Spring 2013
Jump Street Presents
For The Underaged
FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Bob Welsh EDUCATION PROGRAM DIRECTOR & PUBLISHER Christine Glover GRAPHIC DESIGNER Austin Fitz GRAPHIC ARTIST/COVER DESIGN Khayman SENIOR EDITORS Joanne Drawbaugh | Madelyn Super INTERNS Emanuel Aponte | Jada Baity | Sydni Chapman Jonathan McGrew | Mikayla Snyder CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Susquehanna Township School of the Arts Students
MISSION STATEMENT 1. To provide opportunities to regional teens to participate in all phases of the magazine publishing process, from writing and editing to graphic design, photography and marketing. Area professionals will mentor the students, providing them with marketable and transferable skills. 2. To provide teens with a magazine that promotes healthy lifestyles and highlights the tremendousopportunities available to them in central Pennsylvania as students and future employees.
Jump Street 100 North Cameron Street, 2nd Floor Harrisburg, PA 17101 1.717.238.1887 www.jumpstreet.org Executive Director & Founder Robert C. Welsh Education Program Director & AND Publisher Christine Glover Jump Street is a nonprofit community arts organization that is dedicated to developing education and economic opportunities in the arts for all ages. Jump Street uses the arts to provide valuable career education and transferable workforce development skills to young people. Additionally, Jump Street provides arts programs for youth and adults, arts-based community service programs, grants to artists, exhibitions, and technical assistance to artists and arts organizations. The views expressed by the contributors of and™ magazine are not necessarily those of and™ publisher or Jump Street staff. We feel that it is essential for teens to have a place to express their opinions about their world.
717.233.0109 www.benchmarkgroupmedia.com
Editor’s Letter
You may say that I’m a dreamer. Actually, you would be crazy to say I’m anything but. My whole life has been built on dreams; in Kindergarten I dreamed of being Britney Spears, fifth grade I wanted to be the president, and in high school I realized my dream of being the editor-in-chief at Vouge. At every stage in my life, it seems I’ve always been dreaming of something more. As I progress through my senior year I am witnessing something wonderful in the works. After years of pining for the future, it seems my future is finally here. Today my goals are not just faraway fairy tales-- they’re actually beginning to materialize. When I began working with the amazing Jump Street staff at AND Magazine I was still just a dreamer. Since beginning my intern experience here I have met a lifetime’s worth of interesting people such as the star on the rise, Rebecca Marie Miller, and the infinitely talented Nisha Surve. I’ve attended seminars in New York City and given my phone number to my longtime idol, Prabal Gurung. I interviewed for my dream school and taught new friends from Los Angeles and Cincinnati how to navigate the subway. It all started when I began work at AND Magazine. No matter what you dream of doing with your life, you can start to make it happen now. AND means to inspire you to do just that. In this issue you’ll find the stories of people who made their goals reality and students who are embarking on that journey today. AND itself is an inspiration; it’s the product of what can happen when a few students get together and harness their passion to create a publication they love. Above all, I hope AND motivates you to get out there and start doing whatever you love. It’s already April and before you know it senior year will be history and we’ll be on our way to college. There’s never as much time as we think, so it’s important to act on your ambition now. Live everyday as if it could be your last, and if that day comes too soon you won’t have any regrets. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all, so set out on your adventure today. Good luck!
Joanne Drawbaugh
EDITORS LETTER
AND MAGAZINE Jump Street 100 North Cameron Street, 2nd Floor Harrisburg, PA 17101 717.238.1887 cglover@jumpstreet.org
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SPRING 2013 ISSUE
05 | YOURSELF
28 | YOUR COUTURE
Media and Body Image By Amelia Allen
How Fashion Gave Me Trust Issues By Joanne Drawbaugh
Find Your Swag By Chanel Shaw
Vintage Thrifting By Sydni Chapman Why Don’t You Dress Like You Mean It? By Joanne Drawbaugh
Easy Skin Solutions By Joanne Drawbaugh Workouts for Winter Weather By Madelyn Super
09 | YOUR DOMAIN
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Human Trafficking By Breanna Morrison Coming Out and Coming Into Myself By Gunther Gochenauer Bullying By Nongeb Yougbare
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Occupy Wall Street By Austin Hall Downfall of Social Media By Madelyn Super By the Numbers By Gabrielle Dardis
15 | YOUR TAKE
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A Eulogy for Originality By Joanne Drawbaugh Music in Learning Environments By Taylor Trinh Lo-Fidelity, High Truth By Fitz Koch Inauguration Ruminations By Joanne Drawbaugh Life as a Private School Student By Sydni Chapman
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20 | YOUR INSPIRATION A Rant By Madelyn Super Todd Shill By Joanne Drawbaugh Reinvent Yourself By Madelyn Super I Am a Latino Voice By Emanuel Aponte
CONTENTS
Susquehanna Township School District School of the Arts Photo Essay
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33 | YOUR COMMUNITY Anime Club By Kaitlin Woodlen Do It For the Kids By Jada Baity Rotary Youth Exchange By Benjamin Schilling Artistic Expressions By Colin Powers
38 | YOUR MONEY Tricks Money Plays on Your Mind Repreinted from themint.org Extreme Couponing By Jonathan McGrew Five Steps to Saving Reprinted from themint.org
41 | YOUR FUTURE Drop Outs Do Succeed By Jonathan McGrew Are We There Yet? By Madelyn Super
43 | YOUR DIVERSION Restaurants for Date Night By Madelyn Super Sonnet 1 By Sydni Chapman Tankas By Sydni Chapman Gallery By Camp Hill High School Students
48 | YOUR SCORE High School Sports Round Up By Jada Baity
49 | MEET THE AND INTERNS
BY Amelia Allen
In our nation today, we are met with a force more powerful than our political leaders, educators, mental health professionals and the country’s parents combined. These forces not only influence the way we as a nation think, vote, and behave, but also have the power to destroy thousands of people’s lives every single year. We interact with this force every single day, multiple times a day. From the moment we get up, to the moment we go to bed, this force is somewhere near us. Take a guess as to what it is. No, it’s not God, and no it is not nature. This force is the mass media. Used correctly, and in moderation, the mass media can be a tool to educate and entertain. However, most of the time, the mass media becomes a beast as its misuse leads to negative body image, mental disorders and self-harm. What is mass media? Well, let’s start with what a medium is. A medium is any method of conveying information from one person to another. Mass media
encompasses the books we read, the shows we watch, the music we listen to and much more. Mass media is a huge part of capitalism. Every day there are millionaires in charge of each medium, hoping to get your money. Of course, you probably already know that there is nothing wrong with capitalism. However, the way most advertising is done places an emphasis on making consumers feel inadequate. This method causes negative body image as an inevitable result of consumers being bombarded with hundreds of images daily. Negative body image can lead to mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, anorexia nervosa and bulimia, especially among young girls. The Problem of Eating Disorders: A Silent Monster Everyday more and more elementary aged girls will diet despite not being overweight. Even more girls will worry about being fat. Ten percent of all anorexia sufferers had an onset of the disease at age eight at the earliest. Thirty-three percent
YOURSELF
Media and Body Image
had their onset of anorexia starting at age eleven. Very few recover without skilled medical professionals, and many more die or suffer permanent injury to internal organs due to the body’s reaction to the lack of nutrients and the subsequent strain as the body begins to feed off of itself. The media makes this problem worse by making young girls feel that they must obtain an impossible ideal. The promotion of extreme thinness combined with the desire to be kind, sweet, and beautiful (in other words, perfect) sends these young perfectionists over the edge. Even with the rise of this problem, the media keeps pushing this ideal in an attempt to get every dollar they can out of their target demographic. In addition to eating disorders, the failure to live up to the ideal of perfection that the media promotes as just out of reach can lead to depression and anxiety. Depression not only leads to a disrupted academic and social life, thus stripping away its sufferers control over what happens to them, but can also lead to suicide in extreme cases. In less severe cases, depressed people may start cutting or burning themselves in an attempt to relieve intense emotional pain. Often, cutting becomes an addiction that takes years to overcome. Besides self-mutilation, depressives often turn to prescription drugs or alcohol to cope, thus destroying not only the lives of these girls, but the lives of their families as well. The media contributes to this problem by showing stereotyped or flat characters. Most often, females in music and television are not allowed to be human, but must live up to that ideal of perfection. When media is all around you, it’s inevitable that eventually you’ll be influenced. Now, don’t misunderstand me when I say that media leads to various mental disorders. Media itself is not evil. With the right control and the right people running it, it can be an entertaining and educating tool for life. The problem is that media right now is not controlled and the wrong people are behind it. There are solutions on the horizon, however. Right now groups like Commonsense Media, Kidsin-Mind.com and Movieguide are monitoring mass media so that it will be appropriate for younger children, with input from concerned parents. The Dove True Beauty campaign and Truecampaign.org are working hard to restore the self-esteem of girls in the nation through various workshops. But as long as people remain apathetic, this beast will continue to roam free.
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Find Your
YOURSELF
BY Chanel Shaw
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Style, confidence, and coolness are the key ingredients to the recipe for swag. Swag is a slang term that means how you represent yourself. Many people want to have style, confidence, and coolness. Your fashion and swag coming together are important. My mother told me to always make the best first impression. So when you pick out your next outfit, remember that people will judge you on how you dress and how you act.
that the stars get clothing for free to advertise that name brand, and they wear it to get more free clothing. Young people can get obsessed with one style or one name brand. If you love fashion like I do, then you know it’s always good to be inspired by what you love and who you are and not by whom someone else is. Instead of wearing what someone else is wearing or one name brand, try wearing something different.
Style Style is the clothing you wear and how you accessorize the outfit. In the United States, teen fashion is dominated by name brand clothing. In my school, some of the popular name brands are Polo, Abercrombie and Fitch, and Hollister. They are the three biggest name brands in my school now. Those stores have nice clothes, but I feel that wearing the same name brands all the time doesn’t really show off someone’s swag. In school, I see girls and boys wearing a lot of the same clothing. How can you show the world your style by wearing clothing that everyone else is wearing? Many young people look at magazines or television to find a style to imitate. Many teens don’t know
Confidence Confidence is how you think of yourself and how you carry yourself. Some teens may not have confidence, because they haven’t figured how to be comfortable being themselves. You need to look within yourself and love the real you. Loving yourself is necessary toward being self-confident. That is right, love yourself! It is alright to think you’re the best good looking person in the world, just do not be cocky, because cockiness is not cute on anybody. No one wants to be around someone who is conceited. Balance is key. I feel that clothes play a big part in your personality as well. You cannot get confidence wearing everything that your peers are wearing. You need
to dress yourself based on your own taste in clothing. I dress like how I feel. I have done make-overs, and after I am finished people say they feel better. If you take care of how you look, you feel better about yourself. Coolness Being cool can be confused with being confident. Coolness is how you put your style together and not caring what anyone thinks about it. Sometimes you feel like wearing a lot of accessories, and your friends may say something about your outfit, but do not get mad. If you like your outfit, that is all that matters.You do not have to listen to them for that day. If you want to be cool, you need to learn how to stay calm and not let things bother you. If you are cool with style and confidence, then you have swag. You don’t have to be stuck wearing one style; try different styles, mix styles, and create your own style. Create your style with confidence, be spontaneous, and have fun. Be comfortable and cool with your new creation. Do not let anyone make you feel like you are not great, because you are. Find your swag and wear it like a new name brand.
Easy Skin Solutions BY Joanne Drawbaugh
1. Reassess your face wash. Many of us overestimate the amount of cleaning our skin needs, especially during the winter when our follicles are battling the dry air to produce enough oil to combat ashiness. Most dermatologists recommend that other than those with extremely oily skin, the gentlest option is the best option. Some women don’t even use cleanser in the morning, replacing it with warm milk or water! 2. Get your antioxidants. This can be done with the help of a supplement (look out for vitamin C!) or simply by maintaining a healthy diet. Fruits and veggies should do the job too, especially blueberries and edamame. Walnuts soften your skin, while sunflower seeds brighten it. Kidney beans zap zits. And best of all? Decadent dark chocolate is known to
have countless reputable benefits for your face. 3. Invest in a topical retinoid. This is just a dermatology jargon for a facial cream that increases collagen and cell-turnover, resulting in more even, glowing skin. If you don’t see a dermatologist, you can still get these products over the counter. As an added bonus, the OTC counterparts tend to be less irritating. Diacneal by Aveene, Green Cream, and Viviant’s Vitamin A products are all popular options. 4. Exfoliate. The act of gently scrubbing your skin to slough away dead skin can be the difference between a dull complexion and a bright face. It keeps the skin soft and rids it of dead skin, thus preventing clogged pores and acne. In addition, it speeds up the renewal process
and allows moisturizer to work more effectively. You can reap all of these rewards just by using a warm, wet washcloth on your face every other morning. 5. Adopt a healthier lifestyle. Time and time again you’ll hear the same advice: get your sleep, drink water, exercise, and eat well. These healthy habits help not only your complexion, but also your weight, energy levels, and general happiness. So listen to your mom and take care of yourself! Your skin will thank you. A glowing complexion does not require the latest Clinique cleanser and that $40 bottle of moisturizer. It is an easy reward that comes from within, along with a little extra gentle effort on the surface. With a few tweaks to your daily regimen, you can beat the dull winter blues.
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The dazzling holidays are over; the bright white snow has turned to a grey-ish slush, and somewhere along the line, December faded into January. As the holiday season comes to a close, the world seems to lose its luster and as you may notice, at the hands of Jack Frost, so does your skin. The winter brings less daylight, harsh wind, and drying, cold air. All of this can wreak havoc on the skin, whether it be the complexion of your face to the softness of your knees. In 2013, resolve to stand up to Mother Nature by taking your skin’s health into your own hands. With these simple solutions, you’ll have that summer glow back in no time.
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Workouts for Winter Weather BY Madelyn Super | Red Land High School
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When the temperature is below 55, it can be a bit of a challenge to go outside for a workout. With winter comes the snow, wind, and bone chilling cold that keeps you indoors as much as possible. Statistically proven, 30% of people don’t exercise at all during the winter. Understandably, it’s cold out. But don’t let the cold keep you in, or out of shape. While fresh air is a necessity to everyone, providing extra energy and naturally relieving frustration and stress levels, indoor workouts can be just as beneficial. For those who can stand to brave the winter chill but are lost as to a workout plan, the easiest thing to do is pick up a winter sport! In central PA skiing and snowboarding are easy hobbies to pick during the winter months. Ski Roundtop and Liberty Mountain are just a few examples of where to go to hit the slopes. Another activity perfect for burning calories is shoveling snow. Earn some extra cash or brownie points from mom and dad while benefiting your body!
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Since winter is the season to gain weight, it’s extra important to keep up an exercise routine and to stay active. Most everyone is known to overindulge during the holidays and who wouldn’t? The key is to balance your diet and exercise.While your food intake will either increase in quantity or calories, the level of exercise needs to also increase to compensate for the extra few cookies in order for you to remain happy with your body and healthy during the chilly months of winter. The most successful addition to any workout routine is a workout video. This will keep you in from the cold and provide a satisfactory feeling of accomplishment. If you’re one who is generally uncomfortable at the gym, these are made to be used in the privacy of your home emphasizing working at your own pace. Workout videos can be anything from cardio programs to yoga and everything in between. Pick one
or several that will benefit you and your body type to ensure you receive the best results. Another easy calorie burner is cleaning! Whether it’s your room, the bathrooms or the kitchen, all that scrubbing, vacuuming, and mopping is a sure way to burn off some of that peanut butter cake while pleasing your parents. Also, if the weather looks better than usual, go for a walk or run with a friend. Having a workout buddy increases motivation and turns exercise into a fun activity. There are many ways to keep a healthy routine during winter; the importance is to do it! Don’t lose motivation just because the temperature drops, use the cooler air as a positive and find new ways to better your workouts. It’s easy to fall into the trap of forgetting a workout routine, especially during winter, but in order to feel better about yourself and your body, stay active!
Human Trafficking “Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, and forgotten by everybody. I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat” – Mother Theresa
BY Breanna Morrison
than what Google, Nike, and Starbucks profit in a year. Each “worker” in the sex trade industry is worth about $90. That’s all a human’s life is worth to these sick individuals; these people treat the women and children they traffic like they are property or products to be bought and sold. This is completely inhumane, and must be stopped. There is no way to rationalize treating a person like an object. No child should be robbed of their childhood, then forced to sell themselves on a daily basis, causing them permanent emotional, mental, and even physical damage. These victims completely lose their sense of self-worth; often times forgetting they themselves are indeed human. Eventually, these people can’t help but feel like they are just worthless items to be tossed around. They are completely dehumanized; void of any sense of normalcy, robbed of the opportunity to know what it feels like to live a real life, a life where they have the ability to practice their basic, God-given rights as a human being. Imagine your brother/sister, daughter/son being kidnapped. Imagine them being locked in a dark room hours upon hours unsure of when their next meal will be, their next shower, their next sleep. Imagine them alone with strange, greedy men who have absolutely no regard to the fact that the person they are treating like a disposable toy is indeed a human. The average age of all those brought into the sex industry is 12 years old. This is quite possibly the most fragile age in a child’s life, and certainly an age where the child is still vulnerable. Horrifyingly enough, only 1 in every 100 trafficked persons has even
the slightest chance to be rescued. Only .4% of all victims are actually identified. Why is it that only 10% of all American police stations have a protocol when dealing with human trafficking issues, when it is clearly such a rapidly growing issue? How can human trafficking be stopped? I believe the only ways to terminate the industry are by raising awareness, providing a safe house for the victims, helping them restore their lives, advocating on behalf of the victims, and giving the unheard, uncared for, and unloved a voice. There are many organizations that are working towards stopping human trafficking; organizations like Amnesty International, Not for Sale Campaign, The Defender Foundation, and many others. So get involved. Show that you care and help fight for their rights. “Human beings are not property, on the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery; let us reaffirm the inherent dignity of all men, women, and children. And let us redouble our efforts so that the words of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights- ‘no one shall be held in slavery or servitude’-ring true!” – Kofi Annan “We could eradicate slavery. The laws are in place. The multi-nationals, the world trade organizations, the United Nations, they could end slavery, but they’re not going to do it until and unless we demand it.” – Kevin Bales Take Action: www.Amnesty.org www.notforsalecampaign.org/ www.thedefenderfoundation.org/
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Human trafficking is a very sensitive topic; many would much rather just turn their heads and ignore this massive, universal (and rapidly growing) epidemic. It’s important for everyone to understand that human trafficking is not solely a third world issue. Human trafficking is becoming more and more prevalent here in the United States. There are as many as 18,000 men, women, and children trafficked in the United States each year alone. At any given moment, there is anywhere from 12-27 million slaves worldwide. According to the United Nations, sex trafficking is any act in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person is induced to perform such an act has not attained or the recruitment, harboring, transportation provision, or obtaining of a person for a labor or serviced, through use of force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt, bondage or slavery. Now here’s the big question… how in the world does anyone get caught up in this mess? The answer might be surprising. Shockingly enough, it’s very probable that the victim’s parents sold them into the industry themselves in order to pay off a debt, or simply because they couldn’t care for the child themselves. Other times, the victims are lured in… often times with a promise of a better life, the anonymity of the internet has fed the rapid growth of this industry, making the trade easier than ever before. The sex trafficking industry brings in about $32 billion yearly.That’s more
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Needle in a Haystack
Being Gay and Trying to Date
YOUR DOMAIN
BY GuntheR Gochenauer
10
Some may think being gay is a choice but I can assure you being gay is no choice at all. If sexuality was a choice I would certainly choose hetrosexual over homosexual, any day. One of the most socially acceptable sexualities is obviously being straight. Do straight people “come out”? Why do gay people “come out”? Coming out was the acceptance of me being me and was a very eye-opening experience. It took a solid two years for me to realize that my sexuality did not have to be hidden or changed. When I determined it was the right time to sit down with my family and tell them, the hardest three words I had to finally verbalize came piercing through the quiet room. Those three words were... I am gay. My dad didn’t have much to say about it at first... although he had previous suspicions. That night after telling me he still loved me he mentioned that he was looking at resources online to make sure as a parent he was as supportive as possible. In addition to coming out, finding a same sex relationship can be a very
daunting task. Some may say that this is very similar to finding a needle in a haystack. The dating “pool” is much smaller than my hetrosexual peers. One of the most arduous tasks one must face is that you cannot just see someone and say pursue them. It is a complex process. First, you must make sure the other male is gay. There is nothing more embarrassing than flirting with a straight guy. Although some straight guys enjoy getting compliments from gay guys as it’s an ego boost that they are attractive to both sexes. As in most cases some may be homophobic, although I’m not saying all straight guys are homophobic. Homophobia is very annoying as you may get dirty looks from homophobic people and hear phobic slurs used daily. I had to become very secure about myself as homophobic people are the insecure ones, they just don’t realize it. After I know they are playing for “my team” I have to ask whether they are out. Their answer may be limiting personally to me because I want to be able to show who I really am and not have to hide
a relationship in public. Do “straight” people hide or mask their sexual preference? If you set out for what you want, you will get what you want... you may just have to wait, longer than you think. Due to the population of gay guys being much smaller than straight guys it is never easy to find who you truly want. They may be a vexatious 20 minute drive away, but you found at least one candidate in a close parameter. There are many “dating” services available to use but most want you to be 18 years or older. I found myself hearing from friends all the time that they know of this one gay guy that I should date. I never understood the fact that even though we are both gay, it does not mean we are compatible with each other. In my opinion it is very annoying that since there are so few gay guys in my school I never knew them until the first date. No matter how much you may know them through texting, there is nothing better than the first impressions they make. It was a long process until I actually felt confident enough to actually date someone.
Bullying: The most common definition of bullying is “a repeated oppression, psychological or physical, of a less powerful person by a more powerful person or group of persons. Someone can have less power than others for many reasons – being shy, being different, lacking confidence, having problems at home, or lacking physical strength.
Bullying takes many different forms, including: physical threats or violence; name calling and teasing; ostracism; and social attacks on someone’s reputation. People can bully others directly, in person; indirectly, such as by gossiping or ‘badmouthing’ by voice to others; or through any form of communication technology, including talking on the phone, writing, texting, emailing, and recording. Bullying behavior occurs in schools, sports, youth groups, work places, social groups, senior centers, and online activities. It can occur anywhere people gather, either in the real world or the virtual world. Bullying takes place between people of all ages and walks of life. Young people who are being bullied are especially likely to feel trapped and alone because they usually don’t have a choice about where they live, go to school, or play.
There is a difference between conflict and bullying. Conflict is a normal part of most relationships, because people have different perspectives and priorities. While kids need adult supervision so that they learn how to deal with conflict constructively, most upsetting behavior between people is NOT bullying. People can also be hurtful to each other because of thoughtlessness, annoyance, poor boundaries, and experimenting with negative uses of their power without realizing the impact.The good news is that the social and emotional skills that can prevent and stop most bullying and harassment are also important in building healthy relationships. Learning how to take charge of their own emotional and physical safety, how to act safely and respectfully towards others even if they feel frustrated or upset, how to set boundaries and respect the boundaries of others, and how to advocate effectively to help others, empowers most people and gives them tools to better manage future conflicts and relationship issues. The bottom line is that people have the right to be treated with respect and they also have the responsibility to act respectfully towards others. Stopping bullying may seem difficult, but it can be done if young people witness bullying, their wisest choices are going to depend on the situation. They can speak up, reach out, and/or leave to get help. Suppose the person doing the bullying is being unkind by leaving another kid out or by calling names. Give kids practice speaking up while staying polite and confident with statements like: “Stop!” “That seems like a hurtful thing to say.” “Wait!” “The rule here is that everybody gets to play!” “Hi!” “What’s going on?” “Hey! That’s not cool!” Persist respectfully if someone reacts negatively. For more information, check out: stopbullying.gov/respond/be-more-than-abystander/
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What It Is and How to Stop It
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YOUR DOMAIN
BY Austin Hall
12
The streets of New York City were filled with police on September 17th, 2012, but no emergency. Hundreds of police were gathered to stop somewhat of a “revolution” happening all over the city.Thousands of protestors from across America gathered near Wall Street to show their feelings on the American government. Most people have their problems with government, but these people truly think their efforts can change the way our economy, culture, and government work. Although some actions may be more controversial than others, every single form of resistance has its own consequence. Occupy Wall Street was started on September 17th, 2011, to protest the New York financial district and every unjust thing it stood for. It was the Canadian activist group Adbusters who began the movement. The gathering was filled with people who disagreed with the way America was treating its land and its people. These protestors came to show their views on social and economic inequality, greed, corruption and the perceived undue influence of corporations on government. These topics were particularly started by the so called “problems” with the financial services sector. Though everyone in the movement had different opinions and complaints,
they all believed in the saying “We are the 99%,” thus referring to the favoring by the American financial system to the 1% of the most wealthy people in America. Everyone participating in the event believed the majority of the American people are middle class, yet we have no real influence in the financial happenings of our country. They believe 99% of our country has no real say in the economic or political decisions being made every day on Wall Street. Protestors argue why a country “for the people” is run by the 1% of wealthy Americans in need of no real economic change. To achieve their goals, the people act as one defiant movement called a general assembly. These assemblies gather the protestors to collectively battle one specific problem with the government. This year the members met at the New York Stock Exchange and created a human wall to block the workers who control America’s economy. A majority of the people that attended the protest were fighting the government’s decision to bailout Wall Street firms who had carelessly lost their assets due to overspending and poor investment decisions. The 99% believes these bailouts should be given to students and families in debt rather than the big businesses currently being
taken care of by the government. Throughout the protest more than 100 people were arrested for nonviolent sit-ins. Not only that, but the entire financial district was barricaded with cement walls, identification walkthroughs, and horse mounted police squads. If you didn’t work for a firm, you were not getting through. It was as if the city was preparing for a terroristic attack rather than a peaceful gathering of protesters. The streets were filled with more police than I had ever seen. Groups of twenty or thirty riot prepared officers gathered at every street corner to ensure there was no resistance. The protest went on peacefully throughout the days leading up to September 17th, with a majority of the arrests being non-violent and related to the human traffic problems caused by the people blocking the financial district’s entrances. Whatever image the protest put forth was irrelevant to the people involved, their true mission was to impact the 1% and hope the people’s interests would be accounted for. So whether or not most Americans agree with what these people are doing, if they belong to an American working class family, these protestors believe they are working to help them.
Cyber bullying. Everyone knows the term and has more than likely become familiar with it in recent years, as social media has taken the generation by storm. There have been nationwide assemblies for middle school and high schools educating students on the damages it causes and what students can do to avoid being a victim. Movies have been made to capitalize on the results; articles have been written about those who have fallen as victims. All have made efforts to keep the world of social media a safe environment for each of its members. Social media was not created for negative ventilation. While the purpose of such sites is to post publicly to friends and family, the underlying world of social media provides opportunities for bullying. As more social media sites generate followers, the probability of victims increases. Dosomething.org presents facts on the reality of how prevalent cyber bullying really is. Nearly 43% of kids have been bullied online, making that nearly half of a high school’s
population. Of that percentage, 90% have kept being a victim a secret. That statistic directly correlates with the vacancy in the guidance department. Mrs. Goas, a guidance counselor at Red Land High School, said, “Students realize that bullying happening outside school walls can’t be handled by administration unless it begins to affect the classroom atmosphere. In extreme cases, we’ll use what’s called ‘Cease and Desist’. This is a contract that the bully signs agreeing to diminish contact with the victim. Beyond this, there isn’t much we can do.” The increasingly popular Twitter only served to increase the rate of online bullying. Students now turn to social media. Most seniors will confess to calling someone out via Twitter, and even more confess to complaining about a person, teacher, parents, or friends by tweeting as well. With the Twitter world growing, followers use “subtweeting” to generally convey complaints about others without acknowledging
them. Students venting via social media has become more prevalent as its popularity increases, letting emotions go simply because the consequences are not present due to anonymity. Although, these vent sessions are turning into direct attacks, singling out a person without tagging them. Would this be considered the cowards approach to bullying? Even so, it still has a negative effect on the original purpose of Twitter, and other social media sites. The purpose of such sites is to unite, not divide. Twitter was not made to be an outlet. Students have an opportunity to eliminate the negativity being associated with social media. Is it possible to stay positive, to erase the damaging effects of cyber bullying? The purpose for social media has been misconceived. Makers of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. wanted these sites to allow communication and information to flourish between friends, families, and organizations. They wanted to bring people together through the internet.
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BY Madelyn Super
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My Life as a Catholic School Girl
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BY Sydni Chapman
14
My name is Sydni, and I’ve gone to Catholic school my entire life. I often get questions like “what’s it like?” and “does it totally suck wearing a uniform?” I’m going to give insight into the truth about going to Catholic school and how it differs from public school. Remember, not every private school is exactly the same just like public schools are not all the same. This is an account through my eyes. First, I’ll share a bit about me. I was born into a Catholic family who decided they wanted me to have a Catholic education. I did one year of kindergarten at Our Lady of the Valley in Lebanon, which was a K-8 school. The next year they merged with Lebanon Catholic High School. The “High School” part was dropped and I spent my next 12 years attending Lebanon Catholic School. Now, embarking on the last few months of my senior year, I have had plenty of first-hand experience in Catholic schooling. One thing that shocks many people is that we often celebrate Mass in school, especially if it’s an HDO (holy day of obligation), or close to a time like Christmas. On these days we’re on a special schedule and at 10:30 the entire school gathers in the gym to celebrate Mass. Not everyone who goes to Catholic school is Catholic, but they are still required to attend Mass (just like every kid must go to an assembly) and are invited to join in many parts of the Mass. We also have many short prayer services throughout the year. It’s kind of nice having shorter classes on these days, but after having so many Mass days you realize classes end up feeling just as long. It’s still nice being able to celebrate Mass among all your classmates, and many of us, including me, probably take that for granted. Secondly, we pray often. We pray before the pledge of allegiance and morning announcements. We pray a short prayer with our teachers before most of our classes.We pray after lunch and at the end of the day. I like being in a place where we can pray freely and openly.
A lot of times when you think of a Catholic school you think about nuns teaching in their habits, running around and smacking knuckles with their rulers. At Lebanon Catholic we only have one nun and she doesn’t teach a specific class or wear a habit, she substitutes for different teachers. She is a very important part of our staff, but my point is that we don’t have your stereotypical nuns teaching all our classes. Something else that surprises people is the size of my class.We have a whooping total of 38 kids in the senior class. Our entire school has around 350 kids, which is probably the size of one class at most public schools. I go to an extremely small Catholic school. In general, Catholic schools do have smaller classes, but they tend to be a good bit larger than ours. This has its positive and negatives. It’s really nice being able to get close to your entire class as opposed to being a stranger to a number of your classmates. The downside of this is that sometimes people end up knowing too much about you. Small classes also mean that you get a lot of one-on-one attention from teachers and they really get to know each of their students. As kids are doing their back-toschool shopping and looking for their first day outfits, every Catholic school kid is stocking up on uniforms at Flynn & O’Hara. Each morning instead of picking out an outfit, I wake up and put on a uniform. Girls have their choice of two different skirts, a baby blue one or a green plaid one. Guys wear tan khaki pants. In the winter, both guys and girls wear either a blue or white oxford shirt and a sweater, if they wish - the guys must wear ties. In the fall and spring we can wear a blue or white polo with the Lebanon Catholic logo on it. Honestly (and this is hard for a girl of fashion to admit) uniforms really aren’t that bad, and they take a lot less thought in the morning. One negative is that they’re pretty strict about the dress code, and you can get a detention if you’re found out of dress code multiple times. That means
regulation shoes (blue, black or brown dress shoes), knee length skirts and tucked in shirts. We have other rules like ones pertaining to hair color and earring size. Every once and a while we have a dress down day whether it’s a PTO fundraiser (we pay $2) or a spirit wear day where we get to wear everyday clothes, with some rules of course. Pants can’t be too tight; skirts can’t be too short. Each year we are required to take a religion class. Different grades have different religion courses; I have taken everything from religious scripture to morality. As seniors we talk about marriage and vocations for the second half of the year, in preparation for the future. Religion classes are just like any other class you would take, tests and all. If you go into our cafeteria on Fridays during Lent you won’t find any meat on the menu, since Catholics are to abstain from meat on that day. It’s not that you can’t bring meat in a packed lunch, that’s up to you. They just won’t supply it. Our discipline measures are a bit stricter. We have a disciplinarian who won’t take any crap. Since it is private and people choose to pay to attend, the school has more freedom to keep a specific code of conduct and enforce it as they like. As annoying as this can be (especially being a teenager) I do believe it discourages a lot of bigger issues from coming about. Going to Lebanon Catholic has definitely given me a different experience than going to public school would have. This may be because this is all I’ve ever known, but I am happy attending Catholic school. There were times when I wished I could go to public school, but now I am glad that I stayed. I don’t think there is any place better for me. Private school isn’t for everyone; you may read this and think “I could never go to Catholic school.” Everybody’s different - that’s the beauty of life and now you’ve seen what school is like through my eyes.
A ORIGINALITY
A EULOGY FOR ORIGINALITY Watch any 80s Tom Hughes film and within ten minutes, you’ll surely discover the prevailing theme of this era in teen culture: Popularity. Few had it, while the bulk of those who didn’t spent their time trying to get it. Fast-forward thirty years or so, and while this faction is still thriving in our halls, there’s a new trend afoot. They’re the girls in combat boots wearing glasses that look like your grandpa’s. They can be loud or quiet, but when they speak you don’t really understand their language (they speak only in irony and insults). They can also be the boys with dyed hair carrying My Little Pony Bags; boys who play in garage bands or who march with the marching band. They associate only with others they find interesting, or what society deems socially unacceptable. Indeed, they are everyone who doesn’t accept what Tom Hughe’s portrayed as “popular”. They’re the kids who accept their individuality and in some cases, flaunt it. Some have been forced to face the facts due to the social rejection of the masses. Ultimately, they have one common thread: the unconventional. However, today, the pathway to weirdness which was often regarded
as a place for those exiled from high school society is now being chosen by as many who avoid it. Translation: people would rather be weird than cool. This should be great right? Finally, everyone’s being themselves without fear of judgment! This is better than world peace, this is selfacceptance! No. Because we’re all doing it wrong. Instead of luring in boys with pom poms and high ponytails, girls tweet pictures of themselves playing Call of Duty and wearing thick, black, non-prescription glasses. So many of these girls attempt to flaunt their individuality by conforming to the trends of non-conformists. It’s ironic in the worst way possible. In all fairness, it’s a depressingly plausible idea that as humans we have thought every original thought to be had. Sad as it may be, this doesn’t mean the end for creativity. If you think about it, we’re all like little collages. Everyone is simply the product of all they have experienced and been inspired by. And since we’ve already thought of all there is to think of, there’s a wealth of material to choose from. Enough that it’s possible to make a unique combination for every person on the
planet. Enough that it’s a shame there are so many people making the same collage of themselves when there’s so much unappreciated material. The solution? We have to do away with stereotypes once and for all, for normal-er or weirder. One girl changing herself to fit the mold of a girl-next-door is just as bad as another trying to fit the standards of a hipster. At the end of the day, it’s the waste of a human being. Take it from Jim Jarmusch, “Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what JeanLuc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to”
YOUR TAKE
BY Joanne Drawbaugh
15
Music in Learning Environments
YOUR TAKE
BY Taylor Trinh
16
We all listen to music. We all enjoy music. And with such easy access to it nowadays, we can almost always catch someone listening to it anywhere and everywhere we go. Whether it is on a smart phone, radio, computer, CD player, etc.—it is everywhere. We can all agree that music is great, right? So why not allow it in classroom settings? Some people like to listen to music when they find themselves losing focus. They may also plug in their earbuds to escape an environment that is too noisy — or too quiet — or to make a repetitive task feel livelier. Going into technical terms, melodious noises help to promote the release of a chemical in the brain called dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain’s reward and pleasure centers. Dopamine also helps regulate movement and emotional responses, and it enables us not only to see
rewards, but to take action to move toward them. The same thing happens when we eat something really good, when we look at something we find visually appealing, or when we smell something pleasant. Our minds tend to wander and get off track. We are easily distracted. And sometimes, we find it hard to focus on just one, specific thing—finding ourselves going deeper and deeper within our thoughts; almost drowning in them. But with the help of music, we can be brought back to that present moment. Some people might not find any improvement in concentration while listening to music. Some may even find music to be quite a distraction. But for most, it helps them complete their tasks more quickly, and with better ideas than those who did not. This was due to the improvement of their mood. When stressed, we usually
make decisions more hastily and have a very narrow focus of attention. When we are in a positive mood, we are able to take in more options and expand our ways of thinking. In a work environment, few companies have policies against music. As for school environments, there are many rules against listening to music on personal devices. But when using music to improve concentration, personal choice is critical; which is why schools should consider reviewing and revising some of their policies. If schools were to actually allow the use of personal devices for this purpose, our job as students would be to use it in moderation. One should not abuse a power like this. As I have stated previously, music can prove to be a distraction. Using music to improve concentration, the flow of ideas, and a positive environment is great as long as work is being done.
Lo-Fidelity, High Truth
Judging by the majority of people I know and the radio, rap and synth based music are the dominant forces in the music market as of right now. This is a good thing. Both kinds of music are new, rapidly changing, and very interesting to anyone fascinated by melody or wordplay (as every music lover should be). Keep listening to it. This being said, radio-popular music today can grow incredibly dull, and it can often seem as if it is separated into two camps: largely tuneless creations of rhythm and language, and incredibly catchy tunes with no attempt at storytelling. Whether you want more than what you get now, or if you are bored, or if I have to beat your head in with a stick to try something new, I present for your judicious and loving consideration two albums of considerable and well-earned repute. The first of these albums is the oldest, and the most professionally made. The Smith’s The Queen is Dead is a famous rock album, and it rightfully deserves its exalted position as the best of their small span of work. The album opens with the title track, a rollicking good time with excellent drums that captures the listener like a fat old fly. The beat continues and slams around as the singer, a complete whacko named Morrisey, asks the listener “has the world changed or have I changed.” This track, though largely serious and interesting in its condemnation of the English Royal Family, does not set up a sternly serious exploration. For like the best rock music, The Queen is Dead is
incredibly funny even as it is incredibly sad and alienating. The second track, “Frankly Mr. Shankly,” displays more of the wit, telling the listener “since you so politely ask, you are a flatulent pain in the ….” The Smith’s spare no one in their mockery throughout the album, but they do not allow their humor and pleasure to distract them from incredibly mournful songs like third up “I Know It’s Over,” an examination of a destroyed relationship between a man and his lover. I could continue to describe each track in detail, and to be honest I have rather more than half a mind to detail my precise opinions on every track, but I’ll instead try and briefly wrap up the rest of the album. The album continues to display a mix of acoustic rock, hard bass, and clever drumming; as the beautiful English voice of Morrisey echoes over, filling in a beautiful melody. The album concerns itself mostly with sadness, death, and the alienation of youth (what better name than the nondescript The Smith’s for such themes), but it does so in an immensely engaging and preachless way. Play it when you want nothing but to lay around all day like a tired dog. The second album is rather stranger. A triumph of the unexpected genre of “low-fi” (low fidelity), or music that purposefully eschews high tech recording, Guided By Voices’s masterwork Bee Thousand is an album as catchy and absorbing as it is totally crazy. The band members, who were the archetypical slacker
geniuses, recorded Bee Thousand in their basement. They cut most of the songs short, often took only one or two takes per song, and produced all the tracks for the album in less than two weeks. An interesting story, obviously, but more intriguing is the sheer brilliance of the album. Every time I hear it, I pray that beautiful ballads like “The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory” (neither as silly nor as pretentious as it sounds) will for once last for longer than 95 seconds. I hope that the sludgy rocking songs, like “Smothered in Hugs,” will allow me to hear their riff just one extra time before they cut out. The melodies of Bee Thousand, so simple and refined that there are no choruses or verses, hook and grab more intently than any million dollar beat that ever strived for my attention. Every song is crowded with words and guitar, and the absorbed listener is forced to do nothing but listen to the simple four tracks that flow out, knowing that every missed word will just have to wait until the 1000th listen through. The lyrics, often along the simplistic lines of, “she runs through the night as if nobody cares,” are entrancing in that you never really know what was left out. You can never fully grasp what anything is supposed to be. The album is crude, loud, and sweet. A thousand bees simply buzzing around. Give it a try or four.
YOUR TAKE
BY Fitz Koch
17
Inauguration BY Joanne Drawbaugh
YOUR TAKE
As with most things, I went into it a little cynical and a bit skeptical. As I sat on the Metro on my way to the heart of Washington DC, my heart was fluttering, but with the spirit of adventure, not patriotism. The onset of teenage angst brought with it a death to the American pride adults cultivate in us throughout childhood. Of course, this change of heart can’t be blamed entirely on my adolescence. Growing up brings more knowledge of what our country used to be, and how other countries are. It sheds light on the sketchier aspects of our past. It adds a whole new perspective. Much to everyone’s horror, there are so many things I detest about our nation and its culture that I could probably write an entire article dedicated to the subject. The rampant consumerism, xenophobia, and complete disregard for the fact that although we are separated from much of the world by two vast oceans, America is not the end-all-be-all of planet Earth rustle my jimmies. My jimmies are really freaking disheveled. Ironically, it was this characteristic superficiality that drove me to the inauguration. Growing up in a tiny borough that epitomizes small town America really gave me a hunger for adventure. Ditching Mechanicsburg for Washington DC with two of my good friends is an amazing way to stave off the suburban blues.
18
Although I was looking forward to the event, I didn’t expect to get much out of it. My plan for the day was to witness some history, explore the Smithsonian, and maybe eat some interesting food. Leave it to a skilled orator like Barack Obama to change that. My change of heart began on the walk from our stop at Farragut North to the National Mall, the last half of which was lined with red-hatted volunteers cheering and yelling and high-fiving jubilantly. “I’ve never felt this appreciated in my life,” remarked my friend Henry. I agreed, in that moment I knew how it feels to be a celebrity. Our journey ended right before 4th street, where hoards of people huddled for warmth. It was 7am. The ceremony started at 11:30.The energy on the mall that morning would lead one to think Beyonce would take the stage in five minutes. After an admittedly painful 4.5 hours of standing in the biting cold, the politicians began to take their seats. As the jumbotron broadcasted each political figure’s face, we shared in cheering. We clapped for the Clintons, wooped for Joe Biden, and booed John Boehner. I can’t imagine what the experience would have been like if Romney had been elected. A golf clap for Paul Ryan? Passiveagressive glances for Nancy Pelosi? Regardless of your opinions on our
president, one must confess; Obama fans know how to get crazy. And a very crazy hour-long ceremony it was indeed. After everyone found their seats, there were a few speakers welcoming everyone to the nation’s capital. Joe Biden took his oaths, and the president himself followed soon. Then came the hot topic Inaugural Address. Throughout the day, I read tweets and statuses about how great it was. When I got home that evening, political analysts endlessly discussed how effectively Obama’s speech rallied the nation. It was great. It was inspirational. And it was a million times more emotional being there. It’s one thing to watch a speech on television, but to be in the crowd waving flags and cheering for our president’s message of hope and equality is one of the craziest feelings in the world. If you saw the images of the crowd at the inauguration, you got the gist. We were wild. As a group, we rejoiced with each promise of a better future for America’s downtrodden. It’s the first time I rejoiced for anything American since fifth grade. And you can bet that my flag was the first to go crazy at the mention of gay marriage and women’s rights. If our country can bring these promises to fruition, I see a lot more rejoicing in all of our futures.
By the Numbers
For every time you take your focus off the road while driving, you are tempting fate. Whether you completely look away to check your phone or just listen to a phone call on speaker, your focus is shifted and your physical ability to perform the task of driving is decreased – substantially. Multi-tasking at the wheel is an incredibly dangerous task; according to the Traffic Injury Prevention Project of Pennsylvania talking on a cell phone increases risk of a crash by up to FOUR times due to a decrease in brain activity by 37 % in the parietal lobe (the lobe associated with driving). The brain cannot multi-task – despite how talented of a driver you think you are – and when you think, “I’ll just check this text really quick,” your entire focus goes briefly to the cell phone, and your driving suffers. Texting increases risk of a crash even more than just talking – the risk increases from EIGHT to TWENTY THREE times. If you choose to brush off statistics such as those, consider this:
a study conducted by Car and Driver Magazine has shown that talking on a cell phone is equivalent to the impairment associated with a .08 BAC; a .16 BAC for texting. To put that in perspective, for a 160 pound male, that is approximately THREE and SEVEN drinks, respectively (TWO and FIVE for a 140 lb female). An impairment caused just by talking or texting on a cell phone. • An average of ELEVEN teenagers dies every day in preventable car crashes. • Over 1,200 are injured every day in the same type of crash. • Cell phone use was reported in 18 % of distraction-related fatalities. The statistics above are incredibly shocking and terrifying, but by no means are they hidden. Flyers, articles, and websites all contain the facts in their staggering magnitude, be it a Traffic Injury Prevention Project of Pennsylvania flyer or the Allstate Foundation’s keepthedrive.com, whose homepage advocates getting involved and raising awareness. As do I; as should everybody. Taking
action on this issue is always the difficult part; that text seems really important in the moment. But everyone who thinks that way needs to take a step back and look at the big picture – that call or text can wait; your safety, and that of others, is so much more important. There is a fine line between life and injury or death in an accident, and those who do use their phones while driving dance on that line. Even if you manage to escape unscathed from an accident, someone else could be hurt or killed – a mother or father, daughter or son; now the victim of a distraction of miniscule importance. And imagine, as the driver, having to live with that guilt for the rest of your life. The very least a teen driver (or ANY driver) can do is stop driving distracted. Put down, turn off, or put away the cell phone and keep focus on the road. Save yourself, your family, or someone else and their family the grief of becoming another statistic.
YOUR TAKE
BY Gabrielle Dardis
19
T R T T T N N N N A A A A R T R R T T T N N N N A A A A R R T R T T T N N N N A A A A T R R R T N T T N A N N A R A A R T T R T N N N A A A RR T N A R YOUR INSPIRATION
BY Madelyn Super
20
Who are we deep down under this mess of materialism, egotism, and skin? Are we made to suffocate ourselves under layers and layers to protect what’s underneath from the outside world and its dangers or to remain unknown and anonymous in the face of those around us to encourage our already self-absorbed mindset to be even more indulgent in our own minds rather than the minds that matter? We live one life, granted a certain amount of years to gather a “respectable” amount of accomplishments and live out all our dreams and purposes like we’re supposed to as our parents did and our teachers tell us to and the
government encourages us to so we can comfortably sustain ourselves and fit the mold that they have created for us. What do we look like underneath the layers that have been piled on in service to disguise ourselves and our true being? Are we raw, naked, and vulnerable to the society that has forced us to wear masks in order to defend our porcelain skin? We are born into such a natural state, untouched and unburdened by the world’s troubles and problems, breathing freely and openly without the undeniable persuasions surrounding us. When we grow we are forced to succumb to the pressures of what it is to be a child, a
teenager, an adult. To rebel against the system but nevertheless to fall silently back to the only way of survival. We are fish in the stream, all flowing in the same direction as the current doesn’t give another option. We are what we are made into. Everything left behind is cast into the black abyss of whatever couldn’t survive in the harsh reality that has become our norm. We are all fighting this war, the war against conformity. The war against destruction of self. The war we fight against ourselves every day to find the deepest and final layer and hold onto it, to find what’s underneath everything that doesn’t belong.
Todd Shil
In elementary school, teachers taught us to follow our dreams. At this age, astronaut, president, and Britney Spears are all viable, commonplace career decisions. In middle school, teachers nudged us to start thinking about our futures in a realistic sense. Around seventh grade, the lawyers, nurses, and photographers spring up. By the time we hit high school, everyone just wants to drop out of school and start working at McDonald’s. Occasionally, stubborn students hold onto their passions, making a career out of something they love. Todd Shill is one of these people. As a boy growing up in Philadelphia, Shill always had an affinity for movies. His submergence in the culture of Pennsylvania’s cultural mecca exposed him to performances of all types. Shill often received concert tickets in exchange for doing his neighbor’s yard work. Growing up, he saw the greats like Queen and Fleetwood Mac perform. These amazing experiences shaped Shill throughout his education, and inspired him to incorporate a creative side into his career. After graduating from Drexel University with a degree in computer science, Shill began working with the firm Rhoads & Sinon, as a labor and employment lawyer. “I loved the personal side of the job,” he
remarked about what drew him to that facet of a legal career. Despite his forays into technology and law, Shill kept the artistic side of his passions alive. In 2000 he joined the ArtsFest board, working on the festival’s free film festival in an effort to promote independent films. Shill furthered this cause by co-founding the Midtown Cinema, a popular independent theater in Harrisburg. Today, the cinema is in new hands but continues to play provocative films that viewers in the area might not otherwise be exposed to. Shill continues to further the reach of his career, taking chances and tailoring it to his interests. When he’s not working with Rhoads & Sinon, he helps rising celebrities plan their careers. He maps their events and releases, drawing up their legal documents for them along the way. Through these endeavors, Shill has met stars ranging from new acting talents to celebrities from The Voice. And it all started here in Harrisburg. The career success Shill has enjoyed thus far in his life enabled him to explore his passion for film in the most involved sense. Using experience he’s gained through working in the industry, on movie sets, and in film classes in New York, he recently started his own production company. He’s attended big
name film festivals like Sundance, and hopes to begin filming his company’s first production, “Fly Me” this fall in London. Written by Shill’s business partner, British actress Tanya Franks, the dramatic comedy will chronicle the antics of its protagonist Brendan, a compulsive liar. Aside from their first major production, the company has a seemingly endless stream of project ideas coming their way from artists. In an entertainment industry that favors big names with even bigger bank accounts, the Shill-Franks production duo shines as a daring example of defiant drive. Shill preaches the importance of zest and travel in life. Despite today’s largely corporate driven music and film industries, he favors true talent over commercialized company creations. Shill embodies authenticity in an era of facades. He is driven by passion at a time when many see their careers for nothing more than their salary. Above all, he is an inspiration to anyone looking to make a career out of something they love. No matter what area of work you break into, there is always a way to add your own personal touch and tailor it to your own interests. All it takes is a little creativity, elbow grease, and dedication.
YOUR INSPIRATION
BY Joanne Drawbaugh
21
Reinvent Yourself
YOUR TAKE
BY Madelyn Super
22
What causes an identity crisis? What fuels the burning of an old personality to construct a brand new one? Who decided that a person has no choice in a matter of who they are? Why is it that each individual seems they are predestined for whatever character in the play of life they are? Don’t like who you’ve been? Change it. Don’t like how you dress? Fix it. Don’t like what you’ve done thus far? Find a new direction. No one was ever made to play the same part their whole life. No one should have to either. Life is full of ways to express yourself; choices and decisions that impact your character, personality, and reputation. None of these guarantee themselves to be easy, only promising to affect your life however you would like them too. Don’t base these decisions off others; the only person that needs to be happy is you. Identity crisis, according to psychologist Erik Erikson whom first coined the term, is the failure to achieve ego identity during adolescence. Every teen experiences some kind of an identity crisis. Although, it seems to get a bad rap, usually resulting in an adult or peer forcing you to think you should be grateful for who you are and what you’re given. Honestly, I don’t believe wanting to change yourself
has anything to do with that. Do they expect you to be the same as when you came out of the womb? Then why wouldn’t you be allowed to better yourself now? Of course deep down you will always be you, and if that’s the root of your problem then I’m not certified to help you. But I can give some reassurance by knowing what it’s like to be successful in the endeavor to be a better you. First off, not all things about you are bad. What makes most teens think this way is their surrounding peers popularizing certain traits. Forget that. It’s nonsense. Each person has a purpose, no matter who they are. Change the way you look to express how you think. Use your mind to convey your purpose and be proud of it. An identity crisis is more or less, wanting to feel important. Instead of wallowing in the underachievement’s you’ve succumbed to for whatever reason, whether it be peers, laziness, or self-pity, do something about it. Sometimes a crisis will help you motivate yourself to do things, good things. Always start small, as any huge change can present itself to be slightly overwhelming. It’s never too early to start planning the rest of your life. What helped me was helping others.
It’s easy to sit back and look at how well everyone around you is doing and to let yourself believe your life is such a struggle. Stop it right now. There are, and always will be, people who have it worse than you. Make it your job to help people like that. Not only will it take the focus off of whatever you happen to be dealing with but it might change someone else’s life. Doing something is always better than not doing anything at all. Don’t let yourself get caught up in the pity party that seems to be constantly extending an invitation.The best way to deal with not knowing who you are is to DO something about it. Try everything. Play sports, experiment with music, learn to cook, anything! What works about this is that even if you don’t like it, you’ll know. That way, you can outlaw everything you aren’t quite looking for and it’ll keep you busy. The more you fall trap to the pity party, the harder it will be to get out of that state of mind. No matter who you are, you are important. Anyone has the opportunity to change their life and the lives of others, but it starts with the decision to try. Don’t ever be okay with mediocrity; always strive to fill the biggest shoes you can find.
Soy la Voz Latina (I am a Latino Voice) The population of the Latino citizens in the United States has been increasing dramatically. Breaking it down to the Harrisburg Latino community I believe that we have a strong union as a whole, but we all lack opportunities to participate actively in the community. As a Latino, I think that bringing our cultures into the community will do more than just help us keep our Hispanic cultures. We all come from different regions and it is a great thing to share the customs with everyone. One thing we as Latinos value the most is national pride. Although Harrisburg is small, it is a very diverse community. America itself is made up of a melting pot of people. Diversity is one of the benefits that this country has. This year the Latino community has turned everything upside down. We have formed and discovered a new way we can all help each other and improve our knowledge. Racism in our community has never been a big issue. Maybe there have been some ups and downs between people, but not really an issue that has brought a lot of negatively. And though we have had those small incidents, we never forget that we all belong in one place together no matter where we came from. This year Harrisburg School District came up with an idea to help Latino students and their families have the opportunity to know what is happening and discuss important issues that parents need to know for their children to succeed in life. The people involved in this new project are organization leaders, college professors, pastors, staff from the high school, and most importantly, two students from John Harris High School. This team has been working together to find ways we can impact
the Latino community. With the voices of the future (students) and the variety of adults, we can improve ourselves as Latinos and might even have other people from other cultures become interested in learning about our cultures. We all face failure and bad decisions that can cause us severe limitations. That’s the exact problem that the Latino students are facing today. We are becoming a large population with little chances. The team has been meeting every month to work together to come up with positive ideas to help. There were lots of ideas, but only the best were chosen. A lot of workshops came up. Some of the workshops are about informing parents and students about High School GPA, credits and graduation requirements. Another idea we thought that would be a benefit was a Latino Youth Summit. The summit will most likely be held here in Harrisburg in July or August. The group that was picked to work on this idea was combined with the Estamos Unidos de Pennsylvania staff. School Board Member Ruth Cruz and Superintendent Dr. Sybil Knight were able to meet with us and give some good ideas as well. The team worked together introducing the Youth Summit where we will not just have workshops for parents and children, but also entertainment such as: Latino arts, music and food where Latinos can feel comfortable and have the opportunity to talk about different cultures. Our flag represents the meaning of a strong and achieving people. We don’t stop fighting until the right thing is accomplished. In the effort of the Harrisburg School District to help the Latino students improve academically, I have
to honor Dr. Knight for being a great activist in supporting this cause. I would also consider her as a hero in my life, because she gave me the best opportunity I had been wishing for. I was honored to accept the invitation of going to Philadelphia for four days to attend the annual conference from a huge organization called, National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures also known as NALAC. This conference was mainly about exposing to each other the art organizations around the country. They showed some of their art work, poetry, music and much more. This experience changed my life. It was an unforgettable experience. There were so many Latino art professionals and art administrators that I got the chance to meet and learn from. One person and its organization that sponsored this trip was Ms. Charon Battles. Ms. Battles did not want to dance to a song that has been important to Puerto Rico. However, she promised to dance with me another time. The music is called, ‘La Plena Bomba’. Although I had a lot of fun listening to a variety of songs, I had to keep in mind that I shouldn’t waste so much time and that I should get to business and networking with everyone there. It was my time to shine brightly! My opportunities were not over there. When I got home, I got the chance to become a student representative on the school board. I was asked to present my experience to the school board, but even before I was asked, I already had the motives to do so anyway. Now, I am writing articles for Jump Street and have been on TV. I might not have made history in all of this, but I did make history in my life. I will be the history of tomorrow. I am a Latino voice.
YOUR TAKE
BY Emanuel Aponte
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SUSQUEHANNA TOWNSHIP HIGH SCHOOL’S SCHOOL OF THE ARTS
SCHOOL OF THE ARTS
The Susquehanna Township High School’s School of the Arts has three distinct discipline focus areas: visual arts, fashion design, and theatre arts. The Theatre Arts class, taught by Mr. Lenwood Sloan and Mr. Robert Campbell, has embarked on numerous field trips and has brought in quite a few guest professional theatre and entertainment industry artists for their “In Motion” interview series (where the students interview guests in a half-hour television show format approach) and for artist residencies. A number of those guests—as well as photo highlights from a trip to Philadelphia—are highlighted in the photo essay below, which includes captions written by the Theatre Arts program students.
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Our trip to Philadelphia included stops at the Constitution Center, where we saw the one-woman show “Freedom Rising,” and a stop at the African American Museum of Philadelphia, where students experienced and critiqued a media presentation that included numerous hired actors. Additional exhibits enriched the experience of this trip as well. Our last stop on our tour of Philadelphia was at the colorful Mummers’ Museum, which helped bring to life a unit of study all about pageant drama and holiday festival dramas like Carnivale, Mardi Gras and more.
Mummers’ Museum
puppet and acting with your puppet. One of his puppets that I met was P. J. Scrapperson. He is called Scrapperson because his clothes are scraps of cloth. P.J was an open spunky fellow with a raspy voice, and he seemed like the type to enjoy punch line jokes. –Matthew Fox (Photo L to R: Matthew Fox, P.J. Scrapperson, Adam Swartz) Bill Turley—ADR Sound Engineer
On our trip to the African American Museum of Philadelphia (AAMP) the group went to a floor filled with a special exhibit that was dedicated to the Supremes. The entire floor had the Supremes clothes, music, pictures, and videos of mini-concerts they had together. The dresses were in different styles. Some of the dresses ranged from past to future styles. They were very colorful and glittery and each dress had a unique history. -- by Maya Steele and Alexus Smith
Group photo: Mr. Sloan and the Theatre Arts students pose in front of the “Audacious Freedom” exhibit at the AAMP.
At the Mummers’ Museum we were able to try on amazing colorful hats and costumes. While we were there we got to see a video on the Mummers’ Parade. I thought it was absolutely amazing how they made ordinary things look absolutely incredible. At the Mummers’ Museum we got to see ornate costumes, hats, props, and instruments. It was an extraordinary visual experience and I would love to go again. –by Twanna Moses Adam Swartz—Puppeteer
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Mr. Turley helped students create a digital audio portfolio of recorded voiceover work and coached them in the art of voiceover acting. Carmina Artist
Adam Swartz has a degree in Integrative Arts from Penn State, which he tailored towards his passion for puppetry. He conducts puppetry workshops and residencies in schools and libraries all over the state. He also performs with his puppets at arts festivals and schools all over the east coast. Adam Swartz was presented to the theater class by our teacher Mr. Sloan and on that day I was selected to interview him. I had a great experience and got a lot of essential information about puppetry, like how to treat your
Audio
Cristina—Makeup
Carmina Cristina is a local professional make-up artist. She has done make-up for numerous theatres, films, and TV shows, including the Broadway tour of “Hairspray.” Having Carmina Cristina make up my face was an experience within itself. Comparing the work that Carmina Cristina has done with the work that I have done was overwhelming. Experiencing the techniques
SCHOOL OF THE ARTS
AAMP—African American Museum of Philadelphia:
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first hand, I am now able to make up my fellow cast mates and also myself. – Brandon Fuller (in photo and caption author)
SCHOOL OF THE ARTS
Carmina Cristina is a very talented and an amazing person as a whole. My experience with her was both fun and very educational. I’ve learned to do different shadings with my eyes, lips, and how to make different features on my face stand out. Carmina Cristina came and did a make-up tutorial on me. She explained how to do different contrasting looks while showing the whole class on a larger screen for more detail. She also explained the proper cleansing techniques to do before and after the make-up. After she finished putting the make-up on me I was astonished at how beautiful and different I looked. –Lynique Fletcher (in photo and caption author)
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Carmina Cristina also made up freshman Dominique Mora’s face in a detailed “old age” makeup treatment.
Chriss Barkley—Director, Filmmaker (and STHS alum)
Chriss Barkley is a young director accomplishing her dreams. She was a student at CASA and graduated from Susquehanna Township High School. She was also a film graduate from UNCSA, the famous North Carolina School for the Arts. She has worked on many short films and movies and her recent film “The Patient” was a big hit locally! She worked at Disney in Los Angeles, where she lived for a couple of years before returning home to Harrisburg. I learned a lot from her, and I remember most how she told us to shoot for our dreams. There are many opportunities for young actors and actresses out here in the world. Things like YouTube and iPhones are just some of the many things in technology that we have to get our work out there. She is a very inspiring lady and told us that no matter what, if you want it…go get it! --by Sydney Fowlkes and Twanna Moses Students pose with In Motion guest, filmmaker Chriss Barkley.
“Mary Beattie”—historical reenactor / playwright / actor / director / theatre manager / theatre professor Marcia Martin
Marcia Martin lives in Ephrata, PA with her husband. The two of them, among other things, have founded and operated a small theatre company. She is a cancer survivor and is currently teaching at a college in Reading. On the weekends she and a group called the “PA Past Players” entertain the community. She is a producer and director and has been in multiple plays. Marcia’s character in the “Past Players” is Mary Beatty. We learned that Mary was born in the late 1700’s and after her husband and two sons were drafted into the Civil War she assisted with medical needs and supply distribution. Something that I took away from Marcia’s interview was that, as working artists, we have to do things to make ourselves happy when times get rough. Always keep working, always keep trying! --by Ariel Wallace Nate Gadsden—actor, director, playwright, poet, television producer, community spiritual leader
he thinks an old person would look like and made it into his own. I think he is very talented to convert from a young person to an older aged person. I like how he made his wrinkles and all his dark lines very deep and noticeable so that it can be seen from a theatrical distance. I like how he lightened some things up like his mustache and eyebrows. –by Alexus Smith
Bob Welsh—bassist, musician, audio engineer, nonprofit arts executive Paul Foltz—Costume Designer, Theatre Harrisburg & Actor
Bob Welsh is a gentleman filled with great life experiences and knowledge. Going from packing everything into his car and going across country to go to college to producing for major music artists, Welsh has lived what most would consider a life of excitement, and still has more to live. He is now Executive Director of a community arts organization called Jump Street. Bob still produces and plays music but music is now more of a hobby. He finds true passion in his job at Jump Street helping young community artists live out their dreams. (Interviewer in photo: Brandon Fuller; caption by Xavier Fuller) My class-mate Xavier Farrow did his old age make-up to represent his grand-father. He took things he knows from how his grandfather looks and what
Paul Foltz is the costume designer at a local theater, Theatre Harrisburg. Paul has been working for Theater Harrisburg for a good amount of time to be able to be a part of over 100 shows. Paul also serves his time as an actor. His passion is for costume design so he is very happy to be working with fellow actors creating the effect on stage through his costume design. Paul also helped out the Theatre Arts students pick and choose costumes for selected monologue that the students picked. His master eye helped out the 12 students
put the final touch onto their monologue, the costume. –by Brandon Fuller (Paul Foltz is in the right of the photo, in red) Stuart Landon—Actor, Singer, Director, Nonprofit Arts Marketing Manager
Local actor, singer, and director Stuart Landon from Open Stage of Harrisburg has worked with a number of our Theatre arts students as the director for the spring musical at Susquehanna Township High School the past two years. He was an inspired In Motion guest, interviewed here by Ayat Muhammad.
Terri Mastrobuono—Actor, Director, Commedia Dell’Arte Movement / Clowning Expert, Theatre Professor Another guest artist, Elizabethtown College professor Terri Mastrobuono, helped us learn to express ourselves physically in broad comedic styles rooted in the classical form of “commedia dell’arte.”
SCHOOL OF THE ARTS
Nate Gadsden is a man of many talents. He is a professional director, producer, advisor, pastor, counselor and so much more. His knowledge and experience has taken him to many places and has made him very wise. During our time with Nate Gadsden, he has taught us to push ourselves beyond our limits and prove to the world that you are more than what you appear. –by Ayat Muhammad “Once you set yourself on fire, the world will come to watch you burn.” -Nate Gadsden, speaking metaphorically, of course… Students pose with Mr. Gadsden after his In Motion interview
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How Fashion Gave Me Trust Issues
YOUR COUTURE
BY Joanne Drawbaugh
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It’s a ritual. Every morning I wake up, make myself presentable in case I accidentally run into Anna Wintour at Starbucks, and make a breakfast feast while catching up on what I missed on Twitter during my slumber. Typically, I find nothing out of the ordinary; There’s some girl subtweeting her ex-boyfriend, Rumi Neely posted a few pictures of herself prancing around in another exotic land, and Quinn Dolan retweeted a slew of adorable animals.This is exactly what I was expecting the morning I found out Nicolas Ghesquiere will be leaving Balenciaga. For those not aware of how tragic this is, Balenciaga is a Parisian fashion house known for its innovative, beautiful creations. Creatively directed by Ghesquiere, the brand is a go to for stars like Kristen Stewart and Angelina Jolie. Balenciaga has produced classics like the edgy motorcycle bag and the infamous series of Star Wars graphic sweaters that invaded fashion week street style last September. Balenciaga is an institution dedicated to girls with a penchant for all that is strange and angsty. I hope you see the love connection here. Here I was, teetering on the edge of an existential crisis that has been long in the making. However, in times of hardship, a Man Repeller does not bend or break; she stands tall and
strong in her pleather shorts and men’s shoes. She recognizes that every cloud has a silver lining, that every imminent tragedy in her beloved fashion industry is a blessing in disguise. In order to thrive in the fashion industry, a girl’s gotta be resilient. Ghesquiere is not the first man in my life to let me down. Who could forget John Galliano? The lead designer at Dior was an unstoppable creative force in the industry when he was dismissed from the company. Raf Simons, the man I rant about every other day, announced he would be leaving Jil Sander just as he presented his most beautiful collection to date. In a cruel move, Helmut Lang left his eponymous brand at its height to ensure he quit while he was ahead. The fashion industry is constantly evolving; stars rise and fall like Chinese dynasties. Such is life. Just know that with every icon on their way out, another is soon waiting in the wings to light up your world. These cycles are not limited to designers. Models, too, fade in and out of prominence. When I first started staying up to date with the shows, runways were graced by veterans like Sasha Pivovarova and the goddess, Freja Beha. Since then, Pivovarova dedicated her life to become a stay at home mom and Beha quit the modeling scene in favor of something
that is probably really cool. Gemma Ward knocked the industry off its feet with her innocent beauty, but soon disappeared from the scene with the death of her friend Heath Ledger. Even Kate Moss has seen her day. In an industry where a model’s career is over by her mid-twenties, the idea that “beauty is fleeting” serves as a constant reminder to make the most of what you have while you have it. I consistently joke that the fashion industry gave me trust issues. But as much of a pain as it is to be in love with an ever-changing force, there is a lot to be learned. There are icons like Grace Coddington who reminds her followers to never stop looking at the world around them because there is inspiration around every corner. Bryanboy brings out the diva in everyone with his unadulterated pursuit of all that is glamorous and over-the-top, and a special shout out to Lenadra Medine: the muse for the personal statement essay I submitted to my dream school. I must make a brief homage to the Man Repeller herself, who reminds every narcissistic melodramatic in this crazy industry that it is supposed to be fun, so you should never get too caught up. Unless it’s Nicolas Ghesquiere leaving Balenciaga, because that’s a straight tragedy.
Thrift & Consignment Store Shopping – Creating the perfect vintage look
To begin our journey into the world of vintage fashion we need to answer the question, “What exactly is vintage?” In technical terms, something is considered vintage when it is at least 20 years old (later we will discus how to tell if your piece is vintage). As far as style goes the vintage look pulls inspiration from past styles. How can something that was in style 30 years ago still look good now? Some pieces are timeless and other things just fade without real reason. It is easy to achieve a fresh and young vintage look by knowing what to look for and how to style what you find with other contemporary items. Sometimes it helps to have an idea of what you are looking for going in. If you know that you’ve been looking for a top to go with your gingham pencil skirt then start there. Often times you’ll come across something that stands out to you even if you weren’t looking for it. Since you won’t be putting out too much money for your purchases it’s okay to do a little impulse buying, as long as it’s reasonable (as opposed to a crazy fur coat you know you’ll never wear). Once you come across something you like, there are certain steps you should take to make sure you’re getting a quality piece. First do a 360 of the garment – check the entire thing for holes, rips, and signs of over-use (e.g. snags and pills on sweaters). You want to find a unique piece, not one that says “over-stretched hand-medown.” If it is a fur object make sure it doesn’t shed by rubbing it against your clothes. If it is leather, scratch it to make sure it will not easily mark or flake. Turn the garment inside out and continue examining. Don’t forget to check pockets for any holes or nasty
surprises. Make sure all buttons are secure and that zippers, hooks and snaps work properly. There are some things you should keep in mind. Don’t buy anything that is dirty in hopes of cleaning it, because you may end up spending more to clean it than you paid for it. Check how the piece smells, if it smells anything like Macklemore’s leopard mink (as mentioned in his song “Thrift Shop”) pass on it. Smells are usually hard to get rid of and often never come out. Finally, try it on! I cannot stress this enough, even though you’re not paying an arm and a leg there’s no use in buying something only to have it collect dust in your closet because it ended up just not fitting right. Sometimes clothing has been stretched in ways that do not flatter your body. Also since the clothing is older it may not run true to the sizes you’re used to seeing in stores. If you wear leggings and a form fitting shirt (like Under Armour) you can quickly try things on without having to go into a fitting room. This could cut the time you spend in one place so you have time to hit another shop! Many people want to know, “Is my piece certified vintage?” As I mentioned before, something is considered vintage once it is 20 years old, so we’re talking 1993 and older. We could do some guesswork just by looking at the piece if we are familiar with our fashion history, but most people don’t pick up a top and say, “that’s from 1994.” So the great thing is that all you have to do is look for a union tag. If the piece is vintage there should be a small, square, red, white and blue tag attached to the inside seam. This means that the garment
was made and supported by a clothing union, which existed in the U.S. before overseas clothing production became popular in the 1980’s. Not every vintage find will have the tag inside, but if you go to a place that says it has vintage clothes, you should definitely find them in the garments sold there. Next, you might be wondering what type of clothing you should be looking for. One approach is to look for versatile pieces like a cool neutral colored cardigan or skirt. These things can look old school (which isn’t a bad thing!), but once you add a modern top and jewelry you go from “out of date blah” to “cool and classy retro.” Another approach you can take is to look for something totally unique and maybe not as versatile. There are so many outlets in the world of vintage to find funky and unique things. One of my favorite things about buying vintage is that you’re pretty much guaranteed a “one of a kind” piece. If you’re worried about looking too out of the box or completely out of style, try keeping in mind the basics of what’s in and out at the time. Today’s fashion often times pull inspiration from styles of the past so think,“What’s back in style?” I’m not going to lie -- thrift shopping can be very intimidating, especially if you’re going in blindly. With the correct knowledge, an open mind and a good plan it should come with ease. Take time to enjoy your adventure and get excited about finding something really cool. Remember whatever you find is going to be unique to YOU so wear it and own it! That’s what fashion is about being different, setting trends and feeling good about it.
YOUR COUTURE
BY Sydni Chapman
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Why Don’t You Dress Like You Mean It?
YOUR COUTURE
BY Joanne Drawbaugh
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It’s hard to imagine Vogue without Anna Wintour. The British editor-inchief revolutionized Vogue, bringing it back into the realm of relevance. She has altered the fate of the fashion industries in ways we cannot even fathom. She is solely responsible for celebrities on the covers of magazines and the re-emergence of fur as a wardrobe staple. It seems that whatever Anna says goes; we are simply her loyal minions. However, there was a Vogue before Anna. There was a fashion industry before Anna. Granted, Ms. Wintour has devoted her life to the betterment of the industry. She created the Council of Fashion Designers of America after 9/11 to help upstart designing talents. Her partnership with the Met’s Costume Institute saved the museum from drowning in the recession. She mentors designers of all levels of prestige and experience, offering opinions and publicity entirely pro-bono. However as much as I respect the blonde-bobbed mogul, I have to say, there was a better Vogue and a better fashion industry before Anna Wintour. There was a time when fashion was more genuine. It wasn’t driven by companies striving to stay afloat and make a profit in tough economic times, but produced by movements of the people. Fashion liberated and expressed. In the 20s, the Flappers used clothing to show their newfound freedom. Mothers had their own uniform in the 40s, and their meticulously neat appearances reflected the standards they upheld in their homes. Today, people use clothing to express themselves, but their enthusiasm seems half-hearted. Admittedly there is not much to fight
for; we have things pretty good today. I’m not expecting to see fiscal policy protests carried out through dresses... But since when is being content any reason to stop progressing? Before Anna Wintour took the reins at Vogue, the magazine was in its ‘beige’ period headed by Grace Mirabella. Before her reigned the legendary Diana Vreeland. Vreeland may be hailed as the greatest personality to ever grace the magazine. Born in Paris, raised in Manhattan, she took up a career in journalism to supplement her husband’s income. “I was going through money like one goes through . . . a bottle of scotch, I suppose, if you’re an alcoholic,” she recalled when asked about her motives. Her career grew to be more than just a stint for some pocket change; Diana Vreeland was a journalist, editor, and tastemaker that changed the face of fashion. Vreeland’s career took off with her column published in Harper’s Bazaar, “Why Don’t You?”, entreating her readers to take on a more daring lifestyle. “Why don’t you paint a map of the world on all four walls of your boys’ nursery so they won’t grow up with a provincial point of view?” she questioned readers in a country that tends to view itself as the only important nation on the planet. “Why don’t you wear, like the Duchess of Kent, three enormous diamond stars arranged in your hair in front?” she asked women who had previously devoted their closets to the acceptable clothing norms of the time. With every issue, Diana Vreeland begged her audience of sheep “Why don’t you?” and eventually, they did. Her outspoken, daring suggestions brought her praise, critique, and a job at the head of Vogue. Once there, she
took the helm of the magazine and thrust it to the forefront of fashion journalism, where it remains to this day. However, this success was only achieved with groundbreaking innovations in fashion through provocative editorials. In its heyday and led by Ms.Vreeland,Vogue was on the cutting edge of the industry. Today, Vogue remains the authority of fashion magazines, but that aura of boldness and liberation has faded. It faded with Grace Mirabella, the bland editor whose lack of personality couldn’t hold a candle to Vreeland’s blazing flame. It continues to fade under Anna Wintour, the wily business woman who seems to focus on the statistical success of the magazine over its creative vision. I don’t question Wintour’s love for the industry, but I question her priorities. What’s the point of keeping fashion afloat if it doesn’t produce the same passion that makes it important to begin with? That’s what makes fashion more than just clothes-- the fighters, the lovers, the Diana Vreelands, who allow their brimming personalities to overflow into their outfits, making statements that question, “Why don’t you do this too? Why don’t you stop being so normal and live your life for once?” Style is more than a frivolous luxury. In the words of the esteemed editor of a better Vogue, “You gotta have style. It helps you get down the stairs. It helps you get up in the morning. It’s a way of life. Without it, you’re nobody. I’m not talking about lots of clothes.” Style is a vital, dying art. However, it is an art of the masses, and we the masses can bring it back to life.
Anime CLUB
BY Kaitlin Woodlen
became recognized as a legitimate art form at the start of the 20th century. The first anime was made in 1917, which was about a samurai trying to test a new sword on his target, only to suffer defeat. The first anime brought to the U.S. was Astro Boy in 1963. It tells the story of how a father recreated his son into a robot. This is an example of mecha, which is a techno-robotic genre. The Anime Club at STHS includes both anime and manga. Many teens joined the Anime Club because they think it’s enjoyable to watch and read this Japanese art form. Others join to draw anime characters. The people in Anime Club discuss their favorite anime or manga.They share their ideas about the stories and recommend stories for others to watch and read. Anime is a great way to understand while appreciating art.
I interviewed Mr. Welsby, last year’s advisor of the Anime Club. This is the fourth year for the Anime Club at STHS. STHS’ Anime Club morphed from the Sci Fi Club. Mr. Welsby told me that the first members of the Anime Club were into Batman and other Sci Fi stuff. Then the club became more into anime, similar to Dragon Ball Z or Pokémon. The person that first caused the Anime Club happen was Tia Martinez. She was the first president of the Anime Club. The club has had many advisors over the years, but continues to grow and change. The tradition of anime has significance on both Japanese and American pop culture, which has increased interest in the Anime Club at STHS. Intelligent talents can bring happiness into their lives.
YOUR COMMUNITY
The tradition of anime has significance on both Japanese and American pop culture, which has increased interest in the Anime Club at Susquehanna Township High School (STHS). The original manga were drawn on hand scrolls using narrative pictures. Modern manga includes words within the pictures to help tell the story. Osamu Tezuka is the first modern manga artist in Japan. He was a famous cartoonist, but started out as a medical doctor. He didn’t practice the field of medicine, though. Many people honored him for his great works of books and other professions. He’s known as the “Father of Anime,” or the “God of Manga.” Anime is an important medium for our present day art world because it’s the fusion of animation with manga books to make a video. Anime
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Do it For The Kids
YOUR COMMUNITY
BY Jada Baity
34
Pediatric cancer is a brutal reality that children and their parents have many had to learn to face. But thanks to serviceable charities such as THON, they no longer have to face it alone. THON is a student-run philanthropic organization whose mission is not only to raise awareness for pediatric cancer but also to raise hope. It all started on a normal February night in 1973. Some students were thinking about what they could do to not only pass the time but also give back to the community. They decided that they would host a dance party lasting for 46 hours and all the profits would go to the Four Diamonds Fund, a charity created by a couple who lost their own son to pediatric cancer. They created the fund in his honor
and created the catchy moniker For The Kids (FTK) to further promote the cause. The charity prides itself in providing the money families need to win the fight against childhood cancer. In 1977, THON partnered with Four Diamonds and since then has raised over 89 million dollars for kids with various forms of pediatric cancer. THON is considered the biggest student-run philanthropic organization in the world for good reason. But it takes a lot of fundraisers to raise the kind of money that THON is famous for. This is why THON decided to establish an event that would bring its influence to various high schools in the state not only to raise funds but also to increase people’s awareness. This event
is very simply a small scale version of THON known to many high school students as Mini-Thon. Students love Mini-Thon because of the fun activities it offers and the chance to contribute to a good cause. The money raised from these Mini-Thons is put directly into The Four Diamonds Fund, helping the families that need it. However, there is nothing mini about Mini-Thon. In the year 20112012 alone, Mini-Thon contributed $1,569,311.02 to the Four Diamonds Fund. And to imagine that all of this was started by a few bored college kids! So show your support and make the decision to attend your school’s MiniThon this year. Do it for the cause. Do it for the families. But most of all do it for the kids.
Rotary Youth Exchange: Explore the World and Find Yourself
YOUR COMMUNITY
BY Benjamin Schilling
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Imagine discovering another country, learning a new language, and making new friends all around the world.The Rotary Youth Exchange can provide this opportunity. The Rotary Youth Exchange program is a Rotary program. Rotary is a volunteer organization of business and professional leaders who provide humanitarian service, and help to build goodwill and peace in the world. There are approximately 1.2 million Rotary members belonging to 34,000 Rotary clubs. Every year, the Youth Exchange Program helps about 8,000 young people from around the world to live and study in another country. During the entire year the student is hosted by two or three host families, in general three. According to Nicholas, an exchange student from Brazil, the Rotary Youth Exchange Program is “one of his better choices in all of his life”. For the Rotarians, the Youth Exchange students are unofficial ambassadors for their countries. They bring the world closer together.
At this time, the Youth Exchange Program has two different terms, long-term and short-term exchanges. The short-term is about three to eight weeks in another country during your summer vacations. As in the long term the student will stay in a host family, but because the term is short, he will just have one family. The long term is definitely more challenging for the students. They spend a full academic year in a foreign country. And in this term the host family has an important role, they not only provide room and meals, but they provide support and guidance. To be an exchange student a student must be between 15 and 18 years old at the time of departure.The students are selected by a sponsoring Rotary Club on the basis of a written application and personal interview. This program will not cost more than the travel, student visa, and health insurance. Also the Rotary will provide some orientation to prepare you and your parents for this experience.
“It is not really expensive, compared to the entire experience in a foreign country,” assures Brianna, a Canadian exchange student who went to France three years ago. The other goal of this program is to open the mind of the student. Constance, an exchange student from France, said, “This really helped me to evaluate myself, and now, I know I feel so much adaptable to all different sorts of living conditions.” During the long term program exchange students will have the chance to be part of a bus trip. This trip will bring them to the most famous part, city, and monuments of their host country (the bus trip represents an additional cost). According to Martin, his bus trip “was one of the most enjoyable trips, because I was with some students from all around the world, sharing our culture together.” Anyone who wants to be part of that unique experience of being an exchange student for 2014 will find more information on exchangestudent.org, or by asking his or her local city or township Rotary Club.
Artistic Expressions
With a growing artistic renaissance happening within the city of Harrisburg and the greater Central Pennsylvania area, the opportunities to get your creative work out there, whatever medium it may be through, are becoming increasingly more accessible. Venues like The Makespace, the Yellow Wall Gallery in the Midtown Scholar, Little Amps Coffeehouse (and boundless other coffee shops in the area), and the picturesque Studio A on State Street are all providing beautiful spaces for established artists to work in studio and display their pieces. But what about young, high school - student artists? What about curious upstarts who’ve had no real experience with exhibits or publications? What about the ones who are simply excited to make art and not worry about how much merit it receives, but who are still satisfied in knowing that people will see it? What about the kids? Well luckily for us local youth, these questions have been considered and will be answered by the 4th Annual Central Pennsylvania Art Show: Artistic Expressions. The show will run through the month of April, from the 7th to the 28th, in the Historic Harrisburg Association building in Midtown, on the corner of 3rd and Verbeke Streets. The art gallery within this space is open to the public Monday through Friday, 7:30am-9pm, and Saturdays throughout April 8am – 2pm. This is right in the middle of the arts district, so if you happen to come out to the show on the 3rd Friday in April during 3rd in the Burg, be sure to do a little gallery crawling at the LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender) Community Center a couple doors down, or at the Yellow Wall Gallery right next-door.
Part of the mission of shows like Artistic Expressions and organizations like Jump Street is to get teenagers involved in what their area has to offer in regards to creative and intellectual pursuits. Artistic Expressions began in a period when local high school artists were lacking any sort of outlet through which to show their artwork to the public. In the wake of the brief hiatus of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, the folks behind Artistic Expressions (some of whom may lead your art classrooms) wanted to create a more inclusive and less competitive platform for students to express their love for the arts and their own unique talents. Born and bred at a grassroots level, the show is now four years running and seeing more interest than ever. If a thriving and accessible scene can continue to be built within the city and its surrounding areas, one that will appeal to the gamut of age groups and genres, it will encourage those with any amount of interest in the arts and humanities to become proactive about their own passions and begin to work towards making their vision a reality. This in turn will help Central Pennsylvania itself thrive, and assist the city of Harrisburg in digging its way out of the fiscal sinkhole it has found itself in. There is a socioeconomic pattern that many are aware of within urban communities, and it is this: when artists fill an area that has been historically destitute or generally under the weather, that area tends to see an economic upturn. Take Greenwich Village in New York City, for example. Or Detroit, which has garnered attention for it’s own recent “artist renaissance” through real estate programs that are reclaiming
abandoned and defunct buildings and turning them over to artists for their own use as studio space, museums and installations. Of course, art alone will not save a tired and depressed city, for this is a romantic ideal. But artists tend to be effective at starting trends and getting people excited about all sorts of social movements, and if these trends catch fire within a less bohemian crowd, the area will certainly see a breath of life into its commerce and its community liveliness. This is what we all hope for in Harrisburg. This is what you will be contributing towards by entering Artistic Expressions. If you want to submit a work of art into Artistic Expressions: Contact your art teacher. If he/ she is not aware of Artistic Expressions or if your school is not currently a participant, have them get in touch with Paul Nagle at pnagle@cvschools. org or April Tichenor-Holtzman at atichenor@camphillsd.k12.pa.us. You must fill out an entry form that includes the date your piece was made, the medium, your school, you art teacher’s name, and a parent signature. Be sure to label your piece and fix it up with hanging apparatus/installation hardware. Two-dimensional pieces must be matted, while charcoal and pastel works must be sprayed with a fixative and matted under acetate. There are no size or media restrictions. Each high school is permitted 10 works of art total, so be quick about contacting your teacher and working on getting your piece ready, because space is limited. The entry form, along with the $5 per artwork entry fee, made payable to Jump Street, is due by Wednesday, March 6, 2013.
YOUR COMMUNITY
BY Colin Powers
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When is $10 not worth $10? – Only when you think it isn’t!
YOUR MONEY
Reprinted from themint.org
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Every Saturday morning during the school year, you spend three hours helping out with swim lessons at the community pool.You get $8.50 an hour. You have not been able to sleep in on Saturday, but being an assistant swim instructor pays better than other jobs you could get. You feel you work hard for your money. You need a new MP3 player/ alarm clock. You are all set to buy one in a nearby store for $39.95, but you notice an ad in the paper for exactly the same brand and model across town for $29.95. It’s no contest. You travel across town to make your purchase. You can save $10. That’s more than an hour’s work. You also need a new computer. You’ve been watching the newspapers, and the one you want goes on sale. SuperBuy, a nearby store, advertises the computer for $1,099. BetterBuy, a competitor located 5 minutes further down the road than Superbuy, is selling the computer for $1,089. Where will you shop? Interesting isn’t it? In the second example, the $10 doesn’t seem so important. Well, you say, as a percentage of the purchase price, it’s not as big a number. True, but was that $10 any easier to earn than the $10 you saved when you bought the alarm clock? Did you get to sleep any later to earn it? No. Yet if you were like most people, you were ready to spend it rather than save it.
Easy money is more easily spent You have two out-of-town aunts who send you money for your birthday. Each sends you $30. What do you do with each $30 gift? Do you blow it? Sure I do, you say. Why? Because I got it free. I shouldn’t have to save it right? They gave me a gift. I just turned their money into a “thing.” So now the question becomes did you buy something you really wanted or, as often happens with gift money, did you look for something to spend it on? Somehow, gift money seems less real, less valuable, because you didn’t work for it. So rather than hang onto it, people spend it. (Adults sometimes do this with income tax refunds. It’s money they really worked for, but because they get it “back,” it seems like a “gift.” Wait a minute. You’re the same person who drove across town to save $10 on a MP3 player/alarm clock. And now you are throwing away $30 on something you could have easily lived without. So here’s a second trick our minds play: gift money isn’t as valuable as worked-for money. The truth is that money has the same value no matter where it comes from And here’s an interesting question: if you didn’t have to work for money, why isn’t it easier to save it?: Why doesn’t it just pass through your hands from the birthday card to your savings plan? It could be an effortless transfer.
Let’s say that for 10 years, you used Aunt #1’s check to buy something important to you. Sometimes you saved and added money to her gift to get something you really wanted. But you always saved Aunt #2’s check, so after 10 years you have $300 you didn’t work for! That’s pretty darn cool. It came from respecting gift money. Tom Gilovich author of Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes and How to Correct Them, tells us, “We all tend to make better decisions about money when we consider the value of money all by itself, no matter where it came from or how we got it.” Small amounts aren’t worth saving The first year you worked at a neighborhood park, you earned $6.75 an hour. The second year, you got a 75 cent-an-hour raise. Doesn’t sound like much, does it? But if you do the math based on a 30-hour work week, you’re earning $22.50 more each week, or $90 more each month. Over three months, that’s $270. If you look at it as only 75 cents an hour, you might not think about putting that 75 cent in your savings plan rather than spending it.You could just say, 75 cents—big deal. I may as well spend it. You’d be wrong. In fact, if you could live with the same amount of spending money during summer #2 as you did during summer #1, you could save all $270. If you respect even small amounts of money, they can turn into large amounts.
Extreme Couponing
Newspaper: $2.50. Scissors: $ 1.06. Binders and scrapbooks: $7.45. Saving thousands on your monthly grocery costs; priceless. Over the decades, new breeds of “Smart Shoppers” have constantly emerged, and each time saving more than the last. From “Cheap Skate Negotiators” to “Bargain Hunters”, customers love a good deal. But now, there’s a skilled group of shoppers that have saved 100% at the check out and they’re known as Extreme Couponers. Kelly Charles of Adairsville, Georgia refuses to buy anything without coupon. On average, it takes her 40 minutes to find and cut out coupons. But it’s worth it when you chop $24,000 off your yearly grocery bill. With weekly sales, she matches them up with her coupons for extra savings. And after purchasing hundreds
of items for almost nothing, her stockpile includes 50 bottles of laundry detergent, 60 different cleaning products and 36 hair care products. Mostly all of her shopping trips result in free necessities. After a 2 hour recorded trip to her local supermarket, her final bill was $1,313. After her coupons, the store actually OWED her 31 cents. Is that not enough to make you Coupon Crazy????? Take Mrs. Rebecca Davidson’s view on it. After a long days shopping, her bill totaled at $895.65. After coupons, an amazing $51.75! Her technique is that, she receives coupons by complimenting brands via email. She also knows helpful hints. For example, it’s far cheaper to buy brand new air fresheners, than to buy the refills. Also, when brand new products come out, so do their very valuable coupons.
So if you want to experiment with extreme couponing, here are some helpful tips to get you started. You’ll need a 3-ring binder, a baseball cardholder, scissors, a paper cutter, divider tabs, and store policies. A quick way to get coupons is to subscribe to a cheap Sunday paper. Also sign up for stores customer emails. And visit Redplum.com, Couponnetwork.com, SmartSource. com, and compliment or even complain about products to the brand sites. Don’t care to have a stockpile of free goods in your basement? Then sell it! Some extreme Couponers sell all of their merchandise they got for free. And since they didn’t pay anything for them, it’s a 100% profit.
YOUR MONEY
BY Jonathan McGrew
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steps to saving
YOUR MONEY
Reprinted from themint.org
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How much of your income should you stash away in savings? You may think: I’ll just put money into savings whenever I don’t spend it. And how often do you think that will happen? Remember to pay yourself first. Step 1: Where to begin? Start by pledging to come up with a plan and to stick to it. Next, try out the Money Diary in the Tracking Section. It will help you figure out how much money you have coming in each month and how you are spending your money. Then work out how much you want to spend on everyday items. If you’re spending more than the limit, think about where you can cut back. Step 2: What money do you have coming in? Depending on your age and life at the moment, this may change from month to month. Your allowance may be set, but the income you get from baby-sitting or odd jobs may change a lot. Start with what is average or what you can count on. Step 3: How much would you like to save? Divide that money into different savings categories: saving for everyday expenses, short-term saving for emergencies, long-term saving for
college, and longer-term saving for the future. You may want to set aside money to give to a charity. Several piggy banks or envelopes for your cash may help you keep your money separate. It may make sense to keep a stash of cash for everyday expenses in your bedroom. The rest should be kept in a savings account so you can earn interest. Do you have a goal in mind, like saving for a car or new touring bike? Check out the Saving Calculator. It will calculate how long it takes to save an amount of money. The calculator can also tell you how much money you need to save each month to reach a goal in a certain time period. Step 4: Put it in writing. Writing your plan in your money diary gives it more power. Also by keeping a money diary, you’ll be able to see how much money you have coming in, how much money you spend, where it all goes, and how much money you save each week or each month. Keep notes to yourself that compare your savings account balance with your savings goals. Keep it in your Money Diary.
You might not like these new boundaries on your spending. In fact, you may think that you don’t have enough spending money. Everybody feels that way. We all have a limited amount of money. Now that you’re getting older, you are learning that you have to make choices when it comes to money. It is easy to say, “I just need more of it!” You have to manage your money – so you can get the most out of the dollars you have. Ready to learn more? Learn how to live on a budget. Step 5: Adjust. If your plan isn’t working, you can always make changes. But be honest with yourself about why the plan doesn’t work before you change it. What’s wrong? Maybe your numbers weren’t realistic, and you have to be more practical. On the other hand, maybe the numbers are right, but you’re having a hard time sticking to them. Maybe you have to change your habits to make it work. By taking a hard look at what you do with your money, you can begin to set some limits and shift money around between spending and saving – that’s called managing your money.
Dropouts Do Succeed BY Jonathan McGrew
those incredible movies even finished high school. That’s right, you read it correctly. No diploma. In today’s society dropping out of high school is employment suicide. Without an education, you can’t get a job, and without a job, you won’t make money. This statement was true years ago. Now, talent seems to be a great form of self-employment. For example, Keith Cozart, infamously known as Chief Keef is a 17 year-old high school dropout. Currently being in trouble with the law, he’s on house arrest, and can’t leave his grandmother’s house for long. You would think the drop out of a minor pretty much seals his future, but Chief Keef continues to do what he loved; rapping. I’d say 89% of my male peers see rap as a way out. Although anyone rarely strikes it rich, Cozart seemed to be an addition to the minimal percentage of successful artists. After his music video release of “I Don’t Like” on YouTube got almost 3,860,777 views he was signed to Interscope Records,
despite the absence of his diploma. And although his success won’t last, many others have done the same, and knew just how to keep the ball rolling. Globally recognized actors, singers, presidents even astronauts have been very successful without graduating. To name a few: Whoopi Goldberg, Mary J Bilge, Angelina Jolie, Jim Carrey, LL Cool J, Colin Farrell, Aretha Franklin, even Milton Hershey. So reader, we at Jump Street are NOT SAYING, to stomp your books, burn your book bag, and walk out of school with that one finger that says it all. But instead, don’t get stressed or too overly concerned about your grades; if you’re passing, then be comfortable. Although underachieving isn’t something anyone wants to do, everyone won’t graduate with honors. But just know that it doesn’t take a 4.0 to be successful. Do what you love, and if you know others love it, sell it to them. It may just get you millions.
YOUR FUTURE
In middle school, all you hear about is high school. In high school all you hear about is college. And what comes next is completely up to you. Growing up, the second you hit 13 is the moment you realize, school and education is pretty much the only thing older people will converse with you about. Everyone pushes and pushes, stressing you to get a 4.0 and telling you your life will go nowhere fast without a diploma; when the fact of the matter is, that is not always true. For example, do you like music? Who’s your favorite artist? Pink? Mary J Blige? Aretha Franklin? None? Maybe they’re a little too modern for you. How about Marvin Gaye? Gladys Knight? Ella Fitz? Well, maybe you’re not that big of a music lover. But you love a good movie! Ever seen the hilarious comedies Ted, Bruce Almighty or Fright Night? How familiar are you with the actionpacked hit Mr. And Mrs. Smith? Very???? Well I’ve got a surprise for you. None of the artist and stars of
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Are We There Yet?
YOUR FUTURE
BY Madelyn Super
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If there has ever been an overused, over talked about, overdone topic, it’d be college. From the start of high school, everyone wants to know where you’re going and what you want to do and how to pay for it. Personally, ninety-five percent of the questions I’ve been asked I had no idea how to answer, so I said whatever sounded best. It’d usually go something like, “So Maddi, what do you want to do with the rest of your life?” And I’d go, “Well, since I clearly have had an immense amount of time to detail every minute of my future and since I’m the mature age of 18, let me tell you.” And so on and so forth. On the other hand, I have been fortunate enough to collect a pretty good idea of what I WANT to do, unlike some of my friends who are clearly at a loss for words when it comes to college and majors and futures. Even so, I still struggle with the concept of the ‘rest of my life’. What if I don’t really want to do the same thing 10 years from now? How do I accommodate my already planned mid-life crisis into my major in college? Truth is, you don’t. There is no bulletproof plan to make sure you’ll be happy with how you come out of college, so don’t stress over it. Plan the best you can, and everything else will fall into place… Fingers crossed just in case. If there has been anything that has helped me prepare for the next four years (trying to stay away from the ‘rest of my life’) it has been the World Wide Web… and my mother. Aside from
her, the internet has proved itself to be the biggest help, allowing me to search for hours on end for my dream school. Alongside Google, I found other sites to be just as helpful and more reliable. NextStepU is a website I stumbled upon that, to my pleasant surprise, has it all in one location. I don’t know about any of you, but my mother is a constant nag about everything and anything there is to nag about. Her favorite thing to nag about entering my senior year was scholarships. NextStepU sets it up so you are given a list of scholarships that apply to you. No wasting time going through a long list of topics that have little or no relevancy to your life. After filling out your goals, aspirations, interests, hobbies, etc. NextStepU provides the list for you, although much smaller and not so much time wasted going through it. Of course you won’t be interested in every single one, but you’re guaranteed to find a few that, if you have a mother like mine, keep the nagging at a minimum. Besides providing a multitude of scholarship opportunities, the site also offers a college planning portion. Basically they set up what your future will look like “step by step” and they keep it at the lowest level of intimidation, promise. They offer a chance to help you find what you might want to do or even what you wouldn’t ever want to do which is just as helpful believe it or not. They force you to consider all the possibilities you thought you could get away with overlooking such as the military,
an online school, or even a gap year if you find you aren’t academically or mentally ready for the next step. Everything the site offers will put you ahead, whether you realize it or not. Another recent higher education helper has come from the government, of all places. As they continue to put education on the chopping block and minimize funding for our country’s future, they have counteracted these doings and instated a program called College Scorecard, introduced in President Obama’s State of the Union address. What this plan does is help the future collegiate student pick a college specific to their wants and needs. It gives a general synopsis of average tuition, popular majors, graduation rates, employment and more. Simply pick out what you’re looking for as a dream school and it’ll kick out a listing of all the schools that fit you. For as long as I can remember I’ve wanted to go to college. I’ve wanted to get away and go as far as I could stand and live my own life. As excited as my parents were when I expressed my thirst for freedom, they knew I’d want to skip over the little details necessary to get me where I wanted to go. There’s a reason for sites like NextStepU and plans like College Scorecard, so you don’t skip the little steps and can provide yourself with the best future that will help you succeed. Even if it seems like you’ll never get there, you will. And when you finally do get to college, you want to be sure it was the right decision for you.
Restaurants Perfect for Date Night
Teenage years are difficult; there is no way around it. From feeling awkward about personal style to personal hygiene, teens seem to have more than enough problems trying to make it from 13 to 18 unscathed. In the duration of these teeth grinding years, many deal with the problem of wanting to be treated like an adult but being denied the privilege. High school, along with many other obstacles opposing proper growth, brings with it the new and exciting world of proper dating. This seems to be the largest area where teens struggle to obtain maturity. As most students receive a license early in their high school career, mobility and independence are a new and exciting time. With these glorious additions to the expansion of the teen world, dating naturally evolves with it. No more are the days of being dropped off and picked up by mom and dad. Gone are the evenings being planned around when mom gets home from work and if dad can come get you at 9. Dependence has vanished… for the most part. For the first time, teens have a choice of where to go. The problem directly following such a freedom is the probable deficit of money many teens face. The phrase “I’m broke” is one of the more popular among high school students with expenses such as gas, insurance, activities, etc. So going out on a date is usually a special occasion, but the cost still needs
to be kept in check. Where can one have a nice, appetizing meal without needing to work overtime? Here are some suggestions: • The Pizza Grille, located in both Camp Hill and Lemoyne, is a perfect spot for casual date night. With the menu providing enough diversity that both participants will most likely find something appetizing, this is a perfect spot to enjoy another’s company. This restaurant obviously specializes in its pizzas, but has fabulous pasta and salads as well. As an ultimate perk, the prices are reasonable. The bill can be kept cheap easily by splitting a meal; most proportions are quite generous. Overall the atmosphere is lively and friendly, perfect for an impromptu night out. • Looking for somewhere to double or triple date? Mikado’s, a hibachi grille, is ideal for parties with multiple couples. Located on the Carlisle Pike, this restaurant is set up to accommodate a group of 4 or more. The food is delicious and hand cooked to perfection right in front of the table, having the grilles being built in to position the chef to face his guests. Indulge in the mastering of a Japanese steakhouse and perfection of sushi. The atmosphere and character this restaurant provides is what makes the meal more delicious and is great for easy conversation and comfort. • The Fire House, located on N. 2nd St in Harrisburg, is great for a festive evening of steak and seafood.
Also a more casual spot, this is great for a first impression date. The food and surroundings are more than exceptional and will be sure to make a significant other notably amazed. Although the menu can seem pricey, the menu provides alternative options that are just as tasty as the rest of the entrees. Checking out this one is a must. • Not all Mexican food is the same and El Sol on South 3rd St proves it. Upon walking in, the tasteful Mexican décor is something to be noticed. One is immediately immersed in the relaxing and comfortable environment this restaurant so effortlessly portrays. The menu is based on traditional Mexican dishes, but provides freshness and flavor to each meal. Although this place is authentic, the prices are very reasonable, especially when considering the perfection of the food provided. Each meal is catered individually to the guest and their “comfort level” so as to not be too spicy, or not spicy enough! El Sol is perfect for any kind of date. It has proven itself to be a must-try in the central PA area. Whether it’s a first date, special occasion, or spontaneous decision, going out to dinner should be enjoyable and affordable. Every teen wants to feel a part of the adult world of dating and dining is one of the key components to maturity. Treat your special someone to a night out and let it be one to cherish. Enjoy!
YOUR DIVERSION
BY Madelyn Super
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Sonnet 1 BY Sydni Chapman
YOUR DIVERSION
My heart skips when I look into thine eyes, So bright their color melts me from inside, Your heart is one that I could not despise, My love for you is truly bona fide, I’ll care for and put all my trust in you, And you’ll promise to do the same for me, Our tangled hearts you could never undo, Oh what a horrible crime that would be. I have been told true love’s a fantasy, Those people say we’re living in the dark, And in their eyes our loves a tragedy, But on my life your presence leaves a mark. The first time that we met we fell in love, And will be forever as some dream of.
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1Tankas Words and photo BY Sydni Chapman
King of the forest He wears his mane oh so well Roaring, everyone obeys Oh he looks so grand Standing there majestically
Lines running across the page Up and down they go Boxes form before my eyes I am stuck between The things that are around me Water a clear blue The most beautiful I’ve seen Sand bright white and firm Barely brakes beneath my feet It’s my paradise
Clothes sitting in front of me Picking each piece carefully My art to display An artist and their easel Are too much like me
YOUR DIVERSION
Home, a place I call my own Somewhere I belong A comfort box keeps me safe I wish everywhere I go Could feel like my home
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YOUR DIVERSION
GALL 46
Kelsey Bentz
Caitlyn Gauvry
Hannah Martin
Elizabeth Cohen
LERY Rebecca Robertson
Laura Weikel
Natasha Zook
YOUR DIVERSION
Rachael Robertson
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High School Sports:
Fun or Fierce? BY Jada Baity
YOUR SCORE
Before I came to the high school, I used to think of high school sports as a fun way to meet new friends and stay off of the couch. But boy, I was in for a rude awakening. Naturally, sports become much more competitive for a multitude of reasons. Whether it is for popularity or a scholarship, the fun loving people you once called your friends are now nothing more than your teammates. But there comes a point where you have to let go of some of the competitiveness and just have fun. Recently, I took it upon myself to sit down with a few of my peers and ask them questions related to popular high school sports such as football and basketball. I talked with people who made the teams and also with those who weren’t so fortunate. J: Why do you play football/basketball? Student #1: Because I’m good at it. J: What are your opinions about the people who aren’t so good at sports? Student #1: They shouldn’t play. I then proceeded to ask another student the same question and their answer made sense. Student #2: Because I love to do it and I want to do it for the rest of my life. This passionate answer concerning their sport was completely understandable. However, the next answer I got wasn’t. J: Why do you play football/basketball? Student #3: I don’t know. To say the least his answer appalled me. After this interview I went and sat down with people who didn’t make the teams. J: Were you upset that you didn’t make the team? Student #4: Definitely. J: Why? Student #4: Because I had put so much effort and time and practice into the whole thing. Plus everybody who had been on the team forever got in but I didn’t and it felt sort of biased. I did interviews with other people who didn’t make the team and all of their answers were pretty much the same. These people aren’t the only ones who felt his way. I can remember all too well the days when I played basketball. I had quit later on because the pressure of trying to be perfect, of trying to be the best, eventually got to me. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with sports or even the people who play them. Sports, among other things, give people a place to shine. But I do know that sports have started to become much more aggressive on and off the field and something should change so EVERYONE can have a chance to shine.
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MEET THE INTERNS
Name: Jada Baity Age: 15 School: Susquehanna Township High School Zodiac Sign: Gemini Favorite Restaurant: Chipotle Favorite Food: Shrimp Favorite Celebrity: Kerry Washington Favorite Movie: “A Walk to Remember” Favorite Magazine: Teen Vogue Favorite Book: Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles Favorite Things to Buy: Hair products, books, and journals Favorite Way to Exercise: Walking my dog Favorite Thing to Do on the Weekend: Go out with friends 5 Facts About Yourself: • I love to do musicals. Singing and dancing is probably the only thing you will see me doing. • I love to read. Teen romances are my guilty pleasure. • I LOVE the beach. It’s pretty much my second home. • I like to try new foods. Just don’t ask me to try anything too ridiculous. • I like to watch makeup tutorials on Youtube even though I don’t wear makeup. Future Goals/Plans: I plan on going to college and majoring in anything that has to do with reading and writing. Working in a publishing company and publishing other people’s books is a big dream of mine.
Name: Joanne Drawbaugh Age: 17 School: Mechanicsburg Area Senior High Food: Sashimi, or any seafood for that matter… Movie: Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Dr. Strangelove, Pretty in Pink Books: Lolita, Pride and Prejudice, White Girl Problems 5 Facts About Yourself: • Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. • I am a self-proclaimed Man Repeller. • Rumi Neely of fashiontoast.com, my style idol, told me my hair is cool. • I plan to change my name when I turn 18. • I study maps of the New York subway in my spare time. Future Plans/Goals Next year I plan to New York City to pursue a career in journalism and attend a lot of concerts. I want to travel all over Europe with my friends and perhaps live there someday. I’d love to learn as many languages as possible and experience as much of the world as I can.
MEET THE INTERNS
Name: Sydni Chapman Age: 17 School: Lebanon Catholic School Zodiac Sign: Pisces Favorite – Restaurant: Olive Garden, Kugos Food: Sushi, my mom’s stuffed shells Celebrity: Channing Tatum, Ryan Gossling Movie: The Notebook, 500 Days of Summer, Pretty Woman Magazine: Lucky Books: The Fault in Our Stars & Looking for Alaska Things to Buy: Clothes, music & hair accessories Way to Exercise: gym and Just Dance 2 Things to do on the weekend: Go out to eat, hang out with friends, DIY projects 5 Facts About Yourself: • I LOVE cats and have a cat named Niko. • I like to try new things and go on adventures with friends • I want to travel to at least 5 different countries before I die. • I like all kinds of music except Country • I enjoy art and drawing. Future Plans/Goals: I want to go to college and major in Fashion Merchandise and use my degree to be a fashion stylist or manage a store or be a buyer.
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MEET THE INTERNS
MEET THE INTERNS
Name: Jonathan McGrew Age: 18 School: John Harris High School Favorite: Restaurant: Hibachi’s Food: general tso’s chicken Celebrity: Drake Movie: Dawn of the Dead/ The Avengers Magazine: AND Books: ? Things to buy: shoes Way to exercise: walking Thing to do on the weekend: write Future Plans/Goals: My future goal is to be the most memorable writer/storyteller ever. I plan to achieve this goal by making unforgettable movies.
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Name: Madelyn Super Age: 18 School: Red Land High Zodiac Sign: Virgo FavoriteRestaurant: Melting Pot Food: Crab Legs Celebrity: Rachel McAdams Movie: Band of Brothers Magazine: Lucky Book: I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone Things to buy: gifts Way to exercise: running Thing to do on the weekend: football games, shop, go out to eat 5 Facts: 1. I love to try new food. 2. My mother is my best friend, my dad is my hero. 3. I have enough white t-shirts to last me a month. 4. I have a tanning addiction. 5. Total movie junkie. Future Plans/Goals: Go to a big school for my undergraduate, major in communications with a minor in journalism, move to a big city like Boston, have a successful career, see the world, and find the man of my dreams. Name: Mikayla Snyder Age: 17 School: Boiling Springs High School Zodiac Sign: Taurus Favorite – Restaurant: Olive Garden Food: Sushi
Name: Emanuel Aponte Age: 17 School: John Harris High School Zodiac sign: Cancer FavoriteRestaurant: Momo’s Food: Rice, beans & fried chicken! Celebrity: Lady Gaga Movie: For Colored Girls Magazine: National Geographic Book: Harry Potter & Monster Things to buy: Art supplies & gummy bears Way to exercise: walk Things to do on the weekend: Draw & get in touch with people who support my organization 5 facts1. I love to help. 2. I love to write random things and draw. 3. I’m a loving person. 4. I’m Puerto Rican. 5. I’m going to Penn State. Future Plans/Goals: Go to college to study psychology and political science and build a good reputation for Harrisburg.