Globe Newsmagazine, March 2016, Issue 6, Vol. 87

G LOBE issue 6, volume 87

sociaL studies SIGN UP clayton high school, clayton, mo.

LOG IN march 2016

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GL OB E

march 2016

18 From Prison to College

Former CHS parent Robert Henke, among other Wash U faculty, is fundamental in the Missouri Eastern Correctional Facility educational program.

Sports

32 Q&A with Long

A look into the life and times of CHS girls’ swim coach Katelyn Long.

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34 Andy Rochman, sports columnist

Social Studies

Social media dependence and addiction takes a toll on CHS students.

News 10 Churchill Art Exhibit The Kemper Art Museum at Wash U welcomes a collection of artwork

by Winston Churchill.

14 Soaring High Daniel Soares returns from a semester spent in Leadville, Colorado at the High Mountain Institute.

Clayton resident and CHS grad Andy Rochman retired from a job as a pension actuary and is now known as a local baseball columnist.

Review 38 The Revenant 40 Carl’s Deli

Opinion

42 The Hypocrisy of the Hysteria: ChickFilA

Exploring the discrepancy between CHS students’ liberal mindsets and their support of a more conservative place of business.

Feature

43 #OscarsSoWhite A look at the controversial lack of racial diversity among Oscars nominees and past winners.

13 Hava Polinsky

Polinsky, CHS junior and award winning violinist, shares her commitment to music.

44 Pro/Con: Online Dating 16 Wash U Wash Wash U students own and manage a laundry service on the local campus.

46 Staff Ed: Disconnecting The Globe staff on the importance of disconnecting from technology in the midst of this digital age.

47 TSH: Political Polarization CONT

ENTS

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G L OB E

staff

lauren praiss

andreas petermann

tara williams reporters

madeleine ackerburg

mia redington

nikki seraji

marty sharpe

madeline bale

eunice shin

sophia barnes

petra sikic

barrett bentzinger

katie spear

michael bernard

amy tishler

sophie bernstein

karena tse

jacob blair

neel vallurupalli

gabrielle boeger

angelo vidal

eunice chung

catherine walsh

william clay

samuel youkilis

nicholas d’agrosa

samantha zeid

alexandria darmody

lise derksen

copy editors

charlie brennan

harry rubin

emma ebeling

theodore fehr

sarah franzel

webmaster lemuel lan

devin froehlich

mariclare gatter

anne goode

hugo hoffman

lucas hoffman

photo editors bebe engel

robert hogan

peter indivino

olivia joseph

sehoon kim

cody krutzsch

san kwon

sol kwon

editor - in - chief

alex bernard senior managing editors grace harrison

kevin rosenthal

ellie tomasson

section editors

sophie allen

noah brown

brian gatter

nicholas lee

camille respess

max steinbaum

elise yang

phoebe yao

business manager lucy cohen

katherine sleckman

distribution editor

robert hollocher editors

albert wang

ashleigh williams

dimitri baldauf

jacob lagesse

daniel cho

elise levy

nisha klein

benjamin litteken

olivia reuter

madison lockett

mitali sharma

bea mcguire

zachary sorenson

grace morris

photographers sophie argyres

emma barnes

jennifer braverman

ella engel

felix evans

alexandra gerchen

akansha goel

ava hoffman

ricky kuehn

carolyn niswonger

claire schwarz

graphics editor victoria yi

graphic artist cherry tomatsu

design editor lawrence hu

adviser

erin castellano

Professional Affiliations: Sponsors of School Publications . Missouri Interscholastic Press Association . Missouri Journalism Education Association . National Scholastic Press Association . Columbia Scholastic Press Association

An hour into the drive to my family farm, I lose service. I say goodbye to Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram, and completely forget about technology.

For the average teenager, this is an impossible feat–to step away from all social media and technological communication is rare and, unfortunately, extremely difficult. In today’s world, it seems as though the majority of human interaction is through a screen that we can’t seem to put down. Whether posting a picture of ourselves, sending a text or using dating apps, technology permeates too many aspects of our lives, making something as natural as striking up a conversation in the hallway uncomfortable without a phone in our hands.

At my family farm, everything is unplugged. The closest thing we have to modern day technology is a VCR and a single house phone. As sad as it is, to many students at CHS, this is about as close to a nightmare as it gets.

This issue of The Globe focuses on social media at CHS and the affect it has on CHS students. Going into this issue, I was not prepared for the reality of social media addiction. While I do enjoy using social media, I certainly did not consider it to be taking over my life. However, as I filled out the survey The Globe created to get student data about social media, I was disturbed. I found that even though I constantly convince myself that social media is insignificant in my life and not majorly affecting my attitude or self esteem, its toxins run much deeper than I expected. It was while filling out this survey that I was reminded that, whether we like it or not, social media can be a weapon.

While there are many negative effects of social media (pertaining to self esteem and ability to focus, among others), social media is not entirely toxic. Used responsibly and with restrictions, being able to connect through technology can be a luxury, as in the case of online dating argued in the pro-con, “The Technology of Love” versus “The Biology of Love.” As technology progresses, why shouldn’t we?

Whether or not social media is a problem, addiction to it certainly is.

Feeling the need to check phones and update browsers in the middle of a conversation is disrespectful, unproductive and unhealthy, especially when the process repeats itself every five minutes.

But as this issue proves, giving up technology and social media completely is not reasonable. In a progressive society with so many students using social media regularly, and oftentimes appropriately, dropping all screens forever may not be the answer. But a break is reasonable and productive.

My break time is a few days removed from society at the farm. A trip to the farm is a time for me to recharge not my phone, but myself.

Away from the societal expectations of social media, I feel completely free. With no cares about if my weathered plaid shirt matches my men’s camo pants, and with no reason to constantly distract myself with a screen, I feel more connected to the world than I ever feel when checking Facebook.

The problems surrounding technology that are explored in this issue of The Globe make me appreciate my secluded farm more than ever. To have a haven with no technology, no judgment and complete submersion in the world around me is a gift that should never be taken for granted.

Without the luxury of a getaway, however, freedom from technology is not one regularly felt by CHS students. Technology is everywhere, and, with no way to escape it, students at CHS are becoming so reliant on their screens that they miss the world around them. With their

FROM THE EDITOR heads down and phones out, students are blind to the innocent beauties of daily life. Looking up is simple. Having a conversation face-to-face is natural. But why does it seem to be impossible? 

Grace Harrison, senior managing editor

The Globe Newsmagazine exists to inform, entertain, persuade and represent the student voice at CHS. All content decisions are made by the student editorial staff and the Globe is an entirely self-funded publication. Not every story that our reporters write is published in the print newsmagazine. Visit www.chsglobe.com for additional stories and photos and for more information about the Globe itself. We reserve the right to refuse any advertisement - for more information about advertising and subscriptions, please contact our office: Clayton High School Globe 1 Mark Twain Circle Clayton, MO 63105 EDITOR’S (314) 854-6668 N OT E 5 globe@claytonschools.net

Students dance with guest performers at the World Cultures Potluck.

PHOTO BY AKANSHA GOEL

PA N O R

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review

commentary

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WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED

A Shaky Start to a New Year Feb. 8 marked the Lunar New Year, this year being the year of the monkey. Three days earlier, a magnitude 6.4 earthquake rocked Taiwan, devastating the southern part of the island. The confirmed death toll is currently at 38 and it is feared that more than 100 are dead. Taiwan cancelled their annual national New Year’s celebrations. The government instead asked for people to visit temples to pray for survivors.

Broncos Win Super Bowl

Peyton Manning celebrates with the Lombardi Trophy after winning the Super Bowl. It is highly likely that Manning will not return to football next season. (Randall Benton/Sacramento Bee/TNS)

NEWS

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notes (with a little humor)

Caucuses Commence

On Feb. 1, the 2016 presidential race officially kicked off with the Iowa Caucuses. On the Republican side, Ted Cruz finished in first place with 27.6 percent of the vote. Despite a second place finish, Donald Trump remains the favorite to win the nomination. Some consider the biggest winner of Iowa to be Marco Rubio - who performed much better than expected - finishing in third place with 23.1 percent of the vote. After each receiving only one of 30 delegates, both Rand Paul and Mike Huckabee announced that they would be dropping out of the race. The caucus was not without controversy, as it was rumored that members of Cruz’s staff had spread false information that Dr. Ben Carson was dropping out of the race.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton edged out Bernie Sanders, winning 49.9 percent of the vote to Sanders’s 49.6. The caucus ended a quiet, disappointing campaign for Martin O’Malley, who announced that he would be dropping out of the race after recieving only 0.6 percent of the vote, roughly equivalent to his two second cousins who live in Cedar Rapids.

by HARRY RUBIN copy editor

On Feb. 7, the Denver Broncos defeated the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl 50 by a score of 24-10. The Panthers entered the game as the favorites, having only lost one game all season.

The game was mainly won by Denver’s defense, led by game MVP Von Miller’s 2.5 sacks and two forced fumbles. This all comes as new information to a large portion of the population who only paid attention to the halftime show and commercial breaks.

Leap Day Approaches On Feb. 29, humanity will experience a leap day. This will be only the fifth leap day of the millennium and first since 2012. Perhaps coincidentally, leap days seem to always fall on the same year as the summer Olympics.

Life in Court Cut Short On Feb. 13, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia passed away at the age of 79. The longest serving member of the current court, Scalia was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986. Scalia was known for always being one of the Court’s more conservative justices as well as for writing fervent dissenting opinions. His death has immediately created much speculation as to who will be the next Supreme court appointee. 

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EXPLORING THE PAINTINGS OF WINSTON CHURCHILL The Kemper Art Museum on the Wash U Campus welcomes an exhibit by the former Prime Minister of England.

“Churchill was someone who was very bold. He didn’t start painting until age 40. So he didn’t, as a kid, have any art classes; he self-taught, and that fascinated me,” Timothy Riley, the curator of The Paintings of Sir Winston Churchill exhibit, said. “There’s a wonderful story to be told here about creativity and the power of picking up a brush, or any other artistic tool, and having a go, as Churchill said on many occasions. And I think that’s certainly true for Churchill, through difficult periods of his life, but I think it’s relevant to all of us, that we shouldn’t be afraid of the visual arts, and that we should explore creativity in all its forms. In this case, painting can overlap and form other parts of our lives.”

The exhibit is located in the Kemper Art Museum on the Washington University in St. Louis campus and displays a variety of Churchill’s paintings. The collection was a collaboration between the National Churchill Museum at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, and the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.

“We had terrific support from the national trust of Chartwell, in England,” Riley said. “That’s where Churchill used to live, and they lent 16 paintings from there. Using that collection as a nucleus, we broadened the search.”

In addition to being a monumental wartime leader during World War II, as well as writer, Churchill crafted over 530 paintings throughout his lifetime.

“We tried to choose paintings from each of the five decades when Churchill was active as a painter,” Riley said. “So starting in the teens, all the way to the 1950s to give visitors a real good sense of the breadth of his output.”

Inspired by an English manor house such as Chartwell, the exhibit’s design is set up to resemble Churchill’s home and shows visitors the progression of Winston Churchill’s time and skill over decades. Some of Churchill’s favorite places to paint were Chartwell and Marrakech, Morocco.

“We also tried to choose some of the best quality works of art,” Riley said, “Churchill, on a good day, was a terrific painter, and other days he didn’t paint as well.”

For a large and meaningful part of his life, Churchill was not extremely open about his passion for painting.

“He didn’t want to be known as a painter. He used painting as a means to relax, and to rejuvenate his mind. He once said that painting is something without which he could not live, and that’s because he used it in terms of therapy, to find a way through the difficult periods,” Riley said.

Walking through the exhibit, Riley points out two pieces in particular: State Room at Blenheim Palace and Tapestries at Blenheim Palace. The actual scene of the paintings are quite similar, while the style in which they were painted are contrasting.

“Winston Churchill liked the French impressionist painters quite a bit, and in many pieces he, like the French impressionists, revisited the same

by CATHERINE WALSH reporter theme over and over again,” Riley said. “These two paintings were done in the late 1920s, early 1930s. They’re interior scenes of Blenheim Palace.

And as luck would have it, Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace and visited there quite a bit.”

The paintings were emotionally significant to Churchill in addition to the historical importance of the scenes they depicted. “Churchill is on a white horse, these people are coming to surrender when John Churchill was victorious at the Battle of Blenheim. Churchill is looking back at his ancestors there, his glorious past, and celebrating them in these paintings,” Riley said.

Continuing to walk through the exhibit, Riley stops at a self-portrait, noticeably dark compared to the rest of the pieces in the exhibit.

“This is the only self-portrait,” Riley said. “This was a very dark period in [Churchill’s] life, where, as first lord of the admiralty, he visioned a military campaign where there were 250 thousand casualties. He was very depressed, and in that view he begins to paint.”

Riley noted Churchill’s love of color.

“He actually said once, ‘I rejoice in the bright colors, and I feel genuinely sorry for the browns.’ But look at this painting -- there are a lot of poor browns, you know, dark shades, shadows with a dramatically lit Churchill.

I think this painting, devoid of color, is very evocative of his emotion, his mood, in 1915, when he was in such despondency, such despair … His normal optimism you see everywhere else, is not really here, is it? And so he uses painting to get out of this mood … to quote a phrase from his 1941 Finest Hour speech, he wants to ‘move into the broad, sunlit uplands of optimism,’ and that’s what he tries to do. So, this is an extremely personal and emotional painting.”

Throughout the exhibit, Churchill seems to experiment with themes, styles, moods and colors in each piece. However, the theme of politics did not appear as often as one would think.

“There’s only one or two paintings, one in this exhibition that we know of, where he mixed [painting and politics],” Riley said. “He tended to paint to relax and to relieve stress from other parts of his life. He began painting in 1915, after he was forced to resign from his first lord of the admiralty in the Battle of Gallipoli. He was very depressed, and very despondent, and he found that painting, which he had never done before, cheered him up -- that’s why he began painting. So he didn’t really focus on military themes in his painting very often, and preferred landscapes and seascapes and natural beauty.”

To show what this mix of painting and politics looked like, Riley stopped at a piece called Beach at Walmers piece. Riley described Winston Churchill’s rich account of World War II, when national tensions were rising rapidly and the reign of the Nazis was all-powerful.

“This painting is also interesting because of these figures here, an innocent family playing in the surf on the English coast looking across the channel. We now know from a photo at Chartwell, that that’s Churchill and his family looking across France. So not only is he saying we must protect ourselves, he is looking at the threat straight in the face. So it’s a really special painting -- no other painting that Churchill did shows this overlapping world of painting and politics in quite such a fashion,” Riley said.

This piece is quite significant to the history of World War II, and gives insight into how Churchill struggled to maintain a stable Great Britain.

Riley concluded the enriching tour with a painting of a smiling Lady Churchill, a satisfying completion to the exhibit.

“That’s the one thing that I hope visitors can take away from an exhibition like this, that the creativity that fueled Winston Churchill in so many different ways is something you can see in these paintings quite clearly,” Riley said.

“But also in his speeches, his writings, his books, his attitudes toward social reforms to his politics. And, of course, as a war leader as well. It didn’t always work, but he was not afraid to try. And when he was knocked down, he always got up again. And that’s really the resilience and resoluteness of Winston Churchill, something that I think a lot of people admire about him, and I think the same is true in his paintings. He just keeps at it, and he loved it, clearly.” 

Paintings by Winston Churchill. (Top) Beach at Walmer, c.

1938 and (Bottom) Tapestries at Blenheim Palace, c. 1930 (Photos from Kemper Art Museum).

NEWS

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Venkatesh with friend Michael Li at a summer research fellowship. (Photo from Omkar Venkatesh)

OMKAR’S ADVENTURES WITH DOPAMINE

CHS senior Omkar Venkatesh describes his experience in a neuroscience lab at Washington University.

by KATIE SPEAR reporter Starting at the beginning of his sophomore year and continuing through the end of his junior year, CHS senior Omkar Venkatesh has conducted research under Dr. Steven Mennerick of the Washington University School of Medicine to create a new tool to study how dopamine works in the brain.

“Dopamine is important because it plays a role in so many diseases like Parkinson’s and schizophrenia and so on, and also because it plays a role in our daily lives in terms of motivations, addictions, all those things,” Venkatesh said.

The brain works in terms of electrical signals, so Venkatesh used electrical techniques to study the effect of dopamine in cells.

His project was to develop a new receptor for dopamine that accepts positively charged particles rather than negatively charged ones.

“The kind of particles that you let into brain cells affect what those brain cells go on to do,” Venkatesh said.

Venkatesh found that the mutations he made to the dopamine receptor successfully allowed the receptor to let in more positively charged particles. Finding out how this will exactly affect humans will require much further research.

“It takes a lot of effort to bring something from the theoretical stage to actually being used in live brains,” Venkatesh said. “But the hope is that one day we can insert these types of mutant receptors into rat brains to study how messing around with the dopamine receptors changes the way mammals act.”

Venkatesh applied for the Intel Science Talent Search 2016 with his project, “Changing the Ion Selectivity of the LGC-53 Receptor: A Prospective Tool for Studying Dopamine Networks.”

The Intel STS is the nation’s oldest and most prestigious pre-college science competition, honoring high school seniors for their potential as future leaders in the scientific community.

NEWS

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Of the 1,750 projects submitted for consideration, Venkatesh was named one of 300 semifinalists from this year’s competition. He was awarded a prize of $1,000 with an additional $1,000 donated to Clayton High School in his honor.

“I was sort of debating even applying to this competition because I didn’t know if I even had a shot,” Venkatesh said. “I was glad that I was able to represent both CHS as well as my lab at Washington University well.”

Venkatesh first became interested in neuroscience after he placed seventh in the National Brain Bee his freshman year.

“There’s no class for neuroscience,” Venkatesh said. “So in order to continue that interest I looked to research.”

Venkatesh contacted the Washington University faculty member who ran the Brain Bee to ask his colleagues about researching opportunities.

“I was really happy when one of his colleagues replied and said they would be willing to take on a high school student,” Venkatesh said. “I was just really excited to work in a lab to be able to do research alongside scientists like grad students and PhDs. Just to be in that environment was really exciting for me.”

Conducting this research has solidified Venkatesh’s interest in science, and while still open to change, Venkatesh is currently planning to major in neuroscience.

Researching at Washington University has provided Venkatesh with valuable insight about the field of science.

“A lot of research is learning how to troubleshoot, how to brainstorm solutions, how to be creative, and really how to deal with failure because that’s an integral part of science,” Venkatesh said. “I’d recommend to anyone going into science to try research because it is a different experience than learning science in a classroom.” 

HAV-ING THE TIME OF HER LIFE Junior Hava Polinsky talks about her growing musical success playing her violin.

by OLIVIA JOSEPH reporter

“When she holds her violin, it’s like she’s holding her baby or hugging a friend,” Mike Polinsky, father of CHS junior Hava Polinsky, said.

As a freshman, Polinsky was the concertmaster in the Missouri AllState Orchestra, a program for which high school musicians all over the state strive to just get in.

Polinsky continued her streak as concertmaster her sophomore year.

In addition to being in the All-State Orchestra, she also became the concertmaster in the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, which ranges in age from 12 to 22 years old.

With a father who played violin throughout high school and college, and two sisters who played piano at young ages, Polinsky had been interested in classical music ever since she was a little girl.

At the age of five, Polinsky started playing the violin. Right when she started it was obvious that she was musically talented.

“She seemed to have this very intense attraction and love for it very quickly,” Mike said.

It wasn’t until Polinsky got first place in St. Louis Got Talent at the age of 11 when she realized violin was her true passion.

“I was sort of aware from that point on that [my] hard work really was paying off,” Polinsky said.

The hours of practice that Polinsky had to do every day in preparation for the competition made her realize that it takes commitment and

dertakes each day is brought on by her own ambitions and not by the influence of her parents.

“That’s the peculiar thing about Hava,” Mike said. “Sometimes we have to ask her to stop [practicing].”

Since winning the St. Louis Got Talent in 2011, Polinsky has also won the University City Young Artist Competition, the Belleville Philharmonic “Stars of Tomorrow” Young Artist Competition, the Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition and the UMSL Concerto Competition.

As for the future, Polinsky will be applying to only music conservatories for college and she hopes to play in a successful orchestra for a living.

“I still love it every day and thinking about a career in it makes me really happy,” Polinsky said. “I’m really lucky that everybody in my life is supporting me [in] doing what I love.” 

sacrifice to succeed.

On the weekdays, Polinsky does her homework right after school, practices for an hour before dinner, and then practices more for a couple of hours after dinner.

As for the weekends, Polinsky’s average Saturday consists of a few hours of practice before rehearsal with the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, which ranges from two to four hours. After rehearsal, Polinsky practices for a few more hours, and then later if she feels satisfied with her practicing, she will make other plans.

“I have to make a lot of sacrifices,” Polinsky said. “That’s probably the hardest part about being serious about violin.”

Although these intense responsibilities are hard to balance with her life, her strong love and motivation for music keeps her going.

“I don’t believe a child can do what she’s doing unless they have an intense desire of their own,” Mike said. “You can’t make somebody practice for five hours a day [...] You can’t make somebody do that and keep them happy.”

Despite the stress and intensity that Polinsky goes through, her love and passion makes it worth the hard work.

“I always make sure that I’m doing it for myself,” Polinsky said.

“She’s not really doing this to impress anybody,” Mike said. “She wants to see her audience emotionally moved by the music.”

Unlike most young musicians, the hours of practice that Polinsky un-

Polinsky plays her violin.

(Emma Barnes) F E AT U

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S o a r i n gD aH ni g Sho r e y

CHS junior Daniel Soares returns from spending a semester at the High Mountain Institute in Leadville, Colorado.

by ALEX BERNARD editor-in-chief

Photo by HMI student Charlie Himmelrich. “[On the trail], the day pretty much consists of waking up, hiking, getting there, setting up camp, cooking and going to sleep,” junior Daniel Soares, who recently returned from a semester at the High Mountain Institute (HMI) in Colorado, said.

On Aug. 18, 2015, Soares and his parents arrived in Leadville, Colorado, the highest city in the United States and the location of HMI. “I was the first one there,” Soares said. “There was the Leadville 100 bike race that day, so they were going to close the pass between Leadville and Aspen. My parents were staying in Aspen, and they were driving me there, so they had to get back before they closed the pass.”

Soares arrived at HMI around 10 a.m., several hours before the arrival of the first bus.

“I was just sitting around,” Soares said. “I talked to some of the apprentices, and it was a little awkward. But one of the teachers was from Kirkwood, so we bonded over talking about St. Louis.”

The buses later arrived following a two hour trip from the airport, during which many of the students had already begun to know each other.

“Everyone was friendly, but also very shy, just because it was a completely different school and you didn’t know anyone at all,” Soares said.

The first night there was an opening campfire led by Danny O’Brien, the director of HMI, to greet the new batch of students.

F E AT U R

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“The director said, ‘Welcome to the semester, what are your goals for the semester, what are you scared about,’” Soares said. “We wrote those down on a paper and we threw it into the fire, and he said, ‘We’re gonna start a clean slate. Throw away all your preconceived notions and just have fun.’”

The founders of HMI, a husband and wife pair, were on a sailing trip around the world during Soares’s time at the school. However, Soares did get to know O’Brien well.

“He was cool. He was excited about the mission,” Soares said. “He was trying to get people to figure out their goals. He asked you about your goals all the time.”

Soares and the 47 other students lived in cabins on the HMI campus. The cabins consisted of a common room, a wood stove and beds for 10 students.

“We didn’t need to make a fire for the first half of the semester, but then, once it got cold, we needed to make fires,” Soares said. “Later in the fall semester, during the day it’s like zero degrees, so at night it’s well below.”

One night a week, an apprentice, HMI’s term for a teaching assistant who was a recent college graduate, would stay in the cabins with the students; the rest of the time, the students were in the cabins alone, furthering the sense of trust Soares felt while at HMI. “They pretty much just had eight rules, and the rest they didn’t care about. [Some of] the rules were don’t have sex, don’t drink,

don’t smoke, don’t steal, don’t purposefully break stuff, don’t be out of your cabins at night,” Soares said. “Other than that they pretty much trusted us. You could sign out and just go up to the lake and go for a run, do whatever. They let us backpack by ourselves, so they trusted that we wouldn’t die.”

The students went on three two-week backpacking trips over the course of the semester, two in Colorado and the last in Utah.

Each day while hiking, the students were given a study hall to do their school work. “[The work] is manageable,” Soares said. “For history, you usually have a long reading and some questions. For English you have to read and to prepare for a discussion, and then for ethics you also have to read and prepare for a discussion. And then you’d usually have a science lab.”

The third trip took place in the canyons of Utah, and, after hiking for several days with the teachers to allow the students to become accustomed to the environment, the students were left on their own.

“I was elected to be one of the student leaders. I picked my crew of the nine other guys that would be with me and I picked the tarp groups,” Soares said. “For the first three days, the counselors were with us ... and then they’d show up in the morning, give us our meds and then we wouldn’t see them for the whole day, until the next morning . We were just hiking around by ourselves.”

While on campus, the students worked a certain number of shifts per week in the kitchen on a cook crew to make their meals.

When backpacking, the students carried all of their food with them.

“We were rationed a certain amount of food, so we got like three pounds of rice, two pounds of beans, a ton of pasta, and then you can just choose what to cook that night,” Soares said.

Photo by HMI student Peter Kernan.

“You carry your water and then you have purification drops, so you could use the water from streams.”

Although Soares had enjoyed backpacking prior to attending HMI, the sights and locations he experienced there made the trips unique.

“On the first trip, the second or third day, we were climbing at 13,000 feet and I had never been up that high. We also left early, and I was super unhappy because I don’t like waking up early,” Soares said. “There was this big ridge, so my friend Elliot and I bolted and we went up the ridge really quickly and we got up to the top of the ridge and you could just see everything. That was just so cool. I had never seen that.”

Soares’s adventures at HMI changed his perspective on common occurrences in his daily life. The environmentally friendly practices at HMI made some faults more evident to Soares upon returning to CHS. “I hadn’t realized how much paper we use [at CHS], and from one teacher, every single handout we get is a massive packet, and it’s stuff that we don’t need,” Soares said. “Since you don’t really have that much stuff with you while you’re there, I’ve realized that you don’t actually need everything that people want. I’ve kind of dimmed down my consumerism.”

Soares returned to Clayton on Dec. 17, but the lessons he learned during his semester at HMI will continue to have an effect on his life, choices and, perhaps, even his career.

“Before I went to HMI I was thinking I’ll become an engineer or a computer scientist or something like that, but then my advisor there said I’d be a really good outdoor educator. That kind of sounds fun. You just get to be in the outdoors all the time and teach people about the outdoors,” Soares said. “It’s kinda changed my perspective a little bit. You can do more of what you want even if it doesn’t make that much money.” 

The storefront located in the midst of the Wash U campus. (Sophie Argyres)

WASH U WASH

Washington University students own and manage a laundr y ser vice on campus for use by students and community members.

by MICHAEL BERNARD and JACOB LAGEESE reporters “I've tagged at least 500 shirts this year. The first three times I had no idea how to do it, but you learn,” Caleb Diamond, co-owner of Wash U Wash, said.

Caleb Diamond is one of six owners of Wash U Wash, a laundry service on the campus of Washington University that is run by students, for students.

“We serve teachers and people in the surrounding area as well,” Diamond said.

The main goal of Wash U Wash is to provide students with a convenient way to have their laundry done. Aside from that, the owners also get much needed work experience.

“It’s forced me to really go outside of my comfort zone when dealing with customers,” Diamond said.

Managing a business adds another layer of commitment onto the life of busy college students. However, Diamond and his partners are able to manage without getting overwhelmed.

“There are obviously times where we have exams the next day, and we have to really focus. But it teaches us really good time management skills, because you can’t just take time off work,” Diamond said.

Diamond believes this job is a valuable and meaningful opportunity.

FEATURE

16

“This is not a full time job. It's 15 hours a week, easily,” Diamond said.

“I think every Wash U student, even if it’s not paid, should have some sort of working experience so that when they're thrown into real life, they're not overwhelmed.”

In addition to being one of the owners, Diamond is the Director of Human Resources at Wash U Wash.

“I handle a lot of our customer base. I’m in charge of contacting customers, inputting their information, getting them set up with the service,” Diamond said. “I work a lot with the customers.”

The other five owners are in charge of marketing, general operations, finance, sales and statistics.

In an attempt to increase sales, Wash U Wash partnered with various organizations around campus. Diamond is in charge of these partnerships. The biggest partnership that Wash U Wash has obtained is with the food service employees at Wash U. The Wash regularly cleans their chef coats. The Wash also offers discounts to some of their partnerships around campus.

“We have this deal where if a certain number of people in a fraternity have signed up, we offer [a] discount. It's actually our biggest discount,” Diamond said. “Why we do that? It's really convenient because that's like

30 people living in a concentrated space. So for us it's really convenient to do their laundry. ” Diamond also partners with select social events around campus. Specifically, the party organizers.

“The reason we do that is because people's clothes get kind of messy at parties. We just wanted to raise awareness through them that, if your clothes get messy at a party, we can dry clean it,” Diamond said. “We offer a discount if they show proof that they went to the party.”

Wash U Wash is one of the only laundry services nearby. Students at Wash U do not want to have to walk a mile to Clayton where the prices are usually higher. The company is also willing to pick up clothes from outside students’ dorms or houses, for a higher price.

The main ambition that Wash U Wash currently has is to increase their customer base. According to Diamond, the Wash’s biggest area for growth is drycleaning, which they hope will soon increase in sales.

“We are actually looking into hiring employees because we foresee an increase in dry cleaning which would require more people. More business would require more workers,” Diamond said. “As of now, we have no issue doing it, us six. To minimize our costs we wouldn't hire somebody who just walked in.”

To help reach their objective, Wash U Wash is looking into partnering with the business school at Washington University. For the business students at Wash U, suits are a necessity due to their constant interviews, and suits have to be dry cleaned.

“Basically right now, a lot of our dry cleaning is in the undergraduate population,” Diamond said. “People in the graduate business school have to wear suits because they have interviews.”

Customer Kevin Thomas believes that the Wash is incredibly helpful.

He also agrees that the prices are very affordable.

“Whenever I need something [washed] really quickly, when I don’t

have time to do my own washing, Wash U Wash has really been there,” Thomas said.

Wash U Wash accepts Bear Bucks. This is an easy and convenient way to pay for the service without having to use your credit card.

“It’s basically a debit card,” Diamond said. “You get a slight discount.”

Bear Bucks are a unique way for Wash U students to pay. The currency is only available to these students. Various businesses around the Loop and Clayton accept Bear Bucks.

Wash U Wash isn’t the only student run business on campus. There are many others nearby, such as SWAP, the only non-profit business on the Wash U campus. SWAP stands for Sharing With a Purpose.

“Our goal is to increase socioeconomic diversity on campus,” Lily Schacht, one of the five owners of SWAP, said.

SWAP provides free resources to students. Students can come in whenever they want to pick up anything from out of season Christmas ornaments or a bike seat to a Washington University sweatshirt, all completely free.

“The only time we ever sell anything is in the beginning of the year,” Schacht said. “That’s our annual fundraiser. That pays for our rent and all of our expenses.”

Unlike Wash U Wash, employees at SWAP do not receive any pay.

However, they are rewarded with experience working in the field.

“I’m learning valuable business skills,” Schacht said. “[These] are things I wouldn’t necessarily learn in a classroom.”

Many students use these conveniently located facilities, such as customer Daniel Podolsky. He said that one of the main reasons he uses Wash U Wash and SWAP is that he knows that people who run them, and connects with them on a more personal level. Diamond is aware of this fact.

“You can’t underestimate the fact that because we’re students, we have a better bond with customers,” Diamond said. 

The interior of the Wash U Wash. (Sophie Argyres) FEATURE 17

FROM PRISON WASH U’S

PRISON EDUCATION PROGRAM

TO COLLEGE

by Alex Bernard and Camille Respess

“You get in, go through security and walk through the yard. It really does feel like a prison,” Robert Henke, Professor of Drama and Comparative Literature at Washington University in St. Louis, said. “But once everybody gets into the classroom and gets settled in, it feels like a seminar room. You are a professor and they are the students.”

In the fall of 2014, Robert Henke, a former CHS parent, with fellow Washington University professor Maggie Garb, began their inaugural classes for the semester, 35 minutes from the Wash U campus. The classes took place in the Missouri Eastern Correctional Facility in Pacific, MO, and the students were prisoners incarcerated in the medium-security prison.

“About 60 students completed an application, which mainly consisted of a couple of essays. Of those we chose 30. They had to have a high school diploma or a GED,” Henke said. “I taught a course called ‘Text and Tradition:

Classical to Renaissance Literature,’ a Great Books course from Homer to Shakespeare. My colleague Margaret Garb taught a survey of American history.”

The Washington University Prison Education Program was modeled after a similar program in Upstate New York called the Bard Prison Initiative, who have graduated over 350 prisoners with Bachelor’s Degrees.

“Maggie Garb knew the people working at the Bard Program and they came to Washington University and gave a talk,” Henke said. “They agreed to give us a start-up grant.”

The courses taught at the correctional facility carry the same weight as the courses given in the traditional Washington University setting.

“We teach courses -- it may not be at the exact same time -- but the same courses. Same material, same reading list, same assignments, same grading criteria,” Henke said.

F E AT U R E 18

Currently, four classes are taught each semester, and the classes meet once a week for a three hour session.

The students are given homework to be completed, similar to the students in college, and, like any student in college, their hard work pays off.

“They get Washington University credits so they’ll be able to transfer them to other institutions, even if they don’t continue at Washington University and University College when they get back,” Henke said. “Wash U units are pretty transferable.”

Thus far, one student who has taken classes through the Prison Education Program has continued his education at the University College, the adult extension school of Wash U. Damon Hartley was released from the correctional facility in May of 2015.

Three weeks later, he had applied to University College.

“The day that I got that actual acceptance letter ... it was the happiest day of

my life. I was jumping up and down like a little kid. I called everyone I knew. It was a wonderful feeling,” Hartley said.

Hartley is currently in his second semester at University College and is planning to major in Global Leadership and Management with a minor in Chinese. Hartley holds two work study jobs on campus and is also a self-employed business consultant.

In 2014, Hartley was introduced to the program by a flyer in the prison.

“I thought, ‘How could this impact me? How could this prevent me from ever having to come back to a place like this?’” Hartley said. “I knew that if I was accepted into the program, and then furthermore, looking down the line, envisioning myself graduating, I knew that it would be worthwhile and it would change my life in more ways than I could imagine. So far it has.”

Before his incarceration, Hartley went to college in the Air Force and took classes at St. Louis Community College.

“I never actually completed any courses,” Hartley said. “The first class that I ever took [at the prison] was Mr. Henke’s class and I not only completed it, but I got a pretty good grade too.”

Hartley values the Prison Education Program because of the motivation it gave him to become educated and pursue a better future.

“It’s my personal belief that, if a person can’t educate himself, even in prison, and get job skills, that’s just a guaranteed trip back to prison,” Hartley said.

One reason for the program is the data proving the incredible effect of education on incarcerated people.

“The recidivism rate -- the rate at which people go back to prison -- it’s generally about 50 percent nationally, but the numbers go down just dramatically if they’ve had college courses, and if they have a college degree it goes down to about two percent,” Henke said. “It’s really a good thing for the community.”

Particularly after the events in Ferguson during the fall of 2014, Henke and his colleagues have a heightened desire to help the surrounding communities of St. Louis. The professors at

Damon Hartley, left and Robert Henke, right. Photos by Katherine Sleckman.

F E AT U R E 19

Wash U use their expertise and experience to positively impact the area.

“Washington University is pretty committed to giving back to the community. And this is what we do. We’re not going over there and being social workers, or helping with food drives, we’re going over there and being professors. We’re just doing what we do,” Henke said. “I think it’s a great way to give back.”

Not only does the program alter the future for prisoners after their release, but the environment inside the prison also experiences a change as a result of the program.

“What’s great is that they develop new relationships with each other and have different conversations now,” Henke said. “They really enjoy talking about the books. I heard stories of the men discussing the Odyssey in the prison weight room.”

The enthusiasm of the students, despite being in prison, is not overlooked by the Wash U professors.

“I don’t lose faith in the liberal arts and what I am doing, but sometimes I am less excited about it than other days, and it really shows you the value of an education in the liberal arts,” Henke said. “Wash U students really value their education very much, but these guys perhaps appreciate it even more because they didn’t expect to have this opportunity. They are really making the most out of it.”

Henke, Garb and other professors involved in the program are paid for their work in the prison.

“We do this as an overload. We usually teach two courses per semester, so this is a third course,” Henke said.

“Sometimes it’s a bit difficult getting ready for class and getting out there.

But I never drove from the prison back home feeling that I had wasted my time.

It always felt really valuable.”

Not only has the program given the inmates an education, but also a piece of humanity that may be lost in the prison environment. “[The prisoners] say this again and again: ‘For three hours I am not a prisoner, I am a college student,’” Henke said. 

ACCEPTANCE: the college pr o c e s s

by ELLIE TOMASSON senior managing editor For 19th century aspiring scholars, the criteria for applying to universities was pretty standard: general proficiency in Latin and Greek.

However, today, high school students applying to college are not seen brushing up their Cicero, Virgil and Homer, but juggling AP classes, extracurriculars and their sanity.

Over the past 200 years, the college application process has evolved drastically. Back in the 1800s, only the wealthy elite applied to university; an application was not even necessary. The most important factor in college admissions: can they pay the bill.

Prospective college applicants took entrance examinations in Latin and Greek to affirm their status as a scholar, and, with decent scores, they were admitted.

The 1856 Tufts University admissions requirements begins, “Applicants for admission must produce certificates of good moral character,” followed by a list of required Latin and Greek readings which would be included on the entrance examination.

Over the next 50 years, the entrance examinations had expanded to extend to fields such as English, Mathematics, History, Physiology, Zoology, Botany, Geology, Chemistry and, of course, good ole’ Latin and Greek.

By the early 1900s, the percentage of high school graduates who attended college, while still miniscule in comparison to today, had risen drastically. Universities began to receive more applications with sufficient scores than they could hold, so colleges had to start putting caps on their classes. There were caps on the total number of students admitted, as well as the male to female ratio around 4:1.

However, this new meritocratic system of admissions posed a new threat: if colleges accepted students based solely on academic merit, the Jewish population would become dangerously high.

Harvard University President from 1909 to 1933, Lawrence Lowell, said, “The summer hotel that is ruined by admitting Jews meets its fate ... because they drive away the Gentiles, and then after the Gentiles have left, they leave also.”

The influx of Jews was driving away all of the wealthy WASPs, and with them, went their precious endowments.

Lowell, as well as his counterparts at Yale and Princeton, now had to think of a solution to this Jew problem. They tried to keep a 15 percent quota on Jewish populations in their classes, but while the admissions criteria was based solely on academic merit, the Jews were beating out the Gentiles repeatedly.

Finally, Lowell and his fellows came up with a solution: they figured that in order to keep the Jews from dominating the meritocratic system, they had to change the definition of “merit” to include more subjective factors, such as a person’s personal life.

Starting in the 1920s, Harvard started asking about extracurriculars, personal life and physical appearance.

In order to ensure a lower Jewish population, Harvard admissions officers devised a code to snuff out potential Jews. During their analysis of each candidate, each application suspected of Jewishness was given a j1 (“conclusively Jewish”), j2 (evidence pointed to Jewishness), or j3 (possibility of Jewishness).

By the end of Lowell’s presidency, he had successfully tamped down the Jewish population to under 15 percent.

Even though the Jew problem was solved, elite colleges institutional-

ized this new “character” based assessment and it spread rapidly.

In the meantime, Columbia University rolled out the first incarnation of the modern college application in 1919, changing the admissions game forever.

This first application was an 8 page form which started to include more probing questions such as “religious affiliation,” “mother’s maiden name,” and asked for a photograph. Harvard, Yale and Princeton soon followed Columbia’s example and created more structured criteria for admissions as well.

By the 1940s, colleges began honing the admissions process into something reminiscent of what we see today by requiring references, an interview, a letter from the principle of their high school, as well as standardized testing.

From around 1946 to 1956 there were 6 loose categories by which most applicants were judged: high school graduation, class rank, sufficient course load in designated subjects, principal recommendation, personal interview and aptitude and achievement test scores.

However, the process was still marked with bigotry and discrimination. Wilbur J. Bender, Harvard Dean of Admissions during the 1950s, said he wanted to prevent “surfeit of ‘pansies,’ ‘decadent esthetes’ and ‘precious sophisticates’ by honing their “ability to detect homosexual tendencies and serious psychiatric problems.” Yale University even had a physical appearance checklist through 1965.

In 1975, 15 liberal arts colleges put their heads together and decided that it was time create a standardized format for the college application that would take into account academic merit as well as a holistic evaluation of the student. And thus, a small pilot program called The Common Application was born.

More and more universities began to join the Common Application.

By 1980, there were more than 100 member institutions, and in 1994, Harvard University became the first Ivy League school to join the Common Application and the others soon followed.

However, college applications were still hand written and sent in via snail-mail. In 1998, the first online form for the Common Application launched.

Today, in 2016, over 600 colleges from around the world are part of the Common Application.

Now, it seems that we might be on the cusp of the newest evolution of the college admissions process. On Jan. 20, 2016, a report entitled, Turning the Tide: Inspiring Concern for Others and the Common Good Through College Admissions was published by a project of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The report, endorsed by over 50 schools, including the entire ivy league, outlined three areas in which college admissions should be reformed: “Promoting more meaningful contributions to others, community service and engaging with the public good; assessing students’ ethical engagement and contributions to others in ways that reflect varying types of family and community contributions across race, culture and class; redefining achievement in ways that both level the playing field for economically diverse students and reduce excessive achievement pressure.”

While this new directive points the college admissions game in a promising direction, it is still far from reality. As acceptance rates to the top tier of colleges plummet, children and their parents extend themselves to the outermost limits of what is humanly possible to appear attractive to ivy admissions officers. 

The relaxed environment of T-Rex, a start-up company in downtown St. Louis (Mitali Sharma).

STARTING UP

by MITALI SHARMA page editor

A look into start-up companies in St. Louis.

In a building belonging to a company called T-Rex, which helps businesses start up, hundreds of these companies have set up headquarters.

T-Rex keeps its own offices on the fifth floor. Upon entering, anyone would call this the exact replica of the stereotypical start up company.

The walls are painted with bright colors and huge glass windows line the walls. There is an open co-working space, where quotes are written upon the walls and entrepreneurs sit on couches using the array of computers or simply working on the latest project. There are conference rooms open to rent for those companies who do not have a formal base. There is a room with a fireplace built into the wall and a bar, where the latest reports of the 2016 presidential race are playing. This environment could easily scream “San Francisco” or “New York.” Yet, it’s sitting on Washington Avenue in downtown, this building is the embodiment of St. Louis’ very own start up scene.

Although people may not associate St. Louis with the booming start up culture that defines Silicon Valley or New York, St. Louis’ domain is rapidly expanding. From companies like Yurbuds to Velocidata, companies with new ideas are ready to call St. Louis home.

Kate Howell, director of venture philanthropy and external affairs for Arch Grants, a company which provides $50,000 grants to 20 companies out of 60 finalists in their start up pitch competition, has seen this growth first hand. She mentioned a Business Insider article which placed St. Louis as the city with the fastest growth of investment in starting companies as piece of evidence of the case.

“That’s really good news because people have been saying you can’t raise money in the midwest for a start up and that proves that it’s happening,” Howell said. “It may have been slower than other cities where they’ve been doing this for a long time and there’s a different attitude about venture capital and what it means to invest in start ups but we see that changing [in St. Louis] and that’s really exciting.”

One of the things that draws aspiring companies to St. Louis is the financial benefit. Unlike San Francisco and New York, renting office space in St. Louis is much easier and cheaper to get. The lower prices do not mean a significant drop in resources either.

Daniel Wiseman, co-founder and creative director of Pixel Press, which produces technology to allow kids to create their own video games, said, “when you’re a start up you are always watching the budget and you have to hire; [in St. Louis] there’s a huge talent pool of technically minded folks, there’s really great prices on real estate when you need an office, and there are co-working spaces.”

The proximity to Washington University, Barnes Jewish Hospital, and other institutions provide a talent pool to companies in Clayton or St. Louis looking to hire. For medical and technology fields, the research and resources in these organizations also is a plus.

Although some may look at it the other way, Howell also calls the location of the Midwest a major advantage.

“If you’re trying to build a national business and you’re right in the middle, it’s a pretty good place to be,” Howell said.

Yet, the main thing that distinguishes St. Louis’ start up culture from Silicon Valley or New York, is the community.

St. Louis, being smaller than San Francisco or big start up cities, provides a close knit work space for companies and easier access to companies like Boeing or Monsanto. The friendliness has also been noted.

“You come to St. Louis and everybody is there to help you through your crazy start up life,” said Howell. “We’re all in it together.”

This tightly knit community was also praised by Wiseman. “[San Francisco] is good for a lot of people but in St. Louis, the pace and the friendliness you see is a true advantage,” he said.

As the expanding start up culture seems to be guiding St. Louis towards the market of Silicon Valley, Howell is determined that this close knit-ness will stay the same and keep St. Louis a bit different.

“People say Silicon Prairie is the Midwest and Silicon Alley is New York but we should be ourselves and should do what we do best and for us [in St. Louis] that is supporting one another,” she said.

Howell is also optimistic for the future of this local scene.

“We want there to be a whole corridor of innovation between the Mississippi and Forest Park,” she said. 

F E AT U

R E 21

Sophomore Charlie Brennan struggles with a math problem.

FAST MATH For CHS sophomore Tong Zhao, math was never a challenge.

“In elementary school where everyone had to take the same math class, I used to get bored and frustrated with how slow the class was moving,” Zhao said.

However, beginning in third grade, Zhao and a few other students were pulled out of class once a week in order to explore math in ways beyond the standard curriculum. By the time he reached sixth grade, Zhao was two years ahead of his grade level and was offered an opportunity to be accelerated into an eighth grade level math class.

“When I got to sixth grade I skipped two grades in math,” Zhao said. “I enjoyed being challenged and it opened up new doors for me.”

Now a sophomore in AP Calculus BC, the most advanced math class offered at CHS, Zhao has little remorse about his decision. “I know that if I had been forced to stay in the regular math track I would’ve been out of my mind bored, and so would a lot of other people,” Zhao said.

However, since Zhao has been in the high school, the Clayton School District has adopted a new math curriculum, one which District Math Coordinator Angela Caracciolo describes as richer and more elevated. With this new curriculum, far fewer students will be accelerated as Zhao was.

“It’s irresponsible for us to [let students] jump over curriculum,” Caracciolo said. “It would be like watching a trilogy and saying, ‘We’re going to let you watch video one, and you liked that so much that you’re going to watch video three now.’”

For Caracciolo, accelerating students unnecessarily can be dangerous

by NICHOLAS LEE feature section editor with reporting by NEEL VALLURUPALLI for the students’ futures.

“When kids get to calculus, if they’re struggling in calculus, it has less to do about the calculus and more to do with the algebra,” Caracciolo explained. “And if they’re struggling in algebra, it has less to do with the algebra, and more to do with the pre-algebra concepts.”

CHS math teacher Barbara Dobbert echoed Caracciolo’s concerns on the dangers of acceleration.

“For some kids there may be a push, and it might not be quite right or a good fit. Then at the high school, they end up not being as successful as they were maybe in elementary,” Dobbert said.

According to Dobbert, many students who are accelerated in elementary or middle school are extremely successful, but a handful struggle once they reach the high school level. For Dobbert, it is vital that students are developmentally ready to handle complex mathematical concepts before they are accelerated.

“Sometimes the maturity isn’t there. It’s not the kids fault, because that’s just how the human body develops, but there are certain sets of skills and abilities you need to be in the honors program,” Dobbert said.

However, both Caracciolo and Dobbert still acknowledge the importance of challenging students.

“I’m teaching some freshmen that are still reviewing some basic math skills and then we’ve got some freshmen that are in Honors Precalculus.

To differentiate within our classes is, for some, the perfect thing,” Dob-

bert said.

“I have a pretty strong grasp of algebra, I’m pretty sure every single For Dobbert, acceleration is not the only way to challenge students. In person who has gotten to calculus is pretty strong in algebra,” he said. the past, Dobbert has worked individually with students to create addi- “The idea that no one can be bad at calculus simply on the merits of tional or more challenging math projects to complement or take the place calculus is ridiculous because calculus is an incredibly difficult subject of the standard curriculum. Caracciolo is working with teachers across to learn and master. The hardest part of calculus is not the algebra, it’s the district in order to develop similar options for enrichment at the el- the calculus.” ementary or middle school levels.

CHS sophomore Daniel Cho is also a year ahead in math and has few “We have a lot of resources and a lot of different strategies that we’re regrets about being accelerated. trying to use to deepen the curriculum at each level,” Caracciolo said. This “There are always going to be kids that are better at math than othmay involve better utilizing math specialers. If they’re better at it, then why not ists or enriching the curriculum by asking challenge them,” Cho said. students to think in different and new ways.

For Cho, having different level math “There are always goCaracciolo also believes that the new classes is beneficial to both high achieving ing to be kids that are math curriculum itself will help challenge and struggling students. better at math than othand elevate students’ learning.

“If there wasn’t [different levels of “[The curriculum] emphasizes a concrete, classes], one math class would have such a ers. If they’re better at pictorial and abstract model for all of the wide range of skills,” Cho said. “The teacher it, then why not chaldifferent lessons,” Caracciolo said. “So a high wouldn’t be able to accelerate the students achieving student might be able to see it abthat are doing well or give extra help to the lenge them.” (Cho) stractly very quickly. Their challenge might students that are doing poorly. I feel like be to draw a picture of it. Their struggle when you split up those classes at an early might be to bring them back down to the age, kids are better able to develop their concrete.” math skills and are better prepared for high school.”

Although it is still possible for students to be accelerated, there is a Although both still support accelerating students, Schneider and much more rigorous process, including the old standardized test, but add- Cho also know students who struggled after being accelerated. ing teacher recommendations and observations as well.

“Oftentimes, if you’re just good at crunching numbers, that’s not For Zhao and many others, being accelerated was an essential part in enough,” Schneider said. “A lot of times you have to be able to underthe development of their mathematical knowledge, and Caracciolo’s con- stand really abstract concepts a lot faster than people. It’s more so about cerns have not been an issue in their experience. CHS junior Ben Schnei- how you think than if you’re good at arithmetic.” der has been a year ahead in math since sixth grade and has encountered However, Schneider does believe that many people are capable of few problems as a result of his acceleration. being accelerated and that their success depends largely on their work “I remember that elementary and middle school math isn’t that hard ethic. to grasp,” Schneider said. “Once you understand it, there’s very little to “I would say it’s probably almost half work ethic. It’s possible to be move forward from that. For people who can get the theoretical concepts very good at math and not have a good work ethic but a lot of it is being faster than others, it’s a lot easier to move ahead than other people.” dedicated to it,” he said.

Although Schneider did technically skip sixth grade math, he still feels Regardless, it seems unlikely that the school district will return to like his learning is complete. the former math curriculum. According to Caracciolo, Clayton’s new “Because I bypassed a grade of math which was relatively early in the math curriculum is representative of a nationwide shift.

Clayton math track, I don’t feel like I am missing the basic knowledge that “To really be successful in this global society, you need to be able to many claim is absent for people who have been moved ahead in math,” problem solve, think logically and articulate that thinking,” Caracciolo he said. said, stressing that the intent is not to restrict math acceleration but to For Schneider, the difficulties he has encountered in math are unre- “make those decisions intentionally with all the best data, so we don’t lated to the fact that he was accelerated at the beginning of middle school. set students up to be unsuccessful.” 

F E AT

Photos by Nicholas Lee

URE

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intro Human beings are wired to compare themselves to others. They can fall into the trap of valuing themselves based upon their perception of others’ strengths and weaknesses.

In this technological world, not only can the lives of others be seen through social media, but people often compare themselves to the manipulated reality that these platforms are known to portray.

“You’re constantly comparing yourself to the best version of everybody else,” CHS sophomore Cindy Combs said. “You’re comparing the self that you know, the self that not a lot of other people know, to what everybody else wants the world to see, so something that’s probably not so great, to something that’s really great, and that usually makes you feel horrible.”

For Combs, social media usage has had a generally negative impact on her life. Interfaces such as Facebook and Instagram provide a medium on which her insecurities have been able to find a foothold.

Yet, according to Facebook, their intent was solely to give a place for connections to foster. “Founded in 2004, Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them,” according to the Facebook website.

Similarly, CHS senior Robert Hollocher sees the positive effects that social media can have on its users.

“I think the original purpose of social media was to connect with friends and keep in contact with people and also to share what you’re doing and really cool experiences,” Hollocher said. “I feel like a big part of social media, because there are likes and comments and things like that, part of it is people showing their support or appreciation of what you’re sharing.”

Social media has proved to have complex impacts on its users, both negative and positive, that have very real implications on everyday life.

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the rise According to a survey given to 115 CHS students, 94.7 percent have social media accounts. With the vast majority of students on services such as Facebook and Instagram, these technology platforms can play a large part in their lives and connections with other people.

“My social media accounts are important to me because when I meet new people, I can friend them. Just recently I met some new people and when we friended each other on Facebook, it solidified the friendship,” CHS senior Jolena Pang said. “Even when I’m not with them, I can be part of the group chats and it connects me to friend groups that I wouldn’t be part of otherwise.”

Although constant connection can have a positive impact in terms of building relationships, users are often surrounded by information regarding the actions of their peers -- which can bring its own slew of negative effects.

Hollocher thinks that his social media accounts have had unfavorable effects on his well-being.

“I honestly believe that I would be happier and my mental health would be better without social media accounts. But because they’re such a big part of our generation and my life, I don’t think I’d have enough strength to delete it,” he said. “So they are important to me, but I do wish I didn’t place so much importance in them.”

Even though social media was intended solely as a means for casual connection, for some people it has become something of an addiction. Of the CHS students surveyed, 59.1 percent reported spending over an hour a day on their various technology, scrolling through apps such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

“Well, when I was 13 I was going through a rough time and I was just like, ‘Maybe social media is, like, all I need,’” CHS sophomore Meghan Stransky said. “I just kind of stayed on Instagram for hours at a time and I would just go through so much so it just sucked me out of everything, and I was like a social media zombie, I was constantly scrolling through my phone.”

Likewise, CHS sophomore Liz Szabo, similar to many, uses her online accounts to pass time, something which can be regarded as unproductive.

“It just ends up sucking so much time out of my day,” Szabo said. “I feel like social media has really taken over our lives, in all aspects and has really gone beyond its purposes [that it was] created for, and I think it’d be a lot better if we only spent 15 minutes on it in a day instead of the amount we really spend.”

For some, constant social media usage may be rooted in the desire to stay up to date with the lives of others, but being plugged into social media can often cause users to overlook other elements of their lives.

“When you keep looking at pictures of other people on social media, you start to feel like you’re missing out on the things that they’re doing,” CHS junior Grace Monshausen said. “But in reality, you’re missing out on things by looking at your phone all the time.”

Additionally, the usage of social media has resulted in a smaller amount of face-to-face communication and given users the ability to use the interface of technology as a means of interaction.

CHS Assistant Principal Ryan Luhning recognizes the downfalls of this.

“Us old people are certainly concerned about the lack of human to human contact, interactions and talking. You used to have to talk problems out more whereas now you can get on a text message or Twitter or Snapchat and say whatever you want to say,” Luhning said. “I always say it is like hiding behind a keyboard instead of trying to work your problems out.”

In this new age of online social interaction, more and more adolescents are coming onto the scene. WMS Assistant Principal Matt Balossi views social media as being an unnecessary impediment to the development of young people.

“The way that I talk to middle schoolers and parents, most middle schoolers are having a hard enough time with figuring out how to be a good friend and how to relate to their peers in person.

If you put a device in between that, it just complicates things,” Balossi said. “For the vast majority of middle schoolers, social media isn’t a good thing for them and it’s not something they should be on.”

Although he has noticed a large increase in technology usage in his time at CHS, Luhning has observed that the usage of social media in Clayton is, for the most part, positive. He credits part of this to the dedication the Clayton School District has put into educating its students about Internet usage.

“I know our parents and our District really try to talk about the dangers, whether it be personal conversations or [an] overarching conversation, we try to talk about the dangers and the proper way to use the wonderful technology that we have,” Luhning said. “The wonderful social media areas that we have, that you guys have access to, I think, for the most part, our kids do a pretty good job of [using it well].”

As society becomes more invested in technological interaction, the way that humanity approaches the increasing effect it has on life becomes more important.

“Social media is here to stay, you know?” Dr. Ryia Ross-Peterson of Clayton Pediatric Associates said. “We’ve got to find a way to deal with it because it’s not going away.”

portrayal

In the virtual world, people have the ability to choose which parts of their lives they share. This often involves showing perfect shots of the beautiful vacations people go on, the parties they attend and exciting moments in their lives. A person scrolling through a profile which has pictures such as these may correlate the impressiveness of the self they portray on social media with whom they really are. This perception, though, is incomplete. The self that someone chooses to portray often glosses over or even disregards any shortcomings or imperfections that person has.

This manipulated representation can come across as a means by which a person boasts about their seemingly fascinating life when, oftentimes, it is not reality.

“I feel like some of it is almost bragging or putting up a front

that may not be true,” Hollocher said. “I used to get really upset when people would post pictures of parties that I didn’t go to or wasn’t invited to. That was really upsetting. When I do go to those kind of parties and I see that stuff, they’re posing to make it look fun when it’s really not fun at all. On Facebook, it looks like the time of their lives. It was really just the picture that made it this way. That’s why it can be destructive.”

In addition to exaggerating and staging certain situations that may inspire jealousy in others, one may also alter the self they project on social media in the attempt to improve their own self-image.

“People want to portray how they look on social media, which is very different from the way they look in real life,” Pang said. “So if you’re not happy with your life, you can construct an external image of it on social media. You can basically fool people’s perceptions of who you are or even what you look like.”

Humans hope to find approval in altering themselves -- approval which they translate into societal acceptance.

“A like or a comment on social media means way too much. The amount of likes you get can make it seem like you have a lot of friends or people think you’re really pretty or really cool when it doesn’t really measure anything,” Monshausen said. “That’s not something that’s real.”

Recently, Hollocher posted a video on Facebook which he soon became embarrassed by because it did not receive the amount of likes that he considered to be “acceptable.”

“That was upsetting because I really liked it, but felt like I couldn’t post it because I feel like if I’m not getting enough likes, I’m not good enough,” Hollocher said.

“Social media is here to stay, you know? We’ve got to find a way to deal with it because it’s not going away.”

-Dr. Ryia Ross-Peterson

self-esteem Tim Bono, a psychology professor at Washington University in St. Louis, specializes in positive psychology and studies self-esteem. “[A person with low self-esteem] does not think very highly of himself, they don’t like themselves, they don’t like what they do, they don’t feel that they have much to be proud of, they don’t really feel they are a person of worth,” Bono said.

Connie Jones, a licensed professional counselor, believes that social media use may have negative impacts on a person with low self-esteem or even lead to a person’s development of a lower self-esteem.

“If you have a low self-esteem, you’re more vulnerable to what happens on social media,” Jones said. “If there wasn’t a vulnerability there, [social media] could create one.”

Contrastly, Luhning does not think that social media use results in a lower self-esteem, rather technology gives people an additional platform to talk about their varying emotions.

“I think self-esteem is not any worse than before social media,” Luhning said. “I think it is more publicized now. If someone is feeling low or not very good, they might post something, text someone, they might put something out there.”

Similarly, Balossi has not noticed a decrease in self-esteem of social media users versus nonusers at the middle school level.

“We have a ton of kids who aren’t on social media at all, and I think that if we took that pocket of kids that were on social media versus the pocket of kids that aren’t on social media, I’d wager to guess that we’d see the same bell curve

Nearly 50% of Clayton students feel that social media has a significant impact on their self esteem

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of self-esteem,” Balossi said.

But, the reality of the situation is that there is no definite answer.

“There have been some scientists that are trying to tease this apart, so we don’t know if it’s that people who have low self-esteem are more likely to spend time on social media or if the act of spending time on social media actually decreases your self-esteem; that’s something we are still trying to figure out,” Bono said. “There are some who have made the case, and pretty convincingly, that spending time on social media actually does diminish your psychological health and well-being, but the jury’s still out.”

It may even be the case that each of these factors plays a role in the other and that there is no definite cause and effect, but rather that each is affected, to some degree, by the other.

60.7 percent of surveyed students said that they compare themselves to others they see on social media. This may play a pivotal role in the potentially negative effects social media has on users.

“Before social media, before you look at what someone else is doing with their life, you feel good about yourself.

You might look in the mirror and be like, ‘You know what?

I have made progress from a point where I used to be.’ And then you look at what somebody else is doing and suddenly all that progress, all that work that you may have put in, it’s totally irrelevant because you’re not them,” Combs said.

“And so suddenly it doesn’t matter if you were happy with who you were five minutes ago, because now you want to be them. And you’re never going to be them. So you fall into an existential crisis and then you’re stuck because you’re never going to reach that goal.”

One of the more substantial areas of comparison is of the body. Since a majority of communication and self-portrayal on social platforms is through pictures, comparison of physical features is inevitable for some.

Dr. Patricia Speier, a practicing psychiatrist and professor at University of California, San Francisco is currently studying social media use among adolescents.

“There’s evidence of [a correlation between social media and self-esteem], especially for young women, there’s a study where they clock how many hours people are on social media and if they are on it past a certain number of hours, it’s bad for their body image,” Speier said.

With the popularization of hashtags coining the term “body goals,” a definition of the “ideal” is developed. When one realizes that they do not meet these ideals, they may feel inadequate or undesirable and, consequently, attempt to alter their lives in attempt to do so.

“A lot of my peers are like, ‘Oh my gosh, this person is

60% of students compare themselves to others on social media

so perfect I wish I could be them!’ and then they freak out,” Stransky said. “[I have] a friend that was trying to cut down on the amount of food she was eating because she’s like, ‘Look at this person, they look so nice! Look at their waist, it’s so tiny!’ and I was like ‘Dude, that’s not healthy.’”

Courtney*, a senior who recently struggled with an eating disorder, believes that the way she compared her body to the ones she saw on social media lowered her confidence.

“When I would be feeling really badly about my body image and then look at what other people are posting, especially during the summer, and everyone looks beautiful, and you’re like, ‘Oh my goodness, I wish I could look like that or be confident enough to post that,’” Courtney said.

“Not even just that, but if you look at fitness models on Instagram, you start feeling like you’re not enough if you don’t look like that. So that would hurt my self-esteem.”

psychology The growth of technology usage in our society has altered human interaction. When given the choice of communicating via text message, social media or some other electronic platform, the face-to-face contact and real life interaction that is crucial to one’s well-being is lost.

“I think what I’ve seen progress is just the over reliance on technology to supposedly connect,” Jones said. “There’s a whole field now called Interpersonal Neurobiology, it’s basically psychobabble for how important it is for human beings to have face-to-face supportive interactions with each other, like how important that is for our minds, our bodies, our spirits; social media does not take the place of that.”

Speier also believes that this mode of communication, specifically the popular texting culture, can change our brain chemistry in unprecedented ways.

“Texting and social media sort of interrupt the capacity for people to have real alone time, have real time where they don’t have to give automatic, [oh my gosh] kinds of responses to things, and there’s the potential to lose all the good neurochemicals that come with face-to-face contact,” Speier said. “Eye contact is really good for humans and laughter, real laughter, shared, is one of the best antidepressants around. If you’re doing all these connections virtually, you’re not talking to people.”

Similar to Jones’ views, Ross-Peterson sees the effect this impersonal connection has on relationships, especially for those held in adolescence.

“I think more often people say things on social media that they wouldn’t say to somebody’s face, you don’t get the emotion when you talk to people on social media that you would [by] talking to them in person,” Ross-Peterson said.

“So it’s a little difficult to interpret, it can lead to distance between people, or superficial relationships. I think teenagers are happier when they have a really close-knit small group of friends in which they can really confide and have deep relationships. And that is what I find that causes the most happiness. But social media doesn’t foster this kind of relationship.”

Teenagers are biologically more susceptible to many factors as their brains have yet to fully develop. The rise in social technology further complicates this time of development.

“We know that a young person’s brain is more plastic so

it is not fully formed just yet and so teens and young adults are more impressionable for that reason,” Bono said. “It’s the same reason why bullying can affect young kids more than it would in adults. That’s not to say that adults wouldn’t be affected by it, but it can be really traumatizing for a young [person] because they don’t yet fully have a developed sense of self just yet and, for that reason, yes, the things that people see on social media are going to be much more impactful for a young person relative to a middle-aged or older person.”

Moreover, Speier finds that social media can begin to affect other parts of the life of an adolescent as well.

“You are constantly distracting yourself with thoughts about social things or other people and other issues at a time where learning how to focus on your own agenda is really vital,” Speier said. “This is creating fragmentations in people’s capacity to be mindful. And, in that way, it works against healthy normative development. That’s a major downside.”

As the usage of social media becomes more habitual, humans become prone to wanting to be on their devices, checking their social media accounts.

According to Speier, high definition screens may cause our brains to release dopamine. With increased usage, a social media user’s desire to check their accounts grows as they experience both positive and negative reinforcements from their online interactions. This may be because they wish to reaffirm their self worth, which creates an overdependence on social media in their daily life.

“With any time there’s variable reinforcement -- and so-

“People want to portray how they look on social media, which is very different from the way they look in real life.

So if you’re not happy with your life, you can construct an external image of it on social media. You can basically fool people’s perceptions of who you are or even what you look like.”

-Jolena Pang

cial media is a perfect example of that kind of variable reinforcement -- you’re going to get more tendency towards addictive behavior,” Speier said.

All one has to do is refresh the page on their Facebook account to receive new information. With social media constantly updating, the lure of staying online may be rooted in the desire to stay up to date as well as in the entertainment offered by the barrage of things to look at.

“Any time there’s not set frameworks for something, people go on Facebook. [Kids and adults] expect to be on [social media] for half an hour, and they’re on it for an hour and a half. It’s a real time thing,” Speier said.

effects Even though the effects of social media aren’t exclusively negative, it’s better to limit the amount of exposure to it.

“I would have teenagers ask themselves when they’re on social media, ‘Is this really making me happy, is this really what I want to be doing right now?’ The answer is probably no,” Ross-Peterson said.

The reasons why a person may spend time on social media differs widely. For some, it may be a way to fill time, a way to find more friends or maybe to boost their self esteem.

Bono believes that, regardless of the reason, spending a lot of time on social media is an unhealthy use of time as it can have harmful effects.

“Try to find out if there is a more productive way to address that. If it’s because you’re bored, maybe you play a video game, maybe you go for a walk because that has a whole bunch of health benefits, maybe you help a neighbor, get a head start on your homework or something,” Bono said.

“Maybe it’s just because you need a simple bout of procrastination, which we all need every once in awhile, but there are other ways that you can procrastinate that don’t have those psychologically harmful effects that we’ve been finding with social media.”

Cutting social media out of one’s life completely may be unrealistic, so Bono advises merely limiting the amount of time that one spends on technology.

“It’s hard to avoid it, so if you can’t get off of it completely, at least pay attention to how much time you are spending on it, because another thing that we know about behavior modification is that one of the most effective ways to modify behaviors is simply to observe it,” Bono said. “The simple act of paying attention to how often you engage in those behaviors will end up modifying the behavior in the direction of the desired outcome.”

Speier agrees with Bono in that one must control their usage so as to not lose themselves and their sense of time in their technology.

“You want to have certain times when you’re available [to be on social media] and other times when you’re not available. If you want to do well academically, stay away from social media while you’re studying,” Dr. Speier said. “Don’t go back and forth and check in and check out, because that will make it hard. A lot people will, last thing before they go to bed, check their social media. That’s not a good idea.

You want to basically have 45 minutes or more from the last check-in so that you have time to emotionally process it if you need to. You can reset yourself towards bed and allow yourself to sleep. Try to resist that frequent check-in because it’s really hard on you psychologically.”

The progression of social media and societal pressures encourages humans to spend large amounts of time on social media and makes them feel like it is acceptable to do so when, in reality, those who do are only experiencing life through a screen. “[Spending excessive amounts of time on social media] is the tendency everybody has, and then the rest of the world goes by,” Speier said. 

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Long with her daughter, Madison, at the pool. (photo from Katelyn Long)

SWIMMING ALONG

Q&A with Katelyn Long, CHS math teacher, girls’ swim coach and mother of one-year-old daughter, Madison.

by MARICLARE GATTER reporter right?” and she said it didn’t matter to her. It was annoying to hear at the time but it makes me smile now. My parents never forced me to swim or tried to convince me to go to practice, they were really good about letting me decide what was right for me.

How has swimming shaped your life?

I can’t think of anything that has shaped who I am more than swimming. I learned so much about commitment, hard work, setting goals, handling disappointment with grace, handling any emotion with grace, time management, priorities, confidence and how to believe in myself.

I’m the teacher, coach and mom that I am today because of the values that I learned from swimming.

When did you start swimming competitively?

I started swimming competitively on my 9th birthday - it was all I wanted for my birthday. I joined a summer league team in Michigan and since my birthday is on July 9th, there were 3 weeks left in the season.

When I swam a 25 for the coach and he was really excited, I didn’t really know why, but I guess I was pretty speedy. I ended up going to the conference and making finals a couple weeks later. I didn’t start swimming year round until I was 11, which is late for most club swimmers. It was a big decision for my family because it required a lot of driving and carpooling to and from practice.

When did you know that you wanted to swim in college?

I don’t think I really thought about it too much. I was pretty naive in the sense that I really liked swimming and I was just having fun. When I was younger I was more interested in what color my ribbon was rather than my time. I would try to collect all of the colors. I had no idea I would end up swimming as long as I did. I tried not to think about it too much and just let things happen. I figured I would swim in college because all of my teammates ended up swimming somewhere, but I was shocked when coaches from Rice, University of Kansas and University of Iowa started to call me.

Who was your No. 1 cheerleader when you were swimming?

My mom and dad, hands down. My parents were extremely supportive. They drove me to practice no matter what time I had to be at practice or how far away the pool was. We always sat down for dinner as a family even if we had to work around practice schedules -- my brother also swam, so there were two different schedules to balance. My parents were always proud of me. I remember having a not so great swim meet and in the car ride home my mom kept saying how great I looked in the pool. I stopped her and said, “You know I just went 5 seconds slower than my best time,

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When did you start taking Madison, your daughter, to swim?

I don’t think we have really “taught” her to swim just yet. She loves the water, which was a relief for my husband and I because we were both swimmers. Babies are born with an innate ability to hold their breath when they are underwater, so when Madison was around 6-months-old we started to take her to the pool, lake, river, to swim with her. It is always a good way to keep her busy and she is pretty tired out after so she takes a long nap. Most importantly, she has the best swimsuit wardrobe I have ever seen.

Do you hope that Madison becomes interested in swimming?

I would love for Madison to swim competitively, but I’m going to take a similar role to what my parents did for me. I never want her to feel like she is swimming for any other reason than that it is what she loves to do.

I know that I know a lot about the sport, but I don’t want to be the one instructing her, I think it is important that someone else coaches her so I get to be the proud parent.

What has this season been like for you in comparison with ones in the past?

It was really important to me that I coach this season. It is something that I love doing and really care about. It was important to me that my swimmers see that I can be a mom and still do what I love to do. It is stressful at times and I have some hard days when I wish I could be with Madison more, but when I see the team swimming fast or individuals making a lot of improvement it makes me really happy. Swimming was a really positive part of my life and I want to make it a positive experience for the girls on our team too. I try to make the team an extension of my family. I think the team members can relate to me and see where I’m coming from the more they know about me. I talk about my family all the time. On Madison’s first birthday, we had a swim meet. So rather than missing her birthday, I had Andrew and my mom bring Madison up to the pool with cupcakes so we could all celebrate together. 

Junior Pierce Sams has made her presence felt on the girls’ varsity basketball team after returning from a concussion.

ATH

PRO

LETE

FILE

by MADELINE BALE reporter

PIERCING THE GAME Sams lining up for a free throw shot.

(Alex Gerchen) One moment, she was sprinting across the field, her fingers curled around the smooth exterior of a lacrosse stick. Then, everything changed.

Junior Pierce Sams is no stranger to injury. In September 2014, Sams suffered her second concussion, a severe head injury that ended her lacrosse season abruptly and hindered her chances of participating on the CHS girls basketball team the following winter.

Starting her Clayton basketball career as a freshman on the junior varsity team, Sams wanted nothing more than to return to basketball as a sophomore.

“It was my second [concussion], and my family decided that it was not a good idea for me to play basketball in the winter with the season starting so soon,” Sams said.

The concussion made it impossible for Sams to participate in the winter of last year, but she trained diligently during this time. By spring, Sams was ready for the girls lacrosse season.

“Taking a break from basketball turned out for the best, honestly,” Sams said, referring to the hard work that she put in to recover her basketball skills after the break. This year, Sams was able to return stronger than ever.

“I am so grateful that the coach gave me a chance to redeem myself,” Sams said. “He saw me play over the summer, and everything worked itself out.”

Although it is only her second year playing basketball for Clayton, Sams earned a spot on the varsity team and has led her team to many victories. Many of Sams’ successes come from the instruction that she has received at Clayton, Sams played basketball competitively far before

she walked the halls of CHS. “I played all the way through elementary and middle school,” Sams said. “I’ve loved basketball since the beginning.”

Sams’ interest in basketball first developed as she watched her older sister, a 2013 CHS graduate, play basketball for Clayton throughout her entire high school career.

“I watched [my sister] for four years and was able to witness how significant basketball was in her life. It always seemed so amazing, so I decided to follow in her footsteps and go after the same thing,” said Sams.

However, Sams did not only watch her role model from a distance.

“Whenever [my sister] practiced, I was right there beside her, learning the moves and gaining that love and appreciation of the game that is so important,” Sams said.

In addition to advice from her sister, Sams values the lessons that she has learned from teammates Hannah Milbourn and Kaitlyn White. With a torn ACL, Milbourn has shown Sams how precious the opportunity to play basketball truly is.

“Even though [Hannah] can’t play, she is so supportive and spirited, and she reminds me to use my time on this team wisely,” Sams said. “Not everyone gets to play, so I consider myself so fortunate.”

Sams’ teammates feel as though she has truly made the most out of her return to basketball.

“Whether it be in the games or at practice, there is never a second when Pierce is not hustling,” teammate Hannah Milbourn said.

Sams’ skill with the ball is not her only attribute that makes her a great addition to the team.

“I truly admire Pierce’s passion for the game and her determination to succeed,” Milbourn said.

With the help of Sams, the Lady Hounds basketball team have performed at a level much higher than previous years, earning a record of 15-4 thus far.

“The season has been going really well. In the beginning, [the team] won an important tournament that hadn’t been won by Clayton in many years,” Sams said.

The varsity basketball team is excited about their newest addition.

Sams’ return has made a huge difference in the morale and performance of the Greyhounds.

“At the rate she is going, Pierce will be one of our best and most-valued players this year and the following one,” Milbourn said.

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ANDY AT THE BAT

Rosenthal gives us a look inside the world of CHS alum and baseball aficionado Andy Rochman

Rochman at his Clayton home with a fraction of his immense collection of 2000 baseball books Clayton High School Class of 1965 graduate Andy “The Rock” Rochman oozes baseball knowledge. The free-spirited Rochman, whom Clayton residents may have spotted early in the mornings at the Starbucks Coffee on Hanley Rd. perched, no matter the weather, in something in the realm of a Hawaiian shirt, shorts and a Daffy Duck hat, has for the past five years crafted baseball columns which he dispatches to a loyal readership via email nearly every morning.

Though absorbing the sound of the sweet crack of a wooden bat against its spherical, cream-colored best friend has rivaled the importance of breathing in oxygen for Rochman through the majority of his life, only recently did Rochman’s passion for baseball and his desire to write about the game interweave.

A self-prescribed “one-sport guy,” Rochman’s baseball zeal is unparalleled in a city that prides itself in boasting the best fans in baseball. Rochman estimates he owns about 2000 baseball books and indexes, including writings on the game stretching back to the nineteenth century.

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by KEVIN ROSENTHAL senior managing editor

But Rochman, the former Clayton Greyhound, never had any personal journalistic aspirations in high school. In fact, Rochman thoroughly grappled with written expression during his adolescent days. “I was a lousy writer. In high school, I was more interested in other activities than learning how to be a writer. I was mathematically inclined and became a pension actuary,” Rochman said. “Along the way in business, though, I ultimately had to learn how to articulate in writing, so I did. But I never thought about being a sportswriter.”

Something shifted, however, for the bohemian Rochman in the late stages of his career. Rochman started to foresee a future that, above all else, included his writing.

Rochman was not willing to allow the final years of his full-time job interfere with the cultivation of his newfound passion through launching his writing “About five years ago, somebody said to me, ‘What do you want to do when you retire?’ And I said ‘Well, I want to write.’ And then I started thinking, why should I wait until I retire? Why not just start now, so that when I do retire, I’ll already be doing what I want to do anyway? And now what year is this, ‘16?” Rochman said.

The first time Rochman publicized his writing was during the Tony LaRussa era of Cardinals baseball. Rochman wrote what he calls “beef sessions,” criticizing the former manager of the Redbirds.

Charmed, though many of Rochman’s readers were with his original columns, the general negativity embedded within Rochman’s early work caused his followers to want to see another perspective to the writing of their beloved “Rock.” Critique from his readership helped Rochman evolve into the more versatile writer he is today.

“People said to me, ‘Hey, write something positive.’

And I realized they were right. I listen to my readers. If there is negative feedback from a reader of mine, I don’t just say ‘Oh, you’re full of [it],’” Rochman said. “So I started writing a lot of nostalgia pieces. But then I realized not everyone wants to read about what happened fifty years ago, so I started writing commentary on more contemporary issues. And in my current writing, I try to differentiate myself by just staying outside the box, by always continuing to say how I feel.

And a lot of the stories I write germinate from comments I’ve received on my other writings.”

Rochman, having only retired within the last year, is now finally able to more fully commit his energies to his writing. Amidst a modern world which seems to indoctrinate humans that the motivation behind their daily endeavors should be for gain in fortune or publicity, Rochman’s infinite spirit for his work is a reassuring example of how enriching daily human experience can be when one follows his passion.

“Writing is what I want to do. There’s never drudgery in writing a daily column, and if there was, I would just stop,” Rochman said. “And I did stop, I wouldn’t have to refund your subscription price, which is nice. Basically, if everybody said get me off of your email list, I’d still write. I do it because I want to do it.”

Rochman’s devotion to writing his columns is indisputable. Though he concedes he may have missed a day or two of writing once and a while

during vacations, Rochman truly has put forth a near-daily investment to his work. Rochman estimates he has written about 1200 columns since his email endeavors began. To maintain his schedule, Rochman says he is constantly planning and writing ahead.

Writing, though sometimes quite laborious for Rochman - considering the undying gusto with which he approaches his daily work - never becomes monotonous for “The Rock.”

“Writing isn’t drudgery, and in fact, the pieces I enjoy the most are the ones that make me really have to get in there and dig. I did one piece, for example, on what I called the etymology of the allstar game. I really did some research on that topic for a long time and I loved every minute of that process,” Rochman said.

As a baseball history connoisseur, nothing would please Rochman more than to angle his writing primarily on the past of America’s pastime.

Capable of spewing out a boundless supply of facts on the history of the game of baseball, Rochman does, indeed, focus much of his writing on baseball tidbits from his childhood, or even on events which occurred before the birth of “The Rock.”

But though a vast portion of Rochman’s readership demographic are around his own age and would be pleased to read nothing other than scoop on the pastime’s past-times, “The Rock” forces himself to remain conscious that people of all ages holding different interests within the game of baseball are reading his work.

“If I could just write about historical stuff, my columns would probably be 99 percent historical.

But I think variety in my daily columns is extremely important. What I want to do is write. And what I write about is secondary to the fact that I’m writing,” Rochman said.

Because Rochman writes as a passion and not for financial yield, he is able to generate his own rules as to how he executes his daily craft. Thus, the daily writing process remains fluid for the chirpy “Rock.”

“If I get an idea I jot it down and I may not come back to it until six months later. Or sometimes I’ll write something and say this is going out Monday, but then some newsworthy happening will take place in the modern baseball world and that will bump what I would have written Monday to another day. So it’s totally flexible,” Rochman said.

Even to any non-lover of baseball, reading Rochman’s columns can serve as an illuminating source of what can bloom of an adrenalized man at work. Rochman’s singular, sprightly flair bulges in his writing and echoes through his personality.

“I think eccentric is a great way to describe me.

I do my own thing. I embarrass my wife with the clothing I wear when we go out. I have a lot of different interests, and I try to weave them into the writing,” Rochman said.

Rochman’s mind constantly whirling with a number of floating baseball ideas. He does not limit his stories to topics on current events during the MLB season. Rochman has so much freedom in the writing process that even the day after an exciting regular season Cardinals game, he will

Snippets of Rochman’s extensive memorabilia Photos by Kevin Rosenthal

sometimes forgo writing a story on that game in favor of sending a piece to his readership about a different subject within the realm of baseball.

“I don’t have to write in the box. Sometimes, what I’ve done - for example, is if the Cardinals suffered a 1-0 loss, and we had 15 men on base and couldn’t knock one in- the next day I won’t even write about the game,” Rochman said. “I’ll write about something else in the baseball world, because I want the perspective that each game really is just a game. So, I keep in mind what’s going on, but the free-spirit part to my work is nobody tells me what to is write, nobody tells me how to write, nobody gives me a word count. I don’t have to, like the professional sportswriters, worry about the after-the-game buffet that I wouldn’t be invited to.”

Some traits of a sportswriter have actually emerged in Rochman personality recently, however. Though Rochman can be as free-spirited as he pleases, and can, rather than worry about reactions from his readership, embrace the responses that arise whether positive or negative, he has nevertheless developed a sort of journalistic point-of-view while watching baseball, even if time, rather than profession shaped this.

“I do still get emotional, but when a season is over, a season is over. That doesn’t mean when I’m watching a game I don’t still get wrapped up.

I enjoy good baseball. But in time, I’ve gained other perspectives. As an example, in the past year and a half, I have lost nine friends and relatives. So losing a ballgame doesn’t affect me too much,” Rochman said.

“When the Cardinals were eliminated by the Cubs this year, it didn’t bother me. In fact, if someone ever said to me now I have World Series tickets and I have an extra one for you, I would say - take a kid. Take someone who has never been there. Because I already know this game and all its beauty. Because I have been there, I’ve already seen it. I’ve seen it all,” Rochman said.

A lover of people and unafraid of others’ reactions to his personal intricacies, Rochman, at age 70, lives authentically to himself, and has truly found his stride in life. His advice for young, ambitious Clayton teens: “Decide what you want to be, and then decide how much you like eating,” Rochman said, “[and] never be afraid to have someone read something you write.”

Delighted to share his words with any reader, Rochman would be glad to add any interested subscriber to his list. And for anyone wanting to add some flavor to daily events and enter at some fragment of the baseball realm in doing so, there is no more accessible and rousing way for this than awaiting the words the pair of Rochman’s eccentric mind each day will craft, reading the passionate words brewed daily by “The Rock.” 

LOGAN AND LES HEAD WEST

The Snead family moves from Clayton to Los Angeles as a result of the St. Louis Rams’ approved relocation.

by KEVIN ROSENTHAL senior managing editor

Rams General Manager Les Snead (on right) at a 2014 press conference after a historic NFL Draft Chris Lee/St. Louis PostDispatch/MCT Through the years of Clayton High School’s existence, trickles of students have funneled out of CHS in the middle of school years for a myriad of possible reasons: some have moved to a new home in another county, plenty others have sought alternative forms of schooling as opposed to the classic daily approach of being in classrooms from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM, a handful more students have been expelled from CHS, altogether.

How frequently, though, has a student ceased attending Clayton High in the middle of a school year because his father is the General Manager of a professional football team which has just been granted approval by the NFL to pack its blue and gold painted moving trucks and head west to Los Angelos? The trucks driven by a man with a mysteriously greying toupee and mustache, euphorically groping hundred dollar bills, while frantically typing the word “Hollywood,” into his iPhone Maps app before this “moving-truck driver” promptly tramples the gas pedal to tread as far

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from his home state as possible.

The CHS record books have been thoroughly examined.

The answer: not very frequently.

But for now former CHS freshman Logan Snead, this not so frequently encountered reason for a student’s permanent departure from Clayton High, where the Executive’s son would have starred for the Hounds over the next three years at Gay Field in Clayton football’s incandescent orange-on-orange uniforms, minus the entire Enos-Stanley-Kroenke-as-atruck-driver-phantasmagoria, has become a reality.

After NFL owners voted 30-2 on Jan. 12 in favor of Stan Kroenke’s relocation plan moving the Rams from St. Louis to Inglewood, CA in a multi-billion dollar sports stadium and nirvana, the Snead family, who had become entrenched in the Clayton community since their arrival in 2012, had to act quickly to depart for their new lives in southern California.

“Life's all about how you adjust to changing variables, and we had to adjust quickly,” Rams GM Les Snead told the CHS Globe.

Logan Snead’s first day at his new school in Los Angeles was Feb. 1st.

Any diehard Rams fan who has watched over the last four years Les Snead’s assemblage of young and talented pieces proven to be capable of defeating just about any NFL team on a given Sunday knows that beneath Les Snead’s ravishing blonde flow of hair, the man has a sharp football mind.

Snead’s smarts were re-affirmed through his words to the CHS Globe, in which the Rams GM impressively compared his gratitude for the eminence of the Clayton community to the appreciation a sports fan or professional player analyst such as himself feels when watching a transcendent quarterback at work.

“Anytime you get a chance to be around one those QBs or live in one of these communities it's going to make a major impact for good in your family’s lives. Clayton is a tier one, top tier, franchise community,” Les Snead said.

Though the Snead family is excited to tackle the bright lights of Hollywood, Les still recognizes the positive impact the simple beauties of the Clayton community have had on his family.

“Many things to miss, the most being the schools. Clayton High and the rest of the schools are unique. Next are the people and their kids and being able to walk anywhere ... I'll even miss the high dive at Shaw Park,” Les Snead said.

Logan Snead, whose early part of his childhood took place in Atlanta, where his father had been a scout and then executive for the Falcons from 1997-2011, moved to St. Louis when his father first got the job as the Rams GM. Logan went through Wydown Middle School and spent slightly more than one semester at CHS. Now already settled in at his new school in Los Angeles, Logan reflected back on his time in Clayton and echoed his father's positive sentiments about the Clayton community.

"Clayton was great," Logan Snead said. "I loved it. I'm going to miss the people and the atmosphere the most. Everyone was so friendly, and the amount of freedom was great."

Had Kroenke’s Inglewood plan not passed through NFL owners, prompting the Rams to stay in St. Louis at least one more year to “rock the dome,” the Snead family would have felt more than comfortable in a school district and community which adopted and embraced them.

Les Snead was praiseworthy of Clayton High School, hailing the school from the administration, downward, while recognizing CHS’ auspicious influence on Logan. “The first time I visited Clayton High, people like Ryan Luhning and Dan Gutchewsky were the type of people you wanted to develop your kid. There was no doubt,” Les Snead said.

“I really respect what the teachers did for Logan ... He's a better young man and student because of their passion and heart for young men and women.”

Though the plate of Les Snead while he was in St. Louis already was overflowing with mounds of responsibility in building his own football team, family remained priority for Les who was dedicated to the success of his children within the Clayton community.

Snead appeared at Gay Field every autumn Friday night during the 2015 season, which ran concurrently to the Rams season, to support Logan and his blooming football career.

An only child raised by a single mother and deeply devoted to his own football career growing up, Les has experienced the power football coaches can exert on players to not only serve as mentors, but also as fatherly figures.

When Les Snead first met head coach Gene Gladstone in 2015 - Gladstone who would go onto to revitalize Clayton's football program in his first season as Clayton's coach - Snead was an instant believer.

"I was raised by football coaches so I know the impact football coaches can make on a kid. Gene shared with me his vision for the program

and he was passionate about his vision. Probably three minutes into a twenty minute meeting I knew Gene was the type of man and coach that I wanted Logan raised by," Logan Snead said. "I told many people that spring that Gene was special, that anyone would want him developing their kid, that he was going to ignite the Clayton Football program."

Logan made Clayton's varsity squad as a freshman, and played linebacker. He very well may have played an instrumental role in Clayton’s football future had the Rams stayed in St. Louis, as Logan was also one of the Hounds' backup quarterbacks his freshman year, showing promise under center. And though Logan will never again don the infernal greyhound orange, armed with inspiration from the silver-ponytailed Coach Gladstone, Logan will continue his football career next fall in the Golden State.

"Coach Gladstone taught me a lot. He believed in me. He helped me fit in. He also has an awesome ponytail. I'm thankful to have a coach like that in my life, that cared so much. All the other coaches included, [they were] always there when I needed them," Logan Snead said.

The Clayton football team will be forced to rebound next season down one more man, and the community is already adjusting to the loss of a family who became enshrined in the Clayton collective.

And although that greedy, greying “truck driver” did get his way, although a Missouri man with seven billion dollars named after two of St. Louis’ most treasured athletes was not only so void of dignity as to not make an attempt to keep football in his home city, but also he was extra kind to leave a dallop of his avaristic spit on the way out, being sure to publicly smear the city he once promised he would do everything in his effort to support. saying in his relocation proposal: “Any NFL Club that signs on to this proposal in St. Louis will be well on the road to financial ruin, and the League will be harmed.”

Although Kroenke slithered away and absconded the city with his degrading and absurd comments about St. Louis - the Sneads, on the other end, exit St. Louis with grace.

The Snead family have truly impacted Clayton since their arrival four years ago, and their reciprocated gratitude for this community will resonate throughout Clayton like a thunderous splash from the Shaw Park high dive.

The Sneads head to the Golden State displaying lustrous class as they traverse the threshold leading out of the Gateway and extending onward-to the west. 

SNEAD’S SUMMARY 19 9 5 - 19 9 7 :

Jacksonville Jaguars Pro Scout

19 9 7 - 2 0 0 9 :

Atlanta Falcons Pro Scout

2 0 0 9 - 2 011 :

Atlanta Falcons Director

2 012 - 2 016 :

STL/L A Rams General Manager

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(20th Century Fox/MCT Campus)

THE REVENANT

Alejandro González Iñárritu, last year’s director for the film “Birdman” and the crew have made a visually captivating film that will evoke all emotions of stress, disgust and fear because the film feels real.

From the stunning cinematography to one of the best Leonardo Dicaprio performances on screen backed by a phenomenal cast and execution, “The Revenant” is a film that celebrates human accomplishment and resilience in beautiful detail.

The film is set in the unsettled lands of North America during the 1800s. In the beginning of the film, Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) and a group of fur trappers led by Captain Andrew Henry (Domhnall Gleeson) are attacked by a group of Native Americans. Most of the fur trappers are slaughtered during the attack with Glass, his son and a few others escaping by boat.

Hugh Glass recommends that the survivors should head back to the nearest outpost. During the trip, John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) frequently quarrels with Glass’s half-Native American son. Glass decides to venture out into the woods, and he is brutally attacked by a grizzly bear. The group later finds Glass to be heavily wounded. When alone with Glass, Fitzgerald attempts to kill Glass. Hawk arrives at the scene to stop Fitzgerald, but Fitzgerald kills Hawk with Glass helplessly watching. Fitzgerald then hastily buries Glass alive and leaves. Glass later gains the strength to crawl. It is from here where he struggles with the elements as he journeys back to the outpost to gain revenge on the man who killed his son.

Although the whole cast does a phenomenal job, it is Leonardo DiCaprio that stands out the most in this film. From convincingly speaking a different language through displaying the harsh struggles of the outdoors such as crawling miles with a broken foot and a rotting body, sleeping in animal carcasses to keep warm and floating through violent rapids during winter, Dicaprio goes through hell in this film, showing every single inch of struggle that his character encounters with perfection.

Through the very real fear and pain he displays while fighting the grizzly (a very impressive CGI bear) and his efforts as a father during his son’s dying moments, whispering comforting and showing his will to fight the elements in order to gain justice for his dead son, DiCaprio shines.

The cinematography is the most stand-out element in this film. From incredibly creative one-takes to beautiful, scenic shots that describe the

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by SEAN KIM reporter

American wilderness, I could not help but gaze in awe at the sheer beauty of the cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki.

Aside from the beautiful landscape shots that are tinted with a hint of blue, one of the things I liked most were the close-ups of Leonardo DiCaprio. It is obvious that Lubezki zoomed in to show more emotion for DiCaprio’s character, but the choice to have the camera up close to his face (or maybe the addition of digitally adding a fogged up lens) each time he breathed was a very interesting choice, something many filmmakers would not risk.

Iñárritu also adds his artistic taste into the visuals of the film. His choice to only shoot in natural light when possible (which comprises about 99 percent of the film) shows his desire to sell the realness effect of the film to portray what it looked like in America during the 1800s.

The lighting is cleverly timed for a specific look during a short period of time, which also is a factor on why “The Revenant” looks so good without any studio lights.

Another thing Iñárritu does very well is his ability to get his actors’ best performances out of them. Due to this, the film provides some of the strongest performances from Tom Hardy and newcomers Domhnall Gleeson and William Poulter.

Iñárritu chooses not to tone down the gore, struggle or violence in the film. Iñárritu places his actors in the wild in freezing temperatures instead of a green screen, shows DiCaprio’s deep wounds gushing with blood, people being ripped apart by arrows and men ripping out the innards of wild animals for food.

The only minor problem I found in “The Revenant” was the film’s use overuse of fancy cinematography and camera movement. It is jaw-dropping, but a lot of the times I felt like it was unnecessary and distracting.

This happened a lot in the moments where the viewer should be paying attention to the story rather than the camera angle.

Overall, “The Revenant” is a beautiful film that is executed in a wellmannered fashion. Ranging from the cinematography to the rigorous work of the dedicated actors and crew, the film should be considered as an exemplar for other films aspiring to be executed in such a unique measure with passionate minds behind and in front of the camera that are willing to get dirty in order to make a great film about a man’s determination in order to get revenge for his son. 

THE 5TH WAVE

by ANNE GOODE reporter

Following the popular Harry Potter and The Hunger Games movies, movie producers have seen the market for young adult book adaptations.

Unlike Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, more recent adaptations have resulted in subpar movies. Instead of developing well-planned movies, more often tropes and cliches are being used. “The 5th Wave,” unfortunately, follows what seems to be the new young adult book to movie adaptation formula. While the book stands out among the countless amounts of young adult dystopian/sci­-fi novels with witty dialogue and an interesting characters, the movie brings none of that to the screen.

The plot follows Cassie Sullivan (Chloe Grace Moretz) during an alien invasion. The aliens have released “waves” of destruction in order to wipe out humanity. Cassie tries to find and save her younger brother, Sammy (Zackary Arthur), while eventually being stuck with the help of Evan Walker (Alex Roe). The film alternates between the point of view of Cassie and Sammy, who’s stuck at a military base with Cassie’s old high school crush, Ben Parish (Nick Robinson).

The film starts out strong, starting in medias res, and then flashes back to give background to the alien invasion. The establishing shots and lighting are great, and the movie starts to accomplish their goal of making you feel the fear of the aliens and developing sympathy for the characters. However, the film never quite accomplishes the goal as it’s burdened with increasing amounts of pointless scenes and awkward actors. While the movie starts out stronger than I had anticipated, it progressively gets worse.

The love interest, Evan Walker, while a unique character in the books, was stripped down to the same tired teen movie trope. While Moretz is

T H E DA N I S H G I R L

by PETRA SIKIC reporter

When the great American painter James McNeill Whistler uttered the famous words “art for art’s sake,” he created the idea that art could exist without an ulterior motive. At the time, the idea was revolutionary, forever changing how we see art. However, the controversies of Whistler’s work related mostly to how his subjects were portrayed, not to the subjects themselves. Essentially, they were questions of style, not substance.

These days, however, artists take on far more demanding inspiration.

As issues of race, gender and sexuality enter the public consciousness, “art for art’s sake” begins to seem like a snobbish and exclusionary concept.

When telling a story which deals with a delicate social issue, should artists prioritize the quality and success of their work, or should they aim to make a political statement?

Tom Hooper, the director of the 2015 biographical drama “The Danish Girl,” must have spent many a long night asking himself that exact same question. “The Danish Girl” tells the story of transgender painter Lili Elbe (Eddie Redmayne), born Einar Magnus Andreas Wegener, and one of the first people to ever undergo sex reassignment surgery.

Visually stunning and thematically pertinent, the film has received widespread publicity and, in most cases, acclaim.

Trans activists, however, see the matter differently.

While the very fact that a film about a transgender woman could become so successful shows the progress of our society when it comes to gender issues, many have protested the casting of cisgender actor Eddie Redmayne in the role of Elbe. In the words of UK critic Nick Duffy: “You have to hand it to the creators of the Danish Girl ... either they didn’t do much research ahead of casting, or they simply didn’t care about the inevitable hostile reaction from trans activists.” Duffy goes on to say that the creators of the film not only failed to cast a trans actor in the role,

an excellent actor, Roe counters her with his lines delivered with such monotony that nothing he says seems to have a real impact on the storyline. From telling Cassie he loves her to proclaiming he’s blowing up a building, the tone and delivery of the lines stays the same. It’s impossible to take anything he says seriously when he looks and sounds bored out of his mind.

The film suffers from an okay script, which is fine when the scenes are left in the capable hands of Moretz, but the script seems to deteriorate throughout the film, making it hard for Moretz to save some scenes. The special effects in the movie are everything you would expect. They’re fine, but they’re nothing too notable or special. The editing is also fine, especially in the beginning of the film, but as the film continues on it becomes apparent that it is nothing special.

The scenes with Cassie running through the forest were some of the best composed shots in the movie and really emphasized the fear and emotion the characters feel. The ending is also quite anticlimactic. After a lengthy action sequence, the movie ends with a narrated monologue, leaving us with another droning speech about humanity. While most young adult book adaptations leave us with some message about humanity, the more successful adaptations leave room for the viewer’s analysis, while this film directly states the main message. Instead of developing really strong and interesting scenes, and leaving room for interpretation, the narrated monologue creates an easy cop-out, leaving the audience with hasty word building and cheap, cliched endings.

While “The 5th Wave” is, by no means, a terrible movie, it’s not great.

Following the trend of many young adult book adaptations, it becomes an okay movie with lots of wasted potential. Chloe Grace Moretz is what saves this movie, and had a less talented actress been selected to play the character of Cassie, the movie would have crashed and burned. 

but went as far as to cast the privileged Redmayne, an Old Etonian, Cambridge graduate and heir to a sizeable business empire.

And, indeed, these objections are well-founded. In the wake of heavy criticism of institutions such as the Academy Awards for continuing to recognize almost exclusively white, cis artists, the lack of inclusiveness in the film industry is more blatantly obvious than ever. Hooper and his production team may well have passed up on a golden opportunity to help change the way the film industry works.

There is, of course, the question of just how accurate the rendering of a trans character by a cis actor can ever be, even if that actor does happen to be the Oscar-winning Redmayne. On the other hand, the general consensus does seem to be that Redmayne did a very good job in bringing Elbe to life. He is nominated for another Academy Award for Best Actor, his second in two years, and even critics who disapprove of the film have very little negative to say about his performance.

Even trans activist Paris Lees, who helped Redmayne prepare for his role, said: “I don’t think that if and when they make a biopic of my life I would want a cisgender man playing me. Politically, it makes me groan.

But if anybody’s going to do this justice then I’m happy it’s Eddie.”

Also, it is worth noting that a great deal of the film’s publicity came from Redmayne’s being involved in the project. The film’s other stars, such as Alicia Vikander (who plays Elbe’s wife Gerda Wegener), Ben Whishaw and Matthias Schoenaerts, were hardly household names at the time of their casting, despite all having impressive portfolios.

The sad fact is that there is no trans actor right now famous enough to have brought “The Danish Girl” the same high-profile buzz as Redmayne.

On the one hand, the film contributes to this imbalance in the movie industry by failing to provide more roles for trans actors, continuing the vicious cycle. On the other hand, the film’s basic message is that we should learn to accept a more gender-fluid world, and respect the struggles of transgender individuals to realize their identities. Redmayne’s casting helped bring that message to more people. 

C A R L’ S D E L I The first step in the door and a wave of freshly-sliced meat washes over me. Everything felt old and somewhat broken. There was a huge line of people of all ages when I got there, but I did not understand why. The space did not seem like anything special.

Although known for their pastrami sandwich, Carl’s menu has an endless amount of options for customers to choose from. They even had some unappealing and unique choices like beef tongue and the unpopular bologna. When I was ordering, the employees were thorough in telling me all of the added condiments and sandwich toppings. Not only did they have an array of sandwiches, but also soups and salads.

Sitting at the table waiting for the food, I noticed sports memorabilia and other images covering every inch of the walls, as well as an award for the 2012 Best of St. Louis: Best Delicatessen.

The portions of thinly sliced meat in the sandwiches is enough to feed an army. To bite into the sandwich was somewhat of a struggle, but it was

by DEVIN FROELICH reporter all worth it. The spicy, freshly cut taste was the definition of a thriving deli. I began to understand why the line was so long.

When Carl’s was first created in 1969, it was owned by Bill Carl, who people referred to as the “only real delicatessen maitre d’ in all of St. Louis.” He was famous for serving up Hoffman’s Diet Creme and Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray sodas, and he used to commonly say, “We’ve got any kind of canned soda you want.” Carl was meticulous with his customers and put their needs in front of anyone in his way.

After 53 years, Carl turned over his beloved deli to Matt Lewis. Lewis promised from the beginning that he would not change a thing about the deli to keep the authenticity and ingenuity the same. Lewis started as a busboy and after his time he had been able to gain the experience to run the deli.

From owner to owner, Carl’s is still serving up the best sandwiches in St. Louis. 

by SOPHIE BARNES reporter Since the start of the podcast “Serial” in 2014, the world of podcasts has reached a new audience. Produced by NPR, season one of “Serial” tells a portion of the captivating case of Adnan Syed, a high school student living in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1999, he was convicted of the murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee. Syed’s sentence to life in jail was brought upon by Jay Wilds, Syed’s friend, who said he was with Syed that day and helped him bury Lee. Sarah Koenig, a staff producer of “This American Life,” is the host and executive producer of “Serial.” Each week is filled with an hour long episode of interviews with Syed, people who are thought to be involved in the case and people who personally knew Adnan and Hae. This fascinating story began quickly popular, giving the podcast world a whole new, larger audience.

Koenig says, “For the last year, I’ve spent every working day trying to figure out where a high-school kid was for an hour after school one day in 1999.”

“Serial” quickly surged to number one on the iTunes podcast chart for several weeks, and was the fastest podcast to reach five million downloads. But what is it about this podcast that is so popular? Instead of binge-watching a season of episodes on Netflix to find out what happens next, there are cliffhangers. With Netflix you are never really waiting to see the climax of the show, you can just continue to the next episode.

With podcasts, you have to wait each week to find out even more about these criminals, always pulling you back to the podcast, wanting to know what happens next. Another boost in the popularity is that listening to podcasts is free and accessible to everyone. The case chosen for the podcast is also a huge factor in its popularity. People have always been

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captivated to people’s stories, and a lot of times stories that we cannot really relate to, ones that really make us shocked and scared to even think about what we would do in the same situation. “Serial” uses creativity and excitement to gain popularity -- winning “Serial” a Peabody award this past year.

Season two of “Serial” is completely different. This time we hear the story of Bowe Bergdahl, a United States army soldier who in 2009 walked off his base and was held captive by the Taliban for five years. The question Koenig is trying to figure out is why Bergdahl left his base in the first place. What was causing him to put himself in danger like that?

Since 2014, Bergdahl has been back in the U.S. and is working a lowprofile military job. But this case is different from Syed’s. Bergdahl is currently undergoing his case, his fate is unknown. He is facing a court-martial on charges of desertion. With Syed, he was already in jail--there was nothing much Koenig could do. At least that is what one would think. In February 2015, three weeks after the end of “Serial” season 1, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals filed a decision allowing Syed to appeal his conviction with new evidence not brought forward with ineffective counsel of his ill lawyer, Cristina Gutierrez. The wide popularity of the podcast has given Syed a chance for a new future.

The popularity of “Serial” has really expanded the podcast world. Top podcasts have seen a 60 percent boost. With just two seasons, there have been predicted 40 million podcast listeners worldwide. This is crazy attention that the podcasting world was not expecting. Even the fact the podcasts are currently free might be changing. If the prominent podcasting continues, then paying for podcasts might start to occur. But right now, because of all of this stardom, “Serial” has confirmed a season three. 

#OSCARS SOWHITE

by LEMUAL LAN webmaster Two years in a row. This was the length of time that sparked the viral outrage over the esteemed Academy Awards because of the lack of diversity within the nominations of the best leading male actor, best leading female actress and best picture categories. Last year, one of the most talked about snubs from the Oscars was the lack of nominations of director Ava DuVernay and lead actor David Oyelowo, both of whom were involved in the powerful film, “Selma.”

This year, many critics were surprised with the lack of nominations of both black directors and black actors. Powerful performances from Michael B. Jordan in “Creed,” Idris Elba in “Beasts of No Nation” and Will Smith in Concussion were all left out of the nominated list for best actor.

“Straight Outta Compton” failed to land a nomination in the best picture category. Many people were left outraged at a second year at the Oscars lacking diversity, especially with a wider range of strong performances from black actors.

The trending hashtag #OscarsSoWhite spiked across Twitter as people voiced their concerns over this issue.

The debate has raged between actors and citizens alike, causing a divide between Hollywood and even across the nation.

Various actors, such as Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith and Spike Lee have all spoken out about boycotting the Oscars, refusing to attend the awards ceremony due to the lack of respect shown to people of color’s work in the industry. Others, such as Matt Damon, one of this year’s nominees for best male leading actor, told US Weekly in a red carpet interview, “You know, it’s shameful and embarrassing. There’s two years in a row that there are no people of color nominated. That’s insane.”

However, on the other end of the debate remains a wide variety of people who disagree with the trending hashtag.

Charlotte Rampling, one of the actresses nominated for best female leading actor, stated over a French Radio network, “[The Oscars] is racist

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to whites ... One can never really know, but perhaps the black actors did not deserve to make the final list.”

Rampling’s words were to open up a discussion about how the Academy Awards should proceed in later years, with some questioning whether there should be an explicit category reserved just for minorities to avoid another situation like this year.

Other dissenters included Janet Hubert, who created a video against the Smiths’ decision to boycott the Oscars. She angrily exclaimed, “There’s a lot of s--t going on in the world that you all don’t seem to recognize. People are dying. Our boys are being shot left and right. People are starving. People are trying to pay bills. And you’re talking about some [expletive] actors and Oscars. It just ain’t that deep … And I find it ironic that somebody who has made their living, made their living and made millions and millions of dollars from the very people you’re talking about boycotting just because you didn’t get a nomination, just because you didn’t win.”

Many other people have criticized the protesting celebrities, stating that their success and wealth as actors, actresses and directors discredits this controversial issue over something as trivial as the awards ceremony.

The trending hashtag did bring out a slew of unheard voices, with other minority groups stating how their own group was underrepresented within the industry.

When looking at statistics for Latinos, Asians and indigenous people, the numbers are far more dismal, with minimal nominations and even fewer roles for these minority groups to portray.

Viola Davis addressed this with her Emmy speech in the September of last year, when she stated, “You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there.” The lack of roles for these other minority groups extends far beyond the specific Academy Awards ceremony, but even to the film and entertainment industry as a whole.

Even Leonardo DiCaprio’s acceptance speech at the Golden Globes this year with his work in “The Revenant” garnered attention as he remarked, “I want to share this award with all the first nations people represented in this film and all the indigenous communities around the world.

It is time that we recognized your history, and that we protect your indigenous lands from corporate interests and people that are out there to exploit them. It is time that we heard your voice and protected this planet for future generations.”

And a slow shift has slowly begun to take place. The Oscars itself will undergo future changes as Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs released in a public statement Jan. 22, “The Academy is going to lead and not wait for the industry to catch up. These new measures regarding governance and voting will have an immediate impact and begin the process of significantly changing our membership composition.”

Ultimately, these prestigious and fanciful award ceremonies may seem too glamorous, too superficial and too vain for us normal citizens of America. But we cannot, and should not, discredit the validity and importance behind this underlying issue, no matter the grounds from which it originates.

We need to have these discussion about racial, sexuality, gender and all other minorities and inequalities ever present in society. And Hollywood’s platform is not such a bad place to start.

It represents our hopes and dreams, our child-like aspirations to be adventurers or princesses or heroes. It represents the role models that we grew up watching and admiring.

But if people do not have anywhere to look because of a lack of representation, how can those citizens express themselves in a society so predominately focused within its majority culture, while boasting of equal opportunity and freedom for all?

This is not a focused dedication for minorities to always win awards and recognition, but only an awareness of the blindfolds we often wear, oblivious to the fullness and richness of the diverse people of our country.

Right now, we only see white. And that must change. 

(Kim Foster-Tobin/The State/MCT)

ROSENTHAL ON CHICK -FIL- A

Senior managing editor Kevin Rosenthal addresses the potential hypocrisy of supporting Chick-fil- A. No sooner does the bell begin to shriek its noonday guarantee of gastro-gratification than does a group of Clayton teens come barreling toward parked cars to exercise their lunchtime liberties. For many Clayton students, Chick-fil-A, since its opening on Eager Rd. in Brentwood, a mere six minute drive from Clayton High, has emerged as a clear favorite for a quick bite to eat.

The Clayton parking lot, now littered daily with backspit-bathed Chickfil-A cups, has become a microcosm for an emergent paradox within Clayton student life.

Though Clayton High is filled with an overwhelmingly liberal student body, its students nevertheless seep in and out of a restaurant chain drenched with homophobia.

Some may have heard buzz in the past year that the views of the controversial owner of Chick-fil-A have changed, that the anti-gay activist has had a change of heart. In March 2014, reports swirled that Chick-fil-A dramatically reduced their funding toward anti-gay organizations after having previously funneled millions of dollars toward these groups. Though the fiscal reports proved to be true, before any ideas arise that there is any truth to the notion that the actual feelings of homophobia within Chickfil-A’s chain of command have in any way dissipated, consider this.

Here is a tweet from the owner of Chick-fil-A, Dan Cathy, on June 26th, 2015, the day the U.S. Supreme Court ruled federal same-sex marriage laws to be constitutional: “Sad day for our nation; founding fathers would be ashamed of our gen. [generation] to abandon wisdom of the ages [... ] cornerstone of strong societies.”

After a whirlwind of backlash ensued from Cathy’s post, Cathy deleted the tweet the same day he posted the comment.

So, to be clear, then, Chick-fil-A continues to be as homophobic as ever.

The idea that, as Chick-fil-A claimed less than one year ago, America’s founding fathers when adapted to modern society would be “ashamed” of the decision made by the current generation permitting people to love one another freely is plainly farcical to any lover of history or to any supporter of human rights.

As if the founding fathers of this country would instead laud those who preach hate.

As if, on the very day which the unreached potential for the ideal which the founding fathers preached most valiantly - that all are created equal, and are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - on the day this ideal which has defined the American condition for centuries did, in fact, finally became viable for more people than ever, that the founding fathers would feel, of all emotions: shame Swarmed by an immediate, glaring firestorm and consumed with cowardice, Chick-fil-A attempted to simply remove their words.

Cathy, whose corporate mission enshrined on a plaque at Chick-fil-A’s headquarters is to “glorify God,” at one point when the country was less accepting of same-sex marriage laws would proudly and unwaveringly say such statements as: “I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say we know better than You as to what constitutes a marriage. I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to define what marriage is about” (2012).

Now, however, as more and more people have began to celebrate the beautiful differences in humans that contribute to making this species, after all, human, Chick-fil-A cowers in fear. As more people begin to appreciate the profundity of genetic variation, how a hodgepodge of microdeviations from the genetic norm culminate to make the human condition so rich, so interesting, Chick-fil-A remains in denial. And now, no longer

strong enough to even stand behind their odious statements, Chick-fil-A has the gall to try to “delete” their words.

Chick-fil-A now refuses to step out of the closet.

And when Chick-fil-A did attempt to step out and make a bold statement against same-sex marriage in 2015, Chick-fil-A’s subsequent deletion of that statement was not attributed to any fundamental change of heart, but rather it was the simple need to make a conscientious PR move which forced Chick-Fil-A’s blanched, vile, and feathery hand, which forced Chick-fil-A ownership to play chicken.

Chick-fil-A has already been broadcasting their company’s own hypocrisy and cowardice for years, though.

The company’s primary ad campaign portrays a forlorn cow, who, as is implied in the advertisements, would ordinarily be slaughtered by other fast food chains, and is advocating for humans to instead “Eat mor chikin.”

Sure, the advertisement is all jest - it’s whimsical and cute and cleverbut, nonetheless, the ad is yet another example of the Chick-fil-A company’s entanglement with hypocrisy.

As if murdering and harvesting a low-flying, egg-laying innocent bird were any “better” than doing the same to a grass-munching, lactose-oozing, peaceable heifer, if neither butcheries are, after all, for any purpose other than to fulfill human gastrointestinal cravings.

As if the idea that in some multiverse, a bunch of media-savvy, homophobic chickens running ads with cows holding up signs reading “Eat Mor Humins” (intended misprint), and then proceeding to reduce humans to meat, diminishing us to rotting death clumps between two pieces of bread - the centerpiece of a $6.55 spicy deluxe combo meal - then devouring us, their chicken beaks marinating over the very thought alone of consuming our human flesh zest, is really all too outlandish, considering these types of savagely shenanigans transpire daily in this world, with a few roles reversed.

And so then I ask this to a generally open-minded Clayton student body: can you abandon those urges guiding you toward a well-seasoned cluckless clump between two chunks of bread in favor of following ethics to not support someone who has preached time and time again his desire for a system of inequality, a system disallowing certain people who love each other their full rights to love each other?

This is not about guilt.

This is about full consciousness in choice.

And yes, it is possible that not even one employee at the nearest Chickfil-A to Clayton High shares the same mindsets as the owner of the company, but it is also important to consider that all support for a company funnels upward, in this case to owner Dan Cathy.

And so the simple way out is to turn a blind eye, to remain blissfully ignorant of the choice to suport a restaurant who has perpetually singled out a group of people as inferior.

It is comfortable to not have to try to conceptualize the pain which people discriminated against endure because no matter how diligently we try, we’ll barely even scratch the surface of the pain others feel.

Because the word pain is, after all, no more than a gentle term we use to try to provide justice for that deep black frothing hollowness which we all carry around inside of us at times, and it is that unique, individual anguish that nobody else, no matter how furiously they try, can penetrate. And so it is comforting to not attempt to consider the pain one must feel who is being told she is inferior to the rest of the human race simply because of the person she intrinsically loves. But we must. We must take the time to at least consider and allow what arises from our consideration to fuel our choices. 

by: Dimitri Bauldauf Age: 17 Clayton High School Clayton, MO Leadership Positions: CHS Globe Section Copy Editor Enjoys: Writing, tennis, spending time with friends and family

THE TECHNOLOGY OF LOVE Author Leo Buscaglia once said, “Love is life. And if you miss love, you miss life.” In today’s rapidly changing environment, we sometimes forget this. We are too busy and too restricted in our own social bubbles that we often ignore our long-term desires. But luckily, the 21st century also brought the invention of the Internet, a key resource for modern communication. Millions of adults have used the Internet for online dating, and many have had success in finding meaningful relationships. In fact, as much as one in every five relationships today starts online.

So why do people choose to do online dating? What are the advantages?

For starters, there are many different online tools for dating, ranging from quick hook-up apps to websites committed to finding the ideal, lifelong companion. The key is to find the right demographic for your age, type and sexual orientation. That way, the process can be smooth and effective for any occasion.

The biggest thing that online dating offers that the original method of meeting someone through intermediate relationships is that online dating provides accessibility to a wide variety of people. It allows one to explore outside of their own social groups and to quickly narrow down their potential list of partners to those with compatible traits. For example, one may have a specific lifestyle he or she is looking for, and online dating can pick out those who meet this criteria.

For gay relationships, online dating is a perfect platform. In fact, 70 percent of gay couples meet online, as opposed to just 20 percent of

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straight couples. The anxiety of not knowing the sexual orientation of a crush is always a strenuous hassle, one straight people will never have to face throughout their lifetime. So, for gay people, online dating breaks this barrier, leading to the opportunity for love. In addition, online dating is useful for those in rural communities, especially where extreme beliefs on the topic of homosexuality are more prominent. It provides less risk and more liberty. Online dating can be the only path to love for gays in rural communities.

Online dating is also very convenient.

It strips away most of the unease we have during first dates because, by the time a date arises, a strong foundation of conversation has already been built. The ability to talk to someone through video is also a benefit to online dating.

However, one must realize that having solely an online relationship is artificial. Humans are not meant to communicate only on the Internet.

This is why online dating is a platform, not a full path to marriage.

If you have an attraction toward someone, the Internet connects you with that person and helps your relationship progress. But if you truly want to get to know a person, the best method is face-to-face communication.

If you know how to use online dating sites wisely, with a goal in mind, they are to your advantage. It is a safe, cost effective method to meeting people. When dating online, remember to have fun. It’s an enjoyable experience and can lead to finding the right partner. 

by: Sophie Allen Age: 18 Clayton High School Clayton, MO Leadership Positions: CHS Globe Section Editor Enjoys: Going on adventures, listening to music, swimming

THE BIOLOGY OF LOVE They say that when you meet the love of your life you can feel it. Butterflies in your stomach, your heart beats a little faster, you lose the ability to speak for a moment, all signs that you’ve recognized your other half.

That’s the problem with dating online. You can’t feel it.

While this may sound a little romantic, it’s actually rooted in science.

Human beings, at the most basic level, are animals. If you consider the mating patterns of almost any animal, a lot of their choice of mate has to do with physical fitness. Incredibly, the way another person smells can matter more than how many likes they get on their Instagrams.

This is no joke! Humans, like all animals, release something called pheromones, which are special kinds of hormones designed to attract a mate.

In real life, the pheromones that gorgeous potential mate is exuding may give your body the extra nudge in telling you to make the first move.

Online? Not so much.

Your five senses know what you’re looking for even when you aren’t looking. Love and relationships happen as naturally as they do biologically.

When you’re constantly putting yourself out there for love on the world wide web, you may be ignoring the guy behind you in line at Companion, or the girl you see every day during your passing period between math and English, or the person who called after you, “Hey! You dropped something!”

While love doesn’t always happen the way it does in the movies, there’s something to be said for serendipity.

I believe that good relationships should start out the way good friendships do. Over time, there needs to be an underlying trust, a feeling of mutual respect, an ability to laugh with each other and a desire to be there when the other needs a shoulder to cry on or vent to or complain at.

There’s something about opening up to another person slowly. Finding out how they eat a banana one morning because they happen to have one. Telling them you can bake a perfect scone when they let slip that it’s their favorite breakfast food. Finding out their favorite movie because they quote it too often, not because they wrote it first under “Likes/Dislikes” on match.com.

It’s very hard to take a three-dimensional person and ask them to write about who they are. There’s just no way to include it all. Which, in some cases, works to your advantage. If you can’t post everything, it might as well just be the good stuff.

My Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest combined couldn’t tell you who I am. In fact, they probably tell you more about who I would like to be.

Meeting someone in real life means that you get to see them from the bad angles, without the filters, from up close and far away, and still fall in love. 

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STAFF EDITORIAL: disconnecting As society delves deeper into the world of technology and social media, people distance themselves from each other.

Patience.

It’s something that millennials, as a generation, lack, and most people wish they had more of.

Being able to access a plethora of facts at our fingertips has made waiting for information, or even looking deeply for it, an activity of the past. Now, all anyone has to do is type any question into Google.

In the pre-technology world, gaining certain knowledge required the use of encyclopedias and flipping through many pages before finding the desired information. Currently, in a more impatient world, the extent to which many people search for information is to the second page of Google results. As a technological society used to getting answers instantaneously, frustration often follows an inability to answer a question.

Technology, and specifically social media, allows us not only to have constant access to information but to also be constantly plugged into the lives of others. Within a few seconds, we can enter the lives of others and know what is happening in their world, satisfying our primal need to have as much information as possible. The quality of patience is lost as the ability to have constant access to the lives of others becomes something we feel that we need.

For so many, lying in bed in the morning, walking through the halls of CHS or even pausing at a stoplight have become filled with scrolling through various types of social media. As a society, we are becoming more attuned to the lives of others as the reach of technology has grown.

This is inherent. For the younger generation, it has become a natural instinct to keep technology near as it contains the information people believe they need.

Use of social media has become habitual. What started as a way to get information has become a routine way to kill time.

The root of this attraction is puzzling. People have become engaged with technology because they are lured to all that it offers, especially the ways that it allows one to interact with other people in untraditional and noncontrontational ways.

Various types social media grant users access to the lives of other

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people and allow them to connect behind screens. As humans become more absorbed in these mediums, the connection with many other parts of our lives is lost.

Face-to-face interaction has become an inconvenience for many because of the ease in which technology allows one to virtually communicate with others. As the connection to technology deepens, the value which humans assign traditional discussion dwindles.

Technology has become something that is always closeby and offers a sense of security. By being attached to technology, a barrier is created. It prevents one from attaching to friends and family because the wonders of the technological world are all-consuming Additionally, by looking at different forms of technology all the time, people choose to forgo many possibilities that the tangible world offers.

The lure to be plugged into technology plugs humans out of the beauty of the world. Something as simple as a walk down the street can consist of people scrolling through their Twitter feed, absorbing the information given to them through their prized technological device and rejecting the natural wonders surrounding them because of it. Without really knowing it, so many people are falling deeper and deeper into the artificial world.

But what if it was different?

Disconnecting from technology will allow people to reconnect with reality. When a person isn’t constantly checking their phone, they are able to become more engaged with their environment.

Leaving technology behind, even for brief periods of time, will lead to improved relationships with others. Having a conversation without feeling the constant need to check one’s phone allows more uninterrupted interactions. As people are distanced from technology, connections with other human beings will strengthen.

Technology is so loved because of instant gratification it offers, which today’s generation of impatience values highly.

Instead of allowing this to happen, take a step back and disconnect from technology. Allow yourself to discover all that you have been missing. 

THINGS

S PHIE a column by SOPHIE ALLEN, opinion section editor

HATES

The polarized presidential candidate field that does not reflect America.

A recent study through NPR says that ideologically, Americans aren’t nearly as politically polarized as we thought we were. This year’s slate of presidential candidates, however, could possibly be the most extremist we’ve had yet.

The problem our country is facing is that whether or not the public feels strongly about any given issue no longer matters. To align oneself with a political candidate at this point is to align oneself with a political extreme.

Almost all of today’s candidates could be considered “radicals” politically. In the past, radical candidates have hardly fared well when it came down to the real race. America has elected few radicals in its’ history, though most notably, Abraham Lincoln was one of them (remember the Civil War?).

Polarizing candidates isn’t going to bode well for an evenly split Congress, or an evenly split America. If we should elect a radical, it would be extremely difficult to unite the country on anything, and what America needs at this point in the game is to remain as unified as possible on fronts concerning military, women’s rights, gun control, and immigration.

One thing that could dramatically sway the vote in this upcoming presidential election: millennials.

While older generations may be fearing for their lives that selfietaking, instantaneously-gratified, hidden-behind-social media teenagers could change the country’s fate, it could turn out to be for the

best.

The power of the millennial vote is ever-present in this upcoming presidential election, with Bernie Sanders seen conversing with popular celebrities, Hillary Clinton stepping up her Twitter game, Ted Cruz attempting to make memes of Obama’s economic plans for America, and Donald Trump’s constant appeal to the American Dream. Millennials have been nicknamed the “political powerhouse” of this election, with numbers that could change the results of the presidential race dramatically, if a substantial population turns out to vote.

While the attempts are being made to appeal to the younger generation, nearly all have failed to grasp our short attention span for any real voting to come out of it.

It’s hard to find a political candidate in the race right now that you can agree with for the most part. Almost all are too extreme to warrant an “I think I could count on you to lead the country right now.”

Millennials are being encouraged to look beyond party lines to find a representative candidate. In fact, all Americans should be following this example. The political parties of Democrats and Republicans are also more polarized than they have been in the past (again, ideologically. Some people within them may not be so dramatic). In order to find someone well-equipped to “make America great again,” Americans must look at ALL of the candidates and pick the best one.

Oh, here’s a hint: It’s not Donald Trump. 

(Abel Uribe/Chicago Tribune/MCT)

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