Globe Newsmagazine, May 2016, Issue 8, Vol. 87

G L OBE issue 8, volume 87

Hall of

Fame clayton high school, clayton, mo.

may 2016

GLOBE

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

emma ebeling

theodore fehr

sarah franzel

devin froehlich

mariclare gatter

business manager lucy cohen

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

copy editors

charlie brennan

harry rubin webmaster lemuel lan

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

9

1

graphic artist cherry tomatsu

design editor lawrence hu

adviser

erin castellano

Professional Affiliations: Journalism STL . Missouri Interscholastic Press Association . Missouri Journalism Education Association . National Scholastic Press Association . Columbia Scholastic Press Association

1

1

G L OBE

may 2016

Sports 31 Beyond the Field

CHS baseball star Max Hunter has a bond with teacher and coach Craig Sucher.

33 Comeback on the Court

21

Hall of Fame

The Globe explores the impact that former CHS students have made on the world.

News 9 Starbucks and Middle Schoolers 10 An Uncertain Future The ending of the District’s contract with Love Management Co. leaves the future of the Maryland School unknown.

Feature

12 Senior Yearbook 16 Antarctica

History teacher Debra Wein’s husband takes research trip to the continent.

Parkway North tennis player Kiland Sampa doesn not let his injury stop him from playing the sport he loves.

35 Athlete Profile

Review 36 10 Cloverfield Lane 38 Revel Kitchen 38 Porano Pasta 39 Peno New restaurant on Wydown Boulevard brings a southern Italian flare to Clayton.

Opinion 41 42 44 47

Brussels Staff Ed Pro/Con: Rehab vs. Punishment Things Sophie Hates Commentary editor Sophie Allen looks into what she has loved most about CHS.

GLOBE

staff

editor - in - chief

alex bernard

sophia barnes

eunice shin

barrett bentzinger

petra sikic

senior managing editors grace harrison

michael bernard

katie spear

sophie bernstein

heather stone

kevin rosenthal

jacob blair

amy tishler

ellie tomasson

gabrielle boeger

cosima thomas

jack chereskin

saori tomatsu

section editors

sophie allen

eunice chung

karena tse

william clay

neel vallurupalli

noah brown

nicholas d’agrosa

angelica vannucci

brian gatter

alexandria darmody

angelo vidal

nicholas lee

lise derksen

catherine walsh

camille respess

emma ebeling

monte wang

max steinbaum

ella engel

zhizhang wei

elise yang

theodore fehr

welch donald

phoebe yao

brandon ford

elizabeth wysession

sarah franzel

samuel youkilis

devin froehlich

samantha zeid

mariclare gatter

anne goode

hugo hoffman

lucas hoffman

robert hogan

mitchell hu

peter indivino

olivia joseph

sehoon kim

rahul kirkhope

cody krutzsch

san kwon

sol kwon

jacob lagesse

elise levy

marissa lewis

benjamin litteken

madison lockett

rowan mccoy

ona mcguire

grace morris

lauren praiss

lisa raymond-schmidt

reporters

madeleine ackerburg

mia redington

nikki seraji

marty sharpe

copy editors

charlie brennan

harry rubin webmaster lemuel lan

business manager lucy cohen

photo editors bebe engel

katherine sleckman

distribution editor

robert hollocher editors

dimitri baldauf

nisha klein

olivia reuter

mitali sharma

zachary sorenson

albert wang

ashleigh williams

tara williams

daniel cho

madeline bale

photographers sophie argyres

emma barnes

jennifer braverman

lily brown

felix evans

alexandra gerchen

akansha goel

ava hoffman

ricky kuehn

elizabeth mills

carolyn niswonger

hava polinsky

elizabeth poor

hannah ryan

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

The Globe has taught me many things, but, most notably, the Globe has taught me the power of storytelling.

As a cog in the journalistic machine, our primary function is to transmit words from their source to the public, and, until this year, I never realized how important that is.

The December cover story on mental health, “State of Mind,” gave a voice to so many CHS students and staff, both anonymously and publicly. These members of our community found solace in being able to share their story and potentially provide comfort to people facing similar struggles. In regards to mental health, one thing we learned during and since that story is that stigmatizing mental health can be incredibly harmful to those who are suffering.

Through the Globe, I am lucky enough to have a platform to share my story, unlike so many others. And with this being my final issue on staff, I am not going to waste such a precious opportunity.

When I was a freshman at CHS, I began hearing rumors about my older brother Jack using and dealing drugs. I didn’t know, nor care to know, the veracity of these accusations. I preferred to stay in the dark and, like so many others, pretend my life was perfect.

A few months later, my brother’s drug and alcohol addiction became apparent to my parents and he was sent to outpatient therapy in St. Louis. I assumed, wishfully and incorrectly, that this solitary treatment would be all he needed to get better.

The next three years of high school brought a repetitive cycle of sobriety, relapse and attempted recovery for my brother. He went to several inpatient therapies around the country and lived in halfway houses and sober houses with other recovering addicts of all ages. I did my best to not think about him and instead threw myself into my schoolwork and extracurricular activities in an attempt to forget my family’s imperfections and be the easy child my parents had never had. I took it upon myself to keep the family boat afloat, bump-free.

My brother’s substance abuse culminated a few days after Christmas my senior year, when Jack revealed that his previous bouts of sobriety were greater indicators of his ability to lie than his lack of drug abuse.

Upon refusing to get help, Jack left home, where he had been living, to hit rock bottom on the streets. Following this, our contact with Jack was limited and most of our information about him came from people who had seen him.

I went back to school after the break, half of my mind wondering where my brother could be and whether or not he was alive, and yet I didn’t tell anyone what had happened. Not wanting to burden my friends or get sympathy from my teachers, I kept my pain to myself in the most tumultuous period of my life.

I don’t think anyone is at fault for the culture and expectation of perfection found at Clayton High School. Students like myself perpetuate the ideals of silence by refusing to look for the help that inevitably exists. However, to combat the deceptive idea that everyone is and must be perfect, the community as a whole needs to change.

In order to provide the welcoming environment that students need to surmount the challenges they are facing personally, we need to promote openness, acceptance and understanding across the District.

Teachers shouldn’t be afraid of, nor apologize for, giving their students insight into their personal lives – this insight allows students to see their teachers as humans who can be approached in times of trouble, rather than as one-faceted work machines who only have time for their coursework and never for the caring of students.

Students also need to combat the ideals of perfection among the student body. Through the Globe, I have gotten to know an innumerable

FROM THE EDITOR

amount of students whose families have dealt with drug and alcohol addictions, depression, chronic medical conditions and parental separation, many of whom have never shared their struggles with peers.

Currently, my brother is in a treatment program in Colorado. Following an intervention that involved guidance from the Clayton Police Department, a spokesperson from AA and some family friends, my parents were able to get Jack into the psychiatric ward at a hospital. From there, he went to a 10 week Wilderness Program before graduating and transferring to where he is now. Jack won’t return to St. Louis for at least a year, and maybe ever.

Upon beginning to share my story with my close friends and teachers, I have come to realize that people are out there who want to offer support. I don’t have to go through this alone, and neither does anyone else in the Clayton community.

So look around you. Ask questions. Get personal.

Share your story and listen, because there are people who need to hear yours, and others who need you to hear theirs. 

Alex Bernard, Editor-in-Chief

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

The “Pink Ladies” in the student-run musical, “Grease.”

PHOTO BY MARCI PIEPER

PA N O R

AMA 6

WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED

Teachers Retire May 2016 marks the final month of the illustrious careers of three teachers. After 15 years at Clayton, AP biology and plant science teacher Sally “Laz” Lazaroff has decided to retire. Also retiring are AP Language and Composition teacher Emily Grady after 19 years and math teacher Jane Glenn after teaching at CHS for 8 years.

A New Beginning

St. Louis Blues goaltender Brian Elliott, left, celebrates with center David Backes as time expires on Monday, April 25, 2016, at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.

(Chris Lee/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/TNS)

NEWS

AND

notes

Happy Blues

After three years in a row of first-round elimination, the St. Louis Blues avoided a nearcollapse against the Chicago Blackhawks to advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, where they will play the Dallas Stars. After taking a 3-1 series lead over the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Blues squandered multiple chances to end the series, allowing the Blackhawks to tie the series 3-3. After letting a two goal lead slip away in game five, it looked like the Blues were doomed to repeat history after they let the Blackhawks rally from a 2-0 deficit to tie game seven. The Blues were able to regain momentum with a goal by Troy Brouwer to win the game 3-2.

Throughout their history, the Blues have built a reputation as a team with consistent regular season prowess, but absolutely no postseason success. The Blues currently own the second longest streak in history of seasons with a postseason appearance with 25 years from 1979-2004, but they did not once reach the Stanley Cup finals during that time period. The team did reach the finals in its first three seasons: 1968, 69, and 70, but the Blues have not been back since. Many fans are hoping that 2016 will finally be the Blues’ year.

The fate of Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock rested largely on the outcome of this playoff series, as a loss would mean that Hitchcock was not able to bring the playoff success fans expected to come with his move.

by HARRY RUBIN copy editor

The new-look St. Louis Cardinals opened their season with a loss in Pittsburgh on March 3. After getting off to a slow start and being swept by division rival Pirates, the Cardinals have picked things up of late. Some of the largest contributions have come from new faces, with newcomer Jedd Gyorko tied for the team lead in home runs with rookie Jeremy Hazelbaker. Currently leading the team in hits is Cuban first-year shortstop Aledmys Diaz. Some of the team’s more familiar faces have struggled to start their seasons, with Adam Wainwright winless through four starts.

Campaign Continues After months of losing to Donald Trump, Republican presidential hopefuls John Kasich and Ted Cruz have finally reached an agreement in a last-ditch effort to deny Trump the nomination. Kasich has agreed to leave Indiana for Cruz while Cruz has agreed to leave Oregon and New Mexico for Kasich.

Donald Trump has slammed the move, saying, “it shows how weak they are, it shows how pathetic they are.”

Goodnight, Sweet Prince Prince, the former pop artist died suddenly on April 21 at the age of 57. Although his cause of death is not currently known, investigations have found that opioid drugs were in Prince’s system at his time of death. 

STUDENT S vs. STARBUCKS

Wydown students face the consequences of their actions at their local Starbucks.

Sugary, overpriced Starbucks drinks, a surplus of cash, and a group of friends makes up the average Wydown Middle Schooler’s Friday afternoon. For years, Wydown students have been spending their Friday afternoons hanging out at the local Starbucks, located on the corner of Hanley and Wydown. Now, instead of the store being filled to the brim with students on long Friday afternoons, Starbucks has recently calmed down due to the intervention of Dr. Jamie Jordan, the new principal of WMS. Jordan received a call in mid-November from a Starbucks manager, alerting her to the recent behavior of Wydown Middle school students. Along with over 100 students flooding the store on Fridays, there were reports of students standing on furniture and being disrespectful to other customers and the Starbucks staff. WMS resource officer Rob Wood added more to the list: naming property damage, making a big mess, being disrespectful to adults and employees, verbally refusing to clean messes or leave when they’re asked to as other behaviors witnessed.

Seventh grader Tommy Karandjeff agreed with the reports.

“It was just jumping around, trash would be left out, it would be hectic,” Karandjeff said.

However, fellow seventh grader Hannah Carmona disagreed.

“There’s some disrespectful people at our school but I’ve never seen them being disrespectful here at Starbucks,” Carmona said.

After receiving the call, Jordan contacted WMS parents to let them know what was going on.

“We just wanted the parents to know what was being reported to be going on at Starbucks. We just wanted to make sure that [parents] had the full understanding and then they could decide as a family

The Starbucks on Wydown Blvd. and Hanley Rd. (Erin Castellano) what was appropriate or not,” Jordan said.

The email has had a significant impact on WMS families.

“There are some parents that actually would organize for their kids to go other places instead of just having them go to Starbucks and just hang out,” Jordan said.

The email has also affected students.

“I’m surprised that kids would act out.

A lot of them I knew, so it was like ‘Oh, I didn’t expect them to do something like that.’ I was really surprised. But I think it’s changed though, drastically,” Karandjeff said.

The issues between WMS students and Starbucks are not a new phenomenon.

“This isn’t the first year that students have caused problems,” Wood said. “We had some years where we had 100 stu-

dents or more go up there at one time. We had a couple things happen, some fights break out, some incidents where it was getting to the point where we really had to disperse the crowds and get it all organized and have some supervision. When it gets bad, as it has in the past, the department will ask me to stay and adjust my hours or stay over and go down there and help out.”

Despite all this, there are limitations that the WMS administration face.

“There’s not a lot we can do,” Jordan said. “We just really want to make sure that when we’re out there as a group that the Wydown community has a really good name and understanding because they really are good kids.” 

by ANNE GOODE reporter

NEWS

9

AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE

The ending of the Clayton School District’s contract with the Mar yland School leaves its future unknown.

by BEA MCGUIRE and CAMILLE RESPESS Erected in 1930, the Maryland School served as a place for learning as part of the School District of Clayton for 50 years. In 1980, the elementary school was closed due to a lack of student enrollment.

After its closing, the school was used for an array of purposes. The school was rented out and used as a preschool for over 20 years. During the construction on the Family Center in the early 2000s, the District used the Maryland School as a temporary home for its preschoolers.

Shortly after, in 2009, the school was declared a surplus. Three years later, the building was leased for six months following an accidental fire at the Wilson School.

Besides the usage of the Maryland School in 2014 by the the National Guard and FBI following the events in Ferguson, the school has sat vacant. The utilities are shut off and the School District of Clayton no longer takes care of the building.

“At this point we are just cutting the grass and maintaining the outside grounds just because the city requires us to do that,” Chief Communications Officer for the School District of Clayton Chris Tennill said. “The building itself at this point is not in any usable condition.”

Although the Maryland School lacks any official usage, the grounds serve many purposes for the members of the community. Steven Rosenblum lives across the street from the property and sees the enjoyment the Maryland School brings to community members.

“It’s used by people in the neighborhood. People do workouts here in the mornings, use our community garden and come up with their kids to play,” Rosenblum said. “It gets used like a park every single day.”

But this was threatened when District put the Maryland School on the

NEWS

10

market for sale in 2012. In January 2014, the District signed a contract with Love Management Company who originally wanted to tear down the school and replace it with 48 townhouses.

In order to do so, the zoning of the property needed to be changed from R-2, which is for single-family homes, to a zoning which allows highdensity populations, R-4. This potential change was not something that many, including Rosenblum, wanted to see.

“People from all parts of Clayton wanted the city to follow their master plan and zoning,” Rosenblum said. “This was zoned for about 10 houses, and what [the Love Management Company] wanted to put here was a lot more than that.”

Westmoreland Avenue resident Katherine Love felt that the possible rezoning and development would have detrimental effects.

“Zoning sets the expectations for what is and is not allowed. At the very least, when we moved here, we expected the property here to stay in line with the zoning standards,” Love said. “Out of principle I just felt like it was inconsistent with what we expected when we invested and had the potential to destabilize the whole neighborhood.”

The City of Clayton’s Master Plan was originally drafted in 1968 and among many other things, one of its focuses involves maintaining the green space within the city. The plan included specifically increasing the greenery surrounding the historic Hanley House, which would affect the Maryland School area. The original plan the Love Management Co. had violated the City’s Master Plan.

Rosenblum, Love and other community members against the potential development have been adamant in expressing their viewpoints. Al-

though the District has taken this into consideration, it did not change their position on the matter.

“While we appreciated the the strong desire of the neighbors around there to have [the Maryland School] kind of be their own personal park, we also have to make decisions in the best long term interest of the School District,” Tennill said.

But the input of the neighbors did have some effect on the developers. The plan for the 48 luxury style townhomes was reduced to 25 in January in an attempt to maintain some green space in the area.

Before the Feb. 7 Planning Commission and Architectural Review Board meeting, the City of Clayton recommended for the Board to approve the proposal Love Management Co. presented them.

However, the Board voted against the proposal to change the zoning on the Maryland School property from R-2 to R-4 for the second time as they were presented with the proposal for the first time in 2014.

Even though the Board had voted against the rezoning, Love Management had four other applications the Board was set to vote on at their March 7 meeting.

“It wasn’t a done deal at that point,” Plan Commission and Architectural Review Board member Sherry Eisenberg said.

But on March 2, the Love Management Co. ended their contract with the School District for the Maryland School Townhome project.

This was a disappointing blow for the School District.

“Yes, we are about kids and we are a learning organization, but money makes the world go round. 80 percent of what we spend our money on is teachers,” Tennill said. “So we always want to be in a position to attract and retain the best teachers we can. We want to make sure we have the budget to maintain those people and keep those quality of the schools where the community expects it to be.”

The Maryland School Townhome project would have also produced money for the City of Clayton.

“It was going to generate $400,000 a year in local tax revenue,” Tennill

said.

Even though there were monetary benefits to the sale of the Maryland School, the Planning Commission and Architectural Review Board considered other aspects to be more important than this.

“We were looking at the design and how the proposal fits into the area, and the dollars were not a driving force,” Eisenberg said.

Similarly, some neighbors felt that money should not lead the decision into the future of the Maryland School.

“We wanted to find a way to have a long-term value, rather than just making the quick buck,” Love said.

Even though the Love Management Co. faced a lot of opposition, there were people in Clayton who supported the development.

“It wasn’t like everyone in the single-family homes were against it. We had some neighbors there who were for it and some School Board members who were for it,” Eisenberg said.

Eisenberg is among the six members who voted against the rezoning but she is sympathetic to the management company.

“They have spent a lot of time and money developing the drawings and the proposal, so you can see where the disappointment comes in.”

Eisenberg said.

In a statement the Maryland School Townhome’s developers released on March 2, they said, “While the developers are certainly disappointed in this decision by the City of Clayton, the Clayton taxpayers and the children in the School District of Clayton have suffered the biggest loss.”

The future of the Maryland School property is uncertain at this point.

“I don’t know if [anything] will happen this year,” Tennill said. “Due to the recent school board elections, the Maryland School property is not a top priority.”

Rosenblum is optimistic about the future of the Maryland School.

“This could be a really big win-win for the residents, for the City and for the District to create something really cool that the city has been talking about for 40 years,” Rosenblum said. “All the stars are aligned to create something transformational.” 

The Love Management Co.’s design for the townhouses (top left). (Center) Boarded windows and overgrown vegetation at Maryland School. (photo by Camille Respess)

NEWS

11

 6 ’1 f o s as

cl

As the 2015-2016 school year draws to a close, we take a moment to recognize the Globies who are graduating this year.

Grace Harrison University of Denver

Alex Bernard University of Notre Dame

My favorite thing about Globe is... “the community! The staff of the Globe consists of some of the most interesting, involved and inspiring people. These brilliant people who fuel the paper are the reason why the Globe is so successful.”

My favorite thing about Globe is... “everything about the Globe -- the office, the staff, the teacher -- because it makes CHS a community and a home for me. Because of the Globe, I know what sort of second family I need to find in the future.”

2013-2016

2013-2016

Sophie Allen Arizona State University

Phoebe Yao Stanford University My favorite thing about Globe is... “if CHS is Clayton, then Globe is the World. Being a part of the Globe is like transcending that Clayton bubble and being a part of the World.”

2012-2016

2012-2016

Katie Spear Vassar College

Brian Gatter Providence College

My favorite thing about Globe is... “learning from the talented Globe staff and getting to know more about the Clayton community.”

My favorite thing about Globe is... “getting to interact with Andreas Petermann on a more professional level.”

2014-2016

My favorite thing about Globe is... “that it has given me the opportunity to grow and change in ways I never thought I could.

Over the course of my four years I’ve discovered both the person I want to be and the career I want to pursue and for that I could not be more grateful!”

2015-2016

o e Lawrence Hu Truman State University

Madison Lockett Southern A&M University

My favorite thing about Globe is ... “being on the Globe staff has taught me wonders on not only what it means to work together as a whole, but how to be a person as well. My time with the Globies has equipped me to be ready for life.

2013-2016

My favorite thing about Globe is... “the diversity that comes with the Globe as a whole. From the people, stories, interviews, etc. It was a blast to be apart of a brilliant community that let me grow as a person.”

2015-2016 Lem Lan Pomona College

Robert Hollocher Indiana University

My favorite thing about Globe is... “the group of people that you get the chance to work with.

The amount of connection and freedom to talk freely about controversial or personal topics is amazing and hard to find anywhere else at CHS.”

My favorite thing about Globe is... “the people, obviously!”

2013-2016

2015-2016 Bebe Engel University of Georgia

Andreas Petermann Miami University of Ohio

My favorite thing about Globe is... “the opportunity to photograph so many different unique events within the community and have them published.”

2013-2016

My favorite thing about Globe is... “hanging out with Casty.”

2015-2016

NICK OTTEN Q&A

Nick Otten, CHS Associate Director of the Drama Department and former Honors American Literature teacher, shares his insights.

by ALEX BERNARD and GRACE HARRISON Q: How did you come to St. Louis?

A: My dad was a soldier in World War II. He got drafted and sent to Australia. He was 31. He met my mother, who was 19, and they got married. I was born two weeks before the Japanese surrendered. So then he got shipped home, and she and I went home on a troop ship, which was an old cruise ship that had been commandeered for use by the US Army.

She said it was the best vacation of her life. 300 mothers and babies were there, and we went from Australia to Honolulu to San Francisco, and then took a train to St. Louis. I was six-months-old. I’ve lived here my whole life, but I was born in Australia. And my whole life I’ve thought, I’m kind of someone else.

Q: Where did you get your education?

A: I went to St. Louis University, then I went to Webster and got a Masters, and then I went to Middlebury and got a second Masters. At Webster, it was an education degree. It’s called an MAT: Masters in the Art of Teaching.

Q: How does Clayton compare to other high schools?

A: I have worked in four schools. One was private, and it was my alma mater, so I saw it from both sides of the desk. And for 35 years or so, I was teaching teachers from all over the metro area. And I am here to tell you, this place is good. It is a fabulous school. I don’t think there’s a better high school in the metro area. Think about how many people you know who move to Clayton, put their kids through Clayton schools and then when their kids leave, they leave. That says a whole bunch. I adore the conference schedule. That’s often on the table when someone wants to do cost cutting. That was put in in the mid to late 60’s. In effect, you get two English courses simultaneously.

There was always this running talk about whether we should do [open campus]. At the time it was put in here, this is just a guess, but there were probably 25 or 50 public schools that had open campus. But one by one, they shut it down. But I think open campus is the reason that kids here really learn to schedule their own time. There are kids who don’t even learn that in college. So the result it, you learn, in many ways, the best of what college has to offer without all the craziness.

Q: Tell us a little about your teaching career.

A: I was teaching in Riverview Gardens in St. Louis. I was literally teaching the brothers and sisters of kids I grew up with. I wound up teaching some kids that no one else would teach because they had children or had been to jail. Nobody wanted to teach them, so I said, “I’ll do it.” But I wanted to go back to school and try to figure out how to teach these kids how to read. I decided, I am going to make 180 one-hour stand-alone lessons. And if they show up that day, they’ll learn something and they haven’t been failed by me. So I set out to make my lessons and when I finished I had 175 stand-alone lessons.

But I wound up at SLUH, my alma matter, and I had all of these lessons in my pocket for kids that can’t read. What it amounted to was a series of communications lessons, because what I was really teaching them was how to learn. They had this really odd humanities program at SLUH for 9th graders, and I said, “Can I teach a communications course?” And they said okay. So I taught it inside of the humanities program, and I called it “Communicating the Humanities” and it changed the way I taught forever. I made it into an environment where they could simultaneously learn what I call school skills – annotating, taking notes, memorizing – and baseline communication skills. It completely rearranged my philosophy of how I learned things.

From SLUH I wrote a book about that course. Couldn’t sell it, but I’ve used it over and over. I was teaching part time at Webster University, and I would just pitch courses to teach and they always said no, until in ‘75 when they finally said yes. I taught a course called “Ways of Seeing.”

I would teach Thursday nights from five to nine. I taught a different way of seeing each night. So one night I would teach Journalism, and another night I would teach Japanese water colors, and one night I would teach male gaze and female gaze, and one night I would teach photography. I was just having the time of my life, I adored it. I taught there 35, 36, 37 years. I needed a full-time job because we were going to have a baby, so I wounded up at Parkway South until ‘85. I had people asking me to come to Clayton, and I thought, ‘Clayton doesn’t need me.’ We had moved to Clayton to put our daughter in Clayton Schools. And I would come home from teaching at Parkway South and be so tired. One day I thought, what am I doing? So I started here in fall of ‘85. I retired after 20 years on the button and I never left.

Q: After you retired from teaching English, what brought you into the theatre department?

A: Kelly had been asking me to read some scripts and asked me if I thought certain things would get her in trouble. We became friends, and I then became associate director of the drama department. What that means is I help her with whatever she needs. So that’s my job now, which I adore. I do not have to grade, and I basically stay out of the way. I like to think my job is to help people who want it, and if they dont I leave them alone. I believe that there are kids who are in productions who think, “What does he do?” But for people who want some help, I can give them whatever they want. 

Q: Why do people call you Papa O? A: I was the only one teaching HAL for about three or four years. I had a class that I was really close to, and there was a girl named Rachel Smith.

She started calling me Papa, and then they’d call me Papa O. I was too old for any of this nickname stuff, but then she and her classmates who were in productions here were doing it at rehearsal. And when they left, Rachel’s younger sister, Miriah, kept doing it. And somehow it stuck! And I thought, that’s okay, it’s kind of a grandpa thing.

F E A T U R E 14

Otten driving his daughter in a golf cart during a CHS Homecoming parade. (Photo from Nick Otten)

ZOE ROBINSON Q&A

Zoë Robinson, former Clayton mom and restaurant owner, plans to open new restaurant Billie-Jean in the late fall along the same strip of Wydown as her other two restaurants, I Fratellini and Bar Les Freres. She sat down with the Globe to talk about her experience in the business.

by ALEX BERNARD editor-in-chief

Photos from Zoë Robinson Q: What have you learned about the restaurant business?

A: Restaurants don’t have that long a shelf-life. You either become an institution, or you have to change it up. I’m always evolving, and people do evolve, but I think that you have to take your business along with you.

And I don’t think that’s just for restaurant business. You just have to constantly be growing.

Q: Tell us about your involvement in the Clayton School District.

A: I have two kids. One is 23 and one is 22. They used to come for lunch from Clayton High School. Not every day, but a lot, and their friends always wanted to come. And when they went to Wydown, they’d say, ‘Can you bring us lunch today?’ and I would just zip down.

Q: What do you think is important in a successful restaurant?

A: I think that food, of course, is the most important element. But I’m also driven by aesthetics, atmosphere, transporting you. I want you to feel like you are somewhere else, not necessarily in St. Louis. Not that I don’t want to be in St. Louis, I just want you to feel like, oh my gosh, this is so not like my world or my home or my school or my workplace. This is just completely different.

Q: What inspired I Fratellini?

A: I had an Asian restaurant in the Central West End for 13 years, and I really wanted to do another project. I went to Italy a couple times and I just thought, I’m doing this. We’re going to open a little [restaurant] and it’s gonna rock. So my chef in [the] Asian [restaurant], Ni Vance Li, and I said, “Get your visa, we’re going to Italy.” He and I went, and we took some cooking classes together, dined a lot. Italian food is so simplistic; it’s about the ingredients, and, of course, executing them properly. That’s what inspired that restaurant.

Q: What do you like about the restaurant business?

A: Everything. I like the unpredictability. Every day is different. I never feel like work is a grind. Sometimes I’m tired, sometimes I’m a nervous

wreck, sometimes I’m in a puddle of tears, but it’s always a challenge. I get to be as creative as I want, especially here, we can restage the dining room on a dime, do private events, bring all the furniture out, bring different furniture in, we’ve got like a warehouse downstairs. You know, I get to design these parties with people, I get to do special menus for them. Everything about it. I love I Fratellini. I love what I do. I’m so lucky.

Q: What advice do you have for students entering the business world?

A: I’m not saying it’s bad to work for other people, but I think working for yourself is it. [To my staff], I try to be as kind as I can, as supportive as I can. It doesn’t always work, but for the most part I think that’s how I have created a loyal staff. Compensation is one thing, but also I just think kindness and compassion are huge. Like, yes, they might be able to go to 801 Fish and make more money, but are they going to have the same experience as they would here, the same treatment as they have here?

Q: Tell us about your upcoming restaurant.

A: I just sold another restaurant called Bobo. I sold that in December.

Having three restaurants, but having one that’s not right here, was very difficult. Even though it’s so close by and we thought, ‘Oh, piece of cake,’ it was awful. But anyway, I sold that to a friend in order to do the new restaurant. It’s good timing now. It’s perfect. That one’s going to be contemporary American cuisine, simple, it’ll have a good size bar. And the décor is gonna be killer.

Q: What lessons have you learned working in the restaurant industry?

A: I learn a lesson every day. Working in the restaurant business, when you’re in this industry, it is the hospitality industry, and that means you have to be as kind, and generous, and caring as you possibly can. And I think that’s what’s wonderful about this. I’m a natural nurturer, and love feeding people – my kids call me the feeder, like don’t put any more food in front of me, just leave me alone. But I love doing that for people, so what better business. I love when they walk in the door and I can hang their coats and make them feel special, and make them feel [like] I’m here for you and I want to make this a fantastic night. 

F E AT U R E

15

RELIGIOUS REACH

Clayton High School students practice a variety of religions. The Globe takes a look at three differing beliefs through the lives of CHS students.

by MICHAEL BERNARD reporter

Hinduism:

Buddhism:

“Hinduism isn’t a strict set of step by step guidelines, but rather a set of beliefs and morals that everyone should try to carry out in their everyday lives,” freshman Kedar Venkatesh said.

According to Venkatesh, religion tests him everyday regarding his actions. Religion is often the source for him in determining whether something is right or wrong. “[The] way my parents and religion have raised me is to know that no matter what I believe, as long as it is the right thing, I have no reason to fear or step down from that belief,” Venkatesh said.

Venkatesh believes that his religion helps draw a line between right and wrong. He also admires Hinduism because it gives him a sense of unity and focus in his existence.

Venkatesh visits the Hindu temple about two or three times a month, providing that he has no conflicts. Venkatesh is very appreciative of the temple. It gives him a break from his everyday life.

“I get to think about something besides the regulars of school, friends and family,” Venkatesh said.

Similar to Venkatesh, junior Akansha Goel visits her Hindu temple twice a month.

“It provides an opportunity to meet the Hindus in the St. Louis community and receive blessings from the pundit,” Goel said.

According to Goel, a typical service lasts only 15 to 20 minutes and is incredibly individualistic. The service consists of prayers in Hindi and an offering of prasad, which is a food consisting of almonds and raisins.

Goel agrees that her religion helps shape her theoretical understanding. “[The religion] tests me when wholehearted faith is required to understand an abstract concept or when some facet of the religion is not grounded in logic,” Goel said.

According to Goel, believing in God is more than just believing in a higher power.

“Believing in any god or being is a way to alleviate stress and gain hope for a better future while having a collective community that feels similarly and will believe with you,” said Goel, who often turns to her religion for hope or inspiration.

Venkatesh, on the other hand, maintains a different perspective.

“I believe in God because it helps me understand there are things I can’t always control. It tells me that all I need to do in life is the very best I can, and after that the rest is taken care of by someone with a plan for me,” Venkatesh said.

F E AT U R

E 16

A Hindu temple in St. Louis.

(Akansha Goel)

“When I looked at these people’s eyes, they [were] so clean and beautiful,” CHS sophomore Bainian Zhu said. “Their eyes are really different from ours. So why [are] their eyes clean and beautiful? Because [of] the power of the religion.”

Zhu has been a Tibetan Buddhist for over six years. After his mother received a new job last year, Zhu’s family left Nanjing, China and travelled to St. Louis. Since moving to the Clayton area, however, Zhu and his family have not been able to find a church that satisfies their religious beliefs.

In China, Zhu’s family went to a church called Qianliang.

“My parents have followed Buddhism for a long time, much longer than me,” Zhu said. Although his parents attend church five to six times per year, and his mother often encourages him to show devotion to his religion, Zhu himself only worshipped at Qianliang once or twice per year.

Zhu often finds himself a skeptic regarding the philosophy of Buddhism. “Although I am a Buddhist, it is really hard for me to believe that the Buddhas really exist,” Zhu said, who believes that more can be proven by science than religion.

“Why [do] ripe apples fall to the ground?” Zhu said. “Because gravity. This is science.”

Additionally, according to Zhu, being a Buddhist comes with its prices.

“We have a rule that we can’t have meat,” Zhu said. “I dislike this rule, but I try my best to follow it.”

Although Zhu is not the most ardent follower, he believes that there is something good that will come out of his religion.

“I am not a devout Buddhist,” Zhu said. “I follow Buddhism just because I want to be a good man.” According to Zhu, anybody can be a good man if they want to. Zhu often credits his good behavior to Buddha.

“If we are bad guys or if we do something bad, the Buddha will punish us,” Zhu said, before explaining that Buddha punishes His followers by sending them to Hell.

“For me, Christ, Buddha and Muhammad are not important. They are just symbolic,” Zhu said. “The most important thing is that we try our best to help others.”

Atheism/Agnosticism: “I like Atheism because it’s just like any other religion,” CHS freshman Gabriel Gibbons said. “Despite it contradicting the idea of faith, it’s still a belief like any other, and therefore it still doesn’t make you feel secluded from people who believe in a god.”

Gibbons, similar to Zhu, believes that the reason for the creation of the world around him is science, not religion.

Both parents of Gibbons are devout Christians. Luckily for Gibbons, they do not mind his faith. Upon their request, Gibbons will attend services at his parents’ church on religious holidays.

“I usually only go on traditional days of worship like Good Friday, Easter and Christmas,” Gibbons said.

However, according to Gibbons, there are downsides to Atheism.

“Whenever I am in trouble or in need of assistance, and there is no one else around, I can’t turn to my religion since I have no god to confide in,” Gibbons said. “It makes me feel a little less comfortable.”

Gibbons is not alone in the ideology of Atheism. According to a survey of 150 students at CHS, 18 percent identify as Atheist. This is compared to a mere 1.6 percent of US citizens who identify as so.

According to former US Senator and ordained Episcopalian Priest John C. Danforth, there is a simple reason for this high number. He noted that the number of Americans who are religious has decreased immensely.

“My own opinion is that this decline is related to a phenomenon noted by Harvard sociologist Robert Putnam in his book Bowling Alone,” Danforth said. “Putnam says that, in the last third of the 20th Century, Americans became more turned in on themselves and less connected to their communities.”

However, there is a more specific reason why high school students in particular are now less likely to be religiously affiliated.

“I think that many high school students are idealistic. They want to be a part of making the world better. Religion as it is supposed to be calls people to do just that,” Danforth said. “Perhaps our churches are not doing as good a job as they should do in inspiring your generation to change the world for the better.”

However, many students at CHS are not sure as to whether God is truly real or not. These students identify as Agnostic.

Freshman Nicky Taghert is one of the many religious skeptics at CHS. Taghert often bounces between believing that God is real and then questioning the existence of God once again.

“I’m sometimes skeptical about God because, other than holy scriptures, there have not been any actual sightings of him or visual proof that he exists,” Taghert said.

Taghert believes that life, death and fate are all a possibility. However, he understands that he will not be able to discover the truth until he gets there.

“It’s scary to feel that something as big as what happens after death is unknown,” Taghert said. “But it’s also exciting at the same time.”

Gibbons disagrees with this conjecture.

“It’s more comforting, in my opinion, to be an Atheist rather than Agnostic, because I’m happy that I’ve made a choice in my life in what I believe,” Gibbons said.

However, Gibbons occasionally believes in the intervention of higher powers.

“I’m rarely faced with events that make me not follow Atheism, but sometimes what many would call a miracle occurs,” Gibbons said.

One of Gibbons’ uncles caught pneumonia while fighting in Vietnam, fell victim to two heart attacks, had a stroke and even smoked heavily.

“He seems completely untouched, only marred by a minor speech impediment from the stroke,” Gibbons said. “The fact that he’s been able to live a healthy life with all that under his belt might be reason enough to believe there was divine intervention.” 

CLAYTON STUDENTS and RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY: 8% Extremely Religiously Active 74.7% Somewhat Religiously Active 17.3% Not Religiously Active 10.7% Say Parents Extremely Religiously Active

Clockwise from top left: Shiva, a Hindu god. Goel, her mother and her brother in a Hindu temple. Goel and her family at a religious event. (photos from Akansha Goel).

DOUG DIVES IN

Doug Wiens and his team from the Washington University Department of Earth and Planetar y Sciences brave the cold in Antarctica.

by MICHAEL BERNARD and JACOB LaGESSE “One place that we worked in Antarctica was right in the middle of [the continent]. The temperatures were usually negative 15 or negative 20 degrees farenheit,” said Doug Wiens, the husband of CHS history teacher Debra Wiens. “It’s much colder than I’ve ever felt here in St. Louis.”

Only a handful of people have the determination and courage to brave the beautiful yet harsh deserts of Antarctica. Doug Wiens, however, has travelled to Antarctica eight times.

Doug Wiens currently works at Washington University as a professor in the department of Earth and Planetary sciences. He studies aspects of geology ranging from plate tectonics to volcanic eruptions. However, his job often stretches him far beyond the typical classroom environment. As a geologist, he takes trips to remote locations around the world in order to collect seismological readings.

“He has been traveling a lot,” Debra Wiens said. “When our daughter was in her second year of life, she couldn’t remember who he was when he came home [from his travels].”

Doug Wiens spends much of the year traveling abroad. Of all the locations he has visited, Antarctica is one of his favorites. There, Wiens works with his graduate students and other members of his crew to insert seismographs at different locations. His goal is to learn more about the behavior of ice sheets and ice quakes. Because of this, much of his daily routine is spent out on the ice, collecting data and performing experiments.

F E AT U R

E 18

“It can seem a little bit surreal,” Doug Wiens said. “I remember one time going in a ship along the Antarctic Peninsula and seeing all of these icebergs with mountains in the distance. It just seemed like something out of a movie.”

To get to Antarctica, Doug Wiens first flies to Christchurch, New Zealand. “We stay in Christchurch for a couple of days while we get our big coats and rest up a little bit,” Doug Wiens said. He then takes a military transport plane to Antarctica, the flight lasting anywhere between five and nine hours. On this flight, Doug Wiens is rarely alone. He invites graduate students to accompany him on each trip.

“Most of the [graduate students] I’ve had recently have gone to Antarctica,” Doug Wiens said. “I’ll usually have four or five graduate students with me.”

Andrew Lloyd, a current PhD student at Washington University, has traveled to Antarctica six times. Since 2009, Lloyd has visisted every year up until 2015. As a student, however, the travel often interferes with classes.

“I have never attended a complete class as a graduate student. This is common with any science-involving fieldwork,” Lloyd said.

After spending much of his time working alongside Doug Wiens, Lloyd has been inspired by the effort that Doug Wiens puts into his career.

“I look up to Doug and his collaborators in regards to their hard work

to improve the seismic coverage in Antarctica despite the remoteness and harsh conditions of the continent,” Lloyd said. “Having an advisor who is active in this way helps inspire [me] to be active in the scientific community.”

Through his hard work in Antarctica, Doug Wiens sets an example of diligence for his graduate students. He occasionally finds himself working in the field as late as 1 a.m. “It is possible to work at midnight if you’re really in a hurry to get something done,” Doug Wiens said.

Although he visits Antarctica at a time of the year in which there is daylight for 24 hours, Doug Wiens advises his students to maintain a sleep schedule that prevents body malfunctions.

“Even if it’s broad daylight outside, [and] you could keep working for another six hours, you say it’s time to go to bed,” Doug Wiens said.

The long days are not the only thing that tests Doug Wiens and his graduate students. A language barrier, for example, is a common obstacle that faces Doug Wiens and his students while in Antarctica. The first time that Doug Wiens visited was especially difficult.

“I went with the Chilean program. I didn’t know Spanish very well, so I couldn’t understand what people were saying a lot of the time. That made it hard,” Doug Wiens said.

As he grew comfortable with the new language surrounding him, Doug Wiens faced new challenges. Although the landscape of Antarctica is beautiful, the climate is hostile.

“They issue us clothing [to protect from the cold],” Doug Wiens said.

“The main thing we have to worry about is [wind]. Then we have to make sure we cover our faces so we don’t get frostbite.”

In addition to the dangers of the cold wind, Doug Wiens and his graduate students cannot overlook the consequences of potentially disastrous accidents. During one visit to the continent, a plane carrying one of Doug Wien’s graduate students crashed upon takeoff. The pilot lifted off too early, and the skis tore off, sending the plane sliding across the ice. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured.

Although Antarctica can be dangerous, Doug Wiens continues to return. According to Doug Wiens, there are plenty of recreational and leisure activities in which to participate.

“A lot of the time, people will sit around and talk [and] have a beer,” Doug Wiens said.

Lloyd and Doug Wiens both like to cross country ski as well. At the main camp, scientists can also go to the gym, bowl at the two lane bowling alley, or play a pickup game of soccer when they have time off from their field work.

Doug Wiens generally stays in Antarctica for one to two months at a time.

He believes that one of the most amazing parts of traveling to Antactica is the secludedness of the continent. His crew is often more than 1000 miles away from the nearest person.

“There are many places where I am one of a handful of people to have ever set foot there,” Lloyd said. 

(Left) Doug Wiens and his team from Washington University posing in the cold. (Above) Doug Wiens setting up his tent. (Photos from Doug Wiens).

F E AT U R E

19

T YLER THE SNEAKERHEAD

by DANIEL CHO page editor Tyler Mitchell, a junior at CHS, is a collector. However, there is a specific name for collectors like Mitchell: sneakerheads. Sneakerheads are like any other collectors and their speciality involves collecting shoes ranging from brands like Nike and Jordans to Asics and New Balance.

Mitchell has a grand collection of 67 pairs of shoes, and it continues to grow.

“I started collecting around the 7th grade. The first pair that really started my collection were black and blue Nike LeBron 9’s,” Mitchell said.

Soon after, he raised more money and continued to buy more pairs.

Mitchell sees shoes as a staple to a person’s fashion. He believes that shoes say a lot about one’s personality.

“I think that a person’s fashion starts from the ground up. While most people might notice a person’s top or jacket, the first thing I note about a person’s outfit is his or her shoes,” Mitchell said.

However, shoes can become quite an expensive obsession. Newly released shoes can range anywhere from $150 to upwards of $400. Despite this, Mitchell thinks that the shoes are worth the price.

“Even though they are expensive, it’s a passion [of mine]. I started collecting mainly to look nice, but then it turned into a love for the collecting aspect and for the growing community. I follow the media surrounding new pairs of shoes whenever I have free time,” Mitchell said.

As a collector, Mitchell has become interested in more than just the style of the shoes.

“The history of a pair of shoes is very cool to me. The whole Jordan line and the history of Michael Jordan’s shoes is what makes it my favorite brand,” he said. “There are so many classic models, and the designs themselves are timeless. My favorite [pair] right now are the Jordan 4’s, but I still wear a variety of brands like Adidas, Asics and Nike.”

Since Mitchell prizes his collection, he works diligently to preserve the quality of his shoes.

“For my really nice pair of shoes, I have only worn them a couple times and I keep them in a plastic bag so that they don’t get damaged. The sole can become detached if you don’t take good care of them. I also clean my shoes after every time I wear them,” Mitchell said.

Keeping the shoes in good condition can also be important to collectors who resell their shoes. Therefore, sneakers have to be cleaned often and be well groomed in order to have a resale value close to the stock price. Mitchell is not the only one with a strong love for shoes. All around the country, collecting shoes has been an increasingly popular hobby, and a diverse community has developed around it.

For individuals wondering what it takes to join the community, there is no requirement. “Anyone can become one,” Mitchell said. “If you genuinely have a passion for shoes, then I consider you a sneakerhead. It doesn’t matter to me if you have five pairs of shoes or 5000.” 

F E AT U R

E 20

(Top and bottom) shoes in Mitchell’s collection, (middle) Tyler Mitchell. (Photos from Mitchell)

HALL of

fame

By BRian gatter with noah brown

According to the Clayton Alumni Association, a Hall of Fame candidate has each of the following qualities: “Excellence in service to a recognized profession such as law, education, medicine, science, journalism, etc., outstanding success in trade, business or industry, demonstration of high achievement in one or more recognized fields of cultural endeavor and significant contributions to the community at large through volunteering or charitable contributions.”

Each of these inductees embodies the characteristics that Clayton students strive to be. They have made their mark not only on the CHS community but also on their greater fields and the world.

These inductees represent the best that Clayton High School has to offer. Their incredible achievements at and after CHS, however, could not have been obtained if not for the base of knowledge that helped them find their passion.

These inductees were once in our position. Not all of them were immediate successes but all had to overcome challenges. Meeting these people was an honor and enjoying their stories of success is something we all can appreciate.

Without further adieu, the inductees to the Clayton High school hall of Fame: Class of 2016.

GREGORY WAGNER CHS Class of ‘65

Some things never change.

Gregory Wagner, a 1965 graduate of CHS and 2016 Hall of Fame inductee, stressed that his high school experience consisted of indulging in numerous extracurricular activities. CHS, to this day, offers students a plethora of opportunities that extend and go beyond the classroom doors.

Wagner and many of his classmates got the most out of their education by involving themselves in a wide range of extracurricular activities.

“I participated in Experiment in International Living, we had American Field Service students, who were in the school, one or two

a year. People engaged in social justice activities, there were county and city-wide organizations that people participated in outside of the boundaries of the school,” Wagner said.

Participating in the school newspaper was something that, to this day, Wagner places great value on.

“One of the things I enjoyed most was being editor of the school newspaper,” Wagner said. “We had a great team of people who would work together to get the paper out.

There was a lot of spending time together and a lot of reliance on the students getting it done.”

Wagner’s participation in extra-

curricular activities allowed him to recognize and appreciate how the school empowered its students.

“I think that the school itself really supported the creativity and the exploration of students, supported our curiosity and also experimentation. There was a respect for having a flexibility in the approach toward students,” Wagner said.

The school’s excellence, Wagner believes, started with its teachers and administrators.

“In a lot of ways, I think that Clayton had great teachers. It was a community that was willing to support having outstanding schools through providing the resources necessary. The principal who was there when I attended was fabulous. He was a great leader and a wonderful principal,” Wagner said.

C OV E R 2 2

Currently, Wagner’s work revolves around the juncture between scientific research and public health policy. The CHS alum wears many hats, serving as the Senior Advisor to the Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health as well as being an adjunct professor at Harvard School of Public Health.

Despite the success he has personally enjoyed, Wagner does not overlook his high school experiences and would encourage current students to make the most out of their high school experience, too.

Wagner believes that Clayton students are privileged and should take advantage of the unique opportunities they are offered.

“I’d tell them to take risks, that they should be willing to fail and to just feed their curiosity,” Wagner said.

ALEX BERGER III CHS Class of ‘67

“The first day I was at Clayton High School, I walked through the smoking lounge, where all the juniors and seniors were, and that was a little intimidating, to say the least,” Alex Berger from the CHS Class of 1967 said. “I think what is the most important thing to me is the take away that my closest friends, today, went to Clayton High School during the time I went, particularly my classmates. It’s remarkable that my three closest friends were all from the Class of 1967.”

Berger stressed that high school was a predominantly positive time for him and his friends. Moreover, Berger recognizes the edge his Clayton education gave him over his classmates at college.

“We just had a very good time, really good time. None of us got in terrible trouble, and whether it was athletics or theater, all of my friends just had a great time,” Berger said.

“They all went to school, and never did my friends have difficulty going to college. When you go to college and you see some people struggling early on, none of us from Clayton had that experience. We were ready. That’s pretty cool.”

Through reflecting on his high school experiences, Berger realizes the power of mentorship. For Berger, the one credited with pushing him the extra mile was a high school teacher of his, Frank Armstrong.

“I had an uneven career academically,” Berger said. “My junior year, Frank Armstrong, who was a teacher, now deceased, took me aside and said, ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ [He] made the initial effort to say something to me, and the difference in my grade points between

my first two years and second two years, I attributed to a teacher saying, ‘What are you doing?’ and I think that’s a remarkable takeaway for me.”

Berger’s mark on Clayton was not left solely during his high school years. After graduating and pursuing his education, Berger returned to the city of St. Louis to work several jobs related to public service. After stints at several local corporations like BJC and Emerson Electric, Berger found his calling as an Alderman for the City of Clayton.

“I got involved as a Clayton Alderman in 2001. My first election was in 2002, and then I’ve been fortunate enough to win a number of elections to be Alderman, and it’s about this community,” Berger said. “For me, I’m driven by what can we do to continue to be a part of the triangle: commercial, residential and governmental. That model is what really drives this environment and it’s been absolutely terrific to be involved.”

Aside from the inherent complexities of political involvement, Berger boils his role as an Alderman down to listening and advocating for the citizens. “[Being an Alderman] entails listening and being proactive. We have a community of engaged citizens and residents, and whether for or against, it’s important that we continue to engage. It’s just being engaged about, ‘Let’s do what we need to today and let’s prepare for tomorrow,’ and I love it and I can’t imagine not doing it,” Berger said.

Although he acknowledges that not all citizens share the same views, Berger believes that the focus of the city of Clayton is virtually uni-

C OV E R 2 3

versal.

“We’re not going to be a community where everybody agrees on everything, and we shouldn’t be, but we have produced a terrific environment for people to live and work, we really have, and everybody’s part of that and everybody should take credit for that,” Berger said. “For example, over 50 years ago, the citizens of Clayton voted, through a bond issue, to build the ice skating rink. I don’t skate, but all of my family skates, and we spent a great deal of time there during high school. It’s a great thing. The citizens of Clayton were the ones to say, ‘Yeah, we want to do that.’”

Sitting on the boards for the Wilson School, the Clayton Art Fair and the St. Louis Community College Foundation, Berger gains new perspectives through his volunteer experiences, while managing to keep himself busy.

“Those are really intriguing experiential volunteer activities. It gives me a broader range of perspective and respect for what people are trying to do, perhaps not solely around Clayton, but for the good of the whole community,” Berger said. “I enjoy all of that and I have three grandsons, so that takes up my day and week.”

Berger’s commitment and passion for the city in which he resides, works and went to school is obvious.

“I’m a Clayton guy,” Berger said. “Everybody who knows me, I promote Clayton, I’m an advocate for this community and the school system. I’m the only person you know who has multiple orange sweaters for some unknown reason. It’s because I’m a Clayton guy, so I’m really honored, I’m thrilled [to be in the Hall of Fame.]”

RICK BEARD CHS Class of ‘78 One thing Rick Beard possessed for his entire life was dedication.

His dedication to the Clayton community as well as to the country, serving as a commander in Germany for five years, to himself and his education was absolutely unmatched.

His wife, Sonia, helped describe Beard’s drive and dedication to his education as well as his constant affinity to the Clayton community.

“So he said, ‘Okay, I’m going to go back to school and I’m going to get a business degree.

He wrote his application [essay] by flashlight in a tent on the east-west border. That kind of dedication. I remember asking him, you have an MBA from Harvard, you could go to work anywhere. He said, ‘I only want to interview with companies where I can go to work in Saint Louis.’ That’s the kind of draw that the Clayton community has on people who go away and want to come back,” Sonia said.

Sonia, who is originally from Georgia, remembers this affinity with great clarity. It even had its place on the night he proposed.

“When he proposed to me, I was actually living in Georgia. He said, ‘You have to come back to Clayton, because I want our children to be raised in the Clayton School District.’ That’s how strongly he felt about being here,” Sonia said.

Having spent his entire academic career, from kindergarten to senior year, in the District, Beard’s affinity to Clayton came, at least partially, from what the Clayton community and the CHS community brought to him.

“I think the challenge of having to juggle dif-

ferent things [helped him],” Sonia said. “There are so many things that were offered at the high school, just like there are now. I think that all the things that were offered there sets you up for success. That’s why he wanted his kids to go through it.”

Although this myriad of opportunities was one of the main things that set Beard up for his eventual enormous success, his friendships were the most treasured thing Beard took away from CHS and the entire district.

“Rick went to elementary school at the old Maryland School,” Sonia said, “[He had] a bunch of his friends, about five of them. As adults I went on double dates with these friends and the boys liked to go back to Maryland Elementary School and play on the playground. They were in their 30s, these are adults and it was so much fun to listen to them. There was just such a camaraderie between them. The friendships that Rick developed as early as Maryland Elementary School, those were his best friends when he died.”

One of Beard’s dearest friends throughout his childhood was Dr. Peter Kieffer who shared laughs with Beard from kindergarten all the way through adulthood.

Kieffer shared how CHS aided in Beard’s eventual successes.

“He was class president when we graduated, he was captain of the track team, started on the basketball team,” Kieffer said. “He was always a remarkable leader, whether it was hanging out after school or during the school week. He was

C OV E R 2 4

able to corral us even before he went to West Point, Harvard and started Cardinal Investment Banking. That certainly gave him the wherewithal to succeed in life.”

Beard’s friendship with Kieffer and his other very close friends meant the world to him but did not hinder him from being a good friend to everyone he met.

“He had so many people that thought he was their best friend because he had the personality type that when you met him, he was only interested in you,” Sonia said. “He would concentrate on what you were saying and he was genuinely interested in people that he met. In my life, I’m going on 60, I’ve met very few people who have the ability to meet other people and befriend them and work on friendships.”

These friendships and skills with people that he utilized from an early age in the School District of Clayton were much of what made Beard so successful. Sonia believes these skills are what he would want most to pass on to the next generation of Clayton High School students.

“He would be invited to a lot of conferences to speak. I can tell you what he said to the last conference group that he spoke to,” Sonia said, “He talked about really getting to know the people that you work with. He said, and I think this is what he would say to Clayton High School students, ‘Put down your cell phones and connect with each other.’ A big part of what made him successful was really listening to other people and nurturing and maintaining lifelong friendships.”

From 1993-2001 Dorothy Robyn was a part of the Clinton administration’s economic team.

From 2009-2012 she served as the deputy under the Department of Defense for President Obama.

However, from 1959-1960 she wore a Nixon button everywhere she went.

“In the 1960 campaign I had a Nixon button the size of a dinner plate and I would go door to door, collecting money for the Nixon campaign as a seventh grader,” Robyn said, “We would stuff envelopes. I was a goldwater girl, I had a bumper sticker on my notebook.

I grew up with this love of politics and I think Clayton fed that. We had Model UN conventions. My friends were politically active. I was surrounded by it both at home and in the high school. I think that, absolutely, my course was kind of set.”

Robyn felt an innate sense of what she would eventually do in her life, however CHS provided an avenue for her to pursue her passion through teaching her some of the most integral skills to her profession.

“When I think about my skill set, why I have been successful, I think it comes down to that I write extremely well and most people don’t,” Robyn said. “I trace that directly to Clayton. There was such an emphasis on [writing] and

it was such a big part of the education we got. I trace my fundamental enjoyment of writing and ability to write to Maryland and Wydown and Clayton.”

Robyn also mentioned the incredible teaching she received throughout her career in the School District and specifically during her time at the Maryland School.

“For me, the years at Maryland [Elementary School] were probably the best of my Clayton career,” Robyn recalled. “I had six teachers.

They were all women, they were all young and would probably now be running companies or who knows what. They presumably had limited career options and they were devoted to teaching and they were unbelievable.”

Robyn is reminiscent of the not only the educational environment of the Maryland School but also the physical space.

“I think back on Maryland School and those big windows, it was just so stimulating,” Robyn said. “It was what school should be. It was what every kid should have: a small group environment with other people who challenge you and stimulate your mind.”

Robyn also remembered the attention to helping each individual student at CHS, even at that time.

“The main reason we moved to Clayton was because of the caliber

of the schools and [my parents] wanted us in these incredible schools,” Robyn said, “My dad was so proud of the fact that Clayton, at the time, was spending the most money per pupil in the country.

Money doesn’t equate to quality, but it’s a good indicator.”

However, throughout all of her successes and positive memories throughout the District, the great friendships she formed are her greatest treasure.

“The close friendships [are my best memories]. I had a set of very, very close friends,” Robyn said.

“We were very unsupervised. This is true of anybody that I talk to my age. We were completely unsupervised. I would call home and say, ‘On Friday, I’m spending the night at Sarah’s house,’ and then on Saturday I would call and say, ‘I’m going to spend the night at Terri’s house.’”

Even in those days, CHS had a large Jewish population, and many of Robyn’s CHS friends were Jewish. This early religious education,

DOROTHY ROBYN CHS Class of ‘66 C OV E R 2 5

which included having Seder dinner at the houses of her friends, affected her greatly.

“A lot of my friends were Jewish and so I grew up as kind of a cultural Jew,” Robyn said. “That’s a very important part of who I am.

That exposure to Judaism, even though my family wasn’t Jewish, I have wonderful memories of that.”

Although she has been successful throughout her life, Robyn believes it could not have been possible if she had not followed her passion -- the same advice she gives to all CHS students.

“My advice to young women, usually it’s young women that seek me out, is always follow your heart, follow your passion,” Robyn said.

“That’s what I’ve always done. I was never very practical about what I did or I probably would’ve done something else. Do what really gives you great pleasure because you will excel at that as opposed to something that you have to make yourself do.”

VIRGINIA SCHARFF CHS Class of ‘71 Virginia Scharff attended Clayton High School from 1967-1971, a time when America saw the horrors of the Vietnam War and of the assassination of Martin Luther King. Similarly to students walking the CHS halls today, Scharff and her friends never shied away from such topics, even with their teachers.

“This was 1960s, early 1970s. All of us were long-haired freaks, anti-war freaks. Most of our teachers were fairly liberal,” Scharff said.

“They all insisted that if we were going to come at them with the radical perspective on history that we were developing at that time that we better have the evidence to back our claim.”

Although she enjoyed this “intellectual training,” Scarff found her true passion in writing and in history, a harbinger of her tremendous success in both fields.

“My best classes were the history classes. I was just really interested in the people of the past and the strangeness of the past. I guess I was really gripped by the notion of cause and effect,” Scharff said. “The history department at Clayton High at that time was unbelievable.”

Scharff has had success in writing both fiction and nonfiction, many of which contained unique looks at both women’s history and history through the eyes of women. One of her more recent books was one in which Scharff describes the life of Thomas Jefferson through the women he loved including his wife, mistress, daughters and granddaughters. Scharff has always been fascinated by the man who facilitated the Louisiana Purchase, in fact, her strong interest stems from her time in Saint Louis.

“As it happens one the first biography I ever remember reading was a biography of Thomas Jefferson and it kind of stuck with me,” Scharff

said. “I used to go with my mom to what was then called the Jefferson Memorial, but now is the Missouri History Museum and so I was fascinated with history and with Jefferson and the history of the American Southwest from a very early age.”

The history classes were not the only thing that influenced Scarff throughout her life as she looked back on her time at Clayton. What she remembered most were the transformative teachers as well as the fond memories of strong friendships.

“I can remember a lot of time sitting in the quadrangle and this was a point where people were learning how to play guitar. We kind of taught ourselves how to sing harmonies,” Scharff said. “What formed me more than anything else were these really deep friendships that happened in the quad, hanging out, singing with guitars.”

Scarff also had a positive outlook on the high academic load Clayton places upon its students especially the more high achieving ones.

“Clayton High is a place where everyone expects a lot from students. It was an exceedingly competitive environment I would say. We were people who were expected to go to college and to excel in everything we did,” Scarff said. “We just vied with each other to see who could be the smartest kid, who would get into the Ivy League schools. Clayton sets you up to expect a lot from yourself.”

Scarff, who was a part of one of the first co-ed graduating classes from Yale University, insisted that this elevated self expectation can assist in greater success down the road.

“I can remember when all of the letters came from colleges. Clayton launches you into

C OV E R 2 6

the next place where you are going to have to expect a lot from yourself,” Scarff said. “It was exhilarating and inspiring to have that kind of high expectation.”

Although to the teenagers walking the halls of CHS the 1970s can seem like an eternity ago, the memories Scharff shared drew so many parallels to the CHS we know today, such as the balancing of extra-curricular activity as well as the myriad of school work. Scarff worked as the head editor on the CHS school newspaper, then called the ClaMO, all four years of her time at CHS, often spending prolonged hours putting the paper together with her co-editors.

“I really looked up to the juniors and seniors who ran the paper and kind of worked my way up. Those friends, we had so much fun putting the paper together,” Scharff said. “We put the paper together in my basement on my pingpong table. Our faculty advisors left us alone to do this paper. We pasted it up [ourselves].”

As one of Clayton’s most distinguished graduates, Scharff is the last one to deny how much her education that she gained from CHS has aided in her success. It has also made her a firm believer in the importance of an education.

“I think in this postmodern age that we live in where science is doubted, where history is doubted, if you lie about something long enough people begin to believe that it’s true,” Scarff said. “Belief becomes almost as important as reality. I still am engaged by the idea that I have something to contribute by demonstrating to people that they have to take facts seriously. I still believe, like Jefferson, that an educated citizenry is the safeguard of democracy.”

WILLIAM ARTHUR PENN

“I was kind of a nerdy guy and I stuck to my engineering studies,” William Arthur Penn, graduate of the Class of 1947, said. “I got interested in science and mathematics in high school, no question. I wasn’t a social bug. You have to have some nerds in the world to make things run. I guess I’m one of them.”

Although much of Penn’s intellectual prowess came from an innate talent for the fields of mathematics and science, he gives credit to CHS teachers for aiding him in the transition to engineering in college.

“Typically in a university, the mathematics department might be in arts and sciences, and the engineering is a separate school, but they’re so tightly coupled,” Penn said. “So I was lucky that those topics were taught very expertly in the high school.”

Penn, an adjunct professor at Syracuse University himself, saw in the teachers at CHS qualities that he views as distinct to teachers in successful districts.

“Any good school district has got a lot of teachers that really love to do it,” Penn said.

“They aren’t doing it just to earn the money and look forward to retirement. No, they’re very different than that, most of them. They really like teaching kids and they feel like

CHS Class of ‘47

they’re really doing something very important for society, and I agree 100 percent, they are.

That attitude comes right out when you have a teacher like that.”

Although Penn has taught and taken many classes throughout his life, he sees an education as never truly complete.

“You spend one fifth of your life in school, or more, maybe in some cases,” Penn said. “I went to school when I was five years old, and I am 86 now and I’m still going to school. I keep learning. If you ever stop learning, you’re done for.”

Although Penn was able to get a jumpstart

on the adult world with fantastic educations from both CHS and Washington University, he believes that hard work is truly what made him such a success and advises students according to that belief.

“I would tell students, in just two words, hard work,” Penn said. “Get those grades up. School is really important. It’s the way our society prepares people for their lifetime. A lot of kids, surprising to me, go to college and they’re more interested in partying than really studying hard.

It sounds kind of nerdy and cliché, but that’s my answer. You have to buckle down and do the work properly, and get something out of it.”

CHS has always been a place where teaching has thrived. It is seen throughout the thoughts of the inductees. Virginia Scharff called a few teachers “life-changing.” Dorothy Robyn called them “unbelievable and superb.” Teachers of the past such as Dr. Nick Adzick, who is being recognized as one of the 2016 Distinguished Educators, had a place in conversations with many of the inductees.

As we close in on teacher appreciation week as well as the end of the school year, the sentiments of the inductees ring true. As they looked back on their time at CHS and reminisced about all of the people who made CHS, in their time, great, I did the same.

Clayton High School is truly a product of those who work the hardest CHS. Those people are the people that help make it great.

It’s Gabriel De La Paz, who I never beat into his class even though I came early nearly every single day. It’s people like Barbara Dobbert and Paul Hoelscher who truly love what they do and make it known to every student. It’s people like Sam Harned whose class I never left without a smile on my face and confidence in my abilities.

The emphasis that each of the inductees placed on these incredible teachers as dominant influences in their lives force us to consider the people that have made our time at CHS great. As we all move on to another year in our educational careers, whether in be another year at CHS or leaving for college, always utilize the skills they instilled in you, use them as role models and most importantly, never forget. 

C OV E R 2 7

3

2

1

Our phenomenal

SENIOR ATHLETES

44

The Globe asked each CHS sports coach to recognize one outstanding individual in leadership and dedication on their team.

by MICHAEL BERNARD and ELISE YANG

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

“Robert [Hogan] (1) is the epitome of who we want our basketball players to be. He is a great person, he is great in the classroom and a tireless worker. Robert sets the example in all aspects for our program.” Blake Ahearn, boys’ baskeball “Andreas Petermann (2) is a three-year starter on our Varsity squad. Andreas leads by making his passion for the game evident. His work ethic is tireless and through his commitment has established himself as a dangerous hitter in the middle of our batting order.”

Craig Sucher, baseball “Abby [Mills](3) was a captain on the Varsity girls tennis team.

She set the tone for the rest of the team. I knew throughout the season that she was my “go to” person. She is thorough and dependable and always put forth 100% effort.” Susie Luten, girls’ tennis

SPORT

S 28

“Palmer [Stemmler] (4) has been an unparalleled leader on the team. He is able to gain the respect of his fellow teammates. He practices hard, plays hard and has been a pleasure to have on the team.” Susie Luten, boys’ tennis “[Elliot Ambort] (5) loves to practice and put the time in on the range to get better. [He] can shoot really low scores when we need him to do so.” Chris Moody, boys’ golf “Parker [Ross] (6) embodies exactly what it takes to be a successful wrestler. He is unselfish, mentally tough, self-driven and a born leader. These skills will not only help him with any athletic or academic goal he tries to accomplish but will also make him a great husband and father someday.” Joesph Day, wrestling

“Anthony [Cameron](7) makes coming to practice fun, he is always in a great mood and energizes the entire team.

He genuinely cares about each individual on the squad and offers assistance in their performance. He is willing to do whatever it takes to help the team, even if that means competing in an event he is unfamiliar with.” James Crowe, boys’ track and field “[John Schultz] (8) was a positive influence concerning his attitude towards others and that was helpful with the younger members of the [cross country] team.” Kurtis Werner, boys’ cross country “[Abraham Park] (9) is a constant source of encouragement and positivity for the water polo team. His leadership this year has helped the team keep focus and stay on track, even in the midst of some tough games.” Jud Brooks, water polo “Senior co-captain Natalie Pegg (10) dominated the infield and helped carry Clayton to its first District Championship in recent memory.” Chris Livingston, softball “Gabby [Boeger] (11) was a mainstay varsity competitor in the [cross country] program for four years. She could always be counted on to come through and was a strongwilled individual. The team will miss her consistency and fun, yet competitive spirit next year.” Kurtis Werner, girls’ cross country “Kaitlyn White (12) provided outstanding leadership for our basketball team. As our captain, she led by example through hard work and effort. She provided a kind spirit for both our younger and older players. She exemplified what we would hope a greyhound basketball player would be.”

Steve McFall, girls’ basketball “For the four years that Ellie Troupis (13) has played field hockey at Clayton, she has bought great team spirit, leadership and friendship to the program. Her peers elected her Varsity Captain for her senior year. She is a great asset to our program and she will be missed.” Darby Hille, field hockey “Leah Peipert (14) is such an outstanding athlete as well as such a incredible person. She is confident, accountable, honest, sincere, genuine, focused, inspirational, and totally positive with her team mates. She works hard during practices, and is totally focused while still having a fun time with the other girl golfers.” Kim Shelley, girls’ golf

“Heather Stone (15) is a hard working track athlete with a lot of promise. She is a leader by example on the track. In practice, her teammates refuse to run next to her because she works so hard. Thnk you Heather for all your hard work over the last four years.” Barry Ford, girls’ track and field

“Madison Lockett (16) was a captain of the team.

She set the tone on the court and was a great leader for the team. She has a strong passion for the game, and her motivation to succeed is exemplary.” Kyle McCord, volleyball “Gabby Boeger (11) has been a four-year varsity starter. Gabby is an outstanding student athlete, who works hard both in the classroom and one the field. She has represented Clayton Athletics and CHS, with excellent sportsmanship and integrity.” Tom Redmond, girls’ soccer “For the four years that Grace Harrison (17) has played lacrosse at Clayton she has exhibited quiet, mature leadership as well as a very high level of selfless play.

Her speed, stick skills and knowledge of the game make her a coach on the field of play. But more importantly, it is her intangible qualities of leadership, character, sportsmanship and unwillingness to quit that help her teammates find success on the field.” Darby Hille, girls’ lacrosse “Lydia Welty (18) is a great leader, a great motivator, and a role model, placing 12th and 15th at the state meet.” Katelyn Long, girls’ swimming “Senior varsity soccer player Palmer Stemmler (4) epitomizes what it means to be a team player. At the start of the 2015 season, Palmer was going to be a starting midfield player. But when he saw the team need for a goalkeeper, he switched to keeper. He played so well that he earned All Conference honors.” Tom Redmond, boys’ soccer “Robert [Hollocher](19) cannot tell a lie so whenever I asked him how many repeats he had left in a set, he would answer truthfully, even as his friends were shaving a few off the final number. Robert pours 100% effort into everything he does. He changed his mechanics to improve speed, which is hard to do after you have been swimming a certain way for years. Encouraging and kind, Robert supported each swimmer.” Jill Allen, boys’ swimming “Ethan Alter (20) was a huge part of our success this season. He finished with the most points on our team and was one of the top players in the state. He was named player of the week by Midstates after a 5 goal performance against St. Marys. He loves the game and his passion shows every time he steps on the ice. He was also voted captain at the beginning of the season by his teammates and coaches.” Pete Wildhaber, hockey A.J. Parker (21) was our most tireless worker. He was the first to arrive and the last to leave for almost all of our off season and in season work. A.J. was as dedicated a leader as you could hope to find on any team.”

Gene Gladstone, football 

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

SPORT

S 29

BEYOND THE FIELD

Max Hunter shines on the baseball diamond with the guidance of his coach and teacher, Craig Sucher.

by KEVIN ROSENTHAL senior managing editor

Hunter up to bat during a game against U-City (Alex Gerchen).

Clayton’s star-studded sophomore Max Hunter threw venom all afternoon for the Greyhounds in the 2015 baseball district semifinals. In the dugout to the sophomore’s west, his coach maintained a steady stoicism as he watched his pitching prospect dismantle St. Louis high school baseball’s greatest juggernaut -- the four-time defending state champion, the Westminster Wildcats.

Not only did Hunter shock every pair of eyes watching that afternoon in late May, but he also exploded the stat sheet. Hunter threw a complete game shutout, striking out 12 in a game that everyone but the Clayton Greyhounds and the baseball gods had written off as a win for the Wildcats. Lethal.

Craig Sucher had been the head coach of Clayton’s varsity baseball team for 10 years before his team won their first district title in 2013. In 2015, Sucher faced his greatest challenge as a coach, as the only way for his squad to so much as play for a chance at the district championship would involve a victory against a behemoth Westminster team who had not only won the last four state championships, but who also boasted nine consecutive district titles, as well as multiple Division I talents.

Sucher, though generally not one to romanticize wins or be too bogged down by losses, still could not help but make a connection between Clayton’s miracle run in the 2015 baseball playoffs and one of the most as-

SPORT

S 30

tounding hockey victories in sports history known as “The Miracle.”

“After the game when we talked about it -- and I’ll admit this to may be be overly-dramatic -- but in the moment it felt like when the United States beat the Soviets in 1980 in hockey, particularly because on the heels of that win we still had to come back the next day and beat a Priory team who was extremely good, and who had beaten us prior to the season,” Sucher said. “We had to make sure that the euphoria around what had just happened didn’t get in the way of us being as good as we could possibly be the next day.”

One thing the 25-6 Wildcats forgot to consider that day: Hunter’s record. Leading up to that day, Hunter compiled a record of 7-2, hurling five complete games, all while holding opposing batters to an average of .184 and posting a staggering 1.06 ERA. “Max’s role in our district title was really special. He knew the stakes, he knew the opportunity, and basically he trusted his preparation and that’s a message we give our guys all the time: when you get into an opportunity like this you have to trust your preparation and just let yourself perform. And so what does that say about the preparation Max put in? It was significant, over a long period of time of many years. And I think that’s the most gratifying thing I’ve pulled from it: when you can see somebody that has committed himself that much to then enjoy the

dividend of their effort is really cool,” Sucher said.

Just as during a game a pitcher must remained unfazed even amidst a hot streak, Hunter radiated modesty in assessing the team’s performance against Westminster, now looking back nearly a year later. Rather than brag about his individual effort, Hunter praised the efforts of the entire team and the coaching staff for Clayton’s preparedness in being able to contend against Goliath.

“Just like we would against any other team, we looked through their lineup and saw who they had. We figured out a gameplan of how we were going to deal with them, and just prepped up a lot before, and it paid off.

All the work we did in preseason and all the practicing really helped us to succeed down the stretch,” Hunter said.

Although Hunter’s performance against the absolute best Missouri had to offer in Class 4 high school baseball was almost impossible to believe, just as impressive was the fact that Hunter then proceeded to start a game that had eluded the Greyhounds for the last two years: the state sectional game. On short rest, Hunter proceeded to allow one run on seven hits, pitching another complete game against 16-7 Pacific.

Remarkable victories against Westminster, Priory, and Pacific saw Clayton emerge as district champions in 2015, and it wasn’t until an 8-1 loss to Notre Dame High School in the state quarterfinals that Clayton’s bid for its first ever state title was halted. _______________________________________________________

THE BOND The grass grew up to St. Louis’ sweltering summer sky on Shaw Park Field during the months after Clayton’s improbable run to a district title, as the ballpark went unused by the Greyhounds on break. It was not even one week before the start of the 2015-2016 school year that Max Hunter learned his coach Craig Sucher would become his everyday teacher for Hunter’s junior year Honors Biology class.

Sucher, who had just coached Hunter to one of the greatest baseball triumphs in their lives, would now be teaching Hunter about what it means to be alive -- literally.

“It felt a little different at first, adjusting from him being just my coach to him being my coach and teacher,” Hunter said. “Sucher the coach is probably a bit more intense than Sucher the teacher, but I think in both

sides of him, he always leaves room to make jokes, and he always finds a way to get his message through. He’s able to change gears from teacher to coach pretty quick.”

Having taught at Clayton for 19 years, Sucher has taught thousands of students biology, and naturally, through the years, there has been plenty of overlap between students in his class and athletes he has coached on the field. Though it’s been rare over the course of Sucher’s career for him to find a student with otherworldly athletic potential who is also highly motivated to succeed in the classroom, Sucher has seen Hunter’s steadfast desire to thrive in both facets. “I see a lot of similarities in that both as a student and as an athlete Max strives to be his best at all times. Between his dedication, his perseverance, his work ethic ... he’s near tireless,” Sucher said. “And that’s absolutely something to celebrate because it’s unfortunate when you have an individual who shows that dedication in athletics but isn’t able to apply it in the same way in the academic world. There’s just an inherent fun of sports, of chasing a ball, or whatever it might be. But the student athlete who is able to transfer that kind of effort into their academics in a way that is real purposive of athletics to foster those life habits, that’s awesome.”

Sucher, having mentored handfuls of students within this overlap, is clearly cognizant of what makes his job so unique. What makes Sucher and Hunter’s relationship so noteworthy is that unlike any other level of sports, the coach and the player are forced to spend parts of everyday for a year, further understanding each other’s nuances and building a stronger bond for their final two seasons together.

This is the beauty of high school sports.

The stakes are still high on the field, yet there is also a rich opportunity for relationships to extend far beyond the field.

“I guess the even bigger context is that clearly, the better relationship between the learner and instructor - the teacher and student - the better an understanding there is of how the student learns, of what motivates them,” Sucher said. “There becomes more trust in the mind of the learner that everything the instructor is doing is in the best interest of the learner even when something might be hard. As teachers and coaches, we’re there to do everything we can to create circumstances for students to feel as powerful as they can be and then experience as much success as they want to work for. When you’re doing that and it translates and resonates, that creates the powerful and deep-rooted relationships and from that grows more success on the field.” 

Sucher coaches Hunter at 3rd base (Ricky Kuehn).

C O M E B A C K on COURT

the

(Photo by Kathryn Karraker)

Parkway North senior Kiland Sampa refuses to let his physical limitations stop him from playing the sport he loves.

by KEVIN ROSENTHAL senior managing editor

I won the first game of the first set. Eyeing my opponent on the reverse side of the court, I asked him, “You wanna just stay on the same side of the court for every game?” During a tennis match, the general trend is for the players to switch ends of the court after the first game of a match in case sunshine or wind flow provides an advantage to one province of the court, but I thought, considering the circumstances, it

SPORTS 32

might be easier not to change.

Without hesitation, my opponent responded, “No. Let’s switch. Just like normal.”

Just like normal.

For Kiland Sampa, my opponent at Parkway North, his high school experience has been anything but normal. His freshman year, Sampa

had been ranked the number nine tennis player in the state of Missouri, until a diving accident left him paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of his life. While the primary concern for many high school students may have been figuring out how to rebound from earning a “C” on a math test, Sampa was forced to find a way to recover after learning he would spend the rest of his days in a wheelchair, unable to ever walk again.

Sampa’s physical limitations have not stopped him from seeing the world as a beautiful place.

“In life, everyone is going to hit a bump in the road. I just always try to stay positive because I know I affect others. And my injury doesn’t stop me from being passionate about the things I’ve always loved,” Sampa said after our match.

It was not until about a year before Sampa and I played this spring that he first took up redeeming his tennis career through playing wheelchair tennis. Shortly after this new phase in Sampa’s career began, he played last summer in the U.S. Open wheelchair tennis tournament.

But there was a period of time after his injury when Sampa was ready to give up the sport altogether. Were it not for Ron Leftcourt, a campus supervisor at Clayton High School who also serves as Parkway North’s varsity boys’ tennis coach, Sampa may never have gotten back into the game.

Leftcourt’s relationship with Sampa began when Sampa’s high school career was blooming.

“When I first met Kiland, he was a freshman and he was the best player on our team. Kiland was not only our best player, but he was a leader on our team. People respected him right away, people liked him ... they were instantly drawn to how great a personality he had,” Leftcourt said.

Though it was unclear at the time whether Sampa’s accident marked the end of Leftcourt’s time coaching Sampa, Leftcourt did not give up on his relationship with Sampa, and, in turn, the two became closer while Sampa was in recovery.

“The first time I saw him after the injury was when I went to visit him at Ranken Jordan Institute where he was doing his rehab. Kiland was in surprisingly good spirits. I used to bring him Zebra Cakes all the time at Ranken Jordan because we both really liked Zebra Cakes,” Leftcourt said. “Then when Kiland started back at school on a regular basis, I asked him if he would be interested in playing wheelchair tennis.

At first, he wasn’t interested, he just didn’t see it for himself. But then about a year ago Kiland changed his mind and really started to become serious about getting back into tennis. I thought it would be really important to have him on the team this year and I thought he would have a lot of fun his senior year being a member of the team.”

“Coach really wanted me to play to prove that anyone can play tennis no matter what the circumstances are,” Sampa said.

So there we were, Sampa and I, and regardless of any “circumstances,” we were both about to play our first competitive match of the season. One of the last sounds I heard before I launched my first serve was Coach Leftcourt hollering: “If you lose this match, Kiland, you’re running laps.”

Sampa laughed and smiled his electrifying smile in return.

There is something oddly compelling about watching someone play tennis in a wheelchair. I stood on the court and watched in awe as Sampa returned scads of shots I would have deemed impossible to hit successfully while attached to an auxiliary. Sampa moved with a sort of grace.

Whizzing across the court, he never beat himself up for missing a shot against me, instead maintaining his same electrifying smile throughout

the match. He was on the court and that is what mattered.

“Kiland lives by a motto that he’s always used for himself, before and after the injury. His motto is ‘passion and determination.’ We put the words ‘passion and determination’ on towels and sold them to students while Kiland was recovering,” Leftcourt said.

The phrase Sampa has used to dictate his actions consists of far more than empty words. Sampa is an embodiment of the virtues he has always strived to incorporate in his daily life. He radiates passion and is fueled by determination.

“Kiland has always had a very positive confident attitude,” Leftcourt said. “He’s never been cocky, but he’s always been confident. Kiland has always had a strong sense of humor about him, even in the toughest times, and I think that makes him really accessible to people. After his injury, Kiland was willing to openly discuss his condition, and there was still that confidence about him. He’s the type of person who is very proud, who is very respectful to others, and I know how much he appreciates the fact that he’s still able to get out there and compete.”

So what can we learn from a story of resilience such as Sampa’s?

Even people with life altering limitations have the potential to find individual happiness.

On the way to our first tennis match of the season at Parkway North High, the longest stoplight Clayton’s tennis team hit was on Schultz Rd. As the bus we took sat stagnant for over one minute, belching out diesel clouds, I peeked outside the window and to my surprise saw about thirty ducks at a pond no wider than thirty yards. The ducks had the liberty to choose whether to be on the pond or on the grass surrounding the water, mindlessly waddling between the two, just as humans rather mindlessly ooze between standing and sitting.

But what if someone smeared Gorilla Glue under the webbed feet of those ducks, forcing all the ducks on the water to stay on the water and all the ducks on dry land to stay on dry land?

At first, the ducks might fidget, trying to squirm off the habitats onto which they had become pasted.

But soon the ducks would adjust, eventually forgetting such a world existed when they could glide between the two habitats, and ultimately finding some sort of plumed placidness in all the elements of their new world.

Just as ducks whose feet have been smeared with gorilla glue have the potential to find contentment, humans, despite their wide range of their daily experience, no matter how “unfortunate” some of these experiences may appear on the surface, still have the power to forge paths to finding happiness.

And so the lesson I learned while playing Kiland is much deeper than Don’t-take-our-legs-for-granted-because-in-essence-we-are-alljust-a-tenth-of-a-second-away-from-never-walking-again.

The richer lesson is for us not to pity those who are in what we deem to be “worse” situations than ours, and not to envy those who appear to be in “better” situations. Instead, we should marvel at the wonder of all forms of life, including our own, and release the nagging desire for to always be something “more.”

Sampa grasps this. His determination in his darkest times lifted him back up and the passion he feels for the game will invigorate his game for the rest of his life.

“Being in a wheelchair, sure it’s not ideal, but life could be worse. So I make sure I never take that for granted,” Sampa said. “I’m passionate about everything. Tennis is my main passion, and it feels so good when I’m out here hitting with everyone.” 

SPORTS 33

Q&A: CHS GOLF STARS

Seniors Robert Hogan and Elliot Ambort led the boys’ varsity golf team to a second place finish in Districts this year.

ATH

PRO

LETE

FILES

by NICK LEE and MAX STEINBAUM Q: How/why did you start playing golf?

A: I started playing when I was two years old. I started playing because my dad wanted to introduce me to a sport that he could play with me for a long time.

Q: What is your favorite part about golf as a sport?

A: My favorite part about golf as a sport is seeing how hard work pays off. It is really fun when you start shooting low scores and knowing that your hard work and dedication was the reason for success.

Q: Who has been influential in your golf career?

A: Coaches Moody and Ostapovitcz have been very helpful. Also, all of my teammates through the years, my family and Steve Lotz (the golf pro I work with).

Q: What do you consider to be your biggest accomplishment as part of the CHS golf team?

A: I think my biggest accomplishment during my time on the CHS golf team was winning the Clayton Best Ball tournament for the past three years. It has been really fun to play that tournament.

Q: What has been your biggest challenge during your time on the CHS golf team?

A: My biggest challenge was probably when I shot 96 at Districts my freshman year. It was the worst score of my entire high school career but thankfully I still advanced to sectionals because the cut was 98. I went on to shoot 77 at the sectional tournament and advance to state which was really nice.

Q: Do you have plans to continue golf career in college, and/or beyond?

A: I am going to Butler University and I will try to walk on for the golf team. I’m excited to see if I can make the team.

Elliot Ambort Q: How/why did you start playing golf?

A: I started playing golf when I was 5 years old. My dad introduced the game to me and I have never looked back since.

Q: What is your favorite part about golf as a sport?

A: It is such a mental battle, which makes the round feel like a roller coaster. Every shot is so important and it is just such an emotional roller coaster that you don’t want to stop playing, even when it gets rough.

Q: Who has been influential in your golf career?

A: My dad has been with me every step of the way and has constantly pushed me to get better and to improve. Without his help I couldn’t have come this far.

Q: What do you consider to be your biggest accomplishment as part of the CHS golf team?

A: Being First-Team all conference all 4 years, and being the Conference Player of the Year twice is very special. It shows that my game has been very consistent over my career at CHS. Q: What has been your biggest challenge during your time on the CHS golf team?

A: Trying to win Districts. We have come in 2nd or tied 2nd for the last 3 years. It would be nice to get first which would be a memory I’d never forget, especially since it is my senior season.

Q: Do you have plans to continue golf career in college, and/or beyond?

A: I am going to play Club Golf at the University of Dayton, and I will probably play some local tournaments as an amateur in the future, but no big plans for golf ahead. 

Robert Hogan

SPOR

TS 3 5

(Michelle K. /Paramount Pictures)

10 C L O V E R F I E L D L A N E

“10 Cloverfield Lane” is director Dan Trachtenberg’s first feature film, and it’s impressive. Despite the title, the film does not have any major connections to Matt Reeves’s 2009 “Cloverfield”. Although “10 Cloverfield Lane” had a small budget and a heavily scaled down setting in an underground bunker rather than a destroyed New York City, the film’s use of incorporating claustrophobic feelings, tension and curiosity integrated with a clever script, brilliant acting and great direction results in the film being better than the original “Cloverfield.”

“10 Cloverfield Lane” follows Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a woman who leaves her home after a dispute with her husband over an unknown cause. While she’s driving, Michelle suddenly crashes into another car on the road, causing her to go unconscious. Michelle later wakes up to find herself locked in an underground bunker with another man named Emmett (John Gallagher, Jr.), thinking that she has been kidnapped.

However, a man named Howard (John Goodman) introduces himself to her as the man who saved her life, claiming that the air above the bunker is contaminated due to an attack, forcing Michelle and Emmett to stay put in the bunker. However, Michelle is not convinced.

This movie is incredibly intense. Director Dan Trachtenberg and cinematographer Jeff Cutter capture the sense of helplessness through having the majority of camera shots from inside the bunker. Although one might think the style of shots in the movie might get repetitive due to the setting, Jeff Cutter seamlessly moves the camera around set through various rooms and vents, keeping the film watchable, yet the camera movement is limited, representing the psychological and physical trap Winstead feels she is in.

Another thing I particularly loved about the film’s direction is that Trachtenberg gives small pieces of evidence such as where a character’s previous profession was, or a title of a book that a character owns for the viewer to stitch together what their life may have looked like. Through these Trachtenberg fleshes out all three characters, but he does not disclose too much information, which adds to the whole mystery aspect of the film.

Accompanying Trachtenberg are writers Damien Chazelle (Whiplash), Matthew Stuecken, and Josh Campbell. The writing in this film is truly amazing. The amount of detail for the personalities of all of the characters blends in beautifully. Winstead’s character is intelligent and driven to know the truth of what’s above the bunker, which is what makes her character so likable. I often found myself being impressed at how a typical “victim” character was portrayed in such a film as a smart individual.

Usually, the writers and directors craft the victim to make some “stupid” mistakes which can provide more action in the film. However, the writers avoid this and make John Goodman’s character equally as intelligent as Winstead. Writers provide Goodman with a character that is a doomsday

REVIEW

36

by SEAN KIM reporter

junkie, obsessed with survival tactics and the importance of staying inside. Along with these traits, the writers introduce an erratic side to his character in some scenes, yet they also show his hospitable side. Unpredictable, looming, intelligent, irrational, yet rational at the same time, Goodman’s character clashes with Winstead in even the most subtle ways of exchanging looks, small lines of dialogue and opposite motives, providing a building tension in the film as each interaction between the characters increases in severity. Unfortunately, the writers focused so much of their attention on Goodman and Winstead, that Gallagher’s character remained a bit “unfleshed-out.” However, his character is still a nice addition to the story, and is an important element that enables the film to go on.

Of course, none of this would be possible without the talented acting of the cast. Mary Elizabeth Winstead gives the best performance I have seen from her, displaying all qualities of confusion and fear impressively.

Along with Winstead’s great performance, John Goodman shines as the scary, overprotective guardian, kind of like a teacher who hates you but still wants you to learn. Both deliver fantastic performances. Without the actors’ abilities to portray different emotions required for each specific scene, the film would not have worked.

Allowing the story to flow is editor Stefan Grube. In a film with the vast majority taking place in a single setting, it is hard to maintain without losing attention. However, with Grube cutting at specific times, he allows for the tension to build smoothly and lets the story flow seamlessly, all resulting in the beautifully shot and edited third act that gets rid of all the tension that I will not reveal.

Accompanying the editing is the soundtrack of the film. Composed by Bear McCreary, the film mixes haunting orchestrals to brooding drums coming together to a memorable tune that matches the tone, rhythm and pace of the film. McCreary’s score is no way near original, but it perfectly matches the movie, which is what makes it beautiful. I especially loved the addition of “I Think We’re Alone Now” by Tommy James and the Shondells. Despite my high regards for this film, I have to say that this film is not for everyone. I have met many people expecting a raging monster flick going back to the main “Cloverfield” monster that were highly disappointed by its single setting, calling it “so boring” and “a waste of money.” However, those who go in expecting a thriller/suspense film will be delighted, treated with the ending that goes out with a big bang. This brings me to my one qualm about the film. I did not really see any correlation between this film and the original “Cloverfield” movie and I only saw it as a marketing gimmick to get people to see the movie.

Ultimately, if you have the time, go watch “10 Cloverfield Lane”. Its use of building tension through its small, claustrophobic environment paired with brilliant acting, writing, and direction is another exemplar proving that smaller scale “sequels” can be better than the original. 

ZOOL ANDER 2 For 15 years since the box office success of “Zoolander,” many fans of the satirical comedy film had high expectations for the sequel Zoolander 2. However, upon its release on February by Paramount Pictures, “Zoolander 2” has been met with negative criticism as it became a box office flop, for good reasons.

In the film, the audience is met with an elaborate background in which multiple pop stars were assassinated while having Derek Zoolander’s trademark look, “Blue Steel.” Zoolander was shown to have lost his fame again as his wife is killed in the collapse of the “Derek Zoolander Center For Kids Who Can’t Read Good” and his son, Derek Zoolander Jr., is taken away from him due to Zoolander’s inexperience in child-rearing. Derek Zoolander once again retires from his career and lives in isolation. Derek Zoolander is then visited and persuaded by Billy Zane to return to the world of fashion shows in order to find his son. However, upon reaching the House of Atoz fashion show and meeting with his friend Hansel, Zoolander is shocked by how much the fashion world has changed as he sees the plain-looking, carefree Don Atari and the androgynous All. After being ridiculed in front of the stage, Derek is contacted my fashion INTERPOL member Valentina who offers to help him in finding his son in exchange for his cooperation. Upon meeting his son, Zoolander is distraught that his son suffers from obesity, and Derek Jr. is shocked by his father’s ignorance and stupidity. As Derek Jr. distances himself away from his father, he is kidnapped upon his father’s departure. Derek Zoolander then embarks on a journey to find the villain behind the recent crime in order to save his son. Once Derek finds the main culprit behind the events, he is immediately tricked into freeing the mastermind from

by SOL KWON reporter prison, who then traps many fashion show members in order to kill them.

Zoolander then clashes against the villain in order to save his son and the world of fashion.

Even though the film was full of jokes and humorous occurrences, like any other good satirical comedy film, the film was lacking in its plot. The movie suddenly gave the audience a brief history of events that undid everything the main character has done in the first movie, such as destroying the building that was planned to be built from the epilogue of the first movie and repeating Derek’s downfall from fame. Paramount Pictures also betrayed most expectations by killing off a main character from the first movie in order to make way for a new one. “Zoolander 2” has also failed to focus on a main theme as Zoolander has to go back and forth between regaining his fame and reuniting with his son.

Another flaw in the movie that may have disappointed most viewers is the lack of character development. Even after reuniting with his son, Derek remains the carefree, ignorant character that he previously was.

Zoolander hardly makes any attempts in fixing his flaws, even when his son points out his shortcomings. At the end of the movie, Derek attempts to build another institution without learning from what happened to his previous building. Derek’s interactions with his son are also severely limited and short, and we don’t see any noticeable changes within Derek Jr. until the end of the movie.

Overall, “Zoolander 2” may be a good film if you want to get a couple of good jokes and laughs, but if you want to see a proper comedy film that has good development, this movie might not be the one for you. 

THE JUNGLE BOOK Given that I have always loved the familiar 1967 animated version, I expected to find that in “The Jungle Book”, any attempt at using a live actor, much less live animals, ruined the story for me. Far from ruining an old favorite, however, I was delighted at how incredibly the movie used special effects and acting to deliver a the storyline that stayed the same compared to the original movie. What’s more, the movie was action packed and I found myself at the edge of my seat throughout the movie and was excited by the amazing soundtrack that accompanied it. The remakes of the songs are also excellent and almost better than the original recordings themselves.

In the remake, the only main actor playing a human was 12 year old Neel Sethi, playing Mowgli, who was absolutely fantastic in his role. He could display every emotion amazingly well, and it was interesting to see the acting knowing that it was all done with green screen. That must have been very challenging as an actor to only work with fake animals covered in green material.

My favorite part of the movie was when Mowgli gets captured by the monkeys and brought to King Louie’s temple. The classic King Louie is best known for his signature song, “I’m the King of the Jungle.” In the remake, The graphics were spectacular when King Louie chases Mowgli and eventually gets killed by the falling temple ruins. That was the most intense part for me and I was very engrossed and into this scene.

Bill Murray as Baloo the Bear had everyone laughing. He was sarcastic and cracked jokes throughout the movie. He added a wonderful sense of humor to the movie that we didn’t see in the animated version.

Finally, when the film ends, the credits are a small treasure in them-

by EMMA EBELING reporter

(Official Movie Poster) selves. A book opens and closes, showing many scenes from the film as pop-outs on the pages. The animals in the pop-up scenes are naturally small relative to the book. A fitting end to the tale, and a special treat for those who watch through the whole credits.

Overall, this movie was a 10/10 for me. I was fascinated by the effects, the amazing acting and the musical soundtrack that kept me focused on the movie the entire time. 

REVIEW

37

PORANO As stated simply by visionary chef and winner of the James Beard award, Gerard Craft, the city of St. Louis is supposed to be hustling and bustling. Rather, it seems as though the city is becoming more and more isolated and desolate. Specifically, the restaurant industry seems to be moving further and further away from St. Louis city.

In opposition to this movement, Craft’s newest enterprise, Porano Pasta, serves up an alternative take on the fast-casual dining experience. Craft is known for his Niche food group, including Clayton restaurants Niche and Pastaria. Porano, however, is a different story.

In Craft’s vision, Porano is a place where cheap but good food connect.

“We call it slow-fast,” Craft said.

As Craft explains to us, when McDonald’s began to take off decades ago, there was a movement in Italy

REVEL

in retaliation of the corporate chains called the slow-food movement. Porano encapsulates the “slow-fastfood” idea perfectly.

“I want to make sure everybody understands what it is supposed to be: it is not supposed to be Niche,” Craft said. “It is not supposed to be some creative interpretation of pasta. It is supposed to be well-executed, yet cheap, pasta.” In front of our very eyes, we realized the entire goal of Porano: delicious, accessible food in an environment welcoming to all. Indeed, the ensemble of greetings as we entered the restaurant as well as the simple menu made up of choice ingredients not only made this restaurant experience delicious, but also unique. As well as creating social change around the fast-food business, the gelato pops and risotto balls are must-tries. 

Whether one is an athlete, looking for healthy food options, or just in the mood to try something new, Revel is the place to go eat. Revel, formerly known as Athlete Eats, offers a plethora of gluten-free, vegetarian and paleo dishes at their food truck and at their two restaurant locations.

A Paleo diet consists of meat, fish, vegetables and fruit, and excludes dairy and processed food.

There are two Revel restaurant locations, one is located on Cherokee Street, and Revel recently opened a second location in Brentwood. The newest location is small and contemporary with just a few tables providing and urban appeal. Small outdoor seating area provides additional spots for those that want to eat in. If customers are in a hurry they have an option of choosing fresh packaged food options to go. The owner, Simon Lusky is chef for the St. Louis Cardinals players.

The menu is made up of wraps, quinoa bowls, salads and different types of proteins can be added to your meal. Revel serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. The breakfast menu is filled with numerous reasons for customers to wake up early in the morning.

The main appeal of Revel is its usage of local ingredients and flavors.

The food is fresh and a customer can see it being prepared in front of them. Filled with creative and catchy names the menu offers dishes like Gotta Try Thai, Bip n’ Bop, and the Pit Master. One can also find more traditional items on the menu like the Kale Caesar salad or the Grass-Fed Burger. Theses options are good, but are nothing to write home about.

The chef is able to make cauliflower taste like a savory tater tot with simple healthy ingredients. The Moroccan Mix, which has butternut squash, beets, mixed greens, romaine, pistachio, goat cheese, and harissa vinaigrette, is the perfect mixture and blend of tangy, sweet and savory. Looking for somewhere new to eat? Revel is definitely worth a try. 

REVIEW

38

by ASHLEIGH WILLIAMS page editor

The atmosphere of Porano, located at 634 Washington Ave.

by SOPHIE BERNSTEIN reporter

The exterior of Revel Kitchen. (Sophie Bernstein)

PENO Looking back at the thorny history of 7600 Wydown Blvd., I was reluctant to try yet another restaurant offering its “unique” twist on Italian fare. However, its walkable proximity enticed me to taste their Southern Italian soul food.

Besides the restaurant sign, the exterior of the space is unchanged.

Inside, there is limited seating with only a handful of tables inside.

Tables were covered with a sheet of tan paper, suitable for easy cleaning during the lunch rush, but also detracting from the formal dinner ambiance.

Starting when he was twelve, owner Pepe Kehm has been immersed in the restaurant business. His family and people close to him had restaurants, particularly people whose names were Peno, a nickname for Joe. Kehm named his restaurant after three Penos who influenced him: a former boss, a next door neighbor, and his grandfather.

After opening restaurants like Spaghetteria Mamma Mia, Corky’s and Felix’s, which is still in business, owner Pepe Kehm saw an opportunity once Pizzino closed. For Kehm, the short fates of prior tenants ZPizza and Pizzino was of no concern. “I see a space and my vision,” Kehm said. “I don’t really look at the prior record of the place, what their food style was, what they were doing.” Instead, Kehm’s only apprehension was making sure that he had the right staff.

Peno is described as a “Southern Italian soul food” restaurant, as similarities can be drawn between Southern Italian cuisine and Southern American soul food. Kehm explains, “The reason we say soul food, American-style, is similar in products to Southern Italy, is because Southern Italy is the poorest region of Italy, and where my family is from, Calabria, is one of the poorest now. So anything from Rome up, there were a lot of aristocracy and money. And in the south it was poor like in the U.S., where we were given the food that the rich people didn’t eat.”

Many of the dishes on Peno’s menu were passed down from his great-grandma, while others are from people that Kehm worked for, from Sicily and from other parts of Southern Italy. However, Kehm adds his own personal twist that still stays in line with the traditional recipe.

One example is the Guisseppe pizza. Topped with Italian sausage, roasted red pepper, spicy tomato sauce, raisins, pine nuts, fresh ricotta and mozzarella with a drizzle of basil oil, the combination is both dynamic and yet still embodies all the elements of an authentic Italian pizza.

For an appetizer, I chose the cheese garlic bread. Fresh out of the oven, the appearance of the bread looked like something that could be made at home, as the bread was sliced in half with cheese melted on top.

Although it lacked in aesthetics, the bread made up for it in savory and perfectly buttery flavor.

The standout dish was the Baked Gemelli Ragu. The fresh, perfectlycooked Gemelli pasta was coated in a meaty tomato sauce and topped with handmade ricotta.

In addition to entrees, Peno offers a wide variety of sides, from braised greens in lemon sauce to roasted wild mushroom in Marsala reduction. I tasted the well-seasoned and filling beef handmade meatballs, which were served in marinara, preserving its juiciness.

I was disappointed that cannolis were only available during dinner service, so instead for dessert I tried the decadently rich Chocolate Pave, a fudge-like bar of chocolate covered in hazelnuts and strawberries and described to me as being “chocolate on steroids.”

Although I did not try any of the seafood dishes, they are Kehm’s favorite to prepare and often served on the more formal dinner menu,

by ELISE YANG review section editor which featured American Red Snapper on the day I visited. Kehm’s recommended dish on the menu is the tutto mare, a seafood pasta.

Like the focus of many Clayton restaurants, Kehm emphasized the importance of locally sourcing ingredients. “I think that our current food system is pretty manipulated right now,” Kehm said. “I want to get back to knowing where my food comes from, who’s growing it, how they’re feeding it, how they’re transporting it.” While Kehm admits it can be tough to balance pricing, Peno only serves meat like free-range chicken, pasture-raised pork and the grass-fed beef.

The meal was modestly priced for the quality of food. Its lunch menu makes it easy to eat there on a budget, but to get the authentic Southern Italian experience, I would recommend paying more for the dinner service.

Returning to his roots, opening a Southern Italian restaurant was a homecoming for Kehm. Not only did he want to serve food the way his family had done for generations, Kehm also wants to foster a familial ambiance within the Clayton community, not unlike the one he had experienced growing up in Dogtown.

Kehm plans to host a concert summer-series on the Peno patio this summer, with bluegrass, jazz and blues playing while patrons enjoy their food and relax. Giving back to the community has always been a large part of his restaurants, as Kehm states his mantra: “Give back to the community and the community gives back to us.” 

Peno’s interior (top) and one of their pizzas (bottom).

(Lisa Raymond-Schmidt) REVIEW 39

(Brian Cahn/Zuma Press/TNS)

(Reporters/Zuma Press/TNS)

BRUSSELS BOMBINGS

A look at the recent terrorist attack in Belgium from the perspective of a reporter in Paris.

An inundating feeling of anxiety swept over me as I looked out from the hotel window with the Eiffel Tower peeking over the Parisian rooftops. I felt a sense of panic as people flooded in and out of the train station. The constant hustle and bustle is perhaps just a part of the Parisian daily routine, but the tense air seemed unusual as I watched with the news station blaring behind me.

The phone rang and I knew exactly who was calling. There was a sense of panic in my father’s voice and I was afraid that he wouldn’t want us to stay in Europe. I reluctantly passed the phone to my mom, my eyes glancing out the window at the Metro I was just warned not to take. I was scared, yet I felt that there was no where else I wanted to be instead of here.

Flashing back to that morning, I remember hearing the French news station announce that explosions were beginning to be heard in Brussels. I felt myself tensing, suitcases and croissants in hand. My mother was already halfway out the door of our hotel room in Nice, but we both hesitated and looked at each other, not quite knowing what this meant or could mean.

The key suspect of the Paris attack had just been detained and unrest by his supporters was feared, and now apparent. I was already apprehensive that a terrorist attack was looming even before I heard of the explosions, but now my suspicion had been confirmed. I wasn’t alone in my worries. It seemed that the French people were expecting something, they just didn’t know when or where.

The peaceful atmosphere of pastel colored buildings and sandy beaches seemed safe, yet I continued to head towards the TGV station, ticket to Paris in hand, knowing that I was leaving the calm Mediterranean water and closer to the eye of the storm.

After five and a half hours without WiFi, I was somewhat clueless as to what had happened when we finally reached Paris. In fact, it wasn’t until I got into a taxi that I learned about the Brussels attacks. I saw the driver look into his rearview mirror and I detected a certain solemnity, and his voice lowered when he explained the damage that was done.

Over the course of my trip, I had many conversations with drivers about their fear. When they found out I spoke French, they completely opened up, as if they felt they could share their feelings with me since I was in some way connected to their culture. They all had the same look in their eyes as they peered into the rearview mirror, wanting to make eye

by SAMANTHA ZEID reporter

contact as they discussed something so grave. They would mention how the city as one was fearful, yet they were strong. However since each person said that, I could gather that they didn’t want to admit defeat.

No one wanted to surrender their culture. The French are fiercely proud of their lifestyle and no one wanted to let the dangers of an attack change the way they lived. They didn’t carry themselves in a manner of fear, yet everyone knew it was there.

Throughout the city, police and army guards carried large machine guns and always stayed in groups. They surrounded the Eiffel Tower and gathered by the banks of the Seine. I immediately contrasted the city with the peacefulness of Nice. Paris looked like it was ready for battle, beautiful as always yet prepared to defend itself.

This was necessary, of course--but rather than feeling a sense of comfrot, I felt concerned. Whenever I saw large groups of police, I instinctively wondered what was on the brink of happening. My mind was constantly racing. Perhaps I was becoming a little paranoid, but understandably so.

On the last night of my stay, I looked out over the city from the top of the Eiffel Tower. Paris glistened with peaceful lights and the tower shone fiercely throughout the night, bearing the red, brlack, and yellow colored lights to represent the Belgian flag. There was a sense of unity between Europeans, but also of the world.

The flag was a symbol, an act of courage against terror.

A few weeks passed, and there is a new headline on the news, this time in English. The terror attack that occurred in Brussels was originally planned for Paris, but French investigators had learned about the plans when they were already in the advanced stages. The first thought that popped into my head was: that could have been me. I retraced my steps in my mind, thinking of all the places that I had been to and what could have happened. While I was there, I felt that everywhere I went could have been a target. Now, I know that I was almost right.

The attacks in Europe have made the malevolence in the world clear, but the French, Belgians and the world as a whole did not and will not let that evil plunge us into darkness. 

OPINIO

N 41

PUNISHMENT Should students who miss class be punished...

by ZACHARY SORENSON page editor As the year has progressed and senioritis has set in, the number of unserved detentions appears to have risen -- with no sign of falling soon. This has left the school administration with a question as to how to make students serve their detentions.

It has also led to the question of how effective detentions are as a form of punishment and indeed how effective the system in place is in reducing truancy, tardiness, and all around bad behavior.

Should the administration try to rehabilitate the offending students, making them see the error of their ways, or should the administration engage in more punitive actions which address the bad behavior itself, punishing students harshly, but fairly, in order to prevent or deter bad behavior? I hold the latter opinion.

We should seek punishment over rehabilitation as it is more effective, efficient, and feasible in preventing bad behavior than seeking to rehabilitate students.

Attempting to reform children is often difficult in practice. Some people suggest having students do community service or even devoting counseling resources to solving the problem with discussion. What those people forget is that such actions do not address the issue of kids who simply ignore and, indeed, refuse to do their assigned task.

As it stands there are few consequences for ignoring a detention, such as: not being able to attend school dances, or not being able to participate fully in graduation (which is not relevant to anyone other than a senior).

But if there were more serious consequences such as increasing detentions and even sending students to in-school suspension for failing to complete their punishments, then such punishments would likely be completed

OPINIO

N 44

“As it stands there are few consequences for ignoring a detention�

promptly.

Furthermore, the punishments might do a better job of deterring bad behavior, such as truancy and chronic tardiness if they were quite simply harsher than spending an hour after school doing homework. Perhaps this effort might include adding more time to the detentions, or having detentions on weekends or during lunch periods. Additionally, we might move away from detentions and instead have people work on improving the school grounds during the weekend as penance for their actions.

This method of simply increasing the severity of punishments is not only more effective than attempting to reform students at the core level it is also far more feasible.

Rehabilitation efforts would likely require not only more time from counselors but also more money and resources as the efforts drag on. Not only that, but rehabilitation efforts will likely require experimentation and a great deal of effort for each individual and is thus not maintainable on a larger scale.

Ultimately, deterrents and harsher punishments are simpler and easier to carry out from an institutional level.

The goal of the school is to facilitate learning and constructive thinking skills for the over 800 students at Clayton High School. It cannot do this when students are able and willing to defy its efforts to keep them in the classrooms. It cannot do this when people ignore or do not take seriously the consequences of their actions. What must be done is the school must seek to deter students from tardiness, truancy, and bad behavior by increasing the severity of the punishments in place, like detention, and create more serious penalties for those who refuse to complete their punishments. ďƒź

REHABILITATION ...or rehabilitated?

TARA WILLIAMS

by OLIVIA REUTER and page editor page editor Detention is an institution designed to punish students for their wrongdoings. By making a student sit in silence, which is meant to make that person reflect upon what he or she has done, that person is supposed to discover that their offense is wrong, and dissuade them from doing it again. But does it work?

As the school year draws to a close, we must evaluate the potential drawbacks of this institution and reflect on how we can reform it to increase its effectiveness.

We must first look at the flaws in the initial reasoning behind traditional methods. Fear of punishment is a proven method of deferment, but when the punishment is minor, considered to be a mere inconvenience by most as well as being a waste of time for both teachers and students, we must begin to question the efficacy of the system.

Indeed, detention has been used as a form of punishment for decades, but, in its current form, does the lesson of detention really stick?

Or is there an alternate way to instill these val-

ues in our students--a way to change their disposition without wasting anyone’s time. From this springs the argument of rehabilitation--a way to shift mindsets without the counterproductive and often unconvincing event of ‘sitting in silence’. Rather, your time can be used productively, resulting in benefits for both the school and yourself. A possible resolution is the idea of rehabilitation--rather than doing nothing, detention can be used in a productive way. This rehabilitation would include doing some sort of community service that would benefit the school. This way, the school also reaps some sort of benefit along with the students.

Indeed, the criminal cycle begins far earlier than was once thought-- disciplinary actions in school (namely, detentions and suspensions), rather than reforming a student, seem to trigger a succession of events that lead to more trouble which often ends in incarceration.

A recent Texas study linked disciplinary actions like detention to lower graduation rates

and higher chance of incarceration down the line. The study also cites that almost 15 percent of students were reported to have at least one record tied to the juvenile justice system.

The common denominator? Nearly without exception, this 15% had extensive school disciplinary records. While some may argue that these students were merely pre-dispositioned for bad behavior and that the schools could have done nothing to prevent this destructive fate, others disagree. The study also reported that a disproportionate amount of minority students facing their first disciplinary action were more likely than white students to be faced with the harsher punishment. It also found that a larger proportion of minority students were sent to alternative places of study, where the teachers tend to be less qualified, resulting in a lower quality of education. Studies like this force schools to hold a mirror to their disciplinary method. Detention is certainly a "tried and true" method of discipline, but is it the most effective way? 

The State of California Department of Justice published this graph which shows the decreased incarceration rate of juveniles after, in 1988, they began to devote more spending to youth rehabilitation.

OPINI

ON 45

STAFF ED

HOW FAR IS TOO FAR? The Globe reflects on the use of satire and how the power of the press can be both uplifting and devastating.

The Globe is no stranger to controversy. Whether it be drug use, mental health, or a host of other complex issues, we have become used to always being just a little bit out there. But perhaps we have become too comfortable in our perch.

After all, how far is too far?

After the publication of the last issue of the Globe, we were suddenly reminded of the power of the press, and of just how quickly that power can morph into something so different from what it was intended to be.

Last month’s Globe featured a satirical supplement known as the Gloob, meant to call attention to certain aspects of life in Clayton by joking about them. This is the purpose of satire in general, to bring problems to the public eye through that most universal and unthreatening of mediums – laughter. By turning our demons into comedic tropes, satirical publications aim to destigmatize those problems in society that we are most reluctant to face.

It is in this very spirit of satire that the Gloob published a short piece, barely a few sentences long, relating the fictional story of a student who identifies as CHS faculty, and therefore desires to use the faculty bathrooms. As short as the piece was, there was much soul–searching in room 41 over whether or not to publish it.

In the end, what tipped the scale in favor of its publication was not the piece itself, but the very topic that made it so problematic.

The question of how transgender students are treated in schools, and particularly the question of bathrooms, is an issue that divides even communities as progressive as Clayton, and, as the CHS student publication, the Globe felt strongly that we should bring this question to the forefront, be that through satire, or through more serious articles of the type that have already been published in the Globe on this matter.

However, in the days after the Gloob came out, it became clear that the piece had not had the desired effect.

Yes, people were talking about transgender rights, but students, specifically transgender students, had also been hurt, and made to feel like their struggle was being undermined. And the truth is that there was a very real failure in our reasoning when the piece was published. Namely,

OPINION 45

while satire implies social criticism, it also implies experience and backstory to base this criticism upon, neither of which the Globe can in this case claim to possess.

There are no transgender staff on the Globe to contribute them. Globies span a variety of different races, cultures, and sexual orientations, but this one group - transgender students – is not represented in our ranks.

While not seeking out a transgender perspective on a controversial piece was a mistake, it was not a crime of hatred, but of ignorance, which may hopefully lend some comfort to those who felt hurt by it.

Furthermore, in conversation with transgender students and some of our own staff, we learned that many felt the critical aspect of the piece had not come through, and that what remained was merely a lampoon of a serious social issue and the people who are made to suffer for it. If this is true, it signifies not only a lack of tact but also of good writing, two things the Globe should never be guilty of.

Nevertheless, while our way of going about it may have been seriously flawed, the motive behind the criticism still stands. Even in a community as liberal and open-minded as Clayton, the rights of transgender students are still at risk.

Currently, students who do not identify with the gender they were born into may use the restroom at the back of the nurse’s office. While this is definite progress when one considers the situation for transgender students in America only a few years ago, the arrangement is hardly ideal. It implies a necessity for secrecy, for hiding in corners and furtively attending to one’s basic human needs.

Why should transgender students be forced into obscurity, when there are a host of other, more accepting and fundamentally more efficient solutions?

For example, all that would be necessary to better the situation would be to convert a pair of faculty bathrooms into two gender neutral bathrooms, one for teachers and one for students, open to whomever should wish to use them.

Transgender students and staff should have the option to use what-

ever bathroom facilities make them the most comfortable.

CHS trusts us to leave campus as we please, to do our work and to cooperate with our teachers and our classmates in all areas of life – why then should we not be trusted to occupy the same bathroom as another human being, regardless of their gender?

But, bathrooms are just the tip of the iceberg.

We still take basic assumptions about gender and sexuality as a given, despite the fact that we now know that gender can be completely divorced from biology, and that sexuality often has nothing to do with gender.

It is these assumptions that are responsible for the continuing existence of institutions such as gender – specific bathrooms, clothing, behavior, and a host of other socially ingrained rules. Therefore, even if transgender students are lucky enough to find an accepting society, they will still have to deal with the old code of conduct, an etiquette in which there is no place for them.

Those of us who live in Clayton enjoy a highly liberal community, but even in such an open–minded district, there is as yet no distinct set of guidelines on how to deal with issues specific to transgender students.

Bathrooms are not enough – in order for transgender students to truly feel comfortable at CHS, we need an extensive program of education and training, and a well thought–out policy on which to base them.

The blanket non–discrimination policy currently in place is woefully lacking when it comes to something as complex and paradigm – shifting as transgender rights, especially since many staff and students simply do not know how to make transgender students feel comfortable and welcome in the community.

We at the Globe are the best proof that a lack of awareness can hurt even those you mean to help.

So, what does all this mean for life at CHS? Let’s review – first things first, although the issue of bathrooms is but a facet of a far more complex question, it is by no means unimportant. Having gender-neutral bathrooms, or alternately, male and female identifying bathrooms, is important for Clayton on many levels. Placing such bathrooms in clearly visible locations (as opposed to the back of the nurse’s office) is crucial not just for transgender students, but for the whole community, because it puts the issue of transgender rights in

the mind of every single person who should happen to walk past that bathroom.

However, the far bigger challenge is creating a clear policy for transgender students at CHS. The non–discrimination policy protects against the worst offenses, but in no way makes everyday life easier for trans students.

There are a thousand questions to answer – from pronouns, to assigning gender on PowerSchools, to whether teachers should ask students to self–identify at the beginning of a class. To make matters worse, the idea that gender is no longer the staunch bulwark it once was may seem counterintuitive to many. But it is important to remember that the rationale of “Because that’s just the way it is!” has proven itself wrong on numerous occasions.

Once upon a time we were dead sure that the Earth was flat, that a literate woman was a witch, and that the universe only reached as far as Pluto.

We are in the unique position of being able to change one of the great assumptions of our time. The minutiae are endless, and the task will undoubtedly be difficult. But that does not mean it ought not to be attempted.

Most importantly, though, transgender students need a voice.

Despite their bravery and persistence, students who have already been through a process as difficult as finding their own identity and are currently still dealing with discrimination for that fact, cannot be asked to change society on their own.

We at the Globe hope to amend our mistake by becoming a platform for transgender students to express their concerns, and we implore our readers to do the same.

If, like most Globies, you identify as cisgender, it may be very difficult for you to truly understand the plight of transgender students.

But you can still help.

The power of the press can be both uplifting and devastating. To those it may have hurt – as a newspaper with no transgender staff, we have no right to tell you what you should and should not be offended by. Please know that your pain was in no way intended, and is deeply regretted. But know also that this same power stands at your disposal to help you if you should desire it. 

OPINION

46

SELF SEGREGATION

by MADISON LOCKETT reporter

President Obama speaks at the sixth annual White House Science Fair in Washington, D.C (Tong Wu/McClatchy/TNS) Our country is viewed as one of the most progressive nations in the world, and yet, the legacy of slavery is still palpable. Despite our legal framework, that now makes it illegal to actively discriminate, discrimination is still happening -- just in less overt ways.

Despite the landmark ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education, America’s schools are more segregated that ever before. We are a segregated nation -- even without the cardboard signs designating where one can sit, drink or use a restroom.

What is the first step to change?

It is to realize that we still have a problem.

LA Times writer Caryl Rivers writes about ‘Confirmation bias’ and her hypothesis is that this bias helps whites dehumanize African Americans.

After having a long history of racial prejudices and stereotypical views of African Americans, this bias gives more reasons to ignore ignorant views of African Americans specifically, African American males.

The main stereotype against black men is that they are either criminals or ex-convicted felons. Harvard sociologist Charles Ogletree stated, “99 percent of black people don’t commit crimes, yet we see the images of black people day in, day out, and the impression is that they’re all committing crimes.”

Our confirmation bias also leads most people think that police officers are used to enforce the law and to protect and serve. With this bias engrained in our heads we are forced to automatically believe that police officers are telling the truth.

We see this play out, for example, in cases such as the Trayvon Martin case.

OPINION 46

Martin was fatally shot by a white male in Florida and the lawyers used vivid and repetitive language indicating the Martin was “thuggish” even though he did not have any criminal background or records. So instead, lawyers dug up school disciplinary consequences against him. Playing to the confirmation bias -- it was easy for the lawyers representing Zimmerman to paint Martin as a potential criminal, despite a lack of physical evidence.

After the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, race relations again roared to the forefront of conversation in our nation.

Robert P. Jones, of the Atlantic, further explains the ‘confirmation bias’ but more so on why segregation is self-indicative.

A huge influence of self-segregation is the fact that most of the time races do not intermingle with other races.

The Michael Brown case further discovered the problems that Americans have with self-segregation due to the fact of viewing the fatal case differently.

A Huffington Post/YouGov poll finds that “while Americans overall are divided over whether Brown’s shooting was an isolated incident (35 percent) or part of a broader pattern in the way police treat black men (39 percent), this balance of opinion dissipates when broken down by race.

More than three-quarters (76 percent) of black respondents say that the shooting is part of a broader pattern, nearly double the number of whites who agree (40 percent).”

To further the evidence of these statistics, whites see the government as a helpful “hand” while some African Americans view the government as having a vendetta against African Americans or that it does not take the race as a whole seriously.

Another factor is that white Americans live in communities that face far fewer problems and talk mostly to other white people.

“A 2012 PRRI survey found that black Americans report higher levels of problems in their communities compared to whites. Black Americans were, on average, nearly 20 percentage points more likely than white Americans to say a range of issues were major problems in their community: lack of good jobs (20 points), lack of opportunities for young people (16 points), lack of funding for public schools (19 points), crime (23 points), and racial tensions (18 points).”

These high numbers for the African American community clearly depict the level of understanding that white Americans have when it comes to the black American experience.

As I walk into the cafeteria at Clayton all races separate from each other. I’ve always heard that people are comfortable with others that are the same skin color as their own. This is a key aspect of what I want to change within Clayton.

My proposition is that as students we must diversify areas within the school.

I have upheld my part, by contributing to the assortment by color in various clubs and classrooms. My presence at Clayton impacted racial tolerance through participation in various activities within the community.

Being a part of this district was a challenge that I was willing to partake in to break the common African-American stereotypes.

It was music to my ears to hear people of all races be surprised that I was participating in activities that students of color were normally underrepresented. My experiences brought an appreciation for diversity in areas where differences, such as race, was not always discussed. What is the answer to change?

The first step is to realize we have a problem. 

THINGS

S PHIE

HATES

a column by SOPHIE ALLEN, opinion section editor

I have hated many things, but Clayton High School has never been one of them. As the time comes for me and the rest of the class of 2016 to say our goodbyes, it is only becoming more clear that the community we have created here will be forever missed.

Clayton has been a safe and welcoming environment since day one.

First steps through the front door draw feelings of community, a sense of belongingness, dare I say it, “home.”

Very few people think of their high schools this way. As CHS students, we are lucky to have had the high school experience we did, whether we know it or not.

I am now realizing just how much I love Clayton, and just how much I hate to leave it.

Clayton is righteous in its uniqueness.

Our abundance of clubs, from FCA to Super Smash Bros., allow every single student to find a place that they feel welcome. There is something for everyone here, and if it ever occurs that there isn’t, it is incredibly easy to get the ball rolling. There is no shortage of opportunities.

Clayton’s no-cut policy is something not everyone fully appreciates.

I took advantage of it twice: my freshmen year, when I joined our co-ed water polo team with no previous experience, and again my senior year,

when I joined the varsity cheerleading squad because of a promise I had made the now-captain Michaela Key in choir my first week at CHS. At no other school could I have joined such competitive teams on a whim. Everyone on both teams, coaches included, were so welcoming and happy to have someone new. It didn’t matter that I had never picked up a polo ball or based a stunt, Clayton athletics were happy to have me all the same.

One thing that arguably everyone at the high school takes advantage of is open campus. This is one of Clayton’s most appealing features, but it represents so much more than lunch opportunities. Clayton’s trusting environment allows the students opportunities to get out into the community starting the day they step onto campus. The open campus policy bridges the small gap between CHS and the wider, surrounding area of Clayton.

High school is a unique set of four years. You aren’t quite an adult, but you are responsible enough to handle yourself. You have the capacity to succeed, but the luxury to take it slow. You have the ability to make your bubble as big or as small as you want.

After this, we are thrown into the real world. It will be different. It will be scary. But Clayton has prepared us well, which is why I hate to think about leaving. But this ending is only a beginning, and as much as we can’t imagine it, we are ready to go. 

Captain’s council sings the school song at the fall homecoming pep rally. (Jolena Pang)

OPINI

O N 47

RedKey Realty Leaders St. Louis is Seeking All Do-Gooders!

Nominate a student, teacher, coach, or friend who is making Clayton High School a better place by sending an email to contest@redkeystlouis.com. Include your name and phone number, your nominee’s name, and a description of what good deeds your nominee has done well.

Each month, RedKey will loan our limo (and driver) to the winner to honor the individual’s commitment to service.

Ready, set...NOMINATE. 314-692-7200 RedKeyStLouis.com 10333 Clayton Road | Saint Louis 63131