What's recently happened?
Hebron High School (HHS) has recently leveled up and joined the Indiana Esports Network. Since the program is still in its early stages, it must compete on a club level for this semester as it is a requirement for all new programs to operate as a club until their second semester, where they will become a varsity team.
This semester the six members are playing "Super Smash Brothers Ultimate" on the Nintendo Switch.
"The middle school has been playing as a small club for a few years. Because of that interest, we felt it was time to add it to the high school extracurriculars," said HHS Special Education Teacher Karen Klenk.
The HHS team has competed against several teams already, such as Bloomington South, Columbia City, and Purdue Polytechnic.
There is only one more week in the fall season for these gamers, and the final competition is on November 13 at 3 p.m.
What's coming up?
As fall sports come to an end, winter sports have begun practicing. At HHS, Boys and Girls Basketball bring life into the student body. Not only do these sports bring hopes of another winning season, but it reminds the students that Homecoming is just around the corner.
HHS has a special tradition when it comes to homecoming celebrations. There has been a tradition called the Homecoming Olympics every year. These Homecoming Olympics bring a friendly competition between grade levels to reduce the amount of stress caused by the dance. These games are also used to bring people together and unite before the final home basketball game of the year.
"It's one of the few times you see all of your peers in just one setting, and all having a good time free of judgment – just kids being kids,” said Junior Sierra Bohannon.
Students get the opportunity to play games like dodgeball, tug of war, hungry hungry hippos, and much more with their fellow classmates.
Staff spotlight:
Laura King is a business teacher and the Business Professionals of America (BPA) sponsor for HHS. King has been running BPA at HHS for 15 years. She has sent so many people to State and Nationals for BPA, and she realized that there needs to be a way to make traveling to these competitions more affordable for the students.
King's solution started out as a simple coffee stand inside the high school before the school day. The profits from this helped pay for transportation to the competitions.
As the coffee stand continued to gain popularity, King realized she needed to expand. King created the Hawk's Nest. The Hawk's Nest is a school store that students use all day long to refuel. The Hawk's Nest offers food like chips, popcorn, protein bars, pops, sports drinks, and coffee.
This store not only offers nutrition for the students, but it also offers an opportunity to learn how to work in a retail occupation. King uses the Hawk's Nest to teach her students how to deal with customers and how to handle money.
"I love seeing students able to actually learn their customer service skills, run the sales, and loss prevention,” King said.
With the profit and knowledge the Hawk's Nest has provided, King uses these facts to spread the word to other people, and BPA programs.
"Other schools should also begin to start similar programs like this one. The results from this experience show long term effects of early customer service training,” King said.
Student spotlight:
College applications can be a very stressful part of the year for seniors. Sydni Parsons, a HHS senior, has taken this part of her senior year with a major stride.
Parsons has applied to six colleges including Indiana State University, University of Indianapolis, Purdue University Fort Wayne, Ball State University, Northern Illinois University, and Indiana University (IU) Indianapolis. Not only has Parsons applied to all of these universities, but she has been accepted to all of them.
"I will be cheering at the division 1 (D1) level in college while majoring in nursing. I plan to compete nationally as a college cheerleader while getting a degree," said Parsons.
Parsons has been cheering for 12 years, and she has competed at the state and national levels multiple times. Parsons and her cheer team have been National Champions and National Grand Champions.
"I wanted to make sure that no matter what, I'd be able to cheer at one of the D1 schools in Indiana, so I applied to all of the ones I felt were the best fit,” Parsons said.
Outside of cheer, Parsons has been a member of the National Honor Society for three years. Parsons has also been a Student Council member for four years and a class secretary for three years.
Parsons knew that her extensive extracurricular list would be a huge help in getting her into college, but she knew she couldn't rely on just that. She applied early, and knew which schools she could see herself thrive in.
"My best advice would be to visit multiple colleges your junior and senior year so that you know which schools have environments that you can flourish in,” Parsons said.