December 2013 - Doherty High School

The
Doherty Spectrum
Good Luck on Finals!
Great Job on
Harvest Spartans!!
Photo by Laci Durham
1
Feature
The Spectrum
Winter Fads
Winter Fashion
Story by Noelle Coultrip
I
magine waking up, looking
out the window, and seeing
the snow-laden ground glisten
before your eyes. Winter has
arrived. The first thought that
pops into people’s heads is
Christmas, snow days, and of
course winter fashion.
Compared to other
seasons, winter outfits take
much more effort and require
multiple layers of clothing.
The good news is, there are
plenty of things to layer with.
One very popular winter
fashion piece is the infinity
scarf. Infinity scarves come in
a variety of colors and patterns, and can instantly pull a
look together while also being
warm. A second must-have
winter wardrobe piece is a
beanie. Over the last year
or so, beanies have gained
popularity and can be seen
paired with many different
styles. The upside to beanies
is the fact that they are extremely fashionable and keep
your ears and head warm.
Another category of
winter clothing is formal wear.
When wearing formal wear,
such as during Winter Formal, opt for long jewel-toned
dresses. The length keeps
your legs warm while the
color makes it feel more like
winter. When wearing skirts
or dresses, not necessarily
during school dances, opt for
tights versus bare legs. Tights
ensure that your legs don’t
get cold and are very fashionforward. A dilemma that a lot
of people face is figuring out
how to pair their individual
pieces together. Although it
may seem like it, it’s not as
hard as it seems. For example, an ideal winter outfit
would be a cool-patterned
sweater dress, a black trench
coat, edgy boots, black tights,
a black beanie, and a large
bag. This outfit selection is
fashionable and warm at the
same time. Stores that have a
great winter clothes selection
are H&M, American Eagle,
and Macy’s. Overall, winter
clothing is a great way to
express yourself.
Story by Taylor Green
It’s that time of year
again. The season that Colorado is famous for, where it
snows almost every day and
everyone hits the slopes. It’s
also the season where style
changes almost every year.
Every winter there is new
fads. Last year was UGGs
and pencil skirts. Some of the
styles changed, but some remained the same. Then there
are reoccurring fads such as
Pumpkin Spice Lattes and
Christmas, which come back
every year. The basic definition of a fad is, a temporary
fashion, notion, manner of
conduct, etc., especially one
followed enthusiastically by
a group. Fads change every
year but some things never
change. Everyone has their
own personal style but at
some point everyone turns to
what everyone else is wearing
or doing. That doesn’t mean
fads take from your style.
Some reoccurring
fads include UGGs, anything
Christmas, and sweaters.
Some fads that are already
over this year include running shorts, silly cartoons
such as Adventure Time
and Regular Show, and high
wasted shorts. Some things
that most likey won’t be the
same next year are infinity
scarfs, maxi-skirts, and sock
buns. Some seasonal fads
include Pumpkin Spice lattes,
plaid flannels, eggnog, and of
course Christmas.
Although some fads
don’t come back, most do
reoccur. For example, the 80’s
style has come back about
three times in our lifetimes,
and there’s no doubt it will
come again. These are just
some of the things that are
seasonal and some the things
that won’t be back next season. Of course your style is
up to you but, you could start
a new fad, you never know.
Disclaimer:
Parents, Staff, and Students:
The views and opinions of The Spectrum’s writers
do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions
of the staff as a whole or Doherty High School. If
you have any questions or concerns regarding the
content of The Spectrum, please contact the Editor, Olivia Stinett, or the Advisor, Mrs. Bonville.
-The Spectrum Staff
Imagination Celebration’s iSpace
I
n modern times, more and
more, one hears of schools
putting arts education by
the wayside. In these tough
economic times, schools have
had smaller budgets, and as
a result have turned to cutting
art, music, and performing
arts programs from school
course options. Schools have
implemented this in order to
put more emphasis on the
core subjects, with a large
focus on math and science;
however, cutting the arts from
schools could be suffocating
Story by Laci Durham
and depriving children of the
opportunity to be creative.
And who knows, the next
Monet or Mozart could be
sitting in a classroom, unable to share their skill, not to
mention the fact that the arts
actually help students succeed in school, it is proven
to augment critical thinking
skills and student’s historical
awareness.
This idea is something
Imagination Celebration is set
out to bolster. Imagination
Celebration is a non-profit
organization that “connects
people to the brain-stimulating, community-building, lifeenhancing power of creativity
by inspiring artistic and intellectual curiosity; instigating
community collaborations and
promoting life-long experiential learning that helps us
thrive in a changing world.”
Their goal is to bolster creativity, while still being progressive in our ever changing
world, and break down all
economic, disability, and geographic barriers preventing
creativity.
One of their tools in this pursuit is the establishment of iSpace, or “Imagination Space,”
a place where everyone is
invited to learn, create, and
let their imagination run wild.
This space, whose walls are
adorned with student artwork,
and whose open spaces leave
room for storytelling, puppet
shows, and live music, offers
a place for creators to thrive.
With a wall of used books,
tables of CDs, and cases with
handmade jewelry for sale, it
is the perfect place to go and
get a taste for art in the community.
Everyone is invited to get
involved! Whether that is by
donating, volunteering, or
participating in these creativity
nurturing activities, there is an
opportunity available to everyone. iSpace is located on the
second floor of The Citadel
mall by Burlington Coat Factory. More information can be
found on their website, http://
imaginationcelebration.org/
ispace/.
Playing God?
Editorial by Jessica Carmona
I
n modern times, one of the
biggest disputes between
people is religion. People
constantly point fingers and
dictate who is allowed to do
something. They put themselves in a position to control
anything that would appear to
be playing an omniscient role
on humanity. The most disputed subject with this topic is
science. Synthetic biology is
one of these. With this attitude
towards synthetic biology,
there is hardly any room left
for scientific progress in the
field.
The field of synthetic
biology was not generated to
play any sort of godlike role
on humanity, but to instead
improve it. There are thousands of things that synthetic
biology can do to benefit
human lives. This includes
engineering, building the new
biological system as a platform for various technologies,
and rewriting, rebuilding the
natural systems to provide the
engineered surrogates that
they can create by inserting
man-made DNA into a living
cell.
Synthetic biology has gained
popularity as a result of increasing developments within
DNA synthesis technologies;
now it is more affordable to
synthesize a gene as opposed to cloning it. Also, genome databases can be used
as a template for creating
viruses at minimal cost. DNA
can be altered in a living cell,
but to an extent. A person’s
hair color or skin, their phenotypes, cannot be altered
for a specific demand of the
person. Cells can be altered
in cases of malignancy, which
would benefit the cell and rejuvenate its health. Synthetic
biology was brought up to
alter the state of a cell for the
health or even reproduction of
an organism, not to play any
omniscient role or to harm
religion. Many scientists even
hold some sort of religious
status. Science doesn’t automatically assume atheism, but
it doesn’t demand a religious
standpoint either.
The profession that
someone chooses to follow in their lifetime does not
dictate their religious views.
Even Charles Darwin held his
own religious beliefs despite
questioning them with his
work. Religion and science
will always be a disputed topic
when they are compared, but
science has no intention on
destroying a person’s religion,
just on developing a greater
understanding of the human
life.
Feature
2
The Spectrum
News
Colleges and Universities: What Do
They Look For?
Story by Noelle Coultrip
A
s the majority of students
in eleventh and twelfth
grades know, the ever looming inevitability of the future is
constantly present. Phrases
such as, “What school are
you planning on going to?”
and “What are you doing next
year?” get dropped on the daily by parents, teachers, and
peers. Despite the constant
overwhelming pressure of the
future, most students continue
to strive for excellence and
apply to only the best schools.
Unfortunately, many students
are not familiar with the college process and do not know
where to begin.
For starters, making
a long list of colleges that you
are interested in really helps.
Make the list long enough to
have choices, but not so long
that you do not have time to
apply to all of them. When
filling out applications, keep
in mind that most colleges
mainly look for leadership, a
willingness to take risks, initia-
as possible. Another very
important piece of information
that the majority of students
tend to bypass is the fact that
colleges and universities not
only have the ability to see
all of your tweets, Facebook
posts, and social-network updates, but also have the ability
to refuse to accept you to your
school of choice because of
them. Be careful what you
post on the Internet!
Last but not least, if
tive, volunteer work, and any
abilities or talents that stand
out.
Also, make sure that
you realize exactly what you
are getting yourself into. For
example, it is much harder
to get into a school such as
Columbia with a 7.4% acceptance rate or Harvard with a
5.9% acceptance rate; UCCS
has a 67% acceptance rate
and the University of Denver
has a 68% acceptance rate,
both relatively easier to get
into. Just because a school
is highly selective, does not
mean it is better for your individual needs.
Also, be sure to put
a very large amount of effort
into college essays. College
essays are the one thing that
sets you apart from the crowd,
so make sure to stand out.
Refrain from writing about
what you think everyone else
will write about; be as unique
college applications are making you pull your hair out, try
your best to organize all of the
deadlines and requirements in
a chart. As you finish applications, cross them off of your
chart. That way, excess stress
does not set in. Although
the college process can be
stressful and time-consuming,
always remember that all of
the effort put in is worth it.
After all, it is your future!
Student Loans
Story by Anna Kusakina
Movie
Reviews
T
he amount of student
loans of American students is $1 billion. The
problem is student loans are
given, not depending on the
solvency of the borrower. For
example, if a student wants
to become an engineer, and
receives good grades on his
math and science classes, it
is possible to suppose that
he will cover his student loan.
Engineers usually find jobs
right after they finish college
and get good salaries with
bonuses. However, students
that chose their profession in
the field of fine arts could not
be called as good of borrowers as the engineers, because
it is more difficult for them to
find a job as well as get high
salaries when they first start
their career.
However, creditors
estimate engineers and mathematicians the same way as
artists and language specialists.
According to the facts
students of some professions
first few years just could not
meet their financial engagements. One profession’s start
salary is $98,000 per year,
the others is just $20,000. All
these facts lead first of all to
students’ financial problems.
Evidently, if a student doesn’t
have to take a loan, he won’t
chose his future profession
being guided only by the
starting salary on the chosen
field. We need social and fine
art workers. Unfortunately, the
issue that we have now leads
to the decrease of number
of students who follow their
interests and vocations by
choosing a job, the starting
salary of which will cover
expenditures connected with
loans.
So what is for sure is
that the government doesn’t
do students a good turn
by offering loans that they
physically cannot cover. An
average student has $27,000
of debt after all his college
years. It is impossible to pay
the whole amount of money
having extra consumer credits
and debts. There is only
one hope that was recently
declared by Barack Obama,
his policy reform in education
will somehow help students to
choose the best college and
will change the process of
giving loans to guarantee that
students could pay their bills
with less problems.
stars. Lastly, at number five is
Carrie with a close 6.4 stars.
Now let’s move onto
what’s coming up this month.
December 13th, the movie
everyone’s been waiting
for since last December is
coming, The Hobbit: The
Desolation of Smaug. Also
coming with that is Hours
and A Madea Christmas. On
the twentieth of December
the sequel to one of the most
viewed comedies, along
with Will Ferrell’s other great
works is Anchorman two. In
January, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, Jack
Snow: Shadow Recruit, Devils
Due, Frankenstein ,and That
Awkward Moment will all be
coming out to theaters near
you.
Please keep in mind
that those box-office reviews
were taken in November.
Surely they could be different
now due to newer movies being released.
Review by Taylor Green
M
any new, great movies
have come out. All with
great reviews. Not only are
there many out, but many to
come. We all have to something to look forward to in the
next couple months because
there are great movies coming out this month, December.
Starting with the mov-
ies already out, Enders Game
is number one in the boxoffice with 7.2 stars. Coming
next is JackA**: Bad Grandpa
close with 7.0 stars and number two in the box-office. At
number three in the box-office
is Last Vegas with 6.7 stars.
Number four is a thanksgiving movie, Free Birds with 5.2
Student Life
3
Opinion
The Spectrum
Darwin
VS.Religion
Learning VS.
Testing
Editorial by Jessica Carmona
O
ften, in today’s society,
many of the world’s
greatest minds are shoved
aside as old or boring, and
sometimes they are even
given silly names that completely defeat their purpose
in life. One of these minds
is Charles Darwin, a British
naturalist who laid the foundations for theories on evolution
and changed the way people
thought about the world. Many
people of this generation see
him as the ‘monkey man’,
or the guy who created the
theory on humans evolving
from monkeys.
In Darwin’s time,
most Europeans believed
that the world was created by
God in seven days as described in the bible. Darwin,
though he was a religious
man, challenged these ideas
with evidence he and fellow
or previous scientists had
discovered. On his return to
England in 1836, from his
voyage on the HMS Beagle
for five years, Darwin tried
to solve the riddles of these
observations and the puzzle
of how species evolve. Darwin
proposed a theory that evolution occurrs by the process of
natural selection. The animals
(or plants) best suited to their
environment are more likely
to survive and reproduce,
passing on the characteristics
which helped them survive to
their offspring. Gradually, the
species change over time, or
so he proposed.
Darwin worked on
this theory for 20 years. After
learning that another naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace,
had developed ideas that
were almost identical with
his own, the two made a
joint announcement of their
discovery in 1858. In 1859
Darwin published “On The
Origin of Species by Means
of Natural Selection,” a book
which aroused a large amount
Editorial by Olivia Stinett
of controversy because it
created an idea that humans
were not made in the shape
of the God that they thought
they were and demoted them
to animals just like the rest of
nature. It made it seem possible that even people might
just have evolved – quite
possibly from apes – and
destroyed the prevailing orthodoxy on how the world was
created.
Darwin was attacked
by the Church for the ideas
that he held, but slowly those
ideas gained support from
not only other scientists, but
also every day citizens. The
prodigious naturalist toiled for
years on his theories so that
they would be accepted and
pursued into greater details
once he had passed; he did
not toil over such work to be
made a mockery of and be
known today as the guy who
said humans evolved from
monkeys.
Welfare
W
Editorial by Leah Urie
elfare benefits many
people, but are Americans using the opportunity in
the right way? Welfare can
benefit people who are in
need of more money, who
can’t afford food or the basic
essentials in order to sustain
a normal life. 12.8 million
Americans are on welfare and
annually, 131.9 billion dollars
are spent on welfare alone
(not including food stamps or
unemployment). Some people
that are on welfare have
minimum wage jobs that don’t
allow them to make enough
money to support their families and other life expenses,
or someone has been hurt on
the job and they are unable
to work due to that injury. In
some cases Americans who
are perfectly capable of getting jobs and earning money
for themselves are on welfare
simply because they are lazy.
Welfare is a good thing for
people who truly need it but
there are others who see fit to
collect from the government
while sitting around. You can
collect $1000 from welfare a
month, and other Americans
are concerned that their tax
dollars are going to waste.
Some seem to think
that others are dehumanizing
people that are on welfare,
but if people are letting others
fund their living expenses and
those people are doing nothing in return they are simply
getting a free ride. Welfare
has its pros and cons but the
cons outweigh the pros in
more ways than one.
At this point most
Americans can receive
welfare, depending on their
pay. Certain laws should be
passed to ensure that people
who apply for welfare actually
need it as opposed to people
just using it when they don’t
really need it. They need to
pass a law saying applicants
must get a drug test, as well
as search for a job while
receiving welfare, or do some
type of volunteer work to give
back to their community.
Welfare is no doubt
important to society, and in no
way is it wrong for people to
have it, but when people have
it that don’t even really need
it, they are just wasting the
resource that has been given
to us. We should all work for
what we want, unless we of
course are physically unable
to. In the near future Americans will hopefully understand
this.
B
eing a student with the
argument “standardized
testing is pointless,” comes
across as a senioritis-stricken
whine; however, there is validity to that statement. Current
education revolves around
preparing students for state
tests, exit exams, and college
entrance exams, and seems
to slowly lose the importance
of inspiring students and
teaching them “real life lessons.”
With Race to the Top,
schools rely on standardized
test scores for both funding and teacher evaluations,
which is tragically unfair to
both the schools and the
teachers. If a school has
improved scores, they receive
more funding, while those
with less improvement receive
less. However, wouldn’t it
make more sense for the
lower scoring schools to receive more funding to improve
their learning environment?
And how could a teacher possibly be evaluated based on
a single test? Some students
purposefully put all of their
effort into scoring poorly on
their tests, yet those scores
still reflect on the teacher. It is
impossible for a book of questions to determine a teacher’s
adequacy, experience, or
performance, especially when
the students have sole control
over the answers.
Even if every student
absorbs the information that
prepares them for standardized tests, they have no time
to be taught life lessons or
learn by experience. Curriculums are so focused on
reaching a certain goal or end
point, that teachers have little
room for interpretation. They
rarely have time to take a day
for hands on activities or have
class discussion that feed
students’ minds. Instead, they
have no choice but to shove
information at their students,
test them, and continue on to
the next unit. Students complain about the monotonous
schedule of school, but how
else are teachers supposed to
be creative and still have time
to teach every learning objective. No longer can teachers
have personal discussions
or relationships with their
students, but are now thought
of as dictators who pile on
homework assignments and
tests.
Every day we hear
“I’m trying prepare you for
TCAPS,” and it sounds like
that is the only purpose of
school. Yet about 13 years of
a child’s life is spent learning
and developing in school. So
if school is only based on one
test at the end of the year,
are we just wasting 13 years?
Students are supposed to be
getting inspired and yearning
to continue their education
and careers; however, the
dropout rate of our generation just keeps rising. It’s not
the schools’ fault; it’s not the
teachers’ fault; it’s’ not the
students’ fault – education just
needs to return to inspiration
and instruction instead of testing.
e
The Doherty Spectrum greatly appreciates the support from Mr. Vigil, Ms.
Flenniken, and Ms. Southard for their
generosity and participation in making this newspaper possible.
-The Spectrum Staff
Editorials
4
News
The Spectrum
Energy Drink Dangers
Story by Anna Kusakina
I
’m so tired! I’m going to buy
an energy drink because I
have a lot of homework.
It seems so harmless. An
energy drink is not alcohol,
right? There is no age restriction on purchasing energy
drinks, and it is much more
effective than just a cup of
coffee. Advertising of energy drinks promises a lot of
energy, vivacity, and total absence of tiredness. It is legal,
harmless, and effective.
Little by little energy drinks
conquer a big audience.
Students, office clerks, tired
drivers, night club visitors –
everyone seems to find “elixir
of energy in the bottle” very
attractive and worth its price.
Americans are spending more
than $12.5 billion a year on
energy drinks, shots, and
drink mixes – 60% more than
they spent back in 2008. This
number continues to grow.
The problem is that
the truth won’t be translated
on TV or kindly presented by
sellers. It is covered by an
exciting story about an inexhaustible source of energy.
Let’s look at the reverse side
of it, there are a lot of different
energy drinks that are presented on the market. However, their ingredients are almost
the same. Main ingredients
are caffeine, carbonated
water, taurine, guarana, sugar
(or aspartame), DMAA…
Caffeine is the main ingredient of every energy drink. It
stimulates brain and cardiovascular system activity, but
big doses of caffeine could
cause nervous and cardiac
exhaustion and strong headaches.
Taurine in small amounts
hasten the metabolism process, but in big amounts it
can crash the central nervous
system.
Guarana has tonic behavior,
but again if we overdrink it, it
causes increased blood pressure, stimulates hypertension
and appearance of cancerous
cells.
DMAA, or methylhexamine,
is a dietary supplement that
hasn’t yet been tested in
depth.
There is no need to warn
about the danger of excessive
amount of sugar that we can
also find mentioned on the
bottom of a can.
It seems like it won’t be harmful if we control energy drink
intake. But first of all, all the
ingredients have been all
tested separately, and from
chemistry class we know that
mixed together, matters can
obtain unexpected quantities.
Secondly, there is one scientifically proven fact: energy
drinks cause an addiction
similar to drug or alcoholic
addictions. That will lead to
the augmentation of the daily
dose of drink, and finally the
body will experience all these
terrible things they warn us
about. What is more is energy
drinks don’t give energy itself,
it just opens some energetic
ducts of body. So we don’t get
energy, it uses our internal resources. That would definitely
lead to problems with sleep,
excessive tiredness after the
action of drink will finish, depression, and derangements.
Yes, there are deaths caused
by excessive use of energy
drinks. That is why in some
European counties energy
drinks can only be sold in
drug stores and only with a
medical prescription.
However, good marketing
and screaming cans with
good offers “Buy one, get one
free” make customers forget
about the death cases. With
the absence of age restriction
on purchasing energy drinks,
kids are mostly subjected to
all kinds of advertising, and
the fact that they can freely
buy this stuff is really sad,
and to start drinking it at such
young age, can cause lots of
health problems in the future.
The FDA tries to do something about it. It investigates
adverse event reports allegedly related to energy drinks
and supplements. In April,
2013 FDA issued a harsh
warning against energy drinks
and supplements containing
DMAA. Some energy drinks,
including Monster energy and
Rockstar energy, were reported to be rebranding their
products as beverages rather
than as dietary supplements.
But this is not
enough. While they investigate how the ingredients and
its combination can harm our
health, people keep drinking it. Who knows how many
deaths will be caused by
energy drinks in near future?
Body Modifications
A
Story by Leah Mazzillo
s times are changing
people want to, in turn,
change their image. Tattoos
and piercings are becoming
very popular and it seems as
if everyone has a tattoo or
piercing. Local tattoo artist
Steve Yates is a third generation tattoo artist. Steve was
born into the tattoo and piercing industry and is 44 years
old with a son who makes the
fourth generation of tattoo artists; he has seen a lot of different and unique people and
has met many celebrities such
as Trent Reznor and Marilyn
Manson. Steve believes in
freedom of expression, but
thinks youth should only get
tattoos and piercings if they
are thought out thoroughly.
“I think there are a
lot of younger people getting
tattoos of bands and meaningless tattoos without giving
a tattoo a lot of thought to the
fact that the art work will be
on them for the rest of their
Are You
A Writer?
lives, or they’re just getting
a tattoo trying to be cool, but
they will have to live with having that tattoo on them every
single day. What they should
be doing is researching and
thinking out something that
will have importance to them,”
tattoo artist Yates said
Steve has good advice for those who are considering getting a tattoo and/or
piercing:
“There are several
things: Do some research,
pay attention, make sure everything is clean & sterile and
packaged in individual packages, make sure what you
are going to get pierced and
tattooed on you has meaning
or importance to you, and you
have researched the style and
artwork as well as looked at
the artists’ work. Also consider
what your career and future
choices in life are going to be
and how the piercing or tattoo
will affect you.”
Getting any type of
body modification requires a
lot of thought, but youth isn’t
considering the long term
effects of their choices and
could lead to future regret. In
about 80 years or so, how will
the people of our time look
with stretched ears and tattoo
sleeves? 60% of employers
said that they were less likely
to hire a candidate with tattoos or piercings. Their main
concern is how the company
would be viewed and/or represented. Some people still
associate tattoos with bikers,
sailors, criminals, and gang
members of society. Some
might see it as self-expression
and free speech, but bosses
perceive it as being rebellious,
calling attention to yourself,
and not being part of the
team. If one considers getting
a tattoo, remember to get it
in a place that will not conflict
with work and/or life.
Did you miss your chance to join
newspaper, or do you just want to
be a published writer? Send stories
and contact info. to [email protected] for a chance to be
publish in next month’s issue!
Student Life
5
Community
The Spectrum
HARVEST
STATS.
- Total Money Raised:
$45,040
- Total lbs of Food:
13,766 lbs
GREAT
JOB
SPARTANS!
IN
Christmas
Hot Chocolate
Flannel
Snow
One Republic
iPhone 5c
Vinyl
OUT
Halloween
Candy
Costumes
Warm Weather
Avicii
iPhone 4
MP3s
5 MIN. AGO
Thanksgiving
Turkey
Capris
Dead Leaves
Katy Perry
iPhone 5
CDs
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