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spokesmanWheeling High School 900 S. Elmhurst Rd. Wheeling, Ill. 60090
Volume 49 Issue 3
Fall play takes goth approach pg. 3
Nov. 16, 2012
more news onlineat <wheelingspokesman.com>
Like “WHS Spokesman Online” on f
news: Arlington Heights book drive
a&e: S.H.A.D.E.S. hosts variety show
sports: Sports Spotlight, featuring two athletes each month
Student council helps community through food drive pg. 7
indexnews 1-2
arts 3feature 4-5
focus 6-7la voz 8
entertainment 9forum 10
sports 11-12
Programs help close Hispanic Achievement GapThroughout the Northwest suburbs,
Hispanic students have improved on stan-dardized test scores, but an achievement gap remains between them and their peers. However, WHS has worked to close this achievement gap.
On average, Hispanic students at WHS have performed better on standardized test-ing for math than Hispanic students in the district and state, with 56.3 percent of them meeting or exceeding expectations on the math portion of the PSAE, compared to 50.5 percent of Hispanics in District 214 and 36.2 percent in the state.
WHS works to close this gap by offer-ing courses with career pathways, such as engineering and health careers. Also, staff works to target growth in different areas, and WHS has programs to help students, such as the Academic Literacy Program, AVID, the Learning Center and the English Language Learners resource center.
“As a school on the whole, the main fo-cus on our teachers is to enhance students’ skills in reading, writing, critical thinking and inquiry,” Erin DeLuga, associate prin-cipal of instruction and curriculum, said.
“That’s why we see this continuous improve-ment. We’re still continuing to achieve at higher levels.”
In addition, Dr. Steve May, assistant principal of student activities, started the Hispanic Athletic Council, where Hispanic student athletes discuss their needs for par-ticipating in co-curriculars.
“Students involved in activities and ath-letics do better in school. We’ve been trying to work with Hispanic students on getting more involved in co-curriculars,” Dr. May said.
According to Gabriela Medina, guid-ance counselor, Hispanic students may face problems from socioeconomic, family and language factors.
“One thing that impacts students is fam-ily support and the type of family structure in place,” Ms. Medina said. “When you’re talking about the education background of families, it’s difficult to promote a college-bound mindset. There’s always those finan-cial barriers, too. There are misconceptions that if I don’t have money, I can’t go (to col-lege).”
Despite these barriers, according to data for the Classes of 2008-2013, the low-income group has experienced a per-year growth of 18.8 percent in academic improvement.
Rosalie Chanweb editor
Grade 11 Students Who Met or Exceeded Expectations on PSAE
Reading Math Science
Hispanics at WHS
Students at WHS
Hispanics in District 214
Hispanics in Illinois
Infographic by Rosalie ChanInformation from 2012 Illinois School Report Card for WHS
Three clubs join to mentor Twain students
Rosalie Chanweb editor
Perla Jiménezla voz editor
District makes changes to requirements
Above: Polly Draganova, junior, plays the “M&M game” with a student from Mark Twain Elementary School on Nov. 7. In the game, they take turns picking out M&M’s and asking each other questions based on the M&M color. Below: Rachel Cacchione, senior, sorts out the M&M colors with students from Twain.
Photos by Perla Jiménez
The school board passed two propos-als at the Oct. 18 board meeting: one dropped information processing as a graduation requirement, and the other allowed students in marching band and NJROTC the option of exemption from physical education during the semester in which they participate in that activity.
These changes will take effect in the 2013-14 school year.
Dr. David Schuler, superintendent, said the board will work with the Edu-cation Association on this waiver and make sure P.E. is a choice for the family, not an “automatic default.”
“We are providing options that are more targeted to students based on need and a more effective use of everyone’s time if we provide choices for them and their families,” Dr. Schuler said.
As for the proposal to drop informa-tion processing as a graduation require-ment, Dr. Schuler said the administra-tion will continue to recommend, but not require, information processing.
Although students will no longer have to take information processing, they still must have 21 credits to graduate.
“I was glad for the opportunity to meet with him, but I feel the board is doing a disservice to students by not re-quiring this course,” Tricia Anderson, computer and business teacher, said. “The board is under the impression that students come in with technological skills. Yes, you can use social network-ing, but do you know the requirements and etiquette for using computers and using spreadsheets?”
Students from a variety of extracurricular activities, including Students Helping Accept Diversity in Every Situation (S.H.A.D.E.S), Op-eration Snowball and Latino Club had the opportunity to mentor a group of fourth grade students from Mark Twain Elementary School.
The mentoring program aims to set positive role models for the elementary students to look up to and confide in. WHS students will not tutor or teach the students, but they will work on creating a trust-based re-lationship with them.
“The (Twain) kids were in awe,” Raymundo Galar-za, social worker, said. They asked me ‘and we’re gonna be working with high school kids?’”
The mentoring program also aims to help coun-ter the advances of drugs, gangs and other negative factors.
The students looked for-ward to the day as a way to give back to the community and create a positive grow-ing environment for the kids.
According to Polly Dra-ganova, junior, so many students wanted to help out that they have outnumbered the elementary students.
The first meeting of the program focused on intro-ductions and games. The students played “the M&M game,” where the kids and
mentors took turns picking out M&M’s, and depending on the color of the M&M, they answered a question about themselves or their interests.
They also played “people to people” and other activi-ties that let the mentors and students step out of their comfort zones to get closer together.
Tyler Levy, senior, said the first meeting was very successful because “the kids were very open and willing to talk.”
The group plans to begin pairing off individual men-tors with each fourth grade student.
“I’m a little worried about it because I know how awkward it can be... Especially since now we’re going into more emotional topics,” Levy said.
Students started men-toring on Nov. 7. The pro-gram will take place every Wednesday over six weeks.
This program hopes to continue in spring 2013.
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Garza trains in street magic pg. 4
2Nov. 16, 2012
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Darren Llewellyn, social science teacher, goes over students’ work while waiting for his next appointment during parent teacher conferences on Nov. 7. Parents had a chance to see the WHS curriculum and meet the teachers.
Conferences lack in parent participation
Parent teacher confer-ences took place Nov. 7, and while many parents now use the option of registering online, staff noted that the conference attendance has stayed relatively low every year.
“Well, it’s usually the parents of the kids who are doing good who show up. It would be better to see par-ents of low-performing kids show up,” Joann Chilver, math teacher, said.
According to Ms. Valin, parents’ working at night also affects participation at conferences.
In order to spread the word about parent teacher conferences, WHS sends out a letter to parents. The parents of students who are considered “must-sees” re-
ceive a second letter.“There’s usually a fair
amount,” Kathy Valin, sec-retary to the associate prin-cipal for instruction, said. “The hard part for us is our parents are calling for term one, and if you don’t have a class that runs the full se-mester, that makes it a little more challenging.”
More parents register for parent teacher conferences online now.
“Online is more readily accessible to parents. If a student is having trouble, the parent can email or talk to the teacher right away,” Ms. Valin said.
If parents do not speak English, translators are available. Students from National Honor Society and NJROTC volunteered at the parent teacher conferences, acting as guides or transla-tors.
Rosalie Chanweb editor
R O B E R T M O R R I S U N I V E R S I T Y
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deadline is November 15.
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Discover the leader in you!
As the 64-foot high Colo-rado spruce tree was lifted off the ground onto a flat-bed, the Theiszmann fam-ily of Prospect Heights said goodbye to the 66-year-old tree.
This special delivery will be given to downtown Chi-cago for the holidays this year for its 99th annual tree lighting ceremony.
The tree was transported to the Daley Plaza where the ceremony will take place at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 20.
“We are very proud, the mayor especially. We always like to see Prospect Heights shown in a positive light,” Anne Marrin, Prospect Heights administrator, said.
The tree was chosen through a process done on-line via a website. People could submit pictures of their trees and vote for their favorite.
A committee then re-views each tree, has a con-tractor visit the site for an examination and then makes the final decision.
The tree was transported from Wildwood Lane on Thursday, Nov. 1.
“This is something that reflects well on our commu-nity,” Ms. Marrin said.
Prospect Heights tree given to Daley Plaza for lighting ceremony
Megan Joneseditor-in-chief
A crane transports the tree for Daley Plaza on Nov. 1. Located on Wildwood Lane, the tree’s branches were wrapped up for easier transportation, and some were trimmed. The Daley Plaza will look at other trees to match the branches they had to cut off so that it is a “healthy-looking” Christmas tree.
Megan Jones
Election 2012
Kristina Piamonte
Sophomore Class Board currently collects money to buy Christmas presents for chil-dren in the hospital. They ask everyone to donate a quarter or more. Anyone who donates $1 or more will have his or her name put on a snowflake or star that will hang in the commons.
Art Club will sell tie-dye shirts and glass jewelry dur-ing lunch periods in December.
Orchesis was selected to perform at Dance Chicago for its 11th con-secutive year. On Nov. 17 at the Athenaeum Theatre in Chicago, they will perform two dances: “Fio-Fio Fio-letta” and “dopp/DROP.”
S.H.A.D.E.S. will present its 2012 variety show, “Good Time,” from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. tonight and tomor-row, Nov. 17, in the theater. Tickets cost $6 per adult, $5 per student with a student ID and $4 for children 12 and under.
In observance of Thanksgiving, there will be an early dismissal on Wednesday, Nov. 21, and non-atten-dance days on Nov. 22 and 23.
Medical Career Club attended a presentation at 3 p.m. on Nov. 13, where the Ameri-can Cancer Society received dona-tion checks and presented WHS with a plaque for donation. The club sold baked goods in October to raise money for breast cancer awareness. This was the first time in five years they made their budget.
Infographic by Rosalie ChanM
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ote Obama won another
term as president. His reelection guaran-tees the implementa-tion of his health care and health insurance law.
Obama gained a coalition of Asian and Latino Americans. Exit polls show that 73 percent of Asian Americans voted for Obama. Latinos made up 10 percent of the electorate, 67 percent of whom voted for Obama.
Senate retained a Democratic majority, with 53 Democrats, two independents and 45 Republicans.
The House of Repre-sentatives retained a Republican majority, with 240 Republicans and 190 Democrats.
Voters in Maine and Maryland approved same-sex marriage in their state.
arts 3Nov. 16, 2012spokesman
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Shakespeare’s widely renowned play, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” follows a group of four Athenian lovers, who are made to fall in love with the wrong person by a group of fairies.Top left: Maggie Nickl and Tia Allen, seniors, question Marco Mazzetta, sophomore, in an attempt to figure out his identity and his motives for being in the forest.Top right: Celine Dirkes, junior, rejects her suitor, Oberon, who was played by Harlan Rosen, senior.Bottom left: Breton Spiller, junior, rehearses the play within a play. WHS took a gothic makeup and costume approach that was inspired by Robert Kupon, social studies teacher. Chris Gonzalez, senior, found the gothic approach to be risky. “It was such an old play and attempting to make it more of a modern play was worriesome. However, I think it was good because we offered a new approach to several factors of the play, but we still managed to convey the incredibly interesting story by Shakespeare,” Gonzalez said.
Twenty-four students from the music depart-ment were selected to perform ensembles for the Illinois Music Edu-cators Association’s (IMEA) district VII this fall.
After auditioning for IMEA, Kaitlyn Nielsen, senior, felt that her per-formance did not go as well as she hoped.
“It was a catastro-phe,” Nielsen said. “I was disappointed because I missed a note in the scales.”
When she discovered she had been chosen for IMEA, she said she felt really excited.
Nine jazz band, 11 concert band, one or-chestra and three con-cert choir players have been selected from WHS.
IMEA is a conference of music teachers in Illi-nois. The state is divided into nine districts and WHS is in district seven.
Sixty-five high schools send their best in band, choir and orchestra. IMEA is the largest fine arts education organiza-tion in Illinois.
Students signed up in October to audition and received their music months in advance.
Nielsen participated in IMEA last year, and enjoyed meeting lots of new musicians and learn-ing from them.
“I felt a lot more pre-pared because I had more time to practice. I knew more people be-forehand, and I had the opportunity to work with an oboist that I met last year,” Nielsen said.
According to Alex Meza, orchestra director, IMEA requires persever-ance from all.
“It consists of stu-dents working really re-ally hard for long periods of time,” Meza said.
The judges choose which piece they want each student to perform. This year, orchestra will
use Tchiakovsky’s Sym-phony No. 4 Final.
Adam Korber, se-nior, said that the final concert is the best part of IMEA because “you are playing with some of the best musicians in the area.”
“I know it’s one heck of an experience to be involved in,” Korber said.
Students usually re-ceive little help from their directors. Material for their auditions are handed out as soon as possible.
Directors help stu-dents find private teach-ers and material for audi-tioning.
“The students take on the responsibility,” Meza said. “The top students put together this band and make this festival.”
The concert groups performed Nov. 10 at Glenbrook North High School.
The jazz band and or-chestra will perform Sat-urday, Nov. 17 at Lake Zurich.
Students chosen to represent WHS at IMEA
Adam Korber, senior, plays the cello during the annual Pops Concert on Oct. 27. The concert setlist included songs ranging from Lady Gaga to the Beatles.
Chris Nushstaff reporter
IMEA DISTRICT MEMBERSChoir Members:Lizzie Jassin, senior-altoMarco Mazzetta, sophomore- bassHarlan Rosen, senior-bassOrchestra: Adam Korber, senior- celloBand Members:Chelsie Coren, senior- clarinetDarby Dammeier, senior- fluteCole Dammeier, sophomore- french hornOmar Joya, senior- bassonMatthew Kulczak, junior- fluteCesar Mendoza, junior- trombone Kaitlyn Nielsen, senior- oboe David Robertson, senior- trumpetRonny Roth, junior- trumpetNick Westin, senior- percussionJazz Band: Patrick Ryan, freshman- trumpetBryan Marbin, freshman- bass tromboneMatthew Browne, freshman- vibraphoneIsabel Chan, sophomore- pianoJoya, alto-saxophoneRoth, trumpetAnthony Gonzalez, freshman- trombone Robertson, trumpetMendoza, trombone
Kristina Piamonte
A Midsummer
Night’s Dream
Photos by Jessica Livingston
4Nov. 16, 2012
spokesman
feature
Students are selected at random by drawing student ID numbers.
Name:Grade:ID:
Daniel MaldonadoSophomore
415???
Who’s in the halls?
Photo provided by LairInformation gathered by Antonia Arismendis
After Maribel Aguilar, senior, missed the deadline to sign up for a 5K run, she decided to register for a 15K run; she thought she would become tired and would not finish the race. However, as she ran the first five kilome-ters with Kathy Burke, wife of Michael Burke, English teacher, she felt encouraged to keep on going.
“I’m running with Mrs. Burke, and she’s like, ‘Well, you look pretty good, are you sure you don’t want to just keep going to the 15K?” Aguilar said.
“I don’t know, the most I’ve ever ran in my life was four miles...I didn’t know if I could do 9.2 miles, and she said, ‘I think you can do it.’”
On Nov. 4, Aguilar, Donna Bledsoe, senior, Mr. Burke, Cynthia Carro, English teacher, and Alan Wahlert, social science divi-sion head, ran the Hot Choc-olate 15K/5K run which took place in Chicago. The race began around 7 a.m. from Grant Park to Soldier Field, Chicago.
Although Aguilar, and Bledsoe, did not run with someone in particular, they both felt encouraged by oth-er participants.
“The more people I saw,
the more pumped I’d be be-cause I was nervous about running it, but then I’m like, ‘Okay there’s so many peo-ple, and there’s people even walking,’” Bledsoe said.
“I had nothing to worry about, so I was just moti-vated by seeing everyone there,” Bledsoe said.
Aguilar kept pace with other runners, which helped her finish the race.
“You could always find someone to keep pace with; you’re never going be on your own because there’s literally like ten thousand people all around you. It’s just awesome, and they have little entertainers, and they have music, and there’s people on the side cheering you on,” Aguilar said.
Bledsoe ran the Turkey Trot race, which took place on Thanksgiving last year at Highland Park.
Running the Hot Choco-late run motivated Bledsoe to get involved in other races
“It is motivating me to do more, bigger races; I want to do the marathon one day,” Bledsoe said.
Multiple charities, such as Ronald McDonald House, teamed together for this race in order to raise mon-ey to improve children’s health, well-being and edu-cation.
Students, teachers run Hot Chocolate race, support charities
Garza explores, practices street magic
As Fernando Garza, senior, makes an entrance through a black door on the stage during the Variety Show rehearsal, cards cas-cade from his mouth. Audi-ence members cheer him on as he begins to shuffle the
cards for his magic trick.Garza performs street
magic at mall centers, par-ties and around town. His involvement increased this summer, but he has been in-terested in practicing magic tricks since he was 15. He was driven by people’s reac-tions and amusement.
As Garza stands onstage,
he asks for two volunteers from the audience. He has each volunteer deal out ten cards and count them aloud in front of the audience.
He attends lectures at “Ace Club” once or twice a month, with Bill Cook, 07’ graduate and professional magician.
“Since I was little, I liked magic, but I was just not really into it. I was kind of on and off, on and off; this year pretty much during the summer is when I got fo-cused on it,” Garza said.
Garza showed Jorge Perez, senior, his tricks, and they came up with the idea of recording Garza’s perfor-mances.
“He’s (Perez) one of my closest friends. In my lunch period, I used to show him and then he’s like ‘oh, you should go out there and show them,’” Garza said.
According to Perez, Gar-za performs his tricks dur-ing their lunch period.
“I’m the only one that he reveals his secrets to be-cause I’m the one who sees everything,” Perez said.
Garza used to practice every day of the week for two to three hours and on the weekends for five to six hours; however, because of his busier schedule, he practices only on the week-ends for four hours twice a month.
“He (Garza) picks up real fast so it’s not like I’m pull-ing my hair out,” Cook said.
“Garza will be nervous, but he will do fine (at the Vari-ety Show). If you’re not ner-vous you’re not prepared, nerves is the adrenaline that makes us do what we do.”
Garza became more in-volved in street magic due to his increased maturity and sociability.
“It takes out the nerves, like if you’re like a shy person, you meet random people and it makes you be more social, more active, not be shy to do stuff. When I started it, I was shy to show people; I used to be scared if I messed up or something,” Garza said
Cook works at PJ Trick Shop, a magic shop located in Milwaukee Plaza, where he has taken Garza to buy tricks. Garza learns verbal-ly and physically from Cook,
“He (Cook) guides you step by step in the tricks; when he teaches you, you’re doing it with him and at the same time,” Garza said.
Garza would like to con-tinue with performing mag-ic tricks only as a hobby but not for a career.
“My friends sometimes think it’s fun. My parents, they support me, they’re like ‘okay yeah that’s pretty awesome’ but they just tell me it should be like a hobby and my friends are like just keep going, if you really like something just go for it,” Garza said.
Garza will perform to-night at the Variety show.
Fernando Garza, senior, shows members of the Latino Club a card to remember. Garza will perform two new tricks at the Variety Show , tonight and Nov. 17 at 7:30 p.m. in the theater.
Frida Valdésfeature editor
Perla Jímenez
Q: If you could go back to freshman year, what would you do differently?: A: Probably pay attention
Q: If you had the chance to meet anyone in the world who would it be? A: It would probably be Kid Cudi because I like his music and he’s a good singer
Q: If you were a millionaire what would you do with the money? A: Probably help my friends and family
Q: What motivates you? A: My parents; they’ve always been there for me.
Q: What activites do you participate in at WHS? A: I play soccer and I’m on junior varsity as the center mid-fielder
Q: What are you looking forward to the most about the rest of your sophomore year? A: Getting to know people I didn’t know my freshman year
Frida Valdésfeature editor
Q: What are you hoping to accomplish in the next two years here at WHS? A: Graduate and sticking to soccer
feature 5Nov. 16, 2012spokesman
What started as a class assignment has since become a hobby and developing busi-ness to Maggie Scanlan, freshman.
It began in a seventh grade problem solv-ing class, when Scanlan was posed with the problem of “How to Survive Long Car Rides.” Her solution; Duct tape.
“I thought, duct tape. Duct tape fixes ev-erything,” Scanlan said.
She began by making simple woven wal-lets for herself.
“This kind of blossomed into me selling stuff,” Scanlan said.
Her self-run business took shape in late seventh and early eighth grade, about three to four months after she had discovered her talent.
Her products grew from things like flow-er pens and woven wallets to bigger projects like messenger bags, pencil cases, masks and baseball caps. Products range from bags, wallets and jewelry to school supplies, masks and gaming cases, with prices rang-
ing anywhere from a $1 pen to a $10 cap. “It usually starts with someone asking if
I can make something,” Scanlan said. She develops her creations by herself,
without the help of tutorials or instructions. The simpler products typically take about a day to make, while more complex projects can take up to a month.
When it comes to income, “business is kind of slow,” Scanlan said.
Not many people are aware of her busi-ness but take notice in the various products that she uses herself. People begin asking about her duct tape creations they see her with in the classrooms, which she hopes will lead to potential business.
“I think it’s really neat that she’s get-ting into business and making money for herself,” AJ Zepeda, freshman and friend/customer of Scanlan said.
Anyone interested in purchasing one of Scanlan’s products can email her at [email protected] or visit her Face-book page, Rebellious Love Duck Tape Works.
Most students carry their backpacks and athletic bags to school, while Wessam Shafek, senior, can be seen carrying a cosmeto l -ogy manne-quin which she prac-tices hair-styles on.
S h a fek l e a v e s school dur-ing seventh period and heads to E m p i r e B e a u t y School in Arl ington Heights un-til 5:38 p.m.
S h a fek also takes an entre-preneurship class, where she sells beauty products.
Beauticians deal with many styles of beauty treat-ments including hair styling, skin care, cosmetics and nail treatment.
“I was surprised how difficult it is because of the techniques you need to
learn,” Shafek said. Hair cutting and hair
perming are some of the things Shafek has done and feels proud of because of the challenging techniques.
“I didn’t always know that I wanted to be a beau-
tician; it was just something I wanted to do,” Shafek said.
In the past Shafek has col-ored and styled her friends’ hair.
“She was going to cut it (hair) in the past, but we never got to it because she has school and I work,” Mary Fink, senior, said.
D u r i n g eighth grade, Shafek began looking up dif-ferent hairstyles
which caught her attention.
She began practicing by styling and cutting her own hair.
“My goal is to hopefully have a salon and have an-other career to go along with being a beautician,“ said Shafek.
Shafek begins career as a professional beautician
Top Left: Maggie Scanlon, freshman, sorts through tools during the Variety Show rehears-al. Scanlan makes duct tape purses (Top Right and Bottom Right), flowers (Bottom Left) and wallets (Left).
Megan Provoststaff reporter
HorchersCountry Flowers: 847-541-3276
Buy a corsage get your boutineer free
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Top: Wessam Shafek, senior, finished a fishtail braid on Mary Fink’s, senior, hair. This braid is one of Shafek’s favorite braids to make. Shafek knows how to curl and do different types of braids. Shafek has also dyed her mom’s and friend’s hair. Bottom: Shafek makes a fishtail braid on Fink’s hair, during first period study hall. The fishtail braid is differ-ent than a traditional braid because of its complicated technique of pulling a thin strand of hair from the outside of the left section, pulling it over the top and then under the right section and repeating the steps on each section to finish the product.
Rossy Peraltastaff reporter
Photos by Rossy Peralta
“I love that I can never do the same things with each person. Every time is different, be-cause each person has a different personality,”
Wessam Shafek, senior
Top left photo by Kristina Piamonte and photos of products used from Maggie Scanlan’s “Rebellious Love Duck Tape Works” Facebook page.
6Nov. 16, 2012
spokesman
focus
Egger, Carvajal dedicate time helping children
Students at WHS are volun-teering their time by helping to teach the younger members of the community.
Although clubs such as Op-eration Snowball and Students Help Accept Diversity in Every Situation (S.H.A.D.E.S) vol-unteer at elementary school, individuals also go out of their way to serve the community through church sevices and youth groups.
Abbey Egger, freshman, has worked as a volunteer preschool teacher at Bridge Community Church in Des Plaines for the past three years and teaching Sunday school for two years.
She started volunteering when she first began attending the church in 2009, and a friend there heard that she was not in-
volved in anything in the church community.
She suggested the preschool group “Cubbies.”
“I didn’t really want to do it at first, but I didn’t want to be mean and say no,” Egger said.
She teaches for a few hours on Sunday and Monday nights in the church building.
“The children are adorable,” Egger said. “It’s something I look forward to doing every week.”
Her goal in doing this is to help set a good example for the generation that is going to take on the world someday.
“I tell the kids all the time to listen before they talk,” Egger said. “I want to create a com-munity full of good listeners.”
For anyone interested in get-ting involved in their commu-nity, Egger suggests volunteer-ing for something “you love or enjoy doing.”
“You’re more willing to do it and likely to stick with it,” Eg-ger said.
Likewise, Maritza Carvajal, senior, has worked as a youth leader at Mount Zion Church in Buffalo Grove since she began teaching Sunday school at age 11.
She wanted to be a teacher ever since she was little, and reli-gion was a regular practice, “so it was kind of an easy choice.”
“What I taught in Sunday school was more bible stories than real life, and I kind of want-ed to teach that,” Carvajal said.
She has taught the same group of children since she first volunteered and says she has enjoyed watching the children grow religiously and as people.
“It’s taught me that you can have an impact on people even by doing the smallest of things,” Carvajal said.
Her students are now middle
school aged, “so they’re not much younger than me,”
Carvajal is also involved in Student Council, New Dawns, plans to join the girls’ varsity soccer team and takes Advanced Placement classes, such as AP Psychology. Despite her busy schedule, she is able to take the time to teach and buy treats for her youth group.
“I can take mistakes that I’ve made and try and prevent them in them (the youth group),” Car-vajal said.
Her advice to anyone looking for volunteer work, or to work with children in general, is to stay open-minded because there are many different opportuni-ties.
Carvajal teaches Sunday school every Sunday from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. and is a youth leader every Monday from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. or 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Abbey Egger, freshman, helps a child at Bridge Community Church’s preschool program, “Cubbies,” put a puzzle together. Egger volunteers at the church every Sunday and Monday evening. She has been volunteering at the church for three years now and “still enjoys what she does.”
10 Facts About
Thanksgiving
In 1924, the first Macy’s Thanks-giving day parade took place in New York City.
It is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November.
Fact 1
Fact 2
Fact 3
Fact 4
Fact 5
Fact 6
Fact 7
Fact 8
Fact 9
Fact 10
The first Thanksgiving was celebrated in the fall of 1621 by the Plymouth Pilgrims.
The first feast was with the Wampanoag Native American Tribe.
The length of the feast lasted three days.
The Plymouth Pilgrims celebrat-ed Thanksgiving during their second year in the New World.
Thanksgiving was not a national holiday until President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed it 200 years later.
There are about 107 million American homes that celebrate Thanksgiving each year.
The most popular Thanksgiving spread includes turkey, cranber-ries, sweet potatoes and pump-kin pie.
Minnesota is the nation’s top producing turkey state.
Used with permission by Abbey Egger
Megan Provoststaff reporter
Infographic by Megan Provost
The U.S is known to be the most diverse country in the world. With a variety of cultures, celebrating Thanksgiving the “traditional” way is done with a twist.
What cultures celebrate this time of the year?
American Culture Italian Culture Latino/ Hispanic Culture Chinese Culture
Infographic by Megan Provost and Khadeeja Salehbhai
• Don’t celebrate Thanksgiving but have made the holiday their own by adding customs and tradi-tions
• Pay tribute to God and their families
• Food served: turkey, tamales, beans, rice, salsa and pumpkin pie.
• Celebrates with parades, festivals and community gatherings
• Pays tribute to the well-known turkey
• Food served: turkey, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie
• Usually when families play Christmas music for the first time that year
• Don’t celebrate Thanks-giving but La Festa del Ringraziamento, a variety of different religious holi-days throughout the year to honor patron saints.
• Food served: ravioli con la zucca (pumpkin ravioli) and roast turkey basted with pomegranate sauce
• Dongzhi Festival in December
• Day of family gather-ing and feasts
• Food served: Tangyu-an, balls of rice sym-bolizing reunion and sometimes cooked in sweet soup or savory broth.
focus7Nov. 16, 2012spokesman
Ebony Club, WPAC, Student Council run coat drive
This year on Nov. 5, for the first time ever, Ebony Club, the Wheeling Political Action Club (WPAC) and Student Council teamed up for the coat drive, which Ebony Club has ran for 15 years.
With the collected donations, adult coats will be donated to an organization called Journeys in Palatine.
All children’s coats will be given to District 21 to help pro-vide for students at Walt Whit-man and Mark Twain Elemen-
tary schools.“(This is) the first year
Student Council has been in-volved,” Sandra Chico, Student Council and WPAC sponsor, said. “We wanted to do a coat drive and so we worked togeth-er to help bring in more coats.”
Since Ebony Club already runs the coat drive every year, WPAC and Student Council de-cided to team up with the club to get more participation from the Wheeling community and school.
“It’s rewarding for me, and also for those who need help too because they are getting
what they need. They’ll be able to survive the harsh winter a little better,” Connor Leuck, se-nior, said.
Student Council runs an an-nual food drive every year, and while passing out flyers for the that, they advertised the coat drive along with it.
“We passed out close to 10,000 flyers in the Wheeling area,” Ms. Chico said.
She also said she “really did not know what to expect” because it is her first year help-ing with the coat drive, but she hopes that it will be a success.
According to Joyce Brewer,
guidance counselor and Ebony Club sponsor, the success of the coat drive has varied in years past, but she feels positive that this year will be a good year.
Ebony Club aims to help people in need in the Wheeling community and get more stu-dents involved with helping.
“It’s important to do commu-nity service,” Ms. Brewer said. “You know that there is a need.”
Ms. Brewer started running the coat drive with Ebony club after she saw that it was “some-thing the community could benefit from that wasn’t being done.”
Student Council donates more food to families
Above: Xavier Bravo, sophomore places canned vegetables onto the des-ignated table for Student Council’s annual canned food drive. This year, Student Council plans to feed 30 Wheeling families.Top Left: Julia Mach, junior, and Jacquie Gonzalez, sophomore, unpack boxes and bags to be sorted into certain categories of canned food. These categories include canned fruit, pasta, soup, meat and so on.Right: Cesar Mendoza, junior, and Tyler Levy, senior, stack canned soups to organize the hundreds of canned foods. This year, Student Council hopes to donate more food boxes to families in the community.
Student Council distrib-uted over 10,000 flyers on Saturday, Nov. 3, encour-aging people to give food, coats and recycled elec-tronics for this Thanksgiv-ing season with the annual canned food drive to help families in the Wheeling community.
People around Wheel-ing left canned food at their door, and on Saturday, Nov. 10, Student Council picked up the donations.
“It feels good to give back to the community,” Is-abel Chan, sophomore, said. “We don’t think about hun-gry people, and it’s good to be aware that there are fami-lies out there that need the support.”
Eighteen groups of stu-dents participated. In each group there were four to five students and they all collected food. More clubs, such as the National Honor Society (NHS) and Italian Club, are helping out with the canned food drive this year.
After the canned food is collected, it is put in boxes and sent out for families in need. This year the school did donations differently.
“Instead of keeping all
the food for Wheeling High School, we donated to three different places: Rodeo Club, Community and Eco-nomic Development Asso-ciation and the Mount Pros-pect Food Pantry,” Sandra Chico, Student Council sponsor, said.
With sorting and pack-ing, middle school students from Cooper Middle School came to help, along with Ro-deo Club representatives.
According to Ms. Chico, all the donating is done anonymously. The students that helped out will not know which family the cans will go to.
“Wheeling has good so-cial workers that are trusted by the students, and that’s how we help families in need,” Maritza Carvajal, se-nior, said.
On Wednesday, Nov. 14, Student Council will help load a truck to be shipped to the food pantry in Mount Prospect.
Also Raymundo Gala-zara, social worker and Snowball sponsor, will deliv-er boxes of food to families himself.
Each of the 30 families will receive three boxes of food for the Thanksgiving season.
Many of these families are a part of the WHS com-munity.
What are you thankful for?
“Not having a lot of homework; that way I can go to bed at a normal time.”Eric Ruttenberg, senior
“Friends and family that support me.” Julissa Hernandez, math teacher
“Music and dancing because I like country music. It expresses feeling and of stories, since I’m from the south it reminds me of home.”Molly Kalmes, sophomore
“Eating food (because) I like to eat food most of the time; basically because food tastes good.”Duke Lee, junior
“Spending time with my family and friends. I don’t see them often because I’m always busy.”Itsa Mandujano, freshman
Photo Opinion by Kristina Piamonte
Katia Bryhadyrstaff reporter
Kelly McKewinstaff reporter
Photos by Solinna Chong
8Nov. 16, 2012
spokesman
la voz
La quinceañera es el día cu-ando una niña se considera una mujer. Según los aztecas, cuando una joven llega a los 15 años, su madre debía enseñarle todo lo que necesitaba saber antes de casarse con su esposo futuro.
Hoy en día, una quinceañera se celebra con una fiesta, comida, favores de partido, y regalos. La Quinceañera lleva un vestido de fiesta, se arregla su peinado y se maquilla, y tiene su corte de 14 chambelanes y 14 damas.
Tradicionalmente, la quincea-ñera prepara una rutina de baile para sus invitados meses antes de su gran día.
Iliana Rivera, junior, tiene su propio negocio de enseñar Quinceañeras estos bailes.
Rivera dijo que se había hecho a la idea de comenzar su negocio cuando una de sus amigas, Yare-ly Muñoz, junior, le contó sobre una amiga que estaba prepa-rando su Quinceañera. Maritza Hernández, sophomore, le había pedido que Rivera le ayudara con su baile porque tenía problemas
económicos.Rivera es la maestra de cer-
emonias (MC). Su trabajo con-siste en introducir la corte y la quinceañera y asegurarse de que todas las danzas vayan según lo planeado.
“Ella es a menudo la que calma las muchachas el día de la fiesta justo antes de los bailes ... Yo veo un futuro para ella en esto porque ya es una par-te muy grande de su vida,” Manny Guzmán, senior, dijo.
Ella hace una c o l a b o r a c i ó n con su novio, Guzmán. Asiste a Addison Trail High School, ayu-da con la coreo-grafía y en algu-nas situaciones, es un escolta. Ri-vera y él han tra-bajado juntos des-de el año pasado.
“Es un honor no sólo llamarla mi pareja, pero tam-bién mi novia,” Guzmán dijo.
En algunos casos, han traba-jado por separado en quincea-ñeras.
“Me encanta todo lo relaciona-
do con una Quinceañera, a par-tir de la primera práctica donde la niña no tiene idea de lo que está pasando, hasta el día de la fiesta cuando se realizan delante de todos sus amigos y familiares” Guzmán dijo.
Rivera dice que ofrece un mínimo de tres danzas.
Esto incluye la introducción (entrada principal), vals y el baile
sorpresa.También incluye:
El brindis, cambio de zapatos, coro-nación, Las 12 ro-sas para la madre y el baile de padre e hija.
“Le pido a las chicas que me den ideas, para poderles ayudar a vislumbrar lo que quieren,” Ri-vera dijo.
El costo de sus servicios es de $ 400 por ocho dan-zas. Si desea pon-erse en contacto con Iliana Rivera
puede buscarla en Facebook.
“Siendo tan joven y haber tenido mi quince hace dos años, sé lo que estas muchachas están pasando,” Rivera dijo.
Club folklórico nuevo a punto de ser creado, es promovido
En los últimos años, es-tudiantes de varias culturas, no solo latinoamericanos han participado en bailes folklóricos no oficiales para WHS. Este año, el Club La-tino intentará juntar a estos estudiantes bajo la instruc-ción de Minerva Solano, maestra de baile.
Para juntar a los estudi-antes con interés en el baile folklórico, dos talleres de baile fueron planeados. El siguiente taller se llevará a plazo el lunes, 19 de Noviembre.
La Sra. Solano tiene var-ias actividades planeadas para el taller. Aparte de enseñar los pasos básicos de un baile foklórico, tam-bién planea modelar varios vestidos folklóricos tradicio-nales y enseñar un poco so-
bre la cultura latina.Gabriela Medina y Ber-
tha Sanchez, trabajadoras sociales, colaboraron para juntar a los estudiantes y promover que se reúnan más con su cultura a través del baile.
“Los hace sentirse me-jor sobre sí mismos cu-ando están representan-do su propio país,” la Sra. Sanchez dijo.
Cecilia Gama, se-nior, Arianna Roldan, ju-nior, y Alexis Counts, ju-nior, entre otros estu-diantes colabo-raron para promover los talleres. Counts diseñó el volante para y Gama y
Roldan apoyaron su desar-rollo y promovieron los eventos.
Roldan, entre otros de los que participaron, no sabía mucho sobre los bailes folklóricos. Esta fue la razón por cual los estu-
diantes más apoyaron a este programa fue por promover la cul-tura latina en los es-tudiantes.
“Si son latinos o no son latinos, los ayuda aprender un poco más sobre la cultura latina,” Gama dijo.
Los estudiantes involucrados esperan que la actividad se desarrolle después de las vacaciones de invierno y tener prác-
ticas los lunes de las cu-atro a las cinco de la tarde y prácticas opcionales en los fines de semana.
“Ella es a menudo la que calma las muchachas el día de la fiesta justo antes de los bailes ... Yo veo un futuro para ella en esto porque ya es una parte muy grande de su vida,” Manny Guzmán, senior
“Si son latinos o no son latinos, los ayuda apren-der un poco más sobre la cultura latina,” Cecilia Gama, senior
Iliana Rivera, junior haciendo un anuncio en una fiesta quinceañera. Rivera está a cargo de asegurar que todos los eventes van como planeados.
fotografía usada con permiso de Iliana Rivera
Perla Jiménezla voz editor
Antonia Arismendisstaff reporter
Perla Jiménezla voz editor
11 porciento los latinos decidieron el 11 porciento del voto popular, de 9.5 porciento en el 2008
17 porciento latinos son 17 porciento de la población nacional
23.7 millones latinos pueden votar
75 porciento de latinos votaron por Obama en el 2012
23 porciento de latinos votaron por Romney en el 2012
Preceded by a critically acclaimed performance on the X-factor, One Direction released its sophomore ef-fort, “Take Me Home,” on Nov. 13.
Despite the massive hype built around “Home,” the album fails to venture far from the debut, “Up All Night.”
The lead single, “Live While We’re Young” closely resembles their previous chart topping singles, while also maintaining the suc-cess. The teen pop track fea-
tures heavy production on a catchy chorus that exclaims the need to “Live While We’re Young.”
Despite a peak at num-ber three on the billboard hot 100, the group’s highest charting single in the U.S., “Young” ultimately fails to capture the group in their most powerful element.
Like “Young,” the major-ity of the album, including tracks like “C’mon, C’mon,” “Kiss You” and “Heart At-tack,” sounds far too ge-neric and ultimately fails to showcase One Direction’s stronger capabilities.
Rather, in the Ed Sheer-an penned follow up single, “Little Things,” One Direc-tion perfectly fuses a sense of fragility with powerful vocals and poetic verses.
While One Direction
continues to take over the world with their newly emerging sound, they re-semble “The Backstreet Boys” on some of the stron-ger tracks on the album: “Last First Kiss,” “Rock Me” and “They Don’t Know About Us.”
As they plan to con-tinue to promote “Home” throughout the rest of the year, One Direction will em-bark on a worldwide tour in 2013 with its first show in North America on June 13 in Sunrise, Florida.
Although “Take Me Home” fails to venture from their last effort, a few tracks manage to uphold the al-bum. “Take Me Home” will undoubtedly debut at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 according to Nielsen Sound-scan.
entertainment9Nov. 16, 2012spokesman
Ubisoft sets the bar with the newly released video game, “As-sassin’s Creed 3,” which has proven to be one of the best re-leases of 2012.
“AC3” redefines the beauty of video games with its magnificent settings, thoughtful characters and excellent cinematics.
The storyline follows Connor Kenway, a part-British, part-Na-tive American man who trains to become an assassin to ensure the safety of his tribe and to avenge the death of his mother. The time-line parallels colonial American history, and along the way, Ken-way assists in liberating the USA from British tyranny.
The game’s writers did an out-standing job weaving historical events into the plot of the game. As you unfold the convoluted storyline of the ancient conflict between assassins and templars, you witness major events in American history such as the Boston Tea Party, The Battle of Bunker Hill and even the signing of the Declaration of Indepen-
dence. Similar to previous Assassin’s
Creed games, “AC3’s” characters have realistic, fluid movements. These smooth motions are es-pecially displayed while walking through bus-tling towns or running amongst tree-tops. Com-bat, although simple, reveals dynamic kill combinations and creative assassinations c o n s i s t e n t t h r o u g h o u t the Assassin’s Creed series.
The Ubi-soft team also pushes the boundar-ies when it comes to the beautiful set-tings and the environment that develops around the gamer. As the game progresses, the world evolves, towns grow and seasons change. The stunning graphics and polished cinematic effects lend to the breathtaking gam-ing experience for which the As-sassin’s Creed series has been praised.
Although the experience may be breathtaking, “AC3’s” unre-fined controls and basic mechan-ics become overwhelmingly frus-trating during certain missions. As you free run through cities
and towns, Ken-way will climb anything in sight and unex-pectedly jump into nearby hay-stacks.
Despite the unrefined con-trols, “AC3” contains hours of gameplay, whether it be the main sto-ryline missions, c h a l l e n g i n g side missions or homestead mis-sions.
The Assas-sin’s Creed se-ries has been
a consistent example of dedica-tion to an engaging trilogy, and “AC3” does not let the franchise down. Its compelling story and fantastic graphics create an en-joyable experience and definitely outweigh the few slips presented. Overall, the game is a work of art and is the must-play game of the year.
AC3 sets high gaming standard
ONE D
IRECTION ONE DIRECTION
Keira Skenandore
One Direction fails to show growth
Robert Perales
Around the Town
The annual McDonald’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will take place on Nov. 22 for the 79th year. Nearly 400,000 people attend the event every year, as general admission for the holiday parade is free.
The Chicago Bears will continue their season on Nov. 25 at Soldier Field for their latest game against the Minnesota Vikings. Current Record: 7-2-0
Bank of America will host their annual Winter Wonderfest on Nov. 30 - Jan. 8 at Navy Pier. Rollercoasters, an icerink and an indoor ferris wheel will be present at the event. A $15 fee is required in order to participate in activities.
Thumbs Up...
Thumbs Down...
10Nov. 16, 2012
spokesman
forum
To the students and staff who voted. Thanks for contributing to a demo-cratic country and making your voice heard.
To the participants in the Hoops for Africa event that raised more than $1,300 going towards building schools in Africa.
To the encouragement placed on students to take AP classes and challenge themselves. Hard work? Yes, but the opportunities it brings for the future are worth it.
To the rotten fruit in the cafeteria. If students are forced to take a piece, it should be decent quality.
To not having more time off school during Thanks-giving break, especially since we did not receive Veteran’s day off. So much for spending qual-ity time with the family.
Walking through the hallways, we en-counter people from a wide array of back-grounds, but we are all linked by one fac-tor: We attend WHS. A community has the ability and responsi-bility to take pride in its surroundings and hold each other accountable for their actions.
Recently, Spokes-man became aware of events specifi-cally concerning two student-created Facebook pages that commit acts of cy-berbullying crimes. The students at WHS have a social respon-sibility to govern one another. They should discourage the dis-gusting comments written online, for it reflects on the school
badly. The pages fea-
tured pictures of girls and hatefully drew at-tention to several of their characteristics. The diversity at WHS is a distinct quality among District 214 that we pride our-selves on. Any attack to an in-dividual online is considered a hate crime and can leave long lasting effects on the victim. According to Pew In-ternet Research Cen-ter, one out of three teens are distressed, extremely upset or afraid of online ha-rassment.
It saddens our staff to see that the summer reading theme of overcoming adversity had no ef-
fect on the creators of the pages.
According to the i-SAFE Foundation, more than one in three young people have experienced cyber threats online. Unfortunately, we
have seen our peers from District
214 suc-cumb to bullying and take their lives
because of it. In order
for a change to occur, it is vital that not only the faculty take a stance but stu-dents as well.
According to Pew Internet Research Center, 95 percent of social media-using teens, who take no action, admit to wit-nessing cruel behav-
ior on sites. Of the 95 percent, 55 percent witness cyber bully-ing frequently.
It is our social re-sponsibility to put an end to the cyberbully-ing by flagging pages and informing others to report it.
Spokesman com-mends the District for quickly shutting down the page.
Whether we like it or not, pages like these reflect our school in a negative light. Further, they enhance stereotypes of WHS students, which effects every-body in the commu-nity, past and pres-ent. The capabilities of WHS are infinite, but we can not allow acts of bullying to overshadow the ac-complishments.
editorialCyberbullying sheds negative light
8 out of 8 members of the editorial board agree.
keira’s kartoons
To the new water fountains that promote eco-friendly lifestyles at WHS. So far it has helped eliminate waste from 2,103 disposable plastic bottles and still counting.
Spokesman Staff 2012-2013This is the official student
newspaper of Wheeling High School, 900 S. Elmhurst Road, Wheeling, Ill. 60090. Written, edited and distributed 8 times a year by advanced journalism classes, independent studies and other interested and qualified students. Produced by using desktop publishing and is print-ed by Son’s Enterprises, Inc., Skokie Ill. Mailed subscription $15 per year.
Letters- Spokesman is a lim-ited public forum and welcomes a free exchange of ideas from all readers. Readers are encour-
aged to contribute letters to the staff in room 137 or mail them in care of WHS. All letters must be signed. Letters may be edited for length, style, possible libel, clar-ity, and adherence to our pub-lication policies. Spokesman’s mission is to report the news ob-jectively and truthfully. We will print any known errors here in the issue following our gaining knowledge of the error.
Advertising- For infor-mation, call (847) 718-7114 Monday-Friday 7:25 a.m. to 2:50 p.m.
Corrections-Jenny Mendieta is a junior, not a sophomore on Page 2.Olivia Damaszk’s name is misspelled on Page 2.Matthew Kulczak is playing the flute, not the clarinet on Page 3. Elizabeth Smith was misiden-tified on Page 4. Carolina Figueroa is a sophomore, not a senior on Page 8. Brent Pearlman’s name is misspelled on Page 11.
*Staff members with asteriks are on the editorial board.
The Wheeling communi-ty is familiar with Wheeling Donuts. The little dough-nut shop by the train tracks owned by a petite Asian woman known as my mom.
While some peers think it is “cool” to have a family
business, I think it is quite the opposite.
Back in 2010, my parents bought the doughnut shop from a family friend. They were thrilled to have a shop of their own, and the rest of the family was willing to pitch in with shop hours, deliveries and more. We were like a family-working machine.
During my sophomore year, I would boast about my family owning the shop and would bring in dough-nuts.
Unfortunately, this golden moment died very quickly. My aunts and uncles became greedy with
the monthly salaries, took orders as insults and the family-working machine fell apart.
I remember walking into my mom’s office and seeing her cute physique fade: dark circles formed under her eyes, and her hair became a silvery white.
Along with my mom, my dad spent less time at home and more time at the shop doing deliveries and fixing the broken coffee makers. My family fell into ruins, and the only way out was to sell the shop.
My parents sold the shop to an experienced couple who also owned a cookie
shop in Mount Prospect. The couple was like an an-swer to my prayers.
With the shop out of the picture, my family was able to recover its wounds. We were able to sit down and have Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners as a fam-ily once again. We were re-united.
Two years later, my par-ents bought the shop back with a family willing to back them up. The differ-ence this time is my family understands there will be obstacles, and arguing will not solve them.
They have set aside dif-ferences and personal issues
to keep Wheeling Donuts afloat and serving the com-munity.
Family is one of the strongest ties in any rela-tionship. Family is an entity of people who are willing to make sacrifices, under-stand and stay humble for the sake of others; and that is what my family has built Wheeling Donuts upon.
Although we do run into issues ever so often, my fam-ily has learned to solve them together.
As my mom would say, “Wheeling Donuts does not just belong to our family, it belongs to the family of Wheeling.”
Family ties help surpass obstacles
“Generally speaking, what goes on online is a parent’s responsibility. When the conversa-tion begins to involve school, such as threats about violence at school, students should bring evidence by printing out conversations or snapshots of the screen to the deans. The deans can then see the participants of the conversation and what was said. The worst thing a student can do when they are bullied is to write something back. It’s like throwing more gasoline onto the fire. You are just chal-lenging them,”Dr. Kenneth Stiff, dean of students, said.
You can report the issue on f, wheth-er it is school related or not, by flagging the pages. Facebook holds violations against pornography, hate crimes, violence and threats, self-harm, bullying and misrepresent-ing someone.
Solinna Chong
How to report cyberbullying?
Editor-in-Chief*Megan Jones
Web Editor*Rosalie Chan
Associate Editor*Solinna Chong
News EditorRosalie Chan
A&E Editor*Robert Perales
Feature Editor*Frida Valdés
Focus EditorSolinna Chong
La Voz Editor*Perla Jimenez
Forum EditorMegan Jones
Sports EditorMegan Jones
Photo Editor*Kristina Piamonte
Broadcast Editor*Mark Tannous
Advertising ManagerMegan Jones
Staff ArtistKeira Skenandore
Staff ReportersMegan Provost Erik Hernandez Kelly McKewin Mike PinkPaige McCoyRossy PeraltaMegan BrezkaKatia BryhadyrChris NushAntonia ArismendisKhadeeja Salehbhai
Graphic DesignersHenry GonzalezNycole Garcia
Staff PhotographerJessie Livingston
AdviserJohn Uhrik
sports 11Nov. 16, 2012spokesman
While other schools like Rolling Mead-ows High School and Elk Grove High School have a designated student to be the mascot and pump up the crowd during football games, basketball games and other school events, WHS does not.
Willie the Wildcat has been the official mascot of WHS for as long as anyone can remember. He would make appearances during pep assemblies and games.
With the upcoming basketball season, any students interested in becoming a mas-cot should head down to Students Activities and talk to Dr. Steven May, Assistant Prin-cipal and Dean of Student Activities.
The reappearance of the mascot costume could be beneficial during football and bas-ketball games by pumping up the “soft-spo-ken crowd.”
The last time Willie made an appearance at a game was during a football game in 2010 and Pack the Place in 2011.
“The cheerleaders were arranging the Willies for a while but that stopped too,” Beth Anderson, athletics assistant, said.
Maggie Evans, senior, talked about her experience being a mascot during a football game her sophomore year.
“It was rubbery and smelly,” Evans said. “I did not like being inside. The head was very heavy.”
Her mascot partner, Angela Reinhart, senior, shared both positive and negative experiences about being in the costume.
“Being in the suit with Maggie was so much fun for the both of us,” Reinhart said. “But a lot of seniors tried to bring us down by not cheering with us and trying to make us look foolish, but we still made the best of it and had a blast”
More recently, Willie has appeared in the announcements for Homecoming and week-day introductions.
Want to make a difference?
HandsOn Suburban Chicago can help!
www.volunteerinfo.net
Volunteer tutor/mentors are needed M-Th at Holmes, London
and Cooper Middle Schools. Flexible schedule!
Environment Food pantry
To get involved, contact Emily Mihalcean, Youth Program Manager (847) 288-1320x106 [email protected]
Resale shop Visiting seniors
Assisting disabled persons And more!
Other opportunities include:
Who’s beneath t h e s u i t ?Mike Pink
staff reporter
With two new members of the coaching staff, Tim Nowicki and Don Rowley, girls cross country coaches, the team still managed to send three girls to Section-als.
“The season went great. We improved so much with
the new coaches (Rowley and Nowicki),” Marta Dzun-dza, junior, said. “The best runner on the team was me, but Melissa Rodriguez (freshman) beat me at Sec-tionals.”
According to Dzundza, the girls were more “com-mitted” this season.
“We were a lot more seri-ous and committed this sea-son than we were last sea-
son. New coaches brought a lot of good changes to the team,” Dzundza said.
According to Rowley, the record did not really show, but all the girls from fresh-man to varsity levels im-proved drastically from the beginning of the season to the end.
“This was a testament to how hard they worked,” Rowley said.
Mark Tannousbroadcast editor
Left: Marta Dzundza, ju-nior and girls cross country captain, runs during a meet. “This season was awesome. I couldn’t have asked for better people to be with me and two phenomenal coaches,” Dzunda said.
Erik Hernandez
With fall sports in the his-tory books, winter sports have now arrived, which means wrestling season is underway. The Wildcats’ first meet takes place at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 20 at home, and according to two wrestlers, Wheeling will win their division.
“I’m excited because every drop of sweat, every drop of blood and all the hard work will pay off when we bring Wheel-ing back to a division title,” Ricky Muro, sophomore, said.
Jacob Del Toro, senior, agreed with Muro.
“We’re going to be division champs. It’s that simple,” Del Toro said.
Last year, the team fell
short of first in conference by winning third, but WHS had a winning record of 5-2 in confer-ence.
“I’m excited for the season because of the time and effort my teammates and I put into the season,” Steven Montesi-nos, sophomore, said.
Neil Weiner, boys athletic director and P.E. teacher, coaches the varsity boys wres-
tling team. This will be Coach Weiner’s
27th season coaching the team at WHS, and one of the cap-tains, Sal Dominguez, senior, feels excited for the “young lineup.”
“I’m excited because we have a young lineup; everyone is giving their all, and that’s all I can ask for from my team,” Dominguez said.
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Girls cross country adjusts to new coaches
Mark Tannousbroadcast editor
Wrestling season starts with division title goal
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District 214 ponders insurance options
Gridiron Alliance, local advocates who reach out to paralyzed high school athletes, asked District 214 to consider a paid insurance policy that would cover student athletics in case of “catastroph-ic” accidents. The discussion arose at the school board meeting on Thursday, Oct. 18.
“The district should look into more insurance policies because there are many families who may not have insur-ance at Wheeling, and it would be nice to have more protection at athletic events,” Chad Mikosz, senior, said.
District 214 already offers optional student athletic insurance for in school and out of school hours. A special policy stands for football players that range from $30 to $400 premiums. The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) current-ly covers insurance during state champi-onships. Over 95 percent of high schools in Illinois lack insurance plans.
Dr. Dave Schuler, superintendent, plans to look into the costs of addi-tional insurance. A wait was placed on researching due to the new health bill coming into effect by President Barack Obama. Obama’s new Affordable Care Policy will affect prices in the next 12 to 18 months.
According to Mikosz, this would help take the weight of medical bills off a lot of people. He has seen students not par-ticipate in athletics because of the risk of not having insurance.
The lack of insurance has affected WHS specifically as Sean Murillo, ‘11 graduate, did not participate in football due to a health condition pertaining to his lung.
“My father had also lost his job the past year, and we hadn’t had insurance to where if I had gotten hurt I could be covered,” Murillo said.
He instead acted as a manager for the team his senior year.
“I think that if a student involved in athletics is not covered on a parent’s in-surance that in their registration a small fee could be paid to where the school could offer a very basic form of coverage so that the student could still partici-pate,” Murillo said.
According to Murillo, given insur-ance, he would have taken the chance to play in a heartbeat.
“Even though I still got allowed to be a part of the team, it killed to not be able to practice with my friends, let alone play,” Murillo said.
The request for D214 insurance was inspired by an accident 13 years ago at Rolling Meadows High School involving Rob Komosa, football player. He was in-jured during a practice after crashing into a fence post and left paralyzed from the neck down.
Komosa was awarded with a $12.5 million settlement as a result of his law-suit against District 214.
Deacon Don Grossnickle, member of the Gridiron Alliance, has been an advo-cate of Komosa’s injury and hopes to add more safety nets for student athletes.
The Gridiron Alliance cited District 218 schools that have been covering all their students since the 1990s.
Steve Herbst, a member of the Grid-iron Alliance, said that the group plans to have money for the policy drawn from gate receipts and concessions at sporting events, which would have “minimal im-pact” on the district’s budget.
The girls varsity and sopho-more basketball teams plan to participate in five community service events during their sea-son to promote team bonding and giving back to the commu-nity.
“It helps us bond because we get a chance to see each other when we are not in basketball,” Hailey Dammeier, sophomore, said. “We get to talk about stuff and get away from sports. This helps us to communicate better, get to know each other and bet-ter predict people’s actions on the court.”
On Thursday, Oct. 25, the girls helped with Hoops for Af-rica, sponsored by Interact with
Africa, which consisted of a students versus teachers basket-ball game. The event raised over $1,300, which will go toward giving children in Africa school supplies.
“That was just a fun game where we did what we wanted. When the season comes, we will be 100 percent in the game, go-ing hard the entire time,” Kait-lyn Debusk, senior, said.
In December, the girls will visit Addolorata Village, a retire-ment home, and sing Christmas carols to the residents.
“I think it’s very important that all of us understand we need to extend ourselves to the community to make it a better place. We need to realize there is a larger world out there than just us,” Lou Wool, sophomore
basketball coach, said.The entire girls team will
also participate in a basketball game and pizza outing that will take place in January at WHS with a Special Olympics team of children from the area.
“Last year, my favorite ser-vice event was with Special Olympics. I think it’s really good to give back to the community and help others in need,” Dean-na Kuzmanic, sophomore, said.
The fourth event will take place during winter break. The girls are going to volunteer at St. James PADS, a homeless shelter in Arlington Heights, for a morning. Last year, when the girls participated in this event, only the sophomore team went. This year, both the varsity and the sophomore teams will par-
ticipate in volunteering at the shelter.
At the shelter, the girls will collect clothes, food and help clean the building.
“These are things we strive to do every year,” Julissa Her-nandez, varsity basketball coach, said.
In the middle of their season, the team will read to elementary school students from Tarking-ton Elementary School.
“I definitely think it brings the team together. Not only are they playing basketball togeth-er, but they are also hanging out together outside of basketball,” Hernandez said.
The girls basketball team will play their second game to-night vs. Fenwick at 7:30 p.m. at home.
Girls basketball bonds over community service work
Godlewski advances to State
Brie Majkowski, senior, Elizabeth Smith, junior, Hannah Dobrowski, sophomore, and Jessica Zuba, senior, sit on the sidelines during Interact with Africa’s Hoops for Africa game, which featured a students verses teachers basketball game. “It was really fun to play against the teachers and with the boys, especially because it was for a good cause,” Majkowski said. “It wasn’t much of a preview to the season because playing the teachers is a lot easier than playing an actual game, but it was a very exciting and fun way to start the season.”
Frida Valdés
Paige McCoy staff reporter
Megan Joneseditor-in-chief
Theresa Godlewski, sophomore, stands in shock during her Sectionals meet at Stevenson High School after finding out she qualified for State.
Used with permission by Rachel Ropski
Theresa Godlewski, sophomore, not only con-tinued knocking seconds off her record breaking back-stroke time, she also quali-fied for State in two events during Sectionals.
Godlewski heads to State today at Evanston High School to compete in the 100-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke events.
“When Theresa qualified for state in the 100 free ev-eryone was just so excited and happy for her,” Lisa Hanrahan, swim coach, said. “Our fans in the stands were going crazy as were I and the other girls.”
After breaking the school record at her first home meet with a time of 1:01.48, she finished Sectionals with a time of 0:58.56.
She is the first State qualifier for WHS since Liseli Baich, ‘09 graduate, in 2009 in the 100-yard breaststroke. Wheeling has not had a female athlete qualify in two events since Kristin Stoudt, graduate,
competed in 1986. “I’ve never seen my
coaches and the girls so excited. We all had tears in our eyes as we hugged her. Just talking about it I get goosebumps,” Katharine Schwarz, senior, said.
WHS started off Section-als with a sixth place finish in the 200 medley relay made up of Shannon Rich-ards, sophomore, Emily Zieger, junior, Godlewski and Michaela Rozmus, ju-nior.
“The girls received a medal and got to stand on the awards podium. Being able to medal in the first event kind of set the mo-mentum for the rest of the meet and we had 100 per-cent of our girls get person-al bests,” Coach Hanrahan said.
Godlewski is seeded 32 in State in the 100-yard free-style with a time of 53.15 and 23 in the 100-yard back-stroke with a time of 58.56.
“When you look at the clock, it just proves to your-self all the hard work you put into it was worth it,” Go-dlewski said.
Megan Joneseditor-in-chief
