![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)
![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)
Works of Heart
Scholastic Competition Participants Discuss Excitement, Achievements
![Senior Lindsey Elfred and junior Nixie Buettner, along with other students who received rewards from the Scholastic Competition, pose on Jan. 31. Elfred received a gold key for her sculpture as well as an American Vision Nominee. “I thought it was pretty cool,” Elfred said. “I didn’t expect it. Just thought I would submit something this year, [I] didn't really have my hopes up. So I’m pretty proud of myself that it went at least that far.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Art-Photo2-1-900x600.jpg)
Senior Lindsey Elfred and junior Nixie Buettner, along with other students who received rewards from the Scholastic Competition, pose on Jan. 31. Elfred received a gold key for her sculpture as well as an American Vision Nominee. “I thought it was pretty cool,” Elfred said. “I didn’t expect it. Just thought I would submit something this year, [I] didn’t really have my hopes up. So I’m pretty proud of myself that it went at least that far.”
February 17, 2020
For years, the Scholastic Art and Writing Competition has given high school students a chance to demonstrate their creativity through artistic and written pieces. There are many categories within the competition, and students can submit anything from photography, ceramics, or short stories.
After submitting pieces in December, multiple members in ceramics and art classes received honorable mentions. Two students were given silver keys, which is similar to second place, and two students were given gold keys, similar to first place. Along with keys, two students were nominated by the judges for the American Vision medal, the top regional honor, which are only given to ten of the competitors in each region. The overall winner of the American Vision medal receives a scholarship and their art is presented in Carnegie Hall.
After receiving a gold key last year, senior Lindsey Elfred submitted a ceramics piece again this year to the scholastic competition. Her piece, which portrayed a degrading human foot, won a gold key and was also nominated as one of the ten pieces for the American Vision medal. While Elfred said that she wasn’t expecting her art to go as far as it did, she is pretty happy with the results.
Elfred created her sculpture, “Achilles’ Heel,” for her art portfolio last year.
“I thought it was pretty cool,” Elfred said. “I didn’t expect it. Just thought I would submit something this year, [I] didn’t really have my hopes up. So I’m pretty proud of myself that it went at least that far.”
Her piece, titled “Achilles’ Heel,” was part of a portfolio she had made last year in art. Eflred said that her teacher, Leslie Landers, helped with the concept of her piece.
“[Ms. Landers] definitely helped me with my whole concept behind my portfolio and in a sense that individual piece for that portfolio and how to make it more than just an idea and more how to make it into 3-D art and make it represent what I wanted it to represent,” Elfred said. “She really helped me develop that idea.”
Elfred said that while she was making “Achilles’ Heel,” the year had been stressful and difficult, and she wanted to capture this idea in her sculpture.
“I just really like high contrast,” Elfred said. “I was dealing a lot with stress last year and how that was wearing down my body, so I wanted to show that through my art pieces.”
For this competition, Elfred said that in order to be successful, it is important to focus on your own individual piece and the message you hope to convey.
“Don’t look at everybody else’s piece and be discouraged and feel like yours isn’t as good as theirs because it really just takes your own vision and you never know when someone is going to look at your piece,” Elfred said. “Just make it based [on] what you really want someone to see and it will end up being heard.”
Senior Kieren Garner also received a gold key and the American Vision Nominee for her short story “Scylla,” which represented Greek mythology with a twist. Garner began writing the piece in September and said that she is grateful that her story has made it this far.
“I love writing fantasy stuff and for some reason, I’m always writing in my head and basing it off of things that I am passionate about of course,” Garner said. “I totally retold the story in my own way. I think that every story is worth telling so I wanted to make this mine, in my own way.”
While she is not focused on winning, Garner said that the competition has given her a chance to share her ideas and demonstrate her creativity.
“I used to think that my voice wasn’t worth putting out there and I used to think that my ideas and my writing were just kind of weird,” Garner said. “But then it was like ‘wait, people actually like my brain, because I have a different way of thinking.’ I never thought that that was okay to think how I do because I am always thinking about writing and I am always thinking about fantasy things. That’s just how I view the world so it really changed how I handle myself. I’m a lot more confident [in] being who I am.”
Despite not currently taking a writing class, Garner said that she still received a lot of help from her English teacher, Michelle Iskra.
“She is the most wonderful teacher ever,” Garner said. “She sat with me in the mornings and helped me realize that my ideas are okay and helped me edit certain things. She was a true help.”
For someone participating in this competition for the first time, Garner said to not focus on winning, only focus on what you are passionate about, whether it is writing or art.
“Just go for it and put your all into it, because you don’t have anything to lose,” Garner said. “And it’s not about winning at all, it’s just about knowing that your words are worth putting out there. Just be passionate about whatever you are doing because that’s what matters most.”
Junior Nixie Buettner has taken art classes since freshman year. This year, she is in Sculpture II and decided to submit one of her pieces to the competition. Her sculpture, “We the People” received an honorable mention.
Junior Nixie Buettner received an honorable mention for her sculpture, “We the People.”
“My inspiration behind the piece was the fact that we are technology ourselves,” Buettner said. “We build technology, we run off of technology. Our minds are constantly growing just like how every single day the world is constantly changing.”
Buettner said that Landers was a major part in her decision to enter the competition, and she said that she plans on taking art again next year so that she can submit another piece.
“I completely plan on competing again hopefully I will get that scholarship and what I want to do is I want to go into AP sculpture,” Buettner said. “Hopefully I can make more full pieces without the time restraints of having to do a project and the restrictions of the project itself.”
For more information about the competition and how to submit a piece, visit the Scholastic Art and Writing Competition website.
![Smiling during the annual Decals with Dads, varsity starting quarterback and sophomore David Cooper and his dad Jim Cooper pose for a picture. During this varsity event, players and their dads get together to put new decals on their helmets. This year, in addition to being announced QB 1, David was also voted as one of six captains on the varsity team, a role that he had difficulty adjusting to as a younger player on varsity. “It was a struggle for me, being younger than everyone else and being a leader,” David said. “I wondered if [the team] would respect me, or if they would just see me as a younger person from a younger class. I think I've become a leader, [though] and let people know that even though I'm younger, I'm still going to lead them well.” Photo courtesy of Cedar Park Football SmugMug.](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/IMG_8493-1-300x200.jpg)
