April 2024 | The Evergreen, Greenhill School

Wealth Inequality

Socioeconomic status is a taboo subject, but Greenhill is embracing equitable opportunities. Is enough being done? Page 12

VC Fund

Debate at State

Swim

Success

Graphic by Christan Park

Four seniors

Greenhill Launches VC Fund

known as What’s NEXT. They also worked to raise money for the fund.

While many rising seniors spent their summers traveling and getting ready for their final year at Greenhill, seniors Jeannette Yang, Helina Tedros, Ravi Vasan and Elizabeth Mann clocked in at on campus at 9 a.m. for a summer internship from the start of June to the end of July.

Working under Director of Annual Fund and Major Gifts Robert Clements, the seniors learned about the history of Greenhill and the school’s ongoing projects.

“Once upon a time, I thought I wanted to be a teacher,” Clements said. “I learned that I don’t think that would be my full-time calling, but I was really excited about being able to teach the kids about fundraising and about a part of the school that I think kids don’t know a lot about.”

Throughout their two-month internship, the four seniors fine-tuned the marketing strategy and idea behind the What’s New, Experimental, Expansive and Trailblazing Venture Capital Fund, also

“The goal is to inspire kids to start participating in entrepreneurship more,” Yang said. “Our slogan was that we are bringing entrepreneurship beyond the classroom.”

The Fund

The What’s NEXT Venture Capital Fund is being spearheaded by Director of Design and Innovation Matthew Abbondanzio and Clements. It was created to provide students with necessary funding, allowing them to develop ideas and new technologies under the auspices of the school’s Design and Innovation Department.

“The fund is really about giving the students an ability to further their projects, businesses and things like that, that they normally wouldn’t be able to because of a lack of either capital or mentorship,” said Abbondanzio.

Abbondanzio had helped create a

Venture Capital Fund.

similar fund during his time at La Jolla Country Day School in Southern California. He brought this experience with him to Greenhill and pitched his idea to Head of School Lee Hark.

Hark liked the idea, Abbondanzio said.

“I felt like a lot of students have these great ideas but then they don’t know what to do with it and they don’t have the means to do it, so we raised money [at La Jolla Country Day] to do it,” Abbondanzio said.

Any Greenhill student who has a project idea will have the opportunity to present it on April 29. The panel that will consider the ideas will include Abbondanzio, Hark, Associate Head of School/Chief Financial Officer/Chief Operating Officer Kendra Grace and Dallas-area corporate executives.

“What will happen is they’ll listen to the pitches,” Abbondanzio said. “They’ll give feedback, and at the end, we’ll all sit together in a group, myself included, and then we will go through and make some discussion as to what team will get what kind of money and mentorship some teams will receive.”

Some of the money donated by alumni and parents was contingent on them being a part of the decision-making panel, so the members may change depending on the pitch, said Yang.

As part of the pitch process, the panel will develop a valuation for the company or project and discuss how the funds will be allocated. Greenhill’s investment will become an ownership stake in the new company or project.

“For example, if the panel’s assessment is that the company is worth $100k and the students are asking for $1k, and the panel agrees to give that amount, then Greenhill will own 1%,” Abbondanzio said in an email.

Abbondanzio says the pitch process is inspired in part by the popular television show “Shark Tank,” an ABC business reality series that premiered in 2009.

“This fund is meant to help Greenhill students create an idea and produce an idea,” Tedros said. “It’s not for people to profit off of their ideas, because many of them may not be marketable.”

Student Experience

In order to raise money for the fund, the four seniors and Clements worked throughout the summer to nail down meetings seeking donations from individuals.

“We got a shortlist of all the Greenhill parents and alumni that might be interested in the fund,” Vasan said. “Then from there, we helped choose targets and research them, formulate emails and set up meetings with a lot of donors.”

After many mock meetings, Tedros and Yang went to an alumnus’s office in Old Parkland for the first donor meeting.

“They had a great time,” Clements said. “They connected with him about his Greenhill experience and the things that he was doing, and then they talked about the fund and learned more about him and his interest in funding the project. He also offered to connect them with other alumni.”

Mann says her favorite part of the process was learning from speakers who were brought in during lunch.

“Mr. Clements brought in Greenhill employees in leadership positions or parents who volunteered to talk to us,” Mann said. “It was really interesting to hear how they got into their individual positions.”

Overall, Tedros said that the internship was a good life experience for her.

“Greenhill stresses self-advocacy but this was so much more than that,” Tedros said. “It’s trusting us to ask other people for money, which is always going to be an uncomfortable situation. But I think that you have to get comfortable being uncomfortable sometimes.”

Yang says she learned a lot more about Greenhill through the process.

“This whole project for the interns is just a way to give back to Greenhill,” Yang said. “For us, it was a way to learn a lot about Greenhill’s history and feel really connected to the community and the broader alumni network, because you don’t get to see what happens behind the scenes as a student.”

STEM + Innovation Center Opens

The Rosa O. Valdes STEM + Innovation Center officially opened for classes on Tuesday, March 19. All math, science and innovation classes for grades 5-12 will take place in the new building.

The opening of the building is a signature achievement for Head of School Lee Hark as he presides over a period of growth and new construction.

“I’m glad that the building will be opening this year, so it gives us a few months before the end of the year,” Hark said. “It gives us time to get to know the building and the systems, as well as getting everything running smoothly.”

Similarly, Associate Head of School/Chief Financial Officer/Chief Operating Officer Kendra Grace says it was important for the current senior class to have time with the new building.

“From the get-go, the goal has been to open the building to give the senior class time to enjoy it,” said Grace. “We don’t want them to graduate without getting to experience the building, so that has been the push to get it open.”

Both Hark and Grace envision the new building changing the rhythm of student life.

“We can’t wait to see how it affects student traffic patterns and the center of gravity on campus,” said Hark. “We are really excited to hand this building over to the community and see how it’s going to impact the trajectory of our students and faculty alike.”

Teachers say they are excited for the new opportunities the building brings.

“The space we’ve been using just has a lot of limitations, “said Upper School science teacher Charlene Ornelas. “The new rooms are almost double the size, so next year’s chemistry students will get to have the full experience.”

Students with passions in the science field are particularly excited about the building’s debut.

“I am really excited for the new science building because I think it will be very beneficial for all students interested in the medical field,” said junior Olivia Ortley. “It will be so much easier to learn since we will get to experience hands-on learning.”

SPEARHEADING INNOVATION: Seniors Elizabeth Mann, left, and Helina Tedros, are among four seniors who helped raise money for Greenhill’s

Pooja Sanghvi, Adam Strauss

Photo courtesy of Helina Tedros

Gracie Tamez

NEW BUILDING: Students enjoy the open, illuminated space in the Valdes STEM + Innovation Center as they walk between classes, interact with friends and study.

Photos by Chloe Nguyen and Adam Strauss

Graphic by Christan Park

The Gift of Feedback

When someone walks into Head of School Lee Hark’s office, one of the first things they will see is a shelf full of small keepsakes and items of personal significance. Sitting in the center is a fist-size rock with the inscription: Feedback is a Gift.

This idea is central to Hark’s philosophy and actions as head of school.

During his six years at Greenhill, Hark has completed hundreds of senior exit interviews. He has participated in a town hall-style student assembly. And he has revived the Parent Experience Survey.

Last spring, Hark took additional steps to put his philosophy into action by creating the Employee Council and a suggestion box that allows employees to give direct feedback.

“Really, what we’re trying to do is just bridge the gap as much as we possibly can,” said Hark. “We want to indicate to the employees that we as the administration, and the Employee Council as an extension, that we’re listening, that we care and that we want to find where we can try and work on making some improvements.”

Staff Feedback

Created last spring, the Employee Council is made up of representatives of each division of the school. Hark invites each member to the council. The only qualification is to be a “positive person who wants to work on behalf of the school,” Hark said.

The council is designed to give employees an avenue to express their questions, complaints and suggestions to a group of people who have experiences similar to theirs.

spring, we conducted a survey which we sent to all families. We partnered with a third party to help administer the survey. Partnering with a third party allows for the feedback to be gathered anonymously and for the analysis of that feedback to be unbiased.”

The Parent Experience Survey is a survey that will ask about all aspects of the Greenhill experience and according to Hark, should take serious time and thought to complete.

After receiving and interpreting all of the data, Hark said that he presented it to the Board of Trustees in October with his findings and the general trends that emerged. After that, he presented the information in a parent forum, and finally, he presented the findings to faculty.

Hark also described that conversation either centered on areas where Greenhill agreed it needed improvement, areas that parents said needed improvement, or things the administration had already marked for action in their strategic plan.

“When we first started it was great because the people on the committee are people who I enjoy talking with,” said Assistant Head of Preschool and Lower School Lindsay Stenberg, who is a member of the council. “So, there was a little bit of a brainstorming nature to it.”

Just the existence of the council would not have given employees a direct line to give feedback, so to take the concept a step further Hark created an employee suggestion box.

“I love it,” said Kendra Grace, Associate Head of School/ Chief Financial Officer/Chief Operating Officer, member and cofounder of the council. Grace continued, “It’s been interesting to see the number of responses that are similar from different people in the same division and who are reporting on the same thing. It’s also nice to see that there are a lot of things we can tackle and help fix. My hope would be that this would lead to more fulfillment and for people to feel like [the administration] is actually going to listen and take care of things.”

The “suggestion box” is in the format of an online form and can be found by employees on their MyGreenhill Resource page by clicking campus resources, then clicking on the form suggestion box link. The form asks a series of questions: division, how long an employee has worked at Greenhill, category of suggestion, optional name, issue raised and proposed solution.

“[The issues] raised by employees tend to be both philosophical and logistical,” said Hark. “We hope employees will not only raise an issue, but also to provide a solution. We have tweaked the Microsoft form that we’re using so that both are required. Basically, if you want to give us an issue to solve, you have to say, ‘well, here’s what I would do.’”

Upper School English teacher Trey Colvin, a council member, said the group is a good way to become educated on the lesser-known aspects of Greenhill.

“I’ve found that it gives me really good insights into the way in which the school works on a big-picture level,” said Colvin.

Parent Feedback

Along with the Employee Council and suggestion box, Hark, Grace, and Director of Marketing and Communications Kerry Shea revamped the Parent Experience Survey to include parents in the conversation of feedback.

“Greenhill is a place where we’re always looking to improve, and we’re always looking to get better,” said Shea. “One of the ways you do that is by soliciting feedback. Last

“The Parent Experience Survey was very helpful, and I felt like we had a lot of support in the process,” said Hark. “We hadn’t done an experience survey in a long time, and I wanted to return to a dialogue with the parents and to establish a posture of listening about their experience and to help them understand that we’re going to collect this data and then we’re going to act on it where appropriate.”

Student Feedback

Another avenue for feedback that Hark relies on is senior exit interviews, a longstanding tradition at Greenhill. During the second semester of their senior year, students have the opportunity to schedule a 15-minute sit-down interview with Hark to talk about their time at Greenhill.

“I really liked the opportunity to talk to Mr. Hark, and it made me feel very heard because I was able to actually sit there with someone who has power over the direction of the school,” said senior Thomas Rowley. “He actually cares enough to take the time and the effort to hear from all of the seniors that choose to do it.”

Earlier this year, Hark participated in a town hall during an Upper School assembly. Before the assembly, students were asked to submit questions to Hark and faculty members were asked to leave. This allowed for a space where students felt comfortable directing tough questions at the head of school.

“I thought it would just be a really good idea for the student body’s voice to be heard and Mr. Hark addressing their questions and concerns directly in front of them,” said senior Iyad Mohammed, who is the student body president. “They could get a better grasp of how the school works and how [Hark] is taking care of these issues.”

Hark said he believes that it is important to create a precedent for listening to the student body and keeping an open line of communication.

“As head of school, people do have questions or they have reactions to things, and I was trying to reinforce that the administration is listening,” said Hark. “It was important for me to know what was on the minds of the students.”

Hearing from the Greenhill community allows the administration to grow and improve, according to Hark.

“I want people to know that I want [Greenhill] to be great,” said Hark. “I want their experience to be great. I want their children to have an amazing experience here at Greenhill, and if there are things that we can do to change and make it better, then we will.”

Computer Science Websites

For the first time ever, students in the Advanced Computer Science course have collaborated to produce websites for staff clientele. So far, four websites have been developed.

The assignment entails working with customers to understand what their needs are, building the software to the customer specifications, turning it over to the customer and providing user support.

“[The class] is for kids that understand enough about the technology that we want them to take the next step and understand more about the business of software development,” said Upper and Middle School Computer Science and Innovation teacher Joseph Meagher.

The first two projects were requested by Head of Athletics and Physical Education Jarrett Shine.

Rally, which was introduced to students at an Upper School assembly, is a website that uses a point reward system to encourage student attendance at sporting events. The second website gives coaches access to statistics for individual athletes, like a total number of assists in soccer or kills in volleyball.

Senior Santiago Lopez, a member of the Rally team, says the website was built to encourage attendance at sporting events.

“We wanted to make a point system in which people could be rewarded for going to sports,” said Lopez.

The other two projects were requested by Upper School math teacher and Quiz Bowl Coach Jason Zuffranieri to help improve team performance.

No Vowels is a game that asks users to spell a word after given only the consonants. The Quiz Bowl resource is a website that records, to the millisecond, how long it takes each player or team to answer a set of questions.

Challenges

Creating projects that featured the user friendliness and aesthetic that the clients requested proved difficult. For example, the No Vowels team had complications with inputting special characters and incorporating a slight pause after hitting the “play” button.

“Even though that sounds really simple, there are a lot of little things in even just adding that play button that we had to consult each other to go back and change over and over and over again,” said sophomore Maya Jagsi.

Another challenge was learning the necessary coding languages for each unique project.

Meagher says one of the expectations for the class is that students will be able to adopt new coding languages, if necessary, regardless of what they have had previous experience with.

“That’s another sort of real-life aspect of software development,” Meagher said. “You’ve come in with some experience and you need to constantly grow your knowledge base.”

Real World Approach

As of March 28, all projects except the Quiz Bowl website had been delivered to clients.

Throughout the assignment, students work directly with clients and users, which is something Meagher says the students can learn a lot from.

“Customer communication, planning projects, executing projects, validating software and releasing software to the public are critical skills if they intend to be in the software development industry as a profession,” said Meagher.

Junior Neha Bachu, a member of the athletics statistic website team, says she values the real-world approach to developing

“Being a part of the class this year has allowed me to go through both real-world experiences as well as challenges,” said Bachu. “It’s pretty cool getting perspective in how the actual industry operates.”

Sydney Chien

Mayer Sidikaro

ROCKING THE FEEDBACK: Greenhill administrators welcome critiques to show commitment to the school.

Photo courtesy of Lee Hark

Graphics by Emily Hu and Bette Tomecko

Greenhill Gala Rocks the Future

Aculmination of eight months of work by parents and faculty culminated with the 2024 Greenhill Gala that took place on March 2 at the House of Blues.

The gala is an event integral to fundraising at Greenhill. Each year, the proceeds are largely directed toward certain projects selected by the Parents Association and the Auction Committee.

For the past few years, the project that the gala has contributed to has been the Growing Stronger Together campaign. A key component of this campaign has been raising money for the new Valdes STEM + Innovation Center. The building opened in late March, which likely wouldn’t have been possible without contributions from the gala.

“Of course, the gala is our largest fundraising event of the year, and our goal is to raise as much as we can for the school, but it’s also an event that aims to create and increase community among parents,” said Director of Parent Engagement and Community Events Amanda Garman.

The Auction Committee is also made up of 28 parents, along with parent chairs Rachel Nosnik and Maggie Zamanian. There were also about 10 additional volunteers on the night of the event.

“I think it’s an exciting night for folks who attend, and it raises a lot of money for the school,” said Head of School Lee Hark. “The money that the school raises at this event benefits every student, and that’s really important.”

The gala has a different theme each year, and this year that theme was “Rock the Future.” The theme determines attire for gala attendees, and it helps guide the way that the event is marketed to potential bidders and ticket purchasers.

According to the gala website, “sequins, leather, metallics, leopard print, sunglasses, and feathers” were encouraged at the event this year.

Last year’s theme was “Old School Spirit,” which entailed green and gold decorations and mums available for purchase. That event took place on campus.

The House of Blues offered a change of scenery this year.

“I also loved how everyone enjoyed the venue and the uniqueness of the space,” said Garman. “Having the gala on Greenhill’s campus for the past two years, it was fun to mix it up, and the guests really enjoyed it.”

This year was Garman’s first year running events at Greenhill, and the gala is one of the largest events she has planned and coordinated during the year.

Her previous job was with the Birthday Party Project, a non-profit organization that provides children experiencing homelessness with the opportunity to celebrate their birthdays. She was introduced to Greenhill through community members that volunteered with the organization.

“I will say that, being my first year to experience a gala at Greenhill, I was overwhelmed with the generosity of our parents and alumni,” Garman said.

Gala Fundraising

This year marked the last year of fundraising for the STEM building, but the Growing Stronger Together campaign will continue for the next few years. The focus of the campaign will shift to raising money for planned improvements to athletic facilities.

A live auction occurred at the event itself, but an online auction also remained open until March 3 at 9 p.m.

At the event itself, attendees got to listen to the Decades Band and watch Andrew Bost, a professional and benefit auctioneer, conduct the live auction.

The event began at 7:30 p.m. on March 2, but a VIP pre-party was held at 6 p.m. in the Foundation Room at the House of Blues.

In addition to funds being raised for large scale school renovations, there is a specific effort at each gala to raise money for financial aid for students. An auction-style “paddle raise” is conducted to raise funds each year, and $60,000 was collected this year alone for student financial aid.

Ticket sales make up only a portion of the funds raised each year. The auction is a crucial donation method at each gala, and items of different sizes and prices are donated each year.

A few examples of items donated this year include a pregame shootaround with Dallas Mavericks players and meet-and-greet with Head Coach Jason Kidd, a wine tasting at the Nosnik Family Cellar and a three-night trip to Cabo San Lucas, which includes transportation on a private jet.

UA raffle also takes place at the gala each year. This year’s raffle items included a North Park “Gold” $5,000 gift card or luxury jewelry and a handbag by Dolce and Gabbana valued at over $12,000. Raffle tickets were available to all parents, each one costing $100. If two tickets were purchased, the price was $250, and if seven tickets were bought, the price was $750.

Faculty members could also contribute to the auction by either attending the event or donating their time to be auctioned off. An example of this would be the way in which someone gets to take a tennis lesson with Lee Hark.

There were also many instances of parents sponsoring teacher tickets, and more than 50 faculty members received VIP tickets to attend the gala.

Garman says she’s proud of the way that her first gala experience went.

“Ensuring that everyone has a good time, feels a sense of community and more connected to the school, as well as financially supports the school in return, is a mark of a successful gala,” Garman said. “I feel we did just that this year.”

Chinese Classes Hit the Road

pper School Chinese language students have elevated learning to new heights this year through off-campus field trips.

The Chinese II, Chinese IV, Advanced Chinese and Advanced Placement Chinese classes took a trip to Chinese restaurants and stores in Koreatown Carrollton, while Chinese III students visited Metta Oriental Medicine.

Upper and Middle School Chinese teacher Petra Lynch says the purpose of the field trips is to help facilitate understanding of different cultures beyond what is written in textbooks.

“It’s just to show the diverse things other cultures can offer and how that is different from your own culture,” Lynch said.

During Chinese III’s field trip, students learned about diverse forms of Chinese medication at Metta Oriental Medicine, a Dallas-based wellness center that features traditional Chinese practices, including acupuncture, herbal tea treatment and cupping.

“[The guide] took us on a tour explaining the Chinese herbs and other forms of Chinese medication and all kinds of history behind it,” said sophomore Davis Knocke.

The other part of the field trip consisted of a Q&A session as well as a live acupuncture and cupping demonstration.

“[The guide] took out the acupuncture and also the cupping tools for us,” said Lynch. “She did acupuncture on me and also cupping on other teachers, and then she explained the effectiveness of cupping and acupuncture to the students. Also, she taught us some of the remedies when you are with a Chinese medicine doctor.”

While learning about Chinese acupuncture, students observed differences between Eastern and Western medical treatments.

introduce one of the medicines they were assigned.”

The Chinese II, Chinese IV, Advanced Chinese and AP Chinese classes also had the opportunity to explore Chinese culture off campus. The students went to Koreatown Carrollton, where they tried new foods and bought traditional Asian goods.

“She mentioned there are about 300 acupuncture points,” said Lynch. “Acupuncture does not really hurt, because the needles are really fine. It doesn't really hurt you, but it is a kind of balance. This is a very different concept that it balances our chi, and it's very different from the Western medicine practice.”

Knocke says that witnessing the differences between Chinese and American medicine made their in-class readings come to life.

“That’s what made it so cool,” he said. “In class, we had been focused on different types of Chinese acupuncture and to see that translated to real life was even cooler.”

Lynch agrees that this is a novel experience for most students.

“This is something they've never experienced,” she said. “They've never seen it. They may have seen it on TV or a lot of athletes but not in person.”

To further enhance learning, students applied their new insights to a class project on a type of Chinese medical practice.

“For example, for Chinese III, when they came back from the trip, they had to do a project,” said Lynch. “Their project is about Chinese traditional medicine, so they had to

“I had a ton of fun with my Chinese class as well as the AP Chinese Class eating and shopping through various East Asian foods and goods,” said senior Jadon Lee. “Overall, I had a great experience, and it was exciting to see all of the vibrant East Asian culture locally.

I think that this trip enriched my understanding of Chinese culture because it immersed me into the Chinese culture within Carrollton.”

Much like the Chinese III students who toured Metta Oriental Medicine, Lee felt that it added depth to the concepts he learned in class.

“It allowed me to see, touch and taste the things we learned about in class,” said Lee. “It really allowed us to have a newfound appreciation and interest into what we learned about.”

Since the class visited the Carrollton marketplace during Lunar New Year season, it allowed students to also see how different Asian countries prepared for the holiday.

“It was during the Lunar New Year, so I wanted to show my Chinese students that prior to Lunar New Year, Chinese, Koreans or Vietnamese celebrate this holiday and prior to the holiday, there’s a lot of things that we need to prepare,” Lynch said.

Looking ahead, Lynch hopes students continue to appreciate the diverse cultures in Dallas.

“Even though we are in the Dallas area and there’s not a designated Chinatown, there are many pockets where you can see different cultures,” Lynch said. “Dallas is actually a very diverse community and very diverse city.”

Payton Blalock

Lee Hark

Graphics by Christan Park

Sophia Li

ACUPUNCTURE: Chinese III students participate in a Q&A about traditional Chinese medical practices.

Photo courtesy of Petra Lynch

Photo illustration by Christan Park

Middle School

Eighth Grade Transition to Upper School Underway

Jordan Arbuckle, Bailey

Fisher

Eighth-grader Arhaan Iyer is quickly approaching the end of his Middle School journey.

When the school year ends in May, eighth-graders like Iyer will move across the Quad to begin their lives as Upper School students.

The world that awaits current eighth-graders is one of new schedules and a greater workload. This can cause anxiety and doubts for some students.

“I’m trying to mentally prepare myself for a bigger workload as assignments [in Upper School] hold a lot more weight and importance,” Iyer said.

To begin the transition, Greenhill hosted the Eighth to Ninth Grade Transition Night on Feb. 15. During the event, students and families received more general information about the Upper School.

The event consisted of a rotation where attendees heard from many Upper School department heads about what to expect relating to electives, sports, languages and general classes.

Students learned about the requirements needed to graduate and how the classes they enroll in affect college decisions.

“I enjoyed hearing about how what classes we choose next year can affect our paths to college,” said eighth-grader Samantha Engberg.

After the Transition Night, eighth-graders began planning their Upper School experience in what the Middle School calls “student life blocks.” During these periods, eighth-graders listen to presentations from Upper School department chairs and program heads.

Eighth-graders also listen to graduating seniors talk about their Upper School experiences.

After gathering information on classes, students start working on their schedules.

“It is important that students consider their individual needs and that they incorporate what they’re passionate about into their course requests,” said Eighth Grade Team Leader Kara Smith.

Eighth-graders decide what classes they want to take and whether they want a free period.

Some students choose to have a free period to help ease them into Upper School, while others choose to take more classes.

Iyer has decided to take three electives so he can “just soak up all the opportunities I am given, because other years will have heavier workloads.”

Once students enter Upper School, they have different resources available to help them successfully complete the transition. One of those is the Link Crew (formerly known as Peer Mentors), where new ninth-graders get paired with two juniors or seniors who give them advice about how to navigate Upper School.

Another resource is the student’s Upper School advisor, who is chosen in a detailed process, according to Smith.

“Students need to think about in what ways they can be best supported and stretched,” said Smith. “They also need to think about their goals and what qualities in an advisor will be the best fit in helping them to meet those goals.”

After the scheduling process is complete and students have a clear picture of what lies ahead, the new ninth-graders will begin their Upper School journey.

“I’m very excited that I will have the class of 2028 coming

GETTING INITIATED:

with eighth-graders

to us, where they will get the opportunity to grow physically, mentally and emotionally,” said Ninth Grade Dean Jacobo Luna, who also teaches Upper School Spanish.

Fifth-Graders Celebrate Greek Day

Olympic glory isn’t without its challenges.

Every year, Greenhill fifth-grade students look forward to a spring ritual: Greek Day, which features the Middle School version of the Olympic Games and the Greek Play.

The March 8 play and games were preceded by weeks of competition. However, the road to Middle school

“The hardest part is probably coming up with the rules for the activities,” said Gretchen Pollom, fifth-grade advisor and head of the Middle School Olympic Committee. “We want them to be simple and short, but also fair and engaging.”

Fifth-grader Piper Beatey said she enjoyed the leadership opportunities offered by being a part of the committee.

“I’ve played the game that I’m helping with before, so I already know the rules,” said Beatey. “This has been a great experience, and I’m excited to lead the team during the Olympics.”

Shaping the rules for games can be a challenge for committee members.

“Figuring out the rules for the games that we wanted has been the most stressful part,” said fifth-grader Eliana Beltzman.

Beatey said her past experience with some of the competitions made the process easier.

“I haven’t really struggled with making the rules because of the game that I’m helping with, I’ve already played it before, so I kind of already know all the rules,” Beatey said. “This has been an enjoyable experience.”

Students describe the fifth-grade Olympics as a

valuable bonding experience that teaches teamwork skills. Another benefit of the planning of the games and competitions is the development of friendships, students said.

“Me and Piper are best friends, so it’s fun to hang out with her because I have no classes with her,” said Beltzman. “It has been a bonding experience as well.”

The committee also provides a unique platform for students from different classes to connect and share their ideas.

“Everyone is really nice, and they give everyone a chance to express their creativity,” said fifth-grader Shucen Gai, another member of the committee.

Gai said he enjoys contributing his creative ideas, knowing they might just become part of the big day.

On the day of the Olympics, fifth-grader Deacon Lorraine said that his advisory was pumped for the games. Along with the excitement came some anxiety.

“I’m a little nervous because I don’t want to let down my teammates,” said fifth-grader Raina Taneja.

After the games, students said the games were fun and exciting.

“The Greek Olympics were sometimes challenging, but we got to use teamwork skills,” said fifth-grader Kobi Blankson.

EchoEs of olympus

Noa Pouratian, Julia Frankfurt

The Greek Play that took place on campus on March 8 is one of the most memorable moments in the Greenhill Middle School experience.

The play is almost entirely put together by the fifthgrade students and teaches new Middle Schoolers how to self-advocate and collaborate.

Fifth-graders take on many different parts, including acting, directing, set design, and lights and sound to contribute to putting on this performance.

Preparations for this year’s play began in mid-January and unfolded over two months.

A key part of preparation occurred in English classrooms, where fifth-graders read D’aulairs’ “Book of Greek Myths.” According to fifth-grader Rachel Brown, the students read through this book to understand the entirety of Greek myths before deep-diving into their characters.

The actors researched gods and goddesses to understand how to bring their characters to life while performing. They were each given monologues to rehearse before the play.

“I’ve been practicing a lot at home,” fifth-grader Julia Pinho, who portrayed Aros, the Greek goddess of love and lust, said in the days before the performance. “My teacher

told me to speak in front of a mirror and practice my movements.”

Behind the scenes, student directors kept everyone on track while the rest of their classmates were preparing. Set design created intricate backgrounds, and lights and sound technicians learned how to bring the show to life.

Middle School English teacher Natalie Nihill ’00, who participated in the Greek Play as a Greenhill fifth-grader, oversaw this year’s production.

“I remember my experience of being Persephone in the Greek Play,” Nihill said. “I’m excited because students who are shyer or have never tried performing have a chance to shine and discover a new part of themselves.”

The Greek Play helps many students come out of their shells, students and teachers said.

“It helped me become a more outgoing person,” said fifth-grader Mason Bhatia, who played Cerberus, the hound of Hades, a three-headed dog who guards the gates of the underworld.

Brown, who portrayed Hestia, the goddess of hearth, home, and fire, said the play was a memorable and positive experience.

“It made me more confident because we had to practice in front of our teachers and friends and it makes you more

comfortable,” Brown said.

After the performance, students were happy with their performance.

“I felt really good because I felt like I ended the play with a good act,” said Pinho. Bhatia was also pleased with his performance. “I think I crushed my part,” he said.

ON MOUNT OLYMPUS: Fifth-graders sing and dance as popular characters from Greek mythology on March 8.

Photo by Christan Park

Aashi Punnam, Nithya Rao

Photo by Christan Park GREEKING OUT: Fifth-graders come together to complete one of the Greek Day Olympics challenges.

Head of Upper School Trevor Worcester chats

during a tour.

Photo by Ella Sadka

Alumni Profile: Van Duyne ’88 Rises from the Debate Room to Capitol Hill Features

Politics wasn’t the initial goal for U.S. Rep. Beth Van Duyne ’88. Instead, she had hoped to attend law school, a goal she developed while on the Greenhill debate team.

And then, everything changed.

“When my daughter was first born, she had nine surgeries on her eye,” said Van Duyne. “She ended up going to our neighborhood park while it was sunny, and I went to our parks committee to see if I could get some shade in the park for her.”

Soon after, Van Duyne had become the chair of the committee and got hundreds of residents in her neighborhood engaged in building a shaded area.

When a seat opened on the Irving City Council, Van Duyne was encouraged to run for it. She ran and won, and her political career took off.

Van Duyne brought a straightforward philosophy to government: “If you are going to bring forward a problem, you better be part of the solution.”

Greenhill Education

Following her father’s retirement from the U.S. Air Force, Van Duyne found herself moving to Irving, Texas, before her junior year of high school.

Van Duyne already knew she wanted to become a lawyer. After applying to several schools in the area, including Episcopal School of Dallas and the Hockaday School, Van Duyne chose Greenhill due to its debate program.

“I liked the campus, and it had a great debate program,” said Van Duyne.

Now, after decades of achievement, Van Duyne says that “debate prepped me the most for what I am doing now.”

As part of the Policy team in the Greenhill debate program, Van Duyne spent time researching and learning to argue

both the pros and cons of a case. The Policy debate format features two-person teams that advocate for and against a resolution that typically calls for a policy change by the U.S. federal government.

“I think that was what really helped me in this role, as it really taught me to be an active listener,” said Van Duyne. “I learned how to do a flow and even today when I’m on the floor of the House, and I’m getting ready to speak on a bill, I’ll listen to the comments that are made by my colleagues, and I will easily change my speech on the fly just listening to what has already been said.”

“

If you are going to bring forward a problem, you better be part of the solution.”

After graduating from Greenhill, Van Duyne took three years off to raise money for college. She later attended Cornell University, where she studied government and law and graduated magna cum laude.

“I fell in love with [Cornell’s] campus and the resources at the university,” said Van Duyne. “There I took classes for law school and got married right out of college.”

Van Duyne decided to hold off on going to law school. She had two children with her husband Chris Wallach before beginning her journey as a local politician.

Council to Congress

Following her success with her neighborhood park crusade, Van Duyne’s political career began in earnest when she decided to run for a spot on the Irving City Council in 2004.

“Because I did not have any name [recognition,] I didn’t have donors at that point in time,” said Van Duyne. “But I decided to run for City Council, and I asked five people that were involved with the city

for their support. I asked them to introduce me to five people, and then those people to introduce me to five people and it was a legit grassroots campaign.”

After learning about the city’s concerns as a council member for six years, Van Duyne ran for mayor of Irving in 2011. As mayor, Van Duyne added 40,000 jobs and an estimated $3 billion in growth and new developments, according to her website.

“With my experience on city council for six years, I became very well versed in the city’s concerns,” said Van Duyne. “So, when I ran for mayor, I got a lot of support and did that for six years.”

When her term ended in 2017, she was appointed as regional administrator for the U.S. Department of Housing and Development by President Donald Trump.

“When I accepted a position in the Trump administration, I was able to work with a lot of state and county representatives,” said Van Duyne.

Implementing her knowledge of local and federal government, Van Duyne worked alongside representatives to create solutions and respond to disasters such as Hurricane Harvey.

With my experience on city council for six years, I became very well versed in the city’s concerns. So, when I ran for mayor, I got a lot of support and did that for six years.”

When former U.S. Rep. Kenny Marchant didn’t run for reelection in 2020, Van Duyne decided to run in his place for the open 24th Congressional District seat in Texas.

“It was like a natural progression of having somebody who has the experience, relationships and knowledge to bring, I knew the slings and arrows that any candidate was going to take, and I felt prepared,” said Van Duyne.

Working with Students

As a way to remain connected with young people in her district, Van Duyne has created her own Congressional Youth

Advisory Council.

Upper School juniors Oliver Burke, Eitan Hahn and Zara Paul and sophomore Medha Rapuri are members of her council for the 2023-2024 school year. The students meet six times to present cases about different bills.

Van Duyne splits students into groups of five or six to talk through policies and different bills that are being passed. With this information, they make pros and cons to pitch to Van Duyne in a nine-minute presentation.

“At the beginning, I was afraid of the difficult questions she would pose after our presentation, so I was really nervous,” said Rapuri. “But she doesn’t make you look like a fool on stage and the questions she asks have been really helpful to our presentations.”

Using her debate experience, Van Duyne often questions and teaches the students how to improve their presentations through very difficult questions, said Burke.

“Though she kind of tears apart your argument pretty fast, she knows what she’s taking about, and I’ve really liked learning from her,” said Burke.

Van Duyne says she hopes to create a space for young leaders to learn about the federal government, discuss public policy and work with their federal representative while serving their community.

More than 35 years after graduating from Greenhill, Van Duyne has used the skills she learned in the campus debate room to impact lives in Texas and beyond.

“I think the best experiences you have is when you’re actually able to make a difference and you feel like your efforts help people,” said Van Duyne. “I know there are frustrating times or when you feel like you’re just waiting and not able to do anything, but when you’re actually able to make a difference, I think it’s tremendously satisfying.”

Sadie Werner contributed reporting to

this story.

TEXAS LEADER: Beth Van Duyne ’88 speaks to her colleagues in the House of Representatives. She represents the Dallas-area 24th Congressional District.

GREENHILL TO WASHINGTON, D.C.: U.S. Rep. Beth Van Duyne ’88 was elected to Congress in 2020 and reelected in 2022 after serving six years as mayor of Irving.

Photo courtesy of Beth Van Duyne

Photo courtesy of Beth Van Duyne

Oliver Burke

Christan Park

Reyna Diamond Leaves a Legacy on Campus

Kaden Alibhai, Varun Mukund

Through her involvement in debate or the Greenhill Chamber Orchestra, senior Reyna Diamond has always been an extremely active member of the community.

Diamond is the co-president of the Math Club and the Business Club and holds leadership positions in several others. Additionally, she competes in World Schools debate at the varsity level and plays the cello for the Greenhill Chamber Orchestra.

“Greenhill has shaped me as a person, probably in more ways than I can count, remember, or ever point out,” Diamond said. “I hope I can give back to the community that made me who I am.”

Madam Speaker

Now in her 10th year at Greenhill, Diamond started her debate career in her freshman year competing in Policy Debate. While she enjoyed it, she was not able to continue due to scheduling issues.

“My friends did debate in 8th grade, and they loved it, so I really wanted to try it,” Diamond said. “I couldn’t continue with Policy because my schedule was full but since World Schools [debate] was after school, I switched to that.”

Diamond quickly took a liking to World Schools debate, a team-based format, because it pushed her to grow both as a debater and as a teammate.

“The atmosphere of Greenhill’s debate community pushes you to be better – being surrounded by debaters who are really good makes you want to be that good too,” Diamond said.

Director of Debate Aaron Timmons says Diamond is an experienced and integral part of the team.

“She has always been really smart and really quick in the way she picks up and thinks about arguments, ideas, concepts and, most importantly, in the way she reads the room,” Timmons said.

Diamond’s team also consists of seniors Abeera Amer and Angela Kamgang, both of whom attest to Diamond’s skill as a debater and a teammate.

“[Diamond] has a really good work ethic and also is very observant of the round,” Amer said. “She’s very good at catching the small details and sometimes not listening to her can cost us the round.”

“The atmosphere of Greenhill’s debate community pushes you to be better - being surrounded by debaters who

She has also won the Isidore Newman Debate Invitational for two years in a row.

This year, she was selected to be part of Team Texas, which consists of 16 debaters who represent the Lone Star state in national and international competitions.

“She has always been really smart and really quick in the way she picks up and thinks about arguments, ideas, concepts and most importantly in the way she reads the room.”

As a senior on the team, Diamond is able to set an example for younger debaters by assisting them in the preparation process and in competition.

“The area of growth that I have seen is her hitting her confidence and serving as a model for other students like her,” Timmons said. “It is important for a young Black woman to have confidence in a world where many times they are not given a voice to say what is on their mind.”

Student Leadership

Diamond also holds numerous leadership roles around campus. She is a co-president of the Math Club, the Business Club and the North Texas Food Bank Young Advocates Club. She is also on the Greenhill Community Service Board and Student Inclusion Council.

Diamond says that participating in these clubs and organizations motivates her to continue improving. In addition, she uses them as an avenue to step out of her comfort zone.

“For instance, math has always been a challenge for me,” Diamond said. “Getting over that hurdle and getting better at [math] is always very gratifying.”

Faculty members chose Diamond to be on the first iteration of the Student Inclusion Council when it was created during her sophomore year.

Since then, the council has made several efforts to make Greenhill a more equitable and accepting community. One way the council has done that is by hosting a Dallas Area Diversity Youth Organization meeting on campus.

DADYO, as the gathering is commonly called, brings students together to discuss issues of race, gender and sexual orientation.

“I love being on the Student Inclusion Council because sharing my experiences with students from other schools and people that I wouldn’t normally talk to is eyeopening,” Diamond said.

“Our goal is to make Greenhill as safe, open, and welcoming as it can be,” Diamond said. “Working toward that goal with like-minded people instills a sense of accomplishment.”

Interim Director of Equity and Inclusion Monsie Muñoz says Diamond has a significant impact on the Student Inclusion Council and that, as a senior, she provides a steady presence for the rest of the group.

“For instance, math has always been a challenge for me. Getting over that hurdle and getting better at [math] is always very gratifying.”

“When Reyna speaks, others listen, which is incredibly important when working with a large group of peers,” Muñoz said. “She is intentional and immensely thoughtful in all she does as a member of our community.”

Orchestra

This year marks Diamond’s sixth and final year playing cello on campus. She is currently the second chair and the only senior in the cello section of the Greenhill Chamber Orchestra.

Diamond started orchestra as a fifthgrader and continued the elective through sixth grade. She left the elective in seventh grade to try other arts electives before returning as a freshman and continuing in the Greenhill Chamber Orchestra through Upper School.

worked hard to regain that lost footing.” Diamond says that continuing after missing two years of practice was beneficial for her journey in orchestra.

“I enjoy orchestra because not only can I play with people who appreciate music as much as I do, but my experience with the class has also taught me how gratifying it can be to work hard at something and see improvement,” Diamond said.

Paraskevas says Reyna has exhibited determination and leadership in the orchestra.

“If you have a dozen Reynas, I’ll take all of them,” Paraskevas said. “She’s a wonderful student and just a joy to work with.”

Busy Schedule

With so many activities, Diamond has had to learn how to manage her schedule efficiently.

“She’s a busy person, but she manages it well by making time for everything she needs to do,” said Kamgang.

While she is extremely involved, Diamond says her passion for each of her activities makes them seem less like work.

“[Diamond] does everything she does out of the enjoyment she gets from doing it,” said Amer. “She loves doing orchestra. She loves doing debate. That’s really admirable about her because it shows how she can handle so much without overburdening herself.”

Kamgang says Diamond’s success can be attributed to her mindset.

“She approaches everything, no matter how important or unimportant it may seem, with a lot of intensity and focus, which is why she is able to get a lot out of everything she does,” Kamgang said.

“If you have a dozen Reynas, I’ll take all of them. She’s a wonderful student and just a joy to work with.”

Diamond has made valuable contributions to various aspects of the Greenhill community, whether it be in debate, orchestra or her student leadership roles.

“As she moves on from this community to whatever the next one for her might be, I know that she will have an influence, an impact there that will make that community better,” Timmons said.

MAKING MUSIC: As she concludes her sixth and final year in Greenhill orchestras, Reyna Diamond, second from right, plays the cello alongside her fellow musicians.

Photo by Christan Park

Graphic by Christan Park

Reyna Diamond

Aaron Timmons

Abeera Amer

Students Celebrate Spring Holidays

Spring is a lively and festive time in the lives of many Greenhill students as they celebrate holidays such as Easter, Holi and Ramadan. Here is a snapshot of spring traditions cherished by students and their families.

Reporting by Vedant Subramanian

Easter

Holi

Easter is a Christian holiday that celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He was crucified on a Friday, a day known to Christians as Good Friday. Three days later, on Sunday, he was resurrected, Christians believe. Sunday came to be known as Easter.

One way Easter is celebrated is by eating a special meal.

“We usually just eat a brunch of pancakes or waffles and bacon,” junior J.J. Arbuckle said. “We can have a slow morning all together as a family and focus on quality time. We are not rushing off to do other things.”

Another common tradition is the Easter egg hunt, where families celebrate by decorating, hiding, and hunting for Easter eggs.

“It’s very nostalgic,” Arbuckle said. “It’s something that provided me a lot of good days in my childhood.”

Many people who celebrate Easter attend church services during the day.

“My family and I usually wake up and go to Mass on the day of Easter,” Arbuckle said.

Sophomore Michael Ahn says the Easter holiday brings him closer to his religion.

“It makes me feel like something new is coming,” Ahn said. “Easter is that one time where I can truly feel like I’m Christian.”

Junior Kaden Castillo says Easter is a joyous holiday.

“Easter is just one of those holidays, like Christmas, where you can get together, congregate with your family and just have a great time,” Castillo said.

The Hindu holiday of Holi is often called the Festival of Colors. The holiday celebrates the victory of good over evil and is a time for new beginnings.

“It’s a familial tradition,” said sophomore Harshdeep Bommareddy. “It’s a great way to bring people together and see the values of family.”

One way Holi is celebrated is by throwing colored powder at one another in community settings.

“We’d have buckets of colors and bring our friends and family over,” Bommareddy said. “We toss the color around, paint the place and paint each other.”

Sophomore Dhilan Lele celebrates the holiday slightly differently.

“We often decorate a plate and put colors all around the plate and then throw that in the air,” Lele said. “The whole entire air will just be filled with colors.”

Bommareddy says that Holi is also a great time to show love and compassion for each other.

“Holi is a representation of my culture,” Bommareddy said. “It’s a great way for me to connect with my traditions.”

Ramadan

Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, is the month of fasting for Muslims. Fasting is one of the five pillars of Islam, and this year the fast will take place from March 1 to April 9.

“It’s a time when the Muslim community can come together,” junior Saida Bidiwala said. During the holiday, Muslims fast without drinking or eating anything from sunrise to sunset. The meal eaten before dawn is called Suhur, and the meal eaten to break the fast after sundown is called Iftar.

“[You] cut out food, cut out water, and just focus,” sophomore Aatif Dawawala said.

As a leader of the Muslim Student Association, Bidiwala says she has been working to host a community Iftar for Greenhill students over the last few years.

“You build community because you are connecting with people that you maybe got out of touch with outside of Ramadan,” Bidiwala said.

Dawawala also says that Ramadan is a time of self-improvement.

“It’s a good time to instill new habits and start new things in your daily life that you previously didn’t do,” Dawawala said.

Another essential part of Ramadan is praying. Many believers will pray for a few hours a day during the month.

“[It] focuses you on God,” Dawawala said.

Eid al-Fitr, a holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, is the first day back from fasting after Ramadan. It is celebrated with prayers in the morning, followed by family gatherings and gift exchanges for the rest of the day.

“The beginning of spring just brings about new times [and] a new chapter of the year,” Bommareddy said.

Graphics

Kim Blends Technology and Art

Rory Liu, Sasha Wai

Fdesign made her the perfect candidate to help expand the “human needs” aspect of Abbondanzio’s plan.

rom a young age, UX Design teacher Luna Kim has been surrounded by computer science and art. Her father, a software engineer, and mother, a biochemist with an art background, helped propel her interest in web design. As a new Upper and Middle School teacher at Greenhill, Kim says she devotes herself to the intersection of both, blending the technical aspects of coding with the artistic elements of design.

“At Greenhill, I love the freedom of being able to blend logic and technical courses with art,” said Kim. “I want to make sure my courses teach logic-based thinking while promoting creative freedom and maintaining an artistic voice through technology.”

Director of Design and Innovation Matthew Abbondanzio says he has seen Kim contribute not only to the environment at Greenhill, but also to the development of students.

“One of the things I really value about her work is that she’s got quality, she puts quality in the work and teaches those skills to the kids,” said Abbondanzio.

Career Beginnings

Although Kim attended the University of California, Irvine originally as a computer science major, she ended up switching her major to art. That allowed her to focus more on design and psychology.

“At Greenhill, I love the freedom of being able to blend logic and technical courses with art. I want to make sure my courses teach logic-based thinking while promoting creative freedom and maintaining an artistic voice through technology.”

After graduating from UC, Irvine, Kim attended boot camp for software engineering and used her experience in art to teach herself elements of the expanding field of userexperience design, commonly known as UX design.

“I went into the software engineering industry with a weird hybrid role of being a bridge between art and technology which ultimately led me to teach both subjects,” said Kim. “Most people would choose one or the other track, but for me it was natural to blend them.”

Eventually, Kim transitioned from working from an industry job to being a UX design teacher for middle and upper school at La Jolla Country Day School in San Diego. For Kim, transitioning from the technological industry to teaching was very rewarding.

“In the tech industry, you’re just working with adults,” said Kim. “At La Jolla Country Day, I was a crossover teacher where I got to see kids be middle schoolers, learn the basics [of computer science], innovation and graphic design, and continue their education in high school. Many students found a passion within one of these tracks they enjoyed, and I got to help them with their resume to secure their dream jobs in adulthood.”

Meanwhile, Abbondanzio had just crafted his new plan for the Design and Innovation Department to be centered around three aspects: human needs, technical feasibility and business viability.

“As an engineer I think a lot about the design side when solving a problem and solving the right problem,” said Abbondanzio. “A lot of the research that [Kim] is focused on, the user experience research, is really based on teasing out what human behavior is and understanding human needs.”

Greenhill Classes

Kim teaches four classes at Greenhill: Upper School App Development, Upper School UX Design, Middle School Graphic Design and Middle School Web Design. Although she taught similar classes at La Jolla Country Day, Kim says she orients her curriculum differently at Greenhill.

“At La Jolla Country Day I noticed that students focused on pursuing either innovation and computer science or art, whereas at Greenhill there were so many different avenues students pursued, like debate and other topics,” said Kim. “I have to learn to tailor to students who might be taking computer science for a credit and students who might be really interested in it.”

classroom. For example, Kim dedicated copious time to talking about aspects of social media and video editing to aid senior Sibelle Zambie’s Capstone project.

To help modify her curriculum for students with different skill levels, Kim takes inspiration from her previous job in the tech industry.

“I used to be a [teaching assistant] at a boot camp where some people wanted to improve their skills and others wanted to transition to completely different career fields,” said Kim. “That’s where I got a lot of insight on how to find a middle ground for students.”

“As an engineer I think a lot about the design side when solving a problem and solving the right problem. A lot of the research that [Kim] is focused on, the user experience research, is really based on teasing out what human behavior is and understanding human needs.”

“ I went into the software engineering industry with a weird hybrid role of being a bridge between art and technology which ultimately led me to teach both subjects. Most people would choose one or the other track, but for me it was natural to blend them.”

“Historically the program was heavily focused on computer science and robotics,” said Abbondanzio. “We’re starting to blend into the ‘human need’ piece after being very technically focused.”

Kim’s professional experience in computer science and

Some examples of her accommodations include using Notion, an online note-taking website, to create modules where students can learn computer science small sections. The structure of her classes also differs depending on their subjects.

“App Development is structured like a math class where students are asked questions with correct answers before they get the freedom to design,” said Kim. “In my UX class they have the algorithm on how to place objects somewhere, but they have the freedom on how they orient those objects from the getgo.”

Kim values creating an open and approachable environment in which students can tackle complex computer science topics.

“You can really tell Ms. Kim really cares about the subjects she teaches, and she makes even the most complex coding concepts palatable for us,” said sophomore Sarah Koshy. “For example, we were learning how to use JavaScript and it was a little confusing, but she taught us different tricks and shortcuts which helped.”

Kim also works extensively in and out of class to ensure her student’s success.

“If I ever need help, I go to Ms. Kim’s office hours where she goes in depth and tells me what I need to improve on and helps me understand concepts,” said freshman Mahedhar Sunkara. “The courses that Ms. Kim teaches are difficult and she helps provide a lot of guidance.”

Kim’s commitment to her students extends beyond the

“She was teaching me how to edit my video and was willing to take on that challenge with me,” said Zambie. “Thats really what she does: she makes sure she’s helping you along the way instead of leaving you to be independent.”

Abbondanzio says Kim’s ability to work with students factored heavily in his decision to hire her.

“Ms. Kim is wonderful because she can bridge the Middle and Upper School and does quality work that she teaches to her students,” said Abbondanzio. “She’s great with kids and really likes education, which is wonderful.”

Outside of Greenhill

Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, Kim began to rethink her career path.

“Post-Covid I kind of had this burntout phase, and I just needed a breather,” said Kim. “Teaching design and computer science remotely was a huge challenge, and then coming back in person there was a huge disconnect.”

Kim decided on personal training as a job to fill the gap year that she took. In 2020 she launched her own personal training business using her personal journey with fitness as motivation.

“Because I’m Korean American and coming from a culture with a lot of emphasis on looks and physique, I had a very distorted view on body images,” said Kim.

Kim says she wanted to educate younger people with a way to figure out how to be healthy while pursuing their personal aesthetic goals.

Along with this, she documented her journey on Instagram and posted videos to her YouTube channel.

“If I ever need help, I go to Ms. Kim’s office hours where she goes in depth and tells me what I need to improve on and helps me understand concepts,” said freshman Mahedhar Sunkara. “The courses that Ms. Kim teaches are difficult and she helps provide a lot of guidance.”

“The biggest thing this has taught me is how to have tough skin,” said Kim. “It’s definitely shown me the ability to just be myself and accept myself.”

Besides being a full-time teacher and part-time trainer, Kim also tutors outside of school, helping students with all subjects.

“I guide them, prepare them for school,” said Kim. “I essentially find what the students’ strengths are and nurture that.”

“

You can really tell Ms. Kim really cares about the subjects she teaches, and she makes even the most complex coding concepts palatable for us.”

Kim says that from her many jobs she has learned the skill of time management, often using online resources such as video calls to help her clients.

“Every day I need to commit [a certain amount of] hours to each kind of role,” said Kim. “My schedule is very fluid so I have to create structure while staying flexible in case of scheduling changes.”

With constantly having to manage her time wisely, Kim adds that she is still learning how to not burn herself out. She says she values jobs that make her happy and keep her stress levels low.

“I’m a very ebb and flow kind of person, but also very structured,” said Kim. “My motto is if I’m not happy in a job, I don’t do it. Working with my students is my daily dose of happiness and the reason why I love being a teacher.”

Luna Kim

Graphics by Christan Park; photo illustration by Chloe Nguyen

Kate Ponnambalam

AArts Student Art Comes Alive

s students settle into the new Rosa O. Valdes STEM + Innovation Center, the Design and Innovation Department is opening new worlds with its Design of Immersive and Interactive Art class.

Design of Immersive and Interactive Art is an Upper School class in which students learn about the intersection of visual art and technology. The class is currently co-taught by Director of Design and Innovation Matt Abbondanzio and Middle and Upper School visual art teacher Thomas Martinez, and it can satisfy either the design and innovation or fine arts graduation requirement.

“It’s always been my desire to do this type of course,” said Abbondanzio. “Its core intention is to be an interactive design course. I want students to create an installation or something that will respond to the person who’s viewing it.”

The course extends over two semesters, and the syllabus charts the many steps of the creative process.

During the first semester, students draw inspiration from their field trip to Meow Wolf, an interactive art museum. Inside, students explore a large collection of art installations that mimic practical spaces like kitchens and passageways with innovative and eye-catching enhancements.

“I think it was fun for [students] to get in there and see something different than a traditional gallery or museum, where everything is pristine, hanging in proper lighting,” said Martinez.

Students then develop their unique artistic style and vision and start the design process for what will become a year-long project.

During the first semester, with guidance from Martinez, students create sketches and blueprints. In the second semester, Abbondanzio helps students refine the designs and create any technical elements the project requires.

“We both feed in on different things, but [Abbondanzio] is definitely the technology, coding, computer science guy,” Martinez said. “I am the visual arts, fine arts component of the course.”

Although Martinez mainly oversees the class during the first semester artistic planning and sketching phase, he remains involved as students utilize materials and technologies to bring their visions to life.

“I’m now going back and forth to the class as an advisor or consultant for their final construction and installation of their final builds,” Martinez said. “Now it’s more about the final builds and the aesthetical values of them. Do they work as art pieces?”

Students collaborate on projects that will eventually be on display throughout campus. One group, inspired by their trip to Meow Wolf, is building a multi-feature shelf with design elements that encompass past, present and futuristic influences.

“We wanted to make a shelf that is kind of slightly odd, slightly off and has a bunch of different features,” said sophomore Avery Montoya.

A group of seniors is creating a series of hexagonal plastic LED light panels that light up in different patterns when people walk up the stairs. They plan to place these on the Marshall Family Performing Arts Center stairs, where they hope the lights will draw people away from the elevator. The class also will exhibit their projects at the Independent Schools Association of the Southwest Fine Arts Festival this April.

U“They started with a very small hexagon and now they’re building it up,” said Abbondanzio. “And they’re going to go to ISAS, and the objective is to install these on campus.”

Hands-on Learning

One goal of the Design of Immersive and Interactive Art course is to cultivate creativity and technical problem solving, two skills which students value as they contemplate college and future job prospects.

“It’s a lot of trying something that’s not working, then trying something new, and that not working,” Montoya said. “And just repeating that until something works.”

Beyond the trial and error required to get technical elements into place, the students need to utilize creativity to sketch renderings and three-dimensional models for their proposed art installations.

“I think there’s a lot of creativity as well,” said sophomore Darwin George. “We had to come up with a project that people can interact with. And then there are life skills. I learned to 3D model; I didn’t know how to do that before.”

Martinez and Abbondanzio encourage a wide variety of students to take the class. Students interested in art or computer science will have an opportunity for artistic growth and broader technology exposure.

“If you’re wanting to get more knowledge in the computer science or technology area, it’s a fun way to do it because you’re working in partners and pairs,” said Martinez. “It’s really hands-on and there’s a lot of help in the studio space and lab.”

At the end of the year, students will showcase their project so the entire Greenhill

community can experience their art.

“I like this to be a really culminating class where we are doing some really interesting work that isn’t done anywhere else,” Abbondanzio said. “I don’t think there’s any other high school doing an interactive art class like this.”

Next year, User Experience Design teacher Luna Kim will take over the class.

“I was inspired to become the teacher of the Immersive Art class because I wanted to make the most of my design and computer science background,” said Kim.

She envisions a course that will continue to incorporate new technologies and artistic influences as the students utilize the tools within the new innovation center.

“I hope to teach students how to integrate technology into visual storytelling so that they can come out with both technical and artistic skills.” said Kim.

Hornets Head to Arts Festival

pper School students are finalizing preparations for the Independent Schools Association of the Southwest Fine Arts Festival, which will take place April 11-13 at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Austin.

The festival, which started in 1967, is a showcase for fine arts students at Greenhill and peer schools. Greenhill was one of the original five schools that founded the festival in 1969.

ISAS, as the festival is known, was canceled in 2021 and 2022 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year’s event was held at All Saints’ Episcopal School in Fort Worth.

For Upper School fine arts faculty and students, the festival is an annual highlight.

“I went to a big public school, so I had never been a part of a festival like that,” said Upper and Middle School Band Director

Brian Donnell. “It was a little overwhelming at first, but I loved all of it.”

Head of Fine Arts Terry Martin says the ISAS festival was incomprehensible to him until he experienced it firsthand in 2016.

“When it was explained to me that we were going to take nearly 200 kids to a festival, honestly, I was terrified,” said Martin. “I thought, ‘How are we possibly going to manage 200 kids on this campus and make sure that they get to the events and get them in their hotel rooms and all that?’ But ultimately, it was easy.”

Range of Experiences

Unlike other competitions, the ISAS festival invites almost all fine arts students. The result is a large range of shows, including band concerts, painting showcases and video production screenings.

The wide variety of the festival is what

allows it to be such an enriching experience for both students and faculty.

“You get to see the improv, the one-act plays and then there would also be sessions that you could go to for song-writing or painting,” said junior Brynn Zawadzki.

Zawadzki, who is an Advanced Video Production student, says she got the opportunity to watch others appreciate her work at the festival.

“On AVP film night, we were the primetime spot on Friday night,” said Zawadzki. “It was just deafening applause when our films came on, and it was just such a great community full of support.”

Beyond support, senior Sanjna Kalisetty, says the festival allowed her to improve her acting skills.

“At ISAS you have to play to the space you’re given and you don’t know the layout,” said Kalisetty. “So, it’s really challenging as a performer to kind of acclimate to that space. And once you do, you have that skill.”

ISAS offers a unique experience for teachers as well.

“I have film colleagues in Dallas and Austin and Houston, San Antonio, who are people I know professionally,” said Upper School Fine Arts Department Chair Corbin Doyle. “With a lot of them, these will be the three days we get to hang out all year. And that’s very special.”

Doyle says he also takes an interest in the students who attend the festival every year.

“I park myself in the filmmaking venue, and I will watch every school’s film reel and take notes and meet kids that are really good from other schools and connect them with AVP areas,” Doyle said.

Donnell, who has been attending the festival since 1989, says there is another element that makes the festival’s experience so special.

“So many things that our students do we present to parents and kind of the

public at large,” said Donnell. “We seldom do anything where the actual audience is other students. And you don’t really find that anywhere else.”

Facing Challenges

Since Greenhill helped start the festival in 1969, the Independent Schools Association of the Southwest has grown from five schools to 92 spread across multiple states.

Although the growth of the association has enhanced the festival, it has not come without challenges.

To preserve the festival’s experience, both the time spent planning and the resources needed have increased. Many of these costs fall onto the host school, Greenhill Fine Arts faculty members said.

“You’re asking a school to, in theory, not have any classes for a week, because there’s that much stuff involved in setting up all the venues and everything,” said Doyle. “Because of setting up and taking down and doing all the parts you need to do, you put tents all over campus to have to feed people and [create] outdoor venues.”

Martin says that no school thus far has agreed to host the 2025 festival.

“There may be discussions from among some of the other local schools to do a smaller local festival, one that doesn’t require travel and overnight stay,” said Martin. “But that would be as an alternative to a full ISAS festival next year where there’s not one planned, but there are schools lined up to host the full festival in ’26, ’27 and ’28.”

Zawadzki says the uncertainty surrounding next year’s event has affected her outlook on next week’s festival.

“Next year is definitely going to be missed, especially by our class, but I think it just means that we’re going to have to really appreciate this one,” said Zawadzki.

Lyna Kamgang, Nia Harrison

ISAS PREP: Upper School students design pieces of art that will be featured at the ISAS Fine Arts Festival. They will also display work from earlier in the school year.

INNOVATIVE IDEAS: Greenhill students explore technology to create artwork.

Photo by Chloe Nguyen

Photo by Jackson Barron

Students Showcase Semester 1 Art

Upper School students dedicated themselves to their work in first-semester visual arts courses, producing a diverse range of creations, from paintings to sculptures. The Evergreen interviewed art students to discuss their individual pieces and the creative processes they employed.

“This is a geometric composition incorporating the basic elements of design and using basic color theory. I thought that the way that colors were altered to the eye when placed next to each other was an interesting concept. I strategically placed painter’s tape in vertical lines to create clean edges.”

– junior Liam Fagelman

“The assignment for this piece was to make a structure built with coils but had designs and different patterns built into the piece that separated the coils from the shapes at the top. My process for this piece was beginning with small coils and I altered about six or seven coils on top of each other and then smoothed out the coils to blend them.” – senior Siena Richey

“My first idea was to create a series of movie posters depicting large monsters, as this was a topic that was highly interesting to me. I decided on the Kraken as the first movie, as the complexity of the creature would be a good challenge to draw and really immerse the viewer into the art.”

– sophomore Harshdeep Bommareddy

“This painting was inspired in part by a friend of mine, Ali Agha, whose passion for music and the piano is palpable. I didn’t really have a specific process for creating this piece, rather I just focused on trying to capture a feeling rather than an image.”

– junior Oliver Burke

“The assignment was called “Geometric Abstraction,” and our goal was to use different shapes and colors to portray an emotion. I decided to use duct tape to help map out my design and produce straight, clean lines. I also worked on using strong contrasting colors that worked well with the subject matter of choice.”

– junior Gigi Melucci

Reporting

by Chloe Nguyen and Ella Sadka

Centerpiece

Revisiting Socioeconomic

Evie Kwei, Nora Ahearn, John Hurley

Inclusive, welcoming and diverse are all words often used to describe the community at Greenhill. After all, these words were at the core of Bernard Fulton’s vision when he founded the school in 1950.

From being taught at a young age about equity and equality, to the opportunity of joining an affinity group, many students feel as if they are seen on campus. But among all the factors that make the Greenhill community diverse, socioeconomic status is something that is sometimes overlooked within the student body.

“[Students are] a little bit sheltered to some of the more serious parts of wealth inequality that exists in the rest of the country,” said sophomore Soyam Mohammed.

Since Greenhill is a private school located in a relatively wealthy area in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, many students and faculty members agree that general affluence within the student body is inevitable.

“I think it’s a much bigger problem in private and independent schools rather than in public schools,” said sophomore Ruby Garza, expressing a common perception among students. “Because at Greenhill, the majority of students pay tens of thousands of dollars to attend.”

In fact, the cost of tuition to attend Greenhill’s Upper School is the highest in the metroplex, according to a Jan. 29 report in the Dallas Business Journal.

Without proper context, such data can make Greenhill seem like a school attended only by wealthy students. In reality, roughly 20% of current students receive financial aid or tuition remission, according to Greenhill data.

Many other schools also charge additional fees for supplies like computers, lunch and textbooks, but Greenhill doesn’t.

“Nobody else is doing that in town,” said Associate Head of School and Chief Financial Officer/ Chief Operating Officer Kendra Grace. “We strive hard to include all of that because we don’t want to nickel-and-dime our parents.”

In addition to rolling extra fees into the base tuition, Greenhill has also adopted many different strategies to maintain an equal experience for all students, regardless of their financial status.

“It’s an institutional priority to be a socioeconomically diverse school, and we have many structures in place to help us make that happen, starting with our commitment to being need-blind in admissions and meeting 100% of demonstrated need,” said Head of School Lee Hark. “At the same time, we work hard to make it invisible because we don’t want students who receive financial aid to have to come with their hat in their hand every time they need something.”

offer merit-based scholarships.

Every year, 12.5% of the school’s gross tuition revenue is designated for financial aid and tuition remission, which consistently allows 100% of demonstrated need to be met. This school year, over $6.2 million has been designated to this effort.

“That’s definitely a significant number of students that are being aided by the school, and I think that’s helping to [reduce]

standardized laptops for Middle and Upper School students. Some students dislike the school-issued computers, but others appreciate the change and the intent behind it.

“The laptop thing can definitely be a huge gap between peers if you have a different laptop because you can’t afford a better one, and that affects your work,” said Mohammed. “I think that’s one of the things

Financial Aid

Providing ample financial aid for students is one of the main ways that Greenhill maintains a socioeconomically diverse student population.

As Hark noted, Greenhill has a needblind application process, which means that the income of a family and their ability to pay full tuition is not factored into the admissions decision. The school also doesn’t

required to fully participate in the life of Greenhill,” said deBorst.

Sometimes, these “required extras” eventually are included in tuition. For example, until two years ago, students could bring any personal laptop to school. However, this could intensify feelings of self-doubt for students who did not have access to the newest technology, according to Grace.

This led to the introduction of

to acknowledge that things are costing a little more now than they may have been in years past.”

DeBorst also says that another area of improvement is support for middle-income families, especially those who don’t qualify for aid but who also don’t have the funds to cover extra expenses.

“As tuition increases and life expenses increase, budgeting for a private school education becomes more difficult,” deBorst

Socioeconomic Status at Greenhill

said. “We have different ways in our process where we can determine if a family falls in a certain income level band and if we can give them an allowance or recognition.”

Student Perspectives

Although administrators do substantial work behind the scenes in terms of creating

manifests itself in many forms.

“I can count on one hand the number of senior speeches in my 19 years in the Upper School where I have heard students discuss their socioeconomic status,” Mercurio said.

“If that doesn’t tell you how profoundly uncomfortable students and adults feel in discussing this, I don’t know what else can.”

This lack of conversation can also be reflected in how students who are on

more factors to consider when applying for colleges.

While the school pays application fees, sophomore Antonio Velazquez says that students who aren’t on financial aid have more resources to help them.

“I know a lot of people have a lot of college counseling outside of school to help them,” said Velazquez. “[Others] just have those resources available, and possibly have contacts and connections to help students get in touch with other [counselors].”

you’re not supposed to talk about how much money somebody has, and I feel like he’s trying to break that unspoken rule,” Iyer said. “He’s breaking down all these predisposed notions that we have, specifically in our communities, because I think everyone knows that there’s a range of [income] around the world, but I think less people understand the economic climate at Greenhill.”

This unspoken rule that Iyer mentions

“I think this generation has a better understanding, and some of them are very much aware of the benefits that they have because of their parents’ hard work,” Cantu said. “I’m not saying that [the difference] isn’t there, but at least they seem a little bit more reserved about pointing it out or using it as an insult.”

The college admissions process also highlights the wealth gap at Greenhill, as students who are on financial aid have

Navigating the Future

Overall, many students and faculty agree that Greenhill is moving in a positive direction; however, no one disagrees that there is room to improve.

For example, community service is seen as an important immersion experience that can expose a student to the realities of socioeconomic hardships, and yet Greenhill’s service requirements are relatively low. By graduation, seniors this year will only have had to complete 18 service hours across a two-year period.

Although this minimum is being increased to 24 hours, many students feel as though the level of commitment toward community service could be stronger.

“Greenhill students definitely have the resources to go out and do way more than they are required,” Velazquez said. “It’s way too little given what we as Greenhill students have to offer. We should definitely be doing a lot more for the community.”

That said, changing the service requirement cannot cause a culture shift, and some administrators feel that upping the minimum would make service be seen as a chore. That would make the work disingenuous.

“Service is vitally important to what we do, and I’m hoping that our program will grow and expand,” said Hark. “But it also needs to be selfdirected and self-motivated because if it’s directed by the school, it’s just never going to be a truly authentic part of our students’ experience.”

Separate from the service aspect, deBorst says that despite the changes brought on by inflation and the difficulties that middle-class families face, the mission of the financial aid office will stay the same: to maintain an equitable program so that Greenhill can be available to as many students of diverse backgrounds as possible.

“What we really strive to do is keep our process fair and equitable, and we are striving to meet 100% of demonstrated need,” deBorst said. “We hope that families see the value in coming to Greenhill and recognize that it’s a commitment and sacrifice to send kids to a private school, even if you can pay for full tuition with ease.”

Since improving socioeconomic diversity is an ever-evolving process, Greenhill administration doesn’t have a concrete plan set for the future. Hark says the end goal is to ensure that Greenhill’s mission continues to foster inclusion.

“The goal for me as the head of the institution is to make sure that our families feel like they are getting a lot of value for what they pay,” Hark said. “No matter how much they pay, that [families feel like] the Greenhill experience is worth it.”

Graphic by Christan Park

14 Special Report Women’s History Month:

From Acknowledgment to Empowerment

Ayasha Hensen and Rebecca Lilienstern.

Upper School History Department

Chair Amy Bresie says she doesn’t recall having a single class when she was growing up that recognized women and their accomplishments.

“When I was your age going to Greenhill, I don’t think we ever talked about women,” said Bresie. “That always really bothered me, because I knew that 50% of the population existed and had existed.”

After finally delving into the topic in college, Bresie now aims to increase recognition of women’s accomplishments at Greenhill through celebrating Women’s History Month throughout March and International Women’s Day on March 8.

“I’m trying to build a consciousness and a way of thinking and looking at the world,” said Bresie. “I want to build this idea of standing up and actively pursuing equity and equality and inclusion.”

Her celebration, allows students on campus to reflect on the struggle of women’s rights and recognize the accomplishments of women around the world.

“It is important to celebrate not just women in our lives, but women in our community, women in our country, women from all over the world,” said Upper School history teacher Sidrah Khan. “I think it just gives a more special and unique voice to the stories that are out there.”

Celebration

The largest event that occurs on campus is the annual Upper School celebration that Bresie started four years ago.

She began organizing this event to create a space to celebrate and encourage women during Women’s History Month.

“The event started about four years ago with [former Upper School English teacher] Dr. Abby Seeskin and I,” said Dr. Bresie. “We really wanted the day to be something where we celebrated both women’s history but also just the women of this campus.”

Bresie now hosts the celebration with Khan and Upper School history teachers

At the event, Bresie spoke about the history of International Women’s Month and the struggle of the Women’s Rights Movement. Afterward, students in her Women’s History class gave “women of valor” presentations about a historical figure that was important to them.

“All the presentations and activities were a great way to learn about and celebrate Women’s History Month,” said junior Sophie Fiedelman.

Students also wrote letters to women they appreciated and drew portraits of those important to them.

“The number of people who decided to draw their women of valor as their mom, friend, teacher, or someone close in their life was amazing,” said Bresie.

Starting this year, Bresie also tried to get people to show support for the Equal Rights Amendment. This amendment aims to set gender equality into law. Bresie encouraged students to send a letter to their elected lawmakers about passing the various legislatures.

“

It is important to celebrate not just women in our lives, but women in our community, women in our country, women from all over the world. I think it just gives a more special and unique voice to the stories that are out there.”

“I did it a bit last minute, but I would definitely push that in the future and make it some sort of deliverable,” said Bresie.

Finally, Bresie created a bracket for people to decide their most important women in history. According to her, this activity was meant to start conversations about important female figures.

“It was more about getting people to sit down and start conversations such as who this woman is and how they relate to one another,” said Bresie.

Following the event junior Brynn Zawadzki says she appreciated the recognition it gave to women.

“I thought it was very fun to collaborate and be able to showcase different women,” said Zawadzki.

Khan says the event is something she never experienced in other schools.

“I don’t think I had ever been at a

school where Women’s History Month was ever really celebrated, but here it is quite celebrated,” said Khan.

Curriculum

Despite her excitement to host the event, Bresie says she is torn over the idea that women’s history should only be celebrated for a month.

“I love celebrating it,” said Bresie. “On the other hand, I also think that women’s history should just be part of the curriculum year-round, and not just [an] add-on.”

As the curriculum at Greenhill has evolved, teaching about women’s rights and history has received greater emphasis.

“It has changed over the past couple of decades and has become sort of standard to incorporate the voice of half the population,” said Bresie. “We really have been looking at history in terms of race, class and gender in ways that no one was doing 20 to 30 years ago.”

Bresie’s elective, Women’s History, has been centered around the intersectionality of feminism through history and the impacts women have had on society.

“This course fills a real need,” Bresie said. “I try to incorporate a lot of history that we just don’t get in other places, but I’m also trying to build a consciousness.”

Along with Bresie’s course, teachers of the Global History course that is required for all freshmen have tried to include more content about women and their struggles throughout the year.

“This course fills a real need. I try to incorporate a lot of history that we just don’t get in other places, but I’m also trying to build a consciousness.”

These efforts have included discussing the book “Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts.”

Heart of the Hill groups celebrate Women’s History Month by watching a video and discussing Title IX, a federal law passed in 1972 aimed at eliminating discrimination in educational opportunities on the basis of sex.

“I think learning about Title IX is super important for women and everyone on

campus because it ties into education and impacts our lives today,” said sophomore Jackie Dishman.

Not only are classes and HOH groups attempting to empower and educate about women, but clubs such as Women in STEM have continued to have a strong presence on campus.

“One of the clubs that I’m really excited about that is still in existence and still working to be active is the Women in STEM club,” said Upper School math teacher and club sponsor Melissa Battis. “It gives us space for our female students to be models for younger students.”

For the Future

In the future, teachers and students alike hope that more events will happen for Women’s History Month and women across campus will be recognized year-round.

“I think Greenhill and Dr. Bresie do a good job of celebrating Women’s History Month by including accomplishments and hardships that women have gone through,” said junior Mia Edmonds. “I do think that there could be a few more events to celebrate the month however.”

Khan, Bresie and Battis all agree there should be a more consistent effort to recognize women in community life and beyond. They say that an affinity group or safe space for women to gather and share their experiences and ideas would be beneficial.

“I think it is trying to figure out a way to leverage some of those things and some of that excitement in a slightly different way,” said Bresie.

Another potential idea was to host a panel during Women’s History Month, similar to the panels hosted by other affinity groups.

“I think doing a panel of women of different age groups, different backgrounds could be really cool,” said Khan.

No matter how Women’s History Month is celebrated, it remains an inspiring event in campus life, students and faculty said.

“I think taking a moment to look at women who have worked at Greenhill and have been influential in history gives everyone a moment to pause and think about the women who are currently here,” said Battis.

Daniela Hallack, Justin Wu

Photo illustration by Evie Kwei

Amy Bresie

Bringing Shakespeare To Life: Greenhill Theater to Perform “Much Ado About Nothing”

Noor Zaman

Upper School theater students will perform “Much Ado About Nothing” as this year’s Spring Play.

Work on the Greenhill reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s 16th-century comedy has spanned weeks, with students in various theater classes working together to prepare for the April 24-26 show dates.

The Process

The first step for actors is auditioning, an event where students read the script, act in monologues and participate in games to get to know the play and the characters involved.

Upper School Drama and Theater teacher Valerie Hauss-Smith, who also directs the play, says these exercises help her understand which actors would perform certain characters best, “so that we can see, this is the type of things that they’re doing. They’re willing to play with this person, they understand the comedy, they have a good grasp of the language.”

After this, students take part in acting exercises to get to know the play further and understand more of the Shakespearean language used in the show.

“We explore the words and the poetry of Shakespeare in a way that people don’t really know,” Hauss-Smith said.

During this process, for the first time in many years, Hauss-Smith has implemented a technique called “dropping in” to help actors memorize their lines.

“It’s where someone else has your script, and they’re feeding your lines in your ear,” said senior Sanjna Kalisetty. “So they’re telling you what you’re supposed to say. It allows you to make discoveries on your own but with help. You kind of have someone who’s helping you and then you’re able to find different ways to approach it.”

Kalisetty said it was her first time to use this technique.

After auditions and script exploration, the process of blocking begins. This involves determining an actor’s positions and movements for each scene. Actors are then expected to memorize their lines, known as getting “off book”.

“[Blocking] helps establish things and where [actors] are going, what they’re doing.” Hauss-Smith said.

The last step of the process is Tech Week, which takes place shortly before opening night. This is a period of about a week and a half where student actors, directors and technicians work together to rehearse the show for hours after school.

“Tech Week is really time for everybody to integrate everything that we’ve been working on into one piece of art,” Upper and Middle School Technical Theater teacher Will Turbyne said. “So many elements are coming together in a very short amount of time that have had so much preparation behind them.”

Behind the Scenes

Students on the technical theater side work to create and design the set and costumes, as well as coordinating the lighting and sound design for the play.

During the actors’ audition process, Turbyne

interviews students in technical theater classes to determine what aspects they will work on.

“Almost like a job interview, we talk to them about what they want to do, why and what qualifications and interests they have,” Turbyne said. “We also take into account what we feel the student needs in order to expand so that someone isn’t doing the same thing every time.”

After this, students begin researching the play and different elements to add to the set design. This year, “Much Ado About Nothing” has been adapted to West Texas during the 19th century, providing different opportunities for tech theater members.

“From an actor’s standpoint, we’re not doing too much, we’ve played around with a couple of people having deep Southern accents,” sophomore Megan Czuchlewski said. “But it’s mostly going to come when we integrate tech.”

done, but that’s been more of a challenge than I thought.”

Looking Forward

Turbyne says the set is modeled after Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, a historic performance hall in London, England, where many of the famous playwright’s works were performed.

“[The set] has many elements of Shakespeare’s Globe in the Old West structure. You’ve got the upper balcony very common in Shakespearean plays,” Turbyne said. “Instead of an Elizabethan archway, it’s going to have a pair of swinging saloon doors.”

Hauss-Smith and Turbyne often communicate to ensure that actors will be comfortable with the set that the tech theater students are designing and building.

“We constantly bounce ideas off of each other, and every two minutes I run back there and [ask questions],” Hauss-Smith said. “None of us works by ourselves.”

On-stage performers say they don’t interact much with the tech theater side of the production until the final days of rehearsals.

“As an actor in the play, you kind of don’t see tech until Tech Week,” said Kalisetty. “Sometimes they’ll come to your runs of the show, so they can see what you’re working on, but they’re very much a silent observer until it comes time for Tech Week.”

With this lengthy preparation comes difficulties for the cast, directors, and tech theater

Cast and crew members admit that adapting the show to 19thcentury West Texas was one of these

Apart from the set design, actors are working to implement some Texas elements into their acting. For example, the play will feature two clowns who will speak in Southern accents. Different accents may be implemented for other characters.

“We’ve really taken the time to explore all of the characters and their lines so we get a better understanding of relationships between characters,” Kalisetty said. “It’s something we haven’t really done in other shows.”

On the tech theater side, Turbyne said the choice to create much of the set out of pallet lumber has added to the difficulty when building the set.

“I definitely underestimated how hard it is to take apart a pallet,” he said. “It’s getting

Leading up to the show, actors get together outside of school and participate in engaging social activities. These groups, called “families,” are organized by cast members called deputies who work as social coordinators within the crew.

Kalisetty says these families and deputies help to encourage bonding and further promote a feeling of belonging for cast members.

“We do fun activities, like a gingerbread competition, or like, that’ll be your group that you go out for dinner when it comes time to Tech Week,” Kalisetty said.

Turbyne said there is a strong sense of community during production and especially during the prolonged Tech Week, during which the cast and crew spend hours together rehearsing after school.

“I think it’s a pretty strong, cohesive unit,” Turbyne said. “It has a very strong ... sense of community and belonging.”

Graphics by Nora Ahearn and Chloe Nguyen

Sanjna Kalisetty

Evergreen the

Debate Excels at State

“We started prepping for the tournament about three or four weeks in advance and it was a really intense and repetitive process of testing and perfecting arguments until we were confident enough to compete.”

– senior Emily Hu, member of Greenhill Emerald and 3rd Speaker in the World Schools division

bond as a team, which helped us perform better.”

– junior Aditi Vikram, member of Greenhill Diamond

“This was the first time that I debated in TFA finals and the first thing I noticed is there were hundreds of people watching the round so the energy in the room was electric. Our team was able to feed off the energy in the room and debate really well.

– senior Sophia Li, member of Greenhill Emerald and 2nd Speaker in the Worlds Schools division

“It was amazing that Greenhill Emerald swept the top three speaker awards – it’s very rare that that happens and I think it’s a testament to the work that we put in as a team. We definitely did all that we could and I don’t regret anything.”

“Something I liked about our team was that we were friends before teammates, and I think that’s reflected in every round we competed in. Whether it was good communication in rounds or smooth coordination of case assignments, I’m glad I was able to experience TFA with people I call my friends.”

– senior Sophia Li

– junior Sherry Zhang, member of Greenhill Emerald and Top Speaker in the Worlds Schools division

The Upper School debate team placed 7th in the overall sweepstakes category and five students reached the final rounds in their respective events at the annual Texas Forensic Association State Debate Tournament in Houston in March.

Greenhill had 20 entries across three debate events: Policy, Lincoln-Douglas and World Schools. Twenty-nine Upper School students reached the elimination rounds, which required winning at least three rounds.

Three Upper School World Schools teams made it to the elimination rounds: Greenhill Emerald, Greenhill Diamond and Greenhill Gold. The Emerald team (seniors Sophia Li, Emily Hu, Jeannette Yang and junior Sherry Zhang) finished in 2nd place; Diamond (seniors Reyna Diamond, Abeera Amer, Angela Kamgang and junior Aditi Vikram), and Gold (juniors Liliana Alston, Zara Paul, Olivia Ortley-Gragg, Jonaki Bose and Madi McClellan) both advanced to the

final sixteen teams.

Five of the eight Greenhill teams in the Policy format advanced to the elimination rounds. The team of sophomore Dhiya Hemchand and junior Neha Bachu made it to the quarterfinals. Four other teams advanced to the final 32: sophomores Kate Ponnambalam and Soyam Mohammed; junior Harris Xie and sophomore Iliyan Ali; sophomore Rory Liu and junior Gautam Chamarthy; and sophomore Maya Jagsi and junior Ella Ou-Yang.

In the Lincoln-Douglas event, six of eight Greenhill entries made it to the elimination rounds. Senior Seth Lee finished in second place after being undefeated in the preelimination rounds; senior Adam Kesselman reached the semifinals; sophomore Sarah Koshy advanced to the quarterfinals; junior Pranav Sreenivas advanced to the round of 16; sophomore Dylan Millimet finished in the final 32; and sophomore Aaron Kuang finished in the final 64.

“I was really glad to make it to semifinals and help Seth get to the finals. I beat a few tough opponents.”

– senior Adam Kesselman, semifinals of the Lincoln-Douglas event and 7th speaker

“I am really proud of the way we worked together as a team. Not only did Seth and I have experience at the tournament, but the entire team pulled together for a great showing.”

– senior Adam Kesselman

“TFA was an amazing experience this year. It was really great to be recognized, but we could not have done it without the hard work of everyone on the team.”

– sophomore Sarah Koshy, quarterfinals of the LincolnDouglas event

Photo illustrations by Evie Kwei

Ven Larson, Avery Lonergan

Sports

Harrison Leaps to New Heights

training and speed endurance training.”

When sophomore Nia Harrison was in fifth grade, she signed up for her first track and field team. Now, almost six years later, she has a deep love for the sport and hopes to become a collegiate athlete.

“When you get on the line and are about to jump, it’s about you and your hard work,” Harrison said. “That shows when you compete, and I like giving it my all.”

During her first few years as a track and field athlete, Harrison chose to mainly compete in sprinting events with her friends.

“When I was younger, all of my friends and I did the 100-meter dash and the 200-meter dash because those are the easiest to do in middle school,” Harrison said. “I also picked up the 400-meter race because one of my friends did distance and that was an event that we could both do.”

However, Harrison later realized that she had a talent for the high jump.

“I liked the high jump because it is social,” Harrison said. “While waiting for one of my three attempts, I get to talk to lots of people. While I like track being independent, it is nice to get to interact with other teams.”

Greenhill Track

In her first year at Greenhill, Harrison started to take high jump training more seriously. That year, she jumped 5 feet 4 inches, which would have won the girls high jump event in the Southwest Preparatory Conference championship that year.

Track and field Head Coach Stacey Johnson, who has worked with Harrison for two years, often tailors her workouts to fit her wide range of talents.

“Track has a huge individual component, so you have to look at the individuals and try to create programs that fit where they are at a given time,” Johnson said. “For Nia, we build her training around her high jump first and foremost. Then, we give her the right dosage of speed

Harrison has numerous goals for this season. She hopes to break Greenhill’s girls’ records for the 400-meter dash and the high jump and improve her 200-meter dash time.

Thus far this season, Harrison has already broken the school record for the high jump by clearing 5 feet 8 inches.

While Harrison continues to excel in her individual events, she has also earned a reputation as an outstanding team player.

“I don’t think that I’ve ever seen a situation where it’s about her,” Johnson said. “It’s always about everything that’s going on, and she wants to be the best for everybody, not just for herself.”

Harrison has begun to make her mark as a leader by creating new traditions, such as the girls wearing pink on Wednesdays for afternoon practices.

“Team bonding is something that I really like to help with, and that’s something we’re going to try to do more this year than we did last year,” Harrison said.

Harrison’s personality has become a vital component of the team’s chemistry.

“She’s got a big personality,” said Johnson. “She brings a lot of fun out there every day.”

Club Track

Along with participating in track and field at Greenhill, Harrison also competes year-round with a travel team: Major Impact Track Club.

Harrison’s club coaches, Candi Francois and Randy James, have worked with her since 2022. Both coaches are also working with the Greenhill track team on a volunteer basis this year.

Francois and James say they appreciate the hard work that Harrison has devoted to track and look forward to working with her throughout her high school career.

“We encourage our kids to be sponges and really soak up what we tell them,” James said. “She’s been very dedicated, whether it’s on the track or in the weight room.”

With her club, Nia participated in the LSU High School Classic in early January and the Oklahoma High School Championship in late February.

“The LSU meet was championship level,

and I’ve never been with people who jumped super high,” Harrison said. “I had a really big personal record because I jumped 5 feet 8.75 inches. I was hoping to PR at the meet, but I didn’t know how high I could get, so it was a pleasant surprise.”

The meet in Oklahoma was a bit smaller, and Harrison had different expectations for the meet.

“I was more confident at OU,” Harrison said. “I was less nervous with it being indoors. My goal for that meet was just to get 5 feet 8 inches.”

Preparations

Along with regular practices, there are numerous ways that Harrison trains to be the best athlete possible.

“Right before I jump, I always visualize myself clearing the bars,” Harrison said. “Also, the night before, I usually journal my PR goals, things to remember and key points.”

Harrison has also started to prioritize her sleep so that she can perform to the best of her ability during practices and meets.

“As soon as it’s 10:30, I stop whatever I’m doing and I go to sleep,” Harrison said. “Sleep is really important to me because I can’t go through a day of school and track if I don’t have enough sleep.”

Johnson agrees that rest is essential for all track athletes.

“We had the conversation the other day that rest is never a bad thing,” Johnson said. “A lot of people just work and work and work. Sometimes, it’s important to take a moment to relax, breathe and make sure everything is feeling the way it should.”

Harrison also turns to her religious faith to motivate herself.

“My favorite Bible verse is Psalms 46:5: ‘God is within her, she will not fall,’” Harrison said. “I have to remember failing isn’t losing. So, I have to focus on the small things that I do better instead of being mad if I don’t win.”

Overcoming Challenges

Track and field can be difficult for many athletes because of the high pressure that comes with it being an individual sport, according to Francois and James.

However, Harrison says this is an aspect of the sport she enjoys the most.

“I like how track is individual, but you still have the team aspect because I want to be able to go through all my practices with my team,” Harrison said. “But when you get on the line or when you’re about to jump it’s all of your training and hard work that matters.”

In March last year, Harrison suffered a foot injury while training for the high jump. She says this challenge was difficult to cope with.

“Last year, I didn’t jump as well as I should, and it was because of my foot,” Harrison said. “It was frustrating because I knew I should have been jumping way higher.”

Despite facing difficulties with the injury, Harrison worked relentlessly with her coaches in the summer to recover.

“After her freshman year, she decided that she wanted to give her full commitment to field and track and it made a huge difference,” said Francois.

In addition, early in her track and field career, Harrison struggled with nerves that would interfere with her performing her best. She has worked on this, and both Francois and Johnson say Harrison has greatly improved her mental toughness.

“She looks forward to competing rather than being in a place of being fearful where it used to paralyze her and affect her whole experience,” Francois said.

Harrison credits much of her success to her parents.

“My dad is really supportive,” Harrison said. “He played basketball, so he knows the mental side of sports and can help me. My mom is like my hype lady. She doesn’t really care if I win or lose; she is just supportive.”

Looking ahead, Francois sees Harrison making her mark at the national level.

“In the summer, she could run a few meets and put herself in a position to try out for the U-20 or U-18 U.S. team,” Francois said.

In fact, Harrison is already emerging on the national level. At the Nike Indoor Nationals, held March 8-10 in New York City, Harrison finished 4th in the high jump among mostly older athletes. Harrison jumped 5 feet 7 inches, the highest of any sophomore in the girl’s field.

Ultimately, Harrison hopes to compete in the high jump at the collegiate level.

“I for sure want to do track in college,” Harrison said. “That’s my dream: to play a college sport.”

Emma Hoffman, Aman Jaleel

Nia Harrison

FIRST PLACE: Nia Harrison poses with her club teammates after the LSU High School Classic in January. Harrison recorded a personal best to finish in first place.

Photo courtesy of Nia Harrison

BAR CLEARED: Sophomore Nia Harrison hones her high jump technique during practice. Harrison is currently ranked 3rd nationally in the high jump for her grade.

Photo by Gracie Tamez

Evergreen the

Boys Tennis Aims to Succeed During Season

Riya Kommineni

Every spring weekday, the Greenhill boys varsity tennis team puts down their rackets and filters out of the Deason Family Tennis Center. As the sun begins to dip below the horizon, the 14 athletes follow Coach Scott Cotton as he leads the team on a jog around campus.

“Our runs are a nice break from the tennis court, but they also help us make our team stronger,” said junior Tal Rogozinski. “As we do this hard task together, we become closer because of the shared moments we have.”

Coach Cotton, Assistant Coach Michael Jenks and members of the team say they hope that by starting team bonding, physical conditioning and player development early in the season, it will help the team succeed.

Led by standout freshman Wesley Cotton, senior Safin Stefanos and Rogozinski, the team expects to do well during the 2024 season. Hopes are high for a deep run at the Southwest Preparatory Conference Championships in early May, according to team members.

Background

During the 2023 season, the team was 6-1 in conference play and was seeded third in the SPC 4A Boys Tennis Championship. However, the team lost in the first round to the eventual champions, John Cooper School of The Woodlands, and placed fifth overall.

Greenhill’s Line 1 singles player, thenfreshman Krish Kollana, had to withdraw because of illness, so the team’s line-up had to be shifted.

““With Kollana getting COVID-19 and a tough draw against John Cooper, I thought fifth was about as good as we were

going to do with that lineup and draw,” said Coach Cotton. “We had a really good season last year, but it was a little bit of a bummer ending because we couldn’t put out our best lineup.”

Kollana left Greenhill after last season to continue his tennis development at One Tennis Academy in Boca Raton, Fla.

Coach Cotton’s son, Wesley Cotton, entered high school during the 2023-2024 school year and is currently playing Line 1 singles. Wesley is ranked No. 1 in Texas and No. 24 in the U.S. for the Class of 2027, according to Tennis Recruiting Network, a ranking site. He is also currently undefeated during the 2024 Greenhill season.

Wesley Cotton says he wasn’t always that interested in tennis.

“Baseball was actually my first sport,” Wesley Cotton said. “Then, my family had an exchange student from Switzerland who really liked tennis so we would always go and play at the club with her. My dad would teach her and I just kind of went and started playing and really liked it, so tennis quickly became my main sport, and I’ve loved it since.”

Since then, Wesley Cotton has won numerous tournaments on the national level.

Coach Cotton played NCAA Division I tennis at Georgia Tech, winning Atlantic Coast Conference doubles titles in 1992 and 1994. He is currently the third-winningest doubles player in the school’s history.

For Coach Cotton, tennis is a passion rooted in his childhood.

“I just loved tennis,” he said. “The first minute I picked up a racket, I loved the feel of hitting a tennis ball. I hit in my garage all the time and I started playing with friends. Then I played tournaments, and I’ve been addicted ever since.”

Stefanos, at Line 2 singles, holds a Universal Tennis Rating of 9 – an advanced skill level – and has been ranked in the top 50 players for his age group in the U.S. Tennis Association’s Texas section.

Rogozinski, who mainly played Line 2 singles last season, will be playing Line 3 singles this season after taking some time off

from tennis.

“I’m planning on playing more and coming out,” Rogozinski said. “I haven’t been playing as much, which is the reason for the bit of a decline I’m having. But I’m excited to play Line 3 and I think I’ll be strong there.”

who we play this year, we should feel really good about our singles because all three of us are really good, especially for high school.”

Goals

“That was a good win for us because it helped us gain confidence for upcoming matches,” said Rogozinski. “It helped us realize that we do have the ability to do well and achieve the goals we want.”

On March 19, the team played Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas. Rogozinski pulled off a 6-0, 6-0 win against his opponent. Wesley Cotton won in a deciding third set tiebreaker. However, both doubles lines lost and Stefanos dropped a third set tiebreaker, resulting in a 2-3 team loss.

The team played its first conference match against Episcopal School of Dallas on March 22. All lines won in consecutive sets, for an overall score of 5-0.

“Rogozinski, Stefanos, and I have played tennis really competitively [outside of school],” said Wesley Cotton. “No matter

As the season progresses, the team has First, Coach Cotton says he wants to improve the strength and depth of the team throughout the

“Our singles can be good, but we’ve got to be able to play against the best teams, so we have to find a couple of good doubles pairings,” he said. “Schools like St. John’s, St. Mark’s and John Cooper all probably have deep teams so it’s going to take all seven players on the lineup to win.”

Junior Jackson Zhang, sophomores Ian Wu and Vincent Le and freshman Miles Wilson are all expected to make appearances in doubles matches during the season,

“It helped us realize that we do have the ability to do well and achieve the goals we want.”

Team members also say that bonding is important.

“The seniors are a great part of the team,” Wesley Cotton said. “They’re really involved and fun. We have team dinners, and they organize things with the girls team like scavenger hunts and sleepovers. There’s also a fun practice atmosphere with the drills, point practice and the fitness we do.”

During rainy days when they don’t have practice, the team reads motivational books like “Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life… And Maybe the World” by Admiral William H. McRaven, which Coach Cotton says he hopes will inspire team members to learn about character and grit.

Regardless of the end result, team members say they just want to do the best they can and have fun while doing it.

“Our three goals every year are the same: have fun, work hard and compete,” said Coach Cotton.

DOUBLES PRACTICE: During tennis practice, Coach Scott Cotton is working to develop two strong doubles teams to complement Greenhill’s top singles players.

Photo by Chloe Nguyen

Tal Rogozinski

Safin Stefanos

Scott Cotton

Our runs are a nice break from the tennis court, but they also help us make our team stronger.”

Graphic by Varun Mukund

GAME, SET, MATCH: Sophomore Ian Wu and junior Tal Rogozinski tap rackets after winning a point in a practice doubles match. Rogozinksi also plays Line 3 singles.

Photo by Christan Park

Greenhill Swim: Making Big Waves

Nearly two months have passed since the Southwest Preparatory Conference winter championships, but the performance of the boys and girls swim teams in claiming dual titles for the first time in school history continues to be a source of pride and inspiration for Upper School students and athletes.

During the meet, Upper School swimmers set five SPC records, 64 personal bests, and 13 school records.

Fueled by close losses for both teams at last year’s championship meet, with the girls placing fourth and the boys finishing second, both teams came into this past season with a newfound sense of determination.

“This year was like our revenge year,” junior Brynn Zawadzki said. “Last year the margins were so small, but we knew we could do it this year.”

SPC Prep

Since the winter season is short, much of the swim team’s preparation was done right from the beginning of the season.

“We do as much work as we can without resting early on to really get to where we want to be,” senior Josie Arbuckle said.

As the team got closer to the SPC championship meet, they started to taper their workouts by cutting back yardage and focusing more on short, quality workouts instead of long, strenuous ones.

“That is the point where we start to let our bodies rest because we have already put in a lot of hard work,” Zawadzki said.

While the team got ready in the pool, Coach Patti Monzingo tackled another aspect of preparation: scoring strategy.

At swim meets, individual swimmers try to gain as many points as possible in their

respective events to add to the team total. First place finishes count as nine points, second as seven, and each following place as a point less. In addition, relays count as double points.

Since individual swimmers are limited in their number of events, Monzingo had to figure out the best strategy for the team to maximize their score.

“I did my homework,” Monzingo said. “I researched all the other teams, all the other swimmers, all their clubs, I used everything that I could get my hands on. I made spreadsheets and came up with a plan as to how to place our [team] for the best potential point scoring.”

In addition, the team had to work during the season to build mental toughness. Arbuckle, a team captain, says a large part of this was working to boost confidence throughout the season.

“We had to work on getting to that point where we all believed that we could win and that winning was really a feasible outcome,” Arbuckle said. “That was really big for me because it wasn’t really something that I truly believed in until recently.”

This year was like our revenge year. Last year the margins were so small, but we knew we could do it.”

The girls team suffered a tough loss to the Hockaday School in the beginning of the season, which forced them to reset.

“It was kind of a wakeup call because I don’t think we emphasized how big of a competitor Hockaday was,” Zawadzki said. “We were not prepared for that. It changed our mindset and brought us all together.”

In fact, the swim team’s success at the SPC championships is due in part to their close-knit community. Despite tough losses throughout the course of the season, the team worked to build relationships through various activities.

“The team was super positive because we did a lot of team bonding,” said Arbuckle. “It gave us the opportunity to be in groups with people on the team that we don’t talk to as much and that really brought us all closer.”

Throughout the season, the team participated in multiple group bonding activities such as dinners, a scavenger hunt and a sleepover.

“A lot of our success was because of team bonding,” said junior J.J. Arbuckle, Josie Arbuckle’s younger brother. “The scavenger hunt was great. It was all really uplifting, and we focused on coming together as a team.”

Championship Meet

Last year, the conference split schools into 3A and 4A divisions based on size and previous finishes. As a result, the boys team was placed in the 3A division, while the girls stayed in the 4A division. Because of this, the boys went into the championship meet feeling confident.

“The boys were favored by a lot so it helped us to go into our races with that mentality,” said freshman Oliver FerrisRojas.

We had to work on getting to that point where we all believed that we could win and that winning was really a feasible outcome. That was really big for me because it wasn’t really something that I truly believed in until recently.” “

The girls were up against stronger competition in the 4A category, making their road to the championship much tougher.

“We knew we had a pretty good shot to win, but it was going to come down to slimmer margins because last year we lost by

so little,” Zawadzki said.

Despite the girls facing tough competition, they rallied around each other to create a positive environment at the championship meet that ultimately led them to their victory.

“It all worked,” Monzingo said. “There was such a camaraderie of all the kids together and everybody cheering for each other and everybody wanting each other to do well. That was huge. The parents noticed. Other coaches noticed. Everybody was proud and happy for everyone else’s swims.”

Glimpse into the Future

In the aftermath of their historic finish, Monzingo says she believes the team is just getting started.

A repeat title will require the girls team to replace one of its best swimmers in school history, Josie Arbuckle, who is committed to swim at the University of California, Los Angeles next year. To offset graduations, Monzingo has built a strong foundation of young swimmers.

Both the boys and girls Middle School swim teams won titles this year, and multiple records were broken by Upper School underclassmen.

In addition, Monzingo launched a Hornets Sports Association swim team for Lower School students to foster swimming talent from a young age.

“We started building the teams from within, since we start to see the kids in first grade,” Monzingo said. “We can see who has talent and foster that talent and get them to join swim teams.”

With this foundation, Ferris-Rojas sees a bright future for the Greenhill swim program.

“SPC this year makes me so excited for the next three,” Ferris-Rojas said. “We’re just going to keep getting better.”

Lillian Smith contributed reporting to this story.

Aria Kutty

NEW RECORDS: From left, Josie Arbuckle, Sasha Wai, Katherine Feng and Avery Lonergan broke Greenhill’s 200 and 400 medley relay record in the SPC meet.

Photo courtesy of Sasha Wai

A Golf Glowup: Promising Rebuild Underway For Girls Team

Last spring, the girls varsity golfers fell short of the four-player minimum required to compete in the team competition of the Southwest Preparatory Conference championships at Woodlands Country Club in Houston.

There were various reasons why the team couldn’t muster the required four players, but the disappointment marked the culmination of an underwhelming year.

Fast forward to this year, and the girls varsity golf program has experienced a transformation. The biggest change is an influx of freshman players and a strong core leadership group.

“The team looks a lot different this year,” Coach Thom Flinders said. “There is a lot more structure and the atmosphere is much more competitive.”

Making the Team

Unlike past years, the team had a structured three-day tryout this year that included a range session at the Highlands Golf Performance Center and two on-course evaluations at Luna Vista Golf Course and Riverchase Golf Club.

Due to the abundance of players that signed up, Flinders was forced to make cuts following tryouts. Of the 22 girls who initially signed up, 12 made the team.

“This is the first year since I’ve been here where we’ve had to make significant cuts to the program,” Flinders said. “Tryouts gave us a good evaluation of the players, and the captains and I made the decision from there.”

Overall, tryouts fostered a more competitive environment and deterred the less serious golfers who were simply seeking sports credits, Flinders said.

“Tryouts forced the girls on the bubble to really step up their game, whereas before some players would just try out for social reasons,” Flinders said.

A Promising Future

With senior Anisa Walji and junior Amanda Park serving as captains, the team has high hopes for this season. But there is also excitement for future seasons, as a total of seven freshmen made the team.

“We are all buying into the program,” freshman August Nguyen said. “As long as hard work and passion are involved, there can be vast improvement over time.”

Flinders attributes the revitalization of the golf program to development during the middle school years. He says that having players with tournament experience coming into ninth grade is important to help them perform at a high level by the time they are juniors and seniors.

“If you want to have any sort of a program, you’ve got to start in middle school so that the players find a love for the game,” Flinders said.

Walji, who started playing Greenhill varsity girls golf in her sophomore year, says she has experienced the highs and lows of the program.

“During my sophomore year, there were only five of us on the team, and everyone was very new to the game,” Walji said. “No one was really passionate

Over the past two years, Walji has witnessed the transformation of the program.

“This year, it’s been really nice to see the golf team transform because everyone that tried out was super passionate about golf and actually cared about improving,” Walji said. “What makes the team so great this year is that we all share a common interest and passion.”

Additionally, Walji emphasizes the need for a strong bond within this year’s team.

“Golf isn’t just about the score on the card, it’s about bringing passion and excitement,” Walji said. “Golf is a solo sport, so we need someone that’s going to bring everyone together and make it more of a team.”

Flinders shares this sentiment.

“Having that positive reinforcement from your peers is way more important than having positive reinforcements,” Flinders said. “It makes everybody a better athlete that way.”

The team has planned various events and activities throughout the season

to enhance bonding. Walji says they are organizing a daddy-daughter long drive competition, a pickleball event and a team sleepover.

Flinders envisions a threestep plan to continue the rebuild. The first step involved outreach and growing the program, and that’s already happening. The next step includes starting to be competitive in tournaments.

“Before, it was all about being social and growing the program, but now it’s all about taking it to the next level and being competitive,” Flinders said.

The third and final step is to win a SPC title.

“The final step is going from being competitive to winning championships, so that’s why we have so many freshman girls to try to grow the program and grow the competitiveness of it,” Flinders said . “We’re really excited for this season and the many seasons to come.”

Eitan Hahn

Graphics by Christan Park and Bette Tomecko

IMPROVING THEIR SWING: Coach Thom Flinders helps girls varsity golf players as they work to refine their swing in preparation for their upcoming tournament.

Photo by Chloe Nguyen

Views Editorial: Equalize AP Courses

Each year as the scheduling process begins, students are handed an extensive list of electives that they can take. With classes ranging from International Relations to Multicultural Poetry to Astronomy, students have many opportunities to delve into their areas of interest.

As college acceptance rates become increasingly competitive, students at Greenhill feel compelled to construct schedules that maximize their chances of admission to selective universities. This pressure is often exacerbated by guidance from the school’s College Counseling department, which emphasizes the importance of Advanced Placement classes in bolstering college applications.

Consequently, many students perceive that meeting a minimum threshold of AP classes is necessary to remain competitive in the college admissions process.

However, the only AP classes offered at Greenhill are STEM APs and two AP history classes: AP European History and AP U.S. Government and Politics. On the other hand, there are a whole host of AP STEM classes, including AP Statistics, AP Chemistry, AP Physics C, AP Calculus BC and many more.

While AP STEM classes are undoubtedly valuable and important, they cater to a specific subset of students interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Neglecting the humanities in the AP curriculum deprives students who have interests in literature, history, philosophy and the arts of the opportunity to challenge themselves at an advanced level in these subjects.

Due to the strong focus on AP STEM classes at Greenhill, students often feel pressured to enroll in subjects they’re not

genuinely interested in. When students at Greenhill feel pushed to take AP STEM classes they’re not genuinely interested in, they might get worn out by trying to do well in classes they don’t care much about, which can make them feel stressed and exhausted. Plus, if they’re not into the subjects, they might not pay attention as much or feel motivated to do their best. This can leave them feeling disconnected from their studies and less satisfied with their school experience overall.

To add fuel to the fire, students are allowed to enroll in multiple AP STEM classes at once. However, they are barred from enrolling in two AP history classes at the same time, even as a senior. This inequity further benefits students who are more inclined to take STEM classes and puts students with an affinity for humanities at a disadvantage.

In addition, when students prioritize AP STEM classes primarily for college admissions, they make a tradeoff by sacrificing time that could be spent pursuing their genuine interests. This means they divert their energy from activities they are truly passionate about in favor of meeting perceived academic expectations. As a result, they miss out on opportunities for personal growth and exploration in nonSTEM subjects.

One potential solution to address the disproportionate focus on AP STEM classes at Greenhill is to either eliminate the AP program altogether or to equalize the distribution of AP offerings across different subjects.

If the decision is made to eliminate APs, it could alleviate the pressure on students to prioritize certain subjects over others solely for the sake of college admissions. Without the distinction between AP and

non-AP courses, students will likely feel more empowered to explore a wider range of subjects based on their genuine interests rather than perceived academic prestige.

On the other hand, if the administration still feels that the AP program is preferred, efforts should be made to ensure a more equitable distribution of offerings across disciplines. This means expanding the range of AP humanities classes to provide students with more opportunities to engage with subjects like literature, history, and the arts at an advanced level.

We hope that the Greenhill administration will carefully consider the implications of the disproportionate focus on AP STEM classes and take proactive steps to address this issue. Whether through reevaluating the structure of the AP program or expanding the range of AP offerings across various disciplines, Greenhill can create an environment where students feel empowered to pursue their passions and explore diverse interests through reforming the course curriculums.

Guest Essay: Diversity Is More Than Skin Color

You may have just read my byline under the headline and thought

“How do you pronounce her name?”

With a name like mine, I’ve come to expect mispronunciations. I have heard every variation that you could possibly come up with, from “Guana” to “Geena” to “J-nanaloo.” I pronounce my name as “Geeana,” although that isn’t the traditional way to say it.

Growing up, some people would find out that I’m supposedly “mispronouncing” my own name here at Greenhill, and they would jump to the conclusion that I was whitewashing my name and trying to fit in. I didn’t know until years later that adults would often go behind my back to ask my sister “the real way of saying my name,” as if I didn’t know what my own name was. Diversity feels like taking people of color from one box and putting them into another. To be honest, being Indian is not a huge thing for me. If you asked me to list things that define me, being Indian wouldn’t come up until way down the line. When I said this growing up at Greenhill, many took it as I was embarrassed of my heritage and was trying to fit in instead of being proud.

With my brown skin tone, I’m automatically stereotyped as someone who is supposed to like certain things and act in certain ways. It’s like my

skin tone determines my personality and how people view me, not as a separate part of me.

Because of this, I can’t help but think that the only thing I contribute to the diversity of Greenhill is my skin tone. Now, I don’t doubt that the student body I’m a part of, or the faculty, value me as a unique individual. I do doubt, however, whether Greenhill values me as a unique person – whether it sees me for more than my skin tone.

At our school, it feels like diversity revolves around skin tone, and nothing more.

I remember in ninth grade in history we were talking about diversity and my teacher said, “I know at our school diversity means race, but I mean real diversity.” Our school constantly highlights diversity, but the easiest thing to use is the fact that we are a different color compared to others. A lot of the time, diversity here doesn’t seem to be about the personalities of the people who created this institution but instead about getting the perfect gradient of different skin tones to appear in a picture together.

It’s frustrating because our diversity shouldn’t be thought of as a marketing strategy or a way to enhance Greenhill’s reputation. This use of diversity also perpetuates the idea that all people of color contribute to diversity in their race.

Having “a diverse and inclusive community” at the start of Greenhill’s

Evergreen Staff

EDITORS-IN-CHIEF

MANAGING

mission statement, then constantly equating diversity with race continues the narrative that diversity just means different colored skin tones.

Diversity is so much more than this. Diversity does include race, but it’s also the clubs we are part of, our morals, and our goals for the future. It’s about what makes us who we are, including, but not only, our skin tone.

I have learned that there is a difference between institution-led diversity and student-led diversity. Through studentled diversity, my eyes have been opened to so many perspectives and I have felt connected to, as well as heard and valued by, our community in a way that I haven’t by institution-led diversity.

When students highlight their diversity, for example through panels, it’s not just about race, but also their interests, like music, sports, and history – what makes them who they are in addition to their race.

Greenhill is a school of incredible, diverse people, but our diversity feels undermined by what it is being constrained to.

Jnana Velamuri is a

Editors-in-Chief: komminenir24@greenhill.org sanghvip24@greenhill.org

EDITORIAL POLICY

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 900 copies. Past issues are archived at issuu.com/ghevergreen. Our staff upholds a code of ethics that values honesty, integrity, accuracy and responsibility. Our mission is to help our community interpret campus, local, 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, or 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.

ADVERTISEMENTS

The Evergreen welcomes advertisements, but we reserve the right to refuse an ad.

Business inquiries should be directed to Kaden Alibhai: alibhaik24@greenhill. org

CORRECTIONS & CLARIFICATIONS

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Jnana Velamuri

senior who has been at Greenhill since kindergarten and enjoys being part of various activities around campus.

Graphic by Christan Park

Senior Evergreen staff members Payton Blalock and Helina Tedros discuss Trump’s candidacy in the upcoming presidential election.

Payton:

We’ve learned throughout the years that Donald Trump has a really hard time staying out of the headlines. Well, this year has been no exception to this streak.

Helina:

You’ve got that right. I’m truly convinced that he is allergic to staying out of the news. I will say that this past month has been interesting to observe as states like Colorado, Illinois and Maine battle with the issue of taking Trump off the ballot. I have a lot of mixed feelings about it.

Payton:

This is a tricky one to me. Even as a conservative, I have a hard time saying that I think Trump should be on the ballot. I don’t support him as a presidential candidate, and I think that his criminal history should absolutely jeopardize his ability to hold the office of president. However, I understand and support the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the 14th Amendment. Allowing a state to remove a presidential candidate from the ballot undermines the power of the federal government under the Constitution.

Helina: OK, here’s my thing. I believe that anyone who has been indicted not once, not twice, not even three times, but four, should not be allowed to be in the running for president of the United States. He is not even finished with the criminal proceedings. How can he spend the time necessary to fully commit to what is arguably the most difficult job in the world? Being a leader requires a level of decorum and commitment, both of which I believe Trump lacks. On the other hand, I do believe it is difficult for states being the ones to individually decide who is on the ballot.

Payton: I agree. I also see an issue with the

precedent that this sets. Removing a candidate from the ballot is bound to result in uproar, especially when dealing with a candidate like Trump. He obviously has a very devoted following, and the national reaction from this following would be extremely divisive right now. I am not using this as a justification to leave him on the ballot, but I do think that the idea of precedence is a problem. Allowing this to occur once would mean that it could occur again, and the power of the 14th Amendment would become incredibly unclear. Public reaction would be problematic each time that the idea of removing a candidate is introduced, and little productivity would emerge from the process.

Gabi Appel

AHelina: I definitely see your point, but I think the bigger question is if Trump should even be allowed to run. How does it make sense that the alleged “greatest country in the world” could have a potential president with a criminal record? These are all things that concern me as I gear up to vote in my first presidential election.

Payton: I agree with you in many ways. I ultimately wish that it was possible to remove Trump from the ballot, but it would open a can of worms that our nation isn’t prepared to deal with. It would be a violation of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, and it would result in an extremely negative reaction. More steps should be taken to endorse candidates besides Trump, and then it wouldn’t matter whether or not his name is on the ballot in states like Colorado and Maine.

Helina: I just want to reach a point where he is no longer the main focus of a presidential election. For the past three elections he has run the whole show and to be honest I am sick and tired of talking about him. If anything, I just hope that we reach a point where enough is enough and we stop tolerating candidates that do not have America’s best interests at heart.

How to Be Successful in...

Self-Studying for an Advanced Placement Exam Common Ground: Should Trump Be Allowed To Run?

lthough Greenhill offers only a limited selection of Advanced Placement courses, students are allowed to take any AP exam they choose. Many Upper School students who are either fluent in a foreign language or have opted to self-study for an exam find themselves seated for an AP exam come May.

Without the guidance of a full-time course, students who choose to sit for a voluntary AP exam must seek out their own studying resources. Among these resources is the AP Classroom website, available for all AP courses, where students have access to practice multiple choice and free response questions.

However, for AP English Language and Composition, although Greenhill does not offer the official course, there are study sessions hosted throughout the second semester.

Upper School English teacher Linda Woolley leads weekly study sessions for students starting in March where she provides information on the structure of the exam and teaches students how to gear their responses in the way expected by the AP test readers.

Composition exam, along with several other exams of courses not offered at Greenhill, has become a popular trend among Upper School students, especially among those who wish to submit their scores during the college admissions process.

We asked faculty and students about how to succeed in self-studying for an AP exam, specifically the AP English Language and Composition and AP French Language and Culture exams. Here is what they said:

How did it come to be that the AP English exam became a test that Greenhill offers in-school study sessions for?

Taking the AP English Language and

“Greenhill used to offer AP Lang and Comp, and we started to have diminishing numbers signing up for the course. We thought it was not worth it to teach a course with only six people when there were so many more people taking the exam than were in the course. We decided to offer a really good English elective that would be challenging, and to offer study sessions for the AP exam. We felt we did not need to spend precious classroom time teaching something most of the kids knew how to do.”

– English teacher Linda Woolley

How did you prepare for your exam?

“I came from a school where we were proficient in French, and so to prepare for the exam I did tutoring once a week outside of school to keep up my French skills. I told my tutor what the exam entailed, and she prepared me from there.”

– sophomore Valentina Casas-Sayek, AP French Language and Culture Exam

“Every week, we would meet with Ms. Woolley for 30 minutes and she would go over key parts of the exam with us, mainly about the formatting of the exam and how to pace ourselves when it came time to taking the test. Additionally, we would go over the grammar and rhetoric that we had not learned in a very long time.”

– senior Susie Fagelman, AP English Language and Composition Exam

“You need to refine and find out information about what the graders are looking for and how to tailor your essays to that. It does require some outside work in addition to the sessions we offer, like running through multiple choice questions, writing thesis statements and annotating passages.”

– English teacher Linda Woolley

Did you feel you could adequately prepare yourself?

“Since I am fluent in French, I found the exam manageable. Most of the studying I had to do was practice what was going to be on the test and practice it in the way the exam readers are looking for.”

– sophomore Valentina Casas-Sayek, AP French Language and Culture Exam

“I think I was well prepared because English classes at Greenhill are so strong with not only laying down grammar foundations but also teaching us how to write well. We are not going over where to put a comma or a period, rather we are being taught very interactively when it comes to writing. Writing all the essays in English electives helps way more on the exam than I would have expected.”

– senior Susie Fagelman, AP English Language and Composition Exam

What motivated you to take the exam?

“When I was taking a Spanish placement test at Greenhill, a teacher mentioned to me that I could take the French exam during my junior year. I decided that I knew my junior year would be full of other AP classes and I might as well take the French exam sooner without the stress of other exams.”

– sophomore Valentina Casas-Sayek, AP French Language and Culture Exam

“To me, I knew the exam could only help me and not hurt me. I decided to take it because I knew I did not have to take the whole course and just had to sit through one exam.”

– senior Susie Fagelman, AP English Language and Composition Exam

“Since there are far more STEM AP classes offered at Greenhill than humanities AP classes, I wanted to prove my proficiency and ability in other areas, and taking this exam helped me branch out for this purpose.”

– senior Helina Tedros, AP French Language and Culture Exam

Graphic by Emily Hu

& Rants Raves VSI Edition

Students speak out about the new Valdes STEM + Innovation Center, or the VSI.

“I really like all the available spots to study because spots in the library run out really fast. The opportunity to study somewhere else is really nice.”

– senior Eliana Campbell

“The natural sunlight makes it a great learning environment.”

– senior Natalie Stachowiak

“I like how many spots there are to find a comfortable place to do my work or hang out with my friends. There’s a lot of corners with extra seating that we’ve never had before.”

– senior Siena Richey

“It’s a big upgrade from the old science building, there’s a lot more rooms and it’s a lot more spacious.”

– sophomore Andrew Hough

“I like the openness that we have, but also the amount of study spaces there are. It’s very easy to work in.”

– senior Mason Chow

“I think all gender bathrooms are something we all have to get used to because they are not closed in and it feels very open.”

– sophomore Albertina Pascual-Cisneros

“The new building is a great place for students to gather. I personally have seen a lot of students utilize the social staircase to talk to their friends and also do homework during their free period or after lunch.”

– junior J.J. Arbuckle

“The stairs get muddy and dirty very quickly.”

– senior Safin Stefanos

“I think there should be a way to clean our shoes before we enter the building so we don’t get mud all over the nice stairways and floors.”

– freshman Tali Berrelez

“I really like the architecture; all the glass makes it feel like an open space and a lot of the lighting is natural light so it’s a really nice environment to be in.”

– freshman Oliver Morales

“I really like the classrooms – there’s a lot of space so it’s not crammed.”

– freshman Anya He

“I like the amount of natural light that is able to come in. The windows allow a lot of sunlight to get into the building.”

– sophomore Megan Czuchlewski

The Evergreen Crossword

Across:

4. Final ranking of both boys and girls swimming in the SPC Championships.

6. Sophomore Nia Harrison began participating in track and field in _____ grade.

8. The theme of the upcoming Spring Play put on by Greenhill Theater.

10. Alma mater of UX Design Teacher Luna Kim, University of California, _____.

12. _____ Schools, style of debate that senior Reyna Diamond competes in.

13. The winner of Munch Madness.

14. Percentage of Greenhill students on financial aid.

Down:

1. Rock the _____: the 2024 Greenhill Gala theme.

2. Head coach of the boys varsity tennis team Scott _____.

3. The federal law passed to eliminate the discrimination in educational opportunities on the basis of sex, _____ IX.

5. Where U.S. Rep. Beth Van Duyne ‘88 moved to in Texas.

7. St. _____: the location of ISAS this year.

9. A website created by Greenhill students that awards attendance to school sporting events.

11. _____ Oriental medicine, the place visited by the Chinese III class.

EMadness.” This year more than 25 million people made a bracket to guess the outcomes of all 63 games. The Evergreen staff hosts its own bracket-style competition every spring: “Munch Madness,” an epic quest to determine the Upper School’s favorite snack. After five rounds of voting by students, Dibs and Kraft Macaroni & Cheese advanced to the final round. In a poll of more than 240 Upper School students, Dibs won this year’s bragging rights for best Upper School snack with 56% of the vote.

Graphics by Christan Park; photo illustrations by Chloe Nguyen

Kaden Alibhai