URBAN PREP CHARTER ACADEMY FOR YOUNG MEN
THE LION’S ROAR NEWSPAPER March 2022 Volume 2, No. 3
Students Celebrate International Women’s History Month By Dorian Hill
Editor-in-Chief, Bronzeville Campus During the month of March, we like to take the time out to recognize all the women who have made and shaped history. Womens History month has been recognized in the United States since 1987. Women’s History Month is not only celebrated in the United States but also in the United Kingdom and in Australia. However it is not celebrated in march everywhere, in Canada, Women’s History Month is celebrated in October. Believe it or not women have done so much to help make this world a better place. Just this past year here in the United States, we elected our first ever African and South Asian American female Vice-President. In the UK Queen Elizabeth has been on the throne for 70 years, which is quite a remarkable feat. Urban Prep students recognize the contributions of the amazing women who work everyday to help ensure that we are successful.
U r b a n Pr e p S t u d e n t s S p e a k s To T h e I m p a c t o f Te a c h e r s a n d S t a f f D u r i n g Wo m e n’s M o n t h
Ms. Torrina Dunn, Englewood
Ms. Dunn teaches Geometry, Honors Physics, and Honors Algebra I at Urban Prep’s Englewood Campus. She has been at Urban Prep for 3 years. She is known amongst students for ensuring that students are engaged and on tasked during class. She has a way of making sure each student gets the attention that they deserve. The lasting impact she has on her students proves her commitment and dedication to their futures. LION’S ROAR
Ms. Luree Ward, West
Ms. Ward teaches Physics, Chemistry and Biology and is the the Pride Leader of Resilence for both the Class of 2024 and 2025 at the Urban Prep West Campus. This is Ms. Wards’ first year at Urban Prep. Students at the West Campus choose Ms. Ward to be highlighted because, as they have expressed “she is humorous and makes learning fun; she also has a great personality and goes over and beyond to help all
Ms. Jessica Chandler, Bronzeville
Ms. Chandler is the Personal Counselor at Urban Prep’s Bronzeville Campus. This is Ms. Chandler’s first year at the Urban Prep Bronzeville Campus. She is an integral part of the building. She treats students just as if they are a part of her own family. It can be said that no one can deny that she is living history because she brings peace to the building each day. “Ms. Chandler has helped me to be able to express myself and has been a confidant since I’ve been a student at Urban Prep”, expressed Mr. Scott, Class of 2023. PAGE 1
What’s UP in the world?
T h e O s c a r s : W i l l S m i t h v. C h r i s R o c k
By Brandon Black
Staff Writer, Bronzeville Campus
There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that the smack between Will Smith and Chris Rock at the Oscars is something that will be unforgettable but the question that everyone has on their mind is, was Will in the wrong and did Chris deserve it? In my opinion, I’m 50/50 on the issue. I think that Will Smith, while he was tapped into his emotions should have at least thought about how to handle that issue in the moment. This year’s Oscars was most special, not only because of the incident but also it was the first all black production team by producer Will Packer, which is an even bigger reason why people weren’t a fan of Will Smith’s behavior. They found it embarrassing to the production team and really over shad-
Photo Credit: CBS News/Getty Images
Will Smith, Jada Pinkett-Smith and Chris Rock.
owed the whole event including everyone who got an award that night. All in all, while it may have been entertaining it caused Smith
to be banned from the Oscars for 10 years and he could have possibly faced charges had Rock wanted to press charges on him.
Women’s Month Cartoon features
Former First Lady Michelle Obama
Traivahn Johnson, Cartoonist (Englewood Campus - Class of 2025) 2
LION’S ROAR
NEWS UP Students travel to Anaheim, CA to compete in the NSBE Conference
Photo Credit: Luree Ward Mr. Robert Howard, Urban Prep West (center), Mr. Bricen Ward, Urban Prep Bronzeville (right) and Brooks Lansana (left) present their biofuel blends science project. They won 1st Place for the entire competition in the NSBE Jr. Explorer Technical Innovations Competition at the 48th Annual NSBE Conference in Anaheim, California.
By Luree Ward
Teacher, West Campus
Mr. Robert Howard, Class of 2023 from Urban Prep West and Mr. Bricen Ward, Class of 2024 from Urban Prep Bronzeville were chosen to compete in-person at the National Society of Black Engineers 48th Annual Convention in Anaheim, California on March 23 - 27, 2022. Teams from all over the United States, Canada, and Africa competed. As a team, Mr. Howard and Mr. Ward won:
• 1st Place in the “NSBE Jr. Technical Innovations Competition” for presenting their science project and technical paper on biofuel blends. • 1st Place in the “Kidwind Challenge” for presenting their engineering project and technical paper on creating the best wind turbine for efficiency. They have both also been invited to present their wind turbine project at the “Kidwind Challenge” Competition in San Antonio, Texas on May 16 -19, 2022.
As a team, Mr. Howard along with Nneamaka Okolo of Jones Prep and Ada Okolo of Jones Prep won: • 2nd Place in the “NSBE Jr. Technical Innovations Competition” for presenting their science project and technical paper on gearing solar cars for efficiency. • 1st Place for Poster Board Presentation for gearing solar cars for efficiency project. 2nd Place in the “Try-Math-A-Lon” Mathematics Competition at the NSBE Conference.
McDonalds Brings All-Star Games Pre-Activities to Englewood
Photos: McDonalds/GoTurnKey
Urban Prep Englewood Students pose with Team UP members during the McDonalds community event with All-Star Weekend gear. URBAN URBAN PREP PREP ACADEMIES CHARTER ACADEMY
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FEATURES
Class of 2022 On To The Next One UPdate
Photos: Jessie Mack
Englewood Senior Marquis Raddle is greeted by cheering and caffetti as his name is called during OTTNO; Englewood Seniors pose after having their college acceptances announced and recieving their red and gold striped ties.
Students who recieved their ties during the month of March
Englewood Campus Oterion Banks Randy Bowman Marcus Brown Andre Davis Quadir Deal Mario Hughes Dontrell Johnson-Young Dakari Kates Michael Major Antonio Milian Christian Minor-Harrison
Avante Perez Jaquan Pollard Marquis Raddle Rashaun Rising Jawon Rogers Carl Skinner Kendall Smith Tameron Tucker
Urban Prep West Campus students featured in the Chicago Tribune Newspaper “Urban Prep students listen to a presentation about the real estate Industry on February 10th in the Wabash Building of Roosevelt University in Chicago” - Chicago Tribune, March 27, 2022 Photo Credit: Chicago Tribune 4 URBAN PREP CHARTER ACADEMY
LION’S ROAR
Students receive gold ties for being exceptional STUDENTS OF THE MONTH
Mr. Edwin Bogan, III, Class of 2024 - Englewood
Mr. Bogan, Pride of Resilience was selected for this month’s Englewood Student of Month. Resilience ironically personifies Mr. Bogan’s spirit in his continual pursuit of academic excellence. He works hard everyday to be scholarly and his maturity shows through as well. He wants the best for himself, and understands the gravity of focus and self determination. It is no wonder that faculty at his grade level selected him from his class peers to be Student of the Month for March.
Mr. Alexander Spight, Class of 2025 - West
Mr. Spight received his gold tie this month. His nominator wrote: “This young man has consistently demonstrated academic engagement, which is respectful and is simply an enjoyable member of our school-community since the beginning of the year. He is always available and happy to help when asked, he demonstrates responsiblity by completing all of his work without complaining, and always comes to school prepared to learn. Mr. Spight exhibits accountablity, exceptionality, and solidarity on a daily basis through his interactions and individuality. This young man is being recognized and is very deserving of a gold tie because, unlike popular opinion, one does not need to start the year off on a rough note in order to be recognized as a model student.
Mr. Michael Davis, Class of 2025 - Bronzeville
Mr. Davis received his gold tie during the month of March. His nominator wrote “Mr. Davis is a conscientious student. He takes his work very seriously and never gives up on a problem. Active participation is his style, asking questions if he is stuck or independently working through problems to find the correct answers. Mr. Davis comes to class on time, in proper dress and with all the materials he needs to get to work. He is a pleasure to have in class and definitely deserves the gold tie for his efforts”.
Teachers of The Month: Urban Prep Students speak!
Mr. Ronald Clark teaches Africana Studies and Honors Africana Studies at the Urban Prep Englewood Campus. Students said “Mr. Clark has been dedicated, committed, and focused. He does a great job at challenging his students and guiding them onto the right path. He’s always there to help when one doesn’t understand. He even attempts different methods for students that struggle grasping concepts.”
Ms. Grace Ryan is a College Counselor, College Composition and Health Teacher at the Urban Prep West Campus. Students highlight Ms. Ryan’s perseverance and dedication and endurance as a teacher and counselor. “Ms. Ryan’s confidence and determination to help the Class of 2022 get into four year universities, apply for scholarships and visit different colleges is evident of her investment in our future, said one student”.
*Students at each campus are polled by the Lion’s Roar staff to idenitfy their campus’ Teacher of The Month
URBAN PREP ACADEMIES
Mr. David Milliern is a Honors Chemistry and Honors Physics teacher at the Urban Prep Bronzeville Campus. Mr. Milliern was a name that came up amongst students when polled about this issue’s teacher of the month. “Students explained science has never been so easy or explained thoroughly until they entered his class.” He is also the wrestling coach. One student noted that joining the wrestling team and working with Mr. Milliern was one of the best afterschool activities he decided to do so far. 5
NEWS
Bronzeville Students Celebrate Black History Month
By Avery Barnes
Staff Reporter, Bronzeville Campus This school year has been a great experience from the start, with many exciting events. We kicked it off with our Annual Convocation Ceremony. Then, we moved on to our infamous On To The Next One ritual. That would bring me to our most recent event, The Black History Program. The program took place on March 24, 2022. Love and joy lifted up the crowd as many performances took place. I would say the real highlight of the program was the African masks presentation, called “Beneath The Mask”. It was put on by the honors students of the sophomore class. The different parts played for the presentation were the mask holders, the narrators, the assistant researcher and the Director of the Presentation. The mask holders were Messrs. Landel Overton and Melvin Moore. The narrators were Messrs. Zyrie Griffin, Rylin Johnson, and Jua Brown. The Assistant Researcher was Mr. Treston Harell and the Presentation Director was Mr. Myles Brown. The other people involved were Messrs. Dominick Williams, Bricen Ward, Geoffrey Heard, Michael Rollins, Johnathan Hollins, Emmanuel McGhee, Elijah Sheally, K’Anye Farr, Reginald Abernathy, and Davion Hardaway. The young scholars would go on to talk about how the masks are used in African culture in many ways and contribute a variety of historical pieces of information. The narrators explained the use, function and African history of each mask. To add to that, Ms. Ross, our Spanish teacher and the main organizer of the program, put together a small parade of the same student group where they moved around the auditorium holding up signs promoting black lives as a whole. Other noteworthy performances were songs sung by Ms. Ross’ choir. “We Shall Overcome” by Guy Carawan, “They Don’t Really Care About Us” by Michael Jackson, and “Lean On Me” by Bill Withers were performed by students from different classes. Earlier in the show, we viewed a mixed bag of independent student performances. Each of them were great, but the one that I 6
Photos: Ian Isbell
Urban Prep Bronzeville students perform and give presentations the Black History program. remember the most was a Star Wars based rap, with the Duel of the Fates Drill Remix by ProdbyMax as the background music. It had amazing visuals from the movies and as a Star Wars fan, I was pleased but most importantly, it was nice to see an up and coming Black artist doing his thing. The Director of the Beneath The Masks presentation, Mr. Myles Brown was asked how he felt about the program itself. “I enjoyed the presentations because they allowed students to express themselves and it provided various leadership roles such as my role as Director of the Presentation”, he replied. Then I asked him what the preparation process was like for the program and he said, “ For the Beneath The Masks presentation, I had to abide by the completion deadline and pick certain narrators to read. I feel that the preparation was rather sweet.” Lastly, I asked him what he feels the
importance of black history is and what the program means for black people as a whole. Mr. Brown gave me a great answer by saying, “I feel as though the importance of Black history is more so a reminder of who we are originally and how our society initially views us. It pretty much tells us the objectivity of who Black people truly are instead of what may be fabricated, as in stereotypes. The Black History presentation is a celebration of how far we’ve come and shows the significance of the mind. One could say my mask’s presentation was a tribute to how African times were. We were our own nation and aside from our own past being first, we’ve also made our own culture. Now we have our own styles of music, ways of celebrating our uniqueness, and jewelry. It brings out the joy of Black history itself.”
LION’S ROAR
FEATURES
Urban Prep’s Lacrosse Team Goes Against Whitney Young
Photos: Jessie Mack Featured Players #15 (Shawn Parker, Bronzeville c/o 2022), #9 (Rael Brown, Englewood c/o 2024), and #3 (Terrell Bloom, Englewood c/o 2024) On Thursday, March 24, 2022, Urban Prep Lions competed against the Whitney Young Dolphins in their first away game of the season. Final Score: 1 UP - 17 Whitney Young
URBAN PREP ACADEMIES
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SPORTS
Urban Prep competes in IHSA State Finals 3 Point Shooting Contest
Qwaylin Miller during the IHSA Regional 3pt Showdown at the Sectional Game March 4th at Julian High School.
Photos: Jessie Mack
Mr. Qwaylin Miller, Class of 2022 from Urban Prep’s Bronzeville Campus advanced past the first two rounds of the state 3-point contest. Mr. Miller competed in the IHSA Class 2A State Championship at the University of Illinois and finished 6th.
Interested in joining the Lions Roar? Email us at lionsroar@urbanprep.org Next Month’s Issue Baseball Coverage Teachers of the Month Students of the Month Administrative Assistants Week On To The Next One Ceremony Spring Break College Visits
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The Lion’s Roar Staff Dorian Hill Avery Barnes Brandon Black Ian Isbell Traivahn Johnson Jaylen Laster Brian Peters Kevin Velasquez Dominick Williams
Editor-in-Chief Staff Reporter Staff Writer Photographer Cartoonist Photographer Staff Reporter Cartoonist Staff Reporter LION’S ROAR