Niles West’s marching band performed on Saturday, Oct. 11 at the 34th Metamora Marching Band Invitational. They walked away very successful,winning Best Winds, Best Percussion, Best Color Guard, Best Drum Major, and Crowd Favorite awards. The Metamora Invitational is one of the oldest high school sponsored competitions in the state.

Band instructor Justin Johnson is very excited to have won so many awards.

“In the past, we haven’t won many awards but this year, we’ve placed in every competition,” he said.

He isn’t surprised that marching band managed to win so many awards, however.

“I’ts never a surprise. We don’t compete to win, we compete for individual improvement,” Johnson said. “Trophies are a bonus, but our goal is to get better and more successful as a group.”

Many of the students on marching band are glad their hard work received recognition.

“It’s felt like all our hard work paid off,” junior Elizabeth Witt said. “The real reward comes from knowing that we, as a band, did our best. It was a bonus that the judges thought that we did as amazing as well all thought we did.”

The Marching band can be seen in performance this Friday at halftime for the Niles West vs. Glenbrook South football game at 7 pm and in the Downers Grove marching band competition this Saturday.

The 2015-2016 school calendar has been approved by the administration. School is scheduled to start on Aug. 11, 2015 and end May 26, 2016.

The new changes consist of a longer winter and spring break. Winter break will be three weeks long, instead of the usual two weeks, from Dec. 21, 2015 to Jan. 8, 2016. Spring break will also be slightly longer,  from March 25 to Apr. 1, 2016.

Most people seem to be happy about the longer winter break.

“People may have grumbled about the calendar, but you guys will have a real vacation and it would’ve been extra work last year. Next year you’ll have a clean break, so you have to look at the positives,” English teacher David Klingenberger said.

“I’m happy for extra days, the more days we get off, the better,” junior Calvin Cadet said.

Sarah Govis contributed to this article. 

A Winter Dance will be held on the Spirit of Chicago Cruise Ship on Feb. 7, 2015, according to student activities director Katie Odell.

Juniors and seniors will have first priority to the 300 tickets that will be sold from Jan.5 through Jan.16. If the tickets are not sold out, the dance will then be open to sophomores and freshmen.  Each ticket will cost $55.

“I wanted to create a new excitement in the school about doing something social in the middle of the school year,” Odell said. “I’m really excited, and I think it will be really fun for the students. It’s definitely something that hasn’t been done.”

The ticket will include transportation to and from Navy Pier, a full dinner, dessert, unlimited drinks the entire night, and an open dance floor with a DJ. Students will depart in coach buses from Niles West at 5:45 p.m and board Spirit of Chicago at 6:30 p.m. The ship will be on the water from 7-10 p.m. and afterwards students will take the buses back to the school, Odell said.

Most students said they are excited about the opportunity to have the dance on a boat.

“I think it’s going to be really fun because Niles West has never done anything like this before, and the fact that the dance is on a boat will make it even better,” junior Nichole Lopatin said.

Fall is here and so is the our annual fall contest.

Use the hashtag #nwnhalloween on all your fall and Halloween pictures. In order for us to see them, your instagram account must be public.

The winner will be selected via random.org and will win a $10 Starbucks gift card.

The contest will be closed on Monday at 8 a.m so don’t forget to submit all your pictures before that.

The fine arts teachers and students will be hosting their annual Howl-o-ween Art Show tonight at 6 pm in the art gallery.

According to art teacher Barb Wismer, this year’s art projects will be sculptures of faces made out of clay.

“The sculptures of the faces are inspired by the Day of the Dead. We are changing the format; we will collaborate with junior high schools and our own Niles West students from Advanced Studio, Advanced Placement, and Digital Art classes. We are excited to do the different format because it has more creative freedom, and explores the students’ own images,” she said.

Freshman Daniella Rodriguez said she is excited about contributing to the show.

“I’ve enjoyed art ever since I was little, but I feel like I’ve encountered my love for art more than the past two years.” she said. “Art makes me feel very calm, puts me in my happy place, and I feel like I can express myself through art. Since Halloween is coming up, our clay designs are monster themed. I decided to do this project because I believe I could use some more work in ceramics and my techniques using clay. For painting, we needed to have a color scheme and can only paint with the colors of our color scheme, where we learned to mix colors. For the clay, we have to make sure that our edges are smooth and our overall project looks like a real sculpture. We recently finished working on an abstract design for painting and now we are working on creating a monster made out of clay.”

This year’s winter pep assembly will be a new experience for all students and staff. The month of November will revolve around a school wide initiative to honor the members of our Niles West families that participated in military services.

“As a school we have never done this type of tribute, and I think it is extremely important, especially around the holidays,” activities director Katie Odell said.

There will be several activities taking place throughout November. Blue stars honoring military family members will be given out during homeroom, and will be placed around the school. Invites for faculty members and students’ family members in the military will be given out, and at the beginning of the assembly, these service families will be further honored.

“I think that it’s great that we’re doing this. We haven’t done something like this in a while and I think that it’s a great thing to do for the families,” student government president and senior Rebekah Bender said.

Starting Monday, Nov. 3 running through Nov. 21, a care package competition will take place. Bins will be placed around the school for students and staff to drop off items. Items that can be donated include the following:

Box of snack bars

Beef jerky

3 pack or large 50 piece container of gum

1 bag of hard candy

Small bags of coffee and/or boxes of tea

1 box of drink mix (the powder packet you drop in a water bottle)

Can of fruit or quick meals (ravioli, spaghettios, etc)

1 bag/can of peanuts/nuts

Trail mix (12 oz minimum)

Sunflower seeds (10oz minimum)

Shampoo (12 oz minimum)

Conditioner (12 oz minimum)

Body wash (15 oz minimum)

Lotion (8 oz minimum)

Deodorant

Toothbrush

Toothpaste (2.5 oz minimum)

Cotton socks (longer socks, ankle socks don’t work in boots)

If the school collects 2,588 items, assistant principal Mark Rigby will shave his head at the assembly on Dec. 5. That is one item per student, and if we collect double that amount, 5,176 items, he will also shave his beard. Rigby has his reasons for agreeing to this challenge.

“I have a strong connection to the military. My father was in the military. I was in the military. They live by a selfless code that makes life so much more fulfilling. I’m willing to do just about anything.” Along with the care packages, student thank you letters to service members will be added.

T-shirts to be worn on Veterans Day and at the assembly will be sold for ten dollars at the beginning of November. The front will say “Niles West Supports our Military Families” in camouflage, and the back will include a quote in red.

Students will also take part in a color non-war. Seniors will be in camouflage, juniors in red, sophomores in blue, and freshman in white. The gym will be decorated in a “USA” theme. to honor service men and women.

So don’t forget to support service men and women this month by purchasing a shirt and/or donating items!

The Black Box Theater will be filled with people eager to see the play Dead Man’s Cell Phone. presented by the Niles West Theater Department starting Thursday, Nov. 6  to Saturday, Nov. 8.

“A dead man’s cell phone is about a woman in a cafe who hears a [man's] cell phone ringing, so she goes over to his table and realizes that he’s dead, so she takes his cell phone, and throughout the show learns about him, his life, his mysteries, his secrets, and all that jazz,” sophomore actor Grant Killian said.

“When I first encountered the show,” theater director Andrew Sinclair said, “it took me a long to see the reasoning for it. When I saw it at Steppenwolf Theatre, I didn’t like it. So, I went to see it again and I liked it a little bit better. Then I read it. I took me about three reads until I felt like ‘I got it.’  It is not an easy play and it requires the actors, technicians, designers and audiences to think a lot about what the message of the play is. I think that is point of the piece. Since we live in a world that is hinged on technology and we are always reachable by a mobile device in our pockets. We want answers NOW – and we don’t want to have to wait or think. This play is more important than ever. I think audiences should come and see this play if they want to see something different.  It will require all audience members to think. I always think that is a good marking point of art.”

Dead Man’s Cell phone will be the department’s thespian show. “Our thespian show is a show with just the people that have been in the department for over a year and earned a bunch of points. It’s run by students themselves,” Killian said.

“This has been a challenging piece for the cast and crew, which is why we chose it as our 2nd annual Thespian production.  All of the cast members, student designers, crew heads and production crew members are inducted members in our International Thespian Honor Society.  These sophomore, junior and senior students are our advanced theatre students and I wanted to give them a piece of theatre that wasn’t easy to tackle. The actors especially have had to embody and motivate very odd characters who do and say things that are very far from their comfort zones. Sarah Ruhl writes about strange people – individuals who are on the fringe – and I think that is a cool challenge for any actor to have to play. At Niles West, we haven’t done a show as unique and as challenging as ‘Dead Man’s Cell Phone’ When the play was released in 2007, it won several major awards, including the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding New Play.  The playwright, Sarah Ruhl, also won the MacArthur “Genius” Grant, naming her one of the brightest new stars in the artistic world.  However, audience reactions to the show were mixed.  Some people got it and some people didn’t.  Some people thought it was a work of art and some people thought it was a half-baked idea with no real motivation,” Sinclair added.

The play will be shown on Thursday at 4pm, Friday at 4 pm and 7:30 pm, and Saturday at 7:30 pm in the black-box theater.

The French club will kick off national French week from Monday, Nov. 10 through 14.  Tonight the French honor society will be showing the movie Boule et Bill, a love story about a boy and his dog. Celebrations will continue Saturday with an immersion day open to ALL students. Retired French teacher, Mr. Steve Beaver, will make a guest appearance and will participate in the days activities, including teaching a French song with West senior Emily Cardona.

“I’m really excited to see Mr. Beaver again and collaborate in teaching a song with him.” Along with engaging in French music, games such as tank and a scavenger hunt will also take place.

North and West French teacher,Elizabeth Hinsinger, will be teaching how to make crepes. It will be set up like a restaurant, and  her husband, a French native, be a waiter.

“It’s a great way for students to use French out of the class and have them use it in a real life setting, such as ordering at  a restaurant,” Hinsinger said.

Starting Monday, French music will be played during passing periods throughout the entire week. Also on Monday, a game called Boule will be played during lunch periods. The game of boules, otherwise known as pétanque, similar to Italian bocce, the French version is traditionally played with metallic balls on a dirt surface beneath plane trees. The goal is to throw the balls as close to the target as possible.

Tuesday during lunch periods a back drop of an Eiffel tower will be available to act as a photo booth along with provided props. These props include a fake mustache or a beret, a traditional french hat. Students are encouraged to bring their phones to take pictures.

On Wednesday a crepe sale will take place during lunch periods.

Thursday will include a traditional Caribbean game.

Friday in the student activities will be a showing of Un Chat à Paris, an animation about the double life that a cat lives in Paris.

A contest will be held through out the entire week. Colored signs will be placed around the school with French phrases and the first person to have 27 of these phrases will win a waffle breakfast in their homeroom.

 Leslie Natzke, sponsor of the French club, is especially excited. “It is going to be an amazing week and a great chance for all students to learn not just about the French culture, but about other francophone countries as well.”

Many Niles West students involved in Niles West’s band, Choir and Orchestra programs tried out for the 2014-15 Illinois Music Educators Association Festival and twenty of them were accepted. The festival is an opportunity for the district’s top musicians to be honored in performing together in their respective musical ensembles.

Tomorrow at New Trier High school the band, orchestra and choir qualifiers will perform at New Trier high school.

The senior band consists of four students of Niles West’s symphonic band under the direction of (Justin Johnson). They consist of:

Seniors may now apply for this year’s senior class poet position. The deadline to submit all necessary materials is Friday, Nov. 14.

“Langston Hughes was senior class poet of his high school, and look how well known he is now,” said English teacher Dana DesJardins.

Class poet is required to compose one original poem and read it aloud at at least one school assembly. Whoever is chosen will also be listed in Accolades as the senior class poet.

In order to apply, interested students must submit three original poems to either their English teacher, or English teacher Ms. DesJardins in the English office (room 1190).

Any and all seniors are encouraged to apply.

“I think seniors should definitely go for it, because it’s their last year. As senior class poet, there are a lot more perks than junior class poet, like being able to speak at graduation,” said former junior class poet, senior Stephanie Nahhas.

The decision will be made by a panel of English teachers, and the chosen student will be notified by late January 2015.

Tonight students, teachers, and families will come together at the Robert L. Johnson auditorium at 7 p.m. to see Niles West students inducted into the National Honor Society. Anyone can come and see these students awarded for their four years of hard work.

In order to be inducted into the National Honor Society, a student must have a 3.8 weighted GPA or higher, participate in at least two after school clubs or sports per year, serve a minimum of fifteen hours of community service and showcase a strong character.

The ceremony will include speeches from several people including Dr. Jason Ness and senior Sherlina Chauhan, the president of National Honor Society. College and Career Counselor Daniel Gin said, “It’s great to see these kids being honored and recognized for their hard work in the community and the classroom.”

Senior Rebecca Harbeck, who will be inducted into the National Honor Society this evening, said, “It’s nice to be a part of a community that stresses academics and well rounded-ness.” Being a part of the National Honors Society is not all about being academically successful– students must also be willing to give back to the community and be involved in Niles West activities.

Harbeck also mentioned the benefits of being involved in the National Honor Society. “It’s good for the college application and it also shows that you’re a leader in the school.”

Senior James McLellan agrees. “It’s an opportunity that I applied for that I can put on college applications, but it’s not just an opportunity,” he said. ” It’s also a reward for all the hard work we’ve done.”

The National Honor Society Induction Ceremony was held last night  in the Robert L. Johnson Auditorium. 78 Niles West seniors were inducted into this society.

The choir preformed for the staff, family members, and inductees to begin the ceremony. Principal Jason Ness provided a remark that inspired all of the members which was followed by a NHS speech by the president Sherlina Chauhan. Teacher Ryan Geu was announced the 2014-2015 National Honor Society Inspirational Teacher and provided the audience with a final speech. Sherlina Chauhan, Shireen Husmai, Jessica Klier, and George Tripkos presented the inductees. The night ended with all of the inductees lighting a candle and a recitation of the NHS pledge which was led by Sherlina Chauhan.

Students inducted into National Honor Society are: Scott Albaum, Sabreen Ali, Diana Badasyan, Kabya Bastola, Rebekah Bender, Cassie Bergman, Michelle Berkovich, Mira Berkson, Rita Carmona, Bernard Chan, Shavina Chau, Sherlina Chauhan, Cindy Chen, Mark Chen, Nadiya Choi, Dalton Crutchfield, Katherine De Lara, Emily Duong, Andre Eramia, Bradley Erickson, Shun Ganas, Jenish Gandhi, Alyssa Marie Gayapa, Jeena George, Jordan Goldberg, Brenda Guan, Gabriella Guerra, Sydney Hamamoto, Amna Haque, Rebecca Harbeck, Brian Ho, Shireen Husami, Ida Jacob, Charanya Nair Jeyasigan, Vincent Kabat, Samina Kassam, Marukh Khalid, Imran Khan, Susie Kim, Jessica Klier, Paul Kundzicz, Audrey Lee, Matthew Lefler, Andrea Limbrunner, Walter Lindwall, Juliana Liscio, Christian Marin, Anne McCarthy, James McLellan, Haley Melnick, Christopher Millan, Mohit Monga, Kayla Mullarkey, Stephanie Nahhas, Josef Narcisa, Quinn Nguyen, Errol Pasia, Grace Park, Lucy Rees, Reyvin Reyes, Alexander Rodrigues, Jesse Sacks, Allison Salter, Jeremy Sands, Ena Sarancic, Julia Sarata, Olivia Schmidt, Samuel Seo, Samuel Shemroske, Kevin Shin, Sonali Soni, Veronika Sostaric, Emily Stangel, Catherine Steegmueller, Daniel Studer, George Tripkos, Peter Yim, and Max Yusim.

Daniel Gin, co-sponsor of NHS, believed the ceremony was a memborable one.

“It felt great seeing 78 Niles West seniors being inducted. It was a wonderful way to acknowledge the accomplishments that these inductees have acquired over the past four years. It was very rewarding to honor these students,” Gin said.

This past Friday, along my fellow NWN staffers I took part in an all-day training session in which we were forced to self reflect. We all shared with one another what we feel are staples of our identities, instances in which we have been victims of stereotypes or perhaps times in which we were mislead in our own personal beliefs about a group of people. In addition our trainers pounded into our minds the difference between race and ethnicity — I feel that the knowledge of this importance difference is something that I can carry with me as a writer so that I don’t mistake the two in any future pieces.

As a journalist, I’ve always liked to feel that I am unbiased but I definitely learned — and I think every other person on the NWN staff did as well — that absolutely no one can be completely unbiased. For instance, we were shown articles describing similar crimes that were committed by people of different races and the difference in their wording was undeniably less critical of white people than black people regardless of the crime they committed. This really took me by surprise as I would think nothing of the wording of the headlines if I read any of the pairs of articles we were shown by themselves.

So, why did the NWN take part in this training? Here at Niles West, we feel fortunate to be a part of one of the most diverse communities in the nation. We feel that we owe it to the district and to Niles West students to give students of all races a chance to have their voice heard and for those who may have been oppressed because of the color of their skin to spread the word to make the school a better place. For this reason, starting in January, the NWN will be kicking off a five-part series pertaining to race, which will include features, opinion columns, and videos profiling the various experiences — good and bad — in which several students and faculty members from the very diverse population at Niles West will have the opportunity to have their voices heard.

Stay tuned by following the NWN on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for updates on when you can see the first installment of the series.

Niles West pep assemblies will no longer include videos made by sports teams, clubs, etc. starting with the upcoming winter assembly, according to activities director Katie Odell.

Odell said she made the decision to cancel videos after some teachers complained that some students were not able to see or hear the videos. In addition, Odell wants to make the assemblies more interactive.

“The point of the pep assembly is for live interaction, it’s an event not a video-watching ceremony,” Odell explained.

Sports teams who have been affected by this change are still able to perform whatever they want live for  the usual three minutes, which replaces the potential video. This primarily affects sports like gymnastics and swimming, who need their own equipment to perform.

“I feel as though we aren’t going to be represented as a team at Niles West. And we can’t perform anything because we’re a water sport. We can’t just shoot baskets like basketball,” senior swimmer Matt Lefler said.

Others students said they were pleased about the change.

“I feel that it’s a good thing because then there is more talking and interaction involved than there would be if videos were playing. It’ll only lead to more involvement and interaction in the assemblies, which is better for everybody,” senior Maya Caballero said.

Odell said the decision isn’t necessarily permanent.

“It can always be changed back depending on how it all goes,” she said.