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On March 17-25^th, the Scholastic Book Fair came to Leigh High School. 

The Book Fair sold a variety of items from books to pencils to activity books. By the end of the book fair, LCS students had purchased over $3,000 worth of books!

Leigh Community School librarian Mrs. Held said, “I felt the book fair went really well!  Many people rounded up to the next dollar, and the library earned over $100 to put in their account, and nearly $500 in Scholastic books to use from the Scholastic Company. We are discussing how to spend the money, including furniture needs and more books! Thank you to everyone who purchased books during this time!”

On Tuesday March 25, the sophomore class job shadowed at businesses within the towns of Norfolk, Columbus, Humphrey, and Leigh. They did this as a part of their Jobs of America’s Graduates class, JAG. They all got to choose any job that they wanted, and were able to observe all that they do for around 2 hours. 

Five students went to Norfolk: Reese Wietfeld, Kaylee Brabec, Grace Hansen, and Rebecca Hastreiter went to the Faith Regional Hospital. Reese shadowed an OB Nurse on the women’s floor, Kaylee a radiologist, Grace a pharmacist, and Rebecca a Med-surg Nurse. Ella Higby also went to Norfolk, where she was able to listen in with a first-grade class at Grant Elementary. 

14 students went to Columbus where they shadowed a total of 7 jobs. Blake Loeske, Wyatt Langhorst, Cody Jedlicka, Ben Rodenburg, Clayton Folken, and Elijah Melchor-Smith went to ADM, where they got a tour of the facility and learned about jobs there. Reese Bruhn and Daphne Jedlicka went to Central Plains Milling to learn about being an animal nutritionist and the variety of jobs that they offer there. Reann Bruhn and Halle Korth went to Valencia in Columbus to shadow a hairstylist. Madi Freudenburg and James Moore went to Columbus Community Hospital. Madi was able to learn about radiology and James observed a doctor in the ICU. Vylet Hollatz went to The Good Life Counseling to observe what a Mental Health Therapist does. Alisyn Lich went to Gass Haney to shadow someone in the mortuary field. 

3 other students then went to Humphrey and Leigh. Hannah Martensen went to Humphrey to job shadow Mrs. Graham, an Ag teacher and FFA advisor. Carmen Malena and Emersyn Urban traveled to Just Teasin’ Salon in Leigh to job shadow a hairstylist. 

“Job Shadowing was a great experience for me,” sophomore Reese Wietfeld said. “I learned a lot about different types of jobs in the hospital. It also helped me solidify that I want a job in the women’s medical field. I had a fun time learning all that they do there and was glad I picked a job shadow there.” 

Rebecca Hastreiter also said, “I had a fun time learning about the job that I went to. I was glad to be able to have this opportunity to job shadow at such a nice place and I learned a lot!”

The sophomores will now continue to look into different career fields and explore what they want to do within their near future.

The Little Patriots wrestling team has been working hard on the mat all season and was eager to compete at the Nebraska USA district wrestling tournament. On Sunday, March 2nd, the team headed to compete in the NEUSA District 5 wrestling tournament held at Fremont High School. Hard work paid off as 13 youth wrestlers qualified for the state wrestling tournament. 

The following Patriot wrestlers qualified for state: Lexie Bruhn, Cooper Fehringer, Brantley Went, Brantley Higby, Luke Gall, Liam Brichacek, Jase Koehn, Brylen Wietfeld, Aria Gomez, Evan Wietfeld, Drextyn Bachman, Collins Fischer, and Keylen Fischer. 

To kick off the state tournament weekend, Leigh held an exciting sendoff as the thirteen qualifiers walked the hallways to music and cheers. They then made their way to Grand Island to the Heartland Event Center, where they got to show all they have learned and accomplished this wrestling season. After 2 full days of wrestling, the Patriots came home with two champions and four placers. Jase Koehn, Aria Gomez, Collins Fischer, and Keylen Fischer all placed in the tournament. Bringing home the gold were Evan Wietfeld and Drextyn Bachman.  

As Coach Nate Higby said, “It is an amazing accomplishment to place at an all-class State tournament. We couldn’t be more proud of the hard work and dedication everyone on this team puts in.” 

Congratulations to the thirteen state qualifiers and the rest of the team for having a great season!

At the beginning of every month LHS teachers nominate and vote on who has gone above and beyond on their academics and extracurriculars. This month’s Student of the Month winners are Emily Stender, Kyle McMullin, and Mia Glissman-Mayner. 

The first Student of the Month winner was senior Emily Stender.  Her parents are Dan and Kathy Stender. 

The extracurricular activities Emily participates in include FBLA, One-Act, Tech Team, Band, Girls Golf, Journalism. Her favorite subject in school is any math class. Her future plans are to major in Computer Science at UNO. 

As this is Emily’s second time winning this award, she says, "I'm very happy to receive this award again. It shows off all my hard work in my academics and extracurricular activities are paying off.”

Emily’s teachers say that she has taken her academics seriously this year, and really stepped it up for One Act: student director, painting, and handling anything that needed handling. 

The second winner of Student of the Month is junior Kyle McMullin. His parents are Mark and Julie McMullin. His grandparents are Mort and Mary Ann McMullin and Dave and Kay Reininger.

Kyle participates in football, basketball, FFA, YAC, One Act, and Journalism. His favorite class is History. His favorite hobbies to do out of school are play sports and video games.

When asked about what he wants to do after high school, Kyle said, “I will probably go into something related to agriculture or sports. I’m not sure where I’m going to attend yet, but I’m thinking UNL or maybe a community college. 

As this is Kyle’s fourth time winning this award, he says, “It feels great that my hard work is paying off and being recognized.”

Kyle’s teacher say that he is a hard-working kid. He does well in class and is always pleasant. He has become a leader and is fun to have around the school. 

The third student to win the Student of the Month is junior Mia Glissman-Mayner. Her parents are James Mayner and Lisa Glissman-Mayner. 

Her favorite class is History. When she is not at school, she likes to read, sleep, exercise, and play games. After high school Mia plans on going into the Air Force for nursing after graduation next year or going to a four-year college. 

As this is Mia’s first time winning this award, she says, “It was a little weird because she wasn't expecting it at all, but it is really nice. She also says, “It makes me feel more seen in a way.”

Mia’s teacher say that she has improved a lot as a student over the years. She is helpful, hardworking, and a joy to have in class. They also say that her willingness to participate in class and express her opinion has increase over this past year. 

Congratulations to the Students of the Month!

On March 18, Platte Valley Equipment in Humphrey invited a small group of the FFA chapter for a tour and to learn about Platte Valley. Platte Valley Equipment specializes in the selling and servicing both new and used John Deere agricultural equipment. The members that attended got to participate in different activities showcasing what Platte Valley does.

One of the attendees from Leigh, senior Carter Brabec, said, “It was a great experience. We learned a lot and it taught us a lot about John Deere.”

The ITE instructor and teacher Mr. Jarrod Bazata said, “Platte Valley Day is always so good for our kids. They have a lot of good explanations and do a really good job of asking the kids questions and keeping them engaged. The kids learn so much and have a better insight of just how everything works.”

On August 18, 2007, in San Francisco, California, a beautiful baby boy, Elijah Micah Melchor-Smith made his debut into this world. Elijah is the nephew of John and Sara Kline. Elijah has 1 younger half-sister, Melodi 9. He also lives with his cousin, Sydney, who is 11.

 His grandparents are Juan and Carmen Melchor of San Antonio, Texas. To round out Elijah’s family, he has a pet dog named Benny.

Elijah joined the senior class earlier this year after moving to Leigh in October from San Francisco. 

Although Elijah hasn't participated in any extracurricular activities since moving to Leigh, he did participate in Drama Club in previous schools. Outside of school you can see Elijah working at MainStop, where he is a cook, stocker, and cashier. 

Elijah said his proudest high school accomplishment is going through five high schools and still managing to graduate on time. 

His favorite subject in school is JAG because he says it is his easiest class. His favorite show is “Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure,” and his favorite song is “Turbo Killer” by Carpenter Brut. His favorite food is a malt honey ham bacon turkey club sandwich.

Three words to describe him are resilient, hungry, and unique. 

Three goals on Elijah’s bucket list are to go skydiving, explore abandoned sites, and become fully independent.

Someone that he admires in life is his uncle. He admires him because he’s got a nice house and family. He also has helped him out a lot taking him in this year and helping him get a job. 

Elijah’s future plans include getting a full-time job after he graduates and renovating a school bus into an RV. Then he plans on traveling the country and later settling in California.

Before he graduates in a few short months, Elijah has lots of advice to underclassmen: “I like to work by the rule of ‘if it’s good enough, move on.’ That will get you through at least. Also, never believe a door is locked until trying it - this goes for many things in life. Lastly, don’t compare yourself to others, just compare yourself to prior you. Your goal is to become better than you were, not better than someone else is. If you’re beating your past record, you’re doing great.”

On Tuesday, the Leigh Speech Team traveled to High Plains High School to compete in the D1-2 District Speech Meet.

The schools that went to this meet were Leigh, Clarkson, Fullerton, Loup City, Palmer High School, Central Valley, High Plains, and Riverside. 

The team placings had Riverside in 1st, with High Plains in 2nd. Leigh finished in 5th overall as a team. 

19 Leigh speech team members competed at this meet with multiple qualifying for finals and earning medals.  

The OID Team of Brianne Kuhr, Luke Eisenmann, Jocelyn Donnelly, Lexis Gleason, and Trevor Hoffman finished in 5th. 

Kuhr also ended up 5^th in Extemporaneous Speaking. 

Junior Sydney Messerlie finished 6^th Serious Prose.  Sophomore James Moore also placed 6^th in POI.  

Two Leigh entries were just one placing away from qualifying for state, with top 3 qualifying.  Kaylee Brabec finished 4^th in Persuasive Speaking, and the Duet Acting team of Trevor Hoffman and Brianne Kuhr also finished 4th. 

Junior Luke Eisenmann was the solo state qualifier this year, finishing runner-up in Extemporaneous Speaking. He will compete at the Class D1 State Speech Championship in Kearney on March 28. 

Eisenmann said, “I was honored to qualify for state.  For my Extemp speech, I was lucky to have drawn a topic about agriculture that I felt confident about, and that helped. We had a lot of events that were close to making it to state but just missed it.  It would have been nice to have more qualify, but I’m proud of how our team ended the year. 

Head Coach Mr. Ethan Hathaway stated, “Districts were a tough day with many great competitors. We had several students make finals but only 1 was able to qualify for State. Congrats to Luke for placing 2nd in Extemp. Several others narrowly missed qualifying. I'm super proud of our team and their fight and commitment all year!”

In the modern world, electricity is becoming more and more necessary. And we need more of it. 

It’s estimated that in just the next 5 years, electricity demand will increase by 16%. That may not sound like a lot, but with yearly electricity demands exceeding 4.07 trillion kilowatt hours, that’s over 651 billion more kilowatt hours that have to be produced.

I firmly believe that nuclear power is the answer to this increased demand. 

Nuclear power has become significantly safer than it was in past years thanks to increases in technology and lessons learned from past years. Nuclear power, like renewable energy, creates no pollution or carbon dioxide. But the big benefit nuclear power has over renewable energy sources is that it generates power more often. Nuclear power plants are on and producing power about 90% of the time. Wind and solar power are only at 35% and 25%. The United States already generates almost 20% of its electricity from nuclear sources. 

Unfortunately, many people have a fear of nuclear power. This is for a number of reasons, but the biggest factor is lack of knowledge in the general public. Most people don't know much, if anything, about nuclear power. So, the first time they hear about it is when there’s a major disaster. This skews their opinion to be against nuclear power. 

What most people don’t know is that nuclear power is extremely safe. Out of hundreds of nuclear reactors that have been in operation for decades, there have only been 3 major accidents. 

Also, the nuclear waste problem has been overstated. There are multiple solutions that are possible with current technology. There was a large nuclear waste repository that was planned for the Yucca Mountains in Nevada, but political opposition killed the project. 

Unfortunately, federal law designated the Yucca Mountain Waste Repository as the only waste site that could be used. The law, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, has not been changed yet. 

One company offers a very promising solution for nuclear waste, as long as it can get around regulatory barriers. The company, Deep Isolation, uses existing borehole drilling technology to create a deep hole where nuclear waste can be placed. This would offer a safe space to store the nuclear waste until its radioactivity ceases, and it’s also reasonably cheap. 

Nuclear power has the potential to meet America's energy needs for the foreseeable future. It is safe, produces more power than renewables, and doesn’t pollute the air. With more investments in the nuclear industry, I have no doubt that the US could get as much clean, reliable energy as it needs. 

This semester in social studies classes, Mr. Bachman has a student teacher. His name is Mr. Andrew Erbst from Stanton. He is a student teacher for Mr. Jeff Bachman in his classes that he teaches. 

Mr. Erbst went to high school at Stanton High School, then he went to Morningside College to play football. He will finish his degree in May when he graduates from the “Harvard of the Midwest” Wayne State College, and he has already landed a job teaching at Battle Creek Public School. 

Mr. Erbst has a wife, Justine, and 3 kids. Logan is a 1st grader at Battle Creek, Wyatt is 3 who will start pre-school next year, and Norah, who just turned 2. He has 2 dogs as well and lives in Norfolk.

Mr. Erbst wanted to be a teacher because he moved back from Lincoln and started coaching football. He had so much fun being around a team and being involved with the players. That’s when he knew it was something that he needed to do every day, because Mr. Erbst didn’t like sitting at a desk at an office job. 

 “My mother-in-law told me that if I wanted to coach and golf in the summer, I should be a teacher, so I went for it and it was the 2nd best decision I ever made after getting married,” Mr. Erbst said wth a smile. 

Mr. Erbst’s teaching experience so far has been awesome. He said “I was really lucky to land here in Leigh with Mr. Bachman. It’s challenging and I get nervous at times, as I’m sure the students can tell, because I want to do a good job for you guys, but I’m learning and hopefully getting better at it before I get into my own classroom. I’ve learned a lot already and will take and keep a lot of the things I learned here, as I hope the students have done from me as well!!”

On May 31, 2007, in Norfolk, Nebraska, Kathy and Dan Stender welcomed their daughter, Emily Rae Stender, into the world. 

Emily has an older half-sister, Megan Cushing, 37. Emily’s grandparents are Marvin and Harolynn Stender of Gretna, Nebraska. To finish off of her family, she also has 2 dogs, Cookie and Skittles. 

She has been involved in many school activities while in high school, including band, FBLA, Stream Team, and Tech Team for 4 years, One-Act and Track for 3 years, and Journalism and Girls’ Golf for 2 years. Non school activities she has been involved in include Leigh Youth Advisory Committee, St. John’s Church Luther League, and Taekwondo. 

Emily has received many honors throughout high school, including “Student of the Month” 2 times, FBLA officer, 6^th place at FBLA State Leadership Conference, EHC Outstanding Tech Crew Award, placed at Northeast Scholastic Day, EHC top honor band participant.

Her proudest high school memory was getting 6th place in digital video production her sophomore year out of 25 groups. 

Emily’s favorite subject in school is math.  In her spare time, you might find Emily doing something for one of her many school activities, practicing taekwondo, listening to her favorite song, “Overheated” by Billie Eilish, watching her favorite TV show, “The 100,” or eating at her favorite restaurant, Raisin’ Canes.  You might also find her working at her part-time job at Park Place or helping her mom at the Leigh Public Library. 

Her future plans are to go to the University of Nebraska at Omaha to get a degree in Computer Science. After college she plans to begin working in an office with computer systems. In 10-15 years, she sees herself with a family and a well-paying job. 

When asked what she would do if she won the lottery she said, “The first few things I would do with the money would be to pay off college debt and help support my family. Another thing I would do is invest in stocks.”

When asked what advice she would give to underclassmen before she graduates, she said, “My advice to younger classmen is to try not to procrastinate.”

Congratulations, Emily!