![Walking through the tunnel created by the cheerleaders and Celebrities, senior Frances Tran smiles as the soccer team is sent off during DEN for their playoff game against Rouse tonight. Tran said the wins against Smithson Valley and Alamo Heights gave the team a morale boost to take on the Raiders tonight. “I know we were not 100% confident in those games,” Tran said. “But, Rouse is a big opponent for sure. We’re definitely going into tonight with a lot of morale [because of the previous wins].”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/frances-tran.jpg)
![Holding a bucket of materials in one hand and a roll of tape in another, anatomy and biology teacher Tyler Terry prepares for a lab. Terry said his proudest moments are when his students are happy to see him. “When I take my wife to a football game or something and a bunch of students want to say hi to me or they like to smile and wave and it just makes me feel good that the students are really kind and supportive of me,” Terry said. “[I’m also] proud when I see students perform really well in their extracurriculars because I can see how hard they’re working in my classes, [so] when I see that they’re also working so hard in other things. Like they’re winning band competitions or they’re getting awards for their theater productions, or I see them put on their choir shows, that’s like, wow, you guys are incredible.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rags-6.png)
![Catching a ball, junior Alivia Robinson plays at the Cedar Park vs Glenn game. Having played since she was 5 years old, she is dedicated to softball and has committed to UTPB for softball. “When I got my offer it took me a very long time to decide where,” Robinson said. “Softball has always been my dream for college, and UTPB is my fit. When [I committed] I knew I was going to be loved and supported.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Lilly-Adams-3.13aliviaedit-901.jpg)
![Holding her dog, Nova, senior Ariana Balakrishnan poses for her senior pictures while Nova wears a bandana with her college decision. Balakrishnan applied to 18 colleges in total, but she decided on Columbia in the end. “Right before I clicked the button to open Columbia’s letter, I literally looked at the camera and go ‘This is just gonna really suck because I wanted it so bad,’ and I clicked it and all of a sudden you hear trumpets,” Balakrishnan said. “There’s a video that plays when you open it and I actually didn’t watch the video, I just watched the screen go black, because every day of December before ED [Early Decision] I would go on YouTube and watch the acceptance video to manifest it, so immediately when the screen went black, I started screaming and jumping up and down. And my parents in the video are like ‘What are you doing, where’s the letter,’ and I was just screaming ‘I got in, I got in.” I just started crying, and it just felt like everything in the world came together.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/ariana-2-300x217.jpg)
Cedar Park’s culinary arts program is one of many proud organizations at this school. Not only do they hone their cooking skills in class, they also host luncheons for teachers, cater for outside events and even attend events to further their culinary knowledge.
On October 28, the culinary art class volunteered at the Ben E. Keith food show. The class helped set up tables and booths for vendors, local and corporate, to show off their food products. The vendors ranged from Tyson and their meat products, to those selling green, all natural food and farmer’s market soda. However the sponsors of the food show had a surprise for the students, they set up a competition where Cedar Park’s culinary program split up in to five teams of two and competed against each other.
“The competition was my favorite part [of the food show],” Mariela Barrera, senior, said. “It was exciting and fun.”
The five teams had 30 minutes to find ingredients from the different vendors around the show, and then another 30 minutes to cook. Although this was a surprise for everyone in the class, most felt at ease.
“I thought it was fun,” Kaitlin Bachman, senior, said. “It was good for us as a class to compete in something, and it felt more relaxed because it was against the class and you knew what we were up against.”
Each team finished their dish within the time limit, and Eric Early and Erika Depperschmidt, seniors, finished first in the competition. Their dish consisted of Israeli cous-cous, seared bison, bacon-wrapped shrimp and ancho chili cream sauce with crab.
“I didn’t expect to win, and I don’t think we would have if we didn’t ask the judges to try our cous-cous,” Early said. “That was definitely what caused us to win.”
Though the win was unexpected, Early and Depperschmidt won a 750 dollar travel gift card, a knife set and a skillet-shaped trophy.
Cedar Park High School should be proud of the culinary arts department as they continue to cook with the upmost professionalism and skill.
