Spring semester has brought an interesting twist to the Newark Community High School Sociology class. When developing ideas for service learning projects to implement this year, the group came up with a new idea: community discussions. The idea caught on and soon enough the class was busy planning for the event.

So far there have been two “Speak Outs.” The first one, held on March 11th from 6pm-8pm, was on the topic of education, both in Newark and around the world. A total of about 17 people showed up to discuss issues such as standardized testing, scheduling formats, extracurricular activities, and more. Sophomore Delaney Drew attended the inaugural event and had this to say, “I really enjoyed that everyone was able to share their views and be open about their opinions. I learned a lot of awesome information.” The second Speak Out focused on the theme of international issues. This was held on April 8th from 6pm- 8pm. Sub-topics dealt with issues such as Middle Eastern conflict, terrorism, immigration, world hunger, and privacy. One final Speak Out is to be held on May 6th from 6pm-8pm on the topic of human rights. “It was neat to see how opinions on international issues differed between generations,” junior, Blair Thompson said about the night.

The Sociology class is taught by Mr. Mike Hall, and the students involved in the Speak Out project were Derek Doeing, Taylor Frazier, Rachael Lape, Nicole Lawrence, Megan Malone, Rachel Mikkelson, Kristina Nichols and Jayson Shirley.