With big hopes and big ambitions, our Beta Club members made their way all the way from Brunswick County to Greensboro for the North Carolina State Beta Convention! At the convention, our fellow Betas competed in competitions ranging from engineering to scrapbooking to cake decorating. Many of them placed in their competition, but they all had a blast and created new amazing memories. 

Those who are unfamiliar with North Carolina’s State Beta Convention, it is a meeting of Beta Clubs across the state who came together and competed against each other in different categories. One of the competitions is running for the position of North Carolina’s official State Beta President which Junior Levi Spencer ran for. Although he did not win, he still had a wonderful time and said, “Beta Convention is a gathering of family… It is a family of the best and that’s what makes it so much fun.” 

While Spencer was campaigning, others such as Junior Jennifer Zheng were pulling all-nighters to finish their projects. Zheng competed in Fiber Arts and through her incredible hard work she won first place and the award Best In Show for Visual Arts Division II. When asked her favorite part of the convention she of course said winning, but also stated, “it was really fun and exciting spending time and exploring with all of my friends, competing, and seeing amazing art projects from other schools.” 

Not only was Zheng champion of her competition, but so was Junior Giuliana Migliosi for Engineering along with her peers: Juniors Edgar CerrilloTranquilino, Abraham Dominguez, Rodrigo HernandezZamorano, and Talia Sawchuk. Migliosi said she loved using her creativity in engineering with her friends, but hated how short the convention was and wished it was longer. 

Beta Convention is not just about competing in competitions and running campaigns. It is about spending time with your friends and forming new bonds with your club mates. The Beta Club President Angel DerasAlvardo would agree due to his statement, “my favorite part of convention is always the night before we leave, because everyone gathers in one room and spends time with each other.” 

As for Sophomore Lydia Laux, being an underclassmen at Beta Convention means being a sponge. She stated, “You have to soak in the good experiences that you hear from upperclassmen because it gives you the reassurance that it’s going to be a great time.” It was her first time at convention and after hearing the stories from upperclassmen and experiencing it herself, she can thoroughly say it will not be her last convention. 

In conclusion, Beta Convention is an exciting adventure full of friendship and competitiveness. It is something that all attendees will look back on fondly and as Miglisosi stated, “if you are able to attend Beta Convention then you should absolutely go for it!”

On January 31, BCECHS’s Beta Club triumphantly made their way to compete for Living Literature with their breathtaking rendition of Narnia. With only one hour to set up they put everything in place and the final touch, our living literature team dressed as the curious kids from this otherworldly land. 

Three of the team members will graduate this year so they put in as much work as they possibly could to make their last Beta convention count. With a strong group of around seven people and over 100 hours of work that they had put in, the only thing left to do was to be judged and wait for the results. After what seemed like forever the results came in and …. Narnia has been placed in fifth place and on the scoreboard, this is the first year our school has had the joy of placing in this category.

Construction of this magical scene started around September and the work didn't end until it was time to go. It was dutifully led by Josie Tharp and Kaleigh Aull and many other students throughout the club contributed to create the display. The scene that was picked out of the first book is when the children are making their way through the wardrobe for the first time and encounter this strange world. On one side there is the dark room, and on the other side is a magical winter wonderland. Josie says that the hardest part of it is “to have a strong cohesive set because unfortunately we don't have the largest budget compared to other schools so we have to put in lots of work to try and make up for it”.

For those who are graduating this year was special to them in a different way, for example Kaleigh. Beta has been such an impactive thing for many as she says, “I started out three years ago making props and this year I worked my way up to being in charge so I am very sad to have to leave it”. Many of the members have been a part of this competition since the start of their Beta journey, and to leave with a sweet note of placing is the best thing that could have happened for them.

In conclusion, this year's convention was a special moment for those who competed in living literature, whether they have been working with the team for years or if this was their first. Alex Sellers said his favorite part was, “being able to be with my friends was a big part of living literature and seeing everything come together made all the work worth it."

Our school's Beta Club organized and hosted the 2024 Fall Festival on October 29 from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM. Many students attended the Fall Festival and not just students from our school but many students from other schools whether that be siblings of students who attend our school or friends from other schools. There was a broad range of activities students could participate in there were many games such as bowling, and a paper fishing game. 

There was also entertainment such as pumpkin painting and trunk or treating. There were also food trucks at the Fall Festival which included, 2bros coastal cuisine who sell a variety of food from wraps to sandwiches, Old South Pretzel which had many different pretzel flavors like cinnamon sugar and garlic parmesan Old South Pretzel is also ran and owned by one of our very own students Charles McMillan, the final food truck that was there was Beach Tyme Sweets who sell sweet frozen treats like ice cream and popsicles. 

Some of our schools clubs had their own stands at the festival, for example our schools book club were selling books but they had a fun twist on it called “Blind Date With a Book” where they had books wrapped up with the genre of book and age range on the book written on the wrapper. I thought that this was a very unique twist and could get many people interested in reading and was a great way to promote their club. 

There were many unique costumes at the Fall Festival from inflatable dinosaurs, video game characters, and even movie and tv show characters like Charlie Brown and Marcie from “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” which Students Ariel Rivenbark and Brayden Mayberry dressed up as Many of the cars for trunk or treating were decorated for Halloween and some had a theme based off of Halloween movies. There was also music that was playing near the stands that the clubs had set up where there were many people in their costumes dancing.  

I attended last year's Fall Festival as well and there was a lot more engagement in this one compared to the last one. I saw more costumes, decorated cars, and a wider variety of entertainment. Beta club did an amazing job this year and had a lot of improvement compared to last year.