MLK day festivities hold vast array of voices

Portrait taking was run by student photographers from West’s newspaper and yearbook staffs. Volunteers from Theatre West’s hair and makeup crews also helped out. This session gave students the opportunity to have quality senior photos taken for free or for underclassmen to just have fun getting their portrait taken. The activity allowed a wide variety of students from different backgrounds to w...

The Business Professionals of America (BPA) chapter at West organized their own events, starting off with hosting a guest speaker from the southeast Iowa branch of the suicide prevention hotline. The session provided members a behind-the-scenes look at how the hotline functions and how they provide aid to those in need. Beyond hosting the speaker from the suicide prevention board, the BPA executive board ...

Choir students could choose to perform for senior citizens in the nearby Melrose Meadows retirement home for this session. The choir performed concert songs like “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” in the home’s foyer. For choir member Milan Williams ‘20, the atmosphere was a nice break from the pressure of a normal performance. “It wasn’t like perform...

This session gave students the opportunity to take part in a “privilege walk” and then talk about how their experience affected their perception of privilege in small groups. The privilege walk worked by a leader calling out statements like, “If you have health insurance take one step forward,” or “If you have a disability take one step back.” The activity is supposed to give a visual represe...

A required attendance for every student, Voices of West was one of the biggest sessions of the day. Held in the auditorium, around a dozen students of various backgrounds took to the stage to discuss the overall environment, safety and inclusivity of West High. A focal point of the discussion was a recent climate survey taken by students and faculty in which 18 percent of students and 11 percent of t...

Hosted by Spanish teacher Jamie Sandhu, this session aimed to debunk stigmas and stereotypes against people of Latinx heritage. Students in the session were broken up into small groups, each with at least one latinx person, and held discussions over prompted topics. Conversations ranged from the strictness of parents from different backgrounds to the harmful stereotypes that Latinx teens have to endur...

Organized by Best Buddies president Laurel Haverkamp ‘20, the “Meet the Buddies” session focused on special education and allowing students in the special education program and the students who signed up for the session to interact. Haverkamp began the session by giving a presentation over the the history of the special education legislation in Iowa and the US. “I talked a lot about how...

In this session, West alum Carlos Honore ‘97 spoke about his experiences both playing football at West High and also coaching the now viral 5th Ward Saints Youth Football team. Honore spoke on the the challenges he faced during his childhood, including nearly-cataclysmic run-ins with gangs and the ever-present scourge of his father’s drug addiction. Honore’s biggest goal for the session wa...