2011-2012 Senior Edition

In Foreign Territory (p. 8-9)
Taylor Strader, guest writer from Rockwood Summit High School

With a schedule that stays constant from day to day, who would not want to experience a change from the everyday life at school?

On a daily basis, I find myself in the same classes, surrounded by the same people, and even repeating the same things.  So, when I was given the opportunity to travel to Lafayette High School for the day, I jumped on it.

I was actually ready to be the new kid; I was ready for a fresh start, and every time I imagined my new beginning it was flawless.  I would meet different people, talk about different things, and, best of all, be in a different setting.  However, personal expectations do not always meet reality, as I soon learned on my little adventure.

In all of my days of attending school, I’m proud to say that I have never once been late.  Sure, I’ve had the occasional tardy, but missing a chunk of first hour isn’t exactly my forte.  Faced with the unfamiliar 109 traffic during rush hour, however, I was late on my first, and only, day at Lafayette.  Even worse, I had no clue how the parking lot traffic at Lafayette worked.  Almost every parking lot lane was chained off and when I finally found a spot, I was faced with my next problem: how to find my way through the maze of cars to the entrance.

Walking in, I was not only late, but I was noticeable.  Sure, I was a face that no one had seen before, but I was also the girl that sported a dress in a sea of sweatpants.  Despite common rumors, the fashion sense at Lafayette is not much different from Summit, which proved to be at the same time comforting and entirely unexpected.

As much as I was able to stand out to them though, a few things about their school stood out to me.

First, the people.  Within an hour of attending the school, a stranger offered me a chocolate-chip scone, a gesture I simply could not pass up.  An hour later, I had people writing notes to me.  An hour after that, I was sitting at lunch with a group of girls who acted like we were old friends.  Everyone was undeniably friendly.

Second, despite Lafayette having almost twice the student body as Summit, their hallways are much more narrow and congested.  Likewise, their classrooms also seem smaller, and the feeling that the walls were closing in on me did not help me to concentrate in the least.

Third, I noticed the caliber of the classes that everyone seemed to take.  In just one day, I had attended five Advanced Placement classes, which, as I’m told, is no uncommon occurrence at Lafayette.  In fact, it’s normal to take more AP classes than that, which had me truly impressed.

And last but not least, I learned that no matter how much I sometimes long to be in a new setting, I’m happy right where I am.  Even though the students and teachers at Lafayette were incredibly nice and bright, there’s no place like home.  My day-trip helped me to appreciate the little things that I sometimes take for granted—big classrooms, wide hallways, and, most importantly, my daily routine.

I’ll stay in the same classes, talk to the same people, and repeat the same things—contrary to what I expected, I didn’t want change, I just wanted a reminder that I already had the best.

During this recent ACT, junior Seth Ludwig earned a perfect composite score of 36. This means that the average of each of the four subjects was a 36.

“I got 35 in science and 36 on everything else,” Ludwig said.

This was his second time taking the ACT, and he said that hasn’t studied very much either time.

When asked how he felt when he received his score, Ludwig said, “I was happy, I guess. It was one point higher than the last time I took it, so it wasn’t that great.” The last time he took the test, he received a score of 35.

However, the mark between a score of 35 and 36 is a great one.

According to the RSD website, “Exceptional scores of 36 provide colleges with evidence of student readiness for the academic rigors that lie ahead.”

In order to do this, over 500 people would have needed to attend. Due to lack of participation, there was nothing to cover, so this video shows what happened instead.

Needless to say, despite the good effort and the planning that went into this event, the world record was not broken.

On Monday, the varsity boys volleyball team beat Mehlville 2-0 in the State quarterfinals to advance to the semifinal round.

The team holds an overall match record of 29-5-4 with 64 games won and 21 games lost, which secured them a Suburban West Conference championship.

The varsity team is led by senior Luke Kreienkamp,who is averaging a team-high 3.5 kills per game.

The semifinal game will take place Thursday, May 17 at Kirkwood against St. Louis University High School at 7:30 p.m.

Head coach Doug Ell believes his team has the skill to defeat SLUH despite past losses to them. However he stresses the importance of a strong fan base.

“We need fans there for support. These private schools have rabid fans and crowds to back their team up, and we need our school there to do the same,” he said. ”I promise it will be well worth your money and time to come out. The team has the ability to make it to State, and we need everyone there for the journey.”

Girls Lacrosse

Girls Lacrosse is on the right track towards victory in the State Tournament.

Due to the lack of teams, Girls Lacrosse participates in a State Tournament instead of Districts.

Senior Hannah Schneider said, “We are state champs if we win the tournament.”

With a 19-8 victory in the first round against Parkway South, the team played at Clayton High School against Ursaline on May 15.

The last time these two schools met up, Lafayette prevailed in a tight game.

“It was a really good game so hopefully tonight will be the same but we will pull through, we will see how it goes,” Schneider said.

Girls Soccer

Girls soccer continued their postseason run on May 15 at 7 p.m. against Marquette at Parkway South High School.

Freshman Anna Saunders was confident about the upcoming game. “I think we’ll win,” she said, “we beat [Marquette] 4-1 last time and I think we can do it again.”

At their last match, Lafayette won 2-0 against Parkway South.

When asked about the team’s potential for state, Saunders said, “I think we can go all the way, we’re really good this year.”

Thursday, May 17/ Friday, May 18:

Zero Hour-7:08  -8:10 a.m.

Monday, May 21:

5th Hour- 8:16 a.m. -10:16 a.m. (normal classes follow on short schedule)

Dismissal- 3:05 p.m.

Tuesday, May 22:

1st Hour- 8:16 a.m.

2nd Hour- 10:26 a.m.

Dismissal- 12:26 p.m.

Wednesday, May 23:

3rd Hour-8:16 a.m.

4th Hour- 10:26 a.m.

Dismissal- 12:26 p.m.

Thursday, May 24:

6th Hour- 8:16 a.m.

7th Hour- 10:26 a.m.

Dismissal- 12:26 a.m.

For those students who need to make-up a final exam due to absence or other personal reasons may arrange a time with their teacher between May 29- June 1.

Its release has been perfectly built up through nearly half a dozen other Marvel titles and well-kept information. When it was announced that Joss Whedon would be directing, fans veritably freaked out, and justifiably so. His penchant for character development and snappy, pitch-perfect dialogue made him an excellent choice for bringing together these distinct and distinguished personalities. If you can’t tell already, I’m letting you know that the movie is good. More than, good, in fact; it’s incredible.

The film follows the eponymous Avengers, who, before this point, were mostly separate from each other. Each one was in a previous Marvel film (though Black Widow and Hawkeye were simply minor characters in the adaptations they were in), so it’s incredibly useful to have seen those movies before going into this new superhero-fest (oh, and there’ll be some spoilers for those movies if you haven’t seen them).

Anyway, the film starts in a SHIELD base, where Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) and Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) are studying the Tesseract, a powerful Norse artifact that Captain America retrieved at the end of the film he starred in. Subsequently, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) shows up and pretty much ruins everyone’s day by stealing the Tesseract and allowing a massive intergalactic portal to suck the SHIELD base underground.

It’s a flashy start and there’s even something I have to leave out of that description that the previews have been wonderful about not spoiling.

Also, you may have noticed this already, but this movie has a pretty phenomenal ensemble cast; I bet that you recognize two or three of the last six names I threw out there, and that’s without any official Avenger. That’s part of the fun of the movie; seeing each member of this substantial cast interact with one another and geeking out over even the smallest inclusions.

For any fans of NBC’s “Community” there is literally a 20 second long scene in which Lucca (played by Enver Gjokaj, who is probably better known as Victor from Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse, but I’m too big of a Community fan to recognize him from anything else) is a police officer who has exactly one line, and I just freaked out.

Arguably, the greatest thing about this film is its dialogue, and the way that it deftly solves the challenge of bringing all these dissimilar heroes together for the very first time. More than half of the movie is the Avengers (which, by the way, consists of Captain America, played by Chris Evans, Iron Man, played by Robert Downey, Jr., Thor, played by Chris Hemsworth, Hulk, played by Mark Ruffalo, Black Widow, played by Scarlett Johansson and Hawkeye, played by Jeremy Renner) being split apart or not getting along in the slightest.

In fact, some of the best fights in the film are simply Avenger on Avenger, but more on the action scenes later. Whedon’s trademark ability to brilliantly and subtly characterize his characters is at work here, and this makes every single line of dialogue memorable and profound in some way.

Thor and Loki’s relationship is sold so well that people who missed “Thor” should be able to pass on it (I wouldn’t recommend that course of action as I think it’s the best Marvel/Avengers lead-in film), which isn’t even taking into account how menacing and downright creepy Loki can be around any other character. This is probably the best incarnation of Bruce Banner/The Hulk in a film both due to the genuinely emotional impetus Bruce has to control the beast within him and due to the fact that his action scenes are the bomb.

Captain America and Tony Stark are the most frequent foils to each other, however, and it’s pretty clear from their general demeanors why this might occur. It makes it all the more satisfying in the final battle when each of these characters truly has to depend on one another as well as help each other out. It’s a wordless way of showing that the conflicts that once plagued the group have been overcome, and it’s a delightful thing to see unfold.

Now for the action. In regular conversation, I might just keep telling someone, “It’s so good. It’s so good. It’s so good,” all while giggling because I’m remembering all the scenes where Hulk smashes. The first time I saw the film, I was too shocked by all the crazy awesome stuff on screen to really pay attention to the truly excellent choreography in the two major action set pieces, but on the second viewing, it stood out exactly how well every single bit of action flowed.

There was an unbelievably cool one-camera shot during the final battle (which, I should mention, is the one you see in the previews with the alien monsters in Manhattan) which panned one-by-one to each Avenger as they were fighting aliens throughout the entire city.

As I already said, Hulk is probably the standout action-wise, but I was also pretty impressed by Hawkeye and Black Widow, mostly due to the fact that they seem a little underpowered when compared to their teammates, which include a scientifically enhanced super-soldier, a guy with a ridiculously-powerful robot suit, a giant green thing with indestructible underpants, and a demigod, but through the magic of Joss Whedon, even they feel important and entirely crucial in the grand scheme of things.

Most of the time, I can’t tell this early in the year if something is going to be an absolute favorite of mine, but for the time being, nothing is going to beat “The Avengers” in terms of sheer entertainment value and undeniably skillful execution.

I don’t have any problem with saying that this movie is as close to perfect as I imagine it can be. “Prometheus,” “The Dark Knight Rises,” and “The Hobbit” have their work cut out for them, and with a team like this, I wouldn’t be surprised if I dub this my Movie of the Year.

That’s exactly what custodian James Allen did and this allowed him to receive a 25 Year Rockwood Service Award. To get this award, one must have worked for the Rockwood school district for 25 years in a row.

Allen received his award on May 6, 2012 at the 2012 ROSE Award Ceremony along with 28 other Rockwood staff members who have been working for our district for the last 25 years.

The ceremony honored ROSE Award recipients, Teachers of the Year, Cornerstone Award recipients, 2011-2012 Retirees and those with 25-35 years of service to Rockwood.

Assistant Principal Matt Dieckhaus said, “James Allen is a great guy, he will do anything you ask of him, he does it with a smile, he’s kind of a fixture around here; he’s been here forever he’s going to be here forever because we love him.”

Those who work alongside Allen Love what he does and how he does it; they have nothing but good things to say about him.

“He knows all about what we do. He knows our ethics about pride in our school [and] he takes great care in making sure everything is done right.” Dieckhaus said.

Just one other staff member from Lafayette has received a 25 year service reward and that was World Language teacher Gina Luerding-Looten.

The whole Rockwood community is very thankful and proud of those who received ROSE Awards at the ceremony.

Dieckhaus said, “I’m so happy they could all be recognized by those people who they serve.”