Friday, May 16, 2014

G Eazy

Matt Steele
Staff Writer


On March 26, 2014, West Coast rapper G Eazy played a show at The Theater of the Living Arts, on South Street in Philadelphia. Many students attended the show, not only to see G Eazy, but also because Ground Up was also performing. Ground Up is a duo originating from New Hope.
 The venue was very crowded and hot, but it added to the intimate atmosphere. At times, it was annoying, as my view would occasionally be blocked and I was in very close proximity to other people. All in all, the atmosphere wasn’t perfect, but once the musicians came on, you somewhat forgot about it and it didn’t take away from the concert too much.
 The performances were very good, especially G Eazy’s. He had a few people on tour with him who performed before he went on. These performances were very good, even when I didn’t know who the people were. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed these other rappers. Once G Eazy came on, the show picked up. His song selection was good and the speakers weren’t too loud, even though I was standing right in front of them. I thought his performance was very good, and the crowd really got into the show.
 Concert go-er Connor Smith offered his opinion on the experience, “The concert was sweet, the lights were sweet, G Eazy was sweet, and Ground Up was sweet. Overall, I’d have to say the concert was pretty sweet.”

 I’d say that quote pretty much sums up the night. I’d have to agree with Connor. It was sweet.

Fort Hood Army Base

Matt Firth
Staff Writer


On April 2, at Fort Hood Army base in Texas, Specialist Ivan Lopez shot 19 people because of a denial of his request for leave. 3 people died and 16 are significantly injured. Lopez suffered from both anxiety and depression. Lopez used a .45 caliber handgun, driving in his own car. He ended up committing suicide after a confrontation with a police officer.
 This is not the first shooting at Fort Hood in recent history, in 2009 there was another shooting there that had many more casualties. This most recent shooting took place over a huge area and has caused many hardships among the families of the victims. 35 total shots were fired over the course of the shooting and covered an area larger than two city blocks.
 One of the dead soldiers was Sergeant First Class Daniel Ferguson, who died while barricading a door to prevent Lopez from getting into a room with a large number of people. If he hadn’t blocked the door, there would have been many more injuries and deaths. So far it has appeared the Lopez chose his victims largely at random, and fired a total of 35 shots. Not only did Lopez drive through the base, he also went into three buildings and fired inside at soldiers inside of them. At the start of his rampage in the Administration Building, he injured ten of the sixteen total injured soldiers.
 This terrible shooting is not the only thing to have caused havoc at Fort Hood lately, a fire, which ended up burning an area of 1,500 acres. The fire, which started during a training exercise, spread quickly with the strong winds, but put no buildings at risk of burning. The fire crews were unable to fight the fire initially because of the danger of explosives being set off. They were eventually able to start fighting the fire from the air.
 President Obama and the First Lady travelled to Fort Hood to attend the memorial service for the fallen soldiers. He remarked: “It is love, tested by tragedy, that brings us together again.”

Time to “Get Reel” about the American Red Cross Blood Drive

Michael Iverson
Staff Writer


On May 27 the New Hope-Solebury High School will host a Red Cross blood drive, an annual event that allows the students of New Hope to give their blood to help save the lives of millions of people each year. This year, the blood drive has been coupled with a “Get Reel” High School Video Competition, enabling students who can’t donate, or who simply want to do more, to assist the Red Cross’ media campaign to increase donations.
 Blood drives help save over 4.5 million lives each year, with each pint of blood saving up to three lives. The impact one NHS student can have on someone’s life is tremendous, and it is extremely important that NHS students step up to the plate to save lives, considering that less than a third of people who are eligible to give blood actually do.

 All students are greatly encouraged to participate in the drive, whether it be through blood donations or a video submission. The Red Cross’ media campaigns play a crucial role in their ability to collect the blood they need from their blood drives. The deadline for the video submission is May 24, 2014, and information about the video can be found on the Red cross Penn-Jersey regional homepage.

Dollar Donut Day Draws Crowds

Anna Sirianni
Staff Writer


Every Wednesday, the student government of the sophomore class sells donuts outside of the library at 2:30. Profits benefit the sophomore class’ fund, which can be used for Prom 2015 or any other Class of 2016 expenses.
 These popular treats are purchased during 7th period by tenth grade advisor, Mr. Achenbach. Achenbach buys these from either Giant or Dunkin’ Donuts, and they are sold for $1.
 Business is booming for sophomore officers, and donuts sell out most Wednesdays. Nearly six dozen donuts are enjoyed weekly. Bottles of water are also sold for $1.
 For any tenth grade students eager to get involved, the sophomore class officers welcome helpers every Wednesday to sell donuts.
 Donuts are sold in many varieties, including glazed, cream-filled, jelly, chocolate, or strawberry iced.

 Powering through the middle of the week can be difficult, and many customers find that a donut is the perfect sweet treat to motivate themselves again.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Chipotle fundraiser is a success

Spencer Tinkel
Staff Writer

 In an effort to raise money for the class, the Class of 2015 had one of the most successful school fundraisers in recent years by incorporating Chipotle, a hit amongst students and faculty at New Hope-Solebury high school. On April 30, from hours 3 to 9, 50% of the money made from purchases made at Chipotle would benefit the Class of 2015.
 The idea was sound and steady. Students at New Hope-Solebury often visit the Chipotle in Valley Square, so why not utilize this fact to the school’s benefit. Some were skeptical, thinking a very small amount of money would be made since the event was held on a school night. The skeptics were wrong, as the Class was able to raise almost 1,000 dollars. That’s a lot of burritos.
 “Fundraising in high school these days is very difficult. Fresh ideas are tough to come by. With this event however, we were able to utilize the fact that people could enjoy a nice meal from a popular chain, while have the ability to benefit directly from the student’s enjoyment. It was a win-win,” an exuberant President Max Masino had to say.
 All the students had to do was show their flyer to the cashier and 50% of the funds would benefit NHS. The officers of the Class did an exceptional job of spreading the word by not only handing out flyers, but getting the word out via social media.
 “Having social media has changed the game. We can now spread news without actually seeing someone face to face. For those who lost their flyer, students had the opportunity to pull up a picture of the flyer via Twitter. We will definitely continue to incorporate social media into our fundrasinig,” said President Max Masino.

 One thing is for sure. The Class of 2015 has changed the game of fundraising. Hopefully, this opens the door to different, more rewarding types of fundraising.

Student Austin Maloney pursues medical career

Ben Muzekari
Staff Writer

 This past March, a Junior at New Hope-Solebury High School, Austin Maloney, was selected to engage in the University of Pittsburgh Health Career Academy. Previously known as the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for Health Care, Maloney was one of 110 driven students chosen from across the nation to participate in this year’s residential program.
 “I feel very honored to be one of the 110 out of thousands of applicants chosen to participate. I want to use this opportunity to learn more about medicine and specifically pediatrics because that is what I want to do later in life,” said Maloney.
 The University of Pittsburgh Health Career Academy is one of the most highly advanced and well known academic medical centers in the country. Maloney will have the chance to connect with highly experienced individuals who have years of experience and research on topics relating to health policy.
 “There are lots of courses that involve leadership and overcoming adversity which I would love to do. There will be lectures from doctors and other notable people throughout my time at Pittsburgh,” added Maloney.
 The camp will be held from June 22 to July 19 as Austin Maloney plans to take his dreams of medicine to the next level.

Rita's serves a welcome to Spring

Karli Burns and Kerry Leonardi

March 20th is not only the first day of Spring, but it is also the day Rita’s gives out free water ice. Every year Rita’s gives out free water ice on the first day of Spring and this year marks its twenty-second annual Free Ice Giveaway.
 Customers can obtain a free 12-oz regular Italian Ice with no purchase. This year Rita’s offered its new flavor Starburst Cherry Italian Ice in honor of the first day of Spring. This year Rita’s also implemented a new opportunity to obtain free water ice. Guests were allowed to use the hashtag #RitasFirstDayOfSpring and upload photos of their free water ice to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Those who used the hashtag before midnight of March 20th had the chance to win free water ice for a year and other prizes.  Along with free water you were given the option to upgrade your water ice by adding custard on top for only $1. With the additional offer, people were taking the advantage. It also created longer lines as usual that stretched a few hundred feet. Lines did not stop people from coming to receive their free water ice on the first day of spring!

Malaysian plane disappears and evades search forces

Rachel Locke
Staff Writer

Almost a month ago, the Malaysian Airliner Flight 370 left the radar screens of the air traffic controllers and was never seen again. The last words that was spoken on the flight were “Good Night Malaysian Three Seven Zero.” And from there, the rest is a mystery yet to be discovered.
 On March 8, Malaysian Flight 370 departed from Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian Capital at 12:41 a.m., and was planning to arrive in Beijing, China around 6:30 a.m. the same day. The flight carried 239 passengers and was going to travel a total distance of 2,700 miles. However, no sooner than an hour into the trip, the air traffic controllers lost sight of the plane between the seas of Malaysia and Vietnam. Normally, a distressed call would be issued from the plane to indicate that there was a problem. Unfortunately, this did not happen. Malaysian military officials claim that radar data suggests the plane might have made a change in course. At this point in the disappearance, anything could have happened.
 The next day after the plane disappeared, radar images suggested two large oil slicks in the ocean that might have been linked to the plane. If this was true, then the plane might have had a problem and would crash soon. However, this was found to be unrelated to the missing plane. Another theory that arose days after the plane’s disappearance was that Flight 370 was hijacked. There were two passengers aboard the plane that had stolen passports. These individuals bought their tickets at the same time through the same website. Investigators say that they do not think that these individuals had any effect on the disappearance of the plane. Many countries, including the United States, went on a mission to find the missing plane. They took large boats out into the Indian Ocean and the surrounding seas of Malaysia but did not find anything significant. There was no correlation between the things they did find to Flight 370.

 The families of the passengers of Flight 370 are saddened by the inability to find this missing flight. They have not received answers about where their loved ones could be, and as of now, there really is no evidence of where the plane is or what happened to it. This might as well be the worst aviation mystery in history.

Sophomores get lucky on service project

Taylor Selbst & Katie Tangradi
Staff Writers

For the class of 2016 and their successors, the culminating project will be like nothing like what their predecessors experienced. In the past, students were instructed to pick a career, find a mentor, and spend twenty field hours with them. While spending this time with the mentor, each student kept a journal and took many photos. After a few essays were completed, the students presented their experience to a few selected teachers with a pass or fail outcome. The new culminating project has the class of 2016 completing 20 hours of community service by the end of senior year. From the class of 2017 and beyond those students must complete 30 hours of community service.
 The purpose of the new service project is to extend learning beyond the classroom and into the community. It is designed to advance responsible citizenship through active participation by students and encourage volunteerism in the future.For further information visit the webpage under Departments tab then Community Service.

 In order to complete the project, students have to record their community service and hand it in to their homeroom teachers on specific dates. The community service website has instructions to guide students throughout the process. After they complete their hours, students have to complete a journal to talk about all of the service they had completed. The past culminating project was required to do a journal as well. After that, students have to create a presentation, which is a brief summary of their journal and present it in front of his/her assigned homeroom. This project is a graduation requirement and is very important.

FBLA competes in State Competition

Maggie Dougherty
Staff Writer

 On April 4, Eight members of the Future Business Leaders of America club in the high school attended a leadership conference and competition at Hershey for two days.
 Lucia Minniti, Megan Sharkey, Maggie Dougherty, Victoria Kalinovich, Skylar Sherman, Andrew Dorsey, Matt Kilgariff, and Nick Lombardi qualified in their original tests to compete again against the winners of other FBLA high school clubs.
 The students all competed in different events, such as taking a test in Business Math or Grammar or presenting a subject to an audience. When they weren’t competing, the students attended educational classes where they learned how to be successful in the business world, or they watched other winners present or give a speech to try to compete in first in their category.
 “The experience was eye-opening, and I would definitely go back if I had the chance.” said freshman Victoria Kalinovich.
 In the closing ceremony, the winners of all the competitions were announced in front of everyone who attended. NH-S students waited anxiously to hear their names called. When they heard “From New Hope Solebury, Lucia Minniti and Megan Sharkey...” they jumped up and shouted like crazy.
 Although the two juniors did not place high enough to advance to the next level, it was indeed a proud moment for our tiny school. Lucia and Megan were able to go up on an extravagant stage and receive a well-deserved plaque for their performance. The trip overall taught the students how to achieve what they want in life and that if you work hard enough, you can accomplish anything.