Employee of the Month: Mr. Gawronski

By: Stella Bock

Mr. Gawronski, an Air Force JROTC instructor/Aerospace Science instructor, has earned Employee of the Month for February.

Mr. Gawronski is an Air force JROTC instructor/Aerospace science instructor here at Poston Butte. He has been in active duty Air Force for 22 years; this was where he eventually met his wife. Mr. Gawronski has 3 kids, and his son is in active duty Air Force.

During his active duty in the Air Force, he has traveled to 6 different duty locations all around the US; Mr. Gawronski eventually met his wife in the Air Force. In his spare time away from the Air Force and Poston Butte, he likes to spend time with his family, travel, and go camping up North, especially Payson and State Parks. Mr. Gawronski is proud of many things, but one of the things he’s the most proud of is being able to mentor and guide cadets and to watch them grow into the future leaders he knows they’ll be.

Mr. Gawronski loves working at Poston Butte. He loves working with the staff, and he is always excited to come to school. The cadets he works with are amazing and such hard workers. “They are amazing to work with; to see them grow, and watch them become independent,” stated Mr. Gawronski, with a smile on his face. He loves mentoring, guiding, and caring for his cadets. He loves watching them make their own decisions and watching them again become independent. One of the things he tells his cadets is “to not have an A blood type or an O blood type but a Be positive one.” Mr. Gawronski is a fun, positive human being who believes the classroom should alway be a safe and positive place. Another thing, Mr. Gawronski does not give up on anyone. When his cadets say that they can’t do it, he tells them, “Cry me a river” because he believes that they can always be better (also because it is his favorite Justin Timberlake song).

Mr. Gawronski doesn’t imagine himself in any other job than the one he has. He loves his job because of the people and positive environment surrounding him. Even though Mr. Gawronski says he just earned Employee of the Month by luck, I would say that he definitely deserved it.

Book Review

By Farrah Muhammad

White Ivy by Susie Yang

“​​Give with one hand and take with the other. No one will be watching both.”

Susie Yang’s debut novel White Ivy follows the main character, Ivy Lin, a Chinese immigrant growing up in Boston, Massachusetts with her parents and grandmother. Ivy’s incredibly savvy grandmother, Meifeng, teaches her how to pilfer items to fit in with her peers. Coupled with her parent’s enormous expectations, Ivy turns to stealing and lying to keep up with an unattainable standard.

All of Ivy’s desires are wrapped up in her childhood crush Gideon Speyer: an effortless, wealthy child of politicians. Ivy sets her sights on Gideon in her youth. Years later, she stops at nothing and no one when she finally encounters him.

This book is reminiscent of classics such as The Great Gatsby, with a desperate, yet sympathetic anti-heroine at the focal point of the story. In addition, White Ivy includes an extra layer of nuance by intertwining a young female lead and the struggles of a first-generation immigrant.

Susie Yang’s writing is extremely descriptive and raw. The writing structure takes readers through Ivy’s upbringing and later reveals the way she navigates adulthood. This made me extremely sympathetic to Ivy’s struggles and goals, despite her self-destructive tendencies.

White Ivy contains two major plot twists. I really enjoyed the elements of surprise that elevated this novel from a simple coming-of-age story to a more contemporary, thrilling story. However, I wish that the twists had been revealed sooner in the novel. I felt like the plot twists were more of a surprise ending and left me wishing they had been further developed.

Also, I liked that this book remained solely in Ivy’s point of view. Oftentimes, readers can weave through multiple points of view and know more than the characters themselves. However, the single point of view revealed just how unreliable Ivy’s narration was. Her assessments of her own family, friendships, and romantic relationships were completely clouded by her single story.

Overall, White Ivy was a very engaging read. I loved that it diverged from the typical main character and provided insight on cultural expectations, desperation, and the divide between the things we want and the things we need.

Rating: 8.5/10