Oxford Hills Senior Ready to go Above and Beyond by Shannon Kriger

As the school year starts to come to a close, seniors are feeling the pressure to pick a college. Being 5th in her class, Oxford Hills senior Jade Morin had a wide range of options to choose from. Although her intelligence got her noticed by numerous colleges, Jade wanted to decide on a career that not only makes a difference, but also involves learning and experience outside of the classroom. For that reason, Jade chose to join the Air Force. Jade has always had a passion for engineering. Having the opportunity to serve the country while doing what she loves is what made the Air Force a perfect match for her. Plus, Jade’s grandfather was in the Air Force and it’s a priority of hers to make him proud. “About a month ago I realized it was finally time to follow my dream. I want to serve my country, while having great experiences. It is a great way for me to see the world, while contributing to the country. Also, the benefits like education make it even better,” Morin explained.Jade was fortunate enough to get the specific job she wanted as a Aircraft Loadmaster. Aircraft Loadmasters are responsible in making sure the contents and people of the aircraft are transported safely. This job requires skills in aircraft, electronics, arithmetics, and more. Loadmasters are crucial to aircrafts, they are in charge of mathematically configuring the placement of items so that the airplane can fly safely. In addition to that, Aircraft Loadmasters deliver supplies and equipments to particular locations using parachutes while airborne. “This job sees a lot of the world, and I would be on an aircraft almost all of the time, which really interests me,” Jade described.It will take some time for Jade to get used to her learning environment, but that’s one of the best parts of the job for her. The job is far from ordinary and requires a systematical way of life.“One of the major things I am hoping to gain is structure. The military requires a very structured type of lifestyle and I am really looking forward to it.”Jade is anticipating leaving Maine for San Antonio, Texas on August 4th, where she will be at basic training for 8 and a half weeks. After she completes basic, she has to stay in Texas for 34 days of tech training at the Lackland Air Force Base. Once she finishes basic and tech training, Jade will be prepared to take on her dream job and travel the world. Despite the fact that she’ll miss seeing her friends, family, and teachers everyday, Jade is eager to start this new chapter in her life and is determined to succeed at whatever comes her way.

The OHCHS Shu Box Design’s Fashion Show Returns for it’s Twelfth Year by Rebekah Fleck

Everything from Zebra prints to musical notes to satin. That is what you will see at the 12th annual Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School (OHCHS) Shu Box Design’s Fashion show, put on by the Fashion design classes at OHCHS. All fashion design students are required to participate in this event, creating pieces of clothing which will be modeled by other OHCHS students at the fashion show.

When first started by Paul Soroy, the fashion design program, previously known as CAD fashion, was a way for girls to get into drafting because there is software that you use to draft clothing. His idea was to get the girls to draft clothing in hopes of getting them into drafting so that they’d maybe want to pursue a career in things such as building houses or engineering.

The fashion show is very inclusive of using student’s talents. Along with the fashion design students presenting their work there are other OHCHS students running the lighting and sound and even drama club members helping with things such as stage managing. The fashion design program has been in talks of selling some of their articles of clothing they have made to recoup money spent on material costs, but nothing on that topic has been set in stone yet.

When students in the period 4 Fashion Design class were asked how they benefit from this program some of the responses were things such as they learned life skills that you can use after high school and in the real world and a few of them said that their sense of style changed after being a part of the Fashion Design program.

Lori Millett, a teacher of the CAD fashion program said, ““I should not be amazed, but I am just so pleased that there are kids that come in who have absolutely no idea how to turn on a sewing machine or how any of this works and at the end of the year we’ve come up with all this great stuff and it’s really nice work.They really do an awesome job.”

Millet also said, “I think its important to have this life skill and to give students a chance to have this in high school because once you get out of school your chance kind of goes away.”

The Shu Box Design’s fashion show will be taking place in the Eastman Auditorium at OHCHS on Friday May 1st at 7pm. Admission is free.

The Kick-Off Mentoring Program Kick's Off for the 2015-2016 School Year by Rebekah Fleck

A small fish in a big sea. That is what you could say about freshmen entering high school for the first time. Incoming freshmen at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School (OHCHS) Don’t have to feel like such a small fish anymore, thanks to John Springer and Paul Bickford. A couple years ago Springer and Bickford attended a conference, at which the founder of a program called the Kick-Off Mentoring program talked about his national program.

When asked about the program Springer said, “It is a mentoring program where Juniors and seniors basically get the power for doing freshman orientation and meet with freshman and meet with them in CBA, so they are called kick-off mentors and they really get to be sort of upper class leaders in the building; leading freshman about what they need to know, like if they were a student coming in as a freshman what would they had liked to know and how would they have liked to been helped.So they really try to sort of watch over them and there’s a connection that a freshman has in the building.”

Springer and Bickford were in talks about this program for a couple of years and about doing it, they just had to figure out how to fit it into the school budget and how to rearrange it around our school’s setup.

Although Springer and Bickford are administratively helping, the teacher coordinator Michael Morell, a science teacher at OHCHS. Springer and Bickford will be playing a big part in the Kick-Off Mentoring program the first year, especially getting its feet off from the ground. Morell said, “I really want it to be successful because I think the freshman orientation mold we have now is broken and we need to put life into it and get the freshman excited to come to school, not just another day where they are going to sit down and be talked at.”

The Kick-Off Mentoring program will begin during the 2015-2016 school year. In this program each Junior and Senior who participates will be assigned 4-5 freshman. Every single incoming freshman will have a mentor.