Food, Fat, and Filters: Creating Self-Confidence in the Digital Age
By Alexa Williams, Middleton High School
November 16, 2018
Filed under Features
Thanksgiving- the great American feast- is just around the corner. This holiday, falling on the fourth Thursday of November marks the beginning of a season of parties, gifts, and, yes, food. In an American society defined by food and weight, we are inundated with images of what it means to be beauti...
Ivan Najera conquers cancer
By Enoch Olajimi, Wylie East High School
November 16, 2018
Filed under Features
He was in his room when he learned the news. He couldn’t wrap his head around it. All he knew was that his life would not be the same anymore. In late March, junior Ivan Najera was diagnosed with leukemia. Miraculously, Najera was pronounced cured in September and has now returned to his normal life...
HOSA Applying For Patent
By Jessica Li, Marquette High School
November 16, 2018
Filed under Features
Bright fluorescent lights shone in their eyes as they stood on the stage. Top ten was already unbelievable. Then the sentence “Third Place is Kayla Berry, Neha Bollam and Kelley Sinning” blasted through the loudspeakers. Shock ran through seniors Kayla Berry, Neha Bollam and Kelley Sinning as the...
DHS adapts to the block schedule
By Jenna Coladarci, Olivia Paris, Joelene Hefferon, Dean Waterbury, and Kiara Kaltschnee
November 16, 2018
Filed under Features
It has been two months since the start of the new school year and there are mixed reactions from students and teachers about block scheduling, including the skinny block, lunch waves, and new absence policy that comes with it. After the state’s requirement of the class of 2023 increased from 21 credi...
The Joy of Friendship
By Ashlyn Athey, Brashier Middle College Charter High School
November 16, 2018
Filed under Features
There is an epidemic that is sweeping the globe, sucking more and more people in by the minute. What is this timeless, incurable infection? Friendship: the bond we share with another human being. Perhaps it’s the new kid at the lunch table or someone you have literally grown up with. Whoever or whe...
Two worlds are colliding: Future of social media resting in palms of today’s youth
By Andrés Bear, Coppell High School
November 16, 2018
Filed under Features, Showcase
There is one key factor that separates Generation Z - an age label generally agreed to apply to those born between 1994 and 2000 - from previous generations. Advanced technology has been in the lives of Gen Z individuals since the day they were born. The Information Age describes and explains the rise of the high-...
Overprescribed
By Grace Snelling and Lila Taylor
November 16, 2018
Filed under Features, Showcase
"I broke my nose playing basketball when I was 15 and I was prescribed tylenol-3's, which are codeine. I remember I just took them and I liked the way they made me feel. It was a different high than weed, and when I put the two together it was exactly what I’d been looking for, so that started [my...
The adventures continue for Zulmy Galindo
By Bella Russo, McCallum High School
November 16, 2018
Filed under Features, Showcase
Growing up as an immigrant in California, college once seemed like a very distant possibility to Zulmy Galindo. Born and raised in Guatemala until age 7, she never really saw herself as the kind of person who would go; none of her family was talking about it, and the only kids at school who did didn’t...
For the Thrill of It
By Noah Bullwinkle and Maya Durham
November 16, 2018
Filed under Features, Showcase
For Violet*, it started in fifth grade. She and a friend were together on a snow day, and her friend suggested they try smoking marijuana. “I was like, “Oh, [smoking’s] cool. I’m going to do it too,” she said. “We just said, ‘f*** it, we’re going to smoke.’” The National C...
Pushing boundaries and making a change
By Zak Keel, Davenport West High School
November 16, 2018
Filed under Features
Alexa Christiansen is a student that may just break the record for most hours existing within the walls of West. An average week for Christiansen consists of walking to school at 6:35 a.m. for early-bird some days and staying after school until 8:30 p.m. for Robotics on others. Even when not on a sche...
Clean water courtesy of West
By Tori Dierikx, Davenport West High School
November 15, 2018
Filed under Features
8,133 miles away, there is a village in Kenya that lacks what many of us take for granted ‒ clean water. This daunting and very real issue was brought to the Davenport West Invent team by Joshua Ngao, a resident of Muamba who believed the seemingly impossible task could be tackled by Davenport West st...
Road to College: Seniors meet early action deadlines
By Carson Lilley, Fishers High School, Fishers, Indiana
November 15, 2018
Filed under Features
Senior Luke Dubec trudges down the stairs, still groggy from being woken up. Moments later the doorbell rings and he answers it, stunned to find himself face-to-face with lights, cameras and Trip the bulldog announcing he has been accepted into Butler University. Like many seniors, Dubec applied to co...
A Call From the Past
By Kelley Frithsen, Triton High School
November 14, 2018
Filed under Features
Payphones were very popular during the 1990s with over 2 million across America but over the years there has been a decline in payphones. Now, there are only about 100,000 left in the country. One of those 100,000 is outside Triton High School outside, next to the school bank. The boxes that once h...
From Private to Public
By Nick Farace, Kingwood Park High School
November 14, 2018
Filed under Features
Going from a class of 33 students into a class of 500 can be a bit challenging, but freshman Juan Cintron has found has groove at KPARK. Cintron is one of many transfer students from St. Martha Catholic School (SMCS) “It’s already so much fun, and transferring here was totally worth it,” Ci...
Senior door: Security change follows major national trends
By Alex Ketcham, Lake Zurich High School
November 14, 2018
Filed under Features
The senior door closing has been a hot topic among students within the past week, but there is some confusion as to why the policy was put in place. Administration sent out an email to students prior to the closure of the door, acknowledging safety concerns as the reasoning for the action. The clo...
Brooks deals with scoliosis
By Jennifer Sams, Tunstall High School
November 14, 2018
Filed under Features
Junior Taylor Brooks starts off her day almost like any other teenager. She wakes up, gets out of bed, cleans her face, and finally goes to pick out her outfit for the day. However, this isn’t as easy of a task as it seems. As someone dealing with scoliosis, Brooks is often self conscious of the way her co...
New nurse plans to make changes to the school health
By Curran Nielsen, Mater Dei High School
November 14, 2018
Filed under Features
Shannon Brown ('92) joined the Mater Dei community this year as the new school nurse. After working at multiple hospitals as a nurse and an executive administrator, Brown chose to come back to her alma mater to make a difference in a way that she was not able to when working in administration. ...
Welcome to the jungle: moments from the 2018 Homecoming Dance
By Liam H. Flake, Fossil Ridge High School
November 13, 2018
Filed under Features
On Saturday, September 15, Fossil Ridge held its 14th annual homecoming dance in the school gym, featuring the theme of “Safari.” From 8:00 pm to 11:00, Fossil students danced amongst decorations mirroring the African savannah. Students were additionally given the options to cool off and hang out...
Junior Salam Abouchleih Overcomes the Hardships Following Immigration, Discrimination and Cross-Culturalism
By Sarah Zimmerman, Francis Howell North High School
November 12, 2018
Filed under Features, Showcase
Salam. Five letters, one meaning: peace. Yet, her life had been anything but. The Middle East The first scream echoed through the halls of her Saudi Arabian school. She ran. Sprinting as fast as an 8-year-old child could, she raced for any exit she could find as the shooter entered the buildi...
RHS pushes to eliminate wrong-way traffic
By JULIE NGUYEN, Roseville High School
November 12, 2018
Filed under Features
Roseville High School staff have started monitoring the Senior Lot after school to prevent students from using the enter lane to exit. Prior, students would often use both lanes to exit the lot in the minutes immediately following the 2:30 school dismissal. According to assistant principal Jason Wilson,...
A Piece of Me
By Zoë Miller and Nina Lavezzo-Stecopoulos
November 9, 2018
Filed under Features
When Megan Bywater ‘19 was one and a half, she achieved mobility that no one expected. With the help of braces and crutches, she walked for the first time. Since then, she has been exceeding expectations. She participates in choir and band; she loves to play games and spend time with family and frie...
Close-friends vs. best-friends: What’s the difference?
By Dafne Naranjo, Vidal M. Trevino School of Communications and Fine Arts
November 9, 2018
Filed under Features
“A strong friendship doesn’t need daily conversation or being together. As long as the relationship lives in the heart, true friends never part." – Unknown Many friends act differently when they are by themselves vs. when they are in public. Sometimes they even act differently with their close-friends...
Breaking the stereotype
By Kate Kealey, Davenport West High School
November 9, 2018
Filed under Features
She sits at the table during dinner, discouraged and angry. She is over being disrespected and feeling out of place. She goes to her mom to bring her out of this state of mind, her mom reminds her that this is life and things don’t come easy. Her dad reminds her that he went through the same discri...
Cheerleaders help the community by volunteering at nursing home
By Lydia Roseman, Parkway West High School
November 8, 2018
Filed under Features
With stunts, flips and synchronized cheers, the cheerleading squad brings excitement and enthusiasm to sporting events across the school, but for the varsity squad, cheer does not stop at the sidelines. Every Wednesday night, a group of cheerleaders volunteers at Delmar Gardens Nursing Home’s ...
New Guide Dogs for the Blind club serves more than just the MD community
By Ellie Crabbe, Mater Dei High School
November 8, 2018
Filed under Features
If you attended this year’s club fair, you might have been one of the many who took a double take at the sight of Corky, the Lab/Golden mix sitting by the Guide Dogs for the Blind (GDB) booth. The GDB club was started this year by sisters senior Melita Kalczynska and sophomore Olivia Kalczynska. With help from social studies teac...
New opportunities: Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day helps to break boundaries
By Max Feldman, Lake Zurich High School
November 8, 2018
Filed under Features
Girls are breaking boundaries every day, but the STEM field has remained largely male-dominated. One new event tried drawing girls into engineering, hoping that gender gap could close. The Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day has annually been held at the UIUC campus, but this year the school starte...
Senior Jake Miller Has Two Tattoos in Memory of His Sister, Dannielle, Who Died of Heroin in 2014
By Gracie Bowman, Francis Howell North High School
November 8, 2018
Filed under Features, Showcase
Needles never used to scared Jake Miller. Even as the needle pokes through his skin on his forearm repeatedly, he doesn’t mind it. He has a lump in his throat, but not because his arm feels like a point of a hot knife dragging through his skin like soft butter. That was a tolerable pain. The tatto...
Living in limbo: A family’s struggle with LGBTQ rights
By Christy Bishop, Pleasant Valley High School
November 8, 2018
Filed under Features
Times seem uncertain for those who identify as a part of the LGBTQ community. With two attempts to ban transgender people from the military and a proposition to reverse recognition and rights of them, those affected are wondering what’s next from the Trump administration. The LGBTQ community...
Students form long-lasting friendships with kids with disabilities
By Addie Robey, H.B. Plant High School
November 7, 2018
Filed under Features
Walking into room 503, there is a warm, inviting feeling and students are met with smiles and friendly faces of kids like juniors Arushi Pratap and Jade Connor and seniors Dara Mizell and Bryan Lopez. Photos pinned up on the walls tell stories from many of the dances and events held by Best...
Stretch to destress
By Scout Molder, Piper High School in Kansas City, Kansas
November 7, 2018
Filed under Features, Showcase
Starting last fall, a yoga class consisting of a small group of students has taken place each Tuesday during seminar. The class was started by counselor Marge Eckard, with the purpose of helping students who struggle with anxiety. Eckard said that the idea for the class stemmed from her own experience with ...