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The Official Student News Site of Parkway West High

Pathfinder

The Official Student News Site of Parkway West High

Pathfinder

The Official Student News Site of Parkway West High

Pathfinder

Sewing two layers of a mask together, freshman Hannah Choi creates masks to donate to BJC hospital, the police department and nursing homes. Choi’s neighbor gave her the idea to donate masks to first responders. “This is the first time I’ve ever sewn, so it’s new to me, but sewing is helping me pass time. Once you start, it’s kind of addicting, and it takes away my boredom,” Choi said.

Photo of the Week – March. 30

Tre Bell, Staff Writer
April 3, 2020
Experimenting with prototypes to create different types of motion, freshman Joseph Britt works on his automaton for engineering teacher Chris Donaldson's Intro to Engineering class. In the week leading up to spring break, Britt, along with junior Levi Ladd and sophomores Rick Biswas and David Meisinger, worked on their robotics project during class in anticipation of competing at the 2020 Vex Robotics World Championships, under the agreement that they would finish the class project over spring break. "I offered to build [the automaton] because I had the parts to build it, and it's important to keep busy. It can be fun to challenge yourself and do new things," Britt said. "I am planning on learning some new skills, like text coding, that I might use next year in robotics. If you don't always have something interesting to do, the time can just kind of blend together and you can get bored."

Photo of the week – March 23

Brinda Ambal, Conceptual Editor-in-Chief
March 27, 2020
Volunteering at the United Hebrew Congregation Challah Club, seniors Jonah Yates, Anjali Shah and Emma Caplinger dispense flour to participants. Due to coronavirus fears, there was an equal amount of participants as there were volunteers. "The most rewarding aspect of the volunteer opp was that I was able to connect not only with West volunteers but the Jewish community and do an activity that I'd never done before," Shah said. "I enjoy baking, but I've never made challah bread before, so it was really fun to learn a new skill while also helping other people do the same. Afterwards, I got to bake it at home, and it turned out really well. My family really enjoyed it, and at school some of the volunteers brought their challah in to compare the taste and texture and share it with people who weren't there."

Photo of the Week – March 9

Charlotte Zera, Staff Writer
March 13, 2020
Focusing on the burettes, seniors Jon Ma and Jason Yang titrate in hopes of victory. The annual Battle of the Burettes, consisting of over 20 teams from schools around St. Louis, was held at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville Feb. 24. “I hope to continue my studies in chemistry in college because I love how the subject combines academic knowledge with practical, in-lab experience,” Ma said. “Things like Battle of the Burettes offer an ideal context in which I can apply what I’ve learned in the classroom.”

Photo of the Week – Feb. 24

Nayeon Ryu, Video Editor
February 28, 2020
Cutting out strips of fabric for a Day of Service freshmen project, junior and club-founder Fatima Shahab and junior Brooke Gangel construct dog toys to be donated to the Humane Society. Crafting for a Cause meets once a month to focus on a new project and create hand-made items to donate to different organizations. “The goal is to make something or have some sort of project to donate or help someone in some way,” Shahab said. “I decided to start Crafting for a Cause because I really like crafting and sewing. I wanted to combine my hobby with helping others and I thought this was a good way to do that.”

Photo of the week – Feb. 17

Carly Anderson, Conceptual Editor-in-Chief
February 21, 2020
Posing at the end of a Poms routine, sophomore Emma Roth dances with girls the Poms team worked with during the annual Little Girls Clinic. Each year, the Poms team teaches younger girls a dance, and they get to perform it at a high school basketball game. “I really loved teaching them because they were having a lot of fun, and they wanted to be there to learn what we were doing. When they complete the routine, they get really excited; you can see it in their faces,” Roth said. “One of the parts the girls got to do was learn a trick for the routine. Each girl picked a trick, and every time they did it in the dance, they got super excited because it was their part that they made up.”

Photo of the week – Feb. 10

Sabrina Bohn, Managing Editor-in-Chief
February 13, 2020
As the Seniors versus Faculty game breaks for halftime, English teachers Diana Lurkins and Taylor Rose, Principal Jeremy Mitchell, counselor Chris Lorenz and social studies teacher Nancy Sachtleben perform a kick line for the halftime show. The faculty came out ahead with a victory of 31-20. “My favorite part was performing next to Dr. Mitchell,” Rose said. "That was an amazing time because I think he had so much fun with it. Because he was having so much fun, the rest of us just went off of his good energy. It’s so cool that the Head Principal is so involved in Senior versus Faculty and he’s playing and dancing as well.”

Photo of the Week – Feb. 7

Ridwan Oyebamiji, Features Section Editor
February 7, 2020
Examining capsules to observe if their DNA was synthesized, sophomores Jameson Mullaney and Alex Spangler react to their results. Honors biology students combined their saliva with dish soap in order to extract their DNA. “We kind of messed up our experiment; we accidentally put too much soap, so it didn’t really work,” Spangler said. “We were kind of upset with ourselves, but were able to laugh it off. It was a really fun experiment.”

Photo of the week – Jan. 31

Susie Seidel, Convergence Media Editor
January 31, 2020
Continuing their story, juniors Emma Pence, Chloe Stillman and Ruthie Vierling participate in an activity at a Spanish Club meeting Jan. 24. Club members added one sentence in Spanish before passing the paper onto the next student. "Chloe Stillman had some really creative ideas about Harry Styles concerts. She's just hilarious, and I love being around her," Vierling said. "[I think it is] important to experience other cultures and step out of your own comfort zone because you have to not understand it at first to understand it."

Photo of the week – Jan. 20

Tyler Kinzy, Managing Editor-in-Chief
January 24, 2020