Senator Square: CHS Marching Band wins Nevada Day Battle of the Bands

The CHS Marching Band competed last weekend in the Nevada Day Battle of the Bands held at Spanish Springs High School. The band finished first in their division beating out rivals Douglas High School.

They received the caption for "Outstanding Music." This award marks the first time in nine years that the marching band took home a first place trophy in a field show competition. Way to Go Big Blue Thunder!

Academic Award
CHS Boys’ Tennis Team won the NIAA State Academic Award with a 3.74 unweighted GPA. Congratulations to the team on being such an awesome group of student athletes!

National Honor Society News
(The following news from NHS was submitted by the club’s historian, Nick Rosen.) At CHS, National Honor Society members are busy with the many projects in November and December, such as the coat drive, Food for the Holidays, and Toys for Tots.

All of these events directly benefit the local Carson City community. The coat drive is an event which helps Students in Transition providing them with warm clothing for the winter. The Students in Transition program serves children who are homeless, live in a campground, or live in a house with 2-3 other families.

Through Food for Holidays, we donate 500 dollars to Empire School to help families get a better Thanksgiving dinner. Additionally, NHS members donate side items. We also plan to partake in Toys for Tots, a project done throughout the city that involves providing Christmas presents for children whose parents can’t afford them. We are excited to begin these projects in the upcoming months, and we encourage everyone in the community to participate. For more information, please contact Elena Glenn at 283-1910.

Speech and Debate News
Carson High School Speech and Debate wrapped up an incredibly successful week. On the fundraising front CHS debaters raised $750 to make our kick starter goal for the 2014 Dolan Class project to receive matching Funds from Dolan Auto Group.

A special thanks to DBA OBI Auto Sales, Carson City Hot Springs, and Shane and Stefen Newsom for their generous donations to put us over the top. Carson High also competed at the Douglas Tournament last weekend. 15 Carson students were entered in five different events.

Nine students advanced semis or finals. Allesandro Figueroa placed third in Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking locking his spot in finals on the topic of how much power global corporations should have to force countries to abide by international treaties. He placed tenth overall in novice Public Forum debate. Allesandro and His Partner Evan Allred who was competing for the first time, took third place overall in Public Forum, debating the merits of public subsidies for professional sports teams.

Team Captains Jacob Bertocchi and Luke Szatmary placed 2nd overall in senior Public Forum debate with Luke claiming 5th place in speaker point. In Public Forum both Carson teams went into finals undefeated with a combined record of 8 – 0. First time competitor Duy Khanh Nguyen placed fifth overall in novice Impromptu speaking, developing speeches on words, quotes, and news stories with only two minutes of prep time per speech. Valarie Meister, a team officer, locked 2nd place overall in Novice impromptu speaking and placed first in the final round. She will now be competing in senior division speaking events.  

Finally in impromptu, Luke Szatmary claimed 2ndplace overall in senior Impromptu speaking.  Emily Spence, another team officer, claimed fourth place overall in senior Poetry and Prose interpretation with her powerful piece titled “To This Day” by Shane Koyczan in her first appearance in Senior Division. Sadie Share placed in the top three in both her speech and debate events in her first tournament. She took third place in novice Poetry and Prose Interpretation with the piece “Look Up” by Gary Turk.

In Congress, Sadie claimed second place, earning winning votes from both her judges and her fellow competitors. Shane Morton placed 2nd overall in Senior Humorous Interpretation with his cutting of the classic work “The Wizard of Oz” by Frank Baum in his first appearance in this event. As a team Carson earned 47 ballots as wins for debate or top three in speech from judges. Fernley hosts the next tournament November 14 and 15. Way to go Senators!

Mentors Needed
Ms. Miller, English teacher at Carson High, has a senior interested in learning about psychic abilities who needs a mentor willing to teach techniques.  Also, a mentor is needed for a student interested in spelunking and cave exploration. Please email Ms. Miller at smiller@carson.k12.nv.us if available to mentor either of these students. 

Mock Election
All 12th government students from CHS had the opportunity to participate in the Youth Leadership National Mock Election this past week set up through the Nevada Secretary of State’s office. Election results from the 373 students that participated (out of 469 possible seniors) were consistent with national and state results with many Republican victories, with the exception of a few state races.

The exceptions to the actual results were that students chose Ross Miller for Attorney General, Kate Marshall for Secretary of State and Andrew Martin for State Controller. Students voted on all state and local races, as well as the ballot questions. Students voted yes on Q1, the creation of a new district court, but turned down Q2 and Q3 regarding mining tax cap and margin’s tax.

On Q4 for Carson City, the students narrowly accepted the change in ward voting. The Mock Election was set up to give the students a real-life experience of voting. Students were eager to learn their results compared to the state results.

Interact Club News
Interact club will be hosting the Purple Pinkies against Polio fundraiser at lunch from November 17th through November 21st. In India, when polio vaccinations are given, the patient’s pinkies are dipped in purple dye to signify that they have been vaccinated. Donate a dollar to the Rotary Polio fund and your pinky can be purple to help show awareness. There are only two countries left with polio, so let's wipe it out for good.

Guidance Office Info
Students who are between the ages of 15 and 18, have at least a 3.0 GPA, and are interested in a full scholarship to study abroad in Germany for one year should stop by the Guidance Office for more information on the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange Program. ​

Student of the Week
This week's student of the week is Ryan Tomita. Ryan is a sophomore at Carson High. He is a conscientious and diligent student. Along with staying on top of his academics, he also plays on the boys’ tennis team. Ryan always comes to class with a positive attitude and a willingness to succeed and achieve excellence. Thank you Ryan for all the great work you've done here at CHS!

Senior Spotlight
This week the Spotlight is on Carson Barnett. Carson has a weighted GPA of 4.42 and is carrying a full load of AP and Honors classes for his senior year. He is a member of the Native American Club at Carson High School and also a member of the National Honor Society. For his senior project, Carson is a co-leader of the Muon Detector at WNC, which is used to chart subatomic particles. Outside of school Carson has worked for the last three years. Carson plans on going to New Mexico Tech, majoring in Astrophysics. New Mexico Tech is one of the few colleges in the United States that offers Astrophysics as an undergraduate program. His ultimate goal is to be able to do independent research for a university or work for NASA. Carson High School wishes Carson the best of luck in his future.

— Angila Golik is a government teacher at CHS and member of Senator Pride.