The ARGS
Dragon’s Lair
February 2017
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Proudly keeping the ARGS community in touch with the fantastic achievements of our students and staff.
-Dr. James M. Victory
E . W o o d i n g to n i n P e t e r Pa n !
By Rhiannon Edwards (Southampton)
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Photograph of Pheala Johnson (Petersburg), Ajalyn Easterday (Southampton), Dee Braxton-Hicks (Amelia) from
Dance Interface by Collin Mills (Dinwiddie).
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In This Issue:
E. Woodington in Peter Pan!
1
Our Dragons
2
The Stars of Tomorrow
3
Candy and Chemistry
4
An ARGS Thriller!
5
Bringing in New Recruits!
6
It’s Lit
7
Taking the Stage
8-9
ARGS Activities
10
Clubs
11-12
Op/Ed
13-16
Horoscopes
17-18
With the nonprofit ballet
organization Stavna Ballet in
Chesterfield, our very own Elizabeth
Woodington (Chesterfield)
performed in a production of Peter
Pan! “I was originally going to play
the part of Tiger Lily, but now I’m
playing the part of Wendy,” the
senior said.
No matter how the performance
went in January, Elizabeth has one
word for how she would describe
the experience: “Unbelievable.”
Not only did Elizabeth get to take
part in an event that showcased
her talent, but also in one that was
for a great cause. The Stavna Ballet
provides dance classes for students
and helps to teach the joy of dance
to underprivileged children that
can’t afford it. It’s a way to spread
the love of dance to those who
might not have had access to it
before.
Elizabeth’s performance took place
in January, on the 21st and 22nd,
and the talented dancer says that
she’s honored by the experience.
“It really is very exciting, and I am
happy to be Wendy!” Now, with the
changing of her role, she took the
lead and wore a different costume
that she admitted was a pleasant
change. It seems that she has moved
on from last year, when she was the
understudy for the lead role in Alice
in Wonderland.
Elizabeth Woodington (Chesterfield)
during a performance as Wendy for
the ballet “Peter Pan” by Mrs. Sara
Woodington.
Appomattox Regional Governor’s School 512 W. Washington St. Petersburg, VA 23803
Office Hours: 8:00 am to 4:00 pm Mon.-Fri. Phone: 804-722-0200
our dragons
NHS Inductions
All about National Art
Honors Society
By Grace Peasley (Richmond)
On Tuesday , November 15, 2016,
twenty juniors and seniors were
inducted into the National Honors Society. NHS is a service club
that recognizes exceptional high
school students that have demonstrated excellence in the areas of
scholarship, leadership, service, and
character.
The ceremony opened with an
introduction from NHS president,
Skye Campolongo (Chesterfield),
followed by remarks on the clubs
purpose and history by historian, Rae Henderson (Dinwiddie).
The rest of the NHS officers, Jared
Bunch (Southampton), vice president; Jacob Horowitz (Chesterfield), parliamentarian; Faheem
Farooq (Chesterfield), treasurer;
and Ryan Shelton (Southampton),
secretary, then each took turns
highlighting on each pillar the club
is founded upon, character, scholarship, service, and leadership. The
induction was lead by NHS advisor,
Ms. Whittle. Dr. Victory closed the
ceremony with the distribution of
the certificates and final remarks,
following the National Honor Society pledge.
By Yazzie Jimenez (Chesterfield)
List of Inductees:
Seniors
Piper Lynch (Petersburg)
Timothy Glover (Chesterfield)
Olivia Stokes (Powhatan)
Matthew Whitsett (Chesterfield)
Juniors
Lena Rafey (Hopewell)
Emma Banks (Richmond)
Crew Cox (Prince George)
Katherine Cox (Chesterfield)
Sarah Dowless (Southampton)
Emily Farnsworth (Chesterfield)
Kinsley Stevenson (Chesterfield)
Chloe Gayle (Chesterfield)
Tyandria Jackson (Chesterfield)
Fletcher Johnson (Chesterfield)
Asia Jordan (Chesterfield)
Graham Kapadia (Chesterfield)
Kristina Tucker (Chesterfield)
Ryan Kehoe (Chesterfield)
Anna Kerr (Chesterfield)
JB Morrison (Chesterfield)
Appomattox Regional Governor’s School
Administration
Dr. James M. Victory
Ms. Veronica Kouassi Executive Director
Assistant Director
The Dragon’s Lair Editorial Staff
Anisa Isaac (Prince George)Head Editor
Fahima Downey (Petersburg)
Assistant Editor
Kiah Brown (Hopewell)
Layout Supervisor
Rachel Robinson (Chesterfield)
Asst. Layout Editor
John Eliades (Hopewell)
Asst. Layout Editor
Hannah Dobrick (Colonial Heights)
Asst. Layout Editor
Marshall Douglas (Richmond)
Photography Editor
2
The National Art Honors Society
is one of the most volunteer based
organizations at ARGS. Lead by
Mr. Bartlett and Co-Presidents Sam
Newman (Powhatan) and Natalie
Solaja (Chesterfield) , the NAHS
is similar to the National Honors
Society, which is more commonly known as the NHS. The most
obvious difference between the
two organizations is that the NAHS
focuses on things more related to
the art community.
Inductions into the NAHS itself
occurred as of late last year. Like
the NHS, students must meet certain deadlines and requirements in
order to be accepted into the club.
Such requirements include having
more than a 3.5 GPA, demonstrating good conduct and leadership
skills, having a serious interest
and respect for the arts, and submitting an entrance essay in which
students explain why they’d be a
good candidate for the club. The
whole process takes a long time to
evaluate, in the end, only the best
become full fledged members of
the NAHS.
According to Asia Jordan (Chesterfield), a member of NAHS, the
only recent activity within the organization was a meeting around the
beginning of the year. Future plans
for the NAHS include doing more
volunteer work to help the communities of Richmond and Petersburg,
setting up more art galleries as
students create more works of their
own, and preparing inductions for
this year, so there are many great
things to expect from the NAHS!
t h e s ta r s o f t o m o r r o w
From ARGS to PBS
By Anisa Isaac (Prince George)
Freshman musical theater major,
Rommel “Glen” Meza (Prince
George), is featured in the PBS
original series, Mercy Street. The
show first premiered January 14th
of this year. It is a Civil War drama
diving into the lives of Mary Phinney, a northern abolitionist, and
Emma Green, a Confederate southern belle. He is an extra in a scene
where he is a farmer’s son who
threatens to shoot the two leads for
stealing chickens.
Getting that role, however, was
tricky. In May, he and seven other
boys were auditioning for the same
part. The deciding factor: be able to
hold a gun at someone and snatch
money out of someone’s hand. The
thing that separated Glen from all
the others was that he was the only
one who was able to hold the gun
correctly. He was called in after the
rest of auditions with the rest of the
boys to be told he got the part.
In June, he went to shoot the scene
at Battersea Plantation in Petersburg, VA. It included three other
people, and they all were behind a
shed. He was even given his own
trailer with a TV, mini- fridge, and
a full bathroom. “I wasn’t used to
having so many things thrown at
me like makeup, costumes, [and]
being on camera,” Glen said. The
scene itself took longer than expected because of the trains passing
by and having to get the scene from
different angles and perspectives.
For Glen, it was his first paying job
and first glimpse into the world of
acting for a TV show. “I like acting
because in acting, there’s always a
new character to play,” he said. Although he hasn’t been in any ARGS
productions, he recently was in Ft.
Lee Playhouse’s School House Rock
Live! Jr. Mercy Street returns for its
second season January 22nd, 2017.
You can expect to see Glen in the
5th episode.
Rommel “Glen”
Meza (Prince
George) on the
set of Mercy
Street.
Picture by Kimberly Meza.
Jendayi Johnson travels
to California
By Tamia Jackson (Petersburg)
Recently, ARGS musical theater
major, Jendayi Johnson (Richmond), won a fashion competition
and got the chance to travel to
California for a week. In the competition, she had to create clothing or an accessory that centered
around social change. With the
help of Ms. Whittier, an art teacher
here at ARGS, and some of Jen’s
friends, she was able to create a
beautiful headpiece. The piece contains human hair, flowers, and gold
clippings.
Jen stayed in Los Angeles, California. She also stayed in San Francisco for the TEDWomen Conference.
The conference was held at the
Yerba Buena Center. Jen attended
these events with two other high
school aged girls who are enrolled
in school at Thomas Jefferson High
and Maggie Walker Governor’s
School.
While in California she had the
chance to visit Warner Bros. where
she was a guest on the television
show, “The Real.” She also visited
Twitter and TOM’S. The ARGS student also met Donald Glover, aka
Childish Gambino, who is singer/
songwriter, rapper, actor, etc. Lastly,
Jendayi was able to meet the founders of BlackLivesMatter.
3
The ARGS family is extremely
proud of Jen and her accomplishments. Who knows? Maybe in the
future she’ll have the opportunity
to travel the country and have even
more experiences that are as great
as these. Congrats, Jen.
(Right to Left) Jendayi Johnson (Richmond) sitting with Lindsey Lu Clements.
Picture by Ashlee Miller.
C a n dy a n d c h e m i s t ry
Candy and Fire
By Hannah dobrick (colonial heights)
New Chemistry teacher, Mrs.
Kathryn Clarke, started the 2016-17
school year with a bang, “decaying”
Skittles into Smarties and giving a
multicolored firelight show for her
classes. She led with a subject-matter related, student-conducted
experiment with lots of candy.
Then, she followed this up with a
teacher-conducted lab involving
colorful fire.
With the first lab, called “Candium”,
her students learned about half-life,
shaking Skittles and replacing them
with Smarties as the candy “decays”,
like atoms. They would shake, or
“decay”, the candies in a cup, and
keep record of how fast the Skittles
turned into Smarties. The students
had the luxury of eating said candy
after the lab was concluded.
In the flame test lab, however, the
students did not get to physically
conduct the experiment, as the
chemicals used could be considered dangerous--adults only! Mrs.
Clarke admits to being just as
excited about this lab as her students, saying, “It was my first time
[conducting this experiment] so it
was just as interesting to me as well!
Fire is also more exciting to me
than candy, but that’s just me!”
In this project, Mrs. Clarke lit
certain chemicals on fire (she knew
it would be safe if only she handled
the elements) to show her students
the varying ranges on the visible
light spectrum. The students had to
record what chemical burned what
color(s), and later, why they did so.
Mrs. Kathryn Clarke has been
doing the Candium lab with her
students for about four years now,
though this is her first year teaching
at ARGS. She got the idea from a
different experiment and added her
own twist--candy! “I always like to
incorporate things that my students
can relate to,” she said, “candy is
always relatable.” Though the flame
test was her preferred lab, it costs
more upfront. She also mentioned
that the Candium lab needs to be
replenished each year, for obvious
reasons.
Mrs. Clarke also plans to do many
more labs in the future, “Get
excited to explore concentration
and molarity with slime, predict
and make table salt, and discover
limiting reactants with s’mores. It
should be an exciting year!” A good
majority of her students agree, and
can’t wait!
Blue flame flickers on bunsen burner.
Photo by McGill Blogs.
4
BUY AN ARGS
YEARBOOK
Preorder an ARGS
Yearbook for $65!
Contact Ms. Giewont
at ggiewont@args.
us for your order or
order online at args.
us under “Student
Payments”. She takes
cash and checks made
out to ARGS , too!
A n ARGS T h r i l l e r !
ARGS Costume Ball a Smashing Success
By mary Stoll (Chesterfield)
On Friday, October 21st, the ARGS
gym became the home to ghouls
and ghosts of all shapes and sizes for the “25th Annual” ARGS
Costume Ball. Organized by Mr.
Stoneking, the event featured a
terrifying haunted house and live
DJs Patrick Jones (Dinwiddie) and
Caleb Knapp (Richmond), along
with a costume contest with awards
for Scariest, Most Original, and
Best Overall costumes with skulls
as trophies. Many contestants participated, but only three came out
on top. In Scariest, Taylor Robbins
(Chesterfield) had a hauntingly
beautiful zombie bride costume
that earned first place. Madison
Munson (Chesterfield) took home
the prize for Most Original with
her creative sugar skeleton costume. And finally, the Best Overall
trophy skull went to Morgan Hock
(Chesterfield) and her Up-inspired
costume featuring a model of the
balloon house from the movie.
The two honorable mentions were
Amanda Witt (Powhatan) and
Keilee Perez-Diggs (Petersburg).
The haunted house was organized
by Shayra Santiago (Hopewell) and
Jessica Beaudet (Prince George),
and it was terror-rific. Students
were shocked by the spooky decor
and horrifying, huge amounts of
effort put into making the event as
fun as possible. One student who
went through the house, Rachel
Robinson (Chesterfield) said that it
was “surprisingly more scary than
I anticipated it [to be].” This was
true for many students, as some
even came out of it sweating!
Overall, the costume ball was great
for everyone who attended. The
DJ played great music as students
danced and had a good time hanging out with their friends. Mr.
Olivia Johnson (Chesterfield) at the Args 21st Annual
Costume Ball.
Picture by Sahara Sidi (Colonial Heights).
5
Stoneking called it “by far the best
costume ball that we’ve had, credit
to Jessica and Shayra.” Hopefully
the costume balls to come will be
just as fantastic!
PREORDER OUR
AWARD-WINNING
LITERARY MAGAZINE, ASGARD,
FOR $15! CONTACT
MS. GIEWONT AT
GGIEWONT@ARGS.
US OR ORDER
ONLINE AT
ARGS.US UNDER
STUDENT PAYMENTS
b r i n g i n g i n n ew r ec r u i t s
The Enlistment for ARGS Dragons!
By Rachel Robinson (Chesterfield)
Students need information about
our school so they can become
the newest ARGS Dragons, and
we have the perfect person to do
so. Mr. Stoneking, a teacher we all
know and love, recruited students
to the Appomattox cause and has
been doing this for 12 years. Mr.
Stoneking is working hard to get
students from the surrounding
counties to come join our outstanding school. He began this rigorous
task in October, where he went
to middle schools in the districts
surrounding ARGS, except in Chesterfield, where he attends 2 “fairs”
for the high school specialty centers
and governor’s schools.
When asked if he looked for anything in the students, he responded
“I’m not really looking for anything
in the students. What I am doing
is telling the students about the
school,” he elaborated, saying that
the students he usually speaks to
are in the gifted program, but there
are exceptions.
“So really, what I look for is nothing
in particular, because I’m looking
to give information to the students.”
When questioned what he does to
convince the students to come to
ARGS, he was quiet for a second
before saying, “I am very honest
about the school. Except maybe the
lunches, I don’t really tell people
about the lunches. But I tell them
what a great environment it is,
since, as far as I’m concerned, it’s an
accepting environment.” He continued, talking about how at ARGS we
don’t have kids being put in trash-
cans and stuffed in lockers.
Another topic he brought up are
the the six focus areas we have. “I
tell them about the extracurricular
activities that we have and the types
of clubs. I go over sports with them;
I also talk about the core classes,
since I’m one of the educators. I
also tell them overall, yeah, it’s a
great place. The students want to
be here at ARGS, and that’s what
makes this school very special.” He
pointed out how at normal schools
it’s mandatory to go, but at ARGS,
everyone had to want to come here.
After being asked if he enjoyed
being a recruiter, he took a deep
breath, then said, “Yes and no. Since
I have been doing it for 10 years
now, everything is pretty much
automatic as far as preparation goes
because I have to coordinate with
maybe two dozen people, and setting up a calendar, and getting the
time right, and the traveling.”
He stated he traveled over a thousand miles during the month of
October to visit all of the schools in
the afternoon, although a couple always land during the school day. “It
is very busy for me,” he commented. “If I was not such an awesome
educator, I would have a really hard
time not being here for some of the
classes. But I do enjoy it, because
I love ARGS. I love the idea of the
school, and I love sharing that with
people because we’re such an awesome place.”
6
FIRST ANNUAL
ARGS VALENTINE’S
CAKE WALK
In the hall next
to the cafeteria,
during both lunches February 13th14th, you can visit
the ARGS Valentine’s Cake with a $1
entry fee.
It’s lit
Poetry Out Loud 2016
By Tamia Jackson (petersburg)
Annually, ARGS students participate in Poetry Out Loud. Poetry
Out Loud is a competition in which
high school students from all across
the county are to memorize and recite poetry. At ARGS, this is a part
of English classes. After students
recite in their respective classes, if
they are chosen, they can move up
to the school wide competition.
This year at ARGS, nine brave students took this opportunity.
field), Jana Prentiss (Chesterfield),
Tyshaun Brewer (Richmond),
Nena Daniels (Richmond), Lindy
Pokorny (Chesterfield), and Kylie
Arthur (Chesterfield). The students
each recited a poem in rounds one
and two and all did amazing jobs
delivering the literary masterpieces. However, in the end, there can
only be one winner. For runner
up, Marian Woodington came in
strong, and first place winner was
Nena Daniels.
Contestants included Xavier Barrett
(Richmond), Marian Woodington
This year’s judges were just as
(Chesterfield), Elijah Lipscomb (Pe- amazing as the contestants. As for
tersburg), Ally Horowitz (ChesterARGS staff, Ms. Giewont, Mrs.
Spivey, and Mr. Stoneking judged.
However, there also were guest
judges who included Gigi Amateau,
Joanna Suzanne Lee, and Lauren
Miner. All of these guest judges
have some background in literature,
from writing it to teaching it. They
also all have worked in the tri-cities
area trying to enlighten the minds
of local youth.
Once again, all of this year’s contestants were spectacular. Congratulations and thank you to everyone
who participated in this assembly.
Lit Arts Longwood Field Trip
By Rhiannon Edwards (Southampton)
On October 13th, the literary arts
students, along with a few other
non-literary arts majors, left ARGS
to head to Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia. For the
entire day, the Longwood campus
was open to students ranging from
elementary to high school to come
join the sessions that were offered.
Known as the Virginia Children’s
Book Festival, the event was held
for three days, the first of which
ARGS students were able to attend.
Arriving a little later than expected,
the first session at 9:30 a.m. was
missed, but the group was led to
the on-campus book sale, featuring
titles that had been written by the
very authors who were there that
day. Students were encouraged to
browse and purchase anything that
caught their eye.
When the time came for the second
session, students broke off in pairs
or groups. A large number went to
a class that was a mock trial of a
popular poem- Edgar Allan Poe’s
“The Tell Tale Heart.” Despite the
fact that not everyone went, when
the groups met up for lunch in the
courtyard around noon. Students
had similar things to say about the
classes they’d just attended.
“Being with the younger kids made
the class different than I thought
it would be,” Allyssa Horowitz
(Chesterfield), one of the attendees,
said. “We all thought we would be
going to a class with older kids,
but it turned out that they were
much younger than us!” Most of
the group’s first session involved
7
encounters with younger students,
who were described as loud, eager,
and enthusiastic, for the most part.
Lunch was held in an open courtyard, and with a break in between
classes, students were invited to
explore the campus and take a walk
in the nice weather, before splitting up once more to attend other
classes of their choice. According to
student feedback, these classes on
average were more enjoyable than
the previous sessions had been.
After making sure everyone was
safely on the bus, the students and
staff from ARGS left Longwood
University and made it back to
school just in time to get on the
buses. Hopefully, all who went on
the field trip enjoyed what they
experienced in Farmville, Virginia!
ta k i n g t h e s ta g e
ARGS presents SMILE
ARGS Takes On VTA
By Rebecca Lovelace (Richmond)
By Meredith Baron (Richmond)
The ARGS Theatre Department hosted its annual fall musical in November. This year, the production chosen was SMILE, a Broadway musical
about a beauty pageant. Performances took place on November 11th,
12th, and 13th, and then the next weekend on November 18th, 19th, 20th.
It was a show full of big dresses, patriotism, and the Young American Miss
beauty contest.
After endless rehearsals, the ARGS
Theatre Department headed to
VTA (Virginia Theatre Association)
after school on Wednesday, October 26th to showcase the amazing
talent they have to offer. According
to the VTA website, it is the biggest theatre association of any state
in the nation and provides a wide
range of theatre opportunities for
students of all ages. They also provided options for student auditions
for a large amount of schools with
theatre programs.
Nerves were high before opening night. Nena Daniels (Richmond), who
played a significant role in the musical, was nervous, but excited before
the show opened. “Opening night will go well because we always pull
through,” Daniels said.
A lot of work goes into an ARGS musical, and no one knows that better
than the crew. Daniels said, “The crew puts in a whole lot. I am so thankful to be around people who value their craft as much as I do.”
The cast and crew unified to ensure a successful production. Stage manager, Emiley Farnsworth (Chesterfield) said, “We’ve had hiccups here and
there, but they’ve been minor and easily worked out. Other than that, the
production is looking great.”
All of their hard work paid off. From all of the behind-the-scenes action
to the talented actors on stage, the show was, without a doubt, another
successful ARGS Theatre production.
“VTA is a fantastic experience for
thespians throughout the state of
Virginia,“ Guru Bhutta (Chesterfield) continues on to say, “With
workshops ranging from dance to
stage combat, along with watching
high school plays, there’s a little
something for every theatre student
to enjoy.”
Directed by Mr. Piersol, ARGS
students performed The Elephant
in the Womb which was written by
ARGS alumni Brittany Howle. They
received an honorable mention
for the show, and Jacob Horowitz
(Chesterfield) received a best actor
award.
(Left to Right) Nena Daniels (Richmond) and Timothy Glover (Chesterfield)
Photo By Debra Beaudet
8
ARGS theater students on the bus for
VTA. Photo by Ms. Warren
ta k i n g t h e s ta g e
Homecoming: ARGS Alum
Returns
By Anisa Isaac (Prince George)
Mary Page Nance is a true performer in every sense of the word.
Graduating ARGS in 2007, she set
out to make a name for herself. She
has been in numerous productions
and toured with the hit Broadway
play, Finding Neverland, as a part
of the ensemble and as Wendy’s
understudy. Mary Page has been
affiliated with the play since it was
in the early stages of workshop in
2014. This gave her the opportunity
to perform at the 69th Annual Tony
Awards, Good Morning America
in early 2015 at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and even at the
White House in November 2015.
Mary Page greatly emphasized that
the teachers at ARGS helped her to
be where she is today: “I think it’s
best to get the best possible training you can get so that you can be
challenged to be better than [your
teachers].” She then reminisced
on the class she took at ARGS and
said, “I took Recording Tech with
Mr. Carver, so we created these
songs. And I will tell you [with] the
amount of times I’ve had to edit
music together and create something for a video, Mr. Carver’s class
made me feel comfortable editing
the music. I use that skill constantly.” Being in ARGS productions
gave her the skills to be able to
perform in places like Broadway.
A former teacher of Mary Page and
head of the dance department, Mrs.
Hodal reminisced on the years that
she taught her. “Mary Page was
always a delight to teach! She was a
constant bundle of energy and good
humor. Classes were also full of
surprises, laughter, and discoveries
when Mary Page was present,” she
went on to talk about Mary Page,
“It’s always a teacher’s great pleasure to teach someone who is 100%
fully present in the class, attentive,
and engaged. Mary Page never
met a class that didn’t interest her
completely!”
On October 25, 2016, Mary Page
returned to ARGS to teach the
theatre, musical theatre, vocal
music and dance majors choreography from the scene “We Own The
Night” in Finding Neverland. “It’s
definitely more quirky and not as
lyrical and beautiful. It requires a
character to get the story across,”
she said, when describing the combination. The event was held in the
gym with a mass of dancers spanning across the basketball court.
They listened carefully to every
instruction Mary Page gave to
precisely execute the combination.
In time, the dancers eased into the
movements and started to have fun
with the choreography.
One student who attended the
class, Lillian Bruce (Chesterfield),
was very impacted by the experience. “I’m a vocal major, so I’m
used to standing still and performing. This stretched my abilities a lot.
After saying that I couldn’t dance,
Mary Nance gave me a two minute
lecture about how I should never
say ‘I can’t.’” Bruce went on to say,
“There is always room for improvement and it can only happen if you
believe in yourself.”
(Left to Right) Corrin Crawford (Dinwiddie), Makayla Kraetsch (Chesterfield), Darius
Mealy (Richmond), Jenna Lucy (Prince George), Suzannah Gusti (Chesterfield), and
Mary Page Nance
Photo By Collin Mills (Dinwiddie)
9
a r g s Ac t i v i t i e s
November Sports Report
By Adam Wolfsheimer (Chesterfield)
and Ryan Shelton (Southampton)
Boy’s Basketball:
Working to fix their record of last
year, the basketball team starts
its season under reconstruction.
Earlier this year, the coaching staff
experienced a change, when former
Coach Covian Lanier decided not
to return this season. Since then,
our very own Health/PE teacher, Mr. Barefoot, has come out of
coaching retirement to take on the
position of head coach. Taking on
the position of assistant coach will
be Mr. Merrill. Having lost many of
its starting members, the boy’s team
is also rebuilding its roster. Tryouts
were held Wednesday, November
9th and Friday, November 11th.
Including returning members, the
current team consists of Senior Damian Fields (Sussex), Junior Evan
Tyler (Petersburg),Sophomores:
Bus Baker (Chesterfield), Richard
Fox (Charles City), Kevin Munroe
Jr. (Petersburg), Jalen Gary (Sus-
sex), Jonalen Gary (Sussex), and
Freshman Carl Williams (Petersburg), Cameron Tucker (Chesterfield), Jaylen Williams (Petersburg),
Kyle Parrish (Petersburg), and
Jaden Hughes (Richmond). With
a new team dynamic and a veteran
coach, the boy’s basketball team is
going into this season with hopes of
a young team that can grow into a
powerful unit.
Args Robotics at Rumble in the Roads
Robotics Team) made it all the way
to quarterfinals, eventually getting
eliminated by an opposing alliance.
Rumble in the Roads isn’t about
winning though. It’s all to gain
experience. As an offseason event,
it has no consequence to a team’s
standing in District Rankings. This
low pressure environment allows
for new teams and new team members to get acquainted to the FRC
competition environment and learn
By marshall Douglas (Richmond)
The ARGS Robotics Team 5546
fought long and hard recently at
the 2016 Rumble in the Roads
Robotics Competition in Newport
News. The competition was held
at Menchville High School, home
turf of team 2363 Triple Helix who
mentored 5546 in our rookie year
in Robotics. There were a total of
30 qualification matches, followed
by eight quarterfinals, four semifinals, and two finals. A.R.T. (ARGS
Girl’s Basketball:
This team has made history at
ARGS, and this year they are set to
do even better. Even though they
lost some strong starters they still
have a solid core that has experience. Captain Rae Henderson
(Dinwiddie) is coming into her
senior year with momentum from
a historic season and an NCAA
signing to carry with her. Also,
Jada Boyd is only a sophomore, but
she already has over 500 points to
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bring with her into this new season.
Surrounding this core of awarded players is a depth that shares
experience at a championship run.
These returning players are Abby
Robinson (Chesterfield), Ashanti
Jordan (Richmond), Keala Lumpkin (Petersburg), Princess Wells
(Charles City), and Geneva Hodge
(Petersburg). The team has many
young players returning to round
out the team and offer experience
to new recruits: Maria Payton
(Chesterfield) and Feranmi Akande
(Colonial Heights). The coaching
staff of Mr. Brower and Mr. Cancino has returned from the team’s
championship run season as well.
The team has a lot of options and is
set up make another run at the state
championship so let’s wish them the
best of luck and hope to see them
win.
the ropes of how everything goes at
the competitions.
While team members can get
comfortable with the structure and
organization of the competitions,
they should be prepared for big
changes in terms of gameplay and
logistics. Every year, the First
Robotics Competition changes to
a new game to keep things fresh.
This year’s game is called FIRST
Steamworks. There have been teasers, but details of the game have
yet to be revealed.
Clubs
GSA Conference At
Maggie L. Walker
By Fahima Downey (Petersburg)
On November 19th, there was
a GSA Conference at Maggie L.
Walker Governor’s school. The
conference was a place for LGBT
youth and allies to attend in order
to learn about being LGBT. There
were speakers and LGBT-related
sessions, for example, LGBT healthcare, transitioning for trans people,
and intersectionality in the community.
The Board of Directors arranges
the meeting. One of the officers of
SPECTRUM, Ryan Kehoe (Chesterfield), is a part of this board.
Come on down to
Spectrum!
By Yazzie Jimenez (Chesterfield)
Do you have questions about the
LGBTQ+ community? Perhaps
about gender identity, or sexual
orientation? If you answered yes to
any of these questions, or have become curious now that the subject
has been brought up, then come up
to Ms. Smith’s room and join Spectrum at their next meeting!
Spectrum will be dedicating their
next meeting to the discussion of a
variety of different identities via a
powerpoint presentation. Student
speakers, including the Co-President of Spectrum, Ryan Kehoe
“We arrange the whole event. We
come up with the time and place it’s
held at. We contact all the people
speaking and doing sessions and
those who sponsor us. We manage the budget, arrange catering,
and advertise the event to other
schools,” Ryan explained. Ms.Smith
attended as well. She held an open
mic session where people presented
and performed poems, writing, and
original song covers. “It was a fun
session to go to,” Ryan said.
the rest of the board directors were
interviewed by a journalist from
gayrva.com where there is an article
about them and the event. “I had a
great time and learned a lot from
the healthcare session. For example,
I learned that Planned Parenthood
now provides hormone therapy for
trans people,” Ryan described. “The
conference went very well this year
and we plan do it again next year in
December. I’ll be on the board of
directors again,” Ryan said.
As a member of the board directors, there weren’t many sessions
Ryan could go to. The sessions he
could make it to were the open mic
and healthcare session. Ryan and
(Chesterfield) will share what
certain terms mean, and what life
as an individual of that identity can
be like. It’s a great chance to get
informed about the vast spectrum
of gender identities and sexual
orientations, all in a safe and comfortable environment. There will
be an ongoing discussion going on
throughout the meeting and it is
open to anyone who’s interested or
wants to learn more!
Donate to Key Club’s Book drive! The
deadline is Feb. 17th. all books go to the
Southside Hospital. Place books in the
labelled boxes around the school.
11
C l u b s ( C o n t. )
FFAC (Factory Farming Awareness Coaliition) Speaker
By Avery Welch (Dinwiddie)
On October 17th, ARGS PETE
Club members and Economics
students gathered along with other
curious students to listen to David
Phinney, a speaker from the Factory Farming Awareness Coalition,
speak about some of the horrors
and unknowns of factory farming.
Phinney gave a presentation to
ARGS students last year about factory farming and the turnout was
pretty great. This year there were
more faces and more questions
raised on the issue.
Due to the recent hurricane, Hurricane Matthew, animal waste has
run off into the ocean and into the
community, “contaminating the
groundwater for the many people
who rely on wells in this part of the
state, as well as threatening the delicate ecosystems of tidal estuaries
and bays” (The Washington Post).
The carcasses of the millions of animals that had drowned during the
event scattered over factory farms.
Another issue discussed was how
the lives of the workers in this facilities are affected. The workers are
often undocumented and lack the
health care and insurance needed
to cover the accidents that often
occur in their hazardous workplace.
There have been incidences of
workers being crushed in conveyer belts and drowning in tanks of
blood. Unfortunately these workers
are often unable to seek the legal
compensation they deserve due to
their immigrant status.
They also talked about an issue that
the Washington Post raised in an
article earlier this year addressing
what should be the simple right of
workers to use the restroom. Workers are often denied restroom breaks
and in turn many wear diapers while
working. They are forced to “urinate
and defecate while [working in the
production] line” (The Washington
Post). While factory farming can
threaten the health of communities in instances such as hurricanes,
factory farming can also cause harm
to public health on a much larger
scale. Often when environmentalists
try to avoid harmful gases they often
fear CO₂ produced by cars when in
fact nitrous oxide is 300 times more
potent. The use of antibiotics on the
animals poses another threat. While
the antibiotics may be used to speed
up the growth of livestock it also
“creates an environment that is ripe
for bacteria to evolve,” Phinney adds.
This causes some bacteria to become
antibiotic resistant and antibiotics
become ineffective due to overuse on
factory farms. This issue affects humans greatly because if we are unable
to treat bacterial infections and other
antibiotic dependent issues we could
run out of medicine options before
we can create new ones. We could
potentially be “[moving] into a post
antibiotic era” Phinney adds.
You may be thinking, ‘I’m not vegan/
vegetarian, how can I help?’ Well
David Phinney had a few things to
speak on that, “I think that with food
we have more agency to change [ourselves] than any other problem. The
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answer to [this] problem is literally
on our plate. You don’t have to
be a vegetarian to order a veggie
burger from time to time. It’s about
looking at the available options in
front of you.”
If you missed this meeting and
are wanting to learn more about
factory farming, consider watching, Cowspiracy, the documentary
produced by the Factory Farming
Awareness Coalition which explains more in depth the impact
factory farming has on the environment. If you are interested in
having David Phinney visit again,
contact Ms. Hardesty for more
information.
Ms. Walser (Right) and Ms. Hardesty
(Left) with David Phinney fighting factory farming.