h t u o M f o d Wor Volume 8, Issue 6
February 2014
Warrior Weekend #2 Oak Hill Academy Student Newspaper
By Maddy Leech, Chase Marcoux, & Aislinn Curtin This year’s second Warrior Weekend kicked off on Friday, February 21st with a multitude of trips and activities. Activities included: a trip to Golden Corral for dinner with Mr. Bowen, dinner at Tamales Restaurant with Ms. Richardson, or dinner at Ciro’s Pizza with Mr. Hill. Junior Jose Castro was able to celebrate his 18th birthday with dinner at Tamales. Jose said, “Being able to spend time with friends outside
Inside this issue:
of school on my birthday was great!” According to senior Lien Raets, the guys who worked at Tamales gave Jose a huge sombrero to wear, gave him a free dessert, and then sang Happy Birthday in Spanish. Lien commented, “I had a good trip, and the food was on point!” Students could also participate in rocket building on campus with Mr. Hunnewell. Also on tap for the night were basketball games featuring the Gold and JV teams against Hamilton Heights. The
night ended with wins for both teams. Overall, our second Warrior Weekend began with lots of food, friends, fun, and school spirit. Saturday’s Warrior Weekend activities began with a trip to Blacksburg to see the Virginia Tech men’s basketball team host the North Carolina State Wolfpack. The game would come down to the final minute, with North Carolina State taking the (Continued on page 6)
Spirit Days
2
Black History Month
Equestrian Class
3
By Mariah Ashley
Stage Crew
3
The Gazette Trip
4
Youth Lock-in & Community Service
5
Friday Funnies
5
Red Team POV
6
Many people think that Black History Month (also known as African-American History Month) is just recognized in the United States. Actually, it is recognized in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Canada as well. The United Kingdom
recognizes Black History Month in October. Dr. Carter G. Woodson, known as the ‘Father of Black History,’ began a celebration called “Negro History Week” in 1926. It occurred in conjunction with the
birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Dr. Woodson believed that it was important to study the history and accomplishments of blacks. (Continued on page 7)
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Word of Mouth
Spirit Days at OHA By Tony Anderson Spirit Days festivities continue, and it couldn’t be more competitive. Teachers and students are pulling out their best tricks to win bragging rights and a day off from Saturday School.
The Iron Man competition brought out the ‘big guns’ for both staff and students alike. The adult contestants for each team included Coach Meagher, representing the underclassmen, Mr. Philyaw for the juniors, and Coach Conn for the seniors. As the competitors took the stage, T-Bone had a good method in listening to music. “I can’t tell you what the song is, it’s my own motivational song,” he said while laughing. It’s now bragging rights for him as he beat the ‘strongest men’ on campus. The student contestants for the Iron Man included Stephen Wang representing the underclassmen, Andrew Awantang for the juniors, and WonJun Jung for the seniors. Chanting from the crowd
motivated WonJun to his third Iron Man win! Multiple Day was a big hit. Groups of students and staff dressed alike to get participation points. Another fun dress up day was Pajama Day. Students and staff alike wore their PJs to school for the day. Everyone was in their comfort zone.
The OHA Idol competition brought the crowd to its feet with song selections from each class. The underclassmen (Frankie, Kane, and Marshall) did a Backstreet Boys act for the audience, which included a number of dance moves that brought cheers from the crowd. Next up were the seniors (Shelton, BJ, Kem, Coach Conn, Cody, Caleb, Rokas & Jeff). To begin their act, BJ and Shelton showed their vocal talents by actually singing “Same Girl”. The seniors finished off with random dancing and crazy costumes to pump the crowd up. Last but not least were
the juniors (Tony, Trevor, Terrence, Will, and Jae). The juniors provided the crowd with a timeline of music through the decades from The Temptations, to Diana Ross, to the King of Pop, to Will Smith, to Kid N’ Play, to TLC, to Josh Turner. There was a lot of creativity demonstrated by each of the acts. The juniors, however, brought down the house taking first place in the event. The Bat Relay and Tug-of-War occurred back-to-back. The Bat Relay was a competition to see which team could spin around a bat and run to the other end of the gym the fastest. The juniors won this event. The Tug-of-War pitted the muscles and brawn of each of the classes against each other. Teams were required to have three girls, two adults, and be ten people strong. The seniors put together the strongest team pulling the other classes across the line and across the gym. Still to come are the Academic Bowl and the Pep Rally. Stay tuned to next month’s paper for the final results.
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Equestrian Class By Amy He Equestrian class is a course designed to teach students the basics in horse care and stable management. The class teaches students how to groom a horse, clean a stall, what kind of feed a horse needs daily, how to ride, and how to saddle and bridle a horse. Students who participate in the equestrian class often help with daily maintenance of the horses and stables.
During class, students learn how to trot and two-point. Trotting is when a horse proceeds at a pace faster than a walk while two-point is a jumping position where the horse lifts each diagonal pair of legs alternately. There are two different kinds of trot. Posting trot is when the rider rises from the saddle every second. Sitting trot is when the rider remains seated while the horse trots. Cleaning stalls is a part of the class as well. It is important to keep a stall clean for horses. It affects the horse’s health when the stall is not clean. The ammonia fumes from the dirty stall can irritate a horse’s sensitive lungs.
The horse can develop many assorted skin irritations if it is lying on wet or dirty bedding. Antonio Angelo, Jeremiah Brenner, Christopher Collier, Linda Goins, Aaliyah Haygood, Will Messer, Cheyanne Molina, Trenna Pittmon, Lien Raets, Christine Sears, Tamsin Smith, Patrick Tighe, Jesse Wade, and Michelle Watson-Jones participate in Equestrian class. They will have a horse show for all students, faculty, and parents during Parents’ Days in April. It is sure to be an exciting event.
Stage Crew By Yonatan Belayhun Stage crew is a group that meets each year to help create the sets, props, and costumes for the spring play. Not only are the students creating the scenery for the play, they also help carry props and scenery on the night of the performance to set the stage for the actors. The Crew, under the direction of Miss Luksic, works to make sure the lights, curtains, and spotlight
are exact so the play comes alive for the audience. Stage crew meets multiple times a week starting in January to build and paint sets. During acting rehearsals, the crew meets to work with the actors and director to practice the scene changes, lighting, and curtains for show time. Students in this year’s crew include: Christine Richardson Props, Tyler Whiteman - Lights & Curtains, Sean Spalding Props, London Lambeth - Set
Painter, Josh Tamminen - Set Painter, Angel Kenkpen - Set Painter, Maina Ly - Set Painter, Destiny Alston - Set Painter, Michelle Watson-Jones - Set Painter & Costumes, Sandy Chen – Set Painter, and James Kidd – Props.
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Word of Mouth
WOM Staff visits The Gazette By Shawn Haas The Desktop Publishing class teamed up with the 21st Century Communications class to go on a field trip to local newspaper, The Gazette. Ms. Haas took the group of students to observe and learn real application of the skills learned in the classes. The two classes are responsible for writing the various feature articles in the Oak Hill newspaper. The Word of Mouth is produced and designed by the Desktop Publishing class; with articles written between them and 21st Century Communications, the paper is filled with everything Oak Hill Academy. Yonatan Belayhun, Chase Marcoux, Tony Anderson, Shawn Haas, Maddy Leech, Leah Baucom, Destiny Crickman, and Ma’moun Bukhari were the students on the field trip. The
trip included many interesting features unique to Galax. Students got to look through old newspapers, dating back to the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s. It was a great experience to see how news developed from the past to the present. Students also got to hone in on the business side of a paper business as the marketing department gave a briefing on what a day in their life is like. Everybody enjoyed the time offcampus and learned a real field example of what journalism and reporting is all about. Construction and design of the paper was also introduced to the students, so their trip was certainly well rounded. Ms. Haas found the trip to be
a success and hopes to plan another trip. She would like to build on this experience and take this group to an actual printing press for a newspaper. The classes enjoyed a successful starter trip and would love to investigate the journalism and news business again.
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OHA’s Youth Lock-In & Volunteer Opportunities By Destiny Crickman Community Service is wellknown on the campus of Oak Hill Academy. Upon entering the doors of the academic building, there is a bulletin board featuring a tree with many apples. Each of these apples represents a community service project with the names of those who participated. These projects include Feeding America, shoe drives, Lamb’s Table, Backpack Ministry, Caps for Kids, and many more. Many of these community service projects are done within assigned advisory groups. Ms. Sargent’s advisory group for example, participates in helping a local family move wood to be more easily accessed. They do this on an as needed basis. Lamb’s Table is offered to the entire student body. Henry Crede announces when the event will be taking place. Students then sign up. At Lamb’s Table, students have the choice to either prepare food or serve the food to locals in the area. Lamb’s Table offers a hot meal to anyone from the
Friday Funnies— Published AGAIN & AGAIN! Once again, OHA finds themselves published in the Friday Funnies. Check out this latest installment of OHA humor.
community each Tuesday. Meals are also prepared and delivered to community members who are unable to get around. On February 1, 2014, the youth group sponsored a lock-in at the school’s gymnasium from 9 p.m.1 a.m. During this time, students participated in three community service activities. One of the activities was looming ‘Caps for Kids.’ The hats that were made will be sent out internationally. Another activity was called ‘Free Rice.’ As students answered SAT prep questions correctly, 10 grams of rice were donated to areas lacking food. The third activity was the crafting of mats made out of grocery bags for the homeless. After an hour of participating in these three activities, the group held a Bible Study session that ended with food and treats. Students who participated in this event were: MichelleWatsonJones, Sallie Jones, Alex Kulp, London Lambeth, Angel Kenkpen, Tamsin Smith, Eden Sileshi, and
DJ Grayson. Mr. Knudsen, Reverend Turnmire, Ms. K, Mrs. Groves, and women from the church sponsored this event. On February 17, 2014, the student body had the honor of meeting two representatives working with the Peace Corps and Americorps. Rebekah Turnmire informed the students about services involved with the Peace Corps and how the program works. Megan Pintus talked about how to apply for Americorps and the purpose of the program. Both of these organizations provide an opportunity for volunteers to live in the same poverty conditions of the community in which they are serving as well as a chance to provide needed services to the community. On-going service opportunities include the Backpack Ministry, Feeding America, and Lamb’s Table. The blood mobile will also be visiting the campus again for another blood drive.
This week's Friday Funny was sent in by the students of Janida Bonham's chemistry class at Oak Hill Academy. Q: What is the chemical formula for the molecules in candy? A: Carbon-Holmium-Cobalt-Lanthanum-Tellurium or CHoCoLaTe !
This week's Friday Funny was submitted by Sam Bernstein, a student at Oak Hill Academy in Virginia. Q: There are 10 types of people in this world. A: Those who understand binary numbers and those who do not.
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Word of Mouth
A View from the Bench—Red Team’s Player POV By Ma’moun Bukhari Coach Hebold developed a new starting line-up for the game on February 14th versus Ballard Christian. The regular starters were going to take a seat and cheer. The starting line up on that day consisted of Cade Groesbeck, Will Hall, Alex Zorn, Nour Farag, and David Mosindi. Our guys came out hard in the first quarter and managed to continue that level of play throughout the game. They executed well on both ends of the
court and showed great team chemistry. Cade Groesbeck, the starting point guard, was on the court for the whole game and was able to keep his quick pace along with his consistency. David Mosindi got his first dunk in a game that night, and Nour Farag and Alex Zorn were tied as leading scorers. We ended up winning by a very large margin without the help of any of the usual starters which are Andres Rodriguez, Xavier
Smith, Ray Lock, Kimy Kacyira, and Ma’moun Bukhari. Although I was eager to play that game, it turned out to be a better experience than I imagined. I enjoyed watching my teammates out on the court. They came out with a lot of enthusiasm and energy, ready to win that game. They couldn’t have done a better job. Congratulations to the guys for a game well played.
Warrior Weekend #2 cont. win. Saturday’s trips were far from finished and jampacked with fun. Ms. Richardson took students to get their nails done and to Wendy’s for lunch. Ms. Brooks and Ms. Bronson took a trip to the Osaka Japanese restaurant, and Reverend Turnmire took vans filled with smiling faces ice skating. Ms. Brooks and Mr. Bowen came in with a bang, knocking down pins to make the bowling trip exciting as well. Mr. Hunnewell decided to shoot for the stars and launch rockets with his group, and Mr. Slemp and his students fired away during an intense game of paintball. Students and fans filled historic Turner Gymnasium to standing room only capacity for the highly anticipated Gold Team game
against Quality Education. The Gold Team shined, winning by a margin of 45 points. Students finished off the night with a bonfire at Noonkester. Early in the morning on Sunday a group went on a Snow Tubing trip with Mr. Hill. They had lots of fun. They held on to each other’s tubes and went down at the same time. Sallie Jones and Michelle WatsonJones both said that it was amazing and they would do it again. On the Discovery Place trip with Mrs. Smith, students learned and had a lot of fun in the life lab. The life lab was a living animal
exhibit. They also enjoyed the IMAX Theater. Mr. Knudsen, took students to a contemporary church service. They said that it was a really good sermon, and that they hoped that they could go back again. They went to lunch after the service. On the Bojangles trip with Rev. Turnmire, people bought lots of food. Sam Bernstein said that he loved Bojangles and thanks to Rev. for taking them. Ms. Bronson took students to a Japanese Restaurant. Christine Sears said that it was really good food and that she would definitely go back. She said (Continued on page 7)
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Warrior Weekend #2 (Continued from page 6)
that they had lots of different kinds of Japanese food. Bingo in the café was sweet. Trenna Pittmon, Christine Richardson, Aislinn Curtin, Ms. Brooks, and Mrs. Bowen had a lot of fun. Everyone won prizes of bags of candy. By the end of play, everyone had about three bags of candy each. The
group had a lot of fun while telling stories, eating cookies, and playing Bingo. At the sports social in the gym, lots of students won prizes. With Coach Smith and Mr. Gary Crede in charge, it was a competitive but fun social. Those having a ski lesson with Mr. Hunnewell had fun and fell down a lot. Eden said that she had a lot of fun because she got to do
something that she had not done very often. Students were scared at first; but after they skied the hill even one time, they were not afraid anymore. Everyone skied the slopes again and again.
Black History Month cont. (Continued from page 1)
In 1976, President Ford recognized the celebration and expanded it to the month of February. In his address to the public, Ford encouraged Americans to ‘seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.’ Every President since Ford has formally recognized February as ‘Black History Month.’ Each Black History Month celebration also has its own theme. The theme for 2013 celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. This year’s theme is ‘The Golden Jubilee of the Civil Rights Act.’ Fifty years ago,
President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law improving the quality of life for AfricanAmericans and other minority groups. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the bill saying: ‘We believe that all men are created equal—yet many are denied equal treatment. We believe that all men have certain inalienable rights. We believe that all men are entitled to the blessings of liberty—yet millions are being deprived of those blessings, not because of their own failures, but because of the color of their skins. The reasons are deeply embedded in history and tradition and the nature of man. We can understand without rancor or hatred how all this happens. But it cannot continue. Our Constitution, the foundation of our Republic,
forbids it. The principles of our freedom forbid it. Morality forbids it. And the law I sign tonight forbids it.’ February, often known for love, can be summed up in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ‘Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.’ Reflect upon the past with an eye towards the future as Robert F. Kennedy reminded us, ‘Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope... and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.’
Editor-in-Chief Shawn Haas Staff Journalists Tony Anderson Mariah Ashley Leah Baucom Yonatan Belayhun Ma’moun Bukhari Destiny Crickman Aislinn Marie Curtin Amy He Staff Photographers Carly Bronikowski Sallie Jones Proofreaders Lisa Finklea Cyndie Richardson Faculty Sponsor Mikki Haas
The Mission of Oak Hill Academy
Oak Hill Academy is a coeducational, Baptist affiliated, boarding/day school committed to excellence in education and adolescent development in a non-military setting. The mission of Oak Hill Academy is to offer a safe, secure, nurturing environment for girls and boys needing a change in school, peer, community, or family relationships. Oak Hill provides a structured college-preparatory program to students in grades 8-12. Our curriculum challenges the brightest student and encourages those who are unmotivated, who are underachieving, or who are experiencing difficulties in their school setting.
Oak Hill Academy
2635 Oak Hill Road Mouth of Wilson, VA 24363 Phone: 276-579-2619 E-mail: info@oak-hill.net