FHS Human Interests

By Jonta Brown

The Eco Club is a club at Firestone High School, run by Mr. Zuren. They meet in room 210 every other Monday and Wednesday after school.   They meet to talk about how to better the environment for the earth and human society. They are going to help the environment by stopping the sewage from getting into people’s homes.

By Agatha Llewellyn

Justin Barnes and Rylan Garden are the two representatives for the Firestone Cross Country team who spoke for the 2022 activity fair. They each run for the team, and enjoy it very much. Justin Barnes' main goal for the team is to bring people together, and to have a good time. They run every day after school at Akron Metro Parks. They train for the meets which are held every Saturday at different locations and go on for about 3-4 hours.  If a new teammate were to join, they would let you know the location before for the practice or meet. Though, if someone wants to join they should email Ms. Scahffer or Mr. Heard letting them know they are interested.  

By Nae'Mari Lawson-Milliner

Platform Club is run by Maeva Lile and  Ms. Wilson is actually the monitor of the club. The club is mainly about teaching students about social issues, topics that relate to the teenage world, and hearing others point of views. After each presentation they’ll have a healthy discussion about the topic. While talking to Maeva Lile she quoted.  “I like to hear lots about people’s point of views and also educating myself.” She also stated that “you get to engage with your peers and have healthy discussions. Lile gives a breakdown on what’s the goal of this club she states,”the purpose of Platform is to give students a space to share their voices with their peers. We want to educate each other on issues through student and outside presenters.” If you’re interested in participating in the Platform Club you can visit their website @https://sites.google.com/view/platformfhs and follow them on Instagram @platform.fhs. Also email them to @platform.fhs@gmail.com

The meetings start after school in room 206.

By Lili Hale

When students join the club, they will be able to choose a role within the club based on their skills and interests. Those roles include builder/designer, programmer, logger, driver, and coach. President Ethan Rosati states that “Members of the club are not limited to these specific roles; it is possible, and quite common, that a single individual may fill multiple roles on a team, such as simultaneously being a builder and a driver.” Throughout a member’s time in the club, they are guided and taught how to do and understand different things. Firestone High School has been exceedingly competitive throughout the past few years in the robotics field. Being so competitive, a goal of the club is that they hope to qualify all of their varsity teams for the State Competition in March, and a few for the World Competition in May. The club is an opportunity for people to meet other people and connect with them because of their interests. The Vex Robotics club is also a great way for students to not only build friendships but learn and gain team-working skills and confidence. 

By Breonna Porter

The anime club is a Firestone High school club run by Mr. Zuren; a history teacher, and Esther Lamb; a senior at Firestone, and president of the anime club. The club is for students that have interest in watching, drawing, reading, playing games, and talking all about anime. It is meant to be a safe space that encourages students to be more open about their interests. “One of our goals is to take away the stigma of having an interest in anime being seen as weird.” Esther Lamb stated in an interview at the Activity Fair.  Meetings are every Wednesday after school until 5:30 held in rooms 206 for anime, and switch to 210 for games. Esther Lamb and Myliyah Phok encourage any students interested in attending. If interested, contact Mr. Zuren or Ms. Wilson. 

By Serenity Shinn

ACE (Architecture- Construction- Engineering) is a free after school program open to any highschool student who has the curiosity and drive to learn different career paths. Usually you’ll get to meet various people throughout different industries. ACE has flexible hours to work with students. So if you have to work or you have an emergency then it’s ok to miss a meeting. ACE has all types of opportunities like, if your a senior you can have a chance to earn scholarships for colleges all around America. They strive to excite, and enlighten high schoolers to pursue careers in the ACE field through mentoring. Also they want to help bring a large, diverse, and willingly prepared workforce. The advisors are Mrs, Hackett, Mr.Dave, and Mr.Wood. Meetings start in October, on every other thursday from 3:30pm- 5:30pm. The program ends in April 2023. The opportunities are endless. Being able to meet professionals and learn from their work is great and enlightening. So sign up and take those steps to your bright future. 

By Janiya Jennings and Tyshiea Johnson

A canned food drive takes place at Firestone High School every year, where there’s competition between each grade of students, to see who can bring in the most cans. Mrs.Tausz, a teacher at Firestone High School, is the advisor for the Canned food drive. Students have the opportunity to bring cans, ramen noodles which were either ½ can or two ramen noodles equal to a can, and even cash donations which 2 cans equal a dollar. Each grade had a teacher in charge who collected the cans and kept count. For the seniors, Mrs.Tausz was in charge and the seniors had about 2,700 cans. Mrs. Rogers was in charge of the juniors and they had about 1,700 cans. Mrs. Powell was in charge of the sophomores and they had 180 cans. Last but not least, Mrs. Geiser was in charge of freshmen and they had about 85 cans, with all of those numbers including cans and cash donations. Seniors win the canned food drive every year! When asked Mrs. Tausz, Has there ever been a year where the seniors didn’t win the canned food drive?  she said, “The seniors have not lost in the 21 years I have been the advisor. Despite contrary belief the seniors do not cheat.  The seniors have the most to lose by not winning so if they believe they are losing they will come in full force with cans.” There have been a couple of times where the Freshmen came close to winning because there are more of them than any other class.

 “The last two years the juniors have been a huge threat to a senior win,” said Mrs. Tausz. There is also a first and second place prize for whichever grades wins the canned food drive. The best way to provide at least a decent donation to the community is for there to be a competition. This canned food drive helps the community a lot.

By Nadia Edgar

BFF:

• Bluetooth speaker

• Books

• Hat (Baseball hat, beanie, cowboy)

• Homemade cookies

• Journal

• Mad libs

• Record

• Room decorations (Lights, blankets, pillows, wall decorations, pictures)

• Scrapbook

• Video game / board game

Significant Others:

• Camera

• Cedar Point season pass

• Chocolate

• Concert tickets

• Flowers

• Gift card

• Initial jewelry (necklace, bracelet, earring, ring)

• Matching pajamas

• Movie tickets

• Perfume/cologne

• Sweatshirt

Mom:

• Blanket

• Candle

• Gift card to get nails done

• Make/buy food

• Pajama set

• Picture

• Slippers

• Spa kit

Dad:

• Back massager

• Beard kit

• Cheese balls

• Fishing kit

• Mug and coffee

• Socks

• Wallet

• Water bottle

Siblings:

• Board game

• Gag gift

• Legos (younger siblings)

• LOL surprise (younger siblings)

• Portable charger (older sibling)

• Squishmallow

By Ava Harper and Lillith Hale

Happy holidays, Falcons! For this holiday season, try making student diversity your new focus. Student diversity is a necessity when it comes to building a stable community here at Firestone CLC. So, give a warm welcome to this variety of teachers, and their traditions for the holidays! 

Out of all of our lovely teachers, only a handful was interviewed. This handful included Mr. Geiser, Mr. Zuren, Ms. Thomas, Coach D, Ms. Denise, Mr. Shaun, Ms. Cooper, Mr. Jarosz, and Mr. Wallen. All of these teachers were asked what they celebrate, how they celebrate it, and what the meaning behind it is to them. As you may have guessed, almost every single one of these teachers collectively agreed that Christmas is about family. Some of these participants had special traditions for the holidays. For example, Mr. Shaun said, “My family for the past thirty-seven years have been getting together on Christmas Eve to sing Christmas carols, and we have a signature meal that we eat: Sweet and sour chicken wings, and rice pilaf.” Not to mention Coach D’s answer, she said, “I had a really really nice Christmas as a kid, so Christmas time is really special to me just in general. I like decorating my house and putting my dogs in matching pajamas with me and then we take a picture together. I always go and get an ornament from the mall… so normally I get an ornament made for me and all my dogs.” When it comes to the holidays, most students think that holiday break is just a blessing for them, when it's really a fun fulfilling - or should it be food-filling - celebration for all of Firestones staff. 

Continuing on,when Ms. Cooper was interviewed, she had a different answer. She said, “We don’t traditionally, like, do the whole Christmas thing. We used to but after my dad past... So, we don’t do it traditionally anymore. You know, as you get older you kind of change. The main part now about Christmas is about family being together and we might do a gift exchange, but usually what we just do is turn on movies, eat some food, and just celebrate that we’re together.” Ms. Denise had a family heartfelt answer aswell. She said, “Well, Christmas is my dads birthday, so we celebrate his birthday and christmas all in one. It ain’t about, you know, presents and all that. It’s just a blessing, you know?” She makes the point that Christmas isn’t about all the material things like presents and decorations, it’s just about getting together to celebrate eachother. As I’m sure you can tell, the majority of our teachers seem to celebrate Christmas. Although a few teachers celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah. This includes Mr. Zuren, who when asked how he celebrates Christmas and Hanukkah he replied “Eating a lot of food.” Similarly celebrating two holidays this holiday season is Mr. Jarosz. When asked about how he celebrates, he says, “We all like good food, we all like to bake. So, we all bring a variety of foods and cookies and different things and it’s fun just to be with family; just chill.” 

To finish off, heres a few more quotes from our teachers. Mr Geiser said, “Get together with family, we read the bible story of Jesus’s birth, exchange gifts, have a big meal with family, and yeah that’s pretty much it.” For a special way she celebrates Christmas, Ms. Thomas said, “Usually we sleep in, which is nice, and then we get up and we open our presents, and then we usually make a big breakfast, and we sit around in our pajamas until we have to get dressed, and then, we go over to my parents house and we have Christmas with them, and we usually stay over there for Christmas dinner… Oh! We play games that night, we play cards, and you know, balderdash and goofy stuff like that.” Last but of course not least, Mr Wallen said, “It’s a crazy time with my family… there are twelve kids and my two parents so we’re all packed into the house, but it’s a lot of fun to get to spend time with them. Especially because a lot of us are adults now, I don’t see them except every other year.” This wraps up our teacher and staff spotlight of the Firestone Christmas spirit.