Fourcast April 2014

Grace Embrey Rock Climbs Competitively p18

Natalie Ng Karate Kicks with a Black Belt p20

Shelby Cohron Crochets Amigurumi p15

FRIDAY APRIL 11, 2014

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

11600 WELCH ROAD DALLAS, TEXAS 75229 VOLUME 65 ISSUE 5

CENTENNIAL EDITION news p2

features p6

Screenwriting Alumna Debuts Novel Amy Talkington ‘88 released her first novel “Liv, Forever” in March

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sports & wellness p18

perspectives p21

photo essay p24

PASTand PRESENT »» In this commemorative issue, The Fourcast looks back on the last 100 years since Miss Ela Hockaday founded our school. p11

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY CLAIRE FLETCHER

TALKINGTON continued p3

a&e p15

Laura Bush to Speak at Centennial Luncheon

PHOTO COURTESY OF HUFFINGTON POST

uring her high school years, Amy Talkington ‘88 was just another Hockaday student.

Now, she is living the life of her dreams in Hollywood as an award-winning screenwriter, director and now author of her first novel, “Liv, Forever,” which was released on March 11.

Published by Soho Teen, teenage fiction novel “Liv, Forever” centers around love and the supernatural. Motivated by the Occupy Movement, a series of international protests against social and economic inequality, Talkington wanted to convey the divide between the people of the U.S. through a novel. “[It] comes to play in the school’s mythology and conspiracy,” she said.

“Liv, Forever” is set at a boarding school, inspired by the two high schools Talkington attended—Hockaday and Choate Rosemary Hall, a co-ed boarding school in Wallingford, Conn.

Before Talkington began writing novels, however, she wrote screenplays.

Many of her Hockaday teachers, including Fine Arts Department Chair Ed Long, inspired her career in the film industry.

“She was an interesting blend of someone who had incredible concentration and someone who could have certain joy in things,” Long said.

“In some ways, that’s very predictive of film directing because you have to concentrate on a dime, yet what you may be concentrating on has to appear effortless.”

These qualities helped Talkington advance in her career as a screenwriter.

“To be a happy screenwriter in Hollywood, you have to derive pleasure from what you do on a day-to-day basis and not get too invested in the final outcome,” Talkington said.

One of the many struggles of screenwriting, Talkington said, is accepting defeat when movies are either developed, but never completed, or completely rewritten by someone else.

As a result, Talkington transitioned from screenwriting to novel writing.

“Publishing a novel has helped mitigate all that because I’m putting something

p11

On Friday, former First Lady Laura Bush will speak to a crowd of 1,500 members of the Hockaday community as one highlight of a weeklong centennial celebration. Her speech will also be broadcasted live in Penson Athletic Center for the rest of the Hockaday community to watch.

Eugene McDermott Headmistress Kim Wargo said Bush will arrive to campus just shortly before her speech to meet with Hockaday underwriters, members of the Board of Trustees BUSH continued p11

FORMER FIRST LADY Bush is the second First Lady to visit Hockaday; Eleanor Roosevelt spoke at Commencement in 1952.

Teachers who have been around here for a while will say that they’ve had one or two [A+’s] in their career.

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English Department Chair Dr. Deborah Moreland p5

02/03

THE FOURCAST APRIL 11, 2014

It is inevitable that your views will ultimately influence your teaching.

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Organic Chemistry students research the caffeine content of Tazo tea p4

Upper School substitute teacher Adrian Martinez p3

Briefing

On March 27, a 31-foot-tall light pole on the tennis courts fell to the ground. According to Chief Financial Officer JT Coats, the light was sheared just above the weld, which is where it was cemented to the ground.

All tennis court lights were removed following the incident.

No injuries were reported.

Hockaday brings in facilities auditors from Business Solutions every five or six years to check every room and report necessary fixes.

The lights, originally installed in 1984, were scheduled to be inspected next school year.

Due to the collapse of the light pole, however, new ones will be installed this summer.

PHOTO BY ALAINA RODRIGUEZ

Tennis Court Lights Removed

Girls Incorporate STEM, Block by Block

Alexis Espinosa A&E Editor

Graduation Speaker Announced

Robin Roberts, an anchorwoman for ABC’s Good Morning America, has been selected to address the Class of 2014 at the 100th Commencement on May 24. Among her many accomplishments, she played college basketball, published two inspirational books and worked as a sportscaster for ESPN. Roberts recently battled and recovered from breast cancer and myelodysplastic syndrome. She intends to speak on the importance of resilience in living a life of meaning.

Amy Tao News Editor

PHOTO COURTESY OF ABC NEWS

GOOD MORNING, HOCKADAY Robin Roberts will be the centennial graduation speaker on May 24.

Promise for Promise House The Community Service Board will raise money to benefit Promise House

Super Bowl XLVIII heads to a commercial break. On television screens nationwide, girl after pink-clad girl scampers down the front steps of her house bearing a classic girls’ toy—anything from stuffed animals to dolls to dollhouses too large for their small hands.

Each joins the throngs parading down the street towards the park, where a rocket ship is being constructed with the mostly pink toys.

Using a pink, purple and yellow engineering toy called GoldieBlox, the girls launch the rocket.

The advertisement contrasted with the football melee and the other commercials featured during the Super Bowl Feb. 2. By winning the recent Intuit QuickBook’s “Small Business Big Game” competition, Californiabased startup GoldieBlox had their shot at changing the parade of sensualized women and alcohol-bearing men as well as “the pink aisle.”

GoldieBlox are engineering toys consisting of a construction set in “girly” colors and a storybook that includes design ideas. They are marketed currently at girls ages four thru nine with the goal of inspiring them to stick with science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. The books feature characters such as Goldie, her friends Ruby and Katinka and Goldie’s dog Nacho, figurines of which are included in the

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ach year, Hockaday’s annual Day of Promise brings in thousands of dollars to benefit Promise House, a shelter for runaway teens. For the past three years, the Community Service Board has hosted the event and this year, on April 14, they aim to raise even more funds.

In the morning, students will sell Chick-fil-A Chick-nMinis by the ARC entrance. At lunch, seniors can go off campus to Potbelly’s, and for dinner, from 6-9 p.m., Potbelly’s will offer a $5 deal to get a sandwich, cookie and bag of chips.

All proceeds made from selling the Chick-fil-A in the morning and 20 percent of all lunch and

GoldieBlox construction sets.

Ideally, the sets can build girls’ “spatial skills, engineering principles and confidence in problem solving,” according to the Goldie-

Blox website.

The company is rapidly growing from its inception as a crowdfunding campaign two years ago and is now selling its third product. According to Abby Dixon, a representative for GoldieBlox, “when the commercial aired in the third quarter of the Big Game, it led to an 18,000 percent increase in traffic to GoldieBlox.com immediately.”

GoldieBlox set cost $20-$30 and are sold nationwide in many toy stores, including Toys “R” Us, Target and most local toy stores, as well as on the GoldieBlox website. The toys also ship to Canada. At least a third of Hockaday prekindergarten teacher Brenda Bennet’s class owns a set.

In March, the prekindergarteners were working on a structures unit in science class, so they had a day to build freely with wooden blocks and to take turns with a GoldieBlox set.

Prekindergartener Gwendolyn Becker, to whom the GoldieBlox belonged, said that she enjoyed both kinds of blocks equally. However, when she is at home, she plays with the Goldie-

dinner profits from Potbelly’s on the Day of Promise will go towards Promise House.

The 2013-2014 Community Service Board Chair senior Lucy Wilson said the profits from dinner are usually where the largest amount of money is raised. St. Mark’s sophomore Will Clark will play live at Potbelly’s for dinner. Last year, according to Director of Service Learning Laura Day, more than $2,000 was raised during the Day of Promise. Hockaday does not donate this money to Promise House for any specific program; instead, the organization is free to use the money for whatever programs in which they choose to invest.

BUILDING TOGETHER Pre-K students Jameson Dondero, Gwendolyn Becker and Maggie Hurley play with a Goldieblox construction set, a toy designed to encourage girls to build their engineering skills.

Blox with her mom or sister more often than with wooden blocks, which her brother prefers.

Gathering Girls Debbie Sterling, founder and CEO of GoldieBlox, noticed the dearth of women in her field and regretted that she never knew about engineering until late in high school. Sterling ended up as a Mechanical Engineering and Product Design major at Stanford and after graduating came up with the idea for a toy to “introduce girls to the joy of engineering at a young age,” the GoldieBlox website said.

“In a world where men largely outnumber women in science, technology, engineering and math and girls lose interest in these subjects as early as age 8, GoldieBlox is determined to change the equation,” the website stated.

The storybook aspect of GoldieBlox is an attempt to connect with girl’s strong verbal skills, the GoldieBlox website reported, in order to keep them more engaged with the engineering concepts. In addition, they introduce a problem—such as needing to get Nacho clean—and then guide girls through the engineering process of finding a solution, the same way adult engineers would approach their jobs.

There is also a reason behind the color of the toy: it aims to attract girls

Wilson said proceeds last year went towards summer programs. “Since they keep so many teens during the summer, they want to be able to do fun activities with them like take them on day outings or send them to camp,” she said, noting that the money raised this year will probably benefit summer activities as well.

Previously called ChickFil-A Day, Day of Promise was created three years ago by Olivia Karahan ’12 and originally benefited the Jubilee Center.

“I loved working at the Jubilee Center every Saturday, and wanted to create an annual fundraiser to give back to that community,” Karahan said.

GOLDIEBLOX continued p4

Hockaday has included St. Mark’s, Jesuit and Ursuline in past years in Day of Promise activities; however, this year the board is extending Day of Promise to as many schools and students as possible by inviting Greenhill and ESD as well.

The week leading up to and on the Day of Promise, the Community Service Board will sell T-shirts for $15 with “hope” spelled in sign language on the front. All proceeds from the T-shirts will go towards Promise House as well.

Charlsea Lamb Asst. News Editor

news

hockadayfourcast.org

THE FOURCAST APRIL 11, 2014

The Fourcast welcomes any comments about published information that may require correction or clarification as well as any news tips. Submit to Molly Montgomery, Public Relations Director, at mmontgomery1@hockaday.org.

Check out an online exclusive story about SharePoint at hockadayfourcast.org/?p=7914.

POLITICS

Teachers Influence Political Views

A look at how teachers' personal political views influence students’ views in the classroom

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how she feels.

“I spend time thinking about even the words that I choose when I’m talking about certain policy measures that align themselves with politics,” Palmer said. “I think even the way you present a topic, even down to the way that your voice changes or the way that you ask questions could lead students in a certain direction.”

History Department Chair and Young Democrats Club sponsor Steve Kramer is one history teacher who is very candid about his liberal views, not only in Young Democrats meetings but also in his classes.

“There are times when for whatever reason I will go on what I would call a rant,” Kramer said. In both Kramer’s AP U.S. History, AP Modern European History and U.S. Government classes, he said he still encourages discussion, dissent and exploration of beliefs.

“In my eyes, a teacher should play devil’s advocate no matter what the student’s position,” Mayor of Frisco Maher Maso said. Maso said ideally teachers should not state their views, but they especially should not become very defensive of their position.

“In Government, for example, I will state my views, but then I’ll say, ‘Now those are my views and they may not be right,’” Kramer said. “So I try to encourage kids to come up with their own views.”

While the degrees of openness vary among teachers, one thing remains constant: all

Talkington ‘88 Publishes Novel TALKINGTON continued from p1 into the world, and it wasn’t even rewritten by anyone except me,” Talkington said.

Talkington had to delve deep into her past and explore herself in order to obtain a clear idea for the main character of her novel before writing. She wanted to portray Liv as similar to her true teenage self: “an artist…[who] projected a tough attitude but when it came down to it was emotionally vulnerable,” Talkington said.

“I’d have to say that the character of Liv was my inspiration….she’s a heightened version of my teenage self, and I wanted to explore that,” she said.

Talkington also wanted to publish a novel because of her interest in the supernatural.

“I’ve been interested in ghosts and the supernatural world for a long time, so I started to think about how I might craft a ghost story involving a character like Liv,” she said.

While writing “Liv, Forever,” Talkington read specific books to research how ghosts had been portrayed in recent teenage fiction novels.

These books included “The Name of the Star” by Maureen Johnson, “The Diviners” by Libba Ray, “If I Stay” by Gayle Forman, “Ghostgirl” by Tonya Hurley and “The Lovely Bones”

by Alice Sebold.

After pondering the “ghost rules,” Talkington said, she wrote her own story, focusing on how ghosts interact with the world and themselves. “To me, the story is all about learning to love,” she said. “That is really

Liv’s journey—learning to love herself, her art and others.”

Talkington recently received the Junior Library Guild Selection Award of 2014 for “Liv, Forever.” Her novel was also awarded the “Best Young Adult Book of the Month” by Amazon.com.

She is currently writing a sequel to “Liv, Forever,” as well as a feature film script.

Talkington’s achievements include writing and directing several feature films, short films and TV shows in her career. Some of these include “Night of the White Pants,” “Second Skin” and Disney’s “Avalon High.”

She has received many awards for her achievements, such as the Writer’s Guild Award for “Outstanding Children’s Script” in 2011 for “Avalon High” and the New Line Cinema Award in 1998 for “Best Director” for “Second Skin.”

But no number of awards will hinder Talkington from striving to attain higher goals.

Her publisher at Soho Teen, Meredith Barnes, has high hopes for the future as well.

“I would hope that we’re getting ‘Liv, Forever’ on the big or small screen,” Barnes said.

“Amy has been hard at work putting together a great group of people that want to see [it] filmed, it’s coming along swimmingly so far.”

In support of “Liv, Forever,” Talkington will be reading and signing books at Barnes & Noble Lincoln Park in Dallas on Friday at 7 p.m.

Erin Thomas Staff Writer

teachers want the girls to be able to express their views comfortably, in an informed manner that allows for varying levels of discussion.

“Ideally, I think leaving opinions out of the classroom would be a good approach,” said senior Anna Herbelin, co-founder of the Young Independents Club. “Teachers should still have the right to express their beliefs, but every belief should be taken with a grain of salt.”

Palmer said she tries her very best to always tell both sides of every story, both possible economic theories and historical interpretations. “What’s interesting about economics is that two different economists can look at the same problem and the same data and come up with two noticeably different solutions,” Palmer said. “And the question is always: how is that possible?”

For example, one issue Palmer’s class looked at was the Great Depression and the nation’s emergence out of it. While one economist theorizes that the New Deal had the greatest influence on America’s recovery, another argues that it was World War II and its demand for labor and production that sprung the U.S. out of its worst economic crisis in history.

“In a lot of ways, I think that my own political opinion might sway the way that students think about the problems,” Palmer said. “And I really want them to think about it on their own.”

Adrian Martinez, who substituted for Palmer when she was on maternity leave in Sep-

PHOTO COURTESY OF FRISCO FIRST

ith the Texas primaries wrapping up this March and gubernatorial candidates Wendy Davis and Greg Abbott going head-to-head in the race to be Texas’s first new governor in 14 years, it’s only natural for History Department Chair Steve Kramer to discuss elections and politics in his classroom.

Politics can often be a touchy subject for students at Hockaday. More often than not, however, there is no way to keep the politicking outside of the Hocka-bubble.

Within the Hockaday History Department, there are varying views on the role politics can play in the classroom. Often, the study of economics and history closely intertwines with that of politics, and teachers find themselves on different ends of the spectrum regarding how open they are with their political ideologies. While some teachers are quite frank about their political opinions when teaching, others are more discreet and prefer that their students not know their political preferences.

Upper School AP Economics teacher Joni Palmer prefers not to bring her opinions into the classroom when teaching economic theory and policy.

“My philosophy is that I hope to give students the tools so that they can analyze the problems, the policies, the solutions that are proposed on their own,” she said. While Palmer feels strongly about certain issues, she’s careful not to let her students know

STAYING UNAFFILIATED Frisco mayor Maher Maso believes teachers should remain objective in their classes. tember and October, had a starkly different approach to teaching economics.

Martinez was very upfront with his conservative political views before teaching the class and made sure the girls knew how that would influence his presentation of information and policy material.

“I don’t believe that you can fully segregate your personal beliefs from the material that you’re teaching,” he said. “It is inevitable that your views will ultimately influence your teaching.”

Martinez doesn’t think his views did much to influence the students and their political preferences, but in fact, stirred up even more discussion in the classroom.

“Hockaday students are very independent-minded and strong-willed. I don’t think my powers of persuasion would convince them to go one way or the other in two months,” he

said. “Part of it was even getting students riled up and stirring discussion.”

Often, the most vocal students in Martinez’s class were the liberal students. Martinez said they asked very tough questions and challenged him on several economic theories and solutions. “Those girls responded very well, and it made for some very lively discussion,” he said.

Martinez said he did have one student who was a little more wary of his political discussions intertwining with the way he taught economics but that it didn’t detract from her overall experience and how much she participated in the class.

“I really don’t think that my politics inhibited students, and I certainly hope it didn’t,” Martinez said.

Anisha Anand Business Manager

04/05

THE FOURCAST APRIL 11, 2014

Chemists Take Tea Time Organic Chemistry students conducted research to find TAZO tea caffeine content

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Zen 16-30 mg of caffeine BY TOs PHO INA

ALA RIGU

ROD

Earl Grey 46-60 mg of caffeine

Chai 31-45 mg of caffeine

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he TAZO tea 58 percent of Hockaday girls prefer to drink may give more of a morning buzz than they think. Throughout February and March, the spring semester Organic Chemistry class investigated which black and green TAZO teas contain the most caffeine. To practice their lab techniques, they extracted caffeine from the brewed tea, analyzed results and compared their results to scientific literature.

This caffeine extraction is a fairly typical experiment, but Organic Chemistry teacher Ann Ojeda wanted this to be more of a research development project, she said. All the girls in the class had taken at least one chemistry class before, whether at the regular or AP level, so they felt prepared for a more lab-based curriculum.

“We know the basic lab procedures,” senior Alexis Jones said. “We know how to work properly, do all the safety.

I think that now we’re at a stage that we can design things that are pertinent to our lives and the community because we have that solid foundation.”

First the girls surveyed Upper School students to research and develop an experiment that would be relevant to the Hockaday community.

“We were interested in an experiment that was accessible and also a continuation of our learning about extraction techniques and organic compounds,” senior Shreya Ahuja said. “The prevalence of [caffeine’s] use in people’s lives today made it very accessible.”

The girls designed their research question for two days.

Source: Tazo Tea

TEA PARTY Different kinds of tea contain varying amounts of caffeine. Chai, Zen and Earl Grey teas are just three of the five kinds of Tazo teas that the Organic Chemistry class tested for caffeine. The amount of caffeine per bag is provided by Tazo.

Through this process, Ojeda said they asked questions such as, “What do we want to look at?

Do we want to compare coffee and tea? Or just coffees? Or chocolate? What did we have the equipment to do? What are some of the research parameters?”

Although the girls originally wanted to extract caffeine from chocolate, this was not feasible because chocolate is a solid, and factors such as temperature could pose problems.

“There’s a lot of experimental obstacles we could or could not have addressed,” Ojeda said.

They ultimately decided on testing five TAZO teas—English breakfast, earl grey, chai, zen and chun mee green—because caffeine is easier to extract from liquids.

In order to maintain the applicability of the experiments to the Hockaday community, the girls brewed the tea according to the instructions on the box. After they extracted the caffeine from the tea samples, the girls calculated

the percent caffeine content and the melting point range of the samples, which indicates the purity of the samples.

Historically, black teas such as English breakfast, earl grey and chai have on average more caffeine than the green teas such as zen and chun mee.

In the study conducted by the Organic Chemistry students, however, the results were not as clear.

English breakfast tea appeared to contain the highest amount of caffeine among the black teas, ranging from 91 milligrams to 136 milligrams in different trials, numbers consistent with the 61+ milligram theoretical yield listed on the box.

The chun mee green tea, however, had a yield of about 250 milligrams, far beyond the 31 to 45 milligram range.

Possible sources of error, Ojeda noted, include the purity of the caffeine sample.

Tannin, a type of biomolecule

found in tea, could have contaminated the sample.

Although the students used sodium carbonate to dissolve the tannin into solution, some of the compound may not have dissolved fully and may have remained in the organic layer with the caffeine sample.

To determine the purity of the caffeine samples, students found the melting point ranges of their samples using a special device. While the melting point of pure caffeine is about 238 degrees Celsius, the melting point ranges of the trials were often very wide and did not include the 238 degree mark.

Both these facts may explain that the samples were impure, leading to the variability in results between the theoretical and actual yields of caffeine in the samples. Additionally, the students’ inexperience with the new lab technique may have contributed to the error.

Overall, however, Ojeda said the class accomplished

her three aims: to design the experiment themselves from top to bottom, to practice the skills for extraction and melting point calculation and to analyze their results.

Ultimately, Ojeda said the class realized their results were tentative and that they would need more data and better lab technique to draw definitive conclusions.

Ojeda has been in contact with a professor at Texas Wesleyan University, who has invited the students to present their compiled results at a local American Chemical Society meeting, which occur about once a month for undergraduate and graduate students to present their research. Although the date is still to be determined, Ojeda hopes the girls will be able to present in a poster session before the end of school.

Mary Clare Beytagh Web Editor

GoldieBlox Toys Lauded by Some, Criticized by Others GOLDIEBLOX continued from p2 who visit “the pink aisle” of Barbies and princess dress-up gowns.

But some people are skeptical of the toy. Lower School science teacher Laura Guerra is not a fan of the overall product GoldieBlox offers, though she does agree with the mission of introducing girls to science and engineering concepts.

By encouraging girls to build, “you are directing them to professions that didn’t come up as appropriate for women in the not so distant past,” Guerra said, “so certainly any time you can expose a kid to anything like that would be beneficial, and I think their hearts are in the right place.”

It is the method that she doesn’t agree with. Guerra believes that giving children stories and instructions can lock them into one story, which can stifle their creativity.

Alumna Elise McDonald ‘09 finished a systems engineering degree at the Southern Methodist University less than a year ago. In addition to agreeing with GoldieBlox’s mission, she thinks some of their specific approaches, like the girly colors, could be good ideas.

“There’s nothing about engineering that says it has to be about a black, white, brown and navy world. There’s nothing that says you can’t come in cute clothes and cute shoes to work and still be an engineer,” she said, “so I think that building the color and the fun aspect in early, if it also grabs their attention, great, as long as you carry that all the

way through.”

Aside from color, McDonald recognizes that there are stereotypes that don’t recommend engineering to girls. She noticed in college that most engineers had influence in their families starting from young ages encouraging them to think about the field. She guessed, in fact, that over half of her classmates had engineers in their family already.

“I think engineering is sometimes seen as ‘oh, that’s really hard,’ and particularly for girls, ‘oh, it’s a guy’s field,’” McDonald said, “So the more you can see someone or interact with someone who’s an engineer, you don’t have that scare factor or the exclusivity factor.”

Upper School science teacher and Junior Engineering Technical Society sponsor Leon de Oliveira, who is an engineer, said that women entering engineering must “be prepared to be assertive,” but added that he didn’t think that was something “Hockadaisies have a problem with.”

Many have suggested that a certain stigma of “nerdiness” may be keeping girls away from engineering as well.

GoldieBlox’s Ruby, however, is a “princess-turned-engineer.”

At SMU, McDonald said, all of the engineers were “involved in something outside the engineering school. Nobody was holed up in the lab at all times.”

She was in a sorority and one of the student programming organizations.

In addition to trying to take stigma away from engineering, GoldieBlox has been trying to help introduce girls to the thought

process of engineering, McDonald me ideas of what I can make, believed. She appreciated the and all the other books that can combination of construction set have ideas for different kinds and storybook that GoldieBlox of blocks, not just GoldieBlox.” offers, less because it caters towards Guerra, however, worries girls and more because about this.

“With it reflects engineering GoldieBlox, I know that processes. In college, Gwendolyn said that she was “always given a she liked that it came problem,a situation that with a story, but they’re you’re trying to solve for locked into that story, You are a specific need.” because it’s someone In college, directing else’s story, it’s not their problems can be the own,” she said. treatment of water or them to Instead, she turning glass into a professions prefers the openness touch-screen. “When of toys like legos you’re younger, that didn’t and wooden blocks. you want to look at come up as “Not just the level of something like ‘we play, but the level of want to put Goldie appropriate work that they [the on a parade float— for women prekindergarteners] how do we do that?’” in the not so were doing was so McDonald said. “You much richer with the want to make it fun distant past. wooden blocks. It was and engaging in a Lower School their own creation,” way that a four-year- teacher Laura she said. old or a five-year-old Guerra Despite the will enjoy.” debate on the merits of the storybook, the Telling Their Own Stories GoldieBlox company believes that their toys are beneficial Guerra took issue with because they tap into girls’ the stories and instructions “strong verbal skills,” which included with GoldieBlox. could attract them to using She compared the play of the the engineering toys, thereby prekindergarten girls the day encouraging them to think they played with both the about the field. wooden blocks and a set of De Oliveira, a Lego fan GlodieBlox. She highlighted as well as the JETS sponsor, several students who narrated doesn’t mind the availability stories of evil witches living in of the story and instruction set. the wooden block castles they He believes that storylines and were building as examples of instructions can serve as a good good, imaginative, creative play. jumping off point for any toy, When Becker heard about Legos included. these made-up stories, she “Legos are pretty daunting. admitted she had “never really I mean you get a box of a bunch thought of that idea. But I like of little pieces and are told to using the book because it gives make something,” he said. By

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following instructions, people learn tools with which they can then become creative, he said.

But de Oliveira actually thinks that construction sets should not be marketed in different colors and for different audiences between girls and boys. “I would rather see a more unisex toy like an Erector Set,” he said.

“Not necessarily market it towards girls or boys but show kind of a cooperation of everyone playing with the toys together.”

There may always be disagreements on how best to change the proportions of women to men in STEM fields. GoldieBlox is only one idea for approaching the concepts with young girls. Things are already changing McDonald said, with the number of women in engineering growing.

“Yeah, engineers are kind of quirky, but they have personality, and they’re so smart,” she said. “Being with other smart people, I didn’t realize how important that was coming from Hockaday.

So that’s probably one of the things I liked the most.”

She admits it can be challenging, but thinks that getting girls thinking about it at a young age is great. “While the preparation to be an engineer is hard, what you do when you get there is so rewarding that it's very worth it. So don’t let the male or hard factor keep you away from it.”

Emily Wechsler Copy Editor

hockadayfourcast.org

THE FOURCAST APRIL 11, 2014

English Grading System Causes Controversy Skills English Teachers Look for When Grading an Analytical Essay

Upper School students have trouble understanding how English teachers objectively grade their assignments

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s a subject that centers on concepts more abstract than numbers, facts and rules, English poses a struggle for many students aiming to achieve the highest grades possible in their classes.

“Everyone has different levels of writing,” senior Ginny Crow said. “I wish there was more of a standard because it’s hard to compare [the writing abilities of] two people.”

However, the English Department has designed a system of grading to implement fair, unbiased and consistent evaluation of assignments.

Calibrating Grades To address students’ qualms and to implement a fair system of grading, the English department regularly meets to discuss essay assignments and grade papers together. English Department Chair Deborah Moreland calls this “calibrating grades.”

“We established a number of years ago what an A, B, C and D looks like,” she said. “The essay that receives a high grade needs to merit it: awareness of audience, rhetorical devices, style, purpose, ethos, insight, originality, and of course style.”

The department documented this information in a series of rubrics for each type of essay at each level, which they maintain in a folder on the school internet for easy access and sharing.

About once every month, all of the Upper School English teachers meet to grade randomly-picked student papers. The teacher who assigned the essay will explain what the assignment was, how long the student had to work on it and any other background information necessary for the other teachers to know in order to fairly assess it. After discussing the essay as a group, each

English teacher then decides a hypothetical grade for the anonymous paper and shares his or her ideas with the rest of the department. According to Moreland, although they will discuss each essay at length because doing so helps to refine and reinforce grading standards, teachers easily reach a general consensus.

“It works out very well,” Moreland said. “We might be half a grade off, but generally we’re on target.”

Furthermore, English teachers oftentimes meet with students before an assignment is due to go over their progress on the assignment and recommend methods of improving writing strategies and ideas. According to Moreland, anonymous grading was also designed to bring in fresh, unbiased perspectives in evaluating the assignment.

“When I talk about [an assignment] so much [in a writing conference], it gets to the point that the I know what the student wants to say, even if she couldn’t say it sufficiently gracefully,” Moreland said. “I might know that, but the rest of the teachers don’t.”

Moreland also acknowledges that there is an inherent subjectivity in grading English assignments because the nature of the subject itself is not strictly defined.

“It’s not clearly right or wrong. It’s complicated,” she said. “Writing, just like thinking, is a nuanced activity with many components that cannot easily be separated one from the other for the purposes of evaluation. That is why teachers spend so much time reading, discussing, and grading essays.”

Students also find themselves struggling to deal with the abstract aspect of the subject.

“There’s not a formula you can follow,” Crow said. “You can study for other classes.”

2014-2015 Student Council Takes Over

Awareness of Audience A Purpose & Thesis Sufficient Evidence Vocabulary of Literary Analysis Complexity & Development of Ideas

The Disconnect Between Students and Teachers English faculty acknowledge that on a challenging writing assignment, essays are probably more likely to fall into the B range. For students who are accustomed to receiving high, “A” level grades, they may struggle with maintaining this expectation. Moreland expalined that because the school handbook defines an A as "far exceeding expectations," it is unlikely that 120 essays would fall into that category. As a result, she said, many essays receive a frade in the B range, which means "exceeds expectations."

“Teachers who have been around here for a while will say that they’ve had one or two [A+’s] in their career,” (refering to a quarter grade, not an essay grade) Moreland said. “It’s not routine. If it was, it wouldn’t be an A+.”

Teachers spend about 3045 minutes grading a student’s major essay, according to Moreland, which is “a lot of thinking for a three-page paper.”

English Department grading also varies within each Upper School year. However, the general requirements and expectations remain consistent with each year.

“It’s a matter of degree,”

March 31 - April 11 Community Service Essential Needs Drive

The 2013-2014 Council stepped down in March

A

New English teachers are immediately introduced to the department’s method of regularly sharing grades. Brian Hudson, a new Upper School English teacher this year, believes that “calibrating grades” benefits not only students but also new teachers.

“It helps in assessing papers and also in teaching them, because it’s tells you what other people are doing,” he said. Additionally, other English teachers who have taught at Hockaday for a long time will provide new teachers will exemplar papers to guide them in their grading processes.

At Austin High School in Austin, Texas, where Hudson taught before joining Hockaday, grading rubrics were largely based on the standards set by The College Board. These rubrics, Hudson said, “were not necessarily designed for formal papers with extensive drafts.”

Rather, the College Board curriculum trains students to write essays in about 40 minutes.

However, the general criteria between Austin High School and Hockaday remained consistent for Hudson.

“We looked for sophistication of style, complexity of ideas, and we also sat down and calibrated grades. The nice thing here [at Hockaday] is that we can sit down as a department, rather than only with teachers of the same grade level,” he said.

Hudson also noticed that Hockaday students were held to higher expectations than those that were held at his previous school.

“It’s not that we expected less of our students from Austin High School, but they came from such diverse backgrounds and were not all necessarily prepared in the same way,” he said.

Although the environ-

ments of Austin High School and Hockaday are very different, Hudson did not experience much trouble in adjusting to Hockaday’s grading system.

“I think most teachers read a paper and know what general category it falls in: A, B, C or D. But getting to the specifics of plus or minus, papers aren’t always easy to categorize in that sense,” he said. “They may have strengths in one area and weaknesses in another, so you have to think about how that all balances out.”

Coherence in Paragraphing and Transition Strong Opening and Closing Purposeful Diction, Syntax, Style Punctuation Mechanics, including Grammar & Usage Information provided by the English Department

Hudson said. “What makes a paper strong at any level is probably consistent in that you’re looking for a strong thesis, and organization that fits the ideas in the paper and isn’t forced.”

And although there may be a disconnect between students and their English teachers, most students remain relatively satisfied with the system of grading.

Amy Tao News Editor

FOURWARD

STUDENT COUNCIL

fter several joint meetings with the 2013-2014 Upper School Student Council throughout March, the 20142015 Council officially took the reins in early April. Its first order of business is to plan events for next year.

Members of the 2014-2015 Council were inducted in a candle-lighting ceremony on March 17. The Executive Council consists of junior Charlsea Lamb, President; junior Courtney Le, Vice President; sophomore Frances Burton, Treasurer; and freshman Natalia Henry, Secretary.

Next year, the new Council plans to implement the Whole Girl Program, organize another successful Winter Formal, move Town Hall earlier in the calendar, revamp Form Competitions to encourage participation and more.

This will be Lamb’s third and Le’s second year involved with the Council. “There are so many things the 2013-2014 Council did that we can build on and continue through next year,” Lamb said. “I hope we can also implement some new

How New English Teachers are Introduced to Grading

ideas that students will really find beneficial and improve their high school experiences.”

Parliamentarian and Form I President will be elected in the fall.

Other members of the 20142015 Council are: junior Morgan Hurst, Form IV President; sophomore Brianna Buford, Form III President; freshman Taylor Toudouze, Form II President; junior Anne-Marie Hwang, Academic Council President; junior Jessica Savage, Athletic Board Chair; junior Avita Anand, Community Service Board Chair; junior Ariella Stromberg, Convocations Board Chair; junior Avery Baker, Fine Arts Board Chair; junior Sam Goetz, Honor Council Chair; junior Aanathi Reddi, House Council President; junior Anesu Nyatanga, Student Diversity Board Chair; junior Madelene Danklef, Student Relations Board Chair; junior Lakshmi Uppalapati, Technology Board Chair; and junior Alexis Espinosa, Fourcast Editor-in-Chief.

Tiffany Le Editor-In-Chief

April 12 ACT Exam Boarder & Alumnae Breakfast Daisy Dash Centennial Celebration “Party of the Century" April 18 - 21 Easter Weekend - No Classes April 22 - 25 Senior Exit Interviews April 22 Roman Banquet April 23 Sudie Duncan Award Assembly and Reception April 25 Student Diversity Board Forum April 27 - 30 International Student Trip to Austin

April 30 College Counseling Coffee, Form I & II Parents US Choir Concert May 2 - 3 SPC Championships - Dallas May 3 Senior Prom May 5 -16 AP Exams May 9 Underclassmen Recognition Assembly Community Service Hours Due for Seniors May 12 Athletic Banquet May 13 Community Service Hours due for Forms I - III May 16 Senior Splash Day Last Day of Classes for Seniors

06/07

THE FOURCAST APRIL 11, 2014

We took the kittens to [Bonnie Jean Coleman] because we knew about her history with cats.

Hockaday Security Guard Rachelle Medlin p9

FourSteps

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“

Nicole Krampitz Rolls in the Deep PHOTO PROVIDED BY NICOLE KRAMPITZ

... To making Gluten- and Sugar-Free Coconut Cupcakes

The Boureks are one of three married couples working at Hockaday p8

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, mix ¾ cup of coconut flour, 1½ tsp of baking powder, 1/8 tsp of salt, 1/3 cup of xylitol (a sugar substitute), 6 tbsp of butter, 3 eggs, 1 tsp of vanilla, ¾ cup of milk and 4 tbsp of sparkling water.

3 4

Pour the batter into a cupcake pan lined with cupcake tins.

Bake for 20-25 minutes.

ever seen ‘Little Mermaid 2,’ where human daughand sophomore Nicole Krampitz—donning a scuba the ter of Ariel is naturally drawn to hood, a weight belt, two wetsuits, dive booties, fins and the sea? Well, that character has ala 30-pound air tank—hovering 10 feet beneath the ways reminded me of Nicole,” she said.

Nicole credits 90-degrees Fahrenheit water of the Caribbean Sea her early interest in scuba diving mainly to her parents, who have been scuba off the coast of Roatán, Honduras,her diving for 20 years. “When I was little, eyes guarded behind a scuba mask, my parents always used to go scuba focused on a man hovering two feet diving, and I could never go,” she said. in front of her.

Her involvement in scuba diving The man, Nicole’s father Danopened up an outlet for Nicole, makiel, closes his right fist and points his ing the activity “seem more realistic thumb up, signaling his imminent and less exotic.” ascent. In response, Nicole gives an The minimum age requirement “okay” sign by connecting her right for the certification process is 12, but thumb and forefinger into a circle and Nicole, now 16, did not acquire her cerholding her other fingers straight. tification immediately because of the “We do scuba diving as a famtime constraints and the challenges of ily, so it is partly about going on adfinding a convenient location. ventures together,” Nicole’s mother Nicole first enrolled in a class Marlyn Mayo said. This family trip course, “Open Water Certification,” at was a cruise that included stops in Lone Star Scuba, read the “Open WaHonduras and Belize. ter Diver Manual” and attended classHowever, it was only five months es, during which she was assessed on ago, on Nov. 22, that Nicole acquired the information in the book. certification as a scuba diver. Nicole Passing these assessments was a said that she has aspired to be a cerprerequisite to the second portion of tified scuba diver since she was eight. the process, scuba diving in a pool. “You “I’ve always liked just being in the learn how to clear your mask, what to ocean,” she said. “I like seeing all the do if your air stops working and differthings underwater.” ent descents,” she said.

Mayo observed Nicole’s interest In order to complete the certificain scuba diving very early. “Have you

It is 10 a.m. on a Wednesday during Spring Break, For the icing, whip 1 tbsp of butter, 1 tbsp of milk, 1 tbsp of xylitol and 2 cups of whipping cream together. Ice the cupcakes after they cool.

Megan Philips Staff Writer

PHOTO B YM

S EGAN PHILIP

I Much Ado About Macbeth

n her sophomore English class, Upper School English teacher Jennifer McEachern discovered a way to teach Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” in both an interesting and novel way.

McEachern and Greenhill English teacher Joel Garza realized they would be teaching their classes Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” during the months of February, March and April, and decided to integrate the two classes.

“We are trying to keep it simple,” McEachern said, “but if we can find ways to connect the students, then it will make the learning more relevant and more exciting for them.”

McEachern’s students read the first act of “Macbeth” in February and created a podcast that they sent to Greenhill. Included

were discussion questions that remained after the students’ inclass discussions.

The freshman English class at Greenhill took these questions from Hockaday and used them in their own discussions. In turn, they responded with their own discussion questions and podcast for act three of “Macbeth.”

In an interview in early March, McEachern said that she planned to use Greenhill’s students’ questions and podcasts for her class’ Socratic Seminar, which took place after spring break. Socratic Seminar is a method of teaching in which students opinions are discussed and analyzed with other students.

When her class got to the seminar, McEachern thought it was cool to “play their ques-

DIVING IN Sophomore Nicole Krampitz scuba dives in Roatán, Honduras over Spring Break.

tion process, Nicole had to attend an additional session scuba diving outside of a pool. Nicole decided to scuba dive at Clear Springs Scuba Park in Terrell, Texas, where she trained under the guidance of an instructor.

There are over 20 different levels, including arctic diving, cave diving, and diving with a certain type of air.

Nicole currently is in the first level, open water dive, and can scuba dive as deep as 60 feet. However, she cannot have anything above her head.

“For recreational diving, most of the beautiful, colorful fish and coral are really at a shallow depth where they can get sunlight,” Mayo said.

However, Nicole hopes to progress to the next level, advanced open water dive, at 100 feet. “I want to go further, so I can dive deeper,” she said.

Nicole believes the activity has opened her eyes to more expansive views of nature beneath the surface.

“There’s a lot of things that unless you scuba dive you can’t really see,” she said.

Nicole believes that scuba diving can contribute to the study of marine biology. But aside from using scuba diving to help her studies Nicole hopes to use it to make an impact on the world by enacting a program in certain parts of the ocean. “I want to help protect more of the ocean or explore the parts that haven’t been explored.”

tions and say ‘here are what the Greenhill students have to say, what do you think about their thoughts and what do you have to add on to that?’”

Benjamin Stromberg, a freshman at Greenhill, said that the questions sent to them were very helpful for discussions.

“We were able to think of many new ideas, or nuances in the ideas we were already pursuing,” said Stromberg, “questions from Hockaday got us to re-evaluate the role of the witches, and the relationship between their introduction at the beginning of the play and the concept that Macbeth’s and Lady Macbeth’s actions were controlled or fated” Stromberg has found this new way of teaching very helpful. Hearing from other classes,

Catherine Jiang Video Editor he said, allows them to look at things from a different view, and he hopes “they continue to do these types of integrated classes.”

Garza is pleased with the plan he and McEachern have set and has enjoyed watching how this collaborating has played out.

“For my students, this kind of collaboration provides a break from the usual roles that they play in a yearlong class,” he said.

“At the level of writing, each campus provides for the other campus an authentic audience.

My students really bring their ‘A’ game when they know that Hockaday students are listening and reading their work.”

Gretchen O’Brien Projects Manager

hockadayfourcast.org

THE FOURCAST

APRIL 11, 2014

Seniors “Rush” into Greek Life Seniors continue to debate over whether or not to join a sorority in college

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s the senior class prePorter, who was a Pi Phi pares to leave the halls member herself, believes of Hockaday and head that there are many benefits to different college to being a part of a sorority. campuses all over the globe, “It makes a large university a fundamental question they smaller. It gives you a subset must ask themselves is wheth- of people to socialize with, er or not to join a sorority, a and you get to be very close society of female students in a with all of them,” Porter said. university or college.

“I still see some of the girls Recruitment, also known from my sorority at least once as “rush,” does not begin until every few months. They are August or January of a girl’s my go-to girls.” freshman year at college.

Senior Maddie Lee, who When it begins in January, it will be attending Southern is called “deferred” rush, so for Methodist University next fall, the student’s first semester, agreed with Porter that a soshe is living in dorms rority is great for with other freshmen. providing autoHowever, the true matic friends. sorority process begins “It gives you much earlier, even as a really good opearly as January of a portunity to bond student’s senior year of with different high school. girls, but the great It gives The process reparts of sororities quires choosing which you a are the alumnae sororities to rush and really good connections,” Lee acquiring one recomsaid. “Those conmendation letter and opportunity nections, that nettwo letters of support to bond with work, will help for each sorority, usualwith the job search ly from alumnae of the different and really help and people. university. carry you through Pam Porter, mother Senior Maddie Lee life.” of Megan Porter ‘13, who While Lee sees is a 1985 Baylor University no downsides to belonging graduate and board member in a sorority, Porter acknowlof the Dallas Pi Phi Alumnae edges the reasons why some Club, said that Hockaday girls girls might not choose to join. have not been particularly “It can be a financial strain. interested in sororities in the And pledging does take time. past, and she is working very Some people think they are exhard to change that. clusive, but I disagree,” Porter “Girls at Hockaday have said. “And even if you aren’t in just not been educated in the one, there are plenty of other sorority process,” Porter said. social outlets. Of course, I’m “Several years ago, me and a fairly biased.” couple of Hockaday moms When joining a sorority, started these information costs include required clothes sessions so girls would know for pledge week, and, if acceptwhat to expect from the re- ed, new member fees, housing cruitment process.” and event funds and more.

“

Pledging is also a time-consuming, several-step process that includes a week devoted solely to visiting with different sororities, narrowing down your choices and visiting with a few sororities again, provided they choose you as well.

Senior Caroline Broughton, however, believes the downsides outweigh upsides. “I just don’t want to be in that environment where academ-

66% of seniors are planning on joining a sorority in college ics just aren’t taken seriously and where there is so much cattiness…or where you have to live in a big house full of girls,” Broughton said. “I am going to college to learn and study. The sorority stuff just doesn’t appeal to me.”

Another factor that influenced Broughton’s decision was the stories she heard from her mother and former sorority girls.

“My mother, who had a 4.0 GPA, belonged to a sorority that put her on probation for not attending enough parties.

Other girls I’ve talked to have said that sororities are just an extension of high school,” Broughton said. “I’m ready to take the next step in my life.

I’m ready to be an adult.”

Broughton has heard from her mother that academics

so because it’s right for them.

“For people that maybe don’t make friends as easy, sororities are great. There are also hot meals readily available,” she said.

Lee and 34% Broughton represent of seniors are not the two planning on joining a sorority in college sides to this debate. Of the 73 senior girls who responded to a poll conducted by The Fourcast, 66 percent are planning on joining a sorority in college. Of this 66 percent, a majority have heard the bad rumors about sororities and know all the downsides, but are choosing to Source: Class of 2014 Survey GRAPHIC BY ALAINA RODRIQUEZ pledge anyway. For them, the upsides outweigh the downsides.

Sororities are often a family tradition, as several girls noted in the survey. It is part of their family history to pledge and belong to a sorority. Charity and service opportunities, long-lasting sisterhood and fun parties are put on the backburner in were also among the top reasororities, and while this may sons Hockaday seniors will be true for certain universities, be joining sororities. many colleges require sorority Despite their differing members to have a minimum opinions and the split within GPA in order to partake in the Hockaday senior class, social events, hold office and Broughton, Lee and Porter all maintain a spot in the sorority. agreed that the question of In fact, a national study whether or not to rush a sororconducted by the University ity is, in the end, a personal deof Missouri-Kansas City shows cision that every senior must that all fraternity and sorority make before heading off to GPA is higher than the overall college. collegiate GPA. The rules and “It’s not for me,” Broughregulations suggest that this ton said. “But some people may simply be a common are going to rush and join a stereotype. sorority and have the time of However, Broughton ac- their lives.” knowledged that there are many girls who do choose to Alexis Espinposa join sororities, and they do A&E Editor

TEACHERS

Teacher Takes on New Role Lower School Teacher Marcela Gerber takes Comparative Religion Fine Arts Department Chair Ed Long, but was not able find a free period in her schedule.

“This year, when I heard that my schedule would allow me to take [Comparative Religion], I went for it,” she said.

Gerber gives up her free period to attend the class but does not mind.

“For me, I would rather have my prep period after school and attend the class,” she said. “I have the luxury to not only be part of the classroom but also to learn.”

Since she is auditing the class, Gerber is not graded or required to take quizzes and tests. But that does not deter her dedication to the course.

Gerber routinely takes notes and completes the homework, fulfilling her role as a student instead of teacher.

Other students have enthusiastically welcomed her into the class. “When I informed the students that Senora Gerber was going to be participating, I just heard positive feedback,” Spencer said. “Some of the students had her as a teacher and are more familiar with her, and that’s giving them the opportunity to reconnect.”

Sophomore Julia Pasquinelli, who is in the same Comparative Religion class as Gerber, said, “It’s motivating to see a teacher sitting next

to you in the same class, because you know she isn’t doing it for the grades, but that she is doing it for the sole purpose of learning.”

For Gerber, the best part of attending the class is not only learning but also reflecting on her past experiences as a Hockaday teacher: many of her fellow classmates are girls that she had taught in Lower School.

“I think it’s amazing to see the very beginning of these girls and see them as women, speaking actively,” Gerber said. “Now I can see why Hockaday has been in there from the very beginning. We build women.”

As she transitioned between being a Lower School teacher and an Upper School Student, Gerber noted a few differences. “It had been really hard for me to control myself to not be only one talking, but more the recipient than the giver of the lesson. I’m not in control of this class,” Gerber said.

Additionally, because the Upper School curriculum can be more lecture-based, as opposed to the Lower School’s more interactive type of learning, Gerber finds herself in a different type of learning each class period. “I haven’t been in a lecture type setting for a long time,” she said. “I

PHOTO BY GABY GODINEZ

I

n Upper School history teacher Steve Spencer’s Comparative Religion class, students furiously scribble notes as he lectures on Hinduism. While 15 students sport green and white plaid skirts, one student is out of uniform. That student is Marcela Gerber, Lower School Spanish teacher.

Gerber, an Argentinian native who immigrated to the U.S. 40 years ago, was inspired to enroll in the class because in her home country, where the majority of the population is Catholic, “[the population] learns very little about other religions,” Gerber said.

Gerber pursued taking the class about 15 years ago when the Head of Lower School asked Spencer to make a presentation about world religion to the teachers during a Lower School faculty meeting. “Ever since then, Senora Gerber has said she was interested in taking the class,” Spencer said.

After she cleared her schedule with Lower School Head Randal Rhodus and her attendance with Spencer, Gerber enrolled for the class through Upper School Registrar Sharon Wright, just like any other Upper School student.

Previously, she had wanted to take the History of Art and Music course, taught by

FROM TEACHER TO STUDENT Lower School Spanish Teacher Marcela Gerber compares her notes with sophomore Aleena Tariq for Upper School history teacher Steve Spencer’s Comparative Religion class.

cannot do that type of development [in Lower School], so it’s fun to be sitting on the other side.”

According to Spencer, Gerber has merged seamlessly into the classroom setting. “[Her attendance] hasn’t changed the dynamics of the class in any other way,” he said. “Because I know her so well, it just doesn’t feel different at all.”

From her experiences as a student now, Gerber would like to continue exploring Upper School classes. “I would like to take any class that has to do with diversity of culture, religion or history,” she said. “By learning this, I can understand our student population.”

Sunila Steephen Staff Writer

08/09

THE FOURCAST APRIL 11, 2014

Faculty Couples Make Marriages Work The Kramers, the Boureks and the Curtises discuss what it is like to work at the same place as their spouses

Since their appointments to the school, the Kramers have remained in separate departments; Steve Kramer in the Upper School and Linda Kramer in the Middle school. “I see her once or twice during the day, but that comes specifically because I need to see her for some reason or she needs to see me,” Steve said. “She’s dealing with Middle School issues and I’m dealing with teaching and Upper School issues.”

On the other hand, Terry and Shane Bourek are both math teachers in the Middle School.

After having her two daughters, Katie Bourek ‘13 and junior Sarah Bourek, Terry stayed at home and tutored Dallas-area students in the evenings. Two of her students were Hockaday girls, which sparked the couple’s interest in the school.

Shane began teaching at Hockaday in 1999, and Terry

Couple Cooperation

Shane Bourek teaches sixth grade math and Terry Bourek teaches seventh grade math, making it easier for the couple to cooperate and share ideas.

“He says wonderful things about me. They [sixth graders] come in with this mindset that they are going to be able to learn and that we’re going to have a fun year,” Terry said. “He makes my job easy so I’m very, very lucky.”

The Curtises have also benefited because working at the same place has allowed them to share similar experiences. “It’s nice to be able to have conversations about work and really have the other person understand the situations with an inside perspective. We can appreciate each other’s work to a greater degree because we see how much is poured into it personally,” Jason Curtis said.

Contrastingly, the Kramers do not overlap with each other’s work in their respective departments and keep things at the professional level, treating one another as colleagues. On special occasions such as birthdays or Valentine’s Day, the Kramers refrain from taking extravagant measures. “I am philosophically opposed to commercial holidays,” Steve Kramer said.

“Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day; I don’t do anything. On the other hand, there will be times when I’ll get her flowers just to get her flowers.”

In fact, this past Valentine’s Day, the Kramers decided to go to the movie theater to watch “Lone Survivor,” a movie that, according to Mr. Kramer, “isn’t exactly a Valentine’s Day movie.”

Working at the same place has not made commuting any easier from the Kramers due to their different arrival and departure times. The Curtises also have difficulty organizing carpool because have two daughters who attend Hockaday, seventh grader Emily and second grade Abby, as well as a fourth grade son, Ben, who attends Brentfield Elementary in Richardson. “We kind of take turns, one of us brings the girls and the other one takes our son,” Melissa Curtis said.

According to the Bourek’s daughter, Sarah Bourek, having her parents at Hockaday is a huge advantage. “It’s definitely convenient when I need forms to be signed or when I want a dollar for the vending machine and I don’t have one,” Sarah Bourek said. “And it’s really nice that they work here,

JUST MARRIED The Curtises cut their wedding cake (TOP). The Kramers pose for a photo after saying “I do” (L).

Shane Bourek takes the hand of his bride, Terry Bourek (R).

because I feel like if they had different jobs, I would never see them.”

Colleagues treat the married couples at Hockaday like any other teachers. However, in the case of the Boureks who often have the opportunity to each lunch together, the reaction is quite different.

“What I think is funny is sometimes he’ll already be in the cafeteria and I come in and someone is already sitting next to him and they’ll go ‘Oh, do ya’ll want to sit together?’” Terry Bourek said.

For these three couples,

GET A CLUE Match the phone case with the student.

2

1

A) Junior Ryan McBride B) Senior Ansley Carlisle C) Senior Hannah Matheson D) Senior Joyce Song

3

PHOTO PROVIDED BY TERRY BOUREK

Roles at Hockaday

PHOTO PROVIDED BY LINDA KRAMER

Steve Kramer was appointed to a teaching position at Hockaday in 1978. Linda Kramer came to the school in 1986, and the two first met in 1987 while working on a committee that dealt with setting up and standardizing faculty salaries. The two did not start going out until the late ‘90s. “We knew of each other for 12 years as colleagues, but we never really spoke to each other,” Linda Kramer said.

The Kramers are not the only married couple working at Hockaday. The Boureks and the Curtises met during their college years before coming to Hockaday. Middle School math teachers Terry and Shane Bourek met at a dorm party while at Texas A&M University in College Station and got married after Terry graduated in 1989. Similarly, the Curtises met while attending a freshman English class over the summer at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas. The couple got married in December of 1995.

4

working at the same school has had a positive effect on their relationships, bringing them closer together as a family.

“The best way to strengthen any relationship is to devote time to it,” Jason Curtis said. “While we aren’t able to spend solid blocks of time together at work, we are able to eat together and see each other in the hall. Having those moments only serves to bring us closer together.”

Inaara Padani Staff Writer

?

Answers: 1D , 2C, 3A, 4B

How They Met

came a year later in 2000. Initially, the school did not want a married couple working in the same department, let alone the same subject. “When I applied, they [Hockaday] said, ‘We are not going to hire a husband and wife in the same division,’” Terry said.

In spite of this, she submitted her application and was eventually hired. “After a few months, reports started coming back that not only were they okay with us being married, but that they really liked how we were back to back,” Terry said.

Melissa and Jason Curtis started working at Hockaday during the 2012-2013 school year.

Jason was hired as Director of Technology, and Melissa worked in the College Counseling office before taking on her current position as Director of Auxiliary Programs. Before coming to Hockaday, the Curtises worked at The Laurel School, an all-girls school in Cleveland, Ohio.

“I felt that Hockaday knew that it was possible that we would both work here, and it wasn’t so much that I wanted to work at the same school where Mr. Curtis was, but I wanted to work at another girls school,” Melissa said.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY MELISSA CURTIS

D

ressed in a white gown with flowers in her hand, Linda Kramer, current Head of Middle School, made her way through Graduation Terrace in October of 1999. She walked past the smiling faces of Middle and Upper Schools’ students and faculty while being showered in bird seeds and applause. She was celebrating a life-changing event: her marriage to Steve Kramer. Fifteen years later, the couple is still working at Hockaday. Although every married couple bickers now and then, some can agree on one thing: working at the same place is quite convenient and can strengthen a relationship.

hockadayfourcast.org

THE FOURCAST

APRIL 11, 2014

FOUR QUESTIONS Security Officer Kief Teckle answers questions from The Fourcast’s readers What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen in the parking lot?

If you could give any piece of advice, what would it be?

Senior Evie Pena

Sophomore Nathalie Naor

One time, a long time ago, in the teacher’s parking lot, it was summer school, people came in a big van. Three people, stopped here, they jumped out of the car and look at a teacher’s car. It was hot, so I was inside the science building, so I ran and asked them, “What are you doing here?” and they said “Oh, we are here to buy a car,” and I said, “this is not a dealership, this is a school. If I see you next time, leave the campus.”

So, they left. Another, I saw a tintedwindow Buick kind of oldish car. They passed through here, and I guess they saw me through their mirrors, they zoomed into the student’s lot, so I ran and approached them, “May I help you?” and one replied “We are lost.”

“My God, this is not a street, this is a school, you were trying to do something,” I said and sent them back. Third one was a small Yugo, they made it in Yugoslavia at that time, a small car, he zoomed and parked. I had finished my carpool with the Lower School, it was about 8 o’clock, so I walked and saw the car, and we do not normally have such a car in parking on campus, so I found it, I look, I couldn’t find him, he zoomed in his seat and hid, so I knock on his window, “What are you doing?” and he says, “I have been working for 12 hours so I need to sleep.” And I say, “My god, this is not a motel young man, please get out.” There are a lot.

For students, the parents pay a heck of money to make them successful kids, so work hard, and The Hockaday School is the best school, maybe, in the nation, so they are lucky to come to Hockaday. So, they have to use their opportunity to be a good and smart kid.

What was it like when you first came here?

Senior Emily Zhang

Security-wise, it was not like this.

There was a man, who didn’t do anything, he sat, looked, and lived. I used to work at Tarry House, so I cleaned the other side, with people walking their dogs, and kids running in the field, so I told them, “This is private property, you cannot walk your dogs.” So the school realized, I guess, and they told me I had to go to the Forest Lane parking lot. I came to the parking lot and it was a mess. There was no carpool, the mommies took up two lines, blocked 10 cars behind them, talking. So, my God, I asked them to park, but some of them didn’t listen, so I started lining them up. After I started the carpool, they started leaving the car in the line to walk the kids in, so it became miserable to me, so I started opening the doors to help with traffic, and it has become culture now.

What’s your favorite way to start the day?

Sophomore Gaby Gobinez

In the morning, I pray “Make my day peaceful and a good day,” and I don’t worry. Like, if I have some problem, when I pass Welch Road, I forget everything, I have to be happy. When I come on campus, I always feel happy.

NEXT ISSUE: Anybody—including faculty, staff, students, alumnae and parents—can submit questions for Rodney Skaife, Physical Education Teacher, to mphilips@hockaday.org

by April 30. Please include your name with your question.

PHOTO BY SHELBY ANDERSON

ANIMALS

PHOTO PROVIDED BY BONNIE JEAN COLEMAN

The Kittens Are Meow Safe Bonnie Jean Coleman helped find homes for two kittens roaming around Hockaday

T

his past winter was one of the coldest in years, especially for four homeless cats which roamed around our school’s campus. Two of them still do, and they were never brought to safety and warmth despite Hockaday’s efforts to catch and help them.

After receiving a call from security, Middle and Upper School Choir Instructor Bonnie Jean Coleman rushed to the dining room one day, where two wet kittens, swaddled in bath towels, awaited her.

Coleman works with KittiCo Cat Rescue and Paws in the City to help foster and rescue animals. She has always had a soft spot for the fuzzy animals and admitted “that’s one of the reasons I took the job when I came because when I saw that Hockaday had a cat, I thought ‘now that’s pretty special!’” After she was informed about the stray cats, which were about to endure the harsh weather last December, she made it her mission to catch and find homes for them.

In December, once the weather began to worsen, Coleman brought up blankets, kennels and food with the hope that it would offer the kittens a shelter from the dangerous weather. Coleman set out a few traps in an effort to catch the tiny kittens, and after days of waiting, she was relieved to hear that the security guards finally caught two of them. After weeks of failed attempts, the guards finally managed to trap the shivering kittens by throwing their jackets over them. Then the securiyty gaurds bundled them up in their coats before taking them to the kitchen where they were given a warm bath.

After catching the cats, Hockaday Security Guard Rachelle Medlin said, “We went down the hallway and asked people ‘do you want a cat?’, and nobody wanted one so we decided to take the kittens to [Coleman] because we knew about her history with cats, and she took them.”

Coleman said that the two were totally wild but small enough to be tamed. She brought them home with her, taking them to the vet the next

day to get them dewormed and to receive their shots, spending about $242, which she considered a charitable contribution.

After “cat-proofing” her house with the help of her goddaughter, Tatyana, Coleman placed the kittens’ cage in the bathroom, allowing them to run all over the room. Knowing it was their favorite spot to cuddle, Coleman placed a soft T-shirt in the bathroom sink, where “[the cats] could be all cuddled up because they don’t have their mommy anymore,” Coleman said.

Soon, the taming of the cats began.

Coleman and her godchild began to pet the cats while they were eating in order for them to associate the petting with what they liked, which was food. After doing this for many weeks, the kittens finally became friendlier, and Coleman decided it was time to find them homes. Coleman posted about the cats on her Facebook and emailed Upper School Notices as she tried to seek out people she trusted to give the cats homes.

Finally, Coleman heard

PURRFECT MATCH The two cats that were found now belong to Kerri Holt ‘87, mother of Kyle Guthrie ‘10 (cat on the left) and junior Allison Parks (cat on the right).

back from two people: Kerri Holt ‘87, mother of Kyle Guthrie ‘10 and junior Allison Parks, who were each extremely interested in adopting them.

“I haven’t had a pet since I was very young,” Parks said, “but I have wanted a cat or a dog for a long time. Every time I would see a pet adoption drive or had a random opportunity like this one to get a pet I would ask my parents until they finally said yes to adopting the kitten from Bonnie Jean. I was

actually really surprised when they told me I could keep her.”

Now that the two kittens have homes, Coleman hopes to find homes for the remaining two cats which still roam the school campus.

Contact Coleman at bcoleman@hockaday.org if you see any cats wandering the campus.

Manisha Ratakonda Staff Writer

THE FOURCAST APRIL 11, 2014

10/11

hockadayfourcast.org

THE FOURCAST APRIL 11, 2014

A Letter from the Editors

Tiffany Le Editor-in-Chief

PHOTO BY SHELBY ANDERSON

You may be currently asking yourself why our staff would ever choose to devote so much time, space and energy to a history that has already been thoroughly studied, discussed and written upon by alumnae, community members and current students. In all honesty, it’s a question that we have often asked ourselves since the start of the school year.

What could we possibly present about Hockaday’s past 100 years that has not already been done before? And therein lied the exciting challenge.

It took a great deal of discussion and scouring for stories, photographs and memorabilia before finding the inspiration for the issue, which came shaped in the form of an old green book of 1920’s Fourcast issues. And it suddenly became clear that the recreation of the old newspaper in its first and most fascinating decade would produce the perfect Centennial Edition.

We will admit that yearbooks and historical essays can offer much assistance in the struggle to rediscover the past, but nothing can expose more about ordinary life than a newspaper. Its yellowed, torn and faded pages, smelling like an ancient book, display more about the lives of teenage girls and about high school than any historical facts or crinkled photographs ever could. In courier typeface and inverted paragraph form, the past survives here with great authenticity and integrity through journalistic art, and it’s through this craft that we chose to celebrate our collective history as a community and as a group of girls.

Some of what you may find in the following pages may surprise you, make you think, or cause you to laugh in astonishment when reading just tiny excerpts out of one volume of a publication that has lasted close to 90 years.

Yet, much of what the girls wrote back then could still be published today.

Much like us, they worried about their school dance taking place in the gym; they neglected their uniforms during fourth quarter; they daydreamed in class about boys; they enjoyed inside jokes with their teachers; and much to our amusement, they did not always want to write their Fourcast articles. Very little of Upper School life at Hockaday really appears to have changed.

Thus, while much of this month’s celebration will focus on years to come and our entrance into the second century, this section serves as an ode to the blending of the old and new, the past and present, and the tradition as well as modernity of this institution. We do this all to communicate to you, Reader, that while some things change, others really do stay the exact same.

When another 100 years finally rolls around and The Fourcast staff of the 21132114 school year creates a replication of our layout, we fully expect they’ll find just as many similarities and continuities between our two eras, and we hope that they’ll marvel and appreciate the connections as much as we have over these past two months.

It has been an absolute privilege and pleasure to produce this Centennial Edition of The Fourcast, and we could not have asked for a more fascinating or inspiring task. We sincerely hope that you enjoy this journalistic assemblage of the school’s past century and remember the constancy of character that makes this community and institution such an amazing place to be.

Here’s to you, Hockaday! Ever true!

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE HOCKADAY ARCHIVES

Dear Reader,

Hockaday is Ready to Party!

EUGENE MCDERMOTT HEADMISTRESS

FOUNDER OF THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

ELA HOCKADAY

KIM WARGO

FROM THE FIRST ISSUE IN 1923

RECAP OF CENTENNIAL WEEK

THE MISSION OF THE FOURCAST The “Four Cast” is a bi-monthly paper, edited by the Four-Year Class of the Hockaday School.

The purpose is to gather and give out the incidents and bits of news that might be of interest to the many friends and alumnae of the school, and to reflect—but only in a slight way—the purpose and the spirit of Hokcaday. But primarily this paper is to offer suggestions and possibly to make contributions to the Fifth-Year Class in putting out their annual this year. If, at any time our paper tends to dullness, it is because our brilliancy has been expended in the class room; if it has scant news it is because we have met the highest requirements of the most exacting teachers; if there is a lack of happenings it is because we have been too busy to make them. But whatever each issue may bring you, it is the earnest wish of the editorial staff of the “Four Cast” that it will recall pleasant memories to the “old girls” and keep the many friends of the school in touch with it.

THE DANCE (1923) Exhausted by three days of mid-year examinations, the boarders were eating dinner Thursday evening in a more meditative mood than usual, when an announcement from Miss Hockaday was made that the usual study hours would be dispensed with to make way for a dance soon after dinner. The rush to get to the Gray House was even more hurried when it was rumored that a member of the opposite sex was to play the piano. We all spent a most enjoyable evening and we want Miss Hockaday to know how much we appreciate the treat, for we were tired and needed a good time after such strenuous work.

Katie Payne Managing Editor

MIDDY’S MEDITATIONS

At press time, the following events were scheduled: TUESDAY: Upper School and Middle School Fine Arts Spotlights and performances by eighth-grade girls and freshmen, as well by Upper School girls from all forms: Madison Kaminski, Nayoung Kown, Arianna Reyher, Marisa Salatino, Divya Walia, Charlotte Bagwell, Sarah Bourek, Ellen Carneheim, Shriya Das, Tina Fan, Allison Parks, Noulin Zhou, Virginia Beshears, Caroline Greenblatt, Wallis Jacobson, Hailey Mount, Mary-Carolyn Sloan, Emma Winson, Grace Bush, Cat Colson, Abby Fuller, Ally Guba, Tori Gudmundsson, Sara Held, Lily Johnson and Joy Nesbitt.

WEDNESDAY: Reprise of the Lower School Musical “Lewis and Clark,” the Pre-K circus and the Thanksgiving programs.

THURSDAY: Alumna Victoria Clark ‘78, who currently plays the fairy godmother on the Broadway rendition of “Cinderella,” performs in front of the entire Hockaday student body, as well as faculty and staff, during lunch in the Hocka-tent. A rare event where the entire school comes together, as well as a re-introduction of the Families Program that was disbanded a few years ago. The program was re-invented by Meshea Matthews, Dean of Student Life, and a committee of members from all the divisions of Hockaday.

FRIDAY: All-day Centennial Alumnae Day. Alumnae will be on campus taking class photos, sitting in on an alumnae board meeting, observing classes and enjoying a lunch where former First Lady Laura Bush will be speaking.

There are 1,500 people expected to attend. Also on Friday, the Reunion Tower and the Omni Hotel will be lit up in green in honor of Hockaday’s centennial. The Reunion Tower will flash an “H” and the number “100.”

SATURDAY: Five events are scheduled throughout the day. The Daisy Dash 5k, organized by senior Sophie Cohn and in honor of former Hockaday science teacher Pete Lohstreter, begins at 9 a.m. The proceeds of the run will benefit the ALS Foundation in memory of Lohstreter, who passed away from the disease in 2012. The run will start at Hockaday but branch out into the surrounding neighborhood. T-shirts are available for purchase in the Hockaday bookstore.

At 9:30 a.m. two events are scheduled: the African American Alumnae Breakfast in Great Hall and the Boarding Alumnae Breakfast in Tarry House.

From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., the Lower School Family Picnic and the post-Alumnae Day Picnic will join together to create the Centennial Family Picnic. There will be bounce houses, food and activities in Hoblitzelle Circle as well as a special performance by Hockaday alumna, American singer-songwriter and actress Lisa Loeb ‘86, in Hoblitzelle Auditorium.

Alexis Espinosa A&E Editor

(1929)

The first edition of The Fourcast Feb. 1, 1923

On Saturday, Centennial Week ends with a bang. Literally.

The Party of the Century will be the final toast to Hockaday’s Centennial. This event, created from a desire to have an evening activity for all the alumnae, features various entertainment, including the thirdand fourth-grade choir and the Dallas String Quartet, as well as a special dinner in the tent constructed in the athletic fields next to the Lower School playground. The event also doubles as the annual parent benefit that usually occurs the first Saturday in March.

To host the event, Hockaday has received “amazing support from generations of Hockaday families,” Centennial Director Holly Hook said. More than 2,000 people, including alumnae, are expected to be in attendance.

The Richardson Symphony Orchestra will be one of the last groups to perform.

They will play for the “Centennial Moment” near the end of the night. And bang: fireworks will go off as alumnae and parents celebrate and honor Hockaday’s 100th year.

The after-party, featuring The Party of the Moon, a band from New York City, will play until 12:30 a.m. when the party ends.

Hook is looking forward to celebrating both the past and future of Hockaday.

“That’s what is so great about Hockaday: it’s so much beyond those very few fourth generation families. [It’s about] how large the future is going forward,” she said.

“Everyone is excited to celebrate, but also more excited about where we are going in the future.”

Alexis Espinosa A&E Editor

Laura Bush Continued from p1 and families who have contributed greatly to the centennial campaign.

Bush, as a former Hockaday parent of former First Daughters Jenna and Barbara Bush, has expressed interest in visiting Hockaday in recent years. “She has always had a great interest in Hockaday and a good relationship with the school,” Wargo said.

“When we were thinking about who we could bring in for that big luncheon, we had a lot of people who know Mrs. Bush very well and helped us make an approach and ask her if she was willing to do this.”

Wargo described Bush as the best speaker for the occasion.

“We were so thrilled that she accepted our invitation. Having someone of her prominence and stature who has done so much for women and girls around the world and was in fact also a former teacher, is so great. She understands schools and also has a connection to this school in specific,” Wargo said. “It’s a great honor to host her here at Hockaday.”

The senior class will be representing the student body at the event as the only grade in full attendance. However, because the event is open to the entire Hockaday community, parents were welcome to buy tickets for their daughters of any grade.

“It was Mrs. Bush’s desire that she would be able to speak to the students as much as the adults and that’s why this luncheon was such a good fit for her. That’s also why we opened it up to students and families, as well as alumnae, so that those who really wanted to be a part of this had that opportunity,” Centennial Director Holly Hook said.

Senior Katie Williams expressed her excitement to attend Bush’s presentation. “I am really excited to see and hear her. No matter what your political views are, she was a First Lady, and that is really cool. She is a part of our country’s history, so I predict that a lot of people will be starstruck,” Williams said.

Bush will become the second Former First Lady to speak at the school after Eleanor Roosevelt, who visited Hockaday once in 1937 and then returned in 1952 to deliver the Commencement address.

“Hockaday has had a huge tradition of prominent visiting speakers. Miss Hockaday collected friends and took pride in being able to bring important people like Eleanor Roosevelt to Hockaday,” Hook said. “There are a lot of prominent names that decorate Hockaday’s history. Mrs. Bush is one that we are incredibly honored to have. But this just continues the legacy of bringing in these speakers who embody everything we would want to present to our students and to inspire young minds.”

Avita Anand Sports & Wellness Editor

hockadayfourcast.org APRIL 11, 2014

Judging a Woman by Her Books Guest Writers Audrey Kim and Lindsey Okada leafed through Miss Ela Hockaday’s 1,500+ book collection, reminiscing on how these books reflected our founder’s philosophy, thoughts and ideas.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ARCHIVES

W

hen we first think of Miss Ela Hockaday, we can’t help but imagine Harry Potter’s Professor Minerva McGonagall. From her gray hair to her austere demeanor, Miss Hockaday resembles the strict professor in more ways than one. We mentally categorize her as a nonfiction kind of person, someone who would stack her bedside table with large volumes overflowing with history and fill her bookshelves with the classics.

And for some part, Miss Hockaday’s physical collection fits into this mental shelf. Like any respectable, forward-thinking woman, her book collection is no insignificant matter. The physical inventory spans a lengthy 82 pages, impressively listing more than 1,500 books stored two or three rows per shelf in the Upper School Library.

In addition, journeying past the administrative hallways of Hockaday to the Centennial Exhibit in Memorial Dining Room, one will discover her treasure trove stowed away under lock and key. These select books are immensely valuable as they have traveled through time, some published as early as 1807, and are now crumbling at the spines. We came across old books, new books, books in good condition and books we were no longer allowed to even touch. Her collection spans many years and includes many different types of books—from analytical essays, to travel guides, to religious texts and even popular fiction.

Formerly a teacher in Oklahoma, Miss Ela Hockaday knew her way around education when she opened up her all-girls school in Dallas. Coming from a background of educators—her father, a teacher—Miss Hockaday knew that education was important for women. We can imagine Miss Hockaday nodding in agreement with Harry C. McKwon while reading “Character Education,” which touches on the importance of a Student Council—jurisdiction female students had never governed before. Another great find in Miss Hockaday’s collection, Walter Scott’s “Tales of a Grandfather,” a series of books that retell the history of Scotland to a child, could very well correlate with Hockaday’s rigorous approach to educating children.

Scott intentionally wrote the book as a series of stories directed toward a 6-year-old boy because he believed that children preferred taking on the challenge of intellectual topics, instead of having the material “dumbed down.” Such a push to provoke the higher intelligence of children is strikingly reminiscent of Miss Hockaday. From the rigor of her curriculum to the very caliber of each student, she elevated the standards of education for younger minds.

These books were not just a part of her collection that sat on her shelf but rather the fundamentals upon which she built her life and her own school.

When we pour over the rows and rows of books in her collection, we begin to see Miss Hockaday as “Alice in Wonderland,” traveling between worlds. With a curiosity and sensitivity to happenings around the world, Miss Hockaday collected travel guides, such as “Pocket Atlas and Guide to London” and even books in various different languages, ranging from German to Japanese. Books such as “Historie de Jeanne D’arc,” in French, or Kate Greenaway’s “Malbuch fur das kleine Volk,” in German, make it apparent that Miss Hockaday took an interest in other cultures and languages. In fact, her love for travelling and the wonders of the world mirror her investment in taking her students overseas in travel groups. A cosmopolitan figure in the blooming town of Dallas, Miss Hockaday looked beyond her rural upbringing and encouraged her students to follow.

In a photograph taken around the early 1950s, Miss Hockaday, by then in her 80s, on a boat bound for Europe, holding none other than “The Pocket Guide to Europe”

by Charles R. Jacob. However, even if her final destination was not London or Paris, Miss Hockaday also might have felt the pull of attraction from the exotic languages of the world, paralleled her possession of books such as “Modigliani” by S. Taguchi, written in Japanese. From her profuse collection of travel guides, adventurous novels and at least 25 foreign language texts, Miss Hockaday‘s book collection shows a globetrotter’s respect for other cultures and an adventurer’s excitement for travel.

Establishing an on-campus chapel and allotting time during the school day for spiritual reflection, Miss Hockaday was a deeply spiritual woman. So we were not surprised to find that, not only did she own the Bible, she also owned an addition two copies of “The Book of Job.” Another book in her collection, Harry Emerson Fosdick’s “On Being a Real Person,” may shed some light on Miss Hockaday’s view of religion. He believed that faith wasn’t defined as a certain system of theology but rather an individual, mental experience, perhaps the same kind of experience Miss Hockaday wanted to give her students through education. Lloyd C. Douglas’s “The Big Fisherman” reveals that Miss Hockaday enjoyed fictional tales spun from a religious basis, along with her more serious, religious books. But despite her theological beliefs and deep reverence for spirituality, she decided that The Hockaday School would not be religiously affiliated. This decision could be analyzed as a profoundly progressive choice for her time because it allowed the school to open up its classroom doors and hallways

to diversity and freedom of religion. Since the start of the school, Jewish students attended Hockaday, while many organizations throughout Dallas were excluding the Jewish community. And, in turn, such families and students contributed to the development of the school. Miss Hockaday created an environment of collaboration and acceptance at her school by providing a safe place for students to interact with others who came from a different cultural and religious background.

However, choosing to open her school doors to the greater diversity of young women was not her only bold choice when starting the school. A strong, independent woman, with ideas that left the standards of girls’ schools of the early 1900s in the dust, Miss Hockaday never shied away from the questioning eyes of the public.

She must have truly shocked neighboring schools, even the people of Dallas, by founding a school for girls on Four Cornerstones, one being Athletics—a focus that girls’ schools had never faced before.

For her time, Miss Hockaday had many innovative ideas that challenged in every way the male-dominated world of the early 1900s. Because of this, we were not at all surprised to recognize Jane Austen amongst the many authors of her collection. We can easily imagine Miss Hockaday and Elizabeth Bennett, the intelligent, witty heroine of “Pride and Prejudice,” teaming up together to challenge the very rules and naysayers of society as strong, female individuals. Picture, for a moment, Elizabeth Bennett, an avid walker, and Miss Hockaday, a revolutionary of girl’s physical education, engaged in a lively conversation, ridiculing those who believed that a little exercise for women was inappropriate. The female authors, and even characters, in her collection reflect the cutting edge, female empowering mindset from which she approached school. In an inscription to the book, “Romola” by George Eliot, Sarah B. Trent, Miss Hockaday’s good friend writes, “the story of an ideal woman for an ideal woman.” A splitting image of George Eliot’s character, Romola, Miss Hockaday exhibited the poise of a lady with the intensity of an intellectual. Furthermore, she attracted the minds and friendships of other brilliant women. Over the years, she fostered a deep friendship with Gertrude Stein, collected a few of her books, personally invited her to speak to the girls, and spent hours chatting over the unimaginable depths of society.

Not only did Stein show respect for Miss Hockaday, many other female authors looked to her example, including the warexperienced Vera Brittain, whose writing and work provided an active and poignant voice in the women’s movement of the 1930s. Hockaday’s collection is teeming with at least seven of Vera Brittain’s

books, from “Account Rendered, a Novel to Testament of Friendship: The Story of Winifred Holtby.” In fact, Brittain took it upon herself to carefully inscribe almost every one her of books for Miss Hockaday.

It’s easy to make assumptions about people before we get to know them, especially when the person isn’t as open as a book. Even though Miss Hockaday seems like such a “classical” person, her shelves would be filled with thrillers, sentimental fiction and books that were exceedingly popular. “Dracula” by Bram Stoker was so popular during its time that even Miss Hockaday owned a copy. Surprising, right? Miss Hockaday owned a book about a vampire. Maybe it was her gifted imagination that drew her to the twists and turns of fictional plots. Like how we flip through channels to find a thrilling TV episode, Miss Hockaday flipped through books to find that same exciting element of action.

Also dotted throughout her collection are sentimental books—18th century novels that elicit emotional responses from readers and characters. This genre relies so intensely on the display of sensitive feelings that it provokes us to step back and imagine Miss Hockaday sitting down and opening up a work of sentimental fiction for pleasure reading. Maybe it was the story’s artistic ability to evoke emotions. Maybe Miss Hockaday felt a deep connection to the emotions the characters felt. Knowing that she took the time to read popular sentimental fiction of the day, our black and white mental image of Miss Hockaday warms with color as we begin to see her softer side. We know she seemed like a stern woman, but after you take your stereotyped mental image and make her read “Dracula,” there is no way that your mental picture will be the same. Not only did she support her interests of education and travel by collecting books on those topics, but she was also diverse enough in her interests that she added popular books, even fictional ones, proving that she was such a Renaissance woman.

In a sense, Miss Hockaday’s life, interests and values are as present in each book over her collection to the world around her. By taking time to look at her books, we felt the joy of getting to know Miss Hockaday on a personal level, even though we are generations apart from having such a luxury. From books delineating the history of education in Texas to volumes filled with plot twists and turns for a young heroine, Miss Hockaday’s collection never ceased to surprise us. Even though Miss Ela Hockaday wasn’t, and still isn’t, the easiest book to read, once you get past her intimidating cover and read into her life, her story is so worth it.

Audrey Kim and Lindsey Okada Guest Writers

12/13 THE FOURCAST

SOME ALUMNAE RELATIVES OF CURRENT UPPER SCHOOL GIRLS Alexandra Aston ‘14 and Augusta Aston ‘14: aunt Mrs. Jennie Smith Wilson ‘77, aunt Mr. Ann Aston Ratelle ‘80, grandmother Mrs. Jerrie Marcus Smith ‘53, grandmother Mrs. Alice Worsham Bass ‘56 and great grandmother Mrs. Harriet Lang Worsham ‘32.

Virginia Marie Crow ‘14: aunt Mrs. Lucy Crow Billingsley ‘71 and grandmother Mrs. Margaret Doggett Crow ‘37.

Ashton Noel Gillespie ‘14: great grandmother, Mrs. Adele Henry Booth ‘32.

Honoring Frances Higginbotham, ‘20, whose marriage to Addison Baker Duncan of Waco took place the night of Saturday, November 27, Mrs. Henry D. Lindsley Jr. (Hattie Smith Higginbotham), ‘19, entertained on Thursday, November 25th, with a dinner at the Woman’s Club. Mrs. Lindsley attended the bride as matron of honor, and Maidee Williams, ‘21, of Comanche, Texas, was maid of honor. On Wednesday evening Miss Ela Hockaday and Mrs. Ruth Hallowell also entertained with a dinner, followed by bridge.

Friday evening Mrs. A.H. Bailey had a rehearsal for the wedding party. (1926) On February 13, Ann Miller added another name to the birthday list of boarders. (1927)

Jane Elizabeth Martin ‘14: mother Mrs. Robin Slater Martin ‘84, aunt Mrs. Nancy Matthews Wood ‘52, grandmother Mrs. Jane Matthews Slater ‘57 and aunt Mrs. Trudy Slater Best ‘50.

Friday night, April 30, Trent House and all of the boarders who had been perfect housewives for six weeks had the great pleasure of attending a picture show. (1927)

Meredith Mihalopoulos ‘14: mother Mrs. Maryann Sarris Mihalopoulos ‘78 and aunt Ms. Thalia Sarris Banowsky ‘82.

Everyone has eagerly been waiting Spring vacation. Jane Moody has been packing her bags for two weeks now, and she’s been “BUZZ”-ing like a bee! (1952)

Megan Leah Silver ‘14: mother Mrs. Lisa Ginsberg Silver ‘80 and aunt Mrs. Jackie Anderson ‘77.

Mary Ella, why won’t you make announcements anymore? We promise not to laugh, if you’ll continue. (1952)

Lillian Boren ‘15: mother Mrs. Julie Philipson Boren ‘82, aunt Ms. Nancy Philipson ‘80, aunt Mrs. Leslie Philipson Krakow ‘77, aunt Mrs. Cynthia Philipson Klein ‘76 and grandmother Mrs. Sonia Topletz Philipson ‘51.

The IV Form was honored with a swimming party at the Dallas Athletic Club Saturday, March 22, from 2:30 until 5:00.

The guests were served cokes and sandwiches. (1952)

Elizabeth Gardner Farrow ‘15: mother Mrs. Alison Pickens Farrow ‘83, aunt Mrs. Paige Pickens Conner ‘82 and grandmother Mrs. Jan Rymer Picken ‘60.

On Saturday, October 23, Mr. Steve Kramer and the former Ms. Linda Sams escaped to New York to have a private, small wedding. (1999)

Isabel Diane Jacobson ‘15: mother Ms. Dede Pearcy ‘79, aunt Mrs. Camille Pearcy Potts ‘78, aunt Mrs. Kimberly Pearcy Philips ‘86 and grandmother Ms. Nancilee Foree ‘57.

While McCain will certainly be remembered for his valiant comeback, 2008 must certainly be known as the year of Obama. (2008)

Wallis Dorothy Jacobson ‘16: mother Ms. Dede Pearcy ‘79, aunt Mrs. Camille Pearcy Potts ‘78, grandmother Ms. Nancilee Foree ‘57 and aunt Mrs. Kimberly Pearcy Philips ‘86.

Gigi Griffiths Lancaster ‘16: mother Mrs. Gigi Hill Lancaster ‘89, aunt Ms. Deborah Hill ‘90, grandmother Mrs. Gigi Griffiths Hill ‘63, great aunt Miss Patricia Lancaster ‘57 and great aunt Mrs. Mary Elinor Lancaster Sachs ‘53.

Talia Geller Cohen Meidan ‘16: mother Ms. Amanda Ginsberg ‘88, aunt Mrs. Jamie Ginsberg Garrett ‘85 and aunt Mrs. Elizabeth H. Ginsberg-Dvorin ‘93.

GREEN AND WHITE (1926) “Yea—Green!

Yeah—White!

Yea—Hockaday!

Fight! Fight! Fight!”

This may be the last time you’ll hear this historic yell, for we have a strong suspicion that with such rivalry as is now rife in Hockaday between the aforesaid Green and White, neither side is going to spend its precious lung power on the other. From now on, we fancy, in large measure it will be greens for the Green and Whites for the White. And good luck to both!

Without doubt, the division of the school into two camps is one of the best things ever done at Hockaday for the promotion of athletic interest and enthusiasm. Overnight, play period became a hotly contested, fiercely waged, madly disputed field of battle. Overnight, there swept over the campus such a wave of spirit and determination as has seldom been found here before. Former languid bystanders at the games were turned into pleading, yelling, cheering backers of real teams. Former bored referees and umpires were changed into excited arbiters of real sports. Former halfhearted players of basketball and hockey were transformed into fierce, impetuous, clashing defenders of their sides’ honors. Such was the magic of a posted list of names under the headings “Green” and “White.”

SPORTS ALPHABET (1928)

A

is for Anderson, a star of the water, But in each sport She’s good every quarter.

B

is for Blakey, Who with brains and brawn In Hockaday sportdom Exhibits great form.

C

is for Copeland, Our champion of tennis.

In all games played She fights hard to the finish.

D

is for Dewey, Of versatile skill.

Who at art and in games Always works with a will.

FIRST TRIPLE CROWN (2008) After winning all their counter games, the Hockaday varsity soccer team entered the 2008 Division I SPC Championship seeded first in the North Zone.

An old basketball adage says a champion is someone who is willing to go longer, work harder, and keep playing until they get it right. For the Hockday varsity basketball team, this theory is proving to be correct.

With longer practices, harder drills, and a 15-7 regular season record, the team was poised for victory at this year’s SPC Campionships.

The swimming and diving team won the SPC Championship, which, while exciting, is hardly newsworthy—this is their eighth consecutive SPC win.

Hockaday girls like to come in first. Lyda Hill ’60 is no exception. Kicking off the centennial campaign, she recently donated $20 million—the largest single gift in Hockaday history and the largest single gift from a living alumna to an independent girls’ school in the nation, according to the National Association of Independent Schools. The gift provides the $10 million lead gift to renovate and build a third floor of the science building, the Lyda Hill STEM institute, and $10 million for faculty endowment and program support. It will enable Hockaday to remain at the forefront of education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). (2011)

Elizabeth Raney Sachs ‘16: mother Mrs. LeDee Kidd Sachs ‘87, aunt Mrs. Liete Kidd Eichorn ‘83, aunt Mrs. Elly Sachs Holder ‘82 and grandmother Mrs. Mary Elinor Lancaster Sachs ‘53.

Carolina Reid Campbell ‘17: mother Dr. Tamara Rorrie Campbell ‘86, aunt Dr. Kendra Rorrie ‘91 and aunt Mrs. Deena M. Lugar ‘94.

(1928)

(1928)

Elinor duPont Sachs ‘17: mother Mrs. LeDee Kidd Sachs ‘87, aunt Mrs. Liete Kidd Eichorn ‘83, aunt Mrs. Elly Sachs Holder ‘82 and grandmother Mrs. Mary Elinor Lancaster Sachs ‘53.

MIDDY’S MEDITATIONS

Alumnae girl, how does it feel To have on shoes with such a heel?

To have such color on your face, And yet be met with fond embrace?

If touch of rouge doth stain our cheek, With greatest haste away we sneak To disclose our true complexion If SHE but glance in our direction.

(1929)

(1928)

(1927)

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THE FOURCAST APRIL 11, 2014

HOCKAPUNCH

THE NEW TEACHERS (1926)

4 Bottles Welch’s Sparkling White Grape Juice 1 Gallon Lemonade Combine all ingredients immediately before serving, stiry and enjoy!

2.25 Gallons Serves 50!

In Hockaday’s fourteenth year we number one hundred ninety students and thirty-three teachers. Of the latter there are six new to us, but they have so quickly adapted themselves to the school that they seem to have already found out and supplied our wants.

TO MISS HOCKADAY (1956)

AS WE WOULD SAY IT (1929)

THE NIGHTMARE PROM (1930)

MISS MCDERMOTT TELLS OF TRIP HOME (1929)

Every day after lunch, when the girls have gone into study hall and are quiet, Miss Grow comes in and gives the announcements of the day. She tells that the girls have been too noisy in the halls; that those who have not done sufficiently good work in their geometry and history should be excused for their conferences, a not unusual occurrence.

Place: Lower School Playhouse Time: 7:30-10:00 P.M. Characters: One boy who can’t dance any better than a nine-year-old brother; forty girls dressed in middies and bloomers; and fifty chaperones who are unable to interest themselves in anything except one another’s discomfiture.

Thursday, 1:30 o’clock— “Miss McDermott,” I began, in a rather subdued manner, “could you please tell me about your trip home?”

“Well,” said Miss McDermott, “we sailed at five-thirty on May 4, from Liverpool. After leaving Queenstown, the sea was smooth, except for two days of rather rough weather.”

WHY STUDY? (1926)

GIFTS (1929)

GRADUATION DAY! (1929) What a day to look forward to! The sun will send its almost unbearably hot rays down upon the bare heads of a great army of girls. Agani and again they will march to their places only to go back to the driveway and start all over again. Finally, though, they will be allowed to leave until that evening, when the coveted rolls of white paper with their beautiful green and white streamers are given out. Now I, the pergola, am at liberty to dream of the days to come and to remember the days gone by. The beginning of school I recall clearly. Every year it is the same. What screaming greetings, what kisses, what hugs, what gayly colored dresses.

And then, overnight, all colors faded into the famous green, black, and white. Then the cold days came and all the ground was covered with snow. The girls were wild with glee. They slid down the terrace and into the pit. They made snow balls. They played and played as only those who do not see snow often can do. Now that is melting and the sun once more shows its shining face. Tomorrow what will come? What can come except that beautiful day that is the goal and ideal of all who have the privilege of once witnessing it—that day when, covered with roses, I stand with open arms to receive those favored ones who seem so happy, yet who weep. Those favored ones who walk beneath the pergola of Hockaday.

The more you study, The more you know.

The more you know, The more you forget.

The more you forget, The less you know—

So why study?

The less you study, The less you know.

The less you know, The less you forget.

The less you forget, The more you know—

So why study?

DEAR ORACLE: (1927) Isn’t the traffic problem at school awful?

You know, I never can park my Rolls-Royce.

What would you advise us to do to solve this?

—Marianna.

Dear Marianna: Do you remember the long ago, When we were little tikes?

Let’s all go back to the good old days And come to school on bikes!

REJECTION (1929) Some more of my jokes were rejected by The Four-Cast, but when I put them in the fire it just roared.

RAGGEDY RHYMES (1926)

GUESS WHO!

?

Answers: senior kellen Wigand, junior Yolanda Wu, junior Dominique Sung, senior Dalton Youngblood

(1928)

When in the study hall we sit and suck a pensive finger-tip, and wonder what it’s all about, and how things ever will turn out, and why we toil our lives away, and we get our lessons every day—and when we’re gloomy and cast down, and scorn at books and fiercely frown—there comes into our sad despair one thought all happy, sweet and fair: for some day, too, at least we’ll be those happy creatures you can see.

Classes have come and gone from Hockaday. Little did those classes realize what they were leaving to the school upon their graduations. They left gifts which we see every day, and which add much to the beauty of our school.

The class of 1916 left the statue of Joan of Arc, which now stands in the hall. Daily, Joan seems to look down at the girls hurrying to and from classes and inspires them to heroism.

The class of 1917 printed the first volume of the Scac, the former annual. So great was the expense in publishing The Scac that at the end of the year Miss Hockaday asked the class to make no other gift to the school other than the annual.

The class of 1918 was not allowed to leave a gift. The war occupied the hearts and time of all. The members of the class gave their money to the Red Cross.

No modern sun-dial would do for the class of 1919. They obtained a sun-dial from an old courtyard in New Orleans and presented it to the school.

The beautiful landscape painted by Reaugh was left to the school by the class of 1920. The picture now hangs in the living-room.

The Roman seats under the pergola were left by the class of 1921.

One of the most beautiful things on our campus is the stone fountain, the parting gift of the class of 1922.

The graduating girls of 1923 printed the second volume of The Scac and left it to the school.

The girls of the class of 1924 dreamed of a theater at Hockaday some day. They wanted the theater to be used in buying a green velvet curtain. All these years the money has been increasing in a savings bank and some day it will be used to beautify the “Hockaday Auditorium.”

(1928)

It is often said that “Every great institution is but the lengthening shadow of some man or woman.” The success of the Hockaday School for Girls as a school of high standards is but a reflection of the fine character the broad culture and the high moral standards of its founder, Miss Ela Hockaday.

These qualities, combined with her sincere plan to build a school for the purpose of training girls for enlarged fields of usefulness and a higher realm of culture, were enhanced by a personality that was calm, stronger, gracious, pleasing and yet impelling. Her courage and insight as an executive, and her scientific attitude and originality in educational work, insured the growth of her school from ten girls in 1913 to a full capacity enrollment at the time of her retirement in 1936.

The beauty of our campus and the harmonious blending of balanced symmetry and decorative furnishings in her “cottage” as well as in such rooms as the Great Hall— all attest to the fact that she was innately artistic. Her very nature required beauty in her surroundings; not luxury or extravagance of good taste. Her idealism that caught the vision beautiful, however, was never fantastic, but always firmly grounded.

Her “Girls,” as she always called her beloved Alumnae, and all of the students who were fortunate enough to have known her, are going to miss the hospitality of this gracious lady in her interesting and treasure-filled “Cottage,” where they often went for a casual chat or for advice, or in response toa much coveted invitation to lunch, tea, or dinner.

In the minds and hearts of her friends, Miss Ela Hockaday was a Southern gentlewoman, who retained through the many years her alertness, her dignified bearing, and her acute awareness of the eternal fitness of things in dealing with the inescapable responsibilities of life.

Truly, Miss Ela Hockaday was a great woman!

MAYOR OFFICIATES (1960) Groundbreaking ceremonies for the new Hockaday School held Friday, July 29, 1960 signaled the fulfillment of a promise and the acceptance of a challenge.

On the hundred acre tract at the corner of Forest Lane and Welch Road a host of weeds and a crane with a giant shovel stood waiting. A few vehicle trucks and a blazing Texas sun marked the spot where building would commence.

Recent graduates, distinguished alumna, students, teachers, Board members and Dallas Mayer Thornton came to make the occasion official. In Cadillacs and bicycles, in gloves and hats and in shorts the friends of Hockaday gathered.

LONG DEFINES HUMANITIES AS PROJECT IN GROWTH (1972) “Humanities should be considered in a broad sense, not just as an auditorium program,” commented Mr. Ed Long of the Hockaday Fine Arts department. Mr. Long defines humanities as any effort to project beyond the normal high school curriculum.

(1928)

hockadayfourcast.org

THE FOURCAST

arts & enter tainment PopChart

APRIL 11, 2014

One of her most resonating arguments was to show that race is truly a complicated thing.

Junior Olivia Whittaker p16

“

Sophomore Rajya Atluri performed in sophomore Sadie Lidji’s film p16

PHOTO BY TIFFANY LE

What’s the Stitch?

APPS

PERFECT NUMBER

The math game “2048” has taken both computers and phones by storm. In order to win, move tiles to get to the “golden number” of 2048.

CELEBRITY

LOVE-GAME

Tennis star Maria Sharapova has won another grand slam with her deliciously cute line of gummies, Sugarpova.

Coming in a variety of shapes and sizes, the candies are now offered as a topping for your Pinkberry yogurt.

complexity of the pattern.

“They are all old senior Shelby Cohron pulled yarn over the pretty easy [to make], just time hook in her hand, beginning the very first loops consuming,” Cohron said.

One of the and stitches of not only a simple yarn chain but pieces that has taken Cohron also her love for a lifelong hobby: crocheting. the longest to make so far was Now, after a few breaks through- a purple dragon monster, consistout the years, Cohron has been cro- ing of two black button eyes, a white cheting a myriad of patterns, mak- felt stomach, two black horns, and ing unique and special gifts for her a purple crochet body, otherwise friends and teachers. known as Felix. She made the dragCohron makes multiple ani- on monster as a gift for senior Anna mals and characters from TV shows Lim. The toy took about two weeks for her friends and teachers. of on and off work to make.

“It can make someone’s day to Senior Samantha Kim thinks receive a handmade gift,” she said. that Cohron crochets fast, though.

Out of the more than 30 amiguru- Kim received a Totoro, a character mi, the Japanese name for the cro- that is a mix of a raccoon and an cheted stuffed toys, that Cohron has owl from an Japanese animated made over the past two years, she film, from Cohron and now keeps it has only kept four: a small Totoro, a on the shelf in her dorm room. bird, a guinea pig and a whale.

“It was really cool and it is amazOne of the first pieces that ing how she is actually really quick Cohron crafted was a red bird that about it,” Kim said, remarking on she now keeps on her bookshelf. The the speed in which Cohron is able to red bird is also her favorite piece, create the tiny stuffed toys. Cohron even though she also enjoys creat- made Kim’s gift in just four hours. ing miniature whales out of bright Cohron is speedy at crocheting blue and white yarn and round the small toys in part because she black, glossy bead eyes. The whales often carries her crochet hooks (she take about 20 minutes each to cre- uses 3.5-4 millimeter hooks) and red ate while other pieces take around heart yarn around with her. They four hours each, depending on the are handy when she has free time. number of colors required and the Deciding on designs and what to

Sitting alongside her grandmother, then 8-yearTELEVISION

ALL MEN MUST DIE

After a bloody end to Season 3, HBO’s “Game of Thrones” returns April 6. Spanning the whole other world of Westeros, the fantastical political drama is a can’t-miss with twists this season that will make you lose your head.

Sundays 9/10 c.

FOOD

LA BOULANGE

Don’t panic if you notice a change behind Starbucks’ glass case of goodies. The coffee giant changed its line of food in March, calling the new collection “La Boulange.”

Get ready for the return of the chocolate croissant.

Sources: iTunes, Entertainment Weekly, Claire Fletcher

Weaving a Brighter Future

A

fter Dr. Tererai Trent’s visit to Hockaday, a small group of Middle School students started making and selling beaded bracelets to raise money for Trent’s foundation, Tinagona.

The foundation’s name means “it is achievable” in the Shona language, spoken in Trent’s hometown in Zimbabwe.

The money raised from the bracelets will provide nutritional meals to 1,050 elementary students. The funds will go directly to the Tinagona foundation’s current project of building a canteen or cafeteria at the Matau Primary School, Trent’s childhood school, lo-

cated in Zimbabwe. For many of these children, this will be their most significant meal of the day.

“The girls are filling a very special and important role in the area of global health and development,” Trent said.

Members of this group were taught to make these bracelets by a Tinagona representative this past January during a bracelet workday held for Middle School.. However, this group of students decided to make these bracelets on their own time.

One member of the group, Sarah Kate Feferman, has sold these bracelets outside of Hockaday. Feferman has

BABY BLANKET Senior Shelby Cohron crochets a blanket for College Counseling Associate Courtney Skerritt, who is expecting a baby girl in August. She began crocheting the blanket before she found out the baby’s gender.

“It’s gender neutral,” she said.

create next is also why Cohron enjoys crocheting. When she has time or is bored, she goes on Pinterest for inspiration for new designs. She pins all of her inspirations on her board titled “Crochet <3” which consists of over 100 different pins, ranging from crocheted fruit to Powderpuff girls.

She also makes her friends’ requests or finds patterns that she thinks they would like.

“I should really charge people so I can make money,” Cohron joked, since she gives most of her creations to others.

Part of the appeal of crocheting for Cohron is that it is therapeutic and a good stress reliever.

“You don’t have to think about it too much and you get something cute at the end,” she said. It also helps her relax when she is worried about a test or school work.

Cohron is not the only one who in the recent years has fostered a love for amigurumi. In 2006 amigurumi was one of the most popular items purchased on Etsy, an online craft marketplace. Its popularity has slowly been growing since the 1950s.

Cohron plans to continue crocheting as she gets older and, just as her grandmother taught her, perhaps one day teach her own grandchildren how to crochet.

made over 100 bracelets since she started in late January. So far, she sold them to Toy Maven.

“Dr. Trent’s work is so admirable to me because she fought through all her hardships to achieve her goals. Her hardships have only made her stronger and more determined,” Feferman said.

Making the bracelets was very specific and involved many supplies, including a charm with “Tinagona” on it.

Trent’s foundation hopes to break the cycle of poverty through educating students, so that they can use this education in their life and follow a path of success.

Alaina Rodriguez Photography Editor

The construction of these canteens is a step towards that goal. Receiving a wholesome meal during the day at breakfast and at lunch will positively impact the students’ academic performance at the primary school. “[The canteens] will allow the children greater overall nutrition and food security in a rural location where food security is an issue,” Trent said “I would like to help all students, regardless of their location in the world, to live up to their dreams and exceed at their goals,” Trent said. “It IS achievable!”

Noor Adatia Staff Writer

arts & entertainment

THE FOURCAST APRIL 11, 2014

16/17

Students Showcase Film Talent Sophomores Sadie Lidji’s and Whitney Middlekauf’s films were selected for the Dallas Film Festival tional Film Festival. Their films were screened at the Perot Museum on April 6 at 4:15 p.m.

Their films were among 16 selected from a pool of about 200 other applicants. Each school could only submit three films.

“It’s a huge honor, and this year is the first time Hockaday’s submitted. I didn’t think my movie about a cotton ball would be chosen,” Middlekauf said. This is the first win for both Middlekauf and Lidji, who, last year, gained their first film expePHOTO PROVIDED BY WHITNEY MIDDLEKAUF

COTTON TAIL An innocent cotton ball attempts to befriend the solitary Hockaday deer statues.

rience in a St. Mark’s film course.

“Rolling Alone,” a story in which a lonely cotton ball goes on an adventure trying to make friends with two deer statues, started out as a small project for advanced film class.

“Whenever girls are stuck, I usually give them a small project to get their creativity flowing.” said Upper School film teacher Glenys Quick. The only requirements for this project were the usage of a cotton ball, Hockaday statues and a line of dialogue: “You are not Alone.”

The footage that Middlekauf filmed that day became “Rolling Alone.” She wrote the screenplay after the fact, voicing over the film of the cotton ball.

Lidji, on the other hand, wrote a very complicated screenplay before filming “Kiss the Boys and Make Them Die.” Her creative process centered on a mental image of a girl in a forest holding a fortune teller.

Lidji was also inspired by the cinematography of Spike Jonze, director of “Her” and “Where the Wild Things Are.” Using her friends as actors, she shot all of “Kiss the Boys and Make Them Die,” during the four day “snowpocalypse” from December 6-9. This black comedy narrative is about a 16-year-old girl awakening in a forest surrounded by mysterious yellow fortune tellers, the day after being betrayed by her

PHOTO PROVIDED BY SADIE LIDJI

H

ipster titles, and new talent, have made high school film go from a “blow off coursework” to places beside Hollywood pictures.

Advanced Film sophomore students Sadie Lidji and Whitney Middlekauf were nominated by the Dallas Film Society to show their films, “Kiss the Boys and Make Them Die” and “Rolling Alone,” respectively, in the North Texas High School Shorts Showcase at the Dallas Interna-

KISS THE BOYS Sophomore Rajya Atluri stars in Lidji’s film as a girl controlled by a demonic “cootie catcher.” boyfriend, unaware of why or how she got there.

“I feel like we were selected because of originality.”

Lidji commented. “That’s what a film festival is, seeing things you can’t get at any Cinemark.”

Both films, one light-hearted and fun, the other darkly beautiful, represent the best of Hockaday’s new film program.

“Film isn’t just about quiz-

zes and a test,” Lidji said, describing her different film experiences. “It’s about ideas flowing together and then spilling out onto a white screen.”

To view these films by Lidji and Middlekauf, visit hockadayfourcast.org/?p=7908.

Kate Clement Staff Writer

Don’t Pass It Up Junior Olivia Whittaker reviews Nella Larsen’s novel “Passing”

CARTOON

sance’s premier woman writer,” tells the seemingly contradictory—yet, virtually identical— stories of two women, former childhood friends, Irene and Clare, in their struggles involving race, heritage and the act of passing in a “remarkably candid exploration of shifting racial and sexual boundaries,” as stated in “Passing.”

Though Larsen’s readers could take away many purposes from such a novel, perhaps one of her most resonating arguments was to show that race is truly a complicated thing.

Larsen’s emotion-provoking characters and self-submerging scenarios, as well as her novel as a whole, have changed my perception and definition of race entirely.

Though race might literally be defined in the dictionary as a division of mankind on the basis of skin color, hair color, eye color, facial features, amid all other outward appearances, Larsen has shown me, as well as the rest of her readers, through the ever-

changing motives of a nostalgic Clare, the internal conflict of race over self or self over race we directly endure with Irene, and her ultimate resolution to that conflict that it represents more.

Race is heritage and culture. According to The Bedford Anthology of American Literature, race is that irrepressible feeling of an “unremittent beat / made by cruel padded feet / walking through my body’s street” so vividly illustrated in Countée Cullen’s well-known poem “Heritage.”

Race, in Larsen’s “Passing,” examine[s] the role of culture in the shaping of identity and question[s] the dialogic between an African past and a European-influenced present for African-Americans” and serves as Larsen’s epigraph in the novel.

Race is the abiding “allegiance to Clare” Irene experiences despite her acrimonious feelings towards her.

However, within the first few pages, the reader acknowledges the unrelatable, lim-

Time is Relative Anna Herbelin

PHOTO BY COURTNEY LE

D

espite the difficulty one of modern times would face in reading a novel about the struggles of racism in harsh 1920s Chicago and Harlem and in placing themselves in such a time period, taking the time to read Nella Larsen’s “Passing” is well worth the task.

“Passing” is promising, engulfing and abundantly thoughtful—the kind of novel that subconsciously forces us to stop and muse over the world and reminds us how thankful us 21st century Americans are to live and be born in such a contradictory era with analogous attitudes and perceptions to match.

The novel speaks about something still relevant in 21st century America: race. Even a century later in the welcoming Student Diversity Board forums of our exceptionally diverse school, students, as well as the majority of Americans, are timid to talk about race.

Larsen, “the Harlem Renais-

PASS IT ON Junior Olivia Whittaker recommends Larsen’s “Passing” ited third-person narrator that Larsen establishes. This type of narration was new and exciting for me at first but became con-

fusing. Throughout the novel, between the narrations and thoughts of an unrelated third person and Irene, I found myself biased and trapped in Irene’s insecure and envious perspective.

For this reason, as a reader, I was unable to interpret and absorb the novel for what it was.

In addition, I found myself frustrated by the melodramatic cliffhanger of an ending Larsen offers. In conjunction with the unrelated third person narrator, the conclusion confuses and shocks the reader, taking away from the success of the novel, conflicting with the iconoclastic 1920s theory of modernism which altered literature to go against traditional views many found outdated for the emerging environment of an industrial world (“Modernism”), and distracting the reader from Larsen’s notable diction, description and unexpected relatability.

Olivia Whittaker Guest Writer

arts & entertainment

hockadayfourcast.org

THE FOURCAST APRIL 11, 2014

REVIEWS

Not as Dreamy as it Seems

Beyoncé’s Better PHOTO COURTESY OF VIPERIAL

PHOTO BY ALAINA RODRIGUEZ

F

Dream Café 2800 Routh St. #170 Uptown Dallas

A

self-described “urban retreat,” the Dream Café is an eclectic diner that has been serving the Metroplex for more than 20 years. The café defines its cuisine as global because of its diverse menu options.

In late 2013, the owners of the original location in Uptown on Routh Street (Quadrangle), branched out with a second Dream Café in Addison (Village on the Parkway). Luckily, the locations are far enough apart to prevent any rivalry.

Like any pair of siblings though, they are very similar. Both have interiors with diner inspired booths, Ikeaesque lamps, motel-like abstract artwork and exposed loft ceilings.

Both locations have extensive outdoor dining patios, welcoming children’s play areas and adequate parking. Both Dream Café locations are in busy, mixed-use commercial areas.

The menu is all encompassing and offers a bewildering array of choices, from the pedestrian oatmeal

to the more exotic Shrimp Soba. It also offers a variety of gluten-free items.

My friends and I visited each location. We sampled quite a few dishes.

Our appetizer, The Fundito, a café signature item, is a nicely spicy multi-layered bean dip crowned with a flourish of guacamole and pico de gallo served with warm tri-colored tortilla chips. It was both crunchy and cheesy, as any good bean dip should be.

Our next dish was the oatmeal.

I anticipated a healthy and delicious bowl of sustenance, but what was served was an unpleasant, flavorless bowl of mush that mimicked the consistency of soup served in a crusty bowl. The toppings (bananas, pecans, brown sugar and raisins) were uninspired and could not rescue this dish.

The New Yorker (lox and cream cheese with a red onion and caper garnish served with a toasted plain bagel) was a reprieve from the oatmeal, although not completely delicious.

The flavor the herbed cream cheese imparted to the toasted bagel and the generous portion of lox was refreshing. The downside: the bagel had been noticeably frozen, thawed and reheated upon reception of the order.

Next came the Glorified Omelet (spinach, Swiss cheese and mushrooms), which was incredibly cheesy and far too greasy. The hash browns

DREAM COME TRUE This classic breakfast delight is available at Dream Café. Pictured above, the Ode to Roscoe’s Chicken Waffle is the perfect combination.

served alongside were boring and slightly burnt. The wheat toast definitely saved the dish, and despite being served with an indistinguishable spread, it was still delicious.

While both Dream Cafés don’t excel with their dishes, they are doing something right in other areas.

Both cafés have a diner feel with sporadic modern accents; high ceilings, textile art and linen napkins, which are a nice touch. The outdoor dining areas are lovely. The staff at both locations is welcoming and intelligent; both locations possess a familyfriendly ambiance.

However, far from the “Dreamy Experience” promised on the website and implied in the name, my culinary adventure at both Dream Cafés was disappointing.

Vivian Armitage Staff Writer Second Location: Dream Café Addison 5100 Beltline Road Sunday: 7 a.m.-9 p.m.

Monday: 7 a.m.-3 p.m.

Tuesday-Thursday: 7 a.m.-9 p.m.

Friday-Saturday: 7 a.m.-10 p.m. $

“Satellite Flight: The Journey to the Mother Moon” Kid Cudi

ollowing the trend set by Beyoncé earlier this year, Kid Cudi released a surprise album, “Satellite Flight: The Journey to Mother Moon” on iTunes without a word of warning at the end of February, tweeting “Time to make the world stand still.”

However, the bold statement was not quite as successful as Beyoncé’s surprise release of her self titled album. The rapper tweeted about the possibility hours before the occurrence, and pulling this legendary move just months after Beyonce herself took some of the fire out of the flame.

The album as a whole is reminiscent of possibly his most famous single, “Day n’ Night,” which reached the peak of its popularity in 2010. This spacetrippy vibe that he produced for his “fellow galaxy travelers” doesn’t showcase much new but is still a fun record to listen to if you like his previous music.

It also should be mentioned that a majority of the tracks are largely acoustic, when I first began listening I thought I might have accidentally bought the wrong version, but for what Cudi lacks in words he makes up for in rhythms that feel like you might actually be on a shuttle to the moon.

The most notable singles are “Copernicus Landing,” “Too Bad I have to Destroy You Now” and “Return of the Moon Man.” Though Cudi was not as successful as Beyoncé (but let’s face it, who could be?), fans praised him for continuing the trend of surprising them with a bunch of music at once. Said one fan in a response tweet: “We are digging this, it’s like Christmas morning for all the cuddlers out there!”

You can purchase Cudi’s album on iTunes for $9.99.

Molly Montgomery Public Relations Director

Diverging from the Norm “Divergent” Neil Burger

government are all too cliché.

The select few that have made it to theaters (“Hunger Games,” “Ender’s Game”) topped off the box office, but Neil Burger’s “Divergent” might just give them a run for their money.

Adapted from the novel by Veronica Roth, “Divergent” is set in dystopian Chicago, where society is divided into five factions centered around a specific virtue: Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless and Erudite. At the age of 16, children have the option of choosing a new faction

would fabricate a similar relationship between Tris and Four.

Despite my doubts and assumptions, I was immediately proven wrong. Their relationship was not, in fact, “codependent,” but brilliantly conveyed as two independent people who decided to work together to resist oppression and fight against it. From start to finish, “Divergent” roared with action and constantly had me thinking on my feet. And for lovers of the original book, the movie covers almost all of the scenes brilliantly.

An essential aspect to any movie about oppression and rebellion is connecting with the audience through different

emotions. With the constantlyrotating scenes, it was a little frustrating to be left heartbroken or flustered with the situation, and then all of sudden have to pack your bags and move on to the next scene. But then again, Tris did too, and she’s the real one fighting the war as a Divergent.

Given Four’s witty dialogue and the numerous times the theater erupted into bouts of laughter, I can successfully say Burger succeeded in that particular area as well.

This movie impressively conveyed the theme of oppression against those who defy the status quo, all while thoroughly captivating the audience with

PHOTO COURTESY OF ON SECRET HUNT

n this generation, books set in Ipromoting dystopian or utopian societies rebellion against the

after taking a simulation test, which tells them which faction they belong in.

But here’s the rub: these so-called “Divergents” defy the status quo. Instead of falling into just one faction, they are a combination of several.

I’ll be honest; I walked into this movie expecting the worst.

I loved the book, so when they announced the cast, I was a little disappointed. Shailene Woodley, Tris’s character, didn’t fit the physical description of Tris well enough, and Theo James, Four’s character, was slightly too old (29 years as opposed to 18). Considering Bella and Edward in “Twilight,” I was also concerned the producers

exceptional directing and acting skills.

And after all, “Divergent” is the title. What’s a movie if there’s nothing different about it?

Erin Thomas Staff Writer

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THE FOURCAST APRIL 11, 2014

sports & wellness FourScore

Freshman Peyton Smith p20

“

Freshman Grace Embrey competes nationally in rock climbing p18

A New Trend Ignites PHOTO BY EMILY YEH

5

I just don’t let it get to me because I know that with practice, I will figure it out eventually.

Number of invitationals the varsity golf team will travel to this season.

18

Number of track and field events offered for students to participate in at each meet.

36

Number of students on both junior varsity and varsity lacrosse. No cuts were made this year.

6

Number of sports offered during the spring trimester.

This season has the most sports when compared to fall and winter seasons.

Freshman Climbs to New Heights

Vivid Vanilla, Piña Colada, Peppermint and Coffee are some of the appetizing flavors that candies and treats often come in. Recently, however, a new popular trend is making these flavors available in a vapor smoked through electronic cigarettes.

Electronic cigarettes, colloquially known as e-cigarettes, which are on the rise among teenagers, are offering these flavors through batterypowered devices that require neither tobacco nor a flame. Instead, they produce a vapor that the user inhales by converting liquid nicotine into a mist.

Blair, a junior who wished her real name not be used in this story, has smoked both regular cigarettes and e-cigarettes.

“I definitely liked the e-cigarette better,” she said. “The regular cigarettes made me feel light-headed and my throat hurt. I even started vomiting.”

The first e-cigarette Blair smoked was peppermint flavored, although “it tasted like Skittles,” she said. Part of the appeal of e-cigarettes among teenagers is the flavor variety.

While regular cigarettes do come in some flavors, most people just smoke un-flavored cigarettes.

“I also liked the e-cigarette better because the regular cigarette left a gross smell that took forever to wash out, but the e-cig didn’t leave any smells,” Blair said.

Most people, especially teenagers, also preferred the e-cigarettes because they believe the e-cigarettes to be healthier than the regular cigarettes. In

I

t was a typical fatherdaughter outing that landed freshman Grace Embrey on a rock climbing wall. Four years later, Embrey is a member of Team Texas competing at the regional, divisional and national levels. An employee from Exposure Indoor Rock Climbing, a facility of Summit Gyms in Carrollton, Texas, attempted to recruit the 11-yearold natural climber after seeing her climb for fun.

“I initially thought that they [the staff] were just trying to be encouraging, but they really saw that she did it fairly easily and much easier than most,” her father Chip Embrey said.

Team Texas is comprised

a February survey taken by 290 Hockaday Upper School students, 66 percent said they believed that e-cigarettes were better for people’s health than regular cigarettes.

But Medical Director of the Pulmonary Function Laboratory and Respiratory Therapy at Baylor University Medical Center Dr. Robert Black, husband of Middle School science teacher Patti Black, said that he thinks “there is general consensus in the medical community that e-cigarettes are less harmful than traditional cigarettes. However, that does not mean e-cigarettes are necessarily safe either.”

Regular cigarettes have been linked to numerous diseases such as lung cancer and heart disease. These conditions are linked primarily to harmful chemical compounds such as tar, which are contained in the regular cigarettes, Black said. Tar is not present in e-cigarettes.

Regardless, though the nicotine itself may not be an extensive health risk, the drug causes the addiction.

“Some medical researchers have compared being addicted to nicotine to being addicted to caffeine in terms of its health risks,” Black said.

Though e-cigarettes have options for different nicotine levels, Black warned that even if a person chooses to smoke an e-cigarette with zero percent nicotine content, there are still health concerns.

“There is a compound identified

of over 100 kids, 10 coaches and four practice facilities. Rock climbing is made up of two main seasons: bouldering in the fall and short and speed competitions in the spring.

Bouldering and short competitions are both judged while speed competitions are based solely on time.

Grace has qualified for nationals in the past, although, she has never attended. Grace has achieved much success through dedication, practicing a minimum of five days a week.

Despite what the strenuous workout schedule may imply, competitive rock climbing takes more than a fit body. “It is at least 50 percent mental,”

BLOWING SMOKE Electronic cigarettes, a new alternative to smoking regular cigarettes.

in e-cigarettes called propylene glycol. That chemical is somewhat responsible for the vapor that is used in stage production to create the illusion of smoke in movies, and it’s in the e-cigarettes,” Black said. “That compound has been identified as an irritant to the lung and been associated with lipid pneumonia, a form of lung inflammation.”

Addiction to any substance can cause a variety of short and long-term effects in the brain. Upper School science teacher Dr. Katie Croft said that addiction can cause “changes in gene expression, connections in the brain and in levels of brain chemicals (neurotransmitters) and their receptors. These altered connections in brain circuits can have major effects on learning, memory and impulse control.”

E-cigarettes also increase airway resistance, according to Black. Airway resistance is a temporary, physical effect, but it is one of the physiological phenomena that happen when you have asthma.

The health risks of e-cigarettes are not entirely known because they have not been studied extensively, as the phenomenon is fairly new: e-cigarettes have only been on the market for six years and its popularity doubled in 2012.

According to a survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, five percent of high school students tried e-cigarettes in 2011, but that increased to 10 percent

E-CIGS continued p20

Grace said.

Weekend trips to different cliffs occur multiple times a year to practice outdoors. The Red River Gorge in Kentucky is home to many of Team Texas’s weekend trips and over 1,600 climbing locations. Grace’s highest climb was at a 150-foot cliff at the Red River Gorge.

That is the equivalent of half way up the Statue of Liberty.

“In climbing you get scared a lot,” she said. “It helps with pushing yourself to do things.”

Fifth-grader Sarah Kate Ashton began her climbs outdoors. “She was climbing trees so high that I could no longer spot her safely. So I told her that I was gonna take her to

a place called a climbing wall and let her have a ball,” John Ashton, father of Sarah Kate and Head of Upper School said. Rock climbing provided not only a safe environment to climb but also a place to grow as an individual. “I like that there is a new challenge every day,” Sarah Kate said.

Grace noted that rock climbing is about facing adversity. “Climbing is a more direct way of facing your fears,” she said.

See http://hockadayfourcast.org/?p=7872 to check out Grace rock climbing.

Austria Arnold Staff Writer

sports&wellness

hockadayfourcast.org

THE FOURCAST APRIL 11, 2014

Subscribe to The Fourcast at hockadayfourcast.org. Find us on Twitter (@fourcastnews) and Facebook (facebook.com/fourcastnews) for the latest updates around the Hockaday community.

Students Juice the Truth Upper School students look to juice as a quick and easy way to get necessary nutrients

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for reasons other than the FDA’s warnings.

“It’s not a bad thing because it’s good that people are enjoying fruit and vegetables now,” she said, “but it’s really a shame when we just take the liquid off and leave all of the stuff that could really make us feel full and have nice fiber in it, and just be a more whole food instead of a processed food.”

Willingham explained the consequences of removing vital nutrients (in particular, fiber) from the fruit or vegetable.

“The fiber is what helps the body get rid of bad cholesterol and also helps the body to feel full,” she said. “There are some scientists that believe the body doesn’t recognize a liquid calorie in the same way it recognizes a solid calorie. If you’re drinking a lot of juice, it’s easy to not feel full or recognize that as something you consumed.”

But Senior Claire Coker, a notoriously healthy eater, advocates juicing. “We have a juicer at home and I also buy juice from like Nekter [Juice Bar in Dallas] and Whole Foods,” she said. “Sometimes my mom will make orange juice, but I like buying vegetable juices because it’s harder

to get your vegetables in A l but it’s easier to eat fruit.” though Her mother, dietijuices cian Didi Coker, agreed can’t be but cautions to use replacejuicing in moderaments, they tion. can be used “Vegetable juice as supplefrom a juicer conments and tains vitamin and as a healthy minerals, but no way to detox. fiber,” she said.

Dagher of“Fruit juice from fered her juice a juicer concleanse as an tains mostly example. sugar with “I eased of A small amount up into [the m of nutricleanse],” Dagher two ericans ou ea ents (but said, “first I took reco t of the fi t more than out heavy carbs. The m v e serv mende processed next day I took out ings d juice), no protein, and then the of fr uit daily fiber, but next day I only ate vegSour no preseretables and fruit. Then ce: P op S vatives.”

I did a juice cleanse for ugar Rathone day. Afterwards, I er, Didi eased myself back into a Coker prefers healthy diet.” blending fruits and Looking for a recipe? vegetables to juicing. “If Didi Coker recommends you’re not a big fruit and vege- a banana blended with kale table lover, juicing or blending and a scoop of protein powfruit/vegetables into a smooth- der. “It’s my favorite combiie can help meet daily recom- nation!” she said. mendations of vitamins, she said, “but I would not count on Elie MacAdams juicing or smoothies as a reStaff Writer placement for eating fruits or vegetables.”

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“and when you’re drinking it you know how many fruits/ vegetables you put into that juice. It’s easier.”

In addition to helping the body remove toxins, or detox, Dagher believes that juicing can even ameliorate skin problems.

“I feel like drinking my fruits and vegetables rather than eating them clears my skin and helps my body get rid of toxins,” she said after experiencing the effects of her own juice cleanse.

But before running to Costco to purchase Vitamix, a new brand of fruit and vegetable blender/juicer, there are a couple things consumers should know. The lack of scientific evidence to corroborate the claims of juicing benefits has led to some skepticism.

In addition, the FDA warns against juicing on its website: “When fruits and vegetables are fresh-squeezed, bacteria from the produce can end up in your juice or cider. Unless the produce or the juice has been treated to destroy any harmful bacteria, the juice could be contaminated.”

Dr. Irene Willingham, a retired dietitian and physician in Dallas, is ambivalent about the recent juicing craze

PHO TO B Y AU STRIA

or a lot of Hockadaisies, eating healthy has been the fifth cornerstone of their lives. Recently, many girls have even taken this to heart to the extent of “juicing,” or extracting the juice from fruits and vegetables. The fad diet has led girls to believe that daily fruit and vegetable intake can be fulfilled with a few sips of a green elixir. However, evidence has shown that juicing may not be the healthiest way to reap benefits from fruits and vegetables.

Proponents of juicing argue that it allows bodies to more easily absorb vitamins, minerals and antioxidants extracted from fresh produce.

Rather than eating two heaping servings of fruit and vegetables every meal, girls get their daily dose of vitamins in a single drink--a time-efficient way to pack in daily fruit and vegetable requirements.

Junior MaryFrances Dagher did a juice cleanse over Christmas break to detox, or rid of toxins, her body and digestive system. Since then, she has continued juicing because of the benefits she experienced.

“It’s hard to get the exact serving of fruits and vegetables every day,” she explained,

GYMNASTICS

Vaulting into the Past The Hockaday community remembers the gymnastics team that fell out of the lineup 20 years ago

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The Hockaday team mainly competed in the Southwest Preparatory Conference against schools like the Greenhill School, the Trinity Valley School and the Cassidy School.

The team also participated in the Metroplex Independent School Conference that was comprised of the Dallas area private schools.

Lower School World Language teacher Carolyn Cooper ‘84, who was an athlete on the team while Power was coach-

ing in 1981 and 1982, has fond memories of her experience with gymnastics at Hockaday.

“To this day, if you play the music [that I used to compete to], I can do the routine in my head, that is how well you learn the routines.” Cooper said. “I remember Mrs. Power helping me learn a back handspring, which was big, and she spotted me a lot, and I remember her helping me on the bars and giving me confidence to help me learn the bar routine.”

During her years as coach, the team won SPC in 1981, ‘83, ‘85, ’86, ‘87, and ’88. The team not only thrived with Power, but won SPC seven other times as well.

Due to many of their competing schools dropping their gymnastics programs and SPC teams, Hockaday did not have an outlet for competition, and took the gymnastic team out of the athletic program in 1994.

According to Athletic Director Tina Slinker, not one out of the PHOTO PROVIDED BY BARBY POWER

wenty years ago, Hockaday offered the same spring sports as it does today, with the exception of one sport: gymnastics.

Hockaday offered gymnastics for 19 years during the peak of interest in girls’ gymnastics in the U.S. from 1975-1993. In 1977, for example, 3,655 schools across the country offered the sport, according to The New York Times.

The interest in gymnastics worldwide increased when a 14-year-old Romanian gymnast, Nadia Comaneci, scored the first perfect 10 in the sport’s history during the 1976 Summer Olympic in Montreal.

During the 1970s, some schools began to accommodate their student’s ambitions by forming gymnastics teams; Hockaday did so in 1975.

Hockaday’s gymnastics team, usually made up of between eight and 20 girls, was classified as a spring sport and offered to students of all levels of experience. Practices were held on campus in the back third of Penson gym. This section was closed off from the rest of the gym and covered with floor mats, vaults, bars and beams from February to May. Administrative Assistant to Head of Upper School Barby Power coached the gymnastics team at Hockaday from 1981 to 1990. Before coming to Hockaday, she coached at an Arkansas high school for 9 years after she herself had participated in a club team for Hendrix College.

“It was a great girl’s sport at the time because of the interest generated by the Olympics, and there weren’t as many private gyms at that point,” Power said.

BRINGING HOME GOLD The gymnastics team with Barby Power (top middle) poses with their trophies after a meet in 1989.

17 schools that Hockaday competes with in SPC has a gymnastics team, one reason why Power does not see Hockaday re-instating the team.

Powers also cited liability issues and the increase of public gyms where girls could participate in gymnastics outside of school as reasons that the number of school teams dwindled. And there’s more.

The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) is the leadership organization for most high school sports and activities in the U.S. According to The New York Times, Ben Howard, a spokesman for the NFHS, believes that some athletes dropped out of high school gymnastics in favor of outside of school gyms that allowed for year-round participation, and that others wished to avoid the expense of gymnastics and stopped participating whatsoever.

Freshman gymnast Jordan Lazenby, who has competed on a club team since she was eight, would not join the team even if it was offered again. “I think that if gymnastics was offered at Hockaday, it would be at a level that is below what I am doing,” Lazenby said.

During the period Hockaday supported a program, though, many school teams were in existence to introduce girls to a sport with which they were previously unfamiliar.

“More schools were offering programs, so it gave a lot of girls an opportunity to compete in something that they had interest in but couldn’t get that outside of school,” Power said.

Megan Philips Staff Writer

sports&wellness

THE FOURCAST APRIL 11, 2014

Kicking Her Way to the Top

Teens Light Up E-CIGS continued from p18

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pon first glance, senior Natalie Ng, at just 5’0”, doesn’t seem threatening. But looks aren’t always what they seem: Ng can kick a six foot tall person in the head with ease.

Ng has been practicing martial arts for 12 years and is a black belt in Kobudo, a Japanese style of martial arts that uses weapons, and Tae Kwon Do. She currently trains at Vision Martial Arts Center in Plano.

Her parents introduced her to martial arts training.

“They thought it would be a good idea for me to learn selfdefense, since I am a small girl.” Ng said.

In an effort to make learning this new skill more fun, they made it a family affair.

And, although her whole family didn’t continue practicing martial arts, her dad still trains and has a black belt.

“My dad has definitely kept me going,” Ng said. Soon after starting, Ng began to love the sport and joined the competition circuit.

Practicing martial arts became an outlet where Ng could express herself. “I am usually a reserved person, and karate is a place where you can’t be shy,” she said. “It has really helped me to become more confident in myself and in my abilities.”

When she began competing at the age of eight, Ng was very intimidated. “There were thousands of people in the stands that I didn’t know,” she said. “It took a lot of courage to get up in front of them.”

At competitions she performed both forms and sparring: fighting with weapons and free form fighting.She thrived in both areas. Ng’s en-

joyment of competitions didn’t come only from the karate, though.“My favorite part [of competing] is meeting new people that don’t train at my center,” she said.

With time, she proved

CEO of Vision Martial Arts, “she has a great spirit and is a superb athlete.”

She currently manages to find time to train twice a week for about two hours.

Her usual training regimen consists of a routine of blocks and kicks, forms, self defense and fighting.

Although no longer in

to be a fierce competitor. However, her experiences taught her that every fight isn’t always a fair one: “the field is just very competitive and the judges tend to be very subjective,” said Ng. Competing required a large time commitment. While in the competition circuit, which she entered when she was eight, Ng would train three to four times a week and then have tournaments on the weekends.

Sophomore year she had to give up competing and cut back on training when her school work became more demanding.

Despite her growing workload, she was determined to stay on top of her routine.

“Natalie is nothing but top notch,” said Diane Reeve,

REY KIM

Courtney Le Features Editor

Senior Natalie Ng trains in martial arts as a way to express herself

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cigarettes instead.

The repercussions of teenagers smoking e-cigarettes are detrimental. “Nicotine changes areas of the brain involved in motivation and emotion, which [can make] teens more vulnerable to nicotine addiction,” Croft said. “Smoking during [teenage years] may also increase the risk of developing psychiatric disorders and cognitive impairment in later life.”

To date, the FDA does not regulate e-cigarettes, but there is a push among Congress and the medical community that the FDA should regulate the production of e-cigarettes. Some places, such as New York City, have implemented laws that ban the use of e-cigarettes in public areas, the same way they ban the use of regular cigarettes.

Stores that sell e-cigarettes are referred to as “vape shops.”

More and more vape shops have been popping up all over the country. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, there are over 3500 vape shops in the country.

These shops, in general, have the same restrictions for the sale of e-cigarettes as for regular cigarettes. An assistant manager of a Dallas vape shop who wished to remain anonymous said that “I think that ecigarettes are popular because the variety of flavors appeals to a variety of people. I see a lot of adults come in here, but we don’t sell to anyone under 18.”

It is difficult to enforce the age restriction, though. Since ecigarettes are also sold online, they are easily accessible to minors. “People need to be careful in their use of e-cigarettes,” Black said. “It is a growing health concern.”

PHOTO

in 2012. However, seven percent of those who had smoked e-cigarettes in 2012 had only tried ecigarettes — never regular cigarettes. According to the survey taken by the Hockaday Upper Schoolers, 11 percent said they had tried an e-cigarette while only seven percent said they had tried a regular cigarette.

“The biggest concern about e-cigarettes is that there is a general perception that they’re safer than regular ones,” Black said.

“There is also a concern that if younger people start trying ecigarettes, it will lead to them smoking real cigarettes, which is what it is supposed to prevent.”

The true purpose of e-cigarettes is to help those addicted to regular cigarettes to stop smoking.

“The idea is that the cigarette user is supposed to switch to e-cigarettes because they can control the nicotine levels in them, and then eventually the hope is that they smoke the ecigarettes with progressively less nicotine,” Black said.

However, despite its original intention, teenagers have been trying out these e-cigarettes. And Blair is not alone. Sophomore Serena, who also wished to remain anonymous, tried an ecigarette because it was available to her and because “I was simply curious,” she said.

The growing popularity of e-cigarettes is even reflected in the media entertainment. In the popular Netflix political drama “House of Cards,” the characters Claire and Francis Underwood, played by Robin Wright and Kevin Spacey respectively, were often seen puffing on regular cigarettes. However, in the some of the last episodes of season two, they were seen smoking e-

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the competition circuit, Ng maintains her reputation as a fierce competitor and continues to enrich her studio with her unremitting determination. “[Natalie] is very dedicated to the practice and teaching of the art,” Ng’s training partner Bradley Gregory said.

“Natalie pushes herself and those around her to do their best.”

Ng plans to keep up with martial arts in college by joining a club in the fall.

Vivian Armitage Staff Writer

Focused On and Off the Field Athletes find ways to stay motivated while dealing with academic and performance pressures

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alancing school and sports, and working hard at both, can be challenging for any athlete. How well Hockaday’s athletes in particular stay motivated to accomplish their goals depends greatly on their mental strength.

“As a coach, we motivate the team in practice and in games, but honestly the self-motivation that athletes have in season and off-season is what helps athletes reach their full potential,” Physical Education Teacher and Varsity Volleyball Head Coach Adaku Achilefu said.

The combined athletic and academic stress can take a toll on athletes of all kinds. “Because of all the homework and all the time dance takes up, I sometimes want to quit,” Hockaday freshman Peyton Smith said. “I just don’t let it get to me because I know that with practice I will figure it out eventually.”

Pressure to perform builds up nervous energy, adrenaline, which gives athlete the will power to perform. Sometimes athletes come out on top, sometimes they don’t, but no matter the outcome performing under pressure makes teams stronger.

In the Southwest Preparatory Conference Championships this fall, the Hockaday Varsity Field Hockey team made it to the semifinals. They were close to achieving the first place title that they strove for the previous season, but ended up losing after two overtimes and a round of penalty strokes, simi-

lar to penalty kicks in soccer.

“We had worked so hard all season and all season last year to get to the championship this year, but we lost,” senior and captain Catherine McGeoch said. “It was hard to come back the next day and play for third.

But we talked as a team and we decided to play the best we could and get third place.”

Successful athletes find ways to stay motivated when facing tough obstacles. A positive attitude accompanied by good work ethic helps to reach their goals.

Mastering all events of artistic gymnastics requires mental toughness along with the determination to succeed.

The one event that continually gave seventh-grader Catherine Dedman trouble was the uneven bars.

“I always had a tough time on bars. I wasn’t good at it, but my teammates were. I would stay longer and have my coach help me practice, and I gradually got better at it and got higher scores,” Dedman said.

“The higher scores I got each competition motivated me to keep going.”

When in clutch pressure positions during games or practice, Toomey has a unique way of motivating herself and her team to strive farther and improve faster.

“My team is all about visualization, so usually I sing a song in my head, sometime out loud, and my teammates join in, and see myself accomplish-

ing the goals I’ve set,” Toomey said, “I set my goals pretty high because that’s the only way to get better, in my opinion. Set goals high, so that you have to reach high.”

Despite the struggles athletes face, Hockaday students find a way to come out on top.

All the hard work and determination pays off when they reach their goals, win a tournament, or have an unexpected victory.

On March 1, 2014, Toomey and her select volleyball team the Madfrog Volleyball Club faced one of the highest ranked Texas teams, not expecting to come out on top.

“Everybody thought that they were going to win, even they thought they were going to win,” Toomey said.

Playing their hard fought game together, cheers from both sides echoing across the almost-empty gym, Sam and her team came out on top by two points in the first game. Then they came back to finish in the second game and won by ten points to secure their victory.

“This team was supposed to be better than us, and we were taking out their best hitters with our blocks. It was the most awesome experience,” Toomey said.

Victories are more rewarding when they are hard fought and require the mental strength to pull through and come out on top. During McGeoch’s sophomore year at Hockaday, the varsity lacrosse team made it to the state cham-

pionships. In the semifinals of that tournament, they had to beat Cy-Fair from Cypress, TX, and, though considered underdogs, they pulled out a win. The final matchup pitted Hockaday against frequent rival St. Johns.

Hockaday won the close game by one point in double-overtime 19-18.

“Its amazing, sometimes things just work out. I think it happens when sometimes you think you’re at a disadvantage, but you’re going to try as hard as you can anyways,” McGeoch said.

Claire Fletcher Staff Writer

AN INSIDE LOOK Junior Samantha Toomey spends around 14 hours in the gym during the weekends and two hours, three times a week practicing volleyball. “Its fun. It’s why you do it, even though it’s such a time commitment,” Toomey said. “That’s one of the things that is most frustrating to me when people complain about how much time it takes up because, if you don’t like it, then don’t play it.”

Seventh-Grader Catherine Dedman spent three hours every weekday in the gym and six hours on Saturdays and Sundays practicing gymnastics. “It took up a lot of time, but I really loved it so I kept at it,” Dedman said. “I liked knowing that I could do the tricks and it made me feel good when I was tumbling or in the air on the bars because it made me believe I could do anything.”

perspectives

THE FOURCAST APRIL 11, 2014

WE LOVE IT, WE LOVE IT NOT

The color-coordinated ST. PATRICK’S DAY LUNCH left us all feeling over the rainbow.

The arrival of spring means that GRASS IS GREEN AND FLOWERS ARE BLOOMING again after a long winter.

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SENIORSENDOFF Feminists Should Support Masculinity

O Senior Katie Payne

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here’s a common misconception out there that women have not had any luck in the fight for equality. Yet contrary to popular belief, our side is actually winning the current battle surrounding the definition of masculinity and how and when it’s acceptable for men to express it. But ladies, before you channel your inner Amazon woman and aim a spear right at the heart of virility, I urge you to look at those strewn across the battlefield and reflect on the price of war. I’m here to tell you that delivering the final blow to manhood will never be worth it, but first, let me give you a quick recap of the battle so far.

This ongoing decline in masculinity first began with

the evolutionary changes the human race experienced 20,000 years ago when muscle mass proved less necessary for success.

But despite the fact that man lost physical bulk and added intellectual brawn, the standards for manhood remained the same.

One study recently reported that “G.I. Joe’s Sgt. Savage has gotten three times more muscular and Barbie’s Ken now has a chest circumference attainable by only one in 50 men.” And unfortunately for most guys out there who cannot reach this unattainable level of physical prowess, not every Peter Parker can turn into Spiderman.

Much of this problem doesn’t even have to do with the physical “failings” of men.

As minorities and women have found themselves stepping out from under the heel of the white male, men find themselves much less necessary for the running of the world. They no longer make all of the decisions, achieve all of the greatness and dominate all of history, and that can be very disorienting for a demographic that once ruled the world single-handedly.

Clearly, men are facing some sort of masculinity crisis, but here’s where other feminists get it wrong when they say it’s better for us when the guys

are on the defensive.

Point blank, guys really do keep us on our freshly pedicured toes. And while I’d like to consider myself a strong and independent woman, I know that much of being female means being the antithesis of the male. Helping to revive masculinity in a new way remains crucial for the everevolving definition of feminism and what it means to really be a woman. We should want men to be the best they can be. Because as much as we’d like to believe we can do it all, in terms of balancing out the world (and oh yeah, reproducing), we simply can’t. It takes two.

The consequences of not supporting this revival in manhood speak for themselves. Psychologists agree that misplaced aggression and suppressed masculinity results in more violent partners and deadbeat dads. Today, males commit 83 percent of violent crime in the U.S. all thanks to these “rough and tough” attitudes, yet nothing has been done about it. Now, society’s continual preference for these traditionally masculine men, characterized by their muscle and aggression, leave us with the worst possible mates.

These traits may have served our race well in the primordial cave, but certainly not in the 21st century suburban home.

I must be honest and admit that I didn’t always share the view that women should have any interest in changing the notion of masculinity (disclaimer: I am a feminist). But my feelings of anger and frustration subside when I think about the men in my life--my dad, my stepfather, my brother, my guy friends-and what they mean to me. Do I want them to have no success or happiness in life just because they weren’t historically marginalized? Do I want them to suffer through a crisis of how to be a man and how to feel fulfilled? No, I don’t. And this is precisely why the crisis of manhood needs to be fixed. For the boys in all of our lives, who don’t treat women poorly and who don’t deserve to struggle.

If women do not call a truce, it remains likely that we could cause serious damage to masculinity, but don’t kid yourself into thinking that it won’t come without costs. A victory in this battle, pyrrhic in its nature, would prove disastrous for both men and women. So instead of punishing them all of the time, let’s work together to rewrite the meaning of manhood for the benefit of both of our genders. Throwing this battle does not necessarily mean we forfeit the entire war.

I’m waving my white flag, and you should too.

never fully disappeared.

A couple months ago, I read an article “The Problem With Little White Girls (and Boys): Why I Stopped Being a Voluntourist” on the Huffington Post. Journalist Pippa Biddle explained why her high school summer weeks abroad in Tanzania and the Dominican Republic were inherently negative.

She acknowledged her good intentions, but she also discussed white privilege, her group’s inefficacy in their lofty building projects, and her belief that the money spent on airfare and housing could have been used to hire local workers and stimulate the countries’ economies.

“I want [a little girl in Ghana, or Sri Lanka, or Indonesia] to have a hero who she can relate to — who looks like her, is part of her culture, speaks her language, and who she might bump into on the way to school one morning,” she argued.

What Biddle addressed in her article touched on so many of my apprehensions about volunteering, even though I wasn’t volunteering in an African country.

I didn’t want to believe that what I was doing was wrong.

I subconsciously understood that volunteering was an inherently good act, but how good was it? What Biddle said was too logical to be incorrect, and eventually, I determined that Biddle was right. The most effective role models for the kids are the ones that are derived from their own community.

But helping the community was always good thing to do, right? It was a tough question to answer, but in the end, I figured out that volunteering at organizations that allows one to interact with children is indeed something we should all strive to do.

Because when you develop friendships with them, your plaid skirt won’t be a badge of shame anymore. Instead, it’ll be a source of inspiration.

Pushing the value of education and encouraging the idea that social mobility is possible gave me the hope that one day, they themselves could be the role models that I always wanted to, but could never completely, be.

The Privilege of Plaid

LOOMING AP EXAMS aren’t as threatening now that they’re the only exams we have left.

We love that Laura Bush is coming, but the CEN-TENT-IAL PUNS have got to stop.

O Senior Amy Tao

A

lmost a year ago, my college counselor and I met with each other to put together my college résumé. To head my CV, she asked me what I considered to be my most important activity, and I automatically responded, “community service.” It was a no brainer then, as it is now.

I wasn’t always so enthusiastic about volunteering, though.

As a freshman, I harbored a number of doubts about it.

I was skeptical about how much change an hour of impersonal tutoring could do to

Checking the Right to Vote

O

Senior Anisha Anand

Seniors having to choose between SENIOR SKIP DAY AND SENIOR SPLASH DAY is a harsh reality of the real world.

a student who was already on the brink of dropping out of school. I wondered what fraction of students who joined me on each project genuinely enjoyed service, how many were there to complete the required school hours, and how many were there to decorate their college applications. I felt awkward around many of the adults I volunteered with, paranoid that they thought that I believed myself to be superior to them. Our green plaid skirts are usually a source of school pride, but at times, I felt ashamed to be wearing a symbol of elite privilege in environments so devoid of it.

But then, I started having fun. I found myself spending most of my Saturday mornings at Jubilee and Monday mornings at Wesley Rankin, where I formed friendships with the army of 8-year-olds shouting my name and swarming me with hugs and stories about their week. I think that many people underestimate the value of a consistent and personal volunteer. I certainly did.

Yet my initial hesitations

A

teenager’s 18th birthday is perhaps one of the most coveted of all, but in reality I felt no awakening sense of freedom at the chime of midnight on my 18th birthday. In fact,

turning 18 was probably the most anticlimactic birthday of my life. My answer, along with that of all my friends, to the ageold question “Does it feel any different?” was no, not at all.

Perhaps the most cliché excitement of turning 18 is the newfound right to vote. But as I registered to vote and geared up for my first election in November, an election for Texas constitutional amendments, I was disheartened to learn that I was one among few of my 18-year-old peers who even knew the election was occurring. As exciting as this moment was for me, I couldn’t share this milestone with any of my friends. When I asked my friends why they weren’t

voting, the most common response was “Eh, too lazy,” or “Texas has its own constitution?” Most hadn’t even registered when renewing their licenses after their birthdays.

When I looked around the voting booth, I was surprised because I was not only the youngest one there, but the youngest by about two decades.

The same was true when I returned to the polls in March for the Texas primaries. In the 2012 presidential election, only 19 percent of voters were between the ages of 18-29.

As insignificant as Texas constitutional amendments and state primaries might seem, I consider it my duty to vote regardless of their effect

on me. With the privilege of living in this country with the lifestyle I lead comes the responsibility of voting in an educated manner. I’ve only reaped the benefits of this country for the past 18 years; the least I can do is go to the polls twice a year and acknowledge that I care even the slightest about this government that provides so much for me.

Clad in my green and white plaid skirt, I dropped my ballot, with my sacred votes for the Texas constitutional amendments into the box and heard an elderly man behind me say, “That’s what I like to see, a young Hockadaisy exercising her right to vote.”

That’s what I would like to see, too.

perspectives

hockadayfourcast.org

THE FOURCAST APRIL 11, 2014

Hockaday’s Next Century Should Focus on STEM

O

Senior Mary Clare Beytagh

C

an I just say how thankful I am that President Obama has finally gotten on the STEM bandwagon? Last April, he announced a new U.S. research initiative to study the human brain, which marks one of the first times Obama has promoted a plan aimed at making the U.S. a world sci-

ence power.

Next year, Hockaday will have the same opportunity to revamp the science program into a creative, collaborative education system that will benefit girls for the next century. Lyda Hill ‘60 gave Hockaday $20 million two years ago on April 7, 2011 not only to construct a building but also to develop an ideology: to be on the cutting edge of science. As a nostalgic senior destined to study the mysteries of the scientific universe, it’s my last chance to make a case for pursuing STEM. According to the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), an exam administered internationally to gauge education and proficiency in various subjects, the U.S. ranks 36th overall and scored an average of 497 in the science section, 83

points behind the top-ranked Shanghai, China.

The U.S. can advance its standings, and Hockaday girls can lead that revolution.

We’re already on the right track. The new integrated math curriculum follows the same method as many academically high-performing countries, and research-based courses such as organic chemistry and microbiology focus on extrapolation of data into real-world applications, a skill PISA states the U.S. lacks. These changes portend a push for STEM at Hockaday.

However, there’s still one thing Hockaday needs to succeed in the next century. Let’s not just push for STEM; let’s take a leap of faith. Mandy Ginsberg ’88 said it best at the March Founder’s Day Assembly, suggesting a cornerstone

for “Risk Taking.” Girls, take a risk with advanced math and science courses. Try JETS. You just might love it!

Ela Hockaday was a risktaker and trailblazer, and it’s her combination of grit and grace that I would like more girls to adopt.

Hockaday instilled this nature in me along with the conviction that girls can do anything. One hundred years ago this was not the case. No one would have thought girls could change the world. No one thought girls belonged in academia. One person, however, thought differently.

And that person was Ela Hockaday.

So in the next 100 years, let’s continue that mission and fill our new science building with girls who would make Miss Hockaday proud.

Scouting for Improvements

O

Senior Emily Wechsler

I

t was so much easier being a Brownie Girl Scout. Back then, fellow Girl Scouts were abundant, I earned “Try-Its” just for exploring activities and most importantly, everyone bought cookies from me. No one buys cookies from an acne-ridden teenager unless they too are a teenager desperate for sugar.

Scouting past “Brownie” age, or especially after transition-

ing from green-clad “Junior” to beige-clad “Senior” is difficult and fairly unusual. Now, only five girls remain in my Girl Scout troop, and we account for half of the Class of 2014’s Scouts.

Just five seniors, including myself, earned their Gold Awards, the highest award in scouting.

This should shock you. Not only is the process of earning the award an invaluable experience, but Girl Scouting has a legacy of more than 100 years of helping girls achieve success.

From National Charity League to the Presidential Service Award, Hockaday students have shown that service is a priority. But apparently extracurricular personal leadership growth is not.

Perhaps Hockadaisies simply misunderstand scouting or have schedules filled with more celebrated activities. Girls assume they will learn to take adult-like responsibility in other

O

Senior Gretchen O’Brien

M

ila Kunis said “knowing who you are is confidence. Confidence, not cockiness.

Cockiness is knowing who you are and pushing it down everyone’s throat.”

Finding this balance between confidence and cockiness is hard. We have been trained to

O

MANAGING EDITOR

Katie Payne

WEB EDITOR

Mary Clare Beytagh BUSINESS MANAGER

Anisha Anand

PUBLIC RELATIONS DIRECTOR

Molly Montgomery COPY EDITOR

Emily Wechsler NEWS EDITOR

Amy Tao

ASST. NEWS

Charlsea Lamb Courtney Le

ways; parents presume their daughters will learn to be selfless leaders of younger girls by osmosis in our K-12 atmosphere.

Perhaps also the image of Girl Scouting nationwide needs to change. For one thing, though Boy Scouts clearly divides younger Cub and older Boy Scouts, older Girl Scouting is marginalized because of the name’s association with Brownies and Daisies. For another, in Girl Scouting’s effort to be inclusive, it has marketed itself with role models less attractive than the beautiful celebrities that fill the media. They should try the likes of Katniss Everdeen. Boy Scouts and adventurous, rugged men already go together.

But perhaps the Girl Scout program should change to realign with girls’ interests and make time spent scouting worthwhile. Now in my final year of scouting, I have passed

through some fairly unstimulating years. I would have preferred a system where advancement through ranks centered on actual accomplishments, keeping activities aligned with my personal growth. In addition, scouting needs more regular meetings, access to older and younger girls for mentorship and for leadership opportunities and more troop leaders who could share responsibilities. If Girl Scout troops were fewer and larger, as Boy Scout troops are, all this could happen. From girls who responded to a survey, Hockaday Upper School alone has representatives from 15 different grade-level specific troops.

Scouting is a laudable extracurricular. I believe just a few changes can make Girl Scouting work even better.

of which we can’t seem to rid ourselves: low self-esteem.

Attending Hockaday for 15 years I have learned many things. I have had my successes and I have had my failures, but the one thing I wish I had a better grip on was self-confidence.

To better my confidence, and my friends, this year I have tried to make my friends compliment themselves three times when they say something undervaluing about themselves.

The hope of this exercise was to show girls that it is not cocky to proclaim things they like about themselves, whether it’s personality traits or physical characteristics.However, trying to tell someone reasons why you love yourself

is hard and uncomfortable: we don’t want to seem cocky. But it’s not cocky at all, actually. It’s necessary.

Finding that balance between self-confidence and cockiness is tricky. It is uncomfortable to accept a compliment and to give yourself a compliment; it all takes confidence.

However, it is important for our health to be able to feel proud and comfortable of who we are and what we look like.

Although I only have a couple of months left here, I do hope I am able to leave a new trend of self-confidence behind me at Hockaday. Perhaps it will be made fun of, but I do believe this school would grow if the students inside of it felt comfortable with themselves.

present and future this Centennial year. The school published a 389-page anthology of its history, opened an exhibit in our founder Miss Hockaday’s name, will light up Reunion Tower and Omni Hotel green tonight and host a grand party in a colossal tent tomorrow— just to name a few.

Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who spoke at Hockaday’s 1952 Commencement, once said famously, “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift; that’s why they call it the present.” I would say we gave a pretty fantastic 100th-birthday present to The Hockaday School.

O

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

Alexis Espinosa

SPORTS & WELLNESS EDITOR

Avita Anand

PERSPECTIVES EDITOR

Molly Montgomery

PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Alaina Rodriguez

GRAPHICS EDITOR

Sydney Yonack

PROJECTS MANAGER

Gretchen O’Brien VIDEO EDITOR

Catherine Jiang STAFF WRITERS

Noor Adatia, Vivian Armitage, Austria Arnold, Kate Clement, Claire Fletcher, Faith Isbell, Elie MacAdams, Inaara Padani, Megan Philips, Manisha Ratakonda, Sunila Steephen, Erin Thomas STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS

EDITOR’SNOTE rganizing the 100th birthday celebration of a school that has hosted to two former First Ladies, receiver of a multimilliondollar endowment, home to a state-of-the-art science building and paradigm for girls’ education is extremely difficult.

Having covered plenty of events this year as a journalist, it is truly exciting that I am apart of this Centennial Week’s celebrations as my last event as Editor-in-Chief. What I have found through reporting on this year’s celebrations is that just like there is no formula to editing an article, there is no modus operandi to throwing a year-long birthday party. The answer is ever-changing and progressive, just like our school, just like its founder Miss Ela, a visionary for girls eager to drink the intellectual breadth of their studies and explore the exotic unfamiliars.

As Hockaday nears the end of its first century, I too near the end of my year as Editor-in-Chief. In our next issue of The Fourcast, the last of the school year, you will find new names as well as familiar ones. It will be written and edited by our new staff and headed by the new Editor-in-Chief, just before we move forward into a new century of Hockaday.

And while it is difficult to organize a marvelous birthday celebration, our school once again found creative ways to celebrate our past,

Tiffany Le

FEATURES EDITOR

Learning to Be Your Own Best Friend be polite and modest. Because of this we usually find ourselves rejecting compliments; And why? Because we are too uncomfortable to just say thank you and feel we must repay the compliment with another. In other words, we do not have the confidence to just smile, say thank you, and move on.

Receiving compliments is not the only problem. Being able to compliment ourselves is one as well. I am a victim to this. It is easy to list bad things about yourself; what’s hard is listing things you like about yourself.

At Hockaday we succeed at many things; we are a fantastic school filled with very intelligent, well-rounded women, but we still have this one problem

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Best,

Tiffany Le Editor-in-Chief

Shelby Anderson, Miranda Helm, Audrey Kim, Dominique Sung, Emily Yeh, Grace Zacarias STAFF ARTISTS

Sarah Chan, Kate Cooper, Luda Grigoryeva, Anna Herbelin, AnneMarie Hwang, Audrey Kim, Cathy Ma, Katherine Magee, Sofia Mira, Lily Sumrow, Mary Zhong ADVISER

Ana Rosenthal EDITORIAL POLICY The Fourcast is written primarily for students of the Hockaday Upper School, its faculty and staff. The Fourcast has a press run of 1,200 and is printed by Dallas Offset, Inc. It is distributed free of charge to the Hockaday community.

Businesses who wish to advertise in The Fourcast should contact Anisha Anand, Business Manager, at aanand@ hockaday. org. We reserve the right to refuse any advertising which is deemed inappropriate to the Hockaday community.

Opinions will be clearly marked and/or will appear in the perspectives section.

Commentaries are the expressed opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect that of The Fourcast staff, its adviser or any member of the Hockaday community. Unsigned editorials that appear on the opinions page will reflect the official position of The Fourcast, but not necessarily the position of the Hockaday community.

The Fourcast staff may cover student, staff, faculty or alumnae deaths as the staff is made aware.

We reserve the right not to cover a death based on relevance, timeliness and circumstance.

Corrections and clarifications from previous issues will be found as designated in the news section.

Any questions or concerns should be taken up with Tiffany Le, Editor-in-Chief, at tle@ hockaday.org.

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THE FOURCAST MAY 16, 2014

And They’re Off! Congratulations to the Centennial Class of 2014!

Here’s where you can find them next year: Yve Wa tte Ang shU uia in S no t. Lo uis Maricka B Cornell U ennett niversity

Jennifer Kwon University of California, Berkeley

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Br UT eann Au a Cr stin uis e

Dana Lamotthe Case Western Reserve University Sa B man De arnar tha d C Kim Po von Uni int Pa Knott olleg e ver rk sity

Katya Lopatko Univ. of Southern California

Megan Silver UT Austin

Allie Love Vanderbilt University C Alex Boston Unaivthy Ma Univ. Ludwig Be ersity of St rnard Katherin Andrews o e Magee Brow Flor M n University a n z a nares Southe Janie rn Methodis t Univ.

WashinMartin gto Emily M n and Lee U niv.

Univ. o arucci f Penn sylvan ia Tai Massimilian UT Austin on athes Hannah M College Dartmouth cGeoch M Catherine sity Yale Univer s ihalopoulo Meredith MUniversity n Princeto tgomery Molly Mon niversity Stanford U Katie Payne Duke University

Shivani Sharma UT Dallas UTSW

A Un laina ive R rs odr ity ig of ue Nina Saboorian Virg z Franklin University inia Switzerland Caitlin Sellers Wake Forest J University Un oyce ive S rs on ity g of Mi ch iga n

Anna Lim Southern Methodist University

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th mi sity e S iver n i t n ris U Ch ory Sarah Startz Em Texas A&M University Amy Tao Rice University

Sa Aus mmy tin Mu Col noz lege

Evie Pena UNC Chapel Hill

Regina Pimentel Colgate University

ib gu uis Na t. Lo or loe n S Mo st Ch i e ore shU Le ake F rsity Wa W ive Un

Kelsey Powell Vanderbilt University

Alexandra Villareal Emily Wechsler Boston College Dartmouth Katie Melody Williams College Anita Wang Tong Channing Tucker University of Southern Harvard Lawrence Pennsylvania Methodist University Kellen University Univ.

Weigand Divya Walia Univ. of Maryland WashU in St. Louis Lucy Wilson Boston College Kaylee Wedderburn-Pugh Columbia University Kirby Young Tulane University Dalton Youngblood Harvard University Emily Zhang Cornell University

Emily Yeh Columbia University

Rachel Lefferts Northwestern University Mimi Li Boston University

Paige Goodman Tulane University

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le ersity i Her Noop York Univ an New nes ichig is Jo of M Alex versity h osep y Uni t J i s e r l Nico s Unive i Tuft insk y Kamniversit ison U an Mad derbilt hig Van Kim f Mic rey ity o Aud ivers Un

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Ashton Gillespie Southern Methodist University

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Grace Gilker UT Austin

Julia Corsi Dominique Cooper Ginny Crow Chapman Stanford Bowdoin University University College Caroline Ciara Cooley Cotten Eliza Cope Southern Univ. of University of Methodist Southern Michigan University California

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Ashley Clark St. Edward’s University Jessica Cloud Sarah Lawrence University Sophie Cohn Wake Forest University Shelby Cohron University of Florida Claire Coker UT Austin

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Emily Bluedorn WashU in St. Louis

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Aug S A hel UT usta A Aus sto UN nde by n C rso Ali tin Ch n An Ast U n o a T UT a An pe Aus n Au de lH tin An s r Joh isha A tin son ill ns Hopnand kins Shrey Duke a Ahuja Unive Unive rsit rsity y Raheela Ahsan Carnegie Mellon University Abby Agwunobi Dartmouth College