![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)
![Sitting at a desk past the rows of books laid out for the Book Fair, senior Kimberley Walters assists people in purchasing books and finding titles. The Book Fair is taking place Dec. 16 through Dec. 20, and is an annual event during which students and faculty have the opportunity to go and purchase books and other trinkets in the library. Kimberley said she encourages all to go to the Book Fair, even if they think they don’t like to read. “If you make reading something that is fun for you and you find the things that you like to read, it will never be a chore,” Walters said. “So [the Book Fair is] a good opportunity to find something that will respark your want to read [like] when you were a child and you went to the book fair and you loved the ‘I survived’ books. Maybe you'll find your ‘I survived’ books of your high school experience, and it'll re-spark that kind of love for reading that may have died out.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Addie-L-47-1200x800.jpg)
![Smiling at the camera, sophomore Olivia Mahlmeister and seniors Samantha Jameson, Adhit Eswaramoorthi and Justin Khadavi celebrate completing first chamber in the Congress Meet. All four students advanced to the final chamber. “Out of the 20 kids in the final chamber, we had a seventh, ninth, 11th and 13th, and they took the top four to move on to state,” AP US History and Debate teacher Josh Marsh said. “[Even though] we didn't make state this year, all four of them moving on [and] placing is phenomenal.” Photo courtesy of Josh Marsh](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2024-Regional-Congress-Team.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)
![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)
![Holding the Grand Nationals trophies, drum majors Helashi Wijayawardhana, Abigail Pettey and Eddy Kim pose for a photo. The BOA Grand Nationals competition took place in Indianapolis on Nov. 14-17. “My favorite thing was just looking back at the field, and I was like, ‘Oh, crap. I know all of their names, I know who all of them are’,” Wijayawardahana said. “It's just insane to me that I was able to make so many connections. [Being a drum major] taught me how to build relationships with people who I’m not really that similar to, and how to juggle a ton of things all together.”
Photo courtesy of CPHS Band SmugMug](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/AJC.GrandNatsFinals-169-1200x801.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)
![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)
![Smiling for her senior photo, senior Ava Perrone will put away her flag as co-captain of the color guard. She is going to attend Austin Community College to pursue her passion for fashion design and hopes to design costumes for future color guards, or work in fashion marketing. “I think it’s [been] one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve ever had,” Perrone said. “It’s an experience that everyone should have, that family that you build and the community that you have. I’ll miss having my group together but I’m excited to go off and try new things.”
Photo courtesy of Tracy Perrone](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/avassedit.jpg)
After four years of marching in the hot Texas sun, presenting at competitions and performing during the football games, senior Ava Perrone will put away her flag as co-captain of the color guard.
She started her experience as a freshman, being encouraged to join by her older sister, and continued her journey throughout her high school career. She knew that she wanted to continue even after her sister graduated because of the welcoming environment that was provided for her.
“I really fell in love with the activity and being able to perform,” Perrone said. “I wanted to create the same environment for other [new] people that they created for me when I was coming in. I knew that I would always have people to fall back on, and I wanted to pass along the love.”
Perrone has been a co-captain since her junior year, where she went through a process of auditioning, essay writing and training in addition to managing her grades, setting an example for younger members and overall keeping her image up.
“It’s definitely a big responsibility,” Perrone said. “It’s making sure everything gets done to ease the stress of other people, but in the end it’s worth it.”
Perrone said her favorite part about color guard is performing at the football games and seeing the hours of work and dedication being enjoyed by other people.
“I love the feeling of going out to a competition and showing everyone what we’ve worked on,” Perrone said. “I love football games and performing for the school [because] they are pretty hyped and excited. It’s awesome to hear the cheers and clapping so I really enjoy performing.”
With hours spent together during football season, Perrone has been able to bond and build friendships with the people in color guard.
“I have built friendships that will last me a lifetime,” Perrone said. “It’s fun because you get sick of each other a little because we were together 24/7 for months on end. We’re all going through so much hard work [so] we bond over that.”
Perrone is going to attend Austin Community College to pursue her passion for fashion design. She hopes to design costumes for future color guards, or work in fashion marketing.
“I love all of the different possibilities you can do with fashion and I want to give people good costumes,” Perrone said. “I know what’s good to wear and what’s not [in color guard] because you don’t want to be in band season and wearing the hottest costume in Texas summer.”
This summer, Perrone and her older sister will be marching in Troopers Drum & Bugle Corps, a professional marching band that travels around the country.
“I am so excited for this,” Perrone said. “I haven’t spun with my sister since my sophomore year, so I’m really excited to perform with her and go into a new type of color guard.”
Color guard’s positive impact has changed Perrone’s perspective on herself and others, she said..
“I was so self conscious when I went into it as a freshman,” Perrone said. “But once I got there, everyone was so welcoming and it was so mind boggling [to me] that people could just want to be [my] friend. I’m not so worried about what people will think and I feel like I can actually live my life.”
One of Perrone’s biggest takeaways from color guard is her ability to manage difficult situations and interact with different kinds of people, because of the training that she said she had to do as a co-captain.
“It’s helped me learn how to deal with different types of people,” Perrone said. “I have better people skills and I want to keep trying to build on that as I get older when I’m going into the real world.”
Overall, Perrone said her experience in the color guard program has been rewarding and life changing for her.
“I think it’s [been] one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve ever had,” Perrone said. “It’s an experience that everyone should have, that family that you build and the community that you have. I’ll miss having my group together but I’m excited to go off and try new things.”
