January 2020

NORTH HARFORD HIGH SCHOOL

211 PYLESVILLE ROAD, PYLESVILLE, MD 21132

410-638-3650

VOLUME 43 ISSUE 1

January 30, 2019

North Harford students bring home FBLA victories HANNAH SCHEIDE Reporter

On Wednesday, January 15 North Harford students traveled to Century High School in Carroll country to the FBLA regional competition. “FBLA is future business leaders of America.

You compete in business related events, some online and some are presentations like in promoting speaking, public speaking or different things on that business plan,” said advisor Mrs. Victoria Bridges.

The students that participated in this event were juniors Stephanie Zagraiek, Landon Arthur, Andrew Gerhardt, Shaun Gloglowski, Kylan Keehan, sophomore Dylan Ortman, and seniors Austin Smith, Cooper Taylor, Kenny Todd, JT Duley.

“There were a lot of people in our division so we didn’t think we were going to win, but I was in entrepreneurship which I got first with Austin Smith and Kenny Todd,” said Taylor.

There are at least 60 different chapters you can compete in, all relating back to business. “I took a pretest on political science in school, there were seven people and I came in fourth. The top five people go to states which are

FBLA students pose with certificates, displaying their accomplishments.

The North Harford students plan to prepare for their upcoming competitions, including states. Photo Credits: Vicki Bridges held in Baltimore,” commented Arthur.

Gerhardt explains “Once we get there we always have some sort of opening ceremony and then

split up into our individual chapters. At this point any competitor who is doing a speaking event reports to the room they present in and the rest of the competitors

who did online tests or turned in presentations go to educational workshops related to business topics like money management and finance.”

After a few hours of workshops, he said the participants return to the meeting area to have dinner and “after that we proceed to the awards ceremony and find out how we did. Usually there is a small closing ceremony after the awards as well.”

Gerhardt chose Banking and Financial systems, which is an individual or group skills test for juniors and seniors as his category.

While not everyone did the same things, Duley says he “went to ones about becoming a better presenter, calculating our future budgets, and the final one we did was a fun bingo.” Each workshop presented something new to further these students business education.

“Once the workshops were over We then went into the auditorium and waited for out categories to be called.

When your category is called you go up to the stage and they read off what you placed based on what you got on the test.

Top 5 move on to states.” I went out for economics and got fifth place,” said Duley. The students plan to continue their preparation for upcoming competitions.

Harford County Schools test for lead; Findings determine next steps for protocol LAUREN SECO OP/ED Editor Since the end of the 2018 school year, over 6,000 water sources within Harford County Public Schools (HCPS) have been tested for lead with 558 of those sources returning as actionable levels according to the HCPS website. Efforts have been made to amend this problem through shutting down the water sources and placing notices to warn of the test results.

According to Manager of Communications of Harford County Public Schools, Jillian Lader, “if the actionable result was found at a water source other than a drinking water outlet, the water source, like a sink, has been labeled “Hand Washing Only.” If the outlet was unnecessary, water will be disconnected.

The HCPS website also adds

that “sufficient drinking water outlets without elevated lead levels exist for students and staff in all schools.”

As per regulation, testing for lead in water occurs in cycles of three years. As for schools with on-site well water, they are also tested regularly, but under a separate statute than schools with public water.

North Harford’s onsite well-water system is also regularly tested as it is covered by the EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule.

Even as an older school, the pipes connecting the plumbing are made of copper, not lead.

According to Harford County, what are deemed as actionable levels are levels higher than the allowable 20 parts per billion.

The EPA’s actionable levels are instead are levels higher than 15 parts per billion, but they have

“Sufficient drinking water outlets without elevated lead levels exist for students and staff in all schools.”

- HCPS Website a goal of reaching a level of zero parts per billion.

Symptoms of lead poisoning in children include “developmental delay, learning difficulties, irritability, loss of appetite, weight loss, sluggishness and fatigue,

abdominal pain, vomiting, constipation, hearing loss, and seizures,” according to Mayo Clinic. Regulations in Harford County are meant to protect the children within the community from these dangers.

According to NBC, other counties in Maryland also experienced problems with actionable levels in lead, stating “the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says seven primary and secondary schools in Maryland outside of Baltimore have reported high levels of lead in their tap water at least once since 2013.” NBC continues writing, saying the majority of these schools utilize well-water systems.

Even with the testing, some students are still wary of the water at school. North Harford senior, Rachel Smith offers her opinion,

stating, “It’s really annoying if I forget my water bottle at home because I don’t trust the water at school.” The student also recalls her middle school years, describing that “they used to have signs up at the middle school saying that if you were pregnant you can’t drink the water, so I’m not going to put that in my body.”

NH parents also have opinions to offer. Kathy Sherinsky adds that she doesn’t think we got any notice about the lead thing and that frustrates her because she says she’d “like to know about what’s going on.” She also adds that handling of the situation is okay as there is not much else for the county to do besides test the water and either turn off the source or label the sink. Harford County does place water updates on their website including the levels in the water at the last date of testing.

Cry of the Hawk

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January 30, 2019

Inconsistent calls frustrating; Bringing others down causes toxicity Athletes need to be treated fairly VIEWPOINT

doing their part if they are harder on certain athletes than others, whatever the reason. Rules are set for the whole team to follow to make competition fair and safe.

Without everyone following the same rules, certain players have advantages and certain teams are favored.

In the end, a team might win, but what’s that worth if they got there only because a ref made calls favored them not because they were really the better team.

Referees are trained in a number of ways to keep the game as fair as possible and they attend workshops and seminars to learn how to treat every player

Officials, referees, judges are all making calls and ensuring that all athletes play by the rules.

And while it might be obvious, these officials are expected to fair and neutral in their decision making.

But what happens when it appears that they may be favoring slower or less experienced players and being harder on more advanced athletes during the same game. In swim meets, judging is difficult because it is not like other sports where you are directly on the field of play.

In swimming, it is difficult for officials because they are outside and standing above the pool trying to judge swimmers when they are going fast and they have to contend w i t h bubbles and splashing.

While Photo credit: JJ the same challenges exist in o t h e r sports, it makes it hard to keep and team equally no matter how up with the players while making skilled they are. They attend fair calls. Hockey, for example, is workshops and seminars that so hard to follow along because address new rules or changes so they are on the ice and go so fast. they are up to date and prepared.

The reality is that if a ref isn’t The puck is flying around everywhere, and you can lose it going to be call a fair game, ,they in a second. In basketball, the should really not ref at all. It’s action is centered around the that simple. If you enforce one basket, where there are lots of rule on someone, you have to enforce it on everyone. bodies pushing and shoving.

The worst part is that when Regardless, referees are trained to make decisions based on how things like this happen, athletes the players play not how good and coaches usually can’t do they should be doing or how they much about it, especially in high school sports. Coaches might have performed in the past.

And they should most definitely speak to the referees, but once not call a game based on their they make their call, they usually preferences on who should win. don’t turn back. Coaches can They should be trained well argue as much as they want, but enough to make decent calls that questioning a ref doesn’t end well are fair for both sides following for the official or the team.

Often, they get mad and may the rule book they have been target your team for the rest of prepared to use.

These kinds of things can the game because of your lack of happen in any sport costing trust in what they saw.

Athletes, parents, coaches them valuable opportunities like are asked to be respectful of championships or playoffs.

When referees, officials and officials and that is certainly umpires take sides, it turns the understandable. However, a ref whole game into a mess. It is a who does not do his/her job well ref’s job to make the sport fair or consistently makes it hard for for both teams and they are not all those people to sit silently by.

Cry of the Hawk 211 Pylesville Road Pylesville, MD 21132 (410) 638-3650

HANNAH KRIZEK OP/ED Editor If you feel like you’re that person that’s always getting words thrown at you (that maybe don’t make you feel so good) I’m here to tell you, it’s not worth listening.

That girl you used to be close with or “the boys,” nagging on you sometimes for how you dress, or maybe even criticizing you for who you are- well, let me tell you, there is no reason for you to change to satisfy those nagging people.

Negative people are like blinds blocking out the sun in

a room. Blinds aren’t always closed; sometimes the sun is an added bonus, and other times it isn’t, just as from time to time, these defeating people let you shine, and keep those blinds open... but occasionally, the blinds of the day you hoped to be good suddenly get closed, leaving you shining very little, or not at all.

Why give them what they want? Instead of turning your light off, keep it on! Smile and keep going. No need to hope for the day to be good, make it good yourself, and with the people that do cherish you. I know, those words are much easier said than done, but the effort is what counts, then success will peep in along the way.

You’re light probably turns off because you’re thinking, why me?

What did I ever do to them? You didn’t do anything, or maybe you did... and in that case this doesn’t apply to you, but most likely they’re throwing words at you for no reason. In a lot of cases, the words that are tearing you down

from someone else, are only being said because that someone else is torn down themselves.

There comes a point when smiling and going on with your day, might not seem adequate, because they continuously walk on you, sometimes feeling more like a stomp. This leaves you wanting to stand up for yourself but the fears that it will get worse kick in.

My advice to you is, if it goes on maybe take a moment for yourself but do in a way that you are not feeding back to their immaturity.

Take their words as a lesson and let it leave you more positive than before.

All in all, some people just live a life where to them bringing others down is cool, and that’s fine I guess, live how you aspire, but don’t let their words bruise you, because in the end it’s so not worth it.

These words may seem so loud, like the only thing your ears are tuning in on, but take a look around, at the smiles surrounding you, the genuine friends you do have, and ask yourself if you really should let the opinions of a few matter.

Fertility fraud legal in most states EDITORIAL After discovering she was a sperm donor baby, Eve Wiley became curious as to who was her biological father. As results returned six weeks later from the 23 and me lab, everything Wiley thought about her identity was turned around.

After having a steady relationship with her believed “biological father”, Wiley discovered she, in fact, was not his daughter. The find was appalling.

Wiley’s mother chose donor 106 from her fertility clinic to be her daughters’ biological father. During her mother’s insemination surgery, donor 106 sperm was combined with sperm from Dr. Kim McMorries, her mother’s fertility doctor. Wiley’s biological father is McMorries.

Going in depth into her research, Wiley was not the first case of “fertility fraud.” Currently in 47 states, it is legal for a doctor to inseminate their patients with their own semen with zero consent, after the women sign papers allowing insemination.

Jody Lyneé Madeira, PhD, believes the untruthful case to be “medical rape.” Wiley and Madeira have formed a team

to press charges against men who commit this heinous act.

Wiley and her team made a trip to Austin, Texas every week for four months to bring justice to her case.

While meeting with the local state representative, the team discovered the representative

“After having a steady relationship with her believed “biological father”, Wiley discovered she, in fact, was not his daughter.”

was in close relations with McMorries. The representative said proudly, in relations to Wiley’s looks, “I don’t know why you’re so upset, looks like everything turned out well for you.” No one was taking her case seriously.

After a quarter of a year, the team finally had a law passed in Texas to completely eliminate

News Editors: Health and Science Editor: Ellie Evans, Caitlyn Allen Rachel Keeney Opinion/Editorial Editor: Entertainment Editor: Lauren Seco, Hannah Krizek Charlotte McElwain Features Editor: Sports Editors: Zoe Milkes Tori Gay, Abbey Kroener IDR Editor: Business Manager: Aleah Bikle Kendell Schubert Society, Students & Culture Editor: Reporters: Hailey Deares Maura Chaney, Addy Dean, Grace Feldbush, Madison Video Manager: Fetherston, Lily Greco, Leah Hillier, Zach Jackson, Emily Green Leigha MacBurney, Kierstyn McManus, Greer Strine, Copy Editor: Marissa Altenburg, Lauren Brandis, Jake Gay, Summer Emily Iampieri Grace, Hannah Scheide Social Media Coordinator: Announcements Tech Evan Kuzemchak Victoria Hanna

fertility fraud. Any act of the sort will be considered a crime from now on in the state of Texas.

Following the new act Wiley is still in distraught but wants to continue her legacy to influence other states and the creation of the law.

Implantation of an unauthorized donor is a horrific act. Wiley found her truth from other children who have been conceived from McMorries’ monstrous doings.

According to ABC news, there are “Over 50 pending cases of fertility fraud” in Illinois.

Understanding that there are more women and their children in the U.S. in the same shoes as Wiley is unbelievable.

Wiley’s and her child had a detrimental genetic illness that was left undiagnosed due to wrong information given by McMorries. Wiley was providing her child’s pediatric doctor with donor 106, medical history. If the correct biological information was given, the illness could have been found more rapidly.

Wiley wants to be known for the legacy she has created due to McMorrie’s agonizing behavior.

She states that she wants her “journey to be recognized as bringing changes, not charges.”

The Cry of the Hawk newspaper is published 10 times a year by North Harford’s Journalism II/III class.

All editorials and viewpoints express the feelings of those on the staff and not necessarily those of fellow students, administrators, or teachers. Please do not hesitate to submit letters to Advisor Jen Chandler in room D207. Letters should be no longer than 300 words, must be signed, and may not contain vul-

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January 30, 2019

Cry of the Hawk

World War III talk sparks fear EDITORIAL

Kingdom, India, North Korea, Pakistan, Israel, Belgium, Italy, With the talk of a Third Germany, The Netherlands, and World War running rampant Turkey says The Arms Control throughout social media, the Association Just any one of these news, and on the streets. There is places could blow the world to fear this may be the real start of pieces, but they don’t. This is another world war. because the world simply can not On January 3, General handle it. It would be stupid of Qasem Soleimani, an Iranian someone to do that because the Major General in the Islamic world can not function without Revolutionary Guard Corps, the “Superpower” countries of was killed by a drone air strike the world. ordered by President Donald Everyone saw what nuclear Trump. Many now fear that this weapons could do at the end of will invoke World War another war II. They because the have only criteria is ever been so similar to used two the killing times in of Osama war, both bin Laden times by which had a the United large impact S t a t e s with our against the war with Japanese.

Iraq.

It has only A Third been used World War t w i c e is childish because of and just Talk of WWIII sparks talk of nu- the amount plain dumb. clear warfare. The aftermath of Hi- of damage it There is roshima and Nagasaki left Japan in caused. no way the ruin. Photo Credit: Wolfgang Wolny Nuclear leaders of weapons this world have been could ever bring that upon threatened many times but anyone ever again. Through the never again used. The talk of a two world wars, a total of 145 World War III would probably million lives were lost. Today never happen. Aside from the those numbers would be even weapons, there are too many ties more due to the nuclear power between countries economically weapons that most countries and financially to go to war. Iran have according to history realizes that war with anyone at professor Robert Schuman. this point would be catastrophic Think about this, the nuclear to their country, therefore if they armed states of the world did go to war they would be are China, France, Russia, taking a huge risk which chances The United States, United are they will not want to take.

Little white lies actually harmful;

Truth always helpful in future

KENDALL SCHUBERT Business Manager Little white lies KENDALL SCHUBERT Business Manager Little white lies. These seem like harmless meaningless things that we say because it makes us seem cooler, avoids hurting someone’s feelings, or even gives us a cushion from the real world.

However, in reality, these lies will always come back to bite you in the butt.

You have a friend who always brags about how good they have it and how glad they are that they can do whatever they want. They say they have parents who don’t care about their grades or how late they stay out, or give them free reign to live how they wish.

But really, they lie about how happy they are. They don’t want people to know that they wish their parents would try harder and push them to be better.

They really do wish their parents would be harder on them.

You on the other hand, are dealt the opposite cards. Strict

helicopter parents and high expectations for yourself and from everyone else. It’s hard, but you don’t want people to know that it’s hard.

When you’re asked if you’re going to the party Friday night, you tell them “yeah, wouldn’t want to miss it,” even though you already know you’ll be working your Friday night shift because you need the money to help pay for your car insurance. That’s your Friday night expectation from your parents.

This is just one of those little white lies that you believe won’t affect anyone. Then Saturday rolls around and everyone wants to know where you were. You say “Oh, I had a slight fever so I had to stay in.” Because what they don’t know won’t kill them right?

One lie turns into more and more.

It wasn’t supposed to get this far.

Yet people are starting to question you because you never live up to your word.

In reality, you don’t want to take your issues and responsibilities out on everyone else because you think they simply wouldn’t understand.

What about when something happens that you know will hurt your best friend. But you don’t want to see them hurt, so you twist the truth a little to spare their feelings.

Then they find out the truth.

You’re caught in your lie, it may seem like you have a good reason behind it. However, the fact you lied only hurts them more.

The truth will come out, at some point or another. No matter what situation, no matter how much you cover it up. People find out. Don’t waste your breath on lies that won’t do you any good in the first place.

Reach out to those who seem to bottle everything up. Check in on the person who does the same for you.

Everyone is going through something they don’t talk about.

Lies may seem like they could help you, but in the long run they only weigh you down more. You have to constantly worry that you might slip up and say something that contradicts what you’ve already told people. Be truthful, it’s easier and people respect you more for it.

So, be someone who is honest and kind. Always telling the truth and never sugarcoating it because it’s easier to hear it how it is. Don’t be afraid to speak your mind.

Be the smart kid. The one who is responsible and trustworthy.

Someone who people are proud of for the accomplishments you set your mind to.

Be the rebellious kid who is brave and headstrong, who is willing to be everything they know they are because that’s what their goal is in life.

Be whoever you want to be, live in glory of everything that makes you, you.

Participation trophies send dangerous message Baltimore city faces trouble; Homicide clearance rate drops EDITORIAL

Imagine going to a game, a competition, or even a spelling bee, and you completely bomb it.

You do the worst you ever have.

Even still, you receive a trophy to resemble your “success.”

Participation trophies are a global wide “success” award that are given out during many different competitions and/or games to those participants who do not place in the top three, but still were in the competition.

Participation trophies are dangerous. According to Mike Ronsisvalle, a doctor, there are three main reasons why participation trophies are dangerous for kids.

The first is “the value of feeling uncomfortable.” When kids lose in a game, it gives them a sort of uncomfortable and negative feelings towards themselves, so we give these trophies to try and make them feel better about how they did. However, giving a student an award just because they are upset can be harmful for them in the future.

According to Ronsisvalle, when kids are praised for everything and are always shown the idea “everybody’s a winner,” it “reduces their desire

to put in their best effort and reduces their ability to regulate negative emotions,” which can negatively affect them in the future because they will always want to be in an “emotionally safe environment” and “won’t be able to handle negative emotions later on in their life,” thus setting them up for failure.

Next “self-esteem vs. status.”

Ronsisvalle claims “as a culture, we have confused self-esteem and status.” Status means we are positioned as superior or inferior to those around us. Selfesteem is based on the idea that we can value ourselves based on qualities and traits that are inherent to who we are as humans.

Status in our society is “if we win, we have value and if we lose, we are valueless.” Self-esteem is based more on the qualities of hard-work, grit, and character.

If you give a kid a trophy for even if they lose, it is teaching kids that they need to walk away with a prize to feel good about their effort. According to Ronsisvalle, “kids don’t need that. They need to know that their best effort combined with grit, determination, and character is all they need to feel good about their effort in life.”

Lastly, we have “innovation vs. depression and anxiety.”

Parents are always trying to keep their kids from feeling negative emotions because they think it is keeping them safe, when really it is doing the opposite.

Ronsisvalle states that our society thinks we shouldn’t have to handle feeling negative emotions which “unintentionally creates situations where students feel disempowered and even assume everyone has hostile intentions.”

These negative patterns have led to a rise in anxiety, depression, and suicide in adolescents.

Look at it from the perspective of the kid who got first, practiced all day every day, and put in their 100 percent best effort, but receives the same trophy as the kid who didn’t try. Participants should be rewarded for success, not for the act of showing up.

We think making everyone happy by giving participants trophies for participating, even if they do horribly, will make them happy and keep away from problems. However, we are really creating an environment in which more kids will struggle with negative emotions and mental health problems in the future.

VIEWPOINT Recently the Baltimore City Police Department released a report that said in 2019 only 32 percent of murders were solved, that means 68 percent of murderers got away with taking someone’s life.

According to the Baltimore city police department, the national average of homicides unsolved is 67 percent, making Baltimore one of the easiest cities to get away with murder in.

Due to the large amount of unsolved homicides, the police department is in desperate need of help.

According to Baltimore Police Commissioner, Michael Harrison, “The Baltimore Police department has a central role in the crime fight, but to address the root causes of violence that have plagued our city for decades, we need help from people from many professions and many different walks of life.”

Being the 23rd most dangerous city in the world, Baltimore has about 55.5 murders per 100,000 people says the Baltimore Sun, and that number is rising. Just in

the first 13 days of the new decade there were already eight separate shootings in Baltimore ending in 12 shot and five dead ABC News reported.

Although 32 percent is very low, it is not as low as it was in 2015, when the rate was dropped to 30.5 percent cases cleared.

Either way, Baltimore is anything but a “safe” city. There needs to be more police officers and they should be trained to protect Baltimore better.

And the police need to be held accountable. The Baltimore Sun reported, “at least 20 Baltimore police officers [were] arrested, sentenced, or suspended in one year.”

As an officer, swearing to abide and enforce the law, as well as protecting the citizens, is mandatory.

Officers in training should not become an officer if they cannot do these things.

We need to make sure officers in training become as efficient as they can possibly be so they can protect all 619,493 of Baltimore’s residents and solve a greater percentage of homides in Baltimore.

Cry of the Hawk

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2020-21 school year to start after Labor Day;

School board overrides parent requests VIEWPOINT

decided against what the viewers on the stream were requesting In recent years HCPS has been and decided to give students a making the first day of school few extra days of summer. after Labor Day. There were sigSince students are required to nificant challenges to the board go a full 180 days of school, startover having the first day moved ing on the eighth makes the last from Sept. 8 to Sept. 1. day of school, without any snow The first day of school for K-12 days to be on June 11. However, was scheduled to be on the first. if we use all the snow days, stuHowever, the school board had dents will have their last day on consecutive meetings to deter- June 21. mine if this date was final. Since Starting later means teachLabor Day is late in the 2020- ers go back on Aug. 31 to start 21 school year, it was proposed professional development. Any that students go back before the student athletes start tryouts as holiday. Labor Day falls on Sun- early as Aug. 12, which is almost day, Sept. 7, so it was proposed to a whole month ahead of the start start on the 9/1 in effort to end of school. This gives teams a little school earlier in June. bit of a longer pre-season.

There were numerous meetAny students taking AP tests, ings with the school board to see are starting May 4 and they end how they felt about this issue. May 15. For these students, a Going back earlier than we have later start gives students taking in year’s past, gives us a longer the test less time to prepare. Test summer in 2021. dates are set from the beginning However, students didn’t real- of the year, and don’t fluctuate ly agree to starting a week early with snow days. because they wanted the summer Since we are starting the of 2020 to be ‘longer’ even if the school year a week later, teachers total number of days ended up don’t have as long to teach their being shorter, the idea of going students all they need to know later, seems better than earlier. along with a review to help them A school board meeting was feel confident to take and hopelive streamed to the public. This fully pass the test. live stream allowed the members Overall, going back to school of the HCPS board to see the earlier raised concerns for teachfeedback from students and par- ers, students, parents of athletes ents that want a say in this issue. and anyone required to come Overall, those on the live back to school for other events, stream had made very clear that a long time before school is in starting school on the first wasn’t session. Making school start latas bad of an idea as they original- er, may sound nice in theory, but ly thought and that it would end when the details are worked out, up benefiting us later. However, it has far more drawbacks than the members of the school board benefits.

Dark humor growing on Tik Tok EDITORIAL

The most common jokes made are about being drafted, which Social media influences the to some may be hilarious, but daily lives of teenagers, from to those with friends or family Instagram, Snapchat, and now in the military, not so much.

TikTok. The popular app made According to NBC news, on “joking” connections to the not the short-form video so funny matter of World app TikTok alone, “ScrollWar III, putting users the hashtags in a conflicting state "WWIII" and ing down the of laughter and "WW3" have “For you page” on fear. been viewed According to TikTok you see back more than CNN, hours afbilto back joking videos 1.6 ter the Pentagon lion times. about World War III, That’s a announced the killing of Irani- but you never get to see lot of eyes, an Gen. Qasem and a lot of the real-life effects Soleimani who opinions. is a high-profile war has on our Many commander of Iran's trends these country.”

Quds Force, "World days can be conWar III" was trending on troversial, and this is Twitter. Over time the idea of one to add to the list. Jokes are this war started to go around made by this new generation other social media platforms, as a way to cope with fearful such as the one you probably times, Rebecca Berry, a clinical have on your home screen, Tikpsychologist and a clinical asTok. sociate professor in the DepartThe probability of their bement of Child and Adolescent ing a World War has started Psychiatry at NYU Langone to not be taken seriously by Health, said it's not uncomteens, they joke around online mon for adults and teens to use and make funny videos about humor as a way to cope with the concept behind a screen. stress.

It seems like new changes are being made every day at the Hawk's Nest. Some students and members of the faculty are very outspoken about these changes and don’t mind voicing their opinion.

Just recently the school implemented it’s very first “Kettle Day” appropriately named after a flock of soaring hawks. This new Kettle Day shows a lot about our administration. They are constantly looking for ways to better our school and the way our school days look.

It's not rare to find a student or teacher feeling frustration about not having enough time for stressful workloads.

However, the good news is that the administration proved they

heard us loud and clear, and thus Kettle Day was born.

And though nothing's perfect and new things are rarely the best they can be the first time they’re put into effect, Kettle day was an experiment worth doing.

I was actually able to get work done during this period. In fact, I wrote this column during my Kettle Day period.

However, there were definitely students who used the time wisely. However, there were kids in my homeroom who either have nothing to do or just couldn’t be bothered to work on their unfinished classwork/homework. But that would happen on Kettle day, Hawks Soar day, or any other day.

And would it be more convenient to be able to get a pass and go see a teacher to makeup work during this period? Yes. But hopefully, as we have more early dismissals those changes/ improvements may be made.

Until that time comes together as a school, we should understand why this new schedule change is being made and make the most of it.

We’re so lucky to be a part of school where we are able to be heard and can express our ideas on how we can make school a more enjoyable place to be.

It’s normal to joke online about funny situations like a cat flushing a toilet or a baby covered in peanut butter, but when it comes to war, I think joking matters have gone too far. Using dark humor is how generation Z tends to handle lots of situations that are on the serious side, but there are boundaries that shouldn’t be crossed.

Families all over the US have loved ones enlisted in the military, and when a situation like war come into play, jokes about being sent away in the draft is not something they will laugh at. Being sent overseas to fight for our country is a reality for many. Scrolling down the “For you page” on TikTok you see back to back joking videos about World War III, but you never get to see the real-life effects war has on our country.

WWIII is still just a potential thought, but it still has the chances of becoming a reality.

Before you take your next TikTok with your friends using all the popular hashtags, think about if the message is something you want to have going around in our world.

Listen just hear me out, although I’m probably wrong...

Actually, I am definitely wrong, that’s besides the point JACOB GAY Reporter

“Kettle Day” schedule change ADDY DEAN Reporter

January 30, 2019

*WARNING WARNING Immense amounts of sarcasm and humor below. Read at your own risk.* As someone who doesn’t look online, does not get contacted by the school, and is incapable of seeing it on TV, I would like to thank everyone who posts on social media when the word comes out that we have off from school.

Actually, in case you were wondering, nobody really cares about your public service announcements on Snapchat.

No, but seriously, I appreciate your words and your input on common problems. Like when you complain about how “you don’t want to go to school tomorrow.” I feel you, in fact there are about 56.6 million students in America, and we all feel you!

Surprisingly enough, as it turns out, you ALSO are not the only one who thinks “gas is too expensive.”

Also, the phrase “if you know, you know” REALLY is an intelligent comment. It takes serious skill to piece together that declarative sentence, you must

get straight A’s. Seriously though, when you break it down there is little reason to post public service announcements.

Unless they’re about politics.

Because if that's the case, they are most certainly world worthy.

I mean @realDonaldTrump does it, therefore we all can. This dude will just talk into his Amazon Echo and address the nation.

And if you do it in the morning before everyone wakes up, the better the point is (and that is a fact I got off CNN).

The reason people don’t like your political views is in fact because they’re probably wrong. In 2020, our main reasons for liking a congressperson is because they affiliate themselves with a political party you're in.

And if you're wondering if there is chocolate cake in either party, there is NOT. Although, both parties have some clowns.

Listen, I'm not a fan of either political party, I think I'm going to start my own political party entitled “yeah I don't know either dude.” If you say that Jake Gay is not a fan of Donald Trump...you are wrong.

I believe that Donald Trump's Merch business rivals David Dobrik’s. If I were to address a problem that isn't going to get my locker plastered with “Make America Great Again” merch, I’d talk about something like rap music.

What in the world has music come to where the best these artists can do is complain? The mistreatment of women the “singers” boast about is appalling and quite frankly none of these rappers are actually doing what the claim

they are. And don’t even get me started on sports. If you are a fan of soccer you are the most unathletic person in your friend group.

Have you ever watched a whole entire soccer match? Yeah neither has anyone else.

Okay... okay... don’t get mad at me if I offended you. My whole point is that we as a society get offended too often. You just got offended by my opinions, you don’t have to agree with me.

Opinions are meant to be beliefs and only beliefs, and there should be a common courtesy for you to be able to believe what you want to believe.

Yet, in this day and age if you disagree with someone you’re always wrong.

Why can’t we agree to disagree anymore? The greatest minds in history were open to constructive criticism and even reliant on feedback.

Nowadays, nobody knows what open-mindedness is. That’s because it takes too much effort.

And intelligence.

Look, I don’t believe most of the accusations I made earlier, but I’ve learned open mindedness. Being willing to hear other opinions and really give them credence is a mature choice. Great compromises have come from those willing to listen.

Ironically, there is probably a good portion of people who were offended after reading the headline of this article and they never made it to the end.

So they will completely miss the message I’m sending, which is... don’t get offended, believe what you want, stand your ground, and don’t get offended by stupidity.

Cry of the Hawk

January 30, 2019

Page 5 - News

Forensics students investigate crime scenes ABBEY KROENER Sports Editor Footprints. Fingerprints. Hair.

Fiber. Blood.

Forensic scientist teacher, Kristian Jones-Knoll, organizes a new crime scene every single year with a different scene and scenario each time, leaving students surprised. According to the scientist, this year there were missing chemicals and it was “a big concern because they were the components that could have made a bomb.”

As for next year, it will be an unexpected mystery of what the new crime will be. “I can't let you in on those secrets,” Jones-Knoll explains.

There are two crime scenes a year; the first one just took place within the science hallways to finish off the first semester.

Jones-Knoll explains why the crime scene happens when it does, “it's the end of everything where students get to put all they know about forensic science together to solve a crime.”

She adds, “I think it's a really fun way to test what they know and

According to the Schadel, this by getting their thumbprint, just have fun with forensics.”

Njideka Onyekwere describes they just learned how to look hair sample (if they were okay that the purpose of the crime at fingerprints and shoe prints giving you one), along with shoe scene “is to experience a crime but the groups are putting their size and it’s print. The next step and effectively collect evidence to knowledge together to solve the is to take pictures of the scene and compare solve it.” the prints and She adds hair found that the at the crime process of scene to everyfiguring one that was out who investigated to the culprit try and figure is “very out who did handsit. Finally, the on.” students will Senior make a rough B r y n n sketch of what Schaedel the room of the t a l k s crime scene about the looks like, and investigacomplete a tion, “we Students investigate spilled chemicals in order to solve lab write up took pic- crime scene set up. They use their knowledge from class to on the culprit, tures of along with the crime complete tasks. Photo credit: Abbey Kroener charts on the scene, Onyekwere crime. She said she enjoyed tak- data collected. looked at Surveillance camera pictures, ing pictures of the crime scene claims that the “crime scene went smoothly.” Senior Jeffrey Tidey took pictures of shoe prints and and sketching it out.

Each table group is given one agrees, adding “overall the crime compared them to the footprint person to investigate from the scene went well, we got all the found in the talcum powder, We also compared thumb eight suspects they saw enter the information needed to be able to prints.” She states, “it went really room during the time of the crime determine who committed the based off the cameras. They did crime and it wasn't too hard.” well and was a lot of fun!”

Onyekwere’s favorite part was seeing the evidence at first hand and discovering and interviewing the suspect, while Tidey enjoyed working with friends to solve the mystery. He claims that his least favorite part was “finding four characteristics from each fingerprint because it was tedious work.”

Jones-Knoll expressed that, “it went fantastic this year, it went well last year as well, but I think it gets better every year.” She believes this “because I know what the students do well and I add new details and events into the mix, I also always get some help with other teachers in the school that like to add some cool ideas to the crime scene.” According to the teacher, she is happy to say that she thinks the crime scene is “getting better with time.” The forensic scientist teacher is excited for the next crime scene because she “loves setting up the crime scene and then watching the students try to solve the crime, find the clues and discover information inside them.” Onyekwere claims that she is also excited because she “enjoyed this assignment a lot.”

New Teacher of the Year nominations in; Mosaics making difference

County to announce winner in spring MARISSA ALTENBURG Reporter The deadline for the twenty sixth Teacher of the Year award applications were on Jan 2, 2020 at midnight. The nominators are required to write a short essay explaining why their nominee should be chosen.

Last year’s winner was Havre de Grace English teacher, Mrs. Paige Milanoski, who is a 20-year veteran of the teaching profession, according to Harford County’s website.

She has worked as an English, Strategic Reading, and Drama I teacher for all high school grade levels. In addition to teaching, Ms. Milanoski actively sponsors the Havre de Grace High School chapter of Students Against Destructive Decisions (S.A.D.D.).

Though NH did not have any nominees this year, there have been nominees previously. Mrs. Jennifer Chandler was nominated in 2011 as well as 2009 and she says “it's so humbling to be nominated.

It's nice to be recognized for

working hard at something you are passionate about but that’s not why you do it.” The English and journalism teacher added that “it’s a lot of pressure but good pressure; it just makes you want to keep doing more and doing better.”

Music teacher Ms. Angela Jones was in the finals in 2007.

“I was very humbled when I was nominated because I also felt like I was still a new teacher and still has so much to learn to be a good teacher. Now that I have been teaching twenty-three years, I still feel that way in that there are things you can do to get better,” said Jones.

Jones reflects on her interview process and says “the process is almost like a job interview with people like an administrator, a past Teacher of the Year winner, the Harford County PTA president, and just a whole group of people that sit there and fire questions at you.” She added that nominees must be able to articulate themselves well and speak on the spot. “It's hard in a way but

it is also easy because I'm very passionate about what I do and so it's easy to answer about things like my students and why I teach because it's part of who I am.”

Teacher of the Year opportunities vary. Chandler says “both times I was nominated were similar. The first time there was a social, so we got to meet all the other nominees before the actual banquet.”

She added that the top ten nominees were automatically put on the superintendent's advisory council. “We met with the superintendent once a month and we basically had his ear to hear his plans for Harford County. He also used us as a barometer for what was happening in the county and to get our feedback.”

Jones says “I got to write an article along with all of the other finalists for the school system that was put on the website. I felt like I was able to inspire other people even though I did not win I got to influence people in a positive way...”

SUMMER GRACE Reporter Those who dare to be different may be subjected to bulling, ridicule, harassment, and even hatred by others.

Just for this reason, choir teacher, Mrs. Angie Jones just recently brought back Mosaics. A diversity club for all students, with the intent of spreading kindness and promoting open mindedness among out students and staff in our school. To have a safe and comfortable place for people who feel different at our school.

Mosaics typically starts with some time for students to share experiences they’ve had so they can get to know each other. They then spend time hanging out and brainstorming ideas on how to spread kindness outside of the group. Mrs. Angie Jones says she often notices students being marginalized because of who they are. Just because of their skin color or sexuality. “I don’t think it's right,” she says. This has been her motivation for bringing this club back. Her belief that all students should have a safe and comfortable place at North Harford High School.

There's also great concern about

the student's mental health. Mrs. Jones feels many students suffer from anxiety and depression as a result of these stereotypes. “I'm concerned about their mental health and well-being. Everyone should come to school and feel happy at some point. Not that they're going to come to school and be ridiculed for who they are.”

Mrs. Jones has the hope’s all students who feel that they are different, feel more at home here at school. She hopes they feel that there are people who care about them, and who want to hang out with them. “I just want to be an ally with this club. A support system for people,” she says.

Another goal of this club is to simply help promote open-mindedness. “A lot of the time people have hatred towards others out of ignorance. It's a lot of misrepresentation,” says Jones. “Maybe it's how their brought up maybe it's just things they’ve heard.” She says this is especially true when talking about sexual orientation.

“There's just a lot of ignorance out there. It’s just dumb. They're just people too. Or again for color, who cares what color you are?” Mrs. Jones says.

Page 6/ NEWS

Cry of the Hawk

January 30, 2020

Nh alum makes difference across globe; Mo n i t o r i n g

Rommelman’s trip to Peru

ELLIE EVANS News Editor

For most graduates, the next step in their life is to follow the path of college straight out of High School. 2019 NH graduate, Eliza Rommelman decided to take a detour and make an impact on the world around her.

Rommelman is a part of an organization called Youth with a Mission (YWAM), this meant she would travel to Kona, Hawaii for her three months of missionary training.

Far from her home and family, she was set to travel to Peru for another three months of mission work.

Rommelman explains, “I learned how to introduce Jesus to people and teach them the Gospel. I learned how to work with children who’ve been neglected or have been abused mentally, physically, and sexually.”

While she was in Hawaii, Rommelman had classes and lectures to prepare for the work she’s doing currently in Peru.

The help she’s providing to the community in Peru includes, “working with churches, tribes, and pastors, holding church services, helping pastors, and working with children, making food for them, and playing with them,” explained the NH alum.

Along with her many other

explained. Her inspiration came from her cousin, and fellow NH alumni Katie Heinly, who also went on mission trips during her college years.

Rommelman demonstrated, “I

to take a year off but I had no clue what I’d be doing during that year.”

Being in Hawaii for three months, Rommelman met friends from across the world, all sharing the same mission and hope for communities. Her most memorable moment was, sleeping in hammocks on a canoe with her team.

Rommelman explains her experiences.

“I’ve never been more uncomfortable in my life, but it was an experience.”

With many memories already ingrained and ahead of her, she explains how much her trip to Peru has Rommelman graduated from NH in 2019. Rommelman travels across the changed her globe to make a difference. perception of Photo credit:Rommelman’s friends poverty, “the communities Rommelman sought out the look up to her so much, so grow- are so joyful it has truly marked unconventional post-high school ing up I always wanted to be like my life. They don’t eat everyday route because, “As I started to her.” Deciding to take the year to because they don’t have food and look into colleges I never felt a make a difference, Rommelman yet, they’ll offer us everything pull toward any specific one,” she described, “I felt I was supposed they have.” tasks, Rommelman also learned about how to teach the tribal women about sex education, she explained, “many women aren’t as educated about the subject in Peru.”

SGA creates new committee for mental health

LEIGHA MACBURNEY Reporter

The SGA created a new committee called WORMS that is focused around the mental health of students. WORMS stands for Working on Reforming Mental Stigma, and this committee is mainly student run according to senior Katrina Burbey.

Burbey is the SGA’s mental health affairs coordinator and the president of the WORMS committee. She mentioned that she has always been interested in mental health and that she had done projects on borderline personality disorder and psychopath behaviors.

After a lot of studying and psychology classes, the senior has come to notice how many students suffer from a mental disorder. Burbey is hoping that by

changing a lot of small things to Burbey mentioned that the improve the mental well-being purpose of the committee is to of students and even “help improve the school’s envistaff. ronment so that it is a better The menplace to learn by primartal health ily focusing on mental affairs cowellness.” ordinator She is starting “help improve the works small by adding school environment alongboard games to the so it’s a better place to cafeteria but wants side vice c h a i r s learn by primariy focus- to plan a fun event for the afterschool for stuing on mental wellness” dents to participate c o m mittee in. The senior added - Katrina Burbey, are Ryan that although it is senior Blossnot set in stone the er, Lauren event may end up being Seco, and yoga, physical exercise, Erica Otte to and even relaxing art projaccomplish her ects. goals. The vice chairs The senior stated proudly that help take on some of the respon- the WORMS main goal to fundsibilities and can even fill in when raise to make money to donate to they are needed mental health charity.

WORMS had their first meeting afterschool on Wednesday, January 15 where they gave out worms on a string and discussed a few of the changes they group would like to make. The mental health affairs coordinator made it known that the worms were meant to let students know that this committee is going to try to make changes. She added that the worms also spread joy to students.

The committee has a remind that is open for everyone that will send out dates for the next meeting and can even be used to contact the committee president and her vice chairs with questions and sources. To join the Remind, text @nhhsworms to 810-10.

Burbey added that mental health can be seen as a small problem, but it can create a big impact.

ends; Doors to stay open

CAITLYN ALLEN News Editor Bathroom monitoring was implemented at NH since the end of the first quarter. In a recent interview with NH administration, the bathroom room monitoring served its purpose. According to school leaders, there has been zero damage to the bathrooms since the monitoring started.

Despite the improved condition of the restrooms, the doors will stay propped open.

According to administration, having the doors stay propped open is another way of monitoring the bathroom without having people sit there and keep track of who goes in and out. It allows students to not feel as awkward going to the bathroom with a teacher sitting there, but still achieves the job of keeping it monitored.

NH students have mixed emotions on the bathroom door staying propped open. In a poll of 150 NH students, 61 percent said that they feel violated with the doors propped open and 39 percent said they do not.

Junior Millianna Derosa states, “I feel uncomfortable that teachers can hear what I’m doing in the bathroom.” Senior Hannah Hatfield agrees.

“It is awkward. I feel like people can look in and can hear me going to the bathroom. It makes me feel uncomfortable and I don’t like it.” Sophomore Maddie Conrad says “she goes to the bathroom for privacy whether to cry or fix myself, this takes away that privacy.”

On the other hand, senior Hailey Deares disagrees. The twelfth grader says she understands why they stay open.

“You can’t see in the bathrooms so the door being open doesn’t do much.” Deares also claims “It’s not bad unless you are being sketchy,” and that “it would be different if they took off the stall doors.” Junior Andrew Patton says “it’s not like they are watching me use the bathroom so what’s the matter?”

Senior Carly Kurgan says she “feels more awkward” when walking into the bathroom because “people just stare at me and it makes me feel like I’m doing something wrong, all I need is a minute to breathe.”

Page 7/ NEWS

Cry of the Hawk

January 30, 2020

Speech and debate unveils new category

HAILEY DEARES SCC Editor

The NHHS speech and debate team is very active in the Harford County League, with attendance at the weekly and biweekly events and many members coming away with wins. Typical categories at the meets include children’s literature, readers theater, interpretation of prose and original declamation. At the previous event on Dec. 5 at Aberdeen High School, a new event was featured as an option for debaters.

The event is called original poetry and although is similar to another category, it allows more freedom of expression to members of speech and debate looking to use personal works to be judged. Competitors write their own original poetry pieces to be judged. The pieces have to fit in a time constraint, but the topic is up to the decision of the writer.

The category was unveiled at the December meet because

it’s mid season and would “give everyone an opportunity to prepare their selections” according to Ginnie Bulls, the coach of C.

wanting to recite their own poetry.”

According to team captain Katrina Burbey, the event was added because “although there is an event called original declamation that allows people to speak their original speeches, there has never been anything that allowed people to put out The speech and debate team were on their way back from their meet at Edge- other piecwood. They have a home meet on February 20. es they’ve Photo credit: Taylor Mason made.” Burbey adds that even Milton Wright’s team. Scoring added because “some students in though its new many people are is loosely based on the poetry the county expressed interest in are already experimenting with

Spotlight on creative writing;

Hawks write novellas, screenplays JAKE GAY Reporter

“show don’t tell.” This is when authors describe what’s going on Creative writing is a course the book with extreme amounts that encourages students to ac- of imagery. Students in the class cess their creative talents and have latched onto Anton Chekwrite stories that are shared hov’s quote “Don’t tell me the with teachers, classmates and moon is shining; show me the people beyond the school. Mr. glint of light on broken glass.”

Micheal James teaches the class, Students in the class said this and student Sharalyn Gardiner massively helped their writing, described him as “very kind and and are really happy they got a pretty fun when it comes to the chance to use this skill.

The students in the activities he has us do.” class have also been Morgan Demski has writing screenbeen taking cre“It wasn’t really plays. This is ative writing for multiple years challenging, just a unlike anything they’ve ever and she has recently fin- creative outlet to have written before.

Cora Presley ished her nofun.” is a student in vella. She says - Cora Presley, creative writshe “has been junior ing, she says working on it that “Right since last school now we’re doing year. It’s going to screenplays based on be a big grade, but I’m a scene in The House on Mango happy with my work.”

A lot of the creative writing Street.”

She continued “Then we’re grading is based on participation and completion. Although filming and creating the scene this sounds like an easy ‘A’, there based on our screenplays.” Presare a ton of challenges involved ley also gave input on the probin crafting a substantial piece of lem and challenges her and her literature. The students in this collaborators faced “Initially, class have to construct a plot our group struggled with creatline, complex characters, and ing character dialogue that isn’t have the self discipline to stay there in the actual book.” Presley dedicated to their stories. These continued to comment on the are challenges even the best au- enjoyment she had writing the scene overcoming the troubles, thors around the world have.

Students in the class have “it wasn’t really challenging, just worked on many skills such as a creative outlet to have fun.”

category, but official scoring in regards to finals is undecided at this time. NHHS coach Kimberly Evelyn says the category was

it,” even people “who have been doing the same event for years have decided to try it because they’re that interested.”

The event allows for writers to use their creativeness and originality to speak personally written pieces such as poetry. Burbey added that the event allows “people [to] come out of their comfort zone which is an awesome thing to see.” The team captain stated she has not personally participated in the event because it requires “full time at the competition” where many competitors double enter in multiple events at one competition.

Junior and co-captain Taylor Mason described the event “very new.” She said how it works is that “people get to write their own poetry, read it, and be judged.” Mason said she thinks if the category becomes more well known “it’ll be make speech and debate more popular because a ton of people like to write their own poetry.”

Field trips offer different perspectives MADISON FETHERSTON Reporter

wood Gardens. Later in December, students will once again have the opportunity to return to Longwood Gardens in time for the Christmas display.

Jason Blevins’ advanced drawing students accompanied the photography students on their trip to Longwood Gardens. Each advanced drawing student was expected to fill a minimum of four journal pages with quick

set to produce their own snippet of an interview. As Harry Styles rehearsed down the hall, stuExpanding from classrooms, dents wrapped up their tour and many of North Harford’s stuproceeded to Microsoft Center. dents have been presented with At Microsoft Center, business the opportunity to learn withstudents were assisted in creout a textbook, PowerPoint or ating LinkedIn accounts. After packet. Both the art and business exploring all that the Microsoft department expanded classroom Center had to offer, students had learning to the real world. the opportunity to request an edFollowing tradition, the art ucational location to visit before department heading back returned to to the Hawk Longwood Nest.

Some Gardens visited Trump while stuTower, Apple dents with and even made a business a quick stop at pathway reStarbucks. turned to Beyond the New York. classroom, lanArt students guage clubs spent a day at will soon also a renowned have the opAmerican boportunity to tanical garden participate in that stretchout of class es over 1077 opportunities.

French club took a field trip to the Baltimore Museum of acres. Located German club Arts. They ate at Petite Louis Bistro. in “our own will head to backyard”, as Photo Credit: Madame Arist Baltimore’s art educator Inner Harbor Lisa Campbell expressed, the his- sketches. to learn about German culture torical gardens, woodlands and As business completer students and experience what Christmas conservatory were a “playground were offered the opportunity to is like in Germany. Students of of opportunity” for her photogra- head to the Big Apple. After a German 1 through German 4 have phy students. Despite the rain, brief lunch, students made their been offered this trip to the Germost photography students left way to Rockefeller Center where man Christmas Market. the grounds with an average of students toured NBC studios.

French club will go to the Bal200 photos focused on motion Lectured on the making of NBC timore Art Museum. After they and color. studios, students viewed the tour the museum, they will dine For many students, this was set of Saturday Night Live and at Petite Louis’ Bistro to enjoy autheir first-time visiting Long- would later be taken to a small thentic French cuisine.

Cry of the Hawk

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Cry of the Hawk

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January 30, 2020

Cry of t

Seriously silly places to snooze...

Compiled by: Zoe Mikles

Analiese Virden, senior

Victoria Simms, junior

“The weirdest place I’ve “I fell asleep on a trampoline fallen asleep is at a rock once. It was a summer night in concert. We were all sitting Casey DiVenti, senior Benjamin Sersen, sophomore middle school. My friends and at the beginning and I was I brought a bunch of blankets “ I fell asleep in a bathtub “ I fell asleep at a McDonald’s really tired. I put my head and pillows outside and put once. I was at a lacrosse at 11am once. I stayed up back and woke up when the tournament and was staying them on the trampoline. really late the night before concert was over.”

To be honest it wasn’t very in a hotel room with my friend and I just passed out at the comfortable.” and her dad. Her dad snored McDonald’s in a booth.” super loudly and I couldn’t sleep. I decided to sleep in the bathtub, so I didn’t hear him.”

“The stress of tech week got to me in my sleep. A bout 3:30 in the morn ing I had a vivid drea m I was making the bed and a spider sac k dropped on my hand and spiders were crawli ng a husband told ll over. My m at the covers e I was pulling and yelling . I crawled backwards and fell off the bed.”

48% of people in the U.S. reported snoring problems.

elfe, tor S k c a Chu ies educ ud t s l a ci My w i week fe woke m e by ye lling, up last her sl ‘b ee be dre p. I thoug ooooo’ in ht she aming might sporti that s n h tually g event bu e was at a ts b she th eing chase he was ac o d the gh ught she c by a ghos ould “ tost.” out-b ooo”

China is the most “sleep medicated” country in the world.

I get home around this time and take a shower.

7:10 P.M.

I eat cookies and watch Wizards of Waverly Place.

Start physics homework

8:13 P.M

7:33 P.M

7:30 P.M

8:02 P.M

8:42 P.M

I get dressed and brush my hair.

At this time I brush my teeth and do my skincare routine.

Cry about physics homework

At this time I’m usually taking time to myself and relaxing.

I take a shower and wash my hair.

I text my friends and the group chats I’m in.

7:55 P.M

7:20 P.M

7:00 P.M

Evan Kuzemchak

“I fell asleep on a pool tab was in my friend’s baseme and there was a lot of peo there. All the normal sleep spots were taken so I deci to snooze on the pool tabl was pretty comfortable act

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Lauren Sawyer, sophom

7:15 P.M

7:30 P.M

Fix hair and wash face

I turn on Disney Plus and watch Wizards of Waverly Place.

8:00

Snack tim time I ate :

10-11 - Features

Finholm

Luke Ta

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Humans are the only animals that delay sleep.

“I was reborn as a child within the whole world. The world itself was my mother and it was weird. I was being born again new as a human baby, it was a very surreal dream.”

ne, fres

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to the store and was being chased around by a gorilla and trying to knock my cart over. My grandmother appeared and asked the gorilla what he was doing, which made him run ran away.”

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“I was in a corridor with a bunch of themed rooms, one of them was Halloween themed and another one was just a normal bedroom, but I had to go through all the rooms to escape.”

“Me and my dad were driving, we were going really fast around a sharp turn and I was yelling at him to stop but he didn’t stop and we crashed going down the hill. I woke up right before we stopped.”

What keeps you up at night?

“The fact that I have a lot of homework to do and I stress about it so I basically just do it all in the morning before my first class. I basically tell myself that I have too much to do and I just want to go to bed at the end of the day, so I push it aside for the next morning.”

Matt Weir, senior

“What keeps me awake is worrying about school and all the responsibilities I had during that day and what I have to do tomorrow. A lot of the time I overthink things, whether it’s social or my babysitting job and schoolwork.”

Laura Huffman, junior

“Well, I have to sleep in complete darkness so light usually keeps me awake. I also end up getting home from soccer practice at like 11 p.m., which is like an hour away in the city a couple times a week.”

Finley Lavin, freshman

Compiled By: Kierstyn McManus

Nightly workout

Get in bed and go on Tik Tok

8:44 P.M

0 P.M

me!!! This meatballs. :)

10:19 P.M

10:05 P.M

12:45 A.M

Play with my dog, Finley

Turn my phone off and go to bed Go into the living room and spend time with family and my dog, Holly

Brush teeth vigorously

8:45 P.M

8:10 P.M 8:20 P.M

I turn on Netflix and watch Sam and Cat (I’m not proud of it)

9:30 P.M I get in my bed and go to sleep.

Emily Iampieri

Page 12/ ENT

Cry of the Hawk

JANUARY30,2020

Young artist featured in county-wide art exhibit EMILY IAMPIERI Reporter Sophomore Violet Kazi was the youngest artist from NHHS to be featured in the County-Wide Art Exhibit inside the Bel Air School Board building.

According to the young artist, it was her teacher, Ms. Lisa Campbell, that entered her work in the show for her.

The piece was a two-point perspective drawing of Edinburgh, Scotland. “It was a stream area with old, medieval-style buildings,” she describes. “I just saw a picture that I thought was really nice and just drew it with a few adjustments.” The drawing was done entirely with pencil.

Kazi explains that she was “really happy and proud of [her] self” for making it in because she “put lots of effort into that drawing.” She had created it when she was a freshman and notes

that she “didn’t expect it to get into any shows.” This is the first time the high schooler has had a piece featured, although she recalls getting a painting featured in the same art show when she was in fourth grade, but she’s “not sure if that counts” since she was in elementary school, and not as serious about art.

The artist says that she mainly enjoys creating pencil drawings because she “do[es] it all the time on class papers” and believes “it’s what [she’s] the best at.” She says that she also enjoys painting, “but [she] always gets frustrated when it doesn’t go how [she] want[s] it to.” In her opinion, “pencil is easier” because you have the ability to erase mistakes and “make it very detailed.”

Kazi goes on to say how she plans to incorporate art into her future saying, “an art career is

Contest features student writers

LILLI GRECO Reporter

When you think of art what do you think of? Probably painting, or sculpting, or maybe even theater. All of these branches are offered as classes for students at North Harford to enjoy, but what about some of the less appreciated arts like literature? Creative Writing classes don’t produce artworks hung in the lobby or musicals to give in the auditorium, so how do you showcase students talent for literature? And what about students that write outside of school?

The Young Authors Writing Contest, an annual event for students to showcase their talent across schools, is the answer to this question. The submissions for the contest were due on December 15, exclusively short stories and/or poems that students had written. Teachers could send in their students work to enter them in the competition, and the event is open to students across all grade levels in high school, no matter if they’re taking a creative writing class or not.

Bel Air English teacher Mr.

Jason Taylor, the organizer and a judge for the competition, commented about the contest. He added that subjects of the students’ writing vary. “We get submissions about everything!That’s one of the things that’s great about this contest – so many of our young authors have wonderful imaginations,” Taylor said. He said that winning entries are not only mechanically and grammatically well done, the writing is “all about connection. Writing is built on connecting to the reader, so if we read something and it speaks to us then it’s more apt to win.”

The judging process is spread out over a wide variety of teachers. “It’s fun! I gather a team of literary minded folks, usually between 5 to 15 people, and we read each and every submission.

NH had a winner in this year’s contest. Sophomore Clare Cummings placed third in the short story category out of all 10th grade submissions. Most of the other winners came from Bel Air High School, though there were notable others from Edgewood and C. Milton Wright.

something [she] would consider.” She says that she “really enjoy[s] [art] and [has] been doing it all [her] life.” She adds that “there are lots of jobs that art is involved in, more than you’d think.”

She also says that she’s “seen art jobs firsthand with family and they are good.” Although she’s not yet certain what her exact plans are, she’s thinking about pursuing “art therapy, an illustration artist for books, or just do whatever works at the time.”

It is always rewarding as a community to see one of the members find their passion and excel in it.

The North Harford community and the hawks nest cannot wait to see where Kazi will let her passion guide her and where her talent of art will take her.

PHOTO CREDS; Emily Iampieri

Violet Kazi is featured in an art gallery at Bel Air High School. Kazi plans to continue on developing her art portfolio.

Baby Yoda takes over memes TORI HANNA Reporter On Nov. 12, 2019 Disney+ was released on the app store and with it came The Mandalorian. The main character of this show is Mandy, a bounty hunter, however, according to Anthony Breznican, that’s not what keeps drawing people into the show.

“The Child,” as Mandy calls it in the show is known to the public as Baby Yoda. According to VanityFair, fans are demanding Baby Yoda Merchandise and have been since before Christmas. Unfortunately for them, very few Baby Yoda products are available in store because “there were doubts” that the show would take off.

Senior Sullivan Ploughman is a huge fan of not only The Mandalorian but also baby Yoda. In fact, he’s such a big fan that he says he jokingly said he wants to “put him in a blender and drink him as a smoothie.”

He also plans to watch season two of the Mandalorian when it comes out in Fall 2020.

Junior and Star Wars fanatic Jake Gay is also a fan of baby Yoda. Gay watches the Mandalorian and says that “baby Yoda is cute and all, but he distracts from the show because it’s a really good show but all it’s known for now is baby Yoda.” Gay bought Disney+ with his friend a while ago and has always been a “big fan of Star Wars.”

There are many fans of Baby Yoda that haven’t watched the Mandalorian but have still heard of him.

For example, sophomore Josh Garrett finds baby Yoda “very cute.” Junior Joe Allen also agrees that the yoda memes are “very cute” and worth while.

Each episode of the Mandalorian costs around 15 million dollars to make. However, considering that the Mandalorian has been a huge hit since episode one (because of baby Yoda), Disney will quickly make up for it with all the new viewers the show is attracting according to TheGuardian.com.

So over the weekend, make some popcorn and hind a nice spot on the couch and find the time to watch baby yoda be totally adorable.

Page 13/ ENT

Little Women takes on big screen again

Cry of the Hawk

Student makes All-State Band

JANUARY30,2020

New year’s resolutions:

2020

ZACH ZACKSON Reporter

MARISSA ALTENBURG Reporter On Dec 25, 2019 the new Little Women movie came out in theaters. The motion picture included actors such as Emma Watson playing Meg March, Saoirse Ronan playing Jo March, Florence Pugh acting as Amy March, and Eliza Scanlen staring as Beth March.

The film is based on the book published in 1868 and 1869 in two parts. The book is a story about four girls that grew up during the Civil War. Their father is away fighting as their mother struggles and lives in poverty.

The movie has been recreated twice before, once in 1933 and again in 1949. Both movies were large award winners of their time.

The newest edition is two hours and fifteen minutes long and is rated PG. Labeled historical period drama, this film has received a 95 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and a 92 percent in the Audience Score.

Rotten Tomatoes says, “With a stellar cast and a smart, sensitive retelling of its classic source material, Greta Gerwig’s Little Women proves some stories truly are timeless.”

The movie was nominated for the Golden Globe for best actress, best motion picture and best drama.

Mrs. Christine Allred says, “I have not seen the movie yet, but I would like to, I read the book a long time ago.”

Sophomore Tessa Skrocki says, “I loved the movie! I’ve seen both the original and the new one and I liked the new one better. It gave more closure for the ending which made it so much better! The only thing was that the new movie is not in chronological order, but the old movie was, so the old movie is easier you follow.”

Senior Maddie Kramer says, “I thought the movie was pretty good but it made me cry. I didn’t have a specific part that was my favorite overall. However, I liked the old- timey feel.”

“My resolution for 2020 is to marry David Dobrik.

His vlogs are so cool, and he has such a fun life… also he’s rich.”

-Lauren Sawyer, sophomore

Every year, each county in Maryland forms their own “all county” ensemble, and the whole state later come together to form “all state” groups.

Those accepted to participate in these elite groups are competing with hundreds of music students auditioning for all county and thousands auditioning for all state.

Each music student in school is given the o to audition, but it is not required.

One unusual aspect in all state different from all county is “re-auditions.”

The directors of these big ensembles want to make sure all their musicians are prepared and can play the assigned music to the best of their abilities.

In order to make sure of this, between the first rehearsal and final performance they decide to re-audition all their musicians and make adjustments as to who shall be in which chair.

Commonly the original order is made differently and only a few are kept in their same chairs.

In order to make it in, students practice instruments on a daily basis.. Some even take private lessons with professionals.

Senior band student Jason Ramsland, who plays the trom-

bone and has been accepted into both all county and all state, says, “I usually audition for all county every year but not all state since it’s very competitive, but however I decided to give it a try signing up at the last minute because why not, it’s good experience.”

Ramsland added, “It was very nerve racking to audition in front of such advanced adjudicators knowing how picky they are about their musicians,.”

With many more to audition made it even tougher, however I kept my cool and went through with audition since all I could do was the best I could.

Pushing aside all the scary factors of this audition, I went in and simply performed the assigned music and luckily, I was accepted into all state orchestra.”

Former alumni Chad Rogers who graduated in 2018 was the last North Harford student who made all state until now.

He played his upright bass as the first chair in the Maryland all state orchestra.

Rogers said he took private lessons for his bass playing ever since elementary school.

He received many scholarships that got him a free ride to the University of Maryland.

“By the end of this year I would like a leopard tattoo, I’m not sure where yet or when I’m getting it… but it’s happening. I want the tattoo because I think it would make me look cool.”

-Gonzalo Revilla, senior

“My new year’s resolution is to grow half an inch. I am 5 foot and 1.5 inches now and I want to be a solid 5 foot 2. This is pretty crazy for me because I’m not good at growing.”

-Cara Chaney, junior “My new year’s resolution is to meet Beyoncé. I love her so much and have always been a huge fan.

I’m going to meet her this year… even though I live in Maryland and she lives in Los Angeles.”

-Benjamin Ewers, junior

Page 14- Student, Society, and Culture

Cry of the Hawk

January 30, 2019

Biggest event of the decade

Spreading awareness by projects: Sophmores study social justice

COMPILED BY Lauren Brandis

Dancing the night away again: Sadie Hawkins returning to The Nest in February

ALEAH BIKLE CHARLOTTE MCELWAIN Editors Attention all Hawks students; it’s time to dust off your dancing shoes because Sadie Hawkins dance is back. This dance was a popular event “We need the in the past, but has not been at North Harford in few years. students to come The event will be held on Saturday, Feb. 15 and DJ Cody Allen, a 2019 graduate of NHHS, will be mixing up the music for the night. out and we can all According to principal Mr. Brian Pawlicki and assistant princihave a great time topal Mr. Ed Stevens, tickets will be sold for $15.

Seniors Aleah Bikle and Charlotte McElwain, alongside of SGA, gether.” have been working to coordinate the event which is open to all stu- Aleah Bikle, dents. senior The theme of the night will be “A Night to Remember”, which was chosen by Bikle is important to the two because, “now that we are seniors, these moments are the ones that we will look back on and remind us of our friends and our years in high school.”

A Sadie Hawkins dance is traditionally where gals ask the guys to the dance but this dance has a spin on it, making it being called a Sadie HAWKins dance.

All students are welcome to attend and dance the night away whether they have asked a guy, or they just go with a group of friends. “ I felt really inspired after I talked to my mom, who also went to North Harford, and she was telling me about how much fun she would have going to all these different dances. I didn’t know why we didn’t have as many dances as they did so I thought why not plan one and have a fantastic time with all my friends,” commented McElwain.

The administrative team added that “over the years other students have tried to plan dances and they just don’t get the turn out that they need to be successful.’’

However, SGA and the dance organizers are trying to change that trend.

“I know I have heard people say and ask why don’t we have more dances. So, we’re planning one and we need the students to come out and we can all have a great time together,” exclaimed Bikle.

GREER STRINE Reporter In sophomore year, one of the units of study in English covers the concept of social justice. As part of this unit, students are required to complete projects that address serious injustices in the world today.

In Ms. Emilie Keith and Mrs. Jennifer Chandler’s courses, every student has prepared projects that are researched and presented to the class. However, the structure and assignments within the entirety of the project are different between the two teachers. This made the process of completing the projects much different for the students working on them.

The students in Keith’s classes, worked with partners to complete the projects, while Chandler’s students worked individually. In both classes, each student was able to choose a topic that they were interested in learning more about.

Ryan Tracy and Ellie Kuciara are students in Keith’s class, who have already completed the presentation portion of the project.

Tracy stated that he was working with classmate Preston Ayd, and they completed their project on the topic of Muslim oppression in China.

Kuciara chose to research factory farming. She worked with classmate Grace Tabeling. They chose this topic because “I feel that humans aren’t the only ones who have rights, animals have them too. With this presentation, I wanted to make others aware of this issue” According to Kuciara, “We had to do a ton of research at first, while completing a packet that organized our information, which then helped us in the end to make our PowerPoint.”

Alongside the success, came some challenges. According to Kuciara, “I had a lot of anxiety and nerves going into the presentation.”

Tracy also encountered some complications. “The hard part of researching our topic was that we had to complete most of the

research on our phones because most websites were blocked since the topic is censored.”

Alexus Beattie, Emily Messick, and Jessica Dudok are all students in Chandler’s English class. These students have only presented to small groups of four or five at this point in the year.

These groups give them feedback now, so later in the year they can make their projects better to produce a lengthier presentation which will include creating a prototype to bring attention to their topic.

Dudok stated, “I chose my topic for my project to be on abstinence and making more people aware of what I feel is important to think about.” Beattie chose to do her project on cardiothoracic surgery and the expenses that come along with it. She stated that she was inspired to pick the topic because her aunt is a nurse, so she hears about patients going through hardships relates to the cost, making her want to open her heart for these patients.

Messick said that she completed her project on school shootings because it is a problem and needs more attention.

Beattie stated, “I had to talk to a lot of people within the Lancaster General hospital to try and get as much information as possible.” Messick says, “I talked with teachers and other important sources like police officers to try and find out what they do to handle different life-threatening scenarios.”

According to Dudok, “The hardest part of the project was the interviews. I struggled to come up with questions and when I talked to someone, sometimes they didn’t answer right away.”

Beattie says, “I struggled to find information. There isn’t a lot of people or websites willing to talk about the funding for cardiothoracic surgery, so I had to do more in depth research to find my answers.” Messick also struggled to find information because her topic was “sensitive and websites weren’t posting a lot of the information I needed.”

A popular Instagram filter that matches you to a Disney character is trending, so Cry of the Hawk staff decided to try it out on NHHS faculty.

Photo credit:Hailey Deares

Cry of the Hawk

January 30, 2019

Student perspectives

Recent Iranian conflicts

“Iran was backing up Iran protesters who were attacking the U.S. embassy in Iraq and after the U.S. found out that Iran was involved, we airstriked the airport where an Iranian general was hiding. After the U.S. killed him they missilled a couple of our bases and a plane with a couple U.S. citizens and a bunch of Canadian citizens as well. I think it’s really important to stay updated on global issues and I do not think it’ll escalate to war.”

COMPILED BY Brett Williams, senior

“ I think it’s a cool new thing that’s fun and different than homecoming, I might go, I’m just not always the biggest fan of dances. I would go if my friends all agreed to go, plus if there was good music I’d be really interested in going.”’

Gabby Spencer, sophomore

Page 15- Students, Society, and Culture

Who should be the next Mr. North Harford?

Noah Dehart “He’s gone every year and is a fan favorite. He deserves to win this time.”

-Garrett Ulmer, senior

Photo credit:Madison Fetherston

Sadie Hawkins Dance

Addy Dean Photo credit:Aleah Bikle

Zach Jackson

“He’s really talented and down to earth.”

- Grace Herron, sophomore

Hawks accepted to elite programs, academies LILLI GRECO Reporter

a sport helped, and being a girl helped too.”

The Merchant Marine AcadeCollege. It’s on everyone’s mind all the time, where you’re my is in Kings Point, New York, going, for what major, the lo- close to the water, as one would gistics of how you’re going to expect from a marine centered afford it. But some people al- school. Their graduation rate is ready have it figured out. Some around 72%, and the average cost of our very own Hawks have after financial aid is around seven thousand dollars - not bad for a future plans already arfull education. ranged.

There’s more than “Extra is Senior Tori just maritime Gay was acexpected when transportation cepted into you are trying to get too - applicants the Unitcan also apply to ed States into a program like be in programs Merchant this” like marine engiM a r i n e neering systems, - Max Henkel, Academy, marine engineering and plans to senior and shipyard managemajor in maritime ment, and maritime logistransportation (drivtics and shipyard management. ing boats).

After serving in the military, To apply to this academy, students need a congressional alumni are able to find prosperor presidential recommenda- ous jobs in shipping and port tion, and the acceptance rate is management with their skills from the academy, or work drivonly around 12%.

“It’s pretty much an ivy ing ships and boats.

Max Henkel, a senior as well, league school that’s free for four years. You get paid your is already accepted into Peabody, sophomore and junior years, a branch of Johns Hopkins, and and you come out with a job,” heading for a program in music Gay said. “You just have to for new media.

“It’s music for films, video serve in the military for eight games... and really any other kind years.”

Gay also talked about ap- of new media,” Henkel said.

As far as the application proplying and getting in, “Playing

cess, Henkel said, “It’s pretty rigorous to apply... they were more concerned with my music than my actual academics. I had to submit 10 minutes of my best music, as well as written scores and give interviews.”

Henkel also submitted choral arrangements he has done here to showcase the diversity of his talents. “Extra is expected when you’re trying to get into a program like this.”

The Peabody Institute has a lot more to offer as well - applicants can look at degrees in other fields like fine arts and music education, as well as audio sciences and performers certificates.

Peabody also offers a double degree program, which can combine with other branches of Johns Hopkins so that students can pursue bachelors in not only music, but science, engineering or other arts as well.

Musical talents and guidance from a school like this are sure to pave the way to a wide range of opportunities.

We’ll leave you with some advice from Max Henkel about getting into a prestigious program like his, “Hours of hard work do pay off in the end, but you can’t wait for an opportunity, you have to create one.”

Luke Phillips

“Luke has talent and has a big personality.”

-Nicole Deatley, junior

Garrett Arnett “Because he is literally the nicest person ever.

He works hard for what he wants.”

-Jack Depriest, junior

Jake Gay “He’s hilarious and kind.”

- Elena Schell, junior

COMPILED BY Madison Fetherston Photo credit:Grace Feldbush

The Netflix Original Series “You” stars Penn Badgley in a psychological thriller that has social media buzzing. Cry of the Hawk Staff asked North Harford their opinions of the show with the recent release of the second season.

COMPILED BY Grace Feldbush

“I like the show because it’s hard for me to sit still through a show or movie but this show keeps me interested since there’s always something happening and it’s never boring” Madalyn Rutch, freshman

“I like this show because the acting is really good and I think the most important thing for shows is for the acting to be good.”

Claire Priebe, sophomore

“I started watching this show with my sister so we could have something to do together and we’re both interested in it so it’s a good way to spend time together.”

Brooke Nall, junior

“I think it’s a good show because it’s funny how the main character will do anything to have the girl all to himself and even kill people to have her.”

Joe Johnson, junior

Cry of the Hawk

Page 16/ IDR

The strangest apps available "Granny” is a single player iPhone game that is full of suspense and horror. You have to try and get out of her house within five days, but you must be careful and quiet, she hears everything.

You can hide in places like under beds or in wardrobes, but be careful she doesn’t catch you! If you drop something on the floor, she hears it and comes running. Warning, Granny may lead to nightmares or terror, so be careful!

How smooth are you? “I Peel Good” is an iPhone game that puts your peeling skills to the test. Relax and find your inner chef! There are hundreds of objects and foods for you to peel, carve, and shave! Along with testing your chef skills, you also learn interesting facts about these foods and objects that you would never know. Unlock new levels, utensils, and food/objects!

I P E E L G O O D

Compiled By: Caitlyn Allen

Phantom Vibration Syndrome LAUREN SECO OP/ED Editor

Do you ever feel like your phone is going off, and then realize that it never actually did?

If so, you may be experiencing a phenomenon known as Phantom Vibration Syndrome.

According to research published within the Computers in Human Behavior journal, in an age where it seems that the population seems figuratively attached to its phones, evidence has suggested that people are becoming literally attached to them through their natural cognitive behavior.

A poll of 114 North Harford students suggests that this behavior is incredibly common.

Over 83 percent of the students polled responded saying that they have in fact experienced Phantom Vibration Syndrome.

This data is in accordance with a study completed with 290 college students within the sample tested according to CBS News.

CBS writes, “nearly 90 percent of them said they sometimes felt the phantom phone sensations, and 40 percent said it happened at least once a week.”

A study by Ajish G. Mangot, Vasantmeghna S. Murthy

and Dinesh V. Tembe within the Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine concludes that Phantom Vibration Syndrome is prevalent with a relationship between amount of phone use and stress, and it highlights “high levels of stress and problematic smartphone use among medical students during the internship [whom were those tested within the study].” However, to what extent phantom is contributing to each symptom is still a matter of investigation.

Before the era of smartphones, the syndrome was present in the form of phantom pager syndrome according to WebMD. This might be explained through natural human habit. The more someone experiences an action, the more that experience becomes expected. While this is a theory, Georgia Tech assistant professor Robert Rosenberger, Ph.D. adds that there can be other factors.

CBS News states “habits, anxiety, brain chemistry and other factors may contribute, and [Robert Rosenberger, Ph.D.] says more study is needed to fully understand what's going on when we sense phone vibrations that aren't really there.”

January 30, 2020

the fear or unreasonable dislike of complex technology

Voiceprint Recognition:

: Creepy Techno logy

“Hey Siri, what is voiceprint recognition?” Similar to fingerprint identification used daily on mobile phones, voiceprint recognition technology identifies the phonetic features of the speaker's voice to validate the identity of the speaker. The examples are endless; asking Alexa to play music in the kitchen, diaries with spoken passwords, activating Siri. This seemingly harmless technology goes beyond passwords and identifying that song you don’t know the name of. Voiceprint technology has been used in a variety of crime investigations including bomb threats, murders, gunshot acoustics and burglary. For some, this is one of many technologies that seems very personal, as fingerprints, face ID and voice recognition are used rather than a password. The accuracy of this technology rapidly improves, even similar voices can be broken down and identified.

Deepfakes:

Seeing is believing. Deepfake is a media that takes an existing video and edits said video to one's liking or even to one's disliking. This form of fake news is referred to as a deepfake due to the use of deep learning technology. Computer generated clips are designed to look just as real as the original, used to create fakes. With the quick download of deepfake software, anyone with free time can edit videos and audio recordings that can fool anyone scrolling through Instagram or YouTube. Such convincing videos sway the honesty of the media leaving the public to wonder what’s true and what is deeply fake. While this editing tool is often used for comical relief, celebrities as well as politicians are often targeted, threatening careers. Rather making a dog talk, editors have the ability to mislead the public. In many cases, deepfakes suggest an affair has taken place or the words of a celebrity are twisted. While these videos can easily be deceiving, they often have flaws. Face discoloration, badly synced audio to video, a lack of blinking and fuzzy videos overall are often seen in these videos.

Compiled By: Madison Fetherston

Are your phones listening to you?

“I do not think phones are listening to us. But if the government really wanted to, they could tap into our calls/mic. But unless you killed a person you're probably not a person of interest. But in terms of marketing and trying to sell you products, I don’t think they have a right to hack into our phones and listen to what we’re saying. But, I do believe every time you search for something on the internet, it saves what you search and directs similar products or the product you searched for to you on other media. One time I was searching for tea on Amazon and I went to a completely different web site and there were amazon adds for different types of tea on the side of my screen.”

“I think that apple phones are not listening because of the one time the government wanted them to find a phone and they wouldn’t because it violated the privacy rules, however google phones I can see listening because google connects almost everything to show ads for things we talk about which doesn't seem far off for Google.”

Compiled By: Abbey Kroener

Page 17/ IDR

Cry of the Hawk

The effect of blue light glasses HANNAH SCHEIDE Reporter

The need for blue light glasses grows as technology continues to be used everywhere. “The fact that blue light penetrates all the way to the retina (the inner lining of the back of the eye) is important, because laboratory studies have shown that too much exposure to blue light can damage light-sensitive cells in the retina,” according to All About Vision, Gary Heiting. This can also increase the risk of macular degeneration.

The glasses have recently hit the market due to the overwhelming use of technology with blue LED background lights that can cause severe damage to the eyes.

These new glasses have a special blue filter that can be put on a prescription or just clear lenses. “They were recommended to me because I get migraines in classes where computers were used. There is a coating on the glasses that absorbs the blue light,” said junior Madison Fetherston.

Technology is not the only cause for blue light concerns; the sun can also

have the same effects on the eyes. Even sitting on the beach with a thousand dollar Louis Vuitton can’t protect your eyes from the blue light that travels to the center of your eye leaving damages that may break the bank.

“The amount of HEV light these devices emit is only a fraction of that emitted by the sun. But the amount of time people spend using these devices and the proximity of these screens to the user's face have many eye doctor and other health care professionals concerned about possible long-term effects of blue light on eye health,” according to Heiting.

“The short-wavelength, high-energy light rays on the blue end of the visible light spectrum scatter more easily than other visible light rays when they strike air and water molecules in the atmosphere.

The higher degree of scattering of these rays is what makes a cloudless sky look blue,” Heiting explains. “I use blue light glasses for headaches as they help prevent them, especially when we are using technology,” junior Aspen Vinyard states.

Click if you dare: Reddit 50/50 “Reddit 50/50 is a challenge where a photo is blurred, and you don’t know what the photo is. The original user can upload a photo or video and has a 50% chance to make it a happy picture and a 50% chance to make it something so horrible you will regret ever going on the website to begin with. The worst I've ever gotten are disgusting pictures of feet among other brutal things. “ - Cole Ettenhoffer, senior

Compiled by: Rachel Keeney

January 30, 2020

Where do deleted pictures actually go?

Students have been asked where they think pictures go after they get deleted. Once you delete a photo, it goes to the recently deleted folder on your device and stays there for 30 days just in case you change your mind and choose to recover the photo or video. But after 30 days, it says it is permanently deleted, but it might not still be gone for good.

“I know you can still get them back years later because it has happened to people before. I know they don’t erase at all and are probably hidden somewhere probably in some file.”

-Emily Messick, sophomore

“I don’t think they permanently go away, I think they go somewhere in the government’s data base which kind of scares me a bit, but what would they even use them for.”

-Ellie Kuciara, sophomore “Honestly, I have never thought about it.

Once I delete it, they’re just gone, and I never worry about it because it’s not my problem anymore. Now that I think about it, they could really be anywhere, and anyone could have them.”

-Ryan Tracy, sophomore

“I feel like they would go be with the government and in some secret place when you delete them and they could use them against you or something.”

-Lexie Beattie, sophomore Compiled By: Grace Feldbush

Technology risk in government facilities According to “Consumer Reports,” it is technically possible for the phones and apps to secretly record what you say. The same organization conducted a survey of 1,006 U.S. adults in May 2019 where “43 percent of Americans who own a smartphone believe their phone is recording conversations without their permission.” Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) also claims that covering a computer camera doesn't protect the device from a hacker, but it would prevent them from seeing whatever the camera sees.

Editor Tori Gay works at Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG), a government contracting defense company and says, “every time we go into a meeting we have to turn our phones in and put them in a lock safe and then we have to cover our laptop cameras because there has been a lot of scares, especially with this Iran.” Gay goes on about the common app, Tik Tok, because they told us “We all had to delete because it has to do with Chinese terrorists.”

57 percent of survey respondents believe phones do not listen in. However, lots of places, including APG, don't want to risk classified information getting out. Gay states, “it’s just really scary to be put in real life, but it’s better to be safe than sorry, especially with the government and autopsies.”

Compiled By: Abbey Kroener

Cry of the Hawk

January 30, 2020

Page 18/ H/S

Feeling rhythm through fabric; Gym memberships are not everlasting Fashion tech company creates sound shirt ELLIE EVANS News Editor With technology shifting the way we live our lives daily, advancements have impacted everyone, especially disabled individuals. Fashion tech company Cute Circuit has created a shirt that allows deaf users to feel music through their skin.

The shirt is made of haptic sensors weaved throughout the fabric in order to create the sensation of the music surrounding the user. Suffering from hearing loss or being born without the ability to hear causes those to lose the emotions that come with music or hearing the voice of a loved one. Technology like the sound shirt creates a fully immersive feeling for its users, the shirt is wireless as any form of conduction is seamlessly distributed throughout the fabric.

According to designboom. com, the sleek design and connecting patterns creates a “metaphor for the relationship between vibrations and sound waves modulating different frequencies.” With the high price of $3,901.80-$13,006.00, these shirts truly aren’t cheap yet the technology put into the design includes, “a Q antenna which enables sound broadcast, 8 microphones, a mac or PC with

is a popular trend that allows the disabled to have innovative options. The cute circuit company also created another very popular design, the galaxy dress, which according to designboom. com is “the world’s largest wearable LED display, which features 24,000 full color LEDs.” Dougherty added, “Hearing is just using tiny ear bones (auditory ossicles) to pick up vibrations and using the auditory cortex of our brains to process the vibrations.”

The company sells their soundshirt at a high price yet still allows events for customers to try out the soundshirt and hang out Vibrating shirts allow sounds waves to go with their staff for around through the shirt. This is one of many new $20, Diving deeper into technologies for people who are deaf. the use of the soundshirt, Doughtery explains, “this technology would allow our skin either involving sound vibrations (through the clothing) to pick up or ASL, two of the most efficient the vibrations and help us to use ways for the deaf to communiour sense of touch and the sencate. sory cortex to process the signal Anatomy and physiology teachinstead.”

Cute circuit demoner Mr. Tim Dougherty explained, strated that drums are felt in the “This seems as though it would back of the shirt and violins on be an innovative way to allow the arms.

Doughtery added, “to those without hearing to sense the world in a similar way to feel one would think that over those of us who can hear.” Com- time the person would get better bining technology with fashion and better at interpreting the vibrations.” pre-installed software, an audio converter and 1 sound shirt 2.0.”

Along with the sound shirt, there are various other technologies created for the deaf, these include live subtitles for any conversation, ASL emoticons for iphones, and fully accessible cinema with audio description. All

Wildfires breakout across Australia; 18 million acres are burned MARISSA ALTENBURG Reporter

The fires in Australia are killing animals. An estimated 1 billion animals were killed.

Photo credit: Matthew Abbott from The New York Times.

BBC reports that in Sept. 2019, wildfires broke out in Australia.

By Jan. 2020 more than 18 million acres have been burned along with 480 million animals have been killed as a result says BBC. This land is made up of bush lands, forest, national parks, habitat, and homelands.

The Washington Post reported that 25 people have passed away due to the fires. They also say, “nearly 2,000 homes have been burned down.” New South Wales is where most of the fires are happening.

The fires in Australia are grass and bush fires. These fires are the

quickest spreading according to geoscience.com. Passing in seconds and covering acres in minutes.

Australian resident Melissa Bordogna Weaks shares her experience saying, “we’ve all been impacted on the East Coast but in varying degrees. My family has been impacted mainly in terms of air quality. I have a friend who was evacuated as the fire was within kilometers of her house.”

Borgdona Weaks says “our sonin-law couldn’t get home from Canberra due to road closures and was stuck on highways for many hours before he got off at a random exit. He was riding a motorcycle and was dehydrated and nearly had heat stroke before he wandered up to a nearby house and asked for a drink of water.

The people took him in for several hours and looked after him.”

According to the Washington Post, “Australia’s bushfires have blanketed parts of the continent with pollution, affecting hundreds of thousands of people who are not in immediate danger from the flames.”

Bordogna Weaks shares her experience while living through the trauma. “Homes are being lost. Businesses are hurting even if the fire hasn’t directly touched them because it is summer, and tourism is suffering.”

CBS reports that 32 million dollars have been raised so far amounting to about 42 million

Australian dollars.

Currently on response are about 2,700 firefighters, taking action on over 70 fires according to the LA Times. Many smoke jumpers have spent the past year working to put out the flames in California are in Australia helping them try and get the issue under control.

Bordongna Weaks adds, “We are in a drought for a while, so the environment is very, very dry. It was like this when I moved here in 2004. Australia had been in a drought for several years at that point.”

The fires in the past have been reportedly started by natural things like lightning according to CNN. This year 24 people have been arrested for many possibilities including breaking the new rule banning all fire on the continent, using tools that have emitted a spark, and starting fires with things in the home like cooking and electric.

The AU government is focusing on the excess CO2 in the air that is a result of the fire. The carbon dioxide gets trapped in the atmosphere and clogs the air and traps heat and causes the temperature to intensify according to the New York Times. After some time, the CO2 and smoke could turn into a cloud that could produce rain that would help alleviate the fires. However, would need 20 times more rain than they are receiving according to ABC.

MAURA CHANEY Reporter As the new year and new decade begin, New Year’s resolutions are sparking. Ranging from diets to academic achievements, one that is always making an appearance is to work out more. New gym memberships for 2020 have been made; however, they are only lasting a short amount of time.

A gym with popularity is Planet Fitness, one of the biggest chains in American as said by the Washington Post. The new membership included only a 20-cent startup fee, and only a $10 monthly payment.

This membership gives you full access to your "home" PF gym, free fitness training, and free WI-Fi during your workout. The annual fee is only $39.

This high demand membership was seen nationwide, however the deal only lasted until January 9.

The Arena Club also has a great membership sale until the end of January, providing full access to work out equipment, full year access to the pools, hot yoga classes, childcare programs, courts for basketball and pickle-ball, training sessions with personal trainers and more.

All that greatness for only $20 in the month of January.

Anytime Fitness has been

in action for 18 years, and they are hoping to attract more gym members by making the startup fee only a dollar, and a monthly cost of $36.50 on average according to their site. If that doesn’t win you over, they also give military, senior, student, and insurance discounts. Unlike Planet Fitness, this membership plan is here to stay.

There are mixed emotions arising about the limited time sales, some thinking that the discount should be a longer event, while others think it is just right for a New Year’s resolution time frame.

Junior Tori Simms takes the longer discount side. “I feel like more people will continue to use the membership if it was extended,” she says. “If the discount of the membership is cut off earlier, then people are more likely to cancel it even if it is a part of their New Year’s resolution”.

Junior Gavin Barker disagrees, and thinks it is a better idea to keep it at a cut off date. “It is a good idea because all the people with New Year’s resolutions can go and help the gyms that are looking for members and gain more money from the new people joining,” he says If you have a resolution including to work out more, be sure to check out any new discounts to get a good deal to assist with your goal.

Cry of the Hawk

January 30, 2020

Page 19 -Sports

Skating to top of success Former student referees EMILY GREEN Video Editor

Success. Score. Strive. North Harford High School senior Jayden Mowery is a part of the Fallston Ice hockey team, playing on the ice as number 23.

The Fallston High School hockey team is a co-op team based out of Harford County, Maryland. Ice World is the home rink for the team.

Head Coach Karrenbauer and Coach Frongillo lead the team as the coaches. Mowery has been playing ice hockey for the past 12 years, and has been given the responsibility to lead the team as the captain.

The sport takes up a lot of Mowery’s time, which is a chal-

lenge he faces while being a part of this team. Mowery stated, “the most challenging part is the commitment, I put a lot of time into this sport.” Along with the extra amount of time he puts into the sport, he aspires to play in college and continuing on with his passion.

So, the efforts and devotion he puts into his sport are in order to fulfill his dream to play at the collegiate level.

The best part about being a team captain according to Mowery is “being able to lead the team, and be a role model to others.”

While striving to be a role model to others, including his teammates, Mowery learned and looked up to his brother. This al-

lowed him to be the player he is on the ice today.

Along with his 12 years of playing this sport, Mowery has gotten to make memories with the game, and those with whom he shares the ice. “My favorite memory of playing is that I got to go to a tournament In Canada.” His sport allows him to gain opportunities to play In places all around and even out of the country.

He believes this gives him experience that will benefit him as he grows to play when he gets older.

Sharing the ice with his teammates is a part of the sport, but also something he finds to be one of the easiest things about ice hockey.

Ice hockey team gathers together to celebrate all their memories. Team smiles as they join together.

Photo credit:Jayden Mowery

Preventing season injuries

LAUREN SECO OP/ED Editor

Imagine you are getting ready for a jog outside. You put on your coat and gloves and decide today you are going to be healthy and stretch out your muscles. When leaning down to stretch, suddenly SNAP. Like a cold rubber band, your muscle has been horribly injured, and now you need surgery. How could this have been prevented? Experts suggest that stretching out cold muscles is dangerous and can lead to serious injury. Instead, try warming up first.

Senior Gonzalo Revilla emphasizes how warming up before exercise is important.

As an avid jogger, the student makes sure to warm up with dynamic stretches stating, “I start out my stretches with yoga inside, so I lay out my mom’s mat.”

He also warms up through walking his dogs, starting with the less active one, and working up to a hike with his more active dog. After bringing his dogs back home, he goes back out and completes his work-

out.

According to Fitness Together, “in cold weather, [people should] start with a light activity such as walking, jogging or shuffling to get blood flowing through [the] body and to [its] muscles,” therefore Revilla started out his workout correctly.

Stretching out while moving will make sure the body’s muscles are loose and warm and therefore prevent injury.

Fitness Together also discusses the importance of cooling down. They write, “a static stretch after [a] workout will improve range of motion and flexibility for future workouts.” Revilla incorporates this into his exercises in the form of butterfly stretches.

Grenade.com claims a cold weather warm up routine should include “stretching [the] arms, legs and back, arm dynamics, spinal rotation of [the] upper body, squats, and square hops or running on the spot.” These exercises will not only keep cold weather athletes safe from injury, but they will also improve upon the quality of their workout.

high school soccer games ELLIE EVANS News Editor Watching a big soccer game, the whistle blows and often fans roar in anger and frustration at the person reffing the game.NH alum, Aidan Riordon, is that person at numerous club, public, and private high school varsity soccer games.

Riordon discovered this “quite unconventional” teenage job at age 14. He explains that he “was looking for a job that pays better than a minimum wage job.”

As he experienced more as a referee, Riordon explains that his initial financial interest grew into utter enjoyment for the job. Being able to travel across Maryland for tournaments and games while meeting fellow referees is his favorite part of reffing.

Riordon refs mainly for MIAA varsity games like Curley, McDonogh, Calvert Hall, Loyola, etc. Also, reffing for IAAM Varsity games (girls private schools), he gains a lot of experience with the wide variety of public, private, and club games.

Public schools including those in Baltimore and Harford County, Riordon has reffed for our very own school.

Riordon explains his other involvement in clubs and adult leagues. “I do a semi pro adult league, I ref an outdoor adult league in Fallston, and I ref an adult league at the Arena Club.

I ref youth indoor at the Arena Club.”

To gain his certification Riordon had to take a 16-hour classroom class, which is split up into eight hours on a Saturday and eight hours on a Sunday. He took the test on Sunday and gained his certification, he explained.

“I just had to get above a 75 on the test on Sunday before I left and the instructor grades it there, if you pass then he gives you your badge that says you’re certified.”

Riordon explains that there are many pros and cons to being a referee, “The most difficult part is dealing with the abuse from parents and coaches. I have pretty thick skin and I ignore most of it, but sometimes you have to deal with it.”

Learning to deal with the backlash, he focuses more on the most exciting parts of reffing, like getting paid to travel to different states, being able to request working with friends, having hotel, food, and gas paid for.

The former North Harford student graduated in 2017, playing one year on JV and three years on the varsity soccer team, finishing out his last season as a captain.

His involvement on the team was another inspiration for his referee career.

Currently, Riordon is studying education at Stevenson University.

Tanner, Kyle Russell swim in college;

Brothers race against each other HANNAH KRIZEK OP/ED Editor

Tanner and Kyle Russell will face each other in a swim meet, just like the old days when they were both at the Hawks Nest.

However, this time, they’ll be competing for different teams.

Kyle and Tanner swim in the same conference because of the colleges they attend. Kyle is a swimmer at Salisbury University, and Tanner at York.

Kyle says, “either way we’d eventually end up swimming together.”

Before going onto college, the brothers had always swum on the same team, racing each other before... but “this time [they] were on different sides so it was exciting,” says Tanner. It was an experience involving a roller coaster of emotions for both.

Tanner says the two have a lot of love for one another, and “like any normal siblings Kyle and I tease each other so before the meet there was some taunting about whose team would win but in general, we want to see each other so our best and succeed.”

Not only were the brothers excited but the family surrounding them was also excited..

“It was a pretty big deal having us at the same meet racing each other, my mom was super excited,” says K y l e .

“ Swimming in college is a lot more vigorous.”

- Kyle Russel, NH graduate Tanner a d d s “my mom has always been there for the both of us and I think there was definitely some added excitement to seeing both her kids swimming in college against each other.”

Going from high school to college, is already a huge change, and with the addition of sports on top, it is an even bigger change according to both young men.

Tanner says, “the transition

into college was definitely something I had to get adjusted to, but it wasn’t terrible because I’ve been swimming for most of my life; it’s just what I do.” Together with that, Kyle says, “I mean I went through the process two years ago, but it was pretty intense at first.

It’s more of a mental game in college, trying to find the little things that are going to make you get better.”

Additionally, the transition to swimming in high school to college is a lot different. “Swimming in college is a lot more serious than in high school, it also is a much bigger time commitment,” discusses Tanner.

Agreeing with Tanner, Kyle states, “swimming in college is a lot more vigorous. It’s a whole other level of training and competitiveness.”

Kyle remarks that he is “super excited to see Tanner swim at conference champs this year! I’ve already been through it twice and it’s such a cool experience. Even though we are on different teams I’ll always be cheering him on.”

Cry of the Hawk

January 30, 2020

Page 20 -Sports

New wrestler shows North Harford what he’s got EVAN KUZEMCHAK Social Media Coordinator

Third Sub Zero meet brings personal

records for indoor track teammates

HAILEY DEARES SSC Editor

Just before wrestling season started senior Teddy Stinson transferred to North Harford High School from C. Milton Wright. Stinson was actually very comfortable with coming to a brand new school his last year of high school, even though he said “it will be a challenge.” He adds that if he just “sticks to the goal, [he] will accomplishment it.”

Stinston even admitted that “overall [he’s] a better wrestler at North Harford because [he’s] allowed to work harder.” Stinston’s go-to practice routine is “two hours of wrestling practice, as soon as [he] gets home [he] goes for an hour jog, then gets some rest and refuels [his] body.”

During the day of a meet Stinston does a lot of things. He starts the day by energizing his body with “a good breakfast”

mory. Junior Sophie Trimble said the season “went by faster than expected” and “tensions were high going into regionals.”

In order to qualify for the 2A regional Championships, athletes have to be registered and have a time for two indoor meets of the season and place in the top 25 in their event. Each school can send a total of three athletes per event, so each athlete must continue to PR in order to make it to the postseason.

The meet featured 17 PRs across the team, including Kara Benn and Elijah Ramsey in shot put, multiple relay teams, and Jessica Gerhardt, Delany Flickenger, and Justin Graves in the 55 meter dash. The Hawks had many high placers, including Darian Hauf getting 1st in pole vault and Will Tikiob who placed 2nd in the 1600 meter run.

The Hawks ran again at the Last Chance Invite where they also came away with a lot of wins to be able to qualify for the regional meet. The meet was one of the biggest yet, with many teams eyeing up regional spots.

Senior Tori Gay was in one of the best heats and placed 6th, giving the team points at the meet. Junior Darian Hauf placed highly in the pole vault where she yet again received the first place position. Hauf reached the height of 9 foot 6 inches.

The Hawks will be back in action at regionals on February 3 at the Regiment Armory.

in regionals, then placed fourth at states.” He also broke C. Milton Wright’s school record for most takedowns in a season, 107.

Stinston is also going to wrestle in college, he already has been offered many colleges including but not only Messiah College and Claremont University. Stinston ends with that “it’s just going to be a big year for me and my teammates.

Hopefully I can get a state title and bring wins for the school.”

Starting off on right foot; Winter conditioning for spring sports begins for many NHHS teams

LEAH HILLIER Reporter

The third meet of the indoor track season took place at CCBC Essex. The Sub Zero Invitational was a successful meet for the Hawks, with the girls placing 4th and the boys placing 7th amongst many other public and private Maryland area highschools.

Laurel Brown, who placed 4th and 6th in the 800 meter and 1600 meters respectively, stated that she had began to like indoor a lot more than she used to because “there’s more people on the team this year and there’s legit practices which helps [her] to be in shape.”

The team has grown dramatically in the last few years, going from a team of around 10 people to around 40-50 people this season. The previous Essex Nights Invite held on Dec. 13 featured 30 Hawks in attendance, which is the largest participation ever for North Harford according to coach Greg Burgess.

The meets are mainly south of North Harford in Baltimore County, such as CCBC Essex and the Regiment Armory which are each almost an hour from the school. The team now as of the 2019-2020 season is able to provide transportation to and from the meets, which prior to this season was only available for regionals and states.

The Sub Zero Invitational is important to the athletes because there are only a few more meets to get times in order to qualify for regionals which is on Feb 3 at the Regiment Ar-

and the night before he would “get as much rest as [he] can.”

Next, Stinston is “visualizing [his] match so [he’s] prepared mentally.” Stinston says he pictures his match as a “movie [to] make sure [he’s] prepared to improvise through all positions.”

Being a school athlete he has to stay on top of things to keep his grades up. Stiston says that to keep his grades up he has to “give both equal amounts of time, and putting the same effort in.” Stinston not only wrestles for North Harford he also wrestles for a club team called Storm Wrestling Club, and he says “goes there during the summer and sometimes during the winter.”

Stintson mentioned he would like to give spring track a try because he “likes running” and he’ll “just see how things go.”

Some accomplishments Stinston has achieved during his wrestling career are that he “took first in counties and first

The weather may be cold, but for softball and lacrosse, things are heating up. Winter conditioning for some spring sports has started and with it brings athletes who are looking for a chance to show their skills before the upcoming season.

A lot of athletes believe their whole team benefits from the conditioning because “everyone is on the same level conditioning-wise by the beginning of the season,” according to Alyssa Tyszko, a junior who will be trying out for first basemen during the spring softball season.

A typical lacrosse conditioning involves running a mile or more, depending on the day and working on stick work, according to freshman Alyssa Edwards.

Lacrosse conditioning takes place on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the school week and help the players “stay in shape and get ready for the full season.”

According to Edwards, lacrosse conditioning typically involves

“running one to two miles and stick work”. Edwards believes that conditioning helps athletes “stay in shape even though the conditioning is tiring.”

Conditioning for softball works in much the same way, although the training focuses on different body parts. According to Alyssa Tyszko, softball training “focuses on core and upper body strength with sprinting and running drills.”

Softball and lacrosse have large amount of competition for the available spots on the team, however there is still a large turnout at the winter conditioning sessions.

Emily Persuhn, a freshman who is trying out for lacrosse in the spring estimates that there is usually about 20 people who come to the conditioning sessions.

Having conditioning for popular and well-known sports can help the athletes “start out the season on the right foot,” Tyszko claims. Helping athletes get into shape before the season makes the “season start easier and more smoothly.”

Softball and lacrosse both involve running, and conditioning helps “keep people in shape and prepared for the season,” according to Edwards. The challenge of conditioning is one that Edwards is ready for, she says that she “pushes[herself] at every practice so [she] can be the best [she] can be for the season.”

Softball has its differences within the conditioning process, but the point of the conditioning remains the same, preparing athletes for the season. “conditioning can be a challenge, but I know that it will pay off in the end,”says Tyszko.

Conditioning for both softball and lacrosse take place after school two days a week.

Softball’s conditioning takes place Monday and Wednesday, while lacrosse’s conditioning is Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Sports like softball and lacrosse can be exciting to watch, and having well-conditioned players before the season starts makes both “playing and watching more enjoyable,” says Persuhn.

Photo Credit: Emily Persuhn and Alyssa Tyszko