Windsock

A Taste of China

 

Martha Chen, a Beijing native, is our Chinese teacher here at EMS. She will be writing articles for Windsock throughout the year that will undoubtably have a different take than the usual fare. Enjoy! Ed.

Last week, Mr. Elwood Yoder’s international culture class was studying about Asian food. He invited me to come to his class to give an introduction about Chinese food since I’m from Beijing, the capital city of China. I was very excited about the invitation because I’m teaching a Chinese class and I really wanted to share the Chinese culture with the EMHS students.

When I began to prepare the introduction about Chinese food, I was confused, for China is such a large country, having a population of 1.3 billion people. Chinese have different preferences of food according to their different geographic areas. For example, people from the south-west, especially from SiChuan, really like spicy food. But people from the south-east like a sweeter taste while the northern people prefer salty food. There are thousands of different names for Chinese dishes. What should I talk about? How could I let the students have a deep impression on Chinese food? I pondered until I had a wonderful idea. The very typical and traditional Chinese food is dumplings, Jiaozi, and both the southern people and the northern people eat them as the first meal during the most important Chinese festival known as the Spring Festival. Why don't I make some dumplings for the class and ask the students to have a taste for themselves? 

First, I went to Red Front and bought all the materials needed for the dumplings. Then I started to work, step by step, with all the ingredients by peeling the vegetables, mixing the flour with water to make the dough, blending the meat filling with all kinds of condiments…so on and so forth. Finally, I asked another teacher, LuAnn Bender, to help me to make the Chinese dumplings for the students. LuAnn is an excellent cook and she was a great help. Together, we made several plates of dumplings (see the above picture) for the coming class on Friday.

The exciting moment finally came. When Mr. Elwood Yoder announced to the class “first taste, later talk,” the whole class cheered. The students then watched the process of how to make and cook the dumplings. “Delicious! Wonderful!” the students exclaimed while eating the dumplings. When I saw the American students enjoy the Chinese food so much, I felt happy and proud so that it seemed I had just  tasted some honey in my mouth.

After eating the dumplings, we went back to the classroom to continue the introduction to Asian food. Eating the dumplings gave the students more interest in the Chinese culture. This is a very vivid and fresh international cultural class.

- Special Correspondent Martha Chen

MMA Hosts Appreciation Evening at EMS

 

Last Friday at the EMS auditorium MMA (Mennonite Mutual Aid) was proud to host a night of ice cream, music, and comedy. At 6:00 p.m. an ice cream social was the prelude to a comedy show led by Ted Swartz and Trent Wagler at 7:00.

Vanilla, Chocolate, and Strawberry ice cream cones were enjoyed by everyone early on in the evening, with a brass quartet playing in the background. Our school’s hallways were packed with approximately 500 people of all ages enjoying both the sweet treat and the abundance of neighbors to converse with around them. This time of fellowship lasted an hour until the main event began.

A show led by Ted Swartz and Trent Wagler was an entertaining mix of Ted’s comedy and Trent’s music. The theme of the show was money and work and was made up of short skits and songs. Some of the ideas from the music and drama were debt, busy schedules, and how income is an awkward thing to talk about. Ted and Trent came together to form a great duo and will hopefully continue to work together much more in the future. As of now, they are already planning to be at Eastern Mennonite University’s homecoming in October.

Glen Kauffman, a managing counselor at MMA, commented that, “We loved the crowd that came out.” He also referred to the night as a “good musical comedy evening.” Kauffman stated that the main people invited to this event were the clients of MMA, whom they wanted to thank for all of their work together. However, it was also a time for MMA to get some community “exposure,” and many more were invited, including all students from EMS.

-Melissa Jantzi

Mockingbird Takes EMHS Center Stage

The classics seem to be making a comeback. This year, the senior class will perform To Kill a Mockingbird, a play based on the novel by Harper Lee. The story follows eight-year-old Scout Finch (played by Katie Sacra) as she learns about racism in a small Alabama town. Her father, Atticus Finch (Mark Ferguson), is a lawyer. The court gives him the job of defending a black man, Tom Robinson (Aaron Brydge), who is accused of raping a white girl. Because many people disagree with what Atticus is doing, Scout and her older brother Jem (Clark Driver) have to endure harsh criticism, and even violence, from the townsfolk.

When the decision for Mockingbird was first announced, some students were surprised. The plays of recent years have been mostly comedic, and several seniors doubted whether a more serious one would be as much fun. However, Mrs. Swartz relates happily, they all “bring the spirit of cooperation with them” as they dive headlong into practice.

Most students already know the global education theme this year: Building Bridges. Mrs. Swartz lists this as one reason she chose this play, “What better story to illustrate [the theme]?” says Swartz. The plot of Mockingbird centers on building bridges between the white southerners and the Negroes.

Also, many people in the area will have recently read the book and will be very interested in it. The Brig Read, a program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts selects several books every year and encourages communities to read and discuss them. This year, the Massanutten Regional Library chose to focus on To Kill a Mockingbird. Having it as the senior play will give people a chance to see it performed onstage after reading it earlier in the fall.

This play also serves as a tribute to Lee Eshleman, a 1981 EMHS alumnus who died last spring. Lee played the part of Atticus when EMHS picked mockingbird as its senior play in ’81. He often used Atticus’s opening speech as a warm-up before going onstage in Ted and Lee productions. By performing this play again, we honor him.

While some probably still have their doubts about the play, most seniors have set their apprehension aside and have worked diligently to memorize and practice. Judging from Mrs. Swartz’s enthusiasm and from the talent of the cast, this will be senior play to remember.

The play will be shown at the EMHS auditorium this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights at 7:30 PM. Adult tickets are $7; children $5.  Parental discretion is advised due to mature subject matter.

- Guest Writer Annie Brunk

Bible Quizzing: The Awesomest Activity Ever!

Once a week a few teams will gather. Each team can only have six quizzers in a match at a time. Four players are active while two sit out as substitutes. There are 15 questions asked by the quizmaster. For each right answer the player’s team receive 10 points. By end of the round a winning team is found. Players need to have good memories to remember small details involving several chapters in the chosen book of the Bible.

This year the book of Acts was chosen, specifically chapters 10 through 28. This weekend two teams traveled to Richmond from Harrisonburg. One team was from Crossroads/Trissels while the other was from Mount Clinton Mennonite Church. Several EMS students participate in the Bible quizzing. They include me, Freeman Bendfeldt in 12th, Joseph Bender in 11th, Maria Martin in 11th, Jenny Hartzler in 10th, John Gullman in 10th, Malinda Bender in 9th, and Jared Giel in 7th. We traveled to meet two teams half way from Chesapeake. We had lunch and then had seven quiz matches. The first five matches were just over the two chapters that all the teams had studied that week, while the last two matches covered the first half of Acts.

All of the teams are preparing for the big Bible Quizzing Tournament up in Lancaster Pennsylvania, where hundreds of Bible Quizzers will gather to compete and half out.

- Freeman Bendfeldt

I Once Was Lost

This semester's Spiritual Renewal Week, EMHS students focused on God's grace in using average people to accomplish His will in the world.  Each day, we watched a part of Walden Media's Amazing Grace, a documentary of William Wilberforce's fight to abolish Britain's slave trade.  Wilberforce's passion for this cause drove him to sacrifice complacency and peace of mind, to get his hands dirty in a corrupted political system.  His work inspired thousands of people to sign petitions and join him in acts of solidarity, like refusing to "take sugar in our tea."  he continues to challenge us today, as we contemplate the sacrifice it might take to examine the injustice in our lives and work to meet the needs around us.

Senior, and member of Chapel Planning Committee, Nathan Hershberger says that the film is "A really excellent movie," and that it "could inspire people to live a better life even in the face of adversity."  Says Junior Allen Bondurant Carter III, "I was mad because I didn't want to like it... and I did."  Walking through the halls last week, as I heard snatches of the hymn Amazing Grace, I hummed and sung: "how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch..."  Hopefully, those words will follow us into the rest of the school year.

Hannah Cranston

Looking Forward to Discovery Trips

As students and faculty at EMHS know, mini-terms, a chance for students to explore learning outside the classroom, have been reformatted into a new Discovery curriculum.  This change came about in response to a desire to better the mini-term program in light of dialogue with teachers, parents, and churches. 

In the new Discovery curriculum, students receive credit for Discovery activities, whereas before, a mini-term was simply required every other year.  Because Discovery terms will be offered each year during the week after exams and before graduation, (another change) students can choose when they wish to attend a Discovery trip, making the system more flexible. 

These Discovery trips and activities will essentially be the same as the week-long mini-term activities.  Now, however, students can count church service or convention trips, choir trips, the month long out-west Discovery trips or other acceptable activities towards this Discovery credit.  Two such credits are required to graduate, one earned sometime in 9th or 10th grade, one in 11th or 12th.  One of these two credits must be earned through a school trip.

The only substantive change from the Mini-terms to the Discovery trips is the requirement that students journal briefly about their experience.

This change from mini-term to Discovery came about in response to feedback from churches and families.  Oftentimes church trips and school mini-terms became competing interests, especially when such trips each cost a large amount of money. “Congregations welcomed more cooperation with the school,” said Steve Yoder, a Bible teacher at EMHS who is heading up the transition from mini-term to Discovery curriculum.

According to a survey earlier this year, 42 high school students plan on counting a church trip for Discovery credit, demonstrating that such cooperation is indeed happening. Others were dissatisfied with mini-term because it was simply seen as another cost in the student’s education which did not include any credit.

But the new Discovery curriculum is not set in stone.  Said Mr. Yoder, “While I wouldn’t say it’s a test run, it is open for evaluation …we will be listening to feedback from students, faculty, churches and others.”

- Nathan Hershberger

Big Brother/Big Sister Program

On the first day of sixth grade, no one is your friend. The just-crossed bridge from your childhood is smoldering behind you. You will never go back to those carefree days of endless recess and naptime, when your biggest worry was your weekly duty as a goldfish-feeder. Needless to say, the transitional confusion and grief that every sixth-grade child suffers is enormous. EMHS does whatever it can to ease their passage.

The Big Brother/Big Sister program, initiated by Mr. Eberly, is a way of providing these students with a more welcoming environment in their first year of transition. Each new middle school student is paired with a returning junior or senior. A group of students consult a list of the middle school student's interests so that they can match the Little Brother/Sister with a like-minded Big Brother/Sister.

These "siblings" sit by each other in every chapel. Beginning each day with this brief meeting, they may well begin to form a relationship that will make a difference in both of their lives. Each quarter, sibling pairs meet over lunch in the cafeteria to eat and talk together, and to enjoy the ice cream that comes free to every student in the program.

Though, admittedly, some sibling pairs don't hit it off, success stories are encouraging enough to convince EMHS that the program is an important part of both older and younger students' school experience. Some relationships extend beyond school.

While at EMHS, alumni Melody Bomberger was a Big Sister to Laura Leischner. Melody wrote journals to her Little Sister, leaving them in her locker every day. Laura responded in the notebook and returned it to Melody's locker. As the year went on, their relationship deepened through these notes. The friendship did not stop when Melody graduated. The pair kept in touch while Melody went through college, and in 2005, Melody included Laura in her wedding. Melody and Laura are still great friends.

When Katie Sacra came to EMHS in seventh grade and became Laura's Little Sister, Laura was ready to follow Melody's example. Melody had, in Mrs. Leischner's words, "set the tone" for Laura. She and Katie also became good friends.

Says Katie, "Laura and I still stay in touch and get together for breakfast or lunch." Now, in her senior year, Katie can pass this friendship on to her Little Sister, Joy Njoroge. Katie says that she learned a lot from Laura. "She's been my example of how I can be a good big sis to Joy now."

EMHS gives its students a unique opportunity to build relationships through this "mentoring" program. But, like everything in life, this experience is what you make it. While some Big Brothers and Sisters find it a stretch to even share an hymnal with their partners, others have shared themselves, dedicating to and energy to the relationship. Melody Bomberger will take the initiative in beginning lasting friendships.

- Hannah Cranston

8th Grade Goes to Op Shop

The 8th grade FCS class is making a difference in our community by going to the Op Shop. The Op Shop is a non-profit organization that serves adults with developmental disabilities. It was started in 1983 to address the need for a day program for adults with disabilities. The Op Shop believes that every person with a developmental disability has the right to live, learn, and work in the most normal environment possible. While at the Op Shop, adults have the opportunity to earn a paycheck by doing jobs such as preparing bulk mailings and making craft items that are sold at the Op Shop store. The adults develop their life skills at the Op Shop, which paves the way for future employment.

Our guidance counselor, Mrs. Tina Glanzer, made it possible for the students to visit the Op Shop. Mrs. Glanzer has made it her personal project to get kids out into the community and broaden their worldviews. Having a brother-in-law who is a member of the Op Shop, Mrs. Glanzer used that connection to create a program for the 8th grade FCS class. While at the Op Shop, the 8th graders interact with the residents by doing crafts or playing games together. Mrs. LuAnn Bender, the FCS teacher, said, "Some people who I think are going to be the most uncomfortable end up being the most comfortable working with the people and enjoying themselves a lot." The class is split into a guys' and girls' section and each section goes to the Op Shop twice a semester. Though it may seem like a small deed to the students 8th Grade class, the relationships that are developed are making a difference.

- Rose Jantzi (photo by Mrs. Glanzer)

Grizzled Veterans Impart Stories

Just started last year, a new tradition has emerged at EMHS.  As part of their Kingdom Living course, EMHS seniors will perform a sort of rite of passing, consisting of a presentation of how they have developed over their high school years.  Quite obviously, this is very much open to interpretation, and the assignment, while encouraging the students to pick up on a particular theme, is open ended.   
    Students are encouraged to present, outside of school hours, to their family, friends, and possibly church mentors a summary of how they have developed spiritually, as well as academically and personally.  Elwood Yoder, Kingdom Living teacher and major advocate of the project, believes that it is an excellent way for students to share their broad experiences and shape a twenty minute presentation to reflect the range of the high school experience.  Coming from a variety of backgrounds and spending varying periods of time at EMHS, every class should be able to field a variety of speakers and fascinating presentations.   
    Though only kicked off last year, Senior Presentations, as they are known, seem to have garnered considerable support and foundation.  Last year's class presentations revolved around such varied topics as singing, running, relationships, and the seniors of 2006 seem to have appreciated the assignment, though there were problems of accessibility during school hours.  Warmly received by the community and faculty, EMHS can anticipate an even better show this year, with more accessible time frames for the presentations and full class participation.      

- David Jost

Homecoming Weekend

The SCO's plans for this week have all led to a big homecoming weekend. A number of events are scheduled for this weekend, October 19-21, to honor EMHS alumni.

On Friday at 8:30 in the morning there will be a golf tournament with ten teams competing, and a Founder's Day Banquet at 6:30 in the evening. The banquet will be in recognition of George R. Brunk III for the Founder's Lifetime Service Award. From 1977 to 1999 he was a dean at EMS, no, not Eastern Mennonite School but Eastern Mennonite Seminary.

On Saturday, Robin Zook will organize a home coming road race at the EMU track, 8:30 in the morning. Facility tours are being held ever 30 minutes from 12-2 pm on Saturday, and sporting events from 1-5pm, with a reception for Jim Rush at 6:15 in the EMHS commons. Jim Rush just retired this year after teaching US Government at EMHS for 40 years. Saturday will conclude with a Homecoming Concert at the EMHS auditorium at 7:30, which Mr. Hartzler and the senior chorus have been working hard to get ready for.

Finally, on Sunday there will be a worship service at 10:00 in the morning honoring Lawrence E. Ressler, the 2007 EMHS alumnus of the year, "For 35 years of serving God's kingdom through Christian social work, teacher and administration."

A full list of homecoming weekend events can be found at emhs.net under "Homecoming 2007 Information"
An article on Jim Rush can be found here. More information on Lawrence E. Ressler can be found here.

- Eric Broderson