La Joya Community High School is home to a lot of incredible people who work hard to make a difference in our community. From students to teachers to staff, they all come together to make the lobo experience what it is today. Ms. Salcido, Maria Celado, and Ms. Carrasco are a few examples of people who have made an impact on campus.

Ms. Salcido teaches Senior English, Creative Writing, and the Beginning Speech class here on campus. Outside of school, Ms. Salcido participates in Four Chambers Press, a writing organization in Phoenix that publishes a literary journal every year. During her free time, Ms. Salcido enjoys writing poetry that she describes as having “unusual imagery”.

A new year at La Joya means setting new goals and adjusting to the changes that have been implemented on campus. Ms. Salcido said that one of her main goals for her classroom is to make her students feel valued, connected, and heard. In regards to the various changes that have been added this year, she believes that the changes have been positive and beneficial to the student body and staff.

When asked, “what does it mean to be a lobo?”, Ms. Salcido responded with, “being a part of the community, doing whatever I can to make kids feel like this is a safe place, a place they want to be a part of, that they want to be involved in.”

Another one of our lobos is our very own student body Vice President Maria Celado. She is very involved around campus and is always a team leader. Maria is in various sports like volleyball, soccer, and softball. On and off the field she dominates in anything she does, she is a great person to look up to.

Over the past three years Maria has grown immensely since she first walked on this campus. She is now more wise and focuses on bettering her future and says that “hard work really does pay off”. Her advice for the freshman is that “not everyone is gonna like you at the end of the day”, but that’s ok!

When asked about what being a lobo means to her she said that it means being involved and taking pride in your school, and overall “being a beast”.

Our final lobo feature is Ms. Carrasco, the administrative assistant for curriculum and instruction. Ms. Carrasco doesn’t consider herself to be someone important but many people would disagree. She has been here since the school opened and does a little bit of everything, making her an essential part of the LJCHS staff.

Ms. Carrasco is known as the “sticky queen” by the staff. One look at her office and desk area and you will find sticky notes posted everywhere. “That’s my system,” she said. Her job involves various tasks with minor but important details and using sticky notes is the way she makes sure everything gets done.

Although some may consider her job to involve a lot of work, Ms. Carrasco doesn’t find it difficult to handle.“I love this job,” Ms. Carrasco said. “I love interacting with the kids, with my staff… There’s nothing about it that I don’t really like… okay wait I lied, I don’t like filing but I do it!”

La Joya has a lot of potential and passion to offer from the people who are a part of the school and who make an impact in both major and minor ways. It’s important to highlight and feature these individuals who make a positive impact in our community and let them know that they are greatly appreciated and loved. The next time you see these lobo features around campus, don’t be afraid to come up to them and voice your appreciation for all the things they do.