The Gladiator
Libra Academy's news source
Our Team
Team Leaders:These consist of the leaders of the newspaper, the website, and the yearbook.
Angelica Evangelista
Web Co-editor
My name is Angie Evangelista. I am 16 years old and a junior at Libra Academy. I am from Huntingtinton Park but moved to South Central about 3 years ago. My favorite hobby is drawing, painting, or anything that has to do with art. Something interesting about me is that I love animals. I have fostered about 10 animals ever since I moved to LA. My role for the journalism class is co-editor of the website.
Larissa Amezcua
Yearbook editor
My name is Larissa Amezcua and I am 17 and in 12th grade. I am from Huntington Park and was born in Mission Hospital. My favorite hobby is playing basketball. I am terrified to death of critters that fly or basically anything that has wings. My role is yearbook editor and I wish to bring encouragement so that everyone will participate and be involved in this years yearbook.
Nayely Granados
Yearbook Co-editor
My name is Nayely Granados and I am 17 in 12th Grade. I was born and raised in South Central. My favorite hobby is hiking and dancing hip hop. Something interesting about myself would be that I volunteer at The Children’s Hospital and read to the patients. My role in the journalism class is that I am co-editor of the yearbook and I am working on the student-life section of the yearbook. I wish to contribute in the class by inputting many ideas to make the yearbook great.
Albert Peralta
Chief Editor
My name is Albert Peralta and I am an 11th grader. I get told that I look older than what I really am, but I think it’s just because I’m 6 feet tall. I was born in the year 1998 which would make me 16 years old. I’ve lived all of my life near this general area of Southern California. I’ve lived in South Gate, Walnut Park, and in Huntington Park. This obviously means that I have moved houses countless times and there are still more to come. I attended Miles Avenue and then Gage Middle School. I didn’t want to go to Huntington Park High because of the reputation that it had so I signed up to LIBRA Academy instead. I don’t have a crazy life outside of school. I’ll very likely be found at home working on my daily tasks as I always have something to do. My current hobby is to listen to music and make an attempt to play it. Other than that, I live an ordinary life. I’ve taken Journalism for three consecutive years at LIBRA so I believe that all that familiarity has trained for the position I hold. As a matter of fact, I used to be an editor, a copy editor, a writer, and a layout editor. I earned a promotion and I am now the Editor-in-Chief, or the Chief Editor (which ever sounds better), of the school newspaper. My main goal for this year is to use our bigger journalism team to expand on the newspaper that is already established. I want to publish the newspaper that we could only dream of in the last journalism class.
Justin Perea
Co-editor
My name is Justin M. Perea, I’m in the 12th grade and am 17 years old. I am from Huntington Park and was born in Mission Hospital. My favorite pastime would be spending time with friends, whether we are playing soccer or hanging out, I’m having a great time. I can name almost every Star Wars character. My position in this journalism class is co-editor of the paper, I’m still seeing about the whole filming thing. What I wish to do in this journalism class is contribute my leadership, my experience in film, and my writing.
Jesus Estrada
Web Editor
Jesus Estrada is the web editor, so yeah, he is in charge of this website along with the help of the amazing web editing team. During his early childhood, Jesus lived in South Central Los Angeles until he moved to Huntington Park at the age of 12. Jesus enjoys taking long walks, running cross country, reading random online articles, napping, doing math (sometimes) and taking care of his marigolds. He is friendly, loves hugs and to smile, and is a member of the best suite in the world—Suite 210! As web editor, Jesus intends to make a website that not only informs, but impacts and makes easier the life of his fellow LIBRA students. Moreover, he wants to provide a public medium for his journalism colleagues to demonstrate their writing skills, express their opinions when necessary, and be appreciated.
The Web Team: They are in charge of this website
Cesar Becerra
Web Design
My name is Cesar Andres Becerra I’m 15 years old and I'm in the 11th grade. I'm from Huntington Park, but I was born in Downey. Some of my hobbies are playing soccer, running in cross country and like every other kid playing video games. My role in the Journalism class in the inputter for the LIBRA newspaper website, which I just put in all the stories into the website. What I would like to contribute to the journalism class is my hard work, meaning that I will do anything that the class assigns me.
Andrea Estrada
Website Event Director
Andrea Estrada is in the web design team along with her journalism classmates. She’s responsible for putting up the events on the website. She makes sure to help her fellow LIBRAns keep up with the school events. Andrea was born in East Los Angeles but lived in South Central Los Angeles until she moved to Huntington Park at the age of 13. Andrea likes watching good movies, taking photographs, reading a good book, napping, and taking care of her venus fly trap. Her favorite movies are Sabrina, Rear Window and How Harry Met Sally. She is sweet, loves to sleep, and volunteers at the Huntington Park Library for their children science program. She helps children out with the cool science projects that the program offers. People who Andrea looks up to are her mother, Grace Kelly, and Indra Nooyi. As part of the web design team, Andrea intends to make the website somewhere where students can go to know what is happening in their school. She also wants to help provide a website for her journalism classmates to show their writing skills and opinions to their fellow LIBRA scholars.
Israel Garcia
Blogger
My name is Israel Garcia. I am 16 years old and currently in the 12th grade. I was born in Huntington Park and have lived here all my life. I have many pastimes and hobbies. One example is that I swim competitively. In my free time I also enjoy reading. I'm 5 inches and 11 feet, but thats not good enough. I'm going for that 6’0. My role in journalism class is web design and to blogs on the website regularly. I wish to contribute my experiences and knowledge to the journalism class in order to come up with new ideas.
Joseph Hernandez
Website Designer
My name is Joseph Hernandez and I am 15 in the 11th grade. I am from Huntington Park. My favorite hobby is playing PC games. Something interesting about myself is I have a lot of different interests like basketball, and video games. My role in the journalism class is to help create the online website for the newspaper. I wish to contribute and excellent and engaging website that will make people interested in journalism and the Libra newspaper.
Alex Morales
Graphic Designer/Photographer
My name is Alex Morales, I am 16 years old and am currently in the 11th grade. I am from Huntington Park, California. Some of the things I enjoy include hiking on the weekends, photographing bugs and other wildlife, I like nature photography in general. I have two geckos and a dog at the moment and hope to get a few more pets such as a flying squirrel, ribbon snake, gerbils, chinchilla, bearded dragon, etc. I am one of the graphic designers in the journalism class and I may also take some pictures if I’m needed to. I hope to help make the website look interesting, yet easy to use. I also hope to help take some pictures if they need me to.
Jonathan Orozco
Web Designer
Jonathan Orozco, 16 year old, senior at Libra Academy from Huntington Park. My favorite pastime is to research on interesting things about history. Something interesting about me is that I would like to travel the world and visit the ruins in Rome and Greece. The role I play in my journalism class is a web designer. I wish to contribute my skills that I've used before when creating a website, I've had experience with it and it has interested me since.
Miguel Valadez
Stories Collector
My name is Miguel Valadez. I am 17 years old and currently a senior. I am from the United States and was born in Whittier. My favorite hobby is playing soccer, football, and I also enjoy cooking. I enjoy eating. My role for this Journalism class is collecting the work that is needed and pushing to meet the deadlines. I am also going to input the stories along with getting news for the entertainment section. I wish to be useful to this class by offering my service for what is needed.
Print Team: LIBRA Newspaper
Edgar Alvarez
Writer
My name is Edgar Alvarez, I am 16 years old, and I am in the 12th grade. I was born in Huntington Park, California. You can usually find me watching T.V. , playing basketball and playing video games. I am interested in journalism and news. I wish to assist by writing for the newspaper.
Samantha Camargo
Writing
My name is Samantha Camargo I am 16 years old in the 11th grade. I am from Huntington Park. In my free time I enjoy hanging out with my friends. My position in this journalism class is a writer, I will contribute to this class by using my writing skills.
Steven Corona
Column Writer
My name is Steven Corona I am 17 years old and I am in the 12th grade. I was born and raised in Los Angeles. One of my hobbies is playing the guitar. Some things that are interesting about me are I have gone to the Middle East and I can speak Arabic and I’m a Mormon. My role in the Journalism class is working on the column section. What I wish to contribute to the class is to entertain and inform in the school newspaper.
Asuri Garcia
Writer
My name is Asuri Garcia and I am 17 and I am in 12th grade. I am from Los Angeles, California and I have been living in Huntington Park all my life. My favorite hobbies/pastime are drawing, listening to music, and I love to solve puzzles. Something interesting about myself is that I go out to give food to the homeless that are in downtown Los Angeles. My role in Journalism class is to write amazing stories for the newspaper. I wish to contribute interesting stories that everyone in Libra Academy will like.
Wendy Flores
Writer
My name is Wendy Flores and I am 16 in 11th grade. I am from California. My favorite hobby/pastime is discovering new music, painting my nails, writing short stories, going record shopping. Something interesting about myself is I lived in Arizona for a year, came out in a parade when I was in second grade and have been to six concerts. My role in the journalism class is writing stories for the newspaper. I wish to contribute fun and creative stories that will entertain the students at LIBRA.
Desiree Gonzalez
Writer
My name is Desiree Gonzalez. I’m sixteen years old and an 11th grader. I’m an only child and I’ve lived all life in Huntington Park. My favorite hobby is reading books. My role in the Journalism class is to write articles. I wish to contribute to the class with new ideas.
Jesus Hernandez
Local News Reporter
My name is Jesus Hernandez and I'm in the 11th grade at 16-years-old. I’m from Phoenix, AZ and some of my favorite hobbies are playing Call Of Duty and weightlifting. Some interesting thing about me is that I like to mod video games. My role in the journalism is to report local news. What I wish to contribute to the class is good stories even though I do not want them to be printed.
Ely Israel Mendez
Writer/Feature Editor
My name is Ely Israel Mendez, a 15-year-old Junior. I was born here in California, but my parents were born in Guatemala. My favorite pastime/hobby is spending time with my friends and family. I also like building things from scraps. I also enjoy working with my dad in construction and drinking Monsters. Something interesting about myself is that I have survived death twice so far, and I hope to do so again in the future. My role in the Journalism class is a writer and maybe a feature editor. I wish to contribute to the class my formal writing and my intelligence. I also wish to contribute my best work overall.
Jessica Morales
Writer
My name is Jessica Morales and I am 15 years old in 11th grade. I am from Los Angeles. There's absolutely nothing I love more than writing. I've written hundreds of works... let's go for a thousand! Something interesting about myself is I have a dog named Cat & a cat named Tiger. Go figure. In the Journalism class I am a writer. As a writer my role is to create pieces relevant to our audience and collaborate with the rest of the writing team to assemble what goes on to print. I aspire to contribute my literary talent to this class as well as a professional manner of dealing with academic matters. Also, I am founding a new project with a focus in literature. The successful completion of such project would ultimately be my greatest contribution to our Journalism class.
Alejandra Perez
Investigative reporter
My name is Alejandra Perez and I am 16 years old. I am an 11th grader and I am from California. My favorite pastime is to spend time with my family. I like to play basketball with my cousins and brothers at home. My role in journalism class is to be an investigative reporter. I wish I could contribute a good and interesting story for the school newspaper.
Daniel Santos
Investigative reporter
My name is Daniel Santos, I'm 16-years-old and I am in 11th grade. I was born here in the United States but I do have Guatemalan blood as my parents are both from Guatemala. My favorite hobby is playing soccer, I am very passionate about it. Something interesting about myself is that I have been collecting World Cup sticker albums for the past eight years and i currently own three. My role in the journalism class is investigative reporter. Most of the time I'll be investigating topics to write about for the feature section of our newspaper. I wish to contribute to the class by writing interesting stories in order to attract more readers to our newspaper.
Yearbook Team
David Deniz
Photo Editor
My name is David Deniz and I am 15 in 11th grade. I was born in Bellflower and raised in Huntington Park. My favorite hobby is to watch tv shows on Netflix. Something interesting about myself is I like to run even though I Don't look like an active person. My role in the Journalism class is that I am a photo editor for the yearbook. I wish to contribute a great yearbook this year.
Dario Galvan
Interviewer
My name is Dario Galvan and I’m 15 years old and in the 11th grade. I live in Huntington Park, California. My hobbies include playing basketball and lying down. My role in journalism class is to interview people for the yearbook; I wish to contribute my interviews to this class.
Natalie Hernandez
Yearbook
My name is Natalie Hernandez, I'm 16 years old and in the 11th grade. I was born in East Los Angeles and raised in Huntington Park. I like playing volleyball and watching movies. Something interesting about myself are my facial expressions. My role in the journalism class involves working on the yearbook. I wish to create a great yearbook along with the other members in my group.
Stephanie Isiordia
Photographer
My name is Stephanie Isiordia, I'm 16 years old and I'm in the 11th grade. I was born in Chinatown, but was raised in Huntington Park. My favorite hobby is doing hair and makeup. Something interesting about myself is that I love kids but wouldn't want to have any (Idk what to put). My role in the class is a photographer in the yearbook. I would hope that in this class I contribute good quality photos and lots of my participation.
Brenda Lopez
Photographer
My name is Brenda Lopez and I am 16 in 11th grade. I am from Huntington Park, California. My favorite hobby is playing basketball. Something interesting about myself is that I played basketball. My role in the journalism class is that I am the club’s photographer. I hope to offer my help in the yearbook's pictures or stories as well as the ones in the newspaper.
Pedro Molina
Layout Editor
My name is Pedro Molina, I’m 17 years old and in the 12th grade. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. I really enjoy playing sports; I love pushing my body to exhaustion while having fun. Something interesting about myself is that I broke my left ankle twice the same year while playing soccer. In my journalism class I participate in the yearbook committee. I was recently assigned to be the layout editor. I wish to contribute my hard work and dedication to the big project I have ahead of me for the class of 2015.
Daizy Perez
Designer/Photographer
Daizy Perez is 17 years old, and is a senior in Libra Academy at Linda Marquez High School. She was born and rise in Los Angeles, California. Daizy’s favorite hobby is playing soccer with her friends and making music in her free time. She had been playing guitar for more than six years and also knows how to play the flute. Not only that, but she has also been an active girl since she was a kid doing karate. Daizy’s role in Journalism is working with yearbook being a photographer and designer.
Jairo Reyes
Sports Editor
My name is Jairo Reyes, I’m 16 and and I am a 12th grader. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. My favorite hobby is playing sports like football and basketball. Something interesting about me is that I play for the Marquez football team as an offensive and defensive lineman. My role in the journalism class is to see what pictures are appropriate for the sports section in the yearbook and I wish to contribute to the class by being the sports editor.
Yvonne Reyes
Yearbook
My name is Yvonne Reyes, I am 16 and in the 11th grade. I live in Huntington Park, California. My Hobbies consist of listening to music and hanging out with my friends. I play the violin and I am also part of the yearbook team. I wish to contribute to the journalism class by helping others and having good collaboration skills.
Ashley Rojas
Yearbook
My name is Ashley Rojas and I am 16 years old in 11th grade. I was born in Provo City, Utah and was raised in Los Angeles, California. I am big fan of listening to music. One thing that I find interesting about myself is that I am a good listener. My role in Journalism is in Yearbook. What I would want to contribute to the class is to create ideas to make the yearbook different from the years we've had.
Stephanie Verdin
Yearbook
My name is Stephanie Verdin, I'm 16 years old and in the 11th grade. I was born in Bellflower and raised in Huntington Park. My favorite hobby is to spend time with my family doing activities. Something interesting about me is that I have a contagious laugh. My role in journalism class is to contribute in yearbook. I wish to contribute to the class a wonderful memorable yearbook.