The Howler.
The Students Voice
WHAT IS THIS?
Welcome to the new face of the student newspaper - The Howler! Like the new look? We’ve still obviously got to fix a couple of things (including the confusing theme title at the top of the page)… We’ve still got lots of interesting news and articles though including An Interview with Dr Hine.
1st XV’s Epic Win Against Joeys, Leadership changes hands as Yr 12 still have their heads in the books at the moment and Yr 11 look towards a challenging road still ahead as new leaders. Additionally we have some interesting stories about RoboCop and Invisibility that are definitely worth a look.
But what is The Howler?
The previous student newspaper, The Moocher, was getting a bit outdated and so we thought we might need a fresher look. As you may notice there are less opinion pieces fuelled by debaters wishing to rant on about the school’s problems. Instead we will constantly update you on the latest school news relevant to you, have some interesting articles and interviews as well as some polls and competitions into the future.
At the moment we’re just laying down the foundations for what we know will be a great medium for students to interact with their school.
Anyway, enjoy reading the first edition of The Howler!
AN INTERVIEW WITH DR HINE.
It is a bit strange to read in 3rd person but here’s just a recap of what we discussed when we decided to sit and have a chat with Dr Hine.
What were your first thoughts after getting told you had the job?
Very humbled to get offered the position. The school’s got a reputation and tradition like no other.
What was your life like before you came to Riverview?
Not significantly different than now, in the sense that he was a principal at a large school (although co-ed). In contrast, Riverview has a greater volume and scale of operations. Also the nature of work, working with community, hasn’t changed that much. Yet the Ignatian charism is different and the Ignatian tradition influence on education.
If you had to choose a single thing that is greatest about our school, what would it be?
The Ignatian, Jesuit traditions instilled in our school such as service.
Have you ever taught a specific subject and what was it?
Dr Hine is most qualified in History yet he has taught most subject areas including languages, maths and science in the past.
It was well-known that Mr Hogan’s favourite league team was the St George Illawarra Dragons. Do you follow league or some other sport and what team do you support?
Simply – Carlton Football Club, AFL, although he loves all sports and all activities.
What are your plans for the future of Riverview?
Dr Hine sees Riverview’s education more intimately connected to international programs in the future. He would like to see students connecting to universities subjects whilst still at school. Anyone with the ability to do so can accelerate into higher level of work in different subjects and this can be done by freeing up timetable space to allow for these classes. Therefore in a person’s graduation year they would be able to undertake HSC subjects as well as university courses. He would like to see the school more open for scholarship and excellence. Twice a year the school would be shut and instead be open for research for staff. Dr Hine would like to see Riverview develop cultural scholarships by providing opportunities to gifted students so they can move ahead. We can still however continue to push harder in the area of scholarship while keeping an emphasis on co-curricular activities, sports and social justice.
What would you have been if you weren’t a principal or teacher?
A teacher (with a massive smile on his face).
Dr Hine has such a huge passion for education that he wouldn’t swap it for any other profession since this was what he was meant to do.
SCHOOL NEWS.
ATTAG SPEAKS THROUGH THE MEDIA.
Riverview’s AT Thomas Advocacy Group, led by Henry Gallagher, have been voicing their opinion on Jesuit educated Old Boys’ stance on refugee policy saying that they are responsible for “moral bankruptcy”. This has created some waves in the media, notably on ABC radio, Triple J, SBS, SMH and the following news article that you can view here.
We should be extremely proud of our school’s courage to speak out against injustice and continue as young men educated in the Jesuit ethos to promote social justice in whatever way possible even after we leave the school gates.
1st XV's EPIC WIN AGAINST JOEYS.
1st XV Win!
An absolute annihilation of 45-20.
I'm pretty sure the following article sums it up better than we could. More here.
NEW LEADERSHIP.
Leadership passes on from Yr 12s to Yr 11s…
College Captain – Jonothan Crosby
Captain of Day Boys – Gianluca Taranto
Captain of Boarders – Patrick Weston
For the full list click onto the following which has the full list including all SRC members for Yr’s 9-12 and Boarding Positions next year: Student Leaders 2014
POT LUCK.
INVISIBILITY A POSSIBILITY?
After the magical series of Harry Potter, many people have been pondering how to become invisible. Harry’s cloak was manoeuvrable and hid him from all his enemies. Inventors and idealists have been coming up with clever ideas to make objects invisible.
One big idea was to place a camera behind a person and project the image onto the front of the subject. This creates an invisible effect on the person. However this technology is hard-to-wear and difficult to move around in. People hope that in the future a mobile coat with cameras and lightweight screens all around will be able to make people invisible.
Many people are now looking at special materials that can bend light around the body to create an image of their background at the front and an image of the foreground at the back. Metamaterials seem to be the technology inventors think will be able to do this in the future. Victor Veselago came up with the idea of particles with electromagnetic properties that are smaller than waves of light. This material is supposed to make light behave in different ways. True invisibility suits may be far into the future but at least we still have movie magic to ignite our imaginations.
REAL, WORKING, ROBO COP SUIT.
Ever heard of the trilogy movie set Robo Cop, started 1987, massive franchise. Well if you have you should know it was a massive hit that year especially for one Canadian guy Troy Hurtubise. This man dropped out of school in year 10 and was a martial arts expert. One day he was confronted by a grizzly bear in the woods of North Bay, Ontario. He was attacked and was hit right in the chest, knocked down. Lucky to be alive he went back out into the woods looking for the bear with a strange feeling he could take it down. After days of trekking through the woods he found the bear. Armed with a bow and a machete he walked up to the bear and said to it “Man, you’re fighting prowess 50 times me, but pal I’m good enough to stick wounds into ya”. The bear gave him a stare and looked him up and down then turned around and left. This had a huge influence over Troy and so he went back to Finish College and school so that he could further study Grizzly bears.
After years of research he found that no one could study them. All they told him is if they ever tried to get close to them they’d kill you. So he was at a dead end. One day at the theatre in 1987 watching Robo Cop he saw it right there the key to getting up close to Grizzlies. Make a suit. So now after 5 suits and 25 years of studying and building he comes up with his greatest suit yet the Mark 7. The suits a great success and now they’re able to study Grizzlies.
After accomplishing a grizzly bear protective suit he starts venturing into the capabilities of these suits in War. So another few years later and 1750 hours of building time he creates what he calls the ‘Trojan’. He hopes he can give it to the American Army for use in Afghanistan and the Middle East so that they can benefit and save the innocent people there. The suits capabilities are endless. It’s bulletproof, has a world clock time, tactical lights, air-conditioned, red dot sight, spray that can take out two grizzly bears with one sniff and much more. This suit is the ultimate fighting force and if you’re wearing it you can get hit by a car going 80kph and still just jump back up on your feet and keep fighting. Sadly though to the disappointment of Troy the American Army declined his offer of the Trojan despite its amazing capabilities. Although they declined, Troy says he will keep working on his suit so that one day there will be a squad of Trojans walking on enemy soil ready for action.