September 2018 Issue

blue valley north high school

North Star

the

12200 Lamar Ave, Overland Park, KS 66209

September 2018 • Volume 33 • Issue 1

bursting

the

bubble.

2| The North Star | September 2018

Staff List EDITORS IN CHIEF Shantha Burt Sooim Kang Taylor Mills

ONLINE EDITOR Briley Everhart

PHOTOGRAPHER Grace E. Rudman

The North Star is the official high school news publication of Blue Valley North High School, an open forum distributed to all students six times a year.

This is the September issue of volume 33. The North Star is printed by the Sedalia Democrat. This is a student publication and may contain controversial material. Kansas law prohibits the suppression of a student publication solely because it may contain controversial matter. Blue Valley School District No. 229 and its board members, officers and employees disclaim any responsibility for the content of this student publication; it is not an expression of School District Policy. Students and editors are solely responsible for the content of this student publication.

COPY EDITORS Anna Martin Lyndsey Henkel Megan McConnell Ramya Chilappa

SOCIAL MEDIA EDITORS Chris Lucas Genevieve Hulshof

STAFF WRITERS Angelica Henson Angelica Lidzy Charitha Lakkiredey Daniel Park Delaina Sanden Emma Brunner Genevieve Hulshof Samantha Perez

On the cover: photo by Grace E. Rudman Top table of contents: photo by Emma Brunner Top middle: photo by Clara Taylor Bottom middle: photo by BVN Yearbook Staff Bottom: photo by BVN Yearbok Staff

Table of Contents

September 2018 | The North Star | 3

FINANCE

6

The Cost of Learning

8

Teacher Wages

SUMMER ‘18 10

Summer 2018 Recap

12

BAHHH-maste: Goat Yoga

BACK TO SCHOOL 13

Meet the Mustangs

16

New to North

18

Custodians of Blue Valley North

20

Chinese Language Finds a New Home

STUDENT LIFE 22

HOCO: Can You Handle the Pressure?

24

2017-2018 State Champions

26

The Power of Gold

ACTIVITIES 28

Why WiFi?

30

Written in the Stars

Your favorite local sports bar and after-game stop johnnystavern.com 913.451.4542

HEY, YOU preorder a 2018 yearbook by going to ParentVue. Preorder yearbooks by Dec. 20 to ensure a book for your student!*

PLEASE & THANK YOU

NORTHERN LIGHT YEARBOOK

A

Letter

from the

Editors T

his June, tragedy struck Annapolis, Md. when the Capital Gazette was targeted in a mass shooting. The attack left five dead at the local newspaper and shell shocked reporters across the nation, as this senseless violence reminded them that their jobs are not only growing in difficulty but in danger. In the face of this fear intimidation did not affect the Capital Gazette- they put out a paper less than 24 hours after this tragedy occurred. Journalists have an imperative job in reporting the events and happenings throughout the world, and one attack did not sway this responsibility.

Recent political turmoil has victimized reporters for exercising their rights. News outlets and journalists have been pegged “the enemy of the people,” and it is no coincidence that threats against the free press have escalated after these words. Their rhetoric is not only alarming but dangerous, as the free press acts as the fourth branch of government watching over lawmaking processes. The struggle against transparency has morphed into the struggle against false truths and even access towards what should rightfully be the people’s knowledge.

We as student journalists recognize these attempts to de-legitimize one of the few sources of political accountability as serious signs history warns us about. But, there is hope.

The hope lies in the heroic student coverage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas while their very own school was under attack. It is seen in the changemaking investigative journalism the students from Pittsburgh High School published that challenged incoming leadership. It is protected in the fierce legal battles such as the one between the Shawnee Mission School District and the ACLU, where student

journalists are fighting for their first amendment rights in the face of censorship. The hope is us, the next generation of journalists that press on to create a better, more inclusive American media even in the face of alienation and attempted suppression.

As The North Star staff we will fully exercise our rights under the first amendment and the Kansas Student Publications Act in order to serve this school and community. In this magazine, readers will find two articles pertaining to issues relevant to members of Blue Valley. This is the beginning of our annual goal to push the envelope of what stories are told, including those that are controversial and maybe even uncomfortable to discuss. Our job is not to reassure readers but to inform them, and in that exchange it is possible that one will not enjoy or agree with the truth we have tried to get behind.

We say there is no shame in this discomfort, no shame in feeling that one’s opinions are under attack. But, if we are to learn anything from events such as the Capital Gazette shooting it is that these emotions must not turn to hostility or violence because that is when innocent lives are unjustly affected.

Our publication is not simply a high school magazine, but a reminder that the free press will always have a future in this nation. We hope to honor and rightfully tell the stories of those in this community, and we invite our readers to contribute in this mission.

Shantha Burt, Sooim Kang and Taylor Mills Editors-in-Chief, The North Star

6 | The North Star | September 2018

The Cost of Learning

Students and staff discuss resources in the education system.

By Charitha Lakkireddy

T

he concept of free K-12 public education is something that the U.S. has taken pride in since its establishment and continues to be proud of today. This doesn’t mean that it’s never experienced any changes, in both price and value.

In the early 1600s, when public school got its start, students went to school and, in exchange, their families provided the teacher with food, shelter and other commodities. Students paid their teachers to show up to class, teach them and possibly provide them with necessary school supplies.

Today, it’s essentially the same idea, except the basics, like classroom supplies and school-wide resources, are paid for mostly through property taxes. The remaining costs, like those attached to extracurricular activities and fees for classes that require additional supplies, that students and their families are asked to budget for are much greater.

The monetary value of the resources available and the content taught has increased, and the state funding provided per student for Kansas public schools has decreased since 2008 levels. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the state formula funding per student has fallen 9.9 percent since 2008, with inflation adjusted. Some believe this decrease is part of the reason that the amount students are expected to pay has risen.

“Part of [the increase in cost] is that what we teach in classrooms has become more expensive and we just don’t have as much funding as we used to,” activities administrator Kelli Kurle said. “Kansas schools’ funding has been declared inadequate.”

To put it simply, the free version of public education, meaning mostly core classes, is what local property taxes and mandatory registration fees cover. To unlock the “premium version,” which includes certain elective classes, extracurriculars, school trips and social events, there are additional costs. This leads to both a separation between students who can afford the latter and those who cannot — and a difference in their experiences.

One of the biggest factors that contrib-

utes to the overall price is extracurriculars.

The 2016 Backpack Index said that the average cost for a student to participate in extracurricular activities is $739, and that cost doesn’t come without incentive. According to Kurle, the average cost is about $50 per student involved per extracurricular, not including any additional purchases, like certain shoes for a sport, that may be required.

Debate teacher Brian Box said that universities value how involved an applicant was both inside and outside of the classroom. Box explained how along with the

“People have an advantage, just by walking in these doors every day that a lot of kids in other schools don’t have.”

- Mark Turrentine

grades a student receives and the classes they choose to take, universities also look at the different extracurriculars they were in and how dedicated they were.

According to a 2014 U.S. Census, six out of 10 kids are involved in extracurricular activities, and BVN is no exception.

A 2017 survey submitted by BVN said that there are 1443 participants in all of the school’s extracurriculars put together, including students who may be involved in more than one activity.

From athletics to the performing arts, every activity comes with a reward but also a price tag. For example, to participate in the fall musical last year, students who wanted roles were required to pay a fee of about $230, according to drama teacher Jeremy Riggs, who is also the director of said play. Some students believe that the cost is high, but understandable, considering what it takes to make the show happen.

“The musical is pretty expensive because it costs so much to put on,” said sophomore Katherine Moore, who is a part of the repertory theater program.

That doesn’t mean that students cannot participate if they don’t have the financial means to do so. The option of financial assistance just isn’t widely advertised and, therefore, remains relatively unknown.

“The director offers many different ways to help with [the cost] whether it be a partial scholarship or separate payments,” Moore said. “I can see how it could have stopped someone [from auditioning] because the financial aid isn’t really advertised that much.”

There were students who agreed that the price diminished their interest, but there were also students who thought the experience was worth the cost.

“Any show will always end up costing you something, but it’s honestly worth it,” said sophomore Jessie Scowcroft, who is a part of repertory theater.

Golf is another activity that, despite being school sponsored, is mostly student funded. It tends to be perceived as a sport for those who are wealthy and though golf coach Mark Turrentine doesn’t agree that it’s totally true, he doesn’t disagree either.

“The likelihood is that, if you do have money, it’s a lot easier sport to succeed at,” Turrentine said.

That doesn’t mean Turrentine believes it’s impossible to become a good golfer without wealth, and he has a success story to prove it.

“My best boys golfer on my team last year didn’t grow up with a country club background and didn’t come from wealthy parents and learned the game on public courses and worked his way up and is now playing division one golf,” Turrentine said.

There are different opportunities for players who are interested but don’t have the financial means — it just strays from the path of the typical player.

Turrentine said, “If you want to do the sport, you can do it in a cost-effective manner, it’s just a different route than some others would take.”

The costs of extracurricular activities

September 2018 | The North Star | 7 can affect how much of their school’s potential a student is taking advantage of. It also has an impact on their chances of being accepted into a university when being compared to an applicant who did have the means to participate in those activities and add them to their application.

Although many schools claim to consider the different socioeconomic backgrounds of their applicants, Box believes it’s an idea rarely used in practicality.

“It’s tough, when you’re staring down two applications and one of them just looks way better than the other one, to say, ‘oh, well, that was merely a product of opportunity’,” Box said. “That student who has the better application is going to be favored far more often than the other one.”

The price tags attached to many school sponsored activities aren’t meant to discourage any students from participating, but they do generally tend to stop students of lower income families from getting into it at all, even if there’s financial assistance provided.

“If it is pay to play, so to speak, then not only are there some people who just straight up would not be able to afford a lot of it, but I also think that kind of deters certain people from coming forward and saying like, ‘this is financially going to be tough for my family to pay for’,” Box said.

It’s not just the extracurricular activities that are costing students and families, even the normal day-to-day classes find a way to come with a price. For example, all 19 of the visual arts classes offered at BVN come with fees that go up to $65, which are used to pay for basic art supplies for the classroom, excluding any additional materials students may be required to purchase on their own.

The only exception to these extra costs is students who are on the free or reduced lunch program. The administration generally waives their fees, or both the administration and fellow BVN families help to cover some of the costs, according to Kurle.

“We aren’t going to deny a kid the opportunity to be in a class or participate in an activity just because they can’t afford the entire cost,” Kurle said.

Public education is also often perceived as equal opportunity, though that’s not always the case, especially when comparing Johnson County schools to inner-city schools. Teachers have accepted that they don’t have all the answers about how to solve the issue of equal opportunity, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have ideas.

“One of the main ways we could provide equal opportunity and attempt to have equal outcome is moving away from a structure where we’re so heavily reliant on local property taxes and state and local control and move more toward federal allocation of school finance and funding,” Box said.

Because public education is so dependent on local funding, it isn’t equal. Schools like BVN, which are generally affluent, are on much different radars than inner city schools like F.L. Schlagle, located in Kansas City, Kan., which has a low-income rate of 85 percent. They have different opportunities and, therefore, are forced to use their potential differently.

“It hurts them in two ways. One is in the participation in the activity itself, the intrinsic value of doing that,” Box said.

“They’re kind of just getting a surface level exploration of it and so that’s nice, that’s better than nothing, but it’s not as ultimately valuable.”

Students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are hindered not only during their time spent in school, but also by the opportunities they receive after graduation. “[It affects] opportunity, in terms of being able to place that on a resume or to show that you have learned a particular skill or to demonstrate that you were part of something outside of class itself,” Box said. “If that commitment is expensive and it cost a lot of money to be good at that activity because of the fees involved with it, then you’ve got an obvious issue of income [in]equality and widening the already large gap between students who can afford those things and those who cannot.”

Inner-city students also have different experiences inside and outside of the classroom, mainly because of the funding the school dedicates to each activity. Kurle, who used to teach at F.L. Schlagle, recalls an incident where she had to spend $1000 out of her own pocket on her classroom and provide the school volleyball team, which she coached, with food and drinks on her own charge.

“I had to buy snacks and water and Gatorade for the kids on the team because the families there weren’t really thinking about it and I didn’t mind at all,” Kurle said. “It’s just a lot different from here.”

Other teachers have also acknowledged the privilege that comes from attending schools like BVN, in the Johnson County area, in comparison to those in inner city neighborhoods. There’s a difference in opportunities, and in the value of those provided.

“People have an advantage, just by walking in these doors every day, that a lot of kids in other schools don’t have,” Turrentine said.

Quick Stats Other 15%

Six out of ten kids in the U.S. are involved in extracurriculars

Source: Backpack Index 2016

Sport 27%

Total: 1443 students

Music

58%

Types of Extracurriculars BVN is in

$ $

$ $ $ $

$ $ $ $

$ $

$ $

$

The estimated cost of extracurriculars at BVN are $72,150 at a rate of about $50 per student per extracurricular

$

$

= $10,000

8 | The North Star | September 2018

Tea Wa ch ges er

A fro look m at n By An atio the i n s ge lica wid sue Lid e p in rot the zy es h ts. ea dl

ine

I

n recent news, the security of teacher wages has been called into question, as teacher protests have emerged across the nation in states such as Oklahoma, West Virginia, Arizona and more. These teachers have shed light on the government’s current focus on education, or lack thereof. In addition to salaries, they have also protested for changes to the pension system, limiting class sizes and more funding to pay for educational supplies.

According to Time.com, the cost of living has greatly increased these past years while some education wages have remained relatively stagnant. When salaries are not adjusted to the cost of living, such as electricity and food, workers are overall paid less over the course of the year.

“If budgets are cut and salaries don’t grow with the cost of living then you’re actually paying to work, and teachers already do that all the time, anyway, because nobody works just their contract,” librarian Abby Cornelius said.

So how does Kansas stack up compared to the other states? In 2016, the nationwide average salary for public school classroom teachers was $58,353, according to the National Education Association. In Kansas, that 2016 average salary number was

s

$47,755. The nationwide average salary increased by 1.3 percent between 2015 and 2016, while the Kansas average salary increased by .3 percent. Based on the average salary, Kansas teachers were calculated to have received a raise of about $145. If most teachers were contracted to work 180 days per year, the raise ultimately grossed less than a $1 raise per day.

Across State Line, Missouri fared slightly better with an average salary of $47,957 and a salary increase of 1.1 percent between 2015 and 2016.

According to an article published by Lawrence Journal World, raises are based on the district’s salary schedule. In order to earn a raise, a teacher can either decide to work for the school for another year, or he/she can be rewarded by his/her professional development, whether that be having obtained a doctorate or master’s degree or having earned additional hours of college education. The latter of the two options tends to provide a higher raise; however, this additional education comes at a price, as it can be expensive to pay for graduate classes.

For example, in Blue Valley, a teacher with a master’s degree who began at step 7 in August 2017 would have earned $44,700,

according to the salary schedule.

Going into his/her next year at step 8, if he/she maintained the same education level, he/she would have earned $46,200 — a raise of $1,500 or 3.3 percent. However, if he/she took 12 hours of graduate credit, he/she could receive $47,400 — an increase of $2,700 or 6 percent.

Then healthcare comes into play.

Eric Punswick, Executive Director of Human Resources at Blue Valley District Office, explained that the health care plan that employees receive is valued at more than $7,000 a year, with a $1,000 out of pocket maximum for individuals.

“If you are looking at our employees right now… we are seeing the health insurance plan that’s valued over $7,000 a year… which is an extremely rich plan given the landscape of health insurance right now,” Punswick said.

However, some teachers do not fully rely on this healthcare. Some choose to move to their spouse’s health care due to the better benefits.

Others decide to just put themselves on the health care plan, while putting their families on a separate plan with better rates. Although an individual teacher’s cost, depending on the insurance plan, is fully covered by the district, adding family members to the plan can increase the cost that the employee is responsible to pay for.

“I went from single to [adding a] spouse and [the cost] went up about $200 per pay period or about $400 a month,” social studies teacher Mark Fancher said.

Ignoring average salary and healthcare, Cornelius suggested that many teachers also work more than their contracted time and aren’t always compensated for the extra work. Teachers work before, during and after school. Some teachers

“If budgets are cut and salaries don’t grow with the cost of living then you’re actually paying to work.”

- Abby Cornelius, Librarian also spend part of their free time thinking about or working on school assignments.

“A lot of us go to conferences in the summer and training, and we don’t get paid any extra for that ... but the district covers [the] cost to go,” history teacher Elizabeth Cornell said.

Last spring, the Supreme

Pay Perspective 50

hrs

teacher

programmer

$44,700 salary

weekly

$43,600 salary

weekly

$30,300 salary

percentage of teachers who purchase own supplies

hrs

hrs

weekly

94%

44

40

September 2018 | The North Star | 9

Court ruled that education was not properly funded. According to kcur.org, the Supreme Court has continuously ruled that public schools have been unconstitutionally underfunded for the past decade and a half. “... That money that we’ve talked about from 2009 ’till just recently was on a negative trend… We were receiving less and less dollars,” Punswick said.

Despite these concerns, teachers in Kansas are not legally allowed to assemble and protest as units.

However, social studies teacher Krista Chugg raised her concern on the possibility of one forming in Kansas if the issue of poor public education funding continues to be ignored.

“There’s been a lot of debate about public education in the state of Kansas,” Chugg said. “If the Supreme Court keeps saying, ‘Hey you need to spend more on public education,’ and then nothing happens, I can see [a protest] happening.”

If this wage trend continues, teachers will be deterred from becoming educators, according to the National Education Association.

Despite this concern, many teachers agree that, for them, teaching is more than just for pay.

“Most teachers don’t work [just] for the pay… It keeps us young,” teacher Jason Jones said.

1

percent difference between average 1991 salary

nurse

*Sources include: Federal Department of Education, National Center for Educational Statistics, National Education Association

10 | The North Star | September 2018

Summer 2018 Recap A brief summary of this summer’s events.

A

fter a long-awaited 14 years, the sequel to the fan favorite “The Incredibles,” was released June 15. The movie came out with a bang and broke a box office record, becoming the highest-grossing animated feature of all time in North America, reaching a $1 billion boxoffice revenue by July 31.

Official movie poster for Incredibles 2.

Source: IMP Awards

U

A mother holds hands with her son. Source: PawinG.

nder the “zero tolerance” immigration policy, more than 2,300 children have been separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexican border and have been placed in government facilities that have been criticized for poor conditions and reported abuse, according to The New York Times. On June 20, President Trump signed an executive order aimed to end family separation at the border by detaining parents and children together.

Trump said, in an interview with the press in the Oval Office during the signing, “We’re going to have strong — very strong — borders, but we are going to keep the families together. I didn’t like the sight or the feeling of families being separated.”

More than a month after this executive order, more than 700 hundred children still remain separated from their parents as the process has been slowed.

It had been 20 years since France won the World Cup in 1998.

Source: Carlos Torres

September 2018 | The North Star | 11

Waters in Japan reached 16 feet in height in the areas most affected.

Source: NOAA

I T

wenty years after capturing their first World Cup win, the French national team triumphed over Croatia at the 2018 World Cup Finale in Moscow, Russia.

France led 18 minutes after the start when Antoine Griezmann made a free-kick that led off of Croatia’s own Mario Mandzukic’s head. But Croatia tied the game during the first half thanks to a goal made by Ivan Perisic.

During the second half, France scored twice in six minutes. Though Croatia threatened a comeback with one more goal, France was the winner of the World Cup.

n the deadliest natural disaster in Japan since 2011, torrential rains began to accumulate from 12 to 15 inches over the course of the weekend beginning on July 10. Many cities were completely flooded in just hours, with most of the rain falling in the mountains. More than 200,000 people were forced to leave their destroyed homes in search of shelter. The areas most affected by these devastating floods included Hiroshima, Kyoto, Okayama and Ehime, where rescuers attempted to find the dozens of missing people and rescue others.

O

n Peerapat Sompiangjai’s 17th birthday, his soccer team and his coach headed to the Tham Luang cave. They were deep into the 10-kilometer cave beneath a mountain in Thailand, when rain water began to create a flash flood where the boys were located. With no other option, they were forced to delve deeper into the cave system in an attempt to escape the water.

Surrounded by nothing but darkness and the determination to survive, the team dug five meters deeper into the cave in order to create a warm environment. Surrounded by darkness, and with no source of food, the team was able to use moisture from the cave walls for water, and some cracks in the rocks provided air.

On June 24, Thai Navy Seals, local volunteers and national police headed to the caves in search of the team. A day later, evidence of potential handprints of the boys were found. This prompted the search area to widen and the arrival of U.S. Air Force rescue specialists and cave divers from countries such as the U.K., Belgium, Australia, and Scandinavia. It wasn’t until July 2 that U.K. divers found all 13 victims alive, 2.5 miles deep into the cave. The victims were kept warm and were offered oxygen with the help of the Thai Navy Seals while they waited for the other rescuers to help them out of the cave. Everyone was finally retrieved from the cave July 10. For more than two weeks, the team was trapped underwater, and afterward, the boys spent time in quarantine and eventually a monastery.

There were over 1,000 people working the cave rescue, including 90 divers who worked within the caverns.

Source: Thanaphon Cheungsirakuluit, ’04 alum.

12 | The North Star | September 2018

Bah hhmaste Doing yoga with goats has become a new trend for students.

By Emma Brunner

Y

oga has been around for ages as a form of meditation. Additionally, animals, such as goats, have been used as therapy, according to abcnews. com. In recent years, these two therapeutic outlets have been combined to form a new growing trend: goat yoga.

While it was typically only seen on the West Coast, it took off in Kansas City during the 2018 summer after Mya Patten from Greenwood, Mo., opened up her goat farm to offer yoga classes. She began doing this in order to raise money for an exchange year in Australia. Classes were held on all Saturdays in May and some in June. It may have only been held for a few weeks during the year, but all the goats participating were babies.

Before attending a class, many people were unsure of what to expect. Senior Lily Strauss had done regular yoga before and was expecting that goat yoga would be a similarly calming experience. To her surprise, it was different because the goats were involved in the exercising.

“Goats were climbing on our back whenever we did poses that were close enough to the ground,” Strauss said.

“I expected goat yoga to be a lot more relaxing, but we really didn’t do much yoga as it was mainly just the goats climbing all over us.”

As an instructor, Patten was able to experience goat yoga in a different way.

She watched the goats play with the participants and was able to learn herself.

“The goats do get involved when

you are doing yoga, people are put in an enclosed area where the goats can roam freely. They may jump, gently ram, or even give you kisses during your session,” Patten said. “This experience had definitely changed me a lot with learning the way of how something so small as a goat can truly change people for the better.”

“I expected goat yoga to be a lot more relaxing, but we really didn’t do much yoga as it was mainly just the goats climbing all over us.”

—Lily Strauss Many students have jumped on the bandwagon. Whether they try it for the experience or because they are passionate about yoga, it is a unique opportunity.

“I love to do regular yoga, too, but it’s a lot more entertaining with goats running around during the class,” Strauss said.

Strauss said she plans on going back to do more goat yoga next summer. She

A goat waits for yoga to begin. All the goats used in yoga were born at the Farmstead in the winter. photo

by Emma Brunner.

Two goats ram their heads into one another. This is a common activity for goats to do during yoga. photo

by Emma Brunner.

recommends that all students put it on their bucket list to try at least once.

The city of Overland Park also began offering classes for goat yoga this summer. All participants must be at least 14 years old, and each class takes about 35 participants. Kathi Limbocker, the education supervisor at Deanna Rose Farmstead, was in charge of the new goat yoga program. The classes sold out and even had a waiting list.

“The classes are filled with friendship and laughter, so we’re not surprised that it’s been such a success,” Limbocker said.

Senior Mara Mueller went to a goat yoga class during the summer. She enjoyed the opportunity to experience something new.

“It was a really hot day, but I was just stoked to be hanging out with some goats,” Mueller said. “Almost everyone got distracted by the goats and stopped doing yoga and were all just playing with the goats.”

The classes offered through Overland Park were considered to be “gentle yoga,” so they were for all levels of yoga enthusiasts who wanted to try something unique.

Next summer, Patten said she plans on starting her classes in late April, and tickets will be available for purchase through Facebook. Additionally, Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead will continue their classes next year.

Meet the Mustangs

Septmeber 2018 | The North Star | 13

Get to know a little about our new Mustangs in the building.

By Lyndsey Henkel

Kim Dowdy

Dowdy works with special education students with learning and skills they need for high school.

Q: What brought you to North?

A: I taught 13 years at De Soto High School, where my children graduated high school. When my son graduated, I decided to move to Blue Valley Northwest for one year.

Northwest downsized their program, which is how I ended up at North. The assistant superintendent at Blue Valley also worked with me at De Soto, and he

basically recruited me to the Blue Valley district.

Q: What inspired you to be a special education teacher?

A: I have two brothers that have special needs, and I’ve always been around people who have disabilities. In high school I volunteered at the Nebraska School for the Visually Handicapped, where later, I was hired as a counselor.

Q: If you weren’t a teacher, what would you be doing?

A: When I was a senior in college, I thought I should apply to law school, but my teacher told me ‘anyone can be a good lawyer, but it takes a great person to be a special education teacher.’

Fun fact: When Dowdy retires, she wants to own a boutique winery or become a coffee shop barista.

Joseph Marx Q: Have you always lived in Kansas?

A: I lived in the same house until I got married, then we moved around the area. I attended high school at Shawnee Mission East and received my undergraduate degree and teaching license at the University of Kansas.

Q: Who inspired you to be a teacher?

A: I had a math teacher in

high school who taught day in and day out [and] really inspired me because he really cared for his students. I’ve always admired what he’s done.

Q: Have you always wanted to be a teacher?

A: During high school, I always hung on to the idea of being [a] teacher, especially since I loved Latin class. However, in college I questioned

the idea of becoming a teacher and enlisted in the Navy. I quit training because of health reasons; however, the people I met there are a lot different than the people I grew up with, which I enjoyed getting to know different cultures than just Shawnee Mission East.

Fun fact: Marx loves to dance and has since high school.

Anna Tedder

Tedder’s first teaching job was as a para, and now she works as a study skills classroom teacher.

Q: Have you lived in Kansas your whole life?

A: I grew up in the Kansas City area and attended Leawood Elementary and Leawood Middle school. I graduated from Blue Valley North and headed to the University of Alabama.

After one semester at Alabama, I decided to transfer to Kansas State, which was a lot closer to

Marx teaches Latin.

home, and some of my friends went there.

Q: What is you favorite hobby?

A: I love playing with my golden retriever, Riley, who is 4 months old.

Q: How were you as a high school student?

A: In the beginning, I was not the best student.

However, it took a turn during sophomore year

because I started to figure out grades were important and extracurriculars really matter. I was social, I went to a lot of sporting events and all dances for my high school. I also played softball and was on the swim team for North.

Fun fact: Tedder and her fiance’s favorite restaurant is Ponaks.

14 | The North Star | September 2018

Petty teaches all of the FACS classes, such as cooking and interior design.

Casey Petty Q: Where were you before North?

A: I grew up in Wichita and received my teaching license at Wichita State University.

I have taught in elementary school, middle school and high school. My favorite has been high school because I think high schoolers can do more real life activities.

I think the third graders are pretty cute though.

Q: What is your favorite hobby?

A: I love to bake and watch sports — my favorite being football or golf. The New England Patriots have always been one of my favorite football teams, but the Chiefs are right up there. I also have a four-month old, Easton, who I love to play with all the time.

Q: Have you always wanted to be a teacher?

A: I didn’t want to be a teacher until I was in college.

I was pretty much undecided on what I wanted to major in.

One of my teachers in college recommended I would be a good teacher, and it stuck with me.

Fun fact: Petty used to own her own business out of her house where she designed birthday and wedding cakes for seven years.

Miko Wu Q: Where are you from?

A: I grew up in Zhejiang, China, which is near Shanghai. I received a scholarship to teach college where at the same time I earned my master’s degree, which led me to America.

Q: Where were you before coming to North?

A: While teaching at Texas Tech University,

I decided I wanted to teach younger students, so I went to Brandeis University in Boston and I was doing the master’s of arts teaching program.

Q: If you weren’t a teacher, what would you be doing?

A: I think it would be fun to be an editor of a magazine.

Q: What inspired you to be a teacher?

I took Spanish in college, and I find it’s so fun to be in a foreign language classroom, so why not be a foreign language teacher.

Fun Fact: Wu’s favorite movie is an Italian movie called “La Bella es Bonita,” which means Life is Beautiful.

Wu teaches the new Chinese language program.

Emily Hensley

Hensley teaches design fundamentals, black and white photography and ceramics.

Q: Where were you before North?

A: I was teaching in Turner, Kansas at Turner Middle School. My friend in college went to high school in Turner and told me it was a good place to get a job. I taught at Turner for five years, but took a year off for my 3-year-old son, Leo. This is my first year teaching high school and I think high school students are

easier to get along with than middle schoolers.

Q: What do you like to do in your free time?

A: I have my son full time, but I also compete in Crossfit.

Crossfit is a blend between Olympic weightlifting and any type of fast-paced workout. A friend of mine dared me to try it, and he actually paid for her first month and I ended up getting addicted to it.

Q: How were you as a high school student?

A: I didn’t like school and took all art classes. Art was always something I liked to do and was the only thing I really cared about. I played tennis, ran track and took the power lifting classes at my high school.

Fun fact: Hensley can back squat twice her body weight.

Trinda Wheeler Q: What inspired you to be a teacher?

“My high school chemistry teacher inspired me to be a teacher because he was the worst teacher on the planet. More people would like chemistry if they had a teacher who they liked.”

Wheeler teaches chemistry.

Q: What led you to Kansas City?

A: I grew up in Ohio, but at some point I’ve lived all over the country. I received my undergraduate degree at The

University of Dayton in Ohio, but got my master’s degree at Kansas University. I was guest teaching at Olathe North, and they had a job offering there, which I ended up taking.

Q: What brought you to Blue Valley North?

A: I designed the Green Tech Academy at Olathe West, which is similar to CAPS, but differs because it’s an hour out of the day, all four years. I ran that program at the district.

However, it was very time consuming, and I missed

September 2018 | The North Star | 15

being a teacher. However, at Olathe North they didn’t have a chemistry or physics position, which is what I’m certified in.

Therefore I came to Blue Valley North.

Q: How were you as a high school student?

A: I was valedictorian and worked hard in high school.

Fun fact: She knows nearly every lyric to every ’80s song.

“Come on Eileen” is her favorite ’80s song.

Travis Holehan Q: Where are you from?

A: I was born in Chicago, but my family moved to Oklahoma around the age of 7 where I graduated from high school there.

Q: Where did you go to college?

A: I received my undergraduate degree at Wichita State University and received my master’s degree at the University

of Oklahoma. I found my way to Wichita State because I moved around to play college baseball, and Wichita State was my last stop.

Q: What is your favorite hobby?

A: I love to play baseball outside of school and have ever since I was young. This spring, I will be coaching baseball for the Mustangs. I

also coach receivers for North, which is my first year with football.

I played football from second grade until high school and have always loved the sport. I love to golf, even though I’m not very good at it.

Fun fact: “Sons of Anarchy” and “Breaking Bad” are two of his favorite shows.

Holehan teaches Algebra II and Precalculus.

Isabella Khatri

At North Khatri teaches Spanish I, but spends half of her day at Blue Valley Northwest teaching Spanish I and II.

Q: Where did you grow up?

A: I lived in Saudi Arabia ’till I was 9 years old but moved to America because of the Iraq War. It wasn’t bad moving here because we always visited, and we have family here. We were actually forced out of the country (Saudi Arabia).

When the war started, my dad’s company said, ‘either all of the women and children leave the country

and the men stay here and work, or they leave with the family and find a different job.’ My dad decided to stay, and we were evacuated.

Q: How were you as a high school student?

A: I attended high school at Olathe North. I was a quiet and calm student involved in honor societies and political science.

Q: Where did you go to college?

A: I went to school at Emporia State University.

I began speaking Spanish when I was little because my mom is Mexican. I always loved the language and wanted to teach it myself.

Fun Fact: Khatri is double jointed in her elbow and thumbs.

Other new teachers include: Morgan Hallstrom, Sonny Gnuthake, Mihan Lester, Grace Hass, Jennifer Hurley

16 | The North Star | September 2018

New to

North

By Alice Wu

Transfer students explain what it’s like adjusting to life at BVN. “It’s kind of like letting people know, ‘hey, you know, if you need something, people are here.’”

-Kait Gray

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very year, hundreds of new freshmen leave middle school behind and join the student body of BVN. Meanwhile, other students go through their own, less visible transition from another high school.

According to registrar Suzanne Doherty, there are approximately 100 transfer students this year. They come from a variety of places, including the Kansas City area, other states across the country or even outside

the United States, and their adjustments to a new school vary as much as their previous geographical locations.

New from Mississippi this year is senior Kait Gray, who has been experiencing a smooth transition and believes that the school does a good job of helping new students adjust. She appreciated the Mustang Ambassadors program, which guides students on tours of the building during orientation in the fall.

“I actually thought that was really neat to have people showing you around,” Gray said.

“That way it’s kind of like letting people know, ‘hey, you know, if you need something, people are here.’”

For Gray, getting involved in activities at North wasn’t hard. She contacted Jeremy Riggs, the theater director, and was able to audition for and enroll in the Repertory Theater class, which most students audition

September 2018| The North Star | 17 for in the spring. She is also currently the stage manager for the fall show, “The Importance of Being Earnest.”

Similarly, junior Marquise Morrison, who transferred last year from Atlanta, found it easy to get involved in his own activities, namely football and track.

“All I really had to do was talk to the coach on the first orientation day, and it was pretty easy from there,” Morrison said.

Morrison also found that North Time, which he didn’t have at his old school, made his transition a lot easier by giving him more time to socialize with friends.

However, according to school counselor and Mustang Ambassador sponsor Amanda Riss, North Time may pose challenges for some new students.

“I think it can be intimidating, you know, if you don’t have a friend group that you’ve connected with when North Time starts,” she said. “Everybody’s just all over the place, and so trying to find a place to eat lunch or trying to find a place to get your work done I’m sure can be scary.”

For senior Maggie Karpenko, who transferred to BVN from Colorado during the second semester of her sophomore year, switching schools was a

struggle, especially in terms of her social life.

“I didn’t have any friends,” Karpenko explained. “When you come in to a new area, it’s hard for you to build bonds because people have had those bonds since elementary, and so you’re like, ‘hey, can I be your friend?’ and they’re kind of resistant.”

“It’s hard for you to build bonds because people have had those bonds since elementary.”

-Maggie Karpenko Coming to a new school during second semester made her transition even harder because people had already started to get to know each other. In fact,

because most of her classmates failed to realize she was a new student, they didn’t reach out to make her feel more welcome.

From an administrative side, Karpenko believes that there are some areas in which the school could better accommodate new students. When she first arrived, she shadowed a girl who was part of the Mustang Ambassadors program.

“I wish it was more geared to like what you’re going to be doing, she said. “‘Cause I was following a girl who was in all AP classes, and I was like, ‘I’m not taking AP classes.’”

Riss said that she is brainstorming ideas so that the program can better help students throughout the year and not just primarily on orientation day. Some ideas include having ambassadors attend sporting events with new students or just meet with them once a month to see how they’re doing.

“Ultimately, our goal is to try and find those new students who haven’t made connections yet,” Riss said. “We do have some new students that come in and, you know, struggle to adjust to being here at Blue Valley North. So those are kids that we really want to try to connect with.”

A new student looks for a place to sit in the cafeteria. Photo by Grace Rudman. Photo illustration by Alice Wu.

18 | North Star | September 2018

Custodians of Blue Valley North Custodians discuss their feelings about North Time, students and staff.

By Angelica Henson

Custodian Eddy Yonts wipes down the top of the lockers in the locker area after school. photo by Sooim Kang.

E

very day, the custodians play a large In comparison to previously working an other activities with the other janitors. role at BVN. They clean up after evening shift at an elementary and middle However, his work became more serious students during North Time and tidy up school, working a day shift at a high school gave about two years into his tenure at the school. classrooms and hallways after school. him the opportunity to create “In 2008, the financial crisis Janitor Paul Conley has been friendships with came onboard nationwide, “I like talking about more staff and I was at Blue and the Blue Valley District working as a day shift custodian sports with them, for 12 years as of April. Conley students.

Valley High, then had to cut positions,” Conley previously worked at Overland “There were said. “And on the janitorial or telling them [to I came here to staff, it took about a third of Trail Elementary and Middle a couple of other Schools before switching to BVN. keep] their head on janitors here that personnel, which meant North. This is my our “They asked me if I wanted we had to move faster, and straight, not [to do] had a lot more home.” to take a day position at the than I there was really less time for anything stupid.” experience elementary school or would I had, and I kind of ” —Gary Nash shenanigans.

—Paul Conley consider coming to the North took my cues from Even though Conley High School,” Conley said. “And them on how to focuses on his work, he still I thought it through, and that gave me more handle the work,” Conley said. supports and participates in many school time to spend with my children, so I came over When he began, Conley had a lot of fun events, from football games to choir concerts to in the later part of 2006.” participating in the school spirit weeks and plays and musicals.

September 2018 | North Star | 19

“I’m not as much as an attendee at the events as I used to be,” Conley said. “I still go to a football game, or two, get to a play or a concert.”

Janitor Gary Nash is newer to working at North. He previously worked at Blue Valley High School and has now spent about four years at North.

“I started at Cedar Hills, and then I moved,” Nash said. “I was at Blue Valley High, then I came here to North. This is my home.”

Not only is Nash in charge of cleaning the school during the day, but he is also in charge of keeping everything in check after hours.

A normal schedule for him includes cleaning the classrooms and restrooms, but he also helps out with other activities.

“Football games, I go to, because I have to,” Nash said. “Since I’m an assistant lead, I have to go to the football games, just in case something happens or whatever. And then we clean the stadium after our home football games.”

Nash does his best to be an active supporter of BVN students, whether it’s talking to them or going to their events.

“I talk to a lot of them. The kids that I talk to every day all walk up first,” Nash said. “They walk up and speak to me, and I’ll stand for a minute with them and chat. I enjoy that.”

As the day goes on, the custodians have many interactions with the students.

“You just have more opportunities to get to know certain students.

And it isn’t always by happenstance, but you just cross paths [with] somebody a little more often, and you get to know their face and who they are,” Conley said.

Students don’t often talk to the day-shift janitors, and the janitors often find themselves without the time to stand and talk to the students.

“I like talking about sports with them, or telling them [to keep] their heads on straight, not [to do]

anything stupid,” Nash said.

It’s not always frequent when students interact with the custodians, but they always enjoy it when it does happen.

Regina Alderton is one of the few people on the janitorial staff who has been at the district for over 20 years. Alderton previously worked at Oak Hill Elementary and switched to BVN two summers ago.

“I’ve been here for about 24 years, and I was 29 when I started,” Alderton said. “I feel like I’ve grown up in the district, and the district was so much smaller back then.”

When transferring schools, Alderton also decided to transition shifts. For 16 years at the school, she worked a day shift. But when coming to BVN, she decided to take the night shifts.

“The work was so much harder on days because when you’re there by yourself, you do everything. It didn’t bother me until I knew it was time to go,” Alderton said. “I needed to get out of there and go to nights, a much easier pace. Not that we don’t work hard on nights, but it’s quiet, everybody’s gone for the most part.”

Even though Alderton works at night, she is still able to interact with staff and students.

“I’m starting to get to know teachers. It’s hard because they’re all leaving as I’m coming, so I try to talk to them when I can,” Alderton said. “[I don’t talk to] as much students, I do wish more would talk to me. When I worked days, it felt like there would be more who would talk to me, opposed to the evenings.”

Alderton is always running into staff after school, especially in the 300 hallway. She does her best to connect and talk to any teachers who aren’t busy after hours.

The custodians are at school every day like everyone else. They support the staff, care for and keep up with the students. The custodians are an integral part of BVN and do more than clean the school.

Custodian Gary Nash cleans the floor of the locker area after school. photo by Angelica Henson

Thoughts on North Time Because day shift custodians are more active during North Time, relationships between them and the students can form more quickly during the hour-long lunch break. North Time is usually thought of as a relaxing break for the students, but as a responsibility for the janitors.

“The only problem with North Time is that kids don’t pick up after themselves as much as they should,” Nash said. “They give you an hour, and it gives you the chance to maybe catch up on your work or maybe just talk to your friends. I’m for that as long as the mess is controlled.”

Many teachers agree that the students generally use North Time responsibly but that they should be more proactive in keeping the school clean.

“The North Time is a relative success, and I can see when the student body is down here,” Conley said. “There’s a more relaxed attitude; you can spread out better.”

As most would agree, North Time is resourceful for students and teachers. They use it to work on homework, get help from teachers or to simply hangout with friends. However, Nash suggested some students could respect the school more.

“They don’t show enough respect that I think they should,” Nash said. “They do tear the bathrooms up, so that’s a problem, too.”

20 | The North Star | September 2018

你好 Hello!

Chinese language classes find home at BVN

By Chris Lucas

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his year students will be able to add a new language to their schedule. The foreign language department has implemented Chinese I for the 2018-2019 school year. Other Blue Valley schools have already added Chinese to their language programs, and BVN was quick to follow the trend.

Last year was the experimental year, with Chinese I starting at Blue Valley Southwest and a Chinese immersion program being introduced at Wolf Springs Elementary.

Miko Wu, a native Chinese speaker, is the Chinese teacher for both BVN and BVSW,

spending the first half of her day at North and the second half at Southwest.

The district is currently developing the curriculum as they implement new levels of Chinese classes.

“I think they have very long-term goals for [the] Chinese program because they have [the] immersion program, and now they have Chinese I and Chinese II, and in the future, we will have Chinese III, IV, and finally I think we will have [the] AP class,” Wu said. “And those elementary students who are learning Chinese Immersion now, they will be pretty good at Chinese when they get to

high school. I think this is their long-term goal.”

Blue Valley Schools aren’t alone in implementing Chinese language courses.

A Department of Education report published in 2015 reported that Mandarin was the second most popular dual-language education program developed by states in 2013. But even at that rate, there are only about 200,000 K-12 Mandarin learners in the U.S., according to a U.S. News article published in 2016.

“We are developing level 2 now, and we have level 1 already. So, it’s like every year we add a little bit, a little bit,” Wu said.

“She tries to get everybody involved, and makes sure that if she says something in Chinese she tries to act it out, so we do know.”

—Catie Kinders

September 2018 | The North Star | 21 Students have expressed various interests for taking the class. Sophomore Catie Kinders, who is interested in pursuing a career in journalism, took the class because she wanted to better communicate with people, and Chinese is the most spoken language in the world.

But for students who had initial concerns about learning a more difficult language, Wu’s teaching style has helped students become comfortable in the classroom.

“She isn’t the most conventional teacher, but I do like her teaching style,” Kinders said. “She tries to get everybody involved and makes sure that if she says something in Chinese she tries to act it out.”

Like other BVN language classes, there is an emphasis on only speaking Chinese in the classroom.

“Her teaching style is very good because she only speaks in Chinese,” senior Grace Glaser said, “which forces us to learn to understand Chinese instead of her speaking in English and us learning very basic parts.”

At first, senior Grace Keirn was intimidated by the new language.

“You don’t really realize how different it is until you start learning about it,” Keirn said, “but I was also really excited because hearing it sounded really cool, and I was also just interested in learning about it.”

The first day of Chinese also posed some challenges for Glaser.

I thought we were going to learn the very basics like ‘hello, goodbye’. The first day we came in, and the teacher starts talking all this Chinese on us, and I was so confused,” Glaser said.

For students in Chinese I and II, the

Senior Michael Adamson practices writing characters. Students are given worksheets to practice the stroke order of the characters. photo by Chris Lucas.

main goal is to learn how to effectively communicate at a basic level.

“At the end of [the] year they should be able to reach novice mid, which means they can maintain uncomplicated conversation with [a] native speaker about native topics,” Wu said.

While some students may be worried about taking a language so different from English, senior Zach McCray encourages students interested in taking Mandarin to try it.

“Definitely go for it. Once you’re in class just try your best,” McCray said. “We are already laughing. Everyone is messing up anyway — there is no avoiding that, so just join the class, be prepared to have to study and know your material and go get it.”

Chinese teacher Miko Wu helps students, including junior Lukas Howard, during North Time. Her North Times have been split between BVN and BVSW. photo by Chris Lucas.

22 | The North Star | September 2018

HOCO

Can you handle the pressure?

By Megan McConnell

STUCO prepares for the homecoming dance and pressures upon students are revealed.

T

he flashing lights, blaring music and has to be done and finished, so all we’re doing swirling waves of chiffon and taffeta is gluing and taping things onto the walls and live engrained in the mind of every making sure they don’t fall down.” high school student.

STUCO makes all the decorations in line Homecoming. with the homecoming theme. Along with the Memories are made to last a lifetime as paper banners and spinning lights, members the school comes together to celebrate spirit dedicate their time to incorporate the names and union. One night of dance, fun and food of every student within the decorations. that makes the cares of September melt away.

However, these decorations serve as only one However, homecoming offers part of their checklist. a lot more than what meets the Spirit week is a time “It’s an interesting eye. While many students look of anticipation leading up perspective because I to homecoming. STUCO at the dance as a final product, get to be behind the STUCO prepares for the representatives organize a completely student-run dance pep assembly on the Friday scenes and work at months in advance. before the dance and the things.”

STUCO representatives night of the homecoming manage the budget, debate the football game and offer - Arzina Lakhani theme, make the decorations students several activities and plan the activities for spirit week. to participate in with the Homecoming Everything must be prepared ahead of time in Olympics. They also brainstorm themes for order to make deadlines. spirit week—decades day, character day, “It’s really challenging because we only Disney day and an endless array of other get two hours at the school to put everything options. up,” junior and STUCO member Lasya “This year we’re trying new things because Kambhampati said. “We can’t go over, and barely anyone dresses up at BVN,” senior that means everything before that Saturday Arzina Lakhani said. “So we’re doing a

September 2018 | The North Star | 23

costume contest. We’re giving out free prizes.”

STUCO also organizes floats for the homecoming parade. The parade is a time to celebrate clubs, student participation and the community, as parents, siblings, teachers and students show support for the school’s extracurricular activities. The responsibility of preparing for these homecoming events can build pressure for organizers.

“A lot of the pressures come with picking the theme. We have to make sure the school will be interested in it,” Kambhampati said.

Even after picking a theme, they face many issues regarding student participation. Often, students will arrive at the dance and stay for 30 minutes before leaving with a group to attend an after party. The work and effort of an entire summer, absorbed in a 30-minute time period.

Pressures from homecoming are felt beyond the student council. Peer pressure and anxiety can affect students that attend, whether students are trying

to find a date, decide where to eat dinner or buy a dress to fit in the school’s changing culture.

“In high school, you see everyone in Instagram pictures, and you see what people are going for . . . and for some people, they can’t afford a $500 dress,” Kambhampati said.

Vanity, money and social pressures serve as just a few of the many challenges that students may face. High school offers a time of uncertainty, and homecoming can stimulate feelings of awkwardness rather than excitement. For a high school seated in a wealthy socioeconomic area, social presentation, at events such as homecoming, can leave many feeling pressured to fit in.

“I think homecoming is just about hanging

out with friends, ” Lakhani said. “As part of STUCO, I want to go to the dance because I put in so much time and effort into it, but if I don’t get to go and I hang out with friends instead, it’s fine.”

Homecoming should remain a time of celebration and embrace, as students new and old are welcomed back to the halls of BVN. It serves as a representation of the hard work and effort exhibited by STUCO in hopes to incite school spirit and camaraderie.

STUCO made and hung posters to help promote spirit days, ticket sales and the homecoming dance. Most posters can be found throughout the locker areas and hallways commonly walked through by students.

24 | The North Star | September 2018

2017 STATE CHAMPIONS Football and tennis athletes discuss preparations

By Anna Martin for the upcoming seasons.

A

fter becoming state champions in the 2017 season, football and girls tennis players are preparing for their 2018 season. The football team took home their first ever state title in football last season, while the girls tennis team won their third consecutive state title.

Like every high school team, the tennis team lost their seniors from the previous season.

“We lost a good amount [of seniors], but we also gained a lot of new players, so it kind of evens out,” senior tennis player Tara Sabih said.

For the tennis team, underclassmen will be heavily involved. “[The sophomores] have a lot of experience just going to state that first year, so I think they will help us a lot,” senior tennis player Chloe Kuckelman said.

Changes will have to be made for the new season, especially in regards to the doubles teams Kuckelmen says. Although the freshmen are new to the team, the team relies on freshmen to step up and help them compete.

“It’s hard to make our team [in the first place], so the fact that they can make it and get

good positions on our ladder [proves] they can definitely help us,” Sabih said.

For both the tennis and the football teams, a lot can go into preparing for the season, from getting used to the new players to putting in hours of practice.

“Since [the beginning of June] we have been working.” senior football player Stephon Camp said. “We were out there every day of the summer working on plays, being conditioned and making sure everybody was ready in the right spot. We’ve been working hard, and we are ready.”

Similar to football, tennis also has their own ways to prepare for the new season.

“After practice I’ll do some things on my own,” Kuckelman said. “All the other girls have their own clubs they go to, and we just [put in work] during the summer.”

As the season starts, the team continues to practice. The tennis girls are always doing extra to improve themselves and the team as a whole.

“We do indoor conditioning when it rains, and that helps get us in shape,” Sabih said. “Then

September 2018 | The North Star | 25

also doing some match play, work on doubles and [we] work on our team bond.”

Looking forward to the new year, both teams hope for a repeat of their previous seasons.

“The team’s goal is to go back to back, we wanna win state,” Camp said. “All the classes before us, since we were freshmen, have set the tone for us, and we just wanna live up to that expectation.”

The football team has been working on little things throughout the season to help reach their end goal.

“We definitely have the talent to [win state], as long as we play together we will be good,” Camp said. “There is not too much to change [from last season]. It’s more of just cleaning things up.”

Although winning state is a goal for both teams, they also hope to continue to improve themselves as players.

“Our goal is to keep competing at a high level, and obviously we want to win state, but we just wanna try and do our best,” Kuckelman said.

Since the tennis team has won state for the past three years, they feel as if they have certain

expectations to live up to.

“We know that we have won state the past three years and are probably expected to win it this year, but we just wanna focus on one match at a time and not get caught up in going to state yet,” Kuckelman said.

While the team has many expectations on the field, they also have expectations off the field.

“In school we have to get good grades, student before the athlete, pay attention in class, [help] if a younger guy on the team needs help in the hall,” Camp said. “Make sure you’re a good person on and off the field. Coach Sims pushes that a lot, and [the team] makes sure to follow that.”

With the kick off of the new season, both teams are excited and ready to put all their hard work on display.

“We have worked all summer, and we’re ready for every team we have to see,” Camp said.

Left image. Junior Nick Hafford waiting Right image. Sophomore Emme for the next play durng the game. Photo Mackenzie prepares to serve ball. Photo

by Grace E. Rudman.

by Anna Martin.

26 | The North Star | September 2018

The Power of

By Ramya Chilappa

GOLD

Students and community members talk about the history and significance of the Team Up for St. Jude Kansas City initiative.

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s summer greens slowly fade into autumn browns, Kansas City will soon be draped in another color: gold. September is the month of childhood cancer awareness, and gold is the designated color aimed at spreading the word. As such, September at BVN also signals the beginning of the Team Up for St. Jude Kansas City campaign, a project designed to raise awareness and funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.

The initiative was started by senior Tatum Trysla, whose family has a long personal history with St. Jude. In 2007, Trysla’s younger brother, Clayton, was diagnosed with a stage four primitive neuroectodermal tumor — he had a deadly brain tumor at just seven months old. After a frantic emergency surgery at Children’s Mercy Hospital, the Tryslas ultimately decided to move Clayton to where they thought they had their best chance: St. Jude.

“In all the research we looked at, we couldn’t find any record of a baby that had survived it,” Kristin Trysla — mother of Clayton, Tatum and their sister Cimone, said. “The question we asked every doctor we had was, ‘if this was your son, where would you take him?’ And they all said St. Jude Children’s Hospital.”

Kristin Trysla packed her bags and took her son to Memphis. Patrick Trysla stayed with Tatum, 6 at the time, and their youngest daughter Cimone, 4, who he would bring to Tennessee when it was safe for Clayton to be around other children.

Despite the long day-to-day routine of treatments, appointments and recoveries, Kristin Trysla said that she never felt overwhelmed or alone. St. Jude provided housing and an extensive support system that supplemented the large amounts of love the Tryslas were already receiving from family and friends.

The Tryslas were housed at Target

“They treated every child like they were just as important as a cure.”

— senior Tatum Trysla House, a facility for families staying and receiving treatment at the hospital for six months or more. There, Kristin Trysla never had to worry about small things like groceries or toilet paper, as those services were provided by the House, and she could focus completely on helping her son.

Tatum remembers that even when she and her sister visited, they were treated kindly and were always given things to do.

“Obviously our parents were busy and couldn’t entertain us all day,” Tatum said. “But they didn’t have to worry about

it — there was always someone there to look after us, make sure that we weren’t worrying about our brother, that we had coloring books or games or whatever.”

Kristin Trysla said that St. Jude was different from all other hospitals she’d been to because it was evident that they cared, and everything was run smoothly.

Appointments usually began right on time, and it wasn’t a problem when they didn’t.

The nurses, the support staff, everyone involved with treating Clayton’s tumor — they all knew the Tryslas and did all they could to help the family, even if it was something as simple as accommodating their request for their favorite nurse.

Six months after Kristin Trysla first stepped foot into St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, after two surgeries, four rounds of high-dose chemotherapy and 28 focal radiation treatments, she and Clayton were allowed to go home.

When they arrived back in Kansas City, however, there was still work left to be done. Clayton had to go through six more months of oral chemotherapy at home, and he initially had to return back to St. Jude’s for monthly checkups and scans.

Gradually, those check-ups dwindled to once every two months, then to once every six months and eventually to once a year, which is the schedule Clayton follows now.

“He loves our yearly trips to St. Jude so much,” Tatum said. “He’s as excited for his scans as he is to go to Disneyland — he counts down the days in the weeks leading up to it.”

A large part of Clayton’s anticipation

September 2018 | The North Star | 27 seems to stem from the emphasis that St. Jude places upon putting their patients before everything else, according to Kristin Trysla.

“They treat their kids like rock stars.

It’s a testament to just how much St. Jude cares,” Kristin Trysla said.

It was on one of those yearly trips back from Tennessee the summer before her sophomore year that Tatum first got the idea to start a campaign at BVN. She had been doing service trips with the hospital for years, but when thinking about North, an idea began to take shape.

What began as a football combine, a Gold Out football game and a school-wide T-shirt sale in the fall of 2016 has now evolved into a completely student-led awareness and fundraising campaign spanning across multiple high schools in the Kansas City area.

“I never once imagined it could get so big,” Tatum said as she pointed to the boxes of T-shirts and advertising materials sitting ready for Gold Out month. “I thought it was just going to be a football game, and now all of a sudden we have two games, a huge festival, and a city full of people who care.”

Through the hard work of Tatum and her BVN co-representatives — senior Melina Peshoff and recently graduated alumni Jensen Samuels and Lucie Blake — Team Up for St. Jude Kansas City has expanded to several other high schools in the area, including Bishop Miege,

St. Teresa’s Academy, Pembroke Hill, Rockhurst, St. Thomas Aquinas, Blue Valley West and Northwest, North Kansas City, Raymore Peculiar, and Lee’s Summit North and West. Gus Erdman, the chair and leader at Pembroke Hill High School, has been working since the start of the school year to prepare for September.

“I think it’s important for high schoolers to get involved because they have the energy, passion and time needed to motivate action,” Erdman said.

“Many of us might even have personal connections to St. Jude and its goal to end childhood cancer that we don’t even know about — it’s so important for us to help in any way we can.”

At Pembroke and the other Team Up schools, board members like Erdman organize games and other activities to mobilize excitement and raise funds. BVN still remains the largest success story, with its widely involved community and school-wide enthusiasm as September rolls around.

“Blue Valley North has been the largest fundraiser every year,” Tatum said. “We raised about $50,000 last year, and $20,000 the year before that. Students are just so involved here and care so much — their participation in the games and events is really what keeps this mission going.”

Sophomore Clara Taylor is a highly active board member of Team Up at North this year and is looking to take more responsibility in the campaign. She was

inspired by the cause and is determined to do anything she can to help.

“I think a large part of what makes this program so successful here is Tatum’s passion,” Taylor said. “Anyone can see how much she cares and genuinely wants to create change and awareness and I think that inspires all of us, including me, to work really hard and be passionate about issues that matter.”

Looking ahead at not just September of 2018, but the future of Team Up for St. Jude’s for years to come, Tatum dreams of an effort that spans not just schools, but hopefully cities and states.

“What makes me passionate about St. Jude is not necessarily the months I spent there while Clay was still getting treated because I was obviously too young to remember anything,” Tatum said.

“No, what inspired me was going back there every year, and seeing the research facilities and the importance of the work they were doing there and the way they treated every child as if they were just as important as a cure.”

Tatum’s dream and Team Up for St. Jude’s final objective is to spread awareness to a point where everyone can help make St. Jude’s ultimate goal possible: to create a world in which St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital no longer exists, because there is no more childhood cancer.

Sisters Cimone and Tatum Trysla stand with brother Clayton in front of a St. Jude Hospital Statue. The siblings have been visiting every year since Clayton’s treatment. (Photo by Kristin Trysla)

Students cheer at the 2018 Gold Out football game. This was the third annual Gold Out game since Tatum started the program in 2016, but this is the first year there have been two games, one soccer and one football.

(Photo by Clara Taylor)

Senior Nicolas Navarro, junior Evan Kaiser and senior Tyler Morgan of the BVN soccer team stand with survivor Clayton Trysla and Mary Catherine Rechtein, whose sister passed away due to cancer at age 5. Every year, the Gold Out initaive seeks to honor survivors and families at the events. (Photo by Clara Taylor) Students cheer at the Bishop Miege Gold Out game. Miege was one of the first high schools to join the Team Up for St. Jude program outside of BVN. (Photo by Tatum Trysla)

28 | The North Star | September 2018

Why Wi-Fi?!

Students and staff explain their difficulties with the school’s wireless Internet.

By Daniel Park

T

he start of the school year has made its grand entrance, and students are already starting up their daily routines of browsing back and forth on one of the biggest resource provided in schools: the Internet. There is almost no question from students and faculty that the Internet in the school is invaluable, but at times it poses a challenge when its reliability isn’t assured, just as it seemed to be for many students at the start of this school year.

Internet is a versatile resource that can provide access to information, keep people informed with present news, connect people through social media and perform various other actions. With the heavy inclusion of online mediums for education and communication between teachers and students such as Canvas,

StudentVUE and Pearson, the Internet has become a key component to the lives of students at school. But recently the school’s wireless Internet connection, or Wi-Fi, has taken a toll on students as they struggle with issues regarding the speed and consistency with accessing the Wi-Fi on their personal devices.

“I probably use the Internet from about 30 minutes to an hour a day,” junior Joshua Himstedt said. “Usually when I want to look up anything on my phone, the problem is the Internet goes off between every class when you have to shut off your phone. And every time it takes about five minutes to reconnect, and by the time I get back on, class has already started.”

The main problem for most students is connecting to the Internet. Students have

to go through several attempts of logging onto the school’s Wi-Fi before successfully gaining access to the internet, and even after that when students close their devices, the Internet is cut off.

“There are a lot of issues,” sophomore Catie Kinders said. “The Wi-Fi on my phone only works for about five minutes before it just disappears, and I lose service altogether, and I have to restart my phone. And then for my laptop, every time I have to open it up I have to re-enter in the Wi-Fi. And then there are places where the Wi-Fi doesn’t seem to connect, and then I’m not able to do anything that I need to do.”

Although these issues may appear to be minor inconveniences, the unreliability of access to the Internet can slow or even Left: Two students use their cellphones and try to connect to the WiFi unsuccessfully.

Right: BVN IT Steven Loomis works in his office responding to requests for technical assistance within the school.

September 2018 | The North Star | 29

Unable to connect to the Internet...

... can’t connect to display the webpage because your device is not connected to the Internet... limit the pace at which students wish to study or work at school.

“I don’t really have service in the debate room,” Kinders said. “So having the Wi-Fi is really important, so that way I’m actually able to do stuff. Today I was trying to search up something for a practice debate we had in class, and my Wi-Fi cut out in the middle of it, and I had lost all my other pages because they reloaded.”

Of course, these issues do not necessarily mean that students are totally cut off from this important resource. There are alternatives, such as the school’s broadband or wired Internet connection that will likely be available to the student body on the school’s computers. According to the Federal Communication Commission’s Universal Service Program for Schools and Libraries, or E-Rate program, nearly every school should have access to a pre-funded, high-speed broadband connection. But despite this guarantee, students still face struggles trying to access the Internet provided by the school computers and would rather use their personal devices, which can only use the school’s Wi-Fi. “I can’t use my service probe that I normally bring, which is a computer, my laptop, and it’s just annoying that I can’t use it, and I have to use one of the slow school computers that always take 10 minutes to login,” Himstedt said. “Where if I was to have my own personal one, it would take about two minutes, and I could start going immediately.”

The long wait to log in is not the only issue with the computers. There are a limited number of computers in the library and labs, so not everyone can have access to one, which may make it difficult for those who wish to use the computers to turn in assignments or create projects. The limited number of computers will be resolved with the laptop initiative coming second semes-

ter, but with more computers, there may still be issues with the Wi-Fi. And there are some actions that require the use of the Internet which are not normally done on a computer, such as checking social media.

Of course, there’s not much the students can do about their Internet access besides notifying the staff and teachers.

Both Himstedt and Kinders have told teachers about their difficulties with the

“My friend Angela, her phone only works on Wi-Fi, so I can’t ask her things like where she’s going to sit for lunch because her phone is not on the Wi-Fi.” —Catie Kinders Wi-Fi and realize that the school is trying their best to find out the reasons for its state.

“At least most of the teachers were pretty aware of the problem, so there hasn’t been much that I’ve done just because I didn’t want to give an extra complaint because they’ve probably gotten at least a hundred about this Wi-Fi problem,” Himstedt said.

Blue Valley District IT Steven Loomis has recognized the issue with the school’s Wi-Fi and has been continuously responding to complaints and requests made by students and staff. But according to him, there is only so much he is capable of doing. It cannot be dealt with easily, as

resources such as Wi-Fi and Internet are issues that span the entire district and are not in his field of expertise.

“There’s not much I can tell about the Internet,” Loomis said. “I think the district made a couple of changes over the summer to improve it, and now it’s like this, but I don’t know much on what to do about it.

The start of the school year is often the busiest time for me because the computers and tech haven’t been used in a few months, and problems that weren’t seen when students used them often pop up.”

Loomis explained that he fully understands the effects that inconsistent Internet connection has on the students and wished to be able to help out as much as he can. He said that he has constantly relayed information to his superiors at the Blue Valley District, who have also been trying to fix the issue. So far, they say they have made numerous improvements to the Wi-Fi, bringing the reliability back to a usable state.

30 | The North Star | September 2018

s r a t S e h t n Written i en

By Delaina Sand

F

Experts and students look into the science and significance behind astrology.

or thousands of years, humans have looked to the stars for guidance. Astrology was viewed as a reliable way to predict how the celestial bodies would affect natural life.

In the 21st century, the validity of this practice is debated. Due to today’s greater accuracy and accessibility of scientific research, information on astrology has been made easily available to the public, so many have become skeptical about astrology. On the other hand, accessing astrological predictions has become mainstream by means of the Internet, allowing for more exposure to the practice and allowing astrologers to thrive.

Many people that do not find significance in astrology argue that it is a pseudoscience, a collection of beliefs or practices mistakenly regarded as being based on scientific method. Erin Morgan, the Earth science, meteorology and astronomy teacher, places her trust in the scientifically proven side of science.

“The astrological signs are based on a series of constellations that are found along the plane of the ecliptic,” Morgan said. “The specific constellations are only visible at certain times of year as the Earth orbits the Sun. That time period it [is] determines what astrological sign you are born under.”

Many adherents contend that while it hasn’t yet been supported by the scientific method, there is significance behind the practice. Cindy Mckean, owner and operator of Kansas City Astrology and Tarot LLC., gives credence to the planets’ mechanical positions and the continuing predictions made by various groups of people.

“Many argue that astrology isn’t a science, but there is a mechanism to how the positions of celestial bodies affect life on Earth,” Mckean said. “The biggest example is how the phases of the moon have an effect on tides. When there’s a full moon, tides swell due to the gravitational pull of the moon on bodies of water.

Police precincts report how crimes are higher during full moons.

Farmers used the phases of the moon to determine the best timing to plant seeds and harvest crops.”

While police reports and farmers’ practices take the mechanics and movements of the stars and planets into consideration, there are still people who dismiss these occurrences as coincidences.

Mckean insists that the realities of astrology are not properly credited.

“What was dismissed as ‘magical thinking’ about astrology turned out to be a real mechanism that could be measured and timed,” Mckean said. “The credit, however, was given to astronomy.”

As well as having studied the past and present implications of astrology in society, Mckean has had first-hand experience with the scientific community. With the high amount of criteria needed to publish a theory, Mckean understands why astrology can be thought of as a pseudoscience.

“I was a Clinical Research Director at an Ivy League,” Mckean said. “To get clinical and data findings published in well-sought, highly-reputed scientific and medical journals meant it had to pass the scrutiny and vetting of the best doctors and scientists in the nation. In knowing how much work goes into proving a theory, I am aware that astrology often falls short of meeting all the benchmarks of the scientific process of proving theories, ideas and phenomena.”

Getting astrological studies or reports published in reputable scientific journals may be a challenge, but sharing information on the Internet is not.

Millennials and those in the Generation Z are sharing, absorbing and interpreting astrological information via online networks. Mckean notices the trend in young peoples’ augmented curiosity about celestial phenomena.

“Young people in America are now more open and more accepting of astrology and other esoteric topics,” Mckean said. “Outlets like ‘The New York Times’ and ‘The Atlantic’ have written articles about the hows and whys of it. Celestial topics like ‘Mercury Retrograde’ started trending in pop-culture. People now look out for eclipses, full moons and other astrological phenomenon.

With the growing interest in astrology, a new group of people studying astrology as a serious subject are rising up from the horizon. Horoscope articles online and on printed magazines and newspapers are gaining traction and validity again.”

More young people are becoming interested in getting involved with astrology. One of these individuals is junior Sydney Seigle. With millions of online resources at her fingertips, Seigle has become amazed with how much she has learned about herself in so little time.

“We have access to information that can tell us about [astrology],” Seigle said. ”If we didn’t, then people probably wouldn’t care about it as much, but you can literally, in 60 seconds, put in the date and time you were born and it can tell you everything about you. It might not be all accurate, but it’s still so cool to find stuff out about yourself that you may not even realize before you read it.”

While Seigle believes most of what she reads online, she is still skeptical about some of it. She believes that there is much more to astrology than just horoscopes, but that they can still be valued. To her, horoscopes are only scratching the surface of the

“ You can,

in literally 60 seconds, put in the date and time you were born, and it can tell you everything about you.”

September 2018 | The North Star | 31 depths of astrology.

“I think it’s really cool to learn about how the stars and planets affect us and our personality and our daily lives,” Seigle said. “I may not believe in it all, but it’s still so interesting and just really awesome. Horoscopes that we read online are fake. Astrology is more than just a horoscope. It’s the way the positions of the planets when we were born impact us.”

The ever-rising trend in astrology is surely present in young people, such as Seigle, but is also widely skepticized. Many feel that astrology is an irrational way to make predictions or find truth in oneself. One of these skeptics is junior Jennifer He. “I don’t believe in astrology because the idea that celestial objects define how we act and how we feel just seems bizarre to me,” He said. “We are the result of ourselves, not the result of some supernatural causes.

She finds no significance in astrology. To her, astrology is a form of manipulation made to give its believers false

premonitions about themselves and their futures.

“I don’t find any significance behind astrology,” He said.

“Things like horoscopes are scams that are vague for a reason — so people believe them. There is no way that I believe that there is an actual science behind astrology. It’s a scam made to trick gullible people.”

In spite of He’s argument, Mckean argues that astrology is worth learning about. She argues that the historical use of astrology is a reason to self-inform about the practice. While the debate about whether astrology is worth believing in or not may live on indefinitely, the thousands of years of astrological history will always be there, significant or not.

“Astrology has been around for thousands of years,” Mckean said. “It’s survived persecution, discredits, demonization, and ostracizing, yet it still survives and thrives. With that kind of fortitude, it’s worth looking into.”

Star- tistics Aries

Taurus

Gemini

Cancer

Do you believe in astrology?

Leo

Virgo

Libra

Scorpio Sagittarius Capricorn Aquarius

How often do you read your horoscope?

Daily

Yes

11%

Weekly

Never 22%

22%

No

20%

27% 0

50

100

Annually

155

Do you read your horoscope?

Monthly

Where do you read your horoscope?

Other

Yes

11% 18%

No

Pisces

Snapchat

A website

58% 13%

Instagram

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