![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)
![Taking a breath, senior Parker Huang cuts through the water while swimming the 100 breaststroke at the district meet on Jan. 23. Huang advanced to the regional meet in the 100 fly, 100 breast and 200 medley relay. “It’s been really exciting to see everyone make it [to regionals],” Huang said. “There’s been a lot more people who have been advancing than last year, so it’s really awesome to see that.”
Photo by Skyler King](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/skyler-swim-district.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)
![Officer Stephanie Cash is in her second year as an SRO at CPHS. “Seeing [students] grow over the years has been kind of cool,” Officer Cash said. “Freshmen that [are] all over the place and then in the next couple of years get a little more squared away and go to class and do work and start thinking about the future. Being a part of a student's growth is the best way to measure my success as an SRO.” Photo Courtesy of Cedar Park Police Department's PIO, Alicia Gallagher.](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/CPHS-SRO-900x1200.jpg)
![As the support team sits and poses for a photo in the cafeteria with the counseling team they eagerly wait to start their day. "We [all] seem to be a team, I get up every day and there's days where I don't want to go to work today, but I'm thankful that I have a job and I'm blessed to have what I have," Christopherson said. Photo Courtesy of Julie Weltens.](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/AF9E8470-10D7-4C91-BF28-EC8F86BAB66C-1200x852.jpeg)
![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)
![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)
Thousands of colleges. Tens of thousands of dollars. Over a million scholarships. There are many students who are anxiously awaiting scholarship and college acceptance letters that will determine where their futures will lead. Fortunately, after being accepted to the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) scholarship program, senior Nathan Rechtfertig has everything taken care of and he can spend the rest of his senior year excited for the future that awaits him.
The NROTC is a four-year scholarship program that provides full tuition, room and board and stipends. Along with this, after four years of school, you will automatically be an officer in the military. It is very competitive, with only about 1,200 recipients out of over 5,000 applicants. Wrestling Coach Richard Eckley, who has coached Rechtfertig for the past year, said he is very proud of Rechtfertig for receiving this scholarship.
“[NROTC] is a national competition,” Eckley said. “I don’t know how many people get this scholarship every year. This is my 15th year coaching in Texas, and Nathan is the first kid I’ve ever coached that’s gotten this.”
Because there are so few applicants who receive an NROTC scholarship, Rechtfertig said that he had to put in a lot of effort to make himself stand out in his application.
“[I did] a lot of extracurricular activities, especially leadership activities,” he said. “In wrestling, I was captain for a couple years, and then I founded a chess club back at my old high school which helped out a lot. [I earned] a lot of community hours.”
After putting in his best effort to receive the scholarship, Rechtfertig said that he looks forward to what is ahead for him.
“I can’t tell right now if I want to serve four years or more after that [because] it’s too far to tell,” Rechtfertig said. “But I’m looking forward to the brotherly bond that you get. [The people you serve with] are going to be your brothers for life, so that’s going to be a great experience.”
Eckley said that he believes Rechtfertig to be very deserving of this scholarship and is excited for him to have experiences similar to his own while he served in the Marine Corps. Eckley said that without his experience serving, he wouldn’t be who he is today.
“After I graduated high school, I was kind of directionless,” Eckley said. “I joined the Marines, and I don’t know where I would be today without it. [I am very glad] that I have the privilege of coaching young men and women that want to not only follow that path, but also be a leader in that particular path. I’m incredibly proud of it and I feel lucky that I get a chance to be around young men and women like that.”
Because of the NROTC scholarship, Rechtfertig will have the opportunity to automatically be an officer in the military. Eckley said that this is a huge honor and that he is very proud of Rechtfertig for receiving this opportunity.
“Being a leader, being a representative of the United States of America all over the world, being a representative of your community within the military, it’s a big deal,” Eckley said. “And he’ll have no problem rising to the challenge. I just want to emphasize how special he is for getting this honor.”
