Table Of Content-
Population:
612 Students
Address:
500 W. Gregory Street,
Mascot:
Normal, IL 61761
The Pioneer
Telephone:
School Colors:
(309) 438-8346
Green & Gold
Editors:
Bailey Bottorff & Tess Losada
Assistant Editor:
Danie Reece
r
Clarion 1
To us, ten meant perfection. It m~ant ~?rd work and dedica-
· And most of all for the senIors, It s the year that We'r
t
Ion. h" t ' e
graduating high scho?l. T IS year a urning point in Our
~s
lives, a bittersweet endIng but most Im portantly a new begin.
ning. These last four years have been the best of our lives, and
we know that it will only get better from here. We wanted to
create something that would hold more memories than facts
that would provide a record of the way we lived in high scho~l,
not just how many football games we may have lost that year.
To do that, we decided to change up the way that the school
pictures are organized in the yearbook. We chose to print the
school pictures along the bottom of the entire yearbook, instead
of on selected pages. By doing that, we opened up more space
for photos and stories that describe the 2009-2010 school year.
We hope that you have as much fun looking back on this year·
book as we did creating it.
Bailey, Tess & Danie
2 Clarion
Seniors: 4-34
Juniors 34-
Sophomores: 65-9
Freshmen: 96-129
Academics: 4-27
Student Life: 28-89
thletics: 90-129
Index: 130-161
Clarion 3
See the
marching
pioneers in
San Diego on
pages 8-9
Learn
about
the 2010
netbook
initiative
on pages
18-19
See Mr.
Wilder
graduate
with the
seniors
on pages
22-23
Cell phones
fill the halls
on pages
10-11
V-High
dancers
take the
stage on
pages 12-13
Gianni Africano
Ryan Alsman
Miriam Ball
Marissa Bames
athaniel Bass
4 Clarion
University High School students have a reputation for being academi
cally strong - and the 2009-2010 school year has only added to our
,
list of achievements. In fact, this year, U-High was ranked 1,129 out
of 1,500 schools in Newsweek's America's Top Public High Schools
list. But the more interesting thing about the academics at U-High is
not how much we can learn - it is what we learn, and how we learn
it. During this school year, students ate bugs in Sociology class, vol
unteered with underprivileged children in Spanish class, and took a
field trip to Costa Rica to study the flora and fauna in Biology class.
Some I flew paper airplanes in AP Statistics, and
enjoyed bundt AP Calculus, while Computer-Aided-Design
students desi the new gymnasium floor. These interesting learn-
ing opp were created and made possible for us by the
hard dedication of our faculty. Tum the page to see what
else and faculty have been up to this school year ....
Maggie Bee
Kathryn Biddle
Paige Blankenship
David Blume
Robert Bobbitt
Enlightenment 5
ot only is Spanish 5 an AP class it'
S niors no longer need to stress about
u-Ht
now a hybrid class. This means that they ~e ItS
t~ s~.nlh~~d~n1rop
whether leave to take
average of three days a week. Those days va e on
the class completely. IS YtueaTty'~ ~ t~~e Spanish 5
they try and accommodate to the students to ~Ias
have been gIven the oppor nI o
the .~ost people to be ther~ ~very day. This was :
at U-Hig;panish 5 is an Advanced Placement cl~ss deCISIon made by the admmlstration that is hel
ing.make the transfer from high school to collt
primarily for seniors .. The cla s spends a I~t 0: tIme
easIer. ge
and work in preparatIOn for the AP exam m t e
. "There is more freedom and responsibil_
spnng. Senior Jade Kestian said they work a lot Ity .for the stu~ents. They are now allowed to create
on reading and writing to prepare them for the their own project based off of their Own sugges
AP exam. They als,? foc~s on. the SpanIs~ culture, tions. Each student has to make their Own assess
immigration, speakmg, I!stenmg, a.nd be!ng able to ment and make three other products explaining the
respond quickly to ques~lOns, Kestlan ~alq; topic. Those could be comics, songs letters or a
Senior Gowtaml RaJendran saId, Learn day in the life journal," Rojas said. ' ,
ing about th~ Spanish-speaking,:V0rld is cool and A feature in the class that Kestian said she
makes SpanIsh seem more real. really likes is having Columbian Pen Pals.
A major thing that helps the learn Rojas said she wanted to do this because she was
s~dent~
is using a varIety of technology and looking for a cultural exchange with students learn
~omg.dlfferent
activities Spanish 5 teacher KIm ROjas saId. ing English. Rojas said it helps the students make a
The technology that is being used i~ the real world connection with Spanish.
classroom includes laptops, podcasts, audacIty Rojas and the Columbian teacher set up
which is used for oral projects, and Intercombio a Blackboard class for this. It is a place where the
which is how they connect with pen pals from classes can share information. The Columbian stu
Columbia. dents sent videos and pictures of them celebrating
The podcasts were purchased with the idea English day and U-High students have sent audio
of giving students more optIOns for audio and more recordings of "a day in the life" to the Columbian
chances to listen to Spanish speakers.
students. Each student is paired with one or two
"They are easier than having to sit at a students from Columbia that they can email back
computer for a long time and listen, you can take and forth.
them with you and go places and listen to them
"The only bad thing is that our technology
while you are doing other things," Rojas said.
is much more advanced and the Columbian stu
Senior Kyle Gra~en said, "The podcasts dents can only on the computers once a week at
~et
are a go,?d hstemng practIce, and help me with my
school and don t have them at home," Rojas saId.
pronuncIatIon. We can take them wherever we
~o Because of the addition of Spanish 5 in
so we don'! always need to be near a computer. ' '
U-High, students didn't have to make the tough
RaJendran said the podcasts are a really
decisIon to take it somewhere else or not. Graden
helpfulleammg tool. "We use them as an outside
and Rajendran said they would have taken it some
reference .. I find them helpful because you can
where else but Kestian said she would not have
revIew thmgs m.ore than once and you can catch
because of the inconvenience.
an~hmg you mIssed the first time by going back"
Graden said, "I greatly enjoy this class and
RaJendran said. Kestian said she finds the od- '
feel like I am improving my knowledge of Span
casts helpful for. listening to people with dPfferent
Ish." He said he likes that the class IS small. He
accents than ROJas'.
took Spanish 5 because he said ~e wante~ to be I
5 d Along with clas~room activities. Spanish
able to communicate with Spantsh speakmg pe~p e.
As tu ents are vol~nteenng their time at 'Western
Kestian said she took it because s~e enJoy~
venue Commumty Center. This is not a require
it and people are always looking for SpanIsh spea -
medt/or the cl~ss b~t all students are participating
ers. She also said that she didn't want to take a . I
sal .oJas. ROjas saId they got involved in this
year off before college. "Spanish 5 i a co::1 soc~
~h~~~d~t~~2t~e~;~~d ~i~ei~St~~Ock~~g~or
.atywaydfor dynamic because you are with students ~ 0 ~d
to pursue Spanish and work hard," Kestlan sal.
makes S~r.lsh more "real." Unt an
activitiehstl!i~h-~~fl~
do studen!s are there, they
By: Kristen Satchwell
learning to speak Engli~~n R'htle th~lr parents are
tlOn from the students i . oJas ~a.ld that the reac
s
come back with a lot of vtery posItIve and they
Sones.
han non Bogue
Bailey Bottorff
Edessa Brown
Connor Brown
Kara Butorac
Clarion
6
