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Assistant Editor Sarah Barney
TRAVEL OUTSIDE YOUR TOWN With a grin on her face, Shelby Zeigler 11 adventures along the rocky coast just off of the scenic Route 1 State Highway in California. Zeigler and her family had climbed down to the water after parking and noticing an optimal location to explore the shore.
Stockbridge High School is one of those schools: Existing in a little farming village with students coming from even smaller towns nearby, it is not exactly a well-known school. A large amount of kids go hunting with their families, and there are always multiple students wearing camouflage clothes. A typical ride into school includes passing corn or soy fields, not to mention the corn field just across the road from the school’s front doors. The student parking lot is dominated by trucks, most tainted with dirt and mud. However, the students that bring life into these white brick walls are much more than just what some may call hicks. The seniors scored the highest ACT scores ever for a Stockbridge High School class. This came unexpected from the 2016 class who had generally secured a reputation as troublemakers amongst teachers. “The senior class had small groups of people that ruined it for everyone else,”
PHOTO BY MICHELLE ZEIGLER
Corey Baird FA said. “Sometimes, people talk about a class and put everyone in it under the same umbrella. If you say something enough, people start to believe it. I don’t think the seniors are a bad class; they just had a few people ruining it and now those students are either gone or matured, and the class has done better as a whole.” Perhaps more unexpected is the booming underwater robotics program. Coming from the humble origins of testing robots in a watering trough, the class has since diversified into two teams. The first team, called the Palau team, travels to the Pacific island of Palau and attempts to recover MIA airplanes. The second team, referred to as the InvenTeam, works using the money from the Lemelson-MIT grant. “When people find out where we’re from and what we’re doing, they’re shocked,” Poppy Cox 11 said. “The InvenTeam has been working on a remote underwater camera
Job No.: 017722 School Name: Stockbridge
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system. Winning the grant has been one of the coolest achievements for us.” Just down the career and technical training hall, students get to work outside of the classroom by attending workshops and camps like the Washington Journalism and Media Conference, which is held at George Mason University. Stockbridge journalism teacher Elizabeth Cyr has been sending students for the past three years. Students are nominated by teachers and then, after looking at the students work, the conference chooses to invite the students to come. “WJMC offers sessions that teaches students advanced skills in journalism and gives them opportunities to interact with professionals in the field,” Cyr said. “It’s not easy to go either. Students have to spend upwards of $3,000 to go, but they’re still able to go because of how hard they work. Stockbridge is just a little dot on the map and people wouldn’t expect kids from here to get access to experiences like WJMC.” In addition to excelling in academics, students have found success in their respective sports. The varsity football team finished the season with a 7-3 record and 3rd place in the GLAC. “Some people might lump us together as meathead jocks. All the players work to keep good GPAs and last year we got a nod for it,” Mason Gee-Montgomery 11 said. In fact, the football team was recognized
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as having the ninth highest GPA in Division 5 according to the Michigan High School Coaches Association. Football was not the only team to achieve. The boys cross country team had continuous success, winning the conference championship, regional championship and placing ninth at States. “It’s been a transition year, but we’re graduating only one runner this year so next year will be even better,” Jake Chapman 11 said. “Other teams respect us and I think they feel we’re a force to be reckoned with. We’ve been conference champions for the past five years.” Being a part of our local sports teams is not the only way for students to get involved with athletics. Andrew Jackson 10 plays as a defenseman for an AAA minor league hockey team Compuware, based out of Detroit, Michigan. AAA is considered the elite competition level for minor league hockey. “In first grade, I got a ‘learn to skate’ pamphlet in the mail and it just went from there,” Jackson said. “Now, I really enjoy playing hockey and I want to keep playing and I hope to play at college level for Michigan Technological University.” “People definitely don’t expect a kid from Stockbridge to play hockey,” Jackson added. “When I tell people where I live they always ask me ‘Where’s that?’”
IN THE SUN During a photo shoot for a yearbook divider photo, junior Justin Hibbard and sophomores Shyanne Robinson, Anna Baird and Martin Hoeksema share a playful moment. “I’ve known Justin and Anna for a long time,” Robinson said. “Everyone knows everyone here and you don’t have to be related to feel like family.” PHOTO BY HANNAH KIGHTLINGER 12
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School Name: Stockbridge
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