Ruchi Sankolli, Assistant Editor
Ruchi Sankolli is a senior, this is her third year on staff, and her first year as the Assistant Editor of the Wolfpack. She mainly enjoys writing opinion pieces about current events. In addition to the Wolfpack, she is also involved in the 4-H Youth Toastmasters Gavel Club, HOSA and NHS. She enjoys listening to music, watching anime, reading horror novels, writng stories, and playing with her dog. She plans on attending either UT Austin or Texas A&M to major in the healthcare field.
![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)
![With a look of concentration, senior Max Villarreal tests out his tattoo needle with a stencil. Villarreal has had a passion for art for a while, and has decided to pursue tattoo art as a future activity. “I like art in general, [but] I don’t think I would just do [art] as a career,” Villarreal said. “It’s not enough fun for me, and I feel like I need to constantly come up with new ideas and hoping people are paying attention to me. From a young age, I had been exposed to the art of tattooing, and it’s just something that has stuck with me. That’s something my mom wanted too, she wanted me to be a tattoo artist.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/IMG_2225.jpg)
![The winner of the Library March Madness is 'Hunger Games' by Suzanne Collins. Due to its popularity, the book was able to stay strong throughout the multiple rounds of the competition, according to Assistant Librarian Jennifer Baskin, who applauded the book for its years of success and relevance. “I pretty much knew that was going to be the winner from the get,” Baskin said. “I was kind of hoping that I would be surprised that [‘Hunger Games’] wasn’t the winner, but I understand why. It’s pretty popular, and a lot of people read that book, and it was their introduction to reading. That’s something that got them excited about reading, so it makes sense that they would still be excited about it. I think that book has held up, just sort of like ‘Harry Potter’, or ‘The Lightening Thief’. It holds up even when I read it as an adult, but I was still surprised that it was still going so strong.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/IMG-0766-900x616.jpg)
![Senior Madelyn Roberts smiles in the snow as she holds her Colorado State memorabilia. Roberts chose to go out of state because of her interest in fashion and her admiration for the university. “I really wanted somewhere that was picturesque, [some place] that fits with my vintage style,” Roberts said. “I wanted somewhere where I could walk down to mainstreet and have a bunch at a cafe. Or go shopping. I’ll be a fashion major, and I have my own fashion Instagram [account] and I could just see myself pursuing these interests in Fort Collins.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/IMG_0351.jpg)
![Showing off his gold medal, senior Riley Pritzlaff poses for a picture alongside fellow UIL competitors and seniors Vyacheslav Adrianov and Aiden Seibel. Pritzlaff placed second in the UIL Congress Meet and will be advancing to the next round at the Texas State Capitol in January. “The first kind of debate that I got into when I first joined the Speech and Debate team was Congress,” Pritzlaff said. “So, making it to state my senior year is kind of a full circle for me, and owning my speech skills, learning this kind of thing, and having the opportunity and experience to debate all of these different ideas [with] these different people has been really cool.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/UIL-Congress-Winners-900x599.jpg)
![Actively engaging in a conversation with her students, AP English IV teacher Michelle Iskra teaches her students about the importance of reading multiple stories to get proper context. Iskra is one of the teachers who implemented an approach designed to prevent academic dishonesty, and said she believes everyone should work together to ensure an honest academic policy for students. “I think everyone [plays] a role in minimizing academic dishonesty,” Iskra said. “I’m very straightforward about it. But, I also give students many opportunities to show me what they can do, to be successful in their own way, and to work with other students collaboratively in terms of thinking and ideas, and then to prepare their own work.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/IMG_9078-900x675.jpg)
![Jasmine Cooper sits on the steps of her house, dressed up for the ACDA After Party. Cooper was one of the students who participated in the ACDA and was proud of the effort that the team put in. “For the people who wanted to view our recorded concert in-person, [which had] limited seating, just choir students and their families and friends [were allowed],” Cooper said. “We had an ACDA watch party in the PAC ,because us seniors, who were juniors last year, didn’t have a prom, and we had a great idea to make the event formal. Our recording and video, our concert, was amazing. To see our hard work and our choir directors’ efforts pay off was truly a sight.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Jasmine-Cooper-second-update-779x900.jpg)
![Junior MJ Kelly and Freshman Aidan Cox launched the "On Your Left" podcast on Jan. 15. This podcast covers political topics and aims to educate the public on political and social theories, topics, and issues through a leftist perspective and hopes to help people gain a better understanding and use it to their benefit.
“I think the most important aspect to me is the social rights aspect,” Kelly said. “Yes, reading foundational literature by [people] like Marx and Engels is important, but I’d rather have people take other things away from this. I hope somebody listens and starts to make a difference in their life when it comes to being a better ally for others.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/On-your-left.jpg)
![Madison Cherry has taken her first step towards the world of business. The junior student has become an influencer for American Eagle and has started her own jewelry business, and has gained a lot of advice from her experience. “Being an influencer teaches me how to run Instagram, and see what my audience likes the most, when they are most active, etc,” Cherry said. “When I do get more serious with my jewelry business, I can see what my audience likes and what they don’t like, so that I can promote my product more and sell what [is] more popular. Definitely, being an influencer has given me a lot of advice, whether that be from business partners or my own experience.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/MadisonC2ndUpdate.jpg)
![Key Club Sponsor Amy Durden shows off some avocado pits that have been donated to her as a part of Harvest for Healing. Durden and the club's goal for Harvest for Healing is to spread positivity throughout the senior community. “[Our goal] is to try and bring joy and hope in watching the seeds grow into seedlings and then plants,” Durden said. “With so much depression, despair, isolation and sickness, [we figured that] it's a way to have a small [amount of positivity].”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/IMG_7697-900x600.jpg)
![Giving A Ray of Hope is a newly founded organization that strives to help children in hospitals, and are responsible for, not only participating in service projects, but also educating the community on diseases that infect children. The organization provides many opportunities for members to explore the medical field and contribute to their community. “I would say that this organization really helps you have that role in your community and trying to help others,” junior member Jillian Lach said. “Not only does it help build responsibility, but it [has also] helped me meet new people and research and educate myself on a lot of things that I didn’t know about before."](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/IMG_4559.jpg)
![Wrestling Booster Club President Jason Malmquist directs cars to the paper shredder and supervises the event. Malmquist considers the paper shredding fundraiser to be beneficial to both the wrestlers and the team, as personal connections are strengthened. “Other sports tend to do things a lot as a team,” Malmquist said. “In wrestling, we do have a team, such as team scoring. But this gives them a chance to bond, spend some time together, and it’s always fun to do something like this together. We think it’s important that the wrestlers are the ones raising the money. When they are here themselves, they actually have to come out and do something, and we think that [it’s] great that they put in [effort]for their own team.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/IMG_9088-900x600.jpg)
![Senior Alison Dye smiles for the camera. Dye has been a member of many organizations in school, from playing the role of Mary Poppins in Princess Tea, to being a member of PALS and the Spanish Club, and reflects on her experience in these activities. “All of these activities have helped me come out of the shell,” Dye said. “I’m grateful for the opportunities I’ve been blessed with, [and the chance] to meet so many awesome people.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/AlisonDye-2.jpg)
![With changes due to COVID-19, students are now expected to complete a series of virtual assignments and attend meetings as needed. Given the status quo, academic learning has been modified to better fit the variety of situations students are in. “For the most part, and for the majority of the students I would say [that they are meeting expectations],” AP Human Geography and AP Seminar teacher Cassandra Gray said. “I teach both AP Human Geography and AP Seminar and AP Exams are still happening, so there is a lot of review and prep work going into the next few weeks. For the most part, [the] majority of the students are completing the assignments as they are intended and are trying their best on them in order to get accurate feedback."](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/allie-KzUsqBRU0T4-unsplash-900x621.jpg)
![Junior Celebrities captain Rylee Tonacao (last from left to right), poses and smiles with fellow participants at the Colon Cancer Walk. Tonacao and her teammates wish to continue giving back to the community and helping to resolve community issues. "I think this event has definitely inspired myself as well as [the] celebrities organization to keep continuing to serve our community,” Tonacao said. “This event, particularly, has such a special meaning for us as a team as it relates to our late director, Stacy Danielson. The important thing about this event is it taught us, not only to give back, but to raise awareness for different issues, and different things that we need to solve. So, I think, as well as helping out the community, participating in events like this has showed us that we need to raise awareness for certain things, as that is an important factor to solving problems.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Colon-Cancer-Walk-900x450.jpg)
![A few birds nests that Debby Barne's Crochet group had made. Barnes had started a crochet group in order to help the displaced wildlife in Australia. "It just breaks my heart to see these poor, little animals [suffering]" Barnes said. "Some of them are being burned. I saw a video last month on Facebook of this poor, little koala that was just crying because he was being burned."](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Crochet-e1579568289393-900x651.jpg)
![Anatomy and Physiology teacher, Nancy Matthias supervises a kidney dissection. Matthias believes that dissecting real organs and specimens enhances the learning abilities of the students. "Live dissection gives [the students] an opportunity to actually feel the tissue," Matthias said. "When the live specimen is 3D, they can see it, manipulate it, and [this makes it] a much better way to dissect and learn about the different organs and the body."](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Ashley-42-900x600.jpg)
