The Communicator • A Student Voice

Rocky Gonet, CHS social worker, retires after 33 years in the Ann Arbor Public Schools district.

Rocky Gonet, a social worker at Community High School, didn’t start out the year thinking he was going to retire. However, after the state retirement incentive and 33 years in the Ann Arbor Public School district, Gonet’s letting go.

As an adolescent, Gonet was plagued by the same troubles as his students.  “I ran with a fast crowd, and school didn’t have much interest for me… It was all about the social part of school, and I didn’t appreciate the academic part until I went to college,” said Gonet.

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The group consists of 9 students at Community High School chosen by Diane Grant, a guidance counselor at CHS. Similar groups exist in the other high schools in Ann Arbor. Despite the differences between the groups, they all have one goal in common: to raise awareness about depression. The groups are all part of a program set up by the University of Michigan Depression Center, and they all started from one place.

On December 3rd, 2009, the University of Michigan Depression Center held a peer-to-peer depression awareness campaign conference for students from the area’s high schools.  The conference aimed to educate the students about the stigma, causes and treatments of depression. The ultimate purpose was to inspire the students to raise awareness of depression in their respective schools, and make them be fully equipped to help their peers.  The peer-to-peer depression conference has inspired Community High School, as well as other high schools in the Ann Arbor area, to take action on an issue we all have to deal with: depression.  Our first step in raising awareness about depression was to start a peer-to-peer group at community high school, which allows anyone at community to meet with any of the 9 students who has been exposed to professional education of depression.

The University of Michigan Depression Center started this program because they wanted to raise awareness of depression and lower stigma around depression around local high schools.  The Center will assist the groups in forming a campaign to raise awareness in their schools.   Each high school group that went to the depression conference has to write proposals on lowering stigma in their schools.  The peer to peer mentoring group at community decided that it would help our school lower stigma by having professional speakers who are experienced with depression come in and talk to us about different ways to cope with depression and things that could lead to depression.

About once a month since March, the peer-to-peer mentoring group has been inviting guest speakers from U of M to come talk to students at community high school about depression.  The event is free and provides a free lunch when you attend.  The peers from community encourage everyone to attend these lecture, regardless if you are depressed or not, you could learn something new that might benefit you or your friends in the future.

The school year is almost over and students are already planning ahead to the summer. From the outrageous and exciting to resting in town students talk about what they are going to do during their months off.

Founded in 1972, Community High School was created in response to the rigid learning environments at Pioneer and Huron, where a need for an alternative high school was becoming more apparent.  The idea of this new experimental school was a “school-without-walls,” or a centralized community of students and teachers using the city around them as a resource for designing their own curricula.

In its first five years, the school began as a blank slate; an almost lawless experiment to see what happens when students are given complete freedom to determine their own education.

Linda Diane Feldt, graduate of Community’s class of 1975, explained the atmosphere of CHS in its beginnings. “It was kind of a free-for-all, as far as drugs, and sex, and figuring out what the new boundaries were, and how to behave.  There was a lot of student activism; students had the keys to all the rooms and we were attending the faculty meetings, started our own student newspaper.  It was like we were running the school.”

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Julia Mogerman accepting the Kiwanis Scholarship

The Kawanis Club is a global organization that recognizes young leaders who are dedicated to volunteer work within their communities. Every year they award students with certain qualities with scholarships. This year counselor John Boshoven  was given the opportunity to nominate students for scholarships provided by the Kawanis Club.

Students are nominated based on character, academic performance, leadership, and service to the community. Five CHS students won various scholarships. DeAndre White was awarded the Carpenter for involvement in understanding differences in different racial groups. Gabe Appel-Kraut won the Hunter/Clague for his great show of leadership. Andrea Manoppo won the Eleanor K. Cross Memorial scholarship for studies to prepare for a career in medical research. Julia Mogerman was awarded Former “Dean Al” Gallup scholarship for  overall excellence. Robert Beckett won the Kawanis Business group scolarship for studies to prepare for a career in business.

Every scholarship winner was given $1000 to use however they want but it is hoped that they use it tawards their education.  Robert Beckett deposited his money in the bank and said ” Just trying to be a responsable individual.” Robert has put anishitvie tawards business and management classes on his own time thus the scholarship he was awarded. Congratulations CHS seniors for being awarded these scholarships.

Nora Sullivan

Three CSIs, two NCISs, Dexter, Bones — the list of crime investigation television shows goes on and on. Crime and forensics are popular subjects for entertainment. They glorify the conviction of serial killers and the life of forensic scientists.

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ALSO APPEARS IN The Communicator, Edition 7

This Year, Community says goodbye to three of its most cherished teachers.

Madeline Drake

Madeline Drake’s long reign of teaching will come to an end this year, as she opts to retire after teaching for 33 years.  Drake attended Macomb Community College for two years and then received her bachelor’s at Michigan State.  Drake student taught  at Lance Cruz High School  and then received her Master of Science degree at Eastern Michigan University.  Her teaching career began in the Bloomfield Hills school system – she taught there for 10 years until moving to Community, where she has now been a teacher for 23 years.  Drake was led to retire by two main reasons. More…

Aidan Mase-Kemnitz: The Not-So-Typical Dancer

CHS Senior Aidan Mase-Kemnitz performing.

Aidan Mase-Kemnitz, a senior at Community, is passionate about dancing. However, he’s not your typical dancer. Mase-Kemnitz describes his experience in multiple styles of dance as a male high school performer.

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It seemed as though one could sense the buzzing excitement that filled Rackham Auditiorium on Tuesday, June 1st, 2010 before even stepping through its doors. Anyone in close relation with a CHS senior — staff, parents, grandparents, siblings, boyfriends, girlfriends, friends — was at Rackham that night.

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Unlike every other forum at Community High School, on forum day the Anne Thomas forum decided to spend their day of fun at Relay For Life, an event that raises money to go to cancer research and awareness.  The Thomas’ forum has been participating in Relay For Life since 2008, and they hope to keep it as a forum tradition for years to come. More…