New at the ‘U’

Shreya Ramachandran, Reporter, Photographer
September 4, 2018

The freshmen intently listen to their senior mentors, learning from their mistakes and getting advice for their next four years. Freshman Ainsley Matthews described her pitfalls experience as comforting, “I liked talking to upperclassmen because they have been through freshman year. Everyone goes through freshman year worried, and I know I was stressed out and a lot of other people were.”

 

Earnestly working on her lesson plan, new science intern, Annelise Hemesath, will be working with Maggy Proctor in her freshman Biology classes. Hemesath was a TCH 216 student, and is very comfortable at U-High, especially because it is similar to her own high school. One of her goals is to bring current events into the classroom. “People aren’t always the most educated on events that are happening in the world around us,” she stated.

 

The highly spirited seniors have plans this year to bring more organization into the student section. Led by spirit stick holder, Paul Africano, the first U-Crew meeting of the year consisted of lots of brainstorming. Africano shared his goals for the year: “I’m taking advantage of the position I’ve been awarded and making the best of it so that I can really make an impact.”

 

Laughter has united these two best friends for years, but now they are planning to bring more unity to the entirety of University High School. Juniors Peyton Tongate and Sophie Fitzgerald started the new club, Embrace. “The whole idea of it is just embracing who you are,” Tongate said, “whether that be a past back story or a physical difference.” She continued, “Sophie has been a type one diabetic almost all her life and I have a rare skin disease, so we both feel like we have experience with bullying. Our thought is once you can learn to love on yourself, we can go love on the community.” Fitzgerald explained many ways that they plan on “loving on the community” such as raising money for organizations through fundraisers.

 

With coffee mug in hand and podium at his side, new social studies teacher, David Harnish, seems to be fitting in well in the Freshman Program. Harnish came to U-High after teaching six years at Flanagan High School. “It’s been a nice change of pace from being at a really small school, where I was the only member of the department, to being part of a much bigger department where there’s a lot of chances for professional sharing. I feel like it’s a chance to become a better teacher,” he said.
Three years mark the difference between two sisters and their computers. Seniors are noticing. “Our computers are clunky and huge,” senior Kennadi Outlaw said. “I’m very jealous. I get it, when we were freshmen we had the newest computers in the school but these are a huge step from what ours were.” Freshmen, on the other hand, are loving their new touchscreen laptops. “They are really fun because you can flip them around and they are like a little tablet,” freshman Logan Outlaw said.
No longer weathering the walk from the Junior Lot, Katelyn Armstrong is looking forward to something new. “I love parking in the senior lot. It’s so much closer to school and I can get here a little bit later than walking from the ‘J’ where it takes 5 minutes to walk down to school,” she said. The senior lot is not without drawbacks, however. “I hate when juniors park in the senior lot, because then it is not as special to us,” Armstrong said.