This year, for Karla Alarcon’s personal project, she wanted to do something that could impact the entire school. She decided that she wanted to help people with their confidence, and make sure that they knew that they were not alone, so she started to post up small note cards all around the school that had motivational/positive words that could make anyone’s day a bit brighter.

“I wanted to influence people, to have people notice and make them feel good about themselves,” Karla said. During the time that the note cards were posted, she began to see many people start to follow in her lead; she began to see new note cards with even more motivational words on them. Her favorite part of the whole thing was to walk around and see people look at the notes and smile and get happy after reading them. People around her would talk about them and about how great they thought they were; she even saw them on social media sites such as Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, ect.

Not only did this project help those around her, but it also helped her. Karla said that, “It helped me understand that there are people out there who sometimes do need some support, and it helped me realize that I should go out of just the school and try and help the rest of my community.”

She will continue to try and do everything she can to make sure that the people around her are shown love and support.

Karla loved the outcome of her project and she would love for it to continue; for people to support one another and make sure that everyone knew that they were loved and not alone.

On Thursday, February 24th, we had our Winter Pep Fest. Everyone piled on to the bleachers wearing their class colors while the HP Jazz Band played. When everyone was seated, the upperclassmen began chanting “Go home freshmen,” which has turned into a pep fest tradition.

The Pep Fest began with Highland’s clubs and sports teams making announcements. The Nordic Ski team told everyone about their success at their recent meets. Both the boys and girls teams have had really great seasons. Also, Spanish Speaking Debate announced that they are beginning their season, and if you speak Spanish, you are welcome to join. The Basketball teams, boys and girls, also had really good seasons.

After the announcements, the gymnastics team put on a performance. When the music started, the gymnasts began flipping, jumping and running across the gym. Their routine combined with their music was very upbeat and exciting.

Then the basketball teams had a shoot off. It was girls against boys, and even though they were very close, the boys took the win. The teams exited the court and some of the boys on the basketball team had a dunking contest. Everyone cheered really loud after almost every try. All of them were really good and it was very entertaining to watch.

The dance team also gave a performance at the Pep Fest. This time, their music was strictly instrumental, and aside one of the girls repeatedly hitting other girls on accident, it was a good performance.

The Pep Fest ended with a performance by the cheerleaders. They did their traditional dance with their pompoms and everyone was cheering. Like the Fall Pep Fest, the cheerleaders made a routine in collaboration with some of the basketball players, which in my opinion was also very good. The performance as a whole was a good way too end the Pep Fest.

The Winter Pep Fest was our last school-wide assembly until the Senior Send off in the beginning of June.

School lunches have been a topic tossed around a lot. What do you get to eat at school? Why do you get to eat it? How much should it cost? Should it be healthy? Does it taste good? These questions have been asked over the years in schools. Even though these questions never seem to change, school lunches themselves have changed over the years.

According to the website Mental Floss, in 1960, public schools and the Child Nutrition Act expanded the availability of school lunches in the U.S. They started to implement pizza, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and enchiladas, not caring if the food was healthy or not. Then in the 1970s, fast food chains started to rise in the food industry and were put into the school lunches.

Soon after the fast food company’s took over in 1970 the USDA put out a statement saying that school lunches only needed to have “minimum nutritional value.” This led to ketchup being classified as a vegetable, due to the cuts in funding for school lunches that reduced the funds by $1 billion. 

Soon after this, in the 1990s, when fast foods had been in the school lunches for 10 years, obesity was at an all time high. Because of this, health concerns became a top priority for schools in the U.S according to the USDA. 

By 2005, schools were switching from canned vegetables to fresh vegetables, and grilled chicken to grilled jerk chicken. This made the obesity rates drop according to the website Mental Floss, but the schools also lost most of their money from the fast food companies. Since fast food was no longer being served for lunch, the companies no longer paid to be in the schools. Because of this, school lunches lost over half of their funding. 

5 years later, in 2010, President Obama was elected and he began the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act. This increased the funding of school lunches, and school lunches began to get healthier and better for kids in school.   

This school year’s Personal Project due date has passed, those who missed it can no longer turn it in. The Personal Project is for Sophomores, but information was given out during the spring of their Freshman year. The students are given a packet with what the project required from the students. The packet also had ideas or topics the students could possibly be interested in.

What is the Personal Project? The project is an IB-MYP project with the expectation that all students take on the project and create something unique and personal to them. The motive is to get students motivated about doing things that interest them.

Each student has their own Personal Project advisor who can help them deicide a topic, guide them with their paper, and answer questions students may have about the project. Throughout the student’s Sophomore year, they will meet their advisor at least 3 times to talk about the progress of their project.

The project has requirements to be completed. Students who decide to complete the project are required to physically turn in their paper along with five journal entries and five pictures of proof. The paper is where students write about their process of learning about their topic. The paper is then graded using the criteria on the packet.

Some ideas people choose for their project are: Learning a new instrument, joining the dance team, learning a new skill, or building their own computer. Many of the ideas are personal to the student and is something they would like to learn more of.

On Tuesday, February 2nd, Highland Park Senior High held a showcase for History Day projects in the cafeteria. Students in Ms. Bonk’s and Mr. Berndt’s accelerated history classes were required to complete a History Day project. Each year, History Day has a new theme, and students must find a topic, in history, that relates to that theme. This year’s theme was “Taking a Stand in History.” Some of the topics that were chosen include: LGBTQ Rights, Black History, and Women’s Rights.

There are 5 different ways a student can present their project, they are: exhibits, websites, documentaries, performances, and a paper. Students that choose to present something, other than a paper, can work in a group of 2 or 3 people. If a student chooses to complete a paper, then they have to work individually.

There is the opportunity for students to compete in History Day beyond their Freshman year, if they so choose. This year, there were 2 Sophomores, and 2 Juniors working on History Day. There was also an entire 11th grade regular history class completing the paper for History Day.

Judges come and evaluate student presentations. Each type of presentation has their own criteria that is judged, and each is judged at least twice by two different judges.

The students are encouraged to wear formal outfits on the presentation day. The presentations are then graded and the teachers in charge of History Day will decide who makes it to the next round known as Regionals. Regionals judging is a little different; students from different schools who made it to Regionals will have a specific time when they are judged. The judges will ask questions about your topic and observe your presentation.

If students pass Regionals then they move on to the State History Day competition. The project itself is very competitive so students thrive to make the best out of it.

This year’s Highland History Day went well and there were many interesting topics that students chose.

This year Highland is going to have its winter pep fest on February 24th. Every school year Highland has a pep fest to celebrate the school, and to get everyone into the school spirit heading into the second half of the school year.

Typically, the school has spirit week, which is the week leading up to the pep fest. Spirit week is a themed week, where each day you dress differently. This year, the students got to give input and vote on which themes they wanted for spirit week. Spirit week starts on Tuesday, Feb. 21st, with the following themes:

• Tuesday is Pajama Day
• Wednesday is Decades Day
• Thursday is Flannel Day
• Friday is Class Color Day.

( Freshmen class is Yellow, Sophomore class is Green, Junior class is Blue, Senior class is Red)

The pep fest will be held during 7th hour, and the whole school will be there. This pep fest is going to focus on the things that students at Highland are involved with during and after school. The HPSH band will play some songs. Several teams will have presentations. School clubs and activities leaders will make announcements as will sports team captains.

“It will be similar to other pep assemblies, but there are a few surprises to come,” said Ms. Hedwall, when asked about the upcoming pep fest.

Highland has a spirit week and pep fest twice a year, where students and staff are able to show school spirit and enjoy the week that celebrates all of us as a school.