Five Salem Hills High School students participated in the Region Make It With Wool Contest held November 17 and 18 at Mapleton Junior High. Pictured are (left to right): Kelcie Billat, 3rd Place Senior Division, Amaya Bingham, Honorable Mention Junior Division, Sydnie Eppley, 3rd Place Junior Division, Katie Devenport, Honorable Mention Senior Division, Kaylee Alldredge, Honorable Mention Junior Division. Congratulations on the completion and presentation of their sewing projects.

Salem Hills High School’s DECA and FBLA organizations held their annual Business Tour on November 11. Students toured two successful businesses in the area, asked questions about products, production, and management, and took a closer look at various departments that are required to run a business. “It was a fun, educational, and interesting day,” said Tyler Poulsen (DECA Web Master), “It was amazing to see how many different aspects make up a company and how they all have to work together to be successful.” The first business to be toured was Neways in Springville. The students were introduced to a wide variety of products, such as health supplements, cosmetics, and cleaning products. They visited different departments, which included human resources, purchasing, marketing, research and development, and creative design. Each department gave a mini-presentation. The favorite presentation came from the Marketing Department. They taught students how a new product starts as an idea and is taken through the process of being packaged and sold to customers. The second business toured was Young Living Essentials in Springville. Young Living Essentials specializes in products produced with essential oils. Students were able to walk through the 100,000 square foot building that houses the quality control labs, receiving, and shipping departments. To wrap the day up, a quick stop was made at a local Wendy’s for a refreshing Frosty. Students are still talking about how much fun they had on the business tour. It was a great experience.

On November 18, the Sky Hawks Musical Theatre department will be performing Les Miserables at Salem Hills High School. And thanks to Utah local composer Dave Zabriskie, along with his business partner Michael Leavitt, they will be receiving some very unusual help from an unlikely source: Nintendo’s Wii. Zabriskie and Leavitt are the co-owners and creators of Right On Cue Systems, or ROCSystems. The ROCSystem is a program that lets you conduct pre-recorded songs with the Wii Remote and Nun-chuck accessory, controlling things like tempo, volume, and pitch with the touch of a button or the flick of a wrist. In other words, it lets you edit a soundtrack on stage in real time. This allows you to do things that were previously only possible with a live orchestra, like change the shows running time via speeding up or slowing down the music, or add dramatic pauses to build tension. Not to mention it allows Salem High’s orchestra to play alongside the recording by wearing headphones and following the conductor as they normally would. “I think it’s a great opportunity” said Polly Dunn, of the Theatre Program, “It’s marvelous that our orchestra and actors will be able to play and perform alongside professionally recorded music.”

On Wednesday night, October 6th, the combined choirs from Salem Hills High School put performed their fall concert, "Sing Me to Heaven." Justin Bills, their director, chose music ranging from classical and traditional to new, contemporary, and popular songs. It was a great concert featuring the Salem Hills Singers, Concert Choir, Serendipity, and Men's Camarata. The Concert Choir finished the concert by singing the title song, "Sing Me to Heaven," by Daniel Gawthrop, and then the combined choirs sand "I'm Runnin' On" by Mack Wilberg and then wrapped it all up with the school anthem, "We Are the Skyhawks."

Select students from Salem Hills, Payson, Maple Mountain, and Springville sang in the 700-voice Utah All-State Honor Choir this past Saturday in the Salt Lake Tabernacle. About 12 students from each of the four high schools were chosen to participate. They each had to attend special All-State rehearsals, and learn and prepare 6 pieces outside of their normal choir responsibilities. The choir, directed by Casper College Professor, Dr. Pat Patton, sang beautifully, to a sold out crowd Saturday night. Justin Bills, the Salem Hills choir director said, "This has been an incredible experience for all involved. Our schools and district were represented very well. We're so excited to continue this incredible tradition!"

In preparation for their fall concert, the Salem Hills High School Singers visited both Mt. Loafer Elementary School and Foothills Elementary on Wednesday, October 6th. They performed selections for their concert and the students in the audience really loved the assemblies! Salem Elementary came to Salem Hills on Tuesday morning, October 5th for a similar assembly. The style was very casual, and everyone had a very good time.

Kamela Poulsen Kamela Poulsen is a senior at Salem Hills. She is unable to pinpoint how she was chosen for this award but holds her dazzling smile and vibrant personality. Kamela enjoys being on the debate team and participating in mannerly arguments that at some times can become heated. In her free-time she takes pleasure in counting dots on the ceiling and having Halo parties in parking lots. Who is Kimber Christiensen? Kimber is a junior and has a lot of great things that people have had to say about her. “She’s an all around good person” states Megan Wilson of Jr. Student Council. I met up with Kimber in her photography class taught by Mr. Call; all he had to say about her was “WOW”. Take that as a good comment. I asked Kimber why she was chosen to be student of the month. “ I really don’t know” she said “I walked in Mr. Callahan’s class one day and he said ‘I chose you to be student of the month’” This left me with asking Mr. Callahan why he had chosen Kimber. “I was looking through my role one day trying to find a good choice and Kimber walked in. I thought, ‘who could be better?’” Mr. Callahan replied. Kimber says she doesn’t quite know why this happened, for nothing like this has happened before. “All I know is that my parents were happy which is very good for me” she laughs. Melanie Phillips Melanie Phillips holds the age of a senior but the wisdom of a student of the month. She was hand-picked by Mrs. Boothe because she always tries to include people, generate team unity and overall strives to be a good leader. What makes Melanie successful is that she will never quit on a job until it is done. She always gives everything her best shot. Melanie enjoys tripping, being a “spaz” and raising sheep. Alexis Larsen Alexis Larsen is a sophomore at Salem Hills High School. She is a student of the month for the month of October. She was selected by Mr. Call, the photography teacher. Mr. Call chose Alexis for several reasons which include: her photography was inspiring, she was always helpful during class and she was always kind to her fellow classmates. Alexis is a very good student who gets her homework done before she gets home for the day. She also gives advice to students who want to succeed by saying, “if you want to succeed, study.” I’m sure that several students can agree with that statement. We can all look up to her amazing example. Tevyn Tanner Tevyn Tanner is attending Salem Hills in her senior year. She was chosen by Mr. Macdonald for student of the month. Tevyn values school because to her, schooling determines the future. Her favorite class is Spanish. She also enjoys painting and likes to take part in her art class she has with Miss Shuler. When she has a minute, Tevyn likes to spend time shopping and driving on the freeway in her car. Noah Talley Noah Talley is a student that pushes himself inside and outside of school. Noah has been rocking a 4.0 since He was entered into the grading system. Not only does he strive to do the best he can in school, he is a accomplished cyclist. Racing motorcycles, mountain bikes, and pedal bikes. One of Noah’s most recent accomplishments is he took second in nationals for mountain bikes. Ms. Sheperd thinks of Noah as a very knowledgeable student who strives his hardest. He knows more about food and nutrition than any high school student ever should. Odds are if you see Noah he will probably be training for racing doing homework or eating the healthiest foods you have never heard of. Noah is a hard worker in every sense, he even runs his own bread business.

On Thursday, September 23, Salem Hills High School girls Volleyball team played against Springville High School. The Skyhawks forced a 5 Set match but Springville came out victorious winning three out of the five matches. The match was well played on both sides and Salem won the first match. The second match was won by Springville to begin the rollercoaster battle. Salem was close behind in the second set with a final score of 26 to 24. Salem won the third match. Springville caught up and rallied in the end and beat the Skyhawks in the final two sets. Each team played their hardest and did an excellent job. Stefani Diamond from Salem Hills said, “Our team is great! The game was so intense!”

On Thursday evening, the Salem Hills Girls Soccer Team enjoyed a hard earned victory against the Payson Lions. With a final score of 3-1, each and every one of the girls put forth their best effort to help lift the lady Skyhawks to an impressive victory over the lady lions of Payson. Margo Brockbank and Madi Eidem both scored unassisted goals in the waning minutes of the first half. “Starting strong was a big contributing factor in the teams win.” Coach Gillie said after the game. Midway through the second half Sarah Armstrong assisted Erika Egbert for a stunning goal moving the Skyhawks into a strong 3-0 lead. “The team was very unselfish,” said Gillie, “they played for each other, and were very self motivated to beat Payson”. Although the lady Skyhawks’ play was not perfect (allowing a goal off a penalty kick in the last three minutes). Coach Gillie expressed how extremely proud he was of his team and the way they played. “The girls came to practice with victory in mind and worked very hard to achieve it,” he said “the girls did an expert job getting ready for the game both physically and mentally, they where very focused and got each other motivated to play to their full potential.”