Nov. 5, 2010Vol. XIV, Issue 1 Northwest School of the Arts, 1415 Beatties Ford Rd. Charlotte, NC 28216

School News 2-3Features 4-7Opinion 8

Alice WilderCopy Editor

This year, faculty at Northwest are trick-or-treating for cell phones, but for students, it is more trick than treat.

A new rule bans all electronic devices on campus, regardless of the time. “Last year, some teachers let students use their phones while some did not, this year we want to eliminate any confusion” said Principal Dr. Barry Bowe. According to Bowe, the discipline committee wanted a more consistent policy, and created signs that are in classrooms, reminding students to keep their electronics off and away. Spanish teacher Michelle Fleshman-Cross said, “I think [the new policy] is better, if people know they can get a warning they’ll test it.”

Like many students, sophomore Katie Bannerman stands by the rules, “I understand where [they’re] coming from. Cell phones and iPods during the school day can be a distraction to students.”

However, some are irritated with the ban on electronics before school. Even students who arrive an hour before school are subjected to the rule. In the morning, listening to music helps sophomore Chanel Thorn to be more productive. “[My iPod] helps me finish work and clears my head,” said Thorn.

Junior Jordan Medley doesn’t understand the new rule, “I don’t get it, an iPod won’t hurt anyone.” According to Bowe, it just might. “If a 6th grader sees a ‘big kid’ using their iPod on the breezeway before school, they might think it’s okay to do so in class,” said Bowe.

The administration hopes that, by conforming to the new rule, “big kids” will be a positive influence on younger ones.

Freshman Jose Cuellar is beside himself about the ban on phones

after school. “A lot of times I need to contact my parents before and after school, and I can’t do that anymore. Is it necessary for [the policy] to be this severe?” said Cuellar.

The administration does allow phones in the car lot after school, but not in the bus lot. “If you have a concern or emergency, contact an adult to use the school phone,” said Bowe.

This new rule is a big adjustment for students, but it seems, in time, students will come to understand and accept it.

Photo by Alice WilderStudents are constantly at risk at getting their electronics taken by faculty members no matter the time of day. Freshman Zoe Zander listens to music to help her focus on reading her book.

New electronics policy leaves students lonelyTeachers begin to enforce the new electronics policy aggressively

Lincoln FryeStaff Writer

The Northwest carpool lines are in need of a serious dose of a decongestant medicine. Traffic has become so intense that it takes some students 35 minutes to get out of the parking lot.

“It takes me ten to fifteen minutes just to get out of the carpool line,” said freshman Arielle Fisher. Students and faculty members have a few theories about how this problem started.

“I think shuttle stops are a big part of it,” said junior Colin Strivelli. Agreeing with him Principal Dr. Barry Bowe said, “Shuttle stops are a big part of it because a lot of the time parents can’t get their kids to the shuttle stops because they are father away then the school itself.” Also Northwest has lost 46 buses since last year more students must have their parents pick them up from school and drop them off.

Bowe said that does not seem to be a large concern because “Our students are very mature and trustworthy. They’re good drivers and make good choices about what is safe and what isn’t.”

Northwest faculty is trying to keep traffic down by sending faculty members out to direct traffic in the morning and afternoon which includes Bowe and our school’s security associates.

Although traffic has begun to lessen since the start of the school year, students can still do some things to keep the carpool lines short and the experience less frustrating for everyone.

Students should try carpooling with a friend because this not only cuts down on the amount of traffic in the parking lot is also cuts down on the amount of fuel emitted in to the atmosphere therefore helping the environment and reducing your carbon footprint.

Carpool lines need serious medicineThe carpool lines are filled to the brim

Play, sleep, repeat

Samantha SabinEditor-in-Chief

Classes will have to wait. Now’s the time to rock for Matt Carlson.

Carlson, a Northwest junior, was strumming his guitar to the tunes of classic songs from greats like Tom Petty and Led Zeppelin for the School of Rock’s “Live Aid Remade” tour this past summer.

The fun started last February for Carlson, when he submitted an audition tape for the School of Rock All-Stars – a touring group comprised of the best student musicians enrolled in different School of Rock locations across the U.S. Along with 17 other student musicians in his group, Carlson is spending two weeks of his summer living on the road.

“With the title, you get to go on tour and you get the experience of … living out of a suitcase every night,” he said.

Carlson said he owes much of his young success to Charlotte’s

School of Rock studios, where he learned from professional musicians with a mix of private lessons and structured group rehearsals. It all builds up to the ultimate goal of performing live in front of screaming fans.

On a typical day, the All-Stars wake up around 8 a.m., take their entire luggage to the bus and head out. That’s unless it is a show day, which involves less traveling, but an early start at their next venue three hours before the show begins.

“Then the people come in, and we perform. Then we break down everything, and get back on the bus, go to a new hotel and sleep. Then repeat,” Carlson said.

The East Coast tour group is on the road for about two weeks, and has seven performances. The tour ended in New York City at Blender Theatre for a show combining the East Coast, Midwest and West Coast tours.

Northwest junior takes his music on tour

See Matt Carlson page 6

In this Issue

Can you survive a month without Facebook?Page 8

Students receive a global educationPage 6

Unique senior exits: The history of sweet teaPage 5

Iraq war hits close to homePage 7

See Cars page 5

Chartu Lopez-WhitePhoto Editor

As freshmen and transfer stu-dents familiarize themselves with Northwest, new teachers are go-ing through similar experience in adjusting to a school they are un-familiar with.

Photo teacher Laurie Schorr is one of these new teachers. Schorr took over former teacher, Virginia Downey’s classes by teaching pho-to I, II and III and printmaking. She is also teaching seventh grade art majors 2D. Schorr is from New York City. She had a busy schedule working at the New York Interna-tional Center for Photography and the Ryatt Center, also she had a

side job teaching at an elementary school.

Schorr chose to come to Northwest after hearing so many wonderful things about the school from friends and colleagues. Such a dramatic transition from New York City to Charlotte, NC could be overwhelming for some people, but Schorr feels that living in Char-lotte is a wonderful opportunity for her. Schorr only planned on staying in Charlotte for the summer, but she changed her mind after finding all the things Charlotte has to offer. She claimed to like the small grow-ing city of Charlotte believing that there are a “lot of activities and things going on.”

One thing she found interest-

ing and unexpected was the music scene in Charlotte. “I didn’t ex-pect to find such a vibrant music scene. I’ve met and hung out with so many great bands around the town,” said Schorr.

Of course her schedule is a lot lighter than it was while she was living in New York, but Schorr likes the extra time because she has time to focus on her artwork. She has also found time to explore and appreciate the light factory and McColl Center.

“This school is really unique I like that the school of the arts ex-pects a lot of its students and is almost similar to a college,” said Schorr.

Joneka Percentie Copy Editor

With any new school year, comes new faces. And this year especially, there has been an abun-dance. Included in these new faces is the new technical theatre teacher, Chip Caldwell. As a teacher, going to a new school can be similar to what a student goes through: an unknown building, foreign people and a different schedule.

However, despite being a new faculty member, Caldwell has a long running history with North-west. Two of his three children have attended Northwest, and the third is currently a student. “I used to watch [former principal] Charles LaBorde teach at West Charlotte when they had the best theatre program in the county,” said Caldwell. He has also helped out with productions at Northwest since 1998.

After the theatre department at Myers Park High School was in danger of being cut, the open position at Northwest became an option. Caldwell has had experi-ence at other magnet schools such as Piedmont Open Middle. With experience at both magnet and non-magnet schools, Caldwell can

tell the difference as he said, “Mag-net schools are better.” Now that Caldwell is a teacher here, his opin-ions of Northwest have only got-ten better.

“It’s cool to be in an atmo-sphere where everyone wants to be here. You don’t see that at other schools,” said Caldwell.

As a theatre teacher, Caldwell has extensive experience in his art. Ranging from community the-atre and competitions as a youth, to working with the North Caro-lina Shakespeare Festival in High Point. After receiving scholarships for theatre, Caldwell attended the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Although the work is done be-hind the scenes, the technical as-pect of theatre is one of the most crucial parts of a production. It in-cludes lighting, sound, set design, construction and special effects. Without it, there would not be much of a show.

Through tech, Caldwell is hop-ing to bring something extra to the shows this year at Northwest.

“You’re looking for that ‘wow!’ In tech, we want to know how we can make the audience gasp in their seats,” said Caldwell.

Can he build it? Yes he can!

Northwest is picture perfect

SCHOOL NEWSPage 2 Nov. 5, 2010

Photo by Joneka PercentieCaldwell teaches his students the rules of technical theatre. He has worked in community theatres and competitions from his youth and also in the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival. He and his students will build sets for all of Northwest’s shows this year.

Photo by Chartu Lopez-White

Caldwell builds a name for himself in the tech department

Laurie Schorr finds a new home here at Northwest’s art department. She is new to Charlotte and new to our school.

Schorr adds her artistic skills to the art department at Northwest

Northwest is looking pretty SweetKyle Caldwell

Online Editor

This year Northwest greeted a new assistant principal to the faculty. Assistant principal Gary Sweet joined the team this fall. “I love it, it’s nice to feel welcomed…everyone is so nice here,” said Sweet. Northwest met and exceeded Sweet’s expectations, “in more ways than one,” said Sweet.

Sweet was originally a music director and graduated with a music education degree from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Sweet loved teaching music, “It was the love of my life. It’s all I wanted to do since seventh grade,”said Sweet. Sweet has been involved with several musicals over his teaching career. Among these are Annie Get Your Gun, Carousel, West Side Story and many more.

He was also the band and choral director for the Department of Defense Schools (schools on oversea military bases). These schools are all over the world.

For example, Sweet taught in the Netherlands, England, and various other places. Sweet said, “It was a great opportunity, but also a great experience Not only did I get to work with teachers from all around the world, but I got to travel.” The worst thing was “sports withdrawal,” said Sweet. In order to watch an American collegiate football game, Sweet would have to wake up at 2 or 3 am due to the time difference.

Sweet returned to the United States in 1995 and took classes to become an administrator.

Sweet wanted to become an administrator, and took classes at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He taught at James Martin Middle School as an assistant principal. He was the assistant principal of instruction at Hawthorne High School. He has been in education for 33 years.

New social studies teacher is here to stay

Photo by Allison Webber

Photo by Kyle Caldwell

Nov. 5, 2010 SCHOOL NEWS Page 3

New assistant principal begins his reign at Northwest School of the Arts

Nagel adds his skills and experience to the mix at our school.

New to the school, Sweet is former Northwest assistant principal Eddie Shaner’s replacement as one of the new administrators this year.

Nagel focuses hard on teaching his classes the fundamentals of social studies, US history, and civics and economics

SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY

*College awareness month: Wear jeans and jerseys each Friday

1 2College Night @ 6PM in Auditorium

3Northwest Café Night in the Laborde theatre @ 5PM

4 5* 6

7 8 9 10 11NO SCHOOL!

12*-Senior flag football @ 4:30PM-Fiddler on the Roof @ 7PM in Black Box

13Fiddler on the Roof @ 3PM and 7PM in Black Box

14Fiddler on the Roof @ 3PM in Black Box

15 16 17 18 19*College Awareness High School Event in the Auditorium @ 2:45PM

20

21 22Orchestra Recital Seminar in Black Box

23 24NO SCHOOL!

25 NO SCHOOL!

26NO SCHOOL!

27

28 29 30

November, 2010SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY

WED. THURS.FRIDAY SATURDAY

1 2 3Wedding Singer in Black Box @ 7PM

4Wedding Singer in Black Box @ 3PM and 7PM

5 6 7 8 9Winter Dance

10 11

12 13Piano Recital Black Box @ 7PM

14 15 16 17 18

19 20 21 22NO SCHOOL!

23NO SCHOOL!

24NO SCHOOL!

25

26 27NO SCHOOL!

28NO SCHOOL!

29NO SCHOOL!

30NO SCHOOL!

31NO SCHOOL!

December, 2010Special Events

Rene VanekBusiness Manager

Donald Nagel is one of the many new teachers hired at Northwest this year. “I am truly thrilled with the school and students here,” said Nagel.

With a B.A in political science, masters in tourism management and a teaching degree from the University of North Carolina in Charlotte, Nagel is excited to get started with the school year. He teaches honors seventh grade social studies, U.S. history and civics and economics.

Nagel said “If I had the choice to go to any other CMS school I would choose to be here at Northwest.”

Nagel previously worked at a private religious school and then he was a teacher’s assistant at Randolph Middle. Before that he worked for a tourism company. Nagel has a lot of experience with travel. Nagel has visited 130 countries over the years while

working for a travel agency. Nagel said in all of the traveling he has done over the years, Cairo, Egypt is his absolute favorite place to live. As a young boy Nagel was on a plane that was hijacked while en route to Cuba.

Now Nagel has lost interest in travel with the long security procedures and the very expensive airline tickets.

“To me social studies is the answer to life’s problems if you understand where you have been you can better understand where you’re going,” said Nagel. Nagel said that many schools are getting away quickly from humanities. Nagel believes that when a school loses the humanities courses in middle and high schools the school loses a whole sense of individuality and education. But Nagel plans to continue to keep his spirits high throughout the year.

If all things go according to plan, Nagel wants to continue teaching at Northwest for years to come.

Tara CalhounStaff Writer

Northwest School of the Arts has been working with the Empty Bowls organization for almost a year now, and they have been so successful that they are going to work with them again this year.

The Empty Bowls organization is an international grassroots project that helps feed those who are hungry. People all around the world help out with this project by donating generous amounts of money and where students and artists donate their ceramic bowls for a $10 cash donation. For every bowl that is purchased a free bowl of soup is given to the person who bought and and the profits go to a local charity.

“The Empty Bowls organization is a great way for students to show off their artistic skills and have other people in need benefit off of their creations.” said visual arts teacher Tamara Conrad.

The Empty Bowls organization is a project where students and artist in the Charlotte community and all over the world make

ceramic bowls, have them filled with soup and sell them for a 10 dollar cash donation.

The Second Harvest Charity is a non- profit organization that helps families in need get the food they need. For the past two year Second harvest served an average of 231,311 people per month, the majority of the people who benefit from this charity is children, seniors and people who live with low incomes. Over the past few years The Empty Bowls organization have raised over millions of dollars for the Second Harvest charity.

Last year Northwest School of the Arts and three other schools in the Charlotte Mecklenburg schools community raised a total amount of $4,000 from all of the visual arts program. The money was donated to the Second Harvest Charity and plenty of people around the world have benefited from this.

“The Empty Bowls organization is an extremely important organization and more people should help out,” said Conrad .

Na’chelle Fullins- LovellStaff Writer

Since last year, budget cuts have increased and have had a dramatic impact for the teachers who are still at Northwest. Having fewer teachers in the school creates bigger classes. Ashley Manshack has been affected by the cuts. “My schedule was extremely hectic at times” said Manshack.

Bigger class sizes cause problems for both teachers and students. Teachers are suffering because they have to re-plan their lessons, possibly buy school supplies for their students and grade approximately 160 tests every other week. “If any more budget cuts in the future, the population of students would increase. This is forcing the teachers to work more, which causes them to grade approximately 240 assignments and quizzes. However, the worst thing that can happen to a teacher is seeing their students fail,” said former tech teacher David Ward.

With the increase of students in the classroom, failing might be possible if the students are not dedicated to completing their work. Overcrowded classes can cause numerous distractions and controversy between the students and their classmates. Theatre teacher Cory Mitchell said,

“Academically, students that are placed in larger settings than usual can have major setbacks. However, for arts classes more students can be an advantage.”

This year due to teacher budget cuts, the men’s ensemble was combined with concert choir, thus creating a new, improved sound with the massive bass line: tenors

smoothly mending with the sassy altos and sopranos. “Having a larger class can be quite wonderful for the vocal department,” said Ms. Hickok. Overall, the budget

cuts affect both the students and the teachers, but with a positive attitude we all can achieve.

Gabrielle RossStaff Writer

Fun, fit and active, is what our teachers are aiming for as they are in the process of developing an after school physical fitness program. Tommy Phillips, The high school social studies teacher, and Scott Woodward, the health and physical education teacher, are collaborating together leadership to establish a club where students can come together and be active. Students do not be alarmed by the words “physical fitness,” because this is much more.

“We want this to be a fun thing for kids, something they’d enjoy, something they’d want to do, not make them do,” said Phillips.

This idea was proposed by Phillips, based on a similar activity done last year with Andrew Griner, a fellow high school student. Andrew coordinated a little get together with 15 other students who would meet him behind the gym every lunch period to play Ultimate Frisbee.

“We couldn’t just play after school but it didn’t stop us…CMS may have taken our recess and gym but that doesn’t mean we as students can’t just get out and play during lunch or after school…The only downfall, was that there was not enough time to play,” said Andrew

With only about 30minutes,

club members kept wishing it was more. What this club hopes to establish is more time and more options. This club will provide a place to play, materials to play with and an extension of time by half. This will be much more than just Frisbee.

Today in America the obesity rate is higher than it has ever been. About half of today’s teens, ages 12 through 21 are not intensely active, 14 percent of which, that are not active at all according to National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.

“It’s great that 9th graders have gym for a year but after 9th grade your missing time to exercise and stay healthy”, said Andrew.

As adolescents we should be getting at least 60 minutes of

physical activity a day. Daily doses of exercise can lower your risk of obesity, diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. Other benefits include reduced chance of depression, and better sleep, while improving test scores. The Robert Wood Johnson foundation, Active Living Research and others, have done studies on how physical fitness affects people; studies show those who are physically active, generally test better than those who are not. This club will be once a week after school, for about an hour. The two alternating leaders will try their best to appeal to the students. This club will be a student run activity, where students choose what they want to do, though it must be active.

Nov. 5, 2010FEATURESPage 4

Less teachers causes bigger classes

Fun, Fit, and Active

Photo by Sarah Bryan

Students in Aaron George’s AP U.S. history class work harder and focus on their work due to cramped class conditions.

Northwest artists are collaborating with the Empty Bowls organization to help end hunger

With recent teacher cuts, the class sizes have become larger than normal

Northwest starts its own sports club

Freshmen compete in a soccer game during their gym class at school.

Photo by Naja Richburg

Buy Bowls and Stop Hunger

Ian FermyStaff Writer

Last year many beloved teachers left Northwest School of the Arts to continue their career at other schools. Among the teachers who left were Downey, Jackson, Whiteside, and Joyce. They left, but they took a piece of Northwest with them. Art teacher Downey and English teacher Jackson admit to keeping paintings and other

artworks that past students have created.

“I do have artwork from Northwest students gracing the walls at Hough. A black and white drawing given to me by Emily Rapp adorns my front wall. I still use written work by Zoe Belvin to demonstrate good transitions, and I still have many photos of former students near my desk,” said Jackson.

Downey, who taught in

Northwest for 15 years, left because she plans to pursue a career in administration and felt that teaching at a typical high school would help propel her in that direction. She hopes to return to Northwest as an assistant principle someday.

“Hopefully Northwest students will remember a thing or two that I tried to teach them…that I care about them very much and they will certainly not be forgotten. I am still available to any who might need me,” Downey said.

Jackson spent two weeks vacationing in Alaska as part of his vacation. After his very exciting vacation he went back to work, as a teacher at Hough.

“My decision to leave [Northwest] had little to do with the administration. Please understand that it wasn’t because I didn’t like the place. Quite the contrary, Northwest still holds a special place in my heart, and it was the lack of support from CMS and the community that caused my frustration there,” said Jackson.

Students miss these teachers, however no one can blame Jackson, Joyce, Whiteside and Downey for leaving Northwest.

Why did they leave?

Krystin Skinner Business Staff

It seems that no matter what is done, projects in life are unavoid-able; however, that doesn’t mean they always have to be boring. Se-niors at NWSA are fighting against the stereotypical project topics and are adding some flavor to a task that is unavoidable if they wish to graduate on time.

“My topic for the senior exit was the history of sweet tea in the South. I titled it: ‘Sweet Tea: The Motor Oil of the Southern Culture Engine’” said senior Kev-in Caldwell. “I never liked to do things the traditional way. I like to

stand out from the crowd.” A fel-low classmate of Caldwells, Wayne Robertson, also chose an interest-ing topic that he titled: The Psy-chology of Conspiracy Theories.

The Graduation Project is Char-lotte Mecklenburg School district requirement where each student chooses an appropriate and com-plex topic, writes a research-based essay, creates product or result, gives an oral presentation in front of a panel of judges, and creates a portfolio. If a student chooses not to complete this project, then they cannot graduate, simple as that.

Project topics are generally one’s that can be thoroughly re-searched and analyzed, and result in a product; for instance, polar bear extinction as the topic, and new global awareness foundations as the result. Of course, a list of topics is provided to each student for them to consider, but that by no means is the limitation.

“I love, love, love the South. To me, Southern culture is fascinating, especially the culinary side of it. And I really love sweet tea… so I thought I’d write ten pages about it,” said Caldwell. Robertson on the other hand took this project as a chance for opportunity, “I plan to study psychology in college, so I figured, why not start now,” said Robertson.

Whatever the reason may be, seniors at Northwest aren’t settling for the standard-issued topics any longer.

Photo by Krystin Skinner

Photo by Allison Webber

Page 5Nov. 5, 2010 SCHOOL NEWS

Kevin Caldwell drinks a the subject of his senior exit project, a refreshing cup of sweet tea.

Tea taken to the extreme

Northwest teachers catch the Hough High fever

Teachers may be gone ,but many are still active at Northwest events. White side cacthes up with old friends at Northwest Fest.

Teya KnappStaff Writer

From shuttle bus stops to wanting new experiences, former Northwest students have left the school for many reasons.

Milan Hinson, a former high school student here at Northwest, had some complaints about her new school.

“This school is so boring it’s nothing compared to Northwest and I really miss all of my friends,” she said.

Many students who have left said they missed their old friends

very much. “I miss everybody so much, I hope all my old friends don’t forget me, said Jenesis Tuck-er, a former Northwest student. It seemed the main reason why peo-ple left were because of the shuttle bus stops, plus Northwest does not offer sports or cheerleading to students.

Brittney Jones said, “It was too hard juggling both my arts and my education, also I really wanted a school with sports.”

Tucker is having some problems adjusting at her new school “The main reason why I left was the bus shuttling. I just couldn’t do it, but

if it wasn’t for that I would still be at Northwest. Here at my new school you can’t really be yourself .I really miss that. At Northwest everyone’s really accepting.” Jones and Tucker are both attending the same high school

“I’m really happy that I’m not alone because it’s really hard start-ing off by yourself and me and Je-nesis have been friends for awhile, so I’m really happy she came here with me.” former students seem to all be doing okay at their new school but all of them have one thing they miss about leaving Northwest.

FormerNorthwest students see the differences in new schoolsSeniors add flavor to senior exit projects

Photo illustration by Chartu Lopez-White

9242 Albemarle Rd

Charlotte, NC, 28227

(704)-567-2333

Big Al’s is a Northwest family owned, operated, and ori-ented business opened in 1996. With a menu that has

something for everyone, a casual atmosphere, and events almost every night of the week, Big Al’s is the perfect spot to bring the family for a pizza and some wings.

Karaoke every Thursday and live music by local bands every

weekend are sure to provide entertainment, and our daily food and drink specials are delicious and easy on the wal-let. Bring the whole family down and make Big Al’s your

new favorite local hangout.

Cars continued from page 1Another thing students can do

to reduce the amount of traffic is to tell their parents to pick them up a few minutes later than usual. This will give students more time after school to see teachers about missing work or anything else that may be needed as well. With

students and faculty members working together, it is certain that they can keep traffic down. “I’ve seen some teachers out here and that’s helping some,” said senior Arielle Fisher.

This issue has clearly affected student’s academic and artistic abilities by reducing the amount of time they have to study.

However with faculty members and students working together they can reduce the time spent waiting to leave the parking lot and increase the time they spend studying. “If I had the time spent here waiting back I would probably do some homework or work on my drawing skills,” said sophomore Sarah Cole.

Allison WebberLayout Editor

Students could not contain their excitement when they heard Northwest was receiving a German exchange student for the 2010-2011 school year.

Fabian Liebig is a senior from Dietzenbach, a small town near Frankfurt, Germany. The American Field Service (AFS) chose him to come to an arts school in America, and he was ecstatic when he heard about it. “It is a very good opportunity for me to be [at] such a great school. At that time I didn’t [know] a lot about NWSA, but what I knew was that NWSA [offers] different subjects like Jazz Band or Theatre,” said Liebig.

While searching for scholarships, he found AFS to be the biggest, worldwide student exchange program.

“I chose this organization because they have a very good network of lots of people all around the world,” said Liebig.

In order to be a candidate for the AFS exchange program, he had to write an essay about himself, his environment and why he wanted to be an exchange student for a year.

“A good friend of my brother’s [went on] an exchange year three years ago. He told me a lot about his experiences he made during this year,” said Liebig.

These experiences inspired him to begin his own exchange year in America considering he started taking English classes in the second grade.

“I wanted to find some things about American culture. I’m very interested in traveling and I love to see interesting landscapes. I think America has lots of them,” said Liebig.

He said that’s what brought him to America. “I was already in eight states during my first month in America,” said Liebig. “I was very excited by how different the school is in America like the school in Germany. Another thing I expected was that I’ll make lots of new experiences for my life this year,” said Liebig.

Germany is very different than America. “Everything is bigger here and further apart,” said Liebig. The schools are spread apart, and you have to drive to most places. “In my city in Germany you can reach nearly everything with the bicycle.

So that’s very good when you don’t have your license,” said Liebig.

Liebig said he’s afraid he’ll miss the differences between Germany and America once he returns home, but he would recommend being an exchange student to anyone. “I’ll

make lots of experiences during this year which I wouldn’t make when I’ll be in Germany. Another thing is that you make lots of new friends all around the world because of the exchange organization,” said Liebig.

Although he misses his family, friend and girlfriend, he has been fully welcomed into the family of junior Kacie Watson, Liebig experiences new things each day as he learns to love America more and more.

Photo by Allison WebberSenior Fabian Liebig and junior Kacie Watson share a special bond while Liebig is in America.

Alice WilderCopy Editor

Junior Kacie Watson is an only child, but this year, her family grew when they decided to host Fabian Liebig, a German exchange student. ìIt was pretty spontaneous, Mom basically asked, ‘Do you want to host an exchange student?’ and I said ‘Sure!’” Then, in August, Fabian arrived at the Watson home.

Liebig came to America through AFS Intercultural Programs, a volunteer non-profit organization that provides ìintercultural learning opportunitiesî for students. The organization also hopes to create peace and tolerance through the understanding of other cultures. Watson has learned many things from Liebig, ìFabi was eager to talk about his home back in Germany, and I know a lot more about German towns and school systems than I did before, not to mention what it’s like to grow up in a different and much, much smaller country- And, of course, he taught me about The Bro Code,î said Watson.

Watson and Liebig immediately clicked, ìWe get along really well, and he’s a lot of fun, it’s really cool to have a sort of younger brother.î

Having an extra teenager in the house has really changed Watsonís routine, ìWe complain about getting up early over breakfast, ride the bus together, fist-bump in hallways,î said Watson.

Liebigís appetite has also changed dinnertime dramatically. Leftovers are ancient history in the Watson house. “My mom cooks more often, because now that there’s three of us, plus one teenage boy who can eat just about anything,î said Watson.

Watson hopes one day to travel to Liebig’s homeland, “For the program that sent Fabi here, AFS, he gets no credit for this school year- he’ll still have to make it up back home. As incredible an experience a year abroad would be, I really couldn’t stand an extra year of high school. After college? Definitely,” said Watson.

Northwest welcomes exchange studentSenior Fabian Liebig from Dietzenbach, Germany joins Northwest’s family as a 2011 exchange student

The Watson family becomes host family to German exchange student

Former Northwest student sent to Germany through exchange program

Kyle CaldwellOnline Editor

Many students have probably heard about the new foreign exchange student from Germany. The same could be said about senior Sam Barbeau who is currently studying abroad in Germany. Who plans to come back for graduation in June. He lives in Erfstadt, which is 20 minutes away from Köln Cologne by train.

Barbeau is with the Council of International Education Exchange Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CIEE-CBYX). The

CIEE accepts applicants from the southeastern states. The CBYX is the parent organization.

Barbeau is completing his senior year in Germany. Barbeau is living with a host family while he is studying abroad. He also goes to the same Gymnasium school as his host brother and sister. Barbeau is studying German and biology as major course of study. Barbeau will also be able to travel on fieldtrips around Europe and Germany.

Barbeau would strongly recommend the CIEE-CBYX program. Barbeau said, “If I could

apply for the program I would. After only two months of being in Germany, I have already considered these the greatest months of my life. There is no greater way to learn a language and a country than to be completely submersed in the culture.” Barbeau did not have to pay anything for the program. The costs were all covered by Congress and the German Bundestag. There are also many other programs that CIEE-CBYX offers, to different countries and for different amounts of time.

Senior Sam Barbeau stays in Germany as American exchange student for a school year

Nov. 5, 2010FEATURESPage 6

Matt Carlson continued from page 1

“Matt is living the rock star dream right now on tour… not sleeping, practicing at the break of dawn and eating pizza twice a day,” said Jill Livick, general manager at the Charlotte School of Rock.

The All-Stars are paying tribute to the historic multi-city, multi-venue rock music concert, Live Aid, first held 25 years ago. They will be playing songs from some of the biggest music stars in history, including The Who, Queen, Bob Dylan and more, with every ticket benefiting Music for Relief ’s efforts to bring earthquake relief to Haiti.

Don’t forget to buy your yearbook!Visit Mr. George’s room for your order form!

$65

Samantha SabinEditor-in-Chief

They rehearsed for hours upon end. They carefully chose their audition songs and mastered them. Their minds were clear, and their eyes were set on the prize: a role in their community shows. Now all they needed to do was get casted.

“It was nerve wracking when we got out numbers and had to wait for our turn, and then even more nerve wracking to walk in the room with the director, music director, choreographer, and other people watching. Once it was my turn to sing, I felt more relaxed though,” said junior Lexie Wolfe, a student who auditioned for Children’s Theatre of Charlotte’s production of Disney’s Aladdin.

Juniors Kyra Owen and Lexie Wolfe are just two out of the ten high school students in the Aladdin cast. Although they both enjoy acting in Northwest productions, both Owen and

Wolfe enjoy the challenges community theatre brings them.

“At Northwest the tech week was not nearly as stressful for the cast but for this particular show, it was the worst rehearsal time ever,” said Owen.

In the musical, Children’s Theatre attempted to keep the original story line, but they had to make some modifications for the show. For

instance, the show does not include the Diamond in the Rough part and the tiger, Raja, is not in the show.

“…Some of the parts in the movie were cut from the show as the movie is a cartoon and the show is real,” said Owen.

Juniors Alex Gagne and Ashton Guthrie also are sharing their talent with the community. Both of them are

in Queen City Theatre of Charlotte’s production of Reefer Madness, the musical spoof of the 1936 film. The film itself is about the dangers of the “dreaded Marihuna” (as spelled in the movie), which was used to fuel the anti-marijuana movement which eventually lead to the illegalization of the plant.

“The campaign used inaccurate symptoms like hysterical laughter,

hunger to the point where you wish to eat someone, horrible addiction, rape and murder. This musical was made to mock the ridiculousness of it all,” said Gagne.

Owen, Wolfe and Gagne agree that working in community theatre is a completely different experience. They work at a faster pace, work with people that they hardly know and in the end, it is a lot of hard work.

“I think any kind of performance is a muscle; you need to just keep doing it and through the time you put into it you get better and better,” said Gagne.

In the end, all three students would not trade their experience for the world.

“I really love that we will be able to entertain so many kids and watch them as they get drawn into the story. I used to go to all the Children’s Theatre shows when I was little, so to actually perform in them is very exciting,” said Wolfe.

Page 7FEATURESNov. 5, 2010

Community Theatre brings in huge audiences in CharlotteTheatre students perform in shows outside of school.

Nick Delgadillo

Staff Writer

The war in Iraq has affected the lives of countless citizens over the years. Soldiers have gone overseas to fight, leaving loved ones behind. These loved ones may never see that member of their family again. Thousands of lives have been lost. Families remained hopeful for the war’s end. These families support their loved ones and respect their decision to answer the call of civic duty.

Students here at Northwest School of the Arts have also been affected. However, not all the stories here are so mournful. Senior Chartu Lopez-White said that pretty much all of her cousins are involved in the war. “I mean, my whole family has a military history and have served, so I’m kind of used to it,” said Lopez-White. She’s been able to talk to them a few times as well while they have been gone, through Facebook, among other means. “Two of them have returned home; I think they’re stationed in California

now.” Lopez-White is obviously very proud of her cousins for doing their duty.

She said it’s tough to say whether or not she’s for it or against it. “Nobody’s really for war, you know?” said Lopez-White. She does support what it stands for, like this country’s patriotism. Even students who morally disagree with the war still support their loved ones’ decision and are proud of them.

However, since last month, the U.S. soldiers have officially left Iraq. The last combat brigades have come home well

ahead of President Obama’s August 31 deadline for ending U.S. combat operations there. After seven years and five months of endless fighting, the last of the American troops have headed home. “I feel relieved; I get to see all my family and stuff for Thanksgiving now,” said Lopez-White.

Photo Courtesy of Rosa Lopez

Justina Hauss Staff Writer

From shuttle bussing to paying for AP exams to a loss of teachers, there is no doubt that Northwest is suffereing from the recent budget cuts. It was apparent on the first day of school for the 2010-2011 school year. All over the television, news stories have been informing viewers about the budget situation across Mecklenburg County.

On May 11, 2010, Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools proposed budget was approved for this school year. While thoroughly confusing to read at first glance, the budget seems to be set in levels or tiers. When all approved levels are put into operation, CMS would cut more than 78 million ut of the budget and reduce the work force by more than 1,000 employees.

In total CMS asked the state for $332.9 million last year. The cost would have covered initiatives to improve education and pay for the two new schools that opened this year. In a statement made at the budget approval

meeting, Dr. Peter Gorman, superintendent of CMS said, “While we must cope with the fallout from the financial realities, we also want to keep increasing student achievement. These new initiatives will help us do that.” According to Principal Dr. Barry Bowe, the budget for Northwest has been proposed, but the budget is developed prior to receiving any money. He continued to explain that there should be no significant change to the schools budget and that budgeting and staffing is based on student enrollment. Currently Northwest is in the process of leveling the budget. “We need to thank our teachers and parents for their patience during this economy. They have handled things beautifully,” said Bowe.

Conflict Iraqi Freedom effects senior Chartu Lopez-White

Where does all the money go?The School Board approves the budget for Charlotte Mecklemburg Schools

Larry Lopez serves in Iraq in the U.S Army

Larry Lopez poses for the camera while stationed in Korea.

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Photo Courtesy of Rachel TateThe Aladdin Cast smiles for a gtoup picture during rehearsal.

Helping you plan, apply, and pay for college

At CFNC.org, you can:

or call 866.866.CFNC

Nov. 5, 2010OPINIONPage 8

Sarah BryanStaff Writer

According to the National Association of Independent Schools, it is one of the two most popular websites for students in grades four through 12, with over 500 million users worldwide. Almost everyone who has one can agree that it is addictive, but when the start of school catches students off-guard, maybe it is best to get off Facebook. That’s exactly what I did for the month of September.

The arguments about the value of the site could go on for days. To some it is a convenient way to keep in touch with friends and family, or to promote a business, and to others it starts drama and wastes time. Whichever way you want to look at it, it may have serious negative effects on the lives of students.

Statistics on Facebook show

that active users spend an average of around 55 minutes per day on the site, which adds up to over 700 billion minutes per month, globally. Almost an hour per day does not seem like much during the summer, but when students are lucky to even be home by 5 p.m., managing a social life and studies can be diffi cult.

Just a few days after giving up Facebook I learned through friends

that I had missed two school-related posts. Increasingly, teachers are using it as their primary way to stay in touch with students. Even while trying to do research, students are bombarded with advertisements about the glorious Facebook. It is an extremely useful communication tool, especially with a prehistoric phone, or no phone at all. I miss friends who have left, and even friends who still go to Northwest, but it is not that hard to resist the urge to write a nifty comment about what I am doing at any given moment. The fi rst day of October was the day I completely deleted my Facebook.

What goes on behind the inkChanges that happen with our very newspaper during the new school year

Trying to live an entire month without Facebook

Samantha SabinEditor-in-Chief

In rooms D-127, D-204, and E-134 the magic happens. During fourth block A-days, all 20 or so of us gather in one of those three rooms and work our butts off for this paper. Everybody goes through the torturous editing process and some of the lucky few get to go through the strenuous layout process. Every day, I make about fi ve different trips from the computer lab (D-204) to the

apparel room (E-134) to check up on the staff.

It wasn’t always like this; believe it or not, the staff use to meet in one central location. For the past 13 years, the Intermission staff went through these back-breaking processes in C-103, former Northwest English teacher, David Jackson’s, room. In the past, the Editor-in-Chief worked with Jackson to determine who was on which staff and the deadlines for each individual staff. Both of them determined which ads to put

in the paper and how to spend the money, when there was some. In the past, being Editor-in-Chief was diffi cult, but no other editor has it like I do now.

Social studies teacher and the new Intermission faculty adviser, Tommy Phillips has a different teaching style than Jackson did. Phillips gives me more freedom, more fl exibility and responsibility. If the paper fails, it’s my fault for the most part.

This year, I walked into class expecting a class of fi ve kids—the

layout editor, new photo editor, business manager and online editor. I didn’t expect any more or any less; I didn’t think anybody else would be interested in the class. To my surprise, I walked into a class of more than 20 students who, for the most part, wanted to learn about the journalism world. During the fi rst few weeks, I gave a photo assignment to one of the staff writers who were fi nished with their stories. On his way out the door, he turns to me and says “I’m so excited! I can’t wait to see

my story in the paper,” and he walked out. That writer made my day. He gave me hope that this paper could live on despite all of the overwhelming changes.

� e opinions expressed in Intermission do not necessarily represent those of the school’s faculty or administration, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board or its administration. Intermission is a public forum for student expression.

In compliance with federal law, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools administers all education pro-grams, employment activities and admissions without discrimina-tion against any person on the ba-sis of gender, race, color, religion, national origin, age or disability.

Intermission staff writer Sarah Bryan attempts to go an entire month without visiting the popular social networking site, Facebook

Association of Independent Schools, it is one of the two most

can agree that it is addictive, but

that active users spend an average

Staff WritersTara CalhounNick DelgadilloChris DraytonLincoln Frye Nachelle Fullins-LovellTeya KnappReagan Parker

Editor-in-ChiefSamantha Sabin

Business ManagerRene Vanek

Layout Editor Allison Webber

Photo EditorChartu Lopez-White

Online EditorKyle Caldwell

Copy EditorsJoneka PercentieAlice Wilder

AdvisorTommy Phillips

Layout Staff Saeshan CarterKayla JacksonCameron JohnGabrielle RossNaja Richburg

Business Staff Ian FermyKrystin Skinner

intermission 2010-2011 staff