e HoCkaDaY SChOOl INSIDE
DOUBLE SPORTS The Fourcast investigates girls at Hockaday who manage to play two sports during one season p19
Friday, September 26, 2014
STAAR TESTING Gooch Elementary School Principal implements tutoring program with stellar results
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NEW UPPER SCHOOL TEACHERS New teachers provide answers to questions about their lives
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RISING NUMBERS OF FINE ARTS CLASSES Enrollment in orchestra and theater class increases p14 CAFETERIA UPDATES The Hockaday cafeteria institutes new meals and plans to be healthier
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11600 Welch Rd. Dallas, Texas 75229
A Muddled View
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Volume 66 Issue 1
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news p2 features p7 photoessay p11 infocus p12 arts & entertainment p14 sports & wellness p18 perspectives p21
HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG
UNDERSTANDING AN ILLNESS: THE FOURCAST
SHATTERS THE STIGMA SURROUNDING DEPRESSION.
pg 12. PHOTO BY MOLLY WARING
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n hopes of alleviating any potentially overbearing influence that school had on both Hockaday students and faculty last year, the 6 p.m. email rule was implemented for the first time this school year. Now, teachers and students alike are no longer expected to read any email sent after 6 p.m. Gone are the evenings that were previously filled with extra assignments and the all-nighters due to last-minute miscommunication between partners—with the 6 p.m. rule in place, a standard has been established on Hockaday’s campus. According to Upper School Head John Ashton, the 6 p.m. rule is only one of the many needed solutions for the much-sought-after balance between work and play here at Hockaday. He chuckled as he described how rounds of uproarious applause were met with loud sighs of relief at that first faculty meeting in August.
Clock continued p2
PHOTO PROVIDED BY WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER KEITH PEELER
When the Clock Strikes Six
She Said Yes
Hockaday’s Jessica Smith weds longtime best friend.
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essica Smith gestured towards the orange, leather scrapbook before her on the dining hall table. As a cart of clean cups and plates were wheeled past, the worn cover of the scrapbook fluttered open, revealing Kodaks inside from her June wedding. Smith standing in her wedding dress, the beaded bodice winking in the sunlight, her white train draped behind her. Smith, arm in arm with her father, at the head of the aisle. Jessica and her handsome groom, Austin Underwood, embraced
in a kiss. She laughed bashfully, placing a small, ring-bearing hand over the photograph. “Not that one!”
Smith and Underwood, both 36, share a love story that has lasted over 30 years.
Yes continued p8
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HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG
THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL SEPTEMBER 26, 2014
NeWs Engineered to Perfection
The 6 p.m.Rule
The remodeled science building opens its doors for the 2014-2015 school year.
Balance, continued from p1
Hufsa Husain Staff Writer
PHOTO BY KATE CLEMENT
He noted that this reaction was similar to that of the students who were informed of the change only one month later. It is this exact relief that he hoped to spread by setting forth this rule. “Before, there was never really a separation between work and home,” Ashton explained. “Now, I can come home to have dinner without having to check my email or feeling like I’m not responding to someone.” He continued on to say, “and while I can and do work at home on my own time, I can delay my emails to send by 6:30 a.m. so I don’t feel like I’m inserting myself into their free time.” Senior Class Parent Representative Kendall Wilson agreed. “As a former eighthgrade English teacher, I fully understand how hard teachers work.” She said that faculty members deserve to have time to themselves and their families. Wilson also believes that through this rule students might become better at practicing time management, and that the block scheduling system provides enough leeway for students to seek out help before a specific due date. Ultimately, she believes that students should not hold the expectation that their teachers should be an available resource to them at all hours of the day. Junior Frances Burton brought up an important issue—what about the athletes? Athletes leave campus around the time the rule goes into effect, as do student trainers and people involved in musical productions. Burton, who starts her homework at around 7 p.m., says the rule “doesn’t leave people in [her] situation with many options,” a problem to which Ashton sees a simple solution. “We have seen email as this communication that should elicit an immediate response,” he said. However, “many times, it is not the most appropriate tool to use.” According to Ashton, an urgent issue can be addressed through a phone call, text or in-person visit. All in all. this rule as less of a rule and more of a guideline. Emails can still be sent or responded to after 6 p.m., the rule was created to alleviate the burden that students and faculty members have felt by having 24hour access to email. Through Ashton’s eyes, Hockaday has taken a stride towards achieving a manageable balance between work and home. F
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he newly renovated $18 the first LEED building on cammillion science building, pus. LEED, Leadership in Envicomplete with 3-D print- ronmental and Energy Design, is ers, a planetarium and a national, non-profit organizamultiple student research and tion that establishes eco-friendly idea labs, was just a blueprint on building projects. papers last year, with faculty still In order to receive the cerspeculating on the logistics and tification, the energy systems resources for the construction. must meet certain efficiency Terms like “the egg” and spaces requirements. Visible compolike the “IDEA lab” were just nents that are attributed to the terms coined by Eugene Head- LEED distinction are the water mistress Kim Wargo when dis- refill station, recycling bins and cussing plans for the Centennial the landscaping. Project last year. The water refill Now, the stations located next state of the art to the water fountains building, funded keep track and show by the Hockahow many plastic botday community tles have been saved by as a part of the the amount of refills Centennial camused with each mapaign along with chine. Other aspects the $20 million of the certification are SWINGING donation from integrated within the THROUGH TIME Hockaday alumbuilding, such as the The number of hours it na Lyda Hill ‘60, air and water systems. takes for the pendulum is being used by Dr. Marshall Bartlett, to revolve 360o. the Lower, MidHead of the Science Dedle and Upper partment, finds this cerSchool divisions tification an accomplishfor their classes. The students in- ment for Hockaday. corporate its interactive features “It’s a really big deal, it’s into their learning. hard to get that distinction,” Bartlett said. The building also features Environment-Friendly extensive safety precautions. In A milestone in Hockaday each area of the building where history, the science building is gas could be utilized in the class-
A TRUE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT Juniors Lydia Li and Annie Lin work on the JETS' robot while Junior Violet Li designs their T-shirt in the new engineering suite. The new JETS room provides students with a much larger working space.
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rooms, there is an ISIMET system, a unique safety control feature. When activated, red buttons can shut off all gas and electricity, except for lighting, for that part of the building.
Collaborative Learning Spaces New to the science building’s structure is the idea of un-tasked space. Places like the “IDEA” lab and the multiple student research areas throughout the building encourage students to explore science in a creative way. Middle School Coordinator and seventh grade science teacher Peggy Cagle said, “That was another thing: we wanted spaces for the students to come and work on projects or just sit and enjoy the new building,” The student research labs, scattered throughout the building, serve to provide students with places to conduct legitimate, individual research. “We already have a lot of students doing summer projects at universities, doing real research. We want to provide an option for them to do that during the regular school year,” Bartlett said.
Science continued p3
HOCkABrIEFs STUDENT LIFE
On Oct. 1, a “Daisy Tips” box, in which students can submit anonymous tips regardBriefing
Come support the Student Council Car Wash tomorrow from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Student Council members will be washing cars in the parking lot by the science building. There will be music, donuts and lots of clean cars. All proceeds will go to Winter Formal and provide the funds towards purchasing the venue, decorations and gifts. Last year, $820 was made at the car wash. This year, Student Council hopes to make $1,000 in profits.
Faith Isbell Staff Writer
NEWS: Building a Lighthouse / Page 5 •
Charlsea Lamb News Editor
Fear of Missing Out / Page 6
PHOTO BY AMANDA KIM
ing security concerns or suggestions, will be placed in Tarry House. Director of Safety and Security Karyn McCoy wanted to provide a way for Hockaday students to communicate with the security department. “Our goal is to encourage the students to adopt the theme: ‘If you see something, say something,” McCoy said. The “Daisy Tips” box is a small but important part of Hockaday’s recent efforts to improve and ensure safety on campus. The efforts, which include installing monitored interior and exterior cameras, adding trained security personnel and rerouting the Hoak Portico entrance, work to involve the student body more as well. “Most importantly, [the security department] wants students to know that if they need us, we are here to help them,” McCoy said.
STUDENT COUNCIL
THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL
THE FOURCAST 03
NeWs
SEPTEMBER 26, 2014
Combat in the Classroom Upper School Spycraft class explores using a world relations simulation
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said. Before entering the six week simulation, the students took an aptitude test regarding their political preferences. From these questions, Statecraft assigns a type of government most compatible with the student's answers to their country, and Walder pairs students together on this basis. The students have designed their countries, and, after the program soon assigns them different aspects of their country like its natural resources and national debt, the simulation will begin. Students will only be allowed to make decisions within their assigned government’s regulations and the aspects the computer assigns them. Through the simulation, students will learn from situations similar to real-world relations. “My hope is that the girls will have a better understanding on why governments are doing certain things,” Walder said. Senior Grace Zacarias has similar goals, hoping to learn about “the strategy of world diplomacy and how countries interact.” According to Statecraft the program will fulfill these hopes by making “abstract concepts tangible and vivid” and that “students report moving from a ‘why can’t they just solve it?’ mindset concerning [international] issues, to a more nuanced understanding of the complexities involved.”
Even in just the first couple of steps or planning for the simulation, Zacarias has already seen how complex the process can be. “It [has] definitely just made me think about the implications of a country's actions. The world today is dynamic; it requires you to think on your feet and realize that every decision you make will have larger ramifications,” Zacarias said.
And the enthusiasm for this program has been international. The list of countries participating in Statecraft is long and diverse: Australia, Canada, China, Croatia, England, Germany, Iceland, Netherlands, Nigeria, Russia, Sweden and United Arab Emirates. In the U.S., universities in 41 states are participating in the program. But this hands-on approach to understanding international
relations offers a curriculum not touched on by other Hockaday history courses. “I see a need here at Hockaday for international affairs and international relations," Walder said. "What I’m hearing is that more and more girls that are going to colleges are taking classes in that, so I want to set the girls up to be successful." F
Science continued from p2
“It’s exciting to be part of the same projector used in the the science building and con- Perot Museum of Nature and tributing to the fine Science, making it the arts side of it,” Long second one in North said. Texas. The unparalThe new Cleleled acoustics allow ments Lecture Hall for any class to hold will serve as a student discussions there. gathering place for all “It’s going to be divisions, containing There was great to be able to new chairs and carthe nighta real effort simulate peting. The architects time sky for students,” to make this Bartlett said. also installed a new ceiling that is much Long also plans to building more conducive to use the planetarium to more about project art pieces such acoustical performances and perfectly as the Sistine Chapel the girls. suited for voice recitfor his class. Chief Financial als and plays. Officer JT Coats Engineering Aspects Chief Financial Officer, JT Coats, was in charge of the moveAnticipated by many memin of this new building, overseebers of the science faculty and ing all parts of the process. “We tried to make it more members of the elective, Junior of a multifunctional space for Engineering Technical Society’s students to enjoy. It’s much new engineering room concleaner and lighter,” Coats said. tains a workshop area with 3-D The astronomy class and printers, along with an actual the Lower School will be able classroom, which will be used to make use of the planetar- for the engineering courses ofium, with its high-tech LED fered this year. “Our engineering capabililighting system, containing
ties have been magnified a lot more,” Bartlett said. Additionally, on the top floor of the building, the ceiling is left exposed so students can see the engineering of the building. Upper School science teacher Dr. Katie Croft has her office right next to the engineering facilities. “That was definitely done intentionally so you could see what is going on behind the scenes,” Croft said.
company, Daryl Flood, to make it more interactive. “I think what’s interesting is that our architects really tried to make each part of the building a learning experience,” Coats said. The selection of the furniture and fabric design contribute to the overall fun and playful environment of the building. “There was a real effort to make this building about the girls,” Coats said. As Phase I of the Hockaday Centennial Project has been completed, plans for Phase II, which includes the new fine arts building that will be integrated with the science building, are underway, with no official itinerary in set yet. “We’re very excited to have the facilities we do,” Bartlett said. “There are a lot of people who have worked to make this building a reality.” F
The “IDEA” lab contains two brand-new 3-D printers, a laser cutter and other scientific gadgets for students use in their engineering pursuits. Students will have the ability to flush out their ideas in the lab and go directly from their prototype to a constructed version of their project. “We’re going to have the manufacturing capabilities right here in the building,” Bartlett said.
New Rooms Shared spaces, like the planetarium, located inside of the “IDEA” lab, and the new History of Art and Music room, make the building even more unique. Located on the third floor, the new History of Art and Music room seats 48 people and will be used as the film screening room and for other special program. The class is taught by Ed Long, Head of the Fine Arts department.
PHOTO BY KATE CLEMENT
he Spycraft and Diplomatic class will soon understand what it feels like to have the fate of a country in their hands. Virtually. After learning about Statecraft, an online program that simulates world affairs, Spycraft and Upper School history teacher Tracy Walder looked into incorporating the handson approach to world relations into her curriculum. The simulation, created by Associate Professor of Political Science Dr. Jonathan W. Keller from James Madison University, has, until recently, only been used at a college level. But Statecraft has been testing the use of the program at a high school level through free trials, which Walder applied for and received. Walder felt that Statecraft, with its approach to international curriculum in an innovative, reality-based way, would suit and enhance her curriculum well. “First of all, it is in real time, which I think is really neat,” Walder said. She continued to say how a “current event type of class” is the best way to learn about international affairs. “I don’t think that there is any better way to learn than hands-on.” Of course, her number one choice would be to send her students to the United Nations, a true hands-on experience. “But I can’t do that, so in my opinion, this is the next best way to do that. To get them in a pressuretype of environment,” Walder
DIPLOMATIC DISCUSSIONS Upper School history teacher Tracy Walder briefs her students on the program details before they enter the Statecraft simulation.
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Swinging to the Next Century Hanging by wire in the front of the building is the one and only pendulum. But this isn’t just any decorative piece. If Foucalt’s Pendulum was located on the North Pole, it would make a revolution every 24 hours, demonstrating the Earth’s rotation. However, because of its location at Hockaday, it takes 25 and a half hours for it to revolve and knock all the pens over, an added feature made by the architecture
Megan Philips Features Editor
Noor Adatia Staff Writer Additional Reporting by: Megan Phlips Staff Writer
WaRd Sep. 27, 10 a.m. Student Council Car Wash Oct. 3 Form III Blazer Fitting
Oct. 6-9 Freedom from Chemical Dependency Oct. 7 Senior Application Party
Oct. 18 St. Mark's Homecoming
Oct. 25, 7:30 p.m. Coffeehouse
Oct. 23, 2:15 p.m. Early Release
Oct. 27, 11:45 a.m. Student Diversity Forum
Oct. 5 Admissions Preview
Oct. 10-13 Fall Break - No Classes
Oct. 24 End of 1st Quarter
Oct. 31 Halloween
Oct. 6 Yearbook Photo Retakes
Oct. 6-17 Coat Drive
Oct. 24-26 No Homework Weekend
Nov. 2 Daylight Savings Time Ends
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THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL
HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG
NeWs
SEPTEMBER 26, 2014
ISAS Self-Study Hockaday begins a year of self-study to gain accreditation from ISAS
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his year, Hockaday embarks upon a brand new century. Alongside 2014 enter fresh faces, new clubs and a refreshing return to routine. But it also marks a year of self-study. Every 10 years all independent schools in Southwest Texas, including Hockaday, are required by the Independent Schools Association of the Southwest (ISAS) to enter a year of self-study in order to gain accreditation. At the end of the year, the faculty and staff will submit a report to ISAS, detailing what Hockaday did during the academic year and how the school could advance. According to Cathy Murphree, Assistant Head of Academic Affairs, the accreditation process is meant to help the school improve. “The self-study year is a chance for us to look closely and see if we are doing what we say we are doing,” Murphree said. “We can also figure out what we are doing well and what we aren’t, and try to improve on those things. And we have a year to do that.” Murphree also said that while ISAS gives Hockaday a year to produce a report, the school's administration and faculty are not expected to fix every problem this year. "We are producing a set of recommendations to guide our work over the next few years," Murphree said. "We are identifying problems. And we may not solve the problem, but we will identify it and work towards a solution." Although the school year
has just begun, the self-study year is already underway. The first step in the process was one year ago when ISAS gave Hockaday a list of what to report on for accreditation. “Once we received the list we formed a lot of committees made of faculty and staff from every division to look at some interesting areas or potential issues that we found,” Murphree said. “It’s a great chance for this school to come together and talk about meaningful things.” And students will contribute to the study as well. Their input will be taken from the High School Surveys of Student Engagement from previous years, last year’s senior exit interviews and alumnae information. "Student input is definitely being considered," Murphree said. "Committees are already looking at the data from the survey and and data from some young alums." Upper School Head John Ashton said that he hopes that the student body will be open about their experiences at Hockaday. "I want the student body
them to reflect and share not just this year but always." For the faculty, Murphree thinks this selfstudy is a great chance for teachers to have their opinions heard. There is one meeting per month for each faculty and staff committee, as well as one department meeting every month. Every teacher serves on two committees. The committees were founded on a multitude of topics. Some look specifically at Hockaday's academics. The Learning and Teacher—A Deep Dive Committee, for example, studies learning and teaching from both student and teacher perspectives. Other committees, like the Essential Skills Committee, focus on skills outside of A KIM just the classroom. ILLUSTRATION BY AMAND Lower School Head Randall Rhodus serves on the Essential Skills Committee. “We try to figure out what essential skills every Hockaday student must graduate with and the teachers to feel em- and then we see if we are really powered to have conversa- teaching those,” Rhodus said. tions about the experiences She hopes that once the they are having here at Hock- committee finalizes the esaday," Ashton said. "I want sential skills they can find a
way to incorporate them into the curriculum in each grade of each division. She is also looking forward to working with the entire school, which she believes will give everyone more perspective on what the school is currently doing and what it could be doing better. “The great thing about this self-study year and these committees is that they are across all the divisions. I really appreciate that,” Rhodus said. “I think this can help push the whole school forward.” Ashton also believes that this self-study year will produce positive results.. “There is no concern that we won’t be accredited, but this self-study will help us create the best school for our students,” Ashton said. “I think how we deliver instruction will change; it’s already changing. I also think that what we identify as essential skills will change.” While Ashton would like to see improvement at Hockaday as a result of the self-study, there are certain aspects of Hockaday that he hopes will never change. “Besides the basics, Hockaday does a great job of providing opportunities for girls to discover and explore,” Ashton said. “More than anything, I hear a lot of laughter and see a lot of joy at this school and I hope that stays the same. I think it always will.” F Alexis Espinosa Editor-In-Chief
Davis Across Dallas Hockaday senior gets involved with the current midterm governor’s election interesting to see how many people will turn out compared to 2010,” Colliton said. Despite past elections where Republicans have swept the statewide polls and taken control of Texas House and Senate, Wendy Davis still stands as a strong Democratic candidate due to the changing Texas demographic. With the increasing population of non whites, the Democratic Party think they can achieve their goal of making Texas a political swing state in the future. Hockada junior Juliet Turner, President of the Young Rebuplicans Club, noted that this midterm election is the first time in fourteen years current Governor Rick Perry will not be running. "Because of this, it gives both candidates a better chance at winning," Turner said. Another Democratic campaign point is what they call the ‘Republican War on Women’ because Republicans have had issues with female voters in the past. “‘Republicans are seemed to be out of touch with women. It is interesting because recently graduated college women tend to vote democratic, and married women tend to vote republican, but its not enough to overthrow the number of single women voting democratic,” Kramer said. However, Abbott has more experience as a politician than Davis and has worked as Attorney General to protect the state government when the federal government has overstepped its constitutional grounds. Both candidates have inspirational stories about how they came to office and are interesting to the Texas public.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY BRIDGET COLLITON
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oining the Democratic Battlegrounds Texas forces over the summer, Hockaday Senior Bridget Colliton papered neighborhoods and called countless houses to help increase Democratic voting in Texas. Battlegrounds Texas is an organization modeled off of Obama’s previous Presidential campaign, Organizing for Action, that focuses on increasing the percentage of Democratic voters in Texas. Hockaday Upper School History Teacher and Teacher Sponsor of the Young Democrats Steve Kramer describes Battlegrounds Texas as an “effort on the part of the democratic party to turn Texas from a red state into a blue state, or at least a purple state.” In the last Governor’s election, the voter participation percentage was at 18 percent and 12 percent of voters went for Rick Perry. A goal of Battlegrounds Texas is to reach the other 82 percent of Texans who did not participate in the last election to vote democratic. The efforts by Battlegrounds Texas required hard work from volunteers. “We did door to door canvassing and made phone calls. We were trying to set up these neighborhood teams, so that when we left there would still be democratic infrastructures,” Colliton said. The labor intensive campaign had an ultimate goal of leaving behind Democratic communities within neighborhoods to encourage voter participation.“What we are really focusing on is getting more people out to vote, and so I think you will really see that in this election. It will be
PAPERING THE TOWN Senior Bridget Colliton and Battleground Texas volunteers spread Wendy Davis campaign awareness around Dallas last August. “Abbott in his mid-twenties went out jogging and a tree fell on him and he’s been paralyzed since then. Davis has a good story to tell about being raised low income and going through college and going through law school through her own merit," Kramer said. "They both have
good stories to tell." By volunteering at Battlegrounds Texas, Colliton learned more about the difficult and long campaign process and more about the policies of both candidates, Abbott and Davis. “It made me feel like I had more of a say in
it, even though I couldn’t vote yet. It’s kinda weird to see the connection between making a phone call and a certain issue,” Colliton said. F Claire Fletcher Photography Editor
THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL
THE FOURCAST 05
NeWs
SEPTEMBER 26, 2014
YOUR WORLD TODAY: A Look Into STAAR Testing
Building a Lighthouse Gooch Elementary School Principal Martha Bujanda implements new tutoring program with stellar results thanks to the help of Hockaday's student tutors PHOTOS BY PALOMA RENTERIA
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om C. Gooch Elementary School second grader Angie Nunez lines up behind her classmates on a class trip to the restroom. While waiting in line, she turns around and sees her math tutor down the hallway: Hockaday junior Claire Noble. Beaming, she exclaims, “Claire, I got a 92 on my math test!” Noble began tutoring Nunez at the beginning of her sophomore year, traveling to Gooch on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays during conference period and participating in the Saturday tutoring program. “Math was always something she said she struggled with, since she was better at reading, so you’re like ‘yay! It worked!’” Noble said. For years at Gooch Elementary School, the results from the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) had been below average. Now, thanks to a more strategic three-hour Saturday program that Gooch Principal Martha Bujanda established last year, the elementary school has transformed from a low performing “Improvement Required” to a “Met Standard” campus. The program is an addition to the already active weekday program held at the school. However, unlike the weekday program, which involves only Hockaday, Gooch partners with Hockaday, St. Mark’s School of Texas and Greenhill School in the Saturday program. The Commit Foundation, a nonprofit organization, partnered Gooch with these three private schools. At Gooch, standardized testing results had frequently been a source of concern. “I knew that we needed the help,” Bujanda said. Referring to her students as her own personal family, she continued, “I was very transparent to the community, and just stating that these are our kids. This is our city. It is incumbent upon every single citizen in our city to help. Our kids can do this.” Bujanda cited multiple possible reasons behind Gooch’s low performances in previous years, but she knew one thing for sure. “Really, it is about setting high expectations for scholars,” she said. “Scholars will rise to the level of expectations we set for them, as a school and as a community. They will rise, if we support them.” And rise, they did. In only one year through the new program that Bujanda implemented, Gooch rose
INDIVIDUAL ATTENTION During Conference Period, girls teach math and English to students at Gooch Elementary School.
to being a “Met Standard” campus, earning three out of six possible distinction designations: an academic achievement in reading/ English, a distinction for closing gaps and another for postsecondary readiness.
Bujanda said Gooch placed in the top 20 percent of public elementary schools in Texas. “The scores were monumental,” Bujanda said. She spoke of students who had never passed a state exam, but did this year.
By analyzing students’ performances on Texas standardized tests, Bujanda was able to quantify the student population’s growth between two years. Fourth graders, she said, who had scored a 38 percent on the STAAR exam last year, scored an 88 percent this year. Particularly in reading, students’ scores rose on average from 69 percent to 87 percent; in mathematics, from 61 percent to 78 percent and in writing, from 38 percent to 89 percent. Bujanda again attributes Gooch’s unprecedented level of success this year to belief in students as well as community support like assistance from Hockaday tutors. “It is about really having a belief that this is possible, that every student is capable of learning," Bujanda said. Because there is a higher consistency of high school students showing up and a longer period of time spent tutoring, the Saturday program is more strategic and systematic than the tutoring program on the weekdays. Noble finds that although her student Angie made academic progress throughout the year, what she mainly gained was a greater sense of confidence. “I could tell that she was, if anything, more confident,” Noble said. “She was always very smart. In the beginning, she was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know.’ But towards the end, she was like, ‘Oh, I know!’ or ‘It’s this, because of this.’ She was more proud of her answers.” During her time at Gooch on weekdays, Noble spent time working with another second grader, who she said was always sitting in the principal’s office due to behavioral problems. “My goal was to make sure that his time outside of class when he just had to sit in the office was not a waste of time, where he could actually be learning something," she said. “He was really smart and he did not have a chance to show how smart he was on many things.” Gooch teachers were also involved with helping the children, which contributed to the program being an “extreme amount of effort and perseverance from our Gooch scholars, and also from the faculty and staff, and a huge commitment from the entire surrounding Gooch neighborhood and Gooch community,” Bujanda said. The Saturday tutoring sessions are the result of interim data, so students are able to be tutored based on standardized testing requirements. The
tutoring, Bujanda said, focuses on the specific weaknesses and needs of each child. “We were essentially closing the achievement gap,” she said. Last year, Gooch struggled the most in mathematics. Therefore, the weekend tutoring sessions mostly target this area. Each Gooch scholar is paired with one high school student throughout the entire year according to similarities of interests, with the plan that the two would develop a more personal, meaningful relationship with each other. “The individualized attention is really what made it all better,” Noble said. Bujanda agreed. “We had various kids dedicate the entire year—all Saturdays—giving up every single Saturday, to truly invest in our community and truly dedicate themselves to their kids,” Bujanda said. Many of the Hockaday tutors also dedicated their spring breaks to helping their scholars in a mathematics spring break camp at the school. Bujanda said the high school students became so invested in the Gooch students’ progress that she was “getting phone calls from them asking how their kids had done because that is how they saw them: as their kids.” After witnessing the unprecedented amount of success Gooch achieved this year, Bujanda hopes to continue with the Saturday program, but rather than expand in the number of partners, she hopes that more high school students from the three schools come and tutor. “This was where we really felt that we were able to move the needle,” she said. Director of Service Learning Laura Day hopes that she can help move the needle for the two other elementary schools Hockaday has partnered with: Sudie L. Williams Elementary School and William L. Cabell Elementary School. Day believes Hockaday will be able to replicate Gooch’s success in these elementary schools because the program is popular and seems to be working. With three distinctions under Gooch’s belt, Bujanda hopes that Gooch can add three more distinctions this year under the program. “What we hope is to be an exemplar school, to be basically a lighthouse," Bujanda said. "We hope that everybody believes that public education is, and can be, stellar." F Catherine Jiang Sports & Wellness Editor
Average STAAR Exam Results in the Dallas Independent School District
81
Percentage of
students who passed the Algebra I STAAR exam.
91
Percentage of
students who passed the Algebra II STAAR exam.
62 66
Percentage of
students who passed the English I STAAR exam.
Percentage of
students who passed the English II STAAR exam.
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THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL
HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG
NeWs
SEPTEMBER 26, 2014
A Greener Future
H
ockaday Upper School students participated in a three-day Human Centered Design workshop over the summer to investigate the possibilities of creating a greener Hockaday community. Taught by Katherine Canales, Southern Methodist University Research Professor and Director of Design and Innovation Programs in the Lyle School of Engineering, the workshop focused on collective brainstorming in order to come up with ideas to better the Hockaday community. Junior Claire Noble went into the workshop without a definite idea of the topic, but prepared to put her brain power to the test. “We knew there was problem solving involved, but we had no idea what the topic was and we really didn’t know until the second half of the first day,” Noble said. Well into the first day of the workshop, the topic of food waste was introduced to the participants. After the topic had been revealed to the girls, a unique form of brainstorming was implemented that included giant white sheets of paper and note cards that covered the Purnell Gallery. Each student was given a notecard to write down her ideas and then place them on the sheets of paper. Junior Felicity Henderson experienced this type of brainstorming for the first time while participating in the seminar. “We would come up with ways to get people to compost more or ways to bring people on board. We were told not to have any form of criticism, good or bad, so that we could get our full ideas out there,” Henderson said. Similar to the three-day program, the faculty, including Upper School Headmaster John Ashton, was introduced to Human Centered Design
in a one-day seminar that explained the idea boards process and how “braindumping” works. “Post-it notes and note cards are temporary; we don’t think of that as some formal document,” Ashton said. “I think that’s one example of the strategy used so that when you walk into the space [Purnell Gallery] you just see that it is a creative, generative, brainstorming space.” The ban on judgement allowed for “more free thinking; you didn’t have to worry about if it was a bad idea. We wrote down every single idea, even if it involved an elephant doing s o m e t h i n g ,” Noble said. The ideas were then narrowed down to a single purpose of converting the Hockaday cafeteria to a compost system. Similar to the format of SMU courses, the Human Centered Design workshop was on a condensed scale, and its purpose was to teach how to incorporate different types of problem solving skills. However, this workshop was unique because of its emphasis to include human reaction to change and how to think outside the box. “I think that girls need to stop the filter and just let the ideas flow, which is what is stopping them more,” Noble said. “We are creative, but we don’t let ourselves because we are afraid of being judged.”
Ashton decided to support this workshop because of the way Canales emphasized creativity. “Innovation can seem mysterious to people where really this process is a neat multistep process that is very easy to understand but also provides a road map for thinking differently in design,” Ashton said. One of the big aspects of the course was “an emphasis on empathy.” Canales continued, “We really work to understand the humans in the system we’re designing and then we base our technical and design-related decisions on that understanding.” After going through the workshop process, students then presented their ideas to a committee including Ashton. However, before present-
ILLUSTRATION BY WENDY HO
Students search for greener solutions to make Hockaday a more environmentally friendly community
ing their final project to the committee, the girls developed a prototype and tested it out during lunch at the Hockaday Summer Camp. “When the kids put up their trays, they would separate food waste into a big barrel for compost. Then they prototyped that, and it worked. They did a few prototypes with kids and then came up with a solution,” Ashton said. By composting food waste, Hockaday would save money because companies will buy the compost and sell it as fertilizer or food for livestock. There was an idea to implement compost into this fall semester, but, according to Ashton, there were not enough funds. The possibility of their ideas
made into a reality was an eye-opener for the girls when they realized how much of a difference the Hockaday Community can make. Henderson realized the power students have to change the community when they work hard for something. “We, as a student body, have the ability to change some of the things at Hockaday. When it first happened, we were doubtful about our ability to move Hockaday towards compost, but by the end we realized that if we kept together and band together, Hockaday was looking at the process. It made us feel more powerful as a student body.” F Claire Fletcher Photography Editor
You’re not missing out on FOMO The increasing use of social media gives rise to a new type of social anxiety
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affects the age group of kids and teenagers most, as the need to be approved of is amped up in adolescents. “You all are at a stage in their identity development in which you need confirmation that they’re accepted,” Morse said. This view is reinforced in studies published by University of Essex’s Dr. Andrew Przybylskii. Using a 10-part test to measure individual levels of FOMO, Przybylskii. found that FOMO most affected the age group under 30, and that it had a negative correlation with age. That meant as a participant’s age increased, his or her amount of FOMO generally decreased. Przybylskii also found that those who experienced a greater amount of FOMO reported an overall lower level of need satisfaction, mood, and life satisfaction. Some Hockaday students agree that FOMO has become an issue in their life. 72.77% of Hockaday students said they felt anxious when friends planned activities without them, and 67.90% said they judged their own social lives based off of their friends on social media. Hoang said, “I
didn’t know the name for it, but I definitely feel FOMO a lot, especially on Facebook, when people are having fun and you feel kind of pathetic sitting at home alone.” If FOMO is such a negative thing, how do you get rid of it? The anecdote ultimately comes with time. “Once you get older, you have a better sense of yourself, and you don’t need others to validate your identity,” Morse said. “With time and wisdom and experience, you finally get that and FOMO can subside. People need to learn to be happy with what they have.” Tips for minimizing FOMO include unplugging, putting everything into perspective and being content with you who are. Morse said, “A simple solution that’s harder to do than say is just to unplug; just be present in the moment.” She said that whether you’re trying to get work done or eating dinner with a friend, a good idea is to avoid looking at your phone. It’s hard to not experience FOMO when you’re constantly bombarded with status updates on how other people are doing. For putting things into per
spective, senior Whytne Stevens said, “Most of the things that people post are just the good points in their life, the things they want you to see.” She continued, “Sometimes people can misinterpret that as that’s how their life really is.” She observed that what people post on social media is likely a glamorized version of what’s happening in reality, not an accurate depiction. Being content with who you are can make a huge difference according to Morse. “People need to learn to be happy with what they have, and that’s a huge lesson in life that many people never get.” F Jenny Zhu Staff Writer
ILLUSTRATION BY LILY SUMROW
n 2013, the Oxford English Dictionary added a collection of new words, including “srsly”, “food baby” and ”selfie”. Among these words also came FOMO, or the Fear Of Missing Out, which refers to the anxiety that something better is happening elsewhere. According to Upper School counselor Dr. Margaret Morse, FOMO is a basic human instinct at the fundamental roots of it. Humans want to feel connected, loved and good enough. A fear of missing out or being excluded is not something new, yet in the age of Snapchat stories and constant Facebook updates, it’s hyped up by these new technologies. FOMO is simply primal instinct exaggerated under modern circumstances. Hockaday Upper Schoolers seem to be particularly susceptible to FOMO. “A lot of people here are very extroverted and they want to be part of something. This community is so small, it’s easy to feel you’re being pushed out sometimes,” sophomore Lauren Hoang said. As stated by Morse, FOMO
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HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG
THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL SEPTEMBER 26, 2014
ffatUres She Said Yes
FeatUReD BURKE’S BUCKET LIST EARNS HER RECOGNITION
Hockaday’s Jessica Smith tied the knot with her lifelong best friend, Austin Underwood, in June. PHOTO PROVIDED BY WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER KEITH PEELER
Senior Meredith Burke has grown up loving TEDx programs at Southern Methodist University. It all started when, in seventh grade, she attended the TEDx talks. As a junior, Burke served as an advisor for Middle School students at the TEDx conference. This allowed Burke to see how each talk impacted the students. Burke knew she had an interest in speaking to the students at a future TEDx. A contest occurs each year asking students to submit short videos explaining their topics. “Last year I wanted to do it, but I didn’t have time. So, this year I was really determined to submit it because this is really my last year to do it,” Burke said. Burke chose to do her video about her summer bucket list. “I found that my summers were not spent very wisely because school is so rigorous, and during the summer I did not have that kind of direction,” explained Burke. She began this bucket list in April and added new items as she thought of them. Her list included learning how to juggle, building a sand castle shaped like a VW Bug and going rollerblading, among other activities. Students send videos to TEDx each year and a few are chosen as finalists. The finalists’ videos are then shown online and voting takes place. One or two of these students then have the opportunity to speak at TEDx. Grace Gilker ‘14 and sixth grader Isabella Page qualified to speak at TEDx during their time as Hockaday students. “The Hockaday community was so supportive during the competition,” Burke explained, after finding out she had not been chosen to speak at TEDx. “I got emails from sixth graders who I hadn’t ever met who said them and their families voted for me every single day.” F
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n 1982, the two families met at a Down Syndrome support group in Dallas. Throughout the years, Smith and Underwood kept in close touch—participating in events such as the Special Olympics and escorting each other to prom. Once childhood friends, Underwood and Smith are now husband and wife.
Saying “I Do”
PRONOUNCED HUSBAND AND WIFE Smith and Underwood exit down the aisle as a married couple after their ceremony.
Smith and Underwood tied the knot on June 28 at University Park United Methodist Church in the presence of family and friends, including Marcela Gerber, a Hockaday Lower School Spanish teacher and a longtime friend of the Smiths. “It was a beautiful wedding,” Gerber said. “As [Smith] was walking down the aisle, she stopped the whole ceremony and started hugging everyone. It was very touching.” Smith and Underwood wrote their own vows as well. A Western-theme reception followed at Eddie Deen’s Ranch. “After [Smith and Underwood] cut the cake, I had never seen someone push a piece of cake in someone’s face like [Smith] did,” Gerber said. “Cake everywhere!” The bride and groom spent their honeymoon at Rough Creek Lodge in Glen Rose, Texas.
Down On One Knee It was Christmas Eve, and Smith left her home under the impression that she and Underwood would spend the evening admiring Christmas lights. It turned into an evening that she would never forget. Underwood picked Smith up in a limousine, where he hid a video camera in a back corner to capture the moment. Smith admitted that she was caught by surprise. “I was so distracted by the Christmas lights that I didn’t even notice when [Underwood] first asked me to marry him,” Smith said. “He kept saying, ‘Jessica! Jessica! I’m trying to ask you to marry me!’” And marry him she would. Two rings now rest upon Smith’s left hand. The first, the ring that Underwood proposed with, once belonged to his mother. The second, a ring identical to one on Underwood’s hand, was a surprise gift for both Smith and Underwood from Smith’s father.
In some respects, Smith and Underwood live as the average married couple would. The two see movies, clean the house and share home-cooked meals together. “Austin does most of the cooking,” Smith said. “I just can’t.” `However, weekends mean more than Saturdays and Sundays
FEATURES Hockaday Welcomes New Teachers / Page 8 •
Austria Arnold Staff Writer
Wedding continued p8 PHOTO PROVIDED BY DOUGLAS SMITH
PHOTO PROVIDED BY WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER KEITH PEELER
A CELEBRATORY EMBRACE Hockaday Spanish teacher and Smith's friend Marcela Gerber congratulates Smith on her wedding day.
The Newlywed Life
off of work for Smith and Underwood. It is the only time that the couple truly has together. Underwood spends his weekdays in Fort Worth, holding jobs both at his mother’s store and at the local Campisi’s Restaurant. Smith, on the other hand, resides in Dallas and is a Food Services employee at Hockaday. Despite their current circumstances, the affection between Smith and Underwood is unmistakable. “[Austin] loves me so much,” Smith said. “He is a hero to me.” On May 14, Smith and Underwood’s love story aired on NBC’s The Today Show after journalist Maria Shriver, whose mother founded the Special Olympics in 1968, reached out to the couple. Set in Fort Worth, the NBC special took a day and a half to shoot. Shriver interviewed Smith and Underwood as well as their mothers, Georgia Smith and Jan Underwood. Smith and Underwood are shown cuddling in bed, holding hands and laughing. It is a picture of true love. “You always want the best for your children,” Mrs. Underwood told Shriver. “You want total happiness for them. And this is it.”
YOUNG LOVE Smith and Underwood, who met at a Down Syndrome Support Group in 1982, have been good friends since childhood.
Hockaday Alum Works to Reform Orphan Care / Page 10
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THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL
HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG
ffatUres
SEPTEMBER 26, 2014
Hockaday Welcomes New Faces New faculty members answer our burning questions
History
Math
Elizabeth Bennett
Howard Hand
If you were an ice cream flavor what would you be and why? This one is hard to answer. I’m going to say vanilla, which is pretty uncomplicated, because I try to break down complex ideas and events so students can understand and learn them more easily.
Debate
ESOL
Spanish Literature
English
What is your favorite memory from when you were in High School?
What’s your favorite part about teaching?
What is your favorite memory from when you were in High School?
What has been your favorite part about teaching at Hockaday so far?
John Inerarity
What’s your favorite part about teaching? My favorite part about teaching is getting to know students well enough so that I can meet them exactly where they are--not where I think they should be--so that I can help them in the area where they most need it.
Sandy Stroo
Debating. I remember most if not all of the debate rounds I competed in high school. Debate was and is my passion, so I vividly remember my debate rounds more than anything else that happened in high school. I especially forgot what I learned in my math classes.
Learning new things from my students. I’ve taught English to Speakers of Other Languages for many years, and getting international students’ perspectives on a reading or an interpretation of an article is always thought provoking because we Americans tend to think only from our perspective.
Alexandra Suarez
Debate
Sarah Traphagen
So many great memories it is really hard to choose just one, but I will have to say that the best part was always being surrounded by amazing friends who are still amongst my favorite people in the world.
Chuck Walts
The overall warm and genuine atmosphere. My colleagues are so thoughtful and caring. I’ve enjoyed getting to know my students as well. I can’t get over the array of green and white saddle shoes everywhere I look. They are so cute. Oh, and lunch, of course.
If you were having a dinner party and you could invite 3 people, living or dead, who would you invite? 1. Len Dawson- QB for the Kansas City Chiefs. I would like to hear stories of the good ol days of Chiefs football. 2. Bill Clinton, former President. He’s the first President I voted for and would love to chat with him. 3. Kenneth BurkeRhetorical Theorist. He is my favorite theorist in rhetoric and a legend at dinner parties apparently.
PHOTOS BY YUHAN JIANG A, CLAIRE FLETCHER AND KATE CLEMENT
Saturday
and Jan Underwood. Smith and Underwood are shown cuddling in bed, holding hands and laughing. It is a picture of true love. “You always want the best for your children,” Mrs. Underwood told Shriver. “You want total happiness for them. And this is it.” F
8 a.m. Smith and Underwood head
12 p.m. Smith and Underwood enjoy
12 p.m. After lunch, Underwood goes
the Trinity Rail Expressway from Fort Worth. Smith and Underwood head to the Park Cities YMCA for a midmorning exercise class. a lunch at home, which often followed by a walking trip to the nearby grocery store.
6 p.m. Dinner often means a trip
to Highland Park Village for pizza or salad. Afterwards, Smith’s sister will stop by to visit Smith and Underwood.
out for 11 am church, where Smith is typically an usher. Underwood sits in the pews with Smith’s family.
for a swim at the YMCA or catchs the Cowboy’s game, while Smith prepares for the week ahead with washing and ironing.
6 p.m. Dinner often includes some
PHOTO PROVIDED BY WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER KEITH PEELER
GET A ClUe Match the ring with the student or teacher.
1
2
Monday
8 a.m. Underwood arrives early on
Faith Isbell Staff Writer
FIRST DANCE Newly weds Smith and Underwood dance at their western-themed reception
Sunday
3
4
TV and FaceTime with friends and family.
8 a.m. Smith heads out to the
YMCA for an early session with her trainer before breakfast. As Smith returns to get dressed for work, Underwood prepares to leave for the train. The couple parts for the week once again, knowing that Saturday morning will be a reunion. Like a loyal husband, Underwood takes out the trash before leaving.
?
A) Abby Bush B) Olivia Lombardo C) Mimi Asom D) Doris Xu
Answers 1C, 2B,3D, 4A
Wedding continued from p7
THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL
THE FOURCAST 09
ffatUres
SEPTEMBER 26, 2014
Keeping Up with the Community Junior Catherine Jiang and Senior Elie MacAdams have each created their own method of public outreach PHOTO PROVIDED BY CATHERINE JIANG
A
uggie Petit held a packet of papers in his hand, anticipating his time to shine. When it came around, he did not hold back.“Gold. Gold. Wonderful Gold!” Petit bellowed in a voice that did not match his age. “Whenever I see it, I never feel old!” He marched around the classroom. Fellow classmates surrounded him, clutching onto scripts for the Greek play: King Midas and the Golden Touch. Discere Aude, or “Dare to Learn” in Latin, is a non-profit organization created by junior Catherine Jiang. Its goal? To give underprivileged students the opportunity to learn Latin, increase their vocabulary, and instill in them a mindset of following their dreams. Discere Aude became an official nonprofit organization on March 14 of this year. After researching Dallas community schools that do not offer Latin as a language course, Jiang stumbled upon Lumin Lindsley Park Community School in East Dallas. It was there that Jiang taught three classes to kids aged 6 to 9-years-old, exposing them to the Latin language and Greek culture. She even gave them Latin names based off of their english names. Jiang recalls a parent reporting that their child even started addressing her parents by “pater” and “mater,” the Latin terms for “father” and “mother.” According to Jiang, “60 percent of English words have Latin roots; that’s really important to learn vocabulary.” According to Jiang, learning Latin could make for an easier time in learning other Romance Languages like Spanish, French and Italian because they all have the similar Latin roots. It could also prove use-
DARE TO LEARN Jiang poses with her students on the last day of class. ful in teaching English literary and rhetorical devices. Tom Loew, School Director for Lumin Lindsley Park, weighed in on the importance of Latin. “I took four years of Latin in high school,” he said. “That training affects my comprehension of language almost every day of my life.” Jiang said that her sophomore year was when she started to love Latin. The idea came to her, in fact, during a Latin competition. “The night I had the idea, I spent the entire night working on it because I was so excited,” Jiang said. “I don’t even know where it came from.” As far as community outreach is concerned, Jiang hopes to gain support mainly from Hockaday students. “This year, I am starting a community service club where club members can help design
the curriculum and come up with games for next summer,” Jiang said. As she hopes to expand the non-profit, she admits that she needs all the help she can get. “I am hoping to reach out to the Hockaday community for girls who have learned Latin to go and teach and gain this experience.” Jiang said, “I learned a lot from it, [and] I hope they can as well.” Loew expressed his desire for the Discere Aude courses to integrate into Lumin Lindsley. “My best case scenario is that this course become part of the summer culture at Lumin,” he said. “Parents and students look forward to the course offerings, and we hit the ‘sweet spot’ in enrollment - not too few, not too many.” Passion clearly runs throughout this organization.
“I want to keep this going for a while,” Jiang said. “Maybe for the rest of my life!” Jiang shared her hope of expanding to many more schools in the area and eventually around the country “so that everyone has a chance, an opportunity.” To learn more about Discere Aude and its mission, please visit http://cjiang.wix.com/discereaude. Jiang is not the only Hockaday student trying to help the community. Senior Elie MacAdams launched her social enterprise company, Choose Something Good, on Sept. 1. She ran it as a blog for a year, but then decided to take it to next level: making it official. The website serves as a meeting point for potential community service volunteers and smaller non-profits in the Dallas area. “I’m trying to find the [nonprofits] that aren’t as well known, that need the volunteers, and don’t have as much funding,” MacAdams said. Each non-profit must pay a monthly fee to be advertised on the website. Already, eight organizations, including Operation Kindness, Back on My Feet and Discere Aude, can be found on Choose Something Good. In 2011, MacAdams attended a leadership camp and was assigned with the task to come up with an action project to better the community. “I thought of this as a [broader] way to connect people and share nonprofits’ stories,” MacAdams said. “Also, high school volunteers tend to volunteer at places where they end up standing around a lot of the time.” What really sets Choose Something Good apart from other volunteer sites is the opportunity to take a personal-
ity quiz. Users can answer a few questions about themselves and how they would behave in different scenarios, which eventually matches them to the nonprofit that best fits their interests. Whether you like running, animal work, education, or crisis prevention, you are guaranteed to be paired with a compatible organization. MacAdams explained that her goal for the website is to facilitate a relationship between a non-proft and its volunteers, claiming that there is not much of one. X2Vol currently serves as Hockaday students’ method of community service sign-up. “Now, we sign up on x2vol; we go wherever,” MacAdams said. “We don’t have this fidelity thing.” MacAdams hopes to help form a strong association between the organization and the volunteers who truly connect with it. As far as expansion goes, MacAdams hopes to reach out to many more Dallas-area nonprofits. She has created an Instagram and Facebook page to promote the company as well as magnets and business cards. “Right now, I am running off of my own funds,” MacAdams said. “I want to make T-shirts, which is why I need people to donate.” Funds will go towards expanding the website into a shopping section where MacAdams plans to sell Choose Something Good merchandise as well as products from the organizations that she is partnered with. MacAdams encourages the student body to go online, take the personality quiz, and volunteer. To learn more about Choose Something Good, please visit http://www.choosesomethinggood.org/ F Sydney Yonack Social Media Director
Hockaday Students Give a Helping Hand Over Summer Break Senior Suzanne Schmitz and Junior Frances Burton use their summer breaks for service
S
ummer—a time for sun, sand and… service. Some of Hockaday’s own used their break to help other people, whether it be on different continents or in their own communities. Senior Suzanne Schmitz spent one month in Thailand, travelling from village to village with nothing but a backpack, limited to only one outfit and the bare essentials. Accompanied by a diverse array of teenagers also involved with the Rustic Pathways organization, Schmitz did everything from laying down cement for a playground to helping to construct facilities for various schools, including a cafeteria and two classrooms. She also helped teach underprivileged children English. “The language barrier was hard to overcome,” Scmitz said, explaining that not only were the Thai children unable to understand everything she had to say, but she also couldn’t always communicate clearly with the other people on her trip. Despite the language barrier, Schmitz enjoyed her trip so much that she is contemplating taking a gap year between her final year at Hockaday and her first at university to continue serving others. With this intent to do more, she reveals that, “[she’s] thinking about a trip to New Zealand next, probably with another organization or even on [her] own. Starting within her own community, junior Frances Burton didn’t have to travel far to volunteer her services. She spent the month of July surrounded by first and second graders, helping them improve
in reading and mathematics. As a volunteer at the B3X program, “Beakers, Beats and Base 10,” at the Wesley-Rankin Community Center in West Dallas, she aimed to help teach children the importance of science, music and mathematics. Burton appreciated that the camp was “not just a babysitting camp,” but was actually quite helpful. “It’s just so rewarding to see [the children] growing and learning throughout the summer,” Burton recounted, recalling the changes she saw in the children’s knowledge and understanding of concepts as the summer program came to a close. But that wasn’t Burton’s only accomplishment over summer, however, as back in May she traveled abroad with 12 other Hockaday girls, who embarked on a two-week long service-learning trip to Peru. Working in unison with engineering students from the University of New Hampshire, the 13 girls spent their first week in San Pedro de Casta, a Peruvian village in the Andes Mountains that needed a new water pipeline, specifically one that was not contaminated by E. coli. When they weren’t dragging 33-pound bags of sand up the mountainside, the girls were digging trenches with the villagers to make way for the pipeline that the UNH students had designed and built. Burton found the experience inspiring after seeing “how interested the villagers were in fixing their community and building new lives for themselves.” Freshman Amelia Brown, one of the girls who also traveled to Peru, surprised herself
when the first week of the trip came to an end, realizing that, “[she] didn’t know [she] was strong enough to accomplish something so big.” Upon the completion of the trenches, the girls ventured on to Cusco, Peru, where they stayed in the best hotel in town, each room complete with two wool-stuffed mattresses and a single hook for clothing. There, they volunteered at Albergue, a boarding school dedicated to housing impoverished Peruvian children with rural backgrounds in efforts to make earning an
education less burdensome. They painted and repaired the kitchen and living areas, tutoring the children in their spare time. Soon enough, the second week passed, and the girls waved their final goodbyes, finally boarding a much delayed flight home. “It’s always great to hear of girls who do projects on their own to find ways to help their communities or cities,” Upper School Head John Ashton said after hearing about the many service projects that Hockaday girls’ completed this summer,
“I’m glad that our travel programs are gaining momentum.” According to Ashton, the 2015 trip destinations will be confirmed in a few weeks and will continue to broaden Hockaday’s mission of serving the community. F HufsaHusain Staff Writer
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THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL
HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG
ffatUres
SEPTEMBER 26, 2014
A Day IN the LiFe Security Guard Amber Wardell Gives The Fourcast a Look Into Her Daily Life at Hockaday 2 p.m.
6 p.m.
Amber Wardell checks into work at the control room and receives schedule for the day. The Security Department’s schedule rotates much like our school days and decides where one patrols or the shift he or she will be working. Most days, Wardell works the Guard Shack by the main entrance, or patrols the entire campus, including the athletic facilities.
Next, Wardell switches off with her partner and maintains the front desk at Hoak, opening doors for people and making ID badges for visitors, as well as making sure that “anyone that doesn’t need to be in is not getting in.” This can be both overwhelming and tiring, as she has to unlock the main entrance door for people entering the Hockaday school, answer phone calls, do a background check on every visitor as well as print them a badge, and open the door when someone pushes the button.
3:15 p.m. Wardell makes her way over to the Forest Lane parking lot and guides middle schoolers across the crosswalk, regulating car movement and making sure everything is in order. “I’m the one with the sign that walks the girls across,” she explained. “Sometimes the middle schoolers just aren’t looking at their surroundings."Her job is crucial in ensuring that the carpool lanes move smoothly.
8 p.m. She’s back to patrolling, but this time she patrols both the LLARC and the athletic facilities, making sure that everyone is where they need to be and that no students, boarding or day, are “wandering in places they should not be wandering.” She keeps in contact with her partner, who is again at the front desk. “[The Security Department] keeps a daily log to see where everybody’s at or what they’re doing,” Wardell added. “We have to check in every hour.”
4 p.m. She patrols around the campus again, much like she did at 2 pm. She works with a partner, who waits for her at the Hoak Portico after relieving the receptionist. Wardell first patrols around the main school building, something she enjoys greatly. “The campus is so beautiful. I love working at Hockaday,” she said, before explaining the difference between Hockaday security and other security jobs. “Hockaday does in-house security. There’s in-house security and contract security; with contract security, you work for a security company that places like Hockaday can hire. With inhouse security, I work for the Hockaday school rather than a security company. With contract, you could be dropped from a job at any second. I feel a lot more secure working in-house, especially at a cool place like Hockaday.”
10 p.m.
PHOTO BY AMANDA KIM
Her shift is over and she can head back home to relax! Wardell is currently working on her Masters degree in Criminal Justice. Like almost all of the other security guards, Hockaday is just a stepping stone - Wardell hopes to obtain a PhD at the University of Texas, Dallas, and eventually become a police liaison for the Dallas Police Department. Unfortunately, her shift times clash with her class times, so she has to write an extra paper every week. Maybe she won’t be relaxing after all... F
Amanda Kim Staff Writer
Hockaday Alumna Gives Orphans a Voice Christine Chen creates an audio documentary highlighting Ghanaian voices to address orphan care reform bring awareness to the flaws in Ghana's orphanage system. Chen says, “Though numerous orphanages have the children's interest at heart, many orphanages keep children in poor conditions to obtain money from sympathetic foreign donors. Donors may see orphanages as a simple way to “help,” without realizing the complexities of the issue.” Chen learned on her trip that these misconceptions can be extremely detrimental to child welfare and development. Chen’s mentor for this project, Dr. Daryl Reicherter, says that he gave her some "practical expectations for working in a challenging setting with a difficult population," based off of his numerous years of experience working with orphaned children in foreign countries. “Challenging” and “difficult” are two words that accurately describe Chen’s average day in Ghana. “On a trip with Kaeme, Chen visited a young, recently-orphaned 16-year-old teenager named Richard at his home. When Richard spoke, he directly addressed the interns and earnestly thanked them for their work. Chen reflects, "Hearing these words, and then later hearing Richard and the others tell us about their aspirations to be doctors and lawyers and foot-
PHOTO COURTESY OF HANNAH KARPEL
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magine being in a situation where you, as a Ghanaian parent, are desperate for the chance to give your child a brighter future, but crippled by your own poverty. Like a stroke of luck, “you’re told that your child can have the opportunity to go to a private boarding school run by someone who appears wealthy,” said John Stevens, founder of the nonprofit organization Kaeme. “It’s no charge until he’s 18 if you sign one piece of paper. It turns out that this paper is a consent for adoption. I think that is a literal kidnapping.” This situation is becoming increasingly more common in Ghana and has led to the creation of an orphanage system that fails to support children emotionally and prepare them for living independently in the future. Stanford sophomore Christine Chen ‘13 visited Ghana this past summer to create an audio documentary highlighting the current and future dimensions of orphan care in Ghana. She also interned with Kaeme, a nonprofit that is already making sustainable reforms to the Ghanaian orphanage system. Her approach to making a difference in Ghana is different from traditional charity work because the audio documentary aims to
F
STANFORD STANDOUT Alum Christine Chen poses with Helena Obeng-Asamoah, her host in Ghana. ball stars left me with a complicated feeling.” Right now, Chen is not sure about her plans for next summer, but believes that it is important for her to understand all the factors that pertain to this topic before continuing to address orphan care reform. There are shortcomings in the Ghanaian orphanage sys-
tem; nevertheless, there are people in Ghana who are trying to give orphaned kids a normal childhood filled with love and affection from father and mother figures. “For me, though, what is most heartwarming is seeing signs of places that are trying to raise these children without the stigma or label of orphan,” Chen
says. After visiting a woman who is raising several orphaned children as her own, she told me she hopes to give them as normal a life as possible, free from any of the associations of being orphaned.” F Eshani Kishore Staff Writer
THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL
PhOtOESSAY
THE FOURCAST 11
SEPTEMBER SEPTEMBER 26 26 ,, 2014 2014
PhOtOESSAY
SUMMER ACROSS CONTINENTS
Junior Molly Waring traveled around the world this summer, from La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club in California to St. Andrews in Scotland. From hanging on the beach with her friends to creating new experiences abroad, Waring captures the scenic world around her.
1 1. I took the sunset picture while vacationing at the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club this summer. 2. While attending a summer science program in St. Andrews Scotland, I took the waterfall picture. 3. While at the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club, I took this picture of my friends drawing the number 2014 with their phone lights. 4. I took the picture of the hay bales while on the bus to Faukland Palace in Scotland. 5. I took the fence picture while standing on top of Faukland Hill.
3
2
Check out more of Molly’s adventures by scanning this QR code with your smartphone.
4
5
• Anonymous quotes from Hockaday's Upper School students • When you are unable to feel joy. [Depression] follows you no matter where you go, dragging you so far underwater that you forget what the surface even looks like. • Depression is a deep pit in the earth. The walls are
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THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL MAY 20, 2013
HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG
InFOCUs
smooth all around, but rough in some places. However, as soon as you can get a handhold the dirt crumbles between your fingers and you're flat on your back at the bottom of the pit, right where you sta
Friday. March 2011. A 12-year-old girl sits apart from the rest of her seventh grade class during recess. Dressed in a plaid skirt and saddle oxfords, she huddles inside the protection of her St. John’s Episcopal School blazer, doing her best to ignore the heat from the Texas sun. That 12-year-old girl began attending The Hockaday School in ninth grade and is now a 15-year-old sophomore. Her name is Helena Hind, and her scars are her secret.
the RealitY Behind D T
he night before that Friday in the middle of March, Hind picked up a razor blade and cut into her skin. She knew that she would have to go to school the next day. She knew that it was a blazer day. And she knew that during recess, everyone would take their blazers off. Hind covered her scars with bandages—the thick ones that are designed for knees. And she kept a stack of bandages in the pocket of her blazer, just in case. “For me, depression is the absence of feeling,” Hind said. “You just kind of feel like you’re walking around in a fog, like everything’s happening but nothing’s really affecting you.” And that is what Hind felt on that day in the middle of March.
A Warped Perspective “Depression is feeling blue and not yourself.” - Anonymous Upper School student But for those that live with depression, like Hind, it’s more than just feeling blue. In a recent survey conducted by The Fourcast, 56 percent of the 169 Upper School students who responded said that they have suffered from depression at some point in their lives. However, only 33 percent of these girls have actually been diagnosed and treated by a professional. According to Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist Salomon Grimberg, M.D., depression is often confused with sadness. However, there is a distinct separation between the two terms. “Sadness is a very interesting state of mind,” Grimberg said. “People who are sad are not really unhappy, and they’re also not depressed.” Instead, he describes sad individuals as “contemplative” and “reflective,” with a tendency to “see life the way it is, with extreme clarity.” In Hind’s opinion, people who read about symptoms of depression immediately jump to the conclusion that they are depressed. However, symptoms must be consistently present for two weeks or longer in order to determine a diagnosis of major depressive disorder. “You may have what appears to be a symptom of depression momentarily, but if you have it consistently for a certain amount of time, then you have a mood disorder,” Grimberg said. “People don’t know the difference because the average kid does not stop to think about the difference between sadness and depression; they’re not synonyms.” Upper School Counselor Margaret Morse, Ph.D., agrees with Grimberg, and explained that there is an enormous difference between depression and being depressed for a couple days. “When you are hit with clinical depression or major depressive disorder, it alters your motivation, your sleep, your eating, your thoughts – it’s kind of all-consuming,” Morse said. Freshman Clara Demian has never been professionally diagnosed with depression. However, at various stages in her life, she has felt as if she was drowning in sadness. And she just couldn’t get above it. According to Demian, the general public views depression in three different ways: “One is that it’s completely ignored and just seen as people being selfish or hormonal,” she said. However, both matured adults and innocent children can be diagnosed with depression. “The second view is that it’s romanticized because people say, ‘Oh it’s so beautiful that you’re feeling all of your sadness.’ And then the third view is by people who have it or people who actually know what it is,” Demian said. The symptoms of depression are not as visible as those of the common cold: there is no cough, no sneeze and no stuffy nose. Oftentimes, this makes it difficult to understand the legitimacy of this mood disorder. According to Student Diversity Board Chair senior Anesu Nyatanga, who headed the Student Diversity Board’s Disabilities Forum last year, depression is stigmatized for a variety of reasons, but primarily due to its elusive nature. “I think there is a large stigma surrounding all mental health disorders, but I think especially depression because it’s hard to identify sometimes,” Nyatanga said. “We also tend to think that because it’s not especially visible, that people can just ‘get over it,’ when oftentimes, those are the hardest diseases to get over because they’re so pervasive.” From a young age, a junior, who agreed to speak under the alias Nadia, watched as her mother battled depression. Nadia didn’t understand what was going on. She didn’t understand why her mom couldn’t function, why she couldn’t work or why she couldn’t get out of bed for days at a time. “It affected our lives in a scary way, ways where she was hospitalized and I couldn’t live with her and I had to live somewhere else,” Nadia said. “I guess from those experiences, it probably overlapped into my own depression and unfortunately hit me hard last year.” Nadia agrees with Nyatanga: depression is not always a visible disorder, which makes it difficult for people to comprehend.
Living with Depression
“Depression is like swimming in the ocean. You think you understand it an it. Then, out of nowhere, you get hit by a wave and you're drowning in it.” – A per School Student
Hind was a 7-year-old girl when she was diagnosed with major depre After her parents divorce, she would often find herself crying at the smal She didn’t completely understand her depression at this age. She didn’t stand her feelings. She didn’t know what the word depression meant. Bu one thing for sure: she felt sad all the time, and she didn’t want to be sad a According to the American Psychiatric Association, depression is “a s illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how toms include, but are not limited to, “changes in appetite that result in w gains unrelated to dieting, insomnia or oversleeping, loss of energy or inc restlessness or irritability, feelings of worthlessness or inappropriate thinking, concentrating, or making decisions and thoughts of death or tempts at suicide.” Nadia’s mother was diagnosed with severe depression when Nadia w while Nadia herself was diagnosed with moderate depression last year tion of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders classi episodes as mild, moderate or severe. According to the DSM-IV, “these se rely on three different measures of severity: number of criteria symptoms symptoms and degree of functional disability.” The Public Broadcasting Service’s Health Campaign in 2008 entitled “ revealed that one in four young adults will experience a depressive epi Morse believes that individuals a depressive episode are more l ence another one. “It’s like exercising a musc “Once you’ve gone through a sode, your brain has been depr you get down again, it remem pressed and might go there qui Grimberg describes depres thing indigenous: something t within your body, independen thing outside. However, he als depression can be a reaction situation or event. Individua depression are oftentimes livi thing, animal, person or fee made them happy. "Human beings are like ma machines made up of chemica automobiles, and they know th some parts of some automobile well and you need to replace th said. “Human beings are like t be missing the part that regula and for that, they take replace medication.” Although the word “depre used in everyday conversation as real as any other illness or d believes that using the word as not disrespectful, as long as it of context. “I think it’s legitimate whe feel down or depressed today,’” you look at the definition of de it’s own meaning as an adjectiv it’s abused.” ILLUSTRATION BY KATE COOPER However, as someone wh nosed with depression, Nadia believes that individuals should be more using the term. “There’s definitely a line,” Nadia said. “I think we overste ally understanding or knowing.”
Hiding the Truth
“You feel like no one is there for you- that no one understands you anym ability to understand. It's like walking down a dark tunnel, but you can neve the end of it.” -Anonymous Upper School student
Hind came across a post about self-harming on Instagram: “Hurting you be a way to get attention, and if you do it just for that, then you sicken m cluded a caption that then asked its viewers: ‘What is your opinion on sel Hind decided to respond to the post. People who do any type of self-harm do it for different reasons. Some, inclu punish themselves. Some depressed people feel so numb that they do it to feel s do it because they feel helpless and want someone to care. The list goes on and emotional and physical, and I am not proud of them. I drew attention to m
lways feel empty on the inside, like there's a hole in your chest that you can't quite fill. • It follows you no matter where you go, dragging you so far underwater that you forget what the surface even looks like.
THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL
THE FOURCAST 13
InFOCUs
MAY 20, 2013
arted. • The feeling of being empty or hollow, numb almost, to a point where you can't or don't care about anything really. It's like a black hole inside you, slowly conquering you from the inside out. •
nd can deal with Anonymous Up-
essive disorder. llest things. t exactly underut she did know anymore. serious medical you act.” Sympweight losses or creased fatigue, guilt, difficulty r suicide or at-
was a young girl, r. The fifth ediifies depressive everity subtypes s, severity of the
“Take One Step” isode by age 24. s who have had likely to experi-
cle,” Morse said. depressive epiressed so when mbers being deicker.” ssion as somethat takes place ntly from anyso explains that to an external als living with ing without the eling that once
achines; they’re als. People have hat sometimes, es don’t work as hem,” Grimberg that. They may ates their mood, ements such as
essed” may be n, depression is disorder. Morse s an adjective is isn’t taken out
en people say ‘I ” Morse said. “If epression, it has ve. I don’t think
ho’s been diagmindful when ep it without re-
more, or has the er see the light at
urself shouldn’t me.” The post inlf-harm?’
uding me, do it to something. Some d on. I have scars, myself, especially
around my family so someone would notice [my scars] and help me. That’s the reason why some depressed people post pictures of their scars on the internet; so someone will notice or care. Is that such a crime? Instead of shaming people who self harm, you should feel compassion, because you really have no idea why they’re doing it. You never know if the hurtful thing you say will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. According to Hind, posts such as these “stem from ignorance.” She believes that by educating themselves, “people would probably learn to be a little more cautious with their word choice.” Nyatanga has noticed that on television, there aren’t a lot of characters who are depressed, which creates for an interesting case since by the year 2020, depression will be the second most common health problem in the world, according to “Take One Step.” “When I took my psychology course, the main fact that my teacher stressed was that depression and schizophrenia are universal,” Nyatanga said. “It is everywhere. It surpasses all classes, all races, all genders, but you don’t see it.” Because depression is as widespread as other illnesses but not acknowledged to the same extent, individuals with depression may choose to keep to themselves. “If you have it, you’re afraid to bring it up because what if someone judges you for it? What if someone just tells you to get over it?” Nyatanga said. Nadia described depression as “a medical, chemical disorder,” and it hurts her when people argue against its validity. “People will give you the whole ‘just cheer up’ or ‘why can’t you just feel better?’ or ‘try to be positive,' and that’s when it affects people: when people don’t believe that it’s real,” Nadia said. “It starts this whole cycle of self-doubt and then more depression.” This society has a certain definition of what it means to be “normal.” According to Hind, that definition is the primary reason as to why people hide their depression. “People just want to fit in, so when people have depression, they put on this mask where they’re like “oh I’m fine, I’m not sad or anything,” when in reality they’re anxious or depressed or stressed out about a lot of things,” Hind said. “I think there’s such a big stigma around depression and mental illness in general because if you’re not the norm, then you’re weird.” Individuals also tend to hide their depression because they are unsure as to how it will affect people around them. “People are afraid that it’s going to disappoint someone, it’s going to scare people away, it’s going to affect people around them in a way that they’d rather just hide and keep to themselves and think that they can overcome it by themselves,” Nadia said. “It all goes back to the whole stigma.”
Erasing the Stigma
9.1
Percent of the U.S. population aged 12 to 17 had at least one major depressive episode in 2012
13.7
Percent of female adolescents in the U.S. had a 12-month prevalence of major depressive disorder in 2012
“Anyone can have depression. It is not a character flaw or choice. It is an illness and can be treated.” - Anonymous Upper School Student Hind has come a long way since she was first diagnosed. Her depression has been a journey; it’s been a cycle of feeling hopeless to hopeful. She no longer curls up in the handicap stall of a school bathroom, hugging her knees and crying as she did in seventh grade. She no longer self-harms. Her journey now includes erasing the stigma that hangs over depression. “I think people need to realize that they have no idea what’s going on in someone’s head,” Hind said. “Before you invalidate someone’s problems or before you say ‘you’re not really depressed,’ take a second to think about it. Just really think before you say something to a potentially depressed person because in their mind, a depressed person can warp it to make it seem way worse than it actually is.” Sandra Cook, Hind’s grandmother, has supported Hind since the 7-year-old was first diagnosed with depression. Under her grandmother’s care, Hind has learned to accept her depression rather than conceal it. “It was painful for me to see Helena depressed when she was so young. Fortunately, with the excellent treatment resources available in the community, she is much better,” Cook said. “By sharing her experience with others, she hopes to tear down prejudice and, perhaps, offer hope to others.” Similarly, Nyatanga is working to help others further understand depression. “It’s a problem that can be attacked at multiple fronts. I don’t know if the stigma is 100 percent removable. I don’t think there’s a quick solution to it,” Nyatanga said. “But talking about the issue, I think if we move it into the main sphere of conversation, people will feel more comfortable.” According to Morse, telling someone and receiving help is the best way to overcome this mood disorder. “When it comes down to it, depression is a treatable disorder. There’s no reason you need to suffer any longer on your own,” she said. Hind, Nadia and Demian are proof. It gets better if you get the proper help. “For people who may not know if they’re depressed or not, it’s not a bad thing to be depressed. It’s not a bad thing to feel like this,” Hind said. “I’m sure everyone feels like this at some point in their life to some degree.” While admitting it and telling someone about how you feel can be daunting, it’s the first step to living a healthier, happier life. “Don’t be afraid of your feelings and don’t invalidate what you feel because there’s no way to be sure unless you’re willing to make a change or help yourself,” Nadia said. “No one else can.” F Inaara Padani Copy Editor
11.6
percent of 16-year-olds are depressed
GIRLS
Are three times more likely to experience depression tham boys are
Source: National Institute of Mental Health and teendepression.org
Emptiness. Not necessarily deep sadness, it does start out that way, but it becomes apathy. You don't want to get out of bed. The sun doesn't make you smile anymore. The little things that made you happy make you feel nothing at all. It's all black and white numbing silence. You can't feel
Depression
a thing and you don't want to go on. • Surviving rather than living. Spending each and every second at war with yourself. It's like being that one dark cloud among all the pure, white, fluffy ones. You
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HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG
THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL September 26, 2014
ARTs & EntERtaInMEnT Bach and Better Than Ever
The Increasing Prevalence of Anime
Higher enrollment in orchestra and the Hockaday Theater Company brings benefits PHOTO BY CLAIRE FELTCHER
I
t’s like any other TV show, except it’s from Japan and it’s animated. In recent years, there have been more people jumping onto the anime bandwagon with statistics showing that it is on the rise. Junior Lexie Chu, who interned this summer at Funimation, the largest anime distribution and licensing company in America, had “no idea what anime was before [she started the internship].” She soon discovered that Anime is the same as any other show with seasons: each episode is 21 minutes long, has a plot and tons of drama. With it’s growing audience, anime’s shows are tailored to all groups of people and feature topics such as sports, medical and legal dramas, high school, college, etc. Funimation, which is based in Flower Mound, Texas, currently has more than one million subscribers on YouTube, and their most viewed video has almost three million hits. Anime was extremely popular in the late 80s and 90s, but after notable anime filmmakers Kenji Mizoguchi, Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu passed away, the number of anime watchers in America started to decline. Now, with increased computer graphics, Japanese anime has become a $60 million per year business in the United States and is steadily growing. “After I went to Funimation, I learned to respect it and knew that it is actually growing and getting bigger,” Chu said. And Chu is not the only anime watcher. Sophomore Grace Cai agrees with Chu. “There’s definitely a very wide variety of genres. There is an anime to fit everyone’s taste.” Anime has started streaming on major television channels with shows like “Attack on Titan” airing on Cartoon Network every week. But coming back has not been easy. Anime faces some challenges. While there were very popular anime shows in the ‘90s, such as Pokemon, Yugioh and Dragon Ball Z, as well as an Oscar-winning film entitled “Spirited Away,” kids today don’t recognize them. Every day, anime is becoming more popular. “The process [of making the animation] is incredible,” Chu said. “So much work is put into each show, from the concept to final product. It’s just beautiful.” F Ashna Kumar Staff Writer
J
unior Vivian Zhou walks into dition of freshman, she also sees the the orchestra trailer housing increase in enrollment as a result of 77 girls, navigating her way more exposure about the class. through countless stands and “I know that some people who instruments to find her seat in didn’t initially do orchestra joined the strings section. it later because they saw all of our Meanwhile, fellow junior Gil- performances and ISAS,” Zhou said. lian Meyer attends her Hockaday However, these increases Theater Company class with 21 bring a new set of problems. other girls, a number far larger Right now, the orchestra is at its than the average class size of 16 maximum capacity in its trailer students. and will encounter new spatial Although large class sizes issues when it moves completely may be worrisome, Zhou, Meyer to the portables during the winand their respective teachers, Fine ter season. Arts Department Additionally, the Lead Chair Ed Long annual spring concert and drama teacher is traditionally held in Susan Hubbard, Hicks, but with the new aren’t concerned size of the orchestra, about this year’s Long notes that there enrollment. For would no longer be them, the benefits enough room for the outweigh the poUpper School audience. NUMBER CRUNCH tential negatives Even with spatial Hockaday’s Orchestra issues, Long prefers not that expansion will members are at an all bring. to hold auditions for time high. the orchestra. “We’ve always been an outfit that Orchestra didn’t audition and we While there has been growth try to incorporate all of the people across the entirety of the orchestra, who would like to be in orchestra,” the strings had a marked increase Long said. this year, with 11 new violinists And this shouldn’t be a probjoining the group. lem for long. The new orchestra Long attributes the uptick in building, set to be completed in 2016, members to a “particularly strong will be able to hold the much larger class of freshmen” who were pre- orchestra, even without auditions. viously members of the Middle For Zhou, the larger orchestra School orchestra. is more beneficial. “I like the bigWhile Zhou also notes the ad- ger orchestra, because when your
CRAMPED QUARTERS Hockaday orchestra plays on, even while bumping elbows in the orchestra trailer.
77
orchestra is too small, then the sound is really small also. Everyone really just has to work really hard to make up for [the] size,” Zhou said. “When you have a bigger orchestra, there’s a lot more things you can do with music and it’s more merry. We get to have more freedom in expression in how we play.” Long agrees. “You get a far plusher sound. We have 41 string players, so that begins to ‘sound like an orchestra.’ Having that kind of size enables us to have that big full string sound and have all these colors.”
Acting Although the Hockaday Theater Company class is only four years old, it already has members from all across the freshman, sophomore and junior classes. Similar to orchestra’s marked increase in enrollment, Meyer also believes that the acting class is becoming larger because of more awareness about the course. “I think there’s been an increase of membership because more people know about it,” Meyer said. “ I think one of our biggest issues in recruiting people was that not a lot of people know about the Hockaday Theater Company.”
Fine Arts continued p15
toP fOUR feMALe leADS HARRY POTTER
THE MINDY PROJECT
GAME OF THRONES
MARVEL
The Harry Potter series will always be a classic and with characters like Hermione Granger (Emma Watson), it’s unforgettable. We applaud her wit, appreciate her bravery and admire her intellect.
Mindy Kaling directs Fox’s “The Mindy Project,” playing awkwardly hilarious Mindy Lahiri, a doctor who struggles with her romantic life, valuing friendship, food and Sandra Bullock.
The Mother of Dragons, Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), of “Game of Thrones” whirls through the medieval world of Westeros. Determined to reclaim her family’s throne, she goes from a slave to a ‘khaleesi,’ freeing slaves and declaring that “all men must die, but we are not men.”
Marvel brought the female superhero back into the equation with Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow. Mysterious and cunning, the spy has changed women’s roles in superhero movies by saving the day herself instead of being a love interest.
Hermione Granger
Mindy Lahiri
Daenerys Targaryen
A&E: Rise of Dystopian Novels / Page 16 •
Natasha Romanoff
Evan Michelle Miller / Page 16
SOURCE AND PHOTOS PROVIDED BY: Warner Brothers, Fox, HBO, Marvel
jj
THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL
THE FOURCAST 15
ARTs & EntERtaInMEnT
SEPTEMBER 26, 2014
The Paintings in the Corners Hockaday houses an Impressive Art Collection, but this is only known to a select few
A
s Ed Long, Fine Arts Department Lead Chair, walks down Hockaday’s hallways, he isn’t looking at his phone like most people do on their way to lunch. In contrast, he looks at the walls. On any given day, he meanders through the halls, occasionally stopping to admire one of the many paintings that hang on Hockaday’s walls. But not all of Hockaday’s artwork is displayed on the walls we navigate every day. Two are displayed, with a plaque and lighting, in the Centennial exhibit located in the former Memorial Living Room. One of these paintings is an untitled 19th century portrait painted by the American Impressionist William Merritt Chase. The other piece in this room is an early 20th century painting by Miss Ela Hockaday’s close
friend, and famous American Impressionist, Guy C. Wiggins: a snow scene painted in his characteristic style, set in New York City, with a patriotic blurred flag dominating the foreground. Both paintings, and most of the school’s collection, were owned by Miss Hockaday and were added to the school’s collection after her death. The school owns three paintings by the Wiggins: “St. Regis in the Winter,” located in the Centennial exhibit, “A Walk in the Park,” which hangs in Chief Financial Officer J.T. Coats’ office and an untitled work located in Memorial Dining Room. A few other paintings from the collection can be found in Great Hall. In the shadows of the portraits of Miss Hockaday and other Hockaday figures, an imposing landscape hangs alone.
Other pieces are found in offices around campus, like the one that hangs in the office of administrative assistant Nita Brewer’s back wall--Texas artist Frank Reaugh’s “Cattle on High Plains” is halfway hidden behind a stack of books. It’s sister paintings, “Desert Landscape” and “The Wattering Hole,” are not as lucky. They are constantly being covered by the doors entering Biggs Dining Hall. “It’s a pity,” Long said, looking at the two paintings behind the Biggs doors. “Reaugh’s scholars consider these a classical example of his pastel landscapes. But, they’re completely ignored [here].” Even in Technical Director and theater teacher Robert Kallos’ office, behind layers of old props, stunning framed costume sketches are stacked waiting to be hung. Hockaday student artwork, which is been added
Street Art
A
merica has had some great artists, like Warhol or Pollock” an anonymous junior said. “But, Europe is just better.” What she said is not an uncommon attitude among most Americans. Brooke Molinaroli, the Marketing Director at the Dallas Museum of Art, headed up the Art is Everywhere campaign to try and combat this ignorance. “It’s fascinating that most Americans can name off one European artist, most likely a renaissance or impressionist, but cannot name a single American artist” said Molinaroli. This past August, the DMA, along with four other American museums in the U.S. launched a campaign to try and promote awareness of American masterpieces to the general public by putting them on billboards, in subway and bus stations across the nation, even in New York City’s Times Square. Fifty eight works of art were selected, from a variety of artists; from James Whis-
to the collection every year, is scattered around the Fine Arts building. The large scale paintings from “Mame,” the musical, have been leaning against the walls outside of Hoblitzelle Auditorium for the past five years. As an art project in the ‘80s, Ruth Harrison, a deceased Hockaday art teacher, assigned her students to create a large scale replica of Bruegel’s charming masterpiece entitled “The Hunters in the Snow.” “It’s one of the few things that we carried over from the old building,” Long said. The school shows it’s Texas pride by featuring other Lone Star artists besides Reaugh, like his students Edward G. Eisenlohr and Olin H. Travis. Considered to be the greatest Texan painter of all time by collectors, Julian Onderdonk is known for his bluebonnets paintings. In his decidedly impressionistic style, most of his paintings are small, like the sketch that hangs in the Memorial Dining Room. However, the larger piece
displayed over the fireplace in Wittenberg Dining Hall, is “one of the largest ever painted,” by the artist, according to Long. The painting, which is on loan from a private collection, has been featured multiple times over the years in exhibits across the country. Many people in in the community are not aware of the collection’s existence. However, last week while in Wittenberg, junior Juliette Turner’s jaw stayed open for a good 30 seconds in disbelief, staring at the captivating landscape abounding with misty indigo bluebonnets and an endless sky, before stuttering out, “I didn’t know we had that! Why’s it in here though?” Hockaday’s art collection includes work by William Merritt Chase, Edward G. Eisenlohr, Ellsworth Kelly, Julian Onderdonk, Frank Reaugh, Olin H. Travis and Guy C. Wiggins. F Kate Clement A&E Editor
tler to Andy Warhol, with nine from the DMA. According to a National Endowment for the Arts study published in the New York Times a decade ago, one in four Americans walked through an art museum’s doors at least once in their life. Today, this statistic has dropped to one in five. The Art is Everywhere campaign, however, is bringing the art out of the marble halls and into the streets. “The whole idea behind the campaign is for the average American to see a work of art and learn something instead of a McDonald’s ad on their commute.” Eugene McDermott Director of the Dallas Museum of Art Maxwell L. Anderson said. Expanding beyond just billboards, the DMA has created a curriculum to present to schools that have had to cut their arts programs to teach about the importance of American art. “It’s a curious pattern. Like it’s almost human nature to like things that are not from “yourself,” like in art, you’re looking to Europe or another country for ‘real art.” F Kate Clement A&E Editor
TOP: A WALK IN THE PARK Guy C. Wiggins’ New York City Snowscape, was acquired by Miss Ela Hockaday and is one of the three found at the Hockaday School. “A Walk in the Park” is found in Memorial Dining Room. BOTTOM: ONDERDONK Two Bluebonnet landscapes hang at Hockaday by the Texas Impressionist Julian Onderdonk. The pictured work is found in Wittenburg Dining Hall, the other,smaller, painting and is found in Memorial Dining Room.
PHOTOS PROV
IDED BY DM A
Fine Arts continued from p14 Citing the awareness, Hubbard also noted that the class built into the school day increased their exposure. “I think because we did some Y period performances, since it was during the school day, we found that a lot of people come [to those] rather than evening performances. I just think the word spread [that] interesting things were happening,” Hubbard said. Meyer, who started taking the class for a focus in acting her freshman year, has seen the class expand from five people originally to the 22 girls enrolled in the class today. While she notes that the class is much larger than her other classes,
the number of girls is definitely not a downside. “Because it’s acting and not an academic class, the larger number of people is helpful and has made it a lot more fun for me,” Meyer said. Likewise, the larger class brings a positive change in class atmosphere for Hubbard. “I think it gives more of a team building process. This year has brought a lot of energy with everyone coming in. I feel so far it’s been really positive influence on the whole class,” she said. In contrast, a smaller class could bring some unwanted pitfalls. “When you have six or seven or eight kids in a class,
[the class] is so small and intimate that sometimes maybe [students] would feel like [they] might not want to try something new,” Hubbard said. Additionally, a smaller class means a smaller variety of pieces that the girls can perform. During Meyer’s first year in acting, there were only four other girls in her class. “We didn’t have enough people to do [a one act] so we did scenes instead,” Meyer said. However, with a larger class, “more people have been able to do more things,” according to Meyer. The class staged a full length one act last year. This year, because of the class size, the students have
the ability to explore a variety of theatrical options, according to Hubbard. “We’re really flexible in the way we do it. We can have a couple of four or two person scenes, and we can really be able to tailor everybody’s dramatic needs,” Hubbard said. “I think that’s another reason why the class is going to work so well is [because] they are able to design their own interests and work at their own level.” Additionally, the class plans to explore monologues, Shakespeare’s acts, and different genres such as comedy and more dramatic recitations. The class is set to perform a collec-
tion of these pieces on Dec. 10 during Y period. But what if the class becomes too big? “Our goal is eventually, when we get a lot bigger, [to] split it into maybe a freshman and sophomore class and a junior and senior class,” Hubbard said. “It’s one of those things where we are taking it one day at a time, but we’re very pleased that it seems like people are really interested in being in the acting class.” F Sunila Steephen Castoff Editor
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Mockingjay Rising Sparked by a slew of new Young Adult Novels, the dystopian genre gains popularity
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PHOTO BY NOOR ADATIA
ystopian universes? They’re nothing new. Whether a bookshelf is filled with slightlydusted copies of “A Clockwork Orange,” “1984” and “Farenheit 451,” or dazzling new editions of “The Hunger Games,” “Divergent” and “The Maze Runner,” it’s been human nature, especially for those who devour Young Adult (YA) novels, to fantasize about the appeal of a world gone very, very wrong. After a break in the genre’s popularity over the past few decades–wherein the written fiction genre seemed to veer away from sci-fi and closer to pure fantasy, a la “Harry Potter”–here was a new explosion of interest thanks to the girl on fire, Katniss Everdeen. Suzanne Collins’s “The Hunger Games” was published in Sept. 2008, with the sequels “Catching Fire” and “Mockingjay” coming to stands a year later and in Aug. 2010, respectively. When “The Hunger Games” came to the silver screen in 2012, fans of the books filled the theaters along with those who had never read the trilogy. As its popularity grew, “The Hunger Games” became a dystopian icon, with other books of the genre being lauded as similar to it, such as the novel “No Safety in Numbers,” advertised by Seventeen Magazine as
having the “heart-racing chase of ‘The Hunger Games.’” “Games’” popularity is still strong, with 67 percent of Hockadaisies choosing it over “Divergent” or “The Maze Runner.” Its movie adaptations, especially last year’s sequel “Catching Fire,” seem to have gone over better than this year’s “Divergent.” “The ‘Divergent’ one seemed to be lacking a little something,” reads one result of Upper School Hockadaisies surveyed, while another claims that “‘Divergent’ could have been a lot better.” Perhaps some of this can be attributed to “Games’” sheer marketability. CoverGirl put out a full makeup line with special looks for each district, the 12 geographic factions of the novels’ fictional nation, Panem. Stores such as Hot Topic and websites like ThinkGeek sold T-shirts and mockingjay pins. Tutorials for Katniss’s famous braid exploded on YouTube, with some videos garnering more than two million views. Suddenly, nobody seemed to care whether someone was Team Jacob or Team Edward–arguments about whether Katniss should end up with Peeta or Gale prompted gossip rags to take stances on which boy was good enough for the Girl on Fire.
Though at some point, the latter part disappeared. It stopped being about Katniss, and in the whirlwind of flashing cameras, glitzy makeup and costumes and glamorous interviews, the message of “Games” got lost–oddly ironic, considering that that in itself is the entire plot of the novels. Everyone who read it saw the events like a member of the Capitol, focusing on the love triangle’s romance, which came second only to the action in the survey. Perhaps this is why dystopian novels have reclaimed their status as the go-to YA fiction: though undoubtedly few of us would survive the Hunger Games, it piques our interest enough to wonder. Just like the people in “Games,” we are drawn to the books, as they are to their television sets, unable to take our eyes away from the veritable trainwreck of a world the authors create. As long as human nature prompts us to do so, dystopian novels will remain on the shelf, well-worn, perhaps a fine layer of dust over the cover. The odds are in the favor of dystopian novels: they aren’t going anywhere. F Maria Katsulos Video Editor
Heiress Takes the Crown A look into junior Evan Michelle Miller’s Extended Play and her plans for her career
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lthough she has not been to Finland, Australia, Korea, Japan, Jamaica or Canada, junior Evan Michelle Miller’s voice has. Ever since she was a young gir, junior Evan Miller has been involved in musical theatre—talent shows, musical performances and even church choir. Now, at the age of 16, she has released her first Extended Play (EP) and has expectations to sign with a record label, do a worldwide tour and perhaps win a Grammy in the future. Since Pandora and Spotify have added her first extended play, “Heiress,” to their available songs, Miller has seen her music reach thousands of people by using an app called “Tunecore.” She can physically see who buys and streams her music, and is able to access her revenue from who buys her songs on iTunes. It’s no longer about getting her family and friends to listen to her music. Nine months after the release of her album, Miller is looking to expand her fan base worldwide.
CArtOon
“Working hard, but having fun. Never let them hold you back. Running on my own track.” These lyrics from junior Evan Michelle Miller’s song “Shut It Down” describes her motto exactly. “Heiress,” contains five songs (Shut it Down, 50/50, Get on the Floor, The News and Hail Mary) and took five to six months to produce and was released in January of 2014. The push to produce an EP came from trying to get record labels’ attention—she said that they really want to see original material and “see your potential with your own music.” The months it took to produce her EP weren’t just spent recording the music; she also had to write the lyrics, obtain the rights to the lyrics and complete photo-shoots for the cover. “There were lots of late nights in my dad’s studio, but it was really rewarding and really fun,” Miller said, since she had to write and record the music while she was still in school. “I think if you enjoy doing something, it doesn’t really matter how long it takes or how little
by Luda Grigoryeva
sleep you get.” Miller claims that writing the lyrics to her songs is not as hard as one might expect. Although she says she “can’t just throw something out there” and expect it to be good, she just needs to be “in the right frame of mind” to write a song. She tries to draw from her own life experiences, so her music can be relatable to people with similar experiences. “I think that if more people are able to relate to the lyrics, they are more prone to download it and have it be their anthem.” However, if she is unable to pull from her own life, she tries to write about situations similar to other teenagers. Junior Brianna Buford said, “It’s really cool that she writes her own music and doesn’t have someone else do it for her.” Her song “Shut It Down” is one of the most popular songs in her EP. When she performed it at her birthday party in August, fellow junior Gabria Pearson commented, “She really got the crowd going, and when she sang ‘Shut It Down’
it really made me feel some type of way and made me want to bounce along with her and ‘shut it down.’” Buford agreed with Pearson and said, “She has a very nice stage presence and didn’t seem nervous at all. She performed really well.” Miller said she loves to get the crowd involved and that “it’s really fun when you’re at a show with people who know the lyrics and starting singing along. You’re just like ‘woah’…it still catches me off guard.” For this song, she had reached out to Courtlend, an up-and-coming rapper, asking him if he wanted to collaborate on a song with her. “Within a couple of weeks, he had his verse down and had sent it back. It was awesome,” she said. In the future, she hopes to collaborate with more artists. “It’s really fun to work with other people because everyone gains when you collaborate on music,” Miller said. As for her goals, she eventually wants to sign with a major record label like Capital Records or Atlantic Records to “take her career to the next
level.” However, she is not in a rush to sign: “that’s probably the biggest mistake an artist can make,” she said. She wants to make sure that she has a creative license to her work, a very important aspect of her musical career. Support from her friends and family are very strong, according to Miller. With her father’s job as a record producer, and her mother’s job as a businesswoman, Miller said she feels very lucky. This support, along with her passion, has encouraged her to continue writing music and potentially release another EP. Already having listeners from all over the world, Miller smiled and said, “I guess we will just wait and see what happens in the future—I’m excited!” Find for Evan Michelle Miller’s EP “Heiress” on iTunes, Pandora and Spotify. F Charlsea Lamb News Editor
THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL
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REVIEWS: The Maze Runner • iPhone 6 • Fall Television
Falling Back into TV
PHOTO PROVIDED BY 20TH CENTURY FOX
PHOTO PROVIDED BY ABC, THE CW AND FOX
Welcome to the Glade
The Maze Runner Wes Ball
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his fall, I want to take a “Selfie,” learn “How to Get Away With Murder” and patrol “Gotham.” These three TV shows represent the strongest new shows of the 2014-2015 television season, along with the CW’s “The Flash,” experimenting with enthralling new plotlines. ABC’s “Selfie,” starring “Star Trek’s” John Cho and “Guardian of the Galaxy”’s Karen Gillan, is a modern adaptation of the well-known musical “My Fair Lady.” Though the leads are more seasoned in the realm of sci-fi, they possess a quick wit that’s hard not to laugh with. See “Selfie” every Tuesday at 8 p.m. Other comedic notables include “Parks and Recreation,” with its seventh and final season and “The Mindy Project,” going into its third season on Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. Shonda Rhimes, legendary producer of “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal,” adds a third hit, “How to Get Away With Murder,” to her Thursday night dominance on ABC. Starring Oscar-nominated actress Viola Davis (The Help), the premise of the legal drama is just as intriguing as its title, as a professor at a Philadelphia college delves into the wrong side of the law more than she intially planned. Get your Rhimes marathon in on
Thursday from 8 PM to 11 p.m. Dramas leave something to be desired this fall; however, give NBC’s “The Blacklist” a try. With its surprising lack of procedure and interesting plot twists, it’s a fresh face in criminal procedural television on Mondays at 10 p.m. Something that has been significantly lacking in recent years (since we said goodbye to “The Tudors”) is historical pieces. I mean cool and edgy ones, not fluffy royal soap operas like “Reign.” . Starz “Outlander” is a noteworthy, thought zany crack at the genre. “Sleepy Hollow” is one part cop show, one part modern supernatural and one part “this is way cooler than National Treasure.” Starring newcomers Nicole Behaire as detective Abbie Mills and Tom Mison as British time traveler Ichabod Crane, the show is reminiscent of a more-suspenseful Supernatural (the CW). Tune in each Monday at 9 p.m. Like in “Sleepy Hollow,” the apocalypse has never been a more popular television trope. But, instead of a biblical doom, AMC’s “The Walking Dead,” heralds a different end to civilization. As always, it’s a can’t miss, returning on October 12 at 9 p.m. Superheroes have been making a comeback. Ever since the overwhelming successes of non-Batman big screen franchises, like Marvel’s The Avengers, caped crusaders have been slowly returning to TV. Not surprisingly after the success of “Smallville,” the CW brought the Green Arrow to life in 2012.
TV STARS “The Flash,” “How to Get Away with Murder” and “Gotham” will be leaving us on the edges of our couches this fall.
Besides the obvious appeal to the teenage girl audience, with shirtless men in abundance, “Arrow” is more than just another “The Vampire Diaries” show: bad boys in leather with no developmental writing whatsoever. It’s gritty and dark. While still being a show about saving a city, Oliver Queen, also known as the Green Arrow, is not just fighting supervillains. He’s fighting the same issues that plague America: drugs, gang violence, slums and corporate corruption. “Arrow” returns to the CW on October 8 at 8 p.m. Its spin off, “The Flash,” has just as much zest as its parent show, with “Glee” alum Grant Gustin as nerdy Barry Allen, shown in his backdoor pilot geeking out over Green Arrow.” The show, which premieres October 7 at 8 p.m, is quirky like its hero and full of action and features a unique origin story and compelling plotline. DC comics, one of two major comic companies, has recently had a decidedly weaker movie franchise than its competitor, Marvel, yet its clearly the winner in television. Marvel’s lukewarm “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D” falls behind “Arrow,” “The Flash,” and new Batman-prequel “Gotham.” Featuring villains like the Joker, Catwoman and Poison Ivy, “Gotham” shows what happened years before The Dark Knight hit the silver screen. The show airs every Monday at 8 p.m. on Fox. F Kate Clement A&E Editor
Wake Up America It’s sufficient to say that the last unique iPhone died with Steve Jobs. This fall, yet another iPhone hits the markets, but is it really a new phone? The only perceivable difference between the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 6 is the change of size, coming daringly close to that of an Android. Because the size increased .7 inches, the iPhone 6 is simply too large, making it nearly impossible to do anything with one hand. While Apple instituted a “reachability” feature to make the phone more accessible, it has an awkward feel to it and doesn’t seem to belong on the screen. The iPhone 6 comes in an even larger model, the iPhone 6 Plus, that is 1.5 inches
bigger than the 5S. By replacing an earlier iPhone model with an iPhone 6, you are essentially spending $200 on a slightly better camera, nothing else. The signature, rectangular iPhone design, has been demolished, making the iPhone 6 look like every other phone on the market. Admittedly, the new iPhone 6 does claim to have faster LTE and wifi speeds, a faster interface, and an improved display, which is a minor improvement from the previous generation. Apple upgraded from the A7 chip processor to an A8 chip processor which now contains which contains two billion transistors and is reportedly 50 percent
more power efficient. Many of the advertisements Apple has used showcase features from the new iOS 8. Anyone with a previous generation of the phone can, however, download this new software and essentially have the exact same phone. America, how long will it take before everyone realizes that Apple sells the same phone, year after year, with just a few tweaks and a bigger price tag. Perhaps Apple is moving on from it’s focus on phones and will be back for bigger and better things next year with the iWatch. F Ashna Kumar Staff Writer
iPhone 6 and 6 Plus PHOTO PROVIDED BY APPLE
hen some movies try to make a scene believable enough that the viewer feels like they’ve stepped into a new world, they fail miserably. “The Maze Runner “ isn’t one of those movies. The opening scene - a mostly-dark sequence of protagonist Thomas’ (Dylan O’Brien) ascent into his new home, the maze-surrounded Glade - features a bronzerbrushed, sweat-soaked Thomas gasping for air. When the screen explodes into brilliant light, illuminating many supporting characters - Ki Hong Lee, known for ABC’s shortlived The Nine Lives of Chloe King; Thomas Brodie-Sangster, known for Love Actually, and “Game of Thrones”; and Will Poulter, star of last year’s We’re the Millers. While these actors, like Skins’ Kaya Scodelario, add depth and support to the movie, O’Brien (“Teen Wolf”) really carries the movie. While O’Brien, 23, consistently out-acts even those many years his senior on MTV’s “Teen Wolf”, his emotional range was even more apparent in “The Maze Runner”. As someone who hasn’t read the books, I came with low expectations, not expecting any sort of emotional attachment to the main character. However, O’Brien’s Thomas is so unapologetically selfless that you can’t help but root for him. Likewise, even Poulter’s Gally, immediately opposed to any idea Thomas has to contribute to the Gladers (the group who lives in the Glade), shows his reasoning for doing effectively enough to garner sympathy from the viewers, even punching O’Brien’s face. In addition to the acting, the filming of the movie usually added to the story. The gritty feeling of the bouncing camera as the characters ran through the maze and the dark filter convey the panic the Gladers felt. The immediate transition from darkness to blinding white light that occurs several times in the film is jarring, but adds to the experience. Likewise, the soundtrack can be dramatic for some of the less climactic parts of the arc, yet at the action-filled peaks, the pounding bassline will have you at the edge of your seat. The visual effects, especially the CGI used to create the Greavers, cyborg-scorpion monsters, are stunning. Overall, though my initial concern was that “The Maze Runner” would be another movie in a long line of youngadult-novels-turned-blockbuster-wannabes, it impressed me with its rich storytelling and passionate acting. Characters saying that they “belong to the maze” is extremely appropriate as new fans of the franchise begin to emerge: soon, we’ll all belong to the maze. F Maria Katsulos Video Editor
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THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL SEPTEMBER 26, 2014
spOrts & WELLNEß
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Cutting Her Way to the Top Junior Austria Arnold won the National Youth Cutting Horse Association Senior Youth World Championship in June PHOTO PROVIDED BY HART PHOTOGRAPHY
Place earned by JV cross country at the Marcus II Invitational at Edward S. Marcus High School in Flower Mound on Sept. 20
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Total number of girls on varsity and JV fencing this fall. Due to the unprecedented high number of participants, some attend fencing practice at St. Mark’s on certain days, while others stay at Hockaday for conditioning
7-0 JV field hockey’s winning score against Highland Park High School in Dallas on Sept. 11. Six different players scored goals, with Junior Lori Jia scoring two.
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Number of times varsity field hockey sings the chant “Pony” before some games
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itting on a bale of hay in Sulphur Springs, TX in Aug. 2013, Ed Dufurrena, junior Austria Arnold’s horse trainer, shared his aspirations with Arnold and her parents. “I think this is our year to win it,” Dufurrena said to them. And from then on, that was their goal.
Sports Editorial
World Finals
Last June, Arnold stumbled upon the horse that would kickstart her journey to World FiArnold competes in the nals. Cowcattin, a horse with Senior Youth $250,000 to his name, Division of the was unrideable until National Youth Arnold decided to try Cutting Horse Ashim. sociation. Cutting, “We clicked pretor separating catty quickly,” she said. tle from the herd, “That was the first is a judged event. time I had ridden a Scores range from horse of that caliber.” 60 to 80, and the At the beginning CUTTING TO WIN average is 70. With of August, Arnold and Number of points each competition, Cowcattin were winJunior Austria Arnold points are accuning consistently, and led by upon her mulated; the total entrance into the World doing better than she amount of points was the year before. Finals that can be reHowever, Arceived at one comnold’s clean streak petition is six. was flushed down the Unlike regudrain in November, lar horses, cutting horses are when the owners of Cowcattin trained to respond quickly and decided to take him back. turn sharply in order to keep a “Everyone expected me to cow from its herd. crumble,” Arnold said. “It’s hard The team is judged on how when every time you compete, the horse moves in relation to you know that there’s a target on the cow. The rider focuses on your back.”
Cutting Competitions
CUTTING THE COW Junior Austria Arnold rides Freckles Meow at the National Youth Cutting Association Summer Scholarship during the finals in Forth Worth in July.
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the cow’s neck so as to anticipate its next move. A rider has two and a half minutes to separate as many cows as they can from the herd. The goal is to separate three cows, but two are acceptable.
he San Antonio Spurs announced last August the hiring of NBA’s first female assistant head coach. The credentials were to the expected level of excellence that every team looks for. Named one of the Top 15 Players of All Time in 2011 and part of the Russian Olympic team in 2008, the coach, Becky Hammon, is accomplished both on and off the court. Hammon’s instatement is an important step in women’s history. It is on par with Title IX, which was passed in 1972 to open more doors of oppor-
tunity for women in fields of education, including athletics. Former Head Basketball Coach at the University of North Texas and Director of Athletics and Physical Education Tina Slinker believes that Hammon’s arrival into this new position is monumental. “I always felt like she was a winner: a go-to-person who always seemed to rise above,” Slinker said. “And the beginning of Title XI in 1972 shows how long it continues to take women to have these breaking opportunities. Hammon just crossed another plateauit’s a powerful thing.”
SPORTS: Lady of the Lake / Page 19 •
But Arnold came back fighting, stronger than ever. Freckles Meow, nicknamed “Kit Kat,” was a mare with $70,000 to her name. After showing her in Gainesville and Graham, FL over the course of two consecutive days, Arnold received a 74 at each competition. “I ended up buying [her],” Arnold said. “And that’s the horse I won the World Finals on.” As Arnold consistently placed high at competitions, she asked her father if winning the World Championship seemed like a realistic idea. “It’s a huge commitment for the family,” Arnold said. “It’s very expensive and draining, emotionally and physically.” But Austria’s parents, Dr. Kenton and Mrs. Carroll Arnold, were willing to go for it. “If you get within ten points of first place, by December,” Dr. Kenton Arnold told her, “We’ll haul you with everything we got.” Arnold was four points ahead when December arrived, and rode hard from there. She passed Kolby Don Moore, a good friend and competitor of hers, for the top spot, and never let it go. Arnold accumulated enough points after that to go into the World Finals with a 30 point lead.
Although Title XI was created years ago, it didn’t start making a significant difference until recently. Slinker believes that women like Hammon give other women hope that they can achieve whatever they strive to accomplish. She views Hammon as a role model for Hockaday girls. “As a college player and Olympian, she went through her fair share of disappointments. [But] she believed that if you keep working, you can achieve whatever you want to,” Slinker said. Although Hammon was hindered by many obstacles
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throughout her career such as dealing with a severe, seasonending injury in 2013 and issues regarding sexism, she managed to pull through and become the esteemed coach she is today. “It takes hard work and determination and someone who has continued to fight for those rights. Becky Hammon has opened another door for all women. The doors are finally opening; it’s still an uphill climb for us [women],” Slinker said. F Heidi Kim Staff Writer
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Lady of the Lake Junior Sarah Taylor takes a position as a coxswain of an all-boys boat on the Dallas United Crew Team
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cross White Rock Lake in Dallas, junior Sarah Taylor’s voice can be heard loud and clear. “I know what you are feeling, I know the pain. C’mon row through the pain!” As a coxswain, the person in charge of motivating the rowers in a boat, on the Dallas United Crew Team, these words that Taylor speaks are nothing out of the ordinary. Her boat, her outfit, her position in the boat, everything that Taylor is doing fits into the afternoon scene at White Rock Lake, a common place for high school crew teams. The only catch: all of the other rowers in Taylor’s boat are boys. Although DUC is a coed crew team, Taylor elected to row with all-boys because she feels more in her element around them. “I told the coach that I only wanted to cox for the boy’s team because I connect better with boys,” Taylor said. “I am used to being around boys all of the time, so it is not a big deal.” Coincidently, Taylor’s twin brother, Drew Taylor, who also rows with DUC, influenced
her to get into crew. Both Sarah and Drew used to be avid tennis players before a wrist injury sidelined Drew. And that is when they were introduced to rowing. In order to regain his strength and heal his wrist, Drew began using the erg machine. Drew joined the St. Mark’s School of Texas crew team at the beginning of freshman year after enjoying his rehab work and then later transitioned to DUC rowing. Sarah was then invited to go to some of the practices, and the coach asked if she wanted to try out coxswain, and she obliged. Sometimes Drew and Sarah row together in the same boat, and he does not believe that the dynamic of the team is any different. “I don’t get to communicate with her like we do at home because we’re doing completely separate things at practice,” Drew said. “But after practice, we hang out with the guys and girls, and it’s normal -- like hanging out with a friend group together.” The coxswain never rows the boat, but Sarah notes the long list of additional jobs that the coxswain must complete. “I have to make sure that the boat is safe, and I have to make sure
that it doesn’t hit anything, or that we don’t accidentally hit someone in the head. When we are on the water, I have to make sure we don’t run into logs,” Sarah said. “I have to steer the boat. I have to critique the rowers in their form, and their blades, and their technique. I have to listen to the coach and make sure that I know what is going on because we run drills, and I am supposed to be calling the drills and making sure that everybody is doing the drill correctly.” Randy Dam, Sarah’s coach at DUC and a former Purdue University coxswain, believes that having a girl as a coxswain is an obvious advantage. “I’ve realized that, in general, girls have better control of the boys on and off the water,” he said. In addition, Dam also said that the mental game and respect of a girl coxswain out measures any boy coxswain. “Sometimes, a male coxswain can be seen as an equal or lesser individual to the rowers which can really be a detriment to the team due to lack of respect,” Dam said. “The gender division with girls and guys induces a sort of respect that you don’t really see with a male coxswain.”
Dam sees Sarah as an extension of himself and believes that the boys respect Sarah because she is one of their coaches. But not every girl can be a coxswain for an all-male boat; it takes a certain amount of courage and self-respect to hold the job. “Coxing demands a lot of respect from the rowers, so if a girl decides to cox a men’s boat and views herself as subordinate to the rowers, then she isn’t the right fit for the boat,” Dam said. “I’ve noticed that female coxswains tend to not mess around on the water as much as male coxswains, and the relationship between the coxswain and the rowers is not necessarily one of friendship, but they treat her as a mother figure along as a coach.” As for workouts, Sarah trains with her all-boys quad Monday through Friday, 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm, at White Rock Lake or CrossFit Lake Highlands. Sarah said that the place of the workout depends on the weather and how her coach is feeling. On Mondays and Wednesdays, there are optional CrossFit workouts from 5:30 pm to 7 pm, and optional rowing on Saturday mornings. Whether the team is doing a piece on the water or erging in the gym, Sarah works out with the boys. Sarah thinks that work-
ing out with the boys, although difficult and tolling on the body, adds to the unity of the team. “If I just sit there, they kind of look at me and think, she is just kind of slacking off and she doesn’t know how it really feels,” Sarah said, who frequently has to yell at the boys during a hard workout just to keep them motivated. Even though Sarah has never rowed for Hockaday, she has had experience coxing for an all-girls boat a couple weeks ago during an after school practice. She noted that the mental game of rowing changes greatly from gender to gender. “You really have to be supportive for the girls because they will cry and they will scream. For girls, it’s like a very emotional thing,” Sarah said. “For guys, once you get them to tap into their testosterone, you can yell, you can scream, you can cuss at them and they will just row harder.” Although crew, and rowing in general, comes with its challenges, Sarah enjoys the power and control that comes with the job. “It’s really fun for me because when we are on the water and we are doing a piece, I can just scream whatever I want and they will just row harder,” Sarah said. F Mary Claire Wilson Staff Writer PHOTO PROVIDED BY SARAH TAYLOR
ONE OF THE BOYS Junior Sarah Taylor, a member of the Dallas United Crew Team, coxes an all-boys boat at practice on White Rock Lake.
Hockaday Goes Healthy Hockaday Food Services provides new vegan choices and puts health initiatives in place for students
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t’s a good time to be a vegan at Hockaday. While food at the Hockaday cafeteria has always strived to achieve a high standard, the cafeteria is staying true to the Hockaday way and pushing the bar even higher. Now, for the first time ever, Hockaday is offering new vegan food options. Director of Food Services Torie Reynolds, who controls all food-related happenings at Hockaday such as meals and catered events, is very excited. “It’s hard to be vegan unless people are providing vegan items,” Reynolds said. “We already had a lot of vegetarians, but vegan is a whole other level.”
Vegan senior Alison Berger and vegan Upper School math teacher Rachel Grabow confirm that being vegan is not exactly something you do for fun. Grabow decided to become a vegan eight years ago due to her adversity to the killing of animals, while Berger converted after seeing the numerous health benefits. Cutting out animals and all animal byproducts from your diet is one of the hardships that vegans go through – something that is only made more difficult when one is constantly surrounded by these things. “[The new vegan options] are awesome,” Grabow said. “It’s nice to have a lot of different food options. I normally
just have to eat salads or bring supplements. I really appreciate it a lot.” Berger is equally as grateful for the new guarantee of vegan options. “They’ve had vegan foods before, but only sometimes,” she added. “Occasionally I’m forced to just eat fruits and vegetables for lunch. One time they made me a vegan pizza. That was really nice of them.” Along with the new vegan options, the cafeteria will be adding nutritional information aside every dish they serve, as well as placing healthy vending machines in the Upper School, Tarry House and the new science building within the next
few weeks. These vending machines will be filled with snacks purchased from Whole Foods and will replace the current ones. Hockaday will not be the first to jump on this bandwagon; these new machines have already found a home at the Episcopal School of Dallas and the Parish Episcopal School. Another plus is the pricing of these healthy munchies. Reynolds herself described them as “amazingly well-priced.” Adding on to the new health renovations in the kitchen, Hockaday is also putting forth an effort to use as many locally-grown products as possible, with the help of
Hardie’s, a produce distributor. A new ‘food of the week’ item, always locally-grown, will be advertised on a banner in the dining hall every week, starting next month. The residence department will see a chance to experience a new smoothie bar that is being put into effect just for boarding, providing a new option for brunch every other weekend. “Our goal is to make the best quality food, but keep a variety,” Reynolds said. “I think [the students] are going to be really excited.” F Amanda Kim Staff Writer
WaRd Field Hockey Oct. 2 Varsity Field Hockey - Home Oct. 7 JV Field Hockey - Home Varsity Field Hockey - Home Oct. 17 JV Field Hockey - Home Varsity Field Hockey - Home
Oct. 21 JV Field Hockey - Home Oct. 23 JV Field Hockey - Home Varsity Field Hockey - Home
Volleyball Oct. 7 JV Volleyball - Home Varsity Volleyball - Home Oct. 14 JV Volleyball - Home Varsity Volleyball - Home Oct. 17 JV Volleyball - Home Varsity Volleyball - Home
Oct. 23 JV Volleyball - Home Varsity Volleyball - Home Oct. 27 JV Volleyball - Home Varsity Volleyball - Home
Cross Country Sept. 27 Varsity Cross Country - Away Oct. 4 Varsity Cross Country - Away Oct. 25 Varsity Cross Country - Away
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THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL
Arnold continued from p18 “It was monumental in our industry,” Carroll Arnold said. Arnold had qualified for the World Finals, which was hosted in Fort Worth. The competition consists of three go-rounds, or runs, over the course of three days. The fourth day is called an average. On that day, riders don’t compete and averages of the previous three rounds are tallied. Arnold went into the World Finals 30 points ahead of everyone else. However, no one could catch her, because only a total of 20 points can be won at the World Finals. “I wanted to prove that I deserved to be where I was,” Austria Arnold said. Arnold won the World Championship 29 points ahead, and ended up with 131 points for the year. “It didn’t really feel real until that night after the third round when they called
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spOrts &WELLNEß
SEPTEMBER 26, 2014
my name and then I was like ‘woah, this is real,’” Austria Arnold said.
supports us in the same way.” “I know it’s because they care about me and they want me to be successful and follow my Inspirations dreams,” Austria Arnold said. The relationship that ArLike most world-renowned nold has with Duferrena is anathletes, Arnold other contributing seeks inspiration factor for her success. from role-models in “He’s really her life. good...he’s taught “My parents have me how to tune sacrificed so much my horse,” Austria for me to be where Arnold said. “He’s I’m at,” Austria Ara huge part of my I wanted to nold said. “Their Duferrena prove that I success.” sacrifice is incredcomments on his ible, and it makes me experience working deserved to push harder.” with Austria. be where I Her parents also “Austria did compete at cutting not win the World was competitions. HowChampionship by ever, often they have chance,” DuferJunior Austria to skip their classes rena said. “Because Arnold in order to get to anof her work ethic other show for her. she has developed “It’s a family efher cutting skills fort,” Carroll Arnold said. “When at young age. It has been my it turns around and my hus- honor to work with such a band and I are showing, Austria great young lady.”
“
Looking Forward Arnold’s plans for the future changed when, two weeks after the World Finals, Freckles Meow had to undergo stomach surgery in Mississippi. “She’s the strongest horse I know. She was fighting all the way through,” Arnold said. “And she survived, so now we’re on the path of a four to five month recovery.” Arnold intends to make top 15 in the world this year, and is currently in fifth place. She is not going to try to win the World Championship again this year, though. “Most people don’t try to win over and over again, because you put everything into it,” Austria Arnold said. She has grown this past year, not only physically, but also mentally and emotionally. “She’s an amazing competitor because she can put the mental part together. For a lot of kids and adults, when
they compete they get really nervous,” Carroll Arnold said. “Austria is very focused, she has the ability to just kind of find her place and focus on the task ahead.” Although Arnold is very successful at her sport, she believes that cutting goes beyond winning the first place prize. “I want people, when they look at me,” Austria Arnold said, “To see that I am not only a good competitor but that I am a hard worker.” F Erin Thomas Web Editor
To see more of photos and videos of Austria Arnold, scan this QR code with your smartphone.
Double or Nothing Hockaday athletes juggle the responsibilities that come with playing two sports in the same season
J
unior Christina Archer may not be Hannah Montana, but she does happen to lead a “double life.” Archer is commonly known for being a cheerleader, but what her cheer coaches don’t know is that she also runs cross country. She gets to cross country practice every morning at 6 a.m., goes to school for eight hours and then heads to cheer practice right after school until 6:30 in the evening. Often, Archer must complete her cross country workouts during her free periods with Assistant Director of Athletics Coach Laboris Bean who works his schedule around to help her with the workouts. Archer said that since cross country is more of an individual sport, it is easier to complete the workouts on her own, whereas cheer practices rely on the attendance of other people and are therefore harder for her to miss. Some weeks, Archer gets only three or four hours of sleep a night and has a limited amount of time to complete her work – time which she says she uses very wisely. Despite her lack of sleep and the increasing homework load that comes along with junior year, Archer is adamant about continuing to play both sports
during the same season. “Cheer is more fun, but cross country is more rewarding,” Archer said, smiling. Archer isn’t the only one on the Hockaday cross country team who plays two sports. A few other girls do the same. Sophomore Carolina Campbell takes part in both cross country and club swimming. Campbell spoke to Bean about playing two sports, and he decided that it would be best for her to attend cross country practices three days a week as opposed to the usual five. “Both of my coaches have been very supportive and understanding of my decision to play both, which has been amazing and such a relief,” Campbell said. She shows up to cross country practice in the mornings and then goes to club swimming practice after school. Campbell has been swimming since she was six-years-old, but added that “it’s always hard to decide which one [sport] takes priority over the other.” Sometimes, Campbell feels upset that she isn’t able to fully commit to cross country, but she knows that it isn’t healthy for her to overexert herself. Similarly, sophomore Maddy Skaife, who is on the varsity field hockey team and the Sting Club soccer team, must
also cope with the exhaustion that comes along with playing two sports. After a long school day, Skaife goes to field hockey practice for two hours, and then has 30 minutes to recover and get ready for her soccer practice. She balances both her school work and the amount of energy she exerts at each of the practices. “I try to save some of my energy from field hockey for soccer, but it’s still extremely exhausting,” Skaife said. Her club soccer coach isn’t a big fan of her playing an additional sport because he fears it makes her more vulnerable to getting injured. However, Hockaday’s physical education and varsity soccer coach Rodney Skaife, who happens to be Maddie’s father, believes that it’s good that kids are versatile and that they try things to see what they’re good at. His concern though, is a different one. “I’m also a little scared of kids choosing one a v e nue, and
PHOTO PROVIDED BY CLAIRE FLETCHER
To Play or Not to Play Sophomore Addy Walker decided to try new things this year and do the preseason for crew, a sport completely unfamiliar to her. She soon noticed, however, that crew didn’t make her excited and “wasn’t really her element.” Walker began to question whether she wanted to try out or just quit. Although some people had suggested that she join anyway since it would count as a P.E. credit and would be a fun way to stay fit, she finally decided to quit before tryouts. “I didn’t want to have to be on a sport I wasn’t passionate about and possibly affect the team’s performance as a whole,” Walker said. According to Director of Athletics Tina Slinker, Walker may have made the right choice. “I think there are some athletes who play just to get in shape. I think what happens with that, though, is that the level of commitment is different. The focus is on the individual self more than the team and the sport,” Slinker said, “Like if I’m playing field hockey just to get in shape for soccer, I think that could have an effect on the team dynamic and focus.” She said one main concern was putting athletes in major positions if they weren’t there to fully commit to the sport,
which could, for example, affect the offense in a team sport like basketball. Senior athlete Claudia Hammond, who is one of the captains of the cross country team, agrees that some athletes don’t play for the game. “I think some people do it to improve at the sport, but there are also many people who do it just because they want P.E. credit or just need something to do.” However, she also thinks that the reasons why girls play sports does not make a significant negative impact on the team, and takes an optimistic stance on the issue. “I feel like there is always going to be some positive people who really want to do well and improve in that sport,” she said. “They usually motivate the people who don’t want to be there, and in the end it all comes together, so it still does end up being positive.” Regardless of their reasons to play a sport, Slinker feels that there are many benefits for athletes. Slinker said, “I think most athletes play for the game, and the best byproduct of that is being fit. It works out pretty well.” F Jenny Zhu Staff Writer
then finding out it’s the wrong avenue because it’s hard to do that reverse u-turn,” he said. From the standpoint of a father, Rodney believes that playing two sports contributes to her daughter’s happiness-at times, when one sport may not be going so well, the other is going great. Even though playing two sports d u r i n g o n e season is a huge commitment, all three girls enjoy playing on both teams, and they plan on continuing both sports in the future. Campbell added, “To me, swimming and running cross country at the same time is so worth it because I love doing both and I am able to play both without having to quit one.” F Manisha Ratakonda Graphics Editor TWO FOR ONE Sophomore Maddie Skaife displays her field hockey and soccer skills.
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THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL SEPTEMBER 26, 2014
PersPectLves Feminism at its Finest
StudentView The Fourcast asked readers “Which fall tv show are you most excited about?” Here are the results based on a poll of 166 responses.
48
%
The Mindy Project
10
%
Walking Dead
29 % 13
%
How to Get Away with Murder
Gotham
PHOTOS COURTESY OF FOX AND ABC
NEXT ISSUE: What’s your favorite winter Starbucks drink? A) Pumpkin Spice Latte B) Hot Chocolate C) Peppermint Mocha D) Hot Apple Cider Check your email soon for the survey!
Senior Elie MacAdams
F
or years, I didn’t appreciate Hockaday as much as I should have. Angry at my parents for doing the unthinkable (sending me to a school without boys), I kept my mind narrow and vision skewed. I wrongfully assumed throughout the past three years that all the drama tied to High School was unique to an all girls’ school. In my mind, the only positive attribute of an all girls’ community was the ability to skip the makeup before school and save 10 minutes of my time. Although going to a single sex school has had its ups and downs throughout the years, it’s taken me until my final year at Hockaday to discover how dramatically the positives outweigh the negatives. Consequently, these positives have affected my views on feminism. It’s easy to take female empowerment for granted. At Hockaday, we learn that we are just as capable and our voices are just as important as any other human being—whether man or woman. The ability to speak our minds, so innate for Hocka-
day girls, is not a right that all women enjoy. In oppressive patriarchal societies, women’s opinions and feelings are not valued; often times speaking their mind can lead to oppression or even violence. While Hockaday has instilled in me a love and appreciation for learning, my access to such an environment is attributable to the country I live in. In the U.S., education is not only a right, but also a requirement for all youth. In many third world countries, where oppressive patriarchal societies are the norm, education and equal opportunities are not rights guaranteed to all women. Don’t believe me? Watch the movie Girl Rising. The whole film centers on nine girls in developing countries, such as Cambodia, Haiti, Ethiopia and Peru, who are risking their lives just to learn. While boys in these countries may be granted education and expected to attend school, girls face incredible hardships, social injustices and the possibility of arranged marriages blocking their right to education. It makes me incredibly sad to know that not all women can share the same rights and enjoy the same encouraging environment that Hockaday girls spend their days in. Although I may be a feminist, I’d rather consider myself a proponent of equality. I just want for everyone—no matter country of origin, gender or skin-color—to be able to enjoy the same basic rights. Men are not better than women, nor are women better than men. The
classic feminist stance (the one that I support)—political, social and economic equality to men—has been altered and obfuscated over the past few years. Aggressive feminist proponents believe in equality, but try to get their point across by putting down men. In my opinion, such feminists are fueling sexism by treating men as if they’re less than women. Conversely, I find the women who are completely against feminism to be slightly misinformed, seeing as they are usually privileged women who grow up in societies where equal opportunities are expected and given without consequences.
Using Twitter as their platform, “Women Against Feminism” base their arguments off of the idea that feminism is demeaning to men. Some of them may be combatting the aggressive feminists, but do the rest really know what feminism is? The most I can hope for women is that we can all speak our minds (whether in reality or on social media), coming from an educated and informed place. When we’re all on the same page, maybe all of our stances on feminism will be the same too. Just maybe. F
THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID If you’re
masochist, then cross country is the perfect sport for you. TWITTER Senior Phoebe Smith (@phobi_wankenobi)
We have up-downs today because three people was late and because Phoebe got a new tattoo. Cross Country Coach Laboris Bean, in reference to senior Phoebe Smith’s temporary tattoo.
Average Sunday night at the Hurst house: bat flew into house when pizza man came, Brian killed it with a lacrosse stick, Ali cried #lax TWITTER Senior Morgan Hurst (@morganhurst27)
If you go to Northpark and you don’t have an awful time, did you really go to Northpark? TWITTER Junior Emily Routman (@emilyroutman)
Guns. Upper School math teacher Andrew Brown who was trying to guess the word “play dough” during a game of Fish Bowl, a charade game, given the hint “something you played with as a child.”
STAFFSTANCE
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e promise this will be our last Centennial-focused article—that is until the next 100 years rolls around. But by then, it will be the Bicentennial. Now that Hockaday has thoroughly basked, soaked and burned in the light that is the Centennial, we’re left wondering what comes next. Are there no more school-wide celebrations? Will we now discontinue appreciating Hockaday’s legend and history? Does the Fourcast have nothing left to write about? (The answer to all of these—especially the last one—is no). We’re definitely not stuck in post-Centennial depression. While alumnae and outsiders viewed the event with admiration and enthusiasm, students inside the school grew tired of the event as the year progressed. With the amount
of celebration, preparation for and reporting on the event that we did, we were ready for the Centennial to be over by the end of the year. Arguably, the year-long event might’ve been overrated. With the adjunct fundraising campaign, centennial-themed apparel and the onset of glamorous events complete with Hocka-celebrities, students started to feel slightly averse towards the event, almost as if their year was being overshadowed by the schoolwide celebration, and lost sight of why the past 100 years were so memorable and praise-worthy. Now that the beginning of this school year has signaled the final end to Hockaday’s first Centennial, is this year less special than last year? No. Although this school year will be just as special as the years ILLUSTRATION BY SYDNEY THOMAS
preceding it, some aspects of it may prove to be different than last year’s Centennial celebration. Instead of focusing on the past, this new school year is focused on looking forward: we’re determined to make the next 100 years just as memorable as the first 100 years. Although we didn’t enjoy the Centennial based events as the year wore on, the Centennial made us appreciate Hockaday and how it’s progressed so far from its humble beginnings with Miss Ela Hockaday. We know there’s so much more to come. This next school year, we’re not salvaging last year’s leftovers; we’re starting fresh. F
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THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL
WE LOVE IT, WE LOVE IT NOT
Exploring the NEW SCIENCE BUILDING!
PAINTING Senior parking spots! We finally get to colorfully mark our territory.
No more UPPER SCHOOL GATHERINGS during advisory. We get our bonding time back!
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PersPectLves
SEPTEMBER 26, 2014
STAFFSTANDOFF
Newborns on Newsfeeds
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hould parents post pictures of their young children/babies on social media? Try to remember that picture of you and your cousin from when you were 3-years-old— clad in the infamous tankini, parading around the front yard like it was a stage, soap bubbles smeared all over your bodies. And that other one from your first birthday: sitting sans top in a highchair with birthday cake coating your skin like sun tan lotion, you wear a crooked grimace, revealing no teeth. My childhood was characterized by many pictures similar to the ones I just described. Thankfully, my mother plastered these pictures all over the house rather than on social media. These days, with sites like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter being such prominent parts of our daily lives and so easy to access from any piece of technology, our parents, and many parents of young children, are posting pictures of their babies and toddlers all over social media sites. Not a good idea. Social media presents an initial security risk, whether parents are posting pictures of their children or pictures of anything else. The internet is full of many different kinds of people. While there are some private settings on social media sites like Instagram and Twitter, almost everyone has access to everything that is posted on the internet. Who wants someone they do not know to have a picture of them as a baby at the click of a button? These strangers are able to invade your privacy. A recent study on biostory.ap.org, a news website specializing in in-depth coverage of breaking news stories, found that many new parents are electing to keep pictures of their tots off the internet for these very safety reasons, a method also called “baby blackout.” And who knows where the photos could end up years later. What happens if your friends find the picture years later and it is displayed across Instagram as a #tbt? Social media archives anything that you post, unless you delete it. And truly, once you post something online it never gets deleted. If these photos fall into the wrong hands, nothing but sheer embarrassment will come from it. Stick to your social media sites for Ice Bucket challenges and pictures of your pet, but leave young children off of it! F
Vs.
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hen we scroll through our facebook feeds, we often come across baby and toddler pics, posted by the parents of our friends. In recent years, social media has been a nesting ground for good, bad, love, hate, happiness, tears and everything in between. In many ways Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Vine, SnapChat and Tumblr have been abused and are prominent sources of bullying and harm. It is truly shocking how 140 characters have the potential to tear down a person. On the other hand, social media can be utilized to raise money and awareness and even spread smiles. Our digital world has become a large part of our lives, so why not use it for the better? Even though posts from the parents of our friends of their little brother or baby sister can be pesky, it’s the little things shared on social media, compliments and inspirational quotes or even baby pictures that have the ability to make someone’s day. New parents pay enormous amounts of attention to their baby—feeding them, responding to their crying, and more. So when they do get some peace and get to spend time with their kids and decide to snap a smiling picture of them, it’s kind of their way of saying, “oh this parenting thing isn’t so bad.” It’s a self-confidence booster—knowing that they have done something right. In some ways, it is like celebrating a victory. One of our first instincts of receiving good news is sharing it, especially on social media. In our WiFi-crazed times, we are constantly checking social media, thus making it an easy path to staying connected with both friends and family. Social media is a simple and effective outlet for family members to keep up with the progress of the child. For example, it is quite easy to take a picture of a one-year-old taking her first steps. Social media serves as a precise picture diary of an infant’s developmental progress that parents and family can look back on for years to come—one that can be accessed from work, from the grocery store, virtually anywhere at any time. At the end of the day, it is harmless to post a baby or toddler picture. It’s even beneficial in many ways. And let’s be real… who doesn’t love a picture of a smiling baby in the midst of random complaint posts and ALS ice bucket challenges? After all, a picture really is worth a thousand words and one that may just make your day that much better. F
Mary Claire Wilson Staff Writer
Sonya Xu Staff Writer
Shake it Off
HAIKU is always down. When will this kerfuffle end?!
Sophomore Sonya Xu
E Construction is over, but we still CAN’T TURN LEFT.
ver since we were young, we were told that we had two options – let the bully win or stand up to the bully. Of course, it was imprinted in our minds that we were to always stand up to the bully. Taylor Swift’s chart topper “Shake it Off” has proven this notion wrong. And the reviews have not all been good. In her new song, Taylor Swift writes about shaking off her haters and, in turn, has been criticized about it. Reactions to her new song have been mixed. And I find it quite ironic. In “Shake it Off,” the bullied writes a song about bullies
in order to stand up to them, which is what we have always been taught to do. However, the bullies continue to bully the bullied back. Is this a never ending cycle? Who ultimately wins, and how do we stop this cycle? The Take Down Culture, a vein of bullying that is intrinsically a public action, has effectively been around for a long time. It has become more and more widespread through the growth of social media and there has never been a better public forum. Perhaps it was pop culture phenomenon movies like “Mean Girls” in 2004 that first popularized how “funny” and “interesting” being mean could be. While the movie only does this through the “burn book”, teenagers have found a much louder forum to write the same kind of rude comments, directly and exclusively to a specific person. Rather than gaining attention by being smart or interesting, the person who is taking down another individual gains all the attention, simply by being snarky and mean. Furthermore, their comments are
even reinforced by their number of Facebook likes, Twitter retweets, or supportive YouTube comments. Taylor Swift’s problems are bigger than just a burn book. At any given time, I’m sure there are hundreds of pro and anti-Swifties discussing her all over the web. Taylor Swift’s problems are bigger than just a burn book. At any given time, I’m sure there are hundreds of pro and anti-Swifties discussing her all over the web. What options does she have to address all of them? Quite literally in every rap song, rappers will address their haters—it’s a very accepted as part of the culture. Everything from “Haterade” by Gucci Mane with Nicki Minaj and Pharrell, to Drake’s more recent “Started from the Bottom” addresses all the haters who told they couldn’t reach the top. So why there is an uproar or why is it even a surprise to anyone that a well-adjusted pop sensation would wanted to make a similar song? Are the people who are criticizing her and the video simply living in a double standard?
She actually “shakes it off” in two ways: first, obviously, with the actual lyrics of her song, but secondly, she does it in a very public, big way, recognizing her haters through an entire video and song dedicated to them. It is not simply the content, but the medium through which she conveys her message that is significant. On the other hand, people may think that dedicating an entire song to haters is recognizing the impact of their “hating” and is only reinforcing their negative behavior. However, given the ways in which anti-Swifties may proliferate through many types of social media, one, ultimate Swift swoop against them is the only way to address them. Perhaps we don’t have the capabilities to create a world-renowned music video in hopes of addressing the people who are against us, but perhaps there is a solution. The solution is scarily, almost overwhelmingly too simple—if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. Don’t try to retaliate against the bullies, simply remove yourself from the situation. F
THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL
THE FOURCAST 23
PersPectLves
SEPTEMBER 26, 2014
Gone Clubbing
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Alexis Espinosa
MANAGING EDITOR
Courtney Le
WEB EDITOR
Erin Thomas
BUSINESS MANAGER
Avita Anand
SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR
Sydney Yonack
COPY EDITOR
Senior Sydney Yonack
Inaara Padani
NEWS EDITOR
Charlsea Lamb
T
able after table of neon poster boards and shouting girls make Club Fair one of my most looked-forward-to events of the school year. Students flit from club to club, observing the signs up close and deciding whether or not they want to fish through the pile of candy strategically placed right next to the signup sheets. Some girls take the liberty upon themselves to carry their own pencil around, writing their names down on almost every club list without hesitation. It seems that Hockaday students have started every club under the sun: Music Business Club, Dumbledore’s Army, Wilderness Club and Relaxation Club. So it is completely natural to want to sign up for three, four or eight. The problem, however, lies among the girls who choose to drop a club without notifying the leader. They simply stop showing up. And this is not a new problem. As many of my friends start up clubs of their own this year, I am reminded of my own troubles as a club president dealing with running a club. Girls often overestimate the amount of time they can allot for each club. When they realize they don’t have the time to dedicate to each club they signed up for, rather than notifying the president of the
ASST. NEWS
Faith Isbell
FEATURES EDITOR
Megan Philips
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
Kate Clement
SPORTS & WELLNESS EDITOR
Catherine Jiang
ILLUSTRATION BY KATE COOPER
PERSPECTIVES EDITOR
Elie MacAdams
club, they keep their name on the roster simply for college resume fodder. To this girls, it’s nothing more than an activity on a common app, but to the club leaders, it’s one more person who just doesn’t contribute to the club, making their jobs that much harder. As freshmen, we are told before the club fair not to put too much on our plate so as not to overwhelm ourselves. But we don’t listen and become entangled in a slew of meetings and bake sales. There is a simple solution to this entanglement: Stick to one club. Club leaders work very hard, I know from experience. My sophomore year, a friend and I started a community service club. We trekked out to Farmers Branch to meet with the head of the organization we were partnering with and created a prototype
for the project. We planned activities and made a couple hundred flyers. The Club Fair went wonderfully. My freshly baked cookies were gone in an instant as chatty throngs of girls came up to scribble their names down on our sheet of paper. After the crowds cleared, 108 names sat proudly on our sign-up sheet. My partner and I, keeping the momentum going, called a meeting in Tarry House. Of the 108 students that signed up, five were present at the meeting. Thinking we just planned it at an inconvenient time, we attempted a Round 2. We sent another email out. Of the 108 students that signed up, zero were present. The club members were sent a pretty passive-aggressive email soon after. What I’m trying to say, if anything, is to be aware of
all the stakeholders in this situation. Club leaders invest so much time (and sometimes money) into creating clubs that they are passionate about. So when they are presented with people who are anything but committed, it is frustrating. My club never picked up, so we disappointingly decided not to continue offering it anymore. I encourage you to rethink your decision. Don’t sign up for a club just so you could momentarily indulge in a pink-icing sugar cookie or just to better your resume. Before the club commitments pile up and you start deleting club leaders’ emails before you even read them, ask yourself whether or not you are willing to amp up the commitment or if you should just quit. There should not be an in-between. F
PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Claire Fletcher
GRAPHICS EDITOR
Manisha Ratakonda CASTOFF EDITOR
Sunila Steephen
VIDEO EDITOR
Maria Katsulos
STAFF WRITERS
Jenny Zhu, Heidi Kim, Mary Claire Wilson, Sonya Xu, Eshani Kishore, Hufsa Husain, Amanda Kim, Ashna Kumar STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS
Yuhan Jiang, Erica Jones, Nicole Klein, Nina La Barba, Cher Qin, Madison Smith, Molly Waring STAFF ARTISTS
Mahima Agrawal, Kate Cooper, Wendy Ho, Lily Sumrow ADVISER
Ana Rosenthal
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
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e encourage anyone from the Hockaday community— alumnae, parents, faculty, staff and students—to submit Letters to the Editor. Selected letters will be published each issue in regards to the previous issue. We regret we cannot acknowledge all submitted letters, but we sincerely appreciate them. Letters to the Editor must be signed. Please email letters to aespinosa@ hockaday.org or mail to The Hockaday School, attention: The Fourcast, 11600 Welch Road, Dallas, Texas 75229. All of the letters must be typed, double-spaced and must not exceed 200 words in length. The Fourcast will not alter the meaning or intention of any letter to the editor, but may edit for grammar, spelling and space.
www.hockadayfourcast.org Better news than your newsfeed. Updated daily.
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 Avita Anand, Business Manager, at aanand1@ hockaday. org. We reserve the right to refuse any advertising which is deemed inappropriate to the Hockaday community. Opinions will be clearly marked and/or will appear in the perspectives section. Commentaries are the expressed opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect that of The Fourcast staff, its adviser or any member of the Hockaday community. Unsigned editorials that appear on the opinions page will reflect the official position of The Fourcast, but not necessarily the position of the Hockaday community. The Fourcast staff may cover student, staff, faculty or alumnae deaths as the staff is made aware. We reserve the right not to cover a death based on relevance, timeliness and circumstance. Corrections and clarifications from previous issues will be found as designated in the news section. Any questions or concerns should be taken up with Alexis Espinosa, Editor-in-Chief, at aespinosa@hockaday.org.
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HOCKADAYFOURCAST.ORG
THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL SEPTEMBER 26, 2014
CAStOFF With the 2014-2015 school year well underway, the Fourcast has high aspirations for the next eight months.
1. Get on the ROOF of the science building
2. DRIVE a Hockaday golf cart 3. Pet Mr. Brown’s HEAD
4. Always have a FORK at lunch 5. Find a community service replacement WITHOUT emailing the entire Upper School
6. Secret SLEEPOVER on campus
7. Star in the Hockaday CALENDAR 8. Go a full 24 hours without HAIKU crashing
9. Explore the BOMB shelter 10. Go inside the teacher’s LOUNGE
11. Catch the HOCKAPOSSUM ILLUSTRATIONS BY ANNABELLE FOLSOM