OH Student Council held a blood drive last Friday Oct. 17, allowing OH students and staff to come down during any free period they had, to come down and donate blood. Afterwards, they were given a gift to show their appreciation.
“Bringing this event to our school allows more people to get that opportunity to donate and help other people,” said OH senior and Student Council President Melanie Imbronjev.
Each year, OH Student Council holds this special event giving any OH student the opportunity to donate their blood to local hospitals and to Versiti, the local blood bank, that will accept the blood donations to help others who might need a blood transfusion and can not find their own blood type.
As OH students return to school from the latest five-day weekend, with another shortened schedule the following week and another five-day weekend a week after that, students are reminded of the extensive time off scheduled into the fall semester.
"I believe that the loss of days in the fall semester could ineffectively impact the ability for students to learn the skills and content that their classes intend to teach them," OH senior Riley Balhan said about the seven days lost in the fall. "Personally... this change will negatively impact my individual learning this year."
During the creation of this year's school calendar several changes changes were made. While the total number of student attendance days remains the same for the year, all schools in SD#308 were cut short by a week and a half of class time in the fall. Along with this decrease, an extra five-hour-day was added, ultimately reducing class time for students and staff by over seven days during the first semester.
Last week, libraries around the nation celebrated the annual Banned Books Week, aiming to bring awareness to book bans and challenges, and to encourage conversations about sometimes uncomfortable topics and people’s right to read.
“I think [[the goal of Banned Books Week]] is to give people information about when censorship does occur, and when we withhold ideas from others, we need to talk about why, and the other part of the discussion becomes ‘Why do I believe my values and morals should be placed on you?’ And so [[Banned Books Week]], really kind of, opens up the discussion and kind of leads to some of those conversations,” OH Library Director Drew Mundsinger said. “There's some books [[like]] Toni Morrison’s ‘The Bluest Eye,’ kids really don't read that anymore, but… that's, like, in the top [[most banned books]] of all time.”
While OH isn’t running any specific programs this year, the Oswego Public Library District (OPLD), with locations in Downtown Oswego and in Montgomery, is running reading challenges for both the youth and teen and adult departments.
“This year, we are honoring Banned Books Week with a reading challenge, called the ‘Perspective Challenge’ for teens and adults, and ‘Discover A Different Story’ challenge for children. Challenge cards are available at each campus for patrons to pick up and complete one of the challenges. This is to encourage patrons to read a book about an experience or a character that is unlike themselves, as many of the titles frequently banned show a character or story with different or diverse perspectives,” Assistant Library Director of the OPLD Alli Parker said.
OH has been recognized for the strength of its Fine Arts programs by the Illinois Art Education Association (IAEA) with the School of Distinction Award. The recognition emphasizes the work of OH students and teachers across multiple areas of the arts.
According to Fine Arts Department Chair Michael Skura, the recognition has been the result of growth within the department.
“When I first became a department chair back in 2004, I had a five year plan,” Skura said. “By 2010, our kids were just really doing incredible work.”
The Fine Arts Department teaches about a wide range of artistic disciplines and mediums, including sculpture, pottery, jewelry, mixed media, digital art and photography. Skura said the department’s success comes from the relationship between teachers, students and their shared effort to produce creative and strong work.
Last week, the OH Latin American Student Organization Club (LASO) designed their own Hispanic Heritage Month Spirit Week to celebrate the diverse culture at OH.
Hispanic Heritage Month started Sep. 15th and goes until October 15th, with many students of all cultures participating in this week of representation.
Spirit weeks allow for OH students to connect as a community through clothes and expression. Hispanic Heritage Spirit Week especially allows Latino students to show off their culture and pride.