SENTINELC E N T R E V I L L E H I G H S C H O O L

PREVIEW TO THE ISSUE!

OPINION FEATURE DIVERSIONS SPORTS

september 2010, volume 20, issue 1

By Mackenzie carsonCentreville provides a variety of

clubs, not just academic. There are many unique clubs for everyone’s dif-ferent interests.

Fellowship of Christian Athletes

The Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) meets the first and third Thurs-day of each month in Coach XXXXX Spencer’s room at 6:30 AM. The club provides food while members cele-brate their faith with other students in the school.

“I am very passionate about my faith and my participation in athletics,” said Haley Diamond (12). “FCA is the per-fect place to share my passions for both with other people.” Diamond is one of the leaders of the club, along with Taylor O’Hara, Hanna Lee, Austin Er-ikson, and Nick Ziegler, with Coach Spencer and Mrs. XXXXX Yocum as faculty advisors.

FCA also provides a pancake break-fast for athletes during each sports sea-son, and has out-of-school activities like bowling night. They have food, fun, fellowship, and a great time!

Ukulele ClubOne of the newest and most unique

clubs at Centreville is the Ukulele club. The club was founded by Colin Fitt and is advised by music teacher Mrs. XXXX Gibbs.

“It’s a club for the promotion of inter-esting and abstract instruments,” said Fitt (12). “I can teach you any song on the ukulele if you ask. On days when we have no requests, we just jam out

on our ukes.” The club also has bass-ists, guitar players, and percussionists drop by sometimes, so it’s a diverse musical experience. The members are taught songs on the ukuleles, ranging from the classics like The Beatles and Journey to more modern music. such as Lady Gaga, Jason Mraz, MGMT, and The Killers.

The club meets every Thursday in the guitar room from 2:30 until when-ever they get kicked out.

Best BuddiesBest Buddies is a nationwide organi-

zation that many students at Centrev-ille proudly participate in.

“The purpose of Best Buddies is to create one-to-one friendships with stu-dents and students with disabilities.” Emily Mathias, said (12). “I am a part of Best Buddies because it is a great organization, I get to meet amazing people, and it is a lot of fun!”

Best Buddies is planning fundrais-ers for this year such as a car wash or a bake sale. In addition, this club teaches important lessons and skills to students, by encouraging the commu-nity to be more inclusive by building friendships.

Best Buddies International is work-ing on a campaign to get rid of the use of the R- word in an effort to eliminate people using it as a swear word. Best buddies meets once a month on Mon-days. Talk to Mrs. XXXX Hudson if you want to help out!

Key ClubKey club provides a service to the

community and looks great on a col-lege applications. They meet once a month and have an activity following each meeting.

“Key Club offers the students op-portunities to help their community in many ways,” advisor Mrs. XXX Balint said. “Students feel good about help-ing and volunteering, and they get their service hours for doing so. They also make new connections in the com-munity!”

The Key Club has adopted the Kath-ryn Hanley Shelter in Centreville. They collect toiletry items for the shelter and bring them in on a monthly basis. They also volunteer at the Northern Virginia Training Center. If interested, contact Mrs. Balint or Mrs. XXXXX Branch to find out how to apply!

To find the club that’s right for you go to www.fcps.edu/CentrevilleHS/clubs. (Is this editoralizing - who said this????)

A BreAkthrough in School SpiritDetermined to bring back school

spirit, the Senior Class has started the year off with tailgates and body paint-ing frenzies.

In the past few years the students at Centreville have noticed a lack of at-tendance at games, spirit weeks, and other school events. However, the Se-nior Class of 2011 along with SGA is making changes and students are al-ready getting more involved.

Centreville’s SGA classes are orga-nizing tailgates before the varsity foot-ball games in hopes of raising student moral for our football team. The SGA tailgates provide refreshments, chips, and even a potluck. “Now that SGA has made it possible for all grades to tailgate before the games we’re hoping that it will boost everyones school spir-it more than ever!” SGA board member Kara Dedon(12) said..

At the same time that the SGA holds their tailgates, the Senior Class is hav-ing a tailgate of their own. The seniors park in the junior lot and play corn-hole, listen to music, eat, and body

paint. To many it seems as if these tail-gates are actually raising school spirit. “A pep rally every Friday could get everyone pumped for the game,” Sug-gested Mark McCormick(12).

Apart from athletic events, SGA plans to hold more school related ac-tivities such as Movie on the Lawn and The Taste of Centreville. “Movie on the Lawn is great event that invites not only students but people from around the community,” Lauren Johnson(12) said. Although SGA doesn’t plan on having Battle of the Classes this year, they are replacing it with plenty of oth-er fun filled events.

The music and theatre department also orchestrate activities such as plays and concerts. Students should take part in attending these events as well, because supporting every aspect of Centreville’s shows our school spirit.

Activities hosted by the school not only boost school spirit, but it’s also a way for students to release stress. Stu-dent involvement is crucial to a good high school experience and Centreville High School is determined to make this year memorable.

By Salwa Touzani

Clubs Thrive with Variety Of After-School Events

FEatureAcademically Oriented Summers – Not as bad as they sound

As September draws to a close, many students long for the days of sunshine and relaxation that summer brings.

Many spent their summers relaxing by the pool enjoying the brief bits of freedom during the two months before the school year, bringing with it home-work and activities that make such relaxation virtually impossible. Some students spent a portion of their sum-mers at state institutions where they either studied their chosen academic discipline or how our government functions.

The Virginia Governor’s School pro-gram is a month long program, for all disciplines except the languages, which are three week long programs that teach students about whatever topic they apply for. The programs are held at different state universities where attendees will have the opportu-nity to meet other high school students from other parts of the state who have the same interests that they do.

At the Governor’s School for Hu-manities program held at Radford Uni-versity, students chose the class that they found most interesting on the list of choices when they signed up after being accepted to the program. There were a variety of choices that catered to every student’s specific interests, rang-ing from analyzing history through images to dissecting Chinese culture through food sampling and writing calligraphy.

However, the programs are not ex-tremely time intensive. Students were able to socialize between classes and on the weekends. “It seems like a lot of work over summer vacation, but it’s also a lot of fun,” Sapna Rao (11) said of her experience at Governor’s School for Agriculture this past sum-mer, which was held at Virginia Tech. “You really get to experience college life, and staying on campus and mak-

ing new friends is worth it.” Other students took advantage of

the Boys and Girls State programs, which are one week long programs that teach students about how govern-ment works. The two programs are run separately, and neither has the oppo-site sex present, creating a “tense dorm room environment,” according to Mi-chael Saboe (12).

This past summer the girl’s state program was held at Longwood Uni-versity, where the girls would start the day with an opening ceremony, where a government figure would speak with them, followed by the city sessions and then nighttime activities. The “City sessions” were the groups that the girls worked in all week, making taxes and charters and functioning as a “real” government would, with elected offi-cials and decision making policies.

The process was enjoyable though, and appears to have been more fun than boy’s state. “It was like cheer-leading camp,” Juliana Cuomo (12) said. “There was lots of cheering all day long and I literally lost my voice.” While the basic premise of boy’s state was the same, it seems as though the boys replaced “cheering” with “chant-ing.”

The boy’s state program was held at Liberty University this past summer, where the institution’s religious affilia-tion seems to have crept into the daily routine for the boys. The day would start off with a march to breakfast, fol-lowed by mandatory religious service after breakfast, a guest speaker, and mock governments after dinner.

“Boy’s State is run by the American Legion, which is all war veterans, so naturally it is very conservatively run,” Jason Dolinger (12) said. “Seeing as I don’t agree with their values and agree even less with them trying to push them on me, I had a rough week.” Some would still recommend the ex-perience if students have an interest

in government. “I think Boy’s State is a worthwhile experience if you are inter-ested in politics, other than that, I don’t recommend it unless you like military style morning routine and excessive ceremonial procedures,” Saboe said.

The programs can be beneficial in choosing a possible college and a pos-sible major once you’re accepted. “I hope that more high school students get the opportunity and find out about

the program because it’s such a good experience,” Rao said.”And it may help you decide what you want to do when you grow up.”

Overall, the Governor’s School and State programs are amazing academic experiences where a wide variety of students gather from all over the state. “I would definitely recommend that girls apply to girl’s state because it’s a very valuable experience,” Teresa Cle-menti (12) said.

Students Participate in Life Changing SummerBy daniela Medina

ADD A NEW LEADA HERE TELL-ING ABOUT THE STUDENTS - SO-EMTHING LIKE aARA dONOVAN, ANOTHER STUDENT, AND AN-OTEHR STUDENT SPENT THE SUM-ER HELPING OTHERS IN hONDU-RAS.

It was April 7, 1998 when Hurricane Mitch hit El Progreso, a small town in Honduras, forcing its residents to evacuate and find a new home. The new location where the Honduran people moved to was named “Siete,” which means seven in Spanish. This represents the day the people of El Pro-greso fled their homes, their lives, and their land.

For eight years the people of Siete were living in a town where running water did not exist and houses con-sisted of branches and scraps of metal. When the “Students Helping Hondu-ras” club (SHH) first arrived in Hon-duras, they were bewildered by how poorly the people of Siete were living.

“Despite the poverty that they lived in, the people and kids appeared to live happily,” Cara Donovan (12) said as she explained that soccer was the center of life in every village, and was the only thing that kept their spirits alive. Donovan was just one of seven Centreville students who took a part in this life changing trip. The day the stu-dents arrived in Honduras they were knocked off their feet by the pure veg-etation which surrounded them. “No matter where you went, you were al-ways in mountains,” SHH founder and President Michael Sabo (12) said.

The first thing on SHH’s agenda

was to move the people living in Siete to a new town called La Villa Soleada, which they hoped would have running water, electricity, cinder-block houses, and the biggest project of all; an or-phanage. The new orphanage was built with the intention that it would replace the existing State-run orphan-age, which is currently overpopulated with kids and is right next to a juvenile detention center.

When the students of SHH first went to the state orphanage, they were amazed by the lack of attention and materials that the kids received. “The kid’s clothes were torn apart, they wore no shoes, and the orphanage was completely empty,” said Stephanie Sor (12), another student who went on the trip. The second the students stepped inside the orphanage a throng of kids ran out to them and began tugging their shirts, hugging their legs, holding their hands, and looking up to them with empty eyes and fragile faces that ached for love. Since the state orphan-age only has one supervisor for every 50 kids, the children of the orphanage are always starving for attention.

After having seen the morbid con-ditions of the state orphanage, the students of SHH were motivated to work on the new orphanage in La Villa Soleada. This new orphanage will have several independent houses holding no more than 15 kids, and each house will have at least one supervisor. Re-gardless of how much work still has to be done, the SHH students contrib-uted immensely to the orphanage by building a tenet, which connects the

Katie Faughan Spends Summer in GuatemalaWhen students go back to school

and write about what they did over the summer, many respond with descrip-tions of camps, vacations, and how they spent the past couple months in Northern Virginia.

Katie Faughnan (12) had an amazing experience that many may never have. During seven weeks of her summer, she lived with another family that she hardly knew—in Guatemala.

When Faughnan was in fifth grade, Ana, a 13 year-old from Guatemala, stayed with her family through a stu-dent exchange program, which gave her an idea to stay with Ana’s family. “I was so afraid that I would forget my Spanish and I would make no friends,” Faughnan said, “and end up missing home the whole time.” Luckily, she fit right in after a week of meeting new people and adapting to another cul-ture.

Although she was really nervous at first, like most high school students would be, she quickly adapted to the people around her. “The first week at school was super awkward and embar-rassing because everyone just stared at me,” said Faughnan. “After that, the people in my class included me in everything, trips to Antigua, going to the movies, the mall, and just hanging out.”

Faughnan did all sorts of things there, such as spending a week on a Christian mission trip in the more im-poverished areas of Guatemala. They

held a bible school at Lake Izabal and played with the kids while the adults of the group spent more time on medi-cal care. They also did volunteer work in a trash dump as well as at a school called La Esculita. “It was extremely heartbreaking to be at that school be-cause my friends told me that the vast majority of boys over the age of 12 are forced to join the gangs that their fa-thers belong to,” Faughnan said, “most of which clash with each other result-ing in fights in school.”

While on the mission trip, she also got to have fun. “We also took a boat through the lake and into the rainforest where I saw monkeys and manatees in the water,” said Faughnan. They also experienced the natural habitat as well as the only black community in Gua-temala, Livingston, due to a slave ship that crashed on its travel to the Carib-bean 150 years ago.

The bonds that Faughnan made are so strong, even though the group of friends she made was only together for less than two months. “The people I went on this trip with became my best friends throughout the trip,” she said, “basically like the family I stayed with.” She went to school when she was there, but all she had to do was meet people and listen to what stu-dents learned about. “They nicknamed me ‘Chapinita’ (Guatemalan girl) as a joke because everyone called me ‘Gringita’ (American girl) as a joke at the beginning,” said Faughnan. Even though she was a new member of their community, she fit right in and made amazing friends.

Some people think that America gets excited about the Fifa World Cup, but everyone in Guatemala was ecstatic about it. “The day I arrived, there was a game going on and as we were driv-ing home from the airport we would pass random hoards of hundreds of people crowded around one small TV,” Faughnan said.

Another culture shock that she expe-rienced was the food. “They eat a lot of the same things over and over: platani-nas, fried plantains, and black beans were present at almost every meal.” The food was something she got used to, but the violence was an everyday reality. “Random trucks full of armed

soldiers filled the streets,” said Faugh-nan. “Little kids would walk through the streets selling food and doing tricks and such for money.”

Because of this summer’s life-chang-ing experience, Faughnan would strongly recommend an exchange for any student who is granted the oppor-tunity. “When I left they threw a going away party for me and gave me tons of gifts,” said Faughnan. “They even gave me a school uniform sweatshirt with my name on it to remember them by!” She hopes that in the future she can go on more trips to make great friends and learn more Spanish.

orphanage to the sewage, and by ce-menting the walls of the orphanage. In addition to their laborious work, these students also gave the orphans bags of donations containing everything from toothpaste to toys.

After a hard day out in the sun, the students would return to their hotel huts and refuel their energy with a plateful of fresh chicken, beans, rice, and hand-picked fruit for desert. Dolinger (12) recalls the tortillas as be-ing “out of this world” and the food as being “much fresher than anything in the U.S.”

Returning home was a culture shock for all of the students; however, de-spite the mosquito bites that covered their legs and their desire to sleep in their own beds, the students returned with a satisfied heart, knowing that they made such a difference for Hon-duran people. “This trip was more than eye-opening, it was life changing, Sabo said with a prideful smile.

by kristy mckain

by brynna heflin

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Senior College Information

•Nov. 6 – Last SAT and SAT 2 Test Date that can get submitted•Oct. 23 – Last ACT Test Date that can get submitted•Talk to counselor about letter of recommendation by end of first quarter (at the latest)•Pick up transcripts from Transcript Office •Get teacher comment forms (3) and turn into Coun-selor •Fill out Senior Questionnaire and Senior Parent Questionnaire•After Jan. 1 – fill out FASFA form for financial aid