V39 Issue 6

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THE EAGLE EDITION EPISCOPAL SCHOOL OF DALLAS STUDENT NEWSPAPER 4100 Merrell Road Dallas Texas 75229 214.358.4368

V39 No. 6

Friday May 13 Twenty22 esdeagleedition.org

Curry comes to ESD Presiding Bishop Curry visits and delivers sermon to a modified chapel. page 2

Cracking the code Musicians utilize “Easter eggs” in lyrics, music videos to reveal information about upcoming music. page 8

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@theeagleedition @eagleeditionesd @esdeagleedition

The reality of dreams.

Remembered or not, we all dream.

From the most non-sensical stories to vivid and realistic scenes, our dreams have meaning. These stories can be a window to the true nature of the subconscious and can reveal what is on our minds. Through our dreams, we can discover our stresses, wishes and desires. pages 14-15

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Photoillustration by Easterly Yeaman and Elliot Lovitt

2 Eagle Edition

Episcopal School of Dallas

e news

If it’s not about love, it’s not about God School welcomes Presiding Bishop Curry to modified chapel

By Iris Hernandez News Editor

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n Friday, April 8, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Most Rev. Michael Curry, spoke at a modified chapel that included upper school, middle school and fourth grade.

“We had fourth through 12th grade, [and] we would have tried to get the whole lower school in, but it didn’t work out schedule wise,” Fr. Nate Bostian, I WOULD JUST LIKE the ESD Senior TO UNDERLINE THAT Chaplain, said. “I wanted everyone to BISHOP CURRY’S LIFE experience what the AND MINISTRY AND best of Episcopal identity is, and HIS MESSAGE, ALL ARE our presiding CONGRUENT. AND THAT bishop really does represent the best THE LOVE OF GOD THAT of what it means to HE SPEAKS ABOUT, be in the Episcopal Church.”

JUST RADIATES FROM Because of the HIS VERY BEING. joint chapel, many students from many grades welcomed Rev. Nate Bostian Curry to the school.

Stemmons Family “I really enjoyed the warm Senior Chaplain hospitality and welcome which helped me to feel right at home,” Curry said. “In particular, the fourth grader, Zoey, who interviewed me, and the choir, the acolytes and the way all of the

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students and teachers worshiped vigorously and with spirit.”

The bishop was only at ESD for 30 minutes, which gave him enough time for a chapel sermon and to be asked a few questions written by the Eagle Edition staff and asked by fourth grader Zoey Dumas. While his visit was brief, a lot of planning went into it.

“I’d asked the director [of Saint Micheals and All Angels Episcopal Church] Father Girata if there was time in The Bishop’s schedule [to come to ESD] and as we worked it out, there was time,” Bostian said.

“I had about eight days to plan it.”

The middle school choir sang “I Dream a World” by Langston Hughes, which Bishop Curry appreciated. As he started his sermon, he thanked them repeatedly and mentioned that Martin Luther King Jr. was inspired by Hughes’ song.

“I had chosen ‘I Dream a World’ with words by Langston Hughes and music by Andre Thomas back in January for my choir to perform for our Spring Concert on April 25,” middle school choir teacher, Susan Wiles said. “It turned out that it was a very fortuitous choice because we were able to polish it up the week before Bishop Curry came to campus. I suggested that it would be a perfect song to sing for him based on the message of hope for peace, love and acceptance of all people.”

Curry then proceeded to preach about God’s love. He spoke about a story in which lawyers ask

which law, given by Moses, is the greatest. Jesus’ response was that we should love God and “love thy neighbor.”

“On these two laws, on love of God and love of neighbor, hangs everything that God has been trying to tell us from the beginning of the world,” Curry said.

“Everything that is in the Bible, everything that we learn about in church, everything that they teach in school, is all about love.”

During his visit to Dallas, Curry visited Saint Michael’s and All Angels Episcopal Church as well.

Some ESD students attend the church and got a second chance to listen to Curry speak. According to sophomore Arden Houser, who attends Saint Michael’s, the sermon was upbeat and comedic.

“He was so happy and grateful to be giving a sermon, and it inspired me to not worry about what job I have in the future, what college I will go to, and/or what I will major in,” Houser said.“It taught me that I should do what I love instead of doing something that pays well or is boring.”

Houser said that the sermon showed her that it is better “to do what you love and go where you are loved rather than do something you aren’t passionate about and go where you are tolerated.”

During his sermon at ESD, Curry shared that he often has a busy schedule and manages the stress by using his faith. As the 2022 school year comes to a close, he has advice for the upper school.

“When I was in school, I always found it helpful, in those last few months of the year to know that the work that I was doing was important to learn, but also to know that there was a break and a rest period coming after,” Curry said. “Knowing that the rest period and summer was coming I could do all of the work I had to do with energy and commitment.”

His sermon focused on God’s love and how he made us to love one another.

Curry, who was elected to a nine-year term as The Most Rev. Bishop of The Episcopal Church in 2015, has written six books. The most recent, written in 2020, is called “Love is the Way.” “I have read parts of about three of them,” Bostian said. “The overarching message of all of them is that it all comes down to love.”

Curry is known for not only talking about God’s love, but also about social issues like climate change and social injustices.

Bostian said that the resurrection of Jesus, and living into the new life that Jesus brings us, means that we need to bring to new life every aspect of the world.

“So if we are doing anything that hinders us into the fullness that God made us to be, we ought to be talking about that in Church,” Bostain said. “If anyone is being demeaned or othered, we need to raise them up and remind everybody that they are, like we all are, children of God.”

THE FIRST ENCOUNTER Head of School David Baad, Fr. Nate Bostian, Fr. Chris Girata, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and Rev. Mark Stevenson walk down the hallway on April 8, on their way to the All Saints Chapel.

“Some people naturally radiate the love and light and hospitality of Christ. Bishop Curry is one of those people,” Bostian said. “You feel like you are at home as soon as he walks in the room. “ Photo provided by ESD Communications Department

Short timeline of The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church Michael Curry’s life

1953 Curry was born in Chicago, Illinois

Source: episcopalchurch.org

2000 Named Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina

1978 Ordained as a priest

2015 Elected into a 9-year term as The Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church

2013 Published his first book, “Crazy Christians, A Call to Follow Jesus”

2022 Curry visited The Episcopal School of Dallas

May 13, 2022

News

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We’re not in Kansas anymore A look into how tornadoes upend lives, affect people

By Abby Baughman Life Editor

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he Strey family sits around the TV watching the Cowboys game on Oct. 20, 2019.

Suddenly, the tornado sirens begin to ring.

Being Texans, the family is used to the sires and calmly walks to the door. When they open the door, they are met with silence followed by strong billowing winds. It is at this moment that the family realizes something is wrong.

They rush into the nearest bathroom, as the air pressure drops and their ears pop. The tornado enters the house and all of the windows shatter. Even though the twister lasts less than a few minutes, it feels like an eternity. When the loud noise and sound of destruction ends, the family leaves the bathroom to find their house destroyed.

This was the most expensive tornado in Texas history.

According to NBC, the tornado caused $1.5 billion in damage.

Many homes, businesses and families in Preston Hollow were affected by this storm.

“The tornado was one of the most traumatic experiences that I’ve ever had,” sophomore Slaton Strey, whose house was badly damaged during the 2019 Dallas tornado, said. “It was crazy how a period of literally five minutes was equal to nearly two years of repair and stress. The event definitely strengthened my connection with a lot of people because hundreds of friends and family showed up the next day without request to help us clean up. It also has been a source of moderate PTSD. Even though I don’t feel afraid during big storms, my subconscious takes primal instinct and I am on high alert.”

On April 29, a category 3 tornado hit Wichita, Kansas.

According to weather.gov, the tornado reached 165 miles per hour at its peak and injured three people. The tornado traveled 13 miles and had a width of 440 yards.

“Well, I have friends that live [in Wichita], and I was worried about them,” ESD parent Palma Hernandez said. “It was a pretty bad tornado and none of my friends got injured. I had to shelter in my basement many times. We went down into my basement a lot. One year my dad was out of town on business and a town where there was a huge tornado. And I can remember being so frightened that something had happened to him because it was a big tornado.”

Although tornadoes can occur almost anywhere under the right conditions, the United States is where the vast majority of tornadoes take place. Every year, approximately 300 tornadoes touch down in Europe, 50 in Australia and 1,300 in the U.S. The majority of American tornadoes happen in Tornado Valley, a section of the U.S. that includes Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas and South Dakota. In Texas, the only portion included in Tornado Valley is Northern Texas.

Tornadoes will only form under the right conditions, and a tornado must begin as a thunderstorm, which are formed by warm, low-pressure air near the ground combined with cold, high-pressure air at the top, and this system requires an updraft to push the warm air up to meet the cold air. Finally, the moisture from the warm air condenses and clouds form, and finally the thunderstorm forms.

“We think thunderstorms create tornadoes because of wind shear: faster air moving above slower moving air,” Scott Goetsch, middle school science teacher, said. “That causes the air to roll horizontally which is then tilted vertically in the thunderstorm.

That rotating wind can intensify into a tornado.”

The combination of the warm climate of the Gulf of Mexico and the cold dry air from the

Rocky mountains makes the United States, and Tornado Valley specifically, increasingly vulnerable. Plenty of places globally have a mixture of warm and cold air to create an influx of thunderstorms, but what makes the U.S. unique is its jet stream.

Normally a storm’s updraft cools as rain falls; however, the United States’ West to East Jet stream pushes the water away from the updraft keeping it warm.

“Tornadoes are most common in the U.S. because the U.S. has the right geography,” Goetsch said. “We have warm, moist air masses from the Gulf of Mexico meeting cold, dry air masses from over the Rocky Mountains or coming down from Canada. The bigger the air mass difference, the easier it is to form tornadoes.”

The rarity of tornadoes can be attributed to wind patterns. A storm must rotate; the jet stream blowing high in the air causes the low high-pressure air to rotate.

This is not yet a tornado but a supercell storm, but as the storm becomes stronger it pulls air and dust from the ground. The storm becomes a tornado when it touches the ground.

Tornadoes are predicted by scientists by seeing if these needed conditions are in the region.

“It is hard to predict tornadoes because the atmosphere changes so quickly and there are so many variables in the atmosphere,” Goetsch said. “I think as atmospheric monitoring improves and more sophisticated radar is developed meteorologists will be able to make more accurate predictions.”

In the past few decades, climate change has transformed Earth, causing hurricanes, ice storms and droughts to worsen.

However, tornadoes do not have a direct link to climate change, but global warming has affected both the Gulf of Mexico and Rocky Mountains. Global warming has heated the Gulf of Mexico, so the

WICHITA On April 29, 2022 a tornado traveled through Wichita, Kansas. Over 1,000 injuries were reported, and three meteorology students were killed in a car accident after chasing the storm. Also, over 300 buildings were destroyed. The tornado reached winds of 165 miles per hour, a width of 440 yards and traveled 13 miles. Fifteen thousand residents of Wichita lost power due to the storm. The tornado took place a few days after the 31 anniversary of a tragic tornado in the same area. The 1991 tornado was a devastating F-5 tornado, killing 17 Kansas residents.

JOHNSON COUNTY On April 5, 2022 a severe thunderstorm toured through North Texas.

However, no county experienced more damage than the F-2 tornado in Johnson County. On April 6, Johnson County was examined for tornado damage. Shawn Zeleny’s, a Johnson County resident, stepdaughter was living in a trailer on his property when the storm hit.

Zeleny had to save his stepdaughter when the trailer began taking damage. However, the trailer collapsed on him. Luckily, Zeleny was freed and hospitalized. He was the only one injured by the tornado, and there were no casualties.

Photo credits: (Jaime Green/The Wichita Eagle/TNS)

Photo credits: (Elias Valverde II/The Dallas Morning News/TNS)

air around it holds more moisture, which can be linked to an increase in storms that could become tornadoes.

“Most scientists think that global warming will cause an increase in tornado frequency,” Goetsch said. “The hotter the air, the more moisture can be absorbed into the air. That leads to more energy and instability in the atmosphere. When the air rises quickly at a cold front it can form the IT WAS CRAZY supercell thunderstorms HOW A PERIOD that spawn tornadoes.”

Tornado watches and OF LITERALLY warnings are issued when FIVE MINUTES an area is in danger of a tornado. However, watches WAS EQUAL TO are for general areas NEARLY TWO and could be a few hours YEARS OF REPAIR before a storm will occur.

Warnings happen when all AND STRESS. the necessary conditions EVEN THOUGH for a tornado are present, a tornado has been I DON’T FEEL spotted, or a radar has AFRAID DURING picked up one — the area is in imminent danger. A BIG STORMS, MY tornado warning means SUBCONSCIOUS people should stay inside in the safest area of their TAKES PRIMAL house.

INSTINCT AND I AM The safest area of the ON HIGH ALERT. house is underground in a basement. However, due to the hard ground, very Slaton Strey few homes in Texas have basements. Above ground, Sophomore the safest place is a small room with no windows and preferably no glass.

For example, a closet is better than a bathroom with a large mirror. It is also important to keep the room above it in mind. Try to stay away from being in a room with a piano above it on the second floor. Someone driving while a tornado warning is issued should pull over to the nearest building. Tornadoes are a dangerous part of nature, but can be survived if prepared for and handled safely.

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DALLAS 2019 The most expensive tornado in Texas history touched down on Oct 20, 2019. The tornado destroyed many buildings and houses including the Preston and Royal shopping center totaling $1.55 billion of damage. The tornado caused over 200,000 residents to go without power. The tornado was categorized as an F-3 after specialists examined the damages. The specialist determined it would take a tornado of around 140 miles per hour in order to achieve the damages. One hundred and forty mph made the tornado on the lower end of an F-3. There had not been a tornado of that power in Dallas since 1976.

Photo credits: (Courtesy the Bump Birthing Center/TNS)

A look at current events affecting the environment around the world

dow EAR n T

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4 Eagle Edition

Episcopal School of Dallas

New ceremonies meet longstanding traditions NHS, Cum Laude, Pass it On and the Symphony of Hope provide closure the school year

By Sophia Sardiña and Charlotte Traylor Staff writers

CUM LAUDE A group of seniors stand at the All Saints Chapel’s altar after receiving their Cum Laude Certificate. “Being inducted into Cum Laude was a really great and rewarding experience. I worked very hard throughout high school and I feel like my work paid off,” said Gia Maioriello, pictured first from right. “It was also really exciting to be standing up there next to so many of my friends.”

Photo by Charlotte Traylor

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n April 4, junior Katye Dullye walked down the All Saints Chapel aisle, preparing to accept her National Honors Society certificate. Dullye was overcome with pride as she received her pin, stole and certificate before her closest friends. After years of being a spectator at the school’s NHS ceremonies, Dullye was finally a recipient.

The NHS ceremony has been an ESD tradition since 1990, and 41 juniors received the award this year after fulfilling the school’s requirements.

“I felt very proud of myself for receiving the NHS certificate and pin as it took a lot of hard work to get to that point,” Dullye said. “I was also honored that I was part of the small portion of my grade that received this award.”

Upper school acting teacher Lauren Redmond and upper school choir teacher Joe Snyder have assisted students as NHS faculty sponsors with NHS meetings, blood drives and induction ceremonies together for the past

brief NEWS

A deeper look at current events and happenings on campus

seven years.

Redmond believes that recognizing students during the NHS ceremony is a good tradition; it gives the students ownership of what they have accomplished during their two and a half years before they get to apply to the NHS. “It is an honor,” Redmond said.“We actually have a higher standard to be accepted into our NHS chapter versus the national chapter.” To be inducted into the NHS at ESD one needs to have at least a 3.5 grade point average, three leadership roles, 100 community service hours and no disciplinary infractions. Whereas, the national requirements are less rigorous; one can have a GPA of 3.0 and still qualify for the honor.

But this was Redmond’s and Snyder’s last ceremony. Science Department Chair Amy Henderson and upper school math teacher Susan Weil volunteered to take over the responsibilities of this role next year.

“I love . . .interact[ing] with students in a new way,” Weil said. “I find that to be personally rewarding. And what a great

organization NHS is: it combines so many things I admire: scholarship, character [and]service.”

Similar to NHS, the Cum Laude Society applauds students for academic achievement, with 4,000 seniors inducted annually across the United States, Philippines, Canada, Puerto Rico, France, Spain and England. ESD established its chapter in 2007 and is one of only 14 Texas schools that have been granted a Cum Laude Society chapter. To be inducted, students must have a GPA in the top 20 percent of their class, be enrolled in challenging classes, achieve superior academic achievement and promote excellence (Areté), justice (Diké), and honor (Timé).

While the ceremony’s skeleton has remained consistent over the years, details have been slightly adjusted.

“In the beginning the committee members processed wearing their academic regalia [robes], but we did away with that because we felt it detracted from the focus: the students and their accomplishments,” upper school Latin teacher and Cum Laude sponsor, Dr. Angela Fritsen said.

“Induction into the society is a mark of academic distinction and excellence. We want to honor those students at the end of their senior year.”

These ceremonies are a regular part of the closing school year, but to Director of Outdoor Education Eddie Eason, these ceremonies are not true ESD traditions.

“Some of the [ceremonies, such as Cum Laude or NHS] are not traditions . . . To me, traditions are not the product of a school’s operating calendar,” Eason said.

“They are meaningful events founded, centered and perpetual based on our school ethos. . . It takes a process and community acceptance [to start a tradition].”

The new event may be finding its

roots in the community: Symphony of Hope — a musical performance which includes high school and middle school band, orchestra and choir. It was created this year to celebrate and accommodate the growth of the performing fine arts program.

“Since Lessons and Carols was too big with everyone in it, this gives [all ESD musicians] an opportunity to have their separate parts,” assistant head of upper school, Jeffery Laba said. “We have one big thing for Christmas now.

Let’s have a big thing for Easter.”

Band student Declan Graham performed in the Symphony of Hope. He specializes in percussion instruments, his favorite being the timpani, a kettledrum. “I was excited before the Symphony of Hope, but it was the most people I have ever performed in front of,” Graham said. And, the new ceremony was well received, appreciated by performers and attendees alike. “I hope Symphony of Hope continues, as I loved the freedom we were given in music choice and it was a great way to celebrate our work this year,” Cara Lichty, sophomore trumpeter, said.

But perhaps one of the oldest traditions on campus is one of the community’s favorites: Pass it On. Only second to the longest tradition on campus, Pass it On is a symbolic and physical transfer of the senior’s light to the rising freshman, held in the competition gym. The tradition began in 1978, on the Lovers Lane campus, where the oldest gradelevel welcomed the rising freshman into the upper school; the symbolic flames ignited each student’s life of purpose in the upper school.

Mary Grace Altizer said,“In eighth grade, I can remember being so nervous about moving up to high school. . . This year, after passing it on, I felt more sentimental as I reminisced on all of my ESD experiences.”

Calling all musicians

Poems and performing Health initiative

On Friday, April 8, 77 upper school students attended The Independent Schools Association of the Southwest metroplex Art Festival at Greenhill School and Parish Episcopal School. ISAS, founded in 1955, consists of independent schools in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisiana, Kansas and Arizona.

Every spring, ISAS schools gather for the arts festival where visual and performing arts students come together to present and share their creativity and talents. Due to Covid-19, this year’s festival was the first in two years, but it was a smaller event and only consisted of schools in the metro area. “[ISAS this] year was within our region,” Lauren Redmond, the performing arts department chair, said. “[ISAS] canceled the big ISAS that would have been for the same weekend [and] for all ISAS schools.”

Attendance was less than in previous years.

“I believe that [it was] just under 900 students that went, and a typical year it’s about 4000 students,” Redmond said.

Another unique aspect of the festival this year was that it was only a one day event.

“Traditionally, ISAS is usually Thursday to Saturday,” Redmond said. “Only 11 [schools] agreed to do [the festival]...we were able to compile everything to a single day.”

Freshman Samantha Wu attended the regional Art Festival with the dance program.

“My favorite part was getting to see other schools and exploring the two different campuses,” Wu said.

All ESD fine art programs attended ISAS except for orchestra.

Orchestra director Adrian Demian decided not to attend with his musicians.

“Because this year ISAS was without judging, [we would] have ended [up] playing in front of our peers pretty much,” Demian said.

Coffee House, an annual event that showcases the visual arts, music, dance, film and literature created by upper school students, was held at the Bray Theater on April 30. It is also the event where the award-winning arts and literature student magazine, Itinerary, is distributed.

Freshman Parmida Zandinejaded enjoyed being a part of the Itinerary staff this year.

“This is my first time doing Itinerary and I’ve had fun making spreads [in Itinerary] with poems that [were] performed at Coffee House,” Zandinejad said.

According to Zandinejad, the majority of performers at Coffee House read poems that had been submitted to Itinerary.

“My favorite poem that was submitted was written by Andrew Wysk,” Zandinejad said. “It was really well written and I thought it was great.”

To open the event, Itinerary editor-in-chief Emily Lichty gave a brief introduction about how it felt to finally show what she and the Itinerary staff had worked on all year to the community.

“It felt so rewarding to present our final magazine to the community,” Lichty said. “It meant so much to see so many people supporting us and enjoying the magazine.”

Junior Liam Pham introduced the first performer, junior Maddy Hammet, who read her poem, “Sitting Alone in My Backyard: The Marrow of Life.” Other poems, dances and films followed, including Reid Ackerman’s film, “Bunny.”

The event concluded with a few words from Itinerary adviser, English teacher Heather Cernoch, who spoke about the history of Coffee House and thanked the performers. Cernoch also took a moment to applaud English teacher Greg Randall, to whom this year’s Itinerary and Coffee House was dedicated.

As part of several new wellness initiatives for the Upper School, ESD has entered a new partnership with the Soundcheck Prevention Network. The organization, based in Asheville, North Carolina, was founded in January of 2020 by Will Straughan.

Soundcheck’s first visit to the school took place this March, when they went to a variety of classrooms in different grade levels to lead discussions on substance use and abuse in the ESD community.

Having worked with Straughan before through ESD’s previous provider, Freedom from Chemical Dependency Prevention Works, Head of Upper School Henry Heil helped spearhead this initiative. “[ESD’s wellness team] decided that FCD programming had fallen off from what we sort of expected… and we reached out, we sat down and had a Zoom with [Soundcheck],” Heil said. “FCD was nationwide and was huge and we knew [Soundcheck] would give us a little more individualized attention.”

Straughan recognizes that each school community has unique protective and risk factors that influence the degree to which students are able to thrive and be resilient.

“Our approach draws out those factors through candid conversations with students so that they are engaged, feel heard and understood, and so their needs are met,” Straughan said. “I believe the plan moving forward for ESD is to map out a longer term vision and goals for prevention and student health, and then putting the pieces in place to achieve those goals.”

By Phoebe McMillan Staff writer

By Miles Wooldridge Staff writer

By Brooke Ebner Staff writer

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➌ ➊ CALLING ALL MUSICANS Actors and actreses perform muscial “Pippin” at ISAS on April 8. ➋ POEMS AND PERFORMING Neel Mallipeddi reads his piece “Ancient Roads” at Coffee House on April 30. ➌ HEALTH INITIATIVE Soundcheck Prevention Network, founded in 2020, helps to encourage healthy habits in high schools like ESD. Photos by Lauren Redmond, Brooke Ebner and logo by Soundcheck Board of Directors.

May 13, 2022

News

5

Seniors meet with heads for exit interviews New program allows students to give feedback on their ESD experience

By Katherine Mote Business Manager

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new program has been recently introduced to help the administration understand a student’s positive and negative ESD experience and learn how the school could improve certain aspects of ESD for future classes: The Senior Exit Interviews.

Before graduation, Head of School David Baad and Head of Upper School Henry Heil will have interviewed every senior on campus. Heil presented the idea of the exit interviews to Baad.

“It was [Heil’s] idea and it’s something he’s been wanting to do at least for a couple of years but Covid-19 has gotten in the way,” Baad said. “He came to me early this fall and said [if there was] a way we could do them just as a way to collect information and find out about the seniors’ experience.”

ESD is not the only school conducting these interviews. Exit interviews have become popular in high school administrations around the country as a way to get an inside view of the high school experience and as a way to have a candid conversation with the administration to create change. Recently, the idea of these interviews was presented to The School Superintendents Association as a beneficial program and was recommended to be performed in high schools and some students see the benefits of the senior interviews.

“I definitely think that senior exit interviews are helpful for the administration,” senior Dani Nisbet said. “The interview allows members of the administration to directly hear the good things about ESD and things that need improvement. It is up to the administration [to change things], but I’m glad they are trying to hear directly from the students in a more personal way.”

While nothing has yet been done to address the positive or negative aspects of the seniors’ experiences, the administration will review this year’s information and look for recurring issues and student feedback.

“Mr. Heil is taking notes as we go and we will look at the compilation of all the answers and see what patterns there are and what are the ways we can use the information,” Baad said. “We want to hear what has been good about the seniors’ experiences and make sure we continue to do those things and we want to hear what we can do better from the students’ point of view and how we can improve and make their experience better than it is.”

The interview is meant to be open ended and allow students to interpret the questions on their own and how they best see fit.

The administration chose to hold the interviews in groups of three seniors at a time in order to have every voice heard and make it a

space students feel comfortable sharing their opinions in.

Heil put together four openended questions to get feedback and data from our seniors. Heil said the questions are, “What have you most valued? What teachers have had a particular impact on you? What advice would you give your freshman self? What can we do better?”

But to some, these questions have been perceived as too focused on the good and not asking enough about the experience to really understand what issues have been difficult for students. Because the question “what can we do better?” isn’t specific to a sector of the school, there is a lot of room for opinions and feelings to fall through the cracks.

“I didn’t like that it felt like all the questions were asking about how great the school was rather than us being able to give unfiltered feedback on stuff that has been rough in high school,” senior Virginia Nussbaumer said.

“I shared information and feedback for growth, but once again, it all depends on whether or not the feedback is applied and if they actually listened to what we said rather than just hearing it.”

The administration is planning on reviewing the results and making changes as they see fit. But since the changes won’t be in place until after this group of seniors graduates, it’s difficult for students to see how their experiences and views will change the way the school operates.

“Honestly, I’m not sure whether or not my opinion will be listened to from this interview,” senior Casey Curtis said. “There were moments when I felt like the people in the room were listening just for the sake of listening and providing comments thanking me for my feedback, and providing vague promises of what could be improved in the future. I hope my opinion will be taken into account for the sake of other ESD students but I think in order to improve, the administration needs to empathize with their students and truly value their opinions about the school.

With a co-ed student body, some students think it is important to have both male and female administrators present in the interviews in order to create change. Nusssbaumer thinks having a female administrator during the senior interview would be a good idea.

“I wish Mrs. Burke (Associate Head of School) was in the room too,” Nussbaumer said. “Talking to a woman is more likely to result in change and let more of our voices be heard, especially from me as a teenage girl.”

However, a recurring comment made during the interviews included students talking about the teachers they think have made the biggest impacts in their lives.

“Particularly I’ve been asking them what they think makes good teaching,” Baad said. “Our job is to make sure that we get the best teachers in the classroom

with you and we want to hear what resonates with students as it relates to teaching.”

Getting to hear the teaching styles students associate with being effective and interesting will help the administration continue to hire teachers that will make a good fit and help students in and out of the classroom.

“The best part of the [interviews] has been hearing students talk about their teachers and the impacts they have made on them,” Heil said. “I’m trying to figure out a way to share that with the teachers so they can hear the great impact they have made on students’ life because they don’t often get to hear that.”

In addition to the teachers making an impact, points ranging from academics to social issues were all discussed. Since seniors were able to create their own interview groups, they were able to find a space where they felt comfortable addressing their concerns.

“Some of the points made for future improvements during my exit interview by friends and myself include[d], improving student mental health resources, actively listening to student opinions and taking them into account when making decisions for the community, and creating a healthier culture of inclusion in all school activities,” Curtis said. “I hope improvements will be made, but I believe that they will take longer than the swift action that the student body needs to thrive.”

108 55 30 number of students in senior class

students participated in exit interviews

number of minutes the average interview lasted

Source: upper school office

DEEP DISCUSSION Senior Claire Wooley and Head of School David Baad sit down to reflect on ESD’s strengths and weaknesses. “I think [my interview] went really well,” Wooley said. “It was a good opportunity to give the administration a viewpoint of our school experiences.”

Photo by Iris Hernandez

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I SHARED INFORMATION AND FEEDBACK FOR GROWTH, BUT ONCE AGAIN, IT ALL DEPENDS ON WHETHER OR NOT THE FEEDBACK IS APPLIED AND IF THEY ACTUALLY LISTENED TO WHAT WE SAID RATHER THAN JUST HEARING IT. Virginia Nussbaumer Senior

6 Eagle Edition

Episcopal School of Dallas

Curriculum adjusts to teach current events Middle schoolers learn the complexities of the Russia-Ukraine conflict

By Abby Baughman Life Editor

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ttentive eighth graders listened to upper school AP history teacher Marc Salz on April 14 as he shed light on the complicated history between Russia and Ukraine.

As conflict simmers between the two countries, ESD teachers and students are connecting the current events to their curriculum assignments.

Each year at the beginning of the second semester, the eighth grade students begin to read Elie Wiesel’s “Night,” an autobiography about a young Jewish boy being persecuted in the Holocaust.

“One of our assignments was to ask how is [‘Night’] connected to the world,” eighth-grade English teacher Jill Remaud said. “A lot of students used the war in Ukraine as their answer, [and] the mass graves that are being found. So they showed that they're following the news on subsequent assignments.”

The various lessons and themes of “Night,” and the Holocaust, I THINK IT IS also provided insight for the ABSOLUTELY eighth graders to NECESSARY FOR understanding the Russia-Ukraine MY AGE GROUP TO conflict. English LEARN ABOUT THIS teachers decided to introduce Salz LIKE IT OR NOT in response to WE ARE THE NEXT student questions LEADERS. WE NEED relating to the issue; he lectured TO BE EDUCATED students on the ABOUT THESE history of the relationship EVENTS SO THAT between Russia THEY NEVER REPEAT and Ukraine, and provided THEMSELVES. awareness of the conflict’s roots.

“But then Emory Turner [students] kept Seventh grader asking questions the whole time they [worked] with a partner,” eighth grade English teacher Adina Richman said. “I was like we need to get an expert to teach us about this.

That's where the idea for Mr. Salz came in. He did that presentation, and, in a nutshell, he answered [their questions].”

On April 14, Salz presented a slide show about Russia and Ukraine’s history to the eighth grade class. The students had opportunities to ask questions after.

“It's equally important for

“

younger students and older students to know and understand the world,” Salz said. “You have to live with events that are stressful, like war. You have to be a little bit careful with your messaging, but other than that, it should be talked about. I think the students are largely sympathetic to Ukraine.”

With a developed perspective, the class progressed with their following unit on “Antigone,” a play written in 441 BC that follows a young girl rebelling against her country.

“We started reading ‘Antigone’ the same day Russia invaded Ukraine, Feb. 24,” Remaud said.

“We began to talk about [Russia and Ukraine] because [it] grew organically out of a discussion in Richman's class. We were talking about the power of the state and the power of the individual. And we were talking about what [you] would do on behalf of the state.

What is the right thing to do to have a state? Should you be more nationalist or should you look at it in a more global aspect?”

In response to the discussion, Remaud assigned a reading of a newspaper article about the RussiaUkraine conflict to her class, and expected the students to connect the reading to “Antigone.”

“We have this really big push to ensure that everything that we teach has relevance, if we can't figure out why it's relevant then why are we teaching it?” Remaud said. “But of course, going back to ‘Antigone’ which is [around]

2,500 years old again. All the time it's like, what's the relevance of something that's over 2,000 years old? Everybody can see that Creon [Greek mythological character, Antigone’s uncle] and Russia have some similarities with their hubris and that Ukraine is kind of like Antigone in a way.”

But not only eighth graders have been learning about the world’s current affairs. Due to the importance of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the seventh grade felt the need to alter their curriculum to learn about the happenings of the region.

Originally, seventh graders were set to learn about the Cold War during spring with a focus on the Vietnam War. Instead, the seventh-grade teachers decided to teach about the history between Russia and Ukraine.

“Ms. Thomas and I started thinking about pivoting and teaching [about Russia and Ukraine] because it is. . . very much related to the Cold War,” seventh grade history teacher Sarah Havins said.

The seventh graders listened and annotated a National Public Radio podcast and discussed it in class; Havins also gave a presentation on the issue.

“Before learning the real facts about the Russia-Ukraine conflict, I had the idea that there must have been many issues in the past between the two countries that caused them to have these negative feelings toward each

PRESENTING THE CONFLICT Eighth grader Charlie Wilson presents a map of Russia and Ukraine to his English class after learning about the conflict.

Photo by Abby Baughman

other,” seventh grade student Emory Turner said.

“I figured that they must have always been enemies, one always trying to destroy the other. But after learning more about this war, I have realized how awful this conflict is. Putin is committing serious war crimes that are destroying the country neighboring them, physically and culturally.”

With the change of the curriculum, students are beginning to have a deeper understanding of Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, his actions, and the true repercussions of war.

For their final project, middle schoolers are learning about the United Nations. They will model a U.N. conference and discuss solutions of the conflict itself or the problems such as the refugees or humanitarian crisis.

“I think that it is absolutely necessary for my age group to be learning about this,” Turner said.

“Like it or not we are the next generation and the next leaders.

We need to be educated on these events so that they never repeat themselves. Also, it may be hard to learn about these events, but we need to be educated so that we know how we can help out.”

around THE WORLD A quick overview of international events compiled

by News Editor Iris Hernandez

Captive Olympian

China Under Lockdown

Steel Plant Standoff

The US State Department determined that two time Olymian and Women's National Basketball Association player, Brittney Griner is being detained in Russia under false accusations. Griner was charged with bringing in drugs while playing overseas. The U.S. has claimed that they will not wait for Griners case to play out, and plan on bringing her back to the U.S. While Griner is not officialy a hostage many speculate Russia's true intentions, due to recent tension between the two countries as well the fact that she is an African American and a lesbian. In the past, the U.S. and Russia have swapped imprisoned people, which may be the case for Griner.

Soon after the Winter Olympic Games in 2022, China was hit with a large wave of Covid-19 cases, which shutdown two major cities; Shanghai and Beijing.

The lockdown has been hard for the residents of the large cities, reports of food shortages, struggling hospitals and frequent changing of rules are making headlines. The new rules include restrictions like testing in large quantities and isolation. The lockdown will only end when transmission falls to zero.

Mariupol's final stand of resistance was stuck in a steel plant, which had become the norm for two months. Hundreds of fighters and civilians have taken refuge inside.

So far, there has been a large effort to evacuate the remaining people. A ceasefire was arranged, but so far only 150 people have escaped. The cease fire only lasted for so long, and fighting soon continued. The situation had become more urgent, as the fighting, which was once outside of the plant, has moved within.

The people are also running out of necessary supplies.

SURROUNDED OLYMPIAN Brittney Giner shoots aginst Japan in the 2021 Olympics.

She was arrested early 2022 and has not yet beel released.

Photo byKevin Frayer/TNS FACING THE CROWD A man is given a Covid test during the five week lockdown in Shanghai. Photo provided by Agence France-Presse/ Wikimedia STEEL FROM AFAR Azovstal steel plant where civilians and soliders seek refuge from Russian forces.

Photo provided Chad Nagle, creativecommons/Wikimedia Commons

May 13, 2022

News

7

Brown Bag Lunch becomes school custom Older students and faculty expose lower school students to a future in fine arts

By Abby Baughman Life Editor

A

fter being introduced this year, Brown Bag Lunch has become a tradition for lower school students.

During the event, where lower school students sit on the rocks of the south playground and hear a presentation about the arts, students eat SAGE-prepared brown-bagged lunches.

“Brown Bag Lunch exposes lower school students to the fine arts in a setting that is comfortable to them,” Kathryn Pothier, parent leader of Brown Bag Lunch, said.

“Brown Bag Lunch also helps to ignite more curiosity among the youngest students about what possibilities there are for them to explore and engage with the arts.

I think there’s a ton of support for the arts and a ton of appreciation for it. We tried to be more thoughtful about how to ignite that, bring it to the forefront.”

The goal of the lunches is for lower schoolers to interact with older students, teachers and faculty in the ESD arts community.

“We hope to generate a lot of student interest in future performers, middle schoolers, other schoolers, staff members, ideally all within the community again,” Pothier said. “We want the students to be really watching folks that they otherwise interact with regularly anyway. But they’re seeing them in this environment of appreciating the arts and just helping spark

their curiosity about it.”

Amy Cuccia, assistant head of lower school, was inspired to make Brown Bag Lunch by The San Francisco Friends School’s similar program. The school provides food and an informal presentation focused on art. Cuccia proposed the idea to the Fine Arts Network, and they were fully on board “We thought it would be really cool to do something similar [to the California school], but with an ESD twist,” Cuccia said. “Lower school students are typically curious about everything and are willing to ‘try’ new things, especially when they see someone they know doing it.”

The first presenter of the Brown Bag Lunch was the lower school organist, Julian Petrallia. He presented from March 7 to March 11 with a slideshow. He talked about his background and played a few pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach and Robert Schumann.

Afterward, the students had the opportunity to ask him questions.

“I was surprised to see/hear how many kids didn’t know that it’s possible to be a musician fulltime,” Petrallia said. “I was also surprised at the kids’ reaction when I told them about how young I was when I started music.

Hopefully the kids’ perspectives changed with regard to now seeing that being a musician as a full-time career is possible as well the fact that it’s possible to begin studying

music at any age; including very young!”

On Friday, April 29, Lindsey Cullins’ fifth-grade English class performed a puppet show for the beginner and kindergarten students. The show centered around a character who eats all of their friends’ food. Cullins’ class presented becuase it is at the same time as the lower school lunch period.

“We’ve been studying plot, theme and fictional elements, so it was a perfect project for us to tackle,” Lindsey Cullins said.

“For our Pre-K and beginners puppet show, our class worked cooperatively to plan, draft and revise our script.”

Cullins told her class that they would be performing for 3 to 5-year-olds and that the virtue of the month was Understanding.

Then, the class brainstormed possible themes. “[They] came to a consensus around one [theme]: People sometimes misunderstand one another, but with a little help and some careful listening, they can overcome their problems,” Cullins said.

The beginner and kindergarten students sat outside in front of a puppet stage. Each student was given a pudding cup, and the fifth grade class performed the show.

“This was a great opportunity for our class to explore the purpose of dialogue, appreciate the

difference between written fiction and performed drama, to solidify their understanding of fictional elements and language and their relationships to theme,” Cullins said. “It was also a beautiful way to give students a sense of purpose, beyond themselves and beyond a grade in the grade book, for engaging in their learning.”

Brown Bag Lunch only happened twice this year because it started in March. However, next year, the lower school hopes to have three each semester or one each month. The lower school also hopes to incorporate more of the community.

“It gives our little people the chance to see the pathways

FINE ART FUN Middle school students perform a puppet show for younger students outside of the lower school on Friday, April 29. "Our goal is to expose children to the talents and passions that people around them have," assistant head of lower school Amy Cuccia said. "Having a casual lunch instead of a 'performance' gives a much more personal vibe and hopefully makes it seem more personal."

Photo by Abby Baughman

that are open to them at ESD and imagine themselves on that same stage,” Cullins said. “We hope that they realize that they too can sing and dance and perform for an audience one day.”

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson raises the bar Jurist secures seat as first black woman on Supreme Court Story and photoillustration by Elisabeth Siegel Managing Editor

Images from Wikimedia Commons

O

n April 7, the halls of the Capitol were filled with cheers from many senators, staff and visitors, while some were seen quickly exiting the Senate chamber. The Senate had confirmed Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination as the 116th Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. This 53 to 47 vote will make Jackson the first black woman to be on the highest court following Justice Stephen G. Breyer’s retirement this summer.

Jackson’s confirmation marks a milestone in American history and has inspired many. President Joe Biden said during his 2020 presidential campaign that he would be committed to nominating a Black woman to the bench.

“Ronald Reagan said, ‘I’m going to appoint a woman,’ LBJ said he was going to replace a black male justice with another black male justice,” upper school history teacher Claire Mrozek said. “I think that the Court has a responsibility to be representative… I personally think that race is one of several things that need to be brought into the conversation when you’re making decisions about who gets a position. It shouldn’t be the number one consideration, but it should be

one of the things that you bring in.”

Along with bringing representation to the Court, many consider her one of the most qualified Supreme Court nominees in recent history. She has served as a public defender and clerked for Breyer from 1999 to 2000. She was also confirmed to the U.S. Sentencing Commission and the D.C. Circuit court.

“Not only is she qualified, like beyond qualified, [but she’s also] just such an important part of this representation that we’re trying to see,” junior Bridget Wang said. “By getting more people of color into higher offices, it just represents America more accurately. I remember getting that email from the New York Times' breaking news. I have not deleted that email.

I’m so thrilled about it.”

This decision will not change the ideological balance of the Court; it contains six justices appointed by conservative presidents and justices appointed by liberal presidents, one of the latter being Breyer.

Though Jackson was appointed by a liberal president, the Supreme Court is bipartisan and Jackson pledged to proceed with a position of neutrality “without fear or favor” on the first day of her Senate

confirmation hearings. Three GOP senators, Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, crossed party lines and voted alongside Democrats to confirm her.

“After reviewing Judge Jackson’s record and testimony, I have concluded that she is a wellqualified jurist and a person of honor,” Romney said on Romney.

Senate.gov on April 4 in a statement explaining his vote.

“While I do not expect to agree with every decision she may make on the Court, I believe that she more than meets the standard of excellence and integrity.”

Still, at her confirmation hearings in March, Jackson faced GOP questioning on her views about critical race theory, rising crime, expansion of the Supreme Court and her rulings for child abuse cases in 2013 and Guatánamo Bay detainees in 2005.

“I am horrified by what has happened with the Supreme Court in the last few years,” Mrozek said. “It historically has been a conversation about the justice's qualifications, whether the individual has enough experience, [or if] there are any sort of limitations or liabilities with the

individual. Generally speaking, the voting has been bipartisan until [recently]. You have Republican senators who voted for Judge Ketanji Brown when she was coming up for an early federal courtship and then they vote against her. I don’t understand how that really can come into your thinking when it’s really supposed to if this individual is qualified or not.”

Jackson conveyed that her label cannot be defined by a simple philosophy, but some Republicans, like Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, opposed this neutrality and wished she would embrace “originalism” and “textualism” more than she does. Originalism requires judges to enforce the words of the Constitution how it was understood at the time of ratification and textualism requires judges to apply the actual words of statute; both theories are popular among conservative activists and lawyers.

“I believe that it is appropriate to look at the original intent, original public meaning of the words,” Jackson said at her confirmation hearings. “It’s a process of understanding what the core foundational principles are in the Constitution, as captured by the text, as originally intended, and then applying those principles to modernday."

At Jackson’s nomination hearing, Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey took a moment to defend the nominee after many questions were raised against her by the GOP. The emotional speech brought Jackson to tears as he called her “worthy” and referenced Harriet Tubman, a black woman born into slavery who escaped and helped others gain their freedom.

“I watched [the speech] in a school club, and I cried,” Wang said. “It was so beautiful. It was something so true, and you could tell he was just so passionate about it. And the way he spoke was so moving and so emotionally connected to past, present and future generations of people of color.”

“

NOT ONLY IS SHE QUALIFIED, LIKE BEYOND QUALIFIED, [BUT SHE'S ALSO] JUST SUCH AN IMPORTANT PART OF THIS REPRESENTATION THAT WE'RE TRYING TO SEE.

Bridget Wang Junior

8 Eagle Edition

Episcopal School of Dallas

life Hidden in plain sight Musicians hide hints in music videos, lyrics, social media Story and graphic by Charlotte Tomlin Web Editor

C

akes. Cars. Names.

Necklaces. Doors.

Common objects take on a whole new connotation when musicians and production companies attach hidden meanings to them. Called “Easter eggs,” objects or ideas are correlated with a different meaning in films, songs, video games, TV shows and more — creating an elusive hint that only the most perceptive of fans catch. Easter eggs are not a new phenomenon in the media, yet the name is relatively new, used to elicit the idea of a traditional Easter egg hunt. Hunting for Easter eggs is like hunting for clues in the media.

I LIKE EASTER Arguably the most EGGS LIKE THIS complicated and most famous master of THAT ARE SO Easter eggs is Taylor OBVIOUS AFTER Swift, famed singer and songwriter. Swift SHE DROPS AN has an expansive array ALBUM THAT YOU of Easter eggs to her name, oftentimes ARE JUST LEFT planned years in THINKING ‘HOW advance.

“My favorite Taylor COULD I HAVE Swift Easter egg so MISSED THAT?’ far has to be her ‘not a lot going on at the moment’ phrase,” Cara Lichty sophomore and Swift Sophomore fan, Cara Lichty said.

“She will post pictures with this caption when she is recording something to let fans know that music is coming. She posted a photo with this caption when she recorded ‘Cardigan,’ and did the same leading up to ‘Evermore.’”

Swift’s newest albums, including “Red (Taylor’s Version)” are chock-full of Easter eggs. In the music video for “I Bet You Think About Me,” a ‘vault’ track from “Red (Taylor’s Version),” a towering wedding cake is featured.

On the cake, iced numbers are featured at the top, including the number 13, which is Swift’s lucky number. The middle layer of the cake features the design of two of Swift’s rings, one ring is featured on the cover of “Red (Taylor’s Version),” and the other one she wore when “Red” was released in 2012. The bottom tier of the cake features iced designs of birds, most notably two species of birds: seagulls—featured on Swift’s 2014 “1989” album cover—and a type of bird called swifts.

“

“[‘Not a lot going on at the moment’] was also on her shirt for the ‘22’ music video, leading some fans to think that she was hinting at the ‘Red’ rerecording the entire time [she was recording ‘folklore’ and ‘evermore’],” Lichty said. “This has been my favorite Easter egg because to non-fans, it would seem like a normal caption to post, but now whenever she posts this saying, fans know that new music is in the works, almost like a code of sorts.”

In 2019, Swift, anticipating the release of her new album “Lover,” released a single and music video for her song “ME!” In the vibrant video, references were made to Swift’s “1989” album and The Chicks, the famed country trio who were featured on “Soon You’ll Get Better.” A neon sign spelling out “Lover” made an appearance in the video, hinting at her next album’s name. At the beginning of the music video, Swift and Brendan Urie, lead singer of Panic At The Disco who was featured on “ME!,” partake in an argument in French, in which Urie tells Swift “you need to calm down,” giving away the name of Swift’s next single.

“I remember when she hid a Lover sign in her ‘Me!’ music video, hinting at the name of her next album,” Lichty said. “I like easter eggs like this that are so obvious after she drops an album that you are just left thinking ‘how could I have missed that?’”

One of Swift’s most Easter egg ridden music videos is her “Look What You Made Me Do” music video, accompanying the lead single of her 2017 “Reputation.”

In the beginning of the video, a gravestone is pictured with the name “Nils Sjöberg” etched on it, the alias that Swift used when songwriting with Calvin Harris in the past. In a later clip of the video, Swift lays in a jewel-filled bathtub containing one singular dollar bill, representing her historic sexual assault lawsuit in which she sued for one dollar.

Additionally, the video features her friends dressed in “I heart TS” tank tops—a nod to a tank top her ex-boyfriend, Tom Hiddleston, wore to one of Swift’s parties. However, one of Swift’s most famous Easter eggs is the use of snakes throughout her “Reputation” era. Snakes were the emoji that Kim Kardashian had used to flame Swift after the dispute between Swift and Kanye West, after the release of the latter’s song “Famous.”

“I have been a fan of Taylor’s music for my entire life,” Lichty

said. “But I really only started following her life and easter eggs after she surprised everyone with her ‘Reputation’ album after disappearing for a while. Since then, I have been more invested in what she is up to because…

I realized that the process of her releasing music and the expectation can be just as fun as when the music is released.”

Swift’s prolific use of Easter eggs has led many fans to speculate their own theories about what Swift will be up to next.

“I have a long standing theory that the colors in the lyrics for the song red correlate to the scarf that the album references,” Lichty said.

“The lyrics of the song talk about the colors red, dark gray and blue just like the colors of the scarf.

That is really the only theory I have come up with on my own, and it has never been confirmed, but I believe that it is true.”

However, Swift is not the only musician to use Easter eggs in her work. Singer and songwriter Harry Styles is famous for dropping clues for his fans to decipher his next move.

Most recently, an Instagram account with the user “You are home” popped up on many fans’ radars and led to rumors flying about new music from Styles. The Instagram account posted a picture of a door every day, beginning March 19, at 11 a.m. Central Time. Mysterious backgrounds accompanied each half-open door and led many fans to speculate whether or not the backgrounds were related to Styles.

“Harry just started a new Instagram account called ‘You are home’ [where] the account posts doors with a secret meaning behind each door,” freshman Harry Styles fan Jane Leopard said. “I thought that the doors were somehow related to his new single coming out. When the music video was released I looked back and you could tell each door was a clip of the music video.”

On March 25, Styles announced the release of his new album “Harry’s House,” set to release on May 20, 2022. The name of the album coincided with fans’ belief that the new album would center around the theme of “home,” after Styles renamed the pit sections of his upcoming 2022 Love On Tour to “Bedroom,” “Hallway” and “Kitchen,” and ended the United States leg of his tour saying goodbye to his American audience by saying, “One more time, as loud as you

can, send me home.”

“I’ve been a [Harry Styles] fan for around a year,” Leopard said. “[Even so], Harry could breathe, and we will think he is dropping clues.”

Music Easter eggs are not contained to just pop music either.

Fans of up-and-coming Red Dirt country star Zach Bryan have noticed nods to future songs in his music.

“In Zach Bryan’s song ‘Heading South,’ he sings ‘as the masses sing the lyrics of a messed up kid,’” sophomore Zach Bryan fan Xander Nelson said. “‘Heading South’ is the fourth song on the album, and the eleventh song on the album is called ‘Messed Up Kid.’ I think it’s pretty cool how Zach Bryan hints at future songs in his [previous] songs. Plus, ‘Heading South’ is just a great song.”

Re-used lyrics and hints to future songs are a common theme in Bryan’s music, much to his fans’ delight.

“In ‘Don’t Give Up On Me,’ there’s the lyric ‘to hug you ‘till your little lungs turn blue,’” sophomore Stephen Swann said.

“Later on in the album, in the song ‘Condemned,’ Zach Bryan reuses those lyrics and says ‘you can tell me that you love me till your little lungs turn blue.’ It took me a bit to realize that parallel, but once I did, my mind was blown.”

The proliferation of Easter eggs in current music culture has led to increased excitement within fandoms in anticipation of new material from their favorite artists.

“I for sure overthink everything Taylor does at this point, [but] that is what she wants,” Lichty said. “From her outfits, hairstyles, captions and what she chooses to place in the background of her photos, everything has a theory. This has definitely been heightened now that we know she is rerecording albums because we have an idea of what color schemes and styles we are looking for in accordance with the albums.

Before we were just trying to guess if she would be releasing anything, [but] now we have options to try to figure out what she is going to release.”

“I for sure overthink everything that comes to music now,” said Swann. “Looking for hints in music and movies makes listening and watching them a lot more fun, and I’m definitely more invested in them. Easter eggs are really fun to look for, and I’m always on the lookout!”

Life

May 13, 2022

9

Teachers find meaningful friendships at work School provides oppportunities for teachers to be involved in the community

By Olivia Hohmann Social Media Manager

A

s middle school English teacher Adina Richman hears her alarm go off, she wakes up with a smile as she knows that going to work will mean spending time with some of her dearest friends. Teachers, like students, view the school day as not only a time to get work done, but to also spend time with their coworkers with whom they have developed strong bonds.

“Some days the friendships with my coworkers are the very best part,” Richman said. “Some days you come to school and your life is in a mess, and you know you have someone to talk to who can also help you. For example, if my dog were to die, and I showed up to school not knowing what was going to happen in [one of my classes], I would feel confident that someone would console me and help me with [that class]. It is a different kind of love and trust.”

In middle school, each grade level has a different team of teachers; they are usually assigned to a grade level based on what grade level they are predominantly teaching or by what grade their advisory is in. Teachers can move around to different teams each year, which has happened to Richman. First, she was a part of the seventh grade team, next the eighth grade team, then the sixth grade team and now she is back on the eighth grade team.

“I am really close with the seventh-grade team, the eighth grade team and the sixth grade team still,” Richman said. “There is a different dynamic in each group, but I am shocked at how kind everyone is. They really look to see your strengths and to do the best for you.”

Teachers feel that they consistently have the support and help of their fellow coworkers.

Richman is especially grateful that sixth grade math teacher Allison Darnell is willing to step up to help her out to make her life simpler, by creating a schedule for her.

She believes that this small act of kindness, goes to show how goodnatured her fellow coworkers are.

“The sixth grade team has a confusing schedule, and it is especially confusing for me as I have different rooms and different grade levels,” Richman said. “I don’t have a room, I solely have my desk. Well, every year I wonder ‘Where am I supposed to be?

When?’ Every year Mrs. Darnell makes a schedule for me and prints it all out where I go, what time I need to be there and where I go next. I use it every time. Even when I left the sixth grade she made sure that it was there for me on the first day of school. That is just so kind.”

But teachers have a personal life as well and they do not solely bond at school. Upper school Spanish teacher Martha Rester got to know one of her colleagues at a more personal level. Fellow upper school Spanish teacher Jill Quarles stayed with Rester’s family during the February 2021 freeze.

“Señorita Quarles stayed with us for three nights because her power went out,” Rester said. “She is now one of my closest work friends, and I think a lot of that has to do with that experience.”

Rester believes that getting to know her coworkers outside of the work environment allows her to get to know who they really are, not just their professional self. She gets to know about their lives and their families, which allows her to know them below the surface level.

“I think it’s nice to get to know colleagues as the people they are outside of a professional box,” Rester said. “When we are limited to only knowing people professionally, it prevents us from having a holistic view which can sometimes result in a lack of empathy. In other words, don’t judge a book by its cover. Read and analyze that book so you can appreciate it. I know some employees prefer their private lives to remain private, which I truly respect, [but] it’s just not my personality.”

Even though ESD provides happy hours and holiday parties where teachers spend time together outside of their work environment, Rester wished that there were more school sponsored opportunities for the faculty to interact. She believes that these events allow for a stronger bond between the teachers.

“I would say ESD encourages employees to get involved in the community,” Rester said. “They do host the occasional happy hour and this past year [we] had a really nice Christmas party at Suze. Allowing us time at lunch to mingle with coworkers is one of the highlights of my day.”

And while Rester tends to sit with her department during lunch on most days, she said that she always enjoys meeting new people and getting to know her other colleagues on a personal level.

She hopes that maybe with more school events, she will be able to get to know some of her other coworkers.

“I would love to see ESD sponsor a voluntary day out to Wolf Run for faculty and staff and their families. It’s such an amazing piece of property and would be a

great bonding experience for all.”

Although some teacher friends do not spend much time together outside of school, they still are able to support one another. They celebrate birthdays, births, marriages and personal achievements.

Upper school art teacher Juan Negroni’s experience is close with many of the art teachers as he is around them all day.

“Although we do not hang out and text that much outside of school, we often run into one another at art events,” Negroni said. “We are all extremely supportive of each other and will go and support one another’s shows.”

This friendship and camaraderie among the art teachers often provides inspiration as they share opinions and thoughts on different artists’ pieces. Negroni believes that being able to talk with his coworkers about art pieces around the world makes coming to work more enjoyable.

“I am grateful to be amongst such creative and inspiring coworkers,” Negroni said. “I enjoy being able to talk to them about different artists

TEACHER TALKS Spanish teaachers Jill Quarles, Martha Rester and Ninotchka Beavers converse in the Spanish faculty office before classes in early May. The group, along with Marcela Garcini, had become close over the years, and meet up during free periods or before school. “We have different personalities, backgrounds and perspectives, so we are constantly learning from each other,” Quarles said. “They are loyal and trustworthy, so I know I can count on their support if I am facing a difficult situation.”

Photo by Alexandra Warner

around the world and compare our thoughts on them.”

For Rester, having good friends and colleagues at school is something that she values. She feels that both her students and coworkers’ high spirits rub off onto her and make her days more enjoyable.

“Aside from working with such wonderful students, my colleagues are some of the best [people] I’ve encountered,” Rester said. “Being surrounded by such bright, fun and positive people is a huge perk of this job. I value my colleagues more than anything. They give me both professional and personal support every day, and I’m grateful for that.”

Senior Assassin game creates chaos Administration expresses concerns over safety of the game and participants

By Alexandra Warner Views Editor

S

enior Avery Vafa sneaks past her target’s house into the backyard. She scouts the perimeter, trying to find a hiding spot so she can sneak up on her. As she leaves the house, her target, senior Emily Lichty, sends a video of Vafa on the Ring doorbell. She’s caught! Now she needs a new plan to catch her target before Monday morning.

At the end of every school year, the senior class plays a game: Assassin. Each senior who wants to play has to “buy in” with an entry fee. Players are assigned a new target each week and are given mini water guns to eliminate his or her target before the following Monday. This year’s game started on March 28 and ended April 25 when Riley Calvert “assassinated” his target Chase Kennedy, and was declared the winner. The prize, approximately $900, was all the

money culminated from the “buy in.”

“It’s a really fun game, which is why I think seniors play it every year,” Vafa said. “Some people take it more seriously than others, but everyone has fun. It’s very exciting and is a game that brings the whole grade together.”

Assassin includes a Game Master who sets the rules and assigns targets to each senior participating. It’s a crucial role in order for the game to work successfully.

“In our grade GroupMe, I [first] sent a message to everyone saying, ‘how much money do you want to [pay to] buy in [the game],’” senior class president and Game Master Jonathan Scurtis said. “I just organized it through GroupMe [after that]. I got everyone’s money [who] wanted to play, and it ended up being [around] 95 percent of the grade. I typed up a Google

doc[ument] with basic rules and kept track of each person’s assassin targets.”

Some seniors develop strategies to shoot their targets such as sitting in bushes, waking up early to catch them off guard or just waiting at the school gate by Merrell Road.

“I mostly just wait for the right opportunity,” Vafa said.

“Sometimes I have been lucky, but it’s a waiting game. My first target I got out was crossing the street to the parking lot during their study hall. My second target I shot while she was walking late at night in her neighborhood. And then I got another target out at the Dallas Stars hockey game.”

However, the lengths seniors will go to to win the prize money concerns the school’s staff.

Potential rule breaks and injury scares have been brought to attention with senior dean Marcela Garcini.

“This particular year, we encountered many problems because the seniors are not CAUGHT ON CAMERA Senior Avery Vafa’s dad dresses up as a pizza delivery man to help her eliminate senior Riley Calvert. Vafa had been trying to kill Calvert for a week, and needed to eliminate him by Monday, May 1. “While using the [bathroom] at Prom, I conversed with Mr. Vafa making him aware I would assassinate his daughter and win the prize pool,” Calvert said. “With Avery needing a kill to avoid elimination, the Vafa’s plotted their revenge in the form of a fake pizza man. [However], their final attempts were futile.”

Photo from Riley Calvert

following the rules: they play inside, they run inside of the building; but the main concern is the crosswalk,” Garcini said.

“Our Dallas Police Department is concerned about our students’ safety, and they are recommending the school to avoid this game in the future.”

Director of Campus Security Jody Trumble agrees with Garcini that the game should be banned in the upcoming years because of risk of injuries and safety during carpool and traffic hours.

“We have had a number of incidents at or near the crosswalk on Merrell where students ran in front of traffic in an attempt to get away from [their] ‘assassin’ while the police officers were directing traffic to move,” Trumble said.

“These close calls caused our PD officers to request that the game not be played near the crosswalk, but students continued to play there and more close calls happened.”

Trumble is also worried about disrupting neighbors and families, as they have been caught off guard and even called law enforcement.

Sometimes students looking for their targets show up at the home of another student unannounced, dressed in camouflage and hiding in the bushes.

“That caused parents to become alarmed, and law enforcement was called,” Trumble said. “I think anyone who might have seen someone hiding in the bushes, dressed in camo and right outside their front door would become

rightfully concerned.”

Homeowners or parents could see the situation as a threat and could take action before realizing that it’s a school game and students are involved, and this worries Trumble as well.

But this game is a tradition and senior students believe that the school should not ban the game.

Most highschoolers look forward to playing the game at the end of their senior year.

“Assassin is played every year and has become a tradition that everyone looks forward to,” Vafa said. “Taking the game away would be unfair to everyone in the grades below because it’s just something every senior gets to experience before they leave. I get that safety is important, but instead of punishing everyone else to stop playing the game, we should just remind the seniors to be careful.”

While Assassin has called some teachers and safety department officers to question the safety and intensity of the game, it’s an ongoing tradition that high schoolers all over the country play and enjoy.

“The game is played in a lot of high schools, and I definitely think it brought our grade closer together,” Vafa said. “It is a friendly competitive game that allows you to get to know your classmates and peers and should for sure be continued, so every grade can enjoy the exciting game.”

10

Eagle Edition

Episcopal School of Dallas

hallway chatter

By Jamie Henderson

“

Some upper school

A compilation of the most interesting and hilarious stories of the year as a yearly wrap up for 2021-2022

students often challenge me to put a random word or phrase in my sermons.

So far they have asked,

Staff writer

and I have included:

“

and Xylophone. But I

I WAS HONESTLY JUST SO TIRED OF HEARING MEAN THINGS IN THE MEDIA, POLITICS, EVERYWHERE -- JUST HATRED [AND MEANNESS] NORMALIZED. I FEEL LIKE [IT] IS BEING USED AS A STRENGTH, [AS IF] PEOPLE FEEL STRONG WHEN THEY’RE MEAN OR SAY HATEFUL THINGS. ONE DAY I THOUGHT, ‘WHY CAN’T PEOPLE [RECOGNIZE] THE STRENGTH IN KINDNESS? WHY CAN’T [THIS] BE IN THE MEDIA, OR [WHY ISN’T] THE STRENGTH OF KINDNESS AND COMPASSION [MORE FULLY UNDERSTOOD?]’

only do one per sermon!

”

Sw ift

Father Nate Bostian

Lit

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lo r Ta y

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ro

ic

Ey ed

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Referring to the thoughts that prompted Moran to start studying how compassion and kindness can positively impact brain function and physical and emotional well-being. She recently completed an internship at the UT Dallas Center for Brain Health, where she researched and co-authored Parenting With a Kind Mind: Exploring Kindness as a Potentiator for Enhanced Brain Health, which supports the hypothesis that when parents teach and practice kindness with their children, the children’s empathy and parents’ resilience levels rise.

a nt

Upper school English teacher

Antarctica, Taylor Swift

A

Antonia Moran

Eyedropper, Litterbox,

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Am

“

My glasses fell out onto the court and everybody went silent. And I was like, ‘Oh my [gosh].’

But then everybody started laughing and clapping.

”

Virginia Nussbaumer ‘22 During the town hall meeting, when Homecoming Court was announced, and she fell on her way down to the front when her name was called.

“I was sitting there and [someone’s] TikTok just suddenly went off [during the Soundcheck talk] and it was so funny. Everyone was laughing around me and I felt bad for the person who had the phone.”

Caroline Rochon ‘25

“I really just wanted to do the music justice and really follow that instead of just coming up with whatever cool tricks I could pull out of my skills.”

“

So I forgot my pants on the day of the NHS ceremony, but I remembered my tie and blazer. I was forced to wear my school shorts to the ceremony. I was a little nervous before I went up there, but when everybody laughed it calmed me down. My goal was to just own it and nobody would care, so that’s what I did.

”

Will Searcy ‘23

Bridget Wang ‘23 In response to how she came up with her self-choreographed performance at Coffee House

“Back in the first semester, some of my friends and I had a regular habit of eating our lunch outside one of the covered tables. The days were still hot, and one day we found an unopened carton of now hot milk sitting on our typical table. Being the explorative 10th graders we were, we decided to test what would happen after leaving the milk out in the sun for a period of time. So we transferred the milk into a used plastic water bottle and found a sunexposed hiding place to keep it while we weren’t around to watch it. Every day, we would have our lunch and check in on the condition of our science experiment.

By about the 10th day we had pretty much made our own crude version of cheese, albeit rather smelly and probably dangerous to eat. We continued the experiment for a few more days afterward, adding milk as we went, until the bottle mysteriously disappeared from our spot, never to be seen again.”

at

Slaton Strey ‘24 Photos by Jamie Henderson, Brooke Ebner, Conner Searcy and Casey Curtis

Life

May 13, 2022

A variety of the top trending pop culture phenomena compiled

by Life Editor Abby Baughman

SH

cul

e C r RA u t

GILDED GLAMOR This year’s Met Gala, “In America: An Anthology of Fashion,” took place on May 2. The theme, “Gilded Glamor,” was based on the period of America between the end of the civil war to the start of the 20th century. This year’s theme followed last year’s “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion.” One notable look was host Blake Lively’s; she wore a dress inspired by the Statue of Liberty that had a copper body and unveiled a teal skirt.

2 4

3

ON PAR The Masters Golf Tournament took place from April 7 to April 10. Scottie Scheffler, Highland Park Highschool alumni, won by three strokes and received a record breaking $2.7 million prize. Over the last six tournaments Scheffler has won over $9 million. He is also the second golfer to have four Professional Golfers’ Association wins in a season.

AIN’T IT STRANGE On May 6, the second Doctor Strange and new Marvel movie “Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness” was released.

The movie stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange and Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff. In America, the movie earned $36 million on its opening night, and it grossed $185 million in its opening weekend.

6

1S

Story and photo by Elisabeth Siegel Managing Editor

DEPP VS HEARD

KEEPING UP...AGAIN

5

COACHELLA RETURNS

This year’s Coachella Music and Arts Festival started on Friday, April 15 and ended on Sunday, April 24. This is the first Coachella since 2019.

The festival reached an attendance of over 250,000 people. Coachella was headlined by Harry Styles, Billie Eilish and a collaboration of the Swedish House Mafia and The Weeknd.

GOT TO BE REAL

BeReal is a new social media platform that only allows the user to post once a day. When posting a BeReal, the camera activates both ways, takes two pictures and packages them together.

The app launched in Dec. 2019 and has recently exploded in popularity. BeReal was created by French entrepreneurs Alexis Barreyat and Kévin Perreau.

Six upper school faculty members retire Community reflects on retirees’ memories, impact

The Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard Trial started on April 12. The trial centers around Depp suing Heard for defamation for $50 million. After Heard accused Depp of domestic violence, slandering Depp’s name, he pursued legal action. Heard is arguing that he did, in fact, abuse her, so there is no defamation, while Depp is counter accusing Heard of abusing him.

After 19 seasons, “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” ended its run with E! Network. However, the famous family made a return to reality TV with the launch of a new show with Hulu simply called “The Kardashians.” The show remains the same, but with a more documentary angle. The show stars Kim, Khloe, Kris and Kourtney with occasional appearances from Kylie and Kendall.

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7

o far, 10 teachers have announced that will be retiring at the end of the school year: history and religion teacher Kimberly Rogers, beginner teacher Christy Black, upper school science teacher Dr. Donna M. Hull, beginner teacher assistant Carla Robnett, middle school math teacher Ruth Howell, upper school Latin teacher Dr. Angela Fritsen, upper school learning support counselor Dr. Hilary Hodgson, freshman class Dean Dawn Eatherly, Administrative Assistant to Head of School Sylvia Bogard and upper school English teacher Greg Randall.

With these teachers, the school will be losing 151 years of talent. All of them have worked at the school for long periods of time, allowing them to leave a lasting impression. Faculty and staff reminisce about the retiring upper school teachers and the impact they have had on many lives.

Randall has worked at the school as an upper school English teacher for 40 years—since 1982. His wife, Michelle Randall, worked as the school’s librarian for 35 years and retired five years ago. Randall hopes to teach his students the complexity of literature and the importance of telling their own stories.

“I love teaching,” Randall said. “It’s work, but I love it, yet you reach a certain point that retirement happens. I thought about it last year, and I decided on one more year… You get those classes [at ESD] when everybody’s channeled; it’s like a soccer match or a basketball game.

Everybody’s on that same wavelength. You feel as if the discussion has led to something important.”

And seeing these teachers retire is hard for other faculty members too. For upper school history teacher Claire Mrozek, many of this year’s retiring teachers are some of her closest and longest-running colleagues.

“Mr. Randall and I have been neighbors for more than 30 years basically,” Mrozek said.

“These folks are a part of my daily life. I’m sad for the students who will not get the pleasure and joy of having them as teachers, but these are wonderful people who deserve to relax, do something different, and I’m happy for them that they get to make this decision.”

Fritsen has worked at the school as an upper school Latin teacher for 24 years. She hopes that her students learn to appreciate all languages and the people who speak them. Even more, she hopes that her students will learn to be kind to themselves and to be patient with themselves and others.

“The time has flown by,” Fritsen said. “I don’t know where it all went, so I don’t feel as if it has been that long. Keeping busy as I did, I never imagined going someplace else.

My favorite memories are times shared in the classroom: getting to know my students, creating bonds and sharing inside jokes.”

Many students have created bonds with these teachers throughout their years at the school and will be sad not to have them in class or see them in the halls. Junior Kate Battaglia, who had Fritsen as a teacher for three years, said Fritsen helped guide her transition from middle to upper school.

“To have someone like that, who’s sort of a parent figure, is just so important,” Battaglia said. “She cared about what we were going through in school. She would do the most she could to support us.”

Eatherly has worked at the school for 27 years. Throughout her time at the school, she has learned how to manage a variety of positions, whether that’s from being a teacher of PE, outdoor education and culinary chemistry

or an administrator in the facilities and athletics departments. Once she retires, she plans to live in her house in South Carolina and enjoy the mountains.

“I think just watching that growth and then watching the campus really expand and develop has been pretty special,” Eatherly said. “I hope that [students] learn commitment to work, whether it be your school or your job, that you need to commit to it and do your best and find a happy balance with the fun and the rigor… [Teachers] understand exactly what you’re going through, and sometimes it’d be nice if you knew we knew what you were going through.”

Rogers has worked at the school for 16 years. She lives so close to campus that she sometimes walks to work.

I HAVE ALWAYS “I have loved the LOVED THE camaraderie that I have had with my peers PEOPLE WHO and the energy of my WORK HERE, students,” Rogers said.

IT MAKES “I believe that I teach the most interesting classes, EVERY DAY and I hope I was able to INTERESTING. convey my enthusiasm for the subjects I I WILL MISS taught. I also hope I WALKING [have] encouraged [my students] to be curious THROUGH and ask questions.”

CAMPUS AND Hodgson has worked at the school SEEING SO for 24 years. She MANY FAMILIAR works with students FACES AND who have diagnosed learning disabilities and FRIENDS. sometimes mental health issues that impact the speed of their cognitive Donna Hull processing, and prepares Science teacher accommodation plans for support.

“I’m always amazed at what students are able to do to overcome their difficulties,” Hodgson said. “I definitely enjoyed working as an advisor the last two school years, which was enjoyable because I hadn’t been an advisor before. And [in] lower school I used to go on a lot of Wolf Run trips, which I really enjoyed and have memories of. And then the colleagues that I’ve worked with over the years and the faculty staff, my department have just been wonderful people to work with.”

Hull has worked at the school for 20 years.

The rigor and faith centered aspect of the school has made her the right fit. Though she doesn’t expect her students to love science, she hopes that they appreciate its importance in their lives and will learn, apply and possibly pursue it.

“I’m always learning as much as the students are learning; I have a job that requires that I read, learn and stay up to date in my subject,” Hull said. “And I have always loved the people who work here, it makes every day interesting. I will miss walking through campus and seeing so many familiar faces and friends—I wish everyone the very best in life.”

As for Randall, he enjoys the spirit of the place and the relationships that the community forms.

“The optimism, the ability to kind of laugh at ourselves sometimes and not to take things terribly seriously,” Randall said.

“

KEEPING WATCH Seniors taped photos of retiring female teachers, including freshman dean Dawn Eatherly, to offices in the study commons as a part of prank day. “One of my favorite yearly things is to watch the seniors and see where they started,” Eatherly said. “And how much they’ve grown is so rewarding. I loved being the freshman dean and nurturing them.”

By Elisabeth Siegel

12 Eagle Edition

Episcopal School of Dallas

arts

MIXED MEDIA

Sculpture teacher brings tree to life Art students create leaves for lower school tree sculpture

By Iris Hernandez News Editor

D

ane Larsen has been the upper school sculpture teacher at ESD for eight years, contributing his hands-on-learning and relaxed environment to the community. But before his time at 4100 Merrell Rd., Larsen taught English in Thailand to children for over a year and a half.

“I mostly taught the really young kids…so I mostly [sang] Rafi songs and ‘Wheels on the Bus’ and a lot on the guitar,” Larsen said.

“So it was fun. A fun little interlude before [my wife and I] started having kids.”

Thailand, despite being over 8,000 miles away, was not IF YOU’RE NOT too different from SPENDING school life in Dallas.

Larsen taught at YOUR TIME IN Nandachart preschool A WAY THAT IS and taught art workshops at Chiang INTERESTING, Mai University. His IT’S KIND OF brother was living there at the time and WASTED. Larsen and his wife decided to go.

Dane Larsen “There are ways in which it was more Upper School like teaching at Sculpture Teacher ESD than teaching at public school,” Larsen said. “They were building a larger campus and doing a lot of things that ESD has done over the past several years.”

Larsen moved back to the U.S. when his wife became pregnant

“

STRUTTING HER STUFF Intermediate sculpture studnets put their painted leaves on to the tree in thel lower school. “I loved painting the leaves because the sculpture and art classes involved got to be apart of something longer lasting, and it would be appreciated by lower school kids,” Beatrice Bryan said.

Photos by Dane Larsen and Bobby Weiss.

with their first child in 2008.

Charlotte Chambliss, a former studio art teacher at ESD, invited him to ESD to teach due to the newly created split schedule. “[Former fine arts department director] Dusty Davidson and [former head of upper school] Dr. Hull wanted to hire someone to reinvigorate the upper school sculpture program, which had dwindled down to only two students total,” Larsen said. “I only taught one sculpture class that first year, my other classes were Foundations of Art Drawing and Intro to 2D/3D Design. This year we have 10 students in AP Sculpture alone, and I only teach sculpture classes.”

For Larsen, sculpture is not just a fun activity or a hobby, but a way to expand his knowledge of different materials and skill.

He likes to experiment and is constantly working with new materials and keeps himself busy, working on several projects throughout the year.

“I have worked with everything from living plants, to trash, to paperclay, to cedar,” Larsen said. “I actually enjoy using things I haven’t used before because art is sort of an excuse for learning. If you’re not spending your time in a way that’s interesting, it’s kind of wasted.”

Larsen did not always focus on sculpture though. In his early childhood he greatly enjoyed sculpture and even won awards at the Texas State Fair for his pieces. But because of a dislike of his childhood sculpture teacher, he mainly focused on 2D art until college. It was there where he rediscovered his passion for 3D art.

“Because of the way they used to do scheduling, my name was last to schedule classes, so all of the painting classes vwere full,” Larsen said. “On a whim, I took sculpture and ended up taking sculpture and transmedia classes all the way through my [Bachelor of Fine Arts]. I was able to come back to something that I’d [loved] to do previously but not done because I didn’t like who I had to be around to [do] it.”

In 2019, Larsen created a life size wood sculpture of a tree for the lower school’s new building, the tree is housed in an indoor common area. The lowerschoolers are able to play on and interact with the tree often.

“Every artist wants to make things,” Larsen said. “We want to see things in the world that don’t exist yet.

The tree was made from Western Red Cedar and weighs over 3,500 pounds. Larsen noticed that this year the tree had been a bit bare so he saw this as an opportunity for his students to add their own artistic abilities to the tree. The intermediate art students left their normal routines to contribute to the project: leaves.

Larsen wanted the leaves to resemble the leaves of a Lacey Oak Tree, which usually turn a purple or yellow tint in the early spring.

“It felt awesome to give them to the lower school kids,” junior scuplture student Jackson Bloomfield said. “It felt good to be viewed as a role model to them.

Each person made about two to three [leaves] depending on how much paint they had used. It also took time depending on the

complexity of their leaf.”

Leaves were not the only thing made though, as intermediate sculpture student junior Jack Massey created an apple that attaches to a branch of the tree.

“I decided to do this project because I wanted to make something for the school that would be there forever,” Massey said. “The process was very hard and something I was not expecting but was a good challenge. I started the project in November and finished it in April. As you can see, it took a long time.”

The tree has become a staple for the lower school pod since 2019. The beginners have their daily chapel under the tree, a tradition that was started by former lower school Chaplain, Rev. Amy Heller.

“It is probably the sweetest, silliest and most special chapel all day long,” current lower school Chaplain Toni Luc-Tayengo said.

“These tiny three and four year olds gather to sing, pray and learn the stories of faith at the base of their giant community tree. It is a wonderful way to start the day.”

While Larsen took up this project in 2019, its legacy, not only in the lower school but the upper school as well, will stay on campus for years to come.

“My classes occasionally ask to take field trips to see the tree, and it provides a good opportunity to talk about the type of planning and work that goes into a large project,” Larsen said. “It also makes me happy to see the patina that is developing from all the little hands and feet that climb all over it during the school day.”

Arts

May 13, 2022

13

meet

the

A compilation of staff and community opinions of recent art and culture phenomena, highlighting a specific piece of media, events, films, collections, performances and music.

Diving into the Docuzone While taking time to relax people around the ESD community catch up on the latst docuseries

A

s I clicked play on the Netflix docuseries “Cheer,” I was immediately greeted by cheerleader Morgan Simianer flying through the air with teammates cheering her on. At that moment I knew that I would be dedicating the next couple of hours binge-watching the show. Netflix wanted to create the show to prove that competitive cheer is a demanding physical activity that deserves to be categorized as a sport.

Oftentimes, competitive cheerleading is overshadowed by the stereotype that cheerleading is just people smiling while waving around their pom poms, but it is more than that. In season one, the show documents the team at Navarro College in Corsicana, Texas. It follows the team’s preparations for the 2020 National Cheerleaders Association and National Dance Alliance Collegiate Championship located in Daytona Beach, Florida. Director Greg Whiteley chose to highlight Navarro College because of their show stopping performances and numerous awards.

The process is gruesome as it takes a toll on the cheerleaders mental and physical health. It is common for cheerleaders to get concussions, sprain ligaments and oftentimes have emotional breakdowns. The cheerleaders often have problems going on outside of the cheer world and are grateful to have their team which becomes like a second family. The squad supports one another through “mat talk:’’ when team members hype each other up when they are doing a trick or stunt on the cheer mat. Coach Monica Aldama fiercely leads the kids and is a mother figure in many of their lives. She has won 15 National Championships since 2000 and six NCA Grand National Championships.

I won’t spoil the season one finale, but it is definitely worth binge-watching as you will finally be able to see how cheer deserves to be classified as a sport. Every time these cheerleaders step out onto the mats they risk getting injured; if one thing goes wrong, someone could be paralyzed, left with a broken or injured bone and/or a concussion. Season two continues to follow Navarro cheer but also features their rivals: Trinity Valley Community College located in Athens, Texas.

Extreme tension for both teams leads to a suspenseful season of anxious anticipation. I was constantly left going back and forth rooting for each team to win the title. Each team dedicates over three hours a day to prepping their routines. During each practice cheerleaders push through the pain, sweat and tears. These cheerleaders work all year for one three-minute performance to define their entire year at the NCA and NDA championship.

This moment can be the most rewarding experience of their lives or leave them heartbroken if they lose.

Whether you are a cheerleader or a person who has never been interested in cheer before, this show is still equally fascinating. The dances and the stunts are incredible, but also watching the time and effort a person puts into something that they are passionate about is remarkable. Grab a snack, take a break from studying and catch up on “Cheer.” I promise it is worth it.

I recently watched a docudrama on Hulu called “The Dropout.” It is a story about Elizabeth Holmes who dropped out of Stanford to start her company, Theranos. Holmes created a company with a machine that would have the technology to take one drop of blood and be able to give you results for all different types of diseases and disorders. The only problem is she did not have the technology working and she lied to everyone about it. She also made a deal with Walgreens and put the nonworking machine in stores.

It gave many people false, inaccurate results. She was finally outed by two ex-employees who went to The New York Times. Holmes was charged and is awaiting her hearing currently.

I really enjoyed this series. I found it fascinating that she kept pushing things forward even though she knew the technology wasn’t there. It was interesting that she did not take responsibility for all her lies and how it affected people’s lives. Holmes had numerous big investors who she convinced to put money in her company. She lost all of that money, which was over $600 million. I felt she was influenced by Sunny, her boyfriend, and the chief operating officer of Theranos who “made” her into the look, but she still knew what she was doing. She was constantly afraid of the lies getting out, and she had people followed, scared and stalked if she thought they were going to go to the reporters or journalists.

One ex-employee was smart to write a complaint to Medicare, send someone to the labs and finally reveal the entire lie.

I like trying to figure out why people do these things and compromise so much of their morals and ethics.

Holmes was portrayed as if she did not care about anyone but herself. There was one part that sticks out to me. That was when she asked her mom what happens if she fails or doesn’t want to do this anymore. Her mom brushed over it, not acknowledging how she might be feeling, and Holmes went ahead with her cold, tough demeanor.

By Amy Henderson Guest Writer

“Icons: The Greatest Person of the 20th Century” was a BBC docuseries from 2019. There are a total of eight episodes, each focusing on a different category of “icons:” scientists (Maria Curie, Albert Einstein, Alan Turing and Tu Youyou), leaders (Winston Churchill, FDR, Margaret Thatcher and Nelson Mandela), artists (Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Alfred Hitchcock and Virginia Woolf), Sports Stars (Muhammad Ali, Billie Jean King, Pelé and Tanni Grey-Thompson), explorers (Neil Armstrong, Gertrude Bell, Jane Goodall and Ernest Shackleton), activists (Mohandas Gandhi, Helen Keller, Martin Luther King Jr and Emmeline Pankhurst), entertainers (David Bowie, Charlie Chaplin, Billie Holiday and Marilyn Monroe). The final episode reveals who they believe to be the most iconic person in the 20th century.

Overall, I think it was a pleasant viewing experience. The historical docuseries itself was very interesting as I enjoyed learning more about the different icons. Having different narrators for each episode who were also interested in the categories they presented was an unconventional but great choice. Some of these narrators are actually closely related to their category like Kathleen Turner, an American actress who narrated the episode about entertainers, and Trevor McDonald, the first reporter to interview Nelson Mandela after he was released from prison, narrated the episode about leaders. Furthermore, although only four “icons’’ were mentioned in each episode, there were many honorable mentions included in the episodes; adding these honorable mentions increased the diversity of the series and created a stronger connection to the audience.

But some changes could have been made to this docuseries despite the positive, creative choices. It would have been better and more engaging to have only two icons per episode and go more in-depth for those two icons rather than squeezing four famous people in a 50 minute episode. It could have been a more iconic docuseries if it had not only focused on the positives, but also the obstacles and perhaps the wrong choices they made and how they overcame them.

As a murder documentary enthusiast, the highly acclaimed “Catching Killers” series immediately caught my attention when it came up as a 99 percent match on my Netflix homepage. Each episode in the docuseries explains how a group of criminal detectives attempted to solve different infamous serial murder cases. For those like me who are into studying serial killers, we see very notable names in this series—from The Greenriver Killer to Blind Torture Killer to The Phoenix Serial Shooter, just to name a few. In this show, we get an in-depth recollection of what the detectives went through in order to solve each case. As well as, in some cases, witnesses or victims who survived the attempts of the killer will provide input on an episode.

I have thoroughly enjoyed every episode of this series because of its eerie tone and unpredictable content.

Surprisingly, some of the episodes have even helped me to better understand some aspects of my forensics class.

The attention to detail within the production is very pleasing to the film geek in me; the mixture of the dark color palette and how the evidence of each case is presented keeps the show interesting. The storylines are well organized and easy to follow and the episodes look very crisp and well edited.

As I mentioned before, the series is formatted to where each episode is a different case (with the exception of episodes three and four of both seasons), so it’s easy to start and stop the TV show without having to remember what happens in the last episode. And even if you didn’t remember what happened in the last episode, the recap at the beginning of each episode helps to jog your memory. The only criticism I have about this show is simply the length of each season. I would happily binge a longer season of this show despite its sometimes heavy subject matter.

I highly recommend this series to anyone who likes murder or crime documentaries, as this show always has me checking Netflix to see if there is new content.

By Nia Bethea Guest Writer

By Charles Liu Guest Writer

By Olivia Hohmann Staff writer Illustration by Olivia Hohmann

14

Eagle Edition

Episcopal School of Dallas

Dreams, sporadic manifestations of our inner thoughts, desires and fears, are normal yet complex every night occurrences.

Sophomore Will Grogan is in Egypt and he is deathly ill. Although he is only an infant, he knows that he has contracted a deadly disease: Tuberculosis. He soon notices that he is capable of healing himself part by part and that he can fly. Suddenly, he wakes up. He is sweating and quickly sits up, moving his head from one side of the room to the other. A sigh of relief leaves his body when he realizes it was only a dream. He settles back down in his warm bed and tries to go back to sleep.

Story and photo illustrations by Easterly Yeaman, Art Editor, Elliot Lovitt ,Copy Editor and William Custard, Staff Writer

percent of students say they sometimes remember their dreams

percent have ex dreami

May 13, 2022

Centerspread

WHAT ARE DREAMS? Every night the brain creates images in the mind; however, not everyone wakes up remembering them: dreams.

Thoroughly researched occurrences, dreams are formed in the brain during a restful night’s sleep.

The study and research behind the science of dreaming is fairly new. The first sleep research laboratory was established in 1929 by Nathaniel Kleitman at the University of Chicago, but it was not until 1953 that Kleitman and one of his students, Eugene Aserinsky, discovered rapid eye movements during sleep and associated these eye movements with dreaming.

These brain images are what we know as dreams and according to Dr. Leon Rosenthal, a sleep medicine specialist, we always dream, and we always have dreams. Actually, we dream several times every night.

“Every time we hit REM sleep, we are having that stage of sleep where we dream,’’ Rosenthal said. “And the assumption is that we are having a dream because that’s the way the brain works. If you have eight hours of sleep, you likely have four cycles of non-REM sleep, so you [would] have gone through the stage of REM sleep [four times] during a period… and you would have that number of dreams.”

Whether we remember them or not, we all dream. According to The National Sleep Foundation, most people spend two hours dreaming each night, usually having around four to six dreams. Some wake up with a clear memory of their dream or dreams while others may not have any recollection at all.

“We do not recall dreams because we usually do not wake up [while in] REM sleep,” Rosenthal said. “But if we wake up from REM sleep, it’s more likely that we will remember our dream.”

There are two stages of sleep—NREM, and REM sleep—in a typical night’s rest. And there are three stages of NREM sleep based on the pattern of brain activity. The first is non-rapid eye movement (NREM) one (N1), which is classified as the transition from wakefulness to light sleep. Next is NREM two: the light sleep before deep sleep. In NREM three, the delta waves—a type of brainwave—put people in a relaxed state and into a deep sleep. Lastly, most complex dreams occur during REM when the bodily muscles are paralyzed and, because of the increased brain activity, dreams have greater intensity.

“We dream a lot more than you think at night,” Science Department Chair Amy Henderson said. “But you only remember maybe two or three of your dreams. Your dreams only last 90 seconds to a few minutes, so you dream a lot more [than you think].”

During REM, more blood flows to the cortex of the brain and limbic system, the system that processes emotions. However, the frontal lobe is not active while asleep, so the brain will believe these stories we create until we wake up.

“What goes on in the brain when we sleep [and] dream is that we have complex dreams that have some emotional content, [and they] usually happen during REM sleep,” Rosenthal said. “[But] it does not mean that there are not dreams during the other stages of sleep.”

Harvard Medical School sleep researcher Robert Stickgold wrote in an article for the BBC that some people do not remember their dreams because their morning routines are hectic, causing them to forget. The blaring of an alarm clock combined with a fragile state of memory when waking up leads to dreams escaping the mind.

Grogan has extremely vivid dreams each night and used to keep a journal to record them.

“I remember my dreams every night,” Grogan said. “Mostly, I just remember a hodgepodge of something, so I just consider it one dream.”

According to the May 10 poll of 146 students, 61 percent of students sometimes remember their dreams. In the same poll, seven percent reported that they never remember their dreams.

“If you don’t remember your dreams, you should [put a] dream journal like right next to your bed. When you wake up, write down the first thing [you] remember, and the more you do that, the more you’ll remember,” Henderson said. “There’s a theory that you can write down what you want to dream about that night.”

Junior Sarah Cabrales began keeping a dream journal in the notes app of her phone to recount her impressive dreams.

“I just write them down in my notes app,” Cabrales said. “I think after I started writing them down, my dreams became way clearer and gave me a longer time frame to remember more details in the morning.”

Even though the field of sleep medicine and sleep research has grown immensely in the past few decades, there are few people who still do dream research. According to Rosenthal, scientists who did dream research used to bring subjects to sleep in the sleep lab, and they would wake up these subjects at different times to characterize dream recall.

“So when they would wake up subjects from REM sleep, they got all these wild stories,” Rosenthal said. “[The subjects would say] ‘I was hunting or I was going after XYZ.’ They would recount a very complex story.”

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF DREAMS From being chased, to having the ability to fly, to teeth falling out, the contents of dreams often correlate to real life stressful situations.

“A lot of it is traced back to different [anxieties] about upcoming events or things that you have in the future,” Henderson said. “So, are you anxious about an upcoming project? Or are you worried about how you’re going to look? Or are you worried about failing and so you feel like you’re falling?”

To famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, every dream had a meaning, no matter how senseless the dream may have seemed. In his 1899 book “The Interpretation of Dreams,” he said that dreams are fulfillments of wishes, desires and thoughts from our childhood.

t of students xperienced lucid ing

percent of students say they sometimes have nightmares

“Freud thought that every dream had like a manifest and [a] latent content,” Henderson said. “Manifest is what you actually dreamt, and then latent content is like the hidden meaning behind it. He would have people do free associations, and he would have preset stations. So the first thing that came to your mind was the dream, then he would try to find that latent content [from] the dream.”

Matthew Wilson, a researcher at MIT’s Center for Learning and Memory, was featured in a 2001 MIT News article. Wilson spoke of Freud’s studies of dreams.

“It has been a century since Freud brought forward the study of the subconscious and the examination of the content of dreams as a tool for understanding the nature of cognition and behavior in humans,” Wilson said.“We now have the means to bring this world of dreams into the study of animal cognition, and by doing so, gain deeper insight into our own [minds].”

In contrast with Freud’s theories, Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung believed that dreams were direct expressions of the mind, not disguised, and that they give people a view of their unconscious. Jung thought that dreams both compensated for imbalances in the person’s psyche and prepared the dreamer for the future.

Dream interpretation began to gain popularity in the 1970s after the release of Ann Faraday’s book “The Dream Game,” which gave techniques as to how dreams can be remembered more readily. Today, there are hundreds of different books to help people interpret and understand the meanings of their dreams. Although we have a much better understanding of dreaming today, there is still much to learn about the complex topic. “[My dreams] normally correlate to what I’m most stressed about,” Grogan said. “In a sense, it shows the dark side of my life.”

Sleep experts and doctors categorize dreams into seven types: current or recent event dreams, metaphorical or symbolic dreams, fantasy or comfort dreams, creative or problem-solving dreams, supernatural dreams, nightmares and lucid dreams.

The most common dreams are current or recent event dreams, and they mirror recent experiences either directly or indirectly. In addition, people may often experience metaphorical or symbolic dreams, allowing them to process important life events.

“Metaphorical dreams are instructive in that, properly interpreted, they can provide insights for personal development,” Psychology Today said.

Fantasy and comfort dreams reflect wishes or aspirations oftentimes compensating for ups and downs in someone’s personal life. Furthermore, these dreams may be subconscious ways to help the dreamer release stress or anxiety.

“One theory regarding the role of dreams in memory is that dreams may provide the opportunity to bring together experiences that were related, but did not occur at the same time, in order to learn from them,” Wilson said in an article in MIT News. “For example, replaying a series of pleasant or unpleasant experiences may allow us to learn what these experiences had in common and use this to guide future behavior.”

Creative and problem-solving dreams may be motivating and encouraging as they provide creative ideas or long-sought solutions to problems. For example, famous musician Paul McCartney gained inspiration for the song “Let it Be” from a dream.

“In the dream [my mother] said, ‘It’ll be alright,’” McCartney said in Far Out magazine. “I’m not sure if she used the words ‘Let it be’ but that was the gist of her advice, it was, ‘Don’t worry too much it will turn out OK.’ It was such a sweet dream I woke up thinking, ‘Oh, it was really great to visit with her again.’ I felt very blessed to have that dream.”

Rarely occurring supernatural dreams are the most noticeable and memorable type of dream and are sometimes remembered for months or even years.

Nightmares are notorious for their fear-inducing storylines. Nightmares may occur following stressful or traumatic events, but there are many different possibilities as to why a nightmare could have transpired. Additionally, they can be triggered by anxieties, fears or traumas in someone’s daily life. In some cases, there may be biological, neurological, psychological, chemical and dietary reasons behind why a nightmare would occur. As you age nightmares become less frequent and intense, although roughly two to eight percent of adults suffer from nightmare disorders.

“I used to have a recurring nightmare and there was a witch that would come down my hallway,” Grogan said. “I would hear her walking, and the door would open without me touching it. I didn’t think that was scary. But then at the end of the hall there was a witch who was outlined in light. And she would scream, and then I would die.”

Finally, a type of dreaming that has been the subject of many research studies, journal articles and debate is lucid dreaming. To many neurologists and psychologists, the lucid dream is mysterious and puzzling and could potentially advance studies of human consciousness.

Through lucid dreaming, people can control what they do while dreaming; they are metacognitive: aware of their awareness. According to the American Journal of Psychology, the average lucid dream lasts 14 minutes. There are a variety of methods, and some will even train themselves to lucid dream. Methods to achieve lucidity include frequently asking yourself if you are dreaming and checking your surroundings or entering REM sleep directly from consciousness by setting an alarm for a few hours after bedtime then falling back asleep, according to Healthline.

“I called [this dream series] Twilight Tuberculosis, because it was at night and I had tuberculosis,” Grogan said. “I would wake up in my dream out of bed, and this was the only lucid dream I ever had.”

Dreams can be a window into our brains, telling us what is at the forefront of our minds. Whether it’s fear, excitement or stress, our brains create images and stories at night to reflect that.

“I also, you know, I think that my dreams often reflect the tribulations of my life,” Grogan said. “And it really shows the gravity of the world we live in.”

percent of students have recorded their dreams

Source: May 10 poll of 146 students

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In search of a restaurant to satisfy all her sushi cravings, Co-Editor-in-Chief Grace Worsham visited five sushi restaurants, here is what she found:

LITTLE KATANA

Little Katana hosts a casual dining experience while combining Asian-Fusion and steakhouse cuisines. I decided to dine at their Uptown restaurant at 4524 Cole Ave., but there are two other locations as well. The restaurant allows for casual dress attire with a more relaxed environment. Two different menus are given when seated: the normal dinner menu and a paper sushi menu in which you pencil in your order. The rolls are not described on the sheet so I had to look them up online to avoid pestering the waiter about the contents of at least 10 rolls. I decided upon one of their fresh maki rolls, the Snow Mountain Roll, for $20, and Kalbi, Korean style beef short ribs, for $17. When the ribs arrived, there was little meat around the bone, and the accessible meat was mostly fat. I tried my best to get salvageable bites of the ribs, but I was left unsatisfied.

The meat itself was marinated in a thick sauce that did not penetrate through, limiting the tenderness and lacking the desired fall-off-thebone texture. The Snow Mountain Roll, a yellowtail roll topped with tuna, crab meat, drizzled spicy mayo and eel sauce, seemed larger than a typical roll with at least an inch or two of thick topping. The roll was hard to eat as the topping slid off and stuck to the other piece of sushi. The yellowtail seemed stale, almost as if it had been left out for a few days. The mayo and eel sauce elevated the flavor, or rather masked the dry fish, but it just didn’t satisfy me, and I was left with a large lump of crab meat that had slipped off the pieces of the roll. I believe Little Katana is overpriced for the quality of the food, subpar service and casual atmosphere. It would not be my first choice for any sushi cravings.

sushi axiom

Sushi Axiom is a unique, but comfortable sushi experience that is currently accessible in seven different locations, while each offers unique differences (North Richland Hills location has Hibachi, etc).

When I arrived at the Dallas location, 3211 Oak Lawn Ave., I was immediately drawn to the white and red lit lanterns that decorate the ceiling. The menu has a variety of options, with a hot and cold appetizer section, vegetarian, classic and signature rolls, as well as omakase (traditional Japanese dining style in which the chef provides a meal suited to your preferences). I decided on gyoza, pan fried pork dumplings with a ponzu salsa, for $6.95 and one of their signature rolls, the Pacific, for $12.95. The service was efficient with both my meals arriving quite quickly, but the presentation lacked uniqueness with the gyoza and sushi just sitting awkwardly in the center of the plate. The gyoza contained fresh pork with a fried bottom, but there were only five pieces instead of the six pieces the menu specified. The ponzo salsa added little to the dish and appeared to be more of a messy inconvenience than an elevation to the gyoza itself. When the maki roll arrived, it appeared fresh and vibrant, but it was oddly cut into 11 pieces instead of the traditional even cut of six or eight. The roll, consisting of crab, cucumber, pepper-seared tuna, avocado, ponzo and scallions, tasted similar to a classic California roll. I was disappointed with this, as I wished the delicacy and soft taste of the pepper-seared tuna could be more prominent instead of the crab and cucumber. The most interesting elements of the dish—fresh scallions, thin tuna, vibrant ponzu—were lost. Although both meals contained fresh meat and fish, the meal altogether lacked luster and there seemed to be some logistical issues with the menu and the consistency of the dishes. Sushi Axiom is affordable for the sushi that is prepared and the atmosphere is friendly, but it would not be one of my recommendations.

Illustrations by Grace Worsham Editor-in-chief

Episcopal School of Dallas

Blue

Blue Sushi Sake Grill is a sushi restaurant that also doubles as a lounge at its two locations. I ate at the 3320 McKinney Ave. location.

The atmosphere is friendly and vibrant with blue skylights and ceiling designs. The menu at Blue separates maki rolls into classic, specialty and veggie rolls, allowing for a more diverse selection. I decided to go with the Brussels sprouts as an appetizer for $8 and one of the restaurant’s recommended specialty rolls, the Thriller Roll for $11. The brussels sprouts lacked salt and crunch, leading to an underwhelming flavor. They almost seemed undercooked—hard to chew in the center—but my attitude shifted as the Thriller roll arrived. This roll, consisting of shrimp tempura, spicy crab mix, togarashi, ponzu and creamy Thriller sauce, was lined up in pairs of two with one roll at each end instead of the traditional single line presentation. This presentation caused the roll to appear like a fish with a fin on top—a thinly twisted lemon slice. The crab mix on top of the Thriller roll was grilled, adding an unexpected crunch and rather smoky flavor. The shrimp tempura inside created a dynamic sweetness that paired well with both the hint of spices and the soft acidic undertones. The shrimp could have been more fresh, but overall it was the combination of spice and sweetness that created a well wounded roll with a desired smoky finish. The service was adequate and the waitstaff sincere. I would recommend Blue for the uniqueness of their maki rolls and the vibrant atmosphere.

sushi kyoto

I had rather low expectations for Sushi Kyoto after a scroll through a cluster of past Yelp reviews, but I took it upon myself to walk in indifferent to my findings. The restaurant, located at 6429 Hillcrest Ave., encompasses a family friendly, rather casual atmosphere with a chalkboard pinned to the wall that details the restaurant’s specials and a TV featuring the latest sports. The menu contains a variety of common entrees and unique appetizers from multiple Japanese cuisines. For my appetizer, I ordered karaage, Japanese fried chicken, for $8.95 and for my entree, the $16.95 Dallas Star Roll, a specialty roll including tuna and crab meat wrapped in soy paper and topped with salmon. I was intrigued to try both of these because I had never tried them before, and karaage was not included on any other menu of the restaurants I reviewed besides Little Katana. I was surprised by the paper-like thickness of the karaage, which caused the chicken to be quite dry and the fried outside to overwhelm the dish. I continued to go back for more though, as the small, jerky-like meat created a desire for more satisfaction with the coming of the next piece. The maki roll had a sauce on top of it that was not mentioned on the menu, which added some undesired spice, but the overall flavor mimicked a California roll and contained fresh crab, salmon and tuna. The tuna flavor was masked with the more pungent taste of crab and sauce smothered on top. The roll contained some crunch with the cucumber inside, but needed more textures to create a more satisfying swallow. The waitstaff were friendly, and both plates came out quickly. The food was enjoyable, and the atmosphere created a comfortable environment that I would recommend for a more casual yet authentic sushi experience.

oishii

I had been given many recommendations to eat at Oishii, and I was excited as I walked into one of their locations: 5627 SMU Blvd. The restaurant is brightly lit inside, creating a lively atmosphere and a space to watch the chefs prepare the sushi. The menu features a variety of unique rolls that piqued my interest, including a few rolls that contained Latin-American related ingredients: pico de gallo, serrano peppers and cilantro. I decided to order the On the Border specialty roll for $16 and the Vietnamese egg roll appetizer for $7.50. The egg rolls, filled with cellophane noodles instead of the common Chinese cabbage filling, allowed the mushrooms and shrimp to marinate into the salted sauce without creating a heavy appetizer.

The crispy texture of the flour skin paired well with the tender mixture inside. The On the Border maki roll included pico de gallo, which is a rather rare addition to common rolls, along with shrimp tempura and salmon. The prominent flavor of shrimp was met with hints of acidity from the tomato and sharp tones of onion. The crisp tempura added complexity to the overall softness of the rice and avocado. The service was efficient, and the atmosphere allowed for an aesthetically pleasing environment to eat in. I highly recommend this restaurant to any sushi lover. I will definitely be going back soon for the great, affordable sushi and lovely atmosphere.

May 13, 2022

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The opinions expressed in this section of the Eagle Edition do not necessarily reflect the views of the newspaper staff, school, adviser, faculty or staff

STAFF STANCE

The staff stance reflects the opinion of the Eagle Edition staff and it does not reflect the opinion of the school, newspaper adviser, faculty or staff.

Packing of the Supreme Court is unconstitutional

F

ounded in 1789 with only six judges, the intention of the Supreme Court’s inception was to, at its simplest level, uphold the Constitution. The Supreme Court was created to be another way to reinforce the system of “checks and balances” America’s founders pioneered.

Changes, however, were made to this court during the 233 years since its founding. The amount of judges changed, but beyond that, partisanship found its way into appointments and subsequently the notion of “packing the court” gained popularity among some Americans.

The number of judges changed six times until the total was set at nine in 1869. Since then, the number of judges has stayed the same. The Eagle Edition finds that this precedent is one that should not be reversed: Supreme Court packing is unconstitutional and should in not find its way into 21st century policy implementation.

The notion of packing the Supreme Court historically was seen as radical up until the Great Depression; fervent supporters of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his packing of the court to pass New Deal legislation perhaps sparked the most advocacy for a change in the Supreme Court.

The advocacy for packing the

Court during this time became much more normalized and viewed as much less radical.

During the Depression, people needed government aid and as a result, they looked to packing the Court in order to get progressive legislation passed.

This same thought process has manifested deeply into debates over court packing today.

During his presidency, Trump made three appointments: Amy Coney Barrett in place of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Neil Gorsuch in place of Antonin Scalia and Brett Kavanaugh in place of Anthony Kennedy. The conservative shift resulted in the reinvigoration of those in support of packing the Court. Over the past couple of years, liberals have been looking to discourage moderation and balance in the same way that conservative politicians did during Trump’s presidency making for an ironic debate rooted in disruption and unconstitutional views.

Creating a more balanced Supreme Court sounds like a good solution to recent partisanship in the high court. However, the Eagle Edition believes the solution to the partisan problem does not lie in packing the court.

If we were to increase the number of Supreme Court justices we must also ask ourselves when the expansion would stop. Once

the number is increased the first time, what’s preventing the next president from expanding the number again?

The result of expanding the number of Supreme Court justices ultimately would only weaken the Court. Each time a new party would find itself in power, the Court would be weaponized and the power balance would shift completely. At the very least, the highest court’s integrity must be maintained; packing the Court would eliminate the power vested to this institution.

Instead of looking to expand the court, perhaps we as a nation should look to set term limits on justices. If partisanship is the issue and if appointments are seemingly based on whoever gets the luck of a vacancy, we have to look toward some type of reform for the high court. This branch is also the only branch without term limits.

Beyond it just being the most realistic option for court reform, more Americans regardless of political affiliation, agree that setting term limits on Supreme Court justices would be beneficial.

“While expanding the court is highly controversial, there is much wider and bipartisan agreement on imposing term limits on Supreme Court justices,” the Washington Post editorial board wrote Dec. 14, 2021. “This

would lower the stakes of the court confirmation process, diminish actuarial tables and luck as factors in which presidents get to decide the court’s composition and guard against justices suffering from mental decline while still on the bench.”

It appears that today the biggest issue many have with the high court is that it’s believed to be partisan. Because presidents with political affiliations are making these appointments, it makes sense that many share this concern. Beyond just who’s making these appointments, the justices themselves have a natural bias. They are all people with individual experiences, belief systems, cultures and lifestyles. Despite the differences in their backgrounds, they are still expected to uphold the Constitution with strict interpretation. This is where the independence of the Court blurs.

How is a justice supposed to completely lay their bias at the bench when they are human?

Unfortunately, they can’t.

So while it’s becoming increasingly apparent in recent years that some sort of court reform is needed, we on the Eagle Edition believe that we must look toward the most realistic option in order to ensure balance returns.

“

SUPREME COURT PACKING IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND SHOULD IN NOT FIND ITS WAY INTO 21ST CENTURY POLICY IMPLEMENTATION UNCONSTITUTIONAL.

Illustration by Maddy Hammett Editor-in-Chief

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Episcopal School of Dallas

Eagle Edition

Ukrainian author, Chekh, offers crucial insight into war with Russia Maddy Hammett Editor-In-Chief

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ollowing the release of issue five of the newspaper, I was having some difficulty finding a topic I wanted to cover for my final column of the school year. I’ve covered a multitude of literary topics: authors I’ve enjoyed during the semester and various topics that concern humanities.

Finally, after talking it through with family members and friends, I realized why I was experiencing such a dramatic creative THE BEST ANY OF US stint. During the CAN DO IN TIMES time that I was brainstorming LIKE THESE AND THE and reading what BEST SOLUTION I CAN some may consider frivolous books, OFFER TO READERS, IS thousands were TO EDUCATE ONESELF losing their lives in Ukraine. This ON THE CONFLICT. feeling that I got was the same one Maddy Hammett that I felt during the conflict in Copy Editor Afghanistan and when the Covid-19 pandemic began to spread. It was the feeling of loss of control: the unshakeable feeling of not being able to do enough yet having the desire to be doing something. And despite me intently following the news and following live updates, I still could not get rid of the feeling that I was not understanding the crisis well enough.

Perhaps in an effort to regain a sense of control, or just simply to understand the crisis better, I picked up Ukrainian author Artem Chekh’s memoir: “Absolute Zero.”

“Absolute Zero” follows Chekh during and after his time serving

“

for Ukraine during the war in Donbas, which began in 2014 and was emblematic of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine which is ongoing to this very day. While the war in Donbas occured eight years ago and had slightly different motivations for its inception, many of the themes in Chekh’s memoir parallel the conflict today; the conflicts have been fought in the same region and in response to the same power-hungry desires of Vladamir Putin.

“Absolute Zero,” like any war novel should, captures exactly what it means to be at war.

Oftentimes war is almost glazed over. Despite us all knowing that war is clearly not a good thing, we seem to have the concept of war in our minds as something very distant from us- the individual.

For the longest time, to me, war appeared to be something that happens very far away or perhaps very long ago. But this war between Russia and Ukraine is incredibly real and is waging in the backyards of the innocent today. That is exactly what this novel depicts. And more than anything, this novel helped remind me of that. Chekh puts names to those who have died and in describing the grittiness of war, he places audiences quite literally in the trenches alongside himself.

The specific way that Chekh describes war in his memoir particularly captured my attention. He continuously writes about the war in an authentic fashion. He writes about his unrealistic expectations going into combat — his dreams of becoming a heroic soldier who saves his country — and having to grapple with the reality of boredom, anxiety and poor living conditions while being at war. Throughout the book, the content is reliable

THE MARKUP WITH MADDY and genuine because the readers are able to see that the author himself once had a warped sense of what war meant. This genuineness creates a sense of understanding between Chekh and his readers.

They begin to understand that everyone has a difficult time understanding what war is really like, unless they are the ones doing the fighting themselves. Because of Chekh’s intimate storytelling, readers too begin to picture themselves fighting in a war whose reality feels like a far cry from heroism.

Beyond that, Chekh details the routines and the daily life of a soldier, asking readers to consider the feeling of having liberties stripped from their daily lives. In creating chapters centered around his routine during war, Chekh creates a sense of anticipation in his readers. And beyond just setting the tone, he again establishes that the reality of war is much different than what we see in movies. War isn’t just physical combat; war is also oftentimes psychological combat.

These routines are a continuation of Chekh’s main point that war is in no way a glamorous or heroic

event. Chekh, in describing his dayto-day life, shows perhaps the least digestible aspect of war: having your entire life completely changed for the worse.

These past couple of months I have struggled in understanding the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Making sense of large, stressful events such as these often are simply impossible. Performing easy daily tasks becomes seemingly monotonous and useless when the gravity of the outside world sets in. In being a bystander during a war, it increasingly becomes more difficult to gain any sense of control on the events unfolding before you. After reading this I can tell you with all honesty that I didn’t feel much better about the state of the conflict. Nor did I suddenly feel an increase in selfimportance. Reading this book will not somehow, magically dismantle the facism that has spearheaded this conflict. The best any of us can do in times like these, and the best solution I can offer to readers, is to educate yourselves on the conflict.

In doing so, I cannot promise you any solace, but you may grow to be a more understanding, informed person in the process.

‘New’ Twitter Promotes Free Speech Miles Wooldridge Staff writer

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witter is not for the faint of heart. It’s easy to create, promote or contribute to conflict in a virtual world of millions of faceless, angry users. And yet, to many, it remains one of the most important sources of information and ideas in our modern world.

Twitter is oriented towards short form conversation and debate in a way that other prominent social media apps aren’t, making it a breeding ground for heated disagreement. Mismanagement of such a platform will influence the choices of people everywhere, so the role of the Twitter rule-makers carries enormous responsibility.

This April, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk revealed he had accumulated a majority stake of 9.2 percent in the prominent social media platform.

After a couple of weeks of deliberation, Musk and the board

Billionaire Elon Musk looks to limit unfair censorship settled on a price of $54.20 a share, or a total of $44 billion, for the entirety of the company.

A flurry of unwarranted criticisms have been directed at Musk since his announcement.

The Washington Post published an article that accused him of “using his megaphone to help target Twitter employees, prompting a barrage of attacks (including racist ones) from his fans.” This was a deliberate misrepresentation of Musk that places him in league with bigoted provocateurs rather than analyzing his actual disagreement of Twitter’s handling of certain high profile censorship cases. This is also a clear portrayal of a systemic misunderstanding of how free speech works. Musk, like everyone else on Twitter, is responsible for his own words and actions, not those of his followers. This misunderstanding is a large part of what Musk seeks to correct.

Musk is known for his eccentricity, but this purchase was a relatively unexpected move on his part. He is a self-proclaimed “Free Speech Absolutist,” who hopes to combat the adulteration

of content, ideas and the spread of information by algorithms and bots. His intervention seems to be an almost spur-of-the-moment decision, but it is coming at a good time. Twitter used to put the newest posts at the top of a user’s feed, but has been using algorithms for “optimization” since early 2016. Whenever an adjustment like this is made, it is virtually impossible to not recognize the effect of even a miniscule bias in the creation of such an algorithm, considering Twitter has just under 400 million users. Twitter has been known to amplify divisive content because something inflammatory gets more views than something peaceful and friendly. A study out of the University of Southern California estimated that up to 15 percent of Twitter users could be bots.

Hopefully, both of these problems will be addressed under Twitter’s new management.

For years, Twitter has also been accused of unethical censorship of important information. In the weeks leading up to the 2020 presidential election, the verified account of

the prominent news outlet the New York Post, which has 2.6 million followers, was suspended.

This was for the publication and posting of an article about leaked documents from a laptop Hunter Biden abandoned at a Delaware tech repair shop. Musk has criticized this for being “incredibly inappropriate,” considering the factual accuracy of the story and its proximity to the election.

In truth, it is important to acknowledge that regulation of Tweets is hard to do. The real problem is that executives claim they are unbiased despite blatant inconsistencies. Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran is active on Twitter despite decades of human rights violations and abuse of power. Thousands of political dissidents have been executed or incarcerated under his rule. And yet, Twitter’s all knowing censors have decided that does not merit even a suspension.

Musk’s plan is to follow the law as closely as possible when it comes to censorship, meaning anything short of a direct threat of violence will be untouched

by Twitter administrators. This

is what Twitter should have been using as policy all along.

Essentially, freedom to say what others may find strange or untrue is what drives innovation and positive change. The best way to confront something that you find to be untrue or harmful is more speech backed with empirical evidence and data, not more restrictions for everyone.

Restrictions have been shown to just convince stubborn people they are more correct than ever, and the paranoia that arises has fueled much of the radical populist movements that now plague the country. If Musk keeps his promises, though, many of these problems should be on track to improve for the first time in years.

It is hard to understand exactly where the basis for a counterargument to this column would even come from. Less censorship is a positive anytime it is possible. Unfortunately, as with any change to the status quo in America these days, predictable partisanship has blown the cultural repercussions of new management in Twitter out of proportion.

May 13, 2022

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Illustration by Grace Worsham Editor-in-Chief

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73

Lauren Shushi Staff writer

Pro: Positive

To many, artificial intelligence has been an enigmatic element of science fiction books or movies, though recently it has played a large role in everyday life. If you have ever used navigation apps, Alexa, a self-driving car, Siri or facial recognition, you have encountered very real and useful applications of AI. AI, an umbrella term to describe machines capable of perception, logic and learning, is becoming increasingly integral to the daily lives of many. AI has touched a significant spectrum of fields including education, business, agriculture, transportation and healthcare.

Surrounding the concept of AI, there is a general lack of understanding among people that has subsequently led to the myth that AI will suddenly make human labor obsolete.

Paul Allen, who co-founded the Microsoft Corporation with Bill Gates, believes the opposite; that the potential of AI will open up more room for human advancement.

“The promise of artificial intelligence and computer science generally vastly outweighs the impact it could have on some jobs, in the same way that, while the invention of the airplane negatively affected the railroad industry, it opened a much wider door to human progress,” Allen said in a well known quote published many times, including in an article released in 2019

by Fortune Magazine.

Microsoft is one company that has been focusing on using AI for Good, which includes employing AI for humanitarian, health and environmental causes. AI for Earth, a branch of AI for Good, has awarded over 700 grants to fund projects with impact in over 80 countries; these projects utilize AI to address environmental challenges.

But Microsoft is not the only company implementing AI, other major companies such as Google, Apple, Amazon, Tesla and IBM have also adopted it. Forrester, a technology research and advisory company, recently conducted a study that showed 84 percent of technical leaders feel the need to implement AI into their devices to maintain a competitive edge, and over 70 percent agree that the technology now provides meaningful business value.

In the medical field, AI has already made an incredible impact. Precision medicine, for example, is a development of personalized medications in healthcare. It takes into account the genetics, environment and lifestyle of a patient to select a treatment best tailored to them; its purpose is intended to curb the “one-drug-fits-all” approach. This is helping change the way professionals treat diseases such as cancer. Breast cancer, lung cancer, leukemia and other cancer patients undergo molecular tests that allow physicians to pick the most favorable prescription for their conditions.

In 2018, researchers at the College of Medicine and Seoul National University Hospital formed an AI algorithm to analyze chest radiographs and pick up on abnormal cell changes.

When compared to several doctors’ detection abilities on the same images, the algorithm outperformed 17 out of 18 physicians.

For those who believe that AI will make human labor obsolete, the World Economic Forum estimated in a “Future of Jobs Report 2020” that while 85 million jobs will be displaced by AI, 97 million new jobs will be created across 26 countries by 2025. And a global artificial intelligence study conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, a business advisory and accounting firm, predicted that by 2030, AI will lead to an estimated $15.7 trillion, or 26 percent increase in global gross domestic product.

But we need to be careful, unsafe or malicious uses of AI could potentially harm many people. Digital security violations and program bias in decision making are examples of risks in AI. Some companies have the spotlight on them for privacy breaches. Especially now, with so much personal information online, it is essential to have restrictions on what lines AI can cross. To combat this issue, governance for those using AI should be implemented to ensure it be used in a safe way.

Laws that regulate AI, such as having information on how companies are using AI accessible to the public, and making sure the intentions behind why they are using the technology are good, are needed to ensure the safety of AI. Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in an interview with Marques Brownlee in 2021 that using AI in a structured way has a promising future.

“I see a lot of potential in the advances in AI,” Pichai said. “But it’s equally important that you have a real framework by which you’re applying it.”

Despite some arguments of future hypotheticals and “what ifs,” much of the AI we use today is extremely helpful. Humans and machines do not have to be in competition with each other.

Alexander Pope, an 18th century English poet, said, “To err is human,” so why not lean on AI for a more reliable and effective mode of completing tasks? AI should ultimately adopt our goals and be an extension, not a replacement, of all possible human imagination and capability.

35

percent of students think AI has a positive effect on society

John Schindel Staff writer

Con: Negative

As humans have progressed throughout history, we have made numerous advancements that have set us apart from our ancestors and helped us to excel. One of those innovations is artificial intelligence. AI, according to Forbes magazine, are pieces of machinery or technology that can think independently and display intelligence. Artificial intelligence consists of technology used in search engines like Google, the development of self-driving cars and the search of algorithms in social media platforms. Though AI is omnipresent and could be seen as a way for humans to excel and advance, many seem to ignore the ramifications of AI According to the management consulting firm Oliver Wyman, “More than 120 million workers globally will need retraining in the next three years due to artificial intelligence’s impact on jobs.” Because of this, millions of people would lose their jobs and would have to learn a new trade or way to work. If people are unable to change their career path, they could lose a means of providing for themselves and the people that rely on them for care. According to a Forbes article published in October 2020, it is estimated that jobs and tasks will be split between humans and AI/machines 50-50. Because of this, billions of people will be out of jobs and would have to find new means to provide for themselves and their families.

Though artificial intelligence can work efficiently, its effectiveness could lead to large amounts of death and chaos. For example, autonomous weapons (weapons controlled

by AI) can be cataclysmic in war and cause even more destruction than your average soldier. With AI’s ability for destruction and its ability to follow orders without regard to the outcome, the amount of lives lost during warfare would be large.

Not only could AI harm humanity through violence due to its ability to cause more destruction compared to people, but it could be used to spy on and target civilians based on their preferences. According to a Forbes article written by Bernard Marr in November of 2018, because of AI capabilities, it becomes an effective tool in marketing and changing how people think. “They know who we are, what we like, and are incredibly good at surmising what we think,” Marr wrote.

In 2016, 50 million people’s data was collected by an algorithm and used to sway votes and change people’s opinions in the 2016 United States presidential election.

According to an infographic created by Freedom House, 89 percent of people who use the Internet, which is around 3 billion people, are being monitored by social media algorithms and AI With the collected data, social media corporations, such as Facebook, will be able to direct ads towards specific individuals for products they are more likely to buy, so corporations will be able to increase profits and, in turn, develop more business with the social media corporation in question. As AI gets more advanced, it will only become easier and easier for corporations to breach individuals’ privacy and make a profile.

But as AI advances, nations, not only individuals, will also become more and more susceptible to cyber attacks. According to Ines Kagubare, staff writer for The Hill, “Microsoft report on the operations reveals that Moscow-backed hackers have launched more than 200 cyberattacks against Ukraine, including nearly 40 destructive ones that targeted the country’s government organizations and critical sectors.” This is not Ukraine’s first run-in with Russian cyber attacks. In both 2015 and 2017, Ukraine’s power grid and other key aspects of the country had the systems attacked. If not for the $40 million investments from the United States and investments from other countries, the most recent cyber attack on Ukraine could have been worse. As AI advances, our dependence on it also increases making us more susceptible to a new type of warfare that could steal data and incapacitate nations across the globe.

Though advancement in AI has a lot of negatives, it is difficult to ignore some of its positive factors. AI, like the Deep Learning Based Automatic Detection, can be used to detect illness or even potential cancer cells. As well as that, a form of AI is being developed that would make it possible for a self-driving car to exist.

Unfortunately, the more we begin to depend on AI, the more they become vital to everyday life. Due to the vast amount of control AI has now and could have in the future, humanity must be cautious as it ventures into the uncertain future.

22

percent of students think AI has a negative effect on society Source: May 10 poll of 146 upper school students

20 Eagle Edition

letter

Episcopal School of Dallas

the

from

A

s the year comes to an end and graduation quickly approaches, we are incredibly grateful for the memories and experiences we have made in the journalism department.

We both wanted to be Editor-inChiefs together when we started in our J1 class in freshman year.

Although we were able to achieve this goal, I don’t think we fully understood how much of an impact the EIC position would have on us.

The V39 staff is arguably the best staff we have worked with, each of us with our special quirks, jokes and personalities.

Some of the best moments this HIGH SCHOOL year were our JOURNALISM IS Christmas party with secret santa SPECIAL, AS WE ARE gifts and cracking ABLE TO TAKE ON THE jokes during worknights. This ROLES OF EDITORS, staff has truly DESIGNERS, bonded, and I know that we will WRITERS AND miss this special PHOTOGRAPHERS environment AS A MEMBER OF THE that we have the privilege to work EAGLE EDITION. in everyday.

High school journalism is special, as we are able to take on the roles of editors, designers, writers and photographers as a member of the Eagle Edition. The things we have learned by practicing and experimenting with producing each issue are the skills Emily and I will be taking with us to college and beyond.

Emily and I would like to thank

“

Photo by Sloane Hope

Mrs. Rosenthal for sparking our love for journalism and always being by our sides to guide us as journalists.

Her support and care means the world to us, and we are forever grateful that we were able to learn from her these past three years.

We are both very excited to continue our journalism pursuits in college. Emily will be attending Northwestern University and will

be majoring in journalism. I, Gina, will be attending The University of Chicago and will be double majoring in Political Science and French.

Both of us hope to get involved with student publications on campus.

To our amazing V39 staff, thank you for all of your work and dedication to the Eagle Edition.

We are so happy that your designs and ideas were able to come to life

through your writing, designs and work. We could not have done it without you (literally!) and we are so incredibly grateful for the friendships we have made. Maddy and Grace: we know that you will do great things and carry on the torch to continue the Eagle Edition reputation as a prestigious publication.

We hope to keep in touch and will definitely come back to visit!

Emily Lichty and Gina Montagna

Charlotte Tomlin Web Editor

W

e’ve all heard the phrase at some point or another, usually in response to devastating news about shrinking glaciers and rising temperatures, emphasizing the necessity of the so-called energy transition: Using renewable resources is the only way to save our planet.

For most people, the goal of the energy transition is the elimination of the use of all nonrenewable resources, like oil, natural gas and coal, and the replacement of said resources with renewable resources such as wind and solar power. However, few people slow down to stop and think about what going fully green could mean and whether it’s even feasible.

To put it simply, it’s not.

The transition from nonrenewable resources to renewable resources is too expensive, the resources are too limited and the technology is not advanced enough to handle the change.

To start, the energy transition outlay would require around $150 trillion to complete, according to the International Energy Agency.

To put this into perspective, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the creation of the Dot-Com bubble required $2.9 trillion.

This was when investors pumped money into Internet based

Fossil Fuels aren’t going anywhere startups in hopes they would turn a profit — these investments essentially helped create the Internet economy. According to Bloomberg.com, although the world spent a record $775 billion on the energy transition in 2021, it represents only a fraction of the total cost it would require to completely transition to renewable energy.

The world is too reliant on fossil fuels to completely transition to renewable energy. As of 2020, 84 percent of the world’s energy came from non-renewable sources, according to Forbes.com.

To transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy would require a massive lifestyle shift for the majority of the world, a shift that is not feasible for many developing countries around the world.

According to the International Monetary Fund, if the world made the energy transition, countries— such as Kazakhstan and Iran— that are rich in resources like oil, natural gas and coal would experience a significant fall in the value of their resources. But many countries do not have the economic diversity to switch from fossil fuels to renewable resources — doing so would result in a catastrophic economic decline. Further, the United Nations estimates that nearly 3 billion people currently have no or limited access to clean and safe cooking and heating fuels. It is not practical, or compassionate, to dream of forcing them to adopt renewables, while limiting their access to a shrinking supply of reliable fossil fuel production.

And the world simply does not

have enough renewable energy to power the planet.

While renewable energy is in fact growing, according to CNBC, so is overall energy demand. According to Matthew Boyle, manager of global coal and Asia power analytics at S&P Global Platts, the global supply of renewable energy will increase 35 gigawatts from 2021 to 2022 — at the same time, global power demand will increase by 100 gigawatts, meaning countries will have to tap into their nonrenewable resources to satisfy the growing demand.

Another potential problem with renewable energy is its unreliability. Many forms of renewable energy rely on weather, which — as we all know as North Texans — is wildly unpredictable.

Even if a country has sufficient wind farms or solar panels, if there is no wind or sun, energy production would be significantly lacking. Renewable energy is non-dispatchable, it can’t be turned on and off when needed.

Dispatchable sources can be managed to meet the energy demand, whereas renewable energy cannot because renewable energy can only generate energy flow when their primary energy flow, such as sunlight or wind, is upon them. As a result, renewable energy does not produce consistent electricity, and so its power output cannot be controlled. Because renewable energy is non-dispatchable, its unreliableness can lead to power outages and blackouts. Such is the case in California, when in 2019 an extreme heat wave caused an

uptick in power demand, and the newly transitioned power supply couldn’t supply the demand.

Also, just how “clean” is clean energy? Electric vehicles have been at the vanguard for much of the push for the energy transition, encouraging buyers that vehicles that run on electricity are better for the environment than vehicles that run on gasoline. According to the International Energy Association, electric vehicles require six times the amount of mineral inputs of a conventional car. Prices for these minerals, especially lithium, have soared in recent years. Even though lithium is not considered a “rare” mineral, mining it is extremely expensive and leaves an environmental impact. Switching to primarily electric vehicles would require the U.S. to become extremely reliant on China, which holds the majority of the world’s lithium stores, a notion that is both frightening and dangerous. In July of 2020, during a Hudson Institute Video Event, FBI director Christopher Wray said, “The greatest long-term threat to our nation’s information and intellectual property, and to our economic vitality, is the counterintelligence and economic espionage threat from China.”

In addition, seven percent of U.S. cars were electric vehicles in 2021 — to aid the energy transition, 60 percent of total car sales will have to be electric vehicles by 2030, according to the IEA. Making the switch to electric vehicles would place extreme pressure on nickel, cobalt and lithium stores. Oftentimes, these

stores are mined unethically, creating more strain on the environment.

A 100 percent shift to renewable resources, especially if rushed too quickly, is just simply unfeasible. Instead of devoting time and money to going 100 percent green, corporations should instead focus on implementing a pragmatic balance. The best near-future solution would be transitioning from coal, which is currently responsible for 48 percent of energy emissions outside of the U.S., according to EQT, the largest producer of natural gas in the U.S. EQT proposes that instead of devoting small amounts of effort to scattered projects to help reduce climate change, the next 20 years should be devoted to eliminating worldwide coal emissions by replacing it with natural gas.

Natural gas is a cleaner renewable energy resource than coal — around 117 pounds of CO2 are produced per million British thermal (MMBtu) of natural gas, compared to 200 pounds of CO2 per MMBtu of coal. The climate benefits of this crucial step would equate to electrifying 100 percent of U.S. vehicles, implementing rooftop solar panels on every U.S. home and doubling wind capacity.

Eliminating international coal emissions by replacing it with natural gas is the best way to combat climate change in the near future. Once coal emissions have been eliminated, the world can focus on transitioning primarily to renewable resources, but keeping natural gas as a necessary backup.

21

Eagle Edition

letter

Episcopal School of Dallas

MOMENTS WITH to the

Underclassmen get rowdy in the library

Dear Editors, A few years ago, I visited the unpretentious home and studio of Thomas Cole, an American landscape painter of the early 1800s, overlooking the sublime Hudson River Valley.

“Eden is now,” he wrote. Although the American landscape has diminished since his time, I am aware each day of, as Ralph Waldo Emerson offers, “this green ball which floats [us] through the heavens.”

Last summer was the 168th anniversary of the publication of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden. Thoreau, Emerson’s friend, reminds us how we are inextricably bound to the land where we live and work and study, and if we aren’t, we sense that something is incomplete. In describing the view from his cabin’s doorstep, Thoreau says, “The morning wind forever blows, the poem of creation is uninterrupted; but few are the ears that hear it. Olympus is but the outside of the earth every where.” Thoreau’s greatest contribution might be his evocation of a place, Walden Pond, as representative of all our individual sacred places.

Last month was the 52nd anniversary of the first Earth Day. But every day is an earth day, a day to revel in the tranquility of our surroundings and let the natural world add balance and meaning to our frenetic lives.

Fifty years ago, I first heard “Morning Has Broken.” Words that we sing often in chapel recall the original garden, Eden.

We can restore the gardens where we live and, since all our gardens in all countries now affect our global environment, we must preserve the land everywhere. But we can start in our own backyards—and front yards. When we connect to the land, we will preserve it as it preserves us.

The early ‘70s saw a rebirth of America’s awareness of our environment—what surrounds us—and the need to protect our water, land, and air with the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency. Fifty years later we struggle with balancing economic growth and environmental protection, preserving what the Prayer Book calls “this fragile earth, our island home.”

Some argue that an individual has no impact, but I believe in the ripple effect. Others will notice—and perhaps follow the lead.

ESD has a wealth of recycling containers. Some students, however, mix trash with recycling, and in the process diminish the recycling effort through contamination. We recycle in a single stream—cardboard, paper, metal cans, plastic bottles and jugs, glass bottles—in all recycling containers. And every school function might consider the most environmentally friendly approach by reducing waste, especially plastic.

(Consider biodegradable balloons.)

We can find locations to recycle electronics and batteries and take paint, chemicals, and hazardous materials to the City of Dallas Hazardous Waste Site. Consider battery mowers and leaf blowers. Watch what goes down the drain and take unused prescriptions back to the pharmacy. Recycle our plastic grocery sacks (and newspaper sleeves) back at the store and bring our own reusable bags.

We can consider organic fertilizers and pesticides to avoid harming our groundwater. Try composting. Rather than bag our leaves and grass clippings in plastic bags, turn these materials into rich fertilizers. Turn our yards into natural habitats by avoiding plants from across the world in favor of native plants that have co-evolved with our native insects and birds. Trees can make a difference. We can plant more and preserve what we have, especially our old-growth forests.

We can turn out our lights when we leave a room and consider renewable energy sources.

We can waste less food and eat less meat, both contributors to methane. We throw away about 40 percent of the food that we produce in the U.S. What we must consume, we can recycle. It takes less energy to recycle an aluminum can than to produce a new one, and earth’s raw materials are not infinite.

Thoreau says that “a man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone” and “my greatest skill has been to want but little.” Rather than consume more than we need, we can cut back. Single-use plastic, such as a water bottle, can drift from the quarry to the streams and rivers into the ocean. Most plastic in the ocean comes from the land. *** My contemplative evening stroll through a verdant, shaded, quiet neighborhood, much too warm for May, portends future warming but is resplendent with Spring’s handiwork. Yet I know that wildfires have broken out again in the West, tonight in New Mexico, spurred on by intense drought, high temperatures, high winds.

I turn the corner to lawn wars, and I know that in a week I’ll sidestep the monthly sidewalk pick-up (a helpful city service), some of which (cardboard boxes, plastic plant containers, plastic bags of leaves and grass clippings) shouldn’t be headed to the dump. The wilderness ethic Leave No Trace might be our guiding principle in the city.

Take the first step. Go ahead. Then take another step.

You can make a small difference. We can make a larger difference in mass. Good luck. Good luck to us all. We can do it.

Greg Randall Upper school English teacher

Freshman and sophomores should respect that the library should be silent study environment

MO TE

O

ne of the first places I had a deep connection to on campus was the library. I was new to ESD in fifth grade and my first advisor was the middle school librarian. Weekly, I would find myself in the library for advisory time bonding with students that just months before I hadn’t known. Like anything, my relationship with the library has waxed and waned since then. I was an infrequent visitor to the library throughout middle school and, as a result, lost some of my passion for reading. But when I entered upper school I knew my workload would increase and thus my need for a space to execute my daily tasks would increase as well. Though my first and second years of upper school were slightly impacted by Covid-19, my relationship to the library grew stronger. I found myself wanting to spend time there and cherished the peace and quiet I found that I honestly couldn’t find anywhere else.

Junior year is hard. Everyone knows it. Yet it’s something one can’t really describe until one is knee-deep. As a junior this year, I quickly realized this year would no longer be like my previous years at ESD. My classes have pushed me harder than they ever had before. My teachers have required a new level of understanding and learning from me, and, in turn, I have required a higher level of focus in myself. Within the first few weeks of school, I recognized my relationship with the library needed to grow stronger. This time not necessarily because I wanted to spend time there, but because I knew that I needed to in order to achieve my goals.

Throughout the fall semester, I periodically came to the library before school and did homework.

By Katherine Mote Business Manager

But with exams approaching in midDecember that periodic occasion turned into an everyday habit. Since then, everyday begins with at least an hour in the library before going to my classes. This time helps me prepare my day and establish goals and an attitude unattainable without peace and quiet. Most students’ days start with academics and end with sports, causing chronic drowsiness by the time one gets home. I found that by starting my day in the library I could give 100 percent to my homework and have the flexibility to go to sleep right when I get home. Early in the mornings I’m more dialed in than during any other time of the day, making disturbances even more of an impediment.

But sadly, peace and quiet are no longer always present in the library. With restricted access to other locations on campus, underclassmen have been seeking refuge in the library. Freshmen, for example, especially struggle with the issue of having a space outdoors to congregate. As the weather goes from one extreme to the next, it’s difficult to spend time outside, and it causes the freshmen to migrate to the Cook Building, a place where they have been told not to gather. This leads to an exodus to the library. Perhaps with shifting dynamics and a non-mutual understanding of the importance a library holds, underclassmen have been pushed to transform this space into one of conversation and togetherness because there seems to be no other option. While these characteristics are important to have in a school seeking a stronger community, there are other spaces where this can be made a priority without becoming a disadvantage for others. In a space where one’s actions so directly reflect upon other people’s ability to finish their work, it is imperative to be self-

Batman | by Sarah Cabrales ‘23

aware and not disturb others.

The idea of a library being a sacred space has been ingrained in my mind at least since my very first years at school. And this theme carries on throughout college, so why is there a disconnect in upper school? Colleges around the world use a model that helps the library be a place for all different kinds of people. By sectioning off the space into distinct areas of focus everyone can get what they want out of the library. At many college campuses, different levels of a multi-story library are being used for different purposes; typically, the higher the floor the quieter it gets, allowing a space for group projects and conversation as well as individual silent study. As a college-preparatory school, this view of the library should be parallel to the schools that we are aiming to attend. At the end of the day, ESD is founded on being a school that prepares students for higher education, so why wouldn’t our library mimic that?

As we close out this year with final exams and enter into next year, if we make areas where people can gather more accessible and set a quota for the library and time in that space, everyone can get what they want out of different locations on campus. One way the school does this is by making an area on campus specific for each grade level in the upper school. Some of my best memories throughout the upper school have been in the junior lounge and freshmen courtyard, a place where I got to meet with people I might not have classes with or interact with otherwise.

This place is somewhere you can be unapologetically noisy and spend free time growing a stronger community.

While simultaneously, students seeking a place of silence and peace can attain their goals through the solitude the library offers.

22 Eagle Edition

Episcopal School of Dallas

sports Successful varsity teams allure crowds Varsity boys football and lacrosse teams’ winning seasons arouse school spirit

By Callie Hawkins Sports Editor

W

ith successful sports teams, comes more fans. With boys varsity football and lacrosse teams excelling in their seasons this school year, fans are excited and have an even bigger incentive to attend sports games to support their teams and embrace the community.

But the teams and their crowds WITHOUT FANS THE have distinctive GAMES WOULD BE A differences.

“For the big LOT LESS ENERGETIC games, the energy AND THE MOTIVATION is the same, if not FOR PLAYERS WOULD bigger for lacrosse,” varsity lacrosse BE LACKLUSTER. and football player PERSONALLY, [I Blair Brennan said.

“However, on a THINK] THE FANS GET regular basis football THE ADRENALINE crowds show up in greater numbers. It GOING AND IT’S is definitely easier NICE TO KNOW YOU when you have a set game every Friday ARE SUPPORTED BY instead of random PEOPLE OUTSIDE OF games spread out THE TEAM. throughout the week.”

In the fall, varsity Taylor Elliott football went their entire regular Senior and varsity season undefeated football player and advanced to the Southwest Preparatory Conference 4A Championship for the first time in school history. Although they suffered a loss to Kinkaid on Nov. 6, reaching the championship was a victory in itself. Boys varsity lacrosse went into the SPC 4A tournament as the second seed. They advanced to the

“

FANS IN THE STANDS Students and fans pack the stands to cheer on the football team for the rival game against St. Mark’s on Oct. 29. “Cheering is my favorite thing to do at home games because the crowd gets so crazy,” senior cheer captain Charlotte Cooper said (flyer pictured). “My favorite memories from cheer have definitely been from the games against St. Mark’s. There is nothing better than the energy that comes from our rivalry against the Lions.”

Photo by Kristin Doebele.

championship against St. Mark’s, who they had lost to previously in the season on Apr. 14, and with revenge on their mind, they beat them 14-5. This past weekend they traveled to Austin for the Texas High School Lacrosse League state championship again as the second seed. They took victory in the semi-finals over Westlake High School and finished second having suffered a tough loss to Jesuit Dallas 11-10 in the championship game.

Brennan, who has been on varsity football for two years and varsity lacrosse for three, has experienced the crowd for each sport from the fields. And even though he likes cheering on his school in any way possible, he finds it hard to sit and watch rather than go out and play.

“When I play sports, I feel better than I would watching others,” Brennan said. “There is a sense of pride that comes along with being on the field.”

Fans play a huge role in how the teams perform. Some might find it distracting while others find it exciting.

“Without fans, the games would be a lot less energetic and the motivation for players would be lackluster,” senior varsity football player Taylor Elliott said.

“Personally, [I think] the fans get the adrenaline going, and it’s nice to know you are supported by people outside of the team.”

Weather plays an important role as well. The fall football season, with dark nights and cool weather, is much different than the early summer, hot games of the lacrosse seasons.

“I’d say that the attendance is pretty similar which is rare when you’re comparing football and lacrosse in Texas,” senior varsity lacrosse player Jackson Singer

said. “Very few schools will have similar turnout for both teams.

Looking from the stands, I never really realized it, but when you’re playing you can definitely tell how big the student section is.”

But one of the most obvious and major differences between the two seasons is the absence of cheerleaders on the sidelines at lacrosse games. Cheerleaders are a staple of high school football, but if they were present at lacrosse games, the atmosphere would probably be different.

To sophomore and cheerleader Caroline Bagley, it is a different experience screaming from the stands than cheering from the side.

“I love being close to the team during football games, and I really enjoy seeing the crowd get excited when we win,” Bagley said. “Being able to experience games both from the sidelines on cheer and in the stands this year has been amazing. Even though football sometimes has more hype around games, I love watching lacrosse games from the stands.”

And having cheerleaders on the sideline makes a difference to the players as well.

“It makes a difference because cheerleaders help spark motivation,” Brennan said. “They keep the fans entertained and the players encouraged.”

Another physical difference between the two seasons this year was the switching of the home and visitor sections. Before the varsity lacrosse game against Highland Park on March 10, the coaches suggested for the home section to be moved from the north section of the bleachers to the south section. Since the team runs onto the field from the varsity boys locker room and has their bench on the south end of the field, they wanted their crowd to mirror

their bench. This switch proved to be beneficial after the Highland Park game, as the varsity boys took the victory over one of their biggest rivals. They moved the home section for boys lacrosse games to the south end for the rest of the season.

The late practices and major commitment for the boys lacrosse team proved advantageous in their season and showed in their success. After the semifinal win at the THSLL tournament, student fans wanted to cheer on the team at the championship. Many seniors, along with a few fans from other grades, got together and made the trip down to Austin last weekend.

“It was a lot of fun to be able to go down to Austin with so many of my friends to watch the state championship,” senior fan Sloane Hope said. “Not only did we get to hang out and enjoy our last couple of weeks together, but we got to come together and cheer for our team one last time. Of course it’s sad they didn’t win, but the experience overall was very memorable.”

This enthusiasm represents the magnitude of growth of energy in the community because of the Horde’s (the name given to the students’ section in sports games) persistence and successes of the teams themselves.

“I have never felt more unified as I do when I am a part of the crowd at football and lacrosse games,” junior and Horde Board representative Ella Sjogren said.

“The Horde is there to celebrate and support our athletes and teams. There may be some technical differences, but really [there] is no difference between the football or lacrosse season because we are all there for the same reason, to cheer on ESD.”

Sports

May 13, 2022

23

Alumna publishes book with Sports Illustrated Laken Litman ‘07 publishes her first book in sports journalism focusing on female athletes

By Callie Hawkins Sports Editor

E

SD alumna Laken Litman ‘07 has taken her journalism career to the next level. She published her first book, “Strong Like a Woman: 100 Game-changing Female Athletes,”with Sports Illustrated on April 5.

Litman has had a career in sports journalism since she was a student at the University of Texas at Austin. While she never took a journalism class while at ESD, she took Greg Randall’s junior English class and realized going into college that she wanted to pursue her two passions: writing and sports.

“It’s funny, at ESD I didn’t even write for the Eagle Edition because I didn’t know that I was interested in journalism until my senior year,” Litman said. “Mr. Randall was my advisor and my English teacher, and after taking his class, that’s when I was like, ‘Yep, I love writing. That’s what I want to do.’”

She grew up playing soccer and played with both the school’s varsity team and her club team, Sting Soccer. She also ran cross country and was a big fan of college football.

“I was like, ‘I’m going to just combine my two favorite things, writing and sports, and just see if I can make a career out of that,’” Litman said.

She joined the Daily Texan newspaper her freshman year and covered cross country. She later covered baseball, softball, mens basketball and finally football during her senior year.

“I was just so pleased to hear that story so early in her career,” Randall said. “To take that step, to put yourself out there and say, ‘Look this is what I want, and this will be a good first step.’ To go to the UT newspaper staff and say, ‘I’ve never taken journalism,’ was a great thing for her to do, and her progress [since] has been exponential.”

During her time at UT, she received many opportunities to further her journalism career.

Between her junior and senior year, she was accepted for the Association for Women in Sports Media internship at Sports Illustrated. She did freelance work at the Dallas Morning News and the Associated Press. After college, she found a job reporting on football and basketball at Southern Methodist University, and she moved forward to cover football at the University of Alabama in 2012 with the same company. Then she joined the AWSM team and made many connections with different editors and writers at the conferences she attended, landing her a position at USA Today Sports in Washington D.C. where she covered mostly college and professional football.

She wrote about Super Bowl 50 and the 2015 Womens World Cup. “[I] had a lot of very cool opportunities, and it was a great job, but I was [also] trying to move up and expand all the things that I was doing,” Litman said. “An editor knew that I wanted to get more work covering a beat [which] is just like covering one team exclusively. And I felt that I needed more experience doing that.”

Litman was offered a job under the Indianapolis Star, a major newspaper in Indiana, to cover the beat of Notre Dame football.

Growing up and working mostly in Texas, some in D.C., Litman was initially unsure about the position.

“It turned out to be the best decision that I had ever made,” Litman said. “Actually, the job itself was great. Everybody cared about what I was writing. I was actually the only woman on the beat which was a very interesting experience.”

As Litman continued to grow, USA Today Sports reached out to

her and asked her to join their coverage at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. This experience challenged her more than any other experience she had because of the long distance travels, language differences, the sports she had never covered before and the terrifying factor of covering her first Olympics.

Litman and her husband, who met when she worked at Notre Dame, were going to move to New York for his work, so she was looking for a job there as well. She acquired one at Sports Illustrated.

“My ultimate goal in my whole life was always to work for Sports Illustrated,” Litman said. “At book fairs when I was little I would get ‘Sports Illustrated Kids,’ and I had my college internship there. It was just like a dream come true, really.”

When the pandemic hit, Litman was one of the countless reporters hit by a wave of layoffs, so she and her husband moved back to Dallas to be closer to family. She freelanced to stay busy.

All of her accomplishments up to this point are what led one of her old editors to reach out to her in late 2020 about a book they were making at Sports Illustrated.

They wanted her to write it.

“I was kind of shocked,” Litman said. “If you get laid off from a place you kind of think that you won’t really hear from that employer maybe ever again, and I definitely wasn’t thinking that that would happen.”

Her assignment for this book was to write 100 essays, each around 800 to 1000 words about game-changing female athletes from around 1954 to now. It took her about six or seven months of work to finish the essays.

“The deadlines were pretty tight, but it was so much fun,” Litman said. “It was a time for me to reevaluate what I wanted to do in life. Do I still like writing? I still like covering college football, but are there other sports that I would rather write about? And… being a woman, I love covering women’s sports. It was a time for me to think, sit back and be like, ‘Yeah, I want to cover women’s sports.’”

When she began to look for a more secure job than freelancing, she made sure she got her point across about wanting to focus more on womens sports. She was offered a job with FOX Sports in Dallas, focusing on college football and the U.S. Mens and Womens National Soccer Teams. She took the job and has been able to have more opportunities covering womens sports than ever before.

“I really love ESD, and… it was just a place that really helped me realize my potential,” Litman said.

“I had so many great teachers.

I mean, there was Mr. Randall, Mr. Eason, who was the head of upper school when I was there, Mrs. Mrozek, all these teachers that really just pushed you, and they were always available in the mornings or after school when you had questions, and you wanted extra help. And I always kind of felt that, without having ESD or without having these teachers, I probably would not be as prepared for college. My mom always jokes that ESD was harder than college for me just because it’s just a great community that just wants to help students thrive in the future.”

At ESD, Litman formed relationships and took risks which helped her in the way she approached college. But she is grateful that her teachers at ESD were always willing to help.

Randall remembers her well and said that it was always rewarding for him to see how much she learned and progressed. He even remembers where she sat in his junior English class and short

THAT’S LIT, MAN! Litman covered the national championship in Jan. 2013, the match up between Notre Dame and Alabama.

Two teams she covered in her career.

“My first job out of school was covering SMU and then after I did a football and basketball season, my boss promoted me to stay with the company, but move to Tuscaloosa and cover Alabama, when Alabama,” Litman said. “[This] was when [the team] really kind of becoming the power that it is today. I covered the 2012 season, when they played Notre Dame actually in the national championship game..”

Photo provided by Laken Litman.

story class. “[Litman] was a great listener and nothing got past her,” Randall said. “She did not draw attention to herself. She really worked hard, and she cared about what she wrote and took it very seriously.

A teacher is not any good without students who learn.”

Sophomore Charlotte Tomlin, the current Eagle Edition web editor, interned at Sports Illustrated Kids about three years ago where Litman was her editor.

Tomlin worked as a Kid Reporter and went to sports events and press conferences. She got to interview athletes and write stories about them.

“I became a Kid Reporter in the fall of 2019, and when Covid-19 hit, sporting events all over the world got canceled, so my year got cut a little short, and I didn’t get to work with Litman for a long time,” Tomlin said.

“However, we both bonded over the fact that we went to ESD.” The experience working with Litman at Sports Illustrated Kids ignited a new sense of purpose in Tomlin.

“Litman taught me the importance of timeliness in journalism,” Tomlin said. “I don’t mean just meeting your deadlines, but making sure your article is

unique to the state of current affairs.”

The article Tomlin wrote at Sports Illustrated was about the SheBelieves Soccer Cup with the U.S. Womens National Team on March 11, 2020, right around the beginning of Covid-19 “She encouraged me to make my article less of a play by play of the game, but rather an evaluation of the environment surrounding a big game in such an uncertain time,” Tomlin said.

She has been a professional journalist for eleven years and she still finds the life of a journalist challenging. Her advice to aspiring journalists is to keep trying if you are passionate enough.

“It’s a really hard life, I’m not gonna lie,” Litman said. “But if you have the passion and the drive, and you want to write about sports, you can do it, there are jobs out there, there are people who will hire you, [and] I was pretty gung-ho about this is what I like to do. This is what I’m good at doing. And if you are passionate enough, you’ll find a way to network with people.”

Litman will be at Interabang Books in Dallas on Saturday, June 4, from 4 to 6 p.m. for a book signing for “Strong Like a Woman.”

“

FOR ME TO TRACE THE DEVELOPMENT OF HER VOICE AND HER CONFIDENCE AND HER PASSION IN HER WRITING WAS LIKE SOMETHING WENT RIGHT.

Greg Randall English Teacher

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Eagle Edition

Episcopal School of Dallas

EAGLE EYE

On to bigger things Senior varsity lacrosse captain Mac Rodvold makes the most of his last season before moving on to Franklin and Marshall College Interview by Lyle Hawkins Staff writer

Q A

What’s your favorite part about ESD lacrosse?

Why did you start playing lacrosse, and what has it taught you?

Who do you look up to? Do What’s your favorite you have a role model in memory of the sport or the sport? the team?

My favorite part about lacrosse at ESD is the support system from both the students and faculty.

You have to work as a team because you can’t just win with one person.

Growing up, I was really into baseball, but in first grade, all my friends started playing [lacrosse], so I did too. I like the fast paced part of lacrosse. I am excited to continue playing at Franklin and Marshall College. Being captain has helped me be a better role model because I have to try to help everyone be the best… person, [on] and off the field. Lacrosse has also taught me that working hard gets you places.

Jack Loftus [‘20] is my biggest role model. He was my captain freshman and sophomore year, and he just led by example and did all of the right things. He was a great guy that you can look up to for both lacrosse and things outside of sports.

Winning state freshman year was pretty cool, but this year, the kind of bond that our team has made with… all the players has definitely been special. Since it’s my last year, I have just kind of realized that this is my last go at it so the seniors need to make the most of it.

Photo by Lyle Hawkins

GAME TIME Senior Mac Rodvold, who will be playing at Franklin & Marshall College, plays in the last home game on April 20 aganist Southlake Carroll.

Eagles won 15-6.

Photos by Lyle Hawkns

Sports

May 13, 2022

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Eagle Edition

Episcopal School of Dallas

St. Mark’s alum enters the NBA draft Harrison Ingram ‘21 starts his professional career after first year of college

By Olivia Hohmann Staff Writer

H

arrison Ingram, a sixfoot-seven, 19-yearold forward for Stanford University’s basketball team, declared on March 30 that he will be entering the National Basketball Association draft.

Ingram, who graduated from St. Mark’s in 2021, first announced the news on Instagram.

“First, I would like to thank Coach Haase and then the entire coaching staff for believing in me and providing me the opportunity to play for and [HARRISON’S] represent Stanford BIG PERSONALITY University,” Ingram wrote AND FUN SENSE in the March OF HUMOR WILL 30 Instagram post. “To my MAKE HIM AN teammates, ASSET ANYWHERE through the ups HE GOES. and downs we always stayed together. Every Greg Guiler time we stepped on that court was St. Mark’s varsirty something special. basketball coach Our bond will last forever. To my friends and family, thank you for always being there for me… With that being said, I would like to announce that I will be declaring for the NBA draft.”

According to St. Mark’s coach Greg Guiler, Ingram who was born in Dallas, was always willing to put in the extra couple of hours to perfect his skills so that he would keep up his reputation as a five-star recruit. In 2021, he won McDonald’s All-American, a national title given to 48 all-star basketball high school senior boys and girls. These 24 boys are split into two teams of 12, the East vs the West. The same is done for

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the 24 girls. The 2021 McDonald’s All-American basketball game was unable to take place due to Covid-19 restrictions. According to WFAA, although he was unable to play the game, the award was still a touching moment for him and his family and showed that his hard work had paid off. While excelling as an individual player, Ingram also helped to unite the St. Mark’s basketball team by pushing everyone to be their best. “[Ingram] held everyone to high standards while still filling the locker room with laughter. He absolutely loves the game and the privilege of competing,” Guiler said. “As a result, he did not shy away from telling teammates when they needed to step up, he shared thoughts with coaches, and he owned mistakes whenever he could because he knew that authentic leadership demanded humility.”

Ingram dominated the 20202021 basketball season, averaging 19.5 points, 10.9 rebounds and seven assists per game and he led the St. Mark’s Lions to a Southwest Preparatory Conference title. He was a difficult competitor, but this pushed his rival teams to play to the best of their abilities.

“Playing Harrison was definitely a challenge, but it was nothing that we could not handle as a team,” senior and varsity ESD basketball player Austin Page said. “I do admire his playing style and his confidence to play defense and score points.”

Ingram received offers from Stanford University, University of North Carolina, Baylor University, Kansas University and numerous other schools for basketball, before deciding to continue his basketball career at Stanford. During the 2020-2021 season Harrison scored a total of 337 points. The coaching staff at St. Marks and his teammates all knew that he would succeed anywhere he went.

“Harrison possesses a love for people and deeply enjoys

interacting with others,” Guiler said. “He is a fabulous teammate, family member and friend. His big personality and fun sense of humor will make him an asset anywhere he goes.”

At Stanford he thrived as the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, and according to USA Today Sports, he averaged 10.5 points, 6.7 rebounds and three assists in 32 games during the 2021-2022 season. According to many, his strong understanding of the game has allowed him to be the phenomena he is. And NBA scouts believe he is ready for the NBA draft, though he will maintain his collegiate eligibility.

Ingram has multiple qualities, as described in multiple scout reports, which are beneficial to his game: his size, quick thinking skills and speed and agility.

Ben Parker, a publisher for CardinalSportsReport.com, believes that Ingram is ready for the NBA unlike many other players Ingram’s age. Parker sees that Ingram has more talent than many other players his age.

“For a college freshman, he’s very polished and very NBA ready in that sense,” Parker wrote in an article for CardinalSportsReport.com. “Some guys need more fine tuning of their games, whereas Ingram, while of course having things to improve on, is much closer to a finished product. This makes it easier to see what he is and what he’s going to be.”

Many have commented on him not only being a talented athlete, but also being a great teammate and leader. Being a standup guy is a skill that some lack and so people believe that this trait of Ingram’s will allow him to dominate the NBA. “Ingram is a good teammate,” Parker wrote. “He doesn’t need to have the spotlight on him and at times is perhaps too humble about his abilities. He’s a guy who should have no trouble adjusting

SHOOTING THROUGH COVID Harrison Ingram, prepares to shoot during one of his few games his senior year at St. Mark’s. “I wish I had played every game as hard as I could,” said Harrison in an interview for his school’s yearbook. “These four years flew by really fast for me, so any advice I’d give to anybody about to play basketball is to actually play every game like it is your last because when COVID-19 hit, it really was our last game.”

Photo by Sal Hussain, St. Mark’s School of Texas

to being a role player in the NBA and doing whatever is asked of him. He even came off the bench one game earlier in the season and handled that well. He has a winning personality and approach to the game.”

Several attempts were made to contact Ingram for an interview, but he never responded.

Sports

May 13, 2022

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Varsity softball makes SPC, first time since 2019 The team clinches a spot in the SPC tournament after a win against Trinity Valley

By Alex Warner Views Editor

J

umping up and down, freshman softball player Katelyn Hurt looks at her teammates with excitement. Proud that her team had won a conference game at home, they did not realize until later that they were officially headed to the Southwest Preparatory Conference tournament.

When they beat Trinity Valley 36 to 33 on April 20, the varsity softball team qualified for SPC. The last time they had qualified was in 2019.

“We didn’t think we made SPC until [Coach Schneider] told us,” Hurt said. “It was mind blowing that we pulled it off because, starting behind in second inning, we were behind 21 to 5. I remember looking at my teammates and being just so excited. We were happy that we won and we played really well.”

Because of a thunderstorm during the second inning, the game was stopped and resumed a week later. It was chaotic and a tough game to win.

“The game was suspended in the second inning the week before,” head coach Mike Schneider said.

“We were losing 20 to 5 at the time.

We kept closing the gap, and then in the bottom of the sixth inning, we broke through with a big inning to get the win.”

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The suspension of the game allowed the team to work on their weaknesses. Improving their pitching during practice became one of the prime reasons for their big win of 36 to 31.

“We had trouble with our pitching in the first inning,” Schneider said. “When the game was scheduled to resume a week later, we made some adjustments in our pitching mechanics and that is what made the difference when the game resumed.”

The players also worked on batting and timing how fast the opponent would pitch a ball. While working on physical aspects of the game, they were getting ready mentally.

“Preparing for the game was really going out there and just being ready to play again,” Hurt said. “It was just knowing [we had to] to play hard and try hard. We [had] to be aggressive and make the fewest mistakes possible.”

After preparing for the game, the team was able to make a strong rally. Many of the players were shocked when the opponent’s lead began to shorten.

“When we started making our comeback, I remember standing in the dugout with [teammate and sophomore] Taylor Turner and then we started winning,” Hurt said.

“I think it was 29 to 28. We were

down by a lot but made a huge comeback. We looked at each other and we were like, ‘No way.’”

Towards the end of the game junior Madison McCloud caught the ball that helped finish the game with a win that allowed them to advance to the SPC tournament.

“In one of the last plays of the game where the other team was batting, the girl hit it and Madison and I were both running towards the ball,” Hurt said. “I just saw McCloud catch it and I thought, ‘No way we just won.’ Our team was so happy.”

Senior captain Gina Montagna went to SPC her freshman year and had not gone since. Being able to go her senior year felt rewarding and exciting.

“It was really cool because [co-captain Grace Macchia and I] went to SPC [our] freshman year,” Montagna said. “There are only two seniors this year and so it was kind of fun to reminisce on being back in the same place in Houston and playing on the same fields.

Especially since we got to bond as a team and go out to dinner and just have fun outside of playing.”

During the tournament, from April 28 to May 1 in Houston, there were a few girls who were hesitant to go because of fine arts conflicts, and they didn’t know if it was going to be worth the drive. Freshman

Editors-in-Chief Maddy Hammett & Grace Worsham

Sports Editor Callie Hawkins

Managing Editor Elisabeth Siegel

Web Editor Charlotte Tomlin

Business Manager Katherine Mote

Social Media Manager Easterly Yeaman

Copy Editor Elliot Lovitt

Staff Writers William Custard, Brooke Ebner, Lyle Hawkins, Jamie Henderson, Olivia Hohmann, Sophia Sardina, John Schindel, Lauren Shushi, Charlotte Traylor, Miles Wooldridge,

News Editor Iris Hernandez Life Editors Abby Baughman Arts Editors Easterly Yeaman Views Editor Alexandra Warner

Cartoonist Sarah Cabrales Faculty Adviser Ana Rosenthal

Sophia Sardina was skeptical if she was going to have fun; however, she ended up enjoying the tournament and being able to bond with her teammates.

“At first I was a little hesitant because it corresponded with the strings concert and the Symphony of Hope, but the team wouldn’t have had enough players to go, so I decided to choose softball over strings,” Sardina said. “It was super fun because we all hung out after the games, we played cards and we all had a team dinner after our first game. [Even though] we lost both games, we still had a blast.”

Montagna said that she enjoyed practicing with a fun group of girls and was able to go to SPC with them. The tournament allowed the

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Circulation is 1000 copies, and the student population is 782.

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HOME GAME Katelyn Hurt and the rest of the softball team play their first game of the season on March 8. The Eagles lost against Parish Episcopal School. ”Everyone works so hard on the field and you can see that in the games,” Hurt said.

“Everyone is so supportive and has a sense of respect for each other.”

Photo provided by Sophie Goelzer

team to get closer and play with each other one last time.

“I really like being a part of a team, getting to practice with each other every day and getting to play games with each other,” Montagna said. “I think by the end of the season, we really bonded. Having that fun group of people that we can hang out with everyday is probably my favorite part.”

The opinions expressed in this newspaper do not necessarily reflect the views of the adviser, faculty or staff. This is a student-run publication and a forum for student voices.

All images in the Eagle Edition are student produced, republished with permission, are in the public domain or fall within fair-use practices for criticism and news reporting.

BYLINE POLICY All articles, graphics, photos, art, columns, page design, reviews or other material produced by Advanced Journalism students carry the creator’s byline with the exception of the Staff Stance, which is the official, collective voice of the Eagle Edition.

Eagle Edition | vol. 39, issue 6 The Episcopal School of Dallas 4100 Merrell Rd. Dallas, TX 75229 eagleedition@esdallas.org (214) 358-4368

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28 Eagle Edition

Episcopal School of Dallas | May 13, 2022

Recognizing the Class of 2022’s college commitments

202 colleges and universities applied to 476 acceptances to 158 colleges and universities $10,188,716 in scholarship money

Source: ESD College Guidance

Ryan Ainsworth | Trinity University Mary Grace Altizer | Dartmouth College Chase Arnott | University of Arkansas Connor Awbrey | University of Georgia Van Ayvazian | Texas Christian University Davis Baker | University of Pennsylvania Anna Baranski | Texas A&M University Erika Batson | University of Southern California Nia Bethea | Southern Methodist University Shruti Bodhanampati | Northeastern University Cash Bowling | Texas A&M University Juliet Brennan | Chapman University Caiden Burress | Austin Community College District Gabbi Butler | The University of Texas at Austin Fletcher Calvert | Colgate University Riley Calvert | Colgate University* Eduardo Carbonel | Texas A&M University- Galveston Kellen Carona | Baylor University James Carr | Miami University, Oxford Cheyanne Carson-Banister | Binghamton University James Click | Santa Clara University Charlotte Cooper | Chapman University Casey Curtis | Loyola Marymount University Kara Dross | Chapman University Emilye Dullye | University of Georgia Dax Dundon | Southern Methodist University Ryan Egger | Austin Community College District Taylor Elliott | Texas A&M University Kate Elliston | University of Georgia Victoria Feuer | Pepperdine University Ava Finn | University of Arkansas Marley Frazier | Spelman College Paco Gomez | University of New Mexico* Camille Greening | Sewanee: The University of the South Satori Griffith | University of Colorado Boulder Zachary Habeeb | Chapman University* Weston Hargrave | The University of Alabama Annie Heldman | Southern Methodist University Colby Henderson | Navarro College* Grace Herburger | University of Georgia Andrew Herring | Texas A&M University Carter Hogg | Johns Hopkins University Sloane Hope | The University of Texas at Austin Eli Huggins | Texas Tech University Spencer Hutchinson | University of Iowa* Ashley Jaynes | Texas A&M University Price Johnson | University of Georgia Grant Jungerman | Southern Methodist University Lili Kelly | The University of Texas at Austin Chase Kennedy | University of Utah* Charlie King | Southern Methodist University Sydney Knodel | University of Southern California Gabe Kozielec | University of Southern California Carson Langston | Southern Methodist University* Claire Levy | Texas Christian University Jake Lewis | Austin Community College District Emily Lichty | Northwestern University Mason Link | University of Georgia Ruby Long | University of Washington- Seattle Grace Macchia | University of Nebraska- Lincoln Mallory Mahoney | Texas Tech University Gia Maioriello | The University of Texas at Austin Esme McGaughy | Texas Christian University Mary Frances McGaughy | University of Georgia Mary Lou McMillan | Santa Clara University Gina Montagna | The University of Chicago Holden Moore | Stanford University Reid Moorman | University of Notre Dame Luke Mooty | The University of Texas at Austin Jackson Morash | Lehigh University Matthew Muscato | Pennsylvania State University Finley Nelson | The University of Alabama Day Nettle | The University of Texas at Austin Lillian Nettle | The University of Texas at Austin Keil Neuhoff | Tulane University of Louisiana Dani Nisbet | Georgetown University Miki Nisbet | Texas Christian University Virginia Nussbaumer | The University of Texas at Austin Austin Page | The University of Texas at Dallas Natalie Parker | American University* Major Parsons | High Point University* Stephanie Pfister | Northeastern University Danyal Raza | Washington University in St. Louis Nick Roberts | Saint Louis University- Madrid* Trent Robertson | Tuskegee University Jaden Robinson | New Mexico State University Kai Robinson | The University of Texas at Austin Mac Rodvold | Franklin and Marshall College Adam Russell | Austin Community College District Sofia Sabella | Providence College Tucker Sachs | The University of Texas at Austin Hannah Scheel | Furman University Tori Schmidt | Indiana University- Bloomington Jack Scott | Chapman University* Jonathan Scurtis | Southern Methodist University Lauren Sedwick | Texas Christian University Jackson Singer | University of Arkansas Caroline Smith | Southern Methodist University* Emma Sochia | University of Richmond* Dabney Spraker | University of Georgia Vishal Sridhar | Texas A&M University Sam Suarez | University of Oklahoma Kathryn Sullivan | Tulane University of Louisiana Caroline Teegarden | Texas Christian University Avery Vafa | University of Oklahoma James Wharton | University of Wisconsin- Madison Cash Whiteman | Oral Roberts University Liam Wilson | Maine Maritime Academy Claire Wooley | Southern Methodist University Alexander Wysk | Haverford College Emily Yancey | Chapman University Rider Yeaman | Washington and Lee University *not pictured