Nesting with Community

Math Class Birdhouses

By: Jake Heitman

Here at HHIHS we strive to not just do well in the classroom, but take what we’ve learned in the classroom and apply it outside of school and implement it into our local community. Multiple HHIHS classes filled with eager students did just that when they did a cross-curricular project where they made birdhouses and gave them to a local retirement community. Mrs. Scharfenberg, HHIHS Math teacher, explains what exactly the project was. 

“Some HHIHS students from Math and Art classes took part in the cross-curricular project ‘Geometry is of the Birds’. This is where students built and designed birdhouses to give to residents in a retirement community.” is how she explained the project. 

When asked what classes made the bird houses she responded, “The bird houses were made by my class, Mrs. Cassidy’s, Mr. Williams, Ms. Taylor’s, Mr. Ali’s Geometry classes, as well as Mrs. Dobelaire’s 4th block art class.”

“About 50 birdhouses were created, and they all looked incredible through the students' application of math.” 

Where did these birdhouses go? “The birdhouses were given to residents at the Village Cove retirement community, and they couldn’t be happier!” Is how Mrs. Scharfenberg responded.

“Having the students make the birdhouses helps me as a teacher see how students are going to be using math in the future and helps me see how they're going to apply it to everyday life and not just in class.”, is how Mrs. Schafenberg responded when asked why she liked the project so much. 

Overall, the “Geometry is for Birds” community project has provided students with nothing but good times and a way to give back to their local community through what they’ve learned in class.

Food Drive

By: Samanta Garcia 

For the two days that students at Hilton Head Island High School had until their break for Thanksgiving the NJROTC program decided to allow students to wear pajamas for donating two cans for those two days. During those two days kids showed school spirit and lined up to donate their two cans. NJROTC Instructor Commander Pheiffer will discuss more about it.

Over 1,500 donations were made during those two days, all the donations went to Deep Well Project, a social service agency giving aid with food, medicine and more.

“It was my idea, we normally do it for the drive but there had been a few years for whatever reason we didn’t, but I said we need to do it again so we took the ball and of course Mr. Schidrich asked if we could coordinate a school drive for people to participate in,” said Commander. 

Even though the ROTC instructors and cadets helped other teachers as well, “Ms. Dobbelaere was amazing. She constructed a design in which she used the cans and boxes to make a very whimsical design in the lobby which were a pumpkin pie and cupcakes.” 

Many teachers also donated or contributed to spreading the word of the small spirit day, Ms. Scharfenberg a geometry teacher donated some cans, Ms. Spisz let the students know about the days by putting it on the school news that kids have to watch everyday. Art teachers also helped the cadets pack all the donations and put them in the truck. As well as Dr. Gray and Mrs. Austin for their support and guidance in the whole preparation.

HHIHS Reality Day

By: Jake Heitman

How much you’ll make, the amount of hours you work a week, or how much education you’ll need to pursue a certain career is all important information that a student must know before pursuing a career after high school. Allowing a student to visualize and truly understand what it takes to pursue a career after high school is an important attribute that we here at HHIHS take seriously, and we do this through our sophisticated Reality Day. Dr. Williams, the Career Development Facilitator, here at HHIHS, gives us more information about what exactly Reality Day is. 

“Reality Day is going to help students picture what a future career they're interested in would look like. We’ll bring in people from a variety of occupations to sit down with students and inform them about their day-to-day lives in their jobs. They’ll explain their salaries, workload, and how many hours they work a week. Overall, we as a faculty hope to give students the ability to see a potential future for themselves and give them the foundation to reach their full potential,” is what she had to say. 

When asked about when and where Reality Day is going to take place, she responded, “ Reality Day will be held this Friday, November 3rd, from 8:30-10:30 in the cafeteria here at HHIHS.”

“The biggest thing we want as a staff is for students to ask questions to the various people we bring in. Like ‘What type of school subjects do you use in your job?’ or ‘What type of education or training do you need to complete for this job and how can I get a head start?’ All the way to even ‘What do you like most about your job?’ Are all questions we encourage students to ask when at Reality Day.” Is what Dr. Williams had to say when asked what some good questions to bring up at the event were.

Reality Day is a big deal here at HHIHS and an event not to be missed. So come on by, ask questions, talk to people, and most importantly learn about the bright future that is in store for you.

                        Christmas Trees Sale   

By: Jada Green

Here at HHIHS Mountain Fresh Christmas tree and wreath sales and Fraser Fir Christmas trees will be sold on our high school softball field, opposite of the Island Rec Center. Sales will begin Tuesday, November 21, and the hours are 10 am-7:00 pm daily. 

The estimated prices for the Christmas trees and the wreaths are about $40-$100, according to Coach Payne. 

A portion of the sales from the christmas trees and wreaths benefits Hilton Head Island High School Athletics. According to Coach Payne “The school breaks down the funds between the football team, the basketball team, the softball team, and the chair of athletics gets a donation.” 

According to Coach Payne, “not all of the athletes help out with the trees and the wreaths sales, for example the softball team comes into play when they allow the company to use their field to set up the trees, and the football players help unload the trees, and help set them up.”

According to Coach Payne, “the sales of the Christmas trees and wreaths have been a tradition, for example it was set in stone before I got here. 

So if you are still in need of a Christmas tree please make your way toward HHIHS softball field to pick out a tree or a wreath from Mountain Fresh Christmas tree and wreath sales and Fraser Fir Christmas tree

Junior Leadership at HHIHS

By: Jake Heitman 

Ever since the dawn of time, there have been few among us who have stepped up to the plate in order to lead the way for others to accomplish an overarching goal. It can be like your Mom getting you and your siblings ready for school, or the captain of your sports team setting an example to the rest of the team and leading the way to win the game. Here at HHIHS we hope to cultivate leaders every day through Junior Leadership, so that we can create and inspire the leaders of tomorrow. Ketina Gomez, junior leadership member, explains exactly what junior leadership is.

“Junior leadership helps students hoping to become leaders define their goals with the hopes of recognizing what they have to offer. We do this through meeting community leaders, entrepreneurs, and professionals. It helps students get encouraged to form their own pathways and see how they as leaders can help accomplish their goals.”

When asked what the role of a junior leader is, she replied, “ Junior leaders do a lot, like learn how to plan daily tasks and activities, understand organizational skills, and most importantly, how to interact with peers and subordinates.”

“To be a good junior leader, you have to be someone who focuses on the solution and never the problem. You have to be a person who never focuses on the past and be someone who only focuses on the future because you can control that. Finally, and most importantly, you must have good decision-making skills and take accountability for your actions,” is how Ketina responded when asked what makes a good junior leader.

When asked how a student can become a member of the organization, she said, “A student wanting to join must be a junior and have a GPA of 2.5 or something equivalent to that level. You need a few references and you’ll need your parents, and a school administrator to sign off on your application.”

Junior Leadership has brought HHIHS a magnitude of leaders and provided them with the insight and inspiration to become the leaders of tomorrow, so that they can accomplish their goals and improve our community.

IB Science Classes Help Out the Community by Picking Up Trash

By: Mia Heitman 

Many students at Hilton Head High School like to participate in community service and help out within the area. On November 15th, the IB science classes participated in the IB Diploma Programme collaborative sciences project that combined learning about the ecosystem and community service. Mrs. Philips goes more into detail on what the classes did. 

Students from the IB Biology class and the IB Environmental Systems class worked together on a collaborative science project. Mrs. Philips says they studied things like “plant, bird, and insect identification, tracks of mammals, weather observations, and at the very end they did a litter clean up.” 

After conducting their studies, the two classes went around the HHIHS campus picking up and other litter that they found. After collecting all the trash, they brought the bags to the media center where Mrs. Andis layed out the bags. “The kids sorted out all of the plastic bottles, the metal, the paper, and so on. Then we tried to determine strategies to reduce further littering on our campus.” 

After the students sorted through the materials, Mrs. Philips took the trash down to the Solid Waste Recycle Center at the airport for proper disposal. 

Mrs. Philips believes it is important for her students to be environmentally aware and to“try and think about the ethical implications of their choices.” Biology and Environmental Systems both require students to be aware of the environment here on Hilton Head and this project helps students learn while also helping the community.

IBDP Judges Science Fair 

By: Ellie Mastrorocco

Ms. White’s IB Diploma Program students ventured over the IB Elementary School to judge a third grade science fair on November 13 and 14. IBDP seniors were given a rubric to score the students; categories ranged from project title to the data and procedure. Third graders would present their projects and IBDP students were able to ask open- ended questions for the kids to answer. Depending on their experiments and presentation, seniors ranked the projects from first to third, making sure to give out honorable mentions. Ultimately, every student would be rewarded with a prize, whether that be a first place prize or participation award. To surprise the seniors, the IB third graders made them cards, thanking them for taking their time to come judge the fair!

Filming for Charity

By: Lucy Morales

On November 10th, 2023, the Shriners Children's Hospital of Greenville hosted its annual Turkey Trot and Roll event at a local park in Greenville, South Carolina.

The event was focused on raising money for the Shriners Children's Hospital of Greenville. The money raised ensures that children with health conditions receive appropriate care, regardless of the struggles some may have with paying medical bills. 

This event included raffles, different sponsors who paid money to provide activities for patients from the hospital, and a 5k race that people paid for to donate money to the hospital. 

HHIHS Journalism teacher, Ms. Spisz, was given the opportunity to film this charity event. Ms. Spisz states, "Ms. Lyons, our sports photographer, has been taking pictures of the event for the last several years. Shriner's was looking for a videographer to capture a live video of the event, and Ms. Lyons recommended me. They actually went and looked at our school Youtube channel, liked what they saw, and asked me if I could come up and shoot the video for them." 

Ms. Spisz filmed many segments of the Turkey Trot and Roll event. She states, "I filmed aspects of their 5k race. I filmed everyone leaving to go to the start line, and a video of them coming through the finish line. I captured children playing and doing crafts. I also captured some video of the "patient walk" at the end of the event where all of the patients do a big walk around the event location.”

Shriners will use pieces and parts of Ms. Spisz's video on their new website, which will launch sometime in 2024. Ms. Spisz states, "The video is also uploaded to my personal/business YouTube channel, Barrier Island Videos.”

Ms. Spisz shares, "This experience was very rewarding, just seeing children who have not dealt with the best cards in life, but have so much joy in life.” Most of the patients at shriners are missing limbs, are wheelchair bound, or have to undergo pretty serious surgeries. These patients don't necessarily have the funds to pay for treatments, and seeing what these children go through and how they were so joyful was very rewarding to see."

Collecting Data About the Science National Honor Society

 By: Ellie Mastrorocco

Science National Honor Society is a branch of the National Honor Society promoting science related acts of community service. The main focus is to help benefit the environment by performing activities such as campus cleanups, but they also strive to assist science teachers by making their classrooms a positive place to learn by helping organize and clean labs, closets, and even tanks for some of the school pets. Outside of school,  bird-watching activities and beach cleanups take place. This year, they are hoping to fix up the courtyards around school. Many members also volunteer at sporting events and clinics for the Island Rec Center integrating sports medicine and exercise into our community.

Ella Christie, an officer of the Science Honor Society, says that every second Wednesday of the month is set aside for meetings, and they try to provide a service hour opportunity at least once a month as well. Applications for this year have closed, but any junior or senior next year with a 3.5 weighted GPA, no disciplinary referrals, and science classes under their belt are encouraged to submit an application. From there you will be selected to join the club.