![Senior Jett Mckinney stores all the clothes in his own room, with half of it stored in his closet along with his personal clothes, and the rest taking up space in his room.
“There’s been times [when] there’s so much clothing stored here and it gets overwhelming, so I end up having to sleep somewhere else in the house,” Mckinney said.](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/DSC_0951-1200x800.jpg)
![Broadcast, yearbook and newspaper combined for 66 Interscholastic League Press Conference awards this year. Yearbook won 43, newspaper won 14 and broadcast took home nine. “I think [the ILPC awards] are a great way to give the kids some acknowledgement for all of their hard work,” newspaper and yearbook adviser Paige Hert said. “They typically spend the year covering everyone else’s big moments, so it’s really cool for them to be celebrated so many times and in so many different ways.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/edited-ILPC.jpg)
![Looking down at his racket, junior Hasun Nguyen hits the green tennis ball. Hasun has played tennis since he was 9 years old, and he is on the varsity team. "I feel like it’s not really appreciated in America as much, but [tennis] is a really competitive and mentally challenging sport,” Nguyen said. “I’m really level-headed and can keep my cool during a match, and that helps me play a bit better under pressure.” Photo by Kyra Cox](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/hasun.jpg)
![Bringing her arm over her head and taking a quick breath, junior Lauren Lucas swims the final laps of the 500 freestyle at the regionals swimming competition on date. Lucas broke the school’s 18-year-old record for the 500 freestyle at regionals and again at state with a time of 4:58.63. “I’d had my eye on that 500 record since my freshman year, so I was really excited to see if I could get it at regionals or districts,” Lucas said. “ State is always a really fun experience and medaling for the first time was really great. It was a very very tight race, [so] I was a bit surprised [that I medaled]. [There were] a lot of fast girls at the meet in general, [and] it was like a dogfight back and forth, back and forth.” Photo by Kaydence Wilkinson](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Kaydence-2.7-23-edit-2.jpg)
![As her hair blows in the wind, senior Brianna Grandow runs the varsity girls 5K at the cross country district meet last Thursday. Grandow finished fourth in the event and led the varsity girls to regionals with a third place placement as a team. “I’m very excited [to go to regionals],” Grandow said. “I’m excited to race in Corpus Christi, and we get to go to the beach, so that’s really awesome.” Photo by Addison Bruce](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/brianna.jpg)
At first, the idea for Project Care was nothing more than a campaign idea, but now it has expanded into something more significant than its founders expected.
HOSA, or Health Occupations Students of America, members and seniors Jen Nguyen, Ashley Blair and Annabelle Staples came up with the idea of Project Care last November as part of a HOSA project that focused on anxiety and mental health awareness.
“Anxiety is a universal feeling that everyone faces,” Nguyen said. “Regardless if you’re old or if you’re a young person, everyone faces it, so we wanted to [start Project Care] it for that reason; we wanted [our project] to be applicable to everyone.”
The campaign is active, posting on Instagram at @Projectcare25 as well as on The Project Care Podcast on Spotify. On both platforms, the team has talked to many experts, who share experience in their field of study and ways to combat anxiety. The Project Care group takes the knowledge they learn from these experts and use it to spread mental health awareness to the Cedar Park community.
“We wanted a more personalized view of anxiety,” Nguyen said. “It made it feel more intimate, having professionals come and talk with us rather than going out on our own because it’s more direct towards us.”
According to Blair, gaining this experience and knowledge has been very productive for the group, not only for themselves, but for others.
“Project Care has helped me know how to help others who are struggling with anxiety,” Blair said. “Before Project Care, I didn’t really know how to help people deal with any mental health issues; it was more of let them sit there and talk about their feelings. But now, there are actually tangible steps to combat whatever you are feeling, and to give them advice on that.”
Nguyen said the group is very committed to increase anxiety awareness amongst adolescents. The group added three additional members, Rushil Mehta, Kim Dao and Adhit Eswaramoorthi this year, all equally contributing to new ideas and finding the best ways to get their message out across all platforms and to the community. They are planning multiple events, not just for high schools, but middle and elementary.
“We know what we are doing and have our foot in,” Blair said. “We want to be able to expand our reach and make more of an impact at school or online.”
The group shared 20 Instagram posts over the summer along with eight episodes on their podcast, averaging 20 to 30 minutes in length.
“We really have a genuine passion for advocating for mental issues,” Nguyen said. “And we feel like it is an underserved topic that no one really addresses or doesn’t address deeply enough with school, regarding adolescents. It’s usually to get your sleep, eat, drink water.”
Despite the HOSA assignment ending last year, the team will continue as they have with Project Care.
“I think it is a good way to spread awareness to the community and it’s been fun doing it with everyone,” Staples said.
