2022-23 High School Confidential, Week 23

Mar. 9—***

Welcome to Year 7 of High School Confidential, powered by Danville Area Community College. It's an award-winning project made possible by aspiring student journalists from every corner of our circulation area. Each Thursday through April, they'll tell us what's happening in their hallways at news-gazette.com.

At least once a week, we'll also hand over our Snapchat account (News-Gazette) to our correspondents for behind-the-scenes tours.

Feedback? Email N-G/VP Jim Rossow at jrossow@news-gazette.com.

On to this week's report:

Academy High

The Science Olympiad team, led by Natasha Capell and Dr. Nicole McJunkin, finished second overall out of 13 teams at last weekend's competition at Parkland College. Academy High earned 18 medals, including two first-place finishes and five second-place finishes. On tap: the state-level competition later this semester.

— Rosie Atkinson

Arcola

Nineteen seniors, including three foreign-exchange students, took part in the annual AFS senior trip to New York City. They visited some of the most iconic parts of the city, including Central Park, Grand Central Station, Wall Street, Times Square and Broadway. The trip, which lasted from Wednesday until Friday, was an enriching and exciting experience for all involved. Left to right: Mikey Gauna, Karina Warfel, Rey Oyervides, Emma Vazquez, Rachel Sigrist, Eadie Budd, Martina Domingo, Alessia Menoud, Austin Kutz, Vanessa Condarco, Braden Shonkwiler, Eva Hopkins, Reyli Vega-Condarco, Makenna Wagoner, Alessia Luciani, Keira Hohlbauch, Melissa Marcos, Gracie Wagoner and Makenzie Thomas.

Bement

Spanish Club was prepping to kick off National Foreign Language Week, with many activities planned. Pictured: Skye Tieman and Joie Auth

— Emily Parrish

BHRA

At last Wednesday's annual Career Day, students had the opportunity to meet with local professionals and hear about their respective careers. The day started off with every student coming together to hear from guest speaker Ashton Greer, the city of Danville's community relations manager. Students left the day with a better understanding of the careers they would, or would not, enjoy. A big thank-you to all the people who took time out of their day to showcase their careers, and to Rachel Campbell and Mendy Stephens for their hard work in providing the students with this opportunity.

— Cody Drake

Blue Ridge

After a two-year hiatus, the Farmer City Antique Show returned for its 20th year at the high school. With 30 vendors in attendance, there was plenty of memorabilia, antiques and collectibles to choose from.

— Cadin Dozier

Cerro Gordo

Nadine Machkovech and Anthony Alvorado from Rise Together, an organization dedicated to encouraging students to speak up about their mental health, visited last Monday. The pair discussed how mental-health struggles and drug use in their families led them to do drugs at a young age and how, through speaking up, they eventually managed to get on the road to recovery. Rise Together encouraged students to not only speak up about drug use but also about the factors which lead people to do drugs, like domestic issues or mental-health issues.

— Hannah Copeland

Champaign Central

On Friday, Anime Club had its weekly meeting. The club is sponsored by Lendell Hargrove and allows club members to express their passion for anime through various activities and discussions. Club members discussed recent anime-related news and anime characters who had their birthday on March 3. The club plans on having an "Anime Food Day," where they prepare meals from various shows in the near future. Pictured: Alex Curry discussing the latest anime news at the meeting.

— Janani Pattabi

Chrisman

At FFA State Meat Judging CDE, FFA members Nic Eddy, Hana Gillaspie, Reese Anderson and Samantha Raimer placed 18th as a team.

— Reese Anderson

Cissna Park

At the FFA's annual petting zoo, there were goats, pigs, chicks, horses, donkeys, cows, an alpaca, bunnies, a turtle, a hermit crab, ducks and chickens. The community was able to attend and enjoy all the animals. Pictured: Brett Walder, Tyler Kaeb and Brooklyn Stadeli.

— Mikayla Knake

Danville

Last week, students closed out Black History Month with a schoolwide assembly featuring UBUNTU, the Black Student Union, the DHS Gospel Choir and Future Problem Solvers. This year's theme was World History: Pre-Slavery. The assembly consisted of dancing, singing and poetry readings.

— Josie Hotsinpiller

DeLand-Weldon

Students had the opportunity to listen to speakers from Marisa's Purpose and Rise Together, which are organizations that strive to bring awareness to the dangers of drugs and emphasize the importance of mental health. Said Sean Snook: "I thought the program was very informative, and they discussed topics that are really important for students to hear about."

— Abigail Trimble

Fisher

Students including Elena Baker (left) and Ella Harsiem had to run through Friday's heavy rain to get to classes held in the grade school.

— Emma McFarling

Georgetown-Ridge Farm

For National FFA Week, there were daily dress-up days and agricultural questions with prize winners. Friday's assembly featured a kiss-the-pig contest. Ross Berry and Owen Clark won the cornhole tournament, seniors won the pig hearding contest with 37 pigs, and Maddox Kochvar won the hay-bail toss.

— Izabella Wills

Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley

Students attended Heart of Illinois Conference festivals, where choir and band students had the opportunity to perform with other high school musicians. It was a full day of rehearsing pieces to perform that evening at Tri-Valley High School. Art students traveled to Illinois State where they had a variety of hands-on workshops. They collaborated with other talented artists while also learning different art techniques. Pictured: Art students Lucas Clinton and Autumn Defosset diligently working in one of the workshops.

— Katie Steidinger

Heritage

At Saturday's IHSA solo and ensemble performances, members of band and chorus performed amazing pieces they have been working on for weeks.

— Katie Learned

Hoopeston Area

Student council held its semi-annual blood drive for students 16 and older as well as community members. Students were able to donate in the library (pictured: senior Alexa Burke) or the ImpactLife bus. In total, over 35 pints of blood were collected.

— Emma Rayls

Iroquois West

Last Thursday, students had the opportunity to visit Illinois State University in Normal. With the help of a travel grant from the Gilman's Women Club, students explored campus and learned more about the business program. The generous donation inspired many grateful students to start researching their future educational choices.

— Calli Kraft

Judah Christian

Last Saturday, the school's math team, led by Kathleen Rice, competed at Parkland College. The event included two-person and eight-person teams as well as individual events. Pictured, left to right: (front row) Kathleen Rice, Michael Oshimokun, Max Li, Ryan Chen, Nathaniel Herche, John McDaniel, Linda Zhang, Bradley Lacine, Elaine Stone and Anya Kennedy; and (second row) Nathan Lance, Joshua Osaji and Simon Kincaid.

— Bethany Jackson

LeRoy

Nineteen students in band and chorus attended the HOIC Honors Music Festival. Students rehearsed with choral director Anne Barry and band director Alicia Neal before taking part in an evening concert performed for a sold-out crowd. Congratulations to Allena Johnson, Emma Kinkaid, Luke Griffin, Katie O'Brien, Aubrie Flegel, Emmy Melton, Lily Beer, Maggie Roe, Landon Welte, Matt Stuepfert, Nate Wells, Logan Sparling, Tate Sigler, Kyle Cox, Aaron Bagnell, Bo Zeleznik, Ethan Bagnell, Lucy Thayn and Izzy Pray.

— Lily Monigold

Mahomet-Seymour

To prepare for Saturday's winter formal dance, students and staff members took part in Spirit Week. The themed days included Pajama Day, Jersey Day, Twin Day, Flannel Day and Groutfit (gray outfit) Day.

— Maddie Grindley

Milford

The celebration of National FFA Week included a bags tournament, a breakfast for MAPS employees and drive-your-tractor-to-school day. FFA members also went to Milford Grade School to host a coloring contest and teach K-8 students about agriculture. Pictured: Owen Halpin, Kirstyn Lucht, Ryleigh Rieches, Hannah Potter, Emma Janssen, Quinton Schaumburg, Dalton Trumann, Adin Portwood and Luke Trumann.

— Maddie Hardwick

Monticello

The school had three teams of representatives to compete in the statewide ISU High School Accounting Competition. The team competing in the Advanced Division took home second place, and Slater Goebel was third individually. Pictured: advanced team members Lynnsey Treebomb, Goebel, Rylee Kurth and Cam Allender.

— William Ross

Oakwood

The Scholastic Bowl team won the Vermilion County Tournament for the second straight year. Two Comets — junior Brody Blew and senior Ashton Morris — were named All-Vermilion County Tournament with 20 toss-ups each. Earlier, the team took home the conference champion plaque. Coaches Laura Head and Tyler Petersen are proud of a successful season of 28-3.

— Kalie Tison

Rantoul

On Saturday, the Chamber Choir attended Solo and Ensemble and received a Division I rating.

— Caya Flesner

St. Joseph-Ogden

The varsity Scholastic Bowl team finished third in a competitive Masonic Academic Bowl hosted at SJ-O. Pictured before a dramatic comeback win against St. Thomas More on Senior Night: Corbin Wells, Brody Weaver, Brody Hausman, Daniel Santiago, Paige Siegmund, Jo Schmitz, Rachel Harris, Jack Setterdahl, Izzy Sexton, Kennedy Greer, Lili Wentzloff and Marshall Schacht.

— Alyssa Acton

St. Thomas More

The annual "canstruction" house competition took place last week. The four student families — St. Peter, St. Michael the Archangel, St. Kateri Tekakwitha and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton — collected as many food cans as possible and also created the best canstruction design to represent this year's theme of "School Spirit." The winning family of both number of cans and best canstruction design was St. Peter. The total amount of cans and boxes of food collected by the school was 1,528, which will be donated to the Saint Vincent De Paul Food Pantry.

— Jose Andino Guerra

Salt Fork

Senior Blake Hettmensburger and junior Macie Russell received Vermilion County sportsmanship awards. Russell was picked as the girls' basketball Vermilion County Sportsmanship overall winner. Alexa Jamison received AP All-State Honorable Mention along with IBCA second-team all-state.

— Macie Russell

Schlarman

Four students joined Phi Theta Kappa on March 1: Makayla Blurton, Lilli Perez, Natalie Vasquez and Ricky Soderstrom.

— Lilli Perez

Shiloh

For Read Across America Week, students took part in dress-up themes each day and read books by Dr. Seuss to encourage kids to read more. The cafeteria made eggs inspired by the book "Green Eggs and Ham," and teachers were delighted to see students wanting to read.

— Lydia Richardson

Tuscola

More than 30 students are taking part in this week's performances of "Grease," including the Burger Palace Boys: Brady Urban (Danny), Grant Kauffman (Kenickie), Thomas Spillman (Roger), Chase Nixon (Doody) and Karson Jeffers (Sonny). Pink Ladies include Reagan Smith (Sandy), Aly Brucker (Rizzo), Elle Jones (Frenchy), Raenna Boyer (Jan) and Liriel Jones (Marty).

— Grant Kauffman

Uni High

"The Wizard of Oz" performed last week to sold-out crowds in all four performances. Audiences watched as Dorothy was transported to the land of Oz, where she meets a scarecrow, tin man and lion. The show also featured a live pit orchestra and a real dog playing the role of Toto. Before the last show on Saturday, the company gathered to say goodbye to the seniors. Each senior received speeches and a safety pin from the director. It was a heartfelt moment with many tears and hugs.

— Wes Lu

Unity

Before tornado warnings forced two shelter-in-place drills last Monday, three female wrestlers who reached IHSA state — Lexi Ritchie, Ava Vasey and Phoenix Molina — were honored at a morning assembly. That same day, four teachers moved into new classrooms. Then, the League of Women Voters welcomed seniors to an assembly in which information about the voting process was disseminated. Additionally, all eligible seniors were able to register to vote at this event. The week concluded with first-place finishes for the girls' track-and-field team and show choir group, Vocal Rush.

— Jolie Meyer

Urbana

Art students visited the Chicago Institute of Art. Their day was full of adventure, workshops and a scavenger hunt, which included riddles related to the art pieces. Pictured: Sophia Stambaugh and Skylar Hartley; and Kaitlyn Ettelt.

— Jennifer Arriaga-Lopez

Villa Grove

For student council's Winter Week, Monday was PJ Day, Tuesday was Dress as a Teacher, Wednesday was Frat vs. Sorority, Thursday was Dynamic Duo and Friday was Dress as a Decade. Many students participated, and teachers got involved as well. Finally, there was a Decades Dance on Saturday.

— Emma Bratten-Noice

Westville

Westville and Georgetown-Ridge Farm drama students joined forces to present the two-act play "Almost, Maine," written by John Cariani. The play is set on a Friday night in the middle of winter, while the residents of Almost, Maine, fall in and out of love under the Nothern Lights. Pictured: Freshmen Aiden McDaniel and Olivia Shepherd gaze up at the Northern Lights; and, left to right, senior Colton Cox and freshman Olivia Troglia's characters argue over a forgotten anniversary.

— Irelynn Phelps