The Rock
Issue 13
Careers, Colleges and Clever Improv
Madalynn May, Thriving Through Hard Times
By: Cedar Hammock
Madalynn May is my best friend; we have been friends for four years. She is super strong and I love laughing with her and having a good time with her. This last summer, she was in a terrible accident that affected many people in our community. On the nice and sunny day of May 20th, Madalynn decided to help her grandma out and mow the lawn. As she went by a bush, she heard a weird sound and felt an instant rush to her ankle. When she looked down, she saw her foot was crooked and she was afraid she may have broken her ankle by being hit by a rock. She walked to the front door and her dad came to help. He called Mary Tindall for her advice, she took a look and thought maybe because of the position of her foot that it was most likely broken. But because of the excessive amount of blood that they should still go to the ER.
They get to the ER, and Frank May sent me a text telling me Madalynn may have broken her ankle and that he would keep me updated. I was instantly worried. They later realized that she had no pulse to her foot and she would have to be rushed to St. Luke's Hospital for emergency surgery. She had something that impaled through her leg, through two arteries and into her good calve muscle. They still, to this day, do not know what it was that went into her leg. She had a 50% chance of losing her leg.
She spent eleven days in the hospital. While in the hospital, she was visited by these dogs who are meant to help people while in recovery. While Madalynn was in the hospital, I got to visit her and Facetime her. The night she came out of the hospital, I came and stayed over at her house.
She had many emotions, mainly anger because it was summer and she could not go and do anything. She also had a long road of recovery ahead of her. She had nurses coming to her house and cleaning her wound and she went to physical therapy. The day came when she could finally get her wound closed up for good and finish physical therapy.
She has come such a long way since her accident; she is now involved in basketball and is still pushing through her struggles.
“My accident holds me back from a lot but I just have to move on,” Madalynn May.
When I first found out, my heart sank, it is crazy that my best friend has been involved in such a serious accident. When I first went to see her in the hospital it broke my heart, and I felt so bad for her. I am so glad to see her now thriving and accomplishing many things.
Thousands of Languages
You may be surprised at how many languages are around the world; it's exactly 6,900 languages and approximately 6,800 spoken languages. Some can be harder to learn than the other ones or a language could be easier to learn if you already know a similar one. For years I have been learning English (since I was in Kindergarten). I started to take English class and I remember that the first topic that I learned was numbers and then the alphabet. I used to say, “I love English and I love how it sounds; it’s gonna be easy.” Ten years later, I can tell that English is not that easy. You should not consider a language easy if you don’t practice and if you don’t speak. I speak Spanish because I am Colombian but I decided to step outside my comfort zone and I came to an English speaking country where I could improve my knowledge about English. Thus, I speak and think in English. That makes me feel proud of myself and happy for having achieved my target of speaking two languages. Now I am ready to learn a different language, which is going to be Portuguese. I bet that it will be easier than English because Portuguese is closely related to Spanish, even at the point that a Portuguese speaker can understand a Spanish speaker and a Spanish speaker can understand a Portuguese speaker. We just need to explore the world for more knowledge, open our mind for new experiences and listen to amazing sounds of different languages.
TRIO Fence Project
By: Shelbi Ward
Starting on Friday the 17th of November, Cory Freese, the leader of the Rimrock Trio Group, is planning on starting a chain link fence project. This project will be happening in Grand View on the 17th at 10:00a.m. Cory Freese and a group of students from the Rimrock Trio group are going to be building a fence that will be around a pump station by the Grand View bridge. This fence is going to be 6ft. high and 180ft. long and will take more than a day to build.
This project is a service project and is a community service project as well. This project will help the students build their resumes and will teach the students to be all around well-rounded students. It will also build their people skills. Cory says that he hopes that the students will feel good about themselves for helping their community and for helping others meet their needs by donating their time. The students will be able to be connected and to explore careers.
The Rimrock Trio group will be getting a donation from the city of Grand View. The students can be rewarded by this project by getting scholarships for helping out their community. This project will hopefully get the word out about Trio at Rimrock High School and will let Bruneau and Grand View know what Trio is about and what Trio can do for others.
For more information about the TRIO program, visit: https://education.boisestate.edu/trio/
Welding Careers
By: Joshua Smith
There are different types of welding careers and types. The four most common are Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers. There is also Underwater Welding and that is my personal favorite, but for now I will start off with regular welding.
Soldering is pretty close to brazing except the temperature that the metal is melted in brazing is a little bit lower than in soldering. There is a different metal involved in brazing as well. Brazers use handheld or remotely controlled equipment to join or cut metal parts. Welding cutters do mostly cutting of any metal material. Not much to that type of welding. Underwater welders, instead of using gas weld rods, use a special kind of electric arc rod. Some of the welding is done inside of a chamber system that keeps the water from getting into the work area. These are called hyperbaric chambers.
The reason why this is my favorite type of welding is because you kind of get to stay underwater for a lot longer than what you would be able to freediving. Also, you get to be in those kind of chambers I talked about earlier. Another reason is that will be my "go to" when I get out of a different occupation I will explain in the next newsletter.
College, Career and Resources Fair
By: Mrs. Burk
We would like to thank our counselor, Jamie Metcalf, for the hard work that she put into making this opportunity available to our students!
Enjoy some photos from the event below:
Senior, Robert Arroyo
Hannah Field and Laura Gasper
Seniors, Christian Neilson and Sierra Swanson
King, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Liza Hurtado
Makenzie Magers, Julio Alamilla, Jacob Ward and Jayden Costalez
Juan Elizondo and Madelin Farmer
An Evening of Scenes
The evening of November 10th was full of scenes: humorous scenes, serious scenes and improv scenes. The Rimrock Drama students put on a very entertaining night of skits, short plays and improv games. The crowd laughed, cried and participated as our students demonstrated their acting skills.
When asked about the evening, Ms. Cathryn Volk (Drama Director) was appreciative of the fact that students who would normally play smaller roles were given the opportunity to play big parts and experiment with different acting techniques. "The kids loved it! I am especially excited about the improv potential that our students have," Cathryn Volk.
Directors: Cathryn Volk, Sariah Pearson, and Kelsi West
Actors/Actresses: Naya Bradshaw, Braxton Carothers, Ray Draper, Allison Hall, Todd Marvin, Levi Nanney, Heidi Pearson, Jacque Schkade, Christian Sharek and Joshua Smith
Enjoy a few photos from the evening below:
Naya Bradshaw, Christian Sharek, Heidi Pearson, Jacque Schkade, Joshua Smith, Levi Nanney, Ray Draper
Hitchhiker Improv
Hitchhiker Improv
The Problem
The Cowboy
The Hereafter
Duet Scene from "Somewhere Nowhere"
Staff Spotlight: Ms. Jamie Metcalf
By: Sierra Swanson
Ms. Metcalf has been here at Rimrock for four years. What has made her stay is the students, “They’re so much cooler than me.” What brought her from her home, New York, was her sister. Then she was hired by the district and that's how she got to Rimrock.
Ms. Jamie Metcalf is the oldest of six siblings. While she is in Idaho, her siblings range from New Jersey to New York to California.
Before she was hired here at Rimrock, she was an assistant director of the college department, Jobstar, at Westchester Community College. Before she was an assistant director, she managed homeless shelters and was teaching in special education. During high school she played volleyball, basketball, and lacrosse. She attended University of New Haven. In her freshman year of college she played soccer. Then she played lacrosse her whole college life.
Fun fact: Ms. Metcalf and Mr. Cocozza went to the same college in Connecticut.
In her lacrosse career she played a little bit of every position, but her favorite was mid-field. Ms. Metcalf had the amazing opportunity to intern at New Haven Public Defender's Office of High Crimes Court for one year. She also interned at the high school she graduated from. While she was majoring in school counseling, she minored in psychology, and criminal justice. She chose between criminal justice and school counseling because her experience with being a manager of homeless shelters opened her eyes that counselors don't often know what's going on when the students leave school. She knew, with her experience, she could make a difference in her students' lives.
When asked what her favorite thing about working so closely with the seniors was she said, “I just get really excited about your next steps. I love seeing how far you guys have come and far you will continue to grow. I like to brag.”
To end the article, Ms. Metcalf wanted to include a funny story. She was driving an electric blue 1989 two door hatchback mustang back to her dorm from a 6 a.m. lacrosse practice when she heard a dragging sound but kept on driving. When she got to her parking lot, she got out, looked at it, and just walked away because she was so frustrated. She ended up calling her dad who basically told her “oh well”.
Keeping Your Grades Up
By: Sami Jewett
The secrets to keeping your grades up is having a goal. I know my goals require me having good grades so this motivates me to keep my grades up to A’s. If you are trying to keep your grades up, try to find a goal for your future. A motivation could be future job, pride, friends, parents, opportunities, or anything else that would motivate you.
Students I interviewed said this motivation is: "Getting a college diploma," Liz Varela, "Friends," Laura Gasper, and "Parents," Heidi Pearson. They have a motivation for keeping their grades up.
Some parents help push their kids to keep their grades up and get good grades. This helps a lot but you can not depend on your parents to get good grades. Self motivation is the biggest part of getting good grades.
Getting in the habit of getting good grades is important. Getting good grades needs to be a priority. You have to work hard, turn all your work in, and be dedicated to your future.
My motivation to getting good grades is my parents and future job. My parents motivate me to keep my grades up, but my biggest motivation is my future job. I know that to get into medical school I need a 4.0, so I work everyday to keep it.
Good grades are very important to have and they help you in life. Grades give you many opportunities. They could get you into college which will give you many opportunities for a job and your future.
Holley Bretas Makes IMEA Choir
Congratulations, Holley!
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving History
By: Jorge Alcantar
You are probably familiar with the first “Thanksgiving dinner” when the Pilgrims and the Native Americans had a meal together. That’s not all that happened; many more things were involved during the development of this holiday. They didn’t have turkey for the dinner until many years later. There are also many other interesting facts and you are now about to learn about it.
Thanksgiving didn’t become an annual tradition until later on after the first dinner. The first Thanksgiving was in 1621 and wasn’t just a one day celebration. It was a 3 day festival. They had eating, hunting, and entertainment. This was all in honor of the Pilgrim’s first successful harvest. The Native Americans killed about five deer for the venison. The menu was venison, Indian corn, fowl, and barley. Turkey was not on their menu for the first Thanksgiving meal. They also didn’t have potatoes and pumpkin because they weren’t introduced to New England at that time.
They possibly had cranberries but they would have been served plain. The pilgrims didn’t plan Thanksgiving as an annual tradition. This tradition was begun on years later. In 1789, president George Washington announced the first ever national Thanksgiving holiday. Which was on Thursday, November 26th, 1789. Yet this didn’t become an annual tradition (widely) until the 19th century. That was because an American writer named Sarah Josepha Hale, famous for writing Mary Had a Little Lamb, was inspired by a diary of pilgrim life to recreate the first Thanksgiving dinner.
In the beginning of 1827, Hale waged a 30 year campaign to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. She also published recipes for pumpkin pie, turkey, and stuffing, which didn’t appear on the Pilgrims' plates but it would be for the modern Thanksgiving dinners. In 1863, in the midst of the civil war, president Abraham Lincoln announced that the nation would celebrate Thanksgiving every year on the final Thursday of November. In 1939, Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to move the holiday to the previous week to give Depression-Era retailers more time to get money for the pre-Christmas shopping season.
In 1941 FDR, signed a bill fixing Thanksgiving to the 4th Thursday in November, where it stays today. One of the quirkiest traditions started in 1989 when President George H.W Bush granted the 1st official pardon to a turkey. Pardoned turkeys are sent to a farm as their retirement rather than to a dinner table.
Thanksgiving Food
By: Naya Bradshaw
We asked students what their favorite Thanksgiving food is and why. They told us stories about their favorite food.
When I asked sophomore, Martha Araujo, what her favorite food is she said, "Turkey." The reason why she likes turkey is because, before she came to America, she never had turkey. “Mexico isn’t very big on turkey; when I came to America it was very new and very good.” Then I asked sophomore, Shelbi Ward, what her favorite Thanksgiving food is and she said, "Green bean casserole and chocolate pie. I like the green bean casserole because it tastes like how my mom used to make it, and I LOVE my grandma’s chocolate pie because, who doesn’t love chocolate pie?” Finally, I asked Junior, Holley Bretas, and she said her favorite thanksgiving food is stuffing. “I like stuffing because I love how it tastes.” Enjoy your favorite Thanksgiving foods next week!
Being Thankful
By: Yesy Juarez
Thanksgiving is coming up and it is a tradition to give thanks during this holiday. We wanted to ask some Rimrock students and staff what they are thankful for this year. We started by asking some freshmen what they were thankful for:
Sintia Varela said she was thankful for basketball and her family.
Jorge Alcantar and Sami Jewett said that they are thankful for the food they are provided with.
We also asked some seniors what they were thankful for:
Maria Gomez is thankful for her family.
Robert Arroyo is thankful for being alive.
Our staff is also part of Rimrock so we wanted to include some of them too:
Mrs. Burk is thankful for the opportunity to live in Idaho, her family, and her career.
Mrs. Meyers said she is thankful that her family and friends are happy and healthy.
Mrs. McKinney is thankful for her family and friends.
We hope you have a great Thanksgiving!