Q: What is your name, grade, and age?

A: “My name is Neela Luna and I’m 15 and a freshman here at Sahuaro.”

Q: Where are you from?

A: “I was born and raised here in Tucson, Arizona.”

Q: Why did you pick Sahuaro?

A: “I picked Sahuaro because I saw they had a really good Mexican American studies program and I am personally really involved in the social injustices so I just chose here, and I also was intrigued by the sports teams.”

Q: What’s your favorite memory at Sahuaro?

A: “My favorite memory I would have to say were cheer tryouts and making the team and doing games or writing my very first article on my close friend Estevan, and being able to keep his memory alive and continued.”

Q: What’s your favorite thing about Sahuaro?

A: “My favorite thing about Sahuaro has to be my time, I love my cheer team and I love how involved we can all be.”

Q: What sports do you play/want to play for Sahuaro?

A: “I’m currently a cheerleader on  the JV team, I hope to continue cheering and maybe even join the soccer team here.”

Q: When you cheer are you ever nervous, or how do you feel?

A: “I definitely get nervous when I’m cheering, because there are so many people and so many things that could go wrong. I feel really excited but the nervous type of excited. However, once I start cheering and getting more into it, I get a little less nervous and more excited. I get more nervous when we’re stunting.”

Q: How long have you been cheering for?

A: “This is my first year cheering and I’m hoping to continue all through high school.”

Q: Do you do cheer outside of school? If so for what team?

A: “I don’t cheer outside of school, but now I should probably look into it to get better for our school team.”

Q: Have you played soccer before? If so what position? Did you play outside of school?

A: “Yes, I have played soccer before, and I played defense and midfielder, I preferred midfielder more than defense. And I was not able to do a club soccer due to money.”

Q: Are you involved in any clubs, are there any you would like to join?

A: “Right now I am not in any clubs, I don’t really have the time to do any clubs with school and cheer.”

Q: What would you like to do for a living?

A: “I’m not sure what I want to do for a living. I would love to do something in social science and continue to do conferences and things like that for social injustice, it just comes to me. It feels like I have a purpose.”

Q: What are your plans in the future for college and beyond?

A: “My plans for the future…  I want to go to college in Oregon, I want to try my hardest to get into Oregon State. I love Oregon, I love everything about it and I also know they also have a very good Mexican American studies and social science programs.”

Q: What would you have liked to tell your younger self?

“Something I would tell myself when I was younger would be… I’m going to get through things. No matter how hard, I’m going to get through it, and try new things. Go out for things and have fun because we only live once and things are not going to stay like this forever. Make sure I spend time with friends and family, one day you might lose them.”

Q: What is a question you would like to ask yourself in 4-5 years?

A: “I would ask myself , ‘Did I make it?’ I would want to know if I made my dreams, if I continued cheer, and if I accomplished everything I wanted in life.

Q: What do you hope to have accomplished by your senior year?”

A: “By senior year I hope to have moved forward with cheer and have made it to championships with my team. I also want to try and get to know more people and hopefully, I’ll get somewhere and be able to do more things. Get into Oregon State, I’ve pretty much always wanted to go there.”

Q: What do you do in your free time outside of school? What are some of your interests outside of school?

A: “Outside of school, I mostly have cheer practice and family stuff. So I’ll be at practice and then go home and do what I need to and then watch some Netflix or practice some more. I listen to music and do homework mainly in my free time. Sometimes I take a break and watch a movie or FaceTime someone.”