![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)
![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)
![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)
![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)
High school relationships are like no other. Friends giggling in the hallway about their crushes and sharing stories at the lunch table start becoming a common occurrence once February hits. Some students have their dates already planned while others just hope for their significant others’ presence. No matter which side students partake in, the aroma of love is felt all around.
Juniors Lauren Small and Mitchell Allen-Barnhart met in their eighth grade science class and a couple years later, the question was asked. The two have been dating for a year and a half and their plan for Valentine’s Day is to have a picnic and watch the sunset.
“I would say Valentine’s is definitely more special with a boyfriend because I get to buy him stuff and be super excited to give it to him,” Small said. “I also get to be surprised by what he’s getting me.”
Small openly shares her enjoyment of not only receiving and giving gifts, but the thought behind them.
“I’m obviously expecting something, but he’s good at surprises so I have no clue [what it will be],” Small said. “I’m really hoping he gets me flowers like the ones on my Pinterest board, and also one of our friends mentioned that he might be writing a love letter, but I don’t know if that’s true.”
Spoiling the surprise, Allen-Barnhart said he does plan on giving her the gifts she hopes to receive. He said he is not only going to meet her expectations, but is planning to go above and beyond and bring back childhood memories.
“I’m going to make her one of those Valentine’s boxes that we made in elementary school and put some love notes and candy in it,” Allen-Barnhart said. “I also got her a stuffed bunny that’s really cute and soft.”
The two seem to seamlessly read each other’s minds when it comes to gift giving, and they each know what the other would like to get.
“She likes getting me gifts so I assume she’ll be getting me something,” Allen-Barnhart said. “She also isn’t very good at hiding when she gets me things so I know there’s going to be at least one thing.”
Small is revolving one of her gifts for him around the sport that he currently plays.
“I already got him a little jelly cat stuffed animal of a tennis ball because he plays tennis,” Small said. “I think I’m also going to get some of his favorite candy.”
Junior Meredith Koltz plans to spend quality time with her boyfriend who attends another high school. The two met at a soccer training camp and have been dating for six months.
“I thought he was super cute and followed him on Instagram,” Koltz said. “[Valentine’s Day is] very special. It has been a long time since I have had a boyfriend to share these special holidays with and I am beyond excited.”
Like the others, Koltz is hoping for a gift on the special day, and also has her own in progress.
“I plan to make him a cute basket full of his favorite things and I am expecting a gift,” Koltz said.
Junior soccer players Greyson Radtke and Ella Buffington started dating two months ago and aren’t planning anything big for Valentines. Homework and soccer take up the majority of their time and are hoping for any time together.
“This is my first Valentine’s day with a boyfriend, so it makes the day more fun,” Buffington said. “[Our plan] is to just hang out together, nothing special.”
Buffington hopes to receive something small, as her birthday is only a couple days after Valentine’s Day.
“I have a very nice plan [for her],” Radtke said. “In order to make it work, [it] requires some problem solving.”
In return, Radtke isn’t hoping for anything big.
“I’m not expecting anything at all, she doesn’t have to do anything to make me happy,” Radtke said. “Any day I get to show love to her is a great day.”
