Lakota East Spark 2018-2019 Issue #6

Spark Lakota East High School lakotaeastsparkonline.com $5 Newsstand May 2019

SENIOR PROFILE Spark features six standout senior leaders of various accomplishments and activities.

CLASS RANK IN GMC This year, East recognizes two senior class valedictorians and Spark explores how other local high schools are changing how they recognize academic achievement.

PERSONAL NARRATIVE

East junior Ekra Khalid writes about her religious pilgrimage to the holy cities of Mecca and Madinah this past spring break

lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2019 1

SENIOR PHOTOS ARE

513-779-1500

ONCE IN A LIFETIME

DO THEM RIGHT!

CONTENTS

Inside-the-Issue #188 news Class Rank in GMC With East declaring two valedictorian’s for the first time in history, Spark takes an indepth look at class rank, valedictorians and how other schools recognize academic achievement

culture

A Journey for the Heart East junior Ekra Khalid writes about her religious pilgrimage from this past spring break when she traveled to the holy city of Mecca and Madinah in Saudi Arabia.

package

IN-STUDIO AND OUTDOOR

relationships

AWESOME VARIETY

This issue, Spark staffers explore relationships people have with each other, themselves, and with their own motivation, among others.

senior Pictures thAt truly look like you on your best dAy

entertainment

And tell your story!

Endgame

EASY ONLINE BOOKING

Spark staffer Regan Denham depicts Marvel’s Endgame and end of a movie franchise.

W W W. E L I T E P H OT O G R A P H Y. C O M

sports Instant Replay in High School Spark staffer Joe Phelan debates on the controversial debate on high school sports instant replay.

East student Jonathan Washington runs the first leg of the-by-2 of the Greater Miami Conference (GMC) Championship meet.

AffordAble PAckAges stArting At $250 with current sAle

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opinion

Minimum Wage Spark staffer Alex Fernholz comments on the hotly debated topic of minimum wage.

lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2019 3

Spark 2018-2019 STAFF Editor-in-Chiefs

Business Manager Assistant Manager News Editor Culture Managing Editor Culture Section Editor

Katey Kruback Lauren Maier Landon Meador Jack McFarland Alex Fernholz Caroline Bumgarner Anna Mullins

Package Managing Editor Package Section Editor

Abby Bammerlin Rebecca Breland

Entertainment Section Editors

Alanna Schlaeger Isis Summerlin

Sports Section Editors

Stephen McKay Broc Nordmark

Opinion Section Editors

Photography Editors

Art Managing Editor Graphics Coordinators

Design Coordinators

Webmaster Copyeditor

Jessica Jones Alex Hood Abby Bammerlin Meredith Niemann McKenna Lewis Caroline Bumgarner Lauren Maier Katey Kruback Landon Meador

chief column | opinion

LETTER TO THE EDITOR Dear Spark,

Unpopular opinion: Valedictorian should have been taken away years ago. Some people recently on social media have expressed their opinions about William Mason High School taking away valedictorian and salutatorian. Personally, I feel until they have walked in our shoes and have been exposed to this type of environment, they should not feel the need to talk about Mason.

Mason High School is a very competitive school to be in.

Throughout the years of going to Mason, I realized how involved everyone is in their school work, even knowing they will not get the title of valedictorian. Taking away this title will not stop the students from working hard to get the grades they want and deserve.

Although some may think this will stop the students from getting good grades, I feel they are wrong. In this year’s graduating class of 900, approximately 40 percent of those students got above a 4.0 GPA. These students knew they would not be granted the title of valedictorian, yet still worked hard to get these grades. The kids who do strive to be valedictorian are usually the ones with most of the pressure coming from their parents. These kids will spend countless hours on end studying to get an A in all their classes, as well as take classes outside of school in the afternoons, weekends and summers, which leaves them little to no room to have any social interaction.

The people on social media have also been talking about how these kids will lose the responsibility to compete. I again feel this is wrong. Mason will and will always be a competitive school. The students will always work hard to be the best no matter what title they could possibly get. People always focus on the numbers at Mason.

For example, we always ask what the average is on the test, or how we did on different AP test that were taken. Prying this from your peers shows how students compare themselves to one another, despite having drastic strengths and weaknesses.

In conclusion, no matter what title could have possibly been gained by getting these grades, the students of Mason will always feel the need to challenge themselves and work hard at what they want most.

—Alyssa Appleby, William Mason senior The Spark encourages letters to the editor. Letters can be sent to the publication at lakotaspark@gmail.com or delivered to room 118 at the Lakota East High School Main Campus. Letters must be signed, and the staff reserves the right to edit the letters for length, grammar, invasion of privacy, obscenity or potential libel. The opinion editors will contact writers for confirmation.

Spark SENIOR PROFILE

Katey Kruback Katey Kruback Dean Hume

Spark features six standout senior leaders of various accomplishments and activities.

This year, East recognizes two senior class valedictorians and Spark explores how other local high schools are changing how they recognize academic achievement.

PERSONAL NARRATIVE

East junior Ekra Khaliad writes about her religious pilgrimage to the holy cities of Mecca and Madinah this past spring break

4 May 2019 lakotaeastsparkonline.com

design lauren maier and katey kruback

Lakota East High School lakotaeastsparkonline.com $5 Newsstand May 2019

CLASS RANK IN GMC Advisor

ON THE COVER

East junior Ekra Khalid traveled to the holy cities of Mecca and Madinah in Saudi Arabia this past spring break for a religious pilgrimage called Umrah. Pictured on the cover is pilgrims doing the Tawaf around the Kaaba.

I CAN ALMOST SEE IT KATEY KRUBACK photography bea amsalu

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s I’m writing this, I’m sitting in my second home, Liberty Center Starbucks, staring the end of my Spark tenure in the eyes. I can count the number of days left on one hand, and the thought fills me with more sadness than I am prepared to admit.

This time yesterday, I submitted my housing application for Perkins Hall at Ohio University. At that moment, I was strategizing my choice by bathroom habits, distance to stairs, and possible room arrangements and dimensions.

It was one of the first times I’d finally let myself visualize my future as a collegiate student. As I looked at the campus map trying to pick the best hall for my major, I pictured huffing up that steep hill and going to study at coffee shops, reading under the tree in the courtyard outside my dorm and thinking about the kinds of throw pillows I’d like on my bed.

(I do love throw pillows.)

But I’m also looking at my co-worker, co-chief and now friend Lauren Maier working across the table from me, and thinking on how I’m not sure how I’ll be able to let Spark go.

I’ve found myself in Spark, grew beyond who I knew myself to me, and befriended an amazing group of people I know I’ll be trading Christmas cards with for the rest of my life.

Spark means a lot of things to a lot of different people.

For some, it sets unrealistic expectations that can’t possibly be met, it means late nights at coffee shops and hard work beyond the typical classroom homework requirement. For some, that’s too much.

I definitely thought it was too much for me, especially after I turned in my application for editor-in-chief. I can’t say how many times I asked myself “what the heck am I doing?” and “why, exactly, am I doing this?” But time after time, issue after issue, I answer my own question. But our advisor, Mr. Hume, was amazing at guiding us and our fellow editors and staffers through a new year with new leadership.

As he should, he’s been doing it for long enough.

But it was Mr. Hume that I truly took my inspiration from in my role within the publication this year. His classes are very casual, discussion-based and he was always available and willing to help with whatever anyone needed—journalismrelated or not.

That leads me to the biggest thing I learned this year.

When I applied for my current position, I don’t know what I exactly envisioned, but it was something along the lines of creating the deadlines, making sure the paper gets done, and facilitating all of that for the whole staff. But what being “the boss” and the leader really means is the willingness to do everything else, picking up all the small things and do whatever is necessary to get the paper done.

It’s a lot of work and was by far the biggest responsibility I’d ever undertaken. I’ve pulled all-nighters, typed until I felt like my hand would start seizing and stared at screens for so long I thought my eyeballs would pop right out and finish typing my sentences for me. But I also had some of the best times of my life with this paper. • lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2019 5

LAKOTA RECAPS

news | news briefs

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s part of Girls on The Run, an eight-week program that focuses on empowering girls, Woodland Elementary fourth-grade girls participated in a community service project over the course of the week of May 6 painting two of the girls’ bathrooms with a space theme

news briefs | news

GOING GREEN photography abby bammerlin

E photography anna mullins (pictured above) and a nature theme. “[We asked] how we can affect our school community?” Head Coach Noelle Wilson said.

“And then narrowed it down, that this would be a great way to help girls. That’s why we’re focusing on the girl’s bathrooms.” —Anna Mullins

ast hosted American Automobile Association (AAA) outside in the side parking lot for car inspections on Friday, May 3. The car inspections were offered to all students for free, as was a free lunch after the inspection, provided by. The partnership came about because AAA is promoting their new motto for teen drivers, “Slow Down, Speak Up, Stay Alert.”

“We’re just trying to keep [students] safe,” said Stacey Marcum, Sales Manager for the AAA Ohio Auto Club. “I just want to save as many lives as I can.” —Jack McFarland

photography isis summerlin

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utler County students and community members travelled to 34 parks in the Fairfield area to do landscaping, clean out the waterways, and pick up garbage.

“If more and more trash keeps piling up it will affect every other ecosystem in our world,” said East junior Tara Witkowski, who was informed about the clean-up by her government teacher

GETTING AND GIVING

Tisha Mench. “By the time that we realize what’s happening it will be too late to do anything.”

This is the third year that Byron Products, a thermal processing company, has held an Earth Day Project. Former Boys and Girls Club Chief Operating Officer John Lindeman recruited 112 East students,15 Fairfield students, and two West students.

“I don’t think a lot of people care enough about the planet and they just throw everything anywhere,” East junior Elizabeth Rowe said.

This year there were 260 participants—about 200 more than previous year.

“My brother is the general manager of Byron Products. The past two years they’ve done an Earth Day Project, but he wanted to make it bigger this year,” Lindeman said. “He knew about my community service with Lakota school district because I did it for 25 years, so he asked me if I could come on and help make this thing grow.”

After the clean-up, Byron Products provided food, games, and a live performance for participants. They also gave out awards to groups for most garbage collected and coolest things found such as a 12-foot fence pole and 2 cement planters.

“We all need to understand that if we keep going on the way we are with the pollution of the Earth, it’s not going to be there for our kids and our grandkids,” Lindeman said.

—Isis Summerlin

photography anna mullins

photography anna mullins

A photography lauren maier

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n East’s new Innovation Hub on May 2, a group of East American Sign Language (ASL) students sat in front of a Skype camera during their extra help teaching Early Childhood Center students across the Eeast-side of the district the movements to songs like “Baby Shark,” and “If You’re Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands.” This first-time activity was led by East ASL teacher Jessica Sneider.

“We have been working with Lakota West as well and we have been doing some Brain Breaks, which is a trend for elementary kids to take a break and sing a song and dance a little,” Sneider said. “We made some songs based off of the ones that were requested from us.” —Lauren Maier

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photography anna florence

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fter school on April 26, East’s art program hosted an art show open to students, faculty, and the public. The art on display came from many different classes, including Drawing and Painting, AP Studio Art, and a new course, AP 3D Studio Art. Any East student in an art class had their work on display, including seniors

Morgan Green and Katie Pendleton, who are both in AP Studio Art. “It’s really cool because you get to see people coming in and actually enjoying your artwork,” said Pendleton, whose art has been displayed in the art show for two years. “It’s just really nice to see how people appreciate it.” —Anna Florence

s part of the district’s ongoing effort to mitigate mental health issues among students, a team of Lakota staff organized community forum on the topics of grief and suicide for parents at East Freshman campus. The event included an information fair with tables set up by community partners and a presentation with experts who could speak on the subject.

“We support our students in the schools to give them time to process grief, but our community doesn’t have that opportunity,” Lakota Manager of Healthcare Services Lauren Brown said. “So this is an education event, [for parents] to learn how to help their students through the grief process, how to recognize mental health issues in their own kids, [to] ask questions and try to understand what’s going on in our community and how we as a community can solve the problems together.”

The team of teachers has worked to develop many different ways that they can broach the topics of grief and suicide to helps students within the school. They hope to accomplish some of their goals through organizations like Hope Squad and the many different events, such as HOPE week and an ice cream social.

“We need to come together as a community and be there for each other,” Lakota Director of Student Services Lori Brown said. “Eliminate the

stigma of talking about mental health and suicide, and really working to plant the seeds of Hope, like in Hope Squad.”

Community partners include organizations like Cincinnati Children’s and Companions on a Journey (COJ), who have provided grief counselors to schools to help with the recent

losses, hospital. All the groups provided resources to parents to help them help their children.

“As a parent it’s my responsibility to be equipped to handle situations that my children encounter,” Lakota parent Tera Michelson said.

“And the forum was a great way to just fill my parent toolbox.” —Anna Mullins lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2019 7

news | rollout

rollout | news

ONETO-ONE ROLLOUT: ONE SEMESTER LATER

Two East students share their emails in preparation for starting a group project together.

After almost a full semester following the rollout of district-owned Chromebooks, the laptops have been met with mixed emotions from both student and teachers. story brayden barger | photography alexandra fernholz

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lass on Monday is routine for East science teacher Leanne Staley. The bell rings, students settle down, she goes over the weekly syllabus, then presents notes for students to take on the current lesson.

However, the platform for which she presents her lesson has changed drastically over the course of this year. During the first semester of this year and all previous semesters in her career, she utilized whiteboard and paper instruction. But now, after the one-to-one rollout of school-issued Google Chromebooks, she presents everything digitally. The students receive PowerPoints, notes, and videos through the district’s online program Canvas and the students’ Chromebooks.

Although the platform for the lesson has changed, according to Staley, material-wise and learning-wise nothing has changed. The same lesson is presented at the same speed, with the added benefit of “saving a few trees and fewer trips to the copier.”

According to East sophomore Shay Wilson, who is in Staley’s second period Honors Biology class, the Chromebooks have changed her experience in class “Learning how to use the Chromebooks, especially since not every teacher uses them is sometimes stressful,” Wilson said. “But the best part about having the Chromebooks is having the ability to share projects and documents between [other students] for group assignments and [that] it keeps me so much more organized [in class].”

For Staley, the biggest obstacle in involving

8 May 2019 lakotaeastsparkonline.com

the new technology in her classroom was having little knowledge on how the Chromebooks functioned, due to the scarce training her and other East teachers received prior to the January rollout.

“I don’t believe we had adequate training on how to use [Chromebooks] in the classroom,” Staley said. “There was an assumption that students already knew how to use them, and they didn’t.”

The bulk of the training and learning how the Chromebooks worked, according to Staley, mainly came in the form of teachers helping fellow teachers. “[The teachers] took two weeks away from the curriculum [in ] to tinker and figure [the Chromebooks] out,” Staley said. “I was so glad we took this time to teach each other and learn ‘the how,’ [while we’re also] still figuring out some of ‘the why.’”

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ccording to East Innovation specialist Ryan Corris, the main problem with the Chromebooks stems from student responsibility, a number of students tend not to keep the laptops charged or bring them to their classes.

“One of the problems [students teachers] run into most is students not bringing them to class,” Corris said. “I think as people get more accustomed to using the Chromebooks and more teachers incorporate them into their classes students will see the importance of bringing them.”

Students have experienced certain problems

with the new technology as well. One of the biggest concerns being the ability to access personal email accounts. East sophomore Cameron Newcomer takes college credit plus (CCP) courses with Miami University, and since he can’t access his Miami email on his Chromebook, it is difficult to keep all of his emails from professors and teachers organized.

“When I first got my Chromebook, I was so excited because I could finally organize all my schoolwork at East and Miami,” Newcomer said. “But when I tried logging in it wouldn’t let me, which was frustrating because I use my email all the time for school and work and now I have to have a separate computer for those things.”

The inability to access personal email accounts is further contested due to students being able to access the same accounts on the normal school desktops. According to East Principal Suzanna Davis, she was not aware that students could access personal email accounts on the school desktops. Davis, however, did assert that student safety is the top priority, so not allowing access to personal emails alleviates the concern of students privately contacting others through the Chromebooks.

Davis stressed that student safety is also the driving force in blocking many websites on the internet from being accessible to students. A vast number of websites on the regular internet are filtered out due to certain keywords or site safety rating, using different software from what filters the Lakota Guest Wifi, making the same websites also inaccessible at home

“But the best part about having the Chromebooks is having the ability to share projects between [other students]. It keeps me so much more organized.” —Shay Wilson, East sophomore even when using a personal Wifi connection.

This can create difficulty for students to access class material that contains the same certain keywords, as well as make it harder to use the Chromebooks for personal use.

“The safety and security of our staff and students is of utmost importance,” Davis said.

“Overarchingly, [the district] has a commitment to keeping people safe.”

The other aspect of the one-to-one rollout unveiled in January was the reinventing of the media center into an Innovation Hub. The Hub’s features include green screens, recording studios, virtual reality headsets, and iPad video cameras, which allow for new collaborative opportunities for students.

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tudents and Hub specialists from East and West high schools, and Hopewell Junior says the Innovation Hubs are a huge success; those Hubs get more daily usage by students than the previous media centers across all of the schools.

According to West Innovation specialist Lindsay Conklin, students are utilizing the Hub every minute of the school day because it is a great place for students to work and collaborate

together.

“The Hub is definitely getting used more than before,” Conklin said. “We have students that come for a quiet place to work, but also students that are using the equipment and meeting to collaborate with group work.”

Although some students don’t use the Hub very frequently, according to West junior Dakota Chiasson, it is still a great place to work and collaborate when necessary. “[The Hub] is really nice to have just for the simple fact that the cameras and audio system makes it super easy to do group projects and put together research videos,” Chiasson said.

“It’s also nice for when we’re doing something that involves multiple classes, we can all get together in one room to do a presentation instead of cramming into a classroom.”

For students like East sophomore Ethan Pylate, the Hub helps with group projects, especially for his American Sign Language (ASL) class. According to Pylate, it is an easy place to meet up with a group of people rather than trying to organize outside of school, and the equipment helps to improve the quality of his projects.

“In ASL we usually sign behind the cameras

in the Hub, and then we use WeVideo to edit it,” Pylate said. “[The Hub] just makes things easier. Using this time at school to record instead of taking away time at home really helps.”

Though the Hubs are only about four months old, Hopewell Junior Innovation Specialist Heidi Adams believes the Innovation Hub can continue to improve upon itself and evolve because of the versatility of its equipment.

“The beautiful thing about the Hub is that for any improvements that need to happen, the space allows for creative maneuvering for things to happen,” Adams said. “The only thing that we can’t remedy right now is to have more Hub space without knocking down walls.”

Davis believes that despite how new the Chromebooks and Innovation Hub are, they have already made a tremendous and positive impact on student learning.

“I’ve just seen kind of an explosion of all the different ways that students are utilizing [the Chromebooks and the Hub],” Davis said. “As I engage with students I begin to see that [the Chromebooks] have really become a valuable, almost necessary part of their learning.” •

lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2019 9

news | classroom competition

classroom competition | news

CLASSROOM COMPETITION As East recognizes two valedictorians of the senior class for the first time ever, other local high schools are making changes to how they recognize students for their academic achievements.

story bea amsalu | infographic gracie estep and rebecca breland photography alexandra fernholz

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he walls of East Main Street are decorated with plaques recognizing student achievement, from state championship titles to National Honor Society members, to Journalist of the Year winners. Among those plaques are ones commemorating the academic achievement of the “Top 25” seniors in the twenty-one graduating classes of East, along with a photo of that year’s valedictorian and salutatorian.

This year, the East 2019 class will recognize two valedictorians in the senior class. With the top two cumulative Grade Point Averages (GPA) being 4.7974 and 4.7944 after the seventh semester, they are closer than ever before, said Principal Suzanna Davis, who made the decision after consulting with other administrators.

“This was statistically [the] closest two GPAs we’ve ever had, so the decision was not made lightly, and it was not made on a whim,” Davis said. “It truly was a conversation with a multitude of people talking about the two GPAs.” Based on the guidelines included in the student handbook section of the East planner, to be eligible for the honors of valedictorian or salutatorian at East, “students must have attended their last three consecutive semesters at East.” The honor of valedictorian is “based on class rank standing at the end of seven7 semesters.” In the event of a tie, ranks and GPA can be calculated into the third quarter.

However, as was the case this year, “final decision is subject to review by the building Principal.”

Similar guidelines are not included in the West planners. Multiple communication methods went unanswered from West.

To Davis, selecting who would receive this honor was not exclusively based on numbers.

East senior looks back on the academic awards she has received during her tenure at East.

10 May 2019 lakotaeastsparkonline.com

“The valedictorian is an honor that gets bestowed upon the top academic achiever— or achievers in this case—in the senior class,” Davis said. “The term ‘valedictorian’ does not insinuate class rank, because there is a person that has the number one class rank, and then number two class rank [on their transcript].”

The Lakota Board Policy 5430 states “No student shall be eligible for graduation honors, such as Valedictorian, etc. unless they have been enrolled in the specific school as a nonpart-time student (per Board Policy 5111.03) for four (4) consecutive semesters prior to the final semester utilized for the purpose of determining such honors. The standing or rank in the senior class and the top scholastic honors of Valedictorian and Salutatorian are determined by averaging the higher of either final average or semester examination marks for each subject taken in grades nine - 12. Only the first semester of the senior year is used.”

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he district has the policy in place so that the two schools must rank students, but East and West can recognize their students for their rank (or not at all) as they see fit.

Lakota Curriculum director Andrew Wheatley said the district is not looking to make any changes concerning this policy at this time.

“I can’t say specifically that [Lakota] is planning on making any changes right now,” Wheatley said. “But I can say that we’re always exploring options and trying to figure out what’s best for our kids.”

In addition to the co-valedictorians, 26 students were recognized in the Top 25 seniors.

This is not the first time the “Top 25” has not been 25 students, including the class of 2017.

Davis believes that over the last several years, this has become “the norm rather than the exception.”

“The reason for that is, when we get to the person ranked number 25, there is traditionally a very small margin for a couple of people right around 25,” Davis said. “So you may have two or three people right around 25 that are very close in terms of their GPA, but traditionally there is a break. Statistically, it would be a difficult decision to make to say number 26 is or isn’t going to be included.”

According to Davis, at that point, the honor of Top 25 becomes a “numbers game,” but she tries not to get too caught up in the number that is a students’ GPA, and students agree. Of the 53 members of the Top 25 across the four grades surveyed, 76 percent of them agree that the “Top 25” doesn’t necessarily have to be 25 people in the event of a tie. Davis has said that “perhaps we consider having a conversation about changing the name.”

“We’re going to recognize academic achievement, and recognize the top academic performers, [and] if that means 27, because they’re that close, we’re going to go to 27,” Davis said. “I’m not going to get caught up in the number 25.”

Top 25 East senior Heath Wilson thinks no matter what the honor is called, the competition aspect will still exist.

“Without a complete reform of the entire GPA system, almost every other system in place of recognizing our top students would use the same principle,” Wilson said Wilson, who is recognized as being one of the Top 25. “Replacing Top 25 with a percentage just invokes the same level of competition with a different name. That being said, these students work immensely hard and should be recognized accordingly.”

Davis agrees with Wilson, recognizing that student’s academic achievements should not be limited to a number, such as GPA and rank.

“I think we lose sight of the fact that there are people attached to these numbers.” —Suzanna Davis, East Principal lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2019 11

news | classroom competition “I think we lose sight of the fact that there are people attached to these numbers,” Davis said. “I do get a little bit frustrated when there’s this external dialogue going on that’s so unbelievably focused on numbers and placement and ranks, because there’s a lot of great work going on in our school.”

Other schools have done away with the system of class rank completely. Sycamore High School has not included rank on transcripts or selected a class valedictorian in the last 10 years.

“We only track rank for scholarship purposes for students,” Sycamore Guidance Counselor Brian Sweeney said. “Our student body President is the master of ceremonies at graduation and either that student or the senior class president (if it’s not the same person) will give a speech.”

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ccording to Walnut Hills High School Counselor Patricia Morgan, the school will no longer be ranking students starting in the 2019-2020 school year.

“We currently rank two ways: weighted GPA and unweighted GPA. For the college admissions process we send the weighted GPA,” Morgan said. “Beginning the 2020 school year, we are no longer ranking students.

We hope this will eliminate some anxiety associated with the academic competition.”

source school administrators 12 May 2019 lakotaeastsparkonline.com

classroom competition | news

William Mason High School, which did not report ranks of individual students but still selected a valedictorian and salutatorian, will be making larger-scale changes for the 20192020 school year. The school is eliminating the recognition of valedictorian and salutatorian and changing to a 5-point weighted GPA scale, but will continue to use the Latin honor system of Magna, Summa, and Cum Laude honors to award academic performance. Mason Principal Bobby Dodd said that administrators came to this decision after a year of research and community surveying.

“The recognition system will reward our students for genuine academic success based on their academic accomplishments,” Dodd told Spark in an email. “This will help reduce the overall competitive culture at Mason to allow students to focus on exploring learning opportunities that are of interest. Providing these opportunities also presents us with the responsibility of focusing on the mental health of our students.”

East co-valedictorian Julia Finley thinks that the premise of what Mason was trying to do was with good intentions, but the competition aspect of class rank is a motivator for students.

“What they’re really trying to do by eliminating class rank is to help the mental health of their kids, but there is basically

nothing in store for the mental health of their kids in the first place,” Finley said. “So why don’t they work on that instead? That would help the problem while keeping the competition aspect that makes us work hard.

Because if I didn’t have the competition, I wouldn’t have worked as hard. But if they care about our mental health, all would be well.”

Spark conducted a survey of the Top 25 students in grades nine through 12. Here is what they had to say.

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nder Mason’s current system, class rank is not shared with students and only calculated for the sake of determining who would receive the graduation honors.

Dodd hopes this transition will be the start of changes that will allow students to create “opportunities to learn in a safe and inviting learning environment.”

“The paradoxical nature of class rank within the culture of Mason does nothing to decrease the competition among students or the ‘gamification’ of choosing courses to increase the number of add-ons to boost students overall GPA,” Dodd said. “Transitioning to a weighted 5.0-grade point scale honors the level of engagement and thinking required at an Advanced Placement (AP) and Honors course level by a student and also decreases the emphasis on ‘chasing’ add-on points due to the GPA not being able to go above a 5.0.”

East co-valedictorian Idris Malik can understand where Mason is coming from by eliminating these factors.

“I feel like [that system] would really reduce stress for lots of people, and people would focus more on taking harder classes to learn and not worrying too much about grades,” Malik said. “Overall, it would be a better system. It rewards those who put in a lot of effort, without having as high of stakes.”

At Mason and at East, some students choose courses exclusively for the weighted GPA attached. However, at a school like Sycamore, where rank and graduation honors are not awarded, Sweeney said he doesn’t see students choosing courses for a GPA boost.

“I don’t see students playing that game at Sycamore,” Sweeney said. “Students select courses based on interest and rigor in preparation for the college admissions process.

We encourage students to step outside of their comfort zone and challenge themselves. I think not ranking and not having a valedictorian has created a healthier, academically competitive culture in our building.”

Though Lakota officials are not looking to make any changes to their policy, Davis is always looking to recognize as many students as possible for their academic achievements.

“We need to continue to find ways to amplify and elevate all types of student achievement,” Davis said. “I would like for us to continue to explore within our own school environment where are there opportunities for us to truly look at academic achievement on a larger scale.” •

70 percent of students think the title of Valedictorian should be synonymous with rank #1

TOP 25

SPEAKS

Top 25 students were surveyed and expressed their thoughts on class rank and the academic honor they receive. story bea amsalu | infographic gracie estep

A 40 percent of students are in favor of not having class rank

91 percent of students feel pressured to stay in the top 25

76 percent of students are in favor of allowing more than 25 students into the top 25 source east top 25 survey

t East, the Top 25 students in each grade are considered the highest academic achievers among their peers. But to some students that currently hold the honor, having this recognition is a double edged sword.

“It’s hard for me to say if I am in favor of class rank. Personally, being in the top 25, it’s nice to be recognized for hard work, and to be entirely honest it makes me feel good about myself,” said an anonymous junior in the Top 25. “People focus too much on getting grades and taking certain classes just for rank and GPA weight instead of placing value on learning.”

An anonymous survey conducted by Spark of 53 of the 100 Top 25 students across the four grades received several similar responses.

“There are good and bad aspects of the class rank system,” said a sophomore in the Top 25. “I know for me it puts an added layer of stress to stay in the top 25 but it also gives me motivation to stay on top of my work and push myself.”

Heath Wilson, a senior in the Top 25, felt being ranked gave him motivation to work as hard as he did throughout high school.

“It was all worth it for me because I put in the work,” Wilson told Spark. “I was ranked 52 freshman year and I set a goal for myself and by senior year I accomplished that goal. Now I’m remembered as being in the top 25.”

For co-valedictorian Julia Finley, being ranked so high throughout her four years at East affected how she went about high school.

“I genuinely feel like I would have had a much different high school experience if we didn’t have this competition,” Finley said. “And it’s not me that’s making it a competition. It’s just the culture of [the school]. Teachers and other students would always ask me if I was going to ‘win’ like [being valedictorian] was a prize to be won.”

Of the surveyed students, 93 percent reported that they feel pressure to remain in the Top 25. One anonymous senior in the Top 25 said “the pressure to stay in the Top 25 is much more than the work to get into it.”

“Class rank has been a huge pressure on me and a ton of other people I know,” said a senior in the Top 25. “Everyone begins to compare each other, making sure they know the exact positions of all their friends. I know a couple people whose mental health has been seriously hurt due to this pressure.”

Freshmen, who are being ranked for the first time in their academic careers, feel the pressures that come with having a high class rank incredibly early.

“Knowing your class rank is validating to some extent, but I was 3rd in my class and my parents expected more,” said a freshman in the Top 25. “Class rank comes with tons of pressure from not only parents but peers and teachers also.”

N

ot everyone in the Top 25 seemed to feel this pressure.

“While I didn’t necessarily feel pressured to stay in the top 25, there would always be a feeling of disappointment when my class rank slipped,” said a Top 25 senior.

“I usually just shrugged it off though, figuring that I was pursuing learning opportunities in some unweighted classes instead of taking all AP classes.”

For East senior Chloe Huggins, at the end of the day, she tries not to let the pressure get to her and knows she will remain motivated as she moves on to college.

“I’ll still work this hard in college,” said Huggins. “I do it for myself. In the end, it’s not for the rank, it’s not for my parents, it’s not for anyone else, it’s for me.” • lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2019 13

news | summer food program

summer food program | news

“The 2017 food insecurity rate for Ohio was 13.7 percent, two percent higher than the national average.” —United States Department of Agriculture

Students wait in line to receive their lunch.

NOT JUST LOAFING AROUND

According to Turner, students would not have been able to experience those learning opportunities without the partnership between Lakota and Faith Alliance.

“When Lakota joined [the churches], they took care of the food program so the churches could expand to other programs,” Turner said.

“Mission Possible started in Monroe, but we branched over to Lakota with the help of the food bus.”

One of the new learning experiences that come with the summer lunch program is the Midpointe Library’s bookmobile. The bookmobile travels to the lunch sites on scheduled days to encourage students to keep reading over the summer.

“Kids could go to the library while they went to lunch, so [Lakota and their partners] really do a good job of trying to make [the program] more than about food,” Tye said.

According to Senior Director of Business Operations for Lakota’s Child Nutrition department Craig Hatfield, the summer food program wouldn’t be possible without the partnership between Lakota and Faith Alliance.

“Our partner, Faith Alliance, outreaches and advertises throughout Liberty Township and West Chester communities to advertise this wonderful opportunity,” Hatfield said. “By doing this, we were also able to expand the program and serve more children.”

Lakota is also starting an academic program of their own for Woodland Elementary students called Whole Again. The program provides a catered breakfast and lunch alongside academic help in all areas. Brown was heavily involved in starting Whole Again.

“The program consists of all the academics they need obviously to challenge them some,” Brown said. “Some may just need a little encouragement, so it’s really great for that.”

In return for funding from the USDA, the district and its partners must follow the USDA’s guidelines for the summer food program.

Lakota is required to advertise the program, and does so through newsletters and the district’s media publications. Child Nutrition must also make sure that the meals themselves provide options with adequate nutritional value. In addition, only students from the age of one to 18 can receive a free meal. If a student has a medical disability, they are eligible to receive meals until the age of 21. The students also cannot take any of the food home with them.

L

akota is not alone in their efforts to make sure that all their students are nourished after the academic year ends. The USDA funds summer food programs for any school district with an area where 50 percent or more of the students receive free or reduced lunch, including Kings, Hamilton,

and Middletown. Kings originally applied for the program because a significant number of students required free or reduced lunch in the South Lebanon area.

“We served 1,300 meals last year, [and] we’re hoping certainly to serve more, we want our program to help,” said Kings Food Service Director Jennifer Arlinghaus, who has run the program for 13 years.

According to the USDA, 11.8 percent of households in the United States (US), or over 125 million households were considered food insecure in 2017. The food insecurity rate for Ohio was 13.7 percent, nearly two percent higher than the national average.

“If there’s a need, we try to connect [students] with a resource that can help and fill that need,” Tye said. “If the student isn’t hungry or worrying about where they’re going to sleep tonight, or that their teeth hurt, they’re going to focus more on school.”

According to the American Psychological Association, effects of food insecurity on a child can include an increased risk of chronic illness and depression in adolescence and later in life. This is what drives Brown in her work for both the program and as part of LODI. “[The kids] just want some love really,” Brown said. “They want to eat and they want to be loved on, so you might play ball with them, or you might just sit and chat with them.” •

Lakota provides food for students eligible for free and reduced lunch over the summer. story amy bohorfoush | infographic selena chen | photography fair use

T

he children’s excitement mounted as they watched the gray school bus pull up in front of them, even though it was the middle of June. They waited patiently as the bus came to a stop and the doors opened to allow five children on at a time, giving some of them their only meal for the day. This is Lakota’s initiative to continue to provide lunch for students and families in the district over the summer.

Lakota’s summer food program began 10 years ago as members of local churches and the Butler County Success Program provided donated food to children in need in the Lakota district. One of those churches was Mission Possible, which began a program to teach literacy and life skills in addition to working with the other churches to provide food.

The churches officially joined to form Faith Alliance in 2012.

Volunteers walked among the crowd,

14 May 2019 lakotaeastsparkonline.com

maintaining order and bringing napkins and silverware to those who forgot to pick one up.

Many of the volunteers had been participating in the summer food program for years. One of these volunteers is East junior Jenna Breiner, whose father is the site coordinator for the Lakota Pointe area, one of seven sites where Lakota delivers the meals.

“My big job this year is I’m learning Spanish and trying to become fluent,” Breiner said.

“There are a lot of ELL [English Language Learners] in the program, so I’ll go in and help translate and speak to kids.”

The kitchens of Liberty Junior remain open Monday through Friday from May 29 to Aug. 2 to cook the food. Then, two buses are loaded with the food and then travel to the designated sites throughout the Lakota district.

Arrival times are staggered between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. The students and volunteers arrive

at one of the sites, where the students walk onto a bus to receive their meal. According to Parent Engagement and Community Outreach director for Lakota Outreach, Diversity, and Inclusion (LODI) Angie Brown, the sites where the meals will be delivered are determined based on census data that shows where there are high populations of students eligible for free or reduced lunch.

W

hen Lakota and Faith Alliance joined their efforts in 2015, Lakota was able to provide a steady supply of the school’s hot lunches. Funding for Lakota from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) also helped make the program a success. Volunteer coordinator and Lakota parent Bobbie Turner runs both the food program for Faith Alliance and a learning opportunities program for Mission Possible. lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2019 15

prosthetic hand | news

LENDING A HAND

Hansika rests after a long day at school

Four senior engineering students have been building a prosthetic hand for a five-year-old Shawnee student as their capstone engineering project. story alexandra fernholz | photography cassandra mueller and lauren maier

A

ll right, get to work! East Engineering teacher Ken Kinch’s voice booms out over the heads of his chattering third period class. This engineering class is a special one, different from anything else at East. These select groups of seniors have been working on one project all year: their capstone.

At a small collection of tables, East seniors Sam Billisits, Cali Hoffman, Ben Roth, and Logan Spille have split up for the day to focus on their own part of the group’s task—building a prosthetic hand for a four-year-old preschool student at Shawnee Elementary.

Her name is Hansika Hamre, and as of Feb 25. 2019, she is five years old. Diagnosed with Symbrachydactyly, a birth defect that left her with only four bones in her right hand, she has nubs where her fingers are meant to be.

After five years, she’s learned to adapt to her disability, and even joined a T-ball team in the spring of 2018, swinging the bat with her left hand and forgoing a glove in favor of catching with her hands.

“She’s adapted very well,” Hoffman said of Hansika. “She doesn’t let anything stop her.”

As Spille shops through different watch bands for the device, Roth and Billisits examine a recently 3D-printed yellow plastic part which 16 May 2019 lakotaeastsparkonline.com

will attach to Hansika’s wrist and allow her to adjust the tension of the wire inside the prosthetic. It’s been a long process for the seniors since they picked up the project in September.

“We wanted to make something that’s custom fit for a single person, especially considering that Hansika is four years old [and] she has quite a small hand,” Billisits said. “Our second goal is to make it so that it can change with her, so she can use this sort of hand throughout her entire life if she wants to.”

The team worked primarily from designs they found online at first, piecing together their own design by drawing inspiration from thousands of online examples.

“We spent the first couple months researching and looking at different ways we could build this hand,” Roth said. “[We found] some pretty interesting stuff: some [hands] were blocky, some were slim, and some were wrist-powered. [There’s also] different stuff you can use, like a Raspberry Pi, but that would require a lot of charging. And we decided that probably was not a good idea, especially for a little kid.”

Because Hansika has full wrist function, she can move her wrist in any direction. Therefore,

the group decided to create a wrist-powered device. When Hansika moves her wrist in a certain way, surgical wires which travel the length of the hand and fingers will also move, allowing her to manipulate the device’s fingers.

The key to the design is making it comfortable and easy to use.

“If our prosthetic isn’t comfortable, she would definitely not want to use it because she [has] already adapted,” Billisits said. “That’s the most challenging part of the task, because we have to make something that she actually likes and not just something that works.”

N

ot only is it important that the device works for Hansika, but also that she likes how the device looks.

“She is very, very much a strong-willed child. She doesn’t like to stand out and be very different,” Hansika’s adoptive mother Cara Hamre told Spark. “If she doesn’t want to wear it, she’s not going to, regardless of how much work they put into it.”

The senior engineering class focuses on one thing: their capstone project. Students select one task at the beginning of the year, and come up with a way to solve it by the time summer rolls around. Piecing together the hand has

been a slow process for the students, who are only able to work on their project for about five hours each week during class.

“Everyone thinks that we’re doing this project and already have it mapped out, but we’re still learning along the path. [And it’s] a long path,” Roth said. “We don’t have forty hours [a week] like a professional would.”

Local product development firm Kinetic Vision has been helping this group refine their design and suggest new modifications or strategies. In October, Kinetic Vision used a laser scanner to take hyper-accurate measurements of Hansika’s hands to ensure the students had access to precise information, and gave the students a professional design review in May. The company even offered to print the final device for the students using their equipment.

“As a company, we have a very strong background in biomedical product design and development,” Vice President of Engineering Jim Topich said. “As soon as Kinch reached out to us with the opportunity to help, [we] didn’t even hesitate to get involved. We were extremely excited and honored to help with this opportunity.”

T

he project started when Kinch emailed occupational therapists around the district to ask if there were any potential ways for his capstone students to help. Hansika’s former occupational therapist Linda Phipps at Shawnee Elementary reached out to her parents, Cara and Erik, to let them know of the opportunity.

“I wasn’t thinking necessarily a prosthetic hand. I didn’t know what his class could do.

But I thought, well, it’s an opportunity for them to get together,” said Phipps, who has since been moved to Hopewell Early Childhood Elementary. “And then they ran with it.”

Though Topich put the estimated cost of the project at over $10,000, Kinetic Vision donated all of the materials, manpower, and the consultation, bringing the amount paid by the Hamres to zero.

Cara, an Acute Care Nurse Practitioner at University Hospital, has worked with adult patients with the same condition as Hansika, some of whom use assisted devices like prostheses and others who rely on their own manpower. Consequently, she understood the challenge Hansika’s condition presents more so than than most people when the family adopted Hansika in the spring of 2017.

“We knew we wanted a little girl and we didn’t want to do it domestically,” Cara said.

“Because [with] domestic adoption you usually have to get put on a waiting list, [and] I didn’t want to stand in the way of anybody else that wasn’t able to have a baby.”

After an adoption process of nearly twoand-a-half years, Erik and Cara were finally able to “drive away from the orphanage and

1

Five-year-old Hansika tries on her prosthetic hand for the first time.

2

Hansika plays around with her new prosthetic hand, testing the tension on the strings to see of the fingers curl.

3

East senior Ben Roth fits the prosthetic hand again after making small alterations for Hansika’s unique fit

lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2019 17

news | prosthetic hand to the new technology than before.

As April turned into May, the team was still working on perfecting their design. The design review, where Kinetic Vision will go over their prototype with them, will be the key point in the group’s year.

“Our designs have gone through a bunch of trial and errors,” Billisits said. “That’s been our main problem, we run into a problem and then the process starts all over again.”

Sixth grade teacher Caitlin Huxel works over a series of problems with her students.

O

Despite lacking fingers on her right hand, Hansika can still do many of the same tasks as her peers. Just a little differently. never look back” on April 22, 2017 with a three-year old Hansika.

“It was one of the most amazing, hardest, beautiful, tragic, glorious things that we’ve ever done. And she’s incredible, absolutely incredible,” Cara said. “I absolutely thank God for her every single day. I would do it all over

again in a heartbeat for her.”

The family had investigated other options for Hansika, but were told that she was just too young for a prosthetic at the time. However, now that Hansika has turned five, the age most doctors recommend prosthesis or assisted devices, she will be more capable of adjusting

Columbia /

nce the final prototype has been reviewed

by Kinetic Vision, the group will meet with Hansika and her family again to ensure the hand fits well and works for her.

“I told [Hansika] that if she doesn’t like it, to please tell us, because we will fix it,” Hoffman said. “Seeing her reaction when she sees us is what’s driving us to double down and get everything done. You can’t let a four-year old down.”

After that final meeting, Kinetic Vision will take the group’s prototype and designs and 3D print the final product in their own labs. In order to ensure the hand is durable and easy to be cleaned, the hand will be printed using Fusion Deposition Modeling (FDM), the most popular form of 3D printing. In the process of FDM, the product is printed using one continuous length of thermoplastic material.

Cara is already excited for Hansika to own the hand, and knows just how much it means not only to her daughter, but to her and her husband as well.

“We’re blown away at how much people want to be a part of her life and how they want to work for the greater good to provide something for her that she’s missing,” Cara said.

“She had a really rough start at life; thankfully that’s going to turn around.” •

/

I-275 and Montgomery Road

Jon McFarland Jack McFarland 10981 Montgomery Road • Cincinnati, Ohio 45249 Main (513) 489-2000 • Fax (513) 489-7377

FLIPPING EDUCATION

This school year, Endeavor Elementary sixth-grade math teacher Caitlin Huxel has implemented a flipped-classroom model • story and photography abby bammerlin

D

uring the 2018-2019 school year, Endeavor Elementary school teacher Caitlin Huxel implemented a flipped-classroom system in her sixth-grade math class. Rather than teaching during class and sending students home with homework, Huxel has switched what happens at home and in her classroom.

Students watch Huxel’s pre-recorded video lessons at home while taking notes. During class, students work on additional worksheets with Huxel’s supervision. Students can come up to her during class if they have questions.

This allows students to individualize their pace.

“I have some kids working on lesson 11 and some kids who are on [lesson] 14, because the pace that they set for themselves lends itself to that,” Huxel said. “If [a student is] absent, it’s okay. [They] haven’t missed a whole day of the teaching, because [students] can watch the video. They’re not falling as far behind.”

Huxel started her flipped-classroom research three years ago. She realized that the way she was teaching previously, allowed for little time for student-teacher interaction.

Instead, she worked with Endeavor’s digital specialist at the time Lindsay Conklin to try out different classroom innovations such as working in stations and on tablets. “[Huxel] was noticing that she had some really high [achieving] kids and some really low [achieving] kids,” said Conklin, who now works

at West as a innovation specialist. “She felt like she wasn’t meeting all of their needs as best as she could.”

Huxel explained that before the flippedclassroom system, she would normally lecture for the majority of the class.

“I was noticing my kids just being so out of touch with just me standing there,” Huxell said.

H

uxel explained that many people have the misconception that her students are on screens during class, but in reality, the screen time happens at home. In class, she spends the time in engaging with her students face to face.

“At home, you can pace yourself and you don’t have to rush yourself,” said Haley Rose, a student in Huxel’s classroom. “Whereas in a classroom, everybody rushes to get to the same place and at home you’re at different places and you can do as much as you need.”

Huxel said that other teachers at Endeavor have started begun practicing the flippedclassroom style of teaching.

East innovation specialist Ryan Corris said that flipped-classrooms can vary depending on the teacher. He explains that flippedclassrooms can be entire classes that have been flipped or just individual lessons and activities.

“The benefit of doing that is that [students are] getting the knowledge of content, but

inside class that’s where they’re doing practice [activities] and going over things,” Corris said.

Corris said that if flipped classroom is done poorly, students may not have everything they need to understand the material. He gave the example of students watching a video, but not discussing the content afterward.

But he believes there aren’t many disadvantages to this teaching style.

“It definitely gives students a way to enhance their learning, whether the videos are created by the classroom teacher or on youtube,” Corris said.

While there are no teachers at East that have completely flipped their classroom, Corris said that many have uploaded videos of their lessons.

East Principal Suzanna Davis said that the flipped-classroom style is part of a constant conversation about personalized learning.

“There’s going to be a population of students that probably really connect with [the flipped-classroom] style,” Davis said. “There’s going to be other students that don’t connect to it.”

Lakota Superintendent Mathew Miller also believes that the flipped-classroom style is just one of many options.

“The tech piece is another tool,” Miller said. “I look at what businesses and colleges are doing and they’re using technology. We’re trying to give [students] a leg up.” •

Visit us at our website www.columbiahyundai.com • www.columbiagenesis.net • www.columbiaacura.com

18 May 2019 lakotaeastsparkonline.com

lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2019 19

culture | pic 6

pic 6 | culture

PIC SIX

6

9425 Montgomery Ave, Montgomery OH, 45242 Hours: Mon-Fri: 3:30 p.m. - 9 p.m.

Sat-Sun: 1 p.m. - 9 p.m.

Spark chose six ice cream shops to vist and review. Anna Mullins ordered ice cream at every shop. Here are her rankings. reviews and photography anna mullins graphics and art caroline bumgarner

5

Warren County Butler County

Flub’s 997 Eaton Ave, Hamilton, OH 45013 Hours: Sun-Thur: 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.

Fri-Sat: 11 a.m. - 9:30 p.m.

Monroe Hamilton

4

Mason West Chester

Hamilton County

6 2

4

1

Hours: Everyday 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.

633 Vine Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202 Hours: Mon-Thur: 12 p.m. - 7 p.m.

Fri: 12 p.m. - 8 p.m.

Sat: 2 p.m.- 8 p.m.

Sun: Closed 20 May 2019 lakotaeastsparkonline.com

Putz’s Creamy Whip

Buzzed Bull Creamery

Hot fudge cake sundae $4.30

Non-buzzed Peanutbutter w/waffle pieces $5.39

Hello Honey is a little ice cream shop located downtown near Fountain Square. The inside was welcoming with bright colorful metal chairs and tables. Chalkboard menus hang on the wall announcing the flavor of the day and highlighting their specialties’ toppings. One of the most unique attributes about Hello Honey are their made to order waffle cups and cones.

I ordered a dip of the Banana Honeycomb ice cream topped with a torched marshmallow in a waffle cup. The wait while they made the waffle cup was definitely worth it, as the sweet smell filled the air. The ice cream was super creamy and the homemade marshmallow was super gooey. To compliment the ice cream the honeycomb added a slight candy texture, while the warm waffle cup surrounding it added a crunchy element.

Putz’s Creamy Whip is a small outdoor establishment located just off highway 74 near Mt. Airy Forest. They have several picnic tables and plenty of benches for seating, near a large field where people play frisbee and other games. The line was long for an early Monday afternoon, but the staff was prepared and the line moved quickly. Their most popular item is the hot fudge cake sundae, which is a circular chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream topped with hot fudge, whipped cream. The ice cream had a very pleasing strong vanilla flavor and Putz’s offered plenty of toppings. They also offer other lunch foods, such as footlong coneys and hamburgers, at reasonable prices.

The slight drawback is the small parking lot and that they only accept cash.

Buzzed Bull Creamery is located in Over the Rhine. The inside of the shop gives off a very rustic, hipster vibe with its exposed brick walls. The tables are all wooden with lots of seating. Buzzed Bull has a fully stocked bar and offers both buzzed, alcoholic, and nonbuzzed,alcohol free, ice creams made to order.

Employees mix the ingredients of choice and then liquid nitrogen is used to freeze the ice cream, as large white clouds rise from the mixing bowls. I chose a small non-buzzed Peanut Butter ice cream with waffle pieces. The peanut butter flavor was very strong and the non-alcoholic ice cream texture was slightly grainy. This restaurant was the only shop to have restrooms. Items containing are not allowed to leave the premises.

5th

6th

4th

4050 Drew Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45248

3

Hello Honey

Hello Honey

Banana Honeycomb w/toasted marshmallow in a waffle cup $5.75

Zip Dip

Kenwood

1

3rd

2nd

Walker Bro.

Sixth Issue Features:

5

1st

2

3

Putz’s Creamy Whip

Buzzed Bull Creamery

2673 Putz’s Place, Cincinnati Ohio 45211

1408 Main St, Cincinnati, OH 45202 Hours: Sun–Thur: 1 p.m. – 11 p.m.

Fri-Sat: 1 p.m. – 12:45 a.m.

Hours: Sun-Thur: 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.

Fri-Sat: 10 a.m. - 10 p.m.

Zip Dip

Flub’s

Walker Bros.

Cookie Monster sundae $3.30

Caramel sundae w/waffle bowl $4.75

Cookie Monster sundae $4.25

Zip Dip is a small outdoor ice cream establishment near Cheviot. There is plenty of wooden picnic tables and swings for the kids.

They offer many characterized sundaes that are decorated using colorful jimmies and sprinkles.

I ordered the cookie monster sundae to see how it would taste. I was shocked to find it was decorated not with chocolate chip cookies, but vanilla wafers, and a candy corn nose. The ice cream itself did not disappoint, but the cookies were stale and the overall decoration of the sundae left much to be desired. They did not have many ice cream flavor options but to compensate they offer shaved ice and slushies.

They are cash only.

Flubs is a small storefront in a strip mall in Fairfield. The first things you notice is the tight space, blatant lack of seating, and the cartoon ice cream painted on the wall sporting the catchphrase “Cone on In!”. Flubs offers many different “cyclone” flavors, which is ice cream mixed with various candy and syrup combinations. They did not have many ice cream flavor options but to compensate, offer several topping choices. I selected a caramel sundae in a waffle bowl. After ordering and looking for a place to sit, I noticed there was no nearby park nor bench to sit upon. The ice cream lacked a little vanilla flavor but the taste was decent and the texture was good.

Walker Bros. is a small outdoor ice cream shop located in downtown Montgomery across from Montgomery Inn Barbeque. There is plenty of outdoor seating. Walker Bros offers many colorful ice cream flavors to accompany their variety of specialized sundaes, such as the flying pig and cookie monster sundaes. I opted to try the cookie monster sunday after seeing the picture with the bright blue ice cream. While the color did not disappoint, the flavor was all but non existent. I was pleasantly surprised that the eyes were white chocolate, making them the best part of the desert, but the store bought packaged cookie was lackluster. An additional downside was wait times here were long. lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2019 21

22 May 2019 lakotaeastsparkonline.com

GRACE KEITH ETHAN DEUTSCH

“I loved [the Veteran’s Network idea] because I am involved in veterans organizations and seeing the response to our first trip to Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) to welcome home the veterans from Honor Flight,” Barker, the Veterans Network Advisor, says. “I knew it would be a great way to connect students to veterans.”

As the club fully took off in the 2019-2020 school year, Barker knew its success would be present as she saw the passion radiating off Keith.

“It has been fun watching Grace go from having all these ideas on paper and then experiencing them come to life,” Barker says. “She is in her element when she is talking to veterans organizations or going to other schools to talk to younger students about Honor Flight.”

Through the Network, students can expect to get involved with things such as the Veterans Day ceremony and activities, as well as the Honor Flight.

Honor Flight lets veterans fly into Washington D.C., to tour memorials, fly back and receive appreciation which some may have never gotten.

“It was very important to go [to the Honor Flight], especially for this year because there were so many veterans who are from the Vietnam era,” Keith says.

“They never got the welcoming home here that they deserve.”

Fellow Veterans Network member and East junior Nolan McGraw has a great appreciation for veterans as Keith does. Coming from a stance of having direct family members who are veterans, he differs from Keith’s relation to such.

Hoping to follow in Keith’s footsteps, McGraw is the up and coming Veterans Network club president for the 2019-2020 school year.

“Grace is a very focused president and reins us back when we get off topic at meetings,” McGraw says.

As the school year comes to an end, Keith can easily reflect on her time at East knowing that even if the difference she made can be minuscule to some, it means the world to others.

“It is not just in a serving capacity, but serving those who serve,” Keith says. •

W

hen they’re in the room, it’s all about the competition. He knows it as well as anyone. The robot is sitting there staring back at him and the team. The room is big, lined with tables and the team works tirelessly on their robot. Other teams talking and the sounds of machinery drown the rest of the room in ambient noise.

He knows it needs to be done and they have to win.

East senior Ethan Deutsch has always had an interest in engineering and robotics. He entered the East engineering club as a freshman and became the club president during his sophomore year and held the vice president position during his junior year. He has since left the president position, but he is still a member in the club.

The East engineering club has two major aspects.

The first of which is when students work on their Technology Student Association (TSA) projects that can go towards the national competition. Then the students also work on a service project. For the last three years, this has been the GoBabyGo car. This car is a PowerWheels car that is modified for a child with special needs and the modifications put into the car depends on the needs of the child.

“Building stuff has always been fun to me,” Deutsch says. “I enjoy the aspect of making something, knowing how it works, and then improving upon that.”

East engineering club advisor, Principles of Engineering teacher, and digital electronics teacher Ed Matlack has had Deutsch in his principles of engineering class and has advised him during his time in the club.

Matlack says that Deutsch has done well in these aspects due to the way that he thinks and his interest in science and engineering.

“He’s an analytical thinker, so he doesn’t tend to jump to conclusions, and then he is also interested in the subject,” Matlack says. “He enjoys the robots, so he was going to put everything into building them. For kids, finding something they’re passionate about is probably the most important thing.”

In addition to engineering, Ethan is also passionate about science. He especially enjoys chemistry and

physics. This interest in the sciences has led him to major in chemical engineering at Ohio State University (OSU).

“Ever since I was a kid, I’ve liked science a lot,” Ethan says. “I really wanted to go into something that was science-based, mostly chemical. I also enjoy learning about that subject so I figured I would have a good drive for it.”

Ethan’s mother Angela Deutsch says she remembers Ethan always having an interest in science and that she is shocked by how much he knows about the subject.

“We will often have conversations in the kitchen about his physics class, and all the chemistry classes he’s taking, but there’s no way I could keep up with the depths of some of the theories that he talks about,” Angela says. “For him to have that recall, and to be interested in talking about it, surprised me and I like those conversations because I learn from him.”

Ethan’s love of learning and knowing how things work has been with him since he was a kid, according to Angela. She says that Ethan is constantly reading new information and trying to gain as much knowledge as possible. As a child, he enjoyed building things with Legos and taking things apart.

“We had an old battery pack and he took all the screws out to understand how it worked,” Angela says. “He has an inquisitive mind that goes beyond the classroom.”

Angela says that she is very proud of how hard Ethan has worked through his schooling. She says he has been very independent and involved in his studies since he was in middle school.

“He is my oldest child and to see him be able to succeed in the way he has, it makes me very happy,” Angela says. “He takes his own initiative to take himself to the next level in what he knows and what he can do.”

Reflecting on his last four years at East, Ethan has realized how much he has been able to do at the school.

“I guarantee that if someone wants to do something at East, they will have a way to do it,” Ethan says. “I’ve always said that someone can take the bull by the horns in life, and the school can help do that.” •

story jessica jones | photography caroline bumgarner

East senior Ethan Deutsch has been involved with engineering and robotics since he was a freshman, leading him to major in chemical engineering at The Ohio State University.

itting back, watching, knowing. Seeing upperclassmen be recognized at Military Commencement ceremonies for their achievements is something she wanted to experience.

East senior Grace Keith has an open heart when it comes to anything related to those who have or are currently serving in the United States (US) Military.

Ranging from veterans to students receiving an appointment to attend a military academy; she is thankful for all.

Finding her passion in middle school, Keith has known she’s wanted to go into the military ever since.

She prepares to enter West Point in the fall of 2019 not only to serve, but to further her education.

Hopeful of majoring in engineering, West Point has a limited number of spots for each major which are chosen based off of ranking through collected academic, military and physical grades.

Ties to veterans and the United States (US) military members within her family are limited, as her brother is the only person to have entered a military academy or served in the military. This has fueled her fire as she strives to be different, but in a beneficial way.

“All things military, all things veteran [are] my passion, my focus,” Keith says. “That’s what I wanted to do.”

Once reaching high school and attending a few school-sanctioned military and veteran-related events, she knew there had to be something created to tie it all together.

“There were a lot of individual [veteran] events, but there was no group that could take care of it all,” Keith says. “I wanted to make sure that everything was fulfilling the highest potential that it should.”

This is when she started brewing up ideas about the Veterans Network. “[Last year] there was like the first ever military commencement ceremony.” Keith says. “So it was kind of like the district taking interest to those who were trying to serve.”

S

story megan finke photography caroline bumgarner

East senior Grace Keith prepares to continue her education and extend her love of the United States Military at West Point.

culture | senior profiles senior profiles | culture

lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2019 23

24 May 2019 lakotaeastsparkonline.com

JULIA FINLEY JACK DOBROZSI

itting in the cockpit of his Cessna 172 Skyhawk, a four-seat, single-engine aircraft, he clears for takeoff. “Butler County Traffic, this is Cessna 172 departing from runway one-one.” This runway is silent, and patient, a world alone compared to the football field. There’s no sea of jerseys to weave through, or the unrelenting cheer of spectators begging for the winning touchdown. The only thing that stands between him, the plane, and the sky is a long stretch of hot concrete.

East Senior Jack Dobrozsi says that from a young age he has always been interested in the mechanics of planes, and how they worked, which inspires him to fly.

He’s attending Sinclair Community College’s Aviation Technology Professional Pilot program this fall so that he can fly for commercial airlines and see the world.

“Everyone’s dream job starts at a really young age,” says Dobrozsi. “I’m very interested in how things work, and I’ve always been interested in planes. Every time a plane flies over I have to look up and look at it.”

Dobrozsi wasn’t the only one in his family with this interest. His uncle, Mike Hoeting, has been flying since 2001. Hoeting’s cousin, Ken Reider, flew for commercial airlines for eight years and now performs in airshows, instructing Dobrozi and other prospective pilots on how to fly.

Hoeting says that out of the different people he’s taken up, everyone has a different reaction. A majority of them are apprehensive, but Dobrozsi was not.

“If you know Jack, he doesn’t have much fear,” Hoeting says. “He’s pretty calm for the most part, he’s energized but he’s relaxed.”

The plane and its controls felt comfortable to Dobrozsi even from the beginning; he wanted control of the plane from the start.

“He would ask if he could control the plane when I [flew] with him,” Hoeting says. “I would let him hold the stick, and we both have our own controls, he would feel the inputs that I would do.”

Hoeting says that he can see that same energy from him on the football field. Jack has played for the East football team since freshman year but doesn’t have his

S

story mckenna lewis photography caroline bumgarner

East senior Jack Dobrozsi will attend Sinclair Community College to become a certified pilot.

uring the first weekend of December every year, approximately 100 kindergartners through fifth-graders attend the Winter Wonders event put on by the older girls in the Girl Scouts of America Lakota Trail Blazers Service Unit. The younger girls get to do crafts, play games and sing songs with the older girls.

East senior Julia Finley is in troop 41846 led by Bobbie Joe Bomkamp. The troop started out in 2009 with 14 girls and is now down to six. Finley’s troop has been leading the Winter Wonders event for six years now.

“Every year we do some type of fundraiser or charity work with the kids, so last year we had them bring in bras and underwear for Support the Girls, which is for breast cancer and girls who don’t have undergarments,” Finley says.

Finley has partaken in her troops’ bronze and silver projects. For the bronze project, troop 846 brought treats and toys to Friends of Trenton Animal Shelter.

The silver project involved working with a younger troop of girls to re-landscape Union Elementary with five tons of gravel donated by a local gravel company.

“At the time, Lakota was going through all of their cost-cutting measures, trying to balance their budget, and trying to find ways to save money,” Bomkamp says.

“We didn’t use mulch that needed to be replaced every year, we used gravel. It’s never been replaced, and it’s now about six years later, so they’ve never had to replace the gravel. And it’s been very self-sustaining, which is great.”

Finley has been in Troop 41846 for 11 years, with two years spent in a different troop, which she had to transition out of when she skipped second grade.

Finley says she was enthusiastic about the switch until it actually happened.

“I was actually in two troops at one time because I didn’t want to leave my old troop and I had to make new friends so that was fun,” Finley says. “But that’s where I met Chloe Huggins and Samadhi Marapane and they’re my best friends now, so Girl Scouts was good for that.”

Finley says Girl Scouts has helped her come out of

D

story and photography caroline bumgarner

East senior Julia Finley’s experiences in Girl Scouts sparked her interest in the medical field.

sights set on playing at the collegiate level.

“I knew this past senior year was going to be my last year [of football],” Dobrozsi says. “I knew that I didn’t want to go into college and play football.”

His decision comes from the fact that playing football professionally could cause a lot of damage to his brain due to concussions. According to the National Football League (NFL), Dobrozsi would risk a 41 percent chance of receiving a concussion for every game he would play in the NFL “I didn’t want to have any more head injuries than I already did,” Dobrozsi says. “[Also, I wouldn’t] really get that good of an education while playing.”

Instead, Dobrozsi finds his freedom while flying. He gets a completely different feeling compared to driving on the road, or breaking away from a mass of players for the big touch down.

“When you’re driving you have traffic. The only thing you have to worry about while flying is the weather, because [everyone] is so spread out,” Dobrozsi says.

“The views are very awesome too, they’re very scenic.

I haven’t been able to fly really too far away from my airport [yet], but I flew over King’s Island, [and] it’s a different view up there.”

Dobrozsi says he really enjoys looking at the Earth, and different places that he’s so used to from the sky.

For his first solo flight, he flew over East’s campus, and saw his home field from a new point of view.

“That’s one of the main [reasons] why I want to travel. It’s because everything just looks so cool from above,” Dobrozsi says. “You don’t get to see that much from the ground”.

Another reason why Dobrozsi is choosing to fly as a future career, as opposed to playing football at the collegiate or professional level, is because flying is so much safer than driving and many other modes of transportation.

“There’s just a lot of flying that goes on,” Reider says. “You hear about [almost] every airplane accident there is. If we reported that same way for every automotive crash, I think everyone would think twice about driving.”

Dobrozsi maintains the same opinion as many other pilots; planes are actually way more safe than cars.

“You have to have a lot more training and experience while flying planes and [there’s] the fact that you’re not really worried about other traffic in the air,” Dobrozsi says. “You’re almost guaranteed that you’re going to get where you’re going.” •

her shell, and learn valuable life skills such as sewing and first aid.

“When I was little, I was very shy, reserved, and didn’t want to go out and do stuff,” Finley says. “But because of Girl Scouts I felt comfortable with the girls, and they didn’t intimidate me because they’re Girl Scouts. So I definitely became more outgoing.”

On Jan. 4, 2016, Finley woke up in the middle of the night to an excruciating migraine. An MRI revealed a pituitary tumor in between the two lobes of the pituitary gland in Finley’s brain.

“Freshman year, I missed two weeks of school straight when I was in the hospital for a while with the initial headache and initial migraine,” Finley says. “[With] a migraine, [I couldn’t] open my eyes to the light, and couldn’t move. [I didn’t] want to do anything.

Eating hurt and when getting up to go to the bathroom, I almost threw up because [I was] so nauseous.”

Despite numerous absences, Finley has managed to excel in school and is the co-valedictorian for the class of 2019. Finley says she worked closely with her guidance counselor Andrea Bryant. “[If a student] has a chronic illness and will be missing school frequently, we want to have a team meeting where we sit down and discuss [the academic situation] and how we can best assist them through whatever it is they need,” Bryant says. “As a school counselor, we try to be that connection and communication piece, an advocate for the student and the family.”

Despite the setbacks, Finley will be attending the University of Michigan to study biomedical engineering with a pre-med track.

“I hope that somewhere along that line, her interest in the medical field and things like that came out of all the different activities and things that we did over the years in Girl Scouts,” Bomkamp says. “So whether it was a community service project or [a group activity], I hope that somewhere in there, there’s a little piece that she said, ‘I did this because of Girl Scouts.’”

As Finley grew up and continued to be a Girl Scout, people assumed that she was still involved only because it would look good for college, replying “you’re still a girl scout?” whenever it’s mentioned. But that is not the case. “[The people in my troop] are my best friends now,” Finley says. “‘Encourage confidence and character’ is the Girl Scout motto. I’m supposed to say that [is how Girl Scouts has benefitted me], but it really has. I feel like I’m a better person because [of Girl Scouts].” •

culture | senior profiles senior profiles | culture

lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2019 25

26 May 2019 lakotaeastsparkonline.com

EMME HARPER

SAM BILLISITS

wo years ago, Sam Billisits already knew where he was headed. Academically speaking, he was top of his class and knew that if he continued to work hard, nothing would be out of reach, Athletically speaking, Sam continued work hard during football practice, making sure that he was always in game-ready shape. Extracurricularly speaking, Sam made sure to be a part of many different clubs.

Mu Alpha Theta, National Honors Society (NHS), Boy Scouts, to name a few, although he wanted to make sure that the clubs also had a deeper meaning to him.

However, none of that mattered as much as something else. Something he had been around all his life. Something that seemed to have his name written all over it.

That something was the Army. For as long as he could remember, all he wanted to do was serve others.

That made what he was about to do so much easier.

It isn’t common for a sophomore in high school to open a West Point interest file since prospective applicants to West Point are only allowed to apply to West Point in the middle of their junior year. If it wasn’t obvious from the previous paragraphs above, however, Sam isn’t a typical West Point applicant.

“Two years ago, [Billisits] had already made contact with West Point himself and said, ‘I’m interested in West Point, keep my name on file.’ That shows a predisposition, an interest early on, and it means it means something to us,” West Point Liaison Tim Kilgore says.

“The fact that he was knowledgeable already because of his brothers is also important to us, because we, again, want somebody that’s right for West Point to go to West Point.”

In a way, that was partly why Billisits decided to join West Point. Because he had two brothers who were also cadets at West Point, Billisits had people who he could ask for advice when completing his application and lean on when it comes to his studies at the military academy.

“It really was my main goal, even from the start. I

T

story issac lukose photography caroline bumgarner

East senior Sam Billisits looks forward to West Point and creating a legacy different from his two brothers who also attended the school.

t is a dark, wet night in May and the East track field becomes completely silent. The stadium begins to slowly light up as white bags begin to glissen with the fire from a tea candle. Then participants are given the opportunity to go up to one of these bags and honor someone who died from cancer.

Luminaria takes place every year at the East Relay for Life through the Luminaria Ceremony. The track field becomes covered in small, white bags. The biggest display of these bags are in the bleachers. One side of the bleachers spells out “Hope,” while the other side spells out cure.

East senior Emme Harper is one of the senior co-chairs for Relay this year. This job entails planning throughout the whole school year leading up to the event in May. “In the fall, the current chairs review last years’ event, what we can change or how we can make it better this year. Then in January we have a school wide kickoff,” Harper says.

Harper works with her co-chair, Brooke Miller to help shape the event. Their roles consist of overseeing relay and planning before the event in May. In addition, there are seven subcommittees that help contribute to the event planning in order to make the event run smoothly.

“One of the hardest things is keeping people organized along with meeting deadlines for turning in money. We have really strong committees so planning the event and coming up with ideas isn’t too challenging,” says Harper.

Miller and Harper have known each other since junior high after meeting through cross-country but they were not close at the time.

“We had met but we weren’t close. As the years went on we became involved in the same activities, especially Relay for Life,” says Miller.

Harper and Miller also coordinate with the event supervisor and East assistant athletic director,Jill Meiring, who enjoyed her time working with Harper

I

story alanna schlaeger photography caroline bumgarner

East senior Emme Harper has participated in Relay for Life since freshman year. This year she ran the whole event as the senior co-chair.

guess it was because I didn’t really know any better, I didn’t know much about other colleges,” Billisits says.

“But some of the things you can do at West Point that you can’t do at other colleges always intrigued me while the things that you can do at other colleges that you’re not allowed to do at West Point weren’t really interesting to me.”

With that being said, just showing interest by itself doesn’t guarantee a spot a West Point. Showing intangible qualities such as leadership and altruism, however, made Billisits that much closer to gaining admission. That was why Billisits decided to become a Boy Scout, as scouting exemplifies those as well as other desirable qualities that the Army loves. It also helped that neither of his brothers did Boy Scouts, so it was like his own unique aspect of his application in comparison to his brothers’.

“I always loved camping and things of that nature, so I thought,’Why don’t I join Boy Scouts?’” says Billisits, who also said that he enjoyed being around the other scouts in his troop even though they may not have been the closest of friends. “Eventually, I decided that I wanted to become an Eagle Scout. So I went through with the plan to help me reach that milestone.”

One quality that seemed to stick out to Billisits’s Scoutmaster Rich Finley was the love he seemed to have for his fellow scouts.

“I think he comforted other scouts when they were going through something more by leading by example,” Finley says. “He wouldn’t necessarily come up and put his arm around somebody and say, ‘Hey, I know you’re having a bad time.’ But he would come up and say, ‘Hey, let’s go to the root beer cantina,’ or ‘Let’s go do this,’ or ‘Come on, I need help with this.’ And that’s how he did it. And it was always positive energy.”

Another quality Billisits seems to possess is unparalleled humility. When interviewed Billisits showed no feelings of arrogance or superiority even though he was able to accomplish things most high schoolers could only dream of achieving.

When it came down to it, it seemed as though most people felt impressed by Billisits after meeting with him.

Kilgore sure seemed to think so.

“I think they understand that what they’re doing is something exceptional, something really difficult, and something worthy of their abilities,” Kilgore says. “It’d be a shame if somebody like Sam did not do something difficult. If we have gifts, aren’t we made to use them?” •

and Miller over the course of the year as they have taken a lead in planning Relay for Life.

“I think the leadership has been really, really great, not to say that last year’s wasn’t good. I feel like Emme and Brooke have done a really good good job of taking ownership, working through any issues, coordinating and organizing everything, they’ve made my job very easy,” says Miering.

Emme has helped the program grow in numbers throughout the year from last year. Harper’s contributions have made for a impactful year for Relay.

“This year has started from the beginning of the year, September, October, and November, really trying to grow from last year and begin raising money. It has been a year effort for her. Emme really initiates new ideas and helped Relay for life grow this year,” says Miering.

The most meaningful part of Relay for Harper is the Luminaria ceremony and seeing the impact the participants can make in someone’s life. This takes place earlier in the earlier in the evening where the field honors the survivors who are participating in the event that year.

“Personally, seeing how much money we raise and how high school students can really help the American Cancer Society. Watching our students feel connected to our survivors and being able to see the impact all of us have made in people’s lives,” says Harper. “Seeing our students getting involved to make that difference is truly fascinating to see.”

As the year comes to an end Harper realizes how hard it will be to leave East; especially Relay but is excited to see what will come in the future years.

“They [junior chairs] have watched how we organized this event and have helped the process tremendously. I feel confident that next year can be another success with new leadership. I’m looking forward to hearing about it,” says Harper.

After finding her passion during Freshman year with Relay she knew it was something she wanted to do for the rest of her high school career. Her advice for future Hawks is like her high school career, get involved early on.

“Get involved right away and as much as you can.

It’ll make the school feel less big. You will meet some many people that you never thought you would ever meet. As cliche as it sounds, your time here will really fly by,” says Harper. •

culture | senior profile senior profile | culture

lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2019 27

culture | hawks on

college destinations | culture

HAWKS ON:

After the controversial decision by the East Yearbook Club to not include Senior Quotes for the 2018-19 yearbook, Spark collected random quotes from seniors. story spencer li photography megan finke

Trey Faglie

JJ Hayes

“In reality I’m 6’2”, stand on my money now I’m 6’2.”

“Everything I do is cash money of me.”

infographic gracie estep

Catie Lincicome

Will Brady

“Don’t forget where you belong.”

—One Direction

“The worst thing I can be is the same as everybody else.”

Donnie Wilkinson

Lindsey Kluesener

“I’m still waiting on my letter from Hogwarts.”

“Leave who you were, love who you are, look forward to who you will become.”

Hanane Amlal

“Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.”

28 May 2019 lakotaeastsparkonline.com

25 29

13 Adrienne McGaha “Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick?”

—The Office

2019 SENIOR QUOTES

class of

Class of 2019 College Destinations

28

percent of students are attending The University of Cincinnati

1- University of Cincinnati 2- Miami University 3- The Ohio State University 4- Wright State University 5- Bowling Green State University 6- Ohio University 7- University of Dayton 8- Sinclair Community College 9- Cincinnati State Technical and Communtiy College 10- Capital University 11- Xavier University

percent of students are attending Miami University

19

12 20 2

5

30

5 31

16

12- University of Findlay 13- University of Akron 14- Ohio Wesleyan University 15- Kent State University 16- Otterbein University 17- College of Mount Saint Joseph 18- Wilmington College 19- University of Toledo 20- Ohio Northern University 21- Christ College of Nursing 22- Cedarville University 23- Urbana University

23

15

14 10 28 3 22 33 8 26 7 18 4

9 34

percent of students are attending The Ohio State University

11 17 32 1

24

13

27 6

35 21

24- University of Mount Union 25- Tiffin University 26- Ohio Christian University 27- Muskingum University 28- Kettering College 29- Heidelberg University 30- Cleveland Institute of Art 31- Bluffton University 32- Art Academy of Cincinnati 33- Clark State College 34- Galen College of Nuring 35- Hocking College

source spark east survey lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2019 29

culture | personal narrative

‫رحلة للق‬

A Journey for the Heart East junior Ekra Khalid traveled to the holy cities of Mecca and Madinah in Saudi Arabia this past spring break for a religious pilgrimage called Umrah. personal narrative and photography ekra khalid infographic lauren maier

personal narrative | culture

M

y journey to Mecca this past spring break was a journey for the heart.

I was in a surreal place, surrounded by people from all four corners of the earth, standing side-by-side in complete unity and harmony. Everyone was there to renew the sense of purpose in this world by submitting themselves to the lord.

My experience made me realize that faith gave me a sense of strength when I felt I had none. It gave me hope when all in life seemed lost. Being at this place made me perceive how tiny my problems and myself are in comparison to this vast world.

I began appreciating the little things, the small moments. Moments that taught me to be more thankful and to show more gratitude.

These moments of love, patience and trial make me come to the realization how great faith is. Everything was remarkable to me and this trip as a whole was the most special moment of my life.

Humbling, eye opening and overwhelming.

A beautiful experience that was worth everything to me. It most importantly taught me to always let my faith be bigger than my fears.

On Mar. 15, 2019, the day before I left, I experienced a connection between faith and real life. A white supremacist shot people praying at Al Noor Mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, which resulted in the death of fifty muslims. These innocent lives were taken that day due to the ignorance and hatred of this one individual. Hearing of this attack, I felt heartbroken and at a complete loss for words that day. I wish there could’ve been a way for me to help.

When there is ignorance in this world, it creates fear. I don’t want people to live in fear of the peaceful religion of Islam. Being able to have a voice, I believe I have the power to spread knowledge about my religion to others in a positive, impactful way.

I wanted to show others what Islam truly is through my Umrah experience.

At least once in their life, it is obligatory for every Muslim to perform Hajj, if they are able to afford for it. More than two million muslims perform Hajj annually. It is one of the five pillars of Islam and the largest annual pilgrimage that occurs once a year. This pilgrimage is on the eighth day of Dhul Hijjah, the last month of the Islamic calendar and ends on the thirteenth day of Dhul Hijjah. The purpose of Hajj is to strengthen one’s faith and to be purified of sins as you rise above and beyond, submitting yourself in prayer.

The Umrah is a pilgrimage that can be undertaken during any time of the year by Muslims around the world. It is not obligatory

to perform Umrah in Islam but it is highly recommended. It can be combined with Hajj or it can be taken separately from Hajj.

When I found out my father had booked tickets for this trip, I was immensely grateful for the opportunity to be able to visit the blessed lands of Mecca and Madinah. It felt like a dream come true.

My pilgrimage began as I first traveled to the holiest of muslim cities; Mecca, a city in western Saudi Arabia. As I arrived at King AbdulAziz International Airport in Jeddah, I felt my heart racing with excitement as I knew it was getting closer and closer to the moment where I’ll be standing in front of the Kaabah.

A

t the center of the most important mosque in Mecca, Al-Masjid Al Haram, which can accommodate upto four million people and is 400,800 sq metres (99 acres) big, was a 50 feet high, cube-shaped stone structure covered in an enormous cloth of black brocade, the kiswah. This building, called “The Kaabah” is also referred to as al-Ka’ bah alMusharrafah. It is the most sacred site in Islam because Muslims from all around the world pray five times daily towards the direction of the Kaabah.

Muslims do not worship the Kaaba, it is simply a mosque– a Muslim place of worship, much like Christians have churches and Jews have synagogues. It was the first building on Earth dedicated to the worship of Allah, which is why it is a focal point of worship in Islam.

It is the desire of every muslim to visit to the house of Allah during their life.

My family and I, on our way to Mecca from the airport, recited Talbiyah, a prayer made by pilgrims to purify and rid themselves of worldly concerns in order to be in full submission to Allah. There was a combination of countless feelings going through me at that moment. I knew I was approaching Mecca closer and closer by the second and nothing could prepare me for the first moment that was simply breathtaking.

As we entered the holy city of Mecca, I was looking for the 120 floor Kingdom Clock Tower, the world’s tallest clock tower that shades over the Kaaba. Seeing it would mean I’m closer to the mosque.

Catching sight of the clock tower increased my anticipation which lead me to look out for the glowing minarets. Finally, the beautiful ornate minarets became visible to my eyes and this filled me with joy, knowing I was just a few kilometers away from the Mosque.

We checked into our hotel, which was one of the many attractions inside the clock tower, and quickly freshened up and got ready to perform our Umrah.

Top to bottom: Ekra stands outside the gate of the Kaabah in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

The green dome built above the tomb of the prophet Muhammad PBUH in Madinah, Saudi Arabia. An aerial view of people worshiping in the Masjid Al-Haram 30 May 2019 lakotaeastsparkonline.com

lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2019 31

culture | personal narrative If I could define Happiness as a single moment, being able to stand in front of the Kaabah was true happiness to me. Looking at the Kaabah for the first time cannot be expressed, it can only only be experienced.

As I lifted my eyes up to indulge the vision of the beautiful black and gold square, it turned blurry to me due to the tears forming in my eyes. I forgot the world in those seconds and just stood there trying to catch my breath as I continued to admire and take in the moment.

I see a massive crowd of pilgrims circling in unison around the Kaabah in a counterclockwise direction known as Tawaf.

The Tawaf is an act of worship directed towards Allah that demonstrates the unity of the believers as they all move in harmony together around the Kaaba.

T

he Kaaba is a symbol of unity; your status and race don’t matter. It doesn’t matter who you are; everyone is commanded to face the same direction.

I begin performing my seven Tawafs as I joined the crowd and observed the diversity around me. There were people from all around the world from different backgrounds and places. People from all walks of life were in this one place. From rich to poor, to people with the lightest of skins to the darkest. There were the young and the old. There were people from the villages of the most remote places in the world to people living in the States Different, yet all of our hearts were united together through faith.

It was an eye opening experience to be surrounded by all these different types of people and seeing the entire world gathered

personal narrative | culture together at this one place.

After I completed my Tawaf, I prayed a two raqat prayer behind Miqam Ibrahim​. Now I was ready to go make Sai, which are the runs made between Safa and Marwa and the trimming and shaving of hair.​ Safa and Marwa are two small hills located in the Masjid Al Haram. During Umrah, pilgrims travel back and forth between the two hills on foot seven times.

After completing the runs between the hills, pilgrims will perform Taqsir, which is the partial shortening of the hair for women and Halq, the complete shave of the head performed by men. Both of these signify the submission of will to God over physical appearances. The hair shaving and cutting is reserved until the end of Umrah.

After I completed the Sai, my mother and I trimmed our hair about an inch and my brothers and father went to the barber shop to get their hair shaved off. This marked the completion of one official Umrah.

Growing up in the United States, I am no stranger to diversity as I live in a place that is full of it. But in Mecca I could tell there were people who had never seen individuals from different races and colors, let alone seen an abundance of fellow Muslims.

I met many people from all over the world throughout my trip and it made me realize that we are all the same despite the differences.

I had strangers passing out fresh bread and kawah (tea) to me. I ate endless amounts of dates offered by people sitting next or around me. I felt loved in so many ways.

To playing games with the sunshine girl in the yellow-laced dress from Sudan name Ayaa,

THE STORY OF

SAFA AND MARWA The story goes back about 5,000 years, before Islam, when Hajar, the wife of Prophet Ibrahim, stayed in Mecca’s desert with her newborn Ismail. Ibrahim said that Allah will not cause the family to be lost. Hajar eventually ran out of food and water and could no longer breastfeed Ismail. She thus ran back and forth seven times between Safa and Marwa hoping to find water. Allah then sent Angel Gabriel to their aid and a spring of water appeared from the ground. The well was named Zamzam and the journey back and forth between Safa and Marwa became a ritual during Hajj and Umrah. •

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Pilgrims make seven Tawafs and seven rounds around Safa and Marwa.

whose smile I’ll never forget.

To meeting Reem, an Arabic teacher from Egypt who spoke with me about her Umrah experiences with great excitement.

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o meeting the security guard Nada in Mecca Mall who offered me sunflower seeds and bonded with through her genuine laughter when I couldn’t find my mom.

To meeting an education officer, Bushra, who impressed me by knowing how to speak Italian, Punjabi, Urdi, Persian, German and English.

To meeting Mouna from Morocco, who barely knew English yet gave me her phone number and invited me to come for dinner to her home whenever I get the chance to visit Morocco in the future.

No one felt like a stranger to me there.

I was overwhelmed by the kindness of these strangers who didn’t even speak my language.

Love has no language and life is all about giving, sharing and spreading love. Love has no color and it has no words. It is shown through the actions of an individual. My interactions with these strangers who have become friends showed me how language is never a barrier and that everyone smiles in the same language.

Whenever the Azaan, the Islamic call for prayer occurred, everyone would immediately prepare by stopping whatever they were doing and gathering together forming lines.

It was an experience of spiritual satisfaction and tranquility; total peace. I felt free from all worries and worldly desires.

I stayed in Mecca for seven days. After Mecca, I went to Madinah, second only to Mecca in holiness in Islam, which is

approximately four hours away from Mecca.

Madinah is a city with significant religious and historical significance in Islam. Madinah is known as The City of the Prophet because the tomb of Prophet Muhammad PBUH resides in Masjid Al Nabawi.

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he mosque is characterized by its emerald green dome and massive minarets that illuminate bright with light. The moment I took a step into the mosque of Masjid Al Nabawi, I felt a different feeling in comparison to Mecca. As Mecca was very crowded and busy, Madinah was more calm and relaxed.

I understood the true meaning of being humble and friendly through the nature of the people in Madinah. Everywhere I went I found people welcoming, greeting and smiling at me.

There’s a saying in Urdu that “the direction of

prayer is in Mecca but the direction of love is in Madinah.” The peace I found in Madinah was unlike anything else. Tranquility, love and serenity is all that’s needed for true happiness.

In Madinah I met an elderly women named Shaista from Karachi, Pakistan. My mother and I had a conversation with her. Her last words of goodbye will be something I’ll never forget.

“I hope to meet you all again in heaven and wish to see us talk to each other the way we are talking right now there too. InshAllah (If god is willing).”

There was nothing but peace in the air while I was on my pilgrimage, and sometimes that is all you need to feel alive. Peace became the beauty of life.

This is Islam.

And I’m proud to be a part of this beautiful religion. •

Glossary Umrah- A pilgrimage that can be undertaken during any time of the year by Muslims around the world Hajj- It is one of the five pillars of Islam and the largest annual pilgrimage that occurs once a year Mecca- The holiest city in Islam and the birthplace of Prophet Muhammad Madinah- A city in western Saudi Arabia, the second most holy city of Islam Al Masjid Al Haram- The holiest mosque in Islam, located in Mecca, Saudi Arabia Masjid Al Nabawi- Mosque built by Prophet Muhammad PBUH in the city of Medina Kaabah- A cuboid building at the center of Masjid Al Haram in Mecca Kiswah- The cloth that covers the Kaaba Talbiyah- A Mmuslim prayer recited by pilgramers as they intend to perform their pilgrimage only for the glory of Allah Minarets- a tower typically found built into or adjacent to mosques. Generally used for the Muslim call to prayer Sa’ee- Going back and forth seven times between Safa and Marwa Zam Zam- A well of holy water located in Masjid Al Haram Taqsir- A partial shortening of the hair typically reserved for women who cut a minimum of one inch Halq- A complete shave of the head hair, usually performed by men Azaan- Islamic call to worship PBUH- The Arabic phrase which translates to peace be upon him. It is attached to the names of the prophets in Islam Top to bottom: People walk around the Kaabah in the mosque Al-Masjid Al Haram. The minarets outside the mosque glow an emerald green at night. The security guard Nada in Mecca Mall who offered Ekra sunflower seeds while she was looking for her mom. lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2019 33

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appathy Researchers discuss the effects social media has on society’s apathetic culture. story rachel anderson art alexandra fernholz and lauren maier infographic francesco costanzo

“In response to some appalling act of violence or tragedy, our caring becomes momentary, is swiftly supplanted, and passes on to the next excitement. Our human caring isn’t allowed to catch lasting hold.”—Carl Pickhardt, psychologist constant overload of information.

“In response to some appalling act of violence or tragedy in the lives of others, our caring becomes momentary, is swiftly supplanted, and quickly passes on to the next excitement,” Pickhardt says. “Our human caring isn’t allowed to catch lasting hold.”

Psychotherapist and author Anita GadhiaSmith says that social media has created a sense of apathy and desensitization. The amount of information and the brevity of the news covered on platforms such as Facebook is shrinking our attention spans.

“There is only so much psychological bandwidth that people have to process information, and many of us are on information overload,” says Gadhia-Smith. “Most people are spending vast amounts of time on [social media], yet absorbing very little because each topic is covered briefly.”

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he

arrives home from school and immediately gets on her phone. A pile of homework is waiting for her, but with only a few weeks left of school, that is not what’s occupying her mind. She starts on Instagram, moves to Snapchat, then edits videos for her YouTube channel.

East senior Tori Frank made her first Instagram account in fifth grade and has since then started accounts on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, VSCO, YouTube, and Snapchat.

“I will be on [social media] instead of doing academics,” Frank says. “A lot of times it makes me not sleep, which is bad.”

Frank says she spends up to seven hours a day on social media either staying connected with family and friends, or earning money by selling clothes on @torifrankthrifts, one of six Instagram accounts she owns.

“I have been diagnosed with anxiety and depression and I can tell it gets worse when I’m on social media a ton,” Frank says. “[Social media] puts a lot of pressure on people and

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makes people compare themselves.”

According to Pew Research Center, a 2019 survey showed that seven in ten teens say anxiety and depression are major problems among their peers.

Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor Karen Barnes says that she has seen a rise of social media induced mental disorders.

Everyone is posting their flawless pictures and only seeing the happy moments in life such as the perfect relationships and promposals.

“There’s all this comparing going on,” Barnes says. “I think that creates increased anxiety as well as depression.”

East freshman Erin Cooney hasn’t owned a social media account since seventh grade after she deleted her Snapchat. “[Snapchat] was filled with a ton of drama and I wasn’t the happiest person when I had it,” Cooney says. “So I deleted it and it’s been better since.”

One of Cooney’s friends notices a difference in her overall happiness as compared to some

of her other friends at the freshman building.

“Out of our friend group [Cooney] has been the most positive and self-loving,” East freshman Rachel Mcgarvey says. “She never fails to bring light into the room.”

Cooney thinks that people get too caught up in social media and start to lose sight of what is happening in the world around them. .

“Their self image becomes more important than the way they act to their friends,” Cooney says. “They don’t care about others anymore.”

According to psychologist Carl Pickhardt, apathy is “the absence of caring — about self, others, purpose, meaning, future, and what is happening or not happening.”

A recent East survey found that 42 percent of the 111 people surveyed thought that social media creates apathy.

While Pickhardt doesn’t necessarily believe that social media creates apathy he says that it has enabled apathy in society. It has created the illusions of involvement without being actually involved and has desensitized caring with the

ast senior Ruth Elendu doesn’t own any social media for social or personal reasons.

She only has social media for school. She never started any other accounts because she didn’t want to post anything on social media that she would regret later in life. Although she may be behind on a few trends she does not feel any desire to start one.

The only accounts she owns are Facebook and Twitter, which she started for school purposes. She uses Twitter for school announcements and for a source of news.

Elendu has noticed a desensitization to violence and caring by what she has seen on Twitter.

“We’re so used to seeing tragedies that it becomes the new normal.” Elendu said. “You have to choose to care.”

Barnes doesn’t quite buy into the theory that social media creates apathy. While she doesn’t completely dismiss the idea, she has seen in her office that teenagers try to hide their emotion by putting on an apathetic mask.

“Deep down [what they see on social media] probably does bother them,” Barnes said.

“They are either not being honest to others or honest to themselves and acknowledging it.”

Common Sense Media released a report saying teens spend an average of nine hours a day using media and kids ages eight to 12 spend six hours online.

Gadhia-Smith says that this generation spends less time in the company of others than

“any other generation in history.”

Frank’s diagnoses caused her to miss months of school and allowed her to take a break from social media.

“I lost all of my [Snapchat] streaks and I lost so many followers because I wasn’t active or liking people’s pictures,” Frank says. “It felt like I didn’t have any friends because I wasn’t talking to people anymore.”

According to licensed counselor Stephanie Shell who specializes in relationships technology cannot replace human connection.

“One of the really beautiful parts about being human is that we are designed with mirror neurons. When I watch you I can see your face, I can see your expression, and I can

see your eyes glisten with tears as you share something difficult,” Shell says. “If I’m looking at you, I am making connections and my brain lights up in all the same places.”

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hen technology tries to replace human connection there is less caring towards actual human beings. No one can experience what they are experiencing without without hearing their tone and seeing their expressions. Less face-to-face interaction means less time spent valuing others.

“This changes the nature of what a human being is and what we value,” Gadhia-Smith says. “We must be very careful that we do not lose our humanity.” •

Fr1endly Always signaling for your attention and even pooling likes, hearts, etc. to give users a burst of information

A system to give people their primitive need of social validation.

Creating a sense of selfworth.

@thefr1endlypeeps

12 New Notifications

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Social media collects data on all their users to give a tailored made experience for every individuals.

Infinite scroll allows users to endlessly swipe down not giving the people’s brain enough time to recognize they’re being impulsive.

source we are social, cbs, bbc, the manifest lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2019 35

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package | relationships breakthroughs of new forms of entertainment.

“Unfortunately we are seeing more and more that performing roles are supposed to be handed to [aspiring actors] because somewhere along the way they were told they were good and should be on Broadway,” Beiser says.

“There are many young actors who have an ‘anyone can do this’ attitude. Reality tv shows, and the number of people who try to make it on YouTube make it seem like it is so easy, but this is true for only a small amount of people.”

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famously careless

East sophomore Blake Richards expands on what it’s like being involved in the entertainment industry.

incinnati’s Ensemble Theatre Producing Artistic Director Lynn Meyers believes that in this modern age of technology, there has been and always will be an impact from the media and entertainment industries on society.

“I judge success not just by the attendance of a show,” Meyers says. “A show’s success is more determined by its impact and the way it contributes to the community.”

However, this influence can at times be negative. VonHolle believes that entertainment stars at times can send misinterpreted messages by not thinking before they act.

“I feel like celebrities should keep in mind the influence they have on their followers, and the images they put out to them,” VonHolle says. “ I don’t really agree with celebrities talking outside their realm because of the influence they have and that constricts people on thinking for themselves.”

Richards mirrors these sentiments expressed

by VonHolle. He believes that people within the industry should take note of their actions and be role models of positivity for the youth, rather than being “clout chasers” that will do anything for notoriety.

“It all boils down to drama. People will go to crazy extremes to elevate their fame,” Richards says. “It’s part of the thing to keep themselves relevant, like once they start becoming irrelevant it’s hard to go back up. If nobody remembers who they were, then what was the point of their relevance anyway? They have to do those crazy, careless, selfish things or they’re just gonna be forgotten.”

This famous carelessness can also be explained as a reckless unpreparedness on behalf of the celebrity. According to a psychological study from University of Saybrook Psychologist Donna Rockwell, the fame and spotlight that celebrities face can increase narcissistic tendencies, pressure from a lack of privacy, growing feelings of isolation, and possibly develop a kind of charactersplitting between an authentic persona and one for the cameras.

This character-splitting takes effect as a “survival technique in the hyperkinetic and heady atmosphere associated with celebrity life,” Rockwell told Spark.

Associating these psychological observations with well known influencers in

“I [don’t] judge success by the attendance of a show. A show’s success is determined by its impact and the way it contributes to the community.”

—Lynn Meyers, Director

the entertainment industry allows for a better understanding of the mindset behind some of these well-known people. While apathy is scarcely justified, these factors can sometimes make the trait inevitable. “[Fame] is definitely a weird thing in the way it changes a lot of people,” Richards says. “A lot of people start out chilling and doing their own thing, but people change when they get a little bit of fame because they’re like ‘Oh, I’m famous! I can do whatever I want.’” •

Most Popular News Outlets in the United States

story jake ratliff | infographic hannah myers art alexandra fernholz and lauren maier

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n the stage, he is someone else. He takes the persona of a completely different individual for the excitement of the audience that sits before him. His role as the creepy Uncle Fester from the Addams family makes him the center of attention. He should be nervous, but while he’s on that stage, he’s not at all. In fact, he’s empowered.

East sophomore Blake Richards no longer fears the many eyes that watch him as he performs. As a student enrolled in the acting program at East and other theater related programs, this has become normal for him.

He plans to pursue acting through college, as well as possibly pursuing a career in the entertainment industry.

Richards began acting in eighth-grade, involving himself in theater clubs, school plays, and other acting-related extracurricular activities, including an acting camp in New York City over the summer of last year. He has always had a passion for the entertainment industry, but says that at times it can be stressful.

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“You’ve got actors that are always looking for a lead role and will never settle for less, and then there’s directors that you can never catch a break from,” Richards says. “Like sometimes people get in over their head for no reason when given some power, and a lot of those people make their way onto the stage all the same.”

Heyman Talent Agency Head Director of talent Laura VonHolle mentioned similar feelings to Richards regarding ego and ambition.

“It’s just the entertainment industry; it’s cutthroat,” VonHolle says. “You have to have thick skin and learn how to take rejection, but at the same time be humble when you get a huge booking or role, not turning into an egotistical jerk.”

As media and entertainment become more inclusive within today’s society, more people gain the ability to tune into current events around the world. According to a study conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2016,

about 81 percent of American adults aged 18 and above receive their news through some sort of technology, i.e. smartphones, televisions, computers, among others.

Another study from the Pew Research Center concluded that as of 2019, only 10 percent of Americans still do not use the internet whatsoever.

This mass wave of technology that floods America and many other countries around the world has also breached the entertainment industry. New forms of entertainment are growing like wildflowers. Televised streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu allow instant access to entertainment with the tap of a finger. Online streaming services like YouTube and Soundcloud that allow for uncontrolled uploads by anyone with an account are even more instantaneous.

La Comedia Dinner Theatre Director and Choreographer of mainstage productions Chris Beiser notes how fame-driven ego is derived in part from these forementioned

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5 source pewresearch.org

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the truth of the matter East Muslim students reveal how they have been impacted by modern Islamophobia. story shiloh wolfork art alexandra fernholz and lauren maier

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he opens her Twitter account, expecting to see the usual updates on United States foreign policy or the measles outbreak.

Instead, she stares at her phone breathlessly, overtaken by complete shock. She becomes devastated as she reads countless news stories reporting terrorist attacks of multiple mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand during Friday Prayer in which 51 worshippers were killed.

East senior and Vice President of the East Muslim Student Association (MSA) Iman Elayyadi was afraid upon hearing about the shootings and concerned that the violence could occur locally.

“I was completely stunned,” Elayyadi says.

“Friday is a holy day for all Muslims. It’s the day that we go to prayer at the mosque just as Christians usually go to church on Sunday. So that meant that the mosques were packed, as they usually are on Fridays and the gunman knew that. I was rocked to my core because I understood that just because this happened

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in New Zealand, didn’t make it an isolated incident and that it could happen here.”

On Friday, March 15 in Christchurch, New Zealand, two consecutive terrorist attacks took place at both the Al-Noor and Linwood mosques. The shootings were led by an Australian Islamophobic white supremacist who streamed a 17-minute live video of the attack on Facebook after the publication of his manifesto online.

After hearing about the Christchurch shootings, East sophomore Nasma Jarabah was initially shocked and later unsurprised by the blatant display of Islamophobia.

“I could see something like that coming,” Jarabah says. “My mom was trying to talk to me about it and I just kept crying and crying.

I couldn’t understand how someone could have so much hate just because someone is practicing a different religion than you.”

East senior and President of the East MSA President Saidou Ly felt deeply impacted by

the mosque attacks because of the sense of unity that exists within the Muslim religion.

“Not just me, but many other people feel for those people because they’re our brothers and sisters in faith,” Ly says. “And as that, we have to feel for them as if it happened to my own brother or sister or even me.”

Current Board Member and Past Chair of the Board at the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati (ICGC) Shakila Ahmad explains how the ICGC has helped to bring consolation to the local Muslim community after the New Zealand shootings.

“It is important to provide support and comfort to the congregation,” Ahmad says.

“Some of the ways we have tried to offer that support is for our spiritual leader to really [provide] that connection with our Creator through the Friday prayers and through being available for people. We also had a very public vigil at the Islamic Center on the Saturday after the attacks on Friday which was open to the

“I was rocked to my core. Just because this happened in New Zealand, doesn’t mean it [couldn’t] happen here.”

— Iman Elayyadi, East senior and Vice President of MSA interfaith community and other Islamic Center mosque leaders.”

Elayaddi believes the methods of support and security precautions initiated by the ICGC were successful in assisting the local Muslim community during a painful time.

“We definitely wanted to ensure that all mosque attendees and the children who attend the Islamic private school, were safe,” Elayyadi says. “We also didn’t want to let fear control us or rule over us. Because when you do that, that means the attacker got what he wanted.”

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ccording to Associate Director of Literacy and Comparative Studies at Ohio State University Susan Hanson, discrimination against Muslims is driven by the promotion of intolerance toward cultures that differ from the majority.

“US minorities, Muslims [being] among them, face discrimination, even persecution, largely because the members of the dominant sociocultural groups are enculturated to recognize and resist people who represent or symbolize difference, in order to protect the group’s presumed superiority,” Hanson says.

“To put it simply, we are raised to be racist.”

According to data from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, from 2016 to 2017, US incidents driven by Islamophobic sentiment increased 17 percent.

University of Toledo Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies Jeanine Diller connects the rise of white nationalism to increasing displays of Islamophobia.

“One of the big sources of why it’s [white nationalism] started to increase recently is there’s been a growing population of immigrants and refugees,” Diller says. “And basically that immigration can scare people because it produces cultural change. And people have different reactions to that. Some people welcome that sort of diversity and others are fearful of that diversity.”

Elayyadi believes that the ignorance of others and misinformation in the media fuels persecution towards the Muslim community.

“When you usually hear about Islam [in the media], you don’t necessarily hear positive things,” Elayyadi says. “And in fact, what you usually hear about are the isolated incidents in which someone who does not represent the religion whatsoever, chooses to do something horrible. People consume these articles and are left with an inaccurate representation of Islam [and] have no way of understanding the religion or the people beyond what they hear.”

Diller connects the refusal of people to believe in the presence of Islamophobia with protection of their cultural pride.

“People don’t want to see their culture implicated in trends that hurt people,” Diller says. “If there is Islamophobia and if it causes white nationalists to go kill hundreds of people in mosques, they don’t want to see that. And so a reason to deny it is to just to say there isn’t really Islamophobia in the first place.”

According to a 2017 study performed by Pew Research Center, 75 percent of Muslim Americans believe that a lot of discrimination exists against Muslims in the US. Of those surveyed, 48 percent have experienced at least one incident of discrimination in the past 12 months and 55 percent believe Americans are generally unfriendly toward Muslims.

Elayyadi explains how she has been impacted by American Islamophobia.

“My mother wears a headscarf so when going out with her, she gets a lot of rude glares. We’ve been flipped off before, we have definitely been made to feel unsafe,” Elayyadi says. “Whether it’s in a social environment or at the workplace, people refuse to talk to you, afraid to go near you, they’ll pull their children closer.”

Jarabah explains how she has been influenced by the growing discrimination facing the Muslim community.

“I went to the gas station with my cousin,” Jarabah says. “It was about 9:30 at night. We went to get some ice cream so that we could have a movie night. And then this white man in front of me turned around and said ‘go back to your country. You don’t deserve to be here.’

I looked at my cousin and she told me not to

say anything because when you fight hate with hate, nothing happens.”

Out of 103 East students surveyed, 35.9 percent do not believe that Islamophobia still exists in the modern world.

Ly explains his experiences with discrimination and intolerance as an African American Muslim person.

“I remember someone asking me how can I be a black man and be a Muslim at the same time,” Ly says. “It shows how ignorant people are nowadays because people think that because you’re a certain race, you can’t be a certain religion. What your heart believes in, doesn’t have to affect the color of your skin.”

According to the Pew Research Center, 89 percent of Muslims say that they are both proud to be American and Muslim and 49 percent of Muslim Americans say that they have experienced support because of their religion in the past year.

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f 124 East students surveyed, 12.1 percent identify as followers of Islam. Elayyadi explains how the East MSA is helping to promote unity and strength against the rising discrimination against Muslim Americans.

“MSA’s mission is to create interactions between the Muslim student community and the student body as a whole and to facilitate discussions about who we are and what we believe in and to help each other understand our common purposes and work together to achieve them,” Elayyadi says. “Muslim youth play a huge role. It’s on us to create these interactions and talk to people and educate people.”

According to Elayaddi, the influence of Muslim youth plays a significant role in working toward the awareness and gradual elimination of Islamophobic tendencies within society.

“No, we’re not the other,” Elayyadi says.

“We’re just like you. We have so much in common and we have a common purpose in life to destigmatize the population in the hopes of lessening the marginalization.” •

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An MRI of the brain shows that the pre-motor cortex becomes more active in an apathetic

science of apathy

38.3% 61.7%

person

Researchers discuss the difference between apathy and laziness, explaining how this applies to students and their relationship with motivation. story karaline abney | infographic rachel anderson art alexandra fernholz

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he chirpy words “don’t forget the homework” rioched off every wall in the classroom, followed by a chorus of groans from the tired students. As the assignment was passed out, it’s quickly shoved into the designated homework folder.

Students proceed to look around the room, trying to figure out what to do next. Sometimes cards are distributed or studying for other classes commenses. But most of the time, social media and games demand the attention of all high schoolers alike, distracting them from schoolwork.

These are some of the things that sophomore Michelle Antiri sees everyday after her Honors Algebra II teacher, Michael Buckenmyer, finishes his lesson.

“Even if they’re stressed, they take that time to relax by playing cards,” Antiri said. “Just taking time to talk to each other and cool and calm down about everything that’s going on in school.”

Antiri’s observations aren’t just relevant to her math class; according to a recent survey, 75

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percent of East students identified as having a lack of motivation to do homework.

This lack of motivation, also called apathy, is more extreme than being called “lazy”.

Being lazy means that you choose to not do something; being apathetic means that you can’t do something.

In a 2018 research article, Dopamine Modulates Option Generation for Behavior, published in scientific journal, Current Biology, it examines the possibility of people not being able to mentally generate ideas, thus being termed “apathetic” due to the fact that they do not do much. “[There’s] a very strong relationship between the ability to generate options for behavior and the level of motivational on an independent scale,” Oxford University neurologist Masud Husain said, who is an author of the research article mentioned above. “[In apathetic people] the choices are very limited because they just can’t think of too many things.”

For example, if a person was asked to list things to do on a sunny day, Husain suggested,

an apathetic person would only be able to come up with a few; a highly motivated person would generate an upwards of 20-30 ideas.

Deeper than just a lack of ideas, apathy can be seen in the ways that we make decisions.

In a 2015 study conducted by Husain, participants were asked to exert force for a high or low monetary reward. It was found that deciding to not exert force took more energy than deciding to exert force.

“You think that brains are being less active when they’re not making decisions, but actually then far more active,” Husain said. “And for some reason, apathetic people are spending more energy making those decisions than motivated people.”

East junior Eric Coons is a typical student; procrastination is his speciality.

“Usually I wait a day before [it’s due] unless it’s a project,” Coons said. “If I don’t need practice then I don’t see the point.”

Opposite from students, teachers are coming “far more engaged” Principal Suzanna Davis said.

East students that have experienced apathy source Oxford University, East Spark Survey New educational practices for East students, such as flipped classrooms, where students do homework in class and watch videos of lessons as homework and one-to-one technology is an attempt to gain the student’s attention and truly personalize the learning experience.

“We can personalize the experience to the individual learner, we begin to fight that apathy because students see some connection to what they’re learning,” Davis said. “[Learning] is very personal to them.”

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o enforce the personalized learning experience and combating a lack of motivation, Antiri suggests a new take to personalized learning.

“If we just have time to either take a break from what we’ve learned in that class and just kind of like process it all then immediately starting on homework and try to finish it, it would be really nice.”

Personalizing the learning experience on the individual is a step in the right direction.

When students shove their homework away, sometimes it’s a sign that the student will do it at home rather than school; other times it can show that a student is apathetic towards school due to the fact the student doesn’t understand the material.

“When people find themselves in situations where they don’t feel like they have control to change it, people don’t know how to go about solving the problem,” Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Dayton Lucy Allbaugh said. “Either due to a lack of resources or the [belief] that they’re not going to be successful.”

Although apathy may seem like this big, bad, beast, it’s essential to the development of a teenager.

“Apathy is normative and part of people figuring out who they are, what they’re into, and who they’re going to be; it’s a shedding of an old identity.” Allbaugh said. “When we see changes in people’s level of interest or enthusiasm or if we notice it in ourselves, it can sometimes be an important clue that something else is going on, that needs attention.”

Social and cultural factors may also play a part in a person’s apathy.

Stress levels, sleep disturbances, loss, and childhood experiences, such as abuse and neglect, all weigh into a person’s motivation or lack thereof.

In neuropsychiatry, the biopsychosocial model is the key to understanding emotions.

“At all times, our mood or motivation is determined not just by our biology, but by psychological factors and social factors,” Associate Professor at the University of Toronto and McMaster University in Hamilton Rob van Reekum, who is also a researcher, said.

Apathy and not caring are two separate entities.

One patient, who suffered from Alzheimer’s, was unable to remember his grandkids. After being given a drug called Aricept, he “couldn’t remember the names of the grandkids anymore, but at least now he’s asking about them,” van Reekum recalled.

“This motivational lack of interest [in this case] kids and grandkids is not because [the grandpa] doesn’t care; you can’t care anymore,” van Reekum said. “Being called lazy

is obviously not accurate and pejorative, and can lead families become very upset with the individual.”

In school, intrinsic and extrinsic environments may contribute to a person’s motivation. Intrinsic factors are things that relate to the individual on a personal level, while extrinsic are external.

“Perhaps the teacher might be able to influence [students] in a positive way, such as reward systems, a gold star on the chart,” van Reekum said. “We’re finding ways to tap into that students intrinsic motivation.”

When determining what is important for motivation, van Reekum states that is more up to the individual rather than society.

“A person that lacks motivation society more generally wishes they could be more motivated for what we think is important, but they don’t feel is particularly important,” van Reekum said. “So I think that I think that’s really important to recognize that we can place external expectations on on others to themselves, but we shouldn’t be the judge.”

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hen you walk by Michael Buckenmyer’s classroom during the last half of fourth period, the noise level is distinct enough to be heard quietly in the hallway with the door closed. Inside the classroom, people are in self-selected groups by what they’ll be doing with their free time: cards, games on their phone, or academic work.

“They’re tired of school,” Antiri says. “They just want a break from everything. Once they had the time to [relax], they’re definitely going to take it.” • lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2019 41

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package | relationships 49 percent of students reported feeling a great deal of stress on a daily basis because of school.

31 percent of students reported feeling somewhat stressed because of school

Univeristy of Pennsylvania rejected 62 percent of valedictorians who applied

Only 19 percent of colleges and universities give class rank “considerable importance” in the application process

26 percent of students report symptoms of depression 60 percent of those who were stressed were females

a rank system Both East and West use a class ranking system to evaluate students’ standing with in their grade level, but does it create unnecessary competitions between students. story regan denham | infographic leah mccain art alexandra fernholz and lauren maier

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he clock strikes midnight, but there is no fairytale ending here. Just another hour of homework to get through. Three years into her high school career and this is her usual routine, going to dance practice, then to work, getting home at ten and still having hours of homework to muddle through. But after all of this hard work and dedication, she still isn’t valedictorian, or even in the top 25.

Throughout her school career, East junior Lauryn Dixon has always been committed to doing her best in school so that she can one day reach her goal of becoming an orthopedician and dance instructor.

Dixon, like many other students, has spent countless nights staying up studying and doing homework, but is not exclusively recognized, since her GPA is not within the top 25 of students in her class.

“Class rank is supposed to demonstrate who has been working hard academically, to assure themselves of responsibility,” Dixon says. “But it gets to a point where it becomes a competition not with yourself, but with your classmates.

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Dixon expresses her disdain towards the class ranking system in preference of a percentile one.

“I’ve always turned my rank into a percentile rather than being concerned on a specific number,’’ Dixon says. “It’s pretty to look at a rank but it’s more fair and realistic to look at a percentile.”

Roughly half of all high schools in America have forgone the use of a class ranking system, according to a report by the National Association for College Admissions Counseling (NACAC). Many colleges do not even consider class rank in their admissions process due to the disparities.

Specifically, the University of Georgia (UGA) does not use class rank regardless of whether it is used by an applicant’s high school.

UGA midwest region admissions officer Cindy Ganas states that UGA primarily focuses on GPA and the course rigor level.

“UGA does not consider class rank when reviewing an applicant due to the variety of formats used to calculate the ranking,” Ganas told Spark. “What UGA considers the most

important factor in admissions are the GPA of core classes and the level of rigor of a student’s curriculum.”

On the other hand, the University of Michigan (UM) uses all given information about an applicant to determine acceptance.

UM midwest region admissions counselor Zach Marentay says that a holistic review process is used when reviewing all applicants.

“We are able to note a student’s class rank in our evaluation if this information is included on the application, but it is not a primary factor that we consider in the admissions process,” Marentay says. “Each high school has different methods that they use to determine class rank, so we are ultimately going to be looking at a student within the context of their high school.”

University of Cincinnati (UC) admissions counselor Kate Bumhoffer says that UC also uses a holistic approach when reviewing applications, but that they tend to see more high schools that use a direct ranking system.

“Typically we tend to see more schools that use a direct ranking system,” Bumhoffer says.

41 percent those who were stressed were male

In a study of 700 millionaires, they all averaged a GPA of 2.9 “But [class rank] is never a final deciding factor when reviewing a student’s application for admission to UC.” Purdue University Professor of Social Psychology William Graziano believes that systems such as class rank can create unneeded competition between students.

“Having a system in place where people are directly compared to one another evokes a winner- takes-all zero-sum mentality where the goal is to defeat a competitor,” Graziano says.

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raziano also states that there is natural curiosity to know where everyone stands that is part of a social dominance hierarchy.

Which may be the reason why ranking systems were initially established.

According to Graziano, there is also a specific personality trait referred to as social dominance orientation, that is used to describe individuals who must have a type of social hierarchy in place in order to function.

“In that type of situation, [like class rank], more often than not the winner-takes-all personality type is evoked rather than the agreeable type,” Graziano told Spark. “Which is what eventually causes the system to falter.”

East sophomore and top 25 student Katie Niewald says that because of her class rank, she is stereotyped by her classmates and receives heavier judgment when she makes mistakes.

“Everyone just assumes that I know how to do everything. If I get a grade that is lower than

Up to 50 percent of schools no longer report class rank to their students

Duke University rejected 58 percent of valedictorians who applied

source edweek.org, nassp.org, nyu.edu, The Scholarship System my average, people are always like ‘oh my gosh you never get that low,’” Niewald says. “People in [the top 25] have an expectation that they’re not allowed to make mistakes.”

In a recent Spark survey of 122 students, 80 percent agreed that the class ranking system creates competition. Of 102 students, 58.25 percent said the system was hurtful. Niewald is one of those students and opposes the system. “[Class rank] is an unnecessary stress, it creates tension and competition between friends,” Niewald says. “I’ve had issues with it in my own friendships.”

Both East and West use a system where students with the 25 highest GPAs are given special awards and their own academic signing day. Even though she is a member of the top 25 and receives those honors, Niewald admits the system can easily make someone feel diminished.

“Once the bridge is crossed between top 25 and anywhere else, you start to feel like you are less than because of the treatment,” Niewald says. “They shouldn’t make such a big deal out of the top 25 at the expense of the rest of the student body.”

On the contrary, East Principal Susanna Davis says that the recognition of the top 25 students in each grade promotes an environment focusing on academic achievement.

“We are trying to create a culture in which we celebrate academic achievement in a different way,” Davis says. “The people in the

top 25 have done outstanding academic work.”

Davis also stated that the current GPA calculation system is set by the district, but it is East’s and West’s individual choice to honor the top 25 students.

“There is nothing in policy or guidelines that says we have to be honoring the top 25 students,” Davis told Spark. “That is something we have selected to do on our own as a school.”

While Davis admitted that there have not been any in-depth conversations within the district in regards to a system change, ideas were presented by the Student Advisory Council after a three-hour brainstorming session to alter the class ranking structure. “[Student Advisory Council] was given an option of seven real-world challenges that were collected from a variety of different sources around our school and our district,” Davis says.

“They choose to take it in a direction whereby they started exploring different opportunities that might exist within GPA, class rank, and some of the honors that go along with that.”

Their presentation was a means to include student voice in the conversation but was in no way a formal decision process, Davis emphasized.

East senior and student advisory council member Karen Carpenter says that the class ranking situation was presented to the student advisory council as an effort to practice real world problem solving after multiple surveyed ... continued on page 66 lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2019 43

we the people With only 49 percent of Americans voting in the 2018 midterm election, Spark takes a look at the reason behind this unsettling statistic. story eliza bush | infographic abbie westendorf art alexandra fernholz

44 May 2019 lakotaeastsparkonline.com

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t’s election day and Instagram is packed full of excited “I voted” posts from his friends. He however, was not among them. Honestly, he can’t remember exactly what he was doing instead.

East senior Logan Spille was eligible to vote in the 2018 midterm election, but he chose not to. This decision was largely a result of being uninformed about the candidates and issues on the ballot.

“I chose not to vote because I felt I didn’t know enough about the people I would be voting for,” Spille says. “I only knew a little bit [about the candidates] and I felt that if I had voted it would just be because that’s what everyone else was doing.”

He was among the 69 percent of people ages 18 to 29 who did not vote in the 2018 midterm election, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) program at Tufts University.

Miami University Department of Justice and Community Studies Associate political science professor John Forren, who did a study on voting behavior, believes this may have something to do with voting procedures in the United States (US) that seem to make voting difficult for most Americans.

“One practical thing that’s actually being considered right now in the state of Ohio is to just automatically register people to vote when they turn 18,” Forren says.

“The state government is considering that because one of the barriers to voting that we see in the US that we don’t see in a lot of European countries is that you have to register at least a month in advance.”

Forren is also noticing a loosening of restrictions on the absentee ballot in recent years to make voting easier for people who have moved out of state or are unavailable to make it on election day.

Growing up, voting was emphasized to Logan by his mom, but not so much by his dad.

“My mom says that I should vote unless I don’t know what it’s about or if I don’t agree with either option,” Spille says. “My dad doesn’t really care at all.”

East Government and Politics teacher Tisha Menchhofer-Grote says it’s important that voting is emphasized at a young age.

“Since all three of my children were born, they come inside my polling place and precinct to watch their father and I vote,” Menchhofer-Grote says. “I even got in trouble once by a precinct manager for taking a photo of my kids inside the precinct. I wanted to take a photo of them to show them in the future how much I value voting.”

Forren believes that voting habits should be established early on, to ensure that it becomes a habit in adult life.

“I work on helping students to develop habits of civic participation earlier in life,” Forren says. “Research shows that if you vote when you’re 18, you’re likely to continue voting the rest of your life. Establishing those habits early gives people opportunities to see their government in action and to see how politics works.”

Miami University Vote Everywhere ambassador Kelsey Demel says voting is important for everyone, but especially young people in today’s political climate.

“Young people are one of the lowest percentages of voters in the country and are therefore the least likely to have their voices heard,” Demel says. “Especially in a time with increasing student debt, and lower career and

Only 54 percent of United State’s population voted in 2012 compared to...

67 percent of population voted in 2014

Belgium

Sweden 83 percent of population voted 2014

Turkey 84 percent of population voted in 2015 source washingtonpost.com

financial opportunities for people of our age, now more than ever it is necessary to stand up and select government officials who will help our generation move past these times and build a better America for our generation.”

Vote Everywhere is an organization funded by the Andrew Goodman Foundation that emphasizes the importance of political participation to college students. Through outreach programs and community events, Vote Everywhere has helped 69,277 voters register since its launch in 2014.

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s the ambassador, Demel organizes events and programs for the students at Miami University. Party at the Polls, an event that took place last fall during the midterm elections, was a successful way to get students excited about voting and informed about issues and candidates.

“We organized this event called Party at the Polls, which we did the day of the 2018 midterm election,” Demel say. “We had food, we had resources for people who were going into the voting poll. We assisted them if they had any questions and we gave out raffle prizes.”

Contrary to Spille, East sophomore Ben Fisher is passionate about voting. Fisher wasn’t eligible to vote in the 2018 midterms, but still believes it’s important for students to exercise their right to vote and is excited to cast his vote in the next election.

“My cousin graduated and I kept bugging him to vote,” Fisher says. “I just kept asking him ‘Did you vote? Did you vote?’”

Political Science Department Chair at Miami University Bryan Marshall says the strength of democracy depends on the level of engagement by its citizens.

“Voting is one of the aspects of a healthy democracy,” Marshall says. “Our democracy

really depends on citizens being engaged and at the very least voting. We hope that citizens do other things to make sure their representatives know what kinds of policies that they want, or what what kinds of activities they want the government to be involved in.”

According to a 2016 study conducted by the Pew Research Center, 86 percent of Americans were registered to vote, but only 61 percent of those registered actually showed up to vote.

According to another study conducted by the Pew Research Center, the US ranked 31st among the 35 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in terms of voter turnout in 2016.

I believe the message is clear: Civics education is not as important in value perhaps compared to math and science education.”

Despite this, an overwhelming majority of East students believe that voting is important.

According to a Spark survey of 101 people, 97 percent of East students believe voting is important.

Fisher believes that East could do more to promote political engagement and hopes that voter registration and political participation will be more emphasized in the future.

“I’ve never heard an announcement [about voting] or a teacher say ‘you should go vote,’” Fisher says. “I even think they could have a

”Now more than ever, it is necessary to stand up and select government officials who will help our generation move past these times and build a better America for our generation.”

— Kelsey Demel, Miami University Vote Everywhere ambassador Menchhofer-Grote believes that simple solutions, beginning in high school, could affect the voter turnout rates in a positive way. She feels larger efforts devoted to Civics education could send the message to young adults that voting is important.

“I feel it is important for US Government class to be an entire year-long course like Advanced Placement (AP) US Government and Politics in our district,” Menchhofer-Grote says. “I have been trying for years to get this changed in our local district curriculum without success. Civics courses are few and far between in our curriculum and so by choosing that US Government only be a required semester class,

study hall period for seniors who were eligible to vote and just explain to them why it’s important.”

Demel believes that high schools aren’t doing enough to produce informed and proactive voters.

“I do not think that schools inform students enough about voting,” Demel says. “Although, I do think it is getting better. However, this information needs to start at the high school level, not just the college level.”

Lakota Superintendent Matt Miller attributes the voting initiatives within the district to Lakota students. ... continued on page 66 lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2019 45

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IN POPULAR SPORTS

PERCENT OF ADULT INTERESTED

tunnel vision

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90% 100% source gallup

them “bandwagons.”

However, both are quick to dispel this notion. Both were very young when their interest developed and hasn’t wavered since then. Helton was 11 years old and Murphy was eight years old when they first became fans.

Two Lakota East students expand on their strong connections to their favorite sports team. story drew bachman | infographic ethan mccracken art alexandra fernholz

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weat trickles off of their palms, as they focus on only one thing and blank out everything else: the television screen. As the time ticks down on the game clock, the feelings of anxiousness and nervousness continue to increase. But then the buzzer sounds, followed by a feeling of sorrow after Duke loses in the Elite Eight of the National Tournament to Michigan State.

This feeling is familiar with Duke Basketball fan and East sophomore Logan Helton.

“When a Duke game is going on,” Helton says, “I go into tunnel vision, they’re the only thing I’m focusing on.”

East senior and New England Patriot fan Shane Murphy also feels a deep emotional connection to his favorite sports team. From a young age, the Patriots losing dramatically affected his mood. Specifically, when the

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Patriots lost to the New York Giants in 2012.

“We had a bunch of people over for the game, but I just remember running up to my room after they lost,” Murphy says. “I was really mad.”

Psychologist Stephanie Shell, who specializes in relationships, explains that this bond fans form with their team is all about having a sense of connection, saying this is something that all humans strive for.

“People who are involved in a sports team have awesome benefits,” Shell told Spark.

“They experience a sense of belonging to something.”

This need for connection is shown by a Gallup study that concluded that 63 percent of all Americans are sports fans. With the most popular being professional football at 57 percent, with 104.3 million tuning in to watch

the 2018 Super Bowl.

Murphy is one of those millions every year, with his team routinely being in it. One of Murphy’s favorite Super Bowl’s that he’s watched was in 2017, when the Patriots came back from the dead and beat the Atlanta Falcons despite being down 28-3 in the third quarter.

“All of a sudden, something shifted,” Murphy says. “It was just so exciting, almost everything went perfect for them from that point on.”

Besides being fans of teams that have won five combined championships in the last decade, Helton and Murphy have something else in common. They are both fans of teams that are not local. With Duke’s campus being 501 miles away and Boston, where the Patriots play, being 857 miles away, some would call

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urphy still vividly remembers a loss that came to the Ravens in the 2009 playoffs.

A game where his connection to the team caused him to feel sad and melancholy.

“That was the first time where I was emotionally upset that they lost,” Murphy says.

Shell explains how. This sense of community and connection attracts people to be fans of sports. This sense of community between fan’s is something that Murphy and Helton take pride in.

The newly founded professional soccer team, FC Cincinnati, uses many of their fans as brand ambassadors for the team in the community to increase ticket sales and overall interest in their team. The Senior Director of Sales and Service, Greg Harrell, explains how they use this method.

“Our season ticket holders are consistently helping our ticket sales team meet new people in their respective networks getting them to

attend matches,” Harrell told Spark. “Creating a connection to the team.”

Although Helton has never attended a Duke game in person, he still feels the community aspect of the team.

“There is definitely a sense of community involved around Duke,” Helton says. “Around the world people tend to hate on Duke, so it gives us an ‘us versus the world’ feeling.”

Murphy also relates to this feeling. He says that when something goes the Patriots way people like to hate it, which leads to the “us versus the world” mentality. He also loves when players embrace the Patriot way.

“It makes me happy,” Murphy says. “When people are excited to be a Patriot.”

Every new acquisition that the Patriots make to their team, Murphy immediately looks the player up to find out more about him and their personality. He feels more personally connected to the team when he does this.

University of Cincinnati Ticket Sales & Retention Account Executive Michael Zwilling, says that one of the reasons people watch sports is that people enjoy being entertained as it is a part of celebrating and enjoying everyday life.

“The answer can be as simple as coming out

to watch a certain team or player perform or to take in a new sporting venue,” Zwilling told Spark. “It can be as complicated as searching for a sense of community, togetherness or to be a part of something bigger than themselves.”

Helton feels this sense of community as he has connected to fans across the country that he has never met about Duke basketball.

Tweeting others, replying on Instagram, is all part of this connection during a game.

“Some people may think I’m insane for staying up late on a school night to watch my team compete for a championship and rejoice when they win it,” Helton says. “Or when I’m visibly upset after something doesn’t go our team’s way.”

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e claims it’s all just because he cares, he cares about the wellbeing of a team that he has been connected to for so long. Even though others might not see it, he knows he is apart of something special.

“I’ll always remember watching the 2015 National Championship thinking we were about to lose against Wisconsin,” Helton says.

“But then Freshman Grayson Allen came in the game and dominated. I know I’ll never forget that moment.• lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2019 47

the new norm Sources say some of today’s society is desensitized to violence and tragedy due to the reoccurrence of it.

story abbie westendorf art alexandra fernholz infographic anna florence

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he wears a “#neveragain” wristband every day. It’s a reminder of what could happen and what has. But, since the first day she put it on, the meaning of it has lessened and lessened as more active shooter incidents have happened.

East sophomore and Hope Squad member Anne Mathew believes East students are desensitized to violence due to the reoccurring violence and tragedy in society. According to the website “Gun Violence Archive” five months into 2019, there have been 17,525 active shooter incidents this year.

“Violent acts such as a school shooting seem to be so common that at this point,” Mathew says. “We are just waiting for the next one.”

Visiting assistant professor of Sociology and Social Justice Studies at Miami University Michael Lodenthal says only some of society is desensitized, people are often delineated by age, race, gender, and class.

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“I do not think we can generalize this to all members of the society, as experiences with violence [are] varied,” Lodenthal says.

Mathew says youth are more desensitized to tragedy since they’ve been so common in their lifetime. According to the Washington Post, more than 226,000 students have experienced gun violence since the Columbine shooting in 1999. Out of 74 million children in America, 73,747,00 are unaffected “We grew up dealing with all this violence,” Mathew says. “It’s just apart of our culture.”

A member of the department of child and adult psychiatry at New York University Langone Health, Kimberly Hoagwood says the brain “tunes out” things it’s familiar to. She believes there are also psychological causes as well.

“Compartmentalizing, avoidance, engagement in activities that distract or numb, etcetera,” Hagwood says. “These psychological responses are ways the mind adapts to trage-

dies and can be seen as examples of desensitization.”

According to the study ‘Developing a sustainable child and family service system after a community tragedy: Lessons from Sandy Hook’ written in 2017, between 2000 to 2007 there were 45 active-shooter incidents, which increased to 115 from 2008 to 2013.

Professor at the University of Alabama Sylvie Mrug says the reoccurrence of violence and tragedy is a cause of desensitization.

“Being exposed to lots of violence makes it seem [like] a normal part of life,” says Mrug, who has been teaching for 14 years. “The strong negative emotional reaction most people have to violence becomes dampened.”

With the numbers of active shooter incidents rising each year, Matthews believes it’s hard for students to know how to react.

“We grow up seeing violent actions all around us and on the news that at this point students, including myself, may not know how

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to react properly,” Mathews says.

Lodenthal recognizes that there are external causes of desensitization as well such as the media. He says media downplays the reality of tragedy and violence.

“Some media companies and publications seem to thrive on the sensationalism and exploitation of violence, traumatic imagery,” Lodenthal says. “Other [media companies] seem to portray these complex occurrences through a more muted, nuanced and contextual form.”

Mathew believes social media heavily impacts how desensitized society is. She says memes and jokes about school shootings and other tragedies are very popular content on sites like Instagram and Snapchat.

“It’s joked about constantly,” Mathew says. “Everyone sees jokes about how America is known for their school shootings.”

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ccording to research article ‘Emotional and Physiological Desensitization to Real-Life and Movie Violence’ written

by Mrug, 50 to 70 percent of youth will report witnessing real-life violence or being assaulted in their lifetime by the time they are 15 years old.

“Research shows that individuals who are exposed to high levels of violence in their communities or in media demonstrate desensitization,” Mrug says.

According to Lodenthal, desensitization isn’t irreversible but will require both the willingness and the means to do it.

“You can’t force people to care about others or open their mind to take away the ignorance of these situations unless they truly want to,” Mathew says.

Hoagwood suggests having more conversations and deepening connections with those in our lives will be more effective in reversing desensitization than psychological strategies.

“Having more meaningful and deeper conversations about things that bring us joy or sorrow, about the tragedies themselves and what they mean to us,” Hoagwood says. “And most importantly listening to others when they speak about experiences that trouble them.” •

Sept. 6, 1949: The first mass shooting in US history takes place, now known as the “Walk of Death.” This was one out of 162 mass shootings in the US.

Narcissism: it’s nothing personal, it’s biological. story nicco morello

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arcissism is defined scientifically by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) as having a pathological personality trait of “grandiosity” or feelings of entitlement, selfcenteredness, the belief that one is better than others, or condescension of others. Individuals with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) are also identified by tendencies toward attention-seeking or attempts to attract or be the focus of attention, seeking admiration of others.

Lifeway Counseling Center Clinical Therapist Gary Jacobs has provided counsel to, and worked alongside, many narcissists in his 25 years as a counselor and eight years in the mental health field.

“Individuals with NPD typically behave in ways that exaggerate his/her own importance and achievements as superior to others; are preoccupied with fantasies of success, power, or appearance; believe themselves to be special; require admiration and have an expectation of special treatment,” Jacobs told Spark. “Often, they come across as selfish, self-centered; uncaring; manipulative; demeaning; and egotistical.”

Narcissistic Abuse is when an individual who is suffering from NPD carries out emotional abuse towards another person, be it a co-worker, friend, or even a family member.

NPD and narcissism get a lot of attention, but not many focus on the people suffering because of the narcissist.

In the United States (US), nearly 158 million people have experienced or witnessed narcissistic abuse in their lifetime.

In a Spark survey of East students, of the 129 people surveyed, nearly 23 percent of people said they have either witnessed

April 20, 1999: Two teenagers killed 13 people, and injured 20 others at Columbine High in the worst school shooting at the time.

or experienced narcissistic abuse, or know someone who has.

For some people, they've experienced narcissistic abuse every day of their lives, and it can be traumatizing. The narcissist uses many and varied tactics to emotionally abuse their victim. They manipulate and hurt their victims for their personal gain and pleasure.

Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor Mandy Friedman is the head of a program called Survivors of Narcissistic and Abusive Personalities (SNAP), which is an educational program based on helping those who have experienced narcissistic abuse as well as educating people about this issue. “[Narcissists] manipulate and lie a lot. And a lot of times we have that feeling of ‘Did that just happened?” Friedman told Spark. “Their behaviors are just so different. It’s surreal, sometimes we don't believe it happened. We will talk ourselves out of it [and say] ‘I'm sure I saw that wrong.’ It's just like, ‘Wow, that person just did that.’ [There’s] just a lot of ups and downs, and you never quite know what's coming next. [There’s a] little bit of Jekyll and Hyde going on.”

The narcissist uses their various tactics to manipulate, hurt and control their victims.

Their tactics at times are very unpredictable and brash in nature.

The answer to why the narcissist does such things and, frankly, why they are this way lies beneath the surface.

“It is important to understand that below the surface an individual with NPD is generally an insecure individual who is struggling with self-worth,” Jacobs told Spark. “[They are] compensating for that insecurity in these exaggerated behaviors.” ... continued on page 66

June 12, 2016: A shooter opened fire at a popular gay Orlando nightclub, killing 49 people and injuring dozens, during Pride month.

Oct. 1, 2018: 58 people were killed and near 500 were injured when a gunman opened fire on an outdoor concert in Las Vegas.

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blast from the past

East junior Shannon Leonard reminisces on her favorite sweatshirt that reminds her of a different time. story kelly johantges art alexandra fernholz 50 May 2019 lakotaeastsparkonline.com

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ast junior Shannon Leonard wakes up every morning for school and heads to her closet. She shuffles through her clothing hangers and the piles on her floor until she pulls out her perfect outfit.

She heads to the corner of her room to change and sees herself in her full-length mirror.

Wearing one of her favorite sweatshirts that was handed down to her from her late father, she has reminded her of another time. The way the sweatshirt fits makes her feel like there is a presence encompassing her, a memory of her dad.

Shannon experiences this anytime she looks and sees something related to him. The sweatshirt creates a sense of protection and fatherhood, which creates the sweet side of nostalgia. Nostalgia leads Shannon to go through some old scrapbooks, look at photo collages, and talk to her family about her dad. This is an important step to take, due to the fact that nostalgia is a comforting emotion. By consulting and controlling our memories, Batcho says that people have a greater sense of security “in a world of constant change.”

Nostalgia, defined by Le Moyne College Psychology Professor Krystine Batcho is a longing for something in the past.

“The definition includes the understanding that nostalgia is a bittersweet emotion. It is sweet because remembering pleasant experiences is a positive feeling,” Batcho told Spark. “It is bitter because we know the past is gone forever; we can’t recapture it or revisit it except in memory.”

A licensed psychologist in NY, Dr. Karen Sherman says that people who are lost in their relationships and past selves just need to think back to some of their bittersweet memories and they will remember the better times. This will ideally lead to some type of effort into changing themselves or their relationships for the better.

This is the big picture. Researchers say that nostalgia will come when individuals need anchoring in their lives and in their social connections. Not only that, but North Dakota State University Psychology Professor Clay Routledge says that nostalgia can boost psychological wellbeing.

“Studies have shown that inducing nostalgia in people can help increase their feelings of self-esteem, social belonging, and encourage psychological growth,” Routledge says. “Rather than nostalgia being a cause of mental distress, nostalgia can be a restorative way of coping with it.”

Nostalgia has become an answer to many things that some would say are “the blues.” Ways people combat this are by

seeking out the people in their past, search or copy vintage products, and organizing nostalgic belongings.

Shannon’s favorite outfits are the ones that involve retro trends. She owns many pairs of mom jeans and shirts with designs of famous ‘90s cartoon characters.

Wearing these outfits and articles of clothing makes her remember past happier times and make her a happier person overall.

Lately, retro items have popped onto the market like no other time before. Old bands are reuniting and releasing new music, styles from the ‘80s and ‘90s are back, even old TV shows have returned.

Smart brands are releasing retro products to start a new trend called nostalgia marketing.

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rands that use nostalgia marketing are taking people’s coping mechanism and using it to their advantage. Co-author of a nostalgia study, University of Minnesota Psychology Professor Kathleen Vohs says the study started because they wanted to know why nostalgia is so commonplace in marketing.

“One reason could be that feeling nostalgic weakens a person’s desire for money,” Vohs told Spark. “In other words, someone might be more likely to buy something when they are feeling nostalgic.”

For lots of brands, this strategy has caused successful growth. They will advertise with “vintage posters,” use the original packaging, logos from popular ‘90s brands or TV shows, and create launch parties associated with a nostalgic theme.

According to Forbes magazine, CocaCola sells the soda in their famous 8-ounce glass bottles because they say there’s something special about drinking coke from a vintage bottle that will make people pay more for that type of feeling they get.

The Conversation, an independent, nonprofit, and global network for newsrooms says that people want reassurances of their past when things get tough. When someone is going through lots of changes, having something from the past to hold onto can help them cope through whatever is happening.

For Shannon, this coping tool is her sweatshirt. It reminds her of her childhood, and having her father’s identity sewn in the fabric adds another touch of calm in her storm.

“We are our father’s daughter or our mother’s son, our brother’s sister, etc.,” Batcho says. “Nostalgia helps anchor us in time and in our social connections.”Batcho says. “Nostalgia helps anchor us in time and in our social connections.” •

reassigned story cassandra mueller | art alexandra fernholz and lauren maier

A

nna Biddle peered into the garbage can near her locker bay and saw the vibrant rainbow colors staring back at her from the bottom of the bin. She reached into the empty can and carefully pulled out the paper marked with a rainbow and intertwining hands.

This was where Biddle found her crumpled Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) locker sign that March morning coming into school.

Biddle was a victim of the “second wave,” as she calls it, of the GSA signs getting torn down from students lockers.

Biddle stared at the now wrinkled sign and began to smooth it back out as she walked towards her locker once again.

“It made me really sad,” Biddle says. “[But] I just went straight to the garbage and pulled it [back] out.”

After the posters started to get torn down, another GSA member and East junior Phoebe Brown decided that she had had enough and that she wanted to make sure her poster would not be vandalized.

Before this, Brown took precautions to ensure that did not happen, or at least it would be harder to take down.

“I was so upset,” Brown said. “I laminated [my sign] and duct taped it to my locker.”

Brown experienced this first-hand, despite her sign not getting torn down.

“There were a few people who shed tears over it because they had just come out to the people who matter to them and they decided to put a poster up and that day it was torn down,” Brown said. “It was heartbreaking.”

This identity issue is very important. The

silencing of individuals can cause serious consequences by causing victims to retreat into themselves and even affect their relationships in the future, says ThrivePoint owner Stephanie Shell. “[Bullying] is more likely to create an anxious attachment style where we continually think less of ourselves,” Shell says. “And then what happens is that then people settle for less or they are willing to put up with a lot because they fear rejection.”

This kind of behavior may also have negative mental health effects on the LGBTQ students, Kaleidoscope Youth Center Education and Training Manager Amanda Erickson told Spark.

“Studies show that when students are victimized, they’re at greater risk for anxiety and depression, school absenteeism, risky sexual behaviors and unplanned pregnancies, and suicidal [thoughts], as well as lower selfesteem,” Erickson says.

GSA advisor Kathleen Foldy says that this violence is scary for her to think about and that, because of this situation, she feels more committed to helping the GSA members fight for their rights.

“I was really disturbed and saddened to learn that our students had experienced this kind of harassment,” Foldy says. “This type of violence is frightening and students felt afraid for their safety.”

In a recent Spark survey, 18.25 percent of the 126 people surveyed identify as LGBTQ and 28.60 percent of the people who are LGBTQ say they feel unsafe/a possible target

to bullying when walking down the halls.

The act of the posters getting torn down can affect many more students than those who experienced it firsthand. Miami University Associate Professor of Woman, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Ann Fuehrer told Spark that this act of violence can affect all members of the LGBTQ community, even those who did not have a poster up.

“The locker sign identified the student as a member of a particular social group that has been targeted by stigma and violence,” Fuehrer says. “[Therefore] other students who also identify as LGBTQ may perceive themselves as targets of the aggression.”

Because these students feel targeted by an unknown bully, Fuehrer says, they might not speak up against the bully.

The sign destruction has also been reported at the freshman campus.

“Part of what may impact [why the bully did this] is even a sense of belonging amongst a group of people,” Shell says. “Participating in that kind of behavior gives them belonging with that group of people.”

Brown has decided to bounce back from the homophobia and fight for what she believes.

She also helps to pick people back up after they get discouraged about the whole situation.

“We printed more [posters], and we come back stronger. Some put up two or three at a time just because it’s squashing the freedom that we are supposed to have in America,” Brown says. “Some people get discouraged and others are immediately there to pick them back up. Don’t hide who you are.” • lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2019 51

entertainment | endgame movie review

twilight zone | entertainment

AVENGERS: ENDGAME art lauren maier

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on’t Spoil the Endgame. That was the message Endgame directors and brothers Anthony and Joe Russo said to fans.

With Marvel making 20 billion dollars in 22 movies over 11 years, it is safe to say that the Avengers “Infinity Saga” has impacted millions of people. So it makes sense those fans didn’t want the stories of their favorite characters spoiled over social media. With such a large following, Endgame has smashed most long-

52 May 2019 lakotaeastsparkonline.com

standing movie records, from most presale tickets sold to largest box office opening day.

The Infinity Saga began with Robert Downey Jr’s incredible performance of Tony Stark in the original Iron Man movie. But the casting of Robert Downey Jr. in 2007 was, at the time, very controversial, as Downey had been previously in and out of rehab and jail.

From almost spending his entire life in jail to becoming the highest paid actor, Downey’s

comeback story is as heroic as Tony’s.

Before the mass success of the Avengers franchise, the characters were relatively unknown to the mass audience when compared to superheroes like Batman and Superman.

Marvel took, what was at the time, a huge but rewarding gamble in order to bring these characters to life.

Endgame is exactly what it implies—— the end. And the tone throughout the film is just that. While it hurts to say goodbye to characters that I have grown up with, Endgame was a spectacular culmination to this era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

Although an incredible movie and arguably the best one of the MCU so far, there were a few things that didn’t feel right in the film.

For one, Thor’s personality was taken in a completely different direction. The movie The movie Thor: Ragnarok allowed for his personality to be explored, showing viewers another side to the super serious Thor that had been seen in the films before. Endgame’s Thor actually showed vulnerability, but it was done in a way that didn’t feel genuine.

Secondly,, I felt that some of the character arc’s were almost rushed. It was known that certain actor’s MCU contracts were ending, so many fans were already expecting the death of their favorite characters. But the way some characters stories were wrapped up felt incomplete, like there was more to their story that wasn’t told.

But many characters haven’t finished their MCU run yet. Since the announcement of Disney Plus, Disney’s new streaming service, it has been that confirmed that shows such as “WandaVision,” “Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” and “Loki,” will be starring the original actors. So while Endgame is the end of this era, it is the beginning of the next.

During the course of the film, I laughed, I cried, I cheered, and I screamed; for a movie to have that much impact on a person really shows how much media has changed lives.

After growing up alongside these characters and this universe, it almost feels like saying goodbye to a best friend. While it hurts right now, I am excited to watch where the MCU is taken next.

— Regan Denham

THE TWILIGHT

Top 5 Episodes 1

To Serve Man:

2

Time Enough at Last:

3

I Sing the Body Electric:

To Serve Man plays on humans natural trust worthiness and creates a beautiful twist. The subtle buildup to the end creates unarguably the best ending in the series.

ZONE

The transition from the first act of the episode to the second creats a dynamic and abrupt switch from reality to bliss. The third act and final act carries the viewer to a terrifying final reality.

photography fair use

infographic landon meador

I

watched the original Twilight Zone, Rod Serling’s brainchild, for the first time when I was around eight and my dad had decided that right about then would be a good time to introduce me to a series that would make me laugh, freak me out, and make me think. if there exists a show that everyone should have to watch, it is the Twilight Zone. Rod Serling’s original show focused on issues ranging from abandonment, to beauty, to race, to paranoia; so going into Jordan Peele’s new Twilight Zone reboot, I had rather high expectations.

The hour-long special “The Comedian” follows the rise of Samir Wassan (Kumail Nanjiani from (The Big Sick) as he attempts to break into the comedy club scene at Eddie’s Comedy Club with a little help from a distant fifth dimension in the form of Tracy Morgan (Tracy Morgan). Since the hour-long special, premiering the reboot, is what most will begin with and base their judgments off of, it’s only fair to be considering it in the majority for this review.

As the episode progresses, the audience follows Samir as he experiences the trials and tribulations of becoming famous with the help of the Twilight Zone, slowly turning his honest art of comedy to a much darker power capable of destroying those around him.

The episode was on par and I did enjoy it for the most part. Nanjiani’s acting was flowing

and moved the episode along, and with a welldone musical score, the emotions viewers experienced were amplified to what an old twilight episode would bring.

It was around the halfway point where it began to grow stale and it was also at this point that the ending of the episode became predictable. Even so, while predictable, the ending was competent and brought the satisfaction and horror of a true Twilight Zone episode. Unfortunately to watch this ending one would have to purchase a CBS All Access pass, making it harder to watch than the original series that’s on Netflix.

So while a smidge predictable, “The Comedian” did achieve a very important objective. It proved that in the twentyfirst century, a century brimming with technology, it is still possible to bring around a psychological thriller without plots based on the aforementioned technology (looking at you, Black Mirror).

The series as a whole looks promising.

Topics original from the known series are in place for season 1 and with normal episode lengths beginning from episode two, the theme of the episode won’t seem like it was beating a dead horse. My expectations were high to begin with, and I’m looking forward to them remaining at the same level after watching the new rendition. —Michael Szczepkowski

Notable for being episode 100, this episode presents how desperate humans feel they need to love and be loved. Also shows how desperately we hope for that love to be true

4

Nightmare at 20,000 Feet:

5

Eye of the Beholder:

An iconic episode showing off self doubt and the doubting nature of those around us. Also a good introduction into the general ideas of the twilight zone as it is episode number 3.

In today’s day and age of the need to conformity, eye of the beholder shows the viewer an important lesson in beauty. It shows a new different philosophy on life than what is usually preached to young adults and this makes for a good episode.

lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2019 53

entertainment | album review

music review | entertainment

CAGE THE ELEPHANT

WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?

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ith top hits like Cigarette Daydreams and Trouble, Cage the Elephant debuted their newest album on April 19. While the songs are a little more rock and roll and angsty than the past albums that they produced, their new album “Social Cues” immediately makes me feel like I’m in an action movie. It is a very hype and exciting album filled with real-life life problems like dealing with drugs, alcohol, and problematic relationships.

photography fair use

V

BILLIE EILISH

art lauren maier

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irst albums are big definitions of artists and let those who listen know what they can expect to hear from the artists. Billie Eilish’s first album follows this trend of strengthening the definition of her sound that is odd and unique.

Eilish’s start came from her bedroom.

She and her brother would make songs in their bedrooms. The songs Eilish previously released were all recorded this way. Most of her previous songs also had help from producers.

From songs on the album, like “bad guy,” setting a sinister almost scary tone, to other

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songs like, “8,” making the listener feel calmer and relaxed, there is no song that sounds similar to the next.

The diverse rich sounds add to the production of this album too, making the beats stand out like a sore thumb. In every song, the beat always has a rhythm that gives a clear-cut image of what the song should be about.

Her voice is used almost like an instrument, carrying melodies and rhythms that further a song past just vocals and a beat. Effects are put on her voice making it a higher pitch to create tension, or a lower voice to give a scary

atmosphere.

A song that stands out poorly compared to the rest of the songs is, “You should see me in a crown.” This song has an almost out of place feeling with the rest of the album. Its instrumentals create a similar scary feeling but have a drop in the beginning of the song that is out of place.

With only two names credited to the production of the entire album, this album is the picture of what the music industry could hopefully be in the future.

—Michael Patterson

Like most albums, the songs tell a story.

What I think Cage the Elephant is saying through the songs is that there are highs and lows in life. What was interesting was that the story they were telling in the album ended on a sad note. I was expecting something happy but instead, it wasn’t. Cage the Elephant provides a raw examination of what life really can be and how life isn’t always pretty and happy.

—Lauren Maier

VAMPIRE WEEKEND

ampire Weekend explores their collection of eclectic sounds, and a light-hearted personality in their highly anticipated double album, “Father of the Bride.”

This latest release by the former Columbia University students comes six years after their 2013 album, “Modern Vampires Of The City.”

The band’s “world music” style, which takes influences from baroque, Brazilian jazz, rock, and African music, is a carefully curated mix of different flavors. This is common for the band, but exceptionally well done on their most recent endeavor.

Exploration of different culture’s music hasn’t always gotten Vampire Weekend on critic’s good side. Some critics have called them the “official soundtrack of gentrification,” a group of, white, privileged, ivy-league-sweaterwearing young men who serve to take foreign musical styles and make them more palpable for the snobbish American youth.

Despite this, the band handles criticisms with a confident shrug, considering frontman Ezra Koenig is a Jewish, second-generation Romanian and Hungarian immigrant, former

photography fair use

keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij is Persian, and bassist Chris Baio is Italian, Koenig considers this mix a “broad definition of whiteness.”

Vampire Weekend is bound to cast out criticism with this album, considering how well illustrated the ideas of harmony and levity are illustrated through a unique melting-pot of sound. “Father of the Bride” takes artists like Danielle Haim, who’s featured multiple times, and Steve Lacy of “The Internet” fame and mingles the artist’s styles without losing their own. The album seems culminating and final in a way, and the goal of Vampire Weekend’s music has exceeded achievement.

Mainstays like “Sunflower,” “Unbearably White,” “Harmony Hall,” and “This Life” are bound to appear on our generation’s summer playlists for years to come. Impressive and culminating, “Father of the Bride” gets a certain “YES” from me. I hope Vampire Weekend continues to produce more beautiful masterpieces like this, hopefully, we will get another album sooner than 2025.

—McKenna Lewis

WENDY PEFFERCORN SAVED MY LIFE

Starting a recording process for a band can be difficult and an uphill battle for most lesser known bands. Campus Rex has had to fight this uphill battle of playing live shows while living daily life, and they somehow have managed to balance it all out while making an EP that is unique and original.

The middle track of this Extended Play (EP), “Smokin’ With The Girls,” shows the prowess of this EP so gracefully. The lyrics show a nihilistic feeling for abusing substances while trying to have a good time. The other

tracks on this album are not as great as this middle track. Those other two tracks do have catchy lyrics and interesting instrumentals but in all, are not as good as Smokin’ with the Girls.

With this being Campus Rex’s first EP, it has a sound that is worth listening to. The ideas and art for this album were all done in a do-ityourself way, that is achievable by any starting musician. It has a very inspiring feeling, infecting the listener, making them want to do something.

—Michael Patterson

See next page for an exclusive Q&A with the band! lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2019 55

entertainment | campus rex

car review | entertainment

THE

STATS

CAMPUS REX

MPG

Q&A

25-30 4 CYLINDER

1.6L TRANSMISSION

5

THE MIGHTY MIATA

SPEED MANUAL

HORSEPOWER

116

Spark review of the 1991 Mazda Miata. photography jack mcfarland

T Spark interviewed East alumni Noah Jatczak, Andrew Ebding, and Keegan Kile, along with David “Scooter” Smith, about the new music they released on Spotify. interviews michael patterson | photography used with permission

Q A

Describe that whole process of writing and recording your recently released EP?

Noah: So basically, it started out as a class project for my class. We wrote four songs and I recorded them here then we decided we wanted them done better, so we went to Moonlight Studios which [gave us] an outside perspective on songs. We had ideas for how the songs should have sounded, but the recording engineer would say, ‘I have an idea [for this song]’, and we couldn’t hear that idea [in the music] cause we played it so much.

Going to a studio helped us write, for instance, synth[eziser] parts, percussion, keyboard, and organ in there.

Scooter: Anything extra that you hear besides guitar, drums, and bass it was brought up in the studio.

Q A

What were your main influences behind most of your writing and music?

Keegan: I’d say it’s different for all of us. For me it was vampire weekend and probably a little bit of pop.

Noah: I was more popish, that’s kinda how we wrote “Never Do Anything.”

Scooter: I would listen to more modern alternative pop for ideas for instrumentals. I was really looking for a way to make the vocals more like an instrument as well, rather than just like words. Red Hot Chili Peppers really started that for me. I like their flow.

Andrew: I’d say George Daniels from 1975 was my main influence for “Talk Talk Talk,” and, “Never Do Anything.” But I think The Frights are a big influence on [our song] “Smokin’ with the Girls,” for that drum part.

SpongeBob Highlight Pop over to lakotaeastsparkonline.com to read a Spark columnist’s perspective on the last 20 years of SpongeBob and the controversy surrounding it.

56 May 2019 lakotaeastsparkonline.com

Q A

What’s it like to look for venues and trying to find places around here to play?

Noah: It hasn’t been too hard finding shows.

It was hard to find our first show but ever since then we’ve just been offered shows.

Scooter: Pretty much here in Cincinnati there are music venues that are [invite-only], some that you just don’t play cause you’re a certain type of band, then there’s some that anyone can play. I feel like you play one or two shows with the venues where anyone could play, where they’ll book anyone, and you’ll start getting show offers from other venues.

And do you guys think it’s easier to put out music now then it would’ve been like 10 years ago?

Noah: Oh yeah for sure, just cause of Spotify and social media promotion, it’s cheaper to record now than it ever has been.

Scooter: Keegan would’ve been like eight so it would’ve been a little hard then. I don’t think he could’ve played the string, he would’ve been just as tall as the bass.

he Mazda Miata, a car that looked like an MG MGB but as reliable as a Toyota Camry.

This is exactly what Mazda was going for.

They wanted to develop a fun, inexpensive car that all ages can enjoy. When the car originally came out in 1990, it was a shock to everyone as it was different from the norm.

The Miata isn’t the most exciting car to look at. However, there is a certain charm that this car possesses. Back in 1991, the Miata was something that’s never been seen before. It was a shockingly curvey car in the era of the boxy 90s cars.

Starting up front, the Miata sits low and wide for its size. The grill is at the bottom of the bumper and it appears as if the car is smiling when it drives by.

The pop-up headlight design is rare in terms of today’s car designs but was seen frequently back in the 90s. This is where the Miata charm starts to play a role. There is a button located in the center of the dash that allows the driver to pop up the headlights even when the headlights aren’t on. At night, the headlights are decent but aren’t impressive by today’s means.

Nonetheless, they get the job done.

Moving to the side of the car reveals the Miata’s short and low stance. How low of a stance does a Miata have? Well, let’s just say it would probably fit under the trailer of a semitruck. Mazda added chrome door handles to the Miata, which add more to its “MG” character that Mazda was going after when they designed the car.

Take three steps to the right and now the back of the car is into view. The Miata is just as bland in the back as it is in the front. The trunk lid sits low and in the middle of the trunk lid sits the middle brake light. The brake light has

to sit low in order to make way for the Miata’s greatest feature: the convertible roof.

With the top down the Miata appears to be most happy. It shows off its roadster appearance while giving passengers a lot more room in the cabin. With the top up the Miata is cramped and surprisingly quiet while driving down the road.

The overall describing characteristic of the Miata is: cute. The Miata is one of the cutest, littlest cars that can be owned today.

S

tepping inside the Miata, which can be difficult due to its low stance, reveals a bland interior where everything is manually controlled except for the optional electric windows and the option to raise and lower the headlights with the touch of a button in the center of the dash. The inside of the Miata is small. Passenger room is limited and becomes even more limited when the roof is up. Seat comfort is actually a lot better than one might think.

There is very limited controls when it comes to moving the seat though. Forward, backward, and the back of the seat can move up or back.

I’m 5’ 10” and I fit perfectly behind the wheel of the Miata. However, my 6’ 3” friends barely even fit in the passenger seat where there isn’t a steering column in the way.

But for those under six feet tall, they’ll have no problems with the inside of the Miata, even with the top up.

Moving to the center console reveals very simple controls. Every button is exactly where it’s expected to be abd one will never have to take their eyes off the road to search for a button.

So far my description of the Miata can be

CURB WEIGHT

2189 lbs.

summed up as bland. This all goes away when the key is turned and the ever so mighty 1.6L four cylinder is fired up. The Miata sounds good, even at idle. The 1.6L somehow reveals a deep rich sound. Grab the shifter, throw the car into first gear and the Miata jerks to life.

Shifts from the five-speed manual are crisp, and the car goes into the right gear, every time.

The clutch is light but that’s expected for the Miata’s small size and class. Out on the road is where the Miata shines bright. It takes corners perfectly with minimal body roll and ever so impressively doesn’t seem to be afraid to take a corner at any speed. Moving on to the power.

The Miata has a severe problem when it comes to power. The 116 HP 1.6L is not quick by any means, but it gets the job done. This underpowered engine definitely adds to the charm of the Miata. With this engine, the Miata can be pushed to the limit even when out on the road. No matter how hard it’s pushed, it always seems to be going the speed limit.

T

he original Mazda Miata is undoubtedly charming. Sprinkle in an overall superbly balanced and fun drive and all around one heck of a car. Before I drove a Miata I didn’t know what all the hype was about. I gave the Miata a five/five because of how fun this little car is to drive. It’ll never fail to put a smile on my face.

— Jack McFarland lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2019 57

sports opinion | stone shields

jack parr | sports opinion

WHO OR WHAT SHOULD CALL BALLS OR STRIKES? Spark sports writers debate whether fouls should be called by human or by machine.

I

t’s a tie game in the bottom of the ninth inning. The bases are loaded and there are two outs. The count is full. The pitcher goes into his windup and hurls a fastball two inches off the outer third of the plate.

The umpire, however, rings him up for strike three. The fans in the stadium are outraged at the call and the batter can’t help but give the umpire his two cents.

Instant replay made its first appearance in baseball in 2018. Originally it was used to determine whether certain hits were home runs or not. It didn’t take long however for it to expand greatly. Out and safe plays are also now reviewable. With the exception of fair and foul balls, just about the only thing that remains non-reviewable in baseball is balls and strikes.

Several years ago Major League Baseball (MLB) began to utilize “K-Zone” technology to determine if pitches were balls or strikes.

However, this was only so the fans could see what were balls and what were strikes. An umpire behind the plate still dictated balls and strikes. It didn’t take long after K-Zone became relevant that people began to wonder if K-Zone should be used as the means of determining balls and strikes.

If K-Zone were to be put in place, the current jobs of home-plate umpires would be performed by automatic technology positioned behind the batter, determining balls and strikes based on a customs strike zone generated for each hitter based on their height. This would help take human error Two cameras meet and measure the height, stance and other aspects to detect the strike zone.

columns stone shields and jack parr | photography andrew marshall | infographic megan finke

out of the game.

There is simply no reason the outcome of baseball games should be subject to human error. The outcome of games should be solely based on the players on the field.

Players, coaches, and front office executives invest too much of their time into the game for the outcome to be altered by umpires.

Most importantly, bad calls are unfair to fans.

Professional sports are made by the fans and without the fans, they are basically nothing.

The fans deserve to see the game be dictated by the players which are playing it.

Earlier in this years season, the Cincinnati Reds were trailing the New York Mets 1-0 in the top of the ninth inning. The Reds were down to their last out and had the tying run on second base. Yasiel Puig was up to bat and the umpire called strike one on a low and away fastball. Puig swung and missed at strike two and the umpire called strike three on a pitch a good two inches off the plate.

Two of the three strikes in Puig’s at-bat were actually balls according to K-Zone. It is safe to say that the umpires played a role in the Reds loss that day. Puig should have been in a hitters count at two balls and one strike but instead, he was sent back to the dugout on strikes.

T

he only people that would be against K-Zone being used to call balls and strikes in baseball would be baseball’s purists. They believe that since baseball is America’s pastime it should stay pure and

K-ZONE

technology should be used as little as possible.

I’m afraid that limiting technology is simply unrealistic. The world is modernizing and so are sports. Baseball is still baseball even if a human being isn’t calling balls and strikes.

K

-Zone would significantly decrease the number of altercations between players and umpires. If technology was used to call balls and strikes they would have nothing to argue with. If they took a called third strike they would have no one to blame other than themselves.

K-Zone would also not lose umpires their jobs. Umpires would still be needed behind that plate so they could make out and safe calls. I personally think umpires should have K-Zone on some kind of gadget and still sit behind the plate to make strike calls.

K-Zone really doesn’t have any downsides to it. It will make the game fairer, it will decrease arguments between umpires and players as well as general crowd bickering, and it will mildly speed up games because no time would be spent arguing calls. Besides the event of a possible malfunction, there really are no downsides to K-Zone. It is alright for baseball to modernize itself just like everything else in the world. Baseball is baseball regardless. •

Technology VS Umpire

Top of shoulders Midpoint

Each dot comes together to meet the points in which an Umpire will measure to detect the zone.

Offical Strike Zone

Top of pants

Hollow beneath kneecap

UMPIRE

T

he starting pitcher takes the ball and toes the rubber, ready to get the game underway.

The leadoff hitter adjusts his batting gloves before stepping into the box, sizing up his competition. All that’s left is to wait for the umpire to give the “play ball” signal before the first pitch is delivered to the plate.

With Major League Baseball (MLB) considering implementing “K-Zone” technology in the near future, pitchers may never hear an umpire say “play ball” again. As technology continues to become a bigger part

modernize baseball that wouldn’t ever work.

However, as frustration with umpires among managers, players, and spectators continues to rise, the overall attitude towards the possibility of K-zone technology seems to be trending in a more accepting direction.

W

hen looked at on the surface, the answer to the debate seems obvious.

Why wouldn’t the MLB implement the technology if it will help make ball and strike calls more accurate and consistent?

Not so fast. The new technology comes with several question marks that will need to be addressed before it could be implemented at the big league level.

Before jumping to get rid of umpires, people need to realize that K-zone technology is far from a flawless replacement.

In a study performed on Sportvision’s PITCHf/ system, which is responsible for the strike zone box seen by fans on Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN) and many other network broadcasts, 33 percent of systems were found to have over an inch of average measurement error.

Baseball fans need to be realistic before thinking that the K-zone would completely East Varsity catcher Kyle McDonough frames a eliminate criticism and pitch during a GMC battle against Mason. frustration with calls.

While less of the anger of the game, the MLB will have to decide just will be directed at umpires personally, the focus will simply turn to the technology and how far they want to go.

Under the proposed plan, the current jobs there will be questions regarding its accuracy. of home-plate umpires would be performed by As soon as a popular player or manager makes automatic technology positioned behind the their feelings known publicly about the system, batter, determining balls and strikes based on its credibility could be in serious jeopardy.

As is the case with any form of grounda custom strike zone generated for each hitter based on their height. The idea is that human breaking technology, it will undoubtedly error would be taken out of the game, allowing experience crashes and problems, especially the players to decide the outcome without in the first weeks and months following its launch. Possible sources of malfunction interference from poor calls.

When the idea was first introduced, almost include software issues and hardware crashes, everyone involved in the game dismissed it as again setting up potential controversy. The another gimmick by the MLB to attempt to MLB would have to be prepared for the worst

and would need a plan in place should the technology crash mid-game. Would there be a delay to attempt to recalibrate it? Or would an extra umpire simply step in and call balls and strikes until a solution is reached?

These concerns about the system are all valid, and the idea has several dimensions that all need to be carefully considered before the MLB looks to move forward with the plan.

Another question mark lies in the area of defining the strike zone. An umpire’s strike zone is a big part of any baseball game and the early innings often involve both hitters and pitchers adjusting to how the home plate umpire is calling the game, even having conversations with him to determine what they need to be looking for during their remaining at-bats. Eliminating umpires would cut out this communication and leave hitters completely in the dark, relying on an automated strike zone that may not accurately reflect the relative location of every pitch.

M

LB Commissioner Rob Manfred has spoken out against the K-zone, acknowledging the difference in strike zones and expressing questions and concerns regarding the use of the technology.

“It’s because of speed, and technology limitations” Manfred says. “It’s because the strike zone is different for every single guy.”

The MLB has made several recent strides in improving the technology by adding instant replay for controversial calls at the plate and other bases, as well as adding pitch clocks in an attempt to reduce game length. While these innovations have arguably helped improve the quality of the on-field product, it’s time for the league to pump the brakes on relying too heavily on technology and let the umpires continue to do their jobs without the assistance of the K-zone.

“The Major League umpires have never been more consistent in calling balls and strikes, and during a time when they are subject to more scrutiny than ever before, they do an excellent job,” an MLB spokesman said.

“Technology is and will remain, a significant part of how the performances of the umpires are evaluated after each and every plate assignment. The umpires have embraced many tools to help them achieve their fundamental purpose, which is to get as many calls correct as possible.” •

source: buisnessinsider.com

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lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2019 59

East senior and junior Eathan Hubbard and his brother Grant Hubbard look to block the ball in a victory against Fenwick.

DYNASTY The East boys volleyball team has repeated as GMC champions four years in a row in what has been a remarkable run. story broc nordmark photography kate harvey and lauren maier

E

ast volleyball had just won the first game in their match against Middletown. The teams were switching sides, getting ready to prepare for the second game of the night. Suddenly, the East players started dancing on the court. The Cupid Shuffle was playing over the speakers, and the East players were laughing and dancing along in between games.

This is the kind of team that the East volleyball program has. A team that will tear you apart on the court, shouting, communicating, and intimidating their opponents, but a team that doesn’t shy away from having fun while doing it.

For years, the East men’s volleyball team has dominated the Greater Miami Conference (GMC). The team hasn’t lost a single game in the GMC since 2015, when the team went 7-1, losing the GMC Championship to Fairfield. The team has won the GMC Championship each of the past three seasons.

Now, East’s seniors are attempting to accomplish an unmatched feat; to win the GMC title all four years of their high school career, and they’re having a blast while they’re doing it.

East seniors Ethan Hubbard, Sam Middendorf, Reese and Trenton Kuhlman have been a part of the East program since they were freshman, but they have been playing together for a much longer time.

Their time as volleyball teammates flash all the way back to their days in elementary school.

Now, almost five years later, they have developed into a dream team, driving another successful season for East. The team is currently undefeated in the GMC, looking to cap off another undefeated season and fight for a chance to compete for the state championship, which is on June 1 and 2. The seniors have spent years perfecting their craft, and now work like a finely tuned machine together on the court.

“Having played together for so many years, we can trust each other to make the dig, or get the kill,” Trenton says. “As a setter, I know where the hitters like the ball and what I need to change to get the ball there.”

everyone on the team together.

“Team chemistry can’t be forced.

Sometimes it takes a variety of experiences to make things click for a team,” Billiter says.

“Their adaptability and eagerness to grow has helped them create this family atmosphere.”

B

eing so dominant doesn’t just result from being close to one another. It also requires multiple strengths both in regards to skill and chemistry. The team has not only learned each other’s tendencies, but they’ve each mastered where they need to be on the court at a certain time and what to do each time the ball comes their way, improving after each undefeated season.

“We’ve taken very big strides in improving our team’s overall defense off of the other team’s hits,” Reese says. “We’ve worked on improving our blocking and defensive setup since last year, and it has become one of our biggest strengths this season.”

While three GMC titles are impressive, each member of the team is giving their all to make sure their name goes up on the wall a fourth time. Another title would mean a lot to Hubbard and would be confirmation that all the hard work he and his teammates have put in together paid off in a big way.

“I have put so much energy to not only [improve] myself, but helping those around me get better in the process,” Hubbard says.

“Just the thought of not losing one GMC match throughout all my high school career is

astounding.”

Going undefeated would mean a little extra for Reese and Trenton. The twin brothers are following in the footsteps of their older brothers and would love to continue adding to their bragging rights, as well as set a high goal for the future seniors of the program.

“Winning this final year would mean the most for me since it would give me something to brag about to my older brothers,” Reese says. “It would really complete my career and I believe it is important to set the bar high for the next group of seniors.”

T

here isn’t a volleyball team in the GMC that has been nearly as successful as East’s volleyball team. They have decimated the conference for four years straight, doing so by finely tuning their skills and building an unbreakable bond with each other. They are undefeated, going 32-0 in the last 4 years combined, and they’ve done so with a smile on their face the whole time.

However, the year isn’t going to stop at just another GMC championship on the line. East has their eyes trained on a much bigger goal: a state championship. The team has never won the state championship, but with all the hard work they’ve put in, and the relationship they have, these boys are ready for the challenge.

“Winning the GMC for the fourth year in a row would be special, but at this point, we’re looking for something more,” Middendorf says. “We want that state ring baby.” •

East senior Eathan Hubbard sets the ball in 3-0 victory against Fairfield.

East boys celebrate their fourth consecutive GMC title after a 3-0 victory against Fairfield.

T

hrough the time the players have shared on the volleyball court and in the weight room, they have become like a second family to each other. They spend countless hours together hanging out outside of volleyball and bonding on the court.

“We know each other very well, we’re all good friends,” Middendorf says. “We stay together on the court, picking each other up when someone is struggling or cheering for someone’s success.”

East men’s volleyball head coach Brittany Billiter has been the coach for these seniors through their whole high school athletic careers and works hard to build a family dynamic between everyone on the team. She holds “family practices” where junior varsity (JV) and varsity are mixed together. She incorporates more enjoyable drills and scrimmages into these family practices and uses them as one of her many tactics to bring

60 May 2019 lakotaeastsparkonline.com

lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2019 61

sports | feature

THE LAKOTA LEGEND Former Lakota Athletic Director Stu Eversole was inducted to the Lakota Athletic Hall of Fame. story megan finke | photography lauren maier

Former Lakota Athletic Director Stu Eversole has 40 years experience in managing Lakota athletics.

62 May 2019 lakotaeastsparkonline.com

feature | sports

O

n the sideline is where he stood.

Hollering commands, directions, and phrases to get the Lakota football team pumped up.

46 years ago, retired Lakota head football coach and retired district Athletic Director Stu Eversole had no clue what to expect of the future. He was a young 27-year-old who had been placed in a trusted position to coach Lakota’s football players.

“I was a very young head football coach and our superintendent [Herbert Henderson] had a lot of faith in me,” Eversole says. “I learned on the job, I could have been better, but I didn’t know what I didn’t know.”

But based on the numerous years of support in the district, athletically and professionally, Eversole was elected to the Lakota Local Schools Hall of Fame for the 2019 additions.

Holding this position w h i l e L a k o t a ’s student capacity g r e w enough to enter t h e

Greater Miami Conference (GMC) league in the 1980-1981 school year, Eversole was faced with the challenge of gameplay.

“We got on the entrance ramp to a new league [GMC]. The speed of the league was incredible, a lot faster [physically] than we had ever thought, and it took us a year to catch up.” Eversole says. “The toughest thing was working through the change of where we came from to where we are now, and all the attitudes that had to come along with that change.”

From 1977 to 1984, Eversole was the head football coach for the Lakota Thunderbirds in the GMC league. He held the Lakota winning percentage of 58.8 percent, which is still the highest percentage of the 10 head football coaches who have served in the district, but in 1985 he then moved into the Lakota district Athletic Director role.

As he calls himself a “hands-on kind of guy,” his day-to-day Athletic Director work life consisted of budgeting, planning games, reviewing eligibility, and taking care of meetings. Yet 12 years passed, and the district split into two high schools in 1997, East and West.

“Once we split, [into East and West] my job became a little bit different,” Eversole says. ”It became more of an overseer and not too much of a hands-on logistics guy.”

As the Athletic Director from 1985 to 2010, he holds the longest time served of any director in the district. With that, he also oversaw eight GMC All-Sports Championships for the Lakota Thunderbirds, and six after the high school split into two, a total of 14.

The GMC All-Sports Championship is an award won by a school district each year when each sport collects a number of points based off wins, and whoever’s total is the greatest throughout the league becomes the champions.

T

hrough this time as the district Athletic Director, he established the district Athletic Hall of Fame, which to his surprise, he was inducted to this year. With six of his own hires to the district’s athletic staff and six former athletes, as new members.

“My induction into the Hall of Fame has been, professionally, the highest point of my career and has been the most special thing that’s ever happened to me, given that this was my [home district].” Eversole says.

Eversole has been inducted into other Hall of Fames like Talawanda, Butler County Sports and the Ohio Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association, but he says that this induction has been the most surprising

and exciting.

“This one is special because this is my life.

This is my community, I’ve grown up here as an adult and my kids have gone through Lakota schools,” Eversole says. “I put my heart and soul into this school district. So for me to be recognized by the school district is really special.”

Current East Athletic Director Richard Bryant didn’t know much about Eversole when he first came into the position, but quickly learned.

“When I first started, I was 31 and he took me under his wing, like a father figure,” Bryant says.

When first meeting about ten years ago, Bryant was pleasantly surprised by how open, kind and respectful Eversole was even though they did not know much about each other. ”[He told me that I’m] going to have a certain way to want to do things, [and that he was] just here to support meany way that he can.” Bryant says.

N

ot only did Eversole lend a guiding hand to Bryant, but also many others. Former Lakota Local Schools Board member Ray Murray says that the first person he met while thinking about running for the position was at a football game 12 years ago. Eversole welcomed Murray with open arms and did all that he could to help him, as he was the first person Murray told about his running.

“He invited me over to his office and we sat and chatted and he told me about the history of Lakota, because I didn’t know it.” Murray says. “I didn’t know it from a sport standpoint or a growth standpoint on how it grew so fast.”

Murray couldn’t put a finger on why he connected so much with Eversole until he found more out on what he truly stood for and believed.

“One of the reasons that I know Stu, and that I really responded to him, is because he was one of the pioneers of diversity at that school,” Murray says. “He wanted all different kinds of cultures to have an opportunity and he reached out to the African-American community like nobody else.”

Eversole was inducted to the Lakota Athletic Hall of Fame for his contributions to the department his impact on not only the district, but also the community.

“Back in the old days, it used to be Liberty Township [and East] versus, at that time Union Township, now West Chester, [and West],” Eversole says. “But I was like the United Nations. I was for all of Lakota.” •

lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2019 63

sports | column

GOLDEN COMEBACK

IN AN INSTANT

East junior Alex Mangold is recovering from a devastating injury on the track to get back for his senior season.

story lucas fields photography used with permission and kate harvey

Spark staffer comments on the controversial debate on high school sports instant replay. story joe phelan | photography andrew marshall

W

ith less than a minute left on the clock, Waterford High School trailed 20-22 to Fort Frye High School. A wave of perturbation covered the entire side of Waterford High School’s bleachers. Waterford quarterback Peyten Stephens lined up behind the center, ready to receive perhaps the most important snap of his high school career. They needed this two-point conversion desperately in order to tie the game and force overtime.

As the crowd went completely quiet due to the anticipation, Stephens broke a tackle and strived forward. He dove through the Fort Frye linebacker to fall into the endzone with the ball.

Suddenly, the hushed bleachers exploded in joy, in the appearance of Stephens breaking the plane of the goal line.

But their moods were quickly erased after the referees’ ruling that Stephens had not scored, and the football was lost before Stephens had crossed the goal line. With that

NFHS Football Rules Committee chairman Todd Tharp said in a public press conference.

“Each state association, by individual adoption, can now use replay or video monitoring during its respective postseason contest to review decisions by the on-field game officials.”

Recommendations created by the NFHS are not requirements for state high school athletic associations. Even though the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) adopted many of these suggestions, instant replay for playoff games was not one of them.

Ray Costa, athletic director of Waterford High School, supports with the decision despite the controversial call in the game against Fort Frye last year.

“At this point in time, I would not be in favor of adding instant replay due to slowing the game down... In my opinion, it would be a very rudimentary system that would come at a disproportionate cost,” Costa told Spark. “Also, instant replay is not allowed according to NFHS rules, if Ohio were to go against this, it could require significant changes to OHSAA by-laws.”

It may sound simple to add this feature, but the challenge for OHSAA in adopting instant replay is the lack of TV cameras, considering football alone. With 217 postseason football games in Ohio each year, it creates many issues regarding the availability of those cameras, as streaming cameras cost around $5,000 a piece.

The existence of camera equipment may not guarantee the operation of instant replay at many schools. The school will need to find free operators for the cameras and video monitor.

Camera angles will also dispense issues and questionable calls, as there are simply not enough cameras at a high school sports setting to have the perfect look on every situation.

Costa considers this as a key issue to instant replay for high school sports and agrees that high school level sports often don’t have enough equipment compared to collegiate athletics and the National Football League (NFL).

“On close calls regarding locating the ball, angles are crucial and what can look definitive

It may sound simple to add this feature, but the challenge for OHSAA in adopting instant replay is the lack of TV cameras, considering football alone.

— Joe Phelan, Spark sports columnist decision, Fort Frye maintained their 22-20 lead over Waterford. The audience was upset, but there were no proofs that could overturn the call.

“The ball came out as I was crossing the goal line and I’m not sure if I crossed before I lost it or not,” Stephens told Spark. “In the previous game, the same thing happened but it was called a touchdown. I recovered my fumble in the end zone as well.”

Controversial calls exactly like this one happen all the time in high school sports. In response to this continuous issue, the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) approved instant replay as part of seven recommendations in February, but the simple recommendation is far from becoming a norm.

“The ultimate goal of each game official and each officiating crew is to get the call correct,” 64 May 2019 lakotaeastsparkonline.com

from one angle, can be clearly incorrect from a better angle,” Costa told Spark. “One of my fears with instant replay would be that the angles would be limited and correct calls could be overruled based on what looks conclusive from a bad angle.”

In the 2018-19 football season, the OHSAA considered using instant replay in the state finals, but no decision was made. Director of Officiating and Sports Management at OHSAA Beau Rugg told Spark that they had the infrastructure for instant replay at the state finals but the decision was never approved.

T

he high school football finals in Ohio will again be hosted at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio in the upcoming 2019-20 season, and the decision regarding the use of instant replay will attempt to go through again.

As of now, OHSAA allows the use of instant replay in the state basketball games during last-second situations that cannot be clearly determined by the referees, but they have not taken the action to implement any of that technology in the finals. East basketball coach Clint Adkins sees a possible problem.

“I think that once you get to the tournament, instant replay should be used probably with 30 seconds to go when someone can hit a threepoint shot but others argue that it is a two,” Adkins says. “Honestly I think instant replay has gotten out of control, and human error is a part of the game. Referees are not always going to make the right decisions, but our games are being more delayed than ever.”

From the past few years, the OHSAA Board of Directors has approved numerous decisions and recommendations regarding high school football in their annual meetings. With the next meeting on June 6, the topic of instant replay may be brought up again and listed as one of the recommendations. Also participating in school basketball and baseball, Stephens is optimistic about the future of high school sports and instant replay.

“It would have changed the outcome of the game,” Stephens told Spark. “Instant replay in high school sports would be a great thing to have in the future but I understand that it could also be really expensive. I think that they

E

ast junior Alex Mangold was 11 games into a solid season for the East Thunderhawks, making over 55 percent of his shots and averaging 7.4 points per game. His 12 game ended after only one minute.

On the night of Jan. 15 against Oak Hills, Mangold’s season ended in an instant. Just one minute into the 12th game of his season, he had a devastating injury to his tibia and fibula while drop stepping around a defender, getting his leg stuck hurt with the other player.

“I heard a pop in my leg, and so did my teammates and the other team,” Mangold says. “I let out one big scream, and then I just slammed the ground and laid back cause I knew the severity of the injury.”

From the moment Mangold went down, it was obvious this wasn’t a typical injury. The feeling in the gym was eerie, as everyone there felt what just happened.

“You don’t know how to react. Cause those are injuries you don’t see everyday,” East basketball assistant coach Kyle Vanderhorst says. “It was tough on the coaches. It was tough on the players. The opposition. Parents in the stands. Students. It was a tough moment for a lot of people.”

According to Mangold, he didn’t even know it was broken at first.

“I was just in a lot of pain,” Mangold says.

“But then I looked down at my leg, I grabbed it, and I saw it was broken. And I knew that if I kept looking at it, I’d probably faint.”

E

ast basketball head coach Clint Adkins immediately sympathized with all the work Mangold went through after he went down.

“Honestly the first thing that goes through your mind is the amount of time he has invested into the program and invested into basketball,” Adkins says. “Then you look at his teammates, and see their reactions… You know how much he meant to them.”

After Mangold went down, the team had to cope with the loss of one of their great players and leaders for the rest of the season. Instead of panicking and losing the rest of the season, the team became GMC Champions and made it all the way to the Sweet 16, before losing to eventual state-champion Moeller.

Despite not playing for the team, Mangold still had a vital role on the bench for the Thunderhawks. He took on more of a coachlike role while he wasn’t able to be on the court.

“He started watching the game as a coach instead of a player,” Adkins says. “There are times where he would see a guy not doing something, he might mention to them ‘Hey, why don’t you think about this,’ and hreally impacted our team. He’s done a great job being a leader on the bench.”

While recovering, Mangold has enjoyed helping out the underclassmen. Helping to coach has improved him and his teammates knowledge of the game, and helped him form bonds with his teammates.

Mangold’s done well helping out as a coach, but not being able to play has been tough on him. The realization of not being able to play really hit Mangold when the team took on rival West.

“I remember rolling up to the West game in my wheelchair. I actually felt kind of sad,” Mangold says. “I wanted to be playing against the rival school. I know kids from both schools.

I like cheering them on, but I wish more that I was playing.”

So far, Mangold has shown great progress.

After spending a significant amount of time on crutches, he’s been walking and already showing signs of getting back on the court soon.

“In terms of the feedback he’s getting from doctors, and physical therapy, it seems he’s ahead of schedule,” Adkins says. “We never really had anybody with this type of injury before. So we didn’t know where he’d be, but it seems like he’s making good progress.”

Mangold has already shown great signs of progress towards recovery.

After the injury, Mangold rode around the halls of East in a wheelchair, before transitioning to crutches.

Now, he’s ditched the crutches and is back to walking. With the track he’s on, the coaches have high hopes for his future for next season.

“I have 100 percent confidence that he’ll be back to bigger and better and stronger Alex.I think the way he works in the weight room, the way he works in the offseason,” Vanderhorst says. “ I know I’ve spoken to a few college coaches that are recruiting him and they’re still very optimistic, they’re not waiting on him for improvement at all, they think he’ll be back to 100 percent.” •

Above: A transverse fracture in the fibula and in the tibia resulted in East junior Alex Mangold’s season to conclude.

Below: Prior to Mangold’s injury that was one minute and seven seconds into the Oak Hills game on Jan. 15, he shoots a free throw in a game versus West.

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guest cartoon | opinion

sports | jump page

a rank system ... continued from page 43 students agreed a change needed to be made.

[Student Advisory Council] got involved as a way to practice problem solving realistically and with problems that concern East,” Carpenter says. “Many students that we interviewed agreed that something needs to change.”

The assigned group came up with a few ideas that would still allow for students to understand their place among their class but specific positions within the class, for example, valedictorian, would be hidden until a student’s senior year.

“We considered using percentage bands as well as the latin system,” Carpenter says.

“Students would continue to receive their

we the people

... continued from page 47 “I would say that [voting initiatives] are really coming from the student body,” Miller says. “It’s not so much a district-led initiative, which I’m fairly fine with.”

Forren, however, believes things are looking up in terms of voter turnout and political participation, based on societal patterns in the past few years.

“In the past two or three years, there’s been an elevation of politics,” Forren says.

“Politics seems to be dominating the national conversation, which, in part, is because we are very divided as a nation right now.”

me me me

... continued from page 49 Although NPD is an actual personality disorder, narcissism itself is an acquired trait.

“There are some observations that seem to support that narcissistic personality can be learned, or at least impacted by one’s upbringing—either by observation Feb. 14, 2018: A 19-yearold gunman opened fire on Marjory Stoneman Douglas.

17 people killed

14 people injured

GPA semesterly but very specific rank would be hidden until valedictorian and a salutatorian were revealed senior year.”

Competition can also be instituted in a positive way, says East Advanced Placement (AP) and College Prep (CP) Psychology teacher Jared Haynes.

“The class ranking system prepares students for real life,” Haynes says. “Students will eventually be competing for a spot at a university or a job.”

There are two types of motivations; extrinsic, which is driven by external rewards such as money or grades and intrinsic which is driven by personal goals and self satisfaction.

Which specific type of motivation is evoked by the the class ranking system is variant on the

person, Haynes stated.

“It depends on the type of person in how class rank is viewed,” Haynes says. “Some people will view class rank as a competition to be the best, while others will see it as a reward for their hard work.”

Using rewards as an incentive is effective up to a certain point, but once that is hit people can easily lose passion towards a subject.

“Using good grades as an incentive to learn is effective until a peak is reached,” Haynes says. “After that point students are only driven by receiving those rewards rather than being passionate towards a subject on their own, which will lead to a society solely focused on self-profit, and that combination can be deadly.” •

STEREOTYPES: FACTS OR OPINIONS ISABEL CAIN

GUEST CARTOON In the week of the 2016 presidential election, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) conducted a study on the topic of interpolitical marriages in the US. They asked a random sample of Americans how they would feel if their son or daughter married someone from the opposite party. They found that 60 percent of Democrats wanted their child to marry a Democrat and 63 percent of Republicans wished for their children to marry within the party. Ironically, political division may be what the US needs to increase voter turnout rates, according to Forren. “[In America] we agree on most issues,

so our political fights, historically, tend to be pretty narrow,” Forren says. “This leads to a lot of Americans, when election time rolls around, thinking ‘maybe I’ll vote, maybe I won’t, because it doesn’t really matter one way or the other.’ They’ll still have their job, they’ll still have their car, they’ll still have their kids.”

Fisher continues to believe that political participation is important for young adults.

“We’ve seen our past 18 years, our parents, our grandparents, and how important it is to vote,” Fisher says. “We’ve seen how our world is changing, and how we want it to change because it’s our future going forward.” •

of narcissistic tendencies of others in the household, or by a pattern of entitlement supported or permitted by one’s upbringing,” Jacobs told Spark. ”Because of the underlying struggle with insecurity, the narcissistic tendencies most likely are a learned behavior as a self-defense mechanism to overcompensate for need for a greater sense of self-worth.”

There is no real cure for narcissism beyond treatment for those individuals who want it.

“It's not about the person themselves, really, and truly with narcissistic people, it's not really about them. It's about their behaviors, and their attitudes and the way they treat other people,” Friedman told Spark. “And really, and truly, that's nothing personal.” •

March 15, 2019: Two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand were attacked in the nation’s deadliest shooting, which killed 50 people.

April 21, 2019: Sri Lankan churches and hotels were bombed in an attack on Easter Sunday, that killed 253 people and injured about 500 others.

This is Isabel’s first year in photography. When her teacher mentioned a new project inspired by Barbra Kruger, a photographer well known for striking emotion in her viewers, she was excited. She hopes her pieces inspire people as she continues this project.

April 28, 2019: The dead bodies of four family members were found in a West Chester apartment complex with gunshot wounds.

source cnn.com, smithsonian.com, washingtonpost.com, census.gov, bbc.com, cincinnati.com 66 May 2019 lakotaeastsparkonline.com

lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2019 67

opinion | head to head

head to head | opinion

HEAD TO HEAD O

n April 15 the world was devastated with news of the burning of Notre Dame, a symbol of not only the Catholic religion, but also that of French national pride.

Within two days over a billion dollars had been donated towards restoring the cathedral with French president Macron foretelling a reopening in five years. Now that’s all fine and dandy, Notre Dame is an 11th century image of living history; coronations and beatifications have taken place there, and it has become the subject of popular culture. There’s no reason for it not to be restored, yet upwards of one billion dollars raised in such a short time for what is ultimately a pile of bricks, mortar, and stained glass raises to mind an interesting dilemma.

There are more than a few disasters that

HAVE WE LOST THE ABILITY TO CARE?

require remedying. The migrant crisis, a natural disaster here and there, and a sprawling homeless epidemic could all use that cash to their advantage. In China, Mosques are being bulldozed in a nationalistic campaign by President Xi Jinping and no money has been raised for that restoration, more so people aren’t even talking or concerned about it. Yet that money that was seemingly nowhere to be found these crises immediately turned up for Notre Dame.

There’s a simple answer to why this happened. In a recent interview with NPR, Bob Kissane, who has directed efforts to raise more than $20 billion in philanthropic support, spoke to the sense of community that Notre Dame provided and how that inclusiveness drove people to donate. “Isn’t it interesting how obvious it’s become that Notre Dame is so many different things? It’s a symbol of faith.

It’s an architectural masterpiece.

It’s a cultural place. It’s a tourist attraction. It’s so many things.” said Kissane. If that sense of community is the driving motivator, then no one truly is caring for these instances from an altruistic standpoint.

A

ltruism in and of itself does not exist; every action undertaken by an individual has an expected positive, netural, or negative result.

Everyone understands this and so everyone utilizes this to his or her benefit. National Honor Society (NHS) members, for example, pride themselves on their altruistic actions and deeds, yet that is a far stretch of that word. These students aren’t only working for the benefits of those they are volunteering for. They’re working for the ability to remain part of NHS and ultimately the ability to put that membership on a college application.

To be fair, there are students who have done such things ahead of time.

Lakota East has an upcoming senior who has his own cancer foundation and there are several boy scouts who decided to volunteer at a younger age. These 68 May 2019 lakotaeastsparkonline.com

people, however are ultimately doing these services to benefit their own happiness and well being on top of the well being of those they help. So ultimately we’ve never truly cared for those around us with altruism.

Now while all this sounds rather depressing, it truly does not have to be looked at that way. As long as good deeds are being done, that’s enough! Everyone has heard of crowdfunding and the difference it makes in certain people’s lives. It’s easy to go back to those aforementioned donations as examples of good deeds. By donating money, people are caring for other persons, groups, and entities.

O

ur ever increasing network of connection through 24-hour news cycles, social media, and, general increase of communication possibilities has, unfortunately, desensitized us. We are no longer members of a small community looking out for one another, rather audience members of an inherently cruel reality show. We look at caricatures of what we have been taught to believe certain people live like.

Such normalizations further our inability to perceive these people as part of our community. We don’t tend to care about people who we’ll never see, or go to help them out of an altruistic sense of purpose. Hurricane Maria’s (the one that ravaged Puerto Rico, in case a reminder is needed) destruction is still affecting the daily lives of those who suffered through it and remained home to rebuild. Mass shootings have occurred so often that quite frankly it’d be impressive if anyone could name each one from the past year. The point is, we commit actions that seem caring and wholehearted to those around us and place faith in a nonexistent group of donors. That’s not caring, that’s believing in a convenient truth. •

To see Leah McCain’s column on school funding and more ed cartoons visit: lakotaeastsparkonline.com

After large donations to rebuild the Notre Dame Cathedral were met with criticism, as some think the money could have been better put to use, two spark staffers debate if people have truly lost the ability to care. columns michael szczepkowski and alex hood art lauren maier

A

fter Hurricane Harvey made landfall in the United States (US) in August of 2017, Houston and surrounding areas were estimated to have taken nearly $125 billion in damages, according to the US government.

After nearly non-stop news coverage from every major news outlet, donations began pouring in as American citizens saw the damage that had been done.

Over a few months, the Houston Chronicle reports that donations from multiple foundations totaled over $1 billion, mostly from donations to the American Red Cross.

Though this donation total is miniscule compared to the overall damage costs, it shows the tremendous outpouring of support from citizens after being shown the effects of the hurricane.

The amount of money that came from donations is already remarkable, but the extent of general care from many people was almost even more impressive. According to The Greater Houston Community Fund, gifts were received from 127,000 donors to their fund alone, of which the average donation totaled 100 dollars.

This widespread response shows an overwhelming example of people truly caring about something that may not have impacted them at all. People become conscious and concerned when the media made the effects of the hurricane very visible, thus why the outpouring of support was so large.

A large showcase of this effect on people was shown after the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in response to the shooting, many students at the school organized the “March for Our Lives” campaign. This movement received notable press coverage after the shooting, but after a month or so, coverage about the shooting itself had largely subsided, and the support from many in the general public correspondingly did as well.

Though many Americans significantly care about reducing gun violence in the US, outcries for change like these usually only last for a short time after tragic events. When people aren’t constantly reminded or consciously thinking about something, they still do internally care about it, but it’s put onto a backburner in their mind.

After the shooting in Parkland happened, no other mass shooting that’s happened since

has received nearly the amount of attention as it did. When events like these still occur, they are now often shrugged off as being normal occurrences, as many people have become desensitized to these tragedies due to the seemingly normal rate at which they now happen.

Stories about shootings have almost become as common as those about deaths from a drug overdose or car accidents. Of course, many people do care about these things and aren’t indifferent to them happening. The issue is that most people not directly impacted by these problems simply aren’t always thinking about the people who are.

E

ven though people generally don’t see problems affecting other people’s personal lives, a large example where this does happen is through crowdfunding. Sites like GoFundMe have brought issues that everyday people have to the common eye, as many suffering from illnesses or injuries can make a post detailing their problem and why they’re seeking financial assistance from other people. Campaigns on GoFundMe have totaled over $5 billion in contributions since its creation in 2010.

Sites like these show the extent to which people can care, as usually donations to the people making campaigns are made by others who don’t even personally know them, and in some cases, people will even donate anonymously. Of course, sites like GoFundMe do take a percentage of donations, as it’s necessary to make profits, but these sites are generally helpful to those who are looking for help, as they give exposure to people with a situation that many would otherwise never knew existed.

Sites like these have both contributed as they bring awareness to major problems, and remind people about everyday issues that they often don’t think about. In effect, this is what some teachers do by requiring students to do community service in certain classes.

Oftentimes, volunteering at places like a food bank can lead to students truly caring about the people they’re helping, even though in the beginning they may have only been seeking a grade.

The people organizing projects like these are conscientious of this fact and are showing

a great deal of care themselves by pushing students into these situations where many of them will also care about the work they did instead of just the grade they receive.

Of course, some people can be plainly insensitive to some issues even if they’re forced to confront them, but many still do care about problems that may not be impacting them personally. Even though people may only physically try and help others once they’re aware of a problem, this shouldn’t reflect negatively on them. Not every problem can be focused on at once, and people still genuinely have the ability to care about problems affecting other people, it just boils down to which has caught their attention. •

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opinion | column

column | opinion

VACCINATE OR EVACUATE

INVESTING IN GROWING

art mckenna lewis

art mckenna lewis

EMILY SANDEN

I

n sixth grade, we all got our shots. Tetanus, Hepatitis C, and a slew of others that made our arms sore, but protected our lives. We didn’t understand the importance of our immunizations, but rather we dreaded getting the shots because of the horror stories we had heard from our friends. Back then, we didn’t need to understand, but when we stepped on a nail in our backyard, we didn’t worry about the potential illness. We knew we were protected by modern medicine.

Our school required parents to vaccinate their kids in order to keep their children healthy, safe, and able to attend class. Schools are essentially a cesspool. Having a building full of children where diseases are easily accessible is a hazard for health and learning.

Despite common misconceptions, vaccines

disease they are meant to prevent.

Recently, there have been many outbreaks of the Measles across the continental United States (US), including two in California in April. At Cal State in Los Angeles, 71 students and 127 staff members are quarantined. At the University of California, 76 students and six staff members are at risk after a contagious student attended classes.

Measles is a highly contagious infection with flu-like symptoms and aggravated bumps on the skin. New York City has had 423 confirmed cases of measles since October 2018. In 2018, there were 72 measles-related deaths from 22 states in the US. The Measles vaccine was first available in 1971 and prevented needless deaths for years.

The US is not the only place with an

“Anyone who believes that essential oils and crystals will protect themselves, their children and other’s children are lying to themselves.” don’t cause the disease they are meant to prevent. Vaccines are a copy of the disease that contains dead or weakened virus cells, allowing it to mimic the microbes of the dangerous strain of the disease. The T and B cells in the human immune system then produce antibodies in order to fight the weakened cells.

After the weakened microbes are defeated, some T and B cells turn into memory cells.

This allows them to reproduce quickly if they encounter the virus again, which allows them to defeat the microbes before they can cause substantial harm. Despite common misconceptions, vaccines don’t cause the 70 May 2019 lakotaeastsparkonline.com

increase in infections, Europe alone had 83,000 cases in 2018, as opposed to the 25,500 cases of 2017. Italy has taken a step forward and has banned unvaccinated children under six years of age from their public schools. Children will be turned away unless they can prove they have been properly vaccinated.

Iceland, a country with a 90 percent vaccination rate, has had a small outbreak of measles this year, the first one in decades, due to an infected tourist. Because of this, they have banned all unvaccinated visitors from entering the country.

This outbreak, and others similar, can be

attributed to the recent movement donned by “antivaxxers.” They don’t believe that vaccines are helpful, but rather that they are harmful.

They claim various stances on vaccines, ranging from “vaccines cause autism” to “natural immunity is better than vaccines.” While more kids are being diagnosed with Autism, this is due to the changing definition and the increase of awareness, not any medical changes.

Another theory is “herd immunity” which believes that if a large amount of the population is immunized, the unimmunized are protected because diseases will not be able to spread. However, an unvaccinated person carrying a disease is an inlet to letting diseases and bacteria spread to the general population.

Y

oung infants and those allergic to certain vaccines are more at risk to illnesses, and any healthy person that is physically able to be immunized must be in order to protect the young and sick that are more at risk to become ill.

Vaccines have been proven to prevent dangerous diseases and save countless lives, so while anti-vaxxers may have theories, their opinions do not outweigh the overall health of their societies. Doctors have spent years studying and perfecting their work, doing their best to save innumerable lives.

Anyone who believes that essential oils and crystals will protect themselves, their children and other’s children are lying to themselves.

They are resisting the medical field in favor of internet articles.

The problem is entitlement, believing that one’s own opinion is more valid than proven facts, and ignorance, believing anything you see on the internet. Anyone who can be vaccinated remaining without their immunizations is a hazard to the health of the common people as well as the functioning of communities.•

KARALINE ABNEY

F

rost formed unique artistic structures against my window; my eyes absorbed the sights of the evergreen forests and snow-lined roads.

As my family’s rental car emerged back into civilization, my eyes immediately caught sight of a large, lime green marijuana leaf plastered on a Colorado storefront. Puzzled, I asked my mom what it was. She told me that is was it a marijuana dispensary. Understanding, I then went back to staring at the green world around me.

There’s one thing that always seems to be in the news. No, it’s not celebrities or the next government scandal— it’s marijuana. From the rejection of New Jersey’s recreational marijuana bill to the West fully legalizing good ole mary jane. People can refute it, marijuana is in the American subconscious.

Yet people are thinking about it all wrong.

People tend to riddle marijuana regulation in the United States (US) with personal views. Yet no matter what those views are, the industry will continue to operate, both domestically and internationally. Instead of opposing the effects of the recreational proportion of the substance, investing in the marijuana plant industry may be the next big break for entrepreneurs alike.

The future of marijuana most likely will not be in the realm of recreational, but rather in the world of medical marijuana and hemp.

As a whole, the marijuana plant contains many chemical compounds called cannabinoids, of which Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and Cannabidiol (CBD) make up the majority. THC is the compound that produces the “high” people get when they smoke or consume cannabis. CBD, on the other hand, does not produce this effect and is shown to have quite the beneficial analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-anxiety properties.

Medical marijuana can contain CBD and CBD alone, or it can contain a combination of CBD and THC. Although CBD does not get

a person high, it still is considered a cannabis product, including CBD oil, gummies, skin care products, and alcoholic beverages. Medical marijuana is mostly used for relieving and aiding in the coping of medical issues.

Like medical and recreational marijuana, hemp comes from the marijuana plant. This is where the similarities cease to exist and the differences begin. In order to be considered hemp, the chemical makeup must be less than 0.3 percent THC. Hemp products are not psychoactive and the cultivation process

Picture this: 33 states plus the District of Columbia (DC) has approved the use of medical marijuana and ten states, plus DC, has legalized recreational marijuana use. This doesn’t include the countries around the world, such as the Netherlands, Canada, and Germany, that have either legalized medical marijuana or, a step further, recreational marijuana.

Further, the 2018 Farm Bill approved by President Trump included a provision that took hemp off of the federally controlled substance list and gave states power over hemp industry

“Investing in medical marijuana may not only help boost consumer’s wallets— it can also help those with illness live more comfortably.”

requires little to no human interaction and is adapted to grow in most climates. Hemp is typically industrially cultivated for its fiber, hurd, and seeds.

C

urrently, there are over 25,000 possible products derived from hemp in areas such as clothing and canvas products, dietary supplements, skin products, and insulation.

This makes a great opportunity for investors.

Of the many cannabis growers on the market, according to an analysis from US News & World Report, the best marijuana stocks to buy in 2019 are from companies such as Blueberries Medical Corporation (BBRRF), Aleafia Health (ALEAF), and MediPharm Labs (MEDIF). These companies have relatively low share prices but have increased in the past 6 months by 1-5 percent due to high demand.

Additionally, the Canopy Growth Corporation (CGC) remains a dominant power in the cannabis production industry.

This increase in prices is for a reason.

regulation. This and the fact that, according to research conducted by Grand View Research, the medical marijuana industry will grow to a USD 146.4 billion by 2025 provides the perfect evidence as to why people should seize the opportunity to be apart of a developing industry.

Investing in medical marijuana may not only help boost consumer’s wallets— it can also help those with illness live more comfortably.

Due to the illnesses relieved from the hemp and marijuana products, people will continue to use and produce marijuana. Nationwide, it’s not a matter of “if ” medical and recreational marijuana will be legalized on a federal level, but “when.”

Flash forward four months since I first saw the lime green marijuana leaf on a storefront.

Now, I’m in Washington state, cruising around the bustling city of Seattle. The same stores pop up with the same signs beckoning the future of a booming industry that so many should invest in. •

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column | opinion

THE ART OF LIVING ON LESS ALEXANDRA FERNHOLZ art mckenna lewis

L

et’s play a game. A game called, “What can I do with my paycheck?” Hypothetically, there’s a 25-year-old single adult living in Butler County, Ohio. Let’s call him George.

Working 50 hours a week, he’s paid the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. Every week, that translates into $362.50. Every month, he has $1,450 for every expense in his life.

Let’s break down the budget. Living on his own, George pays $600 a month in rent. Paying that leaves him with $850 in the bank. Then there’s the electric bill for $80 and a water bill for $55. Now George is down to $715. The phone and wifi bill will set him back another $60. A while back, George dropped his cable subscription when it got to be too much, but there are still taxes to think about.

Every month, George pays roughly $417 in taxes. Now his balance stands at $238. Then he’s got to figure out groceries. Fortunately, he George isn’t allergic to anything, so that cuts back on some of the cost. Avoiding the produce section and skipping dinners once in a while allows him to cut back to $40 a week on groceries. That’s $160 a month, gone.

That’s $74 left in the bank, but as a recent graduate, he’s still got student loans, car insurance, and healthcare to worry about. And everywhere he looks, all George can hear is that he needs to be saving for retirement. Where’s the money going to come from? What if the toilet breaks? What if a tree falls on his car?

What if his coworkers want to go out on Friday night? What if life doesn’t go according to a carefully structured plan?

For us, this is a hypothetical game. But for

72 May 2019 lakotaeastsparkonline.com

2.6 million Americans, including George, this is their life. Every day, every month, every year.

And it isn’t always so optimistic. Some of these people have kids, health conditions or parents to support. What do they do? What do you do when the minimum wage isn’t enough?

Currently, 29 states, including Ohio require companies to pay minimum wages greater than the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour, a rate which has not changed since 2009. These wages range from as little as $7.50 an hour in New Mexico to $11.50 an hour in Washington D.C. In twelve states, including Ohio, the minimum wage is automatically increased each year according to a formula which takes into account both cost of living and inflation. From 2018 to 2019, the Ohio minimum wage was raised 25 cents, from $8.30 to $8.55.

But the living wage and the minimum wage are not equal. A living wage is a minimum amount that is required for a person to be able to pay basic living expenses, such as bills, food, and clothing. For the metro Cincinnati area, the living wage can be as much as $8,010 for a family of six each month or as little as $2,644 a month for a single adult, according to the Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator. This amount varies from state to state and county to county depending on property values, taxes, and family situation, but there is one thing in common between every state.

According to a study published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, (MIT) the minimum wage will not cover the cost of living in any town, county, or state in all of the

United States. In Ohio, a single adult would need a living wage of at least $10.15 an hour to pay for bare necessities.

This estimate, however, assumes the subject lives in a cheap apartment with a ‘low cost’ food plan, no dependents, and access to public transportation. It didn’t account for additional expenses like dining out or building a savings account.

I

n other words, don’t buy a car, don’t save for retirement, don’t splurge on any Christmas presents or even an avocado, because then there won’t be money to eat that week. These people are sacrificing birthdays, Thanksgivings, Christmases, and graduations in order to barely make a living, working forty hours a week just to eat two meals a day.

So even if the minimum wage was raised to at least $10 an hour, a far cry from today’s federal minimum wage of $7.25, it still wouldn’t be enough to keep even a single adult afloat.

That $10.15 estimate assumes nothing goes wrong- no accidents, no illnesses, no Christmas presents. But anyone who has lived any sort of life at all knows that nothing is certain, not even the next meal. Curveballs lie around every corner.

So it is for the sake of every mother, father, sister, brother, friend, neighbor, an American who has ever gone to bed hungry, who has ever had their card declined or their loan application turned down or been denied basic access to healthcare, education, or even a job, that we the people turn to our government and ask for the most basic right: enough money to live. •

“in honor of Ohio Senate Bill 23” - Alexandra Fernholz

ed cartoon | opinion

lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2019 73

opinion | chief column

FUTURE IN HAND LAUREN MAIER photography bea amsalu

D

uring the first spring break that Lakota had, I had the greatest experience of interning at Beacon Orthopedics. This internship was everything I could ever hope for, well besides getting paid.

While my peers were on the picture-perfect spring break filled with sandy beaches, sun-kissed skin, and fun late nights I was waking up at 6:30 am only to sit in the dreadful mason morning traffic to get to Beacon Orthopedics where I did an internship from eight to 12 but depending on the days I was able to stay later and those were the good days.

My favorite day took me by surprise. I always knew I was into orthopedics and medicine, but I thought my favorite day would be in the Operation Room (OR) watching all of the cool surgeries.

Instead, the day that I came home late was the simple clinic day where I shadowed one of Beacon’s hand and arm specialist.

Each patient was different even when there were five consecutive arthritic patients in a row. The Doctor was able to show on the patient’s x-ray and tell me exactly what type of movements they were doing relatively, causing their arthritis. Due to, what seems like infinite arthritis x-rays, I think I can properly identify arthritis on an x-ray if it was given to me.

One of the most memorable patients he had was a man who severed the main nerve in his thumb. The Doctor was then able to take the nerve from his middle finger and connect the two in the center of the palm of his hand. What was so fascinating to me about this procedure was that everything that he felt in his middle finger he felt in his thumb. No, it wasn’t the most conventional, but it was the most the Doctor could do. For that patient to feel his thumb rather than to not feel it and to cause more damage to it because of the lack of pain receptors in his thumb.

Each visit I learned more and more about the medical field and ultimately the field of work that I want to pursue. One of the things that I noticed right of the bat that the Doctor I shadowed did was that he swore to like a sailor. I thought I had a bad mouth, but man-oh-man he had cuss words coming out of his mouth left and right as he spoke to his patients. However, as soon as he left the room and spoke with his coworkers, his foul language came to a standstill.

I noticed after a while why he had this unprofessional and laidback approach. It was to ease the patient’s nerves about an upcoming surgery that they will have to undergo or some steroid injections that may hurt and be uncomfortable. It was then when I realized this was really what I wanted to do. All I wanted to do was to shadow and learn I realized I didn’t want to go back to school and do the normal class cycle, but I wanted to move onto the next chapters of my life and experience and accomplish new things. As cheesy as it sounds I cannot wait to further my education at the University of Dayton as I slowly get closer and closer to my ultimate goal of being a Doctor. •

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