Trojan Times Online
QHS Home | Trojan Times Home

Local News and Views

By Paige Connell

Anna Zauchner, this year’s Foreign Exchange Student, hails from Austria, a country that borders Germany and Italy.  She is 15 years old and a sophomore this year.
        Anna’s hometown is Vienna, which has a population of over eight million.  Anna said that the biggest change for her is the size difference.  She describes Vienna as “much bigger than Quincy.”  However, Quincy’s size is not necessarily a bad thing; Anna describes Quincy as “so cute,” and the people as “very nice.”  (Yay, she likes us!)  Another big difference in her lifestyle is the size of the household: in Austria, she just lived with her mother; here, she lives with the Williams family, meaning that instead of living with just one other person, Anna now lives with six.
        As for school, Anna said that it was weird for her to get up and move between each class.  In Austria, after the lesson, the teacher leaves the room while the students stay put.  However, Anna says, “What I really like, everybody is smiling and friendly,” whereas, in Austria, she continues, “you’d be lucky if you find someone who smiles.”  Her favorite classes are Culinary Arts with Mrs. Garish and Virtual Enterprise with Mrs. Redkey.
        For fun, Anna says that she really loves to play guitar and even named her guitar Sam.  She plays for a band in Vienna.  She also enjoys live music and goes to festivals and concerts.  She lists her favorite bands and singers as System of a Down, Incubus, and Adam Green.  She often went to a park in Vienna with her friends to talk and hang out.
        Since coming to Quincy, she enjoyed playing soccer for her first time.  “In Austria,” she said, “only boys play soccer and it’s hard to find a club that lets girls play.”
        When asked what she brought with her to remind her of home, Anna replied, “I brought a lot of stuff from Austria to America.   Maybe a little too much!”  Among items she brought are pictures of family and friends and dog, a yearbook, CDs, books, and wristbands from music festivals in Austria.  What she misses the most are her friends, family, dog, and she added, “I especially miss my guitar.”
        Another thing Anna misses are the clubs in Vienna, because Quincy doesn’t offer the same sort of clubs.  Here in America, young people can’t go to bars and clubs late at night and socialize with friends.  However, in Austria it’s quite different.  Anna goes to clubs frequently.  Her favorite club is called Flex and is located under a bridge, beside a river.  Anna says, “It opens at 10 o’clock in the evening and it closes at 6:30 in the morning.”  The club usually plays drum and bass music.  “And once a month,” she explains, “there is a big festival and people from all of Europe come and dance to the electric beats till the sunrise!  I miss it!!”  It is easy to understand why.
            On the flip side, Anna said that she has found something here that she would like to take back with her: her hostess, Maryann Williams, a 2005 graduate.
        The other host family Anna will be staying with is the Holland family.  Natasha Holland, who graduated from QHS last year, is currently in Vienna, Austria, Anna’s hometown, living with Anna’s mother.
        So far, Anna has not taken any major trips in the US.  She’s been to Reno for shopping and Rotary meetings.  In February

however, Anna’s dad will be visiting and they will drive to San Francisco and fly to LA.  Anna also plans on making “a tour across North America” with her mother when school ends.  The trip will last for a month and they plan to visit the big cities across the continent.  Anna says that she’s happy to be here—“I’m serious, this year will be great!!”  QHS welcomes this funky new foreigner!
Welcome Anna!!

 
Budget Cuts Do Not Effect Everything

By Kayli Vallely

            Lately it seems that budget cuts have reduced resources all around Quincy High School, from library hours to textbook availability. However, despite these budget cuts, QHS now has a new computer lab on campus.
     The new computer lab is located in Room 9, and is Mrs. Redkey’s new classroom. There are twenty- one new computers, equipped with Pentium 4 processors, Windows XP operating systems, 248 megabytes of RAM, and DVD/ CD burners. According to Terry Bevins, the ROP Director, the monetary resources used to attain the computer lab came from unrestricted lottery and ROP funding.
     Mrs. Redkey uses the new computers in all of her classes, as all of the classes she teaches are technology based.    
    Her classes use them to manage websites, produce the school newspaper, run the Virtual Enterprise company, create resumes and other things in Work Experience, and to learn technology skills.
    Mrs. Redkey feels that the addition of these computers greatly improves her ability to teach her classes. “We do a lot with graphics,” she said, “and in yearbook we have to upload a lot of large image files, and the new system allows us to do that quickly.”
      Luckily for the students of Quincy High School, budget cuts have not affected every area of their academic lives. Mrs. Redkey says, “In this age of budget cuts, it’s a real privilege for students at QHS to have these computers to work with and for me to teach with this new wonderful equipment.”