Activities at North this Year

Some students at North (especially freshmen) are probably wondering what North has to offer this year for activities. Everyone knows there are sports available, but some people aren’t interested in athletics, so what then? There has to be at least one activity for everybody’s interest here at North. Some activities include Newspaper, Drama Club, the always-popular Robotics Club, Yearbook, and a LOT more! An activity they have here at North is Newspaper, where students write stories and/or make activities and then they decide what gets to go into the newspaper. Every Thursday, the Newspaper staff meets in Room 206 (computer lab) and then come up with stories, either by themselves or together with someone, and then when the paper gets printed, so does their work for everyone to see. “I think a good newspaper is a sign of a good school,” said Mr. Simms, who is the Polar Prints’ editor. Better yet, you can also just contribute stories instead of just joining the newspaper if you want to. So if you like journalism or you want to increase your writing skills, this may be the place for you to go! One of the most popular activities that they have here at North is the Robotics club. Every year, the Robotics club gets a task they have to complete, using a robot that they build. Last year, they had to basically create a robot that played basketball. They got a limited amount of resources, the robots had to be within a certain weight and size limit, and there are rules they had to follow during the challenges. To make it a little more interesting, they only have a month to build, program, and test the robot. “I love the club; I’ve been in it since freshman year,” said Captain Jamie Kavaloski. “It’s lots of fun and lots of learning combined. The competition is my favorite part.” If you want to try to test out your mechanical/engineering abilities, you should seriously consider joining Robotics. If you’re interested in acting, you should definitely check out the Drama Club. The Drama Club has rehearsals every day for a couple of months, and then they perform a show, which include plays like The Curious Savage, Arsenic and Old Lace, The Foreigner, Once Upon a Mattress, and Lucky Stiff. North and Tartan also combine sometimes to make plays, such as Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Annie, and Children of Eden. In the fall, they usually do a musical. Then in the winter, they do the One Act competition. The One Act competition is basically a play that is one act long that different schools do together, and then they perform their plays to compete against each other. In the spring, they do actual plays. “I personally enjoy acting because allows me to open up and express myself without worry of judgment or what others will think of me,” said Grace Cardinal. “Because when I am acting, I become the character that I am portraying and am no longer myself!” Currently, the Drama Club is in the middle of making Hello Dolly, which will be performed November 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Do you have a slight interest in newspaper, but want to be more colorful, creative, and want to put all of your hard work together in one big “issue” at the end of the year? Then maybe you should consider joining Yearbook. Like the Polar Prints, the Yearbook staff also writes stories about different clubs, activities, and features that go on at North. Some of the clubs that they cover includes sports, Knowledge Bowl, Newspaper, Drama Club, Robotics, Art Club, and a LOT more. Some of the activities that they cover in big spreads include Homecoming, the Masquerade Ball, Sadie Hawkins, Coffee House Acts, Sno Daze, the Masterworks Concert, and one of the biggest events of the year: Prom. The Yearbook staff design all of the pages that go into the yearbook, which means that they choose the colors for all of the pages, they mask and edit all of the photos that they take, they write quotes from people that are going to be included in the articles that they write, and they also eat some good food while they’re doing it. “Being in Yearbook is really fun,” said Kelsi Koren, who is part of the staff. “And it’s a great way to be organized, consistent, and precise.” So if you like the idea of Journalism, but don’t want to do stories for separate issues and want to put all of your work into one big “issue,” then maybe you should consider joining the Yearbook. If you want to expand your knowledge of history, geography, biology, pop culture, or almost any other subject out there, then maybe you should consider checking out the Knowledge Bowl. Knowledge Bowl and Quiz Bowl differ slightly. In Knowledge Bowl, each team of four has a strip that they hit to answer and the members are allowed to debate the answer for fifteen seconds. In Quiz Bowl, each player has a buzzer that they hit to answer, but if one player buzzes, the rest of the team can’t. Both Knowledge and Quiz Bowl practices are on Wednesdays and captain’s practices are on Tuesdays. The captain’s practices are led by Captain Donny Clinton, who is also a great cartographer. Every year, Clinton draws a map of a new world and each member claims a territory. There is usually some down time during meets, so they bring the map and wage war on each other. It’s kind of like a big game of Risk. There is usually a part of the captain’s practice that is devoted to either editing the map or drawing natural features on it. The meets for Knowledge/Quiz Bowl are usually on Thursday nights or Saturday mornings. “Getting up early on weekends isn’t so great at first, but it is always a lot of fun when you are surrounded by your friends.” said Oliver Sueper. “The environment is pretty lighthearted and we joke around a lot. It is a lot of fun and you learn something new every meet!” So if you want to take Oliver’s advice and have some fun learning some stuff, you should seriously check out either Knowledge or Quiz Bowl! Like singing and dancing, especially together? Then think about doing the Northern Lights Show Choir next year! They put a lot of dedication in their work every year, with their practices starting all the way in early August, practicing for 3 days, 6 hours a piece learning the choreography. After that, they have some after school and some weekend practices, plus every other choir day they work on show choir songs (Northern Lights Show Choir is also a class that you can choose when selecting your classes for next year). In addition to shows and practices, they also have competitions they participate in, where their criteria have to do with their performance, costumes, and theme. The competitions can be almost all over the state since they are one out of nine show choir groups in the state, meaning they would have to travel hours at a time to get to their competition. Sometimes the competitions are even out of the state. At the competitions, they perform their show, they watch other show choir groups do their performances, and then a judge goes over what went well and what could have gone better, like TV competitions such as Chopped, American Idol, or America’s Got Talent. These competitions pretty much last all day. “I wasn’t going to try out at first because it looked like a lot of work that I didn’t need in my life, but I tried out anyways because it seemed like it could be fun,” said Ritter Lincoln, who tried out as a freshmen. “Now don’t get me wrong, It take tremendous amounts of energy and brain power to be part of Show Choir, but it’s so much fun and I enjoy every minute that I’m part of it. There are so many friendly people with the common interest of signing and or dancing; I have absolutely no regrets about trying out.” Unfortunately, tryouts for Show Choir have been over for a while, but when you choose your classes for next year, you should seriously consider choosing Northern Lights Show Choir for a class, especially when each trimester of it counts as a credit and a half a piece. There’s a lot more clubs to check out around North, but these are some of the most popular activities that North offers here. If none of these activities sound interesting, then you should check out what else they offer here on the school’s website or in the Activities Office. Some other activities are the Art Club, Ski and Snowboard Club, Link Crew, National Honor Society, Relay for Life (which will be held later this year), and Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA). If you want to join an activity here at North, there’s more information online or in the Guidance Office.