Spartan Torch: Issue 5

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3 WHAT’S INSIDE? April 2022 * Issue 5

Wichita Collegiate Middle School 9115 E. 13th St. N Wichita, KS 67206

COMMUNITY IMPACT DAY Middle School Students Take A Day To Help Their Community

By Reghan Eck

8th

Throughout the year, the 8th graders have worked toward their poverty unit. On Community Impact Day, the eighth grade went to two different places. Three advisings went to the Food Bank and the other three went to HumanKind Ministries. At the Food Bank, students got a tour, sorted apples and put labels on frozen meat. Across town at Hu-

Sixth graders Queen Chalmers, Ethan Eyster, Lydia Brittain, and Sadie McNulty shop for refugee families. manKind Ministries, all students got to tour their campus for which they had over two blocks of area dedicated.

“It encouraged me to help people in poverty,” Acacia Knight said. “For my entrepreneurship business I will be donating 20% of my net profit to the Kansas Food Bank. I will never forget learning about poverty and going through this experience in my life. This lesson will help me to be-

come a better person and help those in need.”

Going to the Food Bank allowed the students to see the process that goes into packaging the food to send out. They also got a tour and a deeper understanding of what they do and why they do it. It’s not just about packaging food, it’s about what the food represents.

Visiting HumanKind Ministries was an eye-opening experience. The

8th grade learned about the different types of homelessness and how different they are from one another.

During the tour of their campus, they were shown the different housing HumanKind had to offer, and the necessary criteria you needed to stay at certain places.

Lucy Gehrer thinks that it is important to learn about poverty and how many people are impoverished.

(Continued on Page2)

2 NEWS/FEATURE

Left: 8th graders show off their work after packaging apples.

Right: LJ Varchavtchik (7) plants flowers at the VA Hostpital

7th Graders Visit Local VA Hospital; 8th Graders Gain Awareness About Poverty in Wichita Community

Seventh graders Grace Teal, Clayton Garcia, and Reide Rasberry prepare soil for planting.

(Cont’d from PAGE 1) “I think that it was important to learn about poverty because when we go to school and go to the store, we don’t always see the people who are living in poverty, and there are so many people who live in poverty and we don’t even know it,” she said. “There is more than enough food to feed all of the people in the world, but we choose to divide it unequally and this, unfortunately, this is how poverty starts.”

Overall, Community Impact Day was a great experience for all the 8th

graders. Whether they were at HumanKind, or the Food Bank, students got to learn about poverty. They gained gratitude and perspective throughout this day. Also, this day led them into their poverty unit which they do for two weeks.

7th

By Cora Hill The seventh grade observed their Community Impact Day theme of Veterans by visiting the VA Hospital.

The VA (Veterans Affairs) Hospital is a hospital that provides medical treat-

Eighth graders Cora Hill and Acacia Knight sort apples into boxes at the Food Bank.

ment for veterans, including those with PTSD and other mental health issues.

Mental health issues are common in veterans, since many suffer for various reasons during service or after retirement. Seventh grader Jackson Rukes described what they did to help these people during their volunteering: “We drew inspiring chalk messages and murals out front, moved birdhouses to different windows for new patients, and did some gardening work in the back.”

The students were trying to brighten the hospital and the lives of the

veterans who spend time there. Rukes emphasizes the importance of keeping the veterans hopeful and happy.

“Too often veterans take their own lives since they feel like there is nothing worth living for and doing these small things and showing that people care about the service they provided to our country helps a lot.”

The seventh graders hope that the work they’re doing will make a difference in the lives of veterans, and help them know that their service was very much appreciated.

NEWS/FEATURE 3

6th Graders Help Refugee Families, Visit Immigrant-Owned Businesses; 5th Graders Make Blankets, Hats for the Homeless

By Julian Johnson

6th

The 6th grade has been focusing on refugees and immigration for their social impact initiative.

On Community Impact Day, each advising class visited a different immigrant-owned restaurant in the community and listened to the owner tell his or her story of immigrating to the United States and starting a business.

The teachers tried to find restaurants in neighborhoods that students might never have visited and types of cuisines that they have perhaps never tried.

Hope Shepherd recounted one of her favorite stories of a man who owned a deli in College Hill and how he moved to the U.S. after a situation with a war in his homeland while he was in high school.

A student of the 6th grade, Max Walters, talked about what he learned on Community Impact Day. “What I learned on Community Impact Day is that people from other countries have an impact on food companies and other companies that start in America”.

He also learned “that [he] really likes Vietnamese food!”

Then, the students shopped for newly arrived refugee families, buying them both practical items like vacuum cleaners and fun items like outdoor toys for the children.

“It warmed my heart shopping for the refugee kids,” Hadley Porter said.

Olivia Gehrer also had a great experience.

“When we were shopping for the refugee family, the expressions on all our faces showed how excited we were and how much joy we felt shopping for them.”

They also paid a visit to a Peruvian shoemaker in Clifton Square who has experienced great success since moving to the United States.

Nick Golden said, “It was interesting to learn about all the different

shoes she made and how successful her business was.”

By Lucy Gehrer

5th

A couple weeks ago on Community Impact Day, the 5th graders made blan-

kets and hats for the homeless so they could stay warm during the cold days.

They also made comfort kits which included stuffed animals and a birth certificate for them so they wouldn’t feel alone. “ I find it really fun to do,” said Juli-

anna Johnson. She made a total of 34 hats by herself.

The 5th graders have also teamed up with the lower school students and Mrs. Simms to provide fresh food from the lower school garden and eggs from the 5th grade chickens. Mrs. Fiegel has been taking care of three chickens for the past 11 weeks but, unfortunately one of the chickens was a rooster and had to go live on a farm out of the city.

Once the other two chickens are older, they will produce eggs that will be given to Union Rescue Mission, a program that distributes food to people in need.

The blankets, hats, and kits were hand made by each student and together they made about 21 blankets, nearly 86 hats, and 28 comfort kits. This was not the first year that kids made hats.

Some of the students last year made hats for people, but this year, they will also be going to the Union Rescue Mission.

Book Review: Jo and Laurie

By Brooke McKown Jo and Laurie is a retelling of the book Little Women.

It’s written by Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz.

I completed this book in less than a week, and after finishing it I think it is one of the best books I have read in a long time. I grew up loving Little Women and I know a lot of kids have watched the

original Little Woman or the new one that came out in 2019 with Timothee Chalamet, Florence Pugh and Emma Watson.

This book is a retelling that changes Jo and Laurie’s future together. They eventually end up together in the end after going through difficult problems together

throughout the book.

The reason this is my favorite is because it was so frustrating when Jo and Laurie did not get together in Little Women and when I heard that, I was so excited to read it.

The best character in my opinion was Jo because she is a character that really displays feminism and is very independent. Every sister had a special talent

Spotify Playlist of the Month: “Feelin’ Good”

By Lucy Gehrer

“To have infinite money and to fly” -8th grade Sam Taylor “Publicly speak out thoughts in front of people” -6th grade Rima Ajwad

and they showed how to follow your dreams. This book really inspired me and taught me how to become independent.

People who really enjoy romance books and writing would love this book. I highly recommend this book for anyone.

“IF...” you could do anything in the world, what would it be?

“Clean up all the trash in the ocean” -7th grade Graham Miller “Go back in time and meet the creator of Super Mario 64” - 5th grade Oliva Kennedy

by Courtlyn Ramsey (“IF” is a monthly feature inspired by the famous laconic answer by the ancient Spartans to an invading foe. Look it up! Spartans were known for their verbal austerity and pithy remarks.)

The ORACLE

By Amelia Blackman and Lucy Gehrer

Gemini (May 21-June 20): Beware: the month of April holds great things for you, but will cause you many sacrifices.

Your parents will finally get you the one thing that you have always wanted, but it will cost you. In return you have to give them 50% of your hair each day until you have none left, all the kids will laugh at you. A small price to pay for what you’ve always wanted Sagittarius (November 23December 21): This month your mother will go off on a trip to Persia and she won’t come home with a gift for you, but for all of your siblings, even your pets. This will make you very mad and want revenge on her, but you must keep cool because she has already threatened to take away your dinner because she says

you need to fast this month and can’t eat anything but only green beans.

Scorpio (October 23November 22) As cool as you guys are, you have a rough month ahead of you. I hate to be the one to tell you but you need to watch where you are stepping. I have this feeling as if you are not careful enough you will slip on a banana peel and fall onto a moving garbage truck which dumps you into a heap of trash.

To avoid this you need to wrap yourself in plastic wrap and a hazmat suit. Also just for safekeeping, wear foil hats so the aliens don’t mess with you.

Virgo (August 23-September 22) As surprising as it is, you guys have the best sign this month.

You guys will get three wishes from a genie that comes out of your sink. This will only happen if you wash the dishes for two weeks straight. This is the best outcome yet. Since the sign gods have favored you this month, make your wishes wise and not stupid as you could literally recieve what you asked for.

Libra (September 23-October 22)

In this month of April you all need to stop fantasizing about going outside and not being on your phone all day.

Go out and do it, it’s not that hard. You will feel much better about yourself after you do it. You can finally celebrate for doing something productive. By doing this you will receive that

Wordle

Editorial: Schools Should

Allow Student Phones

By Cora Hill Wordle has been a popular daily activity that people of all ages participate in, and many different versions of it have been created. To complete this newspaper version, work with your advising to come up with words to put in the blanks. You only need to use one paper for your entire advising.

After you choose a word, give it to your teacher to check. They will mark whether each letter in the word is wrong, correct but in the wrong place, or correct. Once your advising figures it out, let Mrs. Dokken know and everyone in your advising will receive a house point for their house.

big present you have always been wanting.

Taurus (April 21-May 20) I hate to break it to you guys, but you all need to wake up on time for once. Waking up at noon every day is not very good. Time does not revolve around you. Something horrible could happen if you sleep in past noon again. I feel as if a ball could be flying out of nowhere right at you.

Leo (July 23-August 22) This month you will be showing signs of a cat tail and maybe even cat ears because a special moon is coming and

will slowly turn you into a cat.

You also will be experiencing some signs of peeling skin that tastes like strawberry ice cream, but if you eat it…

Cancer (June 21-July 22) Through the month of April your lovely planet will be overrun by the toxic duo Mars and Venus. This means to keep going you will need to show your toughness throughout the month. We all know you guys are known for being very emotional but this is your month to prove us wrong. If you can go all month without making a fuss on April 25, something out of this world will happen.

By Julian Johnson Most schools do allow students to have their phones in school, but don’t allow them to actually use them in the classroom or until the end of the day. While the reasoning of this is that phones can be distracting or disruptive in the classroom, I say that phones can actually enhance the learning experience of students and also benefit the school system.

In this day and age, almost everyone has a phone and it’s almost impossible to keep kids off their phones, so what’s the point of trying to restrict the use of phones in school?

Phones are like calculators, times 100, and have all the answers to your problems. So why not use them to our advantage? If we were the only school who used our phones, while other schools were still using textbooks like it’s the 1800s, I most definitely believe that we would be ahead of everyone, academically and in almost everything.

Did you know that having phones in school would actually help the environment? We could go paperless which would save time, money, and the planet. We are really wasting money, time, and killing our planet, A person like me, I’m very inde-

Aries (March 21-April 20) During this month, popcorn will get stuck in your teeth and then it will chip your tooth and cause you a massive toothache which then will worry your parents so they will take you to the dentist and you will end up having to get it surgically removed, which then will lead to depression...so stay clear of popcorn this month!

Capricorn (December 22January 19) This month you better be aware, because your lifelong crush is going to show his or her affection for you and possi-

pendent. I mean teamwork is cool and all, but it ain’t for me. For people whp are dependent on others though and not very independent, phones could fix that. Having teachers more as facilitators and allowing students to use their phone to access every learning material they would need, this would make them in charge of their own learning, making themselves more independent.

To be honest, I have a million reasons why phones should be allowed in the classroom and they’re all very good reasons, so let’s not waste any more time, let’s get rid of the old way of learning and bring in a new and better way of learning.

bly ask you out if you’re lucky.

You also will be showing signs of becoming a furry, so you better watch out!

Aquarius (January 20-February 19) You guys breathe too loud.

Don’t get me wrong, breathing is good for your survival. You know what is not good for your survival is ice cream. All it does is make you sluggish. You guys should make a sacrifice to give up ice cream for a full month!

It will be hard but you can get through it. You will be rewarded with straight As in every class except science.

6 Special Feature

Teachers as Characters!

Who is your favorite animated character, or who would you be if you could live your life as one of them? This is what I asked some of our favorite teachers, and here are their responses. By Charlotte PIgg

Mrs. Gehrer as Judy Hopps

Mrs. Gehrer says that she is a lot like Officer Judy Hopps from Zootopia and she is one her favorite characters. There are many reasons why Mrs. Gehrer and Judy are alike. First off, Judy is a police officer and likes everything to be in order. As a fifth grade math teacher, Mrs. Gehrer does not hate the feeling of everything being organized. After Mrs. Gehrer has her morning coffee, they are both high energy and ready for the day. Judy and Mrs. Gehrer are always fighting for the things they believe in. The best thing is that Judy and Mrs. Gehrer both have a little crush on Nick, the fox (or in Mrs. Gehrer’s case, the actor who voices the fox!).

Mr. Vincent as Maui

Mr. Baker as Po

Mr. Baker is one of our favorite math teachers.

When we asked Mr. Baker which character he thought he would be, he responded that he would be Po from Kung Fu Panda. His first reason was that he and Po both have a love for food. Number two would be that he has awesome kung fu moves, and everyone wants to have awesome kung fu moves, right? The last reason is that Po is the Dragon Warrior, and Mr. Baker does his best to be his own warrior everyday.

Mr. Vincent explains that he loves the character Maui from Moana because of two main reasons.

Number one is that Maui was a demigod that pulled the Hawaiian islands out of the ocean. Hawaii is very important to Mr. Vincent because it is actually where he is from. The second reason is that Maui was always one to prank others and have fun. Maui was always sure to get his work done, while having fun. Mr Vincent says, “Having fun is important for everyone to keep their lives and health stable.” You’re welcome!

Mrs. Bowers as Tinker Bell

When you think of Tinker Bell, from Peter Pan, you might think of her iconic messy bun. Do you know who also has an iconic messy bun? Mrs. Bowers! They are alike in many ways, one of which is that they both have a fear of being trapped in small spaces. Mrs. Bowers says that they are both jealous of British girls and their cool accents. Overall, I think that Tinker Bell and Mrs. Bowers could be great friends!

Mr. Aguirre as Woody

Special Feature 7

Mr. Aguirre and Woody from Toy Story are alike because they both have great hearts. They both also care a lot about their family. Woody would never leave one of his friends behind. Mr. Aguirre lives by this lifestyle. Even if everything goes wrong, Woody has a plan that he will follow to make sure everyone is safe.

Mr. Aguirre and Woody both try to always be loyal.

These are only some of the many reasons why they are alike.

Mrs. Lippoldt as Tigger

We all know Mrs. Lippoldt as a fun and caring teacher. The perfect character to represent Mrs. Lippoldt is Tigger from Winnie the Pooh. Tigger is very energetic and enthusiastic about everything.

Mrs. Lippoldt is also a P.E. teacher, so this is what is expected of her every day. She does an amazing job of making sure everyone is healthy and happy, just like Tigger would do!

Mrs. Holton as Joy

Mrs. Holton and Joy from Inside Out are very alike. They are both very cheerful people, who both have the same happy energy. They both have a positive outlook on every situation. As the middle school counselor, Mrs. Holton is always encourging people. Joy always encourges Sadness and her other friends. Another reason that they are similar is that they both hold lots of happy memories that they can look back on. Overall, Mrs. Holton and Joy are the best people to be around!

Mrs. Ralston as Belle

Mrs. Ralston is a very happy and joyful teacher, just like Belle from Beauty and the Beast! They both love to read books and they help them see new perspectives. They both teach people every single day.

Mrs. Ralston is a literature teacher and Belle is always teaching the beast how to act to fit into society.

8 Campus Life

Right: Acacia Knight and Charlie Gentile start the Spring Fling group dance!

Corner Right: Eigth graders, Cora Hill, and Sam Taylor dance the night away.

Right: Eigth graders Milly Caro and Emma McDonald laugh as they dance to a fun song.

Spring Fling Below: Eighth graders Delilah Banuelos, Sadhakshi Sivaramen, Brooke McKown, and Reghan Eck pose for a picture before heading in to the dance.

Above: Michael Dobbs (8) show his excitement after passing a level of limbo.

Campus Life 9

Below: Heidi Holton, Charlotte Pigg (8), Amelia Blackman (8), Acacia Knight (8), Natalie Walenta (8), and Carlyle Johnson (8) take a ride in the ferris wheel.

7th, 8th graders travel to Wash DC

Above: Trip Porter (8), Sam Taylor (8), Gianni Bacci (7), Mason Bond (7), and Lunden Esterline (7) visit a veteran memorial.

Right: All the students, teachers, and parents take a photo in front of the White House.

Below: Ellie Howell (8), Madison Babb (8), Sophia Santo (7), Carlyle Johnson (8), Clara Monohan (7), Shelbie Emerson (8), and Maddie Ternes (8) pose for a photo in fron of the Washington Monument.

By Reghan Eck Seventh and 8th graders traveled to DC right before Spring Break. This was not only a learning experience for what they were taught in the past, but they got to visit such an important city in the world.

Charlotte Pigg said the most special part of her trip was going to the White House and hanging out with her friends.

“The most special part of the trip is a hard decision because there were two major parts to this trip,” she said. Number one was I got to see and learn about so many important things in our govern-

ment and our past. Number two was that I got to really bond with my friends while we explored the wonders of DC. I would say that the most special part was seeing the White House, because I am pretty involved in what is happening in the government. Seeing the White House really made everything I have learned about come to life”.

She also stated the most memorable part was seeing Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s grave.

“Ruth was a huge role model for me, and when she died I was devastated. Seeing her grave was inspirational because I was able to remember that she died a fighter

for our country.”

Natalie Walenta mentioned that she loves DC and would go back.

“I loved DC; it was a great experience and I would definitely go back. I would go back with my family and try to go to more places and have more time to do other things.”

Mr. Hawley said it’s always a trip of a lifetime for someone, and that he’s glad that this trip helps make memories!

The 7th and 8th grade market fair is May 3 through May 5 The 5th and 6th grade market fair is May 11 through May 13 The fair will be located in the front of the Middle School or in the Lair

This page was organized by Charlotte Pigg

SPORTS

Spartan Athletes Spring Into New Season Boys Tennis

by Amelia

“

I love the competition and the traveling. I’ve become closer friends with people I wouldn’t have known very well otherwise. Also, it’s a sport I can play for the rest of my life!

- G Farha

”

Hayan Raffi warms up.

Track

By Reghan Eck

“

I love the long-distance group because they are like family to me and it’s fun to compete against good people. I really like how you choose your distance and change it. Plus, PeachWave runs are the best.

”

- Ellie Howell Reese Wilburn competes in a hurdling race.

Girls Soccer

by Brooke

Pictured - Amelia Blackman scores the tying goal against Classical shortly after this picture.

“

I love that I can show my creativity and be myself while helping the team.

- Anne Marie Olson

”

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10 CAMPUS LIFE

Fifth Grader Camden Salyers with a “Drippy Pic” (Left) 7th Grader James Weimer with a self-portrait.

5th Grader Collyns Livermore with “Sunrise on the Beach” Fifth grader Margaret Michaeis with “Rock and Roll”

STUDENT ART SHOWCASE