LeJOURNAL
Notre Dame de Sion High School | Volume 47 | March 2025
FEATURE: PAGE 7
INTRODUCING NEW PHOTOGRAPHY TEACHER
ART IS EVERYWHERE ON THE COVER: PAGE 14
OPINION: PAGE 22
TIKTOK: A TOOL OR A CURSE?
what’s inside
Cheering for her classmates, senior Maeve Glennon showed spirit as grades competed against each other in the Sion Olympics February 13. Glennon later represented the senior class by competing in a game where she had to guess which Vive Cafe drink was in a cup in front of her. “I always enjoy the Sion Olympics,” Glennon said. “Participating this year as team USA was so amazing, and finally winning was so exciting as a senior.”
editor’s ink
This issue, we invite you to use your creativity to push your mind outside of the box. The Le Journal staff has worked over the past couple of months to produce an issue filled with artistic touches. On page 6, take a minute to learn more about Sion’s small but truly talented AP art class. Flip to page 7 and read about new photography teacher Tracy Fish. Explore your thinking style by looking over the infographic on pages 18-19. A wholesome staff favorite is on page 20, featuring Sion’s mathloving married teacher couples.
hobbies or skills, which you can hone in on by reading page 21.
Reflect on our modern-day methods of expression through our TikTok debate on pages 22-23. In a world centered around social media, are we finding an outlet to share our hobbies, or is it taking up precious time?
It’s for you to decide.
On page 12, dive into another newly popular art form, digital cameras. Cam accounts have taken over the digital landscape, and despite new advancements in iPhones lenses and photo taking features, many have reverted to loving the aesthetic of ‘cam pics.’
student space
The Humann Scholars program was adopted five years ago and is named after school founder Theodore Ratisbone’s mentor Louise Humann It is a scholarship that strives to give the opportunity of a Sion education to promising students with academic merit.
The cover story, found on page 14, expands on the idea of utilizing our individual brain types and challenging the way we display our creativity in our day to day life. Ask yourself how you find pockets in your school day to share your personality. How can we learn in unique ways that optimize our education? One way to embrace your imagination is working on
With many unique stories that highlight the creativity within each of us and the community as a whole, we hope this is an enjoyable read that will immerse you in a deeper, more imaginative way of thinking. We hope you enjoyed Deep Dives and spring break!
“Humann Scholars participate in the program during their 6th, 7th and 8th grade years,” supervisor Solange Gonzalez said. “They build confidence, independence and leadership skills through peer mentoring,
on the cover Humann Scholars
social experiences, academic tutoring, life skills lessons and one-on-one support.”
To achieve their goals within Sion, Humann scholars must have an intense work ethic.
“It is an impressive demonstration of their dedication,” Gonzalez said. “This is a high impact program that not only focuses on academic excellence but on achieving our mission as school. “
Cover by managing editor Ella Satterwhite, online editor-in-chief Bridget Bendorf & reporter Sophia Thomas.
Use camera to visit sionstudentmedia.com!
PHOTO SUBMISSION SOLANGE GONZALEZ
“I hope that future students get to have the unique opportunities that we have.”
- Brooke Petro ‘25
“Sion needs to think about classism and being productively uncomfortable.”
- Heidi Nance ‘26
“I love Sion. I think they could continue to add electives though.”
- Sophia Roberts ‘27
Plotting the Path
Sion just finished a six year growth cycle which brought us Deep Dives and other signature programs. Now, new goals are being selected for future implementation.
BY MANAGING EDITOR ELLA SATTERWHITE
The plan Sion has been following since the 2018-19 school year concluded this year. Formally known as the strategic plan, it was originally intended to last five years but was extended for a year due to COVID-19. The plan was based on input from many parties including students, alumni, parents and faculty.
“First and foremost, we wanted to advance academic excellence. We want to be known as one of the top-performing schools,” school president Alicia Kotarba said. “We also had a little bit to work on within our brand, enrollment was lower during that time. We wanted to focus on, what’s the return on investment? If you’re going to spend tuition money, what are you getting in return? And then really focus internally on what does our culture look like? How are we building that?”
needed some additional experiences.”
Since the prior strategic plan has concluded, a new one is now being built. This time, the strategic plan will take place over seven years to align with the school’s accreditation. The first step is to gather opinions to see where to focus.
“It’s not just what we’re thinking about, right?” principal Ellen Carmody said. “That’s why we did that huge survey where students participate, parents participate, board members, everybody. And then we’ll develop those kind of priorities from there. Our whole goal is to be collaborative and to have a shared vision. And I don’t think you can have a shared vision if you don’t actually listen to people.”
“More
events or opportunity to have dances or normal high school experiences”
- Anna Slattery ‘28
Some of the results of this plan and set of priorities include the new science facilities, the Deep Dive program and expanded ACCP class offerings. The new mission statement and the portrait of a graduate were also created to help clarify the brand.
“If we’re going to really focus and structure our curriculum, what are the end outcomes?” Kotarba said. “We said, ‘What does 21st Century Learning look like, and how are we preparing our students to be these well-rounded, faith-filled, global citizens?’ And from that, we thought we
Through all the change, though, there are also some things it is important to maintain, which is why the strategic plan also focuses on what Sion already does well. While some of this information will be gathered from the survey, one thing Kotarba is already focusing on is community.
“I think if you ask people, whether they graduated 50 years ago or are seniors today, I would hope people would say that it’s the loving community that they feel here at Sion,” Kotarba said. “So making sure that regardless of any of the changes, that’s what’s going to remain constant, we want it to be community, along with academic excellence.”
First Steps
Insights into two new classes available next school year from their teachers.
Personal Finance, taught by math teacher Michaela Wright, will cover topics such as budgeting, investments and how to spend wisely while aligning with your own personal values.
“I thankfully had parents who were very aware that being financially independent is something that you need, but I had friends in college that were like, ‘Oh my gosh, what do I do? My bank account is in the negative now,’” Wright said. “They didn’t have the same information that I had, so I want that to be something that other people can benefit from earlier, rather than later.”
Internal Impacts: Campus Ministry will be Sion’s newest internal program. Modeled after the Vive Cafe program, the course would empower students to hold leadership roles and help shape Sion’s ministry.
“Really, campus ministry should be a ministry that is from the students to the students,” campus minister Maria Milazzo said. “This class will be preparing retreats, all school masses and Tuesday morning masses, as well as all the other things that campus ministry does. People of all talents and gifts should consider taking this class because we can use you in various capacities.”
A Changing Education
Climate change is continuously affecting the environment, and impacting education in the process. With the January and February snowstorms and fires in Los Angeles, Sion students feel the current effects and must prepare for life after high school with a changing planet.
BY REPORTER DANIELLA JOHNSON
The negative effects of climate change are all around every day. From reading about rising sea levels to experiencing more intense storms, Americans are constantly aware of the changes looming in the past, present and future.
According to the Kansas City Star, Kansas City received 20.5 inches of snow this winter, an increase from the average 18.2 inches. In early January, one snowstorm resulted in 10.5 inches of snow; the most ever since 1993. This resulted in six total snow days and two late starts at Sion. While snow days can offer an unexpected break from the fast pace of high school, they often create even more academic stress and loneliness for students.
“At first the snow days were fun, but after all of them I wanted to go back to school because I was just at home with my brother and mom and missed seeing my friends,” freshman Aynslee Douglass said. “I was also a little stressed out by classes where I didn’t get emails and didn’t know what work to do.”
Even with school in session on the following Wednesday and Thursday, the road conditions were still unsafe for many students. Sion students come from zip codes across the metro area, resulting in a wide range of road conditions and weather effects. The Sion community also has many young drivers and traversing icy roads can make many drivers, experienced and new, nervous.
“I live in Gladstone, which is 45 minutes away and the road conditions were just still too bad to come to school,” sophomore Raven Silvers said. “It [driving in the snow] makes me nervous. I’d rather be at home than stuck in the cold and snow, for my own safety and others.”
While there have always been severe winter storms in Kansas City, global warming isn’t reducing their impacts. Instead, studies have shown that the severity of weather events like winter storms has increased in intensity.
“The temperatures in the recent winter months seem to have dropped a lot lower than I remember growing up in Kansas City,” freshman biology teacher
Tracy McNair said. “We might not necessarily notice the increase in frequency and severity of weather events or see them as immediate concerns, but we need to be aware and understand the science in order to come up with solutions.”
Rising sea levels and warmer temperatures cause the atmosphere to
lock in more moisture, which can cause larger snowfalls. NASA reports that the largest storms now have a 10% increase in precipitation, and according to National Geographic blizzards are actually more likely to occur and be more severe in places with cold winters because of climate change.
In addition to snow, climate change also increases fire risk. Early this year, three significant fires and many more small ones broke out in the L.A. area. The New York Times reports that 12,000 buildings were burned, at least a dozen schools destroyed and 25 people killed. These fires were the worst in the city’s history and were caused by the extremely dry year and up to 100 mph winds.
“Firefighters are battling to control huge wildfires in Los Angeles that have killed at least 25 people, devoured thousands of buildings and forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes,” the BBC reported Jan. 14.
A group of Sion students were preparing to travel to the Los Angeles area on the Southern California College Tour at the time. However, due to the fires in the area, the tour was canceled and is not set to reschedule.
“I wanted to go because I love California and I’ve been really thinking about going to college on the coast. The trip seemed like a really good way to discover my options,” sophomore Iva Hoskins said. “I am very sad it was canceled, and I also feel really bad for the people in California. The fires affected so many people, including our tiny private school in Missouri, which is crazy.”
At least a dozen schools were destroyed and many students attending ones that were burned or damaged from the fires are currently learning virtually and can’t return in person until at least the Fall semester.
Senior Camryn Markey was in Laguna Hills, about 40 miles south of L.A. when the fires started.
“We weren’t near the big fires but there were arsonists who started a small fire really close to our house,” Markey said. “There were police outside who told us to be ready to evacuate.”
Senior Brooke Petro shared her thoughts about the risk of future disasters.
“I applied to two colleges in California and one in North Carolina but I think I’m less likely to decide to go there,” Petro said. “Even though I love the schools I never want to have to evacuate or worry that the school will be destroyed.”
Palettes of Passion Palettes of Passion Palettes of Passion
An in-depth look on how the AP art pieces are graded and how the students use thier creativity to create works of art and form close relationshships.
BY RILEY PINTADO REPORTER
As humans, the desire to express one’s own individuality is only natural. Luckily, there are a multitude of ways people can do so.
For some, it’s through fashion, music or writing. The AP Art students of Sion express their individualism and creativity through physical visual media.
“Whatever an artist does, they put a piece of their soul into the artwork. In that way you can show who you really are. It can be gentle. It can be provocative. It can be minimalist,” Los Angeles-based visual artist Soren Grau said during an interview with Amadeus in 2016. “Whatever it is, whatever your style is, you can make yourself individual by creating something unique that is a part of you but that can also be a part of those who see it and experience it.”
Creative art classes aren’t solely important to those who enjoy it as a hobby. According to The Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota, it has been scientifically proven that creating art has a direct effect on a person’s critical thinking and problem solving skills. Through art, people learn to analyze, evaluate and make decisions based on their artistic goals and preferences. Besides, very few classes in school allow you to express yourself on the same level as an art class.
“I’m the type of person that doesn’t want to be great at just one thing, specifically when it comes to my art,” senior Emerson Kraus said. “I love scrolling through social media and seeing new artists come across my feed, especially artists that have different cultural and racial backgrounds than I do.”
Sion’s art program allows students to express their creativity through several different mediums. AP Art in particular provides students who have the commitment and passion to create high quality artwork with the rigorous and nurturing environment they need to succeed.
The course is led by art teacher Elizabeth Smith. This year it is relatively small, with only three artists: Kraus, senior Allie Serville and junior Anna Millard. Due to the intimate class setting, these artistically inclined students have been able to receive extra help from their instructor and grow in their own creativity.
“Ideally there would be more students,” Smith said. “[But] a small group can be really amazing. The small size forces the students to come out of their shells and share their work among the three of them. It also allows them to know each other individually, and that type of support has helped them grow as artists and people.”
An AP class, by definition, is a college level course available to high school students to assess their readiness for higherlevel education. But if art is a subjective medium of expression, how can one give it a grade? Smith explained that, similar to other AP courses, this unique class grades students’ individual pieces based on a rubric provided by the College Board, a non-profit organization whose mission is to expand access to higher education.
“The rubrics are super helpful because it allows me to grade the pieces based on formal elements rather than preference,” Smith said. “It’s true that sometimes as a teacher there’ll be things that personally are not my favorite subject matter or favorite mediums, but that’s not what it’s really about. It’s more about finding common things we can all connect with. The rubric really sets that up for me.”
As the year progresses, Smith grades her students based on their grit and willingness to keep creating, rather than their technical ability.
“The grading isn’t on how accurately you’re portraying something or how neat it is,” Millard said. “It’s more of how willing you are to be creative and step out of your
comfort zone, use different mediums and your ability to push yourself.”
In addition to the rubric, Smith’s students are also graded on their critiques of each other’s work, taking criticism and asking for help from their fellow artists.
“In the past there have been groups that were not as open to talking to each other,” Smith said. “Over the last semester I’ve seen them become more and more comfortable. That’s the growth I see happening, especially when they are commenting and critiquing each other’s work without me telling them to do so, which is such an important skill to have as an artist.”
Through the artists’ newfound connection with both their teacher and one another they have each been able to discover new talents and experiment in their pieces.
“I wanted to push myself artistically because for quite some time I had been experiencing burnout when it came to creating,” Kraus said. “AP Art has allowed me to consistently create more and step outside my comfort zone in terms of what I would normally draw.”
ARTWORK | EMERSON KRAUS
d E A H
n t h e
CS
Art teacher Tracy Fish’s journey with photography has led her to the classroom to guide students in finding their own artistic path.
BY EDITOR-IN-CHIEF CAROLINE DEACON
Art teacher Tracy Fish moved from Reno, Nevada to Kansas City in 2024 after spending seven years teaching photography in higher education.
Fish specializes in her own work on landscape photography, using nature’s elements to tell a deeper story and understand the world around her.
“My work is often metaphorical. What you see is not often the literal interpretation of it,” Fish said. “There’s something about environmental spaces that I like to try to understand, whether it’s my relationship or human connection to that place. I use the camera as a tool to make sense of what’s around me. That philosophy has always been my thread, even to now, and that’s probably why I find connection [to landscape] in particular.”
After growing up in Brooklyn, New York, Fish left at 18 for college in South Carolina and later moved to Nevada, which offered a very different natural environment than she’d ever been surrounded by before. Through this experience, one of her favorite collections emerged, later named “After Equivalents.”
“When I moved to Nevada I felt lost as a photographer,” Fish said. “The landscape out there was so different from what I knew. The environment in Nevada is like nothing else, so vast and so empty. I looked up often and I kept noticing the clouds. They were these weird forms to me so I just started photographing them.”
After taking thousands of photos of the clouds at high altitudes, Fish decided something needed to be made of her many snapshots. Following inspiration from photographer Alfred Stieglitz, who photographed clouds as a metaphor for escapism, Fish began to notice that different pieces of her photographs seemed to match up in her mind. She began sifting through her hundreds of photos, lining up pieces.
“These are made on all different days at all different times,” Fish said. “It was like a big puzzle. Yes they’re individual clouds but when they’re together and you step back it’s just this one big form.”
Fish hopes to continue this series of large abstracted clouds in the future, even considering cyanotypes (blue prints) to offer different colors. In the meantime, she’s taken her talents to revitalizing DIVA and photography within Sion’s art classrooms in an attempt to shed a new perspective on the art world to students.
“I just want to cultivate excitement for art, at the end of the day, whatever that may mean,” Fish said. “It’s so
much a part of our community in ways that people don’t even realize. The arts are struggling, and they have been for a while. Now more than ever, we need the arts as a means to understand the world around us. Whether that’s for personal expression or a way to have an outlet. I think that’s what is so special about the arts.”
Fish makes a point in her classes to impress that art is all around us, diving into the deeper meaning of art. She asks her students to think critically about what art really is, where the limitations are and what it means for art to be subjective.
“Art is everywhere,” Fish said. “In ways that we often don’t think about. Someone designed the shoes you wear, the clothes you buy. That’s a different application but it’s still creative. Art isn’t just about the physical art making process but also thinking outside the box. Every single job needs a creative thinker, whether you’re going into business or medicine. It’s really about how we can see the world a little differently so that we can learn to think outside the box more critically.”
Throughout her photography class at Sion, Fish assigned projects emphasizing not only the meaning behind the art, but the reality that it surrounds all of us.
“I think she definitely has helped with just being a creative outlet in Sion,” senior Kate Schneeberger said. “She’s so welcoming to every student that she has. She clearly has a passion for the arts and you can see that in her teaching.”
Even in the first weeks of class, Fish pushes her students to think beyond what they see in front of them. Using the example of the infamous duct tape banana art piece, titled “Comedian” and sold for roughly six million dollars, her students were able to discuss what makes art and how or when that line is drawn.
“The way Ms. Fish teaches makes the learning feel natural,” sophomore Luella Mook said. “It was very hands-on. I really enjoyed all the projects, even if at some points they felt challenging.”
Although Fish has chosen a career in the arts, she emphasized the importance of continuing to create beyond or beside the profession.
“Keep making,” Fish said. “No matter what that work is, no matter what that means, keep making and having that for yourself. Whatever path you go, don’t lose that creativity. Find ways to instill it, even if that’s just five minutes a day.”
Defying stereotypes
The story of “Wicked” explains how the Witch of the West became considered a villain through the lens of friendship and acceptance.
BY AMELIA BEDELL COPY EDITOR
This January, the movie adaptation of Broadway musical “Wicked” was released to streaming services after its initial release in theaters on Nov. 22, 2024. The story follows the Good Witch and the Wicked Witch of the West from “The Wizard of Oz” as they go from enemies, to friends, to “enemies” again in the events leading up to fictional Kansan Dorothy Gale’s arrival in Oz.
“I thought it was really emotional,” freshman Anna Slattery said. “And I feel like it kind of went deeper than the initial story of ‘Wicked [the musical].’”
The two witches, known as Glinda and Elphaba in “Wicked,” first meet when they become roommates at Shiz University in Oz. The movie covers the first act of the musical, ending when Elphaba decides to follow her own path despite the ostracization she will inevitably face because of it. The second movie, set to be released Nov. 21, 2025, will cover the second act of the musical.
“I think the movie stays pretty true to the story,” sophomore India Browning said. “And I like that. I don’t like when movies go off of the plot.”
Initially released by author Gregory Maguire as a book in 1995, “Wicked” gained popularity when it was made into a Broadway musical in the early 2000’s, although the plot was altered to fit the musical’s younger audience. The movie seems to have sparked a renewed interest in the Broadway version of the story.
“It’s kind of cool that they’re
making musicals into movies, because I think musicals, in general, need more popularity,” Browning said. “Wicked’s on Broadway again, and a bunch of people are going to see it. I think that’s really cool.”
Fans have noticed some differences between the Broadway musical and the new movie, especially in how the characters are being portrayed onscreen. Since movies offer more chances for audiences to notice small details, “Wicked” director Jon Chu used that opportunity to enhance existing characters’ personalities. Browning said she noticed a difference between the musical and movie versions of supporting character Fiyero
“When I saw the musical, I don’t remember him being that funny,” Browning said. “[In the movie], he has his own dance number and he was so funny.”
For first-time “Wicked” viewers and longtime fans alike, the story’s message of acceptance and female friendship was extremely impactful.
With most stories preferring to stick to stereotypes of rivalries between women, audiences connected with “Wicked’s” choice to turn those stereotypes around. The message of accepting others despite differences was also impactful to viewers.
“There’s so many different opinions on so many different things,” Slattery said. “Don’t stop loving someone just because they’re trying to do what’s right or you think differently.”
“I listen to the soundtrack almost every day and I bought the movie on Amazon”
Charlotte ZendeR ‘25
“I cried the whole time, skipped Winter Formal to go see it a second time, went to the singalong on Christmas and bought the vinyl of the soundtrack.”
Brooke Stewart ‘26
“I thought it was amazing and I’m so glad they casted Ariana and Cynthia because I thought they did wonderful.”
London Trahan ‘28
“It was so beautiful and it has such a deep and meaningful message of not judging a book by its cover.”
Lily Krumm ‘25
Off To See The Wizard
Sion students performed in this year’s annual musical “The Wizard of Oz” Jan 23-26.
BY BRIDGET BENDORF
ONLINE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
The yellow brick road led to a magical night at the Goppert Theater at Avila University the weekend of Jan. 23-26, when Sion students took the stage and performed this year’s musical The Wizard of Oz. The show was filled with talented musical performances and detailed set designs.
“[The show] is a fun classic that everyone loves,” director Elizabeth Mulkey said. “I think [the cast] did an excellent job of taking a movie script, a story that people know and love, and did it in their own way and created their own characters.”
The production’s detailed set, created by theater tech teacher Maggie Killian and her students, included Dorothy’s home, Munchkinland, and a six-and-a-half feet tall Wizard of Oz face made of foam and PVC pipes.
“It’s hard to count the hours [spent making the set] for sure,” Killian said. “Second quarter we work primarily on the set, and I come in on weekends to do some things that are too complicated for new carpenters.”
Playing the lead role of Dorothy, senior Maddi Carter gave her own rendition of the character. Capturing the classic essence of actress Judy Garland and the original 1939 film, Carter put her unique spin on the role of Dorothy.
“You don’t really know how old Dorothy is, but I thought [Maddi] did an excellent job playing Dorothy in a way that we still don’t know how old Dorothy was,” Mulkey said. “In some ways she played her a little bit younger, but in other ways it wasn’t about being young or old, it was about not wanting to grow up.”
Other cast members took inspiration from the original movie to get into character as well.
Senior Lily Krumm watched different interpretations of the original movie to get into her character as the scarecrow.
“My character likes to dance a lot and I have to act like a know-it-all kid sometimes,” Krumm said. “I have to act limp and made out of
straw which seems like it would be easy, but it gets hard after a while.”
The show featured a dynamic chorus, with many ensemble members having to take on more than one role.
“I really liked that I had a couple small roles,” freshman Reese Bell said. ‘’It seemed a lot less stressful than having a huge role.”
While a lot of work goes into memorizing lines and getting into character, a lot of extra effort goes on behind the scenes. A crew of 22 people worked backstage and in the light and sound booths making sure sets and props were in place, and lighting and sound queues were ready before each scene.
“We have notes that get passed around and we all have headsets,” sophomore Jae High said. “So occasionally if we don’t have enough crew members backstage I’m supposed to go back and help move stuff. I feel like we all work together pretty well.”
Seeing the whole cast and crew come together to put on four productions showcased their talent, hard work and the creativity put into the performances.
“I feel like in a way we embraced a story that everyone knows and loves,” Mulkey said. “I’m most proud of how they made it our own.”
Lions, Tigers, and Bears, Oh My! The main cast quivers in fear as the Wizard of Oz tells them to go kill the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz Jan 23. PHOTO | BRIDGET BENDORF
If I Only Had A Brain Senior Rin Campbell, acting as Oz, hands senior Lily Krumm a diploma acting as the scarecrow in “The Wizard of Oz” Jan 23. PHOTO | BRIDGET BENDORF
Heart of Steel Senior Elwyn Patterson sings a solo after being saved by Dorothy and her entourage in “The Wizard of Oz” Jan 23.
PHOTO | BRIDGET BENDORF
There’s No Place Like Home Senior Maddi Carter performs the jitterbug scene among the rest of the cast in “The Wizard of Oz” Jan 23. PHOTO | BRIDGET BENDORF
out with the New...
Audiences and artists alike want and need a movie industry that takes creative risks to explore the human experience.
Live-action Snow White. Another Star Wars spin-off. Rebooted Top Gun. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Barbie. Wicked. All movies based on existing franchises’ earlier success. Some of these movies are delights, others are incredibly boring, but all of them are rebrands, reboots and recreations.
“No new stories are being created. It’s kind of the same thing, or at least similar characters and similar situations,” senior Brooke Petro said. “And I think something that movies do well is combining visuals, music, sound and scripts to create whole new universes and situations. It’s wasting the potential of movies to keep making the same thing over and over again.”
Movies can tell universal stories. Even without words, early movies managed to convey emotion through human expression and creative shots. Where books require you to know a language, understand a vocabulary and fill in gaps for yourself, movies literally present a picture to you, allowing them to be understood by and impactful to anyone.
“The point of a movie is to entertain people, to make people feel the emotions,” freshman Ciel Magaña-Mora said. “Kind of like theater, its purpose is to get a reaction out of someone and make someone feel something.”
It seems the current trend for movie studios is making films that are already attached to existing stories, but this is a rather new development. Not too long ago, theaters were full of innovative movies about diverse cultures and relevant social issues.
“From what I remember from my childhood, ‘The Incredibles’ and ‘The Lorax’ and movies like those used to bring people in because they hadn’t seen something like that before,” sophomore Abby Gural said.
Technology has advanced, allowing for better animation, more interesting shots and higher video quality than ever before, but that also means movies are being held to higher standards. If a movie doesn’t use CGI and elaborate sets, it’s not on the same level as everything else, even if the story is more meaningful.
“It’s so insanely expensive to make a movie that they don’t want to take risks on anything that doesn’t already have an origin story,” English teacher Erin HamerBeck said. “They’ll take a risk on another
Marvel movie because they know that Marvel is a hit.”
Additionally, studios are businesses, so they want to make a profit from the movies they put out. If they don’t think an original story will do well, they aren’t going to put their money toward it and risk losing potentially millions of dollars. They would rather have a good chance of making money from fans of an already-beloved film.
“If you think of original cinematography, like the Breakfast Club, they’re like cult classics,” Gural said. “When we try to redo them, I think it kills the whole purpose of making movies like that, because certain movies are supposed to be left on cliffhangers. Certain movies are just supposed to end and be left up to the viewer. And then some random people, 40 years later come back and they’re like, ‘We need money, so let’s take a perfectly fine movie that doesn’t need a sequel and make eight sequels to it.’”
The way the industry works now is not only detrimental to stories, but also to storytellers. Creatives who work in the film industry, like writers, animators and actors, can feel burnt out or creatively oppressed by this cycle of constantly remaking what already works.
“When you’re forced to turn all of your ideas into cash grabs, it kills the love of the game,” Gural said. “I like writing and drawing, but the minute you put yourself in a class that’s about art, that’s about writing, that’s about music, if you do it too much, it kind of kills that passion.”
This lack of passion for innovative storytelling in the mainstream film industry has pushed creators out. When film studios decide they don’t need creativity, they also decide they don’t need to pay or employ creatives.
“I think it’s kind of pushed creators who want to do something new, a bit into the indie or less commercially successful space,” Petro said. “What’s being promoted by companies with the most clout and money is the remakes.”
Stifling of creativity does not just affect creators, it also sends the message to viewers that creativity isn’t something to be valued. When big industries do not prioritize growth, they do not allow consumers to be challenged.
“There’s no stretching your brain,” Petro said. “And it’s sending the message
that you can rely on what’s comfortable and not push your boundaries or your comfort zone and learn something different.”
Not embracing new ideas or pushing boundaries also means that modern stories are not being told. Representation in media is vital, and ignoring the lives and problems of younger generations creates alienation.
“Younger generations’ stories are not being told anymore. We had “Clueless” and we had Amy Heckerling movies that were all about the high school experience,” Hamer-Beck said. “We had the stories of young people being told, and now I feel like the stories are being told in a very inauthentic way.”
Remakes can also be detrimental to diverse representation in film. By promoting an image of diversity through the casting of actors of color in traditionally white roles, production companies can present as if aligned with inclusion movements while never making an effort to tell the real stories of the people they claim to portray.
“Instead of just having diverse people, actually have diverse stories,” junior Kayleigh Torres said. “If you just sub in a person of color for a white person in a story, it doesn’t really represent their background at all, which is the whole thing about representation, not just someone’s skin color.”
There are always more stories to be told, they just need someone to tell them. As our generation begins to enter the workforce, we bring with us new ideas and perspectives. Even if the broader movie industry is more committed to financial success than fostering creativity, we can take it into our own hands to push for better representation and fresh ideas.
“Young people wanting to maintain that creative space in movie making should consider the fact that it doesn’t always have to be like that,” Hamer-Beck said. “Our technology is getting better and better and better, so it is going to be possible, in the same way that we create Tiktok videos and online content, to be able to buy your own digital camera that films beautiful scenes and moments.”
This editorial was unanimously chosen by the 13 members of the Le Journal staff.
...in with the
Reinventing Classics
Niche internet communities are creatively changing existing IPs, creating safe spaces and making creative outlets readily available.
SOPHIA THOMAS REPORTER
If you spend enough time on the internet, you’ve probably heard of fan fiction or creepypastas. From fan-written alternate universes of beloved characters to photoshopped pictures of Slenderman next to children, these stories are deeply ingrained in internet culture. Fan fiction, where writers create their own stories based off of existing series, is the more popular of the two. Authors Zack Loran Clark and Nick Eliopulosis say creepypastas are “ghost stories of the digital age.” You can find them now more than ever on sites like Archive of Our Own (AO3) or Creepypasta.com, and not only are they creative outlets, they’re also reinventing existing IPs in unique ways.
Creepypastas and fan fiction are their own forms of storytelling–creepypastas are passed down from user to user on the internet, and reading fan fiction is joining a community in the millions that write
the most popular fics are based on series like “Harry Potter” and “Super Smash Bros.”
“You can really make a character your own,” junior Brooke Stewart said, “You can take this piece of media, and shape it into something that you’re passionate about.”
This innovation can lead to some prominent places- with creepypastas turning into video games and fan fiction being turned into published books, more and more these “niches” are coming to the mainstream.
These communities are often based in a culture of innovation, creativity, and most importantly, acceptance. Aspiring writers go to sites like AO3 to hone their writing skills, and oftentimes they’re met with constructive feedback.
“
They allow for so much storytelling from the common person.” Heidi Nance, ‘26
“I would highly suggest just writing fan fiction for fun,” Dameron said. “People will give you tips. Genuinely, I’ve never seen a hate comment on anything.”
Creepypastas and fan fiction are also a way to add representation and diversity to series where there are often none at all. A majority of consumers of fan fiction are women and/or from the LGBTQ+ community. A
lot of fan fiction adds representation and diversifies the series it comes from. Junior Heidi Nance is in the creepypasta sphere, and she writes and tells stories for her neighbors.
“You can expand so deeply on what is already there,” Nance said. “I think that can apply in many ways to marginalized people, especially the opportunity to see themselves in older genres of literature where they usually may not.”
Fan fiction and creepypastas both create a space where fans can create a whole separate world crafted through creativity, passion, and community. Perhaps an essay published in the New York Times, written by Megan Ray, sums it up best: “Fan fiction is pure love, creating communities and transporting fans to their favorite worlds a while longer.”
Spontaneity in Creativity
When junior Mo Symanski writes fan fiction, it’s often from spontaneous ideas. “I often gain inspiration for my writing on the spot,” Symanski says. “I’ll be doing something completely unrelated to the media I’m to write about when something will just pop into my head.”
PHOTO | SOPHIA THOMAS
Camera Culture
While new technology allows people to store memories easily, it can also take away from enjoying the moment. Digital cameras are more inefficient, but are less of a distraction.
BY REPORTERS NORA GEDNEY & SANTINA BONINO
ILLUSTRATION|SANTINABONINO
Whether it’s taking photos with an iPhone, polaroid camera or digital camera, photos help us reminisce on old memories and see how we have grown or changed. The way we take photos has changed a lot from past generations, but the hope to hold memories remains.
Our grandparents’ generation had to pick a few out of the hundred photos taken and get them developed at a store. The whole process would take about a day, which influenced people to live in the moment more.
However, the world of photo memories was transformed when the iPhone came out because the process of getting pictures improved and became easier. The iPhone was a storm of innovation and the process shortened from going to a place to print photos to just having the photos at the tip of your fingers. Instead of having to send postcards or photos through the mail, you can post instantly on Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook to share with friends and family.
Despite this, older ways of taking pictures have made a comeback. Digital cameras are on the rise, and the vintage look has become a new fad. Gift lists are flooding with digital cameras, which have become so popular that fast fashion companies like Shein and TikTok shop have made dupes of popular camera models. These cameras are becoming highly desired by young adults all over the world because of their ability to add color filters, use flash and even take videos. Since they allow people to save memories without being on a phone, many are opting for these cameras in hopes of being more present while still preserving memories through photos. Currently, phones are the main source of photography because they have all of these features in the palm of their hand. Phones are a very powerful tool and they have a lot of helpful features. You can edit photos, add filters and do much more all in one spot. With things like digital cameras you have to get a memory card and then dowload them onto your phone so it is more of a process. However, phones can distract people from living in the moment. One example of this is at concerts, like when someone looks out through the Sprint Center and sees thousands of screens recording. More people are viewing through their screens rather than watching
the concert and being in the moment, busy taking videos that most likely no one will watch after that night. Yes, it is nice to be able to share the experiences later, but it’s also hard to dance with one hand taken.
Social media is an outlet for many people to share photos with their friends and family. But, sometimes it can turn into a competition of who is living the better life, which leads people to post more and more. This has completely altered the purpose of pictures. Being more interested in impressing others rather than just sharing experiences can lead to a false reality where people are trying to keep up. Still, social media can be a great way to keep up tabs on old friends, seeing what family is up to and some posts can spark up conversations which leads to rehashing old friendships.
Throughout generations, using cameras as been a recurring source of documenting valuable memories and moments. As technology has gotten better, phenomenal camera quality has even become accessible using an everyday iPhone. While the trends of cameras and digital images come and go, the thing that remains the same if the significance of being able to reflect and share valuable milestones.
Picture
Perfect
Some people post photos to share their experiences while others prefer moderation in when they choose to take photos.
BY REPORTERS
NORA
GEDNEY & SANTINA BONINO
Have you ever stopped a perfect moment to get out your phone?
You probably do it on the daily.
How many times have you taken a video at a concert? Or taken a picture of your food before you eat it? Or gotten your girls together to pause and pose? We all have. And those moments are captured for digital archives.
Digital Instagram accounts have become extremely popular in the last couple of years. They’re sometimes called “cam accounts” for photos that don’t make someones main page.
“I like having an Instagram account that only my close friends follow,” junior Merrill Patt said. “I can post pictures without overthinkingit and only have my friend’s see it.”
She expressed that she thinks photo taking is more of a resource rather than a distraction, but she believes there’s a line you can cross when trying to capture the moment.
“If you’re on your phone nonstop and you don’t take a moment to appreciate the memory then I think it does take away from being in the moment,” Patt said. “But if you’re just taking a second to capture something then putting the phone down then that’s different.”
Sophomore Claire Henke has a very similar perspective on the place for photos within memories.
“I think people take photos to remember special moments,” Henke said. “You can enjoy looking through them later.”
It is a different way to come together and capture the moment.
Sometimes taking pics is also a excuse to get dressed up with all of your friends. Once again, those photo shoots are often posted on small cam accounts.
“It’s nice because I don’t have to stress as much as I do when I post on my main,” Henke said.
Even though most of the time photos are a great way to capture a long-lasting memory there can still be a downside to the phone aspect of it all.
Think about places like Disneyland, half the experience is taking pictures with all the characters and attractions rather than just enjoying being at an amazing theme park. Some children enjoy taking photos with everyone and everything, but others would rather just run around and enjoy their time.
One student that has a similar perspective to this is sophomore, Ella Gampper.
“I feel like it’s important that you live in the moment, and if you are always taking photos you can’t be present.” Gampper said.
She still feels that there is some room for photos.
“I think its good to take photos but it has to be in moderation so that you are not
Gampper said.
Phones are not the only way of capturing a moment. Digital cameras have been coming back recently and Gampper shared her opinion on them.
“I feel like with your phone if you are taking a photo you’ll probably also look at other things too. At least that’s how I am, I will respond to texts. So I feel like digital cameras are different because it’s sole purpose is to take photos and it is not as distracting.” Gampper said. “There are a lot of different perspectives on memory saving and how it affects the activity.”
Our conventional un creative world
Our conventional un creative world
Corporate American life creates an illusion that innovation can not come from more artful ways of thinking. This is untrue, and students would benefit from actively fighting against this school of thought.
BY REPORTERS DANIELLA
JOHNSON & RILEY
PINTADO & EDITOR-INCHIEF CAROLINE DEACON
DESIGN BY REPORTER
SOPHIA THOMAS, ONLINE EDITORIN-CHIEF BRIDGET
BENDORF & MANAGING
EDITOR ELLA SATTERWHITE
Engineer. Biologist. Teacher. Mathematician. Novelist. Financier. Lawyer. Musician. Banker.
Theologian. Consultant. Logistics Coordinator. Publicist. Developer. Doctor. Officer. Manager.
Which of these careers involves looking out of a corner office downtown, calling up investors and barking at competitors in Tokyo? Which ones end every day exactly at 5 p.m. so you get to come home every night to cook dinner with your kids and take them to their soccer practices? Which ones are for the travelers and adventurers, involving the conversion of a sprinter van into a tiny home?
Which career inspires you the most? Which would make you proud to tell your grandparents? Your neighbors? Your friends? Which would push you to innovate? To affect the world? To impact your community? Which have you been told to prioritize?
“Senior Liz Danda is being escorted tonight by her parents Jeff Danda and Kristy Danda,” athletic director Anna Avila-Williams said while introducing Danda at winter sports senior night Monday, Feb. 24. “She received a full ride scholarship to Creighton University and plans to earn a biology and business double major on the pre-dental track.”
The bleachers perk up and let out eager claps for Danda’s major success. Pairs turn to one another and lift eyebrows, commenting on how amazing a full ride scholarship can be. The sheer act of attempting a double major and a predoctorate track stuns the majority at any senior night. And it should.
Not to be outdone…
“Senior Maddi Carter is being escorted tonight by her mom Jess Carter. She is currently deciding on her college, but she plans to study either psychology or cinematography.”
Again, the crowd perks up. The rarity of a cinematography major leaves audiences intrigued. They might think to themselves, “Wow, if she makes it in that industry, I’ll know someone famous.” They might also think, “I hope she has a backup plan.”
“It’s just really scary because everythings like ‘What if I’m not good at it? What if I get there and I’m not good at it?’ There’s not a set source of income so that’s definitely made me hesitant,” Carter said. “I feel like I’m just going to go with my gut and my heart. I want to be happy in something that I’m doing. If it’s not something that gives me joy each day to go to work, then I don’t think I’m going to do that.”
It seems like there’s a decision to make. Will you follow your heart or your brain? Students are told their whole lives that a major in the humanities is a risky choice, while going into business, finance or premed is an intelligent one, securing certainty in the future. However, with this mindset,
the value that humanities bring to our lives is often disregarded.
Both pursuing a career in film and embarking on a pre-dental track involve necessary schools of thought for our world to thrive. Why is it that we choose to stay in conventional, uncreative world?.
Educating For the End Goal
“While in graduate school, I worked for SLU’s Department of Arts and Sciences,” journalism teacher Valerie Crook said. “The thing about working for a large university department like that is that you’re servicing the hundreds of undergraduate students taking Psychology 101 in the lecture halls, the handful of teaching assistants that set up chemistry labs in a different building, and the tiny little theater program that puts on productions in a converted black box on the other side of campus.”
Crook worked in the marketing department for Saint Louis University’s College of Arts and Sciences, where she updated website descriptions and spotlighted various programs on social media.
freedom in choosing my classes so I chose a lot of art classes as easy courses,” junior Merrill Patt said. “It’s just something I enjoy rather than a resumé builder.”
Upperclassmen typically make the choice to give themselves a lighter workload, choose just one passion project to execute in their last year, or feel a certain pressure to push themselves towards extremely high academic achievement while looking at prospects for after high school. Senior Natasha Wulff chose the latter option, and was accepted into the Purdue engineering program.
“Applying to a competitive program has definitely weighed down on me,” Wulff said. “The classes that I took were not always because I wanted to [take them] and a lot of the times I picked the harder classes because it would look good on my resumé.”
As a child, Wulff wanted to be an architect because she loved to draw, but her fourth grade teacher dissuaded her.
“I decided to pivot to engineering because I enjoy problem solving and the math behind it,” Wulff said. “But it also incorporated the creative side of things. Bonus points: it pays well.”
“Most of the money and resources went to the STEM fields. It was weird to watch that happening while actively studying Communication, which is firmly classified as and funded through the arts side of the department,” Crook said. “SLU built a whole new STEM building shortly after I left, but while I worked for the school, one of my largest projects was interviewing doctors and putting together short videos that highlighted the value of taking humanities classes.”
She put together a series of four halfhour videos, stringing together interview clips from doctors and professors from the School of Medicine that essentially encouraged young pre-med students to gleefully take theology, art, writing and philosophy courses. The intent was to create more well-prepared medical students for the problem solving and human interaction pieces of the profession.
“I really enjoyed the messaging of those videos and all the doctors that basically validated my personal chosen field of study,” Crook said. “But overall, it felt like fighting a losing battle.”
College freshmen hoping to become doctors will still sign up for all the organic chemistry courses and biology electives, and they’ll still gripe about having to take a required English writing class. Even at the high school level, students might complain of perceived “useless” graduation requirements.
At Sion, in order to graduate, a student must complete 4.0 credits of English, theology and math, 3.5 credits of social studies, 3.0 credits of science, 2.0 credits of world languages and 1.0 credit each of art and physical education.
“For my senior year, I had a lot more
Trapped Inside the Box
“People seem to think you’re not as smart if you want to go into a job with arts or the humanities, when that’s just not at all true,” senior and art/literary magazine editor Kate Schneeberger said. “People see humanities majors as almost fluffy, while STEM-focused majors seem very hardhitting, more serious. In reality, creativity takes so much hard work and dedication.”
Both the sciences and humanities are paths to understanding the complexity of the world around us. Just as your chemistry homework may push your brain to understand the world analytically, studying the humanities prompts holistic thinking, challenging you to branch out from what you may think you know.
“I feel like the lack of emphasis on art and humanities within society is just sad,” Schneeberger said. “We have seen art from the beginning of time. It has always served a purpose, yet we do not take it as seriously. I find it ironic that we want our kids to be creative, but when they want to pursue those passions, we shun them for it. If some kid has been taught piano since they were like three, but then once they want to pursue that, all of a sudden they’re shunned and told ‘you need to find a more sustainable job’.”
These doubtful questions and comments of ‘where the humanities will get you’ miss that educating the whole person serves the knowledge of a specific subject. Through studying art, religion, history and philosophy, students become well-rounded and critical thinkers when it comes to the sciences.
According to researcher Cassi D. Konopasek and her 2012 thesis from
in the real world
The Americans for the Arts asscoiation conducted a research study to find how Americans feel about arts education, benefits of the arts, and how it affects their everyday work life. These graphs show some of their findings.
61% 52%
BELIEVE
THAT BEING MORE CREATIVE HELPS THEM IN THEIR JOB.*
Regis University entitled “Holistic Learning: Seeking a Purposeful Life By Engaging Science and the Humanities,” science alone can’t provide full meaning and understanding.
“Research begins as a focused inquiry that leads to answers and then progresses to further questions,” Konopasek wrote. “Engaging in scientific research that is not cookbook science, or completely planned, provides an opportunity to explore a critical way of thinking and develops an acceptance of uncertainty and an appreciation for the mystery of life.”
Konopasek studied mutations of the enzyme alkaline phosphatase in the science labs at Regis, but her thesis explores the idea that she would not be able to understand what she looked at under the microscope in a more critical manner without her required courses in the humanities.
a career directly correlated to their major. Most students find fulfilling jobs with the skills and connections they develop in college - not necessarily with perceived prowess of their identified major.
“A lot of times we [look down] on arts and humanities when they are truly the backbone of our society,” Schneeberger said. “There is so much done through humanities that people don’t realize makes up so much of our life. I think people need to take it more seriously, especially when there are kids who say they are interested in these things. We don’t want to shoot down their ideas and immediately say ‘find a better paying job.’”
THINK THAT STUDENTS HAVE ENOUGH ACCESS TO ARTS EDUCATION.*
“People often fall for the illusion that science has the profound ability to discover concrete final answers about the material world, and this is due in part to our science education that informs students about science by compartmentalizing the material world into distinct parts and encouraging students to memorize information.”
She understands and advocates for using multiple ways of thinking to look at the world, or one tiny enzyme, through a larger holistic lens.
*Out of 3,062 respondents.
“I acknowledge the contribution of having an autonomous laboratory experience in igniting my scientific imagination and expanding my view of science,” Konopasek wrote. “I also recognize the role of the humanities core curricula, which exposed me to philosophy, religion, art and literature, in developing my ability to think outside the framework of the text to develop my own perspective and ideas about what the authors are saying.”
There’s direct evidence that supports a plethora of knowledge and ways of thinking are beneficial to innovation, yet stereotypes live on.
“When I tell people I want to major in creative writing and say I may change my major because I’m interested in so many different subjects, people will respond like ‘Oh yeah because you want to find a real job when you’re done with college’,” Schneeberger said. “That is not true. I love creative writing. I’m just also interested in so many other things like history and political science.”
A common misconception of humanities and arts majors is that they have limited options for career success. In reality, this is untrue. A study conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to test correlation between college majors and career found that only roughly 27% of students with a college degree work in
An undergraduate major does not define the remainder of your life and yet, as high schoolers, it seems the trajectory of the rest of our lives is at stake when decision time comes. Education sets a foundation for ways of thinking through the world, both in your career and everyday life, whether it’s staying an informed citizen or discussing your values and beliefs with a friend. Different types of classes simply offer unique skills and schools of thought in how to navigate the world around us.
“It is important to incorporate creativity into schoolwork, but it is also important to think about the many different ways we can be creative,” history teacher Taylor Hersh said. “Often, a product of creativity is tangible, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be. For example, I frequently encourage my students to use their imagination to envision the past [when studying]. Even when we paint something that is only in our own minds, it is creative.”
In short, creativity can and should be learned. Creativity isn’t just a born ability to draw or the one classmate in your elementary school who had a passion for theater. Creativity is a skill developed, an education that utilizes both parts of the brain and pushes student’s minds to think critically.
“I think being creative is a lot more than that. Creativity is more like a state where you like existing outside of the norms,” senior Emerson Kraus said. “That’s creativity, it’s really just a state of being true to your intentions, thoughts, your stories, all of these things.”
A Sion Signature
As a private school, Sion is not limited to “teaching to the test” or by state-sanctioned standardized tests that might limit certain schools of thought. Teachers at our school have a higher level of autonomy to explore educational techniques.
“I believe lesson planning and teaching is an art form because it is an act of creating that has a lasting impact on people,” Hersh said. “Teaching is
an expression of yourself and your interests, and teachers constantly get to be creative: making slides, worksheets, questions, directions, and lectures, choosing a strategy to convey information and the order in which to present it, and curating information.”
The act of teaching can provide students with a variety of opportunities to explore different types of thinking, but more than that, Sion’s newly prioritized emphasis on experiential learning allows students to connect what they develop in the classroom with the real world.
“[Administration] felt like as a college prep school we needed more experiential hands-on learning,” theater tech teacher Maggie Killian said. “In the job force you’re not just going to be sitting in front of a computer and doing school work all day. Educationally, there is a push for [this type of teaching].”
For the last four years, Sion has incorporated the Deep Dive program as a fundamental part of the school-wide curriculum, giving students the chance to be creative outside of the classroom and to familiarize themselves with topics of their interest.
“[The Deep Dive Program] is so personalized and experiential,” junior Summer Bannigan said. “I love how so much of it is outside of the traditional classroom and teaches us life skills we wouldn’t typically learn in school.”
Bannigan opts for Deep Dive courses that allow her to explore her interests and expand her worldview. She took “Stories in Glass” her freshman year, “Land of Awes” her sophomore year, and this year she enrolled in the Global Impacts Microschool and is headed to Kenya.
“They [Sion] have definitely expanded their reach with all the community partners. They’ve also expanded the opportunities for students so they can really focus on what they’re passionate about. I think it’s great that students can teach them because they can educate their classmates on really cool topics that you don’t get to talk about on a regular day.”
Sion has two sessions of Deep Dives per year, one taking place during the spring while the other occurs during the fall. Spring Deep Dives are more in depth, as a student picks a class and learns about the niche topic of their choosing through keynote speakers and various on and off campus activities for an entire week. On the other hand, earlier in the year during the fall semester students pick a variety of quick courses to take for a singular day. These courses can range from learning how to create a flower arrangement to teaching you how to financially plan for your future. All Deep Dives can be student-led.
“I taught a Deep Dive [in the fall] about Taylor Swift. It was a lot of fun to take something I’m passionate about and be able to lead a class on it,” Bannigan said. “I really loved getting to teach my classmates on Taylor Swift and some of the amazing things she’s done. I think it’s really a creative outlet to be able to turn your passions into something new and to do something that’s never been done before.”
Experiential programming pushes our school in the right direction, however, even Sion gets caught in the trap of stereotypical prioritization. In 2022, Sion completed a multimillion dollar construction project to update the science labs, simultaneously eliminating the library. Post-construction, a new study space has been put in place, but lacks the traditional elements of a library.
“I feel like it shouldn’t be called a library,” sophomore Gigi Muller said. “It’s where the study hall is most of the time and that’s it. There’s a max of maybe a few dozen books. It seems strange that we don’t have a real one.”
Despite this development which provides students with spacious and innovative learning environments, the prioritization of the sciences over more artful ways of thinking causes students to abandon their freedom of an abstract imagination. Rather than being looked at as opposing forces, these ways of thinking should be looked at as complements to one another, both necessary parts of everyday life.
“Both are extraordinarily important,“ junior Mo Symanski said. “We need artists just as much as scientists. I think a lot of people don’t realize just how crucial to our world the arts are. It helps human beings connect and grow and change. The scientists and arts are a growing issue that we need to focus on; instead of working together they are just growing apart.“
With a surplus of opportunities for innovation and exploration, Sion has progressed in highlighting careers and lives in the arts. However, there is still work to be done, with the emphasis on humanities and their inherent value too often ignored in both the classroom and our society.
“I think Sion is almost an exception, but not quite, as we do place an emphasis on our art programs and that is amazing,” Symanski said. “But, just with the state of the world and how society values more practical applications of math and sciences, the arts do sometimes slip. This can be very hard on people, because there is this stereotype that ‘school kills the creative mind’ and I feel like I myself have experienced that as well.”
Parental Pressure
While a 2023 poll conducted by Americans for the Arts says Americans overwhelmingly support access to arts education, many students going into the arts feel pressured to go into other areas for professions. Below are some things students have heard when speaking with their family about pursuing a career in the arts.
“I’ve had people tell me that I should look at an easier career path.”
Summer Bannigan ‘26
“I’ve heard that I won’t find a job in the arts.”
Jae High ‘27
“My grandparents have told me, ‘you’re never gonna make any money with that.’”
Elwyn Patterson ‘25
“My dad and brother make jokes about how they will be paying my bills.”
Nora Dameron ‘27
Everyone process and solves problems differently, learn what thinking style you most often utilize.
BY REPORTER GRETA MARTIN
How Do How Do YOU YOU Think? Think?
Pragmatists are the sensible, down to earth, one thing at a time kind of people. They have a to do list and they check things off methodically, often wanting to do the work quickly and early before deadlines. They are practical, but often they lose sight of the bigger picture in favor of tasks that are immediately in front of them. They are adaptable and use creativity and logic to achieve rapid results. They are good
Idealist Idealist
Idealists are the goal setters, the dream chasers. They have grand visions for their future and often expect greatness(even perfection) from themselves. They strongly believe that when people can agree and work together, they hold a lot of power and can achieve their goals. They enjoy listening to others’ thoughts and ideas and think deeply about their responses. You genuinely enjoy
listening to others, and you care what they think about you, sometimes a little too much. Idealists may end up trying too hard to please everyone and often get their feelings hurt when things don’t work out like they planned. They often get too caught up in perfection and may end up setting their goals too high, but they will work tirelessly to achieve them.
with people, if they ruffle feathers, it will hinder their progress and slow them down, so they try to keep everyone happy. Pragmatists often get stuck in the right now and forget to reach for bigger goals which can lead them to stagnation. It’s important for them to step back every now and then and evaluate what they really want out of life.
Realists, like analysts, love a good fact. They take the information they are given, plus their past experiences and work towards solutions. Realists thrive when challenged, but they can become bored easily so it’s important that they find a job or hobby that is intellectually stimulating.
Their ultimate goal is never out of sight and they are good at motivating others to work towards that goal with them. They judge everything based on results. If it’s not effective, they aren’t afraid to throw it out and try something new. They need to beware of tunnel vision and remember to step back and look at the whole picture once in a while, instead of becoming so focused on one end result.
Synthesist Synthesist
SRealist Realist
ynthesists are the most creative thinkers. They look at problems and think of new, outside the box solutions. They thrive in environments where they’re able to change and evolve current systems and structures. If you are good at making connections between seemingly unrelated topics, and often value creativity over logic, then you may be a synthesist. This thinking type is very open to hearing new, alternative perspectives, but
they’re also not afraid to question ideas they think are flawed. Because they are often challenging others’ ideas and coming up with their own, they may come off as combative so it’s important that they remember to truly hear others out and make it known that they are listening and care what others have to say.
Analysts are the methodical, detail oriented kind of people, who also often(not always) enjoy math, data and research. They like to find the absolute best solution to any problem and will take their time, making sure each step is done right. They do not let their emotions run their decisions and are the people you look to in crisis because they remain calm and come up with solutions. Their practicality and carefulness however often slows them down, and they take too long trying to solve just one problem perfectly. They are
Analyst Analyst
generally good with others, but sometimes may seem a little withdrawn, just because they are often very focused on their work and they don’t like confrontation. They know every single detail about a situation, but often they get caught up in those details, so they have to beware of tunnel vision.
Married in Math
Generations might separate both of these Sion math couples, but both of them share a love for each other and math.
BY REPORTER MARYKATE LILLIS ILLUSTRATION | MARYKATE LILLIS
Sion math teachers Michaela and Ben Wright both attended Mississippi State University, earning their degrees in education and math. While both attending the same Bible study, they became fast friends over shared religious viewpoints and mathematical equations.
“We became really good friends through that Bible study and also because we went to the same church,” Ben Wright said. “We had a lot of the same theological views on everything so we also hit it off in that category.”
After graduation Michaela and Ben stayed in touch for years, as they got coffee or dinner whenever Ben would come back into town. It wasn’t until their mutual friend’s wedding where their romance finally sparked.
“I actually invited him as my backup date to the wedding,” Michaela said. “When he asked me on our first date I didn’t even know it was a real date. He just paid for dinner and then I finally caught on.”
After the wedding the Wrights’ relationship started to spark. There were some specific moments when the couple knew they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together.
“I remember after our first date I went to my pastor and told him if we were going to date there was no way we wouldn’t get married,” Ben said. “Since we had such a good friendship before, it was either we were not going to date at all or we were going to date forever.”
Michaela also had a moment where she knew that Ben was going to be her husband.
“I also remember going to my friend and telling her I thought we were going to get married,” Michaela said. “If I could give any advice to you young girls it would be to get married to your best friend.”
After tying the knot the Wrights moved to Kansas City for Ben’s job. It was then that they got connected to Sion and both became Math teachers.
“It would be hard to find the cons of working together to be honest,” Michaela said. “It is so convenient that we can travel to and from work together and get the whole summer off as well.”
The Wrights welcomed a beautiful baby girl named Eliza Wright this past May.
supportive for our desires to grow our family,” Ben said. “We are super blessed to have an understanding admin team who is flexible with us and our schedules.”
Sion has also been a constant support system for another Sion couple. However Reynold And Elizabeth Middleton have been at the school for over thirty years.
“When you get into something like this you don’t plan on staying for over thirty years,” Elizabeth said. “I was teaching AP and honors chemistry at the highschool and Mr Middleton joined me years later after we met.”
The two met when Reynold was teaching math at Northeast high school and Elizabeth was teaching AP and honors chemistry at Sion.
“We met at a T-85 Calculator class at UMKC,” Reynold said. “We both were probably the youngest in the class and sat in the back together and that’s when things kind of started.”
The Calculator class at UMKC was not just educational for learning purposes, but helped the couple get to know each other more personally.
“Our relationship clicked because we found that our extended family lives are really similar,” Elizabeth said. “When we visit our extended families they basically function the same, plus we are both a little nerdy so that’s why it worked so well.”
Years later Reynold Middleton filled the need for an Athletic Director and cross country coach job at Sion.
“Our relationship didn’t really change when we started to work together,” Reynold Middleton said. “We never really saw each other during the day and we drove separately. One thing that we did kind of establish when we both started teaching together was the infamous Double Mid.”
The “Double-Mid” became established when students would have grueling tests from both of the Middletons in their honors chemistry and math classes.
“Sion has been nothing but accommodating and
“One of the benefits of working together I would say is that we had a lot of the same girls in both of our classes,” Reynold said. “It would make it fun to be able to talk about the same girls when we came home and be able to relate to each other.”
On August 19, 2024 the Wrights pose for a selfie together on the first day of school. PHOTO | MICHAELA WRIGHT
On March 13, 2024 the Middletons pose in front of the Grand Canyon on vacation.
PHOTO | REYNOLD MIDDLETON
Summer Bannigan
Junior Summer Bannigan is the Swiftie of Sion. From hosting her own Deep Dive session on the lyricism of pop singer Taylor Swift to going to multiple concerts, the artist has been a part of Bannigan’s life for as long as she can remember.
“My love for Taylor has definitely flourished so much more since I was around 14, and my swiftie-ness has been growing nonstop since,” Bannigan said. “Her incredible ability to connect with listeners is one of the reasons I started becoming a swiftie.”
HOBBY HOOPLA
Bannigan and her fellow swifties have come together and created a community through concerts and social media. A common tradition at Taylor Swift’s concerts is making friendship bracelets with song names and lyrics, and trading them with other fans.
“Her songs are more than just songs,” Bannigan said. “Taylor’s able to make deeply personal songs relatable, put feelings into words beautifully, weave together stories through her lyrics, and she cares for her fans so deeply.”
Evelyn Kiewiet
Sion students share their unique hobbies.
BY BRIDGET BENDORF
ONLINE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Brooke Stewart
Memorizing all 1025 characters, junior Brooke Stewart’s favorite hobby is Pokemon. She has played all the games, collects cards, and has seen every episode of the show.
“My favorite thing about it is just how expansive the world is,” Stewart said. “Every little detail you could look into probably has an extensive history.”
Stewart has had Pokemon a
part of her life since she was five years old, when she got her first Pokemon video game on her Nintendo 3DS.
“I love Pokemon because it’s a world I can get lost in through all sorts of mediums,” Stewart said. “It feels like a world you could really live in, and if I could exist in the pokemon world, I’d leave this one and go there in a heartbeat.”
Evelyn Kiewiet fills her free time with a relaxing hobby notoriously popular in the older generations. Kiewiet spends her time crocheting, making different creations for her friends and family.
“My favorite thing I’ve made is either my brother’s Christmas gift, Snoopy’s brother, or my friend’s birthday gift, a jewelry
hanger,” Kiewiet said. Kiewiet started crocheting a few years ago, when she received a crochet kit for her birthday. She used different Youtube tutorials to learn how to make different things.
“I crochet because it is a way for me to relax and be creative,” Kiewiet said. “My favorite part of crocheting is being able to find free patterns to make almost anything.”
THE BATTLE art V
In a world full of 15-second videos, TikTok reminds us that the shortest moments can create unimaginable possibilities.
BY LAUREN HAGGERTY REPORTER
TikTok reaches a total of 1.9 billion diverse creators that consist of dancers, artists, entrepreneurs, chefs and small business owners. TikTok is more than just a social media app; it’s a global hub for creativity, a launchpad for small businesses and a platform that fosters community connections through shared passions.
One of the largest benefits to this commonly used app is its simplicity to access and use. It’s easy video editing tools, filters and music features allow anyone, regardless of background or skill set, to create content and get creative with the material they are producing. This is specifically seen through video trends and challenges that spread throughout the app and inspire other creators as well.
Trends take various forms on the internet, some being more educational while others are just enjoyable. Either way, trends and challenges allow people to come together and film fun creative videos.
The TikTok platform allows for the nurturing of hobbies and interests by giving an opportunity for artists to show their work, musicians to promote their music and everyday people to showcase niche hobbies such as makeup, workouts, or parkour. Through the ‘For You’ page, people are able to form communities from the spotlights that get shed on overlooked talents.
The For-You page shares information from workout programs to tutorial videos on getting started on a new hobby. Another widespread trend this year includes hot pilates, because influencers consistently posted them going to classes.
“I started going to Power Life shortly after I saw it on TikTok,” sophomore Stella Henderson said. “Because of TikTok I was able to find a way of working out that I really enjoyed, and also became closer with my friends since we would all go together.”
TikTok’s ability to foster connection allows groups of people with similar interests to come together into groups like Book-Tok, Beauty-Tok, Fitness-Tok and one of the most popular, Mom-Tok. Mom-Tok made a big imprint on the “For-You” page thanks to reality TV shows that were created.
A group of Mormon moms came together after meeting through TikTok, and people loved following their friendships and
videos. Like everything on social media, their friend group was full of scandals, breakups, and drama. Lucky for fans all these moments were filmed and released onto Hulu.
Not only does Tikok foster connections, but it also paves the way for small businesses to make their debut and funnel a profitable income. Small businesses can sell their products on TikTok shops, and purchase ads or pay influencers to promote their goods.
The algorithm helps certain products get to a group of interested people by finding common interests, and putting recommended products on their page. This helps certain products go “viral” such as blue raspberry gushers or floor pilates mats. These viral promotions can completely change a person’s life.
Due to TikTok’s algorithm, easy marketing, and business hub, it has increasingly boosted the United State’s economy since the TikTok shop opened in 2023. Since the addition of TikTok Shop, which originally just provided users with an endless stream of short videos, whether that be from the large dropshipping corporations or small businesses, has proven impressively effective at getting people to buy things.
According to the Washington Post, “TikTok…contributed $24.2 billion to U.S. gross domestic product last year”. Further, the LA Times says that the TikTok Shop marketplace “sells about $7 million worth of products a day in the U.S.”.
These monumental statistics show how Tik Tok plays a crucial role in small business’ success across the country. Tiktok is one of the most affordable modes of marketing, and allows businesses to scatter their product with little to no charges.
According to one of TikTok’s 2024 economic impact reports, 39% of small to mid-size businesses in the US say that TikTok is critical to their business’s existence and 69% say that using TikTok has led to increased sales.
The truth is TikTok is not just a passing trend—it’s a revolutionary platform that reshapes how we create, connect, and consume content. Through its blend of creativity, commerce, and community-building, TikTok is making the world smaller, more connected, and filled with endless opportunities for everyone.
OF BALANCE S addiction
Twelve years old. That is the average age that a child opens a social media account according to the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance. Recent studies are showing that the negative outcomes of social media are starting to plague our upcoming generation.
BY MARYKATE LILLIS REPORTER
Twelve years old. That is the average age that a child opens a social media account according to the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance. We all know that social media can have both positive and negative effects on mental health, but recent studies are showing that the negative outcomes are starting to plague our upcoming generation.
According to Marketing Charts, the ages 10-19 are the prime users of the app TikTok, a constant in so many teenagers’ lives, including Sion students. Senior Greta Grossman averages around two hours of TikTok per day, but still expresses concern over the app’s effects on herself and peers in society.
“The three main things that massively concern me about the app are the risk it has on our national security, the spread of misinformation and the addictive qualities the algorithm creates,” Grossman said. “Although I love TikTok for fashion, food, lifestyle, and comedy, I think it is really dangerous for my attention span as well.”
The attention span of teens has become objectively shortened since the app came out, some teens even find watching “basic” television shows harder.
“My attention span has definitely become so much shorter,” Grossman said. “Even watching YouTube videos or a movie with my parents has become almost boring compared to me scrolling through TikTok and finding something new every second.”
TikTok’s algorithm is a perfectly curated batch of videos for the user that is seemingly never ending. This never ending algorithm picked up a new term in the psychology world called “doom-scrolling.”
“If you have a device, you are an open victim of doomscrolling,” Harvard Health Publishing Psychologist Rachel Neururkar said. “Stress stokes our urge to scroll, and it triggers our fight or flight response in our brain.”
Casually scrolling for many may seem harmless, but Neururkar found the effects of scrolling quite drastic.
“Doom scrolling can give us ‘popcorn brain,’ which happens when we spend too much time online. It’s the real, biological phenomenon of feeling your brain is popping because you’re being overstimulated online,” Neurakar explains. “Then it’s hard
to engage with the real world, which moves at a much slower pace.”
This overstimulation stems from mostly misinformation. TikTok is one of the largest media platforms, which opens up a lot of space for the youth generation to be fed loads of misinformation.
“I do think I am more informed about the news and what is going on in the world,” senior Sophie Heidelman says. “However, there is a lot of misinformation on the app as well.”
Teenagers are the most susceptible to misinformation and being easily influenced. Since anyone is free to post anything they want, this puts a lot of young adults at risk of forming different ideological ideas under false pretenses.
“Honestly, I rely on Tiktok for most of my opinions,” sophomore Claire Henke said. “I find all the things I really like on there and I am very easily influenced.”
This harmless statement is just a window of how dangerous this app can be. Every user on the app is open to the dangers of being too easily influenced before their frontal lobes are developed, but Neururkar has found some solutions.
“Keep phones off the nightstand, op out of notifications, and focus on community news,” Neururkar said to Harvard Health. “By setting up these boundaries without phones we can work to make it more of a healthier tool.”
One of the primary reason TikTok is so addictive is its ability to deliver instant gratification. The app’s alogorithim curates a personal “For You” page that constantly feeds users tailored to their interests.
“Personally I think Tiktok is super addictive,” Senior Francie Keithline said. “When the app got deleted I kept accidently clicking on the spot where the app once was out of habit.”
Ever since the app got deleted Keithline has been incorporating other creative hobbies into her life.
“I found my mood majorly increased when I wasn’t on the app that much,” Keithline said. “I think if more people start picking up a new hobby or even getting outside it will be benefcial.”
small but
Small But Mighty
Mighty
Each year a group of girls comes together to create one yearbook that is filled with hundreds of moments and memories. The yearbook stands as a memento for students of their time at Sion, so as years pass they can reflect on their high school years.
“I want to make the best book I possibly can and be sure to include everyone in Sion,” co-editor-inchief (EIC) Caroline Weber said. “I want to make it almost like a scrapbook, so people can look back and be like ‘Wow, I remember taking these photos.’”
The current staff consists of 12 juniors and seniors. It is currently run by Weber and co-editor-in-chief Georgia Gomez, along with managing editor Charlotte Zender.
“I look through every person’s page and go through edits which takes a very long time, just to make sure there are random designs here and there,” Weber said. “There are also simple things like just making sure everyone is on task and doing what they are supposed to.”
To join Le Flambeau, students must take Intro to Journalism, which is a writing class for freshmen, and then a graphic design course, which is available for any grade level after completing D.I.V.A..
“I love the design and writing aspects I learned in my graphic design class, and those things are what lead me to choosing yearbook,” staffer Elizabeth Vance said.
When opening the yearbook during back to school, students may not realize how intense the spreadmaking process is. After the staff gets assigned their spreads they immediately create an outline to brainstorm angles, interviews, photo opportunities, and layout.
“The workload is so challenging because you’re trying to manage three different spreads and they are each at different stages,” junior
At the end of the year each student is given a yearbook without realizing the dedication and stress that goes into each and every page.
BY REPORTER LAUREN HAGGERTY DESIGN BY MANAGING EDITOR ELLA SATTERWHITE
Surriya Quddus said. “For example, I am almost done with one of my spreads, but I’m also just starting a new one. It’s so hard trying to give each spread the attention and time it needs.”
People like the EICs and Managing Editor are often faced with the tasks of doing semester dividers, theme pages and organizing theme extension. Theme extensions are little snippets of the theme throughout the book that include little stories or photos of students. Things like this are crucial to the book because it’s a priority that each student is featured at least three times.
“Theme extension is a great way to easily sprinkle everyone through the book, and even add a spin on current events like Powerlife,” Weber said. “Last year we had people get together with their friends, so now when they look back they can see who they were close with at the time.”
The theme for the yearbook is typically chosen at the annual Gloria Shields conference or by the EICs during the summer. This year, Weber and Gomez decided to choose the theme with the whole staff.
“This year we wanted to do something different and have a more ‘Rah Rah Sion’ approach rather than the typical pastel pattern we have been doing the past couple years,” Weber said. “We all came up with words or phrases that we loved and things that we wanted to incorporate into the book both visually and verbally.”
The staff works tediously and delicately on the yearbook throughout the school year. They dedicate time off on their breaks, weekends, off days and even in the summer. Last year they worked until July 7th, but this year the goal is June 1st.
“My favorite memory on the yearbook was when we finally got
the yearbook finished, and just being able to reflect on how much closer it all brought us and getting to spend so much time with the seniors before they left for college,” Vance said.
Additionally, being on Le Flambeau allows for the team to interact with and interview people from different grade levels they don’t see or talk to on a daily basis, allowing for more connections to be cultivated with the school itself.
“I feel like learning how to engage with an audience is a skill that I will use for the rest of my life, and even just learning how to work with a team in general,” Weber said. “I have gotten to meet so many more amazing people that are in my class and I have had to learn how to be a leader and actively engage with people more. It improves your work ethic but also your identity.”
On the team’s last workday of first semester, each staff member brought an ornament and participated in White Elephant as well as helped decorate a mini Five-Below Christmas tree.
“It was so crazy for me to look around the PubLab and realize how much closer we had all gotten throughout the semester,” senior Lily Krumm said. “I never would have met these girls or gotten as close to them if I had not joined and I am so glad I did.”
After many hours of labor, tears and stress, a 224 page book, that laid on the shoulders of 12 staffers, is produced. This book is filled cover to cover with timeless memories that will last a lifetime due to these girls’ creativity and dedication to their project.
“Throughout the year, making the book has shown me no matter where you go, what you do, or who you are, you are capable of accomplishing amazing things,” Weber said.
yearbook is cool and makes areally cool book starting ina August and ending in May through hours of work
makes startingand May hours
KNOWLES IN MOTION
BY RILEY PINTADO REPORTER
Sion science teacher Rick Knowles practices kinesthetic teaching within his classroom. Kinesthetic teaching is a part of the VARK learning system which highlights different ways of teaching for diffrent types of learners.
No two people are exactly the same. If we were, life would simply be boring.” This phrase, popularized by elementary school teachers, is true down to our very brain anatomy. A research study conducted by the University of Zurich shows that no two brains are exactly alike. Factors such as genetics, the way an individual is raised and the life experiences they undergo all contribute to the formation of one’s own cerebral matter. Naturally this means that the way people learn and absorb information varies from student to student.
“With our study we were able to confirm that the structure of people’s brains is very individual,” head research scientist at the University of Zurich Lutz Jäncke said. “The combination of genetic and non-genetic influences clearly affects not only the functioning of the brain, but also its anatomy.”
Over the past century, professionals in the education field have developed different styles of teaching to help accommodate a variety of learners. The scientifically based framework to understand how students process information is known as the VARK system. Introduced by education theorist and researcher Niel Flemming in 1987, VARK is the acronym we use to help us remember the four main styles of learning/teaching, standing for visual, auditory, read/write and kinesthetic. According to VARK Learn Limited, visual learners absorb information best when it is presented to them as maps, diagrams, charts, graphs and flowcharts. Auditory learners prefer lectures and group discussions, and most find that they are able to learn a lot from mobile devices and social media. People who prefer read/write understand information best when it is presented to them as words on a page. This preference is very popular among both students and teachers and emphasizes students learning best from writing based outputs such as reports, essays and assignments.
“I had been a teacher all my life, and I had some worrying questions about the fact that some students were unable to learn with great educators while others could learn a lot with not so great educators,” Fleming said in an interview with. “I thought there has to be some clue I’m missing, and VARK was born from the idea that the clue lied within a student’s subconscious preferences.”
The final letter in the VARK acronym stands for kinesthetic. Kinesthetic teaching, also known as tactile teaching, is based on the premise that students process information best while moving
around in a hands-on environment. In a kinesthetic classroom, you will find students actively participating in hands-on activities rather than sitting down and taking notes. At Sion, science teacher Rick Knowles, emphasizes kinesthetic teaching within his classroom.
“When I was a student we didn’t have many modalities of learning,” Knowles said. “The classes mainly consisted of long lectures and a lot of notetaking. Personally, I learn more efficiently by actually getting up and experiencing the material in a more hands-on way rather than just looking at a diagram or talking about it.”
Although it is only his second year teaching at Sion, Knowles has already become an integral part of Sion’s science department. His class is famous among students for his unusual animals, crazy dissecting projects and interactive labs. Knowles has a hobby for breeding rare reptile species. Those who have taken either anatomy or environmental science are well aware that the animals he brings in play a very active role in his course curriculum. Due to this, students enrolled in his classes are able to cultivate a greater understanding about the species they’re studying. Knowles has utilized kinesthetic teaching throughout his entire career. Research has found this unique teaching style provides students with improvement in muscle memory, comprehension, cognitive development, creative thinking and overall social skills.
“I think most of what I teach is very abstract. You can’t really see it by just being in a classroom,” Knowles said. “I also think Kinesthetic teaching allows students to be up and active while they think about what they’re learning. It also helps them visualize topics and allows them to become the molecule or the atom that they can’t otherwise see.”
While kinesthetic teaching works well for instructing science, this is not the case for all subjects. Consequently, the biggest criticism of VARK as a whole is that it undermines the complexity of education. It’s important for educators to include a mix of strategies for all types of learners while teaching their courses. Nevertheless, understanding our own learning preferences in the classroom is extremely important in helping all students succeed academically moving forward.
“I am really lucky to teach science because I can do hands-on labs,” Knowles said. “With other subjects, like English, kinesthetic teaching would be tough, but I guess you could always try.”
PHOTO|RILEYPINTADO PHOTO|RILEYPINTADO
RE Makin’ It
TGN
he tunnels behind the stage are dark and there is palpable tension in the air as the Sion Dance Team makes their way out onto the Nationals floor. Just 30 minutes before, they were on that stage performing and now it’s time for awards. They are lined up, cameras are everywhere, the audience is packed, and the team grabs each other’s hands and hold on in anticipation.
The entire season has been filled with hard work to get to this point, starting with practices as early as June. In summer, there are tryouts and a four day camp that is similar to a high intensity workshop. After learning routines they perform to a panel of judges to receive a ribbon representing how they did. Every single dancer on the Sion dance team got a blue ribbon, (zero to three mistakes, smiling the whole time, not looking at anyone else).
“It’s really unusual for anyone on our team to get anything other than a blue.”
Senior Tessa Lind said. “We just expect a lot from ourselves and the pressure that you have to get a blue actually helps motivate us to work harder.”
Suddenly, summer is over and the first phase of intensity begins. The team learns and practices routines for Sion volleyball games and the Rockhurst Football performance. They don’t even start work on nationals routines until choreographer “Kick” Nick comes in October.
“We spend a whole weekend learning our kick dance and Nick’s choreography is like no other,” senior and co-captain Stella McClure said. “He even said himself that this was the hardest dance he’s ever given us on top of his choreography already being intricate and challenging.”
Kick choreography begins at ten in the morning on Saturday and goes untill 6 p.m. and then goes back on Sunday morning for another four hours, a grand total of 14 hours spent dancing in one weekend.
“Kick choreography weekends are exhausting but it’s also really exciting to see
what you are going to be competing that year.” sophomore Channing Chambers said. “The hardest part though is remembering so much new stuff, like which leg goes up when and what kind of kick because it’s just kick after kick after kick.”
After they learn the dance, practices are more than repetition until nationals. Over the next four months, things are constantly changing, from formations, to where everyone’s located in formations, to arm positions to kick types and timing. Meanwhile they are trying to perfect each aspect of the dance while everything is changing constantly.
“It takes a lot of work and dedication outside of practices to learn the formations and perfect our techniques,” freshman Ava Doyle said. “We watch film after every practice to visualize the dance and take note of any imperfections.”
Because things are constantly evolving, it’s extremely important for the team and the coaches to watch film. The team is required to watch film and they often make comments on their own performance to help everyone improve timing and precision.
“Watching film is a huge part of how we reach perfection.” Lind said. “Obviously nothing will ever be truly perfect, but it’s just so important to constantly be correcting yourself and receiving critique from your teammates and coaches on things you could improve on.”
There couldn’t possibly be anything else that they have to perfect right? Wrong. In addition to perfecting the physical dance, they also have to practice vocals or chants during the performance. There’s also facial expressions, which many dancers actually choreograph on their own for different parts of the dance.
“No one is worried about how pretty you look or what your face is doing while you’re running down a track or playing soccer,” Lind said, “But in dance you not only have to exert every ounce of energy and strength that you have, you have to make it look
We all know Sion Dance Team goes to Disney for some competition called Nationals, but not many people actually know what it takes to get there, and that it’s definitely not just a fun field trip to Disney.
BY PRINT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ADDIE DOYLE AND REPORTER GRETA MARTIN
entirely effortless by pasting on a smile the whole time.”
Finally, the week of nationals arrives. Everything the team has worked for will be showcased in their two and a half minute dances for a panel of judges. The subjectivity of the sport is always an unknown variable. The judges may just not like your dance despite the hours of blood sweat and tears poured into perfecting it or the technique present.
“As a coach,” dance coach Madison Pincombe said, “it’s really hard to bring your team into an environment feeling really confident in the work you’ve put in, and then just hand it over to the judges, and let all of your months and months of hard work be judged by strangers who may or may not like it.”
Before they leave everything out on that floor, they get one day. One day to enjoy Disney World, ride the rides, wear mouse ears, and take pictures in front of castles. It’s a great time, and no one even mentions nationals or dance. It’s the calm before the storm.
“We focus on what rides we are riding and all that stuff and we just try not to think about what the rest of the week might be like,” Chambers said, “because you never know how things are going to turn out but we are all together as a team and everyones in a good mood so we all just want to enjoy it.”
The next day the grind begins. They spend hours practicing in a church near their hotel and run 11 ‘full outs,’ all before noon. After that, they get about 40 minutes to practice on the Marley.
“We need to practice on the Marley because it’s so different from the gym floor we practice on regularly,” junior Hayden Zschoche said. “On the gym floor it’s so easy to slip when you are doing a kick, but then on the Marley it can be super hard to turn because it’s not as smooth, it just takes some getting used to.”
The first day of competition is on Friday. They start the day at 7 a.m. and they begin the process of hair and makeup. They then hop on a bus and head over to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex where they warm up outside, and do another quick practice on field. Then they head inside the complex and warm up and practice again
Performing on the Nationals stage, senior
gives her all during the Kick Finals performance. Lind said she has trained all year to get to this moment and she goes to bed and wakes up thinking about performing on this stage.
PHOTO | ESPN
WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS
Tessa Lind
puzzle it out
Complete the crossword puzzle below by finding answers in this issue’s stories. Answers with more than one word will fit in the puzzle with no spaces in between.
BY AMELIA BEDELL COPY EDITOR
across
3. Methodical thinker, enjoys to do lists and practicality
8. Daughter of math teachers Ben and Michaela Wright.
9. Important aspect of storytelling that engages movie viewers by showing diverse perspectives.
11. Junior Evelyn Kiewiet does this hobby. 12. TikTok was banned, then unbanned during this month.
13. Art teacher Tracy Fish grew up in this city.
14. Recently repopularized photo-taking tool.
17. Scary fan-written internet stories, name comes from “copypasta.”
18. The Wicked Witch of the West’s name, according to “Wicked.”
19. An app that is commonly used to share photos online.
down
1. Responsible for increasingly extreme weather events.
2. Anatomy teacher Richard Knowles’ teaching style.
4. Creative thinker, enjoys finding out of the box solutions to problems.
5. 2021, 2022 and 2025 Small Varsity High Kick National Champions.
6. Number of students in AP Art class this year.
7. Length of Sion’s next strategic cycle, in years.
10. The foundation of many fields of study, both STEM and humanities-based, according to the cover story.
15. The official name of Sion’s yearbook.
16. Sion’s 2025 musical.