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The Strings Club is officially back and looking for anyone willing to come and join the fun every Friday in Mistie Dickenson’s room.
In the past, Dr. Timothy Naginey used to have a “guitar club” of sorts, where he would have a day every week in which students could bring their guitars to school, and Dr. Naginey would teach them some lessons to improve their skills. However, due to the rise in the amount of clubs available, the club was shut down and hasn’t been seen for a while.Recently, Dickenson and Dr. Naginey have been working together to bring back the club, however instead of a teaching session of sorts, students can bring any sort of stringed instrument and have a fun time fiddling around. The kicker is that it doesn't matter what skill level you are. From complete beginners to masters of their respective instruments, everyone is welcome to come have a fun time, work on songs they are learning, and even help each other improve together. This Friday, a good number of students turned up for the club meeting, bringing all electric guitars, and had some fun practicing. One of the students, Anderson Ratliff, brought two of his electric guitars, plugged in, and started playing a few riffs from popular songs. “I play guitar to help relieve stress, and so that’s kind of why I picked it up,” Anderson said. “And I’ve just taught myself how to play guitar over the past two years. It’s just really important to me to, sort of like, relieve stress, and it’s just, it’s just helpful. Like midway through the day like keeps me going, gets me energized.”
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 Hello Human!:
Zuhair Mirza and Luke Daniel work hard to try to attach an extendable arm to the base platform of the robotics’ teams robot. The team of 13 have been working for over two months now, and have run into a few problems along the way, but they have slowly overcome them. They will have a competition in early 2025 using their robot to collect small samples and use them to score. “I think it’s really good so far this year, and we got a good head start because we had the base already kind of built,” said Dr. Timothy Naginey, one of the leaders of the robotics team. As he said, the team did have a head start using a pre-built base from last year's competition, however the arm has been the major problem so far, as it is currently being held on by “a wish and a prayer,” as some might say, or as the rest of the group calls it “some zip ties and duct tape.” Despite this, the team still has high hopes and continues to work as the deadline for the competition nears, with the first on Jan. 18 in Harrisonburg and the second on Jan. 26 in Bassett.  YEET!:
Sander “Frog” Frogner steps up to the line to try his hand at pumpkin toss at the Fall Festivus of 2024. As an experienced shot put thrower, Frog has had his fair share of practice for the moment. He was not alone though, all of his fellow throwers, including Nate Hayes ‘26, Trace Pickard ‘27, and Daven Reed ‘28 are all experienced shot throwers as well. On his first attempt, Frog only threw the pumpkin straight up, but caught it, and tried again. The second try struck gold however, as the pumpkin flew 25-35 feet away, setting the mark to be broken. “Well, [on] my first throw, I slipped a little bit,” Frog said. “I had a pretty bad grip, so it just fell, and I just immediately thought, well, if it breaks, that counts. I had to catch it, but I did not think I was gonna win when I did my second throw, because I went, again, against Nate Hayes, Big Dev, and Trace, and I thought they were gonna throw much further than me. But when I did my throw, I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a pretty good throw.’ And then it splattered quite far. And then I won. I was very happy and a little bit shocked that I was the one who won.” The others all did well, but none came close to beating Frog’s record. “I feel like I could have thrown it better,” ,” Nate Hayes said, “but I wasn’t expecting the pumpkin to feel that way. But I feel like I should have won that at the end of the day.”  Pura Vida:
DEI club members sell colorful bracelets and purses on a Thursday at lunch. The DEI club had been planning this event for weeks, dividing members into specific groups to run the table. All of the items were made through the Pulsera project in Guatemala, and all proceeds went back to benefit the members of those communities. Isabel Mendez ‘26 was one of the chosen members to run the table, helping to sell the products. “It’s important because everybody is different. So everybody has their like their own culture and traditions,” Mendez said during the event. “Coming from Costa Rica, I’m a native speaker, and moving to another country, I’m proud to represent my country here, and I just want to share my cultural traditions too for people to see what we do.” There were many remarks of the vibrant colors of the bracelets by other students. If you didn’t have a chance to buy one, don’t worry. The DEI members assured everyone that they would set up the table again next Thursday along with even more tables including a food table and a Dia de los Muertos table to further celebrate the month. Parker Britton ‘28 came to our school this past summer and has made a splash in our community, both through his impressive work in soccer and his kindness and positivity towards fellow students in class. .
Born on St. Patricks Day of 2010, Parker came from public school where , “kids were a bit rowdy,” he said. He went on to state that North Cross has much better standards than his previous school, Glenvar. When asked specifically what he enjoyed most about our school, he said, “Probably how nice the kids are and just the teachers being able to go, like, one on one, with students and classrooms being smaller.” Parker lives with his mom and dad, his brother Spencer ‘27, who also transferred to NCS this year and his dog named Baxter. His mom works as a teacher at Mason Cove Elementary while his father pursues a career in healthcare at Boston Scientific. Baxter meanwhile, can be a little bit of a menace. Parker enjoys playing soccer as a striker, or in other words, a person who attacks at the goal to score and assist other offensive players. To cap it off, Parker enjoys sushi as his favorite food and loves to listen to hip hop and rap music. He was later asked what he would be doing if he could do anything in the whole world, and simply replied, “I'd probably be fishing right now.”  John Lennon would be proud:
Students gather with DEI director Debbie. Taylor to help celebrate International Peace Day at North Cross. The DEI students had planned this day for a week. From left to right, Debbie Taylor, Dara Kerman ‘27, Nola Daninger ‘27, Caroline Welfare ‘27 and Associate Head of School for Academics Victor Lamas gather around a table filled with peace stickers, Lennon glasses, peace necklaces and more. The day started out with the DEI members coming to school at 7:15 a.m. to have a moment of silence gathered around the flagpole outside of Willis Hall. From there, they gathered signs and held them up as parents and students drove by on their way to drop off their kids, brothers and sisters. Lots of horns sounded out around the parking lot. Another activity involved pictures to be taken as students posed with their friends around a hippie van from the ‘60s. “I think the best part is being able to get the parents involved, where they get to honk on the carpool, which is always fun, and I think it helps them to be a little bit more peaceful throughout the day, because they get to get a little bit of frustration out on the horns,” Taylor remarked the next day. In short, lots of people turned out for International Peace Day.  Chillin’ and Grillin:
This photo is of when my father and I were on vacation in South Carolina this summer. On the left of course is me and next to me is my father, James Downey. This picture was taken of us at a restaurant called Graham's Landing on the night of my birthday. “First flounder with my son,” my dad later said. This was one of the best nights of our vacation, as it took me back many years to the last time I had been there with my family and had a delicious seafood meal. This seat in particular was exceptionally lovely, as we had a beautiful view of the marsh and even watched a few alligators as we ate. The staff treated us very nicely and even gave me a complimentary dessert for my birthday and wished me many more to come. Afterwards, we returned to our house and celebrated for the rest of the night. By far, this was one of if not the best, and certainly the most memorable, vacations I have had to this day. Looking forward, I hope to have many more with my family. |
Joaquin DowneyHi everyone, my name is Joaquin Downey, '28, and I am a part of the Willis Hall Herald staff. You guys can call me Joaq for short. I love to write and personally love watching the news. I also love exercising and playing sports. When I joined Journalism this year, I thought to myself, "What kind of commitment am I making here?", and I got my answer pretty quickly. My commitment to you is to always bring facts and nothing but the truth through my writing. I also love dogs! Archives
January 2025
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