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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 7, 2004)
The INDEPENDENT, October 7, 2004 Page 11 Timberline Topics TEACHING RESPONSIBILITY WITH LEADERSHIP By Larinda Botchie When people step into Ver- nonia High School, they see many things. Students filing into the halls and running to get to their next class. Teachers standing outside their class- rooms making sure that the stu- dents behave themselves, and when the halls empty, they see the school itself. Though it is not large or grand, it is still our school and should be taken care of, but nobody is going to want to hang bulletin boards, or fill the pop machines and emp- ty the pop bins. Or organize dances, pep assemblies, and winter festival by themselves. It is too much work for one per- son. In order to fix this there was a class created dedicated to the school and the students that wish to take care and pride in it. Sometimes I wonder if the students of Vernonia High School realize how much the leadership class does for this school and how hard they work. Leadership is a class that not only goes on during school hours but drags students to school early, has them stay late and pulls them out of their beds on the weekends. “I personally never noticed how hard they worked until I joined the class myself.” This year’s leadership class varies from freshmen to seniors and has a large variety of peo- ple. It has only been a few weeks into school and already the leadership has its plate full. With pop machines to organize and a dance to plan, I have al- ready seen students stay after school to make sure the things are done and ready for their fel- low students. Mrs. Dickens was the lead- ership teacher here for six years but since she departed the new school counselor Ms. Webb has taken over the chal- lenging position. She started the year with a large class, something that is unusual for leadership, and many chal- lenges ahead of her. So far she has faced every challenge and plans on bringing some positive changes to the class. SCHOOL TO WORK PRO- GRAM. By John Kintz Once again this year, Ver- nonia High will be offering placements in the School to Work program. Students take on jobs, usually volunteer, for school credits. The program it- self has been going on for some time, whereas the idea of career related learning is rela- tively new. However, the two seem to be made for each oth- er. Students gain work experi- ence while working through high school. Usually, the type of work pre- formed by students in the pro- gram relates to skills learned in school like journaling, and cate- gorizing. The local companies currently working with the school to provide jobs for stu- dents are: West Oregon Elec- tric, NAPA Auto, and Triple S Saw Service. Program director Dana Hyde is hopeful and opti- mistic that other jobs will soon open in the program, including jobs with: City Hall, Senior Cen- ter, Vernonia Cares, Dr. Scheuerman (Vernonia Den- tal). As Dana Hyde stated it “The program is a partnership between the school and the community.” Many student are wondering if their after school job (or any other) is gaining them credits. The answer is yes and no. Yes, one can earn school credits under the label of “work experience.” However, it is not the same as School to Work. If a student has a job out- side the ones specifically named by the school in accor- dance with the program, they aren’t earning as many credits as they could with one in the program. With a School to Work job a student can earn .5 elective credits for every 90 hours of work, whereas they would be required to work 180 hours of any other job to earn the same amount of credits. There are, however, some problems with entering the pro- gram. Because the job earns students elective credits, it may take the place of elective class- es in the student’s schedule. As Principle Scholl explained, “Most of the jobs are on an as need basis. Which kids have openings in their schedules.” He also explained that the jobs that pay are less lenient about working around the students timetable, and the volunteer work that will still allow you to earn credits, usually works out better for scheduling purposes. They may even allow students to work after school. If you have questions about the School to Work program, please see Dana Hyde or visit <www.Ore- gonJobs.org/stw> for more in- formation. ing and making a wood product such as a tool box or a picture frame, and right now it’s hard for them to do that because of the condition of the machines. The school intends to get the support as soon as possible, so that the students of Vernonia High School can complete as- signments on machines that work. NEW FACES By Natalie Rombach Have you ever heard the saying, “You learn something new everyday,”? Most every- one does learn something new everyday and many don’t even know it. Learning something new doesn’t always have to be about a thing, it can also mean about people too. Every year Vernonia High School is WOODSHOP RECEIVES blessed enough to be visited by MAKEOVER new faces from around the By Kayla Pollock world, and this year we are The Vernonia High School pleased to say that we have will be receiving an undeter- two visiting our little town. mined number of new ma- These foreign exchange stu- chines for the woodshop class- dents came to America to learn es. The school has been in about our culture and our lan- need for new equipment and guage, but what do we know maintenance on the old ma- about them? chines for quite a while now. First of all, we have a very The old machines are just not nice guy from Ngymegyer, Slo- “cutting it.” They are simply just vakia named Viliam “Wil” Gör- worn out. föl. Wil first set foot in America Mr. Fellas, the new wood- in New York and said that so far shop teacher, has had to repair that is one thing he will never some of the old machines him- forget when he is back home. self. “All the machines need is The main reason he came to tender love and care” says Fel- America was to improve his las. “If all the students could English, and even after only a just treat all the tools with re- couple weeks he seems to be spect and take care of them, showing everyone that he has we shouldn’t have to receive a very good idea of what Amer- new machines for a while.” The icans are talking about. When lathe is so old that there was a asked about what he thought of problem with trying to find a Vernonia so far he only had clear guard for it. Some of the three words “small, very small”. other machines are not being He will be staying here for the used because they have minor next ten months at the Ward’s hazard issues and some just do home, and he is sure to adapt not work. to the dramatic change in pop- The school is still unaware of ulation by the time he heads how much the machines will back home. Wil is currently a cost, but they do know that member of the Cross Country Home Depot may give them a team and is planning to play school discount. “We are still Basketball in the winter. He en- waiting on how we are going to joys roller blading in his spare get the funds for the machines, time and has a few plans to do but we will hopefully have them a few tricks here before he soon,” stated Fellas. VHS is leaves. He also enjoys playing waiting to get some support computer games and getting from a couple of different com- online. panies now. The students need When interviewing Hana to be able to cut, measure, and Chrastinová, from Zlin, Czech put together pieces of wood as Republic, she was asked the well as other materials. Their same question as Wil, (What projects might include design- she thought of Vernonia so far) and her response was very much the same “very small”. This visit to America is Hana’s second, her first was to New Jersey three years ago, this is her first visit to Oregon. On this visit to America, she went to visit New York and says that she will never forget seeing where the Twin Towers stood only a few years before. Hana’s main decision to come to America was to learn about the culture her and the people, and with all of the cultures in America there are many differ- ent kinds of people to learn about. In her spare time, she enjoys painting and back home she enjoys playing volleyball for fun with friends. Although she is sure to have fun on her stay here she, is also certain that she will miss the food in her country most of all. Hopefully now the people reading this article learned something new about the two great people staying with us for the rest of the school year. So everyone listening should know that we should try to make their stay as fun as possible. Also Homecoming is just around the corner. Wil and Hana are not quite sure what this whole Homecoming thing is about so maybe we can also teach them a few new things while they are staying here. LETTERMAN JACKETS N EW P ATCHES ? Vernonia High School will not be publishing Timberline, the school newspaper, this year. The Independent has made this space available so the work of VHS journalism stu- dents can be published. The only changes by The Indepen- dent are in spacing and fonts. We Do Jacket Updates • Coats IN STOCK! • CUSTOM PATCHES our specialty • ALL SCHOOLS! • INCREDIBLY FAST! 277 E. 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