really awful may 2015 edition!!!

CLASS OF 2015 EDITION FEATURING DEPARTING SENIORS:

ANDRES ORMENO SVEN LARSON CARLA ARCHER EMILY LOW SAMANTHA PHARR JARYN PHILLIPS KENNEDY RICKARD & ANDREA PLUM

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

4 ANDRES ORMENO

5 SVEN LARSON

7 COLE COLLINS

6 CARLA ARCHER

8 SAMANTHA PHARR

9 JARYN PHILLIPS 10 KENNEDY RICKARD 11 ANDREA PLUM

ANDRES ORMENO FINDS

SAFETY IN NUMBERS.

by HARRY COLE

He loves seeing vast, complex math problems and knowing that the numbers will fit together and produce an answer.

He loves the feeling of accomplishment, finding the answer that puts everything in place.

Andres struggled during the beginning of high school. He had problems to take care of at home and found it hard to keep up with school work. Andres remembers his old math teacher Mr. Riley talking about talking about maintaining a positive mentality during high school. “He told us that even though there will be moments where we don’t want to do anything, we need to look at the bigger picture - realize our pain is temporary.”

Things started to get better when Andres opened up to others about his difficulties.

“I found a group of friends that supported me. From then on, I felt more comfortable in school, and I started

taking classes that really challenged me.”

Andres has played tennis for Heritage, basketball at the RAC, and has participated in Quiz Bowl. Tennis has been his favorite extracurricular activity.

He says, “I remember playing on doubles with Deng, the foreign exchange student from China. One match, we were about to win, when Deng scraped his leg. I remember looking into his eyes and telling him we can persevere. We won the match.”

Senior year, Andres took five AP classes, adding to the five he had already taken earlier in his high school career. He loves science and math classes because they explore the relationships between different things, and English classes because they let him deeply analyze literature and talk about it with other people.

Last year, Andres’ advisory teachers, Coach Olsen and Coach

Gilstrap, told him about biomedical engineering.

Ever since, he’s seen it as a career possibility.

Deciding a career has given Andres meaning behind his work; he feels as if every hard assignment is one step closer to his goal.

Next year, Andres will study biomedical engineering at the University of Arkansas.

He knows he will have a community with good friends when he gets there. One of his closest friends, Mounika Seeram, will also be studying biomedical engineering.

“The future isn’t as scary when you know you have good friends by your side,” Andres says.

The community Andres found at Heritage has made him come out of his shell and given him the courage to try new things. When he stopped thinking of school as merely a burden, the challenge of a rigorous education actually became fun. Without strong, supportive

photo by Harry Cole

friends, Andres says he wouldn’t have been as successful.

During senior year, Andres read Love In the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The book stuck with him. “Love In the Time of Cholera is my favorite book. It’s a huge contemplation on all kinds of love in the world: between lovers,

between siblings, and friendship.”

As much as Andres wants a successful career, it has little to do with his happiness. Andres says, “When I grow up, I want to be part of a community that truly loves and supports me. Just that would be enough.”

SENIOR SPOTLIGHT:

SVEN LARSON

by HARRY COLE

J

photo by Sven Larson

UST IMAGINE THIS FOR A SECOND: You come to high school on the first day and know only four or five people. The people around you have their respective inner circlesyears of friendships and interaction built up that will continue on in high school.

You have almost

no one. You search around for familiar faces everywhere you go; you aren’t sure where and who to sit with at lunch.

The experience is like being adopted into a whole new family at age fourteen, not knowing if you will be nurtured, not knowing if you will ever form lasting relationships with those around you. Basically:

fear.

High school began this way for Sven Larson.

After he graduated from Saint Vincent’s in eighth grade, he barely knew anyone on the first day of high school. And, at first, it was just like the experience above.

High school was really scary. But Sven says overcoming that fear helped him become a better person.

“I was kind of quiet at Saint Vincents,” Sven says. “At the beginning of high school, I made it my goal to go out of my way and meet lots of new people. When I did, my whole life just got so much better.”

Now, Sven is a social overachiever. He is active in swim team, choir, tennis, table tennis, and link crew.

In link crew, Sven tries to put himself back into his position during freshmen year; he says being an active leader in school is all about having empathy for others.

Sven speaks

fondly of his old choir teacher, Mrs. Langton.

Over his years with her in choir, he says she gave him confidence in himself as a leader.

“Mrs. Langton taught me that being a true leader is about showing respect. This year, I’m the bass section leader for Heritage choir.”

Sven’s best memories from high school come from his interactions with others.

He remembers getting Justin and London Berkshire together at a birthday party during sophomore year. He remembers convincing five of his friends to join swim with him during sophomore year.

This year, Sven’s family hosted Linchen Deng, a foreign exchange student from China.

Sven and Deng have become good friends, both participating in high school tennis this school year. For his senior trip, Sven plans to visit Deng in China.

Next year, Sven

will go to the University of Arkansas to study Psychology. Sven took AP Psychology in high school and was intrigued by the human brain. “I loved studying people’s motives for their actions.”

Eventually Sven wants to become a counselor. “I just love talking to people, looking at things through someone else’s perspective. I want to empower people to see the good side of any situation.”

Sven’s plans don’t end in Arkansas. Sven imagines moving and working in Ecuador, the homeland of his mother.

No matter where Sven ends up, his goal in life is to influence and help and many people as he can.

He’s already inspired the people around him at Heritage.

Carla Archer EXUBERANT EDITOR, LEADER, & FRIEND written and photographed by William Clift

W

INTER LINGERS IN MY LUNGS on a Monday morning in early spring. I stand in front of the school alongside my fellow newspaper writers and watch with a most delicate indifference as dozens of students - each one appearing more glazed-over and uninspired than the last - exit their cars and traipse their way up the ramp (unendingly long as the journey may seem) leading to the courtyard. Sprawling out before my eyes: skies of maddening seven-thirty overcast; swathes of trees, all clones, abrasively green; the tender ambiance of a mildly dilapidated high school parking lot.

Two bright yellow canvas shoes, as the sun peeking between clouds, skip to us through thick, sullen air as stones cast across stagnant water. Their owner smiles, giddy,

despite the overwhelmed exhaustion known to any (every) high school senior.

“Guys,” screams Carla Archer, startling us all out of an early-morning stupor, “I’m a hipster! I fit in now!”

She refers, of course, to her older sister’s red buffalo flannel, draped across her shoulders, comically large on Carla’s small frame though it may be. She grins, proud, at all those slouching in the lopsided circle before her, each one, myself included, a shameless member of the contrived social caste to which she refers and the owner of a pair of dull, sleepy eyes.

At eight we board our bus to ASPA - a high school journalism convention - feeling suddenly rejuvenated. I sit next to bright, bubbly Carla, my fellow editor. She indulges me, as she always has, in the strangest details of her life - the tissues

in her pockets, the sweat under her arms, the cucumber she ate the other day.

(Few things in life bring me such joy.)

“Do you think the ASPA banquet will have cake again this year?” she asks me. “I really thought they were going to have cheesecake last year. I was so disappointed.”

“I wish they had cheesecake,” I answer.

“I know!” she exclaims.

“It’s not that I don’t like cake, it’s just - cheesecake is so much more… rare.”

Her musings on the rarity of cheesecake - as does nearly every word she says sends us both into uncontrollable laughter. ***

Carla Archer’s enthusiasm for all things in life - her hysterically clumsy spontaneity, her wistful, carefree demeanor - is neither forced anachronism

nor thinly-veiled dishonesty, but instead genuinely a fixture of her identity. She maintains this outward happiness despite facing the obstacles inherent to any student’s final year of high school.

Time is a precious commodity for her; a dance instructor at Ballet Westside and the Rogers Activity Center, a third-year Link Crew leader, the president of Heritage’s National Honor Society, and the editor of the Talon, Carla is no stranger to stress and spends much of what precious time she has between activities writing scholarship essays and fretting over quizzes and projects in any of her seven classes.

She also tutors Kindergarteners at Tillary Elementary four days a week from 7:309:00.

“I’ve wanted to be a teacher ever since I can remember,” she said. “I have a lot of

family members who are teachers and I see the joy it brings them every day.”

There is perhaps no better profession for a person of Carla’s cheery and exuberant - yet thoughtful and sensitive - disposition. Her passion for education and, further, the lives of those around her, is evident through her involvement in school.

In my two years with the Talon I have enjoyed the presence of a truly exceptional friend and human being in Carla, and have met nary another person with the same enthused devotion to her academic and extracurricular activities. ***

Carla will attend the University of Central Arkansas in Conway this autumn on a full ride from its Honors College, majoring in early childhood education.

Samantha Pharr

T

HE PHILIPPINES HAS ALWAYS been a part of Samantha Pharr. For the first few years of her life, she would travel back and forth with her family between the U.S. and the Philippines. No one place was constant for her. She developed strongly around two different languages and cultures, the product of a Filipino mother and caucasian father.

Samantha says that when she would enroll in different schools in the Philippines as a young girl, the other students would treat her differently at first.

“People in the Philippines would notice that my complexion was lighter and think I was of a different class than them.”

On the island, Samantha went to a private Christian school for children whose parents couldn’t afford other schools. She spent third to sixth grade in the Philippines. For those years, English was a foreign language to her. Then, after three years in the Philippines, Samantha and her family

written by HARRY COLE

moved to Rogers, Arkansas.

Watching Samantha in class at Heritage or during one of her various extracurricular activities, one wouldn’t notice she had spent much of her life outside of the states, speaking an entirely different language. She’s been a member of the school choir since seventh grade; she participated in cross country for three years and is a member of National Honor Society.

To Samantha, the biggest difference between the U.S. and the Philippines is culture. Samantha identifies with the more collectivist society in the Philippines rather than the individualistic one in America. Samantha says, “When I’m making any sort of decision in my life, I tend to think a lot about how it will affect others. I got that from the Philippines.”

Samantha realized these differences when she went back to the Philippines the summer before her senior year. There, everything revolves around family. Many young adults live with their parents af-

photo by Deeeephotography

ter college. Extended family across the world. stays together. People live Here in America, as support for other people. Samantha absorbs herself in textbooks, taking advanced

One could say Sa- classes in Physics and Stamantha has the best of tistics. Samantha’s favorite both worlds. Heritage High class in school is Physics.

School has fostered Saman- She says, “When you study tha’s passion for the scienc- Physics, more than any othes and given her opportu- er science, you can see how nities unknown to her in it relates to daily live. Physthe Philippines. Living in ics is part of everything the U.S. also made her real- happening all around me.” ize her love for the Filipino Next year, Samantha plans culture and people halfway to study mechanical engi-

neering at the University of Arkansas. Her long term goals involve giving back to the Philippines.

“After I study at the U of A, I want to go back to the Philippines. My goal is to help kids in the Philippines work towards a better life.”

When Samantha helps others, she feels at home.

A

ccepting yourself is the first step to success.

“I became more accepting of myself, and once you do that, you become more accepting of others,” senior Cole Collins said when asked how he thinks he has changed throughout high school.

A giant step - or shall I say a giant dive happened this year in the Heritage Sports program.

The Heritage Dive team was

W

HILE YOU WERE AT H O M E b i n g e watching Netflix and finding week old Cheeto crumbs in your unmade bed last summer, Emily Low was adding on to her mile-long list of accomplishments.

Emily Low gave up seven weeks of her summer to participate in a research program and national Intel competition at Michigan State University.

She researched coordination crystal polymers and created seven new crystals containing zinc. Low made

COLE COLLINS written by EMILY GIBSON

introduced this year, and Collins was first to jump at the new chance.

“I swam for three years and then transitioned to dive this year. I started practicing in November, but I’ve wanted to try dive since my freshman year of swim, but the program wasn’t available.”

Collins is the only diver for the Heritage team, and had regular practices at the HPER building in Fayetteville.

He finished 10th out of 18 divers at state this year, already setting a bar for any hopeful, arising divers for Heritage teams in years to come.

“I’m happy with where I placed,” Collins says, “I was competing with people that had been diving for two or three years and were also competing in some other form of gymnastics.”

Again, Collins has shown that accepting yourself -accepting your ability --gave

him a clearer head around himself and others.

Collins was offered dive as an option by his coach on the first day of practice this year, but having less practice time and experience than other divers did not stop him from wanting to prove what he had learned in such a short time. “I understood where I was with my skill and I had to make the most of the four months of practice I had,” says Collins.

Collins was a part of the concert band for all four years of his high school career; He was a part of the marching band for three of those years.

Collins says he’s excited about graduating and finishing his high school experience. He will be attending the University of Arkansas next year, and he can’t wait to see what his future has in store for him.

EMILY LOW written by CARLA ARCHER

it all the way to the semifinalist level for her work.

The most difficult part, according to Low, was that the competition required her to write a twenty page research paper. Her hard work paid off, however, because she was able to get published and can now add being a co-author on a scientific research journal to her impressive list of accomplishments.

Low has some sound advice to offer high school students: “Do stuff in the summer. Don’t just stay home. Find something that interests you, and do it.”

She also suggests taking classes online in the summer to make room for all the classes needed or wanted in the limited school day.

Low is currently taking AP Computer Science online to allow for additional Advanced Placement classes in her schedule. She takes AP Physics, AP Calculus BC, and AP Psychology on campus, giving her a total of ten Advanced Placement courses since her sophomore year.

AP classes are a good fit for Low because she is an exceptional test taker. She scored a 34 on the ACT and got a qualifying score on

the PSAT to be a National Merit semi-finalist. She then scored a 2290 on the SAT and received a $2,000 scholarship in February for being a National Merit finalist.

Not only is Low incredibly smart academically, but she is also very talented in other areas.

She has played the oboe for six years and is very committed to the Heritage High School band. She also enjoys photography, coding, and reading non-fiction and science-fiction.

Next year, Low is either heading to Cornell

or Washington University to continue her education.

She plans on majoring in Mechanical Engineering and might double major in the hopes of one day being an entrepreneur.

“I can’t wait to see what my future holds!” Low exclaimed.

No matter where she decides to go to college or what career path she chooses to head down, Low will continue to be amazing.

Heritage is lucky to have been a part of her success for four years, and it will be exciting to watch her move on to bigger things.

JARYN

I

F YOU’RE ANGRY ABOUT the way things are playing out, you learn to stand up and change what is happening. That is exactly what Jaryn Phillips, founder and the first President of the Heritage High School Young Democrats chapter, did.

Founding the club his junior year, Phillips wanted Heritage to become a part of a larger organization of progressive leaders, dedicated to engaging, educating, and empowering Arkansas’ next generation.

Young Democrats of Arkansas is a club found in high schools all over the state.

“I really wanted

PHILLIPS

DEBATOR, EAGLE SCOUT, YOUNG DEMOCRAT written by EMILY GIBSON

to get involved, but there was no easy way for me to do it, so I decided to make it easier for everyone else [by founding the club]. Plus, working with people you know is a lot more fun,” Phillips says.

Before Young Democrats, and even before high school, Phillips was actively a part of one of the largest youth organizations in the United States-Boy Scouts. Phillips joined Cub Scouts at age eight, and in the sixth grade joined Boy Scouts. At the age of fourteen, Phillips became an Eagle Scout, making him the youngest member in his council to ever be named one.

P h i l l i p s joined debate in his

sophomore year, and naturally fit into the proceedings of the team. He has taken home 1st, 2nd, or 3rd eight times and an individual speaking award four times.

“I’m extremely competitive. It’s fast paced and it keeps me on my feet, I’m never bored at a tournament.

I’m constantly learning something, which I love,” said Phillips on why he likes debating.

Phillips says that because of debate, he’s made great friends here at Heritage, and new friends from other schools, just by competing against them.

Phillips has been on the honor roll all throughout high school. He also has been apart of National

photo by Emily Gibson

Honor’s Society, Gender Equality Club, and marching band.

He will be attending the University of Arkansas next year, and plans on double majoring in political science and communications.

Phillip says, “I’ve

made a lot of memories because of things like Young Democrats and debate, but I am excited to graduate and grow as a person throughout college.”

KENNEDY

Rickard written by EMILY GIBSON

K

ENNEDY RICKARD is headed to the University of Arkansas. She was accepted into the Honors College and plans on majoring in Hospitality Innovations to eventually become an Event Planner.

Before all of this, Rickard has done much for Heritage throughout her high school career.

She joined FCCLA as a sophomore, and is currently the President of the Heritage chapter.

“I didn’t really know what it was about until I joined. As the year progressed I knew I wanted to do more and be more involved with this club so I eventually decided to run for an

officer position my junior year,” Rickard says.

During Rickard’s junior year, FCCLA started becoming more active in the school and in the community by hosting different fundraisers like a silent auction and the “Crush Soda for Your Crush” fundraiser.

Now, near the end of her senior year, Rickard says the club has done more during this school year with the school and community than ever before. The club was voted to support the Alzheimer’s Association this year, and as a way to support them, designed t-shirts that had the War Eagle and Alzheimer’s ribbon on it to wear to

the annual Walk to End Alzheimer’s. All this and more can be credited to Rickard’s role in the club.

Another part of Rickard’s FCCLA history is STAR Events (Student Taking Action with Recognition) where club members from schools all over the state compete against each other in a variety of events that are branches of or related to the Family and Consumer Science classes.

“I started competing during my sophomore year, but didn’t qualify for state until this year.

Each year I competed in the same event, Life Event Planning, where I planned a wedding and a graduation party.”

photo by Emily Gibson Rickard also helped plan and organize a Silent Auction and dinner at school as well as organize and plan the Community Yard Sale to help raise funds for Nationals.

As for high school as a whole, Rickard says it was great, “I have made some lifelong friends and have made connections with teachers and community members... but I am so ready to

graduate.”

Rickard says high school was pretty easy for her academically, “I worked hard to have the grades I earned because they are just the stepping blocks to my major goals.”

“Graduation can’t come soon enough, though.

I just have so many exciting things in my future and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for me.”

AN D REA

PLUM written by CARLA ARCHER

A

ll seniors know that the final year of high school is a stressful one. It is the year students have to learn to master the arduous task of balancing rigorous AP courses, demanding work schedules, and college preparations in order to be successful. What makes that final year of high school even more stressful is not knowing that it is your final year until the year is already half over. This was the case for Andrea Plum. She started the school year as a junior, met with Mrs. Steen in early December, and is

now on track to graduate with the class of 2015 in May.

Some may wonder why anyone would choose to add that kind of pressure to their life, but Plum had her fair share of motivations. The deciding factor was that her family will be moving to North Carolina in the beginning of July, and she doesn’t want to finish high school at another school with people she doesn’t know.

Plum didn’t officially make her decision until after Christmas break, so she didn’t have any time to lose. She had to start looking into colleges and scholarships

right away. She also had to take two online courses, Food and Nutrition and Environmental Science, and receive an additional English credit in order to meet all of the graduation requirements. She obtained her English credit by meeting at Northwest Arkansas Community College on Monday nights from 6 o’clock to 8:45 for College Composition I.

Completing two grade levels in one year is definitely challenging, but Plum says the hardest part will be leaving her friends. Although she gets to walk at graduation this year, she won’t get to

walk with her own class or “do cool senior stuff” with her friends.

Plum came from Benton County School of the Arts, so she attributes the Spirit Department for many of the friends she made in high school. In her three years at Heritage, she has been on the freshman dance team, Varsity dance, and Varsity cheer. Plum is very involved in school and will be missed by several organizations including National Honor Society and DECA.

Plum has been working at American Eagle during the school year and works as a lifeguard

at the Rogers Aquatic Center in the summers.

She is now Water Instructor Safety Certified.

She also volunteers at Crystal Bridges.

Plum is “excited to see what graduating early will do for (her) and to get a head start on college.” She plans on either attending University of Central Arkansas in the fall or moving to North Carolina with her family and going to Cape Fear Community College for a year or two. Andrea Plum has shown immense dedication this year and is sure to be successful in the future.

The Newspaper at

ASPA

ARKANSAS SCHOLASTIC PRESS ASSOCIATION

SUPERIOR

Editorial (Emily Gibson) Special Coverage (Harry Cole) Front Page Design (William Clift) Centerspread Design (William Clift) Personality Profile (Carla Archer)

EXCELLENT

Column (Carla Archer) Feature Photo (Emily Gibson) Infographic (William Clift) Opinion Page Design (William Clift) News Story (Samantha Dean) Feature Story (Harry Cole) Service to School & Community (Harry Cole) Review (Harry Cole) Sports News Story (Callie Barnett)

ON-SITE COMPETITIONS

1st place - Review Writing - Harry Cole 1st place - Newspaper Design - William Clift 2nd place - Editorial Writing - Samantha Dean

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