A survey of 35 students showed that 86 percent wanted a summer job. However, only 37 percent have been able to get jobs during previous summers, and 46 percent were able to get a job for this summer.

This teen employment ratio is not only low among Central students, but also nationally. In the summer of 2011, 1.1 million American teens looked for a job but failed to get one. This number is twice that of 2000. Studies show that this is due to the economic recession.

With this reasoning, it has become more difficult for students to acquire summer jobs.

Kristin Collins, senior and camp counselor for the Clarendon Hills Park District, says the fact that this year is one of many that marks a statistical decrease in summer job openings for teens. “[The Park District] is the only place I applied to, so I’m lucky it all worked out,” Collins said.

Alex Harvey, senior and employee at Justice, says that job applicants verbally contact the employer. “I applied other places but they never said anything back. You have to go in and talk to them, and tell them to look at your application. Or else, if it’s just online, they’re never going to look at it,” Harvey said.

Collins thinks that the application process favors college students. “They take a lot of returning college kids that have worked there summers, before. I think that’s bad now because I’m in high school, but if I were them I would give jobs to college students too because they are more experienced,” Collins said.

Although she would like to do an internship during future college summers, Collins knows that she can fall back on the traditional option for college students and return to a previous summer job. “It’d be nice to have it to come back to, just in case,” Collins said. These types of situations–when a college student returns to a prior summer job–are those that take jobs away from high school students.

Harvey’s coworkers include high school and college students. Employee positions, job openings, and working hours depend primarily on employee school schedules. “Right now I work on Saturdays and Sundays. In June, I’ll have more hours added,” Harvey said.

As students continue to search for job openings, they must compete among other high school and college students for the open spaces. Some students, like Collins and Harvey, have gotten summer jobs as camp counselors, retail employees, lifeguards, babysitters, and paid interns.

Top seeded in its sectional, Central (14-3-3) is looking forward to making a run to state after winning the regional championship 2-1. Goals from Meghan Schick, junior, and Alison Cerny, junior, guaranteed the Devils another game.

The team, undefeated in the West Suburban Silver Conference, defeated Proviso East earlier in the week in the regional semifinal.

According to head coach Michael Smith, the team has all the tools needed to have a successful postseason run. “We have the team mentality of a winner,” Smith said. “We are returning a lot of players from last year, so this is one of our more experienced teams in recent years.”

The team will face fourth seeded Benet in the sectional semifinal at home this Tuesday at 5 p.m. Although the team is the higher seed, Smith knows the team cannot take any opponent for granted.

“We’ll go as far into this postseason as our organization and discipline take us. The number one seed label can only take you so far,” Smith said.

“We have two types of salary. One is for general members. They are paid a quarter per meeting. The other type is for officers, which are basically presidents of different departments, and they get 75 cents per meeting. They do really have to work a lot more and sacrifice a lot more for time. This year we had around 18 meetings,” said Lillian Leung, founder.

Students in the club come up with a product idea and sell it to people in the area. “Our product ended up being a tea bottle which is basically a water bottle that has two openings: one on the bottom, with a filter, where you put tea leaves in, and on the top where you pour water. It was $10 per bottle, and they came in different colors.” Leung said.

According to Leung, the club improved tremendously this year in sales. “At first we planned to have more parents and teachers to buy it, but in the end, a lot of students were interested as well, which was really surprising but obviously that made us happy,” Leung said.

Leung credits the success to the club’s greater work ethic. “We think that a major part is that we really took the initiative to approach customers. We actually went to baseball games and soccer games, and actually approached parents,” Leung said.

Interest in the product was much higher this year as well. “I would say this year was actually more successful because last year a lot of people bought it because it was cheap , but this year people actually wanted the product. It was $10, and we were still able to manage to sell all of them, so that’s really quite an achievement,” Leung said.

Leung believes that the club offers students a lot of business opportunities that extend beyond the classroom. “JA company is this really great club for students who have hands-on experience on what a company actually looks like, and what’s really involved in it. It’s not something you see from a textbook, but you actually immerse in the experience, and we form really good relationships,” Leung said.

“Plast is different from Boy Scouts of America because it challenges its members to a higher degree in regards to mental and physical challenges,” Shkrobut said.

These mental and physical challenges go through a number of stages, all leading up to the Три Пера or Three Feathers, stage. To complete this stage, scouts must spend three days and two nights isolated in a forest. They are only allowed 1,000 calories of food, an empty water canteen which they fill in nearby creeks, a knife, and the clothes on their backs. They also aren’t allowed to move more than 30 steps from their location.

“The scout does not interact with anyone, and I mean no one, not even the counselor, if for some reason the scout sees him. The scout can’t speak or make noises the first day. The point of the merit is to recreate and endure a situation Ukrainian Insurgent Army soldiers did in the 1940s while fighting the Nazis from the West and Soviets to the East,” Shkrobut said.

Recreating events like this has a big historical significance to Plast members because the organization began as a secretive organization.

“Communist Russia suppressed any organizations for or benefiting countries of the Eastern bloc. Therefore, Plast spent many of its years from 1912 to 1991, when USSR collapsed, in the dark, with supporters ‘underground’ and insurgent soldiers in the 40s supporting the organization,” Shkrobut said.

Overall, being a part of Plast has affected Shkrobut’s life immensely, because it has exposed him to a number of unique situations and has increased his knowledge of his culture.

“Being a boy scout has affected me very, very seriously. I’ve been introduced to the beauty of my motherland and its physical, traditional, and cultural aspects, and I’ve learned to be practical and survive, not only in extreme situations but also in everyday challenges I’m faced with in school and outside of school,” Shkrobut said.

In Orlando, Florida, there were over 6,000 students competing, and in specific events there were 50 to 100 people. The team sent 22 competitors to represent Hinsdale Central.  The club was recognized with the BPA Community Action Award and the BPA Community Relief Award for their service throughout the year.

Isabella Anastassoff, freshman, placed first in the competition Management/Marketing/Human Resource Concepts and eighth place in Computerized Accounting.  Her goal was to place in the top 10 for both of her events.  “I definitely exceeded my expectations,” Anastassoff said.  Anastassoff prepared all year for the competition by studying on her own and also learning from her Accounting Honors Class.

According to Claire Hopkins, junior, the team prepared differently than for regionals or state.  “It was more about fixing little things in our PowerPoint than completely starting from scratch,” Hopkins said.  They also made themselves stand out by bringing props, folders, and handouts.

“We would meet a lot a head of time and decide what we wanted our business to look like.  We had to prepare marketing techniques, financial summaries, and everything else that makes up a business plan,” Hopkins said.  Hopkins and her team won third for small business management.   “I knew the competition at Nationals would be really tough, but I thought our business plan was solid and well thought out,” Hopkins said.

The team consisted of Megan Sharp, junior, and Jen Gust, junior.  This was one of the most popular categories, and they competed against 40 to 50 teams.  In their category they created an entire business plan for a struggling sports store. They created the small business, Vica Pota, and their goal was to make the business successful again.

Erik Maday, junior, was a top 10 national finalist.  He competed in the events Advanced Desktop Publishing and won first and also Fundamentals in Web Design, where he placed seventh.  “I never imagined that I would place at nationals, let alone win,” Maday said.  This was his first year being a part of BPA.

For Kate Ryan, junior, this was her second year being involved in BPA.  In her part of the competition she had an hour and a half to complete a large set of jobs.  She qualified in the top 20 at nationals, which she was very proud about.  “The atmosphere is very competitive but encouraging,” Ryan said.

There was so much to love. The movie, based off of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, was like the 20’s era meets “Moulin Rouge”— extravagant sets and costumes, stylized acting and over the top special effects. Two out of the three I thought were used appropriately.

Director Baz Luhrmann loves special effects, and while at times they were used effectively, like during the car crash, they could also be distracting and detracted from the raw beauty of the movie. In particular, the words appearing across the screen as Nick Carraway was writing the story of Gatsby were a bit much. Almost corny, if you ask me.

But other than this overuse of special effects, the movie was completely breathtaking. Everything from the scenery to the mannerisms of the characters was just as described in Fitzgerald’s novel.

A few changes were made to the original novel in order to make the screen adaption. Several minute scenes and characters were minimized, like the Buchanan’s daughter and Carraway’s exchanges with “Owl Eyes.” But these weren’t missed, in my opinion.

One relationship that I did miss, however, was between Jordan Baker and Carraway.  Their courtship was one element of the novel that was intriguing because it characterized them so poetically—he being the romantic, trying to keep a level head, while she was the one who shied away from commitment. These were important character traits that movie watchers did not see in the movie.

A pleasant surprise was the way Leonardo DiCaprio played Gatsby. In the novel, I got the sense that Jay Gatsby was very full of himself and that he had many more ulterior motives than he let on. But, DiCaprio made him a more genuine character with a warm smile and a truly innocent outlook on life. This made the movie all the more tragic, and I applaud him for his performance.

All the choices made in stylizing this movie to back up the actors were perfect, especially since the 20’s are such a spectacular era for costume and set design.

Gatsby’s parties, for instance, were so beautiful with the chaos decked out in glitter—I felt like I was lost in “Coney Island” as they referred to his house in the movie. The extravagant characters that walked into his parties and their clothing really did set the tone and made the movie as spectacular as it was. I particularly loved Daisy Buchanan’s costumes. In every scene she was adorned in some spectacular 20’s dress that was so stylized yet at the same time so relevant to us (you can definitely be expecting a 20’s fashion craze this summer, based on Daisy’s style for the women and Gatsby’s style for the men).

To top this movie off, the soundtrack is unbelievable. With artists like Lana Del Ray, will.i.am, and Florence and the Machine making huge waves by incorporating a 20’s speakeasy vibe into their music, they’ve begun a revolution in the modern music that we listen to every day.

In short, “The Great Gatsby” was not just a movie, it was an experience. It was almost too much to take in, with the beautiful costumes and breathtaking scenery, acting perfection and a revolutionary soundtrack. It’s worth seeing again…and again…and again.

“This year we performed outstandingly. We came into the year having lost five seniors and thinking that the loss would bring us down. We were told by past students that it would be a rebuilding year, but we rose up to the challenge and actually did better at nationals than last year,” said Greer Harrison, junior and Mock Trial member.

This type of achievement is not unusual for Central’s Mock Trial team, which is sponsored by Mr. Chris Freiler, social studies teacher. The team has gone to nationals, and placed in the top ten, in 2009, 2010, and 2012. In 2010 the team placed second.

In order to achieve this, Mock Trial members have to be extremely dedicated to their work.  The team begins the season in October with hour and a half long practices Monday though Thursday. After winter break they practice three hours a day in preparation for state in late march. By the time Nationals comes around, the team is practicing 4 hours a day, according to Zach Wong, sophomore and Mock Trial member.

“Two team members last year quit school sports. I know people in the past have done that as well,” Wong said.

“For most of the team, it’s almost like a sport because we put all of our time and energy into mock trial,” Harrison said.

Nationals are particularly difficult not only because of the level and scope of competition, but also because of the shorter time frame for preparation.

“Nationals is much more challenging, but much more fun. The case is four times the size, and we have about a fourth of the time to prepare for it as we did for state,” Harrison said.

In addition to the time commitment for Nationals preparation, many Mock Trial members have to forgo things like AP tests and prom in order to be at the completion.

“Last year, our seniors couldn’t go to prom because nationals was that weekend. Last week and this week are very hard for us because of APs. A lot of the members don’t study as much as we’d like to prepare for AP tests. We deal with it by putting mock trial first.” Wong said.

Overall, however, Mock Trial members don’t regret the time commitment and sacrifice that the team demands.

“Mock Trial has truly defined my high school career and has shaped the way I look at things today. It has been the focus of my school year since freshman year, and I wouldn’t want it any other way. It can be tough sometimes, but it’s definitely worth it,” Harrison said.

Some students want the birds removed from campus. Kaile Catalano, senior, believes they belong in a proper habitat, such as a nearby pond. “Relocate the goose,” Catalano said. Junior Shelby Halloran said, “Give it to the zoo.”

Although some teachers may agree with these students and consider the geese a distraction to the learning environment, German teacher Mrs. Johanna Jurgens strives instead to make it part of the learning environment.

“We’ve always had experiences, watching geese in the middle of instruction. It lets us learn to cohabitate peacefully. [They are] a welcome distraction.” In fact, it provides Jurgens with the opportunity to teach her students the applicable vocabulary for the word goose: Gans.

Each year, Jurgen’s classroom provides a front-row view of the “little ones’ lesson in flight”  as the geese nest just above the doors outside her classroom in the World Language hall. The geese’s honking and wing sputtering usually makes this obvious. “Years ago, feathers would fly in,” Jurgens said.

However, with the new air conditioning system, the classroom windows have been closed, so Jurgens and her students cannot hear the geese during class. Less exposure to this so-called open learning environment means that students have less experience in handling goose encounters. In the past, Jurgens has seen some students throw things at the geese or chase them. “But for the most part, people have been very respectful.”

What Jurgens perceived as decreased exposure may be the reason for some students’ intolerance of the geese, but for now, the geese remain.