MOT Times - December Issue

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Table of Contents Letter from the editor.......... ...............................................................4 New Year, New Gym................. ...............................................................7 Field Hockey Senior Night.... ...............................................................8 Cross Country Senior Night. .............................................................10 Boys’ Soccer Senior Night.... .............................................................11 Volleyball Senior Night....... .......................................................12-13 Sports in Conference............ .............................................................15 Teacher Spotlight.................. .......................................................16-17 Self Help Column.................. .......................................................19-20 Homecoming............................. .............................................................21 Freshman Spotlight............... .......................................................22-23 Junior Spotlight.................... .......................................................24-25 AMDA College Acceptance..... .............................................................27 Faculty vs. Field Hockey....... .............................................................28 Faculty vs. Volleyball.......... .............................................................31 National Honor Society Inductions............................... .............................................................32 Alternatives to Google Slides...................................... .......................................................34-36 Interview with the Governor .......................................................39-40 Contributors.......................... .............................................................42

Letter from the Editor Carley Williamson

Dear MOT Charter High School Students and Faculty,

Welcome to the Newspaper Team’s first formal publication, we are glad you chose to read and support our paper. Please spread the word to your friends and colleagues that MOT’s newspaper is in full swing. If you love it, help us generate attention towards our hard work and dedication. If you don’t, let it be known, controversy and discussion are both big parts of journalism. Everybody on our team worked very hard to design, write, edit and plan this MOT Newsmagazine.

This year, we will be releasing four full-length publications. Our staff generate article ideas, attend events, write articles and take photos in order to make these issues possible. We hope to document the most important events of the year, and bring attention to upcoming events.

In this collection of articles, you will find summaries of the recent fall sports season, student and teacher spotlights, school events, college acceptances, tips and tricks for schoolwork, and even a personal interview with the governor.

As Editor-in-Chief, I have been able to work with the individuals who contributed to this publication. It is extremely difficult to work with a group of 40 students and peers to create one cohesive product; we would know, as this is the first formal MOT Charter High School publication. It is a skill many business and real-world workers still struggle with today. This year, we have come together to create one paper as a unit. Our interest meeting produced the most amount of participants ever, and we hope our work will impress.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please contact us. Get in touch with one of your peers on the Newspaper team, or contact me personally via carleywilliamson@motcharter.com. If you are interested in joining our newspaper or yearbook team, we would love to have you, contact either Ms. Hutchison or myself.

Without further delay, I introduce you to MOT Times.

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Carley Williamson, MOT Times Editor-in-Chief

DECEMBER

New Year, New Gym

Bella Pastore and Alimarie Santos

“It’s amazing, it’s awesome, we love it!” Coach Ramos and Delcollo

say together. The gym has been in use since August of 2017. The class of 2021 was the first to get to experience the gym, followed by the class of 2020, as well as MOT Charter high school’s basketball and volleyball teams. When asked about the gym, freshman class of 2021 Grace Bentley, said “Just about as shiny as Mrs. Delcollo’s personality.” The 2021 class really seems to enjoy playing basketball and capture the flag.

Before the gym was constructed, class was held in the parking lot! On the days when the weather stopped the students from going outside, it was in front of the stage. On Friday November 3, 2017, the first pep rally took place where the Mustangs got to show their school spirit. Senior Katrina Janas, who is on the volleyball team says, “It’s really nice not having to take time out of practice to take the bus.” The teams are glad they have more time to put forward their best effort in their sports. If you haven’t already, then you should swing by the gym and take a look!

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Field Hockey Senior Night Shriya Bagdi

On Friday, October 13th, the MOT Charter High School Field Hockey

Program celebrated their first ever Senior Night! The home game was against Glasgow High School, and the Varsity Field Hockey team won 6-0.

“I can’t really put the feeling into words,” explains senior Kimberly Jin. “I

can’t fathom that this is my last home game. Even if I have only been playing for two years, I feel like it’s been a long time. After every game, I feel that I only have a certain number of games left. And yeah, it makes me really sad.”

Senior and team co- captain Jordan Dean states that, “ It’s bitter-sweet

because it’s sad that we’ll never be able to play on this field. It’s sweet to look back at all the good times that we had playing as a team, and it’s amazing how we finished it. We came this far.”

Bridget Andrews, team co-captain and class of 2018, explained, “When I

hear the sound of the ball hitting the backboard, my heart leaps with joy. It feels amazing.” When asked how she feels about playing in her last home game, Bridget replied, “It’s so sad. I can’t believe it. I’ve been playing field hockey for the past four years and it hasn’t hit me that this is our last home game.”

Overall, the field hockey senior class is disappointed to be leaving, but is

proud of what they have accomplished in the program. By setting the expectations and serving as role models, they have truly shown what it means to take responsibility and be a leader. They will definitely be missed, and their contribution will be remembered by the coaches and younger teammates alike.

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DECEMBER

Field Hockey Senior Photos

Graduating Seniors of the 2017-18 Field Hockey Team, Pictured Left to Right, Top: Viktoria Brown, Elena Ikeocha, Gillian DeOliveira, and Bethany Cowperthwait.

Bottom: Bridget Andrews, Kimberly Jin, Jordan Dean, and Abigail Malazarte.

Cross Country Senior Night Ore Osundina

Although the season wasn’t quite over, an emotional time was shared

together on November 6th. MOT’s cross country team shared wonderful memories with each other as they said goodbye to their seniors. Noah Touhey, Frank Raduszewski, Johnny Hassiepen, Nathaniel Rambo, DeAja Gardner and Shannon Hanggodo all said goodbye to their coaches, Mrs. Jefferson and Mr. Sanchez, and underclassmen.

The seniors were given a surprise from the under classmen, which was

organized by Kayla Bright, Olivia Daniel, Felicia Raduszewski, and Catie Wrinn.

They each received a shadow box which had pictures, their racing bibs and, inspirational words from the coach. “These are beautiful, I’m going to miss all of you guys.” cried out Shannon Hanggodo. After everyone received their box, the cross country team had one more surprise. A t-shirt was presented to the two coaches that had Mrs. Jefferson’s favorite line, “Our sport is your sport’s punishment.” While opening it she began to tear up realizing how the team had impacted her life.

Noah Touhey had the biggest impact on the team. Olivia Daniel tried to read

his box but was so choked up on tears that she couldn’t continue. His teammates all agreed that he always had a positive attitude and kept pushing himself as hard as possible. Noah would always have a smile on his face and knew how to cheer anyone up. Needless to say the team was sad to see him go but, it is clear that he is capable of great things in the future.

The last cross country meet is states which means it is a statewide event that

the top seven from each team in the state of Delaware can attend. It will be held on November 11th 2017. The two cross country teams have been working very hard and have a record of 2-3. It is lead by junior Cooper Unruh and senior Frank Raduszewski. The girls team is lead by Alyssa Lee and Ore Osundina. As sad as it is to have to say goodbye to all of the wonderful seniors, we know that they are going to continue to do great things. Good luck to all of you, have fun in college!

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DECEMBER

Boys’ Soccer Senior Night

On October 24th, the Boy’s Soccer team hosted their first senior night. The recognized seniors were: Stephen D’Aguiar, Jason Easter, Jimmy Feeney, Ben Martin, Josh Philip, Vishnu Somasundaram, and Tre Tillman.

Pictured: Top-Left, Stephen D’Aguiar, Top-Right, Jason Easter, Bottom-Left, Jimmy Feeney, Bottom-Right, Vishnu Somasundaram.

Volleyball Senior Night Sierra Szper & Sophia Delgado

November 1st was the last game our MOT volleyball seniors will play

together; with the season ending with a 4 - 10 record, the mighty Mustangs fought their way through a tough season. The Mustangs battled against one of Delaware’s popular two-year state champions, DMA (Delaware Military Academy), along with Middletown High - even though they were losses - the mustangs still played their hearts out. Along with the other schools they played, win or loss, every girl on the volleyball team was proud to call herself a mustang but was sad to see the seniors leave.

On the last game, Carson Taylor exclaims that “it is a bittersweet feeling” that

her volleyball season was coming to an end. Playing with all her heart, and her favorite teammates by her side, Carson Taylor and Gabriela Castro lead the team to a victory against Dover High School during their last game in their home gym.

This year was the first year that the team had a gymnasium to call their own and didn’t have to ride the bus from the high school to the middle school, where they practiced and played their home games. The senior night was not their last game, the two captains, Carson and Gabriela, lead the Mustangs to a win during their last game against Hodgson Vo-Tech, three sets to zero.

During the season the girls said that volleyball has affected their entire lives.

Katrina Janas started playing with the MOT Charter Mustangs in her sophomore year, she told us that “volleyball has affected my life by showing me that not one person has their one thing that they are good at. I switched from dancing 6 out of 7 days of the week to playing volleyball. It has shown me that if you work hard enough, good things will come out of it.” Since the school also focuses on academics, some of the players said that they had to take off some of their season because of the way their grades were falling; study halls and time off from the season were given to players that wanted to take time to work more on their academics.

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DECEMBER

Sydney Sapp, one of the star players on the team was asked what one of

her worst memories playing on the team was, but she did not have any. “My best memory honestly is that I don’t have any “worst” memories. The girls and coaching staff have always been amazing and so supportive. Looking back at all of my years, I’m not sure that there’s anything that I wish could change or never happened.”

She also states that the team was so close and everyone loved each other. Team bonding involves the entire team, unless they could not make it.

Volleyball is not the only activity that some of the players participate in.

Sydney Sapp plays for the MOT’s girls basketball and the softball team. Camille Formilleza, Mia Kelly, and Katrina Janas all tried out for the school musical, Legally Blonde. Bernadette Cunningham also plays girls basketball and soccer during her offseason.

Since the seniors are leaving the team this year, Carson Taylor, Katrina Janas,

MiaKelly, Sydney Sapp, and more of the graduating players have plans to try and come out to the tryouts next year and future games to watch their teammates play.

As the senior Mustangs leave, the younger team members will contribute to work together to preserve the Mustang spirit. Good luck to the future volleyball Mustangs during tryouts and the upcoming season!

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Members of the cross country team, (from left to right, Noah Tuohey, Trevor Dolbow and Frank Raduszewski) running at a meet.

2017-18 Sports in A Conference

MOT Olivia Daniel Charter is part of a sports conference, for the first time ever. All schools in Delaware are split up into different conferences. For the 2017-18 season, MOT has been accepted into the Diamond State Athletic Conference (DSAC). Other teams a part of DSAC include: Charter School of Wilmington, Archmere, Conrad, Newark Charter, Delaware Military Academy, and First State Military Academy.

From Mrs. Ramos, MOT’s athletic director, “half of the sports games are already scheduled. You have to schedule games with all teams in your conference before you move onto scheduling games with schools outside of the conference.” She is also really excited about being able to vote in players to the first team, second team, and honorable mention. Coaches in the conference meet together and vote on players that they think deserve to be recognized for their playing abilities. Mrs. Ramos is ecstatic to watch the sports programs grow within the next few years.

Teacher Spotlight Carleigh Strange

This month the teacher that was chosen for the teacher spotlight was Ms. Pam

Andreavich, who we commonly refer to as Ms. A. We were given the chance to interview Ms. A and learn more about her.

Ms. A teaches all of the Digital Business classes at MOT, she has been

working at the K-8 building since 2003, but she has also been teaching adults classes like Professional Development, Business English, Mentoring, Business Management, and Leadership. She wanted to become a teacher when she was in 8th grade, but trusted the words of her favorite teacher, who told her, “Oh my god, don’t do that to yourself...ever.” Ms. A went on to earn a degree majoring in nursing education, then switching to a pediatric nurse. After dealing with the death of one of her close patients, she realized that her job was too much for her. She was determined to find the career path farthest from dealing with death, which was business. She also coached children’s softball, and in the process she realized that she enjoys teaching children. She went through the process to become a teacher which led to her current position at MOT. In her opinion teaching is one of the most important jobs anybody can do. She enjoys spending time with children, helping our generation prosper towards the future.

Ms. A went to college at Goldey Beacom College for her business degree,

went to Wilmington University for her masters, and she went to Capella University for her doctorates. She believes that her 8th grade teacher inspired her as a person, but was not the inspiration to push her to become a teacher. Her grandmother was an inspiration to push her to pursue whatever she wanted. Ms. A’s mother inspired her to go to college to receive her degree, because she did not want her to end up in a situation like her. Where she was unable to progress further in different departments, because of a lack of education. Ms. A said that if she could do anything besides teaching she would want to do behind the scenes work on Broadway or become a culinary chef.

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DECEMBER

Ms. A said that if given an option to teach anywhere else she would like to

teach english at Oxford University in England, or teach theater at a school in New York. Ms. A stated that her greatest accomplishment is being a good person which is something that people don’t do enough. In her free time she enjoys reading, going to museums, crafting, Disney, and Broadway. She is also a huge Philadelphia sports fan, and loves the Philadelphia Eagles. She loves both sports and the arts.

Ms. A said that she loves the students at MOT and believes that they are bright, funny, extremely talented, and creative. She believes that most of us are good people, which is a good thing. The advice that Ms. A gave to the students was: “Try to do what you love. If you can’t do what you love try to do something that makes lots of money so you can do what you love. Also be a good person, and be a person that someone can look up to. And have a sense of humor for goodness sake.”

-Ms. Andreavich

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Self Help Column Brikizja Nesmith

December Topic: Making A’s and B’s 1. Manage your time.

a.

First, figure out what assignments you have to do and decipher how

much time you think it will take to get each assignment done.

b. Purchase a planner, or find an online tool such as MyStudyLife or Diigo

and write everything down that you have to do for the week or month to the T.

c.

Check items off as you do them, like a To-Do List.

2. Sleep

a.

You should be able to go to sleep by 11 or earlier, no more cramming

in assignments or studying for tests that will drain you.

b. Getting at least seven hours of sleep will benefit you in many ways,

such as having a better mood, increased energy, also being more

attentive to things.

3. No More Procrastination

a.

Once you get assigned an assignment, do it.

b. Don’t wait until the night, or even the week, of to do it because it will

no longer be fresh in your mind anymore.

4. Take Notes

a.

Take notes in every class, your major class, minor class, stem classes,

arts classes, etc.

b. Don’t just sit and listen to what the teacher is lecturing or don’t just sit

and read what’s in front of you. Take notes on what you read, hear, and

see because it will be beneficial to you in the long run for assessments,

papers, activities that you have in class, etc.

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Self Help Column Brikizja Nesmith

5. Studying

a.

Once you’ve come home from school, finish your assignments first and

study and fix your notes that you took that day second.

b. This will only take 20-30 minutes tops, take out a new sheet of paper

and critique and fix your notes to where you can understand fully.

c.

Study in a place where you can focus and get things done.

d. Researchers recommend a library, balcony, cars, or outside of your house.

e.

Researchers do NOT recommend your room or living room because

that is where you are least focused and most likely where all of your distractions are.

6. Ask Questions

a.

Always ask questions.

b. Stay in contact with your teacher.

c.

If you stay in contact, ask questions, and go to them for help, you will

most likely understand the content much better and be able to make good grades.

Students dancing the night away at MOT’s 2017 Homecoming dance.

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DECEMBER

Homecoming Mallory Whalley

Recently, students attended MOT Charter’s Disney themed Royal Homecoming Ball. It was held on Friday, November 3 and lasted a total of 4 hours, from 7:00p.m. to 11:00p.m. Students dressed in their “nicest” clothes and looked wonderful! When everyone entered the arts common area, they were greeted with lively music and an entertaining atmosphere. Students sang and danced with their friends all night.

Many enjoyed the food provided, especially the Chick-Fil-A and “Pat’s Pizza”. There was also a photo opportunity with a Disney castle backdrop and props to pose with.

Many students took advantage of this and got their pictures taken.

Congratulations to those who were nominated for homecoming court! Students voted about three weeks prior to the dance. MariAnna Gonzalez and Angel McFall were nominated for freshman princess, and the nominees for prince were Gavyn Fishlock and Laman Richardson. Sophomore princess nominees were Zia Johns and Sierra Szper. Tim Johns and Brody Sapp were nominated for sophomore prince.

Nominees for junior princess were Sadie Applegate and Kaianna Tyson-Allen, and the junior nominees for prince were Dahmad Cooper and Emmanuel Ikeocha. The senior queen nominees were Jasmyn Allen, Bridget Andrews, Mia Kelly, and Sydney Sapp, and the king nominees were Donik Devaja, Jason Easter, Josh Philip, and Noah Tuohey. When the time for announcing the king and queen arrived, the room was filled with anticipation. It was predictable when Mrs. Patterson called out the names Bridget Andrews and Jason Easter!

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Freshmen spotlight Danna Morales-Negron

During the beginning of the year most students feel confused and stressed.

A lot of people ask if they are having the same experience as others or if how they are feeling is normal. These questions apply especially to freshman, as freshman are new to the school having little knowledge of the workload, teachers and even just the layout of the school. During my interviews with Rohan Puffer and Joshua Ouma I learned that both students have similar views on their school year thus far and both have similar goals for the rest of their year at MOT.

After being asked about their transitions from middle school to high school,

both boys said that it is a difficult change because of the difference in the school environments and the workload difference. Both boys say there is a big difference between the environments though they have different reasons why. Rohan says the environment is a big change because of the power change of an eighth grader, that is the oldest, to a freshman, who is the youngest. Josh says that the difference is in the environment as a whole, “The middle school I went to, they didn’t really care that much about grades and, like, schoolwork, so it was easier to get by,” Josh stated during our interview.

While school is stressful for both students interviewed, they both showed

interest and excitement for different after school activities. Both boys have joined different clubs and are excited for what is to come. Rohan states that, “ I’m doing Mock Trial, it seems like something that I’d be interested in.” Josh has joined the FFA he says, “I think it’s good because it gives you a lot of exposure to colleges and scholarships and stuff like that.”

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DECEMBER

Freshmen spotlight Danna Morales-Negron

Though they are having fun with their extracurriculars they are still focusing

on school and having a way to get these things done is a priority for both freshmen.

Josh enjoys listening to music while he studies while Rohan keeps a Google keep of his to-do’s so he can write everything important down. Rohan also uses flashcards, not quizlet, to study. The two use these methods to keep up with their work and get better in their different classes.

Throughout high school you may be having trouble with different things,

despite the trouble that comes with starting high school both interviewees have been succeeding. So know that you are not the only person feeling stressed about the what this school year has to come, with work and socially. There are many things you can do to help you throughout the rest of your time in school and many people who know how you feel and can help you through whatever problem you may be facing.

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Junior Spotlight

Chris James, Cameron James, Chelsea Njenga, and Harriet Gaye

Typical teenager, Shaylyn Westmoreland has an interest in trying new things to benefit her grades. Being a straight A student, and a member of the National Honor Society, Westmoreland met up with some of the Newspaper crew to discuss how she manages her time, advice she has for other students, and what she does when she is not hard at work. While some high school students may struggle with procrastination and time management, Shaylyn likes to prepare herself for the upcoming while still giving her time to debrief from the day behind her. This article consists of how Shaylyn handles her busy academic schedule, while being able to remain well-rounded in outside of school outlets!

Shaylyn handles her extracurriculars and AP classes by engaging with extracurriculars that are, for the most part, on the weekends, giving her time to focus on school work on the weekdays. With History and English as her favorite subject, she likes to study for 30 minutes to about an hours. “For AP Bio, it takes me about an hour, or maybe 45 minutes for studying AP Bio.” “A quiz for english takes me about 30 minutes to remember vocab words or any other thing.”

“On an average day of school but I sleep of 6-7 hours of sleep, I can function better this way and it is said it is good to sleep 8-12 hours of sleep.”

Along with the weekend debrief, Westmoreland spends her fridays doing assignments that are due on Friday followed by assignments due on Saturday and Sunday. Her Saturdays are dedicated to her leisure time She is very organized and particular with the way she manages her time over the weekend. “Saturday is my ideal time for leisure time. This consists of helping out around the house, and meeting up with friends.” She expressed that she enjoys going to the mall with her friends and doing several other things during her free time. Her Sunday’s are mainly to focus on finishing the remaining assignments she has and wrap up any research she did on Friday. She also likes to break and distribute the completion of her homework into different days of the weekend.

Towards the near future, Westmoreland plans on applying to a range of 6-9 colleges. “ I know that two to three schools HBU, Ivy league and more would be like public or private colleges. It will give me more time to figure out which is better for me.”

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DECEMBER

Not only does she have very specific plans for the near future, but she is very driven towards her goals. Shaylyn acknowledges that MOT is a college prep school meant to help you with your future as she closes the interview with stating: “I know that there are some people who think that we get too much busy work, but it is important that we are doing a lot of work for college because MOT is a college prep school and it will also help you for the future.”

After a long series of asking Westmoreland questions about herself, the discussion deviated to any advice she had for the students in her surroundings.

When asked if she has any advice for students in lower grade levels, or those who may want to better their high school career, Westmoreland replied, “Give yourself an estimated amount of time that you feel it would take you to complete an assignment, and strive to complete that assignment in that amount of time.” She goes by more of a planned approach when completing her work. She feels that this is the most beneficial approach for students to want to better their time more.

When asked about time management, she responded, “I think one thing with time management is that you need to set partial time for yourself. Just taking a portion of time to debrief allows you to focus more on what you have to do when time to do work.” Westmoreland feels that effective time management does not mean coming home to do work all in one sitting, but instead is completing work for long periods of time, while debriefing for shorter periods of time. All in all, Shaylyn is a hardworking student who is dedicated to her grades. She strives for excellence in academics while having many outlets outside of her academic environment.

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Joshua Ouma (left) and Rohan Puffer (right), interviewed for the freshmen spotlight.

Shaylyn Westmoreland, the highlighted junior of the MOT Times’ December issue.

Dina DeSimone’s College Acceptance Karli George

An MOT Charter Mustang is Hollywood-bound! Senior dance major Dina DeSimone, 18,

has recently been accepted into the American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA). Not only is DeSimone the second Mustang in MOT Charter history to have a public announcement for her acceptance, but she is also the first Mustang to be accepted into a institute focusing on performance arts. “This was my first-choice school”, Dina said, “I did their summer conservatory program the summer before and after junior year in both the New York and Los Angeles campuses and fell in love with going to school in LA. Going to LA felt like coming home… ”

DeSimone plans to earn her BFA in dance theatre and make a name for herself in the

world of dance. She also plans to participate in core classes, like mathematics, to apply them to her career later on in life. An ecstatic Dina ends the interview with “I am thrilled about my acceptance and can’t wait to start AMDA in the fall!”

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Faculty vs. Field Hockey Game Sabrina Pusey

On October 30, MOT’s field hockey team changed it up a bit when they went up against the teachers. The teachers may have won 3 goals to 1, but the real story is behind the game.

Freshman Camila Vidaurre said it felt “funny” and “exciting” to see the teachers playing field hockey. “Pretty cool, man!” responded Lizzy Parkowski, another freshman, since it gave the students permission to beat the teachers.

With feelings of excitement and stress, the field hockey team prepared for the game by doing warm ups like running 50 yards (half the field), stretching, passing the ball back and forth, and working on footwork, according to Camila and junior Madi Dean. However, their gear is also very important when preparing for a game. Lizzy favors the shinguards as many hard-hitting balls have come her way.

Madi prefers the mouthguard since the one time she forgot it, she lost a tooth. As expected, Bridget Andrews (senior) and Kate Tanchanco (sophomore) view the stick as their most important piece of gear because you can’t play without it!

In their first year of field hockey at MOT, Camila, Lizzy, and Kate have found it fun and difficult at first with many improvements along with a kind and supportive team. Bridget, in her final year at MOT, calls it “the end of an era” after playing field hockey for 10 years. Madi, in her second to last year, says that it is exciting, but she isn’t ready for her last year and doesn’t want it to be over. All five said the team feels like a family. Their goals for this game were to score many goals, beat up on the teachers, win, and get bragging rights.

At the conclusion of the game, Ms. Riggins, IMP 3 Math and Statistics teacher at MOT, said the game gave her an appreciation for how hard her students work.

She participated since she has a lot of students on the field hockey team and, her expectations for this game were to have fun and keep the faculty’s record. Mr. Marley, IMP 2 Math and AP Calculus AB teacher at MOT, liked to win and found the game to be a fun and competitive setting. Freshman Katarina Thomas didn’t feel good about the loss, but noted that this field hockey game was fun to play and it was nice to see the teachers outside of class. In the end, both teams lined up to congratulate each other. The game concluded with a memorable picture of this year’s Faculty vs. Field Hockey team.

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DECEMBER

Teachers and students posing for a photo after the teachers’ 3-1 win.

Faculty vs. Volleyball Game Angela Abad

On Wednesday, November 1st, the MOT High School’s Girls’ Varsity Volleyball team took on our very own faculty of the school. MOT High’s first Staff Game held in the gym was a bittersweet success, with our volleyball girls losing to the staff, but everyone walking out of the court with smiles and laughs.

The lineup for the staff team included Captain Seedorf, Mrs. Taylor, Mr. Henderson, Miss D, Mr. Husni, Mrs. Riggin, Mr. Daniel and Mr. Schneider.

Team Staff beat the girls after the first set, taking a 25-17 win. During the second set, the varsity players held a lead, until the faculty decided to step up their game and go home with a solid win, ending the second set by beating the girls once more 25-14.

Though they took a loss, the varsity volleyball girls took this opportunity to show the staff what they were up against.

Highlights:

★ Carson Taylor acing her mom, Mrs. Taylor.

★ Gaby Castro makes a kill and Mr. Schneider simply catches the ball.

★ Mr. Henderson attempting a one hand block on Camille’s big kill.

The girls also didn’t know what they were up against, for the the staff players had a few tricks up their sleeve as well.

Highlights:

★ Captain Seedorf made 4 ace serves.

★ Miss D made 7 consecutive points in the first set.

★ Big kill from Mr. Daniel, with the ball landing in the wide open corner.

★ Mr. Husni distracting the varsity team on the sidelines, allowing staff to score a point.

At the end of the match, both teams shook hands, showing good sportsmanship between both the players and the adults. “They had good sportsmanship, and they played hard,” said Mr. Henderson.

The game wouldn’t have been a success without help from Alexis Durante and Abby Cross, the working staff, and Mrs. Ramos, the referee.

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National Honor Society Inductions Apu Mutyala

Congratulations to our new NHS inductees! New junior and senior students

have been inducted into MOT’s National Honor Society chapter! National Honor Society is a nationwide organization for high school students who exemplify the traits of scholarship, leadership, character, and service. After the opening ceremonies, students were called up on stage to be recognized, and then received candles. Later everyone lit their candles, representing the core values of National Honor Society and its students (scholarship, leadership, character, and service). The seniors who were inducted last year received their stoles, which they will wear on their graduation day to signify their involvement in NHS.

Jarrett DeBenedictis, a junior Engineering major who was recently

inducted, says, “It’s quite an honor to be inducted into such a prestigious society.

While I am in this organization I feel like it will positively impact my life by allowing me to seek new volunteering opportunities, which I can use to give back to my community.”

The new inductees are very excited to be a part of National Honors Society,

and will continue to display the qualities of hard working students.

Pictured Left to Right: Francis Alvarez, Nick Perugini, and David Bichara

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The newly inducted Junior and Seniors, along with the Seniors who were previously inducted and recieved their stoles.

Pictured Left to Right: Kaitlyn Flowers and Lexi Lafferty

Alternatives to Google Slides Sabrina Pusey

Here at MOT Charter High School, students normally use platforms like Google Slides and Powerpoint to explain ideas all the time. Now there’s a different option. For the times you can present a topic or idea using a platform other than Google Slides or Powerpoint, try making a website for free. You don’t have to know code to create a website. However, you need the website-building platform that meets most of the basic website-building needs, so some research has been done for you.

First, four website-building platforms were chosen: Yola, Weebly, Wix, and Website Builder. They were then compared using these thirteen categories: the ability to search for templates, the option to see visitor analytics/statistics (which shows the number of people who have been on your website), the save feature, uploading pictures, uploading videos, making forms, and the option to view the mobile or desktop version of your website. The other requirements were the ability to change the style/template, the protection of the website, the ability to find the website via search engines (i.e. Google, Bing, etc.), navigate and reorder the pages, delete widgets (buttons and sections of pages), and delete and add pages to the site. These features may seem like things all website-building platforms should have, however, you’d be surprised what some of them don’t offer for free or at all.

Let’s start with searching for templates. Weebly offers an array of templates, but you can’t search for a specific one. Yola has twenty-seven templates that can all be viewed on one page. Website Builder allows you to search for one of many. Wix gives you the ability to search and choose a template or let an Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) design the perfect website for you. When seeing visitor analytics/statistics, all four (Weebly, Yola, Wix, and Website Builder) allow you to see how many people are visiting your website by downloading a free app to your website or looking on Site Edit when your website is published. For the save feature, Wix saves both automatically and manually while Yola and Website builder save manually and Weebly just seems to keep the changes to your website for the next time.

The next three comparison categories for this research were uploading pictures, uploading videos, and making forms. All four have the option for you to upload pictures by themselves or in a gallery/slideshow. On the other hand, Weebly and Yola give you access to uploading YouTube videos and for the free version, Wix lets you upload

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videos saved on a drive or from their suggestions, and Website Builder allows you to upload videos each by themselves or in a gallery. When making a form for or on your website, know that Weebly and Wix have free apps you can download to your website for customizable forms, Yola has a form-making feature, and Website Builder has an option for making contact forms and mailing lists.

With the rise of mobile devices comes the need to view websites on your cell phone. This makes having the ability to make your website viewable on both a mobile and desktop device important, and Yola, Weebly, Wix and Website Builder all recognize this, shown by the ability for you to have both a mobile and desktop version of your website for free. People also need an artistic way of delivering information, which means being able to change the font, style, template, heading, design, and theme of each of your sections and pages. All four platforms also acknowledge this and give the ability for you to do so.

However, they differentiate yet again when it comes to the protection of your website.

Wix starts off with public, password-only, and member-only options, but it goes downhill as Yola and Weebly only offer password protection while Website Builder doesn’t seem to have any protection options at all. Finding your website via a search engine is also a big factor in choosing a website-building platform. This category revealed that Wix uses Google to feature your website when certain keywords are searched, Website Builder shows analytics allowing Google to track users travelling to your website, Weebly uses a description and keywords to feature your website on search engines, and Yola requires you to upgrade to a premium (pay-only) plan to feature your website on search engines.

Moving on to the final three categories, all platforms are able to delete widgets and double-check that you do want to delete before doing so while giving you the ability to navigate and reorder pages of your website at the same time. Yet Yola is the only one that you can’t seem to delete a page from--you can only rename the pages. On the other hand, all of them allow you add pages to your website.

Overall, Wix met all of the requirements for this research on website-building platforms. It may have a few limitations, however, it is the only one met all of the requirements mentioned and had unique features like the Artificial Design Intelligence that make building a website easier. Yola, Weebly, and Website Builder may have met most of the requirements, but none of them met all.

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Website Searching For Templates Viewer Statistics/ Analytics Save Feature

Wix

Weebly

Website Builder

Array of template options

X

X Total of 27 Templates

✔

✔

Add App “Visitor Analytics” for Free

Found b y searching “statistics” i n “ add apps”

✔

✔ Choose or ADI

✔ Auto and Manual

Pictures

Yola

?

When S ite i s Published

✔

Unknown as website Manually Save edits are t here, b ut no widget s aying “saved”

✔

✔ When S ite i s Published

✔ Manually save

✔

✔

✔

✔

Single and Gallery

Single, G allery, Slideshow

Single and G allery

Single, G allery

Mobile and Desktop

✔

✔

✔

✔

Change S tyle (Template, colors, t heme, text, f onts)

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

Protection

Search Engines Navigation and R eorder Video

✔

✔

✔

Public, Password, Member

Password

Password

✔

✔

Google tags

✔

X

✔

Description, t ags

Upgrade

Google a nalytics

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

Upload

YouTube o nly for free v ersion

Add YouTube Video

Single, G allery

✔

✔

✔

✔

Deleting Widgets

✔

✔

✔

✔

Adding/Deleti ng Pages

✔

✔

X

✔

Form

Website­building Platforms Used:

Interview with the Governor Angel Chaudhary

Governor John Carney didn’t grow up wanting to get into politics.

Governorship wasn’t the end goal of a life dedicated to the state. In fact, Carney’s interest in politics peaked after college. That interest lead to experiences in different roles as a representative of the state of Delaware. On February 10th, John Carney was elected as the Governor of Delaware. Governor Carney lead a strong campaign, beating his major opponent-Colin Bonini by 19 points.

Carney described sports as being one of his main passions in high school. As a member of the second graduating class of St. Mark’s, he spent most of his time and energy playing sports-football in the fall, basketball in the winter, and track in the spring. He had a wide range of favorite subjects, with social studies being the first one he named when asked. Carney also said that he had an interest in biology, math, and literature.

Carney described the start of his interest in politics by talking about how as a kid his parents were big Kennedy fans and the assassination (which occurred when he was about 6 years old) was something he remembered very clearly. As far as his personal aspirations in the political field, Carney ran for student council but that was it until he went to undergraduate school and got an internship in legislature.

This internship led him to want to be involved in government on some level. He had no specific goal of running for Governor, he was just happy to be involved in the administration. When given the opportunity to run for lieutenant governor, he did so which he described as a transition between being an administrative leader and dealing with technical solutions to problems to somebody who interacted more with the public. He discussed how elected leaders are essentially “translators of the public”. They take people’s hopes and aspirations and turn them into policies and action.

When asked what a typical day was like as a Governor, Carney responded with the statement that there isn’t really a “typical day”. Every day in office is pretty unique. That day specifically had started with a town hall meeting on budget resets, then with a series of meetings with candidates for the Superior Court judgeship opening in Kent County. Carney mentioned that he had talked to the Governor of Colorado on an issue both states had faced which opened up the discussion on the interactions between Governors of different states.To this, Governor Carney said that he thought it was common for the Governors to consult with each other on common issues. He mentioned how he was a member of the National Governors Association (a bipartisan group) and a member of the Democratic Governors Association.

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From the day he described, being Governor did seem like an extremely

stressful 24/7 job but Carney does have a method for keeping a balance between work and his own interests and personal life. Governor Carney credited his balance to his scheduler-Tara Mazer. She’s the one who makes time on his schedule for him to do things like get a workout in at the YMCA and see his sons when they come home from college.

Moving on to actual policy and changes Carney wants to make, education reform was one of the main issues. On the broad scale, Carney’s big priority is to have kids graduate with a level of proficiency that would make them ready for college and the workplace. He also wants that same proficiency level from kids coming from disadvantaged backgrounds. He said that these kids growing up in poverty sometimes didn’t end up graduating, which could have a negative outcome on not just their own lives, but their families and the state’s in general. One of the concerns brought up how one of the concerns parents and students have is thedifferences in the quality of education between districts. For example, Red Clay’s reputation for having a more rigorous course load and better classes. Carney said that the way to change this situation was to work with the Department of Education to see the strategies that “good districts” employ with their teachers and work on that with the struggling districts.

Apart from education based policies, Carney’s other main priorities as Governor are to create an environment in Delaware where businesses want to come in and then attract more businesses. He said he wanted to “cultivate an entrepreneurial ecosystem” and create an economy with science and technology based jobs. Carney then proceeded to boost Delaware and talk about all the benefits of the State (low cost of living, great beaches, etc)-which lead me to mention the issue of Wilmington’s crime rate. When asked how he planned on addressing the high rate, Carney answered by saying that the way to fix the situation was to have better law enforcement and to focus on the drug dealing (which is where most of the violence was centered around). Beyond that however, Governor Carney’s strategy was to work with families on strengthening education opportunities as a sort of preventative measure for the violence.

The interview ended off with the question of the most valuable piece of advice the Governor had ever been given. To this, Governor Carney said that he didn’t think there was one piece of advice that someone had given him. Instead, his mother’s use of the expression “if you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all” was very influential to him as it boiled down to treating people with respect-something very important in his field.

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Contributors Articles

Ali Santos Bella Pastore Shriya Bagdi Ore Osundina Sierra Szper Brikizja Nesmith Carleigh Strange Mallory Whalley Olivia Daniel Danna Morales-Negron Christopher James Cameron James Chelsea Njenga Harriet Gaye Karli George Sabrina Pusey Angela Abad Apuroop Mutyala Angel Chaudhary

Design

Carley Williamson Priyal Patel Special Thanks to Ms. Mical

Photos

Anusha Katipally Apuroop Mutyala Grace Housler Sabrina Pusey Carley Williamson Madison Dean Mrs. Flowers Mrs. Meyer

Editor in Chief Carley Williamson

Advisor Ms. Hutchison