One gloomy Tuesday morning in Journalism class, fellow Clarion writer Beth O’Boyle and I were having quite the mundane discussion, when all of a sudden a question arose. “What the heck is a Clarion???”

Just about every single day, masses of students brainstorm and write articles about our school and community; they publish these articles on our online school newspaper- The Clarion. Beth and I whirled around and exclaimed, “Mr. Van Winkle! What is a Clarion??” Alas, he was not aware as to what the beloved name of our newspaper meant or from where it was derived; he only supplied that he simply took over the paper around the turn of the century (1900s-2000s, that is,  not the 1800s-1900s if there was any confusion).

Mr. Van Winkle did, however, direct us to HHS Media Specialist, Ms. Theresa DiGeronimo. Upon being asked the question of where the “Clarion” came from and what it meant, Ms. DiGeronimo was also unsure, but she recalled the actual meaning of the word “clarion” to mean to announce or declare.

As our lovely media specialist  delved deeper into the archives of Hawthorne High School’s library, Beth and I took to a Google search to uncover more based on our new lead! Our results were shocking. Loud and clear? A medieval trumpet? A summer camp? Mexico?? What did these terms and definitions have to do with our sacred newspaper?! Beth and I were determined; we searched the term “clarion” on dictionary.com, a dictionary website, scrolled down approximately 3/4 of the way down the screen and saw it: “verb. to proclaim loudly.”

As we joyously celebrated the locating of clarion’s definition, Ms. DiGeronimo called us back over to her office to show us the Clarion archives- actual newspapers from the 1930’s. Unfortunately, we were unable to find why the name Clarion was assigned to our newspaper in the earliest issues of the paper; however, Ms. DiGeronimo was in fact able to provide some new information about another Hawthorne High School staple- The Ursidae.

Upon being asked if we knew what the Ursidae was, Beth exclaimed that she did and that she had seen it with her very eyes on her sister’s yearbook, while I was left in a puddle of confusion. Ms. DiGeronimo explained to me that it is a Hawthorne High School tradition; every single yearbook cover, of course designed by a student, must contain the word “Ursidae” on the cover. “But what, praytell, is an Ursidae??” I asked.

“The Ursidae,” Ms. DiGeronimo replied, “is the name of a species of animals- the bear! There is also a constellation of bears, Ursa Minor and Ursa Major. Big bear, and little bear.”

Now that Beth and I have found out the meaning behind the name of our school paper and yearbook trademark, we may breathe more easily, and will continue to hunt down more historical HHS paraphernalia to investigate. For now, we present to you- The Clarion and the Ursidae.