Everett Alvarez students advance to statewide Cyberpatriot competition

The computer science team of Everett Alvarez High School is participating in the top tier of the state round of CyberPatriot-X. It's believed to be the only one in Monterey County which made it this far in the competition.

The team is led by Chief Warrant Officer Edward Lawson and coached by math teacher James Clayton. Student members are Lenny Aleman, Ricardo Alvarez, Jose Lopez, Jasmine Montith, Xavier Avila and team captain Darren Osais. The team's performance earned it a spot on the state round, which concludes on Sunday.

“The team is currently in the middle of the state competition as I type,” Clayton wrote in an email. “Darren is working on Ubuntu 14, Jasmine is on Windows 2008 Server, Lenny and Xavier are on Windows 10 and Jose and Ricardo are working on the Cisco Quiz and Packet Tracer. It's a six hour marathon of fixing computer vulnerabilities. It's pretty exciting when they repair a vulnerability, a bell goes off indicating points being scored.”

The CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Education Program was established by the Air Force Association to inspire students to pursue careers in cyber security and other careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. The main competition challenges teams of two to six students across the United States, Canada and Department of Defense teams abroad to find cybersecurity vulnerabilities in simulated scenarios.

The Everett Alvarez team also has a friendly competition with other Monterey County teams, and for the second year in a row it's kept the ceremonial throphy that commemorates besting them all.

Good luck on the competition, guys and gal. Break a leg!

Everett Alvarez shines at CyberPatriot competition

A team of high school students from Everett Alvarez High School just finished a remarkable round of competition in the eighth season of CyberPatriot – the National Youth Cyber Defense Competition.

Led by Coach James Clayton, students Jose Amador, Jose Avina, Jose Matamoros, and Steven Lum, excelled in the CyberPatriot VIII qualifying rounds. The games, established by the Air Force Association, the CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Education Program, demand students demonstrate the teamwork, critical thinking skills, and technical knowledge needed for a successful career in cybersecurity.

 The team’s performance earned it a spot in a regional round held February 19-21, during which it outscored other teams to win the open division’s West Silver 2nd Place Tier Award.

The students are stoked, Clayton said.

"Our initial goal was to get more than 100 points during the first round, we had never scored more than 50 -60 the prior year in practice or competition. We scored 124," he wrote in an email. "The next round, the team score 138.7 and we were placed in the Silver tier based on our score, the lowest tier entering the state round. In the state round we scored 231.75 and didn’t place but was high enough to allow us to move on to the Regional Round (not all silver teams moved on to the regional round)."

The team scored 251.175 in the final round in the regional competition. which included California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. The team did not qualify for the next, national round, but Clayton's excited nonetheless.

"Although we didn’t win a trip to Washington or make the Gold tier, I was proud of the team’s performance. The team improved each round," he said.

In all, 3,379 teams registered to compete in CyberPatriot VIII. To have scored that high against so many teams is truly impressive. Congratulations. Eagles! You make Monterey County proud!

Monterey Arts Council showcases Everett Alvarez High artists

Meet the great young artists from Everett Alvarez High School at the Third Annual High School Art Exhibition presented by the Arts Council for Monterey County. The event takes place from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, April 24. The Arts Council Gallery is at Sunset Center, Carmel, Room 5. Guests will meet the young artists and have the opportunity to purchase their work.

This is the third high school exhibition and organizers are always impressed with the talent the young artists demonstrate. They also find moving the way that experienced artists and gallery owners come by to meet the young artists and encourage them to continue their work. Many pieces were sold last year – including three to Community Hospital.

The Arts Council previously featured King City High School and Monterey High School.

Admission is free but RSVP is required: klara@arts4mc.org
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Everett Alvarez students grow food, donate it to Dorothy's

Everett Alvarez students are not just learning about agriculture, but philanthropy, through their work growing vegetables at the school.

The Future Farmers of America chapter of the school grew, harvested and donated  vegetables to Dorthy’s Kitchen on Tuesday Nov 25th.

Students participating in the program have been going through procedures to allow them to sell their products out of their Eagle Produce Store on campus. While waiting for the permission to be granted, the Environmental Horticulture class that is part of the Agriculture Program decided to begin growing celery, Brussels sprouts, green cabbage, red cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower in their garden.

“Before starting this project, we really didn’t know what could go wrong,” said Gracie Robles, “all we knew is that we could grow vegetables for others, so we did.”

Vegetable plugs were planted around the end of August and students began to maintain the area.

“Water was a big concern,” said David Robles, “we knew about the drought so micro sprinklers is what we installed.”

As the plants continued to grow, the class was introduced to pests that many local farmers are currently fighting. “It only took a week or two and then aphids began attacking our plants, “ said  Alicia Reyena.

“Something called a Bagrada bug ate all of my cauliflower before it even started,” said Joe Perez. “Mr. Wyrick told us later that the Bagrada bug didn’t even exist in California 6 years ago.”

Students in the class gained valuable lessons about controlling the transfer of pests from one country to the next and the impact it can have on agriculture production. By the time, the students harvested their crops they were proud of what they could provide the community and what they had done.

“Three large boxes of celery came out of our garden box,” said Donato Robles.

 “I’m really proud to be donating what we grew to the community, I just wish there was some peanut butter for the celery,” said jokingly Bridget Sandoval. 

 -- Edgar Becerra (Everett Alvarez High FFA Reporter)

Everett Alvarez High FFA students attend agricultural leadership conference

Twenty-eight 9th grade agriculture students from the Everett Alvarez High School FFA chapter attended in the the annual FFA Greenhand Leadership Conference in Paso Robles earlier this month.

The conference is designed to assist students with career information and with help designing a personal plan that will help them reach their career objectives.

“I had a terrific time”, said Freshmen Everett Alvarez FFA member Enrique Munoz, “I learned a lot about the opportunities that the FFA has to offer in providing us skills to succeed at school and towards a career.”

The FFA establishes various levels or “degrees” during one’s FFA experience in high school. The “Greenhand” degree is the first level a student can obtain as a first-year high school agriculture student/FFA member. The FFA provides more extensive leadership conferences for sophomores, juniors, and seniors based on the level and degree earned by each student. The Everett Alvarez FFA will be recognizing over 200 students for their FFA Greenhand and Chapter Farmer (2nd year members) degrees in December.

“I enjoyed the opportunity to meet students from other schools”, said EAHS 9th grader Rebecca Wells. "The  event was a lot of fun and I learned a little more about what I might want to do in life.”

Participants at this year’s Greenhand Leadership Conference included: Sabrina Avilia, Nathaniel Conner, Guillermo Dorado, Rebecca Gonzalez, Esmerelda Huerta, David Juarez, Amanda Linsey, Enrique Munoz, Juan Perez, John Ramirez, Yesenia Ramirez, Haley Ramirez, Aiden Reyes, Adileiny Suarez,Samantha Tiscareno, Rosario Zepeda, Monica Gonzalez, Angel Hernandez, Rebecca Wells, William Acuna, Omar Montejano, Andrew Person, Juan Baltazar, Victor Guerrero, Nelly Perez, Rogelio Peinado, Jamie Quezada, and Ricardo Yniguez.

FFA members at Alvarez have been busy this month. Its officers also attended a leadership conference in Hollister a couple of weeks ago. The officers attending the conference included Julissa Marroquin, Javier Garcia, Marisol Lopez, Anthony Ortiz, Edgar Becerra, and Rodrigo Ramirez.

Thanks Nathaniel Conner, Everett Alvarez FFA Greenhand Reporter, for giving us the scoop. And thanks to Travis Wyrick, FFA advisor, for letting us know about your travels.