The Rampage

Ashley Vannoy  Staff Reporter  The annual food drive has come to an end. Mrs.Owens has won the contest every year since the new school opened. Photo credit Ashley Vannoy.   Health careers teacher, Mrs. Owens has won the annual school food drive every year since the new high school opened. Recently her advisor class also won the TLC book drive.             “I feel very fortunate to work with such generous kids and families.  It is really humbling to watch kids donate their own, hard earned money to help others.  The most rewarding part is seeing how great they (the students) feel by helping someone else,” said Mrs. Owens.             Often, in some classes throughout the school, no one brings anything to donate. Owens explained how she got her students to be encouraged to donate for the drives.              “I start talking about the food drive on the first day of school.  I have engaged in many friendly competitions over the years (Mrs. Stille and Mrs. Corwin) which re

Jessica Rish  News Editor  Students attended a Central Region Leadership Conference in Kansas City this past weekend. Photo credit Jessica Rish.   On November 20th, 21st and 22nd a handful of DECA members will be attended the Central Region Leadership Conference in Kansas City, Missouri. DECA is a club at Southeast Polk that focuses on social, competition and leadership events. According to the official deca website, deca.org their mission is to prepare emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality and management in high schools and colleges around the globe. Delaney Christian is junior here at Southeast Polk and is a second year member of DECA. Christian and participates in marketing events at DECA competitions. This will be Christian's second year attending the CRLC conference. “Last year we went to Minneapolis and this year we are going to Kansas City and I have high expectations because last year was really good,” said Christian. The CRL

Pete Ruden  Sports Editor  Many students enjoyed the annual Thanksgiving lunch on Thursday November, 19. Photo credit Pete Ruden.  November is wrapping up and Thanksgiving is just around the corner, which means the school is serving up their annual Thanksgiving lunch. A lunch like that can remind students of what is to come, whether it’s being with friends or family, or just being thankful for what they have.             The lunch contains turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, a roll, green beans, stuffing and pumpkin bars for the kids to enjoy exactly a week from Thanksgiving. Each student has their favorite part of the meal. Some people at lunch enjoy the turkey, while others enjoy the stuffing. Still, others crave the pumpkin bar that comes around once every year.             “[The best part about the lunch is] they usually have a pumpkin bar that goes along with it,” senior Nick McDermott said. “That’s usually pretty great.”             With only a week until Thanksgivi

Demi Muchmore  Editor-and-Chief  FCCLA students are attending a district conference on November 23,2015. Photo credit Demi Muchmore.  On Monday, November 23 rd FCCLA students will be attending a district conference. This will be at the Guthery Center, in this conference they will be doing a lot of leadership building, doing break out sessions, and enjoy an inspirational speaker. As some people don’t know, FCCLA stands for: family, career, community leaders of America.             The main idea of FCCLA is to promote and accomplish community service and also attend leadership events. They also work with a sponsorship called star events which is a competition setting.              Senior Mckayla Birkenholtz is one of the top leaders this year. She is in charge of helping with the Star events and finding more community service projects for the team to do.             Along with doing the community service projects, they also go with your silver chord hours. “Being in thi

Sydney Sears  Staff Reporter  Students will be preforming in front of the best judges, and hope to receive a good review. Photo credit Sydney Sears.  Several band students of Southeast Polk will be attending the Iowa All State Band Festival at Iowa State University tomorrow the 19th and Friday. The Iowa All State Band Festival is an opportunity for all band kids, though to get in, students must audition a week or so before hand to get in. Once they make it through auditions, they perform a piece they practice on for nearly months and play for the handful of judges in front of them. One of students that made it for the Southeast Polk side of the band is freshman Katy Meunier. “I practiced almost every day, for an hour at least, or I at least tried to in my free time,” Meunier said. She prepped with her piece as soon as she got it, and played her French horn after school. “I was very, very nervous,” Meunier said about the auditions, “There was one judge there and a student

Shelby Kellis  Business Manager           Chad Willefords’ 3D art class is finishing up their clay bust project. For this project students got to pick a head of a character, animal, or person to sculpt. Some of the projects the students are doing, Darth Vader, Yoda, Chris Evans, Thor and Jack Skellington.         Senior Shianne Bice is doing Jack, which is coming along great. “The way the eyes are nearly a perfect match to the picture,” says Bice. “Probably one of my best pieces of art I have done in my whole high school career.”         For this project students start with making a neck, by putting clay slabs over an armature. According to Google.com an armature is a metal framewoek on which a sculpture is molded with clay or a similar materianl. But instead of using metal students made their armature by rolling up news papers and putting them in plastic sacks.        After making the neck students sat the head armature on top of the neck and covered it up with more cla

Kaelee Keesee  Editor-and-Cheif            On the night of Sunday, November 15, the commons was home to nearly 300 members of the Southeast Polk wrestling family. Wrestlers, managers and families alike came together to enjoy a Thanksgiving potluck for the boys before the fun of cutting weight begins.             Each member of the team was in charge of a specific dish to prepare for the meal, with seniors in charge of bringing a main dish, juniors responsible for a side, sophomores bringing dessert and freshman were in charge of clean up.             This is the second year that the parents have hosted this event, with large success each year. It is the first time the wrestlers spend time together before they spend countless hours at 6am workouts, after school practice, meets and tournaments together until mid-February.             “I’m looking forward to winning a state title with my teammates,” said senior Eric Pingel, who attended the meal. Pingel has been a member of the

Quincey Nelson  Graphic Designer  Every student will be asked to write a thank you note in their advisor this Friday. Students will be asked to write a note to some in their life that they are thankful for. This can include family, friends, teachers, and anyone who they want to send gratitude to.  This is meant to be an encouragement to do a small act of kindness for someone else as well. Many people do not realize that they don’t say thank you to anyone. In today’s society it is unlikely someone will say thank you to the cashier or even to a teacher or coach. “I definitely don’t thank them as much as I should,” said Sophomore Libby Pruden. This activity is to help students reflect on positive influences someone has had on their life and paying the kindness back. “I believe I’ll use this time to express how thankful for my family I am, I’m thankful for them because they support me and my decisions and try to help me to the best of their ability,” said Pruden. Advisement

Carrie McGrean Staff Reporter  SkillsUSA is having a contest to help their campaign "Combat Hunger". Photo credit Carrie McGrean.   Southeast Polk SkillsUSA is sponsoring a “Combat Hunger” Food Drive in which they collect non-perishable food, paper products, and cash donations on November 16th – through the 20. Students should bring their items to their first period class and give them to their teacher. Most teachers will have a safe place to put the items until the end of the week when SkillsUSA members will collect all the items and tally the amount of points each class has accumulated.             “When you give things it gets points depending on what it is,” said Freshman Alyssa Kincaid.             High school students were informed of the food drive last week so they could come up with donations before this week and most were told that there was a point system. The point system is not officially announced, but from past years it is said that cans are worth

Brooklyn Draisey  Columnist Students finished building their Rube Goldberg machines on Thursday.   Students finished their Rube Goldberg machines in Mr. Busch’s Chemistry class on Thursday. The students had been working on the machines since Tuesday. The machines had to have at least three steps that included two gas relationships. Those relationships could be between temperature and volume, pressure and temperature, number of particles and volume, or many others. The students have to complete a simple task, like popping a balloon, through a series of simple tasks, which what a Rube Goldberg machine does. The steps must also happen on their own. After the first step is triggered, the students can’t mess with the machine until it’s done.             “We’re doing this to experience gas relationships in action,” said Taylor Davis, a junior in Mr. Busch’s fourth period class. One of the gas relationships featured in her group’s machine was between temperature and volume. Alexand

Anna Zelenovich  Staff Reporter  Congressman David Young came to visit Southeast Polk High School on Monday, November 9.  This past Monday Congressman, David Young, came to Southeast Polk High School and talked to Mr. Gross’s sophomore Government class. Congressman Young was on a work period recess from Washington D.C. and was at the high school recognizing the baseball team, and because some students in Mr. Gross’s class had written him letters, he stayed to answer some questions. “We were learning about public opinion and how important it is for our government officials to hear feedback from citizens, so students had the option of writing a 1 page letter to a public official discussing 2 or 3 topics they were concerned about. Most chose President Obama or David Young,” said Gross. Congressman Young graduated from Johnston High School and then continued his education at Drake University. When he got out of college and realized how the Government impacted him he decided

Kailee Ammons  Feature Editor  Students have been working hard to recreate the Addams Family musical. Photo credit Kailee Ammons.   Friends and family of the Southeast Polk community are invited to come enjoy a comedy about family and young love expressed through the values of the Addams family! Southeast Polk High School is hosting the musical based off of the well-known Addams Family this weekend in the auditorium.             The cast is putting on a performance during the day on Thursday, November 12. This is open to the students from the sixth grade center, the junior high, and those who want to watch during study halls. The first act of the show will be in the morning and the second act will be in the afternoon.             To prepare for the musical, the cast has been practicing lines, efficient set changes, handling props, and music. Now they are putting the finishing touches on it, and believe that they will be ready for Thursday.             Along with working

Claire Strickland  Managing and Design Editor    Six members of student council attended the Iowa Youth Leadership Summit at the capital. Photo credit Claire Strickland.  On November 9, student council took six members to the 2015 Iowa Youth Leadership Summit at the Capitol. Senior Kaitlynn Lucy, Vice President of student council, participated in the event.             “ The leadership conference was about the importance of leadership and how to be a better leader in all you're involved in,” said Lucy. Students from all over Iowa participated in the event led by Congressman David Young. There were also multiple guest speakers, and each student had the opportunity to listen to three different breakout sessions.             “The best part was the breakout session with Dr. Jason Woods who talked about different qualities of being a leader and how important it is to be respectful to others around you,” said Lucy. The main speaker was Mr. Wilfred “Mickye” Johnson, an admini

Pete Ruden  Sports Editor  Students have been working on projects that can help out their communities. Photo credit Pete Ruden.  Since the beginning of the year, students in World Issues have been working on a project that can help change the community. Inspired by Google, the project is called a 20 percent time project, in which students use a fifth of their time, usually on late start days, to work on a project of their choice that will help change the community.             “Beginning of the year, we tried getting the students to think outside of the box,” said social studies teacher Kyle Lehman. “This class is based on issues around the world, so we tried to get them to localize a problem that they might be able to fix.”             Big ideas have been created from this project, such as Gmail, Google Images and Google slides. With those inventions becoming a part of everyday life, that is the level of success that students are striving for.   Projects that student

Jessica Rish  News Editor   The sideline team performing on November 7th. The team was judged on stunts, jumps, voice projection, and how involved the crowd got. Photo credit Susie Callahan.   On November 7 2015 the Southeast Polk cheer leading teams took on Iowa Cheer leading Coaches Association’s state competition.             New to the Southeast Polk’s cheerleading program is the sideline squad. The team performed at the varied industries building and got 8th place out of 16 teams. The other competition team got 10th out 21 teams Junior Tiffany Spencer is a team member of the sideline team. This was not only Spencer’s first state competition, but also her first cheer competition. “It was really fun and like an adrenaline rush like surreal moment. It was kind of not fun when they wouldn’t let us bring anything so I couldn’t have my selfie stick or other clothes,” said Spencer when asked about the overall experience. The state competition marks the end of the cheerle

Pete Ruden  Sports Editor                  Two runners from the girls cross country meet competed at the state meet that took place on Saturday, October 31. Senior Kaitlyn Walker and junior Sierra Mitchell were the competitors at the meet, in which Mitchell placed 13 th out of a field of 122 runners.             “The atmosphere was just crazy,” Mitchell said. “There were just so many people and so many good runners. Just during the race, I knew I had to stay with that front pack so I wouldn’t get caught in the middle.”             This year’s state meet marked the third time that Mitchell competed in it, meaning that she has qualified every year of her high school career. However, this year was different. The girls cross country races that were previously two miles, became 3.1 miles, which is the same distance as races for the boys’ side.             “This year was our first year running the 5Ks, so that was a big difference for everybody,” Mitchell said. “Throughout

Demi Muchmore  Editor-and-Chief  Textile students are taking a field trip to Hancock Fabrics in Des Moines on November 10, 2015. Photo credit Demi Muchmore.       On Tuesday November 10 th textile students will be going on a field trip. They will be traveling to Hancock fabrics in Des Moines to select items for their sewing project.             The class is make up of about 94 student’s total. Students are meeting at room N168 right before they will board the buses.             They split the field trip up into two segments, there will be a morning trip and an afternoon trip.             “This class is very fun and we do many of things that some people don’t know how to do, even I don’t know how to do it so it’s a fun experience for all”, James said.             This class consist of exploring different categories of crafts. This includes sewing of the majority.             “For this project you get to choose what you want to sew and we get to pick out anything at t

Carrie McGrean  Staff Reporter  Students new school photos were uploaded to their Infinite Campus account. Photo credit Carrie McGrean.   This year’s school pictures were updated on every student’s infinite campus last Thursday, October 29. Students have mixed feelings about the new photos, that aren’t necessarily improved.             “I usually like them. I think it’s a good idea for the yearbooks,” said senior McKayla Birkenholtz.             This year though Birkenholtz didn’t approve of the new photo. After hearing word of a lot of senior’s photos being misplaced and not receiving a picture package she believed she had been among the unlucky seniors. She knew she would have to get retakes, but she wasn’t aware of what day they would be. She didn’t have on what she felt was proper clothes and in turn, really didn’t like her pictures.             “I hated them,” said Birkenholtz.             School pictures are taken during orientation before the school year even st

Sydney  Sears  Staff Reporter  Students and parents can attend college and career planning night to start preparing for their future. Photo credit Sydney Sears.     College and Career Planning Night is coming up for Southeast Polk students and their families to help learn about how to plan their future on the night of November 9th. Students will be able to get closer and firsthand look at colleges across Iowa. Not only colleges, but other staff will also cover other experiences you could encounter when you're older and out of high school. They will go over military and job apprenticeships opportunity, financial planning for post-secondary education and even an ACT test prep for those juniors and seniors. However, not many students take advantage of the event. Counselor Kari Fast explains why students should come to the College and Career Planning Night. “The College and Career Planning Night offers freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors a wide range of breakout s

Sammi Springer  Staff Reporter  Nine girls from the Southeast Polk RhythAMetteS team competed at the State Solos drill competition on Saturday at Newton, with six out of the nine girls placing in the top ten.              “[The Soloists] were chosen by the coaches by technical ability and appearances at tryouts,” said Meredith Evans, a sophomore RhythAMetteS who is friends with the girls that competed, including two time first place winner Sydney Albertson.             “We were talking about [why she won] the other day at practice. She’s really clean and her technique is really good and she has good stage face,” said Evans. “The judges could hear her breathing, which is good,” she said, talking about the loud intakes of breath Albertson took between moves that they judges could hear and liked.             For the competition, each girls’ dance instructor, not the RhythAMetteS coaches, created their solo, which they then brought to the drill team competition. With the 1 st

Kaelee Keese  Editor-and-Cheif   Prom committee decides the theme, and then decorates to give anyone who attends a fun time. Photo credit Kaelee Keese.  Time to get pumped for prom! The first meeting for this year’s prom committee will be on Tuesday, November 17 at 7:20 in the conference room located in the guidance office.             Prom committee is the team in charge of deciding a theme, picking out decorations, ticket sales, set up and tear down of the junior-senior prom in April. This year, the club’s sponsors include administrative assistant Marci Keesee and teacher’s aide Deb Starcevich.             “At our meetings, we discuss what kind of dance we want to have and then we divide up into committees and decide who’s doing what to make it as efficient as possible,” said Keesee.             The club is open to all juniors who are interested and meet at least once a month leading up to April, when they meet more to get everything ready.             “You shoul

Tori Hennick Arts and Culture Editor  TLC is asking people of the SEP community to bring gently used books and donate them. Photo credit Tori Hennick.   TLC which is a club that offers leadership and community service opportunities for high school students who pledge to be substance free, is having a children’s book drive beginning Monday, November second and it goes until Friday, November 13.             TLC is asking students and staff to bring gently used children’s books to their advisement periods over the next two weeks. The children’s books will be donated to Blank Children’s Hospital.             To make the donation even more successful, TLC will be providing donuts to the top three advisement groups who donate the most books in the two weeks.   Junior Tara Huberty is the club Vice President of TLC this year and is looking forward to this year’s community service activities. Tara has been a member of TLC for two years now and works with around 20 other stude

Pete Ruden Sports Editor The football team lost to the Dowling Maroons at Williams Stadium last night.  Check out the video produced by Pete Ruden and find out what students will miss the most about Friday Night Lights.

Ashley Vannoy  Staff Reporter  The set crew puts a lot of time and effort into the show. Photo credit Ashley Vannoy.   Every day after school, while the fall musical’s cast is rehearsing, students are backstage building sets for the production. A lot of people overlook all of the time and effort that goes into the show. Not just the actual singing and acting, but behind the scenes too. The sets take a lot of time to build. Sophomore Sydney Hollingshead is one of the students who volunteered to be a part of The Addams Family stage crew. “I had the idea of joining set crew ever since I saw one of the school’s plays. It has inspired me to help out and build fun and creative sets that really bring the show to life,” Hollingshead said. Set crew meets backstage Monday through Thursday afterschool from 3:15-5:00. This is just as often as the cast gets together to rehearse. “The sets that I’ve helped build have a bit of variety. One day we would be working on tombstones or the

Anna Zelenovich  Columnist   The Southeast Polk football team advances to the second round of the playoffs after beating Fort Dodge Wednesday night. They play Monday night against Dowling Catholic at Williams Stadium in Des Moines. Senior linebacker, Eric Pingel, is excited about the game Monday night. “I think Monday will be a great challenge to be able to play the best team in the state, and I am excited for the opportunity, and if we play like we did against Fort Dodge and we believe in the system we can win,” said Pingel. The Dowling Catholic football team has a record of 9-0. Pingel encourages all students to go to the game and cheer on the Rams.             “People should come to the game! Support your school and the players who have put in lots of time, and FNL are the best,” said Pingel.             The team has faced lots of adversity this year with one of the toughest schedules and lots of injuries. Pingel is one of the many starters who have had to overcome

Brooklyn Draisey Columnist             AP Calculus AB students attended a calculus party at Calculus teacher Joel Conn’s house on Thursday, October 29. This was the second party of the year. The party went from six to 8:30, and students could either study for the upcoming quiz or relax and play games. Food in the form of Jimmy John’s sandwiches was provided, with the choices being ham and cheese, turkey, or roast beef. Students could also eat a variety of treats, like homemade chocolate cookies, trail mix, and traditional candy.             “We watched movies and chilled in Conn’s basement,” said junior Ryan Johnson, who is in Conn’s second period class. The movie they watched was Superstar, which was inspired by an SNL skit. The students also had the challenge of arranging collectable 7-UP cans in a way that creates a picture. While the thought of a calculus party may seem strange to some, there is a point behind it.             “Conn wants to connect more with his students

Kailee Ammons Feature Editor  Southeast Polk entered their first "sideline competition team" this year. Photo credit Kailee Ammons.   The brand new cheerleading competition team will compete at state cheerleading on November 7 at the Iowa State Fair grounds.             “I think it is really cool that we are the first sideline team at Southeast Polk because if we do well, then it will be memorable,” said Hannah Allen, sophomore. This competition team will compete in the “time-out” division against other schools such as Hempstead and Jefferson. When competing, the squad will perform stunts with a cheer, along with getting the crowd to yell with them. To prepare for state, the team has been practicing every week. They improve through the encouragement and advice of their coach and each other. “We have been told that being confident is really important,” said Allen. “And if you mess up, do not make it a big deal. You just have to keep going.” In the beginning

         Claire Strickland  Managing and Design Editor  So many kids have food allergies so they are unable to trick-or-treat with their friends. The teal Pumpkin Project provides safe treats for kids to enjoy. Photo credit Claire Strickland.    Many kids in this day and age have so many food allergies that keep them from being able to trick-or-treat safely with their friends. FARE (Food Allergy Research and Education) has created a project to allow kids to safely trick-or-treat, without having to worry about their allergies.             The Teal Pumpkin Project, launched in 2014, promotes inclusion of all trick-or-treating throughout the Halloween season. This project began within a small local awareness activity run by the Food Allergy Community of East Tennessee (FACET).  According to http://www.foodallergy.org/, households from all 50 states and throughout seven countries participated in this project.             If anyone would like to participate in this movement,