![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)
![Students drew chalk art in honor of Veterans day. This is just one of many things the school does to show appreciation to veterans, and the art will remain in the courtyard as a reminder of all of the veterans who served their country. “On veteran’s day, I think it’s a great thing we do at school to honor people that served [who are] at our school or family members,” English teacher and cheer coach Nadira King said. “It makes me feel proud, and it makes me remember the [veterans].”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Capture.png)
![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)
![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)
![Standing proud, varsity senior athletes Rafael Escobar, Griffin Jacobs, Jakob Martin, and juniors Jackson Springer and Jack Morris pose with their newly earned medals. The varsity team finished third out of 14 teams on Sept. 25. “The team's primary goal is to win the district championship,” head coach Cody Price said. "We're confident that with our action plan in place, we can accomplish this mission. [For the next tournament], our preparation involves assessing our strengths and weaknesses, celebrating milestones and creating individual development plans." Photo courtesy of Cody Price](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/golf.jpg)
![The cross country team poses for the camera after finishing the district meet. The varsity boys, JV boys and JV girls all placed third and the varsity girls placed fourth. “Coach put in the right training for us for this season, so I think we will be peaking this week and the next couple of weeks,” varsity runner and junior Nathan Kukla said. “The chances of making it to state are very high, but we don’t settle for the lowest and there is always going to be that chance, so [we] race for the best.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Heidi-831-1200x900.jpg)
Stepping onto the Gupton Stadium field, the Celebrities get ready to perform their practiced dance to “Lips Are Movin’” in front of other school drill teams. Nov. 13 was their first time attending the Texas Dance Education Association’s Dance/Drill Team Fall Assessment. The Celebrities were able to dance their way to winning the ranking of Division One.
While there are currently no dance UIL competitions, the assessment is the beginning of the committee proposing the competition model to UIL in 2025. The association’s main goal is to bring together different backgrounds of Texas’s drill teams and dance teams.
“We really rallied around each other,” senior captain Mia Caldwell said. “[We] really encouraged each other to do our best and have fun rather than focusing on perfection, and I think that made the difference of today being less stressful and more just making memories together.”
The Celebs have been practicing, learning and improving their performance every practice and every morning since they learned the dance over the summer. The dancers used their shows during halftime to work on making it the best they can.
“We did so much hard work,” sophomore Liv Ruth said. “Yesterday morning and this morning, it was challenging and very crucial but it was all worth it to perform so well for the first time at this competition.”
UIL’s website states their competitions are all about teamwork and representing every school’s motivation and intellect. While the Celebrities don’t have UIL, this assessment shows the other schools what their team is made of. The committee plans on proposing the idea of dance in UIL in June 2025 based on the layout of the assessment.
“Every other sport has a UIL,” junior Paulina Bodek said. “Us finally being able to introduce a UIL activity is important for showcasing that we are also capable of competing like other sports do.”
The dance team doesn’t have many opportunities to perform in front of other schools. Though this is one of their regular routines, it is one of their only times to show the other teams how the Celebrities are regularly performing.
“It was kind of scary performing in front of other schools,” sophomore Dana Jung said. “Watching people in front of us kind of was psyching us out but also, the dance community is a very supportive group of people, so it was nice.”
This is the second of new activities the team has done this year. On Nov. 1, they brought back the “Sister Kick” routine with Leander High School’s Blue Belles. This was a tradition in the early 2000s, but died out when Leander High School was realigned to the 6A division. The Blue Belles were also a part of the dance assessment at Gupton.
“I hope to honestly just have a good group of people around me,” senior Sofia De Leon said. “From going on here as a senior to having a loving community and seeing these girls and just being happy overall.”
