Behind the voices of the announcements that come over the PA system each morning, there is a tight-knit crew of Knights. Over their years on the intercom, seniors Madi Briggs, Hannah Herrera, Olivia Hexsel and Jay Schlett have grown closer together and provide McCallum with daily updates, news and jokes.
The crew began working together when they became student council members in their freshman year. They joined because they wanted to become more involved in the McCallum community.
“I joined the student council because I wanted to be more involved with the school,” Briggs said. “I wanted the opportunity to be a leader and share my leadership skills with the community.”
I joined the student council because I wanted to be more involved with the school. I wanted the opportunity to be a leader and share my leadership skills with the community.
— senior Madi Briggs, student body vice president
This year, these students took on the role of making the morning announcements to provide McCallum students and staff with information about the upcoming day.
“As a part of the student council, it’s always been a tradition for the student body president, vice president and the senior class officers to do the announcements, so we took on that role,” Hexsel said.
They put the announcements together with the help of student council sponsor Amy Brodbeck. Brodbeck writes the announcements and the students choose the order in which they read the information. Teachers are also able to fill out Google forms so that their messages can be read over the announcements for everyone to read.
Brodbeck became the student council sponsor two years ago after the previous sponsor left McCallum. She volunteered to take the role due to her own student council experience when she was in high school.
“I was in the student council when I was in high school,” Brodbeck said. “I didn’t play a major role in it, I was just a member, but I decided that I wanted to help out with the student body. [The sponsor role] was open, and I stepped up and decided to do it.”
In the future, Brodbeck has plans to turn the announcements into video format and broadcast them during advisory.
“I wish we could film the announcements and set it into our advisory time frame,” Brodbeck said. “I know not all the announcements get heard and that some kids are too busy in athletics and other classes. I think it would be cool if everyone saw their student leaders giving the announcements every day.”
The morning announcements are memorable to the McCallum community because of the beginning snippet of music and ending “Bad Joke of the Day” they hear over the intercom every day. When the crew doesn’t have any ideas for songs to broadcast, they turn to a playlist that they use to help pick a song of the day.
“Usually we just pick a song that has been stuck in our head or a song that kinda represents our mood,” Herrera said. “[The tradition] has been around for a while, at least since I was a freshman.”
For the jokes that they end the announcements with every day, they use a joke book that has been passed down from past officers to add a bit of brightness to the day. But being on the announcements crew isn’t always smooth sailing. When reading the announcements live, many problems can arise. It is up to the crew to keep calm and to try and stay on track.
“We are all pretty lively people, and sometimes it’s hard to take certain announcements seriously,” Herrera said. “When we first started doing announcements, it was hard to keep calm, so there have been multiple times where one person laughs, and then it’s like a domino effect and we all end up laughing.”
A memorable moment for the crew was when math teacher Richard Cowles came in for the first time to play The Count from Sesame Street. The Count often appears on the morning announcements to give information about blood drives, coat drives and other upcoming events.
“Any time Mr. Cowles comes in, he is so funny,” Schlett said. “I remember the first time he came in we didn’t know how it would work with another teacher doing the announcements with us, but he came out with that booming voice and we were all trying to hold in our laughter.”
The time that these four seniors spend together every day has allowed them to grow close and create long-lasting memories for their senior year.
“Walking to and from the front office every day, having conversations and helping each other with homework while we’re waiting for the announcements to start has brought us closer together,” Schlett said.
Walking to and from the front office every day, having conversations, and helping each other with homework while we’re waiting for the announcements to start, has brought us closer together.
— senior Jay Schlett, class vice president
At the end of the year when these seniors graduate, they will leave the announcements in the hands of the student council members of the class of 2025.
“I’ve been looking at the junior class and the junior members of the student council, and I have a lot of trust in them,” Schlett said. “They put in a lot of work, and it seems to me that they love what they do.”
Doing the announcements is only one of the many important duties the student council officers perform, but they find it very rewarding and believe that it is necessary for students to hear daily news.
“The announcements are very important for students at McCallum,” Briggs said. “They give students details about what is going on within the school. It’s really helpful for students who don’t have social media access.”
Over the past year, these seniors have learned more about themselves, each other, and the McCallum community.
“I’ve grown by being a better public speaker,” Hexsel said. “I think being in the student council and doing announcements has helped me be more confident in who I am.”
![BACKGROUND IN THE BUSINESS: Dressed by junior designer Kaitlyn Gerrie, senior Chamila Muñoz took to the “Dreamland” runway this past weekend. While it was her first time participating in the McCallum fashion show, Muñoz isn’t new to the modeling world.
I modeled here and there when I was a lot younger, maybe five or six [years old] for some jewelry brands and small businesses, but not much in recent years,” Muñoz said.
Muñoz had hoped to participate in last year’s show but couldn’t due to scheduling conflicts. For her senior year, though, she couldn’t let the opportunity pass her by.
“It’s [modeling] something I haven’t done in a while so I was excited to step out of my comfort zone in a way,” Muñoz said. “I always love trying new things and being able to show off designs of my schoolmates is such an honor.”
The preparation process for the show was hectic, leaving the final reveal of Gerrie’s design until days before the show, but the moment Muñoz tried on the outfit, all the stress for both designer and model melted away.
“I didn’t get to try on my outfit until the day before, but the look on Kaitlyn’s face when she saw what she had worked so hard to make actually on a model was just so special,” Muñoz said. “I know it meant so much to her. But then she handed me a blindfold and told me I’d be walking with it on, so that was pretty wild.”
Caption by Francie Wilhelm.](https://macshieldonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/53535098892_130167352f_o-600x400.jpg)
![FOOTLOOSE AT LAST: Senior Asher Kay rocks out on the dance floor at the homecoming dance, put on by Student Council. Since the tradition of a homecoming dance fell out of practice after 2019 due to low attendance rates, this was Kay’s first time attending one in all of his four years. Kay felt that the mystery surrounding what the dance would be like added to his experience.
“As a senior it was fun to have at least one homecoming,” Kay said. “Since we had never had one before, and since I haven’t really been to any school dances, I didn’t know what to expect, but when I got there it was cool to see everyone having fun. Hopefully it was a success so they keep doing it and start a new sort of tradition at McCallum.”
Though his first and last homecoming dance has passed, Kay hopes the future classes will continue to put on the dance.
“I think they should keep doing it because it’s a good opportunity for people who may not be super social to talk to new people and have a fun experience outside of school,” Kay said. “But also, it’s good to keep [doing] it because it seemed to be a fun time for everyone.”
Kay enjoyed the dance floor and seeing his peers dressed up in HOCO finery, but noted his favorite part was the photo booth.
“It was fun with my friends to get photos since it was the only HOCO we’ve been to, so we might as well have something to remember it by,” Kay said.
Caption by Lanie Sepehri.](https://macshieldonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/53277180411_77436c5082_o-600x337.jpg)
![FROM THE TRAVIS COUNTY JAIL:
Seniors Marshall Clifton, Danielle Todd-Harris and August Krosta perform “Cell Block Tango” from “Chicago.” “Cell Block Tango” is the behind-bars ballad of six women accused of killing their significant others. After singing “Cell Block Tango” with choir friends, Krosta felt inspired to bring the song to Cabaret auditions.
“Last year me and a couple of my friends would reenact it because we do a bunch of karaoke stuff in choir,” Krosta said. “I wanted to get all of them together because I thought itd be really fun. We didn’t actually think that wed be able to get in but kind of just wanted to put it all together and see what happens, but he really liked the idea.”
Krosta said “Cell Block Tango” stood out in the setlist because of mood and murder.
“The mood was different than a lot of the other numbers,” Krosta said. “It just had a different energy because were killing people on stage. My character actually didnt kill anyone on stage, but it was fun watching everyone else do it. Because the looks on peoples faces are like, ‘What in the world is going on right now?’”
Junior Sam Kruck was one of the three male dancers “killed” during the performance. During a choreographed fall on the third night, he accidentally broke a chair.
Kruck said faking his death was an “interesting” experience.
“Ive never had to do it before, but I think Im an expert on it now,” Kruck said.
Kruck’s second scene was a ballet number that occurred during Krosta’s French monologue. Krosta worked with a French teacher to learn the lines describing the male character’s disappearance.
Krosta said the highlight of performing “Cell Block Tango” was the audience’s enthusiastic reaction.
“As we finished they [the audience] started like screaming,” Krosta said. “It was super cool to have everyone cheer like that.”
Caption by Ingrid Smith.](https://macshieldonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/53376771133_081b8af1e3_o-600x338.jpg)
carlo • Feb 23, 2024 at 5:25 pm
i had never even considered what went into the morning announcements, but the interviews were great and gave me an amazing insight
Harper Maxwell • Feb 23, 2024 at 4:19 pm
This is such an interesting topic to cover and I loved to read about it. Evelyn Jenkins did a great job fitting in little details about the group that really lets the readers get to know their personalities. I think it is a very well set up story, how there is kind of a beginning, middle, and end all written out. I also really like the interactive favorite bad jokes of the day.