What’s coming up?
MSA hosts annual Hijab day
Crown Point High School’s Muslim Student Association will be hosting their annual Hijab day sometime in mid-May.
The Hijab Day activities are meant to raise awareness about why Muslim women wear the Hijab, and why it is meant to empower women, not drag them down.
“My very first Hijab day was last year actually, and it was on a Wednesday, and what we did is have people come in and explain to them what the Hijab is and how we first started wearing the Hijab. We were explaining it to them to make sure they put it on knowing more, not just putting it on blindnessly."
This will be the fifth Hijab day hosted by the club.
“We have done it on and off now for five years,” MSA President Maisa Nour said.
Nour said she’s looking forward to how the Hijab day goes and hopes it lives up to the expectations of last year.
“The next day, they wore it (the Hijab), and it was really, really nice because everyone who wore it kept saying how pretty they looked wearing it, and that they felt empowered, and that it looked cool.”
Nour says to remember that the Hijab is not a sign of oppression, and it is supposed to lift up women.
“No, not all Muslim women wear the Hijab. It’s up to the women, it is mandatory, but it is up to the women when to decide to start wearing it.”
What just happened?
Tennis team defeats Hobart; looks forward to rest of season
The Crown Point High School girls’ tennis team beat the Hobart Brickies last week 4-1 to begin their season.
Senior Helen Keilman won her match and helped the Bulldogs climb to a decisive victory.
“I personally think I could have done better, but considering it was the first match and everyone was a bit nervous, I think I did well. Every match is about getting better and better until the postseason,” Keilman said.
The Dogs followed the win by dropping a tough match to Munster 4-1, but Keilman did win her match at the event.
Going forward, Keilman says the team is focused on getting better, and meeting up with Munster again in the postseason.
“We have sectionals at the end of May to play Munster again, and we have a tough sectional to get through with a tough LC team, and there’s a very competitive Lowell and Hanover teams we have to face,” Keilman said.
Student shoutout
Lauren Massow stars at CPHS
Junior Lauren Massow is an active member of the CPHS community through her work with both newspaper and orchestra.
Massow has been playing the violin since she was young, and also serves on the staff of Crown Point’s student-run newspaper, Inklings.
“I’m in the chamber orchestra, the advanced orchestra; I was in the Jazz Combos, but I do that on my own now. I’m the concertmaster of the pit now for musicals, I have a quartet I play in weddings and I’m in the newspaper as a copy editor.”
Massow started playing guitar at a young age, but it was orchestra signups when she decided to play the violin.
“Well, I used to play guitar when I was in fourth grade, but I was awful at it. And then, my music teacher came up with the orchestra signups and my Mom had played violin, so she was like ‘Yeah, sure, go ahead’, and I was like ‘Really?’ I took private lessons from fourth grade up until now,” Massow said.
Massow hopes to continue playing through college, and eventually make a career out of her love for music.
“I’ve been playing for a whole nine years, and I just love it because this is what I want to do with my life; I want to play in college and go on professionally,” Massow said.
Teacher Shoutout
Vince Lewis starts new business to expand learning
Economics teacher Vince Lewis has started a business to help students learn, and to expand learning to kids of all ages.
Lewis started fourD Learning Solutions (Twitter: @fourDLearning) to help kids learn in ways they may not be able to inside the classroom.
“What we do is go around from school to school and bring innovative resources to those school, particularly those schools that don’t have access to those resources. We offer full day, half-day or hour-by-hour learning sessions that are all self-driven by the students as individuals or small groups and working as teams to accomplish STEM-related activities,” Lewis said.
Lewis wants his business to help students solve problems in unique ways, and learn in ways they may not have before.
“You’re looking at things like building projects, where you’re taking otherwise meaningless to education resources, for example like dried spaghetti and some candy gum drops. And you give it to them and say, ‘Build the highest tower you can.’ And a project like that incorporates science, math, architecture, and art,” Lewis said.
In the end, Lewis also wants to help students have the feeling of learning like they did when they were young, and students learned new things day in and day out.
“As a teacher day in and day out, you get to see what school is like for students and having gone to CPHS, and not being in school all that long ago, I can remember what you look for as a student, and what’s taxing and exhausting about the day. And even at a school like Crown Point, you have the resources, but there're so many kids and there're so many expectations on you to perform that stress builds up, and you start to lose the child-like awe of seeing a 3D printer and building a circuit board,” Lewis said.