Junior Abby Floyd: I heard about it through my church and my family did it together.

Senior Michael Hayes: A friend told me they need help and I decided to go.

Senior Audrey Ruhl: My mom started helping out and said that they need help. They really needed people who could speak Spanish.

MS: How do you feel after you finish working?

AF: In a way you see what it’s like to not have stuff. I feel appreciative for the things I do have.

MH: I was happy I could actually help people.

AR: Content with the fact that you’re helping someone and that a small deed made a big difference in someone else. life.

MS: What was the first thing you thought right after you helped out for the first time?

AF: It was like “wow,” because you don’t realize what people don’t have and what you do have.

MH: I didn’t realize there were that many people in need in our community.

AR: I didn’t realize how many people in Noblesville need help/food. There is an average of 100 families per year.

MS: What made you want to keep helping out?

AF: I like to give and see people smile.

MH: I could make people happier.

AR: I saw the need people had and the young people having conversations with those in need.

MS: Where are you going to work this year?

AF: I’m not sure if I will have time to work this year unfortunately.

MH: I’m going to work at my church [White River Christian Church] because I’ve worked there before.

AR: I plan to work at White River Christian Church.

MS: Do you just help out at the holidays or year round?

AF: I help year round whenever my church does.

MH: I go year round when I can.

AR: I help year round definitely. People need help year round, not just on the holidays.

MS: What is the most rewarding part of helping out?

AF: It’s really sweet to see people so happy and just conncecting with those in need.

MH: It’s just rewarding to see how happy people get when they realize people are willing to help out.

AR: Often just seeing the smiles on people’s faces and seeing that they know someone loves them even complete strangers.

MS: What is the one memory you will never forget about helping out?

AF: The first year I went to a house with a mom and two kids and I just remember seeing them smile and the mom in tears.

MH: A mom came into the food pantry with three kids and one of the kids was playing with a toy car and hit me in the head with it. He started laughing and that last for five minutes.

AR: At a home build over the summer I was standing in the parking lot and just hearing the sound of all of the hammers was just overwhelming. It was amazing how many people came out to help.

In the spirit of the approaching holiday season, National Art Honor Society sponsored the Empty Bowls program on Monday, Nov. 9. The event took place in the main campus sophomore cafeteria for an hour and a half beginning at 6 p.m.

National Art Honor Society members spent weeks preparing.

“It’s a big thing for us,” sophomore Ainee Jeong said.

Attendees paid $10 for a ticket, which entitled them to a hot meal and a ceramic bowl. National Art Honor Society students had as much food donated as possible to ensure a large profit to donate to charity. Much of the soup served was made by families of National Art Honor society members and ranged from chicken noodle to chili.

The proceeds benefit the Good Samaritan Network of Hamilton County. The money will be used to purchase meat products, which will feed needy families in Hamilton County on Thanksgiving.

“It’s really just giving back to the community,” senior and National Art Honor Society president Elli Miller said.

The bowls were chosen by ticket holders. They were all handcrafted, mostly by freshmen, and then glazed by National Art Honor Society members at the main campus.

Students, parents, and teachers showed up to support the cause. Student artwork was displayed around the cafeteria to be viewed by visitors. A live band headed by faculty members entertained the crowd with music.

Upon arriving, guests were able to pick a handmade bowl to take home. They then could go through the serving line to receive their soup, bread, drink, and dessert.

The tables in the cafeteria were covered with construction paper and adorned with paper hand prints made by National Art Honor Society students. Crayons were placed in the middle of each table so that guests could express their creativity through doodles.

Aside from the charitable aspect of the program, students also used the night to spend time with friends.

“I thought Empty Bowls was a fantastic way to raise money and provide a fun night out, so I got some friends together and we decided to go. I also announced it at my church,” sophomore Sarah Line said. She attended the event with sophomores Breanna Frailey and Julie Goodwin and junior Russ Goodwin.

Nancy Chance, executive director of the Good Samaritan Network of Hamilton county, attended the event and made a small speech to those in attendance.

Two years ago when the program debuted, the community came together to raise $900 for hungry families.

This year, the goal was to raise at least $1000. Mrs. Kate Vasey, faculty sponsor of National Art Honor Society, confirmed that the goal was topped this year, and 125 tickets were sold altogether.

“It was great. We had a great turnout and a ton of help from people within the school and National Art Honor Society parents,” Vasey said.

]]> http://www.mill-stream.org/2009/11/30/empty-bowls-tops-goal/feed/ 0 http://www.mill-stream.org/2009/11/20/students-could-be-doing-too-much/ http://www.mill-stream.org/2009/11/20/students-could-be-doing-too-much/#comments Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:46:19 +0000 Paige Owens http://www.mill-stream.org/?p=1716 Noblesville High School is a school of opportunities. A single student could take five AP classes, participate in a sport, and join a club. There is always something going on. Whether it be a football game, cross country meet, rehearsals for the school play, an orchestra concert, or any of the other endless activities available.

“I’m taking a lot of AP classes this year.” junior Alisha Hobbs said “But I would say Spanish IV is hard because I’m bad at Spanish.”

Hobbs has added “I feel like people sometimes expect too much of themselves, and they feel other people expect a lot from them.”

Junior Donna Kuhn said “It seems like teachers can be hard and expect you to know just about everything.”

Senior Jessica VanBlaricum is a resource students, which means she gets special educational accommodation. She does not always have to take the harder classes.

“I feel like I’m challenged enough even though I’m a resource student.” VanBlaricum said “I fet a lot of help on my schoolwork.”

Students often become involved in school activities by choice. Take senior Katie Elliott for example. She is the founder and president of Young Republicans.

When asked why she founded Young Republicans, Elliott simply replied, “I love politics.”

A lot of the students interviewed said that they feel overwhelmed with schoolwork and other commitments.

“I feel overwhelmed because I have a lot to do.” Hobbs said.

However, Elliott said she does not feel overwhelmed, jokingly saying that she has the TV to help with stress.

Some students feel overwhelmed with their schoolwork and other commitments, and some don’t. Some students take all the easy classes, and some overwhelm themselves with AP, Honors, or ACP classes. It all depends on who is questioned about the subject.

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A student from Italy rides the carousel at Forest Park. Foreign students were taken to many local landmarks in an effort to expose them to Hoosier traditions.

Interested in participating in a student exchange program? Don’t want to devote an entire semester to the experience? Sister Cities International is coordinating volunteers for next year’s program. Established to help foster world relations, Sister Cities works to promote peace through mutual respect, understanding, and cooperation between international communities.

Through the program, Noblesville created a unique alignment with Nova Prata, Brazil, in 1996 and with Cittadella, Italy, when a tri-lateral agreement was formed in 2007.

“This is only the third of such agreements in the past 50 years of Sister Cities’ existence,” state chapter president Henry Cole explained in an interview shortly after the deal was signed.

Last summer, seniors Emily Goggin and Elli Miller (and a handful of other Noblesville students) participated in a youth exchange in which high school-aged children from each city traveled to each other’s homes. Goggin hosted a Brazilian student, and Miller, who recently returned from her trip abroad, hosted an Italian.

Chaperone and organizer Jenny Elliott explained that the duty of each youth ambassador is to represent Noblesville, the state of Indiana, and the United States in a positive light.

“We ask that the ambassadors have a thirst to learn more about other cultures and foreign lands,” she said. Those who host are expected to be available 24/7 to aide their guests, including accompanying them to local attractions. During this summer’s ten-day visit, the group attended trips to surrounding areas to highlight American culture and lifestyle. This included a venture to Holiday World, tours at Lucas Oil Stadium, Victory Field, Butler University, local businesses, and artists’ studios at Bundy Ducks and Strawtown Pottery.

Goggin insists that although the guests were from entirely different parts of the world, an outsider never would have known the difference.

“We knew the same songs, we dressed basically the same, and we liked the same things,” she said.

A couple of the visiting students were even taken to the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince midnight premiere.

“Even though we slept through a lot of it, it was a great experience,” Goggin said.

In the past, the organization has targeted foreign language students for participation because, as Elliott explained, they would have a more intimate understanding of the difficulties one might experience when delving into a new culture. Both Goggin and Miller are former French students. Any Noblesville resident, though, is eligible; he or she need not attend Noblesville High School. This summer, a student from Heritage Christian traveled to Cittadella, and another from Guerin Catholic hosted.

Sister Cities’ main goal is to have the youth of Noblesville form a lasting bond with the students and host families from Cittadella and Nova Prata.

“We’d like the students, and all students, to become active in Noblesville Sister Cities during high school and after college if they return to Noblesville to settle down. If not, we would hope they would become active in [the organization] wherever they settle,” Elliott said. The organization is coordinating an exchange to Nova Prata for next summer, from July 24 to August 3.

Students interested in volunteering may contact Elliott by emailing her at siscity@yahoo.com.

This year’s student body president is senior Luke Hoffman. Students may think that anyone could obtain and maintain the position, but along with the title goes much hard work and diligence. He has been involved in student government his whole high school career, as a senator for three years, and this year he decided to take on the responsibility of student body president. The student body vice president is senior Jill Horsfield. She was in student government her freshman and junior years as a senator.

“The most enjoyable part of being the president for me is seeing plans go through and knowing that I took part in it, and being able to show my leadership skills,” Hoffman said. Jill has her own opinion on what makes the year successful and enjoyable to her. “I like homecoming, I like the floats, the mini olympics, the game, it gets the whole school involved,” Horsfield said.

They ran together on the platform of change over the way things were run in student government last year.

“My honest opinion of last year is that the senior leaders were all good people, but as a whole, they had trouble communicating with everyone, and because of this issue, everything ended up having issues,” Hoffman said. Horsfield was in agreement.

“The seniors last year did not have strong communication and organizational skills,” she said.

The freshmen student government sponsor, Autumn Elmore, said this, “It went well to work with the freshmen, because they were all excited and were prepared and wanting to help, but it made it hard to be involved because of communication issues.”

Both of these school politicians have new ideas that they would like to incorporate, and new ideas of how they believe this school year can be made great.

“I want to get the students of our school more involved in all of the school functions that we set up throughout the year,” Hoffman said.

The students of NHS also have opinions on the way the student government performs.

“I thought that the student government did well in planning the homecoming dance, so I think it would be fun to have small dances after football and basketball games,” sophomore Jennifer Reagin said. Another student had a different opinion about the homecoming festivities. “I thought that the homecoming parade was not as good last year because we could not throw candy,” sophomore Abby Alvey said.

“I love being in this type of leadership position, and I think that this year will be much more organized and less stressful, which will make it more exciting for students,” Hoffman and Horsfield said. Elmore has also noticed a difference so far this year. “I think that it will be much better this year. The people in student government this year are serious about helping out and making this year great. Luke emails me almost everyday to keep me up to date on what is happening at the main campus with student government. It is very helpful,” Elmore said. We will see if Hoffman, Horsfield, the class sponsors, and the rest of the government can live up to expectations and make this year fun, safe, and exciting for NHS.

Spices, yoga, Deepak Chopra, and Bollywood. Many cultures abound in the halls of the school. The slowly increasing Indian population in the student body will help students learn more about this culture. The Indian population is very prevalent on the east and west coasts, but not in Central Indiana. Most of the students in school are first generation Americans.

Indian culture is a mix of modern and traditional values. They have a very strong sense of family and friendship. In fact, a family unit consists of children (students), parents, and grandparents living under one roof. Indians can be Catholic, Christian, Hindu, or Muslim. Hinduism is a religion that has several branches. Freshman Prabhjot Singh practices Sikhism, a branch of Hinduism.

Indians celebrate holidays such as, Diwali which is called the festival of lights. Diwali is very similar to the celebration of Christmas. It is a time to be grateful for family, friends, good health, and success. Prayer is a key element in Indian holidays. Eighth grader Armaan Patel says his family prays mostly on holidays, while Freshman Raaj Patel’s family prays every morning and night in their designated prayer room.

Coming from a different country and living in America is certainly difficult for anyone, especially half way across the world like India. Patel’s family moved to Indiana from Gujarat, India.

“The weather is different. Life in India is really different from here. India isn’t as developed as Indiana (neighborhoods, schools, stores, etc.). People in India live in tougher conditions with no electricity, but my grandparent’s home in India has electricity. Not everyone has the opportunity to get a good education, such as farmers, but India still has really high test scores,” said Patel.

India is rich with culture. It is an amazing place with mix of food, tradition, and entertainment.

When summer hits everyone takes off on vacation, hangs out with friends, and just relaxes. For a couple of other students they only have two things on their mind — marching band and state fair.

“You really have to pour your heart into band.” Sophomore, Jessica Turner said. Several days before band camp marchers started hydrating and checking their instruments for problems. If one person was not prepared for the hot days of camp the whole band would suffer.

“Band camp is hard but it’s awesome!” junior Kathryn Welder said.

During the days of band camp the marchers went through series of drills. The marchers had to do basics twice every day, which consisted of learning music, learning dances and following their chars. Following the basics the marchers had to then go through the songs and make sure they had their articulations, rhythms and dynamics just right. Not only did the marchers have to work hard to keep things in order so did band director Stacey White.

“I had to call all of the band staff, call to make arrangements for food and most importantly the music.” White says.

When the five long 12 hour days came to a close, everyone was ready for the fair. At the end of the day show the band was in 12th place. Upon finishing the night show the band remained in 12th place but were not sad with the out come.

” I wasn’t disappointed. We got a standing ovation and you just can’t bottle the feeling of knowing you did the best you could,” Turner said.

Every year the rumor circulates. “I heard Mr. Hitchcock is going to retire.” At the end of the last school year, however, this rumor was a definite truth: Social studies teacher Mr. Bruce Hitchcock was finished teaching. Yet another rumor began as soon as the last one was laid to rest. “He’s continuing his teaching only for certain classes”; yet during the first week of classes, Hitchcock was mysteriously absent. So, what’s the hitch?

“I was ready not to be here every day but not ready to not be here any day,” Hitchcock said. Put simply, Hitchcock, after 40 years of teaching, is ready to spend less time in the classroom, yet still remain active in teaching. Last summer, the Noblesville Schools Corporation offered Hitchcock a medical insurance deal with retirement that Hitchcock felt was “too good not to accept.” However, when the opportunity for more teaching presented itself, Hitchcock agreed to teach only certain classes. Instead of his usual load of history classes, Hitchcock is only teaching Urban Problems and Solutions ACP, along with United States Government and Politics AP/ACP. “The re-hire seemed like a perfect transition,” Hitchcock said. These classes cannot be offered unless a qualified teacher is present to teach and Hitchcock remains the only teacher with the qualifications to teach these two courses. Yet, his other class, United States History AP/ACP, is now taught by Mr. Brandon Swart.

Junior Katie Curtis, a student in Swart’s United States History AP/ACP class, is directly affected by the teacher change. Her first ACP class, she noticed, is more writing and reading, along with “in-depth discussions.”

“I’m sad that I’m missing out on Mr. Hitchcock because I’ve heard really good things about his class, but Mr. Swart seems like he’ll do a good job too,” Curtis said. Swart, who according to Hitchcock, received the necessary training for an ACP course, will step into Hitchcock’s shoes to teach Curtis’ history course. Curtis isn’t worried about this change however, knowing she’ll receive a good understanding of the subject from Swart.

“I feel like he’s qualified,” she said.

On why he was late for the first couple days of class, Hitchcock explained that he did not officially retire until July 14, after summer school and his annual Washington D.C. trip had finished. State law requires a teacher to wait 30 days, upon retirement, until they can come back after a re-hire and Hitchcock had to wait until Monday Aug. 17 to teach again. He isn’t sure how long he’ll continue teaching.

“I don’t have any other plans at this point,” Hitchcock said.

His reoccurrence in the classroom is great news for many students affected by Hitchcock’s teaching. Senior Collin Hanson put it simply, “he teaches you how to learn.” Hanson, who had Hitchcock for United States History last year, has him again for Government and enjoys Hitchcock’s method of teaching. Hanson felt intimidated, yet still managed to have a great impression of the class, learning so much.

“Everyone should have him as a teacher,” Hanson said.

Hitchcock, on the subject of his legacy, waved away the idea, saying he shows up everyday and tries to do a good job. It’s apparent that his goal is a success.

“He’s one of a kind,” Hanson said.

Text messaging has rapidly become a vital form of communication for high schoolers. Whether at lunch, on the bus, or even during movies, students’ phones seem to never leave them. It’s no secret that cell phones are nearing the point of necessity in modern society. Sure, technology has come a long way, but just how much is too much?

Text messages are used for just about everything. Someone can find out when soccer practice starts, what the Spanish assignment is, or even whether the new Boys Like Girls album will be worth listening to. However, at some point, texting might become too distracting, and could prove detrimental to academic success when it’s arguably most important. This is high school. The future is not far away.

Sometimes, that history report really needs to be written, but a ringtone starts up, and suddenly, a conversation about what to wear to this Friday’s game takes precedence over presidents. Then again, a phone can come in handy when there’s a question about that pesky Geometry assignment.

Whether texting’s growing popularity is really causing problems for students is up for debate.

“I can multitask,” sophomore Ashtin Wilcoxen said. Some students, like Wilcoxen, can keep the issue under control.

Others, like sophomore Jacklynn Bansbach, seem more tempted by cell phones. “My mom threatens to take my phone away sometimes,” Bansbach said.

With the expanding dependency on cell phones, students texting during class are proving to be a problem in schools. This year, the district has cracked down on its cell phone policy. A single violation now earns students an hour of detention.

“I think the rules are a little harsh, but they work. They’ve stopped me from texting in class,” Wilcoxen said.

Even main campus teacher Mr. Richards has noted a decline in students texting during class. “I think it’s effective,” he said of the new policy.

Think back to all the classic movies documenting the plight of the teenager. Detentions were given for bullying, not texting. Maybe it’s just a sign of the times.

While technology, texting in particular, may seem paramount in modern society, it is still up to students to either use it in moderation or let it consume their lives.