Senator Square: Senior accomplishments, unforgettable moments and the best still ahead

The final event of the Senior Project happens April 18 and Carson High School reserves the entire school day to these momentous, rigorous, relevant, and result driven speeches. The excitement at CHS is intense as these seniors dress for the occasion, dawning everything from professional business attire to scrubs depending on the nature of their projects. Though college and career are just around the corner, a feeling of anticipation, excitement, and soon-to-be graduation flows through the air at CHS. Once again, CHS thanks its teachers, students’ parents, and Carson City for the support of these unforgettable accomplishments.

Senior Project Spotlight
Talk about a dedicated pursuit of learning, CHS senior Katie Matuska is committed to academic success, her high school volleyball team, and the practice of playing her violin. Katie has a 4.875 weighted GPA and has taken 6 AP classes. Additionally, she has played on the CHS volleyball teams all four years, the last two on varsity, but it was teaching a fellow student to play the violin that she chose for her Senior Project. Her passion is evident as she is the concertmaster of the high school orchestra, studying violin and participating in the Strings in the Schools program in Carson City for 12 years. She was also selected for the All-State orchestra. Remarkably, and at her request, Katie’s parents purchased for her an Ifshin Violin on her 16th birthday from a shop in Berkley, California, and she wanted this instead of new car! Violin is definitely Katie’s passion.

CHS Father-Daughter Dance
Over 650 father-daughter couples attended the 2nd Annual Father-Daughter dance this past weekend at CHS. Four high school clubs took on the event to raise money and to provide a fun, safe date night for fathers and daughters in Carson City. Culinary students made and provided cookies, fruit kabobs and chocolate covered strawberries, and SkillsUSA and Photo Club took professional photos.

FBLA and Leadership students were on hand to take tickets, help people find their way around, and clean up after the event. Steven Earle, senior at CHS, who recently started up his audio DJ business (Silver State AV) for his senior project, provided the music. Thanks to everyone who came; the dance was such a success and will happen again next year.

Speech and Debate Winners
CHS Speech and Debate competed in the district tournament last weekend and placed in top spots. Sadie Share, Sandro Figueroa, and Shane Morton also served as presiding officers. Duy Nguyen took 10th in senate with Sawyer Barnett, and Sadie Share took 5th place. Figueroa took 3rd and qualified to compete at Nationals. Morton advanced to final round in HI taking 4th place. Share took 3rd place in Information Speaking, taking 1st place in every preliminary ballot. Barnett advanced to the final round of Lincoln Douglas Debate on the topic of promoting democracy in the Middle East and qualified to compete at Nationals.

The team ends the season fourth in the league, and several CHS students placed in the top 150 debaters in the state. The team will hold its spring exhibition Friday, April 29th from 6:00-7:30 in the CHS upstairs cafeteria. This event is free and open to the public.

Sound of the Sliver State
CHS Director of Bands and Orchestra, Mr. Bill Zabelsky, is pleased to announce that 5 CHS Instrumental Department students participated last week in the Nevada Music Educators Association Allstate Music Conference in Las Vegas. They are: Katie Matuska — violin, Emma Rosen—violin, Eleanor Sturm — violin, Dillon Dodge — alto sax, and Henry Sturm — trumpet. Well done, CHS virtuosos.

Soon to Be Carson Senators
Here are some events happening at Carson Middle School for students who will be arriving at CHS in just a few short months. The CMS Lego Robotics team at CMS practices STEM principles of problem solving, questioning, providing a claim, evidence, and reasoning, interpreting/analyzing data, investigation, and tool use and design to complete their projects. They meet three times a week and participate in competitions with other schools’ teams in the area. Carson Middle School 8th grade Girls Volleyball won 1st place in the Tah-Neva tournament. “Different people carry the team during different times which leads to teamwork,” said Lilian Bouza about the team. Way to go Carson Middle Girls Volleyball.

They could not have done it without Coach Christalee Wolffe and everyone on the team! The National Junior Honor Society at CMS made Valentine's cards for senior citizens in Carson City and spent 2-3 hours after school helping lift and carry bags and boxes of food to vans at the Channel 2 Drive By Food Drive at the Governor’s Mansion. The CMS band participated in Bandarama on at Carson High School and did awesome! Honor Band and Choir wrapped up their season having done a superb job.

Student of the Week
The CHS student of the week is German Fernandez Hernandez. German is a hard working and dedicated student. He is always willing to help others and is kind to everyone he meets. Thank you German for all your hard work at Carson High School!

Senior Spotlight
This week’s Senior in the Spotlight shines on Matthew Liddell. Matthew, who has a cumulative GPA of 3.55 and a weighted GPA of 3.77, has got to be one of the most respectful and kind students at CHS. He is taking several challenging classes this year which include AP Calculus, Honors Physics, and Science Fiction / Fantasy, the theme of his Senior English class.

His future plans consist of attending UNR where he will major in Nuclear Engineering. Ultimately, Liddell’s desire is to work on naval ships in his chosen field of study. Outside of school, Matthew enjoys racing, shooting, and bowling. He played for the Carson High School Championship bowling team for the past three years.
Congratulations Matthew! Carson High School is honored to have educated future college graduates like Matthew Liddell.

— Senator Square columnist Phil Brady is an English teacher at CHS.