November entire issue

A3: Middle school journalism workshop

The

A10: Art and other ELT choice options

B6: Eighth graders on JV sports teams

Newsstreak where every person has a story

Harrisonburg High School • 1001 Garbers Church Road • Harrisonburg, VA 22801 • 540.433.2651 • Volume XIIC • Issue 3• November 25, 2014

Fine Arts director dances with the stars for charity Brenna Cowardin Editor-in-chief Fine Arts director J. R. Snow taught cotillion as an eighth grader. With only a semester or two of dance between then and now, Snow found himself as one of the “stars” for the fifth year of Harrisonburg’s Dancing with the Stars competition. He and his partner Libbi Fitzgerald competed as Team Snow in a fundraiser for the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Child Day Care Center.

“I was asked [to join the competition], and I enjoy giving back philanthropically with my gifts and talents to the community, so this seemed like a logical opportunity for me,” Snow said. “It combined the arts and something I believe in- childhood social and emotional development.”

Fitzgerald’s three children all attended the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Child Day Care Center.

WHSV sponsors and advertises for the event.

“My face has been on TV a couple times which is pretty cool,” Snow said. Outside of being on channel 3, Snow and Fitzgerald danced at the mall and at the daycare itself to raise awareness and support of Team Snow.

The pair was matched up after an interview based on common personality traits and skills.

“Literally they said, ‘This is your partner,’ and I went, ‘Hi, I hope you’re nice.’

I’m sure she was thinking the same thing,” Snow said. For Snow, it worked out well.

“They did a great job. Libbi and I get along. We’re friends now, and I think we’ll stay friends afterwards,” Snow said.

Fitzgerald was a celebrity in Dancing with the Stars in 2012. She and her partner won the Mirror Ball Trophy that year.

Senior privileges delegated to committees

Before then, she had never done partner dances, now she is one of the amateur dancers in the competition.

The reveal of who was whose partner was a part of the process and excitement of Dancing with the Stars.

“The night they did the reveal was kind of a little gathering. We’re all in the room, and we don’t know who the other people are. We were told what dance we were doing and who our partner was,” Snow said.

“That’s when we found out we were doing the Foxtrot.”

Snow and Fitzgerald’s only job was to raise money and dance in the ballroom. Everything else from the dance itself to the choreography to the song was handed to them.

“I had a little bit of say in the music, only because I was a musician, but even then they chose [the song] for us. They spliced it for us,” Snow said. “We’ve had everything handed to us, and then we make the best of what we’re doing with it.”

Snow and Fitzgerald altered the foxtrot to fit their personalities better.

“If you look it up on YouTube, [the Foxtrot is] very formal and slow, so we tried to quicken it up and liven it up, and give it a storyline, and be a little bit more playful with it,” Snow said.

The dance scores were combined with the amount of money raised to credit the overall winner. Snow and Fitzgerald placed third in dancing. For Snow, raising money was an unexpected challenge.

“It’s hard to ask for money,... and you have to be careful it doesn’t consume you.

That balancing is hard,” Snow said. Unlike many of his competitors, Snow finds the easiest part to be on the dance floor.

“My gifts as an artist and a musician

See SNOW on page A2

Robotics team begins season with demonstration Mia Karr Editor-in-Chief

Faith Runnells Managing Editor Three months ago, when Cynthia Prieto entered HHS as our new principal, she had some new ideas about the senior privileges.

Committees to organize and advocate for their specific senior privilege have now been arranged to allow seniors to get involved with their own privileges this year.

There are currently five committees in the school: field day committee, senior trip committee, food truck committee, parking committee, and senior ELT committee.

Each of the committee’s purpose is, if able, to execute the privilege for the rest of the senior class.

Guidance counselor Timothy Meyers will also assist organizing and running the committees and their corresponding meetings.

“We intend to have a meeting, get those persons [in the committee], and let the senior class officers manage those committee [meetings], and see what comes from those privileges,” Meyers said.

The committees with the most members signed up are currently field day committee and senior trip committee. As for the senior trip committee, the main purpose is to find and organize a relatively cheap trip the senior class can take together towards the end of the year.

“What we want is to get the most affordable trip we can find together,” Meyers said.

See SENIOR on page A2

PHOTO BY BRENNA COWARDIN

AND A 1-2-3. Fine Arts Director J.R Snow and his dance partner, Libbi Fitzgerald, perform a preview of their act at the Harrisonburg Dancing with the Stars competition.

PHOTO COURTESY OF GEOFF ESTES

INTERACTIVE LEARNING. Different demonstrators present at STEM day at Bridgewater College. The Robotics Team showed off their chair robot to children and others in the community.

The Robotics team learned an essential lesson in their competition last year- it’s crucial to plan ahead. Team co-captain, junior Kayla Leaman, hopes that last year’s experience will lead the group of engineering enthusiasts to future success.

“We learned last year that we really have to plan before we start building so we’re not wasting materials and that at the beginning we really need everyone there to put their ideas on the table so that we all have a greater understanding of what’s going on,” Leaman said.

Leaman’s fellow captain, junior Christian Gehman, is excited to use his role to assure that good planning and organization take place.

“I’m really excited to be able to, to some extent, organize how we build a robot, because in the past couple of years it’s been really disorganized and difficult to communicate with people,” Gehman said.

The team hasn’t received this year’s challenge yet- last year it was to build a robot that could throw a yoga ballsized object into slots on the wall- but they’ve already

See ROBOTICS on page A2

Teachers read variety of titles in book club Austin Swift Sports editor Similar to students, teachers are able to find a way to fit reading into their hectic lives with the help of librarian Billy Martin and the Teachers R Reading group, which is a type of book club offered to teachers.

“We read a title, we usually give people about a month or six weeks to read the title because we have usually about 10 or 12 copies of things and we circulate them

On the Web Updated sports scores and schedules for all seasonal sports Feature package stories and extended coverage of print packages Advertising forms and information Breaking news from school and the community Video footage of sports Variety of reviews and blogs Up-to-date gas prices in the area

around, we read them and we get together after about a month and we talk about what we liked, what we didn’t like, how it could be used in the classroom, how it compares to other lit, what you might use it with and sometimes we even trash them,” Martin said.

There are about 20 members signed up, but it’s open to other teachers interested.

“We’ve got folks from English, we’ve got folks from science, we’ve got folks from CTE, we’ve got library folks, we’ve got PE folks, just

See READING on page A2

PHOTO BY MIA KARR

IMMERSED IN WORDS. Librarian Billy Martin, member of the Teachers R Reading book club, reads a book.

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Musical rehearsals The holiday season Winter sports Senior and college information Comparison of local foods Debate and Forensics Columns and editorials Movie reviews School board coverage Humans of HHS feature

The Newsstreak

November 25, 2014

News Briefs Virginia DAR Nursing Scholarship Check out this application for a nursing student attending a Virginia college or university at www.vadar.com. Due date is Jan 15 to Mrs. Linden.

Key Club Key Club members will be participating in Salvation Army bell ringing on Nov 29 at Harrisonburg Crossing and volunteering at the JMU State Lego/Robotics Competition on Dec 6 and 7.

Holiday Parade On Dec 5 members of the marching band will perform in Harrisonburg’s annual holiday parade.

SAT tutoring HHS alumnus Clay Daniel offers SAT tutoring services at Clayborne Education, LLC. For more information go to www. clayborne.com or call 434-2954501.

Colleges coming to HHS College representatives visit HHS almost daily. Check down in guidance to see when the colleges you’re interested in are visiting. It’s a good opportunity to check out what it would really be like to attend that school.

Seniors plan field day, senior trip SENIOR from A1 Generally, this trip has been one to Kings’ Dominion, although this is still a bit pricey, at about $60 per person for the trip.

“It’s been costly... $30 to get into the park and $30 to ride the bus. We do throw some senior class money into it to try to keep the prices down, but we still have to charge everybody,” Meyers said.

The field day committee is working towards a carnival-like day in the spring for the seniors to attend instead of school and engage in many games and activities the committee plans to set up.

“My thinking was things that are fun, not too expensive, and not damaging in anyway...absolute frisbee golf, water balloon fights, three-legged sack races, just fun stuff with goofy prizes,” Prieto said.

Although one of the most popular senior privileges the seniors are wanting is access to the food trucks in the school parking lot after school hours, that specific privilege is still up in the air.

“Right now, [as for] the food truck committee, we are in jeopardy of having it that day after school because there are two or three state regulations that we’re in conflict with, and right now that decision is going to be made downtown by the superintendent whether we do or don’t have it,” Meyers said.

Although the head of Virginia Services for Nutrition has told Prieto Virginia has changed their laws concerning the arrival of a food truck until a half hour after dismissal, Prieto is working hard to allow the food trucks to happen.

“Right now I’m asking to see if we can have an exemption. That has to go all the way beyond Dr. Kizner… but that’s what I’m asking for right now… I haven’t given up on that yet,” Prieto said.

Another popular committee is the senior parking committee, which would include painting the seniors’ designated parking spots with ‘SENIORS’ on the top of each spot. Personalizing these spots with temporary paint has been suggested, but not much of that has been looked into or supported yet.

In the administrations’ eyes, the senior privilege committees are an excellent new element for seniors.

“I was super surprised. There are a lot of names on those sign-up sheets [for the committees]. I was really impressed.

I thought that was a really positive thing.

We need to follow through…but I think [the privileges] are very much an option,” Prieto said.

According to Meyers, the senior privilege committees are showing much improvement in not only the seniors’ participation and proposals, but the entire school community’s interaction and ideas.

“There are so many things in the administrations’ hands that are strapped by the school regulations, so I’m hoping for these guys [the freedom of the committees] gives you time to breathe, express yourself, talk in the groups, determine what’s going on in the school, what’s right and what’s wrong, and to me that’s a huge school privilege, not just a senior privilege,” Meyers said.

NEWS-A2

Snow puts his own twist on traditional Foxtrot SNOW from A1 transfer pretty well onto the dance floor. I don’t have to worry about what a phrase feels like, what the rhythm is, what the pulse is,” Snow said. “I think my favorite part is realizing that the gifts and talents I have as a musician follow me to the dance floor, and that connectivity is real.”

Given the choice, Snow sees himself dancing with a real celebrity.

“I would love, I have neither the rhythm nor the energy, but I would love to dance with Beyonce. I would love to learn how to hip hop and be loose... If I got to hang out with Beyonce for a whole semester that would be great,” Snow said.

Five Facts about the Foxtrot 1. The foxtrot became popular in the 1920’s and 1930’s.

2. It was grew from one of many “animal dances” in the early 1900’s.

3.. Variations of the foxtrot can be done to slower “sweet jazz” or quicker “hot jazz.”

4. The foxtrot involves alternating between walking and a “variation” such as side steps or turning.

5. The foxtrot is danced in 4-4 time. http://www.walternelson.com/dr/foxtrot

PHOTO BY BRENNA COWARDIN

DREAM COME TRUE. Snow expresses his excitement at the opportunity to dance at a Fine Arts Academy showcase. In addition to Snow, academy students performed.

Reading group goes beyond classic literature BOOK CLUB LIST: Here are the titles Teachers R Reading have read this year and last DivergentVeronica Roth

The Fault in Our Stars- John Green

Tell the Wolves I’m Home- Carol Rifka Brunt

Out of the EasyRuta Sepetys

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind- William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer IncarnateJodi Meadows

The Impossible Knife of Memory- Laurie Halse Anderson

READING from A1 a wide variety of people. We have a wide variety of titles and different times different people like things better and so it just depends on the title,” Martin said.

The group has looked to larger organizations for possible reads in addition to well known genres or authors.

“This year we’re reading things from the Virginia Readers Choice List and the YALSA, which is the Young Adult Library Service Association, list. We also have something from Laurie Halse Anderson who is just a very popular young adult author, we have nonfiction this go around and we have six titles for the year,” Martin said.

Martin hopes the teachers get more out of it than just reading for entertainment. “[The goal is] to look at young adult lit, to look at adult lit that would be appropriate for young adults to broaden our horizons, to find some new things to use that would work and not just force you to read Pride and Prejudice and things like that,” Martin said As an alternative to individual reading, Teachers R Reading offers a way to dive deeper into a book by discussing it with peers.

“A lot of teachers read and sometimes it’s kind of fun to read the same thing that somebody else is reading so that you can bounce your thoughts off somebody else, like if [students] read a title for a class in English and the whole class reads it I’m sure you’re all sitting there thinking ‘Why do we all have to read this?’ but then you talk about it and there are different insights and different viewpoints some folks have, so you kind of share and that’s the fun part of it,” Martin said.

Meetings depend on how quickly the entire group can read the book, which is usually an extended process as there are more group members than books.

“We have [the books], this time we have ten copies of the book we’re reading, which is The Impossible Knife of Memory, and they’re out, so when folks finish and give it back to me then we send it to somebody else, so as we finish up, we’ll schedule the meeting. In theory 10 people are reading it right now, and then I’ll farm it out to 10 more people,” Martin said.

The project has led to other ideas intended to get teachers reading while also promoting certain books.

“Last year Cathy Soenksen came up with ‘Ms. so-and-so’ or ‘Mr. so-and-so is reading’ signs and several of the teachers were posting things that they were reading for Teachers Are Reading and so that turned students onto them and [books] would go out that maybe wouldn’t have gone out as much, so they really create popularity for us, which is good,” Martin said.

As a literacy specialist, Soenksen was involved in the group last year and has been reading the books this year as well. She has found a way to apply what she has learned in the group to her teaching.

“First of all, I’ve shared with my students, the books, whether I liked them or didn’t like them. We used them in book talks to make them aware of what was available in the library and maybe expose them to some genres they might not have picked up and shared with them that I might have liked something that I picked up on my own, like Divergent. Not my style, but I picked it up and read because it was part of the program for Teachers are Reading and I loved it, couldn’t put it down. So just that experience of trying something new with students who otherwise might be in a rut was helpful,” Soenksen said.

The group discussions held in the Teachers R Reading group inspired Soenksen to do similar discussion with her students.

“I’ve also modeled some of our class discussions after the model of informal class discussion that Mr. Martin has used and delved into the questions he raised about theme and characterization and authors background that they might have brought to the book itself,” Soenksen said.

Soenksen also proposed the idea for the “[Teacher] is reading” signs posted on some teachers’ doors.

“Both of the middle schools and probably the elementary schools too, just the whole movement within education to create a reading culture within the school has nationwide implications, I just piggybacked on someone else’s idea,” Soenksen said.

Teachers R Reading will continue to circulate The Impossible Knife of Memory throughout the group until enough have read it to hold a group discussion.

Team grows close over course of season ROBOTICS from A1 started to work together. On Nov 8 the team was one of multiple demonstrations at STEM day, held at Bridgewater College. The team showed their “chair robot” that people can sit in and then move around.

“It’s always a good way to encourage younger people to explore the STEM field,” Leaman said. “And it is a good opportunity for us to just give to the community.”

Gehman feels that there is also a financial benefit to doing such demonstrations.

“Our biggest roadblock is finances, so getting out there makes people aware of us and they can donate to us and we in turn will advertise companies or people on our robot,” Gehman said.

Once the team does receive their challenge, they will have six weeks to build their robot. They’ll get a manual which tells them specifics on things such as dimensions, materials, and wire colors. From there, it’s up to them to get creative.

This is Leaman’s third year on the Robotics team, but her first year as captain.

“I’m looking forward to being in Robotics in a new aspect and being able to show others how to do things and teach them and show them what I love to do,” Leaman said.

“[Robotics] is a great way to explore things in the STEM field.”

-Kayla Leaman, Robotics team co-captain

Leaman hopes to help lead her team to a top ten finish at the competition in March. This won’t be an easy task, as there is very limited time to complete the robot. However, Leaman finds that the time constraints bring the group closer together. “[My favorite part of Robotics is] the teamwork and the community it builds,” Leaman said. “You get to spend a lot of time with each other as we only have six weeks to build a robot, so you get to know people, and you get to see how creative people are.”

Gehman echoes her feelings.

“We really close over the course of a season,” Gehman said.

Besides teamwork, Leaman finds several other reasons to be involved with Robotics. “[Robotics] is a great way to explore things in the STEM field,” Leaman said. “It’s a great group of people, and, especially for a girl, it’s great for scholarships.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF GEOFF ESTES

TINY ENGINEERS. Robotics team members senior Christopher Dana (at computer) and junior Christian Gaiman look on as children explore STEM day.

November 25, 2014

The Newsstreak

NEWS-A3

PHOTOS BY BRENNA COWARDIN

A NIGHT AT THE (BEGGAR”S) OPERA. On the left, cast members senior Isabelle Burden, who plays Polly Peachum, and sophomore Ben Hollenbeck, who plays her father, Mr. Peachum, act out a scene in the one act play. On the right, junior Jaymie Inouye, who plays Lucy Lockit, and senior Eddie Mestre, who plays Mr. Lockit, also play a scene between father and daughter. The one act cast won placed first at both the district and regional competitions.

One Act play successful at district, regional competitions

Randee Rose Joven Staff reporter A wanton man, broken-hearted women and mute yet humorous zannis. HHS’s one act members have been rehearsing their one-act show, “The Beggar’s Opera”, since September of this year for Districts, Regionals and States. They’ve practiced for six weeks before their first performance and they are currently in the 4A level.

“The Beggar’s Opera” is a 3-hour opera, but is adapted into a 30-minute one-act.

It tells a story about a captain named Macheath, who is a notorious thief and promiscuous man. In the show, he is supposed to be hanged, but he manages to escape that, and eventually achieves a happy ending by marrying Polly Peachum, while his other lover, Lucy Lockit, stays miserable.

Assistant Director Elana Swartz describes the show as a classic farce that has a lot of physical humor.

“It’s very exaggerated and over-thetop,” Swartz said. “The comedy that ensues is when they find out that there’s multiple people involved.”

Swartz is the daughter of director Stanley Swartz. He was her director in plays and has inspired her to be a part of theatre as a kid. “I ‘got the bug’ as they say. I’ve been doing shows since I was eight or nine, and in college as well. I just can’t get enough of it,” Swartz said. “I got my Associates Degree. I’m going back to school to finish my degree, and I’m majoring in Musical Theatre.”

She has been her father’s assistant director, and has helped with stage makeup, stage combat since she finished high school.

“Theatre takes the whole community and every single person to put a show together,” Swartz said.

“I love working with the high school kids.

It’s such a fun time. I love the creative process and working with everybody,” Swartz said. “That’s what I love about theatre: Everybody comes together. Their ideas and opinions all come together to make something new and really, really cool.”

She thinks that this show in particular

is, again, fun. “It’s so didn’t [have practices], “I love working with much fun. It’s great! A I’d be going home and fun show and fun for relaxing. Now, I have high school kids. the cast to just relax to come home and do It’s such a fun time. and have fun. Be silly, homework straight off I love the creative be giggly and just be the bat, which sounds process and working over-the-top.” awful, but since this is Macheath is played what I love to do, it’s with everybody.” by senior Graham Refine with me.”

-Elana Swartz, bhun. He describes his For freshman JoshOne Act character as a “suave ua Lucas, this is the first assistant director jerk and womanizer.”. year he has participatRebhun hasn’t particued in a one-act show, larly been a lead, but has had a larger part but has been acting and singing since he in past plays. was in preschool. What Lucas likes about “One thing I love about this show is how one-act is how everyone in the cast gets to the characters are just so ‘out there’ and be closer friends. ridiculous,” Rebhun said. “It’s just so much “You’re a lot better friends with all the fun to be someone who’s completely not people you’re with, because there are a lot you - well, he’s not completely not like me.” less [members in the one-act] cast than a Rebhun had stage fright throughout musical,” Lucas said. “You know each other fifth grade, but decided to give it a try the [and] help each other.” next year. He didn’t get into some shows in Furthermore, the practices have been his sixth and seventh grade but was a light enjoyable for Lucas. “[At home,] I just go technician, so he was “around actors a lot.” through the script: all of the lines around “Mr. Strawderman was the director at my line, and say it in between to know the the middle school. He was a huge factor in cues,” Lucas said. He comes home at apgetting me to audition because I talked to proximately 5:40 in the afternoon. “It does him about it, so might as well [do it],” Re- interfere with school work a little bit, but I bhun said. still get it done.”

Over time, Rebhun has overcome his On Oct. 23-26, the VTA 2014 High School stage fright. “You couldn’t get me to per- Theatre Festival occurred in Norfolk, Virform or do anything in front of people as ginia. HHS placed an honorable mention a kid. I still get it every now and then, but I on the annual conference against 54 othjust shake it off.” er schools. Loudoun Valley High School of When not in rehearsals, Rebhun runs Purcellville, Virginia performed “Trial of lines by himself. “My method is I highlight Ygor” and won first place. my lines, go through and read other parts, Senior Isabelle Burden, who plays a lead and see if I can come up with my lines,” Re- role as Polly Peachum, personally thought bhun said. “Sometimes, I practice in front that the “winning show was fantastic”. of the mirror. I do them onstage because Despite the honorable mention for the a lot of acting is acting off of others, so whole cast, Burden received an individual you kind of have to have the other people acting award which she felt good about. there.”

Rebhun did not get an individual award but He looks forward to practices every day says that it was great seeing his co-star rewhich go from right after everyone is dis- ceive one and feels “super excited for her.” missed from school until 5:30 p.m. “It’s just Albeit, Burden was upset with the judge a place to chill and hang out and a lot of that was not exactly very fond of them. fun.”

“One judge really liked us and one really “You think it would [interfere with my hated us. [The judges said] our ensemstudies] since it takes two hours out of ble work and character development was my day, [but it doesn’t],” Rebhun said. great,” Burden said.

“It does cut down on my leisure time. If I “They gave us a lot of superiors which is

One Act Results VTA competition:

Honorable Mention Acting Awards: Isabelle Burden- best actor District competition: 1st place Acting Awards: Ben Hollenbeck- 5th place best actor, Eddie Mestre- 4th place best actor, Jaymie Inouye- 2nd place best actor Regional competition: 1st place Acting Awards: Zannis- best ensemble, Isabelle Burdenhonorable mention, Jaymie Inouye- best actress

the best you can get. One judge, for some reason, just didn’t like us,” Rebhun said.

“Apparently, we’ve had that judge a couple years in a row. I was a little disappointed she didn’t like us at all. We seem to think our show is pretty good; that may be just us being in the show and loving it.”

Although the cast didn’t win at VTA, they came back to place first in both the district and regional VHSL competitions, and will advance to states on Dec 1. Sophomore Eleanor Alger, who plays a lady of the evening in the show, will be making her second trip to the state competition.

“We’re really excited about it. This is our fourth year in a row going to states, and it’s my second year because I was in it last year.

We’re really happy that people liked the show enough, and we get to keep performing it,” Alger said.

Swartz is truly proud of the actors’ performances.

“The schools have really upped their talent, and it’s been good to see that. The kids have done really well; they’ve been super professional,” Swartz said.

Middle schoolers come to HHS for journalism instruction

Julexus Cappell Online Editor For the fifth year, a group of HHS journalism students are hosting a workshop for middle school students grades five through eight on the fundamentals of the profession.

This fall’s workshop has eight Thomas Harrison and Skyline middle school students, but the number varies from year to year. The program includes, but is not limited to, lessons on reporting, photojournalism, review writing, and social media. The students ride the bus from their middle schools and receive a snack before beginning each session. The lessons are put together by the journalism students which usually include a power point and an interactive, hands on activity that follows.

Senior and print editor-in-chief Mia Karr has enjoyed helping with the program and appreciates the younger students’ versatility over the course of her high school career.

“I think it’s a great way to get younger kids interested in journalism and the middle schoolers are really fun to work with because they’re more enthusiastic and open to try new things than some high schoolers,” Karr said.

Senior and online editor Jessica Nguyen believes that the workshop will be beneficial to them in the next step in their lives. She feels journalism can teach students more than just reporting, and will be helpful in other courses as well.

“I help with the middle schoolers because I feel like the fundamentals will help them in high school,” Nguyen said.

Junior managing print editor Faith Runnells has a different perspective as to why she sees it important to help out with the Monday workshop: legacy.

“Seeing the middle schoolers learn about journalism is really neat because I know it will prepare them for Newsstreak,” Runnells said. “Because there isn’t a journalism class offered at the middle school, I think it’s a great opportunity that we offer them to learn about journalism here.”

PHOTO BY ELLA MARIAN

JOURNALISM IS SWEET. Middle schoolers Sabrina Gerald and Alex Versen describe Oreos as part of an exercise on review writing.

Seniors voted for first time in local election

Josh Byrd Advertising Manager

The 2014 midterm elections have past, but in this year’s election there were new voters. For the local elections in Harrisonburg, there were two seats on city council and three up for grabs on school board.

Rudy Lopez and Ana Hunter Nickels are both HHS seniors as well as registered voters.

“I felt like it was my responsibility as a teenager,” Hunter-Nickels said. “But also as an adult to have a say in our government.”

One of the main issues Lopez said that would influence his vote was education.

“I wouldn’t say that our school is perfect,” Lopez said. “But obviously if I understood the choices and actions that the nominees are willing to change, then yes that would influence my vote.”

Hunter-Nickels when talking about what influenced her to vote she said that

conversations with other citizens and her family had an influence. She also enjoyed being part of the open-forum that the high school hosted for the school board candidates that allowed her to hear their messages. Maddy Dod, also a senior at HHS, said she was planning on registering to vote, but that she missed the deadline thus not allowing her to cast a ballot in this year’s election.

In the end, Lopez decided not to cast a ballot in this year’s election.

“I just didn’t know who was running. I wasn’t participating in the election process,” Lopez said Hunter-Nickels decided that she would cast a ballot for her first time.

“It felt like signing a paper, it was just circling in something, so it didn’t feel like a lot,” Hunter-Nickels said. “But I know when I looked at the votes and saw how close some of the races were I thought to myself ‘wow, my vote affected that.’”

November 25, 2014

The Newsstreak

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November 25, 2014 The Harrisonburg High School Newsstreak The Policy The Newsstreak is published by the students of Harrisonburg High School every month. Reproduction of any material from the newspaper is prohibited without the written permission from the editorial board. Advertising rates are available upon request.

It is the policy of the Harrisonburg City Public School Board to comply with all applicable state and federal laws regarding non-discrimination in employment and educational programs and services.

The Harrisonburg High School City Public Schools will not discriminate illegally on the basis of sex, race, religion, national origin, disability or age as to employment or educational programs and activities.

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The Editors and Staff Editors-in-Chief: Print: Mia Karr, Brenna Cowardin Online: Isabelle Burden, Julexus Cappell Managing Editors: Faith Runnells (print) and Ellie Plass (online) Advertising Managers: Joshua Byrd, Savannah McNeal Online Staff: Joshua Byrd, Sam Imeson, Jessica Nguyen Photographers: Savannah McNeal, Ava Reynolds, Maria Snell-Feikema Page Editors: Marley Adamek, Yogesh Aradhey, Danny Dombrowski, Evan Dotas, Naomi Gelberg-Hagmaier, Victoria Giron, Hunter Manzano, Ella Marian, Eddie Mestre, Ava Reynolds, Faith Runnells, Austin Swift, Ariel Vogel, Harmony Wilson Staff Reporters: Brian Alvarado, Atticus Bolyard, Martin Beck, Juleian Cappell, Garrett Cash, Ben Coffey, Phoebe Copeland, Olivia Corner, Gabrielle DelBiondo, John Earle IV, David Gamboa-Pena, Matthew Good, Sydney Harper, Julie Hedrick, Aarash Heydari, Abigail Hissong, Randee-Rose Joven, Isaiah King, Abby Lachance, Alanna Macadam, Jennifer Marquez, Maxwell McDaniel, Alex Osinkosky, Christian Ramirez, Briana Rodriguez, Lucie Rutherford, Ethan Scribano, Maria Snell-Feikema, Joshua Stratford, Corin Vogel, KiYosia Wallace, Jeremiah Williams, Theodore Yoder Professional Affiliations The Newsstreak participates as a member of several journalistic evaluation services including the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA-2010 Gold Evaluation and 2005 & 2009 Silver Crown Winner), Quill&Scroll Journalism Honor Society (2012 Gallup Award), National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA) All-American, the Virginia High School League, Inc. Trophy Class Award, and the Southern Interscholastic Press Association All Southern Ranking and 2010 Scroggins Award winner. hhsmedia.com opt out notice: If you do NOT want to allow your student’s full name or image to appear on the school newspaper site, please send an email to vkibler@harrisonburg. k12.va.us stating: I understand that the school newspaper, newsstreak. com, now has an online version of the publication.

I DO NOT want my son/ daughter (place student’s name here) to have his or her name or image published on this online venue.

OP/ED-A5

New senior privilege committee put in place And those senior only activities? To happen, they At the class of 2015 senior meet- need to be organized by ing, the redesigned senior privilege senior privilege commitprogram was explained. There’s no tees. more leaving early for lunch--this Senior privilege comtakes away from class time (well, mittees are great--in theyes) and confuses underclassmen ory. The idea that seniors who have seniors in their classes. are in charge of themOpting out of final exams based on selves is freeing, in a way; good grades has also been discard- it’s not the administration ed, for reasons that were never ful- once again telling them ly explained. what they can and can’t Instead, fun senior bonding do. In action, however, activities have been allowed. Se- seniors have a lot of other nior trip? Sure! Senior field day? things on their minds.

Absolutely! Some other privilegCollege applications es include bringing in food trucks are the first and most on early releases and releasing us noteworthy distraction. seniors extra early and decorating With as much work as an AP credit, our parking spaces so everyone applying to college leaves no time knows they’ve officially become se- for fun. The importance of senior nior-only spots. privileges pales in comparison to Only the food trucks may be too where one will spend the next four on the edge of illegal for our school (and arguably the most important) to swing. The parking spots have years of their life. Sports, friends always been senior spots; in fact, and homework follow in quick sucthere are signs already in place cession for the things that seniors that are ignored daily by juniors. are actually spending their free time doing. If there was a metaphorical list for the time and energy of seniors at HHS, it would be a very long list, and The unsigned staff editorial appears in each issue and getting senior privileges reflects the majority opinion of the Newsstreak Staff together would be at the Editorial Board. The Editorial Board is comprised of all very bottom. editors-in-chief, page editors, advertising managers, photographers and selected freshman journalism stuAnother thing that dents. In no way does our opinion reflect that of the has not been taken into school system or the administration. account in this process

NEWSSTREAK STAFF EDITORIAL

WHAT IS THE STAFF EDITORIAL?

is the ever-present senioritis. This is, contrary to the cynical claims of critics, a very real disease and affects every last senior whether they admit to it or not. If nothing else, the chronic condition of not caring is what will keep senior privilege committees from being a success.

We understand where the administration is coming from with this plan. They too have no time, and more important things to do.

It makes sense that the responsibility falls on the seniors because if they really want their privileges, the administration is happy to let them work it out for themselves.

In a school of 1500 students where less than a quarter are seniors and there are much bigger issues facing

them, the administration has other priorities than the organization of a senior movie night.

However, this means that no one is taking care of it. Thus, a compromise needs to be reached. The administration has other goals that take precedence over senior privileges and seniors are busy finishing their last year of childhood and preparing for their future.

Senior-administrator teams should be formed to take pressure off of unreliable 17-year-olds without heaping it all on the leaders of our school. This allows for a balance of responsibility that will more likely ensure success. This is necessary if seniors today and seniors of the future are to reap the small benefits offered after 13 years of hard work.

Belittlement of libraries depresses Karr Mia Karr Editor-in-Chief Imagine a place where you can go and leave with armfuls of free items. You have thousands of items to choose from, ranging from practical to entertaining. There are absolutely no strings attached- in fact, just leave your wallet at home.

Sound too good to be true? It’s not.

It’s called a library, and it’s pretty much the best thing in the known universe.

I love libraries. This isn’t very surprising since I once asked for a Thesaurus for Christmas and consider curling up with a good novel an exhilarating Friday night. However, libraries aren’t just for literature nerds like me. They build knowledge and community, no matter who you are.

I’ve volunteered weekly at the

Massanutten Repact on their education gional Library for and ability to succeed the past three years, in school. Not all parand its lead me to ents can afford pricey see the library as a preschools and the latgreat equalizer. Peoest Baby Einstein DVD. ple from all walks of However, the library life jostle for room offers kids the opportuin the DVD section. nity to fall in love with The Mia There are womlearning for free. My Perspective favorite thing to see en toting three or four small children, is little kids who are well-dressed college students, and super enthusiastic about picking homeless men who read the news- out books to read or getting their papers religiously. The library staff first library card. One of those kids I work with are honestly the most might grow up to write your new patient, compassionate people I’ve favorite novel. met- they treat every person with Some see the library as a needrespect and exude a genuine pas- less waste of government money sion for their job. and a drain on resources. However, The library is also somewhat of I think knowledge is a fundamental an educational equalizer. It’s com- right. Books and words are powmon knowledge at this point that erful, and every citizen deserves the home environment that a child to get lost in the latest James Patgrows up in has an immense im- terson thriller, learn how to help

their child with ADHD, or discover the art of raising chickens. (Seeing what books people check out, such as the above, is a very fascinating part of my job.)

Despite the benefits, funding to libraries is being ruthlessly slashed.

Recently, our library system had to close two branches.

I hope we never see the day when libraries are thought of an indispensable, for myself, for my future children, and for the thousands of beautiful strangers that I’ve seen walk out the doors of the library better off than when they came in.

I hope that you will also support the wonderful thing that is the library- and if anyone tries to tell you that libraries are useless, just put on your Ben Franklin mask and quote obscure literature at them until they go away.

Ebola causing widespread overreaction Evan Dotas Feature Editor Go online right now. Go ahead, do it. Go to any major news source.

CNN, NBC, Fox News. Any of them.

There’s something about Ebola, right? I thought so.

As a country, we need to calm down. Everyone seems to be freaking out about this terrible disease.

However, as awful as Ebola is, we are completely overreacting.

After the recent outbreak started making news, we suddenly became incredibly fearful of a rare disease. It’s kind of like when you watch a horror movie about someone breaking into your house, and then think that you’re at a bigger risk for it that night. You aren’t at all at a larger risk; you’re just thinking about it now.

The reality is that five Amer-

icans have been through bodily fluids. diagnosed with EbKnowing this, is it realola (more people ly that surprising that every year die of the woman who, every dog bites, yet we hour, checked in on still love puppies). her patient, who bled, In fact, four of vomited, and probably those five people sneezed, coughed and Evan Knows spit, contracted his dissurvived the incident. That means ease? that, when it comes to Americans Maybe--just maybe--you could with Ebola, 80 percent live. worry about getting this disease So why are we so scared? Lots if you lived in that area of Dallas of news sources are extensively where the disease started, or if covering the rapid spread of Eb- you had traveled to West Africa reola across one patient’s hospital cently. However, the unfortunate room. The media had a collec- souls who have been diagnosed tive crisis when a patient’s nurse with Ebola in our country are alcontracted the disease. People ways isolated beyond belief. We were, for some reason, absolutely take extreme caution with these shocked that a nurse could get this people. So the odds of getting it disease from a sick person. domestically are incredibly small.

If you know anything about EbThe odds are also small that ola, you know that it is very gory. you are actively sharing bodily fluYou also know that it is transferred ids with a West African that has

Ebola. Thus, you probably do not need to worry about actually contracting it.

This all points to a major flaw in our society; overreaction. Ebola is clearly a terrible disease.

However, it is also incredibly rare.

Plus, we live in the most powerful country in the world. Our medicinal system, while being incredibly poor for such an advanced nation, is very strong. If someone gets this disease in the United States, they will be treated.

So if you want to worry, don’t worry about yourself. Don’t worry about Texans. As Americans, we are going to be completely fine. If you want to worry, show some concern for the poor souls in West Africa who are not fortunate enough to have a strong system of medicine. Feel bad for the people who are nearly guaranteed to die if they get this disease.

“House party” teaches valuable lesson Julexus Cappell Online Editor-in-Chief Perceptions. We all have different ones. I knew this prior to the story I’m about to share, but I think this situation really helped me open my eyes to this idea that much more. This actually happened a month ago. I was just driving today to work and all of a sudden it came to my mind, conveniently when I was in need of a new column idea.

On the night of my senior homecoming, I went to a party with a few of my friends. Yes, a teenage girl going to an event with other teenagers and young adults, so scandalous. Anyway, I digress. The party was live. Music was great. People were actually dancing (I know, you wouldn’t think there’d be a party with no dancing, but I can assure you there unfortunately are). After I danced and talked with a few people, it was time for me to step aside on account that parties get really hot really quick.

So there I was, in a backless

dress in 40 deor steam from the body gree weather, on heat in a confined space the front stoop of floating through the the townhouse. I air, but one of the girls looked to my right looked up to me and and saw a couple of said: familiar faces and “Nah, like I really feel decided to say ‘hi’ this song, yo. This song and mingle. I was is my life, like I can relate Just Julexus to it.” catching up with the girls just about life The first thing that came in general, and all of a sudden the to my mind was “Can you lose brain DJ played a new rap song: “Life- cells from a conversation? Pretstyle” by Young Thug. ty sure she just snagged a few of I rolled my eyes and said, “Oh mine.”

Lord, this song is so annoying, like I know, harsh, but I promise this what is he even saying?” comes to a kinder, full circle.

In my defense, I’m glad to know I sat there in awe. I waited for I am definitely not the only person her to say she was kidding but she in the world who has no idea what wasn’t. I couldn’t believe that the the rapper is saying in 99% of the nonsense that was blasting from the song. To be honest with you all, the speakers was something someone only line in the song I know is the felt, and deeply at that. And then it following: hit me.

“I done did a lot of sh*t to live What I was hearing was not what this here lifestyle.” this girl was hearing. We had two Yep, that’s it, but back to the completely different views on the story. song.

I’m not sure if it was inebriation And that was okay. That was

more than okay, it was actually pretty awesome.

Naturally, because of journalism, I asked her why. When she told me her reasons, I could not have been more intrigued. Such a silly song to me yet such a good response as to why the lyrics aren’t just audio garbage that has been labeled music to her.

I love listening to different interpretations of the same concept. The moment reminded me of a fact I learned a few years ago– two people will always see a rainbow differently. I might be alone on this, but how cool is it that as human beings we all have different, vast perceptions of seemingly minuscule things?

I haven’t changed my own perception of the song, sorry Young Thug fans. I didn’t need to, though, because I took everything I needed out of that simple conversation. It wasn’t necessary for me to change my opinion, but it was for me to explore another.

Funny what you can learn at a house party at one in the morning.

The Newsstreak

November 25, 2014

HOT Interstellar Nolan’s new movie is all the rave.

This film transcends narrative and becomes an experience for the audience.

Musical Auditions have finished! It’s time to start practicing for February’s performance of Seussical the Musical.

DECA Volleyball Tournement Boys battled to claim the grand prize... but the teachers destroyed them once again. DECA raised over $400 dollars with this event.

Cross Country at States Abrahm Amin finished 17th at the 4A Cross Country State Competition.

Thanksgiving Eggnog, Turkey and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Enjoy the five-day break.

Varsity Volleyball finishes year strong The girls won their last home game against Waynesboro and displayed their growth after facing several obstacles.

Varsity Cheerleading The varsity cheer team won 2nd place at the Conference 23 Tournament!

Jackson Taylor sticking to his word If 80 people came to the Red Sea on Nov 7, Taylor promised a Carico haircut... 140 people showed up, nice hair Jackson!

Newsstreak receives awards The Newsstreak won 8th place for best in show at the JEA/NSPA fall national high school journalism convention Big Hero 6 The movie topped the box office charts and has become a critical success.

NOT Hawaii is literally hot Lava flows have been advancing after a volcanic eruption. Areas have been evacuated and much has been destroyed ISIS beheads family ISIS beheaded five members of an Iraqi family for not marrying off their 14 year old daughter Texas endangered hunting A petition was created to hunt an endangered black rhino.

Protests shut down this action.

Second Ebola Death in U.S. Dr. Martin Salia is the second American to pass away due to the deadly virus.

Israel/Palestine conflict continues After nine years, Israel resumes destruction of Palestinian homes

Bird Flu A new bird flu case in Holland is highly contagious.

Ukraine Ready for War Putin has been hard on the country lately. But Petro Poroshenko says the country “is ready for total war” with Russia.

Worldwide Slavery The Walk Free Foundation released a new study stating that slavery affects more than 35 million people worldwide.

Kardashian on Paper Magazine Kim posed for Paper magazine in some very interesting ways.

Many people don’t know there is a huge racism problem with these photos.

The State of Ferguson Missouri Recently the governor declared a state of emergency in the city and cited “possibility of expanded unrest” leading up to the grand jury decision about the case of Michael Brown.

OP/ED-A6

What can you do before turning eighteen?

Eddie Mestre Opinion Editor

Fast forward about one hundred years. Ladies and Gents I introduce you to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart! At the age of On Nov. 7 Lorde, the interthree, he realized the beauty of national singer and songwriter, the piano. At age four, his father turned 18. Golly it makes me taught him how to play the infeel old. During the course of the strument. His sister reflected Eddie the Yeti year she has: released her debut that he kept perfectly in time album, Pure Heroine which has and played “faultlessly”. At the age of five, sold 2.47 million copies worldwide, won Mozart had already composed and pertwo Grammy Awards, and won Billboard’s formed his music for hundreds. At 17, He Music Award for Best New Artist. She has was a court musician in Salzburg. You’ve been nominated for 80 awards and won listened to the rest of his story.

23. Did I mention she just turned 18? Well, Now lets jump forward again about 250 I thought it would be fun to talk about years. Recently a new pop icon has been some of those exceptionally talented peo- noticed for his inspirational YouTube vidple who have done the craziest of things eos. Robby Novak, better known as Kid before turning 18.

President, has started to change the world, Backtrack to the 17th century for a mo- one YouTube video at a time. The 10-yearment. Here we have Isaac Newton, the old promotes a friendly and peaceful enviguy that invented calculus and thought ronment where we can all coexist happily. up most of contemporary physics. He has He has met the adult President and has three famous laws we call “Newton’s Laws” motivated thousands to be more positive. (never would’ve guessed) which describe Alright so this last one may not fully how particles move and interact with other count, it’s more just me being extremely objects. Fun fact: he had two of the three biased/jealous… Elijah Wood was a fairly laws down pat before his eighteenth birth- prominent actor before turning 18, but he day. At the age of roughly 22, he decided was cast as Frodo Baggins in Peter Jackthat algebra was too lame to handle the son’s The Lord of the Rings just a few days power of physics, so he made up a new after turning 18… Like… what? math to help him uncover more of the uniPlease take note of the fact that Justin verse’s secrets. Ya know, just a Wednesday Bieber isn’t on this list. Enjoy the Turkey! afternoon…

Life might be easier if siblings just listened Ariel Vogel Feature Editor

halfway up her calf and expose a few inches of awkward leg.

She’s comfortable with the way the cuffs of her hoodies are all My sister and I disagree on grimy because she wears them a lot of things. The correct way everywhere. It doesn’t bother to request my entrance into her her that I can predict her outfit room to use her full-length mirThe Aerial View on any given day. Even though I ror that my room is notably lackthink it should. ing. The incessant disappearance of items Even on days when she feels bad for me of my clothing that typically resurface in as I pale in response to her typical attire, her drawer. Her instantaneous offense at the outfits I gleefully pick out for her are my lighthearted mockery of her inability to quickly rejected for no good reason. construct sentences.

Long shirt over leggings? “I can’t wear No topic do we argue more about, how- leggings without a knee-length skirt!” ever, than fashion.

Floppy sweater over (skinny) jeans? “If I My sister is one of those girls who fan- can’t wear my hoodie over this artsy, long, cy themselves “tomboys”. She owns about loose-knit sweater, then I don’t want any three dresses and two sweaters that she of it!” puts on rotation for church, fancy events The introduction of tights into her wardand forced dress-up days at school. On a robe? “What do you mean, I should wear casual day of school, she wears whichever tights? These inelegant short leggings work of her four pairs of jeans looks the clean- just fine!” est, a t-shirt with a tank top underneath It’s not like she doesn’t have an excess (for what purpose, I will never know) and of cute items; I steal pieces from her closet a zip-up hoodie with her teal Converse on all the time. She never notices, though, beher feet. All day, every day, without fail. cause she never wears them. Because they Now, there is nothing fundamentally don’t assimilate to her strict guidelines of wrong with this ensemble. It’s an outfit that acceptable clothing. Because she’s crazy. makes her comfortable, keeps her warm, I’m hoping she’ll be done with it soon. ensures her happiness. A random citizen I’m hoping it’s a middle school phase she’s walking by her on the sidewalk would take going through that will be over by the time no offense at this harmless assemblage of she hits high school, just in time for me to clothing. skip off to college and be thoroughly unAfter three years of the same floppy, able to help her discover cute clothing. flared-jean style, though, it’s getting a little Better late than never, the world of old. All I want to do is introduce her to the fashion cries desperately. wonderful world of fashion. Not to tell her However, as I prepare to leave for colwhat to wear or to rule her future stylish lege and leave my unfortunately clothed life--just to guide her into a world of outfits sister behind, I’ve tried stepping back and other than her homeless-chic classic. looking at her with an open mind rather She, on the other hand, is not okay with than a critical eye. And honestly? It’s really a little friendly assistance from her doting not that bad. older sister. She is satisfied with the fact She’s happy, she’s cozy, she’s always that, when she does wear skirts, it’s with warm--which isn’t something I can claim weird black leggings that hit just below her for my much classier ensembles--and, in knee paired with boots that only make it the end, she looks fine. No one else is of-

Read, Write, and True

GOP changing for the better Josh Byrd Online Editor In the aftermath of the midterm elections, there has been a change in the Republican Party for the better.

A party that was referred to as the white old man’s party is starting to widen its tent to women and minorities. In Iowa, Senator-Elect Joni Ernst is the first female senator from Iowa.

She won retiring Senator Tom Harkin’s seat, giving Republicans control of both Iowa’s senate seats. Exits polls showed that Ernst won men by 18 points and tied for women against her opponent Bruce Braley.

Shelley Moore Capito in West Virginia made history not only by being the first Republican elected to a West Virginia senate seat in 55 years, but by also being the first female senator from West Virginia. Capito won 67 percent of men to her opponent Natalie Tennant’s 30 percent. Capito also took the women’s vote by 19 points. In Arkansas, Senator-Elect Tom Cotton (R) won the majority of the women’s vote.

Governor of New Mexico, Susana Martinez, a Republican, beat her opponent with over 57 percent of the vote in a state that President Obama won in his past presidential elections. Nikki Haley (R) of South Carolina and Mary Fallin (R) of Oklahoma held onto their Governorships with over 55 percent of the vote respectively.

In Utah Mia Love, considered a rising star for the Republican party made history by being elected as the first African-American Republican to the House of Representatives. The daughter of Haitian immigrants has a story about how her parents came to America with $10 and a dream for a better life.

These are the people that should be the face of the Republican Party.

If the party wants to exist in 20 years, then it needs to learn how to talk to women and minorities. The 2014 midterm elections showed that Republicans have gotten the message and this will be its first steps in becoming a party that can win national elections in the future. fended by her mediocre outfits; there’s no reason I should be.

And thus, after a great deal of soul searching and generosity on my part, I rescind my claim that my sister needs to reevaluate her closet. She’s doing fine, and no one--not even her fashion-conscious older sister--can shut down her occasionally fashion-unconscious ways.

No matter how famous, we’re all still just people worked very hard for his dream, and he has now achieved it.

I wouldn’t call myself a diehard fan of Brice’s, but I know and enjoy most of his songs, and Lee Brice has emerged as I was so nervous before our inone of the most popular country terview I was sweating. It didn’t singers of the time, and this past Have Faith help that it was over 80 degrees summer, on Aug. 12, I obtained outside and the room I was waitthe opportunity to meet and interview him one-on-one for a Newsstreak ing in was even hotter.

When Brice finally arrived and led me to story. Although I wrote a story about him in the first issue, that story covered solely his tour bus, I noticed his tour bus consisthis performance at the Rockingham Coun- ed of nothing I wouldn’t have in my own ty Fair. Much was lacking. The best infor- car (except the ample amounts of alcohol-mation I received during that 20-minute I’m still a bit young). Brice then sat down interview with him on his tour bus was across from me and took my high-schoolsomething much simpler than anything I journalist-self very seriously. Obviously, he has been interviewed by much more promwas expecting: that he is a person.

I know what you’re thinking, of course inent and important people throughout his he’s a person. What kind of ground-break- rise to fame, but he took my interview, ing news is that? But no, he really is a per- coming from a high school he’s never even son. He’s just like me and you. Yeah, he has heard of, with no less dignity than I’ve seen a killer voice, he’s able to perform phe- him take the others.

Throughout the interview, I came to the nomenally, and he now has loving fans all over the nation. But he really is just a per- conclusion that Brice is distinct from any son, and for him, it is as simple as that. The other man only in the way that he has peronly difference is that he has consistently sistently pursued his dream for years, and

it has paid off well for him.

In this modern day and age, we often times forget the fact that people in the spotlight are no different from us. Yes, Lee Brice is probably more everyday than a star such as Lady Gaga or Lindsay Lohan, but when it comes down to it, they are all the same. People. The spotlight does affect them in different ways, but they each have their good days and bad days; differences lie in the fact that the media exploits some of their bad days, and for others, they exploit their good.

The attribute that separates Brice from the so-called ‘average’ man is the sole fact that Brice had in mind exactly what he wanted, he worked for it without giving up (he was in the music world of Nashville for nearly eight years before he got a big hit), and he is now continuing to be successful.

Either way, those people who have ‘made it big’ in the music business actually vary in minuscule ways from most other people, other than the topic they have chosen to put their work into. And as people, we should respect our fellow people, no matter how famous they have become.

Aarash Heydari Staff Reporter

way. We’ve developed space shuttles -- vehicles that could literally take us anywhere in the universe given enough energy and time. These machines and the many others we use stretch the meaning of the word “possible”, giving us new ways of interacting with our universe and with each other while improving the quality of our lives.

You could almost call their development abiotic evolution. The people that design them are, to an extent, designing us.

Framing technology in this way makes thinking about its future very exciting. It’s worth betting that in 100 years, human lives will be vastly different from what they are now. Our generation’s tech visionaries will revolutionize our lives in a way that we can’t imagine.

Faith Runnells Managing editor

Technology might just be our next evolutionary step I’ve been trying to wrap my head around the way that we interact with technology and where that relationship is headed. What I’ve come up with is pretty cool.

An animal’s efficiency of locomotion refers to how many calories it takes for that animal to get from point A to point B divided by its body mass. What may surprise some is that humans are very average in this regard -- about of a third of all life on Earth uses less energy per unit of weight to move, with the most efficient being the Condor, a type of vulture. But when you

give a human a bicycle, its efficiency of locomotion explodes, putting even the species at the top of the list to shame. This reveals something neat about ourselves -- we tranGuest columnist scend our biological limits by using machines.

We’ve created bricks of glass and metal called iPhones that send our thoughts across the sky at lightspeed, giving us what Amber Case calls “technologically mediated telepathy”. We’ve created musical instruments that catalyze human creativity and provide a platform for us to communicate our emotions in an awe-inspiring

The Newsstreak

Novermber 25, 2014

OUTDOORS-A9

Into the woods

African safari turns into bonding experience for father, son Hunter Manzano Outdoors Editor The greatest tradition, is one that has been passed down from father to son for countless generations. It’s one you don’t do to fit in, but do rather because of a burning passion. For me, I’ve gone across continents to carry it out.

In the summer of 2013, I traveled to the sun-beaten bush of South Africa on a hunting safari, with my father and older brother. For the next three weeks, we woke up before the brilliant sun rose to sweep the land of the darkness, and prepared ourselves to tackle long days of stalking through vast expanses of knee-high thorn bushes and elephant grass that stretched toward the sky above our heads. The flat grasslands bulged out of the ground into steep, rocky mountains. As barren and lifeless as the bush first seemed, it turned out to be lush with wildlife.

On the mountain, we slept out in tents, just feet from where leopards and wild game could pass by at any moment. After the first day of unsuccessful hunting, we were on our way back to camp in the truck when it stopped. It just stopped working.

Our group of five people kept to the road on foot, armed with only two bolt-action ri-

fles. We still had at least a mile back to the camp, on the other mountain, in leopard and hyena territory in the dark. Our nervous ears picked up every broken twig, and that brought a rifle and a flashlight turned in the noise’s direction. Around the fire back at camp, we had quite a story to tell.

A few days later, we came to pick up my brother from his ground blind at the top of the mountain and just as we were approaching he took a shot at a large blue wildebeest standing atop a hill to his front, about fifty yards away. The animal flinched on impact and ran up the mountain into the brush.

In pursuit of it on the truck, we came across the wildebeest’s friends. A group of about eight wildebeests began to walk away, with the largest bull closest to me.

I leaped off of the truck and as my father put the shooting sticks under the barrel of my rifle, I focused my crosshairs just behind the beast’s shoulder, and eight inches up from it’s belly. My heart beat at a hundred miles an hour as I slowly pulled off the shot. I felt the recoil and the beast shook as the bullet passed through him and he took off into the brush as well. After 20 minutes of following the blood trail, we found him: a beautiful bull that I could now call mine.

We had the horns mounted as a remind-

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE MANZANO FAMILY

INTO THE SAFARI. Hunter Manzano sitting behind his blue wildebeest, a few hours north of Johannesburg, South Africa. er of the great time we had there and the challenging hunt. The meat was donated to the locals and we all had a delicious wildebeest steak for dinner. It’s important to

connect with one’s primitive side. You develop a respect for life in the past, and a gratitude for what you have now. Hunting helps you do that.

Denton, Templeton share stories of how they began hunting Families influenced love of outdoors, hunting as recreational sport for these wild game enthusiasts Abigail Hissong Staff reporter Some people like to lie on the beach for relaxation. Others prefer to visit family or take a trip to a foreign city away from their lives at home. Some people would rather stay in, to read a good book and sip on tea. Yet, for a select few, heading to the woods to hunt is the ultimate way to unwind.

Sophomores Jessica Denton and Cade Templeton are proof of that. They find time between school, studying, and extracurriculars to hunt deer and other animals.

Denton, while relatively new to the hunting scene, grew up around the sport.

With hunting being a sort of “right of passage” in her family, it was only a matter of time before she picked up a gun.

“The best part of hunting is definitely just being one with nature and hanging out in the woods. It’s really scenic and relaxing, especially in the fall,” Denton said.

Denton’s family usually travels out of the state to West Virginia to hunt water-

fowl and bucks. Hunting has given Denton a way to combine two of her interests.

“I’ve always liked being outside and spending quality time with my family. I love benefiting from not only a day of enjoyment but the occasional meal as well,” Denton said .

Templeton, however, is no beginner when it comes to the hunting. The first time he fully immersed himself in the hunting experience was when he got his first kill after having sat in the woods, covered in camouflage, since the early hours of the morning.

“The thrill you get once you get your hit your target is definitely the best part for me,” Templeton said.

Templeton has always enjoyed being outdoors. But once he realized he could translate his enthusiasm for being outdoors in to hunting, he was hooked. As for now, Templeton has gained a lot of experience, continues to be interested in hunting with his brother and friends.

“Now, I mostly hunt deer and squirrel, but my favorite animal to hunt is definitely waterfowl,” Templeton said.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JESSICA DENTON

POINT AND SHOOT. Sophomore Jessica Denton finds hunting a family affair. Although she is relatively new to hunting herself, she enjoys the relaxation she finds in nature.

Why do you hunt?

Game of choice: White tailed deer Why? It’s fun spending time with family, and we get the meat and eat it all.

Game of choice: White tailed deer Why? It’s fun, especially when you kill something.

Sophomore Chandler Hill

Sophomore Malichi Simmons

Game of choice: White tailed deer Why? It’s enjoyable to get out there and sit in the woods. You just get a rush when you see something walk in fron of you.

Senior Ryan Kyser

PHOTO COURTESY OF CADE TEMPLETON

VETERAN TO THE SPORT. Sophomore Cade Templeton completely immerses himself in the wild while out on a hunting expedition in camouflage clothes in the early morning.

Game of choice: Bucks in Mexico Why? It releases stress...We do it for the food. We’re not into cutting off the heads and putting them on a wall.

Sophomore Carlos Avila

INFOGRAPHIC BY BRENNA COWARDIN

Hunting Season Restrictions in Virginia Deer:

Early Archery Season: Oct. 4 to Nov. 4 (Statewide) Early Muzzle loader Season: Nov. 1 to Nov. 14 There is no early muzzle loading season in the cities of Chesapeake, Virginia Beach, or Suffolk since it occurs during the general firearms season.

Early Firearms: Nov. 15 to Nov. 29

Seasons Vary Internationally

Bear:

Archery: Oct. 4 to Nov. 14 (Statewide) Muzzle loader: Oct. 8 to Nov. 14 (statewide) Firearms: Oct. 1 to Jan. 3 (Chesapeake, Suffolk, and Virginia Beach) Nov. 24 to Jan. 3 (Numerous counties and localities across Virginia) Dec.1 to Jan. 3 (Buchanan, Dickenson, Lee, Russell, Scott, Washington, and Wise)

Turkey:

Archery Season: Oct. 4 to Nov. 8 (statewide) Firearms: Oct. 25 to Nov. 7 Nov. 27 Dec. 1 to Dec. 27 Jan. 10 to Jan 24 All of the above: Numerouse counties and localities across Virginia

Spring Turkey:

April 11 to May 3 One-half hour before sunrise until 12 noon each day.

May 4 to May 16 One-half hour before sunrise to sunset.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE MANZANO FAMILY

BLESSBUK. African safari season differs from those in Virginia, allowing Manzano to kill this animal.

The Newsstreak

November 25, 2014

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November 25, 2014

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STYLE-A9

Counseling staff provides opportunities for kids Isaiah King Staff Reporter Just right down the hall from our lunchroom lies an office of ongoing support and guidance to the student body. School counselors are tasked each and every day to deal with high school drama, troublemakers, and scheduling. These people know the gossip among us teenagers and how we act. They, too, went through the same troubles we have. Christy Norment

and Lisa Warren are two individuals who are driving forward to aid in the success of high schoolers.

A resource both counselors assist with is giving a helping hand to any student struggling within their classes.

“If a student comes to us and they are struggling in class, we try to look at the whole picture of what’s going on and we get to the bottom of it,” Norment said.

At this point, the counselors would do informal assessments about the student’s

PHOTOS BY AVA REYNOLDS

STUDY HARD. Junior Darby Boontarue uses the counseling center to study for a class.

Other students find it useful when researching colleges.

mental health, whether or not there is depression, anxiety or a problem academically because of a learning disorder.

“With mental health, they may need more support within the school counseling program or support through an outside program like the McNulty Center,” Norment said. The McNulty Center, located in Harrisonburg, is for children and family needing group therapy or prevention sessions for any issue.

Another available option is SAP, the Student Assistant Program. Directed by a licensed professional counselor, David Ward, can offer onsite counseling to students assigned to SAP. For academics, SAP is supposed to be targeted at helping someone get back on track with their classes. This includes tutoring by the Academic Academy. Child study is a process that shows if a student needs testing for special education services to satisfy their needs.

“If they don’t have the resources at home to get done what they need done like internet access, then we try to get them into a situation where they can have those things,” Norment said.

A common approach to arrange a solution would be to first identity what is going on by communicating with teachers and parents. Then the counselors would consult with other professionals in the building. From this based off what they find from meeting with the student and getting their perspective, the counselors will use a resource.

“One of those resources can be a meeting with your school counselor for a little while. That is more of a short term mental health and academic support,” Norment

said.

Students who schedule an appointment can get advice from Warren if that individual is struggling with communicating with their teacher or is unable to access their grades/student account.

Appointments can be made through an online system. By going to the counseling website, students can find their counselor by their last name and click on the link. From there, students would sign up to meet with their counselor with reasons why. Another option is to just arrive at their office. Though this does depend on if that counselor is free.

“We meet with students who have an F and look at why that is. If it’s because of their tests, or because they aren’t doing their homework, then we try to offer suggestions,” Warren said.

The most common solution is, “If you have lots of missing homework, then could you go back and makeup homework or can you do retakes on your test. Learning how to communicate with the teacher,” Warren said.

Additional help can be offered with one of your counselors contacting that teacher and asking what their suggestions are to help improve in class.

“A lot of kids come in very discouraged because they have so many outstanding assignments, so I suggest going to the teacher and asking what can I make up that will impact my grade the most,” Warren said.

Communication is key, though. Each counselor would pull up your grades and talk one on one about how to achieve the best of your ability. Their job is to give you the most out of your high school career.

Counselors continue to solve scheduling puzzle Martin Beck Staff Reporter

ter, outside of school grounds, also have scheduling issues.

“It’s hard to handle a kid that wants to be a nurse at MTC and make sure that they take the college math courses […], pass their SOLs, and get all the necessary components in,” Meyers said. He describes the entire process as “the hardest calculus problem you’ve ever had.”

Additional teachers may be required for the in-demand courses, in order to avoid overflowing classes. Room availability is another constraint placed on schedules.

“The number of rooms we have available each block is limited because of our capacity,” Linden said. “Often times we have to go against what the computer is recommending for where a course should

sit in the day because we don’t have a space to put it.”

Student schedules are never perfect.

There is a 10-day grace period at the beginning of the first semester and a five-day grace period at the beginning of the second semester for students to request any alterations. However, Linden asserts that the classes on a student’s original schedule are often the result of teacher recommendations; one should make a deliberate decision before requesting a change.

“We try to get you ready for the next step in your life, which is after graduation,” Meyers said. “An exciting world is out there for you guys.”

“Why do you use the counseling center?”

Ward works wonders

“It’s like a giant, giant puzzle,” counselor Timothy Meyers said. It’s not your average puzzle, either; it’s one with hundreds of pieces and, quite literally, millions of combinations. It’s a puzzle that must be constructed one and a half thousand times.

It is the puzzle of scheduling.

Creating students’ schedules is a daunting task, undertaken by HHS guidance counselors annually. Planning begins in fall of the previous year. Teachers submit a list of courses they are going to offer for the following year, which is compiled into a master list. In late January to early Feb-

ruary, students have the opportunity to sit down with their counselor and plan for the next year.

“Once we get all the student course requests in, we enter those into PowerSchool, and we’re able to run the numbers on how many students have requested each course,” counselor Rachel Linden said. The least popular classes are scrapped completely, while the most popular are prioritized.

Classes, like puzzle pieces, won’t always fit together. Some can be scheduled easily, such as the required core classes, while others, such as the STEM and Fine Arts academies, don’t fit so smoothly into students’ schedules. Students who take classes at Massanutten Technical Cen-

Phoebe Copeland Staff Reporter

“If I have a problem I’ll go to them.

If I see a bullying incident I’ll go and tell them. They also can help if I have a family problem.”

-Brianna VIncent, 9

“To change classes.”

Donovan Smith, 11

“I just went there to change my class.”

Josiah Phillips, 10

“I would go there if I needed someone to talk to about my problems.”

Casey Sheets, 10

“I ask them about careers and they’re good at scheduling. If you have any problems you can go there for help.”

Dunya Shihav, 10

“I just went there to get stuff about Blue Ridge and transferring to another school.”

Antonio Mondragon, 12

Officially titled the Student Assistance Counselor, David Ward is first and foremost here for students. Although he works with the Student Assistance Program, the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, and various other committees within the school, Ward’s favorite thing about his job is helping students one on one.

“I think the best part of my job is meeting with students, I really enjoy … connecting students with services and things that they might not have otherwise been able to access. That really excites me because you never know what is going to be the thing that may really help a student be successful,” Ward said.

With a masters degree in community counseling from Radford University, Ward worked in alternative day schools and in his own private practice before coming to HHS. Hired last October, Ward has been quick to make an impact. On a school wide basis, one of Ward’s most notable changes is the beginning of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program.

Ward is trying to cultivate a community through this program. Although he admits that it’s still a work in progress, Ward seems undaunted. The message Ward is trying to promote through this program is that, “It’s okay to stand up for your fellow students and it’s okay to help each other out.”

Ward is available to meet with students in times of crisis or simply when their usual counselor is unavailable. Ward, who can be met with by making an appointment time, also meets with several students on a regular basis for general counseling.

NEED GUIDANCE?

“When I have problems with my friends.”

Jazmyne Martin, 9

“In case you’re having a bad day and you need someone to talk to or if you want to switch classes. They also help with college.”

Karina Vazquez, 9

“To help me with a lot of problems I’ve had in school.”

Catherine Hall, 10 INFOGRAPHIC BY MARIA SNELL-FEIKEMA

Set up an appointment with your counselor by dropping by the guidance office or by signing up online from the HHS homepage

FUN during

November 25, 2014

The Newsstreak

STYLE-A10

E L T Shradley-Horst’s “Make and Take” art class proves popular xtended

earning

ime

PHOTO BY BRENNA COWARDIN

THIS IS HOW WE DO IT. Kelly Shradley-Horst leads weekly art lessons during ELT. Freshman Kellyn Rivera uses this class to make up for Art not fitting into her schedule.

PHOTO BY BRENNA COWARDIN

STUFF IT. Junior Lizette Rojas fills her soon-to-be stress ball with flour.

Brenna Cowardin Editor-in-Chief At the end of the nine weeks, things get pretty stressful for students and teachers alike. Art teacher Kelly Shradley-Horst found a new way to combat that pressure--making stress balls during her “Make and Take” art Extended Learning Time option.

“It’s the end of the marking period, so I chose stress balls, but with any activity I look for something that’s kind of low stress that’s just fun,” Shradley-Horst said.

The process itself was fairly simple. The impromptu artist starts with a deflated balloon and puts it on the end of a funnel. “[After that] comes the long tedious part, and that’s blowing up a balloon without using air...I’m going to take a paintbrush and slowly push the flour into the balloon,” Shradley-Horst said. “And you have to do this slowly or else you will have flour puffing up in your face.”

This process’ ease is a bit deceiving, although the artists were quite competent in the their work, without a single puff of flour. This reporter failed not once but twice to create her own stress ball. Both

times an exorbitant amount of flour ended up in her face, on the person next to her and below her feet.

Shradley-Horst offered a few extra design options, including another balloon to stretch over the permanent marker and googly eyes.

“I got googly eyes because everything is better with googly eyes,” Shradley-Horst said.

As she handed out the prepared materials, Shradley-Horst’s assembly line-like production of balloons with funnels and flour created a sort of rhythm.

“I feel like I’m making milkshakes or something, handing them off and saying, ‘Here enjoy your milkshake,’” Shradley-Horst said.

Shradley-Horst’s other projects have ranged from soda tab bracelets to paper coiling and quilling to three dimensional hand drawings. With all of the projects, she has to work around specific limits.

“The biggest constraint is finding something that is very cheap or free because there’s a lot of things that you can do, but supplies cost money,” Shradley-Horst said. “...They [also] need to be able to do it in an hour, and take it with them. That takes a lot of things like clay or painting out because you need that dry time.”

Freshman Kellyn Rivera loves art, but she wasn’t able to take an art class this year. She uses ELT time to get the creative juices flowing.

“I just enjoy everything that we do here.

It’s fun,” Rivera said. Her favorite project so far was the bracelets.

“I like the bracelets that we made out of soda tabs...The soda tabs were woven into the ribbon,” Rivera said. Her advice to a student in need of an ELT activity is to come and check “Make and Take” out.

“This is a really fun ELT club. Everyone enjoys it. The projects are just fun, and the teacher is really helpful with stuff,” Rivera said.

Junior Lizette Rojas also recommends that students try “Make and Take.”

“You have to come to see it,” Rojas said.

Shradley-Horst hopes to nurture a relaxing environment for her ELT attendees.

“[My favorite part about projects like this] is that they’re quick and simple and anyone can do it...It’s a relaxing time to create, and I think that’s an important part of anybody’s day,” Shradley-Horst said. She believes that the fun is the most important aspect to any ELT project.

“It’s silly knowledge,” Shradley-Horst said.

“You’re not going to use these skills in your life, but it’s still fun to plunge flour with a paint brush.”

PHOTO BY BRENNA COWARDIN

LIKE THIS? Students that attended Shradley-Horst’s ELT “Make and Take” art activity figured out how to get the balloons over the funnel. The next steps include stuffing the balloon with flour through the funnel, wrapping it in another balloon for stability and eventually tying it off into a ball.

PHOTO BY BRENNA COWARDIN

IT’S ART Students can attend Kelly Shradley-Horst’s “Make and Take” art class during ELT on Thursdays. They’ll make a simple--and often useful--piece to take home. Past projects have included flour and balloon stress balls and 3D hand drawings, like the ones pictured here.

Spanish board games activity creates great time for friends Ali Price Staff Reporter

“I don’t really know where we got the inspiration for [the club], to tell you the truth,” Hook said. “We were brainstorming The Spanish board games club may be last year about what things students might small, but it’s certainly a close-knit group want to come do [during ELT]. We thought ELT might be a good use for [the games of friends.

“Yeah, we all come here together,” that we have].”

Though the name of the club is “Spanfreshman Anthony Orellana said. “It’s fun ish board games”, students speak in a mixto come here and play board games with ture of Spanish and English, flowing from your friends.”

Kim Hook, the club’s supervisor, said one language to the other. Likewise, many that as many as five to 10 students at- of the board games are simply American tend the club bi-weekly, which takes place games translated into Spanish, such as during academic ELT periods. Students go Scrabble, Monopoly or Apples to Apples.

“Our department has some card games to room 415 for an hour of games in Spanthat are traditional Spanish games, but ish. usually the students don’t want to play The club was created by a group of faculty last year when deciding what they them,” Hook said.

Orellana and his friends pass the time could do for students during ELT. by playing alternate games of Uno and Monopoly. The Uno games are intense, with one round often lasting 30 minutes among four players.

“Uno’s my favorite game,” Orellana said. “I like to play it because I like numbers, and I like math.”

Hook has found that the club is a good opportunity for students to enjoy and practice foreign languages outside of the classroom without taking away needed instructional time.

“We’ve had these ScrabPHOTO BY ALI PRICE ble games for a long time, CLASSIC. Some of the Spanish board games club’s favor- but rarely do we have time ite games aren’t traditional Spanish card games, but clas- in class to play them,” said sic American games translated into Spanish.

Hook.

PHOTO BY ALI PRICE

PHOTO BY ALI PRICE

I CAN SEE YOUR CARDS. (Top) Jeison Rodriguez and Anthony Orellana laugh over Monopoly. (Below) Kim Hook’s student teacher James Dean plays Uno with Orellana and his friends during ELT. Hook hosts a Spanish Board Games Club during the weekly ELT session where students can come and play traditional Spanish card games but typically opt for American games translated into Spanish.

Inge’s fashion design activity an opportunity to have fun, create during CHOICE time Naomi Gelberg-Hagmaier Op/Ed Editor Fashion design is one of the many ELT options offered. Anyone is welcome, though Economics and Personal Finance teacher Mary Inge decided to offer this choice activity for people who are interested in fashion. It was something she was familiar with because of her previous experience in teaching fashion design at Albe-

marle High School.

“We needed some fun things to do during choice time, and I used to teach fashion design in another school,” Inge said.

But the activity is nothing like a lesson.

It’s minuscule compared to typical class sizes with only two to three students in attendance. Not only is it much smaller, but it’s also much more relaxed; students can come one week and not the next and they won’t miss anything. Students work

independently on designs and nothing is graded.

Although it is mostly a self directed activity, Inge is there to get the students started and give them some pointers.

“Use light strokes,” Inge advised. As well as providing friendly guidance, she gives students a template to design on.

“I think sometimes people are intimidated because they don’t feel like they can draw,” Inge said.

The template provides the perfect op-

portunity for students who don’t consider themselves artists to try their hand at fashion design.

“Some people will just doodle during class, or other times too, and some of them will be fashion things,” Inge said. The main purpose of fashion design is to provide a place for students to design clothes for fun.

“This is a place for them to come and do something relaxing that they enjoy,” Inge said.

The Newsstreak

November 25, 2014

FEATURE-B1

Experience Lots of Languages

Prieto becoming polyglot to communicate with others Evan Dotas Staff Reporter At most high schools in America, students are required to take a foreign language. Here at HHS, principal Cynthia Prieto sets the example by speaking multiple languages.

“Spanish, English and French I claim,” Prieto said.

Although she was raised in a bilingual household, she learned French in high school and college.

“I could get along in French. Find a sandwich, find a train station, find a bathroom, that sort of thing. Negotiate shopping

of some kind, I totally could do that,” Prieto said.

Prieto’s interest in languages started as a child, where her parents taught her Spanish and English.

“My father is Colombian and he learned English, and my mother is American and she learned Spanish,” Prieto said. Even now, she speaks both languages when she is with her family.

“When I’m with my family, we actually mix it. We speak Spanglish,” Prieto said.

Before Prieto worked at HHS, she taught at Lake Braddock, which was not very diverse. However, at HHS, her bilingualism has

been incredibly helpful in dealing with students and parents. “[Being bilingual here has helped] immensely, just hugely. Even to the point of, if off-hours the phone rings and it’s somebody who speaks Spanish, they get sent to me and I address it.

It allows me to reach out and to let the community know that the school is very open and welcomes their questions and their concerns and their participation and I can do it in their language and I don’t have to take the time to find a translator. I just take care of it.”

Prieto strongly believes

that everyone should strive to speak a second language, especially in today’s society.

“I think learning a language as a second language hones your brain. I think it makes you a better thinker.

I think it helps with math and science and reading and comprehension and communication and all those things. I think that being bilingual, nowadays, in the United States, opens doors,” Prieto said. She also admitted that a teacher who speaks two languages looks better than one that does not.

“There’s no doubt in my mind, if I am interviewing

PHOTO BY EVAN DOTAS

REPEAT AFTER ME. Principal Cynthia Prieto is learning Arabic through Rosetta Stone. She already knows three languages, which include Spanish, English, and French.

Why take different languages in school?

Chanelle Francois, 11

Mary-Hallet Culbreth, 11

Q: How long have you been taking French?

A: I just started taking French this year.

Q: How would you compare it to English?

A: It’s a little bit more challenging, and it has more spelling things you have to pay attention to.

Q: Is it easy or hard for you?

A: It’s easy for me, because I already speak it.

Q: Why did you choose French as it is a less popular language?

A: I chose it because not only will it help me to know my culture better, but it’s also pretty fun to speak. And for the easy A. Q: Is this language useful in any other class?

A: Not really, unless someone has a question.

Q: How will this help you outside of the classroom?

A: In the future, I’m going to travel to France, and it will help me to understand other people.

Q AND A BY MARLEY ADAMEK

Q: Is Latin an online class?

A: It isn’t an online class, but I have to take it outside of school because it is only offered in the morning, and that is when I am at Gov school.

Q: How long have you been taking Latin?

A: I have been taking Latin since eighth grade, but I didn’t do it last year.

Q: How would you compare Latin to English?

A: It’s obviously way harder than English, but learning it has helped my understanding of English words and meanings. It is definitely hard, but I love it when the work pays off and I start to read Latin passages fluently.

Q: How has Latin helped you in your other classes?

A: Latin is the root language of most other languages we encounter, especially English, so it has helped a ton in English class and on PSATs. Q: Why did you choose Latin instead of a more popular language like French or Spanish?

A: I chose Latin because I figured it may be my only chance to learn it, and I can learn Spanish in so many other ways in the future!

for a teacher, and they have everything [else] the same, then I want to lean towards the bilingual one. In whatever language. Because they can, especially in schools as diverse as ours, connect more,” Prieto said.

However, knowing three dialects hasn’t quenched Prieto’s thirst for learning languages.

“I just like playing with languages, so I’ve messed around. A lot of the custodians at Mount Vernon and then at Braddock taught me Korean so I’ve got just a little bit so I can say ‘hi’ and ‘thank you’ and ‘congratulations’ and ‘Happy New Year’ and ‘Happy Birthday’ and things like that,” Prieto said. She also uses Rosetta Stone, a language-learning program that was founded in Harrisonburg.

“I just turned on my Rosetta Stone login that the school gave me for Arabic, so I’m trying to learn that.

I need to go back and finish up my French because I like playing with French but grammatically I’m not very accurate. I did several years of American sign language, and I’ve lost a lot of it, so I would like to go back and finish that,” Prieto said.

Learning Arabic is her next main mission when it comes to language.

“I’m really curious about Arabic because I understand none of it. There’s no cognates, there’s nothing that even gives me a context of what we’re seeing and my godson is half Pakistani. So we play around with ‘are you hungry,’ ‘bye,’ ‘I love you,’ that sort of thing, so I want to get better at that, and get more proper. I don’t want to insult anybody in a language

that has nuances on whether you’re being too formal or informal,” Prieto said.

When it comes to her native languages, Prieto has some personal preferences when it comes to words.

“In English, my favorite words match my niece’s growth. Each year, she has, for whatever reason in conversation, a word will come up. Her word right now is ‘scandalous.” She said ‘Cindi, what does ‘scandalous’ mean?’ So I explained it to her. Scandalous just kind of rolls off the tongue. So scandalous right now in English is a good word,” Prieto said.

However, due to the nature of Spanish, it’s a lot harder for her to have one favorite word.

“Spanish is a very poetic language, I just like hearing it, I like singing it. So I don’t know that I have a favorite,” Prieto said.

Despite having favorite words in English, she cannot choose between either tongue as a whole.

“I couldn’t [choose a favorite]. I couldn’t. I love them both. I love the opportunities that they both give me in communicating with people. I just like communicating.”

With her fascination in languages, it’s no surprise that she is “very much a believer” in requiring languages in schools. However, she does understand that being bilingual is very difficult.

“I think it’s an advantage. I think it’s a great idea. I think languages are hard for some people and easy for some people. But yes, I’m a believer that you should at least try. Everybody should try.”

City Schools rely on student interpreters Mia Karr Editor-In-Chief Senior Willy Velasco remembers what it was like when his family first came to the United States and didn’t speak any English. It’s because of this that Velasco gives back to other families in a similar situation by being a student interpreter.

“My favorite part [of being an interpreter] is speaking Spanish to the mom and trying to help [parents and teachers] understand each other,” Velasco said.

Velasco isn’t the only student who bridges the communication gap between parents and teachers on conference days.

According to home school liaison Yolanda Blake, the city schools use student volunteers to interpret in Spanish, Russian, Kurdish Arabic, Tigrynia, Amharic, and French.

Blake coordinates the volunteers and trains them in the art of interpreting, basing her orientation process on an official orientation training at JMU. She sees the program as not only a benefit to parents and teachers, but a benefit to the student interpreters

as well.

“If you have a background of another culture, the best thing to be is to become bicultural and bilingual, so in order to develop that piece, I always encourage kids to keep developing their language skills as a personal goal,” Blake said.

Blake has personal experience with navigating two languages and the sometimes tricky task of interpreting. The hardest part for her is mastering the art of “simultaneous interpretation”, where the interpreter starts speaking five seconds after the person he or she is interpreting for. It can pose other challenges as well.

“I think that’s it’s hard when there are emotions involved in the interpretation...because you are getting those emotions, and as a good interpreter, you are supposed to convey the spirit of the conversation,” Blake said.

Velasco also finds that interpreting can be a challenge.

“The hardest part is when a word comes up and you can’t really get a word to translate it, or when the mom doesn’t go slowly,”

Velasco said.

On the other hand, senior Aster Amine, who speaks Tigrynia, the language of East African country Eritrea, sees interpreting as fairly straightforward.

“You just have to be good and tell them everything that they said,” Amine said. Amine got into interpreting for much the same reason as Velasco- to help people who speak her language.

One important consideration for every interpreter to take into account is the matter of confidentiality. To Blake, keeping business discussed in parent/teacher conferences private is the “golden rule.” Interpreters must have the maturity to handle their task.

“If you are not able to keep a secret, than you are not ready to be an interpreter,” Blake said.

Although being an interpreter is a big responsibility, it can be a great opportunity for a bilingual student.

“You should be proud.

It’s a true gift,” Blake said.

“Not everyone can handle two languages at the same time. And those that do, I encourage them to just keep developing.”

Spanish club members organizing different events Harmony Wilson News Editor The unifying and culturally intertwined Spanish Club is working hard this year to bring together their many events and highly energetic club members, into an orderly function. Most members such as Paulette Ruiz, a senior who is a part of Spanish Club committee, find organizing and arranging the club’s activities to be very exciting.

“We mostly organize and come up with ideas for the club to do with the help of Mr. Yutzy and Mrs.

Rojas,” Ruiz said.

Club members participate in activities such as Futsal, which is indoor soccer, and also help the staff arrange for guests like Ernie G. to come in the school and speak to the students.

“It was our idea to bring in an inspirational speaker like Ernie G. who is also a comedian to inspire kids that don’t have much motivation and to get them interested in clubs such as Spanish Club,” Ruiz said.

Apart from the current activities the club is arranging, Futsal teams are also forming which allow club

members to start playing indoor soccer this December. The teams are made up of the students who then start practices and participate in games. Ruiz, as well as Helen Melenciano, a junior who has been a part of the club for one year, highly encourages any students who like soccer to join the club.

“I’m looking forward to doing some outdoor activities with our groups this year and to play soccer,” Melenciano said. “[During meetings] we usually cook Hispanic food and talk about possible college

options, mostly Hispanic stuff,” Melenciano said.

The Spanish Club takes many trips as well as doing different activities. Senior Luis Vargas who is a member of Spanish Club also talks about his experience with the club.

“The club goes on lots of cool trips like to Spain, and I want to go sometime,” Vargas said. “We also have a lot of newcomers to the club this year so it’s like the older kids get to help out the newer members learn everything and have a good time,” Vargas said.

A World of Language

34

Number of languages spoken in HCPS: Main languages other than English:

Spanish Arabic

Kurdish Russian Otomi

Tigrinya

November 25, 2014

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STYLE-B2

Oh, the places you could go

Dod accepted into her dream school Victoria Giron Feature Editor November is a time for most seniors to worry about college applications, recommendations, and where they will be in a year’s time. However, Maddy Dod is among those seniors who don’t have to worry because she has already been accepted to her dream school, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Dod started her application early, in the middle of August.

“I heard back a month later, so they’re really good about getting back to you right away,” Dod said.

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville responded to Dod early enough so that she didn’t have to apply to any other schools.

“I halfway applied to Auburn University which is in Alabama, but once I found out I got into Tennessee I was

like ‘Alright, I don’t need it anymore.’,” Dod said.

Dod had a couple of specifications that she was looking for in the schools she was applying to.

“I wanted to go out of state, but I didn’t want to go to California, like super far away, and Knoxville is 5 and a half hours away, so it’s the perfect distance. Knoxville is such an amazing city,” Dod said.

Dod also chose to go to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville because her brother attends the school and the school was what she wanted. Dod enjoys the fact that school spirit is big at the school along with athletics.

“My brother will graduate a semester after I’m there, so it’ll be good to have someone I know there, and it’s a really big school and I wanted to go to a big school,” Dod said.

Dod is planning to major in Premed.

“I’ll hopefully end up being an orthopedic surgeon or a physical therapist,” Dod said.

Dod wants to get involved at her future school extracurricularly.

“I’ll probably join a sorority or the ski and snowboard club since they take trips out to Colorado and stuff,” Dod said.

Now that Dod is done with the application process, she is applying for scholarships. Dod also has time to reflect on her favorite courses and teachers from HHS. “AP Psychology was really interesting because I’ve never really taken a class like that before. Mr. Healy was my favorite teacher because I had him for AP Euro and then AP Psych and he has the best stories and he’s really nice,” Dod said.

Dod will now place her focus on simply finishing this year off and graduating in June.

Door decorating contest encourages college involvement The guidance department sponsored a door decorating contest during college application week to increase student awareness of college options.

Evans-Haywood to perform with Up with People Maria Snell-Feikema Staff Reporter Senior Lilly Evans-Haywood has decided to spend her life during and after college contributing to the community. A performer, Evans-Haywood applied and was accepted into a service organization, Up with People, in which participants from around the world volunteer and perform around the world.

Established in the 1960s during the social revolution, Up with People focuses on breaking borders, bringing people from different cultures together through performance and service projects.

“I was like, ‘this is perfect’,” Evans-Haywood said. “I can go all around the world, I get to spend time with people I want to be with, and I get to help people.”

During each visit, which last a week each, students are able to do different services for that specific community such as construction of houses, volunteering at a hospital, or helping out at schools.

“I don’t like being recognized for my community service,” Evans-Hay-

wood said. “So I feel like leaving after we’ve done the [service] projects is good. They don’t know who did it.”

After each week, the group performs a show for the specific community. In the past, Evans-Haywood has participated in dance classes, choir, band, and numerous music camps.

“I like being harmony, being the supporting role,” Evans-Haywood said.

Throughout the program, Evans-Haywood will visit three different continents; South America, North

America, and Europe.

“Everyone wants to travel,” Evans-Haywood said. “I’m really, really excited about going to Europe. We’re going to Italy and Spain.”

Evans-Haywood decided to apply for this program after seeing a show performed by them at Eastern Mennonite University. Originally Up with People had visited HHS for recruitment, where she had heard about the show. After encouragement from her friends, she filled out the paper application.

“They emailed me a week later [saying] ‘Congratulations!’” Evan-Haywoods said. “I was really excited. Only 100 people in the whole world get accepted for a semester.”

After working with Up with People, which she will participate in during her sophomore year of college, Evans-Haywood plans on finishing college and becoming an elementary teacher, where she hopes to continue her passion for performance.

“My first grade teacher always had a guitar with her,” Evans-Haywood said. “She would have us learn with music, so I would like to bring a guitar to [my class].”

Application process fairly easy for some colleges

Eddie Mestre Opinion Editor As many seniors panic and stress about college applications, there are a few who can sit back and laugh at our misery. These individuals have already been accepted to the colleges they wish to attend next year and have been rather stress free for the last few weeks.

Among this small handful of individuals is Anna Dick who was recently accepted to Roanoke College in Roanoke, Virginia.

The application process was fairly easy for Dick.

“I got a priority application from college board, so I filled it out, it was pretty simple,” Dick said.

The priority application didn’t require essays, teacher recommendations or a fee. It did, however, include a photo.

“I thought [uploading a photo] was very interesting. I hadn’t seen that on any other college applications,” Dick said.

Roanoke college is perfect for DIck as it has a theater program and edu-

cation as a major option, which are two musts for Dick. The school also has small classes and beautiful scenery, which Dick really appreciates.

“Good food is always a plus as well.

Roanoke’s food was really good,” Dick said.

Dick also finds the large amount of extra-curricular options to be a bonus. In particular are the colleges a cappella groups. Dick was a singer and now she has the opportunity to go back if she wants. She also knows of a theater group at Roanoke college and

is planning on becoming active there.

The school has a relatively small Greek life, but she hasn’t thrown the idea of joining a sorority out the window yet.

Dick wants to teach middle or high school theater after college. This is mainly because there aren’t many theater opportunities in elementary school, but also Dick would like to teach a more independent and mature group of students. She plans on pursuing a theater major with a minor in education.

Another bonus to Roanoke college, in Dick’s eyes, is their study abroad program.

I want to travel somewhere out of the U.S… somewhere in Europe... maybe the Mediterranean area,” Dick said.

Traveling the world would be useful to Dick, as theater cuts across many cultures and is universal in its design.

Now that she has been accepted, Dick has more time to explore exactly what the college has to offer. She is excited about the college process and looks forward to the opportunities at Roanoke college.

Heckman hopes to research with professors Alex Osinkosky Staff Reporter If there is one thing that our school encourages, it is going to college.

Many of the students here plan on attending college.

Among the many seniors planning on going to college, Morgan Heckman, who has already had some experiences with college professors, has already gotten an idea of what she wants to do with her life.

“My research has allowed me to work with college professors and get a feel for how that learning environment work and it’s also given me a good background in research itself, which I hope to continue in college,” Heckman said.

Heckman has applied to JMU, Roanoke College, and Bridgewater College and has already been accepted to both Roanoke and Bridgewater.

She plans to start at the beginning of next year, but doesn’t know at which institution yet.

“I am most excited about getting the chance to work with professors,” Heckman said.

Although she has worked with professors before, Heckman wants to be able to work with them some more.

“I am hoping to start working on research with them,” Heckman said.

Heckman plans to major in something within the sciences, but is not sure of whether she will have a minor.

Despite being in the Governor’s School, she still hopes that college will provide her with an outlet to further study what she loves.

“I hope that I’ll have more time to pursue things that I’m interested in,” Heckman said. Her ideal college is one where she would be able to work with professors closely and enjoy the company of her peers. “[I want] a school where I can have personal connections with my professors and a school with research opportunities in a similar environment in which I’ve been doing, a place where I can enjoy working with the people that I’m with and really expand my understanding of everything,” Heckman said. Heckman would recommend going to college for high school students. “[It] opens up a lot of opportunities. It also provides freedom of choice,” Heckman said.

Lovo to double major in English, psychology Julie Hedrick Staff Reporter While many seniors are still applying and writing college essays, senior Selena Lovo has already applied, and been accepted to the University of Mary Baldwin. Many schools e-mailed Lovo and requested her application, but Lovo applied to James Madison University because it was in the area she’s been in for years. Lovo also applied to Old Dominion University because she liked the geography and environment Old Dominion University had.

“Applying took a really long time. People say it doesn’t take long, but they’re liars. There were a lot of questions to answer and essays to write,” Lovo said. As well as JMU and Old Do-

minion, Lovo applied to George Mason, Bridgewater, Mary Baldwin, and Lynchburg.

Lovo plans to major in English and Psychology.

“I’ve always like English, and correcting people’s grammar. As for psychology, I’ve always liked to know how people’s mind work. It’s fascinating! I want to become an English teacher, but if that doesn’t work out, I’m not sure what I could do with a psychology major,” Lovo said.

Outside of school Lovo is a part of marching band and hopes to continue in band through college.

“Whichever college I end up going to has to have a masters program and a really good teaching program. I don’t want to have to transfer to another school just to get my masters,” Lovo said.

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November 25, 2014

FEATURE-A3

Sweet rice that is out of this Thailand Ali Price Staff Reporter

When it comes to food, I am not the type of person who likes to branch out.

That is why it was with some trepidation that I entered Taste of Thai. The atmosphere was different than I had expected-- the interior was dim, with round tables scattered about the room. Booths with red seat cushions lined the walls, and there was even a bar set up towards the entryway. The low lighting made the restaurant feel warm and cozy.

I sat in one of the booths and ordered spring rolls and the chef’s special chicken. The spring rolls came first, and they were almost too hot to touch. They resembled any egg roll on the outside, but on the inside, they contained mostly cabbage, carrots, and other vegetables, along with bean sprouts.

They were served on a little plate, big enough to fit two, with a dipping sauce. The sauce was sweet, and though it was a good complement to the rest of the roll, I didn’t eat much because it was too tangy and left a weird taste in my mouth. I found myself sipping on my water periodically while waiting for my chicken, trying to get rid of the strange aftertaste.

After a short wait, my chicken came. One of the coolest things about Taste of Thai is how they serve your food-- my chicken was served in a long, deep bowl

meant to resemble a blue fish, with its head serving as one end and its tail acting as the other. A small white bowl, piled high with cooked rice, was given to me alongside it, and I had a plate that I could mix the two with.

The chicken looked like General Tso’s chicken-- it was covered in a sweet, sticky sauce that gave it an orange-brown hue. The chicken itself was very crunchy, something I hadn’t expected. I enjoyed it immensely.

Swimming along with the chicken in a sort of brown broth were cooked vegetables such as onions and peppers. The PHOTOS BY ALI PRICE crunchiness of the JUST THE RIGHT PRICE. Taste of Thai offers unique fare for reasonable prices in fairly large portions. chicken and the vegetables worked well cheesecake. I settled on sweet off of it made me cut off a small in all, the sweet rice was perhaps with the sweetness my favorite part of my trip to of the sauce covering the chick- rice topped with egg custard. Al- piece and put it in my mouth. though I had been hesitant comThe rice was warm and, as the Taste of Thai. en. The broth that the two were ing in to the restaurant, I was name proclaims, very sweet beThough I enjoyed the chicken served in soaked into the rice as well, which gave the normally beginning to enjoy the food, and cause of the coconut milk that it and sweet rice, I wasn’t able to bland food a stronger but pleas- I was eager to try a dessert out- was cooked in. The egg custard finish either at the restaurant. side my norm. on top was dense and cold, but Taste of Thai’s portions are large; ing taste.

When the sweet rice arrived, the differing temperatures didn’t if you’re not planning on taking I decided to branch out even further by ordering dessert. I was nearly put off. The egg cus- affect the taste of the overall leftovers home with you, bring a Taste of Thai offers desserts rang- tard looked like a yellow-brown dish. In fact, it helped each dis- friend along with you so you can ing from sweet rice topped with mass on top of a slab of con- tinct part stand out in my mouth, split a dish. Even if you’re a picky mangoes to traditional New York gealed rice that was drenched in instead of having the two blend eater, like me, you may find that coconut milk. The aroma coming together into one giant mess. All the change is worth it.

Vietopia serves heaping helpings Ellie Plass Online Editor I did not have high expectations for the hole-in-the-wall restaurant, Vietopia. It resides in a shopping center right next to Food Lion and a nail salon. Both of those neighbors furthered my hesitations as I pushed open the glass door.

The first thing I noticed about the restaurant was how small it was. There was only about enough room for six tables, three of which were filled. I sat down at one of the empty ones, and was immediately greeted by an adorable Vietnamese man, bringing me a glass of water. He didn’t offer me anything else to drink, and so I think that that was all they offered unless you specifically asked.

I looked over the menu and finally settled on a noodle dish, topped with chicken, peanuts, and carrots. For an appetizer, I decided on the egg rolls, which were cooked to perfection and bursting with the flavor of shrimp, chicken, and beautifully cooked chicken. My meal only took about 10 minutes to come out, and it. Was. Huge. The bowl was far bigger than my head, and filled to the brim with the stringy white noodles and chicken with a peanut crust.

One thing in particular that I liked about the restaurant was the fact that they only offered chopsticks as silver-

ware. It gave it a very authentic feel, even if it was a little hard to eat. The food itself was also very well made, and delicious in a crisp way. The noodles were cooked to perfection, and the carrots mixed with ginger strands to add a kick. It was brought out with a delicious sauce on the side that was both sour and sweet. My only complaint was the chicken itself- they decided to leave the fat on it, and it was just a bit too much for me.

Once you got past that though, it was still delicious.

I get the impression that the place was a little hit-or-miss. I enjoyed it, but I particularly enjoy Asian food. If you aren’t someone who’s interested in branching out from lo mein and other Chinese-American favorites, this authentic Vietnamese may not be for you.

I’d give it three out of five stars, for great wait staff and authenticity, but greasy chicken.

Short on staff but worth wait Ava Reynolds Style Editor To many passers by, Xenia Kebab Grill may look like just another commercial ethnic place in the Harrisonburg Crossing area, however upon further glance, Xenia is actually a hub of delicious smells and a real Mediterranean taste. The small homey restaurant, with less than 10 tables crammed close together, made me feel as if I was in a little hole in the wall in New York City, not in residential Harrisonburg. University students to middle aged groups floated in and out the whole time we were there, giving Xenia a hopping urban feel.

It appeared that there was only one waitress on staff, so I tried not to be too hard on her when the food took about an hour to come out. However during the wait, I felt very taken care of; she returned several times to give us our free refills and keep us happy while we hungrily waited.

The first item to come out were the french fries. They were very crisp, perfectly salted, and clearly not from a frozen package. They even came with the option to put apple cider vinegar on them, which I had never seen before, so we tried it. The tastes blended together perfectly, the salty french fries with the sweet and sour vinegar. We pounced on them, and they were gone instantly.

We waited a bit more, watching the table next to us with only two people compared to our four, get their food. The smells of spices and sauteed meat wafted over from their table, making our anticipation and expectations even higher.

When we finally got our food, we barely took a breath. My order, The Kurdia, was a large pita wrap with falafel, a fried patty of ground chickpeas, and veggies atop it. The falafel was perfectly crunchy, and warm in the inside. The veggie combination of tomatoes, onions, lettuce mixed with Tahini sauce gave nice complementary flavor to the falafel. The pita was also great quality. It wasn’t too thin, if anything it was a bit too large because I struggled picking up and eating the folded pita, however it didn’t matter, the food just had to get in my mouth somehow.

Despite the long wait, the Xenia Kebab Grill rose above my expectations. I have had falafel and pita several times; however, between the quality of the falafel and the good homemade Tahini sauce, this is by far the best Mediterranean option in Harrisonburg.

SEE MORE ON THE WEB! HHSMEDIA.COM H For more international food reviews, go to our website.

La Morena has inexpensive, unique culinary creations Ariel Vogel Feature Editor The front of restaurant doesn’t exactly call people to enter with successful advertising and enticing deals. Rather, the convenience store looks like just that: a convenience store. The restaurant’s name, La Morena, is emblazoned across the top of the little building in colorful letters, but it was hard to say whether the people going in and out of the building were there for the authentic Mexican food or the cheap bags of rice.

The first time I went to La Morena, the experience was accompanied with previous knowledge of my friends’ obsession with the place. Even so, I definitely felt a little skeptical walking into the dingy store.

The menu, tacked above the cash register, is loosely translated to English and somewhat difficult to decipher. When I asked the woman behind the counter how large a pupusa would be, she nodded furiously before asking how many I would like.

I blindly ordered two.

My second run at La Morena went much more smoothly. Walking in prepared for a language barrier, I was relieved when the young woman at the counter spoke and understood English fluently. (Apparently, my American superiority complex has left me with an inability to comprehend anything other than English.) Feeling slightly more confident this time, I ordered three tacos, paid the surprisingly low price of five dollars and sat back to wait as a delicious smell arose in the restaurant.

La Morena’s customer base is highly diverse, I discovered as I waited for my food.

A few older Hispanic men, a frivolous group

of middle-aged white women, a young couple with their children--they all cycled through the restaurant in the short time I was there. A few seemed comfortable in the store; others looked somewhat overwhelmed by the contrasting atmosphere.

Overall, though, those present seemed confident in the quality of their food.

My food arrived in a good amount of time; it wasn’t so long I was getting angry but it wasn’t so short it seemed premade.

The three chicken tacos were heaped with onions and cilantro and I carried them over to the sauce station.

I found myself facing twelve clear buckets of multicolored toppings, all unfamiliar, all unlabeled.

The mysterious garnishes ranged from a thin green sauce to a gloppy red liquid with black specks to an onion and cabbage mixture. None of them smelled any particular way (trust me, I checked) and none were anything I had ever seen. After calling backup I settled on the green; it came much more highly recommended than anything else. And also was the only thing anyone had tried.

The tacos were on point. I have a tendency to prefer the greasy Americanized version of food rather than the authentic style, and pretty much expected this experience to go similarly. However, the musty grilled chicken combined with the cool clarity of fresh onions, cilantro and lime were a perfect balance. Even the suspicious sauce subtly added a spice to balance the meal.

Although the drink situation was a little confusing--I ended up buying a soda from the appropriately named convenience store across the aisle--the pure quality of the food allowed for any shortcomings to be dismissed.

PHOTO BY ARIEL VOGEL SPICY. Chicken tacos topped with onion, cilantro and a spicy thin green sauce.

While the atmosphere of the building is a little weird, it also somehow allows for privacy as you eat. Sure, other customers are shuffling around, a group of men is animatedly watching the soccer game and there’s an excess of motherly women running around the open kitchen in aprons.

Nevertheless, you can just tune it all out and do your own thing like everyone else doing theirs. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience and it comes highly recommended for anyone craving deliciously cheap food and a relaxing, albeit somewhat strange, evening with friends.

November 25, 2014

(540) 438-8800 Houses: P.O. Box 1391 Harrisonburg, VA 22803 RinerRentals.com

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Happy American Education Week Thanks to all our teachers, administrators, support staff, parents and students.

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November 25, 2014

SPORTS-B6

Eighth graders, freshman lead JV teams Despite losing record, JV volleyball players grow exponentially learning skills they’ve never encountered before. There is no middle school volleyball program, which puts our team at an automatic disadvantage at the onset of each season.

Brian Alvarado Staff Reporter

PHOTO COURTESY OF HHS YEARBOOK

STARTING OFF THE POINT. Sophomore Grace Meiser serves the ball to begin the rally at a home JV volleyball game against Spotswood High.

The JV volleyball team has had its ups and downs. The team had a losing season, with their record being 2-14. However, throughout the season, the players feel they improved on their skills and confidence on the court.

“Individually, I think skills have definitely gotten better.

We’ve got people that couldn’t serve the ball over at all and now they are getting 18 out of 20 serves over in practice,” coach Laurie Kraus said.

For Molly Benton, an organized volleyball game was a new experience.

“I had never actually played in a game before this season so at the very beginning of the season I got really nervous before games but now I just feel like I got this,” Benton said.

On the other hand, sophomore Grace Meiser, who has played in the program in previous years, felt more prepared for the games. She focused more on improving her game, because she already felt comfortable.

“I’ve been playing since the eighth grade, and I used to never get to score but now this year I get to score more and go after more balls,” Meiser said.

Sophomore Anna Bishop stepped it up as team captain.

“This year, I am captain so I’m definitely taking it a lot more seriously. I think all my skills have improved and my whole concept of volleyball has gotten better,” Bishop said.

Team members have also grown together as a team.

“Communication has definitely improved and they worked hard to improve their passing and skills,” Kraus said.

According to Benton, the team’s specific skills such as passing, hitting, and being able to get balls up to play have improved dramatically.

“We’ve definitely learned how to talk better and I think that we’re learning to get to the ball more,” Rath said.

Kraus has a job of coaching girls who have never played volleyball before, but she recognized many for their amount of improvement throughout the season.

“I would say [the most improved player] is split between number 26 [Andrea Osinkosky] and number 30 [Rebecca Staton], 26 being an eighth-grader and a brand new setter to the game, her sets are definitely way better than when she first started. Number 30 is our middle and shes also an eighth-grader.

Coming in, she had never played volleyball before and she is now spiking, blocking, passing, and serving,” Kraus said.

Having a middle school volleyball team for the city schools could potentially benefit the future HHS volleyball teams.

“Unfortunately Harrisonburg is one of the only schools around that doesn’t have a middle school volleyball program, so I feel like we all have to work a lot harder, myself included, because we have players who are able to play JV volleyball but have never really played other than P.E. volleyball. Other schools have middle school teams, so they’ve got players in the sixth and seventh grade that get experience so they’re ready to play at a JVlevel,” Kraus said.

What are the ups and downs of being a freshman?

Girls Cross Country Freshman Faith Eberly

Varsity Sideline Cheer Freshman KiYosia Wallace

Boys Cross Country Freshman John Breeden

Freshman Football Freshman Corbin Jonhston

Varsity Football Freshman A.C. White

“The best part is that I got to start on the cross country team early as a freshman and I’ll get to continue being on the team throughout the years in high school. The worst part is that we freshman have to carry and load the baggage and supplies onto the bus.”

“The best part is getting to know my teammates, even though it took some time, and to find out how cool, supportive, and helpful they were once I got to know them. The worst part is you’re the new kid and at first, with the senior and junior cliques, it was hard to fit in.”

“The best part of being a freshman on a team is that you get to be the new guy and you get advice from the seniors and juniors on how to improve. The worst part is that you’re behind the other upperclassmen and they’re faster than you, so you have to work harder to catch up.”

“The one major best part is that my teammates are like my brothers and you just have a fun time being with your fellow teammates, while the worst part is when one of us does something wrong, we all have to pay the consequences. We win as a team and we lose as a team.”

“The best part is I get an earlier start than most people, like the sophomores. I have a lot more time to get to know the coaches and my teammates. Also, you get to move up as a leader.

The bad part is you’re not as respected, no matter what position you play.”

JV Volleyball Freshman Lucie Rutherford

“The best part is getting to meet upperclassmen and meeting other people in the school that you normally wouldn’t talk to. The worst part is probably being one of the most inexperienced ones out there.”

INFOGRAPHIC BY FAITH RUNNELLS AND BRIANA RODRIGUEZ

Eighth graders running with high school cross country team Lucie Rutherford Staff Reporter HHS has four new faces to their junior varsity cross country teams this year. These four eighth graders are invited to run with the team and get to see what it’s like to transfer from their middle school teams to the much more intense high school teams. Out of the four, three girls are on JV - Samantha Little, Hannah Miller, and Abby Campillo. The boys have one middle schooler - Evan Wood.

Because these four students are transitioning to high school level cross country, they must be committed to running from a week before the start of school through the end of the high school season in late October. Though they practice with the high school team throughout the season, eighth graders are only allowed to run in the last three meets of the season: Running with the Wolves, Burtner Classic, and an open meet held at the varsity conference where anyone can run.

Being the only eighth grader on the boys team, Wood gets a new perspective on high school cross country. For example, middle school meets are only two miles while high school meets are 3.1 miles, also known as a 5k. Middle school meets are held on Tuesdays and Thursdays, making the season much shorter, because the high school meets are held on Wednesdays and an occasional Saturday. Saturday meets

are pretty rare on a middle school team, as they only had two, both being invitationals. In an invitational, more schools from around the area are invited, they’re more important races, and top finishers earn trophies.

Coming from the middle school to the high school, runners like Wood could be in for a world of change.

“High school meets are a lot longer, and more challenging,” Wood said. “Though I like it because they will prepare me for upcoming seasons that I would not have been prepared for otherwise.”

As an eighth grader in a middle school meet, Wood is one of the oldest and most experienced runners.

Out of the three girl runners, Samantha Little and Hannah Miller are from Skyline Middle School and Abby Campillo is from Thomas Harrison Middle School.

“We didn’t know each other very well before the beginning of the season. It’s nice to meet someone from a different middle school before coming to HHS next fall,” Little said.

Upperclassmen can play a big role in how the eighth graders look forward to the high school season. Being one of the youngest runners on the team, Miller gets to see the upperclassmen in action.

“I love seeing their dedication and how they succeed throughout the season,” Miller said.

All four eighth graders plan to continue their cross country career once at HHS.

PHOTOS BY LUCIE RUTHERFORD

CIRCLED UP. The boys cross country team get in a swaying huddle in preparation for their Burtner Classic meet.

READY TO RUN.From left to right, freshman Marley Adamek, sophomore Ella Shulgan, 8th-grader Hannah Miller, 8th-grader Samantha Little, freshman Faith Eberly, and freshman Meredith Goss get excited in a team huddle before their Burtner Classic meet in which the eighth graders were allowed to participate after a season of preparation.

Despite tough record, freshman football team content Evan Dotas Feature Editor Typically, we associate high school sports with actual high schoolers. However, in nearly every athletic program, there is a spot for eighth graders. For middle school football players, this opportunity is presented through the freshman football team.

The final record for the freshman team was 2-8, which came as a disappointment for some. Marcus Robinson, an eighth grader at THMS who plays running back and safety, found some justification despite his regret with the record.

“We weren’t looking forward to a 2-8 season, but we’ll be better next year. We were really young this year,” Marcus Robinson said. However, teammate Chris Johnson, the left guard and defensive tackle, was slightly relieved with the end result.

“Nothing is going to be given to you.

You have to take what’s yours. Nobody said it was going to be easy, and I feel like I would rather go 2-8 and build this brotherhood and not give up any game than be 10-0 with a bunch of talent, but we’re winning off of lucky stuff. I like the team I have now,” Johnson said.

Defensive end Sonny Gorta also found solace with the final record.

“At first it was disappointing. Losing our first few games was disappointing, but when you see how much harder you work for it, it was really worth it. It didn’t bother me by the end of the season,” Gorta said.

The season was especially unique to Johnson because it was his first year.

“Both of my brothers played, and I would always play backyard football and stuff like that. I enjoyed it and I enjoyed playing with people I play with in rec basketball, child basketball. I enjoyed playing and I wanted to follow my brothers’ footsteps,” Johnson said.

Some of the middle schoolers started out feeling uncomfortable playing with high schoolers.

“It was really awkward. I felt like we couldn’t do anything at first and we were just in the way,” Gorta said.

Freshman Michael McClellan, who plays wide receiver and quarterback and played as an eighth grader, understands the eighth grade trepidation.

“In middle school you’re playing on a high school team, so it’s kind of different.

You’re used to playing rec league football, and you’re going up to play high school. It’s kind of like a transition,” McClellan said.

However, after the first few weeks, the different grades start to matter less and less.

“It feels normal now because I’ve had a year to bring it all in and now I’m used to it. As a ninth grader, you’re supposed to help them transition so next year they’ll be leaders and so on,” McClellan said.

Johnson thought that being the young-

est was a valuable experience.

“It was in some ways good, in some ways bad, but the best part of being the youngest group is being able to look up to some of the older guys on the varsity team and just know what it takes to be that position, what it takes to be good. Some of the older guys on the varsity team just motivate you,” Johnson said. Because of previous experiences in other sports, Johnson felt comfortable with the transition from the start.

“I’m really confident and it’s not hard for me to adapt to a new group of people.

A lot of the people I played with are people you compete with in the offseason. You guys have a feel for each other, and as the losses build up you get stronger together,” Johnson said.

Despite the 2-8 record, the eighth grade players were happy with the result.

“It was a good use of time. It was really fun and it was all worth it,” Gorta said.

The Newsstreak

November 25, 2014

SPORTS-B7

Players, coaches feed off each other in locker room Austin Swift Sports Editor A simple scoreline is all that separates a fiery, redfaced coach from a calm, cool and collected one.

The attitude and approach the coaches take when addressing their team depends on the situation they are facing once they re-enter the field.

Halftime of the varsity football team’s win against Turner Ashby on Oct. 24 was dominated by the booming voice of head coach Chris Thurman. He addressed the offensive line to start, and while he delivered a hefty dose of critiques, there was a mutual respect present that was evident when both the coach and players stopped to listen whenever the other began talking.

Head coach, assistant or player, they all had input to add for the betterment of the team.

Defensive coordinator Mark Healy was next to address his players. While he wasn’t as loud as Thurman, he got the point across by being quick and to the point when making adjustments.

Senior football player Yad Kababchy began his varsity career his sophomore year and has become more involved in the locker room talks.

“My sophomore year, I didn’t play that much, so they were mostly [talking with] the people who were playing. This year I’m obviously playing a lot more, so I’m paying attention more,” Kababchy said.

The approach to the halftime talk may vary depending on the team’s performance so far.

“Sometimes the coach might be [upset] at us, sometimes the coach might be praising us, it all depends on how the game is going,” Kababchy said.

Just as a player may act differently in a game than at school, coaches face the same character change.

“If the coaches got really mad, it was a bit intense, and it’s sort of hard to see that, because you usually see them as happier and cheerier [in school], and when they start yelling it’s a bit different. But I guess some people just need to be yelled at in order to get their mind right,” Kababchy said.

One of Kababchy’s most memorable moments at halftime is of a normally mild-mannered teacher acting not so calm in the locker room.

“I remember last year, it was our game against John Handley, it was at home and it was probably our worst game ever. It was Healy and I’ve never seen him this pissed off before.

Usually he’s very calm, you know, he’s never really been one to go crazy, but I just saw him pissed off and it was just surprising, because I had never seen him like that before. I guess for some of the older guys, they might have seen Healy pissed off before, but that was just surprising to me, because I had had him as a teacher as well,” Kababchy said.

Healy’s approach to his players has changed over the 21 years he’s been coaching.

“You might not realize this, but I’m much more calm and able to control myself now than, let’s say,

LISTEN UP. Above: Football head coach Chris Thurman gives his final thoughts to the team ahead of the second half of HHS’ 52-40 win over Turner Ashby on Oct. 24.

Right: Defensive coordinator Mark Healy addresses his players during halftime. when I was 25 or 26. When I was 25 or 26 a clipboard never made it through a game, I would normally break things during the heat of a contest. Now, maybe with age and maturity, maybe I just handle myself a little bit better,” Healy said.

Experience, situations, positions on the coaching staff and even personality can cause coaching styles to differ.

“A lot of [differences between our coaching styles] is situational, it kind of depends what you need to do at half time. Some weeks it’s defense, like we’ve got to figure out what to do to stop them, and sometimes it’s offense, what can we do to move the football. [The Turner Ashby game] we weren’t doing too badly so there were just minor adjustments that happened,”

Healy said. “When you’re losing at halftime, there’s a whole different demeanor that goes along in there, but I’ve only ever coached here, so I’ve never really seen what happens in another locker room from a coaches perspective, I remember when I was a player, but that is a little bit different.”

When dealing with new players versus veteran players, coaches may have to alter their approach when correcting them.

“That’s one of the hardest things. Especially when we watched the film [playing Turner Ashby] or even in the locker room, sometimes it’s harder for that younger person to understand that I’m trying to make you better by saying things that you aren’t doing as well as what you need to do to try to get you

PHOTOS BY AUSTIN SWIFT

better. An older kid is going to understand that a little better than a younger kid, a younger kid could get defensive and just get pissed off where the [older] person that might reflect on ‘Yeah, that’s what I’m doing and coach is right,’” Healy said.

As the defensive coordinator, Healy spends the game in the press box, therefore having a different view of the game, which allows him to make different adjustments in his unit.

“So what I do normally, and I usually spend a minute or two in the press box before I come down, I look at what they’ve run during the first half and where they’re being the most successful and then that’s where I gear my halftime talk of ‘What do we need to do to stop what they’re do-

ing, what they’re being the best at,’” Healy said.

Having gone deep into the post-season play in the past, Healy recalls those moments in the locker room as some of his most memorable.

“Some of those state championship games where we’ve been in locker rooms that we’re not normally in and you appreciate the moment that you’re there, because you don’t know if you’re coming back.

You know in the 2000s we were lucky enough to go three times, and the third time was much different than the first time. The first time you’re kind of in awe about ‘Hey I’m here, look at the locker room compared to where we normally are,’” Healy said.

Competition cheerleaders create bond through pre, post game traditions Faith Runnells Managing Editor Nervous. Anxious. Uneasy. Uptight. Restless. Jittery.

All words describing the pre-competition feeling in the warm-up room for the girls varsity competition cheerleading squad.

For senior Aspen Hoak, who has been on the competition cheerleading team since her eighth grade year, the feelings worsen as the competition time grows closer.

“As we go into the warmup room before we compete, we get really nervous because our adrenaline is kicking in, then we get the most nervous right before we’re about to run out,”

Hoak said.

Although senior Christa Stader has been on the team for four years now, the pre-competition nerves are still prevalent.

“It’s terrible… Waiting before they call us out to go on the mat is the worst feeling in the world because you’re just sitting there, and it sucks…. but as soon as they announce ‘Harrisonburg High School’, all of that just leaves and you run out there,” Stader said.

The girls begin preparing not long before they compete. After they put on their uniforms, they have a 10-minute warm-up to get ready for their performance, and then another 10 minutes of waiting, and

then it’s time to compete.

Senior Meagan Roberts’ nerves kick in right around the time of the warm-up.

“We have 10 minutes to warm up everything… we don’t do much in that warm-up. We’ll do libs [in which the bases hold the flyer up by one standing foot and the flyer’s other foot is bent like the Statue of Liberty] and maybe a jump or two, but we’re mainly just conserving energy,” Roberts said.

To help reduce the team’s nerves before they run out, Hoak joins the team in a circle and leads a team prayer, followed by a pep-talk led by head coach Bridget Smith.

“We all get in a circle and everyone holds each

others thumbs and we put our right foot in,” Roberts said.

“When I pray, I say something like, ‘thank you for this opportunity, please watch over everybody and make sure nobody gets hurt. Help us God to do our best and push through the injuries and pain’,” Hoak said.

Hoak finds the pre-competition prayer a beneficial routine for all members of the team. “[The prayer is] trying to give everyone a second wind of hope. Everyone on the team is religious, but maybe some people are less religious than others.

So it’s a way for me to be like, guys, push through your pain and it’ll be okay,”

Senior night success found late in game Abigail Hissong Staff Reporter As the volleyball season comes to an end, there is much to be done and little time to do it.

Between “secret buddy” gifts, preparing for senior night, and countless team dinners, volleyball is more like a full time commitment than an extracurricular.

Junior varsity coach Laurie Krauss knows just how time consuming this sport can be.

“For a lot of these girls, spending this much time on an extracurricular can be a bit overwhelming at first compared to middle school sports. However, I think all the time they spend together really bonds them as a team and makes them a cohesive unit,” Krauss said.

The most recent project that the volleyball team has taken on is preparing for senior night. Senior night is the last home game of regular season matches, to honor the seniors on the varsity team for all the hard work that they have put in over the years.

This year’s last home game was played against the Waynesboro Little Giants.

Preparing for the big night was no small task.

There were posters to be made, gifts to be bought, and a game to be won.

Although this night takes planning, labor and money from everyone in the program, none of the girls seemed to mind.

Sophomore Anna Derrick has been involved in the volleyball program for three years and was one of those involved in the preparation for senior night.

“I don’t mind putting in time to make senior night special every year, because I know that when I’m a senior people are going to make sure that my night is amazing. In the end, all the effort I’ve put in will pay off,” Derrick said.

On senior night, the varsity team struggled to keep up with the Little Giants in the first set of the game.

The girls lost the first set with a score of 25-20.

Varsity head coach Andy Thompson did his best to rally the team.

“I just reminded them that it was the last home game of the season, and for the seniors to give it all that they had,” Thompson said.

The pep talk seemed to work, as the girls came out and won the second set of the night, 25-22.

The following set, varsity fought hard but eventually lost, 27-25. As the team ad-

Hoak said.

After the team executes their routine out on the map in front of their coaches, judges, and fans, the post-competition locker room feel is more one of relief, evaluation, and rest. “[First thing off the mat], I get water,” Roberts said.

The girls normally take a couple minutes to get their breath back after the routine, then sit and evaluate how the performance went.

“We hit the ending pose and we try to walk off the mat happy because you can’t just look dead after the routine. But as soon as we step off the mat everyone starts breathing hard and goes to get water,” Hoak said.

Coach Smith normally comes over to the team at that point with a point amount of deductions the team obtained, or in some good cases, none.

“We sit in a group and we’re like, ‘Did anything fall?’ ‘Did anyone mess up?’ ‘Who threw their tumbling and who didn’t?’... then Coach comes over and [tells us our deductions].

Then we’ll talk about that … it’s like a recap because we’re all in our separate groups so sometimes we don’t know [what else is going on],” Roberts said.

After the girls consider their routine, they talk about things to improve and things to keep, and work to execute it for the next competition.

“Do you have any pregame rituals?”

Campbell Rutherford (senior-football) “I pray before each game.”

Isaiah Parker (senior-basketball) “I listen to music before every game.”

Jessica Denton (sophomore-volleyball) “We have team dinner for every home game.”

AC White (freshman-football) “After home games I go to CiCi’s.”

Duncan Rutherford (sophomore-golf) “We get in a circle and get hyped.”

Roberto Gonzalez (sophomore-football) “We have a thing made out of wood that says, ‘We Believe’, and we all get around it and smack it before the game.”

PHOTO BY ABIGAIL HISSONG

TEAM ON THREE. The HHS varsity volleyball team put their hands in during a huddle during the Oct. 30 volleyball game against Waynesboro. The game, on senior night, was especially important. Sophomore libero Anthena Benton led the team to a win with her 15 consecutive point fifth game. vanced to the fourth set of the game, the were determined to win.

Junior Lettie Rose was particularly determined.

“Everyone on the team really wanted to end our last home game on a high note. I knew that we had to step up our game, or else that wasn’t going to happen,” Rose said.

In the end, the varsity girls came out of the fourth set victorious, with a close score of 25-21. The team then won again the fifth set

with an astounding score of 15-0, thanks to the team’s sophomore libero, Athena Benton, who served 15 consecutive points.

“It was our last home game, so I’m glad we were able to win it and make it special for our seniors,” Benton said.

In the end, all the work put in behind the scenes by both teams led to success.

The varsity team advanced to the second round at conference before eventually losing to Fluvanna 3-0.

INFOGRAPHIC BY DANNY DOMBROWSKI

The Newsstreak

November 25, 2014

SPORTS-B8

Athletes experience success in Conference 23

Womens cross country conference marks end of great season

Ariel Vogel Style Editor

Last year, HHS finally stepped over the line. No longer are we a small-ish school in Virginia; we have become large-ish. The additional 50 or so people also cost us “Districts.” Now, in all VHSL-organized sports, Conference is the qualifying competition to send- or not send- our team to regionals.

The girls’ cross country team travelled to Winchester on Oct. 29 to run in the Conference 23 race, hosted by Handley High School at Kernstown Battlefield. The seven top runners on the team ran in the main race, and other varsity and JV ladies ran in the open race later that afternoon. Overall, the Lady Navy placed third out of six teams, qualifying them for regionals.

“I’m really happy with how our team did,” said sophomore Molly Campillo. “I was able to tie my [personal record] which was really great.” Her PR is 22 minutes and seven seconds for a 5K. At regionals, Campillo was able to PR again with a time of 21 minutes and 42 seconds. Their coach, Thomas Harrison Middle School counselor Corinne Makarewich, was satisfied with how the team did.

“The girls had a strong race as a team [and] we beat out fourth place Louisa by 50 points,” Makarewich said. Before the race, she and the team had worked out their potential placing.

“There were two other teams in our conference that were really strong; Fluvanna and Handley. We knew that we’d need everyone to race a personal best time to beat either of those teams,” Makarewich said. She explained that, compared to the other schools, they felt confident that they could swing a third place ranking, and they did.

The hardest part of the meet for Makarewich was watching one of the senior girls have to stop.

“We knew that Laurie [Serrell] had been dealing with a nagging injury and that she may not be able to finish the race. The rest

PHOTO COUTESY OF DAVID COWARDIN

FROM START TO FINISH. From left to right, senior Hannah Purcell, senior Morgan Heckman, sophomore Molly Campillo, senior Brenna Cowardin and senior Laurie Serrell stride together before the first race of the season. The girls placed third at Conference. of the team stepped up when Laurie did have to pull out,” Makarewich said. However, she was proud of the way the girls dealt with the loss of Laurie.

“The rest of her teammates stepped up and pulled off an incredible race. I was extremely proud of them,” she said.

Junior Kayla Leaman ran in the open race, which took place after the male and female competition races. “[It’s] just like the final conclusion where you can go for a best time. It’s also an opportunity to see the course if you’re going to be on varsity [next year], so it’s just kind of a wrap up race,” Leaman said.

The six teams in HHS’s conference make for an average-sized meet for the ladies, although only seven girls from the team ran in the main race. Campillo weighed the benefits of both large and small meets.

“It’s nice to have a ton of people because then you’re not alone in it, but if there are less people, it can push you to go harder,” she said.

The course itself was one the team liked, although Leaman had an off race.

“I hadn’t had enough food to eat, so it wasn’t my best race. I had a good finish,” she said. “Most people said it was really

fast [though]; it was a lot of downhill which we haven’t had much of.”

Both Campillo and Leaman have been on the team since their respective freshman years, and they each enjoyed the meet and their respective races.

“I love running 5Ks. It’s my favorite thing to do,” Campillo said.

For Makarewich, the best part was seeing the seniors step up.

“My favorite part of the whole season has been watching the seniors lead the team. They’re incredibly mature, encouraging, and fast,” she said. “They really are the glue that holds everyone together.”

Volleyball wins first conference game against Louisa Ella Marian Feature Editor The varsity volleyball conference on Nov. 3 was nothing short of nerve racking and exciting.

Junior Lettie Rose explains her thoughts during the game against Louisa County.

“During the first two games, I felt kind of nervous because our season was on the line, so it was kind of nerve racking that we lost the first two games,” Rose said.

If a team wins the first three games of the five, then that team

automatically wins. Luckily, the girls started to make a come back and won the last three games.

Unlike her teammates, sophomore Jessica Denton would have been okay to lose the game.

“I had mixed emotions because of course I would have wanted to win, but it has also been a long season, so I would have been okay if we would have ended up losing and the season was over. I could have accepted that because it has been kind of a rough season,” Denton said.

Throughout the game, senior Kaelen Adams led hits, giving 15

kills (a spike that gives the team a point) and sophomore Athena Benton served 23 points and 8 aces (when the server receives a point right away).

When the team had won the Nov. 3 conference, sophomore Zoey Fox was relieved since last year they were out in the first game. “[I was relieved] just because the whole team was feeling the pressure because we remember what happened last year and I think the coaches were really happy with us,” Fox said.

Both Fox and Rose would

change the same thing in the game if they could go back.

“I think as a team, [we should have] tried to win quicker rather than going through five games and making it so stressful,” Fox said.

“We would start playing well from the beginning so we wouldn’t have to play five games,” Rose said. Denton, on the other hand, looks back on the whole season.

“I would have changed that we would have taken every game this season as seriously as we took that one,” Denton said.

After the girls exciting win, the team went to Arby’s to celebrate.

“[I was relieved] just because the whole team was feeling the pressure because we remember what happened last year, and I think the coaches were really happy with us.”

-Zoey Fox, Varsity volleyball player

Volleyball players react to win in conference tournament

Sophomore Zoey Fox “It was really exciting because last year we were out in the first game and this year we all felt a kind of pressure to move to the next round .”

Junior Lettie Rose “I was excitied that we won and got a chance to play another game. ”

Sophomore Jessica Denton “I was kind of bummed out when we lost the first two games, but then we decided to pick it back up the last three and work together as a team.”

Mens cross country trains for post season races Hunter Manzano Outdoors Editor Stride, stride, breathe, breathe. On Oct. 29, the HHS cross country teams traveled to Kernstown, Virginia for the annual conference tournament for teams vying for a spot in the regional competition the following week.

Freshman Isaiah King began the season on JV, but moved up throughout the season, running in the top seven at conference.

“Don’t focus on the pain. Be aggressive,” King said.

The mens cross country team has been training and competing all season for this event. To move onto regionals, they had to place in the top four out of six teams, the others being Amherst County, Charlottesville, John Handley, Louisa County, and Fluvanna.

People may ask themselves, “Who in the world would run for sport?” For sophomore Yogesh Aradhey the answer is simple. “[Running] is my passion and it really helps me focus my energy. It’s also really calming,” Aradhey said.

He finished the conference five kilometer race in only 18 minutes and five seconds.

Instead of focusing on the pain of the race, Aradhey focuses on the mechanics of each movement as a distraction.

“I focus on what I’m trying to accomplish during the race, and the time I need to run. I focus on my breathing too.”

Aradhey went on to finish third in his team at regionals with a time of 18 minutes and two seconds.

Aradhey’s fellow runner sophomore Tyler Rodriguez also enjoys the sport, and has learned new ways to cope with the effort that comes with running.

“I like singing motivational songs to myself [when I run],” Rodriguez said.

HHS’s men’s cross country team came in second, earning their place in regionals, while John Handley High School, host of the, meet, came in first. On Nov. 6, all qualifying teams ventured back to Kernstown to earn a place in regionals. As fast as they ran, they couldn’t quite make the cut. However, our junior Abrham Amine went on to states as an individual.

PHOTO COUTESY OF KATHY WEISS

THROUGH THE SHOOT. Freshman Evan Jost finishes the Conference 23 race. The boys placed second out of six teams, and continued to regionals with four of their top five placing All-Conference.

The Newsstreak

November 25, 2014

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HUMANS OF The Newsstreak

November 25, 2014

In keeping with our motto “Every person has a story,” the Newsstreak interviews students every month in the style of Humans of New York creator, Brandon Stanton. The idea is to tell the story of as many of our students as possible. Check out a similar project at www.hhsmedia.com.

HUMANS OF HHS-B10

HHS

Junior Tonia Guifarro “What’s your favorite part of the Criminal Justice program at MTC?” “Going to the Law Enforcement Academic Center. It’s where you train to be a police officer. We did all of that.”

Senior Mark Flores “What’s the happiest moment of your life?”

“Every day. Gotta be happy.”

Junior Janet Kirilyuk “I like building things.”

Junior Chrisanthony Ortiz

Senior Marimar Santiago

“I’m kind of thinking between being a doctor or an architect...If I’m a doctor, I can help people, and if I’m an architect, I can draw, be creative.”

“What’s your biggest dream?”

“To be successful in life.”

“How?” “Finish college, maybe radiology, find a job, buy a house.”

Freshman Bo Boisen “What’s the hardest part of having a concussion?”

“You look perfectly fine, like a happy kid, but on the inside, something’s wrong with your head, and you don’t have a cast to prove it, so people think you’re fine.”

Senior Ali Imaran “I gotta make money for my baby. It’s not just me, you know.”

Sophomore Dustin Smith “I’m adopted. My oldest brother isn’t exactly here right now, and my youngest brother, Trenton, just started high school.”

Junior Jordan Mellich

HH S

SEE MORE ON THE WEB! HHSMEDIA.COM

“What’s your biggest dream?”

“To play in the NFL...I just love the game, being on the field.”

Photos and interviews by Brenna Cowardin

Sophomores Destiny Pitsenbarger and Ben Blake

Freshman Jacinth McGranahan

“How did you meet?”

“Band camp our freshman year.”

“Have you been together since then?”

Laughs. “Yeah.”

“I’m Scout Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s for a project.”

Freshman Asama Azim “What’s the biggest change between middle and high school?

“The school and the people. There’s just so many people.”

Freshman Adriana Arias “What’s the happiest moment of your life?”

Translated through friends. “Coming to the United States.”

Junior Saruhan Demirtas

Sophomore Anthony Bondaruk Sophomore Josh Neal and Freshman Caitlyn Ely “What’s the happiest moment of your

“We were in the lunch room and he came up to me and said, ‘Hey, you want to go out?’ A lot of my friends were around, and it was really cute.”

life?”

“I don’t know. I don’t really think about that stuff.”

“What’s your biggest dream?”

“Moving back to my country, and living my life there.”

“What is your country?”

“Turkey.”

“What’s your favorite part about Turkey?”

“The people. We’re closer if you know what I mean.”

Senior Cornel Toyloy

“Where do you want to go to college?”

“EMU because of psychology. I also really like politics, but they’re not really known for that. They’re known for peace building.”