What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger..............................4

Don’t be some kind of stupid stinky..............................5

West Alumni Spill..........................8-9

Hard Hits...........................14

Boredom Breakers...........................17

Voicelakotawest@yahoo.com(513) 682-4115 Ext. 10129

2Lakota West Voice

News March 20, 2009

Elise MaxfieldNews Editor

The percentage of teens employed in the work force has decreased about 5.5% according to a re-

port filed by the Labor Department in February 2009. Unemployment rates are rising partially due to the adult population returning to the work force and also the closing of numerous small businesses that characteristically hire teen laborers. This de-crease in availability of jobs is affecting many students at Lakota West.

However, the problem does not necessarily have to do with the area, but more the national eco-nomic issues.

“I have observed some businesses which have closed their doors in the township,” West Chester Township Trustee Cath-erine Stoker said. “Usu-ally, it was not because of problems with their West Chester location, but rather with financial problems being experienced by their corporations in their country-wide or even world-wide operations.”

On average, teenagers spend $150 a month, according to the Feburary 27, 2009 issue of Marketing Daily.

“In a month I spend $20, I also don’t pay gas money. I don’t eat at nice restaurants a lot, Wendy’s Dollar Menu is good for me,” junior Nicole Gonthier said.

However, those students that have to pay for gas have an increased spending trend.

“I spend more than $30 per week,” sopho-more Chris Sieber said.

Sieber multiplies this number by about four or five to get his average monthly spending; totaling up to between $120 and $150. This kind of ex-penditure, typical of most teenagers, helps contribute to the annu-al $350 billion in teen spending (www.spring-wise.com). This comes from the teen work force that, according to the market research Harrison Group, is made up of 49% of teens. As indicated by a Voice survey of 357 West students, 45% are looking for a job, while 39% of those surveyed currently have a job.

“I’d say that half the teens I know are looking for jobs,” Sieber said.

This percentage of unemployed teens is very significant in the repre-sentation in the economic downturn.

“It is definitely a high percentage,” Economics teacher Adam Gleim said. “The teen jobless rate hasn’t been this high in about 25 years. However, I can’t say it is surprising, since the overall unemployment rate is at 8.1%, which is higher than it’s been in about 20 years.”

Not only are many teens unem-

ployed, but, those who are employed, several want more hours.

“I’m searching for a job because I need more hours-I can’t live on five hours per week,” Sieber said.

Teens are not only affected by the closures of small businesses, creating a scarcity of employment, but also their parents are becoming more conserva-tive with spending. According to www.theledger.com the average allowance

of teens in 2008 is $100 and upward a month.

“I get allowance. But mostly I get mon-ey from my jobs, so now not having one is hurting me. Also, my allowance was small, so I didn’t rely on it for much,” Gonthier said.

The teens in this new economy need to learn to adapt to the stresses and pressures of their new financial situation.

“There is a direct correlation between a parent losing his/her job and a teen’s finan-cial situation. Because parents provide just about everything for teens- clothing, food,

shelter- teens may have to start getting used to not getting everything they want,” Gleim said.

Many businesses owners are tenta-tive about hiring new employees for fear of further limiting the hours avail-able to their current employees and for

the new wages they will have to factor into their budget.

“Yes, it is much harder [to get a job]. Also they [employers] simply can’t af-ford to give hours, so having new peo-ple won’t do anything,” Gonthier said.

Teenagers have more competition in the hiring process now that some adults are returning to the work force to supplement their current household income.

Students who are actively search-ing for jobs are finding it necessary to apply to several places and complete several interviews, sometimes with no success.

“I’ve applied to roughly 20 places and just three interviews and still no job,” senior Roman Smith said.

In addition, the hours that a teen is available to work are very limited. According to state law, a high school student aged 14-15 can only work a maximum of 18 hours per week dur-ing the school year, while 16-17 year olds have no limitations. Furthermore, considering 14 and 15 year old students do not have early leave, they can

only work three hours a week-night, if they work the maxi-mum number of hours allotted by state law.

Students have a difficult time picking up hours on the week-ends as well since they can only work eight hours per day before a non-school day.

According to a Voice survey of 357 students, 32% of working teens began working around age 15-16.

It is also because of the young age and experience level of the job applicants that makes it dif-ficult to find jobs. The jobs that are coming in, such as at Gen-eral Electric, that are bringing in about 1,400 new jobs, some of which are smaller jobs that teenagers could potentially do.

“These [the new GE posi-tions] are all highly technical jobs, probably not what you [teenagers] are looking for. Of course, you might check to see if they would hire teenag-ers to take care of the grounds (after they’re planted), or to do janitorial services if they aren’t contracting those services out,” Stoker said.

There are also several more prospective job openings in the West Chester area, depending on the desire of the individual to search for the job.

“Employers typically aren’t going to hunt teens down. Teens need to be persistent in their job search,” Gleim said.

There are potential openings at the

new West Chester Library, across from West, which will open up this fall, as well as the new West Chester Medical Center.

As a second option Stoker recom-mends offering to do lawn service or babysitting-type jobs for neighbors and relatives. Stoker doesn’t believe that there will be a large influx of jobs for teens in the area very soon.

Even with the creation of new jobs in the area, the economy has still shown signs of downturn.

“There have been some slow-downs,” Stoker said. “For example, we had hoped that a developer would have extended Civic Centre Boulevard down to Allen Road this year. That probably won’t happen.”

Despite the slowdown, West Ches-ter still has hiring opportunities for qualified adults, though the teenagers in this area are not projected to see a significant influx of jobs in the future.

CiCi’s Pizza closed leaving several local teenagers without jobs

Additional Reporting by Justin Sharp and Jessica Dukes.

Voice graphics by Dylan GeiserVoice photo by Abby Phillips

The newest edition to Liberty Township is a teen hang-out that is both tasteful and “edgy.”

With its grand opening to the public on March 7, Edge Teen Center has a mission to empower students as well as satisfy their need for a place of their own.

Located at 7568 Wyandot Lane, Edge has a mood similar to The Un-derground in Cincinnati, but holds its own with its high-school-student ami-ability. The center’s black walls and orange furniture display a modern at-mosphere. Also, the warehouse style gives it a contemporary factor. A stage is tucked away in the back corner to host up-and-coming bands.

LCD TVs, an internet café and three gaming consoles including an X-box, Wii and PS3 all give Edge its technol-ogy credit. However, what makes Edge unique is its ability to compliment a band’s music and gaming with a place for studying and advancement in one’s high school career. Edge provides qui-et areas to study and do homework as well as conference rooms to meet with study groups.

The idea for Edge came up two years ago, starting with a realization from a board of directors member, Steve Holt.

“When I first moved here, I drove around the area. I saw all these teen-agers standing outside of Rave and all I thought was there had to be a better place for them to be,” Holt said.

The building began in August of 2008 in an empty warehouse between the new Lakota East Freshman Cam-pus and the Lakota East High School campus. Edge opened on February 23, but officially opened to the public on Saturday, March 7 with an event called “Smash.” Over 300 teens attended.

The event had food, live bands, inflat-able games and an area where teens could smash an old car with a sledge hammer. The proceeds from the event went to the local chapter of Students Against Drunk Drivers and they raised over $200.

Even though Wellspring Commu-nity Church funded the center, Edge is not considered a religious club or atmosphere.

“It’s not church affiliated. There are Christian people who work here, but it’s not ‘Hey, if you’re a Christian, you can come in!’ We want all high school-

ers to come in,” manager Rachel Ryan said.

Anyone between 9th and 12th grade are allowed to utilize the center. Al-though Edge is centralized between both East High School campuses, any high school student from any district is welcome.

“Right now we just started with East because we found a space essentially located between the two campuses, so it’s easier for them to walk,” Ryan said. “Now for other high schoolers in the area, like Fenwick, Mason, West, even private schools, are allowed to come whenever they want.”

Edge is described to be all about hang-ing out and being a better citizen, reflected by their mission state-ment: “Empowering students to impact the world.” The center is looking forward to providing classes such as life skills, college prep, SAT and ACT prep, how to write a college application and

personal finance. Edge will also pro-vide tutoring and opportunities to fill community service hours through or-ganizations such as Reach Out Lakota and the Middletown Food Pantry.

“A typical day at the center will start at two o’ clock, which is when we open. We will have two or three adult volun-teers working here,” Ryan said. “They can hang out and order anything from the coffee-smoothie bar. We have two study rooms where teens can have group study. Tutoring and mentoring from counselors will also go on. Teens will be able to just hang out here until we close at six.”

This semester, they will be offering classes in how to write a resume, how to get a job, and how to keep a job.

Edge is a non-profit organization, so price wise, getting into the center is free as long as a student provides a valid high school ID or something, like a report card, to prove attendance in high school. However, there is an admission fee for concerts held at the center. The Edge’s food bar costs about a penny or two, but it provides food for a much lower price than most stores. Fruits and vegetables are $.50; cookies, candy and chips are $.75; soda, coffee, hot chocolate and hot tea are a dollar; hot dogs are $1.25; and smoothies (in-cluding strawberry-banana and orange crème), lattes (vanilla, caramel, Irish crème, and amaretto), nachos and pretzels are two dollars. The facility is also available to rent for events that can range from fundraisers to birthday parties and bar mitzvahs.

Edge is open Monday through Thursday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., Friday from 2 p.m. to midnight, and Saturday from 6 p.m. to midnight. For more in-formation on Edge, visit www.edgete-encenter.com.

3Lakota West Voice

NewsMarch 20, 2009

Danielle SeamonStaff Reporter

West students will fill the Cintas center at Xavier University on April 25 for the senior prom. Prom committee voted “A Night in Hollywood” to be the event’s theme, but the theme of after prom will not be revealed until the week prior to spring break.

Prom lasts from 8pm to 12 am. Stu-dents are required to be at the Cintas center by 9pm and they will not be per-mitted to leave prom until 11:30pm. If any student needs to leave early, ar-rangements should be made prior to prom night with Ms. Adams or any member of administration.

“As always, we worry about the safe-ty of our students. We will be looking in all transportation means and check-ing all bags for illegal contraband,” assistant principal Tim Schaffer said.

“We will also personally greet each and every student as they enter the Cintas center.”

Prom tickets cost $33 until April 2, and after they will cost $40.

“Prom tickets are priced the way they are because it costs around $8,000 to $9,000 to rent out the center for the night.” Adams said. “We also have to pay for the DJ, the decorator and the decorations.”

During Firebird link, students will choose what the music selection will consist of for the night. According to Ms. Adams, music should be tasteful and if a clean version of the songs that are chosen cannot be found, the song will not be played.

Red carpet prom 2009

-Sam Treglia

The Junior Classical League (JCL) traveled to Columbus February 27 to March 1 for the State Convention.

West captured three state officer positions, including juniors Arpan Pa-tel as President, Austin McCarthy as Secretary and Taryn Willett as Parlia-mentarian.

“Running for state office at OJCL is a lot like a Latin themed political campaign,” Patel said. “You have to give speeches, answer questions, talk to people and shake many hands. Run-ning for state office also allows you to meet new people from schools all across the state.”

West won numerous awards in all the contest categories: academic, cre-ative arts and graphic arts. Individual and Club awards are presented in Gen-

eral Assembly for each of the contests and their subdivisions.

“Besides taking tests, you can par-ticipate in various challenges and con-tests that test different skills,” Patel said.

West earned second place in the skit competition, superior ratings on banner and audio/visual project and the award for best club t-shirt. Willett won tenth place Overall, third place in Graphic Arts, Best of Show in Cos-tume, and Best of Show in 3D Arts. Sophomore Mitra Jouhari placed third overall in Creative Arts.

JCL members also participated in a number of social events over the course of the convention, such as the Roman banquet and spirit contests.

-Katie Johantages

West new JCL officersVo

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The Edge teen center has a snack bar and computer stations

4Lakota West Voice

News March 20, 2009

Many students have considered the benefits and drawbacks of advanced placement (AP)

courses. West currently offers 18 dif-ferent AP courses, including classes in the subjects of Foreign Language, Mathematics, English, Art, Science, Computers and Social Studies.

“I believe West provides a good variety [of AP classes], and it’s a great privilege to have,” senior Travis Le said.

Students often must test into an AP class, as well as attend a meeting during the school year. Depending on the class size, a certain class may be offered only during a particular period.

“The first is requirement is a 4th quarter after school meeting for all prospective students, followed by sum-mer reading and a quiz on the first day of school,”AP Psychology teacher Pa-tricia Latessa said. “But the ultimate decision to enter and maintain one’s status is left up to the student them-selves. There must be a knowledge of and commitment to the program on the part of student.”

The exclusiveness of AP classes cre-ates a competitive atmosphere that is fueled by the motivation for class rank improvement between our school’s elite academics.

“Competition in the realm of class-es is a huge factor,” junior Alex Hart said. “You have to compete to beat the curve.”

The classes are coveted by students for many reasons. AP classes, in La-kota, are weighted on a 5.0 scale. This means that if a student earns a B in the class, it counts as a 4.0 for GPA

purposes. This incentive drives many students to fill their class schedules full of AP courses. However, students sometimes overload on AP classes and become overwhelmed.

“Many students take too many AP classes, which di-

minishes the quality of work in each individual

class,” Social Studies Department Chair Steve Black said.

In addition to aid-ing student’s GPA,

students take a test in May that can

actually earn them college

credit. Col-lege Board, a “not-for-prof-it” member-ship associa-

tion that attempts to connect students to colleges, coordinates the testing, which cost $86 per test. While this can become costly for those who load up their classes with AP classes, in the long run, it will actually save stu-dents money. If a student scores high enough on the test, a college will often give them credit hours, saving thou-

sands of dollars in college tuition.According to an AP seminar by Ju-

lianna Kottke, amongst the majority of colleges and universities accepting AP score reports, almost 80% will grant credit or placement for a minimum score of 3 on at least one of the various AP Exams.

The benefits that AP classes and tests provide students are numerous. Aside from earning college credit, stu-dents become better acquainted with subjects that they can study in college. AP classes also enhance skills needed for college.

“[I think the benefits of AP classes include] development of critical think-ing skills, writing/speaking skills and a deeper understanding of content ma-terial,” Black said.

The benefits don’t stop at just learn-ing new skills. The students in the classes are typically involved in extra-curricular activities and give back to the community.

“Perhaps what [most people] do not know is how much fun it is to work with the kindest, wisest and most gen-uinely interested students at LWHS,” Latessa said.

AP classes provide experience, college creditAustin McCarthyCopy Editor

Voice illustration by Elise Maxfield

Prom is being held in the Cintas Cen-

ter at Xavier, which is a gym. Not only is it a gym, but one that is half an hour away and requires girls in high heels to walk down near-ly 5,000 stairs.

The location is less than ideal. Driving down to Xavier for a dance

in another gymnasium is unnecessary and pos-

sibly dangerous. Add-ing over 1,200 kids

to highway traffic, wasting their gas

and risking an accident to

simply go to a gym is

irrespon-sible. I

d o n ’ t

think Prom should be held in a gym, but that is a completely different ar-gument. The idea here is that if Prom is going to be in one anyway, why pay so much for it? The Prom committee is currently spending from $8,000 to $9,000 just to rent the venue.

All arenas are the same; they all have hardwood floors and the same amount of space of a standard basket-ball court.

The Lakota West gym is obviously unavailable, as After-Prom is held here and it requires an extensive setup. But, if it’s a gym we’re looking for, we should keep it in the district. East and West both use the same venue and both waste the money for Xavier when we could easily just exchange facili-ties. East is closer and the money prom committee would save using their gym could be used towards other things, like helping students save on those ex-pensive tickets.

The commute would also be shorter and almost everyone knows how to get there, causing less people to get lost on the way, like my date did last year. Sending highschool kids to the unknown downtown area is just asking for trouble.

Hosting Prom at East would give students more time to go home and change before heading over to After-Prom. They might even have time to catch a quick nap in between dancing and staying up all night with the rest of West.

The only way to enter the Cintas Center is through doors at the top of stadium seating and to attempt a de-scent of the steep and narrow stairs. Girls with dates can hope that their man will catch them if they slip, but those that go to prom dateless or with an unattentive guy might just take a nasty tumble. Given, both East and West require dancers to venture down a flight of stairs, but the high school’s stairs are considerably more wide, less steep and shorter.

One argument may be that having Prom at East would be just like home-coming, in a High School gym, but that’s irrelevant. Whether Prom is at Xavier or at East, there is still the ab-sence of sophomores to separate the two events from one another. Besides, they are both dances, how different can they possibly be? Either way, it’s in a gym, we have a DJ, everyone is dressed up, and we’re all dancing and hopefully having a good time.

There are a lot of expectations for prom, and the mere fact that it’s in a gym lets a lot of people down, but if that is the venue we’re going to have, we might as well be resourceful and logical about it. The location may make a dance different or seemingly more exciting, but no matter which gym it is in, Prom will be as much fun as you choose to make it.

The current state of the bathrooms at West has students crossing their legs for as long as they can possibly bear. One trip inside the bathrooms and you would understand why.

The girls’ bath-rooms are disgust-ingly decorated with hair and broken makeup in the sinks, along with used pa-per towels and piec-

es of toilet paper, which are littered ev-erywhere. Walking in further, you will notice that, without fail, at least two or three of the stalls will be unusable. Reasons for this vary from girls be-ing unable to flush the toilets to other more disturbing sights that only girls get the pleasure of seeing.

The boy’s bathrooms are much the same. The toilet paper on the floors

and unflushed toilets are evidence that students simply just don’t pick up after themselves. There frequently is water on the floor, and sometimes it is

even sticky. It is so nasty that no one wants to put their books on it. To top it all off, there are various ob-scene comments written on the walls of the boy’s restrooms. They range from bashing the school, to words and phrases that are simply un-mentionable.

It is the job of the janitors at our school to clean the bath-rooms. However, no person can expect them to be on per-manent bathroom duty constantly cleaning up after every mess. Not to mention, they shouldn’t have to deal with the unnecessary messes that students make; that isn’t their job. There are plenty of other more preva-

lent issues in the school that keep them busy. This leaves the responsibility of keeping the bathrooms clean and us-able to the students.

Being unable or unwilling to use the bathrooms for a seven hour school day is both pathetic and inconvenient. Therefore, when you go to the rest-

room, it wouldn’t kill you to flush the toilet when you’re done. If you use a paper towel, throw it away. And, lastly, try not to destroy the nice facilities our tax dollars pay for with obscene notes carved into the stalls. We have been taught from a young age to pick up after ourselves at home. So, for

the sake of ev-eryone, let’s not forget this

as soon as we walk through the doors at West.

5Lakota West Voice

OpinionsMarch 20, 2009

Prom: more expensive, less idealVoice Illustration by Christy DeGrace

Voice Illustration by Christy DeGrace

6Lakota West Voice

Opinions March 20, 2009

Global warming real, beneficial to EarthWho de-

c i d e d g l o b a l

warming would begin the apoca-lypse? Media and even scientists such as climatolo-gist Dr. Stephen Schneider, have used scare tac-tics to convince the world global warming will be the cause of major

damage to the earth and its inhabit-ants. Global warming is happening, but it will be a benefit to the environ-ment and human health. There are three main concerns with global warming: unhealthy ecosystems, dis-ease outbreak and natural disasters, all of which can be disproved.

The earth has gone through major global warming in the past, with tem-peratures rising up to 7 degrees Fahr-enheit. In this time, the world saw the environment prosper. The warming helped with the Middle East’s agricul-tural revolution and brought Europe of the dark ages. Why would our eco-

system be unhealthy now? With the in-crease in carbon dioxide emissions, the forests will become healthier and will be able to support more wildlife. Even Canadian forestry researchers esti-mate global warming will increase for-est growth by 20 percent. The ecosys-tem in the arctic tundra would not be harmed. In the summer, there would be more snow-free days, but more photosynthesis and peat decomposi-tion. This will benefit the food chain and the environment overall.

The biggest disease concern is of malaria. Malaria will not outbreak be-cause most of the earth’s heating will happen in the polar regions. Rather than all of the earth increasing in temperature, the difference in tem-peratures from the polar regions to the equator will become more stable. So when the poles become warmer, the equator will remain at about the same temperature. The population of the mosquitos will not increase and there-fore the mosquitos carrying malaria will not spread further than what they are currently.

The main fear in terms of natural disasters, is flooding. When the tem-peratures on the earth increase, the

ocean level will actually drop by about one foot. For ice and snow to form, there needs to be moisture in the air. Usually the air in the polar regions is too dry for ice to form and with a global warming, the moisture in the air will be there and this will allow the ice to form, rather than melt the ice causing flooding. Look into the past, there was never reports of major flooding during major warming periods.

If history is to repeat itself, the earth will see no major droughts, fewer storms, a lower death rate and a prosperous ecosystem and crop growth. The world should be excited that the earth is heating up. The leading scientist used by global warming au-thors is Dr. Stephen Sch-neider, and Schneider even admits that he will misrepresent facts in or-der to stimulate the pub-lic over the “correct” cause. Schneider has actually pre-dicted global cooling anyway.

It is proven that the global tem-perature heats and cools in cycles. The earth is currently in a heating phase

and rather than throwing money at the situation trying to “cure” it, we should be welcoming it and let nature take its course. The warming has far more ben-efits than detriments. The earth has been through an ice age and came out without the help of man, the earth has heated well above what we are current-ly at and flourished and the earth will now continue on its cycle and human-ity should do its best to reap the ben-

efits that are to come from the pos-

sible global warming.

Use original ideas regarding church, stateOne of

t h e m o s t

debated and controversial subjects hang-ing over the political world is separa-tion between church and state. The

continued presence of religious beliefs interfering with judgment calls has all but halted America’s progress in sec-ular fields, such as medicine, on top of shattering the very foun-dations of the America our founding fathers dreamt it would be: a secular govern-ment free from the corrup-tion that, historically, religion creates when it is given the power to mix with politics.

I’m not against religion and this is not a jab at any specific one. I am just a firm believer in the freedom to choose your own opinions and beliefs. This is why when people are blatantly being denied ma-jor rights with no evidence as to how

the denial is necessary or just, the fact that politicians honestly claim to have a purely political reason for denying these rights baffles me to no end.

Former President and signer of the Declaration of independence, Alexan-der Hamilton, after the appointment of a Congressional Chaplain to pray over House meetings, said: “Besides the danger of a direct mixture of religion and civil government, there is an evil which ought to be guarded against.”

Thomas Paine, writer and one of the most important figures in bringing about the American Revolution, was another figure who spoke out against

religion in politics. He wrote about and firmly believed that the involvement of religion in politics would lead to corrup-

tion as it always had in the past and was support-

ed by President and author of the Declaration of Indepen-dence, Thomas Jefferson, who said in a let-ter to a friend,

“History, I be-lieve, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government.”

The founding fathers could foresee

how America would look should re-ligion take hold of government: that citizens, who are born free but become enslaved by their society, would lose their natural rights and fall under the thumb of oppression. So, in order to safeguard against this, they even add-ed it to the first line of the Bill of Rights. The First Amend-ment begins by say-ing this: “Congress shall make no law respecting an estab-lishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise there-of.”

How then can the politi-cians arguing against issues like abor-tion or gay marriage honestly and just-ly say that they are sins against God? This argument should not be accepted in a secular court. They claim that the American government was built on Christian values, another false state-ment seeing as how the Founding Fa-thers were mostly Deists who believed that while there was a higher power that created the world to run itself and was not involved in the course of hu-manity.

It’s true that there are references to a God in the Declaration of Inde-

pendence. These references, “Nature’s God” and “Supreme Judge” among others would have been recognized as Deist in revolutionary times because Christian references began with phras-es like “Our Lord and Saviour.”

While they were not Christians them-selves, the Found-ing Fathers encour-aged the right for citizens to have the freedom of religion.

They wanted to pro-mote what Alexan-

der Hamilton called a “perfect equality” which

showed fair judgment to all citizens despite their race, social

background, personal or religious beliefs.

The influence of religious beliefs in government has fueled discrimination against supporters of gay marriage, abortion, stem cell research, what is allowed to be taught in school, and the right to acknowledge either all re-ligions or no religion in multiple as-pects of American society. If America was able to argue these issues based on facts and not morals, we may be able to move past them and work towards ending the discrimination that should not be, but is still present in our soci-ety.

Voice Illustrations by Christy DeGrace

Voice Illustration by Christy DeGrace

Abby FordSurvey/Dist. Editor

For most of us, leaving our West Chester bubble may seem in-timidating. This is not the case

for three foreign exchange students who left their home countries and now walk the crowded halls of Lakota West High School every day; braving not only a new country but a new way of life.

Fyona Abdelrazek-FaoderDowntown Paris may be a tourist

stop for most, but for sixteen-year-old Fyona Abdelrazaek-Faoder, the city of lights and love is just home.

Faoder has found a home away from home here in West Chester thanks to the Rotary Club and two host families. Both of her host families also have stu-dents who attend West and who have been exchange students in the past.

“Having Fyona as my sister for a couple months was a great experi-ence,” senior Marissa Dunyak said. “I was happy to show her around after being taught so much by my host siblings during my exchange.”

In the fall, Faoder was in-volved in the crew for the theater’s performance of Shakespeare’s As You Like It.

This was a great experience for Faoder, who does not have any hobbies in her school in France.

“I love my classes at West because I chose them compared to my country where they are im-posed,” Faoder said. “Also, in France it [school] is much harder.”

One thing that surprised Faoder about the American and way of life is the friendliness of people.

“In the U.S. people are really nice, a lot more than in my home country,” Faoder said.

Homesickness has not been an is-sue for Faoder, and she speaks fondly of her experience thus far in America.

“Coming to the U.S. is the greatest experience of my life. I have moved 11 times in my life and lived between two countries,” Faoder said. “But the U.S. is maybe the greatest place I’ve been.”

Danu Vijeyatharsiny Sun-tharasigamany

Danu Vijeyatharsiny Sunthara-sigamany was born in Sri Lanka, lived

in Norway since the age of four, and now at the age of 17 is a student here at West for the year.

This year, Suntharasigamany has been involved in many activities at West including theater crew, French club, tap dance and was a member of the winning ‘Powder-puff’ football team.

“Teens in my country [Norway] do pretty much the same stuff,” Suntharasigamany said. “Except we go out more to town.”

Suntharasigamany’s favorite classes are art and study hall. She notes many differences between school in Ohio and Norwegian schools.

“I definitely have more freedom in Norway,” Suntharasigamany said. “You only have one classroom and the teachers move around.”

Although Suntharasigamany knew quite a bit about American cul-ture before coming to Ohio, she has been surprised by a few things like sweet potatoes with marshmallows and some mix-ups with the English

language.“When I or-

dered pizza for the first time in Amer-ica, I was going to say can I have a large stuffed crust pizza but I ended up saying can I have a large stuffed ‘crotch’ pizza,” Suntharasigamany said.

She does; how-ever, have some criticisms about the U.S.

“My least fa-vorite thing is that there is no public transportation,” Suntharasigamany

said. “You have to have a car to get around.”

Suntharasigamany encourages Americans to learn more about other cultures and to possibly become ex-change students in the future.

Julia GreveIn north-central Germany there is

a town named Goslar, where fifteen-year-old Julia Greve was born. She lived there her entire life until she came to West Chester this year.

In Germany, Greve describes teen-age activity as being basically the same as that in America such as shopping, club sports and music. An exception to this is the type of sports played in the two countries.

“We don’t have school sport teams in Germany and we don’t have foreign language clubs either,” Greve said.

To fully experience the chance to play a club sport, Greve has taken up Lacrosse.

“I never heard about Lacrosse when I came here and now I’m playing it,”

Greve said.Besides sports, Greve notes other

differences in German and American life.

“We can’t choose our classes in Germany,” Greve said. “School here is easier. In Germany we don’t have multiple choice, fill in the blank or

matching. Our tests are mainly writ-ten and you have to study a lot to get good grades.”

Greve has had a positive experi-ence in the United States with a ma-

jor highlight being when she dreamed in English for the first time. She misses fresh German bread but really feels at home with her host family.

“I usually do not get home-sick,” Greve said. “I don’t have a reason to. My host family became my second family.”

Greve does find some things about the U.S. to be incredibly strange, notably rootbeer.

“I can’t believe you can eat peanut butter and jelly together,” Greve said. “That’s strange to me”

Just as America is char-acterized by some false stereotypes, Greve describes that many of the typi-cal German stereotypes are untrue.

“Not every German goes to ‘Ok-toberfest’,” Greve said. “Sorry guys, that’s Bavarian.”

7Lakota West Voice

FeaturesMarch 20, 2009

Alex MancabelliPhoto Editor

Exchange students begin new lifestyles

Danu loves art and her teacher, Mrs. Kessler

Voice photos by Alex Mancabelli

Fyona and Julia hang out between classes

8Lakota West Voice

Features March 20, 2009

Erica ZaccagniniFeatures Editor

Christine BrewerFeatures Editor

In 45 minutes, you could play about 15 songs on Guitar Hero, knock out a few chapters from your Twilight

book or sit through your seemingly endless fourth bell class. What became apparent to students on Friday, Feb-ruary 28 was that in 45 minutes, you could also save three lives.

Even with the incredible amount of lives that could be saved through blood banks and do-nations, only about five per-cent of eligible people donate blood in their lifetime. Most people are afraid of the pain they an-ticipate, the dizziness, or they don’t feel they have the time. Kathy Krajewski, in Community Relations at the West Chester Community Blood Center, wants to prove to members of our com-munity that giving blood is in a sense giving life, and that is the greatest gift of all.

“[In a rare incident] A few weeks ago, one man used up 100 units [100 donors] of blood in order to save his life from an accident,” Krajewski said.

In West Chester alone, the Blood Center must collect a minimum of 350 units of blood per day just to keep up with the demand for the hospitals in Butler County. Blood is in high de-mand, and West recently helped with almost half of their daily target num-ber. In eight hours, 148 units of blood were collected. That’s 444 lives, folks.

West’s student government orga-nized the blood drive, and it is some-thing they do every year. This year, senior Danny Caskey was in charge of the blood drive, but was unable to give blood himself because he lived in Eng-land when he was younger. The plan-ning took over a month, but the week before is when everything got really hectic.

“I felt responsible [when it was all over],” Caskey said. “It was overwhelm-ing sometimes but a lot of people were helped.”

Because there is no substitute for human blood, donation is very crucial to blood banks and hospitals.

“The one thing that everyone should know is that one single unit really does

save three lives,” Krajweski said.Students really seemed to get the

message, thinking that one little pinch to them is a small sacrifice for all of the lives they will be saving. The students signed up in the cafeteria and reported to the auxiliary gym the following week. They filled out forms and waited their turn. They went through a screening

process where nurses asked q u e s t i o n s and decided whether they were able to donate, or they were deferred. Krajewski still e n c o u r a g e s students to try again, even if they were de-ferred. Some reasons people are deferred

could just be specifically for that day.“ K e e p

doing it,” K r a j e w s k i said. “Even if you’re de-ferred, try again.”

If they were not d e f e r r e d , the waiting began once again. A row of chairs were placed outside of the rows of cots where people were do-nating. Once a cot opened up, nurses would call a name and that person was up next. Waiting took about 5-10 min-utes.

Junior Kelsey Allinger waited in line to begin the process, and had a few thoughts about her donation. She knew her nervousness would be a mi-nor sacrifice for helping to save three lives.

“I’m kind of nervous, but I’m happy I’m doing it,” Allinger said. “I feel it’s important to give back to the commu-nity.”

Students were then given a cot. Af-ter that, students waited for the final time; waiting for the pint of blood to be full.

Junior Allison Arrico made a few suggestions to help pass the time while giving blood.

“I suggest bringing something to do, like an Ipod, cell phone or a book to read,” Arrico said.

After the stu-dents finished do-nating, they were in-structed to eat a few snacks to get their blood-sugars back to normal. Brown-ies, cupcakes, chips, pretzels and all sorts of other treats were offered. It is impor-tant to eat following donation to regain strength while your body works to make new blood cells. The students laughed and hung out at the tables after donat-ing.

“I’m feeling pret-ty good, but obviously some people aren’t,” senior Matt Jordan said.

One of those that didn’t seem to be feeling so well was senior Stephen Burke. Burke passed out after giv-ing blood, but it didn’t seem to bother him at all.

“This is life, things hap-pen,” Burke

said.The nurses surrounded Burke; they

put cold cloths on his head and provid-ed him with food and drinks to re-plenish his body.

“My head is killing me,” Burke said. “But other than that I’m in heaven.”

H o w e v e r , whether they were feeling well or not so hot, all the stu-dents were happy that they donated.

“It was my first time and it won’t be my last,” sophomore Kelsey Sander said.

Stickers were available for the stu-dents saying “I did it for a cookie” but

the common reason for donating was the lives that it saved.

“I decided to do it because I thought it was great that you got to save three lives and it is good for the communi-ty,” Sander said.

S o p h o m o r e Adam Wondrely understood that people needed blood, and he was very satisfied after he donated.

“If I was in the hospital [and need-ed blood], I would want [people to do-nate],” Wondrely said. “My parents were very proud of me. Not a lot of sixteen-year-olds

want to do that.”Everyone was fully satisfied with

how the blood drive turned out. With so much passion for helping people, many lives were saved.

“Today went very smoothly,” Kra-jewski said.

Krajewski thanked Caskey and the rest of West for their participation. It was a long, hardworking day, but it was more than worth the effort.

“This is the ultimate community service,” Krajewski said. “It has an im-mediate impact on so many people’s lives.”

The students started leaving the gym, going on to finish their days.

“I feel really good,” Arrico said. “I’m very glad I did it. I’m going to do it again next year.”

Voice photos by Erica Zaccagnini andChristine BrewerVoice graphic headline by Dylan Geiser

Junior Alex Savage while donating bloodAssistant principal Elgin Card donates blood

Nurses supervise students as they donate

Students show off their green arm bands afterwards

Additional reporting by Sam Treglia

9Lakota West Voice

FeaturesMarch 20, 2009

Updos for all lengthsSam TregliaEditor-in-Chief

Erica ZaccagniniFeatures Editor

Abby PhillipsSports Editor

Short Hair

With long hair you have possibilities than with short or medium length hair. Because prom involves so much dancing and moving around, updos are a good idea to help you stay more comfortable and cool. My hair stylist at Paul Mitchell Beauty Academy immediately had many ideas. She decided on this intri-cate updo, and the style was very secure and I wouldn’t have had to worry about it falling out during the dance.

Long Hair

I went into Paul Mitchell Beauty Academy wondering what they could possibly do with my hair since it’s so short. After some creative brainstorming with three students from the school they began to try different styles. After some hairspray and many bobby pins, my hair was spiked everywhere. The hairspray held through the night and my hair looked the same when I got home hours later. The style I ended up with was pretty funky and I recommend it for people with an attitude who are quite confident with their crazy style.

An event like prom requires tons of preparation. If your budget is tight and you can’t afford to pay an arm and a leg to have your hair done, the Paul Mitchell Beauty Academy can help you out. Updos and hairstyles start

at $20 and hair services such as a coloring or highlighting are $25, and an ad-ditional $8 for each bowl of color used. Whether you have long, short or colored hair, all future professionals are adequately trained and supervised by manag-ing teachers. Appointments are recommended but walk ins are welcome.

Medium Hair

Makeup tips for PromSam TregliaEditor-in-Chief

Applying makeup can be a tricky; task on an ordinary day, prom is another story. If

you feel like having yourself pampered and your makeup fiasco taken care of, leave it up to Andrea Jagello Patter-son, an Aveda makeup consultant at Ambience Salon Spa. If you don’t have the time or the money to receive the ultimate makeover, Patterson has pro-vided easy tips to get those glamorous looks that everyone strives for.

Smoky eyesYou will need three colors in order

to create the smoky effect, and the col-ors do not have to be black.

“Gold, copper and browns can be used,” Patterson said. “Try to picture a sunset when brushing on your shadow and make sure the colors get darker as it gets closer to your eye.”

From the eye lashes, the color should gradually get lighter as you lay-er your colors.

Natural For a natural look, use a tinted

moisturizer or a light foundation to create a smooth, flawless appearance.

Crème based eye shadows and blush-es blend together for a softer, natural glow. Light mascara and a nude blush will top off the look while defining both the eyes and the cheeks.

“Remember to always use pow-der after using crème based products because when it is humid or hot, the makeup will slide off,” Patterson said.

Eye Shadow and BlushDo not match eye shadow with the

color of your dress; sometimes having the same color is too much. Also, make sure to use a very light color in the tear ducts of your eyes and under the arch-es of your eyebrows to make your eyes stand out. Using a lot of blush creates strong cheek lines which are dramatic but slowly coming back into style. Us-ing nude colored lip gloss with dramat-ic eyes and a strong blush balance out your appearance as a whole.

Tidbit from AndreaAlways carry powder and lip gloss

in your purse for quick touch ups while you are at prom. The powder will keep your makeup in place and the lip gloss adds a little extra something to your look.

One of the most popular hairstyles for the 2008-2009 school year is the symmetrical angled cut. Whether your hair is a really short bob or it is grown out to your shoulders like mine, a curled and teased hairstyle works out well. I highly suggest staying away from up do’s such as ponytails and tight spi-ral curls. The half up, half down hairstyle allows the hair to still look full while allowing creativity. This is an easy hair style that can be done at home with the right amount of teasing and a strong hairspray.

Voice photos by Erica Zaccagnini and Abby Phillips

UT

W est alumni are making their freshman transi-tion into college very well. They believe that college is much more serious and difficult than

high school, and they have great tips about college life for graduating seniors. For those seniors who think college is just about partying, take these tips seriously, or risk failing miserably in the college environment.

Jeffrey GuynesJeffrey Guynes, a freshman at Ohio University is

majoring in aviation and aspires to be an airline pi-lot once he is done with college. Guynes has a few classes some days, and only one other days.

“Most of those classes are two hours long, as opposed to one hour classes in high school,” Guynes said.

According to Guynes, college is much more difficult than high school.

“Be prepared for a lot of lecturing and taking your own notes. Also you have to do a lot of your own study-ing out of the text-books as well,” Guynes said.

Class sizes at Ohio University range from just 15 people all the way to 400 people.

“I am glad we had larger class sizes in high school because it helped me feel comfortable in the large classes in college,” Guynes said.

Staying motivated during studies is one of the main obstacles in college. Living unsupervised by par-ents makes it easy to slack off, which may be fine in the short haul, but it will eventually be harmful.

“It is easy with no parents and not much as-signed work to take it easy and not study as much as you should,” Guynes said. “But in order to keep your grades up, you need to study.”

Skipping class, even in college, is not a smart thing to do. If a student misses class, they could potentially miss necessary tips and answers that will help them do well on exams and tests.

“To keep up with your studies, you need to con-sistently do your work,” Guynes said. “Not just a couple days before the tests, because there is so much information given for each test.”

So far, Jeffrey Guynes is having a good experi-ence his freshman year in college: he is prepar-ing for his tests and doing his homework.

“The biggest advice I can give is to be prepared to study more than you did in high school,” Guynes said. “You have so much more free time in college and it’s easy to relax and not study as much as you need to, but if you start getting behind on your work it is hard to catch up.”

Stacey FrenchUniversity of Cincinnati freshman, Stacey French,

is majoring in special education. French be-lieves that meeting deadlines and doing homework are two keys to being successful in college.

“Of course it is always a good thing to meet deadlines,” French said.

Doing unassigned work and doing work at a faster pace than her classes also keeps French ahead in her studies.

“My advice is to always work ahead of time. In high school it was possible to put off homework, but do not try to pull that off in college,” French said.

French has three classes on some days, and four classes on others. “Classes are short, but the work that is assigned is time consuming and tedious,” French said.

Doing work always help with exams and tests, even though most of the times it is not required.

“Homework more times than not helps to pre-pare me for upcoming exams. It is good practice because teachers do not require that you do all the homework sometimes, they just give it to you to benefit you and your grade,” French said.

Stacey French is acclimating well in her fresh-man year of college; she is doing her work on time and receiving good grades. Even though it may be a lot of work, it is worth it in the end.

“College is more than just a big party. School takes a lot of time and effort, but in the end it is worth it,” French said.

Stuart Swift

Stuart Swift is a freshman at Brigham Young University in Utah. He believes that the biggest difference in col-lege is that you must rely on yourself for everything.

“In high school you have to go to class and in col-lege you only go to class if you want to, so ev-erything relies on yourself,” Swift said.

Swift believes that starting good habits in high school helps people in their study habits in college.

“Develop good study habits in high school be-cause it’s easier. Once you’re in college and you actually need to study, it’s too late,” Swift said.

Swift has three to four classes a day, depend-ing on the day of the week. He is majoring in bio-chemistry, which requires difficult classes.

“Classes are all different, most lectures are big which makes it hard to ask questions and really learn,” Swift said.

Deadlines are always good to meet and home-work helps on exams because it helps you study.

“Homework helps on exams because there is not a

lot of homework so the little bit that you do get is in-formation that they actually test on,” Swift said.

According to Swift, college is harder than high school, and every high schooler needs to know that.

“Many students can not pay attention or do homework in high school and do well, but col-lege is not the same,” Swift said.

Chris ArozarenaIf you are ever at Clemson University, and look-

ing for freshman Chris Arozarena you might want to try the school library. Arozarena spends be-tween 10 and 15 hours in the library every week.

“College requires a lot more self motivation, you will have things due and teachers won’t remind you. You just have to get them done,” Arozarena said.

Making good decisions and being on your own are also two major keys to being successful in college.

“Do not go too crazy at first; get settled into your new atmosphere, and meet people before you get fresh-man fever and go out every night,” Arozarena said.

Arozarena also believes that one of the goals to suc-ceeding in college is to stay organized, keep lists of when things are due and knowing when it is time to stay in and study. He has two to four classes and a lab during the week and majors in packaging science.

“Classes are very informative, but not very personal,” Arozarena said.

Arozarena also believes that it is a good thing to be on task and keep up on homework.

“There are no teachers I have had to this point that take late work. It is always good to be pre-pared and do things on time,” Arozarena said.

Doing homework at Clemson is not required, but the content in the homework really helps on tests and exams.

“A lot of my classes do not have required homework, but for those that do it, the homework correlates directly with what we are doing on tests,” Arozarena said.

Arozarena also believes that West helped him in his success in college and felt that he was more prepared than most of his peers.

“I was a lot more prepared than a lot of kids I met here at Clemson,” Arozarena said.

With his freshman year almost under his belt, Chris Arozarena keeps trying harder to succeed in his col-lege life. He works hard at his grades, and it shows.

“You are here to get a degree. Don’t forget the reason you are at school and you will have the four or five best years of your life,” Arozarena said.

Jimmy XiJimmy Xi, freshman at Cornell University, is hav-

ing a rigorous first year. Xi is majoring in Indus-trial and Labor Relations, and has an average of three classes a day. He is exceeding the educa-tional aspect as well as meeting new people.

“Meet as many new people as possible, step out of your comfort zone and try new things,” Xi said.

To Xi, one of the most important things about college is getting the work done in a reasonable time. “You don’t have to necessarily set deadlines, but just make sure you keep your workload reasonable,” Xi said.

With Jimmy Xi accepting what college has to bring, he will surely have a good college experience.

“It can either be the best experience of your life or the most stressful. Just make sure you make it the former and not the latter,” Xi said.

Lizzie Van VactorUniversity of Tennessee freshman, Lizzie Van Vactor, is

majoring in Business Administration/ Entrepreneurship. The biggest difference between high school and college to Van Vactor is the freedom. She believes that college is a great self-motivational process. Van Vactor has two to three classes a day during the course of the week.

“I love my classes. I’ve had my share of super hard classes, but also some really easy ones. It all depends on what you take,” Van Vactor said.

Some professors have strict “no make-up” policies, which means they do not care what one’s excuse is for missing work.

“If you get everything done in time, your grades will be higher and you will be less stressed,” Van Vactor said.

At Tennessee, homework is nothing like high school. Most professors never check it. It is just for one’s practice.

“In most classes, they usually only assign the things that are worth big points,” Van Vactor said.

West prepared Van Vactor very well, and she believes that West did a better job in the transition than most other schools.

The biggest transition that Van Vactor wants to let seniors know about is that college is serious. She knows people that spend most of their week not being serious, and she be-lieves that most of those people will not be back next year.

“You either take your future seriously, or don’t bother going,” Van Vactor said.

10March 20, 2009 11Lakota West VoiceCenterspread

Justin SharpBusiness Manager

Voice photos contributed

To keep up with your studies, you

need to consistently do your work, -Jeff Guynes

‘

’

It is always good to be pre-

pared and do things on time,

-Chris Arozarena‘’

Always work ahead of time,-Stacy French

‘,

-Jimmy XiMake sure you keep your

work load reasonable,

‘’

Develop good study

habits in high school,

‘’

-Stuart Swift

If you get everything

done in time, you’re grades

will be higher and you

will be less stressed,

-Liz Van Vactor‘ ’

Voice graphic headline by Dylan Geiser

BYU UC

Cornell

Clemson

OU

UT

W est alumni are making their freshman transi-tion into college very well. They believe that college is much more serious and difficult than

high school, and they have great tips about college life for graduating seniors. For those seniors who think college is just about partying, take these tips seriously, or risk failing miserably in the college environment.

Jeffrey GuynesJeffrey Guynes, a freshman at Ohio University is

majoring in aviation and aspires to be an airline pi-lot once he is done with college. Guynes has a few classes some days, and only one other days.

“Most of those classes are two hours long, as opposed to one hour classes in high school,” Guynes said.

According to Guynes, college is much more difficult than high school.

“Be prepared for a lot of lecturing and taking your own notes. Also you have to do a lot of your own study-ing out of the text-books as well,” Guynes said.

Class sizes at Ohio University range from just 15 people all the way to 400 people.

“I am glad we had larger class sizes in high school because it helped me feel comfortable in the large classes in college,” Guynes said.

Staying motivated during studies is one of the main obstacles in college. Living unsupervised by par-ents makes it easy to slack off, which may be fine in the short haul, but it will eventually be harmful.

“It is easy with no parents and not much as-signed work to take it easy and not study as much as you should,” Guynes said. “But in order to keep your grades up, you need to study.”

Skipping class, even in college, is not a smart thing to do. If a student misses class, they could potentially miss necessary tips and answers that will help them do well on exams and tests.

“To keep up with your studies, you need to con-sistently do your work,” Guynes said. “Not just a couple days before the tests, because there is so much information given for each test.”

So far, Jeffrey Guynes is having a good experi-ence his freshman year in college: he is prepar-ing for his tests and doing his homework.

“The biggest advice I can give is to be prepared to study more than you did in high school,” Guynes said. “You have so much more free time in college and it’s easy to relax and not study as much as you need to, but if you start getting behind on your work it is hard to catch up.”

Stacey FrenchUniversity of Cincinnati freshman, Stacey French,

is majoring in special education. French be-lieves that meeting deadlines and doing homework are two keys to being successful in college.

“Of course it is always a good thing to meet deadlines,” French said.

Doing unassigned work and doing work at a faster pace than her classes also keeps French ahead in her studies.

“My advice is to always work ahead of time. In high school it was possible to put off homework, but do not try to pull that off in college,” French said.

French has three classes on some days, and four classes on others. “Classes are short, but the work that is assigned is time consuming and tedious,” French said.

Doing work always help with exams and tests, even though most of the times it is not required.

“Homework more times than not helps to pre-pare me for upcoming exams. It is good practice because teachers do not require that you do all the homework sometimes, they just give it to you to benefit you and your grade,” French said.

Stacey French is acclimating well in her fresh-man year of college; she is doing her work on time and receiving good grades. Even though it may be a lot of work, it is worth it in the end.

“College is more than just a big party. School takes a lot of time and effort, but in the end it is worth it,” French said.

Stuart Swift

Stuart Swift is a freshman at Brigham Young University in Utah. He believes that the biggest difference in col-lege is that you must rely on yourself for everything.

“In high school you have to go to class and in col-lege you only go to class if you want to, so ev-erything relies on yourself,” Swift said.

Swift believes that starting good habits in high school helps people in their study habits in college.

“Develop good study habits in high school be-cause it’s easier. Once you’re in college and you actually need to study, it’s too late,” Swift said.

Swift has three to four classes a day, depend-ing on the day of the week. He is majoring in bio-chemistry, which requires difficult classes.

“Classes are all different, most lectures are big which makes it hard to ask questions and really learn,” Swift said.

Deadlines are always good to meet and home-work helps on exams because it helps you study.

“Homework helps on exams because there is not a

lot of homework so the little bit that you do get is in-formation that they actually test on,” Swift said.

According to Swift, college is harder than high school, and every high schooler needs to know that.

“Many students can not pay attention or do homework in high school and do well, but col-lege is not the same,” Swift said.

Chris ArozarenaIf you are ever at Clemson University, and look-

ing for freshman Chris Arozarena you might want to try the school library. Arozarena spends be-tween 10 and 15 hours in the library every week.

“College requires a lot more self motivation, you will have things due and teachers won’t remind you. You just have to get them done,” Arozarena said.

Making good decisions and being on your own are also two major keys to being successful in college.

“Do not go too crazy at first; get settled into your new atmosphere, and meet people before you get fresh-man fever and go out every night,” Arozarena said.

Arozarena also believes that one of the goals to suc-ceeding in college is to stay organized, keep lists of when things are due and knowing when it is time to stay in and study. He has two to four classes and a lab during the week and majors in packaging science.

“Classes are very informative, but not very personal,” Arozarena said.

Arozarena also believes that it is a good thing to be on task and keep up on homework.

“There are no teachers I have had to this point that take late work. It is always good to be pre-pared and do things on time,” Arozarena said.

Doing homework at Clemson is not required, but the content in the homework really helps on tests and exams.

“A lot of my classes do not have required homework, but for those that do it, the homework correlates directly with what we are doing on tests,” Arozarena said.

Arozarena also believes that West helped him in his success in college and felt that he was more prepared than most of his peers.

“I was a lot more prepared than a lot of kids I met here at Clemson,” Arozarena said.

With his freshman year almost under his belt, Chris Arozarena keeps trying harder to succeed in his col-lege life. He works hard at his grades, and it shows.

“You are here to get a degree. Don’t forget the reason you are at school and you will have the four or five best years of your life,” Arozarena said.

Jimmy XiJimmy Xi, freshman at Cornell University, is hav-

ing a rigorous first year. Xi is majoring in Indus-trial and Labor Relations, and has an average of three classes a day. He is exceeding the educa-tional aspect as well as meeting new people.

“Meet as many new people as possible, step out of your comfort zone and try new things,” Xi said.

To Xi, one of the most important things about college is getting the work done in a reasonable time. “You don’t have to necessarily set deadlines, but just make sure you keep your workload reasonable,” Xi said.

With Jimmy Xi accepting what college has to bring, he will surely have a good college experience.

“It can either be the best experience of your life or the most stressful. Just make sure you make it the former and not the latter,” Xi said.

Lizzie Van VactorUniversity of Tennessee freshman, Lizzie Van Vactor, is

majoring in Business Administration/ Entrepreneurship. The biggest difference between high school and college to Van Vactor is the freedom. She believes that college is a great self-motivational process. Van Vactor has two to three classes a day during the course of the week.

“I love my classes. I’ve had my share of super hard classes, but also some really easy ones. It all depends on what you take,” Van Vactor said.

Some professors have strict “no make-up” policies, which means they do not care what one’s excuse is for missing work.

“If you get everything done in time, your grades will be higher and you will be less stressed,” Van Vactor said.

At Tennessee, homework is nothing like high school. Most professors never check it. It is just for one’s practice.

“In most classes, they usually only assign the things that are worth big points,” Van Vactor said.

West prepared Van Vactor very well, and she believes that West did a better job in the transition than most other schools.

The biggest transition that Van Vactor wants to let seniors know about is that college is serious. She knows people that spend most of their week not being serious, and she be-lieves that most of those people will not be back next year.

“You either take your future seriously, or don’t bother going,” Van Vactor said.

10March 20, 2009 11Lakota West VoiceCenterspread

Justin SharpBusiness Manager

Voice photos contributed

To keep up with your studies, you

need to consistently do your work, -Jeff Guynes

‘

’

It is always good to be pre-

pared and do things on time,

-Chris Arozarena‘’

Always work ahead of time,-Stacy French

‘,

-Jimmy XiMake sure you keep your

work load reasonable,

‘’

Develop good study

habits in high school,

‘’

-Stuart Swift

If you get everything

done in time, you’re grades

will be higher and you

will be less stressed,

-Liz Van Vactor‘ ’

Voice graphic headline by Dylan Geiser

BYU UC

Cornell

Clemson

OU

With a reputation for success held high over their heads, the 2009 West baseball

team isn’t looking to break tradition this year. This year’s team has high expectation from their head coach Bill Dreisbach.

“We’ve been fortunate enough to have quite a bit of success over the past eleven years and I’m hoping this twelfth year will be one where we en-hance that and build upon that,” West head coach Bill Dreisbach said. “That’s the chal-lenge that we’ve laid at the feet of this year’s group. To step up and meet the expectation that this program has earned.”

This year’s team is also expected to rise and meet set goals. These goals in-clude not only success in their league and state, but also as individual play-ers and as a team to become better at the game of baseball.

“My biggest goal is for them to be ready to play the game everyday. We can’t always control the results but we can control our approach to the game,” Dreisbach said. “I just want them to think that we need to be ready everyday to become a better baseball player, ev-eryday to become a better team, and then every game is an ob-stacle that needs to be cleared before we look ahead.”

There are many things this year’s team will have to do in order to be suc-cessful this season. Players will have to work hard and give one hundred percent to reach the goals they have set for this year.

“Hard work and dedication will get us what we want this season,” West senior and Firebirds’ shortstop and pitcher Bryan Beaver said.

Team chemistry will also play a big part on how successful this season is. In the past, the team chemistry has

been outstanding, which is one of the things Dreisbach credits their success such as the title of State Champions to.

“The team was always of ut-most importance, and I think that’s the key that can trump abil-ity a lot of times,” Dreisbach said.

According to the players, team chemistry isn’t something that the team will have to worry about.

“It’s a special bond. We are like brothers and we’re always looking out for each other,” West junior

and Fire-b i r d s ’ infielder/outfield-er Jacob May said. “It’s like a family.”

A n o t h e r aspect of the program that has contrib-uted to the team’s success is the coach-ing staff. Led by Dreisbach

as head coach, the team’s staff is both talented and expe-rienced.

“We have an outstanding coaching staff,” Beaver said. “They’re the best in the state in my opinion.”

As in past years, players will need to fill the roles of their teammates who have moved on. The 2009 team has lost 11 players from last year’s team, including impact players such as Jimmy Brenneman, Craig Gauden

and Tyler and Justin Vaske among oth-ers. Those who choose to take on the re-sponsibility of these positions will have to fill both the skill and leadership roles that have

been made avail-able.

“We had a great season last year because a lot of people stepped up. This year we’re going to

have to have the same

thing happen because we did lose a significant amount of seniors who had a lot of good experience and leader-ship skills, but I’m confident that we have the kids to do that. We have the guys that’ll be able to fill in and per-form,” Dreisbach said.

In 2007, the team won the state tournament, and greatly built upon an already respectable tradition. But

despite that accom-plishment, play-ers and coach alike don’t see any added pressure being put on the team to per-form well.

“After winning state in 2007 we came back last year and made it back to the semifinals. I feel we’ve already proved ourselves as one of the top programs in the state,” Beaver said. “We understand that every team in Ohio is gunning for a chance to play and beat us, but we just have to go out there and play our game and we’ll be fine.”

Overall, the players view playing for West as an excellent opportunity not only because of the success the program has had, but also because of the coaching and other players.

“It’s an honor,” West senior and Firebird’s center Ricky Finley said.

This year’s team has the potential to have a lot of success. Many of the players who played on the successful teams of the past few years are returning for an-other season with the Firebirds. After tryouts, which begin on March 9, the team will look towards achieving their goals of winning GMC’s and being successful in the state tournament.

“We have just as much talent as our past teams that had suc-

cess. We never look past that. We take one goal at a time, never getting ahead of ourselves,” May said.

Even though the team knows they have a shot at another successful season, old baseball traditions still carry on in the West baseball pro-gram.

“Baseball is a game of supersti-tions and we all believe in jinxes so I can’t say too much. I don’t want to jinx us,” Beaver said.

13Lakota West Voice

SportsMarch 20, 2009

Jaymee HeinkeStaff Reporter

Voice photos by Justin SharpVoice graphic headline by Dylan Geiser

West player runs to first base after hit during try-outs

Team scrimmaging at try-outs

Players practice their batting skills during try-outs

Senior Jon Tenhundfeld stepping up to bat

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Saturday, March 7 was a pres-tigious day for sophomore Ty Davis. Davis became the 72nd

OHSAA state wrestling runner-up in the 130 lbs. division. Miamisburg’s junior Shawn Fayette defeated Davis 9-4. With this final fall, Davis ended his season with a 40-7 record.

Starting the tournament as the sec-ond seed, Davis was placed one seed behind Fayette. In order to get to the final match against Fayette, Davis first had to compete against Stow-Munroe Falls’ senior Ben Welsh and beat him 5-3. Once he made the Final 8, Davis beat Gr. City Central Crossing’s se-nior Austin Sanders 3-2. The Cham-pionship semifinal match ended with Davis beating Elyria’s senior Dalton

McHenry 5-3. Davis was the youngest finalist in

his Division I bracket. As a sopho-more Davis has joined past legends from West such as Zach Flake, Ryan Fields, and Matt McIntire as State runner-ups. Hopefully, he will follow in the tradition that Flake and McIn-tire has set forth from previous years and win the Championship next year.

As the only West qualifier for the tournament, Davis helped to drive the team to tie for 28th in the state. Da-vis was the 25th state qualifier from West and was the tenth finalist quali-fier. Davis still has two more years to perfect his game and bring home the title.

The Lady Firebirds maintain their intimidating reputation as they head into the regional

finals with a record of 23-2.West defeated the Pickerington

North Panthers 77-60 Tuesday night at Otterbein College. The Firebirds took the lead during the first quarter, which they never relinquished.

The game was a physical one, as both teams were put into foul trouble. A notable 23 whistles were blown in the first half alone.

The Firebirds ended the half after possibily the best run of the game, scoring an unanswered 11 points. Tes-sa Elkins hit a three- point shot with 20 seconds left in the half. Brigit Re-der then stole the ball from the Pan-thers and was fouled under the bonus. Reder sunk both at the line, adding two to the Firebirds’ 46-33 lead at the break.

West came out of the locker room fired-up while Pickerington was left to regain lost momentum. The Panthers made a rally and pulled the score back within eight points.

The girls played Dublin Coffman in the Regional Finals on Friday, March 13, and they won 59-47. They played at Otterbein College in Columbus. Se-nior Alexis Rogers scored 25 points followed by senior, Tessa Elkins who scored 9 points and senior, Brigit Re-der who scored five points. The team will play at Ohio State Friday, March 20 in the state-semi finals against Per-rysburg, who is ranked 7 in the state, or Toledo State.

This victory marks West’s third trip in a row to the Division I state semi-fi-nal championship game.

14Lakota West Voice

Sports March 20, 2009

Kyle KearnsEntertainment Editor

Legacy moves ahead

Ashley JeffersStaff Reporter

Alex MancabelliPhoto Editor

Voice photos contributedVoice headline graphic by Dylan Geiser

Voice headline graphic by Dylan Geiser

Lakota West ice hockey finished the season strong with a 23-2-2 record. The Lakota West hockey

team has also gone on to win a region-al championship against their biggest rival, Lakota East.

“Lakota East is our toughest op-ponent. We just have to work on our key match ups. It is a very emotional game,” Coach Paul Carey said.

West handled their emotions well, coming out on top in the Cincinnati High School Hockey League Tourna-ment’s champion-ship game against East in ice with a 3-1 victory in the.

The win against East took the Fire-bird ice hockey team to the Buckeye Cup State Tournament the first weekend of March.

“We came into the state tourna-ment playing our best hockey of the season,” Captain, senior Paul Carey said.

This showed in a first game win of 3-1 against the Lakewood Rangers. With a match up against the state’s number one ranked team, Newark Generals, the Firebirds knew they would have a tough game to

play. “We picked the wrong team to come

out flat against. After the first period ended in a tie, we failed to bring our A game and lost to a very good team 8-2,” captain Carey said.

West Firebirds came back with 9-4 win against the Northeast Storm to play Newark again in the semi finals ending their streak.

“State was an awesome experience not only for me but for the team as a whole. We faced some tough competi-tion and showed that we really wanted to be there and compete,” senior Ryan

Kohl said. With one of

the best seasons to date for ice hockey, hope of being sanctioned is in the sights for the hockey pro-gram.

“We’re push-ing to get it [hock-ey] sanctioned. Dr. Ross [the coach next year] wants hockey to be sanctioned,” Coach Carey said.

West ice hock-ey has never been sanctioned and it

will be a challenge to have it become a sanctioned sport.

“Right now we look at a team that is a GMC sport or a OHSA sport to deter-mine if its sanctioned. Another prob-lem with ice is the expense,” Athletic Director Gerry Weisgerber said.

One reason hockey is not sanctioned is it is too expensive to pay for a hockey team because of the cost of having or renting a rink, supplies and other things. Each West player pays $1,400 to play hockey a season.

The other reason ice hockey is a club sport is because of Title 9, stating there has to be a balanced number of girl and boy sports (West has 11 girls and 11 guys sports).

“Sycamore has hockey as a sanc-tioned sport, and to balance it has field hockey for girls,” Weisgerber said.

Another thing go-ing against the Firebird’s hockey team is the lack of standards sanction sports are held up to. The drug and alcohol policy, eligibilities and other similar polices followed by sanctioned sports aren’t in affect for club sports. Also be-ing a club sport means they can’t have announcements stating when games are to get a crowd at the game.

Many of the players feel as though being sanctioned would help the hock-ey team get students involved.

“I would definitely like ice hockey to be school sanctioned because we would get more practicing in,” sopho-more Nick Okada said. “I feel that we could get more support from students easier instead of what we do now; just

try and get as many people to come as we can.”

Hockey is an un-sanctioned sport in most schools. Moeller, Sycamore,

Talawanda and St. Xavier all have sanctioned hockey teams.

“The reason they’re sanctioned is because they are all boy schools and they’re will-ing to pay,” Coach Carey said.

Although West hockey is not sanctioned they do have some-thing that other teams don’t have.

“We’re the only school in the

league that is strictly Lakota West students. We can only have twenty players on a team and we had to cut six this year,” Coach Carey said.

Most other teams in the Cincinnati High School Hockey League have to get players from other schools within the area to have enough to play.

With a strong season and hopes of becoming sanctioned West hockey has had a good year.

“We all had a lot of fun this season and I’ll never forget the memories of this team,” Captain Carey said.

Team celebrating after goal in game

Junior Austin Barkley takes slap shot

Additional reporting by Abby Phillips

15Lakota West Voice

SportsMarch 20, 2009

Lacrosse teams overcome no varsity letter

Lacrosse is a relatively new West sport that has been around for the past decade or so. Last

year, West allowed lacrosse to be a West “charter” sport. By having la-crosse as a “charter” sport, these ath-letes weren’t able to have access to trainers, locker rooms, weight rooms or even have school recognition; but they wore the West name on their jerseys just as East wore the East name on their jerseys.

“Overall we did pretty well [last year],” se-nior Brendon Kestler said. “We lost some games that we should have won, but other than that it went pretty well.”

Both the JV and Varsity teams beat East last season; bringing home the Lakota champion-ship trophy.

“We did really well,” junior Mathew Williamson said. “We’ve always been really good on defense.”

For this upcoming season, the rumors of making lacrosse a school sanctioned sport have been stronger than ever.

“We [The team] heard that it is go-ing to be [sanctioned] but right now it’s not definite,” senior Ryan Werling said.

Athletic director and assistant principal Gerry Weisgerber, however, clarifies that lacrosse will not be school sanctioned this year.

“It’s a club sport,” Weisgerber said. “The expense of the sport is a major problem. We probably won’t make it [school sanc-tioned] unless it’s OHSAA (Ohio High School Athletic Association) or a GMC (Greater Miami Conference) recog-nized sport.”

However, the team isn’t letting the rumors have an effect on them. The team is training and getting ready to play.

“We’re looking to be good all around this year,” Wil-liamson said. “Every team lost their seniors, so we’re looking for leaders.”

The team lost se-niors last year but are also have quite a bit of experience coming back this season.

“We’re looking for-ward to having some older players (return-ing) to help give us an edge,” Werling said.

This season the team is hoping to have a better run for the state title than last year.

“We want to make it deep in the playoffs,” senior Ryan Wysinski said. “We’re going to win the games we shouldn’t have lost last year.”

To start off the season the team played a scrimmage against St. Xavier from Louisville, Kentucky. The game lasted for five quarters with West los-ing 18-8.

The team’s next game is Saturday, March 21 at St. Xavier for the St. Xavi-er Invitational. Their next home game is Friday, April 17 versus Lakota East with the JV starting at 6:00 and Var-sity starting at 7:30.

West girls’ lacrosse “charter” team was the state runner-up last season during the

State tournament for Division II.“Last season was great. We had a

lot of really great players,” senior Ka-tie Ravenhall said. “We played our own game and it worked out really

well for us.”This season the girls have moved

up to Division I. The team is hoping to have another great season against tougher opponents.

“This season is just re-ally a rebuilding year for us,” senior Emily Canepa said. “Hopefully next year we’ll compete as a better team, but overall I think we’ll be good.”

The team has been con-sidered behind the curve in some aspects of the game because of lacrosse not being a school sport.

“When all the schools around here are school sports it puts us behind,” sophomore Allison Isch said. “But it should still be [a] pretty successful [season].”

Many are left wondering then why the lacrosse players have West on their jerseys if it’s not a school sport.

“It’s a club sport,” Athletic Director

and Assistant Principal Gerry Weis-gerber said. “Where some (of the rumors) are coming from is because of the name on the jersey. They [the team] have our name because in order to participate at state they [the team] needed to be a club sport.”

However, the girls aren’t letting this minor set back really put them behind. The girls are practicing and trying to compensate for the lack of

players.“I think it’s going to be dif-

ferent [this season],” Ravenhall said. “We have the smallest number of girls in a long time. It’s still going to be a good sea-son though.”

Even with the small number of girls the team practices hard and pushes themselves to the limits.

“I expect us to be very com-petitive [this season],” Canepa

said.To open the season the girls played

five scrimmages on their opening weekend. The team played against Mason, Wyoming, Ursula, Colerain,

and An-derson. W e s t w o n all five s c r i m -mages.

T h e t e a m ’ s n e x t g a m e is Sat-

u r d a y , M a r c h

28 at Anderson with the JV starting at 12:00 and Varsity starting at 1:30. Their next home game is Thursday, April 16 versus Centerville with the JV starting at 5:30 and Varsity starting at 7:00.

Ashley JeffersStaff Reporter

Ashley JeffersStaff Reporter

Christine BrewerFeatures Editor

Voice headline graphic by Dylan GeiserVoice photos by Christine Brewer

The boys team scrimmages one another

Girls take turns shooting throughout practice

The team gathers together during water breaks

Voice headline graphic by Dylan Geiser

Senior Bryan Osin-ski will be playing college football

for Seton Hill Univer-sity this coming fall. The Seton Hill Griffins are in the WVIAC (West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference). Osinski plans to major in Pre-Medicine, and is very happy about his

selection. He had been considering other universities as well.

“I also considered Tiffin University and Morehead State,” Osinski said.

Osinski will be leaving for college either in June or September, and will be informed what date soon. He is looking forward to being an indepen-dent college athlete.

“I’m excited about living on my own,” Osinksi said.

Osinski has been recruited to be wide receiver, tight end, strong safety and free safety. He knows that this is

the college for him.“My deciding factor was the col-

lege itself; it’s kind of old but it looks great,” Osinski said. “The coaches seem really nice; it feels like they re-ally want me there.”

Osinski’s parents were very proud of him when he chose Seton Hill. He plans on working very hard and rep-resenting Lakota West well in college sports.

Voice photos by Ashley Jeffers

16Lakota West Voice

Entertainment March 20, 2009

Terrance SmithSophomore Lil’ Wayne

Emily WilliamsESL Teacher Sarah Silverman

Daniel BentonSenior John Lennon

Michael CeraMichael Kay

Junior

Kat McManusSenior Sarah Pailin

Jodi GooginsEnglish Teacher Molly Ringwald

Chris DrummMath Teacher Garth Brooks

Voice photos by Sarah Helsinger and Kyle Kearns

Dale HutzelmanHistory Chris Cooper

Voice headline graphic by Dylan Geiser

1 7Lakota West Voice

EntertainmentMarch 20, 2009

Tonight, March 20, the highly an-ticipated spring musical, “Thor-oughly Modern Millie,” opens.

The cast and crew have been prepar-ing since January of this year. With so many calamity days, rehearsal time has been limited, but the members of the production have persevered and are on track for the show.

“We lost a lot of rehearsals due to the snow, but we have it back on s c h e d u l e , ” senior Bran-den Baribeau said.

The musi-cal is about a girl from K a n s a s named Millie Di l lmount , played by senior Han-nah Schwiet-erman, who leaves her home to travel to New York. She tries to make her way as a stenog-

rapher, a typist of the 1920’s.“I auditioned for Millie because of

the support from my friends. Also, I identified with her character, for she is hardworking and loves to sing and dance,” Schwieterman said.

Set on finding a rich husband, she applies at Sincere Trust, where she crosses paths with the boss, Trevor Graydon III, played by Baribeau.

“[Trevor] is a very interesting boss of Sincere Trust Insurance Company,” Baribeau said. “[He is] very uptight and self centered.”

M i l -lie meets M i s s Dorothy Brown, a rich girl from Cal-i f o r n i a portrayed by senior M e g a n J o h n -ston, at the Hotel Priscilla.

“Millie t e a c h e s

Miss Dorothy how to live without the

finer things in life,” Johnston said. The hotel is run by Mrs. Meers,

played by senior Jackie Hull, a criminal involved in a mysterious scandal. After meeting Jimmy Smith, played by junior Jake Hamilton, and befriending Miss Dorothy Brown, Millie realizes what really mat-ters in life.

“Love tri-angles, kidnap-ping and white slavery arise as the two girls try to make it in New York,” Johnston said.

The setting backdrop is the New York skyline, accented by sparkling dark colors of mauve and purple. The pit is manned by some of the best in-strumentalists at West; they play jazzy tunes representative of the time.

Filled with music and dancing, “Thoroughly Modern Millie” is sure to exceed expectations. With a cast chock-full of talent and the leads spill-

ing over the brim with vocal expertise, the musical will be heralded as a bless-

ing to the ears. The show opens tonight and will

present March 21, 27, and 28 at 8:00pm and March 29 at 2:00pm. Tickets are available in the Main Of-fice and will be on sale until the show closes or sells out. Also, tickets will be sold the night of the show at the box office for $10.00 and $8.00 for senior citizens and children under 12.

West theater spring musical opens tonightAustin McCarthyCopy Editor

Thoroughly Modern Millie cast at after school rehersal

Senior Jackie Hull rehearsing role of Mrs. Meers

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Sarah HelsingerEditor-in-Chief

Erica ZaccagniniFeatures Editor

Discover different entertainment websites

Upon sitting down at the com-puter on a night of boredom, the internet browser is opened

and fingers type away “facebook.com” on impulse. Hours are wasted mind-lessly looking through profiles and the bumper stickers. Facebook is the de-fault website for many, but there are other websites begging for visitors.

At first glance, it seems like an av-erage news website. However, with

This is a website that has humorous pictures that “fail” such as an entrance door with a “do not enter” sign on it. There are also embarrassing videos of people trying something and, well, fail-

Break is a website full of entertain-ing videos. Unlike youtube, there is no searching for any video ever. Videos are posted by members and appear on the site in order from when they were posted. The videos range from pranks and people attempting tricks and not succeeding to incredible accomplish-ments such as a man barely escaping a lion attack.

Snopes takes urban myths, rumors and other misconceptions and informs readers whether or not they are true. The two creators of the website, Bar-bara and David Mikkelson do the re-search for the site and put the sources they used to come to their conclusions. The myths range from subjects that are important and helpful, such as items about social security numbers, and interesting facts, like if McDonalds im-ports the beef they use.

Freerice is a way to cure boredom while simultaneously stimulating brain cells and helping people. It has quizzes over different subjects, such as chem-istry, English, art or foreign languages. For every question answered correctly, the website will donate 10 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program. This may not seem like a lot, but with the thousands of people playing world-wide, it adds up quickly.

So next time boredom hits, don’t fall back on facebook or youtube for a cure. There are so many other interest-ing websites out there that are sure to entertain for hours.

ing at it. With over 30 pages of failure, it is sure to keep you entertained for quite awhile.

Voice graphics by Dylan Geiser

closer inspection, headlines such as a political article entitled “Sasha Obama Keeps Seeing Creepy Bush Twins While Riding Tricycle Through White House” make readers more aware the Onion is full of satire. This is a news site with a twist, and will keep readers laughing all night long.

Additional reporting by Justin Sharp and Abby Ford.

Ov e r t h e l a s t

several years, movies based off books, comics or other movies have increas-ingly burst forth onto the cinema scene.

These movies make millions of dollars on opening day. It is becoming more and more popular for producers to sponsor a sequel instead of providing funding for a story that has not been seen before because they aren’t will-

ing to take the risk of the general pub-lic reject.

In the last decade, DC and Mar-vel comics have made a killing from movies, based off of their legendary characters. These movies are highly anticipated. For the coming year in movies though, it seems that the two companies have caught on and are releasing little known comics to film. X-Men Origins: Wolverine and X-Men Origins: Magneto are both scheduled to be released this year. The new X-Men movies are focusing on the indi-vidual lives of the major characters.

In the span of two years, two dif-ferent movie versions of The Incred-

ible Hulk were released, both of which raked in the money in the box office and got horrible reviews from critics and viewers alike. The story is nearly the same with the recent release of Friday the Thirteenth and My Bloody Valentine, both were remakes. The

most recent, Friday the Thirteenth was the twelfth Jason movie made others of which include Freddy vs. Ja-son and Jason goes to Hell.

In the c o m i n g y e a r s , p r o -d u c e r s have an-nounced that they are en-d e a v o r -ing to make new m o v i e versions of tele-v i s i o n s s h o w s d a t i n g back to the 60s. It’s ap-

palling that movies such as Knight Rider, I Dream of Jeannie and Chips will all be appearing in theaters na-tionwide considering the failure of similar movies such as Speed Racer and Bewitched.

The original movies that have appeared in recent years have received a mixture of reviews ranging from awful to brilliant. Though the brilliants are few and far between, once they are discov-ered, they make an impact on cur-rent and future filmmakers who

create the difference between what is entertainment and what is art. Recent brilliants have included films, such as Pan’s Labyrinth and Little Miss Sunshine, that created new worlds and made horrifying situations en-joyable, along with movies that bend the imagination and push the limits of modern technology such as Across the Universe and Coraline.

The absolute best place to see the most original films, both good and bad, would be the annual film festivals held all over the country. The most popular one in this area is the Cleve-land International Film Festival held March 19-29, 2009 at the Tower City Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The festival will be featuring both full length and short films from all over the world and guarantees a life changing experience, but no matter what, the movies shown will not disappoint viewers who are looking for a unique movie experience without sequels or remakes.

18Lakota West Voice

Entertainment March 20, 2009

It is rare that I find a movie that makes me think. It is even rarer that you find a superhero movie that stays true to its comic book origins. Watchmen, the movie based on one of the greatest graphic novels of all time, manages to do both in its own weird, gory way.

For those of you unfamiliar with the comic, the story takes place in an alter-nate version of 1985. The Watchmen are a motley group of superheroes who maintain peace in New York. Due to public disapproval for their violent meth-ods, the government passes a law ban-ning superheroes. A few years pass and the Watchmen have returned to their normal, if somewhat pathetic, lives. After one of the Watchmen’s senior members, The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan, P.S I Love You) is murdered, the team comes out of retirement to overcome the new threat and save the world.

Fans of the comic will be pleased to know that the movie stays true to the material; the problem is that it stays too true. The movie is almost a word for word translation of the

novel making the movie extremely long and tedious to pay attention to.

What carries the movie is the charac-ters. It offers a look at the darker side of being a superhero. The squeaky clean heroes standing for liberty and justice are gone, in their place are a group of very flawed individuals.

This was one of those movies that was good but was a bit disappointing because you know it could have been great. The spe-cial effects and acting were fantastic, and the premise was inter-esting and different. But it was the long, tedious monologues and just general lack of action that re-ally detracted from an otherwise good movie.

Watchmen“If bad people hurt someone you

love, how far would you go to hurt them back?” The Last House on the Left, a

remake of a 1970s slasher/thriller film, surprised me, in a good way. Going into the movie I had high hopes of a perfect thriller due to a trailer that created hype the way it should. Although the cast of the film is relatively unheard of, this did not hurt the film in anyway. The movie starts out with the Collingwood fam-ily, played by Sara Paxton (Superhero Movie) as Mari the daughter, Monica

Potter (Saw) as the mom and Tony Gold-

wyn (The Last Samurai) as the dad, going on a family vacation to their lake house.

With a plot similar to that of almost every thriller, you knew that nothing good was going to come out of this lake house trip. Mari decides to go into town to meet up with a friend, then is drawn into smoking pot with her friend and a new person they have met. They then find themselves in a hotel room with wanted murderers and rapists, which clearly sends the message, if you smoke pot you will get caught up with killers.

Although the movie is slow to get to the action, once there it is non stop for almost a good hour keeping your heart racing unsure of what will come next. The Last House on the Left is filled with surprises and twists that just add fuel to the fire and keep the movie going. I do warn you though, this movie is not for everyone, the gore and vividness of the movie even got to me, and I wasn’t disturbed by Saw one, two, three, four, and so on. If you’re looking for a movie to get the blood flowing, or to keep you on the edge of your seat, give this one a shot.

The Last House on the Left- Alex Rice - Kyle Kearns

Unoriginal movie plots bring more revenue

Abby FordSurvey/Dist. Editor

The most recent Friday the Thirteenth was the twelfth Jason movie.

‘’

Voice headline graphic by Dylan Geiser

19Lakota West Voice

EntertainmentMarch 20, 2009

Austin McCarthyCopy Editor

Kyle KearnsEntertainment Editor

There comes a point in every band’s career when they have to sit down and ask themselves whether or not to retire. Some-times they decide to continue their musical careers, often with little success. U2 is one of those bands who has evidently ig-nored the question for years, and their latest album, No Line on the Horizon, clearly shows they should contemplate retirement.

“Get on Your Boots,” the first single off the album, starts off with a rockin’ riff and gives the listener hope that the album could be a return to pre-Zooropa days. But after listening for about one minute, you realize the song is all build up, and lacks the dramatic climax that every good song needs.

The album does have one song that resembles the classic U2. “Breathe,” while it doesn’t have a preten-tious, rebellious or bombastic sound, it does have an anthem-like chorus that can raise listener’s interest.

No Line on the Horizon will probably sell a significant amount of albums; however, this won’t be due to the music, but, rather, for their humanitarian causes and big-name label. Unless you are an avid U2 fan who could never hate them, don’t buy this.

No Line on the Horizon U2

TroubadourK’naan

K’naan, a relatively new rapper on the hip-hop scene, dropped his second studio album, Trou-badour. A strong political message is behind almost every song, and this time mixing politics and music was fairly well. With extreme pride in his background from Africa K’naan manages to mix pride, talent and his opinion all into a Reg-gae/Hip-Hop mix. In two songs T.I.A. (This Is Africa) and Wavin’ Flag are two songs in which K’naan manages to mix his roots and music well.

Although Troubadour is an okay CD, it has its drawbacks. A lot of songs steer away from the normal feel of hip-hop and sound a lot like an attempt to mix tribal music with hip-hop and just don’t mix well with the other songs on the CD. Along with that, almost ev-ery song references to Africa or some political agenda, this does get annoying eventually.

K’naan’s second album is worth the listen if you’re looking for a different take on hip-hop, or just a new album to add to your collection.

I almost don’t know where to start with U2’s newest CD, No Line on the Horizon. Hav-ing a band history that almost any band would envy, U2 has released their 13th album, with no signs of quitting, which is unfortunate.

I picked up No Line on the Horizon with my per-sonal bias already intact. The sound of U2 comes through very strong with the computer generated sounds and the echoing chords and vocals. Many of the songs sound like any other U2 song I’ve heard on the radio. I can’t deny U2’s musical ability, although I personally don’t like their music.

Get On Your Boots and Magnificent are two of the best songs on the CD, but you almost miss them because you may find yourself skip-ping over songs thinking, “I’ve heard this be-fore.” If you’re a fan of U2, you’ll love this CD. If you’re undecided or are looking for something new, you’re better off buying something else.

When I hear rap, I automatically assume the lyrics are going to be degrading, ostentatious or just downright gross. But when I listened to K’naan’s new album, Troubadour, I was en-raptured by the political message he is preaching in his songs.

The album is a mix of genres; it’s a fusion of traditional Afri-can beats, reggae and American hip-hop. K’naan’s Somalian origins influence his songs, such as “America.” With culturally diverse lyrics and drums that remind listeners of tribal Africa, the rapper adds a new dimension to a seemingly flat genre.

“Dreamer,” another song off the album, has the right mix of fast-paced lyrics and real singing in the chorus. With lyrics like “You gotta be defensive with your life/You gotta be like Bush and take Pre-emptive strikes,” it’s clear that K’naan is using his music as a medium to preach his political ideology. This can get old if it’s over done, but, later in the song, K’naan shows that he’s not all about politics: “I’m a dreamer/But we love to have fun.”

The catchy rhythms and dance-invoking sounds bal-ance the serious lyrics, creating a strong CD. Music fans, it is worth taking a chance on K’aan’s latest.