l o o n h c tio S to Edi ck ial a B ec Sp
Cardinal Gibbons High School - 1401 Edwards Mill Rd Raleigh, N.C. 27607
Volume 12, Issue 1 August 27, 2012
Freshmen class met with smiles, cheers Vision emerges
Photo by Jordan Watkins/Landmark Yearbook
Freshmen practice “The Rollercoaster” cheer with the help of Redshirt Freshmen volunteers, seniors Dom Vellucci (left) and Matthew Harvey, during Freshman Welcome Day on Wednesday, August 22. Green Army generals taught the cheers to the Class of 2016.
Sean Feick Senior Staff Writer As freshmen pulled up to the front of Gibbons and got ready to be dropped off on their first day of high school, they stepped out to a huge crowd of Gibbons upperclassmen cheering and greeting them. “I felt really welcome here. Everyone’s so excited,” said freshman Liz Berzwell, as she walked into her new school for the first time during Freshman Welcome Day on Wednesday. After the students entered the lobby and received their name tags, they were ushered off to their first school Mass in the gym. After Mass, the group dispersed into small groups led by upperclassmen and headed into individual classrooms for group activities. Everyone introduced themselves to their new classmates at this time and played simple group games like the name game and versions of musical chairs to help encourage new students to start talking to people and making friends. “[The upperclassmen] made me feel very welcome. They were very helpful,” said freshman Ian Wirth. The classroom groups broke up to take short tours of the school with individual NHS members pairing up with the freshmen. The older students helped their freshmen find their locker and showed them where their classes would be to help prevent confusion for their first day of classes on Thursday. The volleyball team served a pizza lunch to the freshmen in the gym with their new friends and peer leaders. For the final event of the day, the freshmen stayed in the gym for large group games like Snake Tag and met the leaders of the student spirit squad, the Green Army. The “generals” of the Green Army taught the students some cheers for
Photo by Jennifer Rilley/Gibbons Media
Redshirt Freshmen volunteers seniors Savannah Balbe (left) and Melissa Cox greet a freshman with a hug as he arrives for Freshman Welcome Day. Redshirt Freshmen volunteers will help freshman adjust to high school for the first weeks of school.
football games and shared a little bit of what “Gibbons Spirit” is all about. Afterwards, the Redshirt Freshmen were introduced as a resource for the freshmen. The Redshirt Freshmen are a group of seniors who volunteered to assist freshman during the first weeks of school. They are easily identifiable as someone the freshmen can ask for help by their red shirts with question marks on the back. After the games, everyone was dismissed to go home after a long and busy first day. “I guess I was a little nervous coming, but I like it here. I like the environment. It feels like a community,” said freshman Stephen Shank, summing up the day.
Freshman Focus kicks off year Marisa Casson Design Editor
With almost two-thirds of the incoming Class of 2016 participating this year, Freshman Focus has evolved from an optional program into the unofficial beginning of the school year for many incoming students. “Freshman Focus began as a seminar for less than 100 incoming freshmen, and this year 212 incoming students attended. Numerous teachers and staff have been involved since the program’s inception,” said English teacher Kendra Burns in an email, who co-directed the program with college counselor Michelle Clayborne.
Caleb Maloney Executive News Editor On the first day of school on August 23, students could not help but notice that the new arts/athletics wing now resembles a school building and is no longer just the steel and brick shell it was back in June. The Building the Vision construction project has significantly changed the look of campus over the summer and although many of the changes can be seen from the exterior, many more changes took place in the current building. A sprinkler system was installed in most of the school to bring the school up to code. New LED lights and new tile floor were installed in the cafeteria, and a new interior cafeteria lobby was created in what was an exterior patio on the parking lot side. The old school store was removed and the store is now located in the corner of the cafeteria formerly occupied by the percussion room. Plant Ops was reconfigured to include two new offices and new carpeting and LED lights were installed. The addition of new furniture completed the renovation. A new LCD projector and screen were installed in the gym, to be used for assemblies, Mass and other all-school events. This will be important because the theater is inaccessible while the new arts/athletics wing is being completed so all large gatherings will be in the gym this semester. The arts/athletics wing will contain a black box theater, auxiliary gym, multi-purpose athletic room, a new weight room, new fine arts rooms, and a new lobby. This wing is being built off the old theater and is expected to be completed by the time Christmas break ends in January, 2013. “The whole wing is going to be completed in December. Then, we can move classes to the new wing,” said Principal Jason Curtis. According to Curtis, one of the key aspects of Building the Vision was to create more gathering spaces for students, which is part of the reason for the Plant Ops and cafeteria changes. “We created a lot of communal spaces where students can hang out,” said Curtis. One of these communal spaces will be an enclosed courtyard located behind the library, once the academics wing is completed. The academics wing will connect the existing classroom wings, uniting the whole building on both floors. A project of this size obviously comes with many concerns, the biggest being the disturbance the construction might cause students. “We wanted to make sure we would not negatively impact any of our current students,” said Curtis. Along with the chance of impacting students’ school day, Curtis also didn’t want to have to cancel any events in response to the project. Although it appears to be much needed, very few parking spots will be added as a result of the project. “There is no way in this plan that we can build a lot more parking,” said Curtis.
See photos and video of the Building the Vision construction progress online at www.cghsnc.org/buildingthevision
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