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Snagajob is a great way to find a summer job for teens and is beneficial to your summer job search.

Beginning this fall, CMS will provide all its schools with wireless internet access. Additionally, students and faculty will bring their own digital devices, such as laptops and iPads, to school for educational purposes.

“All administrators received iPads…and were trained on how to use [them] and certain free educational apps,” said Dean of Students Billie Little. “If I’m doing a teacher’s evaluation on an iPad…they can get instant feedback instead of having to wait.”

Little added that iPads will work in tandem with the technology already provided to teachers, such as Promethean boards.

CMS has spent $1.2 million providing the technology to administrators. Certain schools, such as Cochrane and Smithfield Elementary, are also purchasing iPads for students using PTA money or funds from the grants that CMS is offering.

Several teachers at East Meck are currently preparing requests for class sets of iPads.

“[Principal Rick] Parker is asking all department heads to write grants for technology they could use,” said Little. “We don’t want to be behind this fall.”

English teachers Christopher Williams and Joel Edde have been assigned to ease the transition.

“Mr. Edde and I are doing a year-long technology in service, helping other teachers,” said Williams. “We made a presentation…[about] how there would be Wi-Fi [available]through the school  next year.”

CMS is stepping ahead of the pack with the initiative. In 2008, the Department of Education estimated that nearly 100% of public schools have computers with Internet access, but only 39% report having wireless Internet.

Schools in Minnesota, Ohio and Georgia have adopted the Bring Your Own Technology policy, but they are phasing it in slowly, only providing the option to a few schools at a time.

CMS will likely be the largest district with BYOT, especially by implementing it on a scale that spans all of the district’s schools.

Students and staff alike are split over whether the program is a good idea.

“I think anything to get kids engaged is a good idea,” said technology coordinator Jeremy McMahon. “My biggest concern is making sure students use technology to enhance their learning, not their social life.”

McMahon also pointed out  that CMS internet is severely restricted, and the wi-fi would employ the same content restrictions.

In addition, McMahon said the technology is useless if teachers don’t use it in ways that are different from traditional methods.

 “Right now, teachers have [Promethean] boards, but if they just use it as a whiteboard, it’s pointless,” he said.

Williams, who already makes an effort to incorporate technology, believes that Bring Your Own Technology is a natural extension of the way students do research.

“BYOT will be used the same way we use other [classroom materials],” said Williams. “[Students would] look up the dictionary on a phone or use the calculator on a phone.”

Some students and educators also worry about the use of technology to cheat.

“I think cheating will increase,” said sophomore Kate Stevens. “But teachers have to deal with that anyway.”

“We’re always concerned about cheating. We’re hoping students truly go by the honor code,” said Little. “We don’t want to punish the good students by denying them this opportunity just because some people cheat.”

Despite potential problems, supporters of BYOT think that it’s a sign of CMS accepting and embracing the future.

“Change is always scary,” said Little. “A lot of times teachers are hesitant because students know technology better than they do, [but] teachers overall realize this is a part of 21^st century skills.”

All the CMS school baseball teams started using a new kind of bat, which is made of aluminum, but hits more like a wood bat. The new bats are called BBCOR bats. The change of bats was done for safety. With the old bats, the velocity after the ball was hit was dangerous to players in the ball’s path.

According to baseball coach Clint Koppe, the new bats have made the game fairer.

“With the old bats there were ways to cheat and skirt the rules if you had the means and the knowledge,” said Koppe. “You could fix the bats and it would be completely unfair, but with these bats I have noticed that the games are a lot tighter and it changes the game of baseball back to the way it should be—the way professionals play it. It makes you play the game better.”

However, not all of the players like the performance of the new bats.

“There are fewer home runs. We are playing more small balls like bunts and base hits. Last year we hit a lot more home runs…. I don’t like them,” said junior Logan Sheer.

“When you hit the ball, it doesn’t go as far,” said junior David Marvin, the team’s pitcher.

Despite the team’s displeasure with the new bats, the team has been relativity successful with a record of 4-4, partly because of the way that they were taught to swing the bat.

“Our strategy has not changed. The way I always learned it was that you learn to swing the bat right. There were ways to ‘swing’ aluminum bats,” explained Koppe, “it was very incorrect, but you could get away with it with an aluminum bat, we called it the aluminum bat swing. [I] have always tried to teach [the players] the proper way to swing [a bat], which it doesn’t matter f you have a wood or aluminum bat in your hands. Other schools taught this a longer swing… that didn’t translate from wood to aluminum. It was what we called the ‘aluminum bat swing’ and [the other schools] got away with it. Now they are the ones having to adjust.”

“The bats weren’t going to make use win or lose. That’s all about whether you can get on base or not.”

Morgan, a senior, never dreamed that she could attend college on a track scholarship. At first, the Senior Board member and cheerleader didn’t even consider the sport

“I played soccer,” said Morgan. “Track didn’t interest me. I really wasn’t that good [at soccer], but I got to the ball before anyone else. I found out I was fast.”

Morgan, a sprinter who runs the 200 and 400 meter dashes, as well as several relays, joined the team briefly in her freshman year but said she didn’t dedicate herself to the sport very much.

“I was just running to be running,” she said. “I wanted something to do…I never even finished that season.”

Morgan’s time was good enough to qualify her for the girls’ conference, but she didn’t compete in that meet. During her junior year, she finally decided to devote herself to track because she realized that it was her strongest sport.

“I was good at it, and I realized that if I was blessed with the talent I might as well make the best of it,” said Morgan.

Morgan joined the Amateur Athletic Union(AAU), a private competitive club, and began training in earnest.  She ran at various events in the next year with the private team Charlotte Flight, as well as meets with the Eagles’ track team.

In January 2012, Morgan was competing at an indoor track meet that included both high school and college teams. Several colleges well-known for their track programs were in attendance, including UNC-Wilmington and Western Carolina University.

“I had my eye on Western, but they were really good,” said Morgan. “I knew I was a baby in track. I never thought I would be able to compete.”

Morgan wasn’t expecting to garner much attention, let alone be scouted. However, she ran an impressive time in her event, the 400 meter dash. Western Carolina’s coach spoke with Morgan and her coach, taking down their contact information.

She received a call a month later offering her the most comprehensive track scholarship the school could award, along with first consideration for grants that could cover the rest of her tuition.

“I was surprised, but mostly I was so grateful,” she said. “I was already considering Western, but I really wasn’t planning on going to college on track.”

Morgan is excited, both to attend her dream school and continue pursuing a sport she enjoys, but she believes that she still has a great deal of room for improvement and growth.

“I haven’t broken my full sweat,” she said.

At this time, Morgan doesn’t intend to pursue competitive track as a career path, but said her options are still open.

“If God wills it to happen, it will.”

A deer broke through a window in the 300 hall and rushed through the hallway before being let out of the building and sprinting across campus. Animal Control was called to surround the deer; finding it badly injured, they put it down.

The deer is believed to have been struck by a car along Monroe Road, which caused it to become dazed and run towards the bus parking lot.

ROTC attempted to divert the animal back into the woods, but it ran in the direction of the school instead.

Elizabeth Livingston, who was the class’ substitute teacher at the time, described the scene just after the deer’s arrival as dramatic and chaotic.

“I heard screaming and the sound of exploding glass,” said Livingston. “It’s a very frightening noise.”

“Out of nowhere the window just busted, and I felt something hit my back and my arm,” said sophomore John Rankin, who was sitting by the window at the time.

 “I looked down and there was this thing thrashing on the ground, a deer…There was blood all over the floor,” said sophomore Madison Sazama.

Students were climbing on desks and bookshelves to avoid the deer, said Livingston. Teachers around the 300 hall were roused to their doors by the uproar of students shouting and screaming.

“I thought it was a dog,” said Rankin. “[So] I threw a textbook at it. But then I saw its antlers and I got out of there.”

Livingston said that the experience was scary in the moment, but in hindsight she feels more sympathy for the deer.

 “I’m sure [the students] were traumatized by it…[but] it was just as scared as we were,” she said.

“I jumped on the table,” said sophomore Karrim Omer.

A student pulled the door of the classroom open so that the deer could escape into the hallway. Security footage released by CMS showed both teachers and students fleeing the hallway as the deer slid along it, towards the 200 hall and the guidance office.

“I ran down to guidance, and there was a trail of blood,” said Omer.

“A student was at the door [leading out of the 200 building],” said Livingston. “[We] told him to open the door and it ran out.”

English teacher Christopher Williams, intrigued by the incident, followed the deer and charted its course around the campus.

 “[The deer] got between the 100 and 300 [halls], ran out of the 200 building’s door and [across the campus] to the football/rugby practice field,” Williams recalled. “Animal Control came at about 2:10, and the deer ran back through the student parking lot into the quad.”

Eventually, the deer ran back across campus, arriving at the woods behind the bus parking lot where it was finally apprehended by Animal Control.

Knowledge of the incident spread quickly and even made national news, with the security video appearing on CNN and Good Morning America.

“We were all lucky that it wasn’t more serious than it was,” said Livingston. “If [my students] don’t remember me for anything else, they’ll remember this.”

Freshman Kayla Burriss was selected to meet President Barack Obama on behalf of East Meck’s new Academy of Engineering program, AOE, for the second annual White House Science Fair.

“She was selected to represent East Meck because she was a part of the first class of the Academy of Engineering,” said engineering teacher Scott Vanderslice. “[She was also chosen] because we are trying to promote females in the industry. Right now females are only about 10 to 20 percent of engineers.”

“It was hard to believe,” said Burriss on being chosen. “It was so exciting. I really can’t even explain.”

Burriss was one of only 100 students from 45 states to travel to Washington.

“My favorite part was when President Obama spoke at the conference,” said Burriss. “It is something I’ll never forget.”

“She can always have that on her resume,” said Vanderslice. “[She met] the president.”

The students were also able to meet other senior officials and top administrators, as well as members of the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education Coalition, also known as STEM.

Burriss has aspirations of becoming an environmental engineer, and her journey began with AOE, the new school within a school at East.

“I didn’t choose to be in [the Academy],” said Burriss. “The school put me in engineering, but I learned to love it. It’s been a great experience.”

“She didn’t have any grand design for what she wanted to do,” said Vanderslice. “But after taking my class she decided she wanted to pursue engineering.”

Many of the students who were also in attendance have already achieved enormous success in their life.

“The public exposure is great but also being around students from such a high level,” said Vanderslice. 

“The projects were so nice,” said Burriss. “One kid built a cannon that shot marshmallows.”

Samantha Garvey, a homeless teen from New York City, was also invited. She studied invasive species in the salt marshes of Long Island.

Students from Solon High School presented robots and mouse-trap vehicles for their Science Olympiad competition which they also presented to President Obama.

Another teen, Angela Zhang, attended the Science Fair to present her research which could possibly be a cure for cancer. Zhang’s research won her the prestigious Siemens Prize, which includes a check for $100,000.

 “We are all really proud of her,” said Vanderslice. “I am so happy to have given her this opportunity.”

“[This experience] has taught me that anyone can do anything,” said Burriss. “Your life can change at any moment.”

Burriss is grateful for the opportunity, and hopes to continue to succeed in the future.

“I want to continue learning new things,” said Burriss. “I want to improve things and make them greener.”

There are many different reasons for traveling abroad, and East Meck students will be visiting all corners of the world.

Junior Natalie Bonsall will be spending her senior year studying and living in South Korea. Bonsall will live with a host family and attend high school just outside the capitol city of Seoul.

“I am really excited to learn the language and meet new people,” said Bonsall, “I am also kind of excited to be the only ginger.”

Bonsall will be traveling through a program called Rotary International. They are in charge of finding her a host family and ensuring her comfort during her stay, but being 9000 miles can make that difficult.

During her first month in South Korea, Bonsall will not be allowed to communicate with any of her family and friends, so as to completely immerse herself into the culture. The only contact she will receive from her family, are care packages.  

“I know I should be scared,” said Bonsall, “I don’t know enough Korean to have to have an actual conversation, but I’ve traveled abroad before, and it wasn’t scary at all.”

Other students will not be flying solo on their adventures.

 Sophomore Josh Oswald will be traveling with his church, Avondale Presbyterian to Cusco, Peru. Oswald will hike to Machu Picchu and then volunteer to help a local church.

“I am really looking forward to hiking to the ruins,” said Oswald, “but also experiencing such a foreign culture.”

While many trips abroad are not tied to school, English teachers like Christopher Williams and Kinsi Carpenter traveled abroad with a group of students. This year Williams and five East Meck students traveled to the cities of Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, as well as many historical sites including the Eifel Tower, the Louvre, and several other museums.

Students who participated on this trip include sophomores Quincy Stanford, Chloe Smithson, Makayla Day, Hannah Norwood, and Adrienne Carpenter.

“I loved the food most,” said Stanford, “It was so different from anything you would ever find here in the States, and it was more than the food that made it memorable, it was also the culture.”

This is spring is to be Williams’ first trip abroad with East Meck students, but it will not be his last. By the summer of 2013 he hopes to have taken an additional group to Italy.

“I am very excited for this trip,” said Williams, “and I believe that the girls going on this trip will learn more in that week than I can teach them in a year.”

Bienstock was born in Germany in 1927, six years before Hitler’s rise to power. At the age of six, Bienstock’s world was turned upside with the rise of a new Germany, a Nazi Germany.

“I became a very fast runner,” said Bienstock. “The Hitler youth would catch me and beat me up. And no one would do anything about it.”

Bienstock’s father would flee the house when Bienstock was only a child. His mother had to burn all of his father’s pictures so the Nazis would not know how his father looked like.

“I never saw a picture of my father again,” said Bienstock. “All of them were burned by my mother. I don’t remember his face anymore.”

As he grew up, the Hitler youth would continue to beat him when he walked home from school.

Soon, with the inclusion of the Nuremberg laws, he was denied attendance at his school.

“I wasn’t allowed to attend school anymore. I was only twelve.”

Police officers working with the Nazis began to clean out Jewish slums to effectively enforce the Nuremberg laws. Bienstock’s mother became increasingly scared of losing her possessions.

At one point, the police came into their apartment to search for Jews.

“The Christian woman upstairs told the police that we were not home,” said Bienstock. “They went through our apartment and ransacked everything- bedfeathers were flying around, pots were on the floor, and glass was broken.”

Bienstock described his mother as fearless, protective, and loving.

“When I was twelve, my mother sent my younger sister to Austria. She took her on the train, and looked for a passport for them,” said Bienstock. “Fortunately, an Austrian woman who had a daughter who looked similar to her own offered her passport. My sister was able to leave the country and arrived to Belgium to stay with a Jewish family.”

When she left, Bienstock’s mother attempted to get him out of the country as well. After many failed attempts, Bienstock was able to reach Belgium.

“I didn’t have a passport. The conductor on the train let me stay there until we reached Belgium.”

Bienstock never saw his mother again.

Bienstock reached England a year later at the age of fourteen. He wasn’t well received, but it didn’t matter. At the age of fourteen, he reached a smuggling boat- the last to America- and crossed the Atlantic.

He was well welcomed in America.

“In school, the students were very welcoming even though I didn’t know English very well.”

He enlisted in the army at the age of seventeen and led the siege on Italy.

When asked if he ever would visit Germany, he refused.

“I’m from America. This is my home.”

Senior Stanley Weaver prepares a meal in the culinary arts room. Weaver, along with Jonathan Card and Erin Grant placed first in state contest. Photo by Justin Perry

East Mecklenburg’s culinary arts team is headed to national competition after winning the gold in the state contest recently.

Jonathan Card, Erin Grant, and Stanley Weaver won first place in the cooking competition and have earned the right to represent North Carolina in the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) competition July 8-12 in Orlando, Florida.

After winning gold medals at the CMS Culinary Arts competition in January, the team advanced to the state competition at Johnson and Wales University in early February. In the competition, the culinary team had to prepare a five-course meal in 60 minutes.

The results were announced in late March, with Card, Grant and Weaver sweeping the top three gold medals. In addition, Brittany Jones won the gold medal in the Career Investigations competition and will join the three men in Orlando for the national competition.

Dale Richardson, head of the culinary arts department, said she and the students had been slaving in the kitchen at East Meck for the past few months in preparation for the competition. Richardson said practice was the key to their success. Despite all of the months of planning Richardson said she still was “pleasantly surprised.” She proceeded to clarify “I knew they had it in them, but it’s always a surprise!”

The students are now working hard for the national contest. As part of the preparation, the culinary arts department is sponsoring a fundraising dinner known as Gold Feathers on May 16 in which teachers, staff and community members will pay for the three students to cook an elegant meal to be held in the Feathers Café at East Meck.

Richardson said the future looks good for East’s culinary team. “I know they’ll do well!” she said. They’re nervous and excited, she said, but they’re ready.

When asked about their competition strategy, Richardson smiled and said, “No strategy really, but we’re hungry and ready to compete!”

Having already earned a whopping $370,000,000 since its March 23^rd release date, The Hunger Games has established itself as one of the highest grossing films of all time—just behind Walt Disney’s Finding Nemo. The only other movies of 2012 expected to reach these numbers are The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

Based on the bestselling book series by author Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games is the largest film to ever be shot in Charlotte, NC. Two East Mecklenburg students, Brandon McAllian and Noah Gully, got the opportunity to be extras in the filming of the movie.

“It was cool for about 30 minutes,” said Gully. “After that, it was really boring.”

McAllian, who appeared in the District 12 reaping scene and the District 11 riot scene, earned a role simply by filling out some personal information in the mall and giving a picture of himself.

Both Gully and McAllian attended a dressing day and filming days.

“When I got there for the dressing, they put costumes on me and saw how I looked in them,” said McAllian. “They were hideous and old-timey clothes. For the filming, they told us to be at some closed down factory in the morning and they gave us breakfast. From 10 to 5 we were outside in the sun doing the same thing.”

Gully had a similar experience to that of McAllian’s.

“When I got there, they cut off some of my hair and saw how I looked in their clothes. For the filming, I went out to Shelby and just did what they told me.”

Being an extra, despite the title, does actually take some acting talent. Extras receive orders from the director to act a certain way.

“They would call out ‘look sad’ or ‘everyone look up’” said McAllian.  

Extras exchanged contact information with the producers and will have opportunities to act in other movies as well.

“It really was a lot of fun,” said McAllian. “I met so many talented people including Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence). She was hot but not my type. I can’t wait to do it again.”