McCallum High School, The Shield—Vol 72, Issue No 2 (12-13-24)

How the school investigates reports of online threats page 3

Can AI have a positive impact on education, the environment? page 16

the shield

Should schools or entire states ban cell phones in classrooms? page 30

McCallum High School / 5600 Sunshine Drive / Austin, TX 78756 Dec. 13, 2024 / Volume 72 / Issue 2

dec. 13, 2024

Dec 17-20

Dec 21-Jan. 6

Finals week

Winter break

save the date january

The steps for safety

news people center sports opinion

Jan. 3, 6

Jan. 6

Jan. 15

Jan. 20

Jan. 29

Jan. 31

Campus Advisory Council mtg, 5:30

PTSA meeting, 6:30 p.m.

Expo Knight Elective Fair, 5:15-7:45

MLK Day Staff & Student Holiday

Student Holiday/Staff Development

Fine Arts Academy Audition Day

After a tense Halloween Day on campus, Principal Baxa explains the district’s process for investigating alleged social media threats.

Dancing into year two

Rethinking artificial intelligence

There is no question that AI has infiltrated our lives. The question now: Can it be a force of good for teenagers and the environment?

Marching to McCallum

After overcoming homesickness, heat, Martina Lorenzo-Serrano of Spain adjusts to Austin thanks to host family, her own fearlessness.

Water polo adds depth

Compared to the 2023 campaign, the 2024 season sees growth, improvement, veteran leadership and the launch of a girls team.

To report or not to report?

Applicants who opt not to share their standardized test scores find that they are accepted at a lower rate than applicants who share them..

In its second year of existence, the BLU3 K-pop dance crew has not only grown but has performed at several school events. 08 16 18 22 28

pg. 11

a

ALL OVER FOR AUTUMN: In a special photo essay, we feature students’ and teachers’ various travels over the week-long Thanksgiving holiday break. Take a vicarious trip with fellow Knights as they voyage to Arizona, New Mexico, Hawaii, New York, Washington DC, central Europe and sites all over Texas including the hardwoods of DCG. Photo by Dave Winter.

‘REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE’ REBORN: Recycling Club seniors Harper Freach and Sofia Rayas collect recycling on campus on Nov. 18. Senior Lillian Gray launched the club after learning that the school did not have an active recycling program. She hopes that the club can establish

protocol the will make recycling a systematic district-wide. Photo by Sophia Manos.

The steps for safety

Principal Baxa outlines the administrative protocol for dealing with online threats

Nate Williams co-editor-in-chief

Principal Andy Baxa sent an email to parents on Halloween after rumors spread on campus of a threat made on social media toward the Mac community. Baxa’s statement came just as he announced to the school that the pep rally would be held after head football coach Tom Gammerdinger told players they would not be participating. Gammerdinger later allowed players to attend as they normally would. It also came after Baxa sent an email to parents earlier that week about another alleged social media threat and days before outside agitators gathered in front of Mac yelling and holding signs with hateful messages.

Baxa described to the Shield the process that goes into determining whether a threat is real or not, including Halloween’s, but said all accusations are investigated.

““The first step is to notify AISD police and begin a formal investigation,” Baxa said. “During that call with AISD police, I requested additional officers to be present for school on [Oct. 29], the original rumored date. Next, the McCallum administrative team in partnership with AISD police started looking into the original rumored threat.”

AISD police officers on campus; some remained on campus throughout the day,” Baxa said. “We continued to look into the rumors about a potential school threat, talking to more students and continuing our online search. The determination was made that this was an unfounded and baseless threat, so we moved forward with our planned activities.”

Gammerdinger alerted varsity players and their parents at approximately 2 p.m. that due to “concerns,” athletes would remain in the fieldhouse and not attend the pep rally.

“I have tried to get in contact with admin[istration] to get some clarification, but it appears they are all in a meeting right now about this same concern,” Gammerdinger wrote. “We will hold the kids in the fieldhouse and not take them down to the pep rally until we have all the information.”

Most of the time the students did not tell any adults but shared [the social media posts] with all of their friends.

—principal Andy Baxa

”Baxa said that because of the concern and rumors, the investigation continued even as the administration believed there was no confirmed threat.

“That afternoon the investigation determined there was no threat made against McCallum and the community letter was drafted and sent out,” Baxa said. “[Oct. 30] we continued to listen to student concerns and followed up on additional information we received from those conversations.”

Baxa said that later that night he continued to get emails from parents expressing concern over safety on Halloween day. Because of the pep rally and the date, Baxa said he took the worries seriously even as there was no reported threat to campus.

Later, Gammerdinger clarified to the Shield that he never told players not to attend the pep rally, but was responding to a message from a parent sharing their concern about the rumored threat.

Gammerdinger said he spoke to Baxa, learned that there was no credible threat and made the decision that the pep rally would go on with football players in attendance.

“I certainly did not validate the threat in any way,” Gammerdinger said. “I just said that we would look into it and error on the side of caution.”

Baxa said the decision to continue with the planned pep rally was based on the investigation providing no evidence that there were credible threats to the campus or any students.

“I also consulted with AISD leadership, and they advised to not cancel the pep rally,” Baxa said. “We all agreed that we could not let fear dictate what we did. Our investigation determined there was no threat so we were safe to proceed. If we found one ounce of credibility to the rumors, then our response would be different.”

kids in the office during eighth period. Baxa acknowledged the “rumors and speculations” and reiterated his claim that the community is safe.

“Currently there is no evidence that any student created a ‘safe’ or ‘hit’ list,” Baxa wrote in an email to parents. “Additionally, no firearms were found on campus. I want to reassure everyone that there are no active threats against McCallum, our students, or staff including during today’s pep rally.”

Baxa ended his email by encouraging parents to contact him if they had further concerns but made it clear that there was and is no threat to anyone on campus.

“Whenever we receive reports about potential threats to the school or students, we promptly notify AISD police and conduct a thorough investigation,” Baxa wrote. “This week’s investigation confirmed that there was no threat directed at McCallum, any student, or staff member. I want to assure you, if we believed there was an existing risk to student safety on campus, we would notify you promptly.”

In an interview, Baxa said that he understands students’ and parent’s concerns and provided advice on how the community can handle social media rumors. He also said it is difficult for the administration to regulate what is posted and shared on social media but insisted that he firmly believes in the protocols the school has set up to deal with possible threats.

“My best advice is to talk with an adult at the school, preferably one of the [assistant principals] or with me directly,” Baxa said.

“Too many people spent Wednesday and Thursday spreading false information fueling the panic in our community. I spoke to numerous students about the information they shared online or in a group chat and I asked them how many friends did you share this with versus how many adults at the school they told. Most of the time the students did not tell any adults but shared it with all of their friends.”

Baxa praised the students who immediately alerted the administration after seeing concerning posts online.

“[Halloween] morning we had additional

Parents were seen during eighth period on Halloween lining up to pick up their

“I am thankful for their courage to share their experience with us,” Baxa said. “Spreading potentially false information to friends and family only makes the situation worse.”

—with additional reporting by V Overstreet dec. 13, 2024

Youth voters see decline

More than half of eligible 18- to 30-year-old voters sit out 2024 election

Beatrix Lozach staff reporter

According to Tufts University, an estimated 50% of youth voters (age 18-30) turned out for the 2020 presidential election. While this is an 11-point increase from previous years, it still means that half of eligible young voters sat out the 2020 election. The 2024 presidential election brought an even lower voter turnout among youths, with an 8% decrease from four years prior leaving the youth ballots casted at 42%.

Part of the low voter turnout rate, according to the American Psychological Association, can be explained by the widespread culture of fear around hot button issues and certain candidates that don’t line with the political leanings of voters.

Austin Pain, who voted in the Nov. 5 election, said the current political climate poses a problem. Pain debates how to go about promoting civic engagement while remaining civil to both sides of the political aisle.

“It’s really important for teens to engage in respectful and constructive conversations about politics,” Pain said. “[It’s] even more important for us to engage in political processes themselves by voting, once we’re old enough to do so.”

Pain urged his peers to see the pivotal role young people play in the demographics that influence political and social change.

“Whether through direct participation in boards that create policies or through voting for representatives, [we have to] advocate for the things that matter most to us,” Pain said. One of the ways in which Pain feels student voters are supported is through the inclusion of government class as a graduation requirement. The course lasts a single semester for seniors and provides a framework for which to view contemporary politics through historic Supreme Court cases, amendments, and the foundation of American politics.

The turnout rate among youth voters and Texas voters for the 2020 and 2024 elections. Voter turnout has decreased from 50% of youth voters turnout in 2020, to a 42% turn out in 2024. Overall, the Texas election in 2020 led to a 9.6% turnout decrease indicating a trend in lowering voter turnout rates especially among youths. Graphic by Beatrix Lozach.

processes, how important it is that we encourage our friends and family to do the same and how important it is for us to be armed with the knowledge to leverage the systems that have been set in place.”

Principal Andy Baxa agrees that education is critical in informing youth voters and encouraging them to vote. As a former economics teacher, Baxa said past political contexts influenced his perspective as a teacher.

“ We have to help kids be willing to do the research and find what they need to make an informed decision

—principal Andy Baxa

“

“Government class with Ms. Summerville encourages a really constructive environment for student discussion and argumentation,” Pain said. “The class encourages us to think critically about what does and does not matter to us, how important it is that we understand the ins and outs of our political

“I used to incorporate discussion of the economic policies of various candidates and relate them to topics we were learning about in class,” Baxa said. Baxa emphasized the importance of the role of educators in helping students become motivated and informed voters.

“We have to help kids be willing to do the research and find what they need to make an informed decision,” Baxa said. “Twenty to 30 years ago, students were pretty much lockstep with their parents, but now, McCallum students tend to be extremely passionate about

issues that matter to them, but not necessarily every issue. My one challenge for McCallum students is to educate yourselves about topics that don’t necessarily interest you.”

Government teacher Joe Carcione agreed with both Pain and Baxa, and especially prioritized student knowledge of the electoral process.

“Remember that if there’s a dispute over the election results, it could be thrown to the House of Representatives,” Carcione said. “In that scenario, each state has one vote for President. However, that’s only happened a couple of times in our history.”

Comparing the recent downturn in youth voter turnout, and increase in McCallum students turning 18, Pain stressed the importance of serving his civil duty as a voter. “Our perspectives

“

I feel like It’s crucial that we do our part collectively to represent our demographic’s interests.

are very valuable,” Pain said. “While I don’t by any means think that young people are the only ones that should be involved in the establishing of policies, I feel like it’s crucial that we do our part collectively to represent our demographic’s interests and concerns in the rooms where decisions are made,”

—senior Austin Pain

“

Youth voter turnout rate hasdecreased by 8% in the past four years. Graphic by Chloe Lewcock

A 48-hour incentive scare

Baxa responds to community concern by reinstanting no-risk final exam policy

Sofia Saucedo social media specialist

After initially telling parents at a Campus Advisory Council and PTSA meetings on Monday Dec. 2 that McCallum was pausing final exam incentives and not offering them this semester, principal Andy Baxa on Wednesday Dec. 4 informed the community via email that the program would continue as is for the fall semester and with stricter student requirements to earn them in the spring.

In an interview with the Shield on Tuesday Dec. 3, Baxa explained his rationale for terminating the exemptions. He said the incentives aimed to improve student attendance during the pandemic but that attendance data showed that it was not achieving its primary objective of improving attendance and ultimately student learning.

“Final exam incentives were introduced as a way to motivate students who were unmotivated to engage with the curriculum,” Baxa said. “[They] were introduced during COVID so that kids could feel motivated to log on. We decided to continue this plan after COVID to see if it had a positive impact on the students’ attendance and tardies, and this was not true.”

In addition to not achieving its intended results, Baxa said that he felt the incentive system undercut the school’s mission to prepare students for life after high school.

“Not having final exams kind of sets up a false narrative for students as they move forward in life after high school,” Baxa said. “In life, you don’t get to do 80% of the work and skip the last 20%.”

While Baxa still believes that the reasons for discontinuing incentives are valid, the community pushback since the Dec. 2

meetings persuaded him that it would be unfair to end the program this semester. In an email to parents on Dec. 4, Baxa said the Google form to request an exemption (or a no harm final) would be available on Blend this by the end of the day on Thursday Dec.5. The Google form remained open until 5 p.m. on Tuesday Dec. 10.

After the Monday meeting explaining to parents the concept for the new initiative, the Shield posted a story on the MacJournalism Instagram on Tuesday soliciting student opinion on the decision to end the finals incentive program. All 25 respondents to the Instagram story said they were against the new incentive plan, and nearly half of them (48%) said they were unaware that the administration had ended the finals incentive plan until the story was posted.

One of those respondents, junior Chloe Verastegui, said in a subsequent interview with the Shield that the final incentive plan was flawed from the beginning because it was never going to accomplish its intended goal.

“I think people are going to skip regardless of any type of bribery or policies that are put in place,” Verastegui said.

She added that she thought it was unfair for the administration to announce the removal of a policy pertaining to finals two weeks before students began testing.

“It’s upsetting because even though some people haven’t kept up their attendance, there’s a lot of people who have just to exempt a final,” Verastegui said. “There are people who are struggling and are relying on exemptions so to randomly find out so close to finals is just very annoying when you were already planning on what to exempt.”

Baxa told the Shield in an interview conducted before reinstating the final

incentives that the administration was considering getting rid of the exemptions over summer break.

“It was something the administration leadership team looked at over the summer and talked about at the beginning of the year,”

Baxa said.

He admitted that the administration should have communicated the change more clearly.

“I will admit that communication should have been better,” Baxa said.

Baxa initially thought the school had not communicated that incentives would be in place this year, but a parent pointed out that information about the final exam incentive was on the school website.

“At first I wondered, ‘Who ever said they were going to have final exam incentives?’” Baxa said on Dec 4. “However after fielding emails today, a parent pointed out to me that our website still says there will be final exam incentives.”

Baxa also discovered that final incentives were a topic presented during the school’s

advisory lessons.

“When I looked back on our September third advisory lesson, it left some ambiguity in there [about the final incentive program].”

After discovering this news, Baxa ultimately decided it would be unfair to go against what students were told throughout the year, and reinstated the final exam incentives.

Ultimately, I had to go back on what my intentions were this semester and look back on what we publicly have posted,” Baxa said.

Under the terms of the final incentive program, qualifying students select a course for which their final exam score cannot hurt their final average in the course. Graphic by Sofia Saucedo.

Twenty-five students responded to a MacJournalism Instagram story asking for comment on the final incentive program. All 25 opposed getting rid of the incentive and nearly half said they learned of the proposed change when they saw the story. Graphic by Sofia Saucedo.

Multiplying success

Math Center tutors support fellow students, learn valuable skills

Mira Patel design & visuals editor

According to spring 2024 STAAR endof-course data available from the Texas Education Agency research portal, math scores in Austin ISD have still not recovered from a precipitous drop that coincided with the pandemic. The post-pandemic performance of AISD eighth and ninth graders on the Algebra I end-of-course test reveals a disturbing trend. In spring 2024, only 39% of AISD students met grade-level proficiency in math in 2024 by scoring “meets and above” on the Algebra I endof-course test.

2024 marked the fourth spring since STAAR EOC testing resumed after the pandemic that less than half of AISD students scored “meets and above” on the spring Algebra I test. Almost 70% reached that threshold in 2019. Only 11% of spring 2019 Algebra I test-takers in the district “did not meet” grade-level standards on the EOC test. For the past four years the “did not meet” number in the district has hovered near 30%.

Improving math proficiency is where the McCallum Math Center comes in—providing a supportive learning environment to help students improve their skills and ultimately succeed in their math journey. The center is sponsored by math department chair, Angie Seckar-Martinez.

“I think it is important to provide support to students within the walls of the school building,” Seckar-Martinez said. “Although some students choose to and can afford private tutoring outside of school: that is simply not an option for most students. I wanted every student to have the chance to work one-on-one with an expert right here at school.”

The Math Center offers flexibility to meet different student needs.

While some students drop in periodically for help, such as for a homework assignment,

news briefs

Addition of 11 pro-voucher Republicans makes it likely measure will pass soon

Gov. Greg Abbott publicly asserted on Nov. 7, that the Texas House of Representatives has the necessary votes in the state legislature to establish a statewide school voucher program. He said has 79 votes for his proposal, which exceeds the majority needed to approve legislation in the 150-member Texas House. Eleven of the 15 Republican candidates endorsed by Abbott in the primaries won in the general elections on Nov. 6. This immeasurably increases the likelihood that vouchers will be passed in the next legislative session, which starts on Jan. 14 and extends until June 2.

While Abbott has touted vouchers as a way to empower parents, Democrats and some rural Republicans oppose them. Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, told a group of student reporters at the Capitol on Sept. 12 that voucher programs in other states have redistributed money to wealthy people who already send their children to private schools.

“When we’ve got limited resources for our public schools, every single dollar that can be put into public schools should be put there,” he said. “That’s the opposite of what vouchers do.”

first/second period finals

seventh/eighth period finals

third/fourth period finals jan. 7 first day of spring semester

—Beatrix Lozach

Abbott also asserted that he was in favor of raising pay for public school teachers and increasing funding for public schools, a departure from his rhetoric last year on the topic, when he did not have the majority necessary to approve vouchers.

Texas BOE approves Bible-infused curriculum, offers incentive to adopt it

Texas public elementary schools will have access to a new Bible-infused curriculum, Bluebonnet Learning, following a vote held by the Texas Board of Education on Nov. 22. The curriculum, which will be available at the start of the 2025 school year, covers math, reading and language arts for K-5 students. Some lessons, like one for kindergartners, talks about the ¨Golden Rule¨ and Jesus´ Sermon on the Mount, while a fifth-grade lesson about Juneteenth teaches that Abraham Lincoln, and other abolitionists “relied on a deep Christian faith and commitment to America’s founding principles” to “guide their certainty of the injustice of slavery.”

Although it is not mandatory, participating school districts can earn $60 per student annually, which could serve as an incentive to adopt the curriculum. In reaction to its passing, Texas American Federation of Teachers said the lessons “violate the separation of church and state by infusing lessons with Bible-based references more appropriate for Sunday schools than public schools.” Although some say the curriculum is a breach of church and state, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott contended after its approval that it is a “critical step forward to bring students back to the basics of education and provide the best education in the nation.”

—Lillian Gray

Runoff to determine Board of Trustee Position 8

On Dec. 14, voters living in AISD’s boundaries will elect a new school board member, as no candidate in the race for the open at-large Position 8 seat received the required majority of votes on Nov. 5 to be declared the winner. The two candidates who received the most votes, Fernando Lucas de Urioste and Lindsey Stringer, will face off to determine who wins the post.

De Urioste got a little more than 32% of the vote while Stringer got 26%. The winner will replace Trustee Noelita Lugo, who did not run for reelection. The Trustee position is one of two board members who will represent the entire school district, along with President Arati Singh.

De Urioste, endorsed by Lugo, is a former AISD teacher, who now works as the director of advocate services at Cirkiel Law Group. De Urioste emphasized that he is a progressive Democrat, and advocates the importance of voting in this election because public schools are the “lifeblood” of the community. As a board member, he wants to help protect AISD values, which include separating religious instruction from public schools and

valuing LGBTQ+ students.

Stinger, another former teacher, is the vice president of technology and business operations at the National Math and Science Initiative. She encourages voters to vote in the runoff because public schools are “part of the fabric” of the community. If elected, she hopes to create policies to enhance support for students struggling to meet grade-level standards.

Both candidates agree that the district should avoid budget cuts that could hurt classroom instruction and find ways to increase the district’s revenue. Both opposed the recent approval of Bibleinfused curriculum in elementary schools.

De Urioste does not want the curriculum in public schools and believes that Austin families don’t want it either. Stringer believes that the state should not violate the First Amendment and the separation of the church and state.

The winner of the Dec. 14 runoff will serve a fouryear term The winner of the District 8 race will join LaRessa Quintana as a new member on the board.

are the two candidates facing off in the Trustee election for at-large Position 8. Voters will also have the opportunity to vote for Austin City Council District 7 candidates Mike Siegel or Gary Bledsoe after neither candidate received a majority during the general election. Photos from candidate websites.

—Priya Thoppil

Gov. Greg Abbott speaks at the Kingdom Life Academy. Photo by Michael Cavazos of the Texas Tribune. Reposted here with permission of the Tribune.

Leslie Recine, appointed by Gov. Abbott to fill a temporary vacancy on the State Board of Education, was the deciding vote at the meeting at which the board approved a new state curriculum including Bible teachings. Photo by Lorianne Willett of the Texas Tribune. Republished here with permission of the Tribune.

Fernando Lucas de Urioste (left) and Lindsey Stringer (right)

dec. 13, 2024

BLU3 K-pop crew turns 2

From an idea to an established 17-member group, troupe has found its

Katie Martin staff reporter

From dancing together in Studio 1 to performing at pep rallies and even dancing with professional dancers around Austin, the BLU3 K-pop Crew has done it all. The BLU3 Crew is a K-pop dance troupe that choreographs and performs its own covers of popular K-pop songs. Founded at the beginning of the ’23-’24 school year, the club has grown to 17 members from all different grades and backgrounds who bond over one thing: their love of K-pop.

The club’s founder and captain is sophomore Hezekiah Hunter. Hunter said that upon arriving at McCallum as a freshman, she had hoped that there would be a K-pop club for her to join. When there wasn’t, Hunter took the initiative and created one herself.

“[Blu3] started because I was seeing videos from other schools who had clubs,” Hunter said. “I didn’t really know how clubs worked at McCallum, so I was really hoping when I got here that they would have one, but they didn’t. So I just kind of made one.”

Hunter said that starting the club was a way to meet and build connections with people who also had a passion for K-pop and dance.

“I really like dancing, and I also really like K-pop,” Hunter said. “I think it’s kind of a unique style of dance because it has this variety. My favorite part is that I get to meet

a lot of new and different people. We get to come together over similar interests, dance together and help each other.”

Now the club is celebrating its second year and has performed together numerous times at volleyball and basketball games and pep rallies, such as the Pink Week pep rally in October.

Sophomore member Dede Reagins said that

Reagins said. “The technical issues during the pep rally were a whole different thing, but I feel good about how we did regardless.”

The music acted up multiple times during the crew’s performance, cutting out on the first part of the opening number, “Loco,” as well as the first half of the third dance, “Super.” BLU3 crew members adapted quickly however jumping into the middle of “Super”

On Oct 5, BLU3 had the opportunity to perform at AISD’s first annual Day of Dance. The event showcased performers from all over the city, including studios and professional companies. McCallum dance director Natalie

group performed a cover of “Blessed Curse” by Enhyphen, sporting bright orange outfits. Sophomore member Lexie Peterson said that she felt the performance was successful, and that the outfits were specifically chosen to

[The Day of Dance] performance was much better than I thought it would be,” Peterson said. “We kind of had to cram in four hours of practice two days before, but I feel really good about it. We chose kind of an aggressive boy group brighter color outfits, we always try to pull that into our

groove

The BLU3 Crew’s year in pictures

BLU3 Crew members—juniors Kirby, Maya Tien, sophomore Dede Reagins and freshman Caroline Atherton perform at the Pink Week pep rally on Oct. 10. Reagins said the crew’s commitment to rehearsal helped them overcome technical problems with their music. Photo by Julia Copas.

Sophomore Lexie Peterson poses at the end of BLU3’s halftime performance at the varsity boys basketball game on Nov. 12 against Hays.

Photo by Elizabeth Nation.

The Blu3 Crew performs at Austin ISD’s Day of Dance at the Performing Arts Center among other Mac performances. Photo by David Winter.

The Blu3 Crew, dressed in pink performs at the Pink Week pep rally, Oct. 10. Photo by Julia Copas.

The Blu3 Crew performs at a Dancers Against Cancer event, Oct. 20. Photo courtesy of the Blu3 Crew.

The Blu3 Crew in the Mac gym during a varsity boys basketball game, Nov. 12. Photo by Elizabeth Nation.

Lights, camera, fashion

Directors, designers and models start preparations for spring fashion show

Just three months away is one of McCallum’s most creative and longstanding traditions, and the preparations have already begun. On March 8 and 9 McCallum will stage its annual fashion show where students showcase their designs before friends and family. In order to make sure the show can run smoothly, this year’s fashion show directors have started to hold meetings and model tryouts. Designers are brainstorming ideas for this year’s theme, “Into the Celestial Wilderness: Beyond the Horizon,” and picking models best-suited for their looks.

Junior Thea Clare Brosnan is one of the directors of the show and is excited that the process has started.

“It’s fun just working on this for several months and seeing this thing that we’ve been working so hard on come together in the end,” Brosnan said.

To ensure everyone is advancing in their work, the directors have set up weekly meetings with designers and models.

“We have one meeting per week with designers and models,” Brosnan said. “Every week that designer comes we check up on their progress and we make sure they are on the track that they should be.”

Last year, Brosnan worked as an intern for the show, handling tasks for the directors. But since her promotion, she has taken on a bigger role in the team.

“I have more say in stuff,” Brosnan said. “There’s more for me to do, and it’s fun getting to do what the people above me did last year.”

What really makes the show important for Brosnan however isn’t her position but the community she gets to contribute to.

“It’s just so fun,” Brosnan said. “Not just seeing the final product but also you see people getting closer with people they never would’ve [otherwise] or underclassmen gaining confidence and finding a community to be a part of.”

In order to put together such a big show, it takes more actors beyond the directors. That is why every year the directors hire sophomore fashion interns, who will stick with the team until their senior year when they take their turn as directors. Among the new sophomore interns is Alice Roquemore who said she has been helping wherever she can.

“So far, since the show hasn’t started, we are helping to organize and think of ideas for the fashion show,” Roquemore said. “So I got to help choose what the name of the fashion show would be—we chose between themes. I’m thinking of stage ideas, and I help them come to a conclusion for major ideas.”

Roquemore says there has been a spike in interest this year from designers and models, and many new people have shown up to meetings hoping to be a part of the process.

“We have so many designers,” Roquemore said. “I’m actually really happy because there’s a lot more designers this year than last year.”

When the first meeting was held, the directors explained the timeline for the show and when pieces should be completed.

“They [designers] showed up to a meeting, we

organized, and there was a slideshow we made to give [the designers] the information they need and let them know what they are in for so they don’t come in expecting to have a whole year to do their designs,” Roquemore said. Designers are allowed to create as many looks as possible as long as they are completed two weeks before the show. Model tryouts were also held, and there were so many models auditioning that some cuts had to be made.

“[Designers can create] as many looks as they can handle because we have a lot of models this year,” Roquemore said. “We might actually have to cut people this year and we’ve never done that before.”

As a new member of the team, Roquemore is participating however she can and enjoying the welcoming community surrounding the event.

“There is some pressure to it but it’s still really fun.” Roquemore said.

In addition to all the fashion show interns, some extra help is being provided bu the Austin Creative Reuse nonprofit organization. This organization has agreed to allow McCallum students to use some of their workshops for their projects. Sondra Primeaux, a volunteer helping with the fashion show, ended up reaching out to ACR for this opportunity.

“I have a loose connection with Austin Creative Reuse,” Primeaux said. “I used to be on the board for five years, I just resigned recently, but they’re still an organization that’s near and dear to my heart.”

It may be her first time assisting McCallum’s fashion show but Primeaux is not new to the fashion world.

“I have been a fashion designer, more of a reuse fashion designer for over 20 years,” Primeaux said. “It’s like my passion, and I especially love reuse because it’s creative, but it’s also helping to save the planet.”

Primeaux is hoping ACR can help designers create the looks they have envisioned and provide some extra support.

“They have workshop spaces and so when I volunteered to help with the fashion show I thought it would be a great place for us to have workshops for the designers because that’s never been done before,” Primeaux said.

As a longstanding school tradition, the fashion show is an important event for models and designers to showcase their work and talent but also to develop a supportive creative environment for McCallum’s fashion students.

“I’m just really hoping that everybody gets a chance to make the things they really want to make,” Primeaux said.

Daniela Di-Capua staff reporter

Sophomore Maggie Peterson poses at model callbacks, Oct. 22. Photo by Daniela Di-Capua.

Models line up at callbacks, Oct. 22, waiting to audition. Photo by Daniela Di-Capua.

Cultivating a worthy cause

New gardening club preparing garden now, so it can start planting this spring

Harper Maxwell staff reporter

The new gardening club at McCallum has taken its first steps into accomplishing its goals of creating a school garden for all to use. Club president Max Turner and vice president Lexi Fredine established the club at the beginning of the school year as a project for Fredine’s city internship program, Youth Forest Council. So far, their plan involves building the garden in the fall and planting a variety of seeds in the spring such as herbs, vegetables and flowers.

“Since the most obvious goal is to make a garden, we have lots of resources to do so, and I’m in a city internship program called Youth Forest Council, which can help guide the way,” Fredine said. “We are also working with Tree Folks and Barton Creek Nursery to utilize volunteer work and get as much help as we can.”

Among the goals of building a garden, the club also hopes to eventually build a composting system, plant an edible food forest for anyone to take from, build a flower bed and—hopefully for next year—have a chicken coop.

Each of these projects will provide McCallum with fresh produce such as vegetables, herbs or flowers. These can then be taken home by anyone at McCallum and specifically the flowers can

be sold as flower arrangements during the holidays to fund the club’s

“Using stuff we’ve grown, like herbs and vegetables, people from the gardening community can take veggies from our garden home and use them or eat them,” Turner said. “So, specifically if we plant herbs, we can have workshops where people volunteer, and we can make pickles or other things similar to that. We want it to be very inclusive with the school, and we want people to really just do what they need with it.”

The club isn’t just growing plants, they are also bringing together a community. Recently, the Gardening Club has been helping people come together over a common interest in gardening. The club is open to anyone interested in gardening.

“I really like gardening,” club member Maverick Hayward said, “and I wish I was outdoors more, so I decided to join Gardening Club after seeing all the cute posters around the

halls. I think I’m most excited to watch the plants grow while we nurse them all year; it’s something I really enjoy. I really want to be more involved in the school and here in the Gardening Club. I think I’m one of the only freshmen [in the club], so I want to contribute a lot and help out as much as I can.”

In order to build and fund this garden, the club has set up a few bake sales with homemade sweets and has sold them during lunch; they plan to organize more as well. The Gardening Club also anticipates donations from those interested in helping. The funds will pay for the soil, raised beds and seeds needed to get started planting in the spring.

“ I think [the club] will bring people together, and hopefully it will increase education on environmental issues and sustainability.

—sophomore Lexi Fredine, Gardening Club vice president

”

“Our plans to accomplish these goals is mainly just a lot of crowdfunding, we’ll have multiple bake sales,” Turner said. “I think we will also have donations from people and plant nurseries around Austin who are definitely willing to help. I think the garden will benefit McCallum in many ways by bringing a community to McCallum and bettering the campus.”

The club is working towards a more sustainable McCallum and is inspired by Fredine’s internship program. The internship program provides an opportunity for young people to use their skills to support Austin’s greenery, and Fredine is hoping to expand its goals to McCallum so it can help. The Gardening Club meets during FIT on Thursdays and is looking for volunteers willing to lend a helping hand. Throughout the semester, they will be building and preparing the structure for the garden; once spring starts, however, the planting will begin. They will also have many other opportunities for donations such as their bake sales or flower sales. Fredine says that even a small contribution will help make McCallum more sustainable.

“I think [the club] will bring people together and hopefully it will increase education on environmental issues and sustainability,” Fredine said. “I think it will also obviously be a great opportunity to have lots of fruits and vegetables.”

Juniors Emily Cockerham-Lewis and Shirel Behar paint pots before planting their lima beans, the clubs’ first project. Photo by Harper Maxwell.

Gardening Club president Max Turner paints his pot in preparation to plant his lima bean. Photo by Harper Maxwell.

Gray goes green

Senior launches new recycling club, hopes to make it systematic throughout district

Sophia Manos staff reporter

After discovering that there was no recycling program currently operating at McCallum, senior Lillian Gray decided to do something about it. It started off as a lighthearted joke when English teacher Jennifer Wood told her students, “We don’t recycle,” during class one day. Gray knew from that moment that she had the opportunity to make a difference at McCallum. She was ready to create a recycling club on campus after recruiting fellow seniors Sofia Rayas and Helena Loomis to be the club’s vice president and social media manager.

“I’ve always noticed that we don’t have recycling, so I’m really happy we’re doing this,” Gray said, ”but I’ve found a lot of other people who want to get involved and are motivated to have recycling because we want to reduce waste at McCallum because I feel like there’s no excuse [not to do it].”

The lack of recycling at McCallum is due to the custodians being understaffed. They simply don’t have enough time to do what they must get done daily as it is. As a result, they don’t have the time to sort through the school’s recycling bins every week, so in order to make campus recycling happen, someone had to take on that function of separating school recycling from school trash. It is the Recycling Club’s mission to make that sorting happen.

“I’m hoping it will be a systematic thing at McCallum that people can rely on,” Gray said. “I just think there’s no reason that we shouldn’t have recycling at this point, especially with so many people who know we don’t have it, so I’m glad we have been able to come together and take on this issue. I hope that eventually we can be at the forefront of this issue [among] AISD high schools, and we can inspire other schools to do so, too.”

Talking about starting a recycling club and implementing recycling on campus are two very different things, and Gray found out the hard way that it took a lot of effort and communication between the custodians, the assistant principals and even school district officials to make the club work. The first step Gray took was to recruit her friends to join the club and commit to bringing recycling back to McCallum. She then started to recruit more friends to join the club and to make posters that informed students what is and is not allowed to be put into recycling bins.

“We’ve made posters, and we’re putting them on all the recycling bins because most people just don’t know what should be recycled and what shouldn’t,” Rayas said.

“There’s not a lot of education [that must be done] when it comes to recycling and

everything environmental, so I wish people knew what can be recycled. If they [try to] recycle something that can’t be recycled, it’ll just be a mess, and we have to sort more, and if we were to miss [something], then it would mess up a lot of things down the line.”

Rayas explained that the main goal of the club is for all of the members to go around the classrooms and collect all the recycling that the teachers have left out and separate it into trash and recycling every Monday after school and then put the recycling in the large recycling dumpster outside and wait for the recycling truck to pick it up. Students will get service hours for work done with the club.

Before, Loomis said, the recycling would be combined with the trash and discarded.

“All of the recycling goes to one place,” Loomis said. “You think you’re doing something good and it’s really all placebo.”

This missed opportunity to recycle affected Loomis deeply because environmental science is the subject she plans to pursue after graduating high school. She believes step one is doing your part to keep the planet healthy.

“If you go to classrooms, you’ll see

“I

hope that eventually we can be at the forefront of this issue in the AISD high schools and we can inspire other schools to do so, too.

”

Photo by Sophia Manos created from photos by Sophia Manos and

—senior Lillian Gray

Infographic by Sophia Manos

Making old traditions new

Thompson revives longstanding Masterworks concert with an Estonian twist

Riley Pita staff reporter

New choir director Nathan Thompson revived the tradition of Masterworks at McCallum last year and the music programs will continue that tradition this year. This year’s Masterworks will feature the whole choir program, some band members and the chamber orchestra. The 45-minute piece that will be performed is Cyrillus Kreek’s “Requiem in C minor.” The concert will take place on Dec. 12 in the MAC.

The choir program has started working on the music.

Thompson first discovered this Estonian piece when studying for his master’s degree. It resonated with him, and he decided to pick it for this year’s Masterworks.

“There’s something about the Estonian spirit of singing, and the Estonian tradition of singing that is embodied in this particular piece of music that just speaks to me,” Thompson said.

one where we have to put in the most effort to learn the most amount of songs,” Wiggins said. “And it’s really fun to see that all come together and put out something beautiful.”

Sophomore Camilla Miculek, who is in the concert choir, has been in choir for two years, and enjoys the Masterworks concert. She likes singing in the concert because of the choir community and because of the director’s artistic decisions.

“I really enjoy choir because of all the people, and I really like to sing,” Miculek said. “I enjoy Mr. Thompson’s directing because he’s really talented, and I love the finished result of Masterworks.”

“ There’s something about the Estonian spirit of singing, and the Estonian tradition that is embodied in this particular piece that speaks to me.

—choir director Nathan Thompson ”

“And I think it has a very—or it can have a very—universal appeal.”

Senior Zane Wiggins, currenty in the meistersingers choir, has been in choir all four years at McCallum and is excited to be a part of Masterworks. Wiggins thinks that singing in the concert is fun and likes how all the songs seem to come together in the end. He also believes that it takes a lot of effort for everyone in choir to learn their music.

“This is the longest concert, easily, and it’s the

While the final performance sounds really pretty, according to both Miculek and Wiggins, it doesn’t come easily.

Thompson says that it’s difficult to get all the moving parts of the concert together in time.

“I think it’s just tricky to take a lot of different groups and put them all together, especially because we get a lot of time to rehearse separately but not a lot of time to rehearse all together,” Thompson said, “and I think that’s the biggest challenge: to create a unified vision of what we’re trying to create with a very limited amount of time.”

In addition to the difficulty of getting the choir, orchestra and band programs together, there are challenges with mastering the singing portion of the movement. According to Miculek,

learning to sing in a different language can be difficult, especially with this year’s movement’s language: Estonian.

“It’s difficult to sing in a different language, and learning all the different pronunciations is interesting,” Miculek. “This year we’re doing Estonian, so it’s different, and it’s also challenging because there’s so many movements that we have to remember.”

While it is a lot of music to learn at first, Wiggins thinks that it’s actually easier than other concerts because the songs don’t need to be memorized. All the members get to have the sheet music in front of them when performing.

“The pieces themselves are very long and have some very strange rhythms,” Wiggins said, “so the pieces are just really challenging, but once you learn them, it’s great, because you don’t need to memorize them; we have the sheet music with us on hand in the concert.”

“tradition at McCallum, members like Miculek and Wiggins were amazed at the end result of the concert.

“Last year, my junior year, was the one where we did a full requiem for the first time ever,” Wiggins said. “It was a surreal experience because every single song flowed into the last really well. It was, honestly, kind of beautiful.”

Miculek agrees that the concert sounded beautiful last year. She believes that in the moment everyone comes together for the final performance, and choir members can tell how happy Thompson is with his work.

It’s a beautiful way to celebrate a piece of music because Mr. Thompson is very thoughtful with the music he chooses.

—sophomore Camilla Miculek

Before Thompson arrived, the Masterworks tradition had faded away at McCallum, according to Wiggins. There was a Masterworks concert, but not in the same form as Thompson has established. Thompson brought back the performance of a whole movement. Wiggins said that during his sophomore year, the choir performed an assortment of songs pulled from different requiems. During his freshman year, Wiggins said, the choir program did not have a Masterworks concert at all.

When Thompson reintroduced the former

”“I just think it’s a beautiful way to celebrate a piece of music because Mr. Thompson is very thoughtful with the music he chooses,” Miculek said. “And once we finally all come together and learn it, and we come together with the orchestra, it just sounds amazing. And you can tell how happy Mr. Thompson is that his vision has been accomplished.” Thompson decided to bring back this tradition because it was one of the reasons he came to McCallum in the first place. It was a unique experience for him, especially since not many schools get to participate in a concert on this scale. He also just loves having performances with both choir and orchestra.

“[I] have a love for these really large pieces of music that incorporate both choir and orchestra,’ Thompson said. “So it’s something that’s just very near and dear to me.”

Nathan Thompson conducts the 2023 Masterworks concert. The 2024 concert will feature Kreek’s Requiem in C minor performed by the chamber orchestra, the choir and the brass band. Photo by Lynn Pausic.

fine arts briefs

Visual artists showcase talent on a smaller scale

The art program set up its 5x7 art show on Thursday Dec. 5 as an open gallery for anyone. Included in the gallery were works from every art class, stretching from jewelry making to ceramics. Each piece was on sale for just $20 as a way for the art program to raise funds for future projects and competitions. Junior Mia Gonzales had a variety of pieces in the show, and was excited for her work to be featured in the first visual arts show of the year.

“The art show was important to me because there are so many talented kids in this program, and we don’t get featured as much as we could,” Gonzales said. “The art program here at Mac wins tons of awards every year and almost no one outside of the program knows about it. These events are so important for our funding. Art is expensive, and we always need more supplies.”

Among her work was a sculpture she named Mr. Otterton, a vase in the shape of an otter. She’s been working on the piece since January. Although he wasn’t for sale originally, Fine Arts Academy director Dr. Parrot showed an interest in buying it at the event last Thursday.

“I haven’t sculpted something that detailed before, and it was so cool to see him come to life,” Gonzales said. “I did get an offer to sell him, but I’m still thinking about whether I want to or not. I really love him, but if someone else also does, I want to share that love with them.”

The art program will continue to host galleries throughout the school year as a way of displaying Mac artists’ work not to raise money for the program. The display in the Mac frequently changes to show new work and represent the hundreds of Mac visual artists.

— Harper Maxwell

Excalibur literary magazine wins Best of Show

The McCallum literary magazine Excalibur won first place in the best of show competition at the TAJE Fall Fiesta journalism convention in San Antonio. The magazine is a collection of original creative writing which varies from poetry to short stories. English teacher Jennifer Wood is in her third year leading the Excalibur class. While Wood enjoys the writing aspects of the magazine, she and the staff also want to include visual stories through photography and art to accent the writing.

“We want the percentage to be higher in the writing, but we also encourage the art to bring out and illuminate the writing,” Wood said. “So we match up the art that gets put in with the writing that gets put in. We do it as an actual magazine because people are just still so starving for something to touch and look at.”

The Excalibur staff is doing two main fundraisers this year to fund the printing of the magazine: Coffeehouse and Hot Chocolate and Haikus. Before Wood took over Excalibur, the creative writing class focused more on Coffeehouse instead of the physical magazine.

“What I was asked to do was to bring back the actual

magazine which is what I did the first year,” Wood said. The creative writing class, which has transitioned to the Excalibur staff, has been able to employ a looser system of runner things, which allows students to read and write as they want.

“As long as they are enjoying reading books, and as long as they are there when we need them,” Wood said. “Sometimes on a staff there isn’t that much to do and so they’re allowed to just read or creatively write.”

Wood’s favorite part of the magazine is the way each page is unique while also sharing certain elements.

“I like that it [Excalibur] has so much McCallum art in it, so it has naturally evolved,” Wood said.

“We didn’t plan it, but when I look at our magazine now, it looks like McCallum; it’s very artistic, and it’s very collage, and it’s very divergent. But we also had to have something that pulled it together, so we had the swords on every page. I like how it’s very beautiful because they [the staff] have really taken into account the crazy with the structure, and they’ve intersected them.”

— Shila Gill

dec. 13, 2024

Orchestra Winter Concert @ MAC—7 p.m.

dec. 16, 2024

FAA 30th Anniversary @ MAC—6:30 p.m.

jan. 24-25, 2025

Faculty-Directed Dance Show@ AISD PAC—7 p.m.

Members of McCallum’s literary magazine, Excalibur, pose with their first place Fall Fiesta Best of Show certificate. The magazine is a collection of original creative writing which varies from poetry to short stories. The magazine is student-run with English teacher, Jennifer Wood, advising. Photo by Wren Vanderford.

Theatre students stage pair of classic straight plays

MacTheatre staged a pair of straight plays—12 Angry Jurors and Inherit the Wind—in the Fine Arts Building Theatre from Dec. 5-8. Both plays enjoyed three performances and mostly featured students from the advanced threatre classes.

“I believe [opening night] went well for everybody,” junior Angelica Heikkala said after the Thursday Dec. 5 performance of 12 Angry Jurors. “I believe there’s always room for improvement, but for me I want to improve on getting to know my character on an even deeper level and gaining a more thorough understanding of the subtexts.”

The run of six shows ended with the third performance of Inherit the Wind on Sunday night.

Junior Joseph Blackwood (Henry Drummond) said he was sad to sad to say goodbye to Inherit the Wind.

“This show was an interesting change of pace,” Colaleo said. “The process was overall very fast and light. ...

Everybody in the cast is involved, committed and talented.”

Senior Joe Colaleo (Matthew Harrison Brady) agreed.

“I felt a deep connection to this show,” Blackwood said. “Not only because I was already close with most of my cast mates, but the message of the show was clear and unique.”

Behind the scenes, tech students worked hard creating creating props and set pieces for both 12 Angry Jurors and Inherit the Wind. Tech student Brendan Williams, a junior, said that he found 12 Angry Jurors to be really interesting.

“It’s unique because it’s only words, and the cast never leaves the stage outside of intermission, but that also makes it pretty limited from a technical standpoint, since there are no set or costume changes and very limited lighting and sound,” Williams said. “Regarding sets, both shows shared a set. I worked on both sets, and they’re both closely related to a trial. 12 Angry Jurors is much more intimate with the audience and just within the case because of how few characters there are.”

—Wren Vanderford

Junior Angelica Heikkala scolds one of her fellow jurors in her role in the opening night performance of MacTheatre’s 12 Angry Jurors on Dec. 5. Photo by Wren Vanderford.

Divya Patel, mother of junior artist Mira Patel and buyer, looks over some of the artwork at the showcase, Dec 5. Included in the gallery were works from every single art class, stretching from jewelry making to ceramics. Photo by Adele Seeboth.

Rewards of serving others

PALS find community while mentoring young people, fighting for just causes

Carson Duncan staff reporter

One of the many programs that McCallum has to offer is PALS, which stands for Peer Assistance, Leadership and Service. This program offers a place for students to build their people skills and give back to the community. The students who are a part of PALS say that it is a rewarding experience.

“PALS has changed my life in so many amazing ways,” senior Kai Talebi said. “I made so many friends who I never would have interacted with before [joining PALS]. I’ve met all kinds of different incredible people, stepped out of my comfort zone and it’s helped me to grow as a person so much.”

The PALS program looks for different kinds of people to represent all the different parts and diversity at McCallum.

“We are very purposeful in that we get a very representative group of people,” PALS sponsor Richard Cowles said. “We look for introverts, extroverts, people in fine arts and people in sports.”

Every year many McCallum students apply to become a part of the program, coming from all different backgrounds. The high number of applicants makes the acceptance decisions hard.

“The logistics are a lot,” Cowles said. “The decision process is what gives me most of my gray hair. It is so hard because I have lots of wonderful applicants.”

The group spends the year together bonding and getting to know each other, while completing the service tasks at hand.

“We have a really great group of people and just feel like a family,” senior PAL Chander Tripathi said. “You have people around you that help you accomplish this common goal. You see people from all different walks of life, and you get to work with them to help out kids, which is pretty cool.”

doing the Shower Strike to raise [funds to fight the world’s]water [crisis] for [Austin-based charity] Well Aware.”

An important part of being a PAL is working alongside others to give back to the community.

“[PALS] realize that they meet people outside of their normal friend group,” Cowles said.

“ PALS really is a family, and it’s such an incredible, welcoming community to be a part of.

—senior Kai Talebi

”

The PALS program has lots of activities throughout the year, but there are a few that stand out among the rest.

“Our main job as PALS is mentoring elementary school children, which is so fun and rewarding,” Talebi said. “We also run a lot of fundraisers at McCallum like Pink Week, as well as holding blood drives and

“They have the realization that there are wonderful people everywhere: you just kind of have to look for them.”

Talebi, who has been a PAL since her junior year, acknowledges that her favorite part of PALS is the bond that she had made with her peers.

“PALS really is a family, and it’s such an incredible, welcoming community to be a part of,” she said.

Due to the welcoming community, Tripathi sees PALS as a positive experience for everyone involved.

“I would absolutely recommend PALS to others because it is a great opportunity to just build your weaknesses,” Tripathi said. “I’d say it makes you more well-rounded of a person.” Cowles is the current PALS sponsor and has

been for about 25 years. When he came to McCallum 28 years ago, he noticed the PALS program and wanted to be included immediately.

“I talked to Ms. Morgan, who was the PALS teacher at the time, and I said when you retire it would be cool to take over,” Cowles said. “Three years later, she came to me and said ‘I am leaving this year,’ so we went down to the principal, and we told him I should be the next teacher.”

PALS is not the first volunteer organization that Cowles has participated in. He also served others as a volunteer and a teacher in Chad as a member of the Peace Corps. He discovered his calling in life while in college.

“When I was trying to study electrical engineering in college, I volunteered to teach a science lesson at the elementary school,” Cowles said. “That’s when I realized that I was an educator like my parents.”

Volunteering has led to many good things for Cowles, like meeting his wife and leading him towards his career in education.

“When I was in Peace Corps volunteering, I met my wife, who was a fellow Peace Corps volunteer,” Cowles said. “So services have always been a big part of my life. I also think that positivity, impact and mentoring has also been a very important part of who I am and what I like to do. It is just a very rewarding experience to help facilitate that. I want to plant the seed that positivity, service and mentoring are all lifetime worthwhile activities.”

always knew it was something I wanted to be a part of. I was nominated last year to apply, and then I applied and was lucky enough to get in. It was the absolute best thing that could have happened to me.” Photo by Julia Copas.

Senior PAL Layla Al-Hallaq paints face glitter on security guard Melisa Thickstun’s face in the courtyard during the first day of Pink Week. Photo by Dave Winter.

DRENCH WARFARE: Junior PAL Lexi Rosenblatt gets covered in water during the Pink Week PAL-lery. “I

A new chapter

Zuniga brings his touch to the library while continuing previous librarians’ legacy

Elizabeth Nation staff reporter

Although librarian Mathew Zuniga may be new to McCallum, he is certainly not new to libraries. Ever since Zuniga fell in love with reading at a young age, he knew that he wanted to work with books. He was first given the chance to pursue his passion at Opportunity Center, a high school in Del Valle, where he worked as an English teacher.

“The last school I was at had a library but no librarian, so I thought that was a great opportunity for me to start the library program there,” Zuniga said. “So at my last school I started our whole library program and became our first librarian.”

“librarians before me,” Zuniga said. “They’ve done a great job at the library, so a lot of what I’ve done here is been trying to upkeep the programs that have been going on, like the clothing closet and the crafts area.”

“He makes an effort to try and be a calm presence, and I think that resonates with a lot of people.

—junior

Elise Garza

Due to the Opportunity Center’s small size, however, they didn’t have the budget to hire a librarian. So, Zuniga had to juggle teaching English with running the library. “It was the only way I could be a librarian at the school I was at because we didn’t have the budget to hire an extra librarian, so I had to split up my responsibilities,” Zuniga said. “Although I loved it, it can be stressful or tiring to switch from teaching classes to doing library stuff to teaching classes again every day. So I’m very grateful to focus on the library [at McCallum].”

For Zuniga, being the librarian at McCallum has been a very different experience from being the librarian at the Opportunity Center.

“At my last school, everything was there because I created it, whereas I came into this campus and there have been a bunch of lovely

Zuniga’s work in continuing previous library programs has not gone unnoticed. When junior Elise Garza, a longtime member of the Banned Book Club, heard that there was going to be a new librarian, she feared that her favorite club might disappear; instead, Zuniga has ensured the opposite, growing the program by spreading the word to students, hanging up flyers, reaching out to Black Pearl Books to receive donations and organizing a reading schedule.

”“Ever since the first day, he’s been really supportive,” Garza said. “He’s done a lot of work with other AISD librarians to figure out what he can do to help continue the Banned Book club. He’s really just been networking for the Banned Book Club, and has been really enthusiastic about making sure it still has a space at McCallum.”

Although maintaining the library’s many programs may seem tough, Zuniga has effortlessly transitioned into the position, according to library clerk Lauren Alindogan.

“Mat is a great fit for the culture at McCallum,” Alindogan said. “It has been pretty smooth introducing him to how things are working.”

three years.

“It’s always good to move into a new position and be in contact with the person who was doing the job before you,” Zuniga said. “Lauren has been here, so to have them helping me is super awesome. Honestly, without the help of Lauren and Jain, I don’t think the library would be running as smoothly as it is.”

One of Zuniga’s favorite parts of working at McCallum’s library is its large number of interested readers, which Zuniga feels is different from other school libraries.

“I do think we have a strong reader population at McCallum,” Zuniga said. “Every day, we have books checked in and checked out, and I don’t think that can be said for every school. We have students requesting books. I already have two pages full of book requests, so I do think we have a strong reading population.”

Zuniga thinks that part of the reason people are into reading right now is due to trends on social media platforms such as TikTok and YouTube. Research backs up Zuniga’s theory. According to a study conducted by the Publishers’ Association in the United Kingdom, 59 percent of teens have gotten into reading due to book influencers online.

“I do find that like many trends, reading has become more popular again, especially on BookTok and TikTok,” Zuniga said. “Reading is having sort of a renaissance where it can be like a personality trait or it’s pretty cool nowadays. I think that’s awesome because there are so many books being discovered.”

library, like bringing people in to talk or even getting bands to play in here,” Zuniga said. “I would love to do that. I’m taking my time to learn more about the library and the school before I start doing those things, but my big goal is to get more programming or events happening in the library.”

Zuniga attributes his success in his first few months as librarian to the help he’s received from Jain Orr, the previous librarian, and Alindogan, who has been the library clerk for the past

Looking for a new read? Zuniga recommends five of his favorites, by Louisa May

The Handmaid’s Tale The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, and by Toni Morrison.

Photo by Elizabeth

Besides helping students discover new books and continuing preexisting library programs, Zuniga has grown the library. He recently started Analog Club, where students can appreciate and enjoy vinyls, VHS tapes and cassette tapes. In the long run, Zuniga would like to have more events in the library and eventually plans to invite guest speakers and bands to perform in the space.

“I would like to do more stuff in the

Scan the QR code to read more of Nation’s profile on the new librarian.

Rethinking artificial

Students weight the risks of AI in education and the future

Beatrix Lozach staff reporter

The advent of artificial intelligence has revolutionized modern life. From generative AI art software like Dall-E (named for 1930s Dadaist pioneer Salvador Dali) to the dialogue generator Chat GPT, AI has been integrated into virtually aspect of contemporary culture that requires productivity. Doctors use AI to evaluate patient data and support patient diagnoses. Many companies also use AI as a customer service chatbot, increasing efficiency and eliminating human error.

It’s impossible to search even a basic term such as “beautiful women” without being bombarded with AI-generated images. The encroachment of AI has raised myriad questions about its impact, and that included its impact on teenagers. What ramifications might AI have for the self-esteem of teenagers who are just beginning to dive headfirst into the complicated legacy of beauty standards, and what ramifications might AI have for academic integrity, an increasingly hot-button issue after the College Board switched to both a digital SAT and digital AP exams in the wake of numerous cheating scandals involving AI? Furthermore, what are the benefits to using AI, and how might it improve student life?

AI has the capability to effectively refute allegations of plagiarism with programs such as Turnitin. It can assist teachers in distinguishing highperforming students from those who use AI to appear high-performing. In addition, students with a weighty academic course load can save time on note-taking by using programs like Chat GPT to summarize reading material. Junior Esteban Aleman-Ward, who is taking four AP classes,

PROFITABILITY

OF AI

“

I save about 15 minutes when using Chat GPT because instead of having to search for materials for my notes, it’s all condensed in one location. “

—junior Esteban Aleman-Ward

including AP Biology and AP U.S. History, attests to the ability of Chat GPT to aid with managing his rigorous course load.

“I save about 15 minutes when using Chat GPT because instead of having to search for materials for my notes, it’s all condensed in one location,” Aleman-Ward said.

Aleman-Ward also believes, however, that students who rely on AI to replace learning, rather than to supplement it, are depriving themselves of the ability to cultivate a work ethic and to succeed in their studies.

“I don’t believe Chat GPT should be used to write essays because using it like that doesn’t gain the student anything in the long run.”

Senior Felix Murdock, a member of the McCallum robotics team, explained the fallibility of AI and emphasized that AI cannot usurp the role of humans in communication or any other industry.

“I think that generative AI will become a learning tool, like Excel, which has a bunch of features that help you run spreadsheets,” Murdock said, “but you can’t have Excel do all your work for you. Chat GPT can’t do your work for you [either] because it’s really bad at getting things right.”

Murdock then elaborated on the function of AI and the process by which artificial intelligence is trained.

“How AI basically works is, it takes a really large task, like flying an airplane, and breaks it down into a series of smaller, more manageable tasks,” Murdock said. “It can break those down if they’re still too complicated and so on. The issue comes in with generative AI because it’s trying to predict what the next word will be, and because it’s a probability, it’s not going to get it right 100% of the time. More specialized AIs, like those that fly planes, have been trained for hundreds of hours, while Chat GPT has been trained on massive amounts of data to predict the next most probable word.”

In terms of drawbacks, the ubiquity of artificial intelligence has resulted in an overall decline in human brain function. In a 2023 Harvard Medical School study, researchers Mathura Shanmugasundaram and Arunkumar Tamilarasu found that continuous partial attention, as a result of overexposure to social media and AI, reduced productivity, decreased memory retention and increased stress levels.

Sophomore Finley McBride, @finleymcbee on TikTok understands this impact all too well. McBride’s April 2024 TikTok imitating the popular influencer Leah Halton went viral, garnering more than 16 million views as of November 2024. As a result of that experience, McBride has expressed concerns about the rise of social media and its debilitating effects on consumer attention span.

“When I’m scrolling on TikTok, I’m not really seeing anything that’s benefiting me intellectually,” she said. “It’s definitely harmed my attention span. Not to mention, when I posted my video, there were so many people in the comments being blatantly rude. Because we’re constantly being fed information with social media, we don’t really recognize that there are real people behind those screens.”

Maggie Brown, a junior collaborative piano Fine Arts Academy ambassador and theater major, fears the impact that AI could have on future job opportunities for creatives.

“As a person who likes to write music, it is stressful to think that AI could someday pose a threat to people in the field I want to go into,” Brown said. “As someone who wants to study music composition, it’s worrisome. The few experiences I’ve had with AI, the information has been unusable, but it’s scary to think it could one day detrimentally affect my job prospects.”

Graphic by Beatrix Lozach.

“AI can help people, but when it comes to art it can steal other artists’ work, and that’s horrible.”

—sophomore Mabel Jaques

What think impact

“In my opinion AI can be used as a tool. Once you get to your junior or senior year, it can be used to help summarize long and hard to understand documents as well as inputting material to create study guides for tests.”

—junior Blaine Bounds

“I think AI is stupid always tell when something

artificial intelligence

do students think about the impact of AI?

and very unintelligent, so I can something is AI-generated.”

—sophomore

AI must fight against climate change instead of causing it

Tallulah McAuliffe staff reporter

Artificial intelligence provides the potential for gathering crucial information important to saving our planet; however, AI databases take up a lot of electrical power and freshwater while also producing a large quantity of greenhouse gas emissions. To efficiently use AI technology to help save our planet, there is much work to be done to ensure that these new AI innovations aren’t doing more harm than good for our environment.

These past few years AI has opened the doors to innovations that have already started to help different communities around the world. The biggest benefit AI provides is its ability to detect patterns as well as anomalies incorporating historical knowledge to generate more accurate future outcomes. These numbers will help lead scientists to the right steps we need to take to reverse the warming of our planet’s ozone.

AI is helping us predict exactly where and how fast our icebergs are melting, mapping deforestation, predicting changing weather patterns, cleaning up the ocean and recycling more waste. All of these advancements should be exciting, but it is hard to ignore the consequences of the training, usage and maintenance of the thousands of AI corporations. These incredible technological advancements should be used ethically for the greater good, not just for the purpose of money with the sacrifice of our planet earth.

While artificial intelligence is an online resource, it has impacts on the physical world. Many AI programs contribute to higher pollution rates, according to the U.N. Environmental Programme.

McAuliffe.

Elena Casarez

OPINION

seeing Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robots come on to market. It’s alarming to see how quickly largescale AI is starting to integrate into our society and begin to create a whole new era in the tech industry. As individuals there isn’t much we can do to force these companies to act eco-friendly, but we can resist using AI when you don’t really need it.

In order to combat this problem we need to first notice the environmental impacts of AI as well as bring our attention to the widening disparity in which regions are being negatively affected by these effects. Around the world there are 190 countries that have adopted of

Waymo cars are Google’s self-driving cars; these driverless cars are seen throughout Austin and are available for rent. Using AI they use highly detailed maps and use new technology to predict the next driving instructions.

An example of AI being used for good is Greyparrot, a software startup based in London that analyzes waste processing and recycling facilities to help them recover and recycle more waste material. The United Nations has also begun using AI for the common good; in Africa they are using AI to help communities vulnerable to climate change by tracking extreme weather events. The training process for a singular AI model such as a Large Language Model, however, can consume thousands of megawatt hours of electricity and emit hundreds of tons of carbon waste. It’s concerning seeing how high these numbers are and how fast they are increasing. AI model training also leads to the evaporation of a very large amount of freshwater into the atmosphere for the process of data heat rejection, causing more concern for our already limited freshwater assets.

The AI market is increasing rapidly and will only continue to grow more complex. In Austin we are already seeing self-driving cars traversing the streets among us and on our screens we are

AI, but these are just recommendations and can’t stop companies from acting unethically. The European Union and the United States have introduced legislation to lessen the environmental impact of AI. While these measures alone aren’t nearly strict enough to make a notable difference, they represent a start toward environmentally responsible use of AI. In order to protect the environment, much stricter rules and regulations must be put in place. What is even more troubling is that the effects of climate change more commonly affects those areas and populations already at a disadvantage. In order to solve this inequity, we must first bring recognition to the subject. The AI industry should be focusing on improving the tech industry’s sustainability, not blindly doing whatever is most profitable. With the harm of fossil fuel combustion, mass consumption of electricity and fresh water, there is a need for replenishable energy. As the market continues to grow, it will become more and more difficult to reverse the negative impact AI pollution makes on our environment. All we can do as individuals is avoid using any AI platforms if possible and learn and spread awareness about the truth behind AI.

While there are many companies who will continue to use fossil fuels and emit greenhouse gasses; there are progressive companies aiming to emit a net zero greenhouse gas emissions. Some strategies for this are keeping track of the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions and putting solar panel farms and other forms of renewable energy to give back to the environment.

Graphic by Tallulah

Graphic by Tallulah McAuliffe.

Marching to McCallum

Foreign-exchange student from Spain finds new home in marching band

Priya Thoppil news editor

When junior Martina Lorenzo-Serrano heard about a foreign-exchange program to the United States, she was immediately interested. Born and raised in A Coruña, in Galicia, Spain, Lorenzo-Serrano had gained interest in a foreign-exchange year through her cousin who had done it previously and applied for a scholarship to sponsor her for the year abroad.

Junior Iris LaRue and her family have been hosting LorenzoSerrano since the start of the school year, a decision pushed forward by LaRue.

“We were thinking about this, near the end of the school year, and I was the one that decided to push for it,” LaRue said. “And my mom had had an exchange student in the past, and so she was on board with it.”

Despite Lorenzo-Serrano’s interest in coming to the United States, she had no choice in where she was placed. She felt happy to have been placed in Austin, due to the welcoming community and the fairly large size of the city.

“I got lucky because I have a friend that got placed in a really small town in Pennsylvania,” Lorenzo Serrano said.

Lorenzo-Serrano’s family was sad to see her go but excited that she was able to experience a year in another country.

“They were proud of me for getting into the program,” she said. “I was a bit homesick at first, but I got used to it fast. You kind of have to.”

Her hometown in Spain is along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, and Lorenzo Serrano often spent her afternoons going to the beach with her friends. Living in Austin has been an adjustment for her, and her time has been spent much differently, in part because the weather is so different.

“It’s really rainy and sometimes cold where I live,” she said. “So here is really really hot to me, which I’m not used to.”

At the beginning of the school year, she auditioned for the marching band, and made it, playing the flute. During the marching season, band took up her mornings, classes and after school occasionally, a big adjustment from her music program back home, where she played the flute for eight years.

“I didn’t play any sports, but I was in a conservatory for music,” Lorenzo-Serrano said. “It’s like another school apart from high school, and I practiced every day.”

Marching band was not offered in Spain, and LorenzoSerrano has enjoyed every minute of it, even though it was a foreign concept to her. While in Spain, she would practice her flute every other day in the evening, whereas here she woke up, had band practice, and finished the day with a band as well.

“Something like [the thought of a marching band] was crazy at first, but it’s where I met most of my friends,” Lorenzo-Serrano said.

One friend she met, senior Isa LopezReed, has been in the band for many years and immediately took a liking to LorenzoSerrano. Lopez-Reed speaks Spanish and will occasionally talk with Lorenzo-Serrano in Spanish, which provides practice for both of them.

doesn’t allow students’ parents to visit while they are in the new country, or allow the students to travel back home, so that they can be fully immersed in their new home, which was hard at first for Lorenzo-Serrano.

“My parents can’t visit me, and I can’t go back home until the year is over,” Lorenzo-Serrano said. “But I call them almost every day and still text my friends.”

Adjusting to a new environment with completely new people is only one part of a foreign-exchange program.

Lorenzo-Serrano was shocked by the way McCallum flowed, in part due to the school size.

“The classes and the school size are much bigger than my other school,” she said. “In Spain, we don’t move from class to class; we all stay in the same class, and the teachers are the ones that move.”

Previously before coming to America, Lorenzo-Serrano, like other international visitors to America, had watched the classic movies and therefore envisioned an ideal American life. After coming here, she said her experience mirrored her movie-watching.

LorenzoSerrano’s choice of instrument when joining the marching band was the flute. Graphic by Nate Williams.

“It looks just like the movies,” she said. “I knew things about America, but it looked just like what I’d seen.”

language, they can communicate effectively, and occasionally LaRue’s dad will speak to Lorenzo-Serrano in Spanish.

“When we talk to her, I think she understands about 70% of what we’re saying,” LaRue said. “She did have to take tests before she came to prove she’s proficient in English, so she’s good at English.”

LaRue feels inspired by Lorenzo-Serrano’s bravery to complete a full year of school in another country, and her example has made LaRue speculate about doing it herself later during college.

“I am very impressed by what she’s doing,” LaRue said. “I feel like going away for a year to a completely different country is a little bit crazy, especially in high school. I would love to do that in college though.”

Since the beginning of her stay, Lorenzo-Serrano has visited Six Flags, San Antonio, and has plans for upcoming trips, which excites her.

“We are going to Florida during Christmas break,” she said. “And then New York City on spring break.”

LaRue’s family chose Lorenzo-Serrano from a list, and felt that she would fit in best with their family. LaRue’s younger sister, who goes to Ann Richards, plays flute as well, which they felt would be a good bonding experience for Lorenzo-Serrano.

“She is really sweet, and funny, and knows how to make you laugh,” Lopez-Reed said. “If you ever need something, she will always be there for you.”

Going to school in a new country can be daunting, and many foreign-exchange students often feel homesick. Lorenzo-Serrano said she felt homesick for the first couple weeks, but then adjusted. The foreign-exchange program

Lorenzo-Serrano, a native Spanish speaker, had learned some English living in Spain but had to quickly adjust to a world where the majority of the language spoken was English, especially in school. Ironically, the language class that she chose to take was French, but her hardest class has been English.

“It was hard at first because it felt like I didn’t know anything,” she said. “It has gotten better and I’ve understood more, but it’s still hard.”

LaRue said that despite Spanish being Lorenzo-Serrano’s first

“We had a whole interview process, and officially learned we were getting her in June,” LaRue said.

Lorenzo-Serrano wasn’t the only one who had adapted to this school year. LaRue said that her family has gradually gotten used to having a fifth person in the house, and because Lorenzo-Serrano can’t legally drive, it has made everyone have to pitch in a little more.

“I think my whole family is a little more busy because she can’t drive,” LaRue said. “My parents drive her to band every morning, and I have had to pitch in a little, but besides that, she does everything else on her own.”

Grey Gaddis and Martina Lorenzo-Serrano pose during the Liberty Hill football game on Oct 25. Photo by Lucas Walker.

Robotics hosts tournament

Senior team referees event while underclassmen compete, B team reaches finals

ABOVE: First-year B team member sophomore Enzo Zelsnack took on various roles at the competition. “I worked out the drinker,” Zelsnack said, “which moves the rings to the corner. and I also do basic maintenance before rounds making sure everything is on tight. .... Sometimes our driver, Brody Adair, drives erratically during an intense round so I need to make sure the parts stay together.” Photo by Wren Vanderford.

RIGHT: Sophomore James Wood-Surrago, a member of the robotics B team, uses an air compressor to touch up his group’s robot. “We use the air compressor to refill our air reservoirs,” he said. “Between each match, we have to check the battery to make sure it’s charged as well as make sure we have enough air to use the systems.”

LEFT: This year’s VEX game forces students to create a robot that is able to stack rings onto mobile goals to score points. “Three of our four teams were competing for the first time this year, and they had very different experiences match to match,” robotics coach Audrea Moyers said. “I think they learned a lot ... about what game play is like, how to work with an alliance partner, how to adapt during the day to changes.” Photo by Lillian Gray.

BELOW: During the robotics competition on Dec. 7, senior Zane Wiggins and 2024 alumnus Henry Holmes helped referee matches. “It was very interesting to be back,” Holmes said. “I was very happy to see all of the people that are still participating both at McCallum and on other teams. Being separated from the anxiety of competing also helped me talk with teams from a grounded perspective and enjoy my time there more.”

by Lillian Gray.

ABOVE: Sophomores Brody Adair and James Wood-Surrago adjust their team’s robot before a match. Throughout the competition, teams would make small adjustments to their robots to keep them performing at their best. According to Adair, who has been with the robotics club for a year and a half, their efforts paid off. “We made a lot of improvements and ended up getting second place out of the 30 teams,” Adair said. Photo by Wren Vanderford.

Photo

Photo by Wren Vanderford

Creating new formulas Matthews faces challenges of new infant at home and online teaching

Harper Maxwell staff reporter

Antoniette Matthews has returned to her alma mater as a first-year high school teacher and joined the science department teaching on-level and advanced chemistry. For the past 10 years, Matthews has been teaching all subjects to elementary-school students and instructing at summer camps. After teaching at an exclusively STEM summer camp for elementary school kids, however, she decided she missed teaching science.

“Originally, teaching was not my first goal,” Matthews said.

“I was studying opera, which I love and I still do music; I just do it for fun now. But one summer, I went to work at a summer camp, and I fell in love with teaching little kids and that idea of discovery and exploring the things around us. I changed things entirely, and I got my degree in early childhood education and child psychology.”

answer individual questions in my email, compared to these days where getting to emails is harder because I’m not as readily available. However, at the same time, I wasn’t in the classroom to immediately correct misconceptions as they were happening, so there were like two different challenges happening there.”

“ Originally, teaching was not my first goal. I was studying opera, which I love and I still do music; I just do it for fun now.

Having done student teaching with science teachers Robert Ely and Nicole Sorto, Matthews has already had a lot of experience working at McCallum. Even with the late start, the science department was able to prepare her with everything she needed by sharing assignments and material, and managing BLEND while she was unable to.

—chemistry teacher Antoniette Matthews

”Although she and her students are now settled into the school year, Matthews initially had to teach the first month of school digitally to take care of her new infant at home. With a substitute in her place in the classroom, Matthews and her students had to overcome the challenge of teaching and learning a new subject entirely online.

“With the late start, I felt like there was a different type of challenge to it,” Matthews said. “I was more available to

“[Matthews] has had a big setback having been out that first month because she wasn’t able to establish the norms and expectations that every teacher does the first few weeks of school,” Ely said. “But I peek into her classroom from time to time and she’s doing great; there’s a huge amount of potential there, and although the first year is gonna be

tough, she’s gonna do wonderful.”

Her students appreciate having her back in the classroom as well. While she was away, and sometimes still now, BLEND restricted Matthews from accessing the course and grading work, so many assignments that were previously submitted were lost. Having to manage this digitally was tough, but now she is available to work through these challenges in person with her students.

“

work on our assignments in class while we can still get help from her.”

She’s good at answering questions and helping you walk through anything that confuses you.

—sophomore

Emily Knight

”“She’s good at answering questions and helping you walk through anything that confuses you,” sophomore Emily Knight said. “It was hard to not have someone there to work through the assignments with us, so at times it felt like we were teaching ourselves. Now, I like that she gives us time to

For Matthews, coming back in person to teach has been filled with excitement while at the same time, exhaustion. She’s eager to be in a chemistry classroom with high-schoolers now compared to elementary students especially because of the immersive experiments and new tools available. Finding a balance between her home life and school work, however, has taken up most of her time.

“It has been very challenging balancing it all. Honestly, I think the thing I miss most is sleep,” Matthews said. “Sleep comes when it can, so I think that’s currently the biggest challenge, but I don’t think I would change it for anything. I am loving where I am in life right now. I love being a mom, and I love that I am in a high school classroom again. To have the ability to be here and not have to put it on hold because I have kids is really special.”

Her peers in the science department agree that together they have all worked through the challenges of online teaching while still preparing Matthews and her students for a successful year of chemistry.

“[Matthews] has a really great attitude, and she just generally loves science,” Ely said. “She just overall has a lot to offer to the department.”

Photo by Harper Maxwell

Teacher, director, coach dedicated to helping his students succeed Rudy’s theory

Riley Pita staff reporter

For Jeffrey Rudy, each day of teaching or coaching is a new surprise. He has been teaching for 41 years, 21 of which have been dedicated to McCallum. Being an AP teacher, associate band director, coach for the McCallum swim team and accompanist for choir provides unexpected and fun experiences daily. He is passionate about every activity he is in charge of, such as color and winter guards, teaching music and the swim team.

According to junior color guard member Lark Thompson and senior choir major Ella Piston, the first impression upon meeting Rudy can be intimidating and strict. Senior swim captain Mallory Beckham didn’t like him at first due to his swim workouts.

“I was like ‘God, I don’t like this coach,’ but he grew on me because I had to spend more and more time with him,” Beckham said, “and I just realized that he just wants what’s best for us.”

Thompson, Piston and Beckham believe that Rudy is always deeply invested in the team, guard or student’s success. Thompson noticed it through his repetitive but necessary practice of specific choreography during color guard practice.

“While this was a bit frustrating at the time, it was clear that after that time spent, the work was much cleaner, and we all knew it much better,” Thompson said.

Piston, who is taking Rudy’s AP Music Theory class, claimed that she is not necessarily the best at music theory, but that didn’t stop Rudy from trying to help her and other students who also struggle.

“Once you get to know him it’s clear that he really cares about his students and their futures,” Piston said. “He’s a very supportive person and devotes a lot to McCallum and his students.”

wants the best for the team, and we aren’t always the nicest to him.”

Along with his devotion towards his students and athletes, Rudy is also passionate about the activities themselves. Thompson experienced it through a speech congratulating the color guard after a USBands competition this year. Piston sees it through the joy music seems to bring him. Rudy himself sees it through his love for participating in every activity.

“It’s fun,” Rudy said. “I mean, I just really enjoy all those things. I just like working with students at this age level. And so all those [activities] give me an opportunity to do the things that I really enjoy doing.”

In addition to the passion students observe, he can also be inadvertently funny, according to Thompson.

“

his career into different activities, such as swimming, according to Beckham. This makes practice more enjoyable, too.

“He gives us those fun things where he’s like ‘go along with the beat’ or ‘think of a song in your head’,” Beckham said.

Despite the time it takes out of his schedule, Rudy still enjoys every activity he participates in. It is disappointing not to be able to spend as much time with his family as he would like, but he has learned to manage his time better to allow continuing these activities.

All [of my activities] give me an opportunity to do the things that I really enjoy doing.

—teacher, coach Jeffrey Rudy

”

“He was trying to teach us choreography [where we go] to go to a prop, and he described how he wanted us to walk by saying ‘float through gravity’ while lifting his leg and foot up in a very specific almost crablike way,” Thompson said. “It was the most unintentionally funny thing I have ever seen a person do, which I think is his hidden talent.”

Beckham was doing a set at practice, and, while he was swimming, Rudy saw something shoot across the sky. Rudy pointed it out as they returned to the wall and rested.

“ He’s a very supportive person and devotes a lot to McCallum and his students.

—senior Ella Piston

”

Beckham agrees with Piston that you just need to get to know him and understand how he teaches or coaches. While he can be strict in his practice regimens, according to Beckham, they are strict for a good reason.

“Coach Rudy, he is very hard on us a lot of the time, but at the end of the day, he knows what’s best,” Beckham said.“I think he’s a very sweet and compassionate person who just

“We all had just finished doing a really hard set, we hit the wall, and he said, ‘I just saw a shooting star, y’all missed it,’ Beckham said. “But it always makes me laugh thinking about that.”

His teaching style reflects his wish for everyone to succeed, which is very helpful for Piston.

“It’s very methodical, and he’s a lot more organized than many of my other teachers, which I really appreciate,” Piston said. “I also like how we practice everything from worksheets to ear training; it feels like a more engaging experience.”

He also incorporates the artistic side of

“It’s tough on my family to be gone so much, but they’re very, very understanding, and they allow me to do the things that I enjoy,” Rudy said. “I used to think, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t miss [it].’ [Now,] a pretty important family function, that’s gonna get some priority here, but it took 40 years for me to figure that out.”

Rudy loves all the activities he gets to be involved in, in part because of the surprise that comes with each new class or practice. He enjoys getting to do swim team and color and winter guard because he is able to watch people go through all of high school. According to Rudy, it makes every day fun and exciting.

“Like that quote from Forrest Gump, “Rudy said, “‘Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get’.”

Rudy plays at the choir concert “Of Earth and Sky,” October 2023. Photo by Riley Pita.

Rudy poses with members of the swim team at the 2021 UIL District 5A championship swim meet in Feb. Photo courtesy of Rudy.

Rudy coaches swimmers on races at the 2019 District 5A championship meet.

Photo by Juliee Beyt.

Associate band director Jeffrey Rudy poses with members of the 2018-2019 color guard at the color guard awards ceremony. Photo by Risa Darlington-Horta.

Water polo adds depth

New coaches, players discover that program offers sport, community

Carlo Hinsdale staff reporter

McCallum is no stranger to water polo. With an established boys program, Mac expanded its aquatic sporting offerings by launching a girls team.

Last year, special education counselor Jennifer Warren became the coach of the Knights’ water polo team. She says she gained not just a team but a community. She said she learned a lot in that first season.

Warren wasn’t the only relatively recent addition to the program. Sophomore Oliver Brady was not on the Mac swim team, but he joined water polo because of its history in his family. Because his mom played in college, he felt a connection with the sport.

“I like water polo because it’s fun, and I like my team,” Brady said. “It’s cool that my mom played when she was younger, because now I can guess what it was like for her.”

While the sport has been at McCallum for only a short time, the sport has a long, storied history. Water polo began in England in the 1870s as a form of rugby in the water. It was played in rivers and lakes, where teams tried to score by throwing a ball into the other team’s goal. The game became popular quickly and spread to other countries. By the late 1800s, water polo had reached Ireland,

the United States and Scotland.

The first recorded water polo match in the U.S. happened in 1888. It became an Olympic sport for men in 1900 during the Paris Games. Women’s water polo was added much later, making its debut in 2000 in Sydney.

Many of today’s biggest water polo clubs were established in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Water polo matches, especially during the early 20th century, were sources of national pride for countries like Italy, Hungary and the United States.

In later years, university and high school teams appeared. With the spread of the sport across Europe and America, water polo went from being violent and dangerous to becoming a more organized, accessible sport. Brady’s first season was one to remember, and it gave him a good foundation for the rest of his high school water polo career.

“I think that if I was more prepared, I would’ve improved,” Brady said. “My season was good; it’s over, but it was good. We won three out of nine [games]. But McCallum is small; those other teams have like four times as many kids.”

High school water polo has found a home in schools across the world. Counselor and track and field coach Nicollette Muller joined the coaching staff this year, assisting Warren with both girls and boys water polo. She felt that she would be able to recruit more

students to join the team.

“This is my first year doing water polo,” Muller said. “I was hopeful that watching the Olympics this summer would teach me, but I’m not sure.”

She may not have been sure about her coaching expertise, but she is certain that team practices benefited from a positive, nurturing atmosphere.

“It was nice having both teams practice together because we were able to run drills together,” Muller said. “The boys were able to help the girls and vice versa.”

Many water polo athletes are also on the swim team. Sophomore Kiyomi Rathnasingham was on both teams and has grown fond of water polo.

“A lot of my cousins play water polo, so I

am very familiar with it,” Rathnasingham said. “I enjoy it because I get to hang out with my friends, and it’s bonding. [Water polo] has taught me that you need a team in life.”

Even after her first season wrapped, Rathnasingham continued to practice and train her body. Even though she felt that she did well, she knew that it was important to keep her focus on her wellbeing and activity level.

“My season was really good, the one tournament I went to was good,” Rathnasingham said. “We lost all of our games but we really improved.”

The water polo program, along with the new girls team, and the coaches expect to see growth in the size and strength of the teams.

Compared to ‘23 campaign, ‘24 season sees growth, improvement, leadership

Zev Zent staff reporter

As the water polo season has concluded, the team has taken a look back and reflected on the teams’ accomplishments and progress. With the new addition of a girls team, and an improved boys team there was a lot to talk about and a lot to celebrate.

In the 2023-24 season McCallum only had one water polo team, a boys squad that didn’t enjoy much success.

“I think we only won like one or two games last year,” junior Ephraim Paprock-Schue said. “This year, however, we had both a women’s and men’s team, and many new members. This [growth] caused us to see a lot more success.”

According to senior Theo Northcutt, major improvements were made on both the offense and defense sides of the pool, but teamwork was where the most noticeable 22 sports

progress arrived.

“Both the boys’ and the girls’ passing and teamwork was phenomenal at the end of the year compared to the beginning,” Northcutt said.

Although the teams made major improvement during the season, players also admitted that there is still a lot of room for the team to grow. Returning players are already looking ahead and visualizing what kind of success they want to see next season.

“Hopefully making it farther in playoffs and playing more games and just the improvement of the team and helping everyone else get better,” Paprock-Schue said.

The largest challenge the team faces is maintaining a skilled and experienced team. Water polo isn’t a high profile sport like basketball, football or soccer.

Upperclassman leadership is a common trope in high school sports; it helps create team chemistry and a larger sense of

community between teammates. Juniors and seniors are given a chance to step up and embrace a larger role on their team. Because water polo is still a relatively small sport on campus, it becomes more important for the water polo team to establish that kind of leadership. One way for seniors to step up is to help teach aspects of the sport to their younger teammates. Senior Theo Northcutt is a goalkeeper so he helps players with defense.

“ Both the boys’ and the girls’ passing and teamwork was phenomenal at the end of the year compared to the beginning.

—senior Theo Northcutt

”

“I got to help out with their positioning

in the water and just defensive best practices,” Northcutt said. Despite the progress, maintaining consistency and growth will be a challenge moving forward. With water polo being a less common sport at McCallum, it can be difficult to keep players engaged and help them build experience year after year. The teams will continue to rely on experienced players to guide newer teammates, ensuring that the core principles of teamwork and skill development remain a focus.

Landon Vickery looks to pass to Viggo Pedersen as McCallum competed at the second water polo tournament of the season at the Round Rock Aquatic Center. Photo by Delaney Lavelle.

Local boxing gym builds strength, confidence, community ne punch at a time

Richard Lord began boxing at the age of 5 and quickly fell in love with the sport. After years of training and fighting in 119 amateur fights and 27 pro fights, he decided to open his own gym where aspiring boxers could make a name for themselves.

Lord’s Gym has been a staple of the boxing community in Austin since the 1980s and continues to be a space for boxers to learn lessons in and out of

Growing up, Lord played several other sports but ultimately decided that boxing was the best choice for him.

“My love of the sport kept me in [boxing],” Lord said. “I played basketball, and I played from third to seventh grade, but by eighth everyone was two feet taller than me. So in boxing, you can use your size.”

Today, Lord’s Gym and its members are very active in the boxing community. Members of the gym often participate in boxing competitions. One of these competitions is the Golden Gloves tournament where the gym has enjoyed much success in recent years.

“[Lord’s Gym] is the most active boxing gym in Austin,” Lord said. “We won the San Antonio Golden Gloves novice team trophy in 2023 and then in 2024 we had Golden Gloves in Austin, and we won the novice team trophy again.” Boxing, however, isn’t only about

competitions. Boxing is a sport in which athletes can learn more about themselves and the world around them. Johnny McGowan, a long-time member of the gym, explains that the skills one learns in the ring can also be used in day-to-day life.

“A really good aspect about boxing is that it’s not about controlling somebody else; it’s about controlling oneself,” McGowan said.

“the fire, and coming out of the ring builds confidence.”

Over the years, many members of the McCallum community have trained at Lord’s Gym. Logan Potts is a current student and sophomore at McCallum who recently began boxing at Lord’s Gym. Potts explained that he has learned a lot about the sport in his short time training at the gym.

A really good aspect about boxing is that it’s not about controlling somebody else, it’s about controlling oneself —gym member

“Not allowing myself to get runaway emotions, but thinking about the problem at hand, only focusing on things in the ring. We can transfer that to everyday life. Not worrying about what is outside the classroom in the hallways, but what’s inside the classroom that I need to take care of right now.”

Johnny McGowan

”In 2010, director Frederick Wiseman made a documentary—Boxing Gym—about the gym. The documentary detailed the daily life of athletes and trainers at the gym and covered their routines and training regimes. The film was highly successful and went to several film festivals across the country.

“That documentary gave me a recording of what my gym was and is,” Lord said. “I got to go to the Cannes Film Festival with the director, Frederick Wiseman. I also got to go to the Sundance Film Festival and the New York Film Festival. The director put it together in a way that was very identifiable to all the other boxing gyms around.”

“

“At Lord’s, I learned that boxing combines rigorous technique and mental toughness,” Potts said. “[I also learned that] discipline and sportsmanship are also required to excel in the sport.”

Potts explained that he was drawn to the sport of boxing because of its high physical demands.

“I [was] drawn to boxing because it has lots of physically and mentally tough challenges that I can improve on to better my physical well-being,” Potts said.

Lord believes that anyone who wants to learn more about boxing and may want to start training should know that the training can be very rigorous.

“They should know that they have to be in really good shape and be very fit. Mentally you have to be strong to get in there and have somebody throwing punches at you and trying to knock you out.”

I [was] drawn to boxing because it has lots of physically and mentally tough challenges that I can improve on —sophomore Logan Potts

For McGowan, boxing isn’t only about fighting but rather a way in which people can build perseverance, determination and confidence.

“I say this to as many people as I can, It’s not about harming somebody else it’s about building confidence within oneself. Getting in the ring, getting in the fire, staying in

”McGowan is confident in the fact that learning to box would be a tremendous benefit for anybody and that the sport builds confidence, character, and strength.

“I would suggest that everybody come check out Lord’s Boxing Gym; it’s going to build strength, it’s going to build conditioning, and it’s going to build character,” McGowan said. “If you can come here and get inside the ring with somebody else, go through the fire and come out the other side, you’re going to do better in every other aspect of life.”

Photo by Julia Copas.

13, 2024

Bouncing back into basketball after injury

Senior Sonya Petersen back on the hardwood after missing all of junior season

Maya Tackett people editor

Turning around to rebound the ball after missing a shot in a game of Knockout with her teammates before their Spring League practice, senior Sonya Peterson, at that time a sophomore, heard and felt her knee pop. After 20 seconds of immense pain, everything felt fine to the point where Peterson thought she would just be out for a few weeks.

“I didn’t feel like I hurt it that bad,” Petersen said. “My teammate, Samantha Cowles, was like ‘What if you tore your ACL?’ and laughed out loud because I was like, ‘There’s no way I tore my ACL. That’s ridiculous.’”

After being told not to participate in practice or games and using crutches to walk for three weeks, Petersen decided to go to the doctor. The doctors performed a test on her leg; they still couldn’t determine if her ACL was intact, so Petersen got an MRI. Petersen then waited about a week or so to find out the official results. When she did finally get the results, she was in Mr. Pew’s Algebra II class when her sub, who was her mom and Mac math teacher Julieann Petersen, got an email from the doctors.

“She came over in class and was like ‘It’s torn,’” Petersen said. “I left the room and was very upset. I felt really sad. While my experience in no way compared to the loss of a loved one, I still felt like I had lost a version of the athlete I could’ve been if I hadn’t torn my ACL.”

Sophomore year was Petersen’s first year on varsity, and while she didn’t get a ton of playing time at the beginning, towards the end of the year, she was one of the starting five.

“I was looking forward to two whole years of getting to be a starter,” Petersen said.

“Not only is that time gone, but I got worse during that time so I had to put in a ton of hard work to get back to where I was.”

Head basketball coach Carly Kehn also noticed that towards the end of

her sophomore season, Petersen was starting to gain more confidence and grow as a player.

“[Myself and the coaches] really thought [her junior year] was going to be her year,” Kehn said. “As a sophomore, she was a little more hesitant, but she would have really good spurts where she would cut, and she loves her baseline drives.”

Since Petersen injured herself between the basketball class practice and Spring League practice, Kehn was devastated for Petersen when she heard about Petersen’s injury.

“They were just playing knockout so that was a bummer,” Kehn said. “I mean it’s a bummer either way, but it wasn’t even a game. Another reason why I felt awful was that it was one of the few days I left and had the assistants cover. That tore me up because I wasn’t there to help.”

tears before and have informed Kehn about their experiences, Kehn understood some of the feelings that Petersen might have while navigating her recovery.

“[Coach V and Miller] both have such a good perspective on how the process works and people [Petersen] could lean on,” Kehn said.

“ This experience made me reflect on how other areas of my life could be randomly disrupted and how I could make the most of everything I participate in.

—senior Sonya Petersen ”

While Petersen did have people that she could turn to during her injury, nothing prepared her for how emotionally taxing it would be.

“I hate to admit this, but I was kinda contemplating not coming back to basketball,” Petersen said. “I knew that if I was on the team still, I would have to go to every practice, every game, and [every] thing during my junior year, the busiest time, but not even play. Just watch them play.”

Petersen would have to dedicate 17 hours a

community is so good,” Petersen said. “If I left, I know that I would do my best to keep in touch with all of my friends from there, but it would be really hard because I don’t have classes with any of them. I’ve just met so many people from there.”

Making the choice to stay for her junior year wasn’t easy for Petersen, but she was glad she made that decision. Petersen got to focus on helping her fellow teammates, then freshman Ruby Airhart and sophomores Mary Briceño and Sofia Villaneueva, with their first-year-on-varsity adjustment.

“I wasn’t too focused on myself, on doing my best game because I wasn’t playing, so I was making social connections on the team,” Petersen said. “After games when they were upset with how they played, I would tell them what I wished people would’ve told me. I just tried to help them through that because I knew how hard the first year was.”

Now sophomore Airhart realizes the impact and importance of Petersen making those connections with the team and how it affected her joining the team.

“She reached out and wasn’t like, ‘Oh we’re just teammates,’” Airhart said. “Outside of basketball, she still tried to make me feel very welcome, which I think is very helpful. She’s just been very encouraging on the sidelines and she always has a good thing to say about people.”

Kehn also acknowledges the social impact that Petersen has made on the program. “She gets along with everyone on all levels and brings everyone together,” Kehn said. “We saw that last year where everyone in the program feels like they can talk to her.”

Petersen, second from left, stands alongside teammates, cheering them on, during their game against the Manor Mustangs on Nov. 23, 2023. Photo by Francie Wilhelm.

Sophomore shoots his shot

One of two varsity underclassmen, Wood earns praise for his maturity, work ethic

Arwen Pelletier staff reporter

Sophomore Jack Wood first touched a basketball at the age of four, and ever since, these past 12 years he’s been invested in his sport. From hard days to trouble-free ones, basketball has always been an outlet of tranquility for him. Wood genuinely enjoys the sport.

“I can’t really explain it,” Wood said. “You just do things you just really like doing. Basketball is that thing for me.”

He entered McCallum with a work ethic in the gym, and that ethic has earned him a coveted spot on the varsity team roster.

Wood started his basketball career at YMCA camps and leagues before growing into traveling AAU club teams all the way to earning a starting spot on the freshmen A team this past season. Basketball has been in his blood since he was born, and Wood grew up around his parents intently following the sport at the collegiate and professional levels. His father, Dylan Wood, is a die-hard Indiana basketball fan, and Wood is a native Hoosier himself, so a connection has been there since the first time he picked up a ball. Because Wood comes from a dedicated, sport-loving family, he has learned a lot from his parents. His father trains him as often as he can.

his craft, Wood also balanced working as a lifeguard at his local pool with basketball practice and weightlifting.

Despite his summer job, Wood remained committed to his sport.

“I’m just really passionate about basketball, and I practice a lot,” Wood said. “I genuinely enjoy doing it. I can’t really explain it.”

He and this Knight teammates are going to have that passion tested in the upcoming district season, and the competition has gotten much more intense in the wake of redistricting that brings Anderson and nonAISD schools into the district landscape.

When head coach Daniel Fuentes first met Wood, he was impressed by his combination of confidence and humility.

“ I know my time will come in the next couple years, and that’s what keeps me motivated.

—sophomore Jack Wood

“My first impression of Jack was that I thought that he handled himself well playing against older kids,” Fuentes said. “He’s very mature for his age, which doesn’t happen very often. So the fact that he was able to compete with older kids at that level definitely impressed the coaching staff.”

”

For Wood, playing with the older students who make up the varsity squad offers a fantastic opportunity to learn.

Fuentes said. “So the work ethic is [there]; it’s unbelievable that he wants it that much and he’s motivated. He’s self-motivated. I don’t have to tell him what he needs to work on.”

Wood hopes to follow the path of another varsity basketball who made a big impact as an underclassman: junior Ethan Plummer. During his freshman year, Plummer made the varsity team and became the team’s leading scorer. Like Wood, Plummer has a earned praise for his strong work ethic, and they’ve been able to connect over their stories and experiences on the team.

Wood takes advice, and a few jabs, from Plummer, which he said have made him become a better player and more integrated into the varsity team. Plummer said he tries to help him as much as he can because his mentor did the same for him.

“I had a mentor when I was a freshman, Finn Corrigan, and he really pushed me, and he would talk a lot of trash and really try to motivate me and stuff,” Plummer said. “I think I kind of try to do the same with Jack, just knowing that he’s gonna have such a big role on the team his junior year.”

Plummer believes that the advice and encouragement that Wood will receive from upperclassmen varsity players will accelerate his development process to become an integral varsity player in the future.

JACK WOOD’S BASKETBALL BIOGRAPHY

FAVORITE SPORTS MOVIE: Space Jam

LOCK-IN ARTIST: Drake

FAVORITE PREGAME MEAL: Chick-Fil-A

BEST ADVICE FROM A COACH: Play with confidence.

“My dad really keeps me motivated to play, and he reminds me how to work hard and to stay disciplined,” Wood said. “I really appreciate it because there’s days where I don’t want to do certain things, but it reminds me that discipline is important.”

His discipline is one reason that he has much potential in the sport. As a result, he began practice with the varsity this past spring and was included in Spring League, a practice season where McCallum plays other schools during the offseason. Although Wood didn’t have much playing time as a freshman during Spring League, he still put in the work he needed outside of games to excel. That grind continued throughout the hot Texas summer as Wood began to prepare for his upcoming sophomore season, pining for a spot on varsity. A balancing act is the best way to describe his work ethic. Working with personal trainers and his own dad on

“A lot of the older people try to teach me things, which I appreciate,” Wood said, “and I’m gonna do the same thing whenever I’m a senior.”

Even after playing basketball for more than a decade, Wood knows that he still has much to learn about the sport, and he to do the best he can to improve and hone his craft as the season progresses while taking advantage of being surrounded by more seasoned players than he is.

One memory that Fuentes has of Wood that represents his incredible work ethic is when he asked if he could come in early the morning after a late fall league game earlier this year.

“We were doing a fall league game, and it was a late game. We played at 9 o’clock, so I know that the game was over by 10 during the week on a Tuesday night,” Fuentes said. Despite the late game night, Wood asked Fuentes if he could get into the gym early the next morning.

“7:45, the next day he was working again,”

“I think the varsity experience has been huge for him,” Plummer said. “I think for the next two years, he’s gonna have this role in the team. I think his senior year he’s gonna take the reins of the team, and I think he’ll develop into that through his experience of playing these next couple years.”

Although Wood isn’t planning to start his first season on varsity due to the presence of so many experienced, talented veteran players, he believes the skills that he’s gaining from being on, practicing, and playing with the team will serve him well in helping him become a key player for the Knights his last two seasons of high school basketball. Even though he isn’t expected to get much playing time this season, that doesn’t hold back his work ethic and pursuit of greatness.

“I know my time will come in the next couple years,” Wood said, “and that’s what keeps me motivated.”

Sophomore guard Jack Wood warms up prior to the Knights’ 64-53 non-district home win against Hays on Nov. 12.

Photo by Arwen Pelletier..

FAVORITE BASKETBALL MEMORY: Pacers game

SPORT YOU’D PLAY IF NOT BASKETBALL: football

BEST PART OF YOUR GAME: passing AREA TO IMPROVE: dribbling

FAVORITE NBA PLAYER: Andrew Nembhard

FAVORITE NBA TEAM: Pacers

Ready for a new court

Senior Greta Carlson accepts offer to play volleyball at Rose-Hulman

Sienna Martens staff reporter

Senior Greta Carlson is a four-year McCallum varsity volleyball letterman, who has been playing club volleyball for eight years. But she started her volleyball journey when she was 10. Her love for the sport is why she wanted to continue playing in college.

“In 11’s I played for Austin Performance Volleyball, for 12’s I played at Austin Junior Volleyball and for 13’s I started playing at Roots Volleyball, and I’ve been there ever since,” Greta said.

Greta has officially committed to play volleyball at Indiana’s Rose Hulman College in the summer. For Greta, the recruiting process went well, even though it required some extra work on top of school.

“I would say I had a good experience with the recruitment process,” Greta said. “I did the majority of it myself, so it was a lot of work on the front when I was constantly emailing coaches and sending highlight reels.”

Greta was immediately interested in RoseHulman, and their engineering program was the cherry on top.

“With Rose-Hulman, I reached out to them first because they were such a great engineering school,” Greta said. “Coach [Rachel] Delsi and I then emailed back and forth and had some calls,

and she came to watch me at national qualifiers.”

After a couple of months in contact with RoseHulman coaches, Greta arrived in Indiana in the spring to see the school in person.

“In the spring I went up to visit Rose-Hulman, and I really loved the campus and got to talk to Coach Delsi and the other staff in person,” Greta said. “It was such a great experience.”

Her mom, Hope Carlson, said the recruiting process was smooth, considering that her daughter took charge of the majority of the networking.

“Greta did all the hard work, so for us it was pretty easy,” Hope said. “It was fun to go on college visits with her to explore all the possibilities and see how she clicked with different college campuses and volleyball programs.”

FRIDAY KNIGHT LIGHTS PODCAST

Hosts Julia Copas and Callen Romell talk with Greta Carlson about her path to volleyball, the volleyball culture at Mac and the college recruitment process. Scan this QR code to listen to episode.

been a captain for the varsity volleyball team for the past two years, Greta is a proven leader. Her teammate, senior Sophie Koch, believes that her leadership will take her far in college.

“I’ve played volleyball with Greta since seventh grade,” Koch said. “Greta is a great leader and a great captain because she is super vocal and encouraging. She also has so much volleyball knowledge and is able to lead by example.”

Koch and Greta are two of the four captains of the varsity squad this year, and Koch admires how Greta always steps up and takes initiative both on and off the court.

Greta’s family even agreed that Rose-Hulman was an excellent fit to continue her athletic and academic career. Her mom thinks that having family from the Midwest will help Rose-Hulman feel at home.

“Our family all loved that Rose-Hulman had a great reputation as an engineering school,” Hope said. “With small class sizes, they make it possible for their student-athletes to play, travel and keep up with their studies. Greta’s dad being from the Midwest so Terre Haute, Ind., felt kind of familiar and cozy, like where she’s been visiting family her whole life.”

Rose-Hulman has been ranked the No. 1 undergraduate engineering college in the United States by U.S. News & World Report for over two decades, and their volleyball program finished sixth in their conference last season. Having

Through her eight years of club volleyball and four years of McCallum volleyball, Greta said she has learned a lot about herself and made personal growth through the sport.

“I think volleyball has made me physically and mentally stronger,” Greta said. “I also think that playing has made me more of a leader as I have tried to lead by example and be there for my teammates.”

Lessons are a big part of sports, and effort means everything to Greta. She has learned not only about volleyball but also about the type of athlete she strives to be.

“Volleyball has taught me that you have to work for everything and that I’ll never achieve my goals if I don’t put my blood sweat and tears into it,” Greta said. “Volleyball has made me a hard-working and passionate person.”

Senior Greta Carlson poses with her teammates after achieving 1,000 kills as a Knight, Sept. 20. Photo by Shila Gill.

sports briefs

McCoy drops 17 on Ducks in win

Senior George McCoy scored 17 points to lead the boys varsity basketball team to a 55-51 road win over the Taylor Ducks on Dec. 6. Senior Jaiden Booe and junior Ethan Plummer contributed five points apiece.

The Knights started slow, allowing Taylor to score four unanswered points after the opening tip. Consecutive McCallum turnovers gave the Ducks the momentum to keep their first-quarter lead at 12-7. In the second quarter, the Knights warmed up offensively; however, the Taylor defense kept the Knights at bay while the Duck offense extending the home team’s lead.

McCallum went to the locker room at halftime trailing 21-17. McCoy said that the Knights’ offensive deficit was due in part to a long bus ride and also a lack of energy.

“We knew we were better than [Taylor],” he said. “We just had to come out and improve our intensity and play like we knew we could.”

The Ducks opened up a 10-point lead, 27-17, to start the second half, but McCallum quickly rebounded by scoring consecutive baskets while also improving their defensive tactics. A layup by McCoy to close the third quarter gave the Knights their first lead of the game, 35-33.

By the fourth quarter, McCallum had shaken off the doldrums that plagued their offense in the first half. Scoring 10 points and holding Taylor to just one, the Knights successfully bounced back and took their ninth win on the season.

—Julia Copas

Chen, Airhart come up big as Knights edge Spartans

The Knights entered their Tuesday night Staff Appreciation Knight game with St. Stephen’s with a clear plan, designed around the their opponents’ roster, but the Spartans came out of the locker room with a plan of their own, surprise number changes and a fullcourt press. The Knights adapted, relying on their planning, effort and teamwork to claim a thrilling 52-49 victory.

Senior Emy Chen was unstoppable on offense, scoring 23 points to lead the Knights in scoring. Reflecting on the team’s adaptability, she said, “They threw some new things at us, but we had plans, and we executed as a team.”

Sophomore Ruby Airhart delivered in the biggest moments of the game, calmly scoring the game-winner and grabbing a crucial offensive rebound to deny the Spartans one last opportunity to tie

dec. 14-15

Mac Archery Tournament @ McCallum—8

dec. 18

the game.

“I was proud of myself for staying composed and calm the whole game,” Airhart said after the game.

Freshman Darryn Sorrell made her mark on the defensive end, pulling down seven rebounds and disrupting the Spartans’ offense. Though not a major scorer, her contributions were a massive part of the Knights win.

“I can feel that we’re gaining chemistry as the season goes on,” she said.

The Knights were able to close out the game with a close win, 52-50. The team will now move to district play as the season heads into the new year.

—V Overstreet

Byars, Hunt medal in San Antonio

At the Rough Rider Invitational, Dec. 7. Zach Byars and Sullivan Hunt received medals for their performance.

As the wrestling season gets underway, both returning and new wrestlers are hopeful for what promises to be an exciting year. Junior Desmond Jones, a returning wrestler for McCallum, is confident that this season will be a step forward for the team.

“I think it’s gonna go a lot better this season,” he said, noting that the practice hours logged by team members is already showing results. “I’m just putting in a lot of the work. The people who are going to clubs and who want to be good will do well.”

Jones believes that the new season will be shaped by athletes who are dedicated to improving, both in the gym and in their mentality. His says the optimism has been contagious, with many wrestlers expressing excitement for the potential the team holds this year.

One of the most significant changes for the 2024 season is the arrival of a new coach, English teacher James Hutcheson. While the coach is new to the sport of wrestling, both Jones and Frank expressed optimism about Hutcheson’s approach. Jones mentions that the new coach brings fresh ideas to the table, which have already positively impacted their preparation.

“I think he’s got a lot of good ideas,” Jones said. “He’s new to the sport, but we’ve got other good coaches who will help us with the technique. But I think he’s nice, fun to talk to, and he’s got a good heart.”

Frank shares a similar view, highlighting the new coach’s incorporation of mindfulness and breathing exercises into practice.

“Wrestling is a sport where you can’t just rely on your teammates,” Frank said.

“It’s all about what you do on the mat.”

—August Gleason

Girls golf finishes out season

The girls golf team played its second stroke-play tournament of the year, Nov. 6, at Lions Municipal Golf Course. The team placed fourth, and senior Callen Romell finished eighth individually. Romell had reasons to be confident heading into the tournament.

“I played on Saturday and Monday, so going into the round I had already played twice, so I knew the things I needed to make sure I spent time working on before [the round],” Romell said.

“I had historically done well at this tournament, so I was feeling well. My sophomore year I got closest to the pin, and last year I finished fifth.”

After the tournament, Romell felt good about her play. Her key to success is repetition.

“I was feeling really good,” Romell said. “I felt like my score didn’t reflect how well I was playing. My ball striking was good. I was making really good contact and hitting all of my distances, which is something I have struggled with before. It’s just repetition because golf is such a hard sport to maintain being good at.”

Romell has mixed feelings about this being her last year of high school golf.

“On one hand I’m feeling really sad because golf is basically my life,” Romell said, “but I’m also excited to start a new chapter and see what role golf will have outside of competitive play.

—Shila Gill

Senior Emy Chen splits two St. Stephen’s defenders to shoot during the Knights’ 52-49 home win over the Spartans on Dec. 3. Photo by Kaylee Breecker.

Photo by Julia Copas.

Sophomore Zach Byars celebrates a win Photo by James Hutcheson.

opinion

To report or not to report?

Decision to share test scores not as simple as it seems

Fletcher Vandegrift staff reporter

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many colleges and universities dropped their standardized testing requirement and became test-optional or test-free. Some schools have kept these changes in place, while others have shifted back toward requiring standardized testing. Notable schools that have reinstated the SAT or ACT include Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard, Yale, Georgetown, MIT, Caltech and the entire public university systems of Florida and Georgia. The term test-optional could make students think their scores don’t matter, but submitting a low score can hurt your chances of getting into a top college. Schools such as the University of Connecticut, which remains test-optional, have said that going test-optional provided students the ability to decide whether or not their scores accurately reflect their academic ability. As a result, 60% of UConn applicants chose not to submit a score. Vern Granger, the director of undergraduate admissions at UConn, said if students choose not to submit their scores, they will not be at a disadvantage. But admissions data from across the country suggest this is not true. As a high school student, when applying to some schools, I can choose between submitting a score that a school may or may not like or omitting a test score altogether. In 2020, the first year that schools universally started going test-optional, the University of Pennsylvania had 62% of students submit scores, giving them an admission advantage of 94% over applicants who did not submit test scores. Similarly, at Georgia Tech, 63% of students submitted scores, and they had a 121% better chance at admission than those who didn’t; Georgia Tech now require scores. One may think this change back to testing requirements is simply unfair for the graduating classes of 2026 and following classes. But is it? Graduating classes from

While universities are moving toward requiring standardized test scores, applicants who have opted not to report scores have been accepted at a much lower rate at schools across the county. Graphic by Julia Copas. Data provided by College Board and the universities’ websites.

Admissions data across the country suggests that students who choose not to

submit their scores are at a competitive disadvantage.

2020 through 2025 were not required to submit SAT or ACT testing scores to any of the top private and public universities (disregarding MIT, Purdue and Tennessee). Applications spiked through the roof. Schools’ expectations and requirements, however, did not change, causing acceptance rates to be very low. It’s amazing to have an opportunity to get into your dream college without having to tell them your SAT score, but thousands of other applicants are thinking the same thing. Going test-optional actually made it more difficult to get into college than ever before. Schools went to test-optional because of

the pandemic, but schools kept the trend to make their school more appealing to students who have demonstrated their abilities through academic as well as nonacademic achievements.

But the appeal of not reporting schools proved deceptive. In 2023, Yale University, a school returning to requiring standardized tests in fall 2025, saw the most applicants ever, 57,465, shattering the previous record of 52,250 by nearly 10%. It also saw a record-low acceptance rate of 3.7%, down from 4.5% last year. This increased competition for limited sports is exactly what highly competitive schools want. Low acceptance rates attract a significant number of highly qualified applicants, making the competition for admission intense. Bigger problems are at hand for McCallum students. Getting into schools out of state is already difficult, let alone affording it. Many students resort to applying to instate schools, where prices are lower and acceptance rates are higher. The University of Texas at Austin also saw a record number

of applications in 2023 with 73,000 and accepted only 11% of students that weren’t automatically accepted through Texas’ guaranteed admission law. This acceptance rate put Texas on par with highly selective private universities such as Tufts and Notre Dame. Texas is also returning to test-required in fall 2025. Texas is a great example to illustrate that not just private schools are after lower acceptance rates. Texas’ acceptance rate has decreased by 11% in the last decade. Undergraduate Texas students are 92% in-state residents and 2.8% are international students.

The pandemic allowed schools to manipulate their acceptance rate to be more attractive to high-level students. They continued the trend for five more years and saw the most applicants and lowest acceptance rate ever, exactly what they wanted.

The trend is to stop across top universities very soon. Most schools will return to testrequired by 2025, and all top universities are expected to return by 2027.

Once roaring, now boring

School spirit plummets with fewer and fewer students participating in activities

Adele Seeboth staff reporter

This year the McCallum hallways and environment have been majorly lacking in school spirit. In past years spirit dress-up days had tons of participation, bringing in lots of different outfits to each theme. Spirit days have lacked energy, but that’s just the beginning of the problem. Pep rallies are another major spot of weakness. Students either don’t attend the rally or don’t participate in the cheers and chants. These things are slowly changing the culture of our school and could continue to worsen in future years.

time gap just made for more confusion. But that’s no excuse. Homecoming spirit days are not a surprise. They happen every year. People could have searched for the themes if they wanted to participate.

Dressing up makes going to school more fun. It fills classrooms with unique outfits and helps take away the stress of being embarrassed, but only if everyone is dressed up. I get it, that you don’t have anything to fit the theme, or you are worried about being the only one, or maybe you just don’t have the energy, but it can bring together our school. It gives you something special to do on what could be just an average day of school.

“ As the year has gone on fewer and fewer people have attended the rallies, choosing to stay in the cafeteria, or with the new policy, in their classroom pods.

Homecoming Week could have been seen as any other week. The hallways were decorated, but the spirits were low. The themes for the week, western vs. West Coast, USA, color wars and disco, were largely unengaged. Going around looking for people dressed up, to take pictures for the MacJ Instagram, yielded very limited options. This poor participation could have been due to unawareness as there has been much less communication on themes than in prior years. It might also have been because the spirit week and the homecoming game occurred a week before the dance. This

”

Similarly, pep rallies have shown much less engagement this year. The first pep rally of the school year for Taco Shack did have a good outcome, always popular among students. However, an announcement afterward, stating that booing of other grade levels during grade level chants is discouraged, partially killed the enthusiasm.

As the year has gone on, fewer and fewer people have attended the rallies, choosing to stay in the cafeteria, or with the new policy, in their classroom pods. This is understandable as pep rallies can be overwhelming and not as enticing

for some. Pep rallies are a classic school experience, that is, if they have pep. That relies on the students engaging with the provided cheers, chants, songs and games. Another place the lack of spirit has been noticed is in school events. The Taco Shack game did have a large turnout, as always, but at other football games, the size of the student section has been dwindling. Volleyball, as well, often had small support in the way of the crowd.

In other events, not games, people have shown low interest and attendance. The homecoming dance even had a large amount of crowd leaving around 9:30, not close to the end of the dance, which was planned to be 11. Supporting your school in its other activities, not just classes, is an important thing. Many students would rather be doing other things, instead of participating in school functions.

“Also, teenagers, especially today, have a particularly negative outlook on anything and everything. High-schoolers tend to use negativity and complaining to connect with their peers. If dressing up for spirit days is seen as embarrassing and boring by one, the others will follow. It is all part of a follow-the-leader mindset. This lack of school spirit isn’t just a small thing, it can affect student engagement, community and morale.

This lack of spirit can be blamed on the way things are run, and advertised, or even the events not being interesting themselves.

This lack of spirit can be blamed on the way things are run and advertised, or even the events not being interesting themselves. I think a large majority of it has to do with students seeing anything in connection with school as boring. We have been conditioned to connect boredom, work and exhaustion with school, so why would we put in extra energy when it takes just the bare minimum to get up and go every day?

So, McCallum students need to step it up and bring back the enjoyment of participating. Whether that’s by encouraging their friends to dress up with them on spirit days or by expressing pride for McCallum at games and events. School is a lot of people’s main community, and community is so important to have.

When it lacks excitement and fun, it can be easy to be negative about lots of other things. Let’s start with spirit days, dressing up and creating an environment where it’s OK to have fun.

Graphic shows students’ options during a pep rally period. While many choose to attend the rally in the gym, others go to the cafeteria or, per new administration rules, teacher pods. Photo by Dave Winter. Graphic by Nate Williams

Ban the bans

Prohibiting cellphones in class limits student growth, preparation for real

Josie Mullan co-web managing editor

Across the country, phone bans have been center stage in the news as several states begin to crack down on cell phone use in school in response to rising rates of mental illness in youth. According to Education Week, states have varied in their restrictions, with a law in Ohio simply requiring every district to create an official policy regarding cell phones, to a law in Louisiana prohibiting cell phones during the entire school day. Overall, nationally, phone bans are being viewed as the silver bullet to the youth mental-health crisis; however, for older students, they are doing more harm than good.

Although phone bans are a hot topic today, they are not new. In the 1990s, several districts began to ban flip phones, which were becoming a distraction in the classroom. This movement gained momentum until the Columbine High School shooting in 1999, which made parents nervous about not being able to reach their kids during the school day, according to the New York Times Daily podcast.

As social media platforms developed throughout the 2000s and the 2010s, there was a growing concern about the damage it was doing to youth. The big turning point, however, was the pandemic. During the pandemic, kids became more immersed in technology than ever before, relying heavily on social platforms to communicate with each other while in physical isolation. Four years later, the effects of the pandemic have lingered, with kids still being extremely attached to their phones in navigating their social lives.

Although everyone can agree that an excess amount of social media and screen time is detrimental to mental and physical health, particularly to younger kids, strictly enforcing phone bans in schools is damaging in another way. Specifically in high school, students are supposed to be preparing for college and the workforce where every moment of their lives will not be micromanaged. Most professors in college aren’t going to take your phone up at the beginning of class in a lecture hall of 500 students, so high school is where students need to practice regulating their phone usage and developing time management skills so by

OPPOSING VIEW

In her op-ed on The Shield Online, staff reporter Lillian Gray writes, “I believe phone bans are a necessary step to get this situation under control. Not everyone is a part of the problem, but as a whole we can all be a part of the solution to create a phone-free environment that encourages and supports students learning and engagement.”

To read all of Lillian’s column, please scan the QR code or visit macshieldonline.com

kids’ independence over time. Research psychologist Peter Gray explained to the screen overuse and encourage limitations or some sort of policy, but it has to come

“ Students are preparing for college and the work force where every moment of their lives will not be micromanaged.

Communication is key

Success of a school or any organization depends on open, frank discourse

Shield staff

As the school year winds to a close and students are taking their final exams, McCallum has faced—like every year— multiple events that resemble issues happening at the national level. A group of agitators yelling hateful rhetoric at students and a heated election led to spirited debates among students the day after. This semester presented a new challenge for the administration, involving social media, affecting campus and creating a conversation about how McCallum communicates with students and families.

As of early December, most students learned for the first time that there would be no final exam incentive program. It seemed like a late decision, but the administration actually had discussed it long before the information filtered to students and even parents. After reviewing school communication on the website and in a September advisory session, Principal Andy Baxa reversed course because the school had communicated on those platforms that

Editorial cartoon by Nate Williams. there would be a “no harm” final system, and so two days after telling parents there would not be a finals incentive, he said the incentive would remain in place this semester with minor changes for spring finals. The late announcements about the program provided a feeling of deja vu for

the shield staff

print managing editor

JoJo Barnard

web managing editors

Noah Braun

Josie Mullan

social media managing editor

Camilla Vandegrift

social media specialist

Sofia Saucedo

design & visuals editor

Mira Patel

photo editor

Julia Copas

multimedia specialist

Tristen Diaz

business managers

Evelyn Jenkins

Maggie Mass

The Shield is published by journalism students in the newspaper production class. Although students work under the guidance of a professional faculty member, the student staff ultimately determines the content.

Students may not publish material that is obscene, libelous or that which will cause a “substantial disruption to the educational process.”

Content that may stimulate heated debate is not included in this definition.

news editor

Priya Thoppil

a&e editor

Evelyn Jenkins

people editor

Maya Tackett

sports editor

Callen Romell

opinion editor

Shila Gill

students after alleged social media threats were passed around campus, prompting Austin ISD Police to investigate and for parents to be seen lining up in the office to pick up their students before the start of Halloween’s pep rally.

The administration’s contact with

families, Oct. 31, as rumored threats swirled across campus was lackluster, and the wording in their communication mattered. Instead of making it clear that there was no risk to students and that any danger was perceived, not real, their emails were unclear. While Baxa encouraged students to speak with adults if they overheard threats toward a student or the school, that is a two-way street. The administration must prioritize giving upto-date information to parents and students to calm fears and offer support. The final exam incentive program update made this need for communication even clearer. Communication, especially when rumors are spreading amongst students and parents, is vital. Athletes mention the importance of communication between players and coaches to win a game and restaurants only thrive when communication between the kitchen and the front of the house is clear and effective. Any group whether a sports team or a newspaper staff or a school community is only as good as its ability to communicate frankly and openly with each other.

contact.macshield@gmail.com

staff reporters

Kyan Adams

Shayla Allen

Daniela Di-Capua

Carson Duncan

August Gleason

Lillian Gray

Hudson Hensley

Carlo Hinsdale

Delaney Lavelle

Josie Linton

The Shield operates as an open forum for exchange of ideas. Opinions expressed in editorials are the ideas of the staff. Opinions expressed in the columns are that of the writer’s alone.

Letters to the editor are encouraged and must be signed. Positive identification may be required when a letter is submitted. Letters may be edited. Letters that are critical of the newspaper staff’s coverage of events or that present information that

Beatrix Lozach

Sophia Manos

Sienna Martens

Katie Martin

Harper Maxwell

Tallulah McAuliffe

Emerson Merritt

Elizabeth Nation

Piper Norfolk

V Overstreet

Sofie Parkman

Arwen Pelletier

Riley Pita

Eva Sanchez

Chloe Seckar-Martinez

Adele Seeboth

Fletcher Vandegrift

Zev Zent

adviser

Dave Winter

may stimulate heated debate will be published. Letters that contain malicious attacks on individual reporters, the adviser or the principal will be rejected.

Anyone interested in purchasing an advertisement should contact Shield adviser Dave Winter by phone at (512) 906-5407.

Advertisements published in The Shield do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the staff.

Interested in advertising in The Shield?

Advertising in The Shield—in our print edition or on this website—gives you a chance to give your business wide exposure while at the same time showing to your customers that you support McCallum High School and the community we serve with our publications. Analytics reveal that advertising in The Shield Online makes a big splash. Our lifeguarding ad on the website (a sidebar and in-story ad) received a total of 139,621 views and 105 clicks. Advertising in The Shield is affordable. It’s effective. It’altruistic. And it’s a good investment. Please consider advertising in the Shield now and during the 2024-2025 school year. If you are interested in advertising in The Shield or The Shield Online, please contact adviser David Winter at dave.winter@austinisd.org.

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Issue 2 crossword

Down

1. Month when Mac fashion show takes place

3. The A in PALS

4. Teacher sponsor of the water polo team

5. Housed by Lord’s Gym

6. What ducational measure has been passed in Ohio and Lousiana and might come to Texas soon?

10. Senior and founder of the Recycling Club

2. According to staff reporter Adele Seeboth, [No. 8 down] has reached an _____ ____. The same assessment might be made about STAAR EOC math scores since 2021.

3. Zuniga’s new club

7. Petersen’s injury

8. See No. 2 Down

9. Teacher, associate band director and swim team coach

Crossword and graphics by JoJo Barnard.