Before returning for the second half of the 2012-’13 school year, The Feather staff would like to conclude the first semester by remembering the achievements that the FC community has witnessed since the beginning of the year. From successful sporting events to national awards, campus students kept the past semester filled with memories.

As a staff of mainly underclassmen, The Feather strove to cover campus and local news in the forms of articles, videos, podcasts, slideshows, photos and blogs throughout the semester. This year, the students also put an emphasis on social media by improving The Feather’s Facebook and Twitter while also adding Instagram.

After reviewing the past semester, The Feather has decided to summarize the events in the categories academics, campus events, athletics, community and extracurriculars.

ACADEMICS

After undergoing accreditation in April 2012, FC received several donations from Christianna Enterprises, Viking Enterprises and Dyer Family Foundation, which all went towards the reconstruction of selective areas of FC’s campus, and the science and computer lab. Through these donations, the new science and computer labs allow students to work in a more conducive environment.

As this year was an election year, history teachers Jordana Siebert and Robert Foshee teamed up to create an election chapel, Nov. 1. Classes used skits and speeches to provide the students body with information on both candidates and propositions.

After testing out Revolution Foods last year, the administration decided to alter the lunch program this year. Instead of one organization running lunches, FC clubs and sports teams are able to schedule lunch days. Some of the clubs and sports that benefit from the new lunch program include Spanish Club, California Scholarship Federation and the music department.

The FC family expanded with the addition of science teacher Dan Harris’s son Nathaniel Kai, Oct. 10, and math teacher Mike Fenton’s twin girls, Ainsley Joy and Mackenzie Grace, Nov. 7.

Because of the Harris’s new son, a new teacher was also hired to help expand the science department. Jennifer Oren began teaching first period biology and third period chemistry in order to lessen the stress and workload on the new father.

CAMPUS EVENTS

In order to start off the year, the FC student body, faculty and parents gathered in the People’s Church sanctuary for the annual convocation, Aug. 13. During this time, the theme for the new school year was announced, “We Are One: Standing Firm.” The high school worship team led the FC community in a time of worship and Superintendant Debbie Siebert shared a personal story that connected to the theme of the year.

New families at FC attended the New Family Dinner at John’s Incredible Pizza, where they were able to connect with returning campus families, Sept. 13. Host families were matched with new families and all newcomers were given a payed-for unlimited buffet and 20-credit game card.

As an annual FC tradition, the senior class of 2013 attended their Senior Retreat at Calvin Crest, Sept. 8-9. While in the mountains of Oakhurst, the class was able to participate in team-bonding activities and grow closer as a class. Activities included: kickball, volleyball, Wii games, ping-pong and the night walk.

As one of the biggest traditions during football season, the Student Leadership class puts on homecoming, Oct. 26. This year’s theme, “Once Upon a Homecoming,” involved students using fairy tales to construct their floats and dress up days around.

Each day leading up homecoming contains a special event and dress up day. With dress up days ranging from pirates to Alice in Wonderland, the students participated in showing their school spirit. Events like the princess and queen pageants, the king dance and the spirit rally helped get students in the mood for the big night.

At half time of the game, the homecoming court was announced as follows: Maddie Luginbill was named freshman princess during the crowning event. Ivette Ibarra was crowned as the sophomore princess, the junior princess was announced as Amanda Menes, Maddie Yee was named as senior princess and Jenna Orcutt was crowned homecoming queen while Matt Jenkins was crowned as king.

ATHLETICS

One of the newest additions to this year’s athletic programs was involving homeschool students from Tower Christian School to create opportunities for larger teams. Through this program Tower Christian’s students have joined in football and both boys’ and girls’ soccer.

This year’s football season, under the direction of head coach Mick Fuller, ended with the Eagles at 2-7 overall throughout their independent season. The volleyball team went 5-5 in the West Sequoia League and 8-13 overall.

FC welcomed new head varsity cheer coach Courtney Raymundo this year. Along with filling the open cheer coach position, Raymundo works as a first grade teacher on the FC Northeast campus.

The varsity cheer team hosted the annual Cheer Clinic for the kindergarten through sixth graders, Sept. 17-20. After learning different stunts and cheers, the young participants were able to perform during the first half of the varsity football game and during half time, Sept. 21.

Winter sports, including basketball and soccer, began practicing as early as October. So far, the teams have competed in preseason games and tournaments, waiting for league to start in January.

The girls? varsity soccer team participated in the Garces Holiday Soccer Festival where they took fourth place in the Silver Division. The girls also partook in the Fowler Lions Tournament placing third out of ten teams. The girls ended the first semester with an overall record of 5-5-1.

The boys’ varsity soccer team, coached by Matt Markarian, participated in the Garces Holiday Soccer Festival finishing with a record of 1-2 in the Bronze Division. The boys’ overall record for the is 1-4-1 as of Dec. 15.

Boys’ varsity basketball team ended the semester with a record of 3-5 overall as of Dec. 18. The girls’ varsity basketball team will play their first game against the Sierra Chieftains, Jan. 10.

COMMUNITY

The student body gathered in the Ground Zero quad at 7 a.m. to participate in See You at the Pole (SYATP), Sept. 26. SYATP is a national event that has grown to over two million participants who gather at local schools to pray for their cities, states, and country.

For the fourth year in a row, the FC community participated in the Max Hinton Blood Drive, Sept. 25. The Central California Blood Center (CCBC) blood mobile was on campus and students, faculty and parents were all welcome to partake in the event. According to donor recruiter for the CCBC, Laura Geuvjehizian, the FC blood drive had 25 people register and 21 pints of blood were donated.

During the month of October FC contributed to Operation Christmas Child (OCC). Throughout the month students were encouraged to take part in this organization and fill a box to donate to OCC. Kindergarten through twelfth grade collected a total of 225 boxes with kindergarten to second grade collecting 84, third to sixth grade with 111 and seventh to twelfth grade collecting 30.

FC participated in a school-wide canned food drive working with Pinedale Elementary, Dec. 3-12. All donations were given to Pinedale to give out to deserving families. Student leadership also ran a warm clothes drive partnering with Peoples Church to donate the clothes to various families. Leadership collected the clothes during the annual Christmas movie showing, Dec. 6.

FC elementary students made fleece blankets to donate to local charities, Dec. 13. The project was led by Marylou Savage who collected and pre-cut the materials for the blankets. The students took time out of their lunch and other periods to tie create the blankets. Some of the charities included are Family Healing Center, the Evangel Home and Rescue the Children, an extension of the Fresno Rescue Mission. A total of 70 blankets were made which will be spread out amongst the charities.

EXTRACURRICULARS

Due to the large category extracurriculars encompasses, the staff split this section into smaller pieces.

Clubs

With many clubs on campus, including Spanish Club, California Scholarship Federation (CSF), sister-to-sister, brother-to-brother and many more, students are involved in lunch time activities and projects.

Physical Education teacher Michael Ogden created the Five Minute Mile Club, with the purpose of giving students an incentive to improve their running times. If students are able to run the mile in under six minutes, their names are posted in the FC gym, and they are awarded with a specially designed “club” t-shirt. Within the first semester, ten students made the club. These students include:

Jon Anguiano: 5:45
Bailey Brogan: 5:46
Thomas Friesen: 5:58
Tyler Breedlove: 5:59
Damien Boyce: 5:50
Julian Castro: 5:43
Caleb Nale: 5:53
Nick Fontes: 5:56
Jacob Bynum: 5:57
Jordan Castro: 5:55

Publications

The Feather was named, for the third year in a row, an All-American newspaper by the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA), Nov. 19. The ranking is only given to about 15 percent of student newspapers across the country. The Feather received four out of five marks of distinction, gaining a total score of 3,720 points.

Later, the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) announced that The Feather is a Digital Gold Crown Finalist, meaning the online paper could receive their third Gold Digital Crown in the spring.

This semester, The Feather was also acknowledged in a number of ways. From being on the news by CBS Channel 47, to earning press privileges in the community, the writers on staff have taken a larger role in the community this year.

Student Leadership

The high school Student Leadership class designed new spirit packs to promote more participation in school spirit. The “Swag pack” included a Nuthouse t-shirt, FC rally towel and backpack.

Student Leadership also saw a change in teaching when Kim Bimat joined to co-instruct alongside Foshee. Her experience in planning events for Peoples Church has helped in preparing for events such as homecoming, Night of the Stars (NOTS) and many others.

Music

The FC music department put on “Round the Table Carol Sing,” for the third year in a row, Dec. 12-13. The event went on for two consecutive nights taking place in the FC gym. The occasion was headed by music director Michael Ogdon and included the performances by campus choirs, band and a team from Break the Barriers. There were ten different musical groups with a total of 150 performers. The guests were seated in the gym and were served food and dessert.

SEASON’S GREETINGS

The Feather would like to wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. The staff is looking forward to covering more news in the new year to come. Students will return to school on Jan. 7 to conclude their three-week Christmas break and The Feather will continue in their daily publication. Until then, enjoy the vacation and check back in January for more coverage.

For more features, read the Dec. 17 article, Third annual Christmas concert combines musical groups.