Former senior project becomes focal point of Catholic identity

For the past couple of weeks, maintenance has been working on the wall outside the office of Dean of Students Sean Ireton, and the project has been a bit of a mystery.

Maintenance was putting up the foundation for a drywall to serve as the backdrop of a former Senior Project.

Yu Jin Kim, class of ‘10, used one of the old iron doors from St. Joseph’s Hall as a part of her Senior Project. She turned the door into an art project, filling the iron crosses with pastel-colored mosaic tile.

According to Director of Facilities Stewart Walker, this piece of art was moved from the Brown Room to the main hall to create a focal point of Catholic identity as students walk into the Academic Wing.

Ireton likes this new addition to his office.

“We should have some kind of symbol of our heritage or past to remind us of our Catholic identity in our lives,” Ireton said. “It’s important to have a symbol to show us who we are, and that we are here for: not to be served, but to serve.”

When looking at the old door from close up, it may seem off center, but when walking from the Cafeteria, it is perfectly centered with the far wall and Ireton’s office.

The other monastery door is housed in the upper gym above the bleachers on the left-hand side.

Claire Grunewald is a Lifestyles Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.

New bells will ring in the New Year

Starting in the beginning of November, the bells,which normally ring at set times,rang  at unscheduled times throughout the day. Due to the disturbance to classes, the administrators decided to turn the bells off.

The bell system is composed of two components: the time and the intercom. The bells ring through the intercom when the time system tells them to ring. When the bells began to malfunction, it was assumed by Director of Technology Gregory Russell that the time system was broken.

A specialist came in two times a few days after the bells stopped working to evaluate what was wrong with the system and confirmed that the time system was broken. He also found that the circuit board in the control system was bad and estimated that the system was at least 10 years old.

According to Vice Principal of Student Affairs & Technology Brian Powell, the administrators debated buying a new system or repairing the old one. The final decision was to buy the new system.

“We already bought the new system which happened to only be only 100 dollars more than repairing the piece we needed for the old system,” Powell said.

The new system is to be installed on Dec. 23 and will be tested over break so no disturbances will occur during class time.

The new system is a web-based system which has the capability of changing the audio of the tones and can be pre-set during the summer for the school year.

“It is an easier program: you set it and forget it,” Powell said. “We also might be able to have some fun with it, like playing ‘We are the Champions’ during game days.”

Students and teachers have a range of opinions when it comes to the bells. Some believe it is necessary to keep students and teachers punctual while others like the laid back feel of the bells being off.

“The good thing about the bells not working is that I’m never late to class but some teachers hold us past the end of class time,” freshman Meredith Engelhaupt said.

Sydney Kirwan is an In-Depth Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.

Can drive makes a full house

This year’s Thanksgiving Food Drive yielded 7,242 cans to donate to Manna House and the St. Francis de Salles Food Pantry. That is 376 more cans than last year.

For their sophomore retreat, a number of sophomores helped to stock the pantries. “It was great to see that all of our hard work for the canned food drive went toward a good cause and helped real people in need,” sophomore Beth Sapatowicz said.

According to Coordinator of Service Learning Susan Strawbridge, the St. Francis Food Pantry had to turn people away because of lack of food the week before the Sophomore’s retreat. After the sophomores stocked the pantry, it was full.

“It was fantastic. It is record-breaking, and the way that we stocked the food pantries was amazing,” Strawbridge said.

The advisories of Fine Arts teachers Bruno Baran and Lisa Collins brought in the most cans, with a total of 782 donations. These two advisories won a Chick-fil-A breakfast for bringing in the most cans.

In second place came English teacher Allison Hall’s advisory with 488 cans. The advisory of social studies teacher Jacob Hollin came in third with 403 cans.

Junior Rob Flynn, of Hollin’s advisory, was impressed by his advisory’s efforts. “I think that our advisory did an outstanding job. I brought in 107 cans myself,” Flynn said.

“The goal for next year is 7,500 cans,” Strawbridge said. “I’d like to see us do that. People need to remember that people are hungry throughout the year.”

Mitch Hopkins is a News Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.

JC welcomes Trellis

Since the start of the school year, Trellis, a business helping those with autism, has been coming to JC after school every weekday until 6:00 p.m. Although Trellis comes to JC, no JC students are involved in the program.

Trellis helps those with autism from ages 10 to 21. It specializes in helping develop social skills and working with others.

According to the Trellis website, they use “fun, interactive and structured group activities to promote the expansion of play and leisure skills. This may include art, music, dance, cooking and social skills groups.”

Trellis’ after school program meets at three different locations, including the Trellis Learning Center in Sparks, the Linwood Center in Ellicott City, and JC. It will continue to be held every weekday until the end of the school year.

“Trellis has helped my brother, Caleb, very much so. It helps him learn social skills and how to cooperate with other people,” Micah Austin, a tech for Trellis, said.

Sydney Kirwan is an In-Depth Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.