ENTORTheMManhattan High School Volume 101 Issue 11 Nov. 19, 2013 page 4 page 6 page 5

Football ends season

Chamber choir performs along side KSU Concert choir

Chris KlugStaff Writer

The Manhattan High football team watched their season come to an end in the quarter!nals of the playoffs Fri-day night as they fell to the top seeded Derby Panthers 55-20. Derby proved why they were rewarded with the top seed, putting on a strong performance both offensively and defensively.

The Indians came out ready to play. Senior Henry Bieber returned the opening kickoff 90 yards for a touch-down to put the Indians on top 7-0. The Panthers would go on to score 41 unanswered points, 34 in the !rst half, taking control of the game. The Indi-ans did not have much success on the offensive side of the ball, only scoring one offensive touchdown which came on a 54 yard run from senior Josh Mullin. Kevin Forshee scored on a 50 yard defensive fumble recovery in the fourth quarter which put the Indians at 20 points.

Although the Indians season did not end the way they would’ve hoped they still accomplished a lot. The Indi-ans !nished the season with a 8-3 re-cord that included a 7 game winning streak, a centennial league champion-ship, a regional championship, a trip to the playoffs and a !ve overtime win in dramatic fashion in the !rst round of the playoffs over Maize. Number 34 senior Josh Mullin walks number 10 senior Kellen Myers off of the field after the season

ending game against Derby on Friday. The Indians lost 56-20, ending their season with a 8-3 record including a seven-game winning streak. Andrew Scott, photographer

Liz LogbackEditor-in-Chief

The Interpersonal Per-sonal Skills class was movin’ and groovin’ on Saturday.

Members from the class attended a dance lesson at Washington Dance Studio where they learned some new moves and then showed off their own. Se-nior Madi Fell-ers is a member of Washington Dance Studio’s senior dance team as well as a mentor in IPS and she helped organize the event.

“I love danc-ing and every-one in IPS is always so sweet and they ask me about dance a lot so I wanted to share it with them,” Fellers said.

The class con-sisted of some brief dance history, basic po-sitions and some across the "oor combinations. Most of those who attended had not taken dance lessons before

so it was a new experience.“I learned how to do the

wobble and do ballet. Very similar styles,” senior Lane Sorell said. “It was fun. I liked watching people jump around.”

Fellers enjoyed watching those who had never done ballet before attempt what

she demonstrated.“The best part was seeing

everyone laughing and smil-ing and jumping in and try-ing things we taught them,”

she said. Not only was the lesson a

learning experience, it was also a great form of therapy.

“It was really cool to see how the kids who are a lit-tle lower functioning have a great time and really re-spond to music and danc-ing,” Fellers said. “Music and

movement are so powerful, and I be-lieve that dancing is an amaz-ing form of therapy for any-one.

S e n i o r J e s s i e K u j a w a agreed.

“ [ I l i k e d ] watching the ment-ees try ev-erything,” she said.

The les-son ended with a

freestyle dance party and the Cupid Shuf"e. IPS is consid-ering having another dance day second semester.

Indians lose

playoff

quarterfinals

Sophomore Adam Al-Soltani simulates the experience of texting and driving during lunch. The event was sponsored by AT&T promoting their campaign “It can wait.”

Reid Beer, photographer

SADD promotes hands free driving

Kellen Mye

rs

909 yards, 12 touchdowns,

1 interception and 5 rushing touchdowns

IPS students attend dance class

Sophomore Sam Lafleur dances with senior Alaina Schroeder during an IPS dance lesson Saturday, at Washington Dance Studio.

Liz Logback, photographer

Madeline MarshallSta! Writer

With two standing ova-tions in a single concert, it can be said that the Cham-ber Choir concert this past Sunday was a thundering success. They performed at All Faiths Chapel on Kansas State campus along with the KSU Concert Choir.

The concert required a lot of preparation, especially when considering the high

level of music performed. “I had to learn almost ev-erything about choir in just a short amount of time,” se-nior Lane Sorell said. “This is my !rst year of vocal perfor-mance and is amazing to me how much goes into singing. From mouth shape to breath-ing to solfege, I couldn’t be-lieve the vast array of things to learn.”

Sorell wasn’t the only one working to learn things. Ev-eryone in the choir had dif-

ferent points of focus. With each and every person work-ing to become their best self, it’s no wonder that they sounded the way they did.

“The most fun part of pre-paring for the concert was thinking back on how we sounded before we worked on the songs and realizing how much we have improved through all of the dif!cult re-hearsals,” sophomore Emma Galitzer said.

Other than the experi-

ence gained from strenu-ous preparation, the choir gained experience listening and learning from the KSU Concert Choir.

The KSU Concert Choir is a highly select mixed ensem-ble comprised of students from a variety of majors across campus.

Before the performance, Chamber Choir had the chance to work with the choir and their director, Dr. Joshua Oppenheim.

“They are extremely good singers and hearing them can make us sound better,” junior Alex Stenberg said.

“They are of a higher level that I am hoping to attain in the next few years. It helped me to see what I was prepar-ing for,” senior Megan Knud-sen said.

The concert gave students a chance to see college stu-dents, some of which were MHS alumni, performing at an extremely high level, and

gave them something bigger to strive for.

“At one point Dr. Oppen-heim leaned over to Mr. Pape and just said ‘they’re great, everything’s coming togeth-er, just great’ and you could tell Mr. Pape was beaming, and so were we,” Galitzer said. “It meant a lot to hear that coming from him.”

Matt BandyStaff Writer

The Manhattan High Scholars Bowl team had been engaged in two J.V. meets and one Varsity meet in the last week. The !rst of the meets was on Monday, Nov. 11, a J.V. tournament where !ve freshman competed for their !rst time.

“It was a good experience for them to get,” Scholars

Bowl head coach Ted Dawdy said.

The freshman went 6-3 in pool play where every team played every other team to advance.Two of the three losses were in tie breakers. They ended up in fourth place and did not advance in the tournament. On Wednes-day both J.V. and Varsity competed. The Varsity team traveled to Chapman to take !rst out of the 22 teams.

“I’m the main math per-son,” junior Kyle Weston said. “I can also do most of the science questions.”

The team went 9-1 in pool play, then won semi!nals and !nals to win the meet.

The J.V. team went to Cair Paravel Latin School in Topeka. They went 5-0 in pool play but lost in the semi-!nals. However, they won their consolation match tak-ing third place.

Bret Fehr

Ethan Fabriz

ius

Winston Dim

el

Chris M

artin

Henry Bie

ber

21 catches, 397 yards and 3 touchdown

receptions

7 touchdowns

7 touchdowns

4 touchdowns

573 yards on 112 carries and 2

touchdowns and 1 touchdown

reception

Scholars Bowl takes first

Se

aso

n S

ta

ts

Opinion The Mentor www.mhsmentor.com Page 2

Leave pro rules alone

Kristyn BakerDavid Clinkinbeard

Karl DrownPatrick Falcone

Vincent GossKarl Harmon

Jordan HatleyColten Kirk

Josh KohlsKasey Morris

Mallory MorrisMegan Ritthisorn

Jeremy RomigZane Smith

Austin Tatum

EDITORS:Liz Logback, Editor-in-Chief/Trending

Maddie Ross, News EditorSarah Shi, Opinions/Content Editor

Dheepthi Perumal, Entertainment EditorNick Bandy, Sports Editor

Michael Melgares, Assistant Sports EditorConnor Bliss, Features Editor

Kennedy Felice; Danielle Cook, Copy EditorsAlan Brown, Multimedia Editor

Tracy Le, Graphic DesignerAllison Olsen, Photo Editor

STAFF WRITERS/PHOTOGRAPHERS:Matt Bandy

Kristen BatsonRachel BeachGage Benne

Chris KlugRetta Lazaris

Madeline MarshallMadison Newman

CIRCULATION:The Mentor

OTHER:Jerry Sextro, Business Manager

Kristy Nyp, AdviserEric and Lisa Ross, CaterersPam Stokes, Photographer

The Mentor is published each Tuesday that school is in session at Manhattan High School, 2100 Poyntz Ave. Manhattan, Kan. Telephone (785) 587-2114. More than 1,500 Mentors are printed each week and distrib-uted free of charge to all faculty members and students. MHS journalists are members of the Scholastic Press Association. The Men-tor is an open forum that accepts contribu-tions from the public. E-mail us at mhsmen-tor@gmail.com.

Questionof the Week:

“On my seventh birthday I went to a water park and my parents lost me for a couple hours, but then they found me and took me to a Waf!e House and all was well.”

- Louis Melgalejo, sophomore

“When I was two, I sat on my cake.”

- Thom Billam, junior

What is your favorite birthday memory?

Next edition’s Question of the Week: What are you thank-ful for? Submit answers to mhs-mentor.com

The editorial is a compilation from a discussion held by the Editorial board.

Andrew Wiggins and Jabari Parker faced off in a showdown last Tuesday between Kansas and Duke. However, the battle between these two superstar fresh-men also highlighted ques-tions about the eligibility of high school players to go di-rectly to being a professional athlete instead of competing in college hoops for a year.

Currently, players must be 19 to be eligible for the NBA draft, meaning virtually all players spend the year after high school playing col-lege ball. It has not always been that way.

Prior to 2005, athletes went directly from high school to the NBA, which was the path taken by stars such as LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. NBA commis-sioner David Stern cited the reason for the change as too many young urban kids seeing the NBA as any easy route to money and fame.

It is good that Stern made this change. Going to college allows athletes to mature, possibly preventing off-court

issues and decision-making problems that athletes have struggled with in the past.

But maybe one year isn’t enough. Athletes, for exam-ple former Wildcat and Mi-ami Heat forward Michael Beasley, go to one year of college but still make bad choices off the court.

Extending the age mini-mum to 21 or 22 would keep the athletes in college for three or four years, in-creasing their maturity. This would also keep freshmen’s focus on their college team instead of thinking about the NBA all year, increasing the popularity of college hoops.

Allowing them to go pro at 18 would also dramatically hurt the popularity of college basketball. It would mean that the best young players in the United States would not be playing in college, leaving just the second-tier athletes playing college ball.

But putting these super-stars in college creates prob-lems and prevents them from making their own deci-sion about when they go pro-fessional. Many of them re-sent their year in college and spend the year only thinking about the NBA and not their

college team. It also makes the NBA

managers drool as they watch the star prospects play in college, causing some NBA teams to purposely tank their season to get the top draft pick.

Former Kansas State play-er Bill Walker, who spent one year at KSU, spoke out against the rule change. “I’m against it. I don’t see why you have to be 19 to play a game of basketball when you can be 18 and go to war for our country and die,” Walker said.

Athletes such as Wiggins could make millions in their "rst year in the NBA, but in-stead they make nothing for one year playing in college. They also run the risk of suf-fering an injury in college that could end their career before it even starts.

These factors mean that the rules should stay as they are now. Letting athletes go straight to the NBA would not give kids time to grow and mature before becoming a professional athlete. But extending the time they must wait would amplify the issues of money and injuries.

You stand on a stage full of people with the same goal. In your head you replay the last few events and wonder if all those months of practice and rehearsal were worth it. You hold your breath as the judges call out names and numbers while those around you have sashes and crowns placed on them.

You hear clapping but you’re too busy praying your name is called for a higher title to join. If it is, you’re elated, e c -s t a t i c , p r o u d , but why? Because a group of judges decided you’re more attractive and talented than some-one who has invest-ed just as much time and money in this as you?

That isn’t some-thing that should feel rewarding. All it is an-other idea society has branded in our minds about beauty and what traits are desirable.

We shouldn’t take part in any form of catego-rizing and comparing one another. There are so many ways we judge each other casually in our daily lives we don’t even think twice about

Kristen Batson

How I am I to respond to 3,631 deaths from a Philip-pine typhoon? And the other 12,487 injured? What am I supposed to do about the 1,187 people still missing?

My heart aches -- literally aches -- when I hear numbers like that. I cry when I read the stories of those who lost everything and am haunted at night by the sheer devas-tation the storm left behind. A particular story of nursing and expectant mothers who are struggling to provide broke something inside of me and the pictures of cry-ing, naked children crushed the rest of me.

SO desperately I want to help. I’ve racked up quite a bill with all the text dona-tions I have sent, and I have prayed for the country, but what more can I do? The hurt-ing people seem so far and disconnected from me that it’s easier just to hope for the best and turn off the heart-breaking news. I’ve looked at plane ticket prices and remotely considered joining relief efforts, but there are far too many details (and ex-cuses I can make) that come along with that.

My country, my town, my life, my school and my day-to-day activities are so clut-tered with other things that I excuse my inactiveness with “I can’t jump on a plane every time someone dies.” What a harsh excuse. I know that in a couple of months the news won’t care about the Philip-pines anymore and I will re-turn to feeling comfortable again.

Have any of you thought of Syria recently? I sure haven’t, but they are still struggling immensely. Their death toll is still rapidly ris-ing and the "ghting is still raging.

Do you worry about the people affected by the tsuna-mi that hit Japan about a year ago? Maybe the wild"res that took over 600 homes in Colorado? And what about the tornadoes that ripped through Oklahoma this sum-mer? Do those things still make us feel uncomfortable, or at least stop for a second and say “aww?”

I hate that there is so much hurt in this world...in my community. The other night after laying out the newspaper I was particularly hungry so when I bustled into Chipotle out of the cold, I smiled because the food smelled so good and there wasn’t a line. I noticed a man standing next to the door, but walked by without saying anything. While putting my burrito together, I glanced over my shoulder at him a

couple of times and noticed he wasn’t getting in line to get food. I felt so uncomfort-able because it looked like he was in need of a meal. I ar-gued in my head about buy-ing him a meal, but "nally settled on the excuse that “I don’t even know if he wants food and I’m a teenage girl so I shouldn’t.” I couldn’t look at the man as I left and in fact I only ate three bites of my burrito because I felt so dis-gusted with myself.

I want to call myself a world changer. I want to help every hurting person and feed all the hungry, but the reality is, I am far too comfortable with staying comfortable. It’s easier for me to use my age, my circum-stances and my "nances as an excuse NOT to move. And I am far more comfortable sending an anonymous $10 text donation than caring for my neighbors personally and intentionally.

This world tells us that other people will take care of it, that we don’t need to drop everything when something disastrous happens and oth-er countries are far away and un-relatable. But I am saying I NEVER want to feel com-fortable in this life. I want to hurt for those hurting and I want to ACT on it. My life is way too short to pass by a hungry man with food in my hand and to not spontane-ously jump on a plane to aid in relief efforts after a natu-ral disaster.

Never stay comfortableLiz Logback

Sammi GriegerGuest Columnist

Happy Tuesday! As of Thursday, I knew I needed to write a column for my dear friend Liz. My "rst idea was to share an embarrassing story about a time when I hit myself in the face with a !ute case, (Doesn’t that have that a nice ring to it? Yea for alliterations!), and then marched a parade baring the battle wound of a fat lip. My second idea was to write about SpongeBob; however “the inter-workings of my mind are an enigma”, so…enough said. But, the idea came to me Friday when I realized how thankful I am for my friends. And so much more!

So, in the spirit of Thanks-giving, (and I as I was dis-cussing with my best friend earlier, it is so sad that Thanksgiving seems to be overlooked more and more each year,) I wanted to share some of the things I am very grateful for!

I’m thankful for feet. I love how these amazing toes give us the ability to walk, to bal-ance, to run. I’m thankful for fall, for the colors that every individual leaf brings. I like how leaves fall and secretly end up everywhere in your house, or in my bed…I still don’t understand how leaves get into my bed. I’m thank-ful for books and how they smell. I’m thankful we have libraries, with stories and stacks of different books, with words, with messages just for us to read. I’m thank-ful for the smell of fresh air, for open windows, and Kan-sas wind that messes up your hair. I’m thankful for how the wind is so funny when it tick-les me, and that !ustered look it gives someone when they walk in from outside. I’m thankful for baby alliga-tors. I’m thankful for electri-cal outlets since they look like little faces. I’m thankful for lunch. I’m thankful for my braces, especially when I get a snack about two hours af-ter I have eaten something.

I’m thankful for school, and for how fun it is. I’m thankful for the interactions we get to have at school. I’m thank-ful for humor. I’m thankful for all of the laughter I heard every night at the musical. I’m thankful for Harry Pot-ter, for cassette tapes, for clothespins, for music, for the sound of pencils scratch-ing on paper. For a black crayon in someone’s hand as it creates the most beautiful drawings. I’m thankful for Dr. Seuss. I’m thankful for imagination, (cue the rain-bow!) and for roller blading. Most of all, I am thankful for people. Yes, though some-times they do get on your nerves, this world would be nothing without the people in our lives. I’m so thankful for the personal interactions I get to have with every one of you. Thank you for giving me your smiles, your laughter, your expressions. Thank you for making me enjoy coming to school! I’ll never express my thanks enough!

Thank you for...

Graphic by Tracy Le

Popularity gets you nowhere

“I don’t like birthdays, they al-ways turn out bad. Once I got 47 needles stuck in my back.”

- Carter Smith, sophomore

The Mentor is an open forum and accepts signed letters and guest columns from students, faculty members and parents. Letters and columns are distinct from each other.

than 350 words.

or national issue and are required to be within 300-600 words in length. Anyone interested in contributing a guest column is advised to clear the topic with the editorial staff prior to writing it in order to save time and effort. The editorial staff reserved the right to edit for length, grammar and clarity while preserving the original intent. All letters, columns and other guest content must be signed and must be free of copyright violations.

discussions are Wednesdays during second lunch. Anyone is invited to come pitch ideas.

-- beauty pageants, senior superlatives, student body elections, homecoming/prom royalty, even just walk-ing down the hall.

Popularity, appearance, who has the most “friends.” That’s what it’s based off of and it’s totally senseless. None of these things matter after high school. How cute you dress and how many people sit at your table dur-ing lunch won’t get you any-

where in life and neither will judging others.

You should constantly be striving to be a better per-son. Not a better person than your friend or sibling, a

better person than who you were yesterday and, as cli-ché as that may sound, self-growth is what life should be all about.

In college the extra hours of studying pay off, not the partying with “cool” people. Your employer will always appreciate you bettering yourself and trying to be a more ef"cient team mem-ber.

What your employer won’t appreciate is you try-ing to make yourself look better than a co-worker. Odds are if this co-worker is failing to do their job, some-one who is more capable will replace them, and when that happens you’ll have n o one else’s

faults to hide be-hind.

Y o u are re-s p o n -

s i b l e for yourself.

I know you’ve heard that from your parents since you were

o l d enough to blame o t h e r p e o p l e or leave y o u r t o y s in the l i v i n g

r o o m , but you know what?

It’s true. The sooner you

come to realize and act upon this, the sooner you can start becoming the kind of person who will make a contribution to society.

Features The Mentor www.mhsmentor.com Page 3

Tracy LeGraphic Designer

When she was seven, her father bought her her !rst Calvin and Hobbes book. From that point on, sopho-more Halsey Camera began teaching herself to draw car-toons, and now cartooning has become a part of her life she can’t live without.

“I do it every day,” Cam-era said. “If I don’t, I go kind of berserk.”

Just recently, Camera had her !rst cartoon book pub-lished. This book included a collection of cartoons she has drawn over the past two years.

“I was really excited,” Camera said. “And when I saw the actual book I was like, ‘oh my gosh’.”

Since she was nine, Cam-era has been thinking about getting a book of her car-toons published. After scan-ning all her comics, putting them together on a comput-er, and !nally sending the layout of the book to a pub-lishing company, three cop-ies of the book were printed. Though Camera isn’t plan-ning on selling this book, she is already working on anoth-er book that she hopes to get published, and maybe even sell soon.

Two weeks ago Camera also went to ComicCon, an art convention in Los Ange-les, where she met different artists. These artists gave her a lot of tips from publish-ing books and good colleges to advice on drawing and techniques.

”It [ComicCon] was some-thing I had never done before so it was a new experience for me,” Camera said. ”I real-ized when I went there that a lot of the comics looked similar, they all were gener-ally the same style...and my parents have always told me to have a unique one [style] so the trip taught me to stick with the same style.”

William Hannah and Jo-seph Barbera, the creators of Tom and Jerry, are two of Camera’s biggest inspira-tions. Her parents also in-spire her to draw and have supported her through all of this.

“They’re just really sup-portive,” Camera said. “Nor-mally, most parents would be like ‘oh that’s very good, I love everything about it’ but

Rachel BeachStaff Writer

“Pick a card, any card” is becoming a commonly heard phrase around Manhattan High.

Jack Cunningham, a ju-nior at MHS, was tired of be-ing ordinary and discovered magic was an excellent way of standing out.

“I was always that kid that sits in the back of the class,” Cunningham said. “I wanted to do something that caught people’s eye.”

Cunningham has been perfecting numerous magic

tricks for over a year now. Card tricks are the most common that Cunningham performs and amazes people with, but he has also per-fected a few other tricks like an impossibly quick T-shirt change.

YouTube has proven to be a useful tool in Cunningham’s magic. Video tutorials have taught Cunningham every-thing he knows. Other web-sites sell lessons that have shown Cunningham how to perform his tricks. Some of the tricks require gimmick cards which Cunningham has also purchased.

One trick Cunningham is well known for is the dis-appearing deck trick. For this trick he s h u f f l e s the deck and allows the victim of the trick to feel the cards and know that it is a real deck. He then has the victim hold the deck in be-tween their hands and then puts his hands over theirs. The audience watches in con-fusion as the victim opens his

hands and the deck had been replaced with a block.

“I love magic,” Cunning-ham said. “Seeing ev-

eryone react to the trick is neat.”

Guitar used to be the hobby that a b s o r b e d

C u n n i n g -ham’s free time.

Cunningham soon realized he couldn’t

share his talent with the public and he set off to !nd something he was interested in and that would fascinate people.

“I hope later in life I can keep doing bigger and better tricks,” Cunningham said.

Cunningham enjoys per-forming his tricks because it gives him a chance to show what he’s been working on. Magicians like to keep their tricks a secret and Cunning-ham is no different. Although Cunningham will applaud you if you !gure out his trick, he prefers that you do not ex-pose the trick to everyone.

“I don’t want magic to be just a phase,” Cunningham said. “I love it and want to continue with it as long as I can.”

with my dad, he’ll point out things that could be better about it.”

Though some people think she may be too old to do car-toons and that she won’t be able to make enough money out of it, her parents know that cartooning is her pas-sion.

”They’re de!nitely very encouraging,” Camera said.

Where she decides to go from here and whether she pursues this as a career or not, one thing is for sure, cartooning will always play an important role in Cam-era’s life.

”I do it all the time and it’s the one thing that I’m good at and it’s really fun to do,” Camera said. “I live and breath it.”

A A

A

A

Retta Lazaris Staff Writer

Discovering his interests early has allowed senior Daniel Sullivan to create a path through courses and projects to prepare him for his goal of attending college for welding.

Sullivan, who is new to Manhattan High this year, has taken welding classes his entire high school career and is currently enrolled in Doug Muller’s seventh hour weld-ing class. He is putting his welding skills to the test with class projects.

“I’m working on two windmills for Mr. Muller,” Sullivan said. “Cutting all of the material probably takes the longest. When I’m actu-ally making a windmill, I just have to get a plan, then get the materials. Then I mea-sure the material, cut it, then weld it out.”

This has been Sullivan’s main project he has focused on this semester. He already had experience with welding from his former school, even though it was much smaller, so he was able to move into a more dif!cult task right away.

“My dad got a job here, as a school bus mechanic. The school I came from had 300 kids, kindergarten through seniors. There was 26 kids in my senior class,” he said.

Being new to MHS, Sulli-van has leaped on the oppor-tunities provided to him.

“I took Ag. Mechanics where I came from (Shosho-ni High School, Wyo.), and now I’m taking an automo-tive class,” Sullivan said. “I like the programs here; there is de!nitely more offered.”

Sullivan is no stranger to the shop environment. He enjoys working on automo-tive vehicles in his spare time; however, he has never been fond of woodworking classes.

“I took a woodworking class my freshman year, but I don’t like blades, so I’m not taking one this year. I like welding better,” Sullivan said.

Connor BlissFeatures Editor

Leaving Spain was a burst of freedom from school for junior Ana Dominguez.

“This school is so huge. I like it how you can choose your classes and in Spain you can’t. They give you subjects and have to take them all,” Dominguez said.

So far in her career at Manhattan High she has been involved in choir, musi-cal, clubs, and cross country, and hopes to try out for the basketball team. “I think it’s the best way to meet people,” Dominguez said. “You don’t have that many options in Spain. In Spain everything’s more strict, we can’t choose anything. You can only play soccer or basketball and you don’t have clubs or anything like that.”

The Ross family has been Dominguez’s home away from home. “It actually feels like we are family now,” Dominguez said. “Maddie

and Hannah, it feels like they are like my real sisters so we !ght pretty often.”

For Dominguez being a foreign exchange student is in her blood. When her mother was 17 she came to America for a foreign ex-change trip. Two years ago the Dominguez family came back to visit her host fam-ily in South Carolina. While they were here they also traveled to New York and North Carolina.

Dominguez is from Valen-cia, Spain, a city with a popu-lation of 2.5 million people.

“There are a lot of people who live in the city center so I can walk everywhere,” Dominguez said. This has been part of Dominguez’s transition into America; she doesn’t even use her car in Spain.

“I don’t like cars,” she said.

There’s another thing in America that she’s not a fan of -- the food. “I don’t like fast food,” she said.

Retta LazarisStaff Writer

Talk about divide and conquer. Students in Brian Hobbs’s wood-working classes are pulling togeth-er to make 140 Adirondack chairs by the end of this semester.

“I posted the advertisement for the chairs at 9:30 [a.m.]. By 10:15 [a.m.] there were orders for 30 more chairs over the 110 we always make,” Hobbs said.

“It’s like a mass production; all of the classes are doing them,” sophomore Meghan Tharpe said. “A hundred and ten are what we are suppose to do, but we had peo-ple order more so now we are in the three quarter process.”

The ‘three-quarter process’ sim-ply means that they have !nished the standard 110 quota of chairs, and are now beginning to construct the extra 30 chairs.

“He [Hobbs] says he has people from the community on the wait-ing list all the time, so people really like them,” Tharpe said. “We have lifetime guarantees, so if the chairs break, they can bring them in and we will !x them.”

The woodworking students have only worked on the chairs this semester. The constant task may

sound unappealing. However, the students have enjoyed the team-work.

“It’s fun, I mean I like the mass production because you’re doing one thing and you're not like ‘Oh my gosh -- what do I do now?’” Tharpe said. “We all have our each indi-vidual jobs, and in the process ev-eryone is one different machines. You switch jobs depending on what needs to be done.”

Since the chairs are being sold, students are raising money for their shop room and future individ-ual projects. The chairs have been a tradition for the program for many years and are sold throughout the Manhattan community.

Sophomore Austin Telck pur-chased four chairs to go around his family’s !re place after they !n-ish their renovations. Telck takes pride in having made something that will be used by his family mem-bers for years to come.

“Well, it’s a lot of fun -- that’s for sure. Mr. Hobbs is a good teacher. We get a different job almost ev-ery day; we are always switching around,” Telck said. “And then, when it comes down to actually building the chairs -- that’s the fun-nest part. Because then you get to see the chair come to life.”

Dominguez adjusts with activities

Senior Brandon Barth constrtucts a chair in Brian Hobbs’s woodworking class. The chairs are for a massive order of 140 due by the semester’s end.

Retta Lazaris, photographers

Sophomore Halsey Camera draws a cartoon in her spare time.Madeline Marshall, photographer

Cunningham learns magic to stand out

Junior Jack Cunningham practic-es a card trick in a hallway.

Rachel Beach, photographer

Class takes on Adirondacks

Looney for toons

Sophomore Mariana Sanchez and junior Ana Dominguez paint the map prop for MHS’ fall musical “South Pacific.” The musical is just one of many extra curricular activities Dominguez has decided to participate in this year as an exchange student.

Madison Newman, photographer

Student forges his own path

Entertainment The Mentor www.mhsmentor.com Page 4

Maddie RossNews Editor

Paper palm trees frame the stage and the blue cur-tains shut tight attempting to hide feet tiptoeing across the stage. Parents and students !ll Rezac Auditorium, mean-dering through the crowds of students and teachers. Even-tually seats are taken, the or-chestra enters and the lights dim. It’s time.

Manhattan High School students performed their production of the musical “South Paci!c” last week. The show was performed

four times during the week. Students showcased their hard work through their many dance numbers and songs.

“All the chorus people were doing great on staying facially alive, and the leads did an exemplary in com-mitting to their characters and staying in character the whole time,” director Linda Uthoff said.

“South Paci!c” takes place during WWII at a base in the South Paci!c islands. The storyline centers around a United States Navy nurse, Nellie Forbush, played by

senior Faith Janicki, as she falls in love with a wealthy plantation owner Emile De Becque, played by senior Lane Sorrell. Con"ict arrives when Nellie discovers, and at !rst is unable to accept, De Becque’s mixed race chil-dren.

Students began working on the musical in September and have done a multitude of things in preparation. Be-hind the bright lights, stage makeup, and 1940 personas were two months of singing, choreography, memorizing lines, set construction and staging.

“My friend described it [ the musical process] once, it’s like having a baby,” Uthoff said. “You make plans, you think about how you’re going to decorate the nursery, and then sometimes whether you’re ready or not the baby comes and you make it work. With this there are times you say I’m never doing that again, but in the end you’re like let’s do it again.”

In the end everything came together into a produc-tion that brought audiences to their feet.

“It is cool because every-one is contributing to the one

goal, and they make it hap-pen,” Uthoff said.

“I think it went great,” junior chorus member Ka-tie Bussmann said. “We im-proved every night, which I think is important. Overall it turned out very well.”

“I was really happy. They did great. You know every year someone says, ‘the dress rehearsal didn’t go very well,’ and say ‘I know they will be ready’ and they were,” Uthoff said.

By the end of the show, sailors embraced their new surroundings; nurses washed men right out of their hair,

then like women often do changed their minds and fell in love with wonderful guys; unlikely lovers fell in love; and armies marched to war. The overture begins again, the plot resolved, characters pile on stage to give their !nal bows. The blue curtain shuts tight closing yet another fall musical.

“The best part is watching everybody become part of something bigger than them-selves,” Uthoff said.

Maddie RossNews editorDanielle CookCopy editor

Many !lled Rezac last week to witness the produc-tion of “South Pa-ci!c,” but what is often forgotten is what goes on be-hind the scenes in preparation and during the show. Whether it be lighting, set, music, hair and makeup, or cos-tumes, crews of technicians are on call to make sure the actors and actresses look good on stage for their audiences.

Senior Mary Matthews was the stage manager for the production because she was intrigued by the differ-ent perspective the realm of tech gave her.

“I was an assistant stage manager last year for the winter play, and I loved it. It’s good to see the other side of a production,” Matthews said.

As stage manager Mat-thews has to pay close at-tention to the blocking on stage in order to time differ-ent components of the show such as set changes, lighting

and the opening and closing of the curtains.

“It’s a very stressful job sometimes, but it’s de!nitely worth it,” Matthews said.

As a technician Matthews sees every aspect of the mu-

sical build from the ground up, and then watches them improve.

“I love being able to work with people and I love seeing the chaos [of a show] come together into something or-ganized,” she said.

Matthews holds a lot of responsibility in her position and has only come to grow because of it. “Doing this has increased my leadership skills and I think that will be helpful in the future,” Mat-thews said.

Charlotte Benjamin lead the hair and makeup crew this year and found out

quickly that it was quite the task. “It’s signi!cantly more work than you’d think,” Ben-jamin said. “People write the hair and makeup techies off as the ones who do nothing, but we actually do a lot. On

any given night I had to do at least 20 people’s hair and makeup.”

During dress rehearsals and the week of the show, director Linda Uthoff’s classroom was transformed into a hair and make-up studio. Ziploc bags of founda-tion and eyelin-

ers were on one wall, while cans of hairspray and curling irons lined another.

“I really enjoyed it. I love making people look beauti-ful,” Benjamin said.

In the end there would not be a show without the army of “techies” helping out in their respected areas. They contribute heavily on bring-ing the show to life.

“When you !nally, you !-nally get into costumes and have your hair done and you’re wearing that ridicu-lous stage makeup, the show really comes alive. I think that’s what’s really amazing to witness,” Benjamin said.

‘South Pacific’pays tribute

The nurses of ‘South Pacific’ musical sing “I’m going to wash that man out of my hair”. The musical was performed last Tuesday through Saturday. Kelsey Crawford, photographer

What goes on behind the curtainsStudents make show happen backstage

“I love being able to work with people and I love seeing the cha-os [of a show] come together into something organized.”

-Mary Matthews

Students involved in the musical work together behind the scenes with the set and characters. Some did hair and makeup while others painted the set.

Kelsey Crawford, Photographer

Entertainment The Mentor www.mhsmentor.com Page 5

Danielle CookCopy Editor

Junior Hannah Schmidt watched intently from her place backstage right as the music begins, the curtain opens and the lights shine straight onto the spacious terrace on the wide stage. As an actor enters the set and begins to sing, Schmidt is ready to take immediate action should a technical glitch arise, as the !rst scene of Manhattan High’s produc-tion of “South Paci!c” un-folds.

Schmidt, assistant stage manager for “South Paci!c,” had many responsibilities to attend to throughout the pro-cess of the musical and dur-ing performances.

“As assistant stage man-

ager, I’m in charge of stage right, so basically what I do is I make sure everything’s run-ning smoothly on my side,” Schmidt said. “I’m in charge of the actors going on at the right time, making sure scene changes go smoothly and quickly, and if any prob-lems happen, I !x it. I’m just in charge of everything that happens on stage right, basi-cally.”

At times, her role might’ve even been one of the most stressful in the whole cast and crew. However, Schmidt feels that even though her job required a lot of dedica-tion and hard work, it was still enjoyable. Doing tech work and organizing things as an assistant stage man-ager gave Schmidt a stron-ger sense of appreciation for

everyone who works behind the scenes and feels that it was “totally worth it.”

Schmidt, who has partici-pated as an actor in musicals and plays at MHS, such as “Phantom of the Opera,” “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” “The Crucible” and more, has also done technical work for oth-er MHS productions. She has found a seemingly perfect balance between performing and doing behind-the-scenes work throughout her time in-volved in theatre.

“I plan to try out for acting for the winter play, and then do tech for the spring play. [Tech] is a lot of fun, too, and I think it’s something people should do at least once. It’s just really rewarding,” Schmidt said.

Characters in the spotlight

Assistant stage manager looks over the show

Dheepthi PerumalEntertainment EditorDanielle CookCopy Editor

Senior Lane SorellEmile De Becque, a

wealthy, sophisticated planter, Frenchman. The character of De Becque in the musical has two legiti-mate mixed-race children by a woman whom he had married and who had died. The character is played by senior Lane Sorell. Sorell is involved in Student Council as the Vice President of Stu-dent Body, musical, National Honor Society, IPS, band and choir, and keeps statis-tics for football.

“I was happy that I got the main role but at the same time I was a little bit intimi-dated because I have never had a role with so many lines like that before, so I really just wanted to do a good job,” Sorell said. “I think Emile is a pretty cool dude but he is probably a little too uptight for my taste although he does have a fun side.”

Sorell just began doing musicals. His !rst musical was the summer of his junior year. “[The musical] encour-ages you to do new things. My mom and my little broth-er Isaac who is a freshman, they encouraged me to do my !rst musical and I wouldn’t

have done it without them encouraging me,” Sorell said. “So I try to get people to do something new and excit-ing because they may end up liking it like I did.”

Senior Faith JanickiNellie Forbush, a nurse

from rural Arkansas. The role is played by senior, Faith Janicki. Janicki is involved in Thespians Club as the club secretary and the musical.

“I love the character Nel-lie.” She is bubbly, nice, sweet and really relatable. Nellie being a Southern girl from Arkansas, I had a connection because I am also from the south,” Janicki said.

Janicki has been doing the musical since freshman year.

“Anytime there's audi-tions for the main character I always try out for it,” Janicki said. “Every night got better, and I’m happy with the out-come for the musical.”

Junior Willie MichaelsMarine Lieutenant Joe

Cable. Is offered the hand of Liat by her mother, Bloody Mary. Although he declines and leaves for battle where he will die. The role is played by junior, Willie Michaels. Michaels is involved in Pops Choir, Chamber Choir, Thes-pians Club and the musical.

“When I looked up the characters for the musical, Cable was my favorite, his music and songs,” Michaels

said.Michaels began doing

musicals in third grade with Manhattan Parks and Rec-reation Department and continued when his older sis-ters did the musicals when they were in high school. Mi-chael’s also has a connection with the musical, his gran-dad was in the South Paci!c during WWII. “He got a mild case of malaria,” Michaels said. “But he was okay.”

Senior Megan Knudsen Bloody Mary, a

South Paci!c islander who makes it her business to sell strange items to U.S. sailors who are stationed nearby. She is just learning English, and is always scouting for someone to marry off her daughter, Liat, to. When Lieutenant Joe Cable arrives on the island, Bloody Mary takes it upon herself to in-troduce her daughter to the strapping young American, in hopes that he will accept Liat as his wife. The role of Bloody Mary is played by se-nior Megan Knudsen, who is involved in Thespians and Pops and Chamber choir.

“It was almost kind of hard [to play Bloody Mary] because everything about Bloody Mary is opposite of who I am. I’m really reserved and thoughtful, and she’s just really out there.” Main characters of musical, seniors Faith Janicki and Lane Sorell share a scene in the musical. Sorell

played his first lead role at Manhattan High. Kelsey Crawford, photographer

Senior Megan Knudsen plays the main role of Bloody Mary in the musical. Knudsen is involved in Thespians, Pops and Chamber Choir. Jennie Jordan, photographer

Junior Willie Michaels who plays Cable and senior Macy Lanceta hold hands during a scene. Both are involved in the performing arts club, Thespians.

Kelsey Crawford, photographer

Trending The Mentor www.mhsmentor.com page 6

BAttleof

the Bands

When did you form your band?March 2013. Tristan Knott left August 2012. I took a little vacation then because I was kind of sad about where things were but then I met Eris and I found out that she could play the drums. Kyle was kind of like an off-and-on guitar player for some of the other bands I was in.

What type of music is on your albums?Every album is very different. For our !rst album it was more of a melodic experimentation. We used an average of 30 instruments for it. Our second was more of a 1970s punk rock in"uence and surf in"u-ence. Our third was very ‘60s, psychedelic. Similar to electronic works.

E.R describes themselves as an “in-die band’ with in"uence from “Arcade Fire,” “Crystal Castles,” “Earth Mother” and “The Psychedelic Sounds of the ‘60s.” Seniors Lukas Hugunin, Ian Miller and Kyle Curtis and junior Eris Swa-ger make this unique music. The band members feel they have a more posi-tive attitude than other bands their age.

“We have a female drummer, 62 orig-inal songs and albums,” Hugunin said.

They’ve produced their !rst three albums in a basement recording stu-dio. As far as the name goes, Miller and Hugunin wanted something unique with an acronym. They landed on E.R., which stands for Everything Redone.

E.R. (Everything Redone)

The Hollow earthThe Hollow Earth. They formed about two

weeks ago and have only had two of!cial re-hearsals. Sophomores Nathan McClendon and Ethan Levine and junior Silvan Plattner came together to create the “alternative rock” band.

“We all play instruments and we were all in jazz band so we were like ‘let’s do this,’” Platt-ner said.

They have written two of!cial songs with-out lyrics.

“We came together and jammed and out of the jam session we formed two songs,” Platt-ner said.

Finding the band a !tting name may have been one of the most dif!cult parts. In the end McClendon and Levine choose “The Hollow Earth” and Plattner went with it.

Toad and the

Tundra

What genre would you consider your band?It’s probably like alternative, like rock alternative.

Why did you form a band?We were all in jazz band and we play instru-ment so we were like ‘let’s do this.’

How did you come up with your name?We thought about different names and just couldn’t come up with anything and Nathan and Ethan came up with “The Hollow Earth.”

How did you come up with the name?We were sitting at the [Derby] foot-ball game making up stupid names.

When did you form your band?Two days ago. We’ve been think-ing about making music for about six months. We’ve been interested in being a band for a while. I was sitting in my room listening to a lot of music and just thought that I want to do this, too. I want to make music as well and what better place than to start at high school.

The newest band around the school is Toad and the Tundra. In fact, they of!cially became a band three days ago. Juniors Noah Sch-nee and Joel Marienau knew they wanted to try out for battle of the bands, so they made their band of-!cial. Schnee had wanted to make a band and compose music for quite sometime, but hadn’t gotten around to it. “Toad and the Tundra” was brainstormed during the Derby foot-ball game, then just stuck.

“I have some music and Joel has some compositions but as a band we don’t really have any songs yet,” Sch-nee said.

The band’s in"uences include a little bit of ‘90s grunge music, Cage the Elephant, Nirvana, Radiohead and Little Comets.

Graphics by Liz LogbackStories by Liz Logback and Sarah Shi