April edition

INTL School Trips

6th grade trip

Noel (7th)

The 6th graders went to Big Sur, California. They were split up into two buses and drove about 2 hours until they got to their destination. At the campsite, they got split up into 3 large groups and did all of the activities in those together in those groups. The activities included Hikes, Astronomy talks and they also had to do chores. “The food was great and I think everyone can agree with me!” -Noel Liechti. The food was delicious and freshly made at the site. One of the activities was going to the beach where the 6th graders got split up into teams and made artworks with nature. On the last day, they got to eat smores and present the skits they practiced in our groups during the week. Overall, the trip was very enjoyable.

7th grade trip

Ethan & Alia (7th)

Filled with avid enthusiasm, this year’s 7th graders started their trip to Catalina Island at San Jose airport, where they boarded the plane, and took off for their mere 45 minute flight to Long Beach county, in Los Angeles. They took a bus to the boy scout’s community center in Cabrillo, where they unloaded their luggage and explored the rocky tide pools off the coast of California (which is federal land). At night, they slept on the second floor of the building, just outside of the cafeteria.

Click to read more about the 7th grade trip

On Tuesday, the 7th graders, after waking up and eating breakfast, started the day with a class about marine mammals. After that, they made sculptures of marine animals in the sand on the small beach next to the boy scout community center. Following the sculpture-making activity, the 7th graders played a game about predators in the ocean.

On Wednesday, the 7th graders woke up bright and early at 4 am to catch a ferry to Catalina Island (which was delayed two days due to storms). After arriving and setting up their cabins, the 7th grade students learned about fish and had free time. They also rotated between snorkeling, kayaking, and dissecting squid that afternoon.

On Thursday, the 7th grade students did their final activity that was not completed the previous day. After that, they had an open waterfront (where they could go in the ocean if they wanted or stay on the beach) and time to rehearse skits. Their skits included information they learned and making fun of teachers and instructors. After performing their skits, the 7th graders ate brownies around the campfire.

Friday, their final day on Catalina, concluded their trip with a short award ceremony to commend their efforts in their skits, and their note taking from the classes. After taking a boat to mainland Catalina, and taking a boat from there to Long Beach, they flew back to San Jose and reunited with their families.

8th grade trip

Tessa & Jax (7th)

SVINTL 8th graders had the opportunity to visit Washington D.C. for the entire week of April 11th. They stayed in luxury hotels during their trip. The students visited famous monuments, experienced everyday life in the 1700s, and ate scrumptious food. Students visited multiple museums, gaining considerable knowledge throughout the trip. 6th and 7th graders will receive the same opportunity to visit Washington D.C. in the future.

9/10th grade

Ryan, Wylan, Lili & Lucie (7th)

The 9th and 10th graders recently went to the Henry Coe State Park. They had a massive backpacking trip in the countryside. Students carried everything they needed in a backpack. They had an amazing time there! A week later, the same group took a flight out of SFO. After stopping over at George Bush International Airport they finally took the last flight to Costa Rica's capital, San José. Around the estate were lush green rain forests with all different kinds of animals.

(Click the arrow to read more about the trip)

Each person had their own bed and their own select complexes, there were even hammocks! When it came to eating their meals, they had to have their elbows on the table and use a knife to eat. The meal itself included jerk chicken, beans, and rice. For transportation, they would use pickup trucks. On the back of these trucks, there was an awning that sheltered the passengers on the back of the bus. One of the activities the 9th graders did was planting a full-grown banana tree to provide a shadow for the cocoa beans.

Earth Day

Alia (7th)

Earth Day was created to increase awareness of environmental problems. It takes place on April 22nd every year. How and why did this, while not national, still important, holiday start?

In the years leading up to the first Earth Day, Americans were badly polluting the air. At the time, many people were not aware of the effects of pollution on the environment. Senator Gaylord Nelson, from Wisconsin, had been concerned about the environment in the U.S.A. Then, in 1969, he, along with many others, saw the oil spill in Santa Barbara.

(click to read more about Earth day)

Senator Nelson wanted to mix the energy of student anti-war protests with public awareness about pollution. Later, he announced an idea for a teach-in to national media. He persuaded conservation-minded congressman Pete McCloskey to be his co-chair. They hired Denis Hayes, an activist, to organize the teach-ins, and chose April 22nd to have them.

Realizing the potential to affect more people, Hayes built a national staff to raise awareness about pollution. They then changed the name to Earth Day. Earth Day inspired many people to protest the impacts of industrial development. The first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of many environmental laws.

Earth Day may seem boring and unimportant, but it is important to know about what we do to the environment. We may be on this planet for the rest of our lives, so we must protect it from the harmful effects of pollution and littering.

History of Easter

Lili (7th)

Easter is a holiday associated with Christianity. We will now take a deeper look into what it is, how and where it is celebrated. This article will be focused on the culture and meaning of Easter, a holiday that has been celebrated for thousands of years.

Easter is easily one of the most important festivals of Christianity. The celebration is from the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Many believe that if Jesus did not die and get revived, it would have been a sin and lie. This was after the third day of the burial following his crucifixion. Easter is considered a movable holiday meaning that it does not apply to a specific date. It is on the third Sunday of the lunar month. This year, it was on the 17th. The holiday can also apply in different variants all around different places of Christianity. You can also find Western Christianity and even Eastern Christianity.

Origins of the Easter bunny

Jaxen (7th)

Easter is a Christian holiday with pagan roots. It celebrates the rebirth of Jesus Christ after his crucifixion. But where did the traditional egg hunt and the Easter bunny come in? What does a bunny have to do with Jesus?

Well, it doesn’t. The Easter bunny was based on nothing. The Easter bunny was incorporated into the celebration of Easter separately from the Christian tradition of honoring the day Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Some people say that the Easter bunny first arrived in America in the 1700s with German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania. They transported their tradition of an egg-laying hare. The children of the immigrants made nests in which this creature could lay its colored eggs. But it is still unclear where exactly this myth came from.

Click to read more about the History of Easter:

As a Christian, you would refer to the days around Easter as “The Holy Week.” Many schools take breaks during The Holy Week so people can celebrate Easter. We receive the whole week off at SVINTL, but it can vary from school to school.

Many people celebrate Easter day by coloring eggs. Some families have rabbits hide eggs with goodies inside of them for kids to search for. This is because the animal that symbolizes this holiday is the rabbit. You might ask why this is the symbol. From what we know, the rabbit symbolizes fertility and new life. Why do we look for eggs and color them? Again, they symbolize new life and fertility by coloring. Easter is also to celebrate spring and life that is being born and to be reborn. Another reason eggs are painted was because it was not permitted to eat them during the Lenten season, and at the end of the season, they would paint the eggs to show that this period was over.

South Sudan - the newest country (2011)

Ethan (7th)

Two major ethnic groups in South Sudan continuously fight for power in the northern part of South Sudan, one group being supported by the vice president, and the other group supported by the president. The sovereignty of the country, South Sudan was finally recognized by the United Nations in 2011, when it was relinquished from the rest of Sudan, making it the newest official country. Before 1956, all of Sudan was under the jurisdiction and control of both Britain and Egypt. However, in the mid-1950s, Ismael Al-Azhari led an independence movement; but, Ismael Al-Azhari was Muslim and led all of Sudan as a Muslim, which was not the case, as South Sudan was primarily Christian. This started a civil war that persisted for the next 16 years when the North and South signed a peace treaty and was peaceful for the next 11 years. At that time, South Sudan initiated a second war, which took place from 1983 to 2005, when they each signed a second peace agreement. About 5 years after that, South Sudan became its own, independent nation, free from Sudan (the North). The expression known as “pandemonium in Sudan” is an appropriate description of how South Sudan has been holding up recently. It is divided into many small ethnic groups, most of which are constantly fighting each other. On top of that, the government in South Sudan split in two. In 2013, with the president essentially firing the vice president, the vice president left and took a huge chunk of the military with him to rebel back against the president. This is known as the South Sudan civil war and was still going on until 2018 when another peace agreement was signed, and the former vice president was reappointed to his original position. Although the government is now whole, South Sudan is not quite peaceful, as wars remain raging between ethnic groups.

Julius Caesar

Kiya (7th)

As many of you know, Julius Caesar, lover of the timeless Cleopatra, was a Roman dictator. On the 15th of March, 44 BC, a group of senators assassinated Caesar at the Curia of Pompey of the theater in Rome. He was stabbed a shocking 23 times by the senators.

The reason for this grizzly murder was because the senators believed that Caesar’s unprecedented concentration of power was ruining the Roman Republic.

The assassination was led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus. The effect of Caesar's death was not at all what the senators had imagined though. After the murder, the roman republic was not able to recover after losing one of its greatest dictators.

After the Roman Republic crashed, a brutal civil war broke out, followed by the rise of Mark Anthony and Octavian. There have been many debates on whether Caesar was a good or bad leader, many people believe that he brought his death upon himself, but one thing is for sure, Julius Caesar will always be the most iconic Roman dictator.

Useful keyboard shortcuts

Ryan & Ethan (7th)

Mac users often overlook the use of keyboard shortcuts when navigating their computers. Making use of a few certain shortcuts can make your experience more efficient. Here is a list of a few mac shortcuts that can make your life much easier.

The first shortcut is command shift t. This shortcut instantly brings back your most recently closed tab. For example, if you accidentally close Wikipedia, this shortcut will bring it back.

The second shortcut is command \. Using this will instantly clear the formatting and reset it to the default of the text. If you copy text from a website and paste it into your document, the size, color, and more could be different and not match the style of your document. Using this shortcut, the text will instantly match your document without you having to manually change the settings.

The third shortcut is command option h. If you have a busy desktop with many applications open at once, this shortcut will help you a lot. It will hide all the open apps except for the one currently in use. This shortcut is a very easy way to clear your desktop and will make it a lot neater.

The final shortcut in this article is command x. This is similar to command c (copy), but it will also delete the selected text. This is useful when you want to move text around. Hope these shortcuts help you.

Control your garage with your phone

Ryan (7th)

Have you ever forgotten to close your garage door, but already drove off? With MyQ smart garage controller, you can close it with a click of a button on your smartphone. MyQ is a smart wifi-enabled garage door controller that can connect to your existing garage door. It also includes a sensor so you can see the status of your door. The smartphone app allows you to see the status of your garage door, set schedules, and open and close your garage.

Setting the app up is very simple, all you have to do is pair the control box with your wifi and then the garage door. No additional accessories are required, you only need a compatible garage door opener, wifi, and a smartphone. MyQ is compatible with most garage door openers made after 1996. MyQ is not just a garage door opener, it also is compatible with Amazon key delivery. This service is available with Amazon Prime and allows the delivery people to open your garage door and safely place your packages inside. This allows for safe and porch pirate free delivery. The best part is that the smart garage control and the sensor only sells for $30 on Amazon, and can go on sale for under $20. Overall, this is a great product that will make your life easier.