October newsstreak 2014

B3: Pumpkin Spice Latte experiment

The

B6: Seniors win powerpuff football

Newsstreak

B10: “Humans of HHS” feature”

where every person has a story

Harrisonburg High School • 1001 Garbers Church Road • Harrisonburg, VA 22801 • 540.433.2651 • Volume XIIC • Issue 2• October 31, 2014

One act prepares comedy show Faith Runnells Managing editor

PHOTO BY BRENNA COWARDIN

COMIC RELIEF. From left to right: sophomore Ben Hollenbeck, senior Isabelle Burden and senior Ariel Vogel perform as the Peachum family in The Beggar’s Opera. The performance on Oct. 16 was free and open to the public.

From previous years, HHS’s one act performances have been known for their successful results, from sweeping the state in a first place two years ago, to being runner-up in the region and placing an overall third in the state last year. This year, the group hopes to continue their success with their show The Beggar’s Opera.

Senior Graham Rebhun has been on the one act cast since his freshman year and experienced all the different one acts’ levels of success. “[This one act] is different because it’s more of an older show, but we’re doing it in a really extravagant way. Like a lot of the actions are super exaggerated, and it’s more Shakespearean. It’s going to be really cool,” Rebhun said.

Senior Caroline Shank enjoys the fresh new spirit relative to the gloomier energy from the show last year. “[This year] it’s funny. It’s a comedy, which last year [it] was super serious; kinda really heavy. This year it’s funny, it’s sarcastic, it’s over the top. And it’s a lot of fun, we laugh a lot which is good because last year it would be kind of depressing sometimes after rehearsals, but this year it’s just really

See ONE ACT on Page A2

More technology comes STEM travels to Chesapeake Bay important connection for students. with more problems Brenna Cowardin “The Chesapeake Bay is the largest esEditor-in-Chief

Mia Karr Editor-in-Chief Ten years ago, HHS wasn’t the technologically-charged place that it is today.

No rolling labs of Chromebooks roamed the halls, computer labs weren’t outfitted with the shiniest of Apple technology, and grades were given in red pen, rather than through Powerschool. However, the school still has the same number of technology staff it did in that pre-technological bonanza era. Craig Shoemaker and his fellow technicians are struggling to keep up with the proliferance of technology pouring into classrooms, as an adage they know all well too well proves true- more technology means more potential for problems.

“We definitely need more bandwidth,” Shoemaker said. “We are putting more and more devices on our network every year, and this year an extremely large number of new devices. Each one of them needs to go out to the internet, so that bandwidth is

See TECH on Page A2

Campaigns give students opportunities in politics Austin Swift Sports Editor

Since the late 1980s, hundreds of students have camped on the Chesapeake Bay with STEM director Myron Blosser. This past September, HHS STEM students were the first from HHS to take the trip in 12 years.

“Part of the reason we went is to get the students and myself in a different mindset for three days- living when nature says we can go,” Blosser said.

The students and Blosser stayed on Port Isobel, a 250 acre island that was donated to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, a nonprofit that works on bay restoration and has hosted students since the late 1980s.

Sophomore Jake Urbanski saw the island as a getaway from life in Harrisonburg.

“It was really pretty there. There weren’t any streets...You were away from the city,” Urbanski said.

Blosser as a long time visitor to the Bay, favors a stay at Smith Islands because there, the group lives among the people of the island. He has also stayed at Fox Island which is completely off the grid. The Chesapeake Bay is home to many things besides people though, and Blosser sees this as an

tuary in the world. It’s the bed for a lot of growth. Here in the Shenandoah Valley we have impacts on that estuary,” Blosser said.

He believes it is very important for students to actually experience that sort of connection. For Blosser, it’s about the journey.

“Learning in a classroom with cinder block walls is like getting in shape on a treadmill, and part of my goal, what I’ve been passionate about for the past 30 years is getting students out to climb mountains-learning through climbing,” Blosser said. “When you’re not there, it’s hard to appreciate it. Once you really become tactile with something, you really start to appreciate it.”

Students enjoyed the hands on aspect of the trip. Sophomore Tyler Sutton particularly liked the opportunity to wade in muck in the marsh.

“We got to learn more because in the classroom you can’t really show what’s inside the marsh,” Sutton said. He got to touch the dirt, water and roots that made up the marshland.

Blosser took the students phones at the beginning of the trip to truly live the life of

See STEM TRIP on Page A2

Following brother, Medeiros leads JROTC cadets Ellie Plass Online Managing Editor

High school credit, real life experience and possibly even senior service hours come as a package deal for those involved in student campaign volunteering for Kris Vass’ AP government classes.

There are many different activities offered while volunteering, all of which are informative in different ways. “[Students] do whatever the campaigns want them to do. The Democratic and Republican parties have offices here in town that they can go to. They can do phone banking where they call people who are likely voters. They go door to door, handing out literature,” Vass said.

Vass hopes the kids are participating for more than just the credit and to actually

See CAMPAIGN on Page A4

PHOTO COURTESY OF MYRON BLOSSER

LIFE OF A FISHERMAN. STEM students, sophomores Ryan Showalter and Genevieve Cowardin, interacted with the bay on a variety of levels- from eating its produce to exploring the marsh and the muck it is made of.

When the bell rings at 2:35 p.m. everyone rushes out the double doors to their cars, the bus, or whatever else they use to get home. Maybe a couple people are left for rehearsal or extra help, but overall, the halls are silent. At 2:36 p.m. The JROTC classroom is anything but. Hoards of students from all walks of life, in all shapes and sizes cram into the classroom that isn’t big enough to hold them all. They catch up with each other, laughing and talking.

Someone pulls out a bottle of lotion and is rewarded with three other girls borrowing its contents. The chaos is fleeting, as the cadets change and go off to practice.

At the head of it all is senior Maria Medeiros. She’s in charge of controlling the chaos, of making it into something great.

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

PHOTO COURTESY OF TINA SERRELL

REPRESENT. Senior Maria Medeiros displays her honors from years of JROTC. “I’m the highest cadet we have here in the program. I’m the highest leader, so I pretty much get to boss everyone around,”

At your fingertips

Scan this with your cell phone to go to www.hhsmedia.com

Medeiros says, laughing as she does. She joined JROTC her sophomore year, when her brother was in the position that she now holds. In true sibling fashion if her brother did it, she had to do it, too.

“I gave it all I had. Every day after school I’d be in here just working on it, every little thing. I just kept going for it,” Medeiros says. She showed perseverance and good leadership, putting her in the perfect shoes for the job.

The HHS JROTC team is busy preparing for their Raider meet which they will be hosting at Brethren Woods. Even if they are the host, that doesn’t mean the teams aren’t doing everything they can to win.

Every member practices until 4 p.m. after school, working on the skills they’ll need to be competitive and to raise money in their competition.

See MEDEIROS on Page A2

Coming Up Coverage of J.R. Snow on Dancing with the Stars (Harrisonburg edition) Senior privileges update Fall sports wrap-ups Hunting feature Comparison of local foods Debate and Forensics Columns and editorials Humans of HHS feature

The Newsstreak

October 31, 2014

News Briefs First class economics program at HHS Economics teacher Bethany Everidge won state honors for her lessons in economic education.

Student interpreters If you are bilingual and interested in helping out on Parent Teacher conference day, interpreting may be for you.

Educating the whole child A presentation will be held at SKMS with a keynote speech from Judge Michael Urbanski.

Breakout sessions will focus on bullying prevention and handling stress.

AP dues To all of you in AP classes here at HHS: your exam payments are now overdue. Please turn them in to the bookkeeper Tammy Atkins.

Scholarship opportunities Check out the guidance website for more scholarship opportunities. There are numerous scholarships posted there.

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.

NEWS-A2

Technology department finds solutions in funding TECH from A1 bandwidth is almost always filled up.”

According to Shoemaker, the school has budgeted for an increase in bandwidth, which is the transmission capacity of an electronics system, but he’s not sure when this will take place. This year’s new technology battling for room includes server updates- Macs were updated from a 10.6 operating system to a 10.9 operating system- and new Chromebooks. The Chromebooks have become notorious around the school for malfunctioning.

“We’re not quite sure why [there are issues with the Chromebooks.] Last year we had them in place... and they seemed to work pretty good. But this year we’ve added four more labs of them and we’re not sure if it’s a problem with our existing structure of if it’s because we have an increased number of them [and] we’re taxing our infrastructure,” Shoemaker said.

English teacher Peter Norment, who had a functioning Chromebook lab last year, has firsthand experience with this year’s Chromebook dilemma.

“I think a third of my class time is spent just trying to get kids on to Google Drive or troubleshooting issues,” Norment said.

Norment’s attempt to go nearly paperless by distributing assignments online has been hindered by the technological issues.

However, he sees it as a possibility that everything could work smoothly in the future.

“All I do know...is that my niece goes to a school where everybody has a Chromebook...and they do not have issues. I know it’s possible that we can all be on the wireless at the same time and they will work,” Norment said.

Other than being faced with an endless spinning wheel when they log on to a Chromebook, students may have noticed other changes in the technology of the school. These include the new login system for Macs and the change in the way students can save things- items can no longer be saved to their personal desktop.

According to Shoemaker, the logins were

PHOTO BY BRENNA COWARDIN

REFRESH AND RELOAD. Seniors Marissa Lutz and Kelli Showalter use chromebooks in Melody Wilson’s AP English Literature class. changed (by adding some of a student’s ID number to their username) to avoid duplicate usernames and to standardized the way a student logs in throughout their entire time in the Harrisonburg City Public School system.

As for the reason students can’t save to their desktop, it all comes down to space and size. It is the school’s hope that more things can move to Google Docs to open up space on the server and have things run faster. Much like bandwidth, there just isn’t enough server space to go around.

“The logins had some issues...those are mainly server-related. We’ve had to deal with some of the problems that have happened since we updated our servers,” Shoemaker said.

Whatever the type of problem, technical difficulties can get in the way of learning.

“Not only are we getting less done, but I think it affects the overall focus of the class,” Norment said. “When you have 30 minutes of unproductivity, that affects the rest of the block.”

One act’s farce aims for big goals this year ONE ACT from A1 fun and it’s more enjoyable I think,” Shank said.

Freshman Gabby Wilson, on the other hand, is most excited about the upgrade from middle school, where she was a cast member of the past four musicals at Thomas Harrison while she was a student there.

“My favorite thing so far would be the big stage,” Wilson said.

Although there are many differences in the middle school musical to high school one act transition of performing, the change that most stands out to Wilson is not based on the acting perspective.

“There’s a lot fewer people [in the oneact cast]. There’s only like 18 of us, so you’re

very close… I’m used to having a family of like 50 people on cast,” Wilson said.

For first year cast member sophomore Ben Hollenbeck, the cast is his favorite thing about the one act so far.

“Definitely the people. The sense of community it brings up; it’s a really fun experience just getting to know new people, and getting to hang out and chill with cool people… I have not found a single thing that’s unenjoyable about it,” Hollenbeck.

As for the actual show, The Beggar’s Opera, that the group will perform, there are unique aspects that the team believes will keep people interested.

“We don’t really have a lot of props in this show. The majority of the show, we

PHOTO BY MARIA SNELL-FEIKEMA

COMIC RELIEF. From left to right: sophomore Noelle Warne, freshman Gabby Wilson, senior Caroline Shank and sophomore Ana Hart play the show’s four zannis. With minimal use of set pieces, the zannis are part clown, part prop.

Medeiros finds home in JROTC MEDEIROS from A1 Medeiros’ job is rarely easy.

“Once you get up top people start hating on you, they’ll start making up all these rumors saying how ‘She’s the favorite, that’s why she’s on top.’

But you know what you did, all the hard work,” she said. Not only does she retain her composure, but she’s in charge of almost everything.

JROTC is a student-led program, and if it were the school, she’s like the principal. Medeiros makes sure the classes and competitions run smoothly, and makes sure everything is done correctly. When the cadets go to meets, she tells them what uniforms to bring and where it is they’re going.

For Medeiros, the best parts about the program are the bonds she’s made with everyone in it.

“We do leader camps, and we had a staff leader camp the year I took over. I couldn’t go to prom because we planned it on the same night, so they threw a prom thing for me at night. It was pretty sweet, and I got to be with the people I loved,” Medeiros says.

While she isn’t sure if JROTC will play a direct part in her life after high school, Medeiros is dedicated to serving the cadets at Harrisonburg.

“These are my friends. I don’t have anybody else,” Medeiros said.

use four boxes and then we have four characters called zannis that are kind of like, characters that when we need a chair they can be a chair, or they can be a table.

They’re really cool,” Rebhun said.

Shank is one of the four zannis that provides a new element to the show.

“In the style of show that it is, it’s kind of these like jokester, clown-like characters. We don’t talk the entire show but we provide more of the physical comedies, so like pulling pranks on other characters or acting as like the background but we’re still very much a part of what’s going on,” Shank said.

The team will compete in two competitions this year, Virginia High School League (VHSL) and Virginia Theater Association (VTA). If they place in the top two schools at the VTA competition, the group will also advance to Southeastern Theater Conference (SETC). “[At VTA] you get to go stay in a hotel for the weekend and watch shows all weekend, you get to see schools from all around Virginia, not just your district area, which is really cool. That one’s the best [competition],” Rebhun said.

The group has big goals for this year in the competitions “Hopefully this year we get to go to SETC. There’s I think over 100 schools that compete at VTA, so it’s tough competition…

But the goal every year is to win states,” Rebhun said.

PHOTO BY BRENNA COWARDIN

HERO’S SMUG LOOK. Senior Graham Rebhun flashes a grin at the audience. His character is at the heart of the plot.

Blosser creates “hands on” learning environment STEM TRIP from A1 a fisherman.

“We get acclimated to island living. We go completely off electronics, and the students get used to not asking, “When are we...” because the answer is when the tides are right, the sun’s right,” Blosser said.

Urbanski saw this as an addition to the experience of life on the Bay. “It was different. You couldn’t check the time. It made the experience more genuine to a fisherman’s life; it’s not really about the time, it’s just getting up and going,” Urbanski said.

The trip offered many opportunities for new experiences from eating to teaching.

“There are two favorite parts to this trip. One is eating crab cakes. I’m not going to lie they’re the best crab cakes in the world... But probably just simply being in the learning environment where the line

between student and teacher becomes blurry,” Blosser said.

Sutton and a few other students had the opportunity to meet some people who lived on the Bay. “We talked to some Tangier Island people and talked with the rest of the group about what kind of people were there,” Sutton said. “That was fun- getting to meet people. We found out there’s 400 people in that town.”

The trip didn’t end when the students came home. Blosser hopes the experience will stay with them for a long time.

“Maybe they’ll flush their toilets less often, turn off their lights more,” Blosser said, and they also may go back.

“Three years ago I took a group of high school students, and we Christmas carolled around for two nights because the relationships you form there makes you want to go back,” Blosser said.

SEE MORE ON THE WEB! HHSMEDIA.COM H See more STEM pictures taken by staff photographers and indepth coverage of The Beggar’s Opera performance on Oct. 16 by going to our website, hhsmedia.com. While you’re there, don’t forget to vote on our poll, watch videos made by WSBC and read other pieces written by staff reporters.

PHOTO BY YOGESH ARADHEY

SITTIN’ ON THE DOCK OF THE BAY. Sophomores Jake Urbanski and Tyler Rodriguez fish at sunrise on the island of Port Isobel.

The Newsstreak

October 31, 2014

NEWS-A3

Newspaper wins Savedge Award for first time in its history Eddie Mestre Op/Ed editor

PHOTO BY BRENNA COWARDIN

PREPARING FOR THE BATTLE OF WORDS. Student moderates, seniors Mia Karr, Evan Dotas, and Aarash Heydari, receive instructions from social studies teachers Kirk Moyers and Jay Hook before the start of the school board debate. Government students came up with questions to ask candidates Brent Holsinger, Katrina Gerald, Kelly Rooney, and Andy Kohen, and the best questions were selected. At the event, 18-year-old students were also encouraged to register to vote.

Get to know the school board candidates Candidate

Brent Holsinger

Katrina Gerald

Kelly Rooney

Andy Kohen

Photo

District

East

East

East

West

Independent

Democrat

Independent

Democrat

Occupation

Runs after-school programs for Harrisonburg Elementary and Middle Schools

Human Resources background, volunteers with Skyline Middle School and Smithland Elementary School

Teaches at JMU’s Former professor of college of educa- economics at JMU tion; former teacher

How would you differentiate yourself from other candidates?

I want to represent My background in HR you. I have experi- is beneficial ence working directly with students and I think education should be accessible for everyone

I know what it’s I have the most exlike to be a teacher, perience with eduwhich brings a dif- cation. ferent perspective to the school board.

I’m good at making compromises.

Political Affiliation

How do you plan on We should plan dealing with over- now, not when it’s crowding in Harri- too late. sonburg Schools?

We should build a new middle school, renovate THMS, and plan ahead for future changes.

Planning is important. We should build a new middle school but not forget about improving THMS.

We should support plans already in place, renovate THMS, plan ahead, and expand HHS.

What two programs Whatever students at HHS deserve like the most, but more funding? with an emphasis on college prep and work-related experiences.

Athletics, vocational, and mentorship programs are most valuable.

We should do a cost-benefit-analysis to determine which programs are most valuable.

Whichever ones develop skills for the next level (college or work), with an emphasis on ESL programs.

What programs I’d ask students “I’m not qualified to “I don’t know.”

“I’m not knowlwould you cut? which ones they say that now.”

Repetitive ones or edgeable enough to want to cut. ones that aren’t say that right now.” beneficial.

Should all students take AP classes?

Should AP testing fees be paid for by the school?

They should all have No, but fees should No, but fees may be the chance; fees be covered by the able to be covered should be covered school. by the school. by the school.

No- it would waste resources, but serious students should get financial help.

How should HCPS put students with different demographics on an equal playing field?

By starting education with pre-K and through academic after-school and summer programs.

By reaching out to families and starting before kindergarten.

We should give parents tools to reinforce learning at home and get the whole community involved in education.

Are SOL’s accurate indicators of student learning?

What are better methods of evaluation?

They are valuable, They are valuable, Standards are good but shouldn’t be the but grades should be but the way they’re sole criteria for eval- taken into account. tested is bad. uations.

SOLs are politicized and detrimental. I prefer other evaluation methods, like using portfolios.

Should HHS issue Too expensive. personal hardware (ie laptops) for each student?

We already do a good job with ESL, newcomers, and after-school programs.

Pre-K should be expanded.

No.

Should high school If the students want If it helps learning have a later start to. time?

We have plenty of We should see if the technology; teach- benefits outweigh ers are the key. the costs.

If it’ll learning.

improve I agree with the others.

Will you support We already value Yes, it’s bad now and Yes, costs are too changes to teach- teachers; it’s im- we can do better. high. We should ers’ insurance? portant to support change the policy them.

We should raise compensation, but HCPS employees aren’t too bad off.

Infographic by Atticus Bolyard. Information was gathered during the Sept. 23 school board debate held at HHS. All statements not in quotations are paraphrased.

The Savedge Award was established by the Virginia High School League (VHSL) in honor of Col. Charles Savedge.

Savedge was one of the VHSL supervisors who supported the creation of VAJTA, and had a large role in Virginia journalism. He passed away in 1990, and the newly found organization voted to make an award and scholarship to commemorate him.

“He was the guru of all yearbooks in Virginia, he used to go around to all the conferences with his dog. He’d get so excited he’d jump up on tables… people idolized him. He made yearbook his life. He was the pivotal icon to get people inspired to take journalism to the next level,” yearbook adviser Mary Strickler said.

The Savedge award is the top honor Virginia High School League (VHSL) gives out to media publications. Yearbook, Literary Magazine, and Newspaper are all eligible for this prestigious award, but the our newspaper has never received it until this year. “[The award] recognizes sustained excellence over the years,” Newsstreak adviser Valerie Kibler said.

“It’s about time. I think it’s long over due for Newsstreak,” Kibler said. “That just shows how hard it is to get it. It is totally subjective by who evaluates the paper each year.”

Every year, the Newsstreak is sent to VHSL where it is sent out-of-state to be evaluated. Papers are not graded against each other, but instead against a set of criteria. And all judges have their ways of doing things. Strickler knows much about this as she has received the award three times for her work with the yearbook.

“Different people judge it, and a lot of what we do for yearbook is because that is what our students what. They may say ‘don’t have superlatives in your yearbook’ well, our students want that. So there is a fine line knowing what is trendy and what is journalistic and submitting that, and knowing what our students want,” Strickler said.

When each publication is presented with their evaluations, they are full of information and observations made by the judges.

“We get to look at the paper when we get it back and they have written stuff on every page, they have read stories, looked at design… to maintain that high standard of excellence is a pretty big deal,” senior Mia Karr, the Editor-in-Chief for the Newsstreak, said.

Since every page is evaluated, the staff of the Newsstreak really has to be on top of their game.

“It’s always a group effort which is the great thing about Newsstreak in general. [Judges] read every story, look at everything, so everyone that works on the paper really has to contribute,” Karr said.

The Newsstreak has won hundreds of awards since its conception, and winning this one really puts the icing on the cake. The Newsstreak’s main objective is to produce a high quality paper that audiences want to read and is a good representation of the people at HHS. “It is really exciting to win awards because it shows our hard work is paying off and it gives more credibility to what we do,” Karr said.

The Newsstreak will be eligible for the Savedge Award again in five years, and will continue to push the bar of excellence as they collaborate together to print even better papers.

Harrisonburg Education Foundation provides grant money to teachers Ella Marian Feature editor

For 20 years the Harrisonburg Education Foundation has been helping schools, teachers and students. The foundation started giving teachers the chance to apply for Harrisonburg Education Foundation Grants (H.E.F. Grants).

The money for the grants is provided by the Harrisonburg Education Foundation, which is a non-profit organization. They raise the money themselves. Chairwoman Kelly Rooney explains the process.

“The foundation raises money through the 5K [Sherry Burcham Anderson 5K Walk/Run and Kid’s Fun Run] in the fall, the Gala in the spring and through sponsors and donors,” Rooney said.

One thing that the board looks for in teachers to be eligible for the grants is someone who inspires other to think creatively.

“We look at all the grant applications and look at those that are the most innovative (inspires others to think creatively, learn concept(s) by ‘thinking outside the traditional box’), have a strong instructional focus (academic achievement of students, demonstrate a way to collect measurable results), could easily be replicated by another teacher in the same school or across the City and has broad appeal (other students, parents, teachers, administrators and community citizens will be impacted by the program and want to learn more),” Rooney said.

The application process is straightforward. Teachers have to select which grant they would like to apply for (HEF Educator Grant, Sherry Burcham Anderson Educator Grant, Dr. Donald Ford Educator Grant, SunTrust Bank Innovative Education Grant, and the MillerCoors Innovative Education Grant). Each grant has a maximum amount of money that teachers can receive and teachers select an amount based on quotes for the item they are requesting.

The applicants have to explain a detailed project description on the student group they will teach, evaluation instruments and how their plan will be innovative, inspirational and replicable to others.

They have to give estimate on how many students will be impacted. The teachers also have to give an accurate budget to support their proposal and “provide sufficient detail to substantiate proposed expenses”.

Teachers applying for the grants this year had to have their applications in by Oct 17 and the winners will be announced Oct 31.

October 31, 2014

The Newsstreak

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Campaign volunteering extends learning outside classroom CAMPAIGN from A1 learn about the process. “[I want them to get] real world experience and, ultimately, get them exposed to the political process. I kind of hope that they like it and maybe later on in life, [like] the next election, maybe they’ll do it because they want to, and it’s not for credit,” Vass said.

Not only does the volunteer gain an indepth look at the campaigning process, they also benefit from observation alone.

A better understanding of the voter can make for a better understanding of the campaign itself.

“One of the important things we have to cover is which people are most likely to vote, and the answer to that is the elderly. So if [the students] are out there campaigning, talking to these people or at election day at the polls, they’ll see what what demographic of people are voting, which people are getting involved with the campaign, who are the folks out there volunteering for these campaigns. Is it the people kind of in the center of the political spectrum or is it your more liberal, more conservative people that are out there campaigning, going door to door. So you kind of get the makeup of the average voter,” Vass said.

Having already obtained the knowledge that comes from volunteering, Vass feels it is more beneficial for the students to go themselves.

“I get more out of sending students and getting them involved and seeing them excited than going myself,” Vass said.

The idea of volunteering for a political cause may not seem appealing at first, but it has it’s perks.

“Usually a lot of angst and nervousness happens ahead of time, but once they go in, for the most part people tend to like it. They get to do it in groups and they get to hang out with their friends while also

getting class credit, so getting them to take that first step is usually the hardest thing, but then people tend to enjoy it and a lot of times go back and do more than what they’re supposed to,” Vass said.

Vass assigns the project to all of his government classes, but the candidates and type of election play a role in what the volunteers do differently each year. “[Last year] we did the same thing, and the bigger the campaign the more involved they are. Like for the presidential campaign a few years ago I had several students who were interns with the campaign, so they had actual roles and responsibilities with the campaign and they were doing huge amounts of time,” Vass said.

When big name political figures come to town campaigning there are more various positions available for volunteers.

“Last year at the governor’s rally, we had several kids who were interning for Terry McAuliffe. When Terry McAuliffe came to town with Bill Clinton they were staffing the the event, so they were handing out information, they were crowd control, telling people where they could stand and where they couldn’t, they were collecting signatures, trying to get people to volunteer, so they go around with a clipboard to people standing in line,” Vass said.

Certain requirements must be met in order to get credit, but additional volunteering will result in both extra credit for the class and senior service hours.

“It varies for me depending on the type of campaign, like the presidential campaign people tend to volunteer more, but for this one kids [have to attend] a minimum of eight hours for the basic project, but they can get credit for up to 24 hours, each is worth extra credit in my class,” Vass said.

There may be more enthusiasm surrounding major elections, but Vass feels the more local campaigns are where kids many learn the most, both for their current class and for future elections similar

to those they volunteer for.

“When you get the major parties involved, when you get the Democrats and the Republicans around funneling money into the state it’s a lot more physical. People get more excited about presidential elections, they want to help during presidential elections because it’s what’s on the news, but in reality the elections that have the most impact on the people here in Harrisonburg are the school board and city council elections, but they don’t have this huge amount of party money flowing in to fund these things, so a lot of times it’s the candidate themselves organizing canvassing and information drives and things like that. Much smaller scale, but it definitely has a bigger impact on on the day to day lives of our students and people in Harrisonburg,” Vass said.

As for an actual student volunteer, senior Merrill Harmison has participated in canvassing for certain candidates.

“We went out for about four hours and knocked on peoples’ doors who we had a list for and we’d ask if a certain person was there and we’d tell them about the candidates we were supporting, Alleyn Harned, Chris Jones and then Katrina Gerald. We asked them what issues [the voters] thought were important and tell them about the [candidates] we were supporting,” Harmison said.

Harmison enjoyed learning from and interacting with the candidates while also being able to relate the activity to more than just her government class.

“I really liked talking to Alleyn, he was really nice and he had a good green campaign. I’m in Governor’s School, so it was really interesting to talk about green policy with him and argue which green energy or renewable resources are better than others,” Harmison said.

While she learned much about the political process, Harmison also learned of the possible difficulties that go along with it.

“From the experience I learned that I should never be a politician, because I don’t like talking to people. Alleyn would go up to people and talk for 15 minutes about ideas, I’d be like, ‘Vote Alleyn’ and run away, so I just didn’t really like talking to people I didn’t know. And there were lots of people that just wouldn’t answer the door, so that wasn’t fun either,” Harmison said.

As Vass had hoped, Harmison got to interact with voters and learn how they think, which further helped her understand politics.

“Lots of people seemed to care, but might not still take the time to vote. We went to one house and there were like four kind of college-age guys and there was only one who was legitimately interested. There were some people who just seemed dead set on one candidate versus the other,” Harmison said.

Prior to her canvassing, Harmison had only experienced government through a television series called Parks and Recreation. In the end, she was able to relate the show to the real deal, and the real deal to her government class. “[The characters] actually go canvassing so I was really excited to go canvassing like Leslie Knope (a character on the show). It was neat to connect a real life experience with [the show] and talk to someone who was actually on city council and it was neat to see how the election process worked and talk to voters,” Harmison said.

The government students have been presented with multiple ways to become involved in local campaigns, such as the school board candidate debate that took place at HHS on Sept. 23. They will continue to volunteer, either by attending rallies or canvassing, for school board and city council campaigns until elections are held Nov. 4.

Olweus program has potential to impact high school Brian Alvarado Staff Reporter Whether it be at home, work, and especially in our high schools, bullying has caused extreme discomfort, harm, and has been a contributing factor in people committing suicide.

“There is no reason, there is no permission, there is no justification for being mean to another person, it doesn’t give you more power, it doesn’t raise your

stock, and it doesn’t raise your cool factor.

There is no justification for why you would behave that way towards another human being,” Cynthia Prieto, principal of HHS, said.

The problem is, with this new age of a technology obsessed society, new ways of bullying have been created through social networking; ways that can not be as easily addressed.

According to the NCES, the percentage of bullying that occurs with students from the age of 12-18 increased by 24.5 percent

between the years 2003 and 2007.

Bullying prevention programs, such as Olweus, are implemented in facilities across the nation where bullying could be a problem. Olweus has brought high hopes to the HHS staff to raise awareness and prevent bullying.

“The intent is to get students who are raised through our schools to think with a mentality of ‘we have to look out for each other, we cannot bully each other, we cannot harass each other’, and we also can’t say that it is not my problem because I am

only a bystander,” Prieto said.

Not all students see bullying as a problem in our school.

“I think its a waste of time. It doesn’t really do anything, and it doesn’t affect me.

Sure, it might help some people, but not really,” Adonis Hernandez said.

Bullying does happen, and quite often.

According to nobullying.com 83 percent of girls and 79 percent of boys have reported being bullied in either school or social media.

The Newsstreak

October 31, 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.

Editorials appearing without a byline represent the majority opinion of the staff, but not necessarily the opinion of the adviser, school administration, or the school system.

Signed editorials are accepted from people on the staff, but are subject to editing according to published guidelines and policies. Editorials may be edited for special reasons.

Letters to the editor are encouraged and must be signed and a telephone number must be given.

Names may be withheld if the editorial board feels there is a just cause.

The Newsstreak reserves the right to edit and may refuse to publish ads or letters deemed inappropriate, libelous, or obscene. Please drop your letter by room 444 or give them to any staff member.

Letters may also be sent to the high school.

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

Problematic technology affects students Chromebooks have had similar complaints. General laptop labs checked out from Technology and Harrisonburg the library don’t perform High School have a rocky relation- much more successfully. ship, and this year in particular In our evolved world, has shown our general clueless- technology is crucial to the ness when it comes to the wireless classroom. Even teachers world. The wifi has been nearly im- who prefer papers to be possible to connect to, the changed turned in physically expect server has resulted in the loss of them to be typed up rather multiple student accounts, the than handwritten, because journalistic region of the school has teenagers tend to write at been struggling with the lack of a varying levels of legibility. universal server in their rooms and, My Big Campus, a Facebook most notably, the use of laptops knockoff for classes, is a fahas done nothing but waste class vorite system for teachers time. to hand out assignments Many students can attest to the and provide a forum for agonizingly slow Chromebook sys- discussion outside of the tem used by a variety of English classroom. Grades are postteachers. For example, Melody ed online, homework is asWilson’s AP English Literature and signed online, study sources are Composition class wastes, by no based online and Google provides fault of her own, 10 ten minutes endless opportunities for homeminimum each period waiting for work help--online. But the access their computers to comprehend at school is limited and doesn’t althe existence of a functional inter- low easy innovations through the net. online world.

“Overall, building-wide, we’ve After a month and a half of this had problems with the server. If tenuous connection with cybereverything is primarily Chrome- space, the staff of Newsstreak has book-based and people have been pushed to the edge and come problems with connectivity it im- to the conclusion that something pedes the lesson. If they can’t get must be done. Our school needs connected, that’s [instructional] to reform our understanding of the time that’s wasted,” Wilson said. online world.

Students from other classes using Not all the teachers in our school have a complex enough understanding of computers to successfully maneuver the foreign online world and are The unsigned staff editorial appears in each issue and therefore lost when comreflects the majority opinion of the Newsstreak Staff Editorial Board. The Editorial Board is comprised of all puters crash or the intereditors-in-chief, page editors, advertising managers, net stops connecting or photographers and selected freshman journalism stusomeone’s account has dents. In no way does our opinion reflect that of the disappeared into the school system or the administration. ether. At that point, their

NEWSSTREAK STAFF EDITORIAL

WHAT IS THE STAFF EDITORIAL?

only option is to call upon one of the five technicians employed at our school. Five being the same number of technicians employed when the only computers were in the library and no grading was done online.

In the modern day and age, you’d think HHS would be at least trying to keep up with the evolving technological world. With hundreds more computers, the technological problems have multiplied since the time before laptops, but the team appointed to take care of said problems is remarkably understaffed. While all five are in separate classrooms showing confused freshmen how to log into their accounts, a teacher somewhere else could be having an actual crisis with their lab but unable to do anything about it. This is where the technology seminar comes in.

If each teacher can be thoroughly taught the solution to their simplistic fiascoes that take place every day, our limited tech support

team will be available to deal with actual emergencies. This will also cut back on the class time wasted as teachers will be prepared to tackle Chromebook crashes.

Of course, an alternative (or an addition?) could be the expansion of the tech support team so that there are people available to help out.

This barely scratches the surface of the difficulties presented by the technological world. The minimal bandwidth utilized by our school, most notably, is the main reason behind the lagging internet access, but it’s also the more complex--and expensive--issue to solve.

Any steps we can take towards helping HHS run more smoothly would be a step in the right direction. As a whole, our school’s general understanding and competency in terms of technology is weak and in order to function in the modern world, actions must be taken to welcome in the age of the internet.

People on college tours are so predictable Mia Karr Editor-in-Chief

In the past year, I’ve visited nine colleges. At my first visit, I had no idea what to expect, but now I’m well acquainted with the familiar trends. One in particular makes me roll my eyes. I present to you, The Five Most Annoying People You Meet at Every College Visit: 1. The parent that didn’t do their research.

There’s no point in spending the time to visit a college if you’re going to waste precious time in the question-and-answer session by asking questions like “What’s the size of the freshman class?” Save yourself the gas money and take a trip to the school’s website. Now, people with questions that can’t be

answered with a few topics relevant to many clicks of the mouse of the students here. will have time to 3. The person who speak. asks way too many 2. The parent who questions. asks a really specific Much like when a question that only group text becomes a applies to their kid. conversation between “So, like, say two people, this is just The Mia you’re a varsity waawkward. I understand Perspective that everyone is conter polo player that is interested in studying fused as heck by the comEastern European literplicated and supposedly ature and organic chemistry- what life-determining college admissions opportunities does the universi- process, but at a certain point you ty offer to meld these interests?” need to stop monopolizing the Thank you, mother in the front conversation. Especially because, row, for asking the question that based on anecdotal evidence, your everyone else needed an answer to questions are usually dumb. but was too afraid to ask. You are 4. The tour guide who gets SUin no way wasting the time of the PER EXCITED when someone is 100 other people in this auditorium from their home town. who might have questions about Chill.

5. The high schooler that seems way cooler than you.

There will no doubt be at least one person that radiates a kind of “I can be accepted into any college I want because I’m a magical unicorn genius” glow. This will leave you feeling like your college and life prospects are dim. However, just because someone looks perfect doesn’t mean they are perfect. In fact colleges have no idea what you look like, unless you take it upon yourself to mail them a wallet-sized photo. Let that sink in- for maybe the first (and only) time in your life, someone is making a judgment about you that has absolutely nothing to do with what you look like. I’ve got to admit, despite how crappy admissions are in general, that feels pretty good.

Sadistic tendencies really disgust Dotas Evan Dotas Feature editor I hate fights. I hate walking around the school and seeing that cluster of people making their cacophonous symphony of hooting and hollering the soundtrack to a 30-second struggle. Frankly, every time a fight happens, I get depressed and that feeling sticks with me throughout the day.

However, people seem to have a universal obsession with violence.

You can see this in big settings like the UFC to little settings like our own cafeteria. But recently, our schadenfreude has manifested itself in a much more serious fad; the ISIS beheadings.

It’s common knowledge that the terrorist group ISIS has been decapitating people. But mere actions are not enough for terrorist groups

anymore. In order sources cover these to capitalize on our atrocities. However, desensitization, ISIS publishing the actuhas sent the United al videos is, frankly, States videos of these messed up. To state beheadings. the obvious, it is inWhile this may credibly disrespectful sound just like a rude towards the victim and Evan Knows his family. While the idea by terrible people, it’s actually a videos do a great job brilliant business scheme. This is be- of vilifying ISIS, they also publicize a cause ISIS knows our media. tragedy in a very unnecessary way.

Respectable news sites like CNN This is also exactly what these published the videos of James Fo- terrorists want. They want this atley being murdered for everyone tention. They would love to know to see. You might think that we are that I’m writing this article right above watching such primitive vid- now. But what gets them off more eos, but sadly, we aren’t. than anything else, is knowing that Is the problem here with the me- their “art” is being demonstrated in dia, who will not stop at anything the freak show that is our media. to get more attention? Or is it with Ultimately, it falls upon the peothe people, who are vile enough to ple to choose not to watch this. We go out of their way to see the grue- all probably turn our heads to look some death of another? Yes to both. at car accidents on the side of the It is very important that news road. Maybe that makes us worse

people, but it is a common temptation. Yet this is a new level of horror.

Sure, I could point out how psychologists say not to watch the video because it makes us more prone to violence and desensitizes us to this violence. But, more importantly, people shouldn’t watch these videos because it’s just wrong.

You shouldn’t have access to people being beheaded. And even if you do, you shouldn’t watch it.

There is no need to watch terrible videos like these. None. If you watch for shock value, you fuel the enemy.

If you watch for pleasure, I’m sorry, but you’re being sadistic.

So out of respect to the families of these victims and the victims themselves, don’t watch any of those videos. Go into the happy part of the internet and find some cat videos like we used to do when we were moral.

Taking risks can lead to great payoff Julexus Cappell Online editor-in-Chief When does that moment come when we decide to not only believe in ourselves, but to take a risk because we do?

I’m not completely sure. But I made the leap anyway.

Recently a family friend reached out to me because they have been following my blog and asked if I had any editing experience. Well sure, for my high school newspaper and friends who wanted me to proof read their papers before they submitted. A paid gig? HA! If only, I pondered. Then the unthinkable happened.

She asked me if I’d like to edit her book that she’s working on… for pay. That was so unpredictable, I know.

Anyway, my immediate thought

was to ask if she was and purchased a new mentally stable, belaptop, and not to brag, cause it wouldn’t be but a super nice one possible for her to that was a definite upwant me, a 17-yeargrade from my last. The old girl who spends moment I signed the her weekends ringcontract to make paying up shoes for ments on the laptop I minimum wage and unknowingly made a Just Julexus decision. tweeting about trivial things like Beyonce’s I decided that I believe birthday to edit a novel. No way in in myself enough to take a finanHell. cial risk and pursue what I love. I But she did? had also made that decision when So naturally we had to meet up I accepted the offer to help my over coffee and discuss details of family friend edit her work. I mean the project, a contract, notariza- obviously I had to have some kind tion, compensation etc. After we of faith in my abilities to do that, were done, I certainly left in good right? spirits. I must admit, I even still Believing in my work is one of can’t believe it. the hardest things for me to do. I’ve A few days later, my laptop gotten extremely kind compliments left for technology heaven. This is on my writing, and all I’m thinking where I went for the jump. I went in my head when I receive them

is “They can’t actually think this, they’re just be trying to be nice.” I knew eventually that I would have to believe in my writing when I went into the professional world.

I’ll be completely honest with you all though, I figured that wouldn’t happen for another 10 years or so.

A paid job, that is.

It didn’t. It’s now. Yikes.

It’s scary putting yourself out there and taking a risk, but if you don’t you never will. And if you never will then you’ll never be great, and that would be truly unfortunate. What has stopped me in the past is the thought of failure. As I’ve grown up, I’ve decided that failure isn’t the enemy, but an ally in disguise. From failure comes lessons, and from lessons come learning, and from learning comes correction.

Take the leap.

The Newsstreak

October 31, 2014

HOT Birdman Michael Keaton stars in this new film about a popular superhero who wishes to make a come back.

One Act Play The Theater department has been working hard on their fall one act which had much success at the debut last week.

Cross Country The cross country team has been performing well over the last few meets.

Seussical The musical has been announced! Creative and fun, this year should be very exciting!

End of the Nine Weeks Good news! We have officially made it through one fourth of the school year!

Ernie G. The comedian had a hilarious performance a few weeks ago in the auditorium.

Facebook for ebola The company donated $25 million to fight ebola.

Hispanic Heritage Month HHS put much emphasis on Hispanic Heritage Month, a month dedicated to hispanic culture and people.

Same-Sex Marriage Virginia has joined with several other states in the marriage equality battle.

Pumpkin Spice Lattes They are all the hype, the delicious beverages certainly need to be consumed!

NOT Ebola

The outbreak has caused much panic and dispair for those surrounded by the horrible virus.

Barnes and Noble closing Your favorite book store will be shutting its doors in the near future.

Hannah Graham Search Recently police have found what seem to be her remains in a creek, an unfortunate conclusion to the search.

IOS 8 Many changes have been made and the iPad really can’t handle it.

Kobane Fight A new series of battles have started as countries try to control Syria’s Kobane.

Weather Literally. Summer is officially behind us. Bring out the fires and eggnog!

Taylor Swift Shake It Off... Really?

Michael Phelps DUI The althete got another DUI...

Don’t take after his example.

Drive Safe kids.

Non-Senior Priveleges Many seniors are not pleased with the privileges they received... but at the same time, at least we have some!

Semester Midterms Semester classes are having midterms shortly. Yuck.

OP/ED-A6

Five reasons why: milk with ice Eddie Mestre Opinion Editor

3. It tastes better. Who likes milk that begins to heat up anyways? Warm milk is fine (though inferior to ICE cold milk) but you What’s with all the milk-ice never hear someone saying: cube hate? I swear people today “Golly, I just love my 53 degree do not understand how sophistimilk!” That’s weird. Milk is supcated people (my people) drink Eddie the Yeti pose to be cold! It is a refreshing milk. Whenever I join a converbeverage you have over a field sation about the most marvelous form of of victory. The ice cold temperature settles calcium consumption on earth, I often find on your taste buds and has a more pleasurmyself the center of much ridicule and tor- able effect on your psyche. Have you never ment due to my apparently taboo drinking sipped ice cold milk after a hard day’s work habits. Which is the precise reason for this and said “Mmmm… that is amazing?” message. Nay, it is not a message, it is a 4. It leads to a more creative mind. No proclamation. A bold document expressing I don’t have a single source to back this (what I believe to be) the top five reasons up… But it is me (chuckles to self). I have you SHOULD drink milk with ice cubes. had several conversations with fellow milk1. You already do. Haha you naysay- with-ice consumers and some have recomers. The title says it all. Have you ever pur- mended incredible ideas to me! Have you chased an iced coffee from your favorite ever thought about freezing milk, and uscoffee shop? Then I have news for you: ing that as your ice cubes? Genius!

You already drink milk with ice cubes! Milk 5. It’s classy. Imagine yourself on a is a key component in those delicious ice beach. An umbrella by your side, waves coffees and you sip away, not thinking any- crashing around you. Your hair is blowing thing of it. They seem to be quite popular, in the wind and the sun reflects off your so surely the public is okay with such meth- sunglasses. You swosh around your sophisods of drinking? ticated drinking glass and the sound of ice 2. If the ice melts you’re doing it cubes clashing with one another fills your wrong! You people always complain. “Ew ears. You take a sip of milk and smile with gross, it makes my milk all watery.” But your gorgeous mustache. Sexy. All because please, the milk you drink is already dilut- you’re drinking milk with ice! Think about ed. It surely isn’t coming straight from the the world of possibilities that could open cow. 2%, Skim, Whole, they have all been before you! tampered with to make customers more If you do not currently drink milk with happy. Furthermore, a smaller glass can ice cubes, I recommend you give it a whirl… solve many problems. Drinking your milk what do you have to lose? If you really rather promptly allows it to stay at that think your milk will be substantially waperfect temperature and in the end you tered down just remember it all goes to the have two ice cubes to smack against your same place anyway! teeth!

Thespians not as weird as you think Ariel Vogel Feature Editor

never leave the classroom-the theater is where we do our work, and then we leave when the work is done. And head to...

High school stereotypes are Starbucks? everywhere, given that we are, 3. When we aren’t in the in fact, in high school. TV shows drama room, we’re at Starand movies show a much more The Aerial View bucks. Who doesn’t like cofextreme view of stereotypes fee? And, more specifically, than reality--jocks are stupid, nerds are caffeine? Theater kids have to spend hours awkward, cheerleaders are bratty and dra- rehearsing without a moment off the stage ma kids are, well, dramatic. Some stereo- to finish homework, so studying often haptypes carry over into life, though, and leave pens late into the night. Rehearsal also an inaccurate picture of students in school. calls actors to bring an excess of energy for As a drama kid, I’d like to take this time to hours at a time, so an extra boost is always refute some basic generalizations about appreciated. However, Starbucks is expenthat sphere of my life. sive. Coffee shops generally charge around 1. We’re loud, extroverted, talkative-- $2 for a coffee, $3 and up for flavoring and take your pick. Yes, oftentimes, we are. We styles, and Starbucks is no different. But have to become comfortable speaking in a fifty cent Dr. Pepper? It provides just as front of large groups of people and often much sugar and caffeine for a much lower that skill carries over to normal life. How- price. There isn’t a lot of money in theater, ever, this is very much a generalization. and it all can’t be spent in a little green cofFirst of all, there are drama kids who are, in fee shop. Sorry, Isabelle. fact, introverted in the classroom because 4. We quote shows and break into the only place they feel comfortable is on song constantly. It happens. There are a the stage. They can be in every show avail- lot of songs in our head with a lot of lyrable to them but also be the quietest kid in ics that were written to be relevant to life school and you never would know there’s and therefore are relevant to life. We also a crossover. sing a lot in shows, so singing is someOn the other hand, acting isn’t the only thing we’re comfortable with. That doesn’t part of drama. Techies specifically have no mean we’ll do it all the time, though. Sure, obligation to talk while they’re involved in it happens more often to us than the avthe theater and therefore feel no obliga- erage non-singing citizen, but we have off tion to talk outside of it. This generalization buttons. Frankly, even we got annoyed is made through the fact that the drama when people would sing “Oklahoma” any kids who stand out are the ones who make time anyone said “okay” last year. If we’re themselves stand out, leaving the quiet annoyed, we probably won’t turn around kids to fade into the background. and do that same thing.

2. We spend all our time in the dra5. We’re a bunch of flirts. Welllll. We ma room or the theater. As a drama kid, do have to become very comfortable with I didn’t even know this was a stereotype ourselves as performers and so we’re until the internet told me. Sure, we have comfortable putting ourselves out there. to go into the drama room to drop off bags Occasionally in a flirtatious fashion. But or grab stage makeup and the theater to anyone who’s confident in themselves can rehearse, but those are all necessities. We very easily become a flirt so this stereoalso venture into the outside world occa- type again isn’t limited to just theater kids! sionally. We attend sports, go out to eat, Also, flirting is fun. Maybe it is an accurate make appearances at parties, socialize. stereotype, but it probably isn’t one we’re This stereotype is as ridiculous as saying ashamed of. that jocks never leave the field or nerds Thus, the five basic misconceptions

Read, Write, and True

Congress needs to understand bipartisanship Josh Byrd Online Editor According to the Washington Post’s election lab, Republicans have a 76% chance of taking the U.S. Senate in the upcoming midterm elections; but before Republicans spike the football, they need to start making plans and stop playing politics against an unpopular president.

According to a new Gallup poll, the President’s disapproval rating is at 52 percent. Congress fares even worse than the President with a disapproval number of 82 percent according to an ABC/Washington Post poll. People are tired of a do-nothing Congress, but they are also tired of a do-nothing government.

According to an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, 47 percent of Americans feel less safe than ever before.

Americans also have a negative outlook about the economy.

According to a new Gallup poll, 55 percent of Americans feel that the economy is getting worse. If Republicans maintain power in the legislature, they need to start producing results by passing legislation.

Also, President Obama needs to come to the table, and have meaningful conversations and find common ground on the issues through compromise with Republicans.

The best economic performance in American history occurred during times of divided government. In the 1980’s, President Ronald Reagan had to work with a Democratic house during his tenure. President Bill Clinton had to work with a Republican Congress during the later years of his presidency. Both administrations experienced great economies. Reagan was able to pass tax cuts and revitalize the economy after a recession, while Clinton was successful in reforming the welfare system.

There is something in common with these administrations and congresses, they believed in this concept known as bipartisanship.

The culture in D.C. right now is very partisan; the concept used is my way or the highway. This government in the next two years could achieve things like tax reform and entitlement reform if both Republicans and President Obama come to the table and put aside their differences for the common good of the nation.

about theater kids, thoroughly (kind of) disproven by your resident theater kid.

Sure, some of us are flirtatiously loud singers who aren’t seen outside of the theater or Starbucks, but to the mass of theater kids out there feeling oppressed by these generalizations of you and your people: you’re welcome.

How to fail your learner’s permit test I am the third person in line, and at exactly 8:02 a.m. the doors open. I am filled with adrenaline and excitement, only thinking of We all know the dreaded how great it’ll be to finally press DMV building. Talk to anyone the gas pedal down. about it, you’ll get a response Another update on myself: I Have Faith based on how they waited for don’t study for things. I’m lucky hours, it smelled, it was the if I get 10 minutes of studying in worst part of their day and on and on. How- before a big test in school. Don’t get me ever, all of these people are accomplishing wrong; I do my work that is required, but just what they came to do by the end of extra studying and reviewing just isn’t my their horrid trip to the DMV, and therefore thing. it couldn’t have been that horribly bad.

That in mind, the learner’s permit Except for me. test obviously has no required work beUpdate on myself: I skipped first grade, forehand, only to study that booklet Ms. so therefore I am a year younger than all Wheeler gave me a year ago in driver’s edthe other kids in my grade. I’m a junior ucation. But it’s not required or forced, and now, so basically everyone can drive with so being me, it didn’t even cross my mind their license by now (which you must be to look over that, or really anything.

16 and three months to obtain), but I just Whoops. turned a meager 15 and six months last If you cannot guess already, I failed. month. Also, I am actually obsessed with The signs were actually a breeze, and afthe idea of driving, probably because it has ter I passed those, I thought I was guaranbeen out of reach for so long compared to teed to have it in the bag. But the general my peers because of my young age. knowledge section, which I went in taking Now that you know more about me, for granted as easy, gave me some troubles picture this: it’s Aug. 27. at 8 a.m. The very if I’ve ever seen trouble. While taking the day I turned exactly 15 and six months. I test, I realized you’re actually required to am waiting outside for the DMV to open, know specific distances in feet for stopping eager to take and pass my learner’s permit at specific speed limits, feet distances for test, so I am finally legally able to be in the turning on/off headlights, lots of times in driver’s seat. specific seconds, etc. Everything was way

Faith Runnells Managing editor

too specific for me and I missed the passing by one question.

Fast forward to Sept 15. It had been 15 days since by failed attempt the first time, and I was eligible to retake the test. But I’m actually one of those people who doesn’t learn from my mistakes, so low and behold, I failed again. Again, because I didn’t spend any time studying (it’s also a pride thing).

This time around, the third question of the test got me. It was part of the signs, but keep in mind this wasn’t any old sign; it was blank. How am I supposed to know what a blank sign means? Okay, maybe I should have known the color’s meaning or what the shape implied, but still, blank?

You’re not allowed to miss any signs, so that test ended badly as well.

So now here I am, still have not looked at the booklet, and eligible to take my third test but terrified, because if I fail again, I am required to either a) wait until I’m 18 to retake the test or b) retake the 40 hour class of driver’s education. Forty hours.

That’s intimidating.

I have yet to decide if I’m going to look at that study booklet. I probably won’t.

Wish me luck for the day (maybe next week) I finally gather up the courage to attempt the test my third time, and hopefully do not have to waste 40 hours of my life in a sophomore driver’s education class I’ve already taken.

The Newsstreak

October 31, 2014

OUTDOORS-A9

Rock Climbing In Shenandoah Valley

PHOTOS BY YOGESH ARADHEY AND TYLER RODRIGUEZ

CLIMBING. Local outdoors enthusiasts get ready for a rock climbing trip.

BOULDERING. A style of climbing where you don’t use harnesses.

Climber takes advantage of bouldering in area Yogesh Aradhey and Hunter Manzano Outdoors Editors

Where can I go?

Rocky Top Climbing Gym An indoor climbing gym in charlottesville.

This gym offers a huge selection of rock walls spanning over 2500 square feet. There are different types and styles of climbing and the routes are changed regularly. They also have classes for those looking to improve their technique as well as rental equipment for newcomers to the sport.

Reflector Oven Area As a part of the Old Rag trail in the national park, this area has some of the best climbing in the state.

You hike to the rock face along a well established trail and there are many choices of things to climb depending on your skill and interest.

Skyline Wall Area Another climb in the Old Rag area, there is a technical trad climb (traditional rock climbing with harnesses and typi-

cally longer routes). Plenty of choices here.

Little Stony Man Mountain This climb is also in the national park but in in a different place. The Little Stony Man hike is one that is enjoyed by many visitors, but some choose to take advantage of the climb that can be found there. The difficulty of the climb is medium and it is not very long making it a good training ground for new climbers looking to start of on something small.

Hone Quarry An all around good place for any things out doors, there is hiking, fishing, camping, road biking, mountain biking, rock climbing and even hunting at some times during the year. You can find great places for all these activities. The climbing here is mostly short steep things with decent hand holds.

Infographic by Yogesh Aradhey

In my experience, when you clear the top of a rock face, especially when there were a few close calls and plenty of prayers on the way up, and you spin around to take in the view, the first feeling you feeltakes your breath away, and that is what your soul longs passionately for.

However, for some, the second feeling could be an immense fear of heights, which would tell you to try something else, and for others it’s a feeling of humility, awe, and wonder.

My friends and I have done countless things that would force any sensible person to think twice and weigh their life against their ego, but being the hard-headed young men we are, we will never back down from a challenge.

In the national forest, just having passed the peak of autumn where all of the leaves in the trees exploded in their own unique color, we and Tyler Rodriguez set foot to trail just a mile or two from Hone Quarry Dam, west of Harrisonburg about 19 miles, looking for promising rock faces.

In our packs, we carried 100 feet of climbing rope, rappelling gear, matches, a knife, a jacket, and first aid gear.

Even if the risks are low it’s better to have something and not need it, than to need it and not have it.

After just a half mile on the trail, we found a section of rocks about 90 feet high, that looked prehistoric and was worn by the constant harassment of the elements.

Just as we reached the base, we identified the easiest way up (as it had begun to rain just 20 minutes earlier), set up the

REWARDING. The view from the top is well worth the fight to get there.

safety rope, and took to the face. Even though it wasn’t a challenging face it was still fun.

Laughing and screaming with your friends climbing up a big slippery crack in a rock is a darn good time.

We made it to the top unharmed and took in the view. I’ve been climbing rocks for years and every time you get to the top and look at it, it hits you like a train. The plan was to rappel back down, but because the face was so slippery, we found an alternative route down.

The trail back to the parking lot was fairly steep and sharp slippery daggers of rocks jabbed threateningly in our direction daring us to take a wrong step. The view slowly faded from our sight as we lost elevation and the trees and foliage blotted out the misty and cloudy, yet pretty later afternoon sky.

The trees also served

the purpose of resisting some of the wind that mercilessly swept the overlook with a bone chilling cold that soaked through our limbs. This is another consideration you should take into account on a climbing trip: if your fingers get too cold and you are unable to properly grip the rocks, your climb and possible life, could be in jeopardy.

There is also the danger of getting blown off of a precarious perch by a strong gust of wind.

After the relatively short hike back to the parking lot we took advantage of a shelter for picnickers and started a fire in the fireplace to dry clothes and warm numb fingers.

It is always just fun to be out there with your friends having a great time. Ending with food and fire was a great way to put a finishing touch on a great day’s worth of the great outdoors.

HONE QUARRY. Looking down over the main recreation area from a near by over look.

Hagmaier enjoyed challenge of climbing Randee-Rose Joven Staff Reporter According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, rock climbing is both a physical and intellectually challenging aesthetic sport.

The amount of objects you can hold or step on are limited, so the climber must quickly think of the mechanics and techniques they will use to avoid the risks of falling or injury. It is an activity that challenges you to try new things whether you climb manmade rock walls or rocks formed naturally. NCBI also states that climbing is demanding especially when you discover new and various routes.

English teacher Jill Hagmaier started rock climbing when she was in college.

“I took [them twice]: Rock Climbing 1 and 2. They taught us how to tie all the safety knots and take care of all the equipments,” Hagmaier said. “We practiced rappelling off the side of the stadium. Then we went out to Little Stony Man at Shenandoah and rock climbed.”

The activity was also an opportunity for Hagmaier to have fun, be outside with nature and be out with her friends.

“It is a challenge that is both physical and mental.

You can’t just pull yourself up all the way, you have to use your technique and figure out how to balance your body against the rocks to get to the top and achieve your goal,” Hagmaier said.

Knowing this as an activity prone to accidents

and danger, Hagmaier advises young rock climbers to have a companion. “You have someone there you trust to catch you if you fall,” Hagmaier said.

Junior Karla Gonzalez began to get more engaged in this sport on her freshman year when she joined JROTC and participated in Young Life.

“That’s when I actually started doing it [more often],” Gonzales said. “I try to use my arms more than my legs, or kick off my legs and jump other than just going from rock to rock. I try to skip some rocks then go to the next one.”

Gonzales likes the competition in this sport.

“The competition has different people on different sides and we see who gets there first,” Gonzalez said.

Andrew Rath is a sophomore who does something similar to rock climbing: rappelling. Both activities require climbing up and getting back down. “[I like] the heights and the level of excitement when you’re coming down.

It’s almost like you’re falling down but you can control it,” Rath said.

Some tips students offer are using the proper knots and ropes and harnesses, looking at their weight limit, double-check everything, try new things, and pack only essential things.

Rock climbing and rappelling destinations near Harrisonburg can be found at JMU Recreation Center Wall, Eastern Mennonite University, North River and Lee Ranger Districts, along Virginia’s Blue Ridge, or at Seneca Rocks.

JROTC uses rock climbing wall as measure of overall fitness for cadets Savannah McNeal Staff Reporter According to Climbing. com, one can climb rock or ice without any specialized training, but they’ll get much more out of their climbing if they strengthen the specific muscles and tendons needed for harder moves.

Sergeant Major Wilder of JROTC trains his Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps Raider team to climb the rock wall by working on upper body strength and mental toughness.

“If my cadets can pass the mental toughness, they can make it to the top,” Wilder said.

Junior Soma Barzanji is the fastest raider team girl

to climb the rock wall in 30 seconds.

Barzanji has found the easiest way to climb a rock wall. According to her, a person needs to make sure he/she looks at the rocks before going up and then consider which ones to step on, keeping mainly your feet in mind.

“Keep striving to what you want, and eventual-

ly you’ll make it,” Barzanji said.

Rock climbers have a fitness regime that requires strengthening their upper and lower bodies.

“When I train my cadets, I make sure I make them work on push-ups, sit-ups, and running. This helps every muscle in your body,’’ Wilder said.

According to Wilder,

push-ups help a person with his/her triceps and sit-ups help to tighten abs.

“For my cadets to do the rock wall they have to be able to run a 5-6 minute mile. Running is very important for rock climbing because it improves their muscles and enables them to hold on,” Wilder said.

Also a reason, why run-

ning is the best way to help an individual rock climb is because it helps with all muscles in a person’s body, especially the legs. In rock climbing, strong legs are very essential when climbing, this helps one step on different objects and for himself/herself to balance on the different rocks.

The Newsstreak

October 31, 2014

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October 31, 2014

The Newsstreak

STYLE-A9

Sundquist hits shelves close to home with newest novel Mia Karr Editor in Chief A little over 10 years ago, author, motivational speaker, and Paralympian Josh Sundquist walked the halls of HHS much like students today. However, he walked a little differently- with one real leg and one prosthetic one. The cancer survivor and New York Times bestselling author of the autobiographical Just Don’t Fall recently wrote his second book, We Should Hang Out Sometime, about his hilarious and heartbreaking quest to find a girlfriend.

“To me, you have sort of a negative situation happen to you, you find meaning or even solace in that negative situation by sharing it with other people if they are able to find meaning in your story,” Sundquist said. “That’s kind of what my whole life has been like, professionally speaking.

My first book Just Don’t Fall was about my battle with cancer and losing my leg.

So those are much more serious circumstances, but in the same way that I really wanted to write that book in the sense that ‘here are these things that happened to me and it worked out okay’...I think there’s a similar feel to We Should Hang Out Sometime.”

Sundquist began contacting girls he had unsuccessfully tried to date and trying to figure out what had gone wrong before he decided to write the book. He has had the idea of the book for a while, but his literary agent didn’t think it would work until there was a happy ending. So, after starting to date his fiancee, Ashley Samsonite, Sundquist contacted a few more girls he hadn’t gotten to in his personal investigation and then wrote the book. The girls he talked to after deciding to write the book know they are immortalized in prose, but the ones he

talked to before will be surprised when the book comes out in January. However, all names and identifying characteristics have been changed except in one instance, so everyone’s privacy is protected.

This book has afforded Sundquist a chance to reflect upon his earlier romantic experiences.

“I always think ‘Oh I should’ve just been more confident, it’s so easy’, but probably right now I’m still not as confident as I will be maybe in five years...I would love to advise my high school self to be more confident, but I don’t think my high

to me,” Sundquist said. “I thought it was a great place with great students and great teachers and what really stood out to me was how awesome it was.”

Although he loved HHS, Sundquist cut his senior year a semester short and finished his classes early so he could move to Colorado and train to be a Paralympic ski racer. He kept up his training during school breaks while attending William and Mary and competed in the Paralympics during his senior year of college.

“A lot of people supported me in my quest to go to the Paralympics. There were all these people who had done things to help me and supported me and believed in me, and so really I think the coolest part of the Paralympics was that...it was like it wasn’t just me going to the Paralympics, it was all of these people,” Sundquist said.

After completing his undergraduate degree in business, Sundquist got a Masters in Communications and got serious about being a motivational speaker. Sundquist first got interested in motivational speaking as a sophomore in high school, when he attended a speech by

school self would take my advice,” Sundquist said.

Long before Sundquist chronicled his relationship history, he was a Newsstreak editor-in-chief, wrestler, and student council vice president at HHS. Freshman year was a culture shock for Sundquist, who had previously been home schooled.

“I loved Harrisonburg High School...It was very different than what I expected, coming from being a homeschooler I was really afraid and felt like everyone was going to be different than me and super mean

Milton Crea, a motivational speaker that was brought to HHS. He had been informally giving speeches at hospital fundraisers since he had cancer, but seeing this motivational speaker capture the audience made him realize that that was what he wanted to do with his life.

Sundquist speaks at around 25 venues a year. When he’s not speaking, or traveling to speaking venues, he works on books, replies to emails, makes Youtube videos and takes care of the day-to-day business of life.

Although Sundquist speaks and writes

about being an amputee, he doesn’t let his unusual number of limbs dominate his personal life.

“In some ways I sort of compartmentalize, and around my friends I don’t talk about how I have one leg and they don’t really talk about it...If you hang around me awhile, at first it’s something you think about, but eventually it’s just not something you think about,” Sundquist said. “It’s kind of weird that I go out and give speeches about how I have one leg, because I don’t really think of it that much on a day-to-day basis.”

Sundquist has found he’s grown more comfortable with his body as he’s grown up.

“When I first went to high school...I was so afraid of people finding out that I had one leg, I didn’t want anyone to know. And now every year at Halloween, I make Halloween costumes that are about being an amputee,” Sundquist said.

Although both of Sundquist’s books talk extensively about his experience as an amputee, he’s wanted to be an author since before he lost his leg. His current writing project is a young adult novel.

“I’ve written two memoirs- I’m 30 years old. I don’t have too much else to say about my life. If I want to keep writing, I’m going to have to start making things up,” Sundquist said.

As for other professional goals, Sundquist hopes to keep speaking and booking bigger and more exciting events. He’s eager to see We Should Hang Out Sometime hit the shelves this winter and hopes readers can learn from his experiences.

“I think the sort of central theme and realization that I come to by the end of the book is that there’s no characteristics about you, there’s nothing in your past, that would disqualify you from deserving love,” Sundquist said.

We Should Hang Out Sometime is hilarious read Mia Karr Editor in Chief We Should Hang Out Sometime opens with the author discovering that the girl he thought was his girlfriend has a boyfriend- and it’s not him. From there, the book embarks on a hilarious journey through middle school crushes, ill-fated prom dates and uncomfortable post-heartbreak canoe trips.

The premise is simple, yet original. The author, Josh Sundquist, breaks the book up into six chunks, one for each of the past love interests that he discusses. (After interviewing Sundquist, I discovered that he talked to many more girls for the project, but chose the most interesting stories.) Each chunk begins with a “background” section that describes the circumstances of their relationship (or rather, lack thereof), which is followed by a “hypothesis” section where Sundquist develops a theory as to what went wrong, and concluded by an “investigation” section where he reveals the results of conversations he had with the girls about what came between them.

As you can imagine, the book is quite hilarious.

Sundquist doesn’t hold back in discussing the terrible awkwardness and confusion of his attempts to find a girlfriend. Although the reader can imagine that each of the incidents would be horrifying to experience, their told in a witty, self-aware way that makes them completely enjoyable for someone miles away from the situation. However, it’s not schadenfreude that you experience reading the book, but rather a deep relatability.

The book was made especially relatable to me by the fact that a large part of it is set in Harrisonburg, and, specifically, HHS. Although Sundquist graduated in 2002, it seems that much has remained the same. Take, for example, this description of After Prom.

“After Prom was the accurately, but not creatively titled event that took place following the dance. It was basically a big G-rated party hosted by the parents where students could participate in quasi-fun activities that did not involve alcohol or pregnancy” (p 149). Yup, still relevant. It’s super exciting to read through a book and recognize places and events- I only wish he hadn’t changed the names of the girls, because there’s definitely a potential to recognize them to!

We Should Hang Out Sometime is a story about relationships, but it’s also a story about Sundquist’s life. He uses this humorous platform to discuss surviving cancer, being an amputee, and the culture shock of going into public high school after being homeschooled his whole life. (This part of the book is particularly amusing to me- Sundquist got his hands on an eighth grade yearbook so he could memorize everyone’s name before going to school with them and was convinced that every single one of his classmates would be stashing drugs and weapons in their lockers.) It’s a creative approach to a memoir that makes for a fun and easy read.

Getting to interview Sundquist made reading the book all the more enjoyable for me. As the famous Catcher in the Rye quote says, “What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it.”

(Salinger) I’ve never actually been able to call up an author after reading a book, so this was pretty awesome. I found that Sundquist’s true hope for the book is that readers come away feeling that they, too, are worthy of love, despite whatever has happened to them. I think he more than succeeds in this goal, and We Should Hang Out Sometime is a book that anyone looking for a laugh-out-loud funny story or a bit of inspiration should read.

This column was originally printed in the Newsstreak when Josh Sundquist was a student columnist, under the headline “Life lessons from Jones Soda.”

PHOTOS BY BRENNA COWARDIN

RELATABLE PLOT. Above: Sundquist’s writing from past to present; from Newsstreak Staff reporter, to publishing best sellers. Below: Sundquist’s Newsstreak article “Life Lessons from Jones Soda” from a 1999 issue.

The Newsstreak

October 31, 2014

Celebrating

H H

ispanic eritage month

PHOTO BY HANNAH BOWMAN

EXPLAIN. Willebardo Velasco explains a concept at an SLI event on Saturday, Oct. 18.

SLI program for high-achieving Latinos Atticus Bolyard Staff Reporter Senior Willebardo Velasco has always excelled academically, but as the first one in his family planning on attending college, he wasn’t always confident about the future.

In an era where university visits, applications and the financial aid process already seem daunting, students like Velasco are becoming increasingly worried about competing with peers whose background provides them with advantages and insights into the world of higher education.

For Velasco, the solution to this has been participating in the Shenandoah Valley Scholars’ Latino Initiative. The program pairs HHS students with mentors, usually college students, to guide them through high school. Mentors, selected from JMU’s Centennial Scholars program, help students with academic and social situations as well as offering support for applying to colleges.

“We talk about colleges, talk about applications, do community service together,” Velasco said about his mentor, “if we have any problems or questions about

STYLE-A10

Native Speakers classes explore Spanish in-depth Evan Dotas Feature Editor

degree, that makes that person know a bit more and have a better command of the language.”

Even though the class is technically a Most people can relate to the feeling of language class, it is more than just learning confusion of being in a foreign language grammar and vocabulary. class and having no clue what is going on.

“I would describe it as kind of a Spanish However, some students take a foreign lanlanguage-arts class, where we are trying guage that isn’t foreign to them at all. to accomplish perfecting reading skills in About 200 students are involved in the Spanish, writing skills in Spanish, preparing Spanish for Heritage Speakers program. a student to take AP Spanish literature or This includes classes that are similar to AP Spanish language,” Kirkman said. “Howstandard Spanish, all the way to an ecoever, we oftentimes are teaching the lannomics class taught purely in Spanish. guage through the prism of other things These classes are intended to help stubecause they already have an ability to dents who have somehow been exposed communicate.” to Spanish for a large portion of their life, The program has been very helpful in especially in their own families. refining the Spanish of some native speak“Heritage classes are designed for a stuers. Sophomore Lupe Zarate, who is in a dent who has been exposed to Spanish at Heritage 3 class, feels that the program home,” said Jeffrey Kirkman, who teaches has really helped her refine her accent and Heritage 2 and 3. “He or she may not be writing skills. a fluent speaker, but is someone who has “We do a lot of vocabulary on accents an exposure to Spanish at home, to some because we really want that to be good. We can speak it, we can read it, but we’re not very good at writing,” Zarate said.

Sophomore Josue David-Lopez-Salina also thinks that the program has been very helpful with his Spanish.

“Now I speak really well in Spanish, and can read it and write it. Most of the stuff, I didn’t know because I wasn’t taught how to put PHOTO BY BRENNA COWARDIN the exact sentence, or how LISTEN UP! Students in Jeffrey Kirkman’s class spend to write correctly,” Datime exploring the Spanish language on a much deeper vid-Lopez-Salina said. level than the traditional Spanish class.

Hispanic YoungLife provides place of worship Marley Adamek Op/Ed Editor If you are a Hispanic student at HHS looking for a place where your culture will be celebrated and cherished, it sounds like you’re looking for Vida Joven. Vida Joven is the Hispanic equivalent of Young Life. Young Life was founded by Jim Rayburn in 1941. Vida Joven is internationally known, but was brought to HHS because of the large population of students whose native language is Spanish.

JMU Young Life leader Jamie Mitchell helps lead Vida Joven, along with three other students. Club is every Wednesday night during the school year. At

See SLI on Page B9

club, they play soccer, often times eat food and give everyone a chance to participate in crazy group games and activities.

Marimar Santiago, a senior at HHS, goes to both Vida Joven and Young Life.

“It’s a great place to go to learn about God. There’s a lot of Hispanics that go there, and you can get to know them while learning about God,” Santiago said. She invites people to bring their friends to club, as it is less for the people who have been going for a long time and more for their friends who are new to it.

“Vida Joven’s main mission is to build relationships with high school students

See VIDA HOVEN on Page B9

Inmigrantes recientes reflejan en la experiencia Victoria Giron Editor de Función Normalmente la transición de la escuela de enseñanza media a la escuela secundaria es un cambio bien grande en la vida de muchos estudiantes. Y este se agudiza para algunos de ellos que tienen que ajustar se a un cambio mas grande, al dejar un país donde se habla español para venir a vivir en los Estados Unidos.

Los estudiantes que se trasladan a los EE.UU. de sus paises lo hacen por muchas razones. Bryan Garcia, que vino ase seis meses de Honduras vino sin sus padres y se esta quedando con su hermana.

“Me vine porque en primer lugar queria un buen futuro, queria estudiar en este pais,” dijo Garcia.

Carolina Pineda vino hace un

año de El Salvador para vivir con su mama que ya vivia aqui.

“Nos trajo porque queria que nosotros tuvieramos un buen futuro,” Pineda dijo, “Ella vivia aca mucho antes que mi,”.

Hedi Portillo solo a estado viviendo en Harrisonburg por un mes. Ella vino de El Salvador por amenazas que reciebio. Portillo vino accompañada de su papa.

“Mi mami esta en El Salvador con mi hermano,” dijo Portillo.

Aunque todos vinieron por differente razones hay un vínculo común que connecta muchas de los estudiantes que vienen aqui de otros paizes, la educacion. Muchos quieren terminar los estudios de la escuela secundaria en Harrisonburg High School.

“Mi sueño es graduar me.

Despues quizas ayudar a mi familia y ayudar me a mi mismo,” dijo

Garcia.

Portillo tiene un objetivo similar para su futuro. Ella quire graduar se y depues ir a una universidad local.

“Me gustaria sacar la carrera de abogada,” Portillo dijo.

Pineda quire terminar los estudios y sacar una carrera. Pineda le gusta el systema de educacion utilizada aqui de la escuela superior.

“Aqui me gusta las escuelas porque uno aprende mas [que haya]. En nuestra pais hay escuelas pero no hay mucho oportunidad de aprender como aqui,” dijo Pineda.

Jamilli Rodriguez vino de Colombia acompañada por su familia que incluye sus papas y siete hermanos. Rodriguez le gusta vivir aca.

“Me gusta todo. Todo es bonito.

La nieve es bonito. Aqui se marcan las cuarto estaciones del año y alla

hay dos. Alla es caliente y a veses llueve,” dijo Rodriguez.

A Garcia le gusta que aca no hay mucha delinquencia como en su paiz, Honduras.

“Alla te obligan que uses drogas o que estes en una mara, aqui eso no pasa,” Garcia dijo.

Para Portillo, la differencia mas grande entre la escuelas de aqui y de su pais, es en la forma de vestir de aqui.

“Nunca e andado sin uniforme.

Alla como estaba en el colliego, usaba un uniforme, pero como estoy aqui me siento mas libre porque hando sin uniforme,” dijo Portillo.

Mucho de la gente entrevistada dijo que no le gustarian regresar a sus pais de nacimiento pero si le gustaria visitar.

“Me gustaria regresar para visitar a mis padres y abuelos,” dijo Garcia.

ready lived here for some time. “[My mom] brought us because she wanted us to have a good future,” Pineda said, “She lived here long before me.”

Hedi Portillo has only been living in Harrisonburg for a month. She came from El Salvador because she was receiving threats. Portillo came only with her father.

“My mom is in El Salvador with my brother,” Portillo said.

Although everyone comes for different reasons, there is a common bond that connects many of the students who come here from other countries: getting an education. Many want to simply finish their studies at HHS. “My dream is to graduate. Maybe afterward, I want to be able to help my family and help myself,“ Garcia said.

Portillo has a similar goal for her

future. She wants to graduate and then go to a local college.

“I would like to be a lawyer,” Portillo said.

Pineda enjoys attending school because she enjoys the educational system of the U.S. “I like school because you learn more here than in my country. In our country there are schools, but not as much opportunity to learn like there is here,” Pineda said.

Jamilli Rodriguez of Colombia came accompanied by her family including her parents and seven siblings.

“I like everything. Everything is beautiful. Snow is beautiful. Here, there are four seasons and in Colombia there are only two. It’s usually hot and it occasionally rains,” Rodriguez said.

Garcia likes it here as there is not as much delinquency here as

there is in his country, Honduras.

“In Honduras, they force you to use drugs or they force you into a gang that does not happen here,” Garcia said.

For Portillo, the biggest difference between the schools here and in her country is in the way Americans dress.

“I’ve never gone to school without a uniform. In my country, everyone wore a uniform in school.

But since I’ve been here I feel more free because you don’t have to use a uniform,” Portillo said.

Pineda, Portillo, Rodriguez, and Garcia all said they would not like to return to their country of origin to live, but that they would consider visiting.

“I would like to go back to visit my parents and grandparents,” Garcia said.

Recent immigrants reflect on experience Victoria Giron Feature Editor Normally the transition from middle school to high school is a rather large one in the lives of many students. This change is exacerbated for some who are having to adjust to leaving a country where Spanish is spoken to come live in the United States.

Students who move to the U.S. from their countries do so for many reasons. Bryan Garcia, who immigrated six months ago from Honduras, came without his parents and is staying with his sister.

“I came because I wanted a good future; I wanted to study in this country,” Garcia said.

Carolina Pineda came a year ago from El Salvador with her siblings to live with her mom ​​ who had al-

The Newsstreak

October 31, 2014

FEATURE-B1

Preparing people for real-world careers

Del-Cid on track to become nurse after graduation Martin Beck Staff Reporter Today, courageous nurses in the news are more conspicuous than ever with the recent Ebola outbreak. American nurses are volunteering in West Africa to help contain the epidemic and treat infected individuals. Nancy Writebol, a nurse from the States, contracted and was cured of Ebola. The United States demands more nurses as well.

Nursing careers are expected to escalate in demand by 12.7% in Virginia and 19.4% nationally by the year 2022. Each year, high schoolers conscious of this prognosis attend Massanutten Technical Center’s health careers class, which feeds into the MTC practical nursing program.

The health careers class is available to any interested eleventh and twelfth graders who have successfully completed a biology class at HHS. Admission for high schoolers is free, aside from the required textbooks for the class.

Adults and high schoolers coexist in the nursing program; admission for adults is not free. The

current annual salary for nurses is approximately $62,750, however, so the investment will pay for itself in time.

Senior Mereri Del-Cid is one of two HHS participants in the nursing program, along with students from neighboring high schools.

“Nursing has always been something I’ve wanted to do as a career,” Del-Cid said. She commutes to MTC every morning to further her medical studies.

Del-Cid completed the health careers class in her junior year.

Students enrolled in the nursing program learn to record vital signs and sundry wellness checks.

Del-Cid claims that the most valuable skill she has learned from the class to date is not directly related to health. “[I’ve learned] to be more confident speaking. […] We have to do presentations,” Del-Cid said. “As a nurse, you always have to advocate for your patient.”

Del-Cid asserts that she sees herself as a LPN (licensed practical nurse), then an RN (registered nurse) following her nursing education. “If you want to get out of high school and start working, it’s a great route to take,” Del-Cid said.

ALL PHOTOS BY VICTORIA GIRON

UNDER PRESSURE. Senior MTC student, Jasmine Morales, a member of the MTC nursing program, takes her fellow classmate’s blood pressure. The Nursing program at MTC helps train students so that they can become practical nurses. The 18-month program includes a 36-week instruction period. Practical nurses care for sick, injured, and disabled people under the direction of registered nurses.

Restaurant career class members learn hospitality Sam Imeson Online Editor A lot more goes into a career in restaurant hospitality and management than many of us probably think.

Although making delicious food is the main goal, it is not the only concern and priority of restaurant workers. A lot goes into making sure we have a clean, welcoming, and hospitable place to enjoy a meal.

At Massanutten Technical Center kids have the option to enroll in restau-

rant careers. Junior Spencer Showalter decided to try restaurant careers because he is interested in pursuing a job as a business owner, or maybe a chef.

“Right now, I do restaurant careers and auto-tech, but I like restaurant careers more,” Showalter said.

Restaurant careers teaches students the principles of food preparation and presentation, food quality standards, how to use and take care of commercial food service equipment, and the correct sanitation procedures.

“MTC is a good fit for

me because I get to learn hands-on and not just sit in a classroom all the time.

I also wanted to be able to learn a life skill,” Showalter said.

Students learn how to make and develop menus, service styles, and receiving and storing food and supplies.

Upon entry into the restaurant program, students have the option to join as a food preparation worker or a food counter worker. It does require some further training, but just a few of the employment opportunities that

come from learning these skills are executive chef, working chef, professional cook, professional baker, food display artist, culinary teacher, or owning your own business.

Not only do they get the classroom learning side of their career, but students in this program receive real-world experience from catering the meetings that are held at MTC. “Catering is a lot of fun.

The other day we were able to go to a business in town that was having a function and cater for them,” Showalter said.

WHISTLE WHILE YOU WORK. Senior, Violetta Katykhin, washes dishes as a part of the restaurant careers program at MTC.

Criminal justice trainees learn through hands-on experience Phoebe Copeland Staff Writer In the Criminal Justice program, students find hands on training and real world information. Students spend two hours in their chosen class at MTC, receiving not only valuable training but also a college credit for the course.A typical class includes a discussion of current events and

some book work, but mostly MTC students are preparing for a career in the Criminal Justice field.

Each class works as a team, modelled after a regular police department, to learn practical skills such as ticket writing and how to pull over a vehicle in a safe and courteous manner. The students also go step by step through the real police training procedure at the police training grounds.

Senior Vanessa Morales i has benefited positively from the program.

“I’m really interested in law enforcement. … [In Woodbridge] I didn’t have this type of opportunity, but coming here ... gave me the opportunity [to do MTC]. [So I thought] hey, maybe I should check this out. Maybe I want to do something like this,” Morales said.

Morales plans to pursue

a career in Criminal Justice after her experience at MTC. Morales says she’s learning skills that apply to careers outside of criminal justice as well. By gaining experience problem solving and communicating in groups, MTC students are prepared for their chosen field as well as for professional life.

Junior Jomel Washington also loves the program.

“You’re never bored

[in class]. If you’re bored, something’s wrong with you,” Washington said.

He cites his teacher as the reason for his love of the program. It’s a lot of information he says, but he’s sticking with it.

“When I graduate I’m either going to the sheriff’s office or … the Navy. [The program] helps a lot because [the sheriff’s office is] actually hiring out [of our program],” Washington

said.

Both Morales and Washington are glad they chose the Criminal Justice Program. It synthesizes team building, problem solving, and communication skills, with hard work and practical training to prepare students for work in the Criminal Justice field. To sum his experience up, Washington said, “It’s a pretty fun kind of class.”

Vet assistants work real-life situations Ben Coffey Staff Writer

MAKE WAY FOR THE SIRENS. Students who are part of the fire and rescue program of MTC, do some training with the the fire truck.

Every other day, students from HHS are driven to Massanutten Technical Center to receive training for their future careers. Out of the many choices that MTC offers, two students, Charlyne Figueroa Torres and Darby Boontarue, chose the Veterinary Assistant strand.

In the Veterinary Assistant strand at MTC, students work with live animals to train for curing them in the future.

“Animals have a voice, and it is our job to allow their voice to be heard,” Torres said. This year is Torres’ second year at MTC. “I want to be a vet and help animals when I later get a career,” Boontarue said. She is experienc-

ing MTC classes for the first time this year.

The students are given the opportunity to study and learn about the processes of caring for animals.

Through their education process, they are grooming, breeding, and giving health assistance to many different animals. MTC also brings the students to horse farms, clinics, day practices, and zoos to allow students to come in contact with real-life situations.

“I used to work on a farm, so I did have encounters with animal treatment before coming to MTC,” Boontarue said.

Boontarue is a junior who hopes to bring her knowledge in the Veterinary Assistant strand to her future. She does not find the class to be hard, but rather enjoyable and exciting.

Fire and Rescue train students to save lives

Health careers graduates prepared for work force

Alex Osinkosky Staff Writer

Ethan Scribano Staff Writer

The Massanutten Technical Center is a local career center helping Harrisonburg High School juniors and seniors find a path that’s right for them, but also helps those who want some experience on the job before they decide their path. These classes can range from criminal justice to something more like carpentry and there are many more that you can take. One of the programs offered at MTC is the fire and rescue program, offering a way for future firefight-

ers, and rescuers to learn about saving peoples lives, and buildings.

Senior Shane McKinley is involved in MTC’s fire and rescue program. McKinley began the fire and rescue program this year and plans to join Hose Company 4 after he graduates from Harrisonburg.

“We do bunker drills with our gear, learn how to exercate [which means cut] people out of cars, McKinley said. They also learn how to use CPR and other saving tactics, as well as how to put out fires. McKinley enjoys many of the aspects of being

involved in the Fire and Rescue program at MTC. “Knowing that everything I learn I can use to save someone’s life someday is my favorite part,” McKinley said.

McKinley says that he would recommend this class to students here at Harrisonburg.

“It’s a good paying job if you get hired somewhere. It’s fun, you have physical conditioning, so you have to be physically fit,” McKinley said.

These courses are interesting, and apply hands on activities that give you experience in certain professions.

Students in the Health Careers classes at MTC do a range of things in class.

Maria Bautista is a first year student in the program.

“We do blood pressure, make the beds, and take temperatures,” Bautista said. She is taking the course because she wants to be a nurse and it interests her.

Amber Lewis, another first year student, agrees with what Bautista said. She is doing some

of the same activities.

“I’m a dental assistant, so we work with peoples’ mouths,” Lewis said. She said it’s a good career opportunity to figure out what you want to do when you graduate high school.

BREATHE DEEPLY. Seniors, Vanessa Joya checks a patient’s heartbeat.

October 31, 2014

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Alternative education flourishes at HHS Night school offers students alternative way to succeed Brenna Cowardin Editor-in-Chief When the school empties out around 2:35, more students comes in at 3:15. This group is much smaller than the 1400 students HHS normally hosts, but for a variety of reasons, night school is a better option for these students. It isn’t an out for the “bad” kids. It’s a place for students who need to earn a diploma as much as those in day school, but for some reason, need different options. A few night school students work a late shift, sleep during the day and come to HHS in the evening.

Kelly Flores has to pass only one more class to graduate. She spends all three hours at night school studying geometry in the hopes of moving on to study to be a nurse at Blue Ridge Community College.

“I concentrate more [here at night school]. It works better for me than day school- less distractions,” Flores said. “[Geometry] is hard. It’s very hard, but the more you understand it, the more fun it is.”

Flores advises students from all backgrounds to stay focused on the ultimate goal- a high school diploma.

“Take [night school] seriously, and concentrate. Don’t play around or goof around. You’re gonna regret that when you’re about to graduate,” Flores said.

Dean of Students Kris Vass had been an administrator for the program since 2006.

“There’s a lot of people that see night school as a big unknown, and those people that do know, I think there’s a misconception out there and people see night school as a place for all those kids who have gotten in trouble... but that’s not really what it is, and honestly anyone that’s come down here and worked in the program falls in love with these students,” Vass said.

“It’s like a little tiny high school,” Vass said. The program indeed is just HHS miniaturized, with approximately 50 to 60 students, fewer than 10 teachers and two administrators. However, as an administrator, Vass takes on the roles usually filled by other staff members at HHS. “[I’m] part principal at night school, part guidance counselor, part food service worker,” Vass said.

This hybrid teacher-administrator position isn’t the only thing different about night school. “[It’s] a path towards graduation that’s not your typical high school program,” Vass said. “It’s all self-paced. The teachers hover around and help you where you’re at...

You could walk into our math class of 15 students and some are doing algebra one, some are doing geometry and some are doing upper functions.”

Students aren’t just in night school to learn something. Everyone is working towards a diploma with other small goals

PHOTO BY BRENNA COWARDIN

EDSON ARANGO TEACHES FRESHMAN CHRISTOPHER WRIGHT. Arango, a home-school liason during the day, teaches science at night school. along the way. advanced diploma. to be in,” Stevens said. She is age-wise on “We have students pushing for an ad“My favorite part, for example with GED track to be a junior. vanced diploma. We have students who [teaching], is that [students] pass the GED“[The administration] said this was the are trying for a standard diploma. We have what they are working towards, and we best place for me to be. That, and I struggle students who work their way back into day are trying to reach,” Rojas said. “It’s that being around other human beings,” Steschool,” Vass said. “We measure success satisfaction, you know, because they did vens said with a laugh. on an individual basis, and sometimes it’s it, even when they didn’t believe in themNight school gives Stevens a flexible small victories, sometimes it’s big ones.” selves.” schedule during the day- something she The night school motto, “Whatever it Freshman Romello Edison transferred sees as a huge benefit. takes,” is a tribute to the focus on success into night school early in the year. His “Lately I’ve been busy trying to find a of individual students. teachers saw it as a better option for him. job,” Stevens said.

“Whatever it takes to help these stu- The structure of night school has benefited However, not everything is likeable, and dents be successful because it’s in ev- him. unlike Edison, Stevens prefers the structure eryone’s best interest to get these kids “I like reading through the books... I of day school. through and get them their diplomas and used to read books in school back in the “I think that [the teaching style] should their work skills,” Vass said. day,” Edison said. be switched up a little bit like day school.

This same spirit can be found in the Edison sees positives and negatives for Instead of constant packets... they could teachers who work all through the day, and both night and day school. teach you things,” Steven said. “If you’re a then stay at HHS for night school. “[Night school] isn’t that hard. You just kid with a learning disability, [school] can’t “All the teachers that work in the pro- go for three hours and get it over with... I revolve around packets. It’s confusing.” gram, they teach a full day. They’re work- do miss day school because of my friends She still values the program and what it ing near 12-hour days every day...saying and stuff, but they’re both good in their has to offer. they’re going above and beyond doesn’t own ways,” Edison said.

“They do have a great system down really show them justice,” Vass said.

Freshman Cierra Stevens sees night here. You have less drama, it’s easier for Spanish teacher Patricia Rojas is in school as a place to catch up. [teachers] to understand you, and they try charge of GED students, as well as those “[My biggest goal right now is to] get to work with you, as long as you work with who want to take Spanish on track to an into the actual grade that I’m supposed them. It’s a great place,” Stevens said.

Downey works to ease diabetes for high schoolers Research project will help monitor glucose levels during school day, allowing parents to access data, eliminating testing with needle Maria Snell-Faikema Feature Editor When someone has diabetes, they have to continuously check their glucose monitor to see if their blood sugar levels are regular. Senior Nicole Downey is developing a research project working on how to make checking your blood sugar easier and safer.

Working with Governor’s School and the University of Virginia, Downey either skypes with her mentor, Dr. Molly Hardie, or travels to UVA to visit her. UVA is designing a device that is worn like a watch, and requires no pricking of fingers. It’s also designed so that you can check your blood sugar on a smartphone. Downey is also working on a plan to make it possible for kids to use it during school.

“Some schools don’t allow [the ap-

plication] through their WiFi, because it requires it for smartphones, so we’re implementing something called a 504 plan where they would be allowed to use it,” Downey said. The device would allow parents to check up on their kids whenever, so they could make sure their kids are okay. Downey herself has diabetes, so she understands when it can get bothersome.

“I’ve had it since I was 11,” Downey said. “I just think [the device] will help my blood sugar numbers be a lot more regulated and it will help my diabetes itself be a lot less annoying,” Downey said about the device. However, diabetes hasn’t been all that bad for her.

“It can obviously be very annoying but it’s actually given me a lot of opportunities like this research project and I’ve met a lot of friends through it,” Downey said. Although the distance between her

and UVA can be a bit tiresome, Downey decided to work with their research program anyway, as she had worked with them before last year.

“I did something with a research mentor from UVA about concussions,” Downey said. “I decided to stay around UVA, but find another mentor. So I emailed over 20 people and called a bunch of people and then finally I got directed towards my mentor now, Molly.”

And even through the conflicting schedules and long distances, Downey says that she enjoys researching a lot, especially talking to people and her mentor.

“I think my mentor is really cool, and she has the job that I eventually want to have. She has diabetes herself, too. So it’s really cool to just talk to her and get to know these parents and learn about these 504 plans myself.”

Mentorship an effective way to get students involved Lucie Rutherford Feature Editor The mentorship program at HHS is not necessarily new, but it is an up and coming program. Though it has been going on for many years, the program has expanded, now allowing juniors into the program as well as seniors.

Senior Caroline Shank who is mentoring to be a nurse, said, “[This program] is a really cool way to get some experience and looks great on college applications.”

Shank heard about the program through her older brother who did it back in 2009 when the program wasn’t nearly as big as it is now. Every other day, Shank goes to the Rockingham Memorial Hospital to shadow the other nurses, getting to watch what they do and going into patients’ rooms and seeing what happens on a normal day.

Since the program has recently become more popular, they’ve hired a new mentor-

ship coordinator, Bethany Everidge. Everidge has taught at HHS for four years, but her job just changed to be the career experience specialist as well as the mentorship coordinator.

Students are required to submit forms in to Everidge over the summer saying what they want to do and what careers they are interested in. Everidge then contacts local businesses and matches the student with a business such as a restaurant, school, doctors’ office, etc.

The student can then go into the business and is matched with a person who they follow around during the time that they are there. The schedule is completely up to the mentor and the mentee so students in other activities like sports or band can always get back in time. ”[Mentorship] gives [students] an insight that maybe people going into college don’t have,” said Everidge, “It will set you apart on the playing field in colleges as well as jobs.”

Everidge also reflects back on a guest speaker who came in and said that this kind of thing was exactly the kind of stuff that she looks for on college applications.

Seniors Mariah King and Chloe Richards are both mentoring at JMU. “Getting the experience is the best part of mentoring,” King said. She mentors behind a JMU occupational therapist.

Richards is shadowing the sound designer at the Forbes Center.

“My favorite part is getting to hear the concerts that I get to work for.”

Both girls are planning on going into these fields after high school.

Anyone wanting some extra experience before college who knows what field they’re interested in, should consider the mentoring program. It can be looked at as an impressive networking opportunity as well as an addition to the college resume.

Guidance counselors have more information about the program and what it takes to become involved.

Research helps Harmison plan for future career Julie Hedrick Staff Reporter

For many students at HHS, a typical day consists of four 90-minute classes in a classroom with 20 other students learning the same material. For some, other Senior Merrill educational opporHarmison tunities include MTC, online classes, mentorship, night school and other out of school classes.

For senior Merrill Harmison, things are slightly different: she conducts personal research at JMU. At the beginning of the school year, Harmison was given the task to research k-9 Lacritin, a protein found when tears are produced.

Harmison travels to an advanced biotech lab at JMU to conduct her research.

Then, at the end of the school year, she will create a presentation showing what she learned and what she studied throughout the year.

“I’m working in a lab at JMU, we do experiments and use the scientific method a lot. We make a hypothesis and do background research. If this is how someone else did it, how are we going to do it to get similar results?” Harmison said.

Harmison would like to go into a field with this type of work.

“I want to be a doctor, or go into something with medical research. This class is basically preparing me for that later in life,” Harmison said.

Although the opportunity itself is now fun for her, Harmison was originally a bit unsettled by her new responsibilites.

“When I first found out what I was supposed to do I was really intimidated, but I talked to other people about what I could do and what ideas they had,” Harmison said.

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October 31, 2014

FEATURE-A3

Everything is nice with Pumpkin and Spice “PSL” back as sweet pick-me-up Abby Hissong Staff Reporter You know that fall is here when the leaves start to turn, the days start to get shorter, and of course, Starbucks starts selling pumpkin spice lattes again.

Pumpkin spice lattes are very popular, yet a bit of a mouthful, so many have lovingly abbreviated it “PSL”.

The “PSL” is a latte (that is, espresso and steamed milk) with “pumpkin spice” flavored syrup, whipped cream, and a dash of spices on top. I don’t know how much actual pumpkin is involved in the creation of the flavoring syrup, but the “spice” in the name refers to pumpkin pie spices: usually nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves.

Though there are multiple Starbucks locations in Harrisonburg, I went to the location at 1306 Hillside Ave. across from the JMU football stadium.

Mornings are the busiest time of day at Starbucks; however, I received my drink relatively soon after I ordered. The limited chairs and tables were all taken within the shop, so I took my drink to go.

Let me just say, the pumpkin spice latte is a great way to start your morning. It has very unique flavor compared to a lot of other pumpkin flavored items.

The “PSL” focuses more on the “spice” part of the name, therefore isn’t as heavy as something that focuses more on the pumpkin part. This provides for a happy medium for both the pumpkin and the spice, as the latte is still very creamy, and perfect for a chilly morning!

As with all of Starbucks’ drinks, I find the quality consistent no matter where I purchase it. It is like having pumpkin pie in a cup!

The drink is customizable to meet each customer’s unique taste preferences. It is available

hot, iced or as a Frappuccino, (a blend of coffee, milk, and ice) beverage. As with many of the Starbucks drinks, the pumpkin spice is a little pricey. The prices range from $3.50 to $5.75.

That said, it’s not something I would purchase daily because of the calories and price, but it is a great treat to have occasionally. I would highly recommend this drink to anyone who loves pumpkin, and is in the mood for sweet pick me up!

Experimenters taste test coffees

On Wednesday Oct. 8, students and teachers of HHS were candidates in a Pumpkin Spice Latte taste test.

They had to see if they could tell which one was Starbucks and which was the generic brand.

The volunteers also had to state which one tasted the best to them. Product A was favored

by four candidates and product B was favored by 34. Some volunteers felt that Product B was too creamy and sweet for them.

Others felt that Product A didn’t have enough creamer and was a bit bitter. Go to hhsmedia.com to see the full video and find out if Product A or B was Starbucks or generic.

PHOTO BY ISAIAH KING

PHOTO BY ABBY HISSONG

IT’S BACK. The Pumpkin Spice Latte is now back at Starbucks for the fall season.

TASTE TESTER. Students were invited to see if they could tell which product was Starbucks and generic. Senior Alexa Figueara Baiges volunteers to see if she can spot the difference.

Infographic By Jessica Nguyen, Ella Marian and Atticus Bolyard

Pumpkin smoothie doesn’t seem to fit in with season Ava Reynolds Style Editor The first thing I noticed was the smell. The room, painted brightly and sparsely furnished, was giving off an odor that was a mix between baby powder and rotting fruit.

The next thing I noticed was the immense amount of health information around the store.

When I thought of Smoothie King, I thought of sugary desserts that tasted like fruit so they didn’t make you feel guilty, however the nutrition facts that showed how many grams of protein, fiber, calcium, and other necessary nutrients they had in their smoothies was a bit reassuring, however not what I was expecting.

The Pumpkin Smoothie, shown in large advertisements around the store, looked surprisingly appealing on paper. It was a hard job to make a smoothie, especially one that was a dull orange color, look really good, but they managed.

Once I had ordered, I stood near the counter and observed the other customers. The 10 or so of them appeared to either be all together, or in two large groups

and they were all over 25. Unlike Sweet Bee, the similarly colored store a few doors down in the shopping plaza, this definitely didn’t seem like the place for a group of teenagers to hang out at.

The service was fast. I had no sooner ordered when the worker immediately started whipping it up, and then it was in my hands.

When I pried the plastic top off to get a good look inside, I didn’t exactly like what I saw. Compared to the normal pale pink or creamy yellow fruity colors, the Pumpkin Smoothie was a muted orange; a deep pumpkin color. I hoped that meant it was very fresh.

After taking the first sip, my taste buds were acting like guard dogs to my mouth. They examined the taste on a very detailed level, before apprehensively letting them in. The taste instantly brought me to Thanksgiving day, opening the can of raw pumpkin meat before using it in the pie, and that’s exactly what it tasted like. Cold, sweetened raw pumpkin from a can. Don’t get me wrong, the taste was satisfying, and if it was a bit closer to the pumpkin related holidays, I might have enjoyed it more, but after an

80 degree day, pumpkin was not settling with me well.

Despite the interesting pumpkin flavors, I couldn’t stop sipping on it on the way home, however that stopped as soon as the smoothie started melting.

It turned into a sort of pumpkin

juice that was even more unnatural than a pumpkin smoothie. As soon as I got home, I put it in my freezer to save for a more fall like day where I would appreciate it more.

All in all, the pumpkin smoothie was satisfying, especially for

someone who loves fall flavors such as pumpkin, however when looking for a pumpkin flavor around the ‘Burg, I suggest trying something more season related such as a pumpkin latte, pumpkin cider, or even pumpkin bagels, but not a pumpkin smoothie.

PHOTO BY ELLIE PLASS

PUMPKIN SMOOTHIE. The Pumpkin Smoothie can be found at Smoothie King across from Harrisonburg Crossing.

What Is your favorite fall beverage?

34 20 5 45

Apple Cider

Pumpkin Latte

Mr. J’ss brings Pumpkin Bagel back for fall season Harmony Wilson News Editor Just as October leaves are turning from green to gold, appetites seem to be another thing changing with the seasons. Enticing, and popularly known deli shop of Mr. J’s, is best recognized for their plethora of delicious bagels, as well as specialty sandwiches. With fall quickly approaching, regular customers such as myself were more than elated to hear about the return of Mr. J’s Pumpkin bagels; a favorite during the holidays.

Visiting the deli, I was excited to see that I had bypassed most, if not all, of the college student traffic that usually crowds Mr. J’s in the mornings. The staff, I must say, was very friendly and hastily took my order: a non toasted pumpkin bagel with cream cheese. The wait, however, was a bit less to be desired. As I sat down at my table to wait, I anxiously twiddled my thumbs and tapped my feet, excited to indulge in the pumpkin goodness I had yet to taste since last year.

After about a ten minute wait, I practically sprinted from my chair when I heard my order number called. When I first opened my paper bag I saw an overwhelming amount of cream cheese, smothered between the two slices of bread. Besides that, my bagel was just as plump and flavorful as ever. Lightly coated with cinnamon and filled with the aroma of real pumpkins, the entire bagel was devoured in less than two minutes (with the help of a friend, of course).

As always, Mr. J’s never fails to meet my hunger needs. Specialty bagels such as the pumpkin are great pick-me-ups if you are on your way to class in the mornings or are in the mood for a sweet snack in the afternoons. I am eager to return back to J’s and experience the quality and great tastes all over again.

PHOTO BY HARMONY WILSON

MR. J’S. The deli shop is open from Monday-Friday from 6 a.m. to 7p.m. and Saturday-Sunday from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.

PHOTO BY HARMONY WILSON

BAGELS. The Pumpkin Bagels can be found at any of the three Mr. Jays Deli shops found in Harrisonburg.

Don’t like fall drinks

Cranberry Juice

Poll By John Earle

Pumpkin Pie Blizzard triggers wonderful fall memories Naomi Gelberg-Hagmaier Op/Ed Editor Fall brings a slew of specialty pumpkin delicacies, my favorite of which is Dairy Queen’s Pumpkin Pie Blizzard. It has the creamy, coldness of ice cream and a flavor only pumpkin pie can match. Sweetness with just a dash of spice dances across your tongue. Even though it’s a cold treat, there’s a warmth that comes from it and fills you up inside. It’s like eating spoonfuls of fall. There’s a cool crispness to it, but at the same time a warmth that spreads.

Consuming this marvelous treat makes me wonder what makes it taste so much like pumpkin pie. Obviously, it’s pumpkin ice cream, but it’s more than that. It’s the combination of the ice cream and the graham cracker chunks swirled throughout.

They add a flakiness, akin to pie crust. The small pile of whipped cream adds a dash of sweetness and the pumpkin spice sprinkled over it brings out more of the pumpkin pie flavor.

Even if you got all these ingredients and mixed them all together, it wouldn’t be the same. Maybe it’s the fact that you can only get it only once a year making it taste so amazing. Eating a “blizzard” you made yourself at home would be nothing like having one at Dairy Queen. You wouldn’t be getting the full experience. Plus it would be a whole lot lonelier.

As I sit and enjoy my Blizzard, I am bombarded by memories, brought on by the flavor of pumpkin pie. My first time seeing the multi-colored leaves swirl to the ground, being in awe of the things nature

can do. Watching the trees on the route to school slowly change over time. Leaf piles, corn mazes, and carving pumpkins. They are the kind of memories that you can’t help but to smile at. It’s amazing how one small cup of ice cream can trigger all these memories. For me, it’s just one more reason to love the Pumpkin Pie Blizzard.

PHOTO BY NAOMI GELBERG-HAGMAIER

BLIZZARDS. The Pumpkin Pie Blizzard is a fall specialty Blizzard by Dairy Queen along with the Apple Pie Blizzard.

October 31, 2014

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We’re so proud of you....... you’ve come a long Way Tim Tee!

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Best of luck! We all ❤ you Timothy!

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October 31, 2014

SPORTS-B6

Senior girls blank juniors in powderpuff game 27-0 Undefeated team continues their winning streak from previous year Aarash Heydari and Jessica Nguyen Staff reporter and Online editor “Hike!”

Senior girls spread out on one side of the football field, watching as captain and quarterback senior Maddie Dod threw the football to senior Aisha Dames, who smoothly caught it.

“Okay, let’s do it again,” Dod said.

Girls fell back into position, beads of sweat on their foreheads, eyes squinting from the blaring sun.

Last year, the junior class defeated the senior class 21-7. They came back to continue their winning streak.

“We have experience and talent and that is a good combination to have,” Dod said.

Many of the girls this year were a part of the winning team last year, like senior Katherine Komara.

“We worked really well last year. That was without many practices, and our playbook had gotten stolen, but we kicked butt,” Komara said.

Instead of the mainstream tackle football, powderpuff football is a form of flag football, where both teams wear flag belts and a flag must be removed from the belt to end a down. Because of that, both teams have devised multiple ploys and tricks.

Senior Mariah King, wide receiver, was happy with her team’s versatility.

“Our whole team is all athletes, so we have a lot of options to go to and we don’t have one main person. We have multiple plays that we can use. We don’t do the same thing every time so they don’t catch on,” King said.

With the help of senior coaches Jackson Taylor, Christopher Whitelow, Tanner Grogg, Sam Imeson and Isaiah Hartzler, the girls were extremely prepared.

Senior kicker Jasmin Rose enjoyed having the coaches’ help.

“Isaiah Hartzler practiced catching with the people, Jackson Taylor [was] the main playmaker,” Rose said. “They [were] very supportive.”

“We [had] more plays, we practiced more and I feel like we [were] very cohesive. Everyone worked really well together. We [had] a couple tricks up our sleeve. Instead of having one person go by [herself], we are using multiple people to enhance our yards,” Komara said.

The senior girls’ bite matched their bark on game day.

The first half began. The junior kicker, Sophia Hartman, kicked off the ball with impressive placement.

The seniors’ offense made impressive ground but was stopped short around the 20-yard line. Spectacular defense made them pick up about where they left off and translated to the first touchdown pass of the game, caught by senior Kaelen Adams.

The teams shoved back and forth for the remainder of the half without scoring, resulting in a 7-0 lead for the seniors at halftime.

The game continued.

The junior team looked determined to make a comeback, but a pass went horribly wrong. Senior Katherine Komara intercepted it at the 50 yard line. The world slowed down and the

PHOTO BY SAVANNAH McNEAL

LINED UP. Seniors (left to right) Hannah Durden, Meagan Roberts, and Christa Stader line up across the line from juniors (left to right) Sako Haji, Allison McGranahan and Darby Boontarue.

PHOTO BY SAVANNAH McNEAL HEARING THE PLAY. Senior Christa Stader looks back towards the senior coaches to hear the offensive play they have set up against the juniors. crowd explodes. With the stadium’s eyes on her, she raced to the endzone slams the ball on the ground in hyped celebration, marveling at her own feat: a textbook quality pick-6.

“I wasn’t thinking; I just ran,” Komara said.

14-0.

The junior team tried to keep it together, but the seniors were quick to drive a nail into their coffin. Strong

defense and relentless offense came together and senior Maddy Dod ran the ball into the endzone.

20-0.

The seniors rinsed and repeated.

27-0.

The game clock timed out. The crowd roared. Onlookes stormed the field.

Class of 2015: powderpuff football champions.

Senior share winning strategies Evan Dotas Feature editor

PHOTO BY SAVANNAH McNEAL

HALFTIME PLANNING. The senior team plans during halftime ways to continue their lead on the juniors.

REVERSE PLAY. In this play used by the seniors, the quarterback calls the receiver in motion, then tosses the ball back to her.

Then, the slot receiver on the other side runs towards the receiver and the ball is handed to her. Drawing by Isaiah Hartzler.

On Oct. 1 of last year, Democrats and Republicans battled each other on a larger scale than ever before in United States history, causing the government to shut down. This year, an even bigger battle occurred.

It was the always famous, ever notorious powderpuff football game.

For years, junior and senior girls at HHS have fought each other in the one-and-only powderpuff football game, with each team trying to win priceless bragging rights. As juniors, the class of 2015 won 21-7.

This year, they wanted more.

Many of last year’s team returned in hopes of winning their senior game. Senior Maddy Dod, one of the stars last year, went back to her position of quarterback, long considered the star position of the football team.

“It’s stressful [being the quarterback] because I have to remember every single play and what every single person is doing,” Dod said. However, coming off of last year’s victory, she was pretty confident in herself and her team.

“The team dynamic is really good be-

cause we all want to do is beat the juniors,” Dod said. She believed that it would be an easy win, responding to the question of who will win with “Is that even a question?”

Head coach senior Jackson Taylor also expected a win. After presiding over last year’s victory, he felt that he was more prepared for the game.

“Last year it was really stressful. It was the first time I was doing it and we had a lot of girls, and this year I have an idea of what I want to do and how to make the subs,” Taylor said. Taylor was also very satisfied with the team dynamic.

“They’re all athletic, they all play sports, and last year they all wanted to win and this year they all want to win. They’re all working together for that one common goal of winning,” Taylor said. But besides just this game, Taylor had a lot of faith in his team’s ability to win.

“I think we would give [the varsity football team] a run for their money. We have a chance of putting points up against them.

We could definitely beat them in flag football,” Taylor said.

Although the odds of that game ever happening are very slim, Taylor managed to easily prove the point against the juniors, winning the game 27-0.

Junior team planning to come out stronger next year Phoebe Copeland Staff reporter Each year, as part of homecoming spirit week, part of the student body is unapologetically pitted against each other in fierce competition. This, of course, is the annual powder puff football game in which the junior class girls play the senior girls for extreme bragging rights.

For junior team captain, Faith Runnells, this was a chance to unify the junior class.

“I thought it was really cool to get the junior class together,” Runnells said, “To have all the girls come out to practice and work together.”

And it wasn’t just athletes working together. Theater kids, soccer players, JROTC members and others all worked as a team to prepare to take on the senior class.

The team attended several practices supervised by coaches who were male members of the junior class and varsity football team, including Abner Johnson, Devin Medley, Nadeem Bitar, Jesus Carcamo and Ranon Barber. The offensive line learned set plays and the team practiced blocking against each other to prepare for the match.

Junior Olivia Yutzy was optimistic about the juniors’ chances going into the big game.

“Yeah, I don’t know, their team seems pretty tough … but I think we’ll be ready,”

Yutzy said.

Runnells also had high hopes pre-game.

“I thought we looked pretty good, and I knew they were good, but I thought we had a shot.”

Once the game began though, Runnells realized it wasn’t going to be exactly as she had planned.

Both Yutzy and Runnells played running back and were involved in nearly all of the set plays. The seniors, however, quickly picked up on this strategy. Whether it was Yutzy or Runnells in the game, the seniors covered them with celerity, causing the juniors’ plays to not be as successful as hoped. With a final score of 27-0, it was a pretty tough loss for the juniors.

For Runnells, the highlight of the game was the junior team blocking the extra point after one of the seniors’ touchdowns.

“We actually jumped up and blocked it down,” Runnells remembered, laughing.

Yutzy’s favorite part of the process was the shirts. Although juniors will want to forget about the final score, they’ll wear their team t-shirts proudly. Coral shirts with black lettering reading “GO B16 OR GO HOME”, the shirts were part of Runnells’ responsibility as captain. Beyond designing the t-shirts, Runnells was also responsible for gathering money and communicating about practices. This year’s defeat hasn’t dampened Runnells spirits though, “Next year I’m … confident that we’ll win.”

PHOTO BY SAVANNAH McNEAL

RUNNING. Junior Faith Runnells runs with the ball while seniors Meagan Roberts and Aisha Dames pull her flags off.

FAKE SWEEP. The juniors took advantage of this play

by Abner Johnson many times. The running-back fake sweeps to the right, and the quarterback then gives the ball to the fullback coming back from the opposite way.

The Newsstreak

October 31, 2014

SPORTS-B7

Smith’s experience helps with leading cheer squad

Abigail Hissong Staff Reporter Every day, competition cheerleading preps for hours after school in hope of three minutes

of perfection on the mat.

Three minutes. That’s all the time these girls get to complete their routine of music-pumping dance and quickly executed cheerleading stunts mixed with gymnastic

PHOTO BY ABIGAIL HISSONG

INTENSITY. Competition cheerleading coach Bridget Smith encourages the squad during practice.

moves.

Under the leadership of head coach Bridget Smith, the cheerleading program has improved dramatically. During her six years of coaching, varsity competition cheerleading has won districts three times, regionals twice, and advanced to the state competition multiple times. Smith’s goal for the 2014 varsity squad is for them to finish top three in both the district and conference competition.

Although Smith first tried cheerleading in elementary school, it was in high school that she truly fell in love with the sport. She continued her career as a cheerleader at Bridgewater college, and then came to HHS to teach Family and Consumer Sciences and coach cheerleading.

“Some years, I felt as though I needed to be very strict and hard on the kids and constantly stay on them about what they should or should not be doing, but other years, I don’t have to be as hard on them. That doesn’t mean that my expectations of their behavior ever change, it just means that some years they don’t need me constantly on them about how to

act.” Smith adds that “Behavior isn’t a problem for the team this year. Many of the girls who are on the team this year have been here for three or four years, and know what it takes to be a top contender in competitions and the work that is necessary in order to get there,” Smith said.

Senior, Meagan Roberts, has been cheering on the team for three years.

“She [Smith] always encourages us to try new things and get better, but she knows the difference between when someone isn’t doing something because they’re lazy or if it is because they’re hurting,” Roberts said.

This is important to the sport, because if one person gets hurt, the whole team suffers by not being able to practice tumbling and throw stunts realistically.

“I find it important as a coach to have a balance between being compassionate and letting your athletes know you care and being able to push them and have them respect you even when you may be telling them something they don’t want to hear. They strive for perfection and so sometimes I have to remind them that it’s

okay to not do something perfect when you are first learning it and to not get stressed when first trying to learn new skills,” Smith said.

In all sports, the coach’s contribution to the team is essential in order to be successful when boosting morale or giving advice.

“The best part of having her as a coach is that she is always clear and consistent with what she wants from us. She is very good at flipping the switch between being a coach and being a friend. You can tell she is invested in what she does,” Roberts said.

Coaching has its ups and downs for every team, but for Smith, the majority of her job is rewarding.

“The most rewarding part of coaching is seeing the cheerleaders gain new tumbling or stunting skills and seeing the team hit a routine that they are proud of.

Winning competitions is of course always a plus, but I would much rather the team be proud of their performance,” Smith said.

Smith’s coaching style has been effective this season. The team placed second in the district competition on Oct. 7.

Thompson has volleyball team set up for success Isaiah King Staff Reporter The challenge of being a coach is not easy. Coaches are constantly being asked to make decisions that impact not only themselves, but the athletes on their team, too. By finding a balance between player development and winning, a coach meets the needs of their athletes and acquires an effective coaching philosophy.

Junior Sophia Hartman, defensive volleyball player, has highly concurred with her team in the confidence towards their coach Andy Thompson. “[The best advice coach has given me is] keeping my shoulders shrugged when passing,” Hartman said With constant focus in practice Hartman has refined not only herself, but also the team’s communication skills.

“If you don’t communicate, there will be volleyballs everywhere hitting the floor,” Hartman said.

And this is possible with coach Andy Thompson.

“He’s fun and constructive. He’s relatable and makes loving and learning the game easy,” Hartman said.

“If you include every level, I’ve been coaching for 20 years now,” Thompson said. He has much sanguine with his athletes this season.

Thompson integrates fixed activities on a day to day basis in practice that helps sustain a foundation of the basics for his players.

“We have a serving progression that we go through every day. A hitting progression every day. We play a warm-up game called Back Row Attack every day that gets our feet moving. We go through dynamic

stretching, our peppering. And this is every day,” Thompson said.

Daily workouts are what the volleyball team repeatedly practices to intensify their effort and communication skills. On and off the court, Thompson works on teaching his athletes integrity, which is diligently done.

Being accountable for your actions in volleyball translates to life.

“If you put in the work, you will reap the benefits from that and see the growth and this will translate outside of volleyball,” Thompson said.

Pertaining to Thompson’s strategy towards games, “We hope to provide some consistency in our skill level and performance which is why we focus on passing, hitting, and peppering in practice every day. And that’ll give us an opportunity to hopefully win.”

English teacher Hannah Bowman is assistant coach for the team.

“I am a very technical person,” Bowman said, “so I am always going around giving very technical advice about a particular player’s volleyball skills.”

As assistant coach, this is Bowman’s third year with volleyball. “Thompson is more of big picture and looks at the whole court and where girls are supposed to be and I cover the little picture,” Bowman said.

This strategy of providing different lenses through which you can review what happened has ameliorated the team’s dexterity. When both coaches are looking at an event through their different “lenses” they perceive different aspects that were not apparent at that time. This brings out many details that were overlooked.

Ananda McAfee, senior team captain this year, has deemed much aplomb in her teammates and coaches this season.

“He motivates us. Tells us what we’re

“What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever gotten from a coach?”

doing to help fix what we’re doing wrong,” McAfee said.

The best advice given to McAfee by Thompson had been optimally explained after a short period of contemplation.

“Everything he tells us pretty much is helpful. There’s not only one good piece of advice he gives me. Everything he tells me

KiYosia Wallace (freshman- competition and sideline cheerleading) “Our coach tells us to keep our heads up if we fail at a stunt or dance and to just relax, breathe, and try again.”

Malachi Simmons (sophomorebaseball, basketball) “Our coach always tells us to work hard and to keep our grades up to stay on the team.”

Stuart Baker (seniorboys cross country) “Whenever we get nervous before a meet, our coach would tell us that there are three billion people in China who don’t care at all what we’re doing to help us calm down.”

INFOGRAPHIC BY BRIANA RODRIGUEZ

PHOTO BY ISAIAH KING

SPIKING MOTIVATION. Varsity volleyball coach Andy Thompson instructs his team during a timeout

Preparation is key in coaching football Victoria Giron Page Editor

Lexie Eberly (juniorgirl’s cross country) “Occasionally, our coach will tell us that if we believe we can do it, then we can actually do it and get out there to do things right.”

is good advice,” McAfee said.

The volleyball team has uniquely grown as a team, but furthermore a family. Both coach Thompson and Bowman strive to inspire their team to excel and be successful both on the court and in their daily lives.

The have a cordial policy to lead them, teach them, and love them.

Head football coach Chris Thurman describes his coaching as being up front, in your face, and blunt.

Thurman often works with the football team even in the off-season.

“We lift weights with the kids four times a week and we continue to monitor their grades and try to get our kids in a position so that if they want to go to college they can,” Thurman said.

Thurman uses several methods to train the team, but he stays close to his roots in terms of his coaching style.

“I was taught a long time ago that there are only two things that make people remember, pain and repetition. I’m not allowed to hurt them, so we do things a lot of times, a lot of reps. Honestly, that’s the only way people learn, pain and repetition.

When you misbehave as a child, you learn not to do that. We can’t do that as teachers, so you have to rep it a lot of times,” Thurman said.

As a defensive coordinator, Mark Healy, who has been coaching for 21 years, coaches mainly the defensive players. Healy has his own style of coaching.

“My approach to coaching is to try to get the kids as prepared as possible to be in the best position to be successful on Friday,” Healy said.

Aside from repetition, Thurman has several things that he emphasizes during practice.

“Right now we focus on blocking, tackling, execution, those kinds of things,” Thurman said.

Healy uses film to help get him and the team prepared for games.

Healy watches the opponent’s and the team’s own film from the previous Friday night.

“I watch film on Sunday from 8:30 in the morning to about 1 in the afternoon. The first thing I do when I watch the game, is grade my players and give them a plus or a minus depending on how they play. Then I make comments and I give those to them. Then once we’ve reflected on what we’ve done we go on to watch the opponent. I draw up all the plays that we do and then I decide which ones we are going to run and I give them to the kids,” Healy said.

A typical practice for Healy would have him working with 12-15 kids who play defense.

“A typical practice for the defense would be where I have just my 12-15 kids that I coach from my position and we work on fundamentals for that particular aspect of the game.

That’s usually the first part of practice. The second part of practice is when I come together with another coach and we work on passing. Then we come together as a team and work on the team period. We have what is called an individual period, a group period, and a team period,” Healy said.

As the head coach, Thurman collaborates with the other coaches to come up with the plays that will be played during games. Thurman often borrows plays from old coaches and other sources.

“Nobody invents anything anymore. Everybody is copying from someone, [coaches] steal [plays] from each other is basically how you

do it. I had an original spread offense that I had run for a long time, but even that was copied from coaching clinics and stuff that we went to. Our plays, I got from Coach Carico who was here before I got here,” Thurman said.

Healy agrees with this sentiment.

“Sometimes we scheme and create defensive plays that we haven’t used already. We have what we call the ‘Bible of defense’ that has been passed down to different defensive coordinators that dates back to the mid- eighties,” Healy said.

After a game, Thurman has the team watch film from the game in order to see where improvements can be made. Thurman hopes that the team can go on to win the district.

“I think that we have a team that can compete and win the district, that’s our goal. We got to get out there and keep working and keep a positive attitude. The first three teams that we played were really good, but those guys weren’t in our district and I think we can still win in our district,” Thurman said.

Healy thinks that to be successful this season, the team needs to build on what they already do well.

“Fix the simple mistakes that are fixable. If we face a team that has better athletes that’s a different story, but if we make mental mistakes that are correctable then that’s what I need to worry about. My job is to put them in the best position possible to make the play,” Healy said.

Thurman, Healy and the rest of the football team will continue their regular season until the state tournament starts in mid December.

The Newsstreak

October 13, 2014

SPORTS-B8

Girls cross country team having exceptional season Ella Marian Feature editor The girls cross country team has been, literally, running towards that first place mark. So far this season both the varsity and “B team” (equivalent to junior varsity) have been able to win most of their meets.

This year, the team has put much more effort into their practices. Junior Allison Kasch, who hasn’t been able to compete much this season due to an injury in the hips and shins, specifies.

“We did a lot of work over the summer, which really paid off,” Kasch said.

Sophomore Mikaela Leach has seen a growth in energy on the team.

“I would definitely say that the intensity has grown in our practices just because we weren’t as strong [last year]. We have all being working really hard,” Leach said.

Senior Mariela Calderon started running on the team her junior year and finds that the group is much stronger.

“People have been running really well. People have been putting in their effort and there is a lot of team bonding and love,” Calderon said. This year Calderon has pushing herself more.

“At the start of the season, I felt okay. Now I feel way stronger and I feel like I could put in at least more effort,” Calderon said.

Calderon and Kasch have also both found that their new freshmen are the strongest they have seen.

“Our freshmen this year are definitely looking strong,” Kasch said.

“Our freshmen are really good,” Calderon said.

The success of the team isn’t only derived from its effort and determination. The girl’s cross country team see themselves more as a sisterhood than just a team and feel that that has helped them grow stronger together.

“We are, I guess you would say, a sisterhood. We work so well and we get along and everything just flows so naturally and I just feel like we push each other to do better and it helps us be

more successful. It gives us more encouragement and more courage in ourselves to be stronger,” freshman Meredith Goss said.

Goss started running with her dad for three to five miles at the age of nine or 10.

Calderon also feels that the girls are more of a family than a team.

“We’re pretty much like a family and we always stick together,” Calderon said.

Kasch has found that the group of seniors this year have also helped with their victories.

“Our seniors this year, they have the best leadership I have ever seen since I’ve been here.

They really are like pulling the team together and making everyone included and doing fun activities,” Kasch said.

The girls predict that the varsity team will be going to states this year and will continue to get stronger and better.

“We’ll probably be a more intense team by the end of the year,” Kasch said.

“Varsity definitely has a chance on going to states,” Leach said.

PHOTO BY BRENNA COWARDIN

BORN TO RUN. Freshmen Amairani Mateo and Naomi Gelberg-Hagmaier compete in the Stonewall Jackson invitational at the New Market Battlefield. Both girls placed for the team in the junior varsity race that day.

Golf team rallies to support coach after cancer diagnosis Austin Swift Sports Editor As much as it requires individual skill, golf is very much a team sport. And the HHS golfers may need their team more than ever now.

Just a few days before the start of post season and the conference tournament the team was hit with devastating news when informed that their coach, Mike Ruckman, was diagnosed with colon cancer.

“It’s really upsetting because he’s helped me so much and now I’ll have to adjust to someone new. It’s hard knowing he won’t be there for conferences, but hopefully Mr. Eye can do a good job. I know the whole team is really bummed. I think everyone is still going to do their best and try their hardest to do really well,” sophmore team member Molly Bauhan said.

Not only will the news have an impact on each player individually, but also on the team as a whole. However, sophomore golfer Chandler Hill believes it will bring a new sense of unity to the team.

“It’s going to be different without him, but I feel like we can all still work together and I’ll try to do the best that I can without him. I think it will [further bring the team together], trying to work hard and play better for Ruckman,” Hill said.

In the absence of Ruckman, a temporary coaching position opened and needed to be filled. Assistant Michael Eye accepted the role.

“I was asked [to fill in], and when asked, I serve. Mr. Wilson knew I had a familiarity with the golf course and he asked if I’d be available and I had an open slot in my schedule and I said ‘sure’. We also cover for each other, you know, Mr Ruckman is in a

situation and we need to cover for him and in those situations this staff is very good at doing what they need to do to make sure that the job gets done,” Eye said.

Athletic director Darrell Wilson is in charge of finding a substitute coach when situations such as these arise. While any staff member is eligible for the position, Wilson tries to find one willing to coach that has experience with the particular sport. “[My golfing experience] is mixed, there are good days and bad days, there are good shots and bad shots. I started playing when I was in high school, but I didn’t compete. I was a baseball player. And when I did coach, I coached baseball and a little bit of tennis, but this is my first experience [coaching golf]. I can add this to my resume now, can’t I?” Eye said.

Although he’s only attended minimal practices and one competitive fixture as coach, Eye is aware of the strengths and weaknesses of his new team.

“Their strength is that they are a team, you know, they kind of rib each other a little bit, but they’re in it together and that was the thing that I noticed. I think they all have opportunities to improve their individual golf game, and it differs from what little I’ve seen from player to player,” Eye said.

Through his experience golfing, Eye has gotten the learning process down to a science and is teaching his new pupils those ways. He believes in learning from the green back, meaning learning how to putt, then chip, then pitching and the short game, and finally driving.

“If you think about golf, if you’re playing 18 holes, an average golfer hits somewhere between 80 and 100 strokes. Over here at Heritage Oaks, there’s only 13 holes that

you’re going to hit a driver on, so thats 13 out of 80 strokes and you’re going to put on every hole and usually it’s set up for two putts a hole, so you’re going to putt at least 30 six times, and if you can get around there with only two putt, you’ve got the putting down,” Eye said.

Eye looks to his days coaching baseball for his strengths and techniques when coaching this new sport.

“I have to kind of think back more to when I coached baseball. I think my strength was that when you’re playing the game, you’re playing to win, but when you lose, it’s not the end of the world and I know that. Whether we win or lose, I’m looking for what we did well and I’m also identifying what we need to improve upon.

I think the best year I had [coaching baseball], we started off the year 1-7 and I really worked on where we were deficient and what we were doing right in order to build on that. We ended up 8-8. That year of coming back and continuing to improve was my most memorable year of coaching,” Eye said.

Even though his position is likely temporary, Eye is always aware of the potential for his own improvement and further learning.

“My weaknesses would be in the knowledge of the sport itself, whether it be baseball or golf, I don’t know it all. And maintaining the patience. It’s not a weakness, but it’s a challenge, maintaining the patience,” Eye said.

The team began practice a week prior to the start of the school year and have since begun regular season matches and participated in the conference tournament on Sept. 24. Bauhan has made a good analysis of her team’s performance so far this season.

“I think our team has improved a ton, we’ve got a lot of new players who have really improved a lot. As a team, there’s always room for improvement, so I think we can still work on getting our scores lower,” Bauhan said.

With practice held at Heritage Oaks Golf Course, the usual goal is to improve their overall game in addition to specific skills.

“Normal practices we just play nine holes, but every once in a while we practice chipping and putting or go on the driving range,” Bauhan said.

The golf team provided one of the top athletic highlights of last year, with Kyle Templeton reaching the state level.

“We had our number one senior (Templeton) graduate last year, he was one of the best players in the area. We lost him and that was hard, but we also got some new players and have a few eighth graders who are going to come up next year and really make the team a lot better,” Bauhan said.

Bauhan happens to be the only girl on the team, but doesn’t let that take away from the fun.

“I don’t mind [being the only girl], because I’m really good friends with all the guys on the team and they’re all really nice to me and we have a lot of fun together,” Bauhan said.

Unlike most other sports in the school, golf is co-ed, meaning there is always a chance of competing against the other gender. “[Playing against other guys] is a little different, every once in awhile I will be playing against a girl because there’s only a couple other girls in the area. Overall, it doesn’t make that much of a difference, but I do get to hit from upper tees, so I get a little bit of advantage,” Bauhan said.

Golfers react to continuing season without their coach

Sophomore Molly Bauhan “Everyone was really disappointed, but we played our hardest for him.”

Junior Sam Clarke “He still texted us and wished us luck.”

Senior Scott Wise “We wanted to play our hardest in the tournament for Ruckman.”

Junior Chase Berkshire “It was really impactful because it was right before the conference tournament, and it was all so sudden.”

Sophomore Duncan Rutherford “I had to step up and keep the team in order.”

Sophomore Cade Templeton “It made it a little hard being in the post season... without having the leadership of our coach there to support us.”

Cheerleading squad small in numbers, but powerful in competitions Ali Price Staff Reporter According to senior Aspen Hoak, this year’s competition cheer team is stronger than ever.

Although the varsity team has only nine members, making it the smallest team ever, Hoak thinks that the cheer team will be better than before. “[We] took the nine strongest.”

Despite this small size, Hoak believes that it will be beneficial to the team’s performance.

“The way we do it is, we have different stunt groups. So, instead of having three kind of good stunt groups, you have two really solid stunt groups, and we know they’re gonna hit. Everyone on the team has solid tumbling,” Hoak said. “It’s quality instead of quantity.”

The varsity cheer team’s routine is set to a medley of different songs, and the entire routine

PHOTO BY ABIGAIL HISSONG

GO BLUE STREAKS!. Competition cheerleading coach Bridget Smith rallies the squad before a performance. itself is only three minutes long.

The routine features cheers, a pyramid and a dance portion.

“They cut a lot of the songs to get it down to three minutes,”

senior Halia McAfee said. “This year we have some dubstep songs, and ‘Bang Bang’ [by Jessie J feat. Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj] is our dance, and then

‘Work’ by Iggy [Azalea].”

Competition cheer does work off the mat, too.

“We did probably 90 percent of the spring sports’ concessions,” Hoak said. “Last year, we got a lot of concessions because we had to pay off our uniforms.”

“If it gets really busy, then it’s kind of rough. But if it’s not busy, then it’s kind of boring, but you’re with your teammates, so it’s cool,” Hoak said.

The team is aiming to repeat and even surpass its past successes.

“For the past three years, we’ve won our district mini. We got second in our conference last year, and [past teams] went to states two years in a row,” McAfee said.

“One of my main goals would be getting like first or second in districts. And then, if we could go to regionals, that would be good,” Hoak said.

So far, coach Bridget Smith is

pleased with the team’s performance.

“The season is going very well.

We are currently second in the Valley District. We also placed third in our home invitational, placing higher than all teams that are in our region, conference and district,” Smith said.

Smith’s goals for the team are focused more on the improvement of technique than competitions.

“I would like to see the team increase their number of round off tucks thrown at competition.

Our goal as a team is to have at least 80% of our team throwing a tumbling pass involving a back tuck.”

The cheer team does two mini districts, where scores are added together to determine who will go on to regionals. Currently, the HHS cheer team is in second place, with six points, while Waynesboro has seven points.

The Newsstreak

October 31, 2014

Vida Hoven leader invites others to join 2014-2015 VIDA HOVEN from A10 tions. while sharing the gospel in a way that is personal and relevant.

We celebrate the Latino culture, but our club is open to every language, culture and color,” Mitchell said. “It was created to be a place to make students who can feel lost in a culture that is not their own feel comfortable and celebrated.”

At the moment, Harrisonburg is the only city along the East coast to offer this club to high school students. Vida Joven is present in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and the United States. In these countries, the club is run similarly to the way it is run at HHS. They have weekly meetings, the students get to spend time with their leaders, and they get a chance to go to a week-long Young Life camp.

“As a community, Harrisonburg is extremely lucky to have such diverse ministries that stem from Young Life, including Vida Joven, YoungLives, for teen moms and Capernaum, for kids with disabilities,” Mitchell said. Vida Joven is currently trying to provide more opportunities for students to be involved with these programs, and they are also trying to branch out to areas with large Latino popula-

Vida Joven is open to high school students in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County. If a student is looking for more information on Vida Joven, they can contact Jamie Mitchell, Kayla daSilva, Brinn Mcghee or Kaleb Feltner. Most days of the week, they are at HHS either in the morning or after school. Students can also ask any student that you see wearing a navy blue Vida Joven t-shirt.

“Vida Joven is a great thing, because it provides students with a place that is fun and welcoming for everyone. All students are invited to come hang out with us!” Mitchell said. Vida Joven hopes to impact the lives of students by giving them an opportunity to hang out in a safe, non-school setting. It also gives students a chance to open up about what they have been struggling with and what they’ve been enjoying in their lives.

“It is a safe and open place for students to dive into what their lives are really about, which we believe to be a life knowing Jesus Christ,” Mitchell said.

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Patrons are members of the Harrisonburg community and others who support the pursuit of excellence in the journalistic publications of Harrisonburg High School. Money generated from the patron program is used to offset costs of attending journalism conferences, to print our paper, and to purchase up-to-date technological equipment for our journalism lab. To become a patron, see any member of the Newsstreak Staff or stop by room 444. You can also visit www.newsstreak.com to download a patron ad contract. Patron level is determined by the following scale: HHS Patrons, $5; Blue Patrons, $10; Bronze Patrons, $15; Silver Patrons, $25; Gold Patrons, $50; and Newsstreak Super Sponsor, $100+.

NEWSSTREAK Kimberly Harper SUPER Inge Kutchins SPONSORS Sandra Quigg and Doctors Michael and Jerri JohnMcGehee Alexiou Susan Newsome Ted and Stephanne Byrd SILVER Camila Domonoske SPONSORS RR Donnelley A Mark and MaryAnne Duda Deb Armentrout Michael K. Eye Bosch Family Nancy and Russ Grimes LeSonya Bullard Valerie and Bobby Kibler Barbara Cavanaugh Richard and Sally Morrell Paula and Aaron Cook Mallory Buddy and Peri Cromer Ken and Lisa Price Tripp and Linda Denton Jeff Haden & Cynthia Runnells Diane and David Ken and Kim Rutherford Ehrenpreis Judith S. Strickler Michael Evans Sallie and Scott Strickler Laura FM Chuck and Carole Torpy Kevin and April Gorby GOLD Jeff Heie SPONSORS Frank and Sherrel Michele and Frances Hissong Cavoto Nate and Regina Hissong Kevin Comer Cindy Hunter Karen and Burns Earle Jackie Zito and Dan and Susan Fitch Dick Johnson

Rev. Robert and Dee Dee Jordan Randy Liezl Joven and Family The King Family Dave Loughran & Amy Wheeler David and Judith McCarty Eric Miller Andrea and Curtis Nolley Peter & Christy Norment Jon And Angie Osinkosky Maria Runnells Roger and Cathy Soenksen Joy Strickland George and Susan Swift Jay and Pat Supko Myrna Taylor Darrell Wilson BRONZE SPONSORS Emily Barnes Sarah Benasher Jeff Bourne Billy Martin Floyd Thompson Jeremiah and Erin Young

BLUE SPONSORS Syerra Cesar Danae Delozier Geoff Estes John Gira Mark Healy Kristan Lachance Wesley Livick Corinne Makarewich Tim Meyers Craig Shoemaker Lisa Thurman Dennis Wilson Melody Wilson Debra Witman HHS SPONSORS Joseph Amend Coach B Hannah Bowman Virginia Breeden Anne Byrd Jim Bywater Molly Campillo Julian Dean Amy Dove

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Velasco appreciates support SLI from A10 who are failing or falling acschool we go to them.”

At the end of his freshmen year, Velasco was encouraged to apply for the Initiative. He was one of three scholars selected, all of whom are now the first graduating SVSLI class of HHS seniors. There are currently 12 students who participate in the program, which Hannah Bowman, program coordinator for HHS, said contributes to the group’s tight-knit atmosphere.

“Everyone here is really close,” she said. Bowman added that students often develop strong relationships with their mentors outside of the classroom.

Bowman said that the biggest misconception about SVSLI is that it’s directed towards students

ademically.

“This is for high-achieving students,” she said, “[SVSLI] is highly competitive to even be considered for.”

Bowman said that the program requires students to maintain high grades and participate in various events with their mentors.

In addition, the scholars and their mentors meet every week to discuss everything from scholarships to world events.

“The point is to learn how to communicate,” Velasco said. In addition to skill-building, Velasco said that the program has helped him narrow down which colleges he wants to apply for.

“It’s prepared me so well,” he said, “I feel so thankful for getting a mentor.”

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

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HUMANS OF The Newsstreak

October 31, 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

SEE MORE ON THE WEB! HHSMEDIA.COM

Freshman Nabinah Williams

Senior Dulce Elias “What was the happiest moment of your life?”

“When I got my puppy.”

Sophomore Elfren Rosario “What was the happiest moment of your life?”

“Whenever I can chill with my friends, hang out with them and just chill.”

“Where would you like to be at this time next year?”

“I would like to have a job.”

H

Freshman Carlos Rivera Morales Junior Josh Neal “Where would you like to be at this time next year?”

“I would like to be in my mom’s home town.”

“What is your biggest dream?”

“To become famous.”

Juniors Dylan Haughton, Anthony Cruz and Josh O’Keefe “What advice would you give to a large group of people?”

Haughton: “Just be yourself, do your own thing.”

Freshman Gemima Metala “Where would you like to be right now?”

“In London.”

Freshman Neilliza Porter “What is your biggest dream?

“To be different than the rest of my family members and to make a difference in my generation.”

“What is your biggest dream?”

“To be something in my life.”

Senior Carrie Moyers “Where would you like to be at this time next year?”

“At the University of Virginia.”

Senior Silvestre Rojas “Where would you like to be at this time next year?”

“Probably college.”

Sophomore Ben Blake “What was the happiest moment of your life?”

“When I came back from Argentina and I got to see my girlfriend for the first time in two months.”

SeniorMaria Alvarado “What was the happiest moment of your life?”

“Visiting family in Mexico.”

“Why was that the happiest moment of your life?

“Because I haven’t seen my family in over six years.”

Freshman Anthony Orollana

Junior Darwan Najmuldeen Junior Anthony Cadett Walton “What is your biggest dream?”

“To get out of Harrisonburg.”

Photos and interviews

by Maria Snell-Feikema and Mia Karr

“What advice would you give to a large group of people?”

“I give to them advice to finish their school, do their work in school, and do what they got to do.”