The annual Kansas Bandmasters Association marching band competition is at Emporia State University on Oct. 18.
This is the fifth year SM East has qualified for the competition, and the marching band has been preparing since July.
“[The KBA] put together a marching championship competition and most of the bands in the metro area and across Kansas go,” SM East’s Director of Bands Alex Toepfer said. “It's effectively our state championship.”
Drum major and senior Andrew Bennett has been in the SM East marching band for four years and attended KBA each year.
“We’re out [practicing], 7 a.m. every morning pretty much,” Bennett said. “And then we have rehearsals on Thursday nights, [and] we’re at all the football games.”
A lot of the preparation that’s done for the competition is designing the show, which usually involves deciding on a theme, teaching the band the music and making props.
“We start designing our show pretty much [right] after the last [show] gets over with,” Toepfer said.
The theme for the show this year is “Baroque’n Glass,” which is a mix of older Baroque music with newer compositions.
“It’s supposed to be how classical and very one-and-done type of style pieces [were] shattered by these newer influences,” Head drum major and senior Shubra Durgavathi said. “But they are still connected to one another because it's all music, and you can always put it together, and there’s always connections between different forms of art and we’re putting all of that together on the field.”
SM East was named district leader in the number of students achieving a Seal of Biliteracy on Sept. 29, according to an Instagram post from @smeastlancers. As of Oct. 8, the Instagram post has been deleted.
The Seal of Biliteracy is an award given to students who are proficient in a second language, and can be acquired through either the Advanced Placement exam, International Baccalaureate exam or the Assessment of Performance toward Proficiency in Languages (AAPPL) test.
Senior Ishaan Home is taking the IB test for French and the AAPPL test for Bengali — the language he speaks at home — in hopes of helping him have a career in linguistics.
“I feel pretty comfortable [about the tests],” Home said. “I’m more stressed about the French test than the Bengali test since I know [Bengali] better.”
The Seal of Biliteracy is now recognized by employers according to Foreign Languages Department Chair and French teacher Gina Baker.
“It's a big resume builder and a student asked me this year, why should we get the seal biliteracy?” Baker said. Well, if you go out and you are trying to get a job and they want to hire that person that knows some Spanish or knows some French, that seal tells them your proficiency level.”
Principal Jason Peres was happy to hear of SM East’s accomplishment.
“I’m just proud of our school and our students and our world language teachers who really work towards that goal,” Peres said.
The Youth and Government club is hosting Voter to Voter for the first time on Oct. 14. Voter to Voter is an organization that focuses on voter outreach and promotes involvement in local and national elections.
The organization will come to SM East to talk to seniors about registering to vote and getting involved in voting.
“It’s essentially a way that provides information on how to get registered to vote and deadlines within that,” YAG secretary and senior Adeline Clifford said. “Essentially just to encourage seniors who are 18 to register and vote.”
The way they do the annual presentation has changed this year now that Voter to Voter is involved.
“Normally we just go to the senior classrooms and do a presentation on how to register to vote during advisory, but this year we’re in touch with this new organization," YAG president and senior Eliza King said.
YAG Senior Class Representative and senior Lucinda Hendrickson turned 18 this summer and is registered to vote.
“I know that a lot of my classmates who are also 18 haven’t registered to vote, just because they think the process is gonna be really complicated or they don’t think that it’s worth voting because they don't think that they're educated enough to vote,” Hendrickson said. “But I think it's really important, so I'm excited to educate the rest of my peers.”
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