By Marleld Duran

Staff Writer

Since 2012, Gabrielino High School has held an annual event, Gab Talks, to feature stories from staff members and students to the rest of the community.

Senior co-hosts Jannelle Dang and Sydney Jung worked alongside the Associated Student Body (ASB) to pick this year’s theme and presenters.

Speakers are presenting all week in the Gary E. Goodson Theatre during lunch. Today’s speakers include senior Mariah Aragonez and science teacher Dave Cameron, who will be sharing how their experiences connect to the theme, Passion Matters.

On Monday, senior Victoria Nea and English teacher Marguertia Drew spoke about their past experiences with dedication. Yesterday, senior Winfred Wang and special education teacher Sheila Mateo shared how their love for a hobby was driven by dedication.

Senior Kayla Dang and police detective Martin Garcia will be presenting tomorrow. Science teachers Thomas Velekei and Kevin McClure, and alumnus Roy Rosell will speak on Friday.

The speakers filled out applications last month and were then selected by Dang, Jung and ASB advisor, Yvonne Aparicio. Garcia and Rosell were recommended by Principal Sharon Heinrich.

Gab Talks was inspired by “TedTalks,” which is a series of influential videos presented by experts on topics such as education and creativity. Gab Talks was brought to life by a group of students led by Raymond Lam and Sharon Liu, who were a part of the 2012 graduating class.

The goal of Gab Talks was to serve as a community forum and share lessons that would humanize the types of people on campus.

Speakers each day consist of one student and one staff or faculty member. When Gab Talks was created, each day of the week had a different theme. However, the students in charge the following year changed the week to follow one theme.

“We hoped it would serve as a place where students could see what other teachers were like and teachers could see what students were up to,” said Lam.

Since its creation, Gab Talks has been a collaboration between students and the administration. Prior to the Gab Talks committee, small student groups worked together to execute the event. This year is the first time the program has been assisted by ASB.

Although Lam and Liu had high hopes for Gab Talks, they did not expect for it to be present to current students