Welcome, Guest!
Cheers & Jeers: Post-Agora Days '09 edition
Published: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 - 6:54pm
-
Checkmate!
Uni's chess team has always been impressive. But this year's team outperformed schools with enrollments in the thousands to win the IHSA state tournament Feb. 13-14. Coached by Chris Merli and led by first board Gordon Ruan, Uni captured its seventh Illinois chess title, a record no other school can match. Brian Wang (fifth board), Daniel Cheng (sixth board), and Richard Wang/Michael Meyer (eighth board) went undefeated throughout the seven rounds of play.
-
More Honors
The last five or six weeks have been pretty busy if you're keeping track of student awards. Let's see: The ExploraVision team of Tej Chajed, Daniel Cheng, Danny Ge, and Isaac Chambers won a regional championship and will vie for a $40,000 first prize (four U.S. Savings Bonds worth $10,000 each); Richard Wang made it past the first round in the U.S. Physics Team selection process; Greg Atherton and Daniel Borup were among only 2,600 students nationwide chosen to be Presidential Scholar candidates; pianist Kathy Qiu won the Young Artists Competition and will perform with the Danville Symphony Orchestra on March 14; Kareem Sayegh was regional runner-up in Poetry Out Loud and will compete in the state finals March 10; Borup, Karen Han, and Elizabeth Russell performed as all-state musicians; Qiu was a winner in the Martin Luther King Jr. writing contest; the WYSE, ICTM, and MathCounts teams each won a regional title; yearbook won second place in the Eastern Illinois contest; Amy Ding and Diana Liu won a patent competition organized by Inventors Club; and 20 seniors were named National Merit Finalists. Whew! And we still have three months to go!
-
Agora Days
After a three-day weekend and four days of fluffy classes, our brains are feeling strained by the return to our normal schedules. When's spring break again?
-
Helping Hands
While most of us hung around and got some R&R last week, 17 students and three teachers traveled to Clarksdale, Miss., to build houses for Habitat for Humanity and volunteer in other ways in the community. If only we could all be a little less lazy.…
-
SNR TRP
As the second semester drags on, we seniors are rewarded with a four-day trip to Wisconsin Dells.
-
February Almost Over!
It's a widely known fact that February is the bleakest, dreariest month of the 12. Thank God it only has 28 days, and they're almost up!
-
Director Candidates
The four director finalists were all very interesting. We were pleased that such impressive candidates took the time to visit us here at Uni, and that so many students attended their lunchtime meetings. We look forward to seeing which candidate will be selected.
-
Senior Basketball Players
The senior guys blew Judah out of the water Friday night at their final home game. The Senior Night ceremonies honored players Alan Kessler, Malcolm Taylor, and Charlie Wan, along with Voice of the Illineks Adam Tiouririne and student assistant Daniel Borup. In early February, the girls enjoyed their own Senior Night festivities, with a win over DeLand-Weldon and shoutouts to Rachel Skoza, Jessi Sullivan, Joy Shapley, Lizzy Warner, Sheri Grill, and Deborah Ladd.
-
Oscar Winners
Despite Lauren Piester's earlier disappointment at the nominees for the various Oscar categories, there seems to be widespread approval of the winners, in particular "Slumdog Millionaire," which took home eight Oscars (including the widely coveted best picture).
-
Plane Safety
"Snakes On A Plane" is becoming less scary than real life. With recent crashes of US Airways Flight 1549, Continental Connection Flight 3407, and Turkish Airlines Flight 1951, we're glad we're grounded.
-
Thin Walls
Whether it's hearing orchestra during second-hour genetics or listening to screams from the North Attic make their way down to the second floor, we all wish that Uni were a little more soundproof.
-
Salad Certificate
Some silly fool stuck a gross piece of lettuce in the long-vacant elevator public-safety certificate frame, causing the closure of the elevator until March 30. Now we seniors have to trek up the endless flights of Uni stairs. Not good for our senioritis.
-
Maximum: 15
Bright yellow signs have gone up around the school denoting the maximum occupancy for various rooms. Apparently the occupancy of the lounge is 15. We counted 27 seats. That's enough for 12 people to bring their imaginary best friends.
-
Is It April Yet?
Filling out college applications was hard, but sitting around waiting to be notified in April is definitely the worst part of the process. Also, overcoming senioritis long enough to fill out financial aid and scholarship applications is painful — at best.
-
A Lack of Sportsmanship
Lately there have been some pretty harsh words being thrown around on Facebook in regard to sports events between Uni and another local school. Cut the dramatics, please.
-
False Alarm
We were so excited third hour today when the fire alarm went off at the beginning of our calculus classes and we thought we would get to leave. But, treated, they were just testing out the sound and lights, and we had to suffer through both the incessant noise and math all at once.
-
KOVACS
Don't worry; of course we're not jeering Assistant Director Sue Kovacs herself. Rather, her constant USE OF CAPITALS makes us feel a bit more reprimanded than was probably intended. WE UNDERSTAND THAT IT IS IMPORTANT. PS: If your license plate is KOIN 85, that was an epic burn.
