![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)
In the final pose, senior captain Mia Caldwell ends the Veteran’s Day dance in the air. On Veteran’s Day, the Celebrities performed a number to honor the veterans. “It was definitely hard to fit that dance into a really busy schedule,” Caldwell said. “It was really fun to pull it together and put in the hard work to honor [the veterans] and show our appreciation.” Photo by Alyssa Fox
Dancing in white, the cheer team glows in the dark at the black light pep rally. To prepare, they tape down their tumbling maps so that they glow and are able to see them without light. “For me, performing in the black light pep rallies are different because we try to do a more exciting and eye catching routine than we usually do,” junior cheerleader Sophia Struve said. “Some things I enjoy about pep rallies as a whole is seeing all of the programs perform like the Celebrities and watching the student and staff games. I always have a good time and enjoy watching.” Photo by Allie Tseng
Holding the tray, freshman Anthony Hernandez offers water to varsity football players during the game against Georgetown. Hernandez said he joined the class because he thought it would be fun for his freshman year. “I would never think my first high school level football game would be on the field next to the players,” Hernandez said. “I just love the games in general.” Photo by Alyssa Fox
Looking ahead, freshman Tucker Johnson runs in the Cross Country meet on Aug. 23. As a freshman, Johnson said his time improved each meet by one or two minutes. “[High school cross country] is a lot harder and it pushes me more,” Johnson said. “Having older kids around me helps to improve my time because I want to be as fast as them.” Photo by Chloe Grantham
Holding the flag, sophomore Henley Mickan performs a colorguard routine. Throughout this season, band and colorguard advanced to Grand Nationals in Indianapolis. “Whenever we got to perform [at Grand Nationals] it was one of the best experiences ever,” Mickan said. “Seeing all the different bands was awesome.” Photo by Julia Seiden
Arms up in the air, the varsity volleyball team celebrates with their state semifinals trophy. The team won against Georgetown, 3-1, to advance to the state title game. “[Winning the state semifinals game] felt really good,” freshman Blake Gilkey said. “[Celebrating with my teammates] was special and fun. We’re all best friends. I’m so grateful for this team.” Photo by Alyssa Fox
Taking a breath, junior Eliana Costello swims in a competition. The swim team practices every morning at 7:30 a.m., and Costello said she believes it has contributed to their successful season. “[Stretching] is a good time for us to bond together as a group,” Costello said. “Then we hop in the pool and have a pretty productive practice from there. We do a lot that prepares us for the meet.” Photo by Kassidy Wilkinson
Head tilted to the side, senior Charlotte Adair pulls fake guts out of a corpse. Theater raised $9,000 through their annual haunted house on Oct. 25. “We really only had one week of rehearsals, but me and some other senior designers have been thinking about [the haunted house] since the end of last year,” Adair said. “It was stressful because a lot of people do the haunted house but not our other shows, and we have a lot more cast and crew members than we usually have. Getting all the information out to everyone and making sure everyone was where we needed them to be was probably the hardest part for me, because it was a lot of people for one very short week.” Photo by Violet Harmon
Signing up students to vote, senior Katherine Spinneweber works the voter’s registration booth. On Sept. 17, Rho Kappa had the opportunity to help register students who were over 18 to vote. “I think being able to vote is super important,” Spinneweber said. “It’s kind of our duty as Americans [to vote] and one of the easiest ways we can execute our power.” Photo by Jane Yermakov
Swinging his racket, senior Michael Anthony hits the tennis ball over the net. Varsity tennis beat Liberty Hill on Oct. 1. to become district champs. “I was excited for Liberty Hill [vs.] Cedar Park,” Anthony said. “We have a lot of history between each other [in tennis]. Tennis is a sport where you are by yourself, so it is very easy to get under your own skin and get upset and frustrated.” Photo by Kassidy Wilkinson
Participating in the sculpture project, junior Sophie Levano is seen getting her arm wrapped. The finished results of their projects were put up in the library. “This project was a new experience because I hadn't thought about art from that perspective,” Levano said. “After seeing it up in the library, I realized that I helped in creating something that everyone is going to see, and that made me want to make more things that people can see and interpret in any way they want.” Photo by Mykaela Tapia
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