On Monday November 11th, nearly 200 HHS students went on a special field trip to the Saint Louis Zoo. All of these students had a total of 3.5 or higher on their first quarter HOWL score.
“We knew that we wanted to do some sort of HOWL incentive for everyone 3.5 or above,” assistant principal Mr. Eli Phillips said. “I got 194 with HOWL scores at 3.5 or above, so we need something that can accommodate a huge amount of kids.”
There were many ideas for what the school should do for the HOWL incentive for the first quarter.
“The initial plan was for us to maybe go to a park, maybe go to Heine Meine and have some full festival thing, grill some brats,” Phillips said.
The idea came with brainstorming with other people.
“Mr. Williams, Mrs. Branch and myself were talking about it,” Phillips said. “And Miss Branch said, ‘Well, why not just go to the zoo?’ Williams and I looked at each other and pretty much knew instantly like, yeah, that’s a real winner right there.”
While some students’ favorite part about the field trip was walking around and having a good time watching the animals, other students did different things that made their trip more exciting.
“The zoo is always a fun experience! I think the best part for me was getting Starbucks. It felt pretty good getting it in the middle of the school day,” Elvina Suljic (10) said.
For other students, seeing the animals and getting food and drinks wasn’t the only thing they enjoyed during the trip. Spending time with loved ones and friends was also a big part of this trip.
“The coolest part was definitely spending it with Abby, my love, but besides that, the alligators were quite active so it was fun to see my swamp puppies in action,” Nicholas Urbanowicz (11) said.
Even though not all animals might have been as active, students still had a great time getting to revisit the zoo and take a break from school and get to be outside.
“I haven’t been to the zoo for over a year and it would have definitely been really fun to go back to the zoo. I wish it was a little bit more alive than usual but it usually is more empty in the colder seasons. But still, who doesn’t love seeing a bunch of lions, tigers, and bears,” Urbanowicz said.
Now that students have gone to the zoo for their first quarter incentive and really enjoyed it, HHS staff are looking towards what’s next, for the second quarter HOWL incentive.
“We were kicking around right now renting out a movie theater. Taking everyone with certain howl scores up to Ronnies or something,” Phillips said.
Suljic thinks that giving students the ability to vote for future incentives could make the experience for students even more exciting, since they get to pick what they should do.
“I obviously wasn’t mad about it because it’s nice we went, but I do think there could be more thoughtful experiences or fun things to do. Maybe a poll we can fill out next time? Makes it more exciting,” Suljic said.
When asked about this, assistant principal Mr. Phillips said, “Yes, you will be able to vote, you can always propose ideas. Just in general, if anyone has any ideas for cool things that we can do around here to celebrate success, to make things fun, any ideas at all. Shoot me an email.”
