h t u o M f o d Wor Volume 8, Issue 2
October 2013
Helping Others Oak Hill Academy Student Newspaper
Students Volunteer at The Lamb’s Table By Yonatan Belayhun Volunteering for The Lamb’s Table is a unique experience. Students go to Independence, Virginia to help feed those in need of a meal. Students divide up into groups to meet the needs of the Lamb’s Table volunteers. One group serves the meals to the people while another group packs meals to be taken to shut-ins. About 100 meals are delivered to shut-ins and another 125 meals are served at The Lamb’s Table.
Inside this issue: Helping Others Continued
2
Youth Group
2
Equestrian Show Highlights
3
Soccer
4
Volleyball
5
Running Club
5
Senior Honor Pages
6
Harvest Festival
6-7
There are usually six to eleven students who volunteer at The Lamb’s Table each month. After the students are done serving meals, they eat with the other volunteers then clean the kitchen. This service makes a huge difference in the lives of many throughout Grayson County. Mr.
Henry Crede has been involved with The Lamb’s Table since it came into existence and is very proud of the Oak Hill student involvement and support of this important service. He encourages students to go to The Lamb’s Table at least six times per year.
Feeding America By Destiny Crickman, Mamoon Bukhari, & Christine Richardson Oak Hill Academy students are volunteering with an organization known as Feeding America. The organization itself has many food pantries, but the one that Oak Hill works with
specifically sponsors the Southwest region of Virginia. Their mission is to provide foods to those in need. So far this year, Mrs. Groves along with students Alex DeNisco, Sam Bernstein, Samantha Walker, Sallie
Jones, and Tamsin Smith travelled to the Grayson Highlands School to organize the foods that were donated from local stores and equally divide the products into different bags. Locals then lined up at the doors (Continued on page 7)
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Word of Mouth
Helping Others Lee Denim Day By Leah Baucom Lee Denim Day was held at Oak Hill Academy in support of breast cancer research. Students donated $5 each to retire the uniform pants for one school day to wear jeans instead. Many students dressed down and donned their favorite pair of jeans. Having several faculty members that are cancer survivors, cancer research is close to the heart of the staff and student body here on ‘the Hill.’ Lee Denim Day
is a national campaign and has always been a huge success. At OHA, students, teachers and staff donated a total of $300 for breast cancer research. Many thanks to all who participated in the Lee Denim Day. Participants included: Destiny Alston, Mariah Ashley, Lizzy Aksamit, Ms. Ave-Lallemont, Mrs. Bonham, Carly Bronikowski, Miss T. Brooks, Mr. Bunn,
Ashley Dupper, Linda Goins, D.J. Grayson, Shawn Haas, Amy He, Kimy Kacyira, London Lambeth, Reilly Larsen, Maddy Leech, Miss Luksic, Maina Ly, Jae Mayweather, Cheyanne Molina, Meme Ogbuefi, Baaba Otabil, Emily Pagliuca, Ms. Richardson, Mr. Riedl, Ms. Sargent, Mrs. Smith, Cierra Thomas, Mrs. Thompson, Rev. Turnmire, Andrew Worth, Kane Schrader, Christine Richardson, Juliani Lee, Mrs. Phipps, and Libby Young.
Youth Group By Alex White Youth group is a club organized by Coach Knudsen, Mrs. Groves, Rev Turnmire, and Mrs. Kaufelt. On average 10-15 students attend Youth Group every Monday night. The purpose of youth group is to create fellowship among the students and give students a place to feel comfortable sharing their spirituality and ideas. The students of youth group take part in activities and community service projects. Youth group begins with a prayer followed by Michelle Watson-Jones singing a song while playing her guitar. Rev. Turnmire reads a
scripture and the group discusses the moral and meaning of that scripture. During youth group, the students also share ideas and feelings relating to the scripture. The group meeting usually closes with a fun activity related to the scripture. The Youth Group is currently helping to collect food for the Backpack Ministry at Grayson County football games. The Backpack Ministry supplies a backpack with food to children who need assistance. The Youth Group is also helping with Feed America. The purpose of Feed America is to put together bags of food to give to less fortunate people in the community that do not have meals. Youth group students also
attend a number of events. In January, the girls of youth group will be attending a spiritual retreat called Resurrection. At Resurrection, the girls are exposed to different Christian organizations and take part in fun activities. During the second semester, Youth Group will be attending Winter Jam, a concert in Greensboro, North Carolina. At the Winter Jam, several different Christian bands entertain the audience. Any student who wishes to express their ideas and feelings in a positive environment and learn to care for others is welcome to join Youth Group.
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Equestrian Show Highlights By Destiny Crickman customary show attire. The girls participated in three different classes. The ‘walk and trot’ and ‘halter’ classes both required riders to wear white, long sleeve dress shirts, a vest, tie, special riding pants, and boots. The ‘driving’ class required formal dress as the attire.
On September 14, 2013, Lien Raets, Michelle Watson-Jones, and Destiny Crickman, all a part of the equestrian team, competed in the Bland County Fair and Horse Show. They were accompanied by Mrs. Debbie, Mrs. Manuel, and Mr. Henry.
The horse show was an all-day event divided by morning classes and evening classes. In between the two, the team took a small of ribbons including two 1st, two 2nd, one 3rd, and one 4th place finish. Destiny Crickman secured 1st place twice and 2nd place three times. Earning a special honor, Destiny also received a trophy for her Overall First Place finish in the Walk and Trot Class. This horse show was a quite successful day as well as a great start to the new year of horse shows for the Oak Hill Academy Equestrian team.
In preparation for the show, all of the horses, Perry, Dale, Alex, Lily, and Black Bettie, were bathed, groomed, and tacked with the proper equipment. After the horses were prepared, the ladies then dressed themselves in lunch break, treating themselves to Subway. By the end of the day, the team was quite exhausted from all of the hard work. Their efforts were well rewarded by judges. Through various events, Lien Raets accumulated a number of awards which included a 1st, a 2nd, two 3rd, and a 4th place finish. Michelle Watson-Jones collected a variety
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Word of Mouth
Goal! By Yonatan Belayhum The soccer team had fun while improving during the fall season. Coach Knudsen said, “It is the building block for the spring season.� With continued practice until the spring season, the team will be better prepared for the strong competition. Coach Knudsen was very proud of the team captains, Michelle Metcalf, Andrew Awantang, and Alex Boshart. They provided the team with great leadership and helped a lot during the practices and games. Michelle Metcalf, Andrew Awantang, and Alex Boshart are life-long soccer players who all hope that more students will come out for the soccer team in the spring. With much improvement during the fall, they are certain the team will meet with success in Spring. Other members of the Fall Soccer team included: Andrew Awantang, Alex Boshart, Cade Groesbeck, Will Hall, Peter Hatakeyama, Brennan Jolliffe, WonJun Jung, Kimy Kacyira, Reilly Larsen, Michelle Metcalf, David Mosindi, Xiaolin Sun, Marshall Vest,
Andrew Worth, Joshua Yoon, and Youssef Youssef. Managers included:Amy He, James Yuan, Kelsi Liddle, and Sandy Chen.
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Spike! By Mamoon Bukhari Oak Hill Academy’s volleyball team was noted this year for its great improvement. This year’s season consisted of only three games due to scheduling difficulties, and unfortunately, the team had no wins. Even so, the volleyball team made its improvement obvious to the spectators. The progress was owed to several senior students who practiced leadership on and off the court as well as the returning students who had experience in the game.
Practices were held almost every day after school and lasted for about an hour and a half. Coached by Mr. Finklea, the girls concentrated on the fundamentals of the game such as serving and receiving the serve. Mr. Finklea has been the Volleyball coach at Oak Hill Academy since 1993 and states that he does it for the students. “It is fun for the girls and helps them get better acquainted, as well as get off campus,” Mr. Finklea stated during an interview.
Ladies on the team included: Lizzy Aksamit, Destiny Alston, Mariah Ashley, Leah Baucom, Carly Bronikowski, Alexandra Collins, Aaliyah Haygood, London Lambeth, Davi Lazard, Maddy Leech, Maina Ly, Theresa Marinelli, Jae Mayweather, Meme Ogbuefi, Baaba Otabil, Lien Raets, Eden Sileshi, Michelle WatsonJones, and Libby Young.
Get set—Go! Mr. Riedl arrived at Oak Hill last year and promptly decided to start a Running Club for students that enjoyed running or just needed something to do. The great thing about the Running Club is that anybody
can come and run whenever one would like. The club takes different routes depending on how the weather is and where the students want to run. Usually, they run four times a week all over campus, down to the
Oak Hill Sign, to the barn, and to Noonkester. It’s a great way to get away from everything and also get to see more of the Oak Hill campus.
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Word of Mouth
Yearbook Honor Pages By Shawn Haas Yearbook Honor Pages have long been a way for parents to recognize their child. Honor Pages generally showcase the child by using pictures from their youth and infancy to commemorate the journey that the student has made. Growth is truly represented on these pages. Some parents also wish to include a message that is personally created. In previous years, parents liked to include siblings or pets on the page.
Ultimately the honor pages highlight the significant people, things, and places in the lives of the student. If you are interested in purchasing an honor page you can contact the Yearbook Advisor, Ms. Tommie Sargent, by emailing her at yearbook@oak-hill.net. Included in this email should be, pictures and information such as quotes, bible verses, stories, or anything you wish to
include on the page. If you do not wish to design the page personally, the yearbook staff will work to create a page honoring your child. All pictures included will be returned in a response email after publishing of the honors section. We sincerely hope that you utilize this medium of support, acknowledgment, and appreciation.
Harvest Festival Fun By Tony Anderson The week preceding the Harvest Festival built up anticipation through daily Halloween trivia questions land a door decorating contest. Including the themes of community and Halloween, Ms. Haas’ advisee group won the door decorating contest. Saturday morning found students up early to carve pumpkins for the pumpkin carving contest. Christine Sears put her excellent carving skills to the test winning a gift certificate to the Campus Store for her pumpkin carving. Many students participated
in the costume contest wearing everything from a chicken suit to inflatable ostrich jockeys to original costumes created from found items. Teachers and staff also sported costumes showing support for the Harvest Festival events. Costume winners included Maddy Leech for scariest, Christine Richardson for most original, and James Kidd for overall best costume. At the festival, there were numerous stations for students to win prizes and collect points. The cake walk and bingo
games were popular for winning home-made desserts! Corn Hole, the dart board, milk can toss, paint ball shot, and ladder toss were all stations where students earned points. The top ten point earners were treated to breakfast at Shatley Springs! This year’s high scorers included Konstantin Kreutzer, Terrence Phillips, Steven Wang, Mamoon Bukhari, Cade Groesbeck, Alex Van Stippen, Lizzy Aksamit, Jesse Wade , Christine Sears, and Jeff Uju.
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More Harvest Festival Fun After the fun games, students had a large variety of food for dinner. There were brats, mini corn dogs, corn, tater tots, soup in bread bowls, and grilled squash. Everyone enjoyed the cotton candy, soft pretzel, and caramel apple stations! Taking pictures with classmates and teachers alike brought smiles to all. Harvest Festival was a great success!
Feeding America cont. (Continued from page 1)
and received their bags full of a variety of different foods ranging from potatoes, vegetables, bread, canned soups, etc. At the end of the day, the group distributed approximately 230 bags to local families in need. Any students that are interested in participating in the event must talk to Mrs. Groves a week before the scheduled date. Distributions are scheduled every third Monday of the month and are usually during the times of 4:30-6 p.m. Though this opportunity is a youth group sponsored event, you do not have to be involved in youth group to participate. To learn more about Feeding America, the official website is FASWVA.org.
Editor-in-Chief Shawn Haas The Mission of Oak Hill Academy
Staff Journalists Tony Anderson Leah Baucom Yonatan Belayhun Mamoon Bukhari Destiny Crickman Christine Richardson Alex White Staff Photographers Mariah Ashley Carly Bronikowski Juliani Lee Courtney Mitchell Sallie Jones Proofreaders Lisa Finklea Cyndie Richarson Faculty Sponsor Mikki Haas
Oak Hill Academy is a coeducational, Baptist affiliated, boarding/day school committed to excellence in education and adolescent development in a non-military setting. The mission of Oak Hill Academy is to offer a safe, secure, nurturing environment for girls and boys needing a change in school, peer, community, or family relationships. Oak Hill provides a structured college-preparatory program to students in grades 8-12. Our curriculum challenges the brightest student and encourages those who are unmotivated, who are underachieving, or who are experiencing difficulties in their school setting.
Oak Hill Academy
2635 Oak Hill Road Mouth of Wilson, VA 24363 Phone: 276-579-2619 E-mail: info@oak-hill.net