This program brought to you in part by the Erika Lewis Endowment Fund.

Coming up, we take a look back at some of our favorite stories from working one-on-one with students on "News Breaks" and special interviews to featuring students' skills and musical talent.

We've got a great show packed with powerful moments and memories.

Student Spotlight starts right now.

♪♪♪ [swiping sound] -Happy New Year, everyone!

Thank you so much for joining us.

I'm your host, Maria Silva.

We have a very special episode of Student Spotlight for you this month, a compilation of our favorite student-centric stories from the past year.

Some of these great stories students produced.

Other stories focus on the students and their incredible talent.

We've been all over the Clark County School District the past 12 months bringing you inside our schools and shining the spotlight on our students.

Every month, we visit Clark County School District schools to learn about cool school programs.

(Alyson)You get to learn whatever you are interested in.

-Dedicated staff, the arts, athletics, and the incredible achievements of our students, whether we tell the story or enlist students to help share the news.

-Hi, I'm Bryce.

-And I'm Sofia, and we're here with your first "News Break."

-We love learning about everything from school namesakes to school buildings to why students feel so strongly about issues like bullying.

(Aryana)Like there is no winning and losing.

You get bullied if you're really smart.

But then again, you get bullied if you're-- if you're not smart at all.

-Students are always our focus, even helping us interview members of the School Board of Trustees.

-My name is Miguel Sosa.

-My name is Isaiah Christian, and we are proud to interview a School Board Trustee.

-We look for different perspectives, the stories you may not hear, by spotlighting all of the great things happening in the fifth largest school district in the entire country.

There are a lot of great stories to tell.

As you can see, we love visiting our schools.

We also love working with students on sharing their stories through the Vegas PBS Media Crew.

As members of the Crew, students work with our producers to put together segments on topics they want to spotlight.

Let's go first to Northwest Career and Technical Academy to learn more about Hawk Haven.

[shutter sound] -Hi, I'm Benjamin Morse.

-I'm Dominic Smith.

And we're part of the Vegas PBS Media Crew here at Northwest Career an Technical Academy, a place we call home.

-Today we want to bring to your attention the matter of mental health among teens throughout the district.

Thousands of teens are going through many hidden problems or trials that are affecting who they are in a negative way and an unpleasant way.

-Many wish for an environment that is safe and judgment free, allowing them to confide in someone who is open to them expressing how they feel and someone who also understands how they feel.

-Thankfully, here at NWCTA, our New Hawk Haven is designed to accommodate the needs of students seeking such help.

-I'm here with student ambassadors from Hawk Haven to give us that inside look into what the program is all about.

So could you guys tell me what you do as student ambassadors?

(Avellana) As student ambassadors, our job is to really just represent the Hawk Haven.

So we advise kids to come here, and a couple of my friends asked me if they could come here.

"It's just a lunch thing, or it's an all-the-time thing?"

And I told them, "Yeah, it's an all-the-time thing."

Come here and talk about your feelings, you know?

Yeah.

-So like, building on that, what is so special about this program?

What's so special about Hawk Haven?

(Alvia) Hawk Haven is a place where people can go, you know, like, there's things to do.

There's people to talk to.

You can always find new people.

A lot of the time they have snacks in case people need to eat, because-- and then even the cafeteria in the courtyard can be a really crowded place for a lot of people.

So this can just be a place people can go to, you know, quiet down, do some work if needed, get ready for the next class.

-And our school is one of the only places that has a space like this, so it makes us really unique.

-Hawk Haven has created a place of relief from the stresses of school, giving students chances to bond, to unwind, and to escape the expectations of high school.

-Today we're here with Miss Kasina, Lead Advisor here at the Hawk Haven at Northwest Career and Technical Academy.

Thank you for joining us.

How are you?

(Miss Kasina) I'm doing quite well.

Thank you for having me.

-No problem.

So let's get into a few questions.

First off, we would just like to know what inspired Hawk Haven.

-So Hawk Haven came to me when I got to work during the summertime just to kind of see what the campus looked like, the climate of the campus.

And during that time, I noticed that students and staff were always on the go-go.

And I thought it would be awesome for students and staff to have a space where they can just come and reflect, relate, release, reset, and rejoin.

And here we are.

-How do you think Hawk Haven prepares students for the real world?

-This space creates an atmosphere where students can just be.

-And when you say, Students, let them be, what do you mean by that?

-Sometimes we just need a moment just to kind of settle in ourself, you know, and just kind of like self-care.

But self-care is a really cool thing to say, but what does that really look like?

Are you really taking time to listen to your body, recognize that you're not okay, that I need a moment to reset so I can be the better version of myself when I go back into a space?

You know, I think that it's just within the name, it's definitely a haven where somebody can come in and feel safe, and that's what we want.

-Thanks to Hawk Haven, the students at NWCTA now have a safe and inclusive place for everybody.

-It's an example of what happens when you teach students today for tomorrow's problems.

I'm Dominic Smith.

-And I'm Benjamin Morse with the Vegas PBS Media Crew signing off from NWCTA.

-Well done, Benjamin and Dominic!

Thank you so much.

Now let's head to Advanced Technologies Academy, or A-Tech, to meet Kira who takes a closer look at Hawaiian culture.

(Kira) Aloha!

My name is Kira Granito.

I'm currently an A-Tech senior reporting for the Vegas PBS Media Crew.

When you hear "Hawaii," you probably think of 8 tropical islands in the middle of the ocean.

But there's a 9th island in the middle of the desert.

While Las Vegas is probably one of the last places you would think of when you hear the word "Hawaii," for over 22,000 Hawaiians, when they hear the word "Las Vegas," they think of home.

But how did a desert become reputable for its tropical paradise?

And is it even possible to preserve a culture that has been priced out of paradise over 2,000 miles away?

(Ms. Tsuchiyama-Sando) E Komo Mai!

Welcome to Hawai'i Culture Club.

You guys know the setup already.

If you're new, then we always start off our meetings with singing "Hawai'i Pono'i," which is the national anthem of Hawaii.

-Why is Vegas considered the 9th island?

-So Vegas is considered the 9th island because a lot-- there's a lot of native Hawaiians that have moved here.

It kind of started back in like the 1970s when Boyd Gaming kind of started directing their-- targeting Hawaiians to like, travel packages to come to Vegas.

Living in Hawaii, it's really expensive.

And the cost of living is really high.

So anywhere they go for vacation, it's a six-hour flight.

Vegas offering kind of like a good package deal is what kind of started Hawaiians going to Vegas.

And then it just got really popular, and a lot of Hawaiians started coming here, especially because the economy is similar to Hawaii.

It's a tourist economy.

So people could transfer their jobs in Hawaii to Vegas jobs in like hospitality.

So if you want to sing with me, please.

-So music, dance, chanting, singing, all of those visual elements, they're kind of common in all cultures.

But what about these elements in Hawaiian cultures kind of makes it unique?

-It's really important to the Hawaii culture because before, they weren't a written language.

It was all oral.

And everything documented was through oli.

So doing chanting is how they preserved their history.

And passing it down through generations was how people knew to, you know, learn about their ancestors and learn about the aina.

-So less than 1% of Hawaiians live in Las Vegas.

Yet the culture has made itself very present in the city.

How important do you think it is for the youth to stay engaged in this culture, even if they're not necessarily Hawaiian?

(Dr. Park) I think it's very important; for example, I have children of my own, and I don't feel like they've really engaged with the local Hawaii culture here in Las Vegas because we're so far away from home and so busy in our lives.

And so the Hawai'i Culture Club I think really brings that out, that missing element that many students don't have outside of the classrooms.

[Hawaiian music] -Students are the ones who are going to be the driving force of maintaining the Hawaii culture here on the continental U.S.

It's not necessary being a native Hawaiian, but it's being, you know, remembering where you came from, where your family came from.

-While Las Vegas may not have the lush mountains and captivating breezes of Hawaii, Hawaiians have and continue to make Las Vegas their new 9th island paradise.

-Mahalo, Kira.

Great job!

Now to Foothill High School where we learn more about how the pandemic impacted students.

Here's Christen.

(Christen) Hello, I'm Christen Davis, and welcome to Foothill High School.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many schools, like Foothill, had to shut down and made the class of 2024 go completely online.

Foothill's social worker, Megan Mengistu, helped shine a light on the long-term mental effects of the pandemic.

(Ms. Mengistu) It's definitely looking a little different than it did that first year, but I think that the impacts are still the same with a lot of the mental health things that we see, such as anxiety and depression.

You know, COVID was really stressful and had a huge impact, and so that's not something that just easily goes away overnight or even over the course of a year.

It takes a while to figure out and work around the things that have disrupted the learning.

But again, the rate of depression and anxiety that we see is a continued concern.

-According to Mental Health America, or the MHA, the rate of youth coping with severe major depression has increased from around 2 million in 2019 to around 2,500,000 in 2022.

Seniors around the district feel distressed due to the fact that they lost a year of their high school experience to a pandemic.

A common sentiment I found is that many seniors still feel like they are in middle school.

How do you think that pandemic in that year affected you mentally?

(Ava) Mentally sometimes, like I forget that I'm almost an adult.

A lot of times I still feel like I'm a 14-year-old, which isn't really fun to do.

So it definitely like stunted-- well, I'm not gonna say it stunted my maturity level too much, but it definitely messes with my brain sometimes, like when I think about like, Ooh, I'm graduating this year.

(Anikka) Mentally, I still feel like I'm in 8th grade.

I still feel like I should not be a senior right now.

Like, it's crazy because now I'm driving and I'm almost an adult and I'm going to be graduating, and I still feel like I'm a child.

I'm in 8th grade, and I'm about to go to high school.

-Not is all doom and gloom, however.

Many kids feel like the pandemic made them stronger.

The pandemic forced many students to adapt quickly, and now they work harder than ever before.

(Ivan) I think I'm a lot stronger, better.

I'm focusing more on school now, trying to get better grades for my future.

I want to go to college to study engineering.

So just trying to do that for now, and hopefully it'll, it'll get better soon.

-COVID-19 pandemic had a massive impact on this year's senior class.

Megan Mengistu left the class of 2024 with some words of advice to help them get through these final months of high school.

What advice would you give to seniors to help them recover from the pandemic?

-In some ways, my biggest motto has been, you know, one class at a time, one moment in time.

It's the idea of 60 seconds, 60 minutes, just one day at a time.

Truly.

It really is about taking care of yourself and getting to know what your needs are and not holding yourself to a really high standard.

If you are able to, if you're really struggling to make up your credits, if you're really struggling academically and you're able to get Cs, Cs will still get you to that diploma.

If the diploma is so far out of reach that maybe GED is your option, GED is better than nothing.

So in that way, it's a little of taking care of yourself, adjusting your expectations, and then just giving yourself a chance one class at a time, one homework assignment at a time.

-If you are struggling with any kind of mental health issue, make sure to contact your school counselor or a trusted adult.

This has been Christen Davis with the Vegas PBS Satellite Media Crew.

-Thank you so much, Christen, for that important story.

Now to North Las Vegas and Triggs Elementary School.

Now, we first met the Triggs Broadcast Network team when recording "News Breaks" at their school.

Then, students sent us this very special segment where they interviewed teachers who oversee some of the school clubs.

By the way, they call their clubs "voyages."

Check out what they sent us.

(Trinity) Welcome to Triggs Elementary School, home of the Travelers.

I'm Trinity.

(Marissa) And I'm Marissa.

Today we would like to share an amazing program we have at our school called "voyages."

-Voyages take place on Wednesdays before school.

They include many activities, such as robotics, photography, and drama.

-Now, over to Emerson and Ben.

(Ben) Thank you.

My name is Ben.

(Emerson) And I'm Emerson.

And we're here at Triggs Elementary with Mr. Silva.

Please tell us about your voyage.

(Mr. Silva) My voyage is robotics.

I'm one of the coaches here.

The students come to me twice a week.

We work two hours per mission, and the kids just work to solve problems through STEM, and this is their robot, right here.

-Well, that sounds terrific!

And now back to you in the studio.

-Robotics sounds like fun.

Let's check in on Lyric and Kenzie.

(Lyric) Thank you.

My name is Lyric.

(Kenzie) And I'm Kenzie.

And we're here at Triggs Elementary with Miss Felix.

Please tell us all about your voyage.

(Miss Feliz) Hi.

I teach 3rd, 4th and 5th graders basic photography skills every Wednesday morning.

-We look forward to seeing your photos in the yearbook.

Now back to you in the studio.

-I love taking pictures.

Finally, let's go pay a visit to Tamiya and Melina.

(Tamiya) Thank you.

My name is Tamiya.

-And I'm Melina.

And we're here at Triggs Elementary with Miss Bass.

Please tell us about your voyage.

(Miss Bass) Hi.

My name is Miss Bass.

I'm one of the drama teachers here at Triggs.

In drama, we meet every Wednesday and Thursday after school.

We have students from grades 2 through 5, and this year we will be performing The Aristocats.

-We look forward to seeing your play, The Aristocats, in the spring.

And now back to you in the studio.

-Thank you for watching.

-And back to you in the studio.

-Amazing job!

Thank you so much to the students and teachers too.

We love hearing from those who watch the show and getting emails about exceptional students.

In this next story, meet the Student Director of Las Vegas High School's Mariachi Joya.

We caught up with him and his classmates one day before the group was to perform at Allegiant Stadium.

As you'll learn, the student leader of the group has only been playing the violin, listen to this, for two years.

[mariachi music] (Jenni) So Mariachi Joya is currently practicing for our performance at Allegiant Stadium, one of our biggest events since being born as a mariachi program in general.

(Noemi) We've never done a stadium or anything that big.

(Axel) So we're pretty stoked.

[singing in Spanish] -My name is Axel Rodriguez Olivas.

I'm the Student Director.

-That just means he's, he's number one.

He's the leader.

He's able to let us know what to do without actually, like, talking.

(Mr. Blanco) So you'll see Axel start and stop every single song.

You'll see him conduct more difficult passages.

If they are getting off tempo, he makes sure they're on.

He kind of takes over the music side of the program as the Student director.

(Adrian) That's a really big step because, like, he really hasn't had much experience.

-He started in the beginning, and he worked his way up really fast.

Like in a matter of maybe months, he was already in our group, in Joya.

And I was really surprised.

I was so proud of him because I've known him since kindergarten.

-It's been hard and fun.

You know, it's been hard because I have to keep up with people who already have a couple years on me.

And then it's been fun because, you know, I get to play at events that I would have never imagined.

-I want the people at Allegiant Stadium to know that we're a family, and we're all together in this.

-The fact that we can take them there and give them an experience of performing on the field of Allegiant Stadium, that's something they're going to take with them forever.

-I feel like excitement because the violin is something I really love and, like, just letting my talent out to other people and showing them what I can do and what my group can do.

-I think that mariachi has impacted my life in many different ways, and it's taught me a lot of discipline and how to work with others too.

-The reason I love it is because it's part of my culture.

I really love listening to it, and I love music too.

So it's like the best of both worlds.

-So proud of these students!

And not long after Mariachi Joya played Allegiant Stadium, they had another big performance in Washington, D.C.

In October, Mariachi Joya was invited to perform at the White House for the 2023 National Hispanic Heritage Month celebration.

They also performed in the Senate.

What an honor!

[in Spanish] -So proud of them.

To all members of Mariachi Joya, we are so very proud of how you represent Las Vegas.

From mariachi to jazz.

Just before summer break, we were contacted by a CCSD jazz band instructor who took a canceled student trip and turn it into a positive, possibly life-changing musical experience.

We love this next story, and we hope you did too.

♪♪♪ (Mr. Motamedy) We're at Walter Johnson International Academy, and we're going to go to a music studio today.

And we're gonna record 30 kids from our jazz band.

It's going to be amazing.

You'll be blown away when you hear them.

They're just so great.

(Kortlen) I feel really good about performing with this band because, yeah, this is the only time I'm gonna get to play in a studio.

(Kaylee) Well, yeah, it means a lot.

I'm very excited, too, because it kind of documents my progress and the band's progress together.

-My jazz band, the first year I was here with my jazz band, I had six kids in the jazz band.

I've been a music writer my whole life.

So what I did, I started writing music for the jazz band.

And the next year I had 12 kids, and so I started writing for those 12 kids.

The next year I had a full jazz band, but they were pretty weak, so I just kept writing to the level of their musicianship.

-So here we are in the studio.

It's been a two-year endeavor, right?

So we're getting ready to pop and let everybody hear our great magic from Johnson International Academy.

You guys are fantastic.

Everybody in the band is valuable and important.

[jazz music] And then I have written so many songs that I got a publishing deal with a publishing company in Washington.

So it's been really, it's been great for me.

-The music is very melodical and very thought out.

It's very well planned out.

I really like it.

-His music like, speaks.

So his music is like really touching.

And it feels like it's the greatest music ever, I ever, ever played.

Ever.

I love it.

-What are they learning from this exercise today?

They're really learning what I have done my whole life as a musician.

So you practice, you learn your skill, you play with others, and then you take your skill and go into the recording studio and you record it.

You get all these years and years of practice, and then you go, Here's my gift to you.

-Yes, I'm going to Las Vegas Academy of the Arts for Jazz International Studies, and I will be able to play.

And this is basically a stepping step into my new career and everything.

-I'm gonna keep playing music for the rest of my life.

-Bravo!

What a great experience.

On that note, we were thrilled to invite student musicians from all over the Clark County School District here to our Vegas PBS studios this holiday season.

We took all of their performances and put them together for a very special show in December.

Here's what students thought of the experience.

Check it out.

-I can't wait to be on TV and for my whole family to see me and to be singing with my choir.

-This is great.

Honestly, I know a lot of groups don't have the opportunity to do this, and I feel really honored that my group can come and be a holiday special.

-I think it's super cool being able to perform on television.

I think our choir deserves something like this.

It's super cool to do it.

-Performing here at Vegas PBS was nerve wracking, but we were really excited to do it.

It was fun.

-I felt nervous at first.

After I permormed, I felt better.

-It's a really cool experience with the whole set setup and just the overall atmosphere.

We're performing in front of the cameras.

It's just kind of unheard of.

-The studio is massive.

The decoration is so festive.

-It's a really, really big thing for me, because I've always loved orchestra.

I love playing the violin.

I love the community that I get to play with.

And so just doing this with all of them makes me really happy about it.

-So our school has a lot of joy into it.

There's a lot of clubs that you can join.

One of the clubs I really enjoy is drama club and Bell choir.

We have an amazing teacher that teaches us a lot.

That's where I get my skill from.

-We're just a high-energy group, good vibes, supportive of each other, and we all just love doing it.

So that definitely brings energy to the room.

-We started off as a really tiny band.

We weren't doing so great, and then we finally made it all the way up here.

It's a huge experience.

We're just one family, and we're in unison.

We play fun games.

And it's a great club to be in, and we get amazing opportunities like this.

-We are an amazing group.

We are a great family, I would say.

We bond every time we come into the classroom.

-I love to play in the orchestra because the music unifies us, and creating something beautiful with each other just really brings us together.

And you feel like you have a family.

-I play the trumpet, and it's fun because, I mean, it's sort of easy because you just have to blow into it, try to make a noise, and then just press on the valves.

-I love playing the guitar because I initially, I've always wanted to because of certain shows and cartoons or whatever.

But like, it just feels so surreal to actually do it and be good at it.

You know?

-What I have in my hand is a bell, and it's Number F. And like, how we play is we have to, we smack it on the hand so that it can ring, that this piece can hit it on our hands [bell rings] like that.

-We really, we enjoy what we do.

We like playing for people.

We enjoy seeing the faces of the little kids who are in the crowds, the parents.

We just really like what we do, and we really hope that with our performance, they're able to see that.

-And I can tell you that it was truly magical to watch these very talented musicians perform here in our Vegas PBS studios.

There is so much talent within our CCSD school system.

Now, if you've missed December's show, you can catch it online at vegaspbs.org or the Vegas PBS YouTube page.

Let me tell you, you will definitely be impressed.

And we have more students coming through our studios, this time for Varsity Quiz and Junior Varsity Quiz.

The programs feature some of the brightest minds in the Clark County School District in a fast-paced academic quiz show format.

They start airing right here on Vegas PBS next month.

Thank you so much for watching, and keep sending us those story ideas.

Who knows?

The next student, staff member, or school we shine a spotlight on could be yours.

From all of us here at Student Spotlight, Happy New Year.

We will see you next month for a brand new episode of Student Spotlight.

♪♪♪