Lowell, MA – Lowell High School announced six Carney Medalist recipients for 2014-2015 school year today.
The Carney Medal is an academic award, which businessman James Carney established in 1859, presented to students in their senior year for excelling in academic disciplines. It is one of the oldest co-educational awards bestowed on American high school students in the country. Since 1859 three men and three women have received the award each year from Lowell High School.
The 2015 recipients include Penhleakhena Ou, Jenny Phan, Alexandria Panagiotakos, Shaughn Pender, Danny Ouk and Steven Maglio.
The medals will be awarded at the Lowell High School Commencement ceremony on June 3, 2015.
The headline picture of James Carney is part of the Lowell Historical Society archive.
Andre Ragel stands outside Boston University where NESPA hosted a journalism workshop for students.
By Megan Lopes
Boston, MA- Twelve students from Lowell High School participated in the New England Scholastic Press Association (NESPA) Conference at Boston University on May 1 and attended a keynote address by a Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist.
Greg Marinovich, a South African photojournalist and co-author of The Bang Bang Club, gave the keynote address. Marinovich won the Pulitzer Prize for Spot Photography in 1991 for his coverage of the 1990 killing of a South African woman Lindsaye Tshabalala.
“Everyone can be a citizen journalist today…everyone can cover important stories in their community,” said Marinovich, who grew up in an Afrikaan family during the height of the apartheid system in South Africa. Apartheid is an Afrikaan word to describe a system of government which is based upon the concept of separation of classes on the basis of race.
During the conference students from all over New England participated in workshops on publication questions such as how the student editors decide which story to publish; how to write a news lead; how to motivate a newspaper staff; how to write an interesting profile story; how to use social media to draw attention to a story; what’s an interesting headline; and what is different about writing for broadcasts?
Aaron Robinson, a senior, and Andre Ragel, a sophomore, collaborated in a workshop with student peers from different schools to select the best stories for a mock student publication.
“We had to do a quick analysis of a potential stories to run in a simulated student magazine. Then, we had to defend our reasoning about our choices,” said student journalist Ragel, an aspiring meteorologist.
Claudine Ngene and friends enjoyed the NESPA journalism workshop and visit to Boston University School of Communication on May 1.
Alex Mai, a sophomore at Lowell High School, learned about detailed observation of others creating a profile story. She learned to watch other’s interactions and others’ reactions to them. Stephen Ducheneau, another sophomore, learned how editors keep up morale while working on a newspaper and how reporters cope with the stress of the profession.
Claudine Ngene, junior, participated in a workshop with professional photojournalists to better understand how to take a quality photo and also learn the difference between original and digitally enhanced photos.
“Sometimes the original picture is not reflected…they can arrange a picture so the audience will see the picture in a better way,” said Ngene. “I was surprised by some pictures….mostly by the National Geographic photos…I was like wow, what a difference from the original photo.”
Greg Marinovich, Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist from South Africa, spoke to the students about being citizen journalists.
Marinovich, the keynote who presented a slideshow of his photos from a mining strike during apartheid, recounted moments in his life at which he first questioned the morality of the system.
He likened the treatment of blacks in shanty towns by the police in Johannesburg to recent riots in the United States’ impoverished neighborhoods which result from police mistreatment of black Americans over time.
“The pictures looked like rebels with guns,” and some of the pictures could not be shown because they were deemed too graphic, according to Ducheneau.
The “Bang, Bang” Club, of which Marinovich was a member, describes journalists who covered the factional violence by black political groups and the police during the transition of South Africa from apartheid toward democracy. He also had the opportunity to meet President Nelson Mandela who is credited with keeping the peace in the post-apartheid period.
“[in South Africa]…it got to the point where you didn’t need to speak to the authorities anymore because you knew what story the police would tell to explain the deaths of the black protesters,” he explained. “I went into the ghettos to tell the protesters’ stories….but sometimes they just weren’t willing to talk…” Photos helped tell the stories, he said.
Marinovich explained how he could only show a selection of his photos which did not explicitly depict the violence of the period.
After the presentation Ragel asked Marinovich, “… if [he] ever had to put his camera down to help someone?”
Marinovich complimented Ragel on the question and said, “…you can help someone and you can also get the shot.”
R.D. Sahl, a New England Cable News anchor, introduced Marinovich. Sahl explained how happy he was to be there because he got his start in journalism on his high school newspaper in Colorado.
At the end of the conference, Lowell High School received a meritorious achievement award from NESPA for an online digital newspaper, the LHS Digital Newspaper, which is produced by the digital journalism-communications classes and other contributors at the high school.
Matthew Brennan, a digital journalism-communications teacher at LHS, called the event “a once in a lifetime experience to listen and speak to a member of the Bang, Bang club who witnessed first hand the transformation of South African society.”
My family consists of 4 people: my mom, my dad, my brother and me. In my family, mom is my closest friend. But now, my mom is staying in Vietnam because she wants to take care of my grandparents. This year my mom is 37 years old. Maybe my mom will come to the USA in a few years. She is a resourceful person. She’s a very good cook too. Her favorite food is fruit and she doesn’t like sweets. Although she doesn’t like sweets she still makes very tasty cakes, especially Vietnamese cupcakes. I really miss my mom so much and her cooking.
“…I missed her voice, her face and every moment she spent with me in Cambodia.”
By Vi Bott
I would like to tell you about my mom. I lived with her in Cambodia for 13 years. And when I was 14 she left me. She left me because she need to come here to United States. I was so sad when my mom did not stay with me in Cambodia. When she comes to the United States, she would call me but I was still crying. When I talked to her I was crying because I missed her voice, her face and every moment she spent with me in Cambodia. When she came here I started to be really bad. I would skip class because my Khmer teachers were not respectful to me. When my mom didn’t’ stay with me, I never listened to my sister. I’m so lazy when she gave me to buy something for the family and she always told my mom. But on November 22 , 2014 everything changed because my mom came back to get me. My mom and I came to United States together. I was really happy and sad too. I was sad to leave my friends but it’s happy because I can live with my mom and sister. So I left my dad and three siblings. Now I can have whatever I want. I’m really happy too when I can study at a good school with a respectful teacher. I appreciate my mom even more now. I love her because she is a perfect loving mom.
I lived in a refugee camp in Nepal with my dear friend, Shreejana.
By Yamuna Karki
My friend is very beautiful and kind. Her name is Shreejana. She lives in Nepal.
Shreejana is 14 years old like me. And she goes to high school in Nepal. She has six family members, a mom, a dad and two younger sisters. Shreejana also has one older brother. She loves her family very much.
I miss her a lot. I shared everything with her when I was living in Nepal. When I felt sad, or needed help I asked her and she was always ready to help me. We played, read, ate, and also conversed together every day. Now, sometimes I call her and talk to her on a phone. She tells me that she misses me so much too.
Katew is a popular Cambodian soup that my brother likes.
By Yongey Kao
My brother name is Pheakdey Kao. He is 20 years old. He has 2 sisters. His sister’s name is Lee Lee Kao and I am Yongey Kao. He comes from Cambodia. He came to the U.S. about 2 years ago. He is single because I don’t think he should have a girlfriend. My brother listens to me and respects my opinion. He studies at Middlesex Community College. Pheakdey works at our family restaurant Tech Heng. I would like to invite you to try a meal there. In his free time he likes to play games and take me to the mall. He always buys something that I want. He likes blue green and purple colors. Also, Pheakdey likes to eat everything of meat. He’s not a vegetarian. He likes Katew because Katew has meat. Pheakdey’s so nice to me on my birthday too. He gives perfume to me. I love him so much because he takes care of his sisters a lot. I have lived with him for 16 years. He loves me too. Pheakday has lived with me for 16 years. We never fight so far. I hope that continues for life.
One Direction is experiencing confusion about which way to go.
By Caroline Laiber
One Direction is a British band that is made up of Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles, Liam Payne and Niall Horan.
They met each other on the X-Factor in 2010 and the judges formed the band. Last Month Zayn Malik who was one of the members left the band.
He said he left the band because he wanted to be a normal 22-year-old man, but before he left the band he wasn’t in some concerts and when someone asked about it he said he was sick.
And after he left the band he started his own career but now another type of music. When he left I felt not like he was just leaving the band but he was dead because my heart ached a lot.
One Direction fill stages with thousands of people. I met them in one of those concert shows in Brazil and they sang my favorite song, Diana. I hope none of them leave the group because if that happens it’s going to be the end for One Direction.
I lived in the Nu Poe refugee camp in Thailand until age 15.
By Mo Plow
I want to tell about my Refugee camp. In the past my family lived in Nu Poe refugee camp in Thailand. There are many cultures and different religions. Some people and partisan leaders donated food and supplies. The partisans were against the government in my country. In the Nue Poe camp we had many schools and many churches and a hospital. Once a month we would go to pick up some rice, oil, chili, salt, and beans. On Monday and Friday some people sold vegetable meat, fish and some fruits. My parents did n’t have a job in the camp. There were trouble makers. If you don’t run from them, then you were done luckily. No one in my family got to a fight.
Bedford, MA- For a second time in 4 years Lowell High School (LHS) won first place in the Tenacity Challenge and in doing so raised its scholarship total above $13,000.
Enlightenment, one of three LHS teams participating in the Challenge beat twenty-two other schools across Massachusetts and took home $1,000 individual scholarships for college, which makes the total amount of money won by LHS in the four year history of the event approximately $13,000.
This marks the second time that Lowell High School has won first place in the four years since the inception of Tenacity Challenge, which is an academic event intended for Latino and African-American students.
The event provides students a forum to apply their learning in four different categories. Students accrue points in the categories: Math/Science, English, History, and Artistic expression. This year’s winners were Maylis Brito, Nana Adu, Nicole Candanado, Juliana Mendonca, and Andrew Lessieur,members of the team “Enlightenment.
Not only does the competition offer students a forum in which to apply their learning, they also have a lot of fun doing it.
When asked about their experiences at Tenacity Challenge, one student said, “Can you tell me what the topics are for next year? I want to go home and start studying right away!”
Students also expressed a greater desire to learn as a result of the Challenge.
“It makes me feel as if all of my hard work in school has a purpose outside of getting good grades,” said another participant.
Pictured in the photo, left to right, “The Enlightenment team:”
Rafael Quiles, Spanish teacher and team advisor, Maylis Brito, Nana Adu, Richard Haynes, keynote speaker for the event Nicole Candanedo, Juliana Mendonca, Andrew Lessieur, and Michael Jarvis, Math teacher and team advisor.
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