Category Archives: School Life

Clubs and Activities, School Life

Culture Day

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The auditorium was surrounded with the most vibrant and festive decorations of hand made flags, stellar paintings representing cultural individuality, colorful ribbons, and balloons. Performance by performance, the stage was constantly filled with dancers who were willing to share their culture among their supportive peers. Some performers were conscious of their steps, but everyone still managed to end with a grand smile.

Culture Day, which was held on Thursday, April 14, during sixth hour, is an assembly that strives to share the different traditions and cultures not recognized on a daily basis.

According to Quincy Yangh, president of Asian Culture Club, the sole purpose of the various performances was to emphasize and showcase the diversity that lies around our school, and around the world. This was an ultimate collaboration between the ethnic minority clubs in our school including: Union Latina (UL), Black Student Union (BSU), Asian Culture Club (ACC), and Anime Club.

The performance started out with an introduction from the presidents of each club and promptly began with an original couple dance routine performed by members of Union Latina. Union Latina contributed to a total of two multiple duo dance performances, both with uplifting music. Brittany Fry and Charlie Paredes sang a sweet and quiet duet in Spanish, along with Alex Aguirre playing the electric guitar.

Jose Santos was greeted with great encouragements from audience members as he performed a solo Native American piece with his drum. Quincy Yangh also considered this as the most memorable act. “I believed this performance was truly outrageous because it was something I’ve never seen. Another reason why I will remember this performance forever was because I felt Jose Santos poured his heart and culture into the music that he was sharing.”

Midway through the presentation, Black Student Union also performed a unique duo dance to “Formation” by Beyonce. However, that was not their only contribution to the show.

Later in the presentation, three members of BSU including Feven Gebrezgi, Khani Paredez, and Dejra Bishop stood together on stage and shared a spoken word piece. The audience sat in silence as they listened to the trio recall each and every line of Maya Angelou’s famous poem, “Still I Rise”. The firm tones in their voices expressed their definite passion towards the meaning of the poem, which revolved around strength, endurance, and affirmation. The significance of the poem corresponds with current racial conflicts in the US, as it was intended to address the white oppressors of black people.

Senior student Kelly Shanahan also made an astonishing appearance representing her heritage with her brief but still impressive Irish tap dancing routine in her traditional Irish attire. This was the only European culture represented at the event.

The Anime Club played a role towards advertising and promoting the show, as well as arranging the decorations inside of the auditorium.

Next up were ACC’s Thai dancers led and choreographed by Pajaie Thao. As typical, ACC performed two dance performances, one of them representing Thai culture. “The Thai dance focuses on the mixture of traditional and modern moves,” says Quincy Yangh. “It reflects the evolution of how the Thai culture has progressed over the years.” Several people were quite impressed with the performance. “A memorable performance was the Thai dancers,” quoted Feven Gebrezgi, president of BSU, “because they were all so well synchronized.” This was definitely a fact as the five dancers moved in similar movements to Hmong dances in the past, including the graceful yet swift hand gestures and hip movements, and the bright smiles that ran from cheek to cheek.

Several members of Anime Club also joined forces with ACC for the finale act. The performance ended with an upbeat and modern Korean-pop (K-pop) dance led by none other than Shannon Thao. The dance covered a full range of K-pop dance covers from popular Korean songs including “No More Dream” by Bangtan Boys (BTS), “Call Me Baby” by EXO, “The Boys” by Girl’s Generation, and “Bang Bang Bang” by Big Bang. Several K-pop fans among the crowd roared with joy as they watched the performers carry out the complicated but fierce moves across the stage.

What do the clubs hope for students to take away from the performance? “This is the first year Cultural Day has made an appearance at our school,” says Yangh. “We hope that this event gave students the opportunity to acknowledge the different cultures that lies around them. We hope Cultural Day will be passed on to future generations of club leaders. It’d be great if cultures from around our school, and around the world, are shared with the students yearly.”

Yangh also acknowledged the audience members for the notable result of Culture Day. “The most rewarding aspect of the event were the reactions we received from both the audience the participants. Due to success both the audience and the participants encourages us to continue Cultural Day, they also thanked us for the dedication and the amount of effort we provided.” Not only that, but the experience he gained as the president of ACC was also of value. He spent the past months searching for the hidden talents among our student population and continuing communication with other cultural clubs.

Despite the complications towards enforcing and planning the idea of Culture Day and finding willing participants, Yangh is quite satisfied with the outcome of the performance. “Although our actual performance was great, we had a big issue with organization and time management,” says Yangh. “I hope the future generations of leaders contribute more time and effort than I did. This will help promote Cultural Day.”

Gebrezgi is also hoping that the performance would also encourage more participation from HPSH culture club students in the future years to come. “The most rewarding part of the performance was getting to see how well everyone worked together and how proud we felt afterwards.” Both presidents of BSU and ACC would agree that the sense of community built upon the mass collaborations was a valuable gain from the creation of Culture Day. As Gebrezgi would say, “culture = pride”

School Life

Jamba Juice frenzy

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It’s finally here Highland!

On Thursday, April 14th, we had workers from Jamba Juice come to our school and sell a few of their popular drinks: Mango, Strawberry, and Mixed Berry. Jamba Juice sold their smoothies during first lunch. This is the first time this year that Highland has had any type of promotion from an actual food company.

After sitting down in the lunch room, we noticed that a lot of students had enjoyed the fact that there was an exciting addition to their normal everyday lunch routine. The smoothies were almost as popular as the school’s Italian Dunkers. Most of the students that we saw had a liking to both Mixed Berry and Mango.

Before I (Angel) decided to buy myself a Jamba Juice I asked a fellow student, who was working the booth, to see if it was worth buying it and he said, “It’s really what your tastebuds like.”

When talking to students, there was a mix of emotions. Some liked it while others did not. While some thought it was flavorless and tastes like powder, others thought it was fruity and good.

Even though the drinks were great, there were two problems that arose during this test run. First, they ran out of drinks during first lunch, meaning that second lunch didn’t get a chance to try these drinks. Second, students were informed that Highland would only be selling Jamba Juice here once a month, instead of every week as originally announced.

Even with the glitches, everyone is looking forward to the next time Jamba Juice makes their return and hopes they don’t run out!

Advice/How To, School Life

Balancing work and school

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Like many high school students, you may work part time. A good thing about the experience of working isn’t only that you earn money but it also challenges and teaches you by teaching you new things about yourself.

Before getting a job consider how you will handle juggling your work and school work. While considering this decision talk to a parent and ask questions like: “How can I manage my time to make school and a job work for me?” and “What type of job will work best with my schedule, skills, and personality?”

Once you have a part time job consider some strategies like, starting slowly and not committing to working a lot of hours right way. Also, use your time efficiently, for example, if you have time before your shift starts to do homework do it before because after working you’ll probably be too tired to do anything and it gives you a chance to go to bed earlier.

A job can benefit you by teaching you about commitment, time management, responsibility, and handling money. Also, it helps you explore career directions and reaching your goals too.

Entertainment, School Life

Spring Musical: Lucky Stiff

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The Highland Park Spring Musical: Luck Stiff is taking place this month. There are over 50 students involved in this year’s production. Lucky Stiff is a musical comedy that’s appropriate for all ages. I did some interviews with some of this year’s participants in order to gain more knowledge of it. Here are the questions and responses:

What is the Spring Musical?
Soren: Lucky Stiff.
Max: It’s called Lucky Stiff.

Who’s the director/ teacher?
Soren: Steven Houtz.
Max: Steven Houtz. Kate Mendenhall.

How is the spring musical different from being in a regular school play?
Soren: It’s full of dancing and singing, as well as acting.
Max: More commitment. It’s a lot harder since you get to collaborate with musicians and a lot of other people.

How do handle mistakes during performances?
Soren: I cry myself to sleep and binge watch Gossip Girl.
Max: If you forget you part you can call out for line. Stop and correct yourself. You just Improvise.

How often and for how long do you practice?
Soren: Every day after school until 4:30.
Max: Everyday 2:15-4:30 and this week we did 2:15-8:00.

Do you perform in public/ outside of school?
Soren: Yeah, in community theater but it doesn’t really count.
Max: I do solo singing. It’s been long since I did community theater.

What advice would you give to beginners that might be nervous?
Soren: Don’t worry about it. You have a lot of fun.
Max: Being nervous is good. It shows that you care.

Anything else you would like for us to know?
Soren: Come to the musical and support Highland theater! We need your money!
Max: Come see the show.

Lucky Stiff is being performed April 21st-April 23rd at 7:00pm in the Highland Park Senior High auditorium. Tickets are $6 for students and seniors and $8 for adults.

School Life

Senior Fail List

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With the final quarter of the year now in session, many seniors are preparing to take their final exams and move on to graduation. However, in the past, there have been incidents where some seniors begin to slack during their final weeks of high school which has caused them to not graduate on time. A common saying that applies in this situation is the “Senior Slide”, and counselors want to make sure that this doesn’t happen to you. It’s a depressing time for the counselors, as they have to compile a list of students who are at risk of failing a class during the fourth quarter, and the last thing they want to do is make a call home to your family telling them that you won’t be graduating with the rest of your class.

There are certain criteria that is used for the Senior Fail List, and just because you have been placed on the list doesn’t mean that you won’t graduate on time, it just means that you are at risk.

The criteria used for the list :

  • Failing English, or have failed an English course in the past. You need to have passed 4 years of English to graduate high school.
  • Failing Social Studies or have failed Social Studies in the past. You need to have passed 4 years of Social Studies to graduate high school.
  • If you have had poor or spotty attendance throughout the year, you may be placed on the Senior Fail List.
  • If you have had a poor track record with turning in assignments on time or wait until the last second to turn assignments in.

The Senior Fail List will be released during the first week of May. Good luck to the class of 2016 during their final months of high school!

Editorials/Student Voice, School Life

Mystery positive notes in the girls school bathroom?

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Today I’m looking into a mystery that’s been going on this past week at Highland Park Senior High.

April 12th, 2016 some mysterious student(s) decide to put sticky notes, with positive messages written on them, up in the girls bathroom. But, they decide, the next day, to take them off. This left people with questions about who this person, or people, is/are and why are they doing this.

Being one of the individuals that was left with questions, I decide to take it into my own hands and try to find out more about this mystery.

It turns out, random students (girls) are the ones putting up the sticky notes. During the school year, they decide to wrote positive Post-it notes to make other girls feel better when they were feeling down. They put them around the school bathrooms to remind them they were not alone. Usually, the people who do this sort of thing don’t take credit for it. It’s like they want it to be a mystery, and students have been doing this for a while now, according to some older students at Highland Park.

I decide to ask a student about what they tought about this. Her name is Olivia Verdeja, a freshman at HPSH.

I asked was, “How did you personally feel when you saw this notes around the bathroom what we’re you’re toughts and reaction?”

She responded with, “I liked it and thought it as cool because in high school a lot of people don’t have self confidence and I think if girls see this it means that other girls feel the same way and aren’t alone.”

My opinion is that people at Highland should start to do this more often, as just one little thing can make a difference in others’ lives; both those who are struggling, and those who aren’t. Also, kids need to know that everyone cares and they’re not the only ones who feel like they do. Working together as a whole school coming together is a great thing.

Clubs and Activities, School Life, Travel/Food

European trip: Spring Break 2016

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This Spring Break, 22 students at 3 teachers from Highland Park Senior High went to a trip with EF (Educational Tours) tours to Amsterdam, Paris, and London.

EF is a company that organizes international trips for students to learn about different cultures. EF provides a large array of countries for possible trips, including trips to Costa Rica, that Highland Park also participated in this spring break, Rome and Athens, and South Africa. The trip cost approximately $3,700. It was a good deal because it included tour guides, hotel and airfare, and breakfast and dinner. However, you do have to bring spending money for lunch and souvenirs. EF has different plans to pay for the trip, including monthly payments and paying for the trip in thirds.

We saw many tourist attractions, including Notre Dame, the Anne Frank Museum, the Van Gogh Museum, the Eiffel Tour, the Eye of London, Keukenof Garden, Palace of Versailles, Buckingham Palace, and many more. One of my favorites was being able to see the view of from the Eye of London. Also, the Camdon markets in London have a lot of cool stuff that you can only get there such as hand crafted art. We also visited Delft, a city outside of Amsterdam that had many shops and canals.

Brussels, Belgium was originally supposed to be included in the trip, but because of the terrorist attacks in March, the stop was cancelled. However, we still had a lot of fun in the other locations, and we got to spend more time in Amsterdam and less time on the bus getting to Paris.

In the end, the Europe trip was worth the money, and is a life changing experience that I would recommend to anyone at Highland Park.

Editorials/Student Voice, School Life

Recess in high school

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Remember your recess days back in elementary school? Recess was a time for fun, and hanging out with your friends without having to worry. Well, in high school, you don’t get recess. Everyday is just going from class to class learning without a break, with kids rushing in the hallways trying to get to their next class before the bell rings.

Depending on the classes you take, you get a certain amount of work and assignments. With many assignments, you don’t have time for doing other stuff, which can lead to stress. Everyday is just going home and then starting homework.

Since high schools are giving students a ton of work, don’t you think recess is a good thing to add to high schools? Students could have the time to hang out with their friends and play games. Hanging out with friends can be a distraction from stress or worries.

Students could just have fun for 15 minutes and then it’s back to learning. They could get a break from learning and they might just enjoy school a bit more. Back in elementary school, during recess, everyone would run and play with their friends. Either playing tag or staying inside and playing card games or board games.

Recess would be nice to have in high school to help students get the stress off their shoulders. Students could work on their assignments with no distractions, a bit like study hall but with more freedom.

Sometimes students can feel restless and they want to go for a little run in the field. Recess would be giving them the freedom to do what they need to do for themselves that they can’t do in a classroom. Recess would be a good idea to add into high schools.

School Life

MCA opt out

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Standardized testing can help some but hinder others. In Minnesota, we take the MCAs and every year students go through the stress of getting prepared for taking these standardized tests. The word has gotten out that there is an option to opt out of these tests, and in some ways this can be helpful, but as a whole it could end up hurting our schools.

The results from these standardized tests determines if some schools need more staff and teachers, or if some schools might not need any support. This means that if the results are low across the board that means the school is struggling and it may need more staff to help the students. If the results are high this means that the school probably does not need any support, and they may even be awarded for the high scores.

I asked Ms. Esso, a counselor here at Highland, some general questions about opting out of MCA tests. She said that if a student wanted to opt out of testing, their parent or guardian could write a formal letter to the principal explaining that the student is going to opt out and why they made that decision. The letter should be delivered before the testing process begins so that the testing coordinator knows not to keep sending passes to that student to take the test.

Some people may think that standardized tests, like the MCAs, don’t serve a purpose, but they do. If a school is generally struggling, their test scores could help with the opportunity to revamp the school’s approach to testing. But if enough students decided to opt out, the overall test scores wouldn’t show how the whole school was doing from an academic standpoint. On the other hand, schools that are excelling could get awards and that not only makes the school look good, but the whole district.

Clubs and Activities, School Life

Bringing Black History to Highland Park Elementary

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On Thursday, March 25th, Highland Park Senior High Black Student Union (BSU) members took a field trip to Highland Elementary School. While at Highland Elementary, BSU members visited a fourth grade class. There, BSU had an interactive presentation on Black History and black culture. The presentation covered a wide array of things.

The presentation started off with an with an overview of Black History taught in school. BSU asked the fourth graders about what they knew about Black History, and also what they’ve learned in school so far. Most of the responses were connected to the Civil Rights Movement.

There were answers such as “Martin Luther King Jr.”, “Whites had different water fountains”, and “Black people were mistreated”. However, there were also answers like “Fetty Wap”, “Michael Jackson”, and even “The Italo-Ethiopian War”.

BSU wanted to know what the fourth graders knew about Black History because the members of BSU don’t recall learning much about Black History in Elementary School, besides some key events in the Civil Rights Movement.

The presentation touched on how history is usually taught from a Eurocentric perspective, and that African or African American History is usually taught in elective classes. BSU explained that there should be more Black History taught in schools, especially Elementary Schools, because that is a prime learning time for students.

The presentation then talked about what BSU meant, and what its purpose was. “We want to help people understand their privilege, and provide voices for students of color,” BSU stated. ” We also want to help educate people about Black History and common misconceptions, and also help end the disenfranchisement of Black people”. The fourth graders looked severely confused at the use of these big words, so BSU explained their purpose again on a fourth grade level.

The presentation lastly talked about people in Black History that aren’t as commonly recognized and honored as “Martin Luther King Jr.”, or even “Fetty Wap”. These people were Daisy Bates, Kimberle Crenshaw Williams, and Grace Jones. BSU talked about how each of these people helped shaped Black History in their own way.

After the presentation, BSU asked the students to do one more thing.

The students were put into groups and asked to go to a specific table with a sheet of poster paper and markers on it. There, the fourth graders were asked to write “Black is…”. Then the students had total freedom to finish the statement however they wanted to. The answers were both meaningful and funny.

Some of the keywords that often showed up in the posters were “beautiful”, “a skin color”, “peaceful”, “nice”, and “awesome”. However, the fourth graders also wrote “the best culture”, “Daisy Bates”, “whatever the black people want to be”, and also “the most amazing people I know”. 

BSU encouraged the young students to reach their full potential, no matter their gender, sexual orientation, or color of their skin. They also taught the fourth graders to value their cultures, and value others as well, especially ones that are suppressed and commonly misconceived.

Hopefully, one day, these students will be the faces of BSU at Highland Park Senior High.