Clubs 

DECA Regionals

By: David Morales

The Hilton Head Island High School DECA Club have qualified to regionals this year and are looking forward to competing with other schools at the Charleston Area Convention Center which took place on February 24th and 25th.  Dr. Choate and Mrs. Johnson are the team's faculty advisors who really looked forward to this competition as they believe it brought the team closer together. The team consists of 15 students from all four grade levels of Hilton Head High Island School.

“There were a lot of students competing at this large convention center and you would have to wait until your topic was called and once you were called up, you had 10 minutes to prepare before having to sit with the judge and address the situation based on the scenario given. Most scenarios are based on Marketing, Entreupenurship, Business Finance, Accounting, Hospitality & Tourism, and Sport Management. Our students were able to pick their favorite topic based on their strengths,” said Dr.Choate.

“ Students have to speak to the judge and give them explanations on why they would handle certain things while they are in the workforce but they are only able to speak for 10 minutes,”  stated Dr.Choate.

The team has improved throughout the year as they enjoyed being together for the weekend and getting to know each other a bit more which helped team chemistry as they also prepared for states which would take place later in the year. 

“Our team was very committed and worked really hard. They did really well under pressure and supported each other which helped us which helped them improve more with their test since they practiced a lot. We had a great year and I am looking forward to  next year,” stated Dr. Choate.

Robotical Upgrades for HHIHS

By: Patrick Balfour

The Robotics club has added a new catalog of robots to their collection. The robots that they are planning to add are Flip, Super Flip, Lift and most of all, Sphero. Sphero is a newer type of robot that is a controllable sphered robot. The robot can also be coded. The Sphero robots are for the benefit of club members that are new to robotics. “Everything comes pre assembled”  club advisor Mr. Best said. “ The club is more about teaching programming rather than the engineering aspect of robotics…I like how students get an immediate ability to control something.” 

Sphero can be controlled through the club members computer or phone through a  controller or joystick. The sphero bot could also be used in water and can be controlled. “The sphero robots can go in water and they float and you can go around in water. They are virtually indestructible…The other cool thing is that we will use them for painting. So it can be color coded.” Sphero would be put in paint and can roll around on a canvas.

Model UN Competition

By: David Morales

The HHIHS Model UN team traveled to Winthrop University located in Rock Hill, South Carolina on Wednesday, March 29th to Friday, March 31st to compete against other schools in the state and bring home the big awards. Ms. Spisz is the team’s advisor as well as an English 3 Honors and Journalism teacher. 

“We are a team of 11 HHIHS students. 9 of them are seniors, 1 sophomore and 1 junior.”

“Our team did very very well as we were the only team in Beaufort County to walk away with awards. Laurel Hawkins (Senior) won Distinguished Delegate for the Humans Right Committee as she represented The Republic of South Africa. Our delegation of The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan won Best Country in the General Assembly which consisted of Miles Brown and Cynthia Gudaitis who are seniors and Nathaniel Greenburg, who is a sophomore.”

The team faced many challenges throughout the year but came together as a group to overcome these obstacles to come out successful. The format for the competition was completely different this year but the team overcame it by looking over the rules before the competition began and observing how things work once they arrived at Winthrop.”

“They gained confidence by using these steps and began to receive speaking time which helped their committee.”

“At HHIHS, we have done extremely well over the last 4 years throughout competitions we’ve attended and have placed either 1st or 2nd when the competitions have been based on school rankings. This year, there were not any school awards but only country awards but the fact that we won 2 country awards was a pretty big deal for us. We’ve always been a pretty strong team and I enjoy working with these students to support them as they look to improve their public speaking skills as well as their collaboration skills.”

HHIHS Blood Drive

By Jessica Staigar and Lexi Milbrandt

The Big Red Bus came back to HHIHS! Students gave a pint of blood on Thursday March 30, 2023. To sign up students went to Ms. Emerick’s room,  B122, and grabbed a sign up sheet from Ms. Emerick, students need to be sixteen years old with parent permission, seventeen without permission. According to Ms. Emerick,  “Before giving blood students should eat a big, healthy breakfast and continue to snack all day long.” Eating and hydrating is essential when giving blood, as it keeps your blood sugar levels stable. After giving blood, “students can do activities, but should refrain from playing sports.” 

All pints of blood are donated to local hospitals for anyone who needs it. Donations are for people that have had serious injuries or illnesses and  have lost a lot of blood, it helps to stabilize their condition and have a smoother recovery. Before giving blood students should make sure they meet all the health requirements, so their body is not harmed in the process. Donating blood is a great way to contribute to helping the community and anyone who is willing to help is greatly appreciated.