The Rampage

Kailee Ammons Staff Reporter   Girls' track members of the 4x200 after their race. Photo courtesy of Bri Hersom.             Last week, the boys’ and girls’ track teams attended state. They spent three days at Drake Stadium running and spending time together as a team.             Some events that took place for the girls’ team were the 4x400 which placed third, 4x200 that broke the school record and placed fifth, the distance medley which received tenth place, and the 4x100 which placed in 15 th .             The team achieved these by practicing all through their season, preparing mentally and physically for their races. These practices are not easy and require a lot of effort from each member of the team.             Even though preparing is tough, they know that it is all worth it in the end.             “When I cross the finish line, I feel good because I know that I gave it my all,” said sophomore Brianna Hersom. “I also feel a sense of relief because I can

Lexi Burrows Staff Reporter                 English 1 classes were given a heartwarming assignment. They had to write an “I Am” poem, and then put it on a poster board with pictures. The poem was to explain who they are as a person, and where they came from. Many kids struggled with the thought and found the assignment difficult. In Mrs.Hockensmith’s class, she only gave 9 perfects. “It was interesting because it made you think about your past,” said freshman Jessica Shepherd who received a perfect. The poem had to be 20 lines, and very descriptive. “The textual evidence was one of the most important things,” said Hockensmith, during one of her English classes.  Students really had to dig deep and just think about the different smells, sounds, and tastes of what they were describing in the poem. “It took me about two days to complete the whole project, but my rough draft was done within a day,” said Shepherd. Several students shared their poems with their families, an

Claire Strickland Opinion Editor Jessica Shepherd and Ally Stutzman in their costumes for Disco Daze. Photo by Claire Strickland             Friday May 22, 2015 was the 13th annual disco daze for freshmen at the high school. Freshman Kennedy Varisco participated in the event.             “I dressed up as Farrah Fawcett because she was a hair icon, and we have similar hair styles,” Varisco said. Many of the students dress up as icons from the 70s and went down to the choir room with their US History teachers to participate in a disco, with lots of dancing and decor.             “Dancing on the floor was my favorite part. All the iconic dances from the days of disco,” Varisco said. Students get to participate in Disco Daze every year, even if they are not a freshman. Students prepare in advance by learning all the dances that they will do during the disco.             “I thought it was so much fun, I had a blast,” Varisco said. “I’d definitely do it over and over again to be

Tori Hennick Arts + Cultures Editor Memorial Day-- a day to stay home from school, sleep in, and hang out with friends. But not many actually know why students stay home from school on that day. Memorial Day isn’t just a day off from school or work; it is an American holiday that takes place on the last Monday of May. Memorial Day honors the men and women who died while serving in the military. Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day, and it started after the Civil War. It became a federal holiday in 1971. Many Americans, specifically teens, don’t take part in the holiday the way they should. People think that it is just a day-off to hang out with their friends or to catch up on homework or work. To pay respect to the ones who fought for our country, people often visit cemeteries or memorials. Junior Sydney Scott is celebrating Memorial Day with her family and paying respects to her family members that served the country. “I’m spending the weekend with my girlfrien

Ethan Edvenson Cartoonist The cartoon series run throughout the Rampage's issues reaches its conclusion.

Jessica Rish        Staff Reporter                 Ram plan is an attendance incentive for students and is determined by each course. A student may opt out of two semester finals if they have met the Ram Plan qualifications.                 In order for Ram Plan to be eligible for a student they must be passing the class and have no more or than four absences and four tardies in a in a class. Students can still take the finals that they opt out of, and if they do, then their grade can only be improved. Ram Plan forms were handed out in advisement May 15 th and they must be signed and returned to the assistant principle office on May 22 nd .                 Gold and silver cards are academic incentives which allow students to get opt out of one or two more finals. Silver cards are given to students who have had a 3.5 GPA and are allowed to opt out of ONE additional final. Gold cards are given to students who have a 4.00 GPA or higher are able to opt out of TWO more semester

Brooklyn Draisey Columnist                 On Friday, May 15, sophomores and their parents attended the sophomore honors assembly. In order to qualify, students must have maintained a 3.5 GPA for two consecutive semesters. Academic letters were given out, as well as some special honors.                 One of the special honors was for National French Test participants that did very well. Ryan Johnson, Jillian Miller, Brooklyn Draisey, Laura Widman all got honorable mentions. Izzy Schrock won a bronze Laureate award for the first time in a decade for Southeast Polk. All of the honorable mentions received certificates, and Schrock received a medal.                Sophomores who got into the National Honor Society were also honored at the assembly. 13 students received membership and were recognized on stage for their achievements. Eryn Perry was also recognized for getting the best score in the sophomore class on the American Math Competition, a 25-question math test that st

Claire Strickland Opinion Editor The future junior members pose for a group photo. Photo courtesy of Sammy Rooney. Thursday, May 14 was the annual RhythAMetteS banquet. All team dancers participated, and many received awards. There was also a potluck before where members ate and socialized. Coaches announced new members of the team, and seniors said their final farewells after many years on the dance team. Sophomore Ameerah Thayer was a part of the banquet. “We eat a lot at the potluck before the awards are given out in the auditorium,” Thayer said. “The banquet welcomes new members and says goodbye to the seniors and is just an end of the season get together.” The banquet allowed spent time for voted awards and academic awards as well. “There is the rookie of the year award, superstar, miss congeniality, highest kicks, outstanding effort, and many others,” Thayer said. “There are also awards for academic and for people who have been on Elite.” The new 2015-2016 team c

Kailee Ammons Staff Reporter The SEP Girls' Volleyball team playing one last game. Photo courtesy of Nicole Craig.                 Today, Thursday May 14, is the seniors’ last official day of school, and many of them are conflicted on how they feel about it. Some of them are very excited about leaving high school behind and seeing what life has in store for them. Others are thrilled to start a new chapter in the life, but still sad to wrap up these four years.                 Nicole Craig is one of the many people who feel this way.                 “I am looking forward to having my freedom, but I am scared of being three hours away from my friends and family,” said Craig.                 During this time, many people are looking back on their experiences throughout the past couple of years.  Both Huinker and Craig are on the volleyball team.  Many seniors will miss sports teams they were on, clubs or groups they were involved in, school dances, teachers and other st

Tori Hennick Arts + Cultures Editor Students take a picture in their safety goggles with their experiment. Photo courtesy of Kenzie Baldwin.                 Students currently taking chemistry classes are taking part in an uncommon educational activity: roasting marshmallows. This activity gives students a chance to learn, hands on, about stoichiometry. According to chem4kids.com , stoichiometry is the part of chemistry that studies amounts of substances that are involved in reactions. Several students believe that being able to see a chemical reaction happen in real life helps them understand how science really works.                 Junior CC Hall finds this activity to be very fun and is enjoying being able to learn about something she once knew nothing about, in real life. “We are learning how to balance chemical equations. It’s not really difficult as long as you listen and pay attention to what you are supposed to be doing,” said Hall. “From this activity, I have

Ethan Edvenson Cartoonist                 Students entering college for business degrees sometimes have little to no idea of how to get their goal running. In today’s world, starting up in business can either be surprisingly easy or exceptionally challenging with thousands of other companies competing against you, whether you plan to advise another company or run your own business. This is why the Iowa Foundation of Business and Industry Foundation created the Business Horizons program.                 In the Business Horizons program, students will learn about the business world and prepare themselves for their future over the course of a week. Skills needed to be successful in the modern work place, ways to gain opportunities for promotions, and information about the economic system are all explained by advisors. These advisors also act as a company boss of sorts and are in charge of leading each team in the project they are assigned. Some problems the groups have to sol

Pete Ruden Staff Reporter             With the seniors graduating in less than a week, they are making their presence known in their final hours as Southeast Polk students. This week is Senior Week, where the seniors dress up each day of the week.             “I like being able to dress up as something that is not ordinary. It kind of makes school a little bit more enjoyable,” said senior Keiffer Baumert. “Anything you can do to really get by in the day, I think it’s pretty funny. It’s a nice thing to take part in.”             Senior Week starts with senior citizen or baby day on Monday, followed by hippie day on Tuesday, athletic day on Wednesday and Hawaiian day rounding out the week for the seniors on Thursday.             This is one of the weeks where the school allows the seniors to wear anything in the realm of the topic. Baumert thinks it is a good way to participate and to have school spirit, while having a good laugh along the way.             “[My reason of

Brooklyn Draisey Columnist                 In light of recent events at the junior high, students had the chance to voice their opinions in open discussions in advisory on Friday, May 8. The unplanned advisory session gave students the opportunity to talk about the culture that our school has and talk about possible solutions to the problems that our school faces.                 “We talked about how people being bullied are their own first line of defense, and how the school seems to take away students’ resiliency by offering too many opportunities,” said sophomore Jonathan Zaugg. His advisory focused on how students need to stand up for themselves and not rely on the school to fix problems that they might not even know about. They also talked about how students that are complaining about their voices not being heard might just not be using the right channels to speak.                 “Everyone seemed serious and it was a good time to talk. It almost felt like there wasn’t en

Kaelee Keesee Managing Editor The boy’s track team will be running in the conference meet tonight at 4 at Ankeny High School. They will run against 11 teams that are in our conference for the title of conference champions. Junior Dalten Lehman, a three year varsity member, will be running the 4x8 and the mile in the meet tonight and is looking forward to the competition he will face. “I’m looking forward to competing with good teams all over the state,” said Lehman. “We run with some of the best teams in the state like Waukee and Valley and I’m excited to see how we’re going to do.” The team has at least one person or team ranked in 11 of the 22 events that will take place. Other highly ranked teams include: Waukee, Ankeny Centennial and Ankeny High Schools. “The competition will be hard. I don’t know the exact teams that are running tonight but conference teams are always hard to run in,” said Dalton. The general admission for the meet is five dollars and will be held at

Emily Merkle Design Editor The AP Psychology textbook students use in class. Southeast Polk Advanced Placement students started the week they have been working up to all year; this is the first week of AP testing. Monday, May 4 started the 2 weeks of testing with chemistry at 8 AM and psychology at 12 PM. Students reported at these times to the band room here at Southeast Polk for their 2-3 hour tests. AP testing consists of anywhere from 50 to 100 or so multiple choice questions and various free response questions that reflect the units covered in the semester or year-long class. Most students prefer to take AP courses to gain some college credit while in high school. The lowest score a student could potentially receive for college credit would be a 3. The scale is from 1 “no recommendation” to 5 “extremely well qualified”, according to the College Board AP Bulletin. Most colleges are boosting their acceptance rates to a 4 or even a 5 if the credit is in the students’ maj

Kenzie Baldwin  Feature Editor             On Monday seniors started signing up for activities to volunteer for on May 15 for the annual Scip Day. SCIP stands for senior community involvement program and is an annual activity at Southeast Polk. There are a variety of options for students to sign up for, but they are filling up fast. Seniors are supposed to go to their infinite campus and a message will be waiting there that will take them to a page to get signed up. There have been a couple problems with infinite campus and getting signed in to pick the activity a student wants to do. If that happens, go to the assistant principal’s office and someone will help fix the problem. The problems are mainly happening when students are trying to use their phone to sign in.             Seniors are pushed to partake in this event because it is good for them to do community service, and together the class can make a difference and help out the community. The majority of the options are

Kailee Ammons Staff Reporter             This past week, students in the sophomore English classes have been learning about different types of poetry. Students are being taught the elements of writing and how to apply them to their own poems.             In class, students have worked on the parallel structure of poems by writing their own versions of In Two Minds and The Summer I Was Sixteen. In this assignment, students were asked to find a visual representation for their poem, and then reflect on their choice of words and visual.             Students were also taught how to create blackout poems. In this type of poetry, one selects a page from a book (typically printing off a copy of the page) and then chooses certain words to create their masterpiece. Any words that are not chosen are colored over, traditionally, in black marker.             On Wednesday, students were asked to analyze a piece written by the well-known poet, Robert Frost. This required students to loo

Quincy Nelson Staff Reporter Friday May 1 st there was no advisory, instead there was a school assembly- to give recognition to the some of the fine arts students who have excelled.  Clubs such as Speech, Drama, Choir, Show Choir, Band, and DECA had students recognized and appreciated.  The assembly was held at the normal advisement time of 9:24 and the student body was released from 2 nd hour at 9:14 with the assembly ending around 9:53. “It’s pretty cool I’m happy about it, when I was in Ankeny they weren’t recognized,” said senior Micalah Wiseman, a member of both choir and show choir. “We work pretty hard and we go in for 6 hours a week-we work outside of school a lot too,” said Wiseman. Students of the fine arts appreciate being recognized just like the sports teams were earlier in the year. “I feel we really worked just as hard sports do,” said freshman Mitzi Perez, a member of choir and show choir. Perez plans to continue her performing career into the rest of high