Masthead

Aspyn Chapin, who’s last name is pronounced with a long ‘a’ sound (as we all learned the hard way), is going into 11th grade in Bertrand. This is Aspyn’s 3rd year in Creative Writing and Aspyn was in charge of keeping our quotes this year, which fits seeing as she said half of those quotes. She has an incredibly creative mind that puts out some of the best poetry in the class (no offense to anyone else). She works hard at what she does and it shows. It’s clear that she’s destined to do great things in the future, however if you see a girl in a onesie typing vigorously on her computer, best to just leave her alone. 

Darbie deFreese is a wonderful individual who does not believe being feral is a bad thing, and finds echoey rooms depressing and fulfilling at the same time. She’s a great person who’s always making friends left and right, including with the ladybug at the art farm, whom she named Gerald. Darbie writes beautiful works of literature about cherry pie and other snacks, and how she finds home in only the things she has loved, lost, and known. Miss deFreese is a polite and kindred spirit who never shies away from being courteous and kind, a true gem in our crumbling society.

If you hear a sound similar to that of a Windex Cleaner bottle, don’t worry, that would be Hallie Hartman. You can almost always find her laughing at something, even when it’s not funny. And when she’s not laughing, you can catch her ranting about how much she hates poetry. Because of her hatred towards the art of poetry, she usually ends up writing poems at the last minute. Half the time you can catch her spacing off and as soon as you say her name, you’ll hear “huh?” This year was her first year of summer honors and she spent it with the infamous creative writing class. 

Claire Hudson is a newly graduated senior from Holdrege High School and is starting at UNO (Not ONU, Tyler) in the fall. Having been in four different classes, this is her fifth year of SHP. Claire is the holder of Tiny Tim, and although is not always a perfect mother, she loves him very much. Claire is a self-proclaimed introvert. Claire is a very loving person, loving both people and dogs, and she is a beautiful writer. She also always does rock in rock-paper scissors. 

Alizabeth McDermott, the crowned protector of Yukon Cornelius Albus Dumbledore, although she has, on hopefully one occasion, left him in a hot car, to not only suffocate, but fall over and break. She has an amazing personality and an impressively good skill at writing every detail with such depth, even if it is the most simple sentence. Even though she used to work at Jimmy John’s, Alizabeth has never ceased to have creativity flow from every thought she thinks and words that she speaks, except that her typical response or reply  to most comments or exclamations are, “That’s valid.”

As a new member of creative writing, Cosmo has made his place in the room with his impressively long fiction stories (some individually going over 2000 words)! Having spent over a week hand-writing three whole chapters, we are amazed by his dedication. On a less than serious note, we’ve come to wonder where to place him in the small group line-up by hair color, as his has split like the red sea. 

Tynlie Struss is a first year student in the creative writing class and an incoming freshman at Minden high school. She is both an active participant on the cheer team, and an avid writer. Tynlie is known for her love of going to the playground to visit the swings and her ability to floss, as well as saying things that are extremely out of pocket. She is a talented fiction author and poet.

Jaelyn is a smart kid who is always concentrating on the different things that are assigned. Whenever we are out writing our 10 things, she is always writing all 10 of her topics. She had a great few prompts for her workshop, and it made most of us laugh. She is also very kind and caring but amazing at doing many poems and short stories.

​​Samantha Vinchattle rolls into the creative writing classroom obsessed with ducks. Workshops about ducks, drawing on the white board: ducks. Keeper of all things ducks. When there is an opportunity to add anything to the whiteboard: ducks. Samantha’s drawings of ducks have been protected by the Summer Honors Program Drawing Protection Agency (SHPDPA) throughout the two weeks of summer honors and have remained intact and on the board as secondary mascots to the creative writing process, per class request. Eventually the obsession grew to toads. Samantha found Holdrege High School’s secret toad population known only to some as the Illumina-TOAD-i and took them in as her own. If you need to know anything about ducks, or toads, Samantha might have the answers you seek.