Greensboro Youth and Media Festival Is Almost Here!

The plans for the YAMFest are in place and the event will take in a couple of weeks. As Project Manager, my team and I have worked hard to secure guest speakers, donations from the community and grant money. We have local business owners, judges, professors and some of our own faculty and students as part of this year’s line up.

I am really excited because this year students are going to be able to showcase their artwork as a portion of the festival and I know we have a lot of talented young people. I know that my team and I have been working hard and I know that all of this hard work will pay off when we see the final result.

Student Council Projects

One of the greatest thrills I have been a part of has to be the Exceptional Children (EC) Dance. A couple of years ago I, along with a couple of my student council classmates came of with the idea to sponsor a dance for the EC students at Grimsley. I felt that these students are overlooked and have never had the experience of going to the prom or a dance. We donated our time and purchased food for the dance and decorated with a Hawaiian theme. We had a DJ play music and the students were overjoyed. We dance all evening with all the EC students and the pride that was on their faces at having the experience of going to a high school was priceless!

For the second year the student council sponsored the EC Dance for our students. This year’s theme was a masquerade dance. While I was having dinner with my parents one evening I noticed the restaurant was decorated with a Mardi Gras theme so I ask the manager if I could have the decoration when they were done with them. He gave me a box full of decorations that they did not use at the restaurant so we were able to decorate for the EC dance and have favors for everyone.  

I am an International Baccalaureate Diploma candidate and a member of the Student Council, National Honor Society, Spanish Club, and Key Club. I am also a member of the Varsity Volleyball and Track and Field team.

Every year the student council gives of their time to the Haynes-Inman Education Center Holiday Jamboree. The Haynes-Inman center has about 130 students with severe to profound cognitive and/or physical disabilities. Our student council arrives early to help the staff set up and get things ready for this annual jamboree. The Haynes-Inman students are always excited and ready for crafts, food and lots of fun. The students never seem to slow down and the one’s who are able are at full speed the entire time.  

Today I am working as a volunteer for the Senior’s Ministry at my church I have volunteered and worked this ministry for the past two years. This volunteer opportunity has given me a great deal of joy and pleasure. The senior adults are very funny and enjoy telling the younger students about their past and how “it use to be” when they were growing up. They all keep telling me that age is just a number. Today was another volunteer day with the Senior’s Ministry. I helped the members set up games and also helped prepare the lunch for the group. As I helped some of the seniors that attend I was questioned by some of the members about what type of games teenagers are into now. I explained to them that most of our games now are played on our cell phones and do not require other players. Some of them laughed and told me we don’t know what we are missing. They all looked like they were having a good time not only playing games but talking and laughing with each other.

Track and Field

I am a Shot-put and Discus thrower on the track and field team at Grimsley. I enjoy being a thrower for both shot-put and discus but shot-put is my favorite. I have worked during the off season with weigh training and attended throwing camp and one day throwing sessions. Shot-put and discus throwing is a mental challenge and you cannot over think or take yourself out of your game. 

My last year of track season of my career is off to a slow start. The first three events of this track season have been cancelled because of inclement weather. I didn’t think we were going to get this track season started but luckily we had a beautiful day and competed in the Southeast Invitational Track meet.  It was a very good day for me since I was able to throw my personal best in discus with 111 feet and received a bronze medal for 3^rd place. I finished first place with a gold medal with my personal best of 37 feet 10 inches in shot put. 

Greensboro Youth and Media Festival

I had the chance to be a part of the first Youth and Media Festival (YAMFest) held here at Grimsley. The mission of the festival is Exploring the arts and engaging the world through technology. I was very excited to be a part of this event and learned a lot from the various presenters in attendance.

 This year I have been given the privilege of being the Project Director for the 2014 YAMFest. As a senior at Grimsley High School I enjoy learning about youth and media interactions at the international level. I became involved with the Greensboro Youth and Media Festival last year and enjoyed learning about the impact that social media and technology has on youth today. It inspired me to delve deeper into the creative ways that social media is used to express different mediums of art. I look forward to the challenge of making this YAMFest bigger and better.

I met with the faculty advisor for YAMFest and we have begun the process of choosing the YAMFest team and the date   for the event. I am excited about the support and encouragement I have received from my friends.

Volley For A Cure!

The volleyball season is moving along and it’s time for one of the game that we look forward to every year, our annual fundraiser game against Page High School. Every year we have a benefit volleyball game, bake sale and raffle to raise awareness and funds for a cause. This year we decided to work with the American Cancer Society to raise money for all types of cancer instead of choosing one particular cancer. This event really hit home for our team this year because several of the players on our teams have had close family members who have been affected by some form of cancer. The game and the entire event was a great success.

We were invited to play out of our conference in a “Dig Pink” Fundraiser game. This invitation gave our team the opportunity to play against several teams we would not normally play against during our regular volleyball season. All of the teams were good competitors and the funds raised from the cost of admission and the concession sales were donated to breast cancer research.

As a volleyball competitor our goal was to work hard during the season, make the playoffs and play in the championship game. While our goal may be to make it to the championship games we also want to display good sportsmanship and respect to our opponents.

I knew this would be my last season as a volleyball player but everything seems final once the ladies on the varsity team were recognized on Senior Night. I am so proud of myself and my senior teammates for toughing it out through a lot of drama and messiness this season. Our teammates presented us with beautiful monogrammed bags packed full of items and gift cards but the best part was the hand written letters from our underclass teammates. The night was very special and we were able to share it with our parents who escorted us center court for recognition. 

Volleyball 2014

Summer volleyball workouts are over and it’s time for tryouts! Most of the volleyball players from last year are returning to tryout and several new players as well. As a player for the past three years I feel pretty sure I’ll make the varsity team again this year. But as the coach says “no one is guaranteed a spot”.

I thought we would have 2 days of tryouts and then the first team cut followed by another day of tryouts and then the second team cut but the new coach for this year continues to add tryout days. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

Yeaah! I made the varsity volleyball team. Most of the ladies from last year made the team with a few exceptions. A couple of our former teammates were cut from the team. Not really sure why one of them was cut since she was a good player.  Who knows what the coach was thinking. Now that we have our team we have to get ready for an upcoming scrimmage with one our rival schools.

The volleyball season seems to be going okay except for some of the rules and ideas that the coach has put in place. As l mentioned in an earlier entry the coach this year is new. He’s not new to volleyball since he has coached many years as a club volleyball coach but he is new to coaching at a public high school. His rules may work for his “club” team but they seem to be causing a lot of drama on our high school team.

In spite of all the drama, Grimsley has a very good varsity volleyball team. We played against some teams who were very easy which is not always the best as far as keeping our team focused and challenged. Our tougher opponents make us dig deep and put forth an effort that displays all our volleyball skills.