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.
![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 clubs 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] its 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 Barnes 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)
