Afro-Cuban Music Workshop
Vladimir Espinosa came to CHS to give a hands-on workshop highlighting Afro-Cuban Percussion. The history and background information enhanced the music and brought the ensemble to life. Thank you, Vladimir!
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The Vienna Class Visits the Taubman Art Museum
In the Vienna 1900 class, students learned about a variety of Art Nouveau artists and architects from Austria-Hungary. They then had the fortunate opportunity to take a guided tour of the Alphonse Mucha exhibition at the Taubman Museum of Art.
Gristle Butter #16
Click here to read Gristle Butter #16, the latest edition to come out just in time for the Star City ZineFest! Enjoy being treated to the imaginations of Daniel A, Wilson K, Avery M, & Odessa M.
Roanoke STARCADE
Students and faculty took a surprise trip to the Roanoke STARCADE! Leaving behind our usual Monday classes, this unexpected outing provided a refreshing break from everyone’s routine. The day highlighted the importance of balancing academic commitments with enjoyable experiences, and energized the bond of community among our students and teachers.
Yasmine Anderson (’11) on her Passion for Literature and Editing
Yasmine Anderson (’11) shares with us how her early experience at CHS influenced the direction of her academic pursuits, ultimately earning a PhD in Composition from the University of Pittsburgh with her distinguished dissertation.
She also shares her professional journey, including the founding of her freelance copyediting business called Other Words Editing.
Yasmine successfully balances managing her editing business, working in digital marketing, co-hosting a reading club, and having a personal life, all while remaining committed to promoting inclusivity in literature.
She shares her story here:
I grew up in Roanoke and graduated from Community High School in 2011. Community High School’s excellent literature classes were a big part of what motivated me to earn my BA in English from the University of Virginia in 2015. I received my MA from the University of Chicago’s Master of Arts Program in the Humanities in 2016 and my PhD in Composition from the University of Pittsburgh in 2024. I was lucky to complete my doctoral dissertation, “Changing Blues: The Continued Life and Appropriation of Black Women’s Blues in Twenty-First Century Popular Culture,” under the generous guidance of Dr. Shaun Myers and received the University of Pittsburgh’s Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Dissertation Prize.
After graduating, I started my freelance copyediting business, Other Words Editing (OWE). I’m passionate about contributing to the publication of diverse work as both a writer and an editor. My own work has been published in Feminist Spaces, African American Review, and Mizna: Prose, Poetry, and Art Exploring Arab America. From 2022 to 2023, I was the Editorial Assistant for constellations: a cultural rhetorics publishing space, and I have worked as both a copyeditor and editorial intern at Autumn House Press. At OWE, I embrace the opportunity to work with pieces that are experimental in their use of language or form, but I have copyedited everything from graduate school applications to letters to politicians. I’m currently living in the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia with my fiancé – we’re getting married this May! In addition to running OWE, I work as a copyeditor at a digital marketing company and co-host a reading club.
Density Differentiation in Planetary Formation
Astrobiology students are studying planetary formation through the principle of density differentiation, which explains how planets develop distinct layers as they form. In the early molten stages of a planet, heavier elements like iron sink to the center, while lighter materials such as silicates rise to the surface, creating a core, mantle, and crust with varying compositions.
To better understand this concept, students created models simulating the density differentiation process. They selected materials of different densities, measured proportions for each planetary layer, and assemble them in a clear bottle. By shaking the bottle to mix the materials and then allowing them to settle, students observed the separation into layers based on density.
Ashley-Kate Meador Royal (‘14): An Artistic Journey
Ashley-Kate Meador Royal (‘14) demonstrated her deep connection to the intricate art of Pysanky, or Ukrainian egg decorating, when she returned to CHS to teach a Lycée Day class last fall. Her husband Dalton and his family practices Orthodox Ukrainian traditions, and she learned the skills to cherish and practice this beautiful craft from her mother-in-law, Carol.
After a period of burnout following her Studio Art degree earned from Hollins University in 2018, Ashley-Kate has rediscovered her passion for art, especially with ceramics and quilting. She is looking forward to marketing her art soon, and also trying to modernize her traditional Ukrainian egg creations into more durable holiday ornaments. She’s experimenting with UV techniques and acrylic mediums to reduce their fragility, blending cultural heritage and artistic growth.
In addition to Ashley-Kate balancing her part-time customer service job with her artistic pursuits, her life has recently taken on new dimensions with the arrival of her baby daughter. As a new mom, she’s become adept at managing her time, as she’s learning how to be productive in small, precious increments dictated by her baby’s schedule.
Ashley-Kate’s dedication to sharing her knowledge and fostering creativity highlights her generous spirit and commitment to helping others grow. She is even considering offering another Lycée Day class in the future on quilting, and we certainly hope she does, as we would love to have her visit us again!
Southeast Asian Zines by Odessa
Odessa M spent an entire semester traveling throughout Southeast Asia with her father. Upon her return she treated us to a lesson about wayang kulit (shadow puppetry) in Indonesia, as this first hand experience was one of her personal highlights of the trip.
Odessa interns under Olchar Lindsan, and she is also the editor of our high school zine, Gristle Butter. She has also published a comic-book format travelogue/study of zine culture in Southeast Asia called “Southeast Asian Zines!”, an Informational, Anecdotal Comic Zine about her time abroad through monOcle-Lash Anti-Press.
“This zine-turned-book is a catalog of a high school junior’s (and her much more adjusted father’s) four month trip through the countries, galleries, and zine communities of Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, India, and Nepal. It includes novice mini-comics, a little prose, a short essay, many pictures, zine scans, and a six-page bibliography; reorganized twice. The project aims to further reveal the underground publications of parts of Southeast and South Asia to an English-speaking audience through the, admittedly narrow, context of a journey focused most on basic necessities like eating food, drinking water, and reading books. Hopefully it will help to illuminate the distinctive, yet undeniably connected approach of zine artists across the world.”
Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Day
This year to honor Martin Luther King Jr Day our new students learned about various nonprofit organizations and volunteering opportunities in downtown Roanoke during our winter community service day. They visited RAM House, The Spot on Kirk, and the new Angels of Assisi location, where they met leaders and community organizers at each location. Our returning students spent the day volunteering at Feeding Southwest Virginia food bank in Salem.
Ice Cream Chemistry
After learning about heat transfer, phase changes and phase diagrams, the Chemistry class put it all together to make ice cream using sublimation as a heat absorber. The students cooled down their liquid mixture of milk, sugar, and vanilla with crushed dry ice to create a fun, and slightly carbonated, ice cream treat.
