Holidays Are Prime Time for Fun Couple Activities

Ben Muzekari

Staff Writer

 This season, treat yourself and your significant other to some special and memorable holiday traditions.

  Go see the Nutcracker-a Christmas-themed ballet which will warm your hearts. It will get you in the spirit of Christmas and make for fun conversation with your loved one once you’ve seen it. You’ll be entertained by the beautiful music written by the famous Tchaikovsky and the vibrant scenery and costumes. Prime locations to see the Nutcracker in the area include Philadelphia and Princeton.

 Take in the light show-Visit Newtown, PA for this spectacular display of lights. Drive through this long path of glowing lights including scenes from the Twelve Days of Christmas, famous t.v. characters, ships, animals and a variety of others. After your fun journey, treat yourselves to a cup of hot cocoa.

  Make a gingerbread house--Buy a kit for you and your loved one and build a house together. Have fun decorating but try not to eat all the tempting candy! You can purchase one of these at your local grocery store.

 Bake cookies! Visit the grocery store with your other half and purchase Pillsbury cookie dough, icing and holiday sprinkles. Roll out the dough at home, get out the cookie cutters and follow the Pillsbury baking instructions. Enjoy your treats together with a cup of hot cocoa. Get out the board games and enjoy yourselves by the fire.

Christmas movie marathon: Watch classics including Elf, Polar Express, The Night Before Christmas, Home Alone, It’s a Wonderful Life, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Charlie Brown Christmas and many more.

Students Set Goals for Marking Period Two

Madison Walsh

Staff Writer

New beginnings come about all the time. The most recent that New Hope-Solebury students  have faced is the start of a new marking period. When being asked how they felt the first marking period has gone, a wide assortment of responses were collected.

 Jane Doe (whose name is protected for privacy purposes) commented, “I would say [the first marking period] was very stressful, but overall I think I did good.”

 Kate Doe, for one, discussed how she was proud of her performance. “At times [the first marking period] was really hard. There were nights when I wouldn’t sleep because of all the work, but I would power through the agony and stress of it. I’m glad I did, because it made me into a better student than I was before. When I look back on my grades, I know it was from hard work and dedication,” she reported.

 John Doe for one had a different approach. He stated, “I feel like I did okay. I did relatively well, but I feel like I’ve done better in years past. This could be because I’m a senior, but I’d still like to improve upon that in the second marking period.”

 Other than reviewing their in-school performance from the past two months, they also began to dream big and set some goals for the second marking period.

 Jane Doe, after contemplating her performance said, “A goal I definitely have set for myself for the next marking period would be to stop procrastinating so much.”

 Agreeing with Jane, John Doe  stated, “I would like to get my GPA back up to where it used to be.”

 Overall, everyone seems to be looking for improvement to grow as students, whether it be in the classroom or outside of it.  

 To wrap up the first marking period as a whole one can conclude that the first marking period helped the student body gain helpful insight on each individual class’s curriculum. With the chance to find each person’s strengths and weaknesses, it can be agreed upon that this introduction to the 2014-2015 school year is one that will inspire students to be the best they can be going into the second marking period

A report on the end of the first marking period

Madison Walsh

Staff Writer

New beginnings come about all the time. The most recent that New Hope-Solebury students  have faced is the start of a new marking period. When being asked how they felt the first marking period has gone, a wide assortment of responses were collected.

 Jane Doe (whose name is protected for privacy purposes) commented, “I would say [the first marking period] was very stressful, but overall I think I did good.”

 Kate Doe, for one, discussed how she was proud of her performance. “At times [the first marking period] was really hard. There were nights when I wouldn’t sleep because of all the work, but I would power through the agony and stress of it. I’m glad I did, because it made me into a better student than I was before. When I look back on my grades, I know it was from hard work and dedication,” she reported.

 John Doe for one had a different approach. He stated, “I feel like I did okay. I did relatively well, but I feel like I’ve done better in years past. This could be because I’m a senior, but I’d still like to improve upon that in the second marking period.”

 Other than reviewing their in-school performance from the past two months, they also began to dream big and set some goals for the second marking period.

 Jane Doe, after contemplating her performance said, “A goal I definitely have set for myself for the next marking period would be to stop procrastinating so much.”

 Agreeing with Jane, John Doe  stated, “I would like to get my GPA back up to where it used to be.”

 Overall, everyone seems to be looking for improvement to grow as students, whether it be in the classroom or outside of it.  

 To wrap up the first marking period as a whole one can conclude that the first marking period helped the student body gain helpful insight on each individual class’s curriculum. With the chance to find each person’s strengths and weaknesses, it can be agreed upon that this introduction to the 2014-2015 school year is one that will inspire students to be the best they can be going into the second marking period.

Halloween 2014

SAT Scores Becoming an Option

Mariah McGlone

Staff Writers

The big clock sitting directly in front of you on the SmartBoard provides no escape from the all-knowing truth; you have twenty-five minutes to complete sections ranging from 25-40 multiple choice questions. You are being tested on your critical reading, writing, or math skills. The first one is writing where you are told to respond to a prompt, formulate your thoughts on it, and write them down in a structured fashion that meets all of CollegeBoard's requirements. This is why standardized testing splits down the middle for people. You can either easily stare a time limit right in the face or you let it consume you and your cognition. For me, it was the way I felt as though my scores would define my intelligence. I allowed for the finite amount of time I knew I had for each set of questions to determine the quality of my responses.

However, people like me would be pleased to know that colleges are beginning to look at SAT scores less. Temple University in Philadelphia is among these schools. It may even be a leader in the movement with its announcement of the Temple Option, which is an admissions path for students whom showcase auspicious potential in academics but do not test well. This goes into effect for applicants of fall 2015. They have the option to apply without sending in their SAT scores. This makes Temple the first public research university to do so in the Northeast.

Wanna Know Where to Go?

Gabrielle Lehotay and Toni Suler

Staff Writers

With application deadlines closing in, many students are feeling the pressure to find the colleges they want to apply to and send in their applications. With thousands and thousands of universities and liberal arts colleges to pick from, making that final decision can be a stressful and unpleasant experience for anyone. US News released their rankings of the best universities and liberal arts colleges, listing essentials like tuition, location, setting and student body size. The lists, which rank over one hundred schools in each category then proceed to provide readers with an even larger list of unranked schools, which is a massive help to any student feeling the stress of college applications.

As always, the top three universities of the nation are Princeton, ranked number one, Harvard as number two , and Yale coming in as number three. Columbia University had the highest tuition of the top 10 list at over $51,000, while the cheapest of the top 10 was Princeton coming in a little over $41,000. There was tie for fourth between Colombian University, Stanford university, and University of Chicago.  The last four on the top 10 list were Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Duke University, University of Pennsylvania, and California Institute of Technology.

US News also published their top Liberal Arts colleges. There were ties between 5th and 8th. Fifth place was between Bowdoin College and Pomona College, and eighth place was between the Carleton College, Claremont Mckenna College and Haverford College. Number one was WIlliams College and number two was Ambers College with Swarthmore College coming in third. Wellesley College had the lowest tuition at $45,000 dollars, and the most expensive tuition was at Amherst with the highest at over $48,000.

With college in the minds of many students at New Hope, these lists can be helpful in providing information on where each of the schools they are considering stand. As many important future decisions are made it is critical to see where your favorite school is ranked compared to other universities and colleges in these rankings. The favorites at New Hope are Penn State, University of Pittsburgh, Temple University, Drexel University, and New York University, and these can all be found on these lists. With this helpful tip in mind, college hunting might just be a little easier for the students here at New Hope Solebury.

Volleyball Tournament is a Highlight of Fall Fest

Spencer Tinkel

Staff Writer

On October 17th, during the first ever Fall Fest, New Hope-Solebury High School had its first ever outside Volleyball Tournament.

 As leaves fell, emotions were high as teams battled it out against each other in angst to claim the title “volleyball champions”. Even though the tournament was held outside, standard volleyball rules were still applied. No touching the net, no carries, and team rotations/substitutions were mandated. As it seems to be with every competitive high school event, teams complained and moaned about skeptical officiating.

 “Every team was out there to compete and win, so yeah, opinions about rulings were expressed. Every point matters in volleyball. With that being said, I do not think the complaining took away from the game itself,” a well-spoken Matt Mazza had to say about the officiating.

 This aside, all of the games were competitive, and this is really all that can be asked for a school event. All eight teams felt they had a chance to win the whole thing, even in an single elimination format.

 Matt Mazza had to add that in a single elimination format, “anything can happen. One bad game means elimination. It’s scary. You have to stay focused and play well the whole time.”

 Matt Mazza’s teams did just that, as New Hope Fitness (team name) took home the crown.

 “It was not easy, and just to reiterate what Matt Mazza said during the whole tournament, staying focused was our main goal,” Nina Coughlin had to say about the experience.

 The prize? Four free car washes from Four Seasons in Logan Square.

 “I honestly was not in it for the volleyball. Once I heard that free car washes were at stake, I trained hard for the tournament in order to take home a free car wash,” an exuberant Matt Steele had to say.

 Needless to say, Steele’s car glimmered in the Senior Parking Lot that next Monday.