HHS senior skates for as her true passion

Ever since the age of five, senior Olivia Hamilton has pursued her love for figure skating. However, many people are unaware of such a sport, let alone that HHS has their own team.

 

When Hamilton isn’t found being actively involved with school, she will be found practicing her skating at Grand Oaks Ice Arena.

 

Hamilton first contemplated if figure skating was truly for her, and decided she’d weigh out a few other options. She debated between cheerleading, dance, and figure skating, but something stood out to her about figure skating; it was different from the others. Her mother took her to open skate and bought her very first pair of ice skates, and from there she knew that she wanted to compete in this sport.

 

“I chose figure skating because I honestly didn’t know what it was and it sounded interesting. I thank my mom for encouraging me to try the sport out or else I’m not sure what I’d be doing today,” states Hamilton.

 

She first competed nationally on a synchronized team at the age of six. The national figure skating league is known as I.S.I (Ice Skating Institution), in which Hamilton competes in. When she was nine years old, she placed first in the state competition, and advanced to the World competition, which took place in Minnesota. She placed third out of eight overall.

 

Currently, Hamilton competes in a solo freestyle of 7/8, and also synchronized. This year Hamilton and her team competed at the Winter Classic, which took place at Miami University in Ohio. Her team placed sixth out of eight, but they kept their heads up and continued to practice.

 

Her inspirations for skating are her coaches and her parents.

 

“My parents are a big part of it, but I think a lot of it has to do with your coach, you’re there with them often and they’re making up your program, helping you along with it, and they’re also by your side whenever you’re competing. I don’t have one specific coach, for example, I have a coach for spinning and I have coach for programs. I think each of their goals is to always be there for you and it’s a great reassurance to me and my skating,” says Hamilton.

 

Outside of skating, Hamilton is involved with the student council. She has been an active representative for two years and was a KLAA spokesperson for the Class of 2013 council. Also, Hamilton has been on the honor roll for all four years of high school.

She plans to attend Grand Valley State University this fall and intends on majoring in information systems and computer technology. She intends to follow her father’s career footsteps.

 

Hamilton wishes that the sport of figure skating would be more familiar with the student body of HHS.

 

“It’s kind of discouraging that no one knows about us, because it is an engaging sport and you are working your body.  The competitions for the high school team are difficult to compete in, especially when we face a majority of private schools who have great skating abilities. It’s hard to grasp that not many know that we do exist, especially because we still represent our school as a club sport, but we do skate for the Howell title,” adds Hamilton.

 

If you would like to attend an ice to watch Hamilton perform in the annual LSC Ice Show, the event will be taking placed on May 18 and 19 at the Grand Oaks Ice Arena.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winter concerts draw near

As the holidays draw nearer, so do winter concerts for HHS band and choirs.

The choir concert, entitled “Fanfare for the Holidays,” will take place on December 14 and 15 at 7:00 PM in the high school auditorium. Each concert will feature nine HHS Choirs: Varsity Women’s, Varsity Men’s, Highlander Men’s, Women’s Select, Women’s Chorale, Calamity, Classicality, Highlander Chorale, and A cappella. The concert will feature a wide variety of music befitting the holiday season. Due to the number of people who attend, it will be split into two separate nights. The finale will feature alumni of A cappella choir singing “The Hallelujah Chorus” and all choirs performing the traditional “Peace, Peace.”

The band’s winter concert will showcase a mixture of “legit” non-holiday music along with more festive tunes. The band also performed at the Fantasy of Lights parade. Band director Jason Smigell encourages students who aren’t related to band members to come anyways. “You might just have some fun!”

Extended day, extended opportunities

Extra courses, less in-class time, and more knowledge are all beneficial privileges from the new seven hour class schedule being established this school year.

“I enjoy the seven hour day,” James Krager, a junior at Howell High School, said. “Mainly because I’m able to take one more class that I’ll actually enjoy, and it’ll fulfill my educational needs.”

An extra hour will make achieving surplus credits not only easier, since it will be mandatory for meeting graduation requirements for the younger classes, but much less stressful and far more convenient for students. They won’t have to cut into their after school hours to take an extra course, nor worry about juggling required school with non-required. This will open new windows of opportunity to create a much more enjoyable learning environment. An extra class will allow students to have more variety with the way they choose to plan their day but taking the mandatory classes in which the school assigns, as well as classes he/she will find interesting.

“The extended day is nice,” Jacob Kleimola, also a junior at Howell High School, said. “There are more opportunities for learning. In a six-class day, there just wasn’t a chance to take classes you wanted.”

Taking an extra class equates to four more courses students would be able to enroll in over their entire High School career. With that, students will surely stand out in college applications with their academic achievements. Major universities will be thoroughly impressed by students’ abilities to manage hectic schedules and large amounts of homework which requires vigorous studying. The seven hour day compares to college life more than a six hour day does.

The biggest benefit from the seven hour day is the real-world experience you will gain. The transition from high school to college will be much easier for students because they won’t feel as overwhelmed with the new schedules they’ll be choosing or the piles of homework that need to be done, that students without this experience will be feeling. College can be hard to adjust to when coming from a somewhat simply planned day, but the seven hour day makes the adjustment far less stressful.

The new layout for high school classes is beneficial in all aspects, whether it be making it easier to earn extra credits, impressing colleges, or gaining real-world experience. It’s a system that will help promote educational growth, which is exactly what a majority of schools need.

7 hours: A student’s perspective

If you had walked into Howell High last May, you would have met an interesting sight. Angry students gossiped in the halls as staff members preached about the importance of enough time to learn. School board meetings filled up with protesters, several students wrote argumentative speeches, and many more awaited the official announcement with contempt and dismay.

What was so important? The seven-period day, of course. Not long after these rumors began, teachers confirmed the rumors and then, to much disbelief, the rule was passed and guidance counselors started to schedule new hours.
This year that plan sprung into action, and the stress began to pile on.

“It’s stressful because I have so much homework,” says Rachel Taylor, a sophomore at Howell High. “We normally have 55 minutes per class, but now we only have 45 to get everything done.”

I personally went through three spiels the very first day from worried teachers who had doubts about covering all the material. Fun days in class have been cut, movies have been removed from courses, and many teachers have to stick to a specific plan for each day in order to get the course material covered.

For AP classes especially, this is a death sentence. These college courses already have one month less than other classes to finish their work, but now they have an amazing total of 33 less periods than they did before.

“It messes up my four year plan,” Taylor says. “I had it all planned out and now I have to add classes I normally wouldn’t bother to take.”

This issue is one of the biggest this new schedule has caused. Students have four year plans that are now torn apart because of the extra hour. They fill this hour with a class that is nothing but more homework. What’s the point of taking a new period when all it does is give you stress and grief? In many schedules, this is the case.

Overall, the students and most of the staff at Howell High could do without the inconvenient strain of a seven-hour day, and many of them could certainly do without the pressed time and confusion that comes along with it.

Howell senior swings into college

The sky is the limit for Howell High School senior Kaytlin Stroinski. Stroinski’s “never give up” mentality has driven her to success in athletics and academics.

Stroinski’s parents Mariah and Steve were nothing short of supportive throughout her childhood.

“My parents pushed me to be the best I can be,” said Stroinski with a smile. Stroinski also has two siblings: fifteen year old brother Bryan, who is also on the swim team, and older sister Lauren who previously played volleyball for Howell. Stroinski’s father coached her throughout her childhood on various travel teams and always persisted she push herself and attempt to get better every practice.

As a child, Stroinski played for softball travel teams such as the Michigan Outlaws and Michigan Breeze.

In fact, when she first began softball, Stroinski attended a Dot Richardson instructional camp and immediately idolized Richardson. Richardson was a softball player for the 1996 and 2000 United States Olympic teams. Stroinski’s goal was to play for the Olympic team one day until the Olympics omitted softball from its schedule.

During her youth years she also played travel basketball for the Hoopsters.

“She is a really hard worker. Even when our team was down she’d always find a way to make it work,” fellow senior basketball teammate Bre’Ana Strong said. Along with softball and basketball, Stroinski also currently plays volleyball.

This spring, Stroinski and the Lady Highlanders are having an outstanding softball season, standing at 9-2 with Stroinski currently batting a .577 average and an exceptional .960 fielding percentage. Her stellar defensive skills and solid bat have landed her an athletic scholarship to play for Tusculum College in Tennessee. Along with her softball scholarship Stroinski is attending Tusculum on an academic scholarship as well.

Once in college, Stroinski plans to major in sports management. Following her degree she wants to land a job as an athletic director or team manager at the collegiate level.

“The will to win,” Stroinski said when asked about what sets great athletes apart from the average.

“No matter what the score is, going out there and giving it your all to try and win every moment of the game.”

Stroinski has had phenomenal athletic seasons in Howell since she was a freshman. Her successes in the classroom and on the playing fields have qualified her for the next level of career preparation and play.

 

HHS sophomores win essay contest

The online, Stossel in the Classroom, hosted its first student essay contest this year, and two Howell High School sophomores won, Jake Tholen and Tiffany Turner.

Tholen made it through to the semi-finalist round, winning $100, and Turner won the honorable mention award, along with $50.

Tholen and Turner entered their in class essays, or ICEs, into the competition through their Accelerated English class, taught by Mr. Joseph Miller.

“For the ICE, we had to take a stand on why America was good.  I wrote about the PEACE Corp. and how overweight Americans are actually a good sign,” Tholen said.

Turner discussed businesses and other opportunities that America provides.

Stossel in the Classroom is a project of the non-profit Center for Independent Thought, which provides curriculum materials to teachers. John Stossel is a host on a weekly program on the Fox Business Network.

“I was surprised when Mr. Miller said that I had made it through to the semi-finalist round because I didn’t expect to win,” Tholen said.

There were 7, 514 essays submitted by students between the ages of 13 and 18 around the country.  Of that 7, 514 essays, only 222 were chosen as prize winners.

“I felt pretty good to win honorable mention; it was amazing just to be picked,” Turner said.

Mr. Miller was more than enthusiastic for both of his students.

“They are both very talented writers who deserve this recognition,” Mr. Miller beamed.

 

Stressing and studying for AP tests

AP tests. Depending on the difficulty of your class schedule, the mere mention of this phrase can elicit different responses: a shiver of apprehension from those who haven’t taken them yet; a self-satisfied grin from those who have; a sigh of relief from students in non-advanced classes who don’t need to take them at all. Whichever category you fall under, you’re likely to have witnessed the effect of AP testing on high school students firsthand. With the AP US History test having already transpired and the AP Biology and Government exams rapidly approaching, it’s no surprise that many students – and teachers – are feeling stressed.

For the uninformed, AP (or Advanced Placement) tests are used by participating colleges to grant credit to students who earned high enough scores to qualify. According to the College Board website, about 17% of the class of 2010 scored a 3 or higher on an AP exam; the College Board defines a 3 as “qualified to receive college credit”. Although most colleges will settle for the 3-average, more selective universities may require a 4 or 5 in order to receive credit for that class, which places an inordinate amount of pressure on the students to succeed.

“I’m studying like crazy!” said Maddie Kroll, a sophomore who took both the AP US History and AP Biology exam. “No social life for me,” she jokingly added.

There’s no question that the AP exams, which span two weeks from Monday, May 2 to Friday, May 13, have found many students scrambling to relearn as much information as possible from the last seven months of school. But what exactly is on the tests? According to social studies teacher Mark Oglesby, who is on the AP US Government Test Development Committee, any and all questions have to be in the course description (which students receive at the beginning of the year) and in the textbooks. “The exam needs to be fair,” he said. While also emphasizing that he can’t tell students precisely what’s on the exam due to ‘ethical issues’, the entire 4^th hour AP US Government and Politics class agreed that Mr. Oglesby had given them ‘more than enough’ info from which to study.

Senior Andrew Kellam, who plans to attend Michigan State University in the fall, will be taking the AP Stats exam. He took AP Stats because it is “more challenging than other classes.” To prepare for the exam, Kellam has been working on review packets given to him in class. “I attended a review session one evening with Ms. [Karen] Lessnau, and we all had pizza,” he said.

Lessnau has been holding out-of-school study sessions since the 2006-07 school year, when she first began teaching AP Stats.  The first year, only four students attended out of the fourteen slated to take the exam; more recently, there has been a favorable shift in attendance numbers.

“This year we have had the most students sign up to take the AP Stats exam than ever before,” said Lessnau, “and 75% of them attended the review session.”

It’s understandable why so many students find themselves stressed, even regretful, around this time of year. But although that strain might seem overwhelming right now, the eventual payoff that comes with scoring high on an AP test far outweighs the negatives – really.

 

FCCLA shines with six gold medalists

Howell High School is proud to present six honorable students who belong to the club of Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America: Sarah Beatty, Ashley Pascoe, Brittany Faba, Jana Pietila, Laura Eskola, and Jacqueline Marsack.  FCCLA, co advised by Ms. Cathy Hengesbaugh and Ms. Teri Brewer, is a nation-wide student organization that helps young men and women become leaders and address important personal, family, work, and societal issues through family and consumer science education.

From April 13-15, six students participated in STAR events (Students Taking Action with Recognition) at the FCCLA State Leadership Conference in Midland, Michigan.  Every FCCLA participant of the State Leadership Conference had to create a project that was listed under several permissible categories; some optional types of events were solely for the state competition, while the majority of others were available for the national competition as well.  Five out of the six HHS students who competed with their FCCLA project won a Gold Medal score for the national level, which is the high mark needed to proceed to the National Competition in Anaheim, California this summer.

“It was exciting,” says senior Sarah Beatty, president and FCCLA gold medalist.  “I wanted to go so much because it was so much fun last year.”

The FCCLA State Competition was held at the Valley Plaza Hotel.  From the first day of arrival, the six students attended workshops, and Ms. Brewer and Ms. Hengesbaugh judged and coordinated events.  That led up to the main competition, where all students presented their projects individually in front of a panel of three judges.

“It’s difficult to get up in front of the judges,” notes Ms. Brewer.  “It’s fun to see them [students] with confidence and blossom.”

After the competition, FCCLA members were able to relax and enjoy an evening full of food and dancing.  Ms. Brewer and Ms. Hengesbaugh both commented on the “very nice banquet and dance” hosted by the hotel.  Many people, including the adults, were keen on partying once the competition was over.

“[Ms. Hengesbaugh] danced,” laughed senior Ashley Pascoe, another FCCLA gold medalist.  “She busted a move!”

The last day of the FCCLA State Leadership Conference was ultimately the most exciting out of the whole weekend.  That was when every student was able to receive their scores on their projects.

Beatty, who chose to construct a chapter scrapbook for a life event, won two Gold Medal scores: one for the State Competition and the other for the National Competition in the life event category.  Her choice of life event, which could have been any broad subject, happened to be a road trip.  Beatty had to describe the food, lodging, shopping and additional details in her chapter binder.  Of course, being able to supply a creative edge to her project was a bonus.

“I like scrapbooking,” Beatty says.  “It’s always been a hobby of mine.”

Jacqueline Marsack, a sophomore,  also chose to craft a chapter scrapbook for the life event category.  She won a Silver Medal score for her life event planning project, a trip to Germany, and her chapter scrapbook was able to be submitted in a separate state-level category which won a Gold Medal score.  Though her project will not advance into the National Competition, Marsack’s efforts definitely stood out.

Seniors Jana Pietila and Laura Eskola worked together as a team on the Entrepreneurship event.  They both engineered the idea of a new business called “Perk Up”, a mobile coffee unit that offered companions to older adult customers.  Pietila and Eskola were required to form a plan for the business, such as arranging the proper funding, laws, and regulations.   The pair spent long hours constructing a chapter binder that held 63 pages of detailed material.  But overall, the amount of hard work paid off because they won a Gold Medal score on the National Competition level.

Senior Brittany Faba chose to complete a project in the Recycle and Redesign category.  She initiated a more hands-on approach to the competition by using old sweatshirts from home and remaking the material to form cupcake pin cushions.  Faba, spending a good period of time on her project, happily walked away with a National Gold Medal score.

Pascoe, on the other hand, managed to showcase her skills of impromptu teaching in the Early Childhood event.  Pascoe was given about 30 minutes to create a custom lesson plan on the spot before presenting her results in front of the judges.

“I think I’m very lucky,” says Pascoe, recalling how her lesson plan included meeting the needs of a deaf child, while her competitor was given a child with autism.  “I don’t know how I would have done it if I was her [competitor].”

Pascoe obviously demonstrated excellent wit, for she too received a Gold Medal score on the national level for her impromptu performance.  That is, she received the gold after the judges skipped over her name in the announcements.

“They forgot me completely!” she exclaims.

Ms. Hengesbaugh agrees, sighing, “They did mess up a lot of things.”

Overall, however, every HHS student who participated in FCCLA received their awards. Four out of the five National winners are actually travelling to Anaheim, California this summer from July 9-14 to participate in the National FCCLA Competition.

With months of hard work and dedication put into preparation for the State Competition, the four lucky travelers will undoubtedly enjoy soaking up the sun this July while taking part in activities such as a tour of Los Angeles and Hollywood, a half day at the beach, and three days at Disneyland.

“They [FCCLA National Competition] always have neat stuff like that for us,” Ms. Brewer reflects.

Naturally, both Ms. Hengesbaugh and Ms. Brewer are excited for this summer’s events.  They are proud of every HHS student who was involved in the State Conference and are looking forward to advising future victorious students.

“It’s hard work, but they seem to always shine,” Ms. Brewer smiles.

 

Howell CTE/CAD program to represent US

Every year, the International Master Bike Builders Association (IMBBA) holds a worldwide competition, where the most elite bike builders come from many different countries to compete in a bike build-off. Next year, the representation for all of the United States will be the Howell High School CTE Machine Trades/ CAD program.

Next year’s competition will take place on April 23-25, 2012 in Montreal, Canada.

Twenty-two different countries, each sending about six different teams, participate in this annual event, and this is the first time ever that a nation will be represented by a high school.

“I’m looking forward to beating those professionals,” exclaimed Mr. Lazslo Szalay, the instructor for the Howell CTE and CAD programs for the last nine years. Mr. Szalay, who will be accompanying and leading the students next year in Montreal, recently accomplished a very important personal goal: he has achieved the status of Certified Motorcycle Instructor by the IMBBA. This accomplishment will also now allow Mr. Szalay to teach IMBBA curriculum in the classroom.

“It’s awesome!” Mr. Szalay said. “It’s one of the things I’ve been working on for a long time now so it’s great.”

The IMBBA requires a highly sophisticated amount of training in order for one to become certified. Mr. Szalay’s hard work and effort allows Howell High School to join a group of about six other schools in North America with IMBBA certified instructors.

Not only is this a huge achievement for Mr. Szalay, but it will also grant his students chances to learn new and more advanced curriculum of the motorcycle repair and customization industry.

“I’m learning a lot of skills that are good, not just for building bikes, but for life,” explained junior Chris Bailey-Labriola. “I feel very lucky to have this opportunity, and I think it’s definitely going to give me a jump-start for a career in this field.”

This fall, the IMBBA plans on releasing new courses in the motorcycle world which Mr. Szalay will be able to incorporate into his classes to help further his pupils understanding of a trade that most of them hope to build on.

Win or lose, these Howell High School students are making a statement about what can be done with discipline and hard work.

 

Get to know your 2011 Senior Survivor Contestants

It’s about that time again where HHS seniors will battle against each other in challenges and in raising the most amount of money for charity. Senior Survivor this year will be starting Sunday, May 15 and will go through Thursday, May 19. The benefiting charity this year is Connection Youth Services which aid teens and families in crisis. T-shirt sales end on Friday, April 29 and the survivor with the most t-shirts sold will win immunity Monday night, as all seniors will be spending the night on Sunday.

Basically, throughout the week, twelve seniors, six girls and six boys, will be competing against each other to raise the most money each day, and the senior with the least amount will be sent home. On top of competing to raise the most money each day, the seniors will be competing in undisclosed challenges to try and win immunity for that next day. There are also privilege challenges in which, if won, the senior gets special prizes like cell phone usage or being able to go out to eat.

Some of the basic rules for Senior Survivor are:

• No cell phones/ electronics
• No car keys
• Only allowed to bring pillow and sleeping bag and other basic necessities

On the last day there will be four final contestants. The finale will be held at the end of the day in the HHS auditorium for all those interested in watching the results.

And now it’s time to meet the contestants and start picking your favorites. Each senior was asked the following basic questions:

• What are you most excited for with Senior Survivor? Why?
• What are you least excited for? Why?
• Besides yourself, who do you think will win/ who do you want to win? Why?
• How challenging do you think Senior Survivor will be? Why?
• What was your initial reaction when you found out you made it on Senior Survivor?

Contestants’ Responses:

Maria Barlow

1. “I am most excited to spend time with fellow seniors, and to help raise money for a good cause.”
2. “I am least excited for a challenge that involves eating anything nasty!”
3. “Besides myself, I think that Malory Dowdle will win Senior Survivor. I want Malory to win! I want her to win because she is a cheerleader!”
4. “I don’t think Senior Survivor will be too challenging, unless there is an eating challenge! I don’t think it will be too challenging, because I am an athlete and I am faced with many challenges on a daily basis.”
5. “My initial reaction when I found out I made it on Senior Survivor was I was excited! I really wanted to participate this year so finding out I made it made me super happy!”

Sarah Beatty

1. “I am really excited for the challenges. I have always thought they would be something I can do and want to try them and hopefully win.”

2. “I am least excited about staying all night at the school. I would prefer my bed to sleep on and not the floor or chairs.”
3. “I have absolutely no idea. Everyone is equally good because they all have their different talents that can allow them to win. Whoever wins is fine with me.”
4. “I think it could be a range of difficulties. Some things can be easy to me and I fear others will be hard. However, I do believe raising the money would be the hardest because I am kind of nervous when it comes to asking strangers for money.”
5. “I was really nervous and actually wanted to quit. I am not the typical person who gets picked for these types of things, and I was freaking out.”

Zach Campbell

1. “To spend the night in the school because I feel these old walls have a story to tell and they need someone to listen.”
2. “Not having Taco Bell.”
3. “I feel Shane will win because he has that charisma, the kind of charisma that makes you wanna walk up to him and say, ‘Hey, how ya’ doin’ buddy?’ ”
4. “On a scale of 1 to 17 I’d say that Senior Survivor will be a 14… Because it’s challenging.”
5. “I will answer that with three words Fire, Ghosts, Eagle.”

Malory Dowdle

1. “I am most excited to compete in the challenges!”
2. “Well, if there is a challenge where we have to eat nasty food I am least excited for that! I have a very weak stomach!”

3. “If anyone else were to win besides myself it would be Maria Barlow. I think she will do good in the challenges!”

4. “I think Senior Survivor is going to be challenging, but fun! I think the worst part will be the lack of sleep!”

5. “When I found out I made it on Senior Survivor I was thrilled! I had been wanting to do it since I saw it for the first time in ‘08!”

Shane Dzierwa

1. “What am I most excited for about Senior Survivor? I am excited to be able to slither down the hallways at night. Why? Because I am getting sick of doing it during the day.”
2. “I am least excited for the entire school to see me crying on camera.”
3. “I would like Malory Dowdle to win because I was originally the color purple but we traded. So if she won, I could just tell her that it was the shirt, which should have been mine.”
4. “Let me answer that with another question: How hard is it to make a cat’s cradle with steel wool?”
5. “When I first found out, I was relieved because I had bet my whole life savings to Ian-under-the-bridge that I would get into Senior Survivor.”

Caitlin Green

1. “I am just excited to be with all the people. I don’t know many of them very well, but at the meetings there was never a dull moment and I am just excited to see what happens.”
2. “Having to eat unpleasant things, in the past that always looked the worst.”
3. “I honestly don’t know.”
4. “I think it will be tough to keep motivated throughout it.”
5. “I could hardly contain myself. I kept reading the paper because I wanted it to start right away, and I wanted to know more about everything that was going on.”

Conor Ruggles

1. “I am most excited to win challenges and spend quality time with Karter Wallace.”
2. “Spending time around Cal Smith.”
3. “I think that Calton Smith would win other than me and I would want whoever can raise the most money to win!”
4. “I believe that it will be pretty challenging because we [can’t] leave the school and it’s gonna be pretty exhausting.”
5. “I was super excited and ready for the challenge.”

Ashlyn Samples

1. “I’m most excited for having to live at the school for the week. I think that it will be really fun!”

2. “I’m least excited for not being allowed to leave school or not be allowed to have our cell phones. That will be very hard.”

3. “I could see Cal Smith winning it all.”
4. “I think that it will be mentally challenging; [we] will have to be on top of [our] game the [entire] time.”

5. “My initial reaction when I found out that I made senior survivor was… ‘What have I gotten myself into?’ ”

Courtney Schippers

1. “In all honesty, I’m pretty geeked to being living in the school for a week. It sounds like a fun time, and this is a great group of people to be stuck in a school with. This is such a great cause to be raising money for, and even though it’s a competition, we’re all in it to reach the same goal and make a difference for this cause.”

2. “Even though I’m super competitive, I’m the least excited to have to compete against some of my friends. It’s all in good fun, but it’s still hard. I’m also getting kind of nervous about the food challenge. We never know what ridiculous food STUCO will come up for us to eat…”

3. “Besides myself, who would I like to win? Caitlin Green for sure. She and I are rooting for each other and we’ve got each other’s back. She’s my bud and I’ll support and encourage her all the way.”

4. “At first, I thought that Senior Survivor would be a walk in the park but even the raising money process is intense. I have a feeling that the challenges this year will be awesome, but even crazier. It’ll definitely be a test for all of us.”

5.“I’ve always had that thought in the back of my mind of wanting to do Senior Survivor, and finally decided to just give it a shot after seeing the fun that my previous Senior Survivor friends had and the difference they made. Michelle Wright was actually the first [person] to tell me that I had made the cut and I was kind of in shock at first. I never thought it’d actually happen, but now that it has, I’m super excited and ready to do this challenge.”

Cal Smith

1. “I am most excited to stay at the school for a week.”
2. “I am least excited for how tired I am going to be.”
3. “I feel my friend, Conor Ruggles, has a good chance to win.”
4. “I feel Senior Survivor is going to be really hard because of how tired everyone will be.”

5. “My reaction was that I was extremely excited for this challenge.”

Matt Sullivan

1. “I’m most excited to compete with my fellow classmates and see what they are bringing to the table. Also, I’m hoping to make some alliances that will take me to the end all in hopes to win.”

2. “I don’t really know what I’m least excited for. I guess a food challenge if it’s nasty enough. I don’t want to eat like a nasty, year old cabbage or something, ha-ha.”
3. “Well, besides myself, I would say the person who will have the most success is Courtney. She’s sweet on the outside but on the inside I could see her being a sneaky, devious player that will make it to the end.”
4. “Well, I think it will test me both mentally and physically, but I think I will be able to win any challenge, and it shouldn’t be too tough.”
5. “My first reaction, well, ‘YAHH BABAYYY, HEY EVERYBODY GUESS WHO JUST MADE SENIOR SURVIVOR… THIS GUY!!’ True story.”

Karter Wallace

1. “Hanging out with the competitors.”

2. “Sleeping in the school for a week.

3. “Cal [Smith] or Matt Sullivan because they are my buddies.”
4. “Very hard because I have no idea what the games are going to be.”

5. “Whoooooo!!!”

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