Seahawk Scoop 

Tutoring the Tots

by: Deja Godson

Students from third to fifth grade at IB and Creative Arts will be given the opportunity to be tutored by Hilton Head High School students. The tutoring will take place in the mornings at 7:30, instead of after school due to the elementary school students dismissing school at an earlier time than the HHIHS tutors. It will happen three to four days a week depending on the number of volunteers available that week.

Following the pandemic, younger students began to struggle in academics. Junior Anthony Bynum said,, “Younger students definitely struggle with math because of the pandemic. However, the tutors  will help with any subject the students need.”

As of now, Mr.Schidrich along with the principal  at IB and the principal at Creative Arts are working together to make this tutoring session and location definitely plays an important role. Bynum stated, “The more the merrier,” following, “the volunteers will tutor anyone who needs extra help since the teacher can’t be everywhere at once.” Tutoring will be another way to help support younger students and assist hardworking teachers. 

ROTC’S YEARLY BILLY GOAT

BY:Gabriela Rivera and Hannya Torres Vargas

The first ROTC Billy goat started eleven years ago. Commander Matthew Phifer says that the Billy goat is “always in February.” This has been a yearly tradition with the ROTC cadets. The Billy goat is only held once a year.

This event usually takes place on someone's private property in Bluffton, SC. Mr. Ed Durst is the owner of this property. Commander states “It's a big plot of land a couple hundred acres.” It is located behind the Home Depot area in Bluffton.

Not everyone is qualified to participate in the Billy goat. It is not open to the student body, only the ROTC cadets. Commander says that in order to participate in the billy goat “the ROTC cadets actually have to go to my orienteering camps I hold in December or January.”

There are two different categories you can be in when participating for the billy goat. “There's a team category and individual category,” stated Commander. In the team categories there are usually four kids who work together. The individual category, you usually work by yourself and do your best.

School Youtube Informs Seahawks!

Written By: Ashton J, Nick K & Carmine G

Did you know the Seahawk News Network has a YouTube Channel? The channel is run by English and Journalism teacher, Ms. Spisz. The YouTube channel provides students with up to date news and content. The channel is a crucial part of the day-to-day lives of students at HHIHS.

“The channel has been active since late February or March of 2022,” Ms. Spisz said For such a young channel, the amount of content posted is staggering. There are currently thirty-eight subscribers and over one-hundred hours of watch time per month.

A YouTube channel can provide convenience when compared to other ways of posting content, Ms. Spisz said “I talked to Mr. Schidrich and we decided it would be easier to make a YouTube channel for our videos, because our previous method took up too much cloud space and had too many complications.”

This channel is important to students, which is displayed when Ms. Spisz said “It showcases a variety of the student body.” Students are able to see all aspects of school life through the YouTube channel, which is why it is important. The channel currently has over seventy-five public videos and counting. Currently, the video with the most views is the 2022 Homecoming Flashmob video, which sits at six-hundred fifty-four views. Most of the public videos average one-hundred plus views each.

This channel provides many different forms of content such as “Our news show, sports videos, school spirit videos and art videos.” The channel gives students, parents, and the community many different forms of content to browse through.

Ms. Spisz noted “I would like to do more traditional broadcasting and more interviews.” In the future, seahawk students can expect more spectacular content coming their way.

Overall, the SNN YouTube channel has been a massive improvement to student life. The channel provides students with a lot of important information and is a fun part of student life at HHIHS. Hopefully, the channel will continue to grow and prosper. 

Supporting Staff with Murals 

by: Deja Godson

Ms.Dobbeleare’s Painting 1 class has created murals to show appreciation for the support staff of Hilton Head Island High School. One mural is located in the copy room and one is in the cafeteria. Two of many support staff at HHIHS are Mrs. Graves and Ms. Adkins. Mrs.Graves is head of the cafeteria staff. While, Ms. Adkins carries duties from making copies to clerical work. The support staff is essential to keeping HHIHS school running!

These murals were an extension of the Gullah-Geechee unit in Painting I, for semester 1 students.  The murals are reproductions of Jonathan Green's artwork, local artist who is known for his bright and colorful depictions of Gullah-Geechee culture. When preparing a mural it’s required to know the theme and location, then the mural has to be approved by the principal, Mr. Schidrich. Then a group of students were selected to work on the mural. 

Ms.Dobbeleare said, “Art can lift others up and brings people together...it can also teach us about history, cultures, and provide an outlet of personal expression.  All arts classes have students exercise their critical and creative thinking skills every day!”

PBIS Celebration for HHIHS Students 

By: Celia Walter and Lizzy Markowitz 

Every quarter Hilton Head Island High School celebrates ninth grade students who go above and beyond and exemplify the characteristics of good students. The celebration is done through the PBIS program at HHIHS.

Mrs.Britt, a ninth grade homeroom teacher and one of the teachers in charge of the program stated, “The goal is to reward the students that are always doing things well.”  

The acronym PBIS stands for Positive Behavior Incentive Program. PBIS is used to encourage students to behave better by rewarding good behavior instead of just punishing bad behavior. Mrs.Britt stated, “We live in this world of trying to correct bad behavior in order to promote good behavior. So this program is new in the sense that it encourages good behavior to help promote good behavior.”   

The program uses a different approach to enforcing rules and is only available to ninth grade students. Mrs. Britt said, “It helps recognize the kids that need the recognition and don’t necessarily always get it.”

At the beginning of the year teachers give ninth grade students small PBIS cards, each card has five spots on it. Teachers can hole-punch the student’s cards whenever students show good behavior or do something well. Once all of the spots on the card have been hole-punched students can turn in the card to any teacher in the school and the teacher can add an extra tally to the student’s score and give them a new card to fill.  

Every quarter the top forty ninth grade students with the highest number of cards turned in get to go to a celebration. For the third quarter Mrs.Britt is hoping to have the celebration at Station 300, where students can bowl and eat pizza to celebrate their accomplishments. This is the second celebration this school year including a movie celebration in the second quarter where students went to watch “Avatar: The Way of Water” in the theaters, they also got popcorn and a drink to enjoy the movie with.

Coming Home at the Nest

By: Gabriela Rivera and Hannya Torres Vargas

Coming Home at HHIHS is an event at the school that is like homecoming, but there was no coming home court this year. In this interview Elizabeth Monzon stated ”This year students and teachers played games to help raise money for the fundraiser for the scholarship in the name of the school counselor, Miss Tammy Videla, who sadly passed away this past summer.”

Coming Home helped raise all the money needed for the Miss Videla Scholarship fundraiser. They did this by organizing a buyout day. This is where students pay one dollar to get out of class and go watch games played by students and teachers. 

School spirit at HHIHS is whenever a school spirit day comes around everyone always dresses up. This year students and teachers only dressed up for three days but like always, they went all out and had the most amazing outfits. Monzon said that this year's coming home spirit days were as follows “Adam Sandler day, squad up day, and soccer mom vs. BBQ dads.”

Coming Home affects the students by having fun with the school spirit. It is noticeable that all the students love to have fun at the pep rallies. By getting everyone to know about coming home it helps students communicate more to each other. 

Coming Home at HHIHS has been a thing at the school for about fifteen years or more. In this interview Miss Lee also stated ”It's a tradition that has been at the school for years and will continue in the future.”