Fourcast Dec 2017 by Hockaday Student Publications

The Hockaday School

11600 Welch Road

Dallas, Texas 75229

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12.14.17

68 Issue

THE FOURCAST

Vol u 02

News

Arts & Life

Features

Sports & Health

Views

Springing into ISAS 2018 Loco for ‘Coco’

A Day in the Life of Elsa Luna

Captain’s Council Motivates Athletes

Long Commute(nity)

And from Michelle’s Mind

Scarlett Letter of Rejection In Appreciation of College Counseling

HARVEY HITS THE NATION

story on page

The Humans Behind Humans of Hockaday English Teachers Swap Books

IN FOCUS: BEHIND THE STORY OF THE SILENCE BREAKERS

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The United States Department of Justice estimates that of 63 percent of sexual assaults are never reported to the police because of the scrutiny and barriers they encounter if they do come forward. However, in wake of Harvey Weinstein’s allegations, women across the world are taking this risk in spite of the inevitable backlash and doubt. Republican Senator Roy Moore, actor Kevin Spacey, former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, comedian Louis C.K. and former Today Show host Matt Lauer, and journalist, Charlie Rose, are just a few of the men whose secrets have been exposed and careers destroyed in the last two months. CNN describes this as “The Weinstein Effect”. Read full story p12

MISTLETOE SALES FEED

NORTH

ILLUSTRATION BY EMILY BASCHAB

ALUMNA’S STORY

HELPS THOSE IN RECOVERY

For Hanna Fobare ’10, strolling through the grocery store on a Friday afternoon can prove to be a complicated process. With watchful eyes and a careful demeanor, she walks side by side with her client through the aisles to make sure they are never left unattended. Hanna accompanies clients to run these kind of errands on a regular basis because she is a substance abuse recovery coach. Her path to this career was not an easy one, however, and began six years ago when her own addiction started. At Hockaday, Hanna was a star athlete. With raw talent and hard work, she excelled in soccer and was recruited to play for Clemson University. Upon news of her recruitment, Hanna was overjoyed that her arduous routine of a life

consumed with soccer had paid off in a big way. “I went to school, then soccer practice, came home and did it all again the next day. I was a creature of habit, and soccer was my identity,” Fobare said. Upon arriving at Clemson, Hanna did not expect this structured schedule to change. She was dismayed to find out, however, that her soccer experience in college did not offer the same dynamic as the one back home. “In Dallas, I was used to being the best. I wasn’t a star, but I was really good and I worked hard to get there. In college, I didn’t have the same relationship with my coach. I was upset with my playing time and I wanted out,” Fobare said. In an impulsive decision made without her family’s consent, Hanna left the soccer team after a year. Suddenly, the sport that had transformed into her identity was gone, and the young college sophomore felt like she had a lot to figure out. “I didn’t know what to do with myself for the next couple of years. I lost my structure, so I joined a sorority and started partying,” Hanna said. Prior to Clemson, Hanna had never touched a drug in her life, but with college parties offering open access to an abundance of alcohol and marijuana, she assumed using and drinking would be a harmless pastime. Alumna’s Story continued p22

TEXAS YOU OUGHTA

Fourcast takes home third place for Best of Show Newspaper!!! @HockadayFourcast

Thirty Hockaday journalism students attended the National Scholastic Press Association/Journalism Education Association conference on Nov. 17 and 18.

DECEMBER 14, 2017 | THE FOURCAST

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

No More Jane: English Department switches the required reading for the sophomores to "Emma." P.03 The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict President Donald J. Trump recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. P.04 LOOKING AHEAD: EVENTS TO FOLLOW THIS MONTH. P.05

The Fourca

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The Humans Behind Humans of Hockaday “Humans of New York,” the brainchild of photographer Brandon Stanton, began in 2010 as an effort to collect 10,000 pictures of New Yorkers and plot them on a map around the city. Stanton’s project evolved as he chatted with the subjects and began to include snippets of their conversations that captioned the pictures. His photoblog rapidly gained followers. As of today, “Humans of New York,” also known as HONY, has amassed over 7 million followers on Instagram. By Ponette Kim | Staff Writer

It doesn't matter who we pick, because we think everyone has a different story. Michelle Chen Chief Editor of Humans of Hockaday

One particular interview that stands out was with Yolanda Rodriguez, a SAGE dining service worker. Her story was shared in October, and students reacted supportively, commenting “That’s such an amazing and humbling story. I needed a privilege check” underneath the photo. Going into the interview, Rodriguez believed they were merely going to ask about her career at Hockaday, but was surprised when Li and Chen began asking her questions about the happiest and saddest moments in her life. Rodriguez moved to America at the age of 11. She was born and raised in Mexico, where her older brother took care of her. Her mother died when she was six and her father was not present in her life. When she was in the sixth grade, her brother decided to move their family to the United States for a better life. In the interview, Rodriguez spoke of a time where she was searching for a laptop for her family friends in Mexico, and only had $200 in her pocket. She prayed and found one for $125, saying it was a “miracle.” “I know a lot of people at Hockaday, and they know a lot of things about my life. I didn’t feel uncomfortable sharing some personal stories, because people learn about people. Before, when people looked at me, they didn’t think about my past. But now when students see me, I can tell they feel sorrow and empathy for me,” Rodriguez said. Rodriguez saw a heartwarming reaction to her interview when two students brought her a Barbie. In her interview she said that “never in [her] life did she have a Barbie.” However, Rodriguez hope that her story can be a life lesson for the audience. “I hope people will read this story, because in this life, nothing is easy. Everything is hard, and people have problems. I hope it’s a demonstration to the people at a low point in their life, to never give up, to continue,” Rodriguez said. “Life keeps going. My life was sad, but it’s still happy. I’m happy with my life here.”

PHOTOS BY MICHELLE CHEN

Here at Hockaday, Juniors Kristi Li, Cirrus Chen, Meredith Black and Michelle Chen have collaborated to make a photoblog similar to Stanton’s, adequately dubbed “Humans of Hockaday.” Founded at the beginning of this school year, Li and Cirrus Chen are the primary photographers, with Black serving as the secretary and Michelle Chen acting as the chief editor. Cirrus Chen and Li first gathered the inspiration for creating an account similar to HONY when they attended a SMU Tate forum where Stanton was a guest speaker. They also wanted it to be related to photography, since it is a shared passion between the two. “At first, it was Cirrus and Kristi's idea,” Michelle Chen said. “Then Cirrus and Kristi met with Ms. Brower, and Ms. Brower really liked the idea.” Director of Communications Susan Brower is the faculty advisor for the “Humans of Hockaday” account. She helps work with the students to review the proposed editorial calendar and to plan postings, photographs and any other content for the photoblog. According to Brower, the “Humans of Hockaday” staff’s editorial approach has been “thoughtful and thorough.” “The girls are incredibly talented with how they have chosen to visually communicate ‘Humans of Hockaday,’ and the inclusive representation of the Hockaday community will be seen as the stories accumulate over time,” Brower said. “Humans of Hockaday” has a wide variety of interviewees, ranging from students of all ages and grades to faculty and staff members. Each with their own story, “Humans of Hockaday” plans on creating something that can “represent the whole Hockaday community.” “It doesn't matter who we pick, because we think everyone has a different story. No matter who we interview, it's going to be cool because everyone has aspects in their lives that they don't show to the public,” Michelle Chen said. “Our goal is to get that out. We don't want to be surface level; we want to get their stories and reach deeper into their personalities.” With a total of 194 current followers on Instagram, “Humans of Hockaday” requires a lengthy time commitment. Li, Cirrus Chen and other contributors meet at the beginning of each week to plan out who they want to reach out to. Then, after the interview and photo shoot, Li and Cirrus Chen edit each photo. The time it takes to do the interview and review the post is around one hour. They try to post around three times a week. And this project requires time commitment for it to be successful. “It has not affected me personally that much except that a lot of my free time was taken away,” Li said. “But I don’t care because I enjoy getting to know people and sharing their stories with the rest of the Hockaday community.” Li and Cirrus Chen are the main photographers for the account and are the ones who decide where the photos and interviews will take place. In an effort to make “Humans of Hockaday” as visually aesthetically pleasing as it is to read, they scope out “artsy” places around campus to do their interviews each week. “Our third week’s posts were actually taken in the cafeteria. Both of us are huge fans of photography and we are beyond happy to be able to connect with people through our lens,” Li said. However, due to the large time commitment, Li and Cirrus Chen have taken on the

roles of interviewers as well as photographers, a job that only Black and Michelle Chen had done before. At first, Li confessed that she was nervous because “both of them were not in Fourcast and they haven’t had any experience in interviewing others before.” But with the help of Michelle Chen, who is a Fourcast staff member, they are growing more confident in posing the right questions to get subjects to reveal their stories. So far, the feedback for the account has been positive. “Humans of Hockaday” caters to a wide audience, and some faculty and staff members even follow the account, including college counselor Courtney Skerritt. The interviewees have ranged from senior Samantha Watson, student council president; junior Radina Temelkova, a boarder from Bulgaria; and Upper School math teacher and swim coach Rachel Grabow. “I am super happy and grateful to see so many people complimenting and supporting their friends under every post. There were a lot of people coming up to us and asking to be featured on the account as well,” Li said.

PHOTO BY KRISTI LI

Sharing the Stories

of the Community

Ne w

SPREAD CHEER

Within the Instagram These excerpts appear on Humans of Hockaday. Be sure to follow their account, @humans.at.hockaday

“

I was raised in Mexico. My mother died when I was six years old. My father was alive, but I never knew what happened to my father.

“

I'm an only child. A big thing that I feel like correlates to the fact that I'm an only child is that I'm passionate about connections with people that aren't my age.

PICTURE PERFECT | Junior Alexa May looks at the picture that junior and Head Photographer of Humans of Hockaday Cirrus Chen took of her to appear on the account.

“

(What do you want to be when you grow up?) A doctor who delivers babies, because I really love taking care of babies. Or a part time baby sitter.

HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG

THE FOURCAST | DECEMBER 14, 2017

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AND FROM THE NATIONAL PHOTO BY ALEXA MAY

TRACK ENGLISH TEACHERS

SWAP BOOKS

Since 2012, Hockaday sophomores have accompanied British 19th century heroine Jane Eyre on her journey from the Reed household to Thornfield Manor as she endures the trials and tribulations that accompany the life of a young independent woman. However, this year current sophomores must say goodbye to the eponymous character of Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre” and instead welcome Jane Austen’s Emma Woodhouse. In order to bring a fresh change to the sophomor0e British literature course, the Hockaday English Department replaced “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë with “Emma” by Jane Austen for the class of 2020. “Jane Eyre” is known for its feminist values and the representation of a classic Gothic literature. The English Department originally chose this book for a classic British novel. Jennifer McEachern, an Upper School English teacher who teaches two sophomore classes, thinks that “Jane Eyre” is a great book to look at the language and its plot. “‘Jane Eyre’ fits [the classic British novel] really well because it contains so many wonderful literary elements, and it also has a story that resonates young women about a girl growing up,” McEachern said. Senior Shelby Schultz was impressed by Jane Eyre’s independent act. “I think what I learned from [“Jane Eyre”] is that women don't have to compromise. Don't marry a man you don't love; don't feel content with poor treatment. Better yourself every day and eventually you will get the love and treatment you deserve,” Schultz said. Despite its pros, McEachern observed that the lengthy plot of “Jane Eyre” proved a challenge to many students. Junior Maria Sailale read “Jane Eyre” during her sophomore class. She found herself struggling to relate to the book and at times found herself questioning Bronte’s feminism. She also agrees with McEachern about the length of the novel. “Some parts were too descriptive and they went on a really long time,” Sailale said. While Bilhartz and the other English faculty members recognized that many students struggled with the novel, they initially added the book to the sophomore curriculum to insert the voice of more female authors. Thus, when they decided to change the book, they wanted to ensure that the students would still have the opportunity to hear the voices of 19th century British women.

TIDBITS & TALES |

Class Fair The Course Selection Assembly and Class Fair, both on Jan. 25, are opportunities for students to speak with teachers and department heads about courses they may be interested in taking next year. During the Jan. 25 Y period Course Registration assembly, Lyse Herrera, registrar, will present information on new courses and remind students how to register for classes.

In order to change a book in a freshman, sophomore or junior English class, the faculty members who teach that grade level must convene and agree on the new selection. However, teachers have the ability to add supplemental texts, such as poems or short stories, but modifying core texts – the books mandated that all students of the same grade level must read such as “The Odyssey,” “The Canterbury Tales” and “The Great Gatsby” – requires a group consensus. Last spring, sophomore English teachers held several meetings to discuss changing “Jane Eyre.” After examining numerous books, the faculty agreed upon Jane Austen’s “Emma,” another classic 19th century British novel. “Emma” shares many of the same themes as “Jane Eyre,” such as love, drama and the concept of Bildungsroman – a literary term for the maturation of a character – but the novel has a slightly more engaging plot, according to McEachern. McEachern believes that “Emma” is a good replacement of “Jane Eyre” because the novel provides the perspective of a 19th century woman, a voice which is often overlooked in traditional English classes. “Many 19th century British novels are written by men, and novels written by women bring in diversity in classes,” English teacher Jennifer McEachern said. Many sophomores have also appreciated this change. Sophomore Lily Zhou enjoyed the book and appreciated the complexities of the characters. Sophomore Cindy Pan agrees with Zhou’s interpretation of the novel. “The depiction of the characters was in such a complex way. How the characters are intertwined carefully interested me,” Pan said. But some students had a different opinion. For example, sophomore Jenny Choi found the plot pointless and inane. “[“Emma”] is set in the midst of all historical background, war, and slave trade. And what Jane Austen is focusing about is one upperclass lady who just cares about the love life but she doesn’t have one. [The plot and Emma’s actions] were purposeless,” Choi said. However, Bilhartz disagrees with this interpretation and asserts that “purposelessness” actually served a purpose: it was satire of British romance novels. When choosing a replacement for “Jane Eyre,” the English Department considered the following factors: appropriateness, diversity,

difficulty and theme. While the Hockaday administration respects the decisions made by the English Department regarding the contents of the books, the English teachers try to keep the books appropriate to each grade level. Usually, freshman classes have more restrictions on explicit content than junior and senior classes, which read novels with some graphic scenes like those found in “Beloved” by Toni Morrison. To keep the diversity of viewpoints, books are also added or taken out of the curriculum. For example, white males dominated the traditional canon, so in order to add a new perspective, the English Department decided to teach “A Mercy” by the contemporary African American writer Toni Morrison to the junior classes. In Bilhartz’s opinion, a woman of color writing a story set in the 17th century differs from many other books that students have read, giving the students a chance to compare and contrast the novel to other works they read throughout the year like “The Scarlet Letter” written in 1850 by the American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne. “We can look at postmodern styles in America, women of color authors, history of 17th century America. We could do all kinds of things with [“A Mercy”],” Bilhartz said. Furthermore, the English teachers want to create a broad connection between all books read in Upper School. Currently, sophomores experience the British hierarchical society by reading British literature, freshmen look at the complex globe in world literature and juniors relive the American Dream while studying American literature. Thus, the teachers ensure that all novels mesh with the overarching theme of the course. And finally, the level of difficulty plays an important role in choosing the books. For example, the freshman English class began reading “The Tempest” during the 2014-2015 school year, but after the English faculty recognized that many students struggled with the difficulty of the play, the department decided to return to “The Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Although the current sophomores may not have a chance to meet Jane Eyre, many have enjoyed cavorting with their new friend, Emma Woodhouse.

The Fourcast asked junior Adoette Vaughan about her experience at the Foot Locker Cross Country National Championships in San Diego on Dec. 9. She placed 11th out of the 40 finishers. During the fall sports season, Vaughan ran cross country for the Hockaday team, placing first out of 102 runners at the SPC Championship race. Q. How did you qualify for the Foot Locker National Race? A. I went to Foot Locker Regionals which was at McAlpine Park in Charlotte, North Carolina and you have to be in the top 10 in that race to make it to Foot Locker Nationals and I was 9th. Q. What did the race consist of? A. You just run a 5K. Q. How did you train for the race? A. I ran lots of long runs. Usually in cross country you do lots of miles, and running on the grass of course, and hill work so you are ready to run up some hills, doing interval training, tempo runs-- where you run at race pace for a certain amount of time. I have been training throughout the season. My training was centered around the foot locker race as far as peaking time and what time you want to get in shape. Q. What’s so important about this race? A. It’s pretty much the top 40 runners in the country from four different regions. It’s such a great atmosphere too, that makes it really special. Lots of pro athletes have run at Foot Locker, and it just joins together all the great runners from across the country. Q. Placing as well as you did, what does this mean for the future? A. I think it just shows that I can perform well compared to other people around the country and it just gives me confidence that I can compete with them. And maybe next year I can come back and do better than 11th and get in the top 10 or top five. Q. How do you overcome race challenges? A. You just have to really motivate yourself. I know having a goal really helps because you’re usually not thinking about how you are feeling, you’re just thinking about what you can do to accomplish your goal. And the adrenaline really helps too.

Eugene Seong | Staff Writer

Quick reads to stay up-to-date

Habitat for Humanity To Start Building

Food Drive

Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration

Hockaday’s Habitat for Humanity build will start on Jan. 6 at 8 am. Hockaday and St. Mark’s will work in conjunction to build a house for a family selected by Habitat for Humanity. This year marks the 12th house build.

The annual Community Service Board organized food drive to benefit the Salvation Army and families around Dallas, will take place on Jan. 16. Each advisory is required to compile a box of food and kitchen items. Ninety boxes of food were compiled last year.

2018 will mark the 32nd anniversary of Hockaday celebrating civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. Last year’s celebration consisted of activities such as choir performances, unity walks and guest speakers. Next year’s celebration is scheduled for Jan. 12.

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY SALVATION ARMY USA WEST AND CHARLOTTE HOSKINS

Trump Abandons

MIDDLE EAST

PRECEDENT

While many pro-Israel supporters and agreement has been reached. The U.N. still does not designate Palespoliticians welcomed the news, many foreign policy experts agree that this controversial de- tine as a state, because it does not meet all cision will not only escalate the already violent the criteria of having a permanent population, situation between the Israelis and the Palestin- defined territory, government, or capacity to ians, but will also create anger toward the U.S. enter relations. In an attempt to rectify the situation by from countries in the Middle East. Jerusalem is holy site to three major re- allowing negotiations between the Palestinians ligions: Christianity, Islam and Judaism. For and Israel, no nation, including the U.S., has Christians, Jerusalem was the location for the recognized the city as either Israeli or Palescrucifixion of Jesus Christ. For Muslims, who tinian until last week. American diplomats gencall Jerusalem “the farthest mosque,” the al-Aq- erally consider this neutral stance necessary sa Mosque in Jerusalem was the destination of for peace. In 1995, Congress passed the Jerusathe Prophet Mohammed on his Night Journey lem Embassy Act which from Mecca before he asrequired the U.S. embascended to the Heavens. For sy to move to Jerusalem. Jews, Jerusalem is where However, President Bill their Temple, the home of FOREIGNPOLICY Clinton refused to enforce their one God, stood, and it, and the act stated that contains the Holy of Holies the move could be put off and the Western Wall, the for six months if the presholiest place where Jews ident said it was essential can pray. for national security. Britain provided the Upper School History land of Israel to the Jews as teacher Tracy Walder exa refuge following World War plained that every president II. But Palestinians also occusince Clinton has refused to py parts of this land on the allow the move, until Trump. West Bank and Gaza, cre“The act transcended ating tension and violence But we can’t be making sweeping politics,” Walder said. between the groups. decisions like this without Polls from the BrookIn 1947, the United Naings Institute found that tions announced a plan to diconsidering the implications. only 31 percent of Amerivide the land into two states: cans support Trump’s decione Arab and one Jewish. sion, and a large number However, they left Jerusalem TRACY WALDER Upper School History Teacher of left-leaning American out of the plan. Jews are against it. However, Whether Jerusalem many of Trump’s evangelibelongs to Muslims or the Jews, Israel is a widely contested issue, causing cal Christian supporters and some conservative Jews are in favor of it. violence and fighting within the city. Many evangelical Christians. like Laurie Both the Palestinian people and Israelis claim Jerusalem as their political capital, but Cardoza-Moore, who runs a television prothe Israeli military controls the city populated gram called “Focus on Israel,” support the decision because of a prophecy in the Bible. by both Israelis and Palestinians. “As far as God is concerned, Jerusalem The issue has been officially disputed since the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Prior to this, has been the eternal, undivided capital [of the the United Nations considered Jerusalem a Jews] since the reign of David,” Cardoza-Moore special international zone. During the war, Is- said to NPR last week. Some Zionist Jews also agree with the Bible’s rael seized the city’s western half, and in the prophecy regarding Jerusalem belonging to the 1967, Arab-Israeli War it took the eastern half. Israelis and Palestinians have been nego- Jews, including the Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat. “If you go back, even legally, [Jerusalem] tiating over the city for over 25 years, but no

On Dec. 6, President Donald Trump broke almost 70 years of American and international foreign policy by officially recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and announcing the relocation of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, acting on a promise he made early on the campaign trail. By Morgan Fisher | Business Manager

I DON’T THINK WE SHOULD BE CATERING TO EVERY WHIM IN THE MIDDLE EAST,

LEADERS UNITE | President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu led a joint press conference on Feb. 15 during which Trump disclosed that he considered both two-state and one-state solutions viable.

was never anything but belonging to the Jewish people,” Barkat said to NPR last week. Jewish-American casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam Ochsorn, the largest individual Republican donors in 2016, have pushed for the move of the embassy and criticized the Trump administration for not acting fast enough verbally and by donating less than they have in the past. Analysts say that Trump’s decision may have been pressured by these far-right Christian supporters and wealthy donors. Among mixed opinions from Americans, Trump’s decision has also sparked anger from both Middle Eastern countries and Israel. Although Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other members of the Israeli government praised Trump’s decision, many Israelis fear the repercussions from the Palestinians, whose factions called for three “days of rage,” prompting the U.S. State Department to issue a travel warning for the West Bank and Jerusalem’s Old City. During these days of protesting from Dec. 7-9, it was reported that two Palestinians were killed and 35 injured in fights with Israelis on the Gaza Strip’s border. In Bethlehem, the Palestinians protested by throwing stones, and Israeli troops responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades. Israeli troops also killed two Hamas members during airstrikes in retaliation for a rocket attack from Gaza. Palestine Liberation Organization Secretary-General Saeb Erekat said “President Trump tonight made the biggest mistake of his life” and “just destroyed any possibility of a two-state (solution).” The Trump administration defends its decision, claiming it was a “recognition of reality” and that the move would have no impact on the boundaries or borders in the negotiation. Other supporters of the decision include U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and her Israeli counterpart, Danny Danon. Haley said that the peace process was not yielding results. “The United States took this step in full knowledge that it will raise questions and concerns. Our actions are intended to help advance the cause of peace,” she said. Haley also claims that the U.N. has been detrimental to the peace process. “The United States no longer stands by when Israel is unfairly attacked in the United Nations,” Haley said. Walder said that the decision could have negative effects on the United State’s relationship with the Middle East, including countries like Saudi Arabia, where the U.S. gets most of their oil. “I don’t think we should be catering to every whim of the Middle East. But we can’t be making sweeping decisions like this without considering the implications,” Walder said.

The decision could also allow terrorist groups to gain even more power in unstable Palestinian-occupied territory, which is already heavily controlled by American-recognized Foreign Terrorist Organization Hamas. Hamas called Trump’s actions a “declaration of war.” “These procedures do also help in the extremist organizations to wage a religious war that would harm the entire region, which is going through critical moments and would lead us into wars that will never end, which we have warned about and always urged to fight against,” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in a televised address. Walder said that the reason this decision was so dangerous in respect to terrorism is because it provides Hamas and other terrorist groups a cause to unite around: their anger towards the U.S. and Israel. Additionally, Walder explained that the U.S. has now lost leverage over Israel and Palestinians to gain peace, because Israel now has little reason to compromise in the negotiations. New York Times journalist and foreign policy expert Thomas Friedman wrote that Trump’s decision was un-strategic as he made a large concession without receiving any in return. “Why in the world would you just give this away for free and not even use it as a lever to advance the prospect of an Israeli-Palestinian deal?” Friedman asked in his article. The future of the Israeli-Palestinian relations is still up in the air, but foreign policy experts from the U.S. and other countries agree that peace is a long way off. PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE JIMMY CARTER LIBRARY

YOUR WORLD TODAY

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE WHITE HOUSE

DECEMBER 14, 2017 | THE FOURCAST

History of U.S. Involvement in the Conflict

The Camp David Accords, signed in 1978 by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and US President Jimmy Carter established a formal peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, who were at war in the Middle East. The treaty also suggested further meetings to mediate the conflict with the Palestinians and required Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza to allow the Palestinian self-government, but did not address the issue of Jerusalem.

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PHOTO BY SHREYA GUNUKULA

Spreading the Spirit

Community Service Board decorates rooms at Scottish Rite Hospital with homemade ornaments..

Colorful paper clippings and holiday spirit filled the Director of Service Learning Laura Day’s room early in November as the Community Service Board created themed ornaments for a special cause. Now adorning one of many festive trees scattered throughout Scottish Rite Hospital, these handmade decorations help bring the cheerful atmosphere of the Christmas season to the children receiving care at the hospital. While the theme of Hockaday’s tree is always new, the Community Service Board’s involvement with Scottish Rite’s holiday tradition is anything but. As Day explained, Hockaday’s participation in the tree decorating is a longstanding tradition of the Board. “When Scottish Rite came up with the idea 25 years ago, we were doing it,” Day said. Junior and Community Service Board member Annie Sheeder felt Hockaday’s legacy while

THE FOURCAST | DECEMBER 14, 2017

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decorating their tree at the hospital. “My favorite moment was having one of the doctors come see us. She said she has two daughters that graduated from Hockaday and she was really excited to see that Hockaday was still involved after over 20 years of this program at Scottish Rite,” she said. According to Day, the longevity of the project has allowed for its legacy to extend to past graduating members of the board. “All these people will remember the tree they made,” Day said. “So it is kind of an interesting legacy.” Scottish Rite’s Special Projects Coordinator Jennifer Brooks values this well-established holiday tradition as part of the hospital’s mission. “Scottish Rite is all about not looking or feeling or smelling like a hospital. Everything is designed around our kids to make it a fun

ornaments. “It was a really good experience to all work on it together because everybody had a job and it made it go so much faster,” Sheeder said. On Nov. 28, Day, Sheeder and Laber, along with other Community Service Board members, made their way to Scottish Rite Hospital for the annual tree-decorating event. Following several speakers and a dinner provided by the hospital, these Hockaday students set to work decorating their assigned tree. Before heading off to adorn their Winter Olympics themed tree, however, Sheeder, Laber and other members of the Community Service board joined the entire crowd in song. “When we were all singing in the big room together, you could see everyone with their signs from different organizations and it was so varied. It was a whole Dallas community dedicated to making these kids’ lives special and helping to bring joy to them during the holidays,” Laber said. Hockaday’s participants are definitely not alone in this tradition. Scottish Rite typically has over 50 Christmas trees dispersed throughout their halls, all festively decorated by schools, companies, volunteer organizations or just families and friends who want to bring joy to the patients. “Everything that we are about is about making sure that these kids are getting to be kids and seeing a patient’s eyes light up when they turn the corner and see a Christmas tree is incredible,” Brooks said. “It brightens everybody’s holidays, not just the patients but the staff too.” Head of the projects committee, senior Grace Olson, also admires the community aspect of the event. “To see that community and people coming together to brighten the holiday season of people who don’t get to go to the Galleria to see the big Christmas tree, it warms your heart,” Olson said. PLACED WITH CARE | Junior Grace Laber decWhile a multitude of groups help make orates one of the trees with a paper ornament made Scottish Rite festive for the holidays, Hockaday’s weeks prior. trees always stand out since the Community Serenvironment for them, and so it would only vice Board is one of the only groups that handcrafts their unique decorations. make sense that our holiHockaday’s ‘Winter day season was the same Olympics’ Christmas tree way,” she said. THE HOSPITAL features ornaments in the Although the entire shape of ski goggles, medboard helps to come up with als and ice skates, as well the tree’s theme, this holiday as a garland of Olympic project is traditionally dirings, a snowy tree skirt and rected by the juniors of the a torch to top it off. Along board’s projects committee. with the numerous other This year, juniors Grace trees, Hockaday’s tree will Laber and Annie Sheedremain at Scottish Rite Hoser took the lead, selecting pital throughout the holiday “Winter Olympics” as the season, until Jan. 3, and will come see us. She said theme for the tree. continue to bring joy to any she has two daughters After deciding on a child spending the holidays that graduated from Hockaday. theme, Sheeder and Laber in the hospital. began planning the corre“I think the most imANNIE SHEEDER sponding decorations for Junior and Community portant part is for the kids the Christmas tree, includService Board Member to see that there are people ing ornaments, a garland, a putting in effort in to brighttree skirt and a tree topper. en their days and it’s special This year, as opposed to for us too to know that they Sheeder and Laber crafting these pieces on their own, the entire Community Service Board go around and look at the trees,” Laber said. dedicated one of their meetings to making the

MY FAVORITE MOMENT WAS HAVING ONE OF THE DOCTORS

Ali Hurst | Copy Editor

PLAN ON IT! No Classes for MLK Day Jan. 15 School Reopens Jan. 4

Upper School Conferences Jan. 31

Austin Street Dinner Feb. 8

Allman Fellow Assembly Jan. 19

All School MLK Event Jan. 12

SDB Forum Jan. 26

Harvard/MIT Math Competition Feb. 7

PHOTOS BY HOCKADAY, CHARLOTTE HOSKINS, PEXELS, JESSICA CHU, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

DECEMBER 14, 2017 | THE FOURCAST

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

06 t cas r u

The F o Life

Loco For "Coco": Web Editor Cheryl Hao Gives a Glorious Review of Pixar's New Film "CoCo." P.08

What Makes Songs Sound the Same: News Editor Katie O'Meara's Take On Luke Bryan's New Album, "What Makes You Country." P.08

HOW TO SELECT A MUSICAL: A LOOK INTO HOW THE FINE ARTS DEPARTMENT CHOOSES A WINTER PRODUCTION. P.10

P.08

Springing Into ISAS 2018

A vast expanse of large, white tents line the lawns, overrun with massive clusters of students. Throughout the lawns echo a variety of different harmonies ranging from choir groups to rock bands. Look further and you may come across a visual art exhibit, a dance performance or a snippet from a musical or play. Around each corner there is an unique art form to be discovered, a new showcase to admire, a greater appreciation for the arts to be cultivated. Welcome to ISAS. By Charlotte Dross | Staff Writer

As April approaches, preparation for the Independent School Association of the Southwest Arts Festival has been kicked into high-gear. The event, which will be hosted at Hockaday, is set to take place on April 12-14. The sheer magnitude of the festival is so large that it requires a school-wide effort just to plan it, and it will occupy every available space on campus. Hockaday first learned that they would host ISAS back in 2004. Although the festival itself lasts only three days, preparation for the event dates back to nearly three years ago, when Hockaday first began getting bids on tents, art panels and food. The school also started taking note of the different ways in which various hosts have run ISAS in previous years. However, plans for preparation became more concrete last spring, when a student-run planning committee was compiled. Senior Audrey Magnuson is the chair of this committee. “There is so much that goes into actually having a functioning festival,” said Magnuson. “We have to essentially utilize every square inch of our school in order to accommodate the 4,000 people who are going to be on campus on average every single day.” After accepting position as chair, Magnuson began to reach out to different students in order to recruit members for her board. When enlisting students, she choose them not only based off of those who showed an interest in the arts but also those who did not participate in an art discipline in order to encompass a vast variety of voices. The committee contains a total of 19 junior and senior students. Now, Magnuson continues to run her committee in order to help plan for this largescale festival. Essentially, the ISAS student board functions as a student “think tank,” and serves as a way for student input to be incorporated into the festival. “The job of the committee so far is to be subtly adding on layers of student experience,” Magnuson said. On Sept. 29, each school attending the 2018 ISAS festival was required to send a representative to Hockaday in order to be given tours around the campus. The student committee was in charge of leading these tours and making certain that these representatives would know their way around the school come time for the festival. Aside from providing tours to the gathered representatives from the participating schools, the student board has been working closely alongside the Fine Arts Board to help plan for the festival. Magnuson in particular frequently meets with Ed Long, Dean of Upper School and Festival Director for ISAS, to further solidify and bring to life ideas for the arts celebration. As the festival weekend approaches, the committee along with the rest of the faculty and staff involved in the planning process will begin to focus more on the logistics of hosting ISAS, such as their budget and physical work put into setting up the festival itself. “A lot of planning is not necessarily what you see on the day of, but actually having to transform the schools into venues for every single different type of art form,” Magnuson said. Based on the feedback that Hockaday has received thus far, the fast-approaching ISAS is predicted to reap the highest student attendance rate out of those in the past—even more than last year’s ISAS, which was held at

Ultimately, by putting on the festival, we are enabling a unique fine arts experience that doesn’t happen anywhere else in the country. Ed Long Dean of Upper School

the Casady School and had claimed the title of “greatest attendance rate.” However, the 2018 ISAS will include seven more schools than previous years . The expected student turnout is around 3,300 students, excluding Hockaday’s own students. Factor in parents, participant and faculty and administration members who travel with the students pushes the count to a grand total of 4,000 attendees. Because of such large numbers, the festival will occupy every vacant space that the school has to provide. “This sounds like an exaggeration, but it truly involves every room in the school,” Long said. Different sections of the school will be designated for different arts. For instance, the Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Theatre will house dance performances and scenes from musicals, different films will be screened in the Clements Lecture Hall, orchestra groups will perform in the Small Gym and choir in the Hicks Meeting Room. In addition, the Penson Athletic Center will be dedicated

PHOTO BY CHARLOTTE DROSS

Preparation Kicks Into High Gear

Art s

EAT UP

solely to the visual arts, as it will exhibit a half mile’s worth of artistic creations. The track field and surrounding area is designated for rock and marching band performances, while the black box will present one-acts. Not all spaces will be devoted to showcasing arts, however. Classrooms will serve as homerooms for the various attending schools, offering a place to simply relax or prepare oneself for an upcoming performance. Additionally, Graduation Terrace will serve as a sort of common area, in which no specific fine art is designated to. An integral part of the festival is providing various food sources in order to satiate the needs of the attendees. For the sake of efficiency, there will be two different locations of food throughout the festival— at the two “circles” on campus. The first arrangement of food trucks will be situated at Penson Circle, and the second, at the circle outside of the Fine Arts building. By having multiple locations for food, the hope is to even out the crowds that tend to gather around the food trucks. Because so much manual labor is required for the festival to be properly set up, some of the more complex items will be set up days in advance. “We will start feeling the presence of the festival a week before the festival,” Long said. The larger tents, which include the food, improv, coffee house and jazz and rock tents, will begin to go up a week before the festival due to the time that they take to set up. To help designate time for setting up, all classes will be canceled the Wednesday before the festival. Although the festival itself is very time consuming to put on, it is simultaneously a great honor to host. “It really adds another level of pride for our arts and for our school when [ISAS] is in our own vicinity,” Wood said. Ultimately, ISAS is a festival unique to this part of the country, offering young high school students the opportunity to express their different artforms for each other. “Every year we have various schools from New York to California that have come to visit the festival and say ‘Gee, we would like to do this,’ but realize they can’t due to a lack of land,” Long said. “Ultimately, by putting on the festival, we are enabling a unique fine arts experience that doesn’t happen anywhere else in the country.”

ISAS BY THE NUMBERS

Number of Schools Participating in the Festival

Number of Times the Festival has been Held at Hockaday in the Past

IN CONVERSATION | Senior Audrey Magnuson plans ISAS details with Dean of Upper School Ed Long in between classes.

Number of Times the Festival has been Held SOURCE: ISAS Planning Meeting Book

HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG

THE FOURCAST | DECEMBER 14, 2017

arts & life

Crafty Christmas Sweaters While the holidays bring pans of fresh baked cookies, hot chocolate galore and Christmas music blaring throughout the mall speakers, this season also creates the need for a cute 'n ugly Christmas sweater. After scouring my attic, Amazon, thrift shops and specialized sweater shops, I realized that nothing would be as cute as something I could make myself. To gain some inspiration, I turned to Pinterest, and within a few minutes, I found the perfect idea: a Christmas tree. When I made the sweater, I was surprised at how easy it was. Normally, I botch the simplest of DIYs, but these three steps made the process painless. Here is what to do if you want to replicate the look.

Order a Hanes Kelly Green sweatshirt from Amazon to start the Christmas sweater. Using a hot glue gun, attach gold tinsel from Walmart onto the sweatshirt, wrapping the tinsel around the front three times, the back twice and each arm twice. If you do not own a hot glue gun, safety pins will work just fine.

Use the hot glue again to adhere red, two-inch diameter pompoms from Amazon above and below the tinsel, two or three balls per tinsel stripe. The pompoms resemble red ornaments hanging on the tree.

Kate Woodhouse | Photo & Graphics Editor

For the final step, use safety pins to place actual ornaments onto the sweater, pinning two to three per stripe on the body and one on the arm stripes. You can purchase a pack from Walmart containing 20 classic silver, reflective silver, and glitter silver ornaments of two sizes, about oneand-a-half and two inches in diameter. This completes the Christmas tree look.

FASHION FINDS | Jewelry is a Girl's Best Friend In the iconic 1997 romance movie, “Titanic”, the film’s plot revolves around the trajectory of The Heart of the Ocean, a precious diamond and sapphire necklace, given to Rose, the film’s leading lady, by Caledon Hockley, her fiancé. While yes, the Heart of the Ocean is fictional, precious stories associated with jewelry do exist outside of movies. Here, the Fourcast hones in on five specific jewelry items and the stories behind them within the Hockaday community.

Emma Kogan

Tracy Walder

Mariana Mariel

Anika Banderpalle

Kirsten Lindsay-Hudak

Delicately adorning her right ring finger and left pointer, freshman Emma Kogan proudly sports two James Avery Rings at all times. Kogan has worn these pieces since the seventh grade when she received a birthstone ring for her bat mitzvah ceremony from a friend. This ‘Spanish Lace’ ring accentuates an Amethyst stone by surrounding it with silver swirls. Later gifting a ring with the letter ‘E,’ which matched her own to that same friend, Kogan believes that her jewelry represents childhood friendship: even though she and her friend might not always be together, her ring is always kept close to her heart.

Until Walder passes it on to her daughter when she turns 18, she will wear this diamond butterfly necklace. The diamonds originally were in her great grandmother’s wedding ring, an artifact which survived the Holocaust. The ring was passed on to her grandmother, who called her “little butterfly.” The grandmother, who always wanted for Walder to have children, passed away the day Walder’s only surviving embryo was transferred to her surrogate, unknowing of the fact they were trying to get pregnant. Overjoyed by the birth of her daughter, Walder forgot about the ring. Her grandmother left her the ring on her daughter’s first birthday. The wedding ring’s diamonds had been shaped into a butterfly necklace, and Walder wears it every day as a reminder of what her family has been through, and where they come from.

Czech out this ring. Given to Upper School Spanish Teacher, Mariana Mariel, by her “other half,” Scott, her Art Nouveau ring from the Czech Republic. The ring was designed by Czech artist Alphonse Mucha’s granddaughter. Mucha’s style was inspired by her grandfather but with its own creative liberties. Fashion and jewelry plays a large role in representing phases from Mariel’s life. For example, she owns jewelry from her time as a "metalhead" and wears a Mexican cross and ring from her mother. She began to wear the ring about 16 years ago and wore the cross often in high school.

A little knot ring links sophomore Anika Banderpalle to her sister at college. Banderpalle received her beloved James Avery ring during her sister’s graduation in 2015, under the Hockaday’s traditional arch of lilies held up by the graduates’ little sisters. The ring, gifted with a sweet note, previously belonged to Banderpalle’s sister, who worked hard the previous summer so she could afford to resize the ring. According to the James Avery website, the knot symbolizes two becoming one; as the Banderpalle household transitions from two sisters at home to one, the silver knot is a constant reminder of Anika’s meaningful, close-knit relationship with her sister.

Never parting with her ring finger, Lindsay’s wedding band has been in her family since the Civil War. Her great grandfather was a surgeon and operated on a soldier during the war. On the soldier’s deathbed, he handed a pair of rings to the surgeon and asked if he could find his fiancé. His fiancé had died, so Lindsay’s relative kept the rings that have since been passed down through the generations. Lindsay’s engagement ring is also a family heirloom: her great, great grandfather bought the ring for his daughter as a dissuasion against marrying her fiancé, who she married anyway. Both of Lindsay’s rings serve as mementos of her unique family history.

PHOTOS BY SOPHIE DAWSON

Eliana Goodman | Staff Writer

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DECEMBER 14, 2017 | THE FOURCAST

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

I’m both jealous and ecstatic that the younger generation gets this kind of representation and introduction to another culture. The most foreign thing in the movies I watched while growing up was a rat cooking 5-star meals and a lonely robot roaming the ruins of earth. “Coco” are none of those things, but instead, it provides a peek into one of Mexico’s most coveted holidays, Dia de Muertos, or Day of the Dead. The movie is set on the holiday, and centers around Miguel Rivera (Anthony Gonzalez), a 12-year-old boy who aspires to be a musician in a family that hates music. When retrieving the guitar of Ernesto De La Cruz (Benjamin Blatt) to play in the talent show after his grandmother smashed his, Miguel transcends to the land of the dead and needs his family’s blessing to go back. But when a big company like Pixar decides to make millions on the topic of another culture, there are inevitable worries about appropriation and intention with the movie. In my opinion, Pixar used this opportunity to truly make “Coco” a Mexican movie. Director Lee Unkrich traveled through Michoacán, Guanajuato, Oaxaca and Mexico City to

Open Road Films stars

craft the perfect Santa Cecilia, Miguel’s hometown; they were sure to slip in cultural details about Dia de Muertos, making the holiday a familiar one by the end of the movie; and it is the first-ever film with a nine-digit budget to feature an all-Latino cast. This is not to say that Disney is now suddenly the master of inclusion: the production of the movie got off to a rocky start, when Pixar tried to copyright “Day of the Dead,” the original name of the movie, to which Mexico (rightfully) was not happy about. Pixar’s afterlife consists of never ending parties, shopping malls and an eternity of reconnecting with one’s ancestors. But the afterlife also consists of socio-economic differences and class-distinction--celebrities lived in golden towers above the “forgotten people,” who slept in hammocks on wooden decks. Perhaps including the capitalist elements that we know so well was Pixar’s effort to make death seem more familiar to the children, and it worked. Pixar made death seem more inviting and comforting than haunting, definitely helped by the bright visuals. In some parts of the movie, I forgot I was

watching an animated film--especially during shots of the marigolds, which looked posed and photographed. With one look, I could sense the texture of every surface, whether it be the ivory smoothness of the dead’s bones, the coarseness of the skin of the hairless dog, and even the way the uneven stone road felt under the feet of the characters. I cannot speak for anyone else, but being a person not of Mexican descent, I felt honored to be able to peek into the life and culture of Miguel and the Rivera family. I could feel the sense of community through camera pans through the mercado streets, and with the strum of every guitarrón, I was further covered by the rich tapestry that is Mexican culture. Most importantly, I learned the importance that the Mexican culture places on family. Family, the movies says, is the only thing one needs to achieve one's dreams-through life, and through death. It made me want to hug my mom and dad a little tighter.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY PIXAR

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LOCO FOR "COCO"

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ON THE BIG SCREEN

Cheryl Hao | Web Editor

PICKS FROM PIXAR

Top Arts Events in Dallas

How The Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical Winspear Opera House 2404 Flora St. Until Dec. 17, Daily

Cirque Dream: Holidaze? Verizon Theatre 1001 Performance Place Until Dec. 16. 7:30 p.m.

A Bug's Life (1998)

Toy Story 2 (1999)

Monsters Inc. (2001)

Finding Nemo (2003)

PHOTO PROVIDED BY PIXAR

Magical Winter Lights Lone Star Park 1000 Lone Star Parkway Until Jan. 7, Daily

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HEAR ME OUT

Jubilee Theater 506 Main St. Until Dec. 23, 8:30 p.m.

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Motown Christmas

WHAT MAKES SONGS SOUND THE SAME iTunes

PHOTO PROVIDED BY FLICKR

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Since the first few times I listened to “Country Girl (Shake It for Me)” during basketball warm-ups in the eighth grade, I have been hooked on not only Luke Bryan, but country music. The past four years have seen my music playlists transform from Top 40s pop to entirely country. Even as my knowledge of country music has expanded, Bryan still remains my favorite country artist. Two years after the release of “Kill the Lights,” Bryan released his sixth studio album, “What Makes You Country” on Dec. 8. Throughout the album, Bryan does not explore new sounds, but rather sticks to what has reached his audience album after album in the past. I appreciate this. Undeniably, country music is transforming. Sam Hunt’s “Body Like a Back Road” has dominated both the pop and country charts all summer, which held the number one spot on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart from Feb. 25 until Oct. 21. It is yet to leave the Top Five. Hunt’s country pop represents only one part of the shift in country music. Bryan’s music has embraced the changes over the years, while still maintaining the heart of both his own sound and the sound of country music. This album is no different as “What Makes

You Country” attempts to explain the experience of growing up in the South. Songs on the album like “Bad Lovers” and “Out of Nowhere Girl” resemble the typical Bryan songs from over the years like “Move” from “Kill the Lights” and “That’s My Kind of Night” from 2013’s “Crash My Party.” Throughout these songs, Bryan uses a fast beat to create an energetic song in order to tell the story of a boy’s experience with a girl. This classic country music trope follows Bryan throughout the rest of the album. The only area that Bryan ventures outside of his comfort zone is the lack of slow, powerful songs on the album. With the exception of “Like You Say You Do” and “Most People Are Good,” all of the these songs have an upbeat bass that creates excitement. This album has no slow ballads, and for me, that is one detraction. On both “Crash My Party” and “Kill the Lights,” these types of songs were the ones that stuck out to me, but on “What Makes You Country,” they fade into the background. What makes country so great for me are these powerful songs that really bring out emotions, and this album lacks this variety. Even with the disappointment of the absence of feeling a tug at my heartstrings as I listened to all fifteen songs on “What Makes You Country,” Bryan has the ability to have such similar songs sound different and still intrigue me. The lead single “Light It Up,” which Bryan co-wrote with Brad Tursi of Old Dominion, tells

the story of a man who waits for a woman to text him, or “light up” his phone. “Light It Up” is an intense song that still keeps a relatively fast speed, much like the rest on the album. Yet, even with its similarity to the rest of Bryan’s discography, the song is unique due to its applicability to today. I appreciate Bryan’s use of his phone as the symbol for his want for the woman, and in this case, it works. Even with a contemporary song like “Light It Up,” Bryan still reverts to his roots with “Sunrise, Sunburn, Sunset.” This song was by far my favorite on the album. It embodied everything that first made me fall in love with Bryan’s music four years earlier. Within the song, he details (once again) a boy that finds his match through a summer job. When I first listened to the album, I played “Sunrise, Sunburn, Sunset” about five times in a row. The simplicity of the song with the chorus consisting of the repetition of “sunrise, sunburn, sunset, repeat” especially drew me in. This song just completely encapsulates a Bryan song, which has yet to shift over the years. This album truly represents who Bryan is as an artist. Someone who takes both sides of the shifting country music scene, while still maintaining his own voice. That is something that takes talent, and for that, I applaud him. Katie O'Meara | News Editor

HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG

THE FOURCAST | DECEMBER 14, 2017

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DAZED AND AMUSED 581 W. Campbell Rd. Richardson, TX. 972.707.7295. SweetDaze.com

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Cinnamon Toast Crunch Soft Serve

Classic Glazed Donut

Served in Bowls th

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SE DHOU WOO E T A O BY K PHOT

FROM THE FOURCAST

KITCHEN

News Editor Katie O'Meara's Signature Soft Serve Directions:

Ingredients: 2 cups of heavy cream 1 tsp. Vanilla extract  1 cup of whole milk  3/4 cup of granulated sugar  

WHISK BY PETER WILLIAMS

1. Prefreeze the ice cream bowl in the freezer about 12 hours prior. 2. Combine the whole milk and sugar and whisk until the sugar is dissolved. 3. Pour in the heavy cream and vanilla extract and mix. 4. Take the bowl out of the freezer and place it in the machine. 5. Turn the machine on and pour the mixture in the bowl. 6. Mix in the machine for 20 minutes or until the liquid congeals. 7. Serve the ice cream in a bowl or a cone with the toppings of your choice. 8. Enjoy!

A decorative sign on the far back wall of Sweet Daze Dessert Bar reads “a picture is worth a thousand calories,” but was it really worth it? Yes. Sweet Daze Dessert Bar is tucked in the back of a shopping center at Campbell Road and Nantucket Drive in Richardson and is Instagram famous for its decorated designer donuts and supremely swirled soft serve. The spot is relatively new, having just opened in mid-July. The prices at Sweet Daze range from $3.25 for a small cup of soft serve to $5.50 for the soft serve with a donut cone, which is soft serve spiraled on a glazed donut. Toppings are 50 cents each. I ordered a variety of gorgeous desserts: black velvet ice cream, galaxy cheesecake, a mermaid donut, fruity pebbles cake and cinnamon toast crunch ice cream on top of a glazed donut. Other options on their menu include unicorn and s’mores designer donuts and fruity pebbles and mango pineapple artisanal soft serve. They also offer certain cakes and pies for limited times, like cookies and cream tres leches cake and cutie pie, a pink, purple and blue white chocolate flavored mousse pie topped with rainbow sprinkles and hearts. My favorite was the cheesecake. The outside is blue, pink and black glazed, speckled with white dots and stars, but the galaxy effect did not stop there. The actual cheesecake was black with neon blue, pink and purple spots. It tasted light and airy with the appropriate amount of sweetness. Another favorite was the black velvet ice cream. Although it did not taste exactly like the advertised red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, the soft serve was sweet without being too sugary. While they do warn you before ordering, I was surprised that the ice cream actually turned my teeth black. Even the rest of my mouth was a shade darker. I would not recommend eating it right before an event, date or photo op. When my family and I arrived at 2:30 p.m. on a Saturday, there was only a group of girls at a table, but by the time that we left at 2:45, all of the tables were full. Some people even had to stand, leading me to wonder how busy it would be after dinner. The atmosphere of the new, hip place is completed with retro decorations, which includes a neon pink sign that reads “Sweet Daze Ahead” and rose gold accents throughout the shop. The decor complements the decorated donuts displayed in a large countertop . But while the place excels in flavor and decor it drags in comfort and service. The round tables shook vigorously at the slightest weight shift and when we tried another table, it shook as well. When we ordered, the cashier was not eagerly helpful. She offered minimal guidance and knowledge about the products, and she did not provide as much energy as I had expected from a venue of this type. The location is difficult to find. It was the second to last shop on a strip of shops perpendicular to the streets and had no signage near the street to let us know it was there. We had to turn around before we could spot the small sign on the building. Despite a little difficulty ordering, the food does not lie. Sweet Daze sells instagrammable and delectable food that would please any food blogger or sweet tooth. It is here to stay. Kate Woodhouse | Photo & Graphics Editor

DECEMBER 14, 2017 | THE FOURCAST

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

PHOTO PROVIDED BY MEGHAN JAIN

AND IN

THE POP CULTURE

WORLD

Bachelor Cast Announced The Bachelor is revving up once again for its 22nd season, introducing male lead Arie Luyendyk Jr., who has already graced our screens during season 18 of the Bachelorette. Although leaving heart-broken once before, he hopes to find a second shot at love this upcoming season. Set to air on Jan. 1, this also season features three contestants all from Dallas.

The Making of a Musical

A Look Into How the Fine Arts Department Chooses a Winter Production

On May 10, an email was sent out to the chooses that specific musical. “I never knew how they chose the musicommunity that announced that “The Drowsy Chaperone” was the selection for the 2017- cal,” Muscato said, “I always assumed they drew 2018 musical. The show was written to be a it out of a hat or something.” According to Performing Arts Chair and parody of the American musicals of the 1920s. “We choose musicals based on what will Dance teacher Beth Wortley, five Fine Arts stretch our students without overwhelming faculty members get together every spring to them,’’ drama teacher Emily Gray said. “Wheth- decide on the following years performance seer it’s for dance, singing, or acting, we want to lections: choirs and music teacher Bonnie Jean offer roles to our student that will let them go Coleman, dance teacher Christie Sullivan, techfurther than what they had gone before but nical director and auditorium manager Robert Kallos, Wortley and Gray. In they will still be able to sucaddition, Fine Arts accomceed at.” panist Bob Snook often sits The musical anin on these meetings. nouncement brought exTHEPURPOSE “Mr. Snook helps with citement amongst the stuall of the tech crew stuff,” dents. For senior Allison Wortley commented. Daniels, it brought back Gray refers to Snook good memories. as the “tech guy.” His input “I am really happy, is always highly regarded personally this is one of my in the meetings, as he is favorite shows” Daniels said. the one who takes into con“At my old middle school, sideration the opportunities ‘The Drowsy Chaperone’ was the tech crew will get. the first musical they put on When the six faculty and now it kind of went into members get together to a full circle because it was decide on the musical, the our students without the first musical I did and first thing they do is pitch now it is the last one.” overwhelming them. ideas of which musicals But others wondered would be appropriate to why such an old-timish muperform. From there, they sical was picked compared ED LONG Promise House Exec. Asst. assess the talent and particto the more contemporary ipation of the students for and well-known musical the year and the number of “Beauty in the Beast” that props and costumes the musical will require. Hockaday performed last year. Ultimately, this musical selection initiated Once this is done, they decide on which musia variety of questions about the annual musical cal pitched will fit best in each of these aspects. But Wortley said that there is no set criteand play selections. Junior Megan Muscato for example, wondered about how the musical is ria for choosing the musical. However, they look chosen each year and why the Fine Arts faculty for a musical different in style and language

WE CHOOSE MUSICALS BASED ON WHAT WILL STRETCH

HAVE A LAUGH!

COOKIE BANDIT Elise Nguyen | Staff Artist

LIGHTS! CAMERA! ACTION! | Performing Arts Chair and Dance teacher Beth Wortley choreographs a musical number for “The Drowsy Chaperone” with Sophomore Lily Forbes and various other cast members.

than the musical produced the previous year. A musical’s educational impact on the students is also important when making the selections. For example, they see it as an opportunity to showcase the architecture, artwork, clothing and vernacular was at the time the play is set. The six faculty members also have to consider the all-girl aspect of the school. “I’m always on the lookout for shows that either have women heavy cast or with characters that can be changed to female or characters that are gender neutral,” Gray explains, “for example, I knew in Beauty in the Beast I could change many of the characters, like Chip and Lafeu, to girls without too much confusion.” The cost of producing the play or musical is not necessarily a deterrent in the selections. “The budget we are given is the same no matter what show we use. Last year we spent a lot of money on the musical [‘Beauty and the Beast’], but we also made a lot of money because every show was sold out,” Gray said. “While Beauty and the Beast was fairly expensive, we sold out all five showings which made up for the cost.” Other Dallas schools’ musical productions aren’t considered when making the selections. While Gray does talk to musical instructors from other schools at the Theater Education of Texas Conference each year to get ideas on how plays went for their schools, none of the faculty members who take part in selecting the musicals call other schools for the sole purpose of discovering which musical they have decided on for the year. The Upper School musical, the Drowsy Chaperone, will be featured on Friday, Feb. 9 at 7 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 10 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 11 at 2 p.m.

Ashlye Dullye | Staff Writer

Jelena Resurrected Nearly three years after calling it quits on their relationship, Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez have rekindled their timeless flame. The two have officially started dating again after her split from The Weeknd. Sightings of the two together were reported as early as Oct., just days before the official announcement of her split from The Weekend. Their history dates back to 2011, when they dated off-and-on for three years before splitting in 2014. Their recent activity has Jelena supporters wondering if this relationship will last, or eventually fizzle out as it has before. The Crown Due to our fascination with the British Royal family and longing to know what goes on behind their closed doors, season one of The Crown garnered rave reviews from high school students to middle-aged moms alike. Because of its popularity, producers decided to continue Queen Elizabeth’s story with a second season, released on Dec. 8, as well as securing a future season three. Rest assured that season two lives up to the expectations of season one—with just enough juicy drama to keep its viewers hooked for yet another historical journey. Royal Engagement Nov. 27 was an exciting day in the Royal household— the engagement of Prince Harry and American actress Meghan Markle was officially announced. After dating for nearly 16 months, the wedding is set to take place in May of 2018 at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, giving them six months to plan. The Prince supposedly picked the wedding date to honor his grandfather, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, as the two have a very strong relationship. Additionally, the Prince reportedly does not want a large-scale, grand wedding, but instead a smaller, more intimate one. As a child he spent the majority of his time at Windsor Castle, giving insight as to why he choose that location for the wedding.

HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG

THE FOURCAST | DECEMBER 14, 2017

arts + life

er The Fo u il ck

st rca

PHOTOS BY ELIANA GOODMAN

City

TEX-MAS CHEER

With holiday break approaching, it’s time to whip our mittens, scarves and fuzzy socks out of storage. Despite Texas’s unruly dry and warm weather, Dallas perseveres with its holiday spirit, providing tourists and locals alike with a full itinerary of Christmas activities. For example, the Dallas Arboretum features an annual Twelve Days of Christmas exhibit, a walk-through display lined with lit trees. The Salvation Army, which has served the community with its Angel Tree program since 1984, is always searching for holiday donations and volunteers. The holiday options range from ice skating to ugly sweater shopping, so don’t forget to celebrate with bright cheer!

The Great Skate: Galleria Dallas 13350 Dallas Parkway

Cheer and Charity: Salvation Army 5554 Harry Hines Blvd.

A Partridge and a lot of Trees: Dallas Arboretum 8525 Garland Road

Shopping & Sleigh Rides: Highland Park Village 47 Highland Park Village

Cocoa and Cake: Celebrity Café & Bakery 10720 Preston Road #1016

Keeping Christmas Cozy:

Ugly Christmas Sweater Shop 5331 E. Mockingbird Lane #175

THE FOURCAST | THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL | IN FOCUS

HARVEY HITS THE NATION

And they keep falling like dominoes TIME MAGAZINE ANNOUNCED THEIR 2017 PERSON OF THE YEAR ON DEC. 6: “SILENCE BREAKERS.” IT HONORS THOSE CELEBRITIES AND PUBLIC FIGURES WHO TOOK A STAND AGAINST THEIR ABUSERS WHEN NO ONE WOULD, RIDING OFF THE #METOO REVOLUTION. THESE MEN AND WOMEN SHARE A SIMILAR STORY OF LIBERATION, DOUBT AND PAIN, AS THEY TESTIFY AGAINST THEIR ABUSERS AFTER MANY YEARS OF SILENCE.

STORY BY EMILY FULLER AND PAIGE HALVERSON ILLUSTRATIONS BY EMILY BASCHAB

HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG | DECEMBER 14, 2017

THE FOURCAST | THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

n the past 11 weeks since the bombshell article for the New York Times on Oct. 5 hit, revealing Harvey Weinstein’s past of sexual assaulting many women throughout his illustrious career, many allegations against former movie producer hit the headlines. Dozens of men in the spotlight have been outed since, for various forms of sexual misconduct and the list keeps growing every day. Some celebrity silence breakers include Taylor Swift, Ashley Judd, Wendy Walsh, Megyn Kelly and Isabel Pascual. These victims are from fields such as government, sports, journalism, the business world, medicine, and many more. The United States Department of Justice estimates that of 63 percent of sexual assaults are never reported to the police because of the scrutiny and barriers victims encounter if they do come forward. However, in wake of Weinstein’s allegations, women across the world are taking this risk in spite of the inevitable backlash and doubt. Republican Senator Roy Moore, actor Kevin Spacey, former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, comedian Louis C.K., former Today Show host Matt Lauer and journalist Charlie Rose are just a few of the men whose secrets have been exposed and careers destroyed in the last two months. CNN describes this as “The Weinstein Effect.” Upper School History Teacher Tracy Walder sees the movement starting with Weinstein as well. “I would say you had this one person really open the floodgates. It seems like there is a new scandal every day now,” Walder said. But sexual assault is not just a problem with the high and mighty, such as politicians and celebrities, in today’s society. “Sexual assault cannot just be a topic when you can sensationalize it. One of the downfalls of this movement is that from a lot of men, and women too, it has been ‘celebrities do bad things’,” senior Maye McPhail, a former fan of the disgraced Dallas Clayton said. “I haven’t been made into an acknowledgment that it is all men, even the ones I know and believed to be good people do bad things.” THE FACTS OF THE MATTER In such a progressive climate, women still have different reasons that prevent them from coming out with their experiences. “People get worried about what the ramifications for them are going to be. You know we have Trump who theoretically talked about sexual assaulting a woman and we still voted him president,” Walder said. “I guess our society finds that acceptable or they are willing to look past it.” Women face losing their jobs, destroying relationships and receiving harsh social stigma, if they come forward with their allegations. This allows their abusers to continue their behavior for years and even decades later. Associate Professor of Sociology at Southern Methodist University Anne Lincoln speaks to this. “There is plenty of social stigma when women come out,” Lincoln said. “People jump on them and question their credibility.” As well as the potential outcomes women face, many see their situation as “boys being boys” or an inevitable consequence of their job. “No one should have to face that. It is not part of the job. That is ridiculous,” Walder said. Sexual assault, harassment and misconduct are a prominent part of rape culture, ingrained into society through years of sexism in the workplace. Sexual assault and the outpour of allegations is not a single watershed moment. “This issue is like a tapestry that has played out for a long time,” Lincoln said. “[There is] a culture where men can treat women poorly.” Many times, women are not believed in a court setting, hindering more victims from reporting their allegations. In an interview with the New York Times on Nov. 30, Kimberly A. Lonsway, the research director of End Violence Against Women International, said “The public and the police vastly overestimate the incidence of false reports: the most solid, case-by-case examinations say that only five to seven percent of sexual assault reports are false.” According to journalist Shaila Dewan’s article in the New York Times about the reasons why people doubt sexual assault victims, the most common reasons in court setting range from a foggy memory of the incident, usually a result of alcohol or drugs, to the victim remaining friends with his or her abuser. Especially in the entertainment industry and the allegations against Harvey Weinstein earlier last month, many women who accused him of sexual assault remained in contact with him long after their abusive events. “Victims think that it was their fault, so in many cases they want continued contact,” said Roderick MacLeish, a Boston lawyer who has represented hundreds of victims of abuse by Catholic priests and schoolteachers, in an interview with the New York Times. In many cases as well, the women have no choice but to remain in a friendly relationship with their abusers, such as instances relating to bosses and family members. Many women also don’t come forward right away, which can spark doubt in a court setting. Leigh Corfman, a victim of sexual assault at 14, did not come forwards with her allegations against Roy Moore, an Alabama Republican candidate for the Senate, for over four decades. Afraid of the ramifications and how it would affect her family, Corfman eventually admitted to The Washington Post that not coming out against Moore “has cost me.” While some women wait for the most opportune time to come out with their stories, some victims don’t even understand that what happened to them was a violation until years after. This is usually related to a close relationships with their abuser, such as a family member or a friend. Confusion and self-blame are common with some victims. Scott Berkowitz, president of RAINN, or the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, said in a November 30th interview with The New York Times, “A lot of people who call the national hotline, one of the first questions they ask is, ‘Was I raped?’” Many abusers use manipulation and shame to prevent their victims from coming forward. By accusing the women, and in some cases men, that their consent was present and disguising their actions with humour or sarcasm, some women don’t know where to draw the line between sexual misconduct and normal office behavior. Lincoln feels that coming forward is a critical thing. “You shouldn’t speak up unless you want to, but people should encourage you to come forward. It is great that they are feeling comfortable now because they didn’t feel comfortable for a long time,” Lincoln said. “There is strength in numbers. It’s just critical math that if more people come forward it is better.” RIPPLING AROUND THE WORLD Across the globe, women are responding to this new development of solidarity against sexual assault perpetrators. According to the United Nations, 35 percent of women globally have experienced physical or sexual violence and 120 million girls have experienced forced sex or other acts. With staggering statistics like these, one can see the extent of this problems, reaching far beyond j u s t the United States. All around the world, women are also using the #MeToo hashtag to bring this previously taboo topic into conversation. According to Twitter, in the first week of this movement, 1.2 million people, 300 thousand of them being men, tweeted, sharing their experiences of sexual assault or sexual harassment. In Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Canada and the United States, the hashtag has appeared on Twitter the most. France has made it its own by tweeting #BalanceTonPorc, or #NameYourPig. This open discussion of a previously hushed top-

HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG | DECEMBER 14, 2017

ic led to widescale demonstrations in Paris and across France on Oct. 29. Additionally, individuals in Spain and Latin America are using #YoTambien to unify their voices. HITTING HOME After she followed and interacted with children’s book author and well-known artist Dallas Clayton via instagram since 2015, senior Maye McPhail has become a fan of his art as well as the message it promotes. When he announced he would be embarking on a national mural tour, sponsored by Instagram’s ‘Kind Comments Campaign’, and coming to Dallas to paint in Deep Ellum on Sept. 29, he invited his fans to come paint with him. “When I met him I thought he was totally wonderful. His whole little schtick was getting to know you very well right at first I guess,” McPhail said. “While we painted we talked about my poetry and ambitions. He was really encouraging and I honestly thought he was wonderful. He definitely fit the personality of his art. There was no red flags. We gave each other hugs and took pictures.” However, Dawn Batson, a former friend of Clayton’s, has claimed to have heard from several other Clayton victims, many of whom are afraid to speak publicly for fear of reprisal, according to The New York Post and Buzzfeed. Batson told several friends about the alleged rape in the days and months following the attack, but decided to speak publicly and file a police report, amid the current cultural phenomenon of sexual assault and harassment victims speaking out, she told BuzzFeed. As a result, many articles painting Clayton in a positive light include Editor’s notes about the allegations and redact any affiliation with him. On the other hand, the shoe company Vans has discontinued Clayton’s sneakers he designed for the company and many of Clayton’s murals across the country have been removed within days of the allegations. While only weeks before she was being interviewed for his documentary, once-fan McPhail has been a player in dismantling his career. After first hearing about the allegations and confirming her belief in them through gathering all the information, McPhail felt a sense of duty. She had brought friends to the mural painting, posted about him positively on her Instagram and spoken highly of him to many of her friends “I couldn’t excuse myself from speaking out against him. I had just been a big supporter of his, so that just left me thinking what kind of person would I be if I didn’t support these women coming out against him as strongly as I supported him,” McPhail said. “I knew that I helped put that mural up and I would help take that mural down.” Immediately, McPhail emailed the real estate company owning property rights to the wall, and within two hours, she received an email that the wall was to be painted over within the next two days. She also got her friends in Washington D.C. and Chicago to call companies that owned the walls his art was displayed on in these cities and asked them to paint over it. “It is really eye-opening to realize that the problem is much more widespread. It makes me realize it is less of a cultural thing and more of a bad people thing,” McPhail said. “I met Dallas Clayton, and he does not fit the stereotype of a bad guy. He has good things about him for sure and I still really appreciate all his art has done for me over the years, so it has forced be to reckon those two ideas.” WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT MISCONDUCT With sexual misconduct so rampant with men and women in high positions of power, a connection between power and assault has naturally been drawn. According to Daniel Goleman with The New York Times, when looking at sexual harassment in a professional setting, research has found that men and women are looking for power over their victims, rather than lust or sexual satisfaction. It is a way to keep women “in their place.” Dr. John Gottman, a psychologist at the University of Washington, said in an interview with The New York Times in 1991, “harassment is a way for a man to make a woman vulnerable.” Sometime being seen as the abuser’s romantic awkwardness or social ineptness, these instances are completely the antithesis. These interactions are an assertion of power. “If there is a position of power, people will always try to contract sexual concessions,” SMU’s Professor Lincoln said. Used as a tactic to control or frighten women, most sexual harassment cases are seen in workplaces where the victims are new to the environment, the minority or whose job is traditionally held by men. A study of 100 women completed in 1989 at a U.S. factory, found that those women who hold positions that are seen as “masculine,” such as mechanics, where sexually harassed a substantial percent more than the women who worked the assembly line, a job characterized as “women’s work.” “Men see women as invading a masculine environment,” Dr. Louise Fitzgerald, a researcher for the experiment said. “These are guys whose sexual harassment has nothing whatever to do with sex. They’re trying to scare women off a male preserve.” Usually, men from blue-collar settings with lower than a high school education find crude ways to assert their dominance, sometimes placing sexual items in a women’s desk. On the other hand, those in a more corporate setting find more subtle ways to show their dominance over women, such as curt comments on their appearance or slipping sexual innuendos in daily conversation. While it is mostly men the ones who assert their dominance over their female co-workers, men themselves are also the victims of sexual misconduct in the workplace, although generally less researched. But men and women sometimes have different definitions of sexual misconduct as revealed in a phone interview of 1,000 men and women conducted in Los Angeles, Dr. Barbara Gutek, a psychologist at the Eller College of Management. The survey found that 67 percent of men said they would be complimented if they were propositioned by a woman at work compared to 17 percent of women who said they would be complemented. This can be a result of poor education or a denial concept in habitual abusers. McPhail now realizes the magnitude of this issue. “Months ago I was ready to say – ‘wow’ – Hollywood has a problem. Seeing this though made me realize that all industries have a problem with rape and sexual assault,” McPhail said. HOW TO PREVENT IT In such a time period, with sexual misconduct rampant in the workplace, talking to your friends, child, parents or staff about sexual harassment or assault is pertinent. According to an article with Stop it Now, an organization started to prevent child sexual abuse, when talking to your children or siblings about the subject, you should use concrete examples, talk about healthy boundaries and be approachable. Another key factor, according to the same article, is defining the types of sexual misconduct, whether it is verbal harassment, cyber harassment, physical harassment, nonverbal harassment and/or unwanted behavior. But it is also important to mention and explain the different forms of love found in healthy relationships. As well as having this discussion in the household, Tracy Walder | Upper School History Teacher it is just as important in the workplace between employers and employees. This is not the only duty that the employer should follow, though. In an article for The Balance, Susan M. Heathfield, a human resources expert who has written extensively about creating forward-thinking workplaces, said addressing sexual misconduct in the workplace, the employer should make it clear that this is a workplace where harassment will not be tolerated. As well as defining the term as a whole, they should provide education and information about harassment to all staff on a regular basis. If anything were to occur in the workplace, they should promptly investigate and deal with all complaints of harassment appropriately discipline employees who harass other employees and provide protection and support for the employees who feel they are being harassed. As well as the responsibility of the employer, the employee should also follow steps such as, understanding the definition, observing for possible threats, confronting those who do not follow the policy guidelines and supporting those who have been effected. “It sucks that it is a women’s movement and it sucks that it is perceived as a liberal movement. It affects both parties. It affects all genders,” McPhail said. “ It is not something you can peg on other people. It’s not just those old guys it Hollywood. It’s young, positive, millennial artists, it’s not just boys in frats, its people everywhere.”

“No one should have to face that. It is not part of the job.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted or experienced sexual misconduct call 800.656.HOPE (800.656.4673) or go to rainn.org for more information.

DECEMBER 14, 2017 | THE FOURCAST

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

16 st ca

The Fo s ur e ur

Jingle Bell Mistletoe: Sixth grader Stella Wrubel creates mistletoe to donate funds to the North Texas Food Bank P.16

Faces and Places: Inside long-standing community service opportunities and traditions that Hockaday students partake in. P.17 A LOOK INTO A TYPICAL DAY OF RECEPTIONIST ELSA LUNA. P.18

Mistletoe Sales Spread Holiday Cheer Bundles of mistletoe in varying sizes adorned with bells and bows of ribbon cover the Wrubel family’s garage. Sixth grader Stella Wrubel works with her family as they shape and decorate the mistletoe for retail. Going out to one of their stands on Dec.15 in Highland Park Village for the sixth year, Wrubel and her family hope to reach their $60,000 goal to donate to the North Texas Food Bank. By Amelia Brown | Sports & Health Editor Determined to make an impact, Wrubel founded Jingle Bell Mistletoe when she was in the first grade. Wrubel realized the devastating damage of Hurricane Sandy and felt inclined to help in any way she could. “I wanted to make a difference and help those affected by Hurricane Sandy,” Wrubel said. “I sent my proceeds to The Red Cross of New York the first year of Jingle Bell Mistletoe.” However, Wrubel did not take on this project alone. By recruiting three of her close friends and her family’s help, Wrubel has had success in her business by splitting up the important tasks. “I may have been the founder but [my friends and family] have really kept it going,” Wrubel said. “We are all really committed, and I couldn’t still be doing this if it wasn’t for their help and support.” One of Wrubel’s friends and a sixth grader at the Greenhill School, Quinn Graves, has taken on the roles of vice president and creative director, designing artwork for their website, flyers and tags. Graves appreciates being a part of the team due to his strong belief in the project’s purpose. “I believe this work is important because of all the people that it is helping to feed,” Graves said. And Wrubel’s family has also contributed to this project. Her grandparents each hold roles: her grandpa Stuart Reeves is in charge of the mistletoe acquisition and her grandma Jennie Reeves leads the belling and bowing of the mistletoe. Stuart Reeves’ job consists of directing and aiding those collecting mistletoe out on their country ranch. Jennie Reeves helps sort the mistletoe by size, marking them with the ribbon color corresponding to their cost. “It has been a nice thing for our family because it has made the Christmas focus more about sharing and doing something good, taking the emphasis off of the gifts,” Jennie Reeves said. With this collective effort, something that began as a small scale operation of selling mistletoe in the front yard has grown into an official business, raising thousands of dollars every year through stands at the Highland Park Village. “We sell [the mistletoe] at stands in Highland Park Village like lemonade stands but instead of selling lemonade we sell mistletoe,” Wrubel said. After the third year of the project, the team decided to donate the money to The North Texas Food Bank for the work they do and to support a cause closer to home. “As the project grew, Stella’s ideas grew and the focus changed to local to the North Texas Food Bank,” Jennie said. Wrubel is confident that they can reach this year’s goal with fundraising through corporate matches and charity SoulCycle spin rides. The mistletoe team also hopes to eventually have one mistletoe stand in all of the 13 counties that The North Texas Food Bank serves. “We want to expand, which is something that every business wants to do,” Wrubel said. “In this case, the bigger, the better and the more money means the more people that are fed.” Wrubel’s nonprofit advertises through televised news stations, newspapers, the radio, social media and friends at school, and

It has been a nice thing for our family because it has made the Christmas focus more about sharing and doing something good, taking the emphasis off of the gifts. Jennie Reeves Volunteer for Jingle Bell Mistletoe and Grandmother of Stella Wrubel

Wrubel hopes for the project to continue to grow and touch more lives. She experienced impact of the project firsthand when she went to Hodgkins Elementary, a school in the Dallas Independent School District that participates in The North Texas Food Bank backpack program. This program provides kids with a bag of nonperishable food to take home to their family over the weekend. “The most powerful experience I think I had was when I got to go to Hodgkins Elementary and met the children I was helping and give them their food,” Wrubel said. “They were so polite, they would look at us and really truly mean it when they said ‘thank you so much you are feeding my family.’” Lucy Wrubel, Stella Wrubel’s mom, sees this project as a family tradition that has transformed their holiday season for the better. “We just found ourselves in front yard selling mistletoe and something magical happened where all the sudden we didn’t care so much about what was under the tree. We were just all together decorating mistletoe,” Lucy Wrubel said. “It changed the holidays that year. The next year we did it again. It has continued to be now what the holidays mean to me.”

PHOTO PROVIDED BY STELLA WRUBEL

Middle Schoolers Make a Difference

Fea t

COMMUTE

P.19

IT’S A LONG

STORY

An integral member of the Hockaday faculty since 1970, Ed Long has become part of the identity of the school itself. Few members of the community are unfamiliar with Long’s contributions to campus, including his development of the History of Art and Music course as well as his leadership of the Upper School orchestra. However, during his 47-yearlong tenure, Long has accomplished far more than most students know. In his last year before retirement, The Fourcast shares some of Long’s stories each issue. This issue, The Fourcast is giving readers a glimpse of what life at Hockaday was like when Long first arrived.

BACK IN THE DAY | Long is pictured here in Cornerstones’ 1972 volume when he taught monuments of culture.

When Long first came to Hockaday in 1970, teachers hand-wrote grades on cards and passed the cards to whoever had the next section of the same course. The grades were then retyped by a secretary. Class scheduling also differed from today—a student would write out a list of courses that she wanted to take during the next year. Cards with these requests would be punched with holes around the side. Then, huge knitting needles would be slid through all of the cards to hold them.

2 3

At this time, there were no copy machines or computers. “The big advent was called the selectric typewriter, which was the IBM typewriter that had a golf-ball element,” Long said. “It could backspace, which was unknown at the time.” Otherwise, white-out tape served as the familiar backspace key. Hockaday was the first school in Dallas to be air-conditioned. On the maintenance note, Long’s opinion, the maintenance building with coolers and handlers would be an ideal place to shoot a movie or a J-scene because most members of the Hockaday community have never laid eyes on it. One of the maintenance buildings is named “Coffeehouse,” after Mr. Coffee, who previously ran the maintenance department. The other, larger building near the Child Development Center handles the school’s major machines.

Also, when Long first came to Hockaday, there was an underground bomb shelter, adjacent to the back underside of the pool. It had the required purple-and-gold civil defense sign that said “Please go here in case of nuclear attack.” There were decaying cans of water and food stored in the shelter, and for a while, photos were taken at Commencement with the purple-andgold sign in the background until Long finally took it down in the late 1980s.

THE MISTLECREW | Trevor Godkin, President of Jingle Bell Mistletoe Stella Wrubel, Quinn Graves and Isabella Dickason pose under mistletoe for a promotional photo shoot. Wrubel works alongside these three fellow sixth graders for Jingle Bell Mistletoe.

Hockaday used to have its own bus service; all buses were green. The service was eventually discontinued in favor of a shared ride system between Hockaday, St. Mark’s and Greenhill. This system also phased out in the early 1970s, although several buses remained in service for field trips. The Hockaday faculty even used to chaperone rock concerts using these buses.

HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG

THE FOURCAST | DECEMBER 14, 2017

PHOTOS BY MICHELLE CHEN

features

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The air is filled with the warmth of giving as the holiday season draws near. Every year, students at 11600 Welch Road are presented with countless community service opportunities to extend the spirit of service to the community. Volunteers spread joy to all of Dallas, from animals waiting for adoption to families in need. The annual Gift Drive has been a standing service tradition at Hockaday for about 25 years. The Upper School Community Service Board plans the drive and organizes the Hockaday community in an effort to purchase gifts for children in need. A staple of the Drive is the morning carpool advertisement. During the month of December, it is not unusual to see Director of Service Learning Laura Day and members of the Community Service Board wearing festive outfits and holding up cheerful signs advertising the Gift Drive. “The holiday times isn’t about anything but being helpful to other people. That’s what I feel motivated or called to do in general in life,” Day said. “In the holiday season, it gets louder and feels bigger.” Every year, after Hockaday students purchase the gifts, members of the Upper School Community Service Board and anyone who expresses interest dress up as Santa Claus and personally deliver the gifts to the children at the T.R. Hoover Community Development Corporation, a Dallas low-income housing program, and the Pebbles Apartment Complex, where many homeless families settle for housing. Upper School Community Service Board Chair and senior Shreya Gunukula is a summer camp director at T.R. Hoover and works closely with the organization. She will also participate in the delivery of gifts from the Gift Drive. “Christmas and the holidays in general are supposed to be a really happy time for families, but for people that are living in lower income situations, that isn’t always the case. To give them that happiness is a really special thing,” Gunukula said. Student volunteers attend the Central Market’s Feast of Sharing every year. This year, all residence students also enthusiastically attended the event. On Nov. 9, these students helped serve meals to the homeless and volunteered in events such as face painting in Centennial Hall at Fair Park in Dallas. Apart from school-organized service events, x2VOL, a service tracking platform used by Hockaday, also outlines many service opportunities. Homeless pets wait to be adopted at the Galleria in Dallas. The Operation Kindness Holiday Pet Adoption, which takes place from Nov. 17 to Dec. 31, hosts dog and cat adoption at the mall this season. Operation Kindness, a North Texan no-kill animal shelter, offers many ways to get involved in their event, including pet adoption, volunteer work, and donation. Meanwhile, amidst the bustling crowds at NorthPark Center, volunteers in red aprons that read “Doing the Most Good” help advertise for the Salvation Army Angel Tree Program, a tradition since 1979. The program sets up “angel trees” at Galleria Dallas and Northpark Center every holiday season. These trees are decorated with tags that feature gift requests of children in need. Any shopper that walks by can take a tag and give to the community. Senior Kate Fundis has been volunteering at Angel Tree for the past two years. She believes that Angel Tree is an unique way to affect the community directly. “One of my friends was one of the ‘angels’ and she said it was really special for her. That made me really happy and I think the gifts definitely are very appreciated,” Fundis said. When Fundis volunteers at Angel Tree, she is able to picture the specific ‘angels’ that are on the tags. The personal touch sparked by this opportunity is something that Fundis especially treasures. “There really is nothing more special than giving a kid a great Christmas,” Fundis said.

HOCKADAY COMMUNITY GIVES BACK. 05 PHOTO BY MASHA BARSUK

01. At NorthPark Center and Galleria Dallas, these large festive trees hang “angel” tags with children’s gift requests on them for the Angel Tree Program. 02. Community Service Board members and juniors Grace Laber and Annie Sheeder pose next to their Winter Olympics themed Scottish Rite tree that was placed in the children’s ward at the hospital. 03. On a chilly December morning, senior Claire Marucci, Community Service Board Chair Shreya Gunukula and senior Ellie Newman advertise the annual Gift Drive while “Jingle Bells” plays in the background. Every year, advisories purchase gifts for children around the Dallas community. 04. A dog sits in his kennel at the Galleria as he waits to be adopted from a passing family at the Operation Kindness adoption event. 05. Residence students travelled to Centennial Hall on Thursday, Nov. 9 to volunteer at Feast of Sharing instead of the annual boarding dinner.

Michelle Chen | Staff Writer

DECEMBER 14, 2017 | THE FOURCAST

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

A Day in the Life of

Elsa Luna

Have you ever wondered who is behind the voice that answers phone calls for Hockaday? Were you ever curious about how visitors are registered? Or, have you ever asked who takes care of receiving all the packages mailed to the campus? The Fourcast shadowed Elsa Luna, the Hockaday receptionist, to look into these mysteries.

Rise & Grind!

+ 7:30 A.M.

Ring, ring!!

EARLY ARRIVAL | Luna walks into Hoak Portico and starts her day by listening to the debrief from the night shifts security guards and checking over what happened during the evening. She then makes sure the monitoring system is functioning perfectly and nothing aberrant happened. Luna sits on her seat behind the monitors and gets prepared to operate the control center of our campus.

7:45 A.M. ANSWERING CALLS | The phone starts to ring. As the receptionist, Luna answers all the phone calls and either provides the caller with answers they need or redirects them to the correct department. In order to not miss any of the important information, she has to pay full attention to the numerous of phone calls related to different topics. Not to mention, sometimes there are over 100 phone calls per day especially when important events are going on.

12:10 P.M. WATCHING OVER | Besides signing for packages and answering phone calls, keeping a watchful eye over the various groups in Hoak, ranging from Upper Schoolers to visiting students. Today, a few prospective girls from fourth grade wait nervously in Hoak Portico for their admissions’ interviews.

4:00 P.M. NO BREAKS | Luna ends her day and hands over her duties to the night shift security, and then heads back home where she spends her time relaxing after a long day at work.

8:30 A.M. STAY ORGANIZED | When a parent rushed into Hoak Portico carrying her daughter’s PE bag for afternoon practice, Luna helped her with putting and storing the bag on the counters located on the left side of Hoak. Often filled with bags, gifts or books waiting to be picked up, Hoak is typically used by many students as the place to pick up or drop off things, making it Luna’s responsibility to keep the community’s essential items organized.

11:30 A.M.

Goodbye!

FUEL UP | Lunch time! Luna takes a short break with a plate of nachos and beef tacos. She then goes for a short walk around campus to relieve some stress and recharge herself for the afternoon’s duties.

Afternoon fuel 9:00 A.M. WELCOME TO HOCKADAY | A few visiting students arrived at Hoak and signed in with Luna. Keeping the records of all the visitors to campus is also an integral part of Luna’s daily duties. Usually the first person whom the visitors meet, Luna always welcomes the visitors with a polite and professional attitude, patiently guiding them through the process of registering.

10:00 A.M.

PHOTOS BY EMILY WU

PICKING UP MAIL | Packages start to arrive. It is very common for boarders and faculty to mail their online orders to campus. The amounts of packages have recently increased because of Black Friday and the holiday season. Once she signs and ensures that the packages are all received, Luna sends them to the mail room where Arturo Martinez will distribute the packages around campus.

Emily Wu | Staff Writer

HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG

THE FOURCAST | DECEMBER 14, 2017

ILLUSTRATION BY CHRISTINE JI

features

Long Commute(nity) The Fourcast examines the lives of students who have commutes of an hour or longer to and from Hockaday.

Senior Aryn Thomas rolls over in her bed, course of one month, Thomas will drive a total glances at the time, which reads 6:40 a.m. of 1120 miles to and from school and will spend Knowing she should already be on the road about 2400 minutes in her car. She usually driving to school, she jumps out of bed and listens to music during her drive. Other students have long commutes as well. rushes through her morning routine hoping Sophomore Gina Miele lives she can still miss the heavy in Forney, a one-hour drive morning traffic and arrive at from Hockaday. Miele’s family school on time. With regular THEFUTURE consists of two daughters traffic, Thomas’ morning at Hockaday, two sons who commute is approximately one attend Cistercian Preparatory hour long when she leaves at School and another son who 6:30 a.m. graduated from Cistercian and Students like Thomas Dartmouth College. have to learn how to The Miele’s family leaves balance sleep, school and their house around 6:30 a.m. extracurricular activities with since they drop off kids at two hour-long or more commutes you’re going no matter different schools. In one month, to school. But students who live the distance. her family drives about 1640 close to school, on the other miles from their home to both hand, wake up 30 minutes Hockaday and Cistercian and before school starts. BAILEY SAVOIE back home. “You can’t change [the Junior “There’s usually someone long commute] so I just have to singing, someone trying to sleep and someone make it work,” Thomas said. Before Thomas drove herself to school, trying to do homework or study,” Miele said. she used to take the city bus and nap during “Somehow we all find a way to do what we need the ride to school. She lives in Cedar Hill, which to do and still have fun with each other.” However, weather conditions, traffic jams or is south west of Hockaday, and her commute from home to school is about 28 miles. Over the construction have resulted in a longer drive for

FOR ME, IT WAS IF YOU GET INTO HOCKADAY,

Miele in the past. Miele’s longest car ride lasted a little bit over two hours. She left school on time at 6:30 a.m. and didn’t arrive to school until 8:40 a.m. In this particular situation, a heavy rainstorm and multiple accidents on their route delayed Miele’s family. “I texted a friend who was in my first period class to tell my teacher why I was running late, and the teacher was completely fine with [the situation],” Miele said. “Any time I’m running late, I usually ask a friend to tell my teacher about the situation, and they’re always really understanding about it.” Lengthy periods riding in the car to and from school have helped Miele better manage her time. She takes advantage of the situation, and sometimes spends the time in the car getting ahead on homework or catching up on some extra sleep. Most students have the ability to return to school in the afternoon to grab a textbook or study materials that they forgot before they went home, however, students with long commutes are not always as fortunate. “The block scheduling at Hockaday really helps me if I ever forget something from school,” Miele said. “Sometimes my parents do drive me back to school to pick up something I left that I really needed.” Since Miele plays sports and participates in the musical, she generally arrives home at around 7:30 p.m. While Miele is at practice, her father picks up her brothers from Cistercian and takes them to a library as they wait for Miele. However, Carol Miele, Gina’s mother, didn’t consider the lengthy distance as a critical factor in the final decision for her daughter to apply

to Hockaday. “Both girls were asking for a more challenging academic setting and after reviewing our options, it became clear that Hockaday was, by far, the best choice for our family,” Carol said. “All five of our children realize the commitment that we have made to their education and have been very appreciative to have this opportunity.” But Thomas and Miele are not the only long distance commuters. Junior Bailey Savoie, who lives in North Lake, is another student who drives at least an hour to come to school and she is sometimes late. “You may get on the road at 7 a.m., but you never really know what the traffic is going to be like on that day,” Savoie said. But the family is planning for the future. They have decided to get an apartment closer to Hockaday for her senior year so she can be more involved at school and avoid missing important senior events. Besides academics, the long commute makes it difficult to participate in events after school or spend time with friends. “If I want to do something with friends, I have to plan it like two days in advance,” Miele said. “I can’t ever just ask them to come over.” For Savoie, she often can’t have friends over because the friends usually don’t want to drive the distance to her house and back home. “For me, it was if you get into Hockaday, you’re going no matter the distance,” Savoie said.

Maria Harrison | Features Editor

BOARDER LINE PHOTOS BY MICHELLE CHEN AND MASHA BARSUK

We talked to boarders Alexandria Marshall and Sunny Li, and looked at a traditional event to show our readers a peek inside life in the Residence Department.

SUNNY’S FAVORITE DALLAS SPOT

●●●

Junior Alexandria Marshall is a boarder from Jamaica who joined the Hockaday residence community this year. Although Marshall found it difficult to adjust to the rigorous schedule of a junior at first, she has settled down and adjusted to residence life. Why did you decide to come to Hockaday? My mother was moving from Jamaica to Florida. I didn’t want to go to public school, so I decided to look for boarding schools. I researched top boarding schools in the States and I applied. What does it feel like to come here as a junior? It’s very stressful. It’s just a lot. It’s a really hard transition because it’s more work and the courses are difficult. There are lots of competition because you’re constantly with a bunch of really smart girls. I think I’ve gotten used to it now. What is your favorite thing about boarding so far? I’m always with my friends. We just get to spend time together and if I need help they’re always there. Are you staying in the United States after you graduate? Yes. I plan to go to college in the U.S.A. because colleges in Jamaica weren’t an option for me. There are better educational opportunities here than in Jamaica. What do you miss the most about Jamaica? The culture. The food, really, but the culture overall. It’s just something that I’m used to. It’s very different. I think I experienced a bit of a culture shock. Everything’s just different—socially. I don’t know how to explain it.

A HOCKADAY RESIDENT since eighth grade, junior Sunny Li is a familiar face in the Schmitz Residence Hall. Li is a known Fat Straws Bubble Tea connoisseur who’s always sipping on her favorite large Jasmine Milk Tea with extra tapioca bubbles. She is a part of the Fat Straws FUNatics Loyalty Program and carries her membership card every time she joins a residence trip to the store. “Fat Straws is one of my favorite things in Dallas and it makes life at Hockaday really fun for me,” Li said.

↠

ORNAMENT DEDICATION The senior ornament ceremony is a Hockaday residence department tradition that honors the love and sisterhood of residence students every year. Surrounded by antiques in the Great Hall, juniors dedicated speeches to residents of the graduating class of 2018 and hung ornaments on the Great Hall Christmas tree on Dec. 10. The emotional speeches brought tears to the eyes of many students. This year, senior Tiffany Bai composed a score entitled “Joyful” and performed the piece with fellow residence students during the ceremony. The ceremony was followed by a special holiday dinner in the Biggs Dining Hall. Michelle Chen | Staff Writer

DECEMBER 14, 2017 | THE FOURCAST

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

8 2

Back to the Basics

Vegan

5 11

Meat Lover

CHICKEN FRIED STEAK

MOROCCAN LENTIL SALAD

Gravy tops the chicken fried steak, and the meat is battered in eggs, buttermilk, whole milk and flour before it is fried in vegetable oil. SAGE pairs the steak with steamed green beans and creamy mashed potatoes.

This dish by SAGE is loaded with protein and fiber as its packed with garbanzo beans, diced tomatoes, diced bell peppers, green onions, green chile peppers and the star of the show, dried red lentils.

8 POTATO MEDLEY Sweet potatoes and Yukon gold potatoes make up this potato medley that’s seasoned with olive oil, Southwest seasoning, ground black pepper and salt. The potatoes are slightly crisp on the outside but tender on the inside. It doesn’t get better than that.

STRAWBERRY SPINACH SALAD

CITRUS QUINOA SALAD

ROASTED VEGETABLES

POTATO GNOCCHI WITH SPINACH

SAGE’s strawberry spinach salad contains dried basil, quartered strawberries, green onions, sunflower kernels and chopped spinach. For the vinaigrette, it’s a mixture of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, honey, salt and ground black pepper.

A fan of citrus and fruity dishes? This one is for you. SAGE’s quinoa salad has both pieces and the zest of oranges as well as pomegranate seeds and the juice from lemons and limes. It’s also dressed with olive oil, honey and salt.

Grilled tomatoes, zucchini, red onions and mushroom make up this platter of roasted herb vegetables. Fresh parsley and a tomato rose add the finishing touches.

Oh so fancy! SAGE’s gnocchi gets its flavor from garlic cloves, julienned onions, salt and ground black pepper. The sautéed spinach adds a pop of color and nutrition to the potato dumplings.

HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG

THE FOURCAST | DECEMBER 14, 2017

features

‘t i s the s e as on i ng

Kosher

Gluten Free 14

9 BY AURELIA HAN AND KATIE O'MEARA

Season’s eatings from The Fourcast! While Hockadasies are busy finishing up the year, SAGE is fueling the students: all of these dishes have been enjoyed by students throughout this holiday season. Whether vegan, gluten free, a meat lover, kosher or a sweet tooth, SAGE caters to many diets. From the roasted sweet potato and Yukon gold medley to the maple and mustard glazed pork loin, SAGE makes all dishes from local, fresh ingredients to ensure the quality of the food. However, this table is only a fraction of what SAGE will serve in the weeks prior to the holiday break. Hidden within the cafeteria, the kitchen is a Santa’s workshop as the staff are busy whisking, baking and sautéing away. As they promise variety, balance and moderation, these holiday dishes are delicious yet picture-perfect and healthy. Take our sage advice and indulge in your meals this holiday season. Don’t forget to get seconds (and thirds). We won’t judge. After all, ‘tis the season for friends, family and feasts. 12

GARLIC BREAD SAGE seasons this Italian-day favorite with garlic, dried oregano and fresh chopped parsley.

CREAMY MACARONI & CHEESE Two types of cheese make up this macaroni and cheese: American and cheddar. Breadcrumbs top the pasta before the dish is baked until golden brown.

STEAMED BROCCOLI It’s a simple dish but oh so delicious. This broccoli pairs perfectly with other main course dishes, like the balsamic grilled chicken breast or country fried steak.

16 4

BALSAMIC GRILLED CHICKEN BREAST Balsamic vinegar, olive oil, chopped garlic, salt, chopped fresh rosemary and ground black pepper season boneless skinless chicken breast.

Sweet Tooth

PHOTOS BY KATIE O'MEARA

ROASTED CAULIFLOWER

CHRISTMAS SUGAR COOKIES

Bulgur, the star of this filling grain salad, is a vegetarian’s dream, packing upwards of 10 grams of protein per serving. Packed with succulent, ripe blueberries, salty feta cheese and tangy balsamic dressing, this colorful dish is sure to satisfy everyone at any holiday table.

Don’t let their size fool you—these cherry tomatoes pack a flavor punch. Fresh black pepper and aromatic Italian herbs compliment their slow-roasted sweetness, and the vibrant colors add an essential pop of color to your plate.

15 BROWNIEO’S

A favorite especially among Hockaday students, Brownieo’s contains three decadent layers: a cookie base, a Oreo in the middle, and a brownie on the top. Stomach growling yet? We challenge you to just eat one. Trust us, it’s quite the feat.

16 HOLIDAY SUGAR COOKIES

No holiday table is complete without a plate of holiday cookies. These ones by SAGE are cut into festive shapes, including candy canes, snowflakes, ornaments and pieces of candy. Crystal sprinkles and royal icing add an extra sweetness to the soft sugar cookies.

MAPLE & MUSTARD GLAZED PORK LOIN This might surprise you, but the sweetness of this meat dish comes from pancake syrup! SAGE also uses Dijon mustard, soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, salt and ground black pepper to pack the flavor punch,

DECEMBER 14, 2017 | THE FOURCAST

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

22 ast urc o F

alth The He

The Road to HEF Recovery: A Hockaday Alumna's story of using her own addiction to change the lives of others. P.22

Athletes Hidden in the Hockaday Hallways: Hockaday faculty members recall their past athletic endeavors. P.24

CAPTAIN'S COUNCIL P.23

The Road to HEF Recovery: Alumna Uses Past Addiction to Help Others For Hanna Fobare ’10, strolling through the grocery store on a Friday afternoon can prove to be a complicated process. With watchful eyes and a careful demeanor, she walks side by side with her client through the aisles to make sure they are never left unattended. Hanna accompanies clients to run these kind of errands on a regular basis because she is a substance abuse recovery coach. By Shreya Gunukula | Views Editor

Story continued from the cover At first, this way of life gave her purpose; it was a fun and refreshing contradiction to not only her packed schedule in the past, but also a toxic relationship she was in at the time. As her consumption increased, however, her personality began to change in a negative way. “As everything progressed, I was self medicating [with prescription drugs],” Hanna said. “I was avoiding all human contact and barely eating. I practiced absolutely no self-care. I just wanted to feel numb and escape from reality, and pills did just that.” During the early stages of her addiction, Hanna found it easy to put on a show for her parents and two sisters; she only returned to Dallas during breaks and blamed her schedule for lack of communication during the school year. In hindsight, Hanna’s younger sister Maggie Fobare ’12 recognizes how they drifted apart in a concerning way. “My relationship with my parents strengthened when I got to college and I think they weren’t getting that from Hanna,” Maggie said. “Maybe subconsciously, we didn’t really realize that this was happening; it was an indicator which, unfortunately, we didn’t pick up on” Just months before her college graduation, Hanna’s substance abuse coupled with depression lead to her becoming suicidal. Her parents intervened and brought her home to be checked into Enterhealth, a dual-diagnosis treatment center which cares for both mental health and addiction based illnesses simultaneously. Despite uncovering crucial behavioral issues at the treatment center and moving into Patton House, a sober house for recovering addicts, Hanna quickly relapsed and started drinking again. Maggie, thinking her sister was finally committed to recovering, recalls this experience as an emotional rollercoaster for her and her parents, who took immediate action upon news of Hanna’s relapse. “I called my dad thinking they would help me clean up the mess, but they said, ‘we are done,’ so they took all my stuff, my car, my credit card, and for the first time in my life I had absolutely nothing,” Hanna said. “I cannot imagine how hard it was for them, but they cut all ties with me. That saved my life.” Hanna moved into The Magdalen House, a free non-medical detox center in East Dallas for two weeks and then went to Nexus, a state funded shelter for women seeking recovery, for forty-five days. She made a commitment to sobriety that evidently lasted; her official sobriety date is April 20, 2015. At the time, she considered being in a homeless shelter one of the lowest points of her life, but she looks back on it as a humbling necessity in her journey. “When I was at the Magdalen House, I was informed that one of my best friends I lived with died from addiction one day after I got to the detox center. This is truly when I hit rock bottom. I had never felt so lonely and empty and knew I couldn’t keep living like this. I wanted to change. The first time I tried to get sober, I did it for my family, but the second time, I did it for myself,” Hanna said. This newfound personal commitment pushed Hanna to move into Oxford House, a sober living house. She got a job as an activities director at a nursing home and found she loved to work with people. Taking the bus and eating food bought by her roommates, Hanna got by and eventually moved into her own apartment. She then started considering future career as-

Sobriety means being absolutely clean from drugs and alcohol, but recovery is a way of life is way more than just not drinking or drugging Hanna Fobare President and Founder of HEF Recovery

pirations and accepted an internship at Global Breakthrough Education, a company specializing in recovery coaching. “My therapist always used to tell me helping others with their recovery will help your own. So, when I heard about this opportunity, I thought, ‘of course, I’ll do it,’ and it just clicked,” Hanna said. After six months at the company, Hanna wanted to pave her own path in helping others. This past March, Hanna launched her own business, HEF Recovery, with the HEF representing her initials. While she was excited about using her own experience in recovery to help others, Hanna didn’t know much about starting a business, so along with attending bi-weekly meetings with her dad, a commercial real estate

investor, she also sought out Fritz Deichert, a recovering addict and her best friend, to be her business partner. HEF Recovery is a comprehensive recovery coaching service. Hanna starts by meeting with the families of clients to assess needs and evaluate if she is a good fit for coaching. After taking on a client, a contract is made outlining short term and long term goals, how many meetings they will have a week and for how long. The contract also notes what should happen in case of a relapse, and Hanna, learning from her own recovery, wanted to place the power in the hands of the client for this aspect of their journey. “It is key for our clients set their own attainable goals [in the contracts.] Recovery can be very intimidating so it is important to outline goals that the client believes he or she can accomplish. HEF provides regular and often daily guidance to empower our clients to lead the life they deserve," Hanna said. The standard period of time for using a recovery coach is two to three months, but Hanna and Deichert work with clients for as long as they need. As the process goes on, they try to wean the client off of needing to see them by gradually going down from three meetings a week to phone coaching. After that, there isn’t an official goodbye because Hanna wants her clients to find independence while always remembering the support from HEF recovery. “Selfishly, I would love to work with some of my clients forever. We become very close with [our clients] and their family but it is important to let them go when they are ready,” Hanna said. With Deichert taking male clients and Hanna taking female clients, the duo is currently helping nine people in the Dallas area. The process starts from the very treatment center that Hanna used during her recovery; Enterhealth and other organizations refer recovering

PHOTO PROVIDED BY HANNA FOBARE

Inspiring Others and Making a Change

Sports

TIPS AND TRICKS SUGGESTIONS TO MAINTAIN A BALANCED LIFESTYLE. P.23

LEADING THE WAY | President and Founder of HEF Recovery Hanna Fobare started her business this past March to help those struggling with addiction.

addicts upon their discharge to Hanna’s company. Hanna has also found success through simple word of mouth with clients from as far as New York City reaching out to her. Another surprising group of people that reached out to Hanna not only during the time she was starting her business but also her own journey in addiction were her Hockaday peers. While her Clemson classmates would encourage her partying, her Hockaday friends kept her grounded. “I completely isolated myself for a while due to embarrassment, but [girls from Hockaday] continued to reach out showing their non-judgmental support,” Hanna said. Despite her former peers’ support, starting the business meant admitting her own recovery to Dallas society, and it was difficult for Hanna to open up about her journey. In the end, she remembered being uncomfortable with her first counselor who had never been through addiction and realized that former addicts make the best counselors. “Alcoholism and addiction has a stigma. When people think of alcoholics or addicts they often immediately think of the worst possible situations. Once I became more passionate about my recovery I accepted that this is my story and I can either embrace it or be in self-pity,” Hanna said. Hanna’s family was also extremely supportive at the time, and Maggie notes that starting this type of business was a courageous move for her older sister. “The social scene in Dallas is tough, it’s cutthroat. Coming from Hockaday, it takes a lot of guts to get out there and say I had a problem, and here I am now. I’m more proud of her now than I ever have been,” Maggie said. Although HEF Recovery stands for Hanna Elizabeth Fobare, it also stands for health, education and fitness which is an important feature of the business. Meeting at SoulCycle, a popular spin class, and having athletic backgrounds, both Deichert and Hanna used fitness for their own recovery. They now take their own clients to SoulCycle classes and introduce them to other ways of healthy living. Although they are currently not accepting new clients due to being so busy, in the future, Hanna hopes to expand on the fitness side of her company to reach athletes in particular. In addition to reflecting on their own addiction, both Hanna and Deichert learn more everyday from working with clients about the recovery process. They use each other and their different experiences as sounding boards for new treatment plans. “We grow through each other. I’ve learned a lot from her, she’s helped me practice patience and she’s one of the most empathetic people I’ve ever met,” Deichert said. Hanna rarely gets time to herself, as she is on call 24/7 for potential relapses or needs of a client, but she tries to set aside time to workout and just do some deep breathing. She recognizes that recovery is a life-long process for her. “I always have to play the tape all the way through. Yes, it might be nice to have a cocktail but I would lose my company, my family, friends, and most importantly myself” Hanna said. Whether it’s her own recovery or that of one her clients, Hanna maintains a foundational belief for her company: she wants to set people up for the rest of their life, not just a year of being clean. She recognizes that her true recovery came from within herself and that getting clean is just the first step of the process. “Sobriety means being absolutely clean from drugs and alcohol, but recovery is a way of life is way more than just not drinking or drugging,” Hanna said. Although both Maggie and Hanna recognize that Hanna’s addiction was an extremely difficult time, they both see the past as a reason for the present. “It’s rare that people go through addiction and then come out strong after the fact and give back. I have never in my life seen her so hardworking and dedicated,” Maggie said. “I’m not happy it happened, but I know now she’s doing exactly what she needs to be doing.”

HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG

THE FOURCAST | DECEMBER 14, 2017

sports + health

AND FROM

MICHELLE 'S

MIND

‘‘ CAPTAIN'S COUNCIL

During the first set of the match against tain but to talk about the aspects of what is inthe Episcopal School of Dallas during the volved and that it is a hard job and that there Southwest Preparatory Conference tourna- are different ways that they can really impact ment, the Hockaday varsity volleyball team their teams,” Slinker said. Slinker attributed this program with remained in serve-receive for four points. Senior and captain Madison Camper, frustrated opening up a healthy dialogue between herwith the team’s performance, peered down at self and the captains as well as providing her hand. Although no physical green dot ex- these captains with the skills necessary to isted on her left hand, Camper remembered serve as effective leaders on the team. The success of this program prompted the advice of Athletic Director Tina Slinker: take a deep breath, remain positive and return Slinker to develop a similar program at Hockaday in her second year working as the Athto your “green zone.” Immediately, Camper dispelled her own letic Director during the 2009-2010 school frustration and signaled to the team to meet year. However, the program, which brought in the center of the court for a quick pep talk. together the captains of all the varsity teams in each season, lost steam after two years until She reminded her fellow Slinker reinvigorated the proplayers to focus on this gram seven years later. next point, rather than the In her first year of refour points the team had starting this captain’s council, just lost. LEARNTO LEAD Slinker has two main goals. After the players re“I hope the handful of turned to their positions, captains that I have feel like the Hockaday volleyball they are being supported by team won the next point the athletic director,” Slinker and, eventually, the first set. said. “I hope it helps them to Camper credited lead better and not feel alone this leadership technique in that leadership.” to Slinker, who explained Camper acknowledged the “green dot method” the need for a more supportand not feel alone during the first meeting ive community between the in that leadership. of the captain’s council, a sports teams. body comprising all eight “It is really good to see captains of the four fall how other teams are doing TINA SLINKER varsity sports teams. Athletic Director because at this school, we With curriculum from don’t really go to each other Jeff Janssen’s “The Team games,” Camper said. Captain’s Leadership However, ever since Manual,” Slinker met with the captain’s council began the captains two to three to meet, Camper noted that times during the fall season over lunch and led them in a guided and athletes from other teams have come to supconfidential discussion about the challenges port the volleyball team during their games they face and ways to overcome those hurdles. and that a more unified community has begun Slinker first worked with captains on their to develop. The various fall teams have even leadership skills while serving as the head started working out together as a way to foster coach of the University of North Texas’ wom- more solidarity. Senior and varsity field hockey co-capen’s basketball team, a position which she held from 1989 to 2008. Every year, Slinker would tain Genny Wood appreciated these meetings purchase Janssen’s book for her captains and because she learned she was not alone in would discuss the material along with possible many of the struggles she faced as a captain. “It was interesting to see how completely ways to improve their skills as leaders. “I realized that it was important to not different sports face the same challenges with just tell somebody they are going to be a cap- being captain,” Wood said. “One that everyone

I HOPE IT HELPS THEM TO LEAD BETTER

TIPS & TRICKS |

could relate to was being a leader on your team to girls who are very similar age to you.” Camper struggled with the same challenge on the volleyball team. These meetings actually provided her with strategies to combat this issue, which she implemented with her own team. Camper also enjoyed these meetings because she learned effective leadership strategies which she implemented with her own team. Her own volleyball team struggled with respecting authority, and Camper solicited suggestions during the first captain’s council meeting. “We wouldn’t have done this if we hadn’t gone to the meeting, but we actually talked to our coach about it and he addressed the whole team. I think that really helped us to do so well,” Camper admitted. With the last meeting a week before the fall SPC tournament, the captains shared advice for the upcoming competition. Wood, whose lacrosse team has entered the tournament as the top seed for the past several years, had the opportunity to provide some guidance on the challenges of entering the tournament as the highest ranked team. “I gave them the advice that is really scary going in as top seed because there is so much pressure on you, but you just have to play your game and not worry about living up to expectations,” Wood said. Although the volleyball team did not win the tournament, the advice helped Camper focus on her own team’s performance, rather than that of other teams. “Overall I think that the team played amazing at SPC; it was the best I had seen us play all season. Even though we didn't win it all, I still think we made a huge improvement in rankings,” Camper said. Slinker hopes to continue this program and looks forward to meeting with the winter captains. “I felt like there is a real value in it. I felt like it could be a positive support of captains going forward,” Slinker said. “I walked away very proud of those girls and the leadership they have as difficult as it can be and their openness to share their own weakness.”

Mary Orsak | Magazine Editor

PHOTO PROVIDED BY KEITH ALLISON

MOTIVATES ATHLETES

The popularity of the NBA is at an all time high. Each team’s superstars are revered celebrities. And although the ratings keep rising, competition in the league is at an all time low. The past three finals have been a match-up of the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers with the Warriors winning two of the three match-ups. Every year in free agency, when the players whose contracts have finished look for a new team to join, players end up recruiting each other to build “super teams”. With the way the NBA salary cap works, a team can sign as many superstars to the maximum contract as they want. This leads to all the best players in the league concentrated in about eight teams, leaving the other 22 teams with no hope at a title season. Seemingly, this should lead to less popularity because the fans of the other 28 teams in the league don’t have a shot at the championship, but this year the ratings are up 32 percent. Of course, this rating jump is only for the games broadcasted nationally on channels like ESPN, TNT and NBA TV, which almost exclusively feature the seven or eight “super teams” in the league. When you look at the local ratings, the data is quite different. So far in the 20172018 season, 20 teams’ local ratings are either the same or lower than last year. The Dallas Mavericks, a team well below the .500 mark, have seen their local ratings drop by 53 points. What this means is that people are no longer watching the NBA for their team, people watch the best rated match-ups of the season. For example, when Kevin Durant left the Oklahoma City Thunder to join the Golden State Warriors, it created an intriguing game plot every time the two teams played. Tensions run high and there is visible frustration or excitement after each play. Possibly what started the way people watch the NBA revolution is the rise of Golden State Warriors’ Steph Curry. He is a national celebrity. Fans follow him like they follow the Kardashians, wondering where he eats and what his family does. I went to the Mavericks game versus the Warriors this year and remember feeling as if I was at a concert when he walked on the court. It was the Steph Curry Concert. So yes, the national NBA ratings are clearly up, but what will happen to the teams who never compete for a title? Eventually, these teams will lose their fan base and will stop being profitable. Maybe the NBA becomes a 10 team league in the future, or maybe the league will have to establish rules in free agency to keep the players from joining forces. Either way, we’ll see changes in the NBA in the following years.

Michelle Mankoff | Staff Photographer

Suggestions to maintain a balanced lifestyle

HOW TO STAY FIT OVER THE HOLIDAYS Check out these three highly ranked fitness apps to stay in shape over the holiday break.

30 Day Fitness Challenge If you don’t have access or time for a gym, download this app for 30 days of exercises you can do from home. Choose your level of difficulty and select a workout focused on arms, legs, abs or cardio.

Daily Yoga

Run Coach

Try out Daily Yoga for a full mind and body experience. The app includes step by step instructions for all poses and varying levels for beginners to experts. The Wall Street Journal named Daily Yoga as one of the five most addictive fitness apps.

Whether you are a seasoned runner or not, Run Coach will provide you with a half marathon training plan. The 18-week schedule includes a combination of running and walking exercises to help you reach your goal.

DECEMBER 14, 2017 | THE FOURCAST

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

PHOTO BY SARAH SCHULTZ

continues to compete. Just this November, Fore

BY THE NUMBERS

10 16 48

Highest Number of Feet that Fore has Pole Vaulted

Years Kramer has Coached at Hockaday

Athletes Hidden in the Hockaday Hallways

Hockaday faculty members recall their past athletic endeavors. “I feel like sports are an integral part to the school. Good sports teams add immeasurably to a better school experience,” Kramer said. Today Kramer stays active and plays basketball games with some other TEAMWORK Hockaday faculty members.

From basketball games to coaching to women’s soccer leagues, faculty members continue to be involved with athletics long after their high school and college years.

Steve Kramer One of the main reasons Terry Murray Kramer ever began teachMurray played soccer ing is due to his involvement and swam in high school, with athletics. He initially got and played soccer and ruginto high school teaching was by in college . After college when he became tired of the he coached high school rumor that history teachers soccer and swimming. Towere usually coaches too and day, he coaches Hockaday’s always focused more on their soccer goalkeepers. coaching than teaching. He views sports as a “I wanted to prove you Whether they are way to improve your health, could be a good teacher and a athletic or work-related. and as a way to work as a good coach,” Kramer said. team and meet new people. This was in 1973, a year “I love building teams after Title IX, when Kramer TERRY MURRAY and being a part of teams, was teaching at an all-girls Head of Upper School whether they are athletic or school in Nashville, and was work-related,” Murray said. asked to coach track, basketball and cross-country. When he moved to Dallas in 1980 and started to teach Jen Fore Fore competed in track, specifically poleat Hockaday, he coached volleyball and basketvault during college. She is an avid athlete and ball, then just track until about 1996.

I LOVE BUILDING TEAMS AND BEING A PART OF TEAMS,

PLANT THE POLE | Chemistry Teacher Jen Fore flies into the air while practicing her pole vault technique at the Hockaday track.

achieved a personal record in pole-vaulting when she competed nationally against other women. When Fore first arrived at Hockaday, in fall 2015, she learned that Hockaday didn’t have any pole-vaulters. She realized then that she wanted to get involved in track and field again and started coaching Hockaday’s first formal pole-vaulting program with Coach Bean. Fore believes that if you’re passionate about a sport, you shouldn’t stop just because you have a different career or you have left college. La’Boris Bean In contrast to Kramer, Murray and Fore, Bean’s job is solely about coaching. He participated in track, football and cross-country in high school and went into specifically hurdling and sprints in college. He ran the 400m hurdles for the U.S.A. track and field team after college. In fact, Bean’s U.S.A. team coach, Coach Mann, coaches Hockaday hurdles. “He motivated me to be the person I am,” Bean said. Bean follows one of coach Mann’s mantra and applies it to his coaching. “If you are willing to come out and train, you can be successful at anything,” Bean said. Today, Bean coaches Hockaday basketball and track, is head of Athletics at Hockaday and plays intramurals with his friends. In order to keep in shape, he trains individually, often with a personal trainer.

Bean’s Personal Record in Seconds in the 400m Hurdles

Number of Sports Murray Played in College

Niamh McKinney | Staff Writer

PLAN ON IT! JV Basketball vs. Ursuline 4:30 p.m. Jan. 12 Varsity Basketball vs. Skyline 6:30 p.m Dec. 14

Swimming & Diving vs. Cistercian 5:45 p.m. Jan. 25

Varsity Soccer vs. Oakridge School 5 p.m. Jan. 30

Varsity Soccer vs. Greenhill 5 p.m. Jan. 19

JV Soccer vs. Trinity Christian Academy 5 p.m. Jan. 5

Swimming & Diving vs. Greenhill 6 p.m. Jan. 18

Varsity Basketball vs. OKC Knights 11 p.m. Jan. 26

DECEMBER 14, 2017 | THE FOURCAST

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

Staff Stance on College Conversations

The College Question: How The Fourcast believes people should treat seniors in the application process P.25 Heroes of Hockaday: In appreciation of college counselors, Managing Editor Elizabeth Guo says thank you to the people who save seniors P. 27 FAVORITE SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS FROM DECEMBER P.25

TO BUY OR D.I.Y. GIFTS?

P.26

Scarlett Letter of Rejection Very few movies and television shows accurately depict the college admissions process. For example, in “High School Musical 3,” star basketball player, musical theater extraordinaire and teen-heartthrob Troy Bolton shocks his classmates by announcing on graduation day that he plans on attending the University of California, Berkeley, where he will pursue both his passion for athletics and drama.

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By Mary Orsak | Magazine Editor

However, Troy never fills out a single application; basketball scouts offer him a position at the fictional University of Albuquerque without even looking at a transcript, his drama teacher Ms. Darbus submits an application on his behalf (both unethical and unrealistic) and Troy’s acceptance letter to UC Berkeley magically appears. Although clearly the High School Musical series does not concern itself with providing a realistic portrayal of the high school experience (students at Hockaday rarely break into intricately-choreographed musical numbers), the application process in this movie is purely fantastical. Instead, Hockaday seniors work tirelessly on dozens of applications and dread the day that they receive their admissions decision, fearing rejection and desperately craving an acceptance letter. Thus, as we approach early decision announcements, The Fourcast exhorts you to refrain from asking about college admissions. Barbara Smaller conveyed the toils that students undergo in order to attend their dream universities best in a New Yorker cartoon. In this illustration, a 4-year-old child sits on the living room floor and reads a book while his mother remarks, “There will be plenty of time for playing after you get into college.” It may appear farcical that a mother would begin college preparations with her toddler, but this experience rings true for many students. From a young age, we (at the behest of our parents) join various sports teams, learn to play an instrument and advance our knowledge outside of the classroom with tutors simply so that in a decade, we can attend the college of our dreams. By the time we reach high school, we deny ourselves sleep, three proper meals a day and any time for leisure. We skip lunch

We ask that you wait until we approach you with our big news. If we come in tears, hug us and allow us to cry on your shoulder. Mary Orsak Magazine Editor

to study for a quiz, stay up until 2 a.m. to write papers and wake up at 5 a.m. for morning practice. Then during senior year, we summarize our lives on a single sheet of paper for some stranger to peruse and to ultimately provide a verdict on our worth. Paris Geller in the TV show “Gilmore Girls” epitomizes the stress of this experience. Throughout the show, Geller dedicates herself to her academics, the school paper and her extracurricular work all with the hope of attending Harvard University. “I’ve thought about nothing else for four years but this school, this big important school with all of its history and tradition and really super teachers. And I dedicated myself to it completely, heart and soul, believing in its power, believing in its ability to get me where I needed to go,” Geller said while speaking at her school’s bicentennial. “Harvard. I thought of nothing else… And here’s the really funny thing – after four years of slaving away, I go home today and I found this. I’m not going to Harvard.” This experience is stressful enough, but to endure this trial in an open court is pure torture. It requires us to pronounce our rejections to the world and to open ourselves up to public scrutiny.

LIKE & COMMENT |

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Any senior (and many underclassmen) recognizes that the general public simply cannot grasp this concept. Well-meaning aunts, uncles, family friends, doctors and passers by will ceaselessly barrage any high school student with questions about college. “Have you decided where you will go to school? Did you get into your dream school? Do you have a dream school? Why that school? What do you want to study? What are your grades like? Your test scores? Your resume?” When bombarded with such questions, we want to simply scream back, “Leave me alone!” At 18, we don’t have answers; we ourselves wrestle with the same questions. We face an infinite number of possibilities about our future, and the uncertainty of such infinitude can be crippling. Some seniors may know exactly where they want to go to school, what they want to study and what classes they want to take. On the other hand, some seniors have no clue where in the world they want to attend college, whether to pursue STEM or humanities or even what subjects appeal to them. The spectrum spans from complete certitude to utter uncertainty. Thus, while someone who can pinpoint the very coordinates of his or her dream school may happily answer any and all questions, do not take the risk. You may end up spiraling a confused senior into an existential crisis. Underclassmen generally mean well when they ask where you applied to school or whether you have been admitted. They want to share in our successes and comfort us when we face rejection. However, in a state of intense anxiety and frustration, seniors often misinterpret these questions as judgmental or simply want to refrain from ever uttering the word “college” again. As underclassmen, we too scoured the

BEARER OF BAD NEWS | A Northwestern University rejection letter for an Early Decision applicant is shown here, decisively eliminating one senior's dream school.

Wall of Acceptances for familiar names (and familiar colleges). We exchanged furtive whispers to see if anyone knew where our friends had applied or been admitted. We texted seniors the day that decisions came out and sent well-intentioned messages expressing both our disappointment in that school’s shortsightedness to pass them over and our optimism that an even better decision lay waiting behind the corner. These messages may not have the intended effect. It can be challenging for underclassmen to truly empathize with seniors rejected from their dream schools since they themselves have never undergone the Herculean trials of the college application process. Therefore, we ask that you wait until we approach you with our big news. If we come in tears, hug us and allow us to cry on your shoulder. If we bounce down the hall shouting our good news, feel free to join in the celebration. If a senior chooses to experience this process on her own, respect her decision. Do not compare her to her peers; do not attempt to pry out every morsel of information. We cannot all be Rory Gilmore and receive acceptances to Harvard, Yale and Princeton. Many of us will be Paris Geller, lamenting on stage in front of her classmates about her recent rejection, and that is okay. We will bounce back stronger than ever, but allow us to do it on our own.

Our favorite social media posts from this month

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r enio m: Sllock a r g o a d Inst herine Piend an lia Kat ports fr r Ame io p n su w se he BMW fello wn at t hon Bro marat half

Snapchat: Senior Claire Jurgensmeyer documents her Worth, journey to Fort TX for a varsity basketball game

GRAPHIC BY SHREYA GUNUKULA

DECEMBER 14, 2017 | THE FOURCAST

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

STAFF STANDOFF

We Love It, We Love it Not

D.I.Y. OR BUY?

Tis' the season to give, but is a store bought or homemade gift the way to go? We're putting the budget friendly up against the shopaholics in this holiday present showdown.

Consi a homedmear making if you wade gift give a g nt to i is uniqfute that .

HOMEMADE GIFTS

Christmas morning 2015. I slide on my favorite reindeer slippers before braving the harsh winter weather that cast over Dallas that year. To my surprise, a package about the size of a cereal box wrapped in glittery paper and adorned with two bows sits outside my house on the doormat. “To Aurelia, I hope this keeps you warm this holiday season! Happy Holidays! Love, your best friend,” read the gift tag dangling on the side of the box. As if on cue, a shiver snakes down my spine, and I run inside into the warmth of home, beyond excited to dig into the gift. Wrapping paper and pieces of tape fly everywhere as I finally discover what’s hiding in the box: a homemade blanket in my favorite shade of blue and pink and monogrammed with my initials. For the rest of holiday vacation, I bundled myself in the blanket everywhere I went. Ever since that Christmas, I realized that I prefer homemade gifts over store-bought ones. Of course, I am always grateful to receive any type of gift, no matter of what and from where, but when it comes to giving gifts myself, I will re-visit the Pinterest app, find unique DIY gift ideas and get crafty with my homemade gifts. Rather than giving a gift that ran through countless assembly lines and machines, homemade gifts come from the literal hands of your loved ones. I have found that gift recipients are able to feel that their gifts were truly made with love because they know that it took someone time and a lot of effort to not only make the gift, but also to think of an idea. Homemade gifts are also customizable. When many kids will mostly likely receive the same Barbie or Lego set, no one homemade gift will be the same. You can customize homemade gifts with details like monograms, inside jokes, favorite colors and more. And if you want to save money this holiday season, homemade gifts are the way to go. Some of the cheapest homemade gifts include baked goods as most holiday recipes only consist of simple ingredients that are most likely already in your pantry or refrigerator. Other DIY gifts, like sugar scrubs or personalized frames, only require one or two materials that can be found at most crafts and grocery stores. Making homemade gifts will also be a fun experience for the gift giver as well. Instead of fighting your way through the holiday crowds, you can enjoy a peaceful afternoon of piecing together your very own gift. The holiday season is a stressful time on its own, so sticking with homemade gifts is an easy way to avoid even more unnecessary stress. Consider making a homemade gift if you want to give a gift that is unique and one that will leave a lasting impression on the recipient. Take it from me and my experience receiving the homemade blanket a few years ago; it’s still my favorite gift to date. Aurelia Han | Editor-In-Chief

en aave e b everere I hing n s ha as wh ometh be e r e Th ristm for s ld not store. Ch asked t cou om a thaght fr bou

Holiday Break The weeks since Thanksgiving have gone by excruciatingly slow for some, but we are finally here!

STORE-BOUGHT GIFTS

Christmas tree lights glistening behind my head, I tore the wrapping paper off of the repurposed Vineyard Vines box to unveil a brand new Dak Prescott jersey, the one item I truly wanted for Christmas 2016. And yes, it was store bought. While handmade gifts may be perceived as more thoughtful, store-bought gifts require just as much time and consideration to pick out, even if the gift-giver does not always put in his or her own blood, sweat and tears. Every since I hit the double digits, my dad and I have taken over the reigns and complete at least 50 percent of the Christmas shopping every year. Our shopping culminates with a trip to Northpark Mall, where we scour the shops for hours until I finally discover the perfect present for my mom. The last time I presented my mom with a homemade present, she feigned any interest in the advent-themed candleholder I fashioned out of half a Sprite bottle and a scrap of fabric. My family, like many, is not the crafty sort. While I admire those that can take a piece of burlap and create an outfit that could win Project Runway, those kinds of gifts are not in my future or that of millions of other Americans. The National Retail Federation, the largest retail trade organization in the country, predicts that for the 2017 Holiday season anywhere from $678.8 billion to $682 billion will be spent. This figure accounts for all retail, both online and in stores, for the months of November and December. These numbers continue to grow as each year passes. During Black Friday this year, over $5.03 billion was spent online, while $6.59 billion was spent on Cyber Monday. Both of these numbers are record-setting, with the Cyber Monday number pushing it to the number one biggest online shopping day of the year. Clearly, the majority of Americans flock to retail outlets for their holiday gifts. The sheer commercial aspect of Christmas proves the need for store-bought gifts. It stimulates the economy by introducing capital that would not be produced without these purchases. While store-bought gifts allow for the survival of the retail industry, they also fulfill many people’s hopes for their holiday season. There has never been a Christmas when I have asked for or even dreamt of something that could not be bought from the store. All of my hopes turn into a reality when these items miraculously appear underneath my Christmas tree. When I was 7, it was the High School Musical Barbie Dream House. When I was 15, it was a new set of sheets and a robe. For me, these were the thoughtful presents that I had hoped for. From the gifts that were on my list to the unexpected Cinderella Castle Lego set, all of my best presents have all been store bought. And I am not alone. Last year, I watched my mom open her Vitamix, the one item she wanted, compared to a book comprised of pictures that my older brother took, her reactions were the same—joy. And technically both were store-bought. In the end it truly depends on someone’s relationship with a person in terms of what the best present is. For me, the best present is always the most thoughtful that is executed well. This present is typically bought. If I had gotten a DIY dress over my Dak Prescott jersey, I probably would have bought the jersey in the after Christmas sales. But that’s just me. Katie O'Meara | News Editor

Friday X Day Along with two weeks vacation, students are also being given a half day on Friday that will include grade bonding and community service.

The New Year 2018 is almost here which means reflecting on the past year, making resolutions that you may or may not stick to, and figuring out how you will ring in the big 18.

Decision Week Seniors who applied early to colleges will be hearing back from many schools this week. Although rejection is painful, no decision makes or breaks your future success.

First Semester Grades Halfway to the end of the school year and my grades are WHAT?! The end of the second quarter means very little time to save our grades.

HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG

THE FOURCAST | DECEMBER 14, 2017

views Jones opens four bags of Hershey Kisses for her office per week.

The senior class sends an average of 1100 applications a year.

College counselors can meet with five college representatives per day.

Skerritt has two cups of coffee, one cup of tea and three Tervis water bottles per day.

Elizabeth Jones

ILLUSTRATIONS BY EMILY BASCHAB

Courtney Skerritt

“It’s the students! That’s my favorite part, handsdown. This is one of the most exciting times in their high school experiences and I love being there to support them.”

IN APPRECIATION OF COLLEGE COUNSELING

Micah Lyles

It’s that time of year again—Winter Break is upon us. For the senior class, this means that college applications are being finished and decisions are coming in. However, we couldn’t have made it to where we are today without the unparalleled Hockaday College Counseling Office. In appreciation of Courtney Skerritt, Elizabeth Jones, Micah Lyles and Kerrie Smith, The Fourcast is sharing with the community some facts about the College Counseling Office’s work.

“Hockaday is a place that draws students to it who are interested in becoming an individual, and one of my favorite things is getting to know each girl as an individual.”

Elizabeth Guo | Managing Editor

Lyles chooses from 13 Bitmojis when responding to student emails about decisions.

A single college counselor can meet with eight students on a busy day.

The office has purchased six boxes of poppers, with 72 to a box, this year.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Aurelia Han

FEATURES EDITOR Maria Harrison

MANAGING EDITOR Elizabeth Guo

ARTS & LIFE EDITOR Emily Fuller

MAGAZINE EDITOR Mary Orsak

SPORTS & HEALTH EDITOR Amelia Brown

WEB EDITOR Cheryl Hao

VIEWS EDITOR Shreya Gunukula

COPY EDITOR Ali Hurst

CASTOFF EDITOR Paige Halverson

BUSINESS MANAGER Morgan Fisher

PHOTOS & GRAPHICS EDITOR Kate Woodhouse

NEWS EDITOR Katie O'Meara

“There's joy in this office and laughter. Every day, I work with people that I learn from and respect. The students are smart and interesting; each conversation is different.”

Kerrie Smith

“My colleagues are fabulous. They are very fun to work with, and they all have a wonderful sense of humor. Life in the College Counseling Office is fastpaced!”

Smith has uploaded 299 recommendation letters for various schools.

STAFF WRITERS Michelle Chen, Sahasra Chigurupati, Charlotte Dross, Shea Duffy, Ashlye Dullye, Eliana Goodman, Ponette Kim, Niamh McKinney, Eugene Seong, Emily Wu STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS Cirrus Chen, Sophie Dawson, Michelle Mankoff, Lauren Puplampu, Sarah Schultz, Genny Wood STAFF ARTISTS Emily Baschab, Christine Ji, Elise Nguyen, Hallet Thalheimer FACULTY 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 1,500 and is printed by Greater Dallas Press. It is distributed free of charge to the Hockaday community. Businesses who wish to advertise in The Fourcast should contact Morgan Fisher, Business Manager, at mfisher@ 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 about should be addressed to Aurelia Han, Editor-in-Chief, at ahan@ hockaday.org.

The Fourcast The Hockaday School 11600 Welch Road Dallas, Texas 75229

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

DECEMBER 14 2017 | THE FOURCAST

HOLIDAY SONGS THAT

SLEIGH Fine Arts Board Chair and senior Genny Wood:

"What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?" by The Head and the Heart

"Drummer Boy" by Justin Bieber ft. Busta Rhymes "No Christmas playlist is complete without the Biebs. His rap verse? Swoon," Wood said.

Nothing rings in the season like Christmas music, but when you just can’t listen to Mariah Carey’s rendition of “All I Want for Christmas is You” one more time, The Fourcast is here to help. Some music-loving members of the Hockaday community have shared their favorite festive tunes to help make your holidays merry.

Lucy Wrubel, Dallas private events DJ and mother of sixth grader Stella Wrubel:

"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" by Hollywood Drunks

"This cute, little diddy is the perfect soundtrack for those awkward post-Christmas, pre New Year’s days."

"Just Another Christmas Song" by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings

Poizon Ivy '08, DJ of the Dallas Mavericks: Upper School English Teacher Claire Cothren

"Canon in D Major, P.37” by Johann Pachelbel "What Christmas Means to Me" by Stevie Wonder

"What You Want for Christmas" by Quad City DJs

"Snow Miser" by FM Static "Present Without a Bow" by Kacey Musgraves and Leon Bridges

"If I were Santa, this would be the most played song on my sleigh-dio (sleigh + radio). Dashing through the snow, in a one horse open sleigh, O’er the hills we go, bumping Miami bass all the way."

"At Christmas time I love to listen to Pachelbel's 'Canon in D' because this is the song that was playing when I walked down the aisle to marry my dear husband, Michael. I still tear up every time I hear it because our wedding day—Dec. 18, 2010— was the happiest day of my life," Cothren said.

ILLUSTRATION BY CHERYL HAO AND ALI HURST