Senator Square: Carson High design class creates children's books

This will be our last column until after the school break. Congratulations to all of our students and staff for surviving finals and finishing up this semester. This column will return on Jan. 10, 2016. I hope everyone has a restful break.

Alum Presents Refugee information
CHS alum, Kaitlin Brush (class of 2004), presented to social studies classes this past month. Her informational presentation focused on the definition of refugees, migrants, and internally displaced persons, and the current refugee crisis in the Middle East and Europe and how different European countries are working to address the growing number of refugees.

Briefly, Brush also provided first-hand information of the process of Syrian refugees applying for entry into the United States. She shared with students about how her education at Carson High School, University of Nevada, Reno and law school provided the foundation for her unique, international career. Ms. Brush currently lives and works in Amman, Jordan for UNICEF in the Child Protection branch. She shared with students what her daily work is like providing services to refugees in a large refugee camp.

Her timely presentation provided a greater awareness of the situation and an avenue of discussion for world history and government classes to further learn about current events and consider multiple perspectives on the issue. Thank you Kaitlyn for generously donating your time and sharing your expertise with your alma mater — we are so proud of you!

CHS Student on TV
Senior Noah Jennings will appear on the 12th Annual Nevada Newsmakers Teen Edition that first airs Thursday, Dec. 24 at noon on KRNV-Channel 4 Reno.
Noah appears with eight other high school students from across Nevada to discuss current events with host, Sam Shad. Students applied and were selected based on their responses to questions regarding their activities, interests, goals and suggestions for topics that are of interest to today's young adults. The teens served in panels of three to discuss different current issues and share their opinions. The show will air on television numerous times in northern and southern Nevada, as well as Sunday morning, Dec. 27, beginning at 7 a.m. on News Talk KOH 780 AM Reno. Good job Noah. We’ll be watching your interview.

NJROTC News
The Carson High School NJROTC Drill Teams attended the Washoe County School District Drill Meet where they placed: 3rd in Armed Exhibition Drill, 3rd in Academic Bowl, and 5th in Color Guard. Congratulations to the CHS NJROTC Cadets.

Graphic Design Class
Ms. Ababio's Graphic Design III class authored, illustrated, and designed their own children's books using Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign which are all part of the Adobe Suite software. The students were asked to create a story with an authentic character, a focus on preschool or elementary school-aged children, and have a moral to their story. The books were laminated and bound. This experience gave advanced Graphic Design students the opportunity to create real-world projects using industry-standard software and equipment.

Speech and Debate News
A large congratulations to our debate team who competed last Friday and Saturday at McQueen. On Friday, Scarlett Baeza placed 4th in novice storytelling with her piece Esperanza Rising. Kate Torres and Adam Lackey placed 4th in novice Duo with their cutting of the classic, a Christmas Carol. Sawyer Barnett and Bailee Barber took 4th in senior Duo with their piece titled Window of Opportunity. Sadie Share placed 4th in expository speaking reviewing the conspiracy theories around the Denver International Airport. On Saturday for debate, Sandro Figueroa received 1st in speaker points in senior public forum. He and his partner Evan Cherpeski placed 3rd overall in senior Public Forum debate looking at the value of standardized testing.

Evan also ranked 8th in speaker points. In senior Lincoln Douglas debate, Shaylin Segura received 5th in speaker points and 3rd place overall debating the benefits of jury nullification. Carson High hosts the league this coming January 29 and 30. We will need 100 volunteer judges to hold this tournament. Judging is entertaining and educational. Anyone interested in helping can contact Patrick Mobley at pmobley@carson.k12.nv.us.
 
New Math Program and Contest
Kim Whisler and Sarah Lobsinger are math coordinators for the Carson City School District. They are passionate about math and want to help the families in our community realize that math can be fun. In fact, there are things that parents can do to help increase their child’s math awareness in the world around them.
 
Carson City Counts is their way of reaching out to the community. They want to offer resources to families to help build math confidence. They are in the process of building a web page to host ideas and links, but before they can finalize it they need some help.  On Jan. 5 they are starting a contest asking students to develop a logo for Carson City Counts.  
 
Contest Directions: Please help us create a logo for our math campaign: Carson City Counts. Any child under the age of 19 years of age may participate. The contest winner will have their logo displayed around the community and on the website. There will be prizes for the top three entries. Turn in your designs by January 31st to any of the following businesses: North Starbucks, 3228 N Carson St. No. 15, Dutch Bros., Dunkin’ Donuts, Carson City Library, or any Carson City school office.

If you have any questions about the campaign or contest, please contact Sarah Lobsinger at 283-1668 or slobsinger@carson.k12.nv.us.

Student of the Week
This week’s student of the week is Amy Ahumada. She has great attendance, a great attitude and she works hard on every activity and assignment. Thanks Amy for all your hard work.

Senior Spotlight
This week’s senior spotlight is on Matthew McCarthy. Matt has a weighted GPA of 4.5 and is continuing his rigorous academic schedule by taking several AP and Honors classes during his senior year. He has been on the varsity golf team at CHS for three years and plans to participate again this spring.

He was also a member of the CHS wrestling team for two years. In addition, Matt is a member of National Honor Society, is the vice-president of the Mountain Biking Club, and has participated in Key Club for two years. Matt has been accepted into the UNR Engineering Program where he hopes to be able to spend a semester abroad in Spain. CHS is proud of the contribution Matt has made to the class of 2016.

— Angila Golik is a government teacher at CHS and a member of Senator Pride.