November 2022 | The Evergreen, Greenhill School

Film Festival

Informing Greenhill since 1966

Advanced Video Production students confront the cancellation of the South by Southwest lm festival’s Texas high school division. Page 10

Greenhill football ended another season without winning a game, yet enthusiasm remains high. How do players and coaches stay motivated?

Photo Illustration by Khushi Chhaya

Seniors Vote in Midterms

From a young age, senior Azal Amer watched his parents and older sister cast their votes at the ballot box. is year was di erent for Amer, who went to cast his rst vote in the Nov. 8 midterm election.

Amer is not alone.

Across the nation, 8.3 million teenagers will become rst-time voters during this election season.

In Texas, voters will choose the governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, state legislators and members of Congress, among other o cers.

e two leading candidates in the gubernatorial race are incumbent Governor Greg Abbott, Republican, and former U.S. Representative Beto O’Rourke, a Democrat.

According to a recent poll from the University of Texas at Austin, Abbott was leading O’Rourke by about 11 percentage points. Prominent campaign issues have included immigration, in ation and abortion.

While 13% of voters surveyed cited abortion as the most important voting issue, 14% of voters said the economy was the most important and 32% cited immigration, according to the UT Austin poll.

Especially with the proximity of Texas to the Mexican border, the issue of immigration and border security is one that holds a lot of sway among Texas voters, the poll suggests.

Campus Perspectives

For senior Laya Venkat, abortion has been at the forefront of her mind this election cycle. A er the Supreme Court’s decision of Dobbs v. Jackson denied women the right to abortion, trigger laws went in place all through Texas and banned abortion in all stages of pregnancy. Venkat says that this new decision is a call for new leadership.

“I mean with Roe being overturned and everything, it’s impossible not to be in uenced or moved,” Venkat said. “I have always been tired of the political leadership in our state, but everything Abbott has done with abortion is just going too far.”

With a Republican-dominated Texas state legislature, Venkat worries that more radical policies, including ones on abortion, will get passed.

“Now since abortion access is up to the states, it’s even more important for us to vote for new leadership on the state level that supports reproductive rights,” Venkat said.

e governor’s race is just so important right now.”

Although Venkat is not eligible to vote yet, she believes that O’Rourke’s victory would act as a referendum against the “rolling back of reproductive rights across our state,” she said.

Senior omas Bozalis shares similar fears. He says that a lack of party change has prevented the passage of many “common sense” gun control laws.

“Just as a young person who goes to school every day, the issue of gun violence is really important to me,” Bozalis said. “It’s frustrating seeing the same people within our state government not doing anything to try to x the problems we have right now with gun violence.”

In the wake of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, which claimed the lives of 21 students and teachers in May, Bozalis says that it is more necessary than ever before to implement gun control legislation.

“I’m not saying that we have to ban guns completely, but right now there’s just no accountability at all,” Bozalis said. “Nothing’s really changing under Abbott.”

With increased calls for political change, many Democratic candidates have used a promise of new policies as the core of their campaign messaging.

During a press conference in May about the Uvalde school shooting, O’Rourke confronted Abbott by saying, “You are doing nothing.”

Rochelle Garza, Democratic nominee for the Texas Attorney General, has echoed similar messages of change. “I’m running for this o ce, because it’s absolutely critical that we bring transparency and accountability to what’s supposed to be the People’s Lawyer,” Garza said to the Houston Chronicle editorial board.

Although Venkat says that she does not foresee a drastic shi in Texas’ political landscape, she still stays updated on the midterm races.

“So much is happening politically,” Venkat said. “All I’m trying to do is just trying to educate myself as much as possible able what is happening and coming up to my own conclusions about it.”

Now since abortion access is up to the states, it’s even more important for us to vote for new leadership on the state level that supports reproductive rights.

The governor’s race is just so important right now.”

When educating herself, Venkat stays cognizant of biases and misinformation.

“I remember the last election in 2020, where there was a lot of really crazy posts people were sharing on social media,” Venkat said. “ ese sort of messages spread so fast, and it can be misleading.”

Bozalis also recognizes the in uence of social media in this year’s election. With increased dependency on social media platforms for news and information, many young voters have become trapped in political echo chambers, said Bozalis.

“Every time there is an election, there is some level of polarization,” Bozalis said. “Social media is de nitely making it worse.”

For Associate Head of School for Mission, Community, and Culture Tom Perryman, Greenhill’s role as an educational institution is to spark the intellectual curiosity seen in many students like Venkat and senior Talia Dauer who are actively studying their local and statewide elections.

“We have seen in this country that we can slip back horribly when people don’t vote, and I think our students recognize that and are determined not to let that happen again,” Perryman said.

Creating a space where respectable but spirited discourse can happen is crucial to encouraging people to engage in the electoral and political process, said Perryman.

“My students are vocal, outspoken and

red [up],” Perryman said. “ at spirit is what makes Greenhill kids so special.”

Dauer says that seeing friends who she admires engage in the political process has empowered her to do the same.

“I think we’re all just really excited [to vote], since it’s like our rst time and like we’ve seen our older friends do it last year, and obviously our parents and siblings do it,” Dauer said. “So now it’s nally our time to be able to go.”

Taking Initiative

It isn’t just seniors who are energized by this year’s election. Other students are already working within Greenhill to serve local election processes.

On Oct. 5, Political Action Club members walked around Upper School North and South to help seniors and teachers verify their voter registration. Other students, like freshman Lily Marshall, are conducting work among the broader Dallas community, such as educating Dallas citizens about the school board elections, which will occur a er this year’s midterm election.

“School board elections are an example of an election that is really not heard of,” Marshall said. “ ey are really important to the education we receive. Nobody knows about it, which is why I’m so passionate about raising awareness of these underappreciated elections.”

To Dauer, student-based initiatives like those initiated by the Political Action Club and Marshall breed a culture that emphasizes the responsibility to vote.

“ ere are a lot more people running than just the big people that everyone’s speaking about,” Dauer said. “I think it’s so important for us to remember how important local or municipal elections can be.”

Marshall and Dauer have been doing research on candidates and issues.

“I’m trying to educate myself and learn about not just about the big statewide elections but also the small ones,” Marshall said.

As for Amer, this November will be his rst of many elections.

“I think what is so special about our country is that we have the power to vote and have a voice in our own future,” Amer said. “ ere is so much voting represents, and I’m really excited about nally being a part of that.”

For the Hornets This Week

Nov. 11

Veterans Day Next Week

Nov. 17

Upper School Fall Musical: “Big Fish” Nov. 18

Grandparents’ and Special Friends’ Day Early Dismissal “Big Fish,” Two Performances

This Month

Nov. 21-25

anksgiving Break No Classes Nov. 24 anksgiving Nov. 28

Faculty Professional Development Day No Classes

Next Month

Dec. 9

MS/US Winter Choir Concert Dec. 13

eater Open Mic Night Dec. 14

Kindergarten “Nutcracker” Dec.

Valerie Xu, Nora Ahearn

Laya Venkat

Photo by Khushi Chhaya

MAGNIFYING MIDTERMS: The midterm elections feature national, state and local races, including the contentious Texas gubernatorial election: Abbott vs. O’Rourke.

Talia Dauer

Evergreen the

Admissions Hosts Prospective Students

Khushi Chhaya

Aer a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Greenhill Admission Department has restarted the Host on the Hill program where prospective students are paired with a student in the grade they are entering and shadow them for a day.

e hosting program’s history goes back years and predates all existing Admission sta , according to Associate Director of Admission Johnny ompson, who was appointed to this position in 2009.

e Host on the Hill Program relies on student volunteers from grades 5-11 to host prospective students and provide them with an inside look at life as a Greenhill student. Upper School students are recruited and paired with applicants based on their shared interests. While spending a day on campus, admission interviews are conducted with each student.

“We’ve had quite a few kids sign up to be hosts over the years I’ve been doing this, and I’ve been able to keep most of those hosts in the program,” ompson said. “ en when COVID hit, the entire hosting program came to a grinding halt and we weren’t able to host student visits the way we had in the past.”

Despite e orts to begin the program again last admission season, pandemicrelated complications delayed its full relaunch until this year. e Admission Department conducted a dry run of sorts for the post-COVID-19 program last spring by hosting a few students who had been accepted into the Upper school.

“Us not being able to host students

on our campus last year really killed me, especially when I knew some of the other private schools in the Metroplex were already doing just that,” ompson said. “Greenhill’s best selling point has always been our students. I want those applicants who come onto our campus to get that feeling, to feel that Greenhill vibe, as they say.”

During the absence of the Host on the Hill program, the Admission Department created a number of virtual events for prospective students and families to get them involved and to learn more about the school, without them physically being able to be on campus. Due to a general increase in applications last year, ompson says it is di cult to gauge what the e ect of pausing the program might have had on the admission process.

“I still do think that the Host on the Hill program is super important to the applicant because it gives them a chance to see themselves as a student here,” ompson said. “I don’t believe stalling our hosting program had an e ect on the number of applications we received. However, I do think in the long run, it could a ect an applicant’s decision on where they’d like to attend school the following year.”

With the return of e Hill program, Middle and Upper School applicants once again have the opportunity to experience Greenhill from the perspective of a student.

In the Upper School, the largest number of students enter in ninth grade, so current ninth graders most frequently host prospective students. Freshmen like Sasha Wai, who was a host in Middle School, says she is eager to continue participating in the program.

“You really feel like a leader and you feel like you’re helping someone,” Wai said. “I think from the experience, I hope to get better at social interactions to serve people

on campus and really practice being a leader.”

For others, being a host serves as a way to give back to the program that hosted them when they were applying to Greenhill.

“Not only [my host], but others in his class and everybody else was overall very respectful and welcoming to me,” said freshman Michael Ahn. “ ey all had good intentions for me. It felt more reassuring that there are people in this community that welcome new people and that really helped me get acclimated to the entire environment of the school.”

Currently, the only changes to the Host on the Hill program include disregarding previous host applications that were on le and recruiting students from scratch, ompson said. With previous participation occurring nearly three years ago, thought it best to start fresh.

In the future, the Admission Department would like to integrate some form of training for its hosts, to ensure that applying students get the best experience possible during their shadow visit.

“It’s great that we have so many Greenhill students signing up to be hosts, but it’s also a good idea that we help train them just a bit,” ompson said. “Quite honestly, it can be challenging for anyone to host, especially when you have a kid following your every move all day long, but it’s all about making that rst good impression of our school that really makes a di erence.”

Senior Spencer Simon echoes this sentiment both from his experience being hosted before he entered Greenhill and hosting others as a Middle and Upper School student.

“I think that actually they could use a little bit more rigor when it comes to the actual shadows,” Simon said. “I feel like it would be more useful if there’s a bit more

interaction in the school for the people being hosted. When I have hosted others, I didn’t have the opportunity and the time to actually commit to another person that makes sense.”

e Admission Department is excited to be able to o er shadow visit opportunities to prospective students again, ompson said. Beyond surface-level facts and gures, students and families now have the opportunity to see the culture of the student body and the school at large in-person.

“I feel it’s so important that applicants get the chance to understand what kind of school we are,” ompson said. “Our kids do a fantastic job of showing applicants who we are introducing them to all their teachers, friends and classmates, and just making them feel like they could see themselves here as Greenhill students one day.”

Heart of the Hill Returns

Heart of the Hill, the school’s popular community-building activity, has returned to a regular meeting schedule a er the 2019-2020 disruptions caused by COVID-19 restrictions.

e program, called HOH for short, was created in 1997 by students from the senior class, including current Middle School teacher Kathryn Koshkin ’98. Koshkin says she and her friends wanted HOH to help connect with the rest of the school.

“ ere weren’t any expectations of [HOH continuing for] 25 years,” Koshkin said. “We just thought of it as a way of interacting, [and to] talk to people that we didn’t know.”

During HOH, students and faculty across all divisions are placed into groups to interact and collaborate with each other to create a sense of community within Greenhill. Students who are four grade levels apart are placed in groups, ensuring that all divisions of the campus are present in each group.

Because of the pandemic, Greenhill halted HOH gatherings. ere was one meeting last spring, which marked the rst HOH meeting since 2020, but routine meetings have not occurred in three years.

e loss of Heart of the Hill a ected members across the Greenhill community.

“I missed the interactions I had with younger kids,” said freshman Isabel Bhatia, who has been at Greenhill for 11 years. “It

always made me really happy to see how energetic they were.”

Other Upper School students say they view their interactions with younger students as a break from their busy schedules.

“I think sometimes it’s really easy to sometimes get caught up in all the things of senior year,” senior Viraja Metta said. “To slow down and talk to the younger grades is really calming.”

Since the start of the school year, there have been two Heart of the Hill sessions: one on Sept. 28 and the other on Oct. 18. HOH groups will continue to meet regularly throughout the year.

In the September meeting, group members put facts about themselves on a slip of paper and stapled them together, making a chain. In the October meeting, groups with current seniors engaged in the annual Estelle Dickens Wild ower Stomp, which aims to beautify the lower campus by scattering wild ower seeds and pressing them into the dirt.

HOH groups without members of the senior class created spirit posters and decorated the campus with chalk for Homecoming.

“ e rst HOH meeting was really good,” freshman Hasan Makhani said. “I think the chain was a great idea to get back into HOH.”

Bringing back Heart of the Hill this year is a way of emphasizing Greenhill’s

2022-2023 theme of Creating Connections, according to Associate Head of School for Mission, Community, and Culture Tom Perryman ’81.

“Heart of the Hill is a key vehicle for creating connections on campus,” Perryman said. “[It] reminds us that ultimately, this place is a place about people.”

Teachers have also helped to facilitate interdivisional connections.

“It’s important for the older ones to realize that part of being a leader on campus is modeling for the younger ones, watching out for them and sometimes helping to lead our activities,” Lower School teacher Valerie Reynolds said.

Students also hope to use Heart of the Hill to build on the theme of Creating Connections.

“[HOH] allows me to create connections with kids in rst grade and h grade that I wouldn’t meet otherwise,” Makhani said. “[I can] give them some advice because I was in their position a few years ago.”

I missed the interactions I had with younger kids. It always made me really happy to see how energetic they were.”

As their time at Greenhill comes to an end, seniors are welcoming a full year of Heart of the Hill meetings before they leave the community in the spring.

“Now as a senior it means a lot to me to hopefully inspire these kids to be leaders and build a sense of community,” senior Gabriel Rudelman said.

Aman Jaleel

Kathryn Koshkin

Isabel Bhatia

TOGETHER AGAIN: The Heart of the Hill program resumed after two years of sporadic meetings. The program brings together students and faculty across campus.

Photo by Chloe Nguyen

Johnny Thompson

Evergreen the

Rashad Hussain ’97: Diplomat Extraordinaire

Twenty- ve years a er he last stepped foot on campus, Rashad Hussain ’97 strode into the debate room.

On Oct. 21, Hussain and his former debate partner, Josh Goldberg ’97, were welcomed back to the Hill by Associate Head of School for Mission, Community and Culture Tom Perryman and Director of Alumni Relations Katie Young.

Together, Goldberg and Hussain visited the Fine Arts building to look at their old debate trophies – a warm reminder of their high school successes.

“When I went into my rst debate class, it completely changed my trajectory,” Hussain said in an assembly of Upper School students.

Hussain’s Greenhill journey began in his freshman year. A er noticing Hussain sitting alone one day, Goldberg struck up a conversation. e two grew closer and became debate partners for four years.

“We knew we had such a strong chemistry,” Hussain said. “We just always had con dence that we were going to do well together, which we did.”

Debate changed Hussain’s life. Before entering Upper School, he thought he would go into medicine and follow in his mother’s footsteps. But the mentorship of Director of Debate Aaron Timmons and former debate coach Alex Pritchard pushed him in an unexpected direction: a life of service through government.

“ ere’s people like Mr. Pritchard, Mr. Timmons who believe in you and then there’s sometimes people that don’t. And they tell you not to bother going forward,” Hussain said. “But you know, if you have that belief in your heart, you have some people that believe in you, as I did here. I was so fortunate at Greenhill to have those people that did believe in me, that knew that I can excel. I never lost con dence in my ability to do so.”

at belief has propelled Hussain to his current position with the administration of President Joe Biden, serving as the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom.

An Early Start

Hussain’s early interest in government led him to undergraduate school at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he studied philosophy and political science.

“Certainly as a junior and senior, I saw there was a desire to do something that was more service oriented and/ or law school,” Timmons said.

Before deciding to attend law school at Yale University, Hussain spent time on Capitol Hill as a legislative aide for the House Judiciary Committee.

“I said, ‘How can I pursue this interest in public service?’ So I started looking for internships,” Hussain said. “I found an internship that happened to be with the House Democratic leader at the time. ey just gave me projects. I was happy to do it. And I felt like this is important stu that I’m working on.”

During Hussain’s internship, he worked with former president Barack Obama’s law school classmate, Cassandra Butts. Butts’ belief in Hussain further inspired him to pursue civic service.

“She was someone that, like Mr. Pritchard, Mr. Timmons, believed in me, and really gave me opportunity,” he said.

One of the most formative experiences during Hussain’s internship occurred on Sept. 11, 2001. He was stuck in Washington, D.C., because public transport shut down a er the Twin Towers and the Pentagon were attacked. A er living through an act of terrorism, Hussain realized his desire to join counter-terrorism e orts.

“I knew that I wanted to be a part of the solution to what we all experienced that day,” Hussain said.

Hussain was named a deputy associate counsel in the Obama administration in January 2009. He began advising Obama on issues related to Islam and helped develop Obama’s address in Cairo, Egypt, later that year.

“I’ve come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect, and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition,” Obama said in that address. “Instead, they overlap, and share common principles – principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.”

E orts To Serve

Hussain’s work toward helping people continued when he was appointed by Obama as the U.S. Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

“As an accomplished lawyer and a close and trusted

member of my White House sta , Rashad has played a key role in developing the partnerships I called for in Cairo,” President Obama said at the time. “And as a ha z of the Quran, he is a respected member of the American Muslim community, and I thank him for carrying forward this important work.”

As part of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Hussain was a foreign policy advisor and met with world leaders.

His work included discussions on critical international issues, “including Syria, the democratic transitions in the Middle East and North Africa, and U.S. engagement with Muslim communities around the world,” according to a State Department media note.

Hussain’s identity as a Muslim and person of color in uences his work in international relations.

If you have that belief in your heart, you have some people that believe in you, as I did here. I was so fortunate at Greenhill to have those people that did believe in me, that knew that I can excel. I never lost con dence in my ability to do so.”

“ ere are people out there that attempt to speak in the name of my faith,” Hussain said. “And so every opportunity I can, I realize I’m not just representing myself and my country, but I’m representing who I am as a Muslim, as a person of color.”

In 2015, Hussain was appointed U.S. Special Envoy for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications. In that role, he continued pushing for international religious freedom and countering terrorist e orts.

“He is doing things to make the world a better place, I feel, for us all to be more understanding, inclusive and tolerant of di erent religions,” said Timmons.

Biden Administration

On July 30, 2021, Hussain was nominated to serve as U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. A few months later, the Senate voted 85-5 to con rm his appointment.

e speci c mandate that Hussain was given on International Religious Freedom was to support religiously persecuted individuals.

“It’s a bipartisan work that’s been done now for quite some time,” Hussain said.

Even years a er leaving Greenhill, Hussain still credits debate for enabling him to see other perspectives to bridge partisan divides.

e amount of value that you get from being able to communicate your ideas in a meeting, in a conversation, that email, speech and debate and diplomatic setting cannot be overstated,” he said.

As Hussain recently walked around campus for the rst time in 25 years – older, more experienced, and with a new perspective – he says he felt even more appreciative for the opportunities that Greenhill provided.

“When I walk around here, now, I realized even more that [there were] a lot of things I took for granted, that I should have been better,” he said. “I should have been more grateful when I was here, I should have been more respectful to everyone, to my teachers, to the administration. I take it upon myself, especially coming back to a place like this where I see the opportunities that you have.”

When Hussain returned to campus in late October, he spoke to the Upper School student body about his current work and life advice. He urged students to use their Greenhill education to better their community and follow their passions along the way.

“Remember,” he said. “With that privilege, there’s the responsibility that comes with that. And that responsibility, I think, is to serve, to make your community better.”

Emma Rikalo contributed to this story.

Fall Musical

e Greenhill eater Department’s 50th production will be the performance of the musical, “Big Fish.” ere will be performances at 7 p.m. on Nov. 17 and 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Nov. 18. Tickets are on sale for $12.

Homecoming Week

Juniors and seniors faced o in volleyball and football in the annual Turnabout Games. With Upper School volleyball players coaching their respective grades, the junior boys defeated the senior boys two sets to one. In the ag football game, the senior girls defeated the junior girls 28-7.

Just Dance

e Homecoming Dance took place at the Renaissance Dallas North Hotel on Saturday, Oct. 22, from 9-11:30 p.m. A freshman dinner was held before the dance. It was the rst dance organized at a venue since 2019, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Admission Preview

e campus hosted an Admission Preview Day for Middle and Upper School applicants and families on Sunday, Oct. 30. e preview included tours of the campus and informational presentations from Greenhill teachers.

Classes Canceled

Classes for grades 7-12 were canceled on ursday and Friday, Oct. 27-28, due to a sharp increase in u-like illnesses. Faculty were still required to “report to campus for the normal workday hours,” according to an email from Head of School Lee Hark. Sports games took place as scheduled.

Musicians Honored

Sophomore Aditi Vikram, a clarinet player, and senior Talia Dauer, a autist, have earned coveted spots in the Honors Performance Series ensembles. ey will perform in Carnegie Hall in New York City next February. is is the rst time the Upper School has had two members selected for the Symphonic Orchestra in one year, according to Upper and Middle School Band teacher Brian Donnell.

SPC Championships

Upper School athletes traveled to Houston to compete in e Southwest Preparatory fall championship Nov. 3-5. e Hornet teams that quali ed for the competition were eld hockey, boys and girls volleyball and boys and girls cross country.

D.C. Trip

Middle School eighth-graders resumed their annual trip to Washington D.C., on Nov. 7. ey will be visiting the Capitol along with well-known museums and monuments. e students will be in Washington until Nov. 10.

Compiled by William Maher and Devin Bracy.

Emma Nguyen

GIVING BACK: Rashad Hussain '97 returned to campus to speak with Upper School students on Homecoming.

Photo Courtesy of Greenhill Communications

Middle School

Lower and Middle School Add New Faculty

Greenhill is all about people developing relationships.

at’s the view of Head of Middle School Susan Palmer and Head of Lower School Michael Simpson as they talk about the new faculty members who have joined their divisions for the 20222023 school year.

ere are nine new Carter Associate teachers this year – six in Preschool and three in the Lower School – and 16 permanent faculty members, learning specialists and coaches working who have assumed new roles in the Middle and Lower School divisions, according to data provided by Director of Human Resources Stephanie Campbell. Both the Lower and Middle schools also have new o ce coordinators.

Simpson says that learning the culture of Greenhill is a new teacher’s objective in their rst year.

“It’s all about connections,” Palmer said.

Palmer and Simpson say they are both working to reimplement techniques to integrate new faculty members into community life in the a ermath of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. One new tool this year is the use of partner buddies, in which a new faculty member is paired with a current faculty member to use as a resource.

Director of Academics Jason Ya e also introduced “learning walks” for new teaching faculty, Palmer and Simpson said. ey visit classes and observe teachers to learn more about teaching at Greenhill on all levels.

Libby Belli, a new Preschool and Lower School Visual Arts teacher, says many people took her “under their wing” and showed her the school.

Melanie Girard, a new Middle School English teacher who returned to Greenhill this year a er two years at St. Rita Catholic School in Dallas, says a goal of the school as it emerges from the pandemic restrictions is to keep a tightknit community.

“Everyone was just craving more experiences together,” Girard said.

Coming back to Greenhill has felt comfortable for Girard.

Everyone was just craving more experiences together.”

“Everyone felt very familiar and welcomed me,” she said.

While Girard had previous experience at Greenhill, other new teachers are experiencing the school for the rst time.

“ e objective of Greenhill is to make anyone new feel at home before they even step foot on the campus,” Palmer said.

Students Welcome MS Role in Pep Rallies

Other students agree.

Bryce Shine, a h-grader who performed a tumbling routine in the pep rally, says Middle School students didn’t seem to have a lot of spirit in the Founders’ Day event.

“Seeing our friends tumble in the pep rally made us more spirited,” said Greyson Licht, one of Shine’s friends.

Licht says there should have been two pep rallies: one for Middle School students and one for Upper School students.

Eighth-graders Nikita Bhasin and Raelyn Young were among the students who said there should be more Middle School involvement in the next pep rally – and that’s what happened in late October.

Seeing our friends tumble in the pep rally made us more spirited.”

SCHOOL SPIRIT: The October Homecoming pep rally included Lower and Middle School students. One student described it as “way better” than previous assemblies.

The new school year has brought back an old tradition for Middle School and Lower School students: pep rallies.

is year’s Founders’ Day pep rally was the rst since 2019 to include Middle

School students because of restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. While the pep rally was fun, the lack of a role for Middle and Lower School students le some students, teachers and coaches questioning the impact.

“It was mostly a high school event,” said seventh-grader So a Williams.

e second pep rally of the year, during Homecoming Week, included Middle and Lower School students. And that got much better reviews from students.

“ e Homecoming pep rally was way better than the Founder’s Day one,” said seventh-grader Katelyn Herlitz. “ e Lower Schoolers impacted it a lot because they were happy and cheering loud.”

Students Critique New MS Schedule

Leo Schnabel

With input from teachers and parents, the Middle School introduced a new schedule this year that has increased instructional time and allows faculty to see students more frequently.

e new schedule alternates between A, B and C days. On A and B days, students have an elective that meets for 55 minutes and two or three academic classes that meet for 1 hour 15 minutes. All classes meet on C days, with 55-minute electives and 45-minute academic classes.

e schedule was created by a hardworking faculty committee and lots of teacher input,” Head of Middle School Susan Palmer said in an email. “It was in response to both family and faculty desires to see students more frequently and actually provides us with more instructional time.”

Some aspects of the schedule are popular with students.

“I like C days because it feels like the classes before COVID,” said seventh-grader Katelyn Herlitz.

“When they changed [the duration of

classes] to an hour and 15 minutes, it felt so long and I couldn’t concentrate.”

Seventh-grader Harley Silberman also likes the change of pace in class duration on C days.

“I like the length of the classes, but not all of the classes in one day,” Silberman said. “Usually, a class is an hour and 15 minutes, and it gets long and boring.”

Eighth-grader Hank Maher is still getting used to the new schedule.

“I would say that my stress levels are higher this year because of the di erent lengths of the classes,” Maher said.

Some students say that teachers are assigning more homework to make up for the decrease in class time. e shorter classes can make learning more di cult for some students and lead to some feeling more overwhelmed at home, these students said.

“We have more homework due on C days, and the classes are much less productive on a C Day,” said seventh-grader Max Robins.

Palmer says there are other bene ts for students with the new schedule. Teachers are working with students to “teach time management skills, pace homework

Tech eater Class Builds Sets for “Big Fish”

The Middle School Tech eater class has been working on sets for the Upper School production of the musical “Big Fish.”

Middle School Tech eater teacher Will Turbyne says class members are learning how to build sets using tools like saws and nail guns and lumber.

Turbyne says he decided to involve the Middle School Tech eater students with set construction for “Big Fish” because he wanted the class to be more than just exercises.

“I think that that was a big driver,” Turbyne said.

is isn’t the rst time the Middle School class has worked on Upper School theater productions. MS Tech eater students also worked on past productions of “ e Little Mermaid” and “Sherlock Homes,”

Turbyne said.

For “Big Fish,” the Middle School students have been working on pieces that are not just in one scene but rather the entire show.

Seventh-grade Tech eater student Rhea Maddukuri says that the most important part of the work was making sure that the piece is sturdy so it doesn’t fall down.

“It’s a fun experience,” Maddukuri said.

Seventh-grade Tech eater student Bailey Fisher says the work has required careful planning.

“If you don’t plan right the sets won’t turn out well,” Fisher said.

e students say this experience has given them valuable experience in an Upper School theater production while still in Middle School.

“Better for us to learn for high school now,” Fisher said.

equitably, and create positive learning experiences for the students who actually like shorter classes,” Palmer said in an email.

Katelyn Herlitz

Harley Silberman, Lucia Tellini

Marleigh Massoud

Photo courtesy of Greenhill Communications

Photo by Chloe Nguyen

Graphic by Khushi Chhaya

PARTNERSHIP: Middle and Upper School students are building the musical set.

A Life's Journey in Ink Andrew Mercurio Shares His Story rough Tattoos

Riya Kommineni, Mayer Sidikaro

When Upper School English teacher Andrew Mercurio completed 25 years of teaching at Greenhill last school year, he wanted to commemorate his time on campus. A er consulting with his family, friends, and students, Mercurio decided to get a tattoo on his arm dedicated to Greenhill.

Since he was a college freshman in 1993, Mercurio has gotten tattoos to symbolize important people or places in his life. He has gotten 20 tattoos in all.

“I’m an English teacher so I tell stories through words,” Mercurio said. “[My tattoos] are a way for me to share the story of my life interpreted by someone else through images.”

e rst tattoo that he got, during his freshman year at Bowdoin College, was a tribute to his parents and heritage: Irish and Italian ags with his parents' last names etched into his skin. Over the next few years, Mercurio added tattoos depicting the Bowdoin mascot (a polar bear), his high school’s mascot and motto, and a Celtic cross with his mother’s maiden name in Gaelic.

When Mercurio moved to Dallas from Maine in 1997, he continued to add to his collection of tattoos. e collection of intricate imagery inked onto his skin tells a story about the journey of his life and the memories and experiences he has had along the way.

“When [Mercurio] rst got here, his tattoos were not visible,” said Associate Head of School for Mission, Community, and Culture Tom

Perryman, a close friend of Mercurio’s.

“I used to roll my eyes at [his tattoos], but then I started realizing that [they] are very important to him. I just really admire and appreciate the thought that he puts into [his tattoos].”

Banigan

told him that, he just sort of looked at me in awe.”

Mercurio thought Banigan’s design captured the essence of what he was looking for, so he asked Facilities Operations & Services sta member Ron Ivery to nd the perfect feather from a campus peacock to use as the inspiration for his new tattoo.

25 Years on the Hill

Mercurio’s recognition as a Greenhill Legend – a title bestowed on employees with 25 years of experience at the school –set in motion his thoughts about a tattoo to commemorate the occasion.

Brainstorming for design ideas, Mercurio asked students in his Upper School Nature and Uses of Language class what tattoo they thought he should get. Many students had various ideas, but it was senior Mackenzie Banigan – a junior at the time – who came up with the primary design: a vibrant peacock feather in the shape of a writing quill.

“It just sort of popped into my head,” Banigan said. “I thought about how he teaches English at Greenhill, and to me those things remind me of writing and peacocks, so I was like 'why not make a quill as a peacock feather?' And when I

e tattoo itself also contains a symbolic phrase: “ is I Believe.” Alluding to the prompt of a Narrative Non ction assignment, it was Isabel Garcia ’22 who inspired this design. “ is assignment is an a rmation of self,” Mercurio said. “It’s something that is core to what you are. It’s the most powerful assignment that I do, so when [Garcia] said I should have [the quill] writing ‘ is I Believe,’ I knew it was perfect.”

Mercurio then took the completed design to his tattoo artist, Carlos Maldonado, who used hues of light greens and vibrant blues to ink the tattoo. e feather snakes down from Mercurio’s right shoulder blade to just above his elbow, completing a larger sleeve of tattoos on his upper arm.

For Mercurio and Maldonado, getting a tattoo isn’t just a typical artist-client business transaction: it’s a form of therapy for both.

“[Maldonado] is my interpreter,” Mercurio said. “He gets it. I refer to him as my tattoo therapist and we talk about everything [when I’m in the chair]. When my parents’ health took a serious downturn, I wanted to get a lot of ink done on my arm, so I saw [Maldonado] a lot and we just talked about our lives.”

In Remembrance

Maldonado has inked nearly all the tattoos that Mercurio has acquired in the past few years, including one dedicated to former Upper School English teacher Dan Kasten, father of History Department Chair Amy Bresie ’96 and an enormously influential Greenhill Legend who passed away in 2017. Mercurio considers Kasten one of the most important gures in his life, a mentor whose in uence shaped him as a person. e tattoo, which is on Mercurio’s right bicep, features a patch of grass, the logo from Tom Petty’s album “Wild owers” and the last line of “Song of Myself” by poet Walt Whitman, for whom Mercurio and Kasten shared a mutual admiration for: “I stop somewhere waiting for you.” In the a ermath of Kasten’s

passing, Bresie described Mercurio as a source of strength for her family. Whitman’s poetry helped them both cope with her father’s death, Bresie said.

“ ere’s this fabulous line Whitman wrote about how a er his death that he would become part of the grass in the earth,” said Bresie. “[ is line] was just so central to the both of us in making peace with [Kasten’s] death.”

Bresie says Mercurio’s tattoo is an inspiring tribute to her father, who was a pillar of the Greenhill community for three decades.

“[Mercurio] was able to make this really beautiful tattoo that created a visual representation of something that says ‘yes, this is a sign of grief, but also a sign of hope’, and I think that’s amazing,” Bresie said. “I think we should all nd ways of turning something dark into something beautiful and helpful.”

On the same arm, Mercurio has a swirl of vivid tattoos dedicated to his hometowns of Boston and Watertown.

One tattoo is a remembrance of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, which is a subject that haunts Mercurio.

“ ey caught [one of the perpetrators] a 10-minute walk away from where my parents lived [in Watertown],” Mercurio said. “It was right in my neighborhood, so, it was very important to me to get a tattoo honoring the victims.”

Mercurio realizes that while some of his tattoos are related to tragic events in his life, he sees his ink as a way of processing his grief.

“[Mercurio] emphasizes taking care of yourself a lot,” said senior Lexie Stone, who is both Mercurio’s advisee and student. “I think that also goes with his tattoos because that’s how he takes care of himself in a way that he loves.”

[Mercurio] was able to make this beautiful tattoo that created a visual representation of something that says 'yes, this is a sign of grief, but also a sign of hope,' and I think that's amazing.”

Mercurio says his tattoos can evoke memories of his loved ones every day. He can carry them with him externally, and to him that is a reassuring sign that he is not alone.

“For me, it's part of what you go through and what you learn from it,” Mercurio said. “I know that the presence of [these people and places] and what I’ve learned from them is always there, and it’s not just an internal thing anymore.”

As for his next tattoo, Mercurio knows he wants to get a design that commemorates his mother, who passed away in May. Although he doesn’t know if he is ready to get the tattoo yet, Mercurio already has a design in mind: rosary beads in the shape of a heart with his mother’s name inscribed, a re ection of her strong Catholic devotion.

Mercurio says he doesn’t think that he’ll ever stop growing his collection of tattoos.

ere is something very healing, transcendent and spiritual about [my tattoos] to me,” Mercurio said. “ ey tell all my stories and they come from everybody around me, especially my [peacock quill] one. ey’re mine, but they’re also not mine, and I think that’s what I love the most about them.”

Mackenzie

Tom Perryman

Graphic by Evie Kwei and Emma Nguyen

Amy Bresie

Lexie Stone

I’m an English teacher so I tell stories through words. [My tattoos] are a way for me to share the story of my life interpreted by someone else through images.”

Matthew Stock ’14: Educator and Puzzle Maker

As a student, Matthew Stock ’14 felt like he wasn’t very strong in English. Math was his passion, along with learning foreign languages. He ran cross country, started a Scrabble Club, was active in his temple community and one year even did musical.

But the help of English Department teachers pushed Stock to be better and inspired him to repay their help by helping others.

“It was a wonderful place to grow up and be a part of a community of learners who really cared about each other and were invested in each other,” Stock said.

As he was poised to graduate in 2014, Stock was honored with the Philip G. Foote Award, which is given to the senior “considered by the faculty to epitomize the qualities of citizenship in the Greenhill community.” He earned a degree in global a airs from Yale University in 2018, and a er brief stops in Boston and St. Louis settled into a ful lling job teaching prealgebra to more than 100 eighth-graders in a public school in Gainesville, Florida.

“I was drawn to teaching because I care about other people and really want to be able to share math that I love, and learning that I love, with other people,” Stock said.

Stock’s commitment to others was clear even as a student, according to Upper School Department Chair of English Joel Garza.

I was drawn to teaching because I care about other people and really want to be able to share math that I love, and learning that I love, with other people.”

“Like some of our best students, Matthew put himself out there. He has full contact relationships,” Garza said. “Matthew is one of those people, was one of those kinds of students, that reminded me there’s a way to live in this world, bravely and deliberately with your full self.”

Now, in his life outside the classroom, Stock is sharing another love with a vastly larger audience. Over the past few years, the New York Times has published 17 crossword puzzles that Stock created. Stock also constructs puzzles for the Los Angeles Times, USA Today and other publications. his passion for puzzles. “ that lets you into it and there’s always more to explore. So then I got a New York Times crossword subscription and started trying to solve the puzzle every day.”

While living in Boston, Stock attended Boswords, an annual summer event where the attendees spend the whole day solving crosswords for speed and accuracy. ey give everyone a puzzle and you ip it over. It’s like taking the SAT, a couple hundred nerds in a room taking the test together,” Stock said. “It was the best time. And then I talked to people who were there, who made puzzles, because people who make puzzles also like to solve puzzles.” e crossword constructors he met at Boswords put him in touch with a Facebook group called the Crossword Puzzle Collaboration Directory. At the time, it was a small community, so he was put in touch with another Yale graduate to help him start his own puzzle-making journey.

The Puzzle Process

While Stock’s early creations “were really bad,” in his words, constant repetition and observation of other crossword constructors helped him hone his skills.

“Not everything that I make now is accepted by the New York Times and published, but the odds that I’m making a puzzle now that is just empirically not up to par with what they’re looking for is very low because I have made hundreds and hundreds of puzzles at this point,” said Stock.

When constructing a crossword, Stock rst decides what kind of puzzle to make. Next, Stock usually lays out a grid that he nds aesthetically pleasing. To do this, he uses so ware called Cross re, which makes grid construction and layout much easier than analog processes.

Not everything that I make now is accepted by the New York Times and published, but the odds that I’m making a puzzle now that is just empirically not up to par with what they’re looking for is very low because I have made hundreds and hundreds of puzzles at this point.”

“I think that the visual appeal of a puzzle is really important,” Stock said. “I like to make grids that have a nice pattern of black squares and that look pretty, even when they don’t have any words in them.”

he starts putting in the ll – the words not related to the theme – and nishes the puzzle by writing clues for every word or phrase.

“All of my best work has been inspired by other puzzles, by other people that I admire, that I’ve seen,” Stock said. “I’m not gonna plagiarize you, but I’m going to ri on this execution that you did. I’m gonna try to come up with my own theme that I can add an extra layer in this way.”

Constructing Diversity

Stock also wants to make sure that the puzzling community is a diverse and accessible space.

“It is an exceptionally giving community,” Stock said. “If you ask somebody for their time either to help you with something, or to test solve

that is only serving white people or elderly people or people who are from the East Coast is doing a disservice to everybody else. Doing a puzzle that you feel like was made by somebody who is considering you in their mind as a potential solving audience is very cool.”

As someone who identi es as a cisgender, white man, Stock emphasizes a responsibility as a crossword constructor to make the space as inclusive as possible.

“I feel an obligation to pay it forward, to make the space more diverse,” Stock said. “It’s impossible for me to represent every identity in one puzzle, but I can certainly do things in my own work to show that I’m considering a greater worldview in making that.”

His work in mentoring underserved, underrepresented groups in puzzle construction is another way to make crosswords more diverse, Stock said.

something,

a really wonderful

As a part of this work, Stock both collaborates with established crossword constructors also mentors other aspiring puzzle makers.

crossword puzzles began at Yale. As a student, he would pick up a campus newspaper on his way to the dining hall each morning and work on the crossword puzzle over breakfast. Stock did, the more he delved into the community.

I was a guest blogger a couple times for these di there’s this whole mini crossword Twitter ecosystem, where people go on and talk about crosswords online.”

Collaborations with other crossword constructors who have had their work published before generally start over email, phone, or social media direct

Mentorships, on the other hand, start with aspiring puzzle constructors connecting with the Facebook group Stock is a part of. Mentees can also add what they’re hoping for in a mentor – for example, if they’d like a mentor the same ethnicity as them.

Usually, Stock reaches out to his mentees to help them out with whatever they need and answer questions about puzzle making, such as theme ideas, making and lling good grids and writing easier or harder clues.

Making the work he does as accessible to all people as possible is incredibly important

“I totally buy that a crossword space

“The best thing to do to make sure that the space is a great space for people is to bring new people in them up,” he said.

ere’s nothing intrinsic about me that makes me very good at this, besides that I was exposed to it and I grew up amongst people who really celebrate this as an accomplishment.”

Stock’s time at Greenhill underscored the importance of a diverse community in every aspect of his life.

It’s impossible for me to represent every identity in one puzzle, but I can certainly do things in my own work to show that I’m considering a greater worldview in making that.”

“Not everybody sees everything as a community, and I think that Greenhill saw everything as a community,” Stock said. “And I think when you frame things in that way, all of these aspects of being in the same place, we also have to care for each other. at is something that I wish that everybody in the world had an opportunity to be a part of.”

Ava Iwasko, Emma Nguyen

PUZZLE MAKER: Matthew Stock ‘14 creates crosswords for the New York Times, USA Today and other publications. Stock also teaches pre-algebra to eighth-graders.

Photo courtesy of Matthew Stock

Graphics by Emma Nguyen

Senior Creates Dallas Black History App

Senior Shreeya Madhavanur recently released an app to narrate the stories behind lesser-known locations that are signi cant to Dallas’ Black history. e app, called Discover Black Dallas, features a virtual tour of the city. e tour is comprised of “stops” at various locations, with audio clips and brief text explaining the location’s signi cance to Black history.

Madhavanur began the creation journey by working with a non-pro t called Remembering Black Dallas. e organization is centered around preserving and promoting awareness of Dallas’ Black history. is is done by o ering ancestral tracing, educational presentations and heritage tours. e organization has preserved Black history through an “oral history project” created by interviewing elderly Black people who are native to Dallas.

“We have a modi ed mission,” said Remembering Black Dallas founder George Keaton. “My mission now for the organization is to document, document, and document our history because if we don’t do it who will? If not now, then when?”

Madhavanur says she rst learned about Remembering Black Dallas through her deep interest in oral history. During the peak of COVID-19, Madhavanur was invited to a Remembering Black Dallas heritage tour. She declined because of health concerns, but concluded that many of her friends and family would share her interest in the subject matter.

“I wasn’t able to go anywhere in person because I had an immunocompromised family member, so I was missing out on history because of COVID,” Madhavanur said. “ at’s when I really thought: what if there was a digital version of this tour?”

My mission now for the organization is to document, document, and document our history because if we don’t do it who will? If not now, then when?”

Madhavanur became a volunteer for the organization in January 2021. at’s when she began her work on the Discovering Black Dallas app.

Madhavanur was met with encouragement from the organization a er pitching her idea.

“Once she said it to me, I’m like, ‘I’m all in,’ because I see another way that Dallas’ history is getting out and to another generation because people my age and up probably wouldn’t even look at the app,” Keaton said. “But now, this is what younger generations like to use and do and they’re into technology. So, it was a godsend to us, because now, there’s another avenue.”

A er eight months of research and programming, the app was released on Sept. 24.

“It is really cool because you can use these oral histories to learn about places you know through somebody’s voice,” Madhavanur said. “ ere is a kind of emotion in the human voice that you can hear as you listen to people re ecting on struggles.”

For the project, Madhavanur interviewed elderly Black people from Dallas and transcribed catalogs of their interviews.

It is really cool because you can use these oral histories to learn about places you know through somebody’s voice. There is a kind of emotion in the human voice that you can hear as you listen to people re ecting on struggles.”

“It was so cool because she was just telling me what she’s experienced, and I am using that as well as her insights and then calling it history,” Madhavanur said. “ ere were so many insights about di erent locations in Dallas, and I literally live here and had no idea about any of it.”

Madhavanur sometimes encountered multiple people who shared stories about the same location, allowing her – and those who engage with her app – to hear multiple perspectives.

“People always think about how the voices from marginalized groups have always

headphones, and it just doesn’t make sense for others to not get the opportunity to listen to them as well.”

Madhavanur enlisted technical help to create the app while she focused on the app design and gathering of oral histories and photos.

The value of oral history over textbooks is much greater because it is coming from a personal perspective, and if we only use textbooks, then we lose some of the humanity that comes along with personal experiences.”

“ e developers helped me make it a reality by coding it, but I had to learn all about app design,” Madhavanur said. “I watched a lot of YouTube videos and read a lot of tutorials, because it was all new territory for me.”

Madhavanur says one of the most timeconsuming parts was making the audios presentable. She did this by editing out gaps in audio, speeding up slower sections, stitching them together and researching background information about the location and the speaker.

One moment that stands out for Madhavanur was sitting in on a Remembering Black Dallas board meeting during which her app was discussed by leaders of the organization.

“I got an email from a lady named Marilyn Calhoun, and she said that she was at the meeting and that I did a great job with the app,” Madhavanur said. “She also told me that she was surprised to hear herself on one of the recordings.”

A er taking a closer look at the email, Madhavanur recognized Calhoun’s email address as one of the people she interviewed for the project. In the email, Calhoun said listening to the app’s audio recordings brought her to tears.

who lived in the 1950s, talking about events that either they experienced and somehow remember, or that their parents experienced and told them stories about,” Madhavanur said.

Oral History’s Power

In a video statement on the app, Keaton says the di erence between oral history and textbook history is that they have a di erent need and purpose.

“ e value of oral history over textbooks is much greater because it is coming from a personal perspective, and if we only use textbooks, then we lose some of the humanity that comes along with personal experiences,” Keaton said.

Madhavanur’s deeper journey with oral history began with research she did for a contest called National History Day. e contest prompted her to dig through oral history archives to use as resources for her research.

As Madhavanur consulted the archive, she went back to her rst interview with a woman named Barbara Bu n. Bu n talked about the gentri cation occurring in icket, a community in Hardin County.

been pushed to the outskirts of mainstream historical narratives, and then people look at those narratives with the presumption of ‘I don’t believe you,’” Madhavanur said.

Marilyn Calhoun, the chaplain of Remembering Black Dallas, underscores the importance of preserving oral histories. is information is not in history books, the state, nor the city,” Calhoun said. “ e city only requires history through the Texas Education [Agency] adoptions of curriculum material, so this material will give them access to facts, and that’s important.”

Keaton says the information collected by his organization is important to more than just the Black community.

“When we say Remembering Black Dallas, we’re not really just remembering Black history,” said Keaton. “We’re remembering everybody’s history.”

Life Changing

One of the goals of the organization is to get this history out into the public so the information does not just sit in archives, said Madhavanur.

“I do all this research on the academic end, and I am learning all this cool stu , so I really wanted to apply it in some way,” Madhavanur said. “I listen to these amazing messages every day in my room with my

I listen to these amazing messages every day in my room with my headphones, and it just doesn’t make sense for others to not get the opportunity to listen to them as well.”

“ at’s the reason I’m doing this,” Madhavanur said. “For people like her.”

Madhavanur says her experience creating Discovering Black Dallas was life changing.

“It really taught me to shi my mindset and just appreciate any and all perspectives,” she said.

e voices gathered by Madhavanur include a woman who was born on a plantation and witnesses to the desegregation of Dallas.

“You’re getting all the way back to people

Ria Agarwal, Lyna Kamgang

Shreeya Madhavanur

RETELLING BLACK HISTORY: Senior Shreeya Madhavanur is sharing many important historical narratives through the creation of her new app, Discover Black Dallas.

Photo courtesy of Shreeya Madhavanur

George Keaton

Evergreen the

Senior Spotlight: Laya Venkat

Ivy Stitt

Senior Laya Venkat has always described herself as an activist. So, when the Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson, Mississippi was leaked – and she realized Roe v. Wade would no longer be the law of the land – she felt extremely worried.

“Knowing that I have certain privileges, I was worried for those who don’t have the same resources,” Venkat said.

Quickly, Venkat decided to look into what this reversal would actually mean for the wellbeing and safety of those who might need an abortion.

“Abortion is a stressful circumstance,” Venkat said. “Not much is known about the mental e ects of getting one. And now that abortion access is severely limited, those adverse psychological outcomes are exacerbated.”

is question has led Venkat through two academic journeys over this past summer.

e rst is through her Global Online Academy course, Abnormal Psychology.

e second is through a student-driven summer research program called Pioneer Academics, in which Venkat was paired with a college professor to spend 10 weeks surveying a research topic. Venkat ended the program by writing a 60-page paper.

GOA Research

Global Online Academy courses are led by a teacher from an independent school that partners with the program. Greenhill is one of them.

Venkat’s passion for psychology is not new. Before taking Abnormal Psychology

living in the United States under the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade?”

Venkat’s project was selected as exemplary and published in the Catalyst Exhibition alongside only nine other students.

psychology and sociology, and then was placed in positive psychology with a professor who has specialization in that subject.

“I’ve always found those subjects interesting, and I care a lot about mental health and social justice, so I like to see how concepts of human behavior apply in the real world,” Venkat said.”

Positive psychology is a sub eld of psychology that is focused on promoting individual well-being. Venkat spent the rst half of the program learning alongside other student-scholars about the current research available on this topic.

“I am a clinical psychologist, and my eld’s emphasis really is on classifying, understanding, describing and treating mental illness and focusing on if people are experiencing symptoms or problems helping make those problems go away,” said Venkat’s professor. “I worked with Laya to think about her ideas and the things that she was interested in learning more about, how they could be studied from the perspective of positive psychology and developing a study that would test an intervention that addressed a topic that she thought was interesting and important.”

how to think about future challenges.

“Based on what we know about the mental health consequences of being denied unwanted abortions, we can predict that there’s going to be an increase in mental health needs. e mental health outcomes for these people tend to be worse,” the professor said.

Call to Action

e title of Venkat’s 60-page paper is “How Hope erapy In uences Wellbeing in Adult Women Denied Abortion in Texas.”

“[Venkat] took her plans in the direction of saying, ‘What if we went and found people in Texas who are seeking an abortion who are now not able to get one and give them this Hope erapy?’,” said the professor. “’Could we try to mitigate the distress that otherwise we would predict that they would get by being forced to carry this pregnancy to term?’”

In terms of methodology, Venkat primarily utilized a longitudinal study called e Turnaway Study for her research.

e study found that abortion denial may be correlated to harmful psychological outcomes in women.

“I concluded that being denied an abortion causes adverse psychological outcomes such as lower life satisfaction, lower self-esteem, higher levels of anxiety and higher levels of depression,” Venkat said. “I also concluded that there needs to be more mental health awareness and resources for people in that situation, which drove my continuation of interest in my Pioneer paper.”

Venkat would need many more resources to fully conduct the study, but even so, her professor says that its clarity and impacts could easily make it valuable to other academics in the future.

“I ended with a call to action because I hoped to persuade people that mental health resources for women who are denied abortions are important,” Venkat said. “I didn’t want abortion to be super political; I simply want people to care about mental health. So, with the education gained from viewing my presentation, I hoped that a call to action was viable for viewers.”

Venkat also believes her research brings light to disparities in socioeconomic status. For instance, some Texan women are traveling to Colorado to receive an abortion, but those without the nancial resources to do so may su er.

this summer, she previously enrolled in Positive Psychology and Intro to Psychology through GOA.

“I just wanted to take as many psychology courses as I can, since I’m really interested in that subject and we don’t have any of those courses physically at our school,” Venkat said.

Global Online Academy psychology courses over the summer o er a particular opportunity to create and submit individual projects to a conference, dubbed the GOA Catalyst Exhibition.

“It’s kind of the nal project of every course and students have to re ect on the course in some way,” Venkat said. “ ere are awards that someone can get like the audience choice award, GOA citation award, etc. ere are over 400 students that submit from all around the world.”

Venkat’s passion for activism translated into her nal version of her capstone, which was titled: “What is the relationship between a lack of abortion and mental health? How can these ndings be applied to people

“I was excited to learn my research would be featured publicly,” Venkat said. “I think it is important that people recognize the link between abortion and detriments to mental health.”

Pioneer Research

e Pioneer Research Program is an online academic research program that allows rising seniors to research a topic of their choice ranging from disciplines in STEM, Social Sciences and Humanities. Students may also receive college credit a er the ten weeks of the program are complete.

“[Venkat] started by responding to a very current event, an event that is really important to her in terms of the bigger picture and also thinking about her experience as a woman living in Texas,” said Venkat’s guiding professor in the program. e professor asked to remain anonymous, due to the requirements of the program.

Venkat rst applied with interests in

Venkat and her professor then decided to research the concept of Hope erapy, a loosely de ned intervention designed to promote optimism, problem solving and

“With the limitations in the law, this number of people is inevitably going to rise, and more people will have to undergo these sorts of traumatic events,” Venkat said. “I believe awareness and tangible solutions are the best we can do as supporters of bodily autonomy to help.”

STARTING A DISCUSSION: Senior Laya Venkat spent 10 weeks completing summer research on the impacts of being denied abortion access on women’s mental health.

Photo courtesy of Laya Venkat

Graphic by Ivy Stitt

Photo courtesy of Laya Venkat

SPREADING AWARENESS: Senior Laya Venkat was spotlighted in GOA’s Catalyst Exhibition where she presented her ndings from her Abnormal Psychology course.

10 Arts

South By Southwest Cancels High School Division

Aria Kutty

The prestigious South by Southwest Film Festival has canceled its Texas High School Shorts category, an annual focal point of the work of Upper School Advanced Video Production students.

Greenhill’s AVP class has had 55 lms accepted into the Texas High School Shorts category over the past 15 years, with ve winning awards, said Corbin Doyle, who heads Upper School ne arts and teaches Upper and Middle School lm classes.

Doyle said the cancellation of the festival’s popular high school category came as a surprise.

“I had meetings with lm representatives over the summer and nothing was really said,” Doyle said. “But I noticed the link to submit to the [high school] category was not active like it normally is.”

When the submission was still not working in late August, Doyle reached out to his South by Southwest contacts, sensing that something was amiss. Festival executives said privately that the Texas High School Shorts category had been canceled due to nancial reasons, Doyle said.

e South by Southwest Festival – popularly known by the acronym SXSW – and its related lm festival occur each March in Austin. High pro le lms such as “Baby Driver,” “A Quiet Place” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once” have premiered at the event, establishing it as one of the top lm festivals in the nation.

“Me and people outside Greenhill kind of view South by Southwest as the pinnacle of lm,” senior Teja Mettu said. “It’s a festival where all the professionals, indie lmmakers and aspiring lmmakers go.”

Last year, senior omas Bozalis attended the lm festival alongside Will McDonald ’22 and Gavin Bell ’22 for their short “Spud.”

“It was such a great experience for me to talk to professional makers and get a chance to be around such talented lmmakers,” Bozalis said.

Past Experience

Doyle and his students gravitated to South by Southwest because it is in-state, and because of the treatment high schoolers receive at the festival.

“ ey treat [high schoolers] as if you are any other lmmaker,” Doyle said. “ ey give you thousands of dollars’ worth of stu , you can talk to all the professional makers, and we are just three hours away.”

e abrupt cancellation of the high school division has caused deep disappointment in the Upper School lm program.

“ ey didn’t give me a straight answer about why it was canceled,” Doyle said. “My initial feeling was betrayal and heartbreak.”

Before Doyle informed his classes about the cancellation, students were excited about submitting lms to the festival for the rst time this year.

“I am upset that they canceled our division because a lot of people before us at Greenhill got the opportunity to submit [a lm], and we don’t,” sophomore Claire Brophy said. “I was excited about joining AVP as a sophomore. Getting to submit to South by Southwest was something I was looking forward to.”

Sophomore Kendall Poglitsch says she feels that the cancellation of the Texas High School Shorts category will have negative rami cations on the Upper School lm program.

“South by Southwest getting canceled for us sucks,” Poglitsch said. “I know there are other festivals, but that is the big one and seems a lot cooler to me. I don’t think people are going to produce as good of [ lms] without having something like South by Southwest to push them.”

For junior Krish Mysoor and Mettu, both aspiring professional lmmakers, the cancellation of the high school division resulted in a major change of plans for them.

Since the beginning of the 2022-23 school year, they have been working on a lm, and have had a goal of submitting it to the high school division at South by Southwest.

I am upset that they canceled our division because a lot of people before us at Greenhill got the opportunity to submit [a lm], and we don’t. I was excited about joining AVP as a sophomore. Getting to submit to South by Southwest was something I was looking forward to.”

“For me, I am submitting lms right now so I can make bigger lms in the future,” Mysoor said. “Getting into lm festivals is a way to do that because you can meet talented people whom you might work with in the future, and maybe meet people to get funding for the future. For me it is all about the end goal of being able to make the big lms I want to make, with whatever resources I want.”

So, when they found out the category was canceled, they decided they would take a chance and submit their lm to the adult shorts category.

“We knew it would be harder to do, but we didn’t want to just give up, even if our chances are low,” Mysoor said. “We

just have to step up our game.”

Mysoor and Mettu will be competing against professional lmmakers.

“ eir chances [of getting accepted] are just almost nothing,” Doyle said. “But their chances are 100% nothing if they don’t try at all. So, you got two high school kids in Addison, Texas, trying to grind something out in four weeks. I am proud that they stuck with it.”

Not only will the competition be more di cult, but they had to work faster, since the deadline for the various adult shorts categories was in mid-October. In recent years, the high school lms deadline was December.

“We had to really speed up our process,” Mysoor said. “Normally we would take a month to write, and a month or more for pre-production. But now, since we had a goal of making the deadline, we spent a week coming up with the concept, we wrote it in almost a day, and then had two weeks for pre-production. Especially with school and Teja’s college applications, it has been a lot harder.”

A Positive Outcome

Some students say there is a positive side to the cancellation of the high school category.

Mettu says that if adult categories are the only avenue for high school lmmakers to get into South by Southwest, the quality of submissions will increase.

“It eliminates the type of people that don’t have ambition,” Mettu said. “ ere is an added pressure and barrier to getting into the festival, which will make the quality of work better.”

Furthermore, the cancellation of the high school category may result in a positive change in the Greenhill lmmaking process, Doyle said.

According to Doyle, in the early days of AVP, lmmaking was solely about the process. Students would create something, and a er it was done, the students, alongside Doyle, would see what the product was. If the product was exciting, they would send it to festivals.

However, in the past few years, due to the success that Greenhill students had at South by Southwest, some entered AVP with the expectation that they were guaranteed to get into the festival, Doyle said.

“Students have been coming to assume that they’re going to get in and saying all the bad words like ‘should’ and ‘deserve’,” Doyle said. “Art isn’t that. It is not a running race; it is not who ran the fastest or got the furthest. Kids would get into the class and start talking about getting into South by Southwest before they even wrote anything. Not even talking about just submitting, immediately assuming they would get in. It shouldn’t be like that.”

Bozalis also believes that the cancellation should not a ect students’ desire to make lms.

“Being lmmakers, it shouldn’t change much,” Bozalis said. “We should still want to make things, even without the high school South by Southwest category. ere are other lm festivals, but we should never make art for a festival. at’s something we talk about in class a lot. We should make stu because we want to make art.”

Noor Zaman contributed to this story.

CANCELED DREAMS: Junior Krish Mysoor and Senior Teja Mettu had hoped to enter their lm, “American Ball Game,” in the South by Southwest high school division. The division was quietly canceled without explanation.

FILMMAKING TRIO: Will McDonald ’22, left, senior Thomas Bozalis, center, and Gavin Bell ’22, left, attended the 2022 South By Southwest Film Festival in Austin. This year, students will have to submit to the adult category.

Corbin Doyle

Photo courtesy of Krish Mysoor and Teja Mettu

Photo courtesy of Thomas Bozalis

Yes, and...Improv Troupe rives with New Blood

Five new members joined the Upper School Improv Troupe this year, pushing the size of the group to 10 members a er losing several members to graduation last year.

Improv, short for improvisation, is an activity in which members of the troupe perform skits which they create in the moment and participate in games where the troupe interacts with an audience.

“With more people we can do more things, and there’s a lot of cool stu coming up,” senior Nolan Crowder said. “We are all excited.”

A er the Class of 2022 graduated, the Improv Troupe lost ve members, but it quickly made up for that loss this year. A typical improv troupe has 10 to 12 members, similar to Greenhill’s group of 10, which allows for diversity in skits and more improv games, said Crowder.

“In improv, since it’s less focused on acting, your personality kind of bleeds into it,” Crowder said. “And the more people you have, the more varied the ideas getting thrown around are.”

e personality of every improv troupe re ects its members, meaning no one troupe is the same as another, said senior Karrington Barnett.

“Everyone has their own brand of improv, individually everyone has di erent things to bring to the troupe,” Barnett said. “ at’s what’s nice about having a decent amount of people because you get a lot of variation, and you can practice doing many di erent things.”

Sophomore Kavya Sampath believes that having multiple perspectives will ensure the troupe will be memorable.

“It’s like improv with the remix,” Sampath said. “ ere’s a lot of things that are di erent, but the new avor in improv makes everything better.”

In past years, auditions were held in August, a er a one-week workshop. is year, in order to spread awareness about the troupe and get more students to try out, auditions were pushed back to Sept. 23, so that students could watch a showcase before auditioning.

“It ended up being a super-good move, especially because we could put posters everywhere, which [sparked] a lot of interest.” Crowder said.

Sophomore Lila Levy, a new Improv Troupe member, auditioned for the group a er seeing their marketing.

Everyone has their own brand of improv, individually everyone has different things to bring to the troupe.”

“Ever since the Lower School [Independent Schools Association of the Southwest improv] performances I have been wanting to join,” Levy said. “When I went to the rst [improv] performance this year, I saw all of the posters and heard they were having auditions, and [I] got excited to learn all of the games.”

is year the troupe welcomed a new teacher, Upper and Middle School eater and Improv teacher Greg Mihalik, who has over 20 years of experience in the world of improv.

“ e troupe’s quick adaptation to and acceptance of a new leader have been very exciting for me to see,” Head of Fine Arts Terry Martin said.

Mihalik says he has been impressed with Greenhill’s devotion to improv skills through classes and programs. He also appreciates the devotion and commitment the troupe has to their activity, as they reach school at 7 a.m. for morning practices.

ey also play very fast and very physically, which is impressive, and something that a lot of adult improvisers do not even do,” Mihalik said. “ ey enjoy word play and are not afraid to get silly.”

Both the troupe and Mihalik have taught each other new improv games and have broadened each other’s views about the cra

“[I] bring my own experiences with improv to the table,” Mihalik said. “It’s an opportunity to learn to make new discoveries about improv together.”

Martin and Mihalik have made sure to hold more improv performances this year, such as a Halloween-themed show on Oct. 27, a holiday show on Dec. 1, a Valentine’s Day show and an end of year showcase on April 1.

“Broadening the troupe’s repertoire of improv games, including long-form improvisation, which is centered around characters and telling longer narrative stories, and musical improv will be incorporated [into all the shows],” Mihalik said.

Current improv members hope to come back in 10 years and continue to see a strong improv group. Both Martin and Mihalik say they hope to facilitate achieving that goal.

Improv’s upperclassmen feel that even with a larger

“Even with bigger troupes it’s still been a super-close group,” Crowder said. “It’s kind of like a family in a lot of ways.”

[I] bring my own experiences with improv to the table. It’s an opportunity to learn to make new discoveries about improv together.”

e connections members of the troupe currently have is what they hope it looks like in the future, said junior Quinn Graves.

Last year, at former improv teacher Henry Paolissi’s nal show, Graves invited Greenhill improv alumni to come to the show.

“I contacted [Greenhill] improv members from the 90’s even, and most of them showed up,” Graves said. “It is a tradition bigger than any one group of improvisers at a time.” e improv faculty and members share the same hope: to leave a lasting impact on the community and the program.

“In the future, if there are new members and even possibly a new director, as long as the feeling of Greenhill improv is there, [the connections will] continue to thrive,” Crowder said.

troupe, there is still a strong connection between all members regardless of their age. Improv’s senior members who have witnessed troupes of various sizes at Greenhill highlight that no matter how big or how small, its close-knit bond is never lost.

Gabi Appel

Kaavya Sampath

Nolan Crowder

ACTING THE PART: Members of the Upper School Improv Troupe practice a skit before their rst performance on Nov. 2. With their size increase, the troupe now enjoys more versatility in the games and skits that they practice.

Photo by Evie Kwei

Centerpiece

Scheduling

Sophia Li, Pooja Sanghvi

On some days, junior Sanjna Kalisetty wakes up at 5:30 a.m. She gets ready, leaves the house at 6:10 a.m., and arrives at school at 7:15 a.m. for improvisational theater practice. By the time school o cially starts at 8:30 a.m, she’s already in need of a break.

Instead, Kalisetty rushes o to AP Spanish, before heading to Literature of Human Rights, Dance Company, and then lunch – her rst break of the day.

“A er lunch, I have to gure out where I’m supposed to be, either at an assembly, or Student Council meeting, or Hope Squad meeting, or Student Inclusion Council meeting or a meeting about the theater production,” Kalisetty said.

Although this schedule is similar to that of her sophomore year, the pace of Kalisetty’s day has changed.

“Last year, there just felt like [there] was more time to breathe in the schedule,” Kalisetty said. “In the second semester last year, I never had a free period and I was ne stress-wise. Now, I have a free period and I just never feel like there’s a moment in the schedule for me to breathe.”

Schedule Revisions

A er two years of having a block schedule, Upper School administrators decided last year the schedule needed to change. It began with an initial dra from Head of Upper School Trevor Worcester.

“I played around with times and activities during the day,” Worcester said. “I sent it to the department chair group, the Upper School leadership team. We played around with it, kept going back to use leadership groups and took it to the faculty.”

e new schedule was implemented at the start of this school year, a er all the details were polished. Worcester says there were many reasons behind changing it.

“One of the reasons was because the Community Period block was not functioning the way we intended it,” Worcester said. “It felt a little bit more free for all, as opposed to better consistency.”

In the second semester last year, I never had a free period and I was fine stress-wise. Now, I have a free period and I just never feel like there’s a moment in the schedule for me to breathe.”

Additionally, the administration wanted to add an eighth period to the schedule, shi ing the timing of other blocks, said Worcester. erefore, instead of community time, there is an eighth period in this new schedule.

“Going to eight blocks of academic classes opened up less con ict with our ne arts faculty because a majority of them teach across both Middle and Upper School,” Worcester said. “It means that we can move things around and that allows for [students] to take this class and this class together when before it had to be overlaid on each other.”

Now, the schedule operates on an eightday rotation, alternating between Green and Gold days. Each day has its own activities scheduled, including clubs, assemblies and collaboration groups. For instance, Green 7 has a freshmen class meeting and Senior Wellness in the morning, and student leadership group meetings during what is known as Hornet Block.

School starts 10 minutes earlier, and a er two blocks with ve-minute passing periods in between, there is advisory on Green days and O ce Hours on Gold days. is period of

advisory and O ce Hours replaced what was once a snack break.

en there is a third academic block, followed by lunch and Hornet Block, where club meetings, faculty collaboration, a groups and assemblies take place. academic day nishes at 4 p.m. with a fourth block, a er which ne arts and athletic practices begin.

Last year, passing periods were 10 minutes, school started at 8:40 a.m., advisory was a er lunch and there was a snack break between the rst two blocks and the third.

Unintended E

For some students, the largest di is re ected in the pace of the day, largely due to the ve minute passing periods.

“I think it’s the combination of the minute passing periods and the Hornet Block, like I always feel like there’s something I need to be doing,” said Kalisetty. “And that stresses me out.”

Upper School science teacher Hennah Abubaker says that ve-minute passing periods cause students to sacri social time, which is key to relieving pressure.

“You’ve got all these back-to-back classes and sometimes just seeing your friend in the middle of the day makes you happy, especially if you’re having a rough day,” Abubaker said. “Now we’re reducing the social interaction that we as humans so desperately need a couple of years. How are we helping kids deal with this stress and anxiety that school brings? Having social interactions is how kids di and I feel like a lot of that has been taken away.”

Now we’re reducing the social interaction that we as humans so desperately need after the last couple of years. How are we helping kids deal with this stress and anxiety that school brings? Having social interactions is how kids diffuse and I feel like a lot of that has been taken away.”

Senior Talia Dauer echoes this sentiment. She says the shorter passing periods have minimized social interaction with friends.

“I just feel like I can’t take a breather or even talk to my friends before another 80-minute class period,” Dauer said. “Last year I would interact with people before my next class and that put me in a better headspace.”

While Dean of Students Jack Oros, who reviewed the proposed schedule, also experiences a faster pace throughout the day, he says that it was not intentional. purpose of the ve-minute passing periods was to make time for the eighth block, which could be used for a free period and help slow down the day.

“It was not intentional at all,” said Oros. “It’s a byproduct. We went to a block schedule to lessen the pace and adding that opportunity for an eighth class has ramped it up.”

Another cause for this increased pace has been the removal of a snack break. In the past, some students and faculty have used the snack break as a breather a er close to three hours of instructional time.

“I also really miss that snack break,” Upper School Counselor Amanda Frederick said. “I miss it as much as y’all do. like a 20-minute, or even 15-minute, time when someone could come check in and now it’s just di cult.”

Dauer believes that the absence of a snack break forces her to make tradeo socializing and meeting with teachers.

“Not having a snack break means having

Scheduling Stress

we are preparing you to deal with unstructured time,” Abubaker said. “How are we preparing you to practice good time hygiene? How do we teach you to do that if we are creating so much

ned the way clubs operate. Last year, timings for clubs were cult for clubs to nd is year, however, once every eight-day rotation, each club is scheduled in one of three spots allocated to

“I feel like clubs are meeting on a regular basis, and we are able to dive deeper into more meaningful topics, just because we have a more consistent meeting time,” Dauer said.

“I also know when my clubs are, so I can schedule things around their meeting times.”

While clubs may be meeting more, the schedule still leaves very little time for the group to get into a meaningful activity, especially if the club is assigned the morning

“I like clubs but feel like the time allotted to them just isn’t enough,” Ahearn said. “I would say some people are very passionate about their clubs, so having them only meet every few weeks and having a whole rotation for them is kind of minimal.”

Engagement

Last year, there were scheduled periods for a student to meet with faculty members every other day for 40 minutes is year, the period designated ce Hours has been reduced to four times a week, and if students participate in clubs, this only e eighth block was created to address this problem.

A free period gives students time to meet with teachers, along with taking all the courses they want to, said Oros.

Kalisetty has a free block, yet she says this isn’t an adequate substitute for the less ce Hours in the new schedule.

“I have questions outside of class,” Kalisetty said. “And I know that I don’t have time to meet with teachers. I have seven classes, so which ones do I have the most questions for? I have to pick and choose.”

The best practice for any human is usually structure. It’s what helps us feel safe and comfortable, and dependability, reliability, consistency, all those things.”

Even if students have a free block, there is no guarantee that it aligns with that of their teachers. Additionally, the 25-minute O ce Hours slot doesn’t always provide enough time to ask questions, especially when there are multiple students meeting with a teacher.

said. “And if I have several kids, it’s not really a fruitful time.”

e di culty of securing one-on-one instructional time has made it harder to build relationships out of class.

“I used to always go see my teachers almost every day and, without that, I do think that it has been harder for me to connect with my teachers,” said Ahearn.

However, with the addition of the new block, there is a higher chance that a teacher will have the same free period as students.

“Since teachers are teaching four out of eight blocks, instead of four out of seven, there’s another period that hopefully kids and teachers are both available,” Battis said. “I feel like I’m more available.”

Although certain changes, such as the addition of an eighth block, apply to all Upper School students, the impact of those changes varies. For instance, the addition of an eighth block has caused many students to take on another course.

Since teachers are teaching four out of eight blocks, instead of four out of seven, there’s another period that hopefully kids and teachers are both available. I feel like I’m more available.”

“Greenhill has very conscientious and passionate students as a whole, and if they are given eight blocks, they would like to ll them up with a course,” Abubaker said. “ at’s what I’m nding.”

Frederick says that students taking an eighth course instead of a free period may experience greater stress during the day.

“Eight classes are a lot and I do think students who are taking all eight classes feel that it’s greater than just one additional class,” Frederick said. “I thought it was going to be more of an exception that somebody was taking eight classes. But now that I’m realizing more people are booked all day every day. It is hard to meet with people.”

Another di erence among students is their degree of involvement with the Greenhill community, which also determines how the schedule a ects them.

Greenhill has very conscientious and passionate students as a whole, and if they are given eight blocks, they would like to fill them up with a course.”

“I’ve noticed from my students who are engaged in student life in multiple di erent facets, they are discussing how they rarely get that a er-lunch moment as downtime,” said Battis. “So if you’re in an a nity group, if you’re in Student Council, as those things start building up, as you dive into the actual community of Greenhill, that’s where I’ve noticed kids talking about ‘I’m just feeling like I never have any time.’”

Ultimately, the schedule has forced some students and faculty to make sacri ces, while improving the consistency and e ciency of the day for others. To Dauer, the impact of the new schedule depends on each individual’s course load, extracurricular activities and time management abilities.

time management skills.

“I worry about how

“For my students who are walking over from Upper School, by the time they get here for those morning O ce Hours, we have maybe about 15-18 minutes le ,” Abubaker

“I know friends who think it’s a lot better than last year’s schedule and I also know friends who think it’s worse,” Dauer said. “It just really depends on what you use the di erent time slots for and if you’ve chosen the right course load for you.”

Special Report

e 48-Hour Extension Policy

class discussions.”

Emily Hu

Afew months before the start of the school year, discussions regarding an improved policy for late work began between Upper School department chairs and learning assistants.

“ e frustration had been that while it seemed there was already a late work policy in the handbook, it was inconsistently being utilized by faculty,” said Head of Upper School Trevor Worcester.

As a result of this variability, students experienced vastly di erent standards in their classes, creating di culty for teachers.

“A student comes up to me saying that ‘Ms. A’ does this but ‘Mr. B’ does that,” Upper School physics teacher Christopher Chambers said. “It makes it hard to justify your own classroom procedures and it puts you on the defensive, breeding enmity against other teachers.”

Regardless of comparisons between teachers, a vague policy led to more extensions being granted out of compassion.

“If a student is standing there in front of you, of course most teachers will allow exibility,” Worcester said. “We tried to create something that took the emotion out of these decisions, so that faculty don’t become the good or bad guy.”

Recognizing aws in the previous system, administration and faculty addressed them with new guidelines. ey hoped this change would make the extension policy less teacher-based and more school-based.

“ is was particularly important coming out of COVID-19, where there were a lot of looser deadlines,” Worcester said. “We’re trying to bring back previous structure.”

e premise of the new policy is derived from the late-work policy for the Global Online Academy, a program that o ers virtual courses many Greenhill students participate in.

“I was consulted as the GOA site director,” said Upper School learning specialist Grace Kiang. “ ey have a 48-hour grace period for work, with additional layers of support.”

A New Policy

Upper School faculty took inspiration and implemented something similar to the GOA policy. Beginning this school year, procedures for late work are far more standardized.

From an assignment’s due time and date, students have 48 hours to submit their work before it’s o cially deemed late. If their work gets submitted within that time frame, there is no penalty. If not, the assignment is marked “missing.”

Not only does this make classes more uniform, but a “missing” label on assignments also allows advisors to easily guide their students.

A er the 48-hour period, a quantum is taken o for each day students wait to turn in their work. A er seven days, the assignment is marked as “no evidence,” with no credit received.

Consistent with its intention to standardize, the strict time frame of the extension policy leaves teachers little room for interpretation. However, they do have some autonomy when putting the guidelines into practice.

“In a history class, for example, there are some deliverables that are gone over in class,” said Worcester. “Having a 48-hour extension may not be applicable, especially if students are getting those answers during

In other situations, teachers are able to make speci c exceptions if necessary. Whether it’s a late athletic competition or arts events, there is some exibility for teachers to allow assignments to be excused.

Worcester says that this policy also holds both students and faculty more accountable. When each assignment has a set timeline, teachers can prevent chaos at the end of a grading period.

ese things shouldn’t drag on for weeks on end,” he said. “And previously, they did. ere’s always a mad rush at the end of the semester where teachers have to track down students and all the work they didn’t complete.”

While students such as Mohammed and Millimet have used the two-day period only a couple of times, others use it frequently.

“I love it and use it all the time,” said senior Chris Dimas. “Now I have the option to push my work out more e ectively, especially over the weekend.”

schedule.”

ough rarely, some students believe that there is very little exibility le in regard to making up work, due to the policy.

“If you’ve been injured with a concussion for three weeks, but then only get 48 hours, that seems rough,” Mettu said. “Teachers should be able to set something that they feel is good for that speci c circumstance.”

Burns has similar concerns about a rigid policy.

“For students who use this as an opportunity to make up work, I don’t think it’s very realistic for them to get all of it done in 48 hours,” Burns said.

Worcester notes that even though they are able to do so, he still encourages teachers to ask him questions in those situations.

Implementation

Some teachers had rigid rules before the implementation of this policy, so this year hasn’t changed much.

“Unless students asked for an extension 24 hours prior, it was a hard ‘no,’” said Upper School Spanish teacher April Burns. “I adhered to that pretty strictly.”

Similarly, in science and language classes with standards-based grading, the addition of an extension policy is less signi cant because daily homework is not graded.

“[Standards-based grading] runs on knowledge checks and competency assessments,” Chambers said. “A missed assignment is more just a missed opportunity for feedback.”

In other classes, the policy is more applicable.

“I give homework every day and collect it every day in some classes,” Upper School math teacher Cathy Falk said. “If students don’t have it, they have to bring it next class period. is policy helps them keep up with their work.”

Regardless, the policy has accomplished the standardization it set out to achieve.

“I’ve seen it presented the same way in each of my classes,” said junior Iyad Mohammed. “ e di erence is just how applicable it is to how assignments function in a speci c course.”

Kiang agrees with his observation.

“From what I’ve seen, the procedures are posted in relatively the same place and with the same information,” she said.

Bene ts and Challenges

e policy, in its past three months of enactment, has seen some notable bene ts. Many students state that the 48-hour grace period provides a sense of security and ease.

“ ere are always times when work piles up,” said Mohammed. “Having an extra 48 hours is nice to rely on.”

Freshman Dylan Millimet agrees that the grace period allows for more leniency on students’ busy days.

“As someone who participates in a lot of outside activities, it’s very useful to have a safety net behind strict deadlines,” he said. “If I have a hockey game late at night, I know I have some extra time.”

Students have also recognized bene ts of a truly consistent process.

“Without [the policy], procedures would be a lot more arbitrary and on a teacher-to-teacher basis,” senior Teja Mettu said. “Some teachers don’t like particular students and other teachers like particular students. is standardized policy is good because it’s something to refer back on.”

Many students have started to integrate two-day late due dates into their schedule.

“I have practice and games on Tuesday and ursday nights, so I can’t do my work those days,” said senior Beckett omas. “Being able to push back my work has helped

Kiang emphasizes that the existence of a grace period should not take away the importance of communication between students and teachers.

“ e goal is always to get in your work on time,” she said. “But if or when life happens, utilize the 48-hour window and strategically communicate with your teacher.”

Although the change is fairly new to the Upper School, feedback from students and faculty has remained generally positive.

“ e policy has worked well so far,” Worcester said. “It’s just important that we create something with enough exibility, but not enough so that it becomes something like the old system.”

ough convenient for students, some teachers have concerns about an increased reliance on an extra 48 hours.

“I’ve de nitely noticed some students relying on it, particularly at the beginning of the year,” Falk said. “But I’ve also been pretty lenient about it because students who are new to Upper School aren’t diligent enough about knowing where all their things are, which is especially hard with a block

Worcester says the policy is open to tweaks and improvements based on responses. He hopes to improve the Upper School by building upon existing policies, rather than starting from scratch.

“Whatever the policy is, at the end of the day, it’s about the importance of building communication and guring out how to best support students,” Kiang said.

Graphics by Emma Nguyen

Evergreen the

New Drumline, New Friendships

Christan Park

The Upper School Drumline has charted a new beginning a er COVID-19 restrictions, performing during hal ime at football games and showcasing concerts around campus.

Reestablished in 2019, the Drumline is a sub-unit of the Upper School Band, created to give new opportunities to students interested in percussion, said Assistant Band Director Tony Lopez. With a smaller and more focused group, they hope to continue to bond and learn about percussion from one another, he said.

is year, the Drumline has 12 members, comprised of nine percussionists and three band members. By having nonpercussion players in the Drumline, it provides di erent skill sets, allowing them to learn from each other and become better musicians, said sophomore Prabath Girish.

e Drumline experience has been amazing so far, and it has also helped me with my rhythm for percussion and with the ute,” sophomore Kaavya Sampath said.

Performances

A couple of the major events the Drumline performed at this year included the Founders’ Day Pep Rally, Homecoming Pep Rally, and a special hal ime performance at a home football game.

“[ e Founders’ Day Pep Rally] was really exciting because it was our rst performance of the year to the entire school and it was cool to showcase our songs to everyone,” Sampath said.

During the hal ime show and Homecoming performance, senior captain Deeya Bachani and junior Dhilan Patel played the drums upside down. is stunt brought lots of excitement to the Greenhill students, parents and faculty in attendance, said senior Talia Dauer.

“I thought the Drumline’s performance was amazing and I was happy to see how much support the student body showed for them,” said Dauer. “ ey really embraced the ‘support your friends’ motto.”

rough performances like these, Drumline members believe that their music connects with the community through their cheering and support making it enjoyable to perform, said senior mentor Ahmed Agha.

Competition

On Oct. 29, the Drumline competed in the Texas Private School Music Educators Association Drumline Competition. ey had prepared for this competition since the beginning of this year, which included

memorizing a six-page song.

“ is contest pushed our skills, but it helped us prepare more di cult music,” said Bachani.

e Drumline felt a sense of accomplishment, happiness and community when competing for the rst time in over two years, said Bachani.

New Friendships

In addition to these performances, practices and competitions, the Drumline tries to meet before football games and outside of school to have game nights, boba outings and other activities to bring them closer as a family, said sophomore Ali Agha.

“ e regular band has more people, but I feel like with Drumline, all of us really know each other and are good friends,” Bachani said.

Freshman Brian Chao described how

new members were welcomed to the group and have felt a sense of belonging through these performances, practice times and social activities.

“ ough I never did Drumline in school before, everyone was really inclusive and nice when I rst got here during Drumline camp, making it easy to t in,” Chao said.

As football season came to a close in late October, Drumline members were talking about competing and performing more, so they could have experiences that improve them individually and as a group, said Ahmed Agha. Currently, they are set to perform during the solo and ensemble competition in early March.

“I really hope that this year and in future years, [Drumline] can get even bigger and play more complex and di cult music to get even more performance opportunities,” Bachani said.

“Big Fish” Musical Inspires Art Installation

Varun Mukund

The work of art students from various mediums, inspired by themes present in the fall musical, has been on display on campus in the Marshall Family Performing Arts Center since late October.

e installation will continue to be displayed through the Nov. 17-18 performances of the musical “Big Fish.” Photography, sculpture and 2D art students were each assigned a project in which they had to create an art piece that centers around a certain theme from “Big Fish.”

Upper School Visual Arts teacher Frank Lopez says that he assigned his students what he calls the Maggie Taylor project, which he used to assign during the COVID-19 pandemic. Taylor is a photographer who utilizes 19thcentury techniques such as tintypes and daguerreotypes that she would then scan and add digital elements to, creating a narrative behind the photo.

“We take inspiration from famous artists like Maggie Taylor, who takes these old images and modi es them to tell a story,” said sophomore Aaron Stein, a Photography 2 student. “ at is what ‘Big Fish’ is all about – stretching the truth to tell a story.”

e main themes of the musical include love, family, ambition and morality, said sophomore Shreya Chhaya, a member of the “Big Fish” cast.

e art students were asked to pick a theme and create a piece of art that they think is representative of these themes, whether it be a photograph, a sculpture or a drawing.

“I like to leave a very wide berth as far as the interpretation of art and I’m here to guide students in their journey towards the nal piece,” Lopez said.

Stein says he edited his photograph to better t the musical’s themes.

“We are changing the mood of the image to make it more upli ing and warmer,” Stein said. “ at’s my perspective on the musical and is what I am going to base this assignment on.”

Another Honors Photography student, junior Max Kettles, says there was a di erence between each student’s interpretation of the assignment and how he chose to approach his piece.

“Depending on the perspective and outlook of the student, some may go abstract and with a more modern feel for their image, and some may go with an older approach, which is what I am doing with my piece,” Kettles said during his October preparations.

Middle and Upper School 3D Art teacher Eric Tosten says he wants audiences to be able to draw inspiration and emotion from the art that is put up.

“I want to have students create clarity and express emotion through their work,” Tosten said.

e collaboration between theater and other forms of visual art has been in brainstorming stages for several years.

“We have talked about this in the past, during the pandemic, and we felt this year we’re in a better place to be able to truly go forward with a collaboration process,” Lopez said.

At the end of the last school year, the idea nally became a reality, said Middle and Upper School Visual Arts teacher Lesley Rucker.

“[ e visual art instructors] talked as a group at the end of May with [Performing Arts Building Manager] Leann Burns about the art show,” Rucker said in an email response to questions. “It’s something we’ve talked about wanting to make happen and [we are] so glad we’re nally getting to highlight our talented students.”

Lopez explains that the performing arts are a form of storytelling to the audience, as is photography in a way and thus, the collaboration between the performing and visual arts has natural aspects to it. ere have been times that we put

up an exhibition that is wrapped around a performance, but nothing as far as a speci c assignment such as this one that shows the roots of the musical,” Lopez said.

Tosten hopes that the assignment will make people interested in the musical and are thus encouraged to watch the student production.

We take inspiration from famous artists like Maggie Taylor, who takes these old images and modi es them to tell a story. That is what ‘Big Fish’ is all about – stretching the truth to tell a story.”

“I’m excited about the fact that we are collaborating together, that I’m working to try to get as many students involved as we possibly can,” Tosten said.

Kettles says that this project allowed him to explore technical aspects of photography that he wasn’t as comfortable with before.

“I feel like the work gave me an opportunity to grow as a photographer by introducing me to new tools in Photoshop,” Kettles said. “ is allowed me to make my images more cohesive.”

Stein says that he enjoyed working on this project because of its uniqueness from other assignments and because it has forced students to think creatively.

“It’s just always a wonderful time to make sure that we have a collaboration that is enjoyable for everybody,” Lopez said.

DRUMMING UP SPIRIT: The Drumline played at the Oct. 21 pep rally in The Phillips Family Gymnasium. The group performs during football games and band concerts.

Photo by Evie Kwei

SCAN ME: Watch the Greenhill Drumline perform on their Instagram account.

Deeya Bachani

Frank Lopez

Aaron Stein

Erik Tosten

Artist Spotlight: Izabella Faber

Kwei, Allie Schnitzer

Apainting on the sidewalk in front of the Foote Lower School building depicts three people, all di erent from one another, standing together. e gures are connecting with one another.

It’s one of the latest creations of senior Izabella Faber, who is using her artistic abilities to help the Greenhill community create connections around campus.

Faber created several pieces across school grounds over the summer, including the “Parent Waiting Zone,” “Hug Zone,” and the senior class logo.

Faber began her Greenhill journey in Primer 13 years ago. Kasia Faber, Faber’s mother and Executive Assistant to Head of School Lee Hark, noticed her daughter’s artistic inclination from a young age.

“Ever since she started doing art, I knew that she would be an artist in the future,” said Kasia Faber.

Izabella Faber’s interest in art began in Middle School when she took interest in sketching anime characters. She soon ventured into creating her own gures and character designs.

“I got my rst sketchbook in sixth grade and I really found joy in lling it,” said Izabella Faber. “It would always be so satisfying to start new sketchbooks and ll them with things I love.”

During her freshman year, Izabella Faber took her passion to new heights when she enrolled in an o -campus art class at Academy of Ivy. At the academy, she focused on ne tuning her abilities and developing her unique style.

“I love incorporating realism and playing with color in my art,” said Izabella Faber. “It started as a hobby, but I realized that I could do something with my art style.”

Her art teacher, Min Sin, believes Izabella Faber’s unique style is what makes her stand out.

“She has a unique way of drawing people and presenting her ideas through storytelling,” said Sin. “She just creates such fun and cool characters.”

Looking at her color palette and style, Sin says that Izabella Faber’s personality shines through her pieces. Her work uses bright colors to convey a hopeful message.

According to Kasia Faber, her daughter’s art provides a window into her soul. ey depict everything from her greatest hopes and dreams to her greatest sorrows.

“When you see the art your child does, you want to feel the joy and the sorrow with them,” said Kasia Faber. “It’s a beautiful thing to witness and be a part of.”

Artistic Mentors

Izabella Faber attributes much of her artistic success to Greenhill faculty. Along with the encouragement she received from teachers in the art department, Izabella Faber also receives encouragement from Varsity Swimming Head Coach Patti Monzingo. ey have worked together so she can continue to compete in her sport and create art. Kasia Faber echoes this sentiment.

“Greenhill made [Izabella Faber] who she is: as a human, as an artist, as a scholar and as an athlete,” said Kasia Faber.

Upper School art instructor Lesley Rucker has watched Izabella Faber grow since her freshman year and currently teaches her in AP Studio Art.

“ e growth she’s had has been in conceptualizing ideas and in her con dence level,” Rucker said in an email interview.

Rucker says the strength of Greenhill’s visual arts program comes from the agency students have to pursue their own interests.

“Over the years, I have had many talented art students,” Rucker wrote. “ ere is no single student who has pushed the studio arts program, rather the freedom to create and grow has been led by the instructors.”

Greenhill is not the only factor in Izabella Faber’s artistic success. For her, the art studio has become a second home throughout the past four years. She spends an average of over 15 hours a week working with Sin. On some weekends, Izabella Faber spends 12 hours a day there and pulls allnighters to complete a single piece. “ roughout the years, Iza has gotten more expressive and creative with her ideas,” said Sin. “Her unique style has developed, and she’s gotten more con dent in it.”

In Faber’s four years at the Academy of Ivy, Sin has seen her grow as a person as well as an artist.

closer,” Izabella Faber said. “I think it brings a more welcoming feeling to Greenhill.”

Pursuit of Passion

Although Izabella Faber’s time at Greenhill is coming to an end, her art remains an enduring reminder of the connections she has helped to create across campus.

“It’s a beautiful thing [Izabella Faber] is doing, giving back to the community,” Kasia Faber said. “I just feel incredible pride and joy that she is able to do what she loves.”

In addition to the Lower School pieces, Izabella Faber designed this year’s senior logo. A competition was held last school year to determine whose design would be chosen.

Izabella Faber believes that designing the logo has brought her closer to her class.

“It’s going to be awesome to look at the logo and think back to senior year,” she said. “I hope my classmates will remember that it was designed by someone in their grade who really loved art.”

I hope that my artwork can be something that will bring Greenhill closer. I think it brings a more welcoming feeling to Greenhill.”

In the future, she hopes to become a concept artist or an art director in the game-design industry, from which she o en draws inspiration.

She is so great with other students and she’s always the one making people feel comfortable and happy. It has been really fun to have her as a student.”

“She is so great with other students and she’s always the one making people feel comfortable and happy,” said Sin. “It has been really fun to have her as a student.” e time commitment of her passion comes at a certain price. Izabella Faber says that it can be di cult to juggle schoolwork, sports and art.

For Kasia Faber, school should be the priority.

“Artists are not the greatest planners, but when art is something you can’t live without, you nd a way to plan around it,” Kasia Faber said about her daughter’s ability to create time for art. “You nd a way to get everything else done so you have time for your passion.”

Izabella Faber’s talents have revitalized parts of the Greenhill campus. During the summer and into the school year, she conceptualized and created the Lower School “Hug Zone” and “Parent Waiting Zone.” Both creations tie into this year’s schoolwide theme of Creating Connections.

“I hope that my artwork can be something that will

“I want to become a person that can inspire others,” said Izabella Faber. “My main goal is to create something that people can immerse themselves in.”

For now, she spends most of her time working on her portfolio for her college applications. Both Rucker and Min say she has a bright future in art or anything she might pursue in the future.

“No matter what she does in the future, she’ll be successful because she’s so dedicated,” said Sin. “You never know what’s going to happen, but she’ll do great no matter what she ends up doing.”

When Rucker exhibited her pieces in the Fine Arts Building, Izabella Faber recalls watching a middle schooler mimic her art style and create a piece of their own.

“Seeing people get inspired from my art is one of the things that keeps me going,” said Izabella Faber.

She advises prospective young artists to follow and feed their artistic drive.

“To anyone who has a passion for anything, just go for it,” she said. “For anyone thinking about art, just join a studio, go to a class; it can only bene t you.”

bring Greenhill

Evie

Kasia Faber

ART ACROSS CAMPUS: Senior Izabella Faber’s work can be seen across campus, from the clock tower in the quad to the water tower near the gym. Faber hopes to see her art instill community and togetherness on campus.

Izabella Faber

Photo by Chloe Nguyen

Photo by Emma Nguyen

THE HUG ZONE: Over the summer, Izabella Faber painted the Hug Zone outisde the Lower School.

e Fantastic Five

Seniors Commit to College Athletics

student-athlete persona: they are competitive, natural leaders and balance di erent aspects of their life well.

It’s athletic commitment season, and ve Upper School seniors have announced via Instagram their verbal commitment to play a college sport. e students are Katie and Lexie Stone, Sasha Motlagh, Leah Smith and Maya Harrington.

Student-athletes who commit to NCAA Division I schools like the Univeristy of Pennsylvania sign what’s known as a National Letter of Intent, which states their agreement to attend the school for at least one academic year and ends the recruiting process. Signing dates for the National Letter of Intent this year are Nov. 9-16, and April 23-May 17, 2023.

NCAA Division III institutions, which include schools such as Amherst College and Washington and Lee University, do not issue a National Letter of Intent to prospective athletes because they do not give athletic scholarships. Instead, the NCAA allows Division III schools to issue what’s called “a non-binding celebratory signing form” to use at high school signing events and other occasions “a er the student-athlete has been accepted into the institution.”

Katie and Lexie Stone

A er sampling a wide variety of sports, prospective Washington and Lee athletes Katie and Lexie Stone decided to focus on volleyball and lacrosse at the NCAA Division III level.

e Stone twins have similar values when it comes to sports. Katie Stone says that competing with her teammates and working toward goals are the best parts about sports, and Lexie Stone stresses the importance of successful teamwork and individual skills.

Finding the right college with two good sports programs and academics was a meticulous process: the Stones initially reached out to programs for volleyball, then focused on lacrosse recruitment before opting to pursue recruitment for both sports.

“We started emailing coaches and reaching out to programs in the spring of [our] sophomore year,” Katie Stone said. “When we stopped playing club volleyball, we focused emails on lacrosse, but kept in contact with the volleyball coaches.”

When the Stone twins were o ered to play both sports at Washington and Lee together, they eagerly accepted the o er.

“I’m proud that, through that process, we were able to make such an exciting decision for next year,” Katie Stone said.

Volleyball and lacrosse have been cornerstones in Lexie Stone’s personal development, as they taught her the importance of hard work and con dence.

“I’m proud of the person I’ve become through sports, and I’ve learned a lot about commitment and dedication to a process,” Lexie Stone said.

Head Girls Varsity Volleyball Coach Tatiane Deibert was involved in the Stone’s recruitment process, recording videos and important statistics. Aside from providing them with the material they could use to gather attention, Deibert says that the Stones’ recruitment process was selfDeibert has coached Katie and Lexie Stone since freshmen year and has watched them grow as athletes throughout high school.

“I think that’s what makes them super special. ey understand a work ethic, and I know their collegiate careers are going to be successful,” Deibert said. “ ey’re sel ess, competitive, and can bring the best out of people.”

She emphasized that the Stone twins embody the

ey learn how to have a conversation with other people, how to push other people toward the same goal. ey’re not going to have any problems leading other people in the right direction,” Deibert said.

Sasha Motlagh

Growing up watching her brother play tennis, prospective UPenn tennis player Sasha Motlagh rst picked up a racket when she was ve.

“At rst, I didn’t like it at all,” Motlagh said. “I tried other sports, but I eventually came back to tennis, gured out I was le -handed, and never looked back.”

Although Motlagh acknowledges that playing a solo sport can feel lonely, tennis has instilled in her vital life skills, such as time management and self-reliance.

As she played competitive tennis all through high school, Motlagh decided to pursue collegiate tennis. She began emailing and calling coaches.

Motlagh’s recruiting journey began the summer before junior year when the NCAA opened Division I tennis recruiting for the Class of 2023.

“It was a long process, but I started getting better as my junior year progressed,” Motlagh said. “I started talking to more coaches during my winter break than I did during the summer, and I was juggling o ers in the summer before my senior year before I made my commitment to UPenn.”

UPenn attracted Motlagh because of its facilities, strength of program, positive team atmosphere and coaching sta

“ e coach there really reminds me of one of my most in uential coaches here,” Motlagh said. “And the girls she picks to be on the team seem really fun to be around. We can cultivate a good competitive spirit while still having fun.”

Motlagh’s major takeaway from tennis is that not every day is a good day.

“You’ll have maybe seven good days in a year, and you have to balance out the bad days by making them better where you can,” Motlagh said. “ at outlook helps me out a lot.”

Leah Smith

Track has been a longtime passion of prospective Amherst athlete Leah Smith. Her brother ran track when he was younger, which inspired her to join the sport before middle school. For Smith, track o ered an outlet and an opportunity.

“It lets me be independent in a group setting,” Smith said. “I love team sports, but I like that I really only have to count on myself when I’m jumping. I like being independent in that sense, but I also have a team full of people for support.”

is past summer, Smith decided she was interested in pursuing track at the collegiate level and began lling out recruitment questionnaires for schools of interest.

When the Amherst track and eld coach reached out, Smith began talking to him over a couple of months.

and the only thing Smith liked.

“ e coach is so nice too,” Smith said. “I could tell that he really cared about me as a person, not just an athlete.”

o ered Smith the perfect combination of beautiful weather, smaller class size and an elite academic program.

“I fell in love with the school,” Smith said. “He gave me the o er and I accepted.”

At Greenhill, coming o an injury during her sophomore year, Smith won the Southwest Preparatory Conference high jump championships. Looking ahead at Amherst, Smith’s goals for her collegiate career include qualifying for nationals as a freshman and possibly breaking a school record.

Maya Harrington

In seventh grade, prospective Amherst athlete Maya Harrington joined Greenhill’s Middle School eld hockey team. She enjoyed it so much that she began playing club eld hockey as a freshman.

“It’s such an awesome sport –I love growing the team in Texas,” Harrington said. “It’s not the most physical sport and focuses on skill and camaraderie.”

When Harrington decided to pursue collegiate eld hockey, she began exchanging emails with coaches in the fall of her junior year, followed up with calls in the spring.

I think that’s what makes them super special. They understand a work ethic, and I know their collegiate careers are going to be successful. They’re selfless, competitive, and can bring the best out of people.”

Harrington talked to a variety of NCAA Division III schools, including Rhodes College, Tu s University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Amherst.

“Amherst was probably one of my top choices starting junior year, then I nally announced my commitment on July 1,” Harrington said.

Amherst has an open curriculum, which means the students choose their courses without major restrictions. is freedom, coupled with the possibility of playing time, appealed to Harrington. e program and players sealed the deal.

During her collegiate career, Harrington aspires to build long-lasting friendships, improve her skills and get playing time.

“A personal goal for me is working on keeping my head up and being a better ball distributor,” Harrington said.

Head Field Hockey Coach Brittany Griggs has known Harrington for years but rst coached her when Harrington was a freshman.

Griggs says that Harrington continuously exhibits a commitment to growth.

“She eats well, works out, attends club and school practices, and plays for both school and club,” Griggs said. “She’s always been a very graceful player, but her endurance and strength skills have really picked up. She’s always had this raw talent, but she’s grown into a very developed and polished player.”

Josie Arbuckle

Katie Stone

Lexie Stone

Leah Smith

Maya Harrington

Sasha Motlagh

You’ll have maybe seven good days in a year, and you have to balance out the bad days by making them better where you can. That outlook helps me out a lot.”

I’m proud of the person I’ve become through sports, and I’ve learned a lot about commitment and dedication to a process.”

Helen Jackson Captures the Action

Senior Helen Jackson has loved photography since seventh grade. She took photography classes at her previous school and was editor-in-chief of the yearbook in eighth grade.

“ at’s when I started taking sports photography,” Jackson said. “I loved going to volleyball and basketball games. I love taking photos of the players and the emotion they show when playing.”

Now enrolled in Honors Photography, Jackson attends most Upper School sports games to take photos of student athletes.

“I decided to go take photos of the rst football game because I wanted to make the seniors’ last season special,” Jackson said. “I have travelled to every football game and loved every minute.”

Jackson also edits each of the photos she takes, o en spending hours going through thousands of photos for each sporting event. She takes photos using a Cannon 1DX

camera with a 75-200 millimeter lens.

“My favorite photo I’ve taken this year is one of [senior] Josh Titens,” Jackson said. “My [club soccer] team lost a player this year, Brooklyn ‘Mighty’ Moran, and to honor her I write ‘13 as one’ on my arm. Josh decided to write it on his arm, and I got a picture of it. It means so much to me that he would do that.”

At Peace with Ping-Pong

Zara Paul, Anisa Walji

Like many children at the age of ve, freshman Rory Liu took ballet lessons, despite not caring much for the activity.

“I hated ballet,” said Liu. “I tried to like it, and I used to fake it, until I nally got out of it.”

Any lingering interest in ballet dissolved as soon as Liu rst laid eyes on a Ping-Pong table.

“When I was around ve, I was like, ‘oh my gosh, [PingPong] looks so fun,’” said Liu.

Liu discovered the game at a table tennis venue next to the ballet studio. e rhythm of Ping-Pong fascinated Liu.

“And so, it started there, and it was fun and then that’s where I started playing,” Liu said.

A er devoting free time to playing Ping-Pong for a time, Liu began playing the sport competitively. Liu’s parents supported their child’s interest in Ping-Pong because of their belief that focusing on a small object for extended periods of time would sharpen young Rory’s vision.

When Liu was seven, the family immigrated to the United States from China. Liu’s Ping-Pong skills quickly improved. What initially looked like fun turned out to be a demanding pursuit.

Liu began competitive Ping-Pong training as a secondgrader. Each day, Liu would visit the Tom Muehlenbeck Recreation Center in Plano to compete against some of the best Ping-Pong players in the Dallas area. By the age of nine, Liu was training three hours a day.

“Every day a er school I’d go [play], I’d bring a camera, record it, then get home and take notes on how to get better,” Liu said. “[I’d] also have to record at every tournament and take notes on the speci c players in a notebook.”

Liu became a member of the USA Ping-Pong National Development team at the age of nine. Two years later, Liu became the top-ranked junior girl Ping-Pong player in Texas.

“I used to go to Houston every summer and then Las Vegas to play in the open and the U.S. Nationals,” Liu said.

Fluent in Chinese and English, Liu was able to create connections with opponents from other countries. At national and international tournaments, Liu formed new global friendships.

“One of my most fond memories was when I was in Germany and it was a tournament where everyone was from a di erent country, and most of the people from the U.S. were bilingual,” said Liu. “I remember I was talking to this girl who was from France, and she was also bilingual so she knew French and Chinese. I didn’t know French and she didn’t know English, so we were talking to each other in Chinese and it was really cool.”

To freshman Sarah Koshy, Liu’s competitive success is a product of Liu’s work ethic.

“I remember in sixth grade when Rory showed me a video of [Liu] at a tournament and it really impressed me and [Liu was] really good,” said freshman Sarah Koshy. “Rory is a very hard worker who is able to excel in everything.”

However, pursuing and achieving international success came at a cost. Liu o en felt overwhelmed by the sport’s demanding time commitment and high pressure, Liu said.

“ at’s how it ended,” said Liu. “I literally told my mom, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’”

Liu had begun to dislike the sport and wanted to explore other things. e ultimate break came a er Liu’s coach didn’t show up for an important match.

“I was like, ‘oh my god, what am I doing with my life?’” said Liu. “Because I thought I could win this match really easily and I ended up messing up.”

Liu’s mother took Rory back to the family’s hotel.

“I woke up and my mom asked me if I wanted to go to the venue, and I said no and then I just started crying and realized I couldn’t do this anymore,” Liu said.

Even though Liu spent several years building a stellar junior career, the pressure of putting in so much time and e ort ultimately became too much.

One of my most fond memories was when I was in Germany and it was a tournament where everyone was from a different country.

I remember I was talking to this girl who was from France, and she was also bilingual so she knew French and Chinese. I didn’t know French and she didn’t know English, so we were talking to each other in Chinese and it was really cool.”

ese days, as an Upper School freshman competing in debate, Liu sees Ping-Pong as strictly a leisure activity. Liu enjoys playing matches with Upper School peers at the tables that are brought out each spring.

Liu moves “beautifully around the court,” said freshman Ricardo Santisteban. “I mean, [Liu is] just a great player, and [puts] a crazy spin on everything.”

Liu advises other prospective Ping-Pong players to nd a healthy balance between competitive training and resting.

“You should follow your dreams, but you should also be aware that at an international level, sports get tough and they get tiring,” said Liu. “ is is probably true for everything but if you feel burnt out, you should take a break and not do it for a while.”

Liu’s competitive Ping-Pong career ended abruptly. Although Liu’s father expressed disappointment, Liu says the decision to walk away from competitive Ping-Pong was the right one.

Graphic by Sophia Chao

PING-PONG: Before walking away from ping-pong, freshman Rory Liu used to compete internationally.

Helen Jackson

Photos by Helen Jackson

Khushi Chhaya

Photo courtesy of Rory Liu

Rory Liu

Prepping for the SPC Championships

The end of October saw the Upper School eld hockey, volleyball and cross country teams intensely focused on their upcoming Southwest Preparatory Conference championship tournaments or meets.

As this issue of the Evergreen went to press, the Nov. 3-5 conference competitions had yet to be decided. Whatever the results, by that point each of the Hornet teams had put in countless hours to be at their mental and physical peaks, individually and as teams.

What follows is a snapshot of the team preparations heading into the seasonending competitions.

Key Elements

For the varsity eld hockey team, crucial preparations included coming up with an optimal formation and scoping out their competition in Houston.

“Many of our starters are completely new to eld hockey and we lost a lot of seniors last year,” said eld hockey Head Coach Brittany Griggs. “In the last two months, we’ve been moving players around and trying to gure out what’s best for the team.”

is year the team competed in the 4A Division of the SPC tournament, within a North Zone bracket comprised of Greenhill and Hockaday School.

e top teams from the North and South zone brackets met in Houston for the conference championship. Anticipating that the team would need some experience playing on the arti cial turf elds used in this year’s championship tournament and to gain insight into their competition, Griggs took the team to Houston to play a couple of games earlier in the season.

Adjusting to the turf, multiple new starters, and two new goalies were identi ed as key objectives in preparations for the eld hockey team heading into the conference tournament.

For girls and boys varsity volleyball, a key objective was to maintain the team chemistry already developed and use it to solidify preparation going into the season-ending tournament.

“ ey’ve got each other’s back when we are under pressure,” said girls volleyball Head Coach Tatiane Deibert. “ ey’re intense but respectful and they hold each other accountable and that all makes such a big di erence when we’re getting close to playo

Both the girls and boys volleyball teams described having grown and improved a lot during the course of the season.

“Sometimes in practice we get a little bit unfocused, but when we have a big game we’re all pretty locked in for it and the sooner we get to SPC the more focused we’ll get,” senior Arman Najari, a boys volleyball captain, said in the days leading up to the tournament.

e cross country team was con dent in its with key runners like Andrew Mann, Chris Williams and Celina Prieur.

“We started o and showed up a lot stronger

than we did last year, already having faster times,” said Williams.

Tapers

e stages of fall sports usually begin with preseason preparations starting in August, including two practices a day, multiple High Performance Center sessions per week, and highly challenging workouts.

When the season transitioned into September and October, time spent in the HPC began to dial down, and the teams shi ed to less demanding practices before the start of intra-conference competitions known as “SPC counters.”

Once counter games begin, teams prioritize their ability to perform during competitions. To do so, they employ a taper, which reduces the intensity and

sessions from two per week to one per week.

“I feel like HPC does help us a lot and I think we need to do it but, especially before SPC, I know practice time is really bene cial for us and I really didn’t like going in [for HPC] on ursday and cutting into practice time,” said Najari.

Cross country’s taper was less about cutting down the number of HPC workouts and more about changing the ratio of strengthening versus recovery sessions to emphasize the runners’ physical health rather than ability.

“With less workouts, the attention shi s to caring for your body even more because you have a little bit more time for that,” said cross country Head Coach Jason Ya e.

During practices, instead of altering the speed of their runs, team members focused on maintaining fast paces for lower mileage.

“[Tapers] should be like a chance to bottle up their energy and their e ort in so that it shows in SPC,” said Ya e.

Deibert says that a taper is a tool meant to lock in the growth of the players’ work throughout the season.

“We can still focus on some of the areas where we need improvement, but practices no longer need to be two hours every day,” said Deibert. “I tell the girls all the time it’s quality over quantity so if we’re going to get some quality work, they can be shorter and that doesn’t mean we’re lacking on anything.”

Mental Toughness

For every team, the buildup to SPC is not just about physical prowess, as mental preparation plays a huge role in the team’s performance, said Director of Sports Performance Jessen Houston.

“I think if you plan to be successful, you will have success, and that takes attention to detail, it takes commitment, and it takes moxie,” said Houston. “We make kids do a lot of things they don’t want to do outside of their comfort zone because when you’re in a tournament, you have to be able to exceed expectations that you think you yourself had, and the team has,

because you can’t control the opponents.”

Houston believes that by exposing Greenhill’s athletes to challenges earlier in the season, they learn how to adapt to stress in crucial moments later. Deibert agrees with this sentiment.

“I think another reminder that I give them is that this goes so much above and beyond volleyball practice, it’s about how they’re preparing themselves outside of the gym: getting good sleep, taking care of their bodies, how they’re fueling their bodies,” Deibert said.

“All of those things a ect their performance. It’s about coaching the child and the athlete more than just the two hours I have them during the day.”

At the beginning of the season, teams were given presentations on sports nutrition and what kind of foods they should be eating before and a er practices and games.

“If you don’t eat well, you will not play well,” said Houston.

Bringing the Intensity

Teams concluded their SPC preparations by watching lm, training, and practicing with the intention of being at their best for the conference championships.

“At this point it’s about that mental aspect and that rivalry aspect and knowing other teams will play up as well,” Deibert said during the period of nal preparations. “We’re learning how to handle the pressure situations against teams that are coming to win and nd a seeding in SPC.” e goal was to generate rising intensity heading into SPC.

“We haven’t gone into the SPC, ‘that’s our last shot’ mindset yet, that will probably come a er all the counter games are over but right now, we’re at a level of focus that is good for our team,” Najari said as the conference championships loomed. “ e closer we get the more everything will start building up to prepare us for that last tournament.”

Sydney Chien

Photo courtesy of Chris Williams

SPC PREP: Sophomore Chris Williams races to the nish line at a cross country meet. Toward the end of the fall season, studentathletes begin to taper their training, opting for less demanding workouts in the days before the conference championships.

Graphic by Khushi Chhaya

Brittany Griggs

Tatiane Deibert

Evergreen the

Keeping Spirits High

Staying Motivated A er Seasons of Tough Losses

Senior Josh Titens started playing football for the rst time in Middle School.

roughout the recently concluded fall season, the varsity football captain was on campus for 12 hours straight. He was up before 6 a.m. to make it to morning High Performance Center workouts and didn’t leave school until 6:30 p.m. a er a two-hour practice.

Over the past three years, Titens, along with eight other seniors on the team, encountered a multitude of hardships. ey faced scorching temperatures sometimes topping 100 F, risked serious injury and forfeited much of their summer vacations to prepare for the upcoming season.

is dedication isn’t di erent from any other sport, but these seniors have a special distinction among Greenhill athletes: A er devoting hundreds of hours to the team, Titens and the other eight seniors haven’t experienced the joy of winning a varsity game since the fall of their freshman year.

And yet, as the losses have mounted, the morale of the team has remained remarkably high, players and coaches say.

Relationship Building

Head Varsity Football Coach Tony Banks says that interpersonal relationships and team bonding are the key reasons for the unwavering dedication of his players.

“It’s their love for each other, you know,” Banks said. ere’s a genuine love for their teammates. ey don’t want to let those guys down regardless of the rough season we’re having.”

Since being named head coach in 2020, Banks has aimed to create a more positive environment for the players.

seniors who have only won one game in their high school career,” Lee said. “We’re all kind of working hard towards one goal. Something I de nitely think about a lot is how good of a feeling it would be just to get them one more win before they graduate.”

Watt, Johnson and Titens say the main reason they stay motivated is because of their limited time le in the program.

“Since I’m almost done with my football career, I want to do all I can,” Watt said in the season’s closing days. “If we have extra practices, I’d go, because even though we lose a lot, it still means a lot to go out there, score touchdowns and get big plays.” at “one more win” would prove elusive for the players and coaches.

On Oct. 28, the Greenhill seniors suited up for the last time to take on Cistercian Preparatory School. e Hornets lost by a score of 56-8. e team’s nal season record fell to 0-9.

Risks of Injury

Football has a reputation for being a dangerous sport.

A study from Boston University concluded that one in ve high school football players will have chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a brain condition that may lead to memory loss, behavioral issues and depression.

Greenhill is the only 11-person high school football team in Texas with no player over 200 pounds.

By comparison, St. Mark’s School of Texas, one of Greenhill’s local peer schools and Southwest Preparatory Conference rivals, has one player whose reported weight is 285 pounds and at least eight players with a reported weight over 200 pounds, according to MaxPreps, a high school sports database.

Despite this, Banks and Defensive Coordinator Stacey Johnson say the players continue to put in work, day in and day out, despite their current record.

“As a coach, what I see is their e ort each day,” Stacey Johnson said. “ ey come out and they have a positive attitude about being there. ey still want to learn, and they still want to get better even though it’s been tough.”

ere are two di erent types of motivation for athletes: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, Patrick Cohn, a leading sports psychologist, has written. Intrinsic motivation is driven by internal or personally meaningful rewards, while extrinsic motivation refers to more tangible rewards such as wins, trophies or accolades.

“When your primary motivation is extrinsic, you may sense a greater amount of competitive pressure and anxiety, devalue your self-worth, nd it di cult to deal with failure, or view your sport more like ‘work’ than a ‘game,’” said Cohn in an article on Peaksports.com. “Ideally, you want the majority of your motivation to be intrinsic. If you increase your level of intrinsic motivation, you will be able to maintain a consistent level of motivation through the course of the season.”

While players have motivation to win, they don’t currently have extrinsic rewards. So, they focus on intrinsic rewards, playing well and improving at smaller goals.

Banks says his coaching style prioritizes his players’ safety.

“ ere’s risk of injury in every sport we have, and there’s been more concussions in other sports than football since I’ve been here, but we get labeled as ‘that sport,’” Banks said. “I coach it the right way. I played at a high level, so I know how to coach proper technique.”

Regardless of the risks, dedication appears to remain high among the current varsity players.

“Honestly, there’s a lot of risks playing football, in terms of injury and especially to the neck, to the head, like that can be detrimental for your whole life,” said senior Lexie Stone, a student Athletics Board leader. “But these kids, it sounds cheesy, but they still put their lives on the line even when they know they don’t really have that much of a chance. I think that’s pretty inspiring.”

“Small victories are important as they allow you to mark your progress,” Stacey Johnson said. “But in the end, everyone does want the big victories at some point as well.”

Aaron Johnson, the senior football player, says this intrinsic motivation is becoming more meaningful and bene cial for the players, particularly with a developing team culture and new leaders.

As a coach, what I see is their e ort each day. They come out and they have a positive attitude about being there. They still want to learn, and they still want to get better even though it’s been tough.”

“Last year was a huge improvement, just with that senior class, and I’d say this year it’s even better,” Aaron Johnson said. “As long as people continue to have that upward trajectory of morale, it’s going to be good for the team.”

“In previous years, we’ve had kids quit,” Banks said. is year, we haven’t had anyone who has quit. With the culture we’re building, we’ve eliminated hazing so the young guys feel supported, and that way they don’t feel like outcasts the way it sometimes had been in the past.”

e team has also participated in out-of-school bonding activities such as bowling nights, and a weekend retreat in August.

“I think in the past, we’ve had some coaches that weren’t really on our side,” senior Aaron Johnson said. “But now, with the new structure of our team, a lot of the new coaches and people that we’ve expressed interest in have helped bene t the team every day on and o the eld.”

Additionally, senior captain Jaden Watt says that he wants to see the younger members of the team continue to improve and eventually nd success.

“I have a lot of respect for the younger kids, who have literally been thrust onto the eld, that probably shouldn’t be playing at this level,” said Watt. “I’m really proud of them because they’ve learned really quickly.”

Psychological Motivations

Among the daunting obstacles the Hornets have faced during the streak is the striking disparity in the size of its players compared to their competition. According to Banks,

Watt, one of the senior players, says his consistent dedication to the program stems from wanting to be a role model.

“I know that I can’t let down Coach Banks,” Watt said. “But then I also don’t want to let my teammates down, my family, my parents.”

While the seniors applaud the dedication of underclassmen, freshman Conner Lee says he and his freshmen teammates are doing everything they can to help the team in return.

“We play for each other, and we play especially for our

Eitan Hahn, Ivy Stitt

Graphic by Sophia Chao

Photo by Helen Jackson

BOOSTING MORALE: As football players prepared for their game against Fort Worth Country Day, Coach Tony Banks talked to his players in a huddle. Banks sought to motivate the players before stepping onto the eld.

Jaden Watt

I have a lot of respect for the younger kids, who have literally been thrust onto the eld, that probably shouldn’t be playing at this level.”

Stacey Johnson

It’s their love for each other, you know. There’s a genuine love for their teammates. They don’t want to let those guys down regardless of the rough season we’re having.”

Aaron Johnson

In 2021 alone, 45,073 Americans were killed as a result of gun violence. at is the gruesome reality of our society; headlines of mass shootings have become recurring tragedies, rather than obscure rarities.

Breaking news headlines of school shootings no longer startle people because of their frequent appearances in local and national news. As a country, we have become shockingly desensitized to the issue of gun violence and some politicians have turned a blind eye to the issue.

ere are several reasons why I support Beto O’Rourke in the upcoming Texas gubernatorial election, from his stance on abortion to how he feels about public safety and criminal justice. However, the number one reason I support O’Rourke is his push for gun control.

O’Rourke has made it clear that he is not for outlawing guns, but he wishes to restrict usage and ownership of guns in a responsible manner.

Seventy-seven percent of mass shooters purchased their guns legally from 1996 to 2019, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a research group. at means that for the last 63 years, people clearly illequipped to wield a lethal weapon have been legally doing so.

O’Rourke condemns his opponent, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, for signing a permitless carry law that allows unlawful people to carry their guns out in public. is law makes it easy for individuals with malicious intent to carry loaded guns without a background check, permit or any training.

Put simply, the laws currently in place are inadequate and ine cient. We saw the failure of current gun control laws in May, when 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde died at the hands of a gunman.

As a high school student, I’m terri ed by statistics like that. Every day, I shouldn’t have to worry about my safety when I go to school, and it is unfortunate that facts like that have become my reality.

I additionally agree with O’Rourke’s beliefs on border control and immigration. is topic has become overly politicized, especially speaking as the daughter of

immigrants.

At the end of the day, we are all human beings. I nd it ridiculous to deny other humans the opportunities that many people of privilege do not even give a second thought to.

Countries that are torn apart by war and corruption leave their citizens no option to stay safely. If anyone were to put themselves in that position, the choice to emigrate, legally or illegally, would become less of a choice and more of a survival mechanism.

Abbott has made his stance overly clear by labeling people as “invasions” and putting more money into building a wall along the border instead of actually looking out for Texans.

O’Rourke succeeds in humanizing the reality of immigration and cultivating a sense of cultural tolerance.

To be fair, Abbott supporters say they want a government that invades less in their personal lives. I do not completely disagree with this idea, but it is very nuanced.

As an ideal, privacy is something all people value and cherish. From a governmental perspective, it simply cannot be dealt with in black and white. e government cannot completely remove themselves from our lives for security purposes, but I largely support lessening their involvement in our day-to-day lives.

O’Rourke would genuinely strive to start the di cult but necessary conversations, including those on a ordable health care.

Our social media feeds and our Google searches are curated to show only what we agree with and support. Because of this it is hard to nd a middle ground with people outside your comfort zone.

Above all, O’Rourke would try to mend political divisions that have gained an increased stronghold on Texas in the last few years. Part of the reason for such extremism in our country today is the fact that is genuinely hard to converse with someone who does not share the same beliefs as you.

People are o en put into bubbles and do not make any e ort to talk to people of opposing political parties. is causes even more division among American citizens.

I believe O’Rourke has the right approach and if I could vote, I would vote for him.

Despite his imperfections, incumbent Republican Gov. Greg Abbott envisions Texas in a way that conservatives like me can support and feel hopeful about ahead of the midterm elections.

According to the Texas Tribune, 32% of voters say that border security is the top issue factoring into their vote, followed by 14% saying the economy and 13% saying abortion. No other issue received more than 10% of the vote.

Before going on, I want to address the heated topic of abortion. I do not stand in support of Abbott’s stance on abortion. Restricting access to abortion goes against conservative values of freedom and only culminates in women receiving unsafe abortions.

I seriously hope that Abbott reconsiders his opinion on the topic, especially in the case of rape and incest. I don’t think that changing his stance on abortion would con ict with his strong conservative identity, but it’s clear that a change in opinion is unlikely from Abbott ahead of the election. at being said, I still prefer Abbott to Democratic nominee Beto O’Rourke for several reasons, including his views on the other two issues that Texans value the most: border security and the economy.

Abbott’s stance on immigration is a strict one, with a clear emphasis on the importance of protecting state security and ensuring that illegal activity on and around the border is minimized.

He created operation Lone Star, in which he allows troopers and National Guard service members to arrest migrants for state crimes, such as trespassing.

Although no response at the TexasMexico border can resolve the entire immigration process, and though I believe that it is a grim reality to have to turn immigrants away, Abbott’s involvement of the Texas National Guard and his attention to Mexican drug cartels are necessary measures to promote safety throughout Texas.

Meanwhile, O’Rourke continues to battle divisions within his own party alone regarding how severely border security should be addressed. He has made strong e orts to appease both moderates and far le voters but has ultimately come across as a somewhat spineless and hesitant advocate for immigration.

Earlier in the year, shortly a er strongly advocating for the termination of

an emergency health order that allowed o cials to turn migrants away at the border, O’Rourke called on the White House to hold o on bringing the order to a halt.

As far as economics go, Abbott has shown that he has the capacity to increase growth within our state. Since he took o ce in 2015, more than 500,000 jobs have been added in Texas. Employment in Texas is at an all-time high, with more Texans being employed today than ever before in the state’s history.

Abbott’s devotion to lowering taxes is also very appealing to voters. Under his administration, Abbott has cut property taxes by more than a billion dollars and has cut the business franchise tax by 25%, which has helped stimulate immense growth among Texas businesses.

Along with these economic measures, Abbott has repealed around $250 million in fees that stood as barriers for Texans trying to enter the workforce.

To put our state’s recent economic growth into perspective, if Texas was a country, it would be the 10th largest economy internationally.

In addition to these reasons, Abbott’s strong support for law enforcement o cers is something that I value.

Abbott is also deeply committed to ending human tra cking, and he created a child sex tra cking task force to eliminate this horri c problem. rough his assembling of the Governor’s Response Against Child Exploitation program, the governor and the First Lady of Texas are helping tremendously to bring attention to child exploitation and combat it at a more fundamental level.

Regarding education, Texas now has the third highest high school graduation rate in the country, and Texas is home to the greatest number of top 100 public high schools in America, because of Abbott.

Again, no candidate is perfect, and not every conservative in Texas is going to align exactly with each of Abbott’s opinions and policies.

But with more than a majority of Texans (55%) disapproving of Biden’s job so far, it’s important that Texas stays red beyond this election. It is evident that Texans have far more trust in a Republican leadership than a Democratic leadership this election cycle.

In short, Texans need stability, and Texans need Abbott to bring forth that stability through increased border security and economic growth.

Payton Blalock

Helina Tedros

the

Editorial: A More Inclusive Calendar Evergreen Sta

Greenhill students and faculty celebrate Diwali every year, but it’s rare that students who observe the religious and cultural festival have the school day o is year was di erent. e Oct. 24 celebration of Diwali happened to fall on a school holiday for faculty professional development, so students had the chance to celebrate the occasion without impeding their academic obligations.

In past years, when religious and cultural holidays fell on school days – like Diwali did in 2021 and many previous years – students were forced to make a choice. Attending classes meant sacri cing the invaluable opportunity to engage in special celebrations, traditions and cultural practices.

While students can choose not to attend school, the demands of many classes could cause a student to fall behind.

ere’s a simple solution to this dilemma: Adopt a more open and consultative process for determining which religious and cultural holidays will be accommodated by the school calendar.

Students shouldn’t have to sacri ce their religious or cultural identity for academics. Both are important aspects of a student’s life and should be free to coexist.

Two holidays listed on the school calendar for the 2022-2023 academic year coincide with Yom Kippur and Good Friday.

Yom Kippur became a Greenhill school

holiday a er the number of Jewish students increased and the decision was made to accommodate for holiday absences, Head of School Lee Hark said in a recent meeting with the Evergreen sta Today, there is far greater religious and cultural diversity at Greenhill. As the number of students celebrating holidays such as Diwali, Eid al-Fitr and Lunar New Year continue to increase, the same accommodation applied to Yom Kippur ought to be expanded to other cultural observances.

A main source of concern for an expansion of school holidays is that we already have about seven fewer instructional days compared to our peer independent schools. We understand that school days are precious and that schedules are deliberately planned.

One solution would be to extend the school year by a week. at would give administration enough exibility to give time o to students for other major religious and cultural celebrations without hindering academics.

If we can’t have additional holidays to accommodate a broader range of students, then there should at least be school policies to lessen the burden on those students whose traditions are not included in the Greenhill calendar. For example, we could have no homework nights or a policy that prevents

teachers from scheduling major assessments the day of an important religious holiday. is is a simple solution that wouldn’t require us to extend our school year while providing some avenue for students to celebrate cultural occasions.

A more inclusive process for determining holidays would lessen the burden on students. Instead of worrying about a lab they missed due to a religious service, a student could spend time with their families and celebrate traditions free of academic anxiety. is would also prevent inconsistencies. As an example, next spring’s Prom was initially scheduled on Eid. If we had in place a more inclusive process for determining school holidays, the potential scheduling con ict could have been avoided.

e Student Inclusion Council has done important work to make holidays more equitable within our community. We commend them for leading these important conversations and hope to see their recommendations implemented on an administrative level.

e Evergreen believes an educational institution composed of a diverse student body should aim to be proactive, not reactive.

Greenhill’s mission has always been to facilitate an educational environment that allows students to lead with their authentic selves. But when students are forced to choose between their school and their cultural or religious identity, we as an institution have failed to uphold the basic tenets of our mission.

Graphic by Ivy Stitt

How To Be Sucessful: Global Online Academy

Daniela Hallack

Evergreen Print

Editors-in-Chief Khushi Chhaya and Ivy Stitt

Executive Editors

Ava Iwasko and Emma Nguyen

Managing Editors - Content Sophia Li Emma Rikalo Pooja Sanghvi Valerie Xu

Managing Editor - Design Emily Hu

Graphic Artist Sophia Chao

Creative Director Helina Tedros Associate Editor Ria Agarwal

News Editors Evie Kwei and Christan Park

Views Editors Gabi Appel and Aria Kutty

Features Editors Sydney Chien and Riya Kommineni

Arts Editors

Daniela Hallack and Varun Mukund

Sports Editors Aman Jaleel and Chloe Nguyen

Cross Platform

Chief Sta Photographer Chloe Nguyen

Sta Photographers Cole Feldman Evie Kwei Christan Park Milyon Esayas

Social Media Editors

Ethan Vicknair Cole Feldman

Business Manager Kaden Alibhai

Assistant Adviser Amy Bresie

Adviser Gregg Jones

Have a response? Opinion? Original Idea? Email the Editors-in-Chief chhayak23@greenhill.org stitti23@greenhill.org

Our Editorial Policy

e 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.

e Evergreen sta upholds a code of ethics that values honesty, integrity, accuracy and responsibility. Our mission is to help the local community interpret campus, local,

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

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

e sta editorial represents the opinion of e Evergreen sta , 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 and Clari cations

We pledge to correct our errors. To request a correction or clari cation, please email Khushi Chhaya:

chhayak23@greenhill.org

& Rants Raves

A RAVE to students who took the time to decorate the Upper School for Homecoming week, and to the Student Council for planning Color War games. We love how the decorations make the Upper School feel festive, and we love that Color Wars bring everyone together for friendly competition.

A RANT to the college application season. With so many applications to complete, there seems to be no time for homework, free time and extracurriculars. Seniors complain every year, but we never really understand the struggle until we’re going through it.

A RANT to the Midway construction. Turning le onto Hornet Road is a pain every morning. With aggressive drivers, people cutting into the right lane and construction trucks, we always have to plan to leave home a few minutes early. at means less sleep. And that sucks.

A RAVE to the return of Heart of the Hill. We love being able to connect with students and faculty across divisions! Whether we are drawing on the sidewalks with chalk, making posters, or playing games, HOH is always something we look forward to.

A RAVENT to the full schedule but exciting activities ahead as we near the end of 2022. While the workload picks up toward the end of semester, there are also many holiday breaks and festive events. With things like anksgiving and winter holidays, there is always something to look forward to!

A RAVE to the return of Buzz account numbers. We are all so excited to not have to carry our wallets just in case we decide to buy something from the Buzz. Buzz numbers make the transaction so much easier and eliminate one more responsibility from our days.

A RAVENT to the cold fall weather. Where did it come from? While we love fall fashion, living in sweatpants, sporting cardigans and pu er jackets, the walk between buildings can de nitely be brutal. Our ngers go numb, and our noses run.

A RANT to the Phillips Family Gymnasium. First, the lack of air conditioning in the beginning of the fall season made it di cult to focus, then the uneven ooring caused by humidity made it dangerous to practice. en, a er they xed the oors, the wax made the oor feel like an ice rink. Pick a problem!

A RAVENT to the end of fall sports. While we love supporting our fall athletes and going to football games, we are so excited for the start of the winter season! We are so ready to go support our basketball, soccer and swimming teams. Good luck to all the winter athletes starting their seasons!

Guest Essay: Structurally Progressive, Culturally Divisive

Tia Chatterjee

Greenhill has a reputation of being the most “liberal” school in the Dallas metroplex. ere is some truth to that statement, but, on the other hand, our progressive identity has o en come across as performative.

Coming to Greenhill as a freshman, I expected the campus to be progressive in comparison to Allen ISD, my previous school district. While the assemblies and celebrations are inclusive of the variety of cultures the that make up the school, the general attitude toward social issues among students is not as progressive as people perceive.

To start, I have found that awareness of issues regarding marginalized groups is inconsistent. In my history and English classes, I’ve read many books that highlight issues of diversity, but students o en view these books as tools that propagate “the liberal agenda.”

For example, in 10th grade English, students read the book “ e Poet X.” While I enjoyed the book and how it discussed the high school experience of a Latina girl, many of my peers dismissed the book and described it as “forced diversity.”

is isn’t Greenhill’s fault as an administration or educational institution. e school consistently tries to teach about identity and marginalization, but many students rarely question or take action against the systems they bene t from.

I’m saddened by the reality that many students across the state of Texas are unable to discuss these social and political issues, and I recognize that we are lucky to be able to have these conversations here on campus. But these conversations, even though they are held, are not being taken to heart by many students.

Even when students do engage in these conversations, they o en feel surface level and o en culminate in no

actions to progress Greenhill’s cultural climate. Our inability to make actual progress toward mutual social and cultural understanding has made many of us feel internally divided.

Additionally, Community Time assemblies usually focus on festivities or cultural celebrations instead of discussions about pressing issues within marginalized communities.

It is extremely important to learn about these cultures, but these presentations almost feel forced. Students o en complain about how they would rather do their homework and many have expressed their disinterest in these discussions.

Sometimes I feel like we have deeper issues, like awareness regarding lower income families.

Because a large portion of our students come from high income families, planning events that are considerate of everyone’s nancial situations is o en ignored.

is is when the distinction about socioeconomic and cultural disparities needs to be made.

Structurally, the nancial aid o ce will do everything from providing money for textbooks and even weekly allowances for the Buzz or breakfast. Greenhill is also needblind, meaning an applicant’s nancial status is not taken into account during the admissions process, and, as a result, $5.9 million in nancial aid was awarded to students in 2021 per Greenhill’s website.

us, Greenhill is making positive strides towards breaking down the opportunity gaps that prevent many students from receiving an education.

But culturally, there are disparities that nancial aid cannot x. Around campus, there exists an expectation that we should be able to a ord a pricey brunch on the weekend or a nice car at 16. For many high school students outside and inside the “Greenhill bubble,” this reality is simply not feasible.

When we have conversations about diversity and inclusion, we o en discuss race, sexuality, gender and religion, but rarely do we talk about people that are unable to experience the luxuries that many of our students have. Talking about socioeconomic status still feels taboo because people feel as if they are being personally attacked when topics like capitalism and increasing taxes are brought up because they more than likely bene t from the current system in place.

I think this has led many students to be ignorant of the needs or nancial limitations of their peers.

While some could argue that this guest essay is unnecessary given that we already have conversations about social issues, there is still much room for improvement.

I want to reiterate that this is not an administrative issue, but rather a cultural one. I hope that we as community are able to consider the issues mentioned and re ect on how we can all be more inclusive to live up to our progressive image.

A Season of Celebration

iwali is commonly known as the “Festival of Lights.” It is a Hindu religious festival that celebrates the triumph of light over darkness and good over evil. ve days and marks the god Rama’s return to his er defeating the demon Ravana and serving 14 years in exile.

Students across campus observe Diwali in di “Diwali has always been more of a cultural thing in my family, rather than a religious thing,” said senior Deeya Bachani. “We still do a few prayers and do an

However, the most memorable parts of Diwali, according to Bachani, are the celebrations she has with friends, family, and neighbors. ere’s a lot of dancing and sparklers, which are my favorite part,” she said. “I always know when it’s Diwali because I live in very South Asian neighborhood and so every night I’ll just be hearing at sense of community is amazing.”

Each family has their own traditions to celebrate the holiday. Sophomore en creates rangoli sand art and places it by their replace and outside their front door, she said. Making rangoli, as well as lighting diya candles, are ways to welcome positivity and good luck into

“My favorite part of Diwali is the food,” Chhaya said. “We always have a family Diwali dinner with homemade food and we go to lots of parties with tons of delicious sweets.”