What’s happened?
It’s been a busy month! Whiting has had a productive month full of competition, performances, testing, and more. Whiting students walked along the city on March 14 as they participated in the National School Walk-out. Whiting also had former gang members come in to speak to students about the dangers of gang violence and to tell their personal stories that explained why gang activity is not worth it. The speakers gave stories of time in prison, injury, loss of friends and family, and even had a man paralyzed from the neck down come to speak about making good choices in life, especially when choosing friends. It was a very eye-opening experience for many students and Whiting has never had an assembly quite like that.
On March 22, Seniors got to dress up in business attire as Whiting lined up 12 different speakers in the Memorial Gymnasium to speak about work ethic in what they called an “Employee Expectations Fair.” There were representatives from many diverse jobs, such as directors of nonprofits, flight attendants, and a manager of the area port authority. The fair gave insight into what they dealt with on a daily basis, hiring processes, professionalism, and how they chose their career path. Also during the month was SAT testing for the junior class. There was a significant improvement over last year’s scores, evident in scores like that of student athlete Thomas Knight, who scored over 1300, or in the score of one of the class’s highest ranked, Ethan Harbin, with a 1430, beating the national average by over 350 points.
Whiting sports were on the rise during the month of March. Baseball, Softball, Tennis, and Golf have all been working hard towards preparing for their season, and of course some work has been done even for off-season athletes. Junior Football player Colton Willoughby was named the “Lifter of the Month” for March by his coaches and teammates for setting new records and his impressive attendance and leadership shown in the Victor Sahagun Championship Room.
On the academic side, on March 5 Whiting’s Academic team went to competition for the Lowell invite and saw some success, placing 1st to 3rd for English, Math, Science, and Interdisciplinary at the small school level and overall. The weekend of March 17, Science Olympiad was on campus at Indiana University Bloomington competing in the state competition. They placed 7th overall out of several dozen teams and were state champions in three events as well as placing 2nd and 3rd in several others that day.
In the classroom, there were also quite a few events. Mr. Harnew’s Economics class had some fun during the month. Students designed children’s books that would help teach concepts of economics and later in the month on March 23, the class visited Nathan Hale Elementary and read the books to the classes, much to the student’s excitement. His economics class also participated in the “March Money Madness” tournament for the stock market game. At one point in the global rankings, Seniors Hope Huss and Lauren Marcelak held first and second place, beating out students from their class as well as students from Colorado, Pennsylvania, Alabama, and even Ontario and Asia. Harnew has also been in charge of a great opportunity for students, applying through a special program to get special seating for the Musical Hamilton. Students who wish to go have spent weeks researching different topics and people from the era and as part of the program created a poem or song based on their findings. There is much excitement for the show, as the students record their own work to submit before going to see the show live and meeting some of the cast.
In line with musical performances, Whiting students put on the Addams Family musical on March 9 and 10. The show was a hit and provided some of the greatest work the stage has seen to date. Later, Whiting’s band had performed their annual Jazz concert on March 19, with great response from the community in the audience. The high school band alone had performed eight different songs featuring instrumental solos of which some were improvised, and it also featured vocal solos in renditions of Skyfall by Senior Hope Huss and At Last by Senior Oscar Figueroa. Outside of those eight, there was still an entire set of songs performed by the high school choir and even more that night by the middle school band. The high school band also played for the city on April 25, for the annual Easter Parade. The music selection was shorter, but featured an arrangement from its student teacher, Elin Boklund. Across the street from Nathan Hale Elementary at the Comfort Roast Cafe, music was also performed alongside poetry and short stories. This took place during an experimental event on March 22, an Open Mic Night proposed to the staff by a student of whiting, with performances during the night by students but also open to the community as well. The event was a major success and there is hope for more of it come April.
It’s Not Over Yet!
There is still much to come during the month of April. Baseball has a game upcoming on April 2, which will be their third game of the season. They have several more games scheduled throughout the week, meaning that the student athletes get to spend their spring break playing the sport they love. the same can be said for the Lady Oilers on the Softball team with a few games of their own during break, starting April 2 to start off the season.
Around two dozen of Whiting’s Seniors are leaving Tuesday, April 3, on the Senior trip to the New York and Boston areas for the week. The following week has the drawing of names for the annual safe prom event. Safe Prom is an event hosted at the Elks Lodge where students can gain entry by writing essays based on the dangers of alcohol and drug usage and the understanding of what consent is. The community donates money to fund sending couples to Prom for free through a lottery system. The Prom itself will take place on April 28 at the hall in Wicker Park. On April 15, Whiting’s Chapter of the National Honor Society will be starting a new page, literally. That new page will be filled with the names of all the new members, as they will sign the book at the induction ceremony. There is still much to come for April and May!
Maestro on a Roll
Our All-Star student of the month is Senior Ashton Ray, or Kaiser the Rap Maestro, as his followers know him.
Ashton is newer to Whiting, only arriving after his 18th birthday. He decided to move after some family issues, coming all the way from Kankakee Valley High School after living in DeMotte. Ashton started his experience with music back in middle school and continued all throughout, and began taking things further this January after the encouragement of some friends. Before, he had been in a few bands called Roots of Evil and A Days End, but his family had discouraged pursuing it like he does now. He credits the pursuit to those supportive friends he made when transferring to Whiting.
He paid the kindness forward recently. Ashton is an employee at one of Whiting’s newest shops, the Comfort Roast Cafe. He was behind the recent Open Mic Night.
Ashton said, “I first started to push for the Open Mic Night because I have a lot of friends that are writers and/or singers and I started to bring it up casually with the owners of the Comfort Roast Cafe about having one, but when I started rapping heavily in January I began to see that they were right, there was nothing like that in Whiting. So I began to push for it a little bit more aggressively, so much to the point that I ended up hosting the event for them and bringing all the equipment myself so I could I could perform myself. Overall, though, I was amazed with the turnout that it delivered and I'm going to be pushing for another one next month.”
He is very proud of the event and the ability to share his work live, as well as provide opportunity for his friends to perform the things they love. His performer name, “Kaiser the Rap Maestro,” also stands for more than just sounding cool. Kaiser is known well as the name of a Germanic King and came from a rhyme when he first began his career, and Maestro was a nickname given by his boss and is italian for a great musician. Together they tell of his German-Italian heritage. His music is often fueled by his emotions from real events but he still has some inspired by simply listening to beats on YouTube and writing down how it makes him feel on a pad and paper.
After high school, Ashton plans to work with his father to fund his music career. He wants to build his name and spread it nationwide. He has made steps towards it already, recently having local management offers come his way. He plans to take the offer further after he finishes his album “The Death of Hip-Hop.”