Features

On Sunday December 1st, a video documentary highlighting junior quarterback Kyren Eleby was released on a famous account Overtime SZN. In just a few days, it managed to get over 500,000 views and 5,000 likes. On Instagram, Eleby had three shared posts with Overtime SZN, with the biggest post having over 100,000 likes and 500 comments. It’s safe to say that all of this attention also translated to Eleby’s follower amount, as the junior went from a measly couple thousand of followers to reaching over 25,000 followers, surpassing five star graduate Ryan Wingo ’24 by one thousand followers.

Tis the season for giving! However, many Jr. Bills may not know what to get the people at the top of their lists: their teachers. Worry not Saint Louis U. High, the Prep News is here to let you know what to get each of your favorite teachers this holiday season.

All the worlds a stage … and all the Jr. Billikens are merely players. St. Louis U. High alumnus Michael Schimmele ’14 briefly stepped off the Broadway stage last week to speak at the Voices of SLUH assembly where he reflected on his time at SLUH, relating with current LGBTQ+ students, and sharing his thoughts on the value of the school’s community and sacred spaces. 

Every day, an invisible and inescapable enemy wraps itself around the throat of each individual American. One may feel the enemy when they go to the grocery store and look at the price of eggs. One may feel the enemy when they fuel up at a gas pump. But for many St. Louis U. High students, inflation is felt most intensely in a different way—when they get to the front of the lunch line. 

Season’s greetings from the Prep News! As Christmas inches ever closer, PN staff members have begun decorating their office to increase community cheer, prompting many clubs to start decorating their own spaces. Despite good intentions, many of the new Christmas-y changes have devolved into chaos, eliciting a crackdown from administration.

Mustaches, beards, and sideburns, oh my! Many St. Louis U. High students and faculty participated in the annual “No Shave November”—also known as “Movember”—challenge this last month, growing out their facial hair to raise awareness for men’s mental health issues and prostate cancer. 

One of the biggest worries for most graduating students is the same: “Where am I going to live after all this?” The United States’ housing crisis and urban decay is a pressing issue for many cities like St. Louis, with over 16 million vacant buildings nationwide. 

When will America be for life? Within our nation’s two-party political system, it is clear that we frequently neglect to treat other humans with basic dignity in the ways we speak and act, and as pro-life Catholics. We must put a higher value on the love and respect that are integral to each of us.

To the Editors:

I love SLUH. I have grown up in the building. From spending some “sick” days in S301, to playing hide and seek throughout the entire school, I have always called SLUH my home away from home. I believe it’s important for me to preface this letter with this because what I’m going to say, while coming from a place of love, will not make it seem like I love SLUH.

St. Louis U. High students are scrambling to make final preparations for the Missouri YMCA Youth and Government competition this week, and one issue many students have at the center of their thoughts is which student they will elect to manage the state’s nuclear weapons program. 

“I’m serious,” said math teacher and moderator of the newly-founded Beekeeping Club Frank Corley. “It’s the geometry of the bee that got me interested. I like hexagons.”

I hate politics, but I also love them. They can be a great avenue for change, while also being detrimental to our national unity. Yesterday was the culmination of the 2020 Election Season. Many seniors and teachers alike took advantage of their democratic rights in what has been called by both sides “the most important election in US history.” Even though it may be days, even weeks, before the results are finalized, I call on everyone in the St. Louis U. High community, no matter what the result is, to transcend partisan politics and continue to build the Kingdom of God as a united front.

Many newly-18 seniors at St. Louis U. High were able to vote for this first time in this year’s election. After months of hearing about the candidates, watching debates, and discussing policy issues in classrooms, many stepped into the voting booth for the first time, eager to exercise their civic right and make their voices heard.

The Prep News had the pleasure of talking this week to Franklin Rosario ’15, who had been featured in St. Louis U. High’s 1540 list earlier this year for his work in the glass recycling business as the St. Louis Metro Program Manager of Ripple Glass. 

Go touch grass! Oh wait—you can’t. The Belle Field, just west of the Danis Field House, has closed due to renovations, causing major turmoil within the St. Louis U. High community. Speculation has run rampant from classroom to classroom, and nobody from unsuspecting freshmen to third-floor executives seems to have any idea what is being built (except for the brilliant reporters Lucas Hayden and Andrew Vander Pluym, who wrote about it for publication to the whole school on the front page of last week’s paper). Prep News investigates this developing story.

With Election Day 2024 approaching on Tuesday, St. Louis U. High finds itself amidst a tense political, cultural environment. Here’s how SLUH community members—voters and nonvoters, those who identify with political parties and those who do not—have prepared for the election.

Letter to the Student Body: Please Vote

The wait is over, but was it worth it? Some say yes. Tyler the Creator’s seventh studio album, Chromakopia, blends musical elements of his previous albums while filling an interesting, but sometimes out of place, role in his discography. The album, released Monday after a wait of three years, serves as a tool of self-reflection on the artist’s childhood and current career. 

They first crawled their four stubby legs into the modern trappings of the Dill Center. They have since diversified and multiplied, inhabiting spaces from the Co-lab to the new Campus Ministry offices.