![Standing in Lambert Airport, French students smile for a photo before their flight. On March 10, the group of students began their 12-day trip to France, accompanied by French teacher Blair Hopkins and Spanish teacher Dominique Navarro. “The trip went smoothly. I think everybody enjoyed all three parts of it: Paris, Nice and the family home stay. The feedback I’ve gotten from all [of] the students has been positive, including several people already trying to plan a trip back to France,” Hopkins said.](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_8146-1200x900.jpg)
![Senior Kylie Secrest volunteers at the blood drive signup table.The table provided students aged 16 and up with information about the drive and assisted them in the signup process. “We decorated the stand in the lunchroom with heart related or red decorations from either Dollar Tree or Five Below,” Secrest said. “This year was my first year doing [the blood drive] and it was fun. I got to be able to meet new people and help out the community.”](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/image2-1200x800.jpg)
![January 2024 marks over seven decades since the publishing of “The Bell Jar.” In those seven decades, the novel has opened the eyes of countless women to the unfair treatment they’ve faced, particularly being percieved as nothing more than mothers and the consequences that arise from that. “To my knowledge, [“The Bell Jar” was] one of the earliest novels that explores a woman's mental health and inner journey and allows her to go through struggles and make mistakes without vilifying [her]. She's ambitious yet flawed and unsure how to proceed, like [many] women at the beginning of the 1960s. My mom was born in 1950 and grew up hearing that if she wanted to work, she had three choices: nurse, secretary and teacher. It was a brave new world when she found out there were more options. But that also comes with fear and anxiety and the judgment of others. Sylvia represents that journey,” French teacher Blair Hopkins said.](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Mother-26.png)
![Foreign language teacher Blair Hopkins stands by the smart board while she teaches her Spanish One class about different food items. Though Hopkins began with teaching French, she now teaches both French and Spanish classes. “Self-pacing is the biggest thing I've tried to take away [from the Excellent Fellowship program] because there's no class in the world where every single person needs exactly 10 minutes to do a task,” Hopkins said. “I'm trying to learn more how to set it up so that everybody can work at their own pace.”](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Hopkins1-900x600.jpg)
![Mid-air, junior Donovan Qualls leaps for the soccer ball during the varsity game against Ladue on Oct. 21. As the goalie, Qualls focused on keeping the ball away from the box and the back of the net. “[Being a goalie] is pretty tough. You have to be the commander of the team in your box, step up for your team, be loud, and have a lot of communication. Once you do it for a while, it gets fun. I really enjoy being the backbone of my team,” Qualls said.](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/DSC7136-Enhanced-NR-1200x798.jpg)
“[Honors Biology] is one of the hardest classes I've ever taken. The most challenging thing is [the] little time [we get] in between units....
“What is real will prosper. If you don't believe in yourself, what you strive for won’t come true. [I’ve been playing football] for three...