ENTORTheMManhattan High School Volume 101 Issue 8 Oct. 29, 2013 page 3 page 6 page 4

Students think pink for breast cancer awareness month

Exchange students enjoy fall traditions

Senior Andy Grenier and junior Tobias Hopfenwieser embrace the American tradition of carving pumpkins, along with other AFS students on Sunday afternoon. Along with carving pumpkins students also played basketball and made s’mores.

Maddie Ross, Photographer

Sarah ShiOpinions Editor

The tables are set, the newspapers are laid out, and the two dozen pumpkins wait patiently to be carved. Last Saturday, junior Jillian Kiracofe hosted an American Field Service pumpkin carving activity at her home in an effort to give her exchange student, Tomas Nocetti, and the others an American experience.

Last year, Kiracofe organized a similar event with her then-exchange student, Flo-rian Wirsen.

“It was my mom’s idea last year so we thought we’d do it again,” she said.

For Nocetti, he thought his experience would be easier.

“It was my first time carving and I thought it would be easier. I didn’t know it would be that thick and you had to take everything out first,” he said. “The most fun part was design-

ing. I tried to make the first one scary, but it really didn’t turn out that way. The second one was better.”

Carving pumpkins was not the only activ-ity that night. The Kiracofe’s prepared chili, chicken noodle soup, and s’mores for dinner, which was accompanied by a few exchange students playing the guitar and piano.

“The food was really good,” Oliver Serrate said. “We all got to hang out. That was the best part of it.

NHS prepares for upcoming fundraisersKristen BatsonStaff Writer

This year National Honor Society has been trying to change-up and make things more fun. Members of NHS have been involved in many different fundraising efforts, including selling insulated water bottles and candy. The proceeds will be used for scholarships that will go

Madison NewmanStaff Writer

During Breast Cancer Awareness Month, some Manhattan students are reminded of how strong they've had to be in the face of cancer within their own families.

Senior Lexi Haus was about 12 years old when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.

“My mom felt a lump in her breast. She also wasn't feeling very good. She looked online for like two months and then decided to go to the doctor,” Haus said. “She was told that she didn't have breast cancer, but she went for a second opinion and found that she did in fact have breast cancer. The cause of her cancer came from taking a birth control that was too high in estrogen for too long.”

See Thinking pink page 5

AP Statistics classes survey peers as part of hands-on projectTracy LeGraphics Editor

The AP Statistics classes taught by Ted Dawdy and Laura Sapp have focused on learning by doing more this year than in the past. They have recently finished their unit on surveys and samples and are now designing their own survey questions to find data that shows response

bias. "I think it's a good way for

students to learn about sur-veying instead of just read-ing the book or doing home-work,” Sapp said. "It gives them a good experience with the way researchers do it in the real world."

Response bias is when a question is worded or asked in a way that manipulates the response.

"If the question was 'Do you trust men with mus-taches?' And I was a guy that wore a mustache, that might influence the answer to the question,” Dawdy said. “Or the question could have been ‘Are blonds unfairly stereo-typed as being dim-witted?’ And have that question asked by a brunette versus a blond."

Students got into groups

of three or four to come up with questions to ask their classmates. They surveyed 50 peers, asking half of them one question, and the other half the same question but presented differently. Arnav Das, sophomore, and his group came up with the ques-tions: ‘Do you brush your teeth three times a day?’ And ‘Given the fact that not brush-ing your teeth can cause cavi-

ties, do you brush your teeth three times a day?’ The data they ended up with support-ed showed how the wording of the question impacted the responses.

"It was pretty interest-ing,” Das said. “People said ‘yes’ more often when we added the phrase [‘given the fact that...’] then when we didn’t add it.”

Dawdy’s class presented

their data last Friday. The Powerpoints they put togeth-er analyzed the answers they had received with the help of graphs the students created.

“The idea was a way to help students see the real-life application,” Sapp said, “see what researchers do in real life because that's a goal for this class, that they're actu-ally doing things that statisti-cians do.”

SkillsUSA looks to annual competitionRetta Lazaris Staff Writer

The countdown to the end of the school year has many students wild with anticipa-tion. They look forward to their classes slowing down and the long breaks from school. Some students will anticipate playing a favorite sport, or acting out in a play. Of course, seniors look for-ward to graduation.

While this year is speed-ing by, members of SkillsUSA are working towards their annual state competition in April in Wichita.

Members are eager to show off their skills and are practicing hard in their class-es to sharpen those skills. Co-presidents Sam Livsey, senior, and Noah Johnson, junior, enjoy the hands-on

work and experience that comes with being in this club.

“SkillsUSA, to me, is a club where people who like cars, who like working with metal, and welding and do-ing a lot of shop stuff, they can put their skills to the test,” Livsey said. “What we do out here [in class], this is practicing for the automotive competitions, but we have kids in all different classes.”

There is a diversity in the club, where students from wood-technology, welding and automotive classes all come together, and put what they’ve learned in class ‘to the test’ at competitions. Livsey is enthusiastic about going to his first competitions with SkillsUSA this year.

“They have cars that are set up so their bugged, so

there could be an electrical problem, or a fuel problem, and it’s a race to see who can fix all of the problems the fastest,” Livsey said.

Along with the competi-tion and team building the members will go through, they are gaining hands-on practice. For some, this is a push forward in the career they are working towards.

“I’m going to go to college to be a diesel mechanic, and working on cars and stuff like that, kind of gives me an upper hand on going to school for it,” Johnson said. He joined the club his sopho-more year and plans to be in it for the remainder of his high school career.

“Whenever anyone in the school or any faculty need

See Skills USA page 5

Altercation occurs at East CampusMaddie RossNews Editor

An altercation took place at the East Cam-pus last Wednesday between a student and faculty member. The situation took place in the restroom in between classes. Neither the student or teacher was seriously injured. Law enforcement officials were called to the scene and are involved.

In a statement sent to parents after the altercation the school district claims that “Manhattan High School remains committed to providing a safe and secure teaching and learning environment for our students and staff.”

“These instances are extremely rare,” Principal Greg Hoyt said. “They have the potential to put Manhattan High School in a bad light, but are not indicative of Manhattan High School at all. It is a very sad situation.”

East Campus security personnel and ad-ministration were contacted but declined comment.

German Club hosts movie night

Members of German Club gather in room E108 last Tuesday night for snacks, conversation and a movie, “Das Wunder Von Ben”, which in English translates to “The Miracle of Ben.” “The movie, I think, will bring the students back to an important time in Ger-man history. It is set in the 1950s and it really shows the students a good picture of the aftermath of World War II,” Manhattan High German teacher and German Club sponsor Elke Lorenz said.

Danielle Cook, Photographer

John Block speaks with FFA membersLoretta LazarisStaff WriterDawson BeffaFFA Reporter

Students join clubs be-cause they share similar interests and want to know more about that club’s inter-ests. That is why members of FFA were delighted to listen to the tales of John Block and his experiences being former

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture under former President, Ronald Reagan.

Last Tuesday, FFA mem-bers sat back and took in Block’s words as he painted his life’s story in front of them during a visit to their classroom.

Block started out as just a boy working on his fam-ily farm, in Galesburg, Ill. He had also been an active

FFA member throughout his career at West Point High School, until he graduated in 1957.

He moved on to serve as a platoon leader in the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Benning, Ga., for three years.

Feeling that his home was where his heart was, Block

See FFA page 5

Carving in

to students of Manhattan High School and some mon-ey will also be used to assist USD 383 families who are in need.

“The proceeds stay here in our community. They don’t go to the Red Cross or anything like that,” club president Marlee Evans said. NHS will also be hosting a canned food drive/competi-tion to help those in Manhat-

tan in need. In addition to fundraising,

NHS has been tutoring fresh-man football players and stu-dents of Marlatt Elementary School.

“We went and helped them with their computer labs,” junior Trevor Bashaw said. “They were friendly and I feel like I helped, so it

See NHS page 5

Sports The Mentor www.mhsmentor.com Page 4

Volleyball State-boundKennedy FeliceCopy Editor

Finishing their season 26-11 after dominating their home triangular on Oct. 22, the Lady Indians volleyball team was prepared to begin their post season games.

“We knew as a team we could design our own des-tiny. It has always been up to us how far we can make it,” head coach Lisa Kinderknecht said.

With Manhattan High hosting the sub-State tour-nament a home court ad-vantage guided the team to victory over Topeka High in both sets 25-13 and 25-17.

“This year we have worked so hard all season, we’ve just been hungry for our own title,” senior Jessie Kujawa said. “We knew we would win if we deserved it and we definitely did.”

With their first opponent taken down in pool play, the Lady Indians prepared them-selves to play Washburn Ru-ral.

“Rural always challenges us, we knew what we were going into but you can never be sure how a game will actu-ally end,” junior Matty Ma-han said.

Manhattan fell to the ju-nior blues 26-24 in the first set following a back and forth fight to the finish.

“Going into the second set we got our momentum back.

Senior Kacy Cink sets the ball to teammate senior Lauren Goralczyk in their win over Washburn Rural last Saturday. Cink also hit the final kill in a close third set that won the match for the Indians, sending the Indians to the state meet.

Kelsey Crawford, photographer

Golf medals two, finishes fifth at StateNick BandySports Editor

Senior Hannah Devane felt the cool touch of the medal against her skin, and she knew she had finally done it. In her final meet as a member of the Manhattan High girls golf team, she got what she always wanted: a State medal.

It was not easy and it cer-tainly was a nail-biter. She shot an 88; only one stroke away from tying for 10th, and three more strokes would have placed her outside of the top 20 and left her with-out a medal, but she took 16th. It was sweet redemp-tion for Devane, after having a rough day at the State meet last season when she shot well above her average and finished 42nd.

“I ended as a State med-alist so I couldn’t ask for a whole lot more,” Devane said.

Despite Devane’s achieve-ment the Indians struggled. They shot a 372, which was

Chris KlugBlue M Sports Editor

The Manhattan High foot-ball team went on the road to face a good Washburn Rural team with a lot on the line. Sitting at 6-1 and 1-0 in the district, the Indians needed the win to help secure the top seed in the district stand-ings. The Indians earned a hard fought 13-10 victory.

The Indians started the game strong with a 38-yard touchdown run from senior Ethan Fabrizius. After a long field goal missed by Joe Tru-jillo, the team struggled to find offense for the rest of the first half, but took a 7-0 lead into halftime.

The Junior Blues put up their first points early in the fourth quarter connecting on a 35-yard field goal. The Indi-ans countered with a 6-yard pass from senior Kellen

Michael Melgares Assistant Sports Editor

Senior night for the Man-

hattan High soccer boys did not prove to be the exhilarat-ing, nail-biting, nerve-racking matchup against Highland Park that was hoped for.

“I would have really liked to play a competitive game tonight but it’s just about be-ing with your team and being with your family so it was nice. It was a good senior night,” senior Matt Liotta said.

The Indians mercy-ruled the Scotts 10-0. The night was highlighted by impressive performances from senior leaders despite the blowout. One of which came from se-nior Jonathan Turnley, who broke the school record for career assists, carding his 26th in his tenure at MHS. Turnley currently has 16 as-sists on the season.

Senior Eric Gray also put his skills on display, record-ing his second hat trick of the season in the first half of the game. Gray has scored 13 goals this season.

Another impressive se-nior feat came off the foot of Liotta in the final seconds of the game. Liotta recorded his first ever goal in a var-sity game, to cap off the final score of 10-0.

“It was nice just because I get a lot of students and play-ers and coaches and ball boys just waiting for me to finally

Matt BandyStaff Writer

For the first time in their high school careers, junior Kristen Fraley and sopho-more Cathy Lei left the State tournament with medals.

above their average, and placed fifth. Even though they fell short of their goal of placing in the top three, they still finished better than their seventh place performance last season.

“Some girls just had a rough day. That happened to two of our top girls and that is probably why our score was so low,” Devane said.

Junior Kylie McCarthy was the top placer from MHS. She shot 86 to enter a playoff for eighth, but lost and took ninth. She and De-vane were the only mem-bers to medal for MHS due to their top-20 finishes. Her score of 86 was above her average, which was the story for all the Indians.

“We weren’t on our game. None of us played our aver-age,” Kylie said.

After Kylie and Devane came junior Kelsey McCa-rthy, who shot a 97 and was 33rd. Her score was more than 10 strokes off her av-erage, as she normally fin-ishes close to her sister, and

Tennis players earn State medal with eighth place finish

Football moves to 2-0 in district play

Myers to Fabrizius, putting the Indians up 13-3 after a blocked extra point. The Ju-nior Blues then made things interesting with a touchdown run with less than three minutes to play, making the score 13-10. After a recovery on a onside kick, the Indians were able to run out the clock from there.

Fabrizius was a huge key to the offensive success scoring the Indians 2 only touchdowns with a 38-yard touchdown run and a 6-yard touchdown catch. Junior Chris Martin was also a big part of the offense rushing for 105 yards on 15 rushes. Myers finished the game 4-10 passing with 72 yards through the air and a touch-down.

The Indians look to take back the silver trophy, avenging last year’s loss, in the Junction City matchup, 7

Soccer mercy rules Highland Park

score a goal so it was nice to finally get one,” Liotta said.

The Indians looked to car-ry momentum into their next game against Topeka West last Tuesday. With goals from sophomore Austin French and Jonathan Turnley in the first half, they did so success-fully. They finished the game with a score of 5-1.

The Indians would follow up their impressive victory over Topeka West with a match up against Junction City last Thursday night. The Indians had trouble early on, as the Blue Jays dropped nine players behind the ball at the start of the game.

“It forced us to be more creative,” assistant coach Mi-chael Lopez said. “We asked our players to be a little more creative in changing posi-tions, so we had midfielders going into the forward line and vice-versa.”

The Indians would switch to a 3-5-2 formation, which proved to be successful, as MHS took the match in a shutout 5-0. Thursday night also marked the end of the season for the J.V. soccer team, whose season culmi-nated in an impressive 13-1 record, their only loss being against Washburn Rural ear-ly in the season.

The Varsity team will take the field against Wichita South tonight in their first post-season match, followed by a rematch against Wash-burn Rural on Thursday.

The game is all about mo-mentum,” Kujawa said.

MHS was able to finish the second 25-14, but the tone changed heading into their third and final set.

“At some point it sets in that this could be your last game, and I knew that losing, especially at this level, was not how I wanted to finish my season,” Kujawa said.

With a trip to State on the line, the Lady Indians continued their fight toward victory.

“It’s was such a gut check, the reality that your season ending rides on this, but we went out there and per-formed like we’re told too,” Mahan said. “We finished it.”

Ahead by one point, se-nior Kaci Cink landed the final kill to win the game for the Lady Indians ending the set, 25-23.

“It was surreal, you work all season and to finally be headed to state is amazing,” Cink said.

The Lady Indians will trav-el to Topeka High this Friday to compete in the State tour-nament.

“We don’t want to just feel happy to be there, we know what we want and we are going to fight for it,” Kinderknecht said. “We have to have set goals in our mind as we head to State, and now is the time to finish our season strong.”

she placed 18th at State last year.

“We all expected it to be really windy, it was sup-posed to be windy, but it was actually really nice that day. It was just a little bit of everything that wasn’t going right,” Kelsey said.

“I think she can come back next year and play strong. I think she’ll turn it around and use it to her advantage,” Devane said.

Senior Anna Jackson was the Indians’ last scorer, and she took 45th after shooting 101. Right behind her was senior Amy Levin, who was 51st after shooting 102.

“We wanted her to get in the 90s since it was her last meet and she was so close. We were still really proud of Amy,” Kelsey said.

The final Indian to finish was senior Cassidy Harper, who shot 106 to take 57th

out the 92 competitors at the meet.

“You put a lot of pressure on yourself. For seniors it’s our last tournament, so you really want to do well, and when you start not doing well, things really go down-hill,” Devane said.

With four of their six var-sity members graduating the Indians know they have a hole to fill, but fortunately they have several committed J.V. and freshmen players.

“We’ll have to work a lot over the spring and get the J.V. girls to practice with us,” Kelsey said.

The State meet may have not gone as planned, but it was the final meet of a season that had many high points, such as winning the Hutchin-son Invitational.

“It was a good season. We weren’t expected to do the things we did,” Devane said.

Senior Hannah Devane lines up a putt at the State meet.Courtesy Photo

At Maize South on Oct. 18 and 19, Fraley and Lei played in the doubles bracket and medaled at eighth place. Nei-ther player placed last year in the singles bracket. This was Fraley’s third time at State and Lei’s second time,

but it was the first year they have ever played doubles at State. Their first match was a loss to Blue Valley North-west 3-6.

“We played some really good teams,” Varsity coach Joyce Allen said.

Athlete of the weekJunior Kylie McCarthy

Kylie finished her season shooting an 86 to take ninth overall. She was the top fin-isher for an MHS team that was fifth in the team results.

The doubles team then made a comeback, winning their next match against Wichita South. They then moved on to win their match against Mission Valley North-

Cross Country qualifies both teams for StateConner BlissFeature Editor

The running Tribe con-tinued its success this past weekend as both teams qualified for State. The boys team finished first at Region-als for the first time since 2006 and the girls got third. All seven of the boys varsity runners medaled by placing in the top 10. Senior Chris Melgares boosted the boys score by placing first and Se-nior Alaina Schroeder was the top girl runner as she fin-ished third.

Their State meet is this Saturday at Rimrock farm in Lawrence.

See Tennis page 5

Photo illustration by Gage Benne

Features The Mentor www.mhsmentor.com Page 5

Alan Brown Multimedia Editor

Helping the community and being productive are reasons why some Manhat-tan High students devote time to Mercy Regional Hos-pital, where they can volun-teer to provide assistance to patients and benefit the com-munity.

“Anyone who is willing to offer the loving gift of time and service to our patients and visitors impacts our community in a positive way. Any time you volunteer, you not only gain the personal fulfillment of volunteering, but you also build relation-ships within the community,” Crystal Bryant-Kearns, di-rector of guest and volunteer services, said.

At Mercy, MHS students have contributed in a vari-ety of ways. Volunteers have the option of working at the front desk, the birth center, mail delivery or the library cart. Each position involves a numerous amount of contact with patients. Volunteers also have the benefit of a flex-ible schedule, ranging from 2-4 hour shifts at a time of convenience each week. To many, it is an excellent way to accumulate volunteer hours. According to students, their time at the hospital has been a satisfying experience.

“I just do what I can for the community,” sophomore volunteer Muhammad Cifci said. “I like to help chaps out at the hospital.”

Junior Amir Esmaeily began volunteering at the hospital over a month ago, devoting a few hours each weekend to his position. He takes part in several tasks including giving directions, delivering items to rooms, and pushing wheelchairs for patients. In between time, he even has a chance to complete a few homework assignments, as well as eat-ing free lunches and snacks provided.

“I enjoy using time pro-ductively here,” Esmaeily said. “I enjoy the free cook-ies, too.”

In order to volunteer at the hospital, teens are required to complete an professional application process. This in-cludes filling out a form,and taking part in an interview. Throughout the process, individuals are given the op-portunity to discover what position fits them best.

“We have had many MHS students volunteer over the years and they are always encouraged to apply. [Vol-unteering] is a commitment that is well worth the invest-ment,” Bryant-Kearns said.

Allison OlsenPhoto Editor

Lots of little girls love horses. That was the case for senior Julia Pfromm, who took it a step further. She’s been riding horses for 10 years. “I was a little girl and it’s what little girls like to do. I just kind of stuck with it,” Pfromm said.

She continues to compete now on top of being involved in the Manhattan High choir and marching band.

As a part of the United States Pony Club, Pfromm competes in the sport of eventing.There are three parts to an equestrian event: dressage, cross-country and show jumping. In dressage the horse and the rider are expected to perform from memory a series of prede-termined movements. The rider is also expected to show their ability to control their horse. Dressage is a competitive equestrian sport which develops a horse’s nat-ural athletic ability. Unlike cross-country or show jump-ing events, dressage doesn’t contain any jumps or obsta-cles. Cross-country equestri-an jumping is an event to test the endurance and jumping ability of a horse. In compe-tition, cross-country events contain obstacles and jumps in an open field, unlike show jumping which takes place in an arena.

Pfromm’s events mostly take place in-state, around the Kansas City area, but they have also taken her all the way to Kentucky and Tennessee to show off her skill. At her most recent event in Tennessee, Pfromm was tested to receive a high honor, like the equivalent of being an Eagle Scout, but for riding horses.

“I really enjoy cross-country jumping,” Pfromm said. “It’s such an adrenaline rush.”

Pfromm encourages oth-ers to take the opportunity to get involved in riding.

“If anyone is interested in riding, there is a pony club in town and we teach lots of les-sons and are always looking for new members.”

No horsing around for Pfromm Hospital offers volunteer opportunities

Twins Ben and Nick Clark, juniors, were also about 12 when their mother was diagnosed. Senior Alex Stitt was 13 when his mom was diagnosed; she was the second generation in their family to be diagnosed with breast cancer. Each of these students found out in a differ-ent way.

“My mom called me while I was at a baseball tourna-ment to tell me,” Stitt said. “I was with my grandma [a breast cancer survivor].”

“We [Haus and her sib-lings] didn’t know for like two weeks; mom and dad sat us around the table and told us,” Haus said. “My stom-

ach dropped and my heart sank.”

“I thought of my aunt who had passed away from cancer and I was afraid that would be my mom,” Haus said.

Treatment varied in each case, but there were some similarities.

“She got chemo, a lot of rounds. She only got really sick that I remember once, though,” Haus said. “She slowly lost her hair and even-tually decided to just shave it off, got a wig, then eventual-ly had to lose one breast. She got implants but her body re-jected them; this happened three times. After that she had to go without one breast for a year. She was pretty self-conscious about it.”

For the Clarks’s mom, chemo wasn’t too bad. “She was paranoid and tired. She took a lot of naps.” Ben said.

Stitt’s mom was diagnosed with level 2A breast cancer; the cause was most likely heredi-tary.

“We still went on our spring break vaca-tion,” he said. “We knew we’d be going through hell in the next few months.”

It was hard for Stitt to watch his mom fight through

cancer. “The worst part was prob-

ably seeing her cry. I didn’t really know what to ex-pect, I mean I had never gone through anything like that before and I was confused,” Stitt said.

Dealing with changes in behavior and fear of

what would happen was life for their family.

“You just kind of have to hope that it’s nothing se-vere, and that it doesn’t spread. Be aware, it can happen to anybody,” Nick said. “Talk to them and calm down,

because there is a chance.” “It made me appreciate

the little things in life and I got the bigger picture, ‘ev-

Senior Julia Pfromm com-petes in a cross country event at a United States Pony Club competition.

erything always happens for a reason.’ That’s what my mom told us, she thought that her cancer would bring our family closer and it did,” Stitt said.

Athletics are a big deal for the Stitt family, and he con-tinued to participate while his mom was in treatment.

“It made me sad when my mom couldn’t be there, because she was always that kind of mom who would nev-er miss a game. It was hard,” he said. “You really just have to stay positive and know that everything will work out, everything happens for a reason. Now my mom is healthier and stronger than ever. She’s really a survi-vor.”

Rachel BeachStaff Writer

A fun way to express cre-ativity and relieve day to day stress has been built into the East Campus at Manhattan High School. Recently the li-brarian at the East Campus applied for a grant from the K-State Credit Union.

“It was easy to apply for and we figured why not try for it, “ librarian Carol Higley said.

The $200 grant is given every month to a teacher in near by districts. To apply ap-plicants must state what they would use the grant for. The librarians at the East Cam-

pus had an idea to purchase LEGOs for the library.

The library was able to purchase multiple sets of LEGOs and two books about LEGO building ideas. The LEGOs are stored in plastic containers on a table in the library and are for anyone to enjoy. Higley wishes to ex-pand on the LEGO table so more students can enjoy the LEGOs at once.

“Students seem to love them so far,” Higley said. “They are able to use their hands to create something fun and unique after they’re done with their class work.”

The after school program Extended Learning Time is

hosted in the library. After students have finished their homework or have gotten the help that they need, they are able to use the LEGOs as they wish. The LEGOs are not to distract the students or keep them from class, but rather to be used like a mag-azine -- something enjoyed in free time.

A display case near the li-brary has been decorated to tell the students that their are new LEGOs in the library. A colorful tape trail that look like LEGOs leads from the display case to the library.

“Many students and teach-ers have come in to see what it’s all about,” Higley said.

Librarian Carol Higley shows off the library’s new LEGOs.Maddie Ross, Photographer

Toys help students ‘LEGO’ of stress

their car fixed they bring it down to us, and we fix it for them,” Livsey said. “All they have to do is pay for the parts, and we do all the work for free. So it’s good practice for us.”

Elizabeth Crooks, spon-sor for SkillsUSA, has ex-pectations for her students and club members, that she expressed are being met and then some.

“The students are really excited, so I think it will go really well,” Crooks said. “They’ve actually picked the ball up and ran with it; I’m just pretty much there to su-pervise, which is the way it should be.”

Members have been sell-ing batteries door-to-door and on their own as part of their fundraising towards the state competition. They will have a table set up on Nov. 1 to sell the batteries during both lunch periods.

moved back to Galesburg to tend the family farm, and later was elected as the Sec-retary of Agriculture in Illi-nois. Block was later visited by Reagan as one of the 10 potential U.S. Secretaries of Agriculture.

When Block was invited to Reagan’s home in California, he was the only one in the room of cabinet members

was nice.” Sponsor Robin Smith be-

lieves efforts have been suc-cessful so far and that things are going well.

“It’s a really self-directed group and I’m just the adult sponsor,” Smith said.

who knew anything about agriculture. As soon as Block returned to his hotel room, the phone rang.

“I picked up the phone and heard other man say, ‘This is Ronald Reagan, and I have chosen you to be my Secre-tary of Agriculture.’ And all I had to say was, ‘I’m proud to serve,’” Block said.

Block said that he had picked farmers for his team because, “Who knows more

about agriculture than farm-ers?”

Block served under Rea-gan for five years, resigning in 1986. He is now the presi-dent of the National Ameri-can Wholesale Grocers’ As-sociation.

Following Block’s speech, FFA members were able to ask any questions . One ques-tion was, “How do you think agriculture will be affected in the future?”

“I believe agriculture will become a key role in the U.S. economy, and that if we let the new agricultural technol-ogies develop, then the farm-ers of America will become a whole lot more efficient and productive,” Block said.

FFA members were left with a lasting impression of this man’s accomplishments, which all started out on a family farm and in a local FFA chapter.

Skills USA from page 1

Think Pink from page 1

FFA from page 1 NHS from page 1

Tennis from page 4

west 9-6. Winning the match was the only way to continue in the tournament. They beat Derby 9-1 to enter the top eight brackets. In their match to take seventh place they lost to Blue Valley West 3-9, the highest placing of any team in this region.

“I knew that we had a lot of potential but I did not know how well we would perform on that day,” Fraley said.

Opinion The Mentor www.mhsmentor.com Page 2

The editorial is a compilation from a discussion held by the Editorial board.

If a certain group of stu-dents don’t meet the ACT benchmarks in high school, should the school district in-terfere? What about if that certain group is made up of minorities?

In 2001, ACT pitched the test to state board of educa-tions as a tool to assess 11th grade proficiency -- more specifically, to identify weak-nesses, which allows them to adjust their curriculum or teaching skills.

Carol Adams, executive director or teaching and learning, uses ACT scores to gage where the USD 383 district should set goals. No-ticing a declining trend in scores during the 2012-2013 year, Adams believes the dis-trict has “a lot of things that we can begin to work on as goals and in school improve-ment,” she said during the Oct. 16 Board of Education meeting.

Currently, the college-ready benchmarks for all four ACT subjects are 18 in English, 22 in reading, 22 in math and 23 in science. How-

ever, minorities -- specifically Hispanics and blacks -- are consistently not meeting the benchmarks, which are minimum scores needed to indicate a 50 percent chance of earning a B or higher or about a 75 percent of obtain-ing a C or higher in the cor-responding college course. Meanwhile, white students consistently meet each of the benchmarks.

Understandably, the dis-trict has good intentions when it looks to close the ACT gap with minorities, but debate arose on whether it’s the districts place to improve scores. If USD 383 plans to add more courses or make the current ones more vig-orous, it might not do much help, and in fact, more harm than good.

Although the district’s plan to improve scores of mi-norities is nebular and yet to be determined, the possibil-ity of increasing high school graduation requirements may not be seen as an oppor-tunity for greater learning to all minorities and has the possibility to increase drop-out rates.

Furthermore, the editorial board of The Mentor -- which

includes African-Americans and Asians -- believes that the low ACT scores do not neces-sarily come from the school’s curriculum but from circum-stances after school and at home. Sometimes, the jobs that their parents hold re-quire their children to work outside of school or do other things that take up their time they could be studying. It’s not something they chose.

Right now, every student that walks through the Man-hattan High doors receives the same education, no mat-ter what the race. If some-one were to be placed in a different set of classes just because he or she is a minor-ity, that would not be fair on either side.

In addition, not all mi-norities are scoring low on the test, but the fact that the average is around 18 does make it easy to assume the number applies to all. If the district is looking to improve these scores, they should start at the younger grades where they can make the most impact. During high school, students are usually the one to determine how far they get in their education.

Questionof the Week:

“Staying home and reading scary stories.”

Thom Billam, junior

“I like to go trick or treating and pretend I’m not a junior in high school.”

Nick Clark, junior

What is your Halloween tradition?

Next edition’s Question of the Week: I f you were a celeb -rity, what would you be known for? Submit an-swers to mhsmentor.com

We have all been there, sitting in our fourth hour classes an extra 21 minutes staring blankly at the teacher as they discuss the required topic of bullying. Eyes roll across the classroom, as the word once holding significant meaning is morphed into a cliché by lack of knowledge, lack of attention and lack of importance.

Tribe Time isn’t some-thing taken very seriously by many students, and I admit to falling into that category periodically; however, if the material was presented in such a way as to capture both the attention of students and the seriousness of the issue at hand it has the potential to be effective.

We need to be educated in a manner that emits the earnest ideas crucial to the understanding the core of bullying. We don’t need to put actions such as hitting, punching, and biting into a line from least offensive to most. We don’t need one more adult to tell us to follow the golden rule. We need someone to explain that bul-lying is not always visible, and we need someone to give us the tools to actually put a stop to it.

As students we can have all the education in the world, but if we aren’t will-ing to soak it in, what is the point? It is our responsibil-ity. We need to get over the fact that lunch is five minutes later, and we have a trigo-nometry test sixth hour, and just listen. As sappy and re-petitive as it sounds we owe it to those sitting around us, we owe it to those sitting in the classroom next door, and we owe it to ourselves. Each of us holds the infinite power to change someone’s

The following is an assignment written by a student in 21 Cen-tury Journalism.

Angie MossGuest Writer

Everyone strives to be what their idea of “attrac-tive” is and in the last decade or so, it has become appar-ent that a big part of being “attractive” is being skinny. Studies show that teenagers are more likely to develop eating disorders from seeing their idols or models in size two clothing.

Fortunately, not all celeb-rities are obsessed with being skinny. Jennifer Lawrence, the star of the popular movie “The Hunger Games,” was recently told to lose weight, but she refused to.

Teenagers are going to extreme measures to lose weight so they can look like their idols by starving them-selves or taking weight loss supplements and other meth-ods of weight loss. There’s nothing wrong with losing weight if it’s done a healthy

way, like eating smart and exercising well, but if you’re depriving your body of vital nutrients, bad things can happen.

Almost everyone has been told what happens when you take drugs or drink alcohol at some point in their middle school or high school career. We’ve all been told about bul-lying and self harm, too. How-ever, something we haven’t really been educated on is eating disorders and what happens when you deprive yourself of vital nutrients. Teenagers think they can just skip some meals, lose weight and be fine. That’s not what really happens because food is your energy to live.

When you take away that energy, your body has to find a new way to produce fuel for everyday activities so your body takes muscle and fat from your bones and converts it into energy. Even then you don’t start losing weight. You actually gain weight because your body goes thinks it’s go-ing through a famine. Then after you eat through your

It’s one of the generation’s greatest debates. And we’re all a little blue in the face from straining the issue for so long. Legalizing marijua-na beyond medical purposes has split the country -- in more ways than one.

The split I am referring to is the border between Mex-ico and the United States. There are thousands of rea-sons tossed back and forth for legalizing the drug, but the driving force for my sup-port in legalization is hardly

ever mentioned. This past summer I spent

a month living in what is con-sidered a main port to carry drugs into the United States -- Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Be-cause of its prime location on the border, drug cartels have fought, and are still fighting, for control over the city. Vio-lence rates have soared over the past five years and landed Juarez on the “Murder Capi-tals of the World” list. (Let it be known that Juarez is no longer number one, but now holds the second place.)

News stations in the Unit-ed States have promoted the bloody images of decapitated citizens or acidic remains of bodies, and deterred almost all of the tourism. Tourism, which used to be the city’s greatest economic support, is almost completely dead

Liz Logback

Maddie Ross

day for the better, or for the worse; hopefully you choose the first.

Lastly we need to bring back to the significance of the word “bullying.” It has become more and more of a trend for the definition to be misconstrued. You call your friend a “bully” when they steal one of your gummy bears, your teacher becomes a “bully” because you didn’t get an A on your chemistry test. “Bully” is constantly thrown out in incorrect con-texts, causing it to become overused and cliché to the teenage mind. A bully is more than a noun given to someone who doesn’t give you what you want or think you deserve.

To progress as a school, and in even broader terms a generation, we need to recognize the weight of the word “bully” entails, be will-ing to accept knowledge on the importance of bullying prevention and set ourselves aside for 21 minutes to think of our effect on others.

and has taken a toll on the people of Juarez. Personal business, like street vending or food making, is Juarez’s main industry. Without the steady stream of tourists from the United States, peo-ple who own personal busi-nesses have been left in the dust, struggling to provide for their families.

With the legalization of marijuana, these wars over the border cities would not be nearly as severe and it would significantly decrease the sad cycle of violence and consequently the loss of jobs. I’m pro-legalization -- not be-cause the stoners need any more air in their head, but because there are real peo-ple, my friends, who are suf-fering from the violence over their city.

muscle and fat, you start losing weight. Your organs then start to deteriorate and things start shutting down. This is when it becomes fatal and you have to ask yourself if it’s really worth my life to be this skinny?

Society has also forgot-ten to mention to us that celebrities are not naturally skinny. They put themselves through the same fatal risks. They don’t always have time to keep up with a healthy eat-ing habit either. Have you ever heard of a model’s diet? Models and celebrities eat very small portions of food on top of hours of intense ex-ercise. This isn’t healthy for a human body to carry out daily functions.

My question here is, what’s the big deal about be-ing skinny? Marilyn Monroe wasn’t a size two. Neither is Jennifer Lawrence or Be-yonce or Kelly Clarkson. They all still have a lot of fans, right? If they don’t feel the need to be a size two, then neither should you.

“I like to stay at home and watch the world series.”

Sakif Hossain, sophomore

Closing ACT gap at the high school is not the most effective strategy; start at younger grades

Recognize impact of word ‘bully’

Legalize marijuana to stop violence

Losing weight through extreme measures can be fatal

Kristyn BakerDavid Clinkinbeard

Karl DrownPatrick Falcone

Vincent GossKarl Harmon

Jordan HatleyColten Kirk

Josh KohlsKasey Morris

Mallory MorrisMegan Ritthisorn

Jeremy RomigZane Smith

Austin Tatum

EDITORS:Liz Logback, Editor-in-Chief/Trending

Maddie Ross, News EditorSarah Shi, Opinions/Content Editor

Dheepthi Perumal, Entertainment EditorNick Bandy, Sports Editor

Michael Melgares, Assistant Sports EditorConnor Bliss, Features Editor

Kennedy Felice; Danielle Cook, Copy EditorsAlan Brown, Multimedia Editor

Tracy Le, Graphic DesignerAllison Olsen, Photo Editor

STAFF WRITERS/PHOTOGRAPHERS:Matt Bandy

Kristen BatsonRachel BeachGage Benne

Kelsey CrawfordDiana Chilton

Chris KlugRetta Lazaris

Madeline MarshallMadison Newman

CIRCULATION:The Mentor

OTHER:Jerry Sextro, Business Manager

Kristy Nyp, AdviserEric and Lisa Ross, Caterers

The Mentor is published each Tuesday that school is in session at Manhattan High School, 2100 Poyntz Ave. Manhattan, Kan. Telephone (785) 587-2114. More than 1,500 Mentors are printed each week and distrib-uted free of charge to all faculty members and students. MHS journalists are members of the Scholastic Press Association. The Men-tor is an open forum that accepts contribu-tions from the public. E-mail us at mhsmen-tor@gmail.com.

Halsey Camera, Cartoonist

Entertainment The Mentor www.mhsmentor.com Page 3

Orchestra’s concert: a sign of good things to comeMadeline Marshallstaff writer

On Oct.17, the first con-cert for a rejuvenated Man-hattan High School Orches-tra took place.

“The concert went really well. I think they played as well as I would have hoped for them to play,” new direc-tor Nate McClendon said.

The concert consisted of music by composer Tchaik-ovsky, as well as other mu-sic. There was also a sight-reading portion, a first time experience for this orches-tra, in which they played a song they had never seen before.

“I like to put students un-der pressure,” McClendon said. “I like to make them face an obstacle and have to overcome it. Sight read-ing, for musicians, is a huge skill that you need to have. Being able to sight read well allows the group to be better because you start at a higher level.”

According to McClendon, sight reading also helps in real-life situations that stu-dents may face in the future and helps educate students and parents.

“Sight reading at the con-cert is a way to add some pressure to that educational concept of having to sight-read. As a professional musi-

cian, I show up to gigs, having never seen the music. And I have to play it right the first time, because if I don’t I’m not going to get hired again,” McClendon said. “There’s something about being held accountable at that level, and this is my way of doing that for the students. Its also edu-cational for parents, because they never hear what we sound like until the finished product is presented. Its as much taking them through the process as us. They get to witness what a classroom situation is like for us. So it’s educational all the way around.”

Another new addition to the concert was concertmas-

ter Arnav Das. As a sopho-more, it can be rather daunt-ing leading a group.

“It’s pretty cool,” Das said, “because you get to lead the orchestra and you have to run sectionals, but it can be kind of weird leading students who are older than you. You have to be in charge of all of these upperclassmen and its even more awkward when I have to look up at them, just to tell them how to do something.”

“I really appreciate what Arnav has done,” McClen-don said. “I handed him the professional transcription, the real part written for the Tchaikovsy piece, which was super difficult, and I gave it

to him three weeks ago, so he only had three weeks to prepare.”

“It was pretty difficult be-cause it was a hard solo, but it was also really fun,” Das said.

“It [the solo] was beyond his ability,” McClendon said. “It asked him to use tech-niques that he’s never done before. It’s important for me as a teacher to find mu-sic and find situations that stretch every single person in my class. And for Arnav, I gave him that specifically to stress him.”

This situation didn’t just help Das grow as a musician, it helped the rest of the or-chestra as well.

“It made him see human to everyone else. Because when we practiced that, we heard him make some awful noises. We laughed and joked saying things like, ‘see, Arnav’s human after all.’ But the differ-ence is after three weeks, he sounds like he did per-forming, which was great. Which tells you that that’s a kid who goes home and practices. So if you want to sound like that, or get from here to here, you have to practice, and everybody’s in the same boat. No one is special, Arnav isn’t special, he can’t just automatically do everything right.”

Marching Band’s superhero show receives ‘super’ ratingsMadeline Marshallstaff writer

Yesterday, the marching band took part in the High Plains Marching Festival, hosted by Fort Hays State University, where their wor-ries were put to rest, as their super hero themed show re-ceived, well, super reviews.

The pressure has been on for this reportedly young band, who has had a long history of Division I ratings.

“The youngness of the band has affected the band a great deal,” director Joel Gittle said. “We have great stu-dents in leadership positions this year. The issue I have right now with the youth of the group is a lot of retention issues. So there’s a lot of re-teaching and bringing people up to speed with the style we play with.”

The group went a very different route than last year, whose performance

was meant to be more emo-tional. This year’s perfor-mance is planned to feature superheroes (and villains) such as Indiana Jones, Spi-derman, Darth Vader and more. It is one of the most theatrical pieces the group has done, featuring dramatic head turns, shouting and cos-tumes.

“I hope we’re ready. We’ve been working all year for this festival,” Gittle said before the performance.

“I’m a little worried about our costume changes, be-cause we haven’t practiced that yet. And I just hope that we’ll be ready for that and everything will go smoothly,” senior Sammi Grieger said.

The band has spent the first quarter of the year pre-paring for this moment.

“I think that our band practiced a lot, and sections have been working really hard during sectionals,” ju-nior Krista Dix said.

“We’ve made sure to be musically prepared, and we’ve also worked really hard in rehearsal on the marching stuff,” Grieger said.

“We can always be more prepared, though, and ev-eryone’s going to have dif-ferent thoughts on what we could do better,” Dix said.

Despite their worries, the band came out with a Divi-sion I rating, which is the highest rating possible. In order to gain this rating, all

of the judges must give good ratings on everything from their footing to their show-manship.

“I’m really happy for the band,” Gittle said immediate-ly after the rating announce-ments. He, like others, was a little flustered, and definitely excited.

“I had a lot of fun, and I’m really proud of what we’ve accomplished this year,” Dix said.

Top: Nate McClendon talks to the audience after the completion of the concert. The concert consisted of music by composer Tchaikovsky as well as other musicians.Left: Sophomore Arnav Das leads the group as the concertmaster. Das was challenged by the solo McClendon gave him, but this situa-tion helped Das adn the rest of the orchestra as well.

Diana Chilton, photographer

Graphic by Tracy Le and Maddie Ross

Connor BlissFeatures Editor

Mid-fall usually means the Chiefs should be setting records for losing and Kansas State should be crushing their opponents. While this year none of that is true, one tradition still remains constant -- some television shows are getting cancelled, others are getting or-ders for a full season, and some even getting a second.

Let’s start on a positive note on the shows that got full season orders. “Agents of Shield” was picked up for a full season as soon as the first episode debuted to monster ratings of 11.9 million. Ratings have been slipping since the premiere but are still relatively high at 7.1, “Shield” has not been renewed for a second season yet but I expect it will.

Seth MacFarlane’s new show “Dads” was not received critically well at all with a 0 per-cent on Rotten Tomatoes and faced some con-troversy after the first trailer which showed outright racism. But the show has done well considering and has been hovering around

3.6 million and has gotten the full season or-der.

Now for the chopping block for what got cancelled. “Lucky 7” turned out to not have its title on its side after being cancelled after two episodes. While it was not incredibly well received critically it didn’t fare as poorly as “Dads” but that didn’t help it from getting pulled after two episodes.

“We are Men” suffered the same fate of only two episodes and wasn’t able to keep the audience from “Two and a half Men” around. The audiences seem to know the difference between good and bad television as no show with a “fresh” rating have met the chopping block.

This year’s television season has proven how brutal it is out there in the business of television. More television space is filled with reruns in waiting for the spring debuts, which will include “Community” back with Dan Har-mon and “Psych” kicking off with a musical. Here’s to hoping for more good television that will stay on the air.

Television shows hanging by a threadTelevision shows hanging by a thread

Candy Count

Trending The Mentor www.mhsmentor.com page 6

MM

M

M

M

M

MM

M

$25

a scary good season

Troll 2

“Troll 2” is a laughably terrible movie and that’s why you need to see it. The title is thrown out of the window immediately as the trolls are identified as goblins. It’s a cliche vacation out to the country town of Nilbog (goblin spelled back-wards). The son, Joshua Waits, starts to see his dead grandfather around in mirrors. He warns Josh-ua of the goblins and not to eat the food. The food turns the humans into plants for their consumption since the goblins are vegetarians. The only way to beat vegetarians, of course, is to eat meat in front of them, which is exactly how they are defeated as Joshua bites into a “double decker Bologna sandwich”.

Spoofs can be really annoying and with trying to make fun of cliches they tend to add to the problem, but “Shaun of the Dead" ventures away from this and is very origi-nal. “Shaun of the Dead” belongs to the Cornetto trilogy of films all written by Edgar Wright who directs them all and Simon Pegg who stars in them, along with Nick Frost. I hate to say favorite but Ed-gar Wright is my favorite director and his quick modern cuts and the shots he chose make the camera a star. While “Shaun of the Dead” maybe my least favorite of the tril-ogy, that’s not saying much consid-ering how great the next two are.

Shaun of the Dead

None of these choices are really that scary, but “Alien” really nails it in this department by doing bet-ter than Alfred Hitchcock did at his own philosophy, “There is no ter-ror in the bang, only in the antici-pation of it.” I found myself getting drawn in and becoming calm only to find my chair rocking seconds later. The special effects hold up quite well despite coming out in 1979. They do suffer however in the large panoramic space scenes but I found myself repulsed by the Alien. While I doubt I’ll have nightmares because of “Alien” it’s still a must-watch for fans of the genre and deserves your eyes.

Halloween’s top-selling candy is candy corn. Americans purchase

over 20million pounds of it a

year.

Annual Halloween consumer spending

is $7 billion.

The average amount spent on candy per family is

$21.05.47% of people munch the whole corn at once.

11% of people start eating the corn on the yellow base.

43% of people eat the white tip first.

Americans purchase

nearly 600 million pounds of candy a year for Hallow-een.

Snickers is the

2nd most popluar candy.

90 million pounds of chocolate candy is sold during Halloween week.

Products of statistics gathered by USA Today

and the National Confectioner’s Association.

Halloween’s sweets number by number

The New York Daily News researched and re-leased a list of the most popular halloween cos-tumes. Coming in number one is Miley Cyrus’ outift from the VMAs. Second place is Jesse from “Breaking Bad” and third is the minon from “Dispi-cable Me.” “What does the fox say?” places fourth.

Hottest costumesof 2013

$88

$49$23

Best and worst of horror movies

The Birds

“The Birds” is not really the scari-est movie you’ll see in the theatres but it’s when you walk outside that you start to notice all the flocks of bird around and realize somewhere deep in the depths of your mind that maybe this could happen. “The Birds” is an Alfred Hitchcock film from the 1960s chronicling the tale of birds all-out war on humanity. While the exposition is incredibly long, Hitchcock is constantly mak-ing you aware of the impending doom and glimpses of foreshad-owing pop up all over the place. When the attacks start it has its fair share of blondes screaming but also brings in some good emo-tions which is rare for the genre.

The Birds

Reviewed by Connor Bliss

Trick or Treating forecast

Clear and 41°Evening:

Sunset: 6:26 p.m.Chance of rain: 0%Humidity: 60%Winds: WNW 4mph

Daytime:

Sunrise: 7:53 a.m.Chance of rain: 60%Humidity: 61%Winds: WNW 12 mph

Alien

Graphics by Liz Logback, photos courtesy of nydailnews.com

Graphics by Liz Logback, Tracy Le and Dhepepthi Perumal

Horror movies aren’t few and far between but few of them venture out of cli-ché territory and the ones that do don’t always do it with success. I wanted to choose movies from a wide girth of genres that coexist within the horror genre. These movies don’t necessarily represent the top horror movies of all time but definitely deserve you sitting in a dark room with a bag of popcorn in your lap.