Campus News

Are you looking for a fun new book to read? Look no further. Best friends Liza Mackey and Mae Sellner have built not only a unique and inclusive book club but also a mini-community within. 

“I feel like it’s such a community. It’s intimate in a sense that we all get to talk about something we enjoy talking about,” said Liza. 

Since their Sophomore year at Myers Park, Liza and Mae have been discussing, planning, and organizing ways to make the Park their own with Women In Literature.

Since the pandemic, when everyone was cooped up at home, Liza and Mae resorted to reading books in their spare time. 

When pitching the idea to Mae, Liza noted, “Mae has always been like my little reading buddy so whenever I read a book that I think she would like, I always give it to her. I didn’t want to do this with someone I didn’t know, I want my best friend to do it with me.”  

As they flew through one book after another, they used inspiration from Reese Witherspoon’s book club to get their club started. Each month, Reese selects a new book that focuses on the empowerment of a female main character. They decided to incorporate the same method into their club. At the end of every month, a meeting is held to discuss the previous book and introduce the next one. In a typical meeting, members will go around and answer discussion questions and participate in fun icebreaker activities. Behind the scenes, both Liza and Mae have dedicated roles for their contribution to the club. 

“Mae does an awesome job at all of the social media stuff. She makes it so aesthetically pleasing and it’s cool to see it all come together.” Liza said. 

Mae enjoys creating all of the graphics for Instagram and sending messages in the Remind. Liza comes up with and researches the discussion questions to include in the slideshow to present on the day of the meeting. 

For the month of October, the book assigned was Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. It highlights young, beautiful, talented singer Daisy Jones and her ascent into the music industry when her producer pairs her up with The Six. This novel is filled with unruly details on love, friendship, hardship, and even substance abuse. 

“I have always been very passionate about reading, but that was the first book that Liza suggested to me that really got me into reading. We both love that book, I’d say it’s one of our favorites,” said Mae. “We wanted to go out with a bang and Daisy Jones is easy to get into and even easier to get people excited about.”

Over the past year, the recognition of female authors has grown tremendously. Authors such as Colleen Hoover, Taylor Jenkins Reid, and Jodi Picoult have written novels that are not only entertaining but also influential. In today’s society, it’s important that young women, such as the ones in Women in Literature, know their worth and significance in the world. Reading novels about young girls is educational and inspirational. It’s amazing and beneficial to have a safe place like this within the community of Myers Park.

Literature is something that has become very normalized within today’s standards. This club has allowed so many young women to open up and talk about something they love. Liza voices, “It’s very welcoming and peaceful, you know. We’re all just a couple of gals talking about books and I love that.”

 If you are interested in becoming part of their club, visit the Instagram page @womeninliterature_mphs, click on the link in the bio, and join the Remind to receive updates.

Did you know that Myers Park offers five different foreign language courses? Students have the opportunity to explore up to six levels of either Spanish, French, Latin, German, or Chinese courses during their four years here. These language courses are taught by the wonderful teachers of the department who dedicate their time in order for students to excel in their discovery of multilingual studies. These teachers ensure that students are engaging in unique activities in class and taking risks as learners. On top of each of these courses offered here at Myers Park, students can engage in their language through clubs or honors societies for each language and through study opportunities offered through these clubs, the school, or other outside organizations.

There are countless benefits to exploring the language offerings at Myers Park, with a few of them highlighted during an interview with language department head Ms. Szell. “A benefit of taking a second or third language is a better understanding of your own languages and nuances in your own language,” says Szell, emphasizing the ways that world languages teach you more skills than you might expect. Szell says culture is what inspired her own studies of the world languages, and that all the teachers in language programs at Myers Park make it a focal point to explore the cultures of the people who speak the language that the students are learning. Cultural opportunities are also offered through the clubs and organizations that support the world language department. In the Spanish club, Szell says they will make sugar skulls to celebrate Dia de Los Muertos. Other clubs like the Chinese Club will visit the Asian Supermarket or explore the culture within the Charlotte community. Through these programs teachers and students learn more about another culture as well as the educational system.

Szell also touches on the important benefits of world languages for students as they look toward post-graduate educational and career opportunities. Students can “do better on standardized tests like the SAT and ACT” from taking a few years of world language and this experience can also “make you more attractive to those [competitive] colleges.” These points touch on the idea of becoming a more well-rounded student, a skill and asset that is extremely valuable to colleges and employers as students continue to grow after high school. These skills are also highlighted in the workforce as being even partially fluent allows you to “communicate with twice as many people” and make connections in your endeavors that others are unable to.
Not only do the teachers in this department love creating this learning environment, but the students engaging in the opportunities at Myers Park love the program. Hannah McGee, a Myers Park senior in the IB program, has been learning Chinese since she was five years old. McGee says this interest “was initially prompted through watching Ni Hao Kai Lan” and she became fluent at nine years old! McGee goes on to talk about the challenges of learning Chinese with its unique and varied dialects, tones, and characters. However, she says that “although it is challenging, it is very rewarding to recognize how many more opportunities for connection you have created through learning a language.” McGee also spent time as an exchange student in Beijing with the opportunity to further strengthen and study her language skills in an immersive setting. Hannah says that there is more to learning a language than one might initially think and that “it is a means of communication accompanied by rich cultural and emotional implications.” She says she wouldn’t have been able to communicate with her peers on the deepest level without those skills. McGee says that the opportunities available at MP have allowed her to continue this passion for language and she encourages students to participate in these amazing courses so that they may develop similar connections to new cultures and open new doors.

The National Federation of State High School Association (NFHS) online broadcasting has been awfully quiet this year without the commentating from two of Myers Park’s biggest sports fans. For two years, Brendan O’Neill and Harry Crowther took to the booth of the Gus Purcell Stadium and the gymnasium perch, bringing the online streaming of each home game to life. Now, O’Neill and Crowther have put down the headsets and are freshmen in college furthering their love for sports. Yet, no students have followed their footsteps. 

NFHS broadcasting gained considerable popularity throughout the pandemic, offering a way for far away family members, friends, and the general public to take part in viewing high school sports. More than 7,000 events a week are recorded, making them the leader in live streaming and on-demand high school sports.

O’Neill took the leap that set their dream in motion when he reached out to Coach Poore after reading about the cameras being installed and the use of NFHS network broadcasting. Poore was on board with the broadcasting mission, sending O’Neill off to build the announcing team for the 2020 basketball season, which quickly grew to include football and soccer seasons. 

The duo met through a mutual friend, Watt Canipe. O’Neill and Crowther hit it off and knew they would work well together with Watt alongside them in the booth for the basketball season. “I had just met Harry that year and I was like, ‘Watt, send me Harry’s number,’ because I knew Harry would be fantastic at this,” stated O’Neill.

Crowther grew up a sports fan, watching the Mets with his father and dressing up as Kirk Herbstreit for Halloween. His dream of broadcasting was set aside as he got older, until NFHS brought it back to life. “That kind of interest went dormant for a little while, through middle school and the start of high school, as I had found other interests. But when Brendan reached out that was the spark that reignited that interest, and now obviously that’s what I want to do,” said Crowther.

O’Neill’s passion for sports has been lifelong too, growing up a passionate Duke fan and never failing to recite any sport’s statistics. “I knew I wanted to do something in the sports world, I didn’t know exactly what, but then being able to do this for two years and loving it… it was honestly probably one of the top ten experiences of my high school life,” he explained.

O’Neill is now furthering his love of sports at Belmont University in Nashville, majoring in Sports Administration with a minor in Emerging Media. He has been working with the university’s athletic department, helping with broadcasting and video operations. “Doing a lot of camera work right now, just kind of building my way up…. I’m just a freshman so I’m not gonna have the microphone in my hand yet,” he informed. However, the microphone may come into play sooner rather than later, after O’Neill recently secured an internship with the longest running sports radio talk show in Nashville.

Crowther is continuing his education at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, majoring in Media and Journalism while also working the audio desk at The Daily Tarheel, where he produced a game recap for the men’s soccer game along with various interviews. “Just trying to get as many hands-on experiences as possible because Brendan and I both know, in the business we’re trying to get into, it’s really hard. You’ve got to work your way up from the bottom,” Crowther explained.

After their two year legacy, no one has stepped up to the mic to follow in the footsteps of O’Neill and Crowther. 

If you have an interest in sports and/or a sports career, broadcasting is a favorable way to broaden your horizon. Reach out to Coach Poore at [email protected] for more information. 

Over the past decade, school lunch nutrition has changed in a massive way. In 2010, Michele Obama passed the Healthy, Hungry Free Kids Act increasing nutrition within most public school lunches. Rather than foods high in sodium or trans fat, her program requires schools to serve more fruits, vegetables, low-fat or fat free milk, and whole grains regularly. 

New research done by the School Nutrition Association shows that children are starting to get their healthiest meals of the day at schools rather than their home meals. By offering free or lower-priced school meals, it can reduce levels of obesity, poor health, and food insecurity according to frac.com. School meal programs are playing a significant role in obesity prevention, combating child hunger, improving academic achievements, and the overall health of students. Furthermore, the new school lunch nutrition plan has had an extremely beneficial impact on food selection and consumption across the United States; particularly during the pandemic when school lunches were free.During the pandemic, lower income families had trouble providing nutrients to their kids, especially with the growing expense of nutritious meals. In March of 2020, federal pandemic regulatory waivers allowed students to be offered free meals by schools without any application. It also provided schools with higher per-meal reimbursements to help with covering pandemic costs. 

When the pandemic caused schools to switch to virtual learning,  shut down schools, school nutrition professionals created  a program that would allow students to still get their school meals. The program  provided grab-and-go meals for students at drive-by pickup sites, on bus routes, or delivered straight to the student’s doorstep. 

Research done by the CDC shows that school lunches are far more nutritious than expected. Students who participate in school meal programs tend to eat more whole grains, milk, fruits, and vegetables and posses a better diet quality than nonparticipants. 

So what should teens be eating in a day to keep a healthy and balanced diet? Well, according to Johnmurihealth.com, teens should maintain a diet consisting of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, low/no-fat milk products, beans, eggs, fish, nuts, and lean meats. Teenagers should be eating around two cups of fruits and two and a half cups of vegetables a day, 1,300 milligrams of calcium (which can be found in dairy products, beans, spinach, fish, etc.), and five and a half ounces of protein to help with muscle and organ growth.  Six ounces of whole grains to provide energy andiron rich foods for blood health are also necessary in a teenager’s diet. Boys should be eating around 2800 calories a day, girls should be eating around 2200 calories a day, and teens should be limiting fat intake to about 25-36%of their total calorie intake of the day. 

With academics and social lives shifting back to normal, prices are returning to school lunches. Now, school lunches are $2.50 for Pre-K students, $2.75 for K-8 students, and $3.00 for 9-12 students. CMS is committed to providing students with quality and nutritious meals to support their academic success. To ensure students know their carbohydrate intake and what kind of allergies lunch foods may contain, Myers Park High School includes a nutritional chart in the cafeteria along with the scheduled lunch meals for the month. We appreciate the hard work CMS and Myers Park’s hard working cooking staff has done to make lunches accessible and healthy for all students. 

Each year, CMS schools start at the end of August, which is much later than surrounding states. There is a North Carolina law that has restricted schools from starting early, setting the start date to the closest Monday after the 26th, which was the 29th this year. In Gaston, Cleveland, and Rutherford counties, schools started on the 17th due to pressure from their communities, but there are supporters on both sides of this argument. 

The School Calendar Legislation, which sets start dates, was originally passed in 2004. It was revised June 30, 2020 to accommodate for remote learning due to COVID-19. In 2020, CMS schools returned on August 17, more than 2 weeks earlier than usual. The decision for the School Calendar Legislation was made by the NC General Assembly to allow for a uniform end to summer tourism in North Carolina.

 In 2020, the first semester concluded December 21, before the annual winter break. Students had finals for semester long classes and midterms for year long classes before winter break then  started new classes upon return . School ended for students on May 28, a little under 2 weeks earlier than when we will end this year. 

There are many people who oppose the calendar legislation, feeling that the decision should be made county to county. However, the reason the law stands is because of the summer tourism industry. Some supporters of the legislation claim that the late start supports tourism industries by allowing for extended summer vacations. There is also fear that changing the calendar may result in a more year round schedule, with losses of lengthy breaks and causing damage to the tourism industry in the beaches and mountains. 

According to Ann Doss Helms in an article on WFAE, one of the biggest reasons people protest the school calendar is that semester long classes hold exams after winter break. The reason CMS schedules exams for after the break is because the semesters would be uneven if it ended before the break. Gaston County solved this problem by proposing a new schedule balancing the semesters. Schools in Gaston County are attending to this new schedule despite violating the state law. 

Private schools in Charlotte set their own schedule, and many started a week or two before CMS. They don’t use funding from the state, and therefore have the freedom to appoint their schedule however they choose. Because CMS schools’ money comes from the state, they have to adhere to the state calendar legislation. 

Additionally, several counties receive weather waivers and can start earlier. According to Helms at WFAE, as many as 12 counties in the mountains receive waivers due to the amount of days they have to take off because of weather. Additionally, some counties have found loopholes around the law. Part of the law states that year round schools have an exception to the start date. Some school districts claim their summer programs as a “year round school,” and lawfully start early. 

High schools are probably most affected by the calendar legislation because exams tend to fall after the break. Additionally, students taking college courses have exams at different times from high school. Small schools who offer dual enrollment courses, have the option to sync their schedules with the courses. However, bigger schools, such as Myers Park, do not have that option.

It is important to find a balance between what is best for students and the tourism industry. If the legislation were to change, who’s to say that some counties may try to push it back even more, lengthening the school year? Additionally, there is no way to know the impact that it could have on the economy. Although, it could be beneficial for students to take exams before winter break, and teachers would not have to spend a week catching up, only to switch classes a few weeks later. At the moment, CMS has mentioned starting earlier next year, but there is no definite decision yet. 

Daring to Role-model Excellence As Mentors. Dream Team, for short, is a student-led senior class at Myers Park where students strive to lead by example in the school and community. In addition to advocating for drug, alcohol, mental health, and safety awareness, the class works to give back to the community in a project-based, collaborative environment. 

The Myers Park Dream Team has had incredible success in the past. Last year, the class prepared for the David Shannon game, held a homeless shelter supply drive, introduced freshmen to Myers Park ,and hosted Kindness week, Get Real About How You Feel week, the Prayers for Elijah Foundation Kickball game, and more! 

The class is supervised by Ms. Wright, an English and Creative Writing teacher at Myers Park. According to current Dream Team member Eli Schmidly, “She’s very high energy…she keeps it fun…she helps everyone focus on what they have to do individually…but at the same time everyone is having fun and I think that starts with the environment that Ms. Wright creates.” 

The Myers Park Dream Team has a variety of projects, activities, and fun events in store for this year. To kick things off, they participated in planning, setting up, and advocating for the David Shannon football game. On their Instagram, they explained that “David Shannon was an active Myers Park student in football and DECA. He graduated in 2012 and headed to UNC Chapel Hill. One night and one decision led to him falling to his death at a cement plant, after drinking and wandering out of a party alone.” With social media posts such as these, Dream Team encourages safe habits such as the buddy system, being aware of personal alcohol tolerance, and planning rides before drinking. 

When asked about the preparations for the game, Eli explained Dream Team’s different committees: the logistics, marketing, and personal life committees. 

With regards to the personal life committee, Eli said, “Personal life is four people who are talking to David Shannon’s dad and the family…figuring out the meaning they want to get across about David Shannon and little things about his life that are important to the story.” 

Eli also explained how “The marketing committee is in charge of art, design, t-shirts, Instagram posts, and posters, so they’re pretty much creating the art stuff and designing that to get the word out there on Instagram.”

When discussing the logistics committee, Eli said, “They set up the financial need for t-shirts and figure out what we can and can’t buy for the game and who is going to do what on the day of the game to set things up…more of putting everything together.” 

Collaboration is the key to success, and Eli notes that, “Sometimes those committees will have to work together…I think that’s one thing that’s cool about Dream Team in that regard is like sure you’re working on your individual projects but ultimately it’s all working towards one thing.”

Another component of Dream Team is that members follow a pledge to be drug, alcohol, and tobacco-free. 

Eli notes that, “Ms. Wright really put it into good words for me when I joined when she told all of us: ‘we don’t want to be known for what we don’t do, but we want to be known for what we do, do,’ and I think that’s stuck with me a lot…we understand this could make a difference and we want to help out in any way we can.”

Through creativity, collaboration, and initiative, the Myers Park DREAM Team strives to lead by example in the Myers Park community and beyond.