![After placing second in their respective LDEs at the Capital District contest in early November, freshman Jesus Jaramillo-Gallegos and freshman Wyatt Pickett will compete at the Area XII LDE contest in Georgetown on Nov. 23. Jaramillo-Gallegos is competing in Greenhand Spanish Creed Speaking, while Pickett’s LDE is Greenhand Creed Speaking. “Honestly, [I’m excited for] just traveling around, maybe meeting more people,” Jaramillo-Gallegos said. “And [I’m] nervous about probably just not being able to define my weak areas. I feel like I did decent for my first time ever doing this. I just think it’s fun.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Navy-and-Yellow-Simple-Group-Project-Presentation-1200x675.png)
![Holding up T-wolves, the tour group poses for a picture in the Chinese classroom. Sophomore Lydia Ou, junior Phu Trung and senior Yushan Pan gave a tour to Taiwanese diplomat Andrea Yang on Nov. 8. “I was so excited when I heard I would get to give the tour because it’s a big deal,” Ou said. “She’s from the US embassy for Taiwan, so she’s really important. I’m so privileged [to get this opportunity] and I’m so excited.” Photo by Skyler King](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Main-Taiwan.jpg)
![Sitting at a desk past the rows of books laid out for the Book Fair, senior Kimberley Walters assists people in purchasing books and finding titles. The Book Fair is taking place Dec. 16 through Dec. 20, and is an annual event during which students and faculty have the opportunity to go and purchase books and other trinkets in the library. Kimberley said she encourages all to go to the Book Fair, even if they think they don’t like to read. “If you make reading something that is fun for you and you find the things that you like to read, it will never be a chore,” Walters said. “So [the Book Fair is] a good opportunity to find something that will respark your want to read [like] when you were a child and you went to the book fair and you loved the ‘I survived’ books. Maybe you'll find your ‘I survived’ books of your high school experience, and it'll re-spark that kind of love for reading that may have died out.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Addie-L-47-1200x800.jpg)
![Smiling at the camera, sophomore Olivia Mahlmeister and seniors Samantha Jameson, Adhit Eswaramoorthi and Justin Khadavi celebrate completing first chamber in the Congress Meet. All four students advanced to the final chamber. “Out of the 20 kids in the final chamber, we had a seventh, ninth, 11th and 13th, and they took the top four to move on to state,” AP US History and Debate teacher Josh Marsh said. “[Even though] we didn't make state this year, all four of them moving on [and] placing is phenomenal.” Photo courtesy of Josh Marsh](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2024-Regional-Congress-Team.jpg)
![Standing in front of a small audience, senior Kimberley Walters shares a social criticism poem titled “Pity the Nation” by Lawrence Felinghetti. Every month, sponsored by the poetry club, the library hosts a poetry reading. “I never thought I would be interested in [poetry readings] because I’m not the biggest poetry fan,” Walters said. “I think poetry is a very succinct way to express feelings and get a story across. Whereas lots of books have a span of a whole story, but it’s put in a lot of words. The power of poetry is that you can be so succinct within, and there’s a lot of power within the words that are used.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KIM-1200x800.jpg)
![Smiling at the camera, Author Ehigbor Okosun, members of Page Turners, and other students reflect on the author's visit. “I thought the visit was great,” Senior Amia De Leon said. “It was interesting talking to her and [getting to know] her process and her thoughts and books in general. But I think the reason it went well [was that] people got to ask questions. I'm glad that she said so much in response to the questions and it wasn't just one and done. [The author’s responses] felt very articulate.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Sebastian-5-1200x800.jpg)
![Holding the Grand Nationals trophies, drum majors Helashi Wijayawardhana, Abigail Pettey and Eddy Kim pose for a photo. The BOA Grand Nationals competition took place in Indianapolis on Nov. 14-17. “My favorite thing was just looking back at the field, and I was like, ‘Oh, crap. I know all of their names, I know who all of them are’,” Wijayawardahana said. “It's just insane to me that I was able to make so many connections. [Being a drum major] taught me how to build relationships with people who I’m not really that similar to, and how to juggle a ton of things all together.”
Photo courtesy of CPHS Band SmugMug](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/AJC.GrandNatsFinals-169-1200x801.jpg)
![Delicately placing the string to form the shape of a cornucopia, seniors Haley Burton and Avery Nelson create the November arrangement for the Flower of the Month Club. This club is led by Advanced Floral Design Students and provides a monthly arrangement to community members who subscribe to receive them. “I think flower of the month club is a really impactful way to show your loved ones ‘hey I really care about you,’ or even if they’re just for yourself, they’re a little pick-me-up throughout the month that [say] ‘I’m doing ok, and these flowers make my day a little bit brighter,” Nelson said. “I like giving people flowers because people value the flowers more and they value themselves more.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Ava-Holmes-3-edit.jpg)
![Standing in front of the field at a freshman football game, cheerleader freshman Jacob Gaudreau along with teammate freshman Bella Gibson pose for a photo during halftime of game. “[Cheer has] definitely given me a much more outgoing personality,” Gaudreau said. “I used to be very introverted, so it's definitely made me more extroverted towards people.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Ingrid-204-1200x800.jpg)
![Holding a wooden pizza toy, senior Taylor Peterson plays with small children in Bucaramanga, Colombia. During the summer, Peterson traveled to Colombia to help build an elementary school that only had two classrooms but five or six grades with one teacher. “We add[ed] two more classrooms,” Peterson said. “It’s kind of hard when you have two or three grades in one classroom and you only have one teacher. It’s very hard to actually get some beneficial learning. [The extra classrooms will give the students] a better quality of education because they’ll actually have a place specific for their learning.” Photo by Taylor Peterson](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Taylor-P.png)
![Sucking in a breath of air, freshman Lily Pope competes in the 200 yard individual medley. On Oct. 25, the swim team competed in the AISD Swim Invitational. Overall, the girls team took second place and the boys team came in eleventh. “My favorite stroke is butterfly because I do the best in that stroke,” Pope said. “I feel like [butterfly] can test how [your ability] to convince yourself to keep going. The hardest part of swimming is convincing yourself to stay strong and keep pushing during a hard race [when] everything is tired.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/POPE-1200x804.jpg)
![Swinging with his arm extended, senior Nolan Park hits the ball smoothly over the net and to the opponent’s side. Park is one of four varsity tennis captains and helped the team win district championships. “Winning district champs was a pretty awesome feeling,” Park said. “We had lost to Liberty Hill a couple of weeks before, but when we played them [again], we came out and really took care of business. We took them out and it was just a really awesome night.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Kassidy-419.jpg)
![Carefully balancing one piece of paper over another, junior Ryder Wilkinson builds a paper tower with his team at the Architecture Club’s second meeting. Ryder said he was interested in architecture in the past, but the Architecture Club allowed him to get back into it and learn new things. “I [won] one of the competitions, the first one that we had,” Wilkinson said. “[In the second competition] we lost [because] we could not build a tall enough tower that could withstand the blow of a powerful fan, [but] I still had fun because I was with my friends.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/acrch-happy.png)
After hours of sketching, days of carefully choosing supplies and months of arranging materials piece by piece, a building is complete. The moment a blueprint becomes a building, an architect’s job is done and they have created something they will be proud of forever.
To provide opportunities for students to learn more about architecture and the steps required to build a model, juniors Mateo Guerrero and Chance Meyer recently started the Architecture Club. Guerrero said that one of the reasons he started the club is because he hopes to work in architecture one day.
“Since I was a little kid, I’ve been telling my parents I wanted to be an architect,” Guerrero said. “My dream is to one day make a beautiful building. I want to see it when I’m going to work, or I’m going downtown, or wherever, and I hope to bring beauty to the world through architecture.”
Chemistry teacher Lauren Buntin is the sponsor for the Architecture Club.
“When some of my former students approached me about potentially sponsoring their club, I could tell it was something they were excited about and had put a lot of thought into,” Buntin said. “I was happy to support them and help them pursue things they are passionate about.”
So far, the architecture club has had two meetings on Jan. 29 and Feb. 5. Going forward, they will meet every other Tuesday in Ms. Buntin’s room, number 5001.
“Our first meeting was a really good success,” Meyer said. “I think everyone was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable the meeting was [and] they were surprised by how much planning we put into [it].”
Guerrero said one of the most important parts of being an architect is learning how to collaborate with others and they were able to recreate that aspect of teamwork in the first meeting. In groups of four, students worked together to build the tallest tower using only 20 pieces of paper and tape.
“[In] each group, [students] collaborated on [the tower], which is a big part of what somebody would do as an architect,” Guerrero said. “Even if they’re not collaborating with other architects, [they may be] collaborating with a construction planner, an interior designer [or a] structural engineer, so we think it’s very important to teach collaboration.”
There is no architecture class available for students at Cedar Park High School, so if students are interested in architecture, their only option is to take the district architecture class at Leander High School. Meyer said he hopes to bring architecture to students who aren’t able to dual-campus at Leander.
“Someone who has never done architecture and just joined the club for fun might [think architecture is] what [they] want to do,” Meyer said. “Especially for those freshmen and sophomores who still haven’t decided what they want to do for college, [the Architecture Club] may be the only opportunity they have to experience architecture.”
The Architecture Club is not only for people who want to be architects; it can be beneficial to everyone, according to Meyer.
“I think even if you don’t do architecture [as a career], the knowledge from joining architecture club will help you in some sort of way down the road,” Meyer said. “You develop a taste, a style, so when you’re looking at houses [in the future], you know what looks good for you rather than if you looked at a house with no sense of architecture, design [or] history.”
Throughout the rest of the semester, members of the Architecture Club will focus on creating a small [building] model of their own. According to Meyer, an architectural model can take six months to a year to build and students should attend as many meetings as they can to finish their model within the semester.
“I want our members to be involved in Architecture Club; I don’t want them to show up just for the competitions [or] just for their friends,” Meyer said. “I want them to [attend] and enjoy architecture, or at least start to enjoy architecture, and that includes making a model. I want them to have the interest in building a model [and] have the dedication to finish building that model.”
After building interest in architecture, Guerrero and Meyer said there is a possibility of an architecture class being implemented at the school in the future to provide more opportunities for students.
“My hope is that whenever we have enough people joining the architecture club, an architecture class will be started at Cedar Park,” Guerrero said. “I’m also hoping that regardless of whether a class opens next year, we’ll be able to join a design competition and compete with one of our designs. Win or lose, I think that it’ll be a great experience to participate [in the club].”
According to Buntin, the Architecture Club is a good place for students to gain skills and learn more about architecture.
“This club can positively impact our school and our students because there aren’t any other clubs or classes available at CPHS for students interested in architecture,” Buntin said. “I think it’s so important to give students opportunities and the information they need as they consider future careers, and I think this club will definitely accomplish that.”
