Jefferson High School - Jeffersonian Yearbook (Alexandria, VA)

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Hosting Activities With A Continental Flair Hosting a full spectrum of activities with cosmopo- litan flair, the interna- tional club did far more than “‘just have meet- ings.” As a compliment to the academic courses of- fered in French, Spanish, Russian, German, Latin, and Japanese, club mem- bers had the opportunity to learn about the flavor of different cultures through festive events and food sampling. Because of some careful planning and real interest in becoming a part of dif- ferent cultures, students had the opportunity to hear speakers from dif- ferent countries, to host a group of Japanese stu- dents in the week before spring break, and to travel to the Soviet Union during spring break. These steps in interna- tional relations gave everyone achance to enjoy other people — on the last day before the Japanese students were homeward bound, several were moved to tears at the thought of leaving their new friends. What can be more festive than a Latin banquet com- plete with togas, or break- ing a pinata? Students in the club learned through their experiences that foreign language is more than just memorizing verb conjugations — it is under- standing many words, es- pecially “welcome.” Japanese exchange visitors adapted quickly to Western Customs. 22 The International Club featured speakers from the Soviet Union and Japan as well as activities like a martial arts presentation. Sometimes food with a continental flair was featured. Above, a speaker from the Russian Embassy addresses students. Hwan Soo Choi joins friends at Latin Banquet.

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Chris Avelone lends Steve Eisner a hand with the newsletter. Beating the Clock to Put Out News To many, joining the TJ staff meant writing an oc- casional story, coming to an occasional meeting, and seeing their name in big, bold print. Anyone wishing to join the staff with this preconception had quite a surprise in store. Holding any posi- tion on the newspaper, as editors-in-chief, Mark Gogolewski and Anees Shaikh were quick to point out, required a lot of inter- est and dedication to achieving a quality publi- cation. The time needed did not stop at coming after school two days a week. Often, the editors worked on weekends. Thinking in terms of the newspaper as a small business, the mem- bers of the staff weren’t just employees, they were entrepreneurs. NS ? ™ . ] | With the fast-paced news at TJHSS T the stories in TJ Today, our monthly newspaper, became out- dated. For this reason, our weekly news-letter OUT- PUT was created. OUTPUT informed the student body of current news by coming out every week. It contained short articles for easy reading so students could be in- formed quickly. Created in October, the OUTPUT staff produced this weekly newsletter with the use of the com- puters in the telecommu- nications lab. There was not much time to do lay- out, so the computer helped make the job easier. OUTPUT did well in the first couple months. The newsletter was a ‘new’ thing and a lot of people wanted to help. In January, things StUarlLedmlomallsapantu. People began getting bored, and left. Some wanted to go and do other things. There was no one left who could work on the newsletters. Kinallyestieseditor decided to dissolve the staff. But instead of drop- ping the idea all together, Deborah Smyth, journal- ism teacher, decided to have her class do the OU TEU: The OUTPUT is a serv- ice to the school, and may be around next year. With twice as many students, the staff should be able to work without the problems that this year’s staff had. Ms. Smyth tries to lend a hand to Catherine Lombardi, Brian Sletten, and Tom Hundley. Mike Widener looks surprised at Eric Petersen’s idea. 21

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Chess Club Puts the Moves on Ninth Period Certainly less technical than laboratories and less active than intramural sports was the chess club. Members gathered to match their wits during ninth period and competi- tion was keen. The chess club was one of the most popular after school activities, offering weekly standings of the players. Members gath- ered under the direction of Mike Steuben to study moves and to stave off opponents. Chess Club scores were published in the weekly OUTPUT and players con- tinued to compete through- out the year. Social Studies: A ‘Seniors Only” Experience It was a “seniors only” social studies year since history is not a part of the ‘ninth grade curriculum. Social Studies chairperson Judy Coloctronis; how- ever, monitored many live- ly discussions among the seniors in government classes. Attending the school for a senior experience, most seniors were enrolled in Jefferson Classes except for labs and advanced math study. Social studies was an exception. Mrs. Colocotronis and her seniors in government classes formed a special relationship both in and out of the classroom. She was a frequent player at the Volleyball games. She also good-naturedly took a fair amount of teasing about Syracuse Univer- sity, her alma mater. Next year will bring ad- ditional social studies staff as well as electives in So- cial Studies. 23