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Connections answers

5/23/2025

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Reading between the lines: college essay tips and tricks

5/23/2025

BY RANIA NASSER
A blank page sits before a high school student, the white screen empty of words yet full of possibilities. Whatever is written could determine the next few years of their life.
College applications can be a stressful time for seniors. Starting in the fall, the race to secure teacher recommendations, transcripts, and financial aid can feel daunting. A major aspect of the college

application process is the essays. The Personal Statement essay, the main essay, is written on Common Application, the platform used to apply to most colleges. College-specific essays use prompts generated by a specific university in which the applicant writes for that particular school. However, with good planning and balance, writing a college essay doesn’t have to be so difficult.

Is FAFSA guaranteed?: the future of financial aid

4/20/2025

BY SEHAR KITTUR

As of 2024, the U.S. has a total of 1.77 trillion dollars in student loan debt and the upward trend of that total shows no sign of stopping.
In a time of financial crisis with increasing prices of basic needs and the increasing possibility of a recession, any changes in financial aid is a terrifying prospect. Many students rely on financial aid in order to pursue college, especially low-income communities. As the Trump administration makes moves altering the nature of the American education system, with Trump himself issuing several executive orders on the topic, fears crescendo for past, current, and future students alike.

Photo Credit: Ronicia James
James presents a presentation to juniors at DSA on the many pathways students can take after graduating high school. While a 4-year college may seem the most conventional, other paths may be more financially feasible or advantageous for a particular career.

Lights! camera!…Award? What we know and think about the 97th Academy Awards

4/20/2025

BY CORA WILLIAMSON

Throughout 2024, theaters around the country were packed with giddy audiences: each cloth-backed seat filled by a history buff, theater kid, indie film fanatic, or avid Letterboxd reviewer. Upholding the annual tradition of commemorating the year's best films, the Oscars nomination list was officially announced a couple weeks ago, and the public was not short of scathing opinions.
On January 23, 2025, the 97th Academy award nominations were announced and the categories were stacked with all of the year's household names. The nominations for best picture are as follows:

PHOTO CREDIT: 6ABC
Posters for the year's best movies decorate the walls of theaters around the country; their alluring imagery and color pull in new audiences in search of their next favorite film.

WInter Edition is out now!!!

2/4/2025

Winter Edition 2025 by liam-jones

DPS rounds out Rotational Bus Service, Express Stops delayed

1/8/2025

BY LUCIA HARRINGTON
UPDATED 1/11
A new year has started, but DPS is still at work on enduring transportation issues.
Rotational Bus Service, set to end January 17th, means students do not have bus service one day a week, with families being responsible for getting their kids to school on those days. Family Responsibility Zones (FRZs) will go into place next, along with efforts towards the district’s larger goal of bus driver retention and recruitment. Express Bus Stops have been delayed to the 2025-26 school year.

PHOTO CREDIT: LUCIA HARRINGTON
Students get on the bus after dismissal. Many days, there are students left waiting for their bus as late as 5:30, 2 hours after dismissal.

2024 Fall edition is out now!

1/1/2025

Free lunch and fresh options: an appetite for change in Durham Public Schools

11/12/2024

BY LUCIA HARRINGTON

The bell rings and students stream into the cafeteria to get lunch, joining the two lines and funneling in to get their trays. This year, however, these students may notice some changes with their lunches.
At all Durham Public Schools, lunch and breakfast are free this year. Additionally, a new menu was developed with youth input. Because of these changes, more students are eating the school lunch. Still, difficulties persist, such as student complaints about quality and the strain of increased meal production on cafeteria staff.

PHOTO CREDIT: JAKE HILLYGUS
Jhesser Dubon, a junior at DSA, holds up his cheeseburger. Lunch for students is free this year.

From pencils to keyboards: the shift towards online testing

11/11/2024

BY ALESSANDRA POLANCO
As students and teachers fill the classroom once again this fall, chromebooks are opened and pens are put away. It's evident that technology has become a massive tool in education over the past four years, and with a generational shift well on its way, students and teachers alike find new ways to adjust.
In North Carolina, tests for students as low as third grade are being administered online. For high schoolers this now applies to the international AP tests, the SAT, and the ACT. With such drastic changes to a new system of testing students' abilities, the way students learn and teaching styles shift as well. As more aspects of

PHOTO CREDITS: ALESSANDRA POLANCO
Although AP testing is expected to make a move to screens, Del Dotto finds ways to incorporate both paper and digital learning in her classroom. Students complete essays both through hand and typing.

Silence After the Storm: Hurricane Helene

11/10/2024

BY LEANDER SHINDELL
“Driving into South Asheville, there were cars wrapped around trees, debris piled up along surviving bridges and roadways, parking lots full of mud, river sediment, and debris. There were power lines down just lying in the road. About every other house had a tree fall on it. Buildings were pulled off their foundations and floated away in the flood. The remains of a fence at an athletic park was mangled like a slinky after a toddler plays with it,” recounted Austin Brookes, DSA’s cross country coach and former Asheville resident.

PHOTO CREDIT: Austin Brookes
Helene raised rivers like the French Broad (which rose 24 ft) and Watauga (which rose 25 ft, the highest since 1940) reached record heights during the storm. Floods swept away soil, buildings, roads, plants, animals, and people.