![Standing center stage, senior Ananya Akula conducts the Phoenix Chorale. “[Conducting and teaching] is really fun,” Akula said. “Music education is what I want to do.” On the day of the choir assessment, Akula found out that she received the President’s Music Scholarship – a full ride to the University of Miami Frost School of Music.](https://theblazerrhs.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/ananya-1200x800.jpg)
![With the energy and effort the Bolts were bringing to the game, the Phoenix had to step up and match them to make it through their first game of the season. Many of the girls on the team, including freshman Nazly Rostom, have been playing soccer since their childhood and have grown a love for the sport as a result. “It was fun to see how we actually played in a [real] game,” Rostom said. “Even though the outcome was not what we were hoping for, I’m still happy we got to play together.”](https://theblazerrhs.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSC_0154-1200x800.jpg)
![Held up by a group of cheerleaders, flyer sophomore Leyu Yonas poses as part of a stunt, also supported by flyer junior Shayne Mitchell behind her. (Left) Prior to the pink out football game on Oct. 13, the athletes practiced in the aux gym from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. (Right) On Oct. 19, the cheerleaders competed in their District Championships at Woodgrove High School. “We definitely put all our effort on the mat [at Districts], and it showed,” Mitchell said. Left: Photo by Nadia Shirr. Right: Photo by Steve Prakope via Victor O’Neill Studios.](https://theblazerrhs.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/feature-image-1200x823.png)
![Sophomore Xavier Smith (6), the Phoenix quarterback, runs the ball as his teammates help hold up the defense. “My [offensive] line collapses, so I just [have to run], and its a good way to get first downs because [Tuscarora’s] defense was really good,” Smith said.](https://theblazerrhs.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/IMG_5383-1200x897.jpg)
![As the referee throws the ball up for the tip-off, freshman Simone Diby leaps towards the ball to get it in Phoenix possession. Diby is a new member of the Phoenix girls basketball team, and despite it being a change, she finds it enjoyable. “It’s definitely a different experience if you’ve never played on a team, [but] I think it’s still fun.”](https://theblazerrhs.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/DSC_0057-1200x662.jpg)
Students And Staff Adorn The Halls With Sunflowers For Ukraine
Students and staff gathered to decorate the walls of the history hallway with sunflowers filled with positive messages and quotes to support Ukraine.
The sunflower has quickly become an international symbol of solidarity for Ukrainians and is a symbol of peace. When agreeing to denuclearize Ukraine, the country planted sunflowers in a ceremony in 1996. Encouraged by their teachers, students in social studies classes have decided to put up sunflowers around the school to show their support for Ukraine.
April 25, 2022
Lining the history hall downstairs are hand-colored and hand-crafted sunflowers displaying words of support for those who are trapped in Ukraine. The students and staff of social studies classes took it upon themselves to show their support for Ukraine in a way that is symbolic to Ukrainians.
Russia and Ukraine have been at war since Feb. 24 when Russia invaded Ukraine to “de-nutrialize and de-Nazify Ukraine,” according to Russian President Vladimir Putin. So far, there have been about 1,300 soldier deaths in Ukraine since and Russian soldiers have destroyed over 600 buildings including schools, hospitals, and nurseries.
President Biden met with members of NATO in Brussels, Belgium on March 24 and then joined the United Nations in another summit the following day. Biden plans to have the U.S. lead a “new world order.” There was also discussion on how members of NATO plan to give Ukraine an advantage on the battlefield.
In order to show their support for Ukraine, social studies teachers including Joshua Dobbs, Kathryn Meredith Taylor, Victoria Webb, and their classes created sunflowers to adorn the school’s history hallway with messages like, “may peace flourish like a sunflower.”
Dobbs wanted to decorate the hallways with sunflowers to send a “message of solidarity with our democratic allies and to call for peace,” Dobbs said.
Many Ukrainian citizens have stood up to soldiers for their country and families. Even in Ukraine, the sunflower continues to provide a beacon of hope for Ukrainian citizens; one unnamed woman, in particular, stood up to a Russian soldier and handed him sunflower seeds. “Take these seeds and put them in your pockets, so at least sunflowers will grow when you all lie down here,” she said.
Some students, however, worry that the hallway decorations weren’t enough. “I think Ukraine wants our help, not our regards,” senior Payton So said.
Social sciences teacher Steven Mobley finds the sunflowers meaningful. “I thought it was a perfect, and also a hauntingly beautiful, way to have sunflowers connect to Ukraine,” Mobley said. “The connection with the two is sad and poetic.”
Through the students and teachers of the Government classes, Rock Ridge was able to show that we supporting Ukraine, even if it is only through the paper sunflowers that they created.
![Standing center stage, senior Ananya Akula conducts the Phoenix Chorale. “[Conducting and teaching] is really fun,” Akula said. “Music education is what I want to do.” On the day of the choir assessment, Akula found out that she received the President’s Music Scholarship – a full ride to the University of Miami Frost School of Music.](https://theblazerrhs.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/ananya-600x400.jpg)
![Senior Fatima Qaderi grew into the person she wanted to become when she was younger and continues to work towards growing more confident in using her voice when it matters. “I didnt get treated the way I wanted to be treated, and I realized that it wasnt just them treating me the wrong way, it was me treating me the wrong way,” Qaderi said. “I forced them to like to look at me in a way where Im someone who needs to be respected; they cant just disregard me, they cant just look over me because I have a different opinion, because Im a woman, because Im Afghan, because Im Muslim, or whatever. It just took going through different experiences to figure out how [I wanted to] be heard.” Photo courtesy of Fatima Qaderi.](https://theblazerrhs.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/IMG_3870-600x471.jpeg)
