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Student Of The Month

By: Yusir Mohammad Ali

Kaitlyn, known more commonly as Katie, has attended YIS for the past 6 years. She is currently in the 8th grade and is considered by many an “all-rounder.” Not only a High Honor Roll student, she is also participates in Drama Club, Journalism Club and the girls’ U16 and U14 basketball teams. When asked how she manages to juggle her many responsibilities, she responded, “To keep track of everything I need for school, I have an agenda I keep on my laptop that has everything written on it. I write down assignments, tasks, reminders, and by what time I should have them completed.” While she participates in many extra curriculars and enjoys hobbies such as playing the guitar, reading and baking, school is always a priority. She prefers finishing tasks ahead of time and only then considers taking part in additional activities, one of which is spending leisure time with her only sibling, Conor. We wish Katie, an outstanding student, the best in the future. Keep up the good work!

By: Aimar Diaz and Nurafiqah Yusof

This year, International Day is scheduled for April 25th with almost 30 countries represented. The booths for each country will be organized by parents, and performances are being put together by STUCO. Parents should have received an email and, if they wish to participate, are required to inform Mrs. Bahar about their plans to represent their chosen country. International Day will be colorful and full of different ethnicities and cultures, which will be represented with music, dancing, traditional dress shows and food! Each booth will have information about the country for visitors which will increase cultural awareness and educate on the importance and uniqueness of that specific country. International Day is a day that children eagerly await since it gives them a chance to represent their country and learn about others. We hope to see you all there!

UPCOMING EVENTS

Scrimmage U-16 Boys March 25, 2013 Spring Break

April 6-10, 2013 End of Quarter April 15, 2013

International Day April 25, 2013

Marc h 27 , 2 013

P.E. FITNESS UNIT

By: Alyssa Alea and Mary Beriña

Since the beginning of March, students have taken part in the Fitness Unit during P.E. classes. The fitness program provides students with the different exercises and drills which help maintain a fit body. The goal of this unit is to improve the five components of physical fitness: cardiovascu-lar fitness, flexibility, muscular strength, endur-ance, and body fat composition. During the first week of the unit, students recorded their base-line scores for the different assessments directed by Ms. Lam and Mr. Rose. The exercises included pushups, curl-ups, pull-ups, sit-and-reach tests, vertical jumps, beep tests, and mile runs. In the future, Ms. Lam would like to experiment with a variety of workouts. Throughout the unit, stu-dents would keep track of their fitness progress and, by the end, are required to show improve-ment. The Fitness Unit will last until the end of March, but may be revisited after the badminton season.

Yanbu International School Compiled by: Journalism Club Editor in chief: Yusra Tasneem Ahmed

OVERLOADED BUSES

By: Haadiya Abbas The student population at YIS has been growing for some time. However, the amount of buses the school had last year did not accommodate for all the stu-dents. In order to solve the problem, the school added two new buses to divide the students on the overcrowded ones. Nevertheless, Ms. Mila and Ms. Merlin’s buses have reached their maximum limit of 55 kids and soon, with the arrival of new students, additional buses will be commissioned as needed. Ms. Apple stated in an interview, “The RC will make available more buses at any time we need.” As a result, overcrowded buses will not be a problem anymore. With the increasing amount of buses, Ms. Apple also assured us that hiring more bus monitors would not be a problem.

NEW COMPUTERS!

The new computers have arrived! The YIS family owes Mr. Gigy M. Baby a big thank you for his hard work setting up the new computers in the labs. It took him a day and a half to get the computers ready. Mr. Gigy stated that getting new computers was “part of the yearly plan.” Mr. Cooke explained, “When I first arrived, I realized that the computer equipment was outdated…We ordered the new computers in September or early October, but because of shipping and customs, the computers have just arrived.” Mr. Cooke also expresses a desire to “always have state-of-the-art equipment for our students and teach-ers.” Mrs. Yaqub proudly stated that “We have the best computers in the district!”

The old computers were given to teachers for their use. Compared to the old computers, these can han-dle more information and are faster. While the old computer’s processer was Core 2 Duo and had 4 GB RAM, the new computer’s processer is core i5 and has 8 GB of RAM. The Windows 7 operating system remains the same. The YIS staff and Mr. Gigy ask the students to only use the new computers for “educational purposes” and be careful while using the equipment.

Staff Babies By: Haadiya Abbas

YIS gladly welcomes the new members of the YIS family. Congratulations to the proud new families of Mrs. El-Mahgoub, Mr. and Mrs. Jarvis, and Mrs. Avee! The teachers are overjoyed to welcome their new babies Yusuf Al-Tayeb, Noelle Jarvis, and Sean Nathaniel Balais, into their respective household. Mrs. Avee and Mrs. El-Mahgoub adoringly gushed over their baby’s actions, while Mrs. Jarvis expressed her feelings of love for her daughter. Ibrahim and Noor excitedly welcomed Mrs. El-Mahgoub’s new son, Yusuf Al-Tayeb, who is four months old. Giving some insight into her baby’s actions, she said, “He likes to play with his rattles, to be on his swing, and most of all to sit up. He also smiles at every-one he sees. If left alone, he would not appreciate it at all, and would want some-one beside him all the time.” Luckily, he has Noor and Ibrahim to keep him company at home and a few friends in the nursery, too. One such friend is Mr. and Mrs. Jarvis’s new daughter, Noelle Jersey Marie Jarvis, who was the first new face of the school year. Mrs. Jarvis expressed her feelings about the new addition to the family with the follow-ing words: “When she smiles- my heart smiles. When I hold her, all I feel is love and she reminds me of everything good in the world. When I have her in my arms, the question of the meaning of life is answered. To sum it up--she is perfection. Just don’t ask me how well she sleeps at night.” The most recent baby face to grace our halls is our nurse Ms. Avee’s 2-month-old son, Sean Nathaniel Balais Baldoz. She describes him as a “talkative kind of baby. He tries to talk to people and gets them to talk to him. So, if you see him do not be afraid to say ‘hi.’” The Journalism Club on behalf of the YIS student body would like to wish Yusuf, Noelle, and Sean all the best life has to offer. We look forward to watching them grow over the coming years.

NURSE’S CORNER By: Dania Hussaini

From March 9-13, Mrs. Aveegale Baldoz performed eye examination on students from grades 2, 4 and 6. Vi-sion difficulties can affect students’ academic performances making vision screening very important. The results of the eye examinations will deter-mine if the individual student needs to seek further consultation. Parents will be informed if further eye tests are necessary for their child.

SENIOR ACTIVITIES

By: Dania Hussaini The seniors have restarted their bake sales to raise money for their graduation. Be sure to drop by near Mr. Caldwell’s room during the 15 minute break to buy some snacks. Let’s help the seniors put together a fabulous graduation!

NEW TECH: NFC Technology has evolved significantly in just two years. Therefore, it is im-portant to be informed about new developments. One such technological advancement is Near Field Communi-cation, or NFC. NFC is a multimedia file transfer system. It is capable of so much, but it has been unable to live up to its full potential because it has not gained much popularity.

How does NFC work? It is simple. Just put two devices that are NFC enabled over each other (note that both devices don’t have to touch each other), and the file transfer takes place automatically. In this age, things are going wireless. Some might argue that Bluetooth is capable of executing what NFC can do. Bluetooth, however takes longer to get in contact with other devices, let alone transfer files. NFC, compared to Bluetooth is much faster, and also has the ability to transfer a varie-ty of file types, including contacts, apps, maps and obviously audio, videos and pictures.

Using NFC, does not require any special connectivity, just make sure the devices are in close proximity and it is ready to go.

NFC is installed in most new phones, and hybrid laptops, although we have not seen many traditional laptops with NFC compatibility as of yet.

With the rise of NFC, there are many questions. For now companies are attempting to evolve and make NFC more compatible. However, the question remains: what new technology will bring an end to the “NFC” era?

TECH CORNER By: Khawer Murad Ahmed

Yanbu International School Compiled by: Journalism Club Editor in chief: Yusra Tasneem Ahmed

Basketball Season By: Misha Hashmi

MS/HS basketball teams have been busy prepping for their tournaments. Recently, the U16 and U19 teams travelled to other ISG schools to participate in tournaments. They also travelled to Jeddah to join scrim-mages, which was a good opportunity for them to gain more experience by actively playing against other teams.

Both the U16 and U19 boys’ teams have practiced afterschool on Saturdays and Wednesdays since January and before school on Sundays and Tuesdays. Their coach, Mr. Nannen, selected Kaustub Mallapragada as the U16 team captain and Humeid Khan as the U19 team captain. On February 28, the U19 team travelled to Jeddah Prep Grammar School (JPGS) for a scrimmage, while the U16 team travelled to American International School of Jeddah (AISJ) on March 7. The U16 team then travelled to Dhahran High School (DHS) from March 13-14. The U19 team travelled to King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) on March 19-21. Mr. Nannen praised their valiant efforts and excellent skills. He also hopes they gained good experience at the matches. The U16 and U19 girls’ teams, coached by Ms. Lam and Ms. Aceto, scheduled their practices for Sundays and Mondays after-school. Although YIS students did not take part in the U16 girls’ tournament due to the inability for some players to travel, the girls did have an opportunity to participate in a scrimmage on the March 7 at AISJ. The U19 girls also went to a scrimmage at JPGS on February 28. Their tournament took place from March 19-21 at KAUST, where Ms. Aceto said “the girls played hard and im-proved greatly over the two days.” Overall, it has been a busy year for YIS bas-ketball players. Congratulations to all the teams for their excellent effort!

YEARBOOK’S PIZZA WEDNESDAY

By: Sujitha Kumar Did you devour some delicious pizza at school? Then it certainly must

have been from the re-cent fundraising event, Pizza Wednesday. The

Yearbook Club organized a scrumptious event, held at the

cafeteria during lunch hours. The mon-ey raised will help fund the production of

yearbooks thereby decreasing the price of each book. The event ran smoothly and the student body

gave positive feedback. Mr. Nannen, head of the Yearbook club, commented on the success of the event saying that the total profit exceeded over a thousand riyals. He also revealed that the Little Caesar’s Pizza Pizza restaurant generously sold pizzas to our school at a reasonable rate, which helped increase the profit mar-gins greatly. Other events that the Yearbook Club planned and have put into action are the selling of class and individual pictures. The order forms for the pictures were sent to parents’ emails, and the last date to hand them in was the March 25. Mr. Nannen re-vealed that yearbook orders will be taken after spring break. The YIS family greatly appreciates the Yearbook Club’s efforts.

3rd QUARTER ASSEMBLY

By: Tazeen Murad

MS/HS students recently attended an as-sembly on Saturday March 2nd, with a fol-low up assembly on March 18. Ms. El-Mahgoub, the MS/HS Facilitator, had a goal of including academic, athletic, and artistic elements in the assemblies. She informed us that the main purpose of these events were to create a “beneficial climate and a relaxing atmosphere” for the students at the school. Students looked forward to this event, as it was an opportunity to be acknowledged for their achievements in the last quarter. Stu-dents received certificates for High Honor Roll and Honor Roll as well as for participa-tion in the Knowledge Bowl. Basketball and Volleyball players were also called up on stage and their efforts playing for YIS were recognized. Drama Club members were handed certificates, and both 7th grade classes performed dances for the audience before the showing of an Art Video compiled by 11th grade students. Much to the disap-pointment of many students, Ms. El-Mahgoub also announced her resignation, with her last day at school being March 20th.

Report cards were given out on February 17, 2013 and some students were delighted to learn that they had received Honor Roll (a GPA of or higher than 3.5) or High Honor Roll (a GPA of or higher than 3.75). To recog-nize their academic excellence, these stu-dents received certificates during the assem-bly. In light of a new policy, the certificates this year and onwards are being given out on a quarterly basis, rather than at the end of each semester. Mr. Lasater, the school guidance counselor, says, “shining a light on quarter grades encourages students to pay attention to those marks before they are too late to change.” Hopefully, there will be even more students up on stage for the two quarters left in the year. Congratulations to all students and good luck for the next se-mester!

NEW STUDENTS By: Aimee Diaz

There have been many new students at YIS from all around the world, with different ages, and from different schools this year. It is great because it allows us to be more culturally aware. Being a new kid is not easy, some adjust quickly while others take a little longer to settle into the new routines. Adjustments include not only the social aspect, but also the academic. YIS students can best help newcomers become socially comfortable in their new school envi-ronment by being kind to them or even inviting them to a lunch table. Aisyah Nasir (8B), from Singapore, said "she loves YIS a lot more than her old school and wouldn't want to go back for any-thing." Other new students like Aimar Diaz (9B), from Venezuela, said "even though she likes YIS and thinks it is ‘cute’ she prefers her old school better." Being a new student can be difficult, howev-er it is great when there are people who are friendly and make it easy to fit in.

Yanbu International School Compiled by: Journalism Club Editor in chief: Yusra Tasneem Ahmed

FAREWELL, MRS. EL-MAHGOUB By: Misha Hashmi

In a recent assembly, Mrs. El-Mahgoub announced to the MS/HS students that she had resigned as MS/HS science teacher and will leave YIS on March 20. Her husband, an orthopedic surgeon at the RC hospi-tal, was offered a job in Abu Dhabi. Ms. El-Mahgoub herself will wait for her children to settle before applying for a position at an international school in Abu Dhabi.

As a teacher, Mrs. El-Mahgoub held two fundraisers. One took place two years ago, in which the current eleventh graders raised about three thousand riyals for the Japan nuclear disas-ter. Another one, held in 2007, raised money for the creation of water wells in parts of Yanbu where there were none available. The total sum of money collected amounted to about five thousand riyals.

In short, MS/HS students have much to thank Mrs. El-Mahgoub for, which she modestly dismisses, saying, “Just having you guys is a pleasure in itself.” Not

only has she been a teacher, but she has also made subtle changes to YIS in order to shape it into the school that we know today. Mrs. El-Mahgoub wishes all the best to her students, current and former ones. She stated

that, “the best thing about this place is the people in it and they are what I will miss the most… Study hard. Be good. Remember to always have respect. (HR)”

Mrs. El-Mahgoub has been at YIS since 2007. She first joined the YIS family as a MS/HS Islamic Culture teacher and later taught K-12 technology, grade 5 math and science, and grades 7-10 science. It was not until the current seniors were 7th graders that Mrs. El-Mahgoub began teaching science at YIS. Furthermore, Mrs. El-Mahgoub has also been science coordinator, part of the Principal’s Advisory Council, MS/HS facili-

In 2008, Mrs. El-Mahgoub founded the student Tech Crew, a group of students who were responsible for many technological aspects of various school meetings in the auditorium, such as setting up the projector, bringing down the

screen, managing spotlights, and playing the music. Thanks to her, stu-dents were able to actively contribute to talent shows and assemblies.

At the beginning of 2009, Mrs. El-Mahgoub became the science coordinator at YIS. She reintroduced the Science Fair to YIS after almost fifteen years. Alongside Mr. Nannen, Mrs. El-

Mahgoub helped set up the fair last year. This year, Mrs. Modi also joined to help in the Science Fair. The Science Fairs have been very successful and are now once again part of YIS history.

At the beginning of 2010, Mrs. El-Mahgoub became the MS/HS facilitator. She aided in organizing meetings for MS/HS teachers and staff in order to discuss areas of improvement for YIS students. Her other responsibilities included scheduling the exams and organizing assemblies. Mrs. El-Mahgoub, along with the MS/HS team of teachers, established a goal in which they decided that they would hold five assemblies per school year, all of which would include academics, athletics, and artistic components. She also introduced end-of-year school events, such as the end-of-year party held in the cafeteria. Additionally, she set up the MS/HS transition program for new students, which includes the buddy system, welcome videos, and the YIS bulletin board outside of the technology labs.