Spark 2021-22 Issue 6

Spark

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Lakota East High School lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2022 $5 Newsstand

INSIDE: - East junio r Austin Siereveld commits to the Ohio State University for footb all.

Rethinking the District Master Facilities: Which district buildings must be rebuilt? • Should the high schools become middle schools? • Will a third high school be built?

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East sophomore and varsity lacrosse player Avery Butts runs the ball down the field during the East vs. West game, where the Hawks fell to the Firebirds in overtime 10-9. photography nisso sacha

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STORY

www.lakotaeastsparkonline.com instagram @lakotaspark twitter @lakotaspark facebook Lakota East Spark

MAY 2022 INSIDE THE ISSUE

67 30 58

37

06 MASTER FACILITIES 30 GREG FINKE

In the upcoming months, Lakota will be deciding on a future plan to build and rennovate district buildings.

1 2 BUTLER TECH

Butler Tech’s Natural Science Center is getting an upgrade that will allow students to further their education.

16 THERAPY DOGS

Lakota has been involving therapy dogs within the curriculum for grades K-7, leading to positive changes throughout the district.

After 19 years in the position, Greg Finke is retiring as principal of Independence Elementary School.

East lacrosse players explain the difference between men’s and women’s lacrosse.

37 ART PACKAGE

64 AUSTIN

52 REVIEW: AS IT WAS

67 DAYLIGHT SAVINGS

Spark delves into the different aspects of art in society from art history, to careers, to the future of art.

News editor Megan Miranda reviews Harry Styles’ latest release “As It Was.”

26 NURSE POLLY HASTE 56 NETFLIX RECS West Freshman Nurse Polly Haste helped identify a brain tumor in one of her students, saving his life.

58BOYSVSGIRLSLACROSSE

Culture Editor Andie Madding shares her favorite movie and show recommendations on Netflix.

SIERVELD

East junior and Ohio State University football commit Austin Sierveld talks about his recruiting process.

The proposed Sunshine Protection Act would make the switch to permanent Daylight Saving Time in November 2023.

70 HEAD TO HEAD

Mia Hilkowitz and Zach Shultz debate whether Lakota should or should not build a new high school.

Spark

LETTER FROM THE EDITORS

2021-2022 STAFF

Editors-in-Chief: Business Manager: Asst. Business Manager: News Editors: Feature Editor: Package Editors: Culture Editors: Sports Editors: Opinion Editors:

Riley Higgins Mia Hilkowitz Riley Higgins Caleb Vanatta Natalie Mazey Megan Miranda Marleigh Winterbottom Abbey Bahan Zach Shultz Ianni Acapulco Andie Madding Evie Colpi Ben Stowe Rehab Jarabah Olivia Rigney

Photography Editor:

Audrey Allen

Art Director:

Mary Barone

Graphics Editor:

Mary Barone

Webmasters:

Mary Barone Mia Hilkowitz

Copyeditors:

Riley Higgins Mia Hilkowitz Natalie Mazey

Creative Directors:

Ianni Acapulco Marleigh Winterbottom

Social Media Manager:

Frankie Stull

Advisor:

Dean Hume

Spark is a publication that is produced at Lakota East High School. The magazine is completely student-generated through the efforts of the Journalism I, Journalism II, and Journalism III-Honors classes. The publication material may not always reflect the views of the Lakota Local School District or the publication as a whole. Content is controlled and edited by the staff editors. The staff wil publish only legally protected speech adhering to the legal definitions of libel, obscenity and invasions of privacy. Production costs are covered through advertising, subscription sales and fundraisers. The purpose of Spark is to inform the students, faculty, and community members of news, information and issues that may influence or affect them.

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Dear Readers, For many of us on the Spark Editorial Board, this has been our fourth year as a part of a nationally-awarded publication. In those four years, our staff has encountered numerous challenges–challenges we never could have predicted when first deciding Spark was a program we wanted to be a part of.

During our graduating class’s sophomore year, COVID-19 forced us to social distance–learning to work entirely virtually. Spark still managed to publish a fifth issue that year, consisting of articles written entirely from our homes alongside art drawn by our staffers when getting photos became impossible. Our junior year, mass quarantines and unpredictable circumstances further stifled our ability to collaborate and complete our duties as student journalists, yet we still produced issues that won national acclaim. Over this past year, conflict within our school board and discord around education in national politics further challenged us as student journalists, yet we have published six issues, including Spark’s 200th issue.

Despite these countless challenges, Spark has continued to uphold our journalistic integrity, covering stories our student body and community care about. We have not shied away from covering controversy, diving into topics such as our school board, societal unrest, and gun control policies. We have proven that our staff is willing to take on challenges head first with tenacity and poise.

Good journalism is important now more than ever. In a world of division, covering stories as unbiased and honest as possible is our duty, and Spark has worked diligently for 29 years to bring that ideal to life. Our job as journalists is to give the public the tools to form their own opinions. Equipping our community with factual information and anecdotes that put faces to sometimes polarizing issues is not a job we take lightly as proven through hours spent tweaking a story to make sure it is as accurate as possible.

We pride ourselves on our work and we pride ourselves on the legacy we will be leaving behind. Our current staff has lived through history in navigating an unprecedented pandemic, yet we have overcome and persevered. Spark is something special, and we are grateful that it has had such a large imprint on our high school story. • --- Spark 2021-22 Editorial Board The Spark encourages letters to the editor. Letters can be sent to the publication at sparkbusiness2022@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 editor will contact writers for confirmation.

ON THE COVER designed by mary barone

Spark

INSIDE: - East Jun ior Austin Siereveld commits to Ohio State University for footba ll.

Rethinking the District Which district buildings must be rebuilt? • Should the high schools become middle schools? • Will a third high school be built?

This issue, Spark delves into the Lakota Master Facilities Plan. In the upcoming months, the district will decide on which schools will receive renovations, additions or be demolished. The outline of Lakota’s main campus high schools represent the district and its endeavor to improve school facilities.

Editorial Board Column | Opinion

STAFF EDITORIAL

STOLEN STOLES (AND CORDS) Student groups that maintain national memberships and recognition should be allowed to celebrate their accomplishments over the last four years without risk of the school deeming them not worthy of their recognition.

Editorial Board Vote: 12-1 in support of allowing students to wear cords and stoles for their corresponding clubs at graduation.

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column editorial board | photography ianni acapulco, mary barone, and marleigh winterbottom

n May 6, Lakota announced that the class of 2022 graduates would have the opportunity to showcase one club they participated in during high school through medals attached to their gowns. As a response to efforts from the East Black Student Union (BSU) to wear cords at the ceremony, East Principal Rob Burnside announced to East students and parents through email, that “The past practice for Lakota Graduation ceremonies has been that only stoles and cords provided by the schools are worn during graduation, and any stoles or cords that have been worn have been based upon academic achievement.”

The “compromise” that Lakota reached in order to “personalize” the graduation attire might seem like a solution, however it fails to address the double standard that the district holds towards its student organizations.

The current graduation dress-code restrictions are out-dated and not representative of today’s Lakota student body. Lakota’s justification for

prohibiting BSU from wearing cords is stated as wanting to celebrate “Without drawing attention to an individual student or group of students.” However, anyone who has attended a graduation can attest to the inauthenticity of this statement. Specific students from valedictorians, to class presidents, to special speakers can control the spotlight of the event, leaving the mass majority of students sitting silently in their seats on a day that all graduates should be recognized.

Additionally, the district argues that only organizations such as National Honors Society (NHS) and the National Technical Honor Society can be represented through cords and stoles due to their recognition of “student accomplishments in the wide-ranging areas of character, scholarship, leadership, and service; they are not specific to one particular academic discipline.” The organizations reflect these values at the same level as other non-represented groups in the school such as BSU. In fact, in order to receive a cord from the National Black Student

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Union Association, members of BSU had to meet many of the same requirements as the NHS, such as having 50 members, completing community service, and having an average GPA 3.0 or higher. The prohibition of BSU and other organizations from wearing cords and stoles that celebrate their accomplishments, is a clear indicator of the district’s double standard.

Student groups that maintain national memberships and recognition should be allowed to celebrate their accomplishments over the last four years without risk of the school deeming them not worthy of their recognition. The student population of the district has vastly changed from the schools’ founding decades ago. Graduation should focus on the students graduating, not the district’s favored clubs and biases. The wide range of student backgrounds, academic, and extracurricular interests should be celebrated and accepted, not detained and prohibited in the principal’s office. •

News | Master Facilities Plan Lakota’s original concession stand was constructed in 1959 alongside West Freshman, which was once the sole high school for the district.

LAKOTA MASTER FACILITIES PLAN In the upcoming months, Lakota will be deciding on a future plan to renovate or replace district buildings. | story mary barone | photography cara raiford and mary barone | infographic mia hilkowitz

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n a rainy day, drips echoe off of the 60-year-old tiled floor of the Lakota West Freshman building. Students making their way to classes navigate around the buckets in hallways and classrooms meant to catch the droplets that fall through the corroded ceiling. The disrepair that the building has fallen into over the last half-century is a stark contrast to the sleek new facilities of East Freshman, which was constructed in 2008.

The current West Freshman building was built in 1959 to be the original Lakota High School, and has since evolved to adapt to the growing district. West Freshman Principal Scott Laman has been in the building for two years and he and his staff have dealt with its deteriorating condition.

“The staff embraces that everyone knows about West Freshman and everyone has heard the stories about how old our school is.

Would we like a brand new building like East [Freshman]? Heck yeah,” Laman told Spark.

“We would love a brand new building with cool furniture and stuff that works the first time instead of having to call maintenance to fix something every day, but we don’t let it stand in the way of us delivering top-tier education to our students.”

This variation in the state of facilities can

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be seen across the district. While Lakota has built six new facilities over the last two decades, five schools will be more than 50-years-old and nine will be over 30 by 2025. Lakota Superintendent Matt Miller explains that with these aging buildings comes the need to evaluate the safety and efficiency of each, and decide whether current spaces meet the future educational needs of its students.

Lakota’s Master Facilities Plan (MFP) is meant to combat these arising issues.

Unanimously approved in a 2018 Board of Education meeting, the district came up with a new strategic plan which included the beginnings of the MFP. “This new strategic plan has been designed to be a blueprint for Lakota’s future,” Miller said when it was approved. “It reflects where we are now and where we want to go.”

According to the district site, the MFP involves an assessment of the needs of all 23 of the district’s school buildings, including their enrollment projections and facilities conditions. Based on the data, the MFP committee will determine whether each school should be replaced, consolidated, expanded, or renovated.

At Lakota’s Apr. 14 Master Facilities meeting, the Lakota Board of Education

selected four plans for the future layout of the district, determining what changes each building would undergo.

While the board alone will ultimately choose which MFP option to follow, a larger committee is involved in the process. The Ohio Facilities Construction Committee (OFCC) oversees the planning, development, and construction for the state’s public K-12 schools, and is responsible for creating building guidelines. VSWC Architects, a private firm that has worked with Lakota for more than 60 years, also sits on the committee to evaluate construction costs and walk the district through the overall process.

Jim Voorhis, the architectural partner who makes up the ‘V’ in VSWC Architects, has worked with the company for more than 35 years. Voorhis sits on the MFP committee as a representative. He says that evaluating current buildings involves looking at the quality of walls and windows, as well as systems such as HVAC, plumbing, and electrical.

According to the district site, Lakota’s schools are on average 33 years old. Voorhis says at that point, HVAC systems are worn out, technologies are behind the times, and utilities such as windows need to be replaced.

He said that even Lakota’s newer buildings

Master Facilities Plan | News

Cherokee

Wyandot

Independ.

VanGorden

Woodland

Heritage

East HS

21 schools will receive renovations and additions 1 school will receive renovations.

0 schools will be demolished

Liberty Jr.

W. Fresh

Master Facilities Plan Option 1

E. Fresh.

Liberty CE

Plains Jr.

certain building is more than 67% of the cost to rebuild, and the district opts to renovate, the ELPP will not help fund it.

“There are 10 buildings within our district that if we decide that we’re not going to replace those buildings, [and instead] keep those buildings and put money in to renovate, the state will not partner with us,” Logan told Spark. “Either we go by their rules, or we don’t and we have to fund it ourselves.”

At this point, it is estimated the ELPP could pay for approximately 25% of the OFCC approved plan. The board has yet to decide if it will be partnering with the OFCC to receive this funding.

Fuller explains that the next step in the MFP process is receiving community input on the four options selected by the board. At a recent meeting she detailed that this begins with informing the public as to why the MFP must be executed. One tactic may be to give tours of the older buildings in order to showcase the disrepair of aging buildings.

At a recent meeting, the MFP committee referred to option 1 as the “status quo,” as it consists of keeping schools at their current grade distribution and zoning with renovations done to all 23 schools.

The three other options include grade reconfigurations in order to ease the number of transitions between buildings and use spaces efficiently. All consist of a stand-alone preschool building and would also merge each high school’s freshman campus with the main campuses, putting grades 9-12 in the same building.

Laman believes that freshmen would benefit from learning from the upperclassmen and being introduced to the culture of the main campus a year earlier by combining into one building.

“Right now [freshmen] go from being the kings of junior high to [the freshman

Union Creekside Endeavor

Freedom

Ridge Jr.

0 new schools will be built

Hopewell Jr. Hopewell

West HS

Phase 1 Cost: $277,165,714 Phase 2 Cost: $116,758,143

Shawnee Adena

Future Cost: $0 Total Master Plan Cost: $393,923,957

source lakota master facilities plan website

could be adapted to better accommodate the future style of teaching and learning. With the growing role of technology and open collaboration in education, he says that there is room for improvement across the district. “[The future of education] has a lot of classrooms that are not just typical classrooms lined up down the corridor, but a lot more open areas,” Voorhis told Spark. “Certainly there could be more learning-type areas for independent study and technology driven specialized rooms.”

D

irector of School and Community Relations Betsy Fuller says being fiscally responsible is a priority of the district.

Because of this, some of the new buildings will likely not go under construction if the updates are deemed not to be worth the cost.

“It is our responsibility to ensure that we are making sound financial decisions, and that includes the upkeep and maintenance of our buildings,” Fuller told Spark. “Once the board reaches a final decision on a plan, we will work with the architects to determine what, if any, changes need to be made to our buildings.”

The four selected plans have a ranging cost analysis from $393 million to $414 million. Board of Education President Lynda O’Connor said that moving forward, she would like to see a more cost-effective plan.

Board of Education member Darbi Boddy shared similar sentiments, suggesting that the district wait for construction costs to decrease before breaking ground.

Voorhis says that it has not yet been calculated how much money the district would be saving by shutting down older facilities that require maintenance work.

Adena Elementary and Liberty Junior School, for example, which are 41 and 42 years

old respectively, will need new sewer lines put in over the summer–a cost that amounts to more than $100,000 according to Chief Operations Officer Chris Passarge. By replacing these schools with newer buildings, maintenance costs to keep up with older buildings would be eliminated.

In 2019, the district was accepted into Ohio’s Expedited Local Partnership Program (ELPP), which makes the district eligible to receive partial funding from the state for its MFP. Lakota Chief Financial Officer Jenni Logan explains that in order to actually receive the funding, the MFP must comply with guidelines created by the OFCC. After evaluating each of Lakota’s buildings, the OFCC compared the cost to renovate versus rebuild each building. If the cost to renovate a

Master Facilities Plan Option 2 Wyandot

Cherokee

2 schools will receive renovations and additions

Independ.

10 schools will receive renovations

VanGorden Liberty CE

Plains Jr.

E. Fresh.

Woodland

10 schools with be demolished

East HS

Heritage W. Fresh

Union

4 new K-3 schools will be built

Liberty Jr.

2 new 4-6 schools will be built

Creekside Endeavor

Freedom Ridge Jr.

Hopewell Jr. Hopewell

West HS

Shawnee Adena

1 new 7-8 school will be built Phase 1 Cost: $261,518,087 Phase 2 Cost: $86,476,904 Future Cost: $66,054,416

source lakota master facilities plan website

Total Master Plan Cost: $414,049,407

May 2022 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 7

News | Master Facilities Plan

Master Facilities Plan Option 3 Wyandot

Cherokee

0 schools will receive renovations and additions

Independ.

12 schools will receive renovations

VanGorden Liberty CE

Plains Jr.

E. Fresh.

Woodland

10 schools with be demolished

East HS

Heritage W. Fresh

Union

3 new K-5 schools will be built

Liberty Jr.

2 new 6-8 schools will be built

Creekside Endeavor

Freedom Ridge Jr.

Hopewell Jr. Hopewell

1 new 9-12 school will be built

West HS

Shawnee Adena

Phase 1 Cost: $160,006,071 Phase 2 Cost: $108,548,688 Future Cost: $130,821,528

source lakota master facilities plan website

building] and they are still the top group because there’s no one older here,” Laman said. “There is something to say about learning from your peers when it comes to maturity and educational standpoint. For the sake of general development, it just makes sense to get rid of the transition from freshman to main campus.”

Plans 2 and 3 feature a proposed Lakota Central building which would pool together students from both high schools and consolidate specialty classes such as computer science and journalism under a single roof for the entire district.

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iller says that one benefit to Lakota Central would be balancing out the opportunities across both schools as each features stronger programs in different areas.

East Principal Rob Burnside admires the healthy competition between schools and says that keeping specialty programs separate pushes East and West to keep up with one another.

“I love the things that make us unique as Lakota East and West,” Burnside told Spark.

“If they’ve got great things they’re doing on that side of town that we’re not, it’s my job to figure out how to bring that here and vice versa.

I would hate to see us lose some of the things that make each building special.”

Plan 4 also involves converting East and West main campuses into two large junior schools for all students grades six through eight to attend. New facilities would then be built to replace the high schools. Voorhis believes that this is the most viable option from an architectural standpoint.

“If we go with [option 4], you are able to take a lot of older buildings offline and limit construction to a couple of sites and buildings instead of the entire district,” Voorhis said. “I would also like to see the high schools rebuilt

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Total Master Plan Cost: $399,376,528

to be on the latest and greatest with the way education is being delivered.”

Since it was established in 1959, the district has grown from 1,500 students to more than 17,000, and currently ranks eighth in student population among Ohio’s 600-plus school districts. To keep pace with growth in the district from 1957 to 1978, the Board of Education constructed a high school with three additions, three junior schools, two elementary schools, and a service center.

According to Passarge, the last MFP was passed in 2005 and implemented in 2007.

“That was when we put in East Freshman, Wyandot [Early Childhood], Union, and

Wyandot

Cherokee

Independ.

VanGorden Liberty CE

Plains Jr.

E. Fresh.

Woodland

Master Facilities Plan Option 4 0 schools will receive renovations and additions 12 schools will receive renovations

East HS

Heritage

10 schools with be demolished

W. Fresh

Union

Liberty Jr.

1 new K-5 school will be built

Creekside Endeavor

Endeavor [Elementary],” Passarge told Spark.

“So yeah, it’s been nearly twenty years since [the district has] done a full Master Facilities Plan.”

As of 2018, 10 of the district’s 23 buildings were found to have a higher enrollment than the OFCC capacity. Additionally, four buildings are more than 50-years-old, including the West Freshman building. It has undergone five renovations, the most recent completed 11 years ago, but it is still considered “deficient”

by OFCC standards.

The MFP committee is hoping to finalize their decision on a plan in time to get on the May 2023 ballot, as the project will require additional funding from taxpayers no matter whether the district partners with the ELPP. “The district must finance the Master Facilities Plan, much like a homeowner would finance the purchase of a house. However, a district would do this through a bond issue, which the voters would need to approve,” Fuller said. “The district would need the community’s support in order to move forward with an approved plan.”

The MFP is currently broken into two phases.

The first phase is intended to be accomplished by the 2024-25 academic year, and the second by the 2029-30 year. Passarge says there are many steps that need to be executed before the district can “get a shovel in dirt,” and this tentative timeline is more ideal than realistic.

“It’s an evolving process and we’re certainly not at the end of it,” Voorhis said. “I think as we work through these meetings with the board and we start to narrow our options and talk about financing [and] what will happen with older buildings, the pieces will start to come together.

Over time, the pathway will become clearer to what is the best master plan for the district.”•

Freedom Ridge Jr.

Hopewell Jr. Hopewell

West HS

2 new 9-12 schools will be built Phase 1 Cost: $273,786,759

Shawnee Adena

source lakota master facilities plan website

Phase 2 Cost: $1,320,684 Future Cost: $133,489,866 Total Master Plan Cost: $408,597,309

section | story

WEST FRESHMAN

Master Facilities Plan | News

EAST FRESHMAN

West Freshman bathroom.

East Freshman bathroom.

West Freshman hallway.

East Freshman hallway.

West Freshman classroom.

East Freshman classroom.

While up-to-date Epson projectors were installed in most classrooms at West Freshman 11 years ago, some still feature the original chalkboards of the Lakota high school est. 1959.

Freshman Art Teacher Diana Mueller’s classroom is displayed above, equipped with hanging outlets and an Epson projector.

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News | Work Study Program East student Allen Jones participates in his work study program at City Barbeque.

REAL-WORLD LEARNING

Since 1988, the Lakota Work-Study Program has been teaching its students important life skills through real-world experiences for life after graduation. | story maddie behrmann

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photography used with permission | infographic mia hilkowitz ast student Alan Jones is one of 60 students who participated in Lakota’s Work-Study Program. He has worked many jobs, prepping food at City Barbeque, helping kids at the Boys and Girls Club, working at Everybody Fitness, and more.

The Lakota Work-Study Program is an initiative in which students with an Individualized Education Program (IEP) can obtain real work experience and gain life skills during their high school years. The program, offered as an elective credit, allows participants to work at various job sites and is focused on gaining work experience and life skills to help them with their transition from high school to college, competitive employment, postsecondary training, or other future occupations.

Students can earn minimum wage at certain job sites, including job sites in Lakota and certain community sites.

“It’s a program for students that are on an IEP that need to develop the employability skills that are going to be necessary for them to transition from high school on to whatever their future endeavors are,” Work-Study Coordinator Donna Haury said. “We try to individualize the program. We try to find opportunities for [students] both in the community and around

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our school district. That will help them gain a wide variety of skills that they will need, both socially and language-wise, [such as] being able to talk to people [and] ask questions.”

Meeting new teachers is what East student Brianna Brady now looks forward to the most in her Work-Study job at City Barbeque. She is the “biggest social butterfly” according to Intervention Specialist Ellen Bowmann.

According to Haury, the program gives participants a break in their day to gain social skills, communication skills, responsibility, and confidence, which all help participants develop independence that “they wouldn’t have otherwise.”

Another student, East senior Xavier Heinrich, who works at City Barbeque, used to show up late every day to school last year. After working mornings in the program he started gaining responsibility, and now “he’s been on time almost every day,” Bowmann said.

Heinrich is currently an employee for the program, where he earns minimum wage.

Lakota pays its Work-Study workers minimum wage, at $9.30 per hour. Next year after graduating, he will be enrolled in the Project Life transitional program at Butler Tech, which is a course that details more independent living

skills like budgeting, cooking, and high-level jobs in the community.

Intervention Specialist at Lakota West Nicole Lampe stresses the importance of reallife job experience, instead of a “simulated job in the classroom.”

“They have expectations that they have to master and they have a boss, not a teacher, that sets that expectation and rewards/praises their accomplishments,” Lampe said.

According to Executive Director of Special Services Andrea Longwroth, all of the important skills add up to one thing: independence.

“It’s all about that independence piece. I mean, that’s our goal,” Longworth said. “So the job coaches are there to model, help, then scaffold and pull back to try to [help students] really gain independence as much as possible.”

As the students go through the program and gain experience in the real world, they also gain confidence in themselves and their work. “[Students gain] confidence too,” Longwroth said. “I’ve seen a lot of our students, especially ones that work here that really didn’t say too much when they came in the door and weren’t really self-starters when that task was given to them, see their confidence grow.”

Jones is currently 21 and deferred his diploma to continue his education in the program. Next year he will be going to a transitional day program after officially graduating. “[When he first started] he kind of just wasn’t sure why he was there, [and was] a little uncomfortable. Then, just hand over hand, [we showed] him how to do [his job]. Now I can put the boxes in front of him and he knows exactly what to do. He wouldn’t even look at you when you would speak to him, and now he looks at them and smiles, sometimes he will say something but it’s definitely more comfortable,” East Instructional Aide Jessica Kottler said when talking about Jones.

Longworth said that there are misconceptions surrounding who can participate, saying “it’s not for every kid who is on an IEP.” She said that when the students get around the 10th grade level they typically start doing work experiences.

“It really depends on where the child is functioning, both academically and with their daily living skills as well. So all of that plays into whether or not a student would benefit from this type of related service,” Longworth said. “The Individual Education Program team defines what necessary services are for each child. So it’s kids who maybe meet their graduation requirement, but they still are not ready for that post-secondary goal.”

Students can participate in a wide range of jobs from working in the school spirit shops to shredding and sorting paper.

Haury said that after working in the program, students have shown great improvement, with some even being hired for permanent positions.

Work Study Program | News “We’ve had many of our kids hired at the businesses because [the employers] see how amazing they are and how reliable they are,” Haury said.

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aury said that the work students do is very individualized and they have numerous job options. Participants can work for the district doing filing, data entry, shredding confidential documents, and big mailings for the public relations department. They can also work at different schools in the district preparing meals for breakfast and lunch, helping kids open straws and yogurt, and even helping custodians. There are jobs in the community restaurants where they prep the restaurant before opening, wait tables, and set up chairs. They can also work in retail doing things like preparing clothes for floor sales or greeting customers.

The students can work in multiple Lakota buildings like Central Office, Freedom, Ridge, Lakota West, Lakota East, Lakota West Freshman, Wyandot, Liberty Jr., and Woodland.

The program’s current community partners are include TJ Maxx, City BBQ, CVS Pharmacy, Walgreens, Bravo’s, Buffalo Wings and Rings, Penn Station, Skyline, Everybody Fitness, Chipotle, Wetherington Country Club, Boys and Girls Club, White Castle, and Kroger, all in various locations.

The program’s community partners are mainly found through networking. It started with a small number of students and job options.

“So it started around 1988. I did this speech with just a handful of students and just one job site. Currently, we have close to 60 students and we are all over the community,” Haury said. “It started with me seeing a need for the students to develop these daily living skills and these work skills that weren’t being currently offered. They kind of did it as a trial for a couple of years and then it just kind of bloomed and blossomed and it’s grown ever since.”

East Principal Robert Burnside talked about the importance of inclusive opportunities.

“By and large, everybody wants to contribute and feel like they’re adding something to the mix,” Burnside said. “And we’re in a much better place now because of programs like our Work-Study Program where everyone is afforded those opportunities to be successful to give something back to add something that both enriches their own lives and the lives of those around them.”

Giving students these inclusive options helps prepare them for the world outside of school and become confident in their own abilities. “[Students] mature and develop over time.

They are proud of their accomplishments. They will save their money to purchase something they want,” Lampe said, whose student saved

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his money to buy himself an Apple watch. “He proudly wears that watch and tells everyone how he saved his money and bought it all on his own.”

The lack of job coaches, though, has limited the number of opportunities for students in the program which Bowmann would like to see change.

“There are places out there that want us with

them but we just don’t have the staff to get out there or the transportation,” Bowmann said.

Bowmann would like to have “more options, more opportunities, and more people to help,” to further the program.

In the future, Haury wants to, “keep [the program] growing, getting more involved in the community, and try to touch as many students as we can that would certainly need the skills.”•

Lakota’s Transition to Work Opportunities Lakota’s Transition to Work program hosts a wide variety of opportunities for students to engage in real-world experiences both at Lakota buildings and local businesses.

Opportunities at Lakota Buildings

Opportunities at Local Businesses

District Offices Freedom Elementary

Ridge Jr. School

Lakota West HS

Lakota East HS

Wyandot ECS

Liberty Jr. School

Woodland Elementary

West Freshman source donna haury

May 2022 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 11

News | Butler Tech Natural Life Sciences Center

Construction on Butler Tech’s Natural Science Center is expected to be completed in October of this year.

PIGS AND GOATS AND MINI HORSES, OH MY! Butler Tech’s Natural Science Center is getting a new 26,000 square foot upgrade that will allow students to further their education on veterinary science, equine science, and landscape and design. | story emily henderson | photography audrey allen | infographic cara raiford

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utler Tech Career and Development Schools set its sights on transforming its Monroe Campus with a major upgrade to its Natural Life Science Center that includes the construction of a two-story facility with classrooms, labs, and other spaces that will greatly impact the education of its students.

The construction is currently underway and is expected to be completed in October of 2022, and students will be able to enjoy the campus for the majority of the 2022-23 school year.

According to Project Manager David Clark, the new 26,000 square foot facility will include the construction of two new lab spaces, an animal pen to house larger animals like pigs, goats, ducks, and small horses, a full-service kitchen, a large central commons area for dining, an administration space, and multiple classrooms that allow animals to go in and out to provide students with a more “hands-on” experience.

“It’s going to really enhance the standard of education that they have [at the campus],” Clark told Spark. “Before, they just didn’t have some of the opportunities that some of the other campuses have from Butler Tech.”

Butler Tech’s last upgrade was to its Bioscience Center, which is located at 8450 Capstone Blvd. in West Chester, in which a large atrium was constructed along with multiple classrooms and was a large inspiration for the construction at the Natural Life Science

12 lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2022

Center, according to Clark.

Before the Monroe Campus’ transformation began, it consisted of a 72-acre farm with a large barn that some classrooms were built into. According to Lakota Board of Education member and Lakota representative for Butler Tech Julie Shaffer, most classrooms were housed in modular trailers that were removed in June 2021 to facilitate the construction of the new building. “[The modular trailers] didn’t allow flexible learning environments and were overcrowded,” Shaffer told Spark. “[The new] buildings will better meet demand and have less upkeep.”

Along with the indoor construction, the Natural Life Science Center will also see the creation of outdoor work and dining areas.

“We worked hard to create a lot of outdoor space in the form of plazas, dining areas, and work areas, because there’s such a large animal component on the site,” Clark said. “We want to make areas where students can be outside with the animals, work with the animals, and learn. Teachers can also use that area to instruct.

It will give [the students] some really unique and engaging spaces to stimulate the different ways that they can get together and learn.”

The planning process for this new facility began in fall 2020, when members of Butler Tech met with students and parents to gather an understanding of what they wanted to have in the building.

“We’d ask [parents and students]: What do they want it to look like? Where did they want it on the site?” Clark said. “We’d work with them through that process.”

According to Clark, the early months of 2021 consisted of preparation for the actual construction by putting together drawings, documents, specific details of the materials, and designing what the building will look like and how it will facilitate the needs of students.

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onstruction officially broke ground in May 2021, and Clark said “it’s about 50% complete at the moment” and hopes to have the facility fully completed in October of this year. When finished, the cost of the new building will be around $12.5 million and is funded through Butler Tech.

Due to the construction of the new facility, students attending the Monroe Campus, as well as the academic staff, were temporarily moved to Butler Tech’s main campus in Fairfield.

However, they will be back to their classrooms at the Monroe Campus for the majority of the 2022-23 school year.

The upgrade will help continue the “career technical education” that Butler Tech has provided for students and adults in Ohio for more than 40 years within their six campuses, according to their website. Butler Tech allows students to focus on learning information in the field of their choice rather than learning the curriculum-required

Butler Tech Natural Life Sciences Center | News classes provided at high schools.

“Students will graduate prepared to enter the workforce or pursue the military or higher education,” Shaffer said. “While in the program, many students will gain internship or hands-on experience in a workplace.”

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he Monroe Campus specifically focuses on veterinary science, equine science, and landscaping and design. East sophomore Ava Ratliff, who will be attending the Monroe Campus for the 2022-23 school year, thinks that any student interested in these programs will benefit from the new upgrade, as illustrations and renderings of the finished project have shown classrooms with doors that allow animals to come inside, enabling students to work hands-on with the animals without limitations.

“I want to be a veterinarian,” Ratliff told Spark. “I’ll be able to actually interact with the animals inside my own classroom, so I’m very excited.”

During the Lakota Board of Education meeting on Mar. 28, Julie Shaffer announced that Butler Tech did not have the capacity for all 2270 applicants, and had to turn away 700 students that applied to Butler Tech schools.

Due to this capacity issue, Butler Tech is looking to expand in “out-of-the-box ways” in order to make room for more students. This new Natural Life Science Center is just one of the ways that Butler Tech and Lakota are expanding to meet the needs of students.

“Butler Tech has gone to a lottery system rather than an interview process. This has

caused more students to apply,” Shaffer said.

“In addition, they’ve added a sophomore program that had a significant number of students unable to enter the program. For those not accepted, they can still apply the following year to the regular program or the senior-only programs being developed.”

In this new lottery system, officials randomly select applicants rather than interviewing them.

Many schools implement a lottery system rather than an interview process to not only prevent any potential bias from officials when choosing students to attend the school, but also because it is a less time-consuming process.

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ast partners with Butler Tech on curriculum within Lakota buildings, with classes such as sports medicine being introduced at the high school because of Butler Tech. Lakota’s Director of Curriculum and Instruction Keith Koehne said that while nothing is in place yet, Lakota is always working closely with Butler Tech to integrate programs that will benefit the students at East, and that there may be discussions of new programs after the completion of the Natural Life Science Center.

“Our partnership with Butler Tech provides amazing opportunities for our students,” Koehne told Spark. “They have some incredible programs at their locations and we have a lot of great satellite programs on our campuses. Butler Tech programs align very well with our Portrait of a Lakota Graduate and the 4 E’s as our goals for every Lakota student.”•

The Butler Tech Natural Science Center is located on a former 61 acre fruit farm on Route 63 in Monroe.

The farm-like setting provides students the opportunity to work in a real-world setting.

Butler Tech Natural Science Center has animals like horses for students to work with and learn from in the Equine Science Program.

Students learn in the Landscape Science Program how to create landscapes on the grassy fields of the campus.

May 2022 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 13

News | Jenni Logan Retirement

JENNI LOGAN RETIREMENT

Q: What is your job and what do you do?

A: I am the treasurer [and] Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for the district. That means I take care of all the financial aspects of the districts, like distributing money and making sure everyone is paid.

Spark interviews Lakota Chief Financial Officer of 11 years Jenni Logan after the announcement of her retirement at the end of this year. story rehab jarabah | photography mia hilkowitz

Q: How do you like working for Lakota?

A: I like working for Lakota. I love the people that I work with. The executive team that I work with here is the best in the business. And I will say that that’s past and current members. I believe that we keep the students at the heart of our work. You know, I’m in the financial world. So when you think of schools, you think of teachers and educators. I’m not a business person. I worked in private [industries] for four and a half years, and that’s great. You can chase profits, and you can chase bonuses, and you can create a lovely life for yourself and your family. But I needed to work somewhere that I feel like there’s a bigger purpose and public education is a great place. I believe in it and I am happy to be here to support the teaching of our students. I feel like Lakota is doing a fabulous job of that and I’m just happy to be part of the team.

Q: How would you describe the relationships you have at Lakota?

A: So number one, the relationship with the superintendent [Matt Miller] is so important. He is my partner. It’s so important to see [the superintendent] as a partner. We work directly with the Board of Education. We’re the only two who work directly with them. It’s important with those five people that our relationship is strong, because they need to depend on the two of us day in and day out. As for the Board of Education, I feel like I’ve had a good relationship with every member who has served on this Board of Education as well. Stepping into that role, I understand that they all believe that they are here for a purpose, and so I respect that. I feel like I’ve got a good relationship with all of them. The staff here supports me every day.

We have each other’s backs. The executive team are some of my best friends. I feel like we have a family here and I think a lot of times I’m looked at as the mom, probably because of my age. It’s definitely a family atmosphere and I would walk through fire for them, and I feel like they would for me too.

Lakota Treasurer and CFO Jenni Logan will be retiring from the position after 11 years.

14 lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2022

Q: What is your favorite part of your job?

A: I love explaining the financials to our community. It’s important that there is transparency between [Central Office] and the community, and me being able to openly communicate with people in our district is being transparent.

Jenni Logan Retirement | News and less fun. While I will run into a building if it’s on fire instead of running away from it, I’m ready for someone else to do it. I will always be here to support, but I’m ready to do something else, look to the next chapter of my life, and to spend more time with my granddaughters.

East teacher Kevin Carlin jokes with Logan in her office.

Q: How has your job changed throughout the years?

A: I feel like now, as we have seen in our country and our communities, differences of opinions have really made everybody’s relationships and work harder, because I feel like there’s this fracturing and we can’t agree to disagree anymore. And that has challenged this work as well. I think it’s going to continue. I can’t wait for the day when we all come together and respect each other’s differences instead of screaming at one another. But that’s one of the changes I’ve also seen in this work which is disheartening.

At the core of our work is still educating kids.

One of the things I am so careful about is I want to be seen as a professional person. Like if somebody looks at me, I want them to say, ‘you know what, she was professional’, and I try to live my life that way. I want to be respectful of others, and I want that to come back to myself too. But I want to be an example to the kids that we are educating here because I also believe that while we have teachers in the classroom who are educating, I also believe I’m part of that educational process by doing the work I’m doing and people are watching. Someone

is always watching and I hope that I’ve been a great example for our children in some way too. I think we all need to remember that the children are watching us.

Q: What prompted you to announce your retirement?

A: So first of all, whenever you’re eligible for retirement, everybody looks at it and says, ‘Should I go? Should I not?’ and I also believe that if I still believe I can make a difference, then I’ll keep doing what I’m doing. But at what cost? The cost for me is [that] I have a family. I have a husband, two daughters, and two granddaughters. I feel like I’ve given up some time with my family because I’ve been giving to my Lakota family.

Now, I think I can start giving a little bit more time to them, especially with my granddaughters. I’m their ‘Gigi,’ which is grandma, but cool. I am just ready to start having a little bit more flexibility in my life and be able to do that more. I also don’t think it’s any secret that this work is getting harder

Q: Do you have any plans for after retirement?

A: I still feel like I’m still young. While I’m eligible to retire, I still want to do something that I still feel like has value, so I am looking at different opportunities that have presented themselves. I don’t have it all figured out yet, but I still plan on doing something. We have a family business. I’m looking at opportunities and seeing where I feel like I can still have some flexibility.

Q: What is your family business?

A: We are in the industrial construction company, spread across the country. My daughters and their partners, as well as my husband, all work for the company. I’d be able to do the financial aspects of the company, and I’d be able to do it with my family. • Logan stands in her office of 11 years.

Eligible entities that receive the award meet the following criteria of a “clean” audit report:

Under Logan, Lakota has won eight Auditor of State Awards with Distinction from the Ohio Auditor of State 15 lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2022

•The entity must file financial reports with the Auditor of State’s office by the statutory due date, without extension, via the Hinkle System, on a GAAP accounting basis and prepare a CAFR (Comprehensive Annual Financial Report).

•The audit report does not contain any findings for recovery, material citations, material weaknesses, significant deficiencies, Uniform Guidance (Single Audit) findings or questioned costs.

•The entity’s management letter contains no comments related to: •Ethics referrals •Questioned costs less than the threshold per the Uniform Guidance •Lack of timely annual financial report submission •Bank reconciliation issues •Failure to obtain a timely Single Audit in accordance with Uniform Guidance •Findings for recovery less than $500 •Public meetings or public records issues source ohioauditor.gov •The entity has no other financial or other concerns

May 2022 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 15

News | Therapy Dogs Therapy dog Popcorn visited East classrooms this March.

PAWS-ITIVITY

Since 2019, Lakota has been involving therapy dogs within the curriculum for grades K-7, leading to positive changes throughout the district.

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story and infographic riley grosnickle | photography megan miranda

ine dogs within two years–an astonishing progression and push forward for the intervention of therapy dogs within the Lakota Local School District. Before 2019, Lakota had never intertwined therapy dogs within the district’s curriculum. Now, two years later, therapy dogs with various backgrounds are scattered across the district, but only up to seventh grade.

Executive Director of Special Services Andrea Longworth said that the expansion of therapy dogs in the district experienced such a rapid progression due to the “right conversations at the right time.” Longworth said that the district began brainstorming the ideas in December 2019, and around January 2020, Lakota introduced its first therapy dog, Zooey.

“We didn’t quite know what we were doing at that time, we just knew that [with] the unconditional love that the dogs have we were willing to try,” Longworth said.

During the short period that the dogs have become involved within the district, they have made a drastic change and impact on both the staff and students. Union Elementary Assistant principal Bre Sambuchino said that there are situations, such as fire drills, which can cause disruptions during the day; the therapy dogs can aid students during these situations.

“Almost every drill day we have a group of students who will request to see our dog Quiz,” Sambuchino said.

Sambuchino said that there are situations where the staff of the building will know a student will have something going on and put the student on Quiz’s “caseload,” as Sambuchino described it.

The dogs have changed the lives of many staff and students, according to Special Services Director for grades 7-8 Sherri Copland. She recalls one instance where a seventh grade student worked alongside a therapy dog, Tambo,

16 lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2022

On Apr. 1, East’s HOPE Squad organized an event where multiple therapy dogs would visit East. In total, East ended up having five therapy dogs visit the building that day. East School Psychologist and Co-advisor of HOPE Squad Jayna Rodarte said the impact of therapy dogs for students is profound.

“The benefits of having a therapy dog goes beyond the benefits of what even I can do as a psychologist,” Rodarte said. “They bring a whole different way for students, who maybe don’t want to talk about their feelings, to express themselves.”

For East students and staff, a question of whether or not the building will eventually get a therapy dog has arisen, but a therapy dog for East and West is unlikely to happen. Longworth said that the likelihood of either of the highschools getting their own therapy dogs is slim.

“The dog has very particular students that they’re scheduled to see,” Longworth said. “With the high schools being so large, it would be a little cumbersome to be able to do.”

According to Longworth, the other major factor that comes into play is allergies.

“We have students in our district who are highly allergic to dogs and not just allergic–highly allergic,” Longworth said. “We have to ensure the safety of our students, and with us only having two high schools, that can be limiting.”

East sophomore and a member of East’s HOPE Squad Madelyn Luers found that the visit from the therapy dogs at East was a perfect break during the day.

“I feel like when most people see the dogs their day is immediately brightened, and these dogs make a positive impact on the district as a whole,” Luers said.•

who is located at Liberty Junior School. While the student requested to remain anonymous, they permitted the sharing of their story.

Copeland said that this student received speech therapy instruction and that the main reason the student had to receive speech therapy was that the boy “spoke in a very, very quiet voice, almost mouthing whispers.” It was to the point where neither the teachers nor his peers could hear him. They had been working on communication since he began therapy.

At some point last winter, the speech therapist pulled Liberty Junior therapy All Paws on Deck dog, Tambo, into the sessions.

The different roles that dogs assume to assist humans. “[The speech therapist] taught the student how to give Tambo commands,” Copeland said. “She would increase the distance between them so that the student had to speak louder and louder.”

Today, Copeland said the student can be heard from across the room without any issues. Copeland said that this progress “all happened after Tambo became a part of his therapy sessions.”

For Lakota, the therapy dogs are not simply trained to become therapy dogs; rather, they describe the dogs as “service dog flunkies,” according to Copeland.

They recieve this name due to these dogs being service dog dropouts for one reason or another. They are not certified service dogs, but they are facility dogs. Zooey was one dog who failed her service dog test.

Union Elementary School therapy dog, Service Dog Therapy Dog Emotional Support Trained to bring Animal Quiz, also flunked, but this was due to her Specifically trained to comfort and joy Provides support intolerance for wearing a vest. perform tasks to those in a and emotional “When I take her to a building and I that mitigate hospital, school or comfort to a other group care handler with mental hand her off to the handler at the building, a handler’s environment. illness. she gets excited. A service dog cannot do dissability. source genesisassistancedogsinc.org that,” Copeland said.

Prom | News of balloons, the prom committee works closely together, leading up to the big event.

“There’s a lot of little things you just don’t think of. [For example], this year we are having candy, so they decided what kind of candy to get,” Baker said. “The committee also makes posters and comes up with the spirit week.”

T A NIGHT IN THE CLOUDS Prom, a junior and senior student school dance, made a comeback this year operating at full capacity. story olivia rigney | art cara raiford

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ast upperclassmen were up in the clouds and down on the dancefloor celebrating the 2022 prom this April. The Sharonville Convention Center welcomed East juniors and seniors on April 23 and was themed “Up in the Clouds.” After last year’s prom only allowed senior students to attend, this year’s prom permitted juniors and seniors along with authorized guests.

While the date of the prom is determined much in advance, Prom Committee Advisor and teacher Sally Baker says there are other factors that need to be worked out as the school year begins.

“At the beginning of school, around September, is usually when we start thinking about when we’re going to have our first meeting and start advertising,” Baker told

Spark. “We already know the date for the next couple of years and have the venue and DJ all set up for the next year already.”

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longside Baker, advising the student-led prom committee is East Office Manager Susanne Linder. Every other Tuesday, the team works side-by-side with the students who volunteer to join the committee and take on the prom-planning duties.

“The first thing we do is figure out a theme.

We throw all the ideas out there and then [the committee] picks what theme they would like,” Linder told Spark. “Then once when we decide on a theme, they design invitations [and] T-shirts. When that is all finalized we go into assessing decorations.”

Aside from choosing centerpieces and colors

he prom court royalty is another staple surrounding the event. Students are nominated by their peers via an online survey and the court is elected. This year, seniors Evie Colpi and Ben Stowe were crowned prom queen and king, following their wins as Homecoming royalty and the “Cutest Couple” senior superlative.

“I wasn’t expecting it at all but it was the coolest moment [to be] surrounded by my friends and a great way to end my senior year,” Colpi said. “I feel really lucky and I know my five-year-old self watching High School Musical would be very very proud of this moment.”

Putting on big events like prom has been a struggle in the past, according to Baker, due to the previous COVID-19 restrictions. However, this year’s climate with lighter regulations has made the planning process easier.

“It was stressful last year because you’re doing everything you can and then you didn’t know what was going on with COVID-19.

So it’s nice to be able to go back and not have anything to worry about,” Baker said. “This year to me is going to be back to normal.”

East principal Rob Burnside agrees that prom and other optional events have been made possible due to a relaxing of tighter COVID-19 restrictions.

“As a leader of the school I always want to find ways to give [students] those experiences and I’m thankful when we’re able to do that,” Burnside told Spark. “I’m thankful that we’re at a point now where we don’t have all those things looming over us.”

As prom signifies the end of the school year approaching, Burnside hopes that prom and other events have created positive experiences in what may be uncertain times.

“My job as principal of this building is to do everything I can to create the optimal experience,” Burnside said. “[End of the year events] are all a part of the evolution of being a young adult, and we need those memories.” •

“It was stressful last year because you’re doing everything you can and then you didn’t know what was going on with COVID-19.

So it’s nice to be able to go back and not have anything to worry about.” -Prom Committee Advisor Sally Baker May 2022 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 17

News | Black Student Union’s Push for Cords

East senior and Black Student Union President Kay Kay Bayoli stands outside of the May 9 Board of Education Meeting where she made a public comment following the Board’s decision to prohibit the wearing of cords and stoles at graduation.

CORDS FOR CHANGE

In response to East Black Student Union’s hashtag, #BSUCordsForChange, and the subsequent dialogue about who should receive a cord, all East clubs will now have the opportunity to wear a medal representing their club at graduation.

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story oliver tomtishen | photography mia hilkowitz s she stood at the podium in the meeting room at Plains Junior School, every seat filled and dozens sitting on the ground around her, East senior Kay Kay Baloyi only focused on the five people in front of her: the Lakota Board of Education.

“I was afraid of being identified as yet another angry Black woman, an identity that can be quite damaging to someone in my position, but I’m not afraid anymore,” Bayoli stated at the Apr. 14 Board of Education meeting.

As graduation for the class of 2022 comes closer, Baloyi, who is also the president of East’s Black Student Union (BSU), spoke at the district’s Board of Education meeting on Apr. 14 to inform the board about the clubs’ request to obtain and wear cords at graduation.

The club was recently recognized under the National Black Student Union Alliance as an official chapter member, Baloyi said.

“Graduates who are a part of the organization also receive graduation stoles and cords for their membership,” Baloyi said. “I’m here to ask the Lakota School Board to consider allowing BSU graduating members and officers who are a part of the class of 2022 to wear these cords to graduation.”

This request went to the Board of Education,

18 lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2022

but was ultimately voted down. On May 6, East Principal Rob Burnside announced to students, parents, and community members through email that in order to balance uniform appearance and personalization, all students would receive a medal to wear during graduation, customizable to represent one club or activity they were involved in during high school.

In response to Baloyi’s speech, Lakota Superintendent Matt Miller publicly stated at the same board meeting that he would work with Burnside, West Principal Ben Brown, and other district officials to learn more about the process to allow cords at graduation ceremonies.

“In the spirit of diversity can we add cords for families who have veterans, people with disabilities, as well as other ethnicities that are included in our school district?” Board of Education member Darbi Boddy asked in a question directed to Miller during this board meeting.

In response to Boddy’s question, Board of Education President Lynda O’Connor stated that the question should be resolved before graduation.

“It’s always a question around this time of year, and it’d be nice if we resolve it before we get to graduation so we’re fair across the board on all of those issues,” O’Connor responded in the

meeting.

In response to her speech at the Apr. 14 meeting, former candidate for the Lakota Board of Education Douglas Horton announced on Apr. 25 during the monthly district work session that he and other various community members had purchased graduation cords for the members of BSU. While the students will not be able to wear the cords at graduation, as decided on May 6, members of BSU can still wear their cords for senior photos and other non-school sponsored events.

“It was just an epiphany of like, oh yeah, ‘we don’t have to necessarily ask for permission, or they [BSU] don’t have to necessarily ask for permission for them to celebrate themselves,’” Horton told Spark. “So I signed up to speak to just inform [the board] that myself and several community members had purchased the cords.”

After many members of the Lakota community and the district began to see more of the online hashtag, “#BSUCordsForChange,” the movement began to attract awareness.

Horton explained that the organizations’ request interested him and many other community members who wanted to reach out and contribute to show BSU that the

Black Student Union’s Push for Cords | News community supports them after the school board had not given an exact response to the club’s request. The cords were set to be delivered to the club on May 1 according to Baloyi.

“Regardless of whether or not the board said yes or no, we wanted to send a message to the BSU that we hear them,” Horton said.

“We celebrate the work that they’ve done, and regardless of policies and procedures that either the highschool or the board may put in place, that the community is here to support them.”

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n order for a school club or organization to qualify and wear cords to graduation, the club has to meet a list of requirements set by the National Black Student Alliance, all of which BSU meets according to Baloyi. The group has more than 50 members, all senior members have a 3.0 GPA or higher, and service hours which are all included in the list of requirements from the national organization.

In the beginning of this process, Baloyi received an email from the National Black Student Alliance about the opportunity, which is where she received these requirements. The email stated the list and asked for a return email on whether or not the group was applicable.

Once the group was approved, they were sent different vendors from which they could purchase the cords.

Baloyi said that she and the club feared that the school board would not approve the request, which is when she began planning. On Apr. 14, Baloyi attended the district board meeting and publicly proposed her idea to the board. A week later, having heard no further discussion on the topic, Baloyi and the BSU created the hashtag, #BSUCordsForChange. She explained the situation and reason for the cause in a Twitter post on BSU’s page and tagged board members, East Principal Rob Burnside, Superintendent Matt Miller, and Horton.

“When you sit down with somebody who doesn’t agree with you, or who doesn’t see your perspective, or doesn’t understand the situation, that’s when change comes in,” Baloyi said. “We don’t allow things to stop us. We really take the initiative. For instance, if the school says we can’t do something because it causes a problem, we bring a solution.”

After the board meeting, Horton reached out to Baloyi to voice that he and other community members had a plan to get BSU their cords. “[Horton] directly messaged me and let me know that he was going to make a plan for us,” Baloyi said. “I didn’t know what that plan was.

I was just like, ‘Oh my god, he’s gonna make a plan and that’s great.’”

After a few days, Horton made the announcement on social media that the cords were purchased. This was a relief to Baloyi and an overall achievement for the club. In Baloyi’s speech at the board meeting where she introduced the idea, she highlighted that the BSU wanted the cords not because of their race

and the fact that it is an ethnic-based club, but because of the hard work, effort, and time put into the organization.

“I always emphasize the fact that it’s a union.

It’s not just a ‘Black student club,’” Baloyi said.

“It’s a collective body of people that all have one mission, one goal.”

BSU explores many different discussion topics including conversations about racism, colorism, Black athletes, microaggressions, and activities for their weekly meetings. East senior and ally to BSU Madison LeQuire explained that the club does not fixate on the sad or traumatic parts of being Black in America. The club organizes many additional out-of-school activities to celebrate and acknowledge the positivity, such as movie nights, talent shows, and the “Black Girl Magic festival,” which was an interactive science fair to showcase Black women and their skills throughout history.

“It’s the same way that National Honors Society (NHS) isn’t just about having good grades--the BSU cords aren’t just about being Black,” LeQuire said. “It’s about the leadership and achievement that all goes into being a part of the organization.”

BSU is a place for racial unity and education for all, according to LeQuire and other members. The cords will be a physical symbol of their accomplishments, whether they are able to wear them for graduation or for personal celebrations.

“As a white member, I’m also getting a cord,”

dropout rate for African-American females is 41%, and the dropout rate is 52% for AfricanAmerican males. Baloyi also stated that Black children are also six times more likely to be shot by a police officer before the age of 18.

“I feel like being here and still being able to walk on this earth is a greater accomplishment,” Taylor said. “I feel like that is something that should be acknowledged.”

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hile the members of BSU are prohibited from wearing the cords at graduation, they can still wear the cords during photos and non-school sponsored events. In his email to students, parents, and community members, Burnside stated that the reasoning behind this decision was due to uniformity in attire.

“After careful consideration and lengthy discussion, it has been determined that this collective and uniform standard is consistent with the district mission of #WEareInThisTogether as it allows the schools to celebrate the graduating classes as a full unit without drawing attention to an individual student or group of students,” Burnside wrote.

Burnside added that the only stoles and cords that will be worn at graduation are stoles provided by the school for members of the National Honor Society and National Technical Honor Society.

“This determination has been reached based upon the fact that these groups are unique in

“We really take the initiative. For instance, if the school says we can’t do something because it causes a problem, we bring a solution.” -Kay Kay Baloyi LeQuire said. “It’s because of factors like time and commitment and awareness. It’s about the cause, not the skin color.”

East senior and BSU member, Jessica Taylor and Baloyi also touch on the fact that BSU has opened up opportunities for Black and POC students that they were not aware of before. Such opportunities include historically Black colleges and universities, jobs, internships, and other resources that are available for Black students.

“There is something very powerful about being Black and being a Black woman in America.” Taylor said. “We are one of the only race based clubs here at East and being able to recognize that and still be able to go through life with all of the struggles that we go through [is important to acknowledge].”

During the Apr. 14 board meeting Baloyi opened her speech with a few statistics that she labeled as volatile. For instance, the highschool

that they recognize student accomplishments in the wide-ranging areas of character, scholarship, leadership and service; they are not specific to one particular academic discipline, and all staff members in the high schools and the Butler Tech Career Center have input on students’ induction,” Burnside stated in the email.

The club has to respect the policies and procedures put in by the school during the graduation ceremony, but the gesture Horton and about a half-dozen community members made was intended to show BSU that the community hears and sees them, as well as to celebrate all that they have done.

“I hope the BSU takes that as a lesson; yes, you have to fight for recognition. Yes, you have to fight for what you want,” Horton told Spark.

“But nobody is the arbitrator of how you should feel about yourself or how you should recognize your accomplishments.”•

May 2022 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 19

News | Curriculum Audit

CURRICULUM AUDIT

The Hamilton County Educational Service Center in Colerain conducted the recent Lakota curriculum audit.

Lakota partnered with the Hamilton County Educational Service Center to conduct a curriculum audit of English and Math Curriculum for grades 7-10.

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story ria malhi | photography mia hilkowitz ver the last seven months, Lakota has worked in partnership with the Hamilton County Educational Service Center (ESC) to conduct a curriculum audit of English and Math for grades 7-10. This audit has occurred throughout the middle and high school buildings and is being conducted to make sure curriculum is aligning with the state standards according to Lakota Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction Keith Koehne.

The Hamilton County ESC has conducted previous audits for the district and is an outside independent source. According to Koehne, many times districts evaluate all their options and look at the determining factors before picking a center. Many times districts look at the size of the audit and what they are looking to accomplish when choosing their resources.

“For small audits like the one just completed, there are good local resources, ‘’ Koehne told Spark. “For larger audits, you can receive proposals from multiple organizations to find the most appropriate and fiscally responsible solution.”

“The Educational Service Centers around the state are designed to support school districts with exactly this kind of work,’’ Koehne told Spark. “They have content area experts on staff who are trained in standards alignments.”

Amid speculation about the purpose of the audit, Lakota has made it clear that this audit was regularly scheduled and not as a response to statements made at recent Board of Education Meetings. Koehne said that state requirements are often updated and as changes are made, the district works to keep its curriculum in line with the state standards.

“Most districts have a rotation where they take a look at curriculum, curriculum materials and documents,’’ Director of Instructional Services at Hamilton County ESC Karen Austin told Spark. “Most districts have around a five

year rotation where they do a different subject.”

According to Austin, oftentimes districts have rotations set in place to make sure curriculum is audited every so often. Lakota works to make sure curriculum stays up to date and usually audits happen every five years with the last one taking place in 2015.

“I wish the public understood that the current audit is part of the standard operations of most public school districts,“ Koehne told Spark. “We had plans to do that work over the last few years but were unable due to the other challenges we were facing.”

English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics are the focus of this curriculum audit. These are two subjects that require end of year testing in Ohio. Both are core classes in a 7-12 curriculum and are required classes to graduate from high school. According to Austin, the subjects being evaluated in an audit are decisions made by the school district based on what they feel is necessary.

“Most districts focus on the tested subjects [such as] ELA and Math,’’ Austin told Spark. “It’s not uncommon for these subjects to be done first.”

Within an audit there are different types of examinations. Course documents, teacher instruction, and instructional documents are just some of the things that can be looked at in the process. The recent audit covered curricular documents which are separate from instructional documents which can vary from lesson plans or textbooks.

“The current audit reviewed current Math and ELA curricular documents with content specific markers for alignment, consistency, and vertical progression,” Keohne told Spark.

Teachers were closely involved in the process as many spoke directly with the Hamilton County ESC and district officials. Teachers were surveyed throughout the process by both the district and the Hamilton County ESC to

20 lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2022

provide information and feedback.

“Our district did a good job keeping teachers involved in the process,” East Mathematics Teacher and Head of the Mathematics Department Michael Floyd told Spark. “Not only did they ask for advice but they’ve also followed up with information showing what the audit said and what the next steps are.”

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he audit took place over several months with communication between the Hamilton County ESC, the district, department heads, and teachers. The district worked to keep all teachers on the same page and updated throughout the process of the audit.

“The Hamilton County ESC person contacted me directly and we had an online chat for about an hour,” Floyd told Spark. “[We talked about] just about all the different things about our curriculum that we have done and what we are using.”

“Many of our best ideas come from our teachers so it is critical to have them deeply involved from the beginning, ‘’ Koehne told Spark. “They helped come up with the goals of the project and were updated along the way.”

Although the audit has been completed and results have been given to the district they have not been released to the public. The district would like to share these results with board members and teachers before releasing them to the public.

Koehne says that the district values teachers seeing feedback so improvement can be made.

“We are all about accountability and continuous improvement,” Kohne said to Spark. “ That is why we bring in independent organizations to assess our current situation and provide us feedback for growth,” Kohne said. “We know we have room for improvement and are excited about doing that work to help benefit our students.” •

section | story

Military Commitment Ceremony | News

Lakota students participate in the annual Military Commitment Ceremony.

FOR THE RED RED,, WHITE WHITE,, AND BLUE

The Military Commitment Ceremony celebrated seniors who have committed to a branch of service after graduation.

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story and photography audrey allen | infographic evie colpi

he sits patiently in the seat for her name to be called. Even though the bright stage lights are in her eyes, she can clearly see her family in the audience smiling up at her. East senior Abby Fehr’s name is announced by East Principal Rob Burnside for her commitment to the Army National Guard as a dental specialist. With a smile on her face, she gets up and receives her award from Lakota Superintendent Matt Miller.

At the Lakota District’s fifth annual Military Commitment Ceremony, 18 students who have made a commitment to enter a branch of service after graduation were celebrated.

“The school and community relations department organizes the Military Commitment Ceremony. Our first Military Commitment Ceremony recognized the class of 2018,” Director of Lakota School and Community Public Relations Betsy Fuller told Spark. “This is an event that Mr. Miller introduced when he arrived in Lakota his first year.”

This year, five students from East and West committed to the U.S. Air Force, six students committed to the U.S. Army, three students committed to the U.S. Marine Corps, two students committed to the U.S. Navy, and two students committed to the U.S. Army National Guard, including Fehr.

“My mom and stepdad were both in the army, so I figured I would go for it too. My recruiter randomly called me and told me he had an interesting job that he thought would be perfect for me,” Fehr told Spark. “I was the first dental recruit he has had in 20 years so it’s pretty cool for both of us.”

To prepare for the ceremony, Lakota advertised the event to seniors who have committed to the military and had them sign up with their counselor.

“In partnership with the counselors at both high schools, we advertise the event to all seniors. It is open to seniors who have

committed to serving in a branch of the military after graduation, the ROTC or who will attend a military academy,” Fuller said. “The students sign up with their counselor.”

The Military Commitment Ceremony was held at the East Freshman Campus on Apr. 26.

“We hosted it at the Freshman campus which I think is great because I think that it is a building with a great facility we want to be showcasing,” Burnside told Spark. “So when I was the principal [at the freshman campus], I loved having one night a year where the freshman campus got to shine.”

Students were eager to represent their branch of the military and celebrate their next steps after high school.

“I’m excited for the commitment ceremony because I want my family and friends to be able to see that I got my life together and planned out my next six years,” Fehr said. “I am also excited for the Army because I think it will make me more disciplined and mentally stronger.”

This year’s keynote speaker was Kendall C. Wright, a former U.S. Army Sergeant Tank FUTURE Commander who HEROES is now president and CEO of FROM a leadership LAKOTA development The star represents the percentage of the 18 and customer Lakota students that experience are going into each branch of the military. training company called Entelechy Training.

The Veterans of Foreign War (VFW) Color Guard, which is composed of members of Post 7696 West

Chester and the American Legion Color Guard, and Post 681 West Chester/Liberty have joined each year for the Presentation of the Colors.

The Presentation of the Colors is a ceremony presenting or retiring a flag. The “colors” refer to a flag. A color guard, consisting of two honor guards and two flag bearers, presents or retires the colors. A Sergeant-at-Arms dictates the orders during the ceremony. Additionally, Eastside Voices and the Lakota West Chorale joined together to perform the Star Spangled Banner. Both choirs then performed an individual song.

“Our Military Commitment Ceremony is unique in that we are recognizing seniors from both Lakota East and West high schools together in the spirit of WE are Lakota,” Fuller said.

This event was live streamed on the West Chester Township’s YouTube channel for people who could not attend for the second year.

“We’re happy to be able to offer this to our community again,” Fuller said.

Burnside believes that these students need to be recognized for being willing to put their life on the line just like his uncles and grandfather did for him.

“There’s a special appreciation that goes along with those students who are willing to go and literally put their lives on the line to protect the things that we take for granted,” Burnside said. “I am so proud of those students who have chosen to make a sacrifice and put themselves in a position where they’re protecting the life that I live everyday. There’s not enough that we can do to thank those students and their families.”

Enlisting in the military is one of the four Es of Lakota along with enrollment in college, employment in our workforce, and Entrepreneurship.

“At Lakota, we fully support our students who are putting service before self and making the commitment to enlist in the military after high school–it’s even one of our 4 Es,” Fuller said. “The ceremony is an opportunity for the community to join us in showing our support.”• army 11% 17%

national guard navy

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marine corps air force

News | Military Commitment Ceremony

FALLING INTO PLACE

East Principal Rob Burnside and his family recall their unique adoption story as they adopted their daughter, Zhana, from Russia in 2012 and their son, Ruslan, from Ukraine in 2015.

story marleigh winterbottom | photography used with permission | infographic mary barone

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hat started as a random email appearing in an inbox ended with two international adoptions: one from Russia and the other from Ukraine.

For East principal Rob Burnside and his wife Angel, random occurrences seemed to just keep falling into place to bring them their children.

It was a day like any other when Angel opened her email inbox in February 2011 to find an email from a random sender. Unsure of why she was receiving it, she opened the message to see what it contained: information on international adoption. Not knowing why or how she was sent the email, Angel deleted it from her inbox. A few weeks later, another appeared. In it were photos of children up for adoption, one of which being her soon-to-be

January 2011 Following a sermon series by her pastor, Angel Burnside decides she’ll pray about adoption.

adopted daughter Zhana from Russia.

“I just started clicking through and looking at the kids. And when I got to [Zhana’s] photo, I gasped. My boys were playing a video game across the floor. And they said, ‘What is it?’”

Angel says. “There was just something about when she popped up on the screen that made me go, ‘oh my goodness, that child.’”

What the sender of the email didn’t know was that Angel and Rob had just started discussing the idea of adoption about a month prior after a sermon series at church. Their pastor urged them to tackle something they have been wanting to do, but haven’t because it is “just too big.” Post-it notes were passed around at the service for people to write down what they wanted to tackle. Angel had written

one word: adoption.

“We hadn’t told anyone. [My husband and I had] only talked about it between ourselves.

We hadn’t told anyone at church. We hadn’t mentioned it to a family member, nothing. So I thought, maybe this [email] is a sign,” Angel says. “My husband and I talked about it and decided to just take the first step. And if that looks doable, then we’ll just keep going until a door gets slammed in our face and we find it’s not the right thing. But that never happened.

Things kept falling into place.”

While Angel had been passionate about adoption for some time, Rob didn’t feel the initial pull to adopt but wanted to support his wife in her passions.

“I remember telling her she could start

April 2011 Angel and Rob Burnside begin the process of adoption with fundraising & doing paperwork.

January 1, 2013 Russian President Valadimir Putin bans citizens of the United States from adopting Russian children.

Zhana’s Adoption Story - Russia February 2011 Angel received an email by mistake including a photo of Zhana who Angel felt immediately drawn to.

22 lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2022

January 1, 2012 Zhana is adopted and comes home at approximately eight-years-old.

Burnside Family Adoption | Feature (left) Rob and Angel Burnside with Zhana in her orphanage in Russia at the end of 2011. (right) Rob and Angel Burnside outside of the court room in Ukraine with Ruslan after his was adoption finalized in March 2015.

doing her research on fundraising, grants, and things of that nature. I wasn’t going to stand in her way, but I didn’t want her to get her hopes up to be able to bring this girl home. I told her that even by the time we raise the money, she might be gone by the time we get there,” Rob says. “I came home from work that day and there’s a full-page 8.5” by 11” picture of this girl printed out and stuck to my refrigerator.”

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owever, his mindset suddenly changed one day after going on his usual run.

As he went to make a right turn near the Lebanon Home Depot store, a song started playing in his earphones and tears started to well in his eyes.

“Something about the words of the song just hit me. If this [child] were [my biological kids,] Braden, Isaac, Zane, or Marah who were stuck overseas and alone, I would not stop at anything to get them home,” Rob says. “By the time I got home, I was bawling. From that point on, my mindset had changed, and [the adoption] became very important to me.”

Soon after, the pair emailed the adoption agency to get a starter packet to look over.

They put down the first payment to get the ball rolling and waited for the packet to arrive in their mailbox. As Angel and Rob packed up preparing for their annual getaway trip, Angel checked the mailbox one last time to see if it had come. There it was sitting in their mailbox just in time before they left, so she grabbed it and decided to take it with them to read over while they had time on vacation.

Upon their arrival in the small town of Leavenworth, Indiana, Rob and Angel went to grab sandwiches from the town’s only General Store for dinner. As Angel went to check out at the register, she noticed a small bookshelf behind the counter. In particular, she noticed a book entitled “Adopted for Life.” So, she asked

February 2013 The Burnsides decide not to host a new child at the time due to expenses.

the cashier if she could take a look at it.

“He put it down and it was about a guy adopting kids. So I said ‘I want to get this book too,’” Angel says. “The guy behind the register picked it up and he hesitated for a couple of seconds. He looked at me and he said ‘today this book is free, I just don’t feel like I need to charge you for this.’ I didn’t tell him why we were buying it or anything.”

Angel took the book back to the Bed and Breakfast where they were staying to begin reading. The book was about a man who adopted two boys from Russia. The Burnsides took this as another sign. They completed the packet and began working towards a home study in hopes to bring Zhana home.

At the time of her adoption, Zhana was approximated to be 8-years-old. Due to her being found wandering a village by herself when she was 3 or 4 years old, there are no previous records of her birth or information.

Zhana doesn’t remember much from her time in Russia, but she can recall the conditions being poor.

“I remember there not being much food, and I would run away a lot,” Zhana says. “I was scared a lot and lonely and cold.”

Rob distinctly remembers meeting Zhana in Russia for the first time in November 2011, right after her approximate birthday in September. “[Zhana] came in, and they said ‘tell them how old you are’ and she said she seven. The people from the orphanage had to correct her and say ‘no, she’s eight,’” Rob says. “That hit me like a ton of bricks to know she just had a birthday. Every kid should be able to celebrate their birthday. That was really hard for me.”

On Jan. 1, 2012, Zhana came home as one of the last few kids to be adopted out of Russia before Russian President Vladimir Putin enacted a law banning citizens of the United States from adopting children from Russia that went into place on Jan. 1, 2013.

“Only about 63 kids got out of Russia after [Zhana] did because they closed [adoption] down the next year, which was part of some of the steps that led to the tensions that we’re experiencing today,” Rob says.

June 29, 2013 The Burnsides agree to host Ruslan from Ukraine for seven weeks of the summer.

Zhana didn’t learn about the law until several years after her adoption, but she feels lucky to have been able to be adopted out of Russia when she did. “[My adoption] seemed almost like a God thing,” Zhana says. “It makes me kind of sad too–to know that some of the friends I might have made might be on the streets or something. I definitely feel blessed.”

Even with the excitement of having Zhana home, the transition was far from easy.

“I had to tell all my kids that she doesn’t understand right from wrong right now and she’s not going to understand you telling her to stop,” Angel says. “She grew up in an orphanage, so her mentality is not ‘I need to be respectful and listen to my brothers and sisters.’

It’s going to be ‘I’m going to do whatever I want to get what I want.’”

Isaac Burnside, the second oldest of the biological children, recalls Zhana’s initial arrival to their home being a difficult adaption.

“When she first got here, that’s when you really noticed the cultural differences with her because she would just butt heads with anything you had to say,” Isaac says. “Even if it was common sense like telling her not to do something, she was still going do the opposite thing you just told her.”

Zhana remembers feeling overwhelmed by her new and vastly different environment.

“I went from having nothing to having everything,” Zhana says. “I remember stealing everything and just trying to take in as much as I could. I didn’t know I was gonna be there for a long time.”

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he other main hurdle to tackle was the language barrier. Upon her adoption, Zhana only knew Russian and no English.

Two days after arriving home, Zhana started going with Angel to work at a preschool.

There, she started gaining more exposure to English. Within the first few months, Angel could see that Zhana was starting to understand simple English instructions, so she purchased English workbooks to work through twice a week after her afternoon classes.

Another tactic they found successful was

March 2015 Ruslan is adopted and becomes a member of the Burnside family at 16-years-old.

Ruslan’s Adoption Story - Ukraine May 2013 The Burnsides hear of Ruslan, whose fees have been covered, but his family can no longer host him.

December 2013 Ruslan comes back to America for four weeks and tells the Burnsides that he wants them to adopt him.

May 2022 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 23

Feature | Burnside Family Adoption reading books together every night.

“I read that the number one thing you can do is read them books, so every night I would make her sit with me and her other two siblings and read books and point to the pictures as I’m reading them,” Angel says. “When I took her back after two years to have her evaluated again at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital to see where she was progress-wise, the psychologist was like ‘what did you do?’ She made tremendous strides. That was the key to her opening up.”

Zhana believes that is part of where her love for reading began.

“I definitely think that my mom reading to me contributed to my love of reading today,” Zhana says. “I remember hating to read and I would get pulled out of class to get extra help and we would read and we would do math, all the things I struggled with. I don’t know what happened, but the next day I just liked to read.

My mom definitely contributed to that.”

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ess than a year after Zhana’s adoption, Angel was approached by Guglielmo’s Hope, a non-profit organization that works to aid children living in orphanages by connecting them with host families in America. She was asked if her family would be interested in hosting a child in their home.

Having just completed Zhana’s adoption and still struggling to help her adapt, the Burnsides ultimately decided to pass on the hosting opportunity.

“We just finished the adoption. Financially, we were strapped,” Rob says. “There was no way we could fundraise and go through that again to host.

We were not sure our family was at a place we could do it, and we definitely couldn’t afford it.”

However, a few weeks later, Angel received another phone call from Guglielmo’s Hope in May 2013. There was a 14-year-old boy from Ukraine named Ruslan preparing to be hosted in America, but the family intending to host him had to back out at the last minute due to a terminal illness in the family. The fees had already been covered, and since the Burnsides had teen boys, they were asked if they would be Ruslan arriving home from Ukraine after his adoption was finalized.

interested. With the fees being covered and the boy flying in June just before their home study was set to expire, the Burnsides agreed to host Ruslan for seven weeks of the summer.

Again, the Burnsides found odd coincidences lining up to host Ruslan just as it had in the adoption process with Zhana.

Ruslan’s cohort would be flying into Chicago on June 29, 2013. Each year as a tradition, the Burnsides would plan the same trip each year. Coincidentally, in March 2013, the family decided to go somewhere more

how much money we can spend on doing fun things and change your life,’” Angel says. “As soon as I stopped talking, there was no pause.

He just continued to fold the laundry and said ‘why would I care if we were giving a boy a home that doesn’t have a family?’”

Zane Burnside, the second to youngest of the biological children, recalls one of his favorite memories of Ruslan the first night of them hosting him.

“The first night we had him, I remember we were having spaghetti and meatballs,” Zane

“I could not be more proud to call Ruslan and Zhana my brother and sister. They’ve impacted my life and really changed my perspective on things. I could not tell you where I would be as a human being or the mindset I would have if we hadn’t adopted them.” -Zane Burnside affordable given just having gone through the adoption of Zhana. They landed on Chicago.

“We started shopping Groupons, and she came across tickets to the Navy Pier and they were buy one get one free,” Rob says. “[My wife] bought four passes because there were seven of us and when we got to the Navy Pier, we were going to take our seven tickets and give the eighth ticket away. [Ruslan] was that eighth person.”

Additionally, Angel’s aunt had downsized apartments that same March. She asked the Burnsides if they would like to have a twin bed and dresser. While they didn’t need it at the time, they said yes and kept them in their basement. Little did they know, they would have the perfect use for them mere months later.

However, hosting another child in their home also required some sacrifices. Braden, the oldest of the Burnsides’ biological children, had just gotten his own room for the first time. Hosting Ruslan would require him to share.

Angel considered this when deciding whether or not to host and asked him his thoughts.

“I knew [Braden] was going to have to give up his own room. He was helping me with laundry and I told him I needed to talk to him about something and that I wanted him to tell me the truth, because it matters to me about making this decision. I said, ‘you would have to give up half of your room and this would affect

says. “He sat down, looked at everything, and then I guess he decided he didn’t want any of it. So, he got up and walked to the freezer and got vanilla ice cream and that’s what he ate for dinner the first night was here.”

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ne rule of hosting is to to not bring up adoption during their visit. As Ruslan’s stay with the Burnsides over the summer was coming to an end, Angel and Rob instead asked him if he would ever want to live in America when he grew up. At that time, he was still unsure. With friends still back in Ukraine, he wasn’t sure if he was ready to leave them.

“The best part [about my orphanage in Ukraine] was that I had a lot of friends,” Ruslan says. “It was a really hard decision for me to leave all of them.”

While Ruslan didn’t know if he wanted to live in America quite yet, the Burnsides asked if he would want to come back for Christmas.

Ruslan said yes and flew back to America in December 2013, staying until early January 2014.

“In the beginning, like the first week, I think [Ruslan] knew the question [of adoption] was coming. He was real tense and grumpy,” Angel says. “He wasn’t the kid that we sent back in August.”

Ruslan still spoke primarily Russian, so understanding why he was upset was difficult for Angel.

“I took him to a little Russian market and I asked an older woman working there if she could see if [Ruslan] would talk to her about why he was being so grumpy. She talked to him for five minutes as they chatted back and forth,” Angel says. “[The woman] said, ‘he’s upset because he knows he has to make a choice

Burnside Family Adoption | Feature on this trip and he loves you and he loves his friends.’ So I asked her to tell him that he doesn’t need to decide right now. [After that,] he really loosened up again. He just needed to know that he wasn’t going to be pressured.”

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rom that point forward, the Burnside family enjoyed their time together through the holiday season free of any pressures of adoption. However, one Sunday after church, the family was sitting at Culver’s when Angel recalled her boys running up to tell her that Ruslan was staying in “America forever.”

Angel leaned back to look towards the kids’ table as Ruslan was looking back at her. ”We got home and I just wanted to ​​ clarify the news and make sure there was no misunderstanding, so I used Google Translate,” Angel says. “I was asking him [if this meant he wanted us to adopt him] several different ways and typing the sentence different ways just to make sure it was translating it correctly. By like the third time, I could tell he understood and he said, ‘yes.’”

Isaac remembers that moment clearly and was excited to have him as part of the family.

“I’d already met [Ruslan] before and kind of experienced what it would be like to have him as my brother,” Isaac says. “So, when he decided he wanted to join us, I was ecstatic. I knew we were gonna change his life for the better, and I was very happy to be a part of that.”

Ruslan recalls that decision as the best one he has ever made.

“I am really happy that I said yes to my family,” Ruslan says. “They are the best thing that ever happened to me, and I will always be thankful for what they did for me.”

Ruslan was set to be adopted and brought home around August 2014, however due to conflicts taking place between Russia and Ukraine at the time in Eastern Ukraine where Ruslan’s orphanage was located, the date got pushed to March 2015 when he was 16-yearsold.

Unfortunately, this was not the only time Ruslan has been affected by the conflicts. More recently, on Feb. 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. With Ruslan’s town being located about 30 miles from the Russian border, the news brought the Burnsides “absolute heartbreak.” “[I felt] absolute heartbreak and we continue to feel that. We’ve been experiencing it from the beginning,” Rob says. “Knowing that Ruslan’s childhood town has been displaced and had to evacuate, knowing that my son’s orphanage has actually been destroyed and the town where he grew up has been destroyed in this war, things like that really hit us hard.”

The week of the invasion, Rob and Angel went up to Columbus, where Ruslan now lives, to see how he was doing.

“Knowing Ruslan’s history, we went up the week that Russia formally invaded to have dinner,” Rob says. “We were more letting him

The Burnsides recently celebrating Angel’s birthday. Left to Right: Zhana, Zane, Ruslan, Marah, Angel, Braden, Isaac, and Rob.

talk if he wanted to, rather than asking him about things because he’s very guarded on a lot of stuff.”

Ruslan’s initial thought upon hearing of Russia’s invasion was of his friends.

“I do not remember the exact moment, but I remember I was told that we were under attack by Russia and I felt horrible and scared for my friends,” Ruslan says.

Through Ruslan’s friends and the friends that Rob and Angel made while visiting Ukraine during Ruslan’s adoption, the Burnsides were hearing first-hand accounts of the tragedy.

Some, like Ruslan’s close friend, Sasha, have even been drafted to fight in the war.

“I’ve been very worried about close friends, particularly [Sasha] who was hosted not far from us in Lebanon, [the second time we hosted Ruslan]. He was reasonably one of Ruslan’s best friends and we had Sasha over a couple of times, so I got to know him,” Angel says. “He’s a sweet, tender soul and when I found out that he got drafted, I thought, this kid is not a fighter. He is not built for it, he is as gentle as can be. At least once a week I get on Facebook to see if the kids have posted anything recently and some of them have not for a while, like a couple months. That’s always on my mind.”

Still having connections and relationships in Ukraine was one way in which Ruslan and Zhana’s adaptation to living in America differed.

“Ruslan had to work through the sadness [of leaving], but that also meant that there was a part of him that was much healthier than Zhana–because he understood and had close relationships. He knew all about loving family and caring for friends and how precious it is because he had it once and he lost it,” Angel says. “Zhana didn’t have any memory of ever having that. We don’t know how she was cared for or if she was cared for, so it took a long time to teach her how you love family, and how family treats each other.”

For Zhana, these hardships she had to overcome bear a sense of pride.

“I want to make sure people know how hard it was to get here,” Zhana says. “The fact that I was adopted and was once in poverty and now I’m just like [everyone else]; I feel like I have an advantage of surviving something.”

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he road to adapting to a new environment wasn’t an easy one for either adoption, but for Angel, it matters more what it taught them.

“It’s not easy. Financially it was hard, emotionally it was hard. But there’s things that we learned and that grew us that never would have happened. Our kids learned that there’s other things that are more important about saving your money. It’s not all about the big house or the big car. There’s more impactful things out there that you need to be worried about.” Angel says. “I feel like there’s a certain part of their character and a certain type of compassion developed through that, that would never happen any other way. Their worldview is much broader than most people their age.”

Isaac says that adoption is something he wants to carry through into his future family as well. “[Adoption is] actually something I’m really passionate about doing,” Isaac says. “The process of changing somebody’s life in the way that my parents did is amazing, and I want to pass that on to somebody else in the future.”

Zane Burnside, the second to youngest of the biological children, also sees himself adopting in the future.

“I would absolutely adopt. It is not an easy process, but [adoption] definitely builds a family bond,” Zane says. “I could not be more proud to call Ruslan and Zhana my brother and sister. They’ve impacted my life and really changed my perspective on things. I could not tell you where I would be as a human being or the mindset I would have if we hadn’t adopt them.” •

May 2022 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 25

Feature | Nurse Polly Hasty see it, [or like it] wasn’t in his view.”

The more she sat there with him, the more she noticed he looked confused. When he sat upright, the confusion got worse. This is when she decided to take him to his locker and get him to the front office, so she could have a conversation with his dad.

“We went from my clinic to the back of the building to the front, and by the time we got to the front of the building from his locker, he was having what in the nursing world is called ‘word salad.’ He was saying words, they meant something but they didn’t go together,” Hasty says.

Sometime between 11 a.m and 12 p.m the student’s dad came into the office and Hasty pulled him aside and recommended he take his kid to see a doctor.

“I pulled him aside and I said, ‘I just wanted to let you know, he needs to be seen.

He needs to be taken to Children’s Hospital, because there’s something going on,” Hasty says. “I don’t know what it is. It’s not a stroke, but there’s something definitely going on with him.’”

I Hasty holds up the thank you note written by the West Freshman student whose life she saved.

JUST A DAY AT WORK

West Freshman Nurse Polly Hasty identified worrysome symtoms in a student urging him to seek immediate medical attention. Soon after following Hasty’s advice, the student was sent into an immediate emergency surgery after doctors found a pitutiary tumor in his brain that could be fatal. story ella huelskamp | photography cara raiford | infographic mary barone

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*student is not named due to medical privacy protocols

framed thank you letter from student whose life was saved by Lakota West’s nurse Polly Hasty now sits on top of her fridge in her clinic. When looking at it multiple times a day, it still shocks her all that came out of this event that happened back in 2017, when she repeatedly says, “I was just doing my job.” She hopes all nurses would do the same if put in the situation she was in.

It was only the second day of school for this student when he started feeling a headache in his early morning gym class. The gym teacher had him visit the nurse’s office which-little did

he know- would change everything. Hasty took a look at the student and was first worried when he told her that he was having a tingly, almost numb feeling in one of his arms. Hasty knew something was off and had him lay down for a few minutes while his dad was on his way to come pick him up. “[I said] let’s go get your stuff. So as he stood up to get his stuff out of his locker, I noticed-in nursing terms it’s called gait, [which is] the way you walk and how your legs go one in front of the other-his gait was weird,” Hasty says. “Then he tripped over one of the chairs, like he didn’t

26 lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2022

t’s now the end of Hasty’s day, when she gets a phone call that she says she came just seconds from letting go to voicemail after a long day. To her surprise it was an emotional phone call from the student’s dad saying that he took him to the hospital, and after a few assessments and scans, he was urgently transported downtown, where he was put into immediate surgery. The student had a four hour window from the time that it was discovered to irreparable brain damage or potentially death.

“He was in emergency surgery for a brain tumor that was blocking the flow of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), moving back and forth from his brain to his spinal cord,” Hasty says. “He had a pituitary tumor, [which is] similar to a glioblastoma that is on the base of his skull, and it was sitting close to his pituitary gland. It was blocking the hole at the bottom of his brain that was blocking the pathway for spinal fluid to move freely back and forth between your brain and your spine.”

Cincinnati Children’s Division of Oncology Member Biplab Dasgupta shares that some of the symptoms of a brain tumor would be problems with motor coordination, sometimes blurry vision, and headaches. He says that if it’s a persistent headache that you haven’t felt before and it’s not going away with standard medication, then you should get it checked.

“All I could hear was the emotion in his dad’s voice and all he was saying was, ‘thank you, thank you, you saved my son’s life.’ We had the conversation and we hung up the phone, and I literally just sat there and thought, oh my god, what just happened. I was in shock,” Hasty says. “I talk to my mom everyday, so I immediately called her and told her I just had a really weird conversation, and she said ‘Oh

Nurse Polly Hasty | Feature my god, that’s awesome,’ and I replied, ‘I just did my job.’”

Flash forward to 2022, the student is now graduating this year and planning to pursue a degree in culinary arts. His surgery stopped him from enjoying some of his old hobbies, but through his recovery he’s found alternative ways to deal with his diagnosis and new ways to express himself.

“He has had to give up a lot. He was an avid baseball player. [His family has gone on] several vacations throughout the years and watersports are big in their family. So he’s had to give up a lot of stuff,” Hasty says.

Hasty performs an acute neurocheck on West Freshman Muhamad Deh, the same check done when she realized a West student was suffering from more than a typical headache.

T

he Ohio School Boards Association (OSBA) has awarded this year’s President’s Award to the entire team of Lakota nurses. Lakota Board President Lynda O’Connor, along with Lakota’s Manager of Healthcare Services Lauren Brown, surprised all 23 nurses with an invitation to be recognized at the spring conference in March.

“It was my honor, as president of the OSBA Southwest Region for 2022, to determine the recipient for the award. Through my many years in the district as a parent and as a veteran Board of Education member I have witnessed firsthand the impact our nursing staff can have on our students,” O’Connor says. “My mother was also a registered nurse, so giving the award to our nurses held special meaning for me

personally as well.”

Back in February of 2017, both O’Connor and Brown went to visit every school building in the Lakota district to see the nurses’ hard work firsthand. Throughout this day O’Connor had several great conversations about all the “good things’’ going on in our

Pituatary tumors put pressure on the area around the pituitary gland.

Symptoms: - Headaches - Loss of peripheral vision - Double vision

district.

“While saving a student’s life isn’t a daily occurrence, the work our nurses perform does impact lives everyday, ‘’ O’Connor says.

“Our medically fragile students, many with life threatening issues, require monitoring and nursing inventions from skilled, trained personnel.”

W

ith all the recognition Hasty’s received, she says she hopes parents don’t dismiss her because she’s just a nurse. She told Spark that though she’s biased about her profession, she hopes parents trust what the nurses, including herself, have to say and the information she shares to hopefully help their child.

“I think that the biggest thing is that parents do listen to me and do take what I have to say at face value, that I’m not blowing smoke, that I’m not telling them something that’s outrageous or blowing it out of proportion,” Hasty says.

“That’s my biggest takeaway from this is that parents really do appreciate and value what I have to say as a nurse.”

O’Connor would like to thank Hasty for trusting her instincts and going the “extra mile” to communicate her concerns to the parents.

She is very thankful Hasty was able to do what she did that day.

“Even those tasks that might seem like ordinary, everyday work have the potential to be life altering, as we saw in the student who went to Mrs. Hasty with a headache,” O’Connor told Spark. “We are very fortunate in Lakota to have a strong team of professionals from the Health Care Services Manager to the Nurses to the Clinic Aides providing these services to our students and staff.” •

source webmd.com May 2022 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 27

Feature | Adrian Swann East alum Adrian Swann stands with Spark reporters Riley Higgins and Ianni Acapulco outside of the United States Capital building in Washington D.C.

JOURNEY TO THE

SENATE FLOOR

PART 2

After developing his love for government at East, Adrian Swann graduated from Duke and made his way to the floor of the Senate. story and photography riley higgins | infographic mary barone

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uring his sophomore year, Duke came to East to recruit. East class of 2007 alum Adrian Swann was the only attendee of their luncheon, a perk that would lead him to choose Duke as his future college. Swann applied using early decision, an application style that is binding if the university admits you.

“That was it, and I never looked back,” Swann says.

While at Duke, Swann became the head of the wellness dormitories, a community of dedicated students and athletes who made a promise not to engage in risky behaviors like drinking while they were in school. The most formative of his experiences, however, was the time he spent as the Duke Men’s Basketball Team Manager.

“I got to play a lot of basketball, see a lot of basketball, and travel a lot,” Swann says. “It was very special, especially seeing Matt during the Olympics and Coach K (Mike Krzyewski) up close and personal on how he runs stuff. I learned a lot, it was a lot more than just making Gatorade and wiping up sweat.”

Adrian’s mother, Debbie Swann,

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says growing up around basketball in North Carolina might have played a role in Adrian’s decision to attend Duke.

“He had been going to basketball camps at UNC Charlotte forever because his dad went there every summer,” Debbie says. “It was a surprise for us that Duke was his choice because he never said a word about [Duke] to us, but I think it was a great decision. It was a good place for him to be.”

Adrian continued his path of government by starting out as an Economics major, a topic that was first taught to him by

his mother in the sixth grade. He jumped right in, joining the investment club and taking leadership roles around campus. He ​​ studied courses like party politics, distributive justice

by Jonny Anomaly, and a Capstone about fatalism. Adrian started his freshman year as an international relations major, but pivoted to focus more on foreign affairs and finance.

“I really liked finance. A part of my Wall Street dream was that I wanted to make the average West Chester citizen [wealthy],” Adrian says. “I was like, ‘I wonder if I can, through discipline and great financial engineering, make them all millionaires.”

I

n addition to economics and finance, Adrian studied political science where he wrote about the British Labor Party and the LGP in Japan. After he graduated from Duke in 2012, Adrian set out to return to West Chester.

Adrian came back to work as an analyst at Sanmar, a distribution clothing center. “[Working at Sanmar] was actually probably one of the most cognitively complex jobs I’ve had,” Adrian says. “After that I said, ‘I’m going to DC and see if it is what I think it is, and it was.’”

Adrian started his journey in Washington D.C. as an intern for the Senate. Despite

section | story

Adrian Swann | Feature Adrian walks around and admires the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington D.C.

not getting paid for the internship, Adrian persisted, knowing that this was the path to take to achieve his goal of working in politics.

For the first two months of his time in DC, Adrian lived with his father’s cousin until he saved enough money to “pay his own rent like a grown adult” according to his mother.

“Adrian said he wanted to go and be in DC and work as a non-paid intern,” Debbie says. “ [I remember him telling me], ‘Mom, I know it’s going to be hard, but this is what I’m gonna do. I’m going to work really hard and save my money.’ And he did it and he made it work. He worked almost two fulltime jobs.”

T

hen, in 2013, Adrian became a Staff Assistant for Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio. As a Staff Assistant, his behind the scenes responsibilities were numerous: answering the phone, data entry, flag requests, being the secretary for executive meetings, tracking what the Senator did on the floor (speeches and bills) and being the tour coordinator.

“A lot of people leave because they don’t like being a staff assistant or they think it’s lower, like ‘I have a degree, why am I doing this?’” Adrian says. “But, you learn relationships and I figured out how to get people White House internships, Kennedy Center internships, and anything we could do [for the constituents].”

Adrian recalls that his work didn’t go unnoticed by Senator Brown, citing a trip back to Ohio Senator Brown made where people remembered the work Adrian did for them on their trips to DC. “If you’re going to come to our nation’s capital, I’m going to make sure you can do everything your heart desires,” Adrian says.

“I’ll make sure we get you everywhere that you physically want to go for as long as it will take. And I think that’s what we’ll be able to do because at the end of the day, I don’t necessarily care if you’re Democratic or

Republican or you’re this or that. My hope is that people say at the end of the day, ‘I might not agree with this Senator, but I do remember when I came and he took care of me in DC.’” His work was upgraded in 2015 when he became the Legislative Correspondent (LC) for Senator Brown. He acted as the junior person doing policy.

“I actually did his banking portfolio, telecom, and judiciary budget,” Adrian says.

“Those were my niche areas that I was supposed to build out a competency and understanding.

I did that and rose up.”

During his time as an LC in 2016, he got tapped to be on the Senate Rules and Inauguration Committee. Staff members from Ohio Representative and former Speaker of the House, John Beohner, asked Adrian to be a part of the group that planned and oversaw the peaceful transition of power.

“That was one of the most fascinating experiences I’ve ever had,” Adrian says. “I’d been to inaugurations, but to be able to actually be a part of it was crazy.”

Adrian recalls that frigid afternoon in January as seeing “the republic as it was meant

29 lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2022

to be”, with thousands huddled together to fight off the cold.

“It’s this experience because at that particular time at noon, we have an opportunity as citizens to see what it means to be American and to see what it means to be the best of us,” Adrian says.

After he finished his work with the Inauguration Committee, and after just three and a half years working for the Senate, Adrian made his way to the Senate floor.

“In high school, of course, I knew I wanted to do something in politics,” Adrian says. “I never dreamed right? That when I was sitting in Mench’s class, that I would be [in DC] and that I would eventually be able to sit on the Senate floor or be able to meet the [Supreme Court].”

A

drian explains that his goal in government is political efficacy, which is the feeling that political and social change is possible and that the individual citizen can play a part in bringing about change.

He was first introduced to political efficacy in his fourth period AP Government class at East with his teacher Dr. Tisha Grote, who is known by her students as “Mench.”

“Adrian has dedicated hard work and his immense talents to that of the life of a civil servant,” Mench says. “In his many roles as a public servant, Adrian has become a leader and a champion for the needs of the nation.”

Despite being separated by time and distance, Adrian and Mench stay in contact, regularly chatting about current events, Adrian’s time in DC, and the future “Adrian Swanns” of the world currently sitting in Mench’s AP Government classes. Current students know that it is not uncommon for Mench to show them pictures of her TV featuring Adrian working on the Senate floor.

“I am so very proud to know Adrian,” Mench says. “I am honored to have collaborated with him in the classroom setting here at East and to still have a connection to him as he accomplishes a great deal more for the people of this nation.” •

Adrian’s Top Government Sources usa.gov whitehouse.gov Congressional Record

1

A complete list of US gov.t departments & agencies.

2

Sends out White House updates through an email subscription.

3

The official daily record of the U.S. Congress’ proceedings.

May 2022 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 29

Feature | Dr. Greg Finke

Independence Principal Greg Finke supervises the second grade recess.

COMPETITIVE WITH COMPASSION After 19 years in the position, Dr. Greg Finke will be retiring as Independence Elementary School Principal. • story mia hilkowitz | photography mary barone

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t 7 AM each morning Greg Finke is in an orange reflective traffic vest directing incoming traffic in the carpool lane. By the time the bell rings at 8, he is standing in front of a camera set in the Innovation hub, ready to commence morning announcements. Within the next hour, he is in and out of classrooms, filling in for absent teachers or assisting with makeup testing.

When lunch and recess roll around, you can find him walking around the lunchroom, opening straws and cleaning tables. As the 565 students of the elementary school come pummeling out of the school and onto the buses at 3:10 PM, Finke has already started setting up for the after-school clubs. A few hours later, once the building has been cleared and prepped for the next day, he leaves through the front doors of Independence, ready to do it all again tomorrow.

For Independence Principal Greg Finke, the daily tasks as principal of the Lakota elementary school include much more than many people think. Finke has served as the Principal of

Independence for 19 years and will be retiring from his position at the end of the 2021-22 school year.

“My day revolves around the choices that [students] make,” Finke says. “That’s the hard part that people don’t understand. They just think ‘oh, yeah, you come in, and I sit at my desk and I wait for the phone.’ [In reality] I’m out in the hallways. I’m doing makeup testing.

I’m meeting with [Spark]. I’m meeting with new families. There’s no set schedule. So for a guy like me with adult-onset ADHD, it’s a perfect job.”

Finke says that his day is controlled by “the unknown,” a factor that makes his job unique from others.

“I wake up at 6:15 in the morning and I check my email,” Finke told Spark. “[I ask] All right, who’s not coming to work today?

What buses are running today? Then there’s the challenge of finding subs to come in. My day is based on the behaviors and attitudes of 75 adults and 565 kids.”

Now after 19 years of being a “jack-of-all-

30 lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2022

trades” as Independence Assistant Principal Julie Nichols describes him, Finke is retiring as principal of Independence. Finke was first hired at Independence in 2003 when the last Independence Principal left mid-year. Prior to taking the job at Independence, Finke served as an assistant principal for several schools in the Oak Hills School District. Finke recalls that he first heard about the position through a family friend who had children in the school, who had encouraged him to apply.

“I had no idea Lakota even existed, even though [my family] lived in Fairfield,” Finke says. “So I thought, sure, why not. So I sent in my resume. I was a young kid at 33 years old. Maggie, my oldest, was just a year old and my wife was pregnant with Emma who was our second. I applied on a lark and got the job.

[Former Lakota Superintendent Kathleen Klink and former HR Manager Michael Greenberg] believed in what I was able to share with them about how I wanted to take this school and transform it into something great and 19 years later leave it a little bit better than I found it.”

Dr. Greg Finke | Feature Before his years as an administrator, Finke had taught in numerous school districts across Ohio. After graduating from the Ohio State University in 1991, he took his first teaching job at a small Ohio school district near Columbus, Whitehall, where he taught sixth grade. He taught at Whitehall for a year before the building closed due to budget cuts.

Then Finke moved to the then-small school district of Pickerington where he taught fifth and sixth grade for two years. While teaching at Pickerington he met his wife Jennifer, and the two moved to Cincinnati. Finke then taught at Little Miami School District for three years, before budget cuts and reductions forced him to move. Finally, he worked for two and a half years as an administrator in the Oak Hills school district before coming to Lakota. Finke told Spark why he decided to make the switch from teaching to administration.

“As a fifth and sixth teacher, I was able to affect the lives of 30 kids a year,” Finke says.

“I thought, ‘I really want to work with more families and more kids and try to really make an impact and really help people.’ The way to do that was to become an administrator because then you get to work with the entire school and not just a grade level.”

F

inke says that coming from the classroom has given him a unique perspective as the Principal of Independence.

“When a teacher comes to you with concerns and troubles, you can relate to that now,” Finke says. “It’s been 20 years plus since I’ve been in the classroom, but I’ve tried to get into classrooms and work with kids, so I can still relate to how [teachers and students] feel.”

Independence Assistant Principal Julie Nichols has been working with Finke for seven years, joining the school in 2014.

“Dr. Finke is great to work with. He is very supportive,” Nichols told Spark. “He allows people to use their gifts. When I first started [at Independence] there were things that I had done in my previous schools and he allowed me to come in and nurture that and build that within Independence.”

Nichols recalls one of her first memories with Finke, taking place on her very first day of work at the elementary school.

“My first year here, we celebrated our 20th year of Independence. [Dr. Finke and I] got slammed by all the sixth graders with water balloons,” Nichols says. “It was funny to see a man in a suit come in on the first day of school and he got pelted with water balloons. It made it so fun. It was just a first impression for me and any of our new second graders at the time coming into the building.”

Nichols says that Finke’s “hands-on” attitude has been able to produce results in the school since the day she arrived.

“One of the things that Independence has been able to do year after year is produce

results,” Nichols says. “It’s not just Dr. Finke, but it’s also the teachers and the students and the families, but he’s really been able to set that bar high and get students and staff ready. He really stressed the important things to be able to get the students to grow, and obviously that’s your biggest result in a school.”

Both Finke and Nichols emphasize how Independence’s test scores have been reflective of the changes the school has undergone over the last two decades.

“When I started here, Independence was just kind of an average school with average test scores–it was kind of in the middle of the road, kind of the lower end,” Finke says. “I promised Mrs. Klink and Mr. Greenberg that in three years, we’ll turn it around and be the best school in the district. That next fall when we still had fourth-grade proficiency tests, we were the best school in the district. Within six months, we had completely changed the attitude–completely spun it around to where we were the marquee school in the district.”

East parent of two Rachel Zipperian served as the Independence Parent Teacher Association (PTA) President for three years and has had two children go through Independence while Finke has been principal. Zipperian first met Finke through the annual Independence third-grader field trip, where students go to local businesses near the building to learn more about future career paths and fields of interest. Zipperian’s husband works at a Car Mechanic building across the street from Independence, Dadz Motor Co Workshop, and the third graders visit this business on their field trip. Zipperian says that Finke “was so open-minded to having the kids have learning experiences.”

“His daughters were also in the school while my kids were there,” Zipperian told Spark. “So he was a parent and he was a principal, and he acted in that way. He volunteered as much as other parents did to make sure his kids had the same experience, so it was really neat.”

Zipperian told Spark that Finke was always very involved with the PTA and volunteer organizations at Independence, and that “being a principal was as

much as a hobby [for him] as it was a job.”

“Every family event whether it was bingo or pottery, he was there,” Zipperian says. “He was present and he was always very supportive. He was just open-minded. Like I came to him and said my kids kept complaining about the toys being outdated for indoor recess. I asked ‘Can we do a toy refresh?’ And he was like ‘Yes, do it.’ I felt like he was very collaborative with the PTA.”

Z

ipperian recalls how Finke was always eager to give back to the staff of Independence, a value he reflected through initiatives such as completely renovating the teachers’ lounge.

“We did this whole extreme makeover thing over a weekend, but he was so excited to do that. He had recruited parents that were really good at interior designing and it was just very special,” Zipperian told Spark. “A bunch of us parents redid the teachers’ lounge, but he was literally shopping and painting. Leadership really came from his heart, and he always dug in to help along the way, so I thought that was always a great part of him as well.”

As a way to show Finke her appreciation, Zipperian nominated Finke for the district Barb Bossu Volunteer award in 2019. In her nomination, she wrote, “Greg’s leadership style is that of a servant leader–he is always asking how he can help staff, parents, and students achieve goals.” She feels this is perfectly emulated in his creation of a “signature wall” for parents of Indy students.

“We were brainstorming about how awesome it is that parents want to come and have lunch with their kids. I was like ‘what if we just sign our name every time they come.’

And Finke just made a wall in the cafeteria that week,” Zipperian says. “It became a tradition where when you came to have lunch with your kid, you got to sign the wall. And then every year he paints over it and starts a new one. He just was very action-oriented.”

Zipperian also drew attention in her nomination to Finke’s investment to bring innovative learning opportunities to the

Finke poses with Ind e p end enc e second graders.

May 2022 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 31

Feature | Dr. Greg Finke elementary school, including STREAM labs, Makerspace, and an Innovation lab that has equipped students with state-of-the-art technology and even kitchens.

“As a volunteer, he went to business sales, online forums, external technology grants, and countless other connections to bring these spaces to Independence within our modest PTA budget,” Zipperian wrote. “This would not have happened if Greg had not taken on this role. He has a fantastic way to connect with other volunteer organizations to bring a win-win to Indy.”

Nichols agrees with Zipperian that Finke has had a major impact on the educational experiences at Independence. “[Finke] has set that bar high,” Nichols says.

“He is able to do basically anything [such as] take kids home from school, pick them up in the morning, buy them lunch if they don’t have money or if they’ve done something and they deserve a little something extra special. He’s that type of person.”

H

aving brought these changes to Independence, Finke says that he is ready to “leave on top.”

“I’ve been here for 19 years, which is a long time. There are very few elementary principals that stay for 19 years,” Finke says.

“I’m ready to do something different, ready to try something different. You get to a point where it’s time and I’ve talked with my wife about it.

We’ve probably been talking about this for about a year and a half about when to go.”

Finke says that for a few months after the school year ends, he will work at Lakota district offices as a mentor for principals and assistant principals to finish out his retirement responsibilities. However, besides these months, Finke says that he does not yet have a set plan for his years ahead. He told Spark that he has applied for an Adult Education job at Miami University, and could possibly see himself starting a business in the future.

“That’s the great part is that I’ve got six to eight months to figure out what I want to do when I grow up,” Finke told Spark. “I’ve lived the kid-life at Disneyland for 19 years. Now I’ve got to grow up and be an adult and get a real job.”

In April, Lakota announced that current Adena Elementary School Principal John Mattingly will fill the role at Independence for the 2022-23 school year. Lakota Executive Director of Human Resources Rob Kramer told Spark that when searching to fill the position, the district had looked inwards within the district for potential candidates.

“When hiring for any position at Lakota, we look for candidates who believe in our mission statement, put students first, and, of course, have the right qualifications,” Kramer told Spark. “For an administrator position, the candidate must be a team player and have the drive to lead and mentor those on their team.”

Mattingly, who has served as the Adena

“If I could choose for my children to have a principal, I want Dr. Finke to be their principal if it can’t be me” -John Mattingly, Adena Elementary School Principal Elementary School principal for five years, was a third-grade teacher at Independence and later served as an assistant principal for the school with Dr. Finke.

“I’ve been a teacher leader and assistant principal, both at Independence, and it’s always been a dream of mine to come back home per se and to be the one that could follow Dr. Finke and lead the Independence community,” Mattingly told Spark. “Everybody kind of has a dream and this was the job for me and this is the dream I’ve had for the last 10 years.”

Mattingly describes Finke as his mentor who had helped train him for administration roles, and says that “he deeply cared for the kids and the staff at Independence.” As he joins the Independence community next year, he hopes to carry on the culture of positivity at Independence.

“I want [the Independence community] to know that I’m all in and I am choosing to be there and I just can’t wait to have a positive impact,” Mattingly says. “I just want to make everyone better. I want every kid when they come in every day to feel safe and I want them to feel loved and I want them to know that they’re good at something. I want everybody to know they’re part of a team.”

Mattingly recalls how he and Finke have hosted a competition between Adena and Independence the last several years to collect food items for Reach Out Lakota. Each school tries to collect more food items than the other, and the losing school’s principal must participate in a “punishment.” Mattingly says that for two years in a row, Adena beat Independence, and jokes that “Dr. Finke never lost in 19 years, but those are the only two years that he lost.” “[Finke] dressed up in a chicken suit and came over [to Adena] and passed out chicken nuggets to all of my students at lunchtime,” Mattingly says. “[The next year] he dressed up in a scuba outfit and let our kids shoot water balloons at him in the freezing temperature.

He did these things because he lost the contest and that was kind of like the public shaming.

But he also did these things, put it on the line, because he wanted to. It was what was best for the students. It drove our canned items donation up a ton because everybody wanted to do these things.”

Mattingly says that by working together on this food drive competition in his first years

32 lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2022

as Adena Principal, Finke helped him become involved in the new school community and stay in touch with Independence.

“If I could choose for my children to have a principal, I want Dr. Finke to be their principal if it can’t be me,” Mattingly told Spark. “But it’ll be kind of neat because I’ll have my kids at Independence next year. I just think that [Finke’s] set the bar and he’s just a wonderful example of the positivity that school administrators and principals can have on their students and the community.”

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s Finke has portrayed all of these traits in his 19 years as principal, Kramer believes that Finke has been an influential part of the Lakota community.

“Dr. Finke has been a valuable member of the Lakota team for many years and we wish him well in his retirement,” Kramer says.

As Lakota adapts to a new principal next year, Nichols is looking forward to the future of Independence but says she will always be grateful for Finke’s leadership over the last 19 years.

“We’ll miss him. We will definitely miss Dr. Finke next year,” Nichols told Spark. “It’ll be a big change. We’re happy for him that he’s getting to take that next step in his plans and his life. But you know, it’ll be a loss. It won’t be the same, but change is always good.”

Each school year on the last day of school, every student, teacher, and staff member at Independence lines the walls of the building to form a “walkout” for the sixth graders graduating from elementary school to middle school. This practice, created by Finke, has been an annual tradition in the school, which Nichols says leads to “lots of tears” for all participating. However, on May 20, marking Independence’s last day of school, Finke will be leading the line of sixth-graders out of the building as part of his own good-bye walk.

“I want to leave on top. With baseball managers or football coaches, you want to win the Superbowl or win the World Series and that’s your last hurrah. COVID-19 is in our rearview mirror, everybody’s doing great, this is how I want to leave,” Finke says. “I just want people to think that I was a good person that did good things for kids. That we’ve set [Independence] up to do great things for the kids when I go.” •

section | story

DART | Feature

BEHIND THE CURTAIN East sophomore Abigail McCullough has found an outlet for her creative passion in both on and off-stage roles within the theater.

story jaclynn mosley | photography riley higgins

T

he lights dimmed as the show had reached the middle of the climax. Outside the theater, the rain was coming down hard, adding to the tension of the scene. Just as Simba shouted at Scar, a loud thunder erupted, startling everyone.

East sophomore Abigail “Abby” McCullough was playing one of the hyenas when it happened.

From being on stage to being part of the backstage crew, she enjoys every aspect of the theater and has been doing it for about 11 years. “[Backstage and onstage] are really different but are about the same amount of excitement and stress levels,” McCullough says. “Both are really fun to do.”

Some of McCullough’s favorite roles have been playing Ed the hyena in The Lion King and the Wicked Witch in Shrek during her time with Rise Up Performing Arts theater.

Both productions were in 2021. The Lion King show was in the summer whereas Shrek was in December when she was officially a sophomore.

“One of my favorite roles Abby has played is the Wicked Witch in Shrek,” Rise Up Performing Arts Director Angie Neal says.

“Her comedic timing was perfect. She created a perfect voice for the character I loved.”

Other roles she has played include the Queen in Frozen, a big kid in Matilda, and various roles for Northeast Christian Church that was mostly ensemble except for Mamma Mia. Like any activity, Neal notes that theater requires strong dedication and work ethic to make the show run smoothly.

“It’s so much fun and a lot of work,” Neal says.

“The show or play you see hopefully looks effortless and almost magical. But it takes a lot of people behind the scenes to make the magic happen.”

McCullough’s best friend, Reagan Goudy, has enjoyed watching McCullough portray many different roles both on and off stage.

“She’s very energetic and for the most part has a positive attitude,” Goudy says. “I’ve been to all of her theater shows, so I enjoyed seeing her in them.”

Theater isn’t her only hobby. McCullough also enjoys hanging out with her friends, reading, and painting by her pool during the summertime.

“Right now, I’m actually doing a pretty ambitious piece,” McCullough says. “I have

about an 18 by 24-inch canvas.

I’m going to paint it black and do a portrait of a woman and flowers and butterflies surrounding her.”

Along with drawing, painting, and theater, she is also a photographer. Recently, she got second place in the Local Congressional Art Competition.

“This year was her first photography class ever,” Goudy says. “That was pretty impressive.”

When asked about her greatest accomplishments, McCullough mentioned the second-place photo award, but she mainly talked about theater.

“Whenever I got into my first youth theater that had cuts,” McCullough says.

“That was really cool. And since then I’ve been getting into more young adult and more mature theater productions.”

A

33 lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2022

t the beginning of this year, McCullough was briefly a part of East’s theater, but she found her schedule was “so hectic” that she wasn’t able to do both. McCullough has been a part of Rise Up Performing Arts since 2019 and has done 7 shows with them.

Unfortunately, COVID-19 did affect that number, but she is still in the theater, doing the thing she loves.

“I noticed right away that Abby was willing to learn,” Neal says. “That’s one of the most important qualities in a great actor, a humble willingness to learn and grow.”

McCullough is currently set to be in Les Misérables as one of the ensemble members. No matter what role she is given, she is always excited to be a part of the show.

“Everyone in the show is incredibly important,” McCullough says. ”We want everyone to shine.”•

dart feature sophomore

Spark picks a random student to feature.

May 22 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 33

Feature | Wade Quadruplets

FOUR CORNERS OF THE

WADE WORLD

A five-part series featuring four East alumni quadruplet brothers whom all recently graduated from Yale University. This final part encapsolates how their different personalities and interests come together as a family. • story ianni acapulco | photography used with permission

W

ithin the Wade home, there are two rooms lined with medals and trophies, four copies of a single picture–brothers, 10 years old, all in football uniform–and two beds in each room for the boys who share its space. Lakota East alumni Aaron, Zach, Nick, and Nigel: quadruplets who may have shared a myriad of things but who could never be accused of being the same.

Of the things they share, their attendance at internationally ranked Yale University is perhaps one of their most renowned endeavors. While not the first set of quadruplets to attend the Ivy League, their simultaneous acceptance inundated them with media coverage, inviting the boys to talk shows, publishing their college essays in the New York Times, and spreading their childhood photos on news outlets both local and national.

But attending an Ivy League wasn’t always in the cards.

The brothers didn’t originally intend to apply to the Ivies, and certainly didn’t have, at the time, the means to pay for its tuition. But when their application fee was waived, Aaron convinced his brothers to apply to Ivy Leagues as well.

As Aaron says, money is no joke, and while Yale’s financial aid covering 50% of their expenses played an important and pragmatic role, the brothers also appreciated the sense of community and atmosphere that Yale offered.

“They have top notch academics and a very intellectual student body, but honestly you can find that stuff in other schools,” Nick says. “I think for me, what really made me want to go to Yale was the fact that from

34 lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2022

the second I stepped on campus, I really felt welcomed and accepted. I visited lots of other schools and that kind of thing was nowhere else: like an immediate with the people.”

The university offered a sense of cooperation rather than competition, and when the boys came to visit, they were welcomed with bear hugs. The previous set of Yale Quadruplets also reached out them, making it known that they were willing to help and answer questions where needed. Zach remembers the way upperclassmen would take time out of their day to help lowerclassmen when they saw them struggling.

“Although the University was not perfect–as nothing in life is–after reflecting on my experience, Yale was the right school for me,” Zach says.

“The people were all incredible nice and collaborative, and I was able to study chemical engineering, which I wouldn’t have been able to do at Harvard. Yale enabled me to get the job I currently have, and I am still friends with many of my classmates despite being across the country.”

The Wade quadruplets may share a last name and a sizable portion of their genetics, but their differing physiognomic makeup and diverse set of interests make anyone hard-pressed to mistake them for one another.

Hundreds of miles from their home, where the boys lived in different corners of the Yale University campus, it wasn’t unheard of for friends and acquaintances to interact with the brothers while entirely unaware of their shared blood. It seems that, for these four, the similarities lay within qualities less evident to the naked eye.

For Aaron, there is always an “intangible similarity” present when all

Wade Quadruplets | Feature

From left to right: Zach, Nick, Aaron, and Nigel at the Zoo.

four brothers are gathered; a collective energy that gives onlookers the notion that their minds are working in sync.

But Aaron would also argue that while the differences between their personalities are substantial, they share a few key attributes: being kind, selfless, and hard workers. But also the penchant to be loud, as well as their sense of confidence.

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or Nigel, these aspects don’t only apply for him and his brothers, but for their family, too. To him, there is a very strong sense of what it means to be a Wade.

“As cocky as it sounds, part of being a Wade means being excellent,” Nigel says. “Being a Wade is a sense of pride and it’s a sense of grit and it’s a sense of getting things done. If I’m blessed enough to have children, there is going to be a weight to them.”

Kim Wade, their mother, has always imparted on her boys the idea that “whatever you do, make sure you’re the best at it.” Her and her husband let the boys know early on in the game that they wouldn’t be able to fund all four of their educations, and she feels that this understanding was part of their motivation growing up to study hard and obtain scholarships.

“They all really dove into whatever they were passionate about and gave it all they had, and that always made it a real pleasure to work with them or talk with them,” East Physics Teacher Brandon Bright says. “Even in stuff they weren’t interested in, they worked hard, they did well.

They were getting high marks because they knew how to work and they knew how to apply themselves.”

Over the years, the boys have shared a great deal of things between them from clothes to after-school activities. As boys, they often trailed their father during grocery trips, lined up behind him like ducks in a row as they made their way through Meijers. Kim often dressed them in the same outfits so that it might be easier to find them when they were lost.

From left to right: Zach, Aaron, Nigel, and Nick on Main Street.

“Oh yes,” Nigel says. “[They would say] ‘Have you seen a boy that looks just like him?’ and then hold me up.”

As the boys got older, though, the emphasis on clothing as a way to distinctualize or group them together wasn’t as necessary.

“I mean we look drastically different,” Nigel says. “Zach is a six foot light skin and Aaron is–I was going to make a joke but I’m gonna– the point of the matter is that we look very different and are very different. I think that with time, we just diverged, just as other people diverged.”

B

efore college, the four shared bedrooms with one another and slept on twinsized bunk beds until they were 16, paired two to a room based on the similarity of their build so that it might prove easier to share clothes between them.

“What I recognize now after they’re gone is that what they wanted when they were smaller was to be individual,” Kim says. “We did not do enough of a job to have them be their own people because everybody grouped them together and we did the same. We did not give them the opportunity to be their own unique person.”

The boys were used to being referred to as a unit. During football practice, when the coach would repeat their last names in quick succession, there were often a few chuckles, and in the halls, people commonly called out to them as a group rather than individuals. To the general populace--who might find growing up as a quad bewildering--asking the boys about their experience could offer an interesting perspective, but found, ultimately, that it can be a trickier question to answer.

“I don’t know a life outside of having three brothers that are my age,” Zach says. “But with that, I would say it’s kind of nice in the sense that we’re all going through the same stages of life together. There are three other people who are all going through the same thing, so when we have problems, we’re always willing to help

one another.”

Although the boys were born as a set of four, there is space to argue that a fifth Wade siblings exists unofficially, and while she attended a different college than her honorary siblings, Azuka was and remains part of their lives, reciprocating the notion that the Wade brothers are family. Bright recalls the way the five used to congregate in his class after school, simply talking with another.

“I remember lots of conversations from them throughout the years and getting to hear all their little stories,” Bright says. “They still reach out and we still talk from time to time a couple times a year, at least. Every now and then I’ll get a call and we’ll chat for a bit. It’s nice just to see what they’re all up to and then see their continued successes now that they’re out in the world.”

A

zuka attended Vanderbilt University to study and train to become a psychologist and currently rooms with Nick in an apartment that places her a short commute from New York, a city she has loved since youth.

“Ekene has allowed me to become a much more emotionally intelligent and open person,” Nigel says. “And I think that has allowed me to impact more people and be a better man, a better friend, and a better listener.”

Azuka believes that Nigel would have found that growth independent of her influence, and that her role was more similar to that of an “annoying alarm clock that you can’t figure out how to turn off”, prompting him to work on and not to shy away from that side of himself.

But she does hope that she’s positively impacted the brothers during their time knowing each other.

“I like to believe that I had a positive emotional impact, helping them know that there’s somebody who would do anything for them and who is always there for them,” Azuka says. “But mainly, I think I made them laugh to sometimes help them forget about the tough

May 2022 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 35

Feature | Wade Quadruplets

left to right: Aaron, Nick, Zach, and Nigel on their first day of school.

stuff we all went through. I felt like everyone in the Lakota school district knew something of them, and with people knowing you, knowing of you, and feeling pressured to succeed, it took a toll on them.”

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oth Aaron and Zach feel that they place expectations for themselves higher than what anyone else has placed on them, but Nigel points out that there is a pressure there by both those that watch them and look up to him not just as a Wade but as a person of color; a pressure that he doesn’t go a single day without feeling.

Nigel remembers the first day he came to Yale, when a black family recognized and approached him, one of which was a physician who would take him aside to offer him a few words of advice, though Nigel finds that he doesn’t agree with all of it (“Don’t do research your first year, that’s crazy”).

“He ended the conversation,” Nigel says,”and he looked at my eyes and [said],’ a lot of people are putting faith in you right now.

A lot of eyes, both within the community and

left to right: Nick, Nigel, Zach, and Aaron coming back from a birthday party. In their hands are balls that they have smuggled from the ball pit.

outside the community are looking at you. It is your responsibility to carry the torch and to do right by the people who put faith in you.’

In retrospect, I think that’s the worst thing you can ever tell to a first year. And the worst things that you can tell [someone], but I do think that he was right in a lot of ways, whether or not we liked it.”

In spite of the pressure, Aaron does his best to remind himself that “it’s not that deep”, a motto that he likes to live by.

“I try to remind myself that stress is, at best, non-productive and at worst, self-destructive,” Aaron says. “I just feel that it rolls off the tongue, and it’s a way of convincing yourself that it’s not that serious and to just relax. Just take a deep breath and go outside and smell the flowers. It’s fine.”

It was less common for the brothers to see each other in college, and they lived very individually from one another in their separate courses and academic paths. But in a way, the distance was part of what helped bring them back together.

“I’m actually quite glad that we all went

to the same school because I think that it contributed to us being close as adults,” Nick says. “I feel like we are now closer than we were even in highschool just because we had the space to develop our personas. But also because we had proximity, we could still hang out, and it wasn’t a chore or a thing we did because we had to.”

I

n junior year, with the realization that their time together was dwindling, they boys agreed to decide on meet-ups to have lunch together at least once each month.

“When all four of us are together, it is a treat for everyone involved,” Nigel says. “Having genuine intelligence--and I’m not saying, necessarily, that I am a genuinely intelligent person, but I know that my brothers definitely are--and having them in a room, conversing about a topic, approaching it from different angles and coming to conclusions that people just simply don’t… It’s magical. It’s delightful.

Honestly, if you can get quadruplet brothers that are extremely intelligent, and extremely funny, I would recommend it.”•

“Having genuine intelligence--and I’m not saying, necessarily, that I am a genuinely intelligent person, but I know that my brothers definitely are--and having them in a room, conversing about a topic, approaching it from different angles and coming to conclusions that people just simply don’t… It’s magical. It’s delightful. Honestly, if you can get quadruplet brothers that are extremely intelligent, and extremely funny, I would recommend it.”-Nigel Wade

36 lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2022

section | story

Art History | Package

BEHIND THE PAINTING

“The Willard Family” is an oil canvas painted by artist John Samuel Blunt displayed at the Cincinnati Art Museum.

The history of art is an immense topic that many people spend years of their life studying. Many different aspects of art history remain relevant in today’s society. story ava huening | infographic megan miranda | photography mary barone and audrey allen

I

n room 280 at East, the sound of clay being wedged against a cloth-covered table can be heard throughout the room. Students chatter back and forth with one another as they roll out pieces of clay into long coils. The occasional sound of the faucet running can be heard when one of the students accidentally spills some liquid clay, more formally known in the art world as “slip,” on themselves while trying to glue their coils together. East Ceramics and Photography teacher Joseph Walsh walks around the room, waiting for one of the students to call him over to help them with the clay creation.

The students in room 280 are working on creating cultural pots. The project is focused on getting the students to use the coil method to build their ceramic masterpieces. Many of the students have chosen to model their cultural pots after ceramics from ancient Greece; others have chosen to create pots that are inspired more by traditional Korean ceramics. No matter which culture the students chose to model their pieces after, the purpose of this project is quite clear:to get the students learning and researching the topic of art history.

Walsh says in today’s society, art has a multitude of purposes. He says that we see art in our entertainment, our homes, and even our education, such as how the students in his Ceramics I class use the ceramic building process to learn.

“Art is sort of like a measure of civilzation’s evolution,” Walsh says. “Art is at the top, it shows [our] civilization has reached a point where we are comfortable enough that we can

devote time to art instead of just surviving.”

Art history continues to remain relevant in today’s modern society. For East sophomore Ellis Culligan, his world and the lives of many other students like him are constantly being shaped by art and art history.

“Art is able to bring out the creativity and the real imagination in people around the world,” Culligan told Spark. “[Art] can inspire life changing ideas, and set new ideas into motion, it can lead to a lot of beneficial change [in the world].”

their purpose was to be more functional than beautiful. Assistant Professor of Art History at Miami University Annie Dell’Aria says that in more modern history the definition of art has expanded to include more conceptual pieces rather than physical objects.

“In my class, recently we talked about a guy who did an art exhibit in a gallery in the 1990s where he served food to all the guests,” Dell’Aria told Spark. “He was expanding the idea of art to include talking and eating and socializing in the gallery space.”

ART THROUGHOUT HISTORY

RELIGION AND POLITICS IN ART

Associate Professor of Art History Program and the Coordinator for Art and Architecture History at Miami University Andrew Casper says our view of art today is drastically different from society’s view of art just a few decades ago.

“The definition of ‘what art is’ has changed radically, and that change occurred relatively recently,” Casper told Spark. “Today people think of a work of art as something expressive, made to be admired for its artistry, hanging on the wall of a museum or gallery, etc. But this is a pretty limiting definition of what roles art played in history.”

In many ways, art has always existed as a form of expression throughout history. But when looking back at the earliest evidence of art in human history, many pieces that experts observe incorporated art into everyday functional objects. Objects such as pots, statues, tiles, and even clothes are seen today as pieces of art, but at the time they were created,

Throughout history, the role of art in society has been impacted by numerous factors. Those factors range from the accessibility of art supplies during a time period, to the political and economic climate of the time.

“The roles of art in various religions are as varied as the functions of art itself. To speak just of Christianity, there is an enormous interdependence,” Casper says. “Christianity spread to become one of the largest religions today because it was recognized very early on that images were crucial for people to learn the stories from the Bible and to be able to pray.”

Casper says that in times when it was common for many people to be illiterate, many religious establishments relied upon images to spread their teachings. For example, many of the iconic stained glass windows in Catholic cathedrals were created to represent prominent religious figures and stories from the Bible as a way for people who could not read to visualize the teachings.

May 2022 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 37

Package | Art History nefarious, but also liberating purposes.”

Casper says that throughout history, art and politics have had a linked relationship.

“Take just one example: how did people in Ancient Rome know and understand who the emperor was? By the dispersal of his image throughout the empire,” Casper says.

Politics have also influenced art through political cartoons. According to the Public Broadcasting Service, many political cartoonists gained popularity during the American Civil War. Artists created simple images that present a politically driven and oftentimes opinionbased takes on the current political climate.

DEFINING THE ERAS AND IMPORTANT EVENTS

Pottery made by Ava Huening is displayed.

According to Senior Manager of Institutional Processes at the Columbus Museum of Art Amanda Kepner, another example of a religion being influenced by art is Islam.

“Islamic art is very interesting because they are, according to their religion, forbidden from depicting God or their profit in human form,” Kepner told Spark. “So their script has greatly influenced how they decorate, especially their religious spaces.”

According to the British Broadcasting Corporation’s article on Islamic art, many mosques feature colorful patterns and geometric designs incorporated into the building. This usage of patterns and geometry is thought to reflect the language of the universe and help believers reflect on life and the greatness of creation.

Politics have also had a massive impact on the evolution of art throughout history.

“The way that politics have influenced art goes back to people seeing art as a way of picturing the world,” Dell’Aria says. “People wanting to critique those in power might use art as a mechanism for picturing the world and even for effecting change. This can be for

When talking about art history, time is usually divided up into different “eras” of art. Some eras, such as the Renaissance and Baroque, are well known, even to those who do not study art history. However, others, such as the minimalism and art deco movements, are not as well known.

“When defining [the eras], there’s a couple of different things to consider. On the one hand, you have some movements where they just define it for themselves,” Dell’Aria says.

“When they don’t do that, it gets a little trickier, and that’s where a lot of art history comes in.”

Often when people talk about art history, they talk about the eras as clearly defined periods with distinct start and end dates; but Casper says that the art eras are not as easily defined as that.

“For instance, when did the Renaissance start? Some say 1300. Some say the 1400s.

Some say something else. These ‘eras’ are not the clean divisions that we might think they are,” Casper says. “For example, it’s not like everyone in Italy woke up on Jan. 1, 1400, and looked at their phones and said ‘oh, hey, I guess this is the Renaissance now’.”

According to Kepner, eras of art are defined mainly by changes in the methods artists use to produce their art. These changes often happen gradually and only gain traction after many years.

Many historical events have contributed to

the way that today’s society views art. While the history of art is much too vast and expansive to contribute one singular event to the development of modern art, there have been a few instances in history that have had larger impacts than other events.

“I always go back to this in my classes. I think [the thing or person who has contributed the most to the development of modern art] is Marcel Duchamp, who was a French artist,” Dell’Aria says. “He was born in the late 19th century and he lived until the late 1960s. Marcel Duchamp had an idea called the readymade,” The ‘readymade’ is a concept in art where an artist places a mass-produced object in a gallery setting while making minimal or no alterations to the object.

“I think Duchamp’s work is probably one of the most important sculptures really in the 20th century because it transformed the idea of art from being something that is always tied to craft to being something that’s tied to a concept,” Dell’Aria says.

Dell’Aria says other historical events that contributed to the modern view of art could be the social climate in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which greatly impacted the artists’ access to supplies as well as the artist’s role in society.

Kepner says that history is a subject that extends beyond to many other subjects. To have a thorough understanding of modern chemistry, English, biology, math, etc, requires an understanding of the subject’s respective history; who were the pioneers in those fields, what were their discoveries, and how did their work contribute to how we understand the subject today? Art is no different from these subjects.

ART HISTORY IN THE CLASSROOM At the high school level, most art classes at Lakota do not go into heavy detail with projects surrounding art history. Instead, many teachers choose to have their students focus on creating artwork of their own.

“Ceramics is a little different because a lot of the ceramics is either really old stuff or it’s really new stuff,” Walsh says. “For each project,

Prominant Art History Movements Timeline

15000 BC Ancient Art

Renaissance 1400-1600

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1600-1700 Baroque

Impressionalism 1860-1886

1886-1905 Post impressionalism

Art History | Package we usually talk about a reference artist. [One of the projects] I have is specifically for historical cultures where students pick a culture and make a ceramic vessel in that style.”

The majority of art classes offered by Lakota are semester classes, which means that time restraints impact these classes more than others. Incorporating smaller lessons on art history into bigger projects is the method that many art teachers at Lakota use to teach their students about art history.

For students who may have an interest in art history, courses such as Advanced Placement (AP) Art History may meet their wish for more in-depth knowledge of art history. At Lakota, this AP course is not offered to students.

“I think that for those students that would be interested enough, [AP Art History] would be something beneficial. Whether or not we provide that class comes down to kind of a numbers game,” Walsh says. “Do we take away a class period that would typically have 25-28 students creating art, to have an AP class that might only have 10 students in it, but they would be learning more art history?”

A major factor that comes into play when deciding what art courses to offer is student interest. Typically the students that choose to enroll in these more rigorous art classes are students that either plan to go into art-related majors or students that have a genuine passion for art and art history. Walsh says that courses such as AP Art History would most likely not draw in the average student just looking to fulfill their art credit requirements.

LEARNING THROUGH MUSEUMS Director of Learning and Interpretation at Cincinnati Art Museum Emily Holtrop says that for people who are no longer enrolled in a school where they can take classes about art history, yet still have an interest in learning, museums are a great option.

“At the museum, we do a lot of programs that are meant to teach people about our collection in a manner in which they don’t realize that they’re being taught,” Holtrop told

Expressionalism 1905-1920 1907-1914 Cubism

Spark. “It’s like, ‘let’s have some fun and talk about this work of art!’ It’s not like school. A museum is a free learning environment.”

At museums, works of art are organized into different exhibitions. The exhibition in which a piece of art is placed can be determined by the style of the art, who the artist was, the time period in which it was crafted, or a multitude of other factors.

“With an exhibition, it might be teaching about an artist, or teaching about a way something is done or crafted, or we might be looking at art through a social justice lens,” Holtrop says. “All of that weaves into the story of art history.”

Another benefit of many art museums, such as the Cincinnati Art Museum, is that they are completely free to attend, so the lessons that the museum shares can be experienced by anyone from the general public.

THE MODERN ARTIST’S VIEW OF ART HISTORY Not every modern artist shares the same opinion regarding the purpose of art history in today’s society. According to Culligan, modern high school art classes should continue to focus more on expression rather than learning about art history.

“I believe that creating art should be the priority in any art class,” Culligan says.

“Including snippets of history along the way is fine; however, art class should be a place students express themselves rather than receive lectures.”

Based on Walsh’s perspective, art teachers at East recognize that many of their students would prefer to learn through a hands-on approach rather than sit and read chapters out of a textbook on art history.

“I definitely think that people are more interested in making ceramics than [learning] art history,” Walsh says. “But I feel it’s still important to either show them some artist references or to incorporate projects that are at least somewhat history-based.”

According to Culligan, the modern-day artist’s view of art history is also influenced by the purpose of art in their lives. Some artists

De Stijl 1917-1931

1916-1924 Dada

A cultural heritage coil pot made

by Tori Opoku is displayed.

who only make art as a hobby might not be as interested in art history as artists who plan to make art their career.

“Personally, I believe that any art class that would focus solely on art history would not be for me. I much prefer working hands-on and creating projects than being lectured about the history of art,” Culligan says. “Art history would be more important depending on how far the student would want to take art. I think it still is good to scrape the surface of art history in the beginner classes.”

Whether they knew it or not, the student’s in Walsh’s ceramics I class who were creating their cultural coil vessels were also gaining some insight into the rich topic of art history.

Through this project, they gained knowledge not only on how to use the coil technique in their art but also how to conduct research, find references, and analyze historical information and artifacts.

According to Holtrop, it doesn’t matter whether a person prefers to create art with their hands or read books on ancient ceramic techniques. Having knowledge of art history can benefit many aspects of a person’s life.

“I think that art can teach us so much,” Holtrop says. “We can have such rich conversations around works of art that can bring people from very different walks of life together to have dialogue.” •

Pop art 1950s-1970

source artincontext.org

May 2022 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 39

A WORLD OF

Package | Art in Society

ART Honoring the Youth Women’s Christian Association’s 150th anniversary, 12 Youth Apprentices painted this mural on 225 W. Court Street in Cincinnati to celebrate YWCA’s mission to eliminate racism, empower women, and promote justice and freedom for all. This mural is an example of a piece of art in which the artists included messages to get their viewpoint out to the world.

There are hundreds of different mediums of art used today, and artists often have their own unique purpose and messages they embellish their pieces with to make an impact. story zach shultz | photography maddie behrmann | infographic kaitlin dwomoh

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irst, she picks an idea, an idea that could come from anywhere. Second, she takes that idea and forms a mood board, trying to understand the mood of this piece.

Third, she starts to sketch this developed idea out, making patterns that she will eventually use to create the actual piece of fashion. Finally, she sews and creates the piece, starting with the bodice and skirt, sewing the seams together. East junior Noor Hamidullah touches on different mediums of art, such as photography and watercolor painting, but her focus is fashion and making clothes. “[During the COVID-19] quarantine, I got weirdly interested, fell down a rabbit hole, and started to take up sewing,” Hamidullah told Spark. “It just evolved from there.”

Like many others, Hamidullah is an artist who uses these different mediums to speak out on issues and problems in society, as well as fulfill the purpose her art has to her.

“I just hope it starts a conversation, or if it doesn’t [achieve that], then continues the conversation and pushes it forward,” Hamidullah says. “Writing is not really my strong suit, so it’s easier for me to just show

what I want to say rather than telling.”

Hamidullah is not alone in this mindset.

Aside from starting conversations and reaching audiences, every artist has their own specific purpose, goal, message, and intention they try to achieve or spread with their art, no matter the medium. Drawings, paintings, sculptures, fashion, literature, film, and other mediums can be different to anyone who approaches it. Different artists have varying ways they approach their art as well. One such artist is freelance editorial cartoonist for the Cincinnati Enquirer Kevin Necessary.

“I have wanted to do art since I was three years old,” Necessary told Spark. “[When I was that young], I didn’t realize that there was this job where people can go and create like this; it really kind of blew my mind. From there, I started drawing, and I made it my goal to become a professional artist. When I was in high school, I started getting impatient to get my art out into the world. From there, I got into journalism and the news, and I became an editorial cartoonist.”

Necessary, who is a Spark alumni, makes one cartoon for the Enquirer every week, where he follows a step-by-step schedule to complete his cartoon.

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“Throughout the week, I’ll read the news and make sure I’m jotting down ideas for news stories that connect with me, maybe issues I want to comment on, and I let this percolate in the back of my head. Oftentimes, I will do a series of little sketches in my sketchbook just to work out ideas,” Necessary says. “A lot of it is sitting around [and] thinking of something I feel strongly about that I can comment on. Once I get this idea, I start working very rapidly, and I get together three to five different sketches. I send these ideas to the editors at the Enquirer, and they tell me which ones resonate with them and which one I should go with. After that, it’s all a blur because I draw as fast as I can.”

Years after she started delving into the genre, Hamidullah is currently making a piece of clothing about slavery. She describes it as a debutante ball gown from the 1850s. White on the gown symbolizes cotton, and it will have an overlay of oxidized chain to symbolize the chains of slavery.

“Obviously, [the horrors] of slavery are pretty obvious, but hopefully people still see the horrors of it [today],” Hamidullah says. “[It’s] just to show the huge disparity between the two classes of America.”

Art in Society | Package

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THE PURPOSE

ecessary believes that art does not have just one purpose, but many.

“Art is how we express ourselves. It can be many things to many people,” Necessary says. “For me, sometimes I need to use my art to express a political position that I have an opinion on. Sometimes I use it as an escape, a way to just block out the world and have fun.

Art can be a way to express emotion, [whether] it’s visual art, poetry, writing, film, dance. Art is a way to move people and to get ideas out into the world.”

East junior Lauren Polyak, who specializes in traditional art such as charcoal and graphite portraits, thinks that art is a creative outlet, where one can express their creativity and speak out. She says it is easy to use art as a platform because she is good at it.

Necessary also thinks that art is one’s expression of the world. People take the world they know, internalize it, tune it with their own emotions, and spit it out in a new form.

“Look at cave paintings from 30-40 thousand years ago. The people who were making those paintings were expressing something about themselves, about their world, about their own inner thoughts,” Necessary says. “That was their way of saying, ‘here I am making a mark’, and that’s how art has always been, and we have different forms of delivery in different media.”

For East art teacher Linda Augutis, art’s purpose is to express what is meaningful as a human being.

Augutis teaches many art classes, including Fine Art 1, Still Photo 1, Drawing and Painting 1-4, and Advanced Placement (AP) Studio Drawing.

“Art’s role today is many faceted; some fine artists are politically motivated, while others simply want to convey what they believe is beautiful in our world,” Augutis told Spark.

“Art records mankind and their footprint in history, [and] artists cannot be replaced by machines because they are needed as the core of creativity and individual self expression.”

Another art teacher at East, Joseph Walsh, has a project in his Ceramics I class called “Fear Trophies”. In the first semester, he has his students choose a personal fear and “face” it by constructing a trophy celebrating their triumph over their fear.

It is a good teaching oportunity for his students as well as a project about something meaningful.

“I design projects that utilize certain hand building techniques. The trophy base utilizes slabs, so every student has to construct a box and cylinder out of slabs. This is good practice for the techniques as well as makes the piece hollow so it is much lighter in weight,” Walsh told Spark. “[The goals with this project] are to increase our skills in slab building, complete a sculpting element which is the fear on top, and the planning and thought behind fears and facing them.”

Walsh says that the fears students choose to face can range from general ones like spiders, snakes, the dark, and heights to more serious ones like abandonment, fear of the unknown,

fear of being watched, or being buried alive.

“I think that the discussion of fears as a class helps give everyone a closer look at other people in their class as well as unite them in the vulnerability to sometimes trivial things like a spider or bigger issues like being alone,” Walsh says.

Kristopher Holland is an Associate Professor of Art and Design Education at the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP), as well as the Director of the Graduate program in Visual Arts Education. Like Necessary and Augutis, Holland believes that art has many purposes and is hard to categorize. “[Art is] definitely a communication strategy, especially communication design, which is art. There are ways to communicate with or without language. You can see an image, and it can communicate thousands of different things, whether it’s digital or in real life,” Holland told Spark. “At DAAP, we acknowledge [art’s] communicative and emotional value, but we really think of it as a tool to sort of create new knowledge about the world and things around us.”

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THE PROCESS

olland teaches several classes, such as studio classes which involve drawing and sculpting, as well as classes involving art history, philosophy, technology, and one class called “Neurons to Picasso” which he coteaches with a neuroscientist.

“One of the goals for our students at DAAP is if you’re going to be an expert in art-making or perception, you should know [how your brain functions] and what cognitive and neurological sciences are,” Holland says. “We do science labs and teach the students how the eyes and brain function and how we perceive. If you understand how we perceive [things] biologically, you can manipulate that as an artist. [That’s what] artists do is sort of manipulate perception and the way we understand the world.”

At East, Augutis and other art teachers, such as Jesse Dornan, try to prepare their students for their future, regardless of if they are going into art or not. Dornan, who teaches Metals 1-4 and AP 3D Studio, as well as being the art department chair at East, tries to modify his teaching to cater for every student.

“Some students know that they don’t want to do art as a career, but they know that they love art.

We want to make sure we have a good, welcoming place for those students to be able to enjoy being creative and having a nice creative release, and to hopefully foster that so they are able to enjoy [art] for years to come,” Dornan told Spark. “But then you have your students that love it in a way that they would be able to make a living out of it.

We ended up finding those students and helping guide them to a career path.”

Holland feels that art is a process, and in order for student artists to be successful, they have to understand that.

“Students shouldn’t be learning to

“Art is how we express ourselves. For me, sometimes I use my art to express a political position that I have an opinion on. Sometimes I use it as an escape, a way to just block out the world and have fun.” - Freelance editorial cartoonist Kevin Necessary necessarily finish and always complete everything. They should be learning the process and what that requires. It’s also research-based, so you have to research and see who’s done similar work,” Holland says. “If you’re going to paint an orange, you might want to do some research on who’s done that before because that’ll just make your work more interesting– doing something interesting or new. That sort of novelty, creativity, and process-based sort of focus is really important for artists.”

With this, Holland holds a belief that creativity requires collaboration and that art isn’t a one-person job.

“There’s this myth that artists are these ‘lone wolves’ [or] solo geniuses, [but] geniuses actually use collaboration,” Holland says. “Collaboration doesn’t always mean a group, it means with history, with contemporary culture. You’re always remixing things you see and hear.”

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THE MESSAGE

rtists have been putting messages in their art for years. Even in old paintings, artists snuck in messages regardless of whether people would understand what they meant or not.

Vincent Van Gogh’s oil painting, “Café Terrace at Night,” has been believed to be the artist’s own take on the mural painting “The Last Supper” by Leonardo da Vinci. “The Last Supper” itself has a hidden 40-second hymn-like melody with musical notes hidden in the positions in the apostles’ hands and the loaves of bread on the table.

Another example is the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, which shows a beautiful scene of God giving Adam the first spark of life. Michelangelo painted the ceiling from 1508 to 1512. However, the flowing reddishbrownish cloak behind God and the angels is the exact same shape as the human brain. One theory indicates that the brain represents God imparting divine knowledge to Adam, while another suggests that Michelangelo used the brain to protest the church’s rejection of science.

Polyak includes messages in her art because art can relate to politics and social issues or mental health issues. She also believes that subtle messages are an element of every piece of art, and every artist includes one for their own reason.

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Package | Art in Society “Art isn’t always a big statement; it can be really tiny things that build up a bigger message. For a lot of artists, you won’t even realize that their art has secret elements within it. If you look at any of [Vincent] Van Gogh’s pieces, you can see throughout his art that his mental health is definitely referenced a lot in those,” Polyak told Spark. “You can find a lot of hidden messages that you wouldn’t really think about at first such as color and line shade, and social influence can show a lot of it.”

Polyak also believes that the AP art students at East incorporate a lot of messages within their art, and, depending on the subject, the viewer can definitely see the artist’s feelings about topics in our current society.

UC Blue Ash college professor John Wolfer teaches classes in graphic design, visual communication, and drawing. He specifically tries to teach his students to include messages in their art and communicate effectively, but he feels that the problem with including messages is that there might not always be someone to get the idea.

“Most art and most design has a message, but it has to have an audience, whether it’s in a gallery, online or in a museum, or some other kind of public setting,” Wolfer told Spark. “Because if there is no one to read the message, it’s not very effective.”

Wolfer himself is an artist who specializes in painting, drawing, and sculpting. He is currently working on a series of paintings involving cowboys, Native Americans, and the role and impact that traditional Western ideas and cowboy mythology still have today. Titled “Indians and Cowboys,” his message in this series is to question some of the traditional roles, practices, and beliefs that come out of a “cowboy mentality”.

“I’m painting a lot of toys and kind of

“Most art and most design has a message, but it has to have an audience, whether it’s in a gallery, online or in a museum, or some other kind of public setting. Because if there is no one to read the message, it’s not very effective.”

- UC Blue Ash College Art Professor John Wolfer juxtaposing them with text I find in Old West movies,” Wolfer says. “It’s to question traditional roles, practices, and beliefs that come out of a cowboy mentality, kind of ‘shoot first and ask questions later’ and ‘a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do’. It’s kind of questioning those traditional ideas, hoping to have a discussion and open up a conversation.”

THE INFLUENCE

Art also has significant influences and impacts on different societies and cultures. Different movements, such as the Renaissance, brought around big names and pieces of art that are still discussed today all over the world. Art has changed people’s perspectives, instilled values, translated experiences, and given hints into the past and what it was like. 92.3% of East students polled in a recent Spark survey believe that art has significant influences and impacts on society as a whole. Necessary thinks there are many specific instances where art can impact someone.

“A political statement, where you have a cartoonist or an artist who is going up against the powerful and trying to relay a message about abuses of power through a cartoon or a mural [can make an impact],” Necessary Different Mediums: Painting and Drawing says. “Someone who An artist often chooses a medium due to how it may look when finished, the texture, drying time, or how easy it is to use a medium. All these factors is feeling alone in the impact how an art piece will appear when finished. world can read a poem Levels: that makes them feel Digtial: Hard Intermediate less alone.”

Necessary also believes art can have Digital: Intermediate Soft national impacts.

“A couple of months ago, the latest Intermediate Water Spider-Man movie color came out and a lot of people went and saw Beginner Acrylic it. It made hundreds of millions, if not a billion dollars at the Advance Oil box office. It brought people back to theaters [after COVID-19] and Graphite Beginner it influenced probably thousands of people’s Charcoal Intermediate lives directly who were connected with that film. It also impacted Beginner Pastel people who were working at theaters source artincontext.org

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who might not have had jobs otherwise. It’s something as frivolous as a Spider-Man film, but that kind of art has an impact.”

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or a more serious example, Necessary suggests a current Ukrainian icon, “Saint Javelin”.

“Right now, people in Ukraine are sharing drawings and other images of what they call Saint Javelin, which is the Virgin Mary holding a javelin anti-tank missile launcher,” Necessary says.

“That art has an impact because it’s being used to bolster people’s spirits in Ukraine and to give them a rallying point.”

Aside from increasing morale in Ukraine, “Saint Javelin,” which was developed by Canadian marketer and ex-journalist Christian Borys, has also raised more than $783,000 in a charity effort for helping relief efforts in Ukraine that went viral on social media.

This one piece of art has spawned tote bags, sweatshirts, flags, stickers, and more. According to the British Broadcasting Corporation, Borys drew the idea from a similar work by U.S. artist Chris Shaw, who drew American singer Madonna holding a gold-plated AK-47. Borys directs all of his fundraising efforts to the Help Us Help Charity, a long-standing, Canadianbased organization operating in Ukraine that helps families of fallen soldiers and veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Necessary maintains the mindset that art can have impacts of different sizes, and that they can really affect the audience.

“We also live in this society today where the media and news I consume is very different from what you consume, which is different from what your best friend might consume, or what your teachers might consume,” Necessary says. “The audience is fragmented so much that it’s very hard to say that only one piece of art or one movement of art is shaping the world these days [because it’s more than one].”

Augutis also believes art has significant impacts on society, whether it is through advertisement, museums and galleries, or spaces we occupy, and that different types of artists can succeed more than others.

“Art is literally everywhere in our world. It is just a matter of learning how to ‘see’,” Augutis says. “[The most influential artists] are the ones who are not afraid to push their idea, do not shy away from controversy, and make a statement whether people like it or not. Our world needs the arts–they can bring people together, communicate ideas, and mend the soul.” •

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Art Careers | Package

East art students Nym Mills and Clay Smith work on their artwork during their AP studio class.

DRAWING OUT A CAREER

According to Lakota East Art Teacher Linda Augutis, East has generated students that have become professional designers, architects, graphic designers, and more. Spark takes a look into why these art careers are so important. story and infographic abbey bahan | photography mia hilkowitz and used with permission

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oung Jeremy, eager to continue his ongoing journey in design, signs a deal with his mentor to do the branding for Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream (JSIC), an artisan ice cream company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. He sits down thinking about what it means to scoop a large spoonful from a creamy bowl of ice cream at JSIC. He envisions each of the 42 flavors melting in his mouth and how other ice cream eaters may experience the same sensations. He takes his creativity and art skills to form a new logo for JSIC which prompts business to skyrocket for Jeni for approximately the next 20 years.

Now, students at Lakota East High School and other community members of the Butler County area can purchase a pint of JSIC from any local Kroger and enjoy it in their homes.

The colorful packaging and quirky logo immediately catch the people’s attention who are walking down the frozen section.

However, this wasn’t the first design project for Jeremy. Throughout high school, he would work on T-shirt designs for his school theater, church, and other school organizations. One spring during his high school years, a T-shirt printer for

the local soccer camps offered Jeremy 50 dollars to design the shirt for the spring soccer team. Ever since then, his design talent steeply escalated.

Designer, illustrator, and photographer Jeremy Slagle now independently owns the design company Slagle Design. According to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), an independent agency of the United States federal government that provides support and funding for projects showing artistic quality, 34.1% of all artists, including Slagle, are selfemployed. Pursuing a career in art is what Slagle was destined to do. It has been his passion since he was a kid, and there was nothing else in high school he could connect to.

“For as long as I can remember, I’ve drawn pictures of stuff. When I was little, I drew on everything and anything. I’ve always liked to do [art], and it wasn’t until I got to high school that someone introduced me to the idea that I didn’t have to be a starving artist and tried to introduce me to designing on a computer,” Slagle told Spark. “It was pretty clear [that I wanted to pursue a career in art]. It’s this or nothing. My grades were not great in high school. I did really, really well in art and

everything else was just not good.”

To translate his art skills into being a designer, Slagle needed a mentor. One day during high school, he was contacted by an English major at Ohio State University, self-taught in design, who recognized Slagle for his art and so he became his mentor. Weekend after weekend, Jeremy would ride his bike up to his mentor’s house in Westerville, a large suburb on the northeast side of Columbus. When he got there, his mentor would sit on his bed studying while the computer was open for Jeremy to use for design.

Meanwhile, Lakota East Art Teacher Jesse Dornan also had negative experiences in high school besides loving art. In college, he realized he wanted to change that for current-day high school students.

“Being a teacher is the absolute last thing I ever thought I would do. I honestly did not enjoy school when I was in high school at all,” Dornan told Spark. “I bounced around different majors and I took an intro to teaching course and I loved it. I enjoy being able to create a space for students to escape the grind of other classes and be able to have a place where they can just enjoy who they are and what they’re doing within our classroom.”

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Package | Art Careers niversity of Cincinnati’s Distinguished Research Professor in the Arts and Humanities Flavia Bastos also serves as an Interim Associate Dean at the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati. She is knowledgeable in drawing, painting, architecture, design, art history, and photography, and additionally has a background in dancing. She also has a special love for being an educator. She says that working and teaching other people is a very rewarding experience for her.

“I had this art life on the side, and I have my teaching life. And I decided I was going to integrate the two. I love being an educator, I love mentoring people,” Bastos told Spark.

“Working with folks who want to be educators or want to be artists or designers is a wonderful thing. Art is much more than a craft, it’s really a pursuit of understanding.”

Lakota West junior Caitlyn Tuttle plans on pursuing art after high school. She thinks that being skilled at art is completely different than being intelligent in other high school courses.

She appreciates teachers that provide a class that allows her to separate herself from other rigorous classes in high school.

“Artists bring beauty into everyday life and they are the translators of that inner language to an outside language,” Tuttle told Spark. “Being emotionally intelligent rather than book smart [is what’s important about artists] as well. You can do both, but art is just something that is intrinsic. Everybody can be an artist, but those who have that talent and have that ability to [be emotionally intelligent], need to [do art].”

Similar to Dornan, East Art Teacher Linda Augutis also did not realize she wanted to be an art teacher until she got out of college and worked in a parks and recreation program

where she realized she enjoyed working with kids. A factor in why she enjoyed working with kids was the ability to positively impact others.

“You feel like you’re making a difference,” Augutis told Spark. “I was sitting in the inner city rec center, and the kids would literally wait for my car. When they would see my car, they would look in my rearview mirror and they would just keep running [to me] saying ‘it’s art time.’ So this is really rewarding making a difference. I know it’s cliche, but it’s true.”

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astos believes that every student in high school needs art to be incorporated into their curriculum.

“If you think about art very broadly, there is no career that doesn’t involve the arts.

Even to be a scientist you have to have some appreciation for the elegance of nature and in the rhythms and then how to make sense of that,” Bastos says. “So I really espouse the notion that art is a very big thing and it touches everybody’s life. That’s why everybody needs an art education.”

East junior Loranna Webster, who plans on pursuing interior design after high school, believes that art found in and out of the high school curriculum stimulates creativity which is something that she loves about art.

“Art is very expressive. I think that it’s a way for people to express themselves,” Webster told Spark.

“I think it is a great way to exercise the brain and to be able to be creative and let your ideas flow into something that makes you and others enjoy it. And [also] value the creativity that other people put into pieces that they make.”

However, Bastos is seeing a decline in creativity in current-day high school students.

She is currently doing a project called “Who is American Today?” which is a continuous

research project which looks into what and who students consider “American” and how digital media skills play a role in their civic identity.

What continues to shock Bastos is that she notices through the videos that the high school students send in that they’ve never been asked their opinion in a school assignment before.

Based on that information, Bastos believes that core-class teachers are failing their job miserably because students need to know what they are thinking and what they find important. In order to do so, teachers need a creative way of teaching and art is a way of doing that because it is a living subject that can connect in all areas. “[My goal] is to make sure art is part of everybody’s life and everybody has access to art and creativity. I see it as a human right,” Bastos says. “I think what we see in the world today is that we are losing that opportunity to nurture kids’ creativity. We live in a capitalist culture that tells us the solution to our problems is a product that somebody designed and we can go buy. Being able to envision things from scratch and knowing that you have the power to create them is the core of transformation.”

Self-employed Artist and Wavelength Space’s Curator Kirby Miles believes that high school fails students because teachers and administrators don’t handle art professionally or spend enough time developing a good art program.

“Oftentimes the arts are not taken seriously in high school settings, and when it is, it usually revolves around a specific type of art,” Miles told Spark. “The art world is vast and there is room for everyone regardless of how and what you make.”

However, Bastos has a solution to this issue.

“I think it would be lovely if teachers could come together and maybe choose projects that could be done interdisciplinarily,” Bastos says.

“There is no reason why a lesson on the Civil

Top Five Highest Paying Jobs for Art Majors Based off of annual salary off Based offthe ofmedian the median annual the art careers salary of the art careers.

Creative Director Creaative Cre Director

$100,890

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$75,940

$60,340

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source: best colleges & the u.s. bureau of labor statistics

Art Careers | Package War couldn’t involve a robust art project about the meaning of the Civil War today with videos or some kind of social engagement campaign.”

Tuttle additionally thinks that there is nothing that does not involve art and that artists are extremely important to the world because everything people see comes from an artist.

“Everything is art. [For example a] peanut butter jar. That was designed by somebody.

It’s all warm and cozy and you’re not going to want to eat peanut butter out of a gray container. You’re going to want to eat out of something warm and inviting,” Tuttle says.

“Say you’re at a subway station, you know and people are scribbling on the walls or there are advertisements around. There are still expressions of human joy everywhere and I just think that is so important.”

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n the other hand, Bastos did not take art for granted when she grew up in Brazil.

She came to America for schooling and originally planned to go back to her home, but she recognized that America was full of opportunity and it was the place where her art career would prosper.

Slagle advises high school students who want to pursue a career in art to recognize those opportunities in America and take them.

Especially when Slagle started his design career in the early 90s, not everyone had a computer because it was very new at the time. His first computer was a Macintosh Plus that had a screen monitor that was either black or white. He would also have to swap floppy disks to load software.

Slagle also advises high school students to use high school as an opportunity to do something great with art. That may even include designing a logo for a discord group with friends for fun.

Design schools and art schools are getting more and more competitive because of the access that people have to technology so don’t wait until college to learn when you could start now.

“I would say you can never start too early. If you love and you find an interest in [art], you guys have a wealth that I never had. YouTube alone has free tutorials and videos on how to use Adobe software. It’s just like an online classroom. If you apply yourself, you can learn more from YouTube than from any design school,” Slagle says. “There’s stuff like Skillshare and Domestika and other online courses that are a fraction of the cost of going to design school or getting an education. There’s no reason to wait to do that, just start learning it now.”

After doing various design projects for organizations in and out of high school, Slagle built up a resume that got him a scholarship for the design school of his dreams. However, he ended up dropping out a year and a half later and landed his first job at a T-shirt company.

His high school portfolio along got him his first job without needing a diploma. So although Miles agrees with Slagle that college is not necessary for some people, college was vital

for her to become the artist she is. Bastos also interprets her college experience as extremely beneficial. She says that being in college was an extraordinary catalyst for ideas and change and it allowed her to stretch her imagination. But for Miles, graduate school was where she was challenged the most.

“College was engaging and I was able to really dig deep into subjects that I wanted to know more about,” Miles says. “I will say that graduate school challenged me the most, as it should, and catapulted me into the professional artist lifestyle. It was 40 to 50 hours per week in the studio with intense conversations about what I was making and why. Being able to answer those questions was the best academic breakthrough I had.”

Another thing about college that benefited Miles is the encouragement her professors gave her. She originally saw art as a secondary job but her professors gave her the ambition and courage to take on art as a primary job.

According to NEA, 12.3% of all artists pursue art as their secondary job.

According to Miles, to become a successful artist, being able to network and find people you align with are paramount, whether it’s a secondary or primary job. She also says over anything, hard work is needed in order to be successful.

“Tenacity over talent. You can have talent in art, but it’s tenacity and showing up even if nobody else cares,” Miles says. “The art world is fast-paced and I always advise you to just keep pushing and forever keep making work.”

In addition to hard work, Bastos believes that being knowledgeable about society is what is necessary to be an artist.

“I think that the thing that we need to teach artists is to be comfortable [being interactive with society]. Not the old-fashioned idea that the artist is in a studio tucked away from society,” Bastos says. “The artist is very much an integral citizen who is responding to what is going on in society and trying to articulate ideas and problems and make a difference.”

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astos thinks the challenging part of pursuing a career in art is that there is no limit to art and there is no one correct way to do it. That’s one of the reasons Bastos became an educator - there is a defined schedule and salary.

“I think a career in art can be intimidating because the professional pathways for being an artist are not very clear cut,” Bastos says. “Being an educator [like me] is a job right? You get a job, you get a salary. Being able to support myself and being able to have a career that I understand and could navigate is important.”

That is one of Tuttle’s worries about pursuing art as a career: she won’t get a steady income. However, according to NEA, artists are less likely to be poor compared to United States workers as a whole. The average annual income for full-time artists is $52,800 while

“Portal V” is a 24 x 24 acrylic on canvas painted by Kirby Miles.

the average American worker earns $44,600.

“I don’t want to be cheesy, but you only live once and it’s something that I love. I’d rather be a little worse off financially doing something that I absolutely adore, than being mentally wrecked,” Tuttle says. “Ever since I was younger, I was always designing little characters to play and draw with and stuff like that Slagle says that there is a common misunderstanding that pursuing a career in art makes it very difficult to make money.

“I knew I wanted to do art of some sort, but I didn’t understand how I could make a living with it,” Slagle says. “There is this preconception that says that you can’t make money doing art. But that’s where that different differentiator comes in between being a graphic designer and being an artist.”

Slagle says that there is a distinct difference between being an artist and being a designer, although both are careers in art. When it comes to being a designer, he says it is easy to make six figures doing what he does because you’re employed and have real clients. That means that designers either work for an agency where multiple designers are working for it or designers can work in-house where the only client you have is the company that you work for. For his career, it’s better to own his own design company. He has been able to become more profitable and do it at a lower price because he doesn’t have all the overhead salaries.

He also gets to work with smaller companies that allow him to do a lot more creative work.

On the contrary, artists paint what they are trying to personally express and hang it on a wall hoping somebody buys it which is a hard career according to Slagle. Designers don’t draw out what they want to express, they draw out what will best represent their client.

At first, Slagle didn’t feel fulfilled when he would help companies. He couldn’t find his purpose and meaning with his illustration skills but a friend helped remind him why art is so important for small companies, such as North

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Package | Art Careers Market in Columbus, where his art allowed the owner to expand to multiple locations and hire new staff.

“There was a time when I had some crisis where I was like, ‘what good am I doing? I’m just making things look pretty. What am I really doing to impact the world?’” Slagle says. “[Once my friend reminded me of my work at North Market] I realized at that point, I don’t just make stuff look pretty. I help businesses thrive. And when I help businesses thrive, it affects real jobs.”

Similarly, part of why Webster wants to pursue interior design is that she gets to help her clients be in a more comfortable and organized place which

allows her to make a change for other people.

“I think that one thing that is big in art careers and pursuing them is not only a passion but a want to make a change,” Webster says. “Whether that’s in modern art, whether that’s in public or personal spaces, whether it’s to find joy in it yourself or to bring others joy. I think that’s why I love art.”

Tuttle wants to make a difference.

“My biggest goal is that I make an impact, at least, in the world and that I can get my voice out there and that I can take my art and reach a lot of people,” Tuttle says. “I think that it is important for people to show what’s in their head and what’s in their mind and how they see the world. I just

want to make those connections, those little meanings, those things that make your life more complete.”

The same passion to make a change and learn is what Bastos thinks is vital to becoming prosperous in an art career.

“I think the most important thing is that sense of curiosity and understanding. That deep research and exploring big ideas are at the center of making good art,” Bastos says. “You make art about what you know, but you also make art about what you’re trying to understand. And that sense of curiosity and the pursuit of a deeper understanding is what drives creativity.” •

LAKOTA EAST ART SHOW

East’s art classes held an inclusive art show featuring works from every art class on Apr. 29.

The artworks were located in the Art Wing and on Main Street. captions abbey bahan and zach shultz | photos used with permission

Piper Dorr Each of Dorr’s pieces are acrylic paintings that show the different types of relationships between parents and their children. She utilizes black and white colors to show inner turmoil and bright colors for happier moods. “Mom vs Daughter” (left) represents a rocky relationship between a teenager and her mom, while “Motherly Love” (right) represents the happines of expecting a new born.

Nym Mills Mills’s acrylic paintings connect by the setting: his room.

However, different emotions are associated with each.

The orange in the “Security” (left) represents excitement as he gains comfort from changing his appearance as a transgender person. The pink in “Cabin Fever” (right) represents anger while the all-black background is a symbol for “black out of range.” It is meant to show the feeling of isolation he gets when hiding in his room.

Chloe Kornau All of Kornau’s artworks follow her investigation to find comfort within the passage of time. For example, “Confidence” (left) represents how as she gets older, she starts to care less about what she looks like. “Time Mends a Broken Heart” (right) shows how as time goes on, internal wounds heal. Most of Kornau’s artwork are done with oil pastels, but a few are made with acrylic and gouache paint.

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section | story

Cincinnati Art Murals | Package

The Singing Mural

Designer: C. F. Payne Location: 1223 Central Pkwy, Cincinnati An “ode to the Queen City’s rich arts and cultural legacy,” with 18 different faces of Cincinnati icons including the famous Mr. Redlegs, Elton John, the Phantom of the Opera, and more. The artist, C. F. Payne, designed the murals so all the characters were singing in a chorus.

THE MURALS OF CINCINNATI

Since 2007, arts organization Artworks Cincinnati has created more than 180 mural artworks throughout the city of Cincinnati and its neighbors. The murals themselves are a good look into the culture of the city and its residents. Spark staffers looked into a few specific murals. captions maddie behrmann photography maddie behrmann and audrey allen

Armstrong

Designer: Eduardo Kobra Location: 511 Walnut Street Brazilian street artist Eduardo Kobra depicts vibrant colors flowing from a video camera held by Neil Armstrong in his spacesuit. The eye-catching mural was made in honor of the famous astronaut and Wapakoneta, Ohio native in 2016.

The Golden Muse

Product Manager: Tim Parsley Location: 28 West 13th Street, Cincinnati Music notes from Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” encompass the golden figure of a woman from an 18thcentury mantle clock in the collection of The Taft Museum of Art in Cincinnati. The artist Tim Parsley created the mural as a part of the “Art for All” program in honor of the 80th anniversary of the museum.

Martha, the Last Passenger Pigeon Designer: John A. Ruthven Location: 15 E. Eighth St, Cincinnati

The very last bird of her entire species flies back to her flock at long last, marking the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon in 1914. Martha’s death sparked Cincinnati’s dedication to wildlife preservation after she lived her final days in the Cincinnati Zoo. Wildlife artist and conservationist John A. Ruthven designed the mural as a reminder of the importance of wildlife conservation and the reality of extinction.

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May 2022 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 47

ART WITH A CAUSE

Package | Art Therapy

Art therapy helps people with communication, self-expression, and social skills through the process of creating art. story audrey allen | photography used with permission infographic riley grosnickle

This white still life painting is one of Morgan Pollitt’s works, and is meant to represent a simple morning of coffee and breakfast.

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organ is working on the mouth. She can’t get it. She knows what she wants.

She is getting close. That mouth will make the entire work.

At home, she is overwhelmed. Homework is piling up. Her days get busier and busier. The only way to escape this whirlwind is through art. Drawing is like a breath of fresh air for her.

Each day East junior Morgan Pollitt falls more and more in love with creating art, especially because of how it makes her feel.

When she finished the mouth and jumped to the ears, her grandmother’s portrait came to life. Morgan smiled.

Pollitt creates art on her own time and in school but she can feel the effects of art on her mental health.

According to the American Art Therapy Association (AATA), art therapy is an integrative mental health and human services profession that enriches the lives of individuals, families, and communities through active art-making, creative processes, applied psychological theory, and human experience within a psychotherapeutic relationship.

Cincinnati art therapist Lauren Hughes, who maintains a practice in Montgomery, specializes in anxiety, self-esteem, and

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depression and in working with children in elementary through high school.

“Art therapy is a way to make the nonverbal, verbal. It is a tool and specialization to help individuals with communication by using art to understand themselves better, therefore talk about those things more so that is how you make the non-verbal, verbal,” Hughes told Spark. “Art therapy can be done with tons of mediums, not just markers or pencils, like clay and paint.”

Hughes likes to mix up using structured and unstructured prompts to engage her patients in discussions.

Art Therapy | Package “We use structured art prompts and unstructured prompts. So for an example of a structured prompt, I would say, ‘draw me your family or you and your family,’” Hughes says. “An example of an unstructured prompt, I would say, ‘draw me a picture of how you feel today or what happened this week.’”

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ccording to AATA, art therapy, facilitated by a professional art therapist, effectively supports personal and relational treatment goals as well as community concerns. Art therapy is used to improve cognitive and sensory-motor functions, foster self-esteem and self-awareness, cultivate emotional resilience, promote insight, enhance social skills, reduce and resolve conflicts and distress, and advance societal and ecological change.

Other benefits of art therapy Hughes mentions are an increased sense of achievement, exploration of identity, better communication, learning and practicing of coping, and an increased sense of achievement.

Art therapy is not to be confused with regular art classes. While they both create art, art therapy involves working with a registered or board-certified art therapist who guides you through the creative process while exploring how it relates to your pain.

“In art therapy, it’s less about art products.

When you think of an art class, there’s so much emphasis on the final product and art techniques,” Hughes says. “With art therapy, it’s more focused on the process, like what is that person thinking through making art, what does the brush movements make them feel like, and what do they think about when they’re using these colors.”

Art therapists are master-level clinicians who work with people of all ages across a broad spectrum of practice. Guided by ethical standards and scope of practice, their education and supervised training prepares them for culturally proficient work with diverse populations in a variety of settings. Honoring individuals’ values and beliefs, art therapists work with people who are challenged with medical and mental health problems, as well as individuals seeking emotional, creative, and spiritual growth.

“To be an art therapist you have to have training in art, like fine art. You also have to have training in psychology and counseling,” Hughes says. “It requires a master’s degree but you can even get a Ph.D. in art therapy as well.”

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ughes mentions that anyone could see an art therapist because it is open to everyone but she sees a lot of benefits with kids using art therapy.

“For adolescents that are creative, I think that art therapy definitely helped them. But I think if you have difficulty talking about thoughts and feelings, art therapy is good for you,” Hughes says. “Art therapy can be very different for all Identify that the individuals. It is used for people with patient has an issue post-traumatic stress, inpatient care, Check in with a and many other things. So [it’s] not therapist regarding just one group of people visit an art future goals. Also therapist.” go over the feelings and East junior Abby Theobald has emotions that been creating art ever since she was the patient is little and notes that it has helped her experiencing. be more creative. Though she doesn’t participate in art therapy, Theobald Creating the art piece still reaps the benefits of creating art.

There are two types of art pieces: “I have been an artist since I was Unstructured: self very little, and it all started with motivated crafting my own little ‘inventions’. So Structured: art therapist I guess I would say that art has helped gives a directive guidance me channel my creativity and become into what more innovative in my thinking and the patient successful in how I execute my ideas,” can do.

Theobald told Spark. “I definitely Discussion/ verbal find art therapeutic at times because processing it is something that helps to clear The patient and my mind. When I am drawing or therapist talk things painting, I am usually so focused on out. The art piecce acts as a window into what I am doing that I don’t think the subconscious as about other things.” it can reflect how the Through integrative methods, patient feels without art therapy engages the mind, body, them realizing. This could be discussing and spirit in ways that are distinct trauma/addiction or from verbal articulation alone. anything else.

Kinesthetic, sensory, perceptual, and

Art Therapy Process

source medicalnewstoday

symbolic opportunities invite alternative modes of receptive and expressive communication, which can circumvent the limitations of language. Visual and symbolic expression gives voice to experience and empowers individual, communal, and societal transformation.

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olitt has taken Fine Art I, Drawing and Painting I, II, III, and Photo I at East.

She believes that drawing makes her feel productive but also relaxed. “[Art] makes me feel relaxed because it makes me feel like I’m expressing myself in my own way and I feel like I am heard and letting things go,” Politt told Spark. “I have pretty much been doing art my whole life, but when I do it I feel like I am kind of venting my emotions and it makes me happy when I am finished.”

AATA reports art therapy helps lower the perception of pain by moving your mental focus away from the painful stimulus. It is not simply a distraction, but rather a way to teach people how to relax and alter their mood, so the pain doesn’t control your emotional state. A study in the February 2018 issue of “The Arts in Psychotherapy” looked at almost 200 people hospitalized for a medical issue or surgery.

The researchers found that participating in art therapy for an average of 50 minutes significantly improved their moods, and lowered levels of pain and anxiety.

“When I was 13, I had a pretty intensive spinal surgery. So I used a lot of art material when I was at the hospital. I used art to distract me. It healed me so much at that time,” Hughes says. ‘I don’t think I realized until later when I was older how much art had helped me during that vulnerable time. When I look back, I’m like ‘woah, that was huge for me.’”

Theobald feels that art brings her a sense of comfort, relaxation, and calmness.

“Art relaxes me and helps me feel more centered in a way. There is just something about the movement of a brush on a canvas or a pencil on paper that has a calming effect,” Theobald says. “I really enjoy painting, and I think that the softer brush strokes are more calming for me than drawing.”

AATA reports that one doesn’t have to be an artist to benefit from art therapy. The type of art you do doesn’t matter either. Typical sessions are weekly and last 30 to 60 minutes.

The length and number can change as needed.

While sessions are often individual at first, they may expand into a group support setting, which offers a chance for people to share their experiences with others. They explain it as a grown-up version of show and tell.

“I definitely think art is a healthy coping mechanism because it allows you to vent in your own way and feel heard even if you are scared to speak up and it is [also] a way to get away from reality,” Pollitt says. “It can also reach others and help them feel understood as well. It has definitely helped me through hard times.” •

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Package | Future of Art

THE ARTIST’S NEW TOOLS

As digital art and the technologies that accompany it have gained popularity, traditional art forms have still found their place within an ever-changing society.

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story dayna gaffney | infographic mary barone n order to instruct them on their tasks for the day, Professor Rene Bates looks over her passionate class that is offered in the Game Art Department at Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida. Bates sees the students’ glimmering eyes light up when their iPad Pro screens turn on. They all grab their styluses to animate their characters’ next move in their respective storylines. Once finished with their work for the day, they email a copy of their progress to Bates, who grades the work that night on her laptop. The grades go out to the school education website later that evening.

As the days of artists using sketchbooks and easels transition to share space with technology, many art students today are using laptops, iPads, and tablets, as well as traditional approaches.

“There are tools like Photoshop, just industrystandard programs as software that helps to facilitate the process and once you learn the tool, you know its limitations,” Bates told Spark. “But it’s an incredibly powerful tool because it helps you to expedite the process. It’s so much faster.”

According to the American worldwide employment website Indeed, 60% of jobs in the art field are digital. Technology is advancing with new apps and gadgets that make the artist’s job much more efficient. The tools on editing software Procreate such as undo, redo, layering, and creating your own brush, all contribute to the progress of making art digitally.

The speed of new technology brings students to a new form of artistry. Compared to the long process of traditional animation and drawing, digital options creates a more efficient approach to art. In some cases, Bates sees digital art as a clear and clean method.

“It’s becoming so realistic; what the elderly can see on the TV screen is sharper than what they can see in real life,” Bates says. “We do see it constantly reaching those edges of sophistication and advancement, and never

could we imagine how we’re seeing it now.”

But even with digitized art and media escalating in popularity, traditional art will never go away. Even if digital art is more eligible to broadcast, people always yearn for the original methods. Many, such as East sophomore Abby Mccullough believes that pencil and paper drawing, clay, watercolor, or oil painting is equivalent to digital art.

“I feel like there’ll be more people who go more digitally, but I don’t think paper will just disappear,” Mccullough told Spark. “I think it will still be there. There’s watercolor, pastels, or colored pencils. There are so many different mediums you can use on paper that a lot of people love.”

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niversity of Cincinnati School of Arcitecture and Interior Design student Vivica Heidenreich believes that digital art and physical art blend together and don’t have to be seperate.

“I would say it’s probably an even mix. Not so much like this is entirely digital, and this is entirely physical,” Heidenreich told Spark. “It comes with a meshing of the two. Finding materials online and finding a way to overlay those textures to create something new. Finding people that can do really cool mural art for an interior that’s a mix of something they had rendered on their computer and then made physical.”

The possibilities of the future of art can be taken many ways. Digital art for Heidenreich is a world of the unknown.

“The threat of abilities that can be done with digital art are crazy unexplored,” Heidenreich says. “There are so many options out there for what you want to do. There is physically handdrawing animated art onto a tablet, or using 3D animation or a rendering software and taking that and getting [art] off of that. It’s opening a huge world of possibility.”

Professor of Photography and Integrated

Virtual reality on the eye Patented optics focus the light directly onto the retina, producing visuals without a screen.

A low-powered LED mimics natural light, eliminating fatigue so longterm usage is comfortable.

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Tiny mirrors shape the light into an image fit for the eye.

Media at Ohio University Cassidy Brauner believes virtual art is on the rise as well.

“If we look at just the technology within the past 20 years, it has expanded so much,” Brauner told Spark. “A lot of it’s going to become virtual. Virtual reality has moved past what we inherently thought was a gimmick, to really be accessible in a lot of different fields, whether it’s fine art, commercial, or medical.”

Heidenreich sees the pandemic impacting the future of art as well. With COVID-19 impacting the world, it also impacted the art community. With everything being digitized from the pandemic, many artists found comfort in doing their art virtually. It became second nature. It forced a new outlet for artists and started a revolution.

“It really helped us learn how to use really niche interests and make them our own,”Heidenreich says. “That’s been a really big driver as far as modern art goes. Whether or not somebody actually posted on social media, every single one of us has learned more about ourselves and about how to be creative and make the best of your circumstances.”

Brauner sees her students reaching for more traditional methods now that the pandemic has subsided.

“I am noticing an urge for students to go back to handmade [art],” Brauner says. “ We always have a lot of interest in people wanting to work in our dark rooms or work with alternative processes.”

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he future of art upholds high-grade technology and broader influence on the world. However, physically painting on a canvas is always comforting for artists such as Mccullough. New programs and digital art apps impacted society to a new exposure of technology being intertwined with art. Bates believes that digital art will impact not just Americans, but everyone.

“It allows you to express yourself in a way and to transcend and reach a much further audience than ever before,” Bates says. “It gives you a bigger and broader voice.

You can reach people and other countries who are now getting access to technology for the first time. It becomes this really beautiful tool to teach stories and to inspire or influence source lookingglass others.”•

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section | story lizabeth Holmes stares through the screen, unblinking eyes, smudged red lipstick, and black eyeliner hinting at something sinister beyond her charismatic surface. Wearing a black turtleneck with a green juice in hand, Holmes founded Theranos, a medical technology company that went on to lose billions and put innumerable lives at risk. “The Dropout”, a seven-episode miniseries on Hulu, follows this story of corruption and deception led by a spellbinding performance by Amanda Seyfried.

The series, based on the ABC News podcast by the same name, focuses on Holmes, a Stanford dropout who was once touted as the next Steve Jobs and the blueprint for female CEOs in Silicon Valley. Seyfried doesn’t just play Holmes; she becomes her. The utmost attention to detail in Seyfried’s portrayal of the former billionaire can be unsettling to watch at times as the unfeeling, robotic CEO manipulates those around her with seemingly no remorse. Seyfried’s mannerisms, body language, and voice are eerily similar to the real Holmes. In a spectacular attention to detail, Seyfried gradually unnaturally deepens her voice, just as Holmes did as she rose to fame.

Wardrobe, makeup, and hair succeeded in the daunting task of transforming Seyfried into Holmes. While Seyfried’s acting is spectacular, the mismatched foundation and the distinct black turtleneck reminiscent of Steve Jobs hone in on the intensity of Seyfried’s performance.

Makeup co-head Jorjee Douglass said in an interview with Vanity Fair that Holmes used makeup as a “weapon.” The use of makeup, along with wardrobe and hair, has a large hand in curating Holmes’ narrative within the confines of the show.

The device Holmes touted as a breakthrough in the medical industry claims to be able to run a blood test with a singular drop of blood, something that remained an impossibility through the duration of the company’s existence.

The viewer is aware of the facade Holmes and her partner Sunny Balwani, played by Naveen Andrews, are carefully protecting. The other characters do not become cognizant until later in the series, acting as a point of tension and leaving the viewer on the edge of their seat.

The subplot surrounding the Theranos whistleblowers Erika Cheung and Tyler Shultz brings a sense of humanity to a world of white walls and austere hypocrisy. The duo, played by Camryn Mi-Young Kim and Dylan Minnette, respectively, offers the viewer the notion that there is still inherent goodness in the human heart despite the cold interior of the show’s lead. Despite not knowing the conclusion to Holmes’ story by the end of the series, the series feels complete and comes to a satisfying end (if you’re curious how the story ends in real life, Holmes was found guilty on Jan. 3, 2022 and could face up to twenty years in prison).

The rise and fall of Theranos is addictive

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WAYWARD WIND FA L L

Review | Culture

Hulu’s new show is an unsettling and addictive portrayal of the corrupt CEO of Theranos’ fall from billions. • review natalie mazey | art ianni acapulco

to watch unfold, which explains why “The Dropout” is only one of many adaptations releasing to the mainstream four years after Theranos’s collapse– “Bad Blood”, starring Jennifer Lawerence and directed by Adam McKay is set to release in the next few years, reuniting the star and director from “Don’t Look Up”. A book was written by John Carreyrou, the reporter who caused the dominoes of Theranos to tumble, wrote a book by the same name, “Bad Blood: Secrets and

Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup”, which became a national bestseller.

While all of these works are centered around a fascinating story, Seyfried’s career-defining performance coupled with addictive storytelling make “The Dropout” stand out. Theranos’s downfall offers a fascinating examination of women in leadership, big tech, and what constitutes as too far in an attempt to achieve; the Dropout melds these concepts into a compelling show you won’t be able to look away from. •

May 2022 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 51

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Culture | Review he sequins on his rainbow jumpsuit glisten in the bright lights as fans scream in adoration. He joyfully dances, his movements syncopated with the beat of the track. This Coachella headline performance of Harry Styles’ most recently released single, As It Was, was one to remember but nothing short of his typical persona and performance as seen during his recent Love on Tour. However, there is much more to be said about the song itself than his radiant performance of it.

After listeners are met with a playful voicemail from Style’s goddaughter, excitedly, the chords erupt into a beat with instrumentals reminiscent of the 80s. Many, including Pitchfork reviewer Olivia Horn, note the synthpop genre, comparing it to the 80s pop band A’ha’s “Take on Me.” The song simply is fun and allows for the ability to get up and dance.

However, behind the catchy melody are lyrics that hold a deeper meaning.

As It Was was released on Apr. 1, becoming the first single to debut since the announcement of Styles’s third album ‘Harry’s House,’ set to be released May 20. The song was nothing short of an exceptional experience that will likely be repeated on the other records within the album.

The song speaks for itself, as it was notably enjoyed by many, breaking the Guinness record for “most streamed track on Spotify in 24 hours (male),” after the song gained over 16 million

streams in its first 24 hours on the platform.

The song ranked first in streams in 34 different countries, the US included.

The accompanying music video has accumulated over 66 million views, and, according to Styles’s Youtube account, the music video was, “made with love by a creative team in Ukraine.” Styles often preaches to ‘treat people with kindness’ and has become an icon for acceptance and love for the LGBTQIA+ community and everyone around the globe.

Styles’s reputation and fan base is unlike any other as he sold 720,000 tickets and generated $1 million for non-profit partners on his recent ‘Love on Tour’ according to Live Nation. I can proudly say I am one of 720,000 to attend his concert, and am still in awe over that night. His praise and fans extend beyond his tour presence alone as he has had notably the most successful solo career after the breakup of the beloved band One Direction.

Styles tip toes on the surface of vulnerability and loneliness in some lines, while in others he reveals an awareness and depressing reality he has found himself in. He ultimately perfects the idea of revealing so much yet so little at the same time. As his voice beautifully smoothes over the instrumentals, a message of not being able to let go of someone he’s loved can be heard. This idea is elaborated, yet cut short by

SINGIN’ IN

STYLES Harry Styles’ most recent release, “As It Was” is a track worth listening to as he dabbles in vulnerability while providing a tune that will play on repeat in your head. review megan miranda | art ianni acapulco

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the catchy chorus.

In the next verse, however, Styles’ does not shy away from a darker reality and elaborates on this loneliness through the eyes of a caller.

As the caller begs that Styles’ is ‘no good alone” Styles paints a picture of a depressed isolation. These lyrics allow for a recognition of Styles’ applaudable self awareness but also his alienation that becomes evident throughout the verse.

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ridges, the section of songs intended to differ from the rest of the composition, can oftentimes make or break a song; and in ‘As It Was’, it was the cherry on top that pulled everything together. The change in pace to the song that the bridge adds is thrilling yet quick as Styles establishes a new story to the plot of the track.

As fans anxiously await the release of ‘Harry’s House,’ they can rest assured if they have found themselves applauding ‘As it Was’. Styles has revealed in many post-release interviews that the song captures the overall message of his upcoming album. That is, the internal journey of finding peace inside of ourselves. The meaning, the beat, the catchy chorus, all encapsulate the qualities of a connection-worthy yet boppy song that may be overplayed on the radio for many months to come. •

section | story

Review | Culture

SMOOTH OPERATOR

Artists Anderson .Paak and Bruno Mars strike again in the superduo’s new album, blending smooth jazz with new notions.• review and art cara raiford

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he album, “An Evening With Silk Sonic,” swept the board at the 2022 Grammy Awards with an eye-catching performance and multitude of awards. The group includes the multi talented musicians, Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak. It all started with the duo messing around backstage during Mars’ 24K Magic European Tour, when the two similar artists created a few songs as jokes. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, the duo continued to progress with the album, later to be reviewed by ‘70s Funk Legend Bootsy Collins, and American Rapper and music producer Dr. Dre. Their latest album provides the feeling of sitting in a front row seat to a concert filled with old school motown beats, classic soul, jazz, R&B, and retro ‘70s style music.

Inspired by artists such as Stevie Wonder, Arethra Franklin, Prince, and Miles Davis, “An Evening With Silk Sonic” blends multiple genres together in each song. The way the songs are executed creates

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an assemblage of diversity in each song that tickles the brain. When people hear ‘70s, the stereotypical song style is disco, but “An Evening With Silk Sonic” uses multiple types of ‘70s styles.

Their modern, soulful voices appropriately combined with ‘70s style and ‘90s motown creates a notable album for the latest generation and nostalgic music for the old-fashioned generation.

Anderson .Paak displays a raspy voice while Bruno Mars exhibits a more powerful voice, creating harmonies that come together to create unmatched vocals in each song. Occasional lines of humor that show the artist’s true personalities are tastefully placed in the album.

The starting track, “The Silk Sonic Intro,” sets the stage for the rest of the album, while the closing track, “Blast Off,” properly ends the concert. “The Silk Sonic Intro” does include an unexpected moment after introducing Bootsy Collins, but “Blast Off” made the purpose more clear with the

astrological reference in both songs. Tying these songs together displays the thought .Paak and Mars put into the album.

In “After Last Night” featuring the American bassist Thundercat, the musical aspect is top tier.

However, the song would benefit from not having the female’s verses. Her voice when speaking was discomforting to listen to.

It fit the theme of the song, but she sounded like she was drunk and half asleep. The songs that are the most underrated songs on the album are “Fly As Me” and “777”. These songs give the album the occasional energy needed to keep the momentum of the album moving.

To rank the songs from best to worst wouldn’t be possible. They are songs that can be appreciated for different reasons, making them close to incomparable. The creativity and the flow this album brings is flawless. This perfection from these two admirable artists meets all expectation. •

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PIC SIX: COOKIES

Culture | Pic 6

Spark editor Andie Madding finds out how the cookie crumbles by ranking the top six chocolate chip cookies.

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hough it may be a far drive, these cookies are well worth the effort. Delectable dough, gooey chocolate chips, and the warm feel of this cookie are what make it the best. The dough is salty and has the perfect crunchy outside, but the moment you reach the center is heaven. The melted chocolate chips combined with the lovely soft dough provide a true positive experience for the consumer. They come fresh out

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#2 CHICK-FIL-A

convenient drive and open everyday except for Sunday, Chick-Fil-A comes in at a surprising second. Though they’re known for their chicken and sauce, don’t underestimate their cookie technique. This cookie was the saltiest on the list which added a great balance to the sweetness of the chocolate.

Unlike insomnia, however, it was not delivered warm which took away from the experience. The lack

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$1.25

of the oven and even deliver until three a.m. Insomnia is always consistent with its cookies, and you will never be given an underpar dessert. They are also on the cheaper side of this list, meaning it’s an all around hit for this bakery.

If you’re an ice cream fan, they also make Cookie’Wiches with your favorite icecream flavor in the center. If you’re willing to drive or get them delivered, Insomnia tops all others.

$1.49

of warmth did not detract from the delightful texture of the dough in the end, as the chewy center and golden edges provided a satisfying crunch when consumed. The drive through is incredibly fast for the amount of people that are usually in line, and the efficiency of the pickup added a few extra points to their ranking. The next time you stop by for a chicken sandwich, don’t neglect to order a chocolate chip cookie!

#3 PANERA

our classic homemade chocolate chip cookie combined with an expensive rate placed this delight in the middle of the list. This cookie is reminiscent of the good ol’ grandmother’s cookie. Small, yet plentiful, chocolate chips collided with hot dough to create the classic after school dessert. The flavors were not, however, worth almost three dollars compared to its cheaper and better-tasting counterparts.

Panera offers

$2.69

amazing salty foods that provide a gratifying opposition to the sweetness of this cookie. Paired with some mac and cheese, this sweet treat is the perfect closing to your meal. Thanks to the gracious employees, they also provided us with a free second cookie whether it was to convince us to rank them higher we may never know but it was delicious. If you’re looking to spend all of your paycheck on food but come out with a very happy stomach, look to Panera.

PIC SIX: COOKIES

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staple of birthday parties and households around the area, Kroger cookies are always there. They are cheap and come in a large quantity, but that is the only factor that keeps these treats in spot number five. Flavorless dough and chocolate chips mixed with a lack of texture cultivate a taste of cardboard for anyone who takes a bite. The lackluster quality of

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s a seemingly popular new spot for highschoolers, Crumbl was a bit disappointing. The store worked fast but felt very stressful as customers were corralled to the register and hurried out with not as much as a smile. With ever-changing flavors, one thing remains constant: their chocolate chip cookie. Why this is, I am not sure, because this cookie was underwhelming compared to others. The recently opened

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storefront may be to blame as this cookie was extremely undercooked.

The first bite revealed astonishingly raw dough that created a sticky texture on both my hands and mouth. This cookie was also very greasy and made an unfortunate mess of both my car and napkin.

The chocolate chips and warmth were the only redeeming qualities of this sweet, but they did not make up for what it lacks. Overall the quality of this cookie was inferior to the reputation that Crumbl holds.

#5 KROGER $0.35

these treats need a hint of salt or gooey chocolate, but to no prevail, contain nothing of the sort. The noisy plastic packaging makes it difficult to even reach these cookies, signaling that they are probably not worth it in the end anyway. If you need a quick treat for a large number of people or a punishment for your worst enemy, head to your nearest Kroger and purchase a pack of these tasteless cookies.

#6 GREAT AMERICAN COOKIES

broken credit card machine, a somewhat expensive cookie, and very stale dough landed this bakery at the bottom of the ranking. The scary middleschooler ridden atmosphere of Liberty Center did this shop no justice. The cookie was stale and burnt-tasting with a dry, crunchy texture. Though no one turns down a cookie, this rollercoaster of emotions was not worth the

$1.99

reward. After ten minutes of trying to pay for a singular cookie, they did not make up for it with a delightful treat. A frankenstein-esque cookie was handed to us, bare-handed mind you, from behind the counter. Filled with cracks and only four chocolate chips, this monstrosity was not worth the time and effort. If you pass by this store in Liberty Center, just keep walking over to Auntie Anne’s to get you some real food rather than whatever this bakery was selling.•

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Culture | Netflix Recommendations

NETFLIX RECOMMENDATIONS The struggle to find something to watch persists no longer after Spark recommends four of the best quality programs on Netflix.• reviews andie madding | photos fair use

Space Force II

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s someone who is usually disappointed by starstudded comedies, I can honestly say that this is one of the funniest shows I have ever watched. Steve Carell, Lisa Kudrow, Jimmy O. Yang, and John Malkovich bring the Space Force team to exuberant life. As a satire that involves both political and current humor, this series is the perfect mix of ridiculous and realistic. Most of the jokes in this show rely on the stereotypes of the military branches and the absurdity of those who have political power.

Steve Carell leads the Space Force and is comically less intelligent than the scientists that work for him.

The audience gets to see a glimpse into both the professional and home life that Carell’s character lives through. This allows for the lead to feel developed and genuine, helping the viewer connect with him. A twoseason series that is worth the binge, Space Force is the perfect lighthearted comedy.

n intense look into the English gangs of the early 20th century, Peaky Blinders is the perfect combination of emotional and severe. Cillian Murphy commands this series as Tommy, the head of the Shelby family, and portrays the intense and fearless gang leader trope perfectly. The Shelby family has to survive through illegal betting and protecting their territory from other gangs.

Although it is a six season show, Peaky Blinders never loses its momentum and remains gripping for the duration of the series. Even with the combination of smoking, drinking, and violence, this show still feels personal and emotional even through the tough exterior it presents.

Once the audience sees the vulnerability of each character, they begin to grow on you and you soon feel as though you truly know them. This brilliant show is one of the best period dramas in the Netflix armory, and the plot will keep you coming back for more.

Anne With an E

Midnight in Paris

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nne with an E is one of the greatest TV series to ever grace the Netflix website. A wholesome and meaningful story that highlights the intricacies of growing up, Anne with an E is the perfect show to watch when you’re feeling down. Based off of the books by Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables, this series follows the orphaned Anne who eventually finds her perfect family.

Though the show differs from the books, cramming four novels into three seasons, the subtle messages and life lessons make up for what is lost. A delightful period piece that is great for the entire family, Anne With an E never fails to make you realize how amazing growing older can be. This series is three seasons long and will leave you wishing there was more. Though this show is not being renewed against the wishes of over one million viewers who have signed a petition to bring Anne with an E back, the quality of the storytelling and acting, especially by Amybeth McNulty who plays Anne and Geraldine James as Marilla, makes it a true masterpiece.

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idnight in Paris is directed

by Woody Allen and features Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams as an unhappily engaged couple.

While on a trip to Paris, Wilson discovers a car that takes him back to the 1920s. He joins a party with legends such as Cole Porter, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway. He gains inspiration from them to write a book and change the course of his life. The plot is unique and even though it seems cheesy at first glance, it turns out to be an authentic and enjoyable film. The atmosphere, between 1920s and modern Paris, feels incredibly inviting and warm. Woody Allen films usually come off as awkward and unique due to his style, but in this case it works with the themes of the movie to create a coherent sensation. Typical of his movies, the message is meaningful but his approach to film causes people to love him or hate him. The characters are captivating and clumsily funny, creating a sweet and moving film.•

section | story

Photo captions | Sports

SPRING SEASON IN REVIEW

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photocaption blake furnish photography caleb vanatta

he East varsity baseball team is off to a fast start in their 2021-22 season. The Thunderhawks are 3rd in the Greater Miami Conference (GMC) with a 9-3 record, and only a game behind Oak Hills. East senior and lead off batter Nick Rabin describes the team as something you wouldn’t want to miss.

“We’ve got a really talented team,” Rabin told Spark.

“People don’t see all the hard work this team has put in. We are always looking for ways to get better.”

One of the biggest improvements came from East senior Colin Sweeney. Last season, he batted .278. This year, Sweeney is batting .429, leading the GMC in runs batted in (RBI), is tied for second in home runs, and has improved in every batting statistic.

In addition to Sweeney’s red hot bat, East Junior, Braeden Fry (pictured left) has been on a tear. Fry is batting .436, and is tied for fourth with RBI’s in the GMC. •

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n Apr. 26, East friends and families joined together to celebrate senior girl’s lacrosse players Emily Nabozny, Evie O’Brien, Eva Barnes, Emily Stamm, Trinity Mullucey, and Evie Colpi on their senior night. Following commemorations, the girl’s varsity team proceeded to compete against Oak Hills for the second time this season, with O’brien quickly scoring the first goal of the game. Sophomore Aurora Hutchings had the most goals, and was responsible for a third of the points scored. At the end of the night, East emerged victorious with a final score of 18-4.

“I’m very proud of the seniors and everything they’ve accomplished,” Hutchings says. “They are a strong part of the team and will be missed next year.” •

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photocaption and photography kaleb flood

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photocaption frankie stull photography nisso sacha

he East varsity boys volleyball team faced last year’s Greater Miami Conference (GMC) champions , Sycamore High School, on Apr. 5, coming off a twogame winning streak. The team battled against the Aves every round, but ended up coming short with a loss of 3-1 (14-25 Sycamore; 25-22 East; 23-25 Sycamore; 21-25 Sycamore). East senior Sebastian Navarro led the team in scoring with 14 kills. Head coach Bryant Kuhlman said the most important thing that changed the sets from wins to losses was communication.

During the middle of match three, Navarro injured his elbow after scoring a point. After losing one of their top scorers of the night, East was able to put up a fight and didn’t give Sycamore an easy time. The average difference between East and Sycamore was 5 points per set.

“These guys battle hard and they work hard for each other, ”Kuhlman says. “So [when] they see one guy injured, they’re gonna go out there to support and battle for him.” •

May 2022 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 57

Sports | Boys vs Girls Lacrosse

East junior and varsity midfielder Allison Davis takes the draw in the East vs Oak Hills game that ended in a 18-4 Thunderhawk victory.

SAME NAME DIFFERENT GAME A s the whistle blows to signal the start of the East vs West boys lacrosse game, East junior and varsity boys lacrosse defender Harrison Clute runs down the field. He is constantly being challenged to weave through his opponents and look for one of his teammates to pass. If no one is able to get open, the best chance is to make a move to score a goal. On the same day, the East girls lacrosse team is facing off against West as well on the firebird’s field.

While both sports have the same name, if you were to watch a girls lacrosse game then watch a boy’s lacrosse game, you would notice that the sports have some major differences.

While there is a ball, goal, and stick used in both, the similarities end there. To a person watching the game for the first time, the differences in girls and boys lacrosse almost make it seem like a completely different sport.

The main difference is that in girls lacrosse there is absolutely no body contact, while in boys lacrosse, body contact is allowed. This means that in boys lacrosse they are able to defend themselves with their bodies during a lacrosse game while women cannot.

Clute has a season total of 20 ground balls and 19 caused turnovers. As a boy’s lacrosse defender, he has experience with the aggressive contact that is common in the boys game.

“The main difference that I see is the difference in contact,” Clute says. “In boys lacrosse, it is legal to hit. In girls lacrosse, there is little to no contact at all.”

The rules state that male players are allowed to make contact with opponents and because of this, in boys lacrosse, they are required to wear protective gear during their games.

The most common boys lacrosse uniform

consists of a jersey, shorts, shoes, gloves, shoulder pads and arm pads, chest protection, helmets, face masks, and mouth guards, but the women’s lacrosse uniform is typically just a jersey, skirt, shoes, gloves, eye guards, and a mouth guard.

East senior and varsity girls lacrosse midfielder and captain Emily Nabozny has played lacrosse all throughout high school and is familiar with the differences in the sport.

“You can actually hit people in boys lacrosse,” Nabozny says. “The sticks are very different. Boys’ sticks vary in sizes, our draws are different, and girls have to wear skirts.”

However, in both girls and boys lacrosse it is legal to stick check. This is when a defending player uses his or her stick to lift or poke another player’s stick in order to remove the ball from the opponent’s stick. Even though it is legal in both lacrosse games, referees can give players a penalty for making contact.

East senior and varsity defender Eva Barnes is ranked third in the Greater Miami Conference with her 18 caused turnovers this season. As a defender, Barnes knows firsthand how restrictive the no contact rules are.

“I want to be able to check someone without getting called for it every five seconds because a [referee] doesn’t like the way I did it,” Barnes says. “Every referee prefers checking a different way. It is difficult to make contact with another player and not get a call. Some referees will call something just for the sake of it looking too aggressive.”

Along with the different referees, there are many different requirements that each player must follow such as length of sticks.

For female players who play the attack or midfield position, their sticks are generally 40

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to 42 inches long. A female defender’s stick is about 52 to 72 inches, and female goalie sticks are between 40 to 72 inches long but based on their preference. For men who play the attack or midfield position, their sticks are usually 30 inches. Additionally, male players’ sticks are 60 inches for defense, and 40 inches for goalies.

Clute says that there are also other rules that involve the goalie.

“In boys lacrosse, the goalie is free to go down the field and even take a shot, but in girls lacrosse, the goalie is not allowed to do this,” Clute says.

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he differences in the sport also create different opinions. Some players love the sport the way it is currently played with all the rules and regulations, but others, like Barnes, do not.

“I would for sure enjoy the sport more if we had the same rules,” Barnes says. “I wanted to be treated equally. I don’t understand why there was a separation of the game in the first place.”

East junior and varsity goalie Ryan Hamberg, who holds second place in the GMC with 157 saves this season, wants the rules to be the same for both genders in lacrosse.

“If people have a problem with how different the games are, they should definitely be heard and discuss the issue,” Hamberg says.

“But if everyone enjoys the current games set they should leave it how it is.”

Although some wish the rules were changed, Nabozny likes the way the sport is played and wants it to stay just how it is.

“I love girls lacrosse and I don’t know any different,” Nabozny says. “I think I would love to try the boys rules and have more contact, but I’m so used to girls lacrosse that I love it

section | story

Boys vs Girls Lacrosse | Sports

East senior and varsity midfielder Colten Simkins takes the draw in the East vs West game that resulted in a close game with a final 4-3 victory for the Firebirds.

East lacrosse players explain the difference in men’s and women’s lacrosse, specifically, the rules and regulations of lacrosse that each gender has to follow. story maggie huss | photography nisso sacha and audrey allen | infographic maggie huss the way it is.”

East girls assistant lacrosse coach Greg Eifert has coached both girls and boys lacrosse and is well versed in the differences. “[Girls and boys lacrosse] are absolutely good the way they are. I would hate to think that the girls game would become the boys game,” Eifert says. “They should be totally separate. I do not think they should be the same at all. I think leaving it the way it is, is perfect.”

Eifert has been coaching girls and boys lacrosse since 1998. He coached first at Indian Hill high school. He continued to coach for the East boys lacrosse team when East and West first split, five years with the Lakota youth girls lacrosse, five years with Mount Notre Dame’s varsity girls lacrosse, and one year for the East girls varsity lacrosse team. While coaching both genders, he has realized that he enjoys coaching girls lacrosse over boys lacrosse.

“I like coaching girls better. From a coaches

Gear by Gender The equipment worn by male and female lacrosse players differs greatly due to the level of physical contact allowed in each. The red highlights aspects of each genders’ uniforms.

Female

Male Helmet Face mask

Goggles

Mouth guard Shoulder pads

Mouth guard Gloves

Skirt

Cleats

Gloves

Arm pads

Protective cup Cleats source universallacrosse.com

perspective, I think it is a lot easier to coach girls because they listen and they try to execute what I coach them on,” Eilfert says. “Boys tend to let their egos and testosterone interfere with that. They are a lot harder to convince that you know what you are talking about.”

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ifert says as a girls lacrosse coach, you have to be able to teach how to handle the ball since the pockets on a men’s stick are deeper than a women’s stick.

“Girls are forced to make good passes. The girls have a different stick, and their pockets are not as deep,” Eifert says. “Girls have to be a lot more conscious of how they cradle the ball and get the ball up and down the field.”

Along with the different pocket sizes, there is also a different amount of players on the field during a game. In boys lacrosse there are ten players on the field per team and in girls lacrosse, there are 12 players on the field per team. Eifert has been coaching for more than 23 years and he has noticed that women’s lacrosse has “a lot more finesse and has a lot more accurate passing”, while men’s lacrosse games “are more physical and a lot quicker pace.” “[Men lacrosse players] always look at the girls game as having a lot of whistles,” Eifert says. “If you talked with a high school boy or college boy who watches a girls game, they would say that the game stops constantly.”

Eifert says that although lacrosse is different between men and women, it is still a sport that many people can enjoy.

“I think the sport itself is a great sport. It can be played by all sizes, shapes, color, and athleticism,” Eifert says. “You kind of fall in love with it and I see a lot of players that just

May 2022 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 59

Sports | Kelley Haiber

CHANGE UP WITH HAIBER

New East softball coach Kelley Haiber shows the importance of teamwork and trust as he adds numbers and skill to the growing team. • story and photography nisso sacha

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n a snowy day in February, the East softball team traded out their bats for clubs at TopGolf. This outing is all a part of East’s new softball Head Coach Kelley Haiber’s emphasis on creating a culture of chemistry and trust within his team.

“Our sport is a game of failure. If you’ve never swung a golf club, or you’ve swung very little, you’re going to fail. It is going to be ugly,” Haiber told Spark. “For us to do that in front of each other, and just have fun with

it, that was team-building. We could laugh at each other, and learn from our mistakes and shortcomings.”

Haiber’s emphasis on team-building included an entire practice dedicated to building trust with activities including various puzzles and a blindfolded walk through unfamiliar places. This blindfolded walk allowed the team to learn to lead and learn to trust their teammates.

“That’s just something that is totally new for

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returning players,” East sophomore and varsity outfielder Leah Arnett told Spark. “Last year we did none of that.”

Haiber was hired in July of 2021 following former coach Steve Castner’s departure from the team. Haiber has been coaching softball for 22 years because of his love for the game and its speed. He started out by coaching his daughters’ recreational teams and kept advancing in his coaching career as his daughters advanced in the sport. His experience includes leading

Kelley Haiber | Sports Left: East softball head coach Kelley Haiber coaches the team during third inning of the game against Sycamore on Apr. 21. East beat the Aves 9-7.

his Diamond Elite travel team to a Nationals title in 2020 and winning the Mid-American Conference as the Assistant Coach of Miami University’s Division I softball team in 2021.

In June 2021, Haiber was alerted to the vacant position at East by the parents of the players from his Diamond Elite team, some of whom play at East, and after interviewing, was given the position in July.

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aiber’s number one goal entering the season was to have enough players to fill a junior varsity (JV) and varsity team.

Last season, there were only enough players for a varsity team. Haiber was able to achieve this goal and currently has 22 players rostered across both teams.

“There are a couple of girls that have become pretty good players in the short time they’ve played on JV,” Haiber says. “If we didn’t have the numbers for a JV team, they wouldn’t have had that opportunity.”

Haiber also changed some of the team’s hitting practices and focused on having his players learn their swing and improve it to their own personal preferences.

“I’m big on wanting them to learn their swing and be their own coach, because they’ll do a better job than I will,” Haiber says. “They feel it while they’re in the middle of it, so getting them to learn it from the inside out is the big thing. It’s using your body and torso and getting the big muscles involved, not using just your hands.”

In the offseason, Haiber and East weightlifting trainer Emily Miller developed a training program for the team to improve their strength and agility. Haiber attributes this work to this season’s numbers, with the team already eclipsing their numbers from last year.

For instance, the team has accumulated 518 atbats, 147 runs, and 172 hits during the current 2022 spring season, a significant increase from their 376 at-bats, 96 runs, and 104 hits during

the 2021 spring season. “[The trainers] do an unbelievable job, and I came from Miami that had one of the best trainers in the country, Matt Gonzalez,” Haiber says, speaking about Miller and co-trainer Tom Rabold. “I’ve not been let down here.”

The team started weight lifting in November, lifting three times a week on a triphasic plan.

The training plan was specific for softball, focusing on core strength and emphasizing shoulder rehab and injury prevention. Miller says she concentrated on explosive movements that would have the player’s moving weight fast and moving quickly.

“We had a lot more variety than we did last season and I felt like it built up a lot of strength in a lot of different areas, specifically for softball. We could connect the workouts we were doing to our swing,” East sophomore and varsity third baseman Hailey Hensley says.

Haiber’s experience in the game and in coaching allows him to adapt to each team and player individually. Haiber played baseball at Ross High School under current East baseball head coach Ray Hamilton and continued his career through softball slowpitch until he was 42-years-old.

“He really understands that people do things differently, [such as that] not everyone’s swinging style or throwing style is the same.

He works with that person specifically on their style, and doesn’t make them conform to what he wants or what he thinks is right,” Hensley says. “Kelley will work with a specific person because he’s seen so many different players and how they play, so he’ll focus on that and work with them specifically.”

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rnett says that Haiber is very motivating and always tries to make good out of a bad situation.

“I remember last week I had a pretty bad at-bat. I just wasn’t doing my best. I had one hit out of five at-bats and I was all mad about it,” Arnett says. “I remember going back to him and feeling bad, but he told me that it was okay because the one hit I had counted when we needed it.”

Haiber also has his players write down their goals for the season on note cards and checks

in with them throughout the season as one of his many initiatives to create a conversation around what the team hopes to accomplish.

“After games, we always have this one thing where no matter how we did, whether we won or we lost, he always gives everybody on the team a minute to say what good things we saw, to bring up a conversation even if we lost, so there is still some positivity to everything we have done,” Hensley says.

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teve Castner had been the coach of East’s varsity softball team since Lakota split into two high schools in 1998. He had been the head coach of Lakota High School softball since 1990. Castner’s brother Keith has been coaching West softball since 1997 and Steve had coached with his other brother Dan for 15 years. Steve Castner led East to nine district championships and led the team to a State runner-up title in 2019. Despite Castner’s presence in the softball program, Haiber says he doesn’t feel any pressure from Castner’s legacy.

“I know Steve was a really good coach and accomplished a lot here, but as far as pressure, no, because I’m totally different than [Castner] is and it’ll just be what it is,” Haiber says.

“While he does have a legacy, it doesn’t define what we do or what we are as a team.”

Haiber’s current goal is to continue on the team’s upward trajectory. Haiber says the team has been constantly improving and is a better team than they were on the first day. Despite not getting a run-rule all of last year, the team was able to get four in their first week. According to Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) sports regulations, “A game ends anytime after five innings when a team is 10 or more runs behind and has completed its term at-bat.”

Haiber’s goals for the future also includes winning the Greater Miami Conference (GMC), something the team has only done three times in its history.

“I get to see them accomplish things I don’t think they thought they could and not be completely satisfied with it,” Haiber says. “They still want to do better. That’s my favorite part.”•

“We had a lot more of a variety than we did last season and I felt like it built up a lot of strength in a lot of different areas.”-East sophomore and varisty infielder Hailey Hensley

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Sports | Multisport Track Athletes East junior Luke Ellis competes in the 200 meter dash at Fairfield High School during a meet on Apr. 25.

STAYING

ON TRACK East juniors Justin Green, Luke Ellis, and Ethan Evans give an inside look of how they stay in shape in the off season of Football. story kalla saineghi | photography cara raiford infographic mia hilkowitz

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Multisport Track Athletes | Sports

“Being faster for football is always a good thing, but I’m most excited to put the improvements I have made out on the track and compete for a state title.” -East junior Luke Ellis

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few months have passed since the three East football athletes’ season has come to an end. They have spent the last months reminiscing on past games, rethinking all their favorite plays, and missing their team and the field that’s filled with all their favorite memories. Now the season is fastly approaching and the boys worry about how they will prepare for their last and final season of high school football. The three boys choose Track as their way to stay in shape.

According to NCAA Division I athletes, 88 percent participated in an average of two to three sports as children.

East junior Luke Ellis started track and field back in seventh grade at Hopewell Junior School. He has been doing track as his second sport for four years now.

“I continued to do [track] because of the relationships I created with my teammates,” Ellis told Spark.

The main muscle groups used in track while running are the glutes, the quads and hip flexors, the hamstrings, the calf muscles and the muscles of the core region which are all used when playing football. By playing track in the off season Ellis gets to prepare for his season in a way that is fun for him.

“It keeps me in shape all year and prepares me physically for the football season,” Ellis says.

East junior Ethan Evans also started track and field back in seventh grade at Liberty Junior School. Although his first couple meets weren’t his best, he decided to stick with it and has been doing it every year since then.

“My first track meet of my seventh grade year was actually one of the worst track meets I have ever had,” Evans told Spark. “It was snowing heavily and was extremely cold so everyone was super layered up. I also ran really slow times.”

Evans thinks there are many benefits to the workouts that they do in track and field.

“The workouts we have for track keep us constantly moving, resulting in us being more in shape,” Evans said.

Although Evans started track and field as his way to “stay in shape”, he has grown to love the sport itself and the people in the sport.

“Overall it’s just a fun time running and competing in different events and eventually I started winning so I stuck with it,” Evans says.

On the other hand, East junior Justin Green has just recently joined track and field this year for the spring 2022 season.

“I just wanted to increase my speed for football and to stay more in shape,” Green told Spark.

According to UCLA sports specialization

study approximately 70 percent of NFL players were multi-sport athletes as kids.

in the 400-meter relay with a time of 3:52.17.

Green was pleased with the outcome of the Lasalle invitational considering that it was his first meet ever.

“We placed 4th which was alright considering two of the legs were football players who were out of shape,” Green says.

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reen wanted to find something that would help with multiple aspects of football.

“Track has a way of keeping me in shape for football for sure,” Green says. “The shortest race I do is the 100 and a football field is 100 yards, but in practice our coach makes us do 400’s and 200’s which actually helps our stamina and endurance.”

The three athletes competed in their first meet of the season at Lasalle invitationals on Mar. 26. Green ran the 200-meter relay and placed 4th. Evans competed in the 100-meter relay and got sixth with a time of 46.82 seconds as well as first in long jump with a distance of 19 feet, 7 and a half inches. Ellis placed fourth

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he boys Track and field team finished 1st overall at the Ross All-Run event, 6th at the Lasalle Invite, and 5th at the recent East Invite. The boys have been ecstatic for this season and can’t wait to take what they have learned this season from track and bring it to the field.

“Being faster for football is always a good thing, but I’m most excited to put the improvements I have made out on the track and compete for a state title,” Ellis says.•

Football vs. Track: Muscle Activation This graphic walks through the different muscles used in Football and Track.

Football

Biceps and Triceps

Track

Deltoid and Pectoral Muscles

Core Muslces Hip Flexers

Glutes and Hamstrings Quad Muscles Calves and lower leg muscles

source insider.com and LWOSlife

May 2022 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 63

Sports | Austin Siereveld

INTERVIEW WITH OHIO STATE COMMIT

AUSTIN SIEREVELD Q: How long have you been playing football?

A: I’ve been playing football for 8 years now.

Q: What was your recruiting process like?

A: It actually started at the end of this year’s football season, and just blew up from there. I definitely did not expect this at all. It was awesome to see all of these different games and campuses.

Q: What came into play when you were considering your college offers?

A: Pretty much everything from school, location, coaches, facilities, and other players.

Q: Why did you chose Ohio State?

A: It’s my dream school and I grew up watching every game and it’s home for me.

Q: What is it going to be like changing blocking schemes, from Haynes’ system to OSU’s system?

A: It will be more passing, and for me that is something I have to get better at.

Q: When did the realization hit that you were going further than the high school level in athletics?

A: I don’t think it hit me until I got the Ohio State offer.

I was riding home in the car from the Penn State game and I was like “I just got an offer from Ohio State.”

Q: You’re a part of elite company being in the top 3 for Offensive linemen in Ohio. What is it like to be able to say you are one of the best lineman in the state?

A: It feels amazing because little kids playing football for Tomahawks are looking up to you and they want to be just like you.

Q: Do you have anything to say to underclassmen who are looking to play at the college level?

A: Just keep grinding. Don’t be satisfied with anything and you always want to get better at everything you do.

Q: How did it feel to have a gym full of students waiting for your commitment decision?

A: I did not expect that at all and hearing the roar after I picked up the Ohio State hat gave me goosebumps and it was really special to me.

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Spark staffer Blake Furnish talks with East junior and Ohio State University football commit, Austin Siereveld, about his recruiting process and his future career. interview blake furnish | photography used with permission

CHANGES IN COACHING

Column | Sports

The National Football League’s (NFL) latest enhancement of the 2003 Rooney Rule requiring teams to have a minority offensive assistant coach on staff is a step in the right direction towards diversity and equal opportunity.

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column ben stowe | photography riley higgins t’s the end of the weekend. You’re dreading the thought of going back to work the next day, but there is one thing you have to look forward to: Sunday Night Football.

Since its inception in 1920, the National Football League (NFL) has been a place for people of all backgrounds to unify and enjoy a Sunday night together. However, as time has gone on it has been clear that certain groups of people have been excluded.

Specifically, minority groups are being excluded from coaching and senior management positions off the field.

The league originally created the Rooney Rule in 2003 in response to the unjust firing of former Buccaneers coach Tony Dungy and former Vikings coach Dennis Green.

The rule required teams to interview at least two candidates of minority groups before hiring a head coach or filling another senior management position.

This seemed like a fair way to solve the issue.

However, the result was “sham” interviews which took place after a final decision had already been made before the minority candidates had even stepped through the door.

The original Rooney Rule was a step in the right direction, but ultimately a failure.

On Mar. 28, 2022, the NFL announced a revision of the Rooney Rule requiring all teams to hire an offensive assistant coach who is “a female or a member of an ethnic or racial minority.” They specifically chose the offensive assistant coach position because it tends to lead to other senior positions such as head coach.

This step towards equal opportunity will open the gates to qualified people of different backgrounds and force people to begin overcoming their unconscious biases.

Throughout its first decade, the NFL had no restrictions based on race and even had a few African American stars such as Robert “Bobby”

Marshall, a n d Frederick “Fritz” Pollard, who was also the league’s first ever minority coach. It wasn’t until 1934 that the league took a leap backwards and became segregated.

This segregation continued for over a decade until the rule was finally changed and the Los Angeles Rams signed African American running back Kenny Washington in 1946. Washington played for three seasons and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1958.

The NFL has since made strides in diversity of players, with around 70% of players being African American. However, the league’s diversity is still lacking in senior management positions. There are currently two minority owners and five minority head coaches, two of which are African American.

The comparison of the inclusion of minority groups on the field, and the exclusion of the same groups in senior management positions is a clear indicator of the prejudice prevalent in the league’s off field operations.

Teams that have autonomously decided to take the chance on these candidates have reaped the benefits.The Pittsburgh Steelers signed African American head coach Mike Tomlin in the year 2007. The team hasn’t had a single losing record in a season since and has added another Lombardi trophy to their collection under Tomlin’s leadership.

Another example of an arguably great African American coach is former Miami Dolphins head coach and current assistant defensive coach for the Steelers Brian Flores. In his time in the NFL, Flores has been a part of four Super Bowl wins. Although he was a scouting assistant for the Patriots’ Super Bowl wins in 2004 and 2005, he played a key role

in coaching the team’s defense in the 2015 and 2017 championships.

Recently, Flores has made headlines with a lawsuit against the NFL and three of its teams: the Dolphins, Giants, and Broncos. He claims that they held “sham” interviews in order to satisfy the Rooney Rule established in 2003. The interviews being conducted were pointless because the teams had already chosen their candidate without giving Flores a proper chance.

There is clearly plenty of work to be done to improve diversity in the NFL’s coaching and senior management positions. Although there has been an “effort” to do so since the rule changes in 2003, there hasn’t been nearly enough of an effect.

To quote the NFL Commissioner himself, Roger Goodell, “We have made significant efforts to promote diversity and adopted numerous policies and programs which have produced positive change in many areas. However we must acknowledge that particularly with respect to head coaches the results have been unacceptable.”

The league shouldn’t have to force teams to hire people of minority groups. However, it has been made clear that this is the only way they can effectively promote diversity and equal opportunity in senior management positions. This latest revision to the Rooney Rule was an absolutely necessary and justifiable move from the NFL. •

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Sports | Column

HIT LIKE A GIRL Giving girls the option for women-only contact sports teams would provide a safe environment for both women and younger girls to build confidence and athleticism, and help mend the equality gap between mens and womens sports.

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column evie colpi | photography riley higgins f you look at a list of women’s contact sports teams for the majority of high schools in America, you’ll find that the number of opportunities for women to play a contact sport tends to be pretty low.

Meanwhile, it’s very common in America for high schools to have contact sports like football, wrestling, and even rugby that consist predominantly of men.

The lack of organized high school contact sports for women mean that if girls have the interest to play a sport like their male counterpart, they either have to compete on a men’s team or find recreational games. Neither of these options are ideal as joining a men’s team can lead to an unpleasant environment where the girl’s feel alienated or unwelcomed, and recreational leagues tend to involve more traveling and are less convenient.

It is common to hear men’s coaches tell players not to “play like a girl.” If a girl chose to join a men’s team where she heard this, it would further discourage her from learning something new and challenging herself. The hyper-masculine mindset found in men’s sports is a major contender for the lack of change in

women’s sports.

The game of lacrosse is a great example of this lack of change. From the beginning, lacrosse has been a rough contact sport. It was first played

by Native Americans in the northern United States, and, in many cases, it was the way they trained for war. The game of lacrosse spread across the north into Canada, and it became an official men’s game in 1860. Thirty years later and thousands of miles away in Scotland, the headmistress of St. Leonards girl’s school introduced the game to the girl’s at her school.

As the game of mens lacrosse evolved and changed into the beloved sport that it has become, the aggressive warlike contact has remained a large part of the game. Girl’s lacrosse, however, has stayed a non contact sport where the players have to wear skirts and little to know contact is allowed.

As a female lacrosse player myself, I have witnessed the difference in the rules of the game first hand. Men’s lacrosse goalies are allowed to score during the game whereas I, as a women’s goalie, would be penalized for it.

One of the main arguments for why the

“Having the option for women-only contact sports teams would provide a safe environment for both women and younger girls to gain the social benefits from such sports.”

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majority of women’s sports are non-contact is because many people believe women simply are not interested in contact sports. However, according to the National Federation of State High Schools Association, in 2012, over 1,500 women were playing on men’s football teams, and 7,351 women were on wrestling teams.

Personally, I have always been interested in both of these sports, but the aspect of being the only girl on a team of guys has kept me from feeding into my interest. If women’s teams were available and the attitude towards women and contact sports changed, the numbers in these statistics would be even higher.

The women who do play contact sports are treated as jokes. A quick Google Images search of “women’s American football” brings up bikini-clad women. While men’s football players (who are fully clothed and padded I might add) are presented as tough, female football players are often sexualized.

Having the option for women-only contact sports teams would provide a safe environment for both women and younger girls to gain the social benefits from such sports like growing both physically and emotionally and combating the idea that women are too delicate for contact sports. •

Column | Opinion

WHERE DID THE TIME GO? The proposed Sunshine Protection Act would make the switch to permanent Daylight Saving Time in November 2023.

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dance competition weekend means a weekend of little sleep. On a particular weekend this March, I would be performing at 9:30 p.m. followed by awards beginning at 11 p.m, only to get up at 6 a.m. the next day. I mentally prepared myself to function on pure adrenaline and coffee, only to open my calendar and see with horror that Daylight Saving Time landed on that day. Another precious hour of sleep I so desperately needed, lost–60 glorious minutes ripped from my clutches by a federal practice that creeps up on the unsuspecting U.S. population twice a year.

I will readily admit I hate Daylight Saving Time. I hate my sleep schedule being messed up, I hate waking up and driving to school in the pitch black, and I hate the nuisance of changing the time in my car. But Daylight Saving Time has greater implications than my mere biannual annoyance. Switching to permanent Daylight Saving Time could have physiological, economic, and psychological benefits that make it the obvious choice for the betterment of our society.

In March 2022, the U.S. Senate approved the Sunshine Protection Act, a bipartisan piece of legislation that would make the switch to permanent Daylight Saving Time in November 2023. While the House of Representatives must vote in support of the bill before it is signed into law by President Biden, this legislation follows a greater pattern of people wishing to move on from this outdated practice. 19 states, including Ohio, have passed legislation

column natalie mazey | photography olivia rigney urging Daylight Saving Time to be practiced year-round, but Congress has to allow for this change to take effect.

Some may argue that springing forward and falling back conserves energy, and it is true that that is the principle it was founded on.

Daylight Saving Time was first enacted by the federal government during WWI in an effort to conserve coal usage; but in our present day, the amount of energy saved by enacting Daylight Saving Time is negligible, according to the Department of Energy. Due to the copious

sleep causes mood disruptions and changing your circadian rhythm to match the clock doesn’t happen as quickly as changing the time on your phone.

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osing sleep also means losing time. Moving the clocks forward comes at a cost of $434 million nationally to the U.S. economy when factoring in health issues, decreased productivity, and workplace injuries, according to the Lost-Hour Economic Index. The airline industry is hit hard by springing forward: The Air Transport Association estimated that Daylight Saving Time cost the airline industry

“Switching to permanent daylight saving time could have physiological, economic, and psychological benefits that make it the obvious choice for the betterment of our society.” use of computers, televisions, air-conditioning units, and other technologies that are staples in our present day, the light outside doesn’t have much of an effect on how much energy is used.

The National Bureau of Economic Research found that when Indiana introduced Daylight Saving Time in 2006, energy use actually increased in the state.

Changing the time on our clocks, even only by an hour twice a year, messes with our circadian rhythm. This disruption is linked to an increased risk of car accidents, workplace injuries, and suicide according to the American Psychological Association. Beyond that, lack of

$147 million dollars in 2007 thanks to confused time schedules with countries that do not participate in the time change.

More than 70 countries currently observe Daylight Saving Time; the U.S. could become an example for countries worldwide of how to move past this outdated practice. In a time of great political division, this bipartisan bill seems like something the majority can agree upon.•

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Opinion | Column

SHOWING ALL COLORS Spark Staffer Ria Malhi shares her thoughts on the importance of representation in media.

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column ria malhi | photography riley higgins epresentation is important in all forms.

It’s necessary in today’s society that all races, religions, and backgrounds are all equally represented in our books, shows, movies, and other platforms. People of color (POC) are always the afterthought when it comes to media representation. They are never seen as being worthy of being the main character in shows and movies. This representation has been an on-going problem and needs to be fixed.

Ten years ago, the thought of an Indian kid being accurately portrayed on a television show was not something I ever thought was possible.

I watched my race be portrayed as the joke of the show. Today, it may not be seen as a joke, but it feels as if TV shows are too scared to try and portray different races and backgrounds so they decide not to try at all.

culture and who I was, even though the problem was not with me, but the way the media chose to represent my race.

This isn’t just a problem for the Indian race. All POC struggle with not being represented properly in our media. They often are background characters in shows and never portrayed as they should be. Common Sense Media reports that although Lations, who are people of Latin American origin or descent, are 18% of the population, they only get 5% of speaking roles in television media. POC’s shouldn’t be thrown into TV shows and movies to get them diversity points but instead should be given an equal opportunity with others when it comes to speaking roles.

When a kid turns on their favorite TV show and sees a character who looks like them, it’ll positively affect them.

According “This was something I had been waiting for my to PBS, when whole life. I realized how important it is that a child sees a rotagonist our media properly portrays different races and pwho looks, acts, makes sure that when they do so it is done right.” and lives like them, they feel Examples of this are all over the media empowered and inspired. It helps their kids grew up with in the 2010’s with “Phineas behaviors and emotions regarding themselves and Ferb” and “Jessie,” two shows on Disney and promotes positive attitudes. When those Channel, being the most prominent examples. behind television media have all the resources, Constant jokes about the foods, the smells, or they can easily access actors and actresses of all the clothing of the Indian Characters make backgrounds. There is simply no excuse for bad it hard for Indian kids to feel good about representation. themselves, along with the unrealistic thick Recently in our media, we’ve started to see accents that lead to kids feeling ashamed of an improvement. Shows are emerging with their native languages. The constant portrayal POC starring in main roles, movies are being of Indian people as “computer geniuses.” remade and POC are getting those lead roles.

Overtime, I started to see the pattern with the It’s an amazing thing to see after such bad media, and it made me feel ashamed of my representation in the past.

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A great current example of proper representation in media would be the number one hit on Netflix, “Bridgerton”-- a show that equally casts its parts to Non-POC and POC. The first season had great representation, but the newly released second season did even better. It represented South Indian culture in a way that’s never been done before on television.

From traditions, to language, to clothing, each part was done beautifully. Although there is always room for improvement, “Bridgerton” set a standard for television. It felt as if this was the first time any show had gotten the representation right. The characters were not called out for their food or their clothing.

Instead, every part of their culture was embraced and its true beauty was shown.

Growing up feeling misrepresented, it felt as if that part of me was healed by this show. I was able to see the true representation and enjoy it.

This was something I had been waiting for my whole life. I realized how important it is that our media properly portray different races and makes sure that when they do so that it is done right.

All races, cultures, and backgrounds are worthy of being shown in today’s media. No kid should grow up feeling ashamed of who they are because shows and movies made for children don’t value proper representation. We shouldn’t have to wait years just to see changes happen. It’s important that we appreciate the people who are doing it right and making people feel valued while also acknowledging that there is still room for growth.•

Column | Opinion

HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?

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icture this: it’s a sunny spring Friday and school has just let out. All you want to do is go outside and feel the nice warm breeze. On the car ride home from school, you think about all of your fun weekend plans: hanging out with friends, going to the movies, normal kid stuff. But then, you realize: homework. It is notoriously known for sucking the life, freedom, and fun out of any day. Math, Science, Social Studies, English, Psychology, Athletic Injury and Preventionyou name it--it has homework.

A typical sophomore at East is most likely taking seven classes (multiple of which could be honors), playing a sport, and juggling a job on the weekends; and, if you asked them, they’d say that students get too much homework.

Oftentimes I find teachers saying things like “all I ask is that you spend 30 minutes on my homework outside of school so that you really understand the materials learned today.” Well Mr. Teacher, students have six other classes saying the exact same thing, meaning that when they get home at 7:30 after practice, they’ll have a grand total of 3.5 hours of homework taking them right up to 11:00 p.m. And that’s not

The average student receives too much homework to be expected to maintain good grades, a sleep schedule, extracurriculars, and a social life. When will kids get to live their lives and not have to worry about the burden of copious amounts of homework? column aurora hutchings | photography olivia rigney even including the time it takes to eat dinner, shower, and seeing family, if they’re lucky.

According to a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the national public health agency of the United States, about 57% of highschoolers participate in school sports, meaning that over half of the student body experiences the scenario given weekly.

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nd let’s say they’ve completed all of their homework after arriving home at 7:30, and brushed teeth, showered, etc.; that would very easily take them up to 11:45, giving them 6 hours and 25 minutes of sleep (roughly) to wake at 6:10 a.m and then start the whole process over again.

According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, a United States professional society, teenagers aged 13-18 should be getting eight to ten hours of sleep per 24 hours, which is no where close to six hours and 25 minutes.

In a study conducted by the academy in 2015, 72.7% of teens did not get enough sleep on school nights. With the average highschooler

“My question is: when does it stop?

When do we get to be kids again? When do we get to feel the warm breeze and no longer have the weight of a thousand math books hanging over our heads?”

going to bed late after copious amounts of homework and having to wake ungodly early to go to school, homework is only furthering the sleep deficit in teenagers.

My daily schedule is similar to many of my fellow students; wake up, work, and sleep in a repeated cycle. My question is: when does it stop? When do we get to be kids again? When do we get to feel the warm breeze and no longer have the weight of a thousand math books hanging over our heads?

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n a study conducted by The Journal of Experimental Education, a group that publishes research studies that apply ideas found in the behavioral sciences, more than 4,300 students were surveyed, and 56% of those students stated homework as a primary stressor in their lives when asked what made them stressed.

Most people my age have little time left before we have to grow up, and I feel that homework is forcing us into the growing up process faster than we need to. Teachers, let us live our glory days too. I understand that you have a job to do but we have a life to live, and we’d prefer to do so happily, without having to worry about the next due date of our english assignments.•

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Opinion | Head to Head

HEAD TO HEAD

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t’s the middle of the school day. It’s time for lunch, and your last class was on the other side of the school from the cafeteria. After walking across the school, you reach the lunchroom only to find the line to the kitchen spreading all the way out to the hallway.

Everyone at East Main Campus can picture this situation, because it happens almost every day in the different lunch periods. The main factors are a cafeteria that is barely surviving

SHOULD LAKOTA BUILD ANOTHER HIGH SCHOOL?

YES

on its low staff and a student body too big for its school.

The simple matter of the fact is that Lakota should build a new high school. The extremely large student body at East of 2,034 (as of 2018) is something that everybody can testify on. In between classes, hallways are flooded with students rushing to their next class. At the end of the day, traffic lines to exit the school are horrendously slow and it takes twenty to thirty minutes to leave some days, possibly causing delayed arrivals for students to work or sports. As aforementioned, the lunch lines into the cafeteria are crowded, sometimes taking 10 to 15 minutes before someone can eat, in only an unfortunately small 30 minute time period.

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any students and staff probably would agree that East Main Campus is a bit understaffed. A huge example of this is the cafeteria. Child nutrition staff members, the ones working in the cafeteria, sometimes will stop the line of people entering the kitchen until the crowd of students in there leave for the register, and more space opens up. Staff members also have to run different stations for different meals, which itself leads to students being in the kitchen longer. Both of these lead to more students waiting outside.

Again, a new high school would be Lakota’s best solution. Moving students from both East and West to a new school would lessen all of these problems. Hallways, the parking lot, and the cafeteria would all be less crowded, defeating the problem of students not having enough time to eat, get to class, or leave school on time. The problem with staff shortages can be fixed by spending money on that as well.

With the recent substitute daily pay increase, substitutes would be paid $125 per day.

According to the Lakota 2022 Fiscal Statement, Lakota currently has a total of $186,175,728.44, which allows for enough to pay more substitute teachers and teachers in general for a new school.

Now, on the other hand, there is a good solution in using money to better our high schools instead of

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spending it on building a new one. The huge abundance of money might be better spent on things such as functioning hand dryers and other bathroom utilities, as well as larger areas like hiring more teachers, substitutes, cafeteria employees, and bus drivers, or maybe revamping the cafeteria to better accommodate a large number of students. However, this will not fix the problem of an overpopulated student body. Hiring more cafeteria workers might lessen the lines and waits, but there is still a huge amount of students in each lunch that is just too much. This might also be the fault of the school day schedule only allowing three lunches, compared to last year when there were four. But regardless, the long lines still existed last year.

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compromise solution to the problem of our overcrowded school and staff shortages could be to still build a new high school, but make it considerably smaller than the East and West main campuses.

If students and staff are moved to this new high school, and a large amount of money is still spent on hiring new staff, this could very well eliminate both problems. East and West would have less students than before, which would, again, immensely decrease the problems of an overcrowded school.

Lakota’s Master Facilities Plan offers many possibilities for what a third high school could be. Option 2B would involve adding a third high school for years 9th12th over 295,164 square feet, resulting in a $82,046,737 total cost. Option 3B includes adding a third high school, but at a lower cost of $82,022,779. Option 3C involves turning the high schools into middle schools and building two new high schools for a combined cost of $245,145,272. There are many different plans Lakota can choose from to further the district, with a lot of them including building a new high school.

If Lakota built a new school, imagine the scene from before. You reach the cafeteria a few minutes late to find a much smaller line, and you get your food, pay, and sit down to start eating considerably faster. You finally have enough time to eat a full meal. Just think about all of the students who would be positively affected by building a new school.•

Head to Head | Opinion

Editor-in-Chief Mia Hilkowitz and Package Editor Zach Shultz debate whether or not Lakota should build a new high school as part of their upcoming “Master Facilities Plan.” columns zach shultz and mia hilkowitz | photography olivia rigney

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he rivalry between East and West has raged on for decades since the two identical schools were constructed in 1997. From football teams to grade point averages, the two sides of the eighth largest school district in Ohio have always found themselves at the center of comparison. However, as the years have gone by and the average age of the district’s schools has increased to 33 years old, East and West have experienced a new form of comparison: quality of school buildings.

While meant to be completely identical in design, East and West school buildings have grown further and further apart in recent decades. As one parent said in a 2020 Lakota Master Facilities Plan ThoughtExchange “The two freshmen campuses have drastic differences! While Lakota East has a nice, clean layout, Lakota West has a bug problem and the school is very dirty.”

On the Lakota website, the district states that they “look forward to our students, staff and community working together to offer the best educational experience possible to every Lakota student.” How are parents and students expected to believe in their equal opportunities when the states of their “counterpart” schools are so different?

To some, building a new high school seems to be a simple solution. However, in response to this goliath proposition one thing has been clear: the district is not suited to build a new high school until it fixes the inequalities and inadequacies within its current buildings.

The school-to-school inequalities can be evaluated at surface-level when considering the overall quality and functionality of comparative buildings. In 2019, the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC) assessed all of Lakota’s 23 school buildings and concluded that 11 schools are considered to be “deficient” or “borderline.” By the OFCC’s standards, these are schools that are beginning to show their age and become less efficient in their daily operation, making it drastically harder for instructors to teach and students to learn. These 11 deficient and borderline schools boost a combined enrollment of 7011 students. These 7011 students deserve the same level of education as the other 9,404 students in the district.

The building of a new high school would not solve these gaps–instead it would amplify them. As stated in the Lakota 2022 Fiscal Statement, the district has a total general fund

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of $186,175,728.44. Master Facilities Plan 1A, which would renovate and add onto all Lakota school buildings would cost approximately $393 million. Obviously the price tag to renovate and further maintain these buildings would be a high one–but it is a high cost that is more than necessary for the betterment of the students, and it may also involve using a levy. Using $408 million dollars, which is what Lakota estimates would be the cost to build two new 9-12 high schools as part of Master Facilities plan 3C, to build a new high school would redirect funds away from the schools that need renovations the most.

Finances are not the only thing that current Lakota schools stand to lose with the construction of a new high school. Staff are another necessary asset that Lakota lacks, making it unable to support another high school, not to mention its ongoing unwillingness to provide these employees within its current 23 schools.

improve learning conditions for incoming students in the district decades in the future, but it would completely ignore the learning experience of students still currently attending the schools in need of renovation like West Freshman. The schools of Lakota are in desperate need of immediate attention right now. In order to provide the best educational experience for “every” student in Lakota, the district’s resources and attention should lie with the students currently enrolled to ensure that their education is not left as collateral damage for their “bright visions” of the future.•

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ccording to the National Center for Education Statistics, Lakota has a total student body population of 16,415 students. However, the school district only has approximately 692 classroom teachers to support this colossal student population.

However, at the high school level, most classrooms are filled with upwards of 25 to 30 kids for seven periods a day. This limited number in staff has already proven to cause major issues in the district this year, with bus routes being canceled and classes left without teachers.

The number of new teachers entering and staying in the workforce is very slim. According to a 2022 Merrimack College National Teacher survey, 20% of teachers say that they are “very likely” to leave the teaching profession within the next two years, and 24% say they are “fairly likely” to leave. This means that the district cannot rely on hiring an entire new building staff to support a new high school, and would instead have to divide the staff they currently have between schools.

All students and staff deserve an environment conducive to learning.

Building a new high school might

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Opinion | Column

DESPERATE BRIBERY Staffer Ezri Colpi discusses how unnecessary and ineffective some reinforcement tactics can be at the high school level of education. column ezri colpi photography olivia rigney

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s everyone in their seats? Remember if you are, you’ll get candy!”

In today’s fast-paced, tech-centered world, engaging students in lessons has become a major challenge for teachers. Oftentimes, it’s all about finding the proper motivation. But sometimes, these methods can be unfit for a high schooler.

Obviously, a teacher will have rules and regulations given to the students thereby ensuring that there is a standard policy and a certain order in the classroom, but there’s a fine line between “positive reinforcement” and borderline childish treatment towards students. Being rewarded for being above the line is nothing new for Lakota Schools.

But the most recent occurrence of this has been East teachers rewarding students with raffle tickets. Giving small rewards such as candy or raffle tickets to students who are in their seats when the bell rings, come to class with a fully charged Chromebook, or are consistently on time is essentially praising students who are doing the bare minimum.

According to the Ohio Department of Education, positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) is an approach schools use to promote school safety and good behavior.

With PBIS, schools teach kids about behavior expectations and strategies. This teaching strategy is a framework that guides school teams in the selection, integration, and implementation of evidence-based practices for improving academic, social, and behavior outcomes for all students. The process emphasizes four integrated elements: data for decision making, evidence-based interventions and practices that support varying student needs, systems that efficiently and effectively support implementation of these practices, and continual progress monitoring to ensure outcomes are met. Many kids struggle with behavior in school. When

schools react only with punishment, students don’t learn the skills they need to improve. However, if we teach high school level students that they will receive more beneficial awards and praise for doing what is already expected and required, it will only fuel a bigger fire. False gratification destroys young minds and their will to achieve personal goals without a label, title, or prize to validate it.

Another thing to consider is understanding intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. According to the University of Rochester, intrinsic motivation involves performing a task because it’s personally rewarding to the student. Extrinsic motivation involves completing a task or exhibiting a behavior because of outside causes such as avoiding punishment or receiving education.

When using extrinsic motivation as a manager or leader, it’s important to offer rewards strategically. While external rewards can effectively motivate a team to take on a new challenge, learn a new skill, or hit a quarterly goal, it’s vital to also make sure they’re receiving the resources necessary to take on projects and skills they’re passionate about. However, giving students constant praise for doing what is required is when it becomes ineffective and even almost insulting to those who have been doing this regularly. Both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are important ways of driving behavior. When a student understands the differences between the two types of motivation, teachers can also better understand how to encourage people.

It feels childish and almost patronizing to be taught using learning methods that are more commonly used on elementary students. Receiving a reward for this behavior, regardless of whether or not it is available in the future, can convey that a student is doing something worthy of praise. Although there are many people in La-

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kota who do not follow the expectations, this is not the way to execute reinforcement. The students treat the learning tactics as more comical than anything else and it can really go to show how seriously they take this.

S

imilar to a team receiving participation trophies, everyone gets an award just for showing up when others have been exceeding this task from the start. It might be better to reward students who go out of their way to go above and beyond and accomplish what is required consistently, as a way to not only benefit those who follow basic school rules, but also to encourage those who struggle to meet expectations. The only thing being taught is that if every student shows up to class on time on one specific day for the beginning of one period, they will receive candy.

Essentially, a lesson taught is not a lesson learned. If students are failing to accomplish the basic requirements of their participation and show a lack of respect, it would be more effective and deserving for punishments to be more severe than desperate bribery. It is the fault of the students, and most of them will only learn from discipline. Over time, this teaches them how to focus in other ways, be able to stay focused on their goals more, and keep their work as a top priority.•

East Speaks Out | Opinion

EAST SPEAKS OUT Spark picks up the pulse of the school by asking various students their opinions on a prominet issue.

How has art affected you? interviewing ria malhi photography riley higgins

BEN SCHNEIDER

KRYSTAL OBMALAY

KANWAR GHUMAN

SOPHOMORE

JUNIOR

SENIOR

“Art has impacted me through music. The different types and genres fit everyone’s interests.

No matter what you listen to there’s always a message to get out of it which is great.”

“Art has influenced me in many ways and can be found almost anywhere.

It’s impacted my emotions and has enabled me to express myself when I can’t put my emotions into words.”

“Art has impacted me visually through shows and movies.

Watching what is produced on-screen and behind the scenes is impactful in many ways. It teaches the audience a lesson through what is being performed.”

REAGAN SNYDER

AUDREY SMITH

MK HENSLEY

SOPHOMORE

JUNIOR

SENIOR

“I believe art has an impact but not directly on me. I personally don’t produce art but I appreciate the art made by others and how it brightens our world.”

“The biggest way art has impacted me is through music. As a musician, I’ve learned important life skills and have had a creative outlet to perform and bring joy to myself and others.”

“Art is something I’ve done for as long as I can remember. Drawing helps calm me down when I’m stressed whereas painting is a healthy way for me to let out my emotions.”

May 2022 lakotaeastsparkonline.com 73

Opinion | Editorial Cartoons

EDITORIAL CARTOONS

STUDENT EXPECTATIONS editorial cartoon emily henderson

A NEW REWARD editorial cartoon ava huening

DEFINING DIVISIVE editorial cartoon maddie behrman

74 lakotaeastsparkonline.com May 2022

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