Issue 8

Prairie Burn: Once-in-a-lifetime experience

the

NW PASSAGE

+PHOTO BY MADDY MANNING

April 12 ,2018 | Vol. 49

NORTHWEST PASSAGE I s su e 0 8 Vol. 4 9 A p ri l 1 2

TA BL E OF

CONTENTS

Super-Intentions

New Superintendent Dr. Jim Fulton has big plans for SMSD

Ring of Fire

Environmental Education Two students get a oncein-a-lifetime experience

Poetic Justice

The finialists for the Poetry Slam come from different backgrounds but find a common ground

6 9-11 13

STAFF: PUBLICATION OVERSIGHT: Editor-in-Chief Editor-in-Chief

OUR PASSAGE:

STAFF WRITERS:

CONTENT MANAGEMENT:

The purpose of the Northwest Passage is to relay important and interesting information to the community, administration and students of the Shawnee Mission Northwest High School. As a news magazine, the Northwest Passage will cater to the interests and concerns of the student body. Outside concerns and activities will only be covered if they somehow affect the school or students. The Northwest Passage is a 20-page news magazine. The paper will be distributed every four weeks during fourth hour. Subscriptions will be available to the community for $25. The Northwest Passage firmly supports the First Amendment and opposes censorship. The content of the newspaper will be determined and created by the entire staff. When questions concerning word choice, legal problems or ethics arise, the editorial board and adviser will discuss the problem to find the solution. In these cases, the editor-in-chief and editorial board will have the say in all decisions. Letters to the editor will be accepted and encouraged. The staff reserves the right to edit for grammatical mistakes, length and good taste. Letters may attack policy but not people. In no way will ideas or viewpoints be changed.

The editor-in-chief and editorial board reserve the right to refuse any letter.

02 April 12, 2018 | Vol. 49

Cadence Elder Jack Lynch

+PHOTO BY SKYLAR BROGAN

Design Editor Photo Editor Photo Editor Copy Editor Copy Editor Ads Manager Online Copy Editor

Rachel Albers Madeline Manning Erin Henton Asher Norberg Samantha Joslin Will Gross Annalissa Houser STAFF DESIGNERS:

ADVISERS: Adviser Assistant Adviser

Susan Massy Wes Mikel

Jake Ditto Anastasia Kling Rory Dungan Kate Lawrence Nicholas Lorino Sonni Meyers Matthew Owens Sam Rice Kaili Sitz Cate Taggart

Erin Albers Kennady Bustamante Rylee Garrett Kasi Maniktala Alden Norberg Grace Roeder

We Only Have One

23/0 For

Try to eat less meat

While it is unrealistic to expect everyone to become vegetarian, cutting back on meat consumption is an easy way to help save the environment. Meat products, specifically beef, take a large toll on the environment. Livestock production accounts for 14 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. A study conducted by researchers at Oxford University found that if everyone became vegetarian by 2050, food-related emissions would drop by 60 percent. By cutting back on the amount of meat you consume, you can conserve precious resources and help reduce your carbon footprint.

Against

“We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.”

When the concept of Earth Day first came about, it was in reaction to an oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara in 1969. Disgusted by American industry’s blatant disregard for the environment, U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson decided to organize a “national teach-in on the environment,” and Earth Day was born. In 1970, the first Earth Day was celebrated and 20 million Americans from across the country came together in their communities to advocate for a healthier, cleaner environment. The event was celebrated on nearly 2,000 college and university campuses across the United States, making Earth Day a huge success.

Fast forward 48 years and those 20 million Americans who first rallied against the pollution and desecration of the environment belong to a generation we now know as the Baby Boomers. This generation is typically characterized as those born between 1946 and 1964, and is also known to most high school students as our grandparents. But the Baby Boomers, the generation that made Earth Day a success, is the same generation that has ignored the mounting evidence of climate change.

Twenty-eight years ago, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (a scientific body set up by the United Nations) released a report detailing that global average temperatures had risen by 0.3 - 0.6 °C, and that humanity’s emissions were adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. The Earth, in turn, is expected to continue to warm.

While major progress in climate change legislation and activism has happened, it is not happening fast enough, especially considering the amount of time we have had to act on it.

American industry values profit over the common good, and this ideology has been the strongest force behind the destruction of the environment.

According to a study published in Climatic Change, a peer-reviewed scientific journal, just 90 companies (including Chevron and ExxonMobil) are responsible for nearly two-thirds of greenhouse gas emissions in the entire world. It is imperative that we realize that without an environment, there is no economy. Logically, capitalism should be driving ecofriendly innovation, but because our society is driven by money, and not by the good of the people, we have yet to see a widespread change in how we treat the environment.

It has become clear to us that previous generations have not cared for the Earth we will inherit in an appropriate way. It is up to us, the youth, to reject once and for all the damaging habits and practices of the society we were born into. The United States constitutes five percent of the global population, but generates 30 percent of global waste. If every person on the planet lived like the average American, we would need the resources of five Earths to sustain the global population, and that is calculating for the current population, which sits at 7.6 billion people. This is especially alarming considering that the global population is projected to eclipse 9.7 billion people in 2050.

The lifestyles we are living are not sustainable. It is unrealistic to expect immediate change, but it is imperative that we fix the mistakes of the people who came before us. We must rethink the way we function in day-to-day life. Everything we do affects the environment: the clothing we buy, the food we eat, what we throw away and what we save.

Be conscious of your clothing

The fashion industry is second only to the oil industry in the amount of pollution it creates. Fashion companies often create clothing with disregard to the environment, using dyes and production techniques that are harmful to the environment.

When purchasing new clothes, look for items made sustainably or in the United States. Buying clothing you need from thrift stores is another good way to cut back on resource consumption, and is often cheaper than buying new clothes. Instead of throwing away unwanted clothes, donate or sell them to thrift stores.

Replace single-use items with reusable ones

A good way to reduce waste is by investing in reusable items such as water bottles, refillable coffee cups and fabric grocery bags. It is important to remember that every time you throw something away, it ends up in a landfill. Plastic items can take anywhere from 100 to 1,000 years to decompose in a landfill, and they release toxic chemicals once they do. These toxic chemicals have the potential to then leach into the ground and contaminate groundwater and the surrounding ecosystem. By using refillable water bottles or coffee cups, you can reduce the amount of waste you produce.

NW PASSAGE | Staff Ed. 03

11101 Johnson Drive, Shawnee, KS, 66203 Espresso, Cookies, Cakes & Great Sandwiches (913) 396-0850

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04 April 12, 2018 | vol.49

Sammy Alani sammy_alani

Jesus Forgives You Recognizing my lack of belief helped me discover who I truly am

M

y relationship with God has grown increasingly weaker since the day I left Holy Trinity Catholic School. It could have been the lack of theology class, weekly mass and daily prayer; but, I realize it now, it is actually the lack of religion being shoved down my throat — a religion I don’t want or believe in.

Religion is a hard topic to grasp. When putting the concept of religion into perspective, it doesn’t make sense to me.

Religion was created by men who yearned to believe there was something greater than us on Earth. To them, there just had to be a reason why we died, a place we went and a force that controlled us.

But what if there isn’t? This thought has resonated with me since the day I left an environment where opinion was taught as fact.

In Catholic school, each student is enrolled in a religion course each year. In religion class, we were taught from the Bible, and only from the Bible. This would be beneficial to learning Catholicism, but what about learning about the 4,200 other religions in this world? Teaching children from five to 14 years old only one idea from one book is censorship.

I believe that if I had not spent 10 years

of my childhood involved in the Catholic church, I wouldn’t have given Catholicism such a high status in my life and would have made my own decisions about theology early on.

Along with a switch in political sides influenced by Northwest, public high school has taught me all too much. I have been taught that the truth about religion is the truth you create. One religion does not hold all truth.

Once I knew I no longer believed in Catholicism, I had to decide, what do I believe in? I obsessed over the idea of atheism, but was not okay with the lack of answer to my life. Everything that I have ever been taught ceased to exist if I chose to believe that there were no gods at all. I decided that, although I no longer believed in consecration, in Jesus or in the Bible, there had to be something else I could believe in. Maybe I haven’t found it yet, but I do believe there is something out there. Maybe He isn’t a big man with a beard and a golden throne, but there might something that will guide me through the rest of my life.

With all of these paths racing through my head, the one burning question became quickly present: how would I tell

+BY MADELINE MANNING

my parents? The parents who raised me Catholic, the parents who baptized me and continue to bring me to church. Parents often expect you to turn out how they raised you, but in more cases than not, the outcome is completely different.

While sitting in church, on the same pew, listening to the same homilies, the same songs and reciting the same prayers for 17 years, I had finally realized I had taken in enough of it. I was tired. I was tired of claiming to enjoy it, pretending to pray and faking my belief in God. My family history is thick with religion.

My dad comes from a big Irish-Catholic family with more than 40 cousins, and being the one to reject this tradition seemed terrifying. How would I say it?

What if they argued? Would I freeze? This scenario burned through my mind like a broken record, constantly on repeat.

While one side of my brain spun, the other half told me to take a deep breath and just say it.

“Hey mom,” I remember saying. “I just wanted to say that I’m not sure about religion anymore. I think I’m agnostic.”

With a deep breath and a puff of her cheeks, she laughed. She patted me on my arm and gave me big hug. I soon realized I

+ PHOTO BY ERIN HENTON had nothing to fear.

Every Google search on religion and psychology, every panic attack and terror when trying to accept the fact that I am no longer Catholic disappeared into holy air.

My parents didn’t raise me to be Catholic — they raised me to be myself.

eMagine the Consequences Childhoods brimming with technology are detrimental

I

t is 2018, and we are in the age of technology. Phones and tablets are everywhere, and social media plays a huge role in American society. Children are increasingly fascinated with technology; they are endlessly surrounded by it, to the point where it is almost suffocating.

Some children are not given a chance to experience anything else.

+ PHOTO BY ERIN HENTON

03 April 12, 2018 | vol. 49

+BY RORY DUNGAN

Sure, technology does have its benefits as a fast and efficient tool in the classroom and at home. It’s easy to find anything you want at the click of a button. However, being encompassed by screens for hours on a daily basis can also be harmful. The hours spent looking at a screen can strain eyesight and even cause brain damage.

According to a study done by Shaolin Yang at the University of Chicago, adolescents who experience internet addictions often have shrinkage of tissue in important regions of the brain. Areas of the brain affected include the frontal lobe, which is responsible for carrying out day-today functions like organization and prioritization, and the insula, which houses emotions such as empathy and compassion.

Another way technology is taking over the lives, and arguably the well-being, of children is the way it has infiltrated education. Children are being taught to type instead of write, which can be disadvantageous because writing can help with concentration and memory, according to the Huffington Post. They are also being directed to communicate through a screen, rather than face-toface. The race to technologically advance education hasn’t considered the costs of doing so.

In another, revolutionary study

commonly referred to as the “Bobo Doll Experiment,” young children watched adults behave in two ways with a doll in a controlled setting — the adult either ignored the doll entirely and played calmly with other toys, or used violence toward the doll in anger. Afterward, researchers made the children frustrated by telling them they could not play with certain toys; the children exposed to the violent models of behavior chose to attack the bobo doll to express their annoyance, while the other children showed far less violent responses.

The most important idea the study uncovered was that of observational learning, or imitating behaviors that one observes. This concept can easily be related back to technology. If children are surrounded by violence on television and video games, they are more likely to mimic these behaviors.

The days of making up games, being outside and connecting with nature have become increasingly rare. Instead, children are opting for video games and television. In fact, according to a 2010 study by the Kaiser Foundation, children use technology for entertainment purposes an average of 7.5 hours a day.

Spending so much time on devices has been proven harmful to children’s physical and neurological health. According to the

Huffington Post, a few health problems connected to the use of technology include psychological and behavioral disorders, obesity, diabetes, learning disabilities, autism, anxiety, depression and sleep disorders. Keeping this in mind, it is easy to see why technology overuse is becoming a more critical issue for young people.

I grew up with the notion that in order to be present with others, there can’t be distractions such as social media and texting. I grew up knowing that having my phone out at the dinner table is rude, and that checking my notifications at the movie theater is inconsiderate.

All of these things should be common sense, not out of the ordinary. We should teach children that it is possible to have real, candid connections with others. We should teach them to exercise caution when dealing with something that can affect their health so seriously. But to do that, we first have to train them. We need to teach them about self control, and ensure that they know the benefits of a good night of sleep without screens. We need to put each other first, over Netflix and social media. We need to know the difference between spending time with one another and texting. Most of all, even if it is only for a short time every day, we need to put the technology to rest.

Super-Intentions New Superintendent Dr. Mike Fulton has big plans for SMSD

“I don’t know enough about that.”

Sitting at the head of a massive white table in a conference room of the Center for Academic Achievement, Dr. Mike Fulton chuckles and repeats this phrase that has become common as he fields questions from students across the district.

“I don’t know enough about that.”

Fulton sat down with student journalists from all five Shawnee Mission (SM) schools three weeks after he was named the new superintendent of SM. Fulton is honest in admitting he needs to learn more about the district he was recently hired to lead. Fulton replaces Dr. Jim Hinson, who retired last June and comes from the Pattonville School District, northwest of St. Louis, Mo., where he has served as superintendent for 11 years.

“It’s going to be different,” Fulton said. “I think the biggest challenge for me will be getting used to the fact that there will be five high schools because I am very used to interacting with students on a regular basis. I am used to them knowing me personally, so that will be a challenge for me.”

Students at Pattonville High School agree that Fulton makes it a priority to get to know them, even in passing.

“He’s always working hard to make sure that everybody has at least talked to him one or two times throughout their high school [career],” Pattonville senior Nadia Maddex said. “He definitely makes it his goal to be engaged with all the students.”

Fulton is still the superintendent of the Pattonville School District until the end of the school year, when he will leave the district he has worked in for a total of 23 years.

“What drew me to this [SM] position specifically was the profile developed by the community,” Fulton said. “When I went through the profile and saw the different qualities they wanted in the next superintendent, I felt like that profile fit me really well.”

One of Fulton’s main goals in the district is to interact with students and give them a voice. He believes that students should always be part of problem solving.

“I really believe in student voice,” Fulton said. “You are the ones who go to school every day. Who better than you to come up with great solutions that work, especially for your learning?”

Administrative collaboration with students is important to Fulton. In the wake of the Parkland school shooting, multiple national school walkouts were scheduled. When asked about student expression in terms of school walkouts, Fulton was no stranger to the topic.

“The issue is certainly not new to me,” Fulton said. “Whether it’s the tragedy of Parkland or [that] we’re right down the road from Ferguson, there were a lot of protests in high schools during that time. It’s important that you do it in a way that is safe, both emotionally and physically, but also is respectful of both fellow students and to the general guidelines of the school.”

When students want to express voice, Fulton prefers for them to approach district administration in order to find common ground between the students and adults. Fulton is not looking at the short-term when it comes to his plans for Shawnee Mission School District (SMSD), nor is he looking exclusively at challenges specific to this district. This includes a focus on individual student benchmarks compared to grade-oriented benchmarks. In order to better prepare students for college or careers, Fulton proposes adapting coursework to reflect a student’s ability rather than grade level.

“The one thing about schools is that we have always done school a certain way,” Fulton said.

“It’s worked well for some people, particularly if you’ve met the conditions of the school. So, as long as you learn a certain way and at a certain rate, it all works out great. But if you deviate from that, either because you can learn faster or because you need more time, that’s a problem. So, one o f the ways you can think about this is to think of learning as the constant, and time and structure as the variables that you manipulate in positive ways to help students and their learning.”

Although Fulton has ideas for change, he does not want to control change at the building level.

“It can’t be the superintendent dictating how it happens,” Fulton said.

6 April 12, 2018 | vol. 49

+ BY JACK LYNCH

“The superintendent’s job is to build a vision and to work with people in ways that help to create the solutions.”

Back in Pattonville, Fulton has brought some of these approaches to high school.

“We’re one of the first schools trying out competency-based learning.

That’s basically where you can do a lot of learning outside of the classroom, but still receive credit for it,” Maddex said. “[Fulton] is always looking for new things to improve the school.”

Though academics are the major focus of Fulton’s upcoming tenure, they are not his only one.

“Dr. Fulton is definitely one of the most spirited and positive people I have ever met,” Maddex said. “If you cut Dr. Fulton open I’m pretty sure he’d bleed green for Pattonville, but the great thing about that is that I know when he gets to your school district I know that it’ll be the same thing for you guys. You got a good one. I probably couldn’t tell you one sports event or one show that I haven’t seen him at, or any concerts. He comes to everything.”

Fulton talked at length about making sure students are college and career ready and wants to help teachers achieve this, though he acknowledges the difficulties of supporting teachers while Kansas schools are underfunded.

“Obviously, the action really takes place at the schools, so you try to get as many resources as you can to the school level,” Fulton said. “You also have a certain level of administrative support, so you do the very best you can to get resources to the school level and then you staff at the administrative level with who you need to help the schools get that work done. Think about the resources you have and how you can use them most effectively to achieve the goals that you set for yourself.”

Dr. Fulton is not just talk; his time in Pattonville is his proof that he can achieve his goals.

Dr. Fulton smiled and shook the hands of each of the nine students gathered at the CAA on March 2. He still needs to head back to Pattonville, and though his first meeting with SMSD students left him with a better understanding of the district, he still has some thing that he doesn’t “know enough about.”

+ PHOTO BY MAYA LEE

Senior Allison Hamilton uses dance to cope with losing hearing in one ear, being diagnosed with cancer and her brother’s death

BY SAMANTHA JOSLIN & KAILI SITZ

A

llison Hamilton does not just dance for the fun of it.

After going through numerous surgeries to repair her hearing after being born without a left ear, and then later losing her hearing again and becoming legally deaf, Hamilton relies on the vibrations in the floor to give her a beat.

After being diagnosed with cancer and being too weak to dance, Hamilton persisted in attending dance class to distract herself from her exhaustion and her hair falling out, the latter of which is the reason for her characteristic high bun — a hairstyle that hides the missing hair on the top of her head.

After losing her brother a day after her 18th birthday, Hamilton continues to dance because the art form is her “way to communicate with the world.”

“Dancing is my getaway,” Hamilton said. “When I’m feeling down about myself, I’ll dance. It’s who I am — I’m a dancer. I could dance all day, every day.”

Hip hop dancing is Hamilton’s main focus, although she was also trained in ballet, jazz and tap as a child. That was before the first of her 19 surgeries drew her away from the dance floor at age eight, although she kept dance in her life as a cheerleader in elementary school and at her last high school in El Dorado, Kan. Here at Northwest, Hamilton learns a variety of dances, including hip hop and lyrical.

Hamilton, who is legally deaf, refuses to let her bad hearing ruin her passion.

Hamilton uses the pounding beat of hip hop music to guide her during her dances.

“I’ve felt like I shouldn’t dance lots of times,” Hamilton said. “Sometimes, I still feel that way, even to this day. When you get new dancers in who haven’t danced as long as you and they’re better than you already, it brings you down because you know you’ve been working harder than them. And being deaf makes it more difficult, but I’m never going to

stop dancing because it’s my dream.”

Hamilton dances with Street Styles Academy, a dance school with a focus on teaching students with little to no experience, who struggle with insecurity, bullying, shyness or gang violence.

Hamilton has performed with the Academy at Union Station and the Oak Park Mall, and has competed in three competitions so far.

“I love performing,” Hamilton said.

“When you get on stage, you get this adrenaline rush. All of these people are watching you, and all of the attention is on you, but you still feel free to do what you want. You’re in your own world, and you can be yourself. No one is there to judge who you are. You can feel the vibrations come through your whole body.”

Once upon a time, before dancing with Street Styles, even before middle school, Hamilton’s hearing problems were entirely corrected. Doctors had removed three of her ribs to sculpt the malleable bone, which hardens into real bone around age 18, into an ear with a proper ear canal, eardrum and a typical ear shape. For a while, Hamilton could hear perfectly fine. That was before a mishap in her seventh grade science class, when the class made oxygen bombs. One of the bombs, which the teacher thought was a dud, went off as Hamilton walked by. Without proper protection, the sound ruined the fresh tissue of her new left ear and partially damaged her right ear, causing ringing that lasted about a week.

“That’s when I went completely deaf in my left ear again,” Hamilton said. “So, now I have this hearing implant to help me hear, but I don’t like to use it because it’s not the same as hearing normally.

It’s muffled, like when you talk through a microphone.”

After getting the implant, horror struck again when Hamilton was diagnosed with stage three thyroid cancer during her sophomore year of high school. Now in

remission, she does not like to think back on her time with cancer negatively.

“Cancer was a part of my life, and it didn’t stop me,” Hamilton said. “Getting weak was the worst part. The biggest struggle was that I was too tired to dance.

I would still go to my dance class; the exhaustion was just something I had to deal with.”

Hamilton’s mom, Misti Schuester, was, naturally, shocked by Hamilton’s diagnosis — shocked by the sickness, shocked by her daughter’s resilience, shocked beyond words.

“There are no words to express what it felt like,” Schuester said. “It was...a trial.

There’s no putting that into words. You just learn to adapt and go forward.”

Throughout her struggles with cancer and the subsequent healing process, Hamilton names her brother, Michael Scheuerman, as her biggest supporter. It was two years after her cancer diagnosis and two days after her eighteenth birthday, on July 29, 2017, when she got the call that her brother had passed away the day before from an alcohol overdose.

“I thought [the call] was a prank,” Hamilton said. “I logged onto Facebook and the first post I saw was ‘RIP Michael Scheuerman.’ I sat my mom down and told her that Michael passed away, and she just lost it.”

Scheuerman, Hamilton’s adopted brother, remains her dancing inspiration, as well as her other brothers, Hayden and Dayton, and her mother, Misti Schuester.

After her cancer treatments took her out of school for months, Hamilton fell too behind in school to get into her dream college, Juilliard. Now, Hamilton has a new dream.

“I want to open my own dance school in California for the deaf and hard of hearing,” Hamilton said. “Juilliard was my inspiration for awhile, but now my motivation is that my brothers and my mom are so proud of me. I love all of my

brothers; they’re my go-tos and I would back them up any day, but me and Michael were closest. He was my best friend.”

Schuester remains impressed not only

by Hamilton’s blooming skills in dance, but by her ability to continue living life optimistically in the face of her struggles.

“Learning to adapt with the medical hardships she has been faced with [is what impresses me most],” Shuester said. “She’s a go-getter. She’s inspiring; I think anyone who wants to do what she has done should just go for it — there are no limitations.”

Hamilton has similar sentiments to share; no matter what, Hamilton says, people should always work toward their dream, no matter what comes in their way.

“If you really want to be a dancer, go for it,” Hamilton said. “Find a style that you’re into and don’t give up on it. You’re going to have to start from somewhere — even if you’re bad, you can always get good, so never stop. And if you ever need anybody to help you out, I’m here. I can teach you the basics. That’s kind of my dream — to help people who don’t know anything about it.”

“Cancer was a part of my life, and it didn’t stop me,” -SENIOR ALLY HAMILTON

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Environmental Education 2 students get a once-in-a-lifetime experience +BY SAMANTHA JOSLIN, ANASTASIA KLING & SONNI MEYERS For participating Environmental Education 2 students, Ring of Fire is not just a Johnny Cash song — it’s the technique used to burn brush and grasses during the annual prairie burn.

After learning about the safest and most efficient burning techniques, students used drip torches to scorch the land of the prairie in order to restrict its growth.

“The kind of technique we do is called a ‘ring fire,’” Environmental Ed. teacher Michael Pisani said. “So we start a fire on one end that goes really slow, called a backfire, and we go around with the flames in a giant circle. By the time we work our way around, the fire meets in the middle and basically puts itself out because there’s no more fuel.

It’s the fire triangle: it needs oxygen, fuel and heat. Take away one of those elements and it puts itself out.”

The burn, which lasts up to four hours, is a necessity for a prairie to remain a prairie. Left uncontrolled, overgrowing plant life develops prairies into forests. For students, the essential task becomes an incredible experience.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience for them,” Pisani said.

“They talk about it forever. When we’re done, students are all, ‘I didn’t realize it was going to be like this, or this hot, or this and that.’ It’s something they’ve never done before, that they studied hard for and they get to put what they’ve learned into practice.”

Environmental Ed. 2 student Jonathan Sommerfeld participated in the burn this year and was just as surprised as Pisani thought he would be by the intensity of the flames and the hands-on role students played.

“I enjoyed it more than I thought I would,” Sommerfeld said. “I was surprised by the firefighters because they trusted us enough to play catch with a football we had found while we burned.

The best part of the fire was burning the wetlands, when the flames got to be like 35 or 40 feet tall.”

This long-awaited event, however, depends on several uncontrolled factors, weather being at the forefront. If there is too little wind, the fire will move too slowly, leading to a lengthier burn and a bigger risk. If there is too much wind, the fire could become uncontrollable. On the other hand, if there is too much brush or the prairie was not burned enough in a previous year, the fire could have too much fuel and become turbulent and massive.

“Weather is kind of everything,” Pisani said. “Wind between 5 and 15 miles per hour is optimal. If it’s over that, A: the city doesn’t want to let us burn; B: it’s just not safe. Everything has

to be dry. If the weather is bad, we don’t burn; so there’s a short window that we can burn safely.”

While the fire department is on standby to help with emergencies, the fire is largely the students’ responsibility.

Armed with water backpacks and months of knowledge, it is up to students to keep the flames under control. The prairie fire temperature reaches up to 1,000 degrees F. with flames up to 20 feet.

Brady Wolken, an Environmental Ed. 2 student, appreciates the knowledge he’s gained about how to start and control a fire, and the factors that affect the burn.

“For the last two months, we’ve been learning everything about fire,” Wolken said. “It doesn’t burn anywhere we don’t want it to. We burn the prairie to see how it betters the plant growth — every year, we burn it to try to get the plants to regrow and be more healthy. I really like seeing how the environment interacts with everything — if it’s raining, that’s technically part of the environment. It changes what we do every day, and it’s a learning experience. Most people can’t say they just burned a prairie.”

It doesn’t take long for the students’ hard work to be defined as tiny, green sprouts break free of the burnt soil and grasses begin to grow just a week or two after the burn. Slowly, this memorable, hands-on experience is again made necessary for the following year as the prairie grasses grow back in full force.

HOW THE FIRE TRIANGLE WORKS Being conscious of how the three components of the fire triangle interact with the fire +BY SAMANTHA JOSLIN and each other can lead to enhanced fire safety There are three elements that are essential to a fire: heat, fuel and oxygen.

Oxygen makes up about 20 percent of the air we breathe, so there’s always a ready supply to fuel a potential fire. Once a fire has started, smothering the fire and depriving it of oxygen will weaken and even extinguish the flames, which is why fire extinguishers are equipped with either foam and dry powder,

10 April 12, 2018 | vol. 49

which smothers the flame, or CO2 chemicals, which replaces the oxygen in the fuel source.

Secondly, fire needs heat. All flammable materials have a “flash point,” or a lowest temperature at which they will ignite. If a fire does break out, the flashpoint will be reached quickly and the heat will develop the inferno as potential fuel continues to break out in flames. While freezing the fuel is the best option, it’s not quite that easy, and cooling the fire with water might be a bit more achievable — but be careful with grease fires, which can get worse with the presence of water, but will cool after being removed from the heat source (typically a

stove-top or oven).

Lastly, a fire needs fuel. As long as there’s heat and oxygen, fire will continue to burn as long as there is fuel to burn, whether it be solid, liquid or gas. This is why forest fires are so difficult to control — all of that fuel means a fire won’t stop burning unless forced to. While the most common types of fuel are solids like paper, trees, fabric or furniture, liquid and flammable gases can also be highly flammable, and are more difficult to control. Wet chemical fire extinguishers are specially designed for cooking oil and grease fires, and can put out these special flames in a way typical fire extinguishers can’t.

1.

2.

3.

4.

1. Preparing to control the fire, senior Madison Steig holds her water backpack. Water backpacks were filled by the fire department before the burn began. +PHOTO BY MADELINE MANNING 2. After setting fire to the first part of the prarie, Enviornmental Education teacher Mike Pisani continues to burn. Pisani walked around the perimeter of the prarie to start the fire in a controlled routine. +PHOTO BY MADELINE MANNING 3. Senior Jonothan Sommerfield sprays a sign located in the prarie. By doing this, Sommerfield prevents fire from spreading to the dry wood on the sign. The students also sprayed bird houses. +PHOTO BY MADELINE MANNING 4. Senior Shaun Jordan holds onto the flapper while watching the large burn. One person was chosen from the group to flap the fire out. Jordan would flap small fires to put them out. +PHOTO BY MADELINE MANNING

LITTLE BURN ON THE PRAIRIE

Students participate in the annual prairie burn as Wildland Firefighters At the annual prairie burn, where a group of students burn the prairie with torches and a strong wind could mean disaster, it’s essential for firefighters to offer their support.

“Mother Nature is our worst enemy,” California wildland firefighter Bob Carr said.

“Weather can be unpredictable with wind patterns. Hot days with low humidity can cause fires to spread extremely fast.”

About 90 percent of wildland fires are started by humans whether it be from an unattended campfire or a thrown out cigarette butt. Bob Carr is a Wildland Firefighter in California, but is also a structure firefighter in Kansas and has been working in the fire service for 20 years.

“Any fire intentionally ignited to meet specific land management objectives, such as to reduce flammable fuels, restore ecosystem health, recycle nutrients, or prepare an area for new trees or vegetation [is the point of a wildland fire,]” Carr said.

The prairie burn may seem detrimental to animal life, but many prairie animals burrow deep into the ground and hide when they sense danger.

Although the burn can have negative effects if done incorrectly, there is certain training that people have to complete before doing a burn to keep it controlled and themselves safe.

The Shawnee Mission School District has created The Blue Eagle Program to train students in various types of public service. One of the branches of the program is fire science, which includes structural firefighting (working in buildings) and wildland firefighting (working in nature). To be certified for wildland firefighting, firefighters must earn their Red Cards. To get a Red Card, students in the Fire Science program will be doing the “Pack Test” or a Work Capacity Test (WCT), a test of strength and aerobic endurance for U.S. wildland firefighters.

“Once you’re 18 and have passed the certification test, you are on standby,” senior

+BY ANASTASIA KLING Fire Science student Jacob Simma said. “When there’s a big wildfire, you get to help put out the fire [alongside the local fire department].”

Being on standby means that if there’s a wildfire nearby, Simma will be qualified to fight the fire as a professional firefighter would, in conjunction with the local fire department.

A drip torch is used to burn a patch of land firefighters do not want the fire to reach. By depriving the fire of its fuel, the fire is prevented from spreading to a neighborhood or group of buildings.

“Around where we are going to burn there is about six feet or longer where we won’t burn so the fire doesn’t spread to another area,” Wolken said.

The prairie burn is not only an entertainment experience but a learning experience as well. It is a way for students to show their integrity and engaged dedication to the Environmental Ed. program.

NW PASSAGE | feature 11

IN BLOOM IMPATIENS

$1.75 Partial shade

EMPRESS WU HOSTA

$8-10 Partial shade to full shade

TOMATOES $2.75 Full sun

The annual plant sale will be open April 20-May 9

For more than 30 years, Environmental Education students have worked in the greenhouse to prepare for the annual plant sale. The plants range in price from $1.75 for a standard four pack to $19.50 for a flat (a plastic tray that holds multiple plants in separate pots). These are a few of the plants available this year to replenish your flower bed or start your first garden. + BY CATE TAGGART AND ANNALISSA HOUSER

CHIVES

CURLY FRY HOSTA

$8-10 Partial shade to full shade

$1.75 Full sun

ALL-STAR STRAWBERRIES

$3 Full sun

SUN PATIENS

$4.25 Full sun

SUCCULENTS

$3.25 Full sun

LARGE LEAF BASIL $1.75 Full sun

KROSSA REGAL HOSTA $8-10 Partial shade to full shade

PERENNIALS VS. ANNUALS When you are considering buying flowers, it’s important to know the difference between perennials and annuals. Annuals will only bloom for one growing season (typically summer). Perennials, in comparison, will bloom again each growing season. During the winter, perennials remain dormant, but blossom again the following spring.

THE AGE OLD QUESTION It’s the question we’ve been curious about since elementary school science classes: Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable? We asked the experts.

SENIOR PJ VAN NIEUWENHUYSE “We help to inform people if they have any questions about sun requirements, blooming time and whether or not [the plants] attract butterflies or hummingbirds. I’ve always loved animals and hope to study bugs next year.”

12 April 12, 2018 | vol.49

SENIOR MADISON STIEG “I joined [Environmental Education] because there were animals and I was like ‘Oh, I like animals, that would be fun.’ I ended up getting a lot more out of it. People overlook plants because we see them outside all the time, and it’s just a pretty flower. But they are so much more than that.

They’re living things we are taking care of, just like an animal.”

SENIOR LUC WINKELMOLEN “Being able to take care of the animals and helping out in the greenhouse was one of the many reasons why Environmental Ed was such a fun class to take. Ms. Robins is an awesome teacher and it’s cool that she shows her students how important it is to take care of our planet.”

Pisani: “Well it’s not really an opinion....by definition, botanically speaking, a fruit is a seed-bearing structure that develops from the ovary of a flowering plant, whereas vegetables are all other plant parts, such as roots, leaves and stems. It’s a fruit, so are beans, cucumbers, peas, pumpkins, squash...”

Robins: “It’s technically a fruit.”

HAND-ME-DOWNS Last time we checked, heirlooms were something like the old necklace your grandmother gave your mom that she gave to you – not a kind of tomato. To qualify as an heirloom tomato, seeds must be saved, and those seeds must be used to plant tomatoes of the same variety each year.

Therefore, tomatoes that have been bred and have infertile seeds, which must be re-purchased year after year, cannot be considered heirloom.

POETIC JUSTICE

The finalists for the Poetry Slam come from different backgrounds but find a common ground

“Up next we have Yamileth — am I saying that right? — Centeno.”

Centeno took to the black platform stage surrounded by library books after a quick nod of the head that Poetry Slam announcer Henry Hale’s mispronunciation of her name was okay. Her hands were shaking and suddenly the girl who always speaks up could barely find her voice.

“When I was really young, I would always get judged for my name,” Centeno said. “People would always be like ‘Oh her name is really long because she is Mexican or Mexicans always have really long, complicated names.’ It really made me think ‘Wow, is my name, like, wrong?’ That’s one of the main reasons that I’m called Yami because not everyone can pronounce my full name.”

That was one of the inspirations behind her first poem for the 2017-18 Poetry Slam. As a finalist, Centeno was required to perform a second poem; while her first had an underlying message surrounding stereotypes, her second dealt with loss.

“I didn’t want to make both of my poems about the same thing,” Centeno said. “The first was all about personal experiences and how I have dealt with racism and stereotypes, and I wanted to make the second one about losing someone. I really wanted to write something that people would relate to.

We can all relate to being stereotyped.

And, recently we have gone through loss at Shawnee Mission Northwest.”

What got her on the stage for the Poetry Slam was originally extra credit points, but through this experience she has found that she really does enjoy writing poetry, and apparently people enjoy listening to it as well.

“I knew some people wouldn’t agree with what I said, but I think most people reacted really well,” Centeno said. “Afterwards a lot of people came up to me and told me it almost made them cry.”

Standing from the side, making sure this all worked like clockwork, was English teacher Julianne London.

“It relies entirely on audience engagement and participation, because in regular poetry, when you read it in a book, is only happening inside your head, and you can read it a hundredthousand times whereas slam poetry just happens in that one moment,” London said. If you miss it, you’ve totally missed it, so you really have to be engaged and present to appreciate it.”

She spent hours before the slam preparing students and also the weeks prior to the event hunting down students whose potential she saw.

Another key piece of the Poetry Slam

13 April 12, 2018 | vol. 49

was junior Josh Marvine and the rest of the KUGR crowd; but, after fidgeting with a slight adjustment of the camera lenses and checking to make sure the upcoming song would play on queue, Marvine took the stage as a poet.

“It seems like it’s an issue that so many of my friends have struggled with and I wanted to share it,” Marvine said.

The issue that Marvine was discussing when he took the stage was lack self love and depression. This idea sparked from his International Baccalaureate English class, where the assignment was to write a love poem to anything. While other students chose to write about food or other people, Marvine decided to write his poem about self love.

“We see why it’s important all around us,” Marvine said. “We lost two students here. It’s something that me and so many of my friends have had to deal with. Especially at this day and age, most teenagers deal with it at some point. I think it’s because we live in such a high pressure society; if you don’t get As you’re not going to college, if you’re not rich and famous or you don’t change the world, you’re a failure. I think that mindset is incredibly damaging because it makes students so stressed out. It makes kids devalue themselves and not view their own achievements in the light that they should. I think it’s really important to talk about self love, acceptance, being okay with yourself and being proud of what you have done.”

Northwest felt and reacted to both poets’ underlying message of self love and acceptance with snaps and shouts of “listen to the poem” as they advanced to the finals round. Marvine’s second poem was about the people in the room standing next to him all day.

“It’s always hard to write poetry, and not just poetry, but poetry that flows and sounds good,” Marvine said. “[My second piece] came to me because I was surrounded by people in KUGR who are ambitious and who are working really hard and people baring their souls on the stage and creating art. My final poem was about pursuing greatness, and how sometimes we put too much of an emphasis on wins, statistics and résumés over humanity.”

Marvine and Centeno, after performing a second poem with eight other contestants, achieved the best scores and will go on to compete at the prom assembly, April 20. They will face each other to find out who the 2018 Grand Slampion is, and, according to London, it is an event students do not want to miss.

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+ BY CADENCE ELDER AND RORY DUNGAN

4.

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1. In the library, junior Jake Brundrett recites his poem for the Poetry Slam April 6. Brundrett wrote his poem about love and he placed in the top ten. 2. Behind the microphone, senior Elizabeth Clarey performs during the Poetry Slam in the library. Clarey’s poem was about issues with her dad and she placed in the top ten.

3. During the Poetry Slam, sophomore Ally Banks reads her poem on stage. Banks wrote her poem about beauty standards.

4. Freshman Yami Centeno performs her first poem in the Poetry Slam April 6.

Centeno placed in the top two with her poems about being Latina and the passing of her three-month-old nephew.

+ PHOTOS BY MAYA LEE

Above the Clouds Tristan Hood looks for his career in aviation

+ BY MATTEW OWENS

A

s senior Tristan Hood walks into the hanger, with the flight plan engrained in brain, he inspects the plane, making sure no dents are noticeable, and checks fuel and oil levels. From there, he climbs aboard the candy-striped, four-seat Cessna 172 and starts the engine as a single propeller spins into action. Then he waits for the words, “all clear for takeoff.”

“Flying out of KCI was the greatest experience I have had,” Hood said.

“That definitely pushed me to want to do this for sure. You feel that stomachflip of nerves and excitement taking off from such a large airport.”

Hood left the take-off phase of this hobby in his sophomore year as he began to research how to become a pilot, including what education was required, the amount of flight hours needed and various career opportunities for certified pilots. According to CNN, the United States will need 117,000 new pilots in the next 20 years, which creates ample opportunity for upcoming pilots. Hood needs to complete 250 flying hours for a commercial license.

“There are a lot of technical elements,” Hood said. “It is just like driving a car for the first time. It is kind of scary, but you get used to it.”

Fueling his interest is his stepfather Chuck Cannata, as well as his grandfather, who both have their pilots license and fly for a hobby.

“We always had a flight simulation game we would play,” Hood said. “We have a lot of model planes that we would look over and talk about the physics behind them and the engines needed.

It was like how some fathers and sons talked about cars, just on a larger scale.”

Though he didn’t try to push Hood into the industry, Cannata was not surprised by his pursuit of being a pilot. He bought Hood a paper airplane book when Hood was seven, and he spent hours making airplanes out of copy paper on the living room table.

“We went out of our way to not

influence Tristan’s career decisions,” Cannata said. “However, I am a plane enthusiast, and I am sure that over the years, as Tristan was growing up, he gleaned interest from my hobby.”

Back in the plane, Hood continues his journey in the air as he leaves KCI for the first time. He talks with nearby controller towers to get accurate temperature, wind speed and other weather reports.

Sitting next to him is his flight instructor Andrew Riggins, who grew up in Blue Springs, Mo., but moved to Florida and obtained his pilot’s license.

He currently works for Executive Airshare and has over 3,000 flight hours.

“Becoming a professional pilot is a demanding and strenuous journey,” Riggins said. “However, as long as [future pilots] are determined, hardworking and motivated, then they will not only meet their expectations, but they will exceed them.”

Along with the technical skills needed, a pilot must be able to handle stress well, evolve to an ever-changing schedule and have the poise needed to perform at his or her highest potential.

“Confidence is a very important trait to possess as a pilot,” Riggins said. “It is a necessity. However, there is a big difference between confidence and arrogance.”

As Hood receives information from the control tower about what runway to approach, he prepares to land, making sure the landing gear is down and the wing flaps are on the right setting.

Triston will land himself next year at Oklahoma University where he will be able to obtain the necessary flight hours need to get his license at the time of graduation. Companies like Delta and Southwest offer tuition assistance to rising pilots.

“Getting to see the Kansas City skyline is beautiful,” Hood said. “I think seeing a place in a perspective that almost no one else experiences is unique.”

NEW FUTURE FOR PILOTS

• 41,000 new planes will be bought between 2018 and 2036 • 637,000 new pilots will be needed to fly them worldwide • 42 percent of pilots will retire in 10 years • Average commercial airline pilot salary in 2017 was $130,059 • Average first year salary is $77,200 per year

+ PHOTO BY MADELINE MANNING 14 April 12, 2018 | vol. 49

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Humans of Northwest What is your life motto?

Northwest has thousands of students, and, frankly, it’s impossible for any one of us to meet all of them — but you have to start somewhere. On March 6, while walking the halls before school, 10 students and teachers told us about their life motto and the reason behind it. We hope to continue this series each issue, focusing on different people and different questions.

Genesis Garay Senior

“Don’t regret anything you do. [I rely on that] when I accidentally make a mistake and then realize that it actually helped me in the long run.”

+BY ANNALISSA HOUSER, ERIN ALBERS AND NICK LORINO

Kate Rivera

Sophomore

Todd Boren Faculty

“With something bad or sad, there is always a silver lining. I relied on that when my boyfriend moved out of state. It was a really hard time for me, but my friends were always there to remind me that everything would work out, and it did.”

Colby Smith Sophomore

“Live on the fly. When you forget about a test or something, you have to live on the fly and realize that you have to just go with it and hope for the best. I learned all of this through a philosopher named Alan Watts. I don’t know if I’m gonna be here tomorrow, so I’m going to make today the best.”

Elizabeth Kuffour Freshman

16 April 12, 2018 | vol. 49

“Keeping in mind that I should always have ambitions and intentions in everything I do. In dance, I have learned that I should always be committed and have discipline.”

“Go hard or go home. I would say it’s just the idea that if you are going to involve yourself in something, do it to the best of your ability or it’s not worth doing. I think when it comes to sports, if you are going to be in a competitive environment, you should want to win.

I carry that philosophy over to my coaching.”

Nina Tiger Junior

“My life motto is ‘do unto others as you would have others do unto you.’ I hate it when people are mean to people when they don’t even know them. I have made a lot more friends now because I’ve been trying to treat others how I want to be treated.”

Bo Black Faculty

“Your glass is not half empty, nor is it half full because it doesn’t matter, fill it up. Every day, you have no choice but to get up and go to work, so I rely on that.”

Spittin’ Fire

Austin Patton gets signed to rap by a three-man rap group + JAKE DITTO & KATE LAWRENCE

As he logged onto Xbox in March of last year, junior Austin Patton did not think he would be starting his music career.

After talking to the independent three-man rap group called Metropolitix on Xbox and then meeting up with them, Patton found out he could sign to their St. Louis-based label and produce songs for up to $500 per song.

“When my buddy told me he knew these guys that produced music that’s not just out there for fun, I was like, ‘Well they probably won’t like this very much, but, like, there’s a chance.’ They let me know that they really liked it and that they could produce my music. I thought it was pretty crazy.”

Patton started free-styling with a group of friends back in seventh grade as a leisure activity to let off steam.

“Whenever [Patton] comes over to my house, we always freestyle just for fun and he writes some of it down,” junior Gage Bowman said. “That’s been for a couple years, two or three. Sometimes I help him; he’ll play the beat and rap it for me.”

Most high school students that want to become successful rappers will usually put their music on SoundCloud, but with Patton’s music, it is different.

Not only is Patton not on SoundCloud, but his sound differs from many of the aspiring rappers on the app.

“Whenever I’m on SoundCloud and hear rappers around his age, like 16 or 17, they are always just kinda the same, and rap on the same beats,” Bowman said. “[Patton] switches it up and does different flows.”

Patton’s creative process has remained the same since he started — it’s as simple as finding a beat or having someone create one for him to freestyle to.

“I kinda just freestyle in my head over and over and write down whatever I think goes well with the flow,” Patton explained.

Patton lives with a family of eight. Growing up, he did not have much given to him, which is why he aspires to be like his biggest role models, his older brother Evan Patton and rapper Post Malone.

“My biggest musical influence is probably Post Malone,” Patton said. “He started from the bottom,

then moved to Los Angeles with no money. And look at him now — he makes millions of dollars, just living the life.”

In the future, when Patton releases an album, it will contain a combination of different styles and stories of his life.

“The first couple of songs on my album will be about my life,” Patton said. “I will probably have a couple of hype songs in there because that’s me. It would be cool to have a hype song to just bump along to in the car.”

When his sister, freshman Hadley Patton, first found out about Patton’s free-styling, she was not accepting of her brother becoming a rapper. But now that Patton has proven his ability to be successful with rapping, his sister is one of his biggest supporters. She thinks he should take it seriously and continue to focus on it. “[At first], I felt like it wasn’t going anywhere and it was kinda stupid,” Hadley said. “You know, in high school, rapping is just not something you hear about [as a career]. I think it’s pretty cool and if he actually worked on it, he could take it somewhere. I mean, he’s actually pretty good.”

While only in high school, Patton has a different way of rapping that most young people do not have.

His main focus is on his lyrics, and he is also able to rap at fast speeds. Although he finds inspiration in other music, Patton tries to be his own artist and not imitate anyone.

“I just listen to a bunch of music, and then pick up on what other [rap artists] do,” Patton said. “Then I turn it all into my own. I just find a beat that I like, or someone makes a beat for me, and I just freestyle in my head and play the beat in my head over and over and write down whatever I think goes well with the flow.”

Although none of Patton’s music is currently available to the public, it could soon be found on SoundCloud and possibly on Spotify.

“People just underestimate your skills,” Patton said. “Like I’m just some white boy but I’m kinda nice with it. I don’t get any hate it’s all love, it’s all love.”

Rap Throughout the Years This is an abbreviated history of the rap genre over the last four decades, according to theboombox.com.

1977 - Theodore Livingston moves a record back and forth and creates scratching.

1986 - Run DMC’s album “Raising Hell” is the first rap album to be nominated for a Grammy.

1988 - NWA releases “Straight Outta Compton” which marks the beginning of Gangsta Rap. 1993 - Each member of the Wu-Tang Clan signs to the record label of their choice.

1996 - Tupac is murdered in Las Vegas.

1997 - The Notorious B.I.G. is murdered in Los Angeles.

1998 - Lauryn Hill sets the standard for female rap artists getting nominated for 10 Grammy’s and winning five.

2004 - Jay-Z becomes president of Def Jam Records and become a role model for Rap Entrepreneurs.

2005 - Kanye West says “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”

2008 - Barack Obama brushes off his shoulders in response to a question about Hillary Clinton throwing shade his way, which is a reference to the Jay-Z song “Dirt Off Your Shoulder.”

17 April 12, 2018 | vol. 49

STING LIKE A HORNET + BY SONNI MEYERS AND SAM RICE

Senior Hayden Goodpaster, influenced by his family on and off the field, accepts a double scholarship to Emporia State

S

tanding at 6 feet 3 inches, senior Hayden Goodpaster was not only equipped to place first in the 400m sprint in track, but also caught 40 receptions for the football team: a sport he has grown up playing.

“He’s always been a silent leader,” Alex Goodpaster, Hayden’s dad, said.

“Never the most vocal guy on his teams, whatever the sport, but always leading by example. [He is always] working hard to get better and make those around him better.”

After 10 years of dedication and early morning practices, the work has paid off. In 2017, Goodpaster accepted a scholarship to Emporia State University for track and football. With his father reaching 6 feet 4 inches his senior year of high school, and continuing to play for Oklahoma State University, the apple doesn’t seem to fall far from the tree.

“We didn’t always see eye-to-eye, but he always pushed me to be the best,” Goodpaster said. “I can’t deny that he is a huge reason I am able to play college football.”

Goodpaster knows that he earned his scholarship with his own hard work and effort, but gives a great deal of credit to his parents and coaches.

“I have had great support from my teammates and coaches,” Goodpaster said. “My coaches taught me lessons on being a better player and a better person. [My mom] has done more than enough to help me reach my goals and accomplish all that I have throughout my years at Northwest.”

Emporia State ended up being the best option for Goodpaster, but was not the only school to offer him a scholarship. Other schools included Baker, Central Missouri State, Northwest Missouri State and

FOOTBALL Wide Receiver 5 Touchdowns 40 receptions 600 yards

Pittsburgh State.

“I’m most excited about his educational opportunities,” Goodpaster’s dad said. “What I loved most about Emporia State was the fact that both the football and track head coaches were on the same page about his involvement in their respective sports. Both programs are very successful and I’m excited about Hayden getting the chance to compete on a very high level with programs getting national recognition.”

Athletic director Angelo Giacalone has only seen a scholarship to play two sports simultaneously twice in his years as athletic director. The other athlete to achieve this in recent years was Tatum Graves in 2015.

Giacalone hopes that Hayden will be a role model for students to look up to.

“You know in this day and age for some kids, especially at a Division II school like Emporia State, it’s rare to get [a scholarship] for one sport,” Giacalone said. “When you get it for two sports it’s very, very rare.”

Even after all the scholarships, Goodpaster is most satisfied with his varsity football team for their perseverance and hard work.

“I am proud of the senior football class of 2018,” Goodpaster said. “We really came together as a family over last summer and it showed on the field. We worked really hard and put everything we had into our final season, setting goals for ourselves and pushing each other to the limit.”

Sister Gracie Goodpaster, who runs cross country and track, sees her brother’s athletic talents for sports.

“I’m proud that Hayden has never given up,” Gracie said. “He works really hard every day and he’s so dedicated to what he does.”

TRACK 400 Meter 2017 Outdoor 49.00 seconds PR*

200 Meter 2017 Outdoor 22.13 seconds PR*

*PR­—Personal Record

18 April 12, 2018 | vol. 49

+ PHOTO BY MADELINE MANNING

Month in Photos

2

5

+PHOTO BY ABBIE ROBERTS

+PHOTO BY SIDNEY HENKENSIEFKEN

4

3

1

+PHOTO BY ABBY RYAN

6

+PHOTO BY WESTON PAYNE

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+PHOTO BY SEBASTIAN EMERSON 1. During the musical “Lucky Stiff”, seniors Maddy Munsey and Ally Johnson sing to each other at the Greg Parker Auditorium April 6.

2. In a huddle, junior Julianna Kantner and sophomore Sophia Fairchild stand with their heads bowed March 21 at the SM North pool.

The team gathered before the meet in prayer.

3. On the field, senior Elizabeth White takes a free kick March 29 at SMAC against Blue Valley. The Cougars won 2-1.

4. Kids from City Center Church put sticky notes on the lockers April 7. The notes consist of encouraging messages for the students.

“If you have the power to make someone happy, do it. The world needs more of that,” one sticky note said.

5.On the sixth hole, freshman Owen Markwart tees off April 5 at Tomahawk golf course. Markwart’s favorite club is his pitching wedge.

6. Running into each others’ arms, junior Kaitlin Pauli hugs her teammate April 5 at the SM Softball Complex.

7. Serving the ball, sophomore William Crafton attempts to score against a BV West player March 22 on the tennis court.

+PHOTO BY ANDRÉS AGUIRRE NW PASSAGE | photos 19

“Playing such a nervous characer was definitley different from what I’ve played before, but new experiences are always great to have.

As an actor, it’s important to be constantly broadening your horizons.

Vinnie was a great way to do that .”

— senior Jared Berlin

the

NW PASSAGE