Harbinger Photo Magazine April 2024

THROUGH OUR LENS

WHAT’S INSIDE?

PAGES 3-10

PAGES 11-20

EVENTS FEATURES

CLASSES

CLASSES

PAGES 22-25

STAFF LIST

Head Editors

Kenna Harrington

Liv Madden

Riley Scott

Assistant Editors

Caroline Martucci

Clara Peters

Amelie Wong

SPECIAL SPREAD

PAGES 26-27

Photo Mentors

Paige Bean

Will Griffith

Molly Miller

Mason Sajna

Staff Photographers

Addie Clark

Alex Sajna

Caroline Hoffman

Francesca Lorusso

Katie Cook

Lyla Weeks

Maggie Condon

Molly Scott

Ryan Dehan

EVENTS

Senior Matthew Yarlagadda juggles as his talent for the Mr. Cansas Talent Show;“I chose to juggle for Mr. Cansas because it was the one thing I knew I could do on stage that would be funny instead of embarassing if I messed up,” Yarlagadda said.

PHOTO AND DESGIN BY KENNA HARRINGTON

SWEETHEART

FANTASY

Student Council held their Sweetheart dance on Feb. 3 in the SM East lunchroom from 8-10 p.m. The dance had a fairytale theme, with decorations depicting castles, vines, lights and more.

photo and design by: mason sajna

FANTASY

At the end of the dance, sophomore Emerson Lindberg takes a selfie on the cafeteria floor with sophomores Julian Van Doren, Kaleb Rickey, Aiden Young and Jerald Daniels. “I was laying on the floor because I was tired from the dance. And then [Julian] just told everyone to get on the floor and take a picture.”

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photo and design by:

mason sajna

LEFT Former homecoming court nominee senior Tessa Herring and sweetheart court nominee senior Nora Herring party on the dance floor in front of the DJ stand. “It just [gave] me an excuse to go get dressed up really nice and go have fun with my friends,” Herring said. The other sweetheart court nominees of the dance were seniors Claire Schudy, Katie Murphy, Maggie Leonard, Patrick Flint and Sam Williamson.

BOTTOM LEFT

South alum Quinn Latessa and senior Marissa Liberda dance with each other in front of the DJ stand.

ABOVE Near to the end of the dance and in the middle of the dance floor, freshmen Owen Wagstaff and Spencer Thornhill shake hands after Thornhill had flipped the powerade bottle and landed it.

ABOVE Freshman

Stuco member and class representative Burt Sheets jumps up and down to the music near the end of the dance. At the end of the dance, Sheets and the other freshmen were required to clean up.

LEFT Seniors and student council members

Abi Limbird, Aanya Bansal and sophomore student council member Paige Bean fill up helium balloons for the dance. To set up the dance, student council members were required to come to the East cafeteria at 9:30 a.m. until the setup was complete. The decorations were funded by the ticket revenue of the dance.

LEFT On a table near the dance floor, cookies and water are provided by student council for attendants of the dance.

photo and design by:

molly miller

ACROSS

THE BOARD

Shawnee Mission journalism students gathered at the CAA to debut their semester final boards for the third annual year

LEFT Sophomore Paige Bean trims down her board and later cuts it into three seperate pieces so that her trifold is able to fold together.

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LEFT Students and parents visit some of the hundreds of displays located in the main entrance of the CAA before the giveaways began shortly after.

ABOVE Shawnee Mission east students Maggie Wells and Ellie Moilanen browse through a SM South yearbook. “I knew a bunch of people from the school so it was really fun just seeing all of their pictures” said Moilanen.

ABOVE SM North students Kinlee Boggs and Bella Garcia gather around for an interview and video regaurding the event.

photo by alex sajna

photo by molly miller

photo by molly miller

photo by molly miller

Columbia Brew hosted an open house for student’s parents to view the behind the scenes of the coffee shop

TOP

Prior to parents coming, seniors crafted their a message to go along with a plant give to them at the open house.

BRE W

photo and design by: lyla weeks & caroline hoffman

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TOP Seniors on Columbia Brew participate in Connection, “Every single morning we play the New York Times games. It’s something to look forward to every morning especially when work is slow,” senior Syl Brundige said.

LEFT

Senior Ira Finkleston’s parents mark the question of the day, “what was your favorite subject in high school?”

photo by caroline hoffman

photo by caroline hoffman

photo by caroline hoffman

ABOVE Senior Natalee Sandstrom and her parents take a picture to capture the moment. “It was fun for parents to be able to come and see what we do,” Sandstrom said. “We spend a lot of time in there at school and parents don’t really ever get to come see it.”

photo by lyla weeks

photo by caroline hoffman

ABOVE Senior Ella Howard’s dad fills up his cup with Columbia Brew’s signature Lancer Blend coffee.

photo and design by: katie cook & francesca lorusso

SCAN ME GALLERY

FLIPPING

STEREOTYPE

The SMEast Cheer team held a “Bring A Boy To Cheer Night” to promote more boys to join the team.

LEFT Junior Ash Skeels acts as a base during one of the team’s practice stunts to lift a flyer into the air during “Bring A Boy To Cheer Night.” The night featured routines in stunting, tumbling and chanting.

photo by francesca lorusso

photo by katie cook FAR LEFT Junior Porter Stein sucessfully hits a stunt after many attemps while he is lifted by his friends during “Bring A Boy To Cheer Night.”

ABOVE Juniors Porter Stein and Calvin Duske talk while streching while preparing to do their first task of the night, jumps. “I mostly wanted to see how hard it [cheer] was because everyone always says it’s easy,” Duske said.

BOTTOM

Seniors Claire Goettsch and Maggie Kissick teach senior Jack Faucett how to do a backbend. “Most of them said it was harder than they thought and had more respect for cheer,” Goettsch said.

photo by katie cook

photo by katie cook

FEATURE

DESIGN BY LIV MADDEN

On the annual Social Skills class field trip to Timber Ridge, sophomore Grace Rayfield smiles as she tries not to touch the ground on the rope swing.

photo by: clara peters

UP

BATTER

Tennessee baseball commit and senior Jack Jones is partnered with baseball bat production company JawBats, which enables him to design personalized bats, as well as sell bats with his custom website code

photo and design by: ryan dehan

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ABOVE While at Homefield, Jones and his teammates feed baseballs into the machine pitcher for each other. “It’s good because we don’t need coaches there to pitch to us, and we also get closer as a team working out together every day,” Jones said.

LEFT Using a bat made specifically for him by JawBats, Jones hits off the pitching machine. Homefields machines have fastball, breaking ball and curveball pitches. “I like hitting off pitching machines when there is one specific pitch or location I’m wanting to work on because machines are able to be very consistent,” Jones said.

LEFT Jack has batting practice at Homefield in Olathe four times a week. Jones and his teammates all go as a group, and they bond together while working on their craft.

photo and design by: paige bean

ACTOR’S

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NIGHTMARE

Senior Sam Williamson wrote, casted, and directed his Frequent Friday to be performed on March 1 in the Little Theater

RIGHT Senior

Sam Williamson writes notes during a rehearsal. “I’m taking notes on the final dress rehearsal for my frequent friday, so that I could correct small errors in the performance,” Williamson said.

CUTOUT Sophomore Caroline Reda holds a fake ciggarette during the top of the show. “This was my first big scene in the show [...] I was nervous I was going to mess up,” Reda said.

ABOVE Freshman Dane Schwartz rehearses alongside junior Hartley Graham the week of the show. “I’m playing Meg the stage manager and getting annoyed with his character when he has no idea what’s going on,” Graham said.

LEFT

Junior Hartley Graham whispers into freshman Dane Schwartz during a scene where Schwartz’s character forgets his lines.

BELOW

Senior Sam Williamson looks at the lighting board with theater teacher Tom DeFeo.

MAGGIE WELLS

Junior Maggie Wells has done her own nails since her freshman year, when she first practiced with a gel-x nail set and today she runs a side-hustle where she does professional-looking nails in her room for her friends, family and herself

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FAR RIGHT Wells carefully paints junior Ashley Freund’s nails with a glitter powder. “I most often do nails for other people” Wells said. “It’s usually around dances like right before homecoming, WPA and prom. I do my own nails if there’s an event coming up and before dances too.”

BELOW Wells prepares her own nails for her new set.

“I’ve always felt kind of intimidated going into nail salons because I never felt like I was in control of the final product and I’d end up paying $65 for something I didn’t really love” Wells said. “I love doing my own nails because I have full control, I don’t have to be scared to ask to change something. I can try stuff out that I wouldn’t usually ask for in a salon because I can always redo it or wipe it off.”

ABOVE

Essential nail supplies such as polish, brushes, files, tips, glue, rhinestones and more sit on Wells’ desk. “Over time my collection of supplies has grown for sure” Wells said. “When I first saw other people doing nails on social media, I thought ‘I could do this’ so I ordered all the supplies right there and they’ve accumulated over these past two years.”

FAR LEFT Wells adds the base coat to Freund’s nails. “Doing my own and my friends’ nails is so calming,” Wells said. “It’s kind of therapeutic, I’ll just watch Netflix or Youtube or listen to music while I do my nails for like an hour. It’s nice to just relax and do something nice for myself or my friends.”

LEFT Freund places her hand in the LED lamp before her nails are finally finished.

“The technique I use is gel-x nails, which isn’t like acrylics, it’s basically a full cover tip which means it covers the entire nail bed and it goes off the nail to extend it” Wells said.

“It’s made of gel, like the same gel that’s in gel nail polish and you have to use a gel-based nail glue to cure it onto your nail.”

photo and design by: will griffith

FRIENDS.FILMS

Seniors Calen Domingues and Isaac Anderson build their passion for filming through encouragement and competition

ABOVE Senior Isaac Anderson edits a project for an end of the season post. Isaac started his filming carrer because he made edits of profesional sports athletes on tiktok which taught him to edit his videos.

RIGHT East

CJ Leonard

Calen’s

after getting a touchdown in the seocnd game of the season.

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BELOW Senior Calen Domingues looks into his monitor on his camera as he shoots a play infront of him.

Alumni

points at

camera

ABOVE Senior Isaac Anderson rewatches his footage while the Lancers are on defense to see if it is a shot he can use in his video after the game.

caroline martucci

THROUGH RECOVERY OACHING

Claire Schudy is spending her senior year as a goalie coach, defensive coordinator and team captain while she recovers from knee surgery after three years as the starting varsity goalie for the Shawnee Mission Girls Lacrosse team

ABOVE As she watches the first game from the sidelines, Schudy hugs Coach Claire Ryan. “I did not expect myself to cry because I do not cry over stuff like that, but I got super emotional,” said Schudy. “[The coaches] really understand the magnitude of the situation.”

ABOVE Schudy explains strategies for 8-meter shots to the shooters and goalies. “[Being a coach] is very fulfilling because even though I am not physically on the field I can still do something to have an impact on the team,” Schudy said. “I could not imagine not being part of the program because it has probably been one of the biggest things in my life the past four years.”

ABOVE Schudy laughs with junior Brynn Delaney and sophomore Cate Conrad while filming a teammate’s response to the question “What is your favorite hype-up song?” for the team’s Instagram account that Schudy runs. “Because I am not busy in goal at practices, I am able to have more fun with [the Instagram account],” Schudy said. “It is wholesome because I get to capture some of the moments and people get excited when I bring out my camera.”

ABOVE During a practice, Schudy times juniors Amelia Stinson and Emma Culp during agility drills. “I have them do ladders, line jumps and sprints to work on their goalie skills,” Schudy said. “There are key things that I want to teach these girls so that they are well rounded.”

photo and design by:

photo

RACE FOR IMPACT

TOP LEFT Junior Lincoln King reacts after being eliminated in the third round of the bracket after scoring third with 6 points. “[I practiced,] but it just seemed like everyone else I faced against was better than me,” King said. “[It] was a good feeling [though] because the game didn’t feel unfair.”

A Mario Kart tournament was held in the Commons on April 4 to collect peanut butter jars for donation to Harvesters

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LEFT Senior Phoebe Barnes reacts after sophomore Lola Stinson passed Barnes in the last race of the fourth round. Barnes scored fourth overall in the tournament.

BELOW Top finishers and sophomores Miles Magruder, Alexander Kangethe and Lola Stinson pose for a picture after the tournament.

TOP RIGHT Junior Max McMahon competes in the second round of the tournament. McMahon was eliminated during the second round after scoring third with 11 points. “I felt good about the my first round,” McMahon said. “But then [in] the second round, I [played] not so good because we were playing a map that I wasn’t used to.”

BOTTOM RIGHT Junior tournament organizer Daniel Au prepares to give a target gift card to each of the top three placers in the tournament. 22 students total participated.

Senior Eve Benditt dissects a sheep brain in Mrs. Bossungs anatomy class:

“It’s surprisingly thick, we kind of had to push really hard to cut into it,” Benditt said.

PHOTO AND DESIGN BY RILEY SCOTT

photos and design by:

EGG DON’T CRACK THE

Mr. Sandoy’s physics class participated a three-part-eggdrop lab, where students made a cushion or parachute and dropped eggs from the school stairwells

RIGHT Seniors

Anna Thelen and Nina Yun check for a broken yolk.

“I feel like you always hear about the egg drop lab, I feel like you do it as an elementary schooler too,” Thelen said. “So it’s fun to actually learn the physics behind it.” The lab was a full circle moment that connected labs from the past with the new and mathematical ideas of the class.

ABOVE The class works to develop either a cushion or parachute to protect eggs before dropping them down the stairs. “Everyone’s going to intuitively know that one or the other works,” teacher Andrew Sandoy said. “But that they not only see that it works, but that they can see that the math that we’re using demonstrates that math too.” The lab works to combine the concepts being taught both visually and mathematically.

LEFT Junior Cole Chinnock watches as his egg and parachute descend from the top of the fifth floor stairwell.

“We dropped it originally from the fourth floor and it passed that test,” Chinnock said.

“And then we took it up to the fifth floor... the yolk stayed intact, but the egg did crack a little bit.”

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LEFT Junior Emmy Barret checks the yolk after timing how long it took for the egg to reach the bottom. “It was fun, it was kind of frustrating,” Barret said. “We wanted our egg to last and it actually did last for a while.” Barret’s group decided to use the parachute method when dropping from the stairwell.

ABOVE Junior Grey Robinson looks to see if the egg yolk has cracked after dropping the egg unprotected. “We were seeing how well the our egg would absorb the impact with just a pad and minimal protection,” Robinson said. “Just to get a baseline.“

photos and design by: molly scott & addie clark

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CRITTERS KIDS &

Elementary students from all over the district visted East to learn about animals from envirmental education students

ABOVE Junior Samantha Atkins is in charge of teaching the elementary school kids about East’s two tortoises. “I’m teaching them about our tortoises Speedy and Chile,” Atkins said.

BOTTOM LEFT An enviromental ed student holds the class Leopard gecko.

BOTTOM RIGHT Junior Calvin Duske shows the cornsnake to the elementary school students: “We start by introducing facts when the little kids come in, then we end our group by letting them hold the animals, we describe what the animal is doing and how they react to human behavior,” Duske said.

TOP RIGHT Junior Ingrid Blacketer shows the elementary school students the snakes during 4th hour. She tells the kids about a corn snake that is currently shedding: “I know the general facts about snakes, but i’ve definetly learned a lot in that class,” Blacketer said. “I learned how to tell if the snakes shedding or not, their eyes get foggy and they’re not shiny.”

photo by molly scott

photo by molly scott

photo by addie clark

photo by addie clark

Junior Campbell McGuire focuses his IB Chem IA on testing the protein content in different types of egg whites he found at the grocery store

IB CHEM MAN A

LEFT Junior Campbell McGuire looks over his lab write as the spectrophotometer tests the absorbance of the chemical compoud that is absored by the proteins in the egg white solution.

photo and design by: amelie wong

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TOP Junior Campbell McGuire holds his test tube up to the light seeing as the purple color began to turn clear. The purple color came from the biuret chemical that he mixed with the egg whites. When he tried to heat the solution to get rid of the bubbles the protein in the egg whites denatured leaving nothing for the chemical in the solution to make the purple color, turning it clear. Because the protein denatured Campbell had to dump out three of his samples and start over again. In the end he found that shaking the test tubes and using a test tube cleaning brush worked the best to get rid of the bubbles.

ABOVE IB chemistry teacher Jared Bardwell and chemistry teacher Steven Appier brainstorm ways for Campbell to get rid of the bubbles in his egg white solution. “It is a huge stretch to have students this young do something like this that they’ve never done before” said Bardwell, “there‘s always gonna be a bunch of struggles, theres always gonna be a bunch of mistakes.”

TOP RIGHT Junior Campbell McGuire uses a heating plate in attempt to remove the bubbles from his egg white solution. “It’s hard to know what to expect before you get into [the lab] especially since we are planning the whole thing on our own” McGuire said, “having bubbles in my test tubes would end in inaccurate results and I didn’t want that.”

design by: riley scott

A DOMINICAN

GeTaWaY

BELOW Seniors Claire Schudy and Maggie Leonard take pictures during dinner on the second night of the trip. Each restaurant required a reservation beforehand, made by a butler.

The senior class traveled to Punta Cana to spend their last spring break in high school together at the Dreams & Onyx resort

RIGHT After getting ready for dinner, seniors Lauren McGuire and Abby Lee take pictures on the beach before heading to their reservation at the Mexican restaurant.

MIDDLE RIGHT

Seniors Ella Ralston and Bella Bisson take their graduation invitation picture on the beach. “We both thought the view and background were super pretty and we thought it matched our graduation party vibe,” Ralston said.

photo by riley scott

photo courtesy of claire schudy

claire schudy

AgEnDa

A look into daily acitivites and events that the seniors participated in during their trip to Punta Cana

LEFT Senior Joey Hoffman looks down at his friends while he is on the upper deck portion of the boat, before meeting up with the second boat that the parents were on. “It’s not something you get to do every day, it’s not very often that your entire grade is out on the ocean together, so I thought it was really fun,” Hoffman said. “All the parents were having a good time and we were having a good time.”

photo by claire schudy

LEFT Seniors Ella Yun and Autumn Sun take pictures on a swing at the beach before dinner with a group of friends. “My favorite part about senior spring break was how all of the people came together and we hung out as one,” Sun said. “It was a once in a lifetime experience for our grade.”

photo courtesy of ella yun

LEFT During white night, seniors Conor Neusel, Ryan Dehan, Nick Lindmark, Teddy Saylor, Jack Jones, Blake Hanson and Joey Hoffman take a group picture before leaving to go to dinner.

photo by riley scott

LEFT Seniors Lauren McGuire, Sofia Wehner, Veronica Mangine, Margot Beaver and Ella Yun put on their snorkeling gear and prepare to enter the snorkeling area that contains sharks and stingrays. “It was really really scary. We went in and the guy said they don’t like people, they aren’t going to come touch you and that they’re not going to bite,” McGuire said. “I’m scared of fish, so that was a big step for me.”

photo courtesy of sofia wehner

2024 SOLAR ECLIPSE

Sophomore Finn McKee Watches the 2024 solar eclipse with an astronaut hat on the football field. “It was Mrs. Flurry’s astronaut hat that she had in her room and me and my friends thought it would be funny if we wore it out there. It was really cool to experience the eclipse again, since I was still in elementary school for the first one,” McKee said .

photo by: kenna harrington

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