![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)
The Best of Both Worlds
Senior Combines Passion for Music and Athletics
Senior Leah Wilcox has been a part of the marching band for all four years of high school, but she said that the most memorable part was the competitions. “You get to be with your best friends all day long and march alongside them to put on a show that you’ve been working on for months,” Wilcox said.
May 28, 2019
Juggling over five honor societies, leadership positions in band and a rigorous track and cross country schedule, senior Leah Wilcox has learned throughout her years in high school how to manage such an attentive schedule.
Wilcox hands her ability to manage her schedule to staying organized and on top of what she needs to do.
“Being involved in a lot of activities can often be very stressful in trying to balance all the schedules,” Wilcox said. “I definitely had quite a few freakouts over the past four years between trying to balance doing well in school and making it to all my activities.”
Although being in many different programs can be stressful, she said that she has found her own ways to make it work.
“Taking the time to plan out ahead of time what I was going to do when and working on improving my time management skills allowed me to spread myself pretty far across the school,” Wilcox said.
One major part of her time in high school has been her dedication to the school’s marching band. As a sophomore, she was given the opportunity to be a uniform officer, which means she was in charge of all things visual, from summer uniform fittings, to football game uniform checkoffs, to hair fixes at competitions and more. Then during her junior year, she became the trumpet assistant section leader, and this year, she led the band as one of the four drum majors.
“Band has definitely been the most impactful of all on my life as I was on the leadership team for three years,” Wilcox said. “It really showed me how to step outside of my comfort zone and shaped me into the person I am today.”
According to Wilcox, after being given this leadership experience she’s been taught many life lessons on how to be a leader.
“Band has really taught me how to interact with people that you’re not used to talking to,” Wilcox said. “It has taught me how to be more outgoing and assertive and how to lead people enthusiastically and with a smile.”
Now that her four years in the band are coming to an end, Wilcox has had time to reflect on her time spent in the program.
“I like to think that I’ve made a significant impact on the band with my positive attitude and endless energy,” Wilcox said. “I really focus on getting people moving to where they’re supposed to be and leading them to want to work hard to achieve all that they can.”
Along with being involved in the school’s band, Wilcox is also in track and decided this past year to take on cross country. She said that because she grew up doing triathlons and running in 5k races, these sports were the perfect fit for her. She was the JV district champion in the 800 and mile in 2018, and she was a varsity runner for the cross country team.
“Track taught me how to enjoy a sport not necessarily because you’re the best at it, but just because you enjoy the activity and the people in it,” Wilcox said. “It also taught me how to live a healthy lifestyle and find the motivation to stay fit.”
Being in two different programs have given Wilcox the ability to learn and grow from both. She said that they worked together to make her the person that she is today.
“Being in cross country and track kept me active and physically fit, which contributed greatly to the high performance that I was able to produce in both marching and conducting an entire show,” Wilcox said. “This also helped me become a sort of team mom to the cross country girls, a title they gave me after our very first team camp.”
Ever since she was five years old, Wilcox said that she kept busy with competing in gymnastics, playing the piano and driving race cars until she was 11 years old.
“Even before coming into high school, I was always a super busy person,” Wilcox said. “My life has been moving quickly since the age of five and that’s the way that I like it.”
This fall, she is attending Texas A&M University as a business honors and finance major.
“I can’t wait to see where this next chapter in my life takes me,” Wilcox said.
