NHS Omniscient June 2015

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June 2015

The Omniscient

Points of Interest

John Dunning/The Omniscient

Northwood is facing a dramatic increase in the use of vapes and electronic cigarettes. pg 4

Photo courtesy of Kyndal Hutchinson

See photos from the spring season of band, dance, visual arts and vocals. pg 15

Photo courtesy of Kyndal Hutchinson

SENIOR KYNDAL HUTCHINSON won first place in the Photography category of the NCASA State Art Showcase with work based on the poem “Brooks Brothers Shirts” by Joseph Bathanti.

Northwood placed first in the NCASA State Art Showcase in Winston-Salem May 9. Seniors Elise Crawford and Kyndal Hutchinson placed first in the Printmaking and Photography categories, and junior Olivia Draper placed first in the Collage category. This follows the school’s East Regional win, where Northwood artists earned an overall score of 4.6 out of five.

Participants in the competition were required to create artwork inspired by the poem “Brooks Brothers Shirts” by N.C. Poet Laureate Joseph Bathanti. Students could submit work in one of seven categories: Painting, Drawing, Printmaking, Mixed Media, Collage, Computer Generated Art and Photography. Northwood submitted seven works—one from each category. Those who had their artwork submitted included junior Angel Ellis in the painting category, senior Francisco Guzman-Perez in the Drawing category, Crawford in the Printmaking category, Draper in the Collage category, senior Bailey Revels in the Mixed Media category, sophomore Nicholas Schwankl in the Computer Generated Art category and Hutchinson in the Photography category.

— By Becca Heilman, Online Editor - THE NORTHWOOD -

O M N IS C IE N T

EDITORS Frances Beroset Editor-in-Chief John Dunning Layout Editor Frances Beroset/The Omniscient

Stumped on what to do after school lets out?

Check out our summer activity feature and concert calendar. pg 16-17

Chloe Gruesbeck Layout Editor Becca Heilman Online Editor

Adrianne Cleven Photo & Opinion Editor Skyler Waugh Social Media Editor STAFF WRITERS Sawyer Davis Sara Heilman Elizabeth Her

Jailen Leach Emma Reinberg Katie Robbins Jacob Sipe

ADVISER Neal Morgan nmorgan@chatham.k12.nc.us

The Northwood Omniscient is published by journalism students at Northwood High School. It aims to present accurate coverage of events of interest to our readers, as well as provide an open forum for the opinions of students, faculty and the community.

We welcome letters to the editor, which can be delivered to the advisor in Room 607 or sent to the school’s address. Letters must be signed, and the staff reserves the right to reject any letter containing libelous statements, to edit for length and to ascertain the truthfulness of the content.

Unsigned editorials represent the majority view of the editorial board. Columns, letters and cartoons represent the views of the authors.

Jacob Sipe/The Omniscient

Coach Richard McDonald was once a college track athlete at East Carolina University. pg 21

Cover: Sophomores Carson Shaner and Matt Oldham have already committed to colleges for athletics.

Photo Credit: Sara Heilman.

The Omniscient

June 2015

Page 3

Scholarships: Students score money for college

By Adrianne Cleven Opinion & Photo Editor

A simple Google search for “college scholarships” yields about 87 million results. Many of those websites are smaller search engines, designed to help high school students find scholarships for which they can apply (based on their interests, colleges of choice and the amount of work required for the scholarship application).

“A scholarship is generally money that you do not have to pay back,” said Sonia Logan, a Northwood guidance counselor. “And it is generally funded by a group or an organization of people that has an interest in, let’s say, Northwood. They want to give back to the community, so they decide to establish a scholarship.”

High school students around the nation are feeling the pressure to snatch up as many scholarships as possible to make college more affordable. Some of these awards are merit-based (granted because of academic achievement) and others are need-based (granted because of a student’s financial need). More than $46 billion of scholarship funds are given annually, collegeplanningservices.org states.

Logan will not know the total amount awarded to Northwood’s class of 2015 until the senior demographics sheet is completed. However, she says that grants and scholarships awarded to last year’s senior class neared a total of $2 million.

This semester, senior Tyler Whitaker was awarded the prestigious State Employees Credit Union Foundation “People Helping People” scholarship. The prize is for $10,000 in total, spread out over four years of college. Whitaker says he is “blessed” to have won it. He plans to use the scholarship money at UNC-Charlotte.

“I tried really hard to benefit my community, and I’ve put in a lot of volunteering hours in my community,” Whitaker said. “I’ve given to them, and they’ve given back, and I just think that it would help me out tremendously. I really tried to focus on that when I was writing my essay.”

Senior John Atwater has applied for six scholarships so far and has received two: the Chancellor’s Science Scholarship at the University of North Carolina and a smaller scholarship related to his grandfather’s alma mater. He has been awarded approximately $41,000 from scholarships.

“My sister got a full ride, so I was kind of forced to apply to as many scholarships as she did,” Atwater said. “But it’s also intrinsic motivation: I don’t want my parents to have pay for stuff they don’t have to. I would like to help out my parents any way that I can because they have gotten me this far and I might as well help them with this extra step, because college is expensive. The more people want to go to college, the higher the demand and [prices]. Anything to help [my parents] out for getting me to where I am today is motivation enough.”

Senior Alex Bortey, who has applied for over 15 scholarships and has received some, says the demanding nature of some applications do not put scholarship-seekers on a level playing field.

“There are hardworking students at this school who deserve scholarships a lot more than the students that actually get them, which is a little bit ridiculous,” Bortey said. “It could be a possible time management

situation, where [the students] don’t have the time necessary to fill it out. They could work full time after school, and they work every single day to help provide for their family, so they don’t necessarily have that time to fill out scholarship forms, or write essays, or get them checked with teachers. They have, in essence, no free time, so I think that it’s not exactly fair to have a long demanding task where, if you don’t finish it, you’re out of luck.”

According to an article written by Stephen Burd for Washington Monthly, another growing trend is for colleges to award a larger number of smaller scholarships to wealthier students rather than award a smaller number of large scholarships to underprivileged students.

“If a school offers a single low-income student a full scholarship of $20,000, the school may feel good about itself, but it’s out $20,000,” Burd wrote. “But if it can attract four affluent students to its campus instead, by offering them each a $5,000 discount off full tuition, it can collect the balance in revenue and come out way ahead financially.”

Logan said she was not aware that this was going on, but says that the time commitment involved with scholarships is similar to being employed.

“Start with what you think you’re going to major in, and get online,” Logan said. “Google it, look for

scholarships that you have an interest in; if you play the violin, look for scholarships for violin players.

Look for scholarships for short people, left handed people, right handed people. Finding a scholarship is like an extra job. It’s not easy, but it can be well worth it.”

Inequality in the scholarship world can blossom in other ways. Senior Eli Emerick says finding scholarships that fit his demographic is difficult.

“I would say that [scholarships for Caucasian males] are out there, but you’ve got to look,” Emerick said. “They don’t really present themselves to you.”

Logan suggests starting searching process sooner rather than later.

“If you’re a rising senior, I would say start July 1 and apply, apply, apply, everywhere that you can apply,” Logan said. “Northwood offers local scholarships, and you should start applying second semester [of your senior year], around March. That’s when most of the local businesses that are going to offer a scholarship for our students; that’s when they send their information.”

Quantity is important in the scholarship application process.

“You can’t just apply to one,” Logan said. “You have to apply to a lot of scholarships. You might get a lot of rejections, but then you might end up getting a big one.”

Graphic created by Adrianne Cleven using Piktochart

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June 2015

The Omniscient

John Dunning/The Omniscient

A NORTHWOOD STUDENT uses a vape after school to create a cloud of vapor.

Smoking Revolution: Vapes and E-cigarettes gain popularity

By John Dunning Layout Editor “Nobody besides teachers and parents comment negatively about vaping; it’s just like a socially accepted thing at this point,” an anonymous junior said. “The older generation is against it because they don’t know enough about it and they associate it with the tobacco industry, which makes them think of cancer, but vaping has nothing to do with tobacco.”

Cigarettes, a tobacco product, have long plagued the lungs of Americans since 1865 when Washington Duke made the first hand rolled cigarettes, which were eventually made common across the U.S. in 1881 after James Bonsack invented the cigarette-making machine.

Now in 2015 we again find ourselves in the midst of another sort of “smoking revolution” that was born out of China in 2004, when the first disposable electronic cigarettes were internationally patented. “E-cigs” are a disposable direct cousin to “personal vaporizers,” or PVs, that can be reused. Most people refer to PVs as “vapes.”

Both devices use a heating element to turn a mixture of propylene glycol or vegetable glycerin and nicotine into an inhalable vapor. In the last four years the number of teens who “vape” has increased from 2 percent to 13 percent, while the number of teens that smoke cigarettes has dropped from 16 percent to 9 percent according to the New York Times.

Purchasing vapes, e-cigarettes and all other smoke or tobacco products is illegal to those under 18 years old in 30 states, including North Carolina. There are still some states that have not put an age restriction on the purchasing of vapes and e-juice, but the FDA is currently working towards a law that will restrict buyers under 18 nationally.

While the jury may still be out on every effect it has on human wellness, experts agree across the board that the presence of nicotine, which is in both cigarettes and most

60%

According to a survey by The Omniscient...

of Northwood juniors and seniors have tried a vape.

“e-juice” (the liquid used in vapes), can be detrimental to one’s health. Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the C.D.C., told The New York Times that nicotine harms the developing brain. Nicotine is a highly addictive substance and is linked to most users’ interest in vaping.

“Once you get into it and you learn to inhale correctly, you definitely get a buzz if you use juice with nicotine,” said junior Kenny Baker, which is not his real name.

“After a long day of school it can take the edge off. It’s just a desirable feeling.”

Some users vape solely for flavor and choose e-juice with little to no nicotine. These people often use vapes with larger batteries and modifiable coils which produce a much larger amount of vapor that are known as “mods.”

“The buzz you get from nicotine just makes my head feel bad and I don’t really like it,” an anonymous sophomore said. “I do like doing smoke tricks though, and it’s just fun to mess around with vapes so I got a mod and I use zero-nic juice.”

The Vapor Girl, a popular chain of vape shops across the North Carolina, boasts having over 300 flavors of e-juice, which are available with nicotine levels ranging between 0 percent through 2.4 percent. With so much variety, it becomes even more difficult for doctors to pinpoint how usage may affect an individual because each user prefers a unique combination of equipment and e-juice.

According to another New York Times article, 4 to 7 percent of teens who use vapes say they have never smoked a tobacco cigarette. This statistic debunks the idea they are purely a new age device used to help people overcome a nicotine addiction and shows that some nonsmoking teens have picked up vaping as a pastime with no tobacco-related motivation.

“The other side to vaping is it’s a pretty cool hobby to have,” Baker said. “You can completely customize your vape to improve its overall performance or to tweak it to satisfy

31%

of Northwood juniors and seniors have owned a vape.

your preferences. You can buy a ton of different tanks, coils and batteries, which all have different types of technology and different advantages, and of course there’s tons of different flavors to pick from when it comes to juice.”

Northwood’s School Resource Officer Herbie Stubbs has noticed vaping become increasingly popular.

“This year [vapes] have become very popular amongst the students,” Stubbs said. “They use them because they’re less conspicuous: you don’t really smell it like you can smell a cigarette.”

Northwood categorizes vapes as tobacco products and follows the tobacco policy when dealing with offenders.

The first time a student is caught with a vape on campus, the device is confiscated and the student is given one day of ASD. In response to the second offense, the device is confiscated and that student receives three days of OSS. Assistant Principal Philip Little also noted that students caught in the act of vaping on a bus or in a classroom receive “more severe consequences because they disrupt student activities” in those environments.

There have been multiple incidents where students have been caught vaping on campus in bathrooms and even in classrooms.

“It’s actually caused distractions in classroom settings where kids will use them and disrupt the class,” Stubbs said.

“I think they really just do that to show off and to see if they can get away with it.”

Combatting the new trend has been a busy task for Stubbs and the administration to keep up with.

“Cracking down on the [vaping] issue has been a roller coaster this year,” Stubbs said. “We started out taking a lot of them from students, and then it seemed to slow down a little bit, but in the last few weeks it’s picked back up. Today, April 28, I took one this morning, and that thing probably cost $200. The kid was [vaping] in their vehicle and I saw all the smoke in the windows and had to go take it.”

32%

of Northwood juniors and seniors have smoked a cigarette.

The Omniscient

June 2015

Siler City

Page 5

Pittsboro

Goldston

Image courtesy of Chathamnc.org

BALDWIN AND WILLIAMS TOWNSHIPS, THE TOWN OF PITTSBORO AND THE TOWN OF SILER CITY are currently zoned, while the other townships are not.

Should land use be restricted in Chatham County?

By Frances Beroset Editor- in-C hief

Zoning is a major issue for the citizens of Chatham County. The county is currently in a minority of counties in the state that don’t have county-wide zoning regulations. Zoning is a practice put in place to restrict the types of buildings that can be built in particular areas. Most of the Eastern side of the county has been zoned since 1968, while the Western side has not. The Towns of Pittsboro and Siler City have their own zoning, which encompasses approximately a three-mile radius from the towns’ centers. The Alternatives to Open Use Zoning Sub-Committee is a part of the County Planning Board and is headed by George Lucier, himself a former Commissioner.

“Only about half the county is zoned,” Lucier said. “[Zoned] means that when you apply to put a business in or something in the zoned part of the county, you have to get approved.”

There are different categories for different areas.

Some may be zoned residential, industrial or commercial.

Those who are against county-wide zoning have concerns that can best be summarized as limited freedom. Some residents of western Chatham express their fears on the Chatham Chatlist, a local online forum—like one poster, who wrote about his fears of a “Chatham Property Rights Death Squad.”

Those with more moderate views against zoning are often farmers who own large areas of land. At an April 21 Alternatives to Open Use Zoning SubCommittee meeting in Pittsboro, committee member Tandy Jones commented that many of the farmers he’s spoken with would mostly prefer to remain unzoned, though there is “no consensus.”

“One [concern] is that there seems to be a big rush, and they don’t understand why the rush,” Jones said. “Second of all, they don’t think there’s enough public input. They feel that there should be more opportunities for public input. And then, thirdly, they feel that there’s this effort to treat all the county the same. And like there’s not an effort to recognize that there are different interests and different threats. … I think we need to search for something that comes as close as possible to working for everyone.”

County commissioners are widely said to be supportive of county-wide zoning. However, residents of west Chatham are more skeptical and resent the heavy representation of east Chatham in county leadership positions.

John Alderman is a “businessman in the environmental arena” and a long time Chatham County resident who is supportive of county-wide zoning.

In 1988, he and his wife brought and won a lawsuit against the county for ignoring the zoning laws adjacent to his property in eastern Chatham County,

which had been zoned since 1963.

“Zoning actually protects everybody in the county, and particularly as we have growth increasing in Chatham County, we need zoning everywhere,” Alderman said. “There’s no place in Chatham County that is not vulnerable to that kind of activity. And we definitely do not want to become like Atlanta, Georgia or the Charlotte Metro area, where it’s projected for example that the build-out of that area is 13 counties becoming urban-suburban. That’s horrible—if you care anything about a pleasant place to live, you don’t want that.”

The need for a decision is pressured by the looming Chatham Park development.

“Just in the last year, we’re the second fastest growing county in North Carolina out of a hundred counties,” Lucier said. “So we’re already growing fast, and then with Chatham Parks investors coming in, they’re going to bring in—and the project isn’t complete now, it’s gonna be 25, 30 years—but they’ll bring in over 50,000 people. So that in itself will double the size of Chatham County.”

Jones said at the same meeting that those opposed to zoning are “concerned with right now, not two or three years down the road.”

“We’re on the cusp of major growth,” Lucier said. “It makes sense to make sure we have a plan for how to best manage that growth so it works for the benefit of the citizens rather than against.”

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June 2015

The Omniscient

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Same Rubric, Different Student:

Subjective grading affects students in different ways

By Elizabeth Her Staff Writer In schools, teachers sit quietly in fluorescently lit rooms, grasp a pen, and begin a tedious task that educators are required to do: grading. Repetitively evaluating different answers to questions is part of the job. Multiple choice tests and quizzes keep answers to a minimum, keeping error out of grading. But there are always grades that require more than just circling A, B or C. Essays, performances, projects, and short stories are assignments that have broader points that need to be assessed. When teachers have to grade students on their writings and performance instead of their circled answers, it opens the door for subjectivity to creep in.

Teachers commonly grade students with the rubric system, a scoring guide that assesses a student’s quality of work. Using this system helps teachers stick to certain criteria, keeping subjectivity from affecting student grades. In ways, the rubric system improves the way educators evaluate. Using rubrics help teachers like Creative Writing and English teacher Kathleen Greenlee in assessing students equally.

“I generally try to stick to a point system so that I can be objective,” Greenlee said. “You have to be really strong about keeping personal bias out of it and try to stick to the guidelines of the assignments.”

History teacher Melissa Hayden said she only grades students objectively.

“The only way I grade students is by basing it off of AP rubrics. I don’t even look at student’s names because there’s content.”

Rubrics offer an ideal way of grading that focuses on specific points to make grading more specific and objective. Though it is used to make grading more easy and narrow, sophomore Sandra Schaedler was not pleased with the grading requirements her English teacher assigned.

“I feel like they can have a format, but there are tiny little things they want in [our grades]. Sometimes that takes away from [student] learning and writing because they want it so specific. I have a

teacher where I have to go show her [my work], have her read it over, and have her tell me what I needed to fix on it. That was the only way I could get a good grade on that paper, which I thought was ridiculous.”

Eliminating subjective grading with score guides makes grading reliant on set points. Guitar teacher and band director Matthew Cox said he would get rid of score guides.

“I wish, in a perfect world, I didn’t have to give out grades for band so that I could make it more subjective. So that I could make it where my opinion counted just as much or more than the rubric. Now the rubric has its place. It gives great feedback and helps nail down specific things that you can do. But what the rubric doesn’t do is look at the big picture.

A person can score really well in several categories, then absolutely fail in one category and somehow still get an A. But if we were to just listen to it and just grade it subjectively, it did so bad on this one [category that] it really would have came down to a C.” Cox said subjective grading is as necessary as objective grading.

“I would say that [subjective grading] is essential if you were thinking about big picture things.

I wish that in class I didn’t have to give number grades and all we had to do was listen to each other. I could give feedback. Other kids could give feedback and that would be enough assessment.

People would get better. We learn things as we went and just explored together. But I’m forced to give number grades, so I have to objectively grade using a rubric or some other sort of instrument.”

Rubrics and grading systems judge each student the same way to keep bias and opinions out of the picture. Evaluating every student at the same level does not show each individual student’s potential or learning.

Greenlee keeps in mind how each student is different from one another and have different learning levels and paces.

“You always keep in mind an individual student’s level of capability in relation to an assignment; and sometimes you have to look at that differently depending on the student that you’re grading.”

“What the rubric doesn’t do is look at the big picture.”

— Matthew Cox

June 2015

The Omniscient

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June 2015

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Political Apathy: Do millennials really care?

By Chloe Gruesbeck Layout Editor

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According to the Associated Press, more people watched the Patriots defeat the Seahawks in the 2015 Super Bowl than voted in the midterm elections. For junior Mikayla Tilley, her reasons for not being politically active are simple.

“Sometimes I feel like most politicians are annoying because they only go to Washington for the money and the power,” Tilley said. “Most of them probably aren’t going to make any substantial changes; they just keep getting voted in, but they haven’t really done anything.”

This disinterest in politics, defined as political apathy, is a common view shared among young people. The Center For Information and Research On Civic Learning And Engagement found that only one in four millennials—people aged 18 through 29—voted in last November’s Midterm.

Civics teacher Skip Thibault explains their reasoning. “[Millennials] feel really removed from what is being done,” Thibault said. “Young people feel like the government is doing things to them, instead of for them. I even feel that way sometimes…. It’s important to them to make sure they get involved and vote for people that are going to help take care of them.”

Some say millennials’ apathy in government translates to their specific political identification.

A recent study by the Pew Research Center survey found that half of young people now describe themselves as political independents or unaffiliated with any political party.

“People like some things about the Democratic Party, and people like some things about the Republican Party…. Millennials start to feel like they can’t really choose,” said Ken Rogerson, a Profes-

sor at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy.

Millennials’ indifference to politics isn’t just limited to voting. The 2013 Harvard Public Opinion Project found that a majority of 18-to-29 year-old Americans would choose to replace every member of Congress if given the chance. The polling director of the Harvard Institute of Politics, John Della Volpe, sums up the results.

“Young Americans hold the president, Congress and the federal government in less esteem almost by the day, and the levels of engagement they are having in politics are also on the decline,” Della Volpe said in a media release.

A poll conducted by The Northwood Omniscient revealed that while 40 percent of students identify as politically active, only 58 percent could correctly identify the Speaker of the House. Peter Levine, who studies young people’s civic participation at Tufts University, says that political disinterest isn’t specific to the United States.

“Parties all over the world have lost support,” Levine said. “People are less willing to be part of a big organized groups and the parties themselves now have very weak structures. American political parties used to have parts of their organizations in every community and that has all basically been pushed aside.”

Despite this, Thibault believes that millennials will become more attentive to politics as they mature.

“In most cases, the older somebody is, the more likely they are to vote,” Thibault said. “They have a lot more at stake with things like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security and they know they are going to need that government assistance at the end of their life. I don’t think young people think that way at all. They don’t really think of,‘what is the government involvement in my life.’ Other than this school system, there isn’t that much.”

June 2015

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The Omniscient

Young adults form their political views through a variety of sources.

The Pew Research Center found that 71 percent of those 18-29-year olds cite the Internet as a main news source, while 55 percent cite television.

Haley Easthom, a politically involved junior at Chapel Hill High School, says it is difficult to form a clear opinion with such an abundance of resources.

“We see a lot of ads and listen to our parents, but a lot of ads and TV shows that your parents put on definitely influence how you think and make it not an ideological decision,” Easthom said. “I think everyone should strive for an ideological position, but that’s hard when there are so many places to look.”

Some countries, like Australia, use a system of compulsory voting to combat low voter turnout, where electors are obligated to vote in elec-

tions. Thibault says there are issues with this method.

“The argument against that is that you have all kinds of people voting that have no idea what they are voting for,” Thibault said. “They might be voting because some 30 second TV ad they saw that is full of half truths and only one side of the story.

They are voting for a single issue, when there are so many things that are really out there.”

For junior Rickey Young, voting is the easy choice.

“If you don’t vote, you can’t change anything that is happening,” Young said. “It is kind of pointless to complain about all the stuff that is going on and not vote. Even though one vote doesn’t feel like it would have much sway, it could make all the difference. If you vote, at least you have the chance to have your voice heard.”

“[Millennials] feel really removed from what is being done.

Young people feel like the government is doing things to them instead of for them.”

— Skip Thibault

According to The Center For Information & Research On Civic Learning And Engagement

According to the 2013 Harvard Public Opinion Project

Graphic designed by Chloe Gruesbeck using Piktochart

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Fraternity Failure?

June 2015

Negative accusations emerge nationally

By Becca Heilman O nline Editor Across the country, fraternities continue to make headlines for the wrong reasons. In January, members of the University of Michigan chapter of Sigma Alpha Mu trashed two ski resorts, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. In March, a series of public embarrassments took place. A former member of the Pennsylvania State University chapter of the Kappa Delta Rho fraternity exposed that the fraternity was running Facebook pages dedicated to hazing rituals, drug deals and images of naked women who appeared to be passed out. A pledge book written by the members of Pi Kappa Phi at North Carolina State University was found to have included racism, sexism, transphobic slurs, pedophilia, discussion of rape and more. A video surfaced of a racist song sung by the members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) from the University of Oklahoma. And the list goes on.

Some, like junior Allyson Blake, weren’t so shocked about the emerging accusations.

“I don’t think it’s a shocker,” Blake said. “I’m sure it’s something that’s gone on, and now it’s just surfacing.”

Others were more surprised, specifically about the extent of the allegations.

“I knew that there had been dangerous hazing pranks and stuff, but I didn’t really know about the [Pi Kappa Phi] book or the racist implications,” junior Kat Taylor said. “I never really associated the two, but it’s very disappointing. I don’t really expect the best from fraternities already, but that lowers my standards even more and disappoints me a lot.”

Many question why there has been such a recent surge of negative allegations in the news.

Some believe that an increase in social media has played a role.

“I don’t know that fraternities party more overall now,” said social studies teacher Roddy Story, who was in the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity at UNC-Chapel Hill. “It could be that because of social media, there’s more documentation

of it. I think every fraternity is going to throw some parties, but I think a lot of fraternities also do make positive contributions to the community through community service and things like that.”

Hannah Boaz, a recent Northwood graduate and member of the Kappa Delta sorority at East Carolina University, predicts further change regarding Greek life over the next few years.

“I know of some situations that happened [at ECU], and guys really don’t know when to stop,” Boaz said. “I think when you have a big group of guys like that, it’s even worse, and they just kind of work off of each other and get worse and worse as the years go by in terms of what’s acceptable.... I think that in 15 years, Greek life isn’t going to exist anyway. It isn’t what it used to be. It used to be about connections and actually having the legitimate relationships with each other, and it’s a more commercialized thing now.”

Hannah Holloway graduated from Northwood in 2014 and is a member of the Alpha Delta Pi sorority at Indiana University. She acknowledged both the positive and negative aspects of fraternities.

“I think society publicly associates them with a group of guys that are irresponsible and don’t do anything but party,” Holloway said. “[People think that] all they care about is girls and living in a huge house without a care in the world. Positively, they’re a group of guys that are brothers; they’re all there for each other. They’re very philanthropic. I know here at Indiana they all have to do philanthropy every year, and I know recently one fraternity raised over $80,000 for a cancer foundation. And they’re all very studious; Greek life has some of the highest GPAs on campus.”

This is supported by a compilation by the NorthAmerican Interfraternity Conference of campus-submitted NIC Academic Report forms for the 20122013 academic school year. The All-Fraternity GPA was 2.912 compared to an All-Male GPA of 2.892.

Holloway continued to discuss her positive experiences while involved in Greek life. “[In high school] I definitely associated it more so with the negative side,” Holloway said. “I didn’t think I would want to be a part of it... and I didn’t want to party all the time, and I didn’t want my grades to go down. Now that I’m in it, it hasn’t been like that at all. There’s no pressure to do anything you don’t want to do, I haven’t been hazed at all or anything, my grades are great, I’m making so many friends and it’s definitely changed my whole point of view on Greek life.”

Brandon Edwards, a recent Northwood graduate and a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity at N.C. State, had similar sentiments. His fraternity was formed in

“I think that in 15 years, Greek life isn’t going to exist anyway. It isn’t what it used to be. It used to be about connections and actually having the legitimate relationships with each other, and it’s a more commercialized thing now.”

— Hannah Boaz

Graphic designed by Becca Heilman using Piktochart

June 2015

The Omniscient

Page 11

2014 and promotes diversity and acceptance. issue that’s so close,” Blake said.

“We’ve actually had several things happen this “My fraternity is different than the way you Senior Nolan Brown had a slightly different year, and with Greek life they kind of keep an eye would traditionally see a fraternity.… In high perspective on the impact of the book. on you to where you can’t really socialize like you school, I was definitely like, ‘That isn’t for me; I “It’s weird that something like [the pledge book] used to,” Boaz said. “Parties are kept to a minimum, won’t fit in,’ and then I met the guys from my curis happening so close to home,” Brown said. “I or they’re very well monitored. They watch you the rent fraternity,” Edwards said. “It revolves around think it was blown out of proportion a little bit, but entire time to make sure you’re not doing anything being different from the rest of the fraternities. We something could be done about it. I just personally bad. I think it can definitely decrease the number respect people and their rights and individuality.” think it’s not as big of a deal as they’re saying. It’s of bad things that are happening, but it also annoys Holloway also acknowledged the multiple neganot like they did all that stuff; it just happened to be people, and they try to make more trouble.” tive allegations. written down and happened to be found.”

Some sororities at Indiana University have taken “I’m definitely aware of it, and I know it’s out In light of the allegations, some colleges have a different approach. there,” Holloway said. “It’s definitely a huge conmade changes regarding Greek life on campus.

“Here, we are constantly being told, ‘This is cern, and I totally don’t approve of it, what sexual assault is. This is what but I think social media and television you should do if it happens to you’ or really portray Greek life and fraternities what you should do to prevent it from in a negative light. With the chanting happening,” Holloway said. “Since and everything with SAE, it’s such an I’ve been in a sorority, I’ve had to take unfortunate situation, and I totally don’t classes on alcohol and rape and stuff agree with it, but at the same time, I think like that, so I’m aware, and I know how people just want to hear the negative side, to prevent it and how to help someone in and they don’t really focus on the posithat situation. I think it’s definitely a contive aspects.” cern, but I think it helps that my sorority Junior Davis Wells, who plans on paris so good at trying to prevent that from ticipating in Greek life in college, agreed. happening by making people aware that “I don’t think the majority of them are this stuff is out there.” like that,” Wells said. “There are always Story explained the importance of going to be bad people and racist people, recognizing that these allegations don’t but I don’t think that really is a good way define entire groups or Greek life as a to define fraternities.” whole.

Students had many different opinions in “Whenever you’re thinking about relation to the discovery of the Pi Kappa groups of people, whether it’s an athPhi pledge book so close to home.

Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times/MCT letic team or a fraternity or a grouping “I think it’s almost a good thing that FAMILY AND FRIENDS OF ARMANDO VILLA hold up candles and plac- by gender or race, it’s easy to judge stuff like that has surfaced to show that, everybody based on the behavior of a ards during a rally on July 9, 2014 to call for an end to fraternity hazing at yeah, you hear all these things in the news, California State University, Northridge. Villa, a student at CSUN, died while few people,” Story said. “I think we but it’s actually here at home, and it’s an need to be careful.” on a hike with fraternity members, reportedly from excessive hazing.

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June 2015

Sawyer Davis/The Omniscient English teacher Jill Bone’s Third Period Plus 1 students work on their research papers.

Plus 1: Changes for the better?

By S awyer D avis S taff Writer

Plus 1, a new program implemented this year, has undergone many changes since it was first introduced.

“I think that any time you do something for the first time, you’re going to learn from what went well and what did not go well,” social studies teacher Roddy Story said. “I think that with Plus 1 this year, we’ve tried a few different things.”

These changes have included a shift from the Friday study hall system to the current every other day study hall system and the change from two lunches back to four. Students view these changes as generally positive.

“I really like the Plus 1 we have now as opposed to what it was at the beginning of the year,” senior Greg Zakaria said. “There’s more time to actually get homework done and see teachers instead of doing rather pointless exercises everyday.”

According to a recent survey conducted by the administration in January, 63 percent of students find that Plus 1 is beneficial to the student body, as opposed to 14 percent who think it is not. Additionally, 23 percent of students were reportedly neutral.

Among those with neutral views is sophomore Parker Pschorr.

“Plus 1 is utilized very well by students who take

the opportunity, just as anything else in school,” Pschorr said. “No matter what you do, [the] kids who don’t care are not going to utilize it no matter how you structure it, unless you have a teacher stand over you and say ‘do your homework.’ But you can’t; that’s unrealistic.”

Principal Justin Bartholomew said a large number of students were reported to have received help from a teacher at least once in two weeks. Bartholomew views Plus 1 as more than just a period of study hall.

“Teachers have had a lot more students come to them to make up a quiz [or test] that they were absent for, which in previous years some students can’t be there before or after school, so they just ended up taking the zero,” Bartholomew said.

This and more, according to assistant principal Janice Giles, is part of the overall purpose of Plus 1.

“The main purpose of Plus 1 was to provide students who needed help and extra support with their classes time in the school day to receive the help,” Giles said.

In addition to providing support, Plus 1 was implemented as a way to include SAT and ACT prep into the school day, as the school no longer offers SAT and ACT prep classes after school. Some students, particularly seniors, find these prep days to be useless.

“SAT prep is helpful for the underclassmen, however for the seniors, it’s completely pointless,” Zakaria said.

The solution to this problem may be a Plus 1 setup that is more tailored toward each grade level. Some students of other grade levels have also complained about the SAT prep days, but these days have their use, according to Bartholomew. “[ACT and SAT prep] might be tedious and mundane, the same thing over and over again, but it’s going to help a lot of the students,” Bartholomew said. “When it comes time to take that exam, [the student] will be able to say, ‘I’ve seen this 17 times,’ which is what we want.”

However many changes Plus 1 has gone through this year, there are even more planned for next year.

These changes could include a new weekly Plus 1 schedule where students see each of their teachers once a week during Plus 1. “[Plus 1] will be more of a rotation,” English teacher and English department chair Kathleen Greenlee said. “For example, on Monday you would be with your first period teacher, on Tuesday your second period teacher, Wednesday third, Thursday fourth and Friday would be reserved for tutorials or things that administration has to get out there for us….We still have the option to give passes for kids to come to remediation. There wouldn’t be two structured days, there would be only one.” *See page 18 for an editorial about Plus 1.

Sawyer Davis/The Omniscient

June 2015

The Omniscient

Should special education students be included in traditional classrooms?

By S kyler Waugh S ocial M edia Editor

“We all want to be accepted, regardless of what we might look like, or how tall we are, or whether we excel or do not excel at sports or science or history, etc,” teacher assistant James Eicher said. “We all have gifts and shortcomings.”

There has been great debate for many years whether special education students should be included in regular education classes. In the late 1800s, the trend throughout schools was that special education students needed to be placed in separate systems because those classrooms were the only place they could thrive. This mentality did not change until the mid-1920s when people began to see the value of education to students with disabilities.

Eicher began teaching in a public school over 40 years ago with children who were “mentally and emotionally disturbed,” but now works as a teacher assistant at Northwood.

“We had a ‘special classroom:’ no windows, completely isolated,” said Eicher of special education instruction at the start of his career. “Exclusion was the standard, whether in separate schools or just physically separated from the ‘normal’ kids. We ate segregated lunches, and on the rare occasion when we left the classroom, we had to wait until the halls were clear.”

Being separated from peers and discriminated against can have a negative effect on the student in many aspects.

“It looked and felt like a place to keep children out of sight and out of mind,” Eicher said. “The children knew this, and its effect on them was sadly debilitating. They knew they were not the same; none of us are the same in every way, or perfect in any way, and not being accepted or included is a terrible kind of loneliness and hopelessness that is hard to imagine.”

Inclusion works by having one teacher assistant per special education student or several students placed in regular education classes together. The teacher assistant works together with the students and lead teacher to provide support, assistance and advice for the student in the class.

Jacqueline Sculli works as an EC teacher at Northwood and thinks inclusion has changed in a positive way.

“Inclusion has opened people’s eyes to, ‘Oh, that kid is really smart; they do know what they’re doing,’” Sculli said. “They’re given that chance to be normal. People see other students who may have a disability and say ‘Oh, they are like me; they just learn differently.’ It’s all about the playing field; they may not be at the same level, but they’ll get

there at some point.”

Eicher believes that including special education students has benefits.

“The goal of education should be to create a love of learning by encouraging curiosity, questions and discovery, and then nurturing that in a direction based on interest so that children can mature into happy, confident, productive adults, doing what they do best and love to do,” Eicher said. “We are not all going to be scientists or accountants. ‘No child left behind’ should be ‘No child left discouraged.’

Square pegs still don’t fit into round holes, and we as educators must be very careful about what and how much we trim in order to make them fit.”

A study from 2012 published in Disability Scoop was carried out to question if the practice really does lead to positive outcomes or not. The researchers found 500 autistic students who were included in general education classrooms 75 to 100 percent of their time, there were no more likely to finish high school and further their education. The research found no indication that whether students are included or not improves outcomes.

Others believe adding the students will put more stress on the teacher and potentially affect the learning environment.

In 1975, the U.S. Congress Public Law 94-142 was passed. It was originally titled Education for All Handicapped Children Act (P.L. 94-142), but was amended and renamed Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1991. The law states that in order for states to receive federal funds, they must create and implement policies to assure appropriate education to every child with disabilities. Dr. Jennifer Diliberto works as a professor at UNC School of Education.

“The passing on Public Law 94-142 changed life for students with disabilities,” Diliberto said in an email. “The more we learn, the better we can serve students with disabilities in the least restrictive environment (this is a mandate of IDEA).”

Eicher feels that in many cases, including the special education students has allowed them to feel connected with their peers and improve their overall life.

“Discovering that you can do something that you thought was too difficult or impossible is what drives us all to new levels of confidence and discovery,” Eicher said.

“Students compare and challenge each other and identify as part of the whole classroom. I think it is our nature that drives us to compete, and competition some how unites us as part of a group or team that includes us.”

“Exclusion was the standard, whether in separate schools or just physically separated from the ‘normal’ kids.”

— James Eicher

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The Omniscient

REVIEWS

June 2015

I was prepared for the worst going into the new movie Hot Pursuit since I hadn’t heard very good remarks about it.

However, the comedic duo of Sofia Vergara and Reese Witherspoon left me pleasantly surprised.

The story starts out with young Witherspoon growing up with her dad who was a popular cop. Witherspoon is a target of mockery by her fellow cops because of previous events, but she is placed on a mission to save Vergara that thickens the plot. It leads into this long and twisted story about the two women fighting for their lives and running from murderers. They had me on the edge of my seat and loving every twist and turn they endured. Don’t listen to the critical reviews and hold it to higher expectations because trust me, it’s worth it.

— Skyler Waugh

My friend, a Disney Avengers: Age of Ultron fanatic, and I, a sci-fi was a movie I had been looking enthusiast, both really forward to for well over a year, wanted to like Brad Bird’s and through all the anticipaTomorrowland, but tion I was a little scared that we ended up regretmaybe the movie wouldn’t be ting forking over the as good as I hoped it would money for a Southbe. The movie as a whole was point matinee. Lead entertaining and the plot was actors George Clooney rather Terminator-esque, but and Britt Robertson I was not disappointed. Okay, suffered under the maybe I was a little disappointweight of annoying, clichéd character deed. The movie follows a rather velopment and dialogue. Tim McGraw also played out plot that includes inexplicably makes an appearance as the proan Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) tagonist’s father, and, embarrassingly, out-acts that becomes so self-aware that it plots to kill its creators to Robertson herself. The production design was obtain ultimate peace. Ultron, the A.I. gone mad, has been a well-executed and interesting, but not enough staple of the Marvel brand comics for years, but that doesn’t to save the convoluted plot and overdone mesmean that his gimmick is suddenly less cliché. Action-wise sage. The movie is clearly inspired by Steven I was rather impressed, but as a whole the movie missed its Spielberg’s style, but lacks his narrative talent. mark. Two and a half hour run time aside, perhaps the most I would not recommend the movie for adults entertaining portions of the movie were instances where the or children—any child young enough to overmembers of the Avengers were shown enjoying their free look the trite moral agenda and poor acting time. Watching some of my favorite superheroes unwind will be too frightened by super-strong and fast and relax made sitting through almost two and a half hours The common view malevolent robots, and at two hours and 10 of near-constant action totally worth it. All in all, Avengers: that the sequel is never minutes, the film was way too long for both Age of Ultron aimed high and may have fallen a little flat, but as good as the original hard-core Marvel fans will not be disappointed. rings true with the release the adults and kids in the audience.

— Frances Beroset — Sawyer Davis of Pitch Perfect 2. Once again the Barden Bellas Movies coming soon: are back, and competing to win an international a cappella competition, which no American team has ever won. While the movie makes an honest attempt to appeal to the young female audience that rendered its predecessor a success, many of the jokes inevitably fall flat.

Frankly, though, I liked Pitch Perfect better when it was an underdog movie the studio released on a wing and aprayer. In any case, there Ant Man Fantastic 4 Paper Towns Jurassic World is no need for a Pitch Perfect 3.

July 17 August 7 July 24 June 12 — Chloe Gruesbeck

Rituals by Other Lives

What For? by Toro y Moi

Swift by Bill Laurance

This Oklahomanative band is more than your usual Midwest rock group. With steady repeating beats and more complex melodies, this album transcends beyond anything they’ve done before. Jesse Tabish, the band’s lead vocalist, has a slightly monotone voice that flows perfectly with the melodies played by whining strings, and the emotional denseness of the album is relieved with bright percussion. Rituals invites the band into a musical-genius class with Radiohead or Lost in the Trees. However, this is no surprise; from their very first album the band was destined for greatness.

— Emma Reinberg

Toro y Moi has come far from his first album, Causers of This (2010).

At the first listen, I could have sworn I was listening to a new Tame Impala album. Toro y Moi’s new album is not like his previous dance-pop electric-acoustic albums. It’s less danceable; however, Chaz Bundick still incorporates his usual retro, funky beats and the same Beatles-sounding vocals.

With more guitar and less keyboards, Toro y Moi has gone from a more synthesized sound to modish guitar riffs. This new sound reflects Bundick’s flexibility in music-writing and his ability to push the boundaries of his album’s genre— What For? is worth more than just one listen.

— Emma Reinberg

A member of the band Snarky Puppy, Bill Laurance is one of the greatest composers I have ever heard. His first album, Flint, is a masterpiece.

A mix between classical, funk, electronic music, and maybe some progressive rock mixed in, both albums feel like a professional improv session (which perhaps they almost are). With repeating beats and melodies, there must be some influences of Philip Glass in this album. Laurance’s sophomore album is more experimental; combining the feel of post-rock with long guitar chords, classical instruments making up the melody, and sporadic drum solos. This album will take you far from where you are sitting, into a mythical world, almost. It grabs your full attention, and there is almost no way to describe the feeling of listening to Swift.

— Emma Reinberg

ART

SPOTLIGHT

Band

Dance Katie Robbins/The Omniscient

JAZZ BAND B performs “Treasure” by Bruno Mars at the Memorial Day band concert.

Tech

Photo courtesy of Kyndal Hutchinson

DANCE ENSEMBLE performs a number titled “Ending of a Chapter,” choreographed by senior Taylor Roberson.

In this edition of Art Spotlight, The Omniscient highlights each branch of the arts department and their spring performances commemorating the end of the school year.

Sara Heilman/The Omniscient

SENIOR KYNDAL HUTCHINSON programs lighting for the spring vocals concert.

— Compiled by Katie Robbins

Vocals

Sara Heilman/The Omniscient

VOCALS CLASSES perform “Work Song” by Hozier at the end of the spring vocals concert.

Art

Photo courtesy of Bailey Revels

SENIOR BAILEY REVELS’ self portrait, A Girl With A Pearl Earring from the spring art show.

Theatre

Photo courtesy of Nicholas Schwankl

ACTING ENSEMBLE performs Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare.

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June 2015

The Omniscient

Summer Checklist:

The ultimate guide to summer fun in the Triangle

By Katie Robbins Staff Writer

Sarah P. Duke Gardens If you’re looking for a cheap daytime outing on a nice day, Duke Gardens has fun for everyone. It is located at Duke University in Durham, which is about a 25 minute drive from Chapel Hill. Entering the gardens is free, and parking costs $1 per half hour. Duke Gardens has 55 acres of landscapes to enjoy.

Common activities at Duke Gardens include picnicking, playing frisbee, taking photos, walking and simply enjoying the outdoors.

If you’re looking for a way to get out of the heat, Duke Chapel is only a five minute walk away, and is open to visitors during the day.

Frances Beroset/The Omniscient

Stargazing at Jordan Lake Looking for a perfect summer nighttime activity? Morehead Planetarium hosts skywatching sessions at Jordan Lake for free. The skywatching sessions are about two hours long, but you can arrive and Frances Beroset/The Omniscient leave at any time during those two hours.

Planetarium staff will have telescopes set up, teach you how to identify constellations and tell ancient legends about constellations. Most sessions take place at Ebenezer Church Recreation Area, which is a part of the Jordan Lake State Park. Dates for skywatching sessions this summer are June 20, July 18 and Aug. 12.

The House in the Horseshoe The House in the Horseshoe, also called the Alston House, is the site of a battle between loyalists and patriot militiamen in 1781. The house still has bullet holes from the battle. It is located in Katie Robbins/The Omniscient Sanford, and after the battle, was the home of Benjamin Williams, a four-term governor of North Carolina during the early 1800s. The house is also known for its eighteenth century plantation architecture. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated.

Animal Fun Animal rescues and viewing areas are bounteous in our area. The closest, Carolina Tiger Rescue, is located in Chatham County. The Tiger Rescue is a nonprofit wildlife sanctuary in Pittsboro that rescues and provides sanctuary for wildcats. Its 55 acres are home to tigers, lions, cougars, leopards, bobcats and many other wildcats. Visitors are escorted throughout the rescue by a trained professional at all times.

Another place to view wildlife is the Duke Lemur Center in Durham. It has the world’s largest population of lemurs outside of Madagascar. To take a tour, visitors must make a reservation. Self guided guests are not allowed, and it is highly suggested that you make reservations a few weeks in advance if you are planning on visiting during the summer.

Last but not least, the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro features 500 acres of animal habitats. It is one of the largest natural habitat zoos in the United States, meaning animals there live in enclosures that mimic their natural habitats.

Photo courtesy of Emily Bolt

June 2015

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The Omniscient

Summer Concerts JUNE 3 The Decemberists at Red Hat

10 Train, The Fray and Matt

4 Ingrid Michaelson at The Ritz

11 Mumford and Sons at Walnut

Nathanson at Walnut Creek Amphitheatre

Amphitheater

Creek Amphitheatre

Reel Big Fish at The Fillmore Charlotte

13 Lana Del Rey at PNC Charlotte 17 Clean Bandit at Cat’s Cradle

9 Taylor Swift and Vance Joy at

Hozier at Uptown Amphitheatre at NC Music Factory

PNC Arena

Third Eye Blind at Red Hat Amphitheater Photo courtesy of Neon Tommy/Katie Buenneke

HOZIER performs at the Troubador in West Hollywood May 20, 2014.

18 Weird Al Yankovic at Koka Booth Amphitheatre

10 Alabama Shakes at Koka Booth 25 Michael Franti at The Amphitheatre

Fillmore Charlotte

JULY

1 The Rolling Stones at Carter Finley Stadium

2 Say Anything and Modern Baseball at Cat’s Cradle

4

Barenaked Ladies at Red Hat Amphitheater

7 Vans Warped Tour at PNC Music Pavilion

9 The Temptations and The Four

Tops at Belk Theatre at Blumenthal Performing Arts Center

18 Fall Out Boy, Wiz Khalifa and Hoodie Allen at Walnut Creek Amphitheatre

19 Shania Twain and Gavin

Degraw at Time Warner Cable Arena

21 Ariana Grande at Time Warner Cable Arena

22 Idina Menzel at Red Hat Amphitheater

25 Rascal Flatts, Scotty

McCreery and RaeLynn at PNC Music Pavilion

10 Dave Matthews Band at PNC

26 Smashing Pumpkins and Marilyn

18 Sam Smith at Time Warner

28 My Morning Jacket at Red Hat

Music Pavilion Cable Arena

Manson at Red Hat Amphitheater

Photo courtesy of Derrick Austinson Photography

MEMPHIS MAY FIRE performs at the Vans Warped Tour in Shakopee, M.N. July 7, 2012.

Amphitheater

AUGUST

4 Nicki Minaj at PNC Music Pavilion

12 Counting Crows at Red Hat Amphitheater

Perri and Colbie 5 Christina 18 Meghan Trainor at the Ritz Caillat at Koka Booth Amphitheatre 28 Motley Crue and Alice Cooper at PNC Arena 7 Piano Guys at Red Hat Amphitheater

8 Lady Antebellum, Hunter Hayes and Sam Hunt at Walnut Creek

12 J. Cole and Big Sean at PNC Music Pavilion

Photo courtesy of Ronald Woan

MEGHAN TRAINOR performs at the Q102 Philly Jingle Ball December 10, 2014.

Basement at Cat’s Cradle

Uncle Kracker and Better Than Ezra at Red Hat Amphitheater Nickelback at PNC Music Pavilion

29 Big Sean at Crown Coliseum

— Compiled by Sara Heilman and Katie Robbins

18 Elizabeth Her “How did you do that?” is a phrase I hear a lot. It’s not because I do magic or mindblowing tricks. The awe and praise goes to something that most people see everyday: paper. What could possibly be so interesting about paper? How about a standing dragon with curved wings and horns and a tail that swerves up and down? What about a swallowtail butterfly with circular wings that curve on the edges? It might even be as simple as a couple of small stars puffed up to look like little pillows. No matter what form it comes in, origami has become an essential part of my life.

I started folding in middle school when my class was learning how to make paper cranes. It was so hard to make. It killed me when I couldn’t get a step right or figure out how to make a good crease or understand the process. I kept trying, refolding and retracing my steps to try to make a small

Opinion

Origami Obsession paper bird. It was a like an algebraic problem that had to be checked and rechecked to make sure a step wasn’t missed. Three paper snowballs later, I finally made a paper crane. It felt like playing a competitive mind game. And winning. After that, I was able to make one crane after another. My obsession began.

I would practice nonstop. Hours upon hours would go by just sitting at a desk, folding away at torn out squares from printer paper. YouTube and Google were my teachers and I retraced steps and copied videos until I got everything right. If I couldn’t figure out how to make something, I didn’t give up. I would use paper squares one after another until I got the perfect model. If I couldn’t get my origami the same as the diagrams, I would sit in frustration.

One night, I flailed my arms around in pure anger. I smacked my hand into the desk lamp, making it shoot off the desk and plummet to the floor. I had to forget about the pain in my wrist to place the swinging light back into its upright place. I bruised my arm and almost broke my lamp all because I couldn’t understand how to make the ears on an origami rabbit.

My craze and devotion to origami grew make sure trees still exist? Of course. After larger and larger. Relatives and others every origami model I make, I question if began to just give me origami paper for I’m doing anything productive in life. But birthdays and Christmas because that was then someone always comes along and all I wanted. says, “How did you do that?” Origami gave When there was spare time in classes me something to put my pride in and I get because of testing, I would fold away. this special feeling when people look at my After I was done with homework, I would origami like they’ve just seen magic. make more cranes and stars. My hobby began to take all of my free time.

Besides my social life flying out the window, I feel like I caused the whole destruction of the Amazon Rainforest from all the paper I used. Small rejected scraps of paper lay all over my bedroom floor from cutting out as many squares from one sheet as possible.

My room became the inside of a paper shredder.

Am I crazy for my love of origami? Is there such a thing as being too passionate about paper? Should I try Adrianne Cleven/The Omniscient and keep myself in check to JUNIOR ELIZABETH HER adjusts an origami dragon.

Plus 1 gets a makeover: Which version is most effective?

Staff Editorial

Around three years ago, the leadership of Chatham County Schools requested that their district high schools implement extra remediation time into their daily class schedules. “Charge Up Time” soon made its Northwood debut in the fall of the 2013-2014 school year.

Kids who weren’t failing classes could officially start school at 8:35, and the ones who were struggling attended extra remediation in the morning. But the system didn’t work well. It was a hassle to create new Charge Up schedules for failing Northwood students each week, and some kids did not show up for remediation even when the schedules were clear.

Something had to give, so “Plus 1” was born—principal Justin Bartholomew’s midday solution to students failing classes, missing out on test prep or simply in need of a study hall time.

Plus 1 has undergone multiple transformations since it was put into place last August. Such changes mostly revolved around lunch, as the two are inexplicably but firmly connected. Weather issues and masses of bees thwarted the open-air lunch option and two lunches changed back to four. There was also

that unfortunate stint when kids had to eat packed on the gym bleachers like smelly adolescent sardines.

Is this program working? Which of the many incarnations of Plus 1 has been the most successful? The Omniscient’s editorial board is not in full agreement: our ideal plans range from Plus 1 mixed with lunchtime to no Plus 1 at all and everywhere in between. But we seem to be most in approval of the schedule tried the week of May 19-22, in which students went to their first period class for a Plus 1 session on Monday, second period on Tuesday, and so on, with Friday being reserved for their original Plus 1 homeroom class.

It sounds confusing, but students seemed to catch on quick. We are all used to haphazard mid-year changes by now.

It’s fantastic that students have the freedom to go to other classes during Plus 1 to catch up on work or get more one-on— By Natalie Fragnito one time with their

teacher. This should be continued next school year. Most classes operated like this during the week of the week of May 19-22, but a few teachers used the extra time students spent in their class to continue teaching or conducting mandatory labs. This “two hour class” of sorts is quite unfair. Administrators should remind faculty that this is not their time to teach. Students should keep their freedom of movement.

The SAT and ACT prep taught during Plus 1 seems like a good use of student time and energy. Other mandatory Plus1 work, including binder organization, “Claim, Evidence, Reasoning” (CER) paragraphs and job-hunting inventories got no rave reviews. Perhaps a better strategy would be to tailor Plus 1 activities to specific grade levels. Additionally, only one day a week should be set aside for these extraneous activities, versus four days a week (which is how Plus 1 began at the start of the year).

The key to a successful Plus 1 program is consistency. Plus 1 needs reliable expectations for students within classrooms and across-the-board teacher ownership in the program, but most of all, a stable schedule.

Keep Plus 1 the same for a year and see what happens. We’re betting it will all work out for the best.

June 2015

A Brief Rant About Standardized Testing Chloe Gruesbeck

I have been dreading this year for my entire school career. Throughout middle school, I understood that I would have to take standardized tests and keep a high GPA, but that seemed like something that was too far into the future to care about.

Now, as a junior, I find myself caring too much. The idea of taking another SAT makes me nauseous, prep classes are putting me to sleep and if I have to spend one more weekend studying the definitions of words like “pulchritude” or “imprecation,” I might lose it. As the days pass, I find myself becoming more restless about how this small group of numbers will define my future.

I will readily admit, I am awful at standardized tests. The difference between my solid grades and my low scores are stark.

When taking an SAT, instead of focusing on problem-solving skills, all I can think about is: •“Why did the test makers word the problem that way? Wouldn’t it have made more sense if they wrote...(Rewrites entire question)?”

•“What is it about me that makes me a crappy test taker?

•“Why do test makers think that particular kind of question is a reasonable indicator of future success? Are they right?”

•“Why do they need to time tests? Is life like Jeopardy where you have to buzz in the fastest?”

•“Why a No. 2 pencil? What do the numbers even mean? Is there a good reason for that, or is it a control thing? Would they really throw me out if I snuck in a rebel pencil?”

Page 19

The Omniscient

Finding closure after my loss

And the list goes on.

I understand why school systems use standardized testing. It allows a quick method for large universities to sift through thousands of applicants, choosing which ones have a higher perceived intelligence. It also creates a culture that is competitive and driven to succeed. China, a country with a long tradition of standardized testing, topped all countries in the international rankings for reading, math and science in 2009 when it debuted on the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) charts.

However, I also know how I feel when taking a big test: anxious. On March 14, 2002, the Sacramento Bee reported “testrelated jitters, especially among young students, are so common that the Stanford-9 exam comes with instructions on what to do with a test booklet in case a student vomits on it.” If second graders are already feeling enough pressure to be physically sick, just imagine their futures.

I’m not saying we need to debunk the entire system, but a somewhat more holistic way to measure intelligence would improve the situation. For example, statewide longitudinal data systems now track students in most states from pre-K all the way through high school (and in some states, college).

That means a student’s abilities aren’t dependent on the outcome of just a couple tests. Other alternatives range from video game based assessment to tests that are more specific to a student’s strengths (often called a curriculum-based assessment).

I have had teachers describe standardized testing to me as a “necessary evil.” I see very few necessary aspects to it. By embracing different methods, not only will colleges be able to more accurately gage a student’s capabilities but more importantly, improve students’ overall mental health.

During the summer of 2010, I was driving to the mountains for a vacation.

My mother got a phone call, stopped the car and stepped outside. She was talking on the phone for a while, and I began wondering why it was taking so long. She finally returned, and gave me the news that my father had been in an accident. Assuming he was injured, I prepared myself to ditch our vacation plans and go to the hospital when she blurted out, “He’s dead.”

That feeling is the most difficult thing in the world to explain. It’s like being hit in the chest with a brick over and over again as the words replay in your mind. There is no other feeling in the world like it, and it was so surreal that I barely remember what my reaction was. There was crying, but there was a numbness that I will never begin to understand.

I learned that he had taken a jet ski out to the lake without anyone there to watch or supervise and that he died from a heart attack in the water. There has been a change in me ever since I heard those two words. All I wanted after that was to feel happiness again, but all I could achieve was numbness. There is no person in this world who I would

wish that feeling upon. Teenagers and children should not lose their parents.

Parents should not lose their children.

But losing loved ones is an uncontrollable fact of life. No one can control the course of life and death, and that may be the scariest part about it.

Of course I would laugh, have fun and hang out with my friends in the months after, but no part of me felt genuinely happy. To this day, I continue striving for this happiness, and it finally seems that I have come close to achieving it. Despite the loss of my father, I continue to live everyday life.

During that summer, people always told me, “It gets better with time.” I did not know how that sadness could possibly go away, but it has. Although I still struggle with the pain and difficulties that came with losing my father, I feel like a stronger person because of my experience.

I now know not to take anyone for granted. Life is a precious gift, and shouldn’t be taken lightly. I do not want to lose anyone I love, but I know it will happen again. I no longer fear that day, because I know that I am strong enough to handle anything that comes my way. I’ve learned to appreciate life for all it is, and to love everyone while I still can. There is a huge level of grief that comes with losing a loved one, but fearing that is pointless.

I had a special relationship with my father, and when he looked at me I felt all of the pride and love he felt for me. I don’t think any of that has gone away.

right?), and my family and I were just sitting down to a fantastic Mayan-style lunch. The scene couldn’t have been more perfect…except for the chicken juice making a red streak as it dripped a quick line down my arm: as I have already admitted, I am not the most photogenic vacationer.

There were no napkins in sight, and Felipe, the server nearest to our family, didn’t speak a lick of English. It was my time to shine. “¡Señor!” I beckoned as the weathered Mexican man turned round to face me. “¿Es posible tener los papeles para los manos?”

My broken sentence can be translated as, “Mr., it’s possible to have papers for the hands?”

Yep. Doesn’t sound too hot in either language. I could feel the stares of the other tourist kids as they judged my handling of the situation and general lack of hand-mouth coordination. But they weren’t the ones being brought a lovely stack of napkins, were they? Victory.

The experience gave me a new apprecia-

tion for my education in Spanish levels I, II and III. Those semesters were enough to keep me safe in Mexico and supplied with more “paper for the hands” than I could ever need. They also gave me a few hurried conversations with vendors who wanted me to purchase one of their lovely ceramic cats.

(But for veinte American dólares, I couldn’t bring myself to commit).

All that said, I have some advice for those who develop the Spanish language curriculum: give up the ghost! You will never, ever teach high school Americans to speak like Mexico City locals. Once we’ve grown out of childhood, our brains simply can’t cut it.

But, alas, teens are still being instructed in the precise nuances of the Spanish language: no accent is too insignificant, no “erre” should be left un-slurred, and heaven forbid we let a verb tense slip away.

Forget numbered verb systems and headache-inducing charts of commands.

Teach phrases! Teach vocabulary! The goal in every foreign language conversa-

tion should be just to get the point across.

That’s why I was proud of even my botched napkin sentence.

Immersion helps as well, like the time I spent in Señor Foust’s class reading Teen Vogue and watching Dora in Spanish. Billboards along the highway were a lot clearer because I had read similar ad campaigns, and I swear I heard the ghost of Dora in our tour guide’s command to “¡Vámonos!”

Ken Stewart, an American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language (ACTFL) teacher of the year and Spanish teacher at Chapel Hill high school, agrees. He says that immersion programs are “the next best thing to study abroad.”

Bottom line? Foreign language classes are helpful, but would work even better if they employed a more relaxed approach. Students should be taught that they don’t have to be perfect, just communicate the best they can.

And if all else fails, they should leave the chicken grease on their hands and start a new conversation.

Katie Robbins

“I now know not to take anyone for granted. Life is a precious gift, and shouldn’t be taken lightly.”

“Papers for the Hands:” Foreign language instruction should review its goals Adrianne Cleven

When my mom announced our upcoming trip to Mexico, I was the most excited of my family. For the first time ever, I would be able to try out my (admittedly limited) Spanish skills on a native population in a foreign country. Would it be any different from reading and speaking along with the nerdy teenagers from my “¡Bienvenidos!” textbooks?

Was I ready to bargain with merchants en Español? Or would I fall flat on my face in a cloud of bilingual humiliation?

Fast forward a few weeks to spring break.

I sat in the Yucatan sun, still dripping wet from swimming in two Mexican underground pools called “cenotes.” My face was a vivid red color from sunburn (good thing nobody takes pictures of people on vacation,

20

S ports

Ahead of the Game:

Sophomores make the decision to commit

B y S ara Heilman S taff Writer “It’s a big deal,” said sophomore Matt Oldham, a verbal Wake Forest baseball commit. “People are going to look up to you, and they’re going to think higher of you, as you’re supposed to be really, really good.”

Oldham is referring to students who decide to commit to colleges for sports, specifically students in their sophomore year. Although student-athletes can’t formally sign until after their junior year, students and schools are increasingly making verbal commitments much earlier. Oldham and Carson Shaner are both sophomores that have already verbally committed to colleges to play sports.

Though the college and the student can back out at any time, a verbal commitment can alleviate some of the pressure put on both. Colleges know that they will have talented athletes competing for spots on their teams, while student-athletes will know where they’re going to school. Recently, colleges have been starting the recruiting process earlier.

“In the past [you] probably hardly ever [saw students committing early], but in the last four or five years there have been quite a few,” softball coach Butch Edenfield said. “Colleges have been dipping down into [younger teams] to find players that they like and want to see as far as their ability. They used to just go after the seniors.

Now they’re seeing players that are developed enough in their eyes to go ahead and commit early.”

Scott Jackson, assistant baseball coach and recruiting

Photo courtesy of Mary Oldham

SOPHOMORE MATT OLDHAM, a Wake Forest baseball commit, prepares for a pitch.

coordinator at UNC-Chapel Hill, agrees. According to him, colleges try to start recruiting as soon as possible. “[Colleges] start to make contact with kids and maybe start to build a relationship with them probably as early as their freshman year,” Jackson said. “Some kids are advanced physically and they’re way ahead of some of the kids their age. From our end of it, I think it’s important to start to build a relationship with them as early as you can.”

According to Jackson, this can be both advantageous and detrimental to a student-athlete’s sports career.

“I think there are two sides to the early recruiting part,” Jackson said. “The good side is that you see a young man who is able to make a decision on where he wants to go to school at an early age, and it can save his family a lot of time and money as far as trying to showcase [his] ability and making visits to schools. It’s kind of a peace of mind for everybody.”

Arriving on campus having committed isn’t always beneficial, however. Sometimes students become too comfortable and do not continue to improve in preparation for college.

“Some kids know where they’re going to school and they’ll kind of put it in neutral,” Jackson said. “They don’t continue to improve and get better like they would if they were still chasing an opportunity. It has to be important to you to be able to play as soon as you arrive on campus because just committing to a Division I school is not enough. You want to be able to play when you get there.”

Shaner, a sophomore who has also verbally committed, will be able to sign her National Letter of Intent to play softball at UNC-Wilmington after her junior year.

“I wanted to commit early because they went ahead and gave me a scholarship offer, and that was exactly where I wanted to play,” Shaner said.

Though Oldham and Shaner have verbally committed, they are not guaranteed spots on the teams. According to Edenfield, verbal commitments are not a contract.

They’re simply “a handshake between the player, the coach and the parents.” Because of this, students vying for spots on collegiate teams have to continue to focus on improving their game.

“I have to work really hard in practices, during the offseason and at home on my own time,” Shaner said. “I just have to work hard to get up to the standards, because my goal is to start when I get there.”

Because the agreement is not set in stone, the players have the opportunity to back out if they see fit. Alexa Bernard is a senior who was committed to Catawba College to play softball during her junior year, but made the decision to decommit. She now plans to attend the University of South Carolina.

“I knew I wanted to decommit kind of right after I signed because it just didn’t feel right,” Bernard said.

“The school just wasn’t offering me what I wanted for the next four years of my life, and they didn’t have the educational programs I wanted. The school was really small; it was a liberal arts college, and that just wasn’t going to offer what I needed.”

Photo courtesy of Kyndal Hutchinson

SOPHOMORE CARSON SHANER, a UNC-Wilmington softball commit, steps up to the plate.

Though Bernard has not lost her passion for softball, she is happier after decommitting.

“I still love softball; I play as hard as I can every game,” Bernard said. “I still strive to be the best on the field and I want nothing more but to win. I’m so happy that I made that decision because I’m not stressed anymore. I’m going to the school I want to go to and I’m actually excited to go, and before I wasn’t.”

According to athletic director Jason Amy, colleges are looking for more than just talented athletes to join their teams. Shaner and Oldham fit the criteria.

“Both are phenomenal athletes and great students,” Amy said. “That comes to play in why they’re being selected early, because they both have very good GPAs and both have great personalities and do a great job on the field, so it’s part of what a college coach and any coach is looking for.”

Though student-athletes may face pressure to focus on securing spots on collegiate teams, according to baseball coach Rick Parks, the importance of high school sports should not be overlooked.

“I think some kids get frustrated because they haven’t committed,” Parks said. “I think sometimes parents have unrealistic expectations for their children. I can say from experience, coaching with college players and playing as a college player, some of the best times I’ve ever had were playing high school baseball. Those are the times that you think back to and remember. In high school you’re fortunate enough to get to play with players that you grew up with your whole life, which is very neat.”

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The Omniscient

What you don’t know about Coach McDonald

By Jacob Sipe Staff Writer

Many people may think they have learned everything there is to know about Coach Richard McDonald, who took over full time in 2012 as the cross country and track coach after being hired on in the spring of 2011 to build the distance program for cross country. However, many people don’t know that McDonald was once a collegiate athlete at East Carolina University and has coached six state champions, among other things.

McDonald is a former collegiate athlete at ECU, where he ran cross country and indoor/ outdoor track. McDonald says he ran mostly the two-mile or 5,000 meter events while at ECU. “Running at ECU was a great experience,” McDonald said. “My freshman year I was fourth on the cross country team and for three weeks had the second fastest two-mile indoor track time at ECU ever.”

After running collegiately at ECU and receiving a teaching degree in P.E. and social studies, McDonald decided to coach. He says his motivation for coaching came from a mentor who he looked up to, coach John Williams from Pinecrest High School. “[Coach Williams] was a heck of a man; he inspired me to go into coaching,” McDonald said. “I could never begin to do what he did for people as a coach.”

Most people don’t realize why McDonald is so dedicated to building the running program here at Northwood. McDonald says reason number one is due to the nature of the competition Northwood has to face in the conference. That,

however, is not his only motivation.

“I have the time to be out here now that I am retired and not raising a family anymore,” said McDonald, who has a 27-year-old son named Zach and an 18-year-old daughter named Alexandra. “A good distance runner has to train 11 months out of the year. If I expect them to do it, I have to do my part and be the example in being out here. I can’t run with them anymore, but I can be out here. I have the time for that now and it gives me a lot of fulfillment.”

McDonald, who is 64 years old, has had a long successful coaching career. In over 30 years of coaching, he has coached six state champions along with many team conference championships. He coached at Pinecrest High School for 18 years, coached for five years at East Chapel Hill and coached for three years at the North Carolina School of Science and Math.

Since McDonald has taken over both cross country and track at Northwood, he says there has been a steady increase in the number of kids running. McDonald said there is still much work that needs to be done to build the program to where he wants it to be. He has some very fond memories from his time at Northwood.

“One of my favorite things has been the development of kids such as [seniors] Max [Kerscher], Tristan [Cochran] and Noble [LaRocco-Masi],” McDonald said. “They have really come a long way since their freshman year.”

McDonald has made many impacts here at Northwood even outside the realms of athletics.

“Coach McDonald is like a second father to me; he constantly checks up on me and really personalizes his coaching to fit each person,” Kerscher said. “He is a really great guy.”

Photo courtesy of Richard McDonald

Coach Richard McDonald (fourth from left on front row) in the 1970 cross country photo at ECU.

Photo courtesy of Richard McDonald

Coach Richard McDonald (second from right) running in a meet at ECU.

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Page 22

June 2015

The Omniscient

Where are they now? Q&A with former athletes

The Omniscient Archives

Photo courtesy of nccueaglepride.com

Jacobi Harris is a starting outfielder for the North Carolina Central University baseball team. He was a member of the 2014 MEAC All-Academic team with a 3.45 GPA. Q: Do you miss anything from NHS? Are you still connected with anyone at NHS? A: I miss all of the people that I grew up around for 12 years. I am still connected with people from NHS but not how I was when I still attended school there. I wish I were still connected with my main group of friends like Jamal Baines, Tevin Page and Landis Barber.

Q: How has NHS helped you get to where you are?

A: NHS has helped me with organizational skills, as well as communication skills to get me where I am now.

Rashmi Vanhook

Photo courtesy of Mark Goods

Jacobi Harris

Mark Goods

Mark Goods II is currently a basketball player at UNCG. He began his college basketball career at Pfieffer University and started the majority of the games. He now enjoys going to the gym and officiating flag football games on campus.

Q: Describe your favorite memory with sports at NHS. A: My favorite sports memory while at NHS is playing in the state championship game my junior year. Even though we fell short of our goal, this is an experience that a lot of people will never be able to experience. The atmosphere and fan/student support was unbelievable. We wouldn’t have made it that far into the playoffs without them.

Q: How has NHS helped you get to where you are?

A: NHS has helped me grow into the man I am today. The lessons and experiences that I have had at the school have directly impacted my life.

Q: What are you currently doing? How is that going?

A: After playing two years of college basketball at Pfeiffer, I decided to transfer to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. I am currently a student-athlete at UNC-Greensboro. Its going great; I love the university and its atmosphere.

Gino Lamanna

Gino Lamanna is a hockey player at UNC-Wilmington. He played football and wrestled when he was not playing travel hockey. He is a member of the ACHA All-South team.

Q: What are you currently doing? How is that going?

A: I am going to school at UNCWilmington, working and playing hockey for the school as well. Hockey has been going great with the team making Nationals this year, and I led Photo courtesy of Cathleen Verna Photography the team in scoring (goals and assists) and made 1st ACHA All South team, making me a top three forward in the south.

Doing all this while five minutes away from the beach isn’t bad either.

Q: Describe your favorite memory with sports at NHS. A: Wrestling my senior year was a great time. I also played two years of football as a sophomore and senior when taking time off from hockey. My favorite sports memory though was watching Northwood vs. Jordan Matthews basketball games and playing in the football games against each other.

Rashmi Vanhook is a former Northwood basketball player. She played basketball at North Greenville University in South Carolina. Currently, she is a teacher assistant at Northwood and is also the head JV girls’ basketball coach.

Q: Do you miss anything from NHS? A: I miss some of my old teachers and friends. Most of all I miss the high school days; just coming to school was fun to me. I enjoyed it.

Q: Describe your favorite memory with sports at NHS. A: My favorite memory out of my four years here at NHS would always be during basketball season getting ready for our “famous rivalry” throwdown against JM. Any competitive match against them was exciting.

Jay Williams

Jay Williams is the starting nose guard at North Carolina Weslyan. He is majoring in Criminal Justice and minoring in Sociology.

Q: What are you currently doing?

How is that going?

A: I am currently at North Carolina Wesleyan; my major is Criminal Justice and I’m minoring in Sociology. I also play football and am the current starting nose guard. College is fun as long as you set aside time to study for Photo courtesy of NCWCSports.com tests. Football makes it even better; getting involved at all will make your college experience worthwhile.

Q: Describe your favorite memory with sports at NHS. A: Favorite memory is a hard one. [I would say] either beating [Jordan-Matthews in football] junior year and the whole team crying their eyes out after the game, or it could be my senior year when we lost to Cardinal Gibbons but I had two sacks in a row. So hype!

— Compiled by Jailen Leach

June 2015

Page 23

The Omniscient

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SUPER

CHARGED

This issue’s Super Charged features senior athletes who will be continuing their athletic careers at the collegiate level.

— Compiled by Jailen Leach

Elizabeth Conte

Swimming, UNC-Asheville Conte Finished in the top at states in the 200 meter freestyle.

“Swimming in college will improve my skills and help me become a faster and more efficient swimmer,” Conte said.

Rory O’Dell

Swimming, Saint Francis O’Dell was the 2015 Conference female Swimmer of the Year.

“Im looking forward to training trips and traveling trips: Florida, Boston, MIT,” O’Dell said.

Ti Pinnix

Football, Elizabeth City State Pinnix threw for over 5,000 yards and 53 touchdowns as the quarterback for Northwood.

“I’m excited; I am ready to show these college coaches what I can do,” Pinnix said.

Bailey Revels

Diving, N.C. State As a junior Revels finished third in the state for diving.

“State has a foundation for a great program, and I really believe that the coach can help me grow as a person and as an athlete,” Revels said.

Brett Svendsen

Men’s Soccer, Mt. Olive As a senior at Northwood, Svendsen recorded over 90 saves.

“I am looking forward to meeting my team and traveling all over to meet other people as well,” Svendsen said.

Elijah Washington

Football, Elizabeth City State Washington was named All-Conference Defensive Player of the Year and ended his career at Northwood with 188 total tackles.

“I’m excited about meeting new people and becoming a better player,” Washington said.

Alex Council

Track & Field, UNC-Charlotte Council won back-to-back state championships in the indoor 55-meter dash.

“I look forward to sharpening my skills and getting my times down,” Council said.

Jamie Palermo

Women’s Soccer, Appalachian State Palermo made the All-Conference and AllRegional team as a midfielder.

“I look forward to playing the game I love at the next level,” Palermo said.

Kadarus Rone

Football, Winston Salem State While at Northwood Rone recorded almost 4,000 all-purpose yards.

“I am excited about playing on Saturdays,” Rone said.

Jacob Sipe

Baseball, Wake Tech Sipe was named All-Conference for the Big 8 3A conference and batted .415 as a junior.

“I look forward to expanding on my baseball skill and knowledge,” Sipe said.

Shontai Totten

Women’s Basketball, Pfeiffer While at Northwood she recorded over 500 points.

“I’m looking forward to the better competition. I’m ready to develop my game even more for the next level,” Totten said.

Jared Worley

Football, UNC-Chapel Hill Worley ended his career with over 150 tackles, and 19 of those for loss.

“I am looking forward to the huge atmosphere that the Carolina fans will bring,” Worley said.