- June 5On to the next
- May 22The fun in finance
- May 22Photo of the Week - May 22
- May 22Spring in action: A look into West's 2026 spring sports season
- May 21French en route
- May 19Sarah Johnson
- May 19Crime, class and consequence
- May 18Athletes of West - Alexander Berryhill
- May 15What Happens Next
- May 15An empty table
![Days out from annual Advanced Placement (AP) exams, a pencil lies snapped in half, surrounded by a variety of study materials, symbolic of the frustrations accompanying end-of-year exams. AP exams are scheduled to run May 4 - 15, 2026. “I am taking three AP exams this year, [and] I only took one last year. [Last year,] I made sure I got a good rest before my exams; [this week,] I’ve been taking notes on each chapter [from my textbooks],” sophomore Shree Sikkal Kumar said.](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/DSC9826-1200x798.jpg)
![Senior Michael Collop stands in the sun at Vlasis Park in Ballwin, Mo. Collop has earned each of the 142 merit badges currently offered by Scouting America, joining the estimated 650 other Scouts who have done the same. Out of roughly 130 million youth who have participated in Scouting, only 0.00077% have achieved this distinction. “The whole point of merit badges is to learn something from them and get a glimpse into every single career or every aspect of [Scouting]. I think I took something from each one of those merit badges that's [going to] be with me for the rest of my life,” Collop said.](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/DSC7392-1200x798.jpg)
![West High’s girls’ and boys’ track and field school records are plastered next to the gymnasium entrance. In 2023, the girls’ varsity 4x200-meter relay team set a school record — the most recent track and field school record. “[My] freshman year, we almost made it to state. We made it to sectionals but came up short by 0.79 seconds from advancing,” Love said.](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/DSC_1232-1-1200x800.jpg)
![Justice. Domestic Tranquility. General welfare. Blessings of liberty. These key phrases have been redacted from this copy of the U.S. Constitution, reflecting the values lacking in the United States' Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). ICE’s behavior suggests that the values instilled in our nation have been stripped. “When you're implementing [immigration enforcement] on a mass scale at the speed it's happening [now], you're bound to see unjust, horrible things. The only way to solve that is to make the crackdowns less severe,” junior Alisha Yin said.](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/feature-image-jan-2026-1200x710.png)
![Amid major global conflicts, anonymous social media critics hone in on celebrities, especially female celebrities, every move. Taylor Swift's latest album release and accompanying press tour displayed the uncontrollable growth of cancel culture and the comfort anonymity on social media has created. “[Cancel culture] can be very effective when [it’s used to] speak out against a [person] or a corporation where [you] use your voice or your dollar as a way to send a message about what we accept as a society. [However,] we've really blurred this line where we expect [everyone] to cater to have a belief about every issue. Not one person is going to believe every single thing that you believe as strongly as you believe it," English teacher Michelle Kerpash said.](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/DSC_7626-1-1200x800.jpg)
![Sophomore Shree Sikkal Kumar serves the ball across the court in a match against Lindbergh. Sikkal Kumar has been a varsity member of the varsity girls’ tennis team for two years, helping her earn the number two rank in Class 2 District 2.“When matches are close, it’s easy to get nervous, but I [ground] myself by[staying] confident and ready to play,” Sikkal Kumar said.](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/DSC2801-1200x798.jpg)
![The narrow lens contrasts with a diverse reality; whitewashing means altering or concealing something to make it more appealing to white people. The word “whitewashed” as it is used today has caused identity crises for thousands, if not millions, of students. “I have been called whitewashed before, and it feels very sad. [It’s] just hard because it makes me not know who I am. You don’t get a lot of backlash for [saying it], so I think it’s a throwaway term for people who aren’t affected by it. When you are the person [who] is being called whitewashed, over time, it builds up,” sophomore Raaga Golla said.](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/IMG_5740-1-300x200.jpg)
![There are more than 20 open cardio machines at Crunch Fitness. I enjoyed the spacious environment at Crunch, a sentiment that was shared by sophomore Sanjana Daggubati. “[Going to] Crunch Fitness was the right decision because [it] feels more professional. Crunch’s workers are laid back, but not to the point where they don't care,” Daggubati said.](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/IMG_5242-1-300x225.jpg)
![Discarded to the side, Kansas City Chiefs and St. Louis Rams merchandise sits in a trash can after the two National Football League (NFL) teams left the state of Missouri. Both the National Hockey League’s (NHL) St.Louis Blues and Major League Baseball’s (MLB) St. Louis Cardinals, two other Missouri professional sports teams, have been in the city since their developments in 1967 and 1882, respectively. “St. Louis fans are incredibly loyal, judging by [the MLB’s] Cardinals and [the NHL’s] Blues. Team owners on the whole, not so much, judging by the [National Football League’s] Rams. This is more a function of ownership and profit than fan loyalty,” government teacher and football coach Melvin Trotier said.](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/DSC5875-2-300x225.jpg)
![Carefully holding a young athlete's face, senior Elizabeth Knott works at the face painting station in Victory Village. The Victory Village, located in the North Gym, served as a space for athletes to engage in multiple independent tasks. “I like to volunteer [and] interact with all different kinds of people [and] helping them have a fun experience. There was a little boy who asked me if I could [draw] a character from a game he liked [and] I was able to look it up and draw that character for him,” Knott said.](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/DSC9290-1-Enhanced-NR-1-300x200.jpg)
![Setting up the activity for his first meeting, Financial Literacy Club founder and sophomore Yash Bandiananthaiah writes on the whiteboard. For the first meeting, Bandiananthaiah created an interactive experience for members to immerse themselves in. “To me, the most important thing during a meeting is to make sure we are all engaged and participating, and [I do this by] always making sure we have a hands-on activity,” Bandiananthaiah said.](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC5306-1200x798.jpg)
![Hand raised into the air, senior Lauren Anstrom watches as her graduation cap flies along with the caps of all her peers. Anstrom hopes to leave behind the legacy as someone who was kind, hardworking, and always supportive of others. “Tossing my graduation cap honestly felt surreal. In that moment, everything hit me at once with all the excitement, relief and a little sadness too. It felt really emotional [because] this was the end of such a big chapter of my life, but also exciting knowing that everyone was about to start a completely new journey,” Anstrom said.](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC_3031-Enhanced-NR-2-1200x800.jpg)
![French teacher Blair Hopkins enters City Coffee & Creperie in Clayton, Mo. for breakfast with her Honors French 4 students and AP French 5 students. Both classes went on a field trip to a fair trade chocolate factory in St. Louis to begin their unit on Côte D’Ivoire, a major producer of cocoa beans. “My ideal school would just be the Magic School Bus — you would always learn about things by going someplace and learning hands-on, being able to see it yourself and asking people questions. I think [learning is] always so much more memorable if you can experience it firsthand,” Hopkins said.](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC2795-1200x798.jpg)