Despite rescheDuling, BlooD Drive is a success Even though Student Council had difficulties setting a date, it didn’t stop the school from saving lives. The origi-nal date to donate blood was January, 29th but it had to get moved to Monday the 25th because of miscom-munication with facility members. The blood drive was a success when Student Council exceeded their goal. They didn’t even have enough time to get all student to donate blood because it was so busy and full.

By Evelin Diaz ◦ Reporter

News Briefs

stuDent life

Benson highnews

the

athletics

The Official Student Newspaper of

Benson High Magnet School

Issue 3 Volume 90 February 2016

@gofundme; Online Newspaper for Benson https://www.gofundme.com/6f5sbu64

stuDents make all-city music festival Hard work and determination resulted in a success for the music students who made the All-City band, or-chestra and choir. The band member was trumpet one, Xavier Reynolds, junior. Orchestra’s members included first violinist, Steven Pruss, violist Cassidi Linsey, cellist Savannah Liebsack, and second chair bassist Colin Hedges-Stoops. All-City Chorus members included Josie Kantras, Mary Seng Khanghti, Janis Brown, Ashleigh Henderson, Jayla Cawthon, Sabrina Salrin, Joe Broome, Luscian Brown, Jacob Phillips, Kiere Keil, Juan Tamms, Nataliha Gordon, Kai Edwards-Richardson and Jazmin Hesiquio. “We had to prepare several excerpts and examples to go off, then audition with the recorder and the music staff that’s outside of Benson,” Sean Lockard, Band/Or-chestra director, said. “They [the judges] would listen to all the recordings and they’re going to judge any student that was in that section. They had to work really hard in order to make it.”

his legacy still lives on Security guard Eddie Hankins created Troy Travis t-shirts. Half of the proceeds that are being earned will go towards the Troy Travis scholarship. Each t-shirt is being sold for $12. Hankins was inspired to do this because of all the great things Troy has done. “Troy was a good friend of mine, we’ve known each other since we were 12 years old. We always competed against each other even though we went to different schools,” Hankins said. “He’s just a very dear friend of mine more like a brother and I just wanted to do some-thing to keep the support going on who he is.”

cafeteria receives high review In 2015, a Nebraska Department of Education audi-tor visited Benson High School to review the process of the cafeteria. She was very impressed with both the staff and students. She claimed that the cafeteria staff was very professional and the vegetables bar was colorful and fresh. She loved the interaction the students had with the cafeteria staff. She also noticed and appreciated how the cafeteria staff were following all the federal state and district process.

CommitmeNt 2016

Photo and Story by Abby Jackson ◦ Reporter

Helping a politician

in-Depth

With Election Day coming up, everyone is scrambling to get registered, promoting and getting prepared to go to sit-downs. Marching back into the past, two of our own, Aaron McLaughlin and Joseph DiCostanzo, took a part in helping their victorious politicians. Bunkering down, getting ready to spread their campaigns, they both went face first into helping their candidate get votes. “I got involved when I was 20,” Joe DiCostanzo said, former high school campaign manager. “I had met the candidate six months before that and we had collabo-rated with a lot of things.” While he got to know his candidate before giving out promotion, he got a sense of what it was like to be in charge and instruct people to make sure their candidate could win. “I remember when I six, I was walking around Co-lumbus Day Festival handing out stickers,” DiCostanzo said. “You may not be running the campaign, but you can contribute. It’s not about age limit; it’s about what you can do, and who you are with characteristics.” With this in mind, he gave his words of advice to the future teenagers who feel like they should have a say in what they can do; going against some point of views that teenagers have no rights. “If you want to do anything with politics, just start,” DiCostanzo said. “Start somewhere. Start at the bottom if you have to. Don’t expect to come in managing the campaigns, don’t expect to come in with out any prep-work, because it is a lot of work, a lot of time, and a lot of effort. It’s full of great of experience and balances out in the end and it is all worth it. You can make long lasting friendships since you’re with the same people for a long amount of time.” Be able to vote at the age of 18 shows that everyone can have a sense of responsibility and proves that one person can make a difference and have a say in what goes on locally. By being able to vote, it gives freedom to an individuals’ name. To get started, there are a lot of dif-ferent ways that a regular high school student can make this difference. In high school, Aaron McLaughlin helped volunteer in the political election that was going on for he could get community service hours to graduate.

“I volunteered for a campaign when I was a sopho-more,” McLaughlin said. “I ended up doing canvassing, which was going around to different houses to drop off different promotional materials on your candidate. It says things on what they should know and what their candi-dates positions are. It helps get their name out.” There are many groups that associate with different high schools help individuals define what they are to political parties. “There are plenty of young groups that go into what you’re wanting to be, democrat, republican, independent of whatever. There are a lot for aspiring students in high school and that’s an awesome place to start,” McLaughlin said. Also with joining one of these groups, this experience can let their members do political work as well. “Students who want to get involved should start by making phone calls at phone banks,” McLaughlin said. “The campaign manager or candidate will give you a list of potential voters, you call them and talk about what your candidate would do if elected.” Helping with campaigns gives the opportunity to learn what fits certain individuals. There are many ways that one person can help their wanted candidate to take the lead in the polls. “If you go canvassing, you’re usually with one other person and can go down each side of the street, but you don’t really get to know the people who will be vot-ing for that person that well, whereas you would with the phone bank,” McLaughlin said. “You can spend your time talking to potential voters on the phone to get to know their views. Sometimes the candidate works at the phone bank so you can learn more about what they want for their city or state.” Agreeing with DiCostanzo, McLaughlin believed that volunteering for political events is a great way to get involved with the community at a young age. “If you care about the issues, it’s definitely a good way to get involved,” McLaughlin said. “It is more than most people want to do and it’s a good way to feel like you can make a difference in your community especially if your person running wins.”

Aaron McLaughlin and Joseph DiCostanzo were former politician volunteers during high school. Here they are standing side by side, much like they did beside their candidate.

Best and worst

of Valentine’s

day and next

years gift

ideas for your

significant

Plague

hitting the U.S.

and a message

to the freshmen

here at Benson.

Coming

together in

swimming while

welcoming new

varsity coach

into basketball.4-5 8

perspective

7

looking for a joB? The Business Academy organized a College/Career fair for Business Academy students only. The fair was held Wednesday, Jan. 20th and Thursday, Jan. 21st 2016 during advisement in the common breezeway. The Business Academy students were required to wear their Benson Business Academy shirts with khaki/black dress slacks. The Business Academy career/college fair offered infor-mation about financial literacy, financial aid for college, career development, resume development and perspec-tive of college/business career advice.

AP/

UN

O D

UA

L

5th Wave

receives

review, as we

share students’

embarassing

moments6