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News

Leadership skills put to work at Camp Carl retreat

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Every year, student council hosts a leadership retreat at Camp Carl.

The meeting on Mon., March 2, was held to inform possible “presenters” about the process and duties of the job. Presenters are a big part of the retreat and teaching attending students important life skills. Students must have already attended the retreat to become a presenter.

Possible leaders must go through a five minute interview with Mr. McMahan and Ms. Kotecki. The interview will mostly be the interviewee talking about what he or she is most interested in presenting on and if they have a specific teacher they would like to present with.

“There’s going to be a different feel to leadership this year, but I think it’ll be great. There’s still going to be tons of fun and games but students also get to hear from their teachers and peers about their personal leadership experiences,” attending teacher Danna Kester said.

Presenters need qualities like passion to teach peers about leadership and being capable of having fun but also being serious when presenting their topic to the attendees.

This year, the retreat is on Thurs., April 23 through Fri., April 24. Students will be separated into groups where there are various activities and stations that each teach a different pillar of leadership. Some of these pillars are time management, community service, how to deal with stress and planning for college.

There are two groups of students attending the retreat. The first group are the attendees who have been elected by a teacher to go. This group of students will be split up into teams and assigned a teacher and presenter. The other group consists of the presenters who are the people who plan the presentations and activities for the retreat.

There will be 12 groups consisting of one teacher and one to two students or “presenters.” Each group will come up with a presentation on a topic of choice for anywhere from 45 to 90 minutes. Presentations typically consist of an introduction, an activity and a review of what was learned.

The role of the presenter is to work alongside the teacher to create an inspirational and motivational presentation that can be expanded on in a discussion with the groups they present to.

It is preferred for the presenter and the teacher to be able to put a personal connection in their presentation so that the topic and goals that go along with the topic seems more realistic to the students. If the attendees hear about a real-life situation relating to the topic, they are more likely to listen to what is said and to apply what they learn.

Some activities include a water balloon toss, a three-legged obstacle course, rope swings and constructing a tire bridge with a team.  There are also activities done with the entire group of people attending the retreat. Some of these activities are capture the flag and a bonfire at night before it is time to go to bed.

“In the past, my experience at the retreat was truly great. I got to meet so many new people who I never thought I would become friends with.  The tips and skills they taught were more helpful than I ever thought they would be. I’m looking forward to the next retreat and meeting new people again,” sophomore and hopeful presenter Olivia Hauser said.

The goal of the retreat is to have a leadership conference that will inspire students to conduct self-assessment of their own leadership skills and weaknesses. Those planning and hosting the retreat hope that students who attend will bring back the things they learned and maybe even teach those skills to their peers and possibly the community.

The retreat is fun and educational for everyone that attends, even for the presenters and teachers who have already attended in previous years.

News

Students welcome new CBI teacher

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Knowing that she wanted to enter the world of teaching as a kid, Melissa Knepp carried out a plan and achieved her dream.

Whenever Knepp was asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, her answer was always to be a teacher.

“Yes, I always knew I wanted to be a teacher. I didn’t want to be anything else,” Knepp said.

She started out her goal by enlisting herself in the Ohio Army National Guard, knowing that after her service her college would be mostly paid for.

When Knepp served in the National Guard she helped work on Chinook helicopters. She was later deployed to Iraq for a year’s worth of time.

“I went to Kent State and earned my undergraduate completely paid for by the Army, and I also earned my master’s which was mostly paid for but not completely,” Knepp said.

After earning her undergraduate and master’s degrees, Knepp pursued her life of teaching. She previously taught at Life Skills School in Akron and taught on an Online school.

With an outgoing personality and an enthusiastic attitude, Knepp seems to be doing well as a new teacher at the high school.

“I am a very talkative person, so my students pretty much know everything about me,” Knepp said.

Knepp lives in Kent with her dog, Penelope. She teaches all levels of math and enjoys all of her students.

“I am not married and have no children, just my pit bull, Penelope.  I grew up in Hudson and graduated from Hudson High School in 2003,” Knepp said.

Her hobbies include running, kayaking, Zumba, kick-boxing, home improvement projects/renovations and reading. Her strongest subject is and always has been math.

In high school Knepp was in jazz band and played the trombone. She didn’t participate in any     sports but shared that she really enjoyed being in band.

“I’m a vegetarian and my favorite food is sushi,” Knepp said.

If she didn’t have a chance to be a teacher she said she would have been an actuary–a statistic checker for an insurance agency.

Knepp enjoys teaching and always has. She looks forward to the upcoming years of being in Stow.

News

Orchestra receives Superior rating at state competition

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The last weekend of February was an exciting time for the high school orchestra. They participated in the Ohio Music Education Association large group contest.

The orchestra has been going to the contest for around 20 years, and now, it is a tradition. The previous director, Frances Hamilton, started taking the orchestra to the contest, but they did not go last year because they went to New York City for a competition.

At the beginning of the school year, the orchestra members took to a new director, Sarah Behal. She kept the tradition of state contest going.

The orchestra attended the contest at Hudson High School on Sat., Feb. 28. The students and director believed that the event at Hudson was well organized.

“A lot goes into arranging and organizing such a large event, and [the orchestra is] very grateful for the hard work the staff at Hudson put in,” Behal said.

The directors of each high school orchestra must pick pieces from a required list of music. The music is organized into three classes: A, B and C. Class A is the hardest music and class C is the easiest music to play. The Stow orchestra performed in class B. Behal choose “Eureka!” by Keith Sharp, “Romantic Etude” (Etude Op. 10 No.3) by Frederic Chopin arranged by Robert Longfield and “Declarations” by Jeffrey S. Bishop. The three pieces had a unique character that showcased the different playing styles of the orchestra.

“Playing a variety of styles shows the judges that the orchestra is dynamic and able to play whatever is thrown at them rather than being limited,” Behal said.

The three pieces of music took a little under two months to prepare. The orchestra also practiced sight reading during class. Sight reading is when students look at a piece for the first time and then try to play the piece. It is one of the determining factors of the contest and is a skill the students need to continue to practice.

At the contest, the piece the orchestra had to sight read was “Odessa” by David Bobrowitz. The students had four minutes to look at the piece for the first time. Behal then had four minutes to discuss the piece with the group. During the combined eight minutes, the students were not permitted to play at all. They were not allowed to talk except for questions to their stand partners; however, they were allowed to tap or clap out rhythms and silently finger their part without actually playing. If they were to do any of the things not allowed, they would be disqualified from the contest.

The orchestra received a rating of I at the contest.  The contest runs on a I to V rating scale, with V being the lowest and I being the highest. The I is the superior rating and is reserved for the exceptional performances. In the past five years, the orchestra has received a rating of II in class B; however, in the past 15 years, the orchestra has gotten a handful of Superior ratings in both class B and C,  and the rest were either ratings of II or III. Going into the contest the orchestra was trying to break the five-year drought of I ratings, and they achieved that.

The orchestra had some setbacks in trying to get the music prepared to have a great performance. Their class time to prepare was limited because of snow days, two-hour delays and freshman testing the week before the contest. Even though class time was limited, the students and the director think they did an excellent job at the contest.

“I think the orchestra did really well,” sophomore Amber Vogal said.

They think that they did really well as a group and individually at the contest and are happy with the rating they got.

“I put all I had into the competition, so I believe I did well,” sophomore Nicole Stamper said.

The orchestra was able to read the comments the three judges and the sight reading judge wrote during the contest. There are some things the orchestra wants to work on in the coming months. Some will be easy to fix, and others will take longer.

A couple of things the students want to work on are posture and playing position as well as how in tune the group is. As the group gets more accurate in their music, Behal wants to incorporate vibrato. Vibrato would help make the sound of the group warmer and more mature. Behal also would like the students to become more independent in recognizing when they have messed something up, mark it in their music and then wait for her to point it out to them.

The students also recognized some other things they want to work on, which includes taking their time so they do not speed up while playing and recognizing the key in which a piece is written in.

“The vibrato should be improved for me and recognizing the key,” sophomore Gwen Goebelt said.

The orchestra is excited about their rating and is looking forward to applying the comments the judges made. The orchestra is now preparing for their last concert of the year which will take place on Mon. May 4.

News

Science Olympiad to compete in Akron University’s Regional Competition

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The Stow Munroe-Falls Science Olympiad team competed in the Regional Competition at University of Akron on Sat., March 14.

Science Olympiad is an academic club that competes in science-related events at designated schools. These events are known as “invitationals” and are, for reference, very similar to Speech and Debate tournaments. Both involve multiple students from several schools competing in many different categories to prove their ability to display their knowledge about one of any several areas.

The challenges can range from recalling simple information about the skeletal system of the human anatomy to explaining an electric circuit to a panel of judges. These are tests that truly exemplify the talent, ability and skill of the people performing them and require an incredible amount of advanced preparation.

Most schools have an actual class period dedicated to Science Olympiad, but Stow’s team meets once a week for an hour to discuss plans for the next event they will attend.

“We have competed in three different invitationals, and this is the culmination of our season,” teacher David Helmick said.

These three previous invitationals have only been preparing the team for the Regional Competition, which will be held at Akron University. If the team earns a position among the top six Science Olympiad teams in this region, the team will proceed to the State Level Competition in Columbus.

This is not an unheard of feat. In 2010, both the middle school and high school teams qualified to go to the state competition. They returned home with their heads held high but without the necessary qualifications to proceed to the national level invitational.

Since then, the middle school team has dissolved, but the hope that the high school team will prevail still exists.

The team’s outlook has been overwhelmingly positive. Many are confident that this will be the year the high school Science Olympiad team returns to the State Invitational. The team is fired up and ready to give it their best shot.

“I think that if there is going to be any year where we go to states, [it is] going to be this year,” senior Mia Hamilton said “we have a lot of good, passionate people who have the same goal in mind so it is really easy to be motivated. I want there to be another award for Science Olympiad in the trophy cabinet and know that [I am] part of the reason why it is there.”

The results of the Regional Competition will be posted online at Stohion.com as soon as they are available.