Volume 3 Issue 2
Spectrum High School
THE ACCOLADE TIMES
Junior Job Shadows By: Jena Jakubiec, Catherine Mahanna, and Morgan Schelske
College Readiness III is a new addition to the Spectrum curriculum. In the class’s inaugural year, the Juniors spent upwards of four hours job shadowing workers in careers they are interested in. The purpose of this exercise was to expose the Juniors to their perspective jobs before they commit to them. Some students discovered that they would love to go into their chosen career, while others realized that they would have to rethink their career choice. Overall, the experience provided by job shadows can be a priceless resource for young people during their career decision process. Caitlin Hackbarth and Mady Waknitz (pictured at left) are two of the Juniors that job shadowed this semester. The pair shadowed an in-home nurse. To shadow the nurse, the pair had to travel to the foster home where the nurse worked. At the home, they met a little boy named Manny (with Caitlin) and another named Leo (with Mady). Leo is deaf and blind, and Manny has a life-threatening illness. Caitlin and Mady mainly watched the in-home nurse work and listened to her stories about her life working with troubled children. “We had a lot of fun, and we learned a lot,” stated Mady. The two decided that they would not become in-home nurses because there is too much pressure to keep children healthy, but they enjoyed learning more about a career that they would never have considered before.
Another duo of job-shadowing juniors is Max Gleason and Parker Stockwell who shadowed Joe Glenn of Glenn Metalcraft Inc. Mr. Glenn is the father of two children at Spectrum, and he owns three businesses in Minnesota, as well as some businesses in Texas. Mr. Glenn’s father started the family business, and Mr. Glenn is now the CEO. Max and Parker learned many valuable business and life lessons from Mr. Glenn. During their job shadow, they got to tour Mr. Glenn’s various businesses in the Princeton Industrial Park, including the large metal plant and a painting business. Coincidentally, the day that Max and Parker shadowed was the company’s seventieth anniversary. Because of this, Mr. Glenn brought the boys to purchase birthday cupcakes for the company. Interestingly, Max and Parker were also offered summer jobs at the painting company by Mr. Glenn. Their story is just one of many that ended with employment opportunities. Job shadows can create new horizons for student and provide them with knowledge that will last a lifetime.
Senior Skip Day By Ben Harvey
Wednesday, April 19, 2017. Seniors around the country are waking up and getting ready for school, except for a special few… Spectrum High School seniors celebrated “Senior Skip Day” on April 19, and seniors relished the day away from school. While some took the day off, others used the free day as a chance to plan their post-secondary future. “I didn’t get to sleep in much,” reflected senior Joel Zimmerman. “I took a really important math placement test for the U of M. I didn’t think I did very well, but my results turned out better than I expected.” Despite having plowed through a difficult exam, the rest of Joel’s day was a comfortable routine. “I got to hang out a little before track practice, and the rest of the day went as usual.” Whether they spent the day catching up on sleep or preparing for their futures, all the seniors appreciated the day away from school and its responsibilities.
Custom Culture Vans Contest Spectrum High School’s Accolade staff was given the opportunity to participate in an art contest that was hosted by Vans Custom Culture. Seniors Nicole Larson, Hanna Opay, and Clarissa Olson were eager to put their creative juices to use. Four types of Vans shoes were provided for the topics: Art (top left), Local Flavor (top right), Music (bottom left), and Sports (bottom right). 50 entries are narrowed down first, and then the public chooses the top 5 on http://customculture.vans.com/ to go to the final round of judging in Los Angeles, California. There the judges vote on the Grand Prize winning submission of $50,000 going towards their high school art program. There was also an additional designing component for students to be challenged to create a design for print that best exemplifies technology in design; the winning school gets $5,000. Unfortunately, Spectrum’s entries did not make it into the second round of judging, but the artists had fun putting their unique ideas on canvas. By: C. Olson
Here We Come, SDSU! by: Ellen Voiss
The AVID students went on a AVID field trip to SDSU ( South Dakota State University), Students had to raise money to rent a nice coach bus to travel 8 hours in one day. To raise money they did multiple Cubs food bagging events, the AVID students worked very hard to get what they needed in order to go. They raised over a 1,000 dollars in proceeds and they also had left over money from last years field trip as well. The AVID group left at 8 in the morning to get on the road. They arrived on time for lunch in the college lunch room. After eating, they toured the campus for 2 hours, and at the end, they were able to try their homemade ice cream for free! They had at least 20 flavors or more, and all the AVID students were so excited try the ice cream. After trying the ice cream, they left at roughly 4 o’clock to get back on the road to head home to Minnesota. Before they got home, they stopped at pizza ranch to grab a bite to eat . Even though the day was long, they were all so glad they were able to go on the Field trip to SDSU.
Check Your Pulse
For the first time at Spectrum High School a group called Pulse came to share their views of leadership. They played music and all the students enjoyed the music and having fun with the group. Everyone danced, and the group kept everybody entertained with how much energy they had. A guy named Mike who is part of Pulse, asked for volunteers to come up and do different things with enjoyment. For example they asked for teachers to come up and dance. The teachers were Mrs. Hoyt, Mr. Brunt, Mr. Powell, Mr. Nyquist, and Coach Churchill. Overall, this Sting Lab was a way that people interacted with other classmates and showed their leadership. By: Hannah Dertinger
PAGE TITLE Where did Spectrum students go on spring break?
Spring Break Written by: Jena Jakubiec, Catherine Mahanna, and Morgan Schelske
"For Spring Break, I went to Clearwater, Florida. It was really fun going to the beach and just relaxing. I also went to Disney World for my 10th time. It was really nice to spend time with my family and to have a break from school." -Emily Fearing (9 th)
We went to Texas for spring break to visit my dad and the rest of my family. We went for the whole spring break and really didn't do a whole lot. We saw two movies, decorated eggs, celebrated Easter, and just hung out." -Mady Waknitz (11 th)
Photos by: R. Petersen
Trout Lake Track Retreat By: Hailey May and Emily Fearing
The track and field team went up to Trout Lake camp for their team retreat. Students got to bond, meet new people, and experience new things. “My favorite part about camp was the fun activities like paint ball and ziplining that we got to do as a team. I also feel like the
team bonded a lot more.”Morgan Novotny (8th) The team took part in many activities such as laser tag, crate stacking, and rock climbing. The camp had many things to offer and the participants really enjoyed it. “I liked doing paintball and all the team bonding we had” Earl Foster (9th) The track runners also took part in coach led workouts, meals made by the camp, glow in the dark dodgeball, and got to spend time at the camp’s skate park.
Action! By: Sierra Anderson and Lauren White
All musicals have a story. Some are to make people laugh, or cry, but all of them are to entertain. “My favorite part was the awesome job the entire cast and crew when it came down to performance time. I really could not have asked the kids do to a better job. I loved the way this show came together. Being involved with theatre has impacted me in so many ways. I believe seeing and participating in live theatre makes a person more empathetic to others, exposes a person to experiences they would never have personally, and tends to lead a person to be more inclusive of all types of people. Here at Spectrum, it has deepened the relationships I have with my students, parents, and colleagues. I feel such satisfaction in the process when the curtain opens. I feel like I really have a chance to impact some kids outside of the classroom,” said Mrs. Stelten.
brought us into her room and had us read a book. That’s how I joined theater. Playing Queen Aggravain was fun because I had to shout a lot. Being in the musical will impact me because it helped me know that I can be involved in stuff.” Davey Jackson (12th).
Once Upon A Mattress tells a story about a queen, a prince, and an unladylike princess. The prince, Prince Dauntless, wants to get married to the princess, Princess Winnifred, but Queen Aggravain has a special test for her to do. If she does not pass the test, then she isn’t a real princess; therefore isn’t worthy enough to marry Prince Dauntless. “I went into theater my sophomore year because Ms. Stelten said, ‘quick we need more people!’ And so she
“Acting in the musicals impacted me because I am going to use it as references to try to get into other musicals in college. I really liked playing Princess Winnifred. It was scary though because it was really awkward to be on stage and act really goofy,” Nicole Larson (12th) expressed.
Photos by: Emily Fonder
There were 5 seniors that performed in the musical along with the stage manager. Davey Jackson played Queen Aggravain in her fourth and final production at Spectrum. Alisa Johnson played Lady Larken in her fifth production at Spectrum. Nicole Larson played Princess Winnifred in her second musical production. Kira Lorensen played Lady Mabelle in her first production. Abbie Sorensen played Princess No. 12 and has been involved in the theater program for 2 years. D’Lorah Roberts was the stage manager/rehearsal assistant and has acted in 3 other productions.
The musical was a great success. Many people said that this was one of their best productions. Even though the seniors will be gone next year, the theater program will continue to thrive.
Team Rivalries Photo by: H. Skistad
Not So ImPACTful By: Nicole Larson and Hannah Skistad For being such a small school, we have many team rivals. Many people would say PACT is our main rival, but according to the coaches, not so much. Softball coach, Rob Rogers, comments on team rivals, “I would say as a school our rival is usually PACT. They are the closest charter school and we have previously had co-ops with them in the past. For softball, I don’t think we have a traditional rival. PACT, for sure, is not one of our rivals since we are, quite frankly, a way better team than them. If we had to pick a rival it would be Lester Prairie. We are now in the same conference and we are extremely competitive with them. Every game is close and comes down to the final inning.” Dan Zurbey, baseball coach, describes his view on rivalries as a coach, “Some of the rivalries sports teams at Spectrum have include PACT, Legacy, and St. Croix Prep. All of the teams mentioned are comparable from a competitive standpoint and these are teams we have always played even before joining the MCAA conference. Spectrum has had a lot of close games with St. Croix Prep in the past and the student athletes I coach have really seemed to get really excited playing them every year.”
Photo by: Lo. Reese
On the other side of the spectrum (no pun intended), Rick Peterson, head coach of track, says, “Our conference rivals for track & field are Trinity School at River Ridge and St. Croix Prep. Trinity has had one of the top cross country and track programs for Class A in the state for the past several years. St. Croix Prep and Spectrum have closely challenged each other and steadily closed the gap on Trinity. The competition with our rivals brings out the very best in us!” With this in mind, we can conclude that PACT isn’t our only rival, and in some cases isn’t considered a rival at all. What Spectrum enjoys most about having rivalries is that we can share what we love with other teams, that also can challenge us to work to our full potential.
Scoop By Scoop
Scoop By Scoop
By: Catherine Mahanna, Morgan Schelske, and Jena By: Jena Jakubiec, Catherine Mahanna, and Morgan Schelske Jakubiec
Spectrum’s Empty Bowl’s group put on a fundraiser to raise money for Spectrum’s Empty Bowls service learning group held CAER food shelf. It included soup and bread for dinner as well as a bowl a fundraiser night onspent April tomaking raise for money for that the Empty Bowl’s group a lot21st of time this event.
the CAER food shelf. All community members and Spectrum attendees were invited for a delicious soup and bread dinner with a complementary handmade ceramic bowl. The Empty Bowls students spent all year preparing for this event by planning it and making a total of about 200 bowls. The students were even given the opportunity to go to the Paramount Center for the Arts in St. Cloud where they handcrafted bowls using pottery wheels. The Paramount Center was kind enough to allow the students to keep three bowls that they made, and those bowls were also donated to the fundraiser.
“The Empty Bowls’ fundraiser was a great success, and I had a lot of fun on the way. I liked how people got big smiles and laughs when looking at the bowls. A lot of people were very generous, and the soup was great!” -Lauren White (9th)