h t u o M f o d Wor Volume 8, Issue 5
January 2014
Campus Spirit Oak Hill Academy Student Newspaper
Inside this issue:
Spirit Days bring enthusiasm and cheer to the dark cold days of winter on ‘the Hill.’ As is tradition, this year’s Spirit Days began with Color Day. The Underclassmen sported red with the Juniors in black and the Seniors wearing gold. There was great enthusiasm as each class earned 100% participation! Teams of students worked with adult advisors to create spirit banners which were unveiled in the gym. Faculty and staff took to the stage during homeroom to participate in the hula hoop contest.
New Faces on ‘the Hill’ 2
Friday Funnies ~
Community Service
3
Leadership Group
4
Creative Innovations
4
Honor Court
5
Choir
6
Library
6
Chick-Fil-A Classic
7
Ski Club
7
Recently, the students of OHA made the ‘Funnies’ with this joke: “What did the parents say when Oxygen and Magnesium went out on a date? OMg” Ashlynn Knight posts the Friday Funny each week. The Friday Funny is a math or science joke that is sent to all
Outlasting everyone by more than several minutes, Mrs. Perry was crowned the staff hula hoop winner! The student hula hoop contest was destined to go on ‘forever’ as Amy He and London Lambeth were ‘hooping’ for 17 minutes with no one close to dropping. Spirit Days continued with Wacky Day which found everyone dressed in their craziest attire. Upcoming events
students/faculty who use the Web Assign that accompanies many textbooks. OHA
include the Iron Man competition for staff and students. Stay tuned for score updates during this friendly competition!
students completing dual enrollment college credit (Continued on page 2)
Page 2
Word of Mouth
New Faces on ‘the Hill’ By Leah Baucom Mr. Ken Hunnewell is one of the newer faces on the Oak Hill Academy campus. As the teacher of Physics, Physical Science, Algebra 2 and Ecology, he is no stranger to
the scientific and math fields. Hailing from northern New Jersey, he enjoyed pastimes of skiing and chorus as a child. His favorite subjects in school were Chemistry and Physics. At age 16, he began working for his father’s construction firm. Mr. Hunnewell attended Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey majoring in Geology. Before coming to teach at Oak Hill, Mr. Hunnewell lived in Roswell, Georgia with his
wife, two daughters, Erin (19) and Tara (17), and his two cats, Squirt and Buddy. In his spare time, he enjoys shopping at various secondhand stores. His favorite thing about Oak Hill is the scenery. Mr. Hunnewell enjoys shrimp, likes the color sky blue, and enjoys both downhill skiing and offshore power boating. Mr. Hunnewell is a great addition to the Oak Hill community and academic life.
By Yonatan Belayhun Mr. Saxton is the new rotator dorm parent on the boys side of campus. He is 27 years old and has two sisters. He lives mainly on the second floor of Ingram when he is at OHA. Mr. Saxton is from San Francisco, California. He has a bachelors and masters degree in biology. He aspires to be a teacher or an assistant coach at OHA. During his free time, he
enjoys watching movies, running, reading, camping, and playing tennis. His favorite thing about Oak Hill is the location and how beautiful the stars appear. His favorite foods are pizza and ice cream. Mr. Saxton is a good person to talk to about anything. His favorite quote is “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
Friday Funnies cont. classes use Web Assign. Mrs. Bonham sent in the joke. When her classes began studying the periodic table she started with the joke she got from Friday
Funnies, “When Oxygen and Potassium went out on a date, it turned out OK.” (The symbols for Oxygen and Potassium) She then asked her
students to create more periodic table jokes. Mrs. Bonham gets Friday Funnies from them each week.
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Community Service By Destiny Crickman Oak Hill Academy participates in many local community service projects. The goal of these projects is to give back to the community and to those who are less fortunate, especially around the holidays. Prior to the Winter Break, some of these projects included the decorating of a Christmas tree, stacking fire wood, filling gift boxes for Samaritan’s Purse and Project Christmas Child, and baking cookies for the Shutins. Mrs. Thompson’s advisee group (Maina Ly, Baaba Otabil, Libby Young, Lien Raets, Michelle Metcalf, Octavia Williams) and her son, Grant, decorated a Christmas tree on December 6th. The Christmas tree was placed in the hall of the school, across from the library. While decorating the tree, they sang Christmas carols and ate cookies to celebrate the holiday season.
Ashley Dupper, Libby Young, Baaba Otabil, Destiny Alston, and Ms. Haas all participated in baking for the Shut-ins on December 13th. The group went to Young’s Chapel Baptist Church to bake cookies in the kitchen. The cookies were handed out by a group of students that went Christmas caroling around Grayson County. A combination of Ms. Sargent’s and Ms. Brooks’ advisee groups participated in the stacking of firewood for a local elderly couple. They moved wood to the front porch of the couple’s house so they can heat their home with a wood stove. The group stacks wood periodically to keep this home toasty warm. Destiny Crickman, Carly Bronikowski, Leah Baucom, and Ms. Haas participated in Project Christmas Child. Samaritan’s Purse provides gifts to various
aged children who are not as fortunate as others. Their goal is to provide these children with a joyful Christmas. The girls went to a local Dollar Store and bought items following specific guidelines for the child they chose.
Students continued to volunteer with Feed America, Lamb’s Table, and the Backpack Ministry. These community service projects are on-going. Community Service opportunities are available throughout the year. Check with your advisor to see what activities you could participate in as the year progresses.
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Word of Mouth
Leadership at Oak Hill By Shawn Haas The leadership group is a collection of students who strive to create a more enjoyable atmosphere on campus. Several projects and committees have been formed and completed through the ideas presented in leadership meetings. Those involved in leadership can become appointed to specific positions as well. Dorm Assistants, Ambassadors, and other opportunities present themselves to the students that dedicate themselves to being a leader on campus. Mr. Henry Crede, Mrs. Richardson, and Mr. Rodgers all help with the leadership group. Often leading meetings or pitching ideas they are of high value to the group.
Meetings are generally held once or twice a month for the entire leadership group. However, individual committees that stem as a product of the leadership group meet more frequently. For example, a social committee was formed this year. The people appointed to the committee met every Wednesday to draft ideas to spice up the weekend socials. They provided some great ideas, such as the ice cream social and dinner-with-a-movie. Both socials went on without a hitch and were a great success. Leadership is open to all students. Anyone who is interested will join an enthusiastic group of students, who are genuinely invested in improving life on Oak
Hill’s beautiful campus. The core leaders this year include Lien Raets, Theresa Marinelli, Jae Mayweather, Tamsin Smith, Peter Hatakeyama, James Kidd, Alex Van Stippen, Shawn Haas, Patrick Tighe, Terrence Phillips, Spencer Titzmann, and Brennan Jolliffe. This exceptional group has provided numerous services to the school and looks forward to
Creative Innovations By Maddy Leech Creative Innovations is one of the newer classes offered to students at Oak Hill. The class, taught by Ms. Luksic, emphasizes creative problem solving, teamwork, and communication. The team known as the ‘OH A-team’ meets every day during fourth period and consists of: Destiny Alston, Mason Kelly, Maina Ly, Andrew
Awantang, Lizzy Aksamit, and Maddy Leech. Ms. Luksic based the class curriculum on the mission of Destination Imagination, which is an organization geared toward helping students of all ages develop their creative problem-solving and communication skills. During the course of the year, the team has been preparing for the regional competition which allows teams to showcase their solutions to two
of the seven challenges laid out by Destination Imagination. The team hopes to have a successful competition at the regional tournament which is held on March first. The team hopes to advance to the state tournament with the skills they have honed this school year.
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OHA Honor Court By Ma’moun Bukhari Oak Hill Academy’s Student Honor Court has been around for several years now. It is a code that works towards upholding the high standards of ethics and academic integrity. Honor Court is made up of eight students and three Oak Hill staff members. When needed, three to four students meet with all three faculty members in the Archives Room in order to hear the charges brought before the Honor Court. The student is given
a chance to speak and defend him/herself. Students can appear before the Honor Court for lying, stealing, cheating, plagiarism, harassment, etc. The Honor Court is mainly run by the students with minor assistance from the faculty members. After the student’s statement, he/she is sent out and the Honor Court discusses their findings. The Honor Court is given the power to give
More Spirit Days!!
recommendations for consequences, and the administration takes those recommendations into account. Student members include: Alex Van Stippen, Charlie Favor, Patrick Tighe, Jeff Uju, WonJun Jung, Spencer Titzmann, Libby Young, and Maddy Leech. Adult advisors include: Mr. Henry Crede, Ms. Richardson, and Mr. Bunn.
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Word of Mouth
Singing Sweetly By Amy He Choir is an extra-curricular activity on campus that allows both boys and girls to sing for the school. Students spend their afternoon free time to practice for concerts. The Oak Hill choir is an
international group. There are students from China, Mexico, Canada, Belgium, and New Zealand. Mr. Fulbright, the new choir director, has three years of previous experience. Choir members include: Destiny Alston, Aislinn Curtin, Cynthia Gao, Aaliyah Haygood, Maddy Leech, Hon Lee, Elisha Marrs, Theresa Marinelli, Jae Mayweather, Baaba Otabil, Lien Raets, Christine Sears, Eden Sileshi, Patrick Tighe, Jesse Wade, Michelle WatsonJones, and Libby Young.
Each concert is an opportunity for students to show off everything they’ve practiced. They performed Christmas songs for the student body before Winter break. One upcoming concert is during Parents’ Days in April. The songs they will perform are “Bridge Over Troubled Water”, “Someone Like You”, and “Born This Way.” Be sure to check them out while you are on campus for Parents’ Days!
summer of 2013. In addition to the many renovations to the library, Ms. Bronson offers Study Hall one night a week from 7:509:30 p.m. Students sign up during the week to use the library at night to do homework. Ms. Bronson offered this option to give students a quiet place to work. The library is also open daily until 5 p.m.
available for the students to use. She also hopes to add more books to the nonfiction and biography sections.
Shhhhh... By Aislinn Marie Curtin The library has some new additions! There are new books, furniture, computers, an automatic check out system, and even a new librarian! Ms. Bronson, formerly the Fields Dorm Manager, took over the post of librarian during the
Ms. Bronson truly loves her position as the librarian. She enjoys helping students with their homework as well as showing off all of the new books. Ms. Bronson hopes to continue upgrades to the library including having Kindles
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Player’s POV of the By Tony Anderson Christmas break was something that I was looking forward to ever since school got started. I was excited about a long break spent with family in Columbus, Ohio (my hometown.) Before the break started, the Gold team took a trip to Columbia, South Carolina for the Chick-Fil-A Classic. This trip was significant to the team because this was an important tournament. We needed to win to show everyone that we were ‘for real.’ The first game was against Wesleyan from North Carolina. Wesleyan is a top five team from North Carolina with UNC signee, Theo Pinson. Coming into the game I was focused and ready to play on the big stage.
We came out hard and ended up winning by a good margin. The next game was against Keenan from South Carolina. Being a local team, the crowd was anxious to see an upset. Putting forth a strong effort, we ended up beating them as well. We were one game away from winning the championship with Archbishop Carroll in our way. They were a good team who was also ranked in the top 25 just like us.
throws for us sending the game into overtime. His twin brother Cody also made big plays down the stretch. The overtime win over Archbishop Carroll was an exciting start to the Winter Break! We excelled to a record of 19-1. We still have unfinished business to reach our goal of being number one.
Going into the championship game we knew it was a big game and that we needed the win. Even though it was a close game throughout, we still stayed confident and didn’t crack under pressure. We had to make up for a big deficit at the half, and we worked as a team to get the win. Caleb Martin hit two huge free
Swishing Down the Slopes By Mariah Ashley On Wednesdays throughout winter, students take trips with Mr. Henry to the Appalachian Ski Resort, just outside of Blowing Rock, North Carolina. The students are allowed the option to snowboard or ski. Students who ski are able to rent or bring their own gear and hit the slopes fairly quickly. Students who prefer to snowboard need to bring their own equipment. The students
pick from a total of ten slopes and three terrains. Some students took to the bunny slopes while others took to the beginner slopes. Other students took to the lodge grabbing a warm cup of hot chocolate here and there. When asked about her skiing experience, Christine Sears stated, “It was a painful series of trial and error, considering it was my first time. I stuck mostly to the bunny slopes.”
Students who have skied this year include: Sam Walker, Christine Sears, Alex Ball, Jesse Wade, Justin Hill, Spencer Gavin, and Brennan Jolliffe. Over all the students had a blast and when asked if he would take the trip again Alex Ball said, “ I would go on the trip again. As a matter of fact, I am going next time!”
Editor-in-Chief Shawn Haas The Mission of Oak Hill Academy
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
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