Diya Garg
Diya is a fourth grader and is nine years old. She loves dancing, art, playing the piano, and doing martial arts. She also likes to watch movies and public speaking.
Reyna Greene is an 11 year old, who likes to eat. No, that didn’t describe it. She loves to eat. Her meals were usually from fast food restaurants, and were very oily. Every night she would eat a bowl of ice-cream, and she would drink a can of soda after every meal. She loved to watch movies, so she rarely went out and played. She always stayed up late at night watching movies and texting her friends. As a result she never got much sleep. She couldn’t do many things, got tired easily, and her health kept getting worse. Her parents tried to convince her to eat more healthy, but she didn’t listen. She became obese, and always felt very weak and tired. Then one day at school, Reyna learned that as an end of the year party, her class would be going to a nearby water park. She was very excited about this opportunity, got her parents to sign the slip and then took off for the school bus.
At the park, she went on several roller coasters and hung out with her friends. They went all over the park, from one ride, to the next, to the next. While all her friends were full of energy and excitement the whole time, all the running and playing made Reyna very tired. But she didn’t want to make her friends pity her, so she kept running and going on rides. One of the rides involved a lot of spinning, and when Reyna got off the felt very dizzy. All of a sudden her vision was very spotty, and she felt very lightheaded. Before she could make it to the nearest bench, everything went black. Reyna had fainted. When she woke up, the whole class was staring right at her. Her teacher gave her water to drink, and granola bars to eat. She felt embarrassed, and didn’t have much fun the rest of the party.
That day when she told her parents everything that had happened she took an oath for the next year; she would eat more fruits and vegetables in her meals. She would take a multivitamin every morning, and limit herself to one hour of TV a day. She would only eat sweets after dinner for dessert, and only drank soda once a week. Reyna also joined a soccer camp, which helped her rebuild her strength and stamina. Within a year, Reyna was once again a very healthy and happy girl. She no longer ran out of breath so easily, and had an amazing year.
Megha Jain and Aditi Jain
Megha is in eighth grade and is twelve years old. Some hobbies of hers are painting, drawing, tennis, and basketball. Her favorite subject in school is math.
Aditi enjoys running, art, volleyball, and soccer. She is in sixth grade and eleven years old. She really wants to be either a paleontologist or a marine biologist.
Klaus had spent the whole day running and playing with his friends. He was definitely the kind of person others would think of when they thought of the words “social butterfly”. Klaus was nice to everyone, so everyone was nice to Klaus! Because he was so friendly to others, he always had someone who was willing to hang out with him and help him out when he needed it.
That night, the sky was clear and light as sun prepared to make its daily trip below the horizon. The sunset was just a few minutes away, and today, Klaus planned on sitting outside his lawn to watch. He had never really taken the time to look at the sunset before, but realized that it would be an amazing experience. That day seemed like a particularly great choice to watch to sun go down, not only because of the fantastic weather, but because it would be a wonderful way to end an awesome day.
He thought about his friends as the sun slowly began to set, casting purple and pink light over Klaus. A sense of calmness washed over Klaus because he realized that he was never alone because of the big group of friends that he had that were always by his side, supporting him.
And so, sitting on the bright, green grass, Klaus smiled as he watched the beautiful sight of the sun setting, because he knew that no matter what happened, he always had his friends to support him and to help him get through tough times.
Teja Sunku and Raj Sunku
Teja is fifteen and going into tenth grade. Raj is ten and going into sixth grade. Raj loves origami and teaches a lot of origami classes in his community
Once upon a time, there was a planet called Oom. Oom was big, very big, five times the size of the earth. On Oom, there was a sentient species called the Oomians. The Oomians were eight feet tall, electric blue creatures. This species was very intelligent and hot tempered. They had four eyes, two in the front and two in the back. The Oomians walked on two legs, could run very fast, and had amazing balance due to their 5-foot tails.
The Oomians fought with each other, sometimes for petty reasons, sometimes for resources that they share among themselves. Over time, the Oomians formed 5 major tribes. Each tribe had its own culture and traditions, each believing that they had nothing in common against the other four except that they all hated each other.
The war grew and the Oomians improved their technology to gain the upper hand. The weapons eventually made the planet unstable, making it likely to explode any second. The Oomians realized that their war was getting them nowhere and instead decided to work together. They split planet Oom into five other planets before it could explode by itself. Today, even though they still argue with each other, they get along much better and people move from tribe to tribe as they wish.
After the planet Oom was split into five smaller planets, they realized the merit of experiencing other cultures, and learned to accept the style and traditions of other religions.
Carlie and Kayla Reese
Carlie and Kayla are fourteen-year-old twins going into their freshman year.
Deep in the woods there was a tree. This tree wasn’t like any other tree, it contained all of the vibrancy and color that any tree could. The tree shone brightly in the dark woods where it grew, providing light in the otherwise pitch black forest.
The tree had rested peacefully in the same spot for years. However, dark trees began to grow close to the vibrant tree, threatening to take all of its color and brightness. These trees were jealous of the other tree’s individuality and wanted to take that from it and turn it just like the other trees, to turn it dark, and scary.
These trees surrounded the bright tree, creating what seemed like an all-consuming force that left no room for any independence or individuality.
Resisting the negative energy of the older, stronger trees seemed nearly impossible for the poor bright tree, but nevertheless, it desperately fought back. It was very difficult for the tree to fight off the older trees, but in a bright flash of strength, the smaller tree enveloped the older trees in light, causing them to change in form. Their twisted, bare, dark branches became green with leaves and bright with color. They had turned from dark and scary trees to beautiful and vibrant ones.
After this moment, the tree became even more vibrant and bright, and the forest was beautiful. The forest had survived a very terrible situation and been powerful enough to not give in to what the others tried to make it do and become. Thanks to this, the forest would forever hold its lively independence.
Anna and Lauren Williams
Both Anna and Lauren are chocolate fanatics and love to peacefully resolve their conflicts.
Swish goes the basketball, Dylan had scored 10 out of 10 shots from the 3 point line. Dylan was so proud of himself. Right then, Dylan’s little brother Joseph walks into the basketball court and says, “Hi Dylan.”
Dylan says “Guess what… I scored 10 out of 10 shots from the 3 point line.”
“I don’t believe you.” says Joseph “Prove It.”
Dylan takes one shot, he sadly misses the hoop from the pressure of his brother watching him. The ball bounces of the rim and hits Joseph in the head, and knocks him down.
“OH NO! I’m so sorry Joseph.” says Dylan to his 7-year-old brother Joseph after accidentally hitting him with a basketball and knocking him over.
“I can’t believe you, you are so evil, I can’t believe we are brothers.” says Joseph to Dylan in a very mean voice.
“Let me make it up to you Joseph” says Dylan “I’ll be right back.” he says to Joseph in a sweet voice. Two minutes later, Dylan returns sprinting, holding something behind his back.
“What are you holding.” says Joseph.
“A surprise!” replies Dylan.
“PLEASE TELL ME, I really want to know…. please.” says Joseph with a cute face. “If you insist.” responds Dylan. Dylan then pulls the surprise from behind his back, and he watches his brother’s eyes light up as he sees the big Hershey’s chocolate bar. Dylan unwraps the chocolate and splits it with his brother.
Joseph says, while gulping down chocolate, “You are the best brother ever, and I’m so happy to have you in my life!”