Ellie McDowell is a junior on The Central Trend as a staff writer. She loves to read and write, and in her free time, you can often find her with an instrument in her hand. She is in the marching band and plays the clarinet, but she plays tenor saxophone in the Jazz Band. She plays numerous other instruments outside of school, including the ukulele and the flute. During the summer, Ellie loves to go to Grand Haven with her friends.
Name: Maggie Schimeck
Position: Speaker
TED Talk title: Anyone Can Be an Artist
Why did you apply to be a speaker?
"I applied to become a speaker because I've been really excited to do...
Name: Olivia Oorbeck
Position: Speaker
TED Talk title: Find An Escape
Why did you apply to be a speaker?
"I applied to be a speaker because I wanted to try something new and get experience...
Name: Penelope O'Meara
Position: Speaker
TED Talk title: Love Expectations in Teenagers
Why did you apply to be a speaker?
"I applied to be a speaker because I really like talking about...
It has been almost five years since sophomore Olivia Oorbeck lost her sister. She will never be the same and is still working through the emotions and difficulties. Olivia is honored and excited to share...
I want flowers and love notes. I want chocolate and teddy bears for Valentine’s Day. I want to curl up on the couch and watch hours of cheesy rom-coms without a care in the world.
At first glance,...
Next Tuesday is officially the end of what high school has always been. The image that the seniors have created and maintained will be over, and I don’t know what’s going to happen next.
The seniors...
The seasons in Michigan are unpredictable. One day it could be sunny, and the next there is hail pelting you.
Friendships are like that too, unpredictable. They can be beautiful one day, and the next...
The part of me that is still stuck in middle school found herself excitedly jumping up and down last Friday. I found a small artist on Instagram who just released a new EP. The name of it confused me a...
One of the best decisions I have ever made was joining the stage crew for Cinderella.
There were multiple moments where I thought maybe I had made a mistake, but now I know that every piece of the show...
There is this girl I used to know. She was confident and happy. When she was ten, she could smile, and her whole face would light up. Her happiness was the only thing that mattered, and anyone else’s...
Lunch time has been the same for the students at FHC for far too long. Principal Steve Passinault believes that it might be time for a break from the same food students have been eating since kindergarten.
In...
I tend to lose myself in the worlds I create.
I have a whole universe built in my mind that the world will likely never see.
I make up stories to tell truths I wish I could say out loud, but I never...
My friend Anna hooked me on Colleen Hoover with one of her most popular books: It Ends with Us. On January 18th, I caught news of a new release from Hoover. I knew I had to get my hands on the book.
So...
As the stadium lights beat down on the field, junior Travis Bolt said goodbye to the seniors on the team that he had been playing football with since he started high school, but maybe, it was less of a...
“I want to live in New York City or Washington D.C.”
That is what I would have told you when I was six years old. I never would have expected that to change like it did. By the time I turned 16,...
“You will have to make choices—and those choices will map out the shape and course of your life. We are all cartographers—all of us. We all want to write our names on the map of the world."
I...
I’m not ready to grow up.
Growing up is like climbing through a window, but it gets closed behind you, leaving no way back inside. You get to see what made you into the person you are, but you can’t...
The holidays are upon us, and you may be wondering what some of your favorite candy companies are doing. Well, I’m here to tell you.
Cherry Cordial Hershey Kisses
The first thing I noticed about...
This story contains discussion of school shootings and violence.
I am scared and angry. I am tired both physically and emotionally. I don’t know what to do anymore.
Columbine High School, April...
For a few students, going to school isn’t an escape from their parents. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it’s just not something all students get the chance to experience.
A lot of these students...
Curled up in blankets, my Christmas tree glowing in the corner of my room, I listened as the spine of the brand new book in front of me cracked open for the first time. Little did I know that this moment...
Jadelin Hinkel - for going on adventures with me
I don’t have the words to thank you. I never thought that the sophomore that I met weeks before my freshman year even started would become my best friend,...
Thanksgiving is almost here, and it’s time to start figuring out what is going on your table for this feast. Most people have a set group of things for Thanksgiving dinner: cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes,...
When he started college, student teacher Jason Majerle was not planning to be a teacher.
Now, Majerle has almost finished education at Alma College for secondary education, but it didn’t start that...
Sitting at a table with four plates of food and a holiday drink in front of you is daunting. When these plates of food in front of you are a variety of colors such as blue or orange, some of which are...
Jack Woods, a senior on the National Honors Society (NHS) Executive Board, has known what he wants to do after high school since his sophomore year.
He wants to go to the University of Michigan or...
I’m not fifteen anymore.
I have been sixteen for one month, sixteen days, ten hours, and thirty-six minutes.
Now that I am sixteen, I no longer sit on my bed with Taylor Swift’s lyrics floating...
Taylor Swift’s voice floats through the car while sophomore Madi Evans waits in the gas line at Costco.
Sitting in the driver’s seat is Madi’s brother, senior Nate Evans. Together, they scream...
I wish I could go back and talk to myself when I was eight. There is so much I would like to say that could have solved so many problems if I had known. I could have avoided heartbreak and anxiety. I could...
