Daily Archives: September 27, 2016

Sports

Fall sports

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hphsFall. It’s something a lot of us look forward to. From going back to school (just to see your friends), to wondering if Halloween is just around the corner, or when winter break finally starts. But no one else looks more forward to fall than the athletes participating in this year’s fall sports. From football to girls swimming, girls volleyball, boys soccer, cheerleading etc. these athletes have been waiting all summer to do what they love the most.

“I love a good challenge for these athletes and just seeing their energy and dedication that they have when participating…” said Pat Auran, Highland’s newest athletic director. “It’s a rewarding and comradery type of atmosphere.”

During this small interview I had with Mr. Auran I asked him what it means to be a great athlete. His response was:

“School always comes first, always. No exceptions, it just does, that’s why so many athletes have a greater chance of graduating when they participate because they know that if they don’t get their homework in they can’t play or they get put on academic probation…” He added, “I feel as if sports is just an extension of school. Think about it: you have seven classes in a day so just think of it as your eighth [class]. They’ve also got to be proud of our school [Highland], I always encourage school spirit it brings the school closer in some ways and after all they’re representing our school. I also expect them to be respectful towards others and themselves 100% of the time.”

I had also asked him what it means and what it takes to be a good coach (or assistant coach) for the athletes. He said, “They’ve got to be able to get along with the athletes and feel like they’re just having fun with whatever sport they chose to be in. The coach also has to be approachable. Besides being their mentor and help the kid achieve their goal we’re helping these bright athletes transform into mature adults that could eventually help them in the long run. We try our best to help these kids be prepared for their future.”

“So far, it’s been a great season for all sports that are going on right now. Sure we may not have won a ton of games, but the spirit the people have when they’re on the stands is incredible. The Washburn vs. Highland game for football was a loss for us, but the crowd in the Highland area stayed throughout the whole game. Win or lose the people stayed to show support for our school and that’s something I’d like to see at all games.”

For more listings about when and where the next games/meets are for each sporting event, you can go on the Highland Park website and click on the athletic calendar for more information, or follow this link: http://sports.spps.org and go show some school spirit and support!!

 

Getting To Know/History, School Life

Meet the new staff members!

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A new school year includes: new supplies, new opportunities, new students, and new teachers! This year we’ve welcomed 10 new staff members to our school. We had the chance to go around and ask some of them a little about themselves and their thoughts on Highland so far. All of the new staff members were very open and kind about answering the questions that we had for them. They all had very interesting things to say about the school and about themselves.

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Ms. Rahman, Highland’s new librarian

All of the new staff members have been loving the vibe of Highland. The new librarian Ms. Rahman said, “I love the friendly, warm, and caring vibe I get from the staff members and the students.” Each staff member that we interviewed said that they can’t help but love just how lovely and kind everyone here at Highland is. Their favorite thing about Highland so far is the students! They all love just how friendly and smart the students are.

Mr. Auran, our new athletic director, said he was excited to come back to the high school side, this time in a new position. 

All of the new staff members are all very friendly and they all are very dedicated to their jobs here at Highland. We asked each staff member why they had chosen to come here and work at Highland. They all said that they loved what Highland had to offer for them, and that they’d heard so many wonderful things about this school. They all were very excited to start working here. and once they did, they couldn’t help but love the atmosphere.

Mr. Auran, the athletic director, who grew up near Highland, and also graduated from here, said that, “He always loved just how open-minded and fun the staff and students were.”  

During these interviews we got to know something fun and interesting about each of the staff members, and learned that all of them were pretty cool. All the fun facts went from playing the guitar for themselves and only themselves to doing scuba diving.

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Mr. Rios, Highland’s newest Spanish teacher, picture taken from the HPSH website

We also found out that Mr. Rios loves to sing and write poetry and that Ms. Rahman had studied classical piano while growing up, but she hasn’t played since.

Hopefully, all of these new staff members create new and awesome memories here with us and have a great year at Highland.

    
   

Editorials/Student Voice, News, School Life

Trump mural

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For this article, we conducted interviews at school focusing on Donald Trump. We interviewed people anonymously, all from very different backgrounds and ages, in order to receive a wide range of perspectives. The interviews were mainly concerning the Trump mural painted in our school on the third floor. We wanted to know how it made people feel, and if something should be done about it. Although the mural was our focus, we also wanted to understand how people felt about Trump as a person. We did this to better understand the reasoning for the opinions about the mural.

While interviewing a variety of our peers, as well as some of the staff members, about their feelings on Trump, we came across many different views on him. We asked our interviewees to give us a short phrase or a couple of words to describe their feelings. Many had very angry comments such as:

“I hate him.”

“He is stupid.”

“He’s an orange sexist bigot.”

“He exploits people for his own gain.”

“He makes me feel ashamed”

Or words such as “pretty low, awful, Orange, Oompa Loompa, scared” were used.

We also had some responses that were very interesting and unbiased:

“I love him, I love him as a human being, because I love every human being.”

“I think he has always had a good life. Never struggled. He doesn’t know how to relate and empathize with people that have.”

“I may not agree with him all of time, but I always have to respect him and his opinions.”

Many of our classmates had no opinion on Trump at all. When asking the people we see everyday, many contrasting feelings and points were brought up.

Following hearing how individuals felt about Donald Trump, we informed them of the pop art painting located on the third floor.

After hearing of the arts existence, we prompted subjects to tell us about how a painting of Trump in our school made them feel. We personally have no bias, and all responses were their own. There were a considerable number of students who were indifferent to the art piece, but some had feelings about the piece that they felt needed to be heard. There were points made that art is an expression, and no one has the right to censor art, and on the opposing side, a painting or “mural” of Trump made some students uncomfortable because of the comments he has made.

“It’s an outrage that a school with such a large Hispanic population has a painting of a man who has discriminated against us.”

“Art is an expression, and we can’t tell someone how they can or can’t feel.”

“There are better things that can be done with that space.”

“With how heated the air is surrounding this topic, I don’t believe it is a good idea for the school display such a controversial figure.”

“It is art, and art should never be censored. The painting has no degrading quotes, so no harm is truly being done.”

“Schools should not display political figures, especially when we are only showing one side of the argument.”

Overall, we gathered many views from our school’s community, and got a variety of answers. We learned different ways of thinking, broadening our perspectives. There was a significant amount of knowledgeable feedback, and we learned about the acceptance of others’ opinions.

School Life

A Highland Freshman’s first week

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Becoming a Freshman at a new school can be exciting, frightening, and new to most. Link Leaders are here to make it easier for the Freshmen to find classes and feel welcome at Highland, but do they really? We wanted to see how Freshmen really felt during their first couple of weeks at Highland by surveying a class of thirty-four students.   

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Freshman Will Altman

We developed nine questions, to ask Freshmen, to cover a wide range of things that they experienced during their first week here. We asked the students the following questions:

  • Our first question was about about the school itself, we asked them what their favorite part of Highland was. Their answer could be about the environment, the people, the classes, or even some of the clubs or activities.
  • The second and third questions asked about Link Crew events, and the Link Crew leaders themselves.
  • The fourth and fifth questions were about whether or not students were going to school events, and or if they joined any sports or clubs.
  • The sixth question asked what the students were expecting, and whether or not the school is close to their expectation.
  • The seventh question asked about which class was their favorite.
  • The eighth was about if they felt welcome at Highland.
  • The last question asked how they felt about their first week overall.   

The Link Crew leaders made a presence to the Freshmen. A lot of the Freshmen saw their Link Crew leaders and maybe said, “Hi” if they needed help with something. The Link Crew did their job and helped out the Freshman which is good to hear.

With Link Crew comes Link Crew events, almost every Freshman attended the events of Freshmen Fun Night and Shananalympics. Even though the Link Crew events were a hit, the Friday night football game was a not with most of the Freshmen because about 68 percent decided not to go.

Many sports and clubs are available to incoming Freshmen, ranging from soccer to science . We asked if they had joined any clubs or sports and most had. Freshmen in our survey joined a wide variety of clubs which included: cross country, football, dance, tennis, and robotics. A common answer was “not yet” so we’re expecting more Freshmen to join clubs in the latter part of the year.

The second part of the survey was more about the Freshman experience with the the school and its environment. Right off of the bat we asked the students what their favorite part of Highland was. Although it would be hard to list all thirty-four students responses, here are some of the best and most interesting:

  • Lots of students liked seeing their friends and meeting new ones, many Freshmen thought the teachers use the class time wisely which is nice.
  • The athletic program seems to be enjoyable for a lot of Freshmen especially for the football players.
  • People seem to think that Highland is a comfortable environment to learn. Link Crew leaders contribute to this feeling with their events that they run for the Freshmen.
  • Freshmen seem to think that a lot of the students here are nice and treat one another with respect.

We asked them what they thought of the first week overall, and most students said that they had enjoyed it, liked their teachers, and felt welcome.

Being a Freshman is a challenge at first, but from the responses we got Highland seems to make it an easier experience.