“What heat problem?” (CARTOON)
“What heat problem?” (Cartoon by Jamal Artis, Patterson Press)
Category Archives: Academics
Patterson participates in ALS Ice Bucket Challenge
by Joshua Carr,
Patterson participated in the Ice Bucket Challenge on Sept. 5 to help raise money for ALS. ALS means amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. It is also called Lou Gehrig’s disease, named after the Yankees baseball player who died of it in 1941.
Poly High School challenged our school to do the Ice Bucket Challenge and Mr. Benton, the school principal, accepted. To do the Ice Bucket Challenge you have to dump a bucket of ice water on your head and put a video of it on the internet to help raise money for ALS. The Ice Bucket Challenge was a fun experience for the students and staff of Patterson High School.
Click to download video of Mr. Benton’s Ice Bucket Challenge
This Is Not A Haircut
Mrs. Gabriel (Photo: Ty’Shawn Key, Patterson Press)
By Ty’Shawn Key
For the past week or two there has been a lot of commotion about Mrs. Gabriel and her stylish new hairdo. Many are asking “Why did she go short?”, and “Had she gotten tired of black?” The answer is amazing! Unknown to many, for the last eight years Mrs. Gabriel has been in a battle against breast cancer.
It all started eight years ago one day when Mrs. Gabriel had gone on a typical doctor’s visit and she decided that it was time for her to have a mammogram–a breast cancer screening that all women should have. Upon completing the screening, doctors discovered that Mrs. Gabriel had a microscopic tumor in her breast. She was then diagnosed with Stage 0 breast cancer. She soon had the tumor removed. Once the tumor had been successfully removed, Mrs. Gabriel was assigned estrogen prevention medicine in 2007. Estrogen causes cancer to grow.
In the December of 2012, five years after starting her medications she returned to her doctor for an annual mammogram screening. This time during the screening doctors had found that the cancerous cells had spread to the lymph nodes under her left arm. This was the same side the cancer was first spotted in. In January, she had the lymph nodes biopsied. Shortly afterward, the cancerous cells returned. Mrs. Gabriel had now been diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer.
So the following February, Mrs. Gabriel went through surgery and had twenty-one of her lymph nodes removed. From April of 2013 all the way through September of that same year, Mrs. Gabriel went through sixteen rounds of chemotherapy, followed by thirty-five days of radiation. During this process Mrs. Gabriel lost her hair and has been wearing a wig ever since.
Since the beginning of her adult life, Mrs. Gabriel has had long black hair; however during this process she lost it all, just as many cancer patients do. To save herself from embarrassment and to keep her students from getting distracted by her condition, she decided to purchase a custom-made wig, composed of real human hair, specialized for cancer patients so that they can look as normal as possible. For the past year, Mrs. Gabriel has been wearing a wig to work every day to keep the daily flow as normal as possible. In fact, she pulled this off so nicely that no one except for a select few knew of her condition.
Recently, however, since the success of the surgery, Mrs. Gabriel’s hair has been growing back, and it is looking better than ever! So after a while of going out without her wig every other now and then, Mrs. Gabriel decided to go natural to visit her family up in New York. After receiving positive comments about her new look she decided on her return flight to Baltimore that she would wear the wig no more.
Mrs. Gabriel’s story is one that shows how faith, determination, open-mindedness, and a strong spirit can get you through any tough time; because every day, even though Mrs. Gabriel had a difficult situation, she still pushed through and carried on with her life. Every day she came to work and helped her students. Every day she went home, lived with, and got support from her family. Every day she fought for a better, brighter tomorrow, and every day she did it with a smile. So this new hair style you see now is NOT a haircut. It’s a victory.
Robotics club gears up for competition
Students build a robotic vehicle (Photo: Regina Bell)
By Stephanie Megginson,
Last year, our Patterson High School Robotics Club won the 2013 Hopkins Robotics Cup. After working with another school, Ms.Ball wanted Patterson to have its own robotics club.
The robotics club hasn’t won a competition this year yet but their next competition is coming up this April at John Hopkins. They believe they will win 1st place again this year.
Every Thursday after school students meet in Ms.Ball’s room to participate in Robotics Club. All students are welcome to join.
Students choose to join the robotics club because it’s exciting, they get to use their own imagination, problem solving, teamwork and innovation skills. They get to go to different cities and states to compete against other schools.
“Peace and Love” is theme of this year’s door decorating contest
Ms. Bridgeforth’s door, 1st place winner (Photo: Shane Braden, Patterson Press)
By Tamika Addison,
The SGA hosted a Door Decorating Contest in February with the theme of Peace and Love because it was Valentine’s Day. Ms. Bridgeforth’s class (Rm#212) won first place. Her door decoration was pretty, with hearts and stones. The 2nd place prize went to Ms. Holter’s class (Rm # 210). Her door was nice with pictures of two people and hearts with glitter.
Ms. DeRosa (Rm #217) and Ms.Frank (Rm#158) tied for 3rd place. Ms. DeRosa’s door looked very nice with pictures of students proposing with candy rings. And Ms.Frank’s door looked great with hearts with students’ names on them and a ship. All the students who participated in the Door Decorating Contest enjoyed showing off their talent and creativity.
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- Ms. Bridgeforth’s door, 1st place winner (Photo: Shane Braden)
(Photos by Shane Braden, Patterson Press)
Freshmen share their personal stories at emotional intervention
(Photo: psychotherapist.org)
By Makenzie Reyes-Schettini,
The ninth grade girls spent a day in the gymnasium in February, where we participated in an emotional intervention called Point Break. (Ninth grade boys participated in the same program on a different day.) Almost all of us were in tears by the end of the day.
When we came in there were chairs that formed a circle. We each took a seat. As we munched on donuts and sipped our water, the facilitators began to introduce themselves. This session was to be an opportunity for us to get things off our chests that we had been holding inside for too long. In the beginning, there was an awkward tension in the air, but it was soon replaced with a more calm and friendly feeling. We played games and listened to stories that were beneficial to both our lives and the lives of the people who told them.
As we got deeper into the day, we also got deeper into our emotions.We opened up to tell our personal stories that we hadn’t told anyone in years.We really conected to the people around us: those who we have known our whole life and those who we had just met. Point Break was not just an excuse to get out of class all day. Rather, it was an opportunity for us to express what we were really feeling inside.
Student mentors help freshmen avoid making the same mistakes
Illustration by Shane Braden, Patterson Press
By Ty’Shawn Key,
Individual Advancement Mentoring (I.AM) is a peer mentoring program started last year by my brother Alonzo Key. I.AM was created because too many students throw away their freshmen year. Whether it is due to chasing popularity, getting involved with the wrong crowd, focusing on other things, having too much fun, or just pure goofing off, every year a large percentage of students squander their Freshmen year. I.AM was designed so we can get that year back. Our goal is to reach the minds of our incoming freshmen classes, and influence them to get on the path of having a more proactive high school career through the acts of peer mentoring. Our mentoring uses the simple tools of motivation and enlightenment through student voices. Older students are acting as the big brother or sister figures that some of our younger peers may lack. These mentors are a select few members of this year’s senior and junior classes.
The program is supervised by Mrs. McIntosh, myself and several other upperclassmen, including Kwynten Brooks, a star player on the Patterson Clippers Boys Basketball team, Johnny Alvarez, an amateur skater and photographer sponsored by Fly Geenius, Jamahl Loney, a DECA Regional competition placer, and several other decorated individuals. Together we are actively trying to change the lives of our Patterson 500 Family’s young men and women, the future faces of our school. Our mentors sacrifice every other Tuesday and Thursday Futures period to shed some light on these young individuals, so that they can have the advice and help that we all wish we had as freshmen.
Olagoke Sanusi, one of junior leaders, described working with the freshmen as an experience that he would never forget. “Never would I imagine that me and my few life experiences could ever really help someone else with their life and situations just by talking to them about it”, he said. “It put me in a position where I was that external factor for someone else. I was the one who decided to either give them the assist, or let them get fouled…”
This has been one of the best years of my entire high school career, and it’s not because I’ve been accepted into the school of my dreams or because I have achieved some of my personal goals. It has been one of my best years because I can now leave my school saying I helped change someone’s life. As the saying goes, “a diamond in the rough shines its brightest only after someone picks it up to polish it.”
If you know of any intelligent, caring, respectable, productive and well-spoken individuals who will be juniors or seniors in the fall, please direct them to Mrs. McIntosh’s office for mentor enrollment for next school year.
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New group connects motivational speakers with latino students
By Makenzie Reyes-Schettini,
Our school has the privilege to participate in a new group called Palante for Spanish and English speaking students. The word “palante” means moving forward in Spanish and that is exactly what they do! Many students take their free education for granted and don’t really think about their education. This group brings in people who have been through many challenges and succeeded in accomplishing their goals.
During a meeting last fall, Patterson High’s students from Palante have met many extraordinary people. There was Alicia I. Arbaje, who is a geriatric medicine specialist and health services professional at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Students also met Andres Anirt Gonzales, who is the co-founder and director of marketing for the Holistic Life Foundation, Inc. He is also one of the founders of the Mindful Moment program in which our school has the privilege of taking part in. Another speaker who came to the meeting was George Julnes, who has a doctorial degree in psychology. Lastly, there was Patricia Omana, who is the regional outreach manager for the connector entity of Healthy Howard.
What do all these people have in common? They are all latinos who have started with nothing and reached extraordinary heights. As they told their stories they didn’t forget to give us advice to keep focusing on our goals. So remember, don’t give up no matter how hard it may seem!
To Eat or not to Eat?
Reposted from sweetremedyfilm.blogspot.com
By Destiny Diggs,
Being overweight has become a growing epidemic. You hear about all the health concerns that come with being overweight: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes,etc. But is it as easy as it sounds to be and eat healthy?
Money wise its much cheaper to eat unhealthily. It is much cheaper to go to McDonalds and get dinner for four than to go to the grocery store and buy and prepare a healthy dinner. Going to fast food restaurants is faster to get than making breakfast.
The media contradicts themselves; they tell us to eat healthy but then they play an ad about two for one deals at Burger King or Wendy’s. We are being told that processed food isn’t good for us and we should look into more organic foods (which are the most expensive) but we send our kids to school where they are fed processed foods for lunch. When the food is delivered to the schools it is already made. The only thing the lunch ladies have to do is heat the food up and serve it.
Why are we feeding our children this type of food? We do it because it’s cheaper and less time-consuming. This is not to say that being healthy isn’t a good thing but we must look at the entire picture. If there is a family of six and they only have one income coming in, the cheapest way to eat is fast food or microwave food.
This is just something to think about but free ways to help prevent weight gain include drinking water, trying to exercise at least for thirty mins a day and watching our portions and eating in moderation.
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