The Standard Vol. 5 Issue 6 by The Standard

S the standard blue valley southwest volume 5 | issue 6

CONTENTS 34

march 2015 vol. 5 | issue 6 overland park, ks

she can do it

five, six, seven, eight

in the eye of the beholder

cultivating new habits

looking to the future

digitally speaking

celebrating creativity

foreign phonetics

dodge to donate

more than money

why we relay

slashing the spending

scrubs and scalpels

faith connection

ultimate frisbee

Anthony Orrick

pay to play

31 19

editor’s note

Front cover: Leaping in front of senior Jackson Stevens, sophomore Daniel Foulon intercepts the pass during a scrimmage for the Ultimate Frisbee Club. Cover photo by Delaney Oliver. Graphic by Abby Yi.

h, the editor’s note — well, for me, more like the dreaded editor’s note. I’ve been putting this off for five issues now, mainly because I haven’t had some philosophical

realization as of late that I feel needs to be published for our almost 2,000 readers to see. I haven’t had that philosophical realization yet, and I’m not sure when that will come, but in the process of writing my story for this issue, I met two parents of students who have made the best of their family situations and made me realize that maybe writing an editor’s note isn’t the biggest problem that people have to face. As I was editing other stories in the issue, I realized that in this issue, The Standard features stories about other students finding positivity in their lives during tough situations — whether that be becoming active in charity work after a death of a family member or adjusting to life in an unfamiliar country. And through writing this editor’s note, I’ve also decided to encourage our readers to apply my not-so-philosophical realization to their outlooks on their lives — so whether you’re struggling to overcome a major hardship or are dealing with one of life’s daily struggles, I encourage you to find positivity.

| managingeditor

She can do women break into the engineering field

fter being carefully designed, measured, cut, fastened and sanded, the project is complete. What once was merely an idea and a few pieces of wood is now a cutting board. The designer picks up her creation and gently brushes the remaining specks of dust off. Enrollment in engineering classes shows a large gap between genders. According to the National Science Foundation (NSF), only one percent of girls take engineering courses in high school, compared to six percent of boys. The same trend can be seen at Southwest. Industrial Technology instructor Cody Parks said out of approximately 22 students, there have never been more than three girls in each class. One possible explanation for the large gender gap is that engineering is still being viewed as primarily a male field, similar to the medical field in the past. “I think that maybe some people just have a hard time getting past the stereotype, because the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) majors weren’t [traditionally] supposed to be for women, but that is going to change here pretty quickly because there are a lot of women going into medicine and engineering,” senior Jamie Rickert said. Rickert has taken three engineering classes, as well as a civil engineering and architecture course at CAPS. Similarly, junior Leah Joseph, who has taken an engineering class and a woodshop class, also thinks stereotypes that are rooted in the past may be one of the causes of the gender gap. “Girls will look at [engineering] and think, ‘Oh, that’s a guy job— I shouldn’t be doing that,’” Joseph said. “At the same time, I think a lot of people will like it. When I talk to some of my friends about what I do in my classes, they are like, ‘Oh yeah, that sounds like fun.’ But I think they think of it as not a girl job — they don’t want to be the only girl in the class.”

13% 6|

of engineers are women

Parks also sees the hesitation girls have in taking the class if they are unsure who is going to be in it. Often there are groups of friends who will take the class together, but some people will end up being by themselves. “I have a dream to get a girls woodshop class, only because they would be more likely to take it and be less intimidated because what intimidates people is feeling like you are going to be the only person there who doesn’t know something,” Parks said. “If you feel like everybody else knows what is going on and you won’t, you will not want to be a part of that activity. If we did a girls-only engineering class, I would have 22 girls in there.” Although two of the girls have been the only females in their classes before, they said they didn’t feel excluded or looked down upon. They also said taking the engineering classes helped them make new friends. “I know it is kind of scary because it is almost all guys, but it is not that bad because there is going to be one or two girls with you,” Joseph said. “I have made a lot of friends through it, and it seems scary, but it is not. It is a lot of fun.” Another reason for the gender gap could be because male and female brains have different understandings, and certain abilities come more easily to one than the other. “A lot of people think it is a scary field, but I think it’s because I have found more of my female friends are wired to understand the arts,” senior Madeline Fines said.

Fines has been in two engineering classes at the school and has taken both physics and AP physics, which she said resembled the engineering classes that she enjoyed. Fines also said that unlike her female friends, math and science appealed more to her than the arts. “I like doing math problems and actually solving things and coming up with a tangible answer rather than English where you analyze a book,” Fines said. “I like the real tangible results a lot better, and it makes sense to me because it is very logical. As long as you do everything right, you will get a solution that works.” Because people think in different ways, the engineering field often seeks unique perspectives. The girls said they were never overlooked in class and often were the ones others would ask for help with projects. They assumed this was because they understood and could explain topics differently. Also, Parks said when engineering companies are putting together teams, the best-working team will have people with many different understandings and points of view. “I know when I have girls in class, they have great attention to detail, they follow instructions very well, they are very task-based and are great at multitasking,” Parks said. “They have certain skill sets that make them very successful. All of the drafting one, two and three girls and even IED (Introduction to Engineering Design) girls have always been the most successful in my classes because there are so many rules and constraints to take into account when you design.” Female brains tend to process 10 times more white matter, as compared to males’ seven times more gray matter, according to www. psycologytoday.com This means the information and action-processing areas are more active in the male brain. The female brain, however, is better at multitasking.

“Women have the creative mind,” Rickert said. “People think ‘guys are into that programming stuff,’ but it’s so much more than that. It’s about how you can make things work and how you can problem solve.” Parks doesn’t just teach mechanical skills in his engineering classes. He aims to teach higher-level problem solving skills. Parks modifies class projects year-to-year so students have to think critically about the solution and can’t just recycle old models from previous activities. “Even if you don’t want to end up doing [engineering] as a career, it is really useful in daily life just to have that problem solving,” Fines said. “It is definitely an experience to go in and work with different groups of people, and it gives you different skills, not just from the math side, but the determination to take things from an idea to building it and presenting it.” Taking engineering classes empowers people to do things for themselves. Or as Parks said, “Why would you want to rely on somebody else to fix your things and solve your own problems?” The gender gap seen in the engineering classes roll over into the workforce. Although women make up 47 percent of the workers, only one in 10 are in STEM fields. The women who are in these classes at school are filling in the gap. All three students plan to major in an engineering field. Fines has enrolled in the Applied Physics/Engineering Program at the University of Kansas and plans to specialize in chemical systems. Her final

19%

of engineering bachelor degrees are earned by women

goal is doing consulting work for large companies. Joseph wants to be an industrial designer so she can “mesh” her “artistic ability and creative mind.” Rickert plans to get an engineering degree in college and work with water treatment and conservation, a job field she discovered while touring facilities with her CAPS class. “If you think about it is a logical sense, X amount of people are currently enrolling in college and being engineers, and that is not the amount to fill the need,” Parks said. “What we have to do is pull from another population. If all we are getting is males, the next logical population is females, and the next logical question is ‘why aren’t they in there to begin with? What have we done as a society or as a group to deter young women from feeling like this is a job for them?’ We are trying to change the numbers.”

| lilliehoffart

Photo by Delaney Oliver.

"Women have the creative mind - People think 'guys are into that programming stuff,' but it is so much more than that. It's about how you can make things work and how you can problem solve."

hen Senior Process Engineer Kathryn Young went into college, one of the last things she imagined becoming was a chemical engineer. She attended University of Missouri-Columbia’s pre-med program and was on track to getting a degree in biochemistry. However, she came across a problem. “After my first semester in college, I had met all of the requirements for math and I didn’t have to take any more math classes — that was my favorite course,” Young said. “I thought, ‘Hmm, I don’t know if this is really the right major for me, because I really like math and am not ready to be done with math.’” Her boyfriend, who was majoring in engineering, suggested for her to try engineering as well. Young decided on chemical engineering because it was closely related to the chemistry she had enjoyed in her previous major. Without this conflict, she would not have even considered engineering. “I have always been what someone would call a girly-girl,” Young said. “I have always liked clothes and makeup and shopping and art. I had never thought about building things or creating things, so I don’t know if it was a society-type thing ... Growing up, I didn’t know about engineering — I didn’t even know it existed. Maybe there was a lack of education when I was younger with introducing students to possible career opportunities.”

| seniorjamierickert To “keep engineering girly,” Young had planned to use her degree to develop makeup, yet life had another unexpected turn for her. She was hired at Black & Veatch, an engineering design and construction firm in Kansas City, as a process engineer. “I would consider [my job] still to be more of a masculine-type job, but now I have learned it doesn’t really matter,” Young said. “I am still producing something really important: energy — which now, as I have learned ... is much more important for the world to have than for the world to have makeup.” Now Young has worked at Black & Veatch for 11 years, designing chemical processing plants. This includes liquefied natural gas production and filtering sulfur out of exhaust produced by factories. Similar to her graduate class with only one other woman, Young began her job as a minority. However, at Black & Veatch, the company hiring trend is evening out between the genders. “It was kind of an interesting thing that over the next 11 years, we hired a lot of females,” Young said. “It is probably [now] close to 50-50 females and males, which I think is very unique ... I don’t know [exactly why], but I like it.”

facts from www.ngcproject.org

5 6 H

earts racing and sweaty palms, the eight Glitter Girls wait patiently to perform another new number in front of the entire student body and faculty. After choreographing a new assembly dance in just a few weeks, captains junior Rachael Sorcher and senior Alexis Jalbert lead their fellow teammates out onto the gym floor. The room is silent until their music is on and they begin. “The feeling I get when I perform inspires me to never stop dancing,” Sorcher said. “It’s like for those two minutes onstage, nothing is wrong with the world.” However, many students do not realize just how much work it takes to be a Glitter Girl. “To be a Glitter Girl means to be, first, a great teammate; second, a dancer who

loves what she does, and wants to push herself to continue to grow, third a person that represents the school in a positive way,” Sorcher said. In order to accomplish the key component of being a Glitter Girl, the team practices Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. That totals about six hours per week of practice, plus the time they spend performing at games, competitions and assemblies. The process of choreographing a new dance, learning it, perfecting it and then finally performing it at an assembly or game is usually just a week. These dances are choreographed by Jalbert and Sorcher. The team always tries to find popular music that their fellow students would enjoy and often ask their peers for suggestions of what songs they would like to hear at

8 | march 2015 | southwest | www.bvswnews.com | feature

assemblies before they begin to choreograph. The coach of the Glitter Girls, Alex Hess, makes the final decision on the music. “We always make sure our music is acceptable for a student and family audience,” Hess said. “That is always the first thing we think of when selecting music. This becomes increasingly difficult when we want to use popular music. We have to be pretty picky about that. We also consider the style we are performing. A hip-hop dance would have a different style music than a lyrical routine.” Hess and the captains create formations and choreograph their dances next in coordination with the music they have chosen. After the dance is perfected, He picks a costume for the girls to wear while performing.

7 8

the dance team explains what it takes to be a Glitter Girl “For our mix routine, I had the idea for the costume first,” Hess said. “I knew I wanted the girls dressed like Rosie the Riveter, and that routine seemed to be popular at our performances and competitions.” So far this year, the team has learned over 10 new dances, including assembly, competition and sideline dances. Hess, along with a hired choreographer, created the three competition dances the team performed in January at its competitions at Olathe South and in St. Charles, Mo. These competitions are normally so large that they have to have different dance numbers being performed simultaneously in multiple gyms at the schools. In order to compete, the school must pay a fee for each dance the Glitter Girls enter in the competition. “Competition season is insane, but so much fun,” Sorcher said. “We are working

our hardest during this time, but it's so fun to compete and see all our hard work pay off. During the season, we are really determined to perform our best, and we push ourselves very hard.” At its competition at Olathe South, the team earned the Shining Star, as well as the Sweepstakes Award for its team dances. “The energy there was so high, and everybody there was there to dance, which made the atmosphere that much more exciting,” Sorcher said. “They tend to get really loud with all of the cheering because all the teams like to pump each other up.” The judges recognized the team’s lyrical dance for polish, precision and technique and their mix routine for outstanding showmanship. Sophomore Nicole Charest and freshman Malerie Moore were also recognized in the soloist circle of winners. Charest was sanctioned as the

highest scoring sophomore soloist at the St. Charles competition, where the team received second place for its lyrical and mix routines and third place for its jazz routine. Now that their competition season is over, the Glitter Girls are now focused on their Spring Show, which will happen in May. They will learn over 10 new dances to perform at the show, which is their final performance of the year. In between practices and competitions, the Glitter Girls are always perfecting their routines and bettering themselves as dancers and as a team. “There is always something to get better at,” Jalbert said. “You're never perfect or quite there.”

| blakegustafson

Photo by Delaney Oliver.

Highlights starting at $55 with select stylists only with this coupon presented at time of service

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(913) 851 7272

| thesouthweststandard editor-in-chief ananda bhatia managing editor margo johnson

design coaches lauren stone lexi tarter

riley martin delaney oliver abby yi

copy editor ellie augustine

staff writers sneha bhavanasi blake gustafson lillie hoffart madison leighty katie lucas broc putnam

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writing coaches nicole becker michael magyar

photographers donna armstrong kate bowling

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The Southwest Standard is published seven times a year for students, faculty and surrounding community of Blue Valley Southwest. It is an open forum for student expression. Therefore, the opinions expressed within this paper do not necessarily reflect the views of the administration of Blue Valley Unified School District #229. Letters to the editor and reader responses are encouraged for publication. The Southwest Standard reserves the right to edit all submissions for both language and content and encourages letters to be no more than 350 words. All letters must be signed and names will be published.

Letters should be submitted to room 118 emailed to bvswnews@gmail.com or mailed: The Southwest Standard c/o Blue Valley Southwest High School 17600 Quivira Overland Park, KS 66085 The Southwest Standard also encourages guest photography.

in the eye of the beholder

reporter spends a week without makeup to explore how it affects self-esteem

opinion | www.bvswnews.com | southwest | march 2015 | 11

Monday

s I walk into Saint Luke’s South to begin shadowing for the week, I feel my stomach twist with dread as I think about having to introduce myself to the nurses in the department without putting my best foot forward. Thankfully, no one screams in fear or spontaneously declares that they need to be taken to the ICU, so I allow myself to relax as I begin my week without makeup. I have loved makeup ever since I was little, and I used to look forward to the rare dance recital when I’d be allowed to wear a little blush and mascara, but it wasn’t until seventh grade that I began wearing makeup consistently. Ever since then, I have worn makeup to school every day and am rarely spotted without it. A few weeks ago, I watched a Buzzfeed video titled ‘What It’s Like to Stop Wearing Makeup,” in which a woman who has worn makeup every day for 17 years spent a week without it and documented her thoughts and feelings about the experience. Aside from being a good way to spend three minutes, the video also made me think about my own relationship with makeup, especially in regard to what my reaction would be if I were to suddenly stop wearing it. With that, I decided to test my willpower and carefully crafted self-esteem by going for a week without makeup. It isn’t until I am done shadowing for the day and am stepping into AP Literature that I remember my bare face and try to duck into the room without being noticed. A few of my tablemates give me odd looks, but seventh hour is the first time anyone says something to me. A classmate declares that it’s “throwing [her] off” that I don’t have my normal

12 |

winged eyeliner on, and although her comment wasn’t meant in a cruel way, I can’t stop hearing her words bounce around in my head all day because they remind me of the harsh perspectives that are displayed in regard to makeup, whether one chooses to wear it or not. “We shouldn’t display such harshness toward those who do or do not wear makeup,” senior Emily Dixon said. “Saying, ‘Oh, she painted her face today,’ or ‘Oh, her face looks naked’ or other things like that can be really harmful to hear.” I’ve been told before that I wear too much makeup, but it isn’t often that I hear I wear too little. With that in mind, I grit my teeth and prepare myself for what could end up being a very long week.

Tuesday

I roll out of bed feeling as groggy as ever as I get ready for the day. For the second morning in a row, the makeup lined up on my bathroom counter sits untouched, though I wish desperately for a little concealer to cover up the shadows under my eyes. I glance in the mirror one last time and briefly consider giving up my quest, but thanks to my newly shortened morning routine, I slept in for an additional 15 minutes and don’t have the time. I feel a little more vulnerable as I go through my day, especially after a friend looks at me and asks if I’m feeling all right because I “look more tired than usual today,” which is certainly not the most encouraging thing I’ve heard this week.

Not to worry though, I catch up on my sleep by taking a quick power nap after school and discover that one of the benefits to going without makeup is that I don’t wake up with raccoon eyes. I guess it’s the little things that count.

Wednesday

Did I choose to wear a sweatshirt to school because it’s a Wednesday and I’m feeling lazy, or because I needed a drab outfit to match my drab face? I guess the world will never know. When I go to babysit after school, I wonder how the fourth grade girl will react to the fact that I no longer have my “wings” as she has so affectionately dubbed them. A good thing about elementary schoolers is that their opinions are uncorrupted, so when she fails to mention my bare face, I hope it’s a good sign and that she can look up to me for not always looking like I’ve stepped off the pages of a magazine. “Now that my seven-year-old Reese has started asking about wearing makeup, I tell her that she’s too young and that when she gets older we’ll talk about it,” gifted education teacher Jana Tobin said. “I really do stop and think about how I’m modeling and what kind of example I’m setting. What I try to promote with Reese is that Mommy wears makeup to work out of habit and because it’s comfortable for me because that’s a habit I started as a teenager, but that on the weekends, I’m also very comfortable going without makeup.” Tobin says that although she began wear-

ing makeup during middle school, there was “never a big fuss about it,” nor did she receive external pressure from her mother to wear makeup “correctly.” However, there are many new outside influences that encourage young women to wear makeup, even at relatively early ages. “One interesting experience that I had with Reese is that she participated in a dance competition when she was probably five, and we were told that we needed to put makeup on her,” Tobin said. “I had to call a friend and say, ‘Do we really put makeup on them?’ So I did because that was part of the expectation for the show, but I reconciled it with the fact that it was just one performance and I only put the makeup on her that I was comfortable with her wearing.”

Thursday

For the first day this week, I don’t actually mind going without makeup. I don’t think I necessarily look great, but I’ve gotten used to my bare face. I still feel like I’ve been putting a lot of work into my appearance, just in a different way. I’ve been eating healthier foods, drinking more water, getting more sleep and actually following my skincare routine, and dare I say it, it seems to be working, so that could be an additional factor contributing to my confidence boost. I’m glad that I’m gaining confidence in my natural appearance, because I know that this isn’t something I would have had the courage to do even just a year ago. This makes me have a newfound respect for those who have always been self-assured enough to consis-

tently go without makeup. “I’ve always felt good about myself despite the fact that I don’t wear makeup,” Dixon said. “I’ve always just had a positive attitude toward life rather than material objects, which helps. If you find in yourself that you like your image without [makeup], you might feel better in regards to your self-esteem. I don’t think [makeup is] necessary to feel confident.”

Friday

It’s a Friday off from school, and if I really wanted to, I could have easily put makeup on this morning, but I figure I’ve come this far, so what’s the point in giving up now? I go out of town for a forensics tournament in Emporia, and I’m actually very glad that I’m not competing until tomorrow, after my week is up, because I’m not sure that I would have felt comfortable competing dressed up in formal attire but without any makeup. In that respect, I’ve come to appreciate the use of makeup for special occasions, instead of trying to constantly look perfect, which is entirely unrealistic. “I think that our culture, because of the images we see on magazines, TV and internet sites with Photoshopping and all that they do — I think that in itself creates some pressure on our young girls,” Tobin said. “I am concerned about that for my own daughter because I don’t want her to think that’s how the world really is because it’s not.”

| 13

Saturday

Not only is it my first day in a week that I’m putting on makeup, but I’m doing so while at a hotel, hoping that my skin isn’t as sickly green as the fluorescent lighting would suggest. I hold my breath as I do my eyeliner, almost as if I’m afraid that I’ve forgotten the skills I’ve been practicing for the past six years. When it’s all said and done, I don’t look like a toddler doodled on my face, which is all I can truly hope for. For about 10 minutes, I feel strange and wonder why my eyelashes feel heavier than usual, but then I realize something: I am the exact same person without makeup as I am with makeup. “What I hope for my daughter is that she will grow up knowing that she can use makeup if she wants to, but not because somebody else expects that of her, and not because she needs it,” Tobin said. “I talk to her often about how what matters the most is who she is inside.” I’ve always thought that playing around with makeup is a great way to have a quick confidence boost, but over the years I may have forgotten that having cherry red lips is not my best quality, especially not in comparison to my compassion, empathy and wit. If I’ve learned one thing this week, it’s that makeup should be embraced, but not hidden behind. If you want to wear makeup, that’s great, but if not, that’s entirely your prerogative as well. In a time when there are countless influences pressuring young women to wear makeup, whether it’s from media sources or peers, it’s important to remember that appearance isn’t a defining factor in character. Beauty can be seen both with and without makeup, because our best qualities, the ones that make us admired by loved ones, can’t be washed away or covered up.

| laurenstone

years old

is the average age that girls begin wearing makeup.

One study found that

eyeshadow is the most commonly used makeup.

The average woman is estimated to spend

15,000

on makeup in her lifetime.

The average woman reportedly spends

minutes a day

applying makeup.

Information from glamourmagazine. com, mint.com and thegloss.com.

14 |

ANY SIZE SMOOTHIE

ads | www.bvswnews.com | southwest | march 2015 | 15

students should help with the garden and evironmental club 16 | march 2015 | southwest | www.bvswnews.com | opinion

cience teacher Deborah Sisk goes out to the composter behind the school and lifts the lid. She leans down and puts in lettuce and other leafy greens to outweigh the brown grass clipping put in yesterday. Sisk does this often to create soil to put in the flower beds she has made. Thumping the lid back down, she goes inside to get more biodegradables. Sisk helps with the composter back by the truck dock and composts about 20 pounds of biodegradable materials per day. Sisk has cultivated raised gardening beds to raise basil in the future for Southwest’s salad bar and hopes to also raise tomatoes. She is passionate about starting up these changes, but finds it hard to do without many helpers. “If you can just reduce your carbon footprint as best you can, that will help ensure that your quality of life will be better in the future,” Sisk said. “I don’t want people all gloom and doom, but it’s not going to go away. The line share of what gets put in landfill comes from us, but do we want to be responsible for actually being the planet’s demise? I don’t think so.” The school is green in many ways — mainly, in the very core of its architecture. The school is LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified. A LEED certification is a certification for a school that is “demonstrating to the community that a facility is built and/or operated in a way that supports the health and well-being of occupants and saves energy, resources and more,” according to the Center for Green Schools. The lights are set to self-adjust brightness and to go off automatically if no one is around, the school was built to let in a lot of natural light, the heating system is always circulating fresh air coming from inside and outside and, depending on how many people there are in a room, a CO2 panel decides how much air should be pumped in.

KAY Club waters plants teachers have brought in, and students can be seen recycling papers and plastics in the many containers stationed around our school. Even so, it’s easy to walk by a trash can and see parts of Starbucks cups that could be recycled along with paper and plastic bottles. Southwest is a green school, but when students don’t see the results and effects of their daily actions, it can be hard for a high school student to see why throwing away one plastic Snapple bottle is a big deal in the grand scheme of things. What those students fail to see is that the accumulation of these actions and the continued lack of motivation can lead to consequences down the road. Last year, in an effort to get students motivated to help with the composter, some students and staff gave out Starbucks and McDonalds gift cards if students provided materials like recyclables or brought biodegradables for the composter. But senior Nick Foulon said not many supported the attempt. “It’s mostly because kids don’t have a drastic need to actually go out there and help the environment,” Foulon said. “Not every child is actually able to go out there and put away the recyclables and things like that. I think if more people got involved with that they’d see how much more important saving the environment and recycling actually is.” Spanish teacher Carolyn Zeligman recycles almost everything — paper, cardboard, glass — and collects her shower water and uses it to water her plants. Zeligman also composts by putting all of her vegetable waste and coffee grounds into her composter, which she then uses in her garden. “The only trash I have is [a result of having] a cat, so I have kitty litter,” Zeligman said. “And if I could find some way to recycle that I would, but I don’t think you can — it’s kind of a disgusting thought.” One thing teachers like Sisk and Zeligman are hoping to get up and running by the time it gets warm again is a community garden, much like the ones many of us have either visited or had in elementary school, starting off with growing tomatoes and basil but

progressing to flowers and more fruits and vegetables. “They’ve already started [getting the garden ready]; they have a couple little raised beds up there by the cushion area, but we’re hoping to do one where we can put in flowers and stuff to attract butterflies, and maybe do butterfly tagging and have things that they can either use in the cafeteria and the foods classes,” Zeligman said. Another thing teachers are hoping students will start up again is “Adopta-Hallway,” which is when a group of students will take different hallways of the school and are responsible for recycling there and keeping it clean. Sisk hopes to use this angle to get many students to work together so the large job is quicker. When Sisk had a group of four or five students, it would take them until 4:30 to finish the entire school. “Well, the first year we opened, I had some pretty interested students [help out with things like gardening and recycling],” Sisk said. “And since that time, I’ve not had anybody. I know it’s grunt work — I do it, it’s grunt work. So that’s when we started adopting hallways. The building itself is huge to do the whole thing, and the custodians do not have the time to separate everything out, so that’s why we have separate containers. But if we all just chip away at it [recycling recyclables], little by little, I think that it’s better to do something than nothing at all. And that’s kind of my mantra.” As a whole, the school does a good job of being green, but if even a small percentage of students take charge and solidify the addition of the Environmental Club that has been trying to make itself known or decide to help in the garden that will be opening up soon, students can make the school a more beautiful and environmentally conscious place to be in. If a person is only helping with the community garden or the Environmental Club for the community service hours, working with the school in a place where the school can have fresh grown fruits and attract butterflies would be a fun and

helpful way to spend even an hour after school a week. Students need to actively step up and start making decisions about what kind of carbon footprint they want to leave behind and to make a difference — the school needs students willing to change. “As we progress and we start planting trees, we start going out there and actually avidly protesting, or we start avidly helping the environment, it helps everybody as a whole,” Foulon said. “Not a lot of people seem to realize, especially around here, that the environment doesn’t just affect us, it affects everyone globally. So, whenever we make that connection, we’re going to have not only a connection here in Southwest but also a global connection around the world.”

| katielucas

Graphic by Abby Yi.

| 17

18 | march 2015 | southwest | www.bvswnews.com | ads

(1) Intensive Resource student senior Ben Newell. Photos by Delaney Oliver.

Scan to read the rest of the article at bvswnews.com

looking to the future

parents of students with special needs share how their children will transition into their lives after high school

(2) Severe Multiple Disabilities (SMD) student freshman AnneLisa Willoughby. (3) SMD student junior Julia Dopheide. (4) SMD student freshman Shelbi Hanton.

JULIA’S STORY

hen Becca Dopheide returns home from work every evening, her focus immediately turns toward her daughter Julia. She cooks her dinner, cutting up each bite and watching to make sure Julia’s food makes it into her mouth and not on the floor. Becca keeps a close eye on the kitchen – as Julia is in the mouthing stage, nothing, from the bananas to the coffee pods, is off limits. If she starts to cry, she can’t tell her mom why she’s upset, but Becca usually takes her on a walk to calm her nerves. At 7:15 p.m., she takes Julia upstairs for her bath, brushes her teeth, dresses her in her pajamas, and by 8 p.m., Julia is asleep. This has been Julia’s life every night for the past 17 years — and possibly for the rest of her life. Julia has a rare degenerative disease known as Sanfilippo syndrome. In most brains, a specific enzyme breaks down a complex sugar in order to prevent it from building up in the brain cells. But Julia is missing this enzyme, and as the complex sugar continues to build up in her brain, it progressively causes neurological damage. While she was once able to say simple phrases, within the past two years, Julia has completely lost her ability to verbally communicate. And while she is still able to run and walk, she has gradually become less and less mobile.

20 |

“She doesn’t sing as much, and she won’t 1 engage with many toys,” Becca sad. “Sometimes I can get her to laugh, but she used to laugh all the time. With this disease, it’s really weird because I’ll look back to six months ago and go, ‘Oh, Julia used to be able to stand up and get out of the bathtub by herself, and she can’t do that anymore. When did she stop doing that?’ You don’t realize it, but all of a sudden another skill is gone.” Julia was diagnosed with the syndrome a month before her third birthday. When she was born, she had mild gastrointestinal problems and her sleep patterns weren’t consistent, but this was nothing that made Becca and Julia’s father, Andy, think that Julia was suffering from anything more serious than the common hiccups in an infant’s life. But at 18 months, Julia’s developmental rate was considerably behind — she couldn’t put two words together, she never slept a whole night, and she couldn’t digest food. Andy and Becca took Julia to a sleep doctor, who noticed that Julia’s symptoms were more than what could be cured by sleep therapy. At the suggestion of the sleep doctor, they visited a geneticist, who completed four tests on Julia’s bloods. To Becca and Andy’s relief, the first three tests came back negative for the various syndromes they were tested for. But the fourth test, which tested the most serious

diseases, came back positive, and Julia was diagnosed with Sanfilippo syndrome. The geneticist then told Becca and Andy that the disease was incurable, there were no treatments available and that Julia would live to be, at most, 15 years old. This was a life-changing moment that would make Julia’s family appreciate every day that she’s alive. “If I let myself think about it, I would go into the corner and curl up and not function — but I don’t want to do that,” Becca said. “If I hear [Julia] in her room, or if I go in there and she’s awake, I just say a thank-you prayer to God that I have another day with her.” But as the grieving stage passed, the acceptance that Julia would be living with a life-threatening disease sunk in. Becca entered Julia in occupational, physical and speech therapy, and they attended a Mommy and Me preschool for students with special needs. When she moved to Overland Park at eight years old, Julia enrolled in the Blue Valley district and was put in a program at her elementary school for students with special needs. Julia’s story cont. to bvwnews.com

(5) SMD student senior Bridget Chandler. (6) SMD student junior Griffin Schmidt.

statistics from specialneedsplanning.net nearly 1 in 5 or 54 million Americans have special needs

3 in 4 adults with special needs are unemployed

32% of families with at least one mentally ill member are impoverished

$3.2 million the lifetime cost for with an individual with autism

BEN’S STORY

hile some parents, like Becca, are able to receive governmental aid rapidly because of their child’s unique medical and living situations, other parents aren’t as fortunate. Paraprofessional Deb Newell is working to prepare her son who has autism, senior Ben Newell, for the daily duties of his life once he graduates and gets on the waiting list for governmental services. Deb and her husband Scott noticed when Ben was six months old that he wasn’t developing at the same rate as his older sister. He never slept more than two hours at a time, and he had difficulty digesting his food. When he was diagnosed at two years old, Deb said that she found relief after dealing with the frustrating process of getting doctors to finally acknowledge that what Ben was experiencing wouldn’t cease with time, but that his diagnosis also made her family realize that Ben would need support for the rest of his life. “I think when a child first gets diagnosed, there’s a grieving process that parents go through because even though you still love your child a lot, you have to accept that whatever hopes and dreams you had for your child will be different than what you thought,” Deb said. Through the IR program, Ben also has been a part of the Blue Valley Career Development

Opportunities Program (CDOP), which has allowed him to explore different job opportunities. During students’ junior and senior years, they rotate through four businesses — a bakery, a greenhouse, a green planted awareness program and a light industry manufacturer — in order to find a career path that may be suitable for them. Now in his last rotation, Ben spends two hours a day working at the greenhouse at the CDOP building, located in the District Office complex. He then returns to the Intensive Resource classroom where he learns daily living skills with the assistance of paraprofessionals and peer tutors. “[Ben] feels more comfortable moving throughout the school than when he first got here and even during middle school,” Deb said. “He feels comfortable here, and he feels safe and accepted.” When Ben graduates, he will attend the Blue Valley Adult Cooperative Community Education Services and Support program. Transition Specialist Cathy Jewell founded the program to provide students with special needs a place to learn daily living activities and job skills in order to find employment upon exit services — and to also prepare for life during the five to six year wait list for services. Ben also has plans to attend some non-degree seeking services at Johnson Coun-

ty Community College. “You always want your child to be involved and have something purposeful to do, and we don’t want [Ben] to just be sitting at home with nothing to do being bored,” Deb said. “He needs something to keep him engaged and to keep his mind active and keep him around other people.” Special education programs are far from where they once were a few decades ago, when students with special needs were kept completely isolated from the general education student body. But Claypool said that society can still do more to help students exiting school services find acceptance during their transition into society. “For so many years, individuals with disabilities had a stereotype that hovered over them, and now as a whole, I feel like we’re overcoming that, but there’s still lots of obstacles,” IR teacher Brooke Claypool said. “That general acceptance over time has become more and more, but I think we just have to continue breaking through some barriers to get it to where we see employment. There are so many more places that we can start with getting that acceptance and hiring.”

| margojohnson

| 21

digitally speaking teachers use innovative ways to communicate with students

photo of an angry Chihuahua appeared on students’ Twitter timelines over and over again, each time with a new caption. This became English teacher Shauna Rinearson’s first Twitter caption contest. Every time a student would post a captioned version of the Chihuahua, Rinearson would favorite and retweet the post so she would be impartial to the contest. Then, at the end of the week, the student whose tweet received the most favorites from peers was the winner. Teachers use innovative ways to connect with students and enhance their teaching outside of the classroom. As new modes of communication are introduced, the district tries to stay up-to-date with the best way of sending out information to the school community. Members are always seeking the most effective, efficient and professional ways to share information with students, staff and the school community, Executive Director of Human Resource Services for Blue Valley Schools Scott McWilliams said. Rinearson utilizes social media to connect with her students, as well as connecting students with each other. Her caption contest became one way to encourage creativity and friendly competition among her students. One student who participated in Rinearson’s dog caption contest was junior Tara Dorsch. “I think it’s really funny to see what students come up with,” Dorsch said. “I think [the contest]

22 | march 2015 | southwest | www.bvswnews.com | feature

makes it seem like teachers aren’t just a figurehead. You can actually talk to them and be friends.” Communication is key for teachers who want to keep students on top of their schoolwork. A few years ago, email was the most common mode of communication for students and teachers, but now, social media sites have taken its place. Social media is becoming a productivity tool, the same way that email did in the late 1990s; while email is great for one-on-one, formal correspondence, instant messaging and wikis allow for real-time communication and centralized information sharing, according to Forbes. If a student has a quick question about an assignment for Rinearson, he or she can send a direct message via Twitter or a text to the students’ group message and get a quick response. “I don’t mind texting students if it is school-related, like if somebody has a question about homework,” Rinearson said. “I really just have never run into a random student texting me individually and saying, ‘Hey, Rhino, what are you doing Saturday night?’ because, again, we have boundaries that we all respect, and I work with great kids who get it. I am in a group message with a bunch of girls, but, again, there’s a group, there so there’s transparency and it remains appropriate.” Principal Scott Roberts agrees that with professional and appropriate use, social media can be a great tool in the education system.

According to the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 61 percent of teachers, principals, and librarians are active in at least one social media space. At first, Roberts was apprehensive about joining Twitter, but now, he wishes he had joined earlier. For him, Twitter is a way to catch up on world news, connect with people and show the school’s accomplishments. “I think it can be an effective tool if a teacher sends out an assignment, and everyone’s following that teacher,” Roberts said. “I know Mr. Pendleton does a lot of this. [He can tweet], ‘Here’s a link — go check out this podcast,’ and for someone who’s busy, I think it can be really effective.” Social studies teacher Jason Pendleton uses podcasts to help students study for tests and has been doing so for about ten years. He records himself talking about the specific information that will be on the tests and tweets out the link to his podcasts, which can be accessed on students’ phones or computers. “Not everybody learns the same way, and having an audio study review seemed to be beneficial,” Pendleton said. “So the year I began doing it, I saw student test scores for those who were listening rise about 15 percent higher than those who weren’t listening.” Pendleton starting giving students this alternative way of learning to encourage them to study for their tests. For junior Cailee Traen, the podcasts work well to narrow her focus when studying. “I think it’s really helpful because he goes right off of the test, so you have exactly what is going to be on it that you can study from,” Traen said. “I hate learning out of a textbook, so I think it’s a lot easier to review.” According to Pew Research Center, nine out of 10 teenagers are on social media. Instructors are starting

to use this medium to benefit students’ academic performance and to better understand students. Both Pendleton and Rinearson have realized that social media can benefit students’ learning experiences outside of the class period. “I know that Mr. Roberts is supportive of anything that helps improve student performance — anything that creates a positive connection between teachers and students — fosters a better environment and leads to a more receptive school learning environment,” Pendleton said. “I think it’s a just a matter of us recognizing that this generation of students is so embedded within social media, so instead of fighting it, why not utilize something they’re already using to help them be successful?” What Rinearson values most about social media is its power to connect people. In class, she may be able to connect a specific group of students, but through Twitter, she can connect all of her students as a grade level. Last year, before the AP exam, Rinearson filled timelines with tips and tricks for her students. Not only did she give academic help, but she also wanted her students to laugh and make sure they were relaxed. “What I take seriously is not myself, certainly not my Twitter — anyone who’s seen it knows — but what I do take seriously is the idea of creating a sense of community within my students,” Rinearson said. “When we speak to each other less frequently face to face, I think the idea of perpetuating community within my students is really important. And I want that feeling of community to go beyond my silly Twitter contest and to go even beyond my classroom, but to become a part of your culture here at Blue Valley Southwest.”

| abbyyi

| 23

Celebrating Creativity students participate in the first EKL Art Day hosted by Southwest

fter countless hours of organizing, budgeting, ordering and sorting supplies and planning since August, Southwest hosted Eastern Kansas League (EKL) Art Day for its first time on Feb 25. EKL Art Day is a celebration of students’ artistic talents and aims to provide a chance for students to explore new art techniques and promote their schools’ art programs. EKL Art Day started three years ago when Gardner Edgerton was admitted to the EKL and realized that the league didn’t have a way to celebrate the art students like it did for athletics. So Gardner established the tradition and hosted it for the first two years. This year, Southwest volunteered to host. Each of the eight schools submitted 30 pieces of artwork from the 2014-2015 school year, which two judges critiqued on site. The judges awarded first-, second- and third-place

ribbons to students in 12 different categories of art. While judges critiqued, teams of 10 students competed in four sessions — drawing, ceramics, design challenge and performance sculpture. Students were awarded points if their submitted pieces placed or if their creation of a session was the best of all of the teams. Then the school with the most points, Blue Valley North, was determined as the winner. Teachers of each art department determined which 10 students would compete on site that day. Teacher Shawn Stelter said that narrowing down the talent of the school to only 10 students was the biggest challenge. The art department had to consider the strengths of the students and how they would apply their strengths and work together to best represent the school in the competition. In creating the team, the teachers searched for students who were really strong in drawing, conceptual ideas

and ceramics. Teachers and students appreciated EKL Art Day as a commemoration of students’ talents and an opportunity to find inspiration from others. Despite who won, the students enjoyed meeting new people from other schools and collaborating. “It’s been a great day,” Stelter said. “It’s always very inspirational for our kids, and I think it’s fun to have them celebrate who they are and their strengths. I think a lot of times, if you’re not an athlete, you can be overlooked. But that’s the cool thing about Southwest, though — the fact that we do celebrate more types of people; we’re not just about our sports. We’re about embracing everybody and all of their strengths.”

| nicolebecker

24 | march 2015 | southwest | www.bvswnews.com | photo essay

(1) In the first session of the day, senior Taylor Wagner cuts wire mesh for the design challenge, in which students had to create a pop-up structure that promoted art and creativity in their school. (2) Senior Madeline Fines paints cardboard for the performance sculpture challenge, where students had to create a wearable sculpture. Students worked on the piece across multiple sessions throughout the day. “[Participating in EKL Art Day] helps with communication and being able to plan because we have to switch stations in the middle of it, so we have to have enough communication so that everybody knows what they’re doing, even if nobody else is in the room,” Fines said. (3) Junior Tyler Howard cuts a cardboard cylinder for the design challenge. (4) In the drawing challenge, sophomore Grant Gruenhaupt studies a ceramic fish as his subject. Students had 45 minutes to draw a still life out of charcoal in any style they chose. In judging, teachers looked for traditional and classic use techniques, value making, line making, composition and if the student made a full range of those values to show form, mass and volume. (5) For the ceramic challenge, sophomore Liz Putnam competes to make a cylinder on the wheel with the tallest and most even walls while blindfolded.

| 25

(1) The Chinese writing on sophomore Eunice Lee’s Chinese New Year envelope reads “spring.” (2) Senior Jeayoung Jeong’s kkotsin (shoes) are worn for traditional Korean festivities, such as Lunar New Year’s celebrations. (3) Jeong’s hanbok (dress) is also worn for special events. On Thanksgiving, Jeong wore the dress and shoes to her ancestors’ grave to pay respects. (4) The game gonggi, similar to the American game jacks, has been in Jeong’s possession since elementary school, when she and her classmates would play together and have competitions.

26 | march 2015 | southwest | www.bvswnews.com | feature

FOREIGN PHONETICS multilingual Timberwolves learned English after their native languages

ntil sophomore Eunice Lee was in kindergarten, her only language was Mandarin Chinese. With a Malaysian father and Taiwanese mother, Lee spoke her parents’ native language until being placed in an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program at her school. “Living in a country where everyone speaks a certain language, and you don’t speak that certain language — it’s hard for you to do pretty much anything,” Lee said. “I was in kindergarten, so I think the decision was kind of made for me.” ESOL, also called English as a Second Language (ESL), refers to the tutoring students receive to speak English at the same level as their native-English-speaking peers. Within the Blue Valley school district, this means being pulled out of a class or classes to work on speaking, writing, hearing and writing English. However, Lee says it was not only the ESOL program that helped her learn the language, but also the total immersion she experienced at school every day. “I do remember sometimes I would speak in Chinese, and everyone would be so confused, and I’d be like, ‘Oh, wait, I am talking in the wrong language’,” Lee said. “But then in first grade, I spoke English the entire time.” Senior Jeayoung Jeong, who moved to the United States from South Korea in fifth grade, agrees that immersion made learning English easier. “[The language] soaked into me,” Jeong said. “If you’re at school for eight hours a day and surrounded by a different language, you pick it up fast enough. I started to understand people a little bit after a few months, but starting in sixth grade I actually talked to people and understood them and read.” However, the process was not an easy one. While their classmates learned their times tables and state capitals, Jeong and Lee were trying to comprehend a second language. “I didn’t really have friends because I [couldn’t] communicate with them,” Jeong said. “So all my friends were from ESL. None of us knew English, so we all kind of communicated really awkwardly.” In addition, both Jeong and Lee said that learning a second language made family life different.

| 27

“After a few months, me and my brother were better at English than my parents because little kids could pick it up faster,” Jeong said. Learning a second language, especially at a different pace from each other, caused the whole family stress. Even now, both Jeong and Lee have families whose members know a variety of levels of multiple languages. Jeong’s family speaks Korean at home, while Lee’s speaks English. “It’s kind of weird because my youngest brother, he pretty much can’t speak any Chinese — he knows a little bit, but he can’t really communicate in Chinese,” Lee said. “I know my parents want him to be able to speak in Chinese.” Unlike Lee and Jeong, French teacher Emilie Grant learned English at an older age, after earning a master’s degree from a university in France. She found a job as an au pair (nanny) in California for a year, taking an ESL class at a local community center. “They had three levels, and I went through all three levels within six months,” Grant said. “So in the end, it was kind of boring — it didn’t feel like I was improving anymore. What really helped was going to a regular university and taking just a regular class that was not ESL — just strictly academic — that targeted English native speakers.” Grant also said that immersion in daily activities with her host family helped her learn English faster. She then decided to teach high school French. “I’m really passionate about the French language and the French culture, and I thought it would be nice to be able to share that,” Grant said. “I’m able to give a different perspective than other teachers might give.” However, there were disadvantages to learning English later in her life. Unlike Jeong and Lee, Grant was an adult when she began to learn English, which made it difficult for her to speak the same way as a native English speaker or someone who had learned as a child. She said she has had people treat her differently because of her French accent, speaking slower or repeating information unnecessarily because they thought she didn’t understand. “The accent is not a reflection of your intelligence,” Grant said. “The accent is just a reflection of, usually, how old you were when you learned the language and how flexible your vocal cords are.” But Lee, Jeong and Grant say that learning another language has been beneficial, if not necessary. Speaking English allowed them to communicate at school, work and in public, while speaking their native languages kept them connected to their own heritage. Grant says she encourages native English speakers to learn another language and immerse themselves in another culture. “I think that if you really want to learn about a culture, you have to speak the language,” Grant said. “There’s no way you can really be familiar and understand a culture if you don’t know the language.”

| madisonleighty

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30 | march 2015 | southwest | www.bvswnews.com | ads

Dodge to donate

For the first time in Southwest’s history, the Spanish department sponsored a charity event to help raise moeny for needy kids in Paraguay. To do this, students put together teams and participated in a dodgeball tournament | rileymartin

(1) Seniors Blake Shinkle, Austin Hoegerl and Nick Finley support their team on the sidelines after getting out in a previous play. (2) Juniors Sydney Fitchett, Sarah Towakoli, Maddie Parrish, Madi Hatch, Taylor Melau, Cooper Courtney and senior Abby Morrow line up along the track fence overlooking the games below. (3) Junior Patrick Cairns prepares to throw the ball at the opposing team, eventually leading to his team’s victory. (4) Team “Brick Squad” circles up for a pre-game pep talk before winning its upcoming game to achieve a winning record of 4-2. (5) Senior Makaila Gay voluntees as a referee in the tournament and explains the rules of the game.

photo essay | www.bvswnews.com | southwest | march 2015 | 31

more than money students and staff explain their reasons for fundraising bout five y e a r s ago on Christmas Eve, science teacher Chris Jenson was working his normal shift in the emergency room. A little boy, about two-and-a-half years old, came in. The boy had trouble walking and kept falling. Later that day, he was diagnosed with a brain tu-

mor. “His family was very upset, which was expected, and this wasn’t the first kid I had seen that was diagnosed with cancer; it [just] came at a really tough time of the year,” Jenson said. “But I think the thing that made me feel even worse about the situation was seven days later, the dad came in for a mental breakdown because he was already working two jobs and had taken on a third in anticipation of paying for his kid’s cancer treatment.” For Jenson, this event is the emotional connection to his passion for pediatric cancer and the fundraiser Hoops for Hope. He decided it would be his mission to help parents like the one crying in the emergency room that day. “I felt so bad for [parents with children who had cancer], and I felt so awful for that child [with cancer], and [seeing a parent] have to worry about money when they should just be worrying about their kid’s life seemed like so much for one person to take on,” Jenson said. “I just kind of decided that my thing was going to be help families fund the fight to better their child.” Jenson is the sponsor for the yearly Hoops for Hope charity basketball tournament in the fall. Hoops for Hope raises money for pediatric cancer patients in Children’s Mercy Hospital and is currently the largest student-run event for the hospital. Though Southwest is currently

32 | march 2015 | southwest | www.bvswnews.com | feature

the only school with the tournament, Jenson aims to expand it to one or two other schools in the district next year, and, eventually, to all five Blue Valley high schools. Hoops for Hope is also working with ESPN to spread the fundraiser across the country. “The ultimate goal is to have all five high schools involved and furthermore, to create a ‘Hoops for Hope starter kit’ that any high school in America would be able to start up and get running,” Jenson said. “We’re trying to make it as easy as possible for them so they, in turn, can donate to their local hospital.” Hoops for Hope is only one of the many fundraisers that speckle the school calendar year-long. Every few months or so, there is something new to donate to or participate in. For each of the many fundraisers at Southwest, students and sponsors work to plan, organize and carry out the event. “It’s stressful for us to try to plan an event for more people, but it’s more fun to have a lot of people because, it would be kind of a let down if we only had like a hundred people there,” senior Kyle Mersch said. “But with 1600 or 1700 people, [Relay for Life is] really a fun experience to have.” Mersch was one of the senior chairs for Relay for Life, a yearly fundraiser all five of the schools in the district hold. Relay for Life is an overnight event held in March to raise money for cancer research. “If we ever want to find a cure for cancer, [fundraising for research] is really the only way,” Mersch said. “[The money] goes toward finding a cure and helping people later down the road.” The Blue Valley Youth Relay for Life raises hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. Students walk a gym track from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. and participate in various activities like beauty pageants and basketball games throughout the night. For some people, this event may just have been contributing money for a good cause, or a time to get together with friends, but for others, it’s more personal.

“My dad and mom both had cancer, so [Relay for Life] is like a way for me to fight back against cancer since I really couldn’t do much when they both had [it],” Mersch said. “[It was] just up to the doctors at that point, but now it’s my turn to fundraise and lead the fight against cancer that I couldn’t do before.” Along with Relay, various other fundraisers in the school have the power to give people opportunities they wouldn’t have had before, like the organization Em’s Spotlight, where half the money from the Glitter Girls’ Dance for a Cause fundraiser went. “[Em’s Spotlight] provides dance classes for girls who don’t have the means to actually go to a dance class,” junior Rachael Sorcher said. “[The dance team] just thought [Em’s Spotlight] was [a] really cool [organization], and it just kind of struck home because we’re all dancers and we know what it’s like to have to pay for dance classes and everything like that.” Em’s Spotlight was founded in memory of a dancer, Emily Silverman, who died in a car crash. Her dream was to open a dance school where anyone could dance without having to worry about money and ability. “I just think it [the fact that she was a dancer] hits my heart because that’s what I love to do too,” Sorcher said. “We’re not just a dance team; we do stuff outside of school, and I think [having the fundraiser] adds a good other part to the team.” Passion is one of the many driving forces behind the implementation of multiple fundraisers in the school. Students and teachers alike, affected by personal events, strive to improve the community through these fundraisers. Aside from the local community, fundraisers held here impact the whole world. Dodge to Donate, a Spanish National Honor Society fundraiser, helped children in South America through the organization Save the Children. “We want to support specifically kids in South America just because it is dominantly Spanish-speaking, and that way it relates back to our club,” secretary of SNHS

money raised

senior Ana McMullen said. “In a lot of our Spanish classes, we watch documentaries, and we learn about what it’s like in those other cultures and how underprivileged some people really are. We have so much and other people don’t, so I feel like if we were in that situation, it would mean the world to us if we had just a little bit of donations to buy necessities like food or clothing.” Though fundraisers are about giving, they can have some unexpected benefits for the benefactor as well. Students and teachers think that community service and helping others have positive effects, not only for the receiving end of the help, but the giving as well. “If we can create an environment where the students here enjoy giving back and feel excited about it, then that’s just as important [It was] just up to the as anydoctors at that point, thing else I could but now it’s my turn to t e a c h fundraise and lead the you in the classfight against cancer room,” that I couldn’t before.” J e n son said. “There’s a | seniorkylemersch statistic that says if you can get young adults involved in something they genuinely care about and give back and create a positive experience, they are way more likely to do that for the rest of their life.” Though the few fundraisers held at Southwest won’t solve all the world’s problems, students say it’s the sense that they’re leaving an impact for the future that drives them to do community service or fundraise. “There’s a lot of people outside our community that need help and that need our time and of course we’re not obliged to do that — it’s a choice — but I think it’s a choice that we want to make,” McMullen said. “We’ll probably make like a few hundred dollars and that’s not going to make a huge difference to the world, but that’s a start.”

Relay for Life $213,396

“

Dance for a cause

$1,365

dodge to donate $1,810

| snehabhavanasi

hoops for hope $12,000 | 33

why we relay

Relay For Life is an annual event to raise money for cancer research. This event is a 12 hour lock-in with fundraising, food and events throughout the night, including a luminaria walk to honor those who have been affected by cancer, and a survivor walk, where students can walk with their family members who have survived cancer. This year, students from Southwest, as well as the other four Blue Valley schools, participated in this event; over 1500 students relayed. In total, Relay For Life raised $213,396.65 for the American Cancer Society.

students and teachers share their reason for why they relay

“

I relay for a close family friend who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2010 and passed away July 2014.” | sophomore brennahwelch

“

My oldest son is actually a cancer survivor. He was diagnosed 18 years ago, and I think we’re all affected by cancer somehow. So it’s just a great way to be able to give back and it’s such a fun event.” | business teacherlaynefunk

34 | march 2015 | southwest | www.bvswnews.com | photo essay

| donnaarmstrong

“

I relay because my sister had cancer. She had leukemia when she was in first grade, and that was really tough on our family. So, I want to continue the fight and fight for cures.” | senior emilydixon

4 (1) Competing in the Mr. Relay contest, junior Harrison Carney is carried off the stage by senior Cameron Long, who joined him during the competition. Carney brought Long onstage during the dance portion of Mr. Relay. (2) Walking with sophomore Lindsey Tobin and Tobin’s parents, sophomore Libbie Louis erupts with laughter. Louis and Tobin walk in the survivor lap, Louis sporting a “caregiver” sash. Tobin’s mother is a survivor of thyroid cancer, and Louis’ brother ia a survivor of medulloblastoma. (3) Competing versus Blue Valley West, the Timberwolves pull with all their strength. Southwest won the tug of war competition. (4) Draping his arm around his mom, senior Caleb Jenkins walks in the survivor lap in support of his mother. | 35

Slashing the Spending education funds are being cut to balance the state budget

n an attempt to stop the economic bleeding in Kansas, on Feb. 5, Gov. Sam Brownback announced a plan to cut funding for education by $44.5 million. Brownback’s plan would affect schools in the greater Kansas City area the most, with Blue Valley losing $1.1 million, while Olathe will lose $1.5 million. “The dramatic increase in state education funding that has occurred over the last four years is unsustainable,” Brownback said in a prepared news release. The cuts, however, have been met by opposition all over the state and nationwide.

36 | march 2015 | southwest | www.bvswnews.com | news

Economic policies in general have been met with harsh criticism, as Kansas is undergoing a budget pitfall. Revenue in the 2014 fiscal year came in $333 million short of projections, leaving the state in a serious predicament. The state’s reserves, however, were bountiful, and Brownback and Kansas Republicans simply subtracted the losses from the reserves. The problem resurfaced in 2015, when projections showed the shortfall for the 2015 fiscal year to be around $344 million. Education funds became first on the budget hit list. “The governor's 2012 tax plan has created a close to $800 million deficit for the 2016 and 2017 budget years, more than the deficits we experienced during the recession of 2009,” Kansas State Representative Ed Trimmer said. “Rather than look at the inequities in the tax plan, the governor seems intent on cutting education.” Recently, a Louisburg High School sophomore directed a satirical film aimed at exposing the fallacies behind the Kansas budget plans. The film premiered at the Overland Park 16 theater Feb. 17. The film was even sponsored by Kansas Families for Education, a group dedicated to promote advocacy for public education funding. “I feel like school districts are, if not the best stewards then among the best stewards, of taxpayer dollars that we have in Kansas,” social studies teacher Dustin Leochner said. “They’re locally controlled by elected boards of education. Those boards of education live amongst their constituents, they walk through their school buildings in their districts on a weekly basis, they

meet regularly with their constituents; they are more well connected to how the money is being spent, why it’s being spent.” Brownback and Kansas legislation defend these cuts, claiming previous mishandling of education funds have led to a warrant for cuts. The governor said in a statement that the Sumner Academy of Arts and Sciences spent $47,000 on a new grand piano, money that Brownback claimed should’ve been spent on hiring a new teacher and limiting class sizes, saying the piano purchase was “symptomatic of the inherent flaws in the current formula.” In 2012, education accounted for nearly 28 percent, or $869.2 billion of state and local governments, and to many, simply throwing money at the issue of an ineffective education system isn’t going to do the trick. Last January, the Shawnee Mission School District board approved a $20 million plan, providing all of the nearly 27,000 Shawnee Mission students with a Macbook or an iPad and even both for high schoolers. Over 150 teachers in the Shawnee Mission School district retired in January to allow more money to be saved once the cuts were announced in January. Also combating the cuts, several school districts have set up a Local Option Budget (LOB). A mail-in ballot was sent to local residents, presenting an option to raise funding. At this point, Blue Valley has hit the 33 percent limit, resulting in about $3 million more dollars for education funds. The funding was utilized to present some teachers with 2 percent raises. De Soto, Shawnee Mission, Olathe and others followed suit.

“Because of cuts over the last eight to 10 years, the local option budget have been used to provide basic necessities for school districts that used to be provided by the state,” Leochner said. “Instead of buying bells and whistles like they used to, they are paying for basic necessities like textbooks, maintaining buildings, buying equipment, maintaining the school day to day.” Kansas’s ranking among other state’s education program varies. A study done by the American Legislative Exchange Council ranks Kansas 20th among other states in education programs. Consequently, a study by US News ranks Kansas 47th among 50 in college preparedness of graduated high schoolers. According to court ruling in January, state funding for public education was unconstitutionally low. Brownback and Kansas’s Republican legislature are appealing this ruling, but if they are ruled against, Kansas will be forced to increase spending for education by $500 million. The Blue Valley school district currently spends over $313 million per year. Kansas as a whole currently spends almost $9,000 per student. according to US News. “Public education is the guardian of our democracy,” Leochner said. “This is a fantastic country that we have, and we didn’t get here by accident; we got here by the sacrifice and the vision of people who came before us. Public education to me safeguards everything that we’ve created to this point in time. You have to educate everybody.”

Kansas education spending vs other states’ spending Wyoming

$15,849

Wisconsin

$11,223

Kansas

$9,498

Oklahoma

$6,212

info from governing.com

“

Public education is the guardian of our democracy.”

| socialstudies teacherdustinleochner

|michaelmagyar || 37 37

t 5:50 a.m., senior Marise Ibrahim gets up, throws on her scrubs and hops in her car, ready to drive anywhere from 15 to 40 minutes away to hospitals and clinics all over the Kansas City area to follow and observe what a multitude of doctors, nurses, dentists and vets get to do ever day. Ibrahim is a part of Exploring Health Professions (EHP), a year-long class open to juniors and seniors, in which the students have the opportunity to test out various professions in the medical field. Filling up a two-hour block, the class rotates between classroom work and shadowing hospitals, small clinics and sometimes private practices. The ultimate goal of the class is to aid students who know they want to go into the medical field, but are unsure of the best choice of profession. “[EHP] helps [the students] confirm what they are most interested in,” EHP teacher Peggy Fuller said. “It opens their eyes to all possibilities besides being a doctor or a vet or a pharmacist or a nurse. It helps some of them decide when they don’t know what they want to do, [whether] they want to go to med school or nursing school — which one is just going to be better for them.” The first quarter focuses on getting through legal and ethical matters, like release of liability, immunizations, CPR training and Health Information Privacy Act training in order to learn how to remain confidential regarding patient identity. In addition, Fuller places heavy emphasis on expanding students’ knowledge on medical terminology. For every medical collegiate program, medical terminology is a required class, but it is a self-study class — students receive their books and then determine for themselves when to take each test. Medical terminology is a major part of the Johnson County Community College final that EHP students take at the end of the year, passing if they earn a 70 percent or above.

students explain what really happens in Exploring Health Professions 38 | march 2015 | southwest | www.bvswnews.com | feature

Graphics by Abby Yi.

Students can receive a total of six credit hours if they complete the full year. Although the credits may not transfer, Fuller said that the advantage of the medical terminology test is that students can go to a four-year school and quiz out of medical terminology and then take a higher level class the first year of college in its place. When students are not studying medical terminology, they are in room 604 — watching DVDs, PowerPoints, poring over medical readings and taking online tests. However, the real substance happens outside the classroom. After fulfilling the first quarter requirements, students begin shadowing — visiting vets, dentists and optometrists and observing doctors and nurses at hospitals to better their understanding of what goes on in different settings in the medical field, sometimes witnessing operations that most people wouldn’t get to see on a daily basis. “My second week of shadowing, there was a patient who had rear-ended a semi going highway speeds and didn’t have a seat belt on,” junior Madison Ruffalo said. “I got to be in the trauma room as they were working [on the patient], so that was definitely a neat experience.” Students provide their own transportation to the location they are shadowing, sometimes driving as far away as 40 minutes or venturing into downtown areas. Although shadowing time only lasts from 7:45 to 8:45 a.m., the class is a two-hour block because transportation time is taken into account. Yet, sometimes students don’t arrive back at school in time for third hour — or even fourth hour. “One time I was at St. Luke’s South — which isn’t that far away — but they had a cool procedure on a Thursday,” Ibrahim said. “So I stayed about an hour and a half more, just to watch that procedure.” Ibrahim contacted Fuller to let her know that she was going to be late so she could get a pass. “I guess it’s not a big deal — if you’re willing to be late to class, it’s really up to you,” Ibrahim said. “I mean, what are the chances that you’re going to see a cool procedure again?” Students alternate through multiple departments throughout the year, including the radiology departments, labor and delivery,

ER, mother/baby, and spine and joint, but that doesn’t come close to the entirety of the rotations. Ruffalo said that although you don’t get to see everything, there is sheet that students fill out to put down interests, and the teachers do their best to get the students into their preferred rotations. Whether someone knows exactly what he or she is going into, EHP provides a chance to get a good overview of many medical professions, some being specific to a certain line of work. Senior Salina Ye, who took EHP her junior year, knew the exact career she wanted from a young age.

“

I want to do something meaningful with my life, and I want to do research and cure cancer and things like that.” | seniorsalinaye

“My end game is going to be a cardiothoracic surgeon one day,” Ye said. “I’ve known I wanted to be a doctor since I was nine years old, so I was afraid that knowing that so early on, that I made the dream too big, so once I got in high school, I wanted to make sure that I really, really wanted to be a doctor — that it wasn’t something my family pushed on me, it wasn’t something that I fantasized about for so long that I was just dreaming up all these things, so I decided to take EHP to make sure that I really wanted to be a doctor.” For those who just want to get in on the action, the students can opt to partake in more broad rotations. “I’ve always been interested in anesthesiology, and I kind of like chemistry,” Ruffalo said. “I’ve been thinking about that, but I’ve also thought about maybe possibly doing

something in the ER, because it’s more exciting. But actually, I’ve thought about being a doctor or a surgeon for the military.” Many people go through diverse rotations, only to find out what they don’t enjoy as much, which in turn leads them to what they do enjoy — the career paths that are right for them. “[I found that] I am interested in all the critical stuff — that’s what gets me,” Ibrahim said. “ICU, ER, all that.” Not only has EHP taught students strictly medical skills, but the class includes information that directly relates to the students right now. “It’s life skills — they don’t have to go into medicine,” Fuller said. Ruffalo said that she learned time management and how to communicate with people of higher authority, as well as how to ask questions in a way that gets the direct answer, and, lastly, how to drive better on the highway. In addition, there are important particulars that some wouldn’t take into account. “[I’ve learned to be] detail-oriented,” Ibrahim said. “Every detail matters, so when I watch that stuff, the doctors are very detailed and everything. I think being detail-oriented is a skill — well, I mean I was detail-oriented before, but it’s a skill that I got better at.” In addition, Ye said that EHP really helped her to “understand what it takes to be a doctor,” and taught her to become more compassionate. “I want to be a doctor so I can make a difference, you know, do something other than breathe air and convert oxygen to carbon dioxide,” Ye said. “I want to do something meaningful with my life, and I want to do research and cure cancer and things like that.” Regardless of what a student wants to go into, EHP helps him or her make the decisions necessary to discern all the medical career paths. “Now I have a better understanding of all the different kinds of fields that there are out there,” Ruffalo said. “It’s not just, ‘You can be a nurse or you can be a doctor, or you can be a physician.’ It’s just, ‘You can be 10,000 other things,’ and it’s really given me a different perspective.”

| ellieaugustine

| 39

Hinduism unior Anjali Pradeep wakes at the break of dawn to total darkness and the sound of her parents’ voices. She and her siblings are led down to the small temple in their home. The first thing they see when they open their eyes is the light of a lamp. The Pradeeps pray for a good year and good education before going back to sleep. In the Hindu religion, this tradition takes place every Indian New Year. Religious texts like the Bhagavat Gita, Ramayana and Dashavatar tell different stories — like the creation of the universe — of hundreds and hundreds of gods. Hindus also believe in reincarnation, where people have multiple lives and live until they reach nirvana: “ultimate opening up like you’ve found yourself — who you truly are.” “I like that we have so many Gods,” Pradeep said. “Like, we don’t have one main God that does everything, there’s multiple gods, and they all have their reason for being there. Like one is God of destruction, and that’s not always a bad thing, destructing — we pray to the god of destruction before we take any trips or long journeys to destruct the bad things that can obstruct our pathway.” Some of the stories told in the Hindu religious texts are similar to those in other religions. For example, one story is similar to the story of Noah’s ark in the Bible. Pradeep said in the Dashavatar, there are 10 avatars of one god, and one of them appears as a fish. The fish grows until he is as big as an ark, and he tells a monk who took care of him to gather all the other spiritual monks and animals because there was going to be a huge flood to wipe out the entire world, since there was a lot of evil in the world. They got on the fish and the flood came, and then the fish brought them to a new world. “I feel like there’s connection between every religion,” Pradeep said. “So I feel like Hinduism and Christianity or Islam are all connected or all have the same base foundations, so there’s not much difference per say.

I don’t think of them as separate religions. They’re all connected in some way, and there has to be a reason for that.” Pradeep’s family goes to the temple when it is someone’s birthday and for religious functions, but there are no specific days that people are supposed to go. There are statues of the different deities set up around the room, and Pradeep goes around the room and prays to each separate one. At the end, there’s a little box in the front where she can give money as an offering to the gods. “I wouldn’t call myself an overly religious person, but I have a strong belief in my faith, and it’s a part of my life because for me, it’s just something to hold on to during hard times,” Pradeep said. “Even if I don’t pray to a specific god, I just talk to them...Faith is something I can’t lose, so in the hardest of times I’ve had in my life, I’ve relied on my faith to get me through things, even if it’s just having someone to talk to.” Pradeep said she has friends who are strong in their faith, and they talk about how in their religions, a person can be punished for not believing in their ways. But she said they are just worried for her, and she tells them she’s fine in her religion. “I don’t feel any different than my friends would because, especially at school, religion is not that big of an influence in what we learn,” Pradeep said. “As a minority religion, I don’t really feel any different. I feel at home here.”

40 | march 2015 | southwest | www.bvswnews.com | feature

CON Judaism n tenth grade, senior Shari Gaynes switched from Hebrew school to confirmation classes. The accepting and open environment allowed everyone to talk about what they believed and how it related back to Judaism, even if they weren’t sure if they believed in God. “I’m not super into the whole praying scene at this point in my life,” Gaynes said. “I’m not going to go to temple every weekend and pray — that’s just not something that I would want to do — but I think after having my bat mitzvah and then going through confirmation, I think it sort of guides me in a humanistic way. So ethics and other things — just being a good person and helping people in need.” Jewish people believe in the same God, morals and ten commandments as Christians. However, they believe that the Messiah is yet to come, and when he comes there will be peace on Earth. Their places of worship are synagogues, where hour-long services are held each week on both Friday evenings and Saturday mornings. As a child, junior Zach Novicoff attended Hebrew school Wednesdays and Sundays twice a week. “It does guide your life as a child,” Novicoff said. “I was in Hebrew school from preschool until seventh grade, so you get to learn a lot about the culture of Israel and how it was made to be.

faith

Mormonism

NECTION

students from different religions share how faith is a part of their lives

| anandabhatia

So along with being a religious class, it’s also a pretty good guide of history ... You have more comprehensive background knowledge than most kids do, which is cool, so you learn different things than most kids learn.” Novicoff now passes on his knowledge to other students. Novicoff and sophomore Dean Ziegelman are co-presidents of the Jewish Student Union, a group consisting of four Jewish and three non-Jewish members that meets to discuss the Jewish faith. “We basically go over the basics of what Judaism is in a fun way,” Novicoff said. “So like we make smoothies and bring in food, and then over the food we talk about things that kind of closely relate to Judaism.” According to pewforum.org, only 1.7 percent of Americans over 18 are Jewish, so Novicoff and Gaynes sometimes stand out. Once, after hearing Novicoff discuss Judaism with a classmate, a student brought him a book about how “Jesus was more than a carpenter,” and he told him to read it if he wanted to be saved. Gaynes’s winter choir concert freshman year was “very Christmas-themed” and included many songs about Jesus, and she used to be known in the theater

department “exclusively as ‘Sharü the Jew.’” The Westboro Baptist Church even protested one of the high holy day services at Gaynes’s synagogue a few years ago, holding signs with messages like “God hates Jews.” At school, Novicoff has missed a lot of tests on the three days in the school year that he goes to services because they aren’t school holidays and some teachers don’t recognize them. “I don’t think that it’s meant to be offensive — we have, like, five Jews here,” Novicoff said. “It’s just the underrepresentation leads to things like that, that are minor, but still are annoying.” However, Novicoff said that having a smaller group makes the religion feel more like a family. “The Jewish community in Kansas is really close,” Novicoff said. “If you’re a Jewish family, the odds are that we know you or we’ve been to the synagogue with you at least once. It’s a lot more of an intimate and close setting when you’re part of a smaller sect.”

very Sunday, senior Jake Uhrich attends The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for three hours. The first hour is a service, while the next two are “basically like Sunday school,” where he learns short lessons with other people his age. “I enjoy just getting to know different kinds of people,” Uhrich said. “At church you have some people who are there religiously every Sunday and at every activity, and then you also have the people that come every once in a while, and I enjoy just learning different perspectives.” Mormons believe in everything that’s in the Bible, as well as the Book of Mormon, which Uhrich says is “just a few more stories about Jesus.” A main difference between other Christian religions and Mormonism is the belief in the restoration. Mormons believe that after all the apostles died, the power of the priesthood, which allows someone to act in God’s name, was lost. But during the restoration, Joseph Smith, the original founder of the Mormon church, received it again. And in the Mormon church, children are baptized when they are eight years old so they have “the right to make their own decision.” “Mormonism focuses more on the life of Christ rather than the death,” Uhrich said. “Even with our churches, they don’t have a cross on the top of them because we like to not dwell on the fact that he died, but focus on more of the good things he did while he lived.” Uhrich has gone to a few other churches to see what they were like, and he said they’re all pretty similar. However, he feels more at home at his own church. He said his faith is an important part of his life that will soon become more impactful, since he plans on going to Brigham Young University, a Mormon college in Utah. “I feel like I have a different perspective from other people since I believe different things, and I enjoy being the only person of my friends who is in my religion,” Uhrich said. “Just being unique is kind of cool.”

| 41

Islam reshman Mahrukh Jamal said she remembers her preschool years very well because she wasn’t treated right since she was Muslim. The kids “used to throw little bugs at her,” but she never said anything. In elementary school, the teasing continued. But now, in high school, Jamal can stand up for herself because she is finally “spiritually standing on ground.” “Now that I’m older, I know how to defend myself,” Jamal said. “I have people out there who care for me, and I don’t really feel out of place at Southwest because there are so many nice people, and if somebody were to say something to me — I know that there’s always going to be that one person who’s going to speak up to me — I’ll speak up for myself, because they don’t really have a reason to hate.” Jamal is a part of the second largest religion in the world: Islam. As a Muslim, she believes in one God, Allah, and in the writings of the Qur’an, a holy book brought by the last of their prophets, Mohammad. As part of her religion, Jamal wears skin coverings and a headscarf called a hijab as symbols for purity and modesty. While Jamal has heard people assume that parents force their kids to wear one, she said the parents usually recommend it, but leave it up to their daughter. Jamal wanted to start wearing it during sixth grade, but her mother advised her to wait until she was older and more mature, so she began wearing it freshman year. “I was afraid that people were going to make assumptions, and it’d be harder for me to get past, get by,” she said. “But my entire view of what it would be like was completely opposite. Those who were friends with me were still my friends, and they didn’t care.” However, Jamal said she has a friend who was severely bullied for wearing a headscarf and had to move high schools several times, and another friend who is being homeschooled so she doesn’t have to go through something similar. She’s heard that students who wear a hijab at another school usually feel separated

42 |

— kids don’t talk to them. Part of this could be because of misconceptions about Islam. Junior Sobir Hussaini said a lot of people would “automatically assume that [he’s] part of a terrorist organization” when they found out he was from the Middle East or Muslim. Around middle school, people would make al-Qaida jokes or would call Osama bin Laden his uncle. “I don’t really blame them; it’s kind of how the media portrays it,” Hussaini said. “Those terrorists are kind of like the Middle Eastern version of KKK, or like some crazy person that isn’t Muslim — it could be anyone. If someone went to the Middle East, like a safe place, then 99 percent of their people are normal people that go to work and go to school, have jobs, have kids and have a family, but obviously every religion and every country is going to have their crazy people ... you can’t judge a whole religion off of some people who decide to make it look bad.” Jamal said when people first meet her, they are cautious around her right away, and she agrees that it might be because “people look at Islam as a religion of terrorism.” “[People] think killing is a part of our religion, and it’s not,” Jamal said. “We believe that all of us are God’s creation. Allah gave us the ability to choose what we want to, and what they’re doing out there right now, where they’re killing people, is not right, because they’re killing God’s creation. We’re a religion of peace, and the people today have misused Islam and turned it into their own religion.” Once, when Hussaini was discussing religion with a neighbor, the neighbor gave him a book with all of the main points of the Bible and told him to read it. His freshman year, when Ramadan, the ninth month of the Muslim year that is considered sacred, was on CNN, “one kid in the back fully didn’t understand it and he said ‘why do those people starve themselves?’ and other things.” “Ramadan is one of the most holy months

and holidays of Islam, and I don’t think anyone really knows what it is, and I’ve never heard anyone tell me — not that I really care — happy Ramadan,” Hussaini said. “But if it were Hanukkah or Christmas, they all would say happy Hanukkah or merry Christmas or whatever. So I don’t really think the holidays of my religion get much attention. I’m not trying to complain; I’m just saying that’s how it really is here, and it’s kind of been that way my whole life.” Hussaini said what he has read in the Bible has been similar to the Qu’ran; Muslims “believe in the same stories, but the way [they] see it is probably different.” For example, Muslims believe that Adam and Eve were the first people in the world, and that Mary gave birth to Jesus. However, instead of seeing Jesus as the son of God, they see him as a prophet. Similar or different, Jamal believes that it is important to learn about all different religions. “If you become more accepting, you become more of a cooperative person,” Jamal said. “You have to learn to accept because we live in a society based on freedom. You know, there are other countries out there that don’t have what we have, that freedom, so being accepting is a good thing and it brings the best out of people. [By learning more about other religions], you’re not losing anything; you’re gaining knowledge.”

Ultimate Frisbee Ultimate Frisbee Club began after Blue Valley West started a team, in the efforts of senior Ty Constant to â&#x20AC;&#x153;put West in its place and show that Southwest is the most dominant ultimate frisbee team in the EKL.â&#x20AC;? As the season has progressed, the games have become less of a competition and more about having fun with friends. With an uncertain schedule and an open roster, the club is very flexible. Any student is allowed to join, and game times are posted on Twitter @TheGray_UF.

photo essay | www.bvswnews.com | southwest | march 2015 | 43

7 6

(1) Senior Ty Constant explains the rules to the team before kicking off the scrimmage. To be a part of the Ultimate Frisbee team, The Gray, there are no membership requirements. However, Ty highly recommends purchasing a jersey because “they’re so cool.” “Our jerseys strike fear into all who we compete against,” he said. (2) Senior Jake Urich and Ty swarm sophomore Beau Constant. (3) Beau loads back and prepares to release the frisbee. Beau and Ty are considering the fate of the club since this is Ty’s last year. “If Ty passes me the torch, I plan to take over [the Ultimate Frisbee Club],” Beau said.

| 44

9 (4) Fighting for control of the frisbee, Ty and junior Connor Eski battle for the disk on the 10-yard line. The two players were on different teams for this scrimmage, and in conclusion to the game, Ty’s team was able to pull through with the win. (5) Leaping to grab the frisbee, junior Daniel Staudenmaier soars to haul in the disk. (6) Attempting to barricade the frisbee, senior Abe Hermes defends senior Jackson Steven‘s pass with hands raised. (7) Junior Kevin Woolworth strides toward the goal line, arms extended, reaching for the frisbee. (8) Woolworth races ahead of Stevens and junior Seth Wingerter to attempt an over the shoulder grab.

(9) Ty leaps for the disk while Staudenmaier blocks out sophomore Daniel Foulon and Hermes. “Frisbee to me is a way of living. It is the symbol of happiness and pure joy,” Ty said. (10) Reaching for the frisbee, Hermes is chased by Uhrich. (11) Eski takes hold of the frisbee. “The frisbee team means everything to me, because without them, I’d be lost,” Eski said. (12) Running toward the action, Wingerter scouts out the scene and decides on his next move. (13) Eski blocks Ty’s effort to defend him. With an open roster, Ultimate Frisbee Club allows members to meet other Southwest attendees. “I’ve met so many new people and created so many new friendships just because of a stupid little sport,” Ty said.

45 |

Interview

Anthony

ORRICK newly hired football coach Anthony Orrick expresses his hopes for the upcoming season | brocputnam

What schools did you coach at before you took the job here?

Are there any traditions that you’ve kept with you as you have moved schools?

What is your main philosophy when it comes to coaching?

46 | march 2015 | southwest | www.bvswnews.com | Q&A

“I have been at Blue Valley North, Blue Valley High and Spring Hill High before joining BVSW.“

“As far as traditions go, there isn’t a lot to keep going — maybe a team chant — but I’m not that big of a tradition guy as far as singing after the game. Those are things that I want to build within the program. It’s important for the guys on the team to make their own traditions as we go.”

“My philosophy is to provide my students with the knowledge, attitude and skills to participate in lifelong physical activity and health in a positive learning environment.”

What are the practices going to look like next season?

“High intensity, high pace and getting lots done in a short amount of time. I’m not a big guy on standing around. I want you out there and being as active as you possibly can be.”

“I just want to create a great foundaWhat are your predictions for the next tion and get everyone around here to season? start believing in what we are trying to do. We also need to get together and grow as a family, and wins will come along with that.”

Are you planning on bringing a whole new coaching staff with you or are you going to keep the staff from last year?

What do you feel is the most important thing for a team to have?

“We will have a few [coaches] come in with me from Spring Hill and we will have some stay on staff, and we will have some that work here in the building and may have coached in the past.”

“Chemistry — I feel like it is important to have a team that works together and enjoys what they’re doing, and for them to be able to lean on each other, as well as to communicate together as a team.”

| 47

pay to play

comparing the costs of students’ sports and activities

| katebowling

“

overall cost:

$5,000+

dance

It’s crazy how much money goes into doing what I love.”

| sophomorepaigeerickson costumes: $100 classes: $210 per month competitions: $300-$1,000

band

overall cost:

“

$750-$4,000

The more time [and money] you spend, the better you become.”

| sophomoreangelafornelli

“

overall cost:

It’s worth it to spend money because you can get new things, like the new bats and gloves, but there are things in baseball you can use forever.”

$500+

equipment: $300+ uniform: $50+ bat: $250+

There’s not a certain number like with [other sports], where you can be like, ‘Oh, it’s $125 for everything.’”

| sophomoreraeganrast

overall cost:

$600+

baseball

| sophomoresamgettings

horseback riding

“

instrument: $150-$2,500 (depending on instrument) band fee: $600

“

It definitely is [worth the money]. Running is what makes me happy and I wouldn’t want to do anything other than distance running.

overall cost:

$3,000+

vet bills: can cost up to $600 grooming: $50-$330 competitions: approx. $265

track

shoes: $50-$150 heart rate monitor: $300 | juniorhannahharrick clothes: $100-$400

information is approximate and is estimated by the quoted students. Other information taken from www.bloomberg.com and www.musiciansfriend.com.

48 | march. 2015 | southwest | www.bvswnews.com | infographic

you have left the conversation. group messages are becoming the modern day cliques

opinion | www.bvswnews.com | southwest | march 2015 | 49

f she says something wrong, she gets kicked out; sometimes she just can’t stand it anymore, and she just leaves herself. A fight broke out in a group message and she couldn’t take it anymore; she threw her phone across the room. The vibrations stopped and “you have left the conversation” appeared at the bottom of the screen. She can no longer type in the group; she’s completely isolated from the conversation. She’s still curious about what they’re saying — what if she misses out on plans, or what if they’re talking behind her back? The possibilities of what she’s missing slowly get inside her head, and she’s left feeling helpless. Due to the iOS 8 update for the iPhone, users are now able to leave conversations. However, users can also kick people out. This new update has given an edge to students who are in group messages. It has been the cause of fights and hurt feelings. This is the modern-day clique. Students are feeling the pressure of not being involved in group messages. In a way, one person is represented by the entirety of the group he or she texts. “I think you are grouped by who you socialize with, and those are typically the people you are in group messages with,” senior Mallory Fahler said. “Sure, group messages can be positive when planning dances or organizing events. But, in my experiences, they definitely cause unnecessary drama.” Look around — everyone is always on his or her phone. Phones are the connection to the world. This generation has been especially attached to electronic devices, which is most likely why it was given the name ‘the technological generation.’ The number of people attached to technology is impacting all aspects of life because it’s constantly

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growing and changing with this generation. Once this feature of leaving conversations became available, the new update became popular among teenagers. Students could feel the impact of no longer being in touch with the world around them by being removed from a group message. “Being part of a group message should not be a person’s only source to the outside world,” junior Sydney Fitchett said. “Yes, it is fun to be entertained with a group message, but not being able to partake in it anymore is not the end of the world. Some people believe removing someone from a group message is ‘winning the argument.’ Doing this really doesn’t prove anything besides how mature people actually are. ” Feeling left out can impact a person’s self esteem in a negative way in both the short and long term. Kicking somebody out of a group message can be seen as a modern day cyberbully. This psychological change of a person’s mood and opinion on themselves can be achieved by just a click of a button. The importance of group messages vary between schools. Olathe East senior Graham Harton said he finds that group messaging is different among his friends at his school than it is at Southwest. “[My friends] just use group messaging if everyone needs to know important information,” Harton said. “Everyone gets really annoyed if people start having conversations that don’t pertain to information that applies to the entire group. Group messages at our school are used more for functionality and not entertainment.” Transfer students agree that they saw a dramatic difference in the number of students who use group messaging from different school districts. Junior Lexi Thom transferred from Olathe South at the begin-

ning of her junior year. “No one hardly used group messaging except for during sports season [from what I’ve noticed],” Thom said. “Everyone here uses group messages with friends, sports and for classes. It’s used much more here for social gain instead of getting word out about important events. I went from maybe six group messages [mostly involving academics and sports] to now 15. People just start group messages at Southwest for any reason, not just specifically for important information.” So what does that say about Southwest — does that mean students are more socially involved? The difference between school dynamics can usually be attributed to one’s self reliance. When a person is presented with a new kind of power that can be held over others, it can tend to get out of hand. I’ve experienced numerous breakdowns when I feel like I’ve been left out of important events. I feel isolated from society. It’s honestly sad that it’s gotten to that point, but with technology constantly on the rise, it’s become more prevalent and has caused more drama than ever in high school. We’re all becoming completely relient on our phones and this new way of not only being able to communicate in a group but also decide who is in or out of the group gives a new source of power. This new obsession with group messaging is especially prominent in the halls of Southwest. Compared to other schools, Southwest’s use of group messaging — whether it be for academics or chatting — is a growing phenomenon that the student body is using.

| lexitarter

Photo illustration by Kate Bowling.