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The Buckley School
THE JUNIOR VOICE
Spring Issue 2019 !1
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Feature articles Racism in the Fashion Industry ………………………………………….. by Mali Lord Amazon Prime…At What Cost? …………………………………………. by Sophia Bakhtiari, Lily Tong, and Stella Myers Homework and Time Management………………………………………. by Alina Ryakina, Ariel Kaplan, and Izze Sanor Popular Reasons Why Teens Get Into Car Accidents …………………… by Helen Rossi Textiles Class ………………………………………………………………. by Andrew Zoryan
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Journalism Teacher & Advisor: Dr. Nicky Schildkraut
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Opinion essays Should the Private Lives of Famous People Be Kept Off-Limits? …………. 7 by Helen Rossi Red Cup Nazis ………………………………………………………………. 9 by Zachary Klein What is Wrong With Stereotypes? ………….………….…………….………10 by Josie Degraye Vaccines Are Beneficial………………………………………………………. 13 by Jack Weisberg Why Are Video Games Misunderstood? …………………………………… 14 by Tucker Collins A Black Hole of Money ………………………………………………….….. 17 by Paulina Joseph Phones Before Bedtime ……………………………………………………… 19 by Sophia Bakhtiari The Truth About Trash ………………………………………………….…… 20 by Stella Myers Distractions With Phones ………………………………………………….… 21 by Lily Tong College Admissions Scandal ………………………………………………..…22 by Izze Sanor Cheating on College Essays ………………………………………………..….23 by Ariel Kaplan Flat Earth = Flat Intelligence …………………………….……………………39 by Grant Culling
Interviews
Meet Madame Grandsire ……………………………………..………………11 by Helen Rossi Theatrical Mr. Nash! …………………………………………………………..25 by Tucker Collins Meet Mr. Bache …………………………………………………………….….27 by Ethan Polak Taking on the World, One Marathon at a Time! ………………………….….28 by Ariel Kaplan and Izze Sanor Plaid Pants Kopelevich …………………………………………………..……29 by Paulina Joseph Who is Mr. Hewitt?……………………………………………………………30 by Sophia Bakhtiari and Lily Tong Coach Allan: More Than a Coach!……………………………………………31 by Jack Weisberg Godmother to Goddaughter …………………………………………………..32 by Stella Myers Neddermeyer Goes Even Higher ………………………………………….….33 by Zach Klein and Dillon Wise Mr. Edelen’s Adventures …………………………………………………..…..34 by Luca Citrone and Marley McKinsey Friendly, Fashionable, and Fun! Meet Mrs. Parsi ………………………..….35 by Mali Lord Inside the Mind of Mrs. Bamford ………………………………………….…36 by Lilah Tartakovsky The Wonderful Mr. Wittmer!…………………………………………….……37 by Grant Culling and Tucker Collins Sacon’s Sport-filled Childhood ………………………………………………..38 by Marley McKinsey Fiery Ms. Firestone by Josie Degraye ………………………………………………….40
MS Journalism Students
Sophia Bakhtiari Luca Citrone Tucker Collins Grant Culling Josie DeGraye Paulina Joseph Ariel Kaplan Zachary Klein Mali Lord Marley McKinsey Stella Myers Ethan Polak Helen Rossi Alina Ryakina Izze Sanor Lilah Tartakovsky Lily Tong Elliott Tordjman Jack Weisberg Dillon Wise Andrew Zoryan Cover art by Antonio Tourgeman
Art, Fiction, and Personal Narrative
Personal narrative …………………………………………………….…….…41 by Mikayla Sagerman The Serve ………………………………………………………………..…….42 by Maya Bamford 3 in 3 Million ……………………………………………………………..……44 by Stella Myers
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Acknowledgments Thank you to all of our teachers, coaches, and staff who participated in these interviews for our publication. We appreciate our art teacher, Tim Lokiec, and his students for submitting their artwork! The cover design is by Antonio Tourgeman, who was in Middle School Journalism last fall semester. A warm thank you to Tom Henderson for printing our issues of The Junior Voice —as always!
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Racism in the Fashion Industry by Mali Lord ‘25 The fashion industry has been trying to become more diverse and inclusive. Yet with the recent launch of products from the Fall/ Holiday 2018 collections, some major brands have taken a major step backwards. Both Gucci and Prada launched styles that resembled blackface imagery that were racist and offensive. Both of these brands got rid of these styles immediately, saying they didn’t intend to allude to blackface at all. Both brands have also announced that they are increasing their diversity by starting scholarship programs. Racism is critical issue everywhere and has recently become a controversial one in the fashion industry. Fashion and style can often reflect our personality and culture, so we don’t want that to be racist, do we? Prada was accused of racism when they launched some merchandise featuring a monkey-like figure with a black face and large red lips. Soon after they pulled the products, Prada announced a Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council to “elevate voices of color within the company and the fashion industry at large.” Prada hired filmmaker Ava DuVernay and artist Theaster Gates to cochair the council. Prada also announced that they will be partnering with universities in “diverse areas” in the future to prevent similar events from occurring.
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full credit for this incident, as well as their designer, Dapper Dan. Much like Prada, they announced a diversity scholarship program to increase diversity in their creative department. They will also hire a global director for diversity and inclusion. Gucci will work on creating a "more diverse and inclusive workplace on an ongoing basis." According to the Middle School poll, when asked “would you support a brand even after it is being accused of promoting racism?” a majority of 34.8% said they would not support a company compared to 13% who said yes. The other 52.2% chose that they were not sure. Middle school student Helen Rossi '23 said, “Well, I don't think so because I don't think you can promote racism by accident and you can’t use that as an excuse, so no I wouldn’t.” Sixth grader Lilah Tartakovsky ‘25 responded,“I would not support [them] because it would probably offend people of color. And the brands should work on inclusivity.” For awhile, the fashion industry has been trying to be more inclusive and as of the Fall 2018 Holiday season, some brands have taken a step backwards. High-end designer brands including Gucci and Prada have made the extreme mistake of making products that were racist and offensive to many people. They have apologized and pulled the designs and are now starting programs and adding positions to help increase diversity in the fashion industry even more.
Similarly, last fall in 2018, Gucci released a black sweater that was accused of resembling blackface. The CEO of Gucci took !4
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Amazon Prime… At What Cost? by Sophia Bakhtiari ‘25, Lily Tong ‘25, and Stella Myers ‘25
Imagine having a delivery person go into your house to deliver a package and drones delivering packages, at the same time that there are unthinkable conditions for workers. This is all happening at one of the biggest companies in the world… Amazon. Amazon, an online company, has now made a special key that can be used to enter your house and deliver your package in order to prevent porch theft. Would you want them to have easy access to house or apartment? This is how it works: on the day of delivery, you would receive a four-hour notice of the package arrival. The delivery person would knock confirm no one is home before he or she proceeded to unlock your front door. Once the deliverer unlocked your door, a camera would start recording until the house is locked again. Supposedly, he or she is supposed to keep both feet outside to put your package inside, and then lock the door before moving on to the next location. Many people have surprisingly chosen to use this Amazon key service but also many people have skepticism about allowing people into their homes. Alina Ryakina '23 said, “I would prefer Prime air to deliver my packages because I am not okay with people who don't have anything to do with me, going into my house where I have my personal belongings and invading my space.” Last summer, Amazon introduced a new air cargo service they were attempting to make Prime Air successful. Amazon has been putting billions of dollars into building its own transportation and logistics network in an attempt to create a new idea to increase their profits exponentially. Drones will be added to their system, and they are attempting to be more efficient with delivery than ever. The new Prime
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Air fleet will help deliver the Echo devices, which are flat-screen TVs and many other marked-down goods expected to lure consumers’ dollars with the swipe of a tab.
This new idea is marketed to Prime members, meaning that millions of shipments will have less than two days to arrive. In fact, they will attempt to deliver in less than two hours. The only problem with drones is that they can only travel so far. Amazon would need to build a large number of warehouses all around the world so that they can accommodate customers in disparate areas. But, how is all of this happening? They have workers who are working hard, but often at questionable conditions. Amazon workers have unbearable working conditions and are paid as little as $11 an hour, hardly a living wage. Workers at Whole Foods, which was recently purchased by Amazon are moving to unionize in the face of the acquisition due to Amazon’s reputation. Some Amazon workers in the U.S. and around the world have also staged strikes on some of the biggest days for the company, like the day of Amazon Prime Day and Black Friday. An investigation that was published in the United Kingdom revealed that many warehouse employees don’t get bathroom breaks and are afraid to argue or protest for fear of being fired. Amazon delivers within hours, but at what price? Amazon has stated that they have gotten rid of their point-based system of attendance, but a few months ago an employee came out to the public and said they were still using that system. Middle schooler Ariel Kaplan '23 said, “I think that is a problem because they are not giving them what they need.” Ariel uses Amazon often and doesn’t support Amazon’s way of treating its employees. As you can tell, Amazon is a constant work in progress, but hopefully, they can improve over time, especially with their treatment towards people.
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Homework and Time Management by Alina Ryakina ‘23, Ariel Kaplan ‘23, and Izze Sanor ‘23 Eighth grade student Sarah Sverdlov rapidly clicks her pen as she rushes to finish her homework. It’s her second hour of homework this night, and she’s not even close to being done. “Usually, homework takes me 2-3 hours. It’s mostly studying.” For students like Sarah, homework takes up a large amount of their evenings. Stress over homework affects their sleep and particularly, their mental health. When asked if she thinks homework affects her health, she said, “Of course. I’m exhausted after school, then I have to go home and do homework for a few hours, so I’m exhausted the next day. It’s not healthy because I have no time for anything else.” Although many students’ home lives are affected by excessive homework, other students don’t feel the same pressure. When asked if homework affects his sleep, Jack Weisberg '23 said, “No, because I do it early. It doesn’t affect my sleep. It would be easier if I
had another hour to relax though, so I won’t rush and stress as much.” Buckley homework policies say that an average amount of homework allowed to be assigned is up to 30 minutes per class, and 45 minutes for English. Although many times this is accurate, many students say that they spend more than that for each class, since each person is different. Students also reported that they spent the most time doing English homework, with History close behind. A majority of students at Buckley reported that they spend an average of one to two hours on homework a night. Homework can be an effective learning tool, but an excessive amount can have negative consequences over time. Overall, it is also about students learning time management and learning how to balance one’s academic load with socializing and other activities.
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Should the Private Lives of Famous People Be Kept off-Limits? by Helen Rossi ‘23
Many celebrities have problems with protecting their private life from the invasion of others such as the young stars Lili Reinhart, Cole Sprouse, and James Charles. Lili Reinhart and Cole Sprouse both act in a popular TV show, Riverdale. Their characters are dating on the show and many of their fans want them to be together romantically. I did, too. Many of their fans have been stalking them online because they wanted to find out if they’re dating. Lili and Cole got fed up with all the messages on Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter asking if they were dating. After a while, Lili and Cole announced to the world that they were dating after photos of them holding hands and kissing in public were shared on social media. They said that they wanted to keep that private because they didn’t want to spread their relationship all over social media. If a celebrity doesn’t want to shine a light on their private life, they should not feel pressured to do so. They should be able to keep some secrets from their fans.
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For example, James Charles, a beauty guru and social media influencer, moved into a new house and made a house tour video for his followers because it was highly requested. His address got leaked on social media and his fans went to his house and tried to meet him in person. He then tweeted, “I will not hug you, I will not take a photo with you, and I will absolutely not sign your [eyeshadow] palette. It is extremely disrespectful and makes me feel very unsafe in my own home.” Some fans responded with tweets saying that they made him who he is and that that gives them the right to go to his home uninvited. While it’s true that celebrities became famous with the help of their fans, that doesn’t give those fans a right to violating their personal space. If I was a celebrity, I would like to keep some things apart from my fans. I would appreciate them and their love but I wouldn’t want them knowing everything about me because that would make me feel very uncomfortable. Celebrities are humans— not gods and goddesses—and deserve respect and privacy just as we do.
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by Mali Lord
by Mikayla Sagerman
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Red Cup Nazis By Zachary Klein‘24
Bigotry is a major problem in our modern world today. Humans judge people on their race, ethnicity, religion, and other identifiers in biased ways. For example, recently a controversial incident of racism involved students at a high school in Newport Beach, California who made a swastika out of red cups and did the Nazi salute. This display of anti-Semitism was not only offensive to Jewish people but is offensive to anyone who cares about human rights. When I started to look into this topic more, I had a weird feeling. I was shocked and disgusted about why people would act on this form of bigotry. These kids who made the swastika out of red cups deserve to be punished for their terrible actions. The police got involved in this case because the kids were also drinking alcohol as minors. In my opinion, I believe these students deserve to be expelled from their school. Incidents like this is not just happening in Newport Beach but has been increasing around the United States in the past two years. People are attacking synagogues and painting pictures of swastikas in public places.
increased shootings around the country. It is terrible that there are so many acts of bigotry in the 21st century that it scares people to practice their religion, or be who they really are. This shows that we have not come that far in the matters of achieving equality and justice. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” This famous quote shows that love is greater than hate and oppression. I think that people all around the United States need to learn a lesson about how bigotry is affecting us all. If a student painted a swastika on the Buckley campus, the students would probably be outraged. Buckley students should think about what these Newport Beach high-schoolers did and be enraged by what they did. If we treat everybody equally, we won't need to use the word bigotry anymore.
Wide-spread acts of bigotry and hate crime make people feel self-conscious about being harmed for their race, ethnicity, and religion. Many people are afraid to go to synagogues and churches due to all the
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What is Wrong With Stereotypes? by Josie Degraye ‘25 We can all agree, no one is the ‘same’. But most people also know that sometimes, some people are similar. However, there are these people who draw things like this:
This… annoys me. On a different level than anything else that bothers me. On the left, we can see a girl who has a messy bun, casual attire, and a backpack. On the righthand side, there is another girl who has a nice hairstyle, makeup, and a nice outfit, obviously going out for a dinner or something nice. What confuses me are the titles under each character. The left, it reads, ‘ME’. The right, ‘GiRL’.
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Alright, let’s discuss. This was drawn by a young female artist on Tumblr. As we can see here, she is defining a stereotype while trying to break one. The ‘GiRL’ has blond hair and is white. The ‘ME’ has brown hair and is white, which I presume is how the artist looks. So, this artist is implying that all girls should be white with blond hair and wear clothes that are aesthetically pleasing. Now, this does not make sense to me. She thinks that she is the only girl that wears casual clothes and does not spend 30 minutes on her hairstyle. Which is, as you can hopefully tell, is far from the truth. This doesn’t really happen in my grade, which I am very thankful for. I don’t know about other grades, but Buckley is full of *actually* different people. Also, may I point out that liking your clothes to match and wearing makeup and having your hair done is not bad. Repeat: it is not bad! I just don’t understand why there is such a bad stigma around liking to feel and look good. If a certain outfit makes you feel amazing, then you should not be judged for it. If it’s casual and simply a hoodie and jeans, then go for it. If it’s a dress and heels, then go for it. If it’s a skirt and a blouse, then go for it. Whatever it is, go for it.
*sigh*
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Meet Madame Grandsire! by Helen Rossi ‘23
Her parents taught her to be honest, hard working, and respectful of others. She describes herself as organized, responsible, and honest. She loves to go on hikes and have a picnic with her entire family every summer. She decided to become a teacher because her aunts, uncles, and grandparents were all teachers and they would talk about what would happen in the classroom. Now that she is a teacher, she finds her job fun because she can teach aspects about French culture. Isabelle Grandsire is the 1A and 1B French teacher. She says that her favorite aspect of teaching is that, “I get to know new students every year and see how they change and grow over the years.” She has been working as a teacher for twenty-three years before she came to teach at Buckley. Her greatest memory is when her students tell her that what she taught them came in handy when they visited a French-speaking country. It makes her happy when her students tell her what they learned helped them when they travel.
Her strengths as a teacher are that she is really organized and prepares everything she needs for class ahead of time. She gets frustrated when students come to her class without their materials or are unprepared. Her pet peeve is that “it is difficult to keep up with the students always being on their laptops.” She says communicating with people directly has the most value. Madame Grandsire says that she really enjoys her time in the US but she always loves going back to France to reunite with her family and friends. Her parents are the greatest influences in her life. They told her and her siblings that they could become whatever they wanted to be, no matter what. In five years, she envisions herself returning to live in France. She wants to grow old in France because she grew up there and already knows that she’ll complain about the rain and bad weather. “I want to grow old [in the home] where I am from… I was raised there and that's where I want to be when I am older.”
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by James Surnamer
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Vaccines Are Beneficial by Jack Weisberg Vaccines are not dangerous. They help stop outbreaks and make you less likely to get diseases as an adult. Personally, I’ve been vaccinated and so has my five year-old sister. I feel much safer knowing that I can’t get diseases. Also, imagine if there was a measles outbreak in your area, and you had a sibling or relative who wasn’t vaccinated: would you want to take that risk? It only makes sense to avoid terrible diseases that are preventable. For instance, very recently in Brooklyn, New York and now in California, there in an ongoing measles outbreak because people in a local area didn’t believe in getting vaccinated; at least 303 people were affected originally and the number is rising. In fact, New York has started to require people to get vaccinated to stop this epidemic. That is one of the reasons why people should just get vaccinated in the first place. Two of the illnesses that vaccinations can prevent are measles and chickenpox, which could be fatal for a baby. Some people wrongly believe that getting vaccinated can
cause autism and other health conditions. That isn’t true because it hasn’t been proven scientifically. One scientist said that, “There is no significant correlation between exposure to antigens through vaccines and risk of developing a non-vaccine targeted infection.” Those who argue that vaccines are bad are similar to people who say the Earth is flat or that climate change isn’t human-caused. They try to argue using a bunch of scientificsounding words but really it’s just a bunch of mumbo jumbo. Like I said before, they have no real proof, and and need an excuse to get attention. If we stop getting vaccinated, then every time someone gets one of those diseases, it increases the chances of creating an epidemic. As one doctor, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, says, “Benefits of vaccines are a matter of fact.”
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Why Are Video Games Misunderstood? by Tucker Collins ‘25 I feel like people misunderstand video games and think they are just mindless time- wasters. I disagree. People dislike video games because there is a negative stigma attached. I believe a big reason why they are hated is generational; older people who didn’t grow up with video games are biased. Historically, people tend to dislike change by James Surnamer and new things. Additionally, opponents of video games focused on the negative qualities such as addiction instead of all of the positive aspects and benefits. There are plenty of good games that can teach practical skills. Many games can help with hand-eye coordination and help shorten reaction times. An example of a good video game is the Civilization series which has been a classic since 1991. It’s a game where you start and run your own civilization. The game is very strategic and can help you with skills of strategy and management. There are plenty of similar games like this that are educational. Multiplayer games can also help with socialization. In lots of online games they encourage communication and in some, you are forced to communicate with others in order to progress. There is also local co-op which
helps in socialization just as much as multiplayer. Overall games can really help with communication and socialization like the famous MMORPG, Runescape. Other studies show that video games can improve eyesight, help the visually impaired, and increase skills of focus and multitasking. People have also started creating games specifically to help people. I’ve had many experiences with games that teach me valuable skills. For example, I play Spelunky which helps me with my hand-eye coordination and reaction times. I also play SimCity which can help with management since you’re running a city and making all of the decisions in the city, like building roads and hospitals. A possible counter argument is the view that video games can be extremely addictive and that after long periods of gaming there would be lots of related problems, like obesity, mood swings, etc. It’s up to the individual to monitor the time that he or she play games. Yes, playing too much can be problematic but only if you let it get out of hand. If we are constantly talking about the negative effects of video games and dismissing them as all bad, then we are ignoring such great benefits that we could be reaping. So many people have been turned away from games because they focused on the negative perceptions. We need to use games to our advantage more often and we need to realize that they are misunderstood. As stated by Peter Gray from Psychology Today, “Evidence has continued to mount, since then, concerning especially the cognitive benefits of such games.” !1 4
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by Josie Degraye


by Tyler Schuter
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Popular Reasons Why Teens Get Into Car Accidents By Helen Rossi ‘23
There are many reasons why get into car crashes but inexperience, texting, and drinking are the three most common causes. Drinking and driving amidst teens in high school has gone down by 54% since 1991. Laws in every state make it illegal for teens to drive after drinking any alcohol. Research shows that these laws have decreased drinking and driving accident among teens. In Los Angeles, one person is killed in traffic accidents every forty hours. According to the Citywide Law Group, “In 2017… Los Angeles saw an additional 22 percent increase in fatal accidents. Today, Los Angeles has the highest rate of injury-causing and fatal traffic accidents in the nation.” Since I have a brother who drives, I want him and other teens I know to be careful. Inexperience is the number one reason that causes car crashes among teenage drivers. According to the National Safety council, “The three most common errors, accounting for about half these crashes are: 1. Lack of scanning the roadway 2. Driving too fast for conditions 3. Distraction by something inside or outside the vehicle.” To prevent inexperience, the more practice, the better and the safer you will be. Some teens have access to alcohol like at their home or at a party. If they drink to much, they can’t control themselves and might put themselves at risk. It’s so easy to get distracted from a text or social media notification that even if you check your phone for only one second, the consequences may be fatal. I asked a few middle school students what they think are the most popular reasons for teens getting into car crashes. Mali Lord ‘25 said, “probably because they’re on their phones texting or on Instagram or drinking.” Josie Degraye ’25 responded, “Maybe talking too much with their friends or just being on the phones.”
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A Black Hole of Money by Paulina Joseph ‘24 “I’ll have two lunches, a drink, a froyo, and chips,” the student in front of me says. I watch as the young boy leisurely gathers his $28 meal to enjoy all by himself. I wish I could say that I was shocked by what I just witnessed in front of me, but unfortunately, this is a common occurrence at Cafe Commons. Some students regularly order a big breakfast, lunch, and snacks. For breakfast, a muffin costs $4 and a panini costs $6. If a student orders from the Grill, that costs even more. At the Grill one pays up to $8 for food items from burritos to hash browns. If one wants to get a drink along with the meal it costs an additional $2 to $3. A student could easily spend $10 before school begins. During break times, students get many snacks such as popcorn, chips, pastries, and muffins, each costing up to $5. For lunch, one can order from the Grill, inside the Cafe, and from the salad bar. Lunch from the Grill costs $13, food inside the Cafe costs $10, and the salad bar costs $9. Without thinking, a student could spend $25 to $30 dollars in a day or $125 to $150 a week. California’s minimum wage is $11 an hour. To pay for this food, a student would need to work between 11 ½ hours to 13 ½ hours, without accounting for taxes. Because the majority of students at Buckley do not pay for their food themselves, they do not take into account how hard they would have to work to pay for the food they consume. I think that G cards contribute to how students lose track of the value of the money they are spending. Because the G card is a card and not cash, the student fails to realize just how much he or she is spending. However, some students’ parents set a limit or preorder. My close friend Daisy, a seventh grader, has a G card spending limit of $25 a week; if she reaches the limit, she brings food from home to eat at school and skips the Cafe. In my opinion, parents who set limits for their child’s spending are smart because they are making their children aware of the value of money. There are some parents who enable the feature that automatically adds money to their child’s G card as soon as the balance drops to a certain level. The children whose parents use this feature are not teaching their children how to properly budget their money. When these students are adults, they will continue to spend money like the money is endless. If they are earning money themselves at a lower rate, such students may be shocked by how hard they have to work. This lack of financial awareness will result in parents having to continually support their adult children, or young adults having to learn these skills later on. I think it is better to learn how to manage money in middle school, rather than as an adult.
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Chaotic Schedule by Tucker Collins ‘25
A Day at School… by Ethan Polak ‘25
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Phones Before Bedtime by Sophia Bakhtiari ‘25
“One more Youtube video, it's not that late,” I said when it was ten at night, not thinking about the important Chinese quiz I needed to study for. When I finished the video, I went back to bed, but I couldn’t fall asleep. It felt like it was taking forever for me to fall asleep. Then I promised myself that I wasn’t going to use my phone or computer before sleeping anymore. Looking at the screen was keeping me wide awake. The entertainment that my phone could provide was endless, so I got back up and started watching Youtube again. Before I knew it, it was already 10:45 pm, and I was disappointed in myself because I had broken my promise to myself. This major problem of using devices before bed has been studied widely. Scientists have proven that night-time phone use will make it harder to fall asleep. In addition, you will be more tired in the morning and less alert. Using devices before bed delays your circadian rhythm clock. Scientists recommend
you stop using your phone 30 minutes or more before bed, or even longer. When you do use your phone before bed, the blue light emitted from your personal electronic device is part of the full light spectrum. We see this light from the sun all day long, and when we see this light before bedtime, our bodies do not think it is time to sleep. Using your phone before bed can also decrease your REM sleep. This sleep stage is critical for your mind to rest and remember and process your memories of the day. It solidifies your creative and problemsolving skills when you sleep. When you use your phone before bed its decreases your ability to concentrate and focus on the next day, which also makes you feel groggy in the morning. Although we realize it is harmful to look at our device before bed, it is not as easy to stop using them before sleeping. You can moderate using your personal electronic devices before bed, though, if you mute your phone and plug it in a different room. By not charging your phone in your room, you distance yourself from it so you won’t look over and pick it up when you are in bed. Not looking at your phone at night may be a difficult habit to break, but if you listen to these scientists’ research, having a good night’s sleep will be worth the sacrifice, and will pay off for your next day of school or the weekend.
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The Truth about Trash by Stella Myers ‘25 Two years ago, while snorkeling in the Bahamas, I saw a small tropical fish with a giant sheet of plastic soda can holders wrapped around its tiny head. 100,000 sea mammals have died from similar experiences. Do you know how much trash is in our so-called beautiful, clean ocean? Five trillion pieces. Five trillion pieces of disgusting garbage are ruining the world’s waters. Each year, an estimated 18 billion pounds of plastic waste enters the world’s ocean, which is already bad enough, but that is just one of the many problems the plastic waste is causing. California has already banned plastic bags from most stores, but plastic waste is still everywhere, and it's still being thrown into the ocean. The problem of plastic pollution in our waters has been attracting attention and causing scientific concern, and there are calls for an international agreement to address this issue. The majority of pollutants that enter the ocean originate from activities on land, a big activity being gardening. Millions of tons of fertilizer that is meant to be for crops has ended up in the oceans. This happens either because of it drifting into the nearest salt water or because it ran into a river. Of course, it is bad that this trash is entering our waters, but think of how much worse it is for the marine animals. After trash enters the ocean, it tends to stay there until cleaned up. Or that's what some people think. Most of the trash that enters the water is actually not cleaned up but instead is consumed by marine life. The plastic that is not consumed can endanger many different
animals, including sea birds, sea turtles, and fish, mainly because they become entangled in plastic bags or pieces of string. This is terrible for marine life, but it also affects us humans, too. Compounds that contain mercury, lead, arsenic, and cadmium often leak into seawater. Common man-made pollutants that reach the ocean include pesticides, herbicides, detergents, chemical fertilizers, oil, plastic, sewage, and other solids. This can come from natural sources, but most often it comes from industrial sources. Most of these pollutants gather at the bottom of the ocean and then are absorbed by marine animals. Tiny animals like mussels absorb chemicals and tuna absorbs even more of the contaminants. This means that when we eat food like tuna or other popular seafood, we are digesting harmful chemicals. The problem of ocean pollution is extremely important. This is why we need to be aware of the effects of contamination. Even the smallest movement to help stop this will make a big change. Don’t use plastic bags. Be careful with your own trash when near the water. Remember what’s going on to these animals during your dayto-day life. Raise awareness and speak out. Educate others on the problem. Don’t purposefully litter with items that can easily be thrown away, properly. These efforts you might consider small could help bring an end to ocean pollution.
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Distractions with phones by Lily Tong ‘25
“Bing!” I heard my phone ring while I was stuck on a problem on my math homework. I checked and I promised myself I would not check my phone again. I continued to work on my multiplication problem but could not stop thinking about what might be going on with my friends or what's new on Youtube. I thought to myself maybe if I put a video on I would zone back into my homework. But I couldn’t resist my phone. There are so many things on the Internet that entertain my attention, and my mind wasn’t being entertained by my homework. I ended up taking three hours to finish my work because I kept looking on and off my phone instead of focusing on my homework. Another time, I decided to turn off my phone and concentrate only on my homework and it took 20 minutes. In an article called “How Phones and Multitasking Ruin Concentration” by the Child Mind Institute, a study proves that phones reduce people's focus on specific tasks. Scientists isolated test subjects in a room without their phones who have to take a test
and put another set of people who had their phones with them. The group of people who had their phones away from them performed better on the test. Additionally, another issue for phone distraction is that children who are diagnosed with ADHD will get more distracted with their phones. There are many ways to prevent distraction from happening. One way is to just simply turn off your phone or leave it in another room. Also it helps not to use your phone to look up information. It's very tempting to go check your social media or a text you got while doing your homework. Use a dictionary on your desk or a calculator to help you zone into your homework instead of using digital version. By using these simple tricks, you can get your homework done so much faster, and do better!
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College Admission Scandal by Isabella Sanor ‘23
We’ve all seen the numerous news reports about the college admissions scandal and the countless people who are involved in this racketeering conspiracy this past spring. Actress Lori Loughlin allegedly bribed her daughters’ acceptance into USC for a total of $500,000. The Fuller House actress reportedly paid businessman Singer to have her daughters recruited onto USC’s crew team despite the fact that neither of the girls were rowers. The academic fate of Lori Loughlin's daughters at USC is on hold as investigation continues. I believe that the parents along with their children should be held accountable and punished whether that's through jail time or community service. Many people seem to be quick to blame the parents but I see the situation as partly the girls’ fault. Even though the girls didn’t pay the bribe money, they were aware of their parents’ actions and seemed to do nothing to stop it. Loughlin’s youngest daughter, Olivia Jade Giannulli is known in the public eye for her successful youtube channel which has earned her more than 1.9 million subscribers. In a recent video posted to her channel, Olivia had said, “I don’t really care about school, as you guys all know,” showing that she doesn’t take her studies at college seriously. She just wanted the college experience of partying, not academics. Another actress, Felicity Huffman, was also involved in the college admissions scandal, pleaded guilty to paying $15,000 to a fake charity associated with Rick Singer. She arranged for her daughter to take her SAT’s in a location controlled by an administrator paid by Singer. Unlike Huffman, Loughlin did not
plead guilty and is not taking the blame for this situation. If Loughlin did plead guilty, her consequences would be severely worse compared to Huffman’s. Apparently, Loughlin now feels pressure to plead to spare her daughters from potential charges against them. She’s trying to keep her children out of this even though they are very much involved. She wants both her daughters to continue their education. So far, Loughlin has been dropped by the Hallmark Channel and many other brands as a consequence of these charges. Sephora also ended the business partnership between them and her daughter, Olivia Jade. This event has drastically affected her acting career as well as her reputation. Many believe that she should just plead guilty and accept responsibility for her actions. The investigation is still ongoing and Loughlin—among many others also charged with the cheating scandal —will be back in court in the near future.
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Cheating on College Essays by Ariel Kaplan ‘23 We’re all familiar with the college admissions scandal, but a lesser known scandal of widespread cheating is going on right now. Recently, many college students pay private companies to write their essays for them. This slips under the radar because it’s hard for teachers to identify plagiarized essays. Many students don’t even set out to cheat, but there’s so much advertising by these companies that they give in to the pressure. Ads for essay mills are all over social media and the Internet, as well as flyers all over college campuses. Most students justify buying essays by saying that all their classmates do it too, and that the stress is too much for them to handle. Although this might be true, cheating is not the answer. Despite the fact that the stress of college can be overwhelming, I think that plagiarism is never right. Even if students feel like they have no option besides cheating, they always have the choice to do their own work. They have the option to talk to their teachers for an extension, or try and finish their essays. They should also learn to start their essays earlier so that they have the ability to finish by the deadline. Having someone write your essay for you is tempting, but it just isn’t fair to the other students who work hard for the grades they get. Additionally, the quality of the essays that students buy also are often not very good. Some of the bad ones either make absolutely no sense, or are partly plagiarized themselves.
New technology makes it easy for colleges and universities to detect if an essay is really written by the student or not. Purchasing essays is extremely risky for many reasons. One way that some colleges are detecting whether an essay is truly a student’s work is with new software. This software compares students’ past essays with the new one, and sees if they are written similarly. It checks the essay’s language, font, spaces and the time it was written. It also checks the essays “footprint”, which tells if the essay has been downloaded, forwarded, or sent to someone else. This can often detect if the essay was purchased from an essay mill and sent to the student. Although this software doesn’t catch all plagiarized essays, it has made a substantial dent in the number of plagiarized essays that were caught. Colleges warn their students that they know if an essay is truly their work, which makes less students decide to cheat for fear of repercussions. Students can be suspended or even expelled for serious cases of plagiarism. In addition to all of this, students should simply decide not to cheat because it’s ethically wrong. Doing one’s work is the whole purpose of education, and paying people to do it for you defeats the point, and negatively affects you in the long run. !2 3
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Hypocrisy by Stella Myers ‘25
Bullying by Isabella Sanor ’23
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The Theatrical Mr. Nash! by Tucker Collins ‘25
Who once acted in a play that President George H.W. Bush loved? Who’s seen the White House with the former President and saw his vacation home in 1991? Who caught the theater teaching bug when he was a small child? Mr. Nash!
Mr. Nash’s father was a theater teacher and Mr. Nash went to go see him rehearse and direct the plays. He would see each new play multiple times.“I used to go to the show 6 or 7 times.” He also loved watching his father rehearse and would sometimes just sit in the audience and watch him. His favorite plays are musicals such as Sweeney Todd and Fiddler On a Roof. “It gives me a huge charge working with students and seeing a lightbulb going off in their brains,” He says about students who have affected him the most. He stays in touch with students who have graduated from Buckley. They help him build empathy. He loves working with deep and complex issues in acting class.
Overall, Mr. Nash is an incredible teacher and mentor to his students who are studying Improv and acting. He gave the advice, “If there are some poor decisions you made that led you to where you are now, consider that you’ve been given a second chance to do it better.”
“It gives me a huge charge working with students and seeing a lightbulb going off in their brains.”
Mr. Nash grew up in the South Bay of Los Angeles in Torrance. His family has had a huge impact on his life. He didn’t grow up wealthy, explaining, “my parents were comfortable.” He was an actor for a period of time before deciding to become a theater teacher.
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Textiles class: Boys Who Sew by Andrew Zoryan ‘24
At Buckley for Textiles, a middle school exploratory class, we sew crafts like pillows, bears, and bags. There are three boys and three girls in the class. We have made a few things for other people with the help of our teacher Mrs. Wells. She taught us all how to sew from scratch and helped us make multiple different things. “Mrs. Wells is the best sewing teacher, she always helps me work on my projects,” said middle schooler Nick D'Alessio. The first project we made a stuffed bear. We had multiple colors and designs we could use to make them with. But at first, we had difficulties making them because the fabric was very hard to sew and the thread consistently knotted, breaking the needles. “The first thing I tried to make was a bear, it didn’t turn out as expected because the string got messed up and the bear was completely patched up and unable to be stuffed,” Dillon Wise said. It took many of us multiple attempts to sew correctly. Nick had to re-make a drawstring bag because it was hard to learn how to use the sewing machine. He
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said, “Sewing is hard but is is also fun, so it is worth the work.” Eventually, we had many successful projects that we felt proud of and even gave as gifts to our parents. “I made a bear and a bag, which I gave to my parents,” said Nick D'alessio. After Dillon’s failed attempt to make a bear, he had his mind set on making something that would work: a small bag and a custom-made beanie. I made about 10 small items including three bears, two purses, and three small pillows. Other students in the class sewed larger items such as clothing, because they had previous experience. They made a dress with multi-colored fabric, a pair of plaid pants made of red and green fabric, and multiple scrunchies for hair. We hope that next year we can take the class again and make nice gifts and crafts. Sewing is fun and is something we all loved to do after the class. As Nick said, “Mrs. Wells is the best sewing teacher; she always helps me work on my projects.”
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How much do you know about Mr Bache?
by Ethan Polak ‘25 Mr. Bache has much more to tell than meets the eye. He was once a sports writer and reporter. He has a sister who is also a teacher and lives in the SF bay area with her two daughters. Mr. Bache grew up in North Hollywood and has never moved far from Los Angeles. When Mr. Bache was younger, he was the tallest in the class. A favorite memory he has is when his family visited their house in the desert. He and his sister had fun playing and building forts in the trees. In his opinion, ninth grade was the hardest year for him because he started at a new school. These days, Mr. Bache is an avid sports fan and enjoys watching his favorite sports such as basketball, college football, baseball, and golf. He also enjoys playing golf, remarking, “Golf is one of those sports you can play at any age.” Mr. Bache also enjoys biking and hiking. Some know that Mr. Bache has previously taught at other local schools, Viewpoint and Crestview Prep. Life for Mr. Bache has been nearly what he imagined it would be: he enjoys all of it! He says, “I did mostly everything I thought I would do but the one thing I didn’t do was become a Principal.”
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Taking on the World, One Marathon at a Time! by Izze Sanor ‘23 and Ariel Kaplan ‘23
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participated in many marathons. “I love running and competing in races. That’s usually a lot of fun for me,” she says. In high school, Ms. McMackin wanted to become a “dolphin trainer,” but later decided she wanted to become a lawyer. While in school, she took a history course and soon developed her love for the subject. “I found history really interesting, and now here I am teaching it.” One of her dreams is to buy a house, and she wants to work hard for it. “I want to buy a home and I want to do it myself.” So far, she likes how her life has gone and she plans to continue running marathons, meeting up with her friends and sisters, and enjoying life. “I’m all about spending time doing things that I enjoy doing.”
An 8th grade history teacher who is not only a role model but also a marathon runner, Ms. McMackin was raised in sunny Burbank, California. She grew up with her four sisters who are still a huge influence. “My sisters are my best friends.” In class, her lively lectures and vivid descriptions make her history class loved by all. She is the proud owner of her French bull dog Finn and is getting a new puppy soon. In her free time, she enjoys running and has
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Plaid Pants Kopelevich by Paulina Joseph ‘24 little sister was born. She described the feeling as being ecstatic.
“I was a very good student, I got straight A’s and took all AP’s!” As you walk around campus, you’ve probably seen a young lady with short brown hair and red plaid pants, carrying around a reusable water bottle. This youthful woman’s name is Veronica Kopelevich. She works in the admissions department and is also a seventh grade advisor at The Buckley School. She was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine and moved to California when she was just two years old. She grew up in Santa Monica with her mom, dad, and younger sister. Ms. Kopelevich describes her student self as hard-working and creative. She took all AP’s and got accepted to both UC Berkeley and UCLA. Ms. Kopelevich attended and graduated from UCLA. Ms. Kopelevich said that one of the saddest moments of her life was graduating from college and having to “think about what to do next”. Being her independent and strong self, she decided to move to San Francisco to start her career all on her own. Ms. Kopelevich counts that as one of her proudest accomplishments.
When asked about the most influential person in her life, she replied “probably my dad is the biggest inspiration to me, because he moved here with nothing and now he’s an Associate Head of School.” Ms. Kopelevich’s father built his life from the ground up, one of the hardest and most courageous thing you can do for your family. You can clearly see where Ms. Kopelevich gets her smarts and determination. Overall, Ms. Kopelevich is a loved mentor throughout campus. Whether you are rating Coachella outfits during advisory or just having a friendly conversation about the Super Smash Bros during lunch she is “always there for students."
Ms. Kopelevich says she is “lucky to have a strong support system” which is her family. One of the happiest moments of her life was when her
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Who is Mr. Hewitt? by Sophia Bakhtiari’25 and Lily Tong’25
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I wanted to do rather than what I thought I should do to get into college." Mr. Hewitt explains he always did what thought was best for him to get into college rather than what he was interested in. "I had an English teacher in high school who sat us in a circle, and we faced each other, and we did so much creative writing. She really encouraged us to use our voice and express ourselves, and I am forever grateful for her.” When Mr. Hewitt was in school, he loved writing for fun and assignments. He said he attended two different colleges, “I started at a small school called Carlton College in Minnesota, and then I transferred and graduated from Harvard.” He also talks about his neighborhood where he was born and grew up. "Berkley is a very special place, and it was very progressive, and we learned about a lot of things others didn't get to learn about. We had Malcolm X's birthday and had international women's day off, and we studied the issues and why they were important.”
He added, “We learned about history through the perspective of not just the victors but also the people who were less fortunate." In addition to school, he loved playing sports with his friends when he was young and watching movies. Mr. Hewitt's best friend is one of the people he met in preschool and they are still friends for more than 40 years.
Do you know many teachers who teach English, math, yearbook, and is also an advisor? Well, that's Mr. Hewitt. When we think of Mr. Hewitt, we don't know his full story. What was he like as a kid? Where did he grow up? When did he start being a teacher? After interviewing Mr. Hewitt, we found out that he has had so many journeys in his life.
"We learned about history through the perspective of not just the victors but also the people who were less fortunate." Mr. Hewitt is a great role model for students and we are very lucky to have him as a teacher.
Mr. Hewitt enjoyed school and said that his favorite subject was English and math. "Yes, I did enjoy school. I wish I did more of what
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Coach Allan: More Than a Coach! by Jack Weisberg ‘24
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summer. Some of his best memories are of traveling all over Europe. He has always loved soccer, playing it as a child and joining a team after high school. The most influential teachers he had were his soccer coaches. Coach Allan has a wife and two children. He said, “My family is the most important thing to me.” He is a caring man who will invest time in his students, and make a positive impact. There is no better coach nor advisor than Coach Allan because he is an inspirational person. He says that he loves it here at Buckley. When asked if he had any regrets he answered, “My only regret is leaving Buckley, and I’m so happy that I got the chance to come back.”
Coach Allan was influenced the most by his coaches as a child, and now he is a soccer coach influencing kids. In 2002, he had to leave Buckley but returned to Buckley in 2009. As the middle school soccer coach, he is loved by all his players. Without him, Buckley wouldn’t be the same. His first memory is from childhood, when he was five years old and went down a playground slide, but flipped over, and smashed his head on the ground. Both of his parents are teachers, so his whole family would travel together every
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Godmother to Goddaughter
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She remembers finding out that people move out of their houses when they’re 18, and that really upset her. “I never fantasized about having children
by Stella Myers ‘25
“I enjoyed being a daughter, being a friend, being a sister. I lived a happy life and I am very grateful.” , but I did think about getting married eventually, though that seemed like a hundred years away. I could never picture what my life would be like when I was older. I think I thought about being a writer or an actress, and I remember wanting to be on Saturday Night Live when I was older, but I was never really sure, I just knew I wanted to do something with the performing arts.”
Kind, caring, and creative, Anya Marina is not your average person. Born in Ann Arbor Michigan, Anya was always an imaginative girl. “I lived in my imagination,” she explains. “I lived in a remote community and most of what I liked to do was play with my cats and my dogs, and make up stories, and spend a lot of dreamy time alone. I read fairy tales, and even made my own. I also wrote my own songs, so a lot of my time was spent in my head.” Little did she know, this would be the beginning of her songwriting career. “I never really thought about what my life would be like,” she recalls. Anya’s first job was on a radio station working overnights for four hours a week in San Diego. This was not her dream career, and the first chance she got, she published her first song.
Anya’s songs have been featured in many different TV shows and movies, including Grey’s Anatomy, How I met your mother, CW’s Gossip Girl, and The Vampire Diaries. She has also had songs featured on the Twilight: New Moon soundtrack, and the Thirteen Reasons Why season 2 soundtrack. Her album Miss Halfway eventually earned a San Diego Music Award for Best Recording. Although she is extremely happy with what she has accomplished in her career, it is not her proudest accomplishment. Anya’s proudest accomplishment are the relationships she has kept with all of her friends. “I am proudest that I have great relationships with my family, and my goddaughters, and my family friends, and all of my long relationships that I was able to keep and treasure. So, I think I’m proudest that I was still able to prioritize my relationships over my musical career.” !3 2
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Neddermeyer Goes Even Higher by Zachary Klein ‘24 and Dillon Wise ‘24
Have you ever had a teacher who wants to talk to you about things other than class? That is Mr. Neddermeyer. He loves having interesting conversations that have nothing to do with the classroom. He says, “Kids especially keep me so young.” He wants to know his students better and wants to make his class fun. He makes his class very interactive to keep kids listening and engaged. Mr. Neddermeyer learns a lot about pop culture because of his students. He started his career by teaching elementary school but hated it. Now he is a middle school history teacher. “I work really hard to be kind-hearted and genuine and to me, that’s the mark of success.” We remember when Mr. Neddermeyer created an imaginary airplane in his classroom and taught us about the country we were flying to. He pretended to be the pilot on “Ned air”. We also played bingo with different types of governments in order to learn. He has very interesting ways to teach that really helps us understand topics better.
Mr. Neddermeyer really cares about his students and listens to what they say. He will find time during his busy schedule to talk to students. He shows lots of dedication to teaching his students and making learning fun. Every day when he gets to school, he never misses the opportunity to say hi to all of the students he sees. Mr. Neddermeyer says, “If somebody can be honest and kind and loving in everything they do… then to me, that's something one should be prideful about.”
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Mr. Edelen’s Adventures
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His love for how things worked is one of the reasons he became a science teacher. Mr. Edelen was also inspired to become a science teacher because of his high school physic teacher, Mr. Bell. His high school teacher helped him apply scientific knowledge to the real world, which is a skill that Mr. Edelen also teaches his students. During high school, Mr. Edelen would play many sports such as basketball and tackle football. He really liked these sports and would like to play for his school team and supported his school. He worked as an orderly who delivered lab specimens at a hospital that helped him pay for his college education. He has been teaching at Buckley for several years and has a four-year-old son.
by Luca Citrone ‘23 and Marley McKinsey ’23 Even before becoming a science teacher, Mr. Edelen has always loved playing with fire. One day in Akron, Ohio, he took his love for fire too far and accidentally burned his grandfather’s garage down, explaining, “I started a lot of fires, like literal fires. I burned my grandpa's garage down and I burned down the trees behind his garden once.” He liked to play and get in trouble like all kids do, but unlike most, he always had a fascination with how things worked. His grandfather would show him how to fix items such as a lawn mower. “I have always loved building stuff and figuring out how things worked. Like I said, I have broken a lot of my grandfather’s stuff and I had to help him put that stuff together.”
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Friendly, Fashionable, and Fun! Meet Mrs. Parsi…
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talk about things that are going on without feeling judged,” Mrs. Parsi explained. Mrs. Parsi also is in charge of Student Council. She believes it’s a great opportunity for students to voice their opinions. “They have peers to talk to as opposed to a principal or teacher.” She believes it is important for students to be leaders and to communicate and make decisions with each other.
by Mali Lord
She is a Buckley mom, teacher and caring person. She has a contagious smile and a chic sense of style. She has the right balance between work, family, and social life. Who is she? Dorsa Parsi or Mrs. Parsi teaches a Happiness class in which we play games, learn interesting facts, talk about life, and do things that make us happy such as watching movies or making popcorn.
“Life’s too short to not eat Nutella.” “I think the happiness class affects the Buckley students by hopefully making them connect to the other people in the class a little bit more and having a place where they can
She was born in Iran and moved to Maryland before she moved to LA. She says the biggest influences on her life are her parents, “because they’ve always worked hard to make sure I had everything I needed. And I feel like that’s how I live my life. I put my kids first and everything I do, I do for them first.” She says she has three favorite memories, “the three times I had each of my kids.”
Mrs. Parsi is an amazing person and teacher. If she can’t put a smile on your face, nothing can. Mrs. Parsi loves doing things that make her happy. As she likes to say, “Life’s too short to not eat Nutella.”
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Inside the Mind of Mrs. Bamford by Lilah Tartakovsky ‘25 Is there anything that you love to do so much that you completely lose yourself in it? That’s how I feel when I dance. Knowing I’d share similar interests with Mrs. Bamford, one of our school’s dance teachers, I decided to get her perspective on how she viewed dance as an expression of herself.
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commercial and competition dance world is about making money, when the theatrical dance companies are often telling much deeper stories.” Her final comment about contemporary dance was, “Contemporary dance is to this generation what modern dance was to previous generations. There are extraordinary things happening in contemporary dance right now; you just have to go out and find them. Each teacher and choreographer has their own style. I love it when people take influences from different places and
Mrs. Bamford showed an interest in dance and gymnastics from a young age. Going to the theatre with her parents made her realize that it was something she could continue to study in high school and college. “It became the thing I loved most,” she said. “Teaching dance is something I look forward to everyday,” she said. Mrs. Bamford describes teaching dance as motivating. “We’re trying to help students figure out who they are through their artistic voices.” She teaches a lot of different classes, from middle school theatre to Beginning and Intermediate Dance classes in upper school. “Every year the dance classes and curriculum are a little bit different...so you have to keep the material interesting and keep your students interested.” When I asked her opinion about competition dance shows, she replied, “There’s a lot of phenomenal dance happening on World of Dance and So You Think You Can Dance but those are competition shows designed to be filmed and consumed in a certain way. People need to go out to the theatre and see dance performed live... I think there’s a lot of amazing dance happening right now, but the
find a way to fuse styles and do their own thing with their dancing ...It’s all about controlling time, space, and energy with a purpose.”
“...It’s all about controlling time, space and energy with a purpose.”
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The Wonderful Mr.Wittmer! by Grant Culling ‘25 and Tucker Collins ‘25
For the past eleven years we’ve had a man on campus who has survived tornadoes, who has moved 2000 miles away from his home, and who has cared and helped thousands of students over the years. Who is this mystery man? His name is Mr. Wittmer, our school librarian.
“I found the 127 hour boulder,” Mr. Wittmer said, referring to the canyon where a man was trapped under a boulder in Southeastern Utah. He talked to this survivor over the phone and then went to the same exact location where he had escaped by cutting off his own arm. Since then, he has visited this place in Blue John Canyon for the past four years.
Another interesting fact about Mr. Wittmer is that his cat lived for 21 years! And that’s not normal age for a cat since the average cat has a life span of 15 years. Mr. Wittmer’s favorite restaurant is Foxy’s, a diner where they serve all types of food from burgers to enchiladas. His favorites are the fish sandwiches, taco salads, and omelettes. “It’s one of those restaurants that’s got like 18 pages of laminated pictures of food.” His only nickname he was given as a child was Barney Rubble, because a girl thought he looked like the cartoon character from The Flintstones. And when he was in Missouri, he had to pull over to the side of the road during a tornado and lay face down in a ditch. While he was living in Missouri, he would drive towards the tornadoes to witness them up close, but usually missed seeing them.
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Sacon’s Sports-filled Childhood by Marley McKinsey ‘23 Since he was a boy, Mr. Sacon loved everything related to Boston. From the sports to the arcades, he loved it all. As a child, Mr. Sacon would go to the arcade with his friends and master the art of “Donkey Kong,” which would de-stress him from his long day at school. He also excelled at a variety of arcade games. Of course, he was thrilled when he got his Atari 2600, which was like his own personal arcade. The game he loved playing the most was “Pitfall” which was a 2-D adventure game that was ahead of its time. “I was horrible at sports but I loved playing them,” Mr. Sacon says. He didn’t just like playing sports, he loved watching sports. He enjoyed supporting every team related to Boston. “I liked all the teams, the Red Sox, Celtics, Patriots, the Bruins.” The only sport he believes he truly excelled at was skiing, which was his favorite. Since he lived in Boston, skiing was a way for him to take advantage of the snowy region he lived in. Mr. Sacon’s childhood was filled with adventure. His favorite memory as a child was when he would go to Vermont with his family and his friends’ families for vacation. Vermont was a whole other world compared to where he lived in Boston. Mr. Sacon attributes the reason he became a teacher to his mother who was a teacher for a long time. “My mother was a teacher for 30 years… so it was always something I thought about doing.”
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Flat Earth=Flat intelligence by Grant Culling ‘25
Why do some people believe in disproving scientific facts that have already been known and proven for thousands of years? That the world is round was proven by Pythagoras, Galileo, and Aristotle, just to name a few. That’s the question I first asked myself when I heard about the backlash theory believed by the Flat Earth Society. I was just baffled because now we have proof with NASA images and the first manned mission to space back in 1961. But what I was really mad about was that the Flat Earthers misinformed so many people and even younger people who may be more naive. So in this opinion column, I’ll prove to you why misinforming people can be so dangerous to society. First, I'll inform you about this society and its leader. This “society” or organization was created in 1956 by Samuel Shenton and has been growing more popular ever since celebrities have made it trendy in the past couple of years. First, rapper B.o.B. tweeted about it, followed by former NBA player Kyrie Irving supporting the idea that the world is flat, not round. Second, I take issue with the conspiracy theory itself. We’ve had plenty of scientists already prove that the world is round, but despite this, still more and more people continue to believe the Earth is flat, and now they have large meetings where they discuss the theory. They even have a website that has information and an online discussion forum. A popular social media influencer, Logan Paul, made a recent documentary series
that shows his visit to the Society’s national conferences, which he uploaded to YouTube. He has 18 million subscribers on YouTube, which means that he probably has a lot of impressionable fans who would erroneously follow him when they see that Logan believes that the Earth is flat. What that does is start a widespread disbelief of science and creates a stigma of scientific evidence. Moreover, it reverses thousands of years of proof and factual evidence. Additionally, I just don’t see the point in believing the Earth is flat. It doesn’t affect you in your day-to-day life, so why even care? Some skeptics may say they believe the Earth is flat because the government has been lying to them in a conspiracy theory. Which leads me to another question: why would the government lie about something as basic as this? But really what I think is most troubling is that more and more people are beginning to believe this theory, which leads to ignorance. If this trend continues then it could spread to other proven scientific theories and eventually so that people may believe that all science isn’t real and can’t be trusted. This could reach a point where it does affect us by damaging our health and our well-being of our younger population. An example of this kind of ignorance is when people believe that vaccines aren’t helpful but harmful, which is happening with the current measles epidemic in New York City, California, and other areas in the US. We can all help fight this recent conspiracy theory by informing people with facts and show them the truth; we just need to disprove these lies before they spread exponentially.
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by Josie Degraye ’25
Mrs. Firestone is an admirable person. With a compassionate heart and influential actions, she is one of the most caring teachers I know. She was first introduced to science when she was two or three. She started to wonder how things worked and became curious about everything. “I would always disassemble things when I was little, and it would drive my family crazy. I would take things apart, even pens.” Mrs. Firestone is everyone’s favorite science teacher and 6th grade advisor who has left a lasting impression on many students. I know that she has changed my view on the world for the better. I asked her what made her want to be a science teacher. “My parents owned a school, so I always knew I wanted to be a teacher, but it wasn’t until after I started teaching that I realized how much I really enjoy science as a specific subject.” She obviously loves what she does, and she’s good at it too! She’s been teaching for 18 years and she keeps doing it because she loves seeing her students figure out another problem. Another reason she gives for loving teaching is, “It keeps me young, because I always know what’s going on in pop culture.”
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Personal Narrative by Mikayla Sagerman
“Mom, can-” Crack!! Pow!! Samantha pushes me up on the see-saw and suddenly I am flying in the air. My heart is racing faster than a cheetah. It feels as if I am in space. I quickly grab onto the see-saw with my hands, holding for dear life, and catching my breath from all of the excitement. Apparently getting flung in the air isn’t enough. As I grab on with my hands, my neck muscles decide to relax, and my face goes plunging straight towards the handle. It looks as if I am falling for a never-ending amount of time. The air doesn’t feel so good anymore. Now it feels like a force is pushing me, and pulling me away and towards the see-saw at the same time. I open my mouth and eyes wide, embracing for my final doom. Everything seems to stop, and the only thing there is, is me, and the see-saw. The see-saw gets closer, and closer, my eyes get wider, and wider, until... Bang. Crack! It feels as if my tooth is getting pulled out slowly, and painfully. My eyes start to water like I am looking at an onion. All I feel is pain. It hurts. It hurts so much, that it feels like my mouth was just shot. Tears fall from my eyes as if I am a human waterfall. I lie on the floor.
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VOL. 3 ISSUE NO. 1
The Serve by Maya Bamford
Chills of excitement and nervousness radiate onto the walls of the locker room as we tuck in our jerseys and got ready for our first game. Volleyball, my favorite sport, had finally begun its first season at Buckley two weeks ago. I’m on the varsity team, something I take very seriously. I’m not as nervous as I thought I would be, but I’m sure that’ll change soon enough. I finish tying my shoes so I won’t slip during the game. The game. I realize how important this game really is, for me and for my team. It’s our very first volleyball game at Buckley! There will never be another first game. This is it. The pressure and nervousness start to build inside me. It’s like tiny people are building a skyscraper of stress inside of my stomach. But I can’t let it get to me right before the game starts. “Girls, hurry up!” Coach Conley orders as she walks into the locker room. “You’ve got about five minutes until the game.” I start panicking even though I already know the game’s starting soon. I finish putting my scrunchie in my hair. I try to take out all of my nerves by tying the scrunchie an extra time, which I immediately regret. I think encouraging thoughts as I leave the locker room and head upstairs. There’s loud noises coming from the gym, so I decide to check it out. As soon as I step into the gym, I know exactly what was making all the noise—people in the crowd. I peek at the bleachers and it seems like there’s thousands of people waiting to watch us play, but really there’s only about 75 people, most of whom I know. The nerves are messing with my head already, which isn’t good sign. Maybe if I just say I’m not scared then I’ll believe myself and calm down. It seems so silly, but I can’t think of anything else that’ll help me to be less nervous. “Alright girls, come over here!” Coach Conley yells from the foyer. We have a quick pep talk and go over positions, something I’ve been dreading. Coach Conley calls my name first. “Maya, you’ll be our opening server.” She continues talking, but I can’t even hear her. My stress levels were through the roof before, but now they’re so strong they could break through every roof in the world and still reach the moon. The stress skyscraper that the tiny people are building inside me starts to get taller and taller, reaching higher and higher until it has nowhere to go except out. “I’m so nervous!” I say as the stress explodes out of my mouth. “You’re going to do great, Mayi!” Talei, one of my teammates, tells me as we walk into the gym. If only I could believe her. The other team is finishing their pep talk, so we have to sit on the sidelines and wait for them to finish, which definitely doesn’t help my already-low confidence levels. The other team finally finishes after what seems like days, and we head over to the court. My legs feel like jelly—jiggly and weak.
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I need to stay calm, I think to myself as Coach Conley hands me the ball. I look out into the Buckley section of the bleachers and find my mom. She’s smiling ear to ear, ready with her camera. She gives me a big thumbs-up and nods her head to reassure me that everything will be okay. I look at my feet to double-check that I’m behind the line. I am. I’m all set and ready to go. The nerves going in and out of my body and mind are uncontrollable, but I need to keep my cool. If I miss this serve I’ll let my team down and I’ll embarrass myself. I’m 99% sure that I’m about to explode from stress. I prep the ball on my left hand and get ready to serve. I’m in the middle of the court so even if I serve to the side, it’ll still land in bounds. I begin to step forward. I focus on where I want the ball to go: straight to the empty spot on the court. I can feel my foot hit the ground as my body builds momentum. I ball my hand up into a fist and face my palm towards the high, luxurious ceiling of the gym. I push through the barricades that the pressure has put on me. I feel the wind against my arm as it moves quickly towards the ball. I can hear my teammates yelling words of encouragement to me, and out of the corner of my eye I can see the other team watching me serve and readying themselves for the play. I feel my hand hit the soft suede of the volleyball as it leaves my hand and goes flying through the air. I watch with eagerness as the ball soars right across the net and onto the other team’s side of the court. I did it. I actually did it! The nerves melt away like a candle and pride fills me instead. I hustle to my position on the court and prepare myself for the next play. Phew, I think to myself. I didn’t screw up or ruin anything. Lots of people, especially my mom, always tell me that I’m too hard on myself, or that I put too much pressure on myself. I guess they were right. For once, I completely accept the fact that I was wrong and I focus my attention back onto the ball which is now flying back over the net to Buckley’s side of the court. My team and I remain attentive and excited throughout the rest of the game. The time seems to fly by, and before I know it, the game’s over. My mom comes over and congratulates me for playing well. We say our goodbyes to my teammates and their parents. I walk over to the sidelines and grab my bags. I walk out of the gym with my head held high and my confidence levels even higher. That night, my teammates and I text nonstop, celebrating our victory. We had won the game! I felt so proud of myself, so proud that all the nerves from earlier that day seemed completely non-existent, as if they never existed at all. I had served the very first serve of the very first game of my very first volleyball season at Buckley—a pretty good reason to celebrate, if you ask me.
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3 in 3 Million by Stella Myers Riley was just like an ordinary girl. Except that she wasn’t one. Her canary yellow eyes and inoperable legs definitely didn’t give off an ordinary vibe. She didn’t really mind being abnormal, though. She thought that if everyone in the world was the same, life would be so boring. Riley didn’t really have any friends, though she didn’t mind. In the forest, there weren’t many people to be friends with, unless you wanted to be friends with birds and bugs, though most wouldn’t ever want to be friends with a cockroach. She experienced a fatal car accident when she was four, leaving her with no parents and a wheelchair. A bulky, drab, gray, wheelchair. It was the most dull looking object in the world, and also the most irritating. Imagine being stuck on an amusement park ride that you had to operate yourself. Imagine being stuck in a sitting position, all day, every day, because your frail legs couldn’t hold your own body up. Imagine having people look at you, with disgust or fake sympathy obviously showing on their disturbed faces. That was how it felt to be Riley May Carpenter. Kind, courageous, and alone. The woods weren’t really a good place for a young child. In the morning, wild animals prowled the campsite. In the evening, you could hear lonely wolves howling in the dark distance. Birds were everywhere, chirping and tweeting their own special language in the lush dark trees. Owls flew across the star-studded sky, searching for the North Star. Despite the dangers, the woods were Riley’s safe space. They were where she had lived immaculately for the past eight years. They were her home. Crack. Thunder rumbled like a plane about to take off into the midnight sky. The tree branches thrashed from side to side, the wind whipping so harshly it flipped the world upside down in Riley’s fluorescent yellow eyes. Riley sat alone in her wheelchair, hugging her backpack to her chest for safety. Bushes and leaves rustled, but it wasn’t from the wind. In the twinkling of an eye, a small, scraggly, golden brown dog was standing next to her wheelchair, looking up at her with his irresistible puppy eyes, the color of freshly fertilized soil. Riley looked at the dog, studying it, testing its trustworthiness and loyalty. Good enough, she decided and abruptly patted her thigh, a dog’s silent reassurance of agreement. The nimble puppy hopped onto her lap, as if it was a place he would stay for a while. And he would. Although he may not have known it, he would be there for a very long time. As Riley started to doze off, a piece of paper struck her in the head as it flew down in the harsh winds. Riley was about to throw it down when she realized the front title. Reporters Search For Yellow Eyed Children. Riley dropped the paper and shook her head softly. It couldn’t be her. No one even knew about her. She was fine. Unexpectedly, with an ear-splitting howl, the puppy (now known as Rusty), jumped off Riley’s lap and fell to the gritty floor of the forest. The earth started to tremble and shake under Riley’s wheels, and the wind quickly picked up speed once again. The trees shook and roots ripped out of the dirty ground. Birds tweeted and yapped, creating a cacophony of scared, hopeful noises. The bright sun, who had treated them so kindly that morning hid behind the gray clouds who, scared of this abrupt movement, started to cry, hard, pouring, rainy tears, their sense of sadness filling the cold air. Underneath her, the ground split open, and Riley fell into the endless black abyss. !4 4
JUNE 2019
VOL. 3 ISSUE NO. 1
Day of the Buckley Fair!
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