![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)
![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)
![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)
![Researching today's stock market and looking for trends, junior Mason Crews competes with his twin brother Owen Crews in the DECA Stock Market Game. According to Mason, working as a team makes it easier to spot trends that would negatively affect their value. “There’s been a few times where I found something I thought would work and then Owen found some sort of trend or something that makes it look like [a stock] is going to go up,” Mason said. “Then we don’t [buy] it and the next day it goes up 40%. Or I research the stocks for the day and I don’t find anything but Owen finds something that’s going to go up 40% the next day.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/image-of-crews.png)
Trading on the stock market is a gamble. A wrong mistake or bad day could cause a person to lose half their worth while a lucky guess could earn a person $100,000 in profit. Creating a new business involves even more risk, as it could either take off and turn into a multimillion-dollar company or result in a big waste of money and time.
Juniors Owen Crews and Mason Crews are competing in two competitions for DECA this year. The first one is titled Start Up Business Proposal, where they have to write an essay with an idea for a business and present it to judges. The second competition is titled the Stock Market Game, which simulates the real-world stock market and allows students to trade current stocks but fake money. This game is a part of the finance category in DECA and teaches students how to manage money. Districts for the Start-Up Business Proposal contest took place on Jan. 9. The Crews based their proposal off the Uber app and have titled their plan, “Chore Army.”
“If you look on the Uber [app] there are two options, you can either be the person that orders the car to drive you or you can be the person who drives people around for money,” Owen said. “[Our idea is] that but for chores. So if you’re an old person you can hire someone to fold your laundry or if you’re young you can become the person to fold somebody’s laundry. There’s infinite flexibility and [a person] can choose how much they get paid.”
The stock market game has two stages. The first stage involves trading stocks over the course of three months with a starting amount of 100,000 dollars. To compete in the Stock Market Game competitors go to a website where they put in their orders for the stock they want. The participants are responsible for researching the stocks and trends on their own.
“We go on a website called FINVIZ and we look for stocks there, it’s a stocks screener,” Owen said. “We also have a watch list or a bunch of watch lists on our own stocks to keep track of different stocks and so we can sort from high percentage to low percentage gain.”
According to Mason, researching stocks is a bit of a time commitment.
“Basically whenever I’m not doing work in class I’m on the FINVIZ app screen[ing] stocks,” Mason said. “I figure out what looks good and then I write it all down in a shared note we have. In total I’ve probably spent like three hours a day looking at stocks.
To effectively trade stocks, the team often discusses their ideas with each other and shares their research before making any decisions. Trading stocks as a team is all about collaboration, according to Owen.
“Usually we research stocks individually and then propose what stocks we think are a good idea,” Owen said. “We collaborate between each other to say ‘oh yeah that’s a good idea’ or ‘that’s not a good idea.’ That way we kind of have a second opinion on everything so we don’t make stupid mistakes.”
With their strategy in the stock market game, they are hoping for the percent representing the value of the stock to go down because it means they will earn more money. If it goes up then they lose money. According to Mason, working as a team makes it easier to spot the trends that will cause stocks to go down and stop them from buying them.
“There’s been a few times where I found something I thought would work and then Owen found some sort of trend or something that makes it look like it’s going to go up,” Mason said. “Then we don’t [buy] it and the next day it goes up 40%. Or I research the stocks for the day and I don’t find anything but Owen finds something that’s going to go up 40% the next day.”
The stock market app competitors use throughout the competition is all based on real stocks. The prices of every stock are exactly the same as they would be in real life but the app changes some of the rules of the real stock market.
“One big difference is that you can only do end of day trades,” Owen said. “So instead of trading and getting what [that] price is at that moment, you put in an order and it goes through at market close which is 3:00 p.m. CST or 4:00 EST. At market close you basically predict what you think that price is going to be at the end of the day in order to predict what the price is going to be at the end of the next day in order to get that change and hopefully make money off of it.”
The Crews have already completed the first stage of the contest and moved on to the second stage with a total of 600,000 dollars. The top 25 participants in the region with the most money advance to the second stage. The second stage is an international meet where competitors will present a written ten page portfolio essay to the judges. The money gained in the first stage doesn’t not matter, only their presentation is judged in this meet. This competition will take place on April 20th. The competitors weren’t given much instruction regarding this presentation, according to Owen.
“I have zero clue what to do, but we’ll figure it out,” Owen said. “[All we know is] that in the essay you write how you got different stocks, what your plan was going into it, and what you ended up doing. [You also explain] your biggest decisions, biggest money makers, biggest losses, and your overall gains and losses.”
Trading stocks is very unpredictable, according to Mason. This makes the Stock Market Game fun, hard, scary, and sometimes easy depending on the stock market of each day.
“Sometimes there’s just so many good options that we can’t decide which one to choose and then it turns out that it doesn’t matter because they all fail,” Mason said. “And then some days it’s like the worst thing you’ve ever seen. It’s all 50/50 gambles and we don’t know if we’re gonna make 50% the next day or if we’re gonna lose half our money. So it depends. Some days it’s really easy and some days it’s very scary.”
