![Adding a tray of canned corn to the pile, junior Michael Collop assists in transporting donations for the Holiday Food Drive. The event, hosted schoolwide from Dec. 10-17, raised over 5,000 food items to deliver to the Parkway Food Pantry, helping several families in need. [The drive] is a great thing for us to do because you're giving to those who are less fortunate, and it helps provide for people who can't provide for themselves. [The] competition is always fun, too. It was fun to be in [social studies teacher Jess] Chazen’s class, because he always gets worked up over [the competition]. He made it exciting, and was always convincing us to turn in cans for the drive,” Collop said.](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/feature-photo-unsung-2.png)
![NEW CHALLENGE, NEW TEAM MEMBERS: Every season, VEX creates a new game that robotics team members are faced with and have to build a robot to compete in. This year’s game forces students to create a robot that is able to stack rings onto mobile goals in order to score points. The change in games each season is something that robotics teacher Audrea Moyers appreciates.
“One of the things that I like about VEX is that they have a new problem to solve every year,” she said. ¨Even though the equipment’s the same, they have to analyze the game, and they have to come up with solutions that are unique that year. They are using their knowledge from prior years, but they have to kind of redesign a problem.”
As returning teams were faced a new game, some new teams and members had to adapt to a uncommon playing field and game.
“Three of our four teams were competing for the first time this year, and they had very different experiences match to match, so I think they learned a lot,¨ she said. ¨It’s hard just watching a video online to know how it’s actually going to be in person, so they all learned a lot about what gameplay is like, how to work with an alliance partner [and] how to adapt during the day to changes.”](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_9283-1-1200x800.jpg)
On this episode of Listen In, junior Jessica Guan sits down with Opinions Editor Samantha Haney to discuss the importance of the Lunar New Year in Chinese culture.
Since she was a child, Guan has celebrated the Lunar New Year.
Guan’s parents are from China and the majority of their family still live there so they follow some of the traditional practices such as wearing red, decorating with fish for good luck and hanging red papers around the house.
The holiday prompts cleaning, wearing new clothes and other traditions to start the new year with prosperity. This year’s celebration is extra special Guan said since 2024 is the year of the dragon, one of the 12 Chinese zodiacs.
According to Time magazine, the creature largely symbolizes luck, strength, ambition and charm.
China has the largest Lunar New Year celebration in the world, prompting the largest mass migration as people travel home to China to celebrate. Although Guan has never made it due to the holiday’s timing being in the middle of the school year, she would love to go in the future.
“I would love to see the celebrations. They have enormous parades in the cities [and] market vendors sell trinkets in the streets,” Guan said.
The most important thing that Guan wants people to know about Chinese culture as a whole is that it needs to be kept separate from the Chinese government’s decisions. She enjoys wearing traditional Chinese clothes because they prompt that conversation and allow her to have that conversation with people.
“Just because a government does one thing does not mean that the culture is necessarily associated with that or symbolic of that,” Guan said. “I find that’s a common misconception that people have in the West.”
The Lunar New Year is Feb. 10 but there is a 14-day celebration that will end on Feb. 24.
This story was originally published on The Lancer Feed on February 14, 2024.