ISU Cheer

I recently tried out for Illinois State University Cheerleading and make the squad. Before trying out I was having trouble deciding where to attend school next year, but making the squad made my decision for me. How could I ever pass up this great opportunity?



At tryouts, I met many new people and all my future teammates. While tryouts came with a happy ending for me and many others, it was not so for some. No one in the stunting group I tried out with made it, and one girl who had been on the squad 3 years will not be returning.



I look forward to meeting many more new people and continuing cheerleading throughout college. My college cheerleading experience starts soon... next weekend. I will be cheering my first ever FOOTBALL game. Should be interesting since I do not know how to play football.



If anyone wants to travel up to Bloomington next fall or winter, I will be cheering football and basketball games and will be happy to see familiar faces in the stands!!



Kelly Jansen

Softball

This years softball team is doing exceptionally well! The team is now 18-5 after last night's 2 losses to t-town. We had a great crowd last night and would love for everyone to come to all the games! We have many home games coming up: 3 this week, NTC tournament is at home, and city series is all in Effingham. So come out and watch!



Our main hitters this year are the Busher sisters, Ann and Mary; both having several home runs! Allie Kabbes is our main catcher and lead off batter. Kelly McHugh is our star short-stop and is the best in the area! Megan Wholtman has really showed off her talent as a freshman having several varsity starts pitching!



We are very excited for the NTC tournament and another chance against t-town, this time on our own field! And also, we hope to sweep Effingham in the city series just like last year! Senior night will be the final game of city series, so come out and honor the senior softball players!

College

Everyone seems to be asking me about college these days, but I am still undecided. I decided I would ask a couple of my fellow seniors and share the information. Thanks Allie and Myles!

Where are you going to college?

A: Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri
M: Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee

How big is your college?

A: 20,000

M: 4,000

Why did you choose this college?

A: It's far away from home. It has a great study abroad program.

M: My specific major.

What is your favorite thing about your college?

A: Their mascot is the bears!!

M: Campus is small but it is located on music row in Nashville.

How far away is your college?

A: 5 hours

M: 4.5 hours

Where will you be living?

A: a suite dorm with 3 other girls

M: dorms

What is your major/minor?

A: Psychology and Spanish (double major)

M: Audio Engineering Technology with a possible minor in Music Business.

Do you plan to join any sports/clubs?

A: intramural volleyball and softball

M: maybe intramural sports and a band!

Fun Date Ideas for Effingham

• Go get ice cream


• Go on a scooter ride


• Take a walk in the park


• Ride bikes


• Play tennis (double date and play couple vs couple)


• Go watch a movie (possibly for extra credit)


• Go watch the High School play, The Importance of Being Earnest
  (definitely for extra credit)


• Drive around and listen to music


• Go bowling


• Make dinner for each other


• Make cake or cookies together


• Sit around a fire in the back yard


• Go four-wheeler riding


• Go on a scavenger hunt (another possible double date or group date)

Scholarships

Senior year is supposed to be relaxing and fun, but scholarships do not allow for this. Scholarships are stressful and time consuming. They may not be as stressful for those seniors who do not procrastinate, but they are very stressful for me.

Why do they make all the scholarships due on the same day? I think they should space out the deadlines and have one due every two or three days. That would give everyone more time to focus on each particular scholarship essay instead of writing up to four or more essays in one night.

Not only do we have scholarship essays due the same day in mass quantities, but we also have our regular class homework: tests, papers, worksheets, etc. All this work leads to late nights of studying and doing homework, and the teachers wonder why we sleep in class.

Well, the sleeping in class may not be as much do to the late nights of homework as the senioritis!



There is good news for everyone though: Almost all of the scholarship due dates are past!!! Woohoo!!!



Enjoy the rest of senior year!

Senior Trip

Well, I know the school has nothing to do with Senior Trip, but everyone at school knows about it. Senior Trip is a tradition for every senior class. Right now, it is on most of the Seniors' minds! (some can't wait; others never want it to come)



What is the point of senior trip? The best answer I have heard is. . . It is one of the last times I will be with the class I have gone to school with for twelve years. That is a good answer, but why do you have to go to Panama City to do this? Why can't the seniors just live together for a week in Effingham or somewhere near here? That idea sounds a lot safer and cheaper to me.



Also, what are all the seniors whose parents, lovingly, will not allow them to attend senior trip supposed to do all week? hmmm, twiddle our thumbs, knit a blanket, any other ideas?



Lastly, as previously mentioned, senior trip is a tradition at St. Anthony. I think we all know what happens to most traditions. . . they are taken away!!! haha I think this tradition should also be taken away!

Easter

Although we see Easter, as a religious holiday, it also serves as a secular holiday. Easter originated as a pagan holiday to celebrate the coming of spring by honoring their goddess of springtime, Eastre. It coincidentally happened that the Christian observance of the Resurrection occurred during the same time as the pagan holiday honoring Eastre. Christians changed the holiday to be called Easter from Eastre.


The Easter Bunny originated from Eastre, the goddess. Her earthly symbol was the rabbit. The rabbit is a symbol for the Easter holiday for the secular world.


The Easter egg is a Christian symbol of Easter dating back to when the first Christians celebrated Easter. The early Christians would exchange eggs in the springtime, and the egg is a symbol of birth for most cultures. Today, the Easter egg has been adapted for children to hunt. It has been made plastic and filled with candy or money if your lucky!



Happy Easter Everyone!

Senioritis

I don't know about all the other seniors, but senioritis has definitely set in for me!

Even though I seem to have more homework lately than usual, I do less and less. On top of my increased homework, I am expected to be writing more and more scholarship essays! I am just ready for school to be over. Starting Monday, I can't wait for the weekend to be here. Then, it flies by. Will it ever end?

The only cure, currently, for senioritis is GRADUATION!! Graduation is not till May 22nd. That is approximately 52 days away! That seems so far! Will it ever come?

I would like to propose a new cure! This is for seniors only. I propose that seniors only attend school for 3 quarters. The fourth quarter they can sit at home like they want and every night can be a weekend. During the day, we can and will work on scholarships. . . as needed of course. There will be no final exams for seniors because really how many of us take them seriously or at all for that matter.

Seeing as 4th quarter has already started for the class of 2010. This plan will not be seen by us, but juniors out there should fight for it! I hope somebody someday will be able to experience this!

UCA

The Universal Cheerleading Association (UCA) hosts camps and competitions, helps IHSA with competitions, and helps high schools hold cheerleading tryouts. At cheerleading camps, staff members can "app" high school senior cheerleaders. This means they are asking the high schoolers to tryout to be on staff. At camp this past summer, Lauren, Kelsi, and I were all "apped." I went to tryouts this January and made the team!

Being a part of UCA staff means being part of all the great things they do for cheerleading in the Midwest. As a staff member I must attend spring and summer training before I can instruct camps. Spring training happened to fall on Prom :( but there are other dates for other regions of the country that I can attend!

Summer training will be in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin! After summer training, I must commit to eight weeks of working camps this summer! This may sound like a lot of cheerleading, but camps are usually only Monday through Thursday. That means every weekend off!!!

UCA is a great opportunity to meet new people. I have been lucky enough to do so already. At tryouts I met many people I will work with this summer. I met a couple U of I cheerleaders and was able to talk to them about cheering there!

-Kelly J.

Human Trafficking

Reading the blogs, I noticed one about the movie Taken. After seeing the movie and being completely freaked out by it, I decided the subject of the movie, human trafficking would be a good topic to research. I now would like to highlight a few points of my extremely interesting research.

• 27 million people are forced into human trafficking every year
  
• 80% of these are women, and 50% children


• 70% of the women and girls are trafficked into the commercial sex industry


• 12-14 is the average age of girls entering the sex industry


• $32 billion made by traffickers yearly


• 14,500 - 17,500 trafficked in the U.S. each year.