The Pony Express, Vol. II, Issue 03 (Dec. 2018)

The Pony Express The student newspaper of Center Hill High School

December 2018

Center Hill High School

Volume 2, Issue 3

Trivial Pursuit Knowledge Bowl team quizzes to success By Sarah Claire Miller and Abigail Penfield Staff Writers Nothing is too trivial for the Center Hill High School Knowledge Bowl team. “It’s kind of like ‘Jeopardy’ but with high schoolers,” senior Grace Eskridge said. “There’s questions about anything from math to Human A&P to celebrities.” Eskridge was an alternate on the team that participated in a competition sponsored by WREG Channel 3 and hosted by Jim Jaggers. According to wreg.com, the Knowledge Bowl is the station’s most successful local program and has awarded nearly $4 million in scholarships since 1987. “I love going to competitions because it’s rewarding when you know the answer to a question,” Eskridge said. “The club is especially fun because of the other people in there and Mrs. Burgess and Mrs. Denham.” Knowledge Bowl is co-sponsored by Jessica Burgess and Jennifer Denham. They meet with students to practice twice a week before school. “We have been getting together every Tuesday and Thursday for four years now,” Burgess said. “Usually we have very relaxed practices where we just enjoy getting together as a group and blowing off steam while quizzing each other. This is a very hard competition to prepare for. Preparation comes from years of education in and out of the classroom. I just help them learn formats, gain confidence in their answers and prep them for being on TV. They are so smart!” Burgess said that the team’s recent success is a far cry from their first trivia contest. “When we first competed on the WREG Channel 3 Knowledge Bowl

Photo by Katie Whitaker Randi Terry, second from left, answers a trivia question from co-sponsor Jessica Burgess, right, during Knowledge Bowl practice before school Dec. 6. Cooper Jordan is pictured at far left. “Usually we have very relaxed practices where we just enjoy getting together as a group and blowing off steam while quizzing each other,” Burgess said.

competition, we got creamed,” she said. Earlier this month, Center Hill defeated Lausanne Collegiate School of Memphis, Burgess said. “I was so proud of the team for beating Lausanne,” she said. “After four years of coaching them, it was amazing! It slowly dawned on me throughout the last portion of the competition that not only were we pulling ahead, we were staying ahead. It was so hard to keep my composure in the studios at the very end. The look of astonishment on the team’s faces was the best part of it, and something I will remember for years to come. Lausanne has

always been a Knowledge Bowl powerhouse, and in fact, they tied for first two years ago.” William Wright, who competed in the WREG competition along with his brother Jacob Wright, Mary Lindsey and Randi Terry, described the win as euphoric. “I was on cloud nine,” he said. “All of our work has gone towards this. We’re all seniors, and we’ve been striving for this for four years for some of us. To have all of that practice and hard work come together and beat the reigning champion Lausanne the way we did was an absolutely perfect moment. I’m so proud of this group and what

‘I was on cloud nine. All of our work has gone towards this. We’re all seniors, and we’ve been striving for this for four years for some of us. To have all that practice and hard work come together and beat the reining champion Lausanne the way we did was an absolutely perfect moment.’ – William Wright, a member of the CHHS Knowledge Bowl team that beat Lausanne Collegiate School of Memphis in the WREG Knowledge Bowl

we’ve accomplished this season and hope we can continue this success.” Burgess said each WREG team member won a $500 scholarship to the University of Memphis through

this competition. The team will also compete at the University of Mississippi Academic Invitational Tournament and at the DeSoto County competition in February.

Youth and Government students learn legislative process By Emily Merz Editor-in-Chief Arming teachers, outlawing gay conversion camps, and requiring all American adults to own a colony of bees. These are just some of the many topics Youth and Government Club members debated on their trip to the state capital. The Mississippi Youth Legislature Conference was held from Nov. 14-18 in Jackson. At the conference, students from all over the state took on the roles of elected representatives and learned all

about how the state and national governments work. “It is a conference that’s been around for 60 years,” sponsor Toni Coleman said. “Different districts have teams that meet up every November to compete and legislate with each other.” Each student created a bill that they presented and argued, hoping to get it to the elected student governor’s desk, to possibly be signed. “My bill was raising the tobacco age from 18 to 21 years old in order to decrease tobacco in high schools

and premature death,” Hailey Ellis said. This was Ellis’ second time going to the conference, and she said she had a great experience. “My bill passed all the way to the governor, but once it got to him, it was rejected due to a contradicting definition which I believe was due to when someone amended it,” the senior said. Even though her bill was rejected, Ellis won the Outstanding Senator award. Many other CHHS students won similar awards, including Landon Bello, Kyle Heath, Cooper

Jordan, Ana Le and Mary Lindsey. “I got an award for Outstanding Representative,” Cooper Jordan said. This was the sophomore’s first year in Youth and Government, and his bill did really well. It passed both houses and was signed by the governor. “My bill was about net neutrality, which prevents Internet Service Providers from throttling data based on what that data is,” Jordan said. “My bill would implement Net Neutrality in Mississippi.” Coleman said she was satisfied

with the performance of the CHHS group, which was also named a Premier Delegation. “We were one of only two schools from North Mississippi to go,” she said. “Every year we go, we perform phenomenally and I hope to continue that.” The students enjoyed their time at the conference, and are hoping to continue to improve. “This experience taught me how our government is really supposed to run,” Ellis said. “The youth of our country is the future, and we are going to change it for the better.”