The Winterguard team started off their competition season strong, bringing in a first place, and two second places. The team is a combination of dancing and props like rifles and flags, competing around once a week. Captain Amy Guerra describes the process of preparing for a competition.
“We spend the whole week practicing and on comp day there’s a warm up we go to. There’s a body warm up where we practice dancing only and from there we move on to equipment warm up where we practice with all our equipment like rifles and after that we move onto the performance,” Guerra said.
As the team moves forward in their season, member Eden ( ) says her favorite thing about being in winterguard is the family they have created, “we have our own little group,” Guerra said.
Captain Amy Guerra says that her favorite thing about her position is seeing the progress everyone makes between the incomers and freshman. Her path to become captain was encouraged by their current tech, who was previously captain.
If you are interesting in joining Winterguard for the 2023- 2024 school year, here are some important dates:
The Winterguard team including: Amy Guerra, Emmerson Schellin, Pricais Vasquez, Madison Alaquinez, Jerry, Paolo, Talia, Giovanna Arias, Hailey Doriott, Eden Garcia, and more Panthers
The new school year brings about a new era on campus along with a new Principal Mr. Robert Martinez. Mr. Martinez hopes to improve and lead our campus through this year of transition and shared that he started things off right thanks to our students and staff.
“From day one, the students have been very welcoming, and pretty open about their concerns for the school. The faculty is also amazing. In particular our Associate Principal Mr. Christian and Academic Dean Mrs. Bishop. They have made this transition pretty smooth,” Martinez said.
Before being named principal, Martinez researched our school and was familiar with some of the challenges here for students and staff. Martinez is working with students and faculty to make a few adjustments in the near future. These ideas involve possible changes to the campus layout and some dress code changes that have already taken effect like shorts. For some of the bigger long-term changes, Martinez is hopeful that we get help from the district and community.
“I know every four or five years we do a bond proposal in hopes of getting much-needed improvements to our schools from bond money,” Martinez said.
Martinez’s main proposals include an expansion project for the cafeteria and library. He says an additional academic building would also be nice. Martinez shared there is an area where a building could fit for another two-story building. One major change happening very soon is the expansion of the Nurse’s office.
“Our Nurse’s Office just isn’t big enough to support the needs of a campus as big as O’Connor,” Martinez said.
Martinez decided to move the Nurse’s office to where the Career Center is; more than doubling the size.
“I feel like this is a move that we couldn’t wait on,” Martinez said.
The new Nurse’s Office is scheduled to open in early November. As part of the move, the Career Center will move into room B103 in the library which will likely increase traffic as students seek out more scholarships and college information while in the library.
Prior to his time with us, Martinez worked at multiple schools acting both as a teacher and an administrator. These all include sister Northside ISD high schools starting off at John Jay.
“I taught for six years at John Jay as a social studies teacher and then I got promoted to Assistant Principal at Clark, was at Clark for four and a half years and then got promoted to Vice Principal at Brennan,” Martinez said.
Martinez enjoyed his time at all three schools and shared he’s thrilled to be here at O’Connor. He reflected that this campus has successful students, with many institutions such as agriculture. Martinez shared he is excited to work with Ag Principal, Mr. Bohlken for the Agriculture Academy’s first year.
“I love visiting the barnes and seeing all the animals. These things don’t normally take place at school and that’s pretty phenomenal. Overall, I’m very excited about the possibilities,” Martinez said.
Martinez has always strived for his chances to become a leader in the development of young people. His path to O’Connor became available with Mrs. Horras’s departure.
“I knew the position would become available when Mrs. Horras was promoted last spring. There were actually four principal openings this past summer, and I lucked out and got the best one,” Martinez said.
Mr. Martinez has been preparing for this time with us consistently and through his performance under other advisers
who sat where he is now.
“What has really prepared me is that I have had mentors to work under. Being able to establish my beliefs and values for the students was great for me, seeing different levels of students and their successes and challenges has given me the perspective to help students at all levels for the better,” Martinez said.
“In teaching, you affect a lot of lives, you can work with students, coach them, and motivate them to become the best that they can be,” Martinez said.
As the school year continues, still amidst Covid regulations, Principal Martinez shared he aims to improve this campus for both teachers and students, “Go Panthers!”
It’s Friday of homecoming week and the hallways are alive with the sweet sound of homecoming bells on mums as students sashay down the halls, heavy laden with several decorative mums sometimes from friends or family. This week the dress up days were: Monday Meme Day, Tuesday Twin Day, Wednesday Movie Character day, Thursday Tacky Tourist day, and Friday Love Navy, Live Gold spirit day.
Students and especially seniors were creative in their dress this week.
On Sunday, March 14, the 63rd annual Grammy awards took place. Artists dressed in designers from Harry Lambert and Oscar de La Renta to Versace and Nike ensembles. Now a 28-time Grammy winning singer, Beyonce has made history by setting the record for most Grammys by any female artist. Many celebrities experimented with pandemic-friendly, mask matching looks. Including Billie Eilish, Harry Styles, and Chika. With a limited audience, masks and social distancing, here’s the rundown of the event.
Dua Lipa presented a glittery disco look through the night. Wearing Atelier Versace for both the red carpet, and her performance. Taylor Swift brought warm, garden vibes with her on-brand floral dress. Adding on light pink Louboutin heels. Then, at her performance, wore a floor-length blue floral gown.
Then there’s Harry Styles, donning his usual Gucci. In particular, sporting a Grammys-themed manicure with gold, brown, gray and black polish. He wore a 70s inspired set as well. With a yellow houndstooth blazer, brown velvet pants, and pink shirt with a v-shaped neckline. And of course, his purple colored, feather boa. Styles opened the show with a performance of his hit song, Watermelon Sugar. He wore a custom leather suit, without a shirt underneath, black shoes, rings, and accessorizing with the same boa, in green.
However, many artists and fans were upset about the Grammys this year. Artists including Zayn, The Weeknd and Halsey spoke out about the award show. While Zayn wasn’t angry about not getting nominated, he expressed this with a grim tweet that he felt the Grammys do not showcase all artists. Saying the Grammys is in need of “inclusion” and had a “lack of transparency”. He mentioned the Grammys allows “favoritism, racism, and networking politics to influence the voting process” Overall, the Grammys had positive feedback. Fans and artists are just hoping for better inclusivity, diversity and less favoritism in the coming years.
The UIL Academic Panthers swept the District competition on March 26 and 27, 2021 at Holmes High School to capture first place. Several teams placed first including Speech and Debate, Computer Science, and Current Events. A few teams placed second overall and the Panthers went home with a total of 324 points. Second place school was Jay with 278 points and third place sweepstakes was newcomer Harlan with 227 points. Students placing in the top three and members of first place teams advance to compete on April 16 and 17, 2021.
In Speech and Debate events, for Cross-Examination debate the team of Shasha Ogork and Beverly Quintana earned first place and advanced to State. In Lincoln Douglas debate, Charis Key earned second place. In Informative Speaking Ogork earned first place. In Poetry, Adison Garza won third place. In Prose, Jasmine Evenstad earned second place and Yash Patel earned third place. In Persuasive Speaking, William Walker earned first place.
“I prepared for the different categories all year, I conducted research, practiced, and debated this topic for many months prior to the UIL Competitions,” Walker said.
To those who wish to participate in UIL Walker said, “You will learn a huge amount of fascinating things that will make you a more informed, rounded, and thoughtful person. All of this while being surrounded by fun and energetic people that creates an amazing atmosphere of learning that you can’t get anywhere else.”
In Math events, sophomore Jayvin Pena placed first in Calculator Applications, Francesco Payan placed sixth, Isabella Ireland placed eleventh. In Mathematics Jayvin Pena placed third, Adriana Delagarza placed fifth, Payan placed sixth. In Number Sense, Pena placed third and Payan placed seventh. The team won second place overall.
“The reason I am driven to keep competing in UIL is that I get to compete in subjects I love. Instead of keeping Math or Computer Science confined to busy work and stressing over grades, I can just go out there and have fun with my team and learn quite a lot while doing it,” Pena said.
In Computer Science, junior Keayen Jeppson earned first place and the team with Jayvin Pena and Cyrus Bushong won first place overall. Pena placed fourth and Bushong placed fifth.
“I completed practice exams which were copies of previous UIL exams so that I could prepare for that section of the Computer Science event. For the hands-on coding portion of the UIL contest, I also coded some programs from previous UIL contests and timed myself to the two hour time limit and tried to code as many of them as possible As the exam portion of the Computer Science UIL was timed to 45 minutes (with 40 questions), I had to make sure I did the easy questions first, and skip the ones I was unsure of, as you lose points for every wrong answer. Doing so was crucial to keep my score as high as possible, which definitely contributed to helping me get first place,” Jeppson said.
For English events, in Literary Criticism, Brooke Burriola earned first place. In Spelling Isabella Ireland earned second place. In Ready Writing, Belen Cocke earned third place, Adriana Delagarza placed eighth and Alysandra Avila placed ninth.
In Current Issues, Ireland earned third place. Jasen Drileck earned sixth place and Mya Sachey earned seventh place. Together Drileck, Sachey, and Ireland advance to Region as first place team.
“I have been competing in UIL Academics since my sophomore year, and since then I have competed in a total of 5 areas. I absolutely love being able to test my knowledge and work with a team to achieve greatness! I also plan to continue to compete through my senior year,” Ireland said.
The students will continue to study and prepare for the Region UIL Academic competition.
In UIL Theatre events, Theatrical Design State Qualifiers are senior Conner Ballenger for Set Design, senior Elisa Pedraza Sanchez for Hair & Makeup Design and junior Lillian Land for Costume Design. They will compete at State on May 7 and 8, 2021.
With 131 chapters and over five million readers, True beauty is an ongoing Webtoon and the story was made into a Korean Drama released December 2020. The story focuses on a high school student Im Joo-kyung who gets bullied at her old school because of her appearance until one day she is on the rooftop of a building crying about her experience at school and she meets a boy Lee Su-Ho who saves her from jumping, when she gets home her mom tells her that she’s going to be transferring schools. Determined Joo-Kyung learns how to do make-up so she won’t be treated the way she was at her old school. After many failed attempts she finally made herself look unrecognizable. When she enters her new school people are amazed by how beautiful she is,
“I thought that it was good that she was getting the attention she wanted because it made her happy, but it was sad because she had to make herself look like a different person to get that attention,” sophomore Haley Lopez said.
Soon we find out that Lee Su-Ho goes to the same school as her now but she has no recollection of who he is because she wasn’t wearing her glasses. As she continues to go to school Lee Su-Ho becomes suspicious of who she really is. After a couple of weeks of going to her new school a new character is introduced and that is Han Seo-Joon. Both Lee Su-ho and Han Seo-Joon begin to fall in love with Joo-Kyung leaving them in a frustrating love triangle.
The fandom of the show and Webtoon took a liking to both of the main lead male characters. The first main lead male character is Lee Su-ho and the second lead male character is Han Seo-Joon. Originally in the Webtoon Han Seo-Joon was the one to first get with Joo-Kyung but, in the Korean drama Han Seo-Joon doesn’t get to be with Joo-Kyung and doesn’t get his happy ending which upset a lot of fans.
“I was obviously upset because he deserved way better than what he got but at the same time I was happy because Joo-Kyung didn’t deserve him because even after all he did she didn’t ever really give him a chance because she was still hung up oh Su-Ho,” sophomore Amy Guerra said.
During both stories make-up is a huge part of how Juoo-Kyung makes herself unrecognisable. With many fans taking an interest to her make-up the Korean brand made a bundle of all the products she uses so that fans of the show can try to do some of her looks.
With movie theaters closed and limitations on stadiums for sports and concerts, many of us have turned to T.V. for entertainment. Streaming services like HBO, Disney Plus, and Netflix have gotten a lot of attention during these quarantined times. Everything from mysterious superhero shows, to angsty teen dramas, we’ve all got our favorite quarantine shows.
Disney Plus, being a product of one of the most influential companies in the world, has numerous shows and movies that will take teens on a trip down memory lane. Hannah Montana and Finding Nemo aside, WandaVison is the center of attention as it is a brand new show about two iconic superheroes. The show shines light on the not-so-suburban, suburban lives of Wanda Maximoff also known as Scarlet Witch and Vision. Full of mind boggling mysteries and unique references to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, WandaVision is perfect for any Marvel fan.
On HBO we have Euphoria. The show follows Rue, a drug addicted teen not interested in staying clean after leaving rehab. While at a party, she meets Jules, a transgender girl full of personilty looking for her place in life. The two embark on the treacherous journey of being a teenager in Other characters include an array of sporadic jocks and flashy popular girls who all deal with their own issues as well. The show touches deeply on drug abuse, sexuality, mental illnesses, and the stress of finding your identity as a teenager.
Similar to Disney Plus, Amazon Prime is owned by an extremely large and well-known company. So, the options are limitless. But, some of the shows are actually made by Amazon, not just streamed by their services. For example, a new show called The Wilds started streaming on Amazon Prime back in early December. Like Euphroia, The Wilds covers the drastic lives of teenagers dealing with mental illnessness, sexuality, sexual abuse, eating disorders, tragic romances, and the loss of loved ones. But this time, it’s on a deserted island. After being told they’re going on a feminist retreat in Hawaii, nine teenage girls from all over America are left to fend for themselves on a deserted island after their plane crashes in the ocean. It’s the strength they find within and the friendships they build that keep the girls alive in hopes of getting rescued. However, their limits are tested once suspicion arises and they realize there’s a lot more to the island than they thought. Just like all these amazing shows mentioned, The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix is another new series featuring a strong female lead and her life as a young adult. Based on the novel written by, The Queen’s Gambit is set in the Cold War era and tells the story of Beth Harmon, an orphaned chess prodigy on the quest to become the best chess player in the world. Fueled by her determination, Beth soon finds out it takes more than just skill to be at the top of the food chain. The show follows the genius from her time in an orphanage as a child all the way to her life as a young adult. Every episode brings a new challenge to Beth whether it be her struggle with drug abuse or the ups and downs of her love life. The Queen’s Gambit is a unique story and will catch the attention of anyone looking for an addicting new show to watch.
The 48th Annual Walter Gerlach Livestock Show and Sale raised over 1.1 million dollars in scholarships for Agriculture students announced on February 8, 2021 for the fourth year in a row. The show occurred from January 23-30th and the live auction took place via Livestream and in-person limited on January 28, 2021. Several students won recognition for raising livestock and building Agricultural Machinery products.
The winners of Gerlach’s awards include senior Matthew Escobedo for Ag Mechanics Grand Champion for restoring a tractor and FFA member Emily Felty for the Reserve Grand Champion. Freshman Krista Sifuentes received Grand Champion for Goats while sophomore Reagan Crick gained Reserve. Member Kiley Murry earned Grand Champion title along with reserve for rabbits awarded to FFA. Ian Diaz gained Grand Champion title for Swine while Reserve GC went to senior Aiden Charo. The title of Grand Champion for Steer went to senior Erica Perales along with Reserve Steer winner junior Courtney Burrell. Senior Victoria Weynand received the Grand Champion title for Lamb and senior Reague Chavez the Reserve. Senior Avery Felton acquired the Grand Champion title for Turkey as freshman Jace Burkholder for Reserve. Grand Champion title for Broilers went to seventh grade FFA member Gianna Hivnor of Atonement Academy and Reserve winner senior Gavin Spears.
Agriculture students involved in raising animals were awarded in other ways as well.
“It’s all worth it when you see the friends you’ve made and the fun you’ve had with your animals. And never be afraid to ask the teachers questions, they are there to help you and when it comes to raising your own animal, it is important you know everything that needs to be known about your animal so you can be more successful with raising and in other parts of ag,” FFA member senior Samantha Wright said.
Other Ag students shared similar experiences.
“Ag has been an important part of my life because it has taught me so many valuable lessons over the years. I have learned responsibility, hard work, leadership, and more. It has also allowed me to make many important friendships and connections that will help me out in my adult life and career,” senior Madison Crick said.
Students overcame several challenges this year, pandemic and communication-related issues and more.
“It was also harder to keep prepared for the uncertainties of my animals as well as in my Ag teams as I am unable to go everywhere I needed to go to get supplies, feed and many other things,” Wright said.
Other students faced some of the same challenges.
“My year raising was a mix of very fun and very stressful. I did not have any extracurricular activities besides ag this year due to Covid, so I was able to put a lot more focus into my goat projects. I was worried that the livestock shows would be canceled, but I was very grateful because most of them still happened, and my hard work paid off in the end,” senior Madison Crick said.
They also were able to experience rewards, such as seeing the results of their four years of hard work involved in the Ag program and prepare them for their future.
“When I got the letter saying I had gotten the Gerlach Scholarship, I was ecstatic. I had worked very hard and was very involved with FFA these past four years, so I had felt all that hard work had paid off and I was very thankful for Gerlach for their consideration of me for this scholarship. After high school, I will attend Texas A&M University and major in Animal Science in hopes of becoming a veterinarian,” Wright said.
Other scholarship winners were overjoyed as well.
“I was so excited to find out that I earned my scholarship! It meant so much to me because of how much time and effort I had put into the application, as well as my FFA and 4H career over the years, to be able to get this scholarship. Next year, I will be attending Texas A&M University, and majoring in Agricultural Communications,” Crick said.
Second-year FFA member junior Lillian Stagner shared her experience this year raising goats was a fun and challenging experience.
“I had the honor to receive Division Champion of Light Weight Goats. I felt so proud, as all of my hard work paid off,” Stagner said.
Stagner is also looking forward to participating again next year, her senior year she plans to raise a pig, and Heffer.
“I’m jumping head first into this as I have never raised these animals before, but I am just so excited to learn from them,” Stagner said.
Scholarships were awarded to several Agricultural students including seniors Elizabeth Barnett, Abigail Flores, Samantha Wright, Caitlin Castro, Victoria Weynand, Mason Pouncy, Erica Perales, Emaleen Cain, Madison Crick, Riley McGovern, Shelly Padalecki, and Jordan McCullough.
When most people think about internet privacy, they think that the tools for utilizing it are reserved for either criminals, whistleblowers, or crazed conspiracy theorists. That could not be farther than the truth. Developers have been crafting software and tools for a long time to make privacy as easy as possible for everyday people. As concern over Big Tech grows as time goes on, people with a passion for protecting your privacy have been developing the competition to companies that take users data to make money off of you through targeted ads that don’t seem to go away. Here are some simple steps to take back your data and take back control over your digital life.
Surfing the Web
With your browsing habits being able to reveal numerous aspects of your personal life, this is one of the most important areas of your digital life to modify. A great start is to use the DuckDuckGo search engine, as opposed to Google Search. What makes DuckDuckGo so great is that it doesn’t store any data that could personally identify users, such as your search history, IP address or device information. This way, user search queries don’t fuel the “creepy ads” that follow you around based on what users lookup. However, targeted ads still can haunt you through the trackers that most of the websites users visit have. To remedy this, you need a good browser.
One of the best web browsers for keeping yourself private and secure is Firefox. Firefox is widely recommended by privacy enthusiasts not because of what it can do out-of-the-box, but because of its ability to be modified to better protect you against tracking, or “hardened”.
Firefox is also open source, meaning that the source code of the software is freely available to view and modify. Open-source software isn’t good for privacy in and of itself. But since the code of the software is open to scrutiny, open-source software is trusted to do what it says it does.
Take some time in the preferences menu (gear icon) to harden Firefox. Set DuckDuckGo as your default browser, set Enhanced Tracking Protection to Strict, set cookies and history to clear after Firefox closes, disable any data collection from Firefox, and go into HTTPS-Only Mode. Be aware that some of these modifications can and will break some websites or website features (such as staying logged in to websites). If you want to see how these changes affect users’ browsing habits, make these tweaks incrementally.
For mobile browsing, Try the DuckDuckGo app, the Firefox app, and the Firefox Focus app. All of these apps are free, open-source and have privacy in mind.
Chatting with friends
Users texts and calls with people they know are also a treasure trove of personal information that people and companies are interested in. One of the easiest and most popular way to make your communication more secure against threats to your privacy is to install and use Signal. Signal uses end-to-end encryption when sending messages, which essentially means that no one but the user and whoever you’re chatting with can digitally access your texts, calls, etc. Furthermore, Signal goes above and beyond other encrypted messengers by being open source and never collecting personal data (except for your phone number, which is required to use the service). Although Signal only works with people already using it, inviting your friends to use the app is easy and built into the app with a setting that sends a message to one or more contacts inviting them. With features that other apps for communication have, such as video calls, audio messages, group chats, the transition for you and others should be very smooth. Signal also comes with some fun privacy-centric features, such as disappearing messages and a tool to blur identifying information in photos (such as faces and license plates).
These are some very good first steps to take in the internet privacy journey. However, this merely scratches the surface and much more knowledge is available from enthusiasts in online communities who will help you with similar novice advice and also guide you through more advanced steps to strengthen your privacy, like switching to a Linux OS, using Firefox extensions, and utilizing more open-source software. Here are some of those communities. Make sure to cross-reference sources and check dates when services and methods are recommended so users have the most up-to-date and helpful advice to maintain privacy.
