November 9, 2022 by North Star

north star INDEPTH: SELLING YOURSELF EDITORIAL: NORTH HAS CHANGED QUIZ: WHICH DANCE MOM ARE YOU? Francis Howell North St. Charles, MO 63303 11.09.2022 Vol 37 Issue 01

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ENTERTAINMENT . . . . . . . . 01 NEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 08 INDEPTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 FEATURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 SPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 OPINIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

NEW BOOK BANS (AGAIN)

A PILOT IN THE FUTURE

SWINGING OUT OF SENIOR SEASON

NORTH STAR Editors-in-Chiefs: Chloe Ellison Amber Winkler Managing Copy Editor: McKenna Hudson

Managing Sports Editor: Chase Pray Features Editor: Olivia Van Horn Entertainment/Opinions Editor: Violet Newton In-Depth Editor: Haylie Bryson News Editor: Ray Hathcock Sports Editor: Tony Biondo Promotions and Contests Editor: Hope Moseley North-Star Mini Editor: Morgan Chairs Design Editor: Michaela Manfull General Staff: Sophia Black Alayna Lohaus Miranda Fabian Stephanie Lichtenegger Jackson Fifer Carter McDevitt JJ Gruettemeyer Sadie Ortmeyer Lindsay Haislip Jonica Schmidt Ben Henry Ella Struble Drew Johnson Gavin Swart Izzy Lash Noah Tucker Alex Wheadon Editor-in-Chief of Photography/Sports: Addison Polsgrove Editor-in-Chief of Photography/Social: Payton Johnston Special Project Editor: Sadie Cotton Digital Media Manager: Ankita Pandurangi Yearbook Photography Editor: Kylie Taliaferro Newspaper Photography Editor: Etaf Abdallah General Staff: Jazmin Acevado Demi Johnson Mady Brewer Thomas Jones Parker Bruns Kaylee Monroe Hannah Button Reina Murrell Brianna Dunham Grace Pinson Andrew Goffinet Katelin Robbers Austin Griffin Holly Samuels Heidi Huff Hannah Simmons Faith Smith Video Editors-in-Chief: Marina Williams Rachel Trapf Video Graphics Editor: Maddie Clark Video Storytelling Editor: Freya Rieken Sports Videography Editor: Parker Smith Video Game Review Editor: Max Ramirez Livestream Editor: Aidan Neu Chief Editor: Rhea Patel General Staff: Haley Aldenderfer Wilson Lam Allison Bass Om Nair Jacob Bass Noah Newson Chad Blanke Will Perry Max Brewer Ian Pierce Jackson Calhoun Laney Quandt Jackson Cutlan Sam Reimer Jack Darling Taylor Saale LeeAnna Daniels Dana Sanchez Salvador Sassy Garcia Sophia Zimmerman Advisers: Aaron Manfull Jordyn Kiel

ENTERTAINMENT

5 TIPS TO START STREAMING Streaming is beoming a main source of entertainment for many people around the world. If you want to join that community and entertain people, these 5 tips can help you achieve that. (content by JJ Gruttemeyer) 1. DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT TO STREAM.

It is very important to know what kind of content you want to produce. If you have a set topic of interest for your streams, then people who are interested in those things will be more likely to watch and enjoy your streams. It can be anything from playing your favorite video game, talking with your chat, watching videos, playing your least favorite game, most rage inducing game, it doesn’t matter. Just These are a few categories of streaming to choose do what you from on twitch. think you will enjoy and what you think your audience will enjoy.

2. GET YOUR REQUIRED EQUIPMENT.

This is some of what I personally use for streaming. I have a Redragon wired mouse (there are better ones), a corsair k70 keyboard (A very good choice), a Samson G-Track Pro microphone (Amazing quality for its price, $100), I use a Logitech C922 Pro webcam (there are better options but its good for a $100 webcam) (Photo by Aidan Neu)

You have to make sure you aren’t afraid of your microphone or webcam. You don’t even necessarily need those items to stream but if you have them, make sure you use them. People like watching streamers that are confident and interact with their chat.

4. HAVE A SET SCHEDULE.

If you want people to be consistently watching your streams, then you need to have a consistent stream schedule. If you just randomly decide when to stream no one will know when to hop into your stream. “A calendar is very important because if you want to go far with streaming then you have to be dedicated,” said junior Thomas Forth.

5. LEARN HOW TO USE A STREAMING SOFTWARE.

(OBS, Streamlabs, Twitch Studio) Once you have all of the other things down and you’re ready to stream, you need to get comfortable with your software. No one wants to watch a stream that’s set up poorly and seems unorganized. There are tons of videos on how to use other softwares but personally I would recommend Streamlabs.

QUOTES FROM PEOPLE WITH EXPERIENCE STREAMING:

“Test your equipment often, say you’re filming games you need to make sure your equipment is ready to go,” senior Aidan Neu said.

“The one thing you need is something new, something that no one else is doing,” said senior Michael Smith.

NORTH STAR • 11.09.2022 • Pages Designed by Chloe Ellison (contents) JJ Gruttemeyer (1)

A lot of people think you need the best equipment imaginable to run a stream which isn’t true at all. Just get what you think you need for what topic of streaming you want to run. If you want to play games that are extremely demanding for your PC (Personal Computer) like Rust, you might want to get a better graphics card or more RAM. You don’t even need a webcam. You can start off without one or get a cheap $20 webcam. If you want to stream just chatting, then you really don’t need a great GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) or a bunch of RAM (Random-Access Memory), you might just want to invest your money into a good webcam or microphone.

3. BE CONFIDENT IN YOURSELF.

Photo of Streamlabs software taken from my tutorial on how to use Streamlabs.

Tutorial on how to use Streamlabs

WHICH CLASSIC DANCE MOM ARE YOU?

Tally your answers down below

Answer these questions and tally up your answers to figure out which Dance Mom you truly are. (Content by Violet Newton) 1. You turned in your homework on time but it gets counted as late. What do you do?

4. You drop your lunch on the ground, what do you choose to do?

A. Lecture your teacher about how you had it done. B. Cry about it and then talk to your teacher C. Bake some cookies to your teacher to apologize with. D. Have a polite conversation with your teacher

A. Leave it there and storm off in a huff. B. Hope that no one saw it happen and buy a new lunch. C. Pick it up as best you can, and salvage what you can. D. Go ask if you can get a new lunch for free.

2. Your sibling makes you miss the bus. What do you do?

A. Yell at them until they are just as upset as you are. B. Call all of your friends in a panic to try and get a ride to school. C. Forgive your sibling. D. Run to the nearest bus stop to catch the bus.

3. How would you react if your teacher yelled at you?

A. Put your finger in their face and start yelling back. B. Walk away and start crying. C. Repeatedly apologize. D. Stay calm and walk away after apologizing.

Mostly A’s

You are Kelly. You can be a little hot headed at times. But you are very outspoken and willing to speak your mind in order to get what you deserve.

Mostly B’s

You are Christi. You are very outspoken and also thought out. But you tend to let your emotions get to you at times. You definitely cry a lot.

A’s

B’s

5. You have a tough test coming up. What do you do? A. Tell your teacher they aren’t teaching you well enough. B. Study non stop to keep yourself from stressing. C. You don’t worry about it, you know you will do good. D. Do as much extra credit you can.

C’s

6. You have $30 in overdue book fees. How do you react? A. Turn in your books and demand a refund. B. Start panicking, you don’t have $30! C. There must be a mistake, you always turn your books in on time. D. Return them and accept the fine.

Mostly C’s

You are Melissa. You are willing to do what it takes to get what you want. You are very driven and can be very charming (when you want to be).

D’s

Mostly D’s

You are Holly. You are a mediator. You are very thorough in everything you do. However this can make you seem boring your friends know you aren’t.

Box art of the new Pokémon Scarlet and Violet games (Image from Nintendo)

NEW POKÉMON GAMES The new Pokemon Scarlet and Violet game showcases new types of game play by Alex Wheadon

awheadon315@g.fhsdschools.org

Quaxly Water type Duckling Pokémon This serious-mannered Pokémon will follow in its Trainer’s wake. It’s tidy, and it especially dislikes getting its head dirty.

Fuecoco Fire type Fire Croc Pokémon Fuecoco is laid-back and does things at its own pace. It loves to eat, and it will sprint toward any food it finds with a glint in its eye. Sprigatito Grass type Grass Cat Pokémon Capricious and attention seeking, it may sulk if it sees its Trainer giving attention to a Pokémon other than itself.

and discover in the Paldea region. “[I like] Quaxly because I always use the water starters and so I’m just keeping up the pattern of always using water starters, and also he looks like a really cool duck,” junior Sophia McClure said. Terastallization (tera-stallize) is a new phenomena in the Paldea region. When a Pokémon Terastalizes, it causes the Pokemon to shine and glimmer using the Terastal energy that is sleeping in the ground of the Paldea region. Each Pokémon has a Teratype which can change the Pokemon’s original type and it gives them a Tera-jewel which signifies its type after Terastallizing. Terastallizing enhances a Pokémon’s moves and players can get these Pokémon in Tera-raid battles in which a player teams up with others to take down TeraPokémon or in the wild you can find sparkling Pokémon which will Terastallize during the battle. “I think it’s pretty cool, but I think I need to see more of it. I don’t know if it’s like going to be better than Dynamaxing in the last game or like Z-moves but it seems pretty cool it makes the Pokémon look cool too,” McClure said.

CONTINUING HIS LEGACY On Nov. 11, theaters will begin showing the new addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. This movie is the sequel to the first Black Panther movie which was released in early 2018. Initially, this movie was set to release last May. But after Chadwick Boseman’s tragic death in August 2020, the movie’s production was halted as the script had to be rewritten. With the script rewritten, many fans were left wondering about how the movie would be carried on without its main character. Even Angela Bassett, who plays the lead role of Ramonda in the Black Panther movies, said she didn’t know what the movie would look like after the passing of Boseman. However, it has been announced that they will not be digitally casting Boseman for the production of the new movie. Another change to the movie due to Boseman’s passing is that the main theme of the movie is going to be legacy. Partly to honor the legacy of Boseman, and partly to draw attention to the passing of the Black Panther mantle. This movie will be the last in the Black Panther series. (Brief by Violet Newton) 3

NORTH STAR • 11.09.2022 • Pages Designed by Violet Newton (2) Alex Wheadon (3)

okémon Scarlet and Violet releases on November 18 on the Nintendo Switch. It is the ninth and next generation of the Pokémon franchise. This game is an open world game which is a game that isn’t linear so a player can go anywhere on the map. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet takes place in the Paldea region which is based off of Spain. In this game the character is enrolled in an academy where the character is in a independent study program called the treasure hunt. While that is going on there are three stories you can experience. Victory Road is the traditional gym challenge where the players challenges the gyms and then take on the elite four to become the champion of the Paldea region. Path of Legends is where the characters team up with a researcher named Arven to find the Herb Mystica which are guarded by titan Pokémon that are larger and more dangerous Pokemon. There is also Starfall Street where the players go up against Team Star, a group of rebellious students. “I like that Game Freak after Legends Arceus is expanding on more of the open world genre,” junior Demi Johnson said. In this region, you will find many new Pokémon like Sprigatito, the grass type starter. There is Fuecoco, the fire type starter. Finally there is Quaxly, the water starter, as well as many more new Pokémon to catch

Movie poster for Black Panther Wakanda Forever (Image from Marvel Studios)

COMICS DAD JOKES

WELCOME TO HIGH SCHOOL by Michaela Manfull

by Violet Newton

GHOST STORIES by Morgan Chairs

MORE COMICS ON THE WEBSITE HERE

GIRL MOMENT by Izzy Lash

OH MY GOD

is that a european white truffle?? Live Girl Reaction

one of the rarest mushrooms around

THE GLITCHY ADVENTURES OF JOME by Alex Wheadon

What!

I’m being corrupted!

There you are.

I can’t move!

I AM UNSTOPPABLE!

NORTH STAR • 11.09.2022 • Pages Designed by Izzy Lash

Oh no you don’t!

No you don’t!

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DEADLINE: DECEMBER 1

DON’T MISS OUT. Don’t let your parents and friends miss the deadline.

Senior ads for the yearbook are available on a firstcome, first-served basis in a variety of sizes. This is a great way for parents to leave a lasting note in their child’s final high school yearbook or for a group of friends to reserve space of their own to memorialize their friendship. For more information, drop by room 131 and grab a form or visit FHNtoday.com/yearbook.

NEWS

NEW BOOK BANS (AGAIN)

New state laws are forcing schools to remove certain books from their libraries. by Gavin Swart

gswart370@g.fhsdschools.org

n the age of information, the balance between what should be withheld and what should be upheld becomes shakier everyday. Even now, there is still debate over how a bill passed in August should be enacted. Missouri Senate bill 775 makes it illegal for a school to distribute sexually explicit material, causing for many books to be removed from school libraries. “The law is very specific, it’s not about written words. It’s about pictures and images and videos,” David Brothers, the Director of Curriculum for the Francis Howell School District said. “You would have noticed that all those books were pulled from the shelves towards the start of the school year, and we had to go through each one and make sure that it was okay by the law.” Finding which books need to be removed has been a challenge for schools. Many removed books have been the center of controversy, such as This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson, a humorous book about LGBTQ+ sexualities that talks about details of queer sex often left out of school textbooks, and was consequently removed from school libraries for its crude drawings. “I just find it very convenient

that the books that are banned are LGBTQ books, and I think that’s ridiculous,” Emily Winham, a parent in the Francis Howell School District said. Another thing people find ridiculous is how this bill punishes violators. Rather than attacking the schools for holding the books, the bill charges the librarians or employees who distribute them. So if a school has a sexually explicit book and an employee loans it out to someone, they would have committed a Class A misdemeanor and could be

charged with up to a year in jail or a $2,000 dollar fine. “I don’t think that they should be fining librarians when it’s the school’s job to supply the books, the librarian’s just there to work, help out with the books,” Carter Houdeshell, a sophomore at FHN said. “They distribute it, but the school is the one with the greater power to define what books go into what libraries. The librarian shouldn’t be punished for that.” On the other side of the coin, many people agree that sexually explicit material is not for kids, and this bill mostly effects people of young ages. Based on that, people believe that school libraries shouldn’t have sexually explicit material available for kids of all ages. Many people believe that schools should not be places for sexually explicit content, and that the choice of what a child should read needs to be with the parents, not the school.

A group of books being banned from FHN’s library due to explicit graphics are shown. The law went into effect on Aug. 28 causing titles such as Flamer, This Book is Gay, and some Attack on Titan volumes to be removed from school libraries. (Photo by Sadie Cotton).

objectionable,” Brothers said. “Our librarians, as amazing as they are, they order hundreds of books each year. And it’s not always possible to go through every single page. Often, they’re putting titles in based on recommendations and reviews and awards, and sometimes those titles have some inappropriate contact content. It was a good review for us.” If there is one thing that is certain about this bill, it’s that there are many sides to it. A lot of uncertainty has arisen from everyone and the ways the bill is being enacted vary from place to place. There are valid arguments both for and against the bill. “There is a very delicate balance between censorship and stopping the flow of information,” Lamb said.

NORTH STAR • 11.09.2022 • Pages Designed by Chloe Ellison

“I would be very careful with what my 14-year-old daughter watches in movies, so I think I would be careful with what schools would present to my children,” Daniel Lamb, a US History and American Government teacher said. Another thing that school districts need to be careful about is how they don’t always follow their own regulations perfectly. This bill makes schools review their libraries to ensure that every book follows the proper regulations for their school, which will help remove some of the gray area for what is and isn’t allowed. “I believe it’s an overreaction to some loud voices in our community. But what was good about it is it does allow us to go through and review and make sure there really truly wasn’t anything that we would find

Speech and debate coach Randy Pierce helps debaters on their cases. Pierce has speech and debate meetings every Tuesday and Thursday where they meet and discuss their arguments. (Photo by Heidi Huff)

A participant searches through a cabinet during the Infection Escape Room that was held in the auditorium of Oct. 14. (Photo by Katelin Robbers)

SPEACH AND DEBATE TAKES ON TOURNAMENTS

MASQUE PLAYERS ANNOUNCES SPRING MUSICAL On Oct 5, the drama club announced that the spring musical will be High School Musical. Auditions will be held on Jan 26-27 and the show itself will be held March 30-31 and April 1. Kim Sulzner, who has been the drama director at FHN for 33 years, is excited to put on High School Musical at North. “It’s just a fun show,” Sulzner said. “It’s part of everybody’s childhood.” Initially, Sulzner was hesitant to do High School Musical because of its connection with Disney. But after a student came to her with High School Musical, Sulzner had a change of heart. “After I looked at it I was like ‘wow, this would get people excited, I could see the whole school getting excited

about this’,” Sulzner said. Senior Ian Pierce, the stage manager at FHN, is looking forward to how students at North will connect with this musical in particular. “It’s going to appeal to high school audiences very well because we all grew up with the movie,” Pierce said. “Everybody knows the characters.” High School Musical is going to create lots of opportunities for everyone to get involved. From singers, to dancers, to even sports players, there’s something for everyone. “There are so many parts in this show,” Sulzner said. “We need a set of basketball players, we need musicians, we need gymnasts; we need literally everything.” (Brief by Ella Stuble)

Both varsity and novice Speech and Debate teams are competing at two different tournaments Nov. 12-13. The novice team will be competing at Ladue High School while varsity takes on the Clayton Tournament at Clayton High School. At these tournaments, there will be debate events such as Lincoln Douglas and Public Forum and speech events like Extemporaneous Speaking, Interpretation, Informative Speaking, Oratory and Radio. “The Clayton Tournament is kind of the kickoff tournament for November,” Speech and Debate President Emily Gantz said. “It’s the first big tournament we have in the year.” At the Clayton tournament, Gantz is competing in Public Forum and Informative Speaking. She expects stiff competition. “Ladue is always a good school [and] there’s also some good speech kids from Parkway West,” Gantz said. “So, I do expect some pretty good competition from those bigger schools.” The team is coached in all events by Speech and Debate legend Randy Pierce, who has been coaching FHN’s team for the past

10 years and coached at Pattonville High School the previous 39 years. The team is also assisted by Noah Slaughter, who graduated from North four years ago. “They [the Clayton and Ladue coaches] have done this pairing with Ladue hosting the novices and Clayton hosting varsity for over 20 years,” Pierce said. “They do a great job of administering and hosting the tournaments.” The team is working hard to prepare for these tournaments. Gantz knows the energy from practices will make for a good competition. “It can be kind of chaotic sometimes, but when we’re actually working, we’re pretty serious,” Gantz said. “We’re always bouncing ideas off of each other; there’s a lot of smart people there.” Pierce expects great things from this year’s team at Clayton, Ladue and beyond. The next Speech and Debate tournament will be at Pattonville High School Dec. 9-10. “It’s an exciting year with lots of new participants,” Pierce said. “We will have our challenges, but I’m looking forward to the continued growth of the team.” (Brief by Ella Struble)

CALENDAR OF EVENTS From parent teacher conferences to board meetings, there’s a lot going on at Francis Howell North in the months of November and December. Thankfully, students and teachers will receive well earned breaks from Nov. 23-25 for Thanksgiving, and Dec. 22-Jan. 3 for the Holidays.

CLEAN FOR CASH

Brenna Doss cleans the FHN school building on Sept. 27. Doss is a senior at FHN who is also part of the janitorial team. She works with the janitors and three other FHN students to clean the building doing things like replacing trash bags and cleaning bathrooms. She has been doing it for around six months and initially got started because both of her parents work in the district and the help was needed. (Photo by Madelyn Brewer)

MARCHING THROUGH THE SEASON

nce in high school, lots of students get jobs. Everyone needs money, whether it’s for that new pair of shoes, a trip to the movies with friends or to fix someone’s car they accidentally ran into. While lots of places are hiring everywhere, students 17 or over in FHSD can find a place to work at their high schools. “It’s a friendly environment, it’s not that hard. And $12.86, I think, would be good for anybody to make that extra money,” Denis Nasufovic, FHSD Custodial Manager, said. Students working as Substitute Custodians have very flexible schedules, picking their hours starting

right after school. They make sure the trash gets pulled, floors are swept and that other simple tasks are done around the FHSD schools. It may also be appealing to students as they don’t work weekends and can wear anything within the school’s dress code. “It’s pretty easy,” senior Brenna Doss said. “You get keys, you clock in. The boss, whoever it is, tells you what you need to do for the night [and] gives you an area. You can listen to music, pretty much do whatever you need to do as long as your area is taken care of.” (Brief by Michaela Manfull)

NOV 16

NOV 17-19

CONFERENCES

DRAMA FALL PLAY

These parent teacher conferences are held during the second quarter of year. They will be on Nov. 16 from 4 to 7 pm. “I try not to use parent teacher conferences to always share the negative things because I want the parents to know what [the students] done well,” math teacher Jennifer Martin said. “Really the goal for me is just to build a relationship with the parents because if they’re able to help me, then it really just helps their student.”

Radium Girls is an intense historic drama based on women from 1949 who worked for a company that gave them radiation poisoning. The play will be shown Nov. 17 - Nov. 19.

To read about the play on FHNtoday.com scan here

Marching band performs for FHN’s homecoming game on Sept. 30. Marching band performed before the homecoming game started along with the colorguard. They had multiple ensembles and pumped up the crowd before the big game. (Photo by Ankita Pandurangi)

AND MORE NOV 17: BOE MEETING NOV 23 - 25: THANKSGIVING BREAK DEC 22: WINTER BREAK BEGINS

NORTH STAR • 11.09.2022 • Pages Designed by Ella Struble (10) Alayna Lohaus (11)

The main competitions that the he marching band season began marching band competed in were at in late July and they performed Francis Howell, Lafayette, Zumwalt at numerous competitions North and the Dome in St. Louis. For and football games until their their first competition at FHHS, the competitions came to an end on Oct. marching band finished fourth out 22. Their show title for the season of nine in finals. The marching was “Lost in the Right band hopes to continue to Direction” which showcased place well in competitions for how the marching band next year and be able to have a was figuring out who they more defined practice schedule wanted to be. Their shows and facilities. went well, even though they “Considering the had to practice without Link to website about circumstances we had to deal having a practice field or the 2022 super regional football field to work on. championship for band with this year, the season went really well,” senior Tori “I think right now the Hom said. “Overall, I’m really happy main problem is facilities; without with how the season went, and I’m having a stadium or practice field, proud of the progress we were able we just have to make what we have work,” band director Ryan Curtis said. to make.” (Brief by Chloe Ellison)

SCHOOL TIMELINE UPDATE

Storm Shelter The storm shelter was completed on Sept. 26. Near the auditorium, there will be a large, concrete structure that people can go to for a weather emergency. “There is an area within the building that will be a point of refuge for the entire school and faculty,” Jeremy Boettler, the project manager for Atlas Building Group said. “All the students and faculty go [here for a] weather event.” Roof The roof of the new building, primarily made of steel, is scheduled to be done by the beginning of November and will be fully completed during the winter. “Hopefully by this winter, they’ll kind of have it pretty much [done]. Probably about 50% of the roof is completed [right now],” Mike Janes, the Activities Director said. New Road Over the summer there will be a new road that goes from Hackmann all the way to Henderson, which cuts off the access from North to Henderson. There will be a parking lot in the front of the school during the summer while the construction happens. “[In meetings, the construction crew was asking] ‘How can we make it safer to cross the road with school starting’,” said Boettler. Stadium The new stadium has been in construction for about a month and it’s scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2024. The stadium was torn down in 2021, which led sports teams that usually played on the field, to play elsewhere. “I’m hoping that the football stadium is cool,” said freshman Jay Stephens. “I feel like it’s gonna be cool just to have a [stadium] that we can rely on.” Finished School The new FHN will be completed during the summer of 2024 and the demolition of the current building will take place in the summer of 2025, the same time as the completion. “We are on schedule. And we have approximately two years left to finish school,” Boettler said. (Content by Ray Hathcock)

On Sept. 30, Savanna Degenhardt poses with a dog toy she made. She’s currently a junior at FHN who plans on starting a dog toy club. Degenhardt attended a leadership seminar called HOBY that taught people how to make dog toys and donate them to different organizations. It was a social event as well because as you work on the dog toys you can talk to people and make friends. Degenhardt cuts under the sleeves of a shirt then uses the bottom part of the shirt and cuts that into 4 equal parts. She ends off with a braiding pattern and ties the top of the dog toy. (Photos by Etaf Abdallah)

CLUB THAT PUPS LOVE

Junior gets the inspiration to make a club after learning how to make dog toys by Noah Tucker

ntucker088@g.fhsdschools.org

his year, a student is trying to erect a new club based on donating dog toys. The founder of the club will be Savanna Degenhardt who is a junior at FHN. Degenhardt originally had the idea for the club during the summer of 2022 where she attended a seminar for leadership called HOBY. While attending the program, she learned how to make dog toys. This sparked her idea for making a new club. Degenhardt says the club will start eventually, hopefully when she finishes her training in the next month. “The club’s purpose is to get more people to volunteer,” Degenhardt said. One of the activities that the club will participate in is creating dog toys to donate to pet shelters and families in the community who could use a new toy for their furry friends. “I’m trying to make it to where members can get NHS points for doing it, that way they can get those out of the way too but it’s hard figuring out how that will work,” Degenhardt said. “I’ve been talking to Ms. Mason, one

of the people in charge of NHS points, and we’re trying to get it figured out.” Through the participation of donation drives, club participants may be able to earn NHS points depending on how many toys they make and donate. “As many people as possible, or as many people who are interested,” Degenhardt said. The club currently does not have a teacher chosen to sponsor it. Every club requires a teacher to sponsor and monitor the club and its activities. Any teacher that has the time to sponsor the club is highly encouraged to offer their time as it will be a good experience for the teacher and the club members. Carla Vergara is a friend of Degenhardt and she is a senior this year at FHN. She intends to join the club if it comes to fruition. “What really excites me about the potential club is the volunteer work and making dog toys,” Vergara said.

The toys that will be made are from old t-shirts and are twisted and folded into ropes that your dog can play with.

The foundry art centre is an art gallery with studio space for artists on main street. (Photo by Michaela Manfull)

FRIDAYS AT THE FOUNDRY

Amy Kelly and Heather Martin are both nurses at FHN. They have seen a lot of cases of COVID -19 throughout the past few school years. However, this year with cases going down in FHN more kids are able to come to school since they aren’t being quarantined. (Photo by Demi Johnson)

AN UPDATE ON COMMON DISEASES

An up-to-date infographic about three most frequently talked about sicknesses that are currently effecting the United States in 2022.

Flu Influenza, or the Flu, is a contagious

by Ray Hathcock

rhathcock942@g.fhsdschools.org

CoronaVirus CoronaVirus is an infectious

respiratory disease, caused by SARSCoV-2 Virus. This disease spreads by respiratory droplets or aerosols from the mouth or nose that goes out of the infected person’s body in any form, such as talking. The CDC recommends people to be up to date on vaccines and to continue social distancing. And if a person may believe to have been infected, wait five days in a high quality mask before getting tested. The CDC Advisory Committee recommends the Pfizer-BioNTech booster vaccine for people ages 12 or older, and the Moderna booster vaccine for people 18 or older. There have been 1.6 million cases in Missouri and 96 million cases in the United States.

To find the sources for the diseases, go to this QR code.

respiratory disease that affects the nose or the lungs. It causes mild to severe symptoms that suddenly come into effect, caused by respiratory droplets and could spread by close contact. Recommended vaccines are for people of all ages six months or above. The CDC’s report shows that Flu activity this year started low but gradually increased later in the Flu season.

MonkeyPox Monkeypox is a rare disease

that has less intense effects than chickenpox and is rarely fatal. Around 103 people have this disease in Missouri, and around 25,509 people have it in the United States. Monkeypox is spread by physical contact, even a brief moment of a high five could spread it. There are two vaccines available in the U.S. in which people can take, JYNNEOS and ACAM2000. ACAM200 is also used as a smallpox vaccine. The CDC recommends people to be up to date on vaccines. However, the CDC is not recommending vaccinations for the broader public, the vaccines are only recommended to people that are potentially exposed.

NORTH STAR • 11.09.2022 • Pages Designed by Noah Tucker (12) Ray Hathcock (13)

t’s important to be informed and up to date about illnesses going around, especially as it’s getting colder out and the spread of bacteria is increasing because of people being indoors. The diseases below spread easily in these conditions. Here’s a few diseases frequently discussed with their information.

From the outside, 520 North Main St. might look like another old building on the Streets of St. Charles. Inside, the artwork makes the visitors’ eyes shine as they take it in. Looking past the exterior can send someone into a world of creativity. From paintings to interactive media, the Foundry Art Centre is a sight to behold any day, but the first Friday of the month is special. “The first Fridays started to allow people extra time to come to the Foundry,” the director Hilda Andres said. “If you work nine to five, this is a good time to come and see what we’re doing at the Foundry.” At every event, adults and kids are welcome to visit the Foundry. October’s event was focused on the Lindenwood University Faculty and Rachel Lebo, an adjunct professor at Maryville University. “The exhibition artist [Lebo] isn’t a teenager, she teaches at Maryville University,” Andres said. “She works across media, painting, sculptures and storytelling. What I like is it talks about how teenagers especially struggle with figuring out their identity.” The Foundry is open from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. most days. However, on the first Friday of every month, the hours are extended until 8 p.m. Anyone that wants to can come see an exhibition, make art and sometimes hear live music. It’s great for kids as well,” volunteer Aj Surrell said. “A lot of people don’t necessarily know that it’s a kid’s thing, we always did little crafts in the Kid’s Corner.” (Story by Michaela Manfull) 13

WARNING!

60%

OF STUDENTS ...HAVE NOT PURCHASED THEIR YEARBOOK FOR THIS YEAR YET. Why is this a big deal? • The price goes up later in the year. • The staff will not be ordering extras once the final number is set at the end of the year. Check on FHNtoday.com to make sure your name is on the list of who has purchcased a book. You can find that list here: https://fhntoday.com/yearbook/

You can purchase a 2022-23 yearbook: • in room 131 • on FHNtoday.com under the YEARBOOK tab on the top menu

The Fabulous Fox Theatre is Home to Paranormal Activity Many people have heard of the Fabulous Fox Theatre, known for its beautiful decor and amazing shows. Although, what some people might not know is that the Fox Theatre is home to some very strange and haunting paranormal activity. “I don’t think you can come down here and not have something happen,” Fox Club Manager Arlene Cerbie said. Scan the QR code to read about the Fox and its paranormal activity.

Varsity Football Senior Night Win On Oct. 20, FHN’s Varsity football team had their senior night at Central against FZS. Cheer, Knightline, Colorguard, and Band joined them in celebrating their seniors as well. They took the win for the game and left with a final score of 35-13. The win left them with a season record of 4-5.

It’s Time To Save The Earth

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The Dungeons and Dragons Club is Attempting to Start Up Again

Sophomore Faith Fuller List of Family Pets has Included Multiple Squirrels and a Bat

Small Business Peace Love Happy on Historic Main Street St. Charles has All-Natural and Vegan Products

A Mixup at the Homecoming Game Led to Only One Homecoming King Being Announced

Sophomores are Now Able to Park in the New FHN Parking Lot

NORTH STAR • 11.09.2022 • Pages Designed by Michaela Manfull

Our planet has been dying for decades now and it’s gotten to the point that we only have about 10 years left before the damage can’t be repaired. Because of climate change millions of people have lost their lives due to wildfires, floods, and droughts. Together we can make a difference.

FHNTODAY.COM STORIES TO VIEW

IN-DEPTH

Mascots from schools all around the country provide friendly tips and tricks for getting the scholarships you’re after. Whether you’re looking for a community college, trade school, or Harvard, these hacks to getting financial aid for the schools you’re looking into are sure to provide additional insight into your college and career search. (Illustration by Michaela Manfull)

SCHOLARSHIPS:

THE EFFORT PAYS OFF Counselors offer advice from their experience with college scholarships by Alayna Lohaus

alohaus637@gmail.com

NORTH STAR • 11.09.2022 • Pages Designed by Michaela Manfull

ith graduation just around the corner for some, the question of “what to do next” may be a constant thought in students’ minds. There are many different options for students after high school, but the first task is to find what best fits their lifestyle. If college is someone’s first destination, money is a big component to focus on. A way to reduce this financial burden is to receive a scholarship. Scholarships are a payment awarded to a student for some sort of achievement or quality, whether it be in academics or another field. Many people are unaware of the different varieties of scholarship opportunities. “You can search for scholarships all day and never run out of options, but when you’re searching for them, you want to try and be mindful of how competitive that scholarship is,” Brooke Prestidge, the college and career counselor at North said. While there are many ways to obtain a scholarship, it is not a last-minute option. The phrase “the early bird gets the worm” is very applicable when it comes to scholarships. A lot of hard work and effort must be put in when applying for a scholarship, all while not being guaranteed this scholarship. There are many resources to ensure that a student is applying for a scholarship that is best for them. Speaking to a counselor, such as Prestidge, is also a great way to gain answers to questions involving college. Utilizing website resources and doing a scholarship search are also recommended ways to prepare students for decisions

about their future. Though a student may think they have a well thought-out plan for the years following high school, it is best to be prepared for any unexpected changes. “A lot of students will say ‘well I don’t need to do that, I’m going to this university,’ but then life happens,” Stephanie Johnson, the special programs counselor at North said. “Something happens and they aren’t able to end up going about that, and now it was too late to do this program. So, they always have, basically, an insurance policy.” Having a backup plan can be very beneficial for students. Another way to receive a scholarship is to participate in the A+ program which is overseen by Johnson at North. By completing 50 hours of tutoring or mentoring and meeting certain requirements, a student is eligible to attend their first two years of community college in Missouri for free. Even if a student does not plan to attend community college, some universities and colleges will grant a smaller scholarship to those who completed this program. Whether a student plans to go to community college, a prestigious university or stay close to home, receiving a scholarship, big or small, could make all the difference. “It’s competitive so it is going to require some work from the student to write those essays, or get those letters of recommendation, but it’s definitely worth the effort that they put in because it literally pays off,” Prestidge said.

MANY PATHS

A DIFFERENT ROUTE TO A SUCCESSFUL CAREER

n the past, if students weren’t planning on seeking a higher education after high school, there weren’t many options for them to have a successful career. Now there are many avenues for students to seek out outside of college that allow for highly successful careers. One of these is going into a trade. At North, students have the option of going OPTIONS into Lewis & Clark, a program that gets for trade school students ready for their careers. scholarships “There’s lots to do there,” Lewis & Clark Coordinator Stephanie Johnson said. “There’s auto collision, auto service tech, early childhood, a couple different healthcare programs. There’s also IT classes like computer programming and there’s building trades.” Lewis & Clark provides a way for students to explore a career outside of the traditional four-year college education. Every year, Lewis & Clark comes and gives a presentation to all sophomores and juniors to inform them about the program. Students have the option of AM classes or PM classes, where transportation is provided to the Lewis & Clark school. Students get experience in the trade they’re looking to go into and they get hands-on learning. The experience students get from Lewis & Clark is even transferable to trades other than the one they studied at Lewis & Clark. “I mean it teaches me obviously about the trade I’m looking for but it’s also getting me ready to work in that

environment,” senior and second year student at Lewis & Clark, Charles Bodine said. “I don’t just go there and work on cars, they also teach us about the employability [of trade jobs] and what they expect.” This program opens doors for students, making it easier for them to explore their own interests. Before a student joins the program, they are able to shadow the trade they’re interested in to get an idea about how their day would look if they decided to join the program. Lewis & Clark can even help students get jobs right out of high school. Since students work towards getting certifications in their trade throughout the program. Some trades allow for students to get a job right after graduation because Lewis & Clark has already prepared them. Students can also use the qualifications they earned from the program to get placed in the technical school of their trade. There are even scholarships that can be earned to help students pay for the rest of their technical school journey. “They have a very high placement rate, which means that once a student is completed with their Lewis & Clark program and can get placed into a technical school to continue that programming, they offer all sorts of scholarships,” Johnson said. “We’ve actually had students go through the program junior/senior year and get placed right away at a job site because those jobs see that they’ve completed those certifications [and] they have the qualifications they need and they go straight into that, so lots of good opportunities.” (Story by Sophia Black)

IN-STATE VS OUT OF STATE

hether a student wants to go far from home for college or stay right at home, there is a scholarship for everyone. While finding an in-state scholarship may be easier, it is possible for both. “It’s usually a little bit easier to get some of those in-state scholarships [than] out-of-state scholarships,” College and Career Counselor Brooke Prestidge said. “[For out-of-state] you have to have the highest merit, they’re gonna typically want to see a standardized test score and it needs to be fairly high.” To many students’ dismay, the key to receiving an out-of-state scholarship may rely on having a high ACT score and high grades. This is something that a lot of schools look for when awarding scholarships.

If grades or standardized test scores may not be a student’s best aspect, many schools also like to see strong essays in applications. For students who want to leave the state but haven’t decided where they would like to go, Prestidge recommends looking into private colleges since their out-of-state and in-state tuition is similar. “They might look a little bit more expensive because they have one set tuition for all students, but they usually give larger scholarships,” Prestidge said. “So definitely don’t rule those schools out.” (Story by Amber Winkler, Illustrations by Michaela Manfull)

WHEN STUDYING PAYS OFF

ot all performance-based scholarships are through sports or music. Some are academic based and are usually based on standardized testing and/or academic achievements. The ACT, SAT and PSAT are the most widely recognized standardized test scores colleges accept for scholarships. The PSAT is a great test to take for students who are looking to get scholarships. It’s available to sophomores and juniors and is mainly to prepare students for the SAT. But, if juniors receive a high enough score, they can qualify for certain scholarships, including the Nation Merit Scholarship. FHN College and Career Counselor Brooke Prestige has worked with students who have qualified for the National Merit Scholarship before and recommends juniors take the PSAT before they take the SAT. “If you’re a junior and you take the PSAT, that score is used for the National Merit Scholarship Organization which [has] huge scholarships,” Prestige said. “[It is very] competitive, usually you have to be [in the] top one percentile of scores to be eligible for it.” When it comes to studying for the PSAT, prep books are the way to go. PSAT prep books are the ideal prep solutions

for anyone who wants to succeed on PSAT and qualify for the National Merit Scholarship. But for the National Merit Scholarship semifinalist Manisha Muthukaruppan, the PSAT prep book wasn’t what got her in the top one percentile for last year’s PSAT scores. Muthukaruppan actually used the SAT prep book for the PSAT test, and recommends future testers do the same. “Definitely look at SAT prep books,” Muthukaruppan said. “Because if you prepare for something harder, then it’ll make the other test really easier than it would be.” The National Merit Corporation expects semi-finalists to have scores of 1400 or higher on the PSAT. This score may be daunting, as the average PSAT score for high schoolers is 1000. However, students do not have to be in the top one percent of scores in order to receive money for college. Select colleges, corporations and organizations will recognize students’ great performance on the PSAT. So, even if testers don’t make it as a finalist for the National Merit Scholarship, qualifying alone will get students recognized by colleges and sponsors. “Even as a semifinalist,” Prestige said. “They usually offer some really big, sometimes full tuition scholarships and more at colleges.” (Story by Haylie Bryson)

PLAYING BALL ISN’T CHEAP

impractical for college recruiters to visit every students’ sports games. The most effective way for athletes to share their talents with college recruiters is by submitting footage. Kelly received his athletic scholarships because college recruiters could see his talent and passion for football based off of the videos he sent to Grinnell University and Knox College. His performance and dedication is what made him stand out compared to other athletes and gave him the opportunity to play D-3 college football. “It was really about them looking at my film,” Kelly said. “Seeing how I played, things like that. Seeing if I was a good enough fit for them.” But every renewable scholarship comes with conditions. College sports are serious, and it takes a lot of effort to keep a scholarship for sports. Students are expected to maintain great athletic, academic and social performance to keep their scholarships. FHN varsity coach Brett Bevill knows this, and believes Kelly is going to have to work just as hard as a freshman in college football as he did as a freshman player in high school. “When it comes to college sports, every person there was one of the best players on their team,” Bevill said. “Right now he’s kind of a big fish for our team, but when he gets to the next level everyone is gonna be like that. So you have to kind of find your way.” (Story by Haylie Bryson, Photo by Etaf Abdallah)

NORTH STAR • 11.9.2022 • Pages Designed by Michaela Manfull

thletic scholarships are few and hard to come by. With so many other students wanting to go to college for sports, the competition for performance based scholarships is intense. But it’s not impossible. College scholarships are easier to get with the more effort and time a student is willing to dedicate to improve their performance. Continuing to practice outside of the regular season or the school year can put students ahead of the competition for scholarships. This year, senior Ian Kelly received two scholarship offers for football, and his advice for others who want athletic scholarships is to treat the season like it’s year-round. “Put in a lot of work during the off season too,” Kelly said. “It doesn’t just happen during the season…[you have to] put yourself out there.” Good publicity is the most effective way to grab the interest of universities. So, it’s important for athletes to stay active on social media. Having a reputable following and lots of activity on social platforms can provide great exposure for students who are seeking financial aid from colleges and universities. With athletes having so many games and tournaments, it’s

SCHOLARSHIP

SEARCH SITES

These scholarship websites are some to look out for as they provide students with smaller pools of applicants to give those applying a better chance at winning. Some don’t require accounts, some have over a thousand options and all of them are for high school students getting ready to apply for higherlevel educational institutions. (content by Sophia Black)

GOING MERRY With this website, once your information is typed, you can apply to

multiple scholarships at once. This is helpful because after applying to so many scholarships, it can be boring and repetitive. This website allows you to spend less time applying to scholarships that need the same information and more time for applying to different scholarships, school work or free time.

CAREER ONESTOP

This website is run by the U.S. Department of Labor with more than 8,000 scholarships listed. You are able to filter through many different keywords including by state and by the state where you are planning to go to college.

SCHOLARSHIPS.COM

Here, scholarships are divided by categories and within these categories are subcategories that can be used to find smaller pool scholarships. This is helpful because while the scholarships might be smaller, there is a higher likelihood of winning. There are over 3.7 million scholarships available here which gives you many more options to look and filter through. Not only does this website offer scholarships, it also allows you to do college searches and get information about student loans.

NICHE

Here, there are many options for users to flip through. Once you register, you are automatically applied to a $2,000 no essay scholarship, which means you are put into a big pool of people to be chosen from. From there, Niche filters scholarships that you match to and recommends those to you. There are also filters to find new, easy to apply and popular scholarships.

COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIPS This website is unlike any other in that you don’t have to fill out your own personal information to have access to over 23,000 scholarships. So if you already know what you’re looking for, you can go to this website and apply for scholarships without needing to provide anything except what is needed for the scholarship. You can also find student loans and grants opportunities here as well.

FASTWEB

With Fastweb, you are able to filter for scholarships that are catered to your own interests, skills, what you want to study and much more. This makes more scholarship options available to you so you have more chances of winning more scholarships. The website is free, easy to use and student-focused making it one of the first websites you should look at when starting your scholarship search.

Scan this QR code or go to fhntoday.com/scholarship-resources to get links to all of these websites and more information.

MY SCHOLARSHIP CENTRAL

This is a useful website to use especially because it is catered to Missouri students. There are over 100 scholarships here and the website is free to use. The more local the better and this site is perfect for that. When scholarships are more local the better chance you will have of winning them even if they are only $200 scholarships. Every little bit adds up.

THE PLAYER AND THE GAME

Senior Lucy Fajatin steps up to bat during a club team softball game. Lucy has been playing for FHN and club teams to prepare for college. (Photo Submitted by Lucy Fajatin)

Student athletes at North dedicate themselves to earning athletic scholarships to continue playing in college by Mckenna Hudson mhudson365@gmail.com

NORTH STAR • 11.09.2022 • Pages Designed by Michaela Manfull

hrough his 12 years of coaching softball and baseball, Freedline has seen many high school athletes earn scholarships to play at the college level. He has seen athletes spend hours reaching out to colleges, studying hard and perfecting their craft in hopes of earning a scholarship. But many wonder if the outcome is worth all the effort. “It definitely reduces the money, which is really good,” senior and varsity baseball player Peyton Caples said. “It makes it more affordable for people and then it makes you want to work harder to keep [the scholarship]. Plus I really enjoy playing baseball. I feel like I could play at the next level and it’s just really fun. It’s a good way to meet people at college and have a friend group already going into college.” Caples, as well as other senior athletes like Lucy Fajatin, have been practicing their craft, communicating with colleges and aiming for the opportunity to obtain an athletic scholarship. Some athletes, like Caples, start looking for scholarships as early as freshman year. “I reached out and emailed,” Caples said. “ I emailed Missouri S&T and I was just emailing them and I told them that I had a tournament and they came and watched a game. Illinois Tech, I emailed them back and forth a couple times and I had a couple calls with them. And then they came to watch me play towards the end of the season.” Many athletes begin to consider playing college athletics through private club teams they are a part of. Through Premier Baseball Academy, which Caples plays for during the summer, he had gotten in touch with multiple college

coaches. Many of these clubs have coaches who help athletes get in contact with college coaches. Fajatin, who plays softball in the summer through St. Louis Heat, got in contact with Maryville, Missouri Baptist and St. Louis University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy. Once an athlete is in contact with a college, that’s when the game starts. “Most of the summer I played in a lot of showcases,” Fajatin said. “The organizers put out on social media who’s going to be there. And then you go there and you play against teams in the tournament and then [college coaches] basically come out and watch and recruit and see who they want.” During the summer and during the FHN sports seasons, Caples and Fajatin have both been keeping up with their stats and recording games to show colleges their athletic abilities. But when giving out athletic scholarships, recruiters look for a good athlete as well as a good student. “They want to know that their scholarships are not going to go to waste,” Freedline said. “So, when [recruiters] come out and look at them, they watch them when they’re on the field, off the field, how they act, how they warm up, so they know they’re getting a good quality person. Half the player, half the game.” These athletes, and many more, have worked tirelessly in hopes of earning a scholarship to help support their future endeavors. But these athletes have the same thing in common; the love of the game. “‘I’d say that no matter what, keep going,” Caples said. “There’s going to be setbacks, but in the end, if you really want it and you love the game, you will succeed.” (Illustration by Michaela Manfull)

CONGRATS Get ready for the feeling of opening up that acceptance letter without paying full price.

BANG FOR YOUR BUCK FHN Alumni Evan Becker and Jordan Bryson share how scholarships they reveived benefited them after high school by Hope Moseley

hmoseley517@gmail.com

xpensive. This is one of the top words that could be used to describe college. Tuition, housing and textbooks are all examples of things that a college student has to pay for. Although, there are a lot of scholarships that can take out a chunk of money out of your tuition. Evan Becker, a 2022 FHN graduate is one of these special cases. Becker received many scholarships that ended up covering his entire tuition to Washington University. He received the Bright Flight scholarship which was $3,000, the Missouri Access Extra scholarship which was $2,000, another scholarship from Missouri Access which was $1,280 and the WashU Pledge which was $60,000. “Right now my tuition costs add up to zero dollars,” Becker said. “I got $1,600 back at the beginning of the semester. It definitely has made it a lot easier for me to afford college, considering that I’m actually getting money.” These scholarships were mainly financial aid dependent, so they are based on your family’s income. The college and career counselor Brooke Prestige has resources about financial aid and scholarships that are financial dependent. For example; Free Application for Federal Student Aid. FAFSA is financial aid that is funding for students attending a post secondary education institution in the United States. “One of my top tips for anybody that is looking at colleges is to fill out the FAFSA,” Becker said. Another way you can get scholarships is based on your family experiences. For example, if you had a grandparent in the military, or if you’re a first generation in your family to attend college, students can talk to Prestige. She has information about resources and ways to find scholarship opportunities. When beginning the application process don’t wait too long to start applying. The earlier the better because more things will be available.

“I absolutely would have started earlier,” Becker said. “Personally I didn’t know what college I wanted to go to. So, I would have started looking for sources and options earlier.” Another North alumni, Jordan Bryson, graduated from North in 2013. Bryson received the A+ Scholarship, a widely offered scholarship to students in Missouri who meet a set of requirements. The A+ Scholarship gives students two free years of community college or state college in Missouri. Covering your entire tuition, only leaving the cost of books. “A+ completely covered my associate’s degree,” Bryson said. “It was an incredible weight off of my family’s shoulder to have my tuition completely covered.” Bryson found out about the A+ Scholarship in her senior year. She knew immediately the gravity of having two free years of college. Looking back now, Bryson still thinks the A+ Scholarship was a huge help for her. “Without a doubt I would recommend this to others,” Bryson said. “Even for those who have really great GPAs and involvement in sports or other activities that would provide avenues for scholarships, you never know what you’re going to end up getting with scholarships. But with the A+ program you’re getting a free associate’s degree period.” As a junior or senior applying to colleges, scholarships can help out with the future. There are many scholarships available for anything - whether it’s athletic, academic, or performance related. Past these types of scholarships, there are many more that can be received that just require an essay or a project. Whatever the scholarship, they are beneficial in the long run. “[It’s about] getting a degree and wanting to better yourself,” Bryson said. “But ensuring that the debt you could graduate with isn’t going to hold you back [is helpful].” (Illustration by Michaela Manfull)

Make friends.

Make cool stuff.

Make a difference.

Dec. 9 - Editor Application Deadline for 2023-24 Dec. 14 - General Staff PRIORITY Application Deadline for 2023-24 Jan. 6 - General Staff Application Deadline for 2023-24 Jan. 11 - 2023-24 Staff List Posted on FHNtoday.com Applications can be found on FHNtoday.com/SignMeUp NO APPLICATION NEED TO SIGN UP FOR: JOURNALISM, BROADCAST JOURNALISM & DIGITAL PHOTOJOURNALISM Find out more. FHN media www.FHNtoday.com/TellMeMore

FEATURES

Isaac Crackel gets into the cockpit of the plane he flies on Oct 3. Crackel started flying regularly in August of this year and has been taking lessons and flying at the Creve Coeur Airport. (Photo by Ankita Pandurangi)

A PILOT IN THE FUTURE

Junior Isaac Crackel began the progress towards his pilot’s license in August but he isn’t able to take the flight test until late June of 2023 due to his age. by Amber Winkler

amberewinkler@gmail.com

hree laps with the instructor are done. Now he is on his own. It will all be over in 20 minutes. This will be his first solo flight. His normal confidence has faltered. The nerves have been building up over his first three laps and he’s now shaky as the instructor departs. He will be in the air on his own. No backup. He knows that his instructor wouldn’t let him solo if he wasn’t

ready. His confidence returns the second his wheels are off the ground. This was no different than usual. He has done this before. His dad waits for him on the ground, eyes dusted with tears, face filled with pride. This is a big moment. It’s a moment that proves his son is more mature than he had once thought. “It’s exciting. It’s impressive. It’s a little bit scary. It’s a really neat thing as a dad to observe,” Jon Crackel said. Flying is an interest that both Isaac Crackel and his dad have shared for a

while. A trip to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, to attend a fly-in event ended up being a memorable one for both parties as this became a turning point for both of them. Shortly after, Isaac received a scholarship from his Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) chapter. Both of these events led to his official decision that he was going to learn to fly. “It kind of felt unreal because there’s also many other candidates, but I was picked,” Isaac said. “So it kind of felt unreal and crazy. I guess in a word, grateful.”

Isaac Crackel flies out of Creve Coeur Airport where he has worked for three months. Crackel is apart of the Indpendent Aviation Solutions Flight School that is based out of Creve Coeur Airport. (Photo by Ankita Pandurangi)

NORTH STAR • 11.09.2022 • Pages Designed by Amber Winkler

Multiple discovery flights were taken to find the right person to teach Isaac how to fly, but he found the person who was right for the job. Corey Moats would be Isaac’s instructor. Moats was determined to be the best fit for him, he was the person Isaac felt most comfortable with out of all his discovery flights. “I chose him because I felt like he was just the easiest person to talk to,” Isaac said. “Easiest person for me to get along with. All instructors probably would have helped me, but he’s the person that shows just because he’s easy to talk to. And he knows everything I need to know.” Isaac started his flight lessons in August, but his flight instructor believes that most people would not be able to tell he has only been doing

this a couple months while watching He was chosen by his EAA him fly. He is confident on the radios, chapter to receive the Ray Aviation has done his groundwork and has so Scholarship. According to Jon, his much energy while flying. He may determination, advanced knowledge even be better at flying a plane than in ground school and volunteer work within the chapter made him the best driving a car. “Everything he does impresses me candidate to receive the scholarship. and he’s doing much better than the Without this $10,000 scholarship, average student,” Moats said. “I love Isaac likely wouldn’t have been able flying with Isaac, he’s a fun kid to fly to learn how to fly. “I don’t necessarily have the budget with.” While some people may think that because it’s not a requirement for the hard part would be the actual him to study and suddenly become a flying itself, this is not the case for pilot,” Jon said. “So as a parent, I have Isaac. Ground school is where his other responsibilities in life. To fork difficulties lie, specifically in weather, out the cost of flight lessons for a 16 both in learning and in practice. But year old is not the biggest priority all of these struggles are worth the in my life by any measure. While I reward of being able to fly. would happily do it, it’s just “Even though you have a lot of money. So really, to do the ground part of this [scholarship] made a it and learn about some difference in the ability for boring stuff like weather and this to happen for him.” engines, when you get to fly Jon wasn’t going to you realize it’s all worth it learn to fly. It wasn’t a because the feeling of flight requirement in his life. Watch Isaac is just something you can’t Flight lessons and renting Crackel take off get anywhere else,” Isaac planes is expensive. He during a flight said. would much rather spend lesson While he may be ready to that money for his son take the test for his pilot’s to do it instead of for license, it will be a little bit before he himself. Isaac knew how much his actually can. The Federal Aviation dad wanted to learn to fly and that Administration (FAA) requires that he was sacrificing his own chance he be 17 years old in order to get to learn. Isaac told his dad that he a pilot’s license and he won’t be 17 wanted him to learn too, so he until July. Isaac has to bide his time agreed. Since Jon is learning at the until he is old enough, planning when same time as Isaac, they are able to he takes his flights carefully so that benefit from each other’s knowledge he is experienced and in practice and compare notes on subjects from when it comes time to take the test, ground school. but doesn’t use up all the hours the “To me, it’s exciting because we scholarship has provided him. can share each other’s milestones, “There can be hard times when victories and I can share with him flying and learning how to fly, none what I’m learning, he can share with of it is hard because it’s all enjoyable,” me what he’s learning,” Jon said. “So Isaac said. “The hardest part for me there’s so much overlap between our was waiting until I’m old enough to various studies that you know, I think fly, honestly.” it’s motivating to both of us.”

FHN’S FAVORITE RESTAURANTS Six FHN students and staff point out their favorite local restaurants. (Content by Drew Johnson)

SALT + SMOKE

“[I like] Salt + Smoke. I really enjoy their food and I love the atmosphere there,” sophomore Lisa Smyth said.

LA CARRETA

“[La Carreta] is a family-run business and I really enjoy their chips and queso. I really recommend it,” sophomore Ellenna Forbes said. Consumers often prefer familyowned businesses over corporate giants. La Carreta is no different. From their large menu to their large following, this authenticstyle Mexican restaurant is often triumphant over other local competitors. La Carreta receives hundreds of high-standard reviews via review sites every month. Although COVID-19 disrupted the operations of La Carreta, the ownership, restaurant and consumers continued to support this small restaurant.

CULVERS

“[I like] Culver’s, they just have really good food and everything is always super fresh and really quick,” freshman Jay Stephens said.

Culvers is a mid western-based chain company that offers unique Wisconsin-style food. Many items on their abundant menu are not served in other establishments in St. Louis. Things such as butter burgers, cheddar curds and unique custard flavors are what draw the local consumers to come back over and over again. The brand focuses on putting customers first, likely why its customer reviews are usually glowing. Culvers sells items in bulk such as their custard flavors.

Located in historic St. Charles and several other areas of St. Louis, Salt + Smoke is a prime location for the large number of pedestrians in the area. This restaurant serves an abundance of both barbecue and regular foods. Salt + Smoke offers a unique environment to eat quality food. The company prides itself on creating environments where customers feel comfortable and welcome at. This leads many consumers to leave positive comments regarding the service, food and sense of happiness.

LION’S CHOICE

“I like Lion’s Choice because their sandwiches are so good and they give you a lot of fries,” sophomore Nina Hewlett said. Lion’s Choice is a small fast food chain only located in particular, select areas of Missouri such as St. Louis and Kansas City. Many local citizens and students prefer Lion’s Choice’s small food menus and choices over their local competitors such as Arbys, which serves a similar cuisine. With only 25 restaurants, Lion’s Choice is unfortunately widely unknown by citizens who do not live in Missouri.

GINGHAMS

“[I like] Ginghams because it’s just a different vibe from usual restaurants and since everyone usually goes there for football games it has different memories attached to it. The food is also really good,” sophomore Delaney St. John said. Ginghams, a 24-hour home-style restaurant caters to all different demographics. With only one location, the brand is widely popular from college students wanting work to retired people wanting a wide variety of meals. Ginghams serves breakfast, lunch and dinner at all times of the day, leaving a large menu for people to choose from. The restaurant has left a lasting impression on its community, even after moving locations and receiving a high amount of attention. Many locals recommend Ginghams as a quality restaurant that fulfills any craving at any time of the day.

PLANK ROAD PIZZA “[I like] Plank Road Pizza because they have amazing pizza. Pizza is definitely one of my favorite foods,” teacher Samantha Soltysiak said. Plank Road Pizza has been operating in Cottleville as a prime location for locals to order a pizza for almost a decade. With always fresh ingredients and stunning scenery, the restaurant receives a high volume of positive reviews and great feedback from the community of which it is proud to be a part of. The restaurant prides itself on having a local background as well as prioritizing citizens and businesses of the community. As one of the oldest restaurants in Cottleville, the historic atmosphere alone encourages many to return.

Christine Edwards talks to the rest of the FHN math teachers about lesson plans. Edwards is the head of the math department at FHN. Edwards has always wanted to have a position that allowed her more leadership and being head of the math department is a step in the direction of having a larger impact on more students. (Photo by Grace Pinson)

MORE THAN A MATH TEACHER The department chair for math oversees the program with a focus on improving test scores. by Olivia Van Horn

ovanhorn332@g.fhsdschools.org

EOC scores in the subjects that are struggling as well as to increase ACT math scores. Also, she would like to see an increase in enrollment of math classes to help expand students math abilities and help them to have more math credits on their college applications. She plans Math teacher Kent Stover's favorite to accomplish this by forming a part about teaching fun and informative educational is interacting with environment and hopes students the students. will take away that they can Stover is one of achieve anything they put their the longest-serving minds to. faculty having been “She taught in a way that made here 32 years. it feel like I wasn’t even learning and she was always energetic,” sophomore SaVanna Daniels. Being a department chair is not an easy job and it takes a lot of effort. Edwards has found ways to help stay organized and make sure things run smoothly using past math Department Chair Besse’s methods as well as her own The latest addition methods. to the math “I would like to have a larger department is impact on the school and the Chad Patzner. He community,” Edwards said. “Also, teaches Algebra I would like to have an impact on I and II. An Iowa the district as a whole and then native, his favorite part about potentially be some sort of a teaching is working district leader to help on an even with his students. larger scale in the future.”

NORTH STAR • 11.09.2022 • Pages Designed by Drew Johnson (26) Ben Henry (27)

very subject at FHN has a department chair. This includes Christine Edwards, whom students may not know is the math department chair for FHN. Edwards was named the department chair in July of 2021. Tim Besse was the department chair for the previous six years before Edwards. “I chose to become a math teacher because when I was in high school [and] my geometry teacher inspired me to challenge others to further their understanding in subjects that they weren’t necessarily good at,” Edwards said. “So math was not always my strongest subject. And I just wanted to help more people be better at something that maybe wasn’t their strength.” A department chair job looks different than a normal teachers job since they are managing the entire department and helping teachers in their subject. To be a department chair, you have to go through the interview process like applying for a normal job and then the hiring team selects the best candidate for the job. “I’m in charge of the math department budget and making sure that the teachers have as much as

they need to help their students be successful,” Edwards said. “I am in monthly meetings with the department chairs at the other high schools and the math content leader for the district to ensure we as a district are in the same place. I’m in charge of managing all the logistics of class schedules and teacher schedules and making sure students are placed appropriately in courses.” Edwards’ job includes going to multiple meetings with other department chairs and the principals as well as making sure the communication between math teachers is clear and strong to help create a smooth running department. She also helps make sure that the new math teachers feel supported and are successful throughout the school year. Edward hopes to build her communication skills and listen to teachers feedback and what they need to have a great educational environment. “She’s expressed to me how many people are here to support me and show me that all the teachers here want to help,” Math teacher Rachel Pirrone said. Edwards’ goals as math department chair is to increase

Since 1976, the original Grandma’s Cookies building has been selling baked goods on Main Street. (Photo by Kaylee Monroe)

COOKIES FROM THE GROUND UP

Grandma’s Cookies is a small bakery on Main Street in St. Charles, which originally started as a dress shop by “Grandma” Charlotte Thompson. For fun, she baked cookies for her customer’s children, but quickly realized that more people were coming for baked goods rather than dresses. “She realized she was making more money making cookies than she was selling her dresses,” Grandma’s Cookies’ current owner and relative of Thompson, Theresa Rubio said. This realization led Thompson to open her bakery, Grandma’s Cookies, in 1976 which put an end to making dresses for good. The bakery was run for many years by Thompson until it was passed down to her daughter, Nancy Ginnever. But after Ginnever got sick, she put it into Rubio’s hands. Rubio has owned it ever since, even through the pandemic. They partnered up with other stores on Main Street such as Laulie Cakes and Sweet Poppins to stay in business through the chaos. “A lot of people were extremely hurt by the pandemic,” Manager of Grandma’s Cookies, Arielle Fox said. “But we survived.” Even though Grandma’s Cookies is a small business, it has kept growing since the day it started due to its amazing handmade cookie recipes from Thompson herself and the outstanding service and care they have for customers. It has even become so popular that it was listed as a place to visit in Missouri on an episode of Good Morning America, but doesn’t consider expanding anytime soon despite the growing popularity. “It’s kind of an adventure to see where it’s all heading,” Rubio said. (Story by Sadie Ortmeyer)

DIGGING LIFE THE RIGHT WAY Teacher Ashley Seiss is one of the many Master Gardners in the St. Louis area. by Stephanie Lichtenegger

slichtenegger419@g.fhsdschools.org

aster Gardeners are volunteers who provide research based horticulture education, guidance and research to their communities. Holly Records is an Educational Programming and Volunteer Coordinator who became a St. Louis Master Gardener in 2008. She loves being outside and when her children were younger, it was a way for them to spend an afternoon. Records is passionate about the way plant owners care for their plants. “It’s very frustrating when people spray chemicals that are not necessary,” Records said. “Learn to love holes in the leaves of your plants. Remember the bees and always read the label.” People like Records can help people become a Master Gardener which is a nationwide program so no matter where someone is they, can go through the lessons to become a Master Gardener. People are encouraged to read, ask questions and take classes to grow the knowledge of gardening. If someone is weary of COVID-19, they offer virtual classes as well. While there are Master Gardeners throughout the metro area, FHN has one within its halls. English teacher Ashley Seiss has become a Master Gardener. She started gardening in 2020 and she usually shares what she grows in her garden with her fiancé. Gardening is a way for her to connect to her grandmothers and she also enjoys working and learning with her hands. Both of her grandmothers were gardeners before they passed. “I think that there’s something really satisfying and beautiful about tending to a plant that is budding,” Seiss said. “It’s kind of like this weird puzzle where you have all the pieces and hope everything fits together and a spider might eat one of your puzzle pieces. I like the challenge and the reward.”

Ashley Seiss has been gardening since 2020. Her garden is located on her apartment porch. Her favorite part about gardening is being able to produce something that’s nourishing. (Photos by Kylie Taliaferro)

When someone first starts out, they might fail. Plants may die and it might not be their fault. If a plant happens to die, then try to figure out why and then try again with more information. There are also many sources someone can go to like the Botanical Garden or the Master Gardener website that will give people more information. “My wish would be that more people realized that they can do so much within their own footprint,” Seiss said. “Small porch but no backyard is still an opportunity. There’s fewer barriers to entry than people think.”

HOW TO GROW STRAWBERRIES

Three steps on how to grow strawberries at home with extra tips and tricks (Content by Stephanie Lichtenegger) Step 1-

COLLECT STRAWBERRY SEEDS

1) Take a ripe strawberry and separate the seeds. 2) Place the seeds on a white piece of paper. 3) Let the seeds dry for the next 3 to 4 days.

Step 2-

STRAWBERRY SEED SOWING

Step 3 -

TRANSFER STRAWBERRY SEEDLINGS

1) After the seedlings develop 2 to 3 true leaves you can transfer them into bigger pots. 2) Make soil mix for final planting by mixing half garden soil and half multipurpose compost. 3)Take a container with drain holes at the bottom. Add the soil mix into the container and lightly press down. 4) Spread the soil mix and make a hole in the center. Take out the seedlings from the old container and separate the seedlings. Try to keeping the roots intact. 5) Place the seedlings into the new containers. The crown should be right at the soil level but the roots should be fully covered. 6) Gently press into the sides to provide support. 7) Water the newly planted strawberries heavily the first day. 8) The newly planted strawberries might look sad for a few days and old leaves might wilt. The crown will produce new leaves and the plant will spring back to life.

NORTH STAR • 11.09.2022 • Pages Pages Designed by Sadie Ortmeyer (28) Stephanie Lichtenegger (29)

1) After seed collection get a medium sized pot, container or seedling tray. 2) Strawberry seeds are water sensitive and so drainage holes are a must have. 3) Add multipurpose compost to container and gently press down and then sprinkle strawberry seeds over the compost. 4) Slightly cover the seeds with more compost after sprinkling the seeds. 5) Gently water and make sure you don’t wash away any seeds. 6) After 7 to 21 days the seeds will settle and you’ll see small shoots coming out of the container.

Leesha Kamotho takes a BeReal of SaVanna Daniels on Oct 4. (Photos by Reina Murrell)

POERTNER TAKES THE SHOT

Senior Andrew Poertner runs a photographing business on the side of school and work. by Ben Henry

bhenry501@g.fhsdschools.org

IT’S TIME TO BEREAL BeReal, an app released in the heart of the Coronavirus, has recently begun showing up on students’ phones. The app encourages users to take a photo at a random time of the day in two minutes. “It’s like a really chill social media, you don’t need to put filters on yourself. You just post exactly what you are doing at the time, without any filters,” sophomore Camille Krekeler, who downloaded the app earlier in the school year said. BeReal does not offer filters or time to stage a picture. When taking a BeReal, both cameras on your phone take a picture so that users can see exactly what others are doing. The app is often compared to Instagram, where users are known to fake photos. “I post when it tells me to and you react to other people’s BeReal. It’s less communicating and more of what you’re doing right now,” Krekeler said. BeReal offers many features that few other social platforms have. For example, a calendar full of past pictures is a useful feature that many choose to use. “I like how it shows what you’re doing at that moment. There’s a calendar with pictures that you look through the whole month. I like how it shows everything,” sophomore Reina Murrell, who has been using the app since her friend downloaded it, said. Many enjoy the unique layout and concept that BeReal offers. “There’s not any other social media like it. There’s no other social media app that shows what other people are like when it goes off,” Murrell said. (Story by Drew Johnson)

enior Andrew Poertner has a lot on his plate. If he’s not participating in the work program or at school, Poertner is honing his photography skills. Although he is no longer photographing for FHNtoday, he still uses photography as a side business and a hobby. “Lately, I’ve been taking photos of sports teams and senior banners,” Poertner said. Poertner has been doing photography for about five years and was on photo staff for 2 years before having to leave after a scheduling conflict. Nevertheless, he still enjoys taking photos on the side. “I’ve always had an interest in taking photos but never really started until [I took] photos in Kiel’s intro photojournalism class,” Poertner said. In intro photojournalism, Poertner learned the basics of operating a camera and taking quality photos using the publication cameras. “I started out using the pub equipment, which I like mentioning because a lot of people on photo staff [and] in intro think that older cameras aren’t as good, but we have a lot of good equipment,” Poertner said. After joining photo staff his sophomore year, Poertner spent time photographing mostly sporting events such as tennis and football. “I really enjoyed [photographing] tennis because it’s not too fastpaced, you can get good action shots without them running back and forth, so it’s pretty easy to get a good emotion shot like that,” Poertner said. When photographing in his free time, Poertner prefers shooting portraits of people. He likes to take images of his friends and has done many of their senior portraits. “I prefer shooting portraits, I like editing them, I like how they look, like capturing a story. I like capturing raw emotions and them smiling and being happy,” Poertner said. Recently, most of Poertner’s business comes from senior photo shoots. Choosing him over a professional photographer is attractive because he charges much less than someone who does it full time.

“Fall is coming up. I’ve got a lot of senior shoots, but I would say during the fall I can get somewhere from one a week to three a week. I’ve done multiple in one day,” Poertner said. There are a lot of technical skills that go into the photography Poertner does. He has to pick the proper aperture size for the distance of the shot. Changing the aperture will bring the foreground into or out of focus. “If you were taking a landscape, you wouldn’t want a low aperture because it would focus on the ground in front of you and blur the background,” Poertner said. Aside from aperture size, a photographer has to use the proper ISO and shutter speed to keep the final product clean and in-focus, along with choosing a proper lens. Junior Ankita Pandurangi, a photographer for publications, provides more detail on capturing the perfect shot. “[Aperture is] one of three things that affect how much light gets into the camera. The background will blur and make the subject pop,” Pandurangi said. Pandurangi often interacted with Poertner last year while on Photo Staff. She knew Poertner and would come to him with questions. In the photo room, Poertner was a mentor to the newer students on staff. “I would say Andrew was a mentor and he knew everybody. He’s very Scan this QR code knowledgeable about the editing to go to Andrew software and helped the other Poertner’s Linktree, students make their photos look where you can find better,” Pandurangi said. his session booking After the photo is taken, Poertner form, and his will edit it to improve on the quality website. and capture more of the moment. Andrew “I think out of the whole process, Poertner took the editing is my favorite, but it’s really Photo Journalism tedious and the way I do it takes a class at North. couple of hours depending on the Poertner, while shoot and how many photos I took,” taking his job seriously, he also Poertner said. makes it very In the future, Poertner would like engaging and fun to get into photographing different for both him and subjects, upgrade his gear and whomever he is expand his business. doing a photoshoot “Right now it’s pretty much for. (Photo by something I do as a hobby and a side Parker Bruns) business but I would love to expand it later,” Poertner said.

Andrew Poertner is a senior at FHN. Poertner runs his very own photography business that he has grown from the ground up. Andrew took a photography class when he came to North sparking his interest to where we see him now. Poertner’s work has grown in popularity at an exponential rate over the past years. With his very own Canon EOS R and 50mm portrait lense, Poertner is now getting out of his immediate circle and, “Business is booming,” Poertner says. (Photo by Parker Bruns)

NORTH STAR • 11.09.2022 • Pages Designed by Olivia Van Horn

Andrew Poertner during his shoots creates very unique scenes with the area’s surroundings. Using the vibrant red truck and the natural color coming from the sunlight, Poertner is taking what is perceived as a simple photo, into a true piece of art. Poertner is having Brianna Wortman be free with her movement to give a more natural look and really bring out those true emotions during the shoot. Creating a variety in his galleries and memories that will last forever. (Photo by Parker Bruns)

Crossword Puzzle

SOLVE THE CROSSWORD

Solve the Crossword by reading the North Star. The first five to complete the crossword win a prize that can be found in the Publications room 105. (Content by Sophia Black) 1

4 5

6 7 8

15 16

19 20

ACROSS 3. Which FHN junior earned the Ray Aviation

Scholarship? 4. Who is the College and Career counselor at North? 7. What movie releases on Nov 11th? 9. What club is junior Savanna Degenhardt looking to start? 10. What feature does the app BeReal not offer? 11.What do high school athletes submit in hopes of earning a scholarship? 12. What style of rushing plays was new to the Knights football offense? 13. Which girls golf team senior hopes to place at GAC’s? 15. Which FHN teacher is a Master Gardener? 16. What program offered at North allows students to explore careers in trade? 20. Which program gives students two free years of community or state college?

phenomenon is seen in the game Scarlet and Violet? yhounds cute or ugly? e freshman playing on varsity girls ? 32 position can students 17 or older

DOWN 1. What new phenomenon is seen in the game

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet? 2. Were Greyhounds cute or ugly? 5. Who is the freshman playing on varsity girls volleyball? 6. What job position can students 17 or older apply for at FHN? 8. How did the girls tennis team select there team captains for the season? 14. What did Grandma’s Cookie originally sell? 17. What place did the FHN marching band receive in prelims at the competition at FHHS? 18. Where will the novice Speech and Debate team compete on Nov 12 -13? 19. Which restaurant won the chicken debate; Canes or Chick-fil-A?

Across: 3. Which FHN junior earned the Ray Av Scholarship? 4. Who is the College and Career coun North? 7. What movie releases on Nov 11th? 9. What club is junior Savanna Degenh

SPORTS w

On Oct. 5, Junior Ryleigh Albers plays catcher for the FHN girls varsity softball teams senior night at FHN’s field. The girls would go on to win the game against North Point 12-2. (Photo by Jazmin Acevedo Perez)

KNIGHTS WIN DISTRICTS

The Knights defeat Kirkwood Pioneers in the district championship, but fall to Howell Vikings in State Quarterfinals By Jackson Fifer

jfifer217@g.fhsdschools.org

STATS

OB% 1. Kayla Spoors .429 2. Lucy Fajatin .410 3. Evie Kraus .407 BATTING AVG 1. Evie Kraus .338 2.Ryleigh Albers .316 3. Kayla Spoors .304 HOME RUNS 1. Evie Kraus 4 2. Ry leigh Albers 1 3. Aliya Moring 1 OUTS 1. Ryleigh Albers 124 2. Piper Spinaio 98 3.Nina Hewlett 82

NORTH STAR • 11.09.2022 • Pages Designed by Sophia Black (32) Jackson Fifer (33)

ith the conclusion of the softball season, the same cycle will repeat next year; the juniors will have to be the ones to step up for the upcoming season. This years season where they went 6-24 definitely did not have the same result as the last season where they went 16-11. However, this years team beat Kirkwood 10-6 to become district champions but after advancing, lost 11-0 against Howell. But with talent coming throughout the whole school, the possibilities for next season offer lots of hope to coaches Mike Freedline and Bob Dunahue. “Yeah, so we’re young, we only have three, four returning starters from last year so we have a lot of sophomores and juniors,” Freedline said. “They [improved] every game, that’s all we really hoped for.” With only four seniors leaving the team along with the end of

on themselves and improve the season, it gives a lot of chances themselves for the next season, to the junior class to have one last it’s more than just softball dance and leave their mark on the for some of them. Many are school’s history. There’s an abundant acquaintances, some are friends amount of talent all around but and a few are like sisters to one junior players like Evie Kraus, Ryleigh another. Albers and Kaylee Lohnes are some “I love hanging out with my of the leaders and standouts who teammates and two of them plan to step up next season. are my best friends, Evie Kraus “I don’t really know, it’s really and Kaylee Lohnes.” Albers said. stressful feeling like next year I have “Me, Kaylee, and Evie get to to be a leader on the team and you help the team which know it’ll be fun since I’ll get will be really fun,” to lead the team with Evie The team has a and Kaylee next year,” Albers bond a lot of other said. “I want to work on my teams may not be strength and hitting in the able to accomplish offseason and just improve as as the Knights only a player so I can be viewed have 12 players on as a role model to these For more softball stats check out the the varsity team underclassmen,” Albers said. QR code below which makes the Albers has been playing bonds between the softball for 13 years now coaches special. With and three years for the new players coming every year, Knights. She’s the current starting it isn’t always easy to keep a catcher on the varsity team. She high team morale but with the feels that since she’s been on the upcoming captains for the next team that the coaches have helped season, the team is in good her a lot and that she has a bond hands. with them. Although the team has leaders like Albers who want to work

BEST OF FALL PHOTOS Some of the best highlights from the 2022-23 fall sports season Senior Ian Kelly stiff arms a St. Charles West Bulldog in North’s first home game on Sept. 1. Though the team had three pick-6’s they were unable to produce offensively en route to a 21-35 loss. (Photo by Sadie Cotton)

Senior Brianna Wortmann prepares to serve in a home game against Francis Howell on Sept. 15. The first set started off strong with the Knights winning 25-19. Both teams put up a good fight and were competitive but the Knights ended up losing the second and third sets (2725, 25-10). (Photo by Etaf Abdallah)

SCAN ME!

To see more photo gallery’s and sports content at FHNgameday.com

Junior Elias Avila extends his arms forwards for the 100m butterfly on Sept. 21 in a meet versus Lutheran High. The Knights lost the meet 82-94. “I think we did pretty well with our numbers being small this year. We just need to work on finishing our races a little faster and stronger, so that we can squeeze out a win,” Coach Farrar said. (Photo by Faith Smith)

Trenton Leuthauser raises his fist with the rest of the Varsity Boys Soccer team at an away game on Sept. 13 against FHC. The team worked together and scored one goal in the first half, but in the second half FHC tied it up 1-1. The game went into two scoreless overtimes, which led to a round of penalty kicks. FHC ended up pulling out a win after gaining more points through penalty kicks. (Photo by Hannah Button)

Junior Kaylee Lohnes sets up in the batters box in a Varsity girls softball team plays against Timberland on Sept. 15. The Knights had a rough start and were able to match the score. Although they lost 7-3 both teams worked really hard and hyped up the crowd. (Photos by Etaf Abdallah)

NORTH STAR •11.09.2022 • Pages Designed by Carter McDevitt & Chase Pray

Senior Leah Heischimdt lines up for a putt on her senior night match against Timberland High on Sept. 20. The three seniors, Chloe Perkins, Rebecca Bruemmer and Leah Heischmidt were celebrated at the end of the match. The girls lost with a close score of 185-173. (Photo by Hannah Button)

On Sept 21st the FHN Swim Team competed in a meet at the St. Peters Rec-Plex against Lutheran HS. (Photo by Faith Smith)

SWINGING OUT OF SENIOR SEASON

STATE ASPIRATIONS

For many athletes, the idea of competing at state is something they strive for all season long. However, when athletes are given the chance to represent their team or school in a big way, that can come with added stress. “I’m hoping to do as well as I possibly can during individual events this year,” junior swimmer Elias Avila said. “If I can also compete in the team relays then that would be great.” In preparation to the buildup for state, head coach Shawn Farrar has been training the boys extensively so they can be in the best shape possible by the time state begins. From their workouts at practice, to pushing them to perform their absolute best at meets, Farrar has been trying his hardest to make the team succeed. The team as an overall average time of 1 minute and 52 seconds for the 200 meter race. “They’ve been working really hard to perform their best whether it’s at our practices or our competitions,” Farrar said. “They have all improved as swimmers in general throughout our season.” Whether or not state goes as the boys hope, they have all had fun throughout the season competing and practicing as a team. Practicing nearly everyday for three months straight has helped make bonds that will last past the swim season. “Outside of actually being in the water, my favorite part of the team ever since I’ve joined has been the team itself,” Avila said. “For the most part we all get along and help each other despite how we do. It’s just a really fun environment to be in.” (Brief by Chase Pray)

On Sept. 26, the Varsity Girls golf team competed in an annual tournament called the Knight Cup. The girls claimed the cup, placing #1 above FHHS and FHC. Senior Leah Heischmidt and Junior Liza Burgos scored a birdie in a playoff hole to finish it off and took the trophy back for a second year in a row. (Photo by Hannah Button)

After four years of playing on the girls golf team, seniors Leah Heischmidt, Chloe Perkins and Rebecca Bruemmer are parting ways with their team. As emotional as this is for any athlete, the bonds created, the goals accomplished and the memories made have constructed a great four years. “My experience [on the team] has been very good,” Heischmidt said. “It’s a very good atmosphere to be around and all the people are very nice.” The other girls on the team have looked up to these seniors and the coaches have watched them grow. Many highlights were created in these three girls’ golfing careers that nothing could compare to. The feeling of accomplishment when they scored well or won a match with the team. “Some of the highlights of my golfing career so far have been winning the Knight Cup two years in a row and placing for GACs my sophomore year,” Heischmidt said. “And this year I hope to place at GAC’s, districts and make it to state.” (Brief by Jonica Schmidt)

NEW TENNIS CAPTAINS In this season for girls tennis, their coach, Lisa Randoll, decided to choose team captains differently this year. In past years, the tennis team never had team captains until Randoll decided that with her being the new tennis coach, she wanted to have leaders to help lead their team to victory. “So, I observed and I asked everyone what kind of qualities they look for in a team captain and got a variety of answers back,” Randoll said. “Some wanted somebody who’s going to be motivating, somebody who is going to cheer on the entire team, not just varsity, and some wanted someone who was responsible so if they are going to do something, they will do it.” Randoll then took all of the girls’ input and picked the top five people that she felt fit every request that they wanted and let the girls vote on who they wanted. The top three girls who got the most votes became the team captains for the team. The team’s decision for the three girls to become their captains were junior Lauren Chance, senior Maggie Koester and sophomore Rishitha Reddy Vedanaparthi. “I liked the way we chose captains this year

On Sept. 30 captain of the varsity tennis team Maggie Koester poses for a picture holding her tennis racket. The team has won a total of five games and lost a total of nine games. They had their final game at FHC on Sep. 30 winning 6-2 and 6-1. (Photo by

because it gave everyone an opportunity to vote for who they think would be best for that position,” Chance said. Randoll also made the decision to get everyone’s input because she felt that everyone should be able to include their ideas on who gets to lead the team. On top of that, she feels that everyone should have the chance to become captains and not be based on how old a player is or how long they have been in high school. (Brief by Lindsay Haslip)

Varsity Boys Soccer Coach Zach Fettig discusses with his players what they need to improve on an away game against FHC on Sept. 13. (Photo by Hannah Button)

A COACH’S PERSPECTIVE On Aug.31, Freshman Alissa Simon blocks the ball hit by a FZS player during a FHN home game. (Photo by Brianna Dunham)

SHINING STAR ON THE COURT

Freshman Alissa Simon has been a star for the girls varsity volleyball team. by Tony Biondo

abiondo548@g.fhsdschools.org

Volleyball Stars These are more stats from some of the stars on the team

Most Kills

1. Bri Wortman 268 2. Jada Keller 90 3. Kennedy Jones 86

Most Blocks

1. Kennedy Jones 72 2. Sara Ausbury 41 3. Alissa Simon 38

Most Assists

1. Jaden Slusser 263 2. Megan Steutermann 186 3. Anna Scognamiglio 67

NORTH STAR • 11.09.2022 • Pages Designed by Jonica Schmidt (36) Lindsay Haislip (37)

reshman Alissa Simon has made her mark on the FHN volleyball program this year, earning her spot on the varsity roster as a starter. Simon has significantly less experience than most others on varsity as she has only been playing volleyball for four years, compared to some who have been playing for upwards of six years. However, that hasn’t troubled Simon this year. Simon is third on the team in blocks with 38 and third on the team with a 91.67 serve efficiency. She isn’t worried about her lack of experience compared to her teammates. “I’m keeping up with their level of play a lot more than I was expecting to,” Simon said. “I’m even keeping up with the ones who have been playing for 10 plus years.” The ‘freshman on varsity’ dynamic is a much different experience than being an upperclassman on varsity. The pressure on a freshman to have to adapt to a new school environment, along with the highest level of high school sport, is a tough task for anyone. Simon has overcome that obstacle so far this season, adapting well to her new

school all while keeping up her performances in volleyball. Simon is surrounded by experienced players and people that have had three plus years at FHN. “We all get along pretty well,” Simon said “ It’s nice having a lot of people that include me and are helpful with things that I don’t quite understand yet.” Simon plays the position of right side, which is a very versatile position to play in volleyball. When Simon isn’t playing right side, she’s playing any defensive position. People playing right side are skilled on attack and defense. This is a very sought-after position, with a lot of players wanting to play it. Since the position of right side is so competitive, Simon has to be on her A game whenever she is there in order to keep that position. Head varsity coach Stonyrae Harris is impressed with Simon and her ability to adapt to such a change. “It’s very impressive, I have to say,” Harris said. “The way she showed her talent, even from tryouts, made it a no brainer for us to keep her with the varsity girls.”

Varsity soccer had a hot start to the season, starting undefeated with four wins and one tie. By the end of the season the team ended with a 11-7-1 record. “I think our whole team as a whole made a big jump,” the varsity head coach Larry Scheller said. “I think there have been a lot of kids who have stepped up this year. Our whole team played significant minutes in our game and all helped out the team.” The team’s hard work showed as they’ve improved as a team and as individuals. That is a great sign that they have all improved as athletes throughout the season. “J.T. Grabowski is a big one. He’s our leading goal scorer along with both our goalies Jack Stover and Austin Bitter,” assistant coach Zachary Fettig said. “But our team has many leaders. Some lead by example and not by their words.” Both coaches believe that the team have spans of time where they play beautifully and can stick together twenty passes at a time. That, along with great leadership, made them a threat at districts. The boys ended their great season in a hard fought loss in the semifinals of districts against SLUH. “They were all great student athletes,” Fettig said. “They showed up to practice, they worked hard and they were dedicated to playing the sport. But they’re also good kids in the hallways and good kids in the classroom. Across the board we have really high grades. So from a coaching perspective, I wasn’t losing sleep over the team.” With many strong athletes this year, the coaches were glad to see that the team remained healthy throughout the entire season. Having everyone healthy had been a big team morale booster. (Story by Kevin McGuire)

FHN cross country runs at an event held by Parkway West. The event took place at Living Word United Methodist church on Oct. 1. (Photo by Thomas Jones)

ON YOUR MARK, GET SET, GO The current FHN boys cross country team had a very successful season, but it boils down to a lot more than just success. Even outside of the results, the team felt very happy with how the season went. “I honestly feel like every meet we had someone PR,” freshman Colin McGuire said. “We all improved a ton.” Even with the season starting fairly rough with competitive meets at McNair and Forest Park, the team did well, having multiple runners finish in the top 30 of their races for the boys and the girls and quite a few runners setting PRs for themselves. (Personal Record). Even with the talent on the team, the overall moral of the team had really improved with their performances each week. “I think we have a really close team and I really do think that helps when you are trying to build up a team, and that was a big part of our success we had,” McGuire said. Overall, across six meets this season, junior Andrew Head and sophomore Kevin McGuire,were top performers with PRs at 18:45 for Head and 19:35 for McGuire. “I really loved how our team progressed through this season, I really loved how tight knit of a group we are, and I couldn’t ask anything more from a team for my senior year,” senior Nolan Walters said. (Brief by Braeden Kettinger)

ALL NEW PLAYBOOK by Carter Mcdevitt

cmcdevitt291@g.fhsdschools.org

he FHN Knights football team have debuted their new offensive and defensive play schemes for this football season and the changes made an impact. As of press time last Thursday, the team was 5-5 and was set to play Howell in the second round of playoffs Friday night. The team started the season with two big wins, a 16-point win against the North Point Grizzlies and a 35 point win against the SCH Pirates. With two wins in their first three games, the Knights matched their win total for the entirety of last season. Offensive tackle and senior Jackson Cutlan is happy with this year’s roster. “I feel like everyone who goes out and plays actually wants to play, I don’t feel like anyones out there because their parents are making them play a sport or something, everyone actually wants to be there and win games,” Cutlan said. The last time North had a winning record was during the 2016 season where they held a record of 6-5, including their round one win in that year’s playoffs. That season also marked the beginning of Brett Bevill’s tenure as head coach of the Knights.

In the seasons since, they have had a combined record of 8-47 with two no-win seasons in 2018 and 2020. These years of poor performances along with the team annually losing size left Bevill knowing there needed to be changes. “We really couldn’t ever be in the game for most of those games,” Bevill said. “We were getting beat pretty badly.” Bring the 2020 season, Coach Bevill started to incorporate more rushing into North’s usual pass heavy offensive scheme. Although the team would end up going 0-10 on the year while only averaging 11.5 points-per-game, the added rushing plays showed decent potential for the future of the program. The new addition of the old school “Wing-T” style rushing plays also gave the team something that Bevill had been looking for, an identity. “We were searching for an identity, you know one of the questions we were asking was what does Howell North Football run, and we didn’t really have an answer,” Bevill said. “I said I didn’t really care what we did as long as we had an identity.” This new rush first mindset got further expanded in the 2021 season as they attempted 141 more rushes

VARSITY FOOTBALL STATS TOTAL SCORING LEADERS 1.Christopher Hall 62 points (10 TD, 2pt) 2. Ian Kelly 56 points (9TD, 2pt) 3. Derrick Warren 52 points (8 TD, 2pt) RUSHING YARDS 1. Christoper Hall (1090 yds) 2. Derrick Warren (649 yds) 3.Ian Kelly (498 yds)

Brett Bevill is a teacher and coach at FHN. After a practice, Bevill talks to the players about their performance, upcoming events, and important information. (Photo by Thomas Jones)

TOTAL YARDS GAINED 1. Christopher Hall (1147 yds) 2. Ian Kelly (732 yds) 3. Derrick Warren (695 yds) TOTAL TACKLES 1. DJ Dillon (86 Tackles) 2. Ian Kelly (64 Tackles) 3. Gilbren Dowdy (52 Tackles) (Stats as of Nov. 3)

THE RACE FOR VARSITY Cross country is a sport that involves lots of endurance and dedication and that can be challenging for freshmen. The transition from middle school to high school can be a big challenge when fresh out of middle school. A freshman’s first thought is tryouts and going through the mindset of how everyone’s skills will determine which team they are placed on, whether it’s freshman, JV or the varsity team. A lot of hard work from freshmen is put into wanting to make the varsity team. “It was a little intimidating at first, but I was like ‘I earned my spot here’ so I was gonna go out and run my race to my best,” freshman Katie Head said. Being a freshman on varsity can be nerve racking. Not only skill-wise, but being the youngest on the team. It involves a lot of good skills to be on the varsity team. Being on varsity adds a lot of pressure when playing or competing against upperclassmen. The upperclassmen on the team often give advice to relieve a lot of the pressure the freshman have. “The best thing the upperclassmen have said to me was calming down before the races because I get freaked out right before a race and they are like you ‘got to calm down and breathe’,” Head said. The goals and accomplishments of freshmen are always building towards making that varsity team. In making this happen, there are no shortcuts to making the team. It involves a lot of training and time to be at that level at a younger age. “My biggest accomplishment was my first race,” Head said. “I ran with JV and I had a personal record of 21:58 and got second place in that JV race. That is what got me pulled up and [I] accomplished running on the varsity team.” (Brief by Melia Lanig)

NORTH STAR • 11.09.2022 • Pages Designed by Tony Biondo

than the initial introduction in 2020. This further proved to be a step in the right direction as they won two games and averaged 20.1 points-per-game. As the offensive side of the ball started seeing improvement, Bevill decided to shake up the defense. He got to work on creating a new defensive playbook before the 2022 season. Middle linebacker and junior DJ Dillon believes there has been great improvement this season. “Last year the defense was wild in many points, this year the defense is way better than it was last year,” Dillon said. North’s new defense has been putting up the best numbers the team has had since the 2016 season. This is their best record since 2016 and only the second time since 2008 that the team has tallied five or more wins. This year they are only allowing 26.7 points-per-game, eight points better than 2021 and 14 points better than 2020. While this year has seen one of the best North defenses in the last decade, Bevill thinks some credit should go to the new offense as well. “It’s helped our defense out a lot, I think some people can say your defense is doing much better this year and yeah that’s because we run the ball more and were not on the field as much,” Bevill said. “The defensive success is still teamed with the offensive success to hold onto the football.”

MORE FOOTBALL STATS

The FHN girls and boys cross country team runs at the event held by Parkway West at Living Word United Methodist church on Oct. 1. (Photo by Thomas Jones)

OPINIONS (Illustrations by Violet Newton)

BACHELOR DAYS

There’s an absolute and pure chaos that takes place when my mom leaves for a work trip. by Violet Newton

violetannenewton@gmail.com

My house has turned into the B-roll of an old western movie. Instead of tumbleweeds, there are takeout bags scattered across the house. Instead of a menacing rattlesnake, we have an 11-year-old boy who hasn’t taken a shower for five days straight. Instead of bank robberies, there were malicious fridge raids. What’s the problem you ask? The sheriff had left the town on one of her work trips. Everything started off fine. At first we were excited, a relaxing week

with little to no reminders of our once civilized life. No cleaning or eating healthy. Keyword: Started off. It was great. We’d eat out practically every meal. The fridge was empty of the typical milk, vegetables and lunch meat. Instead, it was replaced by a twoliter of Mountain Dew, Jello and Lunchables. All was well and good until the shine started to wear off. Eating out was no longer special. It was monotonous, repetitive, boring. I longed for the days of home-cooked meals and order. My dad and I managed to carry on our normal routines but my brother was a… special case. He hadn’t taken a

shower for almost a week. He did nothing but play Fortnite or whatever video game he was obsessed with at the time. After a few days, our sheriff would return to our slightly destroyed one-horse town. Now don’t get me wrong, our bachelor days were great. They were a special kind of freedom. They were structured but still ruleless. We all lived like 20-yearold college roommates, we had video game competitions and many gas station trips. But at the end of those few days, we were all ready for our sheriff back. My mom somehow finds a way to manage me, my dad and my shower-hating brother. Along with us, she manages a full-time job. I always looked forward to bachelor days but I was never sad when they were over.

CANE’S REIGNS

Cane’s chicken sandwhich and Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich side by side. (Photo by Austin Griffin)

Cane’s vs Chick-fil-A is a long-time debate as to who will give out a better meal to their customers. With Cane’s having a specific specialty of chicken tenders and Chickfil-A having a wide variety of options, both places give a great meal. However, because of their dedication to their specialty, Cane’s comes out on top in this debate. When going to Cane’s, the customer has a good idea of what they will be getting along with the great quality they will receive. The simplicity of their menu and dedication to their famous chicken tenders, fries and texas toast puts them leagues above Chick-fil-A in this debate. Along with having better food, Cane’s is also cheaper than their competitor. A Cane’s box combo is $6.98. A four chicken tender combo from Chick-fil-A would be $7.25 and you would get much less in terms of what comes with the meal when you order from Chick-fil-A. “I like their sauce a lot better and I think their bread is from the heavens. I also love their lemonade,” senior Mckenna O’Connor said. (Column by Chloe Ellison)

2022 senior’s painted parking space. (Photo submitted by Justin Brewer)

OUT WITH THE OLD wouldn’t do the original tradition justice, it’s the least they could do for the seniors. Better yet, this year’s and next year’s seniors deserve to leave their mark on the school in some way or another. While they won’t be attending school in the new building, they have been most affected by the construction of said building. Doing something whether it’s signing a part of the building or making pieces of artwork that will go in the new building would make up for not painting parking spots. Being able to have a part of you in a building you watched be built, a building you know will be there for a very long time surely makes up for not doing something that ends up being painted over or power washed. However almost anything is better than not partaking in any senior tradition whether old or new. (Column by Morgan Chairs and illustration by Violet Newton)

DID YOU KNOW OPINIONS Raising Cane’s was founded on Aug. 28, 1996 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It was founded by Todd Graves and Craig Silvey, Graves is the current CEO. In a moment of inspiration, Graves named the now popular chicken restaurant after his yellow lab, Raising Cane. The dog passed away in 2016 at the age of 17 years old. However, the restaurant is still thriving, bringing in a revenue of $1.5 billion, as of 2020. (Content by Hope Moseley)

(Illustration by Izzy Lash)

CUTE OR UGLY?

I’ve had, in my admittedly short life, four fabulous dogs. They’ve been big dogs and they’ve been lanky, furry and rowdy. I’ve hung out with my friend’s dogs. Small, loud and sometimes outright mean. I’ve loved them all, but I just can’t find it in myself to like one specific dog; greyhounds. There have been people who genuinely like a dog that looks like several sticks with a faux fur coat shrink wrapped over them in some abomination of a quadruped. People say they’re good hunters, they’re fun to watch run around and they are appealing as family dogs because of how loyal they are. They‘re also very tall and wild looking dogs, and people say that’s cute. Those people are also the ones that jog in the morning, so I like to take their words with a grain of salt. I, on the other hand, find them rather ugly. Greyhounds are disproportionate, long limbed, skinny dogs and they don’t look right to me. What kind of dog needs their eyes so forward on their head and so far out of their skull. They truly stand out amongst the crowds of cute dogs as the horses of dog breeds. Racing greyhounds are often denied veterinary attention, stuck in too small cages and often experience horrible injuries like broken necks, cardiac arrest or spinal damage. While being bred for running does make sense in the way they’re built, dog racing in it of itself is a crude way to make what could have been a sweet family dog into a starved speed machine. It doesn’t excuse the fact that I don’t like them, but it justifies a few of their faults. Those that agree with me would realize that some dogs are bred for functionality, and of those dogs tend to be ugly because their sole purpose is to run or swim or hunt. Sometimes you don’t have to be the fastest dog. Sometimes you can just let dogs be cute without ruining it by making them greyhounds. That being said, just because I don’t like the dog doesn’t mean it’s not deserving of love from some other family. Every dog deserves a home, and every home deserves a dog. Even if it’s a greyhound. (Column by Izzy Lash)

NORTH STAR • 11.09.2022 • Pages Designed by Hope Moseley

The last four years have been anything but normal, especially for those in school. Since the 2019-2020 school year, school events and traditions have been altered, delayed or canceled. Now with the construction of the new building causing even more changes inside and outside of school, another tradition, one that is quite popular, is being put on hold. As of right now, senior assigned parking and the option to paint a parking spot have been put on an indefinite pause. This left students outraged, and rightfully so. However, there is a silver lining. Jeffrey Fletcher, FHN’s new Principal, realizes the seniors are upset and wants to resolve this problem. Fletcher wants to instill new senior traditions in the upcoming years and wants input and suggestions from anyone willing to give them. Seniors would get the opportunity to paint either a wall of the current building or get to paint their own individual ceiling boards. The current building is going to be demolished in only a matter of time so it can’t hurt. While it

COVID PROTOCOLS: NECESSARY OR NOT?

Has leaving behind masks mandates and other COVID protocols proven to be a step forward or step back?

By Miranda Fabian

mfabian486@g.fhsdschools.org

et’s go back in time. It is now February 2020 Everyone has finally settled down from winter break. We are all excited for the new year and what it has in store for all of us. Then, it gets announced that two weeks off of school had been added to spring break that we were already looking forward to. Little did we know that those two weeks would turn into two years of quarantining, uncomfortably hot masks and online school stress. Let’s fast forward to the present day. No more mandates on wearing masks. No more wiping down desks every hour and no more social distancing. The need for toilet paper has decreased and the fear of someone coughing in class has, for the most part, gone away. These lack of COVID protocols are letting us get the chance to move forward from COVID instead of holding us back. Now that we’re putting these looser protocols into practice, we’re showing that not wearing masks hasn’t pulled us back into COVID. Rather, it has proved COVID has COVID 19 is a terrible disease that started in 2019. COVID has affected so many people across the world in definitely eased up. negative ways. People had to start quarantining and schools had to shut down. Everyone was required to wear There have always been masks in public and stay five feet apart from as many people as possible. Some people still wear masks. Right concerns about COVID and we now masks are optional but not fully in use. (Photos by Hannah Simmons) all want to continue to keep a mask and no longer mind it. down in death rates from last continue to enforce these everyone healthy, but we should Others choose to wear masks year’s enforced mask mandate protocols. We can now freely also continue to move forward. to be cautious on a daily basis in September to this year’s lax choose whether or not to move It’s important to look forward, and some choose to wear it for COVID protocols. This shows us forward from all not only in life the safety of others. However, that lack of mandates has not this, which is what but in school. for those left unsure on what pushed us back to early COVID, we should be We can’t go back to do moving forward, consider instead we’ve decreased in doing. to before all of this. Masks can often seem deaths since September of last It’s safe to say COVID happened like a security blanket to those year. that this is a of course but who choose to wear it because Now that the choice of topic has many now that COVID they’ve worn it for so long now. wearing masks has been put perspectives has eased up, we It kept us safe in times when into one’s own hands, there is a that come with it have vaccines and we had no clue how to protect choice to be made. While some and there is still built up immune ourselves, but now we’ve still have reasons to wear masks a discussion at systems. So, outgrown it. We have other daily to those who are uncertain hand. But whether wearing masks things that we now realize can on where they stand, the choice you continue to isn’t a number one protect us such as vaccines and that comes is are you willing wear a mask or QR code to Missouri priority for most we no longer need that comfort. to look forward and move on decide against it, people anymore. Department of Health and Senior Services statistics. According to the Missouri or will you still be cautious of all opinions should The CDC has Department of Health and the past? The past few months still be respected. been known for Senior Services, from September of progress has given us an We can’t know advocating for 2021 to September 2022, opportunity to reconsider where everyone’s reasoning for what wearing masks, social distancing COVID death rates have now we stand and if we decide to they decide, nor should we try and sanitizing everything, but we dropped 19.82% in Missouri move forward. to. The reasons for wearing a have now been cleared of these with 57% of the population mask could vary. Some may mandates. Meaning we can now being vaccinated. We’ve gone just be used to having to wear choose whether or not we should

WHY DO YOU STILL WEAR A MASK? Sabrina Drake Substitue teacher

“I wear it more so because I don’t want to risk getting kids sick, especially since I tend to go between buildings and you never know what you’re carrying out of the place for the day,” Drake said.

Alex Jacks Senior

“It’s a good-ish decision but honestly, them making masks optional was kinda dumb on their part,” Jacks said. “Like it’s just gonna get more students sick and that’s why we have so many more students out.”

Moe Bradbury Sophomore

“My lungs stopped working as well I couldn’t breathe when I was running while I was training for a marathon,” Bradbury said.

Sophomore

“Being more mindful with things like being really aware of everything that’s going on,” Baron said.

NORTH STAR • 11.09.2022 • Pages Designed by Miranda Fabian

Amaya Baron

Illustration by Violet Newton

How do you feel about the social enviroment here at North? “The social enviroment at North as a freshmen could be a little bit harsh and judgemental at points.” Freshman Evan Yale

“I think it’s pretty good everyone is usually pretty nice to each other like holding doors and things like that.” Junior Maggie Cuccio

“I think it’s pretty good, people like each other.” Sophmore Heidi Turek

“I definitely feel like it’s a positive environment especially from the energy that the teachers bring each morning.” Senior Cameron Chapple

DEEP DIVE INTO NORTH The FHN community has made many positive changes in the past 90 days On Behalf of the Editorial Staff yourFHN@fhntoday.com

NORTH STAR • 11.09.2022 • Pages Designed by Morgan Chairs

Since the school year began in late August, North has seen many positive changes in the school atmosphere. Students and teachers alike have seemed to be enjoying coming to school more than previous years. However, in order to keep the positive energy going, it’s going to take everyone at North working collectively to keep the positive energy flowing. There’s a lot of positive things going on at North and instead of focusing on the negatives, we should be putting our energy into making North more positive. More Student Involvement One of the biggest boosts to school morale this school year has to do with us students becoming more involved in school activities. With student run groups like the Goonies showing up to all kinds of fall sport games to lead the student section, or leaders/presidents of clubs meeting with Principal Jeffrey Fletcher to discuss things they like and dislike about school policies, students have been more active in all kinds of school activities. Earlier this year, students across all grades were super engaged in grade level elections that took place. Having people across every grade discussing and posting on social media on who they wanted to win added a level of excitement and interest for everyone. Having such an exciting concept and subsequent reaction be student led, opens up the possibility of teachers and administrators being more open to having more activities being run by students. School Cleanliness A huge issue surrounding last year’s school year had to do with the unnecessary vandalism that occurred at North. As a collective community, we have been more considerate and more careful with objects around the school this year. We can’t complain about the building being dirty or gross if we are actively adding onto the problems that are making it that way. If we continue to be conscious about what we are doing in school the final two years in our current building will be more enjoyable for

on learning experience that everyone. If everyone continues to students in the past two years behave normally and go throughout may have not been able to their day not trashing things or experience. With more people purposely destroying things, we can willing to go out to watch remove part of the stigma people sports games and participate have about our school’s cleanliness. in clubs, students and teachers Face to Face Learning Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic alike should be able to do more this school year in and hit and everyone was forced online out of school that may not for a few months, a certain feeling have been possible in previous of disconnect between students years. We should be looking and teachers began since learning forward to being able to have was no longer face to face. For the more pep assemblies this year, past two years, students have had more in school activities and the option to either come to school more participation throughout in person or continue learning the school in general. virtually and that split caused an Room For Improvement even further disconnect since not While we have seen many everyone was having the same improvements in the past learning experience. However, this three months, it’s important to year saw nearly everyone return continue fixing certain issues to in-person learning. This change we still have. We need to back to normalcy benefits everyone remember that since everyone can now the new school easily contact their peers won’t fix all of and more importantly, our problems. their instructors. Having The school nearly everyone back in atmosphere will the building also helps be up to all of the school atmosphere us. If we don’t since students can see continue to their friends that they better ourselves may have not been now, we’ll just be able to see due to Scan QR code above to in the same old learning in person and read the previous editorial on the topic of issues with environment in learning online. Having the school’s environment. a new building. more students back in Teachers and the building has also students alike need to realize increased the demand for more that we are all just trying teachers meaning new members our hardest to do our best. of the staff have been hired this Constant arguments and year such as Matthew Naes, Ryan bickering won’t make many of Curtis, Amanda Barnhouse and many us happy. We need to realize more. With more students and new that grade division is good teachers in the building, North has during pep assemblies and even more people to help better the other events when used in school atmosphere. a fun way but allowing that Return Of Student Favorites to bleed into our everyday This school year has seen the school life causes nothing but continuation of many returning division. Together, we have student favorites from the past. So the option to go back to the far we’ve had multiple assemblies bleak and unpleasant school and Homecoming take place inside environment many have felt of FHN. Coffee Fridays are also here to stay for the foreseeable future and and disliked before, or we can change for the better and more students can sit at lunch tables make North the great place we now that the every-other seat rule all know it can be. has been lifted. With nearly every COVID restriction lifted, students can look forward to a more hands

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