![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)
It wasn’t even 6 p.m. yet and the sun had already sunk below the horizon. It was dark outside, but he could still make out the moving silhouettes in the group of people gathered in front of him. He is led over to a ribbon and handed scissors. Facing the assembly, he readies to make his snip. As soon as the severed ribbon halves fall to the ground, his face is lit up in a white glow, further revealing the applauding crowd.
After designing and building the new school sign, Agriculture Mechanics, or Ag Mech students celebrated their product at a sign-lighting ceremony on Dec. 20. The stainless steel sign has LED lights that can be seen by drivers on Cypress Creek Rd. in the evenings and nights. Senior Mason Kasel, who has taken welding classes for three years, was one of the students who helped build the sign and cut the ribbon at the sign-lighting.
“The sign lighting was very casual, which was nice,” Kasel said. “It was funny though because I wasn’t planning on being there originally due to having previous plans. But they got canceled, so I showed up to help with setup. Then somehow I ended up being the one to cut the ribbon, as well.”
In total, the sign took a year and a half to finish, but the work was shared between several students. More than 10 student welders worked on the sign under the supervision of Ag Mech teacher Myles Russell. Thomas Chavez, Connor Ross, Kasel, seniors Matthew Mueller, Joaquin Reyes and Anthony Munoz are some of the students that worked on the sign.
“[Principal] Sloan came to me at the beginning of last school year, asking if we could build a new school sign,” Russell said. “We had [now graduated] students do most of the construction on it. They powder-coated it last school year, and then ran out of time to finish. This year, Mason and [other welding students] worked on it to get stainless steel down, holes drilled and lights wired.”
Last school year, Kasel was not able to do much welding on the sign because of the projects he had for the welding showcases he was working toward.
“As far as my involvement last year, I only helped with some of the welding because I was focusing on [my own welding],” Kasel said. “But, the main people working on the sign last year graduated, so someone needed to step up and finish the project. I stepped in with another student, and we finished welding and making the frames, made the stainless backings and aligned everything through the stainless steel.”
The Ag Mech students used online programs to design the sign and cut out pieces for it on a CNC plasma cutter, and did the rest of the building by hand.
“We took the pieces cut by the plasma cutter and welded edges on them to give them depth,” Kasel said. “We made a frame to secure the pieces together, and this was done with pieces of a one-inch steel flat strap. But, no one wants to see the ugly framing, so pieces of stainless steel were cut out in the shape of the individual signs.”
According to Kasel, the stainless steel that the sign is made of works as a brightening reflector of the LED strips that run under the sign’s letters, which spell out “Cedar Park High School.” Bolts were added to the backs of pieces to help attach pieces together.
“Mounting everything together was a tough process,” Kasel said. “We had to align everything to the best of our ability on top of the stainless steel and mark out the holes for the bolts underneath each individual piece. But, nevertheless we got it done.”
Welding students work individually or in groups to create products that they can take to stock shows to compete against other welding projects. Kasel won Grand Champion with his belt grinder last week at the Ag. Mechanics Greater Leander FFA Project Show.
“I am making a 2”x72” belt grinder, which is a super powerful belt sander used mainly for making knives,” Kasel said. “I just finished my first show, so now I am working on improving my project for the next shows I will attend, the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo and the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo.”
Around 30 students, teachers and community members attended the sign-lighting.,
“It was definitely a relief though to know that the project was finally done after all the hard work we put in,” Kasel said. “I think the sign is an important reminder of how truly unique our school is. We have teachers who provide opportunities for students to not only succeed but also reach a potential that sets them apart from others. There are also wonderful programs, such as the welding program, where students can learn important skills and at the same time channel their creativity.”
