The State Beta Club Convention is coming up February 10-12 in Myrtle Beach. And let me tell you, it is a whirlwind of fun. At the convention, Beta clubs from across the state compete in various scholastic and artistic events and elect the state officers. Winners from each competition are invited to participate in the national convention, and the state officers can choose to run for national office. North Augusta has one of the best-represented Beta Clubs in the state: last year we took 70 and this year we’ll be an all-out powerhouse with 92 attendees.

The focus of the convention is the state officer election. Campaigning plays out over a few meet-and-greet sessions, speeches, and a presentation of the skits. Each candidate develops a theme for his/her campaign, usually a clever pun or allusion using their name. This year, Zack Rogers is running for vice-president, using “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood” as his theme. On his expectations for the convention, Zack said “I have pieced together a campaign that will hopefully be successful. As far as the weekend goes, I’m expecting to shake a lot of hands, forget a lot of names, and, if I want to win, do a lot of networking.” As Zack said, networking is important to victory, and schools with candidates running for different offices frequently make alliances. After campaigning is completed, ballots are cast and the state officers are inaugurated during the third and final general assembly.

Another major part of the convention experience is the talent competition. Talent is the marquee event of the competitions, and it is performed in the main conference room in front of all attendees. As the most visible competition, it is usually the most hotly contested, with almost every attending school entering an act. Talent is split into two categories: small groups, which have no more than four participants and four minutes to perform, and large groups, which have at least five participants and seven minutes to perform. Each year brings a new crop of performers. Some are excellent, but none are more enjoyable than the truly terrible. Or maybe that’s just my inner sociopath showing. Anyways, North Augusta has a solid track record in large group, with several top finishes and a state victory in 2009 with “Grease.” Last year’s small group “Free Fallin” fell in the preliminaries, which in the humble opinion of yours truly was a gross injustice. This year, North Augusta will once again take the large group stage with a performance of “Hairspray.”

The other academic and artistic competitions are frequently overshadowed by the election and talent competitions, but they should by no means be overlooked. Last year, North Augusta distinguished itself in several categories. Kristen Barbour won in the spelling competition, and Rebecca Rudisill’s banner bested the field to receive first place honors. The Quiz Bowl team landed a strong second-place finish. We’re all hoping to add a bit more hardware to the Beta Club trophy case  this year. Kristen is hoping for a repeat in spelling this year, saying, “I’m a little bit more nervous than I was last year because now I have the expectation of winning. I’ll probably read the dictionary on the way up.”

For members of the Beta Club, February is looking pretty good. The convention is always a memorable experience, and if you’re a Beta who hasn’t ever considered it, I strongly suggest checking it out for 2013. In the words of our fearless leader, Mrs. Suman Marks-Johnson, “The Beta Club Convention is an excellent opportunity for students to come together in the spirit of devotion to their schools and communities.”  Thanks Mrs. Marks-Johnson, you pretty much wrote my conclusion for me. So, to all you “I can’t wait for summer” folks out there, slow down a minute and take a look around. Maybe February has something up its sleeve for you too.

Beta Club’s mission is “to promote the ideals of academic achievement, character, service and leadership among elementary and secondary school students.” In our school’s chapter, this means to sponsor events and to do service for the community. In previous years you may have seen Betas unloading Optimist Club Christmas trees, cheering on runners during the Bolivia Run, painting faces at elementary school carnivals, or dressed up as bananas at Bruster’s. You have undoubtedly heard of the annual Spooky to be Hungry Food Drive and if not, you surely know what Mr. NASH is. All of these events are held by Beta Club every year to help benefit causes the members of Beta Club find worthy of supporting.

Mrs. Suman Marks-Johnson, our chapter’s sponsor says, “The NAHS Beta Club is not just dedicated to high academic achievement. Each year Beta Club sponsors projects like Spooky to Be Hungry, Shamrock sales for the Muscular Dystrophy Association – our national service project, and Relay for Life.” Mrs. Marks-Johnson continues to name more service oriented projects that the Beta Club is involved in, “The RECing Crew,” an adaptive recreational program for people with special needs. She says, “Alley Cats bowling on Tuesdays, T-RECs basketball in the fall, t-ball in the spring, along with The RECing Crew on Saturdays are great opportunities for members to actively take a role in teaching, mentoring, and developing friendships with people in the community.”

One of the most important things the Betas do all year is participate in State Convention. Convention is an event during which Betas from all over South Carolina gather to compete in academic and creative competitions as well as elect state officers. In 2010 our chapter nominated Rachel Ward to run for state President under the theme “StarWard: The Force is Strong With This One,” a play off of StarWars. This week our chapter chose from four nominees to determine who would run for 2012 State Vice President.

Those running for nomination to Junior Office this year were Joey Baldwin, Adam Parlor, Danny Thomas, and me, Zack Rogers. Each candidate gave a brief speech in which they presented their running theme and campaign slogan. Elections were held directly after the parent meeting on Monday. I was chosen by the members present to run under the theme “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood: It’s a Beautiful Day in Beta Club” during State Convention this coming February.

Beta Club is an organization molded around the concept of and the belief in giving back to the community that hosts it. Considering financial contributions and contribution of time, Betas are able to give back thousands of dollars and tens of thousands of community service hours. Keep up the good work students!

Not advertising F.L.A.I.R has not given students any motivation to do well in their foreign language classes, Katie Schaade, a junior says that “if I had known about this honor society, it would have made me wanted to do better and have an A atleast once to give me something to look forward to.”

F.L.A.I.R stands for Foreign Language Association For International Rapport and is very popular at Augusta State University. The chairman of this Honor Society is Jana Sandarg from Augusta State. It is for any foreign language and the only requirement is that a student has to have a 90 or above in three consecutive semesters of an unchanged language.

Mike Lott, a sophomore who is in a French class thinks that F.L.A.I.R is a great idea saying that “it is new but seems to be just as important as the rest of the honor societies, especially for students that want to major in a foreign language.”

The charge of being in F.L.A.I.R is five dollars and it can be given to your foreign language teacher at any time. Induction is on Monday, March 7th at 7:00 pm in the Augusta State Performing Arts Theater. There will be a reception before the induction at 6:15 for parents and the inductees to gather.

A spanish teacher at our school, Senora Hughes commented that being in F.L.A.I.R is “an important opportunity for kids to build their resume’ for college, and also taking part in a very fun and interesting honor society.”

F.L.A.I.R was founded in 1985 by Augusta State University and is just now getting popular in the Georgia/Carolina schools. Once a student is put into the honor society, they can then be nominated to be a Student of the Year for F.L.A.I.R if their grades meet a certain requirement.

Ben Phifer, a freshman agrees that “F.L.A.I.R will be a great opportunity now for freshman to get started working on their foreign language classes early so they can join the honor society.”

Now that F.L.A.I.R has been properly introduced, everybody that reads this article needs to go give five dollars to their foreign language teacher by the end of the week so you can be inducted too! If you need anymore information about F.L.A.I.R, here is a link http://www.aug.edu/flair/ check it out!

But what do you do when you are with the NJROTC team? You are either there to be on the rifle team, to be on the armed drill team, to be a part of the unarmed drill team, or you are just trying to get out of gym.

The armed drill team is basically when the students make up a routine similar to color guard, just no flags, and they don’t twirl the gun.

The unarmed drill team is students trying to come up with a routine using only their bodies, kind of like the step team.

The rifle team is students trying to have the most accurate shot with rifles. The most recent drill team meet was the 2010 White Knoll Timberwolf Navy Invitational Drill Meet. The armed drill team won 2^nd place for squad regulations, and the unarmed drill team won 3^rd place for squad regulations.

Junior Gavin Johnson thinks, “You strive to be the best and everyone will be there.” Sophomore Celia Dunstov thinks however, “school teams usually are just for fun and don’t teach much whereas ROTC teaches discipline, strength, endurance, sight, etc.”

Senior Vanda Johnson thinks, “ROTC teaches you how to motivate yourself and others and to always be presentable and pay attention to details.”

The ROTC changed their uniforms this year.They were white shirts with black pants. The ROTC students had to tuck in their shirt wear a belt, and have a straight gig line. For those of you who don’t know, a gig line is when your shirt lines up with your pants buttons. These were the same for the guys and girls. But now there are the tan shirts with the black pants. The girls are supposed to wear the shirts un-tucked and have a gig line. The guys still have to follow the same rules. Wondering what the change is for? Well when the Navy changes with uniforms for the E-6 and below, we change our uniforms as well. So say good bye to the white shirts, they are gone forever!

Little Women is a heart-turning story. Will a new friendship break up a bond of sisterhood? Or can the power of love overcome money? We travel through a story of romance, new friends, loss and triumph, written by Louisa May Alcott and adapted by Scott Davidson to discover that the love and devotion of a family can never be broken.

The four main characters are Josephine “Jo” March, Meg March, Beth March, and Amy March. The play is centered around Jo, played by senior Baylor Shull. Baylor says about Jo, “Jo is independent, strong-headed, and doesn’t believe in love.”

This is kind of a bad thing since she falls in love with Theodore “Teddy” Lawrence portrayed by senior Jeremy Porcha. Jo is the second oldest sister, her older sister Meg March is played by junior Savannah Campbell. Savannah says that, “Meg tries to play the motherly figure and tries to keep the peace when her sisters fight. She falls in love, but doesn’t want to admit it.” Meg falls in love with Mr. John Brooke, portrayed by Senior Michael Danforth.

Next is Beth March, who is portrayed by Junior Cheyenne Lamar. Cheyenne says, “Beth is sweet, attentive, and loving to all of her sisters.”

The final sister, but by all means not the worst sister, is Amy March, is brought to the stage by freshman Rachel Branum. Rachel says that Amy is, “younger, mean, and very stuck-up, but loving to all of her sisters.”

Since characterization is so important, the performers have thought carefully about how they’re going to portray the characters in the play.

Savannah intends to, “have good posture, position, and I’m sorta like Meg in a way. I guess remembering your lines, cues, and the right emotions would be helpful too.”

Baylor intends to, “just be loud and boisterous, with a gentle side.” Cheyenne says, “by being sweet, attentive, and loving to all of my sisters.”

Rachel will, “act younger and stuck-up, and be more caring towards my family.”

So much acting, just from these four people and that’s not including everyone in the cast. Little Women has a cast of 10 people not including the stage crew and the decorating crew. Remaining members of the cast include Kate Funderburk as Marmee (the mother), Aaron Dorch is Mr. March (the father), Rebecca Rudisill who is Aunt Marge, and Kassidy Hammett plays Hannah (the house keeper).

In Stage Crew, Auburn Smith is the stage manager (the head honcho for the stage) and Kris Hodges is the assistant stage manager (the second head honcho). Auburn and Kris are in charge of making sure everyone is where they are supposed to be to receive the right props at the right time. Jo and Teddy have a “fight scene” in the first act, and if they don’t have their swords ready to go at the right spot, the whole scene is ruined. On Decorating Crew, Emma Kitchens is the leader of this crew (and is also secretary/publisher of the drama club) and Charity McClain is the assistant leader of the Decorating Crew. Emma and Charity are to make sure the programs are handed out and the lobby of the auditorium is decorated.

Now you may be wondering how a play comes together? Well obviously the actors have scripts and that’s how they know their lines, but how do Baylor and Jeremy know what exactly to do for their “fight scene”? Well the director, sophomore Emily Wright, and the assistant director, senior Jazzmyne Forsman, teach the actors their blocking. For those of you who don’t know what blocking is, it’s what you’re supposed to be doing while you’re on stage, and as Jazzmyne puts, “it’s the most tedious, frustrating, essential part of the entire process.”

What do Emily and Jazzmyne think of the play? Emily says, “I feel its going to be a big success! The actors have worked really hard and the crews have worked really hard to make this play a success.” Jazzmyne says, “I feel the play is coming together really well. We’ve had a much shorter amount of time to prepare than we ever have had, but everyone, even the new-comers, are adapting so well. It’s going to be FANTASTIC!”

“Drum Major, is your band ready to enter the field for competition?” A question that was asked at B.A.T.S. this past weekend. B.A.T.S., which stands for Bands Across the Savannah, was held by the Jacket Regiment Saturday, October 16. Eleven excellent marching ensembles marched to on to the field to perform their very best show for hope of positive recognition.
Like the bands competing at B.A.T.S, the Jacket Regiment is also a contending band, traveling to multiple competitions each year. With a a great new staff, talented new drum majors, and a brilliant theme, the award winning marching band is doing exceptional this season.
Chuck Deen, Jacket Regiment director, credits much of this year’s success to the band as a whole. “This is the hardest working band we’ve ever had; there is an amazing amount of leadership that has never been there before.” Deen also remarked that “this past spring the students made a promise [to themselves] to move up on all levels. I believe we have done that.”
After winning first place at Midland Valley High School’s Mustang Classic, second place overall at the marching competition in Commerce, Georgia, and 4th place in their AAAA Class at the Irmo competition, the Jacket Regiment continues to strengthen their already magnificent show.
Combine a vibrant array of colors and original choreography with a rich and powerful sound and a massive mat stretching from 10-yard line to 10-yard line, and you would create the best show that the North Augusta band has performed in a while. The show, which was composed by Marty McCartt, is entitled “Frequency”. It illustrates the various sound and color frequencies existing in the world.
Senior color guard co-captains Kimberly Dyches and Lindsey Cliett say the show is fun. “It has a lot of energy and colors. We love it.”
Corey Green, a junior alto saxophone player, calls the show “more interesting and exciting than previous shows I’ve been in.”
Drum majors Travis Pickens and Michael Martin, both seniors, are doing a wonderful job holding everything together. This year is the first in quite a few that the band has actually had two official drum majors. When asked why this decision was made, Mr. Deen responded that “the show appeared to have much need for more backfield sets, and with that we needed another person conducting.” Travis Pickens says that the change from marching to conducting was extraordinary: “it’s exciting to see the forms and watch it all come together.” Travis also says, “it’s an honor to stand in front of a group of people who appreciate band as a true art form.” This is Travis and Michael’s first and final year as drum majors.
Nick Bledsoe, the new color guard instructor, has added much to the band this year as well. Kimberly Dyches remarks that “his methods are the very similar [to former instructor Kevin Piner's].”
The color guard won the caption of Best Guard at the Mustang Classic by an overwhelming point margin. “It just adds inspiration to work even harder to keep getting the awards and recognition,” comments Lindsey Cliett.
Being seniors this year, both girls have taken a lot out of being a part of color guard for four years. Kimberly says, “it takes so much time and effort, but it’s fun. It teaches motivation, discipline, and delayed gratification. It’s been my life.” Lindsey agrees that being in color guard has taught her much discipline. “You work hard for months, then maybe get something for it, but nothing is ever guaranteed.”
Lindsey, Kimberly, and most of the other Jacket Regiment members assisted with the competition this past weekend. Volunteers sold balloons in each school’s colors, “band-o-grams”, and baked goods, along with helping the competitors warm-up and find their way around the campus. The bands started out the day with contending within their class. Once everyone had performed, the seniors were invited on to the field for preliminary awards; T.L. Hanna High, Irmo High, Midland Valley High, and Lake City High all took home first place in each of their classes, ranging from AAAA to A. After an intermission the four class champions along with the next four top band scores of the day were invited back for a final performance, in which the shows were performed once more for the judges to decide the final rankings of the evening.
Each school had extraordinarily creative themes and shows. Brookland Cayce performed an Irish-themed show, including color guard members river dancing, and traditional sounding Irish folk-music; they took home sixth overall with 85.25 points.
Evans High, the B.A.T.S. overall champion last year, had quite an interesting show called “Conspiracy Theory”; it involved multiple numbers with mysterious, private-eye sounding music. With various theatrics, a strong sound, and a score of 89.95, the marching band acquired fifth place.
Silver Bluff had quite an admirable show and an impeccable sound; the Silver Spirit received 83.5 points and eighth place.
With definitive sets and outstanding musical quality, Dutch Fork High School scored 94.2 points, giving them the second place position.
Lake City was looking and sounding bright with their show, “Light”, which got them 84.7 points and seventh overall at the competition.
The Pride of the Valley definitely has a show to be proud of; with amazing sound, vibrant colors, and sharp sets, they have a magnificent show this year. Midland Valley was awarded fourth place, having a score of 91.75.
“Everest: The Ascent” is the title of Irmo’s delightful show with intriguing backdrop pieces and the incorporation of traditional, native dancing and instrumental sounds of the Mount Everest region. With 93.8 points, the band “ascended” to third place overall.
The final performer of the evening was T. L. Hanna from Anderson, South Carolina. The “New World Symphony” show had an extremely powerful sound, with phenomenal visuals. Drum major Wade Murray did a superior job at single-handedly conducting this enormous ensemble not only to AAAA victory, but also the highest score of the day, with 96.15 points, winning them the competition.  Senior Wade Murray commented that the “second run was definitely better; the first one seemed tired. It was nice not to have to deal with the sun being in everyone’s eyes.” Murray also says he’s “never seen the drum line practice so hard. They had mean looks, like they hate the world. They were extremely focused. Everyone was.” This is the first time in the high school’s marching history that they have defeated Dutch Fork.
As for the state competition (to be in Bamberg, South Carolina on Saturday, October 30), Murray remarks, “we hope to make it to state. We haven’t been in two years, so it would be nice.”
It seems as though everybody in the marching community is dreaming of State. North Augusta senior Josh Fulmer says that “state is never a guarantee, but with the way [we] are performing, we won’t get eighth again.” Erin Roberts, a junior on drum line at North Augusta High, comments, “if we continue working really hard and put all of our heart into it, then we absolutely could get state.” Director Chuck Deen agrees, “we are definitely a contender.”

*Picture credit: Susan Cliett, band parent. The picture is of the Jacket Regiment seniors after winning the Mustang Classic.

 For those of you who don’t know, Mock Trial is when a group gets together and acts out either a criminal or civil trial.  Positions on the team include: attorneys, witnesses, bailiffs, and time keepers.  All these people get together and act out a trial taking either the prosecuting side or the defense side, and compete see which team has the best lawyers, witnesses, time keeper, and bailiff.

 Our team has attorney Don White and Richard Mays helping them to get better at what they are supposed to be able to do.  At the meeting Mr. White said that he plans to, “help the team learn procedures and learn how to think through a legal problem.”  The lawyers must learn to be able to introduce evidence, and be able to object and state the reason of their objection.  The witnesses must be able to act when need be and know the facts about their characters.  The time keeper must be able to read the stop watch and record times.  The bailiff needs to be able to keep order in the court room. 

Mrs. Patterson, one of the teachers planning to help with the Mock Trial Team says, “I plan to give the students the rheto, “I am going to teach the students retorical devices that they need in order to advance in a debate.” Mr. Gill adds the “laws of the [court] system.”

 Mr. White promises, “You all will never watch another criminal law show again with the same perception.”  The teachers/attorneys plan to teach the group how things are done and show them how to do things, so that at the regional competition in February, the students will be able to conduct the trial with no help from them. 

 Mr. White believes, “this group is going to be state champs by the time I’m done with them.”

The Honor's Chorale's guys singing their butts off in class one day.

   From there, the female singers will audition for The Bella Voce (Women’s Ensemble) or the Honor’s Chorale.  The male singers can only audition for the Honor’s Chorale.  These are honors level classes where they learn difficult music patterns.

The Male Trumpet players in the 9th grade Concert Band pause in their work for a picture.

   In sixth grade, students start in beginner band.  In there they learn how to play their chosen instrument, and throughout the year they learn basic notes.  In seventh and eighth grade, they learn complicated notes and transitions.  When they get into the high school concert bands they learn how to turn their basic knowledge into more advanced knowledge.

   You may be wondering which is more challenging?  Mr. Piner and Mr. Deen both agree that, “both groups are equally challenging, and they both have their own unique challenges.”  Mr. Deen however believes, “Marching Band is judged harsher, because it’s subjectable.  When a choir or concert band performs, the judges have the music in front of them.”  They have to not only learn the music, but how to perform it as well.  Mr. Piner somewhat disagrees, “Choir has the more difficult challenge of text and execution of clean diction.”  He also adds, “This is similar to the articulation that band members are required to execute.”

   Senior Dorlisa Evans says, “Choir is harder, because you have to learn Solfege and you have to learn Taka-dimi.  It’s more than just notes, you have to constantly be on top of your game or you’ll get behind and then you are screwed.”  Junior Nathan Leopard disagrees, “Band is harder, because we have practice after school every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and/or Friday when we have a football game, and when competition starts, we have practices on Saturday.  It’s very tiring and we hardly get any free time, but it’s all worth it in the end.”  Junior Steven McDonald says, “Marching Band is very nerve racking when we have performances.”  Steven adds, “When there are the different sections, choir is more nerve racking because you have a smaller group.”

   All in all, everyone loves the choir and band.  Senior Tiana Coach says, “I love performing in front of the school, our fellow classmates get to see what we do in choir.”  Nathans adds, “My favorite thing about band is the friends and memories that I have gotten out of band.  Winning is AWSOME as well!”

They want to extend a nation-wide program into our high school: SADD. Marina Clements, who has taken a lot of time to get the program on it’s feet at NAHS, explained what SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) is saying, “it’s an organization whose mission is to provide students with the best prevention tools possible to deal with the issues of underage drinking, other drug use, impaired driving and other destructive decisions.”

The senior class at North Augusta High School has been fortunate enough to not have a fellow student die ina  tragic accident, or fall victim to a drunk driver, or over-dose on prescription drugs; SADD will help keep it that way.

Teens mourn the death of Hephzibah High student, it could happen to any of us at NAHS. Photo Credit: Augusta Chronicle

The goal of SADD is to inform the students at NAHS about the risks of destructive behavior and possibly prevent accidents from happening and bad decisions from being made.

To get the program at North Augusta, Marina and Nicole met with Mr. Bornscheuer, who definitely approved. They also recruited three faculty members to be advisors: Officer Chavous (naturally), Mr. Cowart and Mrs. Barnes. Officer Chavous wants to save students from tragedy.  ”I have a background in law enforcement, so I can tell students about the things I’ve seen. I want to provide as much information to these kids as I can to prevent bad things from happening. I want the students to know that they can ask me questions and talk to me.”

When asked about who they would like to be in the club, Elizabeth Hammond and Marina were quick to say, “We don’t want to alienate those who choose to do these things [drink and drive, do drugs, text and drive] but to inform and educate them of the consequences of their actions. We truly care about all the students at NAHS.”

Anyone can be a member of SADD, there are no membership dues, you simply have to support the message SADD is trying to send.

Marina, Nicole, and Elizabeth were also joined by senior Page Barnes and juniors Caroline Foss and Ashtyn Lowery when trying to start-up the North Augusta chapter of SADD.

You may be wondering, why try to spread the word about the risks of destructive decisions; it’s all over the school, everyone’s seen the “Prom Promise” videos, right?

SADD is different. SADD is student-run and it’s hands on. The students of SADD can produce a stronger effect than a redundant video. They actually care about students on a personal level: Marina went on to say, “Nicole and I were tired of seeing or hearing our fellow students talk about drinking and getting high on the weekends, drinking and driving, texting and driving, and making poor decisions. We were tired of them thinking it was okay, it’s not okay. They could kill themselves or someone else.”

For more information on the National Chapter of SADD, visit http://www.sadd.org/

SADD ad campaign; Photo Credit: Roadsafety.com