Spring Fling: An Enchanting Evening

Anna Sirianni

Staff Writer

On the night of Saturday April 26, 2014 at 7 o’clock, the Spring Fling Dance at New Hope-Solebury High School commenced. The Middle School gym began to fill with students that evening, eager to shimmy with all of their closest friends.

 The awkward first moments of any school dance quickly dissolved as the first attendees arrived, and were greeted by the enthusiastic dance organizers, Mask and Zany members.

 Teenagers enrolled at the high school soon arrived in small groups, ensuring they were fashionably late enough to make a dramatic entrance.

 Remixes created by the pair of Disk Jockeys, Ben Natan and Jacob McCloskey, pleased the students. Dance moves were busted in all sections of the gym.  

 “I liked the energy there and the massive number of people who showed up,” reflected a satisfied freshman Nina Coughlin. Coughlin, among others, was among the lucky few who stayed at the event until its predetermined end time.

 Several groups of students chose to depart the dance early, perhaps due to exhaustion from the excessive dancing. However, it was the final portion of the dance that truly left a lasting memory.

 As the hour grew later, the dance floor became even more energetic, as Mask and Zany members danced with fellow attendees. The last general admission dance of the 2013-2014 school year ended the year successfully.

 For underclassmen, the countdown to Homecoming Weekend begins, as seniors say goodbye to NH-S dances.

Sophomores Get Lucky on Service Project

Taylor Selbst and 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.

Earth Day Everyday

Nicole Wanat

Staff Writer

Tuesday April 22, the Earth was appreciated by fellow New Hope solebury students through various pro-environment choices. When asked what Earth Day means to her,  Alexa Botelho, senior responded with much enthusiasm, “Appreciating one’s relationship with nature, humans, animals, and our surroundings.”

 Livia Elgart, Senior believes that Earth Day should be kept in mind all the time,  “It’s a bunch of garbage! Everyday is Earth Day.”

 Hannah Mui, a sophomore, said her contribution to the Earth would last longer than one day: “I planted purple flowers in my backyard.” She expresses that “It felt so good” to help the environment and have an impact in improving the environment.

 Drew Kalinovich, a senior, explained his part in Earth Day “I carpooled.”  He drove to school with two other friends.

 Maggie Czupich, a junior, emphasized the importance of one’s own relationship with the environment, “Earth Day is everyday. It is about how each person can give back to the environment.”

 Julia Stein, a senior, expressed her love of the environment, “I hugged a tree,” she smiled.

 Catherine Xu, junior took on a leadership role on Earth Day, “I made sure people recycled and did not use plastic water bottles.” When asked how she did so she replied jokingly “I yelled at them”.

 Earth Day is everyday. New Hope Solebury students prove that everyone can give back to the environment with their own  special values they hold.  

Chocolate Chips Replaced

Garrett Lemmons

Staff Writer

The newest addition to the cafeteria was the new chocolate chip cookies. The students response to the new addition was very negative. The cookies seemed to be smaller and more crunchy.

 Matt Steele described it as “A very dry, crumbly, and flavorless concoction, that offered very little excitement to my taste buds.”

 When asked about the original cookies Steele described those as “softer, moister, had more flavor, and offered an all around better experience for my sweet tooth”.

 The new cookies lasted less than four weeks and were replaced by the original cookies due to lack of interest from the students. The students were ecstatic when the original cookies came back. Matt Steele was one of these students.

 “In my opinion if it aint broke, dont fix it. To elaborate, the old cookies were classic and there was nothing wrong with them. Changing them to those disgraceful cookie imposters was a huge mistake and I am glad it was rectified.”

Car show hits Philadelphia

Casey Coughlin

Staff Writer

The week long Philadelphia Auto Show held at the Philadelphia Convention Center covered 650,000 square feet of more than 700 vehicles. Approximately 250,000 people attend the show each year. Of these 250,000 people, a large portion are there in search of a car to be their newest addition.

 Car buyers were given the opportunity to experience their car in ways other than just sitting in the cars on the Center’s floor. An obstacle course-like track was set up for car show goers to ride alongside a salesperson. The track was designed with hills and uneven ground to display the capabilities of the Wrangler Unlimited, the Wrangler Rubicon, and the Jeep Grand Cherokee.

 Similar to Jeep’s setup, Toyota had a riding experience that offered attendees a chance to ride in a 4Runner, Highlander, or a RAV4. There were outdoor riding and driving experiences offered by Cadillac, Chevrolet/Buick/GMC, Kia, Subaru, And Volkswagen as well.

 The show featured concept, classic and exotic cars. Concept cars included the 2015 Porsche, 2015 Subaru WRX STI, and the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Convertible. There were cars on display of all eras such as the 1914 Ford Model T Runabout, a 1956 Buick Special Riviera Coupe, and a 1970 L-78 Chevelle SS.

 Despite the inclement weather, the car show provided enough entertainment and garnered enough interest to bring in a crowd large enough to rival past years.

Sochi's Snowflake Controversy fools all

Nicole Martin & Katie Steele
Staff Writers

Everyone in the world watched as the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics ended with the last snowflake failing to turn into an Olympic ring.

 Across Facebook, Buzzfeed, Twitter, and other social media sites, a rumor spread that the technician behind this Olympic mishap was found dead in a hotel room with multiple stab wounds. Few questioned the accuracy of this news story, which had approximately 16,000 shares on Facebook. Even the language in this article was unrealistic and would never have been used on a mainstream news site. Still, most did not realize that the article came from a satirical news site called The Daily Currant. After seeing how many people were misled by the article, hopefully more of us will start looking into what we’re hearing.

SATs are redesigned

Sienna Lee

Editor-in-Chief

The SAT has been around for decades. For students soon to graduate high school, it’s a rite of passage that almost everyone goes through, and for colleges, it serves as a significant benchmark for selecting students for admission. For the past nine years, the test has consisted of nine multiple choice sections and an essay, which combined can earn a score of up to 2400--until March 5th of this year, when the College Board announced their plans to make some changes to the standardized test.

 Originally, the SAT, created in 1926, but it has come a long way since then. Throughout the years, it has gradually evolved to meet educational standards and better reflect the material taught in high schools today. The biggest change it ever underwent was when it split from being one big general test to two distinct sections of verbal and quantitative analysis. Then, in 1994, antonym questions were removed, the reading passages became longer, open-ended math questions were added, and calculators became permitted to use during the test. The most recent change to the test occurred in 2005, when the essay was added as a separate section, analogies were eliminated, the math section was expanded to include Algebra II content, and, as the most dramatic change, the scoring went from a maximum of 1600 to a maximum of 2400.

 Now, the SAT is going back to the 400-1600 point scale. There will be three sections, composed of evidence-based reading and writing, math, and the essay. The new essay will require students to analyze a passage and explain the author’s argument, and the prompt will be shared in advance and remain consistent; only the passage changes. However, on the new SAT, the essay will be made optional, although some colleges may still require essay scores. Math questions will become more narrowly focused, and the vocabulary words will be less obscure and more applicable to the real world. Also, there will be no point deduction for wrong answers. The SAT is still going to be distributed mainly in print, but select locations will have an option to take the test on the computer. It should take about three hours, and 50 minutes for the optional essay. The full specifications, as well as example problems, for the new SAT will be made available on April 16th, 2014.

 So, why are these changes being made? The president of the College Board, David Coleman, announced the SAT redesign, saying that the SAT has become disconnected with what is currently being taught in American high schools. Analysts say that American students have fallen behind their counterparts in other developed nations in test results, prompting concerns that the US is insufficiently preparing young people for competing in a global economy. While some believe that the changes might further lower the standards, the College Board says that they are to make the test as clear and effective as possible, and to make sure no student has an unfair disadvantage. Another concern is whether the SAT is changing due to a recent trend of students either taking the ACT, the other major college admissions exam, instead of the SAT, or opting out of taking a standardized test at all. While the majority of four-year colleges still require to submit test scores, hundreds have switched to test-optional policies, allowing students to decide whether or not to submit a score. Since mid-2012, more students have been reported taking the ACT than the SAT, with about 1.7 million students taking the ACT each year compared to 1.6 million taking the SAT. In the year 2013, it was reported that only 43% of students scored highly enough on the SAT to succeed in college. These changes to the SAT are making it more similar to the ACT, indicating that it might be an attempt to get more students to take the SAT again.

 The College Board promises that “When students open their SAT test books in Spring 2016, they’ll encounter an SAT that is more focused and useful than ever before.” Hopefully, these changes will improve the SAT and make it a more effective tool for students that have previously struggled with the standardized testing system.

Putin kicked out of G8 summit

Daniel Locke

Staff Writer

 Recently, the G8 summit, which was supposed to be held in June in Sochi, Russia has been suspended since members of what is now the G7 had kicked Russia out. After Russia annexed Crimea, the G7 had warned that Russia would be kicked out of the G8 summit, and decided to boycott the summit and impose sanctions upon Russia for these actions.

 Russia which has been a member of the G8 summit for 16 years since 1998 when they first joined, has finally ended its ties with the G8. Now the G7 composes of Japan, Italy, France, Britain, United States, Germany, and Canada. The G7 had also issued a joint statement that they would meet in Brussels, Belgium. The G7 responded to Russia’s violation in Ukraine since international law prohibits the use of force or coercion to acquire another state. They unanimously agreed to impose sanctions.

 Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said that being kicked out of the G8 was no big deal. He also went on to make this statement: “G8 is an informal organization that does not give out any membership cards and, by its definition, cannot remove anyone," However the G7 summit has agreed to impose additional sanctions as the situation in Ukraine escalates. Yet Russia appears not to be concerned over these sanctions and still had kept roughly 20,000 troops on Ukraine’s border. Russia has also decided to impose sanctions of their own on the selected U.S. officials from entering Russia. Some officials that are unable to travel to Russia would include John Boehner, Harry Reid, John McCain, and Robert Menendez whom is the Chairman for the Senate foreign relations committee.

 However, China has proposed a solution to this conflict and advises all countries involved to do nothing to further the conflict. America has yet to see the mechanism China has proposed in action.

A long wait for a quick charge

Nick Damarodis
Editor in Chief

Nick Damarodis

Imagine being able to charge your phone in 30 seconds. It sounds impossible, but that is exactly what StoreDot, an Israeli technology company, is planning on doing. The company recently posted a video on Youtube that presented a prototype charger that charged a Smartphone to full battery in 30 seconds, an astonishingly fast time.

 StoreDot was originally a company that was involved in Alzheimer’s research, but their latest venture into cellular technology had found much interest amongst techies and everyday smartphone users alike. Taking time to charge a cell phone can be quite a hassle, since the average charge lasts less than one day for heavy users. Also, most phones take around an hour to fully charge, with some taking even more time. While charging is an inconvenience for many, StoreDot is finding a way to make cell phone charging take much less time and make everyone’s day just a little easier.  

 Doron Myersdorf, the CEO of StoreDot, pointed out that amino acids were used in the creation of nanocrystals, which allowed the cell phone to have a lightning fast charge: "These [nanocrystals] have special properties that enable us to use them in various devices, such as a battery."

 This new technology allows for the charging process to go much faster, and can be used in different devices. For StoreDot, however, the focus is the smartphone. With over 150 million Americans alone owning smartphones, the profit potential and marketability of a charger such as this is incredibly high.

 Although there are many benefits to this charger, it is only a prototype right now. Currently, the prototype is too large to fit in a smartphone. Since the technology is still new, it will take time to reduce the size of the charger and keep the strength of the charge that it has right now. Researchers will continue to make the charger smaller in size and when they do a charger that can be added into smartphones will be brought into the marketplace. In roughly two years from now, StoreDot says that the company will have a charger for smartphones ready to sell.

Czupichs Win Big in 2014 Bucks County Science Fair

Lexi Anderson
Staff Writer

On March 19 2014, two familiar students from our own New Hope-Solebury High School were recognized for their achievements in the Bucks County Research Competition, held at Delaware Valley College.

 Maggie and Sam Czupich, students at NHS high school, put their science skills to the test in this recent competition, with Maggie winning first place in the biochemistry category, and Sam receiving a special acknowledgment and a $100 award for his accomplishments in the math category.

 Maggie, who came up with a idea that may be a more effective way to attempt to cure liver cancer, moved on to districts. Although Sam did not take first place in his category, he wowed the judges with his sports helmet that’s specialized in absorbing impact so that athletes have less of a chance of getting a concussion.

 The competitors were scored mainly on their presentation and how effectively they explained their project. Other factors that went into the judging process were an understanding of their topic, the design of their poster, how thorough their research was, and topic originality. New Hope is proud of their accomplishments and we hope to see more New Hope students compete at this level in future years.

G-Eazy and Ground Up wow students

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.