the students. If students didn’t achieve 100, then they were hit. Kuo has heard schools there are no longer operated the same way.

For Chinese this year, Kuo suggests that students take the extra mile and work hard.

“Don’t take shortcuts to success since they tend to take longer,” Kuo said.

Mike Fanger:

Another “Link 2U,” for freshmen, Mike Fanger, accelerated pathways and P.E teacher. helps freshmen transition from middle school to high school. He advises freshmen on study habits, making sure they use planners, setting goals and meeting deadlines.

“ I have been helping them [freshman] with the transition and getting them off to a good start…every grade matters and affects your college life and is important,” Fanger said.“I try to explain it’s not middle school… deadlines should be met and not waiting until the last minute.”

This year Fanger hopes that the freshman can have a welcoming experience, even if he thinks he can come across strict.

“I can come across a little serious, but really I’m easy to approach and I like having fun,” Fanger said.

Coming to West Linn High school from Lincoln high school has been a positive move for Fanger.

“The community has been fantastic and very welcoming,” Fanger said.

Fanger is also the new varsity football coach this year and teaches weight training and one period of advanced P.E.

Fanger’s day is split between spending his morning focusing on accelerated pathways and the other half teaching P.E.

Donate to wlhsNOW

$145

$500

Contributed

Our Goal

Your donation will support the student journalists of West Linn High School. Your contribution will allow us to continue to produce quality content by purchasing equipment, software, and continuing to host our website on School Newspapers Online (SNO).

About the Contributor

Alex Sisca, Reporter

Dazzling fireworks and decorative birthday cakes are the essence of July for Alessandra Sisca, Senior. While she celebrates the Fourth of July with usual traditions, the day marks the end of a two-day celebration that begins with her July third birthday.

“I don’t really think of it like my birthday,” Sisca said. “When it’s Fourth of July, I do what most people do—if we’re at the beach, sometimes [my family will] do a cookout and we’ll go to the parade—if we’re home we’ll do something quiet. My neighbors go up to Washington and buy fireworks, and basically you hear them from the time it barely gets dark until midnight. So we basically get our own firework show.”

The excitement of this summer has transitioned straight into the new school year. Sisca has been absent from Amplifier for the past two years, but she has decided to return to West Linn High School’s independent newspaper for her final year in high school.

For Sisca, freshman year of high school marked the beginning of a journey and a new passion. Sisca has worked with the Oregon City Children’s Theater as an aide in shows and a mentor to young actors for the last four years. The organization, according to Sisca, is an independently-run program that is “an open theater to anybody.”

For two shows, she has worked backstage, and recently Sisca debuted as an actress in two other shows. The shows that she has acted in were “Alice in Wonderland” as a Jabberwocky and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” as an Italian reporter. She was able to take advantage of her Italian heritage by displaying an authentic Italian accent.

“I kind of tried to imitate the way my grandparents speak,” Sisca said.

Because the productions are put on by a small collection of people, fundraising is done completely by those who run it. The sets, according to Sisca, are not as extravagant as Broadway and even some high school displays, but she considers them to be a good quality for a community theater. Sisca’s favorite set was from “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”

“It was a lot of fun to set up all the rooms in the factory, “ Sisca said. “It was a lot of fun to watch everything come to life.”

Sisca feels that theater has helped herself grow as a person.

“I’ve learned a lot about myself through theater. It’s kind of fun because the director, Michelle, makes the experience fun for everyone,” Sisca said.

While Sisca is involved with the theater beyond school, she hopes to sleep at a decent hour and raise her GPA. After high school, Sisca plans to fulfill her graduation requirements and afterwards attend the University of Windsor in Canada. There she will study business in the hopes of one day running her own dress shop. This shop, Sisca described, will contain dresses of all shapes, sizes, colors and styles.