![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)
![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)
![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)
![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)
Many new students arrive at Cedar Park High School every year, but rarely do these students come from a foreign country. Jesse Vielleux, junior, moved to Cedar Park from the Middle East this summer. He is originally from the United States but moved to the Middle East eight years ago. After living in the desert for so long, his return to the United States was bittersweet.
“Being the minority there and coming back and being around all these white people is really weird,” Vielleux said. “Americans are in their own world, like [the way] everyone only speaks one language. Over there, it’s way more culturally diverse.”
Vielleux lived in Buraime, Oman but went across the border every day to Al Ain, United Arab Emirates for school, shopping, church and other basic living necessities.
“Oman is a poorer country and it was a lot cheaper to live there, but UAE has an abundance of oil,” Vielleux said. “Everybody in UAE is so rich that there’s not much crime and not very many policemen; there’s just no point in stealing anything.”
Vielleux was actually born in Fort Collins, Colorado in 1993. He moved to the Middle East when he was nine years old with his parents and two younger sisters. His dad and a couple of business partners wanted to start a water business in the humid climate there because they had created water machines that take moisture from the air and fill an empty purifier with clean water. However, the company was unsuccessful and Vielleux’s father found a job in Texas working as a water engineer.
Since September 11, 2001, American prejudice against Arabs and anyone associated with the Middle East has become prominent. Despite being Caucasian, Vielleux has had to deal with the repercussions of this when traveling through airports.
“We have Arab stamps on our passports, so airports sometimes do extra checks on us,” Vielleux said. “We moved a year after September 11 so it was crazy getting over there the first time. The Arabs over there do not like what happened- a lot of them say that the terrorists are not true Muslims.”
Once he was through airport security, Vielleux had to adjust to many differences between the two countries, such as the difference in climate and the difference in education.
“It’s really nice and cool here. It was so hot there; the temperature can get up to 130 degrees in the summer,” Vielleux said. “It’s a little humid here but the humidity is way worse in Dubai, sometimes 90 percent.”
In regards to education, Vielleux greatly prefers American schools, due in part to Oman being about 60 years behind in technology and infrastructure.
“School was terrible there. There’s just no reason for the kids to study or work because their dads are rich,” Vielleux said. “It was a really poor facility and there were no organized sports. [Here] the level of teaching is way higher and the schools are just way better— even the ghetto schools are probably better.”
Vielleux is not the only one appreciating the structure of education. Kenna Vielleux, sophomore, is Jesse’s younger sister who is also noticing differences in the way schools are set up in America.
“Over there, education isn’t as important for girls, so they didn’t care as much,” Vielleux said. “Here, the teachers are also more one-on-one.”
The cultural diversity where Jesse used to live included a variety of ethnic foods. Coming to the United States, he happily acquired a taste for American cuisine.
“I love the food here. I love a good steak, and proper beef. The beef there was from New Zealand and Australia and it just wasn’t as good as it is here,” Jesse said. “Taco Bell is awesome! They had McDonald’s over there and a lot of main restaurants, but even those are different, like the Coke tastes different.”
It appears that the Vielleux family has settled into life in Texas quite well, but the obvious differences between countries will always remain. Their travels have given them a broad worldly perspective unique to culturally experienced families, making Jesse a very interesting classmate.
