NORTH HARFORD HIGH SCHOOL
211 PYLESVILLE ROAD, PYLESVILLE, MD 21132
410-638-3650
VOLUME 43 ISSUE 1
SEPTEMBER 28, 2018
Hawk mural spreads spirit; Field facelift: New Teacher transforms wall into art
CASSIDY CHANDLER Features Editor
Back in June, the big brick wall on the far end of the elementary school’s soccer field got a makeover. What was once a boring and a washed out dark green color is now a bright, eye-catching green and gold hawk that reads, Hawk Country. Designed and painted by art teacher, Lisa Campbell, North Harford has had some other recent improvements to make our environment more welcoming and visually appealing. The new Hawk Country banner and Hawk flags that are displayed in the parking lot are a part of the continued initiative to build “One Hawk, One Nation” pride. Campbell commented her inspiration “is to build up morale and motivation, and school spirit.” Freshman Cadence Alampi said, “It looks way better than it did before when it was very plain. It represents us; the Hawks and looks good.” Not surprisingly, Campbell’s project took multiple weeks of suffering in the heat of June to complete the mural. “It took me over 40 hours, start to finish,” noted Campbell. She did the
whole mural single handedly, and added that, “it was a fun and hot experience.” The heat didn’t stop Campbell, but it did add in another challenge. “It was very, very hot during those last weeks in June, and the paint was not working. It was sticky and not flowing right, but when you’re a sign illustrator and sign painter, that’s what you have to work with during the summer months.” Another difficulty Campbell faced was her height and her lack of help. “The only thing I had to figure out was how to get real high up without scaffolding, so I did certain things with my husband’s truck and stuff like that.” She said there weren’t any major obstacles that she had to directly face considering principal Mr. Colin Carr did a lot to get the project approved because he was right on board with it. To ensure that her weeks of hard work did not go to waste, Campbell used specific paint and tools. “I have special paint that I use for lettering; it’s exterior paint. It has certain materials that aren’t allowed to be on school grounds, so I had to
PHOTO CREDIT: Bryan Pawlicki use specific paint that Harford County allows. It took me longer to do than it should have because I had to do it in multiple layers, like paint it three four times, but that’s how it goes,” the art teacher added. In recent years, our students, staff, and art department has been doing multiple things to beautify our school. Campbell expressed her interest in continuing to makeover our school with the art
students. “I definitely want to do some more murals but I think we are going to have some help from students. The interior isn’t a big deal but the exterior takes a lot of time and thought but there’s a lot we can do.” Campbell is proud of her hard work along with the rest of the North Harford community who gets to admire the beautiful artwork everyday on their way to school.
Seniors Brooke Wiley and Kylie Cowan commented that, “When you first come into the road by the school and you see it (the mural), it feels like more than just a school.” They also agreed, the mural, “shows off our school and represents us.” “I really just like where your going to school down 165 and you finally see that ugly wall that was there, it gives a morale, its cool,” said Campbell.
Internship opportunities prepare students for future
LAUREN SECO OP/Ed Editor
School let out, and some North Harford’s students spent time experiencing opportunities which help prepare them for their college and careers. Junior Jacob Robinson attended the Washington Youth Summit on the Environment at George Mason University in Fairfax
County, Virginia. He was joined with 300 high school students from across the United States, but also Mexico and Pakistan. While in Virginia, Robinson went to the National Zoo, the White House, multiple national museums, the Lincoln Memorial, and the National Geographic headquarters. Robinson added that “each WYSE event every year also has
a different environmental focus.” Every year, delegates get together to find solutions to different environmental problems. Robinson was also able to witness a speech by Ralph Nader, a Green Party candidate from the 2016 presidential election, and “he actually inspired [Robinson] to consider a profession in environmental policies.”
Robinson described his experience as “amazing.” He states that “it was lifechanging to see so many people in this place that had just as much or even more passion for the environment than I do.” Junior Sydney Altman went to Aberdeen Proving Ground for an internship “about the PIF lab and the engineers within that lab.” The PIF lab is the prototype integration facility where communication devices are integrated into military vehicles and equipment. Altman learned how mathematics used in school was applied into real life. She was able to oversee how devices were made through seeing how the engineers worked within the lab. She believes having an internship there was worth it because she got to see “what a job in the field might be like.” While there, Altman was able to enter a controlled temperature testing environment set at -90 degrees Fahrenheit.
She stated that “all of [her] hair turned instantly white and [her] body was so cold that it didn’t even shiver.” Senior Kayleigh Gallagher was an intern at Towson University conducting research on Olbers’s Paradox. Olber’s Paradox is “focused on why the sky is dark at night if there are infinite stars in the sky.” She was able to work with a professor to go over details, but Gallagher did most of her research individually. Gallagher was able to present a poster at the Maryland Space Grant Symposium Student Research Consortium. Gallagher said skills she used to present her findings could be used for future projects in college. She added that in theory, stars should light up the sky due to the fact that there are infinite stars. She researched different theories proposed throughout history and even found out that “Edgar Allan Poe actually proposed one of the correct resolutions, and he was very into science.”