According to the FTC website, “FIRST is a not-for-profit organization devoted to helping young people discover and develop a passion for science, engineering, technology, and math.” For more information on the FTC, click here.

According to robotics team moderator Rebecca Jansing-Kaestner, the teams “started building towards the end of September.” Along with building a robot, the teams are required to keep an Engineering Notebook, which documents their building and team experience.

According to senior robotics team member Ana Beain, “Competitions are pretty intense. They’re an entire Saturday. Besides doing the matches themselves, you have to present in front of a judge what your robot can do.”

During the matches, each team is paired with another, forming an alliance. The matches are conducted as two-on-two games. The games are played on a 12 ft by 12 ft mat, covered in foam.

The game challenge is different every year, with this year’s theme being “Bowled Over!” According to the FTC website, the alliances compete to guide racquetballs into colored scoring goals. There are also two bowling balls on the field used for scoring points.

In each match, there is an autonomous period for the robots, where they cannot be controlled by the teams. There is also an operator-controlled period lasting for two minutes.

The teams built different robots in preparation for different tasks. Team 4506, composed of junior Andy Beain and sophomores Jon Kolson and Austin Schap, also won the motivate award.

According to the FTC website, this award “celebrates the team that exemplifies the essence of the FIRST Tech Challenge competition through team spirit and enthusiasm.”

Team 4621 is composed solely of seniors, including Ana Beain, Amanda Weerasooriya, Jenny Yang, AJ Stewart, Matt Zoltoski, and Shawn Pessagno.

According to the FIRST website, “teams of up to 10 students are responsible for designing, building, and programming their robots to compete in an alliance format against other teams.”

Weerasooriya likes the team aspect of the competition. “I like working with team members to create a functional robot to complete the tasks required,” Weerasooriya said.

Weerasooriya also volunteered at the FIRST Lego League (FLL) robotics competition hosted at John Carroll on Dec. 17. For news on the FLL competition, click here.

According to Schap, “Design is my favorite because I get to tinker around, see what works best, and change it for the better if it is inefficient.”

Sometimes design is difficult, though. “The worst thing is when you have a good idea, and something unexpected happens, and it doesn’t work, and you have to work around it. You get a great feeling though, when the problem is solved,” Schap said.

Weerasooriya echoes these sentiments. “It’s difficult creating and seeing if it works or not. If it fails, it is hard not to get down,” Weerasooriya said.

Team 4621 member Ana explains the preparation process. “Actually working on the robot is the hardest part of being on the team. We’re pretty good about coming up with ideas, but it is hard to motivate our whole team to actually build the robot,” Ana said.

“The most enjoyable thing about being on the team is seeing the progress we’ve made throughout the year. We started out with basically four wheels and a chassis and finished with a good robot,” Ana said.

According to Weerasooriya, the team members are “apprehensive” about the upcoming state championship. “Our two drivers will be on a ski trip, and our leader Ana Beain will be at a piano recital,” Weerasooriya said.

Ana is also unsure as to the team’s future success. “We’re excited to be in states, but not optimistic,” she said.

If the team wins at the state tournament, then they will move on to the world tournament.

Adam Kuester is a News Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.

On Jan. 24, the four participated in their normally scheduled classes and began their study abroad experience.

According to Coordinator of International Student Programs and English as a Second Language (ESL) instructor Sandi Seiler, the students celebrated the Chinese New Year with a special dinner with their host families on Jan. 23 at freshman Bethany Toy’s house and had an overall successful start to their school year.

“From my perspective, everything went well,” Seiler said.  During their first year, all new international students will have Seiler for advisory.  They will also take her English for International Students (EIS) class in place of their foreign language class until they can achieve a certain score on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).

Seiler hosts Maggie.  The other students, William, Iris, and Yi are hosted by math teacher Susan Kraft, Toy, and Nurse Laura Frank respectively.

“I’ve always been interested in Asian culture,” Kraft said.  “I’ve been to Japan, my husband goes to Asia, and my parents had visited where [William] was from.”

According to Kraft, the experience thus far has been “wonderful” and she has been “learning from [William]” and hopes to learn more about the Chinese culture.

“He’s very helpful.  His English is good and he’s good with computers and he likes sports.  We watched the Ravens game together.  [He’s] interested in what we’re interested in, and he likes to try new things.  He wants to be here and he wants to experience everything.  He’s very good with technology, and my sons have that in common [with him],” Kraft said.

“[My family and I] thought it would be a good experience.  It’s something we wanted to do and we would love to learn some things also.  My eleven year old was very excited and he wanted to do it, too,” Nurse Laura Frank said.

A challenge, Frank said, is that “I want to help him but I can’t sometimes because there’s that language barrier.”

Despite this, Frank said “[The experience so far is] wonderful, we have been doing very well.  Yi is comfortable at my house.  He’s settled in and he’s very polite and he’s very fun.  He’s happy and we’ve enjoyed it tremendously.  We laugh a lot, and we do have fun.”

Grace Kim is the Online Chief for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.

To read the previous news piece previewing the arrival of the Chinese transfer students, click here.  For introductory interviews of the Chinese students, check out the video to your right.

The Patriot will continue to investigate this issue, check back for updates as this story continues to develop.

To view faculty and student reactions, see the video here.

The administration has blocked Twitter due to explicit circumstances on Monday, Jan 9.

According to Principal Madelyn Ball, some of the teachers using Twitter as an educational tool discovered inappropriate tweets involving teachers.

“To be respectful to teachers, we had to take the distraction away. We [the administration] have not yet spoken to the students [with offensive tweets]. We have yet to talk about the best way to deal with it.”

According to Ball, copies of tweets containing vulgar language and inappropriate content regarding teachers reached her desk. After seeing these tweets, Ball and the administration made the decision to block Twitter on the JC network.

“Between 30 to 40” students are currently under administrative questioning for inappropriate tweets, though no disciplinary actions have been placed thus far, according to Ball.

Ball had an official meeting with Dean of Students Thomas Vierheller on Tuesday, Jan 10, regarding what actions should be taken against these particular students.

“They’re [the inappropriate tweets] the types of offenses that could easily be suspensions,” Ball said.

However, according to Ball, alternative disciplinary actions will be considered because the student suspension process is time consuming and there are numerous students under questioning.

“Just punishment never works. There has to be an educational component to it. The whole school needs a lesson on social media and how to act responsibly with social media,” Ball said.

Wednesday, Feb. 1 is Digital Learning Day, and Ball plans to have the whole school participate in this day to learn more about responsibilities regarding social media.

“On their own, teachers have already started coming up with plans of social media lessons…Everybody just has to learn how to use things appropriately,” Ball said.

“Whether or not Twitter comes back, I don’t know. Let’s see how the education goes and how students respond.”

Dean of Students Thomas Vierheller and Vice Principal Gary Scholl are not available for comments. Principal Madelyn Ball has requested that all questions and interviews be directed to her.

Grace Kim is the Online Chief for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.

Leung along with junior Bryan Swanson decided to have a Support Our Troops Drive for the last week of November through the first week of December. Advisories were instructed by an announcement in the Daily Bulletin to bring in goods, such as chewing gum, shaving cream, and socks that will be sent to U.S. troops stationed overseas.

“I came up with the idea [the Support Our Troops Drive] because my cousin Joshua was just sent out in December to serve with the Marines. After sending him several packages I realized that a lot of soldiers do not receive anything because it was so expensive to send things. Their families [the soldiers] many times cannot afford the shipping and they run low on supplies a lot of times,” Leung said.

In order to drum up interest in donating, Leung decided to make the Drive into a contest similar to the annual can drive. Instead of tallying up points for each item, Leung decided to give all of the items on the list of suggested donations a certain point value. For example, a pack of gum equaled one point and a package of green T-shirts equaled 10 points.

“I came up with this idea because I thought of how expensive bigger shirts would be compared to a package of gum. The point system identifies the different expenses of the supplies brought in. The higher the expense, the higher the point,” Leung said.

Leung came up with the idea that at the end of the two week period, advisories would total up the amount of points that they have in donations and whichever advisory had the highest amount of points would win a pizza party for their advisory.

“The prize for the advisory with the most points was created to motivate and make the fundraising a little more competitive. It is more motivational and hopefully it gave people a little incentive,“ Leung said.

In addition to the donations collected from Nov. 28 through Dec. 12, Leung hopes to continue the donation drive the last two weeks of the month for the rest of the school year. “Hopefully the drive will continue for the rest of the year. I hope to be able to collect for the last two weeks of every month. There will be a winning advisory every month, so hopefully this will increase the amount brought in,“ Leung said.

Social studies teacher Jake Hollin and art teacher Bruno Baran had the winning advisories for the first collection period.

Sophomore Daniel Hentschel was a part of Hollin’s winning advisory.  “We’re just champs, really.  It’s our reputation.  Mr. Hollin’s really competitive, and if we ever lose we’re just depressed,” he said.

“We didn’t win, we came in second.  We were disappointed,” Baran said.  “I’m very competitive, my advisory knows that.  I bring in some things and I challenge them to beat me.”

“I could not decide the most important item to bring in because all of them are valuable. I know that a lot of shaving cream is used and it is very cold during the winter in Afghanistan, so socks are very much needed,” Leung said.

Maggie Cassidy is Print Chief for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com

Additional reporting by Brianna Glase

One of Harkins’ classes entered a competition set up by Qdoba to win a pair of Ravens tickets. The class entered a picture of themselves making a human ‘Q’ on the football field.

While the class didn’t win the competition, they were awarded 2nd place, which included coupons for a free entree at Qdoba. The class redeemed these coupons to get their choice of burritos, tacos, or quesadillas and had a party during class.

Harkins learned about this contest through Qdoba Baltimore’s Facebook page. “I really wanted to win the Ravens tickets, and I thought that a human ‘Q’ was something that you wouldn’t see anywhere else. Plus, I had the manpower for it,” Harkins said.

“When Ms. Harkins said the idea of making a giant ‘Q’ on the football field, I was a bit hesitant because of the cold weather. In the end, it was completely worth it,” junior Bryan Pussler said.

Even though they didn’t win first place, the students and Harkins are pleased with the results. “I really thought it would win 1st place, but winning second place turned out to be good too, especially because I don’t think anyone was expecting any kind of compensation prize. It was fun and surprising,” junior Emily Hennigan said.

“I’m sad that I didn’t win the tickets, but this turned out to be better, because we got to spend the afternoon together, and I wouldn’t have gotten to take them to the game,” Harkins said.

“I didn’t think I would get anything out of it because Miss Harkins would only win two Ravens tickets. It was almost better that we got 2nd because we got free burritos. I had to leave school for a soccer game but it was an amazing pre-game snack,” junior Becky Hottle said.

“At the end of the day we gave it our best. The free food was just a bonus,” junior Derek Alban said.

Martha Schick is a Managing Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com

The old-time tradition of the Senior Variety Show since 1974 has been cancelled this year.

Senior class President Maria Edwards and Senior Member-at-Large Maggie Cassidy have decided to close the curtains on the show for the class of 2012.  Joint discussions between senior class moderators Larry Hensley and Sue Greig, class of ’71, took place before the decision was made.

According to Hensley and Greig, the lack of senior availability and participation in the show spurred joint discussions between the senior class moderators and officers, which ultimately resulted in the formal decision to cancel the show.

According to Hensley, the practice schedule was revised three times in attempts to accommodate many seniors who had schedule conflicts.

“The pressures of kids having to be involved in all kinds of activities to get into colleges are pressures we didn’t have back then.  It was just a different time,” Greig said, referring back to the time when she was a student.

“We had a small group of people and then we were told by our moderators and Mrs. Ball that we couldn’t have a show of only fifteen people, and then after changing all of the practice times, people still weren’t showing up except for the core group of people we had.  We just couldn’t get more people to come,” Cassidy said.

“It’s just been a bad buildup of stuff.  The past few years, Variety Show people made fun of other people and when we were told that there would be no making fun of people in the show, people become uninterested in participating and we lacked the manpower to run the show.”

“Society has changed.  It evolves.  Things that would fly back in the day would not be politically correct today,” Hensley said. “The Variety Show became a public forum to ridicule, harass, and abuse others.  That can’t be something we support, and by following our mission statement, this is not something we want to do.”

According to Principal Madelyn Ball, the show is not cancelled for all subsequent classes, despite the announcement made by the senior class officers.

“For juniors, if they want to do a show, they can put together a proposal to the administration.  It [the Variety Show] can never exist again the way it’s been…anything that makes fun of somebody I will say ‘no’ to,” Ball said.

“They can call it [their major fundraiser show] a ‘Senior Variety Show,’ but I’d encourage them to come up with with something else…They’ll have to make that proposal early.  This year it was too little, too late.”

“Legally, no school can do skits that make fun of people.  That even goes for when I believe in the past students would ask teachers, ‘Can we do a skit about you?’  Legally, it’s irresponsible.  That puts tremendous restrictions on what the show can be.”

The senior class officers of the class of 2012 do have future plans in creating other fundraisers to lower the cost of senior prom tickets.

“We are trying to have a senior coffee house that probably would be held in the Brown Room or cafeteria, a more intimate setting where the definite skits that we had like Chris O’Neill’s Dr. Barker speech or my JC Update skit would be performed there,” Cassidy said.

“We’re going to sell wristbands that you can dress down for the three days for the exam week.  It’s probably going to cost $15 .  Also, we’re probably going to have another dining out night at Looney’s and Burger King,” Cassidy said.

Alumni discontent that stirred on the JC Facebook page was addressed through a formal letter written by the senior class officers.

“As I wrote in my letter to the alumni, I said that in our [my and Edward’s] hearts it would be a sad decision to make, but our minds said it would be the most logical one and it would be the best decision for us and JC,” Cassidy said.

“That’s what I’m most upset about, how the alumni are acting.  A lot of people are bashing our decision and no one knows the whole story behind Maria’s and my decision.  The Variety Show was my baby, essentially.  I spent so much time on the Variety Show, wrote a lot of skits, recruited a lot of people, organized it, and it’s sad to see that all of the work that me and Maria did not happen…I just wish that the alumni understood,” Cassidy said.  “We want Variety Show to be a good memory, we don’t want it to be something bad where people worry and fear about how JC will look with the Variety Show.

The cancellation of this year’s show provoked disappointment among some of the current seniors.

“It’s unfortunate that our class won’t have it [the Senior Variety Show],” senior Emily Ruff said.

In addition to the general class’s dismay, participants of the Show also experienced similar sentiments.

“I think that we had a lot of good material and that we could have made a really good show if people stopped being immature and realized that they can have a funny show without calling out or being directly mean to someone.  If they all got involved, they could have understood how great the show could have been and how important it was to raise money for prom,” former Variety Show participant senior Taylor Kline said.

As for juniors, though they have the possibility of a Variety Show, some feel that it has lost its original integrity.

“I feel like the fact that it’s [the Senior Variety Show] changed so much from tradition takes away some of the things we  were looking forward to.  It’s not variety show anymore and that’s disappointing,” junior Adriana Baker said.

A letter written by the senior class officers to address recent alumni discontent can be read here.

Grace Kim is the Online Chief for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com

“It was just by a fluke that it happened,” choreographer of the musical Larry Hensley said.

“You can send out as many press releases as you want, but it’s really who you know that makes things like this happen,” producer of the musical Laura Lang said.

In this case, it was director of the musical Kim Brueggemann that knew Arlene Murphy, who happened to know ABC 2 News anchor and reporter Kelly Swoope.  Murphy struck up a conversation with Swoope about the upcoming musical, and Swoope was eager to get the musical featured on her station.

“There’s so much in the news that’s negative.  Since this was their [JC’s] first holiday performance, I thought it would get everyone in the holiday spirit,” Swoope said.

Swoope filmed a few scenes from Wednesday night’s rehearsal, Brueggemann, Lang, and Hensley discussing the musical, and the pit orchestra playing scores from the show.  She also interviewed Brueggemann and four of the leads, seniors Nick Henninger and Stephanie Meadowcroft, junior Thomas Gardner, and sophomore Lindsey McCumber.  This segment will be featured on the nightly 11 o’clock ABC 2 News on Monday or Tuesday of next week, Swoope said.

Thursday morning the seven leads – Henninger, Gardner, Meadowcroft, McCumber, senior Adam Kuester, sophomore Amanda Reid, and freshman Nicole Arrison — went to the ABC 2 News station to perform a few of their songs a capella.  Brueggemann was interviewed by ABC 2 News anchors Charley Crowson and Sherrie Johnson.  This segment will be featured on “Good Morning Maryland” on the ABC 2 News station Saturday morning at 7 o’clock.

“Going to the station wasn’t what I pictured it to be, but we had fun watching the anchors interview Mrs. B and singing a few of our numbers,” Arrison said.

McCumber had performed on television once before as a part of the All County Chorus, but said “this is pretty much a new experience, and I am thankful for the opportunity.”

Advertising the musical was one of the main incentives for the theater department. According to Hensley, the play is usually advertised through local newspaper advertisements and spreading the word to both public and private schools in the area.  None of the musicals had ever been advertised on television before.  “I don’t know if this will be a standard or an expectation, but I hope that it will be a good marketing strategy,” Hensley said.

Henninger echoes his sentiments.  “In my mind, if one young person sees this on TV and says ‘Wow, I want to be a part of that,’ then it was a success,” he said.

Gardner is excited for this new opportunity, but he is still apprehensive.  “I feel like it’s very good for the show and everyone involved…But it scares me because a lot of times things on TV don’t look as good as they are in real life,” he said.

Both Swoope and Brueggemann said that they are thrilled that this opportunity arose.

“This gives us an opportunity to do more local things, and a chance to highlight good things in the community,” Swoope said.  “Now that we’ve established a relationship [with JC], they just need to let me know when something like this happens.”

“Ideally we want to be on [television] for every show we do. Hopefully this will jumpstart something,” Brueggemann said.

You can watch the White Christmas cast’s apperance on ABC 2 News here.

Brianna Glase is a Managing Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com

According to Principal Madelyn Ball, the school may need to hire a full-time ESL teacher for the next semester in order to instruct a group of Chinese students that will be attending JC at that time.

Spanish teacher Sandi Seiler is currently teaching ESL classes and will also teach the incoming group of Chinese students.

“We do have a number of Chinese students coming. This is very time consuming, and Ms. Seiler has taken on this whole project of coordinating all that needs to be coordinated to accept the Chinese students,” Ball said.

With the influx of international students and those enrolled in ESL classes, Ball believes that Seiler’s schedule will be strained. As a result, Ball is trying to switch around some of Seiler’s Spanish 1 classes.

“That has just consumed her time, and she can’t teach and continue to do it the way she is doing it this semester. So we need to ease up some of her classes in the second semester. Now how that’s going to happen, we’re not exactly sure yet,” Ball said.

Seiler was unavailable for comment.

Ball stated that one option for Seiler’s teaching schedule next semester could depend on whether or not Spanish teacher Jennifer Medrano returns from her maternity leave for the second semester. Medrano’s normal courses are Spanish 3, Honors Spanish 3, and AP Spanish, which are currently being taught by Spanish teacher Deirdre Magner.

According to Ball, if Medrano returns, the administration hopes that she will be able to teach  her original classes. This will leave Magner free to teach several of Seiler’s Spanish 1 classes, which will allow Seiler to concentrate more on the international students.

“We’re hoping Mrs. Medrano comes back. If Mrs. Medrano comes back, then hopefully Mrs. Magner can help us. We just don’t know yet because Mrs. Medrano doesn’t have to make a decision until the end of the semester,” Ball said.

Maggie Cassidy is Print Chief for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.

With the clock ticking down, the minds of the Academic Team raced with a million possibilities.  This single question would determine which team would break the overtime tie.  However, the team’s thoughts were interrupted by the buzz of Dulaney High School’s team. Dulaney’s team captain guessed the correct answer; Vladmir Putin.

JC emerged from the Bel Air Invitational Academic Team competition with two wins and three losses on Nov. 19.  The team placed seventh overall out of 26 teams based on their total score of 840 points. 

Seniors Ana Beain, Adam Kuester, Jenny Yang, Jon Galarraga, and junior Mary Kate Luft participated in the competition, with Beain leading the team as captain.

Each academic team participating in the competition was matched up against five other academic teams from all over the state. The teams that emerged victorious from their five matches moved on to the semifinals. 

JC was matched up against Dulaney in the first round, C. Milton Wright High School in the second round, Bel Air High School in the third, Hammond High School in the fourth, and Dulaney once again in the fifth and final round.

Competing schools were permitted to bring teams of more than four players if they wished.  This allowed for a substitution of players in between rounds or the formation of another team as long as a minimum of four players to fill it could be met.

Within a single round, there were five cycles of questioning, with the questions covering open-ended subjects and trivia questions.  Among the many questions asked, the contestants were expected to factor math problems, know where U.S. presidents were born, and identify Casey Anthony. 

The two types of questions were toss-up questions and hurdle questions.  The toss-ups required any player to buzz in for their answers, and conferring with teammates was not allowed. The hurdle questions allowed for conference, didn’t require buzzing in, and required that only the team captain was allowed to answer.  These questions had themes, such as settings of novels or state boundaries, and opposing teams would take turns answering a set of these hurdle questions. 

If a team answered a toss-up incorrectly, a 10-point penalty was deducted.  For every correct answer from either type of questioning, 10 points were awarded.

JC won the second and third rounds, but lost the first, fourth, and fifth rounds.

According to Academic Team Coach Robert Schick, after viewing the final score board after the matches, he found it interesting and impressive that all of the teams JC lost to progressed undefeated into the semifinals.

“I feel good about how well we did against good teams . . . I’m having a blast with Academic Team this year.  I wish we had the chance to practice ahead of time because we probably would have won a couple more rounds.  We had a really academically strong team, but a big element of this is buzzing in,” Schick said.  “It’s a competition that requires quick reflexes.”

“I didn’t know that I was going to get as competitive as I did.  I had a lot more fun than I thought I would.  It was kind of humbling . . . my friends joke about how much I know, but then I saw how much other kids knew and it was cool,” Galarraga said.

For more information on joining the Academic Team, email Schick at rschick@johncarroll.org.

 Grace Kim is Online Chief for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.

On Wednesday Nov. 9, the Speech and Debate team competed at a tournament at Patterson Mill High School against all the public schools in Harford County. The team walked away from the competition with 12 ribbons total.

“This was the biggest turnout we ever had, [we had] the most contestants and most ribbons,” Speech and Debate team moderator Robert Schick said. “This last tournament, almost everyone entered what’s called ‘individual events.’ It’s not the debate part of it. It’s the speech presentation part of it.”

The Speech and Debate team entered nine different competitions and won awards in seven of them.

In Declamation, co-captain junior Martha Schick, co-captain senior Adam Kuester, and sophomore Megan Grieg took first, second, and third place, respectively. Declamation involves presenting a 5-10 minute selection originally delivered as a speech by its author. The Speech and Debate team took all ribbons for this category.

In Reader’s Theatre, Kuester with junior Thomas Gardner won first, and sophomores Casey Reil and Hope Kelly won second place.  In Reader’s Theatre, 3-10 participants deliver a 6-10 minute presentation that may employ all types or combinations of literature: movie scripts, prose, poetry, lyrics, play cuttings.

In Children’s Literature, Reil and sophomore Jessica Clingerman took first and second place, respectively. Children’s Literature includes selections of one or more pieces (thematically related) from published literature written for children.

Sophomore Kaley Martin placed first in Oral Interpretation of Prose, and Grieg and Clingerman won second and third in Oral Interpretation of Poetry. In these categories, a participant has 6-10 minutes to present a program that can include all forms of prose or poetry, depending on the event.

Sophomore Margaret McGuirk placed second in Original Oratory, and sophomore Madison Meyer took third for Dramatic Interpretation. Original Oratory allows the speaker to have a notecard of no more than 50 words to deliver a speech of his or her own making for 5-10 minutes. Dramatic Interpretation involves an individual or duo presenting a 5-10 minute program including selections in the form of a script.

In addition to those who won ribbons, senior Nandin Dave, junior Benjamin Swanson, sophomores Grace Leung, Julia Lindemon, Kayla Bynion, and freshman Erin Sullivan participated in the competition.

According to Leung, “It’s fun and you get to know your partner really well because you get to research your topic with them.”

According to Kuester, these tournaments are something everyone looks forward to. “Schools from all over Harford County gather to have some healthy competition, and along the way students make tons of new friends,” Kuester said.

“After we all present, free pizza and drinks are provided, and often we play group games like ‘Ninja’ and ‘Lazer Eyes’ while we wait for the scores to be tallied,” Kuester said.

The Speech and Debate team has a website with all of the events, rules, and a sample ballot for prospective students who are interested in participating to look at.  The site is www.JCforensics.blogspot.com.

“This [the Speech and Debate team] is the most fun group of kids you could possibly imagine.  They were singing songs to the bus all the way to the tournament and back.  The people that have been on this since last year start to know all the people they compete against…One of the judges made a note of that when she was giving awards, how cool she thought it was that we were helping other schools and other schools were helping us,” Schick said.

“I would love to see more and more people get involved with it, and see how they do.  It’s fun, it looks great on a college resume, [and] these are skills that will serve you well in almost anything you will do,” Schick said.

Grace Kim is Online Chief for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.

Additional reporting by Adam Kuester.