The Rampage

Kailee Ammons Feature Editor  On Thursday, February 18, the students in Mrs. Borseth’s AP Composition classes will be taking a writing assessment. It will be over analyzing texts, and writing an essay about the various rhetorical strategies used within them.             Students have been preparing for this by reading an essay every week, analyzing, and finding a deeper meaning them. Once a week, they have a class discussion about the essay and its main idea. Then students are asked to dig into their opinions about how the topic affects society and support their claims with textual evidence.             Students have also been practicing writing essays throughout the semester. At first, students were only asked to write an outline of the rhetorical strategies used in an essay. After a few weeks of this, students were asked to write essays as if they were taking the...

 Ethan Edvenson Cartoonist  The plan to bring home another first place trophy this weekend at the state wrestling meet. Photo credit Ethan Edvenson.  It’s finally the week of state tournaments for our wrestling team and they’re prepared for four intense days of non-stop action at Wells Fargo Arena! Students from all over the state are pumped to watch their classmates get down as well as the chance to leave school to attend the event. “It’s just a great atmosphere to be in. You really get to see some great moves and I’m really excited to see the team’s succeed once again,” said senior Jordan Brockway. Starting tomorrow, Wednesday, February 17, Dual Team Tournaments will happen with four different pairs wrestling at 9:00 AM sharp in the 3A Quarterfinals and two more matches happening at 1:00 PM for the Semifinals. Later, the matches for 3A Consolation Final and the 3A Championship will go down at 6:30 PM.          ...

Anna Zelenovich  Columnist NHS gave out letters to students so that they can apply. Anna Zelenovich photo.  Students have been receiving letters informing them if they are eligible to apply to be accepted into National Honors Society. NHS is a prestigious group of students who must maintain a high GPA, be active in servicing their community and stand out to teachers as leaders in the classroom. Once a student receives a letter inviting them to apply, there is a process each applicant must go through.             Junior Holly Dannen received a letter. “I am very honored that I got a letter, I am definitely going to complete the application process and I am hoping to get in,” said Dannen.             NHS organizes many community service projects for those who are in already including annual blood drives and Meals for the Heartland.    ...

Clarissa Merschman  Staff Reporter      Students in Spanish two classes will give speeches about their favorite person or animal this Friday.             The speeches have to be one minute long or more. Notes are not allowed while giving the speech. If a student is caught using their notes or have them anywhere they will lose all of their points on the speech.             Visual aids, however are acceptable. A student can create a Powerpoint presentation with pictures on it, have pictures printed on a piece of paper, draw their own pictures, or they can create a photo library to use on their phone.             All of the words in the student's speech have to be conjugated correctly in preterite form which mean they have to be in past tense. If they aren’t conjugated correctly, the student wil...

Demi Muchmore  Editor and  Chief      On  Friday, February 5 th Southeast Polk band members got the gracious opportunity to attend Iowa State University Honor Band. Nine students from Southeast Polk got to participate, everyone that did go ranged very differently in instruments.             The students were given these certain music pieces just two months before this performance. They worked really hard to get it to their best ability.             The nine band members went to Ames on Friday February 5 th and spent the entire day rehearsing to perfect anything they could. Next they spent a good portion of Saturday February 6 th rehearsing and then it was show time. All of their closest family and friends could come join and share this special moment with them, the show lasted about 40 minutes.       ...

Jessica Rish Feature Editor  The news cast has a very wide variety. Photo credit Jessica Rish.    On Wednesday and Tuesday of last week various students grade 9-12 auditioned for the spring play, A Midsummer's  Night Dream.                 A Midsummer’s  Night Dream is a Shakespeare play that is comedy.                 Senior Payton Thompson has been casted as one of the starring roles, Hermia. Hermia She is a girl of Athens. The dialogue makes it clear that she is shorter than Helena. She is caught in a romantic accident where she loves one man, Lysander, but is loved by Demetrius, whose feelings she does not return.                 “I’m pumped for the play because it’s my last theatre performance of my high school career,” s...

Tori Hennick Arts and Culture Editor  With the snow days that Southeast Polk has been thrown, students are missing out on days not only to  enjoy themselves in the summer, but also days they could be using to work. Studies from NCES (National Center for Education Statistics) show that more than two-thirds of high school students were employed during their senior year. 22.7 percent of those students were working at least 20 hours per week. This study was done in 1992. Although the data is old, it is more than relevant today. If students back then were working 20+ hours a week, they must be working just as much, if not more in 2015. Most students 10-12 th grade have jobs, for example sophomore Joey Hupp. Joey is currently a busser at the Pleasant Hill Market Café. “If the school year is being pushed farther back all the time, I still have to work.”Like most students, Joey pays his phone bill, so every time he has to miss work it make that objective just a little bit ha...