Join us as we “yap” about all things interesting! We are very excited to be making so many new episodes for you guys! Keep watching and stay tuned for many more interesting podcasts that The Perch will soon be bringing to you 🙂
Mushroom Ritchie
Lifestyle Reporter
Gavin Sanchez
Lifestyle Reporter
Episode 6: Let’s Talk About All Things Interesting!
March 1, 2024
About the Contributors
Zoe Perez, Opinion Editor
If there's a person who you want to talk to about colleges and academics, then Zoe Perez is the right person for you! Interviewing and writing about Zoe Perez was an honor because of how straightforward and educated her answers were.
Zoe is a 15-year-old sophomore and she will be the Opinion Editor, Media Editor, Opinion Columnist, and Treasurer for this second year of her journalism journey. Last year, she was only an opinion writer. June 22, 2008, is her birthday meaning she has the zodiac sign of cancer.
She is the type of person who is going to be honest with you even if it means telling you what you may be doing wrong, despite that she describes herself as a very social person, she says “I am the type of person who is social and would come up to you to ask for your Instagram if I see you from afar and decide that if you seem friendly.”
She mentioned that she enjoys talking and giving advice about colleges, medical schools, or how to write an article while also wanting to help those students who need help with any classes in between Honors to AP. Zoe spoke about wanting to live in Washington D.C. after high school because Washington has the best medical school that she could think of. She says “ What motivates me to work hard is myself because I believe that even though taking Honors and AP classes may be hard, It will all be worth it when I become a radiologist, technician, or an Anesthesiologist”. Zoe Perez has an understanding of what she wants to be doing with her life.
Zoe is very passionate about writing which brought her to be in journalism. She stated that she loved to inform people about what was going on, seeing different opinions, while giving people a fast and easy answer. Her love for journalism has brought her to meet new people and to be more active in the community when writing stories.
She touched upon her interests like reading, writing, and psychology. Her favorite series book to read is called “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” where she describes the story as a girl who opens a close case and along the way finds something captivating. She remarked about why she enjoys the book saying.”It takes all the characters' points of view and I am amused by a good murder mystery book.”
Zoe introduced her love for psychology and said that she was from Trevor Browne High School and found out that Agua Fria had psychology as a class and so on went to this school now. She said, “I am obsessed with psychology and basically wrote most of my articles based on psychology, so I am technically an opinion editor with a psychology theme.”
All of these circumstances in her life have brought her to be the person she is. So if you ever need a person to talk about academics, psychology, or even books then Zoe Perez is the person you’re going to be looking for!!!
Ivan Amador, News Reporter
Being fun creative and adventurous is a lot of things people want to have in a person, but when I met Ivan Amador, a News Reporter in Journalism, he fit that criteria for everyone. Being friends with Ivan can prove to you that it would be the greatest decision of your life. This guy has a lot of energy in order to keep the hype up for a group of people and friends. I think of Ivan when I interviewed him as a loyal man with definitely a lot of free will, that he is able to just live his life the way he wants to. When it comes to the future I definitely see that he would be the best news reporter in Journalism to bring energy and amazing work to the class.
Ivan loves lasagna, he finds it an incredible Italian food that he thinks “it’s impossible to mess up and it’s easy to make”. He finds it more of his favorite to the point where he would eat lasagna as his only meal for the rest of his life. To go along with that he also likes to add his favorite drink, which is a Hispanic drink called Fresca, he describes it like it was Sprite and Squirt mixed together and it’s delicious. Food is not the only thing interesting about him, he also is very charming when it comes to friends, he met one of his friends with one of his favorite songs called “Coming at Your Love” by Redbone, it was in a movie, and after the movie he met a brand new friend cause of it. Ivan also would love to have you as his friend, since he finds his friends as his favorite people because they reflect him too.
Ivan’s interests are so expandable to the point where he listens to almost every piece of music he can, so a good man to talk to about artists and songs for sure. He was in a band and loved to perform, and it became the most memorable thing for him since he loved having the crowd cheer him on. Ivan is also a fan of the classics, leading him to have his favorite video game Black Ops 1, since it was very fun hanging with family as well as playing the game. His dream hangout is to watch Guardians of the Galaxy 3 since his friend was away at the time, and he deeply wanted to see it. That’s what makes Ivan great: he is fully committed to watching a movie with someone, to the point where he doesn’t watch it himself unless his friend watches it with him.
Most movies were listed, since apparently Ivan can’t seem to watch a show, cause it goes on for way too long, I don’t blame him, I feel the same way. He states his favorite show is “The Mandalorian”, but hasn’t seen the newest season, but however, he does like “Phineas and Ferb” and “The Simpsons”. I would assume he likes shows that reset everything after the episodes, which is honestly incredible, because keeping up with a story is way harder than watching one episode for one story. Along with his favorite show, he finds Monster Inc. to be his favorite movie, because he found it so funny for him. Also, another funny and favorite movie is “HeavyWeight”, mostly because Netflix at the time didn't have many options, and it was the only Disney film on Netflix during the time, but at least he enjoyed it. Along with a movie, Ivan would love to have In the Flesh by Pink Floyd as a theme song, when he lived his life, because the guitar part was amazing, and he found out also through a movie.
Aaliyah Villela, Sports Reporter
As school begins and the 2023 and 2024 school year start, there are many seniors that are all around campus. One senior in particular who is amazing to be around is Aaliyah Villela. Aaliyah is a force to be reckoned with. She is the student council secretary and she is now also the lifestyle section editor. Even though Aaliyah has some big responsibilities, she never lets the fun side of her down. Always finding the humor in things and making sure that everyone is having fun is what Aaliyah loves to do
Being the last year of high school for Aaliyah, she is excited about what comes next. However, with the feeling of excitement comes a hard reality check that your years of being a teenager are over. “Honestly, I’m relieved but I’m also sad. I’m finally done with high school, but it also feels like freshman year COVID was a week ago.” Aaliyah’s freshman year of high school was during the pandemic and during the online learning mandates. “ It’s crazy to think about how I stared in my bedroom and now I’m almost done with high school in like one hundred and something days.”
During Aaliyah’s years in high school, she has accomplished many things. However, one thing that she was proud of accomplishing was going out there talking to people, and making new friends. “Honestly one thing that I am proud of doing, is actually getting out there and talking to people. For example, in freshman year, I didn't talk to anyone. I maybe had 4 friends and they were from middle school. Now I’m a student body secretary, I talk to everyone, and people come and talk to me,” Aaliyah says, “ It’s really nice to just be out there.”
As the student body secretary, Aaliyah has a lot of responsibilities in that position. “ It’s interesting, Joining student council at first I definitely had impostor syndrome. I did not think I belonged whatsoever, especially because all my friends who were in student council at the time were there way longer than me. And then just being in there on the executive board is a little stressful, but also I’m just very proud of myself for how far I have come.”
Throughout the many years of Aaliyah’s high school career, she has come to like and dislike a lot of her high school experiences. However, one of Aaliyah’s favorite memories in High School would have to be the Student Council state meeting. For those who don’t know, Sudnets councils around the whole state of Arizona get together for a weekend and represent their school spirit. “One favorite memory from high school would have to be last year, Student Council. We went to state and it was a three-day trip, where the Agua Fria student council rented an Airbnb.” Aaliyah said, “ It felt like a family, it honestly felt like a cliche family college experience, where you just bond with your friends. It was a lot of us cooking dinner together, hosting movie nights, and playing football in the backyard. It was just a lot of getting along together and being closer than ever.”
The outside school life of Aaliyah Villela is hanging out with her close friends and just enjoying life. Though a lot of her time gets used up for student council events, she still finds ways to take care of herself and enjoy her life. “ My life used to revolve around my job, but then I quit. So now it’s a lot of just hanging out with my friends, partially STUCO. I like to thrift a lot, I love doing it with my friends. I don’t really do sports, well not anymore at least.”
Miss Villela has a goal of becoming a sports presenter as her further career. “ I want to be a presenter for sports.” Aaliyah said with an adoring tone as she spoke, “ A big goal of mine when I was younger was to be known, as cliche as it sounds. That goal was just to be known, I want as many people as possible to know who I am and what I did in my life, and just be remembered by many people not just my family and friends. So it was always a big dream of mine to just be famous or be associated with someone. That is a really big thing, but also sports are a really big part and I would love to incorporate that with my goals in life.”
A few facts about Aaliyah are that she loves the color dark blue because it reminds her of the night sky and space, she loves space. Her favorite season is fall, “It has a nice atmosphere and the colors are amazing.” Aaliyah states with a calm state of mind look on her face. “ Not to mention it has a favorite holiday… Halloween! It's just the vibe and the energy, it’s the best time of the year in my eyes.”
Aaliyah Villela is a girl with passion and grit. She knows what she wants to do and goes for it without hesitation. Known for being the Student Council secretary and an amazing person. In order for you to understand how much of an incredible person she is, you’re just going to have to meet her.
Jesus Ortiz Gonzalez, Editor-in-Chief
When being asked to describe a person most people would use the words kind, smart, caring, and hard-working but when having to describe Jesus Ortiz Gonzalez these words don’t come close to perfectly describing his persona. Jesus is currently a junior at Agua Fria High School along with also being a Student Council Representative and Owls News Feed Editor and Chief.
Before coming to Arizona he grew up in no other Palm Springs, California, or as he called it “Hollywood's Playground”. He experienced a form of culture shock at the age of 13 when moving from a touristy town to what he would consider a small town named Avondale, Arizona. When trying to start his new beginnings at Agua Fria he had experienced a bit of a setback. Agua Fria wasn’t able to accept any of his old records from his prior schools meaning he had to start completely from scratch.
He had to be put into all the basic level classes along with extension classes to test his skills in said subjects. Going through these experiences definitely helped him grow and pushed him to be more involved and outgoing. This brings us to the reason why Jesus had decided to join the Student Council. Jesus had said, “It’s fun, it just seems so fun. It feels like I’m actually doing something in school, then just observing the people doing something.”. He expressed how in Student Council feels “so me”, in the sense of being “talkative, out there, and extraordinary”. To put it in a few words his high school experience has been an interesting 3 years for him.
But, Jesus’s high school experience it’s not the only interesting thing about him. Did you know that after high school he plans to move to L.A. and attend UCLA USC, majoring in communications, and after going to law school to become a human rights or imagination lawyer? Even though he has his future already planned out Jesus has emphasized the point that his goal is to have fun while he is still young and enjoy the young adult life after high school.
He is an extremely work-devoted person, but even now he still sets time aside to live his life. He had said, “I love, love, LOVE to go out, love to go out, like have the ability to just be like when I wanna go somewhere, to go somewhere, dress up cute, go to a fancy restaurant, my typa night.”. Even though he talks about how much he loves going out, he does love to have a routine and balanced life to even it out.
He is one of the most interesting and complex people you will meet and you will never have a dull moment when around him. Constantly keeping you on your toes with conversations in the best way possible. Jesus is the friend that you will always come back to when you need a little spice in your life