In the back corner of the Jenks High School campus while you're walking to your car you may see little kids running through mini playgrounds, pigtails and little floral dresses flapping in the wind behind them, a group of little kids pushing plastic toy construction trucks, and a couple of kids standing along the fence, their small hands gripping the bars like its a prison, as they watch you walk by. As you walk toward the front of the building you will see more mini fenced-off playgrounds with water tables and, and slides. But what is this little school building full of young children on a high school campus, and what are they doing in there? 

There are many adventures that take place in a kindergarten classroom each day, both expected and unexpected. Jenks senior Sophie Davis is an aspiring early childhood educator and is currently interning for Laura Winsworth, a Jenks Southeast kindergarten teacher.

High school is all about preparing you for the future. But for the average student, this is difficult. This is what College and Career is for. All the college counselors help the students, sophomores and up, with their future whether that is college visits, applying for college, work, or more. They send emails almost every week or day giving an update on what colleges or workshops come to Jenks High School all the time.

From Jenks, Oklahoma to New York Broadway, Cody Davis has truly lived the “dream,” yet here he is, back in his hometown making a way in the arts for others at his Alma Mater. 

As a junior in high school, who is constantly getting told that I need to pick a career, I am also getting told that I need to be careful because some career fields are being taken over by artificial intelligence (AI). I'm extremely confused. What kind of jobs are being taken over? If we are not supposed to use AI in class, how are we going to be prepared to use it in our future careers, are the schools preparing us for this, or are they just throwing us into the world not knowing whether AI is a useful tool or the enemy?  Are there going to be any jobs left? What do the teachers think? I have so many questions, and luckily, I got to talk to a lot of intelligent people at the High School to help clear up some of my questions and figure out how to approach AI. 

Heading to the restroom, advisory, or even the counselors, has always been a simple note saying “John to Mr. Smith - Mrs. Doe.”  Now that the new digital hall passes system, 5Star, has been implemented for about a month now, students have been in an uproar. Students are upset with the short time limits, teachers are upset with the system and advisory passes, and are collectively just confused. Although it seems that the general public isn’t feeling the most positive about 5-Star, we at Trojan Torch are determined to figure out why students dislike it so much, and what the admins have to say about it? 

A maroon curtain conceals the organized chaos going on backstage. People are running from room to room, gathering groups and getting everyone in order. There’s trails of glitter and sparkles left on the floor and everywhere you look you see a different colored dress.

For an evening filled with vibrant colors, sounds, and displays from around the globe, Jenks students, families, and community members are welcome to join The International Scholars Program (ISP) for their annual Global Village hosted at Jenks Intermediate School. The event takes place on October 10th and celebrates the diversity of the student body and the rich cultural heritages they bring to the school by means of a walk around and hands-on experience.

The first day of school; for some it’s exciting, for others it’s the start of just another year. After the same usual struggle of finding parking, you take a look around, expecting nothing different, only to find two arches marking the main entrance, and construction workers putting in turf and concrete benches in tapped off areas. These small add-ons to campus are cute, but what is the reasoning behind it? 

Imagine you’re in a hot desert. The heat makes the people around you multiply, seemingly thousands of people are surrounding you. All of them go in separate directions in search of the best deal. This isn’t your average desert; this is the new Outlet Mall.

Imagine starting a new book, getting a few chapters in, and finding that this new book speaks to you in ways that no book ever has. The characters, the story, and the overarching message makes you feel so understood in a world that doesn’t quite understand you. Now imagine that book being ripped away from you. Each page being torn, crumpled, gone. Banned

I’ve spent most of my life lost in thought. When you’re someone who is constantly thinking and inside of their own brain you tend to get comfortable. It is like a safe space. But there comes times where you can’t control the thoughts happening in your brain. The future is a thought that takes over this space of mine quite frequently. I’ll sit in bed at night trying to think of where I see myself in 3 years, but it can be hard picturing myself anywhere but the present. The idea of the unknown can make more scary thoughts come into my safe space. Making me lost in thought more and more.

A season that comes around each year has sprung yet again. Spring! Spring, a beautiful season of new beginnings, blooming flowers, and new life is on its way back to Jenks. In the peak of Spring, it is so easy to look around and admire the beauty surrounding you, however in these first few weeks of spring, much of the beauty goes unnoticed. That is why it is so important to take a pause in your day every once in a while, and simply look around at the small and seemingly insignificant moments that create the lovely season of Spring.

When you’re watching a musical at Jenks, you probably notice the costumes or the set first. The layers of makeup on the actors’ faces typically takes a backseat compared to everything else that’s going on. However, the makeup brings just as much to the characters as their costumes and performances do. The entire process is very time consuming and takes patience, but the end result makes the musical so much better.

My name is Darby Graff and I work at Brookside Dry Cleaners. I am the face at the front. This means I’m not involved with the actual process of cleaning. I simply just check people's clothes in and once they're clean, hand them back to the customer. Dry cleaning is a strong example of how the working class supports the upper class. Rich people have created a whole industry based on people cleaning their clothes for them. It’s not complicated what the women in the back do, but the customers don’t care, or have any desire to learn… As the wage gap widens, the distance between the workers and the customer widens too. This is evident by the simple fact that when asking one of our regulars the name of the person who cleans their clothes every week, their response: a shrug and a wave.

Frank Herald Gymnasium (now known as the Trojan Activity Center, TAC for short) in the mid-1970's. The gym was completed in 1973 vs. The TAC today.

Since the inception of Individual Career Academic Planning, or ICAP, “Stay Put Tuesday” has been right along to ride its coattails. Stay Put Tuesday is an initiative put in place by administrators at Jenks to help encourage students to work on their ICAP assignments during Advisory. Where students are typically allowed to move freely around the school and get the help they need from different teachers, “Stay Put Tuesday” shuts that down and keeps students enclosed in their advisory.

If you look back on your days in elementary school, you probably remember your teachers extravagantly decorated bulletin boards, stacks of books, and endless supply of Crayons, markers, or colored pencils. However, something you may not have known is that over 90% of teachers spend their own money on supplies, with the average cost of somewhere between $500 and $750 being spent out of their pockets on their classrooms.

What do Trojans eat for lunch? I braved the JHS cafeteria to see how students fuel themselves every day. You’ll find a great variety of food choices that I’ll let you form your own opinions around.

In recent months, I’ve seen the town I’ve spent eighteen years of my life in go through enormous amounts of change. Sure, who doesn’t want a massive outlet mall or a completely revamped downtown, complete with a conveniently placed Lululemon? Personally, I’m thrilled Jenks isn’t going to be the place sped through en route to Tulsa anymore, but at the same time, I can’t shake off the fear that my once small town isn’t going to be so small anymore.