Helping Hands: Key Club Service

by Alexis Arms

This past Sunday, the Haynes Academy Key Club participated at the Special Persons picnic which was held at Williams Baptist Church. There was excitement in the air as students walked through the door wondering what exactly they'd be doing.

All volunteers dressed up in wigs and skirts, picked a person, and took them to the dance floor for line dances. Following relay games, where teams were encouraged with cheers, a lunch of hot dogs, chips, cookies and juice was served. The festivities closed when the entire gathering joined in singing "Amazing Grace". The purpose of the event was to spend time with these special individuals, but all of the volunteers agreed that it had been a memorable event for everyone. The picnic was a success!

Student Council Activity Central

by Taylor Hickman

The 2012-2013 Student Council has planned many fun and exciting activities! Our Student Council Executive President, Heather Held, is doing a great job with keeping things running efficiently. This year the student council has adapted a class point system to keep students excited and on their toes! Recent activities include the Magnet Bowl Pep Rally, the Penny War, and our class chain links!

The Magnet Bowl game was at West Jefferson against our rivals, the Jaguars. Each person that went to the game received a point which added to their class score! Also, the Pep Rally was an event with surprises and fun games for everyone to enjoy!

The Penny War has begun as well. Each class has their own jug in Mr. Totaro’s room. Put pennies in your jug and earn positive points. Silver change or dollars in other classes’ jugs will subtract the amount of points for that grade. Half of the proceeds will go to our Student Council and the other half to charity.

Lastly, the class chain links are being sold for only twenty-five cents! The chains will be decorated and joined together and at the Homecoming pep rally, the chains will be displayed and the class with the longest chain will win a large amount of points!

Keep the spirit alive, Yellow Jackets! Jacket pride!

photo by Haley Gonzales

Your Genius is Showing

by Precocia Parlow    

The National Merit Scholarship Program is academic competition that occurs every year for recognition and scholarships and it is open to all U.S. high school students who meet the requirements. In speaking with Mrs. Deckelmann we learned the criterion for this competition is that the students must take the PSAT in their junior year and score around 210. The two round selection process consists of semifinalists who may or may not move on to being a finalist.

     The benefits of being a NMS are getting national recognition for college and scholarship awards, possibly getting a full tuition to a private or Ivy League college, and having a sense of great pride and accomplishment.

     In the Greater New Orleans Area, our school has the third highest number of students that were NMS right behind Benjamin Franklin (27), and Jesuit (26). Our NMS semi finalists are Stevie Cavalier, Nowrin Chowdhury, Jessica Gaethe, Zaid Khan, Eric Le, Senthil Natarajan, Sahil Patel, Ahmad Razi, Betool Ridha, Noah Ross, and Leigh Vila. Of the fourteen NMS in Jefferson Parish, eleven are Haynes students.

There are also National Merit Commended Scholars which means that these people came very close to obtaining the qualifying score. Our Haynes commended scholars are Shoham Das, Malerie Eiserloh, Mohammed Elaasar, Steven Nelson, and Kelly Schaubhut. Congratulations to all of the National Merit Scholar Semifinalists and National Commended Scholars! Haynes is very proud of you.



National Merit Semi-Finalists



National Commended Scholars
photos by Christie Gomez





Movies with Mercedes

by Mercedes Mooers

     Movies are a big past time for teens, whether it involves an actual theatre experience or Netflix. Each blog will have a review of a current movie and the journalism class welcomes your opinions.

     ParaNorman is a cute, quirky animated movie rated PG and running an hour and thirty-two minutes. The writer and director, Chris Butler, brought some wit and stereotype to the script. The plot twists will catch you by surprise, and the story may warm you. The actors’ voices captured the essence of their character, and the artists and designers created a memorable backdrop. If you are looking for a movie with good humor, minor frights, and a clever plot line then ParaNorman is the movie for you.

Bienvenidos!

by Shelby Katz

If a student would want to take his/her interest in all things Spanish to a higher level, the Spanish Club is for you! This organization celebrates fiestas, learns about Spanish heritage, and explores its culture (la cultura de espanol).

In the upcoming weeks, Spanish Club expects to honor the holiday, Day of the Dead, or El día de Los muertos. Each member will bring a Spanish dish to commemorate that special day.  Some of the students may even attend in traditional South American face paint to carry the theme further.

The club will be funded through bake sales and other events. Sign up at the Club Fest was successful and we anticipate having increased membership.

We look forward to many more celebrations to come. ¡Hasta luego!

Bible Study

by Megan Crowder and Rebecca Garcia

Have nothing to do on Wednesdays during lunch? Then come to Bible Study, first half of lunch in Mr. Prentice’s room. There, you can learn many fascinating things about the Bible. In our last meeting, we focused on Hebrews 12:1-7 which highlighted the many things Jesus has done for us. Through weekly meetings the participants will explore many other aspects of the Bible. Everyone is welcome so come check it out! Hope to see you there!

Game Corner

by Austin Erwin

Hello Internet, and welcome to Game Corner, the only spot on the web fully dedicated to keeping the Haynes student body up-to-date on the latest game releases. For our first post, I decided to go with the game promising to be the newest Bethesda Company’s hit, Dishonored. Dishonored is a game which falls under many categories, and yet, at the same time, none at all. This is because of the game’s unprecedented level of open-endedness, which will allow players to choose the genre of game themselves. Throughout the beautiful steampunk city in Dishonored, players can tackle missions with guns, stealth, brute force, or even magic, all from a first-person perspective. This allows the game to use an blend of FPS, stealth, and combat-style actions, which are all available for nearly any situation in which you find yourself.

       The story of Dishonored takes place in a steampunk-inspired whaling village, ruled over by a benevolent empress and her legion of guards. You take the role of her most skilled bodyguard and trusted assassin, who returns from a successful mission to find his mistress dead and the guards in pursuit. Once captured, you await your sentence in prison, only to be visited by a mysterious, hooded figure who offers you freedom and a gift of power, coming in the form of the teleportation ability, Blink. Using this skill, you escape prison and return to your city, becoming an assassin of vengeance, known only by your calling card, a skull mask…

       Dishonored will be released on the PS3 and Xbox 360 on October 9^th, so there is still time to preorder at your local Wal-Mart, Gamestop, or other gaming retailer, as this reporter has. However, as this game is rated “M” for mature, a parent will have to sign-off, if you are under seventeen. And speaking of signing off, that’s all from me, and remember, “It’s not the game, it’s how you play it”!

Big G, little o, Go, Go Jackets, Go!

by Miguel Jimenez, Kyle Montgomery, and Carlos Murillo

      Haynes Academy for Advanced Studies has had a high school football team for four years now and has grown and advanced in skill level each year. Our head coach Kenny Kendrick has done an amazing job these past years building the football program. Kendrick teaches the team to work hard, to do their best and to most importantly, have fun. The team has taken that to heart and has had many memorable moments.

        The Haynes football team has played four games this year. Our season opened against the Mount Hermon Yellow Jackets. With the powerful running attack from Ashton Morris, Hayden Chighizola, Jonathan Lin and Jared Smith, we ran over Mount Hermon 40-18.

A couple of weeks ago the Yellow Jackets played the Fisher Gators. The team, playing as hard as humanly possible, suffered a tough loss. With two minutes left, with the Jackets threatening on the 3-yard line, Jared Smith handed the ball off to Hayden Chighizola. He ran straight into the end zone and a second after, the power at Fisher High School and all of Lafitte went out. The field was in complete darkness so the game was called at 37-9. Later, in news report, they found out that someone had hit a transporter and knocked power out for about 2,000 people in that town.

        Haynes Academy’s football team played their absolute hardest during the Magnet Bowl. Even though they didn’t bring home the trophy, they deserve praise from their fellow classmates on how hard they fought. Losing the game 19-16 to Thomas Jefferson, our rivals, was a tough loss, but we’ll get them next year.

        This past week the Haynes Football team played Metairie Park Country Day and after a hard fought game, we lost 21-0. We were held to 166 yards of offense, 155 of those yards were by our amazing running backs, Ashton Morris, Hayden Chighizola and Jonathan Lin.

        This coming week we are playing Crescent City Pioneers. This should be an interesting game that will be exciting to watch. Everyone should go support their fellow Yellow Jackets!