Newspaper

Sage is creating a new newspaper called "The Forum"! If anyone is curious about current events or politics, the Forum has some great articles written by our students. Anyone is allowed to contribute to the Forum, and that includes faculty as well! The first newspaper comes out soon, so don't forget to pick up a copy!
-Ellen

P.S. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend!=]

Community Service!!!

Hey everyone!

There are several ways you can help out your community! SAGE is currently hosting two great community service programs, the Angel Tree Drive and the Maricopa Book Drive. Make sure to check them out, because they are both amazing ways to give back to your community! Here is some info on both of them:

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Angel Tree Drive

Where: The tree is currently set up in the DV Guidance Center.

When: All tags are due December 11th, 2008. That's a Thursday, so don't be late!

Who: The names of the requesters are on the tags, and their ages range from newborn to 50+.

Purpose: The Angel Tree Drive is a touching way to make one less fortunate person's Christmas much better! Each tag on the tree has the name of a person and two gifts that they are requesting. Our task is to help grant their wishes by going out and buying both gifts that they are asking for.

How: Once you take a tag, you must sign up in the Guidance Department by giving your name, the name of the person that will be recieving your gifts, and the names of the two gifts you are donating. Afterwards, when you bring your unwrapped gifts in, you should attach the tag to the presents before placing them underneath the tree. Remember, leave them unwrapped!

About the SAGE Angel Tree Drive (From Mr. White):

The SAGE Angel Tree Drive is in conjunction with A New Leaf (formerly PREHAB of Arizona), an organization that serves the needs of families who are homeless and/or abused. For those of you not familiar with the program, every year the Desert Vista SAGE Club coordinates a school wide program to fulfill a two item wish list for hundreds of individuals who are homeless, either because of financial reasons or because they are seeking safety from an abusive home. As you may already know, hard financial times mean that rates of homelessness and domestic abuse increase; as a result, A New Leaf is experiencing an overwhelming number of needy families. Therefore, we are looking to assist 200 individuals, as opposed to our normal 150. If you feel as though you might be financially strapped this year, understand that many of the items individuals ask for are quite simple, such as diapers, a teething toy, a packet of toy cars, a doll, a pad of paper, etc. It is important that the needs of these individuals are served, so whether you are or are not able to give this year, please pass this information to friends and family.

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Maricopa Book Drive

Where: The boxes are located in the library, the Guidance Office, and the front office

When: Similar to the Angel Tree Drive, books are due on Thursday, December 11, 2008

Who: The receivers of these books will be the students of the Maricopa Unified School District, schools K-8.

How: This book drive is for anybody with dusty picture books stashed away at home! These books may no longer hold any importance to you, but they can help out a needy kid. Books can be dropped off at any of the three centers mentioned above. Please make sure they are age appropriate! Books can be newly purchased or used, and sign-up sheets will be placed next to each box if you wish to receive community service hours.

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More opportunities...

Another great community service opportunity to look out for is the Festival of Lights. 100+ volunteers are needed on November 29th, and it's a fun way to earn your community service hours!

The kick off party is on November 29th, 2008. There are four shifts that you can currently apply for:

Shift #1 - 10:30 am - 1:30 pm
Shift #2 - 1:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Shift #3 - 4:30 pm to 7:30 pm
Break Down - 7pm to 10pm

Activities include working at the game booths, selling tickets, manning an inflatable activity, working in concession booths, and much more!

Also, you can sign up to work at the Hayrides (Saturdays, December 13th and 20th) and the Light Removal (Saturday, January 10th, 2009)

For more information on signing up for the Festival of Lights, you can contact Alix Parker, president of Desert Vista's Key Club.

You can also apply directly at their home page:

http://www.folaz.org/volunteers.php

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I hope to see everybody participating in these great events! Remember, both the Maricopa Book Drive and the Angel Tree Drive come to a close on December 11th, 2008.

~Grace Ma, Community Service Officer

Mentorship Lunch

SAGE Club is having a Mentorship Lunch on Friday, December 5th. (This was previously planned for November 20th, but the date has been changed because POs take longer than I thought - sorry if there was any confusion!) Nearly all mentors have the same lunch period as their mentees, so this is a really great opporunity to get to know each other. (If you don't have the same lunch, I have already contacted you, so if you haven't gotten an e-mail from me about mismatched lunch periods, then you're fine.) The lunch will be in the Counseling Office, and there will be free pizza! Mentors should send an e-mail to their mentees to make sure they are coming. If you can come, please send me a quick e-mail at iridescentbubbles@hotmail.com and let me know, so I can make sure we'll have enough pizza for everyone.

Also, I would like to remind all mentors to email your mentees once a week and send a copy to me. If you're not sure what to talk about, here are some examples of really great topics that I've seen mentors discussing with their mentees:
- Community service opporunities (recent/upcoming examples: Festival of Lights, Feed My Starving Children, canned food drive, Relay for Life, Maricopa Book Drive, Angel Tree, DV library, Irownwood library)
- SAT / ACT tips (some mentors include SAT vocab or the SAT Question of the Day with every e-mail)
- Scholarship opportunities (fastweb.com, the school scholarship site, etc.)
- Information about DV clubs and activities
- General tips about school, stress, studying, and time management

Also, mentors should always be avaliable for tutoring their mentees and for answering any questions that their mentees have.

Again, don't forget to send me an e-mail if you plan to attend the mentorship lunch!

I'll see you there,

Lauren Zack
Mentorship Coordinator

Career Fields of Study

Hello to everyone, I am Sonia Sen the Career / Fields of Study Coordinator for your DV SAGE club!!

As high schoolers we are all bombarded by that one nagging question that there really is no answer to: “What do you want to be when you grow up?’

The truth is that there is an innumerable amount of things that you can do when you grow up. From being a musician to a doctor to an underwater basket weaver; the list goes on. If you do know what you want to do, that’s great and fantastic and you should give yourself a pat on the back. But for the rest of us who have no idea whatsoever of what we would be interested in doing as a career there is hope!!

The counseling office has a number of different ways that you can find out about jobs in the work force. The Events Binder situated on the front counter not only has college visitors but also people who want to talk to you about their jobs. They’ve had a wide range of people already come in from teachers to lawyers and all you have to do is sign up. You can ask them questions and find out how your daily schedule would look if you were to have their job. It is a great opportunity to get to know more about said job.

Now if you have NO clue at all there is still hope for you as well!! Tests that can tell you, based on your interests, what jobs would be suitable for you can be found in the counseling office as well.
ASVAB is being proctored December 4 at 7:30 a.m. and you can sign up in the events binder in the counseling office; sign up closes December 1, so hurry!! (sidenote: this test stands for Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery meaning that is geared towards students interested in the military; this does Not mean you can’t take it if you don’t want to go into the army, you’ll just be getting a lot mail/email from the military urging you to enlist)
If you don’t want the excess mail from the military there is another test that is offered by the counseling office which is a computer survey which basically does the same thing: takes into accounts your interests and tells you some jobs that you would be like based on that. It takes about 45 minutes and to take the test, talk to Diana Brown in the counseling office.

I think that no matter what you choose to do with your life, the single most important thing is to make sure you’re happy doing it. I also believe that as a high schooler the most effective way to find out what you’re passionate about if through volunteering, interning, or even getting a part-time job. Make sure you’re doing things that YOU ENJOY not things that you think other people would like to see you be doing.

For most internships you will have to go out and find internships that are available for you in the field that you are looking for. Don’t get an internship with a doctor if you want to be an engineer!! Opportunities are out there waiting for you!!

That same philosophy goes with volunteering. Remember it is supposed to help the community, not you; the trick is to make it work for you. If you want to become a doctor go and volunteer at the hospital not if you want to become a history professor. Never forget that volunteering is a selfless thing which also looks good for you. Don’t forget that volunteering isn’t about the hours or your resume—it’s for the betterment of society :]

RELAY 4 LIFE!!!!!

SAGE Members,

GO TO RELAY 4 LIFE KICK-OFF TONIGHT!!!!

Bring $50 and sign up your team! (If you sign up later, it's $10 per person...which means you could pay up to $150...)

Location: Mountain Pointe Drama Room
Time: 6:30 PM
Date: TODAY!!!!

Volunteer Opportunity

First of all, remember to come to the college information meeting tomorrow (Wednesday the 5th)!! Even if you aren't a junior or senior this will help, it's never to early to start planning for the future!


If anyone is looking for a local volunteering opportunity, Thursday the 6th there will be a volunteer training session at the Ironwood Library from 4-5 pm. Once you are trained you can set up a regular volunteering schedule throughout the school year.

If you are interested, call the library at (602) 534-1910 or email Sheila Levine at sheila.levine@phxlib.org


Thanks & see you at the meeting tomorrow!
Alyssa McAlister
Public Relations Officer