CCHS Soccer Wrap Up

The soccer season just recently ended, with the Calvin soccer team losing the game to Great River that would have put them in first place. Despite that, junior Andrew Thomas commented that it was still “one of our best years.” He also said that the team really learned to work well together and build each other up both on and off the field, and learned to play well together. It has definitely been one of the best years for Calvin soccer. “We won a second place finish as a community...that played off from what we did well this season.” Second place finish is a history setter for Calvin, and indeed is a position to be proud of.          

-- Ian Krueger

CCHS Volleyball Wrap Up

The CCHS girl’s volleyball season just finished, with Calvin’s win/loss ratio standing at six wins, seven losses. The season ended with a close tournament loss to Columbia Heights on Monday, October 22nd. Despite the loss, the game was very close and Claire Stephens, a junior on the volleyball team, said that the game was really fun to play despite the 0-3 loss. She also noted that she felt that the volleyball team did really well this year, despite the fact that most of the players were sophomores or freshmen. The volleyball team won’t be losing any players this year, so they look forward to working together again next season.

-- Ian Krueger

CCHS: Video Editing Class

A variety of new classes have been introduced to the Calvin Christian High School, including a video editing class, taught by Rick Busch. In this class, the students will be learning how to edit and work with media and videos. They are currently working on a project that includes making a promotional video for both the Edina and high school campus. This video class will also help in the future because as Andrew Thomas, a junior student taking this course, explains, “this skill will be used later in the future because of the importance of how media portrays set service or products.” In trying to help people understand the high school as a unique product, Andrew explains, “media is one of the fastest way to let your product be known.” This new class is a great tool not only for the future of the students, but for the future of the high school.  Check out what the video editing class has been able to accomplish, thanks to the help of Mr. Busch and the skills he has taught.

-- Gabe Modder

Donation: Tolerance Minnesota

As most may know, Miss Branderhorst is teaching 20th Century Literature and Art class that also highlights literature from the Holocaust. Along with having several Holocaust survivors come in to speak to the class, the organization Tolerance Minnesota has generously given the high school a boxed set of 5 Minnesota Holocaust Survivor Films for teaching students at Calvin about the Holocaust. The films are from an anonymous donor who wanted the films “placed in classrooms”.  

-- Ian Krueger

The Cougar's Tale: Issue 1

Our first printed issue of the year. Enjoy!

The Cougar's Tale: Issue One

The Cougar's Tale: Issue 2 (Print Version)

Click the link below to find our second issue!

The Cougar's Tale Print: Issue 2

CCHS Volleyball and Soccer Updates

The regular season is coming to a close for the soccer and volleyball teams, but that is not what is on their minds. They are looking forward to the playoffs after great wins last week. Last week the soccer and volleyball teams came out with two and three wins, respectively.

The volleyball conference tournament starts on Monday, October 15. It is a single elimination tournament that could have Calvin’s volleyball team playing twice on Monday, if they win the first game. If that one is also won, they move on and get to play Tuesday. There will be lots of Calvin fans there, as the soccer team will be given the day off to go support their school. Everyone is encouraged to come and support the Calvin volleyball team! The tournament is at both Hmong Academy/Metro Deaf School (they are right next to each other), and Calvin will be playing Monday, October 15 at 4:30 at Hmong Academy for their first game.

As for soccer, the team has one more out of conference game to play, and after that will advance to the four team playoff between them, Great River Academy, International School, and Community of Peace Academy. The dates and time have not been set yet, but it will assuredly be an exciting tournament! Fans are also encouraged to come, and the details of the tournament will be released sometime soon.

-- Nathan Bonnema

New Elective: 20th Century Literature and Art

Coming from a former Holocaust literature  student, “Holocaust Lit wasn’t so much a ‘fun’ class as it was eye opening, and I’m hoping this year, the students of 20th century literature will have the same experience.”  20th Century Literature is a new, year long elective course offered this year.  Miss Branderhorst, the teacher for this course, explained, “We aren’t just focusing on the Holocaust, but all of the significant changes that take place during the 20th century—all the changes that mirror or impact our lives today.”  20th Century Lit students will be learning through a variety of media - art, music, theatre, photography, and literature.  Together, the class will attend a play, view a photography exhibit, and will have at least 3 Holocaust survivors coming to speak with them.  They also have some art projects that they will be incorporating into their units.

-- Tom Gall

CCHS Committees and Clubs

With a new school year, comes a new list of Tuesday afternoon clubs.  The Investment Committee has been passed for a second year with Tom Gall as president, Jacob Koehler as secretary, and Nathan Kanis as Vicar; together, they hope to have a self-developed and profitable portfolio.  A new art club has been created, focusing on individual and collective art projects; this group will be headed by Nathaniel Koppendrayer and Lydia TerHaar.   Intramurals have moved from Thursday to Tuesday and will now be led by Jacob Bursaw as president. Finally, Ping Pong will continue for a 4th straight year headed by the Bartz brothers.  Clubs and committees are great opportunities for students to explore different interests and interact in a different way.

-- Tom Gall

Shingle Creek: Environmental Studies

For CCHS’s Environmental Science course, Mr. VandeGlind took the seniors to Shingle Creek on Tuesday to do some river observation. After climbing into waders before going into the up-to-waist-high water, the students were asked to measure and observe multiple things. They measured the velocity of the water, as well as sampled the river bottom and caught some macroinvertebrates. This information will be collected and sent to Fortin Consulting to help them to determine the health of the stream. Among the other random things caught were crayfish, a bullhead, and what Will Hendrickson and Austin Bartz described as a “really cool scorpion fish” that Austin accidentally let go. Next week, the class will be examining the tiny macroinvertebrates that were caught to determine the density and diversity of the respective species. This is just another way that the Environmental Science class is learning to take care of the creation that God has given to us.

-- Nathan Bonnema

Experiential Learning: Giving Back

Every junior that comes through Calvin Christian High School has to do an experiential learning project, which normally consists of a volunteering opportunity and a final product (often a presentation of some sort). These often include volunteering opportunities such as Feed My Starving Children, Second Harvest and Prism (the latter two are food shelves). This year, we have something even more unique. Claire Stephens, a junior, is volunteering at Children’s Hospital where she is visiting patients in their rooms and bringing them to their playrooms. This experience is especially unique to Claire because she was once a patient at Children’s Hospital. In Claire’s words, “When I was 8 years old, it was discovered that I had a brain tumor, so I had that removed at Children’s Hospital...  I was a patient there for 1 and ½ to two months.”  She continued, “I chose to volunteer at Children’s Hospital because I had a lot of volunteers come and visit me while I was a patient and I meant a lot to me, so I wanted to be able to give back to the hospital... I decided that I would go visit with the patients.” As for her final product, Claire is not sure, but she wants to combine an interview with the volunteer coordinator there with some journals that she will have written throughout her visits.This project is further proof that learning outside of the classroom is a worthwhile, impactful experience.

-- Nathan Bonnema

Introduction to Engineering Course

Introduction to Engineering is a new elective opposite choir that focuses on giving the students an introduction to the field of engineering through a series of videos that focus on the basics of engineering, as well as through a computer program that allows you to engineer an object, designing your own engineering project. Mr Ahrenholz, the math teacher, is teaching the class. He says that his goals for the class are “to allow students to explore a career path to engineering, to see if it is something that fits their skills or interests.” He plans to meet this goal by having the students watch the  Duke University Introduction to Engineering seminars, and allowing students to create their own engineering projects in the Solidworks engineering program. Introduction is a new, unique class, and hopefully together, students will begin to grasp this complicated field.

-- Ian Krueger

CCHS: Student Council Corner

Hi everyone and welcome to the first edition of the Student Council Corner! We are excited about what’s in store for this year and we hope you are too! We have been planning out the events for the year starting with the annual leaf raking in the local community on the afternoon of October 26th. Everyone will be asked to bring a rake and we will be split into groups. From there we will either take the bus or walk to our assigned places and do whatever leaf raking is needed. This is a good way to make our school known throughout the local community, and is also a way for our school as a whole to show God’s love by aiding those who can’t rake their leaves themselves.

           In addition, we encourage all of you to come out to the final volleyball and soccer games as they head into their respective playoff games.

-- Nathan Bonnema

CCHS Girl's Volleyball

The CCHS Girls Volleyball team has seen their fair share of victories and defeats as the seasons came and gone.  This year, the girls welcome new head coach, Tim Davis,who has offered a kind of fresh twist for the team and giving them a new vibe. Team captains, Maddie Vande Kamp and Claire Stephens have done their part as much as they could on the court. Maddie, recovering from a knee injury, has given the team encouragement from the sidelines until she was able to step back onto the court once more and is now back on the court to play with her team for the remainder of the season. One of the biggest accomplishments from the team that Maddie observed includes: "playing at a new level, with a new coach, and functioning as a team." The girls next few games will be at home with the encouragement of fans, and a few away with the encouragement of the Cougar Soccer team urging them on in victory.




-- Andrew Thomas