April 2022 | The Evergreen, Greenhill School

Evergreen

April 6, 2022

Volume 57, Issue 5

the

Everything Greenhill

Opening Up Opportunity A journey through the Greenhill admissions process. Page 10 Photo illustration by Khushi Chhaya

Crisis in Ukraine Schedule Change Athletics Upgrade A horrified world watches the war in Ukraine as Russia’s invasion triggers a European refugee crisis and sends energy prices soaring. Pages 2, 3, 5

Informing Greenhill since 1966

Upper School administrators amend the block schedule to include an extra class period to ease student stress and increase flexibility. Page 9

Additions and renovations to existing athletics facilities are unveiled as the Growing Stronger Together campaign gets underway. Page 15

4141 Spring Valley Road, Addison, TX 75001

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News

Greenhill Debate Wins Three State Titles

Aria Kutty, Mayer Sidikaro Upper School debaters won three hard-fought titles at the Texas Forensic Association state tournament March 9-12.

The tournament recognizes the best debaters in Texas. A record 31 Greenhill students attended the tournament this year.

“We take TFA state really seriously,” said Associate Speech and Debate Coach Allie Chase. “Greenhill has a history of making it to the late elimination rounds, and it’s been a goal to win the tournament.”

Debaters compete in three formats: Lincoln-Douglas, Policy and World Schools.

Lincoln-Douglas is an individual debate format, while Policy debaters compete in pairs. World Schools debaters compete in teams of five.

The Lincoln-Douglas division featured 133 competitors, while 44 teams completed in Worlds Schools and 52 in Policy.

Senior Shruti Siva and sophomore Krish Mysoor won the Policy state championship.

In the World Schools division, Greenhill’s Green team – comprised of seniors Caroline Greenstone, Ashton Higgins, Cameron Kettles, Ashley Shan and Aimee Stachowiak – won the state title.

“Winning the state championship felt incredible, and also like redemption,” Siva said. “LJ and I had been in the finals last year, and this felt like the win I had been hoping for since then. It was also really cool because all my friends, people I had debated last year who graduated and came back to judge, my coaches, and everyone I had debated throughout the season were all around me.

But yeah, I felt on top of the world.”

Greenstone was also named the top World Schools speaker, winning a third state championship for Greenhill in this category.

“Seeing the seniors win was inspiring because we have all seen how hard they work, and it showed us what we need to do to be in that position in the future,” said sophomore World Schools debater Pooja Sanghvi.

Higgins, Shan, Kettles and junior Carcyn Coleman were also among the top 10 World Schools speakers. Siva was the eighth-place speaker in the Policy division and senior Krutin Devesh was the 10thplace speaker in Lincoln-Douglas.

“I know that speaker awards are incredibly subjective, but I was excited to be third [place] speaker,” said Higgins. “That, coupled with winning the tournament, felt like a really nice culmination to my time in high school debate.”

In World Schools the Greenhill Gold team reached the octo-finals, which features the final 16 teams. Team members are: Coleman; juniors Sophia Mohamed and Nate Stitt; and sophomores Kaden Alibhai

For the Hornets This Week Photos courtesy of Aaron Timmons

TOOK TFA: The Greenhill World Schools and Policy debate teams won the Texas Forensic Association tournament on March 11, receiving statewide recognition.

and Vivaan Gupta.

In addition, the Greenhill Peacocks team, comprised of sophomores Emily Hu, Sophia Li, Sanghvi, Natalie Stachowiak and Jeannette Yang, reached the octo-finals.

In Lincoln-Douglas, Devesh and junior Nikitha Thoduguli reached the double octofinals, featuring the final 32 teams.

For Aimee Stachowiak, her gold medal was a long time coming. In her sophomore and junior years, she made it to the finals but never won.

Director of Debate Aaron Timmons described the team’s success as an important win.

“It is nice to see the work that [they] put into achieving a goal come to fruition,” Timmons said.

To qualify for the tournament, debaters had to accumulate 10 points throughout the season. Through their victories in regional tournaments, students gained points by advancing to elimination rounds.

For students such as freshman Sherry Zhang, this process was tense.

“The first semester [was] pretty stressful because we hadn’t qualified yet as a team,” Zhang said. “However, after we qualified, it was so much fun. We didn’t have to stress about making sure we got into [the state tournament].”

This was the first in-person tournament for many students.

“Being in person changes how we prepare because now things like eye contact, emotion and speaking style matter far more,” said Sanghvi. “Ultimately, I think being in person is what makes debate fun because of the environment and atmosphere it creates.”

Junior Policy debater Christopher Row agrees that judging can be different in person.

“Because you’re looking at the judge, a lot of things change,” Row said. “It’s your body language. There’s a lot of new stuff that kind of goes into the background that will determine whether or not you win.”

While they had success during online tournaments, those events don’t allow debaters to interact with others outside their team.

“The whole [in-person] tournament environment is pretty hectic and energetic, and most people like me really like that,” Kettles said. “Online [debating] feels like you are attending a class or something. It doesn’t feel like a competitive environment as much as it might otherwise be.”

While being online due to COVID-19 has changed how competitions are held, participation in the Greenhill debate program has increased since the beginning of the pandemic.

“Being online has not hurt our success at all,” Timmons said. “It’s increased our numbers. However, I am ready to get back in person because of the social aspect of traveling to tournaments and being there with people from other schools. But it’s not been bad for us in a virtual world.”

Freshman Saida Bidiwala says the team culture between debaters contributed to the success of the teams.

“With the positive environment, there is more trust between people, so we work better,” said Bidiwala. “Because of this, we have confidence in others and ourselves.”

As the school year comes to a close, students are looking to qualify for the National Speech and Debate Tournament.

“What’s next?” Timmons said. “We are all really locked in and focusing on the next one.”

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Wednesday, April 6, 2022

Evergreen Ever the

News

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“A Barometer for True Excellence:” Sofia Babool ’18 Ravi Vasan

A

s a new freshman at Greenhill, Sofia Babool ’18 already stood out because of her accomplishments in and out of school.

Now a senior at the University of Texas at Dallas, Babool’s accomplishments are even more extensive and impressive, including awards for her research, business and entrepreneurial work and two TED Talks. She describes her time at Greenhill as an important factor in her academic and professional success.

“Greenhill gave me the confidence to go after what I thought was important,” Babool said. “Without Greenhill, I would 100% not be where I am today.”

Road to Greenhill Babool is the product of a multicultural family with an international perspective.

Her mother was born in Pakistan. Her father was born in Mozambique but spent years in Portugal. Eventually, the family ended up in Dallas.

“I’ve grown up believing that whatever job or career I end up doing should be for the benefit of a global population rather than only for profitability,” Babool said.

Her parents learned of Greenhill School through a family friend from their mosque.

Her brother applied and was accepted for his eighth-grade year.

“I saw a change in his critical thinking, his public speaking ability and a depth of thinking that I too desired,” Babool said. “I applied for ninth grade and was accepted.”

Babool built an astonishing resume during her time at Greenhill.

In her sophomore year, she received the esteemed Harvard Book Award and three other highly competitive Greenhill book awards in specific classes.

“She was a barometer for true excellence,” said Upper School English teacher Andrew Mercurio, who taught Babool for six consecutive trimesters. “Her utter dedication to learning academically, morally, social[ly], spiritually and personally was boundless and unrivaled.”

At the urging of her Upper School teachers and mentors, Babool pushed herself to take some of Greenhill’s most difficult courses.

Babool credits a core group of teachers and mentors who guided her through her Upper School years: Mercurio; Upper School Science Department Chair Treavor Kendall; Upper School history teacher Scott Cotton and Co-Director of College Counseling

Randy Mills.

A turning point in Babool’s life occurred in the summer before her senior year, when she attended a camp in Pakistan for Ismaili Muslims, a branch of Shia Islam. The highly selective camp, called Global Encounters, focuses on “service, leadership development and global citizenship” according to their website.

Babool and 41 other members of the camp traveled to Karachi, Pakistan, to work with nearby groups to improve living conditions for local residents.

Her group worked with a “service learning” project at the Sultanabad Colony School, where they embedded English curriculum and environmental sustainability and explained the importance of health and feminine hygiene products.

After her experiences and research abroad, Babool was invited to deliver a TED Talk focusing on stereotypical viewpoints of developing countries by the majority of the world.

“Let us listen to each other, and to the world, as we collectively redevelop the word ‘underdevelopment’ and upgrade not only our lives, but also, the lives of others,” Babool said in her first TED Talk.

A Global Perspective As she neared the end of her time at Greenhill in 2018, Babool won the Academic Excellence Scholarship to attend the University of Texas at Dallas.

During her freshman year at UTD, she gave another TED Talk, this one at Harvard University, on how humans cope with the unknown.

“We as humans fear the unknown, which is why we fear the words ‘I don’t know’,” Babool said in her second TED Talk. “But those are the very words that can stimulate us, motivate us and inspire us to know.”

Babool also started an on-campus initiative, Athena Labs, to spread awareness and understanding of feminine hygiene poverty around the world.

Babool is currently a senior, majoring in neuroscience. She has done significant research through her own work and internships at the University of California, Irvine at their Development of Social Cognition Lab, and at Tufts University through its Biomedical Research Program.

Other honors include a first place grand prize at the Harvard College Undergraduate Research Conference and Best Poster Award for Social Sciences at Stanford.

Babool has published multiple scientific

Photo courtesy of Sofia Babool

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Sofia Babool delivered her first TED Talk during her senior year of high school after the Global Encounters international leadership program. articles on varied subjects, including the Award. Bright Owl was also a semi-finalist applications of time-series methods of at the UTD Big Idea Competition.

“I credit Greenhill fully for my tracking cholera in Yemen and a comparative analysis between the United Kingdom and entrepreneurial efforts, truly believing that India with the goal of defeating female it gave me the spark I needed to simply start something I think has value,” Babool said. period stigma.

Next year, Babool plans to attend “I always had an interest in biology and decided to steer myself towards those University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. She intends to manage and grow her premed courses,” Babool said.

Bright Owl business, fusing her passions of business and medicine.

Business and Beyond

One evening in 2021, Babool was sitting in her friend’s apartment watching a news segment about the academic gap students faced due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As a neuroscience major and a previous intern for child development at UC Irvine, I knew that having an entire generation academically lost and behind could have immense ripple effects, both in their life and the lives of the next workforce generation,” Babool said.

She decided to create a business. With a friend, Babool launched Bright Owl Tutoring, a virtual tutoring and mentoring company for students. The company currently has 70 paying customers and has raised more than $17,000 for curriculum and platform development.

Babool and Bright Owl have received multiple honors, including the 2021 Cathy Coughlin Memorial Scholarship, the GalXc Women Entrepreneurship Accelerator and the Global Student Entrepreneurship

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As a neuroscience major and a previous intern for child development at UC Irvine, I knew that having an entire generation academically lost and behind could have immense ripple effects, both in their life and the lives of the next workforce generation.”

“Greenhill ignited my entrepreneurial spirit and forced me to see what could be different around me, grab the skills to change it and then inspire others to do the same as I hustle toward my mission,” Babool said. “My Greenhill education taught me the importance of seeing a challenge straight in the eye and doing everything in my power to go straight through the storm, especially if it means that you’ll end up on the other end kinder, smarter, empathetic, and in service of others.”

Evergreen Ever the

4 News

Eighth Grade D.C. Trip Resumes Sophia Li

A

fter a yearlong hiatus, eighth graders are scheduled to undertake their annual Washington, D.C., trip April 11-14.

The trip was originally scheduled for November but was moved to April due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“Things are looking better,” said Middle School English teacher Susan Bauman, who also acts as eighth grade team leader and leader of the trip planning process. “When we made our reservation as we were canceling last year’s trip, we put November on the calendar, but we also picked April just in case.”

Before Greenhill eighth graders first traveled to D.C. in 2014, they had a fall trip to The Outdoor School at Camp Champions. After seeing the positive impact that the experience had on students, teachers began exploring other field trip opportunities.

“We determined that the kids really got a lot out of that,” Bauman said. “[Head of Middle School Susan] Palmer talked to teachers from other schools that were sending groups to Washington, D.C., and was sold.”

Greenhill partnered with Close Up to make this vision come to life. According to Close Up’s official website, the group “provides exciting Washington, D.C., hands-on student programs and engaging classroom resources.”

“They really do a lot of our logistical, grassroots stuff in terms of making airline reservations, securing a hotel for us, providing tickets for museums […] and provid[ing] facilitators who engage students in really thoughtful conversations,” said Middle School History Department Chair Paige Ashley. “We tell them exactly what we want to do, and they make it happen.”

The preparation process involves the entire eighth grade team.

“The teachers’ side of preparation is dividing kids into activity groups and putting people in hotel rooms together,” Ashley said. “We do a lot of work in advisories, [such as] preparing students to engage in conversation about different issues or giving them background on certain locations. That preparation involves both students and teachers.”

During the trip, the eighth-graders will be split into five or six activity groups that work together with a leader from Close Up. Previous touring locations include the Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, Smithsonian museums, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and Jefferson Memorial.

In light of the pandemic, some logistical changes

have been made to ensure students’ safety. In February, Washington authorities lifted the district’s indoor mask and vaccine mandates.

“Typically, we put four people in a room,” Ashley said. “This year, we will have two per room. In terms of [COVID-19] protocols, the situation, recommendations and mandates are constantly evolving, both locally and nationally. We will have to be flexible and responsive to what is needed and required at the time of the trip.”

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We determined that the kids really got a lot out of that. Palmer talked to teachers from other schools that were sending groups to Washington D.C., and she was sold.”

The D.C. trip provides a unique hands-on experience different from what students can experience in a typical classroom setting, faculty said.

“One purpose is to see firsthand government in action and how different agencies work to make things happen and to get some visual impact on how the country works,” Bauman said.

Another purpose of the trip is to strengthen ties among students and between students and teachers.

“It’s a bonding experience for this group of kids,” Bauman said. “We always have one night be an advisory dinner. It’s a really special moment to sit down as a group and share a meal. The trip pulls the class together as a whole, but it also pulls small parts of the class together in ways they never would have expected.”

Students who have previously gone on the D.C. trip still remember it as a positive experience years later.

“My friends and I still talk about the trip [to] this day,” sophomore Abeera Amer said. “It was more than just a sightseeing trip, but also a valuable opportunity to learn about our country.”

Despite minor changes, students say they are eager to mark this Middle School milestone.

“I’m excited to go on the D.C. trip,” eighth grader Sophie Carruthers said. “I’ve never been, and I am excited to see all of the important monuments and museums.”

Likewise, Ashley says the trip’s hiatus makes it more valuable than ever.

“This year, knowing that we feel confident that we can do this in a safe way, it will be such an amazing experience,” Ashley said. “Distance makes the heart grow fonder, and not doing it last year made us even more grateful.”

COVID-19 Lockdown in Shanghai After weeks of partial closures to contain an outbreak of COVID-19 in Shanghai, authorities in China’s largest city (population 26 million) imposed a lockdown on March 28. As the closure of highways, tunnels and bridges approached, citizens rushed to gather food and resources. The measures were implemented in two five-day phases that targeted the city’s eastern districts before the west. The lockdown has confined the majority of residents to their homes and closed nonessential businesses while authorities ramped up mass testing in an effort to isolate active COVID-19 cases. Many in need of urgent medical treatment from preexisting conditions or emergency situations have died due to a lack of accessibility to hospitals.

Gang Violence in El Salvador El Salvador declared a state of emergency on March 26 due to gang violence that resulted in the death of 62 people the previous day. The 30-day emergency restricts who can enter and exit neighborhoods, bans mass gatherings and allows the government to intercept citizens’ communications. The street gang at the root of the violence is Mara Salvatrucha, better known as MS–13–El Salvador’s largest gang. The United States has sanctioned Salvadoran officials, accusing them of negotiating a truce with the gang; Salvadoran officials and gang leaders deny this. In the aftermath of the emergency delcaration, El Salvador’s national police said they have arrested more than 2,000 people.

Record Reef Bleaching in Australia Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the largest coral reef system in the world, is experiencing its fourth mass bleaching in seven years as a result of marine heat waves up to seven degrees above average. These high temperatures rid coral reefs of the algae that provides food and bright colors from within, turning the reefs white. Though bleached corals can recover if temperatures cool, ocean temperatures continue to be at an all-time high, increasing chances of a permanent die-off. Not only do the fish in these reefs supply food to millions of people worldwide, but the reefs also provide protection from severe and increasingly occurring storms.

Weapons Testing in North Korea North Korea launched its first intercontinental ballistic missile – the Hwasong-17 – in more than four years on March 24. North Korean President Kim Jong Un declared the country’s intention to develop more powerful weapons and upgrade the country’s nuclear arsenal. The missile traveled nearly 700 miles over one hour seven minutes before splashing into the sea between Japan and the Korean Peninsula.

South Korean, Japanese and U.S. intelligence officials have subsequently concluded that the missile was an improved version of the existing Hwasong-15 missile rather than a new ICBM as claimed by North Korea’s Central News Agency.

Graphic by Sophia Chao

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Cam Kettles

W

ithout the ability to engage militarily, the U.S. and EU countries have chosen to wage an economic war against Russia, the scale of which is truly unprecedented. The West has shut out Russian banks, seized or frozen the assets of Russian oligarchs, and effectively made the Russian c e nt ra l bank’s reserves of $630 bi l l i on useless by banning

transactions with the central bank, taking away its power to defend the Russian ruble.

The most politically significant sanction the U.S. imposed was banning the import of Russian oil and natural gas. I say politically significant because the U.S. gets only 3% of its oil and none of its natural gas from Russia.

But unlike other Western sanctions, the EU declined to issue a similar ban.

That’s because even now, most of Europe is reliant on Russian oil for about 40% of its natural gas, 27% of its oil, and 46% of its coal needs. At least as long as Europe is dependent on Russian energy, there are hard limits to how much economic devastation the West can cause because there are hard limits to the amount of economic pain Europeans are willing to suffer.

Most countries of the West have voiced public support to punish Russia with sanctions, even if it means natural gas and gasoline prices are more expensive. But people are only willing to suffer so much for so long.

The EU has pledged to phase out Russian oil and natural gas imports by 2027. Predictably, U.S. fossil fuel and oil companies have offered their production as the obvious replacement.

Most likely, the U.S. will ramp up oil and natural gas production in the short term. But, as attorney and diplomat Jose Fernandez said, “[t]here is no capacity in the world” that could replace Russian output. No matter how much better U.S. oil

is for the environment compared to Saudi or Venezuelan oil, Russian oil can’t be fully replaced by other fossil fuels. We need an alternative."

And alternatives do exist. Renewable energy sources – hydropower, wind, solar and nuclear – have the potential to replace not just Russian fossil fuels, but most of all nonrenewable energy demand.

The EU’s original plan to end its dependence on Russian energy sources by 2027 relied on heavy investment in wind and solar projects. Germany was going to shut down its three remaining nuclear reactors, a plan that is now being questioned.

Even if the world only temporarily delays development of alternative energy and reverts back to fossil fuels under the pressures of the Ukraine crisis, the environmental damage will be irreversible.

“Delay is death,” Secretary-General of the United Nations António Guterres told U.N. delegates in Geneva last week, as he reminded his audience of the emissions reductions climate scientists say are critical to avoid catastrophe in the decades ahead.

If we continue to produce carbon dioxide even at our current rate, the globe will have warmed 2.7 degrees C by the end of the century. If the United States and OPEC ramp up production in an effort to replace Russian oil, warming will increase more rapidly, and policies to limit carbon emissions will just be contradictory.

Every tenth of a degree increase in temperatures means more flooding, more fires and more famine. Millions will be forced to leave their homes and their countries, and groups that seize power during times of instability like Boko Haram and ISIS will thrive.

We cannot afford to make climate change a back-burner issue – even with a war going on.

This new demand for energy can go one of two ways: it can solidify complete dependence on energy that will speed up and worsen the impact of climate change; or it will be the needed push toward a clean energy transition.

Energy politics is security politics, and the war in Ukraine has shown just how important energy security is.

True energy security is only achievable without fossil fuels. The world simply cannot afford to go back.

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he recent violence in Ukraine has been nothing short of devastating, and my utmost support and respect go out to all those who have been directly impacted by Russia’s onslaught.

It goes without saying that the people of Ukraine and their unfathomable struggle should take priority over prices at the pump for the people of America.

That being said, the war and recent sanctions on Russia have already highlighted the importance of natural resources in the global economy.

Many countries rely heavily on Russian crude oil and natural gas. Last year, 40% of natural gas consumed in the European Union came from Russia.

Although only about 3% of the oil America consumes originates in Russia, the impact that Russian oil has on the U.S. extends far beyond imports. Oil touches every aspect of the global economy, including almost all transportation, production of plastic goods and electricity in homes.

Given how necessary oil is for our economy, one would think that U.S. leaders would be more cautious about where our oil comes from and how reliable our sources are.

We eliminate many potential hazards by producing over half of the oil we need domestically, but a significant amount is still produced internationally.

When conflicts like the war between Russia and Ukraine arise, turbulence can be created in the U.S. and world oil markets.

Most Democrats are strongly opposed to producing more oil domestically due to its negative environmental impact. To fill the void caused by the Biden administration’s decision to ban imports of Russian crude oil, Democrats would like to look elsewhere for oil, including outlaw nations like Venezuela.

No one wants to deliberately hurt the environment, but there are many key reasons that producing more oil domestically, even if it means drilling on federal lands, is the lesser of two evils.

The environment is global, and no matter where the oil is being produced,

it will have the same net impact on the environment.

Getting it from places like Venezuela is actually worse for the environment, as Venezuela’s state-run oil firm delivers poor-quality “heavy” crude oil to refineries in the U.S. Heavy crude requires much more energy to extract and refine than “light” crude produced in the United States.

We are also funding authoritarian regimes by importing oil from places like Venezuela and Russia, and I think almost every Democrat would agree that that’s not a place we want to be.

Drilling more on our own lands and possibly even our federal lands isn’t ideal, but it gives us the opportunity to control the situation and rely less on undependable foreign nations.

If countries in the European Union can depend less on nations like Russia, then unstable countries like Russia will become less vital to the global economy.

While one might say that we wouldn't have to worry at all about these issues if we just used electric cars and switched to green energy, that goal needs to happen at a much more gradual and practical rate.

An increase in U.S oil and gas production would give America more power within the industry and allow us to control the pace at which we transfer to green energy.

O i l a n d gas are dire c t ly

translatable to global power, and U.S. leadership needs to accept the fact that it’s impossible to fulfill the environmental demands of the far left in so little time. The impact that U.S. sanctions on Russia have had on the world are causing manageable problems now, but we have no way of knowing what the future holds.

The U.S. must produce more oil and gas to combat the current crisis and prevent issues like this from reoccuring in the future.

Opinion: What Happened to Campus Club Life?

Rachel Wegener

I

t’s no secret that club life at Greenhill has degenerated.

I went through a high school schedule without club time for two years and have now experienced the schedule with club time for the last two years. Yet, even with the open “club time” blocks during Community Time, I have not noticed a big difference in participation levels.

Since I was a freshman, clubs have failed to be an important part of my Greenhill experience, and the same goes for many others. The reason? I have a few ideas to offer.

First, the primary goal of a club is to meet and surround yourself with people who share interests with you.

Greenhill is a small school. We as a student body already know pretty much everyone else in the Upper School or at least have come across everybody at least once.

Some students still use these club spaces to discuss their particular interests.

There are some clubs that still meet and

have large numbers of members. I am not discounting these clubs.

But in these clubs, students are almost guaranteed to know somebody else. How much do people spend actually talking about the club topic before it turns into a place to hang out with friends?

When clubs are made up of people who are already friends, often only a few people are actually trying to initiate discussion about the topic. The others are using the time to just hang out.

But the larger issue with clubs is that those who are dedicated participants are generally in it for the college resume.

Now, I’m not criticizing people who are trying to build up a resume. Believe me, I’ve been through it. But it takes away from the spirit of clubs in the first place.

Clubs are meant to be fun and a place where people can do what they enjoy, but a lot of clubs have been reduced to a line on a resume and a checkmark on the Common App. And honestly, when you are simply running a club for your resume, it feels like a drag. And I’m fairly sure that many of us

can think of someone who is a part of club leadership for this exact reason.

When that leader leaves, the club is left with two possible fates: it dies, or someone else takes over, usually to pad their own college application.

I understand why the school decided to create “club time” to try and revitalize this area of community life. However, many students – including me – view “club time” more as “free time.” Students would rather use this time to get schoolwork done, especially with the commitment of afterschool activities and the hope of getting a solid six hours of sleep.

This block in the schedule is also an excellent time for students to meet with teachers, make up tests or even get ahead on homework. Or, once again, “club time” is an excellent excuse to hang out with friends and go to The Buzz for snacks.

Having clubs during lunch may have actually been better because most people use that time as a break from schoolwork.

It’s easier to slip in going to a club while you eat instead of competing with other things

a student needs to do.

Do I think clubs are pointless? Of course not. The intent behind club life is great.

But Greenhill club life is deteriorating, and this raises fundamental questions for Upper School students: How much do you really care about clubs at Greenhill? And what are you prepared to do to reverse this trend?

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Features

The Double Life: Students Working Part-Time Pooja Sanghvi

S

ixty hours a week. Eight and a half hours a day. That’s how much junior Chancey Stefanos worked this summer.

In the Upper School, many students held jobs over the summer and are continuing to work throughout the year to save money and gain employment experience.

The students are stepping into a hot job market made even hotter by pandemicrelated labor shortages. There were nearly 11 million job openings in December, which was more than 4.6 million above the total number of unemployed workers, the U.S. Department of Labor reported. In November, 4.5 million people — a record number — quit their jobs, according to the Society for Human Resource Management.

Because of this, high school students without work experience now have more opportunities to find jobs, especially in retail industries, which were impacted the greatest during the pandemic. According to the Department of Labor, 54.4% of people aged 16-24 were employed in July 2021.

“Lots of companies are hiring like crazy right now due to the worker shortage,” said Stefanos. “But also, I feel like I would have been able to get a job either way because Greenhill helps a lot with getting hired at any starter job.”

Stefanos worked two jobs over the summer at the teen-friendly Hollister and Aerie clothing chains. For the first couple weeks of school, she worked during school nights.

“It was to the point where I was just so exhausted all the time because I would be going to school and I didn’t have a break during the day to do my homework,” Stefanos said. “My shift started at 5, so I didn’t really have time to eat dinner and I was losing social time.”

Now, Stefanos works during the weekends, when her schedule isn’t as full of school and social obligations.

Senior Abby Platt works Fridays through Sundays from 5:00-8:30 p.m. running the front desk at the local restaurant Pizza Gianna. Along with playing tennis on the varsity team and managing schoolwork, she says she helps customers and enjoys spending time with her coworkers.

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It’s sometimes really stressful to work with school, but I manage it pretty well because I’m fortunate enough to have the flexibility that I have because of my hours. It gives me something to do on the weekends, and I still have time to do schoolwork and play tennis during the week.”

“It’s sometimes really stressful to work with school, but I manage it pretty well because I’m fortunate enough to have the flexibility that I have because of my hours,” said Platt. “It gives me something to do on the weekends, and I still have time to do schoolwork and play tennis during the week.”

Junior Joshua Titens worked as a carpenter and did sales and inventory work at a golf club over the summer. Once school started, he had to quit his carpentry job because it was a full-day time commitment.

“Honestly, it’s really tough because on the weekends is a great time to get a lot of work done, especially to get ahead,” Titens said. “I’m playing baseball, so during the week doing my homework, going to practice, getting my workouts in and also working jobs [is] just a lot, but it definitely helps my time management skills.”

Though many consider it a challenge, balancing work and school is not an impossible feat, according to all three

Photo by Nate Stitt

HARD AT WORK: Junior Chancey Stefanos works at Aerie in the Galleria mall. Her duties include folding clothes and working the register.

students. There are a lot of life lessons that student workers say they learn from balancing work and school.

“There were times where I thought about just quitting for a while,” Titens said.

“I think kind of forcing myself to stay in and learn how to manage multiple things gave me a really good experience.”

Stefanos says that working is more of a necessity than a luxury for some students.

She says it eases many parents’ financial burden.

“I’m not one of the more privileged students at Greenhill,” Stefanos said. “I think working for me is just a way to pay for my phone, and also, when I go out to eat or buy clothes, I pay for that. I’m not entirely dependent on my parents anymore to pay for everything.”

Platt and Titens work to gain independence and have their own money.

These are skills they say they were going to need in the future, so they wanted to gain experience with them early.

“I work because I’ve learned not to rely on other people so much,” Platt said.

“I want to make my own money so I can handle it on my own. Working helps me build many skills such as time management, money management, social engagement and good communication, which are all fundamentals that you need to learn at some point before you’re on your own.”

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There were times where I thought about just quitting for a while. I think kind of forcing myself to stay in and learn how to manage multiple things gave me a really good experience.”

Regardless of why they seek jobs, the students say they enjoy it and don’t regret continuing to work through the school year.

“I think it helped motivate me to focus on school so I can do something more with my life than an entry-level job,” Titens said. “I think it also taught me the level of discipline and responsibility expected in the workplace, which I’m glad I am learning now and not later in life.”

Wednesday, April 6, 2022

Evergreen Ever the

Features

7

How to be Successful in AP Microeconomics

Graphic by Emma Nguyen

Diane Lin mong Greenhill’s many courses, Advanced Placement Microeconomics and its subsequent AP Macroeconomics class are certainly two of the most discussed courses among students finalizing their schedules.

AP Microeconomics is a fall semester course. It serves as a prerequisite to AP Macroeconomics and must be taken at least concurrently with some level of calculus.

Although it’s available to juniors and seniors, the class is almost never taken by juniors because the course is in high demand among rising seniors, and the latter are prioritized in the scheduling process.

“Microeconomics is really about studying individual decision-making,” Upper School economics teacher Adrian Martinez said. “We look at individual decision-making from the point of view of a single person making choices about what to consume. Then we take some of the basic principles of consumer choice theory and expand it to understand the decisions of a single business.”

The course has no homework, projects or papers. Grades are determined solely based on five tests.

A

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Microeconomics is really about studying individual decisionmaking. We look at individual decision-making from the point of view of a single person making choices about what to consume. Then we take some of the basic principles of consumer choice theory and expand it to understand the decisions of a single business.”

After an introductory game, Martinez teaches a few lessons on theories in the unit. A day of games, casually called “mini Jeopardy,” follows, where students review those concepts.

The unit culminates with students playing a game that Martinez and his

students call “Jeopardy” but is more of a trivia game that allows students to earn bonus points before students take the test, Martinez said.

The points offered by the games primarily serve as incentives, Martinez said.

Students can win and lose points as they play.

At the end of each unit, each student’s points are totaled up and added to their test grade.

By offering these points in games, Martinez believes it ensures that students are studying daily in preparation for their tests.

These games set AP Microeconomics and Macroeconomics apart from any other Greenhill course.

“There are a lot of different purposes for the games,” Martinez said. “I’m showing the students how the theory works in the context of a problem they might see. The kids are engaged, and I’m signaling which concepts I think are most important. It allows students to make mistakes in front of other people. I think it’s a good way to learn.”

We’ve asked some former AP Microeconomics students about their experience with the class. Here’s what they had to say: !"# $%&'&# ()*$%+),# *-.# $%+)/# "$.0&)$"# "%-.10#2'&2('&#-'#/)-3#+)#(04()5&6# “You won’t know anything going in, and that you’ll probably find it hard. I’d recommend asking all the questions you can think of to improve your understanding.” – senior Shruti Siva 7-3#3("#$%&#3-'/1-(06 “We didn’t really have any assigned mandatory work, but we had games to play for points during class, and it was a lot of work studying for those. Apart from that, there wasn’t really anything I was required to do Shruti Siva on a daily basis.

A lot of the work is done based on what you believe you need to do.” – senior Christine Yan “Surprisingly, the workload wasn’t that bad because there really just isn’t a lot of homework. The thing is everything you do outside of class is on you. There are worksheets you can do and slides you can look at. So, for me, at first the workload was nothing because I wasn’t doing the optional stuff, but then I realized you probably need to be doing the optional stuff.” – senior Hallie Sternblitz 8%($# 9&$%-0"# 0+0# *-.# ."&# $-# +92'-4&# *-.'#2&':-'9()5&#$%($#*-.#$%+)/#3-'/&06 “I did a bunch of practice problems and made-up variations on types of problems that I thought could be tested. That kind of forced me to think through the relationships between the concepts I was learning and practice everything I’ve learned.” – senior Shruti Siva “I took advantage of AP Classroom. As intimidating as the class is at Greenhill, this is an AP course, and the tests look like an AP exam. I did a lot of the practice problems on AP Classroom – both MCQ (multiple choice questions) and FR (free response). That really helped because then I didn’t just have Mr. Martinez’s questions, but also standard AP questions.” – senior Hallie Sternblitz 7-3#0-&"#+$#5-92('&#$-#()*#-$%&'#5-.'"&"# *-.;4&#(1'&(0*#%(06 “It’s definitely harder and relies on more intuition than memorization compared to a bunch of other courses I’ve taken. My original method of ‘shotgun a bunch of notes’ is not the route to take for this class.” – senior Shruti Siva “It’s the most unique course at Greenhill – I’d say I’ve never taken a course like this before. I think Greenhill really values a collaborative environment, and this is a competitive class. I don’t think it’s a bad thing, and it’s prepped me to go to a more competitive school in my future. It’s definitely

different from what I’ve seen before, but I think it was a good exposure.” – senior Hallie Sternblitz “It was obviously Adrian Martinez different, but I don’t think it was necessarily better. I think [the games] were a missed opportunity because they were so close to being equitable, and still a fun competition and demonstration of your skills, but sometimes it felt like they intentionally were not. For example, [we played] Rock, Paper, Scissors when there was a tie. Rock, Paper, Scissors should not be determining any aspect of our test grade.”

– senior Will McDonald

!

It’s definitely harder and relies on more intuition than memorization compared to a bunch of other courses I’ve taken.

My original method of ‘shotgun a bunch of notes’ is not the route to take for this class.”

!"#$%&'&#()*$%+),#*-.;0#"(*#$-#"$.0&)$"# $%+)/+),#(<-.$#$(/+),#$%&#5-.'"&6# “The rumors you’ve heard about this class being hard are true. I make no apologies about that. I believe that the middle student out of all the students should be a B+. The tests are uncomfortable, not because I’m a jerk, but because of two reasons. One, I happen to believe that I should have a fairly normal distribution around a B+. This is not the kind of class where you walk in and expect an A. Second, the pressure I put you under is by design so that, by the time you get to the [AP exam] at the end of the year, you’ve been run through the gauntlet and that test should not be as daunting.” – Upper School economics teacher Adrian Martinez

8 Features Evergreen Ever Teacher, Coach and Administrator, All at Once the

Photo Illustration by Nate Stitt

Photo by Ravi Vasan

WEARING MANY HATS: In the classroom, Ahmed Najm takes on the role of AP Statistics teacher. In between classes, he takes on his second role in the equity and inclusion office.

Ria Agarwal

G

reenhill teachers often take on other school roles in addition to their classes, whether it's coaching, sponsoring clubs or holding an administrative position.

Juggling different roles is timeconsuming, but teachers say they enjoy the opportunity to pursue a variety of interests.

“It takes initial planning in the summer knowing that you'll obviously have to make adjustments, but you kind of lay the groundwork and then you just make use of all your free time,” said Upper School Math Department Chair Darryn Sandler, who also teaches Upper School math and coaches the varsity girls basketball team. “Downtime does not exist while you’re at school. Our interactions with colleagues and students are what make the job enjoyable.”

Teachers say they often grade papers during off periods, and coaches use off periods to set up practice plans for later in

the day.

“It's very little downtime, but as long as I have about 45 minutes in the morning to get myself organized, it's manageable,” said Assistant Equity and Inclusion Director Ahmed Najm, who also teaches Upper School math and coaches the Upper School Quiz Bowl team.

Most teachers wait a few years to take on additional roles.

“The longer you're at an institution, especially one like Greenhill, you just sort of find yourself pulled in different ways because you care about the community,” said Upper School History Department Chair Amy Bresie, who also teaches Upper School history and serves as an assistant cross country coach.

Najm says that he wanted to take on a role in the Equity and Inclusion Office because, as a teacher, he always wanted students to be able to bring their “whole selves” into his classroom. When accepting new administrative positions, most Greenhill

teachers opt to keep their classroom role.

“I’ve always looked for ways to serve the community in different capacities, knowing that I never wanted to leave teaching fully,” said Head of Upper School Trevor Worcester, who also teaches Upper School Latin. “Even as Head of Upper School, I want to keep teaching a class for as long as I am able.”

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The longer you’re at an institution, especially one like Greenhill, you just sort of find yourself pulled in in different ways because you care about the community.”

Although juggling many positions is challenging, teachers say they enjoy the variety and the ability to interact with and teach students in more than one area.

“It's neat to be able to see students in different spaces – as a student and then also as an athlete,” said Upper School history

teacher Scott Cotton, who also coaches varsity boys tennis.

Sandler says he enjoys watching the dynamics of his team and the dynamics of his classes evolve throughout the year.

“Life is short, and I want to have a job that I can look forward to going into each day,” Sandler said. “I've been very blessed that I found something that I truly love at a place that I like being at. Everyone has a lot on their plate, and regardless of what your roles are, we are all busy.”

Teachers say that it takes a lot of time and commitment to be able to balance multiple roles within Greenhill alongside out-of-work responsibilities, but they appreciate the option to pursue multiple passions at the same time.

“Having so many positions is not a burden,” Cotton said. “It's an opportunity.” !"#$%&'(")'%7("#0%8#30%/.0"'(12"),%".%"3(4% #'"(/5)6

Peer Mentor Program Up and Running After COVID-19 Isabel Martinez

W

hile the COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult for Greenhill’s peer mentors to connect with the advisories they were assigned to last year, the program is up and running again.

Senior Class Dean April Burns, who also teaches Upper School Spanish, has overseen the Peer Mentor program for the past two years.

The program consists of 33 seniors and four juniors. Mentors help freshmen with the transition into Upper School through advisory lunches, presentations on school traditions and advice. They also answer any questions freshmen may have.

There is also a mentor program for students who move to Greenhill in later grades.

“My favorite part about the Peer Mentor program is just the interactions we have with the freshmen,” senior Kaden Nathani said.

“During first semester, we would go once a week with the advisories and it would just be us peer mentors and the students. That was really great.”

Once selected, peer mentors undergo training on everything from basic communication skills to mental health discussions.

With the COVID-19 restrictions of the 2020-2021 school year, it was difficult for peer mentors to perform their duties, Nathani said.

“Last year, because of virtual school, the dynamics between peer mentors and students weren’t as strong as peers,” Nathani said. “It was more of a mentorship purely due to the virtual experience. It was more

like us mentors talking at the students.”

This year, the program has been operating completely on campus.

“This year is running more smoothly, partly because there is a better rhythm of school days, with Green, Gold and Community Time,” Burns said. “This group of peer mentors is really great. Their positive attitude and willingness have really been amazing.”

Bonding between peer mentors and students is one of the most important things about the program, students said.

The program also aims to give freshmen a connection with older students, helping to dissolve the high school rivalry that often occurs between upperclassmen and underclassmen.

“The bond that freshmen and upperclassmen have is unique because the freshmen can look up to the upperclassmen, but the upperclassmen can also relate to the freshmen because they once were freshmen,” freshman Taylor Chon said.

Chon says that peer mentors have taught him how to be successful in high school while also having fun.

“The point of having the Peer Mentor program is to teach you the little tricks on how to navigate high school and how to handle certain situations,” Chon said.

“Whether it’s a tough teacher or a sticky scheduling situation, I can always rely on the advice given by my peer mentors.”

Freshman William Maher agrees that the peer mentors give students valuable advice.

“The peer mentors have taught us that high school will be hard but will also be fun,” Maher said.

Burns envisions even further possibilities with the program.

“I want the program to have a dedicated time and space,” Burns said. “I want it to be a class and for it to be consistent enough to develop a curriculum that focuses on leadership skills.”

Some peer mentors say the program might not work as well as a class.

“While I think the freshmen could potentially get more out of the program if it were a class, I think fewer students would be able to participate, considering the number of course requirements and electives many

upperclassmen already pile into their schedules,” senior Alex Little said.

Regardless, senior Skylar Smith is eager for more interaction with freshmen.

“I really hope that us peer mentors get to meet more often with the freshmen and that we become friends to the freshmen so that they know that, even if they don’t have anybody to talk to, peer mentors are here for them,” Smith said. !"#$% &'(")'% *#+)'% !(,(-#'.% /.0"'(12"),% ".% "3(4%#'"(/5)6

Photo by Helina Tedros

A HELPING HAND: Senior peer mentors guide and support freshmen advisories.

Special Report

9

A New Addition in Hopes of Subtracting Stress

Avery Franks, Emily Hu

Hauss-Smith, who is also a sophomore advisor. “Challenge is good, drowning isn’t. It’s about finding a middle ground for different people with different needs.”

The new schedule serves to add space to accommodate for limited space when creating a schedule instead of a new block to pile on more work.

“We are not going to a system where a student can take five AP courses,” Worcester said. “This change is for students who are doing a lot of things outside of school and need to take time during the school day to get work done.”.

While some students recognize the administration’s intent with the schedule changes, there is concern that dividing the community period into smaller increments will cause Greenhill to lose some sense of connection.

“Over the past couple of years, activities like clubs have become much less frequent and organized,” said junior Gabe Rudelman. “I am worried that the change will lead to fewer people creating and attending clubs.”

Advisory is another time where students can interact with their peers, and some are worried that the new rotation and a more structured school day might involve sacrificing this time to fit in other tasks.

“I want to make sure the new schedule preserves advisory time,” Mohamed said.

“We have been with each other for a majority of our high school careers. I love checking in and developing relationships with my peers [during this time].”

T

he Upper School schedule is changing.

Starting in the 2022-2023 school year, the schedule will include an eighth class period and community meetings set in an eight-day rotation.

School will start earlier in the morning, and passing periods will be cut in half.

Currently, the schedule alternates between Green and Gold days. Each Green day has four 80-minute blocks and a 30-minute office hours period; each Gold day has three 80-minute blocks, an 80-minute community period and 30 minutes for either advisory or grade-level meetings.

“While serving us in some positive ways, we’re finding that planning for the community period happening every Gold day has been extremely challenging,” said Head of Upper School Trevor Worcester.

“It provides the timeframe for clubs, assemblies, affinity groups and Wellness, but it takes a lot of effort from a lot of adults and contains a lot of moving parts.”

Timing Adjustments The new schedule converts the community period into an eighth class period. The activities that used to happen during that time, including advisory and office hours, will now fill up a 25-minute block in the morning and a 40-minute block in the afternoon.

“The only thing set is the fact that we’re doing eight blocks,” Worcester said.

“We’re still talking through what goes into those 25- or 40-minute periods and what the rotation looks like. We’re making sure that we get [every activity] in the schedule and we know exactly when it’s going to happen.”

With an additional class block, Upper School administrators are trying to give students more flexibility in balancing their schedules. The change is not intended to encourage students to increase their course load, administrators said.

“There might be people who have extracurricular commitments and take six classes with two free periods,” said Director of Academics Jason Yaffe. “I don’t think that’s vastly different from having one free period and Community Time, where a student can choose whether or not to go to clubs or affinity groups.”

Many teachers say they are optimistic that the extra period will bring relief for students.

Additional changes to the schedule include moving the daily start time from 8:40 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., removing the snack break and shortening passing periods from 10 minutes to five minutes. Some students expressed concern that these changes will increase stress.

“I live an average of 45 minutes away from school, and it is hard enough getting to school at a reasonable time, so 10 minutes makes a difference,” junior Sophia Mohamed said. “Ten minutes also make a difference during passing periods, which is time I need to regroup. Those five minutes between classes will be me walking to class with no time to get a breath of fresh air, use the bathroom or just decompress.”

While administrators are aware of concerns, they say they don’t consider the changes too drastic.

Graphic by Emma Nguyen

Optimism The new schedule was designed to help students who want to try different electives or give themselves more time to do work.

Freshman Kendall Poglitsch says the changes will allow students to craft more individualized schedules.

“The addition of an eighth block gives us the chance to take a free period each day to get help with managing our workload,” Poglitsch said. “There is an increased ability to have a free period even while taking additional electives, so I don’t think student stress and mental health will be negatively affected.”

Upper School drama and theater teacher Valerie Hauss-Smith says the schedule will allow more students to get involved.

“To put together a show, we just have a few months with an hour and 20 minutes every other day, making it important that people also get access to classes like Acting I, Acting II, Theater 101, Tech, etc.,” HaussSmith said. “It will help the students to be able to take classes that equip them with the ability to truly shine in the performances.”

After-School Activities Sports, debate and robotics are flexible in terms of which requirement they fulfill to accommodate students who perform at a high level in a particular extracurricular.

Courses such as these can count toward the six-class minimum or be excluded from the eight-course maximum with approval from the school.

“The one place in students’ schedules that is locked is after-school activities, like sports or debate,” said Upper School Latin teacher Jason Gajderowicz, who also serves as sophomore class dean. “The schedule isn’t really adding much choice for students that are really committed to those things.”

Though both debate and athletics are after-school activities, athletics do not count toward a student’s eight-class maximum, while debate does.

“The idea of debate counting toward the maximum is to make sure that students aren’t overcommitting themselves,” Gajderowicz said. “However, I think it would be just as easy to commit yourself to the same extent with sports, especially three-sport athletes. I think both activities are really important and valuable, so I hope that this distinction doesn’t affect people too much.”

Concerns Despite the additional block, the minimum and maximum course loads are not changing. Students must always be enrolled in five academic classes and one elective. The maximum enrollment is eight courses.

Gajderowicz notes that students may misinterpret the new schedule, viewing the additional eighth class period as an opportunity to schedule more things rather than as a break.

“We do need to make sure that the pace of studies for students is bearable and that we advise them to use that extra block without overworking themselves,” said

!

While serving us in some positive ways, we’re finding that planning for the community period happening every Gold day has been extremely challenging. It provides the timeframe for clubs, assemblies, affinity groups and Wellness, but it takes a lot of effort from a lot of adults and contains a lot of moving parts.”

Worcester says that, rather than limiting community interactions, the new schedule will increase students’ ability to connect interpersonally.

One area of concern in the existing schedule is the mandatory Wellness course for freshmen and sophomores, which sometimes meets in a class-wide setting.

Director of Social and Emotional Learning and Wellness Shanti Majefski and Upper School Counselor Amanda Frederick say some students aren’t making connections in the class, Worcester said.

One possibility under the new schedule is putting the Wellness course in a 25-minute advisory block so students can engage in more meaningful small-group discussions, Worcester said.

“I think having those opportunities and a clear schedule will be a much better feel for everyone,” he said.

The new schedule will involve some trial and error next year as students and faculty adjust to the changes, but the commitment to a block schedule hasn’t changed, administrators said.

“I’m cautiously optimistic, although there’s always unintended consequences of everything,” Gajderowicz said. “Hopefully this new schedule will be a good move.” !"#$%&'(")'%*+,)%-),./#0%#,1+%2+0"'(34").% "+%"5)%')6+'"(07%+8%"5(1%1"+'9:

Everg Ever the

10

Admissions

Inside the process of how Greenhill eva Khushi Chhaya, Emma Nguyen

W

hen junior Matias Zac reapplied to Greenhill as an 11th grader after leaving in seventh grade, he found the application process to be different.

“The first time I was kind of young, so I didn’t really do much,” Zac said, who first joined in fourth grade. “I just had to take a test.”

Even though he had been at Greenhill before he left to study abroad in Singapore, he says applying to gain admission to high school was nerve wracking.

There were lots of questions about everything in his life, from his most significant interests to what he did in Singapore.

“They were loaded questions but they didn’t really take too much time,” Zac said. “You just have to plan it out accordingly.”

During the admissions process, prospective students and their families have to provide a written application answering questions about the applicants’ previous schooling history, personality, and relationships with others. For Pre-Kindergarten through fourth grade, these written applications are typically due in early December, while fifth- through 11th-grade applications are due in early January.

Various admissions testing is administered based on which grade the applicant is entering. Family interviews are conducted with younger students and one-on-one interviews with those entering Middle and Upper School. Admission decisions are typically announced in mid-March.

Director of Admission Sarah Markhovsky says the process is structured this way in order to get the most holistic review of a student.

“We feel having all those different facets, all those different pieces of information, will help us make the best decision we can,” Markhovsky said.

Pre-K and Kindergarten Students applying for Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten must provide videos of the applicant for a developmental assessment, teacher evaluations and written responses about the student to the Greenhill Admission Office for their application to be processed.

At such a young age, the primary assessment is that of readiness and development. Markhovsky says that students need to be equipped to handle and thrive in a school environment.

“So much of whether they are ready or not depends on their development, which they have no control over and nor do parents,” Markhovsky said. “You develop at your own pace at that age. We’re looking for developmental readiness for a Greenhill Pre-K or [Kindergarten] classroom.”

All parents applying to Pre-K through fourth grade begin the application process with a family questionnaire, which explores the students’ development, relationships

with others, strengths and weaknesses, and why they are interested in Greenhill Next, each applicant’s family submits a developmental assessment of the student. Families submit videos of students performing specific tasks which are dependent on grade level. Instructions are provided by the Admission Office and are only released during the video submission window. “[We are looking for students’] ability to take instruction, ability to transition, be adaptable, have stamina for the length of day and capacity to learn,” Associate Director of Admission for Preschool and Lower School Louise Thompson said.

Senior Chris Quan, who entered in Kindergarten, says that not performing these tasks when he was told to is what got him rejected when he applied in Pre-K. “I remember why I failed is because they were making these little [paper] gingerbread men,” Quan said. “I was too shy to actually go around and pick up all the materials, so I just didn’t make one.”

When Quan applied again – this time for Kindergarten – he made a gingerbread man.

“I don’t think it was that good,” he said. “So I got waitlisted.”

Quan was later accepted off the wait pool after someone declined their admission to Greenhill.

While the tasks assessed developmental readiness, he says it wasn’t possible to tell “if a kid is a math prodigy from a gingerbread man.”

Thompson acknowledged that it can be tough to assess a student’s ability given their young age, so the admissions process looks for other tangible skills to decide whether an applicant fits Greenhill.

These skills include, but are not limited to, how a student holds a pencil; how they write numbers, letters and shapes; letter sounds and number recognition; and what their expressive language is like.

If students have previously attended a preschool or daycare, parents may request a teacher evaluation from a previous teacher that allows additional insight into the student’s behavior and interaction in a learning environment.

The next step in the process is the Collaborative Academic Testing Services testing. This cognitive ability test uses one-on-one activities with a psychologist to help independent schools determine applicants’ cognitive development and readiness, ultimately aiding in their admission decision.

“It’s not perfect,” Markhovsky said. “We don’t want all geniuses.

The point of that measure is to get a sense with data over many years – what types of students tend to be successful going forward given the kind of scores they got on those tests.”

If a student’s previous preschool or daycare provides grades, transcripts or progress reports, they can also be requested and sent in as an additional component in the holistic review of an application.

Finally, students entering grades Pre-K through first grade must also schedule a parent or guardian meeting. Currently, these meetings are being held virtually.

Each family meeting is conducted with a member of the admissions staff and lasts approximately 20 minutes.

Families can attend an optional admissions visit where the student may engage in group classroom or outdoor activities, concluding with time playing on the playground.

After each phase of application and observation is complete, families may demonstrate need for financial aid prior to receiving their application decision.

Greenhill applications are need-blind, so financial aid is not considered in the application process.

Lower School Like families applying to Pre-K and Kindergarten, parents of Lower School applicants submit a questionnaire, teacher evaluations and progress reports from previous educational facilities they have attended.

“For first grade, we use a very specific test for Dallas, and it also is trying to get a sense of how well we think they’re going to do once they arrive,” Markhovsky said.

Applicants to Primer and first grade undergo CATS testing like Pre-K and Kindergarten applicants. However, they also take the Independent Schools Admissions Association of Dallas admissions test. This at-home achievement test evaluates firstgrade readiness through a series of online tasks where students must follow instructions and identify patterns.

Beginning with Primer, the admissions process considers academic readiness.

According to Markhovsky, the definition of academic readiness is “dependent on the grade level and the student.”

“As the students apply to first [grade] and further, we are looking at all those same things,” said Thompson, the associate director of admission for Preschool and Lower School.

“But also [we] assess where they are on an academic level and what type of student they have been in the classroom.”

green

Wednesday, February 9, 2022

11

s Ambitions

aluates applicants and admits students The process shifts from the family applying their child to a more student-driven process in Middle School.

Students applying to grades from Primer to fourth grade are assessed by Lower School teachers to see if they fit in the classroom.

“We have teachers on our committees because they understand what is going on in a Greenhill classroom at that age, and they can really assess which students seem like they might be ready and which might need more time,” Markhovsky said.

Primer and first-grade applicants have to make videos responding to certain questions and provide a writing sample. Members of the admissions committee factor in these and other aspects of the application into what constitutes as academic readiness per each applicant.

Students applying to second, third or fourth grades go through the same process with the addition of the Independent School Entrance Exam. The hour-long exam includes a reading section, a math section and a short writing sample.

“The processes and practices that we use in our evaluation of student applicants are widely recognized and fairly standard among independent schools,” said Head of School Lee Hark. “We may ask different questions and focus on different things, but it is a similar formula.

That’s the same for our evaluation of younger students too.”

Students applying to Lower School can attend an admissions visit where they participate in a large classroom discussion and receive a tour of the Lower School.

Pre-K, Kindergarten, first, fifth and ninth grades serve as primary entry points for applicants. In those grades, class sizes increase, creating more space for new students.

“The truth is that we do have 32 spaces available in Pre-K and Kindergarten, but consistently have over 130 applicants for these grades,” Thompson said. “It is not easier, but if you are looking at the amount of spaces available in the grade, I can see why there is that perception.”

Middle and Upper School For students applying to enter Middle or Upper School, the admissions process has significant student input.

The largest change comes in the form of studentanswered questions and a written essay. Students are asked about characters, historical figures or artwork that have influenced them as a person, memorable school experiences, significant interests and their favorite book.

Applicants are also asked to write an essay to gain greater insight into the student. The essay has no specific prompt other than to “tell something more about yourself.”

Like for younger grades, families submit their general questionnaire, teacher evaluation and grades and transcripts from the applicant’s previous school.

“There were like 1,000 application things [to do],” freshman Jonaki Bose recalled. “We literally wrote so many essays and they had all of my grades for the past three years. They talked to my teachers, and I have my parents’ essay, and then I took the [Independent School Entrance Examination] and then we had recommendation letters.

Greenhill basically wanted to see our entire lives.”

S t u d e n t s entering grades five through 11 also must undergo ISEE testing like younger students.

“It was fairly straightfor ward,” said sophomore Aditya Pulipaka, who entered in fifth grade. “I remember preparing for it a bit – not much. It was basic things. It’s kind of like the ACT or like higher versions of the same sort of standardized procedure.”

While these standardized tests are a component of Greenhill’s application process, Hark says they are by no means the deciding factor in admitting, denying or waitlisting a student.

The holistic review of applications uses admissions testing to gauge a s t u d e n t ’s achievement and readiness, but not to make an ultimate decision.

Students applying to Middle and Upper School must complete an interest form outlining their interests and hobbies in greater detail. All applicants to these divisions sit for an interview with a Greenhill teacher or a member of the admissions staff.

While students vary drastically in age and the admissions process changes to assess students at different stages, there are elements of the process that do not change. “[Evaluating applications across divisions] has the same sort of pressures,” Hark said. “Each applicant pool contains students who bring particular talents or abilities that we would love to see represented in the school. And each applicant pool brings a diverse population that we would love to add to the school, too.”

Teachers and members of the Admission Office comprise the admissions committees.

When it comes time to review applications, each person on the committee reads the same application and gives that student a rating based on the factors that the Admission Office thinks are important, like curiosity and an interest in learning.

Then, the committee will convene to discuss whether which candidates are a good fit for Greenhill.

While there are several faculty members across divisions who are physically reading files and categorizing applicants, Hark says each member of the Greenhill community is involved in the admissions process.

“Everybody works for admissions at Greenhill,” Hark said. “We’re all responsible for selling the school in terms of our reputation as an academic, artistic, and athletic institution.

Collectively, we all contribute to that.”

Greenhill’s diversity can be a big selling point for interested applicants. Freshman Saida Bidiwala, who transferred in eighth grade, says that was the reason she looked to Greenhill as her first choice.

“The reason I switched out of my old school was because my old school was really small,” Bidiwala said. “I wanted to get a bigger high school experience. That’s why I applied to Greenhill.”

Freshman Evelyn Berg agrees. What led her to choose the school was the fact that Greenhill was a diverse school that wasn’t strictly one “thing,” Berg said.

“I chose Greenhill because it was honestly not a lot of things,” Berg said. “It wasn’t all girls. It was focused on academics. I really liked that it was non-religious, but at the same time wasn’t too committed to being non-religious, accepting all of the religions.”

Across all divisions, Hark says Greenhill faculty and administration look for the “spark” that makes students excited and passionate.

“Are they interested in the world? Are they curious? Are they excited about learning and growing? It could be astrophysics, or Harry Potter or lacrosse. It doesn’t matter what it is,” Hark said. “We look for that energy.” !"#$% &'(")'*% +(,#% -.//(0)0(% #01% 2#'#% 3#45% 6.0"'(74")1%".%"8(*%#'"(65)9

Graphic by Emma Nguyen

12

Arts

The Queen of Tejano Music Selena’s Influence, 27 Years After Her Death

Ava Iwasko

T

he Houston Astrodome crowd of 66,994 cheered as a figure in a white chariot rolled into the cavernous arena. It was Selena.

Wearing a shimmering magenta jumpsuit, the 23-yearold Tejano music superstar waved to her adoring fans and beamed. As she yelled into her microphone, “How you doing, Houston, Texas,” the crowd roared louder than ever.

On that note, Selena began her last televised performance with her highly praised disco medley.

That was Feb. 26, 1995. Fast forward a little more than one month to March 31 of that year, and her fans’ cheers had morphed into sobs.

Ambulance sirens shook Corpus Christi, Selena’s beloved hometown. Selena’s fans wept as news of what had happened spread: Selena had been shot by her business manager and trusted friend Yolanda Saldívar and was pronounced dead upon arriving at Corpus Christi Memorial Hospital due to blood loss from shoulder and chest wounds.

Selena was gone.

Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, known mostly by her first name, was born on April 16, 1971, in Corpus Christi, Texas.

She began singing at 9 years old after her father, Abraham – a former musician himself – recognized her natural talent.

In 1981, Abraham Quintanilla formed a band consisting of Selena and her two older siblings, A.B. and Suzette, and named them “Selena y Los Dinos,” after his own 1960s band. While Selena and her siblings only spoke English, they wrote songs and performed in Spanish to reach a specific group of people: Tejanos, or Texans of Mexican descent.

After several years of struggling to book gigs and find her place in Latin music, Selena’s popularity grew among the Latino community in Texas, and she eventually became known as “la reina de la música Tejana” – the queen of Tejano music.

And then came the tragedy of March 31, 1995.

Shock and Tears Assistant Equity and Inclusion Director Monsie Muñoz remembers crying with a close friend – another devoted Selena fan – as they gazed at a poster of Selena’s smiling face on her friend’s wall.

Muñoz was only 6 years old, but she was still old enough to understand the gravity of losing such an icon.

Upper School Spanish teacher Stephanie Almanza had Selena’s entire collection of cassette tapes when she was just 4 or 5 years old. Almanza says her first real experience with death was when she was in first grade and heard of Selena’s passing.

Upper School Spanish teacher Jacobo Luna-Cruz, who became a fan posthumously, says Selena’s death shocked mega-fans and casual listeners alike.

“People just did not understand why this could happen to somebody so sweet in nature and so talented and so young, with

no enemies at all,” Luna-Cruz said. “She was not a politician.

She was just dedicated to her music and her family.”

An investigation later confirmed what Selena’s father had claimed was the reason behind Selena’s death. Saldívar shot Selena because she asked to see the financial records in Saldívar’s possession for her boutique and salon company, Selena Etc. Saldívar had allegedly embezzled over $30,000 belonging to the Quintanilla family.

The confrontation between the two culminated in tragedy when Saldívar pulled a gun from her purse and shot Selena as she attempted to flee the room where they were meeting.

A Source of Inspiration Junior Madison Rojas says Selena’s popularity in the Latino community in Texas was how she first heard her music. Rojas began listening to Selena on her own when she was eleven years old, but had heard her music growing up at parties, at restaurants and on the radio.

“She’s just such an icon and a huge part of Tejano culture,” Rojas said. “She was a very prominent Chicano icon that I could look up to, especially since she was born in Texas, and she was Mexican American.”

Though her career was cut short, Selena won 68 awards, including a Grammy for Best Mexican American Album in 1994 and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021.

The Quintanilla family recently announced that they have been working on a new Selena album to be released in April. The album will include never-before-heard songs from the family’s catalog and songs Selena recorded as a child that have been digitally updated to make her voice sound just as it did before her death.

Almanza says she is excited that newer Selena fans will get to experience the release of her music for the first time, yet she is also concerned by the use of technology to recreate Selena’s voice.

“Technology is a very magical and powerful tool and maybe we s h o u l d implement limits for what we use it for,” Almanza said. “This feels like one of those instances.”

Almanza was so inspired by Selena that she created an entire unit dedicated to studying Selena in her AP Spanish class.

“People are going to [identify] with lessons that they can really see themselves in,” Almanza said. “I see myself in Selena, which is one of the reasons why I’ve been attached to her and her music and her career, and students see it, too. Students

will [identify] more with something that the teacher actually enjoys.”

Junior Chancey Stefanos, who is currently in Almanza’s AP Spanish class, says Almanza’s love for Selena is evident.

“Selena obviously means a lot to Profe. Almanza,” Stefanos said. “By teaching us about Selena and something that is so essential to her life, I think that she showcased a different aspect to culture that was really important for us to know, as well as a lot of things like belonging and representation that are just generally super important to discuss in class.”

Selena and Identity One of the reasons why Selena’s fans connected so deeply with her was because of her identity as both a Mexican and an American. Selena didn’t speak Spanish growing up – she only learned the language once she started singing in Spanish for her music.

Rojas says that seeing Selena’s struggles with speaking Spanish at the beginning of her career helped her accept her own bilingual identity.

“I constantly am trying to navigate what type of Spanish I speak,” Rojas said. “Sometimes I feel like I’m not speaking it enough or like I’m losing the language, but I know that I can always go back to listening to Selena’s music and know that I will improve later on because she did, too.”

This same concept helped Luna-Cruz, who was born and raised in Mexico and speaks Spanish fluently, understand the unique challenges of bilingualism and biculturalism that Latino Americans face in the construction of their identity.

“I found it hard to be forgiving with those who look like me but just did not know the language,” Luna-Cruz said. “To me, that was an enigma. Selena taught me that when you’re growing up bilingual, both languages are part of you, and sometimes you don’t have to speak the language to be proud of your ‘Latinidad.’”

Almanza relates to Selena’s feeling neither fully Mexican nor fully American.

“Selena was a brown person like me, so she was somebody that I can see myself in,” Almanza said. “She represents the in-between. As a kid, she was the only person who was an ‘in-betweener’ like me, that I can look back to and really identify with.”

Luna-Cruz says one of Selena’s biggest legacies is teaching her fans to be their true selves. Almanza agrees that Selena’s authenticity is a big part of why she means so much to many of her fans.

“A lot of the Latinos in the U.S. media are people who change themselves, the way that they look, the way that they speak, the way that they carry themselves, in order to fit in,” Almanza said. “It’s not any sort of fault to them, but Selena didn’t have to do that. She was unapologetically herself, and that is something to be admired.”

Muñoz says she believes Selena’s most important message is one of self-acceptance, especially for those with “hyphen identities,” or those who identify with two or more different cultures.

“I genuinely think that Selena was almost like the perfect ambassador for a generation of hyphen identities growing up in the U.S.,” Muñoz said. “She made space for us and told us that you can be all of it and you don’t have to choose to be more one thing or more another.

You can be all of it in your own genuine way, and that’s beautiful.”

Graphics by Emma Nguyen

Wednesday, April 6, 2022

Evergreen Ever the

Arts

13

AVP Students Accepted to South by Southwest Festival Nate Stitt

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every other film that is submitted there.”

ay after day, the three Upper School seniors and one recent alumnus waited.

They knew the South by Southwest Film Festival had sent its rejection emails in early January, yet the quartet of current and former Greenhill filmmakers heard nothing. After 10 days of wondering and waiting, seniors Will McDonald, Gavin Bell, and August Jaeggli and alumnus Uday Narayanan ’21 received the life-changing emails.

Their work had been accepted into the most prestigious scholastic film festival in America.

“I was at a basketball game when I got the call from Will,” Bell said. “I sprinted outside and ran in circles around the parking lot on the phone with him.”

The South by Southwest Film Festival – SXSW for short – is an annual, global gathering of filmmakers in Austin, Texas, held this year from March 11-20. Thousands of artists submit their portfolios in the fall in hopes of having their films screened before the most prominent people in the entertainment industry.

The festival has a special category for high school students to “cultivate the next generation of filmmakers,” the SXSW website says.

Twenty films were accepted in total to the Texas High School Shorts category. Greenhill claimed three of those acceptances.

“This is one of the biggest and most important film festivals in North America, and one of the very few highprofile festivals that accepts and juries high school films,” said Upper School Fine Arts Department Chair Corbin Doyle, who also teaches Upper School visual arts classes and directs the Greenhill film program.

Accepted filmmakers roam the streets of Austin with a free media pass. They watch dozens of films, make connections with influential filmmakers and receive feedback.

“What’s cool about South by Southwest is that they treat students identically to movie stars,” Doyle said. “The process that they had to go through to submit a film is identical to

“Spud” Bell and McDonald’s film, “Spud,” is about microwaving regular household items that morph into potatoes.

In the summer of 2020, McDonald looked at his microwave after a few months of isolation and noticed a potato button. He says he didn’t know its use, so he FaceTimed Bell.

The pair brainstormed what the true purpose of the button was and what it could be as a film. Then, they approached Doyle.

“They asked, ‘What if there’s this magical microwave that can turn objects into potatoes,’” Doyle said. “Of course, you just hear that idea and you’re like, ‘That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.’ But of course, it’s also amazing.”

The idea took three separate shoots over 18 months to film. Bell and McDonald say the process was far from a breeze. Actors became unavailable because of work conflicts and the video sometimes didn’t meet their standards.

“Still, we knew there was something there, so we didn’t want to give up on it,” Bell said.

On their third try and after using hundreds of potatoes, McDonald and Bell successfully finished filming usable material. Bell and McDonald say they spent all of their free time editing the film in April 2021 before submitting it the following December.

“It was just one of those [films] where you started seeing it come together you knew was going to be a really good film,” Doyle said. “I’m so glad it got into South by Southwest.”

“Out of the Blue” Senior August Jaeggli’s film, “Out of the Blue,” incorporates dozens of Jaeggli’s 2D art pieces.

“The film kind of revolves around the artwork in it,” Jaeggli said. “I had the artwork beforehand. Then I got the story from the artwork and kind of pieced it together as I went.”

The short film’s plot follows someone who connects with a tree in a

Photos courtesy of August Jaeggli and Uday Narayanan

ON THE BIG SCREEN: Senior August Jaeggli’s “Out of the Blue,” left, and ‘21 alumnus Uday Narayanan’s “Rock Rockman’s Redemption,” right, were accepted to SXSW.

Photo courtesy of Will McDonald

AT THE FESTIVAL: Seniors Will McDonald’s and Gavin Bell’s film “Spud,” recently accepted to SXSW, began with McDonald noticing a potato button on his microwave.

forest and learns about what the woods have witnessed. The tree tells the story of a man who used to visit the forest, which is threaded together by the artwork’s narrative. “[Jaeggli had] already done all the legwork of these images,” Doyle said.

“Come December 1st, when I’m seeing it for the first time, all I told them was, ‘I am going to be the biggest pain right now because I’m not going to let you not finish this.’ It’s just got gobs of personality.”

Jaeggli, a studio artist, drew inspiration from their college art portfolio for the film.

“They basically laid the art all in a row and moved around and then built a narrative that didn’t exist initially about those pieces and drew a thread between them,” Doyle said. “That’s a pretty freaking cool idea.”

Jaeggli expressed excitement at getting feedback from other filmmakers at the festival.

“In a way, I think ‘Out of the Blue’ is just kind of weird,” Jaeggli said. “There’s a lot of things in my film that are in others, but I think mine pulls together a lot of different aspects really well and in a different way than a lot of other folks.”

“Redemption” Uday Narayanan ’21 spent over 1,000 hours creating “Rock Rockman’s Redemption.” The animated film follows a man named Rock Rockman who places his thoughts into a guitarthemed video game to claim the world record for himself.

The idea came about from a series of expansive science fiction films made by video production students titled “Starship 1980.” Narayanan was part of a group of video production students from sixth grade to 12th grade that contributed to the series over five summers starting in 2016. Narayanan’s film lives within the “Starship 1980” universe.

“It was just this insanity film series that was an absolute blast,” Doyle said.

Alongside alumnus Jeb Brown ’19, one of the initial creators of the “Starship

1980” series, Narayanan rendered an animation short within the “Starship 1980” universe. Narayanan came up with the idea in the summer of 2020.

“It turned into this gigantic, animated film where he put himself as the star of this animated world that he built himself during COVID,” Doyle said. “He would [render it] on his computer, go to bed and let it go all night to get two or three seconds of film [or] less than that. He did that for a year.”

Narayanan recalls picking up a “Guitar Hero” pick he found in the corner of his room and his dad’s green screen to start filming. He asked Doyle if he could work on this singular project for the whole year, and Doyle said yes.

Narayanan finished the film on the last day of his senior year in May 2021.

“It was the greatest feeling – I just could not believe I did this,” Narayanan said. “Then, a few months later when the 2021 SXSW approached, Doyle texted me and said, ‘Hey, you need to submit this thing,’ so I did.”

Consistent Success Doyle says Upper School Advanced Video Production students consistently get into prestigious festivals because they are creative, intelligent and can think quickly on their feet.

“There is a tradition in film at this school,” Doyle said. “The key to doing well, though, is trusting yourself, and our kids do that.”

While SXSW is considered one of the most prestigious film festivals to be accepted into – particularly as a high schooler – dozens of other Upper School students have received invitations to numerous national festivals.

Doyle says that Greenhill’s AVP program’s frequent success in festivals is not what defines its achievements, but instead is a testament to its strength.

“If you’re a new kid and you’re interested in film, come here,” Jaeggli said. “The film community is so supportive, and I’m so glad that I just get to keep making stuff.”

Wednesday, April 6, 2022 14 Arts Evergreen Ever Mini ISAS: A Revival of the Cherished Arts Festival

the

Saara Bidiwala

M

ost students in the Upper School haven’t experienced an ISAS Arts Festival. In fact, only a handful of seniors have attended this featured arts event, last held in 2019.

That will change when Greenhill and Parish Episcopal School host an abbreviated version of the festival on April 8.

ISAS is an acronym for the Independent Schools Association of the Southwest, an organization headed by Greenhill’s former head of school, Scott Griggs. Greenhill has been part of ISAS since 1957, so being part of its programs is deeply rooted in school culture.

“ISAS has great programs like this arts festival,” said Head of School Lee Hark. “There are all kinds of resources and good things that come out of this association, and I’m quite proud that Greenhill’s a part of it.”

Because of pandemic-related challenges, school officials announced a year ago that the 2022 ISAS Arts Festival would not take place. This didn’t deter Head of Fine Arts Terry Martin from planning a scaled-down version of the festival.

“I reached out to the other four big [ISAS] schools in Dallas and basically said, ‘Can we join together to make this happen?’” Martin said. “I think it’s really important for us to celebrate the kids and let them experience at least what this is like.”

A Memory from the Past Historically, high school artists from approximately 40 schools across the region travel to one host school and partake in a wide range of activities celebrating fine arts. Artists can exhibit their work and see other peers’ performances and artwork. Teachers offer critiques of students’ work to help them develop their skills.

Senior August Jaeggli, one of the few Upper School students who went to the festival in Austin in 2019, still remembers their experience.

“We could walk around the entire campus, and there were food trucks,” Jaeggli said. “I got to meet some people from different schools, and I even met some people from Dallas that went to [the Episcopal School of Dallas]. It was really fun.”

Senior Kaden Nathani says he also really enjoyed the last ISAS Arts Festival, especially as a band member.

“The ISAS Arts Festival is basically a place where students who partake in fine arts activities get to show off what they’ve been working on and perform for people or just exhibit their artwork,” Nathani said. “Along with getting feedback, we got to perform in a space that is open to kids from other schools and kids from Greenhill, and just an overall catalyst environment for more fine arts work to come.”

Preparations Underway Although this year’s festival will not be as large as previous years, Martin and the Fine Arts Department faculty are working to make it a worthwhile experience for students.

“We’re not going to have adjudicators, we’re not going to have workshops, just the big main concerts and then the visual art exhibits up the entire time,” Martin said. “We took a look at what it typically was and asked ourselves, ‘How do we cut back and make this a mini-ISAS that still has the spirit of what we hope and intended to be but come in at a reasonable price without a lot of rentals, a lot of extra things that we don’t really need?’”

Fine arts teachers are adapting to make sure that students are able to walk away from the festival with some valuable insights.

“We’re not going to have adjudicators who come in and critique, but I’ve contacted the band directors from other schools who are coming,” Upper and Middle School band teacher Brian Donnell said. “We’re going to take turns and listen to each other’s groups and give them written critiques and verbal critiques so that students at least get a little taste of what that’s like with an adjudicator.”

Performing Arts Building Manager Leann Burns is also helping Martin prepare school facilities for the event. She says that activities will take place in areas all around campus in addition to the Marshall Family Performing Arts Center.

Because Greenhill’s musical set will be in place during the festival, Parish will be hosting the performing arts showcases and Greenhill will host most everything else, Martin said.

“I’m helping to make sure that the spaces are prepared to accommodate the various art forms,” Burns said. “I draft the ground plan, I make sure that the lighting is ready, things like that.”

Fast-Approaching Date The artwork that students will display at the festival will vary according to the discipline.

For example, Upper School visual art teacher Frank Lopez said students in his Honors Photography class “will be presenting three images that illustrate their artist statements,” while Donnell’s students will be performing a variety of ensembles.

With the festival looming, Martin expressed anxiety and excitement.

“I’ll tell you, I’m nervous,” Martin said. “It’s a big deal.

We’re talking about 800 to 1,000 visitors on campus. We’re hoping that what we’ll get out of this is a feeling that we’re celebrating all the hard work and struggles that our fine arts students have been through in the last couple years. While it’s not the full ISAS experience, at least it’s an opportunity for them to feel that their work is celebrated and noticed.”

Photo courtesy of Terry Martin

AROUND THE CANCELLATION: Despite being canceled for the third year in a row due to Covid-19, ISAS returns in a shortened form hosted by Greenhill and Parish.

Cinema Scene: “The Batman” Gabi Appel, Riya Kommineni, Anisa Walji he highly anticipated superhero movie, “The Batman,” earned $128.5 million during its opening weekend after a March 4 release.

The film is the newest production in the 80-year-old Batman franchise, which has expanded from its 1939 comic-book origins to an animated television show in the 1960s and, most recently, to liveaction movies.

In the latest cinematic offering, the title character is played by Robert Pattinson, who is known for his versatility in unique acting roles in the “Twilight” saga and “Good Time” (2017). Pattinson is the latest in a long line of acclaimed actors who have portrayed Batman.

Other main characters include Catwoman, played by Zoë Kravitz, and the Penguin, played by Colin Farrell.

“The Batman” is set in blue-scale noir in the shadows of Gotham City, the fictional metropolis where Batman lives.

Bruce Wayne, Batman’s public identity, struggles with the deaths of his parents decades after they passed away. Batman only appears at night when the Bat-Signal appears in the sky, summoning him to fight against Gotham City’s criminal elements.

The story follows Batman as he seeks to defeat the Riddler, a notorious serial killer who targets prominent city officials and leaves messages addressed to Batman at crime scenes.

T

Batman and Lieutenant James Gordon of the Gotham City Police Department discover that many clues lead back to the Iceberg Lounge. There, Batman meets Selina Kyle – as the public persona of Catwoman – who is looking for her missing friend, Annika Koslov.

Here’s what members of the Greenhill community have to say after watching “The Batman”:

!"#$%"&'$()*'$+,(-,.$-"/*&$0"-1,2&$("$1,'($#"23'$ "4$()&$42,.0)*'&5 “It was much better than expected. It’s definitely close between this one and ‘The Dark Knight.’ Heath Ledger’s Joker and Christian Bale’s performances are amazing. but I think we really have to wait for the next few movies to see if the ‘The Batman’ is better.” - junior Kenny Zhao “Personally, I hadn’t seen any of the past Batman movies, but I saw “Batman vs. Superman,” which was really bad.

I also saw [‘The LEGO Batman Movie’], and I think “The Batman” was much better than both of those.” - senior Chloe Merriman

Graphic by Emma Nguyen

6*%$()*'$-"/*&$7*/&$81$("$9"82$ &:1&0(,(*".'5$ “Yes, and more. I am so happy they chose Robert Pattinson because there has just been a history of really attractive male Batmans such as Christian Bale, Ben Affleck and now Robert Pattinson.”

- sophomore Helina Tedros

“Definitely exceeded my expectations given that I never really liked Batman. It’s definitely a gorgeous-looking movie, and the mystery element was really interesting. Plus, I loved Paul Dano’s version of the Riddler. It was also an inspired choice for Robert Pattinson to play Bruce Wayne like an emaciated scene kid.” - senior Shruti Siva “They did everything right with the trailers, so I had high expectations going in, and it surpassed them. From them making [Lieutenant] Gordon Black to the new Joker reveal, it was all really good.”- senior Anissa Kanardy-Bryant ;),($,'1&0('$"4$()&$-"/*&$%*%$9"8$7*3&5 “The cinematography was exquisite. All the shots could’ve been stills, and I love Robert Pattison. Zoë Kravitz and [Pattison] were so good together, and their chemistry was good, but I wish the directors would have furthered their relationship more.” - sophomore Helina Tedros “Something I really liked about ‘The Batman’ was the fact that they focused on Batman’s humanity because he didn’t have any special powers. That and the great score with Nirvana’s ‘Something in the Way’ as well as the cinematography and aesthetics meant that it was a really enjoyable watch.” - senior Ashley Shan “The pacing was really good for a 3-hour-and-10minute-long movie. It could have gotten drawn out, but they did a really good job at keeping the action spaced out and the plot building points in very good spots.”- junior Kenny Zhao “I thoroughly enjoyed ‘The Batman.’ I thought it was a very keen new take on the origin story of Gotham’s favorite hero, though I missed out on Bruce Wayne, who rarely made appearances throughout the film’s lengthy three-hour [running] time.”- junior Lincoln Underwood

Sports

15

Athletics Facilities Set for Upgrade

Jothi Gupta

I

t’s often quiet on campus at 7:15 in the morning, but that isn’t the case for the High Performance Center.

In the mornings, before school, individual Greenhill students in addition to the lacrosse and softball teams have used the HPC space at a single time. This means there are sometimes more than 60 students in a facility meant for 40.

When Head of School Lee Hark announced the formal launch of a $71 million fundraising campaign on Feb. 1, much of the focus was on the new Valdes STEM + Innovation Center. But the campaign also includes a robust upgrade to the school’s cramped and aging athletic facilities.

The enhancements will include a covered practice facility on Field #10 (west of the track), a new stadium to replace the stands by Brinkmann Field (including locker rooms and more HPC space) and renovations to the Phillips Family Gymnasium locker rooms.

“I hope it really inspires our athletes here to work hard and to be proud of being at Greenhill and competing at the highest level,” said Head of Athletics and Physical Education Jarrett Shine.

planning stages, over the course of four years, roughly 15 students are planned to be added to each grade in Middle and Upper School, increasing the student population by 115-120 students overall, Hark said.

Additionally, the locker room renovations and updates to athletic facilities will enhance the program as a whole, Shine said. The locker room will be updated to accommodate

Preparatory Conference] schools that we compete against.”

Looking Forward To address these needs immediately, the covered practice facility on Field #10 will be built first. The field will have 100 yards of turf flooring.

Currently, a feasibility study is underway to determine what can be built there, how much it would cost, how long it would take and what the options are, said Associate Head of School, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer Kendra Grace.

The construction of the covered practice facility will likely start in the late summer or early fall.

!

Having an indoor facility will put us on the map with some of the other top schools in Texas.”

“[The team undergoing the feasibility study] would be finished with their work sometime in May and present to us what our options are,” Grace said. “Then we will decide what we can afford and what will be most useful.”

The second project will likely be work on the stadium, which will include Shine says the new facilities will another high performance training center address four main needs: a need for and potentially more locker rooms with more HPC space, a growth in student the same design as the renovated ones in population, a desire to improve athletic the Phillips Gym. facilities and an expansion of space “I imagine it will probably be this available for use during inclement summer before we really start talking weather. about what [the stadium] looks like,” Student-athletes often train in the Grace said. “It depends on the success of HPC on a weekly basis both during and the fundraising efforts – that’s going to outside of sports seasons. After the HPC drive a lot of it.” reaches its capacity, athletes are sent to Houston says he hopes the new train in the Adventure Room across the facilities help to expand the high hall from the HPC. performance program beyond Upper “We do what we can, but it has School sports teams to include more been very abundantly clear that we need Middle School sports performance and more space,” said Director of Sports sports nutrition fueling stations with Performance Jessen Houston. learning kitchens for education.

Currently, as a short-term fix, The timeline for the Phillips Gym the Sports Performance team uses locker room renovations will be decided SignUpGenius to schedule athletes after starting construction on the first looking to train in the HPC. two athletics enhancement projects.

“If you have convinced yourself to More than being physical structures, do a workout, the last thing I want to do Photo Illustration by Emma Nguyen the new facilities are also a demonstration is turn you away,” Houston said. of the school’s “commitment to supporting The covered practice facility on Field A feasibility study now underway will guide plans for new athletics facilities upgrades. students by enhancing our athletic facilities,” #10 is meant to immediately address a according to the Greenhill website. need for more space with a multi-purpose practice space.

If everything goes according to plan, these projects will The structure is also meant to be a space for teams to practice more for visiting teams and provide more gear storage space.

“Having an indoor facility will put us on the map with come to fruition over the next five years. outdoors during bad weather. some of the other top schools in Texas,” Shine said. “We will “It opens up whole new possibilities for teams,” Shine The need for more space is increasing with a schoolguided growth in student population. While still in the early definitely be, in my opinion, ahead of some of the [Southwest said.

Addressing Needs

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Wednesday, April 6, 2022

Talent Vacuum: When the Best Athletes Leave

Photo by Ravi Vasan

THE CYCLE CONTINUES: Seniors Brodric Houston and Johrdyn Tarpeh, center, lead the track team as two of the senior captains and top runners on the team. In their absence next year, new talent may rise to the top. Jack Bovard, left, and Jenna Travers, right, are two underclassmen on the track team, representative of the new team cycles to come.

Josie Arbuckle

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t’s well known that a team’s success can be disproportionately driven by a single class in high school sports. When that class graduates, a program is left with a vacuum of talent that younger athletes are challenged to fill.

“It’s like ripping off a Band-Aid,” Varsity Swimming Coach Patti Monzingo said. “Every year, we have to cope with new, distinct gaps in talent.”

Teams build yearly through the process of younger athletes training with older players, learning from them to develop into successful athletes. However, coaches say they have to get creative when it comes to maximizing talent and inspiring younger grades to fill the shoes of graduating stars.

“You have to make do with whatever cards you get to make the most out of the team,” said Varsity Girls Soccer Coach Laura Flanagan. “It’s up to the coach to put the pieces together to form a complete puzzle.”

Having everything click at the same time is so exciting.”

Because seasons are short, it is vital to develop a team culture rapidly when a team is rebuilding, athletes said “Underclassmen have to realize that they can step up and be in a bigger position than they were in the past,” Hurst said. “I think a lot of it just has to do with younger grades realizing that it’s their role to be a bigger part of the team now.”

Talent-Loss Impact Senior athletes are often in team leadership positions, and their graduation sets in

Rebuilding The boys varsity lacrosse team is one of the Upper School teams impacted by the ebb and flow of talent this year, said junior Lincoln Underwood. The team has been coping with the loss of star players such as Noah Grimsley ’21.

“Lacrosse is a program that deviates year to year,” said Underwood. “Coming off of last year’s [Southwest Preparatory Conference] championship without eight of our seniors, it was a challenge that had to be faced.”

Like lacrosse, field hockey confronts the challenge of periodic rebuilding.

“Around every two years, there has been a growth period after we lose an important class,” said senior Claudia Hurst, captain of the varsity field hockey team. “When I was a sophomore, the senior class that year was vital to all the sports I played in. Last year, we had to develop the team back from all that loss. So there’s definitely deflation and inflation of growth on teams.”

Last year, Greenhill’s swim team lost school record holders Theo Johnson ’21 and MJ Ward ’21.

“It left a vacuum of talent to fill in,” Monzingo said.

“But we have a lot of talent that stepped up on the boys side.

motion other challenges.

Graphic by Erica Fulbright “A gap in team talent does not result completely from an individual, but rather from the example they set and the group they are surrounded with,” Hurst said.

Junior Peyton Jacobe says seniors often shape the culture and work ethic of a team.

“The seniors on the team have a big impact on the whole team’s dynamic because they’re role models for everyone else,” Jacobe said. “The people that really interact with everyone and the people who try to make friends bring everyone together. It’s extremely tough to lose people like that.”

Senior Justin Yu, the varsity boys swimming captain, believes the seniors’ impact comes from their numbers.

“If we have a lot of seniors leaving, that’s a huge blow to the team,” Yu said. “If there’s two or three seniors leaving, then it’s not as big of a deal.”

Remaining Competitive As spring sports move deeper into their seasons, coaches say they are trying to ensure that sports teams remain competitive, even with the loss of prominent seniors.

“It all starts in preseason,” Flanagan said. “In soccer, so much rides on team chemistry, so we focus on team-building exercises to create that trust and bonding.”

Similarly, bolstering potential team assets is integral for swimming.

“You have to pump up who you have,” Monzingo said. “It involves stepping up and working hard, then getting them to where they need to be. You just have to work on the small things, like speed, technique and talent.”

The boys lacrosse team tries to gather every weekend to create better team chemistry and garner skills that translate into games.

“We try our best to create a positive environment,” Underwood said. “Building a culture that people want to be a part of is so important.”

Underwood says that recruiting around campus plays a key role in procuring a larger and more talented lacrosse team. Around campus, Underwood and other veteran players are making a proactive effort to create a more competitive team.

“It’s a lot of recruiting new people to play,” Underwood said. “You want to have as many people play your sport as possible, so going to people and being like, ‘Here’s my sport, and here’s why it’s important,’ works best.”

Coaches also assess how they can manipulate their roster, lineup and team plan to create the most beneficial outcome.

“It’s about trying to figure out where you can put your more experienced and more coachable players, fitting them into roles that can help the team be successful,” Flanagan said. “Even if you are losing a large number of leaders as seniors, you know that you find ways to fill in where there has been loss.”

Wednesday, April 6, 2022

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Sports

Students Boost Hornet Spirit Instagram

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Photo courtesy of The Hornet’s Nest

HORNETS IN THE NEST: Students show up to the boys basketball SPC Championship game, inspired by the Hornet’s Nest Instagram account to come support their favorite teams.

Payton Blalock, Andrew Mann

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lack of fan support has undercut Greenhill sports for a while, but the student-run Hornet’s Nest Instagram account is being credited with boosting school spirit and fan turnout for games this year.

The account was created by Vinay Vas ’20 and Nikhil Ratnam ’20 during the 20192020 school year. After a stretch of inactivity during the pandemic, the Hornet’s Nest has returned this year and rapidly gained popularity.

“I didn’t see a lot of posts on the Hornet’s Nest, but I think there are a couple of people that have really taken it on and really built it out to a point where people are actually following that more than they’re following any other social media we have at the school,” said Head of Athletics and Physical Education Jarrett Shine.

The revival of the account–and its impact on school spirit–has happened as pandemic-related restrictions have eased.

“Last year, we didn’t really have a Hornet’s Nest since we couldn’t go to games or watch our friends,” said senior Noah Gould, an account comanager.

Bennett The frequency and Broaddus quality of the content

has increased dramatically this school year. Senior managers Bennett Broaddus, Ryan Fiedelman and Gould are behind that change. They say they were appreciative of the content they saw their sophomore year, and they wanted to bring it back and expand it their senior year.

The Instagram account–with the handle of @thehornetssnest–has just reached 800 followers. The managers use the account to share scores using stories and graphics, announce games and special promotions and live-stream games.

During the Southwest Preparatory Conference championships, the three account managers stayed in Fort Worth with the teams and went to all but one of the Hornets’ games. They live-streamed the attended games from the Hornet’s Nest Instagram account. The account gained over 100 followers during the SPC championship tournament and live-streamed the boys basketball championship game to over 120 people.

“That was a huge step up for us because most of the underclassmen don’t drive and weren’t able to make it out to Fort Worth, but they could just pull it up on their phones,” Fiedelman said.

Since the SPC tournament, the Hornet’s Nest has seen a 70% increase in account engagement and a 25% growth in followers.

During the Greenhill winter sports awards ceremony, several coaches thanked the three Hornet’s Nest managers for their

contributions. Coaches said the account affected the outcome of some games by increasing fan turnout, motivating players to perform their best.

Shine says he really appreciates the work of the Hornet’s Nest managers.

“When the guys came to me, they wanted to show up in Fort Worth, and they became a team basically,” Shine said. “We got them a room and made sure they were at every single event. There wasn’t an event they didn’t have access to or cover.”

Athletes have also expressed gratitude for the Hornet’s Nest and the larger crowds they have brought to athletic games and events.

!

That was a huge step up for us because most of the underclassmen don’t drive and weren’t able to make it out to Fort Worth, but they could just pull it up on their phones.”

Senior Kendall Hashimoto, a threesport varsity athlete, says she appreciated the attention the Hornet’s Nest created for less-popular sports. She remembers playing many games without a single person in the student section, and she says she believes that the Hornet’s Nest has encouraged people to show up to support a wider variety of Greenhill teams.

“The Hornet’s Nest is another way to be recognized for your achievements within Greenhill athletics, and it’s a great way to get kids to come out to games,” Hashimoto said.

Jarrett Shine B r o a d d u s , Fiedelman and Gould say they expect the Hornet’s Nest’s reach to grow.

While all three are graduating in May, Shine has plans to pass the leadership baton to younger members of the Upper School Athletics Board next year. Shine says he hopes they can continue to improve the organization of the platform, and he wants to make sure that less-publicized sports like swimming and cross country get the same spotlight as other sports.

Shine says he would also like to see a broader cross-section of students involved with the Hornet’s Nest. He would like to see more girls involved with the account, and he would like to avoid having in-season athletes trying to manage the account while playing their own sport.

“I’m excited for athletics to grow and I want to see us win championships,” Shine said. “I think having the support of the community is really going to help inspire some of our student-athletes to be their best.”

Graphic by Emma Nguyen

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Opinion: Greenhill’s Fading Traditions Bennett Broaddus

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’ve attended Greenhill School since kindergarten. Greenhill is everything I’ve known. Weirdly though, I feel as if the Greenhill I grew up with is not the same Greenhill I attend today.

Whole-school pep rallies, ice cream socials, Heart of the Hill gatherings and the school spirit that infected the entire campus are things of the past due to COVID-19 protocols and a changing culture.

Even the core values I grew up with – honor, respect and compassion – are now relics, replaced by the values of a new administration.

I feel nostalgic for life before the pandemic, a pandemic that, piece by piece, removed traditions that I loved about Greenhill.

Greenhill’s campus now seems isolated.

It seems like three separate schools rather than one large, connected, cohesive student body.

Instead of running through the Phillips Gymnasium doors during Homecoming to hundreds of screaming kids, I ran through to see just the high school, to see kids who thought they were too cool to scream and yell.

There was no faculty dance or any schoolwide activity that could bring our community together. Homecoming is supposed to be a time of tradition and school spirit, but it seems as if the love for Greenhill within the student body is quickly evaporating.

COVID-19 has put more than just six feet between us. During the pandemic, it

was hard to meet new people and branch out. To preserve health and safety, you had to choose what friends to let into your bubble during the summer of 2020. This bubble was largely restricted to people your own age.

My freshman year, pre-COVID, I was very close to the upperclassmen. Now, as an upperclassman, I don’t feel that same connection.

Team dinners after big wins and Southwest Preparatory Conference hotel shenanigans seemed like they were memories rather than something to look forward to during COVID-19. These bonding activities were not only vital to team chemistry and success, but also furthered the bond between all four grades of the high school.

Even more vital to the cohesiveness of Greenhill are the Heart of the Hill groups.

These groups of Lower, Middle and Upper School students have not met in over two years. I remember yearning to be the oldest in my HOH group, to pass down advice to the eighth and fourth graders whose shoes I was once in. I miss giving Lower Schoolers piggy-back rides to their classes and catching up with the teachers I had years ago.

This disconnect is not the fault of the administration, even though a lot of the blame seems to fall on people who work in the Three Chimneys Building. Both students and faculty have been faced with extreme adversity, and putting blame on any individual is unfair during these turbulent times.

It is important for us as a student body

Evergreen staff Ever the

to realize that Greenhill is changing. We must roll with these changes to remain safe, but also try as hard as we can to keep the traditions that make Greenhill what it is today.

It is our responsibility to involve ourselves as students around campus.

High-five Lower Schoolers, be a role model for Middle Schoolers, connect with all grades in the Upper School and be friendly to the faculty that works so hard to give us an amazing education.

With the impending construction of the new science and athletics buildings, in five years, Greenhill will look very different from the Greenhill we know today. It is imperative that we not view Greenhill as the buildings and services it provides, but rather as the community and traditions it upholds.

Evergreen Print Editors-in-Chief

Jothi Gupta and Diane Lin

Executive Editors

Avery Franks and Cam Kettles

Managing Editor - Content Saara Bidiwala

Managing Editor - Design Khushi Chhaya

Creative Director Nate Stitt

Director of Graphics Emma Nguyen

Associate Editors

Isabel Martinez and Valerie Xu

News Editor Pooja Sanghvi

Views Editor Emily Hu

Features Editor Sophia Li

Arts Editor Ava Iwasko

Sports Editor Josie Arbuckle

Graphic Artists

Sophia Chao and Erica Fulbright

Evergreen Online Editors-in-Chief

Sumana Kethu and Spencer Jacobs

Managing Editor - Content Ria Agarwal

Managing Editor - Multimedia Payton Blalock

Breaking News Editor Andrew Mann

Sports Editor

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Jack Trimmer

Arts and Entertainment Editor Emma Rikalo

Features Editor Emma Hoffman

Podcast Manager Bennett Broaddus

Greenhill Today Manager Jack Moses

Broadcast/Pocast Team

Editorial: Resolve the Parking Problem

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Kaden Alibhai, Payton Blalock, Mateo Lanzillotta, Hanlon Shedd and Ravi Vasan

Cross Platform

f you’re on campus right now, you have probably noticed two things. First, our campus is undergoing numerous physical changes, including the construction of a new STEM center. Second, Upper School parking is a nightmare that seems to be only getting worse.

These two situations are not unrelated.

The campus renovations are worthy investments in the school’s future. A new space to accommodate science, technology, engineering and math classes is long overdue. Advanced athletic facilities that are part of the school’s $71 million Growing Stronger Together fundraising campaign will also enhance the quality of facilities we have on campus.

But the fundraising demands for these projects necessitate an increase in enrollment, and this – as well as easing pandemic restrictions – has resulted in a flurry of in-person admissions events in the Marshall Family Performing Arts Center. In turn, it has made parking on the north side of campus a growing source of stress for students and faculty each morning.

The February groundbreaking for the new STEM + Innovation Center resulted in 20 parking spots being eliminated in the Water Tower parking lot. The loss of those spaces has been magnified since Spring

Break by a surge of newly licensed juniors and sophomores driving to school and parking on campus. This growing driver population is making the search for parking that much more difficult.

Dean of Students Jack Oros has encouraged students to avoid the rush by getting to school before 8:20 a.m., more than 20 minutes before the start of classes. But that has done nothing to solve the problem of too many cars searching for too few parking spaces. Students who arrive closer to the 8:40 a.m. start of classes are forced to cruise around campus in search of increasingly scarce parking spaces.

The directive to “plan accordingly” for days where parking is especially limited is illogical because there are not enough spaces in the first place. Even if all students arrived early in the morning as suggested, not everyone would be able to secure a spot.

On some recent days, students have resorted to parking on the grass because of the lack of parking spaces.

The problem is even worse for students who don’t have early classes and arrive on campus around midmorning to find a complete lack of parking spaces. Recent admissions events have shown an even brighter spotlight on the problem and underscored the need for action. When

events on campus warrant reserving large swaths of parking, the already scarce spots become nearly impossible to find.

Greenhill’s 2025 strategic plan expects to increase enrollment by roughly 15 students per grade for Middle and Upper School.

Once this enrollment increase is complete, the school will have to accommodate a few dozen additional student drivers.

We are more than delighted to expand our social landscape, but unless we restructure our physical landscape as well by adding more parking, there simply won’t be room for new community members.

As construction projects pick up pace and enrollment expands, something has to be done to address the parking problem.

Whether that means leasing spaces in the Greenhill Towers office building on a longterm basis or somehow adding spaces on campus, this is a problem that is only going to get worse.

We understand there are certainly worse problems in the world. But starting the school day in a stressful competition for parking spaces isn’t conducive to a healthy learning environment. We urge Greenhill administration to explore a solution before even more students arrive on campus next fall.

Our Editorial Policy

national and international events through articles and editorials written and edited by students.

The Evergreen welcomes letters and emails from readers. We reserve the right to edit submissions for accuracy, grammar and length. The Evergreen will not publish material that we judge to be libelous, obscene, invades privacy or constitutes hate speech.

Anonymous letters will not be published.

The Staff Editorial represents the opinion of The Evergreen staff, not necessarily that of Greenhill School.

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Corrections and Clarifications

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An article on page 17 of the December 2021 issue about student-athletes and the sports recruiting process erroneously reported that senior Emilio Garcia has committed to play soccer at Columbia University. Garcia has not signed a college athletic commitment letter and will not be attending Columbia.

The Evergreen is an independent, student-run newspaper serving the community of Greenhill School. It is printed six times during the school year. Print circulation is 800 copies. Past issues are archived at issuu.com/ghevergreen.

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Business inquiries should be directed to Spencer Jacobs and Kaden Alibhai: jacobss22@greenhill.org alibhaik24@greenhill.org

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Wednesday, April 6, 2022

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Rants & Raves RAVE to the upcoming string of four-day weeks. Y’all, this is my favorite part of April because it’s the only good thing about April.

You might be miserable studying for AP exams and end-of-the-year tests, but at least you only have to go to school four days a week.

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A RANT to AP exams.

Sitting in stifling silence for hours at a time while dumping an entire year’s worth of information onto an answer sheet by coloring in bubbles is a special kind of misery.

A RAVE to the Math Lab. It’s dependable, and sometimes fun, even in the face of the great adversity of mathematics. On top of that, it provides a place for math geniuses to helpfully show off and earn volunteer hours.

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RANT to the lack of good

snacks recently.

What happened to the Chips Ahoy and Oreos from last year? Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful we get snacks in the first place, but whole grain Goldfish really don’t compare to the real deal.

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RAVE to graduation being 48 days away. Seniors can just about taste freedom on the tips of their tongues, and the rest of the school is close to having survived yet another year of high school. Also, let this serve as a reminder to seniors to make sure they have their graduation clothes ready.

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RANT to freshmen cutting the lunch line. Seniors I can maybe understand. It’s not like our food supply is so limited that there’s a risk of you not getting any. There’s no legitimate reason for you to cut the line other than an unwarranted sense of entitlement and an inability to wait your turn.

RAVENT to the return

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A RANT to school Wi-Fi. I do not need to be kicked off the Wi-Fi every time I close my computer. Even worse, some days the WiFi just doesn’t connect at all, and I’m left begging my friends for their hotspots.

A RAVE to the return of Mr. Worcester’s candy jar. Finding the final gummy bear pack in an almost empty jar of only Jolly Rancher candies and Twizzlers is a different kind of joy. I don’t know who thought that grabbing literal handfuls of candy would fly undetected, but that’s well-earned karma for you.

of spring. I love weather warm enough to actually sit outside in. I do not, however, love sniffling and sneezing during every class and having people alternate between asking me if I’m crying and if I have COVID-19 because my allergies have returned with a vengeance.

Opinion: For Greenhill Hoops, A Season to Remember Jack Trimmer

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ith three seconds left in the Southwest Preparatory Conference championship game, the Episcopal High School guard drove to the corner, faked a shot, and then sank a three-pointer to put his team ahead of Greenhill by a single point.

Our fate was sealed when Noah Shelby’s last-second, half-court shot deflected off the rim, giving the title to the Houston-area team.

Our team was heartbroken. Still, despite the loss, this year’s Greenhill boys basketball season is one to remember.

Before the finals, our team endured what Coach Joey Sims called one of the “toughest non-conference schedules in the state of Texas.”

Coach Sims challenged our team by placing us in tournaments and tough games against nationally ranked teams to prepare us for the SPC championship.

At the beginning, our team was not a team, but instead players with individual goals on the court. We lost games we should have won and learned that sacrifices had to be made for the ultimate success of the team. If team center Lee Dort or guard Noah Shelby was having a good game, other players learned to sacrifice the ball to get it to them.

When the regular season approached, our team had a “target on our back,” as Sims loved to say. Other teams had seen us on popular social media platforms such as Ballislife.com, and our two Vanderbilt commits (Dort and Shelby), four-star sophomore (Micah Robinson) and 6’11” freshman (Francis Chukwudebelu) attracted lots of attention.

Everyone wanted to beat Greenhill.

But the teams in SPC did not realize they had targets on their backs as well. The previous year, our team was beaten by Cistercian Preparatory School, St. Mark’s School of Texas, Casady School and Episcopal School of Dallas. This year, with new players, we were back, and we smelled blood. This mentality helped us remain undefeated throughout the entire conference season, which included beating ESD and St. Mark’s in big games.

When our conference games ended, we were more than a team. We were a family. We learned to play together and get along. Our time at the Tarkanian Classic tournament in Las Vegas brought our team even closer than ever.

We were at our best before SPC, and our last three basketball practices were well executed. It was after my last practice that it hit me: I would never be in the Greenhill gym playing for Coach Sims again.

I brushed this aside because we still had the SPC tournament to focus on.

After winning our first game against St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, we played St. Mark’s. We beat them in the regular season, but the SPC environment made the game completely different. We pulled away for the win, but on one of the final plays, Noah Shelby got fouled, tearing a ligament in his ankle. He went on to play for the remainder of the game, even after the injury.

We needed Noah to beat Episcopal High School of Bellaire, Texas, our final opponent, so he played the entire championship game on his hurt ankle. It was incredible to see what he was doing on the court despite his injury.

Eventually, as everyone now knows, Episcopal hit the

game-winning shot.

While we did not achieve our primary goal, it is important that the team and Greenhill as a whole are reminded of our accomplishments: going undefeated at home, winning a tournament and playing state-ranked and nationally ranked teams.

Most importantly, the family that was built among the team is an accomplishment that will last the rest of our lives.

The loss was heartbreaking, and it is a moment I will never forget. Instead of forgetting about it, I believe it is important that Greenhill athletes remember this feeling that will motivate us toward an eventual SPC championship.

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Evergreen Ever the

Wednesday, April 6, 2022

MUNCH MADNESS!

Bennett Broaddus

Sweet and Savory Sixteen

Tasty Eight

Flavorsome Four

Finger Lickin’ Finals

Each March, National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) men’s and women’s basketball teams compete in a bracket-style tournament known as “March Madness.” In lieu of this event, the Evergreen staff present “Munch Madness,” where popular snacks battle for the title of the Upper School’s favorite.

During the month of March, the Evergreen staff created a bracket of the most popular snacks from the snack bar or The Buzz. Beginning with a round of 32 snacks, Upper School students voted on matchups to determine which snacks advanced to the next round. With five rounds of voting, each receiving over 200 student responses, Nestle’s Dibs emerged on top. For Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, there’s always next year.

Graphic by Khushi Chhaya and Emma Nguyen