National Merit Scholarship Competition commends seniors

The 2012 National Merit Scholarship program has named seniors Tyler Young and Janae Robinson commended students for their performance on the PSAT administered their junior year.

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation uses the screen index or the sum of all scores within each section of the test, from 1.5 million test takers a year to choose the students who meets the program requirements.

Young and Robinson were two of approximately 34,000 students selected from the 50,000 high scorers to receive letters of commendation for their outstanding academic promise.

“We are very proud of both students for their dedication and hard work,” Principal Tim Gilliland said.

Voice of Democracy contest deadline Oct. 28

Librarian Tammy Scarbrough will accept Voice of Democracy essay entries until the Oct. 28 deadline.

The essay competition is open to all high school students and must include a typed essay with a 3-5 minute recording of the essay. The topic for this year’s competition is “Is there pride in serving in our military?”

All taped recordings must be on either a CD or cassette tape in the writers own voice without the disclosure of his or her identity. Scarbrough will provide a space with a recorder and cassette tapes for anyone who needs to record an essay but does not have equipment. See her for further information.

The competition is hosted by the Veterans of Foreign Wars and is judged on originality, content and delivery. Cash prizes are awarded to winners as well a chance to advance to the next stage of competition.

“This is a great opportunity to get some cash,” Scarbrough said. “It also raises student awareness of the past and present actions of the military. This is a good way for students to share their opinions on what is going on in the world around them.”

Debate duo to compete at state meet

As he stood at the podium he could feel the adrenaline coursing through his veins. His rock solid argument bounced off his lips and hit the opposing team like a brick wall. By the time he finished speaking he glanced at the triumphant smile on his partner’s face and knew that this debate round had just been dominated.

Senior Colten Cowart and junior Brett Howard qualified to attend the CX Debate state meet March 15-18. Juniors Connor Lawrence and Ephraim Lorenz have qualified as the alternate team and will be joining Cowart and Howard to state.

“I didn’t think we were going to make it but I’m excited,” Cowart said. “If we really work hard then we can do really well.”

The meet will be held in Austin where more than 60 different teams will compete for the top three places.

“I’m kind of nervous,” Howard said.” It’s going to be hard”

In preparation for the competition, both debaters are putting in several hours of work each week.

“We work at least 2 or 3 hours a day or up to 15 hours a week,” both Cowart and Howard said.

Howard said both debate partners bring individual advantages that aid in their success as a team.

“Brett is really good at research, he knows what he is talking about and I make strong arguments to go with that,” Cowart said.

Team members said they appreciate the practical experience that debate has given them.

“It gives you life skills that you can’t get anywhere else in high school,” Cowart said. “It teaches you that keeping up with current events is beneficial to your life.”

STRANDED: Girl fights for life in hostile airport conditions or…how I finally got home

Flying. Created to make an easier and more enjoyable traveling experience. What a joke. Flying is one of the most stressful and complicated methods of travel in the world. Yes, it may be the only way to travel around the world in mere hours, but is saving time worth losing your sanity?  Is having to deal with canceled flights, clueless flight attendants and huge, overcomplicated airports worth it? I think not.

 My exciting day of travel started at 4 a.m. at Norfolk Airport in Virginia. Let me tell you, dealing with security guards and creepy, peppy flight attendants that early in the morning is not a good mix. This travel adventure began with a humiliating experience in which I tried to go down an escalator with steps moving up. I finally made it to the plane and zipped to Charlotte, N.C., home to one of the biggest and most complicated airports in which I have ever set foot. After 30 minutes of wondering and hoping I was going in the right direction, I spied a girl who I thought was headed to the same place as I was so, naturally, I stalked her the rest of the way to my gate. Creepy? Yes, but effective. I found my next plane and boarded a just delightful, long and cramped three-hour flight to Dallas, Texas. Only one flight before I was home. Evidently that expectation was just too high for American Airlines.

After boarding what I thought was my final flight home, the pilot announced that all passengers needed to exit the plane and go back to the gating area. The flight was canceled. Attendants would assist us on getting on another flight. With groans of annoyance and frustration, the other passengers along with me on the full flight  got our carry-on bags and went back to the gate where we stood in line for 45 minutes waiting to speak to an attendant. When my turn finally came around the words I heard were, “There are no more flights to Amarillo this evening Miss Beatty, but we can book you a free hotel room for the night.” At that moment my frustration came to a boil. I shouted, “I’m 15! I can’t get my own hotel room!” After that, the attendant franticly explained that they could get me on a flight to Houston where I could switch airlines and get to Amarillo by 8 p.m., eight hours after my original arrival time. Great. I sighed, agreed, and headed to my new gate where I waited three hours to board the flight home. I used the time to get food from McDonald’s and buy a magazine–the crazy clerk gave me a life lesson. “You should put your stuff in a bag so that you will be free,” the clerk said. “The most important thing in life is to be free.”

After an eventful layover, I finally got on my flight to Houston. Once off that plane, I walked until I found myself in the baggage claim area for some unknown reason so I now had to go through security once again. But first, a much-needed drink from Starbucks. Back at security, they informed me that I must chug my drink or throw it away. Apparently, I was liable to take my frustration out on the airport by hiding a bomb in my Frappuccino. I slurped my drink down without tasting it and was then allowed through the line. Three sets of escalators, an indoor train system and endless walking through the terminal I found my gate, which is organized in not only a number system but also a letter corresponding to the number system. In other words, very confusing.

Another plane ride and finally, I’m home. I was back to find friends and family with posters welcoming me home and only memories left of an exasperating day of flying.

Sophomore meets Food Network stars

Heat touched her skin and dust filled her nose as Melanie Moore stepped out of the car to the familiar sight of the old Cadillacs sticking out of the ground. Her family surrounded her as they walked toward the paint-covered vehicles, and soon they heard a very distinctive, loud and familiar laugh. It boomed from across the field as the Moore family stared in shock at a man they had watched on TV so often.

 While visiting Cadillac Ranch, sophomore Melanie Moore met Food Network celebrities Jeff Manthorn and Duff Goldman from the hit show Ace of Cakes. 

Moore’s extended family from Arkansas was in town visiting and wanted to see the well known landmark. The family was surprised to find the crew of Ace of Cakes filming there that same day. After spotting them, Melanie and her family went over to meet the people she had watched on television ever since the show first aired.

“I was nervous and excited about meeting them,” Moore said. “Even though they aren’t big celebrities it was still cool to meet someone off of TV.”

The show Ace of Cakes is about day to day trials of extreme cake decorating at Duff’s Bakery, Charm City Cakes. It features not only Duff and Jeff as head decorators but also the rest of the bakery’s employees. Melanie’s favorite aspect about the show is how they incorporate art into their cakes and how funny all of the stars are while dealing with those unique experiences.

“My favorite person is the receptionist, Mary Alice Fallon Yeskey,” Moore said. “She’s funny.”

For one day Melanie got to witness Duff and Jeff switch from decorating cake to decorating cars.

 “They were getting filmed while spray painting on the Cadillac’s and just having fun,” Moore said.  “They painted a cake on one.”