Centennial High School - Eyrie Yearbook (Ellicott City, MD)

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With the 1980 elections a year and a half away 137 Centennial students prepared to exercise their constitutional right and responsibility to vote. I April 1979 the Social vided the opportunity for students seventeen years of age or older to register to vote as Jim Ramsey illustrates. As Independent Democratic or Republican voters these Centennial students would have their first voice in government in the upcoming presidential election. n Studies Department pro- Fmancial troubles plagued the Wingspan staff all year limiting the small but enthusiastic group to just four issues of their newspaper To remedy the shortage of practical Jour nalistic experience for her journalism class advisor Sharon Kohl and Media Specialist Tom Valeri col laborated on a broadcast news show Incorporating the camera skills of 12 stu dent photographers and the writing and reporting skills Tom DeSantis Betsy Straehle and Matt Bever ungen a pilot for a regular ly scheduled student news show was taped April 27 It played to rave reviews on all three lunch shifts There was a possibility that Centennial on the Air would become a reality on Cable TV in the fall of 1979 But even if it didnt it was an experience in a new dimension of journa llsm 9 7 of 15 journalists, including 9 , - , - GC ' ' 97 . . . , ' 9 Community Life 27

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A x K ls . ,Y Ac d mic The main purpose of a school is to educate. A student's life could never get off the ground without the num- erous practical and not-so-practical pieces of knowledge gained in school: reading, writing, and arithmetic, typing, woodworking, and jumping jacks, cooking, history, and aug- mented chords, trig functions, chiaroscuro, and quarks. It is with these diverse pieces of information that a student can confidently make the transition from school to the career world. For most students the image conjured up by the word acade- mics, would be one of growing, slave-driving teachers, impossible and unfair tests, and unappetizing units on Shakespeare and statistical analysis. Impressions such as these form under the continual pressures a,ai.sww-fa-...,..,, X 4 g r . ,.,, s. . , ' , M of homework assignments piling up or impending major tests and pro- jects. These perceptions, however, are usually only temporary, for the years spent in high school are pro- bably the happiest one will ever en- counter in life-just ask any nostal- gic adult! But most importantly, the topics which once seemed irrelevant will later fall into place within a vast framework of knowledge form- ed by the student as he learns more and more about his world. Although exams, homework, spe- cial projects, and minimum com- petency tests are the bete noire of the majority of students, it is the academic courses, more than all the clubs, organizations, and activities of a school, which will influence and shape the futures of most. OPPOSITE: Fifty-minute lunch periods allowed students additional time for academic pursuits. Tim Dolan ponders the complex symbolism incorporated in a novel and Mindy Derrek curls up with a magazine. ABOVE: After gathering numerous reference materials, freshman Johnny Winters plunges into a project. BELOW: Hoping to un- scramble countless conjugations, Spanish student Kathy Brand studies verb forms. Academics 29