October 25

Vol. 2, Issue #3

In This Issue:

Drumline Brings Home Trophy

How to Improve Your Next Quarter Grade

DoDEA Ranked

Featured Artist

Hurricanes Helene and Milton Ravage the Southern U.S.

The Last Two Weeks in Politics

"GAWKY" Comic Strip

Stuttgart High School Theatre Presents: Ax of Murder

Drumline Brings Home Trophy

By Tadek N

On October 9th, Stuttgart's Legacy Drumline made the major achievement of participating in the Gotham City Band Competition in Fayetteville, North Carolina. They faced off in the finals against the Oak County and Pine Forest High Schools and were able to crush the competition, receiving the first place trophy in the event overall.

The Legacy Drumline have been working non-stop since the beginning of the year, practicing and honing their skills more than ever before to improve their chances in Fayetteville. They meet every Tuesday and Thursday from 3 o’clock to 5:30, practicing their show music and fundamentals. Most of the music is written by the team’s coach, Mr. Everett, along with students and additional coaches. All drumline members learn to play the music by ear.

Despite the massive amounts of challenges when setting up the event, such as raising the money necessary, and coordinating flights to and from the States, the trip itself went off without a hitch. The competition itself was scored by one percussionist based on cleanliness, visuals, presentation, and level of difficulty of the music.

Legacy Drumline did more than just compete while in Fayetteville. They performed at both Agape Ministry, a community driven organization providing care to elderly in need, and Albritton Middle School, a DoDEAschool located in Fort Liberty. The team was also able to have some downtime at a carnival, and an arcade called Main Event.

The trip was a dream of the team’s Coach, Mr. Everett. “[This trip] was a goal of mine that I’ve had for years, and it finally came to pass, but with a lot of hard work and dedication,” he stated. He wants it to be an example to his students that: “Anything you put your mind towards, it can be accomplished.” In the end, making it to the second round of competition was Mr. Everett's proudest moment: “It gave me the motivation and the hope to know that, ok, we stand a chance, and we’re able to do this.”

The competition is something that will be remembered as a major triumph for Legacy Drumline and Stuttgart High School as a whole. It is a remarkable event made possible by the Drumline and its supporters, allowing a once in a lifetime opportunity to many students.

School Events

How to Improve Your Next Quarter Grade

By Anna K

With the first quarter of the school year over, many students at SHS are wishing that they had earned higher grades. Fortunately, only semester grades, the average of quarter one and two grades, are the final grades shown on student transcripts. This means there is still time to bump up that B in math to an A. In order to help you next quarter, here are five things you can do to boost your grades:

1) Use a planner

There is a good reason all students received their own personal planner this year. Planners are one of the best ways to keep track of homework, upcoming assignments, and tests. It only takes a few moments to jot down what you need to do, and studies have shown writing things down helps you retain information better.

2) Study with a group of friends

Humans are naturally social creatures. Who doesn’t want to hang out with friends instead of spending the evening doing homework alone? Studying with friends is fun and beneficial at the same time. Working with other people can help you better understand the content you’re covering and give you a different perspective.

3) Don't cram the night before

The best thing you can do to prepare for a test is get a good night’s sleep. Without a well-rested mind, you will actually do worse on a test. When preparing for a test you should space out your studying over at least a couple of days. This gives your brain time to fully retain the information you need to ace that big exam.

4) Take practice tests by yourself

When you take a test, your brain is working hard to recall everything you know on the subject. To take advantage of this, look online for a practice test related to the test you need to study for. After scoring, you can then have a better understanding of the information you need spend more time reviewing.

5) Do test corrections when you can

While this may seem obvious, there are two main reasons doing test corrections can help your grade. First, even if you don’t need the extra points now, doing test corrections can act as a buffer for future tests. This means if you unexpectedly fail a test, your grade will not suffer as much. Secondly, doing test corrections helps you learn more about the topic. You did get the question wrong… Chances are, you will be tested on a similar question again, so you should learn it.

DoDEA Ranked

By Emily W

Perhaps you have heard of, or even played, “DoDEA Ranked.” The website allows anyone to add or subtract points to/from every DoDEA middle and high school, which updates a ranked list. After finding success earlier this school year, the SHS student who created it, Barrett T, sat for an interview for The Stuttgart Insider.

After being inspired by a game on the website neal.fun., Barrett created the site for fun over a weekend at the beginning of September and worked on making improvements over time. Upon sending it to a few people, it quickly spread to other schools, reaching as many as 100 to 150 users per day at its peak. And while that peak may have passed, this was crazy to Barrett.

This year, he began to focus more on making sites that can access and store data, including through Google Sheets. Barrett previously helped Mr. Snoeyink improve his online bathroom pass and is currently working to gather the names of every DoDEA student to display the most popular names in the system.

DoDEA Ranked can be accessed by clicking here.

Image courtesy of DoDEA Ranked and Barrett T.

Featured Artist

By Zeke B

Eva N is this issue’s Featured Artist. In four years Eva has learned to work with various mediums, but has really found her stride in a very interesting style of art. She leaves a piece intentionally unfinished, in order to pull the focus of the viewer to a specific part of the work, as well as to show viewers the creation process. In this style, she uses different mediums. Typically she uses alcohol markers, but sometimes uses paints and colored pencils.

To start a piece, Eva takes photos of friends or candid shots, meaning that the subject of a photo doesn’t know that they are being photographed. She then picks a focal point in the image, which is usually the faces of her subjects, or some other detail like a ladybug in the foreground. She then puts as much detail as possible into those areas and leaves less important features as unfinished sketches. When asked about her featured piece, she said that it was near perfect and that “the only thing I would do differently would be to add more detail to the hand.” The entire drawing was made referencing a photo, except for the background, which was very “spur of the moment.” Other than this, the painting was done in a realistic style. All of her pieces take a few months to make, but this includes finding a good reference photo and creating the pre-sketch. Eva said that while “this piece only took about 7 days of in class work time,” the time from start to finish was about a month and a half.

The goal of her style and these pieces is to “capture a random moment in time of people interacting with each other.” While this piece isn’t candid, most of her drawings and paintings are. Eva’s art style is very well executed, creating snapshots of life that move by fast and leave us with incomplete and ever changing memories.

Image courtesy of Eva N.

Current Events

Hurricanes Helene and Milton Ravage the Southern U.S.

By Gabby F

Between June and November, the Atlantic Hurricane season takes place. On average, two hurricanes make landfall in the US each year. In Florida, three hurricanes have made landfall in this year alone. While the initial hurricane, Debby, caused minor damage, Hurricanes Helene and Milton made unforgettable marks on Florida and its neighboring states.

On September 26th, Category 4 Hurricane Helene ravaged Florida’s Gulf coast, leaving millions of homes destroyed across several states. Just two weeks later, Hurricane Milton entered Florida as a category three storm that destroyed countless homes and businesses. On estimate, in the southern United States, these two hurricanes have caused about $300 billion in damage, and about 250 lives have been lost.

To help with the aftermath of the catastrophic hurricanes, the Biden-Harris Administration has approved $1.8 billion in federal assistance, about $600 million of which goes to helping survivors. The federal assistance includes funds for essential emergency supplies, repairing storm-related damage in homes, and finding temporary housing. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has sent over 4,400 staff, who have worked closely with state and local governments in recovery efforts.

While social media has been used positively to advocate for hurricane safety and to share information on the devastating hurricanes with the world, it has also been used to spread misinformation on the hurricanes. With Election Day on its way, people on both sides of the political spectrum have spread “manipulated media.” Some have even claimed that the government created hurricanes, though this is inaccurate. While weather modification such as cloud seeding has been previously used on a smaller scale, humans cannot control the weather in this way. Hurricanes have been hitting these same places for generations.

Though things will likely not return to normal for a long while, efforts from within affected communities and worldwide are being made to overcome the challenges brought by this hurricane season.

Politics

The Last Two Weeks in Politics

By Jordan R

THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN

Over the last two weeks, former President Donald Trump has made many public appearances, holding 10 rallies since October 3rd. The former President also made many various podcast appearances and partook in several interviews, the most notable being his Fox News Town Hall interview.

The Town Hall interview had a female-only audience, as a part of an attempt to appeal to female voters, a demographic that he is lacking votes in. Though Trump has made many controversial statements this election cycle, this interview in particular went under fire by Democrats after Trump referred to himself as “The father of IVF.” Short for in vitro fertilization, the procedure has become a polarizing issue in Congress since the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Republicans, on the other hand, focus on the positives of this interview, pointing to the way Trump held himself to his established views on subjects such as his criminal record, the economy, and the participation of transgender athletes in women's sports. They also highlight Trump’s rebuttals to being labeled as ‘dangerous’ by Democrats.

At another town hall, when asked about the January 6th Insurrection, in which far-right extremists stormed the capital in protest of the certification of the 2020 Election by then-Vice President Mike Pence, Trump stated it was a “day of love.” Kamala Harris later addressed this at a Wisconsin rally, accusing him of “gaslighting.” Trump’s statements caused backlash from both sides, as violence was prevalent during this day, with four people dying and more injured.

Another notable interview the former President had was his Fox News interview, and he also made an appearance at the Al Smith Charity Dinner, which funds Catholic charities that support children with various needs.

On the subject of the 2020 Election, Donald Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance stated, “Did Donald Trump lose the election? Not by the words that I would use,” at a rally held in Williamsport, Pennsylvania after he avoided the question of the election results at the Vice Presidential Debate. He then stated, “But look, I really couldn’t care less if you agree with me or disagree with me on this issue.”

THE HARRIS CAMPAIGN

Kamala Harris has also made many public appearances, including rallies, podcasts, and interviews. Her most notable interview the past two weeks is her Fox News interview. Both Democrats and Republicans have slammed her since that interview, going as far as to say that it was a disaster. During the interview, it was apparent she avoided a few questions, notably those about immigration, how she would run the country differently from Biden, and Biden's cognitive function over the years. Her avoidance of topics like these is questioned by both sides.

Democrats have asserted the fact that she was set up to fail from the beginning (with Fox News being a Republican-owned news outlet), while Republicans refuting this by stating that she did this to herself accepting an interview from Fox News.

She is also under fire for downplaying the lack of support of male voters, which is a section of voters that is shown under polling that she is lacking in.

A rally held by Harris in Wisconsin last Thursday has also caused some heated discussion. A pair of Christian pro-life students showed up at her rally, and repeatedly started chanting things like “Christ is Lord!”, “Jesus is King!”, and “You lie, you lie!” at other people while she was talking about her views on abortion. Then, Kamala Harris stated, “You guys are at the wrong rally, I think you meant to go to the smaller one down the street.” This caused an uproar, as people didn't know whether she was referring to the “Christ is Lord” and “Jesus is King” statements, or the accusations of her lying.“You lie, you lie!”

Kamala Harris’s running mate, Tim Walz, has not made any major appearances since the vice presidential debate.

This week, early polling opened up in a few states, and Georgia had a record number of turnouts last Saturday. While Trump has yet to make the claims of a rigged election this year because of mail-in ballots, it's still a concern for some on the right. This directly affects overseas military voters, who are required to utilize mail-in ballots. As we get closer to election day, questions about if the ballots are going to be secure are becoming more common, but only time will tell as to how people will feel about the security of this election.

Image courtesy of Getty Images and NBC News.