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BW Theatre Presents 2013 Contest Drama
As the play opens, Brooke Wyeth (senior Taylor Keel) returns home to Palm Springs after a six-year absence. She is home to celebrate Christmas with her parents (senior Lauren Jones and junior Jacob Cange), her brother (senior Connor LaVelle), and her aunt (senior Emma Geiger).
Brooke announces that she is about to publish a memoir dredging up a pivotal and tragic event in the family’s history—a wound they don’t want to reopen. In effect, she draws a line in the sand and dares them all to cross it.
The contest play offers a unique opportunity for drama students. The play must be performed within a 40 minute time period, and student technicians have 20 minutes to set and clear the stage for performance. Other Desert Cities will compete against other area schools to win a berth in the IHSA state tournament. This year’s sectional competition will be held at Belleville West High School on Saturday, March 16.
The production is directed by Ms. Laurie Bielong and Mr. John Lodle. Student directors are junior seniors Becca Cole, Danny Hubbard, and Rebecca Rockwell; juniors Nick Klein and Ethan Seaman; and sophomores Tyler Herron and Noah Murakami.
The March 14 performance is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. in the Belleville West Performing Arts Center, located at 4063 Frank Scott Parkway West. Tickets are $3 for students and $5 for adults.
Harambee Prepares for Grade School Performances
During the month of March, members of the Belleville West Harambee organization will travel to local grade schools to perform their 2013 show, BElieve in YOUrself. Below are pictures from the February 6 Harambee performance at Belleville West High School.
(Photos courtesy of Danielle Warfield, Belleville West Hy News staff)
Speech Team Qualifies Members for National Tournament
At district competition for the National Forensics League (NFL), four members of the Belleville West Speech and Acting Team qualified for national competition: senior Lauren Jones and junior Koltin Schlich in duo interpretation, sophomore Bethany Dain in original oratory, and senior Cody Essien in dramatic interpretation. These students will travel to Birmingham, Alabama, for the national tournament in June.
Congratulations to speech team coaches Mr. Adam Jenkins and Mr. Russ Reidelberger and to their team members!
Sophomores Visit St. Louis HMLC
Sophomores enrolled in English 3-4 with Mrs. Julie Spriggs and Mrs. Jules Hunter recently visited the St. Louis Holocaust Museum and Learning Center, where they listened to a Holocaust survivor and toured the museum’s exhibits. The students participated in this trip after reading two accounts of the Holocaust—Elie Wiesel’s Night and Art Spiegelman’s Maus.
The trip was made possible through a grant from Target.
BW Publications Excel at SISPA Conference
Congratulations to the HY NEWS and BELLEVINOIS staffs, who competed at the Southern Illinois School Press Association’s Winter Conference on Wednesday, February 27, at SIU Carbondale.
The Hy News received the Blue Banner Award for Overall Excellence.
In the mail-in Best Story Contest, Hy News took many awards:
Best Feature Story: Bethany Dain, first place and second place; Sydney Jones, third place
Best Sports Column: Joey Hasenstab, first place and second place; Cole Henke, honorable mention
Best Sports Feature Story: Mackenzie White, first place; Brendan Saak, third place; Cole Henke, honorable mention
Best Sports Story: Cole Henke, first place
Best In-Depth Story: Kirsten Couvillion, first place; Kirsten Couvillion, Vimal Patel, Matthew Stehnach, second place
Best Art: Kayanna Clark, first place and second place
Best Editorial Column: Johnathan Marchbanks, second place; Joey Hasenstab, third place; Jacob Cange, honorable mention
Best Cartoon: Kayanna Clark, second place
Best Editorial: Johnathan Marchbanks, second place
Best Review: Jacob Cange, second place
Best Cub Division: Jake Bernstein, second place; Bethany Dain, 2 honorable mentions
Best Interview Story: Kirsten Couvillion, third place; Sarah Mitchell, 2 honorable mentions
Best Front Page Layout: Staff, third place
Best Advertisement: Jordyn Marchbanks, honorable mention
Best Computer Produced Graphic: Johnathan Marchbanks, honorable mention
Best Featurette Story: Rosa Millsap, honorable mention
In the mail-in Yearbook Contest, the Bellevinois took the following award:
Best Cover: Hannah Bernardini, honorable mention
Additionally, in the On-Site Contest, the Maroon journalists claimed the following awards:
Vimal Patel, first place, copy editing
Rosa Millsap, first place, feature writing
Cole Henke, first place, sports writing
Joey Hasenstab, second place, sports writing
Keaton Cheffer, first place, photography
Sydney Jones, first place, senior interview feature writing
Tyler Fedak, second place, news writing
Sam Geiger, honorable mention, news writing
Johnathan Marchbanks, honorable mention, editorial writing
Mike McCrane, honorable mention, yearbook sports copy
Alex Mitchell, honorable mention, yearbook feature writing
Harambee Students Share Original Poetry: BE YOU
Members of the Harambee organization composed the original poems below for the 2013 Harambee show, “BElieve in YOUrself.”
FLY FREE
Krystian Jones
Who am I?
You tell me.
What to wear.
How to style my hair.
Who to be.
I’ll follow you blind,
Till that fateful day when
the fog lifts away and I gain
my own mind
You say the grass is greener
where you stand but, it looks so
crowded. Out there in no mans land.
I realize my wrongs. I should have put me
first when I was on top, on bottom, at my
best and at my worst.
I should’ve let myself be me.
Because every one knows a caged
bird was meant to fly free.
I’M ME
Ka’Lynn Price
I’m not the prettiest
I’m not the smartest
I’m not the perfect dancer
I’m not the perfect singer
I don’t always get accepted
I get hurt and fall
And so you ask who am I?
I am me
I’m not pretty, but I am beautiful
I’m not the smartest, but I am wise
I dance to my own beat
And sing to my own tune
I’m no longer afraid of rejection
I will be okay and make it
You can’t knock me down
I’ll always get up and stand tall, after a fall
I shine bright like a diamond
I’m simply me
Because I believe in myself
BELIEVING IN YOURSELF
Khandice Lofton
Believing in yourself is the least you can do
Have a dream like Dr. Martin Luther King
Rise through the clouds like Maya Angelou
Reach for the stars like Oprah
Despite what other people say
The world really is ours
Yes We Can!
Rise from the bottom
Dream for a better life
And reach for the top
To be all we were meant to be
Like President Barack Obama
Any of these historic people will tell you to believe in yourself
Because no matter what you do
You can’t be anyone better than just being you
PEOPLE ALWAYS TELL ME TO BE MYSELF
J’Ambre Chalmers
Who are you?
People always tell me to be myself.
Be yourself, what does that mean?
To be like everyone else?
Just add a little twist?
Be like him?
Be like her?
With just a little bit of a kick?
What does that mean be yourself?
Who am I?
How am I defined?
Is it by the color of my eyes?
By the shape of my body ?
By my curves or by my lines?
But wait why should that matter?
The only thing that counts is the size of my heart.
Who am I you ask?
I am strong.
I am independent.
I am confident.
I am courageous.
I am confident.
And a little mischievous.
And best of all I am African American.
I am me, who are you?
SELF-BELIEVING
Jayla Owen
Everybody goes thought that stage of doubt.
Like not thinking you can fish the race.
Don’t doubt yourself. If anything, challenge the odds.
Finish the race to the best of your ability.
Go through with it and make it happen.
Believe, just believe, and if you do that you will accomplish so much more.
UNIQUE
Marquez Scoggin
Unique, a word that describes everyone:
no two people the same
But what makes you different &
What makes you stand out from the rest?
What makes you deserve to be described as unique
Believing in yourself
If you don’t believe, then who will
you direct the path of your own destiny
You make the sun shine, as bright as you want it to
By believing
Believing in yourself because you are unique
Thanks to Ms. Carnetta Chalmers, Harambee sponsor, and to Ms. Megan Hoelscher, who worked with the Harambee poets.
Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors Approach One Million Pages
The freshmen, sophomores, and juniors have started the second semester with a lot of reading!
At the end of the fourth triad, the freshman class has read the most total pages this year, with 867,416 pages of pleasure reading. (That’s more than 85% of the way to one million pages!) The freshmen read 211,058 pages in just the fourth triad, the most pages of any class during this triad. That’s an average of 328 pages per freshman during the fourth triad. These freshman classes all read more than 10,000 pages during the fourth triad:
Mrs. Thurnau—3rd hour: 16,171 pages
Mrs. Spriggs—1st hour: 15,949 pages
Mrs. Spriggs—2nd hour: 12,115 pages
Mrs. Thurnau—5th hour: 11,937 pages
Ms. Bielong—1st hour: 11,701 pages
Mrs. Thurnau—6th hour: 10,841 pages
Ms. Ursani—1st hour: 10,371 pages
Ms. Sage—5th hour: 10,240 pages
Ms. Ursani—2nd hour: 10,214 pages
The junior class has read 745,686 pages of pleasure reading for the year, almost 75% of their goal. The juniors read 157,922 pages in the fourth triad. That’s an average of 304 pages per junior during the fourth triad. These junior classes all read more than 10,000 pages during the fourth triad:
Dr. Roberts—4th hour: 16,230 pages
Dr. Roberts—6th hour: 14,573 pages
Ms. Chalmers—6th hour: 14,452 pages
Ms. Chalmers—4th hour: 13,714 pages
Mr. Brunner—5th hour: 12,955 pages
Mr. Brunner—1st hour: 11,607 pages
The sophomore class has really stepped it up. The sophomores have surpassed 70% of their goal, with 714,002 pages of pleasure reading for the year. The sophomores read 203,752 pages in the fourth triad—that’s over 45,000 pages more than the junior class (and only 7,000 pages less than the freshman class). That’s an average of 368 pages per sophomore during the fourth triad—better than the freshman class or the junior class! These sophomore classes all read more than 10,000 pages during the fourth triad:
Ms. Bielong—6th hour: 24,604 pages
Ms. Bielong—5th hour: 16,934 pages
Ms. Rakers—7th hour: 15,262 pages
Mr. Reidelberger—3rd hour: 13,113 pages
Mrs. Hunter—4th hour: 12,497 pages
Mrs. Lewis—6th hour: 12,226 pages
Mr. Johnson—2nd hour: 11,318 pages
Ms. Rakers—1st hour: 10,758 pages
The teachers in the English department read 22,485 pages of pleasure reading during the fourth triad—an average of 1,124 pages per English teacher! So far this year, all BW teachers combined have read 113,479 pages of pleasure reading.
Can the freshmen reach one million pages by the end of the fifth triad? Can the sophomores maintain their pace and read more pages than the other classes during the fifth triad? Can the juniors regain their competitive edge from the first semester?
Keep reading, Belleville West!
BW Senior Finishes Second in State
Senior Cody Essien took second place in Dramatic Interpretation at the IHSA State Speech Tournament on Saturday, February 16. Cody performed a selection from the piece The Rules of the House.
Congratulations to Cody and to Belleville West speech coaches Adam Jenkins and Russ Reidelberger!
BW English Teacher Sponsors “Couch to 5K” Warm-Up
The Belleville West Health Club, co-sponsored by English teacher Jules Hunter, is hosting a “Couch to 5K” program to help people train for their first 5K race. The program is open to all students, teachers, and Belleville West staff members, as well as any community members who would like to participate.
Monday, February 11, the program kicked off with a one-mile timed walk/run, and the group plans to meet every Thursday and every other Monday at 3:45 PM at the track. The goal of the program is to help people become more active and get into shape.
Currently, the Health Club is working to schedule various workout nights including a Zumba class night, a workout night with a local trainer, and other options that are still in the works. The group is training for the 5K Race for Character, which will take place on March 23 at 9AM at Belleville West.
For more information, please contact Jules Hunter at jchunter@bths201.org.
Auditions for Spring Musical are Just Around the Corner
Auditions are quickly approaching for this year’s musical, NINE TO FIVE. Interested students can pick up audition packets in room B327 or in room B236. Auditions will be held in the Performing Arts Center after school on Tuesday, February 19, and Wednesday, February 20. Students from all grade levels are welcome to audition.