M the MENTOR
April 16 , 2013
Manhattan High School, Manhattan, Kan.
Boston bombing affects family in Manhattan Sarah Shi News Editor The Washington Post A family connection kept Manhattan High business teacher Paige McCarthy watching yesterday’s 117th annual Boston Marathon, where two bombs went off near the finish line. McCarthy’s sister was one of the thousands who ran the 26-mile race. “She finished the race 15 minutes before the bombing happened,” McCarthy said. “I haven’t heard anything much from her since the lines aren’t really working right now.” According to the Washington Post, two bombs exploded near the finish line, killing two people, sending hundreds of runners scrambling for cover and rattling nerves around the nation, authorities said. The blasts occurred in rapid succession as thousands of people were still running. Video footage showed an explosion off to the side as runners were nearing the finish line,
with some toppling over from the concussion. Smoke rose into the air, and photos of the scene showed a sidewalk In addition to the two confirmed deaths, police said more than 20 people were injured. Other media reports placed the injury toll as more than 100 people. Initial reports of another explosion at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston turned out to be an unrelated fire. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick urged people to “stay out of crowds” as they made their way home. The explosions occurred shortly before 3 p.m. near the intersection of Boylston and Exeter streets. Local media reports said store fronts were blown out. Many of the injured appeared to be spectators who were watching the race. About half of the nearly 27,000 participants had reportedly finished the race when the blasts occurred. The racers came from at least 56 countries and territories.
Boys State aims to understand government, politics Seth Runyan Staff Writer
much as humanly possible. “I plan on being pretty open and invloved so I can meet new Politics in the U.S. can be people and learn about posiextremely intimidating, espe- tions in government,” he said. cially for high school students. Crawford’s attitude is exactly A group of junior boys from how he wants students to look Manhattan High will see that at the opportunity as well. up close when they attend the “It’s one way looking at American Legion Boys State talking about leadership and of Kansas this summer. balance, and it’s another thing Not only does Boys State actually working on it,” he plan to aid in the understand- said. “With their collaboration ing of govof skills, these ernment, but boys are essenalso expandtially the cream ing leadership It’s one way look- of the crop.” roles. The proWith the gram tries to ing at talking about deadline alinvolve students leadership and bal- ready past to in government sign up for the as much as pos- ance, and it’s an- program, all sible, and even other thing actually Wichmann has has them run to do now is their own city. prepare the stuworking on it.” “Boys State dents for what is a week-long they’re in for. program that is “We’ve done a simulation of a first for Boys the state’s govState, which ernment,” Manhattan High is what we’ve done for Girls School counselor Tony Wich- State. The participants from mann said. last year came to speak to the The program involves high boys going,” he said. school juniors across the entire Wichmann said that havstate of Kansas with a GPA of ing past participants for the 3.5 or higher. The purpose is girls greatly helped newcomto see how a city is managed ers prepare for Girls State, and students can even run for which he hopes had the same a positions such as mayor or effect on the boys. After the highway patrol. The program’s participants came, Crawford website, kansasboysstate.org, heard very interesting things. urges students to take part to “I heard that if you were a “distinguish you in the compe- highway patrolman, then you tition for college admissions would ride with actual patroland scholarships” and “estab- man,” he said. lish lifelong friendships” all in The 76th session of Boys one week. State takes place this summer As an attendee, Jesse Craw- at Kansas State’s campus for ford plans to be as involved as its 22nd consecutive year.
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-Crawford
Clu b Notes Business Professionals of America
The bake sale being conducted by the Business Professionals of America looks like a standard fundraiser, but it’s actually because an unexpected snow day left in February changed the club’s plans and left them in a lurch. The big event for BPA each year is the State contest that allows them to compete for scholarships and qualify for the National competition. However, the members didn’t get to attend that competition because of snow storm that shut down school for two days. To make up for not getting to attend the qualifying competition, Manhattan High is helping BPA fund a trip to the national conference, even though none of the members
will compete. Eight students will travel to the national leadership conference in Florida, as well as two faculty chaperones, Debra Kidd and Carolyn Devane. After the two days and one night at this conference, these students and staff get to go to Disney World. -John Riforgiate
This Is Scream
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Student writers and artists have just a few more days to “Let your voice out” by submitting to Manhattan High’s art and literary magazine, “This is How I Scream.” “Right now we are working on getting submissions in because they are due on the 19th, and we are also getting our actual artwork that has been submitted scanned,” TIHIS adviser Rachel Fontenot said.
News Volume 100 issue 23
Music department scores high at Regionals
Orchestra students share a few minutes of relaxation before competeting in front of judges at regionals last Saturday, April 13. Emmianne Jagosz, photographer Naomi McClendon Entertainment Editor Sarah Shi News Editor For the first time since the school’s new construction, Manhattan High hosted the North Central Regional Solo and Ensemble Festival. Last Saturday orchestra, band and choir students from across the region participated in the annual competition. The Regional festival, which is a huge event for the performing arts department, is a precursor to the State level festival that takes place in two weeks. At the festival, students perform four-minute classical pieces for a musical expert judge, who might be a college professor or a retired director. They are then scored based on multiple categories measuring their musical ability. Students who receive a score of I become eligible to compete in the State competition at Emporia State University. The festival is composed of solos, duos, trios, quartets and small ensembles, which can include up to 24 students. Students are allowed to participate in up to four different
groups, and many students from MHS did exactly that. In addition to performing a solo or a duo, many students participated in a small ensemble, which included groups like Pops Choir and Varsity Choir. There were nine rooms of competition, which were each large enough to support an ensemble, a judge and an audience, which could include parents, directors and other students who wanted to watch performances. As a member of two ensembles – Pops and Chamber Women – junior Sharon Wilson believed that best part of regional was the trust she had put into her small choirs. “In order to be in a small group choir like Chamber Women or Pops, you have to trust each other,” Wilson said. “You have to put your score in the hands of 24 others and just hope that they take this as serious as you do.” For senior Brady Kiracofe, the challenges leading up to regional contest provided that extra push to improve. “Leading up to it, it’s really cool to pull out these more challenging pieces and know you’re going to be graded
on the throughout the state, which kind of give you that little bit more motivation to do better.” For the MHS music department, the regional festival is a primarily student-directed event. “Of course we encourage some students to participate, but for the most part, students are on their own,” band and orchestra director Nate McClendon said. “Students practice on their own and decide on their own what they want to do.” According to McClendon, the chance to compete is a learning experience for students. “To do this takes a lot of courage -- to get up and play a solo for a judge,” McClendon said. “The amount of personal growth that comes from that is the best part of the experience. And the drive it takes to be self-directed and practice on your own is a huge learning experience.” For students, self-directed rehearsing was a change of pace. Junior Patrick Guvele has competed at the festival since his freshman year. “I’ve done a lot of perform-
ing, so I don’t get nervous anymore,” Guvele said. “But the hard part is getting back into the piece if you stumble just a little bit and making sure your stage presence is good in front of a judge.” Without the instruction of a director, students had to motivate themselves. “You have to find your own free time, and sometimes you don’t want to practice,” Guvele said. Orchestra Director Steve Easterday suggested that performing for judges is always a challenge. “It’s a tough thing going into, because you don’t know how the schedule’s going to affect you,” Easterday said. “Some judges start the day harsh and end up easy, others start off easy and end up harsh.” Despite any difficulties, Manhattan High qualified a number of people in multiple categories and all of the MHS vocal groups -- Bel Voce, Chorale, Chamber men, Chamber women, Pops Choir and Varsity Choir -- got a 1. They are preparing to perform at the State Solo and Ensemble Festival April 27.
Weather creates problems for rescheduling MHS activites Danielle Cook Staff Writer Weather can cause scheduling problems during the winter, but last week it proved to be a problem for several Manhattan High athletic activities. Due to wet weather complications, most of the numerous MHS athletic activities scheduled for last Tuesday and Wednesday had to be either cancelled or rescheduled. The Manhattan area received at least a good three days worth of rain, and the rest of the week remained overcast and chilly. According to data from the MHS weather center, from Saturday to Monday, the outside temperature maintained a near constant 75 degrees, dropping to around 72 degrees “Then after the 19th we are going to start developing our layout.” Compared to last year, submissions to TIHIS have been low this year. “Not as much as we want, but we feel like we just need to give it some more time. There was a lot of work in last year’s and we want to live up to that,” senior Ilana Budenosky said. “People can submit anonymously if they are little scared for stuff to be published by their name, but if they want to be published they can do that. [This is] for everyone to submit, this is a one-of-a-kind thing here at MHS.” Submissions of original art, poetry and prose can be made to raf5558@yahoo.com. The deadline for submissions is this Friday. “It’s legitimate publishing, so if you want some weight with your writing or art, you can say you’ve been published,” senior Lora Pellegrin said. The cost of purchasing copies of the magazine is yet to
on Tuesday, when Manhat- tion was a C-team baseball was rescheduled for May 8. tan received about an inch of game against Hayden, which rain. By Wednesday, the temperature took a dive down to 33 degrees. On Tuesday, both a varsity and a J.V. baseball game were scheduled to take place at Topeka West, but were rescheduled to take place May 9 instead. Both a varsity and J.V. girls soccer game that were to take place here against Emporia were postponed. A varsity boys tennis tournament against Junction City, Hyland Park and Marysville that was to be hosted here was cancelled Above are data showing the daily fluctuations of weather temperatures coland rescheduled for lected from the MHS weather center. For more imformation, visit www.weathMonday. For Wednes- erlink.com/user/mhsweather/ or install weatherlink app and search for mhday, the only cancella- sweather station. be determined. “We charge if you’re not in the magazine, if you’re in the magazine you get one free copy and if you want any extras then we charge for that,” Fontenot said. “I think last year we charged like $5, and that got you the art magazine, which is in full color, and the literature magazine which, was like a separate book that is just black and white.” “This is like of the few outlets where you can see the creative work of MHS students all in one place, and so it’s like really nice to be able to look and be like ‘Wow, we have some really talented people here,’” Budenosky said. -Maddie Ross
StuCo Manhattan High School’s Student Council will be very busy in the upcoming weeks. Between putting the finishing touches on prom, class elections, the jean drive and another round of club dodgeball there is much to be anticipated
as well as to be done. Forms for class officers were due last week and a copy of the potential officers’ speeches were due yesterday. Class meetings for the current sophomore and junior students will be April 23. “This is where the actual speeches will take place, the actual voting will be done during activity period on the 24th,” StuCo sponsor Leslie Campbell said. The jean drive isn’t going as well as hoped, but StuCo is still optimistic about the outcome. “At least we have some jeans, so that’s good,” Campbell said. Club dodgeball will be held in the South Gym on Tuesday, April 30.
Hispanic Club Targeting and supporting hispanics in high school because of the high percentage of them dropping out is the purpose of starting a new club
at Manhattan High. English as a Second Language teacher Eunice Rivera is working on starting a Hispanic Club by the end of the month, but it won’t be official until the 2013-2014 school year. “We want them to get involved in extra curricular activities and encourage them and each other to finish,” Rivera said. They are also going to have a bilangual literacy night once a month where they will have them read in English and translate into Spanish. To help with the fundraising they plan on selling quesadillas, salsa and chips and other types of hispanic foods. Senior Itzel Franco is the current president of the club and is helping to get the club up and running before she graduates. “The fee is $3, we meet every other Tuesday and whoever is hispanic and interested come out and support,” Franco said. -Nastajja Rivera