Daniel Duan, 17
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My family has lived in Las Vegas for almost nine years now. We originally moved here because my dad's work was changed over here. My dad is an engineer.

One of the major problems I see in Las Vegas as a whole is that we are growing at such an astronomical pace. It's almost crazy how you can drive down the street one day and all you see is just lots, dirt lots, and the next day you have a whole neighborhood built up there.

The growth is fantastic because it gives an opportunity to meet all sorts of new people, but at the same time there are a lot of inherent problems with that. Las Vegas has done a rather poor job of dealing with the growth.

I'd like to see Las Vegas have more of an internal community. It seems like people move here for their own purpose and there is really no fellowship.

Mai Bausch, 17
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My mom moved to Las Vegas because it was the easiest place to get a job because she didn't graduate from high school. She was from Vietnam and she had to get out. My dad moved just to get away from his home town.

My biggest challenge in the community is actually having communication between everyone. It's really different in Las Vegas because you rarely ever know your neighbor. I think the biggest challenge is people just being disconnected from each other.

Most of us, we don't work right in our neighborhood, most people work on the strip and people come from all over Las Vegas to work on the strip. So the people you are close to, and you have connections with, they aren't living near you. Also, there is so much diversity it might be hard for people to connect.

Ruel James, 17
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My family has lived in the Las Vegas area for about seven years now. We moved here because of a giant earthquake in California and before that my family lived in Leeds, England.
A huge problem that I see with our community is that a lot of students now don't see the motivation to go to college. Because we are in such a metropolis, around work that is so easily accessible, it doesn't really make sense for them to go to college to get a paid job if they can just get one right out of high school. We offer jobs so frequently here in Las Vegas, because we are a growing community, and I believe that students just don't understand the importance of going to college and the actual increase in pay that they will get and the knowledge they will receive out of going to a college.

I do believe the teachers are making valid efforts to teach students about going to college and the importance of it. I do also believe that we do need to have more programs involving that.

Leizell Joy Seligbon, 17
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My family moved to Las Vegas about five years ago. We lived in San Diego my whole life and it was a big change for me because it was the first place I moved to.

The reason my family decided to move to Las Vegas was because of the cheap housing that the economy generated and we thought it was time for a change.

In San Diego I was around pretty much an Asian community and in Las Vegas, in the area I grew up in, it was mainly Hispanic and African American students at the school that I attended. So it really was a huge cultural and ethnic shock to me.

I know people usually have the preconception that Las Vegas is just full of fun, drugs, sex and just naked ladies. In all honesty it is really not, we have a good economy going on here and I'm very impressed with the educational opportunities around.


Bryce Hutchinson, 18
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My family has lived in Las Vegas all their lives. My grandfather said when he first moved here he was looking for a type of economic stability in the work force.

Growing up in Las Vegas has been pretty interesting because of the diversity that I've encountered while living here. I like the big city feel. Since Las Vegas is a growing population, by the day, it's pretty interesting to see new people come to your school every day and from different countries, states, all around the world

A big challenge that Las Vegas is probably facing right now is dealing with the growth. There is a fast, constant growth that is happening in Las Vegas and trying to accompany the growth with teachers, when you talk about schooling, we are always at a shortage of teachers now because of this constant growth. Job opportunities--because of those job opportunities we have that constant growth.

In my neighborhood, I live in a lower income neighborhood, so I see the challenges day by day when the gas prices go up and they have trouble getting to work because they are new to America and or our state, which could be a challenge to other people

One challenge in my house is dealing with my mom's health. So insurance has become a big thing in our family. I've been looking it up and insurance and Social Security are depleting in terms of helping our family out and I could feel that a lot of families are going through the same thing.

Applying for things such as welfare and housing have become more difficult because more people are applying for it in lower income families. Usually when people move here from different states or countries it is because they are of lower income and they are trying to find a job here because Las Vegas, with the hotel industry, we have a lot of jobs to offer.

Kyla Salac, 17
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We have lived here for about five years now in October and we moved here for the real estate.
It was much cheaper compared to where we lived before, that was New Jersey. And we like the weather and just the major attractions here. My mom is a registered nurse and my dad works as a butler at Planet Hollywood.

There's some ups and downs to [living here] because you can't go into a casino because we have curfew usually.

People are very, like in schools, people are very selective with who they hang out with. They would prefer to hang out with their own race. We have Mexicans in one group and Asians in another. So they are kind of selective with their groups.


Rochelle Alfonso, 18
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I grew up in New Jersey and the Philippines. I think its very different growing up here in Vegas compared to New Jersey because here it's a whole different background.
Back home in New Jersey its more settled and focused on school. A lot of teenagers are very distracted on going out here and doing fun things.

I think teenagers should be more focused in school rather than working or going out with friends. I think they should limit the advertisements on billboards so that kids won't be influenced.

It's Vegas, it's high style of fashion, and when there is always something new they want that. Some teenagers depend on their parents, most of them don't so they have to look for a job so they can fulfill their need for material things.

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