![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)
To the student body of Cedar Park High School:
It seems to me that our generation is becoming more and more apathetic towards issues around the world. If you ask a typical 16 year old what was on the news last night, they probably wouldn’t be able to tell you. If one were to ask this teenager about current events, such as the latest economic crises in Mexico or even news within our own country, it’s doubtful that many students would know what you were talking about. How many high school sophomores can talk about the increase in the stimulus package that Vice President Joe Biden recently announced – not many. However, if you bring up Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift at the VMA awards, these same sophomores would probably be able to tell you all about it.
While global issues do not affect us suburban, middle-class high school students directly, these events definitely affect us indirectly. Anything that goes on within our own nation really does affect us as students. What is happening in the world now defines the future, and as soon-to-be-voting American citizens we need to pay attention in order to make educated decisions in the future.
I won’t deny that many students have reached out to global issues such as the disastrous earthquake in Haiti, the Invisible Children organization and the charity work involved in mission trips. I am consistently amazed with the amount of hard work that students put into raising money for so many different causes. However, the everyday issues, the ones that don’t kill thousands of people, seem to be overlooked. There are things we need to be aware of that aren’t posted on your favorite celebrity’s blog or talked about on the Bobby Bones Show.
There are several ways a student can educate themselves, whether it be taking that current event project in your History class seriously, or turning on the morning news while getting ready for school. Also, with today’s technological world you can subscribe to news sites and have breaking news instantly delivered to your email or even download a news app for your Blackberry or iPhone. We have so many resources all around us; why not browse CNN.com as you chat with friends on Facebook? Why not read a newspaper while you wait for your friend to come pick you up? Why not make an effort to stay informed of noteworthy events around the world?
As a high school newspaper staff, The Wolfpack is constantly striving to report on noteworthy news events around the school and even around the community. In this issue, we cover everything from students at Cedar Park participating in the Latin Forum to budget saving ideas for the prom season. While some of these stories you see in the paper may seem boring, try reading them. They caught the interest of the student who wrote it, so maybe the story will interest you too. If you don’t like something in our paper and have any critiques or suggestions, let us know! We want to print news that students are interested in and we welcome comments. They let us know that we do have some readership and we are always looking to improve. And, if you really want to make a difference in our paper, apply to join our staff!
