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“Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical” Rise in Voter Turnout
Eva Pierre-Antoine | Assistant Online Editor pl242581@ahschool.com
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Strides in Representation
Due to the pandemic’s e ect on theater, musical fans came together to create a new musical entirely on TikTok. A musical interpretation of Disney Pixar’s “Ratatouille,” the show that initially started as a joke, became a wildly collaborative event. Di erent people contributed di erent aspects of production, from songs to set designs. It culminated with a performance on Jan. 1, featuring “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” star Tituss Burgess as Remy the Rat. According to todaytix, this musical succeeded in raising over $1.5 million for struggling actors. Across the parties, over 159 million Americans, according to CNBC, voted in the 2020 presidential election. Counting over 100 million ballots alone during the early voting period, 2020 had the highest turnout rate, in terms of percentages, since the year 1900. This is a big jump from the 136.6 million votes cast in 2016 and is especially signi cant, as the U.S. currently ranks 30 out of the 35 most developed nations, according to Pew Research, for voter turnout. New forms of representation in the government: Senator Kamala Harris as the rst woman, Black and Indian-American, to be vice president; Marilyn Strickland, Michelle Steel and Young Kim are the rst KoreanAmerican women elected to the House of Representatives; Ritchie Torres and Mondaire Jones are the rst openly gay Black men in the House of Representatives; Cynthia Lummis is the rst woman to serve in the Senate from Wyoming; and Jon Osso is the rst Jewish man and Raphael Warnock is the rst Black man to be Georgia Senators.
Digitizing the Literary Fair
(Graphics/Zoe Persaud)
Emily Anderson | Entertainment Editor pl238251@ahschool.com
COVID-19 has instigated many changes on campus. From social distancing to altered club plans, both faculty and students have had to adapt to some change. For the literary magazine sta , they understand the idea of adapting to change.
As opposed to previous years, the sta had to work completely online, leading them to change their previous routines to ones that adapt to the pandemic.
“The sta has adapted to COVID by mainly working entirely through Google applications,” Editor-in-Chief senior Jewel Kyaw said.
Obviously, with change comes uncertainty. Due to the pandemic and safety precautions, club presidents and sponsors have to get creative, usually through virtual platforms. Because of COVID-19, administration prevented the occurrence of a live literary fair. In its place, the sta will be creating a website to display students’ work.
“We plan on putting all of the winners’ works on a website for them to view their writing,” Kyaw said. “The website will feature an author’s interview/bio along
“We are discussing the structure of the magazine and the possibility of it being a website rather than a physical magazine,
Jewel Kyaw, 12 with a video of them reading their work out loud.”
Despite the changes due to the pandemic, the sta still remains excited to see their nal product.
“I’m so excited to see the nished project,” Assistant Editor-in-Chief sophomore Nithisha Makesh said. “This is the rst time we’re making a website instead of having a physical Literary Fair in the library, so I anticipate a lot of creativity.”
Although the pandemic has a ected the usual way the literary magazine sta designs their work, they continue to persevere.
“The sta has come together quickly and adjusted to our new reality. Creating the literary fair and magazine when you can’t meet in person has been much, much harder, but this sta has met the challenge,” literary magazine adviser Ms. Diana Adams said.
A COVID Call-to-Action
Ellaheh Gohari | Features Editor pl236951@ahschool.com
With President Joe Biden taking o ce in the middle of a pandemic, getting the coronavirus under control was one of the rst items on his agenda. Inheriting a nonexistent vaccine distribution plan from the previous administration according to CNN, Biden started o his term formulating a new plan from scratch. His ultimate goal is to get cases down and vaccines in Americans’ arms, but it is not going to happen immediately.
“We didn’t get into this mess overnight, and it is going to take months to get it turned around,” Biden said, as he signed executive orders targeting coronavirus response.
Promising to “listen to science” and “promote trust, transparency, common purpose and accountability in [the] government” according to a White House press release, the BidenHarris administration developed a 200 page downloadable national strategy, which can be found on the o cial White House website.
The strategy is divided into seven key points: restoring trust with the American people, beginning a safe and e ective vaccine campaign, stopping the spread of coronavirus through more mask-wearing, testing and treatment, expanding the emergency relief fund, safely reopening schools and businesses, protecting the most vulnerable by improving racial equity and restoring American leadership.
Biden has taken steps to accomplish these seven goals with a slew of executive orders, making his rst week in o ce
historic for the number issued, 22. According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), that means 70% of the U.S. population needs to get vaccinated, so achieving herd immunity is an uphill battle.
As the coronavirus continues to spread, Biden and his newly appointed pandemic advisers have begun holding weekly brie ngs.
In one such brie ng, they projected as many as 514,000 people could die from the virus by February. Even with these numbers, the future is not all grim. Biden plans to get 100 million vaccine doses administered within 100 days, something that was originally considered impossible by experts, but is now on track to being achieved. The president also announced that he bought 200 million extra doses, allowing more Americans to receive the potentially life-saving shot.
With enough time, Biden promises his plan will lessen cases and eventually neutralize the threat of coronavirus once and for all.
“New COVID cases are falling nationally, but vaccines and herd immunity—when enough people are vaccinated that the virus can no longer spread from person to person anymore as there is no viable host—is the only sure re way to stop the spread completely.
MOVING FORWARD: President Biden signs an executive order as Vice President Kamala Harris looks on. Shattering records for the most executive orders issued in the rst week, 22 in all, Biden targeted vaccine distribution, racial equity, the environment and Donald Trump’s
controversial policies. (Photo/Wall Street Journal)
Regeneron Science Talent Search includes senior Roshni Mishra in top 300 scholars across the nation
Emma Remudo| Sta Writer pl209912@ahschool.com
AMAZING APPLICATIONS
Mishra completed the application with the help of Mrs. Leya Joykutty. The application required everything from Mishra’s paper and procedure to letters of recomendation and supplements.
(Photo/Roshni Mishra)
ANALYZING ALZHEIMERS Mishra’s experiment used the CRISPR-Cas9 system to edit the DNA of C. elegans. Editing the DNA allowed Mishra to overexpress proteins that were hypothesized to increase brain regulation in alzheimer’s brains. (Photo/Roshni Mishra) Senior Roshni Mishra originally had no interest in entering to be a Regeneron Science Talent Search Scholar, but when AP Biology teacher Mrs. Leya Joykutty presented Mishra with the opportunity, she decided to compete.
“Mrs. Joykutty always pushes us to put ourselves out there and apply to competitions,” Mishra said. “At rst I was not going to apply because of the selectivity and time consuming process, but Mrs. Joykutty convinced me to. I’m grateful she did.”
A er conducting her project from June through December in 2018, Mishra wrote her paper “Expression of antineurodegeneration genes in mutant caenorhabditis elegans using CRISPR- Cas9 improves behavior associated with Alzheimer’s Disease.” Mishra then took a week to complete the application and submit it to the 80th Regeneron Science Talent Search.
Mishra was chosen as one of the top 300 scholars out of the 1,760 applicants who submitted a work. As a reward, Mishra won $2,000 and the school received $2,000 to fund their STEM programs.
Looking towards the future, Mishra hopes to continue her work in science research on a greater scale.
