(Photo courtesy Jonathan Law Ski and Snowboard Club)

By Morgan Taylor – Editor-In-Chief

Jonathan Law’s Ski and Snowboard Club is hitting the slopes this winter season.

With five trips coming up this season, the club has a lot in store for its members.

“The Ski Club is all about having fun with your friends while having fun on the slopes,” senior club president Michael Bagdasarian said.

The first trip is going to be Saturday, January 5, to Mount Snow. All trips take place on Saturdays.

“We are always looking to grow the club,” said Bagdasarian. “By adding more people, it makes the cost of the bus a lot less.”

The overnight trip is the major excursion of the club.

“The overnight is super fun but you have to go on two trips prior to that within the club,” said Bagdasarian. “It is two nights and three days. We spend the Friday afternoon on a coach bus for the six-hour drive, but we try to play some games on the bus.”

For the overnight, the club leaves after school and arrives at Smuggler’s Notch in Vermont for the weekend.

“It is so much fun,” said junior club member Theresa Rosato. “It allows us to have more time for skiing than a regular trip”

Junior club member Laxman Mohanarajan agreed.

“It is a great bonding experience and I love hanging out with my friends,” Mohanarajan said.

There are plenty of adult chaperones and new members can take lessons.

“I am really excited to try skiing,” junior member Ryan Tyimok said.

Skiing is a very popular sport in Connecticut and Ski Club allows students to participate with friends and peers.

“We do so much more than ski,” said Rosato. “There is time on the bus to play games and on the overnight we swim in the hotel pool and eat ice cream.”

The Ski Club is looking forward to this season and prospective members can sign up anytime.

(Photo courtesy @JLHSLatinClub)

By Lucas Greifzu – Staff Reporter

The Jonathan Law Latin Club meets every other Thursday right after school in the upstairs computer lab to learn about Roman culture and to discuss upcoming trips and fundraisers.

While the Latin cCub takes a good number of trips and does a lot of fundraisers every year, their biggest trip is  to Holiday Hill for Latin Day. They also are planning a trip to New York very soon.

“Latin Club is a club to celebrate ancient culture,” Latin Club advisor Mrs. Furst said. “It is also an opportunity for students to explore their own interests in the ancient world.”

The club learns about ancient Latin and Roman culture in many ways. For example, they make chocolate dormice, as well as celebrate Saturnalia, which is a Christmas like holiday celebrated in December.

“Some previous activities that we have done include celebrating Saturnalia,” Furst said. “We have also made dormice out of chocolate.”

The Latin Club also has another large field trip planned for the rest of the year. They are taking a trip into New York City to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“The Latin Club also goes on field trips,” Latin Club officer Noah Golden said. “We are going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City to learn about Latin culture.”

Latin Club discusses ancient Latin and Roman culture, students don’t have to be enrolled in a Latin class in order to be in the club. 

“There is a connection between the class and club, but you do not have to take Latin to be in the club,” Furst said. “It is a great opportunity to see what Jonathan Law High School Latin is about.”

A lot of things happen in the Latin Club meetings other than the activities about ancient Latin and Roman culture. They also discuss upcoming trips and how they plan to pay for them.

“In the meetings we plan out the trips that we are going to take to holiday hill for Latin day and to the metropolitan art museum,” Latin Club sophomore Anish Sikhinam said. “We also plan out our fundraisers to pay for those trips.”

The Latin Club also has a Twitter account. There they post about Latin culture and tweet Latin memes.

“I run the Twitter account with Noah,” Latin Club member and sophomore Oliver Steele said. “We also try to make our Twitter as humorous as possible; if you care to follow the Latin club Twitter it’s @JLHSLatinClub.”

(Photo courtesy @bkovacs1)

By Nyasia McDonald – Staff Reporter

Several in-state colleges visited Jonathan Law High School on December 14 for Instant Decision Day.

Instant Decision Day was hosted in the counseling department by the Law’s guidance counselors. Some colleges that visited were Southern Connecticut State University, Central Connecticut State University, Western Connecticut State University, Albertus Magnus College, and the University of New Haven.

The colleges interviewed the seniors that applied to each school and gave them an acceptance decision on the spot.

“Students had to sign up to attend,” guidance counselor Mrs. Kovacs said.

In all, 25 students signed up to attend the event.

Sacred Heart University also visited Law for the Instant Decision Day. The Assistant Superintendent of the college was in attendance to help make the admission decisions.

“(Law senior) Mary Lonergan got accepted into the Sacred Heart Early Decision Nursing Program with a scholarship,” Kovacs said. 

Students went to the interviews prepared and well-dressed.

“The students came prepared with questions and they were professionally dressed,” College and Career Coordinator Mrs. Sylvia said.

(Photo courtesy Jess Owens)

By Jess Owens – Staff Reporter

Jonathan Law’s Giving Tree is giving back during this year’s holiday season.

The National Honor Society decorates the Giving Tree every year with tags that have a name of a boy or girl along with their age and a gift. Students and staff are to take a tag off the tree and return it with the gift that is listed.

“We work with Bridges and their clinicians who work with these families come up with the lists for us and basically they give us three to five gifts the kids have requested and we fulfill their wishes,” NHS advisor Ms. Turcotte said.

Bridges is a social service organization in Milford which has counselors and work with families who are less fortunate than others. They give a list of kids and what they asked for without disclosing their names .

So far, Jonathan Law has received almost 200 gifts for the kids this year. They began with 53 children that they wanted to give at least three to five of the gifts they asked for.

“Our goal is to fill the list,” Turcotte said. “To make sure that all these kids wake up to something on christmas morning.”

Members of NHS are working very hard to make Christmas for these children one that they’ll never forget.

“It’s great; we got a lot of people to donate gifts and we are really really excited to be doing this” NHS officer Kruttika Gopal said.

One Law student who bought a gift was very happy to be giving back.

“I got a pair of sneakers for a boy that’s three years old,” sophomore Jefri Caballero said. “Once I was in need of a gift and I felt like it was necessary to help someone else as a act of kindness.”

NHS hopes that all kids receive what they asked for and that they have a happy holiday.

“I hope that we just bring happiness to the kids who deserve it because they don’t have a lot of money or some people just asked for diapers or winter clothes,” NHS officer Ming-May Hu. ”I hope it just brings them comfort and happiness for the holidays.”

NHS has been doing the Giving Tree for years and they have many exciting things coming after break.

(Photo courtesy Hannah Swenning)

By Stefanie Lojko – Staff Reporter

Two of Jonathan Law’s National Art Honor Society students, senior Hannah Swenning and junior Leah Milewski, have come together to paint a mural at West Shore Middle School.

West Shore principal Mr. Cavanna contacted the NAHS and Swenning and Milewski decided to take on the project. They had full freedom to come up with the idea on their own and that’s exactly what they did.

The mural will depict West Shore’s logo with their mascot, a wildcat, in the middle. Once that is completed, students and faculty at West Shore will put their hand prints around the logo and sign their names.

“We are trying to incorporate the teachers in the mural,” Swenning said.” We want it to show a sense of unity.”

After all the renovations West Shore has done over the past couple years, the mural will help create a of community because it is something all the students can be apart of and enjoy.

“Their time, creativity and craftsmanship is a great example of the school spirit at both West Shore and Law,” Cavanna said.

Swenning, a graduate of West Shore, felt that doing this mural for the school was an opportunity to leave her touch. She felt glad that other people can enjoy something she took part in.

“I do think it is pretty cool that I get to put my touch on a school that I used to go to, especially after all the renovations that have happened,” Swenning said.

Milewski did not attend West Shore but she felt good about painting something for another school. When others complimented them on their work, it gave her more motivation to work harder.

“It still feels special to paint this because I enjoy helping other schools,” Milewski said.

Cavanna feels the mural shows how creative and hardworking Law students can be.

“West is best because of these two remarkable artists,” Cavanna said.

(Photo courtesy pennlive.com)

By Anish Sikhinam – Staff Reporter

The Civil Discourse Club was recently created at Law with the aim of helping students find common viewpoints on certain topics.

Unlike a typical debate club, where debaters on either side come to convince or win the other person over, students in the Civil Discourse Club work together to find a solution that both sides agree with.

“Civil discourse is not necessarily formal, but there are some rules about it,” librarian and founder Mrs. Briggs said. “Those rules mostly involve finding common ground and active, respectful listening, where you listen not just to refute what somebody is saying, but you listen to understand.”

The club meets in the Media Center during common time, although there is no set schedule as of now.

“I envision meeting at least a couple of times a month, just to touch base with people,” Briggs said. “I want to give people enough time to do some research, but I also want to give people multiple opportunities to attend meetings.”

The club’s first meeting was during common time on December 4. It was mostly an introduction meeting, where the students decided what topic they wanted discuss.

The club plans to have its next meeting on January 8 during common time. The chosen topic that the students will discuss is climate change and what can be done about it.

“I want it to be all student run,” Briggs said. “I want the topic ideas to come from the students and be things that they’re really interested in talking about.”

Briggs has also shared library resources for students to research the topic and support their viewpoints between meetings. “We discuss topics of interest to the group and prepare for meetings by researching our topic a bit,” sophomore Brian Zirkel said.

The actual discussion will run having multiple sides, with limited teacher intervention, similar to a Socratic seminar.

The idea to start this club came from an article from the School Library Journal, which stated that in society and especially online, people don’t have the skill to be able to talk civilly amongst one another.

“People are ending up very angry and frustrated, and there’s a lot of villainizing of the other side and people who don’t agree,” Briggs said. “What I really want is for students to get a lot out of it, and walk away from the conversation not feeling angry or riled up, but feeling hopeful about the future.”

Most students in the club do seem to like the idea of civil discourse.

“I think it’s really important because in this day and age there’s so many people that have different opinions and everyone is always arguing,” sophomore Rachna Vipparla said.

The club hopes to recruit new members as well going forward. “I do think there’s obvious appeal to the Model UN kids, to kids who have done debate clubs,” Briggs said.

“I joined this club to speak better, learn how to communicate, and debate and defend my position,” sophomore Sanskar Shah said. “This club is for people that feel strongly about and like to express their opinions on current hot topics.”

(Photo courtesy twitter.com)

By Addison Schwing – Staff Reporter

The Jonathan Law Science Club is preparing to partake in the MIT Science Olympiad Invitational on January 12, 2019.

The Science Club is an academic club that participates in science-oriented events across New England. They spend the majority of their time preparing for the Connecticut Science Olympiad, a statewide science-based competition held at the University of Connecticut wherein students form teams and complete a multitude of science-based competitions.

Senior Ming-May Hu acts as Club President, and Ms. Turcotte and Mr. Stanton from the Science Department advise the club.

This year, the Science Club will be participating in the Science Olympiad Invitational at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Ms. Turcotte cites the location as a change of pace for the club.

“Normally we would do Yale University, but in the past, we’ve done Brown University, and we’re doing MIT this year,” Turcotte said. “The nice thing about going to MIT is that it’s out-of-state, so there are lots of people traveling from all over the country, whereas the UConn event is just Connecticut exclusively. It gives us more variety.”

The event at MIT is an invitational, and the actual Olympiad takes place at the University of Connecticut; however, the invitational is modeled after the official event.

Hu said that the club has worked hard in preparation for the event.

“There are multiple events [during the Olympiad], and everyone has a few of them, and everyone prepares on their own,” she said. “It’s kind of like an independent study sort of thing. Depending on the event, there could be a test so you would have to study anatomy for example, and people will go to different teachers for help, or you might have to build a tower that has to hold a certain amount of weight so you would have to keep doing trials.”

Participants are under a lot of pressure to perform well during the event.

The competition lasts from the morning to the evening and is composed of a gauntlet of challenges with different themes, such as Chemistry, Thermodynamics, Forensics, and Herpetology.

Turcotte expects students to show up prepared to the event.

“There have been years where people haven’t shown up prepared, and especially with new members, they don’t know what to expect, and when you show up and see these kids carrying all their equipment in and are prepared, and you aren’t then it’s stressful,” Turcotte said. “Of course, we want to win medals, and we want to do well overall, but the most important thing is that they prepare and that they pull their weight with their team so that they have a chance of being successful.”

(Photo courtesy @LawFran2015)

By Mia Cerrato – Staff Reporter

Jonathan Law’s band and orchestra got into the holiday spirit during their annual concert on December 11.

The band and orchestra have been preparing and rehearsing to ensure that their performance will be exceptional.

“My class, the orchestra, practiced these songs for the last couple of months constantly to keep tweaking and getting everything perfect,” sophomore Meghana Cheela said.

The orchestra teacher encouraged his studenst to push themselves to the best of their abilities.

“Practice, practice, practice,” orchestra teacher Mr. Burns said. “ We had daily rehearsals and class rehearsals. Plus, the dress rehearsal the night before.”

The band and orchestra performed various holiday songs.

“The band performed multiple symphonies,” sophomore Lucas Greifzu said. “A few symphonies we played were ‘Elements’ and ‘Circus Days.’”

The orchestra performed a setlist as well.

“The orchestra played ‘Carol of the Bells,’ ‘I’ll Be Home for Christmas,’ and ‘Festival of Lights,’” Cheela said.

The goal of the bad and orchestra was to make sure their performance puts the audience in awe. 

“I was truly impressed by the performance,” sophomore Jennifer Liu said. “I enjoyed all the songs and thought everyone did really good.”

The orchestra teacher had a similar reaction to the performances.

“I think it went really great,” said Burns. “ The orchestra played really precisely and the other groups performed really well.”

Members of band and orchestra seemed to be confident in their performance

“I think it went pretty good,” Greifzu said. “ We worked hard.”

Cheela agreed.

“The concert went amazing,” Cheela said. “ All the parents were very impressed and loved the concert.”

(Photo courtesy @jlawchoir)

By Rachna Vipparla – Staff Reporter

The Jonathan Law choir conducted its Winter Concert on December 11 in the auditorium.

The Winter Concert is an annual performance that the Advanced Vocal Ensemble (AVE) and the concert choir participates in.

“This concert was a lot of hard work for the choir to put together, but in the end it was an amazing experience that I really enjoyed,” sophomore Sreeya Gudlavalleti said.

AVE started of the concert with several a capella pieces and then they were joined by the concert choir towards the end.

A few of the songs sung at the concert were “December Rose,” “Stars I Shall Find,” “Ain’t that a Rockin, Silent Night,” and “Magical for Christmas.”

“We invited the middle schoolers from Harborside and West Shore, which was also a very interesting experience,” sophomore Jefri Caballero said.

This year, the audience was also very involved throughout, singing “Silent Night” and a Hebrew piece.

“This year, we were lucky to have Dana Weiderhold perform with us, she came from Pennsylvania and played the violin,” choir teacher Ms. Jones said. ”This was a very special treat for us.”

The audience was captivated by the talent of the choir and its extraordinary performance.

“The concert was wonderful and I truly was never bored,” sophomore Alexis Rios said.

The choir practiced for the concert for almost three months.

Since the choir is now finished with the Winter Concert, members will have to begin working on the Spring Concert next.

(Photos courtesy netflix.com and milforded.org)

By Morgan Taylor – Editor-In-Chief

Netflix producers recently joined the Law student body to film a documentary about the effects of vaping at Jonathan Law High School.

In a series about teenage lifestyle, Law will be featured in an episode for the school’s past honesty and openness about their experiences with vaping by students.

“I was called by this production company used by Netflix called Zero Point Zero Productions,” said Principal Mr. Thompson. “They have done documentaries for Netflix in the past and this is their new project.”

The producers asked to meet some students from Law and follow them around their life in and outside of school.

Law senior Bella Carroll was one of these students.

“Overall, it was an interesting experience,” said Carroll. “They had come to my house after school and before school the next morning to get a feel of what the life of an average high schooler is like.”

The students were asked questions about how they have seen e-cigarettes affect the school.

“They mainly had filmed interviews of my three friends and I, asking about what role e-cigarettes, mainly the juul, had in school,” Carroll said. “They asked everything from how many of my friends I’ve seen use it, to how our school tries to prevent it.”

The series is going to cover all aspects of teenage lifestyle with this episode devoted to vaping and how its affecting students.

“They are going to talk to health specialists and areas of government to discuss the consequences of vaping,” Thompson said.

Thompson is unsure of exactly how the high school was chosen to take part in this series.

“To be honest, they called, we talked, they came down to Milford and filmed,” said Thompson. “We don’t know if there are other school’s involved around the country.”

Law has taken significant strides to prevent students from using these harmful e-cigarettes, including closing and monitoring some restrooms to help keep students safe.

(Photo courtesy kauifestivals.com)

By Noah Golden – Staff Reporter

The Jonathan Law Ping Pong Club is looking forward to another year of meeting and playing.

Every Monday, the Ping Pong Club meets in the open area by the Freshman Wing. The first club meeting was on November 26.

“People can just come down to the open space by the freshman wing and play Ping Pong on Mondays,” sophomore club member Lucas Greifzu said.

During these meetings, the members of the club set up the table and then face each other in match-ups.

“It depends on how many people show up, but normally we will just have whoever wins keep playing against whoever wants to face them,” Greifzu said.

The club was organized last year by sophomores Angel Santiago and Owen Brennan.

“We had to play ping pong a lot in middle school, so Owen Brennan and I had decided that we wanted to make it a club and keep the tradition going,” Santiago said.

The club not only helps with continuing traditions, but also with the members’ sports and activities as well.

“It definitely helps out with tennis,” Santiago said. “Hand eye coordination helps out a lot. Obviously you don’t hit the ball as hard as you do in tennis. The hand-eye coordination and the little steps you have to take to get to the ball, and just the effort to get to every ball.”

People in the club also play it for the joy of the game itself.

“Ping pong is a sport that I enjoy and it’s fun to play it with friends,” Greifzu said.

The club also pulls in different people from different crowds.

“A lot of the people that come to it usually if for instance we have football a little bit later one day, the club would start and some of the football guys would come by and maybe some of the basketball players when they don’t have practice,” Santiago said.

The Ping Pong Club works together at all of its meetings.

“The Ping Pong Club collectively sets up the ping pong table in that open space next to the freshman wing and we just play ping pong,” said sophomore club member Anish Sikhinam.

The club plays all winter and spring which gives people in the club many opportunities to play and practice.

“It started on the 26th, and will probably end a little bit before the end of the school year,” Santiago said.

(Photo courtesy Mr. Beler)

By Jessica Owens – Staff Reporter

Jonathan Law marketing students recently took a trip to a Sound Tigers game for a Sports Marketing Day for students all over Connecticut.

Before the game, there was a presentation from the President of the University Of Bridgeport, and the Head of Student Development, who talked to the kids about different current college career opportunities.

The arena was sold out with over 7,000 people in attendance. Fifteen high schools, 20 middle schools, and 10 elementary schools attended the game.

“It was an educational day, put on by a formal alumni, which embraced the whole thing,” business teacher Mr. Beler said. “Overall I think it was a great success. We took 50  students all together.”

This event was hosted Law alum Tarah Kelly. Kelly was a former student in Beler’s business class and is currently the Head of Promotions for the Sound Tigers.

Students that attended the trip said they had many favorite moments.

“The fights – they were funny,” junior Brooke Nabors said.

Many of the kids, including Beler, enjoyed this part of the game, too.

“My favorite part of the game was probably the fights,” sophomore Justin Judge said.

Some kids enjoyed just interacting and having fun with the crowd.

“Mostly the crowd, like the singing and the wave, the game was fun to watch too,” senior Julie Myers said.

Students learned about marketing and met many new people at the game. Overall, the students seemed to have a fun, educational day.

“It was great to see, especially talking to the president about college and the University of Bridgeport, all the different college speakers and to see all the marketing put into place,” Beler said. “It was a pretty good day for the kids.”

(Photo courtesy twitter.com)

By Rachna Vipparla – Staff Reporter

The Jonathan Law Choir performed on November 8 at the Progressive Insurance “Key to Progress” program to honor veterans across the country.

The choir performed the National Anthem when opening the ceremony and closed the event with “Battle Hymn of the Republic” to pay their respects to the veterans.

“We were lucky enough to attend the Milford ceremony, which honored one incredible veteran,” senior Krutika Gopal said.  

At this event, Progressive honored the veterans across the country by donating them cars. At the event they also gifted the veterans with gift cards for gas, oil changes, and tire rotations.

“I definitely teared up at the event because the gentleman that received this, the veteran, was highly motivated and has done a lot for our country,” choir director Ms. Jones said.

The choir was very proud and grateful for the opportunity that was provided by Progressive.

“We are thankful for the people at progressive for giving us the opportunity to appreciate the veterans by performing in front of them,” sophomore Sreeya Gudlavalleti said.

The choir performed at “Keys to Progress” last year as well. After Progressive e-mailed them again asking for them to perform, the choir returned to the event for the second time.

“I think that this is a really great way to honor the veterans,” Jones said.

In order to ensure that they could honor these veterans by singing, the choir took out close to two hours of their day.

“For me, personally, I was glad to be part of such a special group and a part of honoring the veterans,” Gopal said.

In addition to the choir’s performance at the Progressive Veterans Day event, they also sang for the veterans at Law.

“We had an opportunity to sing for the veterans who have served our nation and it really was an honor to do something like that,” junior Faith Mills said.

They performed the National Anthem in order to honor all the veterans who fought for the safety of America. They felt that it was an amazing way to show their gratitude to the veterans who have served us.

“It truly was an honor to perform in front of the veterans who deserve more recognition,” Gudlavalleti said. “I had a lot of fun at the event and I think many people in the choir did as well.”

(Photo courtesy Cameron Asmussen)

By Anish Sikhinam – Staff Reporter

Recently, Milford Food Services has introduced a new beverage to help make students’ stressful mornings better: hot chocolate milk.

The milk is currently only available during breakfast in the morning with a purchase of a full meal.

“It might be coming to lunch, but it’s not available yet,” high school kitchen manager Ms. Attardo said. “We’re working on it”.

The hot chocolate milk will not be served a la carte as of now, but it is coming soon.

“We’re working on a price,” Attardo said. ”We need more machines in order to continue serving throughout the day.”

Milford Food Services has found that high schoolers aren’t getting enough calcium in their diets. To encourage young people to drink more milk, Milford Food Services and the New England Dairy Council decided to bring the hot chocolate milk to both Jonathan Law and Foran High Schools.

Hot chocolate milk has never been on the school menu before and this is the first time that it has come to the Milford Public Schools.

According to the New England Dairy Council, heating chocolate milk and offering it as hot chocolate to older students is a great way to increase milk consumption and attract new customers to breakfast and lunch programs.”

The beverage will be made of one percent milk, which comes from a local dairy farm in Connecticut.

“They have a certain cold pasteurization process that they use that makes it very creamy,” Attardo said. “We have a wonderful machine called the Chocolady, and we take our gallons of chocolate milk and pour it into the machine, which slowly heats it up by turning it to a nice warm temperature of 130-140 degrees Fahrenheit.”

The beverage, being made of milk and chocolate, contains lactose. The hot chocolate milk is not for people who are lactose intolerant or are allergic to chocolate.

Attardo and the high school kitchen is currently unaware if there are plans to add any other beverages added to the school menu.

“The students will be the first to know if we did,” said Attardo.

Recently, the high school kitchen offered a free trial of hot chocolate milk to students in the morning, and most students seemed positive and liked it.

“I have tried the hot chocolate milk and it was pretty good,” said sophomore Amir Elhelw.

Others think that the beverage needs a little more improving before it can be sold.

“The hot chocolate milk’s good, it just needs some cinnamon,” said junior Alyssa Denomme. “It depends on when you get it.”

Most students, however, like the way the hot chocolate milk gives them energy during a tough morning.

“It got me energized and it was tastefully pleasing,” said sophomore Joey Merly.

Overall, the new hot chocolate milk seeks to provide students extra calcium and nutrition, while giving students a great way to start the morning with more energy and a good mood – a win for both the food service and the students.

(Some information courtesy https://www.newenglanddairycouncil.org)