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Student Spotlight: Ben Mega and Trent Neiman By Erica Patterson Staff Writer

If there’s anyone at Freeman who loves math with a hot and fiery pas-sion, it would have to be juniors Ben Mega and Trent Neiman. These two friends have participated in Math is Cool since the 5th grade (placing second at state) and love to en-tertain themselves with math problems when given the chance. Luckily for them, a new opportu-nity has arrived.

“I’ve loved math for as long as I can remember,” Mega said. “I enjoy the challenge of trying to solve a problem that seems impossible.” As for Neiman, Mega has been a big influence on his love of math.

“I’ve liked math ever since I met Ben,” Neiman said. “He introduced me to advanced math con-cepts and after that, I have always been inter-ested in learning new concepts and striving for the answer.”

Mega and Neiman both discovered a special math program being held at the University of Washington in Seattle, where they will spend 6 weeks of their summer doing math. Along with the boys, 23 other math lovers will spend 4 days a

week doing what they love most.

“I have always liked math and I’m pretty good at it, so I thought this would be a good chance to broaden my horizons,” Neiman said. “Also, it’s a very unique chance to get to meet people.” Mega saw a similar reason to get involved.

“I saw this as a great way to learn more maths and to make myself stand out during my college ap-plications,” Mega said.

From the sounds of it, this program isn’t some-thing everyone can just walk into. Requirements, including good grades and math skills, must be met in order to be accepted. Although Neiman’s accep-tance is pending, Mega received the good news and is happy that all his hard work payed off.

“I had to write a 1 page essay and do 8 math problems,” Mega said. “These problems took me 2 months and took 25 pages to explain them.”

As far as the boys’ goals for the program, they hope to achieve every single one of them and to do the best they can.

“I hope to learn a new way of looking at math,” Mega said. “I want to be-come better at math for both my competitions and

the SAT.” Even though Neiman is unaware if he has been accepted, he still has goals in mind.

“If I get accepted into this program, I hope to learn math on a new level,” Neiman said. “Since I am good at math, I would like to think this experience could help make me great at math.”

Since Mega and, hope-fully, Neiman will be spending 6 weeks of their summer away from home, they plan to make the best of their time while in Seattle.

“We plan to run every morning and to keep in shape for cross country,” Mega said. “We would also visit both his and my family.”

Neiman has very simi-lar plans with his friend while they roam the town.

“Well, hopefully we can cruise the town like rebels without causes, but that goes without saying,” Neiman said. “Otherwise, I think we might attend a Mariner’s game, visit some family and just re-main active.”

Whether they are running through the streets of Seattle, visiting family, or being the rebels they are, it seems these two will be having fun with the math program and achieving goals they have set just for the occa-sion. Best of wishes for Mega and Neiman for their mathematical fu-tures!

Photo by Erica Patterson Ben Mega and Trent Neiman give a “thoughtful” pose.

Environmental Club recycling program; camping on agenda

This year the Freeman Conservation Club is finishing up an e-waste drive in which used or broken iPods, cell phones, and laptops are recycled to reuse many of their heavy metals and toxic substances.

“The club is also continuing to run the school recycling program in which we recycle all paper products, plastic bottles, and aluminum cans,” said advi-sor John Hays. On Saturday April 24th, the club hosted a composing booth at the earth day celebration. In June, they are gearing up for a three day backpacking trip to Heart Lake in the great burn wilderness area in the Montana Bitterroot Mountains.

By Terin Saylor Staff Writer

Photo courtesy of http://www.fotothing.com/photos

The Environmental Club will head to Heart Lake, MT this June for a camping trip. Photo courtesy of http://cellphones.org/

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The FCCLA (Family, Ca-reer and Community Leaders of America) have been gracious enough to raise money for the Sally House this year. The Sally House is a housing facil-ity for school-aged children, and gives them some where to stay while before they were in rough situations with abusive parents or other hard times.

First the FCCLA held a penny drive which raised about $1,400 and then they made “ug”dorable dolls which made about $1,500 for charity. An-other on-going fundraiser that is still going on is the spirit wraps (large Scottie blankets) for $45. If you are interested in purchasing a wrap you could pick up the form in any of the offices or online. You could also contact Mrs. Fees at jfees@freemansd.org.

“FCCLA is really focused on mainly community service and families,” said Jennifer Fees, FCCLA adviser. “This is a great organization that fo-cuses on the community. It is also a great way for students to work and finish their senior projects. And it is also a great way to focus on the commu-nity.”

Around the holidays, the FCCLA does many community

services projects. They go to the mall and they volunteer for the Tree of Sharing. During that time, they are wrapping presents and they are making donations. They also volunteer at the Santa Express which raises money for The Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery. While the club members staff the store dressed as Santa’s little helpers. At school, they help raise money for Freeman fami-lies who are having a rough time during the holidays by selling candy cane grams.

A group of ten students from the FCCLA attended the regional S.T.A.R (Students Taking Action for Recognition) competition. All of the competi-tors took 2 silver stars. They needed 3 gold stars to move onto state.

The following students par-ticipated in the competition: sophomores Jacky Smith, Lindsey Nordby, and Ashley Lamb did a Community Ser-vice Project Display about the Sally’s House coin drive in Rockford. Sophomore Taylar Franz designed her own cloth-ing line; she created her own pattern and sewed a complete outfit. Senior Olivia Casto, and freshmen Jacob Dixon and Levi Pereira made a display board and presentation about the Sally’s House coin drive at

all three Free-man schools. Sophomore Joh-nie Jessen was an evaluator at the competition, as was freshman Claire Hulse. Sophomore Lindsey Tibbetts designed a job interview portfo-lio and completed an interview with the Free-man Early Learning Center.

FCCLA: Caring For The Community By Carlie Dickson Staff Writer

Photo courtesy of Jennifer Fees

FCCLA poses for the camera with happy smiles at the Stars event

Photo courtesy of Jennifer Fees

‘UG’ Dorable dolls waiting to be bought to help sup-port Sally’s House Fundraiser

FFA is one club that is of-ten over-looked, but deserves more credit. They have to drive farther than any other club just to practice. These stu-dents are spending time and money just working on the per-fect shot. Many students think that all you have to do is go out and shoot a gun to compete in FFA, but it’s so much more than that.

Trap shooting is not the only part of FFA, there is also Junior Livestock. Members spend countless hours training their hog or steer to perform perfectly.

Juniors Steven Sainsbury and Garret Johnson have the technique down. During prac-tice, it’s not uncommon for one of these two boys to shine.

“Garret and Steven are both consistent,” said junior Evan Magers. “They have the top two averages throughout the season.”

“I have been trap shooting since my freshman year,” said Johnson. “This year, I have constantly been placing first, second, and third in competi-tions.

Having to be ready to shoot

at 5:45 in the morning isn’t any cup of tea. With their eyes hardly open, it’s difficult to see that small target, but somehow these boys make it work. A trap competition includes teams with five shooters shoot-ing fifty rounds.

“My favorite part is being around friends and giving each other a hard time,” said Sains-bury. “Of course I like the com-petitions too and winning awards is always nice.”

“FFA is hard, but fun,’’ said sophomore Paxton Spence. “It’s so rewarding to finally nail the shot that you have been working on. It’s one sport that you can actually see your hard work pay off.”

This year Freeman’s FFA trap shooting team took first at state. These boys came out on top by far. Great job this sea-son boys. We wish you the best of luck in future competitions.

FFA Junior Livestock is no walk in the park either. Stu-dents buy their steer or hogs back in October and that’s where the work starts.

“All these kids put in so much time and that’s what I want people to realize,” said advisor Patrick Munstedt. “If everyone could come out and

FFA Trap wins state; Junior Livestock show coming By McKenzie Setter Staff Writer

Photo courtesy of Evan Magers Trapshooting members of FFA look strong for the camera

try and show your steer or hog then you would realize how hard it really is.”

Their next fitting and showing is May 6 and 7 at the Spokane Fair Grounds. Thurs-day is confirmation and Friday is fitting and showing.

“The kids will start setting up on Tuesday and will be there until Sunday,” said Munstedt.

“They all have been spend-ing a lot of time with their ani-mals the last four to six weeks working on walking, set up, not to run around, tie up to post and not let the animal be jittery. It’s hard work.” Photo courtesy of Evan Magers

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Prom: A night to remember

For more photos, go to Ms. Longinotti’s school website for the picture link.