For years Hanover High School has had a highly attended school Science Fair. Yet this year it has come to the attention of a few of the students at our school, and myself, that there will be no Science Fair this year as far as we can tell. Science is a fundamental thing that we need, something that does take some work getting kids interested in, and what better way than the School Science Fair?

The Science Fair at HHS has previously been a mandatory thing for all honors courses, something that truly makes sense when you consider the experience one gains through doing a Science Fair, but recently this has been pushed away. As the years progressed, I assume that at some point it was decided that to have already burdened honors students do a Science Fair was something that was too demanding. From this it was decided that the only students who would have to do a Science Fair would be the freshman honors  students, and with a class of more than 150 every year, this wielded a sizable number of participants. Yet due to the freshman honors Biology teacher’s medical complications in 2012, the long-term substitute at the time did not enforce that the students would be required to make a Science Fair project. However, as one of the attending members at that Science Fair, I can attest to the fact that there was a very sizable amount of students who participated.

The following year, however, is where the Science Fair really ran into its first real problems, starting with one simple change to the student handbook not requiring honors science class students to attend the Science Fair. To put it plainly this Science Fair had a measly attendance. There were so few projects that HHS was able to have the Science Fair held inside the Library. There were less than 20 projects, not at all a reasonable thing. Now to make matters worse, we HHS students have no way to attend a Science Fair this year at all. The previous teacher who ran Science Fair, Mr. Newton, is far too busy this year with the arrival of a new baby in his family, and this is acceptable obviously. However every Science teacher I talk to says that they are not going to run the Science Fair either. Now I know many of you might not particularly think that Science Fair is a thing that is really all that important but let me assure you that it truly is.

Have you ever heard of STEM? STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. These are fields, according to Rodney C. Adkins, senior vice president of IBM’s Systems & Technology Group, in which we desperately need more students. His reasoning is that while only 5 percent of U.S. workers are employed in STEM fields, STEM fields at the same time make up about 50 percent of our sustained economic expansion. Now knowing this, consider the fact that only 15 percent of the world’s scientists and engineers reside in the United States. Beginning to see my argument? The California Science Teacher’s Association has said that “Science projects prepare students for life.” This is important… REALLY important. Science Fair projects give students the kind of hands on, energizing science exposure that they need to gain a lifelong interest in science. Hanover High School students need to learn the 21st century problem solving skills that doing Science Fair Projects can teach them in order to be successful for life.

A point which has been thrown about by some of the STEM teachers in the building is that we run a Science Fair this year, but non-officially. I say that this is a terrible idea. Doing Science Fair shows students the real world competition of life, that if you don’t work hard on something and innovate enough, your idea will not be always the best one. Competition is a fundamental aspect of the Science Fair. The fact that students will be judged not only by their peers, but also by the rest of the state is an idea that drives students to put their absolute maximum effort into their Science Fair projects. Truly it is undeniable that the Science Fair is an important thing for the HHS students to have the option to experience in their high school career.

I know that this year we may still have the Science Fair, and truly I hope that we do because I strongly believe that Science Fair is something that increases the education of the average student beyond that which a classroom can. I think that we at HHS owe it to ourselves to show that we are the quintessence of studious life, that we are dedicated to things that are demanding yet rewarding, and that we are among the best and brightest minds of generation. We can do all this through the innovation and academic ability we demonstrate through our Science Fair.

As an American society we are constantly being pounded with media. It is in front of us, on our laps and in our pockets. The problem with this is that we are provided with examples of what to buy, how to live, how to treat others and one of the most important, how we should look. Although this is difficult pressure for all of America, I believe that this pressure is increased for the high school population. This portion of our country is trying to find out who they are and are seriously susceptible to the media messages that are surrounding all of us. Teenagers frequently are being told what beautiful is, and this beautiful is something only attainable to a miniscule portion of the population.

This leaves the rest of us on the outside, with the terrible belief that whatever we have isn’t beauty. Body image can be a problem for both boys and girls, but I’m going to focus on how it affects teenage girls in particular because that’s the experience I have lived.

It truly is everywhere. On television, the pretty, thin girls play the love interest. They are the leading ladies that we root for and, quite honestly, wish we were more like. The non-supermodel girls
are typically the ones that play the quirky best friend. Sometimes they will get the leading lady role.  However, this is just about always in a comedy or a story about how the boy looked past how the girl
looked on the outside. So what’s that supposed to tell us? Our only hope of that dream guy falling for us is that he may somehow choose our plainness over the other girl’s beauty? Basically, this is just
reinforcing the idea that we are not beautiful.

In a similar manner, the fashion world has plus-sized models. These women, despite their beauty, are placed into a separate group from the other beautiful women. So separate, that they need to have their own magazines and stores. I don’t know about you, but when I walk through a mall I only see stores with skinny girls advertising clothing. It is rare that I see a store that has plus-sized models. This is once again showing teenagers the correct way to look.

I can clearly see how this is affecting the girls at Hanover High School. I frequently hear girls complaining about their (perfectly healthy) weight. Even more, I see girls questioning why they can’t look like someone else. From personal experience I can say that seeing oneself as inferior to the next girl is one of the worst and most painful ways to lower your own self-esteem. I can remember this feeling. It gives a deep pain in the back of your stomach that lasts all day. All day, through the hunger from refusing to eat lunch and it later accompanies the overwhelming guilt when lunch is made up for
with after school snacks.

This needs to stop and this can be stopped, thanks to plus-sized model Robyn Lawley, who is breaking many barriers by being the first curvy model to appear in several major magazines such as Vogue, GQ, and Elle. Through her work and that of several other models, including Mia Tyler (daughter of Aerosmith singer Steven and actress Liv), the media can perhaps one day change to show that there is more than one kind of beauty.

Until that day, it is up to us teenage girls to fight against these predetermined definitions of beauty. If there is anything certain about beauty it is that it is subjective. No one has the right, or the true ability to rate the way we look. That job is up to ourselves. We need to have faith that we are absolutely, unquestionably, utterly,
stunning, because we are. I promise.