Fourcast November 2015

The Fourcast

f

The Hockaday School 11600 Welch Rd. Dallas, Texas 75229 214.363.6311

hockadayfourcast.org Volume 66 • Issue 2 Friday, November 6, 2015

The Right to Fair Arms Y In light of President Obama’s

INSIDE news 2 features 7 photo essay 11 in focus 12 arts & entertainment 14 sports 18 perspectives 21 cast off 24

PORTRAITS OF AMERICA p11

PHOTOILLUSTRATION BY MARIA KATSULOS AND INAARA PADANI

description of mass shootings as “routine,” the Fourcast examines why gun violence has become present in our everyday lives. p 12

V

Americans are really weird. p21

FROM GREEN CARDS TO AMERICAN CITIZENS Faculty and staff members granted U.S. citizenship p2

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

NOVEMBER 6, 2015

2/news Y

Currently

The rise of the gig economy p3

n

HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG

The real purpose of detention p3

Interesting facts about Dallas p4

Volkswagen environment scandal p6

From Green Cards to American Citizens Faculty members are in the progress of getting their citizenship PHOTO PROVIDED BY PETRA LYNCH

b

HockaBriefs

A look at recent news on campus High Speed Camera  The Science Department

recently purchased a highspeed color camera and a high-speed black and white camera from Edgertronic, a high-speed camera manufacturing company. The cameras are used in physics classes to examine forces and kinematics in labs, allowing students to look at frame-by-frame pictures of motion more accurately.

Science Department Head Marshall Bartlett said, “We are also excited to explore their use in other areas of our curriculum and to get students using them to capture in slow motion events they are interested in.”

Hydroponics  This year the G3 (Girls. Giv-

8:40 a.m. Sept. 11 Upper School Chinese teacher Petra Lynch is now a citizen of the United States of America.

U

BY CLAIRE FLETCHER

pper School Chinese teacher Petra Lynch waited as officials checked her identification and certifications. After entering the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services building in Irving and walking into a hall filled with people from over 40 different countries, Lynch sang the American national anthem, raised her right hand and swore an oath. Finally, on Sept. 11, 2015, after three years as a United States resident, Lynch stood and received applause as a citizen of the United States of America.

Lynch’s journey toward citizenship started in 2008, which permitted her to legally work and reside in the United States. Residents with green cards are required to pay taxes, but only American citizens have the right to vote.

“I think it is a natural process,” Lynch said. “Once you have a green card, then the next and the final step is citizenship. I think that everybody would go to that stage to get their citizenship.”

Despite getting her green card in 2008, Lynch and her husband of 17 years, John, decided to move from Taiwan in 2012 to permanently reside in the United States. Because her husband was already an American citizen, Lynch was required to wait three years until she could shift from being a green card holder to a full citizen.

Applying for the Green Card Originally from Guanajuato, Mexico, Hockaday maintenance staff and athletic coach Victor Torres came to America 15 years ago.

Torres and his wife, Maria Torres, had to reapply every year to get their U.S. visas renewed because they did not hold green cards at that time. Visa holders, depending on their type of visa, have to reapply in order to stay in the United States legally.

“Every year we were concerned about whether they would give us a new visa or we would be rejected. If they said no, we would have to go back to Mexico,” Torres said.

In contrast, green card holders are legal residents and do not need to reapply. Torres first applied for his citizenship after holding a green card for five years.

Upper School Spanish Teacher Alejandra Suarez and her family immigrated to the United States from Mexico in January 2007 with a work visa. The visa permitted only Suarez’s husband, Omar Trevino, to work and did not allow them to become lawful permanent residents of the United States.

“We didn’t know if we were going to stay or not. The plan was to be here for three years,” Suarez said. “We thought that if it worked, we were going to stay and raise our children here.”

In September 2011, after negotiating with the company and hiring a lawyer to get their green cards, Suarez and her husband got a call from their lawyer that almost permanently halted their efforts. Immigration had lost their case.

“My husband and I sat down and wondered if we should start over and hire a new lawyer or take our chances and pay the $5,000 [to their current lawyer] and cross our fingers,” Suarez said. “We did pay the $5,000 and I got my residence.”

Suarez and her family received their green cards in 2011, but they have to wait five years until they are eligible to apply for their citizenship. That will be in October 2016.

From Resident to Citizen The required time of permanent residency to qualify for citizenship depends on the type of green card; Lynch only had to reside in America for three years while Suarez had to be a resident for five.

Lynch went through a simple process. After her three years as a green card holder, Lynch sent in a citizenship application along with $680 to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Once the application was processed, she went in for fingerprinting and had a background check made by Homeland Security. Six months later, Lynch was eligible for an interview.

“In the interview, they ask you about 100 questions that range from government, history, civil questions and geography,” Lynch said.

After passing the citizenship exam, Lynch was officially an American citizen.

“This country offers a different opportunity from the opportunity that my country gave me,” Lynch said. “That is what I cherished the most, the opportunities.”

‘‘

Proud to be an American Lynch is already eligible to vote in the United The United States; both Suarez and Torres hope to be eligible to vote in the next presidential election in November 2016.

States has One of the most controversial issues of this presidential election are the candidates’ views on given us so immigration. Republican candidate Donald Trump and his plan to build “The Great Wall of Trump” much. along the Mexico-U.S. border have been in the headlines for the past few months.

Alejandra Suarez Upper School Spanish “I find it very uneducated when he refers to teacher immigration and building the big wall. It is not with walls that we grow as people,” Suarez said.

According to Torres, there needs to be a shift in perspective about the intentions of immigrants.

“I tell my kids that we have a lot on our shoulders. When people see us, they think, ‘Oh, they just mow the lawn or they just do the dishes,’” Torres said. “We need to change that through education and show people that we are different.”

Currently, neither Suarez, Lynch nor Torres know who they are going to vote for in the election. Despite this, they are all very adamant about finally exercising their right to vote as a way to give back to the United States.

“I look forward to giving back and to keep giving back to the country that has opened its arms to us,” Suarez said. “You can ask my children; we love Mexico and we love our Spanish heritage, but the United States has given us so much.”

ing. Global.) Club is introducing a hydroponics system to the Green Lab. A hydroponics gardening system allows for “soilless” growth of plants, which has many advantages: greater plant yield, faster growth rate, fewer infestations of bugs or fungus and much more.

MS Service Project  Director of Service Laura

Day started a new community service project this year in order to bring community service to the Middle School, specifically fifth and sixth graders. The project, which is optional, involves a field trip on Saturdays. The fifth graders went to Bonton Farms, a farm and food oasis where they spread mulch all over the plants. The sixth graders will help with the Trinity River cleanup. Both of these projects tie into what they are learning in their science classes: “Fifth grade is earth and sixth grade is water, so that’s the connection,” Day said.

SPC Tournaments  SPC started yesterday and

will continue through Saturday. It is being held for the first time in Austin. Fall SPC sports include volleyball, field hockey and cross country.

Read more about the SPC sports on page 19.

5000

The number of dollarser lawyer to get her residency

n

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

CDC Reaches Full Capacity

W

hen the Child Development Center first started in 1998, there were only

six infants in occupancy. Today, the CDC currently cares for 43 children, ages six weeks to 5-years-old, with six faculty and staff members on the priority waiting list. For the first time in its history, however, the CDC will not be able to accommodate all of those on the list.

The CDC began in 1998 when then Eugene McDermott Headmistress Liza Lee and CFO Mary Pat Higgins.pushed for the creation of the CDC. Both Lee and Higgins thought the CDC would provide a faculty and staff benefit that would be valued in the future and one that could be offered to other area schools.

Initially, there was only one portable, but in 2005 another was added.

Angel Duncan has been the Director of the Child Development Center since its conception, and worked as a Teaching Assistant in Lower School prior.

“Our mission is to provide quality, onsite care for faculty and staff’s children so that they can feel that their children are being taken care of,” Duncan said.

But because the CDC has reached its limit, faculty and staff who are expecting a child this year do not have a 100 percent guarantee that their child will have a spot for the 20162017 school year.

Upper School English teacher Jennifer McEachern is currently on the waiting list.

“I called them last spring when I found out I was pregnant,” she said. “I was hoping to get it for this spring because I will be back [from maternity leave] for April and May, but they were full for this year.”

The CDC cannot grant faculty and staff official spots because an infant’s advancement from class to class is based on development rather than age.

“I am just in limbo right now. I have my baby Jan. 2, and then I’ll know in April whether or not he’ll have a place at the CDC next year,” McEachern said.

The fact that Hockaday has a CDC was a deciding factor for McEachern when she was considering workplaces.

“That was definitely part of my decision,” McEachern said. “Having your baby on campus kind of changes the dynamic of being a working mom.”

By state law, Texas childcare centers are required to have at least 30 square feet for every child the center is licensed to serve. Due to these laws, the CDC is unable to accept any more children.

Part of Coats’ job is to oversee the financial aspects of the CDC. Her primary concern lies with the state of the two portables.

“They’re atrocious,” Coats said. “We really need a building. However, the quality of care is not defined by the facilities. Our program is excellent and the teachers and staff do a great job with what they have.”

The idea of a building specifically for the CDC has been considered. However, moving forward with specific plans was pushed back until the completion of the Centennial Campaign, which focused on teacher endowment and Centennial Center (Science Building and Arts Center) funding.

“Once the Centennial Campaign finishes, we will look for a major donor for the CDC, we have initial, high-level architectural drawings,” Coats said. “The new facility outlined in the drawings will expand our capacity from 43 to over 60 children.”

Coats’ plan is to maintain the portables in their current condition and to continue the investment into the CDC until an opportunity for renovations arises.

NOVEMBER 6, 2015

THE FOURCAST

03

DETENTION: TIME OUT OR TIME IN? six infants in occupancy. Today, the CDC currently cares for 43 children, ages six weeks five-years-old, six faculty and Randolph is sitting in a teacher’s room, doing her math It’sto 4:30 p.m. andwith senior Alexandra staff members on the priority waiting list. For homework.

Randolph sits the amongst the first time in its history, however, CDC her classmates, who all seem to be working on their will not be able to accommodate all of those respective assignments. Outside the room, she notices her friends in the hallway doing their on the list. homework by their The CDC began whenlockers. a group What’s of par- the difference between the two groups of students? ents, Randolph consisting isofserving Hockaday faculty and a detention. staff, appealed to the Board of Directors for quality child care on campus. Initially, there etention is an after-school discipline given to students to reflect was only one portable, but in 2005 andanother learn what steps should be taken to avoid future infractions. was added.

The most common reasons for detention are for minor inAngel Duncan has been the Director fractions of or for a combination of three uniform or tardy infracthe Child Development Center since its Minor con- infractions, which are cleared every semester, include tions. ception, and worked in the Residence Defailing to sign in or out of the Upper School Office, parking violations, missing partment prior. scheduled meeting times with teachers and unexcused absences from assemblies “Our mission is provide quality, onor to form meetings. site care for faculty and staff’s childrencan so be assigned by Assistant Upper School Head ElizaThese infractions that they can feel that are beththeir Joneschildren or any of thebeForm Deans, who also serve as proctors for the moning taken care of,” Duncan said. itored one-hour detention period.

But because the CDC has reached its “Detention is a consequence, and as a community, we have expectalimit, faculty and tions. staff who expecting range from behavioral to academic to things like Thoseare expectations a child this year douniform,” not haveJones a 100 percent said. guarantee that their child will have are a spot for Detentions assigned Monday to Thursday at 4 p.m. and designated the 2016-2017 school year. at 7 a.m. They must be served the week they are given. mornings Upper School English teacher Jennifer The location for each detention changes between various Upper School McEachern is currently on the waiting list.to which teacher is serving detention duty. Randolph classrooms, according “I called themserved last spring when hers in FormI found IV Dean Rebekah Calhoun’s classroom. out I was pregnant,” sheBut said.

“I major was hoping with infractions come bigger consequences. Saturday detento get it for this spring, because will be tions, servedI from 9 back a.m. to 12 p.m., are the next level of punishment. They [from maternity leave] for April and May, but are given after a student starts to accrue many after-school detentions, if they they were full for this failyear.” to attend their assigned after-school detention or for more severe minor The CDC cannot grant faculty and behavioral staff infractions, including ones. official spots because an infant’s Along with aadvancestronger uniform policy, detention has been another school ment from class topolicy class that is based on develhas been “given additional attention and enforcement” this year. opment rather than age.“There is a perception that detention is completely different now, but “I am just in we limbo now. much I have haveright changed with detention. It remains to be proctored and after my baby Jan. 2, and then I’ll know school,” Jones said.in April whether or not he’ll have a place at the CDC Senior Anne Marie Gingery, who received two detentions her sophomore next year,” McEachern yearsaid. for a combination of tardy infractions, including arriving late to her first The fact thatperiod Hockaday has not a Child class and getting to another class on time, doesn’t understand the Development Center was abehind deciding factor purpose a detention. for McEachern when she was considering continues on p4 workplaces.”

“That was definitely part of my decision,” McEachern said. “Having your baby on campus kind of changes the dynamic of being a working mom.

By state law, Texas child care centers are required to have at least 30 square feet for every child the center is licensed to serve.

Due to these laws, the CDC is unable to accept any more children.

Part of Chief Financial Officer JT Coats’ job is to oversee the financial aspects of the CDC. Her primary concern lies with the state of the two portables.

“They’re atrocious,” Coats said. “We really need a building.”

The idea of a building specifically for the CDC was one of the objectives of the Centennial Campaign, but it was pushed back due to higher priorities, such as teacher endowment funding and the Fine Arts building.

“If we can find ourselves a major donor, I’ve got plans to expand,” Coats said. “Right now we have 43 kids. We could expand to 60+ with a new facility.”

Coats’ plan is to maintain the portables in their current condition, and to continue the investment into the CDC until an opportunity for renovations arises.

“What makes the most sense is to get a donor, to get some funding, to get more support, to build and then to expand,” Coats said.

D

ERIN THOMAS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF AMANDA KIM STAFF WRITER

ERIN THOMAS / EDITOR-IN-CHIEF AND AMANDA KIM / STAFF WRITER

ILLUSTRATION BY KATE COOPER

The Gig Economy is Up

L

ike a typical teenage girl nowadays, senior Walker Tindall doesn’t fret or even complain when her mother tells her she won’t be able to pick her up from the concert she attended.

Instead, with two swipes and a click she switches into the Uber app, orders herself a car to take her home, and the

driver is at the venue within minutes.Yes, it’s that easy, and an example of a growing gig economy.

A gig economy business operates through flexible employment and allows easier access to part time jobs by letting its employees sign up to work shifts on their own time.

Uber, a popular driving service and gig

economy business, enlists freelancers and the general public to carry out its service. This means that Uber’s workforce can be basically anyone over 21 who owns a car. This massive employment base can offer transportation faster and cheaper than a regular taxi cab service can.

Tindall takes Uber X, which is the cheap-

est level of Uber cars, and has multiple reasons for her preference of Uber over regular taxi cabs.

“Uber is cheaper and I think the drivers are a lot friendlier,” Tindall said. “Regular taxicab drivers are constantly working and just not as happy, so Uber as a freelance service is really successful because the drivers are really chill and friendly.”

Uber has saved Tindall from being stranded more than once. And she’s not alone.

In a survey of 100 Upper School students, 57 responded that they have used Uber.

Like Tindall, sophomore Harper Lay uses Uber and reiterated that Uber’s recent increase in popularity is because it has friendly employees and is readily available anytime.

“The [Uber employees] can be really funny and have cool stories and sometimes you don’t get that interaction in other businesses,” Lay said.

But there are some problems that come with gig economy businesses. Unlike traditional taxi cab services, not all of Uber’s drivers go through very serious training, as evidenced by one student’s Uber experience.

“When Uber was just starting out, I told a driver to pick me up from Northpark. I looked on the map to see where she was going and she was just driving in circles,” sophomore Michelle Mankoff, another Uber user, said. continues on p6

04

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

NOVEMBER 6, 2015

n

HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG

Dallas by the Numbers How much do you really know about your city?

19.1 19

19.1 percent of the population estimated between 2009 and 2013 lived below the poverty level.

19 of Forbes’ List of Richest Americans live in Dallas-Fort Worth.

Cowboy Mania

Did You Know?

Dallas is actually windier than the “Windy City.” Dallas’ average wind speed of 10.7 mph exceeds that of Chicago’s of 10.3 mph.

AT&T Stadium is the world’s largest columnfree room.

Around Town

68 The Dallas Arts District is the largest in the nation spanning 68 acres.

The Dallas Cowboy’s are tied with the New York Yankees as the 3rd most valuable sports team in the world.

The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, formed in 1972, were the first professional cheerleading squad in the NFL.

Dinosaur from Dallas Barney is a Dallasite! The show “Barney and Friends” was created here in Dallas by Sheryl Leach.

30,000

There are more than 30,000 hotel rooms in the city.

There are 12 BIG signs located around the city.

9

Bonnie and Clyde met here in Dallas in 1930.

Dallas is the 9th largest city in the U.S. with a population of 1,241,162.

18 DFW companies are on The Fortune 500 list of biggest businesses

Important Dallas Dates 1886: The Texas State Fair has been held every year since its opening in 1886 except during both World Wars.

1957: German chocolate cake became popular after a recipe submitted by Sam German appeared in the Dallas Morning Star.

1985: The Texas Star ferris wheel at the State Fair was the tallest in the country at the time it was built. Now it is the second tallest behind Las Vegas’ High Roller.

2011: Dallas hosted a World Series game, an NBA Finals game and the Super Bowl becoming the first city to hold all three of these events in the same year.

SOURCES: bizbeatblog.dallasnews.com, quickfacts.census.gov, http://www.forbes.com/pictures/mli45ikdf/3-dallas-cowboys-2/, http://www.visitdallas.com, http://www.currentresults.com/Weather-Extremes/US/windiest-cities.php, Movoto.com

continued from p3 Gingery used detention time to do her homework. Because electronics are not allowed during detention, she was not able to use her laptop. But there were no reflections involved.

“It’s just time spent in a room,” Gingery said. “I would have been doing the same thing in a different location.”

So do detentions serve as punishments or as time to catch up on homework?

Jones describes detentions as not only a consequence, but also for a time of reflection.

“I hope students view it as a time for reflection,” Jones said. “I hope students take it as an initial consequence and an opportunity to recommit to community expectations.”

According to Upper School Guidance Counselor Judy Ware, new to Hockaday this year, detentions should serve as a gentle reminder for rules in places.

“The purpose behind detention at Hockaday, as in every other high school where I’ve been a counselor, is to get the student’s attention regarding a rule or infraction without being overly punitive,” Ware said.

Randolph agrees that detention does cause an inconvenience. As vice president of JETS, she was not able to spend time preparing for the next robotics competition due to having to serve detention.

Regarding whether or not detention is a

learning experience, Randolph thinks there are steps you should take. “If you’re late all the time, you probably need to manipulate your schedule a little bit. Or if your skirt is short, do something about it,” Randolph Ware, who most recently served as a guidance counselor for Highland Park High School, is familiar with the detention process.

Punishment for not following rules at Highland Park, like many public schools, mirrors Hockaday’s same rules.

“At public schools, students have to turn their shirts inside out because they’re inappropriate, but for the most part it’s the same,” Ware said.

Regarding students who live far away and receive detentions in response to arriving late to their first period class, though things like traffic are out of anybody’s control, Ware still believes it’s best to plan ahead.

“They know what they’re getting into when they get in Hockaday, and if it means waking up at 6 a.m., then that’s that,” Ware said.

Regardless, detention can be viewed as a learning experience.

“We learn more from bad things than good things,” Ware said. “If you think getting a detention is bad, then there’s probably something in it to learn.”

NOOR ADATIA NEWS EDITOR

GRAPHIC BY MEGAN PHILIPS

n

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

NOVEMBER 6, 2015

THE FOURCAST

05

YOUR WORLD TODAY | Volkswagen Recalls Cars after Misreporting Information

Volkswagen Cheats Emission Standards

O

PHOTO PROVIDED BY HIGH CONTRAST

n a calm morning in September, Carrie Chavez — mother of senior Cristina Chavez

flips on the radio only to hear that the manufacturer of the car she has owned for the past 9 years has betrayed her.

Chavez learned that German automaker Volkswagen illegally programmed engines in 11 million diesel cars worldwide with devices that improved emissions results when the cars were undergoing testing.

Though these diesel cars spewed pollution on the roads, they passed the emissions test put forth by the Environmental Protection Agency with the help of illegal software that allowed the engines to sense the testing environment and adjust performance accordingly.

Because Chavez has driven a “clean” 2009 Volkswagen Jetta most of her life, she feels that Volkswagen has lost her trust, as well as the trust of millions of consumers around the world.

“It is offensive to me that Volkswagen would intentionally trick emissions tests for company benefit and profit at the expense of consumers,” Chavez said.

Sept. 18, 2015

How Volkswagen Did It The EPA is responsible for setting emissions standards to reduce global pollution, and these standards remain the same for cars found in the same state or region.

Clay Cooley, the owner and founder of Clay Cooley Auto Group in Dallas and St. Mark’s father, says that the root of the problem arose when the Volkswagen company struggled to maintain excellent performance and high fuel efficiency and still meet the EPA’s emissions standards.

“Volkswagen was unable to meet standards and still give customers the engine performance they wanted, which is why they put the software in place,” Cooley said.

Cooley believes that the Volkswagen Group has felt the negative repercussions of its misstep since the day that the cheat in the Volkswagen diesel engines was revealed. “[The emissions scandal] is affecting the whole brand and hurting the dealers and resale value,” Cooley said. “If you went to trade your Volkswagen in, it wouldn’t be worth as much now because the resale value went down.”

Because the entire Volkswagen brand is taking a hit, the company has set aside about $7 billion for possible fines that it anticipates. In addition, Volkswagen has stopped the sale of the particular diesel cars that caused the controversy with the EPA. The software found in the engines allowed the cars to release up to a whopping 40 times the legal amount of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide on the road while still appearing to be within the legal limit when being tested.

As one of the primary greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere by humans, carbon dioxide released by diesel engines is one of

the chief causes of global warming and photochemical smog.

AP Environmental Science teacher Kristin Lindsay-Hudak emphasizes the importance of the emissions standards set by the EPA in reducing global pollution.

“Emissions standards are set to reduce the amount of pollutants released into the atmosphere,” Lindsay-Hudak said. “By not following the standards, Volkswagen increased the amount of carbon dioxide and other pollutants their cars released.”

But the pollutants don’t just affect the atmosphere. Science Department Head Marshall Bartlett believes that the extra nitrogen oxide released by the diesel engines could have negative implications for one’s respiratory health as well.

“Nitrogen oxide is a combination of diesel and other fuels, quickly becomes nitric acid in the atmosphere and is hard on the lungs,” Bartlett said. “Nitrogen oxide is =s of an environmental threat than it is a health concern.”

After realizing that she was responsible for the release of toxic chemicals like nitric oxide and carbon dioxide, Chavez feels that Volkswagen has failed to deliver on its promise of producing environmentally-friendly diesel engines.

“For all those years, I was under the impression that my car was environmentally-friendly, as far as gas emissions went,” Chavez said.

“Now I know that even though my car performance did not suffer, I was actually polluting the environment more than I should have been all along,” she said.

The Future of Volkswagen Volkswagen has experienced intense scrutiny in the United States after the scandal was discovered, and Volkswagen diesel owners are contemplating their next actions, including joining class-action lawsuits against Volkswagen.

Attorney and Partner at JAL Energy Rives Castleman - father of Volkswagen diesel owner senior Sloane Castleman - is disappointed by how the emissions scandal has lowered the value of his daughter’s clean diesel car.

“I’m pretty annoyed, and I’m thinking about joining a class-action suit,” Castleman said. “I think of myself as an educated consumer, and since the car has lost value, I can’t sell or trade it in,” he said.

In addition to the high likelihood of Volkswagen class action suits from Volkswagen owners like Rives Castleman, the company faces possible state and federal actions, as well as a large number of civil, criminal and administrative charges.

Like Castleman, Chavez is still weighing her options on how to respond to the emissions scandal.

“So far, I haven’t taken any action because I’m still exploring my options,” Chavez said. “Volkswagen has indicated times next year to deal with a fix, but I don’t know what they could do for me except for put me in a hybrid,” she said.

Since Volkswagen has depended on releasing extra emissions to give their diesel cars high fuel efficiency and stellar performance, Chavez is concerned about losing performance once the company re-

The Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg, Germany, a place where diesel cars comprise most of the cars sold.

programs their diesel cars to meet EPA emissions standards.

“I am going to lose gas mileage and performance if the emissions thing is changed,” Chavez said.

“Their fix will take something away from me,” she said.

Filing a class-action lawsuit is an action that both Chavez and Rives Castleman are considering, and currently, 34 class-action lawsuits have been filed against Volkswagen in over a dozen states.

The piling up of class-action lawsuits is not the only effect of the emissions scandal. Within the company itself, the emissions scandal has also affected the positions of previously high-ranking Volkswagen employees.

Chief Executive Officer Martin Winterkorn was forced to resign due to the tarnishing of Volkswagen’s once-pristine image.

Winterkorn issued a video statement to apologize for Volkswagen’s conduct and to announce his resignation.

“As CEO, I accept responsibility for the irregularities that have been found in diesel engines and have therefore requested the Supervisory Board to agree on terminating my function as CEO of the Volkswagen Group,” Winterkorn said in a press conference on Sept. 23.

Winterkorn oversaw the multinational Volkswagen company for eight years and helped the company attain its strong non-U.S. sales.

Currently, the U.S. only accounts for six percent of Volkswagen sales.

And although Volkswagen refused to say where the 11 million affected vehicles came from, car analysts report that as many as 10 million were found in Europe, a place where diesel cars make up more than half of the cars sold.

European emissions standards are not as strict as the American standards, and so far, Volkswagen has not been accused of illegally programming vehicles to meet European standards.

However, member nations of the European Union remain aware that cars that meet standards in the laboratory may still be significantly contributing to air pollution, just like the Volkswagen diesels did.

Lucia Caudet, a spokeswoman for the European Commission, issued an official statement to address the issue.

“We need to get to the bottom of this,” Caudet said. “For the sake of our consumers and the environment, we need certainty that industry scrupulously respects emissions limits.”

Though the emissions scandal served to illuminate the larger issue of the toxic air pollution that cars produce, Cooley does not see the company as being unable to recover from the damage that has been done to its reputation.

After all, companies such as General Motors and Toyota have successfully bounced back from mishaps that are similar to Volkswagen’s in the past.

“The [Volkswagen] brand will definitely come back and get through where it is,” Cooley said. “Volkswagen is the biggest car manufacturer in the world and people felt like they were being lied to, but the company will recover.”

ESHANI KISHORE STAFF WRITER

PHOTO PROVIDED BY WHEELS.CA

PHOTO PROVIDED SOPHIE VORRATH

PHOTO PROVIDED BY FRANK AUGSTEIN

PHOTO PROVIDED BY DAMIAN DOVARGANES

VOLKSWAGEN EMISSIONS SCANDAL From left to right: An EPA official inspects the engine of a Volkswagen diesel. Ex-Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn announces his resignation. The Volkswagen Group promised consumers that their “clean diesel” models would be environmentally friendly and have reduced emissions. The Volkswagen logo can be seen on the front of “clean diesel” Volkswagen models.

06

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

NOVEMBER 6, 2015

n

HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY CLAIRE FLETCHER

c

Campaign Central As the dates of the 2016 Presidential Primary grow closer, the race for president has undergone many changes.

Republicans

if [they] went to Uber all they would need is a good driving record and customer service skills,” Palmer said.

The United States Bureau of Labor found that an increasing number of people are taking gig economy part-time jobs so that they can supplement their main income.

“Consumers will spend some portion of extra income, and if more money is spent then there is a multiplier effect that causes the economy to grow,” Palmer stated.

Poe agrees that a supplemental income, like the one he makes by working for Uber, can be very helpful for employees.

“Some people use it as fun money, some use it to help cover bills and some just save it,” Poe said.

Proving how popular gig economy businesses have gotten, well-known and established companies are also giving it a try.

On Sept. 29, Amazon launched their new program Amazon Flex, which is a package delivery service. Based upon its gig economy companions, not only will people be lining up to use Amazon Flex, but to work for it as well. In addition to Amazon, on Oct. 13, Starbucks launched one New York City store to test out their Green Apron delivery service and hand-deliver Starbucks drinks to customers.

As a consumer, Tindall said that, in certain markets, she could see the gig economy taking over small businesses.

“I think the gig economy could be the future for delivery and transportation-based services,” Tindall said. “Uber is always readily available for me and I think customers appreciate how widespread and realistic the service is.”

SHREYA GUNUKULA STAFF WRITER

Dec 11

US CHOIR ASSEMBLY

THANKSGIVING BREAK

PEOPLE OF COLOR CONFERENCE

HOCKADAY THEATER COMPANY PERFOMRANCE

Dec 3

Dec 8

Nov

21-29

DANCE ASSEMBLY

Penson Gym, 11:45 a.m.

Nov 18

Hockaday

DEBATE TOURNAMENT Nov

13-14

4:00 p.m.

US MUSICAL AUDITIONS Nov

10-11

Hayfever, 7:30 p.m.

UPPER SCHOOL FALL PLAY Nov 6-7

CANDY DRIVE

Nov 2-6

Bring in your leftover Halloween candy!

FOURWARD

Hicks, 11:45 a.m.

1:00 p.m.

ADMISSION PREVIEW

GIFT DRIVE

US PARENTS DAY

Dec 6

Dec 1-15

Nov 19

Nov

16-19

by 2020, they will create a million new jobs for female drivers.

This predicted increase in gig economy jobs is a marker of how much the U.S. economy could change in the coming years. In addition to the multitude of people working gig economy jobs right now, there will be many more gig economy workers in the years ahead.

One of these gig economy workers is Charlie Poe, Hockaday communications manager’s Abi Poe’s husband. Poe is an assistant orchestra director at Tom C. Marsh Middle School full time, but also works for Uber part time.

“I decided to become an Uber driver because it allows you to work as much or as little as you like,” Poe said.

He noted that Uber was very thorough with background checks and driving records, showing that they are working toward having the safety and customer protocol standards of a traditional business. However, he also explained some of the differences in the hiring processes.

“In the process of becoming an Uber driver, I never had any face-to-face contact with a live person,” Poe said. “My only contact with live human beings [was] through email.”

As a gig economy worker, Poe attributes the growing trend of working part-time gig jobs to the flexibility.

“You essentially are your own boss. You’re not tied to a schedule or shift,” Poe said.

In addition to flexibility, Hockaday Upper School economics teacher Joni Palmer speculates that the reason so many people are attracted to gig economy jobs is because they require very few skills for extra income.

“If [someone looking for a part time job] went to work at Starbucks, they would [need] experience making fancy coffee drinks, but

MCDONALDS WEEK

DAY OF SERVICE

MS/US VOICE RECITAL

Austin, TX

FALL SPC

Nov 5-7

Sources: Wall Street Journal/NBC and HuffPost Pollster.

All percentages up to date at press time.

continued from p3 “She later told me that was her first time in Dallas.”

It’s not just Uber that’s taking over the small-business world. Another gig economy business, and every Upper School student’s favorite way to cheat Zoe’s Kitchen’s no-delivery policy, is Postmates.

Postmates, a delivery service that works like Uber, delivers food from a restaurant of your choice to your desired location. Many students, including sophomore Beth Ryan, use Postmates at least once a week to deliver food to school instead of having lunch in the cafeteria.

“I prefer Postmates to Hockaday lunch, and the service makes it really easy for me to get the food I want,” Ryan said.

Unlike Uber, which is cheaper than other taxi cab services, Postmates is pricier than its small-business alternative, which is ordering directly from restaurants that offer delivery services.

“It would probably be $10 cheaper if I ordered directly from a restaurant but I wouldn’t have as many options to choose from since not all restaurants deliver,” Ryan said.

Tindall, Ryan and Lay agree they use Uber and/or Postmates because of their convenience. And these are only two businesses on the running list of gig economy companies that are actively competing with traditional small businesses.

Consumers are not the only ones enticed by services from gig economy businesses; freelancers and the general public are just as attracted to working gig economy part-time jobs. Uber has just announced that

Nov 10

In October, three Democrats dropped out of the competition. The first to abandon ship was former Virginia senator Jim Webb, who never exceeded three percent in the polls, mounted a pretty weak campaign and barely received any speaking time during the Democratic debate on Oct. 13. A day later, Vice President Joe Biden formally announced that he would not be seeking nomination, quelling all speculation and rumors that developed over the past few months. More recently, early on Oct. 23, former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee, a politician who has switched from one political party to another, decided to drop out of the race. This leaves four Democrats that are still hanging on. Hillary Clinton is in the lead with 56 percent popularity while Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has 30 percent, followed by former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley with two percent and attorney Lawrence Lessing with one percent.

INAARA PADANI MANAGING EDITOR

An increased amount of people are taking gig economy part time jobs in addition to their full time jobs.

Nov 12

Democrats

1:30 p.m. Nov. 2

8:30 a.m.

The Republican ballot currently has 11 candidates. For the first time since June, TV personality and business mogul Donald Trump is no longer in the lead. Twenty-three percent of GOP primary voters favor Trump, while 29 percent favor Ben Carson, who emphasizes the fact that he’s a neurosurgeon, not a politician. The GOP debate, which took place on Oct. 29, had numerous highlight-reel moments. Nearly every candidate, except Carson and perhaps Texas Senator Ted Cruz, criticized another Democrat or Republican, and Trump even picked a fight with debate hosts Carl Quintanilla, Becky Quick and John Harwood of CNBC. While he didn’t receive as much airtime as other candidates did, Florida Senator Marco Rubio certainly had a successful night, countering an attack by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush with wisely chosen words. His performance is most likely going to help him in the polls as his popularity is already on the rise. Bush, however, advertised a weak performance, fading into the background and therefore allowing other candidates to take charge.

f

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

1/features Y

Currently

What should Hockaday save in a time capsule? p9

Luiza Gruntmane studies in Latvia p9

NOVEMBER 6, 2015

THE FOURCAST

Alumna works as hospice nurse p10

A look into the lives of Hockaday security p10

The Men (and Women) Behind The Madness The Tech Department plays an important role in the Hockaday community PHOTO BY CLAIRE FLETCHER

a

Alumna of the Issue Abigail Ryan ’05 currently works on Advanced Fuel Cells as a Senior Project Engineer in the Propulsion and Power Division of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Johnson Space Center.

What do you do as an engineer for NASA? aRight now, I’m managing the fuel cell group.

Fuel cells are a power system that take in hydrogen and oxygen and create power and water. When I came to NASA six years ago, I started working on a space shuttle, and I worked on fuel cells, sitting in Mission Control, and just kind of monitoring how the fuel cells were doing in flight. I did that for the last eight missions of the shuttle program, and ever since then I have been working on advanced fuel cells to use on the moon or on R-rated Mars, so fuel cells that take in dirty reactants like methane, because we can make methane on Mars.

1:20 p.m. Oct. 29 Computer Technicians Lee Haller and Adrienne Burnside help senior Ellie Bush and junior Ally Guba at the help desk.

O

07

BY MARY CLAIRE WILSON

pen the door to the Liza Lee Academic Research Center. Proceed forward. Summit the first flight of stairs, no matter how tempting the elevator seems. Take a deep breath. Continue up the stairs. Peer out the window and see middle school PE students running on the track. If you are feeling adventurous, jog up the last flight of stairs. After 60 stairs (which feel like 160) you have made it to the third floor of the LLARC: home of the Modern Publications Suite, the designated super-silent Upper School library and the tech help desk: a powerhouse. it a great place to learn and continued his Hockaday journey through the Technology Department.

“There is always something new whether it is a new problem or a new development, improvement. And I like the challenge of constant newness,” Hall said.

Haller agrees with the differences that Hockaday presents when it comes to the Technology Department. According to Haller, tech support at Hockaday is unlike that outside of our community.

“I have done tech support for a long time and this job was an opportunity for me to get out of the corporate world and get into a different kind of place,” Haller said.

Haller, Hall and their other nine associates provide constant support to the staff and students of all divisions regarding computer and SmartBoard issues.

By each tackling different specialties and areas of the school, technology at Hockaday is able to run smoothly. Additionally, the Technology Department is constantly dealing with problems from outside influences, like Office 365 and Haiku.

By helping technology run smoothly for the students, Haller believes he helps the girls accomplish their jobs as students.

“I have realized over the years is that girls have a job to do and that is to learn. The computer facilitates that job. When the computer breaks they cannot do their job; they get upset. So what we try and do is get them something that works, even if it is an older computer, something that they can type on and work on and we comfort them in the fact that we are going to get it repaired,” Haller said.

But sometimes the job is not as smooth and tensions can run high at the Help Desk. Although Haller and his team are there to unload the burden of computer issues, some girls become frantic when assignments get lost. The element of patience must be added to this job description.

Hall stresses the importance of listening when computer problems arise.

“Remind yourself that you can handle any situation, you just need to take time and be patient and listen,” Hall said.

The Help Desk also reminds girls that a computer is technology and it might break; things happen. Although it is frustrating, stuff happens.

How has NASA differed from what you expected? aSo I think I didn’t really understand fully what working for the government meant. NASA is part of the federal government, so that means I was part of the shutdown two years ago, so I got laid off for two and a half weeks while Congress was getting their stuff together. You don’t really realize how at the whim of Congress you are, and it makes it hard to get your money, and it makes it hard to continue your projects.

[You have] to convince a congressman you’re doing a good job, and they don’t always have backgrounds in engineering. I think that part is really hard and very different.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY ABIGAIL RYAN

What am I referring to, you ask? While the rest of the Hockaday community carries on a somewhat leisurely day, the Help Desk constantly buzzes with a different kind of energy. Although problems are being solved in classrooms all over the school, technology problems find their solutions here.

When you find yourself here it only means one thing: computer problems.

Everyone with a computer at Hockaday constantly asks them to replace hard drives, repair cracked screens and find missing files. These people behind the garage door (which serves to close the Help Desk when not open for business), start their day knowing they will only hear problems and complaints. Their job is to assist with all of the behind-the-scenes technology issues, almost wearing superman capes; they’re always there to save the day, no matter how large or complicated the problem might be.

Junior Kate Jones relies on the Technology Help Desk to fix an array of computer problems that her Lenovo presents, including printer problems.

“Tech pretty much deals with any little problem I have,” Jones said.

Although most issues that arise at the Help Desk are similar to those of Jones’, those who work there have faced their fair share of confusing yet riveting problems. One of the most famed stories from the teach desk was rooted in a tiny insect.

Lee Haller, a computer technician at the Help Desk who is rounding out his 21st year at Hockaday, describes the problem, denoting that it frequently occurs in technology lives.

“Recently we had a laptop computer be invaded by ants. We opened it up and it had colonies growing in it, of ants,” Haller said. “We don’t know where they came from or how they even got into the laptop.”

This job description is not for everyone. With the crazy technology issues and the wonky schedule, it varies greatly from a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. job that many adults take on. On duty and off duty, technology problems constantly lie on the minds of the technology workers.

During a typical day, the people at the Help Desk respond to calls from teachers via telephone about both Smartboard and general computer issues. A normal day consists of 20 or so calls from teachers.

Concerning student visits, though, every day is different.

“It can range anywhere from 10, which is a very slow day, to about 40 to 45 in a day, and that keeps us very, very, very busy,” Hall said, with humor.

According to a survey of the Upper School’s students, faculty and staff, most often seek assistance for their computers. However, many teachers seek help via telephone for other technological devices, such as SmartBoards.

Braxton Hall, Help Desk Technician at the window, was originally drawn to technology because of the constant change that it provided. After working as a security guard within the Hockaday community, Hall found

What has been the coolest experience of your job so far? aI don’t think anything beats sitting in Mission Control. I think the coolest thing I got to do was the very last mission... I got to say “fuel cells are go” for the very last launch, which was really cool. It’s kind of nerdy, but that was my favorite thing.

08

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

NOVEMBER 6, 2015

f

HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG

f

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

NOVEMBER 6, 2015

THE FOURCAST

09

Sophomore Studies Abroad in Latvia

Since Sept. 1, Luiza has been studying abroad, attending a regular high school, in Riga, the capital city of Latvia.

With her classmates, Luiza heads to Physics, her second class of the day after Composition. Feeling cold, she shivers, but hurries ahead.

More than seven hours later at 6 p.m., Luiza heads toward a local math center for tutoring to keep up with Precalculus at Hockaday. As she walks, she looks up to see the sky quickly darken, which, according to Luiza, happens in the winter because Latvia, located at a high altitude, is “literally on top of the world.”

Luiza follows after the footsteps of her older sister, Marta Gruntmane ‘08, who attended school in Latvia in eighth and ninth grade before starting at Hockaday in 10th grade.

Like Luiza, Marta did not participate in a special study abroad program; rather, she attended a regular high school there.

Marta played a large role in Luiza’s decision to study abroad.

“I am always pushing her to be brave and take chances, and live an exciting life,” Marta said.

And her parents suggested she do it too, so Luiza thought, “Why not?”

“I like to take risks, and I thought it would be fun to go to a country outside of America to see what it would be like,” she said.

It is not a surprise the sisters chose to study in Latvia. Their parents are both Latvian and their grandmothers still live there.

According to Assistant Head of Upper School Elizabeth Jones, Luiza plans to make a smooth transition back to Hockaday after her time abroad.

Luiza’s grades at the Latvian arts school will not factor back into her Hockaday GPA and will appear on a separate transcript when sent to colleges. However, the work she completes in Latvia will be counted towards her graduation requirements, so that she will be able to reenter Hockaday smoothly and graduate on time.

This process that Luiza is following is modeled after how other Hockaday students have taken advantage of special study abroad programs, like High Mountain Institute in Colorado and Swiss Semester in Zermatt, Switzerland.

For Luiza, who was unsure at first whether or not she would be getting academic credits, getting a

unique experience took precedence over worrying about credits.

“I think that it’s better to just run and jump, and then when I come back I’ll figure out the rest,” she said.

But fulfilling her graduation requirements will not be a problem.

She has her four years in high school planned to where she can complete Hockaday’s requirements on time.

Former Head of Upper School John Ashton also assisted her in her decision to study abroad.

“He was like my parents, who said it would be all okay when I came back, and that it was really important for me to get this experience,” Luiza said.

According to Jones, Ashton had “great conversations” with both Luiza and her family, and he spent time working to understand the curriculum Luiza would learn at the Latvian arts school to ensure that she could transition smoothly back to Hockaday.

“There was a lot of work done to make sure that she’s engaged in courses during her time away that will allow her to reenter Hockaday,” Jones said.

But studying abroad comes with challenges.

“The last time I painted was in like fourth grade, so it’s really difficult to make it look like I know what I’m doing, since most of my classmates went to an art school before going to this one,” Luiza said.

In addition, Luiza is taking all her core classes in Latvian, which is “pretty challenging, considering

PHOTO PROVIDED BY LUIZA GRUNTMANE

A

t 10:30 a.m. on a Friday in October, sophomore Luiza Gruntmane gets off a 10-minute tram ride with her classmates, a route that took her from the first building of Riga’s Design and Art High School to the second.

12 p.m. Oct. 15 Gruntmane poses with classmates during their field trip to Kolkas Rags, the tip of Latvia. that before last month, I had never read a Latvian book before.”

Coping with these challenges, it often takes her longer than native students to complete her homework.

“While it might take native students to do drawing and math homework in three hours, it’ll take me five,” Luiza said.

Luiza said that Latvian math courses are more difficult than the ones she is used to in the States.

“They are insane at math…they learn pre-cal in eighth grade,” she said.

As a way to overcome these academic challenges, Luiza goes to tutoring four times a week to keep up with Precalculus and French at Hockaday.

“Sometimes it’s hard to fully experience being here because I have to do so much stuff,” she said.

These experiences were ones that Marta went through as well.

“School in Latvia is pretty hard and the teachers are really strict,” Marta said.

Reflecting on her own time in Latvia, Marta is happy she had the opportunity to study abroad and said the benefits outweigh the complications.

“I learned to speak Latvian better and developed friendships there with girls who are still my best friends,” she said. “I got to gain life-enriching experiences, see the world and become a well-rounded person!”

CATHERINE JIANG WEB EDITOR

What “Seeds” of Hockaday Would We Preserve?

O

n a small, isolated Norwegian island between the North Pole and Norway lies Svalbard, a global seed vault. Svalbard stores a few seeds of nearly every single genetic crop in the world, saving them for future natural disasters like floods and famines that could decrease potential crop diversity. Right now, the vault contains 860 thousand samples, coming from nearly every established country in the world. While there are other seed banks, none are as ideal as Svalbard – it’s relatively isolated, yet accessible, so it’s in less danger of being overtaken in war. It’s stable geographically and far above sea level, so the vault can’t be destroyed by floods or earthquakes. And at 18 degrees Celsius (or 0.4 degrees Fahrenheit) coupled with low humidity, the vault is the ideal place to keep perishable seeds for hundreds – even thousands – of years. So that got The Fourcast staff thinking – what would we put in a Hockaday vault? What do we want to keep for hundreds of years and for future generations? Here’s what we came up with.

d

Various uniform items: skirts, blazers, pants and a commencement dress and hat from years’ past We’ve seen the evolution of the uniform throughout the years.

The best way to capture the current moment? Through our clothes (although all must be within four inches of the knee.)

The jade plant It’s an iconic piece of Hockaday history, so we must protect it at all costs. Bonus: Because the jade plant is a succulent, it draws its water from the air; we could store it in the vault without fear of needing to water it!

Toshiba (in memoriam) Innovation at its peak. Let us not forget the complexity of this treasured piece of technology: a portable fan, a noise machine, a heating pad and last but not least, a computer.

Copies of The Fourcast, Vibrato and Cornerstones Recordings of our history are the best way to preserve the past. And see the talent of the publications department too!

The Homo naledi bones The man, the myth, the legend...

Homo naledi.

A recipe for chicken parm, Hockapunch and chess pie (the perfect Hockaday lunch) We should always be prepared for the worst.

What happens if we have some kind of natural disaster and we lose the recipes?

Actual cornerstones The (literal) foundations of this school.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY WENDY HO

A JRP All the blood, sweat and tears of Upper School in one document.

Luckily for Hockaday, because we aren’t storing any Y perishables, our vault items wouldn’t have to travel to Norway

to be safe – just somewhere secure, dry and with low humidity.

We’re feeling the bomb shelter – what about you?

SUNILA STEEPHEN BUSINESS MANAGER

Daisy Duels

A look into the tussles and quarrels of the Upper School community.

VS. STUDENTS

BY HEIDI KIM

VS. SCIENCE STAIRS

It’s 1:07 p.m. You are racing to C period biology, but it’s all the way on the third floor. You hustle to the elevator, only to groan in dismay as the doors close in your face. There is only one option left: the staircase. You race up the steps, but people are scrambling down on the other side – you are forced to squeeze between them, knocking them in the side with your backpack and only having time to turn your head for a second and yell out a quick, “Sorry!” as you continue to run up the stairs. But no matter how hard you fight, the tiny, narrow staircase always wins as you finally reach the top of it, exasperated and about ready to collapse. By the time you manage to stumble into class, it’s already 1:12 p.m.

GENETICS STUDENTS

ANATOMY CLASSROOM

The Genetics students listen attentively as Dr. Fishel talks about monohybrid crosses. Suddenly, the students’ eyes grow wide: She has just asked the class to go next door to get their Drosophila (fruit flies). Each pair of students share panicked glances and then insist it’s the other’s turn to get the flies. The unlucky ones hold their breaths. The Anatomy students stare as they come in clusters, attempting to avoid eye contact with the dead sharks displayed on the tables.

Eventually, turning almost purple, the students can no longer hold their breaths. The stench of a fresh fish market and chemical lab invades their noses and they are left paralyzed in disgust. They grab their flies and return to the Genetics classroom, relieved but scarred forever.

VS. FRESHMEN

Oct. 23

END OF THE FIRST QUARTER

Freshmen: young, inexperienced and stressed. It’s their first year in high school, and the end of the quarter is drawing near. Terrified and in panic mode, nothing but worry consumes their mind as they cry out, “I AM NEVER GOING TO GET INTO COLLEGE!” They shuffle through their papers and assessments, trying to calculate if that one B+ in math will bring down their overall GPA. The world is going to come to an end if they don’t make all A’s. How? It just is.

PHOTOS BY HEIDI KIM

10

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

NOVEMBER 6, 2015

f

HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG

HUMANS OF HOCKADAY | A Look Into the Lives, Passions and Secrets of the People at Hockaday

Q

What is the hardest thing you have ever had to do?

This issue, the Fourcast talked to the Hockaday security staff. Although they do a lot of behind the scenes work, their contribution is essential to the school. They are in charge of keeping the school system running smoothly and are responsible for our safety, and they do a lot more than just unlock the door to the science building.

BELINDA BROWN

CODY CLARK

DANNY USSERY

MATT CHRISTOPHER

RACHELLE MEDLIN

SECURITY OFFICER

DALLAS POLICE OFFICER

SECURITY SERVICES SUPERVISOR

SECURITY OFFICER

SECURITY OFFICER

“Getting divorced after 26 years of marriage. Learning how to be on my own, learning how to do everything on my own, learning how to live on my own, do my finances on my own, learning to support myself.

[But] I do think it made me stronger.

I see things different and see how it’s going to affect me rather than me and another person.”

“I had to go with the Child Protective Services and remove a child from their parents. It was just hard knowing the child wanted to be with the parent. They were crying, asking to stay, and the parent was saying, ‘Don’t take my baby.’

The kid was four or five. But I was happy knowing that the child was being removed from a dangerous situation. Some people make wrong decisions. I was very grateful for the way my parents raised me.”

“I worked at RubberMaid. I had to load 18 wheeler trailers with boxes. If you didn’t have them in a certain way, then they wouldn’t fit.

And I’m a short, small guy, so it was really hard physically. I was only 5’2, so I had to use a step stool that we made. We had to inspect bowls, and everything was so fast-paced. We had 10 to 20 different things coming at us at once. It got me to where I could do things in a faster pace than you would think. It made me more of a leader. If I messed up, I had to go back and rebox it. I had to fix problems without making worse problems. If you messed up something up, you had to fix it. It taught me a lot. That’s why I’m at Hockaday today.”

“To be at my great-grandfather’s funeral. The scene, having that person you have conversations like we do right now, they’re not here now. They’re never coming back. And just seeing the casket open and seeing him there; it was kind of surreal. [It’s] something that many people do. That’s what I’m afraid of. I haven’t experienced many hardships in my life. It kinda scares me to think how it will affect me when they pop up.”

“Having to say goodbye to a loved one. My cousin. He just passed away a week ago. We were really, really close. He was a really special kid. His smile would light up your day. He was 15; he passed away in a train accident. When he was born, he started having seizures really badly as a baby, so even as a teenager his brain functioned like a 2-year-old. He liked loud noises, and he felt the vibrations [of the train]. It does make me more grateful, getting to see the ones you love everyday. In a weird way, life itself becomes brighter than it was before.

It makes you think about the silly things… is it worth it? Probably not.”

PHOTOS BY HEIDI KIM

Alumna Supports the Community through Hospice Work

W

Walking into a hospice patient’s home, Lilly Lerer ‘10 makes sure to slip off her shoes at the door, warmly greets the family members of the patient and then takes a seat on their couch, ready to converse.

One of the patients who she visits frequently is an 89-year-old man from China. He resides in a house with his wife, who is nearing the age of 90. Speaking in broken Chinese, Lerer communicates with her patient, nodding and smiling at words or phrases she does not understand.

However, that does not hinder the relationship she has with her patients.

“It’s amazing to see the effect that just being a listening presence has on the patients,” Lerer said.

“When I show up, they are just elated.”

Lerer has the opportunity to work with patients and their families through the Visiting Nurses Association, one of three non-profit, non-curative comfort care treatment centers, also known as hospice centers, in North Texas. Lerer serves as the volunteer coordinator.

Lerer described hospice care as a “team sport” because each patient has a team of doctors, nurses, social workers, volunteers and therapists supporting them through their journeys. Because hospice care was founded on volunteer support, it is the only kind of medicine which heavily relies on volunteers. Volunteers are primarily there to do simple things like “paint nails, say hello, celebrate birthdays, be a presence, read news and most importantly, listen,” Lerer said.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY LILY LERER

alking into the hospice patient’s home, Lilly Lerer ‘10 makes sure to slip off her shoes at the door, to warmly greet the family members of the patient, then take a seat on their couch, ready to converse.

Hospice work is unlike any other form of work in the medical field: patients who check into hospices are terminally ill and only have six months or less to live.

To some, working so close to death can be scary. But Lerer feels that it brings certain contentment to her own life.

“I could die five seconds from now, but I am living so fully it does not bother me that I’m going to die,” she said. “Although I absolutely love all my patients, it’s never really draining because I’m at peace with the process of death. It’s just really intense.”

From Zen to Hospice Lerer achieved this peace and contentment through Zen meditation.

Before she began working in hospice care, Lerer became involved in Zen when she was first introduced to it by former Upper School English teacher Barbara Orlovsky, who is now retired.

After her freshman year of college at the University of Chicago, Lerer chose to live in a monastery in New Mexico. She found solace in common household chores – there was much sitting, meditating, cleaning and working.

“Enlightenment is actually the product of doing dishes,” Lerer said.

“It is the most meaningful of the Zen practices for me.”

In Lerer’s stay at the monastery, she learned to surrender her entire self and began to grasp an understanding of death and its connection with life. She then concluded that she was aware and informed about the “life” part of Zen, but lacked experience and knowledge about

3:10 p.m. on June 6 Alumna Lily Lerer ‘10 at an academic conference that she co-organized in Beijing, China.

death, the other half of Zen. Lerer further realized “what is wrong with the world is not environmental destruction, it’s the people. Once people feel good about themselves, they are less [destructive] to the world.”

Through this epiphany, along with her experience with Zen meditation and her time at the monastery, Lerer changed her major from environmental studies to medical anthropology, which resulted in her current job at the VNA.

Sages and Seekers Lerer, who said that she would not be where she is today without Hockaday, decided to find a way to give back to the Upper School com-

munity. Modeled after a national program called Sages and Seekers, Lerer and English Department Head Janet Bilhartz discussed a program that would take Upper School students to volunteer at local nursing homes.

This project might be available to seniors in one English seminar during second semester, once they have less academic stress and the maturity and experience to handle the program.

“The students would write about the lives of the senior citizens, and these articles might be published in or outside of Hockaday,” Bilhartz said.

Because this idea was pitched to late to be implemented this

year, the intention is for it to occur next year. Plans to develop the project will occur in the spring.

“We realize that in our lives, there is rarely somebody there to just listen to us,” Lerer said. “It’s very rewarding to see the effect that just being there has on the patients and their families.”

Lerer and Bilhartz would like to see Hockaday students be those people and just be there.

CHERYL HAO AND EMILY FULLER STAFF WRITERS

e

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

NOVEMBER 6, 2015

THE FOURCAST

photo essay/

1

11

2

Metropolitan Moments From Dallas to New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles, senior Mercer Malakoff has studied photography and captured stories through a variety of portrait photographs. Malakoff uploads various galleries on her photography website, www.mercermalakoff.com.

1. Malakoff’s friend from City Term, Sam Downey, pictured at the Dallas quarry.

2. Malakoff photographed a woman overlooking the city of New York on top of the Waldorf Astoria.

3. Malakoff shot this portrait during a summer photography program at University of California at Los Angeles.

4. Malakoff photographed Downey during a rainy day at Coney island, New York.

3

4

5. When at a photography program in Chicago, Malakoff photographed the ferris wheel at the Navy Pier.

5

To check out more of Malakoff’s work, visit her photography website, mercermalakoff. com or scan the QR code.

12

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

in focu

NOVEMBER 6, 2015

On Aug. 1, 1966, former U.S. Marine Charles Whitman walked to the top of the clocktower of the University of Texas at Austin with five firearms. Ninety-six minutes later, 13 people were dead, 30 injured.

On Aug. 1, 2016, exactly 50 years after Whitman’s attack, UT Austin will pass a law legalizing concealed carry on campus, as will the rest of the four-year colleges in the state of Texas. As the legalization of concealed weapons on campus approaches, the topic of gun violence and the factors that cause it are fresh on the table.

HIDING THE THREAT Since that shooting in 1966 – one of the first major campus shootings in American history – seven other states have legalized campus carry in efforts to make their campuses more accessible to their CLH (Concealed License Handgun)-holding students.

Apart from Texas, the other states with campus carry are Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Oregon, Utah and Wisconsin.

Campus carry has already been enacted in other states, with degrees of success when it comes to on-campus violence, or rather the lack thereof. Because of this, those who are pro-campus carry and want that freedom in Texas can point to those examples.

For example, in Colorado, which has legalized concealed carry on-campus for the longest amount of time, there have been severely limited instances of gun violence in their two largest state universities (Colorado Boulder and Colorado State). Colorado State has had zero incidents involving a CLH student since 2003, when campus carry was legalized. At Colorado Boulder, the only incident involved a faculty member who accidentally discharged her weapon while showing it to a colleague.

However, not all states have seen the same rate of success.

On Oct. 1, nine were killed at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore. Although there was at least one student with a concealed weapon present while gunman Christopher Harper-Mercer shot his teacher and eight students, the holder of the concealed weapons license made no move to stop the violence.

Following this shooting in Oregon, President Barack Obama addressed the press from the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, ironically named for Reagan’s Press Secretary who was injured in an assassination attempt on the former president.

President Obama’s speech condemned the “routine” of mass shootings, and implored American citizens to take the legislation of gun control into their own hands. Furthermore, for those who hold concealed weapons licenses, the President asked those citizens to really think about organizations that speak for them.

Concealed weapons holders go through extensive training to receive their license, but their first reaction in a violent situation is not always to go for their gun. Especially in self-defense situations, there is always the chance that the attacker will wrestle the gun away from the defender, leading to a potentially deadly situation.

And, as the anonymous Umpqua student stated, if he had his gun out, the SWAT team could have assumed he was with, not against, the shooter.

However, when there is no ongoing violence, concealed carry on campus could actually be fairly safe.

Eric Fritsch, Ph.D, professor and chair of the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of North Texas, is a former police officer who is also leading the task force to bring the campus carry law to UNT. “UNT, as well as other state universities, have the ability to carve out...places on campus in which guns will not be allowed, even by concealed handgun holders,” Fritsch said.

But there are limits to gun-free zones.

“We couldn’t say that campus carry is not allowed in classrooms, because

then students who are CLH holders cann holders cannot go to class,” Fritsch said the law, so we have to be very strategic i Some university administrators, suc fessor of Sociology at Texas Women’s U will lead to grade inflation.

If that student had a weapon on the paper that could make-or-break someon ly effects for the grading teacher.

“In my five years as a college profes published online in Newsweek, “I have ber of emotionally distressed students wh they receive a lesser grade than what the

RULES AND REGULATIONS

While the campus carry law is bran laws have been federally regulated since Russ Morrison, public information o reau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and beginnings of gun control.

“The ‘60s are known as the most v Morrison said.

Following three infamous assassina tin Luther King, Jr., as well as President Jo ney General Robert Kennedy – Congress “[The Act] set up a whole category o sessing firearms. For instance, a person c firearm or ammunition,” Morrison said. “ bullet in their pocket, that carries weight Even now, gun control is a hot topi Typically, right-wing candidates fav of the Second Amendment; Ted Cruz and port for the rights of gun holders. On the candidates like Hillary Clinton and Bern gun control.

However, the debate over gun con candidates and political figures.

Junior Gabriella Sanford grew up a on her uncle’s farm in Minnesota. Her v centered more around education than gun privileges.

“Contrary to popular belief, the [N gun safety [and] proper usage,” Sanford s children, Sanford said, “Some people we tually just telling kids, don’t touch your [and to] always use it under supervision.

On the other hand, sophomore slightest bit of connection to guns: her pecially following the Aurora shooting of The Dark Knight Rises, has been f place for moviegoers.

Schultz says that, although the topic family have talked about gun violence and other media.

“We really need to educate people a movies with terrorists and [TV shows lik ally needs to be a conversation in teachi

CRIME IN THE CITY

Although the majority of the Americ in cities for the past couple of decades, been a hotbed for crime and violence, n access to them, speed up the process.

Within recent years, a trend has be laws, such as Illinois and New York, also urban crime (in 2013, Chicago and New on the list, behind only Los Angeles).

If it’s hard to obtain a gun in those bers spiking?

The answer is simple: Numbers don Stefano Bloch, Ph.D, is a presidentia Studies at Brown University.

“While there may be cultural or eve gun violence in urban areas, I think inc

us

eir person, the heat of a moment over a ne on scholarship could have dead-

ssor,” Gullion wrote in a column had experiences with a numwho resort to intimidation when ey feel they deserve.”

nd-new to the state of Texas, gun control e 1934. officer for the Dallas division of the BuExplosives (ATF), harkened back to the

violent decade in this country’s history,”

ations in particular – the deaths of Marohn F. Kennedy and, later, brother Attors devised the Gun Control Act. of people who were prohibited from posconvicted of a felony could not possess a “Even if [a convicted felon] has just one t.” ic in presidential debates. vor reduced gun control and a protection d Rand Paul have both voiced great supe other side of the spectrum, Democratic nie Sanders are more in favor of stricter

ntrol isn’t solely limited to presidential

around guns, learning to shoot targets view on gun control is that it should be around any attempt to revoke citizens’

National Rifle Association] does preach said. On NRA campaigns focused toward ere saying it was propaganda. It was acparents’ guns without their permission .”

Shelby Schultz’s family has only the r father owns a movie theater, and esin 2012 during the midnight premiere focused on making the theater a safe

c is a difficult one to discuss, she and her before, especially pertaining to movies

about it if we’re going to watch all these ke] Wicked City,” Schultz said. “There reing everyone about the real-life [issue].”

can population has only settled en masse , it seems that urban areas have always no matter the weapon. Guns, and easy to

ecome apparent: States with strong gun have the highest amount of gun-related w York City were numbers two and three

e states, why are the gun violence num-

n’t lie. al diversity fellow and professor of Urban

en economic explanations for increased creased gun violence in urban areas is

THE FOURCAST

really about sheer numbers and proximity,” Bloch said. “[There are] more people to get hit by bullets and more people to fight with...it’s as simple as that.”

Bloch describes the Urban Studies program at Brown as a diverse, interdisciplinary look at every aspect of cities. A course he teaches, entitled Crime in the City, examines urban criminality from different perspectives, be it political, economic or cultural.

Culturally, one association people may have about gun violence has to do with someone’s ethnicity. However, according to the Metropolitan Policy Program at University of California at Berkeley, those prejudices are unfounded. As communities have diversified, connections between races and gun violence have significantly diminished; between 1990 and 2008, gun violence committed by black citizens has halved, while that committed by Hispanic residents has nearly disappeared.

This does not mean, however, that everyone has grown less prejudiced in assumptions of gun violence perpetrators.

“Police officers judge people by their deeply superficial expressions of style as much as anything else,” Bloch said. “Seemingly superficial aspects of style matter deeply, and it affects how law enforcement see and treat individuals, both consciously and unconsciously.”

Bloch thinks that the issue of stopping gun violence is, at least theoretically, far outside the federal government’s purview.

“One of the biggest misconceptions people have about gun violence is that that which leads to gun violence is somehow organized or systematic,” Bloch said. “The misconception is that you can counter the messiness of gun violence with systematic, thoughtful, political change. I don’t think so.”

AMERICAN PERCEPTION OF GUNS Instead, Bloch has another tactic to limit gun violence, especially in cities.

“We’ve seen, over hundreds and thousands of years of human history, that social and cultural shaming of certain activities leads to the decrease of that activity,” he said.

If the direction lies in a cultural shaming of guns, surely there must be a place, a generation in which to begin that transition away from the trigger-happy, war-movie-glorifying nation America is today.

On that note, the top four best-selling video games thus far in 2015 are all about gun violence.

Numbers two, three and four (Grand Theft Auto V, Battlefield Hardline and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare) are all first-person shooter games wherein the gamer plays as the shooter.

Sanford has friends who play violent video games and definitely thinks these contribute to the normalization of gun culture. “One, people who do that stuff all the time think they can actually shoot really well,” she said. “Two...I do think, to a certain extent, it will desensitize you to having that moral boundary line.”

Schultz agrees.

“We need the moral connection about how taking a life is taking a life. We’re disassociating violence and people actually getting hurt,” she said. “[On the Internet,] we’re used to being able to knock people down without seeing them react, or seeing how it affects them.”

While these games have utterly normalized the concept of pulling the trigger to many teenagers, the majority don’t seem to understand where gun violence really comes from.

In a survey conducted of 100 Hockaday students, 41 said that they thought mental illness was the main cause of gun violence; only 26 thought normalization of gun violence was the main cause.

“A majority of the time, the people who are committing acts of terrorism are just terrorists pushing an agenda and not necessarily mentally ill people,” Schultz said. “The big problem is that the only time we’re talking about mental illness is when we’re talking about gun violence.”

Schultz still has hope for improving the discussion surrounding what causes gun violence.

“I think in almost everything, if you take away the stigma and talk about the hard issues with everyone, then you’ll find a solution,” Schultz said. “You’re going to come to the truth eventually.”

V

The big problem is that the only time we’re talking about mental illness is when we’re talking about gun violence.

STORY AND PHOTOILLUSTRATION: MARIA KATSULOS | COPY EDITOR

V

not go to class and faculty who are CLH d. “Basically, [that] nullifies the intent of in identifying these [gun-free] areas.” ch as Jessica Gullion, Ph.D, assistant proUniversity, fear that guns in classrooms

HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG

Sophomore Shelby Schultz

13

14

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

NOVEMBER 6, 2015

4/a&e

Currently

Y

How social media has evolved p16

a&e

Read about Manisha’s favorite selfie spots p16

HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG

Students model and balance schoolwork p15

“Steve Jobs” review p17

Erasing Cultures in the Middle East As ISIS’s warpath expands in the Middle East, antiquities are destroyed

IMAGE FROM ISIS RELEASED IMAGES

d Daisy in the Arts At 17, senior Kate Cooper has an impressive amount of experience under her belt. The Fourcast sat down for a chat with her to get up to date on her artwork.

What inspires you to make art?  It’s a lot of different

emotions, but mostly I have to start with something that’s direct, and then I find myself through it. Having something rudimentary from the start and then making it your own is how I create my art usually. It’s really hard because inspiration comes from self-discovery. I have to think of how certain things in my environment make me feel and how I feel about things socially or emotionally. Then, I have to take those and try and convert them. That’s why I use a lot of different mediums – because not just one medium can express everything.

3:30 p.m. Aug. 22 ISIS propaganda shows the demolition of the Temple of Baalshamin, which dates back to second century B.C.

I

What is your favorite artwork?  My favorite work was

BY KATHERINE CLEMENT

n September, ISIS committed a violent crime that only added to their list of atrocities. Beginning their destruction of the ancient Semitic city Palmyra, Syria, the terrorist organization began doing what all dictatorial regimes attempt to do: claim and control history. During Fine Arts Lead Chair Ed Long’s career, he has watched how we view art transform. “Fifty years ago, hearing about people destroying a statue would be saddening,” Long said. “Now, in the age of social media, watching someone take an ax to a priceless statue is heartbreaking, because we are helpless.” sures from armed conflict, dictators and destruction for 12 years. He emphasized what has been done in the past to protect cultural treasures.

“During World War II, it only worked because we had 3.9 million soldiers in Europe and the Monuments Men were an important part of that contingency,” Edsel said. “But we had the leadership, President Roosevelt and General Eisenhower, that understood the importance of the protection of cultural treasures and made that case to the public so there was public support for it.”

Government organizations are only now rediscovering the importance of protecting cultural treasures, because many have been lost due to time and destruction.

“Museums once said that they were only for real artifacts,” Simmons said.

“But now that they are realizing that these artifacts are gone.”

Anita Difanis is the American Association of Museums’ Director of Government Affairs and recently spoke at Southern Methodist University on the association’s stance.

“We really can’t focus on the real objects anymore because they are gone or going and copies are the best thing we are going to get,” Difanis said.

The U.S. House of Representative’s Protect and Preserve International Cultural Property Act What makes passed in the House on June 1 and a parallel bill is now being considered on the Senate floor. These [art] immortal is bills place import restrictions on items coming into U.S. from Syria and prevent stolen items from what we leave the entering the States, while also providing sanctuary for threatened objects. Congress is now behind. trying to add to those protocols by granting asylum to jobless museum curators in Anna Bottinelli Edsel those affected areas who are attempting Lead Researcher at the Monuments to save those monuments and artifacts, Men Foundation like Khaled al-Assad, a renowned Syrian archaeologist who was publicly beheaded by ISIS in August for not revealing the hidden location of some ancient relics.

Thus far, ISIS has destroyed The Suq in Aleppo and the Roman ruins of Apamea, Syria. According to these experts, ISIS’s next target will probably be the Roman city of Baalbek in Lebanon.

“Those who murder want to erase a whole culture, so killing people is not enough. Destroying their art and culture is essential to achieve their objective. We all die,” Bottinelli Edsel said. “What makes [art] immortal is what we leave behind. Art is one of the things that human beings create and that stands as witness of the human genius. No people dies until its cultural heritage is also erased.”

‘‘

Would you like to pursue art as a career?  I definitely want to pursue

art as a major. I want a Bachelor’s [degree] in art with a minor in Chinese and biology.

I can’t really predict what’s going to happen that far in the future, but in the meantime, I do want a Bachelor’s in the arts. To me, painting is something that kind of synthesizes all my other subjects and is a great form of expression.

PHOTO BY AMANDA KIM

But these are not new techniques or isolated incidents. In the late ‘30s, Hitler looted and destroyed roughly 20 percent of Europe’s art, totaling about 21,000 works, 14 percent of which are still missing. The Khmer Rouge destroyed mosques and nearly every Catholic church in Cambodia during the late ‘70s. The Greeks wiped Troy from existence around 1180 B.C., defiling shrines and obliterating its buildings, erasing the Trojans’ religion. The Arabs torched the Library of Alexandria centuries ago, expunging the Egyptians’ accumulated studies.

Alumna Erin Simmons ‘10 works for the Institute for Digital Archaeology.

While attending Oxford University in England for her undergraduate degree in archeology and anthropology, Simmons conducted her own fieldwork in Turkey and South America. Now, she organizes logistics, contacts, field crews and background research for the Institute. Its goal is to compile one million 3-D images of at-risk cultural heritage sites and objects by the end of 2016 using modified 3-D cameras distributed to volunteers from non-governmental organizations, museums, government coalitions across Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, Iran, and Yemen.

“What’s so terrifying about ISIS’s destruction is that it’s not one and done,” Simmons said. “The media treats [destruction] like a free-for-all, but it’s not.

It’s a very blatant attempt to demolish a shared cultural history. If they just wanted to get rid of it, they could smash it all up without taking any pictures.”

ISIS occupied Palmyra in May and is destroying temples at a slow rate. Its goal is to stamp out anything against the “hijacked” Islamic ideology, especially monuments to the West like the Roman ruins of Palmyra. UNESCO, the U.N.’s specialized agency for securing the world’s cultural and natural heritage sites, has been putting in little effort to save these sites.

Anna Bottinelli Edsel was part of one of the last research teams in Palmyra before Syria became a hotbed for radical Islamic activity. Now, she is the Lead Researcher at the Monuments Men Foundation and has done field work in her native Italy, the United Kingdom, and Germany.

“The U.N. and UNESCO have spent years ‘condemning’ these sort of actions and expressing ‘outrage,’ but words are not enough,” Bottinelli Edsel said.

UNESCO has been described by many as a “complicated bureaucratic machine” that is not making any concrete change.

“The enduring crime of historical loss in Syria – and around the world – doesn’t end with its barbarity. It continues in our inaction, our silence, our forgetting,” Bottinelli Edsel said. “It continues if we allow the tragedy of Syria to fade into the oblivion of headlines and hand-wringing indecision at global conferences and United Nations gatherings.”

In the past, action has allowed for monuments and art to be saved. New York Times best-selling author, Robert Edsel, has been researching and writing about the Monuments, Fine Art and Archives program of World War II, which protected and retrieved civilization’s most important artistic and cultural trea-

[a] project called “Butterfly People.” It was a really good self-exploration. First, I researched all the different kinds of butterflies and then matched them up with people in my life. Then I took muslin fabric and I cut it in the shape of the butterfly.

a&e

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

NOVEMBER 6, 2015

THE FOURCAST

15

Student Models Strut to the Top

F

sports collection, shuts her copy of “Jane Eyre” – which she is reading for her English class – and scrambles to get ready to walk New York Fashion Week.

Bush’s modeling career took off last October when she was approached by the director of Wallflower Agency while shopping on Knox Street. A few months later, she was racing around the Dallas area and beyond, modeling for various brands and designers, including Kendra Scott and Calvin Klein. But with all that glitz and glamour, she’s been forced to prioritize school, sports and modeling.

“The coolest shoot I’ve ever done is definitely modeling for the Kendra Scott spring collection for 2016,” Bush said. “It really made me realize how lucky and fortunate I am to do what I do because modeling for my favorite jewelry brand was very surreal.”

Oftentimes, Bush receives a call the night before a shoot or show, and needs to decide in that moment if she will take the job. In her mind, school always comes first. If she has a big test or project due, she will choose not to accept the job. But when she is offered once in a lifetime opportunities like walking New York Fashion Week, Bush is willing to put school on hold.

“Walking for Calvin Klein was super scary but so cool because ev-

erything and everyone was so professional, and I loved the clothing and all the models I got to work with.

I grew so much as a model from this experience,” Bush said.

However, in order to keep up with school, Bush has learned to multi-task and use all of her free time. This means doing homework or studying en route to jobs, keeping a spare stack of notecards in her suitcase, and downloading the Quizlet app on her phone. She also takes full advantages of Y periods and conferences to ask teacher questions and to get a head start on homework. And although spending more time in New York exploring Fashion Week would have been ideal, Bush completed her trip in less than two days in order to minimize time away from school as much as possible.

But there is more to Bush’s busy schedule: sports. As a member of Hockaday’s junior varsity field hockey team, she has missed multiple games and practices to walk runways or model for photo shoots.

“I made a commitment to my team at the beginning of the year,” Bush said, “So I am there the majority of the time to do anything I can to help out the team.”

And Bush is also not the only Hockaday model that is finding the balance between rocking the runway and keeping up with

PHOTOS BY RAUL ROMO

ive minutes until the top of the show!” As makeup artists powder and blend away the contour beneath her cheeks and hair stylists tug to pull her hair in a tight low ponytail, sophomore Abby Bush, dressed in Calvin Klein’s

Aug. 2014 / May 2015 Freshman Gabri Kim (left) and Sophomore Abby Bush (right) pose for the cameras.

school and extracurriculars.

Freshman Gabri Kim is also a model for Wallflower Management, and like Bush, her modeling career started unexpectedly. Last summer, Kim was her friend’s plus one at a Wallflower event, and after talking with the directors of the agency, she received her own contract a week later.

Kim, also a member of the junior varsity field hockey team, often goes to downtown Dallas after sports practice to collect digitals.

By the time she’s home, she only has a couple of hours to finish all of her homework.

These girls know the importance

of school over modeling and, as of right now, pursue modeling as a hobby.

“Even though modeling is so much fun, I would love to do something more substantial when I get older because I have other interests,” Kim said.

For senior Olivia Stern, her career started in the seventh grade at a hair salon when a man sitting a few chairs down gave her his card. She now models for Kim Dawson Agency in Dallas and has experience with big department stores like JCPenny in her resume.

Because she does mostly runway work, Stern’s weekdays schedule is often booked with Dallas lunch or dinner events that require her to miss school. However, she says that if she is honest with her teachers

about her whereabouts, they are usually very understanding.

Although Stern no longer plays sports, in her freshman year, she had to race from a big show straight to a lacrosse game, playing the entire game in full runway makeup and hair. Granted, both teams were a little confused, but Stern was there and ready to play.

These Hockaday students are following behind the footsteps of many alumnae models. Olivia Whittaker, for instance, a current freshman at the University of Southern California, often missed conference periods, lunches, Y period and free periods to rush to castings or jobs downtown.

Many might recognize Whittaker from billboards, websites or magazines as she served as the face of Cantu Beauty, an ethnic hair care line. Although she gained success with modeling, she always kept school as her number one focus. Like Bush, she learned to do homework in between shots or while she was getting her makeup done, even if it was embarrassing in front of other models.

Whittaker had some advice for girls who work as models during high school.

“Stay focused and keep true to yourself. While modeling can seem cool and glamorous, it’s very temporary, and a great education – like the one you all are receiving at Hockaday – is much more ‘glamorous’ and valuable in the long run,” Whittaker said, “Also, don’t ever compromise yourself or your values. There’s always an opportunity knocking at another door.”

AURELIA HAN STAFF WRITER

Debunking HockaMyths Jade Plant Ela Hockaday had an interest in Asian art, but was particularly interested in jade. “She thought jade was a symbol of wisdom,” Long said.

The senior class ring, the color of the uniforms and official school color all stemmed from her interest in the plant and color. Erna Lively, the head of Housekeeping in 1961, decided to grow a jade plant in honor of Ela Hockaday’s interest at the school’s new campus on Forest and Welch.

“It survived a very long time, being nurtured into a kind of bonsai, pretty shape,” Long said. “[This shape remained] until, unfortunately, we had some watering incidents.”

The Yearbook The first Hockaday publication was a yearbook published by the class of 1917. Its name, however, was not Cornerstones. Only after multiple hours of discussion and a schoolwide poll, students decided to name the yearbook “S.C.A.C.”, a combination of the first letters of each of the Cornerstones: Scholarship, Courtesy, Athletics, Character. “S.C.A.C”. even-

a

tually changed in the 1960s to the familiar yearbook name of Cornerstones still used today.

Y Period and the Block Schedule A-B-C-D-E-F-G-Y. Students may wonder how this seemingly random end to their schedule came to be. In the 1990s, faculty members banded together in a scheduling committee to draft a new block class schedule, which would offer more time for individual class periods and reduce homework turnaround time. A block of free time was quickly incorporated into the schedule. A member of that scheduling committee, Fine Arts Department Head Ed Long, said there “was an attempt to give it an acronym that would be representative of it.” C.A.P. Period was suggested for clubs, activities and projects, which was the original purpose for the block. Y was simply an accidental name that stuck, according to Long. “I think it might’ve originally been a placeholder or belonged to another school’s block schedule,” he said. “Regardless, it’s still there.”

Hockaday Crest When the family of founder Ela Hockaday travelled from Southampton, England to 17th century America, they brought a coat of arms that bore a lone unicorn at its

head and the words “Virtus Scientia.” This coat of arms became the more modernized crest adopted

by Hockaday in 1913, though still inscribed with “Virtus Scientia,” Latin for virtue and knowledge.

A Female-Empowering Student Culture Awareness of women’s rights rose and cultural attitudes turned toward feminism in the 1970s as whole, yet were especially concentrated at Hockaday. “It was a school where a girl never suffered at the hands of teachers who favored male students,” a 1989 book on Hockaday history, “Of Hearts and Minds,” said.

Teachers stated Hockadaisies talked of futures not only as mothers and homemakers in the traditional sense, but also as lawyers, writers and veterinarians. The student body’s sense of girl power was especially exemplified when the editor of feminist magazine Ms.,Gloria Steinem, came to speak at the school in 1972. Before her visit, anonymous St. Mark’s students covered campus trees with toilet paper and hung a banner equating Steinem with Joseph Stalin. “[Hockaday] students were outraged,” Long said. “They thought it was ridiculous that a bunch of boys would tell them who they shouldn’t hear speak.”

JENNY ZHU STAFF WRITER

ILLUSTRATION BY SARAH CHAN

The Masterpieces of Dallas and Fort Worth A Closer Look at the Art Housed in the Metroplex

BY KATHERINE CLEMENT

DRIPPING WITH INSPIRATION Dallas Museum of Art

MONEY, MUSCLE AND MOTION Kimbell Art Museum

POP OUT OF THE HOCKABUBBLE Dallas Museum of Art

Jackson Pollock revolutionized the modern art movement through his drip painting technique and is known as the Father of Abstract Expressionism.

Hailed by many art historians in textbooks as “the greatest painter this country has ever produced,” the Dallas Museum of Art’s “Blind Spots” is the third major U.S. museum exhibition to focus on him. The exhibition is composed of over 70 paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints created between 1947 and 1950. These “classic” drip paintings will serve as a comparison to his more well-known “Black Painting,” a series of black enamel paintings created between 1951 and 1953 of which an unprecedented 31 works will be shown. Many of these works have not been exhibited in over 50 years. “Jackson Pollock: Blind Spots” will be on display from Nov. 20, 2015 to March 20, 2016.

Gustave Caillebotte almost single-handedly funded modern Europe’s most famous and influential painting group, the Impressionists. However, he was a master in his own right, experimenting with a revolutionary perspective that created ground-breaking works of the Parisian streets and domestic life. His techniques with muscle and motion brought these scenes to life in a new manner completely different from the dancers and horses of Degas. The Kimbell’s own Caillebotte, “The Pont de l’Europe,” will hang next to the artist’s most famous works, “Paris Street Scene, Rainy Day” from the Art Institute of Chicago and “Floor Scrapers” from Musée d’Orsay in Paris, along with over 50 other works.

“Gustave Caillebotte: The Painter’s Eye” will be exhibited from Nov. 8, 2015 to Feb. 14, 2016.

Pop Art was more than just an American and British movement.

The Dallas Museum of Art’s International Pop Exhibition covers the movement’s international scope with 125 works from not just the U.S. and Britain, but from France, Brazil, Argentina, Japan and Germany, with art from a total of 13 different countries. Featuring works from artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg and Robert Rauschenberg, the exhibition also features a significant missing link in Dallas’s art history. After the assassination of JFK, Dallas separated from the Pop movement as the increasingly controversial viewpoint of the art diametrically opposed the newly uber-conservative Dallas. Assistant Curator Gabriel Ritter hopes that this exhibition can bring Pop Art back to the Dallas Community. The exhibition is on display until Jan. 17, 2016. For more information, watch October’s ArtsCast: “International Pop with the DMA.” REPRODUCTIONS PROVIDED BY NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, MUSÉE D’ORSAY AND MUSEUM OF MODERN ART

16

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

NOVEMBER 6, 2015

a&e

HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG

Me, My Selfie and I Social Media Manager Manisha Ratakonda investigated the best spots at Hockaday to hit up for a quality snap.

PHOTOS AND GRAPHIC BY CAMRYN DIXON AND KATIE O’MEARA

El Elephante Y This gentle giant, created by alumna Meredith Burke ‘15, lives in the art gallery located in the science building. This clearly made the list because how many people are able to take a selfie with a wild elephant? If you choose to take a selfie with this wild creature, be sure to handle it with care.

Z Sun Mural Walking through the halls of Upper School, it is easy to come across strong artwork created by our very own classmates. I found an amazing art mural outside of the Upper School office which was just begging for me to take a selfie with it. The sun in the mural was literally wearing sunglasses. Nothing could be cooler than that (or should I say hotter?)!

The Dawn of a New Digital Age

F

lashback to the summer of 2011: junior Joy Nesbitt, then a rising seventh grader, sat in front of her 1.5 inch-thick Toshiba Portégé. After pressing the ‘enter’ button on her keyboard, Nesbitt had triumphantly set up her very first social media account: Google Buzz. Later on, Nesbitt created a Facebook account, unbeknownst to her parents.

“Everybody was on Google Buzz,” Nesbitt said.

“Then I secretly got the Facebook account because it was just the coolest thing to have.”

Flash-forward to the present: Google Buzz is extinct; Facebook’s reign as king of social media may soon be drawing to a close.

Other social media platforms, namely Instagram and Snapchat, have arrived at the forefront of today’s digital networking. According to a spring 2015 survey conducted by Business Insider, 45 percent of teenagers in the U.S. favor Instagram or Snapchat as their favorite social media, while Facebook only claims the allegiance of 14 percent of U.S teens. This evolution of social media has even revealed visible divides between younger and older age groups.

This evolution, then, begs the question: Why is social media changing and evolving?

The short, surface-level answer is that with the birth of new social media platforms, some naturally enter the spotlight while others go out of fashion.

Upper School English teacher Jennifer Boulanger believes that social media preferences are primarily stratified by age group. Several social media platforms that were popular when she was younger, such as MySpace, have phased out. However, Facebook has continued to be one of the most popular platforms among her generation; according to Pew Research Center, 71 percent of online adults use Facebook. Boulanger believes that this is because Facebook came out at such an optimal time for her age group.

“The first social media account I got was Facebook in 2005, and it was just for college students at the time,” Boulanger said. “Facebook was great for students because you were social networking before you went out to the job market.”

With the advent of newer social media platforms, people begin to latch on to newer, trendier things. Freshman Maddie McBride, like the majority of her grade, does not have a Facebook account. She does have an Insta-

gram and a Snapchat, which she believes are the two most widely used platforms in her grade.

“I got my Instagram in fifth grade, and it was the new thing that came out,” McBride said. “When Facebook was big, I was too young to get it. Then, [my grade] was not exposed to Facebook when Instagram was big.”

However, the longer, deeper answer to questions on social media’s changes and evolution reflects on the types of connections younger people look for versus the connections that older people look for. According to Pew Research Center, teens are sharing more and more information about themselves on social media sites than they did in the past, leading to a bombardment of quick, easyto-scroll-through information on a daily basis.

For senior Juliette Turner, who has Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts, the difference in mentalities between age groups shows that younger people are more interested in knowing what everybody else is doing, which is a specialty of Snapchat’s story feature. On the other hand, older people are more interested in sharing milestone events, which is something that can be done through Facebook’s timeline feature.

“Shorter, faster media is taking off,” Turner said.

“Tweets are short, Snapchats show up for a limited time, Vine is six seconds and Instagram is one photo.”

This preference for faster-paced social media shows that younger generations are increasingly leaning towards unfiltered, informal communication. Nesbitt believes that one reason for Facebook’s relative decline in popularity is its “fakeness” and affectation.

“For Facebook, you post pictures where you think you look cute or where your life looks really happy,” Nesbitt said. “But for Snapchat, I send unflattering snaps of myself and we can all laugh about it. Social media is really changing to mimic live, face-to-face interactions.”

ELIZABETH GUO STAFF WRITER

Businesses Dunk into Social Media

S

ocial media is not only relevant to individuals. In this digital age, businesses and organizations must take the evolution of social media into account when trying to promote marketing messages.

Nicole Shepard has been the Public Relations and Social Media Specialist for Dunkin’ Donuts for one-and-a-half years. For public relations, Shepard manages campaigns endorsing different products, like pumpkin beverages in the autumn. On the social media side, Shepard manages Dunkin’ Donuts’ national channels and comes up with the different images and content that go out for each post.

“Our core channels are Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, but we also work on Snapchat, Pinterest, Vine, Periscope and other developing so-

cial media channels,” Shepard said.

Shepard strongly believes that different types of social media appeal to different age groups. “We have insights that show us what the demographics are for each platform,” she said. “Facebook skews more toward middle-aged women, while Snapchat and Instagram appeal more toward millennials and college-aged students.”

Because of this, Shepard often alters the content of messages when using different platforms to reach different age groups. If Dunkin’ Donuts wanted to put out a picture of a pumpkin latte, Shepard would make the text corresponding to the coffee more straightforward and to-thepoint on Facebook, which is what older demographics would appreciate. For Instagram, however, Shepard would try to post “cooler” pic-

tures, which she has noticed perform better. Also, she would use a joke or emoticons instead of plain text.

Even if Instagram and Snapchat are currently dominating the digital age, there is no guarantee that they will be here to stay unless they adapt to people’s ever-changing wants and needs. They may die out like Google Buzz, or they could simply become an endangered species like MySpace. Or, they could survive the test of time like Facebook, which saw its billionth user login on Aug. 27.

“Seeing this trend of evolving social media over time, I feel like Snapchat’s going to become an old person thing after a while, like Facebook is right now,” Nesbitt said. “The youngest people will find some other new social media to use.”

ELIZABETH GUO STAFF WRITER

Jade Plant Y The infamous Hockaday jade plant is one of the school’s most prized possessions, so it’s no surprise that it made the list of best selfie spots. Its verdant leaves and delicate stems make for an ideal selfie partner. When taking pictures with the jade plant, be sure to be gentle and don’t water it! Soft smiles are recommended.

Z Foucault Pendulum One of the recent additions to the school, Hockaday’s Foucault pendulum is a great spot for selfies.

Be careful, it moves quickly and it can be hard to take a picture with!

Located on the first floor of the science building, this is also a spot with almost perfect lighting. Science AND amazing lighting... what could possibly make for a better selfie?

New Pet

BY EMILY BASCHAB

a&e

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

NOVEMBER 6, 2015

THE FOURCAST

17

CULTURE POPS | The Fourcast’s Favorite Restaurants, Movies, Music, TV Shows and More

Dallas Goes Loco for Saint Rocco’s

Sounds (Pretty) Good PHOTO PROVIDED BY CAPITOL RECORDS

PHOTO BY MARIA HARRISON

Sounds Good, Feels Good 5 Seconds of Summer

T

rinity Groves, the restaurant, retail, artist and entertainment complex located by the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in West Dallas, recently added Italian to their palate with a new restaurant: Saint Rocco’s New York Italian. Restaurant legend Phil Romano, known for EatZi’s and Romano’s Macaroni Grill, opened Saint Rocco’s with Executive Chef and co-owner Jay Valley. The restaurant celebrates Italian-American cuisine.

On my first visit with my family in tow, I made my way to Trinity Groves around 7 p.m. on a Thursday night earlier this month.

Saint Rocco’s faces the spectacular Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge and the outside patio has festive string lights and overhanging oak trees.

Taking advantage of the beautiful October weather, we decided to sit in the outdoor patio though the inside of the restaurant had plenty of seating. Vintage photographs line the indoor walls, black-and-white subway tile covers the floors and the attractive kitchen is opened for diners to see.

The mix of classic Italian-American music including “That’s Amore” drowned out the noise of the passing cars. We browsed the menu that was split into appetizers, flatbreads, salads and entrees, along with a nameless soup of the week. If interested in the soup, ask the waiter, who will list the ingredients.

For the most part, all the dishes ranged from $10-$40.

To start the meal, we ordered

carpaccio served with mouthwatering meat and zesty arugula, freshly topped with Italian parmesan cheese and capers, which provided a pleasant salty tang.

The restaurant’s menu, however, does not give vegetarians, vegans and gluten-free customers many options. But their salads are not ordinary. I ordered the strawberry arugula salad with grilled balsamic strawberries.

Along with the slow and infrequent service we experienced on our first visit, the server brought me the wrong salad. Five minutes later, the waiter arrived with my dish, which had a kick in the back of my throat from the heavy balsamic dressing and the sweet strawberries.

We also ordered different flatbreads for the table: a deconstructed and unconventional Sicilian lasagna with tossed noodles, sausage and ragu, and a braised pork. The portions were generous and the plates were good to share.

Starting around 7:30 p.m., diners flocked the restaurant and

soon every table became filled.

Toward the end of our dinner, our table finished the evening with the chocolate espresso cake, which I recommend if you like both chocolate and espresso as their tastes are very evident in this cake.

After leaving Saint Rocco’s, I immediately planned a second trip to the restaurant with my parents. On a Saturday night in mid-October, we returned to Saint Rocco’s around 6 p.m. It’s a good idea to make a reservation ahead of time.

The second time around was even better! Speedy service, fresh food and an entertaining waiter satisfied our evening.

I struggled to put down the crunchy margherita flatbread at the beginning of dinner. My dad and I chose to order cannolis for dessert this time. For my first time trying a cannoli, the chocolate chips and bittersweet cream filling satisfied my appetite.

Soon after, I started planning a third trip.

Saint Rocco’s was a nice break from the traditional Ital-

ian restaurants in Dallas, mainly serving pizza and conventional takes on pasta. However, if Italian is not your preference, the restaurants at Trinity Groves range from tapas to barbeque to Japanese.

There, everyone can find something they like to eat!

According to the Saint Rocco Society of Potenza, the protector against the plague and all contagious diseases is most celebrated

by Italians. With the immigration of Italians into New York, the celebration and feast of Saint Rocco celebrated in August followed.

Now, it has arrived in West Dallas.

The bottom of the menu reads “If Saint Rocco were here eating with us today, he would say… ‘Jesus Christ, This Food is Good!” I definitely cannot argue.

MARIA HARRISON STAFF WRITER $$$ 3011 Gulden Lane #100 Monday – Thursday 5 p.m.. – 10 p.m.

Friday–Saturday 5 p.m. – 11 p.m.

Sunday 5 p.m. – 9 p.m.

“Steve Jobs” Unveils the Man Behind the Mask Steve Jobs Danny Boyle

“Who are you?”

Steve “Woz” Wozniack (Seth Rogen) asks this question to Steve Jobs (Michael Fassbender) in the middle of an argument, catching everyone, except for Jobs himself, off-guard. In the midst of a fastpaced, technological society, we are too often concerned about what we do instead of who we are. So let me ask you this: who is Steve Jobs?

You all have been directly influenced by Jobs in some way – whether it’s with the iPhone you’re holding in your hand or the iMac sitting at home. Some call him a genius. Others, a visionary. But what do we know about him, other than the things he has done?

The truth is, Jobs wasn’t exactly a model figure. He actually lacked all the skills necessary to be successful. He relied on other people to do his dirty work, but somehow, he received all of the credit.

How can that be? What made Jobs so much more successful than ev-

eryone he ever worked with?

“Steve Jobs,” directed by Danny Boyle, focuses on the three main product releases before Jobs became the permanent Apple CEO in 2000: the MacIntosh in 1984, NeXT in 1985 and the iMac in 1998 – and then went a step further.

“Jobs” delved beyond the computer screen and into the personal struggles of Jobs’ life, both as a father and as a person.

In the course of his career, Jobs managed to betray his friends and hurt his loved ones, all in a desperate desire for self-gratification.

Jobs refused to recognize the efforts of his friends, especially co-founder Wozniack and his team’s work on the Apple II, and denied any and all mistakes that he made, such as the birth of his first daughter, Lisa. But knowing this, why do we still praise

Jobs? Why does he come out on top? This will always remain a mystery, just as Jobs was to those who knew him.

As I mentioned before, “Jobs” unveils three crucial product releases during Jobs’ career. While there are flashbacks, the film zooms in on the minutes leading up to each product launch. Boyle’s unconventional style highlights the stress, fervor and violent passion that overflowed every nook and cranny of Jobs, who is so brilliantly portrayed by Fassbender, and ultimately humanizes the man who we all know as Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, into someone so much more – a father.

Jobs first rejected his paternity and refused to acknowledge Lisa as his daughter, but

PHOTO PROVIDED BY UNIVERSAL PICTURES

eventually came to terms with her mother, Chrisann Brennan (Katherine Waterston), and provided both of them with money to support themselves. Jobs, upon realizing that sometimes the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, later paid for Lisa’s Harvard tuition. Lisa’s role in the film helps us try to understand how explosively complicated Jobs really was.

Jobs never thanked anyone for doing anything for him, and his only role model was his own human desire to give the world something they had never seen before. But ultimately, Jobs’ firm understanding of consumer goods, isolated creativity and defiance of the status quo created the world we live in today – regardless of what we think about him.

“Steve Jobs” is rated R for language. Students under the age of 17 are required to be accompanied by a parent or adult guardian by the Motion Picture Association of America.

ERIN THOMAS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

On Oct. 22, 5 Seconds of Summer (5SOS) released their fourth album, “Sounds Good, Feels Good.”

According to 5SOS’s interview with Billboard, the title of the album came about in an interesting way. After the band finished recording vocals for “Hey Everybody!” as a group, lead singer Luke Hemmings said, “Sounds good, feels good.” This snippet can actually be heard in the beginning of the song. The band decided not to overthink the title of the album, and I’m glad they didn’t.

The title appropriately captures the essence of this album.

The song not only sparked the title of this album, but also was a personal favorite of mine. On Oct. 16, the band released the accompanying music video. Not only was the song fresh and upbeat, the video itself was very entertaining to watch.

The video commences with a narrator introducing the band as characters who are unhappy in life and searching for something more. The dull scene then switches to a more vibrant background as the band decides to have fun and go crazy. You see them riding segways while wearing robes and eccentric hats, playing human Pac-man and even water sliding while covered in plastic wrap. The light, comical feeling in this video definitely introduced the beginning of this album very nicely.

While 5SOS is technically a pop-punk band, it has been criticized in the past for sounding “too pop.” Critics will be happy to hear that this album is quite the opposite of that.

The band has taken a new angle to its music and veers more toward alternative music in this album, which is refreshing considering their usual style.

The album has reached a rating of 4.5/5 stars on iTunes, and their earlier released singles, “She’s Kinda Hot,” “Fly Away,” ”Permanent Vacation” and “Jet Black Heart” have already hit Billboard’s Hot 100 list.

In their interview with Billboard, the band pointed out their new song “Outer Space” as one that’s very special because it is a lot more alternative than their usual sound. Although it was over six minutes long, this song was particularly enjoyable to listen to because it also features the London Symphony Orchestra, which adds a harmonious medley of pop, punk, alternative and classical music. It was something kind of out there, but it was in the best way possible.

The orchestra also is featured in the band’s song “Invisible.” This was another very memorable piece on the album. It had a more solemn, serious tone similar to the band’s hit song “Amnesia” from their first album “5 Seconds of Summer.” It also started with the same acoustic sound that makes it feel more personal and heartwarming. The song describes a myriad of emotions as someone tries to figure out who they are after they feel like they have lost their identity. The tune and the message of the song blended together to create something that was truly mesmerizing to listen to.

I’m excited to see the future ahead for 5 Seconds of Summer and watch how they continue to grow in their music, whether that be in the pop or alternative genre. Listening to “Sounds Good, Feels Good” was definitely a memorable experience, and the album might just be their best one yet. It’s only $11.99 on iTunes, so I definitely recommend downloading a copy. It will sound and feel (pretty) good.

HEIDI KIM STAFF WRITER

18

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

NOVEMBER 6, 2015

s&w

HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG

8/sports & wellness

Currently

Y

Science Behind the Snooze p20

Juniors commit for lacrosse p20

Why you should attend Hockaday sporting events p20

Meet your favorite fall sport SPC captains p19

Women Infiltrate Fantasy Football Leagues Women challege gender stereotypes and join a male dominated force: Fantasy Football PHOTO BY MARY ORSAK

PHOTO BY MARY ORSAK

4 FourScore

A look into the numbers that define athletics.

9

Number of uniform pieces that are inside a varsity volleyball player ‘s bag: two kneepads, two shoes, two ankle guards, two jerseys and a team jacket.

2:30 p.m. Oct. 25 Sophomore Michelle Mankoff celebrates a victory on her fantasy football team.

I

7-0

Final score for the JV field hockey game that Hockaday won against All Saints in Fort Worth on Tuesday, Oct. 20.

BY MARY ORSAK

BY MARY ORSAK

t’s a Sunday night. Sophomore Michelle Mankoff reclines in her black leather chair, eyes glued to the television screen. She flips through the channels of football games on NFL Sunday Ticket as she tries to track her fantasy football players and catch all the exciting plays. Every few minutes she stares down at her phone, checking her fantasy football and ESPN apps to track the success of her starting lineup. To Mankoff, competing in fantasy football is a sport unto itself. Committed female fantasy football fans like Mankoff are not yet commonplace in American society,

but more and more are emerging. While a great discrepancy still exists between the number of men and women who play fantasy football, the number of women playing has significantly grown, increasing eight percent since 2009. A 2015 study conducted by American Express showed that 22.9 million women participate in fantasy football leagues, making up 20 percent of all fantasy football players today.

Senior fantasy football advisor from Yahoo! Sports, Liz Loza, has enjoyed seeing the number of fantasy football players grow.

“As a woman who genuinely loves football, I am happy to see more and more women delving into it, but I am just as happy to see fantasy football growing as a community regardless if they are men or women playing,” Loza said.

Loza believes this rise occurred because fantasy football allows people to engage in a social way as well as allow people to network. In her opinion, people are no longer making deals on the golf course but rather in fantasy football leagues.

In addition, Loza thinks fantasy football appeals to women because it is more than just sitting in front of a television and watching the game.

“I think that fantasy football is an amazing opportunity to blend sports and drama and social engagement,” Loza said.

STILL A BOYS’ CLUB While the number of women playing fantasy football has increased, Nickolas W. Davis and Margaret Carlisle Duncan, in their 2006 article “Sports Knowledge Is Power: Reinforcing Masculine Privilege Through Fantasy Sport League Participation” published in the Journal of Sport and Social Issue, said that fantasy football serves as a private space for men to practice masculinity without the interference of women.

Mankoff can attest to that since she has experienced this “boys’ club” mentality firsthand. When she tried to join a league at St. Mark’s, she was denied entry.

Reflecting on this reality, Anvit Reddy, a St. Mark’s senior who plays in a fantasy football league composed of 19 other St. Mark’s seniors, said of his league, “Yes, it is sort of a boys’ club, but if girls were to join the entire culture would change.”

The way sexism is often expressed in fantasy football leagues is not always overt exclusion but rather subtler forms of discrimination. While participating in other co-ed leagues, Mankoff acknowledged that she was not always

treated the same as men in the league.

“In fantasy football, you smack talk a lot and you trash talk the other team,” Mankoff said. “But in that way, I kind of felt like I was on the outside. No one really would butt heads with me and try to spark a little spat.”

BREAKING STEREOTYPES According to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, the average fantasy football player is a 37-year-old male with a bachelor’s degree and full-time employment. Mankoff, of course, breaks this stereotype. In her online competitive league with nine adults, Mankoff revels in competing against these 37-year-old males. “I really like this [league] because they all think I am some middle-aged man while in reality I am a 15-year-old girl,” Mankoff I really like this said. Other harmful stereotypes that undermine women in fantasy football are often perpetuat[league] ed in social media. Common examples include the ideas that women choose their players based because they on how cute they look in their uniform and that think I am some women play fantasy football to impress their boyfriends or significant others. middle-aged However, this is not the case with Upper School math teacher Jessica Chu, an avid fantasy man while in football player and one of the only women in her league. While she says her husband may not adreality I am a mit it, Chu said that she got her husband into footnot the reverse. “He wasn’t very passionate 15-year-old girl. ball, about it,” Chu said. “But once I started watching [football] a lot, he started getting into it and he got Sophomore very excited.”

Michelle Mankoff Mankoff, Loza and Chu are part of the vanguard of women who challenge male supremacy in fantasy football. These women do not play to break gender barriers, but also for the pure enjoyment of it.

“I think that fantasy football is a really fun thing,” Mankoff said. “[It] should not just be limited to men.”

‘‘

I

Place that the varsity cross country team earned at the SPC North Zone meet at Norbuck Park on Friday, Oct. 16.

23:44

Amount of time that junior Teal Cohen took to row the 5000 meter course at the Head of the Brazos Regatta in Waco on Saturday, Oct. 10.

s&w

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

r Senio

ba Nina LaBar

NOVEMBER 6, 2015

Sop ho m

LaBarba has played volleyball for the past 10 years. Her favorite part about volleyball is “the teamwork…you have to be mentally together as a team and you have to be able to work together.”

ore

Ell ea

THE FOURCAST

La mb

The only junior captain on cross country, Lamb has been running cross country for the past three years. “I’d always done just individual sports before and even though this is still a single person sport, our team is just so close,” Lamb said.

nio Se

Seni or B e

Wood has been running cross country for three years. Her favorite memory from the season was riding on the bus to a meet in Austin with Coach Bean and “having him sing all the words to all of these obscure songs and dancing in his seat.”

tz mpi Kra

rkle y

Wo od

le ico rN

Krampitz has played volleyball for Hockaday for the past six years. “I think this year we grew as a team because we began to communicate and we began to get aggressive with our hitting which we weren’t doing before,” Krampitz said.

SPC Captains

BY ASHNA KUMAR

Lancaster has been playing field hockey for six years, since seventh grade. She said that, in comparison to past years, the team is “really close and we play a lot more as a team than individuals.

We really pump each other up.”

r n io Se

srer n ca a L i Gig

Dec. 17

Dec. 16

FRIDAY, DEC. 17

Junior varsity soccer at home vs. Fort Worth Country Day at 5:00 p.m.

MONDAY, DEC. 14

Varsity and junior varsity soccer at home vs. Parish at 5:00 p.m.

Varsity basketball at home vs. the Australian National Team at 6:00 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 16

Dec. 14

Dec. 10

THURSDAY, DEC. 10

TUESDAY, DEC. 8

FRIDAY, DEC. 4

THURSDAY, DEC. 3

Varsity soccer away vs.

John Paul II High School at 5:30 p.m.

Varsity soccer at home vs.

Bishop Lynch. at 5:30 p.m.

Varsity soccer away vs.

Nolan Catholic High School. at 6:45 p.m.

Dec. 8

Dec. 4

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ASHNA KUMAR

Valley View Tournament for junior varsity basketball vs. Aubrey High School. at 4:30 p.m.

Dec. 3

Seni o r F ran ces B urt on

t ie hris rC ree

Nov. 19

rG

THURSDAY, NOV. 19

n io Se

Varsity soccer at home vs.

Trinity Valley. at 5:00 p.m.

l a n aP e r ki ns

Christie has played volleyball for the past eight years. In regards to their SPC performance, Christie said that “if we focus and we really work together, we can make it pretty far.” Because the team did not qualify for SPC last year, they “worked really hard to make sure that this happened,” Christie said.

This was Burton’s first year on the team; she joined after some injuries barred her from playing contact sports.

Burton’s favorite thing about cross country is a “combination of Coach Bean and the environment.”

S e nio rI

Perkins has been playing field hockey since seventh grade and has been on the varsity team since her freshman year. “The team is just really fun.

I really enjoy bonding with people from all grades and forming friendships with them,” Perkins said.

4:30 p.m.

TUESDAY, DEC. 16

Dec. Junior varsity basketball at 16 home vs. Home School at

6:30 p.m

TUESDAY, DEC. 15

Dec. Varsity basketball away vs.

15 Community High School at

School. at 7:15 p.m.

FRIDAY, DEC. 11

basketball away Dec. Varsity 11 vs. Emmett J. Conrad High

at 5:45 p.m.

TUESDAY, DEC. 8

Dec. Varsity swimming and 8 diving away vs. Cistercian

at 6:00 p.m.

TUESDAY, DEC. 8

Dec. Varsity basketball away vs.

St. Joseph Catholic School.

8

Collinsville, Texas at 6:15 p.m.

Valley View Tournament Dec. for varsity basketball in 3

THURSDAY, DEC. 3

Time trials for varsity swimming and diving at St. Mark’s at 5:30 p.m.

TUESDAY, DEC. 1

Dec. 1

6:30 p.m.

Nov. Varsity soccer at home 18 vs, Sting Central 00/02. at

THURSDAY, NOV. 18

FOURWARD

19

20

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

NOVEMBER 6, 2015

s&w

How to Take Naps: The Science Behind the Snooze The Wall Street Journal combined data from the Pew Research Center, American Academy of Sleep Medicine and several universities to find the benefits for taking naps of varying lengths. The Fourcast decided to test them out. Each of the four time lengths is rated on a scale from one to 10, with 10 being the best.

The Refresher: 10 to 20 Minutes Received little sleep last night or just generally sleep deprived? Need to make sure you don’t fall asleep during your next class? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then the power nap is the right option for you. Sleep for 10 to 20 minutes (perhaps during Conference or a free period) to quickly get back on your feet. Sleeping for this length keeps you in the stages of non-REM sleep. Sometimes, this nap is called the stage 2 nap.

My rating: 6.5/10. For the first hour, I felt pretty solid; however, my energy began to wear off at hour two.

The Power Nap: 30 Minutes Forgot to finish the second half of your chemistry problem set and had to go to bed later than usual? Feeling tired but not that tired? Have a free period and don’t have anything to do? Then this is the nap you need.

Warning: this may cause a groggy feeling for up to 30 minutes after you first wake up, you will feel much better afterwards.

My rating: 10/10. It’s as though I woke up from one of those naps you take after coming home from a Mo Ranch or any other camp where you haven’t slept in a week. My energy was replenished and I was ready to conquer my homework (I felt ready to take on the world, to be more exact).

The Energizer: 60 Minutes

The Recharger: 90 Minutes

Have a history test tomorrow? Need to remember SAT words or vocabulary for your language class? This nap will help you remember facts. It even helps recognize the faces of people and names as well. Your body gets rest and builds up both physical and mental energy. But you may feel groggy upon waking up?

Nevertheless, taking a 60-minute nap can improve your alertness for up to 10 hours.

My rating: 7/10 (Confirmed this makes you groggy when you wake up for the first 15 minutes). To be honest, I didn’t know what time of day it was.

Finished all of your homework early?

Need some creative inspiration? Ninety minute naps encompass a full cycle of sleep. It includes REM sleep, both the lighter stages and the deeper stages. Your heartrate and breathing rate increases during REM sleep and your brain is more active. Thus, during this time, you experience dreams. Babies spend up to 50 percent of their sleep in this stage, while adults spend about 20 percent. Nevertheless, it helps your emotions, creativity and procedural memory such as playing the violin or swinging a tennis racket along. Furthermore, for those of you who pulled all-nighters, 90 minute naps help you make connections in the brain. The upside to these naps is that you can easily wake up from them.

My rating: 5/10. Although this nap is quite energizing, I felt like it was actually quite difficult to wake up from. I was also in a daze for a while.

HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG

Juniors Commit to College for Lacrosse

C

radling the ball in the net of her lacrosse stick, junior Kate Love sprints down the field. As she nears the opposing side she does not hesitate; she dodges the final defender and hurles the ball at the goal. The powerful shot not only im-

presses the team and the fans: A college recruiter is in the stands.

After traveling to tournaments and attending several camps across the country, then-sophomore Love received an offer to play in college.

After exploring her options, Love verbally committed to Pennsylvania State University in December of her sophomore year. Despite Love’s verbal commitment to Penn State, her admission to the school will not become official until her senior year when she signs a letter of intent.

“My grandparents went there [Pennsylvania State University], so I’ve known what it is for a long time and it has huge school spirit,” Love said. “They also have a really good, competitive team and I really like the coaches. It seemed like the perfect fit.”

Like Love, junior Emily Stallings verbally committed to the University of Southern California at the beginning of her junior year.

“I like how close the girls are [on the team] and their drive to go big places,” Stallings said. “It makes you want to be excited to be a part of that team.”

Assistant lacrosse coach at USC, Devon Wills, communicated with Stallings through several handwritten letters during the recruiting process. After Stallings attended a clinic at USC, Wills wrote her about

what he thought of her as a lacrosse player overall.

“After the weekend it is so clear to us that you would be a great asset to this program! We see so much potential in you, and know that at USC, you would get the most out of that potential, both as a student and as an athlete,” Wills wrote in one letter.

Director of Athletics Tina Slinker says that a verbal commitment to play a sport in college is rare for juniors at Hockaday. “[When students are recruited before their senior year] is actually a compliment, in my opinion, that the colleges are asking for a verbal commitment at an earlier date,” Slinker said.

Along with playing on the Hockaday varsity lacrosse team, Love and Stallings both play for the club lacrosse team Coast 2 Coast, commonly called C2C. Molly Ford, C2C’s coach, is a big part of Love and Stalling’s love for lacrosse and successful recruitment.

Ford has seen their confidence as players as well as their skill levels grow.

“I think the biggest thing is that I’ve helped be a little bit of a role model for [Love and Stallings] because I’ve played lacrosse at a high level and know the expectations of what it takes,” Ford said.

Ford’s experience comes from playing lacrosse at Georgetown University.

“I’ve known for a really long time that I wanted to play lacrosse in college, so it was much anticipated,” Love said.

“I just couldn’t wait. I was just really excited.”

AMELIA BROWN STAFF WRITER

SONYA XU PERSPECTIVES EDITOR ILLUSTRATIONS BY ANNABELLE FOLSOM PHOTO BY MOLLY WARING

Manisha’s Mind Social Media Director Manisha Ratakonda writes her opinion on various sports issues, both globally and at Hockaday.

“Come to our game tonight! There will be food and boys,” reads almost every Facebook event created for a Hockaday sporting event. The RSVP “yes” list for the event looks somewhat promising, reaching the double digits. That is, until you realize the RSVPs are from the teammates themselves.

What exactly accounts for the lack of game attendance?

The answer is simple: homework.

Weeknights for Hockaday students consist of finishing our calculus homework, writing DBQs and waiting for Haiku to come back up. We barely have time to sleep, let alone attend a midweek sporting event. Not to mention that most students have sporting events of their own to attend.

Sometimes, the lack of attendance can even be due to students not understanding the game. I’m Manisha, I’m 17 years old and I still don’t understand how to play lacrosse. The balls are tiny and extremely hard to see when they’re trapped in the net contraptions. I find it amazing that the players are able to see with their intense goggles on. I can never even tell who has the ball, so I usually just look for the person who is being chased by the other players.

If you’re like me, some sports are harder to understand than others, but this shouldn’t stop us from attending games.

The trick is to cheer when everyone else cheers (just make sure you’re cheering for the right team). Posters and noisemakers are recommended but not required. Suggested attire consists of T-shirt and shorts or even your school uniform. It really is that simple.

As crazy and stressful as our lives might be, it would mean a lot if students, and even other athletes, could attend just one game a semester. Even if that means finishing your homework early, you will never regret coming to a Hockaday sporting event.

Even if sports aren’t for you, you should still come. Because after all, who wouldn’t have fun watching some of their best friends kick butt?

p

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

2

Currently

NOVEMBER 6, 2015

THE FOURCAST

21

/perspectives Y

Editor-in-Chief answers a student’s question p21

Sophomores debate assisted suicide p22

A look into college debt and financial aid p22

Senior goes a week without her phone p23

Land of the Free, Home of the Strange

Junior Amanda Kim When I stepped on American soil three years ago, I figured I was in for a little culture shock because I had lived in Hong Kong my whole life; however, America was far more different than I had first expected.

Sometimes it seems like you guys (or should I say “y’all?”) do everything differently; from your food to your measuring system to even the

way you talk – seriously, what is soccer? I love it here, but you have to admit… Americans are really weird. Guys: what’s so hard about using the metric system? Everyone else does it.

Why do you feel the need to be so special?

But America’s a big place, and I don’t have time to talk about everything wrong with it. Today I’m going to focus in on a place closer to all of us: Hockaday.

If you think American culture is weird, then Hockaday culture is even stranger. There’s one thing I’ll never understand about it, no matter how long I live here. Girls in Dallas spend hours putting on their makeup and straightening their hair and making sure they look pretty, but then they just go ahead and throw on a big T-shirt and some Nike shorts and trainers and leave the house.

Why? Why is this your

outfit of choice, Hockaday girls? See, where I come from, you dress up even if you’re going outside for only a few minutes. I know for certain Hong Kong isn’t unique in that aspect–even in New York, people wear nice clothing to go out.

My sister goes to a university in New York and can verify this information. Really, it’s just a part of being a self-sufficient human being. Why is this such a hard concept for Hockaday girls to grasp?

Just when I think I’ve assimilated nicely into Hockaday culture, I have to return home for the summer and reunite with my Hong Kong friends. In Hong Kong, I’m constantly reminded of how odd Hockaday culture is. One time, I forgot that I wasn’t in Dallas, and I wore shorts and a T-shirt to go meet up with my friends. This is how that

fateful encounter went down: Me: Hey guys! I’ve missed you! How is everyone?

My friends: Amanda.

What are you wearing. You look homeless.

Me: Now I remember why I left Hong Kong.

Okay, but all joking aside, I really want to be a part of American society, but I’m not sure if I’ll ever fit in properly (hyphenated American, anyone?). I wish I could wave

around the American flag and chant USA! with frat bros and follow the @SorryImTexan twitter account, but alas, I cannot.

To be fair, I’m sure I seem plenty different to Americans. I say “trainers” instead of “sneakers” and I call it “football” not “soccer,” and I still don’t understand why hamburgers are called hamburgers (seriously–where is the ham?).

Maybe someday, 20 years from now, I’ll be able to sit back in my American chair in my American home and tell my future American child about whether or not Johnny Appleseed was a real person (I am still unsure of his existence), but for now I’ll have to be content with feeling out of place.

ILLUSTRATION BY LILY SUMROW

THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID: TEACHER EDITION

Mr. Brown: I want to be on a reality TV show.

Student: Like the Kardashians?

Mr. Brown: No, like my own. I don’t have a name yet. Maybe Brown Town?

Upper School math teacher Andrew Brown in relation to his dream of having a reality TV show based on Hockaday

How have you gotten this far in your education without knowing the graph of e^-kx?

I know this is Russian but that’s no excuse for rushin’.

Fine Arts Department Chair Ed Long in orchestra rehearsal, referring to a Russian piece

You guys are so interested in the personal lives of rich people.

Upper School physics teacher Richard Taylor to his AP Physics C class

Upper School history teacher Tracy Walder regarding her AP U.S. History class’s discussion on rich people of The Gilded Age

ARE YOU ALRIGHT? Upper School history teacher Lucio Benedetto’s response to Seniors Talia Meidan and Sunila Steephen applying lotion to Senior Manisha Ratakonda’s legs

Mr. Kramer, is there a guillotine in here?

Mr. Kramer: No ladies.

Only my tests.

Junior Joy Nesbitt:

Upper School history teacher Steve Kramer’s response to a student on Halloween

STAFF STANCE | We Want Homecoming!

Friday and throughout the weekend. The school values the tradition of the alumni returning to St. Mark’s.

We understand the significance and respect this tradition and are not asking to take part in the alumni events. However, the actual dance part of homecoming is for students and does not interfere

with these events.

After all, Ursuline Academy of Dallas, another all-girls school near us, has the option to attend homecoming at their brother school, Jesuit Preparatory School of Dallas.

PHOTO BY CHER QIN

Punny asks, football, mums, dresses, suits, dinner and pictures.

What does homecoming mean to you? For many Hockaday students, they can never ask themselves this question.

Unlike many co-ed schools where all students can go to homecoming without a date or with a group of friends, this option is not available for us. Why is the tradition of homecoming that started over 100 years ago so unreachable to us?

To better understand this situation, the Fourcast spoke to St. Mark’s Interim Head of Upper School Scott Gonzalez.

To Gonzalez, homecoming is more than simply a football game and dance for the students. Aside from the game on Friday night and the dance on Saturday, St. Mark’s hosts a variety of alumni events on

Why can’t we do the same with our brother school St. Mark’s?

At the same time, it is no secret that the relationship between Hockaday and St. Mark’s has weakened over the years. Even The Remarker’s centerspread for the September issue focused on this deteriorating relationship.

The Fourcast completely agrees. We value the relationship we have with St. Mark’s very much but believe that it could be so much stronger. Thus, we would

e

Editor’s Corner Editor-in-Chief Erin Thomas answers the troubling questions of Upper School students.

Q:It’s already our senior year, and we still haven’t found the HockaPossum!

What do we do?

- Seniors Mahima Agrawal and Mercer Malakoff A: Dear concerned citizens, Ah yes, the infamous HockaPossum. Known for its stealth and cunning, the HockaPossum rarely reveals itself to any members of the human species. Unless, of course, you’re me.

Once upon a time, during my freshman year, I was strolling through Metzger Plaza when something brown and fluffy caught my eye. My time had come. The HockaPossum was going to reveal its presence to me. Me! Of all people!

I tracked it into the bushes. But, to my dismay, all I found was a discarded math textbook and what looked like parts of homo naledi.

After alerting Lee Berger about my findings, I continued my search. Why would the HockaPossum torment me like this? I, however, refused to succumb to the evil shenanigans of this wretched rodent. I would find the HockaPossum, even if it was the last thing I ever did.

After years of endless searching, I finally gave up.

But as I walked through Metzger Plaza once more as a junior, I stopped, dead in my tracks. The HockaPossum – the myth, the man, the legend – had revealed itself to me. (This moment has been filed under Erin’s Best Life Moments and is currently ranked number two. See me for more details.)

You wanna know the truth? You don’t find the HockaPossum. The HockaPossum finds you.

consider reciprocating and opening Winter Formal to them.

Winter Formal is a significant tradition at Hockaday as well. By inviting St. Mark’s, we would be able to keep it a tradition but simply allow more people into the event.

We already share other traditions and social events: Junior Patron’s Guild, mixers, spirit parties, football games and cheerleaders. They pick their homecoming queens from our school, too.

Thus, why is the dance part of homecoming not included? At the same time, why do we not include St. Mark’s in our Winter Formal?

Could opening up these dances to each other be a way to reconnect us? Could this finally be a way for us to restore the bond we once shared?

The Fourcast asks both schools to consider this.

22

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

NOVEMBER 6, 2015

p

HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG

STAFF STANDOFF | Should physician assisted suicide be legal?

WE LOVE IT, WE LOVE IT NOT

Vs

Day of Service!

Upper School pwwlay!

We love seeing how hard our friends worked on Hay Fever!

Thanksgiving break is 16 days away.

On a crisp November morning in 2014, 29-year-old Brittany Maynard laid in her bed in Portland, Ore., clutching the secobarbital pill she had received in May. She swallows it. In 30 minutes, she will be dead.

Since the times of Hippocrates in Ancient Greece, medicine has always been used to heal, not to kill. Doctors pledge the Hippocratic Oath in medical school, promising to do their best to uphold the health and safety of their patients. In one version of the Hippocratic Oath, doctors promise to “exercise [their] art solely for the cure of [their] patients, and will give no drug, perform no operation for a criminal purpose.”

Prescribing drugs that kill contradicts medicine. Every day people are diagnosed with various illnesses, whether terminal or not, there is still hope for successful treatment or even a cure.

Doctors and researchers across the world work tirelessly in labs, searching for a cure to terminal diseases ranging from cancer to HIV/AIDS. If terminally ill patients decide to die and not give treatment a chance, they will never know whether or not they could have survived and beaten their disease.

That said, if physician-assisted suicide is legalized across the United States, then its use would extend beyond just ending the suffering of the terminally ill and it might be improperly used.

If the lawmakers legalize physician-assisted suicide, then how does the government ensure that the prescriptions are being given for the right reasons?

Five states–Washington, Oregon, Vermont, Montana and most recently California–have ruled in favor of physician-assisted suicide. Whether or not a patient receives the drug is determined through requests sent to the state outlining the reasons a patient wishes for their doctor to prescribe the drug.

When the legislation goes into effect in California next year, a patient will need to submit two oral requests at least 15 days apart and one written request to the state, in addition to an exam by a psychiatrist.

Even though a psychiatrist evaluates every patient requesting physician assisted suicide, not every person is in the right state of mind to make decisions regarding life or death, especially those suffering from mental illness. According to the National Health Institute, at least 25 percent and at most 75 percent of those with a terminal illness suffer from depression.

With something as precious as life, can these requests determine whether or not someone is truly ready to give up?

You only get one life. There is always hope and the opportunity for a miracle, so why not try?

KATIE O’MEARA STAFF WRITER

Although Maynard never experienced another day holding her husband or hiking through the scenic Oregon mountains she grew to love, she evaded the unbearable pain and humiliation her illness subjected her to.

When physicians take the Hippocratic Oath, they promise to do no harm. While this is often interpreted as a doctor’s obligation to preserve life against all odds, certain circumstances warrant a different definition of harm.

For some, harm is being subjugated to an incapacitating disease that strips them of control over their own lives. To keep such patients alive against their will is as cruel as taking life from someone who wants to live.

Every person should have control over whether they want to live or die as they choose because it is their life.

62-year-old terminally ill Raymond Carnay’s last few months were captured in the 2011 documentary “How To Die In Oregon,” culminating in his choice to die with dignity.

After diagnosing him with Laryngeal cancer, Carnay’s doctors told him that his only shot at survival was to have his larynx removed. Carnay, a singer, refused the surgery. Although he had not exhausted all of his treatment options, Carnay still applied for the lethal medication because to him, this surgery would strip away every last ounce of his dignity.

“They wanted to take out the thing that has been my life,” Carnay said in the documentary. “My whole life has been my voice.”

Since Oregon passed its Death With Dignity Act in 1997, 673 people have taken newly administered lethal drugs to end their lives. According to the National Institutes of Health, there have been very few cases in which fatal drugs were abused. Laws are in place to restrict access. These governance measures create a safe framework for the patient to exercise their right to choose.

For those who argue that physician-assisted suicide takes away life, I would contend that life constitutes more than the act of breathing and existing on the fringes of consciousness that characterizes terminal patients.

Life should be enjoyed in all its variety and breadth of experiences. Our country grants us the right to pursue happiness; and sometimes the choice to die is a happier fulfillment of that pursuit than the compulsion to live.

NEHA DRONAMRAJU STAFF WRITER

Money (Should Not Be) on My Mind

Everyone listening to juniors stress out about the JRP.

Senior Inaara Padani It’s April 1–known to most Americans as April Fool’s Day, but better known to high school seniors as the day their fate is decided; the day that everything they’ve worked for comes to a single conclusion; the day their entire future flashes before their eyes!

You refresh your inbox 12 times, and once more just for good luck, and then you see it: an email from your dream college. That knot you had in your stomach seconds before transforms into pure happiness as you read the words, “Congratulations, you’ve been accepted!”

Of course you’ll go, right? It’s your dream school, and you’re in.

There’s nothing else to it. Compose a Facebook post. Start buy-

sume that college tuition is a huge expense for everyone, regardless of socioeconomic status. A substantial majority of us apply to elite colleges, which include Ivy League institutions and private universities with low acceptance rates. However, most of these schools only provide need-based scholarships, rather than those awarded for merit. As a result, some families find themselves in a complicated situation: they’re too rich for financial aid but not rich enough to pay for college.

All of this raises a critical question: what’s the point?

We spend four years of our lives molding the perfect application in hopes of being accepted to our first-choice college only to decline the acceptance due to absurdly inflated tuition costs and only a few thousand dollars in aid. Even though there are multiple external scholarship opportunities available, it’s not uncommon for a student to graduate with student debts: according to a 2014 analysis from credit bureau Experian, 40 million Americans have at least one outstanding student loan.

Unfortunately, the current system of higher education is connected to a number of other economic aspects, which makes it

ILLUSTRATION BY WENDY HO

Chilly weather but oversized sweaters and cute boots for fall!

ing college gear. Let senioritis officially commence.

But for some seniors, it’s not that easy.

For many families across the nation, the question is no longer, “Is my child accepted?” but rather, “What’s my child’s financial aid package?”

Most of these packages are based on the Free Application For Federal Student Aid–better known as FAFSA, which is then used to determine your family’s Expected Family Contribution through a complex equation that regards various factors. In simple terms, this value is the amount that the government believes your family can contribute toward college tuition.

But this formula has one problem. It doesn’t consider aspects such as paying for your younger sibling’s tuition, family expenses, saving for retirement, etc. For example, if tuition is $54,470, and your family’s EFC is $48,470, you won’t qualify for a single cent more than $6,000 in financial aid, which is the difference between tuition and EFC. The government pretty much assumes that your family can afford college without much difficulty even if that’s not the case.

Although there aren’t statistics available to show this situation at Hockaday, it’s safe to as-

difficult to find a single-faceted solution to lowering college tuition. Successfully accomplishing this would require revamping college as it is–perhaps by requiring students to spend less time in the classroom and more time practicing their profession with employers through internship opportunities.

Additionally, schools should consider offering more online courses, which would reduce the amount of funding necessary for classroom courses and therefore decrease the amount of tuition students would need to pay.

Certainly, transitioning into such a system will take years, but in the meantime, it’s important to remember one thing: while your dream school may not be a feasible option for your family, that doesn’t mean you won’t be successful. What you do at the college you attend matters much more than its name.

p

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

NOVEMBER 6, 2015

THE FOURCAST

23

A Phoneless Experience

f MANAGING EDITOR Inaara Padani WEB EDITOR Catherine Jiang

GR A

PH

IC

BY M

AN

ISH

AR

AT AK ON DA

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Erin Thomas

Senior Austria Arnold A few weeks ago, Freedom from Chemical Dependency speakers came to Hockaday and asked underclassmen if they thought of seniors as role models. “No,” they said. “They always have their faces in their phones.”

This is certainly not how I want to be remembered, so I took a challenge and put my iPhone away for five days. What you are about to read is everything I learned from this experience.

First of all, phones make life easier in so many ways. They are our alarms, our cameras and our instant access to all things, so yes, they pretty much are the best thing since sliced bread. Secondly, when you have a phone, you are never really alone. The two minutes you have to spare in your day will no doubt be used to respond to a text or to check social media. Maybe we love our phones because they keep us from being lonely. When life gets tough, we can live vicariously through the lives of our Facebook friends.

Without my iPhone, I missed the daily pop-up reminders for meetings and appointments. The lack of reminders made me have to focus more on my daily schedule and write more things down. I also struggled to handle conference calls and conduct other forms of business because my parents disconnected our home’s landline years ago.

Attempting to communicate without my iPhone was challenging to say the least. If you saw me around campus carrying around my laptop, then you can imagine how much I relied on my email. I sent emails to communicate with my parents, my friends and any group assignment partners. I struggled to communicate with friends who do not attend Hockaday because I do not have a rolodex with the emails of everyone in my life. A social life without a phone is incredibly limited.

But not having an iPhone was

BUSINESS MANAGER Sunila Steephen SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR Manisha Ratakonda NEWS EDITOR Noor Adatia FEATURES EDITOR Megan Philips ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Katherine Clement SPORTS & WELLNESS EDITOR Mary Claire Wilson PERSPECTIVES EDITOR Sonya Xu CASTOFF EDITOR Austria Arnold

not always negative. One day last week, I went into Einstein’s to get a bagel before school and found myself actually paying attention to the people around me because I was not staring at my phone. I was impressed by how patient and friendly the cashier was with each customer.

I had been in Einstein’s many times, but had failed to ever pay enough attention to the staff to recognize their genuine, friendly attitudes. I presume that is just one of the many pieces of life that I miss while I scroll through my iPhone.

While I was away from my iPhone for five days, I received roughly 300 text messages. Only about 30 of them were important. It is amazing how much you can miss in a week, but few of these things are truly important. I thought that I was doing a great job with this five day challenge until I realized that my presence was required on an important conference call later that night. I had no phone to use and for the first time in forever, I wished that I had a home phone. I frantically typed an email to my mom asking her to come home early so that I could borrow her phone for the call. Wow, what a

hassle, but thank goodness she read my email in time. She drove home quickly and I barely dialed into the call on time. That should have been much easier.

When I walk through the halls and see someone smiling at their phone, who am I to judge if they are using their phone too much?

Honestly, there is a balance between engaging in meaningful conversations in the present and engaging in important conversations through technology. Some individuals communicate better through the written word than they do in a face-to-face conversation.

One way is not better than the other; effective communication is the important part and speedy communication is always preferred.

In the modern age of technology, the world expects things quickly.

For example, all students must respond to Hockaday related emails within 24 hours of receiving them.

Nowadays, individuals are expected to constantly be plugged into the world, email and news. The reality is that we need our phones to be successful in today’s educational world.

This will not change as we transition

into the business world.

Phones are here to stay. Before you criticize my peers and me, check your phone because you may be missing out on some pretty special relationships. This is the reality of our lives and our future. The expectations forced upon our generation are tremendous because we are expected to be informed, involved and connected constantly. Our lives have less down-time than any of the lives of our predecessors. As I receive a text, I can be instantly expected to be a friend, a colleague, a mentor, a counselor or even a shoulder to cry on.

Perhaps our phones are intricate parts of our lives and our eyes are often on the screen, but that is OK. I agree, phones do not need to be an active participant at every family dinner or outing with friends.

Perhaps my generation cares for people through text messages and kind birthday posts on social media, but that is equally meaningful as a friendly hug or other caring gestures. Welcome to the 21st century: it is a quick-paced and technology-driven place, home to the most caring people I know.

PHOTO & GRAPHICS EDITOR Claire Fletcher COPY EDITOR Maria Katsulos VIDEO EDITOR Mary Orsak, Emily Fuller STAFF WRITERS Eshani Kishore, Heidi Kim, Jenny Zhu, Aurelia Han, Cheryl Hao, Elizabeth Guo, Katie O’Meara, Shreya Gunukala, Neha Dronamraju, Maria Harrison, Amelia Brown, Ashna Kumar, Amanda Kim STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS Camryn Dixon, Mercer Malakoff, Cher Qin, Molly Waring STAFF ARTISTS Emily Baschab, Sarah Chan, Kate Cooper, Annabelle Folsom, Wendy Ho, Sofi Mira, Lily Sumrow ADVISER Ana Rosenthal

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

Businesses who wish to advertise in The Fourcast should contact Sunila Steephen, Business Manager, at ssteephen@ 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 Erin Thomas, Editor-in-Chief, at ethomas@hockaday.org.

f

The Fourcast

The Hockaday School 11600 Welch Road Dallas, Texas 75229

24

THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL

NOVEMBER 6, 2015

castoff

HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG

The Most Germ-Infested Items on Campus

1 2

4

1

5

4

2

1

4 5 4

1

3 3

6

4

2

2 4

1

4

2

4 1

3

4

7

4 6 1

4

6

7

5

4

4

5 7

Color the picture to discover some of the most infested items on campus.

Look below to match the number with the color that should be filled in where it appears.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Turn the paper upside down to reveal the most germ-infested things on campus.

ILLUSTRATION BY KATE COOPER GRAPHIC BY AUSTRIA ARNOLD AND CHERYL HAO

The items colored in red are the most germ-infested areas on campus. Yuck!