Senior of the month
Kayla Green is the daughter of Kevin and Polly Green of Marysville.
She’s a four-year member of the varsity soccer team and has also been a member of the track team. She has advanced to the state meet each of her three years of competition.
As a freshman, she was all-state in the 4×200 meter relay and last year, she broke the school record in the 300 meter hurdles and finished sixth place in state. She has been involved in mock trial and has participated in 4H for three years and was the treasurer of her club.
She attends Marysville Church of the Nazarene and is active in its youth group, where she takes part in various volunteer activities, as well as the praise band. She is enlisted in the Ohio National Guard and completed basic training this summer at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
After graduation, she plans to continue her work with the National Guard while attending a four-year university. She plans to study communications with the hope of eventually attending law school.
“High school is not forever,” she said. “Don’t get caught up in trying to fit in, because trying to fit in means losing sight of who you are or who you want to be.”
Mrs. Nagy’s speech class
By Erin Ward
Fairbanks High School is offering a new public speaking class this year.
This speech class is teaching students vital skills that they will need for life. The class is taught by English teacher Sarah Nagy, who has been teaching at Fairbanks for three years. However, with only five students in the class, it might be a surprise it was offered at all.
There were several elective English classes students could choose to take this year, including classes about Shakespeare, pleasure reading and grammar, but this speech class is the only one that made it as a class this year. As part of the public speaking experience, some of the students in the class did the announcing for Fairbanks’ Senior Night and homecoming ceremonies this fall.
The students started off the year with a 30-second elevator pitch, where they had to tell the class about themselves. However, since there are only five students in the class, they had to expand their audience. A couple weeks ago, the students had to do a presentation using the study hall class as their audience.
Another project they had to do this year was a college-style interview with principal Tom Montgomery and superintendent Bob Humble. Speech class student Kira Jones said the interview was “nerve wracking,” but that it has helped her prepare for life outside of school, like applying for jobs and going to college.
International club honors Dia De los Muertos
By Koryn Bosworth
Day of Dead, or Dia de los Muertos, a holiday celebrated by Hispanic cultures of many nations, was celebrated at Fairbanks on Nov. 1 and 2.
A group of students came together to learn about this special day by coloring sugar skulls and lining them around the room of Spanish and French teacher Catherine Wilburn. These students now know more about the history of Day of the Dead and the traditions that mean so much to millions of people around the globe.
The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It is particularly celebrated in Mexico, where it’s a national holiday.
The celebration is a connection with the Catholic holidays of All Saints’ Day and All Souls Day. Traditions connected with the holiday include building altars honoring the deceased at their graves using sugar skulls, marigolds and the favorite foods and drinks of the departed.
It is a momentous occasion and consists of days full of life, love and happy memories.
Poe projects
By Kate White
In September and October, Jeff Powell’s freshman English classes took part in Poe projects.
He has assigned this project for his freshmen classes for several years. Students are split into groups, with each assigned a short story written by Edgar Allen Poe.
For the assignment, each group reads their story, films their reenactment, creates a vocabulary list of words they didn’t know in the story, makes a diorama of a major scene and writes an essay about the story. They also present their story to the class.
Powell has his students complete this project to teach them life skills on working together in a group and cooperation. The students will also be exposed to writings from a different era and be given new techniques and realizations about writing stories.
Students enjoy this project due to the interactive nature of tasks assigned and the creative outlet of doing something other than writing a research paper.
FAFSA workshop
By Coree Gifford
A workshop dedicated to teaching Marysville and Fairbanks students about filling out their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) paperwork was held on Nov. 14 at Marysville High School.
The purpose of this workshop was to give seniors and their families a better concept of FAFSA and how it works. With the schools being so close, it was easier for both schools to come together and share the event.
This is one big step in being able give high school seniors the opportunity to go to college.
FCCLA happenings
By Kira Jones
FCCLA has some busy months coming up.
With the annual father-daughter dance that’s days away, everyone’s pitching in. FCCLA has members coming in at 2 p.m. to start decorating for the event for Saturday, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Fairbanks Elementary’s fathers and daughters are welcome to attend.
Also coming up in December is the Jolly Jingle Holiday, hosted by the elementary parent-teacher organization. FCCLA has helped with the event for the last few years. Members help kids shop for gifts, decorate cookies and run other fun activities. Jolly Jingle will be held on Dec. 2, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., at the elementary school.
FFA news
By Grace Blumenschein
On Nov. 7, nine Fairbanks FFA members competed in the subdistrict Food Science and Job Interview competition.
The food science team did very well and competed at the district level Thursday. The food science team featured Audrey Scheiderer, Olivia Madden, Grace Blumenschein, Elizabeth Lowry and Alexis Ruggles.
The job interview competition team had senior Rebecca Scholl, junior Austin Becker, sophomore Abby Underhill and freshman Kaleb Boyd. Three of those four students advanced and will also be competing at the next level competition at Buckeye Valley High School.
In addition, the FFA chapter has an advanced team and a novice parliamentary procedure team. They will compete on Nov. 30. This team is comprised of eight members on the novice team and six on the advanced team. Both teams are practicing very hard and are prepared and excited for the upcoming event.
NHS news
By Shannon Conroy
The Fairbanks National Honors Society (NHS) has many activities planned in the near future.
During the past month, a blood drive was held, where they were able to get 15 pints of blood donated to the American Red Cross.
On Dec. 9, the NHS will have members attending the Union County Care Train to be auctioned off to work on mulching a community member’s yard. There will also be members volunteering to help work the auction.
This Sunday, a few members will begin shopping to provide a Thanksgiving meal for a family in the community. They will also be adopting a family to provide Christmas presents to them.
As an update on NHS committees, the Brookdale committee visits the Brookdale nursing home for one Monday each month to play games with the residents. The Gables committee visits the Gables nursing home to help residents play bingo for one Wednesday each month.
The last committee, Adopt-a-Highway, has not met yet to pick up trash on Route 38 surrounding the high school, but they plan to meet in the near future.
Fairbanks celebrates Harvest Night
By Jordan Curry
To celebrate agriculture as a whole, Fairbanks designated the Oct. 13 football game as Harvest Night.
Harvest night was the theme and the Fairbanks FFA set up a booth where fruit and other items were sold to the crowd as they walked into the stadium. “Agriculture is a big part of our community,” said Fairbanks FFA president Becca Scholl. “Having a harvest night is really great because it’s like everyone coming together as farmers.”
Overall, the first Fairbanks Harvest Night was a success, as the students and the community enjoyed having a night dedicated to the local farming culture.
“We are hoping that this is something that we are able to do annually,” said Fairbanks athletic director Larry Morris, who was the organizer of the night. “I hope the FFA will embrace this themed football night and we can plan some more activities for the future.”
The FFA hopes to continue this football Friday night theme in the future.