What you need to know about applying for college

With every year comes a new batch of seniors looking to apply to their favored college, along with many other alternatives. The process of application is a big job, but not as intimidating as people are commonly led to believe. Statistically, around 500 four-year colleges accept three-fourths of their applicants, and open-admission colleges accept most if not all high school graduates. Colleges care more about what work you’ve done than high test scores. Not everything is about statistics. Try to show them your character through application essays and college interviews. Moreover, you should not try to plan your choice of college based on how famous it is, but on how it fits your needs. Always try to talk with people around you, be it family, teachers, or friends. You are not alone.

Now, with your anxiety dispelled, it’s time to move on to the application itself. The application form has some blanks that may need you to ask your parents or dig up old documents. Most applications can be done online, but the option to do it on paper is available as well. There are even services that allow you to complete just one application and send it to many colleges. Application fees are variable and usually are along the lines of thirty-five to fifty dollars. There are waivers though, if you can’t afford that. Talk with the college counselor or Principal.

The most important thing to colleges is the record of classes you’ve taken and the grades you earned. Arrange with your principal or counselor to send your transcript and a school profile to the colleges you are applying to. Be sure to error check these transcripts as well. At the end of your senior year, a final transcript showing your classes and whether you kept your grades up will be sent to the schools you apply to.

It is recommended that you send scores from the SAT or ACT to colleges, even to the ones that don’t require them. Colleges will only accept scores from the organizations that handle the tests, so make sure to visit the public site of these tests and learn the process.

While you’re at that, get a letter of recommendation from a teacher or other adults you know well. Make sure you ask these references in advance, and give them a short written summary of your achievements, so they have something to write about.

With all of these in mind, you should be well on your way to college life.

Perception day was a huge success at BHHS

Last Wednesday, Black Hills High School held their annual Perception Day. According to students it was a huge success.
                                                  
Perception day is a day for students to get together and find out more about others and themselves. It’s also made to break down cliques and gets students closer together as friends. According to a lot of different student it did its job well.

Kyle Dunn believed Perception day helped him. “I feel a lot more secure at my school, and I just know that I am happier.”

The group started out with fun games to get comfortable with each other and learn each others’ names. Then they watched a video about insecurities and had a guest speaker. The speaker spoke of how once you say something it is hard to take it back. After the speaker talked they had lunch from Little Caesars. Then it got serious. Breaking up into small groups, they spoke about deeper thoughts and people revealed things a lot of people did not know about them.

Some students enjoyed that they made new friends from the experience. “I made new friends and found out stuff about my old friends that I never knew,” said Thad Mashek, “I really liked Perception Day.”

Other students also had positive reactions to Perception Day. “I thought Perception Day was very helpful,” said Max Trotter speaking about his Perception Day experience. “It made people realize that they are not the only ones with issues and they are not alone. It helped people come together.”

Overall the students of Black Hills High School had a positive experience and really enjoyed Perception Day.

By:Jacob Burgess

Senior Resumes due dates and how they affect your graduation

Senior Resume deadlines are coming up, and it’s time to get things done for this years batch of Seniors.The Senior exit process is comprised of multiple aspects, one of these being the Senior Resumes.

Senior Resumes are required for walking at Graduation and, in the words of Ms. Jones, Senior Resumes are “A snapshot of your achievements in High School.” Said snapshot will be reviewed by a board consisting of one councilor, one teacher, and one advocate, during your interview.

For those who are confused as to what the purpose of writing an article is, whether it be for college, a job, or just exiting High School, worry not. “Resumes aren’t usually required for entering college, but are important for getting a job to support college.” says Ms. Jones again, following up with, “Your teachers, Ms. Knowlton and I have examples here for anyone who asks.”

As Resumes are required to finish the Senior exit process, It should be noted that turning them in is of the utmost importance if someone intends on walking at graduation. For further details, you may go to the career center. “A rough draft is due to me by Wednesday, the 21st and all final drafts are due by December 4th.” says Ms. Jones. Granted, the rough draft due date is passed, but Final drafts can still be turned in.

There are a few do’s and don’ts when writing your resume, which can be noted in the examples found in the Career Center. Most of all you want it to note your strengths and how they will affect your job performance, as well as any previous experience. However, “You don’t want it to be too wordy, but you want it to tell your strengths at a glance.” says Ms. Jones. If you put too much into your resume, it is likely that you’ll be subject to a ‘Too long, didn’t read’ attitude.

Black Hills car smash brings school traditions to light

On October 26th, at Black Hills High School, students partook in the annual car smash where they smash a car adorned in a Tumwater High School theme.

The car smash is one of many traditions that Black Hills holds. Michael Nguyen, a varsity football player, said, “the car smash really gets me stoked to play against Tumwater!” Students take turns swinging a sledgehammer at the car, until the solid frame deteriorates into a pile of green and yellow metal. “It’s always fun watching someone break a window or door,” Michael added. The car smash has been held 14 out of the 15 years Black Hills existed. “We came up with the idea after a parent suggested it to a student, who then proposed the idea to me,” said Dale Reeves, leadership teacher at Black Hills. “We tried it out and the kids really enjoyed it.”

Black Hills also has many other traditions. Dale stated, “We have the class murals, the Star-BQ, the senior signing, red and blue Fridays, the spirit fire, and the alumni hallway just to name a few.” These traditions are an important part of the school, and it adds a unique feeling to the atmosphere. “Our traditions are very important as long as we keep it within positive bounds,” said Dale.          

Not only is tradition important to add a twist to school life, but it helps stoke school rivalries. Black Hills rivals Tumwater High School, and students often enjoy participating in these traditions to get excited about the rivalry. “Our traditions are really good to promote competition and spirit,” said Michael. “It’s really important to get people going.”        

With the car smash happening, it has students looking forward to more fun events that are coming up. As Michael said, it’s the best way to keep school spirit alive, and to get people excited.

2012 BHHS food drive is starting up

2012 Black Hills High School food drive will be going on between the dates of November first through the twentieth. Last year we collected around 3,000 items and are hoping to beat that number this year! All classes will be competing against each other to see who can reach their goal of collecting the most cans!

Each individual class that wins gets a prize. First place winners get to have a nice breakfast in the staff lounge with their classmates. Our staff is hoping to motivate the students and teachers to give back to the community and help out families in need during the holidays. Thurston County Food Bank will be the ones collecting the items from our school. Things they are looking for are formula for babies, foods with high protein, canned soups and vegetables and pasta.

Let’s give back to our community and do our best to reach our goal of collecting over 3,000 items! There are twenty days to gather up food items and plenty of time to shop and collect.  

Charter Schools iniative is passed in Washington

Charter schools are public schools open to all children. They are run by parents and certified teachers who have concern for the children’s education. Currently charter schools are successfully educating around two million kids and there are about five thousand of them throughout the country. Washington as of the 2012 election became part of the charter school pack.

Improving education is something that people as a whole want to accomplish. Charter schools could have an effect on our school because it could draw some of our student body away. Some students may choose to be educated differently than they are taught here at Black Hills. Charter schools focus more on smaller and more diverse groups of students and help them more individually.  

Washington’s state initiative rate for voting yes was fifty-one percent. While voters that said no were at a rate of forty-nine percent. The result was close, but the initiative was still passed. Charter schools are becoming more known and popular throughout the state.

By: Kassi Hennie

DECA Conference 2012

This past weekend the students involved in DECA went on a 4 day conference trip in Seattle to learn more about different businesses.

One student that went on the trip to Seattle for the DECA conference was Liam Kelly. Liam has been thinking about going into the hospitality business. While on this trip the students went around to different sessions learning about all the different businesses presented. There was also some free time and students on the trip got to go around part of Seattle including going to the farmers market, seeing a hypnotist, and just going around shopping at different places.

The DECA people go on 1 conference a year as well as 2-3 DECA competitions per year. All the students really enjoy going on the trips and competitions.

Every student that has been involved in DECA or is involved in DECA right now really enjoys going to the conferences and the competitions.

Black Hills Veteran’s Day assembly receives positive reaction

On November 16th, Black Hills students experienced a performance by the Black Hills Choir as well as a slideshow made by the Black Hills Video Class that included a meaningful war song and images of battle.

This is the first time that an assembly like this has happened for Veteran’s Day at Black Hills High School. Previously, the choir has performed several other songs, but never accompanied by a visual. Black Hills has also had the Black Hills theater group perform monologues. In the end, the performance was received in a very positive manner. “I really enjoyed the slideshow with the music,” said Darwin Jones, a student at Black Hills. “The pictures were moving and they accompanied the audio well.”

Students and staff alike shared common, positive opinions about the performance. The performance was necessary to showing respect to our local veterans and soldiers.

Black Hills clubs are up and running for 2012-2013 year

Last Friday during packtime clubs started up again. There was a wide variety of clubs to choose from during the club fair several weeks before and students that signed up were overjoyed to hear that they had started
Two clubs that are pretty popular among the students are gamers club and the community involvement club.

Mrs. Layton, the leader of community involvement, is very excited for clubs starting. One thing she really wants to get done this year is have a water fountain installed that refills water bottles with filtered water. “I think it will be really great to have it at our school,” she says. Mrs. Layton also wants to get more people in the community involvement club, “it’s a great way to get your required community service and you can do it with your friends!”

Members of the Gamers Club, with Mrs. Linder as the teacher in charge, were also overjoyed to hear clubs had started up for the year. If you’re interested in gaming this is definitely the club for you. Throughout the year they have several events where they game overnight. They have events for holidays, game releases, or just for the fun of it. Lots of the club members really enjoy it and like that the events are occasionally themed.

Both clubs want more members to join plus they sound like they would be a lot of fun. It’s not too late to be a part of clubs.

ACT days are a fun and relaxing day for the students but not so much for teachers.

Teachers usually have to stay after for a meeting, while all the students go home or go to hang out somewhere and do whatever.

A common place to go and hangout is Limeberry and get frozen yogurt and just talk and hangout for a little bit.

Or students just can go home and relax, whether that’s by sleeping or just sitting down. 

One student, Zack, goes home every ACT day and catches up on sleep, gets his homework done and out of the way, hangs out with friends, and watches TV. He does just about anything to relax. Zack does the same thing every Friday as well.

Teachers, however, have to stay after school every Friday for a meeting on how they can make classes run smoother and to talk with each other.

The point of the assembly was to respect our veterans both locally, and nationally. Many students at Black Hills have family members that are currently serving or have served in their lifetime, and it is important to give them proper respect. “I think that showing public support for our veteran’s is important because it gives them and their families a sense of pride and honor, knowing that other people support them in the sacrifices they’ve made,” stated Darwin. Veterans really have given up a lot for this country, and they do need support to continue doing so.

Nationally Americans recognize Veteran’s Day as a day of solemnity and respect. People across America are very grateful for what our soldiers put forth. “On days like this, we are called to reflect on immeasurable burdens that have been borne by so few. We pay tribute to our wounded, our missing, our fallen, and their families -- men and women who have known the true costs of conflict and deserve our deepest respect,” stated President Obama, in a proclamation on November 7th, 2012. The President is very aware of this as well, and put the meaning of Veteran’s Day into very good words.

Whether you have family that has served or not, Veteran’s Day is important to celebrate, as it shows respect to those who are fighting to protect us and our homeland.