Spokesman Wheeling High School
900 S Elmhurst Rd., Wheeling, IL 60090
Page 4 Virtual reality meets classrooms
Volume 56
Issue 6
Page 6-7 Dive into Black history
February 28, 2020 Website: see QR code, page 2
Page 9 Best Picture winner Parasite review
Page 12
WHS basketball season in review
Speech team revamped, placed at sectionals Kamila Walus
Associate Editor-In-Chief
WHS speech team students lead the team to the final round in sectionals this past February, despite revamping the program just this year. Many students who were already involved in other activities in the fine arts department, such as school musicals, plays and choir, were introduced to the program for the first time. “When I first started at Wheeling, I had no idea there was a speech team,” Stephanie Mayer, junior, said. Competitive speech consists of competitors choosing up to two out of 13 events. Half of the events are public speaking events, where students can memorize a piece written by someone else, like a TED talk, or write an original speech. Other examples include radio events, where a competitor cuts a radio script the morning of and has five minutes to mimic a radio segment. The other half of the events are acting events ranging from seven to eight minutes. Competitors can choose from humorous acts, dramatic acts, or original comedy acts where they write their standup routine. “They’re getting a skill that not a lot of high school kids have, to be able to get up in front of a room and speak comfortably for eight minutes,” Stephen Colella, head
speech coach, said. Competitors draw inspiration from personal experiences, their backgrounds, or famous speakers. Valencia Smith, senior, drew inspiration for her poetry reading from black activists Angela Davis, Jennifer Lewis and Etheridge Knight. “I really love bringing awareness to the black community and so I knew I wanted to do it on black culture and so I decided to narrow it down to focusing on the richness of my race as a whole,” Smith said. “My performances weren’t just based on acting. It was based of experiences and past meetings I have had with others. I was able to put myself into my poem and tell others the story of my past and other
Photo courtesy of Stephen Colella
people’s past. I told a story that every black person knows- the story of racial profiling, misunderstanding, racism, pain, and triumph in an eight-minute poem,” Smith continued. Competition days begin with students going to three different rounds the morning of the competition. There, judges rank the competitors six to one. Six being the lowest score, one being the best. If a competitor lands a position among the top six, they go to a final round at the end of the day, where three judges give awards for the overall top six competitors of the day. “It takes a lot of preparation and practice to get the success and feedback that you
Students surprise staff with snowman Kamila Walus
Associate Editor-In-Chief
Photo taken by Tyler Feldheim, Daniel Sandler, Jesse Carrillo and Yesenia Diaz.
On Thursday, Feb. 13, students and staff were greeted by a large snowman built alongside Wildcat Way made the previous night by WHS students. Seniors Will Snarksi and Austin Hembd started building the snowman, then they were joined by juniors Pabbi Chahal and Gavin Schroeder leaving the library and seeing their classmates build the snowman. Later in the afternoon, after attending an SAT preparation class, juniors Ryan Tinsley and Sergio Galvan joined to help build the snowman. Equipped with brooms for arms and a ‘W’ sprawled across the lower half, the snowman was a result of late-night boredom. “We were bored hanging out at home and it started snowing. We were like ‘let’s go build a snowman’, and what better place to do it than WHS?” Snarski said. Students and staff reacted positively to the snowman, much to the student’s surprise. “We didn’t think it would have that much of an impact on people, like [Jerry] Cook made it his profile picture, and a bunch of people were sharing it,” Hembd said. The snowman also got a stamp of approval from principal Jerry Cook. “I thought it was pretty cool. Something that doesn’t harm anyone, that doesn’t make us look bad, doesn’t get us in the newspaper, I don’t have a problem with. When kids are creative and they want to show school spirit, I’m fine with that,” Cook said.
want. It was hard at first to get into the season because many of us had never been on a speech team before, but after the first weekend competing at Hersey, I think everyone locked in. It definitely took some time to understand how speech works and how each competition works, but it all worked out in the end,” Mayer said. After tackling regionals, the team was able to qualify for state with six events. At sectionals, five events competed in the final round. “We arguably have one of the hardest sectionals in the state, and we took six events to sectionals, five out of the six made to finals. I could not be prouder on how we approached the year,” Colella said. “I did not expect to make it as far only because it was my first year and I began knowing absolutely nothing. I think that we have very talented people at Wheeling, and we know that we can make it so far. But, we also know that we have to put in the work to make sure that we keep improving. I think that’s why we were able to do so well in our first year or rebuilding the program,” Nicole Golden, junior, said. As for the future, the speech team has intentions to grow as a team and keep competing. “We can’t wait to move into next year ready to work and, hopefully, with some new recruits who want to be a part of this amazing family,” Kazu Quigley, junior, said.
Debate wins third at state Kamila Walus
Associate Editor-In-Chief
From left to right: Geneve Halfman, Syeda Khan, Amber Akhter, Kelly McInerney. Photo courtesy of Adriana Soto.
The WHS congressional debate team competed at a state-level this past weekend on Feb. 22, at the annual ICDA competition held at Harper College. The National Congressional Debate Association (ICDA) allows students to argue against or for different pieces of legislation through speeches and debates. WHS placed third, lead by their four top debaters: Seniors Kelly McInerney and Amber Atkher, and juniors Syeda Khan and Geneve Halfman. “We were really hoping to get first, I’m honestly incredibly proud of how hard our top four debaters worked in order to get us to compete in State and end up winning third place. I know it was hard for some of the debaters because we didn’t win first, but the fact that we got third is no small fee,” Adriana Soto, debate coach, said. Story continued on page five.