What’s Happening?
Newspaper and Yearbook programs score several awards at national convention
Crown Point’s print publications picked up several honors at the NSPA/JEA National convention with, Inklings, the school’s newspaper taking home the NSPA’s highest possible award.
Inklings won the Pacemaker award on Saturday night, as well as earning third place in the “Best-of-Show” competition. Four individual staffers received awards in the JEA write-off competitions for the newspaper.
Senior Dylan Wallace and junior Maria Leontaras both won Honorable Mentions for their work in the Sports Writing and Review Writing categories respectively. Meanwhile, junior Hannah Bauner received an Excellent distinction in Opinion Writing and Sam Barloga earned a Superior distinction in Newswriting.
Seniors Brandon Dwyer and Felicia Wacasey, along with junior Jaycee Hopper were all individual winners for Excalibur Yearbook in Photo Story, Photo Portrait, and First Year Photo.
The two publications traveled together on the trip and visited places such as Universal’s Islands’ of Adventure and Disney’s Magic Kingdom in between sessions. Dwyer said afterward that he enjoyed the experience of the convention, and what the group does.
“It was a fun experience,” Dwyer said. “I learned a lot of different things I hadn’t learned before and I also won a national award, which I didn’t expect to win.”
What’s Coming Up?
School prepares for upcoming blood drive
Crown Point High School’s Student Council and the American Red Cross are sponsoring another blood drive, where hundreds will donate blood that could help save lives.
The upcoming blood drive is scheduled to take place at the end of the week, with students donating blood during the school day.
Senior Jordan Al-Nimri has donated blood at every opportunity since he was old enough to do so. Giving blood is important to Al-Nimri merely because of the fact that it could save someone’s life.
“God provides me with healthy blood, and this blood can be taken and given to other people. It could help them, and might even save their life,” Al-Nirmi said. “Just to think that we have the privilege, the opportunity, to do such a thing is pretty awesome.”
Being a veteran of blood donation, Al-Nimri wanted those who are first-time donors to remember where the blood is going in order to help them overcome any apprehensions they may have.
“Don’t look at the needle,” Al-Nimri said. “In the long run that pain (one may feel) is very temporary, and from that temporary pain, if there is any, as some folks don’t feel a thing, you can make a permanent impact. That’s taking 30 minutes of your life, they may be uncomfortable and inconvenient minutes, but just 30 minutes of your life could save thousands, millions of minutes of another person’s, and I’d say, from what second-grade math has taught me, that’s a pretty good ratio.”
Teacher Shoutout
Vince Bauters leads in what he does after school.
Vince Bauters is making an impact on the Crown Point community through his work before, during and after the school day.
Besides being an English teacher during the school day, Bauters advises two different clubs at CPHS, Windfall and Quiz Bowl. Quiz Bowl is a club that competes with other schools in trivia knowledge. However, Bauters is hoping those in the club will grow in more than just competition.
“Goals for the season are that each student grows as an individual in their confidence, that each student finds personal connections that make them feel as part of the community and (I have a) personal goal that the students feel proud of how they represent their high school,” Bauters said.
Bauters hopes that the other club he oversees, Windfall, will help students express themselves through creative writing.
“It allows students to have an artistic voice to develop their talents as writers through workshops and open-mic readings,” Bauters said. “Eventually, they have a publication opportunity at the end of the year.”
Bauters said he enjoys teaching at Crown Point because of the competent environment that the students and faculty at the school create.
“I enjoy this school because there is a culture of professionalism and of wanting to improve, and steadily have new initiatives to improve,” Bauters said. “I think that overall, the student population is very easy to work with, which makes it nice. The staff, school board and local community are all supportive of teachers, and they seem to believe in what the teachers are doing. When you have that community backing, you have the confidence to go forth with what believe in, and overall I think that Crown Point is a school corporation that has its head on its shoulders.”
Student Spotlight
Dylan Wallace looks ahead after a successful Cross Country season
Senior Dylan Wallace is literally running towards his goals.
Wallace, who is involved with the Cross Country and Track teams at the high school, improved his fastest 5K time by 44 seconds this season, bringing it from 16:40 to 15:56, and played a key part in the Bulldogs’ run to the state meet in Terre Haute.
“This was by far my most successful season as an individual,” Wallace said. “I greatly improved my time from the previous year. As a team, we would have liked to have a little more success than we did, but from what occurred during the season, we still did pretty well.”
Wallace serves as the Sports Editor for Inklings and won Honorable Mention for his story on a wakeboarder at the JEA national convention.
The senior will also start up his indoor track season in a couple of weeks, and looks to be preparing to accomplish an important personal goal.
“This indoor season I would like to break the school’s Distance Medley Relay record,” Wallace said. “Last year, our team was five seconds off, and then they broke it, but I wasn’t on the team. So, this year I want to be on the team and break the record.”