ODYSSEY Newsmagazine volume 13 may issue

A CHANGED CADET: THE CHIQUITA WALKER STORY

Volume 13 Issue 4 April 2016 $3.00

the weight of illiteracY

16-19 students, teachers, admin weigh in ON WIDESPREAD ILLITERACy, POVERTY IN THE CLARKE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT

IN FOCUS

TABLE OF CONTENTS If you can't read this iT's too late

Below: A SHOT IN THE DARK: Rapper “Lil B” performs at the Georgia Theatre on April 1 as a part of the 2016 Slingshot Festival of Music, Electronic Arts and Tech. Athens hosted the festival from March 31-April 2.

Photo by Sophie Fernandes.

BY Katy mayfield Concerns for literacy in the Clarke County School District have led to new reading initiatives. These efforts are explored inside Issue 4.

COVER STORY << Cover illustration by Phineas Alexander. Above illustration by Ella Sams. Page design by Jordan Rhym.

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THE DEBT DEBATE

By Valeria Garcia-Pozo

>> NEWS

>> CULTURAL BUZZ

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22

PRESENTING PROTOCOL

By Andrew Caldwell

Unnamed and Untamed

By Jurnee Louder

Growing tuition is making college less affordable while the need to get a college diploma is rising.

The 2015-16 school year was marked by various incidents requiring safety protocol on campus.

Kendrick Lamar’s new album “Untitled” has an authentic 70s feel that delivers a strong message and raw sound.

Illustration by Ella Sams.

Illustration by Phineas Alexander.

Photo illustration by Lucia Bermudez under Fair Use.

>> FEATURED 20

Photo by Julie Alpaugh.

TAKING CONTROL // By Kendall Griffin // Senior Chiquita Walker came to CCHS looking for a path. She found herself within JROTC.

>> VARIETY

26

A Balanced Decision

By Ana Aldridge

Math department teacher Alex Szatkowski chose her love for math over the stress of dancing.

Photo by Sophie Fernandes.

APRIL 2016

>> SPORTS THE END ZONE

By Johanna Hall

30

Clarke Central football players, past and present, examine the possibility of life without football.

Photo by Sophie Fernandes.

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ROOTED IN CENTRAL

Our February issue featured a story documenting the Wegmann family’s history at CCHS and a news spread on the new dualenrollment system under the Move On When Ready Act passed by the Georgia General Assembly in 2015.

Corrections/Omissions February 2016

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On page 4, Collier Stevens’ name was misspelled.

On page 7, Peyton Manning lost to the New Orleans Saints in Super Bowl XLIV while playing for the Indianapolis Colts.

On page 10, Catherine Argabright is a Variety Writer.

On page 13, Marie Yuran is the Associate Principal.

On page 24, Lara Guidry’s name was misspelled.

On page 27, Dr. Ashlee Wegmann is the CAPS department chair.

initiating empowerment // Valeria Garcia-Pozo The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines discrimination as “the practice of unfairly treating a person or group of people differently from other people or groups of people.” Does the Gifted Minorities Achieving Initiative discriminate against the non-gifted? By isolating people from certain backgrounds and believing there are reserved pedestals for others, is this not perpetuating the issue of discrimination? Unfortunately we will always be faced with ignorance and intolerance from some, but hopefully that number is shrinking.

Please do not assume the ignorant represent 20 percent of our student diversity.

--Kiley Hanna, freshman

MOWR: dual enrollment //

Katy Mayfield

I had been thinking about dual-enrolling, but I did not have much information on how the process worked. It’s good that the admission process for the colleges is the same as the process for dualenrollment, which I think is good practice for the actual acceptance into college. I plan on dual-enrolling at UGA, which would get me a good sense of what the campus is like. This article has definitely cemented my plans on dual-enrolling.

--Preston Harden, sophomore

“I

t was a great lead-in for the festival and much appreciated!

“

>> NEWS

difficult for people to accept gender-fluid individuals, even within the LGBT community. As a member of the LGBT community myself, I’m aware of how challenging it can be to face and even go beyond and be accepted by the heterosexual, cisgender majority. I’m even more aware of how much more challenging it is for gender-fluid individuals which, to me, makes Logen very brave.

--James Wilson, senior

--Heidi Davidson, former mayor of Athens and member of the Athens Jewish Film Festival Board, on Variety Editor Lucia Bermudez’s editorial about the festival’s featured documentary, “Hate,” and ongoing antisemitism in Europe.

>> FEATURES life as logen //

Emma Ramsay

I found Logen’s story to be both inspirational and empowering. We live in a society that is obsessed with concrete and definitive answers with nearly all ideas and aspects of life. Our black and white world fears fluidity, especially with concepts such as sexuality and gender. It is this mindset that makes it so

Contact

ODYSSEY Newsmagazine

ODYSSEY

The ODYSSEY is a student-produced newsmagazine, published with the intent to inform, entertain and give voice to the Clarke Central High School community, as well as to educate student journalists. Established in 2003, the ODYSSEY is published multiple times a year, and each issue is an open public forum for student expression under the guidance of a faculty adviser.

Student journalists are provided with opportunities to investigate, inform, interpret and to evaluate: all traditionally accepted functions of the press in America.

Published opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of anyone other than the staff.

The ODYSSEY staff is committed to reflect the mission statement set forth

by Clarke Central High School. The goals of the staff are to provide fair, accurate news and commentaries, as well as to serve the interests of the school and Athens’ community.

Advertising must conform to the guidelines set forth for editorials. Publication of advertisements does not indicate an endorsement by CCHS or the ODYSSEY staff.

Students pictured in advertisements are not given monetary compensation. All advertising rates are available upon request from any ODYSSEY staff member.

The ODYSSEY is a member of the Quill and Scroll Honor Society, Georgia Scholastic Press Association, Columbia Scholastic Press Association, National Scholastic Press Association and Southern Interscholastic Press Association.

Corrections of errors and omissions will appear in the next issue.

Editor-in-Chief: Kevin Mobley Managing Editor: Amelia DeLamater Senior Copy Editor: Tierra Hayes

>> VARIETY

Senior Visuals Editor: Ella Sams

rihanna redone // Jurnee Louder

Photography Editor: Sophie Fernandes

After hearing the first song “Consideration,” I knew this album was going to be something big. She has definitely found something worth sticking to. I have always weighed more to the R&B style, and she is nailing it in her own incredible way. I hope she continues to surprise me with her diverse way of thinking musically.

--Mara Bastow, junior

Viewpoints Editor: Sara Goodie News Editor: Katy Mayfield Variety Editor: Lucia Bermudez Sports Editor: Johanna Hall

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Junior Copy Editor: Jordan Rhym Writing Coach: Olivia Ripps

showing hart // Owen Churchwell I would say my favorite article is the one about Ja’morris Hart because I never knew until now that he was a varsity wrestler and a varsity football player and how much potential everyone sees in him.

This is why I like to read the sports section of the ODYSSEY. I actually have a place to go and spend my time catching up with Central’s sports program.

It allows you to learn about people you probably did not know about and you get to learn about the talent we have at Central.

--Jordan Shaffner, freshman

Business Staff: Business Manager: Dalace Thomas, PR Manager: Delia Adamson Sheridan Cofer

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A

s the Clarke County School District website acknowledges in relation to pre-K and early education, “parents are the child’s first and most important teachers.”

According to Dr. Marianella Casasola, Associate Professor in the Department of Human Development at Cornell University, babies pick up on body language, speech patterns and facial expressions. They recognize words before they can verbalize them and learn what language Directives like those outlined in Clarke sounds like before Central’s own Striving Readers Grant they understand it.

Research consismust become a blueprint for reading tently proves this initiatives across the CCSD. again and again: literacy begins at birth.

“Children who start school with a poor vocabulary rarely catch up,” Dr. Jorge E. Gonzalez of Texas A&M University, a U.S. Department of Education-funded researcher who studies oral language and literacy development, said for a 2012 feature by the American Psychological Association. “The bottom line is there is not a lot of room for error on this issue.”

Basically, some of the most formative years for children are before preschool. Children whose parents read to them at home and eventually go to preschool have a head start that is likely to continue throughout their education.

As one in every three CCSD students lives below the poverty line, according to a 2015 district report for the federal Head Start program, early reading is probably not a main priority for many of these families.

“Family can have a lot to do with how you view education and what it’s for,” English department teacher Christian Barner said. “If the majority of your time is spent not (reading and writing) and there’s no value in that, or you come from a home where these things aren’t important, it’s hard to do.”

The weight of delayed literacy growth therein lies with kindergarten teachers and continues on through to high school. Our teachers need more support in this continued bout with illiteracy and generational poverty.

Early childhood literacy efforts, which primarly come from venues like the Athens-Clarke County Public Library, must be intensified. Directives like those outlined in Clarke Central’s own Striving Readers Grant, awarded in 2015, must become a blueprint for reading initiatives across the CCSD. We can win this battle, but only if we first recognize how rampant illiteracy has become. Only then can we commit to helping our peers break free from the severe obstacles they face.

Featured: TIED DOWN: With one in three Clarke County School District students living below the poverty line and 60 percent of CCSD high schoolers reading below their grade level, many students are perpetually constricted academically.

Illustration by Phineas Alexander.

Illustration by Phineas Alexander.

Staff Writers: Phineas Alexander, Catherine Argabright, Andrew Caldwell, Caedmon Churchwell, Graham Collins, Fajr DeLane, Jamia Echols, Kieffer Farber, Valeria Garcia-Pozo, Kendall Griffin, Adrienne Lumpkin, Emma Ramsay, Clare Wislar Adviser: David A. Ragsdale ODYSSEY NEWSMAGAZINE Clarke Central High School 350 S. Milledge Avenue Athens, Georgia 30605 Phone: (706) 357-5200, Ext. 17370

Letters: E-mail us at editors@odysseynewsmagazine.net, or drop off in the Main Office, in care of the ODYSSEY. We ask that all letters be under 250 words and signed. We reserve the right to omit or edit any letters received. Insulting, unsigned or libelous statements will not be considered for publication. All letters may be edited for clarity and space. Advertising: For ad rates e-mail us at business@odysseynewsmagazine.net. Online: Comment online at our website, www.odysseynewsmagazine.net.

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Our Take

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Thumbs

FRESH VOICE

The ODYSSEY staff’s opinions on this month’s issues.

RISING ABOVE

FALLING BEHIND

The Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) has been a formative experience for many Clarke Central students, including senior Chiquita Walker.

Too many students in the Clarke County School District read below grade level--a deficiency that may haunt students for life.

THE SHOW MUST GO ON

Today’s college students are taking on more and more debilitating debt as the cost of tuition across the nation rises.

ANA ALDRIDGE

I

could complain about being bicultural.

Sure, people’s stunned reactions when I start speaking Spanish to my mom on the phone get old, and it’s awkward when multiple classmates ask if I am adopted. But overall, I know that coming from two completely different cultures and fluently speaking two languages is not to be taken for granted.

My mom is from Bogota, Colombia. My dad is from Waycross, Georgia. In college, my mom learned English and my dad learned Spanish. I was raised in a Spanish-speaking household and only began learning English in school.

The holiday season is when I most experience the cultural divide. My parents and I usually start off our Christmas with a visit to my grandparents on my dad’s side. This Christmas consists of Southern accents, homemade presents, fruits and vegetables picked fresh from the garden and a cozy celebration around the Christmas tree. It’s not hard to get the whole family together on my dad’s side-there are only seven of us.

At the end of Christmas No. 1, my parents and I head over to spend the rest of the holiday with my mom’s family. Because her family is so spread out, this can be in Colombia, Atlanta or Florida, depending on who is hosting.

Despite the location, we are always met with a decadent celebration. It is nearly impossible to get all 26 of us together, but the family members able to come bring their most festive spirits. We eat ajiaco, a traditional potato soup, and sing the yearly family carol my grandfather has written.

We then Skype with members that were not able to come and the adults stay up late, their laughter carrying throughout the night.

I have different connections with each family, and each is special in its own way. My dad’s family is the one I feel most comfortable with and perhaps knows me the best. But my mom’s family is the most lively, the kind that goes out for ice cream every day and is always cracking jokes.

It’s impossible to choose a favorite. I love both families and learn different lessons and values from each. Both families are caring and supportive, and I know I can count on each and every one of my relatives. The variation in language, culture and traditions is just an added bonus which I can appreciate every day.

I’m not more of one than the other: I’m Colombian and Georgian.

DEATH BY DEBT Despite renovations to Mell Auditorium, the drama department pulled off the musical “Chicago” at the iconic Morton Theater in Downtown Athens this month.

BON APPETIT Foreign language department teacher Agnes Hoppe is bringing the world and the classroom a little closer together by serving up food from cultures across the globe during her Glad Time.

WORLDWIDE WINNER Freshman Cleveland Belton represented Clarke Central well in winning the FloWrestling Reno Worlds Championship title in Reno, Nevada, on April 7.

DAWN OF MEDIOCRITY Although the movie “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” features some intense, attention-grabbing scenes, the newest Justice League movie tries to accomplish more than it can handle.

RUNNING A DIFFERENT ROUTE Though opportunities can come as a result of playing sports in high school, high school football players must come to the harsh reality that only 6.5 percent of all high school athletes make it to the college level.

Photo courtesy of Ana Aldridge.

Above: GROWING UP GLOBAL: Freshman and online staff writer Ana Aldridge (middle) poses for a photo with four of her cousins on her mother’s side during a spring visit to Bogota, Colombia in 2008. Aldridge has enjoyed the experience of growing up bicultural and having the ability to speak both Spanish and English fluently.

--Compiled by Viewpoints staff

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Featured: BUILDING BRIDGES: Initiatives to build new relationships between the Clarke County School District and the University of Georgia will hopefully yield strong connections between the two, and possibly a better public understanding of CCSD and its students.

Illustration by Phineas Alexander.

KEVIN

Mobley

W

Letter from the Editor. Though my UGA Experience trip wasn’t perfect, I fully support a stronger bond between UGA and Clarke County schools.

hen I arrived at the bus loop outside of the cafeteria at 8:45 a.m. sharp on March 17, I didn’t quite know what to expect.

I had signed up for the Experience UGA “Life 101” field trip offered to seniors because, well, I’m a senior and that’s what seniors do.

I had gone on another Experience UGA field trip to the UGA Ramsey Center with my Lifetime Sports class for similar reasons: to miss a day of school, hang out with friends, play some sports and, again, miss a day of school.

Only this time on the “Life 101” trip, all of my close friends were staying at school, a memo I received when it was already too late.

So, to start the day, I was a little bit anxious.

My group consisted of some friends--a few in current classes, some who I hadn’t seen in a few years. But to say that I kept to myself is an understatement.

Arriving during a class change at the UGA Tate Center heightened my unease, as I began to see how different the vast majority of UGA’s student body is from my peers, who were mostly black and Latino/a.

UGA is what many call a “PWI”: Predominantly White Institution, and in a world riddled with binaries, it was obvious that we were the “other.”

One teacher even expressed a sentiment that has long been made clear before going on field trips since I’ve been in middle school: “Clarke County already gets a bad rep. Let’s behave properly on this trip.”

And while the notion that behavior is tied to demographics rather than just age is pretty prejudiced, it doesn’t stop people from justifying their stereotypes in situations such as these.

Back to the trip.

We walked down into the first floor of the Tate Center and soon began one of four seminars focused on professionalism and workplace etiquette.

The instructor from the UGA Career Center handed us a multiple choice worksheet to fill out and discuss as the basis of the session. As polite, kind and resourceful as she was, the first question on the sheet was: “Which of these email addresses is unprofessional?” The first two answers were of the standard first name, last name style, but the third was “whipnaenae@gmail.com.”

I shook my head in disbelief.

Why couldn’t the wrong choice have been “peacelovehappiness123@gmail.

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com?”, I thought to myself.

The intent of the question, to advise students on how to avoid a bad first impression with an “unprofessional” email address, was righteous. The implication of black culture being just that--“unprofessional”--was not.

My peers and I sort of laughed it off, and the rest of the tips were helpful, but this moment set an awkward tone for how the day might go.

The entire direction of the trip took a complete 180-degree turn during our next session.

The student rep from the UGA Relationships and Sexual Violence Prevention organization who ran the session began with an interactive activity to help us deem both valuable and concerning characteristics in potential partners.

Afterwards, we discussed the idea of consent in both everyday and romantic situations, a breath of fresh air from the cheesy abstinence messages that high school students are often force fed.

Our activity culminated in a hilarious skit put on by my fellow group members in which members of the audience were to raise red flags at risky points in the narrative.

The levels of engagement, openness and honesty from my peers during this session about both normal relationships and sexual violence were remarkable to behold. It’s also critical to note that this was a safe space to share, reflect and learn in a time where rape is obviously at the forefront of our school district’s awareness with the alleged rape at Cedar Shoals High School just within the past semester.

So, while the UGA Experience “Life 101” trip posed some initial concerns, the benefits of the trip superseded these worries.

Most importantly, the fact that in a day and age where public school education is often looked down upon, both nationally and even in our own county, Experience UGA genuinely cares about the Clarke County School District.

Were some of the efforts a little misguided? Sure. But the fact that the University of Georgia and Experience UGA have made in effort in the last three years to foster such a strong relationship with Clarke County schools--not private schools--through these trips and opportunities is honorable without a doubt, and I hope to see this partnership blossom in years to come. odysseynewsmagazine.net | ODYSSEY NEWSMAGAZINE

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QUESTION OF THE MONTH

What’s something we do, say or wear now that will be out of style in 10 years?

AMELIA

VALERIA

DeLamater

“‘Selfie’ was created about five years ago and now I think it’s slowly dying because people are overusing... I don’t think we would see that word in 10 years.”

Boiling Point. Girls across the country and the world must often be on guard for fear of personal safety, leaving some afraid to walk alone.

I

am walking around Downtown Athens with a male friend. We wanted to go to different restaurants for dinner. He suggests we split up.

That’s just something girls don’t do. We don’t walk alone. It doesn’t matter if it is just going to the bathroom or going to a big party--girls have to have someone by their side.

Growing up, my parents always told me, “Always be aware of your surroundings. Don’t be on your phone when you’re walking alone. Don’t walk alone.

Hold your keys like this. They can be used as a weapon. Only unlock your driver’s door. Lock your doors when you put gas in your car so no one can get in. As soon as you are in your car, lock your doors before you do anything else.

If you are alone, wait for someone to come walk with you. Never be anywhere you shouldn’t be. Most of all, be safe.”

“No, it’s O.K. I’ll just go with you,” I say.

Fashion magazines, like “Cosmopolitan”, which have primarily female audiences, often release safety tips. One tip they constantly advise is one almost every girl has heard and can recite. “When going out with your girlfriends, decide beforehand that you will stick together. Do not let your That’s just something girls friend go off alone with a guy.” don’t do. We don’t walk alone.

“No, Amelia, seriously, you can just go by yourself.”

According to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN), every 107 seconds someone is sexually assaulted in the United States. About 293,066 people, not including anyone under the age of 12 years old, are sexually assaulted or raped every year.

“No, I can’t. I’m scared to walk alone.”

The sad reality is until rape culture changes, I need to be aware that I cannot walk by myself. I have to walk in pairs with my friends. Even though it is not fair, I have to know what I need to do to keep myself and friends safe.

I am afraid to walk alone, even in my own town.

--Corey Swain, freshman “Pretty much everything that is popular now will be out of style. The only things that will be in style in 10 years are things that were in style 10 years ago.”

--Charlotte Reynolds, sophomore “UGGs, ‘cause they’re ugly, and for one, they’re only gonna last for a certain amount of time.”

--Markee Powell, junior “I guess Crocs. The word ‘turnt’ will be out of style in 10 years.”

GARCIA-POZO

“I

t’s O.K. not to go to college, but... ” This phrase is all too familiar to high school students who are considering not attending college. Post-secondary education is highly valued in our society. There is an immense amount of pressure on high school students to pursue a degree.

A recent study published in “Frontiers for Psychology” revealed that 49 percent of high school students felt a great deal of stress due to grades, homework and college preparation.

This stress may not be unwarranted.

According to a 2014 Pew Research Center study, full-time working college graduates earn $17,500 more than their high school graduate counterparts. The study found that 53 percent of college graduates were satisfied with their jobs, compared to only 36 percent of high school graduates.

The list of advantages for college graduates goes on and on. However, going to college also comes with a huge cost--literally.

According to Forbes, student debt in the United States reached an all-time high in 2015, surpassing $1 trillion. College graduates came out of Illustration by Ella Sams. school with a cap, a gown and $35,051 on average owed to the government.

This comes as a result of loans granted via the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

Students who borrow money from the government must begin paying it back no later than six months after graduating.

To avoid defaulting on these loans, many will have to pay off this amount over the course of the next several

Above SAFETY FIRST: A study by the National Institute of Justice and new studies since have found that one in five female college students have been victims of sexual assault. Women have been forced to use any means possible in order to safeguard themselves against this pandemic--including sacrificing their right to walk alone.

--Belangelis Colmenares, senior

DEBT SENTENCE. The current United States educational system makes attending a college or university extremely difficult without students going into debt. years. Essentially, college students are punished for wanting to further their education.

If college is treated as a necessity, it shouldn’t be priced like a luxury.

For many hopeful college students, the only option to cover tuition and associated fees is to borrow from the government.

There is the argument that scholarships and grants are alternatives to taking out student loans, but these are often very restrictive. For example, one may need to have a certain GPA or PSAT score just to qualify for a scholarship or grant.

These constraints, combined with the fact that scholarships will not necessarily cover the cost of college, make student loans sound like an easier, more accessible and necessary choice.

Forgoing post-secondary education limits a high school student’s opportunities to attain a job in their desired field.

With the upcoming 2016 presidential election, progressive candidates have proposed ways to fix the student debt crisis. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has unveiled an ambitious plan to tackle the issue of education. His initiative involves making all public universities and colleges tuition-free.

This idea has garnered criticism due to doubts about its financial feasibility.

Regardless, this idea is beneficial because of the questions it raises. It sparks a conversation that spreads awareness of the problem, and the gaps in potential solutions: Where will the money come from to pay for this seemingly radical idea? Will making college free resolve debt for students who are already swimming in it?

Whatever the solution, the current post-secondary education system is a loselose situation.

Left: TAKING THE PLUNGE: College students have been subjected to debt for years, but with the cost of attendance rising, the debt crisis is increasingly prominent and restricting.

“Everything recycles and it’s gonna come back, even those Lacoste shirts. Those things used to be $5 and now they’re like $60. ‘Bae’ is going to be gone.”

--Lawanna Knight, CAPS department teacher --Compiled by Viewpoints staff

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>> NEWS

NEWS <<

A SALUTE TO ‘16

News briefs Photo by Julie Alpaugh.

Right: WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS: Two Clarke County School District Special Olympics participants celebrate after winning a competition. The 2016 Spring Special Olympics took place on April 6 in Billy Henderson Stadium at CCHS and included students from across the county of all ages, with an appearance from CCSD Superintendent Dr. Philip Lanoue. “(There was) shot put, running, the standing long jump. Then, there is also softball. Anybody you’ll ever ask (would say) they love it,” CAPS department teacher Jennifer Frost said.

BONDING WITH BALOGUN

After former science department teacher Amy Turk resigned from her position at Clarke Central High School in early February, Dr. Bashiru Balogun, who holds a doctoral degree in Environmental Chemistry, was brought on as a long-term sub.

“Coming in the middle of the year as a long-term substitute has definitely been (one of ) the most challenging experiences of my teaching career,” Balogun said.

Freshman Collier Stevens and her classmates experienced some confusion before Balogun’s arrival.

“In the beginning, it was kinda different because we had different subs and we didn’t know where (Turk) was,” Stevens said. “Then, (Principal) Dr. (Robbie P.) Hooker came and told us that we had Dr. Balogun, and now it’s getting better.”

Balogun hopes to instill in his students a love for science while he is at CCHS. “I would like to help these freshman Biology students as much as I can to simply believe in themselves.

In my humble opinion, a few students seem to lack some self-confidence.

Science tends to be a bit intimidating for a lot of students so they can get easily frustrated,” Balogun said.

“

I HEARD THAT

“ “ “

Don’t look for logic--it comes from the State.

”

DOUG SHERER, foreign language department teacher, on the reasoning behind state-mandated teacher evaluation tests.

Well, actually, the Texas Lone Star tick is known for...

”

ANDRE MAYGAR, senior, discussing wildlife in his first period AP English Literature and Composition class.

Students are not allowed to be in the area outside Mell Auditorium after school. It’s beautiful outside. Not too cold, not too chilly. Young people, please go outside.

”

LINDA GLENN, during the afternoon announcements, on suggested after-school activities.

“

We have to memorize the presidents in order? I can’t even memorize them out of order.

”

PARKER BROWN, freshman, on memorizing the U.S. Presidents for an upcoming AP Government exam.

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On April 18, Clarke Central High School’s JROTC program held its annual awards ceremony to celebrate the accomplishments of the cadets.

“The award ceremony is a group meeting of the companies to hand out accolades and/or promotions gained based on merit and hard work,” senior and Sgt. First Class Christopher Mag yar said.

The ceremony took place at different times throughout the day, with each class period having its own ceremony.

“Each class (came) in and everyone is at position of attention,” Lt. Col. David McMickle said. “Then, each individual class period has their own commanders and they (came) through to congratulate their cadets on stepping up to the challenge.”

McMickle feels that the celebration was also inspiration for the cadets.

“It (was) a very special time and special place,” McMickle said. “It should force other cadets to want to do better as well.”

COLLEAGUES AND COFFEE

As a means to create relationships between faculty, English department teachers and Media Specialists organized a breakfast on April 1 at 7:45 a.m. for the CCHS staff in Room 242–the professional learning classroom.

English department teacher Lara Guidry expects the teacher breakfast to fix the lack of communication between the overall staff, and will improve their work environment.

“We have a very cohesive English department, but with years of construction and a busy schedule, we do not see each other as much as in the past,” Guidry said. “Teachers in different departments who were once friends have lost connection with each other, and many teachers are new and may not even know all the other teachers.”

Media Specialist Lindy Weaver appreciated this sentiment because she has recently felt more isolated at CCHS. “The idiom ‘no man is an island’ is true. We must interact and engage with each other to foster a better learning experience for our students.

I know that if I didn’t have my colleagues to rely on, I couldn’t make it everyday,” Weaver said.

APRIL 2016

COMM-VERSATION

Dr. Andrew Cole. professor of English at Princeton University, Guggenheim Fellow, Harvard Bloomfield Fellow and author spoke with English department teacher Christian Barner’s fifth period 10th Grade Literature and Composition class on March 21.

“Cole talked to our class about what communism actually is, addressing and debunking common myths and misperceptions, and talking to us about the work of philosophers, such as Descartes and Karl Marx,” sophomore Hayes Phillips said.

Barner invited Cole, whose works focus on political theory, communism and the dialectic, to his class as part of their unit on the book “Persepolis”

by Marjane Satrapi.

“Communism is a hypothesis, just like capitalism is a hypothesis.

What precedes communism is often Western Imperialism, us being where we shouldn’t be,” Cole said.

News briefs --Compiled by News Staff

“When I first saw my name on the paper outside the auditorium, I was overwhelmed with happiness.”

--ISABELLA DeMARCO, freshman, on the moment she learned she had landed the lead role in “Chicago.”

Right: ROXIE: Freshman Isabella DeMarco, dressed in a prison jumpsuit, stars as Roxie Hart in the Clarke Central High School Central Players’ production of the musical “Chicago.” The musical had three performances on April 7-9 at the Morton Theater. “Everything was so new to me being that ‘Chicago’ was my first production with Central and in general, but was a special because I had so many wonderful, talented cast members,” DeMarco said. “Yes, being a lead came with a lot of work, but not a single person in the cast had less. It’s a team effort and every single second or minute memorizing lines, dances and quick changes was worth it.“ Photo by Julie Alpaugh. Photo illustration by Katy Mayfield.

“Razzle dazzle ‘em”

The Clarke Central Fine Arts department performed the musical “Chicago” at the Morton Theater on April 7-9.

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n April 7-9 the Clarke Central Players performed the musical “Chicago” at the Morton Theatre in Downtown Athens due to renovations being made to Mell Auditorium at CCHS. “It was so much fun and the shows went pretty smoothly for me except for me falling out of my chair during ‘Cell Block Tango’ on opening night,” sophomore Makayla Moore said. “I’m going to miss all the cast members a lot.”

The play featured veteran thespian Isabelle Germain, a junior, as Velma Kelly, and freshman Isabella DeMarco as Roxie Hart.

“Oh, my gosh. Velma is one of my favorite roles I have ever done,” Germain said. “With Velma, I can bring a lot of parts of myself into the character because she’s so confident, fun and exciting to be.”

The cast hit the most stressful part of the production process, according to Moore, during the last few weeks of rehearsal. “‘Hell Week’ is basically the week or two before the opening night.

It’s really hectic. We’re trying to get our run-throughs right, as well as making sure everything, such as costumes and props, are in order.

Everybody is super tense,” Moore said.

Germain agrees and feels the unique challenges that come with performing in a musical have been formative.

“The most difficult parts of doing a musical are the songs themselves because you have to not only sing and dance at the same time, but you have to integrate multiple cast members,” Germain said.

Moore found performing “Chicago” to be a unique experience.

“The main characters aren’t actually ‘heroes.’ You wouldn’t necessarily consider them good people. [For] the entire show, two of the main characters are trying to be declared innocent for the crimes they did commit. But the show presents it in a way that you want the two main characters to prevail,” Moore said.

BY ADRIENNE LUMPKIN News Writer

APRIL 2016

The big visit

Poet Camille Dungy spoke to students on April 7 as part of “The Big Read,” a literacy initiative.

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he Clarke Central High School Media Center hosted award-winning poet and editor Camille Dungy on April 7, 2016 as part of the National Endowment for the Arts’ “The Big Read,” a program that encourages reading and literacy.

The goal of The Big Read is to engage students in reading by hosting events to learn about different authors and their work. At CCHS, Dungy read her own poetry, as well as the works of poet Robinson Jeffers, to students.

“There’s something there, this idea that the world around us is larger than we are,” Dungy said. “It’s something that I believe and it’s something that Robinson Jeffers believes.”

After reading poetry, Dungy took questions from students. One student, junior Jai Powell, asked if she had written anything about recent police brutality cases.

“Yes, I have. I have a black male husband, I have a father, I have a child, I have compassion and I have eyes,” Dungy said. “I don’t know how you can live in this moment and not be speaking to the terror that exists in this world.”

Many students found Dungy’s wisdom concerning nature, history and race uplifting.

“It was very inspiring seeing that an African-American woman could get to such a high level,” junior Jamar Fathe said. “Where African-Americans were looked at as never being able to be smart, she showed that you can.”

The Big Read in Athens continues its celebration of Robinson Jeffers until June 2016, with events including “Jeffers-Inspired Art” with David Ligare at the Georgia Museum of Art on April 29 and 30, and “Eco-Poetry in Today’s Georgia” at the Athens-Clarke County Public Library on April 12 and May 18.

BY GRACE POLANECZKY Online Opinions Editor

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NEWS << Illustration by Phineas Alexander.

In case of

Emergency Incidents throughout the 2015-16 Clarke Central school year have tested emergency protocol and administrative methods on campus.

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uring the 2015-16 school year, incidents such as a reported sexual assault, mercury spill, gang-related fights, two students trapped inside the school elevator, possession of weapons and other emergency situations have occured on the Clarke Central High School campus or involved CCHS students.

The procedures outlined in the Clarke County School District’s “Emergency Management Plan” dictate how teachers, security officers and administrators are to respond to emergencies, while the “Code of Conduct” indicates procedure in response to student behavior.

“We (administrators) are in constant communication with each other. That’s what’s to prevent incidents from happening at our school,” Principal Dr. Robbie P. Hooker said.

BY ANDREW CALDWELL

AND KEVIN MOBLEY

News Writer

Editor-in-Chief

EMERGENCY PLANNING

Each year, teachers are provided with an “Emergency Management Plan” binder from the Clarke County School District, which outlines a “comprehensive framework for district and county wide emergency management,” as stated in the promulgation statement.

“I make sure that I have the proper signage in my rooms and know where my emergency notebook is which tells me the protocol for each emergency,” math department co-chair Heather Julian said. “During a situation, I also have an attendance sheet for each class to ensure every student is where they need to be. I then make sure my students are cared for.”

Emergency operations described in the binder include general incident procedures, threats of violence or terrorism, building and hazardous material emergencies and natural disasters.

“It all depends on the situation. With fires, you always evacuate. For weather instances, our main priority is sheltering students first. In hard and soft lockdowns, administrators manage the environment,” Associate Principal Marie Yuran said.

With ongoing changes to the campus due to construction, the administrative team meets regularly with the construction manager to assess all aspects of renovations, including emergency planning.

“When we meet with the construction manager Joe Dunagan, he informs us on any changes with construction that might affect an exit route or exit spot for students to meet,” Yuran said.

Throughout the year, there are monthly drills to prepare students and teachers for emergency situations. Drills are unannounced to students and teachers.

“We want to see if our students can get out in the amount of time we need to get out in, and that students can find the multiple routes to get to where they need to be,” Yuran said.

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In spite of monthly drills, junior Maddie Herrington does not feel prepared to follow procedure in emergency situations.

“I understand that this is high school, and it’s not gonna be perfect, but I don’t always know what to do (during emergency drills), which scares me because what if it actually happened?” Herrington said. “We need to be more detailed when teaching drills because you’re never gonna know how students will react in a situation until it happens. I just hope my ignorance on what to do in an emergency due to lack of instruction doesn’t cost me my safety.”

Earlier this year, Herrington took part in a tornado warning drill to simulate emergency response to a tornado in the area. The “Emergency Management Plan” indicates that students and teachers “go at once to designated severe weather shelter areas and have students get into the emergency safety position.”

“Any time a student comes to an administrator about something falling under school violations, we quickly investigate. We put everything aside.

You don’t take those things lightly.”

--DR. ROBBIE P. HOOKER, principal “With tornado drills this year, because of all the construction it’s very chaotic.

During the drill, I was put in front of a window for a long time before everyone settled down and teachers could start seeing the flaws,” Herrington said.

Another common drill simulated throughout the school year is a lockdown, “a protective action employed to safeguard students, faculty, staff, and visitors when there is an imminent threat approaching the campus, on campus, or in the school.”

Sophomore Maya Jones feels that the current procedures for lockdown drills do not prepare her for safeguarding from these “imminent threats.”

“I feel like our lockdown drills aren’t where they need to be. We just hide behind desks. If the intruder finds a way into the classroom, a desk isn’t much protection against a gun,” Jones said. “Every time we have the drills, it’s always when I’m in class, but what happens if (an imminent threat) happens during transition? That’s where I’m worried.”

Yuran, however, contests that perception may not be reality in some cases, and invites students to continue to notify administration of concerns.

“If you’re feeling uncomfortable, stop and talk to security or any administrator. We’ll be happy to talk with you about it. Often times, I might have inforAPRIL 2016

mation that I can dispel whatever it is you were really worried about,” Yuran said. “Clarke Central has a culture where we want our kids to be and feel safe.

Students want that as well. They have certainly reported things to us in order for our school to be safe. That’s any partnership that we could ask for.”

On Jan. 28, Clarke Central’s emergency protocols regarding hazardous materials were put to the test when a mercury spill occurred in a science class.

“With the mercury spill, we quickly evacuated the area and turned off all ventilation to the classroom. Students were accessed by our school nurse. In addition, (CCSD) Plant Services sent a HazMat company to clean the minor spill,” Yuran said. “Because of their expertise and training of being scientists, they knew what protocols should be followed and we were fully prepared.”

INCIDENTS AND CONDUCT

Beyond emergency situations, the “Code of Conduct” indicates procedures for both “illegal” and “disruptive” behavior. Illegal behavior includes incidents involving weapons, drugs and illegal substances, bullying, theft, sexual misconduct and verbal/physical aggression, while disruptive behavior can consist of insubordination, cheating, rude or disrespectful behavior and sexual harassment.

“The first thing we do in a situation involving any sexual activity, guns or things of that nature is we file a police report,” Hooker said. “We then investigate the incident and implement the necessary consequences.”

Throughout the school year, altercations of physical aggression have occurred, including an incident on Sept. 15, 2015, in which administration and the Athens-Clarke County Police Department looked into possible gang affiliations. In the event of a physical altercation, security is to be called.

“My job is to try and diffuse the altercation. I must get one if not both away from where the fight took place,” security officer Leroy Owens said.

While Owens is clear on his role during an altercation, social studies department teacher Stephen Hinson says that faculty do not receive specific instructions on handling altercations. “(The administrative team doesn’t) really tell us anything,” Hinson said. “But I know as an adult male that my role is to break up fights. I’ve broken up a lot of fights, but I haven’t had to break one up in a long time on my hall.”

Following such incidents, consequences and punishments are determined according to the severity of the issue and at the discretion of administrators at suspension hearings, says Yuran.

“If there are things of illegal behavior like drugs or alcohol, those typically end up at a hearing. The severity of the incident is what matters. Students have gone to a hearing before for truancy because over a period of time, they have continued to be truant or chronically misbehave,” Yuran says. “If a student is struggling, we have to show what support as a school we have provided for that student or how we’ve involved the parent.”

On Feb. 22, Hooker notified parents and students of an alleged unwanted sexual advance that had happened earlier that same day. On May 6, Hooker wrote the CCHS community again about an alleged off-campus sexual assault involving CCHS students, which had occurred in March.

These incidents both come after an alleged on-campus rape, which would fall under the Code of Conduct’s “Sexual Misconduct” section, was reported on Jan. 7 at Cedar Shoals High School. ACCPD began an external investigation, but the alleged perpetrators were not removed from the school until their arrests, two on Jan. 30 and one on Feb. 1.

“Any time a student comes to an administrator about something falling under school violations, we quickly investigate. We put everything aside. You don’t take those things lightly. You can’t,” Hooker said. “Even an allegation of that sort that may not be believed to be true, I take it seriously every time.”

‘This is what we’ve done so far,’” Hooker said.

Hooker will then draft an email notifying parents of details on the incident in an effort to achieve transparency.

“At least three to four times this year, I’ve sent home letters informing parents about the mercury spill, there was a fake gun, there were other issues.

But you always must keep parents informed immediately. You don’t wait two or three days later,” Hooker said.

CHANGES AND FUTURE CONCERNS

The safety rules assigned by the “Code of Conduct” have not yet been re-evaluated, according to Yuran, but a public forum was held by the CCSD on April 7 at the H.T. Edwards Complex for the district community to discuss discipline.

“I can’t think of a time where there’s been a significant change in protocol.

I’m not personally aware of any changes being made at the current moment,” Yuran said. “Our Code of Conduct may be slightly adjusted, but our changes are often in response of situations happening across the U.S., like the increasing number of school shootings happening.”

Assistant Principal Reginald Thomas, however, has made plans to secure student safety in the Freshman Academy in the coming year.

“Next year, the Freshman Academy will be on the third floor where it’s a little more isolated. We’ve talked about restricting that area to only freshman students,” Thomas said. “We have to be extra careful when 17 and 18 year olds are going to school with 14 year olds. You have to monitor that a lot.”

Freshman Havilland Ford would like to see more progress on conduct issues.

“I can walk down the hallway and have someone touch my butt or call me names or comment on what I’m wearing and nothing’s said or done about it,” Ford said. “That’s gonna happen in life. There’s not always gonna be someone there to hold my hand by helping me or saying something to the perpetrator, but it would be nice to have someone to stop it, especially at school.”

Despite these occurances, Hooker looks toward increasing the trust between the CCHS administration and staff, parents, students and the community.

“Everything goes back to trust. You have to trust the people you work with and who are in charge, that they are telling us the truth and are handling this,” Hooker said. “I trust our school and our community.”

Below: NOT JUST A DRILL: Junior Maddie Herrington stands in front of the doorway in a first floor West Wing corridor where she was directed to sit during a tornado drill earlier this school year. Herrington expressed concerns about safety measures during actual severe weather. “During the drill, I was put right in front of a window for a long time before everyone settled down and teachers could start seeing the flaws,” Herrington said.

Photo by Tierra Hayes.

NOTIFYING THE COMMUNITY

The next step after a serious situation occurs at CCHS, Hooker says, is contacting CCSD personnel.

“At the beginning of the school year, we had a lot of fights, some of which were gang-related. Of course we quickly sent home letters to parents, but the first thing I did was contacted (Superintendent) Dr. (Philip) Lanoue saying, APRIL 2016

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Bonjour, ¿quÉ estÁs comiendo?

Right: A BITE OF CULTURE: As a part of her Glad Time, foreign language department teacher Agnes Hoppe educated her students on breads from different countries and how they relate to French culture. She hopes to widen students’ perspectives on the world through food. “I like the spirit of adventure and exploration. We’re just really casual, and we can talk about it and it’s fun, but we add that little work component on there for tutoring too,” Hoppe said.

For the 2016 spring semester, foreign language department teacher Agnes Hoppe teaches Glad Time students international culture through the culinary arts.

Senior Visuals Editor

Featured: THE POWER OF POETRY: Poet Camille Dungy speaks to students on April 7. Dungy, now a professor at Colorado State University, was first a pre-med major who planned to go into the medical field, but in college discovered and decided to pursue her love of poetry.

“Poetry connects us to the simple things in life that we take for granted,” Dungy said. “I wake up every day wondering if writing is still going to be something I value and continue.”

Photo by Sophie Fernandes.

Illustration by Ella Sams.

A

s a part of her Glad Time, foreign language department teacher Agnes Hoppe teaches her students the history of French food and how it relates to food worldwide and to students’ lives today.

“I just wanted to look at how different points in history have affected how people eat,” Hoppe said.

During the course of the semester, Hoppe’s class has touched continents, such as South America, Asia and medieval Europe. She teaches students the differences between their native culture, and the cultures of different countries across time periods.

“So the first meeting, since we’re looking at medieval times, they didn’t have a lot of things to sweeten their food, especially if they didn’t have a lot of money, so I tried making a recipe that was oat cakes and things like that,” Hoppe said. “The students in the Glad Time do a pretty good job at just going along for the ride. We had a good time just talking about it.”

Students in Hoppe’s Glad Time, such as sophomore Edgar Flores, have grown to appreciate the history behind the food.

“Right now we just try different food. I actually picked it because I’m really fascinated with French culture,” Flores said. “It’s really fascinating how the food has changed and how the food has evolved from one thing to another.”

BY ELLA SAMS

IN FOCUS

NEWS <<

“I like the idea that culture is so influenced by other pieces.

Even something that we might not even think about, like our food, is so impacted by the time that we live in, the access to materials that we have and just our perceptions on things.”

--AGNES HOPPE, foreign language department teacher

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Hoppe seeks to use French as a foundation for exploring foods and traditions across the globe.

“I sort of go down the rabbit hole of internet research. That’s what made me think, ‘I’d like to bring in other cultures some, too,’” Hoppe said. “I want to look at other cultures.”

Hoppe feels confident that her Glad Time will have a unique impact on her students.

“I like the idea that culture is so influenced by other pieces,” Hoppe said. “Even something that we might not even think about, like our food, is so impacted by the time that we live in, the access to materials that we have, and just our perceptions on things. It’s just stepping a little bit out of our time and place, and putting ourselves into the perspectives-- although, we do wash our hands, which hasn’t always been the case (in history).”

APRIL 2016

APRIL 2016

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COVER STORY <<

If you ' can t rEaD ' this its too late

BY KATY MAYFIELD

ILLUSTRATIONS BY ELLA SAMS

News Editor

Senior Visuals Editor

“Imagine you’re teaching 10th grade like I do. What do you do when you see 80 percent of these kids in my class are not reading at grade level, and I’m the only person in here and I’ve got 34 kids. How do I approach this? What do I do? Johnny over here is reading at a fifth grade level, Sally’s reading at a fourth grade level and Bill’s reading at an eighth grade level, but I’m gonna give them this test at a 10th grade level. It could be like being in an alien world.”

--CHRISTIAN BARNER, English department teacher

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APRIL 2016

S

enior Jontavius Mitchell doesn’t like to read aloud in class.

“We’ll be reading out loud, then somebody’s reading and they don’t know how to pronounce a word or they read slow or stutter. Some kids always start laughing, they be like, ‘You can’t read.’ Then the other person might get sad and cry,” Mitchell said. “It’s happened multiple times. That’s one of the reasons I don’t read aloud. Because I think somebody might pick on me.”

Mitchell isn’t alone. English department teacher Christian Barner says many of the students in his 10th grade Literature and Composition class are not proficient in reading.

“We do have kids who are reading below grade level, but they’re reading at a ninth grade level. But then you’ve got some kids who are literally reading at a second or third grade level,” Barner said.

The reluctance to read Mitchell describes has become habit for Clarke Central students during the last decade, according to English department teacher Ian Altman.

“Ten years ago when I started, there was not such active and even hostile resistance to trying to read something. There was some, but not like I sense now,” Altman said. “I could assign an on-level class in ninth grade ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ and while they would find it difficult, they weren’t so baffled and confused by it that they would just refuse to read it altogether.”

That aversion to reading, Barner claims, is ubiquitous and entrenched.

“We were doing ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and I did this thing on East Coast versus West Coast rappers and trying to show relations between rivalries and all this, and the kids had to write this fake thing about ‘What if Tupac had a daughter and Biggie Smalls had a son and they were to meet and how would this stuff work?’ And this kid was like, ‘This is boring, I can’t stand this!’ and he was wearing an N.W.A. shirt,” Barner said.

In line with a national pattern of below-average reading scores compared to countries across the globe*, students in the Clarke County School District in particular score unusually low on measures of reading ability and comprehension: 60.2 percent of students in CCSD high schools scored below grade level on the 2015 Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) literacy assessment, a national reading comprehension test. Approximately 25.1 percent scored on grade level, and only 14.7 percent scored above.

A vicious cycle

According to the U.S. Census Bureau and OneAthens, Athens-Clarke County’s 38 percent poverty rate is the fifth highest in the nation, with more than one in three Clarke County children living in poverty.

“The biggest demographic divisions (impacting students’ reading levels) I see fall on socioeconomic lines. Regardless of race and gender and age, there’s bigger divisions between affluent students and students in poverty,” Em Headley, a third grade teacher at Barrow Elementary School, said.

The National Center for Education Statistics came to the same conclusion in a 1993 study, finding adults in the researchers’ lowest band of literacy were “far more likely” than those in the two highest bands to report receiving food stamps, and 41 to 44 percent of all adults in that band were living in poverty.

“I’m a developmental psychologist and my area of research is child development. We have known for a long time that one of the best predictors of kids’ education attainment is parental education level,” Dr. Janet Frick, a CCSD parent and Associate Department Head of the Behavioral and Brain Sciences Program at the University of Georgia, said. “The people who have access to better education make more money, it all sort of snowballs.”

CAPS department teacher Lawanna Knight sees the evidence of poverty’s impact in students who come to school hungry.

“If I haven’t eaten in two days, I’m not worried about reading. I’m not worried about school. In fact, the only reason I come to school is to try to get a couple lunches,” Knight said. “If I’m deprived of food, there’s no way I have enough energy to even function and be able to concentrate and read. I do know there are kids who struggle with that. We see them all the time.”

Home life regardless of socioeconomic status can also have an impact, according to Barner. *See page 19 for an infographic displaying these statistics.

APRIL 2016

Clarke County School District students reading below grade level 63.8% 59.9%

% of CCSD reading below grade level

ninth grade sixth grade

43.1% third grade Grade Level

Infographic by Katy Mayfield.

Above: UPHILL CLIMB: Percentage of Clarke County School District third, sixth and ninth graders who scored below grade level on the 2015 Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) test, a measure of reading ability and comprehension, based on college and career lexile bands. Information from the Charter System Literacy Focus and Assessment by the Clarke County School District.

“Family can have a lot to do with how you view education,” Barner said.

“Think about it. You’re in school seven hours a day, 180 days a year. That’s not that much time. If the majority of your time is spent not (reading and writing) and there’s no value in that, or you come from a home where these things aren’t important, it’s hard to do.”

Such divisions in home life quickly transfer to academic ability during formative years of a child’s education: kindergarten through second grade. By third grade, if a child is far below their grade level in reading, they may never catch up.

This phenomenon is demonstrated in Lexile patterns. According to a 2015 SRI test, 43.1 percent of Clarke County third graders read below their grade level. By sixth grade that number jumps to 59.9 percent, and by ninth grade, 63.8 percent.

“Half of the people don’t be in class, they just walk around. Then when they get home, they don’t do no homework or try to read or nothing, so it makes it harder to read and be on grade level to read,” Mitchell said. “I have something to do every day, I work and I have a bad memory, so if I have homework, I forget to (read). Other people, I think they’re just too lazy to do it.”

Not many of Mitchell’s classmates read at home.

“I just know one,” Mitchell said.

The standards revolution

In January 2002, a Phi Delta Kappa audit found that Georgia’s previous curriculum system, the Quality Core Curriculum (QCC), which was established in 1985, lacked depth and did not meet national standards for literacy and math.

In response, the Georgia Department of Education replaced the QCC with the Georgia Performance Standards (GPS), which placed more emphasis on comprehension than memorization. Then in 2010-12, Common Core national standards were infused into the GPS to form the College and Career Georgia Performance Standards (CCGPS).

“Kids don’t become better readers because we say, ‘Read this chapter and come in and take a quiz on it.’ That’s not helping them. (Now) the test is something completely different, where they’re testing whether (students) know odysseynewsmagazine.net | ODYSSEY NEWSMAGAZINE

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month and a half, really (between the last two rounds of testing), to see any results. Even with that we still had growth, which was pretty amazing.”

The grant provides schools with $750,000 over the course of five years to use at their discretion on literacy-promoting strategies and materials, like foreign-language magazines, extra books and literacy consultants. Boza continues to spend it per teachers’ requests, buying what teachers say they need to better assist their students.

“I think we’ve improved a lot recently, especially with the Striving Readers Grant. There’s more of a focus on incorporating reading into other content areas, which is huge,” Barner said. “For a long time there’s been the thought that reading and writing is for English teachers, but it needs to be in all these other areas. I’m seeing much more reading and writing and it’s exciting.”

By the numbers Sophomores Juniors High school CCSD 0

The next chapter

According to Barlament, Clarke Central’s grant funds will last until 2020. However, the federal government recently passed the Every Student Succeeds Act, which may impact SR Grant funding.

Illustration by Ella Sams.

“My worry is that the federal funding stream may end, which would end opportunities for additional schools to receive funding in Georgia,” Barlament said. the standards, not whether they know some detail about the text,” Boza said.

Looking forward, Headley and Barner suggest more funding and attention “When we went to Common Core the biggest jump there was that science and directed toward early efforts at literacy, where kids first start to fall behind. social studies and technical teachers had to add that literacy component.”

“I would love to see more pre-K classes. Our pre-K is so awesome but there’s Though both Barner and Altman support Common Core’s focus on interlots of kids who aren’t getting in. It’s a lottery system, so there’s a wait list,” disciplinary literacy, both stress the restrictive nature of even those standards Headley said. “I would also love to see more teachers at the K-1-2 level so that which focus on literacy. kids have a chance to really talk and converse with trained adults.”

“We keep pushing ‘rigorous, rigorous, rigorous, standards, standards, To help those kids who fell behind, Barner has teamed up with other teachstandards, ‘testing, testing, testing,’ and it’s clearly not helping. Then why are ers and counselors in the building to form what they call the Student Engagewe still doing it that way? This whole standards movement, its roots are in ment Team, whose purpose is to draw the community into literacy education. the late 90s. If the problem has only gotten worse in that time, then it’s bad “We have Saturday School, we have after school tutoring. Any teacher will theory,” Altman said. “Ultimately, that means students get passed on through come in before or after school to meet with you. There’s tons of remediation without having ever really read much.” opportunities and ways to get help, but if we’ve got all these kids who just Despite new directives and mandates that come as a result of standards overhauls, Headley insists that her teaching responsibilities have remained steadfast. don’t find that value in school, what do we do? To me, that’s the starting point,” Barner said.

“Kids still need to learn, I still have to teach them, there’s still a lot of Freshman Javier Romero considers himself a reader, though he attributes pressures and it isn’t getting any easier,” Headley said. that passion to parental rather than school influence. On the contrary, Romero believes the school system itself, which he says discourages real literacy, needs to change.

In 2006, the Striving Readers (SR) Grant was founded. Funded through an “Little to no people read at home, I think. I don’t think that it’s encouraged annual discretionary grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the grant is very much and that more homework in general is encouraged than just readawarded to state departments of education and then distributed to individual ing,” Romero said. “I think it’s more harmful to encourage (homework) than schools and counties through a competitive grant process. Applicant schools reading because if you don’t encourage reading then you’re just not gonna use must be 35 percent or above free or reduced lunch eligible, according to James it later in life.”

Barlament, CCSD coordinator of Grants and Research.

The apathy and aversion to reading present in Clarke County schools is what “The full name of the program is Striving Readers Comprehensive Literacy Barner says needs to change.

Grant, and I think comprehensive is the key word there. SR funding allows “Kids have been taught that school’s supposed to be about getting a diploma schools to make literacy a school-wide focus--not just in ELA or reading classes, so you can get a job so you can make money,” Barner said. “You can find but in all classes where the broader definition of literacy is reinforced,” pleasure in these things, you can find fulfillment in writing and reading and Barlament said. listening to music, a deeper fulfillment, a deeper enjoyment. Listening to a song The SR Grant has one requirement. and understanding these complexities makes the song better. But I guess, again, “We have to do the SRI test three times a year,” Boza said. “We only had a there’s this disconnect of, ‘How do we get kids there?’”

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10

20

30

40

Below grade level

50

60

70

On grade level

This sample imitates the type of question that appears on the Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) Lexile test, which students take three times a year to determine their reading comprehension and vocabulary skills, and whether they’re reading on, below, or above their grade level.

“

The little stream would not be comforted, and still kept telling its unintelligible secret of some very mournful mystery that had happened- or making a prophetic lamentation about something that was yet to happen- within the verge of the dismal forest. So Pearl, who had enough of shadow in her own little life, chose to break off all acquaintance with this repining brook.

Pearl found the brook to be ___.

A. lukewarm C. depressing B. alkaline D. polluted

Striving to read

Infographics by Katy Mayfield.

In 2015, students across the Clarke County School District took the Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) test to gather Lexile data about students’ reading comprehension and ability. At left is the percentage of freshman, sophomore and junior Clarke County high schoolers that scored below, on and above grade level on the 2015 SRI.

Freshmen

“

Left: PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: A student struggles to read aloud during class. CAPS department teacher Lawanna Knight says knowledge of having to read aloud in class pushed her to read more in anticipation of class. “I remember when I was in school, some pressure was on you. You had to know how to read ‘cause you don’t know when you’re gonna get called on. And you’re like, ‘OK, I don’t want to sound like a fool, so…’ That was one of my motivating factors,” Knight said. “I would preview the text to make sure I knew everything. If I didn’t know what it meant I would look it up and say the word and everything.”

80

90

Above grade level

100

60.2%

of Clarke County high schoolers read below their grade level.

25.1%

read on level with their grade level.

14.7%

read above their grade level.

38.3 percent of children in the Clarke County School District live in poverty.

80 percent of children in the Clarke County School District qualify for free or reduced lunch.

42.6 percent of Clarke County residents (16+) are not employed.

15 percent of adults over 25 in Clarke County do not have a high school degree.

In 2012, 15-year-old students across the globe took the PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) test as part of a study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Below are the scores for four countries acrosss the globe on the reading portion, which was scored on a 1,000 point scale.

Illustration by Phineas Alexander.

CANADA 9th place 523/1,000

UNITED STATES 24th place 498/1,000 APRIL 2016

”

FINLAND 6th place 524/1,000 CHINA 1st place 570/1,000 odysseynewsmagazine.net | ODYSSEY NEWSMAGAZINE

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FEATURED <<

>> VARIETY

Cadet creed

FEATURES <<

When Senior Chiquita Walker joined Clarke Central High School’s Junior Reserve Officer’s Training Corps program as a sophomore, it transformed her life.

S

he stands in front of the formation, her demeanor demanding the attention of the group. They await further instruction from the seemingly natural-born leader, senior Chiquita Walker.

Senior Chiquita Walker currently serves as the Operations Officer for the Junior Reserve Officer’s Training Corps at Clarke Central. In this position, she is tasked with providing the everyday needs of the JROTC cadets. However, according to Chiquita’s instructor Sergeant Lorenda Harris, Chiquita was anything but dependable when she first joined JROTC. “(She was) defiant, self centered and a little bit arrogant. She thought it was all about her,” Harris said. “I could have said back then that she wasn’t going to make it in our program. She didn’t like being told what to do by people or her peers.”

Chiquita joined the program her sophomore year in high school, and though she feels she had a hard time adjusting to class expectations, she ended up enjoying it.

“I didn’t do JROTC in ninth grade because I was a little intimidated. I was like, ‘I’m not doing this. They are not going to yell at my face and tell me what to do.’ But it was never really about that,” Chiquita said.

According to Harris, Chiquita would get into physical altercations with peers before she joined JROTC, but he feels she has since learned to channel her passion towards constructive means.

“She has turned over a new leaf. She knows how to take students with difficulties off to the side and respectfully talk to them,” Harris said. “She has told me before, ‘Sergeant Harris, if I was under my old ways, me and that girl would have been fighting because I knew that I couldn’t have taken that mouth of theirs.’”

Senior Kenya Daniel has known Chiquita since eighth grade, but they were only acquaintances until Daniel joined JROTC this year.

Daniel quickly bonded with Chiquita, and her long-time acquaintance has inspired her to be a leader.

“When I joined, I really didn’t want to talk to anybody, but they expected me to be more of a leader since I’m a senior. Chiquita rubbed off on me. She’s made me want to be a leader,” Daniel said. “You see her and you are like, ‘Wait, is that Chiquita?’ or, ‘Hold up, that’s Chiq-

uita acting like this?’ It’s inspiring to see her do certain things.”

Chiquita feels she has learned multiple life lessons and values, such as communication skills. When Chiquita is tasked with confronting her peers, she aims to address the situation professionally and serve as a positive influence. “(Some students) think that they shouldn’t listen to you. They’re entitled to their own opinions,” Chiquita said. “A lot of people put their insecurities in front of them and hold themselves back from opportunities. I’m not that person.”

Chiquita is constantly interacting with her peers and Harris has seen Chiquita try to guide her peers both in and out of class.

“She has taken a personal interest in some of the cadets and became a mentor. She sees in them what she once was. She is a living testimony,” Harris said. “If they know that she is not sugar-coating it, then she can really relate to them.”

Chiquita also tries to influence her younger sister, freshman Frankia Walker, who is also in JROTC. Frankia says she only witnesses a small difference between Chiquita’s behavior in and outside of class.

“Chiquita is a natural leader. She has always helped me to become a better me,” Frankia said. “Chiquita really helps me at home and in the program.”

According to Lt. Col. David McMickle, Chiquita is fit for her position as Operations Officer, which takes a large amount of responsibility.

“She has matured beyond her years. I think Chiquita is the closest student that I have taught in my nine years that understands what we are teaching her now,” McMickle said. “She can apply what she’s seeing and hearing.”

Chiquita believes students learn qualities through JROTC that will help them in their future.

“JROTC is a program to help motivate young people to become better citizens,” Chiquita said. “When you come in there, you learn certain things that make you become a better citizen, like community service,” Chiquita said.

According to Chiquita, she has learned a lot during her time in the program. She has earned badges such as the Junior Superior Cadet Award and a Staff Award. Chiquita will pursue a career in the United States Military.

“I want to be a Nurse Practitioner which is a head nurse and is almost as close to a doctor. I’m going to being going to college full time and once I graduate, I will be a full-time officer in the Army,” Chiquita said.

Chiquita officially enlisted in the military on Dec. 12, 2015, and is now a United States Army soldier. In the fall, she will be attending Georgia Southern University while committing to the army two weeks in the summer and one weekend every month. Chiquita’s instructors haved enjoyed witnessing her journey in the JROTC program.

“I’m proud of Chiquita for going into the military, and I am extremely proud of Chiquita for the young person she has turned out to be,” McMickle said. “She is just a quality kid.”

odysseynewsmagazine.net | ODYSSEY NEWSMAGAZINE

BY KENDALL GRIFFIN Viewpoints Writer

“A lot of people put their insecurities in front of them and hold themselves back from opportunities. I’m not that person.”

--CHIQUITA WALKER, senior

Photo by Julie Alpaugh.

Layout by Lucia Bermudez.

Featured: WALKER’S WILL: Senior Chiquita Walker joined Clarke Central High School’s Junior Reserve Officer’s Training Corps program as a sophomore, and is now the JROTC Operations Officer. According to Walker’s instructor Sergeant Lorenda Harris, Walker is a leader in the program and works to reach her goals. “She is a person that if you give her a mission or task, she thinks seriously about it,” Harris said.

“She’s willing to take suggestions and she puts it into action.”

APRIL 2016

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VARIETY <<

Cultural Buzz

Cultural Buzz

documentary now

clash royale

mind of mine

kendall and kylie

Magic Twist Hair Sponge

10 cloverfield lane

The interest in documentaries has escalated to a new level due to streaming programs such as Netflix and Hulu. Released to Netflix on March 16, Seth Meyers, Fred Armisen, Bill Hader and Rhys Thomas created “Documentary Now” as a way to mock America’s current obsession with documentaries.

“Documentary Now” is an easy, lighthearted watch, best for those who have seen their fair share of documentaries prior to watching the show. The show mimics a variety of documentary styles--from 1985 classic film to present-day Vice specials--while humorously covering common documentary topics, all in 20 minutes.

Though there are many hilarious scenes, those come far enough apart to create a sense of boredom. If one is looking for an unbearably funny TV series, this may not be the right fit.

“Clash Royale” is a real-time, multiplayer game played on an arena that represents a board game.

Users play cards that use an energy source in a live multiplayer match against an opponent of an equal skill level.

The cards are unlocked through chests, which unlock over time, but can be sped up using purchasable chests. For those who enjoyed the combat from “Clash of Clans”, this is a similar game without the base management.

The game is fun and can be very engaging, but it is hard to remain interested on higher levels when you are matched against players who have received better cards through the randomized chest drops.

Regardless of whether or not you were a fan of “Clash of Clans,” this game is worth trying, even if the longevity is threatened by poor matchmaking.

Zayn Malik debuted as a solo artist on March 25 with the release of his first album, “Mind of Mine.”

Since he left the group One Direction, fans have eagerly awaited an album from the former member.

“Mind of Mine” delivers the new brand of slow R&B and features more upbeat dance tracks, a large contrast from the pop songs of One Direction.

Malik’s album is unlike what anyone was expecting, with diverse styles of music ranging from R&B, to rap and Bollywood influences.

Upbeat songs include “Bright,” and “She don’t love me,” while Malik’s new found R&B styling comes out in “Fool for me,” and “Wrong,” feat.

Kehlani.

The album “Mind of Mine” is a refreshing change from the pop ballads of One Direction and is full of amazing tracks for a plethora of moods.

The “Kendall and Kylie” app was released free on the iTunes App Store and Google Play Store by the two Jenner sisters on Feb. 20. Modeled after “Kim Kardashian: Hollywood,” the game creates a virtual reality in which the user lives a Kardashian lifestyle.

With a personally-customizable avatar, the user attends high-profile events, has photo shoots and goes on dates with other virtual celebrities. Though not the most original idea, the game is addictive and has great attention to detail, with avatars perfectly resembling Kendall and Kylie as well as the detailed portrayal of settings.

With such an addictive element, though, the game lacks purpose. There is no way to “win,” and no goal to reach at the end, which leaves the users wondering why they downloaded the app in the first place.

Commonly know as the “Magic Twist Hair Sponge,” this hair product has gained popularity in the past year, and works best with Afro-textured hair. The sponge is usually two sided, with spikes on one side and many small holes on the other.

When rubbed on one’s head in a circular motion, the sponge creates “twists” in the hair, and can even be used to begin to form dreadlocks. A sponge with a smaller hole size will make more dreaded hair, whereas larger holes makes bigger, looser twists.

The “Magic Twist Hair Sponge” is a great hair product for everyday use, and can range anywhere between 3 to 15 dollars depending on where one buys it. The sponge can be purchased at local stores including Joy Joy Beauty Supply and Wilson’s Hair World, or can be purchased on Amazon.

Director Dan Trachtenberg goes above and beyond typical thriller movie standards with his exciting, captivating and mysterious new film “10 Cloverfield Lane.”

The movie, released to theaters March 11, shadows Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who after waking up from a traumatic car accident finds herself in an underground bunker in rural Louisiana with Howard ( John Goodman), who convinces her that the outside world is plagued by a chemical attack by an unknown enemy. As tension progresses, doubt is ensued and secrets are revealed.

Winstead flawlessly executes her fiery role throughout the twists of the film and Goodman is excruciatingly creepy, to say the least.

For anyone who loves a good thriller with a twist ending, this movie is highly recommended.

--Graham Collins, Staff Writer

--Johanna Hall, Sports Editor

--As told to Lucia Bermudez, Variety Editor

by Kwydrecus White, Guest Writer

--Delia Adamson, Public Relations Manager

--Ella Sams, Senior Visuals Editor

--Connor McCage, Online Staff Writer

Lamar, unleashed

F

act: the origins of rap music are heavily influenced by Jazz.

The rhythmic, quick-fire chanting of rap mirrors that of Jazz scatting. Another fact: Kendrick Lamar is one of the few mainstream rappers to pay homage to rap’s beginnings.

Lamar’s newest album is incredibly stripped down. The album’s title is “Untitled Unmastered.” The songs are untitled as well, but they are numbered and have dates with them. The selections are raw, imperfect and jazzy, reminiscent of 1970s rap. They sound like Lamar recorded them while in a freestyle battle in the streets of New York.

Also like 70s rap, Lamar’s songs are extremely political. In his song “untitled 03| 05.28.2013,” Lamar raps from the perspective of different racial groups. In one line, he makes a powerful statement about Corporate America and the value that is placed on making money over artistry.

Lamar has also previously rapped about the state of black people in America, especially with songs like “Alright” on his previously released album, “To Pimp a Butterfly.” So, it was not surprising to see him discuss this again. On “untitled 05| 09.21.2014,” Lamar raps, “Genocism and capitalism just made me hate / Correctionals and these private prisons gave me a date / Professional dream killers reason why I’m awake.”

Lamar is changing how rap is viewed. At its core, rap is the music of revolution. In a time polluted with racial and political strife, Lamar is our generation’s revolutionary.

BY JURNEE LOUDER Online News Editor

22 | ODYSSEY NEWSMAGAZINE | odysseynewsmagazine.net

APRIL 2016

Dawn of decency

“B

atman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” a sequel to 2013’s “Man of Steel,” is a dark and serious movie with political and sci-fi undertones. The film centers around the titular characters as the difference in political views builds to a showdown.

Without spoiling anything, the movies action sequences are very well done and the climactic showdown between a haunted Batman (Ben Affleck) and a god-like Superman (Henry Cavill) will have audience members gasping for more. However, the rest of the movie suffers from pacing issues and biting off more than it can chew.

Director Zack Snyder aims to establish many plot threads that will be finished off in later movies. The only character with any sort of backstory given is Superman, as the rest of the characters have plot lines brought up and dropped, left to be answered in later movies. The movie also suffers from jarring pacing issues as it switches from the characters’ storylines at a breakneck speed.

The movie only really shines once the scenes develop and are given room to breathe.

For those who can look past the clumsy pace and dropped plot threads, searching for a change from the standard superhero movie’s cheerful and playful attitude, “BvS: DoJ” is the dark and action-packed film the genre needs.

BY CONNOR McCAGE Online Staff Writer

Photo illustrations by Lucia Bermudez. “Magic Twist Hair Sponge” photo

by David Ragsdale. Photos used under Fair Use guidelines.

APRIL 2016

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>> VARIETY

VARIETY <<

Movie Theaters Photos by Sophie Fernandes.

ciné-matic wonder

film inn-ovation

234 W Hancock Ave

1575 Lexington Rd.

I

n the midst of Downtown Athens, surrounded by Variety Writer clothing stores and high-end restaurants, lies the Ciné movie theater, a member of the community since 2007.

This theater is like no other in Athens. It not only provides cinematic entertainment, but has the capability to hold lectures with keynote speakers, as well as small-scale film festivals.

Ciné has two screening rooms with the capability to play blockbuster movies, along with documentaries and indie films.

For general admission, a matinee is $7.50 and an evening viewing is $9.75.

The seats in the theaters are comfortable and the floors of the theaters are clean.

At the BarCafé, one is met with a friendly and inviting staff who are educated about what is happening in the theater.

The café offers selected teas, coffees, fruit juices and locally made baked goods, as well as popcorn, sodas and candy.

Although the theater only shows around five films a week, Ciné has much more to offer than just a funny hour with friends. The theater frequently hosts themed movie nights, such as ‘bad movie night’ where a bad movie is showcased free for the public to cringe at.

Ciné movie theater is a great place for friends, family and couples to congregate and enjoy an indie film. However, Ciné is also a nice place to fly solo and attend a lecture or a pop-up yoga session.

BY CLARE WISLAR

Above: CINEMATIC FANATIC: Located in downtown Athens, Cine has been a prominent business in the community since it’s opening in 2007. The theater offers a unique movie watching experience, catering to those who enjoy alternative films and documentaries.

For our April issue, the variety staff continues their journey across the Classic City in search for the best Athens has to offer with stops at two movie theaters.

Editor’s note: For each edition of “Quest for Athens’ Best,” the top two businesses from four reviews are selected for this Variety feature. Email editors@odysseynewsmagazine.net to comment on our selections and ratings, which are placed on a scale from one to five, with five being best and one being worst.

Movie Variety

4

Food

Service Price Experience

Variety Writer

5

Seating

T

he newly-renovated Ovation Cinema is bringing Athens a fresh movie viewing experience, with improved seating and food in tow. Ovation is very spacious and open, giving the entire building a roomy feeling.

With modern seating and a restaurant in the theater, Ovation has been drawing in crowds to enjoy movies in their state of the art theaters.

Formerly known to locals as Carmike Cinemas, Ovation opened this past July to the public and is new and improved with the latest seating and decor.

With 12 theaters, Ovation features all recent blockbusters for any movie lover’s needs.

Advertised as “Dinner, Drinks, Movies,” the dining aspect of Ovation is the focal point of the theater. With an extensive menu available in each screening room by every seat, Ovation has worked hard to make their menu stand out against theaters like University 16.

By pressing a button located on the right side of the seat, a server will come to the seat and take one’s order. There is also a dining area if one prefers to sit and eat in a more conventional setting.

The menu is full of foods cleverly named after popular movies, such as the “Jurassic Pork Tacos,” and the “Lord of the Boneless Wings.” Although the food is slightly expensive, ranging from $5.00 caramel corn to a $15.00 salmon dish, the food is very good and is worth the splurge.

Ovation is reasonably priced with premium showings at $10.00 and discounts provided for children, students and seniors.

Ovation is a great place for a family outing or a fun date night. The prices are good, seating is comfortable and the food is delicious.

BY GRAHAM COLLINS

Movie Variety

5

5

5

Seating

5

5

Service

4.5

4

4 5

Left: TEAS, COFFEES AND CANDIES: Along with their unique movie selection, Cine’s BarCafé offers drinks, baked goods and typical movie theaters snack, such as popcorn, sodas and candy.

5

Food

Price Experience

Right: SUPERIOR SEATING: The new seats in Ovation provide outstanding comfort to moviegoers, as well as a menu and button for summoning a server to your seat throughout the movie.

Above: DINING IN STYLE: With food available in both select theaters and the designated dining area, Ovation is eager to provide patrons with both great food and a comfortable atmosphere to enjoy their food in.

>> VARIETY

VARIETY <<

Choosing happiness Clarke Central High School math department teacher Alex Szatkowski learned the power of choosing happiness at a young age when she decided to give up her dream of being a professional dancer.

A

lex Szatkowski will never be able to do a perfect turnout.

Like many dancers, she is physically incapable of rotating her legs a full 180 degrees. To untrained eyes, she was perfect, but under the critical scrutiny of a ballet instructor, she was flawed. Knowing she could never reach this ultimate level of perfection was the last straw. Szatkowski quit dance--the one thing that was consistent in her life since the age of three.

But Szatkowski knew that dance wasn’t the only place that she could find happiness. After three years, she left behind her career in dance at the HARID Conservatory and its intensive ballet program in Boca Raton, Florida, in pursuit of new passions. She moved back with her parents and enrolled in the University of Georgia as a nursing major.

But through a friend, she soon discovered that science was not her calling. Math education was.

Ballet prepared Szatkowski for her pursuit of a teaching career in unexpected ways.

“Whether I’m performing ballet or I’m performing a math lesson, I really think ballet gave me that confidence to stand up in front of people that I don’t know and show them what I do know,” Szatkowski said.

If Szatkowski had stayed in dance, she might have become a star like Isabella Boylston, a girl she danced with who is now a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theater.

Or like many of her other classmates, Szatkowski may have struggled to make ends meet with the underpaid, unstable career of most professional ballerinas.

But what could have been is not what matters.

Szatkowski is happy with her life. If it were not for her change in career paths, she most likely would have never met her fiancé and CCHS head varsity baseball coach Trey Henson, and wouldn’t have had an opportunity to explore her hidden passion for math education.

“I can look back and see myself making the decision when I was thirteen years old to leave my parents and pursue something that I was interested in, and at the same time, I see myself as a 17 year old looking at my life at that particular point and saying this isn’t what I want,” Szatkowski said. “I’m in control of my happiness.”

BY ANA ALDRIDGE Staff Writer

Featured: MATH COUNTS: Math department teacher Alex Szatkowski spent her high school career dancing at the Harid Conservatory. Although math education wasn’t the career she expected to pursue, Szatkowski feels it is the right fit for her. “Since I was a kid, I always had an interest in teaching people. I taught ballet class when I was in high school, so I always liked that idea, and then I always liked math,” Szatkowski said.

Photo by Sophie Fernandes.

Layout by Lucia Bermudez.

26 | ODYSSEY NEWSMAGAZINE | odysseynewsmagazine.net

APRIL 2016

APRIL 2016

odysseynewsmagazine.net | ODYSSEY NEWSMAGAZINE

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>> SPORTS

SPORTS <<

THE BOX SCORE Photo by Sophie Fernandes

Layout by Johanna Hall

AUDIBLES

“

I didn’t come to practice for two days and (former head CCHS football coach Leroy Ryals) came to my house, knocked on the door one day and he told me, ‘Look, I know this is hard, it’s tough on you right now, but if you stick with me for two years, for the next two seasons, I can find you somewhere to play college.’

”

TREVINO WOODS, former Clarke Central and University of Kentucky offensive tackle who graduated from CCHS in 2008, on the commitment of former head CCHS football coach Leroy Ryals.

“

We are getting 40 percent of everything we sell and there are also a lot of incentives on the girls to sell such as a free gallon of popcorn of their choice or they can grab a candle.

”

runs in the family

W

ayne Norton, father of head Online Staff Writer boys track and field coach Christian Norton, recently joined his son on the track as a lay coach. Christian enjoys coaching with his father, who is a former University of Georgia track coach.

“Having him out there will give us credibility that I think a lot of programs might not have,” Christian said.

Wayne has extensive experience as both a track runner and coach. He has been coaching track since the fall of 1981 and retired from coaching the UGA boys track team in July of 2015. Soon after, Christian suggested that Wayne make the transition to CCHS. “I did run track in high school and college, but that’s really kind of a part of my history. Really my focus now is not so much my participation and what I did, it’s being a teacher and a coach and a mentor,” Wayne said.

According to Wayne, the sport is just as much mental as it is physical, and this is something he hopes to teach to the team.

“Track and field is a sport that even though it’s played physically, it has a lot of mental preparation that must go into it. And not just mental preparation, but mental execution. That’s a thing that I’ve learned, and that’s a thing that remains true,” Wayne said.

BY ANA ALDRIDGE

STACY SCOTT, girls track coach, on team fundraising.

“

Being on this team makes me feel like I am a part of something and that I’m worth something.

MAGDALENE STRIEPEN, senior

”

and varsity soccer player, recounting her experience playing on the CCHS varsity girls soccer team.

“

The ‘C’ on our hats means a lot more than everyone thinks it does. It’s a competitive spirit that lives on campus and we’re just trying to compete to contribute to that legacy.

”

Left: EMBRACING THE OBSTACLES: Varsity track runner Marcus Ellis, a senior, jumps hurdles at track practice on March 31. Ellis has been running track since his freshman year. “It takes a certain level of skill to do hurdles, so not everyone can do them,” Ellis said.

NICK WEGMANN, assistant

varsity baseball coach, on the significance of playing for CCHS.

28 | ODYSSEY NEWSMAGAZINE | odysseynewsmagazine.net

APRIL 2016

Featured: BALLIN’ OUT: Sophomore Fredtavis Kennedy jumps for a dunk at the three-on-three basketball tournament on Arpil 1. The tournament was an event organized by the Fellowship of Chrsitian Athletes. “Before the game and after the game we are going to compete hard but really we are going to come back together at the end,” Aaron Cavin, CCHS FCA coordinator, said.

THE BOX SCORE --compiled by Sports Staff

you, me and three-on-three

On the night of April 1, the New Gym was filled with sounds of basketball shoes squeaking on the waxed floor and players calling fouls.

These players are Clarke Central students and faculty participating in the three-on-three basketball tournament hosted by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

“The kids learn how to play and have a good attitude because we’re constantly teaching them like, ‘Hey man, if things don’t go right, just have a good attitude (and) encourage each other,’” CCHS FCA Coordinator Aaron Cavin said.

Though a prayer took place between the warm-up rounds and the start of the tournament, Cavin’s wife, Lindsey, says was free to participate regardless of religious affiliation.

“Anybody is welcome to participate,” Lindsey said. “We try to emphasize the whole time they play not to cut one another down, trying to teach them to be a team.”

Collaborative freshman math teacher Michelle Pierce attended the tournament to watch her students and support FCA. “I’ve been involved with FCA in the past,” Pierce said. “I try to come support any FCA events that I can.”

infield angels

A

s the baseball players take the field at Clarke Central, another team can be found behind the fence.

This is the Diamond Darlings, a newly-founded club that assists the CCHS baseball team.

“It’s a way for people to get involved who enjoy baseball. We’ve got a couple of softball players that know the game really well, and it’s fun to watch. It’s a way for them to be involved with the (baseball) program without being in the program,” math department teacher Alex Szatkowski, coordinator of the Diamond Darlings, said.

The Diamond Darlings are responsible for running the concession stand and scoreboard at home games for both junior varsity and varsity games.

“Diamond Darlings work baseball games and our main goal is to relieve parents from having to work the concession stand and the score board so that they can watch their sons play baseball,” Szatkowski said. “It’s also an opportunity for girls to just be social with one another.”

Diamond Darling Endya Burgess, a freshman, believes that being a member of the club has its benefits.

“Diamond Darlings is a fun after school activity to do instead of just going home and sitting on a phone for the rest of the day,” Burgess said. “It also helps you with people skills, because you might work with someone you didn’t know before and also you’re talking to a bunch of different customers.”

According to Szatkowski, the club is open to anyone who expresses interest.

“The more people we have who are willing to help out and be involved, the better the program is,” Szatkowski said.

BY HANNAH GALE AND JOHANNA HALL Online Writing Coach, Sports Editor

APRIL 2016

searching for success

Photo by Julie Alpaugh. Photo illustration by Johanna Hall.

Throughout their season, the junior varsity girls soccer team has suffered 10 losses, with two sole wins coming against Heritage High School and Cedar Shoals High School and one tie against Discovery High School.

“We started off the season with a new goalie and inexperienced players,” JV defender Lizmar Moreno, a sophomore, said.

The team’s final game was played on April 9 against CSHS and resulted in a 4-0 CCHS victory.

Although the team has seen minimal success this season, head JV girls soccer coach Scott Moore looks to progress the team in the future. “(The team) gains a lot of teamwork, a lot of teamwork and especially communication skills,” Moore said. “In soccer, you have to be able to communicate with your teammates in order to make the system work.”

Moore looks for more than just a win. “(I look for) effort. Effort more than anything. A good attitude, I would rather have 11 players out there with good effort and attitude and average skills than I would with a highly skilled players that take plays off and only play when they want to.”

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>> SPORTS

SPORTS <<

WITH OR WITHOUT

FOOTBALL When the lights go out and the final season is over, football players at any level must find themselves outside of the sport.

S

enior cornerback For Woods, the realization his football career was over hit hard.

Rayshawn McCall began “I think it goes back to those guys that’s been reinforced in their his quest to play college minds and it’s been kind of pounded like, ‘You’re going to be this football during his freshman year at Clarke Central High School. big NFL star’ and once that clock strikes zero and it’s like, ‘O.K., my Four years later, after receiving multiple offers from colleges, he chances of going to the NFL are slim-to-none,’” Woods said. made the decision to play for Davidson College.

According to Woods, who picked up a football for the first time “I liked college football. Me and my mother would always sit on in his junior year at CCHS, it is not purely talent that earned him the couch and Saturday mornings, all through Saturday, watching a scholarship to the University of Kentucky, but a combination of college football,” McCall said. “I decided to go to Davidson because coachability, academics and discipline. not only will I be playing Division 1 football, I will receive a rich ed“I think the biggest factor would’ve been grades. I wasn’t a ucation at a college that is built on trust, honesty and dedication.” straight-A student, but I did what it took to get commendable Senior offensive lineman Anthony “Pop” Smith says he is working grades,” Woods said. “I was coachable and that just means being to improve his grades so he can fulfill his hopes of playing football able to listen well to what your coaches are telling you and to do in college. those things to the best of your ability.”

“I haven’t gotten Ward believes without any offers, but a lot of these components, an coaches (are) looking at athlete is not likely to me. I’m working on my play football in college.

ACT and SAT scores,” “It’s the kid with Smith said. “I think I’ll the ability to run extra be getting some more sprints, spend extra time calls from coaches, but I in the weight room, --TREVINO WOODS, spend extra time on the need to take care of my school first.” former CCHS and University of Kentucky offensive tackle field and also along the Despite the aspiraway to have done what is tions of these two student-athletes and student-athletes nationwide, necessary academically to be qualified to go play at the next level,” a study conducted by the NCAA found only 6.5 percent of high Ward said. school football players go on to play in the NCAA. Physical education department teacher Ahren Self was the head According to CCHS Athletic Director Dr. Jon Ward, it is not until football coach from 2013 to 2016 for McCall and senior running their final games of their senior season that most players begin to back JaQua Daniels, who will play for Marshall University. He has comprehend this reality. seen the time and effort the athletes put into both their academic “You play your last game of football, there’s nothing that you can and athletic careers. do that can ever simulate that. You can play soccer, baseball, basket“Their hard work, their effort, everything, all the time, blood, ball and intramural pickup but there’s never a situation where you sweat and tears they’ve put into this program, into school with their put the equipment back on and play 11-on-11 football,” Ward said. academic work and out there on the football field, because of their CCHS 2008 graduate and former offensive tackle Trevino Woods, dedication and their effort and their hard work, (they have) earned who played at the University of Kentucky, knew that once the final the the opportunity to get a free education at the next level,” Self game of his senior season in college ended, football would no said. longer be a part of his life.

Daniels feels he has been positively influenced by the sport.

“Physically, I did not want to lift another weight, I didn’t want to “It keeps me out of trouble,” Daniels said. “When I was young, run another yard, I was done with that physically, but emotionally, I used to be in trouble a lot, so when I started playing football it as soon as the clock ticked on my last game, I knew I’d never play changed.” football ever again,” Woods said. There’s almost like a grieving Smith agrees and believes football has also kept him on the right process with that. path through life.

STORY AND LAYOUT BY JOHANNA HALL Sports Editor

“As soon as the clock ticked on my last game, I knew I’d never play football ever again. There’s almost like a grieving process with that.”

Photo by Sophie Fernandes.

Featured: A FUTURE WITH FOOTBALL: Varsity running back JaQua Daniels and cornerback Rayshawn McCall, seniors, signed to play at Marshall University and Davidson College, respectively.

“Growing up, (football) played a big role,” McCall said.

“I didn’t realize it until high school--just teaching me toughness,” McCall said.

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SPORTS << “Sometimes, I noticed when I wasn’t doing football, I was doing the wrong things,” Smith said. “Football has motivated me to go somewhere in life. (For) some people, it might just be like, they just want to be successful, but football is the reason I want to be successful.”

For players who do not make it to the next level, accepting that football will no longer be a part of their lives can be difficult.

“Once that dream ends, that reality hits, then it’s obvious that’s not going to happen for them, there’s sometimes a little bit of depression there,” Woods said.

Former CCHS lineman Alan Posey, who graduated in 2011, went on to play at the University of Tennessee before transferring to Mercer University. He has seen players struggle to find themselves once their football careers ended.

“You see even today, guys who get done playing in the NFL and they’ve been football players all their life and it ends. They don’t really know what to do with themselves,” Posey said.

Posey recounts that he personally felt this sense of confusion.

“I have always identified myself as a football player, even from an early age, and when it ends, you don’t have that identity anymore and it’s kind of a weird place to be in, to create a new identity for yourself and figure out who you are and what your passions are,” Posey said. “It’s a transition, and you have to sit back and take some time off and realize what you like and who you are when your football days end.”

“If you’re willing to work and you’re willing to work with others, you can win football games. I think that’s a similar formula for being successful in life.”

lifelong skills in his players.

“Working your absolute hardest can get you a long way,” Kriebel said. “You may not always be the fastest or smartest person, but if you’re willing to work and you’re willing to work with others, you can win football games. I think that’s a similar formula for being successful in life.”

Even after he stopped playing football, Posey’s coaches encouraged him to stay on the academic track.

“When I used to talk to (former CCHS offensive coordinator Forrest Paulson) and even my college coaches at Mercer, I told them that I didn’t want to play football anymore and they said, ‘Well, whatever you do, make sure you get your degree, whether you’re going to go back to Tennessee or wherever it might be, go get your degree,’” Posey said.

Woods now works as a sales consultant for AT&T and Posey has returned to UT to finish his degree in geography. Though it has been three years since Woods last played football, the qualities he developed in the sport are still present to this day.

“Any job I’ve ever had, football translates directly,” Woods said.

“Some lesson you learn from football, whether it’s the discipline aspect, or the different approaches, being responsible, teamwork, those things all translate into some sort of job in some way.”

Through coaching his athletes both on the field and in the classroom, Kriebel attempted to prepare them for life after football.

“I tried to constantly remind my players that football is going to end. The average NFL player plays three seasons, so if you’re lucky enough to be that one percent that gets to play in the NFL, your career will probably be over by the time you’re 25, and you have a whole life to live after that,” Kriebel said. “Having character, having an education, those things will remain with you your entire life.”

1,086,627

6.5%

High school football players

High school to NCAA

1.6%

70,147 NCAA players

NCAA to professional

254

0.08%

NCAA drafted for professional

High school to professional

The RoAD to the pros Infographic by Johanna Hall.

Statistics from NCAA.org.

Photo by Julie Alpaugh.

--ERIK KRIEBEL, former CCHS academic coordinator

Photo courtesy of CCHS Athletic Department.

Above: FUNDING A FUTURE: Former CCHS offensive tackle Trevino Woods went on to play at the University of Kentucky after graduating from Clarke Central in 2008. He committed to play at UK his junior year, also his first year of playing football. “They sent me an offer for a full-ride scholarship,” Woods said. “I called him up and said, ‘Hey, I’m giving my verbal commitment now.’” Right: DREAMING A REALITY: Clarke Central alumnus Alan Posey sits at the table where he initially signed to play at University of Tennessee in 2011. After transferring to Mercer University in 2013, he is now finishing his senior year at UT not playing football. `“Growing up, it’s always something you look up to college players and NFL players that sort of thing so it was always the kind of childhood dream,” Posey said.

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When Woods’ football career ended upon graduating from the University of Kentucky in 2013, he found himself outside of the sport.

“It’s like losing something that you’ve done for so long, and it’s something that you love. It’s not exactly like losing a person, but it’s close. It’s something that you’ve done and your whole identity is football, especially on that college level,” Woods said. “But as you get older, as you start working, you find your identity in other things.”

Posey agrees that once a player can get past the initial disappointment of not playing football at the next level, they are able to move on from the sport.

“I have seen guys (who) didn’t get the opportunity, and I think it bothers (them), but eventually gets to the point where you realize that there are other things besides football,” Posey said.

According to Ward, the CCHS football program is not just focused on training athletes, but also enhancing qualities in them that will benefit them throughout life.

“What we hope is that the program here at Clarke Central, whatever sport it might be, will provide (players) with the opportunity to have a great experience playing at the high school level in that sport, and then develop qualities that will allow them to be successful in whatever endeavor they choose after high school,” Ward said.

Former CCHS academic coordinator Erik Kriebel, who is now the defensive coordinator at Oconee Middle School, works to instill APRIL 2016

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BY EMMA RAMSAY

LAYOUT BY JOHANNA HALL

Sports Writer

Sports Editor

AND KEVIN MOBLEY Editor-in-Chief

B

Buford

Johnson

Flowery Branch Loganville

Clarke Central

Cedar Shoals

Walnut Grove

uford. Cedar Shoals. Clarke Central. Flowery Branch.

Johnson. Loganville. Walnut Grove. What do all these schools have in common? They will form the new Region 8-AAAAA from 2016-18.

On Jan. 13, the final decision was made to change the sports classification regions in Georgia. According to the Georgia High School Association (GHSA), this will commence at the beginning of the 2016-17 school year.

The new classifications are based on the number of people that are enrolled in the school. In the AAAAA classification, school enrollment numbers range from 1,350-1,650 students.

The top-four standing teams in the Region 8-AAAAA during the 2015 football season were Lanier, Gainesville, Loganville and Winder-Barrow. However, at the start of the 2016-17 school year, Loganville will be the only one of these teams to remain in the region.

“There will be less teams fighting for the four playoff spots. Before, we had 11 (teams) fighting for the (four) spots, but next year we will only have seven teams competing. Statistically, schools will have a better chance,” CCHS Athletic Director Dr. Jon Ward said.

However, with Buford High School in the region, which is at the top of its current region’s standings, competition could be just as fierce next school year.

“We do have a true football powerhouse moving into the region (Buford), which will help fill the gap (of schools that are leaving), but Buford High School is only one spot out of three,” Ward said.

Along with LHS, GHS and WBHS, Apalachee, Discovery, Heritage and Salem will also be moving out of Region 8-AAAAA. Andre McIntyre, CCHS head boys varsity basketball coach, maintains that even though the region is changing, his team will continue to encounter strong rivals.

“It’s going to be competitive so regardless we are going to have to face those tough teams,” McIntyre said.

Varsity girls soccer player Jazmine Jimenez, a junior, reflects on the tradition of playing teams that have changed regions.

“I guess I am excited for the region changing, but I am just not sure what quite to expect of the new schools,” Jimenez said. “ Playing a new team always creates new experiences, which helps one get better so I would say it’s a positive thing for Clarke Central to see some new teams in the region.”

After having the same region assignment the entire time Jimenez has been in high school, she is not sure what to anticipate in the region next school year.

“Over the years, our teams have created rivalries and not having those rivalries will probably feel like something is missing,” Jimenez said. “It will be weird not playing teams like Gainesville, because they are always good competition.”

While Jimenez may miss playing GHS, Gainesville junior

Regions redone The Georgia High School Association realigned the state athletic regions for the 2016-17 school year.

Graphic by Sunčana Pavlić, Johanna Hall and Kevin Mobley.

“Before, we had 11 (teams) fighting for the (four) spots, but next year we will only have seven teams competing. Statistically, schools will have a better chance.”

--DR. JON WARD, CCHS Athletic Director

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and varsity golf player Arianna Lunsford believes the change is bittersweet.

“I do think it is sad that we will not be playing with old teams and not continuing with old rivalries, but I am excited about playing with new teams, meeting new people and creating new friendly rivalries,” Lunsford said. “Change is always a good and playing with new competitors will keep us on our toes as well as it will help us keep our game sharp.”

Not all schools move up a classification due to population growth. According to the GHSA website, if more than 3 percent of a school’s study body consists of students from out of their county, that school must move up a region classification.

Discovery High School will be placed in Region 6-AAAAAAA in the new 7A classification next school year due to this rule.

“Over the years, our teams have created rivalries and not having those rivalries will probably feel like something is missing.”

--JAZMINE JIMENEZ, CCHS junior and varsity soccer player Tamara Brooks, head girls varsity basketball coach at DHS, feels that the regions were not wisely selected.

“I wish more had been taken into consideration when creating the regions for the next four years,” Brooks said.

Buford High School is being moved into the region 8-AAAAA classification because more than 3 percent of their student body is from another county. Though they only have 1,299 students, they will be playing in a region with school populations ranging from 1,350 to 1,650 students.

Though their numbers are smaller, Ward thinks they will be just as competitive as the bigger schools.

“I think that Buford would be considered one of the top football programs in the state regardless of classification and going into (next year), they are definitely a team to beat,” Ward said. “Nothing has stopped them yet because of their numbers.”

Varsity tennis player Christopher Dellaria, a sophomore, is already prepared and excited for the next year’s season.

“I think that it would still be interesting to play some of the teams we used to play, but I think we should focus more on the new region once we are in it,” Dellaria said.

According to McIntyre, no matter who is in Clarke Central’s region next school year, the athletic teams will continue to fight to the top of the region.

“Every year, our expectation is to win in the region and go to the state playoffs. That isn’t going to change at all,” McIntyre said. “We are looking forward to the new region. There are three new teams coming into our region, but those four schools that are staying; our competition will be just a fierce.”

APRIL 2016

REGION 8-AAAAA

Illustration by Phineas Alexander.

Infographic by Johanna Hall.

Buford High School Buford, Georgia

Cedar Shoals High School Athens, Georgia

Clarke Central High School Athens, Georgia

Flowery Branch High School Flowery Branch, Georgia

Johnson High School Gainesville, Georgia

Loganville High School Loganville, Georgia

Walnut Grove High School Loganville, Georgia odysseynewsmagazine.net | ODYSSEY NEWSMAGAZINE

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Making t he cl i mb

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Central’s champ

Sports teach more than athletic ability. The best lesson senior Sheridan Cofer ever learned came from cheerleading.

I

read “good luck” in more than 30 languages as I climbed the stairs backstage. We circled up for a final prayer. We cried before we even took the floor. The fear of this being our last performance together broke our hearts.

Our coach told us the same thing he always said before we competed: “Just because y’all deserve to win doesn’t mean they’re going to give it to you.”

I had been waiting for this day since my team, the Pro Cheer Thunderbirds, received its Summit bid in January 2015, and it had finally come.

April 29, 2015, I was packing the car to head down to the Summit in Orlando, Florida with my 18 teammates and our incredible coaches. The day before competition, we were set free in the Happiest Place on Earth--at least that’s what people told us it would be.

Prior to our arrival to the Summit, my team had won five competitions during the season. We were confident we could win this, too.

We experienced the perils of success. We had been harassed on social media by those who had lost to us. “So how many jackets and rings would y’all have if senior five wasn’t on level three?” The world was against us, but the gym was behind us as we headed to Summit.

As my athlete card was scanned walking into the ESPN Wide World of Sports, my heart stopped. I passed the famous globe where every cheerleading world champion had taken a picture.

Along with the thousands of people there, the event was airing on ESPN3. All eyes were on us as we took the mat for our nine minutes of warm up. It was fantastic--all skills were solid and we were exuding confidence as we walked to the loading dock backstage. Then, we took the iconic floor of the HP Field House--where every athlete I’ve ever idolized won their Worlds rings--for the most memorable two minutes and 30 seconds of my life.

That was the last time we prayed together as a team. That was the last time I hugged my stunt group, the last time I did my handshake with my best friend, the last time Thunderbirds took the floor.

That was the last time I thought of Disney World as the “Happiest Place on Earth.”

Our stomachs churned as we walked to the awards ceremony. Tears were already in our eyes--we would soon find out if they were of joy or sorrow.

I looked around at each of my teammates, people who nine months prior were strangers and now my best friends. Those few seconds that it took for the judge to announce the team moving on to semi-finals felt like an eternity. An eternity that was followed by instant pain.

From that extremely painful experience, I’ve taken my coach’s words with me to everything I do. “Just because you deserve it, doesn’t mean they’ll give it to you.” It applies to life, too: I work hard, study and put myself in leadership positions. I’m not the Valedictorian, nor have I ever won a leadership award.

This event, and more importantly my coach, made me realize it’s okay to fail.

Sometimes failure happens because of our own inability, but sometimes it’s out of our control. Murph, my coach, has encouraged me to do my best in everything from school to cheerleading, but never to expect winning results.

He taught me that work doesn’t always measure up to what we earn.

BY SHERIDAN COFER Business Staff

I work hard, study and put myself in leadership positions.

I’m not the Valedictorian, nor have I ever won a leadership award. This event, and more importantly my coach, made me realize it’s okay to fail.

Illustration by Ella Sams.

Photo illustration by Phineas Alexander.

Freshman Cleveland Belton has seen success both on the CCHS varsity wrestling team and in individual tournaments.

Aaron Meyers

Game day ritual: “I listen to music and take a nap on the bus.”

Favorite game memory: “When I was 12 I pitched a complete game and we won.”

Role model: Chipper Jones What coaches say: “Aaron has come in with an awesome attitude, he works hard everyday, he takes whatever role he is given, and he basically done whatever we have asked him to do.”

--Trey Henson, head varsity baseball coach

APRIL 2016

Photo by Julie Alpaugh. Player cards designed by Johanna Hall.

ODYSSEY Star Players are selected based on their academic standing and commitment to teammates, their sports program and Clarke Central High School. Star Players are selected each month by the Sports staff based on interviews with players and coaches.

Photo by Sophie Fernandes.

Photo courtesy of Cleveland Belton.

Madeline Jenkins Grade: 11 Sport: varsity tennis Years experience: 7 GPA: 4.0 Game day ritual: “We all get on the bus together and it’s really chill and everyone’s happy.”

Favorite game memory: “The first time we won region and knew we were going to state.”

Role model: Her coach What coaches say: “She is a great player, and probably could be one of the better players in the region. She is definitely a key player for the team.”

--Steven Hinson, head varsity tennis coach

Left: WORKING TO WIN: Business staffer Sheridan Cofer reflects on the effort she invests compared to the recognition she receives. She finds that these two do not always match up.

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Sports Editor

Grade: 9 Sport: junior varsity baseball Years experience: 9 GPA: 4.0

O

n April 7, freshman Cleveland Belton began his quest in the 2016 Flo Reno Worlds championship against 120 contestants in the 15U 108-pound weight class.

Three days later, he reigned supreme as a world champion.

“I’ve done it before and I’ve never gotten first so when I signed up I just wanted to get first,” Belton said.

Belton is a varsity wrestler on the Gladiator wrestling team.

In the 2015-16 season, Belton finished runner-up in the AAAAA State Individuals tournament, a division head wrestling coach Tim Stoudenmire says is the most difficult in the state. “(Belton) was the regional champion, a sectional placer,and the state runner-up in AAAAA, which is the single-most difficult division in the state of Georgia to compete in,” Stoudenmire said. “Then, he went on after another month of preparation and competed at the Reno Worlds and finished first there.”

Belton hopes to further his athletic and academic abilities so that he can be one of the best wrestlers in his classification in the future.

“I practice off-season. I usually do all the styles of wrestling, all three styles, so that’s what I do to get better,” Belton said.

“I’m gonna work harder in the classroom and in the wrestling room so (that) by my senior year I can become a big leader.”

According to Stoudenmire, Belton shows signs of becoming a serious competitor in wrestling even beyond CCHS. “I think he could wrestle at a major college one day, all depending upon how much he develops as a person and his work ethic. He knows wrestling, he knows how to wrestle, he’s been wrestling and he’s got a lot of experience,” Stoudenmire said. “The success will definitely take care of itself.”

BY JOHANNA HALL

APRIL 2016

Above: TAKING THE TITLE: Carlton Pennington (left), Cleveland Belton (middle) and Danny Sanchez (right) pose for a photo following Belton’s Flo Reno Worlds win. “(There were wrestlers) from all over the United States, like kids from New York and Hawaii,” Belton said.

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5 Photo by Sophie Fernandes. Photo illustration by Johanna Hall.

THINGS to know about

goalieS

BY varsity soccer player Jenni Guzman AS TOLD TO kieffer farber

putting in work

I always go behind my house and play by myself. I punt the ball, take goal kicks or when my cousins come over, I always tell them to take penalty kicks and I would be the goalie and try to block as many shots as I can. My sister also helps me train. I sit on the ground and she throws the ball on either side of me and I dive for them.

Then I do the same, but on my knees. Then, I would stand up and do the same.

the necessities You need a long-sleeve shirt and goalie gloves. The shirt is a different color than the other players, so your teammates do not get confused and so the referee will not count it as a hand ball because they do not know who is the goalie. You have to be quick and have fast reflexes. You need to know how to throw yourself, not to be scared like I was. I used to be scared to throw myself.

handling the ball Being a goalie is different because you have to use your hands, and if you play on the field, you’re supposed to use your legs. You always have to make a shape with your hands when catching the ball. It depends on how wide or big your hands are. You have to make a ‘W’ or a triangle. I usually do a ‘W.’ The ‘W’ will help you, so the ball won’t go towards your face and hit you.

in the goal As the goalie, you have to always see the game and move your teammates to where you want them to be. I scream at the other players. I tell them where to go or to move positions or to tell them to switch, like, “I want that player here, and that other player there.” When the half finishes, I’ll tell them what to do, so they can keep looking back and can hear me. I need to focus on the ball, not the players, and see where the ball is going, so I will know which way they are going to score. If the player is on the left, they’ll kick it towards the corner at the top on the right side, and if they’re on the right, they kick it to the left corner.

get’cha head in the game Everyone depends on me to not let the ball pass me. I get nervous and feel pressured at the games because I don’t know what’s coming or how hard the other girls kick. When a ball gets past me, I feel real bad, but I have to hold in the pain and do whatever it takes to become better. My teammates will be like, “It’s okay, no worries, we can go through this together. It’s not just your fault,” and then I will think about it and remind myself it’s not the end of the game. I go back and be me, and try not to let them score. I just have to do better than what I did last time.

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