Inklings

IN K [ ] L I N G S

Crown Point High School Crown Point, IN @InklingsCPHS September 27, 2019 Vol. 84 Issue 1

Meet the New Teachers at CPHS

Read about the Recently Discovered Dangers of Vaping

Read about student’s Miami Marine Biology Internship

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page 8

page 16

Modified drill procedures look to prioritize student safety

BY NOLAN CHASE ANDREW POESCHL co-online editors

PHOTO BY OLIVIA BUDZEVSKI New principal Russ Marcinek assumes one of his newer administrative duties, the Friday announcements. Marcinek was previously an assistant principal.

Marcinek emphasizes continuing positive learning environment, embracing change When making such choices, the quality and circumstances of the school must be taken into consideration. Marcinek commends the school’s lack of need for drastic change.

“It’s a unique situation in that we’re not a broken school, we’re a good school. And this is not a situation where wild mass a new school year awaits the students of Crown Point sive changes need to be made or this needs some sort of upheaval, High School , they are greeted with new teachers, new not at all,” Marcinek said. “I think that one of my goals is just to classmates, and this year, a new administrative team. make sure we stay on course, we continue to have a positive environment for kids and then improve what we need to improve on.”

More specifically a new principal.

Similarly, dean of students Kevin Enright believes that the After serving fourteen years as a teacher, and 9 years atmosphere of the high school allows students to succeed in a vaas an administrator, Russ Marcinek assumes his new role as prinriety of areas. cipal at Crown Point High School.

“I really enjoy that CPHS is diverse in so many ways and pro“I’m really happy to be here. It’s certainly an honor to be the vides various opportunities for people to flourish academically, principal of Crown Point High School, but understand that it’s a socially and athletically,” Enright said. collaborative effort,” Marcinek said. “It’s important to understand Enright is enthusiastic about the change in administration. He that, it’s probably especially in a large school, it’s truly a commubelieves that Marcinek will be able to maintain the school’s curnity. That we have from the principal to students and teachers, and rent standards. every single person that’s a part of our building, we all have an “I am thrilled that Mr. Marcinek has earned the opportunity obligation or an opportunity to make this a positive place. I think professionally to lead CPHS into the future and believe CPHS everybody has a role and everybody matters, and everybody is imwill continue its excellent reputation in providportant. If we realize that, I think our school We all have an ing young people the skills and resources to be can do great things.” obligation or an successful, reach their goals and maximize their Marcinek has found that the new group potential.” opportunity to make of administrators is an impactful change for To some, administrators may seem stern and this school year. The attitude and background this a positive place distant while teachers are more relatable. Marknowledge of these individuals have contriband so I think everycinek feels that this year’s administrative team uted to the school’s mode of operation. has an advantage in forming relationships with body has a role and “They’ve been extremely helpful. I’m so students due to prior experience in the classroom excited about this administrative team,” Mareverybody matters. as teachers. cinek said. “They are full of energy, they all Principal Russ Marcinek “I think that as administrators it is important like being around high school students just to never lose the fact that you are always a teacher, no matter what like I do, and they offer a tremendous amount of experience from role you are in in the school, we are all teachers. It could be from the classroom. A strength of our administrative team is that they the principal, to the assistant principals, to the deans, to the acare all very talented teachers in the classroom, and so they bring tual teachers, to everybody in our building,” Marcinek said. “Any that skillset with them into their administrative roles, which I betime you’re dealing with young people, you’re trying to teach and lieve is going to help our school.” relate in a positive way.

And so I think that’s very helpful for this While in his previous role, Marcinek was there to aid his printeam.” cipal in decision-making. Now, he is the on the receiving end of A new administrative team can alter their polcies so that they advice and is in charge of making final decisions. better suit the students that they are serving.

“Where before, as an assistant principal, you might talk about “I want the student body to have a positive experience and it’s something with Mr. Pettit or have a discussion as a team. Ultidifferent for everybody, that’s the thing,” Marcinek said. “I think mately, the decision had to fall on him, and I think that’s what you that everybody’s experience is unique, meaning what your posirealize when you’re the actual principal,” Marcinek said. “I can’t tive experience might be may be different from somebody else’s. turn to anybody else, I mean certainly we all talk about things I think it’s important that we see that as a school and treat everyand collaborate. But ultimately, the decision is going to rest on body as an individual.

We make up a big school and want to have me. It could be anything. It could be a small decision or a large a positive school decision.”

A

BY OLIVIA BUDZEVSKI ALEXANDRA SULEWSKI MADELYN WHITAKER co-editors-in-chief

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see new administration on page 3

School safety has been a crucial talking point in many school corporations for the last few years due to tragic incidents occurring in schools across the nation. Many corporations, including Crown Point School Corporation are putting new protocols into place for the betterment of school safety.

Crown Point High School and other schools in the district are undergoing changes that will bring more awareness and stability to the safety protocols. To bring awareness to school safety, administrators must translate their protocols effectively to the students. Director of Student Services and School Safety Mark Gianfermi explains the process of effectively informing students on updated protocol.

“I think students’ best source for information on the expectations for safety procedures is through the teachers. The teachers take their lead from administration and administration is taking the lead from people coordinating the safety procedures at a district level,” Gianfermi said. “With updated protocols we want to make sure that we’re paying attention to detail.”

With the tragic events that have taken place in schools, a new approach to protocols that specialize in preparing schools for the event of an emergency are put into place. Crown Point Community School Corporation has adopted protocols from the “I Love U Guys” Foundation which was created by Ellen and John Michael-Keyes whose daughter was killed during a school shooting in 2006. Gianfermi comments on the creation of these protocols.

“They had skills in business marketing and graphic design. They wanted to know how they could help first responders and schools so they came up with standard response protocols and reunification planning and material. It’s readily accessible by any school that signs up for it. Thousands of schools and organizations have adopted them,” Gianfermi said.

Crown Point schools are using a poster that summarizes the protocol that is used from The “Love U Guys” Foundation. The safety poster can be found in classrooms at the high school for student reference. Lockdowns, lockouts, shelter and evacuation protocols are all summarized by the school safety poster.

“The poster allows you to have more defined protocols for more specific incidents,” Gianfermi said.

Lockdown procedures and lockout procedures now allow for more situational responses from students and teachers in the event of an emergency. The situational see school safety on page 3

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NEWS INKLINGS September 27, 2019

INTHEKNOW

Road construction affects drivers while en route to school

Music program prepares for fall concerts

BY ERIN MULLER AUBREY BANKS assistant editor reporter

Music Concerts: Band, choir, and orchestra members are all preparing for their upcoming fall concerts. These will be the first concerts of the school year for these classes. The band concert will be held on Oct. 8 from 7 to 8 p.m., conducted by band director Johann Sletto. Orchestra director Tom Reed will conduct the orchestra concert, consisting of intermediate and symphony orchestras, on Oct. 15 from 7 to 8 p.m. as well. Finally, the fall choir concert, consisting of all choirs and being conducted for choir director William Woods, will be on Oct. 17 from, once again, 7 to 8 p.m. All concerts will be performed in the auditorium and will be free of charge.

Over the summer, the roads were under construction around the area. The new changes include a traffic light and the new parking regulations. This has impacted students, teachers, and the public alike. Prior to the installation of the light, traffic was a big issue before and after school on Main Street, Court Street, and Burrell Drive.

“The new traffic light that is up there at Main and Burrell has been a big help for the guys directing traffic in the morning and afternoon for school. Once Burrell is finally done and open, it will be three lanes wide, which will allow us to move cars quicker.

We are anticipating that it should help congestion,” Resource Officer Jim Poling said.

While the construction did improve some traffic issues, it was not able to meet all the needs of the student drivers and administration.

“It’s better than what it was last year because it was super hectic trying to exit out of the parking lot. Almost everybody had to park in one section. I normally take the back way trying to get to school because it’s faster but I had to use the main street in order to come here, and it takes a lot longer,” senior Christopher Bartholomew said.

The process of construction has some downfalls that are affecting traffic around Crown Point. Although the traffic light has improved traffic, it hasn’t fixed the problem entirely.

“Burrell Street is a major east-west road between State Road 55 and Main Street, and it’s also a path that many of the ambulances come from the south of the county take to get to the hospital. The road closure causes major traffic issues getting to high school,

High-achieving students given national honor

There are approximately 16,000 semifinalists for the National Merit Scholarship, and three of them are from Crown Point. Seniors Ilya Bulanov, Emily Darlington and Lukas Denney are apart of 16,000, and are moving forward in the program. The scholarship is based off of students’ PSAT score.

In order to qualify, students had to have a minimum selection index of 119. Finalists will be announced in February and scholarship recipients will be start to be notified between April and July.

PHOTO BY EMMA FRANK Student driver approaches stop sign leading to newly paved Burrell Street, a main road leading to the school.

Eisenhower, Taft, and to the hospital,” Poling said.

More traffic has been brought in because of the construction. It has forced students to make adjustments to their normal schedules.

“It’s just one of those instances when one major road closes, it causes problems,” Poling said. “I think the biggest problem so far has been moving almost three thousand students and a couple of hundred staff in a short window of time. We have been asking people to maybe come a little bit earlier so that we can try to space it out because the road is only so big around the high school, and we can only physically move as many cars through. The goal is to have everyone here faster and not have any backups. It has gotten better since the first day of school” The final product of the construction was convenient for student drivers. Junior Marisa McCarter provided her opinion on the benefits.

“It’s easier with the new changes because students could find a parking spot in any place rather than having to search in student’s specific lot. Last year, no one paid attention to where they were supposed to be parked. Juniors parked in the senior lot and seniors parked in the junior lot,” McCarter said.

Although the construction in the area is done, there are still some remaining problems.

“The construction outside of school has been a battle all summer. It makes things take longer. The traffic lights look nice, but they don’t really make much of a difference. The cops are still directing traffic but they aren’t standing in the street like they did last year.

Getting out of the parking lots after school is always hard no matter what because of the traffic,” McCarter said.

National Honor Society sponsors color run as fundraiser for NICK foundation

BY ROSALIE DEGENHART reporter Students and citizens of Northwest Indiana will come together to support a local cause in the beginning of October: the Color Run. The Color Run is a fundraiser sponsored by National Honor Society (NHS), and its proceeds are donated to the Northwest Indiana Cancer Kids Foundation (NICK).

The NICK Foundation is a local group that helps support kids who are diagnosed with cancer. Co-sponsor of NHS Amanda Campos is in charge of organizing the Color Run and wants people to participate. “(The Color Run is) a good cause, and it’s super fun,” Cam-

pos said.

Campos describes the Color Run as a quick activity for people who don’t want to run long distances or go to the city. “(City runs) can be very expensive, and they are usually like actual races,” Campos said, “If you are not athletically inclined, you may be a little deterred from going to the city.”

The Color Run is approximately 1.25 miles long, and NHS president Kennedy Hultz says it is nothing too extreme for students to participate in. To spread the news of the run, NHS advertises to the entire school corporation. They also venture out to the community to collect donations, and ask their runners to collect

THINK AHEAD Sept. 30

Oct. 4

Powderpuff Games

Homecoming Game

Powderpuff teams of each grade compete against each other on the CPHS football field. Freshman vs. sophomores at 6 p.m. followed by juniors vs. seniors at 7 p.m.

The football team kicks of the Homecoming weekend with the home game. Pregame will start at 6:30 p.m. with the game starting at 7 p.m.

“pledges” from donors.

“We go out to local businesses and try and solicit gift cards and things,” Campos said. “The top people with donations will get raffled off prizes.”

Though there isn’t an exact donation goal that NHS is trying to reach, Campos wants to raise as much money as possible. For people not running, Hultz encourages bringing friends to come and spectate, as does Campos.

“Spectators are what really make the event,” Campos said.

“If there is nobody there to throw color on you, you are not going to get colored.”

The color is a bag of non-toxic powder, which is a mixture of cornstarch, water and food dye,

Oct. 5 Homecoming

The Homecoming dance, themed “The Greatest Showman,” will take place in the fieldhouse at 6 p.m.

Oct. 11-14 Fall Break Students receive four days off of school to catch up on sleep or their favorite series or for relaxation.

so it is safe to throw on the runners. Color will be thrown on the runners as they pass by wearing white t-shirts. Senior Emma Beckman is running in the Color Run and is most excited for the color aspect. “(I am running) to benefit the community and put my money that I put into the Color Run towards a good cause that will benefit others,” Beckman said.

For people debating whether or not to run, Beckman encourages people to try it.

“It could be one of your favorite things to do in high school, so I would say to just go out and try it and have fun with it,” Beckman said.

The Color Run will occur on

Oct. 14 Columbus Day This day is utilized to celebrate the official discovery of our country and commemorate our roots as a nation.

Monday, Oct. 7 at 5 p.m. behind the tennis courts. It is 20 dollars to register as a runner, and this fee includes one white t-shirt with the event logo, one bag of color and a bottle of water. It costs five dollars to be a spectator, which includes your first bag of color, and three dollars for any additional bag. There will be Kona Ice, music, and a ‘color party’ that will happen after the end of the race.

Campos thinks this is a great attraction for kids.

“It is the only event like this that we have,” Campos said about the Color Run being at CPHS. “The color powder is so much fun. There is no other fundraiser in the school that has a color fight in it.”

Oct. 23

Oct. 25

Key Club Halloween Party

End of the first grading period

Key Club hosts an annual Oct. 17 dress-up Color Run Tie-Dye All color run participants can Halloween use this time to tie-dye their party in the shirts following the race after cafeteria for all school in the cafeteria. ages.

This day marks the midterm of the first semester. Grade snapshots are taken to show nine-week progress.

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NEWS INKLINGS September 27, 2019

New Administration community. Every student’s needs need to be met and that’s our goal.”

Junior Amber Williams believes that Marcinek has been successful in achieving this goal so far. She feels as though there is a strong connection between him and the student body.

This comes forth in his efforts to establish relationships with each student, in addition to focusing on tasks.

“I feel like he interacts with the students more and he tries to actually get to know us,” Williams said. “Instead of just focusing on his work, I feel like he actually cares about his students and wants to get involved.

He comes to classrooms, he talks to us and he engages with us.”

According to Marcinek, one of the things he finds most interesting about students is the wide variety of activities they are involved in.

He considers this diverse range of involvement to be a strength of the school and acknowledges its significance.

“A lot of times, when people think about diversity, the first thing you think about is racial or ethnic.

While that’s very important and we’re going to address that it’s an important part of our school, I feel like one of our strengths is the diversity in the

School Safety

New Roles in the Administrative Office

continued from page 1

interests of students,” Marcinek said.

“We have almost 3,000 students and every one of them is different, every one of them is important, and every one has their own story. I enjoy hearing those stories. I enjoy listening to what those kids do, whether it’s activities or athletics, or band, or the play. Everyone has their own thing going on and I find that very interesting about high school.”

Often people may generalize that teens are difficult to compromise with because of their stereotyped apathetic attitude. However, Marcinek strongly opposes this view of high schoolers and tries to spread this viewpoint when approached by others. He feels as though this age group responds well to adult interaction and for that, he enjoys working with them specifically.

“I always have conversations with people about how good teenagers are now, because a lot of times people will say ‘you work in a high school, how can you work in a high school with all these teenagers,’ and that’s kind of what will happen, you get that question,” Marcinek said.

“And I always tell people that ‘you’re wrong. Teenagers to me are great to work with.’ And I fully believe that.”

Dean of Students Anne Lorek

Assistant Principal Amy Helmuth Assistant principal Amy Helmuth, who worked last year as a dean of students, mentions her new roles within the school. She notes her role within the administrative team as her organization is an asset that keeps others on task.

“My primary focus is teaching and learning and senior programming. And I am like the detailed taskmaster. Everybody else is sort of laid back and I’m the spreadsheet, like let’s do this, I’m the email queen. Everybody else is like alright just relax, so that’s sort of my personality.”

Assistant Principal Lynn Alkire Assistant principal Lynn Alkire, who was previously an administrator at Portage High School, notes that there might not be as unfamiliar to her as it may seem. She just comments on the difference in routes taken to get to a final goal or task.

“Both schools are big schools, so the administrative aspect is definitely working as a team, where smaller schools have one or two that have to do everything. Here, we do everything as a team,” Alkire said. “Same at Portage, big school, everybody has got different responsibilities. The big thing is making sure you are working together to make sure that everybody understands the roles of everybody.”

Similar to Bauters, dean of students Anne Lorek transitioned from the classroom to the administrative office. She comments on her excitement towards the new role giving other ways to contribute to the school’s pre existing positive environment.

“I think Crown Point High School is a great place to be and it has been a great place to be, and it has been a home for me for many many years,” Lorek said. “I think it’s cool that there’s maybe a slightly different vibe, that there can be evolution with all these new teachers and new admin team, so I’m just excited for the possibility of that.”

Assistant Principal Vince Bauters Transitioning from being a teacher to an administrator, assistant principal Vince Bauters notes how assuming a new role in the school has given him more widespread opportunity to help not only within the classroom, but also throughout the school “From an assistant principal role, there is an opportunity to help out staff members and teachers as much as you are helping out students,” Bauters said When you’re a teacher, you can do things for other teachers and help them out, but ultimately you’re serving your students… So I would say that that is a really positive difference that’s really inspiring.”

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response guidelines help staff and students better understand the necessary actions that must take place in certain circumstances. The school district has been looking into ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) protocols that inform the staff of more options to deal with specific emergency situations.

“We are looking at ALICE protocols which are more option based. It takes the traditional lock down and gives the ability to evacuate if necessary or barricade doors. We want to make sure our staff is very comfortable with that before we start rolling that out to students,” Gianfermi said.

Evacuation drills have also been looked into and have been upgraded by the school district. The new evacuation protocol is exploring many different options for self evacuation from the school. Self evacuation would come into play in the situation where a teacher or staff member has deemed it necessary to evacuate themselves or the entire class. The state fire marshall for Indiana has allowed a three minute wait time for an unplanned fire drill.

“We’ve been talking about the circumstance where people have to self evacuate,and talking about where would they go when things are back under control. Those are things buildings have to discuss,” Gianfermi said. “Crown Point High School has the YMCA, the hospital, and Eisenhower. These are all the places we may go if a staff member decides evacuation is necessary.”

To coincide with all of the other changes that are be-

ing made, Crown Point High School has taken on a second resource officer, Sergeant Jim Poling, who will overlook the safety of the students and staff members during the school days. The school resource officers are on hand for the security of the building and in case of emergencies. Resource officer Sean Steffel describes and discusses the importance of being ready for an emergency situation.

“We always have to be ready. We always have to have a plan in place, God forbid an emergency situation happens.

It could be a shooter, or someone even without a gun. It could be a stabbing or a kid going crazy,” Steffel said. “We just have to have these certain measures in effect to where everybody as far as the police department, the fire department, and the school and the rescuers are all on the same page. There’s a lot more training going into it.”

Even though there are resource officers in the building, it is still important that students remain aware of their surroundings. Crown Point High School has an anonymous tip line that students can call or text if they see something suspicious. The tip line is readily accessible so students may submit something quickly and anonymously. The number for the tip line can be found on posters inside the school.

“That’s part of a culture that we want to start promoting in the buildings,” said Gianfermi. “I’ve been with this corporation long enough and I know the students want to be safe too. If something doesn’t feel right in the building then say something.”

Number of Casualties Including a Shooter Per Year Based on publicly displayed information from 2010-present

80 70 61

60 50 40

38

30 20 10 0

24

22 18 10 6 2010

14

13

4 2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

statistics found at https://www.chds.us/ssdb/number-of-fatalitiesincluding-shooter-by-year-2010-present/

VIEWS on NEWS [Students’ reactions to events in our world

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It’s interesting that they were able to relocate and help the mussels

Donnie Parent senior

Hurricane Dorian has made landfall on the eastern coast of the U.S. In response to this, 6-year-old Jermaine Bell from South Carolina decided to use the money saved for a Disney trip to help victims of Dorian by buying food for them. He and his family have served over 100 people evacuating South Carolina.

World

State

Area

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I feel that that’s a good way to remember people that have fallen, and it’s also a good way to honor them and show respect to them.

Gage Anderson sophomore

Nation

Wildlife biologists in Central Indiana have saved thousands of freshwater mussels stranded on the banks of the White River due to the destruction of a dam. The mussels were relocated downstream from where they were found.

A memorial for fallen first responders was dedicated at First United Methodist church in Crown Point. The memorial is placed next to the 9/11 memorial also at the church.

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I think it is really good that that young kid decided to raise money for victims of hurricane Dorian by saving money from his trip, and I think that he can inspire us all to do the same things.

Plans to create the world’s first 360-degree pool in the middle of the London skyline have been revealed.

Compass Pools plans on building this one of a kind pool on top of a 55 story building in London. Construction is expected to start in 2020

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I think it’s a waste of money and it’s not really useful to the people of London.

Alex Baron freshman

Brandon Cox junior

4

OPINION INKLINGS September 27, 2019

COLUMN

COLUMN

Government should focus on gun laws, not teens with Juuls

Trend followers should not be judged for fashion choices

BY MADELYN WHITAKER co-editor-in-chief Merely days after deaths were reported due to juuling, President Donald Trump’s administration plans to ban the purchase of most flavored e-cigarettes. To contrast that, years after the first mass shootings, with hundreds of people killed from semiautomatic rifles, there is nothing.

No indication of gun control laws put in place to stop those who purchased some of their guns without background checks.

Every time I walk into a movie theater, mall, massive sporting event or work at a childcare facility, I shake in fear when I hear loud noises and go through what I would do if a shooter were to come and try to harm me. That thought crosses my mind because that is the world that I live in as a teen in America.

More specifically, let’s call it the land of the free and the home of absent gun control and the NRA who will do anything to keep semi-automatic killing machines in the hands of mass murderers without doing proper background checks to ensure that they won’t walk into my high school and shoot my classmates.

God forbid teens die as they’re fueling their nicotine addiction though, am I right?

Their idiocracy that is fueling their mango-flavored nicotine buzz is astronomically more important to ban than the guns that have been domestically killing Americans for decades.

It’s more important to keep teens from vaping than to eradicate my- and many others teens’fears of walking into school and being shot.

Although I appreciate the efforts to hinder teens from vaping, unaware of the effects that they have on their lungs, there are more potent killers.

Turn your attention towards the lethal weapons that have unfortunately become accepted in society. People sigh in sadness at a mass shooting and go on with their day because they have become a part of our lives and that is an unacceptable reality to be living in.

The same timeliness that was put forth to stop e-cigarette usage should be directed towards gun control. More so, it should have been done years ago. We should not have to live with the fear of going outside of our homes, we should not have to fear getting an education, we should push for more gun control for a better future.

BY ALEXANDRA SULEWSKI co-editor-in-chief CARTOON BY ABIGAIL GODSEN

Changes can bring new opportunities for growth, allow for maximization of potential EDITORIAL

People fear the unknown; they see change and they cower in fear due to the comfort of conformity. Thriving on conformity, those who are apathetic to change live in monotony and blindly accept it. But where is the progress? How can we expect to grow as a human race without making changes and embracing new horizons?

Change is the catalyst of progress and revolution. Without civil rights activists pushing for equality between races, we may still have segregation within our country. Without pushing for womens’ right to vote, we would live in a world where women are oppressed due to their sex, which they had no decision in to begin with. These movements, along with many others, lead to revolutionary eras that allow for positive change and opportunities.

There’s no denying that it is much easier to operate on autopilot than it is to step out of one’s comfort zone. We go through the motions each day and don’t even stop to think about how monotonous our routines can be. Some people may be content with this way of living. However, without the introduction of new possibilities, a person is unable to maximize their potential. By choosing to keep a structured and unchangeable method of living, there is a stunt in the capacity for growth.

Change may seem like an intimidating idea, especially when the outcome is unknown. There is nothing to fear. It is inevitable for us to grow and change because without it, to be frank, we wouldn’t survive. While some changes may be more drastic than others, they all bring about new, more suiting elements of life. How could we survive as adults if we rejected all modes of adulthood, reverting to our child-like ways of going about life that we had previously evolved form?

Pushing the boundaries can allow for the expansion of opportunities. Life is meant to be lived, not stagnant. These new experiences can contribute to the development of one’s identity.

We never know what we are capable of until we put ourselves out there.

SPEAKUP

What improvements would you make to CPHS if you were the new principal?

Aliyah Levin

James Lamparski

freshman

junior

“I would start school later in the day so it’s easier for students to learn because they will be more awake.”

“I would make it illegal for any quizzing or testing to happen on Mondays. I would also make A lunch later in the day.”

Madison Poer

Braden Chandler

“I would make sure students are comfortable in school and make sure they don’t feel like they are being bullied by other kids.”

“I would get rid of playing video games in school because it is a big distraction.”

sophomore

senior

With the rise of apps and social media platforms such as VSCO and TikTok, it’s easy to see how so many new trends fade in and out in a short amount of time. One particular trend, known as the “VSCO girl,” has become especially prominent, with members of this group sporting oversized t-shirts, birkenstocks and drinking water out of their sticker-covered Hydro Flasks. It’s hard to miss this trend, especially since its popularity mostly resides among teenage girls, and has become a popular subject of ridicule and memes.

However one may feel about this trend, this should not have any influence on how people who may or may not participate in aspects of this trend are treated.

No one should be afraid to walk down the hallways wearing an oversized t-shirt, thinking that they might be the subject of negative comments made about their appearance. “Where’s your scrunchie?” “Is that a Hydro Flask?” These are just a few of the comments I have heard being hurled at people wearing clothing condemned as being “VSCO.” On a whole, the VSCO style is mostly just an accumulation of pre-existing trends anyway.

Things like scrunchies and Fjällräven Kånken backpacks were already popular for a few years before this style even existed. If all of these were acceptable separately, why would they become such a problem when worn together?

Despite how annoying it might be to constantly hear a lecture about why metal straws should be used to “save the turtles,” at least this is a valid environmental concern. The way that someone else dresses should never be anyone else’s concern.

If wearing comfortable clothes and covering a water bottle in stickers makes someone happy, no one else has to understand it to be respectful. Is it really going to make the day that much better to ruin someone else’s?

The very nature of a trend is to create some sort of controversy. If something held no interest, it wouldn’t become popular enough to rise to trend status anyway. In a few years, no one will even know what a “VSCO girl” is. So for the time being, just let people wear what they want to wear without any judgment.

OPINION

INTHEIR

V I EW

INKLINGS September 27, 2019

Should Crown Point High School parking have designated grade lots?

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Crown Point High School, IN

Vol. 84 Issue 1 - September 27, 2019 1500 S. Main St. Crown Point, IN 46307 219-663-4885 ex. 11349 fax 219-662-5663 inklings@cps.k12.in.us online: www2.cps.k12.in.us/inklings

Austin Warmelink junior

PRO: “Yes so I

can park by my friends. With one big mixed lot, it’s hard to find them and park by them.”

CARTOON BY ERIN MULLER

Aedin Obringer sophomore

CON: “I don’t drive but I think it should be first come first serve, no matter what grade.”

Jennifer Bianchi teacher

PRO: “Why

not share with your same grade level. I think sometimes as a driver you might feel more comfortable parking next to people that are your grade.”

PRO: Undesignated parking lot discontinues anticipated senior traditions, unity

BY EMILY HELMUTH assistant editor Senior year is often referred to as the best year of high school by adults and pop culture. After three years, the seniors are finally at the finish line of the high school experience. Being a senior comes with many privileges throughout the year, such as sitting in the first few rows of the student section, the option to intern and participate in half days, bringing dates from other schools to homecoming, being exempt from certain standardized tests and the list goes on.

One of the major senior privileges many underclassmen have looked forward to and enjoyed in the past is having access to the senior parking lot. This parking lot is a favorite of students due to its proximity to the entrance of the building and abundance of good parking spots. Unfortunately for the class of 2020, the senior lot is no longer just for seniors. Due to a new school rule, the high school no longer has designated lots except for the faculty lot.

Thanks to this rule, seniors and juniors now must share both the former senior and junior lots. Having

access to the senior lot was exclusively a senior privilege, and mixing the lots has ruined the parking in the senior lot experience.

Many juniors are new drivers who just got their licenses over summer. Historically, new drivers are often more prone to accidents due to their lack of experience on the roads and in parking lots. Rumors of accidents in the junior lot often used to spread throughout the halls last year when the two lots were separated. Due to the separation of the junior and senior lot last school year, accidents seemed to be a rare occurrence in the former senior lot.

Being a senior is something many students have looked forward to their whole high school career, mainly because of the privileges that come with being a senior. Having a designated parking lot adds to the community feel of being a part of the senior class. Being surrounded by reliable drivers is a safety blanket for many, but this safety blanket is no more due to the mixing of lots. This new rule not only takes away the parking lot but takes away a small part of the senior year experience.

CON: High school experience does not rely on specified parking lots for grade levels

BY HALEY THORNBERRY advertising editor Tom Reed teacher CON: “If you want a better parking spot you need to arrive earlier instead of coming in last minute.”

WHATWE

THINK PRO: 17 Inklings Staffers CON: 8 Inklings Staffers

Your overall school experience doesn’t depend on where students have to park every morning when getting to school. With all the school traffic, the students and teachers all get stuck in a long line of cars, no matter where they are parked at.

As we are all used to, parking spots are first-come, first-served, and unless there is reasoning to why, we don’t have designated parking spots when we go shopping, and now at school. When going places, there are usually only designated handicapped parking spots, and this should apply to school too, with the exception of the teacher’s parking area.

If there are junior and senior lots designated for those students to park in, then what about the sophomores who are able to drive before the end of the school year? These students have never had problems with not having their own designated parking lot to themselves, so why is it a big deal to not have specific lots for the upperclassmen?

With complaints coming from previous seniors,

pertaining to the fact that juniors would park in their designated lot, eliminating the designated parking would solve that problem because it would simply be up to whoever gets there first. The earlier one gets to school, the better their chances are to get a good spot and decide what parking lot would be more convenient for them to park in.

Since every teen is fairly new to driving and they are the age group that is more prone to getting in accidents, there is no doubt that some of these accidents will occur in the school parking lot. Although the majority of students get their license before or during their junior year, there are still some who get their licenses during their senior year, so the separated parking lots wouldn’t affect the number of accidents that occur in the parking lots.

High school should leave students with good, lasting memories that will be reminisced about one day.

These will most likely be good moments that occurred, and thinking back about where we parked our junior and senior year will hopefully be the least of our worries.

Inklings is a student publication created by the newspaper and advanced journalism students and distributed monthly to students, faculty and staff of Crown Point High School. Opinions do not necessarily reflect those of CPHS faculty, staff or administration.

Letters-to-the-editor are welcomed provided they are signed and submitted one week prior to publication and do not contain personal attacks. Inklings reserves the right to edit for space, clarity and legal and ethical concerns.

Advertising is subject to applicable rates available by contacting Inklings.

Inklings has been recognized as an Indiana High School Press Association Hoosier Star, National Scholastic Press Association Pacemaker, Columbia Scholastic Press Association Silver Crown, and Quill and Scroll George H. Gallup publication.

co-editors-in-chief Olivia Budzevski Alexandra Sulewski Madelyn Whitaker associate editor Emma Frank assistant editors Emily Helmuth Erin Muller sports editors Elizabeth Gonzalez Noah Thomas assistant sports editor Jackson Hillman online editors Nolan Chase Andrew Poeschl advertising editors Haley Thornberry Holly Wagner staff Aubrey Banks Keeley Bernard Samuel Brewer Emily Briseno Rosalie Degenhart Abigail Godsen Holly Jorden John Jorden Kristian Maunes Avery O’Brien Cooper Vickers Allyson Zdanowicz adviser Julie Elston

6

experiencing life beyond the building

FEATURE INKLINGS September 27, 2019

iL ION FE

PHOTO BY OLIVIA BUDZEVSKI Senior Ben Zirkle edits his upcoming film, “The Red Friend.” Entirely written and produced by Zirkle, the movie features a group of friends that have a supernatual experience, with the characters played by students.

Careers in entertainment industry present youth with creative outlets

BY OLIVIA BUDZEVSKI MADELYN WHITAKER co-editors-in-chief Inspiration can manifest itself in many different ways at various times. Any idea can become a reality if someone is willing to execute it. For senior Ben Zirkle, the summertime presented the opportunity to pursue his interest in filmmaking.

To start the casting process, Zirkle took to social media to find people who he thought could play parts in his film. He took to various social media platforms to find people he felt would fit the roles that he had written.

“I got everything together for the film, I typed it all out and I figured well, I need to get a cast together and promote it,” Zirkle said. “I went on Instagram and I started just putting out things on my story and on my Snapchat story (saying) if anyone wanted to be in a film, (to) let me know.”

Students who held roles in the film include seniors Jack Siegel, Alana Hacker and junior Jonah Peterson. Zirkle took to social media to find the cast and noted that he tried to match actors with characters whose personalities matched those of who played them. However, due to last minute acting changes, Zirkle had to come to the decision to make a sex change. This created a gay dynamic between two characters as a result.

“I made a sex change for my whole fe-

male lead,” Zirkle said. “Making an entire did this sort of thing when he was a kid and sex change for a character was really chal- so it’s hard to assess it because you don’t lenging. Dealing with character relations, really know if you have a shot or not, but towards that because in the film, I think I I’m thinking about submitting the movie to did the best I could with what I got because Columbia College in Chicago and see if I can get in on a full-ride on filmmaking.”

I tried to highlight that dynamic.”

More plans lie ahead for Peterson Zirkle as he intends to expand comments on the character I’m really happy with his collection with a possible that he plays what I’ve done. I would book or screenplay. He menand also notes say to anyone that has an tions that they may be later his life due to the physical how playing idea that seems grandi- in strain that directing put him one half of the ose the best thing that under. gay dynamic you can do is give it a “It was very intense on came as a surshot and go the farthest me I guess, so I’ve been takprise to him. that you can with it. ing a little bit of a break from “I play filming but I’m going to edit George, the senior Ben Zirkle it and put it all together and closed-off intellect who is kinda friends with everyone it’ll be out by Halloween,” Zirkle said. and is really nice. My character is also gay “For the future, I’m thinking about writing in the movie,” Peterson said. “It was very a book or novel, or I’m considering writing last minute. I was not expecting to play a another screenplay. It might be a comedy, but I’m not too sure.” gay person, but I thought I did decently.”

Hacker, who played the motherly figZirkle plans on submitting his film to Columbia College in hopes of pursuing a ure of the group named Natty, commented filmmaking career. He expresses how he on Zirkle’s ability to create a community has had an early start in his career com- out of people who had been unfamiliar with each other prior to the production of pared to other famous directors.

“I’ve been looking online and I’m see- the movie.

“The movie was overall a lot of fun ing that all these directors, like the youngest directors that got big starting putting and it was really nice creating bonds. I feel their stuff out in their twenties, and I’m like Ben did a good job of bringing togethwriting, directing and producing right er a community of people that didn’t really now,” Zirkle said. “Like Steven Spielberg know each other and just brought us all to-

‘‘

Zirkle’s Favorite Directors Marry Harron

1.

2.

Steven Spielberg

3.

Quentin Tarantino

4. Ari Aster 5. Donald Bernacky

BY #

THE

0

on-the-job experience required to average film be a film director salary director

71,680 (dollars)

gether and created a little friend group and we all just got really close and it was a lot of fun,” Hacker said. “It gave us something to do besides sitting at home.”

Siegel also cherishes the fond memories he has from filming with his fellow actors. To cite a specific moment, Peterson comments on the group’s continuation of jokes within the script following the cut of a scene.

“I think my favorite moment would have to be when we were filming and the actual characters would say a joke,” Peterson said. “When we cut, we’d just keep going along with the jokes. We were just such good friends by the end of it, we could just joke around and be chill.”

Success can be measured in many ways, one of them being personal fulfillment. Zirkle comments on how he is proud of his work given the low budget and other contributing factors of the movie. He encourages others to work toward their goals.

“So, I’m really happy with what I’ve done,” Zirkle said. “I would say to anyone that has an idea that seems grandiose the best thing that you can do is give it a shot and go the farthest that you can with it. It sounds really ridiculous but I ended up thinking about a film script sophomore year, picking it up junior year, and turned it into a film. I never thought I had that in me but once you take that idea and apply it, it becomes reality.”

154, 200 film directors are currently working in the United States

5%

expected growth rate for film directors in the next 10 years.

Statistics from https://www.bls.gov/ooh/entertainment-and-sports/producers-and-directors.htm

FEATURE INKLINGS September 27, 2019

New Teachers

New teachers join the teaching staff every year, coming from different backgrounds ready to bring something new to the table. This year, a total of eleven teachers have joined Crown Point High School: including six English teachers, two Math teachers, one Business teacher, and two EL teachers.

“It’s a bit of an adjustment but overall I enjoy getting to know new students and new coworkers,” English teacher Carl Dunlap said.

Math teacher Brett Thompson feels that by being a teacher he is making an impact on students’ lives.

“Since I was a little kid, I wanted to help people do something impossible and to believe in oneself,” Thompson said.

Dunlap’s decision to become a teacher is similar to that of Thompson, both want to help make a difference in people’s lives for the better.

“I wanted to have some sort of positive impact on my

Staffing changes introduce new personalities to building

BY EMMA FRANK JOHN JORDEN COOPER VICKERS associate editor reporters

Rachel Anderson

Jake Argenta

community and I also thought the best way to do that was to share knowledge and help others succeed,” Dunlap said.

English teacher Dominique Bowman has previously worked in the Crown Point corporation and has returned this year.

“I began in Crown Point teaching five years ago, then left and came back. So this will be my sixth year actually teaching,” Bowman said. “I used to provide speech therapy services for the district.”

Math teacher Heather Lindberg has made a smooth adjustment to Crown Point as well as teaching. If she was not a teacher Lindberg says that she would most likely be at home with her children.

“I really love kids and I spent a lot of time tutoring so it was just a natural fit for me,” Lindberg said. “I love CPHS, we have great students and staff and it’s just a very supportive environment.”

Eric Beard

English Ball State

Teaches

Attended

Attended

St. Joe’s & Cal College

Fun Fact

I got a superlative for most

Fun Fact

Ms. Raspopovich is my fiance

Teaches

Business

Dominique Bowman

English

Teaches

English

Teaches

Attended Purdue Calumet and Colorado State Fun Fact Loves to travel and go on adventures

Attended University of Illinois of Chicago Fun Fact If I’m really tired I will write

likely to live in Lowell forever

with both hands

Haley Crane

Teaches

Carl Dunlap

English Governor’s State & Purdue

Fun Fact

I played a lot of soccer

Attended

Katelyn Kreis

English

Teaches

Attended

7

English

Teaches Attended

Purdue University

Fun Fact I am a trivia and horror movie buff

Fun Fact

Heather Lindberg

Math

Teaches Attended

Olivet Nazarene I have my doctorate

Fun Fact

Minnesota State & North Dakota State

I have quadruplets

in high school

Hannah Mason

Teaches

Angela Taraskiewicz

Math

Teaches

Attended

Purdue University

Attended

Fun Fact

My fiance had Mrs. Rawls

Fun Fact

as a teacher

English

Brett Thompson

Teaches

Math

Valpo University

Attended

Purdue Northwest

I played basketball

Fun Fact

The first time I was on a plane

in high school

I went skydiving

Teacher’s Pets

Match the teacher to the dog

A. Apollo

B. Wrigley

C. Sunny & Blue Answers: 1,B. 2,A. 3,C.

1. Rachel Anderson 2. Jake Argenta 3. Haley Crane

8

FEATURE INKLINGS September 27, 2019

Harm from Inhalation

Vaping chemicals pose health threats in adolescents; creates demand for disciplinary action, awareness of having a heart attack.”

BY ALEXANDRA SULEWSKI An increased heart rate and incoherNOLAN CHASE ent speech are just a few of the symptoms co-editor-in-chief that cause students to end up in the nurse’s online editor Slurred speech, nausea and anxiety-like office due to vaping during school hours. symptoms are all side effects that students However, due to the sensitive nature of have come into the nurse’s office experi- the subject, nurse Carisa Oman says that encing as a result of vaping habits. Despite students are sometimes reluctant to admit the amount of illnesses and deaths caused why they may be having these experiences. “[Students have come in] many times. by vaping growing almost daily, the popularity of vaping products has still remained And it goes bad very quickly, and it’s scary because when it happens sometimes the strong, especially among teenagers.

Flavors such as mint, cinnamon and person cannot tell you what is going on, vanilla are especially effective in drawing so we’re working like we’re blind,” Oman the attention of a younger demographic. said. “We don’t know what to do. So, it can Although these might sound enticing and be very touchy and scary.”

Because vaping devices can be passed harmless, the chemicals used to create these flavors, such as cinnamaldehyde, from person to person easily, it makes it vanillin and benzaldehyde, can cause seri- more difficult to track down what specifious health problems according to Dr. Lisa cally could be causing a reaction. Nurse Cori Sabotnik explains that this could Gold. cause even more “When these ingrediproblems. ents are heated or vaporized When these ingre“Some kids they can cause the formation dients are heated or aren’t really knowof formaldehyde and other vaporized they can ing what they are cancer-causing chemicals,” or just takGold said. “These chemicals cause the formation vaping, ing a hit from whocan irritate and inflame the of formaldehyde and ever’s, so the side lungs.” other cancer-causing effects of whatever The chemicals used in kind of drug that vaping products are now chemicals.” could be in the vape showing effects in people would be another Dr. Lisa Gold who started vaping as teens. issue, which could be Gold acknowledges the health problems that stem from vaping and dangerous and life threatening,” Sabotnik said. how they are being found in adolescents.

Despite the dangers, vaping is still a “The risk with age is that the younger you are with starting to vape the potentially popular trend among teenagers due to their longer time you are going to be a smoker. ability to easily conceal and unassuming We are hearing about significant health odor. Junior Matthew Gerona believes that problems in teenagers that started vaping peer pressure is another factor that motiat an early age,” Gold said. “People who vates students to try vaping.

“I think peer pressure does play a role,” started vaping in junior high and now in high school, they are having lung disease.” Gerona said. “I think people do it just to fit Addiction also poses an issue among in and say that they have tried it.”

Although factors such as peer pressure vaping participants. Because vape products contain nicotine, they are highly ad- might make vaping appear more tempting, dictive and teens end up getting hooked resource officer Jim Poling warns that there on them. Gold shares her knowledge on are potential disciplinary consequences the dangers of nicotine addiction and the that could result from getting caught vaping under the legal age. Not only could harmful withdrawal symptoms.

“It is very easy to get addicted to nico- there be legal issues, but also repercussions tine. Once you are addicted you crave the if found vaping on school grounds.

“If you are caught vaping, you can get nicotine. And the withdrawal symptoms are bad too. Nicotine is also a toxic sub- a citation, which would be a mandatory stance,” Gold said. It raises your blood court appearance at the city court. And pressure and spikes your adrenaline, which then you have to bring in mom or dad with increases your heart rate and the likelihood you, and then the judge will decide if it’s

‘‘

going to be a smoking cessation, it could be community service, could be all of the above, kinda depends on the situation,” Poling said. “There are disciplinary issues with the school if you’ve been caught vaping also. Depending on if it is a first offense, second offense, it would be up to the assistant principals.”

Disciplinary actions can also include the loss of extracurricular activities. Poling explains how vaping in school can cause students to lose privileges.

“You can lose extracurriculars, you might not be able to attend club meetings and things like that, you can get disciplined through the school, you could have to make a court appearance, mom and dad might have to take off work. There are a lot of issues here that should be enough incentives not to do it,” Poling said.

Already in these first few weeks of school, multiple vaping citations have been issued to students who have been caught vaping. Typically, Poling is notified when this happens by a teacher or administrator.

“So far we have issued five vaping citations this year on the property, in the bathrooms,” Poling said. “Usually teachers will notify an administrator, and then the administrators will notify us. Or, if we happen to be in the area, or a teacher catches a student with it, they’ll notify us directly or through the assistant principals.”

Though teachers are becoming more aware of vaping, vaping devices can still be easily concealed by students due to their relatively small size. Poling recognizes the concealability of vaping devices and how it contributes to vaping during school hours.

“Well, it’s easier to disguise than smoking. Smoking has an odor, you have to have cigarettes, the lighter, things like that.

With vaping, the vapes are small, they look like USB drives to a casual glance, so it’s harder to detect,” Poling said. “And, like a lot of things, I think it’s kind of the ‘in’ thing to do with teenagers.”

While convenience and popularity might be enticing factors, Gold still warns that vapes are filled with potentially harmful chemicals.

“Think of vaping as breathing in dirty addictive chemical laden air. Have you seen air pollution or smog. Vaping is like breathing that air in,” Gold said. “You don’t know exactly what that dirty air has in it, but it fools you because it smells good and the nicotine gives you a great feeling.”

Teen Vaping Statistics

66%

believe there is only flavoring in e-cigs

7 in 10

are exposed to e-cig ads

Tips to Quit • Don’t try quitting without help • Get rid of all vaping supplies • Avoid the triggers that make you want to vape • Decide why you want to quit and write it down or put it in your phone Source: Dr. Lisa Gold

What’s in a vape?

Arsenic Tin Nickel Cadmium Lead

30.7% of

e-cig users start smoking within

6 months

Many flavors contain chemicals that are known to be respiratory irritants

statistics provided by https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/infographics/teens-e-cigarettes https://truthinitiative.org/research-resources/emerging-tobacco-products/e-cigarettes-facts-stats-and-regulations

FEATURE INKLINGS September 27, 2019

9

Are you more like...

P.T. BARNUM or PHILLIP CARLYLE

from “The Greatest Showman” PHOTO BY ALLYSON ZDANOWICZ

What do you like to do in your free time?

The Homecoming court pictured from left to right, front row: seniors Alana Hacker, Brooklyn Frassinone, Kara Collins; sophomores Emily Rodriguez, Enzo Zamudio and junior Lyna Santiago; back row: freshman Lexi Zirkle, seniors Parker Gliem, Anthony Pellicane, Dylan Matusak; freshman Johnathan Johnson; seniors Christian Mojica, George Tadros and Ellie Lockhart.

Not pictured: senior Allie Biella and junior Jeremy Quasney

a) spend time with my family b) hang out with my friends

Community looks ahead to annual Homecoming game and festivities

BY EMILY HELMUTH HALEY THORNBERRY COOPER VICKERS assistant editor advertising editor reporter The parade. The pep rally. The Powder Puff games. The week leading up to the annual Homecoming dance is filled with activities, all in the name of school spirit. Child development teacher Ginny Zega has been planning the Homecoming dance itself since 2015. Zega chose circus as this year’s theme.

“I saw a student wearing a ‘The Greatest Showman’ shirt and I thought it would be a fun theme,” Zega said.

Along with Zega, the student council assists in the activities during the week of Homecoming. The student council officers lead in hallway decorating, and many of these decorations are later used at the dance itself. Senior Class President Maria Jeffirs has been involved in Student Council all four years of high school and has assisted

in planning Homecoming all four of those years.

“It’s always really rewarding and I always love it, I just like seeing everything come together at the end,” Jeffirs said. “We work so hard for our hallways and just seeing some of our stuff get picked for the dance and seeing it decorated for everyone to see is just a really good feeling.”

According to Jeffirs, decorating the hallways is her personal favorite part of homecoming week, as it brings out her and the student council’s competitiveness.

“Since it is my last spirit week, I’m most looking forward to decorating the hallway. Last year the 2020 class won, so I am very determined to win again,” Jeffirs said. “It is stressful trying to pick and make all the decorations, but it’s very fulfilling to see that all our hard work paid off, even if we don’t win.”

The week of Homecoming is celebrated by the students with a spirit week, where students dress according to the day’s theme. That Friday at the

Are you more of a leader or a follower? a) leader b) follower

end of the school day, students go into the gym to watch a pep rally featuring performances by the cheer and dance teams. Student Council’s officers also participate, as they normally play a game during the pep rally. Jeffirs has enjoyed participating in the pep rally all four years.

“I love that the whole school can come together and have a fun time,” Jeffirs said.

Each year, Homecoming continues to draw Crown Point alums back to town. Student Council Advisor Colleen Fano, believes this is due to the large sense of community in Crown Point.

“Crown Point is a wonderful community where people are proud to live.

This high school has such a wonderful reputation of success, so people really get into the spirit,” Fano said. “From the start of the pep rally, to the kickoff of the parade, to the crowning of the king and queen and ending with the last song at the dance, homecoming is a celebration of our great school and wide range of students.”

What is your biggest weakness? a) I’m too ambitious b) I care too much about what others think

Are you more of an introvert or an extrovert? a) extrovert b) introvert

If you were in the circus, what would you be doing? a) I would be the star of the show b) I would be behind the scenes, making sure things go according to plan

If you got mainly...

As

Bs

You are more like You are more like P.T. Phillip Barnum! You are Carlyle! You are ambitious and organized and very won’t take no for an detail answer. oriented.

Q: What does Homecoming mean to you?

“The homecoming game brings a little extra motivation to win because it’s a big deal with the dance being the next day. Winning the game just makes the whole weekend better and give you something big to celebrate. We want to go out there and do our best to bring a big win the night before the dance.”

- senior David O’Toole

“Homecoming to me is a time to get together as a school and community and have fun. From the football game to the dance, every memory is one I’ll for sure remember. We all live in the moment and have no cares about anything else.”

- senior David Gonzalez

“It is a lot of fun to do the parade and perform with my team. Last year I was the Junior Homecoming Princess so that weekend brings back a lot of fun memories for me personally.”

- senior Jane Georgas

“Homecoming is important to me because I love having everyone together at the game and the dance.”

- senior Taylor Schubert

Looking Forward: Spirit Week Schedule MONDAY 9/30

Theme Grades 9-11

VSCO Theme Grade 12

Senior Citizen

TUESDAY 10/1

THURSDAY 10/3

9 vs. 10

Disney

11 vs. 12

Theme Grade 12

Theme Grade 12

Theme Grade 12

Middle School

80’s Work Out

6 p.m.

7 p.m.

at the CPHS football field

Theme Grades 9-11

WEDNESDAY 10/2

Theme Grades 9-11 Freshmen Yellow Colors Sophomores Blue Juniors Red

Powder Puff games

TV Character

FRIDAY 10/4

Theme Grades 9-11

Theme Grades 9-12

Decades

Bulldog Pride The Schedule

7th hour Pep Rally 5 p.m.

Parade 7 p.m.

Game

SATURDAY 10/5 The Dance Where The Fieldhouse When 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

10

FEATURE

INKLINGS September 27, 2019

GEMS club provides STEM students with enhanced career empowerment

How to optimize thrift shopping experience, tips for purchases

BY HOLLY JORDEN reporter

Whether or not students are interested in a STEM related career, or want to join new clubs, GEMS is a new club at the school this year. GEMS stands for Girls Empowerment in Math and Science, and is sponsored

by PLTW Biomed teacher Ashley Cosme. Cosme and juniors Ianna Foresta and Lauren Garcia help to lead the club.

“GEMS club is about showing girls in high school who want to go into the STEM field some different careers and goals in the field, through showing them female role models and different careers that they might be interested in or might not know about or that may spark their interest and will inspire them to get a career in STEM,” Garcia said.

GEMS club is a great way for students to be able to get a glimpse into the future of the STEM career field.

“I think it would be a good opportunity for them because we introduce a lot of new careers which is super important because they might find something that they love that they have never heard of as well as roles for females and they can get scholarships in STEM and a lot of colleges look at that,” Garcia said.

The club is also a great way to show students the different roles and people in the STEM career. Everyone gets partnered

PHOTO BY ERIN MULLER Sophomore Annabelle Hofman goes shopping at a local thrift store. Hoffman recommends that those who look to thrift shop have an open mind when examining items.

there’s really no telling what happened to them. Wash the clothes purchased from thrifting before wearing them. Senior Aaron Herrera agrees.

“Yeah, some stuff is definitely dirty, so definitely wash the clothes. However, I’ve never had a bad experience,” Herrera said.

There is one thing all these thrifters agree on- no matter their style or budget- they’ve saved plenty of money because of thrifting.

“There’s no debate; I’ve saved a ridiculous amount of money,” Herrera said.

According to Hofmann, she has saved 10 to 20 dollars on almost everything she has ever bought from the thrift store. Kubal also agrees with this.

“While I do still spend money on regular clothing, thrifting is a good way to get really cute and unique outfits for very cheap,” Kubal said.

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with a different mentor, whether they are from Indiana or another state. There is a mentor for every student and most of the career paths offered in STEM. “One of our biggest goals this year is to link every member up with a mentor in the Northwest Indiana area. We have females that are working in STEM related careers, and that is the goal, that by the end of October, all of our members will know who their mentor is,” Cosme said. “They can send their mentor an email telling them a little bit about themselves and then they can hopefully start the contact and the relationship will hopefully build from there. They are not required to meet with the mentor face-toface, I do encourage it, but it is not required. At the end of the year, I would like to do something where we get all of the mentors and mentees together for dinner.”

The club has been planning field trips for the beginning of the year in hopes of learning more about the environment and the STEM career.

“Our first field trip is going to be a trip to the orchard. I chose the orchard because a lot of the girls are in higher level classes, and I think it is really important to have them step back a little and take a minute to appreciate the world and that it does not always have to be busy,” Cosme said. “They are all hard workers but while we are at the orchard we are going to learn the science behind how they press the apples for cider and we are also going to learn about bees, the role of bees in the environment.”

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“When just starting out, have patience. You’re probably not going to find anything the first time you ever go,” Kubal said. “Sometimes it’s all about timing; there have been times when I go to Goodwill and walk out with nothing, but I can go the week after and there’ll be plenty of stuff. It can be very hit or miss.”

Sophomore Annabelle Hofmann also offers tips for newcomers, one of which is to visualize how to use pieces found.

“You really can’t look at it as just a shirt or pants. You have to imagine how you would use it or else you can end up buying something you’ll never even use or passing up something that could be a good addition to your closet,” Hofmann said.

However, she also mentions the downside to thrifting (and how to avoid it).

Making sure there are no holes or stains is important, since the clothes were previously worn,

Carry-Out! Delivery! Dine In! Carry-Out! Delivery! Dine in! Carry-Out! Delivery!

It’s a bargain hunter’s worst nightmare: you’ve spent all day at the mall, ankle blisters are forming, you’re practically dripping with sweat, and still have nothing to show for it. Then you find the perfect sweater, with an infamous price. You leave with it but can’t help but cringe next week when it’s on the clearance rack for 60 percent off.

For thrifters this is less of a problem, as clothes sold at stores such as Goodwill, Salvation Army and Second Life are always somewhat on sale and can even have discounts stacked on top of the initial price.

When sophomore Molly Kubal went thrifting on a Sunday afternoon she was excited to see a whiteboard at the front of the store acknowledging the daily sale; 75 percent off anything with an orange tag.

According to Kubal, stacked discounts such as these are a great way to get a large amount of clothes for cheap. Depending on when or where people go, there can be different kinds of sales; discounts like these can result in the best finds.

“I went thrifting one time where I was allowed to stuff as much stuff into a grocery bag for 5 dollars, and while I was there I also got these vintage Levi’s jeans for only two dollars, it actually really helped me get into thrifting,” Kubal said.

At first, Kubal didn’t really know what she was doing but as she thrifted more, she was able to gain more skills.

BY ERIN MULLER HOLLY WAGNER assistant editor advertising editor

SPORTS INKLINGS September 27, 2019

FINISHING

11

strong

Russin emphasizes race strategy, strength for tournament meets

My moment of the month... “...Once I broke through the gap, I knew I was gonna score...” (After scoring a record setting 99 yard rushing touchdown) Junior Matthew Walters Football

REVIEWING THE PLAY

Staff’s Take on Sports Issues

‘‘

Should colleges give scholarships for “E” sports (video games)?

4 Pro 3 Con TWITTER POLL

Which team will have a better record at the end of the season?

20% 80% Bears Colts

faster than I ever have before,” Russin said.

Four seconds may not seem like a lot, but in the heart-racing 800-meter dash, four seconds can be the Most people allow titles to define difference between first and last.

“People tend to look at the place you took, and them; athletes striving to have “state automatically assume you did better or worse dependchamp” or “MVP” behind their name. ing on your place.

For me, I went from first to second Bringing pride to their town and afsophomore versus junior year but ran way faster than I firming their hard work. It’s a normal did the year prior.

One second under the state record,” desire for an athlete to seek an acRussin said. complishment, such as state, a maIt is all about the little improvements for Russin. jority of their high school career. For No matter how small, she’s going out and giving it her Senior Maddie Russin, winning state all every day.

She acknowledges her accomplishments did not take her all four years. as they highlight the type of runner that she is, but she Becoming the 800 meter dash will never allow them to put pressure on her again. state champ her sophomore year, RusIf she shaves a second and improves her kick at sin got a head start to the podium. Aside her end that is all that she will allow from popular belief, to define her as a runner. it hasn’t been an easy Russin’s parents could not road since.

No matter how good gush more about the pride they “Going into my juyou are you can always have for their daughter. Catherine nior cross country seaget better. There will Russin, Maddie’s mother said, is son, just coming from pleased to see how high being state champ, I always be someone especially school has allowed Maddie to grow was so nervous. I felt better than me, I’ll keep as a leader. a pressure to not let “Maddie is ferocious, she is a that person in my mind anyone down, or fail fierce competitor, a fierce friend, myself after seeing the every day of training. and a fierce young woman. That is extent of my potential,” senior Maddie Russin the characteristic that enables her Russin said. to be as determined to achieve her Despite putting in all goals,” Russin said.

“Seeing Maddie encourage her the hard work that got her on the podium, teammates, and be able to be a vocal leader as a mom she had a mental block to meet the standards of the year before, which hindered Russin I couldn’t be more proud.”

With such a successful past three years one might from allowing herself to focus solely on her ask what Russin could possibly wish for this last seimprovement. nior season.

“I was doing the work I have always done “I just want to improve on the groundwork I have to perform at my best, but I was overly focused on already laid out. No matter how good you are you can trying to prove myself again, I lost sight of what I always get better. There will always be someone better really needed to focus on. Which was just improvthan me, I’ll keep that person in my mind every day of ing,” Russin said. training,” Russin said.

Russin believes that how she placed at cross College offers have been flooding in for the ferocountry state last year did in part reflect her cious RussinUniversity of Oregon, Duke University, nerves. Instantly she addressed the issue and Indiana University among the many. and was ready to enter junior track season Lots of decisions lie ahead for Russin but she changed. looks forward to making the most of her last year run“Even from the start, I knew my Junior ning for Crown Point High School. track season had the potential to be a success.

The craze of college offers won’t blind Russin At the first meet, I ran four events and was from making this Cross Country and Track season the very happy to leave placing first in all. The best yet.

The Bulldogs can expect to be impressed by whole season I had progressed exactly how Russin this year and for many years to come.

I wanted to, and at state ran four seconds

BY ELIZABETH GONZALEZ co-sports editor

OUT OF 35 STUDENTS POLLED

PHOTO PROVIDED BY CATHERINE RUSSIN

Boys tennis team focuses on upcoming postseason Maddison Poer Sophomore IND: “I think the Colts will be better. They have the better record and will continue their good playing.”

Cameron Zimmerman

Sophomore CHI: “I think the Bears will do better because they have a better defense than the Colts.”

BY SAMUEL BREWER reporter After coming off of an impressive sectional win in the 2018 season, the boy’s tennis team hopes to have an even more successful season this year. Coach Chris Korzeniewski knows what it will take to build off last year and that it’ll take a lot to reach the semi-state goals that the team has set.

“We set a short term goal of getting to semi-state, and the reason we would do that is sometimes when you set your goals too high they’re unachievable. Once we achieve our goal, our ability to go beyond that will be a non pressure situation and will be on the opponent,” Korzeniewski said.

Senior Zach Jones is one of the three seniors and the captain of the tennis team. Jones is hopeful of the upcoming state tournament.

“I feel really good for our team, we’ve gotten off to a great start this year. I think this is the hardest everyone on the team has ever worked. Past years we’ve worked hard but we never thought we could do it and this year we have a pretty substantial chance,” Jones said.

Hard work is not the only thing necessary in having a great team, chemistry and friendship off the court is very important too.

According to Jones, the tennis team is more closely knit than most other teams at the school.

Korzeniewski thinks that success in tennis is long term, and that the middle school program is just as important to the success of the high school team.

“All these guys on the court right now have spent two years of middle school tennis, and those that are in their fourth year of high school, this would be their sixth year of playing crown point tennis. I truly believe that if we do not build our middle school program, the high school will suffer,” Korzeniewski said.

Those seniors in their sixth year of Crown Point tennis this year are a major importance to the team, and Korzeniewski thinks that they have done a phenomenal job.

“After coaching for 20 years I have never seen the improvement between junior to senior year like I have now. I am very impressed with how hard they’ve worked in their offsea-

son . . . but these guys [seniors] have actually put it to the next level like I have never seen tennis improve from junior to senior. I am very impressed with how hard they’ve worked in their offseason,” Korzeniewski said.

One of the seniors is Layton Noerenberg.

He went first team singles all area and was an honorable mention on the all state team. Noerenberg hopes to improve on his successes this season.

“Personally, I want to make all state, last year I didn’t do that but I want to this year,” Noerenberg said.

With sectionals approaching fast, Noerenberg is excited for the possible success of the team this year.

“Our plan is to win regionals and beat Munster, our big rival, and we have the potential to do so this year,” Noerenberg said.

So far, the boys tennis team is currently undefeated. Noerenberg and the team are very excited for the opportunities that they have to advance far beyond just sectionals. And are prepared for the chance to beat their big rivals in regionals.

12

SPORTS INKLINGS September 27, 2019

Mentality proves key for volleyball team Football seniors exceed

BY KRISTIAN MAUNES sports reporter expectations Volleyball is one of the most popular sports in the world, but mid-season not everyone knows the struggles

BY JACKSON HILLMAN assistant sports editor The Friday night lights have been lit, the band plays by the bulldog, football players run through the banner, ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for some high school football.

The Bulldogs have kicked off the season with a 3-2 record, recently beating Portage 22-16. This year, the seniors have had to step up to lead both the offense and defense. While players like seniors Noah Hollendoner and Donovan Huffine lock up on defense, seniors Tysen Cazy and David O’Toole are leading the team to the end zone.

The coaches have adapted to the new squad and are finding their ways on both sides of the ball. Coach Kevin Enright is up for the challenge and fully believes that the seniors will take the leadership roles in stride.

“The transition from last year to this year was about what we expected and has been smooth. Many of our players have made the commitment and have worked extremely hard this offseason to maximize their potential and it is evident. A year ago, several current seniors acquired valuable varsity playing experience both offensively and defensively. The ‘nucleus and pulse’ of this year’s group is definitely led by our seniors this is their year, and they are excited to show how their hard work and dedication have paid off,” Enright said.

One senior who has exceeded at his leadership role is cornerback and free safety Hollendoner. He has locked up multiple wide receivers and has intercepted two passes this season. Hollendoner has made multiple clutch plays and if you’ve been to the student section you’ve likely heard the student fans chanting “Dinger!

Dinger! Dinger!” among other chants. He is excited about his senior year and has high standards for his future performances.

“I think going into my senior year, I gotta be more of a leader because people are counting on me to make bigtime plays. I’ve made a statement in the first few games and that’s the plan for the rest of the season. Whenever the ball is in the air I’m thinking interception. Next thing you know I’ve picked it off and I’ve already intercepted two passes this season. Now my goal is to break interception records,” Hollendoner said.

Currently, they are 2-1 in the conference but look to change that tonight when they play conference foe undefeated Valparaiso at our home field.

and intensities that come with playing. Our own volleyball team experiences things behind the scenes that the fans don’t normally see during the games.

It takes a lot of work and coordination to play volleyball and yet some people think of it as a laid back, sort of leisure, sport.

Players like sophomore Kendall Schara, believe volleyball gets under looked, especially here.

“I do think that some people view volleyball as more laid back. At our school, it isn’t one of our major sports. I feel like many people just see it as don’t let the ball touch the floor, but there is so much more that goes into it. There are so many different parts to the game and with each of those positions, there are so many different levels of technique,” Schara said.

Team chemistry is also important in being an efficient team and can be a struggle to grow, but as time goes on, bonds and friendships are made that bring the team together. Freshman Avery Clark knows all about this as it’s her first year on the team.

Building these relationships with the team are a driving factor to the team’s success.

“The most important part of being a successful volleyball team is having teammates who you can rely on to lift you up if you make a mistake. Knowing your teammates will always support you no matter what can really help how a team plays together. Luckily the CPHS volleyball program is full of players who support one another,” Clark said.

Clark believes the mindset of each player contributes to whether a player will struggle or excel in performance when playing. The players have to focus on their own position as well as their

PHOTO BY ALLYSON ZDANOWICZ From left: junior Sidney Keller, senior Savana Chacon. Chacon passes the volleyball to another one of her teammate during a home game against the Portage Indians.

teammates so they can function efficiently.

For seasoned players like senior Hannah Wold, one of the

‘‘

Many people just see it as don’t let the ball touch the floor, but there is so much more that goes into it. There are so many different parts to the game and with each of those positions. sophomore Kendall

main struggles is keeping the passion for playing alive.

“I think some of the intensities and struggles of playing volleyball is not getting sick of it. It has been a huge part of all of our lives for so long, and we are in the gym putting in work for hours each week. Volleyball players get burnt out all the time, and they just quit the sport,” Wold said, “You have to remember why you started playing this game, why it has been such a huge part of your life, and how much you love the

game.”

These are struggles the players experience while playing, but it’s the coaches who understand what’s really going on. “Volleyball, it’s all a mental game,” coach Allison Duncan said.

“I believe that being strong, fast, and athletic are essential to be successful, and while being tall is an advantage, these aren’t the biggest factors,” Duncan said.

Duncan thinks that the main problem is that people don’t understand volleyball is a mental game. Stating that if you can’t play the mental game, whether it be understanding the numerous techniques, communication, or different positions, you will struggle to grow as a player, no matter what seemingly promising qualities you have.

It takes time and effort to play volleyball at a high level. It’s a competitive sport to play, it may not seem like it during games, but practices and games especially, there’s an extreme mental game going on between the players.

Girls golf develops focused mindset to succeed

BY JACKSON HILLMAN assistant sports editor Athletics are often times associated with strenuous physical work; however, a strong mental game can prove to be immensely beneficial. In regards to Girls golf, it is essential.

It takes hours of focus and precise training to begin to learn how to play golf. These girls train every consistently honing in on the basics, and adopting new techniques. Mastering the sport takes a heavy mindset from the players all the way to the coaching staff.

One of the girls who’s training has helped them exceed this season is senior Sydney Weiner. Weiner is averaging an 80.18 score on 18 holes this season.

She hopes that her training and season play can help her make a college team, and help her team compete for titles.

“For training, the team spends a lot of time in the summer together on the range and playing. Often, we spend an hour on short game and an hour on the driving range. This has helped the team as we are able to really bond and work on important aspects of our games,” Weiner said.

“The mindset that the team goes through depends on each event. Typically when we are going to an event that is very winnable, we go in knowing that we must play our best golf. Golf is so unique as each player has their own mental preparation as

well as a specific routine.”

Coach Jennifer Vinovich is very proud of how the girls have played and believes that the highclass training has led to this. If you check on the girls golf page on the CPHS website you can see the detailed training regime she has set for the girls.

“Golf a complex sport to learn and attempt to master. In fact, many will say golf cannot be mastered. Players on the Crown Point team work hard during the season and off-season to hone their skill set which includes putting, chipping, iron shots and woods. Learning how to manage their golf games on good days and bad sets the accomplished player apart from the competition,” Vinovich said.

In efforts to teach the girls to manage the good and bad games the coaching staff has modeled practice regimens used by Division 1 teams.

“Each player has a practice spreadsheet that details multiple skills exercises they are expected to accomplish weekly. It is a similar practice regimen used by Division 1 players and coaches. Team members have access to articles and books on the mental aspect of the golf game. As you might expect, it is a vital factor in either the success or failure of a round,” Vinovich said.

The girls will play at the regionals at Lafayette on Oct.28 and the State finals will take place on Oct. 5. Vinovich and the girls are very excited for the rest of the season.

Wells leads girls soccer team to many goals, shows promising post-season

BY KEELEY BERNARD sports reporter Practice does not make perfect, it makes better. More specifically, it makes junior Grace Wells better.

As a sophomore, Wells scored only one goal and assisted two times. Currently, Wells has scored 10 goals and assisted three times in eight games.

Wells cites practice as a reason for her drastic improvement.

“I practiced a lot to improve,” Wells said. “I work really hard.”

Wells’ hard work has been noticed by Lady Bulldogs’ soccer coach Chris Mikrut.

“She works hard, and she’ll continue to grow,” Mikrut said.

“Her dad is a football coach, so she inherited a strong work ethic.”

For Wells, having a dad who is a football coach is a good and bad thing.

“I feel extra pressure to work hard because my dad is a football coach,” Wells said.

“But I also feel like he understands what it is like to be an athlete.”

Many people believe that being an athlete is all glamorous, but to be an athlete, more specifically a Crown Point athlete, means practicing strenuously and consistently.

“We train 5 to 6 days a week,” Wells said. “On weeks with a game, we practice 4 to 5 times. I also play club soccer.”

The hard work and constant practicing Wells’ has done over the years has not only made her play better but also her team.

“She takes the pressure off of the other players.” Mikrut said. “She is athletic, strong, fast and feisty. She adds an intense mentality. It is a part of her game.”

Even with all of these attributes, Mikrut believes that Wells can still improve.

“Everyone can work harder,” Mikrut said. “She has a lot of physical attributes, but can still improve her knowledge of the game. She used to struggle technically but has improved.

She is a good asset and she will continue to grow.”

Wells, even though she is already the top scorer, wants to finish the season with 15 goals.

Last season, the top goal scorer for the Lady Bulldogs scored 11 goals. To beat this record, she needs to score 5 goals in a potential 10 games, depending on how far her team goes in sectionals.

“She will definitely beat last year’s goal record,” Mikrut said. “She is a goal threat.”

The team has already won the conference, and is anticipating a good run in remaining competition. Sectionals for the Lady Bulldogs starts Oct. 8 and ends Oct. 12.

SPORTS INKLINGS September 28, 2018

Girls cross country team shows depth with competitive

COLUMN

E-sports should not be held at the same level as athletic sports

BY NOAH THOMAS co-sports editor New additions to a team's roster could play a huge role in a team’s success. This holds especially true for the girls cross country team which has over 36 runners this year. Sixth year head coach Allison Florek believes depth is a big reason for their success.

“Depth plays a huge role for us normally but especially this year we have a lot of new freshmen coming in and then sophomores who are stepping up. Depth is nice because we’ve been rotating people in the top seven,” Florek said.

A huge key for success for the Bulldogs is upperclassmen leadership. To junior Jaelyn Burgos, it’s an honor not only to lead the underclassmen but to be one of the top performers on the team week in and week out.

“It’s a huge responsibility but it’s nice because I’m not the only one leading and my teammates have my back,” Burgos said.

Sophomore Brianne Eaton also is adjusting to a new role on the team this year.

“I think I’ve adjusted well, I’m trying to step into a leadership role both at practice and on the course. I think our team is doing well, we are working together and pushing each other during practice and races,” Eaton said.

Florek has also stated that depth, many people have stepped up and exceeded her expectations.

“There’s been a number of people who have stepped up this year: Caitlyn Derwinski she’s really been stepping up, a lot of sophomores have also stepped up from last year, and Nora Carpenter. She’s been running varsity normally in the top three which is huge. We’ve also had a number of freshmen who have been getting faster as well,” Florek said.

Speaking of Carpenter, she hasn’t let the expectations hit her even though she’s a freshman on varsity.

“Running varsity as a freshman can be intimidating at times because you know you are racing with the best runners on each team,” Carpenter said. “If I let the fact of running against talented athletes get into my head too much, it might negatively affect my performance. I need to trust my coaches in understanding their belief that if I am good enough to run varsity, that is where I should be.”

With the leadership as well, Carpenter feels their leadership is also a part of her success.

“It is such a privilege to have such an incredible upperclassman on my team.

They are amazing athletes and work hard every practice. The upperclassman on varsity is very supportive of everyone and do their best to be there for us after races,” Carpenter said.

Heading into the postseason next week, Florek believes the team will be successful.

“The DAC is very hard and competitive,” Florek said. “We’ve been fighting with Lake Central for a while, as far as meets go. I think if our athletes keep moving up pack-wise, I think that’ll be good.”

Depth and leadership have been the keys to success for girls cross county.

Look for that down the stretch of the postseason in October and November.

13

BY NOLAN CHASE co-online editor

PHOTO PROVIDED BY JANIS NUÑEZ Junior Matthew Bates leads the pack of others during the Rudy Skorupa invitational. Bates placed 26th at the invitational.

Boys cross country aims for injury-free state meet

BY SAMUEL BREWER reporter Running more miles over the summer than players have in the past few years, injury prevention is a large part of the cross country team’s day to day regimen. From stretching before and correct pacing, the team does everything in their power to stop any and all injuries.

Cross country coach Keith Iddings is very cautious when it comes to the well being of his athletes, and his activities reflect that.

“Our entire warmup is designed to prevent injuries, we go through different lunges, leg swings, and different dynamic exercises. We’re doing things all the time to address the injuries that are common to runners,” Iddings said.

Junior Cole Simmons knows the importance of preventing injuries, and does whatever he can to stay completely fit but, injuries are not completely avoidable.

“I usually have about one injury per season whether its serious or not, it depends. But, as long as you get the right sleep and stretch out you should be fine,” Simmons said.

One important factor in the overall health of student athletes is the help of the athletic trainers.

Iddings is grateful for the help they provide his athletes.

“We are very fortunate that in Crown Point we have certified athletic trainers who went to college and learned how to treat athletic injuries, so if someone were to get a tight muscle I could tell them a stretch to help that muscle to help target the area, if that’s not fixing it I can send them to a trainer,” Iddings said.

Although the cross country team is adamant about preventing injuries, sometimes the worst injuries don’t come from running as junior Matthew Bates can attest to. Just before 5th grade, he tore his ACL and has had problems with it ever since. This injury has become an issue for him during the cross country season.

“There have been times that it gave out and I couldn’t finish an exercise or a run.” Bates said.

Running with prolonged injuries like this can be extremely painful, as Bates has attested to. Even with this pain, he has been running quite well, just a few weeks ago he was the junior varsity champion at the Bob Thomas Invitational.

The rest of the team has had some successful outings as well, winning multiple invitationals this season. Iddings has set a goal to get on the podium at state meet.

Simakoski assists boys soccer with playmaking abilities

BY KEELEY BERNARD reporter The biggest transfer of the summer is always a big debate in any sport. The debate gets even harder to answer when you add the most recent transfer to Crown Point boys soccer, Kristian Simakoski.

Simakoski, who is currently a junior, owes his love of soccer to his father. “My dad got me into it. I really liked it and I wanted to pursue it. I fell in love with the game,” Simakoski said.

For Simakoski, playing high school soccer is not a new experience. He started his high school soccer career at Portage High School two years ago.

He joined the boys soccer team during this summer at the start of his junior year.

“He adjusted quickly to the team. He plays club with most of the kids so he already knew half of the team,” said Coach Mike Bazin.

Simakoski adjusted quickly enough to be able to play his old team, Portage, on August 28th, when Portage visited Crown Point. CPHS was able to beat Portage in a 2-0 win.

“It was weird playing against them and not with them,” Simakoski said about playing his old team.

“The game was competitive. It was different from the other games this season because I played with them for two years and I saw some friends.”

In the other games this season, Simakoski has scored nine goals and assisted five times. He has done this within his first seven games. He is cur-

rently the team’s top goalscorer. This is a good feat, but Simakoski doesn’t want to stop there.

“I want to break double digits and get 20 goals.

I also want to win sectionals,” Simakoski said.

Sectionals are scheduled to start on Oct. 7 and end on Oct. 12. During this time, Simakoski will have to be extra impressive and on his game. Luckily, Simakoski has already impressed many people, including Coach Bazin.

“He’s a great player, ” Coach Bazin said. “He fits in very well, and I have no doubts in his ability.

I expect him to continue doing what he is doing.”

Bazin believes that if Simakoski continues doing what he is doing, he can get a scholarship. “He can definitely get a scholarship if he wants it,” Bazin said. Simakoski has already expressed that in the future he wants to play at the collegiate level if the opportunity is there.

For Simakoski, the opportunity does seem to be there. Not only because of his high goal-scoring record, but also his unique characteristics. With his 6'5" inches tall stature, Simakoski towers over the opposition. This is one of his strengths, according to Bazin.

“He’s a target man, and is definitely a good asset to have,” Bazin said. “We are trying to utilize him.”

Boys soccer will hope that they can utilize Simakoski within the next few weeks as they head to sectionals.

Grace Wells

BULLDOG breakdown

sophomore varsity soccer

10 Goals in 8 Matches

1.25 Goals per Match

Video games, a popular pastime of many high school students, including myself, has become a part of a debate that has made me wonder how seriously the entertainment industry has surfaced in recent years and influenced our culture. One such culture video gaming has influenced is that of sports.

This cultural phenomenon is known as esports, a highly competitive field of video gaming in which people compete for cash prizes. When I think of sports, I think of soccer, football and baseball. The thought of video games becoming associated with these athletic sports completely baffles me.

To me, video games are a fun way for my friends and I to let go of school related stress at the end of a school week.

Though I understand the appeal of esports in our current age of thriving pop culture influences, I do not understand why video games have been taken so seriously to the point that they are being compared to an NFL football game.

If video games, a hobby that people turn to as a stress relief from school, are now being considered a competitive sport, it then defeats the purpose of athletic sports.

People play video games in chairs and on couches, not on fields or basketball courts. The idea of competitive gaming being compared to athletic sports is completely absurd because even esports players are usually playing in a chair staring at a computer screen while athletic sports require actual physical exertion.

People can enjoy video games as they will, but I think it's important that gaming should be a fun thing to do after school or work, and not as a highly competitive sport that is on the same level as athletic sport competitions.

Football Offensive Points This Season Girls Golf Top Three Scorers

RUSHING TDS FIELD GOALS PASSING TDs

4

5

8

Junior Delaney Adams

79.82

Senior Sydney Weiner

80.18

Junior Madelyn Adams 84.12

one golf ball= 10 strokes

Per 18 Holes*

14

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT INKLINGS September 27, 2019

INREVIEW

BY EMILY HELMUTH assistant editor

“Spider-Man: Far From Home” The latest installment to the MCU is one of the best yet. Recovering from the events of “Avengers: Endgame,” SpiderMan visits Europe in this summer blockbuster and faces challenges like he’s never seen before. Tom Holland never fails to disappoint, and his performance in this movie is possibly his best as the famous web-slinger yet. The movie ends with a surprising plot twist, which viewers sadly may never know the answer to due to Marvel and Sony’s contract, which allowed Marvel to use the character of Spider-Man, ending.

“Panini” Lil Nas X Coming off the success of the summer hit “Old Town Road,” “Panini” is the clear standout song of Lil Nas X’s debut EP, titled 7. In the “Panini” music video, Skai Jackson races around a futuristic city, doing all she can to avoid Lil Nas X, who is literally everywhere due to the futuristic technology. The video is fast-paced and keeps viewers wondering where Lil Nas X will pop up next.

Stranger Things Season 3 Hawkins, Indiana, has reentered our lives once more with Stranger Things season 3.

This phenomenal show, placed in the ’80s, keeps viewers wanting more. A new mystery appears in Hawkins, and the crew is set on figuring it out. One of the best things about “Stranger Things” is its ability to tie all of its differing timelines together. The new season ends on a sad note, but viewers are left with anticipation for season 4 thanks to a short end credits scene.

Environmentalist movement brings eco-friendly alternatives

BY ABIGAIL GODSEN AVERY O’BRIEN reporters Saving the environment has had a growing media presence over the last year and with good reason. Pollution has always been an issue but now more than ever the situation is dire. We are at a point that it is no longer effective to just plant trees or clean up a few beach.

Every year, Americans produce approximately 230 million tons

of waste, as stated by the Annenberg Learner Foundation. This means that every day 630,000 tons of waste is produced in the U.S. alone. To help combat this, some companies like Redwood Creek have popped up with ecofriendly products for the public.

Among the many products that are eco-friendly, there were a few that stuck out specifically as being affordable, convenient swaps, and environmentally beneficial. These are our top four eco-friendly products of 2019:

Contigo Reusable Water Bottle: These water bottles are a great alternative to the standard throw-away water bottle. They are made of BPA (an industrial chemical) free plastic and have a failsafe locking mechanism to prevent spills.

Over time, it is more cost-effective to use a reusable water bottle than it would be to buy single-use products. Some versions like the 24 oz. bottle includes a clip on the handle so that it can clip onto a bag or backpack. The biggest downside is that it isn’t insulated so it won’t keep your water cold for as long as an insulated water bottle would, but it is dishwasher safe which makes cleaning incredibly convenient.

SnackTAXI Cloth Snack-Sacks:

Sam’s Club Reusable Bags:

This is a great alternative to normal grocery bags. I know at least at my house, the bags pile up on a shelf and fill the garbage to the brim. A reusable alternative is a fantastic way to reduce the amount of garbage and clutter, but not all bags are equal. Some break instantly because they are of poor quality. Once you find a sturdy bag like the ones from Sam’s Club, it is a complete lifesaver.

They hold up against a lot of persistent stress and last for months.

Overall, it is a pretty simple switch. It does, however, take some getting used to having to remember to bring them in when grocery shopping. Once you do, it becomes so much more convenient than dealing with the hassle of taking home tons of paper and plastic bags that serve no real purpose.

Redwood Creek Decomposition Notebook: Paper waste is a huge part of all waste produced worldwide. Notebooks and notes are a big part of the education system and are a large annual expense that often ends up in the garbage when it could be recycled and made of previously recycled paper products. It is an oversight that can be easily fixed by buying school supplies that are environmentally sustainable, recyclable, and decomposable like these notebooks. These notebooks are a great alternative because they function exactly like a normal composition notebook with the added benefit that it is recyclable and made of 100 percent decomposable parts. They also have beautiful illustrations of the front, back, and inside covers.

Final Thoughts: Some brands like SnackTAXI sell cloth reusable bags as an alternative to the standard Ziploc bag. Snack bags are often not thought about as a contributor to pollution. Reusable snack bags could help to eliminate the plastic consumption caused by limited or single-use plastic bags used every day by students, teachers, parents, companies, etc. Snack-sacks are great because they are more eco-friendly than plastic snack bags.

These are just a few of the items some companies are selling to reduce the amount of waste created every year.

Making the switch, even if it is small, is still beneficial, helping

to reduce the amount of garbage in landfills every year. In the long run, these items are costeffective and environmentally sustainable. Small everyday changes make a big difference.

Opening of Tomato Bar presents unique, inviting atmosphere

BY EMILY BRISENO reporter Pizza lovers have a new and convenient place to try out. Tomato Bar has opened in Crown Point on Broadway. The Northwestern Indiana pizza bakery has its third location that has opened Aug. 26. It is located in a building on Broadway, next to Cousins Subs and Smallcakes.

The loud yet inviting atmosphere makes it the perfect spot for a casual get-together.

With its own unique style, the building’s decor makes customers feel younger. Action figures such as Batman and Superman hang from the lights by invisible strings. Other action figures like Olaf and Elsa from Frozen can be found perched on picture frames. Another thing that makes Tomato Bar different is how the kitchen is not behind closed doors. Instead, the kitchen is surrounded by small clear windows across from the booths and tables.

Being a picky eater, the

PHOTOS BY EMILY BRISENO In addition to their pizza, Tomato Bar offers items such as dough nuts and salads.

menu has something for everyone. It consists of pizzas, sandwiches, calzones, salads and appetizers. Gluten-free and vegan customers do not need to avoid this place either. All of Tomato Bar’s sandwiches, pizzas and calzones can be modified to be gluten-free. Certain pizzas and calzones can also be ordered off the vegan menu. The createyour-own portion of the pizza and calzone menu makes it easy to order whatever your craving.

You can choose between different sauces cheeses and toppings.

The menu is simple when reading the description underneath. Crazy names such as Holy Cow, The Buff and Good Ole’

Boy make up the specialty craft pizza section of the menu. Other names make more sense, such as Caesar being a caesar salad and Side Saddle being a side salad.

For the salads, the Greek was very tasty and for a size small was filling. A bonus of Tomato Bar is that the food looks great in pictures. The feta cheese and banana peppers on top made the salad look extremely appealing. The salads can be ordered as a small or large. The create your own pepperoni pizza was a favorite. It was baked to perfection and cut into eight slices.

The pizzas can be ordered as the smallest size, 10 inch, a medium 14 inch or a large 16 inch.

The dough nuts are Tomato Bar’s version of breadsticks.

Shaped like circles, they are made from pizza dough and served with marinara sauce on the side. The creative name and look make them something to try.

They can be ordered as a half or a full. A half includes three and a full includes six dough nuts.

Tomato Bar also offers online ordering options. With a drive-thru window, you can pick up a meal without leaving the car. Another thing Tomato Bar offers are get together boxes. The options are separated by food choices. One box contains five different sandwiches and a family sized greek salad. Another has three pizzas and wings or dough nuts. There are four options to choose from and they all feed 10.

Tomato Bar has great food and an enjoyable atmosphere.

Walking in and being greeted by employees waiting for your arrival is what every customer wants in a dining experience.

Tomato Bar had an open concept that made being there feel like home.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT INKLINGS September 27, 2019

“IT:Chapter 2” disappoints with little suspense

BY ANDREW POESCHL co-online editor Andy Muschietti’s second adaption of “IT” by Stephen King takes place 27 years after the events of the first chapter. More people have gone missing the gang gets back together to uphold the oath they made as kids. With the relative success of the first chapter, most would expect the sequel to be just as good, but sadly it does better as a comedy than it does as a horror movie.

Though it does have frightening moments, many of these scenes lose their suspense when an actor cracks a joke in the middle of a high intensity scene. These problems with the tones do seriously take away from the movie, but is one of the few complaints about the movie. This just leaves something to be desired from the horror department.

Though it does have tone problems the movie has a pretty good cast with returning actors such as Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise. Skarsgård does just as good this time around if not better. Skarsgård does best when he just relies on creepy and unsettling dialogue like the first scene in Chapter One with Georgie.

Fortunately Skarsgård has even more of these types of scenes allowing him to really shine. Along with the unsettling dialogue, Skarsgård is able to move his independently from each other which is always successful in being creepy. All the kids come back acting in flashbacks of the

gang. One of the returning child actors is Stranger Things’ Finn Wolfhard as Richie Tozier who does just as good this time around being able to perfectly capture an edgy young teenager.

The new actors do decent in their new roles. James Ransone who plays Eddie Kaspbrak when he is an adult is the worst of the group. Some of his reactions seemed unnatural and robotic at times. On the other hand the other actors seemed to do pretty good at capturing the essence of what the children would be like 27 years later. The best of the new actors would likely be Bill Hader as Richie Tozier when he’s an adult.

He perfectly captures how much of a loud mouth he was as a kid and how his humor has changed over the years but still stays loyal to who he was.

The CGI is also improved from the last film allowing for more creative horror scenes that don’t just purely rely on Skarsgård’s performance, such as allowing Pennywise to transform into more terrifying creatures without it looking too cheesy or going to far into the uncanny valley. Of all the special effects the leper was probably be worst. Besides the small misstep of the leper the special effects add much more to the overall effect of the movie.

Most of the movie did seem to be pretty by the numbers. There wasn’t really anything that caught you off guard or subverted your expectations. Everything that happened throughout the movie was you could have predicted, and nothing was really added to surprise viewers or anything.

IT doesn’t do anything to deviate from the genre to make itself stand out. Without any meaningful twists the movie fails to really grab the viewer. Along the origin story for Pennywise does seem to lose the plot.

Overall I would give the movie three out of five. It has pretty good acting and cinematography but the tone problems really detract from the movie as a whole.

Without those problems it would be a great movie. So if viewers were already planning to go or were excited to see then you should probably still go and see it, but if not they aren’t missing out on much.

“Falling Inn Love” movie embodies predictable corny rom-com

BY ROSALIE DEGENHART reporter To be really honest, the Netflix original, Falling inn Love, makes it on my list of “Top 10 corniest movies of all time.” It is exactly what a summer Hallmark movie would be like. Many of the scenes were predictable, cringy, and just annoying.

The movie is centered around Gabriela Diaz, who loses her job, breaks up with her boyfriend and then enters a “Win an Inn” contest during her moment of deep despair.

When she arrived in New Zealand to claim her inn, everyone approached her like they had known her all their lives. Someone even gives her coffee for free when they first meet. They all became instant friends with her, and Diaz, who is really obsessed with herself, embraces it. It was so unnatural and unrealistic on how they became friends. It was so awkward how quickly they all connected; the director should have let the relationships develop throughout the movie.

The dialogue in this movie was not fitting to most of the characters. It made Diaz come off as a self-absorbed diva.

None of the dialogue was consistent, and,

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for that matter, none of the characters were consistent. One moment Diaz was kind and, by my standards, over-confident, to her quickly new found friends, and the next she was rude and stuck up to the handsome rural town bachelor, Jake Taylor.

There’s a scene where Taylor offers to give Diaz a ride, since she was struggling to adapt to the unfamiliar New Zealand setting, but she thought she was too good for him and rejected him rudely. He was just trying to be helpful, and she dismissed him as being sexist and demeaning. She views him like this in scenes after, and continues to treat him with ignorance. Then many scenes later she suddenly likes him and instantly starts to flirt with him. She just ignores the past fact of how unmannerly she was towards him. It is very obvious that she likes him when he starts renovating the inn with her, and their relationship grew way too quickly, which gave the movie less suspense about them falling ‘inn’ love.

There is always a love interest in every romance movie. I always find myself rooting for them to be with their true love; however, I was not rooting for Diaz at all throughout this movie. Diaz’s character was annoying; her attitude and personality ruined the mood of the movie. Taylor

WE’RE SO

OVER Ignorant Hallway Pedestrians The hallways are already crowded enough, and people walking on the left side of the hallway just adds to the chaos. It’s not that hard to walk on the right side of the hallway. This isn’t England, please obey American traffic patterns.

deserved better, especially because Diaz didn’t treat him with enough gratitude for what he did to help her.

Like most romance movies, many of the scenes’ outcomes were predictable.

However, there were some scenes and moments that were so absurd that they seemed highly unnecessary. There is a side plot to the movie that consists of Taylor and Diaz finding old love letters in the wall of the inn. They become seriously invested in them and tried to make them a bigger deal than they should have been (this is one of the scenes that seems very unnecessary to the plot). It was like the screenwriter wanted to write a mystery romance movie but didn’t get the gig. The love letter side plot was such a minuscule idea that it made no contribution to the movie. They should have just forgotten about that idea altogether because it wasn’t relevant at all.

Besides all the criticism, the inn concept was really creative and having the setting in a small town in New Zealand was unique and cute. The movie omitted positive vibes, and the pet goat was actually funny. However, the negatives outweigh the positives, and, overall, this is not a movie that potential viewers should spend their time watching.

COLUMN

15

Stop “cancelling” people, accept flaws of others

BY EMMA FRANK associate editor In the words of Hannah Montana, “Nobody’s perfect,” however lately in today’s society everyone is expected to be perfect. If an influencer or celebrity does something that other people disagree with, all of a sudden people will turn their backs on that specific creator and cancel them.

When it comes to celebrities and influencers, we are able to watch the way they live and critique them.

However, these people are just like you and me, their job just puts them in the spotlight a bit more. Recently YouTubers have been “cancelled” for doing things that the average person has definitely done, cancelled culture is hypocritical. It is easy to judge other people when you get to observe their lives, but just imagine if others were critiquing every choice you made.

Youtubers, Hannah Meloche and Summer McKeen were recently caught in a scandal where their fans were under the belief that they were making fun of fan edits, amongst other things. Both girls’ fans started claiming that Meloche and McKeen act differently in real life than how they perceive themselves on the internet. However, we all do that and if you claim that you don’t you must be lying to yourself.

Everyone is bound to make mistakes, they allow us to grow into a better version of ourselves. Instead of tearing these creators down why would we not want them to learn from their errors and move on. As observers we are given that opportunity so why should the influencers not have that chance.

Some mistakes are unforgivable, like sexual assault, it does not take “cancelling” them to take them out of the spotlight, that will happen regardless. Cancelled culture does not help anyone involved and generally spirals into hate. It is toxic and should be replaced with an understanding for others.

BEST TWEETS

BEST APP Doodle Jump The best cure for boredom, and the old faithful game on Apple: Doodle Jump. This free app is so addictive and is the perfect game to fill the quick breaks between classes.

“Me: *with tears in my eyes* yes I know my ti-36x pro texas instruments calculator will turn off by itself i just like to make sure he gets to sleep ok“

“life is soup, I am fork” senior Emily Rhee @emrhee

sophomore Charlie Hagerman

BEST FOLLOW

@ cjh52704 @MikePosner Singer Mike Posner went viral on twitter in August after being bit by a rattlesnake in Colorado, and he has recently continued on his journey, which he has been documenting on Twitter.

“I am a witch” junior Aiden Gregg @asiangregg1

“*doesnt succeed in one small thing that i didn’t care about* ‘okay so i’m quitting’”

sophomore Ella Day @ yardsalads

16

PEOPLE INKLINGS September 27, 2019

Diving into an internship

Summer internship increases student’s passion for marine biology

BY EMMA FRANK associate editor Having an interest in marine biology, senior Grace Gonsiorowski spent two weeks in Miami, Florida apart of a shark research internship. The internship was a part of a summer scholar program that the University of Miami held. Multiple majors were offered, such as marine conservation and tropical marine biology however Gonsiorowski chose shark research.

“I was starting to have to think about college and I wanted to try to get some experience in both what I wanted to do in the future and the college life,” Gonsiorowski said.

Applying for her internship was similar to the process of applying for college. Once Gonsiorowski applied, she had to wait for the acceptance letter. The day she found out that she had made it into the program happened to be her birthday.

“I had to write an essay, get letters of recommendation, and answer questions about my education and grades. I found out a few months later I was accepted,” Gonsiorowski said.

This internship consisted of more than just lectures and classroom work. Gonsiorowski got to experience work with real marine biologists and sharks.

“There were a lot of things done during this program, it was almost like school. We all lived on campus. I had two classes on weekdays, we would have to wake

Shark Tails

up early. One would take place on a boat where we would hook and bit lines then we would later send them out,” Gonsiorowski said.

“We set out ten lines at a time and would pull them up by hand to see if we caught anything. If we caught a shark we would safely tag and release they shark.”

One of the major tasks Gonsiorowski completed while on the internship was tagging. Tagging is attaching small data loggers to the wildlife. This process provided Gonsiorowski with hands on work.

“Tagging was a big process, we would go in groups and some of the groups were watering, measuring, fin clipping, and actually tagging,” Gonsiorowski said.

“The teachers would do the big parts like holding the shark down and getting blood and muscle samples. Then we would repeat this till three p.m. so we would be on the boat for around seven hours.”

When Gonsiorowski’s group found a shark that died of natural causes, they had the opportunity to learn more about it without endangering any animals.

“One day we got to dissect a shark and we learned about the parts of it and an interesting part is we got to see what part of the shark goes into shark fin soup,” Gonsiorowski said.

Traditional learning also accompanied the boat trips. Research projects were done and those apart of the internship were able to get comfortable with the campus.

13 nurse sharks

Gonsiorowski tagged & nursed 23 sharks

What Do You

THINK?

“When we weren’t on the boat we would have classroom experience, some days we learned about research projects, had tours of the school and did projects,” Gonsiorowski said. “Class would end up ending the same time boat day would so we usually get the rest of the day for free time and we definitely used it for fun and bonding times.”

Throughout the duration of her internship, Gonsiorowski was able to learn what type of marine biology interests her the most.

“I now know there is a lot more to being a marine biologist than just studying marine life.

For example all my teachers were “marine biologists” but did different things. Like one studied behavior and another would study genetics,” Gonsiorowski said.

“From this experience I learned I want to focus more on genetics with marine life.”

Even though everyone was very focused on getting work done throughout the internship, according to Gonsiorowski they still had a lot of fun. Similar to a standard summer camp new friends and memories were made.

“There are too many memories that are my favorite I could pick one but a few would be dancing on the boat while waiting to pull lines, finally getting a tiger shark after a week of wanting to see one, filming shark week commercials, snorkeling on the weekends, and just going to my friends rooms whenever I wanted and just sit around and hangout,” Gonsiorowski said.

5 lemon sharks

PHOTO PROVIDED BY GRACE GONSIOROWSKI Gonsiorowski deploying a line while on her internship in Miami this summer.

Since Gonsiorowski discovered this program as a senior she unable to apply again for this one again. However there are options for older age ranges.

“If I did have the opportunity I would definitely do it again. In fact, just a few days ago I applied for the summer research program for University of Miami which is a program like the one I took, but for 18 years and older and you could work with shark week,” Gonsiorowski said.

2 sandbar sharks

If you could add a new course to the CPHS curriculum what would it be?

Fishing class because I feel that it is a good way to spend your time, it’s fun. sophomore Ryan Hegeduis

I was thinking like a passion class. (You) could do some activities that would help plan your future, and a little bit of free time to work on your goals in life.

1 blacknose shark

junior Jackson Smith

Like a dietetics program. There is nothing at this school that’s like helpful except for speech and nutrition, and nutrition is more like cooking and not really learning about people and diagnosing them junior Natalie Patel

freshman Sarah Frahm

We should add a marine biology class because marine biology is really interesting to me and it would be fun to learn about in school. senior Kendyl Hill

1 tiger shark

SPOTLIGHT Q: How has your working

junior Joaquin Cuadra

Sign language class because I feel like that would be a cool language to learn. I feel like a lot of people would take it.

1 bull shark

Student

A:

I would add an online study hall because I would be able to get more work done.

Gonsiorowski’s time at the University of Miami was beneficial for her because it reassured her love for marine biology and gave her a taste of college life.

Seeing other people work with passion was inspiring for Gonsiorowski.

“I would love to pursue a career in marine biology,” Gonsiorowski said. “Seeing these college students work on their research projects making it seems even more fun.”

experience at Chick-fil-A Enzo Zamudio sophomore been?

I have worked at Chick-fil-A for about 6 months now, and I really love my job. One of the things I appreciate at Chick-fil-A is the diverse community of coworkers. Hawving a job has taught me so much responsibility. I would recommend for anyone to get a job, especially at Chick-fil-A.

Q: How do you feel about being homecoming prince?

A: Originally I was joking with my friends, ask-

ing what would happen if I become homecoming prince. I didn’t really think much of it. I posted on social media ‘#makeithappen2019’ and did not think I would get that many nominations. When I found out I was nominated, I was shocked.

Q: What do you plan on doing after high school?

A: After high school, I am debating either going into

nursing or pre-med. If I go into nursing, I would like to become a nurse practitioner. I’m really interested in the human body illnesses and how to treat them.