Globe Newsmagazine, September 2017, Issue 2, Vol. 89

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IN-DEPTH: Syrian Refugees in S t. Louis page 24

A City Divided

issue 2, volume 89

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Clayton High School. Clayton, MO. September 2017.

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contents september 2017 issue 2, volume 89

10 18 22 34 37

A City Divided Equity Ed COVER: Syrian Refugees Fall Sports Photos Donuts of St. Louis

Al Slater runs ball past defense against Jennings. To see more fall sports photos turn to page 34. Photo by Michael Melinger.

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CONTENTS

GL

STAFF

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EDITORS-IN-CHIEF

SENIOR MANAGING EDITORS

Noah Brown and M itali Sharma

Madeline Bale

CHIEF DIGITAL EDITOR

M ichael Bernard Charlie Brennan

Lauren Prais s

J acob LaGes se

CHIEF PHOTO EDITOR

SECTION EDITORS

Michael Melinger

Justin Guilak, NEWS

COPY EDITOR

L i l a T a y l o r , F E AT U R E

N e e l Va l l u r u p a l l i

Daniel Cho, SPORTS

CHIEF VIDEO EDITOR

Olivia Joseph, OPINION

Sean Kim

Richard Cheng , RE VI EW

GRAPHICS EDITOR

REPORTERS

Lizzy Mills

BUSINESS MANAGER Daniel Cohen

PAGE EDITORS

Ashley Chung

Sophia Thompson

J osephine Cross

S a m Yo u k i l i s

Camille Curtis

Hongkai Jiang

Sam Fehr

S a n Kw o n

S a m Ze i d

Ka t i e H e

J a n e Ka l i n a

Ke i l a n M o r r i s e y

Ca therine Walsh

Sophie Bernstein

Cody Krutzsch

Laura Par vu lescu

N ikki Seraji

Maddy Ackerburg

Paul Liu

Philip Stahl

Grace Snelling

Lise Dersken

James Malone

Junyi Su

Ka t i e S n e l l i n g

Mariclare Ga tter

Neema Naemi

Victor Wei

Sarah Baker

Gracie Morris

William Redington

Noor J era th

Sara S temmler

Theo Fehr

Leo Thoma s

Za ch a r y Fi s h e r

PHOTOGRAPHERS Synthia Baer

Fiona McGuire

Erin Brown

Alexandra Hardie

Barrett Bentzinger

Jovan Miller

Isabella Clark

Paige Holmes

Elizabeth Cordova

Mallory Palmer

Za ch a r y C o b l e

Xuenan Jin

Alex Darmody

Sophia Ryan

Cindy Combs

Caroline Marsden

Ella Engel

Saniya Sah

Ka t h r y n C o o p e r

Ka t h e r i n e O w i n g s

Catherine Holtzman

Annika Sandquist

Gwen Duplain

Mia Redington

I sheeta Khurana

Emma Siegel

Madison Gudmestad

Madison Rudd

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

Last year, I wrote an opinion piece on Clayton’s need to embrace its rich diversity in order to learn from its differences and transcend some difficult times. Now, I share a similar message; this time, however, I share it not just with Clayton, but with the world.

The word “refugee” elicits one of two responses from people, depending, say, on their political affiliations or personal experiences. Speaking from experience exclusively, I would like to use this space to illuminate the nature of a few refugees I met while volunteering this summer at a refugee resettlement day camp at the International Institute of St. Louis. This is not intended to be a persuasive essay; if nothing else, I hope it will function as a running catalogue of the experience I was fortunate enough to share with a refugee family from Sudan.

Honestly, volunteering at a refugee resettlement was not part of my preliminary summer plan. Initially, I was intent on traveling, visiting old friends and sleeping. Traveling, I thought, would be relaxing, rejuvenating and educating all at once. Visiting friends would revive some of my most cherished memories.

And sleep would be a new friend. But no.

A friend’s mom insisted I come volunteer at a day camp for refugee children to be held at the International Institute in St. Louis.

“Just come try it out,” she said. “What do you have to lose?”

This was no endorsement; she was in charge of recruiting volunteers and admittedly desperate. I had never worked with refugees before nor had I ever heard of the institute that would host the camp.

But, thanks to taking economics class the previous school year, I did know about opportunity costs. And the opportunity costs associated with spending my summer sleeping were magnanimous and utterly unignorable. I needed to do something.

“I’ll be there.”

And, on July 11, I walked through the doors of the International Institute of St.

FROM THE EDITOR Louis without any expectations.

I put on a red t-shirt that identified me as a volunteer. Soon after, I was approached by one of the camp directors, who asked if I would be willing to work in an isolated setting with two boys, Mohamed and Faris. I soon learned that the two brothers were from Sudan and traumatized by their unimaginably difficult past; their mother had died in childbirth and they spent the majority of their young lives in a brutal refugee camp. Both of the boys suffered from severe behavioral problems only to be compounded by being in a large group setting. The rest, however, was unknown. What was known was that they needed help. And they needed it desperately; the leaders of the camp had considered excluding them altogether to ensure the safety of the other refugee children. But, the conscience of Gary Sherman, a retired pediatrician and camp volunteer, insisted that they stay.

We worked with the boys in a small classroom on the third floor of the institute. I assisted Gary as he attempted to teach them English and rectify their extreme, frequently violent behavioral tendencies. We kicked a soccer ball with them in the gymnasium. We watched as the boys played, laughed and smiled.

And, by the end, we would aim for their reintegration into the camp.

The curriculum was designed to include an American-themed parade on the last day of camp. After three and a half weeks of working with the boys in an isolated setting, this was our ultimate chance to see them coexist with the dozens of other refugee children. We watched as

Mohamed and Faris held miniature Sudanese flags in one hand and American flags in the other. We listened as they chanted “USA” in unison with the other children.

A priceless moment -- a picturesque, tangible reward only made possible by the trust and faith Gary had invested into two boys he had never known. A world with more Gary Sherman’s is a better, more welcoming and loving world. Like Gary, we must all embrace the privilege of our society’s diversity regardless of the challenges doing so might present.

What do you have to lose?

noah brown @noah.20 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 newsmagazines. 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 (314) 854-6668 globe@claytonschools.net

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LETTER

Protesters gather in the streets of downtown St. Louis after police officer Jason Stockley was acquitted of murder charges on Sept. 15.

Photo by Michael Melinger

USDA Classroom Food Policy

N E W S A N D N OT E S

The 2014 “Smart Snacks” program is a set of standards which restrict school foods to “tasty and nutritious” options. required cafeteria food to meet healthy nutritional standards set by the USDA. A recent expansion of Smart Snacks, however, changes the CHS student lifestyle.

Now, the same restrictions apply to the classroom. Any food “provided, but not sold” to students must follow a set of restrictions. This means any food brought into the classroom must follow the restrictions.

Because of this, CHS teachers were instructed to more strictly regulate food consumption in the classroom. In most cases, that means no food in any class unless it is part of the curriculum. Some teachers, however, are willing to make exceptions.

Visit the Clayton School District website for the detailed restrictions.

All of CHS’s cafeteria food meets Smart Snacks restrictions. (Photo by Alex Darmody)

NEWS

Mexico’s 100-Year Earthquake

Wow Air Comes to Lambert

On Sep. 7, the worst earthquake to hit Mexico in over a century occurred just off the southern tip of the country. The 8.1 magnitude quake’s epicenter was just 60 miles from Mapastepec, MX, where it hit at 11:49 PM. The earthquake devastated the country. At least 96 Mexicans died, 76 of which were from the state of Oaxaca.

In addition to the deaths, almost 16,000 homes were damaged or destroyed.

Amidst relief efforts for hurricanes Harvey and Katia, the Mexican government reallocated most of their resources toward recovering from the earthquake.

Among expansion projects and efforts to privatize St. Louis’s airport, Lambert International Airport is offering flights from a new airline.

Starting May 17, 2018, Wow Air will begin flying nonstop from St. Louis to Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital.

What makes Wow Air unique, however, is the price. For just $99, passengers can fly nonstop to Iceland. From there, $149 flights are offered to large cities in Europe.

Wow Air is also adding flights to 11 other American cities, four of which are in the Midwest.

THINGS TO DO Q IN THE LOU

29 SEPTEMBER - 1 OCTOBER

GROVEFEST

7 OCTOBER

FOUR SEASONS OKTOBERFEST 13 OCTOBER

Wow Air Airbus A320s at Kflavik Airport, just outside of Reykjavik, Iceland. (Milan Nykodym/Wikimedia/Creative Commons).

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INTL. STUDENTS

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CLAYTON BY THE NUMBERS

CLUBS

$20,861

SPENT PER CHS STUDENT IN 2016

KLEINBERG’S I N T E R N AT I O N A L L O V E S TO R Y CHS math teacher Kurt Kleinburg’s maintains a romance with his future wife despite being 8000 miles apart.

Love stories have been around for centuries, and they have all consisted of the same tale: boy meets girl, they fall in love, they get married and they live happily ever after.

How many love stories have you heard in which the boy visits his friend in Tokyo, meets a girl who lives there, boy and girl reconnect two years later, leading to an international marriage one year later?

This is essentially the love story of Kurt Kleinberg, CHS math teacher, and his fiance Yui Toratani.

In March 2014, Kleinberg visited his friend in Tokyo over spring break. It was a spur of the moment vacation.

“It was my first international flight, and I had only been out of the country once before that,” Kleinberg said.

When a group of his friends were out to dinner one night, they met a group of girls who lived in Tokyo.

“I was was dating somebody at the time so we just met. That’s it. there was literally no contact besides her name,” Kleinberg said.

Two years later, after Kleinberg’s previous relationship ended, his friends suggested that he try to contact the girl he met at dinner. Initially reluctant to the idea of trying to contact someone he had met briefly years ago, Kleinberg eventually reached out to Toratani through Facebook.

“The fortunate thing is Yui is her first name, which is very common, but Toratani is her last name, which is very uncommon,” Kleinberg said, “So when I did look for her later, there was only one Yui Toratani.”

At the time when Kleinberg sent his message, Toratani was receiving an influx of messages from Poland asking her to model after her photo was published on a Polish blog. As she was going through her Facebook, deleting hundreds of messages at a time, she happened to recognize Kleinberg’s name.

The two rekindled the natural connection they had two years ago. Their relationship bloomed after one simple message on Facebook; Kleinberg and Toratani FaceTimed on a regular basis and visited each other frequently.

“She came to visit me for a week, went back for two weeks and came right back for a week. Left, came right back three weeks later,” Kleinberg said. “She had probably visited me like three or four times in a three month period.”

Kleinberg with his then girlfriend Toratani. Photo from Kurt Kleinberg.

Inevitably, Toratani was confronted

by TSA and told that she had overused her Visa. The reality of an international relationship set in. So, the couple went to see a lawyer, and they were told that marriage was most likely the best option.

“In the lawyer’s office we kinda looked at each other and said, ‘I think we just got engaged.’ It was really informal and kinda weird,” Kleinberg said.

Toratani was finally able to come back to the U.S. in July. On Sept. 8, the two were married in the Eagleton Courthouse. They plan to have two ceremonies– one in Japan and one in the U.S. The couple is stepping into a new, exciting stage in their lives, and Kleinberg

looks forward to the unique aspects of an international marriage.

“She just brings a non-American perspective,” Kleinberg said. “Her culture has a general appreciation for a lot of things that we don’t necessarily have an appreciation for. It’s a different way of looking at life.”

Despite the excitement that their marriage entails, Kleinberg worries about Toratani being so far from home.

“I’m sure there’s going to be times where she’s just going to get sad. [Sometimes] reality sets in and she’s like, ‘I’m not in Japan, I’m not in Tokyo, I don’t have my friends around me.’ I want her to make friends. She doesn’t have a car right now. She’s at home all the time, and I’m at work all the time. I just want her to feel comfortable and loved and not bored.”

Regardless of the international hardships, Toratani and Kleinberg have accepted each other’s differences and backgrounds.

“She has embraced a lot of my dorky mathness,” Kleinberg said, “She does make fun of me, but our rings are mobius strips. She’s cool about that.”

As Kleinberg looks back on this love story, he is astounded by how surreal everything feels.

“This relationship, especially, seems like out of a movie to me. It is kind of crazy to think that later we’ll tell our kids this is how we met,” Kleinberg said. “We were 8000 miles apart and made it work.”

olivia joseph @olivia.joseph OPINION SECTION EDITOR catherine walsh @cat.walsh PAGE EDITOR

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A CITY

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n Friday, Sept. 15, white police officer Jason Stockley was acquitted of first degree murder charges brought against him after he killed Anthony Lamar Smith in a car chase in 2011. Like hundreds of other St. Louisans, going out to protest was a natural response for CHS senior Lizzy Mills.

“I knew as soon as I heard the verdict that I would be out protesting,” Mills said. “A movement needs people; it needs bodies to show up and make a point so that’s why I protest because I can contribute just by showing up.”

Mills marched the streets of downtown St. Louis alongside hundreds of people representing many different backgrounds and movements.

“I was surprised to see such a diverse group of protesters. There were children, elderly people, white, black, Latino,” Mills said. “[Some] protesters wore [Black Lives Matter] t-shirts or held signs but other movements were there fighting as well. I saw a lot of LGBT rights t-shirts and flags. There were people wearing shirts that read ‘Science is real and so is global warming.’ The protest recognizes that all of these issues are intertwined and that’s why I came out, to fight to see justice served.”

Regardless of the crowd’s diversity, Mills believes that there was just one message.

“The point is that all of the protesters were there for the same reason. All we want is justice,” she said. “The crowd was rightfully angry. Everyone was disappointed that the city had not learned its lesson with Ferguson and you could tell that people were fed up.”

CHS teacher Justin Seiwell attended the protest both during the early phases in the morning and into the night. Seiwell witnessed a transition in the nature of the protest as the day went on.

“I would describe the scene [in the] morning as angry, loud, but distinctively non-violent. There’s a real sense of frustration that permeates the air when you walk in one of these protests,” Seiwell said. “[In the] evening, I will use the word ‘escalating,’ that long-building sense of frustration [was] being unleashed by those who feel it.”

Seiwell was encouraged by the way the protest gave its participants a voice, albeit he noticed that some protesters’ words were more inspiring than others.

“The mood of the crowd flows to whomever is [given] the bullhorn at the moment. I really loved, however, that the organizers were eager to let anyone and everyone have a turn at the bullhorn, even encouraging random people to start and lead a chant,” Seiwell said. “Most of the protesters had really inspiring ideas: ‘Do not give up. We are in this together.’ Others had less inspirational messages like ‘The system has failed us, so let’s shut it down.’”

The protest began in downtown St. Louis on the streets surrounding the old courthouse building and quickly spread west into the Central West End. It was on the intersection of Tucker and Carlson downtown where the protest first gained its momentum.

NEWS

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DIVIDED Protesters chanted, “No justice, no peace,” and declared that the streets on which they were marching were their streets. Several protesters jumped on and vandalized a police car. And, the law enforcement presence grew exponentially.

When Seiwell was sprayed with pepper spray by a police officer attempting to spray another protestor, he was ultimately reminded of the loving nature of his fellow demonstrators.

“I can’t tell you how many people wanted to know if I needed water, food, or medical supplies after the pepper spray – and I’m thinking ‘Seriously? I’ve got everything I need and then some. And I’ve got every privilege you could imagine,’” Seiwell said. “There’s a real love that you can see amongst the protesters – even when they’re total strangers – in the sense that most of them take care of each other and make a point to be welcoming.”

Mills was severely disappointed in the way the police responded to the protests.

“I was surprised by how quickly the cops escalated from bikes to full riot gear and mace. I firmly believe that if you had gone to the protest [unsure] about being there, after seeing the police interact with the protesters who were mostly peaceful, you [would] have left angry and hurt by what you saw,” Mills said.

The protests transitioned from downtown to the Central West End. As services were ending at the Central Reform Congregation in the Central West End, Rabbi Susan Talve made the decision to open her synagogue’s doors to the protesters outside.

“We weren’t sure where the protests were going to be, but it so happened that just as we were finishing services last night, the

Protesters gather in the streets of downtown St. Louis

A protester is assisted after being sprayed with mace.

(Photos by Michael Melinger)

protesters came right down the street where our synagogue is,” Talve said. “Rabbi Randy [Fleisher] and I went out and opened our doors and literally pulled protesters into the synagogue because we knew they’d be safe here. By the time we were done, we had around 250 people in the synagogue.”

Significant damage was reported at multiple places in the Central West End neighborhood. St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson’s house was vandalized as were several stores, restaurants and the St. Louis public library.

Jason Douglas, the manager at the Coffee Cartel in the Central West End, worked during the protest and witnessed much of the destruction. However, Douglas believes that the perpetrators of the violence were not representing the greater cause of equality.

“People that weren’t for the cause came out and did some destructive things; they vandalized Culpepper’s windows, the library; that was the only problem I saw happen,” Douglas said.

St. Louis citizen Allen Jackson had belongings taken from him amid the strife in the Central West End on Friday night. Jackson is African-American but faulted his fellow African-Americans for their violent behavior during the protest.

“My car got taken [Friday] night, my wallet, and everything [in my wallet]. I ain’t got no ID or nothing,” Jackson said. “What happened last night shouldn’t have happened last night. It’s a shame.”

The St. Louis Police Department made 33 arrests in Sept.

16th’s protests, releasing a statement: “Many of the demonstrators were peaceful, however after dark, the agitators outnumbered the peaceful demonstrators and the unruly crowd became a mob.”

One officer suffered a broken jaw, while another had a shoulder dislocated. Eleven officers were injured during Friday’s demonstrations, several from thrown bricks and bottles. Orders to disperse were given and tear gas was eventually deployed in attempt to thwart further damage and injury in the Central West End. The verdict of the Stockley murder case is certainly nothing new for the City of St. Louis or for the United States as a whole.

Seiwell explained that these recent events are rooted in America’s

broader history.

“The problem is deeper than ‘us vs. them,’ it lies in a long history of racial and class segregation in the United States. Since the foundation of our country, systems have been in place that oppress minorities,” Seiwell said. “And when a community experiences violent oppression, they understandably take that anger out on the most visible group of oppressors.”

The issue of police brutality is at the heart of the Black Lives Matter movement and was a recurring talking point throughout the Stockley verdict protest.

“There’s a double standard for police officers who kill African American people, that they’re not found guilty when the evidence clearly shows they’re guilty,” Douglas said. “It keeps on happening, it keeps on repeating and people are tired of it. I’m personally tired of having to go protesting and defending and going about the same issue and getting the same result; this isn’t the first time this has happened.”

And, while St. Louis’ racial history – and the Black Lives Matter movement – are both defined largely by the events of Ferguson in 2014, Mills argues that there are some important differences between the Stockley protests and those associated with Ferguson.

“This is not Ferguson. This is the beginning of something larger. People are more informed and more importantly more organized. This fight isn’t for the justice of one or two people; it’s about justice for all who are denied,” she said.

Seiwell takes great pride in being a St. Louisan and vows to continue to fight for progress in his hometown.

“My role, as a die-hard St. Louisan, is to contribute positively through the narrative. To be part of it. To live as much of it as I can,” Seiwell said. “This is a fantastic city – I make an active choice to live here because I love it and I believe in it. We have a lot of healing and growing to do, but I won’t be leaving anytime soon; it’s my duty as a citizen to be a contributor to this process and help make our community better any way that I can.”

noah brown @noah.20 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

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CO N N ECTI N G

Photo of Colman McCarthy teaching about peace leadership (Photo from Cultural Leadership) “I had always had doubts about being able to make any sort of difference in the world, and I think everyone worries about that to some degree and feels kind of insignificant,” CHS senior Chenny Lee said. “But there were so many people who were willing to listen to my story.”

In a tumultuous time of both political and social changes following the 2016 presidential election, Lee found refuge in the atmosphere provided by Cultural Leadership, an intensive St. Louis-based program that explores historic and present day social issues primarily through a combined African American and Jewish lens.

Through 420 total hours of programming, dialogue sessions, public speaking, leadership training and travel spanning the entirety of their junior year, four current CHS seniors – Lee, Olivia Joseph, Lizzy Mills and Josh Hagene – gained an increased awareness of each other’s histories and prepared themselves to facilitate cultural discussions and promote change.

In order to be a part of the program, each student had to apply and interview for a spot. For Joseph, however, the decision to apply was easy.

“My sister and brother both went through the program when they were juniors in high school, and my mom was a big part of it she worked for the program, actually, and was on the board for it, so it definitely runs through the family,” Joseph said.

Hagene, too, had a preexisting connection to the program– his mother, the Executive Director of Cultural Leadership.

But for others, the program was far more unknown.

“I applied initially because my mom’s best friend at work knew

FEATURE

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that I was really into social justice and that I always had been as I was growing up,” Lee said. “The thing I didn’t know was that [the program] was African American and Jewish oriented. I found out the day before my personal interview, and being Asian, I had a lot of hesitation because I didn’t know if I would belong or if my story would be relevant.”

Despite Lee’s fears, she went to her interview and earned a spot in the program, becoming the first Asian to ever participate in Cultural Leadership. While certain aspects of the learning were certainly oriented around African American and Jewish history, Lee quickly found that the 23 other members of the program were eager to learn about her story too.

One way Lee was able to share her experiences with the other members of the group was through an activity known as the Fishbowl. In this activity, a specific group of people with a similar identity, such as African American women, went into the center of a circle and discussed how race and gender had shaped their life experiences.

When it was Lee’s turn for the Fishbowl, she stood alone in the center of the room.

“I knew that my experience wasn’t as common as some other experiences in America, but everyone had really great questions, and I felt really good about people learning things about me that they would never have known,” Lee said. “I definitely focused a lot on my immigration. I was the only non-citizen in the program, and with current immigration issues and prejudices against immigrants, I shared my experiences with the discrimination I have personally faced and also shared the stories I have heard of people who are similar to me.”

Born in Korea, Lee moved to the United States with her mother and younger sister when she was just four years old. But even

C U LT U R E S

after living here for 13 years, she still battles the obstacles that her immigration status presents.

“The whole immigration process and the complications that come with that really affects my life. Even for college, I only have five schools in the entire US that will give full rides to non-citizens.

And for the PSAT, I couldn’t qualify for the merit scholarships because I’m not a citizen or permanent resident. There are a lot of things like that that have kept me from going for opportunities,” Lee said.

While Lee helped the members of Cultural Leadership better understand her experience as an immigrant, other CHS members shared their own experiences with discrimination.

When it was Hagene’s turn for the Fishbowl, he stood in the center of the circle with the other African American males in the program.

“For me, it was kind of weird having people from a different group watch us and listen to what we said, but at the end I think it opened up a lot of people’s eyes and created a better understanding for what different groups go through. It gave each group the opportunity to share different experiences and struggles that the members of each group experience,” Hagene said.

Ultimately, the students felt that the Fishbowl pushed them to voice the emotions that they had always kept inside. The activity also helped teach them about the connections between African American history and Jewish history.

“Both of those groups have been discriminated against in different ways and different eras. But during the Civil Rights Movement, blacks and Jews were always allies and were always sticking together,” Joseph said.

Mills agreed.

“A lot of people think that African American history and Jewish history don’t really mix, but a lot of what [Cultural Leadership] did was help people realize that, especially in American history, Jews have had an influential role in pushing toward more equality. For instance, a lot of schools in the south for African Americans were mainly funded by Jewish business owners. And the struggles that have faced African Americans and Jews are similar, definitely not identical, but there have been similar themes throughout both cultures,” Mills said.

And while the special relationship between Jews and African Americans certainly thrived in history, it is equally strong today.

“I think that it is really good that the two groups are still connected, because the more people we have working towards justice and equality, the better,” Hagene said.

As the participants learned to recognize these connections, they were also preparing for the transformational trip that occurred this past summer.

The first day of the trip was representative of the next 20: a plane ride at 4:00 a.m., a meeting with a speaker at 10:00, yet another visit with a speaker before lunch time, a series of museums, and then bed at 1:00 a.m.

The group started their transformational journey in New York, progressed to Philadelphia, Washington DC and Atlanta, and ended with a two-week road trip through the South that loosely followed the trail the Freedom Riders traveled during the Civil Rights Movement.

“The whole trip was just constantly moving,” Mills said. “It’s the most tired I’ve ever been.”

But just as much as the trip was tiring, it was rewarding. In

“A lot of people think that African American and Jewish history don’t really mix, but a lot of what [Cultural Leadership] did was help people realize that, especially in American history, Jews have had an influential role in pushing toward more equality.” -Lizzy Mills

only 21 days, participants met with dozens of Civil Rights leaders, social activists, religious organizations and government officials.

Out of all the speakers, Joseph most enjoyed meeting John Lewis, an African American civil rights leader and politician.

“The amount of hope that [Lewis] had for youth and groups like Cultural Leadership was really inspiring, especially in times like today. He said one quote in particular that everyone on the trip remembers. He said, ‘We’re not there yet, but we’ll get there.’

America isn’t there yet, but the Civil Rights Movement was getting us there, and groups like Cultural Leadership will continue getting us there,” Joseph said.

The group’s meeting with Lewis was so special because of the unique way Lewis conversed with them.

“We all piled into his small office and it was a really hot day, and we were all pretty miserable because we had been walking around all day in hot DC and meeting a bunch of people,” Joseph said.

“And then John Lewis came in, and we had met Supreme Court justices before and they all sort of had this prestigious attitude which they’re inclined to have, and Lewis just didn’t have that. He just sat down, talked a bit about the Civil Rights Movement, and asked us if we had questions. He just immediately got to our level.”

Another memorable speaker to present to the group was Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the first female member of the Harvard Law Review and, currently, an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

“She’s so idolized in my household,” Mills said. “I had strep throat on the trip, so right after meeting her, I had to go to an urgent care, and the doctor was like ‘Are you alright?’ and I was like ‘Yes! I just met Ruth Bader Ginsburg!’”

The Cultural Leadership group was even able to watch as CNN filmed a documentary about Ginsburg.

“I remember she was talking about how, before she came, [the first female Associate Justice of the Supreme Court] Sandra Day O’Connor had to run all the way back to her chambers to change and use the restroom because they didn’t have a women’s restroom close to the conference halls. And I remember Ruth say-

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FEATURE

ing ‘Well, that just didn’t do, so we had them put in a bathroom!’ I went to bed that night thinking ‘Wow, that really just happened.”

While the CHS students met with these civil rights leaders and government officials, they were also able to learn the less familiar stories of the people they refer to as “foot soldiers” – those who were there to experience history before it became history written down in a textbook.

While in Selma, they talked to a woman named Joan who had been there to experience the horrific events of Bloody Sunday and who is still there today, working to progress and protect civil rights.

They also met an African American woman who was not part of the original Little Rock – the group of African American high school students who first integrated Little Rock High School in Arkansas – but who was part of the second group of African American students who integrated the school after it reopened following its year of closure.

“She was a very small girl physically, and she also felt completely neglected by the entire student body and the people living in her neighborhood. She wasn’t able to go out and play with her friends, and she always felt like she was a nobody, but now looking back at it, she knows that her actions were so crucial to the changing of history,” Lee said. “That concept really resonated with me.

Listening to her changed the perspective I have of myself. A lot of people don’t have any confidence and they just feel really small.

Being put down by an entire society of people can do a lot to a person, but she knew that what she was doing was good for the entirety of America, and sticking to her mission like that was really inspiring.”

Beyond meeting with important cultural leaders in American history, Cultural Leadership participants also visited museums and important geographic locations in history.

In Washington DC, the National Museum of African American History and Culture was an especially important experience for the group. In contrast to the rest of the trip, it was one of the only places where participants had a chance to move at their own pace and reflect on their experiences.

“People who are really into history say that it takes them ten hours to go through the whole museum. On multiple occasions, I was actually crying as I was walked through the exhibits. It was kind of overwhelming. I was bombarded with the most knowledge and experience in that place, and I finally had alone time to really absorb and process everything,” Lee said. “The modern exhibit of Barack Obama’s time in office was especially bittersweet because I was so proud that our country had elected such a good person to office who was able to speak for the millions of people who have been oppressed and are still being oppressed, but it’s over now, and look at who is in office right now.”

While the museums of the Northeast certainly resonated with the students, the historic locations in the South were even more powerful.

In Birmingham, the students visited the 16th Street Baptist Church which was bombed in 1963, resulting in the deaths of four young African American girls. It was Father’s Day when Cultural Leadership visited, so they sat in for the service.

“I always thought of the events that occurred in these cities as isolated events. We never really talk about what happens to these cities after these huge civil rights events, so in my head, I almost never pictured them as modern, functioning cities,” Mills said.

“But 16th Street Baptist Church is still there; it’s still a preaching,

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Photo from Cultural Leadership functioning congregation. They aren’t the bombed church; they’re a church that got bombed.”

Right outside the church, the Cultural Leadership group saw the park where African American children and teenagers were sprayed by fire hoses and attacked by police dogs. While the group was there, a festival in remembrance of this violence but also in celebration of the Civil Rights Movement was taking place, and Cultural Leadership participants joined the people who were dancing.

But not all of their experiences in the South were so uplifting.

When the Cultural Leadership group stopped to eat in a restaurant on their first night in Montgomery, what they found inside both shocked and saddened them.

“Being a pretty colorful group of diverse kids, we all walked in, and all across the restaurant, everyone just stared at us. And there was this little wall that separated two areas of seating. It wasn’t really a wall; it was more of a separation so that there could be booths directly against the divider on both sides. But what shocked us was that all the black people in the restaurant were sitting on one side, and all the white people were sitting on another. We never thought we would see something like that in 2017. It was a seat yourself place, and it just showed how history is still so ingrained in our subconscious. It was clearly just the atmosphere of the restaurant,” Lee said.

Other aspects of the South presented an equal challenge.

“I had never really been in the south before, so I didn’t know what to expect. We went through a few places that might be labeled as ‘the hood’ and we actually had a really big argument there, because one girl in our group was really mad because she felt that the trip was turning the hood into some kind of spectacle,” Lee said. “But our trip leader was trying to explain to us that that area was due to the government, which doesn’t allocate enough money to certain areas of the state and the city. That girl who had personally experienced living in a type of neighborhood like this one really didn’t like how the trip was kind of turning it into a spectacle, but I think it was really good for us to see how the system of racism isn’t just social interaction; it’s actually an economic and geographic thing, and it’s still there today.”

An even sadder surprise awaited the Cultural Leadership group in Money, Mississippi, the city in which Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American, was beaten and brutally murdered by two white men who claimed that Till had offended Carol Bryant, a white woman, in a grocery store. Both white men were acquitted by an all-white, all-male jury.

Outside the grocery store stands a memorial to Emmett Till.

But when they arrived, the Cultural Leadership group found that the part of the memorial presenting information about Emmett Till and the trial of his murdered had been defaced. The writing had been peeled off so that visitors could no longer read it.

“When I saw that it had been defaced, I just kept thinking about John Lewis’ quote ‘We’re not there yet, but we’ll get there.’

This just showed that we’re really not there yet, and for people to still feel the hate strongly enough to deface a memorial is just devastating,” Joseph said.

The three other CHS students were equally devastated.

“When we saw it, everyone was shocked. We couldn’t imagine that someone would try to deface such a painful but important part of history. Now, we would think that people are willing to finally accept history and reflect over it and repent, so it was so disheartening to see that there are still people who are refusing to accept history,” Lee said. “I really couldn’t understand how human beings can do such a thing to another human being. Emmett was only 14-years-old, which is just one year older than my sister, and she’s a baby. Obviously it’s wrong whenever a human being does something that terrible to another human being, but the fact that Emmett was a baby, essentially, an innocent soul when it happened to him - that just hit me even harder.”

Hagene, too, was hurt by the defacement of the memorial.

“Seeing the defaced sign just reaffirmed what I had already thought about this country and was ‘proof’ that we still have a long way to go,” Hagene said.

Fortunately, the Cultural Leadership Program took the first steps in shortening the distance that still must be covered before true equality can be obtained.

For a long time, the group didn’t know what to do. Although Cultural Leadership had spent the last year training them to be leaders, it was still difficult to understand that they had the power to step forward and do something about the defacement of the memorial. But slowly, they formed an idea.

They would remake the memorial.

“As soon as someone suggested that we should almost remake the memorial, everyone was so excited to do it, and everyone was jumping around trying to gather facts. Someone drew a portrait of him, and we tried to restore the sign as much as we could even though we only had scraps of paper and colored pencils,” Lee said.

“I think it was really nice to see our whole group come together and accomplish such a thing. It felt like our first true action toward social justice. We were really just channeling our fury that something like this had happened, and I think that’s what made it so much more meaningful and passionate.”

Ultimately, Joseph chose to write on the sign details of the unfair trial.

“I wanted to show the inequity of the whole trial and how it might have been different if it hadn’t been all white people,” Joseph said.

While some students taped up facts about Emmett Till’s life and the unfair trial of his murderers, Mills opted to contribute a short but empowering message of her own creation.

“I wrote ‘Rest in power, Emmett. They can destroy this marker, but they can’t destroy history.’”

They talked to the Americans in the history textbooks, they repaired a national memorial and they stood in the exact places

“Seeing the defaced sign just reaffirmed what I had already thought about this country and was proof that we still have a long way to go.” - Josh Hagene where race and religion had once divided America. Most of them never understand their strength until the trip forced them to use it.

“The most challenging part of the trip was having to constantly be engaged with topics that are so depressing and mentally draining,” Hagene said.

“I would never have thought that I would be able to wake up at 6:00 am, go to bed at 1:00 am, and the whole day have zero breaks, zero alone time, and be constantly on our feet, meeting new individuals, taking notes, asking questions, and continuing that for 21 days without bursting. Knowing that I can get through that and the training that it took to get up to that point was impressive to me,” Joseph said.

Lee, too, came to understand and respect herself on a deeper level.

“Being a non-citizen and growing up always dealing with a lot of stereotypes about me being very quiet and not being able to speak English well – all of that has always hindered my confidence, and so meeting all these different people who have directly combated issues of racism and sexism and hearing their words really gave me the idea that I don’t have to be some kind of great person to actually make the world better,” Lee said. “Even just sharing my ideas and my story is definitely making the world a better place.

I’ve always thought of myself as being really weak, and I never thought I’d be able to do anything, but the people in our history textbooks felt the same way. It was pretty cool to actually have that idea be tangible.”

In fact, it was the gaining of exactly that – that deeper understanding that those who shape history are human just like everyone else – that most inspired the students in Cultural Leadership.

Having talked face-to-face with the people whose faces fill our history textbooks, Lee, Joseph, Mills, and Hagene have gained a deeper understanding of what it means to alter the course of history.

“At the beginning [of the trip], I almost felt desensitized. I wasn’t feeling anything. I had thought that I would get this rush of emotions, but I just didn’t feel it at first,” Lee said. “But then I thought about it more and reflected on my first few days, and it suddenly hit me, and I actually got goosebumps. It was such a strange feeling. The first time I really felt it was when I was standing in front of the gravesite of Martin Luther King Jr. and we met one of his current generation family members. Talking with her just changed everything. It was the fact that these people were just human, yet they were able to impact the world in such a big way. It was really hard to wrap my mind around it at the time, but it was definitely an experience that most people never get to have, and it was so meaningful.”

maddy bale @maddybale SENIOR MANAGING EDITOR

Doc Schuster

By Lila Taylor with reporting by Leo Thomas Eighty-nine thousand. That’s more than five times the population of Clayton. That’s twice the size of a sold out Busch Stadium.

Eight-nine thousand people is greater than 356 graduating classes from CHS. Eight-nine thousand people are subscribed to CHS’ new physics teacher, Dr. David Schuster’s YouTube channel.

“I started in August [of 2012] in the beginning of the school year, so I jumped right in and decided to make a video everyday which was the lesson for that night,” Schuster said. “In January, I started becoming really surprised at what was happening. I was hoping some other people would watch them. But I started becoming really surprised.”

Doc Schuster, a channel accumulating over 485 videos, was first created in 2012, with Schuster merely attempting to save time in his AP Physics classes by having his students view his lectures at home. This style of teaching is also known as a “flipped classroom.”

A flipped classroom, as defined by The Flipped Learning Network, “is a pedagogical approach in which direct instruction moves from the group learning space to the individual learning space, and the resulting group space is transformed into a dynamic, interactive learning environment where the educator guides students as they apply concepts and engage creatively in the subject matter.”

In other words, lectures are done at home, along with the regularly assigned homework, freeing up class time to have discussions, perform interesting labs and ask questions.

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“A lot of these things happen by strange coincidences,” Schuster said. “I’ve been part of the forward thinking teachers at Webster [High School], and looking at new ways to teach better. One of the things that was proposed was a flipped classroom model. I was struggling in AP physics, which was taught in one hour a day, when here we get two hours a day. I was wrestling with how to ever get through all of the content, but also have labs, and God forbid a student should ask a question during one of my lectures, because there just wasn’t time. I decided that this flipped thing would give me the time that I needed.”

Schuster found the opportunity to start making these videos when his daughter was in the hospital. Schuster devoted his free time during his daughter’s recovery to begin applying the concept of a flipped classroom to his physics class.

“It was quiet [in the hospital, so] I brought out my camera, and started making some videos and I was following along my AP physics course and just posting the videos each day,” Shuster said.

“And then I would assign them to my videos to watch.”

Similar to how many teachers use textbook reading assignments, YouTube became a daily tool that Schuster used in his class. Schuster even created an extension to his videos that allowed him to make sure that his students were watching the material and understanding the new lesson at home, using a software called EDpuzzle.

“EDpuzzle allows me to ask questions during the videos,” Schuster said. “It pauses the video and a question pops up and

Photo from Schuster’s channel of Rapp (right) and Schuster (left).

students answer. I can actually tailor feedback to their specific answer right there. If they’re getting questions wrong I can get them feedback, but don’t need to bother the students who are getting that question right with that feedback.”

While Schuster’s teaching style is new to Clayton’s physics department, his high expectations are not. Schuster has filled the position of recently retired, award-winning physics teacher Rex Rice. After 37 years of teaching, Rice led many groups of students to win various physics competitions.

“I’ve been really following Rex Rice’s work at Clayton for many years,”Schuster said. “We’ve had many encounters from being St. Louis Area physics teachers, but one that always struck me was I would take a team of students who I thought were wonderfully prepared to the annual physics contest, and then Clayton physics students would trounce my students. I knew that [Rice] was teaching them and I knew that he was doing something special here.”

While Schuster has very big shoes to fill, current CHS teacher Gabriel de la Paz thinks that Schuster is the right man for the job.

“I think he’s very engaging with students,” de la Paz said. “I think he has really cool ideas about how to get students to come up with material on their own.”

De la Paz is not the only one who is a fan of how Schuster engages with his students. Other physicists across the world tune into both his own videos, as well as videos of Webster students’ “Indie Labs.” Schuster gives students the opportunity to dive into an independent study regarding a physics topic of their choosing that culminates in a presentation.

“I designed this idea that students should be doing physics of their own interest,” Shuster said. “It’s really the ultimate experiential learning – where you’re looking into something and delving into it personally. Putting them on YouTube has been really fun, because we’ve actually had a few physicists [give] my students feedback throughout the years on their projects. And that’s the nature of independent labs, that they’re going to go beyond their teacher.”

Many of Schuster’s other videos mimic the style of Khan Academy creator Sal Khan, a banker who created a learning empire online after creating a few videos in order to tutor his nephew long-distance. Khan’s whiteboard videos are how Schuster really got started. In addition to this, Schuster wanted to add his own, fun teaching style to his videos to make them more interesting and enjoyable for students who wanted to learn physics.

“I looked at all of the YouTube channels that existed at that time in physics. Either they were poor instruction, or they were super dry,” Schuster said. “So I took that attitude of being a really interesting teacher and having personality and I started teaching.”

Breakthrough Junior Challenge Semifinalist Emily Rapp was one of Schuster’s AP physics students at Webster. Schuster coached Rapp through this competitive physics competition.

Rapp submitted a video hoping to win a $250,000 scholarship for herself, $100,000 for her high school and a $50,000 grant for Schuster as well.

“When I entered in the Breakthrough Junior Challenge last year, he was so helpful, reading and editing my script and helping me think of bigger and better things to include,” Rapp said. “Being at college now, I really miss his class. Professors don’t make a connection with you like Doc does, and I know college would be 10 times harder if I hadn’t gone through two years of intensive AP Physics.”

Rapp is currently majoring in Biochemical Engineering on the pre-med track at Missouri University of Science and Technology.

“Dr. Schuster is an incredibly caring individual,” Rapp said.

“Some people teach, but Doc dedicates himself to helping people grow. Dr. Schuster’s class is challenging, but who wouldn’t want a challenge? He pushes you, sometimes a little too far outside of your comfort zone, but it’s always so rewarding when you figure out the answer. I personally am quite inspired by him. He’s always willing to help.”

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EQUITY ED In 2006, in the backyard of a tiny house in one of St. Louis’ socalled “dangerous” neighborhoods, kids from the ages of two to five are playing in sandboxes, on balance beams and in an expansive mulberry tree. Inside the house, there are books, counting cubes, markers and glue all neatly arranged on colorful shelves.

This little preschool, run by only four employees, would grow into the social-equity based school with a total of 210 students from preschool to 8th grade, known today as City Garden Montessori.

“We’ve been on a journey over the last 10 years since we opened as a charter school. We [opened as a charter school] because education in St. Louis has continued to face such intense challenges. We were looking at education options for our children and children in the city, and we were especially bothered and became pretty worked up and angry about how segregated our schools are ... this was 2006 and 2007, and now it is 2017 and our schools are almost as segregated they were when Brown versus Board of Education passed,” Christie Huck, Executive Director at City Garden Montessori, said.

Huck, along with several other parents of children who attended the initial City Garden preschool, decided to try to expand the preschool into a charter school after recognizing St. Louis’ need for more diverse and affordable education. They were able to gain enough support from the community to begin with this project, but faced challenges when trying to form a diverse student body.

“We became really determined to create a racially and socioeconomically integrated school that would have a social justice focus. It was a lot of work just to create a diverse school, but once

Photo of New City School by Elizabeth Cordova

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we had a diverse school we really worked at trying to build community among our families, our parents and our kids and really try to solicit feedback from all of our families and. We got pretty direct feedback from our parents of color that this mission is great, the diversity is great, but frankly, racism still exists here.

That really pushed us to think about what we need to do to deepen our commitment to social justice and equity,” Huck said.

For City Garden, creating a more socially equitable environment started outside of the classroom. In 2012, the entire staff attended a two and a half day training with Crossroads College Preparatory School called “Analyzing and Understanding Systemic Racism,” which focused on unpacking and analyzing the individual biases of each participant. Each new member of their

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s t u d e n t s f ro m p re - K to 8 t h g ra d e staff goes through this training, and many have taken part in it multiple times.

“We actually now have a staff member who’s called the Director of Racial Equity Curriculum and Training, so she has a background in doing equity and anti-racism training, and last year she started doing monthly (and oftentimes even more than that) training with the staff that gets more into our own racial identity formation,” Huck said.

Although staff training is essential, teachers at City Garden also facilitate discussions about race and identity with their students of all ages.

“We intentionally talk about race and identity and bias with our students at all age levels. Our children are getting messages about race from the time they’re born. So to think that they’re coming to us without any of that is just not true. And so even our preschool students talk about racial identity and inclusion, and then as our children get older, conversations become more about social justice. All of our students will benefit if we enrich our programming and curricula,” Huck said.

The recent shifting political climate has further exposed issues of racial disparity in America and in St. Louis. Similarly to City Garden, many schools throughout the city are taking steps to address these issues in their classrooms in order to make their students more aware of current events.

New City School, located in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, is one of these schools.

“By sixth grade and fifth grade, we’re having pretty intense conversations about Black Lives Matter, about the Confederate memorial coming down, about the Delmar divide, and talking about racial disparities and economic disparities. So they’re all very fluent in that conversation by that age, but I don’t think you just arrive there, you had to have been doing a little bit all along,” New City School teacher Stephanie Teachout said.

Teachout, whose specific title is Director of Diversity, frequently incorporates conversations regarding race and bias into

her curriculum.

“I’m Director of Diversity,” Teachout said. “That ends up being a lot of programs for adults, and that ends up being a lot of professional development for teachers, but when it comes to curriculum, everybody is director of diversity in their own classrooms.

Everybody is incorporating this in different ways.”

For students at New City School, recognizing bias starts at a very young age. At the ages of four and five, students are exposed to conversations and activities regarding race and inclusion.

“They’ll start off in the four and fives doing Humpty Dumpty, and they’ll talk about different eggs saying, ‘what’s the same, what’s different’, and the kids are all like ‘that one’s different!,’ and then they crack them open and they’re like, ‘oh my gosh, they’re totally the same on the inside!” Teachout said.

These conversations continue throughout each grade level, and by the time the students are in fifth grade, they begin to apply their understanding to current issues. Last spring, students in Teachout’s class participated in a project about the controversial nature of Confederate memorials, and were able to make their own conclusions about whether they are beneficial or detrimental to American society.

“By the end of the year [my students] learned about the Revolution, they learned the Civil War and slavery, and it started to be on the news more with New Orleans and their monument coming down. We started by giving them a worksheet, it had a Confederate flag on the top, and we told them to take it home and interview people at home. I think the questions were ‘what is this a symbol of and how has this symbol changed for you over time?’. [. . .] By doing that, kids got to really see that this issue is not a binary, it is not this or that, there’s a lot of stuff in the middle, too.”

According to Teachout, this project had its own meaning and significance for each student. Collectively, the class came up with ideas to reinvent the monument; such as cutting it in half and turning it into a bridge that children could play on while allowing adults to have reflective moments through surrounding plaques with additional contextualization.

“Everybody’s got their own story, I think that’s it honestly, just the idea that everyone’s got their own story, people want to say that they understand your story. The more you think that you understand something, you don’t. I think that’s what’s scary for people, especially white people. [. . .] I think we’re somehow socialized to think that we have answers and we don’t. That’s part of the work we need to do as white people to figure this out.”

Unlike City Garden and New City, social equity is not a specific part of Clayton’s mission statement. However, steps are being taken to recognize and address bias and racism in the school environment.

Wydown Middle School seventh grade English teacher April Fulstone spoke about her involvement with Clayton’s Racial Equity Committee.

“The Equity and Excellence Committee has worked this past school year to create an extremely comprehensive strategic plan that addresses all facets of the district and its systems,” Fulstone said. “Curriculum, teachers, human resources, community engagement, programs, etc. We are implementing the plan piece by piece, as there are so many working parts.”

Fulstone attempts to integrate ideas about race and inclusion in her classroom by encouraging her students to think critically with various viewpoints and lenses, “teaching about racial or cultural bias is not a discrete “unit” but an ongoing teaching of mindset. As teachers we need to recognize that the traditional canon and curriculum have always promoted the idea of one superior culture while minimizing the existence, voice and contribution of

Photo by Elizabeth Cordova so many other viewpoints - it is our job to seek out those perspectives and incorporate them, or allow students to seek them out and bring them into the classroom.”

Although the Racial Equity Committee is striving to bring about change in the district and the Clayton community, progress is slow.

“A lot of work remains and the pace is slow because adults are the worst at changing. Teachers’ and the greater community’s understanding of implicit bias and culturally relevant teaching will be key to making a difference in racial equity, more than any curriculum or intervention,” Fulstone said.

Fulstone also commented that she believes, similarly to City Garden, that Clayton should hire a Director of Diversity who could help to facilitate conversations about race and privilege throughout the district, as well as organizing equity events to get the community involved in these discussions. However, she said, the most important thing that students and staff should be doing is recognizing their privilege (or lack thereof) and coming together to face and hopefully change the effects of racial disparity.

“I honestly think it is time to address how the idea of whiteness was constructed historically and how it affects all of us presently.

This idea that racism is a problem for people of color to solve needs to shift into a greater shouldering of responsibility by the majority.

Because our society is still so segregated, most white people don’t understand why people of color protest against, get angry about, and feel offended by the systems in place - most white Americans never have to think about or deal with those problems. Rather than dismissing or negating experiences, we should be listening to one another. We need to move beyond feeling shame about the continued existence of racial injustice and toward feeling empathy and responsibility to help everyone in our community realize their dreams.”

grace snelling @its.grace.s PAGE EDITOR with reporting by Anna Sturmoski and Katie Snelling

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FEATURE

THE GOOD

S A M A R I TA N Q: How did you decide to be an Uber driver?

A: Mostly curiosity. It was kind of a new thing and people were talking about it. My kids were all taking Ubers, so I was like you know what I’m gonna see what this is all about so I decided to investigate and registered to become a driver. I didn’t really have any plans to make money; I found out in doing it that it is very difficult to make money.

They make it sound like it’s this really great deal and show you stats on how they got drivers at peak times making $35 and hour or something like that. My experience was that those numbers may be true for one person someplace but most of the time it ends up being minimum wage. They do this multiplier which if it’s really busy and hard to get an Uber then people have to pay more for that. And the only time you get peaks are late at night let’s say between 1 and 3 am.

And sleep is more important to me than driving, so I rarely went out when I started. I was just like let’s see how it goes.

Q: What was your first ride like?

A: My first ride was a blind person who was heading to the Galleria. He was really nice because I had no idea what I was doing, but he actually wrote that down in his commentary about the ride. I felt like I was helping this guy; we had some nice conversation. For me it was an opportunity to talk to people and that lasted for probably that one evening when I had 5 fares. Then I was like this is not worth it I’m not going to do it again. But I did it again a total of three other times where basically if it was a party night where I wasn’t doing anything then I went out and drove late. It was kind of a community service in keeping the drunks off the road.

I haven’t driven for a year or so. The first time was a couple years ago. I did have one instance when someone was not a former student of mine but was a former student who recognized me. And I knew this because the back door opens and there was a scream. Like “ahhhh nooo”. It was a fine ride. We had some nice conversation catching up on you know what the former student was doing. Another thing that I think is weird is as an Uber driver your mileage and gas is your biggest expense so you don’t go driving uber in a truck. You drive a Prius. You go get one of those little dinky cars. So for a lot of people I pull up and they are like “its a truck!” Lot of them were really excited and couldn’t believe how much room was in the back and that I kept it clean.

I should have been paid by Ford.

FEATURE

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A Q&A with AP Chemistry teacher Nathan Peck about his side career as an Uber driver.

Q: What advantages are there to teaching over Uber driving?

A: Everything that I can think of.

There are no advantages to driving Uber except I guess you could set your hours and you can pick and choose when you want to do it. So I am an extreme part-time Uber. And I sort of consider myself retired; I have no plans to go out and drive even though I could technically turn on the app and go for it. But we’ll see. If it’s one of these crazy nights where there is going to be a lot of potential for accidents, I am fine with giving people a lift.

Q: What about if they are underage?

A: You don’t have to have an ID to ride an Uber and I think there have been underage people. I picked up this one person that was literally distressed. They were too drunk to know where he was and ended up pretty far from where he was expecting to be, pretty far out of town and basically I helped him out above and beyond what would be called for “I will give you a ride” is - I made sure he was someplace where he was safe and back downtown where he supposedly had some friends. I took his phone and talked to them and this lost college kid from Mizzou was okay. I almost called his parents actually, but I thought we had it under control.

Q: Did you enjoy at all the experience of meeting a different set of people then you would meet at school?

A: The conversation was always good. You don’t talk to a cabbie necessarily, but you get in an Uber... and you can tell right away.

Who were the talkers and who just wanted you to be quiet and drop them. And I didn’t particularly like the drop offs. {...} I feel like I’m driving a cab. But there was a lot of people who were very chatty and could not figure out why I was driving an Uber. And I couldn’t really either.

Q: Was the process to become an Uber driver difficult at all?

A: No, it was surprisingly easy. I mean no road checks. You have to send them a picture of your driver’s license, insurance on the vehicle, and your vehicle and you are an Uber driver. I mean that is it. They don’t do background checks so who are you getting as your driver? Not everyone is a high school teacher. So in some respects... They work on a feedback system so if people don’t like the job that you are doing, [you are let go].

I had one person not give me a perfect score, so I am a 4.9/5.0.

Q: Why did they not give you a 5?

A: They didn’t write anything, they just gave me a four. I think it is because I was eager to get them out of my truck because they were drunk to the point where I thought they might vomit. There is a cleaning fee, but I still have to go through the hassle. I made them walk half a block which was ok for three of them but the fourth one was the one who was semi-conscious so they had to help her the whole way. I should have driven her to the hospital.

noah brown neel vallarupalli photos by michael melinger

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FEATURE

Syria to St. Louis

by Mitali Sharma, Samantha Zeid, Charlie Brennan and Noah Brown with reporting by Sarah Baker

The Globe examines the journey of Syrian refugees seeking asylum in St. Louis and how the community is getting involved to help them.

i

BEGINNINGS

“W

* the syrian family’s names and minor details have been changed for anonymity sake

e heard and saw the airplanes and the bombs all the time, we saw everything. One day Ali* was walking around his school, and suddenly the plane came and started bombing ... Ali was 9-years-old, the beginning of her fourth grade,” Rima*, a mother who recently embarked alongside her family on an impeccably difficult journey of a lifetime, that of fleeing the civil war that tears up the Syrian landscape more and more every day, said.

Since the spring of 2011, 5,163,650 Syrians have fled for their lives, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. People that were once living lives of privilege -- doctors, professors, lawyers, scientists, writers -- were suddenly forced to engage in a global chase, running away from the violence and leaving their place in the community behind.

“Imagine living a middle class life: going from Clayton and suddenly you’re moved to the middle of the city; your neighbors aren’t going to look like you, they aren’t going to speak like you, you aren’t going to eat the same food and all of a sudden, you’ve got no

means to buy luxury items or things that are extra,” Ariel Burgess, Vice President of Client Services, who oversees the International Institute’s refugee resettlement program, said.

These people -- whose lives are turned upside down -- seek safety in foreign countries, one of these being the United States.

Anybody who has been keeping up with American politics knows that the Syrian Refugee Crisis has been a central topic in recent years. The gap between opinions on the issue has further publicized - and arguably stretched - with the election of Donald Trump, as his refugee policies have become points of contention and thus prompted national demonstrations and discussions.

With all of this federal commotion, such an issue can turn into a cliché. Syrian refugees can become a mass or a group rather than a collection of individual stories and human hurts.

It is axiomatic to say that the refugee crisis is a vast, complicated and ever changing issue, yet it is becoming more local as we speak. The one thing that refugees truly crave - besides safety - is a new chance at life, and more and more people have found this sanctuary under the St. Louis Arch.

5 ,16 3 , 6 5 0 S y r i a n s h a v e f l e d fo r t h e i r l i v e s s i n c e 2 011. *

ii

CIT Y OF STL

“T

he Syrian refugees have been through hell, or they wouldn’t be here,” said Bob Stein, a volunteer for the International Institute in St. Louis, which aids and resettles refugees and immigrants.

The Institute, funded by the state of Missouri, is the only resettlement center in St. Louis and the largest one in the entire state.

When refugees -- of any country -- are placed in St. Louis, it is the Institute that oversees the complete process.

In 2016, 279 Syrians were resettled in St. Louis and in 2017, 46 were resettled. However, with Trump’s executive orders, the Institute has not resettled any Syrian refugees since May 2017.

For refugees coming to St. Louis from any country, it is a long journey, and Ariel Burgess, Director of Client Services at the Institute, is the one who oversees it all.

The first step involves partnering with other national agencies.

Burgess will report to the US Committee of Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) in Washington D.C each year, letting them know how many refugees the Institute can take. The USCRI then works up mandatory contracts with the U.S. Department of State.

After the contracts are finalized, all the agencies have a conference call every week in which they discuss which location might be able to resettle a certain family of refugees. If Burgess thinks St. Louis could be a good fit, she will be forwarded the actual paperwork to overview before coming to a final decision about accepting the case or not.

“99.99% of the time I accept the case,” Burgess said. “I really look at language -- if we have the language spoken on staff or in the St. Louis community and also I’m looking at medical conditions: do they have any existing medical conditions that I need to start getting prepared for and working on? There have only been about three cases that I have not been able to accept to come to St. Louis and they had some pretty extreme situations. I don’t like to not accept cases because I then wonder if the [refugees] ever made it to safety, either in the US or in Australia or Canada or someplace else.”

If the case is accepted and the incoming refugees have no untreated infectious diseases, they will make the long journey from the refugee camps of Jordan or Egypt, or the violence in Syria, to the so-called “safe haven” of St. Louis.

Upon arrival in St. Louis, refugees are picked up from the airport by Institute staff and provided with housing and basic furnishing. As there is also a culture shock from suddenly being thrown into a new environment, the Institute also tries to provide several community orientations.

However, this adjustment period comes to a quick end. Refugees must find a job after 30 days, according to Burgess.

“There’s a big, big push for new arrivals to begin working as soon as possible, regardless of their ability to speak English. The only way they’re going to be able to speak English or be able to stand on their own legs is if they’re employed,” she said. “Our employment department works very, very hard trying to get jobs for

PROFILE: J U L I E G LO S S E N G E R

By Gracie Morris “Learning the language is the key for [Syrian refugees] to obtain so many other things in our society, such as getting a job, being able to drive, and being able to advocate for yourself,” Julie Glossenger, English tutor and wife of CHS History teacher Daniel Glossenger, said.

Enabling her students to partake in the various aspects of American society is one of the many rewards of teaching English to Syrian refugees that Glossenger has discovered since first volunteering in late February.

Glossenger, an elementary school art teacher, originally got involved with tutoring to volunteer her time to a meaningful cause.

“I hoped that by meeting and working directly with Syrian refugees that I could put faces to whatever Syrian means and develop relationships with them, and then I wanted to be able to share my positive relationships and experiences with other people,” Glossenger said.

Through this mentality, Glossenger has helped her students navigate through their new country. Recently, one of her students passed her driver’s test, a nearly unimaginable feat to some Syrian refugees who have just arrived in the US. “When you hear news like that you’re just over the moon.

She’ll be testing for her Michigan English Competency exam this Wednesday, and I’m just thinking about it constantly when she’s doing that,” Glossenger said.

Still, Glossenger faces challenges when teaching English. To overcome the language barrier, Glossenger uses Google Translate to communicate with her students. Although this system can have faults, it accomplishes the important task of basic communication.

Emotionally, Glossenger struggles with grasping the challenges her students face on a daily basis.

“I think that it has been difficult to process watching them work through what it means to be a citizen, and also trying to function in American society: how to rent property, how to learn English, and show your proficiency in something when you can’t speak the language,” said Glossenger.

Ultimately, however, the reward of developing a relationship with her students outweighs any struggles Glossenger may face through tutoring. “Everybody who I have met in that community is just so hospitable and so friendly and they’ll give everything that they have, just by their nature, so all of that has been a really great experience, and I’m happy to continue doing it.”

Photo from Deb Baker

Resettlement Camp

By Noah Brown “My grandfather was a German refugee who begged to get out of Germany for five years and finally some distant, distant third-cousin signed for him to go and it was always traumatic when talked about,” CHS parent Serralesa Befeler said.

Most Americans share a history of immigration to America.

Befeler’s personal history motivated her to find a way to help refugees. It was President Trump’s actions, however, that gave Befeler no other choice but to get involved.

“When Trump behaved in the manner that he did, it was traumatic to me and I felt like I had to do something to change my community,” Befeler said. Others stirred to action likewise sought opportunities to aid the refugees.

When Stan Shanker, Chair of the Jewish Coalition for New Americans, learned that refugee parents would have to sacrifice their English classes at the Institute to care of their children over the summer, he was motivated to organize a four week summer camp that would enable the parents to still attend English class.

The organization enlisted over 100 volunteers to run the camp.

Befeler played a large role in organizing the camp, namely through recruiting volunteers. There, refugee children participated in music, yoga, art projects, science experiments and a petting zoo.

One of the camp’s volunteers, Wydown English teacher Deb Baker, believes the camp experience transformed her as a person and reiterated the importance of welcoming refugees to America.

“I got more than I gave at the camp. I grew and I have learned and I have become a better person because of the encounters that I had with people who are in different situations than I am,” Baker said. “It is so important to show refugees that they are welcome in our community.”

Out of the numerous teenage volunteers, many were CHS students. Baker was inspired by the outpouring of support from the Clayton community.

“I could not have been more proud of the way that the students interacted with the kids. They were tremendous role models for the younger kids. It made me really proud to not only be part of this camp but also to be a part of the Clayton community to see how our high school students were rising to the challenges that come with running a camp and how sensitive they were to the needs of the kids,” Baker said.

CHS senior Sam Humphreys was recruited to participate by Befeler and volunteered all four weeks.

Befeler believes that the camp was a transformative experience for both the refugee children and the volunteers.

“I hope that we helped both the kids and their parents have a sense that we are just so thrilled that they are part of our community,” Baker said. “They are going to make our community richer and more beautiful.”

people who speak no English or very little English and these jobs are typically entry level jobs.”

While refugees are forced to adjust quite abruptly, the Institute attempts to make this arduous transition as bearable as possible by providing free English classes, an immigration department to help with paperwork and applying for a Greencard or citizenship, a micro-enterprise department to assist refugees in starting their own businesses, and even social workers to do mental health screenings and referrals to counseling. The organization even hosted a summer camp for kids who had been in the Syrian refugee camps.

While the International Institute serves as the city’s primary establishment regarding immigrants and refugees, St. Louis has plenty of other non-profit services to offer new families.

One particular organization, the Immigrant & Refugee Women’s Program, coordinates native English speakers with refugee/ immigrant women. The program highlights life skills and cultural concepts through the building of a personal relationship and development of trust between the woman (and family) and the volunteer. This allows for connections to grow and immigrants to feel more stable.

As of right now, the program has 235 volunteer teachers and 260 students; the need is there. Clayton parent Carolyn Morris is one of the volunteers at this unique organization.

“What makes our organization different,” said Sarah Paradoski, Program Director, “is that each student has two hours a

2 out of 3 Syrians have been displaced, in their own country or abroad* week of 1-on-1 classes with their volunteer, and that is done in the homes of our students, [which helps] those who can’t get out to classes in the community ... because they are home with kids, or they are having some trauma issues; they lack transportation or they are working ... often crazy schedules that prevent them from being able to [learn].”

Another heavily involved St. Louis organization is Bilingual International Assistant Services (BIAS) that addresses the more sensitive side of the refugees’ transition: the trauma they have carried with them from their homeland to the camps to the Gateway Arch.

BIAS has licensed counselors, psychotherapists and clinical workers to support refugees and immigrants in their mental health needs and has become one of the Institute’s main partners, as the Institute does not provide these same services.

However, convincing refugees to seek help is a task of its own.

The topic of mental health is even more stigmatized in other cultures than it is here in the United States.

“We don’t even use the word mental health when we’re talking to our clients because it has such a stigma. Clients will not want to stigmatize themselves because it all gets translated into ‘crazy,’” Burgess said. “We try to use the word emotional health and if we

can, we even try to avoid that. We can say stress. We can say anxiety. But we’re not going to get into any diagnosis. If a person does arrive and they are what we call persistently mentally ill, we then refer them out to the mental health community in St. Louis. We then become the cultural broker but we let the mental health physician or counselor deal with that.”

For many refugees, these issues rise to the surface after months into resettlement process.

“Their first goal is to get a life in the US. So all they’re thinking about is ‘I gotta get a job. I gotta get my kids in school. If I can, I gotta learn English but the Institute is going to help me get a job where I can not need a lot of English,’ and then they start to get into a routine,” Burgess said.

When their kids are in school, the parents have a steady job, and there is a roof over their heads, the memories start flooding back.

“All of a sudden the trauma comes back. The [trauma] starts to come back because they start to feel comfortable, and they start to feel guilty because they feel comfortable. And that’s really when we have to intervene,” Burgess added.

Intervention means first destigmatization of the refugees’ troubles, and then referral to outside mental health organizations such as BIAS. Specifically for Syrian refugees, Burgess believes that emotional trauma is a more prevalent issue, although they remain strong throughout it all. “(Syrians) are very resilient just as most refugees are,” she said. “It’s very interesting because the Syrians are coming from an active war zone so they really have trauma, and most likely trauma that’s not getting addressed.”

And to those who think the refugees’ situation and trauma places too much of a financial burden on the city of St. Louis, Burgess has a message.

“Refugees are an asset to not just our country but specifically the City of St. Louis. Our population in the city has been declining and refugees bring that number up a bit. They develop businesses.

They’re very entrepreneurial,” she said. “It’s a shame that we’re not resettling as many refugees as we can as a country.”

Photo by Michael Melinger

PROFILE: D e b ra We i n s

By Madeline Ackerburg, Theo Fehr, Bridget Walsh From the moment we walked into her classroom, CHS History teacher Debra Wiens was beaming. When we asked for an interview about the Syrian family she had taken under her wing, she had been exceptionally excited. This was a story Mrs. Wiens had been aching to tell: a story impacting Syrian refugee families and Mrs. Wiens herself.

The story began last spring, when Mrs. Wiens taught her Current Issues class about the ongoing Syrian War. “I thought that we really needed to get involved with the Syrian community here,” Wiens said. “I was hearing some pretty disturbing things coming from a particular Syrian community in St. Louis, and I talked to my class about becoming involved. Pretty soon, I had a total of 38 students signed up to visit this community.

We took a bus and several SUV’s loaded with stuff: clothing, food, sports equipment, everything.”

Wiens, with the help of Cyril Loum, opened up 14 homes in the Hodiamont community for students to eat with and talk to Syrian families with the help of translators.

“We all started talking about our family that we ate with as ‘my family,’” Wiens said. “Everyone wanted to go back.”

A little later, a Pulitzer Journalist gave a presentation in Wiens’ Current Issues class about a Toronto family that took a Syrian family under their wing.

“So I thought, ‘why don’t I take my family that had taken me and my students into their home and help them?’” Wiens said. arereached strict guidelines permit gain refugee Mrs.here Wiens out to thethat family, andone the to rest is history. status.

Currently, Wiens is helping the Halcrad family, whose two girls “A refugee someone who has fled their country or has are attending ClaytonisHigh School, and the youngest boy enrolled been displaced from their home and through the UN has been deat Wydown Middle. termined havetoaknow well-founded fearMr. of persecution on account of “WhentoI got the family, and Mrs. Halcrad were one of five grounds and to those race, religion, nationalvery opening, so I tried talkgrounds to them are about what their jobs were ity, political opinion or membership a particular group,” before they came to America,” Wiensinsaid.

“Lo and social behold, ClaySt. Louis lawyer Nicole said. meant their kids ton had a immigration job opening, and they hiredCortes him, which But, for here. refugees aiming to reach theyou United the eduprocould come I knew this was a place couldStates, get a good cess isn’t always so girls blackare and Cortes cation, and now the inwhite. love with it.” explained that countries like the have these the ability to set quotas on the numbers of Wiens has US fostered relationships with the Syrian families refugees they will permit. not only for herself, but for the community as a whole.

“That community being said,isthe U.S fixes a as certain quota orlink,” cap Wiens on the “Your only as strong your weakest number of refugees going to take any given fiscal year and said.

“If we could allwe’re just strengthen ourincommunity, we would all that’s an annual said. someone, “The President has be stronger.

You determination,” are not impairedCortes by helping you only a lot oflife authority over that decision.” make better for yourself by just the little bit that you do.”

Once a refugee gains admission to the United States, they are afforded a variety of services. Locally, the International Institute

T

Photo by Michael Melinger

* according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

iii I

SCHOOLS

n addition to the impeccable trauma that the Syrian community carries, families also have to make the transition to a completely new schooling system.

In the 2016-2017 school year alone, the Saint Louis Public Schools (SLPS) welcomed over 700 new ESOL students, over 130 of which were Syrians.

As previously explained, the International Institute places refugee families in apartments, which are often located in the City of Saint Louis, and thus these children are enrolled in SLPS. Fortunately, SLPS’ ESOL department is quite expansive as their students come from 55 different countries and speak 46 different languages. This large population of immigrant students resulted in a variety of English as a second language programs and a multitude of facilities to help the immigrants families transition to the American school system.

Alla Gonzalez Del Castillo, Ph.D., is Director of the ESOL Bilingual Migrant Program in the SLPS. Once refugee families get settled, the Institute helps them get in contact with Gonzalez, where they work with bilingual staff to complete the necessary paperwork. Language assessment is obligatory by federal law, and is followed by familial interviews and a transfer of transcripts in attempt to better understand where the student is intellectually. The District recognizes the difficulty that intelligent students often have when they are forced to return to repeat basic subjects in English.

“We ask questions as to whether they’ve been to school, how long have they been to school, what languages did they study in? If it’s high school: do you have transcripts? Like all of that, that’s the second piece of the puzzle. Then we’re also looking at how long they’ve been in the country,” Gonzales said.

After this round of assessment, students are placed into the appropriate ESOL program. If students have lived less than two years in the United States, have little educational background, and low language proficiency, they are considered to be a newcomer and placed in the newcomer program.

For kindergarten through 8th grade, there is a whole separate

newcomer school. For 9th and 10th graders, there is a newcomer program inside the regular school. These two programs both teach several subjects with a focus on English learning as well.

Although instruction is SLPS’ main focus, other facets of the transition to the United States are addressed as well.

“We do a lot of social work as well,” Gonzales added. “We have social workers on staff just for that social emotional growth and adjustment issues. The counselors, as well, are doing a lot of work with high school students.”

Along with being uprooted from their homes, immigrant children inherit the pressure any child would have moving to a new school and making friends. For refugees, this stress is exacerbated by the traumatic memories of their homeland and the tumultuous journey to the U.S. “We don’t diagnose students, but all of the students, essentially, come with a lot of stress,” Gonzales said. “Students who flee from their country of birth because of war or some political situation have a more intense situation of stress.”

With so many students suffering from mental health issues, Gonzales said, “It is very difficult to address because not only are they learning to trust staff members here, they’re also learning to speak English.”

Gonzales added, “we partner with different organizations, realizing our limitations when it comes to mental health, that specialize in that. We have a couple of projects and grants that help us support that area.”

Similar to the International Institute, the St. Louis Public Schools work with BIAS to address the many mental health cases.

With immigrants coming from all around the world, few come bearing knowledge of American culture. In many countries, the role of women in society is drastically different from those in the States. Thus, the cultural education becomes just as important as learning the English language for these refugees.

This is not just a Saint Louis City issue, as it pervades the confines of the Clayton bubble. Three new students have joined Clayton High School. One Clayton family has shared their story.

28,300 people

are forced to flee their homes each day worldwide Photo by Michael Melinger

iv

FA M I LY

R

ima, Sameer*, and their teenage son Ali, have been living in St. Louis for a little more than a year. Before that, they spent three years in Egypt and the rest of their lives were spent in their homeland: Syria.

For a while, the family lived a privileged life, filled with joyful family and friends. “We lived in an apartment, but it was ours. Everyone in the apartment was our family, so we lived with our aunt and uncle. I would open the door, and see my aunt.”

But since the time Ali was in 4th grade, the violence in Damascus, the city that they lived in, had been escalating. As bombings became a constant, apartments were left in ruins, and kidnappings riddled the streets, the family’s daily routines were drastically altered.

“When the bombs started to come [at school], all the children got scared and started to yell, and the teacher just told us to go back to our homes,” Ali said.

For Rima, who was a stay-at-home mother, this meant running to go retrieve Ali from school and bring her to so-called safety in the apartment.

“You have to go and take your child and return back, whenever it is dangerous,” she said. “You can’t be feeling anything. You have to run from wherever you are and return back.”

Even Sameer, who was a physician in Syria, had to stop practicing at his clinic due to the exorbitant level of violence spreading through Damascus. There was no way for him to get to the clinic during the bombing, and you never know from which side in the fight the bombs are coming.

Their home was in a relatively safe part of town, but then the shells started falling close to them and they knew they had to get out for the sake of their lives.

Leaving the place of a lifetime of memories was hard, but seeing it turn to ashes was even harder.

“We have our picture from our country of our home in Syria: how it was destroyed after the war. The apartment is [completely] burnt inside. That was where my mother-in-law lived and most of the houses are like that, due to bombs.”

In 2011, the family’s fears augmented as the blitz became insufferable.

“We were scared most of all for the men. We, the women, stay at home most of the time. The men, if we need something, they go to the shop, take it and return back. Before we left, it was so hard for anyone to walk in the street. The men would start to disappear. There are a lot of bad groups who want to take anyone and ask money for them. So we worried about [Sameer], and about Ali because he had to go to school, and it was very dangerous,” Rima said.

Nevertheless, fears could not stop the community from living.

Life had to go on amidst the rubble.

“We [told ourselves], “We have to live, we have to work, we have to shop [for food]. We have to live,” Rima said. “Sometimes we would stop because we [would] see the people, all of the men,

PROFILE: C y r i l Lo u m

By Charlie Brennan One of the first outsiders to reach out to the Syrian refugees, Cyril Loum, through his organization Caring Ministries Inc. has done much for the Syrian community.

“Caring Ministries was created in order to help refugees. We understood that the Bosnians came to St. Louis in the early 90’s and they received so much aid. Then the next group to come were the Africans and now the Syrians and they do not receive the same aid.” Loum said.

First notified about the Syrian refugees through the Charlie Brennan show in November 2016, Loum reached out to several Syrian families.

“Our first goal was to connect with the International Institute, who is one of our partners, and to determine what we could do to help them,” Loum said. “After we talked to them, we held a work day in order to clean up the area around the apartments. We also went into their homes to clean up their houses and build relationships with them. This relationship continued through Thanksgiving and we ended up providing all the families with American style Thanksgiving dinners.”

Over several months, Loum and Caring Ministries strengthened their friendships with the refugee population.

“Every week we would create new programs that would help them. This included partnering with schools such as Clayton High School, Ursuline Girls Academy and several churches around the area. Together we brought in clothes, shoes, and new items to the community. I especially enjoyed when we worked with Clayton High School because the students were able to eat a meal with the families, talk with them, and understand what they had gone through,” Loum said.

In August, Loum attended a Global Leadership conference and formed a vision for the neighborhood with residents. “The neighborhood they live in is a food desert. They are used to eating healthy fresh produce. Our goal is to get a couple pieces of land and to start urban farming,” Loum said.

Not only would this allow them to eat healthier for less money, but they would also be able to sell their goods at a local farmer’s market.

Loum is encouraged by the support of St. Louis in helping the Syrians. “I want people to realize the refugees are just people like us,” Loum said.

Wha t does it mean to be a refugee?

T

here are strict guidelines that permit one to gain refugee status.

“A refugee is someone who has fled their country or has been displaced from their home and through the UN has been determined to have a well-founded fear of persecution on account of one of five grounds and those grounds are race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group,” St. Louis immigration lawyer Nicole Cortes said.

But, for refugees aiming to reach the United States, the process isn’t always so black and white. Cortes explained that countries like the US have the ability to set quotas on the numbers of refugees they will permit.

“That being said, the U.S fixes a certain quota or cap on the number of refugees we’re going to take in any given fiscal year and that’s an annual determination,” Cortes said. “The President has a lot of authority over that decision.”

Once a refugee gains admission to the United States, they are afforded a variety of services. Locally, the International Institute of St. Louis is tasked with the responsibility of providing refugees with support.

“They are afforded certain assistance as they settle. Places like the International Institute exist. They’re able to provide folks with some cash assistance as they get settled, it’s pretty limited, housing assistance, job placement services,” Cortes

PROFILE: CHARLIE BRENNAN Photo from Brennan

C

harlie Brennan’s outlook on the refugee crisis was significantly transformed in October of 2016.

“I was watching 60 Minutes, and I saw a segment chronicling the experiences of Syrian refugees in North Carolina -- and it was pretty good,” Brennan said. “So I wondered, how are they faring here in St. Louis? So, I went to Hodiamont and I met some of these refugees to see how they’re doing. And they told me that they weren’t having a good experience.”

After beginning his interactions with some of the Syrian refugees, the KMOX talk show host and a CHS parent, began to sympathize in regards to their situation. “I think we can all empathize with their plight. They don’t know the language, they’re starting at the bottom rung of the economic ladder, and they’ve seen some horrific atrocities. If I was in that position, I’d want someone to help me,” Brennan said.

While Brennan is not affiliated with specific organizations that are fighting for better conditions for refugees, he still has a deep conviction to help them out in any way possible. “I tried a little bit to help some people with their rent. Just small little gestures. And really, just trying to make them feel a little more welcome in this country,” Brennan said.

Furthermore, he has helped his children initiate different acts of kindness.

“Last year around the holidays, [my son] Charlie and my

said.

After one year of their residence within the United States, refugees can apply for green card status; after five years, they can apply for United States citizenship. That said, not all refugees have the same desires.

“This is anecdotal or qualitative at best, but I think often refugee populations didn’t necessarily want to leave their homes. Although I’m certain that they’re happy to be here and to be safe, it’s not necessarily what their dream was,” Cortes said. “So I think that there may be some decisions of choosing not to apply for citizenship at this point because maybe I just hope I can go home and not necessarily stay here forever.”

daughter Lynly held a winter coat drives at [their schools]. They collected, between the two of them, over 500 winter coats for the refugees who came [to St. Louis] with nothing,” Brennan said. “[Also, my son] set up a GoFundMe. Since, when the refugees come here, they have to reimburse the US government for their plane fare. And it comes out to about $1500 an individual. And if you have a few kids, that’s like $9000. So if you’re making $9-$15 an hour with above minimum wage jobs, it takes a while to pay that off.”

Brennan’s commitment to helping these people stems from his belief that refugees and immigrants would augment and stimulate the Clayton and St. Louis community. “They bring vitality and new ways of looking at things,” Brennan said. “Historically, immigrants have been great to this town: the founder of the Botanical Garden, the founder of Anheuser Busch, the former CEO of Express Scripts, the CEO of Monsanto, [...] the founder of the Post Dispatch and the founder of HOK. They’re all immigrants.”

In spite of his own quest to try and alleviate some of the issues that the refugees face, Brennan has some advice on ways that Clayton residents could help out as well.

“People in Clayton can always help the refugees with monetary donations to defray the costs of transportation as well as rental assistance. And, Clayton residents might be helpful in providing those informal interactions that help newcomers to this country learn more about the United States. The immigrant doesn’t know what a country club is, what Kumon is, what the St. Louis Cardinals is. With these interactions, [Clayton residents] can help them become more familiar with this country and the language.

And if the spirit moves them, Clayton residents could help provide for their rent,” Brennan said.

Now, Brennan understands that for some, helping with monetary donations isn’t plausible for families who are already dealing with full plates. However, he thinks that simple interactions and forming relationships can be just as, or even more, valuable.

In spite of all this, Brennan remains optimistic about the future of the refugee crisis and the refugee’s time here in St. Louis.

“I’m really confident that the Syrian refugees will have a good experience in the United states and that they’ll become productive members of our country. Someday we’ll be really grateful that they came here,” Brennan said.

- by Daniel Cho

women, and children, all of them [would be] out in the street, and all the stuff coming [down] over their heads. It isn’t that they didn’t care, but that they were used to it, because they had to [be].

Despite the desire to continue living, the risks became too high. The hellfire which became their city was getting hotter and hotter, more excruciating every day. Finally, they packed up their things and began the journey that would change their lives.

Rima and Sameer chose to go to Egypt through Lebanon because no visa is needed to cross the border. Still, the transition was far from easy. Leaving Syria, the center of their lives and their family’s home, for one, was an emotional action to take.

“You leave everything, your whole life there. My brother and sister separated during the war. My mother is still there [in Syria] with my brother. Most of my family is still there,” Rima said.

Furthermore, the transition to the Egyptian culture and society was also a tough one.

“It is close to our culture, but the first six months we found the country terrible,” Rima said. “Ali especially. In the beginning, they didn’t like the Syrians, especially the women; they would say ‘go away, you steal our husbands.’”

As a Syrian in Egypt, the family was forced to apply for refugee status with the United Nations. Luckily, this came through.

“After one year, they put our name in the UN system and we received the call [asking] if we want to travel to the USA, and we said yes; who would have said no?” Rima said.

This call was the one that would soon transport them to their new life right here by the Arch.

Rima, Ali, and Sameer did not choose St. Louis as their new home. Rather, they were placed here by the International Institute. Upon arrival, the Institute gave the family an apartment in the inner city. However, as Burgess mentioned earlier, the apartment was extremely basic and Rima was not happy. After earning enough money to pay their own rent, the family moved to a better neighborhood.

Of course, life is far from seamless even now. The family went from living an upper-class life in Syria to having to completely start from the bottom.

As a physician, Sameer is not certified to practice here, and has to redo all his training, this time in a foreign language.

“I was a physician in my country, in Syria, but here I cannot practice. I have to go to a school and pass two exams, and after that go to dentistry school. I think I need 4 years,” he said. “It is difficult for me because I studied in Arabic, so the information is different than how I learned it. I am studying English now in community college and will be a medical assistant soon.”

Adding to their burden, the family still has fears of the Syrian political situation, even here in the United States where one would think they would feel safe. It was only very gingerly that the family decided to tell their story in the first place.

“Some people are scared to talk to the media. We are all scared of our system and the media, so some people refuse to talk to the media. We are just afraid of [the Syrian government] because they are following you, so they know everything about you, whatever they want,” Rima said. “They search on Facebook and everything, so they know, they know everything, so we prefer not to talk about it. You can’t say anything bad about the government, or you go to prison, or maybe disappear. Nobody will know where you are.”

Still, despite these constant worries, the family is happy to be in the United States and is hopeful that the situation in their home city is pointing in the direction of peace.

“The violence is going down in our city, but not in other places,” Rima said. “It is better from the war, it is starting to begin again, they are starting from zero.”

Photo by Michael Melinger

PROFILE: C a ro l y n M o r r i s

By Catherine Walsh and Sammy Fehr Communication is of vital importance in modern America. Being able to communicate with others not only ensures one’s survival, but also opens up a world of opportunities. People like CHS parent Carolyn Morris work towards providing Syrian refugees these same opportunities and helping them to communicate by teaching refugees the English language.

With no prior teaching experience, Morris became involved with tutoring at the Immigrant and Refugee Women’s Program (IRWP), a local organization founded in 1995 that she had heard about from a friend. The organization offered group tutoring in a classroom setting, and one-on-one tutoring in the woman’s home.

“If you wanted to commit to one-on-one teaching, which could be a little more gratifying, you would take a course. And so I did both; I teach groups and I tutor a woman twice a week for about an hour each time,” Morris said.

Morris began tutoring through Good Neighbor STL, a website that listed out all of the committees and ways to get involved in the Syrian refugee situation, including teaching English. Morris agreed to tutor a Syrian mother of five, who recently moved from Hodiamont to Hazelwood, twice a week. Instantly, Morris fell in love with tutoring, and with the family of the mother she tutors.

“Even if they have just a little, they still are so increasingly appreciative of everything you do. Every time I teach her something she always wants to teach me some Arabic,” Morris said.

However, with Morris’s and her tutee’s busy lives, having a consistent tutoring schedule is difficult.

“A lot of times she cancels a class,” Morris said, “and it’s really important to try to keep consistency, especially since she’s just trying to get those two times a week in.

Many others face this challenge. The IRWP is far away, making it difficult for refugees to show up for group classes. With their family and homes to take care of, going to the Institute is not a realistic possibility for many of these people, especially for women.

Through tutoring the refugees gain access to the English language without sacrificing other priorities, such as watching their kids.

“I want them to be self-sufficient so they can do little challenges like going to the pharmacy and getting their pharmaceuticals. I don’t want things to be so hard, it just makes life a lot easier if you know the language of the country you’re in. It also allows them to become friends with people different from yourself,” Morris said.

From her experiences, Morris has gained insight into how Syrian refugees live, and how she can help. By tutoring refugees, both sides have benefited.

“It’s one of those volunteer things that [you] don’t even have to think twice about it. I give way more time to it than I have sometimes because it’s just more important than emptying the dishwasher,” Morris said.

AT H L E T E PROFILE: K AT E COOPER

W

ith the game against Marquette Catholic High School still tied after ten minutes of overtime play, the CHS field hockey team prepared for shoot-outs.

Five players from each team arranged themselves at the 25-yard line, and CHS’ substitute goalkeeper stood anxiously in the net.

With the varsity team’s starting goalkeeper sick, the whole team was on edge, but the substitute stopped two of the opposing team’s most talented players.

When it was the last player’s turn to shoot, the score was 3-2, and Clayton needed senior Kate Cooper to score in order to bring Clayton back to a tie.

Cooper had 10 seconds to bring the ball into the circle and score. When the whistle blew, she immediately approached Marquette’s goalkeeper. There was no time for any special maneuver or carefully-executed plan. She had to shoot.

“I went to pull the ball in, and it got stuck in the grass and I just didn’t hit it hard enough,” Cooper said.

The ball went just wide of the net. The game was over.

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Having only joined the field hockey team her junior year, senior Kate Cooper has had a large impact on the team’s chemistry and performance.

“I was so disappointed in myself,” Cooper said. “If I would have just made it, we would have had another round of shoot outs and another opportunity to win. I always want to be successful at what I do, and I always want to try as hard as I can, and I just didn’t feel like I tried as hard as I could have or fulfilled my team’s expectations.”

The team, however, felt very differently.

“In games and at practice, Kate is always trying her hardest.

Even when she’s tired, she is always trying her hardest,” freshman teammate Cece Cohen said. “I most admire how Kate leaves everything on the field.”

And Cooper’s coach, Alexis Lindblad, agreed.

“Kate’s biggest strength is her tenacity on the field. She never gives up and is always working hard to win,” Linbald said.

Although Cooper was certainly upset about the results of the shoot-out, she was able to quickly spin the negative experience into a learning experience.

“Really the only thing you can do without driving yourself crazy is resolve to do better next time. I told myself that next time I would make it. It wouldn’t be an option,” Cooper said.

It is this resolve that has allowed Cooper to be so successful throughout her two years on the field hockey team. While most of Clayton’s players first explored field hockey in elementary or middle school, Cooper did not begin playing until her junior year, and she had a lot to learn before she was ready to get on the field.

Fortunately, Cooper was able to translate some of the skills that she had developed from 11 years of soccer into the new challenge presented by field hockey.

“Starting field hockey was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be because it is the exact same formation as soccer, so I was able to play the same position, and a lot of the aspects of field hockey and soccer are the same: passing, giving and going, sending to the corner and putting the ball in the circle,” Cooper said. “The only thing that is different is that field hockey isn’t so confined. When you have possession of a soccer ball, you have to keep it right at your feet, but with a field hockey ball, you can keep it wider or on any side, so it’s a lot easier, in my opinion, to maintain possession and to move.”

In fact, the only differences between the two sports with which Cooper truly struggled pertained to the nuances of field hockey.

“Stick skills are the most challenging for me. The other girls have a lot of experience doing little moves with their sticks like pulls or holding the ball on the stick or lifting the ball over another player’s stick, which are things that I’m just not as comfortable

with,” Cooper said. “I can do it when I’m standing still and concenThat contagious competitive drive helps push the rest of the team trating on it, but incorporating stick skills into my normal game to work hard too.” play is definitely a challenge for me.”

Although beneficial for the team, that contagious competitive But Cooper quickly figured out how to make up for the technidrive occasionally hurts Cooper in games. cal skills she initially lacked.

“I do get a fair amount of fouls called on me,” Cooper said. “I “A lot of the time, you don’t need big pulls or lifts to get around try to block players by turning my body toward the ball to make someone. If I look up and see where their stick is, I will hit the ball sure that they can’t get it. Oftentimes, they’ll get frustrated if you directly to their right or in between their legs. Anyone can look up block it, and they’ll end up hitting you from behind, which means and think, ‘Where should I put it?’ and then a little tap and a sprint that your team gets possession. But other times, I get the foul.” around an opposing player is enough,” Cooper said.

Fortunately, Cooper understands the issue and can even trace As Cooper incorporatit back to the roots: soccer. ed this strategy into her “You can’t be aggressive daily play, her coach and in field hockey as you can teammates began to see be in soccer. It’s not really connections between her a contact sport at all. I just “Really the only thing you can do without drivplaying style on the field have to always remind myand her personality off the self what sport I’m playing. ing yourself crazy is resolve to do better next field.

It’s a whole new type of playtime. I told myself that next time I would make “Kate’s playing style ing. It’s less aggressive and is very scrappy. [It] defimore skillful. You can’t win it. It wouldn’t be an option.” nitely shows in her playing the ball by being physically style. She is so competiaggressive. You just have to tive, which is a great qualhave the skill and the ability ity to have in field hockey. to keep your composure,” No matter if she is on the Cooper said. sideline or on the field, Kate is constantly pushing her teammates And after two years of playing, that is just what Cooper had to do better,” Lindblad said. learned to do.

What is evident from the sidelines is even more powerful on “I really try as hard as I can to not give up when I lose the ball the field. or when I feel like I’m not playing well. If younger team members “Kate never gives up. If someone takes the ball away from her, and the JV team members see seniors or varsity players giving up she will not give up on getting the ball back,” Cohen said. “Kate the ball and then not giving everything to get it back, then they has made me want to participate in more activities. She is a friend will feel inclined to do the same, which is bad for team effort as a both on and off the field.” whole,” Cooper said.

One way that Cooper reaches out as a friend on the field is As the season progresses, Cooper hopes to continue improving through communication. her stick skills and to embrace the precision of the sport before “Kate is a vocal leader,” Lindblad said. She is constantly enshe returns to playing soccer in the spring. couraging and communicating with her teammates on and off the “The field hockey stick is really just an extension of you,” she field. She is not afraid to jump into any situation and take charge. said.

Photo by Barrett Bentzinger

maddy bale @maddybale SENIOR MANAGING EDITOR

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Photo (TOP) by Mia Redington Photo (BOTTOM) by Madison Rudd

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BOYS’ SWIMMING: WINS vs. PATTONVILLE, WESTMINSTER, ZUMWALT EAST GIRLS’ TENNIS: WINS vs. BERKELEY, UNIVERSITY CITY, PARKWAY NORTH GIRLS’ VOLLEYBALL: WIN vs. MCCLUER SOUTH-BERKELEY FIELD HOCKEY: WIN vs. BARAT ACADEMY BOYS’ SOCCER: WINS vs. WHITFIELD, MAPLEWOOD, ST. MARY’S, RITENOUR, MICDS SOFTBALL: WINS vs. RIVERVIEW GARDENS, BRENTWOOD FOOTBALL: WIN VS. JENNINGS GIRLS’ GOLF: MISHEEL SODERGEL SCORES a 37 on 8/29

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B (ARNES)

daniel cohen page editor

Lindwood Barnes enters his first year as the head coach for the Clayton High School varsity football team.

“When I was [playing] at Miami of Ohio, there was this speaker who played in the NFL, and he just gave me a fact. He used to always tell me, and it stuck in my head, that ‘only two percent of all college football players make it to the NFL, so you better have a backup plan,’” Linwood Barnes, the first-year head coach of the CHS varsity football team, said.

Barnes was introduced to the sport of football at a young age.

In 1977, when Barnes was only two years old, the Oakland Raiders drafted his uncle in the 5th round of the NFL draft.

Already living in California, Barnes moved to Oakland after his uncle entered the league.

Growing up, Barnes was around football and the Raider’s organization. Additionally, Barnes had four other uncles who were all very passionate about the game. Their passion helped teach Barnes at a very young age to love the game.

For his senior year of high school, his coaches asked him to play quarterback for the 1992 season.

Because Barnes had grown up primarily playing only wide receiver, he was hesitant to play quarterback during his last season of high school football. However, he decided to please his coaches and go for it.

As quarterback, Barnes led his team to the California State Championship where they became state champions in1992.

Winning the state championship allowed Barnes to cap off a great high school football career with a fairytale ending.

While in high school, several colleges recruited Barnes for football. Miami University, Western Michigan and Bowling Green were just some of the schools interested in Barnes.

However, Barnes decided to play at Grossmont Junior College in California.

During one of Barnes’ games in California at Grossmont, Sean Payton, then offensive coordinator at Miami University and now current head coach of the New Orlean Saints, came to scout Barnes.

“I remember it like yesterday, I was catching punts and I didn’t know who it was. I had a pretty good game and as soon as after the game [had ended], he came to me. He said that he liked me and he offered me a scholarship right there,” Barnes said.

Thrilled about this opportunity, Barnes decided to transfer to Miami University to play football. After two years at Miami, Barnes transferred again, this time to Southern Illinois University Carbondale which is where he ended his college football career.

After playing college, Barnes tried out for the River City Renegades, a team in an arena football league in the St. Louis area, and ended up making the team.

In 2002, after one year, he stopped playing for the Renegades because the situation was not working financially.

“I wasn’t making any money. We were just doing it for the love of football,” Barnes said. “Trying to live the dream and still hold on to the dream when once you get to that point, you realize that it is over with and time to start making money.”

The speaker at Miami University had always told Barnes that everyone better have a backup plan. Barnes’ backup plan was coaching and teaching “I love teaching. The biggest part about football is you need to learn how to be an educator. Teaching helps me motivate the kids. My first love was always teaching,” Barnes said. “My favorite teacher was a history teacher, and I always told myself that I wanted to be a teacher.

After retiring from the Renegades, Barnes began teaching and coaching in 2002. Currently, he teaches Government and AP Government along with other history classes at Hazelwood East High School.

At Hazelwood East, Barnes is also part of a mentoring program that assists student-athletes who are struggling with their grades or in various other ways. Additionally, he serves as girls’ track and field coach.

However, as he wants to dedicate more of his time to Clayton football, he plans for this year to be his last as a track coach.

Prior to becoming the head coach at CHS, Barnes has had the titles of coordinator and assistant coach at McCluer and Hazelwood East High School.

In 2008, as assistant coach, Barnes and the Hazelwood East varsity football team won the state championship.

As head coach, Barnes has various goals for the team.

“I want to teach my players what it means to be good football players and good Samaritans. I want my players to become better people in general. Discipline, being on time, and making sure they get their school work done. Understanding what it means to be a student then athlete. Because they’re student athletes and student comes first,” Barnes said.

With regards to Barnes’ goals, he wants his players to learn valuable life lessons through football, which assists in the players becoming better people on and off the field.

“He always talks about never giving up and to always get the fight. He always tries to connect football to life,” junior Nate Slaughter, a player on the varsity football team, said.

As Barnes looks into the future, he plans to remain the head coach at Clayton for many years. He hopes that in one of the years to come, he will be able to lead Clayton to a state championship.

“Part of me feels like this head coaching job at Clayton was meant to be. One of my old roommates, who passed away, actually went to Clayton,” Barnes said. “It almost feels like I have been put in the right place trying as I try to change the [football] program.”

DONUTS OF

STL

WE CAME. WE SAW. WE ATE. STORY BY RICHARD CHENG, JUSTIN GUILAK, SEAN KIM, AND JACOB LAGESSE

ALL PHOTOS BY MICHAEL MELINGER

DONUT DRIVE-IN 6525 Chippewa Street, StL

VINCENT VAN DOUGHNUT 40 N Central Ave, ClaYTON� Named after one of the greatest impressionists of all time, we expected Vincent Van Doughnut to have an artistic feel. Walking into the store, we were immediately greeted by a nice, cozy, hipster atmosphere. The donuts were magnificently presented behind glass panels, and the simple wood floors complemented the off-white walls.

Another unique aspect of the store became apparent quickly: the price. It usually isn’t hard to find a good donut for one dollar or less.

However, at Vincent Van Doughnut, all of the donuts are above $2.50, some even entering the $3-to-$4 dollar range.

The donuts themselves certainly lived up to Van Gogh’s name. Vincent Van Doughnut is known for its special square donuts, each meticulously handcrafted to look like it could belong in one of Van Gogh’s paintings. The shop possesses a wide variety of donuts with somewhat unusual flavors, from “Maple Bacon” to “Cheesecake Cookie Crumble.”

Each donut has a unique aesthetic feel, whether it is drizzled with chocolate and sprinkled with graham cracker crumbs or covered in a generous layer of powdered sugar. The square shape also adds to the distinct atmosphere of the shop.

The donuts’ appearances set the bar high for our expectations of taste. While the donuts certainly were good, they fell a bit short of this standard. Each donut did have a soft, melt-in-your-mouth texture. They were a little bit thicker than we liked, but overall they were still pretty tasty. However, though Vincent Van Donut boasted a wide variety of flavors, these flavors often got lost and did not blend together well.

The maple bacon, for example, just tasted like maple syrup. As far as we could tell, the bacon’s only contribution was a slight crunch. The chocolate chips in the chocolate chip donut didn’t work very well with the texture and just made it overall more difficult to eat. The French toast had a more synthesized taste and really tasted nothing like actual French toast.

Due to its close proximity to the high school, Vincent Van Donut is a great option if you want a quick bite during your lunch period. However, each day they make a limited amount and often sell out in the early afternoon.

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Tucked between Ted Drewes and the Hill, Donut Drive-In has become a local dessert favorite among St. Louis locals. Thus, the shop was a must-stop on our tour for the best donuts in the city.

As we pulled into the parking lot, we struggled to find a parking spot given the popularity and the extremely constrained parking. When we finally got out of the car, the line actually ran outside the doors of the cramped shop. The cashier was quite friendly and gave great recommendations on donuts. We ordered a glazed and marble donut with a cinnamon twist, which were each around one dollar. Since there wasn’t a great spot to sit down and eat, we walked to a small stone table nearby to dig in.

We began our tasting with the classic glazed donut. After taking one bite, the first observation we made was in the unique texture of the donut; first, there was a light, crispy exterior followed by a soft, extremely satisfying chew. While other donuts have a monotonous, soft, doughy bite, the Donut Drive-In donut offered textural diversity in each mouthful that made the experience that much more interesting. In addition, the glaze was delightful and definitely not saccharine.

The cinnamon twist offered the same awesome slight crunch on the outside, but also added a punch of cinnamon that gave a warm, hearty flavor to the dessert. The group agreed that this was the best donut of the day.

While the marble donut looked delectable, we were disappointed by it. Although the other donuts were light and delicious, the icing on the marble donut was overwhelming, overly sweet and failed to offer the same experience as the other two flavors.

Nevertheless, we still highly recommend Donut Drive-In if you just crave donuts.

STRANGE DONUTS 2709 Sutton Blvd, Maplewood

WORLD'S FAIR DONUTS 1904 S Vandeventer Ave, St. Louis One of St. Louis’ most iconic bakeries, World’s Fair Donuts, has a strange atmosphere. The small, mostly undecorated white building seemed to stay in the time period of its namesake: 1904. Three elderly workers manage the entire store, slowly walking around behind the counter, rudely serving the donuts. The mechanical cash register with giant, typewriter keys only adds to the eerie civil-war-era ambiance.

Our second favorite location, World’s Fair’s glazed donuts had the doughy, slightly chewy bite desired in a donut. The outer glaze gave a good balance of sweetness with the dough, adding just enough flavor. This first bite took us all off guard, though; so much butter in one donut overwhelmed the experience with richness and almost ruined the donut. By the second bite, however, the sweetness returned and marked the greatness of World’s Fair Donuts.

The powdered donut we tried came with the same texture as the glazed but without the richness of the butter. Boasting just the right amount of smush and sweetness, it was overall a very pleasant experience.

While we were too sick of donuts to try the rest, World’s Fair covers all of the classic donut flavors. From Kruller to Long John to Apple Fritter, World’s Fair makes them all. Despite this, the store lacks unique flavors and variety beyond the classics, matching the 20th century America feel of the whole experience.

Not exceptionally cheap or expensive, the donuts priced in around one dollar. The store is located by Tower Grove Park, a little out of the way for a club meeting donut run.

Overall, the store sold some great donuts but allowed for an odd experience. Weirdest of all - World’s Fair Donuts does not make all of their own donuts. A van labeled with “Pharaoh’s Donuts,” a store in downtown St. Louis, backed up to World’s Fair and emptied trays into the back. When approached, the van’s driver dodged answering questions.

The next stop on the tour was Strange Donuts, located in Maplewood. The decor was simple and modern, adorned with only blue walls and a glass display full of donuts. The staff was very inviting, friendly and easy to converse with. Each donuts was fairly cheap at around one dollar, and the donuts themselves looked aesthetically beautiful.

After ordering the recommendation of the glazed and the gooey butter flavored donuts, we looked for a place to enjoy these sweets. Like the other locations except for Vincent Van Doughnut, the shop did not offer seating, so we decided to eat on a small staircase nearby.

We first bit into the glazed donut and became instantly disappointed. In contrast with the light, fluffy consistency of the other donuts, this donut was extremely dense and dry.

Unlike the fried, yeasty delectable treats we found at the other locations, we found these donuts to be little more than slightly sweetened loaves of bread. Not only was the consistency not up to the standard set by the other shops, the icing on the glazed donut was flavorless as not enough sugar was added. Had we wanted something so thick and bland, we could have gone to our backyards and dug up some clay.

The next donut we tried was the recommended gooey butter donut. Again, it was not light at all and boasted a sickly sweet, synthesized flavor accompanied with a dull and doughy texture.

The donut was even more egregiously bad than the glazed. It seemed that Strange Donuts was tasting more like deranged donuts.

Overall, while the staff was great and the decor was solid and streamlined, the donuts easily fell out of standing for the best donuts in St. Louis. Perhaps the donuts were just not to our taste, but we thoroughly disliked the desserts. If you enjoy very cakey donuts, Strange Donuts may be for you. If not, there are easily better options for delicious donuts that cost the same, are closer to Clayton and taste better.

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C AT E ZO N E CHINESE CAFE Review section editor Richard Cheng and his family test the authenticity of Cate Zone Chinese Cafe

Photo of lamb skewers by Mallory Palmer

S

itting on Olive Boulevard next to an acupuncture salon and a Chinese market, Cate Zone Chinese Cafe has emerged as one of the most popular authentic Chinese restaurants in St. Louis. The restaurant, led by owners Daniel Ma and Quincy Lin, was designed to deliver the delicious cuisine of the Dongbei region of China to St. Louis. And since, in true Chinese fashion, my family has a propensity for gluttony, we decided to visit Cate Zone to see if the food lived up to the hype.

Upon walking inside, I immediately noticed the casual feel of the restaurant. The customers, mainly young Chinese students, laughed and conversed loudly as they enjoyed meals with each other. There was quite a bit of energy packed into the cafe-sized space.

The decor is whimsical and modern. The black walls have the

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names of New York City subway stations written on them, and the black chairs and tables are a nice complement. Pictures of the Empire State Building and the Flatiron building adorn the left wall, while a poem in Chinese is displayed on an adjacent wall.

There is a considerable wait time to be seated if you do not order to-go. Given the size of the restaurant, the popularity and the fact that you cannot make reservations, expect no less than a 30 minute wait time during lunch or dinner times. My family and I waited close to an hour.

When finally seated and salivating, we started off our meal with lamb skewers seasoned with crushed red pepper and cumin, just like my grandma’s. After roughly 15 minutes of waiting, the waiter brought over the steaming plate of grilled lamb on sticks.

Luckily, they did not disappoint. Salty, meaty and extremely addictive, the plate was reduced to a pile of oily sticks within a minute. Next, we dove into a plate of cold noodles with sesame sauce. The dish, balanced with crisp vegetables and a savory, cool sauce, was a refreshing palate cleanser and added much-needed brightness to an otherwise heavy meal.

The Dongbei-style sweet-sour pork followed. Think Panda Express’s Orange Chicken but more savory, thinner and with a sour spin. Glazed in a sweet, golden sauce, these heavenly crisp pork slices was an excellent harmony of sweet, sour, and savory and added textural variety to the course with its crunch.

Alongside the pork was a favorite of our family: laziji, which translates to “spicy chicken.” It consists of small, lightly fried chunks of chicken tossed with a pile of red peppers, crushed red peppers and spices. I do precaution this dish is not for the light of heart in terms of spice. But if you can handle the heat, the moist chicken, intense savoriness and spice create a divine plate of food.

We ended the meal with glazed and fried sweet potatoes with sugar floss. On top of a pile of caramelized sweet potatoes was a tower of sugar strings. Even though it looked really cool, the sugar on the potatoes cools down really quickly, making it stick to your teeth easily and annoyingly hard to chew.

The staff was great and gave awesome recommendations for what we ordered. The service time was a tad lengthy, but it wasn’t really that noticeable. The price of each dish is a very reasonable $10-12 dollars because the servings are extremely generous.

So if you ever crave Chinese cuisine in St. Louis, put down the P.F. Chang’s take out menu and visit or call Cate Zone Chinese Cafe. It easily rivals other popular Chinese restaurants in the area such as LuLu’s and Mandarin House, and it is certainly a restaurant that I will revisit again.

richard cheng @rcheng01 REVIEW SECTION EDITOR

TO P 5 A L B U M S O F A U G U S T OH SEES’ American punk rock group Oh Sees’ newest album, Orc, is a masterful combination of punk, psychedelic rock and everything in between. Orc seamlessly blends the two genres while maintaining their signature sound throughout. The start of the album explodes with aggressive guitar solos and then slows down with smooth, jazzy instrumentals and finishes off with very funky and percussive heavy songs. The drums throughout this album are fast and intense, but are able to slow down and provide a soothing backdrop for the bass and guitar melodies during the second half of the album. This is a very high energy, fast and exciting album that does not hesitate to go between genres and provide sounds from a wide range of rock.

BICEP The Irish house group Bicep released their debut album, self titled Bicep, and it is a wondrous combination of multiple House sub genres. This album is very minimal and hard to fully appreciate on the first listen, but the light melodies and pin perfect production makes this project a dynamic display of house production. It envelopes you in its sound and mood which can be heard especially on Drift and Opal. Although the repetitiveness on tracks such as Orca and Kites can feel tiresome, the other tracks hold this album up to be one of the best Dance and House albums this year.

zachary fisher @zach_t._fisher REPORTER

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BROCKHAMPTON Texas rap group and boy-band Brockhampton achieves greatness again with Saturation 2. This album follows Saturation 1 with the same track count and similar progression throughout the album, opening with nocturnal bangers and slowly transitioning into lighter tracks while having darker cuts, such as Junky, throughout. The beats on the album are dense and vary from the light synthy melodies of Sunny to the dark Asian influence on songs such as Fight and Junky.

DROELOE Dutch future bass duo DROELOE released an emotional extended play (EP) titled A Moment In Time. DROELOE are somewhat well known in the electronic dance music community for their glitzy future bass tunes or their dark and slow trap singles, but for the first time we see a combination of these styles into a tight EP package. They show their mastery of chill trap on cuts such as Homebound and Lily Pads while still maintaining the glitzy pop on tracks like Sunburn. Unfortunately, where this EP somewhat falls short is in its opening and closing songs. The first and last track have two very differing styles that mesh well into the album but as standalone tracks they feel dependent on the three middle tracks to hold it together. Back When is too short to fully embellish in the melodies it sets up and Just Now feels somewhat tacked on with its only purpose to replay the establishing cords in the beginning of the album. Thankfully, the three middle tracks hold this album up to the quality

GRIZZLY BEAR New York indie band Grizzly Bear continues to show their mastery of alternative rock on the album Painted Ruins. The catchy guitar riffs and drums are a delight to listen to, the vocals on this album are chilling and the production and mixing is masterful. It is consistency is also somewhat of a downfall to this album as the singles sound very interchangeable and do not stand out. With the exception of Neighbors and Three Rings, the singles on this album seem to heavily rely on one another. However, Painted Ruins still stands as one of their best albums and is quality throughout.

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e g w o wi r t h us DALE AVENUE PEDIATRICS Kristin Stahl, M.D.

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COLLEGE CLIMBING

That stressful time of year is rapidly approaching us: submitting your final college applications. The short essay and supplements that you write in the common application are meant to summarize the past 18 years of your life. Taking those steps towards applying to college are life-changing decisions in terms of education, social life and economic circumstances.

Today, college tuition is on the rise, creating a significant issue in America. Many students struggle with paying full tuition and ultimately crash into student debt by the end of their undergraduate programs.

But, what about the cost of getting into college?

How much are you paying when you sign up for the ACT or SAT, pay for tutors and counselors, drive to college fairs around the city and travel miles to take a tour at a college you may end up not liking?

Thousands of dollars are spent, for better or for worse, on the search process.

The price of these expenses are skyrocketing.

However, there is still yet another crucial part of the journey into getting college that needs to be considered: paying for college applications.

Each college individually sets their own fees on their application. Based on US News, the average application fee is $42.

Even though there are some colleges –– online schools, liberal arts colleges and the United States Naval Academy –– that have students apply for free, others can be up to $90. In fact, many of the top nationally ranked schools, including Stanford University, Columbia University, and Harvard University have college applications that range from $75 to $90.

That is an absurd amount of money.

lauren praiss @l.praiss CHIEF DIGITAL EDITOR

Indeed, as stated by College Confidential, universities across America are making more than $200 million a year on rejected college applications. According to USA Today, University of California-Los Angeles makes the largest profit on rejected college applications in America, over $5 million.

As a senior embarking on college application journey, these towering numbers intimidate me. Not only am I apprehended by these high numbers, but I believe that many other seniors at CHS are now beginning to realize how much money is being vacuumed up by colleges setting unsurmountable application fees.

I can only hope that the opportunity to go to college and pursue an education towards a professional career will make these expenses worthwhile.

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OPINION

PRO : R E M I N D E R S O F R AC I S M Following the recent controversy over the removal of conferederate monuments around the country, reporter David Higuchi argues for why these monuments have got to go.

It is important for all Americans to learn the true unfiltered past of our country; however, there is a difference between learning our history, and celebrating our history. America has had a long and troubled history in dealing with race. Confederate monuments do not portray an accurate history and were put up to perpetuate a desire to continue the “lost cause” of the Confederacy.

Should Americans, especially African Americans, be forced to pay taxes for the maintenance of statutes on public grounds that are symbols of white privilege and a desire to return to the ways of the past? Should Kayla Wilson, an African American student who attended Robert E. Lee High School in San Antonio be forced to everyday remember our country’s dark history, going to a school which honors a man who fought a war against his own country to continue to enslave people such as her?

Imagine placing swastikas and statues of Hitler across Germany, forcing Jews to live under symbols that represent a hatred toward them. Instead, after the fall of Nazi Germany, concentration camps were preserved and anti-Semitic objects were put into museums, made into objects to be studied and taught, not celebrated. In doing so, they ensure that the unimaginable history of the Holocaust is never lost, but at the same time, never looked fondly back on. Just because something is part of history does not mean it deserves to be respected.

It is a common argument for supports of Confederate monuments, to try to declare monuments part of our history, saying that they remind us of where we came from. However, the idea that the statues, such as the one previously located in Forest Park, are part of our history is wrong.

In fact, almost none of these monuments were placed after the Civil War. These monuments were part of a revisionist campaign to paint the southern cause in the Civil War as justified and ongoing.

According to a report on Confederate monuments by the Southern Poverty Law Center, of the 700+ Confederate monuments in public spaces across the country, there were two distinct periods which saw significant spikes in the creation of monuments. The first began around 1900 as Southern states were enacting Jim Crow laws to disenfranchise African Americans and re-segregate society after several decades of inte-

PRO/CON

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gration that followed Reconstruction. It lasted well into the 1920s, a period that also saw a strong revival of the Ku Klux Klan.

The second period began in the mid-1950s and continued until the late 1960s, the period encompassing the modern civil rights movement. These statues came as a response to reconstruction and the Civil Rights Movement, explicit symbols of white supremacy. This is why Confederate monuments appeared across the entire country, even in parts thousands of miles away from the Confederacy--intending to spread a false narrative of southern pride.

Others argue that these monuments create a slippery slope which would lead to the eventual removal of all of America’s Founding Fathers who owned slaves. There is a difference, however, between Thomas Jefferson, whose practice of slavery comes as a sad but important reminder of the ways of the past, a small side note that comes along his long list of accomplishments, and Confederate generals whose statues today stand for nothing more than the lost cause of the Confederacy. What are Robert E. Lee’s accomplishments besides leading the Confederate army? His name represents the Confederacy and in turn, the oppression of African Americans.

Now Thomas Jefferson, the writer of the Declaration of Independence, our third President, has a lot to be remembered for besides being a slave owner.

It is also important to remember there is a difference between removing the statues and destroying them. Confederate monuments can find an appropriate home in museums and cemeteries. I understand the importance of remembering those who died fighting for both sides of the war. Nevertheless, memorials to the fallen of the civil war should not have to be wrapped up in the idolatry of the Confederacy. The reminder can still be there, but they should be displayed in an appropriate and educational manner.

America has had a dark past. One hundred and sixty years of slavery, followed by 100 years of state-sponsored discrimination. Our country should never forget this, but we should never celebrate it.

david higuchi @hi_guchi REPORTER

C O N : M O N U M E N T S O F H I S TO R Y Following the recent controversy over the removal of confederate monuments across the country, Senior Managing Editor Charlie Brennan supports the preservation of the statues.

“You can’t know where you are going until you know where you have been,” captions a black and white photograph of three bathrooms: one men’s, one women’s and one “colored” in Dr. Paul Hoelscher’s CHS classroom. This poster encapsulates what distinguishes humans from animals -- the ability to recognize our history in order to make informed choices in the future.

For 105 years, Forest Park showcased two monuments memorializing this region’s dichotomy during the Civil War. Recently, in St. Louis, this special piece of history, a confederate memorial, was vandalized and then removed.

America must stop removing confederate monuments because by doing so we blot out important perspectives of the past, undermine the freedom of speech and distract from the real issues plaguing society.

Indeed, the Civil War was a pivotal moment for the United States. Soldiers chose allegiances based on geographical location. Americans often look at the Civil War as a fight between good and evil, yet in the end, after the country was reunited, 680 thousand Americans were dead.

These confederate monuments stand to inform Americans about the bloodiest war in our country’s history, and more importantly to recognize St. Louis’ role in the Civil War: sending 30,000 troops to the Confederacy. In addition, the monument, like many others, was erected in 1912 during the Jim Crow Era in the South. At this time the North allowed the suppression of blacks in the South to further political agendas.

Many seek to erase the Confederacy and the Jim Crow South from America’s story, but informed citizens of the twenty-first century must learn both sides of our history, pos-

itive and negative. Social activists and historians alike must learn the undoctored version of history.

Many modern issues can be traced to the Confederacy. To address these issues we are best served by understanding, not ignoring our past, no matter how disturbing it may be.

These monuments represent the social progress our country has made. We can not erase history. What is next? The demolition of Monticello or the dismantling of the Gateway Arch a.k.a. The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial because Thomas Jefferson owned slaves? Should we change the name of our city because Louis IX forced the Jewish people out of France in the thirteenth century?

We can not change the past. Nor should we cherry pick stories to create an inoffensive narrative. By destroying elements of our nation’s history, we are depriving the future generations of the opportunity to learn from society’s mistakes.

Moreover, confederate monuments represent another tenet of the United States -- the freedom of speech. As citizens, it is most important that we protect the right to an unpopular opinion.

The idea that black people should not vote, that women should not go to college and that marriage should only be between a man and a woman were once prevailing opinions.

Without the freedom of speech, these ideologies might have persisted.

The removal of Confederate monuments and symbols will not cure our social ills. The Confederate statues are not the cause of the racial education gap, wage disparities, unemployment, crime, drug use or other problems the black community faces. On the contrary, these campaigns to remove American history just distract from the core issues plaguing our society.

In conclusion, the removal of Confederate monuments erode America’s freedom of speech, do not make tangible improvements to the American condition and hinders our understanding of the past which clouds our visions of the future. We will not know where we are going because we will not know where we have been.

charlie brennan @charles_brennan SENIOR MANAGING EDITOR

(Jae S. Lee/Dallas Morning News/TNS)

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PRO/CON

S TA F F E D : H o w t o G e t I n v o l v e d Many Clayton students are wondering how they could get involved helping Syrian refugees in our community.

Secondly, get to work. Contact the International Institute for volunteer opportunities such as co-teaching English classes, babysitting refugee children, serving as a career mentor, or even just writing kind notes to hang up around the Institute.

For those who are seniors or have graduated high school, you can develop a lifelong bond with a refugee family by going on home visits to teach English via the Immigrant and Refugee Women’s program. No worries- men can also volunteer.

Winter is approaching; start a coat, warm socks, holiday gift, or snowboots drive at school, church, or your workplace. Many families struggle to afford the bare necessities. The Globe has committed to hosting fundraisers and clothing drives during the school year to help the Syrians and other refugees as to provide the community a means to contribute.

Refugee children look at books donated by In terms of housing, refugees are often resettled in dangerous Clayton students. Photo from Cyril Loum. neighborhoods because the International Institute can only subsidize the rent for the first 90 days after arrival; their budget is Facts and opinions about the Syrian Refugee Crisis have inungetting cut more and more due to federal and state policy. dated both national and international news channels for the past Lastly, contact your legislators. The seven nation travel ban enfew years. With such mass media coverage, it is easy to stray from acted by President Trump has prevented Syrians and many other the “point of contention” and proclaim the issue as too grave and nationalities from being able to take refuge in the United States. expansive to really make a difference. While this politicization of Additionally, new legislation will decrease the amount of refugees the refugee crisis can portray the Syrians as a large mass of peolet into the country by more ple, and thus the matter as an than half. Previously, the maxiimpermeable situation, the truth mum number of people granted is that the issue is a human issue: “What you do makes a difference, and you asylum was 110,000. Now, the meaning it is full of individuals ceiling lies at 50,000. Syrian who each have unique stories have to decide what kind of difference you Muslims have been indefinitely and are hurting in such deep want to make.” - Jane Goodall banned until the President deways. cides otherwise.

The fact that this is a human We all know the world is a issue further proves that the Syrbig place. It is full of vast geography, culture, peoples, traditions, ians’ situation is far from an impermeable one. Each individual and languages, but when people are hurting it doesn’t matter what refugee, or group of refugees, aided by community members like hemisphere we live on; we all share the same responsibility as a us, makes a difference. We can drastically increase someone’s human to help one another. We invite you to take this issue of The quality of living, help someone feel more welcome, and help someGlobe as an opportunity to adjust your perspective. Yes, these one access opportunities they may not have had. people are coming from across the world, fleeing for their lives, Sure, this will not put an end to the violence in Syria, but it will but in the end, they are still just people, who want to be welcome help another human being -- one of the masses -- live more comfortand cared for when in need. ably and happily and thus it will make a difference.

The political climate today has turned refugees into political There are many ways to get involved and start the process of props and scapegoats; it has become patriotic to be unwelcoming. helping a community in need.

Let us remember that we were all once strangers looking for a The first, and by far, the easiest, is just to be welcoming; a home, and now it is our turn to be the the candle in the window. smile goes a long way.

OPINION

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