VEX Second Robotics Competition Held at Sparta High School

Written by: Muhammed Awan

   Our home school hosted a major Robotics competition a few weekends ago, and it sure wasn't a dissapointment. Sparta themselves had seven teams competing against a total of thirty-five teams competiting to win coming from all around Sussex County.

The 2017 - 2018 Spartan Robotics.

   Amazingly, two of Sparta's very own teams took first and second place. Team Billboard came in first place, comprised of: Ian Thompson, Chad Hannigan, and Robert Song. Team Endeavor, made up of: Emmet Sedar, Julia Muth, Karthik Selvaraj, Patrick McGurrin, and Jack Williamson took second place.

   Overall, this continues to be a great year for advisor Mr Meola and the Robotics team. For the rest of the competition, there is no doubt that Spartan teams will continue to be strong competitors, especially given the newfound space and equipment available following renovations added to the Robotics room.

Student Council's Tradition, Deck The Halls

Written by: Elise Kerim 

   Every year, Sparta High School's Student Council puts consideration into the holiday season. This year, the group donated funds to the American Red Cross and kept up with their annual tradition, Deck the Halls.

   The goal of Deck the Halls is to get students to come together and plan a decorative theme for their respective hallway to make the halls of SHS merry and bright. Decorating the hallways after school is a withstanding, fun tradition - holiday music plays, pizza is ordered, lights are strung and the friendly competition to see whose decorating skills are the best is on! The senior grade has always gone above and beyond in their efforts the past four years of decorating - even staying in their hallway up until 10pm to finish. On one end of the hallway, a cozy fireplace setting is set up... and on the other end,

Senior hallway

Christmas in July takes place. Executive Board President Jamie Rennie says, "Seeing the hallways decorated definitely brightens the mood in school for students and teachers. Our hallway [senior hall, upstairs] always gets a lot of attention because it really looks special. Overall, it's fun! It makes the weeks leading up to winter break exciting and shows the creativity of the different grades."

   The rest of the grades decorate their hallway in a way that creates a change of scenery. The freshman class is known for their intricate, three-dimensional snowflakes that hang from the ceilings. The sophomore class can be credited for recycling - they used scrap paper and coffee filters to create snowflakes which they affix on the wall in the pattern of a snowman, along with wrapping old boxes before attaching them to the top of their lockers. The junior class strings lights and garlands across the ceilings in different patterns.

   Student Council is comprised of student representatives who serve their school through communication with the administration, planning events that promote Spartan pride, and fundraising. Each grade elects four officers and other interested students serve on the board as an important asset to continue bringing different ideas and perspectives in.

Christmas Tree outside the MRC donated by the
Executive Board and Senior Class

Spread A Message With Ted-Ed

          Sparta High School is brewing up something big with a new and exciting extracurricular. The Ted-Ed Club is an emerging club that held their first interest meeting on Friday and will officially begin on Thursday, March 2 during lunch in room 419. The program will run for thirteen weeks where students will explore issues important to them. The advisors are English teacher Mrs. Mauriello and Mr. Johnson, a student teacher for Mrs.Kopp. With official board certification, the Ted-Ed Club is more than a bright idea; it's the real deal. The Ted-Ed Club allows students to create their very own TED Talk on anything that is important to them either off or on the camera. The advisors stressed the club is student-led and their role is to give you the step-by-step guide you need, very much for students, by students. It's a wonderful way for high school students to explore themselves a little bit deeper by figuring out what they really think about the issues and which of those issues really touch you the most.
       The club originally began at Sparta Middle School with English teacher Ms.Sofen, with Sparta High's club being a subset. When asked about its progress thus far, Ms.Sofen shared that the students are passionate about their topics and hopes when they transition to high school, they are still involved in Ted-Ed and anticipates growing the club so big that Sparta's students make an impact in a broader spectrum. Through our e-mail conversation, Ms.Sofen told me the great thing about joining this club is, "Whether its potential employers, college admissions directors, or other community-related resume-builders, having a TED Talk out in the world would be an impressive accomplishment for high school students looking to differentiate themselves from the crowd."
       For any student that wants to make an impact and finally wants to let out their inner thoughts, the Ted-Ed Club is for you. Don't have cold feet - positions are available not only for creating and speaking in your very own TED Talk, other positions include: a photographer, writer, Social Media Expert, and Video Production Coordinator. Come next Thursday and be a part of what Ms.Mauriello called a "respective, collaborative space to produce brilliant work."
      Upset you couldn't make the meeting? See Mrs.Mauriello for a permission slip and join the Google Classroom and Remind (see below for information). The excitement amongst the advisors is inspiring and the environment is beyond welcoming. If anyone can make a difference talking about things they enjoy, it's Spartans! Personally, I believe the Ted Ed Club is absolutely going to explode to make change right before our eyes. As an activist myself, I am eager to watch it explode.

WANT IN?
Google Classroom: uepkm38
Remind 101: @shs2017ted

Sparta DECA hosts Finance Your Future

      On January 12, 2017 three members of Sparta's DECA chapter hosted Finance Your Future, an interactive class to help students better understand the process of financial aid. Finance Your Future was a financial literacy promotion chapter project that was designed, initiated and executed by Christian Xenakis, Hannah Fagersten and Elise Kerim.

     The purpose of Finance Your Future was to solve the issue concerning the lack of knowledge on financial aid and scholarship opportunities. The three student leaders conducted primary research to verify the need for a financial aid information class, in which the results showed on a scale of 1-5 (1 being none, 5 being maximum) seniors rated their level of financial aid knowledge as a two and did not know what a 529 Plan was, nor did they know about the CSS Profile. The student leaders spent three months planning the class and working hard to educate themselves on financial aid, even meeting with Sparta High School's guidance department. 

     At the night of the event, as students entered the MRC, they joined the Finance Your Future Google Classroom and filled out a pre-survey. Once everyone had arrived, the student leaders presented a brief PowerPoint regarding the basics on all the tools to help pay for college. The class then broke into three equal groups and rotated throughout each station: one helped students get acquainted with the FAFSA, a second for scholarship opportunities, and the third station educated students on the CSS Profile. Although the class was run by the student leaders, two adult advisors assisted at Finance Your Future, Mrs. Sandy Chiappini and Mr. Christopher Sima. Chiappini is Sparta High School's DECA advisor; after working in the business world, she has taught law, finance and marketing. Sima is an AP history and economics teacher. Both adult advisors helped the class run in a smooth manner. 

          The FAFSA group went through a blown up version of the FAFSA application, emphasizing important terms and teaching helpful "life hack" type tips to the students while addressing common questions students typically have when filling out the FAFSA. The CSS Profile is another service to provide college students with financial aid that is provided by College Board, the organization that administers the SAT and AP exams. The CSS Profile group went through a similar blown up application and provided students with a pre-application worksheet, which helps guide the student in filling out the CSS Profile form in a more efficient manner. The scholarship group provided Sparta students scholarship search websites, one that builds a complete profile for the student based on their academic standing, interested major and personal interests. This group also explained the benefits of being enrolled in AP classes. Each student leader answered all questions the participants had with confidence and accuracy.

     After there was a full rotation of the groups, student participants filled out the post-survey. The post-survey proved an overwhelming amount of students learned useful information in a fun manner that they would otherwise not know and the student leaders did an exceptional job. The students learned more than they had anticipated to learn from their peers. The night ended with pizza, drinks and desserts for the student participants. The leaders encourage students to utilize the Finance Your Future Google Classroom at the time they fill out their financial aid. The Google Classroom has useful tools such as additional scholarship searches, a FAFSA estimation guide and the CSS Profile pre-application.

     Due to its success, Sparta DECA is extremely proud of the event and plans to host Finance Your Future next year as well. This year, Finance Your Future only allotted a maximum of ten students; as a result of its success, next year more students will be urged to sign-up. Finance Your Future was only intended to be used as Hannah, Elise and Christian's DECA project, but after analyzing the results from the post-survey and discussing with students, it was decided that the event would be hosted in years to come to benefit the student body in their future endeavors. The student leaders will present the event and their findings at the DECA state competition in Atlantic City, NJ on February 22.