About Us:
Diversity Statement:

      Our group’s name is Delta Signal and we are from the University of Southern California's Upward Bound Math/Science Program. The name Delta Signal was inspired by the symbolism of the triangle, which for us represented unity, communication, trust, and cooperation. Our group consists of six talented students: Edward, Lenny, Cristina, Nykeemah, Marco and Pablo. The uniqueness of our group is that we are very diverse and come from different cultures, yet we appreciate each other as family. In our group, there is a great representation of Salvadorians, which consists of Cristina, Edward, Lenny, Marco and Pablo’s originated from Guatemala, and Nykeemah's family is from the United States. Even though we are different in many ways, we agreed in every aspect of our website in terms of the colors, theme, and topic.

      Our group also consisted of handicapped and non-handicapped individuals. This was a difference that we did not foresaw in our group. One of the biggest challenges that we faced as a team was the fact that we had injured team members. Marco broke his arm. This event brought us closer together than before we began our journey in creating this website. We alternated turns in assisting Marco to carry his laptop, in typing for the website and supported him with his research so that we would not fall behind. Another huge challenge was to help Nykeemah because she had a broken ankle before the beginning of our program. These challenges, at first, hindered the team because she could not carry her backpack and slowed us down in walking since she had to pace herself when traveling from one place to another. These factors, which we inevitably had to face as a team, helped us build strength and team work because we found solutions for these issues. In the beginning of the program, we were timid because we were strangers to each other. Furthermore, Nykeemah had a rough time because she always tried to push the team to do our best on all aspects of the program. It took Nykeemah, our leader, to break the ice and help us to communicate with each other and open up more with our various ideas about our website.

      The age difference also played a major role in the personalities of our team. Both Cristina and Pablo were new to the program, which justifies the fact that they were less confident about sharing their personal experiences, and at times, their ideas, as well. Edward and Lenny, who assumed the leadership roles of web developer and graphic designer, respectively, truly made our group stronger because they came in with experience under their belt. Thanks to these awesome role models, the team never fell behind because they constantly encouraged us to continue working hard. We met new people and enjoyed every moment we experienced for the past five weeks. Thanks to our amazing coach, Oscar, we made our website the best we could, and we are very proud of our masterpiece. This has been a great experience for all us and we acquired new skills, such as creating codes for the page, getting involved with research and finding easier ways to research, learned about editing, and how to be graphic designers!

 

Edward:

           My name is Edward and I am 15 years young and I live in Los Angeles California. I go to Loyola High School; it’s a prestige’s, Jesuit, all boy, mostly white school. I have a sister, who is 22, and I live with both of my parents. I enjoy listening to music and playing it also, I play the bass, guitar, and the piano. I like going to undergrounds concerts and experiencing music at its best. Yea, I love being outside being active and doing something productive. I like photography and looking at picture and seeing the message they exert. I plan to go to a four-year university after high school. I’m still undecided on what I’m going to major in education.

           When I first started the website I was very nervous and anxious because I was going to be the web developer. I had never undertaken a job of this sort and I did not feel that I was prepared, but my teammates believed in me. I had been in the competition last year, but I was a researcher. Learning html was somewhat difficult; it was like a new language to me. I had to undergo the struggles of an aspiring web developer. If it wasn’t for my teammates working as a collective unit, I don’t believe we could have accomplished this looming task. We overcame many tests such as trying to find a lab to work in and having overcoming certain differences inside our group. We would change labs almost everyday and our instructor engraved to always save our work. We would sometimes work in about 100 degree labs. It was unbearably hot but we listened because we new that it would pay off in the end. We had some disagreements on specific things that would be on the website such, the color, background, text, and sub topics. In the end our group leader Nykeemah brought us together and we completed the website.

 

Lenny:

       I am an aspiring sixteen year old film director. I love working on computers, whether it’s just installing some software or building a website from scratch. I go to a small charter school in a dumpy little warehouse near Silver Lake. It’s not exactly the ideal; high school life I dreamed of, but it has everything I could ever want. In a few years, I hope to attend college, and I’m shooting for USC, so I can study at the School of Cinematic Arts. For hobbies, I like to write short novels, comic books, and sit around the house, playing some video games. I’m really not sure where I’ll end up ten years from now, but I’ll be happy if it’s somewhere behind a camera or computer.

      This is my second year working on a website, and it feels good to come back as the team’s Graphic Designer. I wish we had more time to work on the actual “look” of the website, but we had to really work on our content more. There would be times when some of the edited pictures would have to be finished in just under ten minutes! Our team’s Web Developer, Edward, had to keep me up to speed with everything going on with the rest of our group. I would sometimes just lose myself in the work. I had worked with our group leader, Nykeemah, the year before, so it was a lot easier to get along with the rest of our members. There would be an occasional snag in our work, like a forgotten laptop when we were in the computer lab, or a misplaced flash drive. I guess this year seemed a lot easier compared to my last time working with websites. The last time around was like a crash course for me. Now that I know my way around the software, I can really show what I can do.

 

Cristina:

      Hello! My name is Cristina and I am fifteen years old. I am going to be a sophomore in September. I like to help others that are in need. Besides coming to Upward Bound Math/Science I go to a program called, "Youth group." The Upward Bound Math/Science program has taught me many things that are going to help later on when I go to college, and meanwhile I'm staying in the dorms for the summer, and I am not too happy to be going back home.

      This program has been awesome because I met new people and all of them are interesting because they all are unique from each other; all of them have their own talents even though they don't know about it. So far this is my first year and pretty far it's going GREAT! My job was to be the Content manger, so far its okay from what I think. My group name is Delta Signal At first I though I was going to be lost but I know I could count on my group members. The topic about our website is "THE AMAZON RAIN FOREST" and it's really interesting because at first I didn't know much about it. We, as humans beings should do something about it because it's really important to know about this kind of stuff that happens around the world. My group members are Lenny, Edward, Marco, Pablo and Nykeemah. So far they are awesome, funny and outgoing and we treat each other as if we were in the same family. In my point of view this is kind of hard but fun at the same time because I have never done this before and I'm a beginner and liking it too.

 

Marco:

      Hi, my name is Marco and I am 15 years old. I am going to become a sophomore in the fall semester. I am a participant of the Amazon Rainforest website. Our group name is Delta Signal. I am planning to be a future Electrical Engineer. This is the first time I have worked on a website. My role in this website was to research the deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest.

      What I like to do is to play soccer. This sport is one of my favorite sports to play. I also like to spend time on the computer play online, chat with other people, and use it when I need help. My favorite color is green. I was born in Los Angeles, CA. I also like to skate if I don't have anything to do.

      There are many things that we have gone through as a team. Like everyday, we always have to do research, typing, web developing, or graphic designing. For most of the days, I have research my topic and got deep into it. You basically hear common topics like HIV/ADIS, etc. but we have gone deep inside to tell you the truth about the Amazon Rainforest. You as a judge could think that making a website is easy but really its not. Research is trying to find the real truth from other people or what they believe. I have learned how to do graphic designing and making a website. Since this is the first time I have entered a website competition, I must know what the group members are doing as well try to learn so it can help me in the future. I want to make a good website to catch people attention like teenagers and adults. My group members have taught me how to use different types of tools on a website. They also do their part and I try to help them if they get stressed out.

 

Pablo:

      My name is Pablo and I'm 16 years old. I'm in the 9th grade. I was born here in Los Angeles, California but I grew up in Guatemala. I lived there for 10 years and then came back to LA. I was enjoying living in the city with my grandmother and some cousins. What I liked best about this place was its food and its traditions. During Christmas and New Year, I used to blow fireworks at night. Most of the people there like to celebrate and have a good time with their family blowing fireworks and do what ever they want because that has become part of their tradition. I miss those days and I also miss my grandma. I stay inside and have a good time, but I still like it. I have two sisters, one is 15 and the other is 6 years old. In school, I'm working hard to get good grades in all my classes to complete my credits in order to graduate from high school. Right now during my vacations I’m attending a USC program called Upward Bound Math and Science. This program is helping me to learn more and to experience how it is to be in college. This program is providing everything and if I do well in all the classes it will also help me to start gaining credits for college. At this time I’m having a good time, learning new things and also making new friends.

      My group name is Delta Signal. In this website we are trying to inform people about how we are destroying the forests and especially how people are destroying the Amazon rainforest. One of our goals is to make it interesting and make it to the finals. We are working hard as a group and trying to do our best, in the designs and in our research. We hope to do it right and have a good experience. This is my first time helping on a website and I’m working hard on my job as a researcher to do this right. In school the subjects that interests in are math, science and P.E. I also like to draw, play sports and exercise. My favorite sport is soccer and one of my favorite hobbies is to sleep.

 

Nykeemah:

      My name is Nykeemah and I am 17. After I graduate in 2009 I plan on going to UCLA to further my education in criminal justice. This is my third year entering this contest. For my third year I was chosen to be group leader. When I meet my group I was excited to see meet them but I was also relieved to see two familiar faces. One of them I had already worked with in the previous year, which is Lenny and the second person, is Edward.

      These past weeks have been difficult but progressive. Throughout these six weeks my group and I have pushed threw many obstacles whether it did not know where our computer lab was going to be at, working in a room with the temperature almost hitting 94 degrees or my injury. Before my group and I decided to enter this competition I had an accident that lead to my injured ankle. There were some days when I was not able to go to the labs to work on my website and as group leader I felt obligated to go. But I had faith in my group and I believed that they could continue working hard without me there. In the end my instincts were right my group never gave up. Even though this is my third time compositing in the Trio Think Quest competition I believe... No, I know that we are the strongest team!