Senior of the month
January’s senior of the month is Katie Pastirzyk. Katie is the daughter of Tom and Gail Pastirzyk of Irwin. Throughout high school, she has been a witness on the mock trial team, a crew member in Drama club, and a member of science club, F.C.C.L.A, and Interact Club. She has been on the varsity volleyball and track teams, as well as a captain of the cross country team. She serves as the National Honor Society president and has been the class of 2017 secretary for the past five years. Katie attends Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Marysville. Outside of school, she is a junior volunteer at Memorial Hospital and a Sunday school teacher at her church. When asked what advice she has for the underclassmen, she replied, “Always try hard, keep an open mind, and don’t let others define who you are.”
NHS News
By Carlee Rowland
After a relaxing winter break, NHS members are celebrating a successful Holiday season. Thank you letters have been received from families whom members helped provide gifts for this holiday season, as well as a thank you note from Lovingcare Hospice. As a service based organization, the NHS is pleased to see how their actions impact the community. In other news, members are eagerly preparing for homecoming week by sponsoring a school-wide dodgeball tournament. The cost is five dollars per person and teams are made up of no more than five people. Proceeds from the dodgeball tournament will go to Impact60, which is a local organization that helps at risk youth in the community. President Katie Pastirzyk says it is a “perfect way to motivate students to donate to a good cause.”
Freshmen begin 1:1
technology implementation
By Erin Ward
On January 9, right after returning from Christmas break, the freshmen class picked up their Chromebooks. The class of 2020 is the first class to do the 1:1 implementation, where every student gets their own computer for their high school career. There was some paperwork involved on the night of the 9th, including insurance, which is available for $40 per year, an explanation of what the laptops should be used for, and papers explaining how some teachers would be using them in their class. Students are expected to charge their computer to 100 percent every night, to bring it to every class, to always keep it in the case, and to not have any food or drink around it. The following day there was an assembly held in the morning to reiterate the expected use, and all the teachers talked about how excited they were to finally be using them. The students did not receive any training, as they have been using computers in school for years. However, the teachers have been training for this for over a year. They have had seven professional development programs, where they learned about Schoology (a technology based management system for education) and how to set it up with their classes. Mr. Carter helped train the freshmen teachers on how to use it and what he has learned about what works well and what doesn’t. He says that a lot of the teachers who have never used it before will have to figure out what works best for them. Freshmen, April and Ashlyn Ward were asked if they were excited about this new program. They said that the general reaction is good albeit somewhat mixed. They explained that most students are excited to have their own laptop but that it will take some time to get used to, and that a lot of students would still like to have paper copies of some work instead of doing it entirely online. They also said that many classes have not changed much yet, but some classes, like Mrs. Noland’s Crafts classes, are becoming more digital. In the following months, the students expect their classes to use Schoology more often and to have more interaction with their laptops in all of their classes.
Food classes holds Iron Chef competition
By Shannon Conroy
From Nov. 29 to Dec. 2, the Principles of Foods class, taught by Mrs. Falk, had an Iron Chef competition. This is a competition in which groups are given a “secret ingredient” and they then have two days to plan and prepare a main dish and dessert that include this ingredient. Thirty students got together in eight groups. Each group had one day to prepare, to get as much as they could ready and another day to create their dishes and present to judges. The judges were Mrs. Smeenk, Mrs. Morse, Mrs. Mitchell, Mrs. Wygle, Mrs. Payne, Mr. Wallace, Mrs. Clark and Mr. Montgomery. The students made dishes such as savory crepes, oven baked chicken, creamy spinach tomato tortellini, Danish meatballs with dill sauce, burritos, and pizza triangles and supreme pizza. They also made desserts like cream puffs, chocolate lava cake, cheesecake, chocolate chip cookie cake, churro bites and fruit pizza. From third period, Becca Scholl, Lexi Ruggles, Logan Stidham and Gabbie May won with Pizza triangles and Fruit pizza. From fourth period, Meghan McCaslin, Marisa Nicol, Mikayla Mansfield, and Brooklyn Kleiber won with Creamy spinach tomato tortellini and homemade cheesecake.
Interact Club holds toy drive
By Lydia Carter
The Fairbanks Interact Club held a toy drive throughout the high school from Dec. 5 to 15. Members of the Interact Club, which is a community service organization that extends from the Rotary Club, decided that they wanted to help families in need at Christmas. The school collected a total of 101 toys throughout drive. Mrs. Noland’s homeroom class collected the most toys, receiving cookies and milk as a reward.
The toys collected by the Interact Club, along with several boxes of stuffed animals collected a few months prior by FCCLA, were donated to the Plain City Daily Needs Assistance. The Plain City D.N.A., which serves local families in both the Fairbanks and Jonathan Alder school districts, then invited local families in need to choose gifts for their children at Christmas. The Interact Club is glad to have been of service to the community, and they look forward to planning their next event. New members are always welcome!
Guidance News
By Koryn Bosworth
All sophomores, juniors and seniors took the test Americanism test on Election Day in November. The top male and female scores for each grade go on to be the school winners. They then compete at the district level and if chosen, can go on to the state level. Sophomore winners were Charlie Scheiderer, William Findlay and Kate White. Junior winners were Noah Eubanks and Erin Ward. Senior winners were Keith Boggs and Maria Keller. They will be notified by the American Legion if they advanced in the competition.
Each year the top math student is chosen at the end of their junior year to receive the Honda Math Medal. It is based on test scores in high school math classes as well as standardized math test scores. This year’s winner was Lydia Carter. Lydia and her parents attended the awards ceremony at Honda in early November. Each high school in the counties in the Honda area chooses their top student to receive the Honda Math Medal. Honda hosts a wonderful reception for these students and they receive several gifts from Honda. In addition, if the winner attends OSU in engineering, they can apply for scholarships.
On Nov. 15 FHS cohosted a CCP (College Credit Plus) night at Tolles Career and Technical Center. All Madison County Schools, Tolles and Fairbanks joined in hosting the evening. College admissions counselors from Columbus State Community College, The Ohio State University and Clark State Community College were there to share information on their College Credit Plus programs. Students grades 6-11 (next year’s 7-12 grade students) were invited to attend. About 65 parents and students were in attendance with almost 50 of the participants being from Fairbanks. The college representatives shared the benefits and concerns of College Credit Plus. Currently, FHS has 2 CCP courses offered by Clark State in our building. Some students also take classes off site at the college campus or online. The purpose of the meeting: Each school is required to host a college credit plus night to share information on this program with their middle and high school students. FHS is looking to host another evening in January for those who were not able to attend or desire more information.
On Nov. 22 all FHS sophomores toured Tolles Career and Technical Center. This is a yearly event to introduce the program offerings at the technical center to our students as a career pathway they may wish to consider (or at least try out.) The tour involves students attending two programs of interest. Students spend just under an hour in each of their two program choices to hear more about what the program offers as far as training and the job prospects for those programs as well as post high school educational options. In many of the programs, students also experienced some hands on opportunities or observed demonstrations. On that day all of the Madison County schools also attend so it is a lot of coordination by Tolles, They do an amazing job of getting the students to the correct programs and providing a quality experience. Students selected their program choices in October after hearing a presentation from Tolles on the different programs. Students and parents can also watch many videos on Tolles website about the different programs they offer. Fairbanks had 27 students apply in December on the First Chance Application night and additional students have applied online since. Interested students will want to apply online at the Tolles website by January 22, 2017 to be considered for the Priority Application Deadline. Those that apply will begin receiving acceptance letters in mid-February.
Music department puts on holiday concert
By Kate White
The Fairbanks Music Department celebrated the winter holidays before the school break with a Holiday Concert full of spirit. Performing groups included the Youth Choir (grades 4-8), the Fairbanks High School Concert Choir, the 6th Grade Concert Band, the Junior High Concert Band, and the Fairbanks High School Concert Band.
The Choirs, directed by Mrs. Theresa Cooper, sang songs with rounds, harmonies, different languages, and melodies recognized easily by the audience. The 6th Grade, conducted by Mr. Ben Keller, played their first concert with pride and enchanting the audience with their performance of “Believe (from The Polar Express).
The JHCB, also directed under Mr. Ben Keller, played two Christmas styled pieces with a fast paced, action musical piece called “Into the Rapids.”
The FHSCB presented their winter concert pieces with a special narrator, Jeff Powell, English 9 teacher at Fairbanks, portraying the story of the Christmas Krampus quite convincingly with his costume and voice over to the rattling sounds of “A Christmas Tale.” The FHSCB ended the night’s performances with a standing ovation and many praises from the audience members. The next concert is set for early March.
FCCLA News
By Kira Jones
January is a special time for Fairbanks FCCLA. Those competing in this year’s regionals are beginning their preparation for competition. Regional competitions are held on March 11th. State competition will be next for those who move on. The state competition is April 27th and 28th. Nationals are the last stop for those members who work the hardest on their project and blow the judges away. This year’s FCCLA Nationals will be held in Nashville Tennessee!!
This year FCCLA will be holding a “Dude, Be Nice” week. “Dude, Be Nice” week will be held Feb. 13-17. Each day will have a different ‘nice’ theme to it. They will also be holding their annual Teacher Appreciation Breakfast on Feb. 17 in the morning. Also the next coffee shop is Jan. 27, HOMECOMING!!!
FFA Happenings
By Becca Scholl
In December the Fairbanks FFA chapter went Christmas caroling at nursing homes and also had a Christmas party! The month of January is a busy month of planning! They have set a date for the FFA banquet as well as this year’s theme, and many of the members are busy finishing their SAE’S (Supervised Agricultural Experience), State Degrees, and American Degrees. The officers are working on their officer books too. The chapter has also planned community service projects to do.