april 2013

RenaissanceVolume XXX, Issue 4 Praecellemus April 2013

The Voice of the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts Natchitoches, LA

In this issue...

2 Tech Column

2 CS Competition

3 LAN Party 3 Senior Night

4 Literary Rally

5 Positivity Page

6, 7 Beier Colloquium

8 Science Quiz Bowl

8 FBLA

9 Safety & Wellness

10 Junior College Sem.

10 Prom Pictures 11 Indepen. Studies

11 BSP: Food

12 Continuations

Colors Fly at LSMSA During the Celebration of Holi

Since LSMSA opened its doors in 1983, little has changed. The carpet on the second floor of the HSB, the red lockers, and the beds in Prud-homme and Caddo have all withstood the test of time and remained as integral parts of LSMSA. However, this past year, change has suddenly come upon LSMSA in a big way.

What once used to be a dull, worn-out gym has become fuel for school spirit as the floor glistens under the lights. What once was a messy assortment of trees has turned into a beautiful amphi-theater and walkway lined with benches and lampposts. What was once chipped paint coming off the walls in the dorms has become a fresh coat of new colors. Old, rusted shower knobs have be-

come new knobs with temperature readings. These new improve-ments to the school have been possible because of an often overseen benefactor, the Foundation. An assembly of alumni and parents of LSMSA students, the Foundation plays a pivotal role in fund-ing school projects and influencing school decisions. On behalf of the stu-dent body at LSMSA,

the newspaper staff would like to thank the Foundation for all that it has done this past year. Although we, as students, do not have the opportunity to meet the members of the Foundation, we are grateful for all the money and time the organization has put into improving our school.

Continued as FoundationOn 2

Brian KimEditor in Chief

On Saturday, March 16, students of LSMSA crowded Eagle Field to participate in the celebration of Holi, an Indian festival cel-ebrated all around the

world. Hosted by Indigo Club, Holi represents the coming of spring. To express the vibrant Nature and beauti-ful pigments of the season, participants in Holi celebrate by

throwing colored wa-ter and powder at each other. Colors did fly this Saturday as students threw an assortment of colors from pink to red to blue at each other. In the process, shirts turned into tie-dye shirts, and the sidewalk looked like a painting canvas. Laughter and excite-ment filled the air as students enthusiasti-cally tried to drown their friends in differ-ent colors. In addition, students also threw water ballons at each other, which only added to the excite-ment. “It [Holi] is the time to enjoy the colors of spring as well as to say farewell to Winter,” said Shelvi Shah (Sr.), president of Indigo

Club. Holi is primarily celebrated in India, Nepal, and their sur-rounding countries, but the Indian influ-ence has spread to such a degree that festivals can be seen in all parts of the globe. Holi is often celebrated on college campuses with hundreds, even thousands, of students. “Indigo, as a club, hosts this event be-cause we try our best

to spread the culture and festivals of In-dia throughout the school,” said Prisha Patel (Sr.), vice-presi-dent of Indigo club.

Students throw powder to initiate the start of HoliPhoto by Carlie Procell

Club officers of HoliPhoto by Shelvi Shah

Editorial: The Renaissance Thanks the FoundationBrian Kim

Editor in Chief

Continued as HoliOn Page 12

Renaissance April 2013

Technology Column: Computer Science at LSMSA

Arkansas Programming Competition

Carlie ProcellLayout Editor

According to code.org, 90% of high schools across the nation don’t offer any computer sci-ence classes. However, LSMSA offers a variety of com-puter science courses ranging from beginner to advanced with teach-ers who are more than willing to help students in any way they can. The problem is not many students are interested in computer science. English, history, art, science, foreign lan-guage, and even physical education are all required to graduate in Louisiana, but not computer science. This is clearly a major dilemma, seeing as how the world operates on technology. Since

Louisiana doesn’t have a computer science re-quirement to graduate, LSMSA should. LSMSA students are known for being well-rounded individuals. After all, it’s Louisiana School for Math, Sci-ence, and the Arts, right? Students here can’t merely be just math stu-dents or just art students; their range of knowledge has to be as diverse as the student body. However, there are less than 30 students en-rolled in the six computer science courses offered this semester at LSMSA. Many LSMSA students can post a tweet, share a link on Facebook, send an email, or even make a blog. But do many know how any of it works? Since computer

science is being used constantly in everyone’s daily life, it’s a wonder that most people have very little knowledge about it. Whether it’s design-ing a layout, managing a database, or program-ming a phone, everyone should know a little bit about how all of this technology we use day-to-day works, especially LSMSA students. Some might say they won’t use computer sci-ence in their daily lives (though that’s obvi-ously not true.) By that logic—what makes art and foreign language so important? Computer science is just as important, if not more, than art and for-eign language. All three can be applied to almost

any career choice. Plus, programming is practi-cally an art and foreign language itself. Consequently, LSMSA should require every student to have at least one credit in computer science to graduate. Not only will it make them

more well-rounded students, but it will make them more aware of how the technology they use everyday works.


On March 8, 11 stu-dents and two chaperones from the Computer Sci-ence Club sat on the side of the road in the middle of Arkansas twiddling their thumbs after one of the back tires of the be-loved short bus blew out. Though they’re able to write programs to solve complex math equations, they were unable to in-stall a spare tire, so they sat for two hours until help finally emerged. They then continued on their eight-hour bus ride to the University of Ar-kansas at Fayetteville to participate in a program-ming competition. The competition took place on Saturday, March 9. LSMSA sent two

teams of four and one team of three to partici-pate. The first team consisted of Everett Moser (Sr.), Alex Fontenot (Jr.), Ian Gonthier (Sr.), and Eric Dilmore (Sr.). The second included Brianna Lawson (Sr.), Caroline May (Soph.),

David Jones (Soph.), and Sean Cuff (Jr.). The third and final team was Josh Bright (Jr.), Peter Uli (Jr.), and Ronald Cossich (Jr.). The students prepared for the competition by practicing from 6:30 to 8pm two nights a week for a month before the

competition. They learned how to use Vim, one of the text editors used by the competi-tion, and practiced doing sample problem sets. All three teams chose to use C++ over Java in the competition. The competition required programs to be written in one of the text editors provided, which were Vim, Emacs, and gedit. Every team was given multiple problem sets to complete in a certain amount of time and was judged on efficiency, cor-rectness, and creativity. The Bright/Uli/Cos-sich team managed to win the “Most Creative” award for their program involving Magic Squares. “We had to determine whether or not an array of nine numbers could be arranged into a three by thee matrix in which

Students smile for the camera with the bus’s flat tire.Photo by Sanjeetha Peters

Computer Science teacher, Mr. Zolzer with student Peter Uli (Jr.) in the “Programming with Java” class

Photo by Carlie Procell

the rows, columns, and diagonals all add up to the same sum,” Uli ex-plained. “After trying several different codes, our final solution passed all set tests that the judges used. After returning from the competition, we were sent an email that said, ‘Although your program passed all test cases, it didn’t work.’ And our test case that didn’t work was 9 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.” The competition didn’t yield any other victories to the LSMSA teams, but they plan on returning to the competition next year to do better. “Most of the teams that did well used JAVA, “ said Bright, “so I think we’ll try to get better in JAVA and use it next year.”

April 2013 Renaissance

Computer Science Club and Conclave Club Throw LAN PartyCarlie ProcellLayout Editor

Two clubs joined forces to host a school-wide LAN Party—Com-puter Science Club and Conclave Club bought pizza, soda, and snacks to service the 60 plus gamers that would show up at midnight on Satur-

day, March 23. The party lasted from midnight to 8 a.m. Saturday morning and featured a variety of tournaments and casual gaming areas. Multiple tables were stationed in the middle of the CPT Atrium for students who just want-ed to bring their laptops/

desktops to game. Most of the people there par-ticipated in a Lolathon (playing League of Legends nonstop for the night.) There was a section for Guitar Hero and Just Dance in the back, along with another section for Soul Calibur and as-sorted WiiU games. The Recital Hall was used for tournaments and a Just Dance party towards the end of the night. There were three tournaments. The first tournament was for Soul Calibur IV. It lasted for a grueling hour while 16 players battled it out. The winner was Derian Magness (Soph.) The second tourna-ment was the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 tournament, where 24 players competed

Students Brianna Lawson (Sr.), Chrysalis Ortiz (Sr.), Sundar Pandian (Soph.), and Peter Uli (Jr.)

play Just DancePhoto by Carlie Procell

Some students brought their own desktops and laptops to game on.

Photo by Carlie Procell

in three-player battles. The end result was a tie between Everett Moser (Sr.) and Zach Hall (Jr.) Just Dance was the crowd favorite and was played in the Re-cital Hall until clean-up started at 7:15 a.m. The last tournament was for the popular card game, Magic: The Gathering. There were

tables stationed around the Atrium for this tour-nament and 14 players contested until Scott Williams (Jr.) emerged as the champion. Everyone who went can agree that the LAN Party was a success and hope there will be another one next fall semester.

Seniors Excel In the Classroom and Out at Senior NightJacob Foreman

Staff Writer

When people think of LSMSA, athletics is generally not the first thing that comes to mind. However, sports at LSMSA are an integral part of our community and pro-vide an outlet for stu-dents to release stress, meet friends, and stay healthy. Every year, to cel-ebrate seniors that have committed time to ath-letics here at LSMSA, the night of the last home basketball game is designated as Senior Night. This year, 15 seniors

played basketball, nine girls and six boys, and 10 seniors played vol-leyball, six girls and fourboys. “I think it’s important to find something that helps you wind down every day, especially at this school,” said Evelyn Lambeth (Sr.) about playing a sport at LSMSA. “Playing basketball for LSMSA gave me a group of friends from the beginning of the year that I could talk to and blow off steam with at the end of a long day,” Lambeth added. To commemorate this year’s season, seniors were presented with a

rose and either a volley-ball or basketball signed by their teammates. “Playing basketball at LSMSA has given me some of the best friends of my life, and an oppor-tunity to do something that I love for a team. It has also given me some valuable life lessons and great memories,” explained Lane Moberly (Sr.). “Senior night was one of the best nights of my life. I felt like everyone gave it their all and re-ally tried to make sure that the seniors’ last game was amazing.” Both Lambeth and Moberly commented on what the coaching staff,

Coach Dale Clingerman, Dr. Jason Anderson, and Dr. Mark Van Rhyn, has given them. “I am so thankful to have such supportive coaches that are willing to take time out of their day to help us become the best that we can be,”

said Moberly. Win or lose, there is no doubt that playing a sport at the Louisiana School offers a variety of benefits including making friends, staying healthy, and relieving stress.

The new LSMSA gym glistens under lightsPhoto by Brian Kim


Louisiana School Finds New Atmosphere at Louisiana TechKyle Welch

Assistant Editor

Seeking something new and unfamiliar, Dr. Mark Ward, coordinator of the Louisiana School’s Literary Rally team, took 28 competing students to Louisiana Tech in Ruston for this year’s district Lit-erary Rally competition. Literary Rally is a statewide competition that consists of differ-ent tests in a variety of subject matters ranging from spelling to physics to journalism. Every year, students gather from around the

state at different univer-sities and take tests for their subject. The tests are then ranked and the students with the highest scores in each subject then pro-ceed to the State Literary Rally. Students competed in 28 subjects on a cold, moist, and foggy Satur-day morning.But though the weather was cold, the people were not. The Louisiana School was warmly greeted by Louisiana Tech, whose representatives were excited to have it present for the competition.

Ward chose the loca-tion, he said, because the atmosphere was quite welcoming, the Louisiana School was unfamiliar to competing schools, and because he had rapports with some Louisiana Tech represen-tatives. Consequentially, Loui-siana School competitors experienced a day that was relaxed, without stress or pride, without territorial claim, with a single purpose: take a test. Students arrived at their respective testing locations, returned to

Name Subject PlaceAustin McMichael Accounting 1st

Hyeyon Kim Pre-CalculusRebecca Lopez Algebra II 1st

Aaron Cao Biology 1stCatherine Broussard Biology II 1st

Matthew Johnson Calculus 3rdCosette Zacarias Chemistry 2ndSneha Yadlapati CivicsJoshua Bright Computer Science 1st

Ashlyn Anderson English II 1stAaron Walker English III 1st

Phyllis Lee English IVGriffin Schlamp Environmental Science

Victoria Christian Financial MathematicsMorgan Griffin Fine Arts Survey 2ndGenesis Allen French I 1st

Madison Conlay French II 1stRavleen Kaur French III 2ndKyle Welch Journalism 1st

James Rodrigue Physical Science 1stKatherine Prutz Physics 1stDanielle Bass Psychology 1st

Siobhan Prasad Spanish I 1stSoojin Lee Spanish II

Marika Buccholz Spanish III 1stJulia Landon Spelling 2nd (District Only Event)

Annalise Labatut U.S. History Sean Cuff World History 1st

LSMSA Participants in 2013 District Literary Rally

a “muster point” at the university bookstore, had lunch at the Chick-fil-A

on campus, and dispersed finally after arriving back at the HSB.


Positivity around LSMSA: Eagle’s Wings and LSMSA ComplimentsAllison Smith

Staff Writer Nowadays, the world seems to be flooded with negativity, but at the Louisiana School for Math Science and the Arts the positivity keeps coming. Within the most recent months students, have received positive let-ters in mailboxes and on Facebook thanks to two phenomenal organiza-tions: Eagle’s Wings and LSMSA Compliments. Started at the beginning of this semester, Eagle’s Wings is an organiza-tion designed to provide random acts of kindness to the student body of the Louisiana School. “I wanted to help people,” President Ma-rissa Scott (Soph.) states. Many Louisiana School students would agree that it can get stressful. Eagle’s Wings has helped to make the burden more bearable. Fun things such as Mardi Gras beads with positive messages in mailboxes delighted plenty of students as they realized that they finally “got mail”. Along with the beads, Eagle’s Wings has also sponsored a Free Hugs campaign where all members wore ‘Free Hugs’ pins to school. Last but most definitely not least, Eagle’s Wings

has created care pack-ages to send to people at random. “Eagle’s Wings changed my whole week with just one package. They relieved all the stress for me,” one of the more recent care package recipients, Emily Spustek (Soph.) stated. Overall, the Eagle’s Wings club has created a more positive environ-

ment for LSMSA stu-dents. A more secretive but still just as positive movement is LSMSA Compliments. If you have a Facebook and have recently attended the school, chances are you have received a friend request from a

positive eagle ready to brighten your day. Recently the Compli-mentor has posted to Facebook compliment-ing everyone from new students to alumni. The organization has recently reached its 100th compliment where the creator complimented the student body and everyone who has helped LSMSA Compliments to

become such a phenom-enon. Some students have even compared it to a more positive Gossip Girl. “I heard about the idea of a compliments page earlier this year and I thought it’d be a great idea to have one here.” LSMSA Compliments responded, when asked why he/she started the project. Compliments says he/she chose Facebook because it was the best way to get the word out, and everybody, including faculty and staff, are con-nected through the social

media website. Compliments does not want to reveal who he/she is and, in a way, that is the fun for the stu-dents. As you pass down the hallways you can hear students whispering about who this Compli-mentor could possibly be. “I’m going to stay anonymous at least until I graduate. I’m debating whether I should even say it then. I’m definitely going to pass this ac-

count on when I gradu-ate, though.” Compli-ments said, after being asked how long he/she would keep the identity a secret. Overall, the Louisiana School for Math Science and the Arts became a more positive ‘living learning environment’ in the past few months.


NSU and LSMSA Professors Share Stories about Israel and Palestine

Northwestern Univer-sity professor Dr. Sharon Joy and LSMSA’s own Dr. Nahla Beier made the Recital Hall a place for discussion between them-selves and their audience regarding the history and personal experiences of the relations between Israel and Palestine. The discussion was presented as part of LSMSA’s colloquium series, in which LSMSA professors present bod-ies of their work to the Natchitoches public—what followed was an honest and thought-provoking exchange of memories rooted in Israel and Palestine and ideas concerned with nurturing a peace between the two. Joy, who grew up in New York City, belonged to a relatively lax Jewish family. However, when she moved to Yonkers in the sixth grade, she joined her school’s Zion-ist youth organization, part of the nationwide

Zionist youth movement, which sought to promote intellectual development and the evocation of nationalistic identity for Jews as represented by Israel. In the ninth grade, Joy was eligible to attend a national camp offered by the movement and, as an impressionable young girl, was ultimately sold to the ideals of Jewish nationalism. Enamored, she moved to Israel for a year after high school and again for three years after graduating college. In that time, she devel-oped Jewish colonies, or gar’ins in Jerusalem, as part of the Zionist idea of a Jewish birthright to the land. She stayed in Israel with her husband until Yesser Arafat of the Palestinian Liberation Organization grew more aggressive in his author-ity, and terrorism became more frequent in Jerusa-lem. When she and her husband moved back to the United States, they eventually relocated to

Houston, TX, where Joy joined Jewish-Palestinian discussion groups and was given the oppor-tunity to hear Palestin-ians tell their stories for the first time. She was shocked by what they told her; frustrated that no one of Israeli author-ity had told her that real people were suffering as a result of Israeli and Jewish colonialism in Jerusalem. “When I was young, Is-raelis were our enemies,” said Beier. “They made my family move, they made my parents become refugees, and they left us with no national iden-tity.” Beier grew up on her family’s farm in Jericho before moving to Jeru-salem, where she would stay until she went to col-lege in Lebanon. “I had a friend who would tell me these stories about the Israe-lis: she would say that she saw them from her window at night building fires and dancing around them,” she said. “So

you see that I was being given an almost demonic image of the Israelis.” “However, though my family was certainly not fond of them, my parents never wanted to demon-ize them.” When the 1967 Six-Day War broke, Beier and her family returned to the farm in Jericho to flee the conflict and seek safety. However, the war followed them, and her father took the family to Mount Quarantania, where they asked for refuge from a Greek Or-thodox monastery. Their pleas were answered, and the family stayed in a cave on the mountain for seven days until Beier’s mother insisted the family surrender to the Israelis. After surrendering, the family made its way back to Jericho in a car they camouflaged with banana leaves to avoid being seen by stalking aircraft. However, en route, the family ran into a Jeep

with Israeli soldiers, who halted their travels and insisted they stay in the car. Beier described one Israeli soldier as look-ing rugged and with dark hair. But the others, she said, were blond and surprisingly beautiful. With rose petals fall-ing in their hair, Beier’s preconception of Israelis as aggressive brutes was disproved. Later, Beier decided she wanted to learn Hebrew. The Arab news, she said, was skewed and unreliable—learn-ing Hebrew might help her understand the Israeli channels and what was actually going on in the area. So she went to a Hebrew school in Jeru-salem, where she had a mixed experience. The Jewish teachers would sometimes make her read passages in Hebrew that were about Arab terror-ism against Israelis, but Beier perservered.

Kyle WelchAssistant Editor

Seen & Overheard“I am the most powerful person here-- I control the

temperature and the toilet paper.” -Mr. Chuck Stoker

“Why would you want to go to an empty whore house?” -Dr. Delery

“They were having a real bromance, y’know.”-Dr. Art

“Jackson basically took the Constitution and pissed all over it. Over and over again.”

-Dr. Van Rhyn

“In India we didn’t call it the inflating balloon problem. We called it the rate of change until the cobra’s head

expanded from being charmed.”-Sanjeetha Peters


PollA fire alarm goes off in the dorms. What’s the first thing you grab?

“My shoes.” -Ashley Fabre (Soph.)

“A blanket.” -Snigdha Thumma (Jr.)

“The firemen.” -Christine Savoie (Jr.)

“Phone, blanket, and Marika Buccholz” -Ravleen Kaur (Jr.)

“A sledgehammer to hit the person who caused it” -Tytiana Isaac (Soph.)

“My phone. Gotta be the first to post about it”- Dylan Ragsdale (Soph.)

Poll by Allison Smith Staff Wrtier

In one of her classes, Beier encountered a Russian immigrant who moved to Jerusalem with hardly anything, seeking a refuge, like innumer-able other Jews. He had invited the class to his birthday party. Excited, Beier begged her parents to attend, but they re-fused because he was an Israeli. But with Beier’s persistent pleading, they ultimately gave in. The party was incred-ibly humble, as Beier described. The Russian man served his food with plastic utensils, which illustrated with how little he left his country. But he was “beaming,” said Beier. Proud to have made it to a safe place, the Russian man glowed throughout his party. “It was a very moving experience,” said Beier. “I was surprised that an Israeli could remind me so much of my grandfa-ther.” Beier later went to college in Lebanon, then Michigan and Virginia.

She and her husband briefly moved back to Jerusalem to teach but found it too hectic and moved to Natchitoches. About six years ago, when Joy moved to Natchitoches, she and Beier encountered each other at a local art gal-lery. Joy had asked Beier where she was from, to which Beier answered Je-rusalem. In response, Joy spoke to Beier in broken high Arabic, the equiva-lent of Shakespearean English. Beier instinc-tively replied in Hebrew, and thus a rapport was formed. When Beier learned that Joy had been in-volved in a Zionist movement, she felt hesi-tant about the friendship they had formed. She was determined to keep it limited only to language instruction (she had been teaching Joy Arabic). To explain her appre-hensiveness, Beier of-fered the situation in the Gaza Strip as a narrative from which she earned

her convictions. “Gaza is like Hell on Earth,” she said. Trapped between the sea and the hostile Israeli state, the Arabs of the Gaza Strip grow frustrated and throw rockets at the Israelis. In retaliation, the Israelis fire much more developed weapons that wreak much more havoc upon the residents of Gaza. “If my sympathies were with anyone,” said Beier,

“it was with the Palestin-ians. To me, there has been a clear imbalance of numbers.” But Beier admitted she had only been setting her mind on the Palestinians. With Joy as a new friend, Beier was ex-posed to a Jewish side of the Gaza conflict, which allowed her to share a new empathy and made her more willing to develop the friendship further.

“I knew then that this was a friendship I wanted to make stronger,” said Beier. Having defied the odds as Jewish and Arab friends, Beier and Joy hope that their example will encourage others, re-gardless of differences, to listen to one another and emphasize the impor-tance of keeping an open mind in nurturing peace.


Science Quiz Bowl Team Places 2nd in State CompetitionBrian Kim

Editor in Chief One area of academ-ics that LSMSA students seem to excel in is sci-ence. The rigorous sci-ence curriculum coupled with the various science research experiences provides students with vast knowledge in the sciences. On Saturday, March 2, five LSMSA students tested their scientific minds in New Orleans during the 2013 Science and Engineering Quiz Bowl Tournament hosted by the Department of Energy. The five students that participated in the tour-nament included: Brian

Kim (Sr.), Louis Tao (Sr.), Raine Haskew (Sr.), Sneha Yadlapati (Sr.), and William Ganecheau (Jr.). The sponsor of Sci-ence Quiz Bowl is Dr. Chris Hynes. The tournament con-sisted of 26 teams from all over the State of Loui-siana. In the morning, the teams were broken into four groups, and each group played a round robin competition. “When we first started to play in the morning rounds, I was extremely nervous,” said Yadlapati. “I didn’t want to lose the morning games because that would have meant that we would be going home early.” The nerves that all

five players felt are quite understandable consider-ing that the science quiz bowl team from last year got first place in the tour-nament and advanced to the national competition in Washington D.C. This year’s team was determined to meet that same standard. The team did very well in the morning rounds, winning four games and losing zero. However, in the afternoon round, things started off badly. The team lost in the first round and before they knew it, they were in the loser’s bracket. “When we lost that first game, we were dev-astated,” said Brian Kim. “We lost to a team that

we had beaten before in the morning. Neverthe-less, we stayed positive because we were still in it.” After that loss, the team turned things around. They rolled over all their opponents and

soon found themselves in the final round against a team they all loathed, Ba-ton Rouge Magnet High

SQB Team with their trophiesPhoto by Sneha Yadlapati

LSMSA FBLA Team Excels in State ConferenceCarlie Procell Layout Editor

This year, LSMSA sent five accomplished young ladies to the 65th Annual Louisiana Future Busi-ness Leaders of America (FBLA) State Leader-ship Conference this year in Lafayette on March 24-26. The conference spanned three days and included elections for FBLA state officers, various competitions,

and a keynote address by former olympic athlete, Hollis Conway. The five students that participated were FBLA Club President, Tori Christian (Sr.), Vice President, Darby Breaux (Jr.), Austin McMichael (Sr.), Allison Stillmaker (Sr.), and Christine Savoie (Jr.). LSMSA participated in six events. McMi-chael, Ms. Future Busi-ness Leader; Stillmaker,

Accounting I and Busi-ness Communications; Breaux, Word Process-ing II; Christian, Busi-ness Calculations; and Breaux, Christian, and Savoie competed togeth-er for Current Events. The Current Events team took the stage as the finals for their event and after 18 rounds (with 6 sudden death rounds), the team came in 2nd to Beau Chene High School. McMichael came in a close 2nd for Ms. Future Business Leader after Anacoco High School. Stillmaker came in 5th for Busi-ness Communications and 10th for Account-ing I. The school was also awarded the Proj-ect Award and Chapter Award. FBLA is looking to recruit members to join next year’s team, as most of the members from this year are seniors. There

are events for computer applications, digital media, business, sports management, community service, and a plethora

of other topics. If you’re interested, talk to any of the current members or FBLA sponsor, Kim Rogers.

Darby Breaux (Jr.) and Austin McMichael (Sr.) with an FBLA State Officer

Photo by Tori Christian

The Current Events Team with FBLA State OfficersPhoto by Tori Christian

Continued as SQBOn Page 12


The LSMSA Safety and Wellness Network Serves to Benefit StudentsAllison Smith

Staff Writer

Started a little over two years ago, the Safety and Wellness Network is the behind-the-scenes crew of the Louisiana School for Math Science and the Arts. The Safety and Well-ness Network was created “in response to a two-fold need,” stated Network Administrator Derek Little. “The school needed to improve safety planning and training and it also needed to provide more wellness opportunities for students.” So, after many dis-cussions, meetings, and e-mails, the Safety and Wellness Network was born. Members of the Safety and Wellness teams volunteered for their positions, and many have been dedicated for several years now. Members of the Safety Team include: Derek Little (Network Admin-istrator), Allison Landry, Ken Olson, Ken Stevens, Chuck Stoker, and T.C. Veit. Members of the Well-ness Team include Derek Little (Network Admin-istrator), Jason Ander-son, Kristy Barger, Dale Clingerman, Courtney Duda, Lisa Pierce, Nick Guidroz, Ruth Prudhom-me, Emily Shumate, and Hanna Strange (Student Representative). The Safety and Well-ness Network has bi-weekly meetings to decide what drills need to be covered, what wellness opportunities should be offered, and, most importantly, how

to positively affect the student body. They present their ideas to the faculty and staff once or twice a semester and talk to the students about their ideas once or twice a year. Over the past few years the Safety Network has helped to conduct drills related to disasters

that could happen on the campus. In order to determine which drills to enact, members sat down and talked about what was most likely to hap-pen on campus. The team considered the possibility of a fire and planned out how to evacuate buildings when the infamous fire alarm goes off. After figuring out how to handle fires, the safety team moved on to tack-ling the next big issue, severe weather. As many students of LSMSA know, Natchi-toches has its fair share of severe weather warn-ings. The safety team then went on to account for any other threats to the student body’s safety making sure to lay out plans of solutions along the way. The cooperation

among faculty, staff, and students has helped the LSMSA Safety Network to soar to new heights. Recently the school received a threat that put students at risk, and the Safety Network was quick to respond. Al-though the students had not been trained in any evacuation procedures,

they were quick to listen to Safety team members who efficiently evacuated the buildings. “The students did an excellent job of doing what was asked of them,” said Dr. Allison Landry. One of the most recent implementations of Safe-ty Network is the “Right Door Rule”. The network decided that the school needed to create a delay to anybody entering the campus who should not. “Dr. Wildham decided that we should lock the right doors because the majority of people are right handed and are trained to ‘drive’ on the right side of the ‘road’,” explained Little. “This way it will cre-ate a little bit of a delay”. When asked about how this would affect fireman, policeman, and other safety personnel in the

event of an emergency, Little said, “We have spoken to law enforce-ment officers and they assured us that if they needed to get in they would find a way and it would not take much time.” While the Safety Net-work does a lot of work “behind the scenes,” the Wellness Network is very open to the students. Started around the same time as the Safety Net-work, the Wellness Net-work was created to help improve the physical, mental, and emotional wellness of the student body at LSMSA. The wellness network sponsors many events in-cluding yoga in the dance studio, boot camp in the gym, Nia, and Wellness on Wednesdays in the CPT. The crew of volun-teers on the Wellness Network have helped to build up these activities making them available to students when they need them most. The Wellness Network recently received a dona-tion from the Class of 1992 which will be put towards addressing men-tal health in the school. Activities such as Stress

Free Smoothies will be popping up in the fourth semester as finals round the corner. Other events include writing letters to faculty and staff. The Wellness Network as a whole will help to build the familial feel that the student body associates was LSMSA. When Derek Little leaves the school, Dr. Allison Landry will take over leadership of the Safety and Wellness Network. In the future the Safety and Wellness Network has plans to meet with the other six schools on campus to discuss safety within the area. The Network has recently purchased a communication system that will alert students if anything happens on campus that could endan-ger them. This communication system will be installed within the next year so that students can be more in tune with what is hap-pening around campus. Even though many stu-dents do not know about the Safety and Wellness Network, volunteers throughout the school work to make the campus a little better each day.

The Safety and Wellness Network advertises their 3rd Annual Wellness Fair

One of the Safety and Wellness Network’s campaigns to promote healthy living at LSMSA.


Counselors Offer Streamlined Approach to College ApplicationsKyle Welch

Assistant Editor

How do you show someone you care? With small gestures like buying him com-fort food when they are languishing in dolor? With significant gestures like writing him long, cathartic notes that (you will regret afterward) detail exactly how you feel about him? Heart-to-hearts, hugs, smiles, con-fessions, confections…? Perhaps the answer varies with who you ask, but the answer for the counselors at the Louisi-ana School seems to be by providing a simpler, more focused course that prepares students for college applications and admissions processes. Introduced this year

as an appendage to the similar Senior College Seminar, Junior College Seminar provides Loui-siana School juniors with an earlier approach to college preparation. For the first time, juniors are being given a structured course taught by Louisiana School counselors (Ms. Laurie Richard, Ms. Leah Lentz, and Ms. Cindy Allen) that focuses on impor-tant considerations for high school juniors, like pondering the kinds of colleges that fit their per-sonalities, fields of study they might be interested in, finding summer pro-grams to improve their resumes, and researching colleges that they may be interested in. Seminar classes meet once per week, and

students are often given homework assignments that are designed to engage their curiosities in the college search process and to coax them closer to finding a col-lege “fit” that they think they will enjoy. Previously in the college search process, juniors would be required to attend a program hosted by the Louisiana School called Kick-Off to College, for which college representatives and guest speakers would make appearances to educate students on the application process and to dispense helpful tips about the process that would help students be more successful in their endeavors. With the Junior Col-lege Seminar course,

guest speakers make ap-pearances at the Louisi-ana School almost every week. Topics covered range from making afford-able college choices, the differences applying to an honors program or college can make in a student’s graduate career, and methods a student should consider in writ-ing successful applica-tion essays. When asked about the differences Junior Col-lege Seminar has made in the counseling process that existed previously, counselors said that they were finally given the opportunity to become acquainted with students sooner and to feel confi-dent that they were meet-ing each student’s needs. “When we would do

Kick-Off to College,” said Ms. Allen, “there was always a group of students who, for some reason, were not able to make it.” In such event, students who missed the event were sought after indi-vidually so they could be given the information provided. Still, said Ms. Al-len, there were always those who just could not (or would not) get the chance to see the mate-rial, so there had always been a group of students who would be left behind the others in the applica-tion process. “I feel so much better knowing that I can meet all of my students’ needs, whether they know it or

Continued as SeminarOn Page 12

Prom Pictures


Independent Studies Offer Unique Experiences for StudentsJacob Foreman

Staff Writer

What does Sarah Thomas (Jr.) do for class credit? Graffiti. Yes, Sarah Thomas designs stencils for a graffiti independent study and then spray paints them to complete her projects. The graffiti class taught by Chris King is one of many independent stud-ies currently offered at LSMSA. Independent studies are classes organized by stu-dents that allow students to study a specific topic that is not covered in a regularly scheduled class. Independent studies can cover topics ranging from graffiti to advanced physics. Independent studies are built into the curriculum of LSMSA to allow students to pros-per in certain areas of academics beyond the expansive standard cur-riculum at the Louisiana School. Thomas’s graffiti inde-

pendent study, instructed by Mr. King, began as an introduction to the ori-gins of graffiti to develop an appreciation for graffi-ti and graffiti styles. The independent study then progressed into allowing each student to develop his or her own style and designs. “I really enjoy this in-dependent study because graffiti is often misun-derstood and stigmatized, yet it was really cool to be able to learn about the artistic basis of graf-fiti and its origins,” said Thomas. “I think that classes like this are very impor-tant because they allow students to learn about things that are ‘taboo’ in an educational and artis-tic way.” Not all independent studies are for artistic purposes. “Independent studies are great because they show that you are tak-ing an initiative toward a

career path that you are interested in,” explained Claire Young (Soph.). Young is currently one of three students enrolled in an Introduction to Financial Accounting independent study taught by Mr. David Zolzer. The purpose of this independent study is to expose students to basic ac-counting principles and methods and is designed as the first part of a com-prehensive accounting course. “I have always been interested in learning about accounting because it is an extremely useful topic in everyday life, yet LSMSA and most other schools do not regu-larly offer an accounting course,” stated Young. “Without the option of independent stud-ies, I would have never been able to explore my interest in the field of ac-counting.” Independent studies

can often cover topics well above high school level. Bronson Schoen (Sr.) and other students participated in a Mathe-matical Tools for Physics independent study last semester. The Mathematical Tools for Physics course

covered advanced con-cepts in calculus and applied physics.

Boarding School Problems: FoodAllison Smith

Staff Writer You know that feeling when you’re craving something? You would give anything to just have a bite of that mac and cheese or a shred of a piece of toast. Most people would walk to their pantry and put together their next meal. LSMSA students, however, go about a different way of getting their favorite foods. At the Louisiana School for Math Science and the Arts, students have three options when it comes to their daily meals.

They can A) go to the cafeteria, B) order takeout, or C) brave the kitchens and concoct a meal of their own. The cafeteria tends to get the most visitors, but when a history exam is looming you will see the Dominos delivery guy making many a trip to both the dorms. Only the best of the best take on the kitchen and even when it hap-pens it’s akin the most recent episode of Top Chef. If residing in Caddo there’s a 50/50 chance that you will wind up in the park-ing lot because of a

fire alarm going off; if residing in Prudhomme chances are you are heating up a bowl of ramen. Aside from ramen the students of LSMSA all have their staple foods. Elisa Murillo (Sr.) eat oreos and pickles to-gether whereas DeJhane Lee (Jr.) prefers to stick to the frozen pizza. When the cafeteria is out of milk, TreVonne Skillern (Jr.) eats his cereal with apple juice. Many students have found ways to make new, tasty alternatives to the usual peanut butter and jelly.

Overall, though, stu-dents would not change the experience because

what’s better than bond-ing over breadsticks and day old pizza.

1. LSMSA Cafeteria. 2. Domino’s Pizza logo 3. Blake Brunson (Jr.) in the Prudhomme kitchen

Photos by Brian Kim

Sarah Thomas (Jr.) with one of her graffiti projectsPhotos by Carlie Procell

Continued as Ind. StudiesOn Page 12


Renaissance715 University ParkwayNatchitoches, LA 71457

Dr. Arthur WilliamsFaculty Sponsor

Staff Writers

Allison Smith Jacob Foreman

Brian KimEditor in Chief


Kyle WelchAssistant Editor

Holi Foundation

As many of the Foundation members may know, the edu-cational experience at LSMSA is not easy. More often than not, we find ourselves overwhelmed with stress, and it is during times like these that a pristine gym floor or a scenic amphitheater can give us the motiva-tion that we need to get through the week. We are also well aware of the future plans for new dormi-tories and the role that the Foundation has played in initiating this project. Unfortunately, we will not be here to witness the construc-tion of the buildings, but we are still excited by the fact that future LSMSA students will have the opportunity to live in much better dorms than those in which we currently live. The ambition and enthusiasm of the Foundation has had an effect on us all. Through the persistent work of the Founda-tion, we are more

excited to give back to the school once we graduate. We recognize the in-fluence that the Foun-dation can have on this school, and we want to be future members of such an organization. Once again, we thank the Foundation for all that it has done and for future projects it plans to do.

School. Sitting in a big auditorium in front of a crowd of parents, engi-neers, and other scien-tists, the LSMSA science quiz bowl team prepared for the final showdown. The championship game could not have been closer and more intense. The LSMSA team fell behind early in the game but somehow found themselves only 10 points down. How-ever, the game ended and LSMSA lost by 10 points, which translates to the difference of one question. “Even though we lost, I am proud of the effort our students put into preparing for this com-petition,” said Hynes. “The final game was very intense and we only lost

SQB

Seminar

not,” said Ms. Lentz. Ms. Allen also offered an additional reason to initiate the Seminar course, saying essentially that the innumerable parcels of mail, notifi-cations, and brochures that students receive via various platforms of technology seemingly render them unable to sort through and distin-guish what is important, what is true, and what they need. Therefore, a more personal, face-to-face instruction—such as a seminar course—seemed to be a more efficient manner of providing vital information to students. With such intensive and thoughtful counsel-ing programs provided to public school students,

Ind. Studies

Students get ready for the after-party following promPhoto by Austin McMichael

the Louisiana School and its counselors have set an example in the state for more organized, efficient, and personal college counseling.

During the event, Indian music blasted throughout Eagle field, and Indigo Club sold Mango Lasses, a common Indian bever-age made with mango pulp and milk. While the event itself was filled with excite-ment, the real joy for Indigo Club is not the event itself, but the fact that they will donate the money they raised to the Lion’s Blind Girl’s School in India. The club raised approximately $200 during the event. “The mission of In-digo is to give back to charities in need,” said Shah. “We chose the Lions Club because it seemed like our dona-tions could do a lot of good for the charity.” Holi is one of many examples of the influ-ence of clubs at this school. Student-run clubs hold multiple events at LSMSA for student enjoyment. In addition, Holi exem-plifies the ethnic di-versity that constitutes LSMSA.

by one question. We still placed second, and that is a great feat in itself.”

“Even with the ad-vanced math and science courses offered here, this independent study al-lowed us to learn math-ematical concepts that most people would not cover until well into col-lege,” said Schoen. Even with the myriad of courses offered at LSMSA, independent studies are among the factors that set the Loui-siana School apart from most other high schools. Independent studies allow students to per-sonalize their academic journey through high school and explore topics that they may pursue in the future.

april 2013

Documents

parents of lsmsa students

celebration of holi

school spirit

louisiana school

school decisions

students enthusiasti

assortment of colors

colors of spring