LINK Leaders announced

The LINK program, which will begin next school year at BHS, has announced its LINK Leaders after many students applied to the program.

The 2010-11 female LINK Leaders will be: Karlee Beach, Alison Berg, Ramie Burkhart, Tayler Christian, Sarah Cigard, Lakyn Clark, Kendra Hedges, Erin Jansen, Heather Karlin, Madelynn Knisley, Claire Peterson, Maddison Phillips, Elizabeth Sigvaldson, and Ann Wallsmith.

The 2010-11 male LINK Leaders will be Jesse Austin, Brandon Baltzell, Shawn Berndt, Trevor Bruce, Clint Chapman, Ethan Horne, Louis Joslyn, Jake Mindez, John Robbs, Ryan Rogers, Will Simmons, Colby Soden, Aaron Vajnar, and Brian Wright.

Sponsors of the group are BHS counselor Melody Hoffsommer, and Science teachers Nikki Burnett and Melissa Strother.

16 BHS students inducted into NHS

The Baldwin High School chapter of National Honor Society inducted 16 new members recently, as well as electing new officers for next school year.

New inductees are Ali Berg, Lakyn Clark, Audrey Dighans, Bree Edmonds, Ally Foye, Abi Hartzell, Louis Joslyn, Zach McElmurry, Andrew Morgan, Paris Nottingham, Ellie Parr, Claire Peterson, Elizabeth Sigvaldson, Chelsea Turk, Nick Waltz, and Kole Young.

The officers for next year will be President Allison Howard, Vice President Colby Soden, Secretary Ann Wallsmith, Treasurer Alex Daffern, Student Council Rep Carson Barnes.

Students who apply for NHS must have a minimum of a 3.65 GPA and are judged for acceptance based on leadership, activities, community service, and academic achievements.

The sponsor for NHS is Katherine Cook.

(in photo, new NHS President Allison Howard)

BHS to start new LINK program

A brand new mentoring program is scheduled to begin next year at Baldwin High School. It is called Link and it is for juniors and seniors to mentor incoming freshman, transfer students and foreign students. Currently the teachers are looking for 26 students. They need two link crew leaders for 8-10 new incoming students. They will help with Freshmen First day and help if any problems with their small group arise during the school year.

Counselor Melody Hoffsommer, science teachers Melissa Strother and Nikki Burnett are in charge of Link Crew.

“Mr. Moseman wrote a grant to send us to go to Connecticut for a Link Conference,” Hoffsommer said. “It was from Sunday to Wednesday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day.”

This is the first year for the program so they are still learning how everything should be set up.

“This first year is the trial year, we are going to keep it simple and hopefully the program will grow in years to come,” Hoffsommer said.

The mentors are required to go to a training day on Aug. 17 where they will learn and prepare for the year. They will also be required to be at freshmen first day on Aug. 18 as well as the first dance of the school year. Being required to be at school two full days before the school year starts does not stop students from wanting to be involved.

“Yes, I want to be involved, it will be fun to help the freshmen get adjusted and for freshmen who don’t have older siblings in high school it is harder for them to adjust because they don’t have connections in high school,” sophomore Hayley Schwartz said.

“Yes, I want to because it will be a good experience for us and the new incoming students,” sophomore Adrienne Strobel said.
Some of the students in high school were in junior high when they started the program, W.E.B. which stands for “Where Everyone Belongs.” Link is the same program as WEB, it is just for high school students instead.

The leaders will get to know their 8-10 students in the group and be available to answer questions all year. There might be an issue with attendance and that is where the leader will be told of the problem and they can talk one-on-one with the student rather than have a teacher scold them for not showing up.

Students commented on if they wish the program was up and running when they were freshmen.

“I personally wouldn’t have needed it because I knew what to expect but people who didn’t have siblings would have like it,” Schwartz said.

“I wish I had someone there telling me some of what to expect but I was able to learn a lot by learning on my own,” sophomore Clint Chapman said.

The main purpose of the program is making freshmen, foreign students and transfer students feel part of the school and knowing some upperclassmen before the school year begins.

Story by Claire Peterson, BHS Journalism

BHS students celebrate Shakespeare

Every year, Baldwin High School teacher Rachael Smith assigns her freshman English classes a festival of Shakespearean fun. Students are expected to not only read Shakespeare, but to produce it as well.

Each student in her freshmen classes are required first to read Romeo and Juliet, then to read a modern parallel to Romeo and Juliet and then to write their very own version of the classic in Shakespearean style. Besides all of the reading and writing, students are expected to act out their very own play in front of upwards of 300 people.

Smith knows how important this project is.

“About ten percent of these kids are the kids that are in forensics, do the fall musical, and spring play,” Smith said, “while many of the rest of these kids may have never spoken in front of a large crowd before, and are likely never to again.”

Smith has put on this Shakespeare festival for the last six years.

She thinks the presentations get better each year.

“Usually the scripts are only three or four pages, while this year many of them were nine or ten pages,” Smith said. “They were far better this year than they have been in the past. Some kids got really into sonnet writing. There would be several sonnets in one play.”

BHS student Alec Petry was happy with his performance.

“I really enjoyed the project,” Petry said. “I got a ‘B’ on it, but I was still happy with my performance. I think the festival is a good way to learn Shakespeare.”

The Shakespeare festival is now a tradition at BHS that has earned its place in the curriculum.

Story by Brandon Baltzell, BHS Journalism