News

By: Anna Tomlinson
News Editor

Members of FBLA recently competed in Seattle at the FBLA State Level Competition. Having had such a large number qualify for state, and eighteen students compete, the school was certainly represented in a professional manner.

In the midst of recruiting new FBLA members for the fall, the students’ accounts of the State Competition have been enticing to potential members. While the trip to Seattle was for the competition, the students were able to experience many other opportunities to tour businesses, network, and connect with friends who have been made via FBLA.

Students who placed include: seniors Matthew Nicholas, Erin Roetker, Anna Stice, and Jacob Weathers, junior Tyler Holbert, and sophomore Addison Underwood. Seven other members placed in the top 15, and each competitor deserves a big congratulations.

Staff Accomplishments

Mrs. Blessley
I have a bit of news… One of my ceramics pieces will be in a show in the gallery at the Art Institute of Portland next month. The show is an invitational for secondary Art Educators, and is titled, “What Those Who Teach Can Do.” It’ll be up from April 5-28, and the Artists’ Reception is April 19th in the evening. My piece is a hand thrown plate, with sgraffito carving. Its title is “Kielo,” which means Lily of the Valley in Finnish.

Darcy Haberl, AP Government and Politics, AP Economics and English teacher at Heritage
Darcy was selected to participate in the “Gilder Lehrman Summer Seminar -The Role of the Supreme Court in American History at Stanford University, from July 22 to 28. Selection for this seminar was very competitive. This will deepen her knowledge of American history and offer new ideas to bring back to our students. Twenty-eight teachers were chosen to attend the institute. Those participating will also receive teacher materials that will be an integral part of her seminar experience.

Darlyn Wendlandt, Digital Arts 3D Animation Teacher at Heritage nominated our student Sarah Lyons for the “Women in Technology Competition” in November. Sara Lyons, a Heritage student, was selected from all of the applicants in Oregon and SW Washington by a regional panel of 21 NCWIT judges as the winner of one of the 27 NCWIT Regional Aspiration Awards for 2011-2012. Sara, her teacher Darlyn Wendlandt and our School will be recognized at the awards ceremony.

Gwen Thompson, Chemistry teacher at Heritage received a $7000 grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust of Vancouver, Washington. Eight grants were awarded to support the efforts of outstanding high school science teachers in the Pacific Northwest through the Partners in Science Supplemental Award Program. The primary goal of the program is to provide high school science teachers with opportunities to work at the cutting edge of science, and help develop new inquire-based teaching strategies to encourage more students to pursue careers in science. Gwen’s work will focus on Immunohistochemistry Investigations.

Adam Strong had a short story published in the Rusty Nail Magazine. http://www.rustynailmag.com/

Bob Berrigan had a photograph published. Berrigan published a teaching supplement book for Accounting teachers.

Nancy Keller and Linda Lebard both earned National Boards

Bob Berrigan published an Accounting resource book for teachers. Another might be getting added to the Washington FBLA Board of Directors.

Carli Pilcher- Selected for the 1st team cheer squad at University of Hawaii. She is only the second female Heritage student to make a D1 cheer team. Kirsten Swedblom was the first, cheering at the University of Idaho. The University of Hawaii’s cheer team is among the top in the nation.

Heritage High School teacher Darcy Haberl has been
selected to participate in the Gilder Lehrman Summer
Seminar – The Role of the Supreme Court in American
History at Stanford University this July.

By: Tiarra Baze
Reporter
Mrs. Rotherham is leaving Heritage at the end of the school year. She has accepted a new position with the Vancouver Public Schools as an Associate Principal at the Vancouver School of Arts and Academics starting next fall.

She has been with the Evergreen Public Schools for 18 years and was one of the original staff members at Heritage. Last year she served as the Dean of Students. When Heritage first opened Rotherham taught drama and English class.

The enthusiasm and passion she brought to drama carried over to her students. The drama program blossommed under her guidance.

“It has been a privilege to work with all of you. I have been regularly humbled by the work of our teachers, classified staff and my administrative mentors,” said Rotherham.

She will be greatly missed by students and staff. “She made a huge contribution I am sad she is leaving but happy for her becuase she is pursuing her passion in art,” said Mrs. Sosky, principal.
Rotherham is involved in Advanced Placement testing and coordinating and serves as one of the administrators who oversees College Career and Technical Education classes (CCTE). Students may see her observing in classrooms with her laptop and walkie-talkie; she is always in contact with her fellow administrators.

We wish her the best of luck at Vancouver School of Arts and Academics, so if you happen to pass her in the hallway make sure you say farewell. Rotherham’s favorite quote regarding education is, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” -William Butler Yeats
Thanks for all that you have done for our school Mrs. Rotherham. You will be missed.

Anna Tomlinson
News Editor

Heritage’s Speech and Debate team has had a record breaking number of State participants this year. With seven competitors for state and four National Qualification attendees, Debate coach, Mr. Hamann said, “I’m proud of them for qualifying.”

Because National Qualifications are not dependent on State placement, they were held prior to the State Competition. Senior Teresa Makar took her Oratory speech far as she made it through five of the six rounds at National Qualifications. Though there were no placers at State, junior Hayley Clark and senior Timothy Nakhisa became the first Heritage debaters to ever win a round at the State Competition.

Seniors Teresa Makar and Cheyanne Bare who have both competed all four of their years were proud of the team’s performances overall, as the competition was tough. “It was a great experience,” said Makar.

Erin Roetker
Editor-n-Chief

Believe the rumors. It is true that Knowledge Bowl has recently taken third place at regional’s in Longview. The competitions consist of teams completing three rounds, two oral and one written. There are sixty total questions in the oral round and the teams have to buzz in to answer. Imagine that pressure. The team has had their ups and downs throughout the year during competitions but there is no doubt that practices have been successful.

“We are strong like a covalent bond.” Said Elizabeth Pring. The team is constantly having positive practices while enjoying each others company, displaying their knowledge but most importantly the candy the Mr. Messer provides. Mr. Messer is not forgiven when he forgets the candy. It is a big deal. Practice usually consists of (besides the candy) the students quizzing each other on facts from a packet of relevant information. Mr. Messer has done a tremendous job taking on the lead role with this group. “As a first year Knowledge Bowl advisor, it has been an honor and a pleasure to get to know and work with these students.

I admire them for their resilience and camaraderie, and for keeping it fun and positive-even at the expense of victory.” Mr. Messer stated. Congratulations Knowledge Bowl for your high achievements and keep up the hard work.

By: Michael Noriega
Reporter

Over the past years gas has increased at a drastic rate. In 1995 the gas prices were $1.15 per gallon. Now currently the gas prices are at an all time high at $4.20 but soon to average $5.00 by the summer.
This is a problem for a lot of people like for people who use their cars frequently like to get to their jobs and school.

“They’re too high! And my car only gets like 15mpg,” says Junior Connor Heinz.

“They are kind of high right now. But I think when society adjusts to the change it will not be a problem,” Say’s Junior Emily Ulsh. This is a problem that affects particularly more to teenagers, because it’s a fact that teens 13 through 18.

This costs the teens who can drive and their parents a lot of money to drive back and forth. Gas prices had never been a big deal before because gas prices were reasonable. But now a lot of parents are putting their feet down on giving rides to their kids because the gas prices are too high for them to be wasting to trips to the mall and other places.

“I think the rising gas prices are a huge sign that we need to start thinking more ecofriendly in our lives and switching to a more efficient way of transportation. As the years pass the number of hybrids will be outnumbered by fuel powered cars,” say’s Junior Jay Ulrich.

People need to stop and think about this because this problem is showing signs that it’s only going to get worse before it gets any better. Maybe going ecofriendly is the best thing to do at this particular moment in time.

By Erin Michel
Reporter

If a child goes missing in the United States police are notified and everything is done to bring the child home to their family. They go after the abductor to put him behind bars, so they cannot harm any other child. In Uganda nothing is done for the child to be found, just the sound of silence while another school, town, and house has been swept by Joseph Kony’s child army, known as The Rebels, in Northern Uganda. Though, heartbreaking, it is too late for the U.S. to change the damages of the lost childhoods.

The things that are happening in Uganda are terrible; families are killed, children are getting abused, walking for miles, and the biggest one of all is their childhood being stolen from them forever. No child should have to go through those types of things.

The issue should have been focused on much earlier. Now over 30,000 children have gone missing in Uganda in the last 20 some years that Kony and the LRA been abducting children for his army. Ugandans believe that it’s a little too late for the United States help; and I do agree. This was important to them about 10 years ago, but by now it’s just something normal for them. We could help by sending army forces to train the Uganda’s army to catch Kony, but I believe that this will turn out to start a war with the rebels, because Kony will want to keep his power and army.

These may not affect us physically or nationally, but this is very heartbreaking to know that things like this are happening around the world and it’s normal for them to have those things going on. No matter what color, religion, or gender you are; it should never be okay to let these types of people abuse and abduct children. However, we neglected to care until now and now we can’t do anything about it. If something likes would happen in our country the abductor will be found in 24 hours or less, but 20 years and 30,000 children long gone in Uganda is a way to late for us to help and rebuild Uganda’s family’s and childhoods that have been taken away. The best thing we could do would be to focus on the rebuilding of Uganda and our own issues going on in the United States.

Opinion Editor
Ashley Davis

March 26 to March 30 is Confidence Week. During this week all students are encouraged to participate by not wearing makeup, not styling their hair, and not wearing anything fancy. The purpose of this week is to show the world that each individual is a confident person, even without makeup or cute clothes; the message is that these things don’t define the person.

Confidence Week is being promoted by Mrs. Rice and her health classes. Mrs. Rice was inspired first, when she found a movie called Missrepresentation. The trailer for this movie can be found on Youtube. Missrepresentation is a movie that explores the role of women in today’s society. It discusses the serious issues of how women are viewed as objects, rather than people. It also sends a message of how our society sets unrealistic goals for women to achieve, in order to appear ‘beautiful.’

This video sparked one of her students to suggest that Heritage hold a Confidence Week. Since Confidence Week has been proposed, many other teachers and schools are participating in their own way. Evergreen, Union and Battleground are participating. Mrs. Perez will be exploring the use of Photoshop in ads and the Dove advertisements with her marketing and advertising classes. Mr. Emmert will be taking portraits of people au natural, during Confidence Week, who are committed the cause between 7:30 and 1 in room 601. Mrs. Keller will be exploring what actually goes into makeup, and how we can find more natural products. Mrs. Rice says, “I love to see all of the other teachers participating in this as well, and incorporating these ideas into their classrooms.”

The purpose of this week is really to unite and embrace ourselves as individuals. Mrs. Rice says, “It’s really the elephant in the room. How do we expect kids to go far and go after their dreams if they aren’t confident enough?” Mrs. Rice also admits that it won’t be easy. “It will be really hard for everyone, even myself, but I have talked to girls who are excited to take off the mask and boys who are excited to see girls without so much makeup on.”

Mrs. Rice hopes that everyone, including guys, participate in Confidence Week because, “confidence is not just a girl’s problem.” The message is really to embrace who you are as an individual, rather than how everyone expects you to look.