Vol. 35, Edition 1, October 2015

C

Vol. 35, Edition 1, October 2015

THE COMMUNICATOR

taking matters into their own hands 9 ann arbor teens start an

21 34 avalon housing helps to in 1965 Detroit, a 17-year-old

independent campaign for bernie sanders

plays a key role in a media revolution

permanently end homelessness in ann arbor

letter from the editors Dear Readers, Since we were a couple of kids, we here at the Communicator have had writing dreams. Hannah’s involve a successful novel, a Jeep converted into a boat (see: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), a voyage across the Atlantic in aforementioned Jeep, Europe and more writing. Eva’s involve on-location in-depth journalism projects with National Geographic documenting voicethat they share is truth. We both hope to use our writing to get at the truth, and that journalistic integrity is something that we also work to bring to the Communicator.

This season has brought a disappointment in the world of journalistic integrity. After 117 years of tury Fox. Fox’s resident media mogul, Rupert Murdoch, is a self-proclaimed climate change skeptic.

High school students turn poitical advocates in the name of a Democratic frontrunner

youth speak for sanders

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ts

The story behind Ann Arbor’s premier

en

pesto

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work in Detroit.

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e

words from a local creator

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Artist and activist Tyree Guyton, creator of the

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15 the exchange When an exchange student arrives, they get a new home, but the swap works both ways.

21 rise of the underground press In 1965 Detroit, a 17-year-old starts a newspaper that sparks a movement in the media.

34 housing built to last Avalon Housing attempts a permanent solution to homelessness in Ann Arbor.

38 fashion This fall, Community students bring their own distinct styles to the halls.

54 op-ed Politics are in the air - catch up on the candidates and policies that are polarizing the nation.

to the environment is under the control of someone who believes that the environment is doing just demand for print news. Still, this event has served as a reminder that money makes people do the wacky, and integrity can be bought. Fortunately, we have no one trying to give us $725 million, so we can do journalism by our own moral code.

At the Communicator, we are working to be as honest as possible and give the full story as much as we can. As we begin another year of our paper, we want all of our readers to know that should you see something that you think strays from the truth, our ears are open and we promise responsiveness. We also believe in giving a platform to other teens practicing truth and integrity in their own than they. There are many more outside of this edition. Hopefully soon we’ll get a chance to tell their stories, too.

Love, your editors

2 th e c o m m u n i c a t o r

october

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eve shikanov

discovered hip hop.”

the sweet life

marin scott “My friend promposed to me at a powwow. She gave me a bag with chocolates and lotions and a note that said, ‘Hope you pamper yourself before I take you to prom’.” courtney kiley “Getting this job here was a really awesome moment. I did my student teaching here. This is my dream school.”

words from a local creator eva rosenfeld

When Tyree Guyton was nine years old, his grandfather, a house painter, gave him a paintbrush.

Guyton: “It was like magic and I knew I was gonna be an artist, all because of my grandfather. He said to paint the world and to use your imagination to create beauty.”

Guyton and his grandfather came to Heidelberg Street in 1986 with the intention of using art to revive a decrepit neighborhood in Detroit. With assistance from neighborhood members, especially children, the pair began collecting objects. Twenty nine years later, houses extending for two blocks of Heidelberg Street are each a unique work of salvage art.

G: “I wanna say this. Two plus two equals eight. Bad can be good. Too much of anything can be bad for you, such as sex.

What time is it? What is art today? And can I think outside of the box? When I started the Heidelberg Project 29 years ago, when I was 26, I learned the importance of using the imagination to create magic. And that’s what I’ve been doing for the last thirty years: making it up, having a great time, and making a mess.

What is art today? Can I go beyond? I’m saying yes. Can I create my own institution? That’s what I have done with the Heidelberg Project. Most people looked at it and said it was ugly and bad and it was garbage and it was trash. And I decided to take that, and turn it into what today I’m calling art, having fun, making it up. Two plus two equals eight.”

what were some of the sweetest moments in the lives of students

Print Editors-in-Chief Eva Rosenfeld Hannah Rubenstein Web Editors-in-Chief Matthew Ferraro Matty Hack Anurima Kumar Sophia Werthmann Managing Editors Cameron Fortune Jack Kelley Grace Koepele Frances MacKercher Sophia Simon Hannah Tschirhart Business and Public Relations Manager Abe Weiner Assistant Business Manager Dario Zullo Copy Editor Alexandra Hobrecht Arts and Entertainment Editor Andrew Gechter Music Editor Social Media Editors Megan Syer Kate Burns Mentor Isabel Ratner

nathan campain “I would say being accepted to be part of an exchange program between Ann Arbor and Hikone, our sister city in Japan.” isaac nation

56 t h e c oumn m unicator 56 4 thteh ec ocmo m m u n i c iactaotro r

betoul hain “Going back to the Middle East, it was really fun. I just hung out with my family. I went back when I was ten.”

Adviser Tracy Anderson

Jasper Anderson Madeline Basanta Carson Borberly Conan Cekola Olivia Comai Hannah Davis Mary DeBona Brennan Eicher Sabina Fall Danny Freiband Lily Gechter Sophie Haviland M Howard Rachel Hystad Grace Jensen Charles Kotila Myles Markey Caitlin Mahoney KT Meono Sam Millman Juliette Nanos Catherine Nicoli Emily Ojeda Ellen Reed Angel Rich Sophia Rosewarne Kenneth Simpson Sophie Steinberg Suephia Saam Alexander Shaw Natalie Sherson Firavich Hannah Simon Stavi Tennenbaum Emily Tschirhart Taylor Tucker-Gray Samuel Uribe Devin Weeks Jada Wilson Matthew Vetort Grace York

G: “Thirty years - where do you go? I’m happy to say after working on the Heidelberg Project, the world is my canvas. So I’m excited.”

56 the communicator

october

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pesto.

6 th e c o m m u n i c a t o r

that would grow for years.

“At that time we got this bright idea,” Tim said. “Or I might have gotten the bright idea - we can do that. So [every year] I go to the farmer’s market and I buy the basil from Delores Gracia. I’ve been doing this all this time. Every year she sees me coming and knows I’m going to get a bushel of basil.”

Gracia is a vendor at Ann Arbor Farmer’s Market who sells produce from the Gracia Greenhouse. Tim and Connie have been annual regulars at her stall since they began in the economy, the Richards said that basil prices have remained steady.

“It was the same dollar amount from 1989,” said Tim. “Certainly until last year it was $30 for a bushel. This bag was full.” Tim pointed

sophia simon

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crisp breeze rushed through the streets of Ann Arbor’s Burns Park neighborhood, stirring leaves in front of one particularly cozy looking home. On that beautiful Saturday morning, a couple sat on their patio sursmell of sweet herbs thumbing through mounds of basil. Tim and Connie Richards are retired University librarians who spend one day each year making a batch of a year’s worth of pesto. For years they have upheld this practice rooted in friendship, tradition, and really good pesto.

It all started thirty years ago in Southern Michigan. “We happened to go to a festival out in Parma, Michigan, near Jackson. There

used to be an herb farm out there,” Tim said. As he spoke, his hands worked quickly over the basil plants, swiftly separating leaf from stem. “[It was a] basil festival back in the early 1980’s and we went there with some friends of ours and saw millions of different ways of using basil in cooking.”

“Part of it was a cook off [and] people were making their own basil recipes,” Connie said. Her coffee sat, steaming on the glass table surrounded by bowls of basil.

“A food writer for the Detroit Free press was one of the judges and somebody was declared the winner of the best pesto but they had to make it right there,” Tim said. “They had a bunch of basil, some garlic. So then the judges tested it and they made a decision

about who was the winner.”

The couple’s experience at the Basil Fest would lay a foundation for their annual pesto tradition that still exists today. Some traditions, however, were not quite so lucky.

“The competition was just before we went to Nashville,” Tim said.

“We moved shortly thereafter.”

“We came back four years later,” Connie said, “but the festival was gone. I think the herb farm maybe even went defunct or something.

That was the only time we went.”

Despite the loss of Parma’s basil festival, a seed had been planted in the hearts of Tim and Connie, a seed

and Connie collect a bushel of fresh basil leaves, they transport it back to the breezy patio for preparation. After making mass amounts of pesto for 30 years, Tim has the process down to a science. “My pesto recipe consists of garlic, pine nuts, olive oil, and the equivalent amount of Parmesan cheese that’s still in the refrigerator. I mix it up in here and then when it looks right and the taste is right then I put it in,” Tim said.

While most pesto recipes are for smaller amounts, Tim’s recipe is proportioned for the preparation of a whole bushel of pesto.

The Richards store their pesto away for the year, freezing jars of it with a layer of olive oil on top to preserve the fresh green color. Throughout the year however the pesto does more than sit in a freezer; it helps bring friends together.

“We have two other couples who are good friends of ours,” Tim said. “Every year on the day or close to the day that I make the pesto we have a pesto kick-off and then around we have used up pretty much all of the year’s supply. You know this ensures that we as six friend get together at least twice a year for dinner.”

october

7

community high jams: back to school edition

youth speak for sanders

what commie students are listening to

ann arbor high schoolers for bernie, a

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involving youth in the upcoming election.

Seamus Lynch, the current Campaign Manager, started Ann Arbor High Schoolers for Bernie with the idea of involving youth in mind. Students interested in joining should email a2hsbernie@gmail.com or check out facebook.com/ a2hs4bernie for meet times and other information.

taylor tucker-gray

n Sept. 8, 2015 536 students entered the main doors of downtown Ann Arbor’s Community High School and headed towards the start of a new school year with fairly empty backpacks, mixed feelings and a plethora of new music in their back pockets.

Many Community students, such as senior Avery Farmer, jam to music while doing a multitude of things. “I listen to music when I’m walking places,” Farmer said. “[I listen to music] when I’m driving places, when I’m doing homework, so I would say probably total if you added up all the time I spend it would probably be three hours a day listenjoys listening to more ambient sounds while studying, but in general he listens to everything. Some of his recommendations while working would be Nujabes, Sigur Ros, and Brian Eno. When he isn’t listening to “atmosongs by Yung Sherman, Yung Gud and the ever so popular-Yung Lean.

In contrast to the trap music from the multiple “Yungs,” Community Sophomore, Clarence Collins III, has a different style of music that he enjoys listening to while doing homework. His genre of choice? Jazz.

“I’d say Norah Jones, Esperanza Spald-

8 th e c o m m u n i c a t o r

alexandra hobrecht

n an early autumn afternoon, a group of high schoolers split off in different directions downtown,

ABOVE Jacob Melchi focuses on Physics Get Enough by Basenji.

of mine,” he said. “I could go for hours but those are my top ones.” Besides just listening to music, Collins makes his own beats The Natural/203.

ommendations but did mention she uses 8tracks, and searches “chill” and “lowkey” to

many other focused Community students in the hallway with scattered notebooks, widespread textbooks and headphones blasting music. One of those students, senior Natalie Delph, said, “[I listen to music while doing homework] only if I’m out in public where there are other noises, not if I’m at home alone in my bedroom. It blocks out all the other noises and it’s one thing I can focus on instead of everybody else’s conversations.”

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Junior, Alex Hughes, listens to music while doing pretty much anything. “Basically everything I do in my free time involves music,” he said. “I’m in a band; I work at a music store and when I’m not doing anything I’m listening to music.” As far as studying goes, Hughes also jams out while working.

“Homework is a very boring thing most of the time and music kind of spices it up and makes it more enjoyable.”

a clipboard in hand; each was a member of a recent organization called Ann Arbor High Schoolers for Bernie.

This is the only political group that caters to high schoolers and focuses on youth particularly in Ann Arbor. It was started by current Campaign Manager Seamus Lynch, a senior at Pioneer High School and member of the Community High jazz band. After working with an organization called Southeast Michigan Berners for Bernie, Lynch was encouraged to start a group that would focus on recruiting youth from all of the Ann Arbor high schools.

“It’s been a lot of group-texting, it’s been a lot of talking to people,” Lynch said. “But to tell you the truth, it [has] not been that hard because it’s very easy to get behind Bernie’s message.”

Bernie Sanders announced his candidacy in May of 2015. He is a candidate for the 2016 presidency under the Democratic Party’s nomination. The democratic socialist was elected mayor of Burlington, Vermont in 1981, then to the United States House of Representatives in 1990 and eventually became a member of the US Senate in 2006 after serving as a congressman for 16 years.

Sanders’ platform sets him apart from other

candidates because of where he stands on issues such as income inequality, universal healthcare and climate change.

“I like that he is speaking to the issues that affect our generation greatly and [issues] that are going to affect us for the rest of our lives,” Lynch said.

Sanders voted against the Iraq War and has long supported the LGBT community by endorsing gay marriage in 1972.

“It’s not often a group of high schoolers gets together to support a candidate,” said Avery Farmer, the publicist for Ann Arbor High Schoolers for Bernie. “I think people really have been impressed by that and really get excited about the fact that there is a candidate that high schoolers are interested in campaigning for.”

Farmer, like Lynch, has been involved in the group since its beginning, though it was Lynch who originally set the ball rolling by contacting friends he knew would be eager to help. mus’s living room talking about what we knew about Bernie and what we could do,” Farmer said. Their meetings initially began with the purpose of practicing jazz and casually talking about Sanders, but they soon forgot their instruments as the conversation focused around the candidate. Farmer had already been interested in what Sanders was doing and his policies, and had even signed

focuses on his role in the group. He describes his job as trying to get more people involved with the group and spreading awareness.

“That’s anything from members talking to their friends about it to [making] new people aware that there is a group supporting Bernie,” Farmer said.

The group holds meetings once a week with the hope to grow larger and larger; Lynch already knows there are going to be a lot of people involved. On Sept. 18, the They plan on speaking at farmer’s markets, sporting events, musical events and going door-to-door to reach more people, with phone banking as a possibility in the future.

“We’ve got a fantastic group of people,” Lynch said. “They’re all very hardworking, very smart. Nothing we do is possible without them.”

The organization is completely student-run.

Members do not rely on adults or any kind of liaison for their funding and operation, but rather trust in their self-directed structure. Each member of the team provides vital support for completing the group’s goals.

“I want to do something with my life where I am able to work to make the world a better place,” Lynch said. “I think that is a belief that everyone in my group shares. It’s really amazing working with such great people who agree with me on that.” october 9

books that change lives abe weiner

“Green Eggs and Ham is such an underated title in kids literature. Sam really wanted those green eggs and ham and he went out there to get those green eggs and ham. That is what I live my life for.”

-Keshav Kanapur

Green Eggs and Ham

Dr. Seuss

T alex shaw

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows

J.K. Rowling “Harry Potter and The Deathly Hollows is such a great book because you go on a journey after six great books and it just hits you at the end like nothing else.”

- Colin Stroud

The Awakening “I really enjoyed Seraphina by Rachel Hartman. It made me rethink racism and discrimination especially towards those people who it is not obvious that they are different. It really talked about how much work it is to hide that different thing.”

- Issac Nation

Seraphina

Kate Chopin

“I loved At Home

by Bill Bryson. I just thought it shed light on all the dayto-day things we do in life. It taught me about all these landmarks that I am used to just seeing and about their history. It was just really amazing to learn.”

- Katy Stegemann

“One of my favorite books is The Awakening because it helped me form my opinion on what feminism means to me.”

- Mira Kaufman

At Home

After attempting to enter through the front door, suspects bashed in the the door to prevent future crimes while awaiting its replacement.

Bill Bryson

Rachel Hartman

books to wait for

hese are some books that are expected to come out in 2016. These are continuations of current series.

“The Winds of Winter” from the “A Song of Fire and Ice” “A Song of Ice and Fire” (TV series “A Game of Thrones”) is complex fantasy, taking place in Westeros. The story does not follow just one character, but follows several around, weaving a web-like plot. The charwhich is rich and well built by the author.

Many of these characters are not afraid get their hand dirty to achieve this.

R. Martin. There is one more planned book

to come out in 2016, but this has not been 10 t h e c o m m u n i c a t o r

“The Doors of Stone” from “The Kingkiller Chronicle” The Kingkiller chronicle is the story of a man name Kvothe. He is called Kingkiller, the arcane, and the bloodless. It takes place in his inn, with him telling his real story of being a hero of legend. While this story of magic and kings looks like epic fantasy, it often mocks the theme by laughing at its tropes. book in “The Kingkiller Chronicle” by Patrick Rothfuss. It is also expected sometime in “Glass Sword” the sequel to “Red Queen” “Glass Sword” by Victoria Aveyard continues where “Red Queen” left off, in a world

where the color of your blood is life changing. Those with silver blood are born with special powers, and treated as nobility. Mare was born with normal, red blood, yet she possesses the powers of the elites, despite her lowborn status. this story is expected to be released early 2016.

“The Raven King” from “The Raven Cycle” “The Raven Cycle” by Maggie Stiefvater is about Blue Sargent, a girl who starts seeing spirits, and then starts to get involved with a group known as the “Raven Boys”, who are group of teens that seek out and investigate spirits and other peculiar phenomena. This few months of 2016.

teenage boys break into quiet neighborhood homes on two-day crime spree

O m howard

n a Wednesday afternoon in early September, Dicken neighborhood resident Amy Valade returned home after work with her two daughters, expecting her house to be as it always is: quiet and empty, with her kitten as the only disruption. Instead, Valade began to notice something was different. There was broken glass on the front door. Confused, Valade shrugged it off as a strange coincidence and let her daughters into the house while she cleared the glass away. However, when she stepped inside, she immediately knew that something was wrong. The house was a mess. Things weren’t where they should be; someone else had been in their home.

After calling her daughters, Valade went back outside and dialed 911. The police arrived and determined no one was still in the home, and it became apparent that this family’s residence was part of a series of hit-andrun daytime break-ins in the Dicken neighborhood.

“I looked up the crimes rates before I picked this neighborhood, and it has a super low crime rate; this is unusual,” said Valade.

Valade listed out several large electronics, including her personal Apple computer and monitor, as stolen. The police said these

items were sold and will likely not be seen again. The real tragedy, however, lies in what was in the computer’s memory.

“I edited videos and had 22,000 photos, and I hadn’t found a cost effective way to backup my photos, so they’re gone,” Valade said. “It’s devastating, those videos and photos are gone, but I have some backups from when [my kids] were little, so I should be able gone.”

Sadly, Valade’s story is not unique. In the time frame of two days, up to a dozen homes near Dicken Elementary School were broken into, and thousands of dollars worth of technology and other belongings stolen. This spree could easily have continued if not for the quick thinking of one woman who called the police after the suspects attempted to enter her home.

“That woman was really on the ball,” said Robert Pfannes, head of the Ann Arbor Police’s detective unit. “A lot of people will call they’ll actually forget to call 911.”

The woman, who lives on Waltham Drive, was able to give the police a description of the suspects, as well as a vague description of their vehicle, a tan Chevrolet Lumina. An

began to pursue it while calling for backand the suspects, three teenage males, were quickly arrested.

The suspects, aged 15, 18 and 19, now face serious charges. According to Pfannes, they will be tried for home invasion, which is a 20 year felony if they are convicted. “The case is very strong,” said Pfannes. He added that the 15-year-old has and will continue to stay in the juvenile system until he is 21 at the oldest, at which time “he’ll be someone else’s problem.”

Both Valade and another victim, Susan Rink, expressed that they felt sorry for the and think. These poor kids have really thrown their lives away,” Rink said.

Unfortunately, it is not an uncommon occurrence for teenagers to go on neighborhood break-in sprees like this, and police frequently get cases like this one.

“I feel really sad that these young kids, I’m guessing they’re gonna go to federal prison at 18 and 19. It’s just really sad. I’m sad for those kids,” Valade said.

october

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QUESTIONS

JACK MARGOLIS

in my room: joe ferraro kenneth simpson

cameron fortune

“Freshmen year, I started sleeping on the couch, and next semester, I slept in my brother’s room.”

Jack Margolis, senior at Commnity High School, pioneer golf captain, University of Michigan super fan, and secret master chef

What’s your comfort food?

“I’ve had a lot these legos since I was very very little.”

What’s a hidden talent that you have?

What’s the last song you listened to?

What sport team upsets you the most?

What’s your favorite lunch spot?

“ My favorite show recently has been night.”

“The cat’s name is Tiger Grey. I’ve had him since I was four. He loves to

What’s your guilty pleasure?

What are you looking forward to this fall?

If you could talk to any person, dead or alive, who would it be?

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What’s something new that you have tried recently?

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What inspires you?

“I am named after the mag“I really enjoyed playing the Xbox I was bornin 7th and 8th grade.

360 especially That my wasmom prettygot much all I did. It was from a I could hold in my prettythese impressive; store was pee for twothat days straight.” going out of business.”

“I used to play baseball when I was really little, but I never continued because I was really bad.”

october

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the exchange appel-kraut share their experiences. isabel ratner

the student

tea for your thoughts brennan eicher emily tschirhart photo

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eaHaus, a small locally owned business, rests on 4th Avenue in downtown Ann Arbor. The extravagant cafe and loose tea shop opened about eight years ago when owner Lisa McDonald returned after living in Europe.

“I spent 14 years in Europe as a business consultant and I became interested in tea. I er,” McDonald said. “When I moved back, I loose tea. I mean, there is a place in the mall with loose tea, and a couple of other places, but nothing was as good quality as I was used to. That’s why I opened TeaHaus.”

McDonald chose the name with the Gerspent in Germany. “Since Germany is the largest tea purchasing country in the world, I chose the German spelling for ‘Haus’ just years I was in Germany,” McDonald said.

TeaHaus is known for their wide variety of delicious loose tea and delectable pastries. counter and the cafe is a quiet, friendly setting. “I have about 180 [types of] loose tea, all that have been tested in Germany, because Germany is the only country that tests for all types of pesticides and heavy metals, so all 14 t h e c o m m u n i c a t o r

of my tea passes the U.S. organic standards,” McDonald said.

During the last business quarter -- October, November, December -- is when TeaHaus receives the most business. Most retail companies are busiest during the holiday season.

“The business is doing well,” McDonald said. “I won’t say that I am becoming wealthy -- I haven’t paid myself yet -- but the business is doing well. I’ve expanded twice and my goal at some point is to start personally making money, but right now I’m still investing in the business.”

TeaHaus’s prime downtown location grants easy access for Community High School students to come to TeaHaus and study, eat lunch or chat with friends. Since business is doing well, McDonald is planning on opening up a second TeaHaus location. another one, I mean I opened up the one from being a store to a cafe and now I’m expanding this year to having a larger kitchen, McDonald said. “I think the next logical thing would be expanding into a new location sometime next year or within the next few years.”

TeaHaus decided to incorporate tea into every food item they serve, including soups, salads and scones. Due to the fact that there are many different types of tea, choosing a Donald, the best selling tea would have to be

Earl Grey, which she is not a fan of.

TeaHaus can accommodate for certain types of private events like baby showers and bridal showers. They can even do wedding receptions and concerts. Tea tastings are nice events to hold for a small gathering. They have even done a tea tasting for one of the former presidents of Ukraine.

TeaHaus has never paid for advertising.

“We choose instead to donate to whatever we possibly can. We donate about 1,700 cups of tea every year at Food Gatherers,” McDonald said. “We donate about $3,0005,000 worth of silent auction items to local charities, because I feel like that way, if I buy a newspaper ad, it would cost me $1000 dollars when I’d much rather donate so I can one, help the community and get my name out there and two, it makes much more sense for me to help the community instead of just writing a check for an advertisement.”

As a growing business, the shop has a long road ahead of them in terms of expanding and reaching other goals.

“I hope in ten years I can see the TeaHaus as a place my kids will want to work in and will become a source of income for my family with employees who are awesome local people,” said McDonald. “We have grown so we’re more of a national brand, not necessarily a local brand, but without becoming a corporate big gross business.”

how he decided At just three years old, Carl Kurtz lived in Alpharetta, Georgia for three years. Kurtz’s father, a product and marketing manager for Siemens electrical company was stationed in Alpharetta to work. After being back in Germany for most of his life and taking English for 6 years, Kurtz decided it was time to go back.

“When you are living in a German family and you’re speaking all German at home, you don’t get the full experience,” Kurtz said. “I decided I have to go back, and I have to get the full experience for 1 year.”

culture shock Kurtz remembers some things from his previous time in America, but he is still he is noticing a difference in how he is being treated here.

“The kindness of the people, that what’s surprising me in America,” Kurtz said. “In germany, no teacher would say hello to you in the hallways.”

a friend’s experience Kurtz was inspired by the relationship his friends built with his host family when he did an exhange last year.

“I was pretty surprised by the relationship and how much [his host family] really is a family for him and not only a host family for one year,” Kurtz said. He hopes to find that this year.

“I get such a relationships with a family that is on a completely different continent, that it is like my family,” Kurtz said.

the host how he decided For Joel Appel-Kraut, it was a feeling of silence in his house that made him and his family decide to host an exchange student.

“When I told [my parents] that I thought the house was too quiet and didn’t like all of their attention, they were like alright, let’s get an exchange student,” Appel-Kraut said.

“He was just like really really tall and good-looking,” Appel- Kraut said. “It freaked me out.”

Szeps, his exchange student, surprised Appel-Kraut by how outgoing he was.

“He was very open to making friends and it surprised me how easy it was for him to get along with people here,” he said.

He was also surprised by how good Szeps’s English was.

changes in szeps Throughout the year, Appel-Kraut noticed lots of growth in Szeps, whether it be his improvement in English or adapting to American culture.

“He started to understand the way the culture here worked a little bit more,” Appel-Kraut said. “Just like little things in the way that he interacted with people he just got better at it.”

take away

take away

Kurtz hopes to have the independence that he now sees in his friend.

“Being independent is a big thing, organizing things on you own and doing [all the] stuff at the airport.” He is excited to have a strong relationship with is host family. “[I hope that] I get such a relationship with a family that is on a completely different continent, that it is like my family,” Kurtz said.

Overall, Appel-Kraut was very pleased with the exeperience he had. Having had two exchange students in the past year, he feels that everything went as smoothly as it could have.

“I got really lucky in my two exchange students and both of them being very nice people,” Appel-Kraut said.

“He was really like the best exchange students we could have asked for.” october

15

balancing sports and school

dylan hearn

kt meono grace jensen

C

hrysanthe Patselas, a sophomore from Community High School, rides the city bus home. Her bag is sitting next to her. It was a long day, and still longer with the prospect of homework on the horizon. But this student plays cross country for Skyline High School, so while preparing for the coming meet she

is stressful, but with the added consequences, can cause serious issues. According to Patselas, homework is a struggle to keep up with.

“I usually try to get as much done in class if I have time,” she said, “or between things or during lunch but I normally just wait until after I come back from practice or a meet to do my homework.” She said that it can affect her sleep if a meet or practice runs long. It can seriously cut into her homework time,

into her after-school schedule. Her math textbook is lying open across her lap.

Community does not have a sports program on its campus, but to accommodate this the district has a policy that allows students who attend Community to play sports at their district “home” school. While this will reveal that the logistics and scheduling add complexity to this solution.

“They’ll schedule sport practices for 3:00 p.m. or say you have to get there at 3:003:30 p.m. and you have to leave seventh hour early, which can mess with your academics” Taylor Erhardt said. Erhardt plays hockey like to juggle sports and school stress.

The students at Community High School commute to and from one of the other public high schools in Ann Arbor to play a high school-regulated sport. Community ends at 3:30 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for students with seventh blocks. For students with a regular afternoon forum, Thursdays end at 2:30 p.m., which is still only the same time that Skyline gets out.

“My practices start [at] 3:15 p.m. and it goes until 5:15 p.m.,” said Chrysanthe Patselas, a student at Community who runs cross country for Skyline high school. She is only able to make it to practice because of her free seventh block. Patselas purposely made her free block seventh block so that she could be timely to sports.

16 t h e c o m m u n i c a t o r

“They’re usually there on time, usually before the Skyline kids are ready,” Nicole Auerbach, a student from Skyline who plays for two teams, both of which have Community students on them. She explained that while the transportation poses a challenge, Community students cope well.

Patselas, like many of the students at Community, must bend over backward with scheduling so they can make it to their sports, including switching out of a forum they have been a part of for several years.

Patselas luckily didn’t have to; her forum is setup so that Tuesdays are lunch forum, and Thursdays are already short forum. She expressed her concern with the possibility of having to switch from her foum.

“I think it’s very helpful, especially for the people who play sports and need to get to practice,” Patselas said. “I would have had to change forum this year if we didn’t have lunch forum on Tuesdays.” But many students at Community don’t have that luxury, and several have had to leave the forums they had gotten to know because of their sports.

Another added concern for these students is the homework load which in and of itself

“I usually don’t get home til 6:00,” said James Nedeltchev, a Community junior who plays cross country, “and then some days I get home at 8:00, which is really hard, ‘cause I can’t get any of my homework done. But I try.” Nedeltchev also explained that things have been “alright” so far this year, and that when the season ends he will feel like he has “so much free time”.

On days with meets, the scheduling concerns only increase.

“They can go until 7:30, but then they are sometimes away, so you get back at 8:00 or 8:30,” Patselas said.

And of course, sometimes students even play other sports besides the ones for the high schools. Patselas plays soccer for a travel team in addition to playing for Skyline. She talked about her soccer schedule.

“I have practice two times a week, plus games on the weekends, so it’s pretty full on Tuesdays and Thursdays because I have cross country and then right after that I have soccer practice,” she said. sport, ‘cause there’s less time for homework, but also helps you keep on track, ‘cause you don’t have to much down time,” she said.

And when prompted about her thoughts on the matter, she said, “I’m glad that I do both soccer and cross country, even though it is a lot of work, I like both my teams, and I’m glad I do it.”

caitlin mahoney and jack kelley

What is the story behind the piece of art [above]?

It was a life drawing piece that I did in Advanced Portfolio, it’s of a student. I like this one the most because I got the face down better than I usually do. I usually work with gestures, but with this one I could only see her head from where I was sitting, so I had to because it isn’t something that I usually do.

Would you say Jim Lee inpires your art? replace him.

How long have you been drawing?

I was, and still am a big comic book reader, as a kid my favorite part of it was looking at the art in the books. My favorite books are by my favorite artist, Jim Lee and he was always big about drawing faces and anatomy, I try to follow in his footsteps but add my own twist so I’m not an exact carbon copy.

I’ve been drawing and sketching pretty much since I could hold a pencil, my really deep interest in drawing started out when I was in seventh grade I think. I was a really weird kid and I didn’t have many friends. So I would read the [comic] books, and I thought I should try to imitate that. Most kids imitate what they see in forms of media. I started having a lot of fun doing it, and I did it more, and practiced more. I started creating my own work instead of copying the books. It evolved into this thing where I just started drawing everyday.

What medium do you prefer working in?

Would you be interested in a career in art?

What inspired you to start creating art?

I like sketching and drawing anatomy, and I’m starting to learn inking. Inking my pieces and going over them with pens, and basically just black and white. I’ve been trying to add color to my pieces, but right now one step at a time. Basically characters and body types, faces.

I would like to be a graphic artist, I would love working for DC comics as an artist. As it is practical with my interest in comics. I really think I would enjoy being a graphic artist.

october

17

the john raymond quartet reunites at the kerrytown concert house in the samuel uribe

B

jazz giants

Concert House on a recent Monday night concert, the great Billy Hart sat on one knee, tightening and loosening the screws around the tenor drum, changing its tone every few millimeters for a perfectly tuned sound.

In a few moments, Hart’s bandleader, John Raymond, will stand up from practicing his chops in the corner to get everyone ready for a masterclass. The students from Community High School wait for these incredible New York musicians to show a snippet of their vast knowledge in the art of jazz.

Mei Semones sat up front eagerly anticipatguitar in the CHS Jazz band. All the band members have had a multitude of once-ina-lifetime opportunities with eye-opening masterclasses because of the tremendous effort jazz teacher Jack Wagner puts into his students learning process.

“I really appreciate how much Jack work puts into getting such talented people to come to our program,” Semones said. She was amazed at the “crazy” talent the group had, individually and as an ensemble.

The last time that the John Raymond quartet played together, they were recording the album, “Foreign Territory”, with Raymond on trumpet, Hart on drums, Dan Tepfer on piano and Joe Martin on bass. “Foreign Territory” was released in April of this year.

Raymond is very lucky to have such a jazz giant as Hart in his quartet. Hart has recorded with other jazz giants such as Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Wes Montgomery, Otis Redding, Wayne Shorter and Stan Getz, just to name a few.

“This puts me in my place pretty quickly, but in all seriousness, he is one of the most legendary jazz drummers of all time,” Raymond said.

Billy Hart, from a very young age, listened to rock and roll, the popular music from his parents age and classical European repertoire. All these genres were fed to him by his friends, his parents and his concert pianist grandmother. now referred to as jazz or modern jazz, it all three things,” Hart said. “I think that is what drew me into it, not having to like this, or having to play like this, or having to listen I could hear everything in one area. I think that’s what turned me on.”

“[An art] needs people who are about it to make it good.”

- Joe Martin Martin, Tepfer and Raymond, also have a deep passion in the music, but they have had a different experience than Hart because Jazz has become such a “small world” nowadays. The life of newer jazz musicians trying to make it big in the music cities can be terribly tough, but there are still a few, like these

musicians, who make it through with lots of practice and a bit of luck.

[An art] “needs people who care about it to make it good,” Martin said. Jazz has those people, but the crowd is still comparably small to many other music genres of today.

All these combined experiences produce ger jazz students. The quartet hit the ground running with a comfortable blues tune, “Take the Coltrane,” and they were still able to have everyone at the edge of their seats.

The solos not only incorporated European advanced chords and chord extensions, but also an incredibly advanced rhythm only used by select players around the world. Acquiring these skills takes many years of extraordinary work. For example, Tepfer has been studying with Changuito, one of the best advanced percussionists in the world, who lives in Cuba.

Hart’s experience of being able to stray from the traditional swing and have the soloist and the other players sound 10 times better throughout the entirety of the song.

His swing was so hard and incredible that he chipped his ride cymbal. His perfectly tuned drums and the wonderful sounds coming from everywhere else on the stage created a truly enriching experience that the students are extremely lucky to have.

“Listening to them was like being in a New York Jazz club,” said Ian Unsworths, a new student to the Jazz program. He hopes to be able to experience something as broadening as this master class again.

LEFT John Raymond is the band leader of the John Raymond Quartet Their latest album, “Foreign Territory,” was released in April of this year. mumn ui cnat i coart o r 56 18thet hceocmom

october

19

too much grease makes the baby go blind

olivia comai and sophie haviland

E

ven the heavy classroom doors could not suppress the chatter amongst the students as they awaited the beginning of vocal warmups. Suddenly, a hush fell over the cliques of the company, and the rehearsal began almost instantly.

This single moment in which small friendday occurrence in the Pioneer Theatre Guild (PTG). The same goes for the Community Ensemble Theatre (CET). Although there are different characteristics that make these two theater companies unique, they follow some of the same ideologies.

One aspect of CET that makes it different from other high school theater programs is the theatre itself. Performing in the black-box theater limits the space. This can seem like a struggle for the group, but Quinn Strassel, Director and Head of CET, does not let this become an issue. “I like the idea of making the best of limits,” he said.

Taking risks is an important factor in acting, according to Strassel and Matt Kunkel, Director of PTG. “I am a big proponent for people who make big choices,” Kunkel said.

When holding auditions, the directors appreciate when actors reveal a “creative spirit.”

As well as acting preferences, Kunkel and Strassel believe it is essential that the theater’s cast and crew work together and are unseparated during the process of shows. “I really stress the word ‘ensemble’, which isn’t a word that I brought to this group. I inherited the Community Ensemble Theatre,” Strassel 20 t h e c o m m u n i c a t o r

said.

With a smaller theater and actor/crew Tech Days, it is easier for the crew and actors to connect than at PTG. However, Kunkel still manages to keep a relation at PTG. “[‘Grease’] is a team effort and if we’re all not working in sync with each other, we’re going to fail. We all have to support and be able to work off each other and bring this to said.

Matt Kunkel, Director for the Pioneer production of “Grease,” explains to the rapt cast the act of giving and receiving in acting.

“What are we going to do for this production that makes it unique? How is this a ‘Grease’ like no other?” Kunkel said. This was an especially tough question for him, having previously participated in six productions of “Grease.”

Kunkel is hoping that throughout the pro-

cess of the show, the actors will have the opportunity to experience high school life in the transitional period between the 1950s and 60s, to notice the changing ideologies from the more tame 50s to the provocative rock-and-roll era.

Lia Chapman, the Stage Manager at PTG, believes that even though the theater is aiming toward a more professional experience for the high schoolers, there is still a primary goal to bring out the fun in the musical’s production.

CET’s fall production of “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind” also presents a challenge for Strassel. Originally performed in Chicago by a group called the Neo-Futurists, “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind” is a compilation of 30 plays performed in the span of 60 minutes, the order chosen by audience members.

“It’s a real mixture of comedy, absurdity and meaningful drama,” Strassel said. With a cast of 51, this play ensures that everyone has a featured role. Strassel explained that the cast and crew will have to learn to be nimble Great challenges, but also great goals are faced and reached throughout the creation and formation of the plays at both Community and Pioneer. The cast and crew must work together to bring forth the fall production in a matter of weeks. One Community student said, “All in all, CET and PTG are the same because we both gather to do the same thing: act.”

the

fifth estate

and the rise of the underground press october

21

“

detroit’s ‘impossible situation’ appealed

there was more than one way to tell a story.

estate underground newspaper to tell the stories of detroit that were going unheard. eva rosenfeld

In 1965, in the basement of his father and stepmother’s suburban home, Harvey Estate.

At 17 years old, Ovshinsky recognized a problem with the media. The mainstream news of the 1960s was not addressing the as the civil rights movement, the anti-war movement and the sexual revolution.

This all changed with the underground press. Five publications, the Los Angeles Free Press, New York City’s East Village Other, the Berkeley Barb, Lansing’s The Paper and Detroit’s Fifth Estate enduringly changed the course of the news industry. These pawhich within a decade turned into a network of over 500 independent newspapers with a circulation of over 3 million, dedicated to telling the stories the mass media wasn’t. started by a teenager, and only one is still printing today: the Fifth Estate.

Ovshinsky, today an Ann Arbor resident, had just graduated Mumford High School in Detroit when his family moved to Los Angeles. He couldn’t stand life there, except for the time he spent working for the Los Angeles Free Press. He had never before seen a newspaper write for everyone the way the Press did. Back home in Detroit, the local papers, the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press, and the tabloids, the [Northwest Detroit Shopper] and the National Inquirer, certainly did not.

“If you were black, if you were young, a teenager, you were largely invisible unless you were in trouble,” Ovshinsky said. Women’s issues, he added, were quarantined to the features or society section. “I wanted to bring some of Oz back to Kansas.”

He returned to Detroit. As a teenager, he didn’t understand Detroit at the level 22 t h e c o m m u n ic a t o r

necessary to cover it from the inside, so he knocked on the door of everyone he could ries told.

“Give me your press releases, everything that nobody’s gonna print, and I’ll print them,” Ovshinsky said. “And I did.”

Initially the paper was a hard sell. To Ovshinsky it felt quite natural - although he had never taken a journalism class and would never complete college, he had a vision and saw what it could become. No one else did.

His friends from Mumford High hadn’t been to Los Angeles and seen the Sunset Strip riots and peace demonstrations that he had, edition was delayed for months because the printer refused to print anti-war imagery of because it was unpatriotic.

Ovshinsky soon received the people’s suplike John and Leni Sinclair got on board with the Fifth Estate. It brought together radicals, musicians, politicos - people who weren’t associating before its publication. Ovshinsky ing.

“That’s what the paper brought together: shared experience. When you experience something [and] feel like you’re not alone” Ovshinsky said.

Within a year’s time the Fifth Estate was being covered in the national media, including Time Magazine, the New York Times, Men’s Magazine and Rolling Stone. The paper became required reading by writers and editors at the Detroit Free Press and Detroit They hired a rock writer and created an underground section. They began using unjusthan square. They used color. The underground press had radically changed what the

mainstream media was covering.

“The revolution was on paper both in content and design,” Ovshinsky said. “There was more than one way to tell a story.”

The underground press also initiated a phenomenon later to be known as new journalism. The storytelling of the Fifth Estate was personal; there was nothing objective about it. The reporters wrote with passion and intention. the truth in journalism, there’s room for both objectivity and subjectivity. In the case of the Fifth Estate, he said, the passionate writing style allowed the paper to connect to readers in a way that mainstream papers didn’t. Circulation became as high as 30,000.

After three years Ovshinsky left the Fifth Estate. As the paper became increasingly politics, and did not support its increase in pro-drug and violent revolutionary content.

“To me we weren’t bringing people together anymore, we were just speaking to the choir,” Ovshinsky said. And anyway, he added, “I’m a starter, not a marathon runner. I don’t stay.” As he’s grown older, his needs and energy have changed, his values tweaked.

The paper soon became a radical anarchist establishment, and still prints today as a quarterly anarchist magazine. The Detroit Historical Society and Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit have collaborated to celebrate its 50th anniversary. Ovshinsky has enjoyed his trip back in time working with his former co-editor [Peter Burby] and revisiting ing out how to make it relevant as people rediscover it today. “[The Fifth Estate] hasn’t spoken to me in a long time,” Ovshinsky said, “but I give them credit. I’m not there; they are. They’re why we can have two museums celebrate the

50th anniversary. It’s still going.”

The exhibit also serves as an opportunity

up on him after decades of telling other people’s stories - he wants to tell his own.

“I teach my writing students that nobody

movement has changed largely from print to digital media, and the need for an underground newspaper press has diminished.

Platforms for youth and underground cultures exist on the web.

“Technology has changed,” Ovshinsky said. “The need to share, the need to show, the need to exchange, the need to be a part of a larger community, hasn’t changed.” If he was 17, he added, he wouldn’t be starting a newspaper but instead making movies.

For Ovshinsky in 1965, the content drove the product. The paper was a response to the

”

social movements of the time and lack of attention they were receiving. Now, he said, movements like Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street, and there are magazines for every genre and every special interest.

“The mass media has really become mass.”

And as for Detroit, Ovshinsky deems it in the hands of young people, because they have their own rules and reality.

“Young people have not been there and done that,” he said, “so god bless ‘em.”

way to make your story feel like mine. It’s not just my story, for god’s sake it’s a paper that’s 50 years old and [had an] impact on the community and journalism... A lot of boomers are bringing their grandchildren to the historical museum to see what the 60s felt like.”

Ovshinsky, despite leaving the paper, has re- Ovshinsky (right) with John Sinclair, a Flint native and Michigan-based activist, poet, writer and founder of the mained loyal to Detroit.

As a storyteller in many to eventually leave the Fifth Estate. media forms - print metelevision, teaching - he feels lucky to have had Detroit as his muse and believes it to be a great teacher.

“At a time when the mainstream media didn’t know where to look, didn’t know how to scratch the surface, they looked at Detroit and saw one thing. I lived in Detroit. I experienced Detroit. I was young. I believed in the future,” he said. “Detroit’s been very good to me and I like to think I’ve been good to it - not by being ent ways to tell its story. I identify with Detroit and its impossible situation.

Harvey Ovshinsky and the impossible situation.”

Today, the underground october

23

humans of community

SARAHO’CONNOR Q: What are you working on right now in your life, with yourself?

catherine nicoli and hannah davis

CAMILLEKONRAD Q: What are you most excited for in the up and coming school year?

“I’m really excited for spring forum trip and like getting to know my forum better. Also just to be at Community in general.”

“Right now I’m toying with the and how your identity feeds your ego and how that can then negyou’re not as aware or enlightened with who you are.”

HEVINWHITE Q: How do you picture your year going if you went to your home school as opposed to community?

“I think it would be a lot more stressful because it’s a lot bigger and the teachers aren’t as willing.”

EMILYLETKE Q: As a transfer student, what prompted your switch to community?

BENCHOSID Q: What do you appreciate most about Community?

“I really appreciate the freedom.

With a long lunch and open campus we have more responsibilities and that builds trust between students and teachers.”

“Most of the teachers care more about my learning here and it’s more individualized here than it was at Skyline.”

EDWARDKULKA Q: If you could be any of the previous 44 presidents for one day, who would you be, and why?

KAYANNBERGER Q: If you could make a good living with any job, what career would you pursue?

“I would become be a singer.

It’s kinda hard to make it as one but I love to sing.”

JAMESNEDELTCHEV Q: What was the worst thing that happened to you today?

“It’s kind of a toss up between, well one, I had the community pin that I put on my backpack and it wouldn’t stay on so I hot glued it to my backpack and then today it

24 t h e c o m m u n i c a t o r

that and then also I was getting out of my car and my water bottle fell and straight up broke so that was really annoying.”

JUSTIN TANG Q: Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

“In 5 years i’ll be somewhere where there’s no winter, having fun and enjoying the sun.”

80

the communicator

“I think I’d say Obama, ‘cause I think he’s an awfully neat guy and I think it’s a neat time to be President. He has an exciting personality I think, and would be fun to be for a day. You know, he likes people [and] I think he could compromise. And you know, I like people.”

october

25

into the vault

ann arbor’s award winning comic shop makes its mark

A

emily tschirhart

n electric blue storefront stands out among brick and cement uniformity. The shelves inside are decadent with colorful art and

and proud. The comic store, thriving with quietly echoes throughout the space. For 19 years, Vault of Midnight has graced Ann Arbor with its quality comics and impressive graphic novels. Community students and Ann Arbor residents alike are able to enjoy the exciting collection and atmosphere.

Curtis Sullivan, co-owner and vice president, cordially converses with employees and customers alike. At seven years old, Curtis Sullivan received a set of “Savage Sword of Conan” from his uncle, and his life was permanently changed. Comic books had become a passion and by his seventeenth birthday, the idea of a comic shop had crossed his mind.

“It wasn’t a lifelong idea, but when I was 17, a friend and I started brainstorming, and we were like, ‘Yeah! Let’s do it!’” Sullivan 26 t h e c o m m u n i c a t o r

a change is gonna come

Oak Park Ill. — Kelly Perkins and Gigi Guenther discuss the previous play

said. As for the name, Vault of Midnight, Sullivan combined two classic titles.

“It’s an amalgam of ‘Captain Midnight,’ which is a comic from the 30s and 40s and ‘Vault of Horror’ from the 50s,” Sullivan said.

Vault of Midnight, teeming with life, is home to far more than books and novels.

Stuffed animals and t-shirts hug the walls and board games line the basement shelves.

Keychains can be found by the front door, cases.

“Our most popular comic series right now is ‘Saga’ by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples,” Sullivan said. “My personal favorites are ‘East of West,’ ‘Batman,’ and ‘Southern Bastards.’”

In 2010, Vault of Midnight was awarded the Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award, which was an incredible experience for Curtis and his colleagues.

“It blew our minds. I cried. We wept. Every day since then, we’ve tried to live up to the immense responsibility of that.” Sullivan said. The store has never had a down year, and a second location was opened two years ago in Grand Rapids. Vault of Midnight is the only downtown comic store in Ann Arbor, essentially eliminating any source of competition, but Sullivan has never been

concerned with other retailers. “[Competition] doesn’t really come into our minds at all. I don’t have time for that.

We just focus on what we’re doing.”

The evolution of the comic book industry has been progressive and is having an advantageous effect on the new and upcoming artists.

“Comics are kicking so much ass, it’s insane.” Sullivan said. “ I would say the width of the medium is staggering, and the barrier for entry for creators is lower than ever. It’s pretty damn democratic. If you got a story to tell, you can probably get it out into the world without any editorial.” New comic book artists are able to exhibit their work ries and art styles are becoming more diverse and unique.

As 2015 comes to a close, Vault of Midnight is doing better than ever. With the kind and knowledgeable employees and wonderful assortment of books, it surpasses its title the people looking to start their own successful business, Curtis Sullivan sheds some light on trusting your ability.

“Anything worth doing is worth doing all the way.” Sullivan said. “You have to really go for it. You can never be scared to fail.”

tournament in mid-september.

Head coach Kelly perkins and assistant varisty coach Rachel Moots talk to the varisty team during a timeout in their game against Academy of the Sacred Heart.

in the fall of 2015 huron

moved to Ann Arbor two years ago when

that comes out of Ann Arbor and a lot of love for the sport,” Perkins said. “As a per-

by kelly perkins, the new coach out of Gilroy California

her life, she began to miss it.

During the day, Perkins is a nanny, but at 5:30 almost every afternoon she gets to drive over to Huron to coach the varsity girls.

Perkins has always loved coaching so the decision to come coach Huron wasn’t tough.

“I heard about the need for a coach at Hu-

the perfect place for me to be to share that passion with others.”

For Perkins being in a close group of girls playing a sport in which she describes as mentally and physically demanding, is an incredible opportunity to share experiences and emotions. When Perkins was playing

had and I knew this was a great opportunity for me to coach a team of talented athletes,” Perkins said.

Unlike years past, the varsity team this year has nine freshmen on it, whereas it was typical to have one freshmen or sometimes two.

Part of Perkins’s plan to rebuild this program is to integrate younger, fresher faces to the team along with a new and positive attitude.

Perkins had no hesitation when choosing to put these young girls on varsity. “It’s exciting as a coach [to have the opportunity] to train these girls for four years and hopefully turn

cross country three or four times each season, “I learned more in college from being on a team than I ever did in the classroom,” Perkins said.

Since the beginning of the 2015 season, Perkins has already seen seen the varsity team grow into more of a team and further away from 11 individual players. This has given her a feeling of excitement for the remainder of the season and the potential of the team.

Perkins said, “I honestly believe that we can be a state championship team in the coming years, if not this year.”

hannah davis rob kerr

I

and Pioneer, a then senior split-enrolling between Huron and Community, Leah Davis scored a tip in goal off a direct shot on a corner. Just under four minutes remained for Pioneer to make a comeback.

The following year in the opening game of the state tournament, the Huron varsity team made up of 14 seniors were upset by Academy of the Sacred Heart in a 2-1 defeat. nals every year since 2010 and multiple times here and there in years prior needed to make a change.

Kelly Perkins stepped in to lead the change.

Perkins, a native to Gilroy California and hockey alumni is far from short on experi-

Perkins said. “There is so much potential for a young team that is this strong already.” hockey was added incentive for Perkins to join the program. “There is a lot of talent october

27

it was the safest way to get out of the war, education; this led to huge spikes in college populations, and U of M was no exception.

With all of these educated youngsters in the city, who were almost inherently opposed to the war, Ann Arbor became very active in municipal politics, and eventually the “radicals” were being elected to city council.

Because of this civil evolution, Ann Arbor developed a reputation as a liberal beacon.

People started moving to Ann Arbor not just for the university, but for the people, and atmosphere of the city itself. Between the 1960s and 1970s the population increased al-

an anomaly:

dissecting the ann arbor bubble

O

conan cekola

n January 22, 2007 global pharnounced it was closing the doors of its Ann Arbor research sites. pable signs of the oncoming recession, and Ann Arbor was put into a relative state of disarray: the city’s second largest employer had gone defunct. But the resolution came, as it so often does, from the University of produced more jobs than had ever been there before, essentially bailing out the community, but at the same time procuring a valuable site for cheap. Conan Smith of the Washtenaw county court of commissioners spoke to this “The university was not doing an altruistic thing in taking over that site. But they were doing a good thing for the community.” A perfect way to describe the re28 t h e c o m m u n i c a t o r

lationship between the city, and the school.

The relationship that is the foundation of “The Ann Arbor Bubble.”

We are all colloquially familiar with “The Ann Arbor Bubble,” an ambiguous answer for why our city is such an excellent place to live. Although the term usually refers to the very liberal policies of the city and attitudes of the citizens, Ann Arbor is also a tribute all of this success to the almost symbiotic relationship between the University of Michigan, and Ann Arbor. While many college towns are generally objectively better places to live than others, Ann Arbor somehow manages to excel in every aspect of societal life.

Only thirteen years after the inception of Ann Arbor in 1824, it sought to become the capital of the state of Michigan, donating

forty acres to the construction of a state capital. Ann Arbor’s bid was unsuccessful, losing out to Lansing. The forty acre offering however, intrigued the University of Michigan, which was located in Detroit at the time; after little debate, the university established itself in Ann Arbor. After this major development started, the city gained massive prominence: to accommodate the university, many developments took place: notably it became an important stop for major railroads; railroads which brought a lot of commerce, and future inhabitants to the city.

Prior to the outbreak of the Vietnam War, the city was a relatively average place.

But the unpopularity of the war managed to indirectly breed the liberal ideology the city is known for: The most common way to dodge the draft was to be a student, because

of assumed liberals cemented Ann Arbor’s status as one of America’s most leftist cities.

All of this was centered around the University, its students and its alumni.

One thing that is still inexplicable is the sudden wealth of the city. However, it is worth noting that during the time that the city has undergone its revolution, college costs have increased ludicrous amounts, the University of Michigan again being no exception. The university is of course a state university, and state institutions are public, so they must reinvest all of their money into themselves. Presumably the redistribution of the city around it. This is only in addition to all of the educated skilled workers who stay in the city after attending the university.

Almost every aspect of Ann Arbor’s uniquity can be attributed to the University of Michigan, directly or otherwise. The university supplies jobs, attracts businesses, attracts highly skilled workers and even absorbs some infrastructure. However, this can be said about many college towns; there are even towns wherein colleges are more ingrained into the city’s identity, and longevity.

So what makes Ann Arbor so special?

Luke Forrest, a community planner, and a man who has lived in Ann Arbor at every stage of his life, with many holes between, says that the city isn’t as special as it thinks.

“In general, I think for mid-small size cities with major universities this is probably a fairly normal condition,” Forrest said. “I pay attention to demographics a fair amount, as we do research with the census bureau. As people have more mobility, geographically people aren’t as tied down. It’s a phenomena happening across the country where even in non-university towns you see people of the

same ideologies, and of similar backgrounds, clumping together, which I think is bad.” So while the city is nice, it is logical to see it develop in this way. The model of Ann Arbor may become more and more commonplace.

The biggest difference for Ann Arbor is its real estate market. The city has one of

“If you are concerned about a bubble, you should try and pop it as much as possible.” the hottest real estate areas in the country, people simply want to be here. The biggest factor in our property value is the size of the university. The university takes up a ton of space, and it pays no taxes. And while its citizens may like to think that they live in a fairytale land, facing no issues, Ann Arbor has its share of civil discrepancies, and they are especially caused by the real estate values.

Residents of Ann Arbor who are receiving or applying for subsidized rent are extremely disproportionately African American. According to the Housing Department’s data, African Americans make up 7% of Ann Arbor’s population, but are 71% of those serviced by the housing department. This statistic says a lot about the city, most importantly it paints a picture of a racially divided city, not a progressive utopia. It also shows that the department serves to diversify the city, yet it is one of the only departments in it that is consistently targeted by budget cuts, rendering the department especially ineffective considering Ann Arbor’s sky high property values. This is a direct contradiction with the identity of the city, and it simply needs to change.

Another point to keep in account is the increasing wealth gap in Ann Arbor. According to the city’s and the county’s annual audits, incomes in Ann Arbor went up 11% during the great recession, while they were plummeting everywhere else around it. And on top of that, everyone’s property values decreased in that time period simply because the property market was shifting downward throughout the country. So Ann Arbor residents were paying lower taxes, and getting income increases, (and they were the people

place). With this information you could arto the city. Smith had interesting points on this as well, saying, “People who are trying to maintain the neighborhoods, they want to keep places around houses like mine from being developed on. People will say, ‘You’re changing my community by approving these developments.’ I always argue to those people that, if you disprove these developments you change the face of the neighborhood, because the same people won’t be able to afford to live here--it results in our city becoming very white, very rich, and that is a loss just like the loss of a physical structure is.” Because the city is simply so excellent it is becoming more, and more demanded; so many people want to live here that all we can do is densify our community. How long will it be until we become a major city, or a playground for the wealthy?

Inconsistencies like these are another thing Forrest wanted to speak to. “We are very progressive on these national issues, but we don’t translate it to the way we design our communities.” In his experience, the city doesn’t actually structure itself in a liberal way. He cites the wards of the city: “The city council wards are drawn so that no student dominated area exists. And only the August election matters, and that’s when they are all gone.” This is a hypocritical policy for a supposedly liberal place, as students are being politically suppressed. To Forrest, it is silly to even have a bubble; he believes it goes against the principles of liberalism, “If you are concerned about a bubble, you should try and pop it as much as possible,” Forrest said. “People outside of the highest classes of wealth should be able to experience a city like this, and people raised here should venture outside of their comfort zones to grow as people.”

The question that still remains is whether or not this bubble will burst, assuming it hasn’t started to already. If this reality really can be attributed to the money the university takes in, then it may pop soon. The costs of tuition and college living are taking people aback, and a shift in costs has started. Many schools have stopped hiking up tuition, and others have started cutting tuition prices. If this trend continues, we may see a decline in the city, just as we’ve seen such a wonderful growth. If these tuition costs really do have lege costs is not so black and white. october

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reflecting and starting anew

buzzword: inclusion grace jensen eleanor olsen illustration

changes in special education over the past 25 years

In a classroom full of kids, one redhead pops up from his seat and dashes across the room to where a teacher is holding a can of soda. The kid drinks from the can and then He laughs deeply, and the teacher sighs, smiling, and begins to clean.

This was a regular occurrence at work for Jean Zimmerman, who was a teacher’s aide in special education for 20 years before retiring in 2010. She worked with students ages three to 21, both at John S. Charlton School in Camden, Delaware and in off-site classrooms at non- special schools. Her day-today responsibilities included anything from teaching students to feed themselves to going to job sites with older students so they would have work experience. The students at Charlton also have classes such as swimming, gym, and speech, physical and occupational therapy.

When Zimmerman started, the Charlton building housed the special ed programs. off-site,” she said, remembering her early years of work. “[It] was almost experimental.

Those students who went to that classroom district wanted that to be a success.”

The district added off-site classrooms over time, but Zimmerman worries that this is thought.

“I think right now there are at least 12 off-site classrooms, maybe more,” she said.

“So, the buzzword got to be inclusion. Inclusion, inclusion, have our students be included. Well, that sounds good, but that’s not realistic. Some of the students…who were 30 t h e c o m m u n i c a t o r

really [severely disabled], they would have never worked in a ‘regular’ school. It’s just not practical and it really doesn’t make any sense.”

With more and more students with diswith the best education possible is a growing issue. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the percentage of total public school students receiving special education increased from 8.3 percent to 13.8 percent between the school years of 1976-77 and 2004-05.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1975 required that students with disabilities be placed in the “least restrictive environment,” which means whenever possible, students with disabilities should be in classrooms with non-disabled students. There are both pros and cons to this idea of inclusion. On one hand, special ed students have the opportunity to view students without disabilities interacting with each other, so their social skills can improve.

The neurotypical students also see the special ed students and may become more comfortable with their presence. Teachers not trained for special education can also gain experience with and knowledge of how to teach disabled students.

On the other hand, standards set for neurotypical students are not always reasonable goals for disabled students, and special at their disposal for teaching special ed students. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 also made a monumental impact on in math and English, even for students with

disabilities. It also required teachers to test special ed students on these skills. For some students, this extra push in academics might be helpful. For others, particularly more severely mentally disabled students who are nonverbal, this is unreasonable.

“I think that they also need to… stop trying to measure things that in their life after 21 won’t help them,” said Colleen O’Brien, the school nurse at Charlton. “But rather, can they access health care? Can they be the best they can be? So we need to take them from where they are, and help them in social skills so that they can be a part of society.” “[We should] not push them so hard to be like everybody else,” added Lajuana Gedney, a teacher’s aide.

In the past 25 years, inclusion of people with disabilities into society has also changed.

“We are getting a lot more acceptance for our children out in the public. I think people are a lot more comfortable around our kids than they used to be because our kids are out there where everybody gets to see that they’re kids just like everybody else,” Gedney said.

Through both positive and negative changes, the best part of working in special education was the students.

“I loved working with those students,” Zimmerman said. “And, y’know, they taught me so much stuff that we take so for granted. A lot of times we become jaded and it just becomes routine. When they would discover something new, it was like I was seeing It was really cool. I loved it, I did.”

Many Orthodox and Reform Jews celebrate the new year with a festive dinner on the inaugural night, in which traditional foods with seen at the Rosh Hashanah table.

This fall, the 2015-2016 school year and the 5776th Jewish year coincide.

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stavi tennenbaum

hile Rosh Hashanah is a festive holiday, recognizable by the fragrant smell of fresh apples, fall leaves, freshly baked bread and sweet honey cake, it includes more solemn overtones than the secular New Year tional Services at Ann Arbor’s local reform Temple Beth Emeth (TBE), said she uses this time to “set personal and attitude goals to mark the beginning of the new year.”

“With the secular New Year [in December], there’s less of a need for me to sit down and

focuses on making its services less religious and more spiritual, emphasizing the communal aspects of Rosh Hashanah and all Jewish holidays “Knowing so many people around the world are doing the same thing at the same

they fall. In the United States, no time is given off for these holidays.

To Religious and Cultural Vice President of AARTY, Joshua Nacht, who stayed home for the two days of Rosh Hashanah and plans to do the same for Yom Kippur, these holidays are the most sacred and valuable time of the year. “[I] make resolutions not to repeat the sins of the last year and be a better person this next year,” he said. “That’s with family, with friends, in terms of work, in terms of school. Basically with your overall moral persona—how you treat other people in general—you aim to do better on Rosh Hashanah.” Judaism accounts this kind of soul-searching contemplation as highly important to ensuring the future happiness and

She hopes that AARTY leading these kinds of services, which they write themselves, will make the holiday more meaningful to many of the non-practicing or secular Jewish teens in the community.

Celebrated in the fall of every year, the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah is one marking the beginning of the agricultural cycle and the Jewish month of Tishri. Tishri usually coincides with September and October on the Western calendar, and so often overlaps with the beginning of the academic school way to acknowledge both the intentional and year here in Michigan. As part of the three unintentional sins of the past year, which - Jewish High Holidays, Rosh Hashanah and are repented for the following week on Yom nies for members and visitors at Temple Yom Kippur—the day of fasting which fol- Kippur, the day of atonement. After this day, Beth“I’m Emethnot (TBE), the only tem- lows approximately one week after the afraid of reform anything.”

“Social new all situations is forgiven and like a freshdancstart to the year ple in town, which are planned and led by a year—are two of the holiest days observed has begun.

-Dario Homecoming makes me youth-run executive board, Ann Arbor Zullo Re- in Israel, and schools are closed foring. several form Temple Youth (AARTY). The group days each over the two-week period in which anxious.”

-Rachel Duckett

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1 Before Lena, a Latin-American restaurant, opened in 2013, the building was home to the Cunningham Drug Store based out of Detroit, Michigan, which opened in 1940. It was then replaced in 1975 by the Parthenon which was an American-Greek restaurant, before it became Lena. Located underneath Lena is a lounge area - Habana.

2 Literati Bookstore, which just opened in 2013 on Washington St. is a new locally owned bookstore with three stories full of books. They host book clubs, author visits, poetry nights, open mic nights and many other events there. They have also partnered up with the Espresso Bar. It has recently located from Kerrytown to the bookstrore.

3 ures who perform mainly acoustic and folk music. More than 300 shows have been performed every year at the Ark four local churches to be a place for students where they could get away from stress and/or vice. It is now a place for everyone and currently seats about 400 people.

4 Palio, located on Main St., is an Italian restaurant with a menu featuring authentic Tuscan dishes. Palio opened in September of 1991, and is known for having seating on the rooftop during the summer – Palio Del Sole. The styles2 of Italian cooking for the customers.

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sights & sounds

ann arbor

The Ann Arbor Farmers Market has been a place for Michigan farmers and other local small business owners to sell their goods to the Ann Arbor area for nearly 100 years. There is a wide variety to choose from including produce, jewelry and baked goods. It is open year-round on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 7am to 3pm.

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6 Krazy Jim’s Blimpy Burger has been open since the early 1960s and has just recently relocated from Division and Packard to make room for the U of M’s new Munger Dorm. It is next to the Fleetwood Diner on Ashley and Liberty.

The experience here is like no other as you can watch your order be cooked right in front of you.

mary debona and megan syer

32 t h e c o m m u n i c a t o r

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october

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the push to make PSH the norm. In fact, they have participated in national conferences to demonstrate how well their method works.

“We’ve been doing what are now considered ‘best practices’ from the beginning,” McCabe said. “It has kind of been vindicating.”

Amanda Carlisle, the Executive Director of the Washtenaw Housing Alliance (WHA), agreed, saying that PSH was the end result she wanted homeless people to reach, even if they might begin with getting access to someplace that uses emergency housing. Avalon Housing was one of the original 10 or 12 members of the alliance, which now involves about 30

housing built to last avalon housing helps to permanently end homelessness in ann arbor hannah rubenstein photos courtesy of avalon housing

of time, probably no more than two years, semi-dilapidated building, inhabited mostly by struggling artists in the Ann Arbor area, Avalon Housing, which aimed to provide homes to the homeless.

Avalon was the result of a few employees at the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County spinning off with the goal of becoming a long-term solution to homelessness. The Shelter Association, now housed at the Delonis Center, explores many different methods of addressing and ending homelessness, but is primarily used for emergency housing, which is generally short-term.

Carole McCabe, the Executive Director of Avalon Housing since its founding, was originally hired by the Shelter Association to run a transitional housing program. This method gives people housing for a short amount 34 t h e c o m m u n i c a t o r

income. In recent decades, however, transitional housing has been proven to be expensive and have unsuccessful results.

But Avalon was not founded on the principles of the transitional or emergency housing. The founders used their experiences at the shelter to learn what worked and what could be done better. Instead of emergency or transitional methods, Avalon was designed to provide Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH). At its core, PSH is a combination of housing that is permanently affordable and supportive services that help to improve lives.

When Avalon began in 1992, PSH was mostly being used in big cities, such as Chicago, New York and San Francisco. It is much -

ive Housing in urban areas because it is easier to have room for a large building with many units that can all be affordable.

The Corporation for Supportive Housing, based in New York City, founded in 1991, became the model for Avalon Housing’s principles. Due to the difference between New York and Ann Arbor’s urban culture, however, Avalon had to adjust their plan and use what is called a “scattered site model”.

Instead of having something like a 500 unit apartment building, Avalon has about 260 apartments or houses at over 20 locations in Ann Arbor. “[Our locations] are all over,” McCabe said.

“They’re in different neighborhoods, and they don’t have signs that say ‘Low Income People Here’. They’re just there.”

Despite using a different model for their housing, Avalon has been at the forefront of

Carlisle explained that Housing Access for Washtenaw County serves as a single entry point for the homeless in the county to get access to all of the organizations involved in the WHA. Along with leaders of these organizations, they have been able to make community-wide decisions on the best way to utilize housing spaces that becomes available.

“We are doing exceptionally well,” Carlisle said. “And by ‘we’ I mean the community of

providers.”

The third aspect of the WHA’s work is community education and advocacy, which is certainly a necessary role when it comes to issues involving the homeless. The multitudes of stereotypes and myths surrounding the homeless and the poor can make this role “I think people are scared of what they don’t know,” McCabe said. “Our whole com-

entities. These organizations serve a cumulative total of 4,400 people per year.

The WHA’s mission is to end homelessness in Washtenaw County. According to Carlisle, their main roles are to implement the community’s blueprint to end homelessness, which was created in 2004. Their members also make sure that the homeless and effectively.

The WHA has recently become involved in the national project, Zero: 2016, which has the goal of housing all veterans by the end of 2015 and all chronically homeless people by the end of 2016. The organizations involved in the WHA have all been making huge steps to work together to achieve this goal. For example, a building on Miller Road called Miller Manor has moved in 45 chronically homeless people since April, working with Avalon and other community partners.

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munity associates ‘poor’ with crime and fear. Then you add the racism and the classism, and it’s really intense.”

What ends up becoming an issue, especially in a fairly liberal town like Ann Arbor, is a mindset known as Not in My Back Yard, or “NIMBY-ism”. Both Carlisle and McCabe said that NIMBY-ism is a prevalent issue in their organizations and how the community reacts to their presence.

Many people they encounter claim to support the movement to end homelessness, but they don’t want the homeless to be housed close to them.

“It’s the idea that they don’t want affordable housing in their community because it’s going to lower their property values or it’s going to increase crime,” Carlisle said. “All of these assumptions that have been pretty much proven to not happen.”

Misconceptions and misunderstandings can become even stronger when focused on PSH. “It’s really hard for people in the general public to understand why [the homeless] need services long term,” Carlisle said.

“Unless you have a family member who needs that kind of support, it’s really hard to understand why people need it, and thus it makes it a challenge to understand why we should be doing supportive housing and why we should even be funding it.”

A substantial example of NIMBY-ism in Washtenaw County is currently unfolding ship. Some members of the County Com36 t h e c o m m u n i c a t o r

housing “trust fund” of sorts. These types of agreements have been struck with the lot adjacent to the Downtown Library, known as the Library Lot, and the one across the street, previously the location of the YMCA, which is known as the Y Lot. These donations ends up offsetting the overall cost for affordable housing. It can be easy to get money for the cause. It is much more difanything on. “[The Platt Road property] is a rare gem,” Carlisle said. “That’s why it’s so controversial. It’s 13 acres, it’s next to the County Farm Park, so it provides recreation, it’s on a bus line, there are shops, it’s close to jobs.”

While Avalon Housing isn’t directly in-

ABOVE: A young tenant sitting on a sculpture that was created in a youth creative arts program at the Carrot Way Apartments.

from WHA have proposed that this land be used to build affordable housing. The neighborhood is, to say the least, not on board.

Carlisle explained that there have been

agreements that certain percentages, possibly as much as 50 percent, of the proceeds that come from selling a few lots of land in Ann Arbor will be donated to an affordable

has attended four of the community meetings held to discuss potential affordable housing on the land.

“It’s really mind boggling and disheartening,” McCabe said, describing her feelings when attending these meetings along with tons of neighbors expressing just how much they did not want affordable housing to be built by their homes.

Despite having to deal with misconceptions from the community, Avalon Housing has stuck with their cause of Permanent Supportive Housing for 23 years, and they are showing no signs of stopping. McCabe explained some of the reasons that she believes PSH is the best method for ending homelessness. First, it is dramatically more cost effective than the alternative, which involves people cycling through shelters, jails, emergency rooms, or psychiatric hospitals, all of which cost substantially more money.

Second, PSH makes huge differences and improvements to the lives of those that it serves. “[PSH] just works,” McCabe said. “Every day, year after year, we’re more and more convinced in the success of people who have spent years on the street, dozens of years on the street, living outside or in a shelter. They move into Avalon and stay fully housed. And we have people now who have been tenants for 20 years.”

That fact is especially impressive because Avalon makes a point of taking on some of the most at-risk people, including those that might oftentimes not be housed by other organizations. Most of their tenants, McCabe said, have been living in generational poverty and have incomes that are less than $800 a

month.

Government entities have certain rules for renting and eviction. For example, they will not rent to those who have a felony conviction from within a certain amount of years or they will evict people if they relapse after drug or alcohol treatment. Instead of having absolute rules like these Avalon can judge each person on a case-by-case basis.

“We try never to evict anybody,” McCabe said. “We do evict people, but very few considering who we’re housing, and it’s our last resort.” She added that sometimes people relapse or go off their meds, but rather than punishing them for that, the point of PSH is to offer them ongoing support to stop them from doing it again.

Just a few of the many other individualized supportive services provided by Avalon include 24/7 crisis response, health care advocacy and support, medication management, transportation to critical appointments and advocacy and support of child welfare issues. They also have youth and community programs, including on-site Community Resource Centers, after-school and summer youth programs, food pantries, Avalon Community Gardens and tenant leadership training.

For McCabe, the community that gets built through all of these programs is the best part of her work. Avalon directly serves about 420 people, and the organizing of tenants and promotion of leadership allows

“Every day, year after year, we’re more and more convinced in the success of people who have spent years on the street, dozens of years on the street, living outside or in a shelter. They move into Avalon and stay fully housed. And we have people now who have been tenants for 20 years.”

The ‘permanent’ and the ‘supportive’ sides of PSH need to be linked in order to reach its full potential in helping people’s lives. At Avalon, the supportive side has grown since 1992.

“Our mission [when we were founded] was to develop and manage Permanent Supportive Housing,” McCabe said. “[It was for] people who were homeless or at risk or becoming homeless and people who have mental or physical disabilities. Now much more of what we do is services, and that side of our work has grown.”

In a document from Avalon meant to educate the public, it said, “Services [at Avalon in intensity as needed.” For example, tenants who have hoarding disorders have weekly inspections to make sure that they have not started hoarding again.

them all to connect in a way that can be very from most of their family or friends.

Though Avalon has expanded in 2015 from 29 to 80 employees, McCabe still tries to establish personal relationships with the tenants because, to her, those relationships are too important to lose.

“When people get settled in housing, you can build relationships,” McCabe said. “You can build community. You see change. You see people grow and become leaders, and you see their kids get way better and have way better lives.” For Avalon, which serves mostly people living in generational poverty, this is one of the biggest accomplishments they could hope for, as well as one of the most powerful and meaningful ways of demonstrating why the Permanent Supportive Housing method is so effective. october

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fashion.

MADDIE MCCARVER

community fashion sophia simon sophia simon photo

white shirt forever 21

$8 velvet skirt wet seal

“I really like to try new styles, and I kind of dress based on whatever I’m feeling that day.”

$10 salvation army

DRAW FROM HER LOOK

$3

with velvet - this classy skirt made of the cozy fabric is the perfect way to stay warm during michigan’s unpredicatable weather. so cute and thrifty.

WORD ON THE STREET W

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the perfect addition to an temperatures but is too cute to keep in the closet until spring! scarves scarves are important to cover your face when you’re crying about the common app at school.

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hats for a fall walk to school hats body heat is lost from your head! what! boots boots like Doc Martens are expensive but they last so long it is actually a very sensible price. They are extremely warm, comfortable and hold up in the snow. october

39

a master chef cooking in kerrytown

If you can’t handle the heat, get out of the kitchen. Gregorio can handle the heat. cameron fortune sabina fall

reloaded and ready

W Coach Samah directs his players from the coaching box. In narrowly losing to Kalamazoo Central 74-65 in the championTwitter.)

despite large graduating class, the river rat basketball team has set sights high for coming season. myles markey

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fter graduating nearly all starters from the 2014-15 season, the Huron basketball team has a big season ahead with many questions to

answer.

“We graduated six seniors; 90% of our offense graduated, 90% of our rebounding, 90% of our experience, really,” said Waleed Samaha, the longtime head coach of the River Rats varsity squad, who is now entering his fourteenth season.

Last year’s team, which went undefeated in conference play and achieved an elite 20-3 record overall, eventually lost to Lansing EvThe starting lineup housed only seniors, including team leader Xavier Cochran, a 6’5” shooting guard who received numerous D1 basketball offers during his time in Samaha’s system.

Though this experience and quality has moved on,Samaha has little doubt in the capabilities of his young and talented squad.

40 t h e c o m m u n i c a t o r

“We don’t have rebuilding years. We’re reloading every year,” Samaha said. “We have

“We don’t have rebuilding years. We’re reloading every year. We have one standard and that’s excellence, that’s how we train and then it’s everybody’s job to get to that level so you’re not going to hear us talk about ‘Oh we’re a young team.’ We don’t do that.”

-Waleed Samaha one standard and that’s excellence, that’s how we train and then it’s everybody’s job to get

to that level so you’re not going to hear us talk about ‘Oh we’re a young team.’ We don’t do that.” seamless, as a number of skilled and returning players are preparing themselves to live up to Samaha’s expectations.

Players like Lawrence Rowley, Devaughn Munson and Jack Smith will be asked to step up in the coming season given their impressive abilities, which were showcased last year.

The team is already in full swing; skill and shooting workouts as well as conditioning drills have been in effect every weekday since the start of the school year. Samaha is pleased with what he’s seen in these practices so far.

Although the season’s opener against Belleville is a lengthy three months away, it is hard for the Huron faithful to hold back their excitement for what appears to be a promising 2015-16 campaign.

orking beside the hot grill of the Sparrow Market kitchen, 27-year-old Gregorio DiMarco socializes with customers while doing what he loves: cooking. The young, outgoing man is the sole chef of Sparrow Market’s kitchen in Kerrytown. With eight years of experience as a professional chef, DiMarco is a veteran in the kitchen.

Ever since he was a child, DiMarco knew he was meant to be in the kitchen. “I would go to pizzerias and be the kid that got held up watching [the chefs] make pizza,” DiMarco said. “I started working in a pizzeria when I was 14, and worked in pizzerias all the way until I was 18.”

DiMarco then went to culinary school at Schoolcraft College in Livonia and later gained additional experience behind the scenes by stage cooking at multiple highend restaurants in Chicago. As an ambitious young cook, DiMarco set out to become the the time he reached 26 years old. When he accomplished his goal at the age of 23, at the Assaggi Bistro in Ferndale Michigan, he felt as though he had been given the keys to the city.

For DiMarco, running his own kitchen was hard work, but it paid off. “It was crazy,” DiMarco said. “I worked long hours, but it was one of the best times of my life because the food, the wine, the menu, everything I controlled. I wasn’t just going in there and working toward some chef ’s vision; it was my vision and I drove the boat”.

Working as the head chef of the Assaggi Bistro was an all day job. DiMarco would go in at 8 a.m. and work until 8 p.m., often putting in 80 hours of work or more a week.

Although he enjoyed running his own kitch-

en, DiMarco felt that he was not spending enough time with the people he cared about.

The death of DiMarco’s twin brother in 2010 led him to realize that some things may be more important than working in a nice restaurant.

“If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t be so driven, but I think it really put things into perspective, and it took me a while to understand that.” DiMarco said, “I have to set enough time aside so that I can do what I love for who I really love in the world.”

DiMarco started looking for a simpler job with a more reasonable schedule. So, when his old friend and former sous chef at the Assaggi Bistro, Justin Johnson, currently a chef at Monahan’s Seafood Market, informed him of an job opening in Kerrytown, he did not hesitate to apply. DiMarco had seen how Johnson was living the life he wanted, while still cooking the food he loves.

DiMarco started to work for Sparrow Market on December 4, 2014 and hasn’t looked back.

Sparrow’s kitchen is a good representation of DiMarco himself. “As a chef I am constantly looking for ways to express myself,” he said. “And I feel like this is the best expression of who I am and the food I want to make, which is honest and simple.”

Being the only chef at Sparrow means that DiMarco must be able to handle each aspect of the kitchen, and manage his time effectively. If he must take a day off the kitchen is forced to close.

For DiMarco, cooking provides instant happy to be working for Sparrow Market, “I’m very lucky to be where I am at, I have the schedule, I make a living and have a girlfriend. I’m living the American dream.”

TOP Left Gregorio DiMarco puts the Bottom Right DiMarco displays his gregorious personality behind the counter of the Sperrow Market kitchen. october

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dance body stays moving

what’s your monster? community high school students open up about their biggest fears. juliette nanos “Spiders. Once someone threw a spider on me and I hyperventilated and couldn’t move for a little bit.”

- Charlie Kotila

“Dying and nobody knowing.”-Natalie Sherson

“Drowning. You would die. It’s scary.” -Anonymous

new dance body teacher brings changes to the program

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Community and non-Community students have been grateful to have Dance Body because there are no other programs like it in the district. A little under half of Dance Body students come from other Ann Arbor public schools, not only for the incomparable class, but the freedom to express themselves.

grace york and maddie basanta

s 12 dancers arrived timidly for the 2015-2016 school year Dance Body auditions, veteran Dance

up their plans for student lead instruction: stretching, technique and choreography. Students who were re-auditioning were comfortable, because they knew that the student-led class provided a relaxing atmosphere.

“I was just really excited to try something new and see dance in a new way,” said Andie Tappenden, a freshman new to Dance Body. age of what the class was going to be: operated by students and the occasional guest choreographer.

Dance Body has always been a class that gave students a chance to choreograph pieces, have responsibility for the learning of a venue, select lighting, design tickets and put the show together. Dance Body has given students the opportunity to create a program and have privileges and responsibilities they would not usually have in a studio.

42 t h e c o m m u n i c a t o r

that welcomes different structures and styles of dance. A majority of students are open-minded and always support new dancers to the program. In the past, however, the class, which was unfair to the students who loved what it had to offer.

After that happened, Dance Body was given a new teacher to bring the class some structure and discipline, and Melissa Poli replaced Dianne Dudley. the syllabus, so I thought it was kind of strict,” said freshman Anna Dinov, also new to Dance Body. “I wasn’t in Dance Body until this year, but I thought that it was more run by students.”

Though there have been many rules recently put in place, Dance Body is still in good hands. Poli is talented and very passionate about what she does. Poli has been dancing since she was three years old and teaching for 23 years.

“I consider myself to be an art athlete,” Poli said. “I took breaks throughout the

like dancing!”

Poli has set rules in place that align with a traditional dance studio, which is a big change from how the Dance Body class has been run before. tailed rules that students must abide by if they want to participate in classes. Some examples of these rules are that students must be wearing a leotard and tights at all times, their hair must be off their face and neck, they may only wear warm-ups and loose clothing for the beginning of class and they must have appropriate, clean footwear that Dance Body was unique in this aspect, because the class did not have these rules, and gave dancers the opportunity to dance in whatever they felt most comfortable in.

Since Poli has had so much experience teaching in dance studios and teaching dance at schools, she understands how dance studios are structured. She values the relationship between dancer and dance teacher, and plans to bring more of that to Dance Body.

“I get to witness the process of creating she said. “The journey can be profound and sometimes messy but that’s the best part.”

Dance Body students are hesitant but willing to adapt to the changes Poli has in mind, and Community still looks forward to having an excellent concert this January.

“Bees. I don’t know why I’m so afraid of them.

Everytime a bee comes near me, I freak. I think I’m just afraid of being stung.”

-Brennan Eicher

“I don’t have any fears. Honestly I don’t. Maybe being afraid of something isn’t the same as fear.

I’m afraid of snakes but I don’t have a fear of snakes you know? A fear is deeper and I don’t have any fears.”

-Sam Rickman

“Getting raped by a peer or someone you trust.”

-Anonymous “Social situations like dancing. Homecoming makes me anxious.”

-Rachel Duckett

“Never meeting the members of One Direction .”

-Hawa Dicko “I’m not afraid of anything.” -Dario Zullo

“Being alone. Not just in social situations but also with life in general.”

-Anonymous october

43

low effort, high impact: personality through polish

hacking the hacks tinted and textured:

do these life hacks work or do they need work? lily gechter

option; turn it up or tone it down with a matte or

Put your phone on airplane mode to help it charge more quickly. (Source: Scrubly.com)

best paired with: prints, patterns or your favorite plain tee

time. In my opinion, it’s not worth it to switch it on.

OVERALL RATING: 1/5 STARS

choose a hue that you whether it be bright, bold, or subdued: paint

and make the color more vibrant. (Source: 7BeautyTips.com) I used a generic, one dollar black eyeliner. It started out poorly pigmented, appear-

best paired with:

OVERALL RATING: 4/5 STARS

oranges and blacks

Put treats after every section in your textbook as motivation to keep reading.

(Source: BuzzFeed.com) If you have enough self control, this surely works. A problem that I experienced is skipping ahead a bit to eat the scrumptious sweets, ignoring the material in the book.

I then had to go back and reread the sections. If you decide to try this for yourself, I’d recommend using smaller snacks so they don’t cover up the text on the pages.

OVERALL RATING: 3.5/5 STARS

green and groovy:

best paired with: reds and greys Put your phone/alarm on the other side of your room so you’re forced to get out of bed in the morning.

alarm. Depending on the kind of light you use, it has the potential to mimic the natural OVERALL RATING: 3/5 STARS

44 t h e c o m m u n i c a t o r

october

45

the diary of a teenage girl a story about growing up, from the perspective of a teenage girl frances mackercher stavi tennenbaum

“I had sex today. Holy shit.” sands of people at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival premiere screening of The Diary of a Teenage Girl, an adaptation of the semi-autobiographical graphic novel written media centered around a young female protagonist coming into her own sexuality.

Set in San Francisco during the 1970s, the story narrates the life of Minnie Goetze through her own eyes, as she loses her virginity to her mother’s boyfriend Monroe and enters adulthood through an exploration of her own sexuality. Minnie’s thoughts and fears are showcased through her audio diary and drawings, where she expresses her sexual awakening and budding desire to become an cartoon artist. The movie has been heralded as a groundbreaking portrayal of young people, sex and drugs, and was called “boldly unconventional” and refreshingly honest” by critics across the board. and current tenured professor at the Univer46 t h e c o m m u n i c a t o r

sity of Michigan’s School of Art & Design, A Child’s Life and Other Stories, was refused distribution in both France and England after being deemed pornographic and was criticized by a California mayor as a “how-to book for pedophiles.” Gloeckner’s second graphic novel and magnum opus, however, The Diary of a Teenage Girl: an Account in Words and Pictures, published in 2002, was able to reach a broader national and international audience.

Even so, due to the book’s provocative content, it still struggled. “I’ve always had problems, because I’ve had work censored and removed from libraries,” Gloeckner said. “The book is intense, and that scares people, I guess. Because it’s about what it’s about, a teenager who is very sexual.”

Despite the small-scale release and distribution problems that the book encountered, from several directors early on. “Because I’m a graphic novelist, I always think in pictures with words, always,” she said. “So it wasn’t a great jump to imagine a movie.” At the same time, Gloeckner felt that the story cided to hold off on a cinematic adaptation until approached by a director whose vision more closely mirrored her own.

In 2010, Marielle Heller came to Ann Arbor to discuss adapting the novel’s story into a theatrical production. “The idea of a play wasn’t as interesting to me as the idea of a

step I could take with this director, who had doesn’t stick around as long.” The play was nevertheless highly successful during its sixweek showing in New York, and Gloeckner, who became well-acquainted with Heller throughout its production, grew increasingly optimistic about her going on to direct the Production for The Diary of A Teenage ing the story rights to Heller, Gloeckner asinvolved reading through different adaptations of the script, meeting with actors and set for three weeks, Gloeckner turned down “I could have been a lot more involved,” she said, “but I really after a while realized, I don’t want to spend my whole life thinking about that book or that story, after having lived through it and written it.”

As with any cinematic adaptation, the movie omits and transmits parts of the book book’s events, especially the drug use and rebelliousness that Minnie falls into after her mother uncovers her affair with Monroe.

Gloeckner described the movie as succeedfew creative additions or subtractions that greatly differed from her vision for it.

“But, there was one surprise that bothered me a bit,” she said. “In the scene where Minnie is in the bar with Monroe and she sucks tainly not in the book. I mean, Minnie was and she transferred to this other school in the middle of the year. She had never gone out with a boy, never kissed a boy. She that way. That scene bothered me, because it really seemed to push a certain message. It kind of manipulated the situation to make it seem less like she was a victim.”

In the search for a director, Gloeckner was met with many creative ideas that varied from her own. Certain directors wanted to make the ending happier, or less problematic. Gloeckner said that it’s in this aspect that more accessible to large audiences, although it has still received the equivalent of an X-rating in Great Britain.

“I’m not talking about my artistic vision when I’m talking about the movie including everything, because you can’t expect it to,” everything. The [important] thing about the book is the main character, Minnie. A bunch of it is internal, it’s Minnie speaking. And I think her spirit is captured really well.”

The inspiration for the story itself came from the diaries Gloeckner found stored

away in a box from her youth. “They were screaming at me, write this fucking book.

And make this girl loud and clear,” she said.

In Minnie’s character, Gloeckner was looklacking: a true and relatable portrayal of female adolescence.

“I had read other books and I had always been looking for that voice, and never found it.” Gloeckner said. “I found voices that pissed me off so much and so many books written by men [in which], even though it was in the voice of a girl, I could always detect some kind of male fantasy.” Diary of a Teenage Girl has been hailed as one of the only movies about a teen girl coming into her own sexuality that’s available in the media right now, and about this Gloeckner said she is happy. “Girls are really sexual. They think about sex all the time. I knew that, certainly, and I wasn’t afraid to admit it. It made me angry that I hadn’t encountered [any of] that in books when I was young, or when I was old.”

In addition to an honest account of teen delves into Minnie’s artistic aspirations and her dream to become a cartoonist.

Gloeckner herself ended up pursuing a career in medical illustration in college, where her graphic design training can be seen in the delicate lines that form pictures of human anatomy.

“I hated school,” she said. “I did really badly in school, and I got kicked out of sev-

eral high schools. At the time I had always been able to draw pretty well, and I think I believed that because I was so bad in school and didn’t want to go, that’s what I had to be.

I was an artist. That’s all I could be because I was such a fuck up. And how it turned out, that is what I wanted to be and that’s probably the only thing I could have been.”

Although the story is sometimes considered an autobiography, Gloeckner said that “Every writer writes about themselves. I don’t care how unapparent that is, how opaque the resemblance. The only reason you choose to write anything, any sentence, any detail of a character is because it’s relating to something that gives you some emotional charge that’s in your experience,” Gloeckner said.

In reference to Minnie as a representation of herself, Gloeckner said, “I hated myself when I was a teenager. If I had written that book with that attitude towards myself, no one would have liked that character. So I had to do this thing where you get a little schizophrenic and you separate from yourself and you think ‘look, that girl could be any girl and I love her.’ It was easier for me to think of her as any girl and make that split than to think of her as myself. It’s not my autobiography. It’s a novel. If you want to call it semi-autobiographical you can, but really it’s a novel. It’s based on my life, but so is everybody’s work.” october

47

GET IN THE GAME!

Teen Membership at the YMCA ANN ARBOR YMCA

what should I listen to now? what to listen to

when to listen

how to listen

Live Your Life- T.I ft. Rihanna

in the car

If you want to hear the playlist:

Pianoman- Billy Joel

driving home at night

1. download a QR code scanner on your smartphone

The Hills- The Weeknd

driving home from school

Ain’t No Reason- Brett Dennon

doing homework

Que Se Sepa- Robert Roena

sewing

Banana Pancakes- Jake Johnson

calming down

Island in the Sun- Weezer

hanging out with friends

Alright- Kendrick Lamar

before you fall asleep

Bad Intentions- Niykee Heaton

studying

Back to Back- Drake

working out

Let it Go- Idina Menzel

babysitting

Sad Girl- Lana del Rey

on a rainy day

7/11- Beyoncé

dancing

Human- Christina Perri

when you’re sad

Legend- Drake

before sports games

48 t h e c o m m u n ic a t o r

2. take a picture of the code below tify app to the songs 4. plug in your earbuds 5. have a listen

proust questionaire

ed kulka “Best human in the world,” said Gloria Fall, Kulka forum member and adamant Ed Kulka fan. Adored teacher, friend and dad, Kulka is a math teacher here at CHS.

living cruelty free suephie saam

A

s Sophia Gibson watched the documentary, “Earthlings” she realized she had to make a huge decision.

A decision that would, later on, change her life. After each documentary, for her to see animals subject to the horrors that they face during factory farming. It was then that she decided to help these animals by becoming a vegan.

In February 2014, Gibson attempted to become a vegan for orthodox lent without knowing that it would become a permanent part of her life.

“I believe that it’s wrong to hurt animals and if you can prevent yourself from inteen years old, she became a vegan, and her love for animals has led her to cut out all meat, dairy and other animal products out of her life.

Becoming a vegan has made Gibson more health cautious. Before, she felt like she could just eat whatever she wanted as long as she exercised. Now, she eats more plant based and whole foods.

On a restricted diet, Gibson found it was ed everyday. This is where pairing proteins would come in handy, Gibson explained.

50 t h e c o m m u n i c a t o r

“Foods like rice and beans are incomplete proteins so pairing them together makes it a complete protein!”. Gibson said.

Modifying meals is an important skill to have when becoming a vegan. For Gibson, this was necessary so she could continue to celebrate greek traditions and holidays with her family. Doing things like putting soy crumbles in lasagna helped with everyday meal planning, but being vegan didn’t stop her from keeping a healthy diet; she tries to eat more whole grains, fruits and vegetables.

“People ask me a lot if I miss any food and I usually don’t,” Gibson said. “I don’t really have any cravings or anything like that.” She found it easy to modify foods that she normally wouldn’t be able to eat.

According to “Counting Animals”, on avper year, while a non-meat eater like a vegan or vegetarian does not eat any animals.

“For me if I save one animal in my life or if I prevent an animal from feeling pain then it’s worth it.” Gibson said. Regardless of the fact that veganism is not a direct way to save animals, a decrease in demand leads to a decrease in production, which in the long run will help save animals from harm. Gibson said, “I’m eating to live not living to eat.”

try sophia’s favorite meal sweet potato chickpea buddha bowl vegetables 2 Tbsp olive 1/2 red onion, sliced 2 large sweet potatoes 1 bundle broccolini, chopped 2 big handfuls kale 1/4 tsp each salt + pepper chickpeas 1 15-ounce chickpeas, drained 1 tsp cumin 3/4 tsp chili powder 3/4 tsp garlic powder 1/4 tsp each salt + pepper 1/2 tsp oregano (optional) 1/4 tsp turmeric (optional) tahini sauce (optional) 1/4 cup tahini 1 Tbsp maple syrup 1/2 lemon, juiced 2-4 Tbsp hot water to thin minimalistbaker.com

sabina fall

What do you like most about your friends?

Laughter If not yourself, who would you like to be?

I’d like to be a park ranger.

What are your favorite names?

Helen and Emmet.

What is your chief characteristic?

Happiness.

Favorite virtue?

Honesty.

How do you wish to die?

Peacfully.

What is your currrent state of mind?

Content.

For what fault do you have the most tolerance?

What is your motto?

Don’t be a knucklehead!

What is a naturaul talent you would like to be gifted with?

Singing.

What do you hate the most?

Liars.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Content.

Your idea of misery?

Helplessness, not having hope, hopelessness.

What is your main fault?

Too self-concious.

Your favorite authors?

James Michner.

Your heros in real life?

My dad and my brother Paul.

Your favorite food and drink?

Pizza, beer.

october

51

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op-ed.

op-ed.

trumping trump

editorial cartoons

stavi tennenbaum

The Republican National Convention for the 2016 presidential election is slated for mid-July 2016, which is the earliest the party will have held its convention since 1948.

As of this October, though, the Republicans currently have more than 10 leading candidates, all with views that align farther right than ever before. Of these, Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Marco Rubio and Donald Trump lead the way.

Trump is, arguably, the most extremist of these forerunners, but still leads the polls with 23 to 25 percent of the vote. The actor and real estate mogul has stated that he is never dropping out of the race and intends to pursue the presidency to the end. Is a billionaire corporate CEO really slated to be the next Republican candidate for America?

Donald Trump’s campaign operates almost exclusively through Twitter, although he does have a website, www. donaldjtrump.com, where you can read his standpoints on the only three issues upon which he has extensive platform information: second amendment rights (support them unconditionally), tax reform (eliminate income tax for 73 million households and cut the corporate tax rate to 15%) and immigration reform (make Mexico pay for a wall along the southern border and legally require businesses to hire

students say...

Great Again,” is backed by few political methods through “Yes because it improves fowhich he actually plans to do this, aside from the occasional rum communislandering of other candidates and attacks at news sources cation and it’s a that he believes are misrepresenting him and his campaign, good bonding including Fox News and politico.com.

“Yes, it’s a great way to experience.” bond with your forum.

Other gems from Trump’s campaign includes statements in - Andrew People can really open Reynolds which he called global warming “a total hoax,” assurances to up and get comfortable his supporters that “day one of my presidency, illegal immiwith their peers during grants are getting out and getting out fast” and although he is events like these.” - Kaleb pro-life, “I cherish women” and “I understand the imporDoughten-Pruiska tance of women.”

“Sure! It’s a tradition. On Not only do Trump’s plans to “Make America Great the other hand so is foAgain” not form any cohesive standpoint, but in the past “Yeah, of course. It’s a rum. With 15-30 people have actually contradicted with some traditional views of the lot of fun. You bond a lot overnights get trickier. Kids Republican Party. Other GOP candidates doubt that Trump more, you’re spending time make dumb decision. They together and you focus will succeed in securing the Party’s nomination in July, due to value the social pressure to on being with your forum break the rules.” - Robbie his late jump on the anti-abortion train and his support of friends.” - Brynn Stellrecht Stapleton both governmental health care and compassionate immigration policies only a few years ago.

Democrats and other conservative skeptics alike claim that Yes. You can bond more because you’re in Trump has no real chance in the election. They believe that a secluded environment and you have more once more voters “tune in,” his campaign will fold to more time. Camping is really fun, I recommend it. consistent candidates, as Jeb Bush describes himself, in the roast marshmellows.” - Kasey Neff primaries down the road. For now, though, Trump’s escalating support in the poll numbers presents a serious problem to competing candidates and to the Republican party itself.

As Trump himself stated, “If I go around and win Iowa and win New Hampshire and win South Carolina and just keep The Communicator, being committed to the free exchange of ideas, is an open forum for expression of opinions. winning, I don’t see how they could do much [to stop me].” It is student-run; students make all content decisions. Letters to the editor are encouraged and can be sent to Signed articles will be accepted with no prior administrative review as space With only a few months left until the primaries, without a thecommunicator@googlegroups.com. is available. The Communicator reserves the right to edit submissions. Furthermore, opinions expressed therein major change in the electorate, Donald Trump could very are those of the authors and not of this newspaper, Community High School, or Ann Arbor Public Schools. For our complete policy, please see www.chscommunicator.com.

54 t h e c o m m u n i c a t o r

olivia comai

squirreling away the great america caitlin mahoney

the upshot matthew ferraro

Ann Arbor Public Schools drew ire from many pro-gun activists last spring when it announced it would ban guns in its schools.

The school district was almost immediately sued.

Guns in America is not a new topic, nor is it one easily explained or easy to sway someone’s passions about this issue. The plague of gun violence and lax interpretation of the Second Amendment is as American as apple pie. In no other developed country on Earth is gun violence as prevalent as it is here, and no Western country loses as many souls to guns as we do.

The Second Amendment has its reasons for being in the Constitution, and some of them are valid. A militia to protect the people for example. However, few would argue that the founders of this country intended to preserve the rights of mad men to kill scores of innocent people. That would be ludicrous. If we must have guns in our country, at least let them be licensed (in the full sense of the word, properly and after painstaking background checks) to responsible members of society.

Even U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said the government may enforce restrictions on guns. As quoted by NPR’s Jack Lessenberry, Scalia wrote in the decision for District of Columbia vs. Heller (the case

which established an individual’s right to bear arms via the Second Amendment): “Nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the as schools and government buildings.”

In schools we are “trained,” if a gunman were to enter, to either crouch and hide or run as fast as we can.

After the numerous school shootings in the last two decades, this formula is, taken on its own, completely unacceptable, leaving children’s lives up to chance.

Some things that have to do with life and death are left up to chance. That’s simply how it is. However, we as a nation seem to have given up and chosen to leave to chance what we should leave to the rational brains we were endowed with. Instead of taking the strikingly sensibly measures to make our schools safer, we have simply buried our heads in the sand.

How is that American?

Guns in schools make no sense for several reasons, number one being students and parents can’t tell a “good guy” from a “bad guy”. How do you know the man carrying a handgun in a holster isn’t just some random person there to wreak havoc a couple seconds later? Allowing someone to carry a

gun in school only causes hesitation if a real situation arises. Students and teachers would or foe, and that hesitation would likely cost more lives.

Statistically the amount of gun accidents in the US is horrendous (15,000 people went to the hospital for non-lethal accidents in 2007). Anywhere where there are guns the potential to get hurt or killed increases immensely (their sole purpose is to maim).

Increasing the amount of guns in schools only increases the likelihood of severe accidents. Also, what’s to stop someone from simply grabbing the good guy’s gun? It’s happened before.

To protect ourselves we must do something; sitting and letting this continue to happen is not a valid option.

We must strictly enforce gun regulations.

I know this will chill the blood of some people, but if you are a non-criminal person with no mental illnesses, what do you have to fear? We must never allow guns in schools. They simply endanger the lives of those present. Any gun is an unsafe gun.

These changes will make us safer, and after all of the mass shootings and lives lost to gun violence in this country, there is no better option. october

55

model horses: a miniature world opened up and people sell their collections.

It’s quite insane but a lot of fun.”

Along with excellent shopping there are also live horse demonstrations and both youth and open model horse shows, unrivaled in size and international competition.

Children under 16 are eligible to show in the youth show. Seasoned showers and those over 16-years-old can show in the open show.

“Last year at Breyerfest when I won overall reserve grand champion in the special run division at the Breyerfest open show, which showing at the open show which is considthe world, that’s one of my most memorable moments with the hobby,” Jocelyn Cote a hobbyist of 12 years, said, who has attend-

The process of making miniature tack is a very tedious and intricate process. Most miniature tack is made out of kangaroo leather with cast pewter for the buckles, bits and stirrups. The highest quality miniature saddles can cost upwards of $700, for a saddle that measures about four inches long! That is very close to the cost of a low end real saddle. Tack [above] made by Caitlin Mahoney and Jana Skybova.

model horses are a small niche of the miniature hobby

A

caitlin mahoney

heavy sigh escapes Emma Sharp’s mouth as she sets her model horse down on a six-foot-long card table. The remainder of the table is covered in other model horses, each wearing its own miniature tack and riders and each standing around nine inches tall, but every horse and tack has the exact qualities their real counterparts have.

Sharp didn’t know it at the time, but later her horse “AlmostaRockStar” would go on to become champion of the division against professional entries.

This is a model horse show, “It’s like a dog show but with plastic horses.” Sharp said. In a model horse show, horses are judged on their breed, condition, anatomy and judges opinion. Just like a real horse show, the mod56 t h e c o m m u n i c a t o r

els receive ribbons and prizes.

“Performance is personally my favorite part because you can be more creative. I love crafting so I am able to combine two of my passions in one,” Sharp said. Performance showing is a scaled-down scene based off of a real horse event, similar to a diorama.

Many collectors started out at a very young age and eventually merged into more realistic horses.

“I’ve always been into horses since I was a baby,” said Becca Brooks, a long time collector, “When I was little I would play with Barbies, and of course I had more Barbie horses then Barbie dolls. And then once I got a little bit older after a while I wouldn’t play with them; I would more collect them.”

Brooks has been a collector for 11 years, with a collection of around 150 horses.

Brooks eventually saw people mentioning grown up model horses online when she was older, and out of curiosity she started to collect Breyer horses.

Breyer horses came into production in 1950, manufactured by Reeves International, originally a clock company. With the growing popularity of Reeves’s clock that featured a bronze horse model on it, Reeves

International decided to exclusively create model horses. It has been an overwhelming success. Breyer Horses has now been in production for 65 years. The company now features over 250 different sculptures, introducing more products every year.

There has been quite the boom in the collecting world. A lot of credit it owed to the internet and social media. The hobby has spread vastly among the younger generation through Youtube and Instagram.

“I had a few [model horses] when I was younger and eventually I started to discover what people did with their models on Youtube and wanted to do that for myself,” Sharp said. She went on to create her own barn to play in and once she got older she became a devoted collector and shower.

Another popularity increase has come from Breyer’s event Breyerfest, held in that has been held annually in July for the past 26 years, at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky. Breyerfest is held over three days in mid-July, with most attendants arriving the day before.

“Breyerfest is like the comic con for model horses,” Sharp said. “There is even a whole hotel near the venue where all the rooms are

Breyerfest and enduring a 16 hour ride just being in plastic horse heaven and being like ‘oh my god.’ When you’re 13 and dedicated to this silly little hobby and just seeing this whole thing play out in front of you and it’s just like, wow.”

People travel from across the globe to attend this event. Every year a new record for attendance is set, last year had around 10,000 attendees. Breyerfest’s roots are much smaller compared to the grand family event attendees and was geared as a collector’s convention.

One of the largest aspects of the hobby is model horse showing. “I think showing is a blast, it’s something a little weird but it is fun and unique and you get to meet a lot of awesome people who share the same odd interests as you and it’s fun to see everyone else’s collection and chat and winning is fun aspects of the hobby,” said Cote who has been showing since 2008. In model horse showing you can show horses in breed or in performance. In breed, horses are judged on their anatomy, breed, condition and judges’ opinions.

Brooks enjoys seeing all the hard work described her proudest model horse moment being when a horse she designed got reserve champion in its division last November.

She also is an avid performance shower and makes her own tack.

“I like seeing all the hard work that goes

ing all the hard work that goes into tack, obviously since I make my own tack, so somefor an entry that I had in mind and all the hard work that goes into planning the entry and making it and then going to the show and seeing how it does,” Brooks said. She describes another one of her best model horse memories being when her own ena competitive class.

“I’m a strictly halter [showing horses in breed] person, I have an immense amount of respect for performance showers, it’s just that I could never do it. So I’m very much a halter person,” said Cote, who has never shown in performance. Sharp said that performance and challenging but rewarding when you see your entries do well. In performance, and props.

Hobbyists collect for many reasons. One of the common ones is because they cannot have a real horse, “I can’t afford to have a real horse and I don’t have a place to keep one” Brooks said. “So in the meantime this gives me a chance to have horses not like a real one but I have gaited horses, I have stock horses, I have draft horses. People can’t have 600 real horses in real life realistically.”

Brooks works at a real horse rescue farm and wishes she could save all those horses herself, but as of now she collects their miniature counterparts. The model horse community is also a segway of many hobbies, such as miniatures, dolls, crafting and diorama building which is attractive to those place to be yourself and enjoy your passions is the best type of hobby to have. october

57

what to watch: netflix sophia rosewarne

what’s on your mind? sophie haviland and olivia comai chloe di blassio

House of Cards: Political Drama 3 seasons on

“I was actually thinking about water and how much water there is in the world. There’s a lot of water.”

The Fosters: Drama 3 seasons on Marcy McCormick “So good” McCormick says of House of Cards, which she recommends to anyone who likes political drama, good drama, or good acting. She thinks it is one of the best-acted shows.

“Math, school.”

- Ally Ehaus

Lindsey Dye Tenth Grade Dye likes The Fosters. This is a show about a girl good family but runs into trouble that gets in the way of her being adopted by a family she loves.

Grey’s Anatomy: Medical Drama 11 seasons on

- Danelle Mosher.

American Horror Story: Horror 3 seasons on NetMaddie Ohye Ninth Grade “It’s interesting.”

Ohye recommends this to people who like Pretty Little Liars and One Tree Hill.

“Wow, that’s a big question! What’s on my mind right now? The fact that I just found a new book in the book room that I ordered and didn’t know had arrived. I’m super excited. That’s a teacher’s life.

That’s the big thing.”

“Right now I’m just looking forward to keeping things the way they are, keeping my grades up and having a good time.” - Vincent Barlow

Andie Tappenden Ninth Grade Tappenden says American Horror Story is “scary but not that scary,” so it’s somewhat realistic. She recommends this to people who like scary shows.

That 70s Show: Sitcom 8 seasons on

“Right now I’m thinking about how nice it is outside; how these are some of the last days we’re gonna have [where] it’s going to be like this beautiful. I’m thinking about how lucky we are to have the market here and have access to that and [how] we can hop over and get food. Also Kerrytown.

It’s so sunny, I’m really excited about that.

That’s about all.” - Monica Nedeltchev

Orange is the New...: Comedy-Drama Makela Lynn Eleventh grade “It’s pretty funny, the characters are all really great.”

Lynn recommends this to those who like Friends and How I Met Your Mother and to cool teens.

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Courtney Kiley

“There’s a new comic book that comes out today [October 7th] that I’m so excited for, it’s called “Paper Girls.” It’s going to be great.”

- Robert Morgan

how it works... I would like to get tapped into watch Orange is the New Black.

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feminism with a kick pioneer high school’s varsity football team features female kicker rachel hunsberger.

alexandra hobrecht and kate burns

How did you start?

In 5th grade we did little poetry assignments and that got me into it and we did a lot of poetry.

I kind of kept up with it.

What are you best at writing?

Whenever I’ve gotten mini memoir assignments in school I’ve always done really well on [them].

I really go above and beyond for those. I feel like I’m pretty good at [poetry] too, but I can’t just write a poem about something. I can’t have a prompt. It doesn’t work as well. It has to be to my original idea and then usually works better. It just comes to me, randomly.

Do you only write mini memoirs in class or on your own, too?

Mostly in class but sometimes I get the idea that I could write more outside of school. I just don’t have enough time. But if I get an idea for a poem, I will write it. Usually those come to me at random places, like if I’m in the shower or laying in bed or just relaxing.

on the team which made it a little easier, and they were all very supportive,” Hunsberger

F

coach was a little surprised when she wanted to join the team, but after proving she had the skill, everyone quickly came on board.

Every practice her teammates encouraged her to be her best, and she has made long

Who is your favorite author?

That’s a hard one. I always liked Roald Dahl when I was little. He was great and I always liked all of his books that I read from him. He’s just one that comes to mind, I have so many favorites.

girl to join a football team, she does make an impact.

Hunsberger is a senior at Pioneer High kicker on their Varsity Football team. Playing football never even occurred to her until one of her friends from the football team was talking to her during her soccer season junior year about how it would be cool if she kicked for them. So after thinking about, Hunsberger decided she was going to go for it. She began working with one of their other kickers, Matt Schickling, and learned the

the team and doesn’t regret it at all. She actually encourages all girls who are thinking about playing football to “just go for it”, because they may be surprised by the results.

“I think it’s a great sport and I’ve loved every minute of it,” Hunsberger said. “Don’t be afraid to actually go and do it, and commit to it, because people will be there to support you and cheer you on.”

What is the meaning behind Blood Red Leaves?

It’s probably the one that speaks most from the ant to me. The inspiration came from someone who was going through something that they told me about as a friend. It turned out that I don’t know if it was a true statement. I think they lied to me. But [the] poem turned out really well. Even if they didn’t tell the truth, it still relates to so many people who go through the same thing.

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natalie bullock, junior, creative writer

blood red leaves

angel rich

or centuries, women have wanted to join in on things and be equals among men. This isn’t just among politics, however; it can include playing male-dominated sports such as football.

the writer

Why is your writing important?

It helps me express how I feel, and how I deal with things. It’s like a little map of what I think and my brain and how I feel. It helps other people understand how I feel because I’m pretty closed up as a person. Not many people know that much about me, but when I write, it’s easier to express how I feel.

top left: hunsberger -injured- looks to her team as they warm up, top right: hunsberger and teammate survey their game at hand, bottom left: phs varsity football team lines up for the national anthem prior to their game, bottom middle: players assist each other, both morally and physically after a hard tackle, bottom right: teammates celebrate another point won against huron high school.

proper technique on how to kick a football.

Even though everyone gets some sort of playing time, place kicker is the backup for the starter kicker in case they get injured or he can’t play in a game due to other reasons.

This ended up working for Hunsberger because at the beginning of season she ended up overworking her right quad, causing the muscle to tear. Hunsberger was out for the next two weeks.

After her injury, Hunsberger was cleared to play the week of the big Huron vs. Pioneer game. This was her big moment. This is what she has been working towards since before tryouts even happened. It paid off when she went it towards the end of the game, kicking a near perfect goal. All of her teammates, coaches and parents cheered her on.

“I was nervous, yes, but I also had friends

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COMMUNITY KITCHEN TEACHER’S RECIPES

Robert’s Better Than Lovin’ Cake the secret family recipe to orgasmic chocolate cake

1 cup chopped nuts 1 stick butter, softened 1 package (8oz) cream cheese, softened 1 cup confectioners sugar 2 cartons (8oz each) whipped dessert topping, divided 3 cups milk 2 packages (3.5 oz each) instant chocolate pudding mix In medium bowl, combine oughly and press into the

kyin griffith

bottom of a greased 9x13inch baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

In medium bowl, with electric mixer, combine cream cheese, confectioners sugar, and one carton of the dessert topping.

Beat until well combined and spread over cooled cake layer in dish. Refrigerate.

devin weeks

What team do you play for and what position do you play?

In large bowl with electric mixer, combine milk and chocolate pudding mix; beat three minutes at low speed until thickened and glossy.

Spread evenly over cream cheese layer in dish. Refrigerate until pudding is set.

Spread remaining carton of dessert topping evenly over chocolate layer and refrigerate until serving time. Makes about 16 servings.

A: I’m a sophomore on Pioneer’s JV basketball team. I don’t actually have a set position, I roam from guard too forward wherevrer I am needed.

When did you start playing basketball?

A: I’ve been playing basketball since I was six years old. My love for the game has ongrown since then Q: How excited are you for the upcoming season?

Gretchen’s Scotcheroos a depriest family tradition “I started making these when I was in high school as they are really easy and delicious. It Tanner, Cooper, and Graham learned how to make as well, and now Robbie Stapleton kind of requests (demands) that the boys bring them to all the forum trips!”

1 cup peanut butter 1 cup caro corn syrup 1 cup sugar 6 cups rice crispy cereal 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips 1 1/2 cups butterscotch chips 62 t h e c o m m u n i c a t o r

In a large pot stir together peanut butter, corn syrup and sugar over medium heat until the mixture is nice and smooth. All the sugar granules should be gone and the peanut butter should be melted. Add rice crispy cereal and mix well.

Spread the crispy mixture into a well greased 9x13 baking dish.

In a smaller saucepan heat chocolate chips and butterscotch chips over medium/low heat until melted.

Spread on top of rice crispy mixture and let cool. Cut in to squares and enjoy!

A: I’m very excited, we have two awesome new incoming freshman, one that transferred from Lincoln, and one that played for Lebron’s travel basketball team. With them and our whole squad from last year we should be pretty sweet Q: If you could compare yourself to an NBA player, who would it be?

A: Rajon Rondo, Point Guard for the Mavericks. We both help our team in every way we know how. Rondo isn’t exactly the star, and he doesn’t score that much, he just contributes all of the little things that keep a team functioning.

Q: Who taught you to play basketball?

their sport at one of the big high schools. His inspiration drives him to improve and follow the footsteps of his grandfather.

A: My Grandfather taught me how to play basketball.

He used to play the sport in Lebanon, and he immigrated to the U.S. He’s really my inspiration, he rarely

Q: What’s the highlight of your basketball career?

and make him proud. I wear the number 21 to honor my grandpa.

left the court in victory becuase of me that day.

Q: What’s your go-to basketball move?

A: I like to catch it in the corner, fake like I’m going left, do a spin move around my defender and go straight to the hoop. Works like a charm.

A: My freshman year, we were playing at Saline and it was a close game throughout. Near the end I took two charges and

Q: What makes you love basketball?

A: Everyone excels at something and with basketball, I feel like I’m someone. It took a lot of work but I found something I’m passionate about and I’m rolling with it. It also feels really good to win, which we will.

october

63

songs of the day

virtual learning danny freiband grace koepele photo

K

lotus bootleg by jonwayne

building a ladder

shame

by hiatus kaiyote

by william onyeabor

year is 1978. The place, Enugu, Nigeria. William Onyeabor sits in the studio, surrounded by synthesizers and microphones, working hard to complete his seminal album, “Atomic Bomb.” Flash forward to Ann Arbor Michigan, 2015. A song has been chosen for the iconic “Song of the Day” column, but today’s song is different. It has a profound effect on every person who listens to it. As soon as it comes on, the listener starts tapping their feet uncontrollably. The corners of their mouth become upturned in an expression of sheer elation. What song could possible cause this reaction? None other than “Shame,” an Onyeabor composition so simplistically grooving it would be a crime not to put it up as today’s song of the day.

The song starts with the drums and bass, locked in and funking it up. Onyeabor’s signature synthesizer sound follows, with a soft ostinato from a mellow keyboard and some upbeat rhythmic comping by either a clavinet or guitar with the wah effect set to full funk. The inner beauty of Onyeabor’s music are the bare-bones vocals. His own voice has so much emotion in it, but when you add in the chorus behind him, an excellent blend occurs between lead and background. While this song may be about shame, usually a somber topic, the lyrics contain some humor, as the call and response from the chorus ends with, “I’d never guess you have the balls.” For every time you listen to this song today, you’ll bring a little extra sunshine into the world. Remember that.

“Lotus Bootleg,” released by rapper Jonwayne about three years ago, is the type of song that is beautiful for its simplici-

64 t h e c o m m u n i c a t o r

like to start off with a song that displays the best of what today’s music scene has to offer. “Building a Ladder,” by Hiatus Kaiyote gives you the feeling of an eagle soaring over a vast ocean, then landing and jamming out with George Clinton. Though the band is from Australia, they have soaked up the best of American soul and funk music. Once the extended piano intro is over, drummer Perrin Moss comes in hard with a hip-hop break, before dropping one of the most stuttering, Dilla-esque drum beats ever played.

The harmonic structure of the song is complex for neo-soul music, but Hiatus makes your ears. Singer Nai Palm has a voice like liquid silver, bringing the clarity and feeling that gives this song its incredible sense of uplifting spirit. The songs ends with an ethereal outro, the band does hits on cue with Palm’s voice, and it slowly builds until you too feel like you’re “building a ladder of love.”

It was an interesting choice by Hiatus to put this as the last track of their most recent album, as it is more of an opener than a closer, but maybe it’s just the band’s way of letting us know that even though the album is over, their sweet, sweet grooves will never die.

of the beauty in this track comes from the beat, Flying Lotus’s “Rest EZ,” a raw, minimally produced piano sample laid over some head-nodding drums. The rest of this track’s power is in the lyrics.

“Man I’m cooling off the vodka/It’s going straight to my medulla oblongata/Shaking up my head like I’m chewing on maracas/Living in the life that be written by Franz Kafka/He opened up my chakras.”

What?! Did Jonwayne really just say that?

When those lyrics hit you, it feels like your side down, then put back in your skull. Not only that, but Jonwayne delivers his rhymes with a straight-from-the-living-room-couch ability at 6:00 in the morning when you’re making a quick pastry run and at midnight when you just want to get home and sleep. Jonwayne uses wordplay to paint a vivid picture of whatever topic he raps about all while continually switching up his rhyme scheme in order to stay out of the rhythmic doldrums rappers often fall into.

The whole song has an amorphous quality that is aided by the lack of hook or chorus. Yes, you won’t be able to sing along to a song on your grittiest speaker system, letting Jonwayne’s voice lull you into a trance.

aty Stegemann had been pressing the “refresh” button for about an hour as she sat in the dark of the Community High School Media Center computer lab at 8:00 p.m. She was waiting for her designated online mentor to add her to the Algebra II class she wanted to be a part of.

Stegemann is one of nearly 500 AAPS students to be a part of the current online program. “Our goal of the program is that we really want to offer personalized learning plans for students so they can learn at their own pace,” said Cindy Leaman, the principal of Ann Arbor’s A2 Virtual+ Academy, For this reason, most online classes have no assignment deadlines aside from the end of the semester. take an online class. Many students take for extra time during the school day, usually due to a CR or split enrollment. Some people use the online program when they have already taken a class but have not received credit, or when they are temporarily moving from the school district. Some even take online classes because the regular class is too slow for them, and they want an opportunity to accelerate.

Online classes can be taken both during the school year or during the summer, and show up on transcripts as letter grades as opposed to pass/fail. They can be taken for a single semester or for an entire year. Students can take up to two online classes at once, if desired. There are over 300 possible online classes.

With their freedom and versatility, taking classes online may seem like a no-brainer, but many people have had negative experiences with online classes. “I wouldn’t use the word ‘learned,’” Ian Ricoy said of his online Algebra II class. Ricoy is a senior who splits between Community and Pioneer. “I would never do it again, especially with math. Maybe if it was a subject I was really, really good in, and I had to take an online class, I might do it...I might.” Ricoy said he would not recommend an online class to someone unless

“Online classes are an excellent option for some students but can also be a disaster for other students.”

tation right off, because the orientation gets you into your class, and we make sure that you understand all the components and how to access your material,” Leaman said. “And students who don’t do that, even if they’ve

they were “between a rock and a hard place,” and that he’d never recommend it to someone who had the option of taking a regular class.

Mohan Ritsema, also a senior, had a different criticism of online classes; he didn’t like the way the system was set up. “Since you don’t have a teacher there, helping you through it, it makes it a little hard to better understand [the] things you don’t know.”

The online experience didn’t exclusively receive bad reviews, however. Community student Luke Merritt had a very positive experience with his online health class. “I could

week of school have around a 70 percent

work at my own pace, which made it easier so I didn’t have to speed up to catch up with a deadline, and I didn’t have to wait for the class to get through things when I would understand them already.” Merritt said he would take online classes again, but only if they were “the right subjects,” which he debut not so challenging that they require face to face, one on one instruction.

Since opinions differ so widely on online classes, and styles of learning vary so greatly from person to person, there is clearly no right or wrong answer as to whether online classes are effective vehicles of learning.

Likewise, there are no classes that are inherently “easy” or “hard” — it all depends on the person.

Still, Leaman said, there are ways of generally predicting whether or not a student will be successful in an online class. “One of the predictors is students who attend the orien-

not as consistent.”

Another predictor is how late a student enrolls in an online class. According to Leaman, there is around a 90 percent success

week drops to the 20 and 30 percent range.

Perhaps the best predictor for success in an online class is a student’s motive for taking the class online, and whether or not it involves avoidance. Leaman said that “students who take a course to avoid anything are not successful. Students who want to avoid a teacher, who don’t like a subject matter, want to avoid people who are in their class. Anything to do with avoidance, they don’t have the motivation to take an online class. They’re only about 25% successful.”

Despite these important predictors, the reality is that people’s experiences of an online class can’t truly be predicted in a general way.

Things like success and enjoyment are too personal to be guessed.

Dianne Dudley, online mentor and coordinator at Community High, said she does not recommend online classes for everyone. “It never get to meet face-to-face,” Dudley said.

“The online student will never have the opportunity to connect with their instructor in the same room, [or] understand their passion for the class content.”

Dudley pointed out that learning style, more than anything else, determines whether or not someone likes an online class. Enjoying an online class involves personal preference just as much as it involves liking the material. Dudley concluded, “Online classes are an excellent option for some students but can also be a disaster for other students.”

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2 1

5

4

picture this

7 6 8

10

9

under

1. Duck Feet Raw Hides at Dogma Catmantoo for $1.00 2. Note Pads at Rock Paper Scissors for $4.00 - $6.00 3. Table of Toys at Peaceable Kingdom for under $1.00 4. Dog Cake Mix at Dogma Catmantoo for $7.00 5. Deadly Classic Comic Books at Vault of Midnigt for $10.00

66 t h e c o m m u n i c a t o r

miles markey and sophia simon

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row Market for $3.50 7. Chocolate Covered Cherries at Cherry Republic for $6.95 Mudpuddles Toys for $10.00 9. Wet It! Exclusive Towels at Hollanders for $6.95 10. Chocolate Bricks at Sparrow Market for $9.37

xavier iniguez Xavier and Seba are two years apart in age but have an incredibly close relationship.

Seba and his brother enjoy each others’ company sking. Going on the slopes together the two of them they really had a chance just to bond.

“He’s a great brother. I love hanging out with him,” Seba said.

Seba is extremly gretful for Xavi’s calm demeaner and go-withto earth.

Seba sometimes wishes he was more like Xavier. “He’s super level headed and really easy to get along with.”

As little kids Seba and Xavi would play soccer down in their basement. “I would let him win because if I didn’t, he would cry.”

Seba and Xavi have come a long way from playing with that plush soccer ball. They now both play for varsity soccer at Hu-

chae stellrecht Despite having two years between them, sisters Brynn and Chae have always been close. In the past two years, they’ve gotten closer than ever before.

When they were younger, Brynn and Chae used the toy kitchen in their basement to make their own pretend dinner.

They called it the “red wine dinner”, and strung red pepper lights around it. When they would go on vacation with family friends, they played a game called “wolfpack.”

“I don’t really remember how it went,” Brynn said. “But we ended up getting buried in sand most of the time. It was quality times.”

And although they are close, Brynn admits that she used to yell at Chae a lot in middle school.

Brynn is grateful for Chae’s sense of humor. Chae knows how to make Brynn laugh, and (almost) never fails to do so.

Brynn would descrbe Chae as “short and funny.”

But they have plenty of differences as well. Seba really respects how hard-working and studious his younger brother is, and has accepted that his brother will always be a mama’s boy. do what they want and don’t feel like they need to constanty be talking to enjoy eachothers company.

However, Seba’s one complaint is that his brother needs to stop taking his socks. october

67

chloe di blassio, freshman “My piece was supposed to represent the state of being of unconsciousness… Her brain is the blackness of the background but then the nather mind are like the [subconscious] thoughts and ideas in the back of her mind that are still there when she's unconscious.”