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Millard North High School Issue 3 | November 18, 2014

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EK Get an inside look at the world of MN’s student pho-tographers

DECA students organize book drive for Namibian children

The City of LightsSenior Kate Walz chosen for first-ever fashion show on the Eiffel Tower

lindsey amenfront editor

When she was only 8 years old, senior Kate Walz taught herself to sew and began enter-ing clothes she made herself in local 4-H fashion shows.

Now, at 17, Walz’s humble beginnings have brought her to the fashion headquarters of the world —Paris, France. On Oct. 31st, Walz participated in the J Autumn Fashion Show on the Eiffel Tower, continuing her successful streak of clothing design ventures.

“I didn’t even believe it. I still don’t even believe it. I have no words. I’m very honored, and in shock of it all,” Walz said.

Walz was the only Ameri-can to be chosen for the show, and the youngest person to participate.

“I had to do an interview for the show, and they asked me, ‘How does it feel to be representing America and the younger generation’, and I was like, I need a minute. I don’t even know how to answer that question. Apparently, thou-sands of people applied to be in the show, but they just invited me. I didn’t apply, and I didn’t even know about it,” Walz said.

Only seven other people from around the world were se-lected for the show, which 250 people attended. Six of Walz’s dresses were shown, which she

first debuted at Omaha Fashion Week this year.

“I definitely wasn’t expect-ing it,” Walz said. “Some of the people there have worked their whole lives for something like that, and I was so shocked that they wanted me. I was nervous at first, just because I’ve never done something like this at this high of a level. It was the first fashion show ever on the Eiffel tower — it’s monumental, it’s going to be a big deal forever.”

Her Eiffel Tower dresses have since been featured in’ Women’s Wear Daily’, ‘Vogue India’, ‘Marie Claire Nether-lands’, ‘Elle Italia’, and ‘Harper’s Bazaar Vietnam’ — but Walz’s wild success has not come without many years of hard work, and a very early begin-ning in the world of fashion.

“My mom says I’ve been designing since I could hold a crayon. But I didn’t start mak-ing the things that I was draw-ing until I was 8. I’ve always loved clothes, and I just wanted to make things that I wanted to wear but didn’t exist,” Walz said.

At 12 years old, she be-gan selling her clothes in a shop downtown.

“During a 4-H fashion show, someone in the audience liked my designs and said, ‘Oh, you should start selling them’. They told me about this boutique where lo-cal designers sold their stuff, so I just made a few more things and brought them down there and showed the owner, and she liked them,” Walz said.

She made her first fashion show debut at age 13, when an Omaha Fashion Week official saw her clothes in the boutique and asked her to participate in the show. From that point on, the style of clothes she’s de-signed has continued to evolve.

“When I first started sell-ing things in the boutique, my things were more high-end ready to wear, and most of my customers were drag queens. But I wanted to try all of the different styles out so I knew

exactly what I wanted to do, so then I started doing more avant-garde, ‘fashion as art’ sort of things. Then, I started doing evening wear, and I’ve been doing it ever since,” Walz said.

Walz designs her gowns, which she describes as late 60’s inspired, in a sewing room in her house with fabrics shipped in from a store in New York. A gown can take her as short as a day or as long as two weeks, depending on the complexity of the sewing.

“I get most of my inspira-tion from [designer] Charles James. I just want to make things that I haven’t seen be-fore,” Walz said.

Her exposure from fash-ion shows has paved the way for many unique opportunities and chance meetings.

“I’ve met a bunch of de-signers from Project Runway and have also filmed a few TV pilots for MTV. I also got to meet designer Amanda Valen-

tine, whose brother is James Valentine, the guitarist for Ma-roon 5,” Walz said.

Walz attributes her suc-cess, ultimately, to her consis-tent work ethic.

“I just work really, really hard, and I want this so bad. I’ve given up a lot of things that most high schoolers do just so I can work towards this,” Walz said.

Walz will be applying to several fashion schools in New York and overseas, and plans to continue her fashion career long into the future.

“I really love it when I have a collection as an idea, and I then I get to see it all completely done and together, way different than what I imag-ined. I like seeing how people respond to it. It’s the end I like the most,” Walz said.

TOP AND BOTTOM: Senior Kate Walz in Margie Trembley Chapeaux and her Ruby Red Coat from her KW March 2013 collection. MIDDLE: Walz is pictured during the J Autumn fashion show on the Eiffel tower, the first ever show to take place on the monument. She wore one of her own designs near the end and brought six dresses to Paris. Photos taken and provided by Camille Renee, assisted by Jessica Schaeffer.

I was so shocked that they wanted me. It was the first fashion show ever on the Ei-ffel tower - it’s monumental, it’s going to be a big deal for-ever.”

“Kate Walz12

Focus:History of the Hardhat: The leader of MN’s student sec-tions

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Millard North High School Issue 5 | February 11, 2015

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EK A look at MN’s future construction plans

Focus:MN’s staff couples: What they do on Valentine’s Day

lindsey amenfront page editor

ABOVE: Senior Bekah Push spent approxiamately two weeks touring Rwanda. There, she visited children who have been given the opportunity to get an education for the first time through the organization Asante, which built the school seen above.LEFT: The Rwandan countryside, in a picture taken by Push as she traveled from village to village.Photos provided by Bekah Push

Land of a thousand hillsSenior travels to rwanda for life-changing trip

a torch burning in memorial for the victims, and a section dedicated to the children who died. It was very touching,” Push said.

In Butari, a rural Rwandan village where Asante has built a school and sponsored children by paying for their educations, Push was shocked by the con-ditions that children and fami-lies live in every day.

“We visited a family with five kids. The mom died of HIV, and the dad was run over by a car. So these five kids were living without any parents, and Asante found them a mom. The littlest one had never even seen pictures of her mother, and we got to show her some. It was very emotional,” Push said.

According to Asante’s website, 141,000,000 people in East Africa live on less than two dollars a day and a typical family has six children. Going to school is a rarity, and when it is available, the high costs take a toll on families. “Enriched minds collectively create bet-ter solutions to whatever chal-lenges their communities face,” their mission reads. “Children who stay in school earn higher wages and tend to have smaller families that are vaccinated, well nourished and educated.”

“What really impacted me a lot was when we would talk to kids about their schooling, and some of these kids would walk 2-3 hours to school every day and 2-3 hours back, and they really want their educa-tion. We, here, complain about a 5-10 minute drive with traf-fic. I definitely came back with a push to continue dedicating myself to school, going to col-lege, graduating, and going to nursing school,” Push said.

Although Push and her six other travel companions were the ones who visited the chil-dren in rural Rwanda, in the end, they gained more from the trip than the children ever could.

“They inspired me more than I could ever inspire them. We went there to help them, but they ended up helping us,” Push said.

Dirt floors, dirt walls, and roofs full of holes. A family of five people living in a one-room house the size of a large-closet.

For most of us, these im-ages will remain a far cry from the comfortable reality we live every day. But senior Bekah Push was determined to see these conditions and people firsthand when she took the trip of a lifetime over winter break.

On Dec. 26th, Push trav-eled with a friend and six other people from across the country to the East African country of Rwanda. The trip took place through Asante, an organiza-tion dedicated to seeing every child through education over-seas through building schools and sponsoring kids’ educa-tion.

Push has always been in-terested in working overseas, but in her junior year, she real-ized her dreams of becoming a humanitarian nurse. She de-cided to research humanitarian organizations and, after finding Asante, spent her summer sav-ing up money for the trip.

“The first night there, I was like, ‘What am I doing here?’ I was exhausted, tired, and I couldn’t sleep. And then the next day someone told me, ‘It’s hard to be away from your family, but you’re doing this for not even two weeks and you get to go back to them. Some of these kids don’t get to go back to their family.’ That really touched me,” Push said.

Push’s first day in Rwanda involved a trip to the Kigali Genocide Memorial. This year was the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. The geno-cide, which took place in 1994, killed close to a million peo-ple in the short span of three months.

“I feel like you hear sto-ries about these genocides, but actually going over there and seeing it was surreal. The genocide is very fresh in peo-ple’s minds and has a large im-pact on people still. They had

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The HoofbeatMILLARD NORTH HIGH SCHOOL | ISSUE 6 March 4, 2014

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As the weather warms up, the MN baseball team is set to take the field for another season. As players come and go, some move on to the next level, playing college baseball.

However, two former MN baseball players have even gone further than that, playing on professional baseball teams.

Both 2005 MN graduate Conor Gillaspie, third base-men for the Chicago White Sox, and 2001 MN gradu-ate Mike Zagurski, pitcher in the Cleveland Indians

alan daviseditor-in-chief

I’ve got to play baseball for ten years. People always tell me that I tend to have it easy, but they also for-get that baseball is my job.“

Mike ZagurskiMLB player

Living the DreamFormer MN graduates maintain professional baseball careers

- Conor Gal-laspie, who graduated in 2005, is a third baseman for the Chicago White Sox.

- Mike Za-gurski, who graduated in 2001, is currently a pitcher for the Cleveland Indians.

- Zagurski has played for the Philadelphia Phillies, the Arizona Diamond-backs, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the New York Yankees, and the Oakland Athletics.

-Gillaspie was a part of the San Francisco Giants when they won the World Series.

fast facts

PITCH PERFECT: 2001 MN graduate Mike Zagurski pitches in a Phillies game. He still keeps in touch with many of his old MN friends. Photo provided by bluedragonsports.com

AROUND THE BASES: 2005 MN graduate Conor Gillaspie plays in an MLB game. Gillaspie is currently playing for the Chicago White Sox. Photo provided by csnbayarea.com

organization, played varsity baseball for MN and have since gone on to play in Ma-jor League Baseball (MLB).

“Millard North High School gave me the opportu-nity to play at the highest level possible in Nebraska,” Gillaspie said. “Because of the success of

the team and a commitment to excel in school, I had a great chance to be seen by colle-giate coaches and be accepted to a high-level u n i v e r s i t y.”

After play-ing his junior and senior sea-son at MN, Gil-laspie played on scholar-ship at Wichita State Univer-sity. Zagurski, on the other hand, went to H u t c h i n s o n C o m m u n i t y College for two years and then the Univer-sity of Kansas, where he holds the single-sea-son strikeout record. After that, both play-ers were drafted and put in the minor leagues. Zagurski’s first major league game was with the Philadel-phia Phillies.

“It takes a lot to get called up. I was play-

ing in New Hamp-shire when I got the call. [Your first major league game] is hard to put into words. When you’re little, it’s something you dream of. There was a point when I was playing so much baseball that it also just felt like another game,” Zagurski said. “ I remember just smil-ing and picking up the ball.”

Both Zagurski and Gil-laspie had similar experiences in their first MLB game. They both also held very differ-ent experiences after that.

Gillaspie has only played with the San Francisco Gi-ants and the Chicago White Sox. With the Giants orga-nization, Gillaspie hit an

inside-the-park homerun and won a World Series.

“While I was not on the active roster when the Word Series was won, I cherish the moments I had earlier in that year contributing to the organi-zation. A World Series is some-thing that you can never have taken from you,” Gillaspie said.

Zagurski has done quite a bit more moving around: play-ing with the Philadelphia Phil-lies, Arizona Diamondbacks, Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Yankees twice, Oakland Athlet-ics, and now the Cleveland In-dians. However, he has also had his share of unique experiences.

“I’ve played a little longer than I thought I would. There are players like Greg Mad-dux that I faced off against early in my career that are now in the hall of fame. I’ve gone up against Barry Bonds, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Alex Rodriguez, and other guys like that,” Zagurski said.

Looking forward to this season though, it is easy to for-get that baseball is still consid-ered their job. They go to work and practice every single day.

“I’ve got to play baseball for ten years. People always tell me that I tend to have it easy, but they also forget that base-ball is my job. There are things that I would’ve not gotten to do without baseball, but I go to work just like any job. It can be a lot of effort too,” Zagurski said.

Just like any job, profes-sional baseball players can easily face stressful situations. Gillaspie and Zagurski have to deal with heckling fans and the noise of the crowd.

“I have played baseball a long time. The large crowds are not quite as overwhelm-ing when you realize that

baseball is such a small part of life. While it is my job, my fam-ily comes before baseball,” Gillasp-ie said. “As long as I can take care of them, the stress of large crowds

seems less important.”Both players have also

formed lifelong relation-ships because of their ath-letic endeavors. Gillaspie even met his wife, Amanda Gillaspie (formerly Amanda Sebben), at MN. She played soccer for the Mustangs.

“With her playing var-sity soccer, she understood my competiveness and was supportive of me when I was putting in long hours at the field,” Gillaspie said.

Zagurski still remem-bers the friendships he has forged while playing on the baseball diamond.

“I’ve met a lot of great people. There was Tony Dan-iel who was my catcher in high school and a lot of other guys. They’ve been in my weddings, and I’ve been in their’s. I still keep in touch with many of my old friends,” Zagurski said.

While most high school athletes don’t always continue to the professional level, Gil-laspie and Zagurski have been lucky enough to pursue the goals that they had as children.

“Never quit on your dreams, no matter what they may be. Over the course of your lifetime, people will doubt numerous tasks you attempt. While difficult at the time, how you respond to stressful situations will define and gov-ern the decisions you make the rest of your life,” Gillaspie said.

Pages 6 and 7Page 2

MN students talk about their love for Creighton basketballA preview of MN’s

new swimming pool

OLD SCHOOL: Above, Zagurski and Gillaspie play in MN varsity games. Gillaspie went on to marry one of his MN classmates. Photo by MN yearbook