Follow us on Twitter @HAWKREPORTER North Harford High School
211 Pylesville Road, Pylesville, MD 21132
410-638-3650
Volume 48, Issue 1 April 4 2018
Teaching kids to find their grind; Rescheduled field trip takes positive turn CASSIDY CHANDLER SSC Editor
Photo Credit: Jennifer Chandler Mike Smith, a motivational speaker and an entrepreneur, has been living his dream of making a change for over the past decade. Calling himself a “professional teenager,” Smith is doing everything he can to give back to his community. Students who are a part of the Journalism and Yearbook staff at North Harford had the opportunity to attend one of Mike Smith’s inspirational assemblies for the second year in
a row. Hosted by Jostens, students traveled to Westminster High School, where Smith, along with a few other speakers, gave advice and motivated students to reach their dreams. “There are a lot of different paths to get there,” commented the speaker. He mentions that he is just on a very different path than the one that most people feel obligated to follow, and he wants to show that different is
possible. Sophomore, Hailey Deares, attended the field trip and commented that she thought, “it’s really cool that Mike started by doing really small things and was able to help a lot of people on a major scale. I feel like he left a really positive impact on me and my classmates.” Her biggest take away from the experience was being able to acknowledge how important time management is, and how much valuable time can be wasted by doing useless things. Deares noted that realizing how much time she spends on her phone will inspire to use her time in a more productive way, by “talking to people I wouldn’t usually talk to, or sitting with someone who is alone at lunch or something and just going up and talking to them.” In high school, Smith said he wasn’t the best kid. With a
lackluster GPA, Smith was more interested in things that most teenagers are interested in, and he confessed that he lost focus of things that really mattered to him. He hated the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” and struggled immensely with finding what he was passionate about. “There isn’t one path to getting there [where you aim to be]. It used to be perfect grades, perfect college, perfect job, perfect life, that’s what everyone thought but that’s not how it really is today,” Smith said. Like many teenagers, Smith had a moment in high school that changed the direction of his life. The week before the start of his senior year in high school, Smith was told by his dad that he had just been diagnosed with cancer. Smith said he, “felt like he had to do something to make a difference.” His dad’s mortality forced him to grapple with whether his father would proud of his self-centered and careless attitude, and what he had accomplished in his 18 years of life. Smith told the audience how this news inspired him “to want
to make a change, be kind and different, and just create something big.” He did exactly that. After starting out by helping special needs kids in his high school and continuing throughout college, one of his coaches helped him see something that left an everlasting impact. Smith said his college coach took him to a place slightly off campus where he saw hundreds of homeless people living under a bridge. Smith said that it “was more people than in his graduating class of high school.” Smith wanted to help desperately, so he talked to the people and asked what they needed most. Their response: Socks. Since then, Smith has founded two nonprofits and has also lead youth movements that are solely based on his desire to make a change. Skate for Change is one of Smith’s movements. He, along with lots of other skateboarders with the same passions, skate through cities and towns to give back to the homeless in their communities- and what they are giving back includes socks among other things.
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HARCO: Keep it rural, keep it charming AMANDA RYAN Reporter This past February, Dollar General was attempting to build on the northeast corner of MD Route 24 (Rocks Road) at the intersection of MD Route 165 (Pylesville Road), right by the High’s. The notion quickly became a topic of major controversy throughout Harford County. While many people believed that adding the store would be beneficial to the community in the long run, others firmly stated that they wanted to maintain Harford County’s ‘rural charm.’ One supporter believes that, “this county needs to be FAR more welcoming of diversity and sophistication.The “charm” wears thin…” DaggerPress was filled with comments from both sides; One person commented that the idea of a Dollar General being built was,“awesome! Another mini Walmart! I love Dol-
lar General,” and another stated, This area needs to be preserved “this is sorely needed. There are for future generations, we only not enough retail options in Har- have so much unused land left.” ford County.” On the other hand, Community member Renee one concerned citizen ques- Etzel was all for the change, “for tioned, “do they really need another Dollar General? There are literally 6 within 5 miles of there! [They are] monopolies!” There is already a Dollar General 9 minutes from North Harford High School, and a total of 96 locations in Maryland. A Harford County citizen argued that Photo Credit: Leah Marie he does not agree with, “adding unnecessary busi- Dollar General serves the greater nesses to this rural area. People rural community, allowing you to live in northern Harford County pick up many items without havbecause they want to be away ing to travel all the way into Forfrom all of the commercialism. est Hill.”
Initially, DaggerPress informed the public that a community input meeting was taking place on wednesday, February 28, at 6:00 pm in the Holy Cross Episcopal Church. However, shortly after the announcement, the meeting was cancelled due to a shocking revelation: the zoning of the land didn’t match what Dollar General is permitted to build on. It’s all about the zoning. The area that the Dollar General was planned to be built on was only zoned for stores such as gas stations, therefore Dollar General isn’t allowed to use the land. Dollar General would need to request a variance to rezone the site from residential to commer-
cial, since they are only permitted on a B1 zone, which this area isn’t. But even then, it’s a rigorous process to rezone land, so the notion was denied. A petition was started, by community member Leah Marie, on change.org to ‘keep it rural’, which already has 1k supporters who’ve signed. Marie argues that, “the Northern Harford County area is known for its rural farmlands. Over the past few years Harford county is being over developed by franchise’s and moving closer and closer to the northern area.” Students at North Harford were equally displeased at the idea. Senior Jacob Ross commented that the traffic roundabout, “is already bad enough from the school, so if they had added a Dollar General, it would’ve made it hell.” Currently, there is still potential for an alternative building to be built on the area.