McCallum HS The Shield (Vol. 63, No. 4)

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McCallum High School / 5600 Sunshine / Austin, TX 78756 / March 11, 2016 Issue 4/ Volume 63

WHAT’S INSIDE Students respond to new Beyoncé video ‘Formation’

page 6

Seniors trade in traditional college paths to pursue dreams page 10 Social media use can help, hinder your college prospects page 12

A Remarkable Age

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inside

news

the issue

Students form two new clubs, the Young Democrats Club and Makeup Club, midway through the year.

Calculators from the math department have gone missing, making it difficult for math teachers to conduct their classes.

people

McCallum upperclassmen settle once and for all the age-old struggle for soda supremacy: Coke versus Pepsi.

Alumnus Drew Finkel builds iconic Austin buildings, like the UT Tower and DKR Memorial Stadium, out of Legos.

sports Staff members and basketball pundits predict who they think the Final Four will be in this year’s March Madness tournament.

the date

save

Junior captains, Talina Briceno and Sacco Fernandez, discuss what its like to lead the team ... on and off the field.

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12-20

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Spring Break

Girls softball vs. Crockett @ Garrison Field: JV 5:30 p.m., varsity 7 p.m.

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Student holiday, staff workday

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Band concert (Pre UIL) concert @ 7 p.m. in the MAC

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UIL One Act and Student-Directed Plays @ 7 p.m. in the MAC

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Dance department’s spring show, Soul Sightings @ 7 p.m. in the MAC

Above: Junior Ben Wangrin makes contact with a pitch during the Knights’ 2-0 victory over host Fredericksburg. Photo by Anne Reed.

Left: Senior Kendrick Knight sings while shoveling coal in order to fuel the captain’s need for increased speed. Photo by Maya Coplin.

Cover: Junior Nick Ryland, seniors Kendrick Lawson-Knight and Ezra Hankin sing “There She Is” in the theatre department’s spring musical, Titanic. Hankin was nominated for a Greater Austin High School Music Theatre Award for Best Supporting Actor. MACTheatre earned four GAHSMTA nominations. Photo by Nadia Freeman.

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New clubs on the block Juniors form Young Democrats to foster open discussion HALEY HEGEFELD co-editor-in-chief

Even though the founders of the recently formed Young Democrats Club are by definition partisan, they insist that the group’s purpose is not to push a political platform but rather to foster open political discussion on the McCallum campus.

“Basically, we started the club because we knew that Young Democrats was a nationwide thing and that there were branches all over the place,” junior and club founder Gracie Bonilla said. “We wanted to start one at McCallum because we thought a lot of people would enjoy it, and we would enjoy it, and people would benefit a lot from the stuff we are going to do in the community and also just in our meetings.”

On Friday’s at lunch, the club, led by juniors Bonilla, Hanan Alwan and Sarah Brownson, meets in geography teacher Katie Carrasco’s room to discuss current events and watch debates. They focus on events that are relevant to the upcoming election in November, like health care, women’s health and foreign policy.

“Especially during election season, [we are] just looking at the differences between the candidates and whose ideas seem most realistic and seem like they would be the better idea,” Brownson said. “I don’t know what will happen when that’s all over. We might have to focus in on more specific things.”

Club leaders have talked about registering voters at the school and meeting at people’s houses to watch and discuss the debate.

“Sarah and I can vote in the general elections, and we thought that was really cool because I feel like this election is one of the elections the youth is way more involved in than any other election in the past,” Alwan said. “I feel like kids my age and my generation are starting to pay closer attention because we realize the decisions being made by politicians now are going to affect us in 20 years and so on.”

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Juniors Sarah Brownson and Gracie Bonilla lead the Young Democrats club in watching one of the debates in geography teacher Katie Carrasco’s room during lunch on Fridays. Photo by Elena Henderson.

Alwan stresses that no prior knowledge is needed to join the club. Everyone is welcome to come and learn about what’s happening in the world.

“I think one of the things we’re doing is being unbiased, so people are free to choose what they want,” Bonilla said. “We are pretty evenly split [between candidates] and I think what we do in the meetings is talk about what’s happening so after we have our meetings, people can form their own opinions about who they like the most, instead of being one-sided.”

Above all, the founders want to give students an outlet to get involved in politics and the community around them. They hope that when they leave, underclassmen will continue the club and keep increasing the awareness of the school to what is going on in the world.

“We really don’t want people to be like, ‘the liberal club,’” Alwan said. “It’s really open, and you can believe whatever you want and still come to the club. You can have completely opposing opinions, but we just hope

that everyone has an area where they can speak their mind without being judged, and it’s just their opinion. It’s less tension than

speaking in your history class on something that you don’t believe in. It’s your opinion, and everyone has to respect that.”

Makeup Club meets to discuss skin care, may explore special-effects makeup as well The newly formed Makeup Club meets in room 144 at lunch on Fridays. So far, topics discussed ranged from skin care to YouTube tutorials to eyebrows.

“It’s a little weird that a club started late into the year, but I like it,” sophomore OcTaria Cathey said. “It’s pretty fun; it’s kind of a Friday routine. Originally, I was very reluctant to go because in my head I had this vision of crazy girls beating me with blush brushes. When my friend dragged me, and I saw what was going on, that quickly left my head.”

The club held its first meeting on Feb. 5.

“A friend dragged me to it,” sophomore

Narayana Finch said. “Though I heard about it already, and I was wanting to try it out, I need someone to kick me. The only way I would go is if someone dragged me.”

The club will primarily focus on dayto-day makeup but may begin discussing special effects makeup later on.

Although initially Finch was hesitant to join, she changed her mind once she went to the meetings.

“I want to talk about how to do makeup, more technique and overall skill,” Finch said. “It’s fun. More people should join.”

—Sydney Amell

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It doesn’t add up

With the culprit still at large, recent calculator thefts leave classrooms without materials CHARLIE HOLDEN staff reporter

Math teacher Stephanie Stanley returned to school one morning after having a substitute teacher to find that nearly half of her graphing calculators were gone.

“I had a substitute on Monday and then when I came back on Tuesday, I was missing like 15 calculators,” Stanley said. “And I kind of went crazy, and I fussed at my kids thinking that they had taken them while I had a sub.”

It turns out the thefts were not an isolated incident but an occurrence that would afflict the math department several more times in the past month.

“I had about 10 stolen from my class,” Stanley said. “I got an email from Ms. Seckar this week that probably close to $5,000 worth of calculators had been stolen. So that would be about 50 calculators total.”

At $100 a piece, graphing calculators have the potential to be a great asset in the classroom—as well as a great risk.

“I heard that you could make a lot of money selling them.” freshman Adaline Arocha said. It’s been assumed that reselling the calculators is the thief’s motive, and tracking these sales down can be harder than one might think.

Math teacher Christina Pederson, who started teaching at McCallum in February isn’t optimistic that the classroom calculators will be recovered.

“If the calculators have been sold already, we’re probably not likely to get them back,” Pederson said. “If they haven’t been sold— I honestly don’t know. If the student doesn’t have the calculators on them at the time that they’re found, then it’s very hard to recover them, so I probably won’t be able to get any of [the calculators] back because it’s been a while.”

If somehow the student stealing calculators is caught, the punishment they receive would be harsh, harsh enough to make even the victims unsure if they want the thief (or thieves) to be apprehended.

“It’s a felony offense to steal school property,” Stanley said. “So I don’t think somebody who is stealing calculators really maybe

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Photo illustration by Charlie Holden.

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ing, math classes have all felt the impact, some more than others. Students are having to share the calculators they have in an attempt to keep things fair.

“We all have to share calculators, so if we’re all working on different problems, it’s difficult because we can’t work together on Stanley them,” Arocha said. “We have to wait for someone to finish working and then use the calculator afterwards, which can put people behind.”

Students aren’t the only ones forced to share the dwindling supplies—teachers have to rely on one another on class days when two students using one calculator just isn’t an option.

Part of me hopes we catch [the calculator thief] because I don’t want it to keep happening, and then part of me hopes we don’t because I don’t want him to go to jail over calculators.

—Stephanie

thought about that, you know? So part of me hopes we catch him,because I don’t want it to keep happening, and then part of me hopes we don’t because I don’t want him to go to jail over calculators.”

Since the calculators have been miss-

”

“It sucks,” Stanley said. “It sucks because it’s a disadvantage to my students. Like on test day, I’m like ‘what do I do?’ I was borrowing calculators from Ms. Ashton on test day, so I could have my kids have enough to test. Because on test day I can’t be like, ‘Sorry, you don’t get a calculator.’”

Teachers in the math department have put new systems in place in an attempt to keep the remaining calculators safe. Pederson doesn’t let any of her students leave until all the calculators are counted, and other teachers are getting even stricter.

“I started doing this thing now where I make my students trade me their cell phones for their calculators,” Stanley said.

“There’s a less likely chance that they are going to leave with a calculator if I have their cell phone. But also, it’s just a bummer. I love having enough calculators for all my kids to use, but now it’s like, ‘The first 20 people who come to class get to use my calculators, and the last 10 are on their own!’ That’s kind of a bummer. But at the same time, the calculator-for-the-phone thing is kind of genius because it alleviates the phone-in-class issue because they have to give me their phone for the calculator.”

The thief, or thieves, themselves are of course the one, or ones, to blame, but teachers are also taking responsibility.

“Honestly us teachers should be more diligent about our calculators all year long, but it’s easy at this time of year to be like, ‘That’s the last thing on my mind,’” Stanley said. “But we really should all year long be more diligent about keeping careful track of our calculators. I think that we could probably do a better job too of like having a system and actually sticking to it so that our kids know that you keep track of them.”

In the end, there’s probably not much math teachers can do besides keep a watchful eye on our remaining TI-84s and share them when necessary.

“My class is very limited on calculators so not everybody is able to use one, which kind of hurts all the things we’re doing in a math class,” Pederson said. “So I really wish they hadn’t [stolen the calculators]. I wish they’d made a better decision, but I can’t do anything about it now.”

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Mosquitoes go viral

Brazil suffers outbreak of Zika virus, which can cause microcephaly in expectant moms LAUREN CROSBY staff reporter

Congratulations! You now have a new reason to hate mosquitoes. An outbreak of the Zika virus was first documented in Brazil in May 2015 and was recognized by the Center for Disease Control. At the time, no one thought it would become a threat since there have been multiple reports throughout the world of small outbreaks of the virus in rural areas that never proliferated or spread to more heavily populated areas.

The Zika virus is spread through mosquito bites, and recently the Center for Disease Control has discovered that it can be sexually transmitted. The CDC has listed the symptoms for adults as fairly common things that aren’t worrisome such as fevers, rashes, joint pain and redness of the eyes that last no more than a week. Only about one in five people who’ve contracted the virus actually become ill from it.

The virus is particularly dangerous for pregnant women because if newborns contract the virus, it can lead to microcephaly, a birth defect that causes the baby’s head not to fully develop. Although the CDC can’t say for sure that the Zika virus leads to microcephaly, many women throughout South America who’ve contracted the Zika virus have also given birth to children with these birth defects. Though microcephaly isn’t life-threatening, many children born with it grow up with an underdeveloped brain.

Rio Jauregui, a biology major at St. Edwards University, plans to travel to Mexico this summer but doesn’t worry about the virus at all. With his knowledge of diseases and viruses, he feels confident that the Zika virus won’t be a pressing matter to him or his family.

“Viruses that are [the] most dangerous [and can become] a global pandemic are the ones that last a long time in people or cause them to spread their fluids to others,” Jauregui said. “[The Zika virus]

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Any area that has mosquitoes has a concern for mosquitoborne illnesses. We already have multiple species of mosquitoes in Austin; the types of species that have the ability to carry Chikungunya, Dengue, Zika and West Nile are all already here.”

-nurse Katie Faehl

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doesn’t seem to have that effect except with [recent reports of it being sexually transmitted], and the virus seems to have a shorter virulence.”

Because the Zika virus is not life-threatening, the CDC has issued no travel bans, meaning it is up to the public to take precautions to prevent the contraction of the virus. So far no vaccine has been created, and there isn’t any medicine available that would prevent the virus. The Center for Disease Control states that the easiest way to avoid the virus is simply to wear bug repellent, cover exposed skin and avoid areas that would attract mosquitoes. If a person is pregnant or plans on having a child, these preventative measures are key. People should go to their doctor immediately if the symptoms show.

While there is no current indication that the disease has spread to the United States, the weather in Austin could be welcoming to mosquitoes. Places like lakes and rivers are breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Although cases of people catching mosquito-borne viruses here in Austin is rare, it’s always better safe than sorry.

“Any area that has mosquitoes has a concern for mosquito-borne illnesses,” McCallum nurse Katie Faehl said. “We already have multiple species of mosquitoes in Austin; the types of species that have the ability to carry Chikungunya, Dengue, Zika and West

Map of where the Zika Virus has been repported with infected countries darkened. Graphic illustration courtesy of the Center for Disease Control.

Nile are all already here.”

AISD officials say that parents can provide insect repellent during outdoor schoolsponsored events.

“If a parent [or] guardian would like to provide an insect repellent spray for their child, FFAC [Legal] allows for staff to apply/ spray the children when they’ll be outside for a period of time [i.e., outdoor field trips, nature walks, outdoor classroom, etc.],” Tracy Spinner, AISD assistant director of comprehensive health services, said in an email to Faehl.

In the United States, there have been no reports of local mosquito-borne Zika virus cases. The only way it’s been contracted here is by travelers visiting or returning. Before 2015, the only places with outbreaks were Africa, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. Last May, it first hit Brazil. Since the outbreak in 2015, the CDC has mapped the virus, and it has spread throughout the northern part of South America to Central America and now has reached Mexico and places like Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. CNN has confirmed reports of people with the virus in Dallas

and Houston though.

Although preventing it can be easy, there is no known way to stop the longterm effects once it’s been contracted. The best thing to do is to not get pregnant if you know you’ve contracted the virus. If already pregnant, the virus can still affect the baby, so preventing it is important.

While that might be fairly easy here in the United States to prevent children with microcephaly from being born due to contraceptives and a woman’s ability to get an abortion once pregnant, but many women in parts of South America can’t prevent it so easily. While Brazilian health officials have taken drastic measures to try to protect people from contracting the virus, it is unclear how many expectant mothers will catch the virus or how many children will be born with microcephaly in these upcoming years throughout Central and South America.

Simple preventative measures promote your general health: washing hands, staying hydrated and getting enough sleep. In the case of the Zika virus, preventing mosquito bites is the best you can do.

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Images from the video for Beyoncé song “Formation”

The ‘Formation’ of public opinion Beyonce’s new song and video spark up controversy all over the Internet MYA NAJOMO staff reporter

“My daddy Alabama, Momma Louisiana you mix that Negro with that Creole make a Texas bama. I like my baby heir with baby hair and Afros I like my Negro nose with Jackson Five nostrils,” Beyoncé sings in her new song “Formation.”

Her fans praise the video for the song as unapologetic, powerful and a public challenge to the system. Her video and song highlight certain characteristics that make up Black culture, the Black South, and her black self-love is a prominent theme throughout the entire song. Some observers have criticized the video as threatening, intimidating and disrespectful to law enforcement.

The music video is composed of several powerful scenes which include Beyoncé on top of a flooded sinking police car, a man grasping a newspaper with the banner headline that reads “the Truth” featuring Martin Luther King Jr., a hooded young black boy dancing in front of a SWAT team, and a wall with the graffiti words “stop shooting us” painted on it.

Many of Beyoncé’s fans, including senior and Black Lives Matter activist Janae Barner, welcome the message conveyed in the lyrics and video. “I think the message of the video and song is exactly what we need to

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hear,” Barner said. “It empowers black women and teaches the black community to not be ashamed of our identities and to proudly occupy our space in society.”

“Formation” was released a day before Beyoncé’s Super Bowl performance of the song.

Music industry observers praised the timing of the release as a very effective way to promote her song throughout the world, but for fans like junior Sairah Waggoner, the power of the message was less about marketing and more about empowerment.

“I think that what Beyoncé did was so amazing and beautifully executed,” Waggoner said. “Her intention was to make this big statement that needed publicity, and she intended it to also be very empowering, which I support completely.”

Not everyone was as inspired by Beyoncé’s performance. In order to protest the song and Beyoncé’s Super Bowl performance, an “unnamed organizer” put up a notice on the website Eventbrite.com for a Anti-Beyoncé protest, which was scheduled for Feb. 16 at the headquarters of the National Football League in New York City. According to CNN.com, the invitation asked, “Are you offended as an American that Beyoncé pulled her race-baiting stunt at the Super Bowl? Do you agree that it was a slap in the face to law enforcement?”

The invitation to the Anti-Beyoncé protest sparked a counter protest, which drew BlackLivesMatter activists and Beyoncé sup-

porters. According to CNN.com the posting for the counter protest read, “When Black women affirm Blackness/Black womanhood, they are attacked and silenced. This is a counter protest to a racist, ahistorical attack on the Black Panther Party and Beyoncé, plus an excuse to celebrate a very awesome song and #BlackGirlMagic moment.”

The song’s celebration of black womanhood rings true senior Jordan Creech.

“I personally was blessed to grow up with a strong Black woman proud of her color,” Creech said. “My mother always stood her ground and never apologized for being anything less than herself, even when the system and others tried to hold her back from reaching her full potential. ... My mother is my Beyoncé, and we both believe Beyoncé is an amazing role model for young black girls all over.”

News reports indicated that only three anti-Beyoncé protestors showed up at the protest at NFL headquarters and were greeted by dozens of Pro-Beyoncé supporters and Black Lives Matter advocates.

“Beyoncé is promoting a positive message for all Black men and women,” junior Zion Rogers said. “She is asking the Black community to be proud of their features, be proud of their role in society, and not stand down to the oppression being presented in America. I can’t see why this would appear threatening, but I guess everyone is entitled to their own opinon.”

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News in a FLASH

A Youth Mind opens first. exhibit

During the weekend of Feb. 26-28 A Youth Mind hosted its first exhibit. Showcasing their first photos as an organization, the exhibit, in the art gallery SprATX, consisted of photographs and writings collected from multiple students in Kenya and Colombia who received cameras from the organization.

“This is exhibit was the first exhibit that we ever had where we could display the photos we got back from other countries,” sophomore Orian Medeiros-Green said. “So it was really just that first big leap into the real world with this big project. Going from just an idea to something tangible, something that can get recognition, something that can get written about. It’s like our first big media push.”

During the weeks following the exhibit, members of A Youth Mind advertised their showcase to students through social media, posting personal photos or little tastes of what the exhibition contained. Through multiple media outlets and a lot of networking, they conjured up a decent crowd for their first showcase.

“It was super awesome [to have our friends come out and see our work],” sophomore Joshua Tsang said. “ I think a lot of people were actually interested in what we were during and thought it was unique and the feeling of having friends come over and be like, ‘Whatever you guys are doing is awesome. I would’ve never been able to put this together at your age’ is a cool experience to have.”

Originally, A Youth Mind planned to send cameras to South Sudan for their first project. Since they are still waiting for their contact in South Sudan to travel to the country, they put the South Sudan mission on hold. Despite the change in plans, the exhibit was still meaningful for all the students involved. Although they felt the exhibition was a success, the showcase did suffer some bumps in the road.

“It was so stressful leading up to [the exhibit],” Medeiros-Green said. “We got in so many arguments and fights and just learned how awful group work can be but then after it, it was crazy, it was just the best feeling we had had as a group ever. I think it matured us as a group because we kind of saw a lot of things that we didn’t notice before which didn’t come out until it was really stressful.”

—Hannah Ilan

Part of the Colombia section of the exhibit.

Each photo was taken by kids from the area.

Photo by Maya Coplin.

Musical theatre department nominated for 4 GAHSMTA awards The musical theater department has been nominated for four Greater Austin High School Musical Theater Awards.

“The GAHSMTAs are the Greater Austin High School Musical Theater Awards,” senior Ezra Hankin said. “It is made up of a team of adjudicators from Zach Scott Theater and the Long Center. High schools from Austin and greater Austin compete in the Tony-style award show.”

The awards they’re nominated for are Best Musical Direction, Best Scenic Design, Best Ensembleand Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Hankin is nominated for his role in Titanic.

“Some of my fellow castmates went to the GAHSMTA nominations ceremony and told me [I had been nominated],” Hankin said.

“I was very pleasantly surprised when I found out I was nominated.”

Hankin portrayed Harold Bride, a wireless telegraph operator

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“who is in love with his telegraph and the idea of communicating with people all over the world.”

“Harold is very, sort of kid-like in his love for new technology,” Hankin said. “He starts out quiet and reserved, but when he learns how to use a telegraph, his entire world opens up.”

This is the first time Hankin has been nominated for a GAHSMTA, but the musical theater department and various students from it have been nominated in the past.

“I really appreciate being recognized by GAHSMTA,” Hankin said.

“I also just really appreciate being surrounded by so any people at McCallum who are doing so much good work in musical theater.”

The GAHSMTA ceremony will take place at the Long Center on April 13.

—Mara Vandegrift

Knight, Shield staff combine to capture 8 SIPA writing awards The McCallum journalism department won eight 2016 Writing Awards from the Southern Interscholastic Press Association.

The Shield newspaper won three awards, and The Knight yearbook won five.

“I’m really proud of us,” yearbook editor Christina Beck said. “Ms. Moore leaving and Mr. Winter coming, it hasn’t been a difficult transition, but it’s taken some getting used to, and knowing that that yearbook that will be published in May is already winning awards is really reassuring. It’s also really exciting; its giving us that finish drive to finish it.”

This is the first time either The Shield or The Knight have entered this contest.

“I’m super proud of the staff this year,” newspaper co-editor Haley Hegefeld said.

“Last year we won quite a few awards, and I was really proud of that, and I really wanted to keep that momentum going this year.

Obviously, newspaper isn’t all about the awards, but they never hurt, and I think [they] really just reflect the time and effort the staff puts in to making sure the stories we publish are good quality and informative and about things people care about.”

They won first place in three categories, including online news, sports cutline and groups copy. They also won second place in three categories and third place in two categories. Below is a list of all the winners.

First place Christina Beck, Sports Cutline Mara Vandegrift and Natalie Murphy, Online News Emily Goulet, Yearbook Groups Copy Second place Ben Brown, Online Alternative Storytelling Maddie Doran, Online News Mackenzie Krys and Sara Pacheco, Yearbook Groups Copy Third place Luis Alvarez, Sarah Lightfoot, and Elijah Griffin, Yearbook Groups Copy Samantha Harwood, Yearbook People Copy

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The fall of Austin Music Hall Famous concert venue to be torn down, replaced with office building ZOE HOCKER staff reporter

For the past 21 years Austin Music Hall has been filled with big artists, large crowds and of course live music, but that’s about to change. The music hall will be torn down very soon to make way for a 28-story office building.

In 2007, the owners launched an expensive renovation project that ran past its scheduled completion date, which led them to postpone the hall’s reopening several times. It eventually did reopen but did not attract enough business for the hall to turn a profit.

As a result, the owner declared bankruptcy in 2013 and sold the music hall to new owners, who attempted to turn the venue around. Two years later, the owners sold the hall to another company that will tear it down to make way for the 28-story office building.

The last concert was held on Feb. 20.

Senior Mayra Arana got to see one of the last concerts there, which was held two days earlier and noticed the venue beginning to change.

“There was a lot of construction going on around the venue,” Arana said. “It’s awful that it’s getting torn down, but I’m glad I got to see Kid Cudi [on Feb. 18] before it happened.”

The Hall, which was built in 1995, underwent major renovations in 2007, but even after this, some venue-goers complained about the poor acoustics and sight lines.

The new office building will have 349,000 square feet of space, and should be completed by the end of 2017. The building will include retail, traditional office space and parking/ bike storage facility.

For many longtime local music fans, Austin Music Hall has been a favorite venue.

Freshman Meghana Goli has been two times and enjoyed it each time.

“It’s one of my favorite venues,” Goli said.

“I love the way the stage is set up and how open it is. It’s a nice place.”

The loss of the venue has caused some bigger name artists to book their concerts at smaller venues such as Emo’s and The Parish. Austin Music Hall had a capacity of

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A 28-story office building will replace the Austin Music Hall, the venue of this sold-out Foster the People concert in May. A new, smaller Austin Music Hall will open soon in a new location. Photo by Zoe Hocker.

4,000 people, and now artists are getting pushed into 1,700- and even 450-people capacitiy venues. Of course, there is also the Austin 360 Amphitheatre and the Erwin Center, which host the biggest artists and hold 14,000 people or more.

Now that the music hall is gone, however, there is no happy medium between an intimate venue and an arena. Some music lovers fear the absence will drive some artists away.

“I’m sure [smaller venues will gain business]. Austin Music Hall was good place because it was not too big and no too small,” Arana said.

The owners of Austin Music Hall still own the name and plan to find another, smaller space to reopen the venue in the future. Many lovers of the venue see this future venue as the light at the end of the tunnel, including freshman Zoey Kenyon.

“The location was extremely nice as it was downtown and because of the way it was built,” Kenyon said. “But I think everything

will be OK if they build a new venue. It will probably take some time, but Austin already has tons of venues.”

Go 1-on-1 with ACC today!

Ask questions and get in-person help with college at your high school.

Call (512) 223-7747 for details.

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Artistically Speaking: Rose Morgan Senior dance major auditions for conservatory programs

MAYA COPLIN photo editor

What made you interested in dance?

When I was 5 or 6, I went to a party. It had dancers in it, and I was just fascinated by everything: the costumes, the big girls and all that. That really pushed me to continue on.

What classes do you take inside and outside of school?

I take modern at school, but we also do different types like hip-hop and Latin. Outside, I take Chinese traditional dance, and I also take ballet.

What is your favorite style of dance?

My favorite style of dance is modern.

How do you plan on continuing dance after high school?

I’m auditioning for about seven or eight colleges.

What colleges are you thinking of attending?

I’m not sure yet; it’s like who will take me and how much money they will give me.

What is the audition process?

First you have to apply to the school aca-

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demically. After that you have to apply to get into the audition, and then from there you go to the audition, and you have a ballet class, a modern class and then sometimes you do solos; sometimes you don’t.

What guest instructors have inspired you the most?

Amy Morrow inspires me to go outside the box and think of really intricate movements.

She takes the most basic thing and does something twisted and weird with it and makes it look really interesting and cool.

How do you hope to improve your dance skills for the future?

I hope to get more experience and extend my repertoire and also become more diverse in the styles I do.

Why do you do dance?

I chose to do dance because I really like watching it and doing it. I understand the meaning of it, the feeling. It’s something that really difficult to describe. I guess its something you have to experience to get the full feeling of it.

When did you start dancing?

I started dance when I was 5 years old.

How do you think it is different for men and women in the dance world?

There’s a lot less men, which is interesting because originally women were not even allowed in the dance world back in whatever year it was. It’s way more competitive for women because there’s so many. For men, it’s like you are a male dancer, you have a ticket to anywhere really just because they are so limited.

What are the similarities and differences

between the classes you take inside and outside of school?

The similarities are they all have a ballet and modern class. Some schools accept solos and some have a jazz class as well.

Why are you choosing to pursue dance rather than academics in college?

I am choosing dance because it’s all I love to do. Also, with a dancing career, you peak at a “young” age. For a ballet dancer, it’s generally 22-23, and for a modern dancer you can peak at different times. Some sooner than others.

What is the feedback you received after auditions?

The way the audition works is you walk in and have the class. No interview. Nothing.

The panel doesn’t get to know you at all.

Those few hours are all there is. They don’t give any feedback, even if you wish to know it. There are too many people to give feedback to.

Do you choreograph any dances, and if so, what is the process you go through to choreograph the dance?

Yes, I have choreographed many solos. I also had a piece last year in the studentproduced show. I have also collaborated a lot with my peers. With choreographing, it’s a long process. To a dancer, a finished piece can take years. They can show their work in progress thoughout that, but it is never the finished piece until they are satisfied with it. There is no real structure to choreographing. Every choreographer has his or her own way to go about it. It is ideal to try to just move without movement so

that you won’t choreograph to the music.

Some like to do it the other way around where you find the music then go from there. After you have a rough cut, many choreographers prefer to have some sort of showing to gain feedback. Generally this showing will be informal and with other dancers. After this step, the choreographer will work on the piece and repeat until the dance is finished.

Do you have any preshow rituals?

My pre-show rituals are what McCallum dancers call “good show.” This is when all of the MAC dancers come together and yell “good show.” When I’m performing without my peers from Mac, I generally go though my dance a couple of times and stretch.

What is your favorite show you have performed in?

Honestly, I can’t have a favorite show. Every single show I have been in has been amazing production, whether it was at McCallum or with my outside studio.

What feedback have you received from friends and family about majoring in dance in college?

It’s more like encouragement. Many of my friends, peers and teachers all created a positive environment. Nothing specific other than the general “You can do it” and “You should really go for it. I can really see you doing this as a career.” Originally, I never considered to dancing in college. When I was a sophomore I thought it was that 1 percent dream. But my teachers and parents showed me that I could really consider this for college.

people 9

the

shield

An alternate exit strategy Four seniors opt for a specific career path

MAYA COPLIN photo editor

Many students have careers that can only be achieved if they attend a specialized college. Senior Sage Birrell has dreamed of opening a bakery since she was little and will attend The Culinary Institute of America where she will be able to major in baking and pastry arts as well as restaurant management.

“As a kid, I would be using the boxes and stuff like that for cooking, so it’s been planned out [going to culinary school] for a while,” Birrell said.

Birrell isn’t the only senior with a specific career path in mind. Hayden Price and Denzale Banks plan to go to college to become firefighters. Price will take a gap year before attending Colorado Mountain College to major in fire science.

“I really want to be close to my coworkers,” Price said. “I want to be able to help people on a daily basis without being a hero or anything, just doing my job. And I want to be able to give back to the community and have a job that keeps me fit and close with friends.”

Banks also wants to be able to help people as a firefighter and likes the team aspect of the job. He compared being around a group

10 people

Illustration

by Charlie Holden Photos by Maya Coplin and First Photo Texas

of firefighters to the feeling of being on a football team. He will get his degree from the fire program at Austin Community College.

“My coach from freshman year is a firefighter,” Banks said. “That’s what got me interested.”

Most seniors go through some sort of college-application process. For Colorado Mountain College and ACC, the process was simple; it did not include any essays. The Culinary Institute of America required an application similar to the Common App with essay questions geared towards culinary school.

While Birrell will focus on food, senior Mackenzy Nikolakos hopes to specialize in fashion. In order to major in international fashion business and public relations, Nikolakos applied to and hopes to attend the Fashion Institute of Technology or the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising.

“The application process was quite com-

plicated,” Nikolakos said. “You had to answer questions about what inspired you to be in this [field], what do you want to do in the fashion world, and what would your trademark be, questions that definitely made you think.”

After college, Nikolakos plans on working internationally as a buyer or a creative director of a prestigious company, but her interest in fashion began in middle school.

“I’ve been interested in fashion since as long as I remember,” Nikolakos said. “I went to private school in sixth grade, and we had a uniform of collared shirts and khakis. It was awful, so I decided to go back to public school. There I was able to wear something and actually have a style. From then on, I always loved getting up in the morning and picking out what I was going to wear. I used the idea of a strict dress code as my fuel and was more intrigued in fashion.”

At the Culinary Institute of America, Birrell will take core classes such as English, math and science, but the classes will be foodrelated. She will also take courses to learn about restaurant management.

“It’s actually pretty similar [to a state school],” Birrell said. “I have a dorm, the campus is huge and on the river. We have gyms.

We actually have sports programs, too. It’s pretty much a normal college except we all bake and make food.”

Nikolakos will take fashion classes and will not have to take standard core-curriculum classes such as English.

“I was honestly given a lot of encouragement for doing something different,” Nikolakos said. “Most of my friends are going to a ‘normal’ college, but I chose to go to something that doesn’t have the norm curriculum or student life like sororities and frat parties.”

11 march. 2016

the

shield

The great (soda) debate

PEPSI

DRINKERS

10.71%

VS

COKE

DRINKERS

Mara: I was born and raised in Austin. My mom and dad were raised in Michigan and Maryland, respectively. Neither one of them really had a strong preference between Coke or Pepsi because neither one of them really drank soda very often. I, on the other hand, am a big fan of Coke and absolutely refuse to drink Pepsi. Most people that I know agree that Coke is better than Pepsi, so I was somewhat shocked when I was having a conversation with Hannah Ilan, and she said she preferred Pepsi over Coke.

Hannah: Growing up in the rural twn of Mexico, Maine, my mother was raised on the taste of Pepsi. No matter where you go in her small hometown— the Chicken Coop, the Covered Wagon, Deluxe Diner or any of the other locally owned hotspots—if you ask for a Coke you’ll get the controversial question, ‘Is Pepsi OK?’ Growing up in this environment, my mother became an avid Pepsi lover and tried to push her views on my sister and I, and she succeeded. While I do occasionally enjoy a cold Coke with my meal, if I’m given the option between Coke and Pepsi, I will always choose the latter. Because of the fact that I grew up in a family that supported Pepsi, I always thought that my preference was a common one among others. After mentioning the fact that I prefer Pepsi over Coke to my friends, however I was met with a lot of heated argument over how Pepsi is the lesser of the two and how my preference is a less popular opinion.

Both: So after we couldn’t come to a consensus, we decided to go through all this trouble to find a final answer to the Great Soda Debate: Is Pepsi OK? Or better than OK?

75.89%

NEITHER: 13.39%

Data from a Shield survey of 112 upperclassmen Junior Terin Dailey: “I prefer Coke Senior Lois Durant: “Every time because you can share a Coke with we went on a road trip, my mom your best friend or your boyfriend would treat herself to a big bottle or your girlfriend or your teacher. of Pepsi, and that’s why I probably Coke is really specific and attuned to like it so much. It was only in that you.

My mom always loves Coke; she circumstance—when we’re on a always buys me one [so that’s also road trip—would she treat herself why I love it]. ” to a big Pepsi.”

HANNAH ILAN & MARA VANDEGRIFT staff editors

11 march 2016

A&E 11

the

shield

A CLOSER LOOK

Make the MOST of your POSTS Three questions to keep in mind before posting:

1 2

With the rise of social media, college admissions officers are interacting with applicants in new ways

Is it relevant?

Is it appropriate?

SOPHIE RYLAND staff reporter

3 Does it make sense?

Percent of admissions representatives who say they look at prospective students’ social media:

Do colleges use these sites to recruit new students?

76% YES

87% YES FACEBOOK

TWITTER

73% YES YOUTUBE

of admissions officers who Googled or looked

35% at a prospective student’s Facebook page

found something that negatively impacted a student’s application, up from

12% in 2011.

Source: Kaplan Test Prep, Richards

12 people

I

n 2014, hackers exploited a third-party app in order to release thousands of photos privately sent on Snapchat. Prior to this breach, security experts had noticed a flaw within the app’s security programming, which led to the release of many user’s phone numbers and account handles.

This incident led many to realize an incredibly important concept in our day and age: nothing posted online is private.

This idea is especially significant for students beginning the college-admissions process. According to Kaplan Test Prep, in 2009, 40 percent of admissions officers visited applicants’ social media pages to learn more about them. Thirty-seven percent said that what they found about an applicant negatively impacted their application, while the same percentage said that what they found enhanced the student’s application.

Social media has become a vital tool to universities, allowing for better communication between the school’s administration and potential students. “[Being on social media sites] is kind of like having a bathroom in your establishment,” said Concordia University freshman admissions counselor Sean Richards. “You have to have it. No one’s impressed by it. It’s like, ‘Congratulations, you did what you were supposed to do.’ That’s where students are interacting, and that’s where the university should be, too. It’s kind of silly to be the only one not in the dialogue. If I’m just trying to use antiquated devices and not actually trying to tweet at them and figure out what they’re interested in, we’re just not going to have a great conversation. I think the big thing is that wherever there’s smoke, there’s fire, and social media is the smoke.”

Social media is just one of many ways colleges are reaching out to potential applicants.

“Mostly, they email me,” senior Hannah McChesney said. “Some of them call, which is fine, but I don’t recognize the number. This one college had online chat groups where you could ask the ad-

missions officer questions; that was really helpful.

They would have Facebook pages, people that I could contact for the questions I had over the Internet.”

The bottom line is that communication between colleges and prospective students has opened up considerably and is much less controlled by the colleges.

“The rise in social media as a communications tool has completely changed the landscape of college recruitment,” said Casey Reed, dean of admission for The University of Tulsa. “Before the Internet and social media, universities controlled the information that was shared with prospective students and their families. Now, students search for information about universities through a variety of channels, and very little of the information is controlled by the universities. Instead, current students, alumni and community representatives share information in real time. For the most part, both universities and prospective students appear to appreciate the transparency social media provides.”

Social media can allow students to get an idea of what the college is like prior to visits.

“It allows you get a feel of it before you dive deeper into it,” senior Audrey Holden said. “You get a surface-level look before you get too serious and actually buy a plane ticket to visit it, so you don’t waste your time. It helps with letting you know things faster. It’s a faster way to connect with people than snail mail.”

B

ut if the information about colleges is more open, so is the information about prospective students. Universities can easily monitor what a student applicant posts to social media sites. For those concerned about the potential consequences of something they have posted in the past, there are services that help people clean up their social-media platforms, such as Qnary, a technological service based in New York City.

“Qnary focuses on online reputation growth,” account solutions director Marc Reichel said. “We’ve worked with students in the past, in order to grow their personal online presence, so that when people look them up, Qnary can help show what’s good, what’s positive.”

According to Reichel, the primary topics that

one should always avoid on a public platform are politics, race, sex, religion, drinking and drug use.

“For me, there’s a couple of filters that I use, and I always pass these along to everyone,” Richards said. “No.1, is it relevant? Is it something that even matters in the context of the timing, or just in general? No. 2, is it appropriate? Is it something you in 10 years will still be proud of? Is it something you would be proud of your family seeing or retweeting? And No. 3, does it make sense? So it can be relevant, it can be appropriate, but does [what you are posting] actually clarify anything? Does it add insight? It’s all about establishing your voice and going through those three primary questions. I think if you have those, you’re probably not going to hate what you tweeted five years ago too much.”

It’s also wise to not just add to the massive clutter that exists on much of the Internet.

“I guess lots will just retweet and retweet these little joke accounts, you know, ‘Teen Love,’ or ‘Seven Ways to Know You’re Into Him,’” Richards said.

“From the application process, it doesn’t affect it that much, but further down the road you aren’t painting the image you want to be painting, and it’s hard to be constant with what you want yourself to be, especially for high school or any college student.”

Reichel also recommends that student should carefully decide which platforms they choose to share with only friends and family. Additionally, students who decide to make an account public should be selective about what they post to it.

“Someone who’s the president of their robotics club, they would post relevant articles on technology or robotics, use it as a place where they can show their knowledge and leadership to help differentiate them,” Reichel said. “The idea is, let’s take advantage of these sites; let’s create a presence that you can control; let’s highlight you the way you want to be perceived, so that when someone does look you up, you have full control.”

A

part from ensuring that students aren’t projecting the wrong image, there are some useful platforms where students can differentiate themselves from the crowd.

“If you’re a student on LinkedIn, then you’re

11 march 2016

a little ahead of the game,” Reichel said. “You can highlight things like your different clubs, your GPA, awards—things that are relevant to you as you’re in high school. LinkedIn serves as your online resumé, and a lot of recruiters use LinkedIn, and college admissions officers are going to Google you. If you’re a high school student, create that LinkedIn because I honestly think that college-admissions officer will be very impressed that you’ve created it.”

Reichel also believes that Google Plus is an overlooked method to get students’ message across.

“It’s one of those networks that a lot of people have forgotten about, but it’s another profile where you can control what people are seeing about you, and it shows really well on Google search results because Google owns it. It’s one of those outlier things to do, but very impressive: to develop a consistent and positive Google Plus profile.”

W

hile they offer a lot of serious advice for managing people’s online presence, admissions officers aren’t as strict as you may think.

“Obviously, as a student, there’s nothing wrong with having fun content, you with your friends; everyone knows you’re a kid,” Reichel said. “There was actually a study that came out recently that showed that college-admissions officers are also interested in people’s personalities. So not only posting superprofessional stuff on the right networks can also help you.”

The most important thing to keep in mind is to have foresight of the consequences of what you post.

“Know that being on social media is kind of like being on a stage, and the numbers of followers or friends that you have are the number of people that are watching on that stage,” Richards said. “So oftentimes we go into the online mediums, and we think, ‘Great, it’s just me and my voice out there,’ but it’s you literally telling the world your thoughts, and people are always going to judge you for that.

I think if we approached social media the way that we approach face-to-face interaction, we’d probably have a lot better results and a lot less of those online back-and-forths that are just unnecessary. In the long run, you’re just doing yourself a lot of favors.”

A PUBLIC DISCUSSION

The Shield: Do you think it’s a good idea for colleges to interact with students on social media more than they have in the past?

Christina Beck, senior

Claire Sanford, senior

Dominic Curry, senior

people 13

the

shield

A CLOSER LOOK

Make the MOST of your POSTS Three questions to keep in mind before posting:

1 2

With the rise of social media, college admissions officers are interacting with applicants in new ways

Is it relevant?

Is it appropriate?

SOPHIE RYLAND staff reporter

3 Does it make sense?

Percent of admissions representatives who say they look at prospective students’ social media:

Do colleges use these sites to recruit new students?

76% YES

87% YES FACEBOOK

TWITTER

73% YES YOUTUBE

of admissions officers who Googled or looked

35% at a prospective student’s Facebook page

found something that negatively impacted a student’s application, up from

12% in 2011.

Source: Kaplan Test Prep, Richards

12 people

I

n 2014, hackers exploited a third-party app in order to release thousands of photos privately sent on Snapchat. Prior to this breach, security experts had noticed a flaw within the app’s security programming, which led to the release of many user’s phone numbers and account handles.

This incident led many to realize an incredibly important concept in our day and age: nothing posted online is private.

This idea is especially significant for students beginning the college-admissions process. According to Kaplan Test Prep, in 2009, 40 percent of admissions officers visited applicants’ social media pages to learn more about them. Thirty-seven percent said that what they found about an applicant negatively impacted their application, while the same percentage said that what they found enhanced the student’s application.

Social media has become a vital tool to universities, allowing for better communication between the school’s administration and potential students. “[Being on social media sites] is kind of like having a bathroom in your establishment,” said Concordia University freshman admissions counselor Sean Richards. “You have to have it. No one’s impressed by it. It’s like, ‘Congratulations, you did what you were supposed to do.’ That’s where students are interacting, and that’s where the university should be, too. It’s kind of silly to be the only one not in the dialogue. If I’m just trying to use antiquated devices and not actually trying to tweet at them and figure out what they’re interested in, we’re just not going to have a great conversation. I think the big thing is that wherever there’s smoke, there’s fire, and social media is the smoke.”

Social media is just one of many ways colleges are reaching out to potential applicants.

“Mostly, they email me,” senior Hannah McChesney said. “Some of them call, which is fine, but I don’t recognize the number. This one college had online chat groups where you could ask the ad-

missions officer questions; that was really helpful.

They would have Facebook pages, people that I could contact for the questions I had over the Internet.”

The bottom line is that communication between colleges and prospective students has opened up considerably and is much less controlled by the colleges.

“The rise in social media as a communications tool has completely changed the landscape of college recruitment,” said Casey Reed, dean of admission for The University of Tulsa. “Before the Internet and social media, universities controlled the information that was shared with prospective students and their families. Now, students search for information about universities through a variety of channels, and very little of the information is controlled by the universities. Instead, current students, alumni and community representatives share information in real time. For the most part, both universities and prospective students appear to appreciate the transparency social media provides.”

Social media can allow students to get an idea of what the college is like prior to visits.

“It allows you get a feel of it before you dive deeper into it,” senior Audrey Holden said. “You get a surface-level look before you get too serious and actually buy a plane ticket to visit it, so you don’t waste your time. It helps with letting you know things faster. It’s a faster way to connect with people than snail mail.”

B

ut if the information about colleges is more open, so is the information about prospective students. Universities can easily monitor what a student applicant posts to social media sites. For those concerned about the potential consequences of something they have posted in the past, there are services that help people clean up their social-media platforms, such as Qnary, a technological service based in New York City.

“Qnary focuses on online reputation growth,” account solutions director Marc Reichel said. “We’ve worked with students in the past, in order to grow their personal online presence, so that when people look them up, Qnary can help show what’s good, what’s positive.”

According to Reichel, the primary topics that

one should always avoid on a public platform are politics, race, sex, religion, drinking and drug use.

“For me, there’s a couple of filters that I use, and I always pass these along to everyone,” Richards said. “No.1, is it relevant? Is it something that even matters in the context of the timing, or just in general? No. 2, is it appropriate? Is it something you in 10 years will still be proud of? Is it something you would be proud of your family seeing or retweeting? And No. 3, does it make sense? So it can be relevant, it can be appropriate, but does [what you are posting] actually clarify anything? Does it add insight? It’s all about establishing your voice and going through those three primary questions. I think if you have those, you’re probably not going to hate what you tweeted five years ago too much.”

It’s also wise to not just add to the massive clutter that exists on much of the Internet.

“I guess lots will just retweet and retweet these little joke accounts, you know, ‘Teen Love,’ or ‘Seven Ways to Know You’re Into Him,’” Richards said.

“From the application process, it doesn’t affect it that much, but further down the road you aren’t painting the image you want to be painting, and it’s hard to be constant with what you want yourself to be, especially for high school or any college student.”

Reichel also recommends that student should carefully decide which platforms they choose to share with only friends and family. Additionally, students who decide to make an account public should be selective about what they post to it.

“Someone who’s the president of their robotics club, they would post relevant articles on technology or robotics, use it as a place where they can show their knowledge and leadership to help differentiate them,” Reichel said. “The idea is, let’s take advantage of these sites; let’s create a presence that you can control; let’s highlight you the way you want to be perceived, so that when someone does look you up, you have full control.”

A

part from ensuring that students aren’t projecting the wrong image, there are some useful platforms where students can differentiate themselves from the crowd.

“If you’re a student on LinkedIn, then you’re

11 march 2016

a little ahead of the game,” Reichel said. “You can highlight things like your different clubs, your GPA, awards—things that are relevant to you as you’re in high school. LinkedIn serves as your online resumé, and a lot of recruiters use LinkedIn, and college admissions officers are going to Google you. If you’re a high school student, create that LinkedIn because I honestly think that college-admissions officer will be very impressed that you’ve created it.”

Reichel also believes that Google Plus is an overlooked method to get students’ message across.

“It’s one of those networks that a lot of people have forgotten about, but it’s another profile where you can control what people are seeing about you, and it shows really well on Google search results because Google owns it. It’s one of those outlier things to do, but very impressive: to develop a consistent and positive Google Plus profile.”

W

hile they offer a lot of serious advice for managing people’s online presence, admissions officers aren’t as strict as you may think.

“Obviously, as a student, there’s nothing wrong with having fun content, you with your friends; everyone knows you’re a kid,” Reichel said. “There was actually a study that came out recently that showed that college-admissions officers are also interested in people’s personalities. So not only posting superprofessional stuff on the right networks can also help you.”

The most important thing to keep in mind is to have foresight of the consequences of what you post.

“Know that being on social media is kind of like being on a stage, and the numbers of followers or friends that you have are the number of people that are watching on that stage,” Richards said. “So oftentimes we go into the online mediums, and we think, ‘Great, it’s just me and my voice out there,’ but it’s you literally telling the world your thoughts, and people are always going to judge you for that.

I think if we approached social media the way that we approach face-to-face interaction, we’d probably have a lot better results and a lot less of those online back-and-forths that are just unnecessary. In the long run, you’re just doing yourself a lot of favors.”

A PUBLIC DISCUSSION

The Shield: Do you think it’s a good idea for colleges to interact with students on social media more than they have in the past?

Christina Beck, senior

Claire Sanford, senior

Dominic Curry, senior

people 13

the

shield

Above: Finkel’s photo shows a bug’s eye view of Finkel’s DKR Stadium with the lit Tower above in the backround. Photos courtesy of Drew Finkel.

Above: Finkel shows his Iron Works BBQ creation to Aaron Morris, the owner, and his son at the restaurant.

To the left: Finkel’s Lego version of the famous Austin landmark, the UT Tower

MADDIE DORAN staff reporter

Before Drew Finkel came to McCallum as a freshman in the fall of 2000, he was a Highland Park Elementary student who loved to build spaceships out of Legos.

“Like a lot of children, I loved building with Legos,” Finkel said.

“However, it was never something I thought I would really get into, especially to this scale.”

Finkel has recently gained a lot of media attention for building the UT Tower, Darrell K. Royal Memorial Stadium and other famous Austin landmarks out of Legos.

Finkel, 30, grew up in Austin and now lives in Chicago. After Highland Park, he attended St. Stephens Middle School before gradu-

14 people

ating from McCallum in 2004.

“I went to the University of Texas at Austin,” Finkel said. “At the time, it didn’t affect my creations at all. It wasn’t until about two years ago that the thought even crossed my mind to build something this big out of Lego.”

When Finkel attended UT, he minored in business foundations and majored in anthropology. He thought of the idea to replicate buildings, specifically the UT Tower, one night with his friends.

“Going to UT definitely encouraged the idea of what to build,” Finkel said. “Besides Jester, I think I have now completed two of the biggest buildings on campus.”

Finkel doesn’t like to take his structures apart, so he tries as hard as possible to keep his creations assembled after he puts them together.

“Iron Works [BBQ] is the only one that has not been taken apart actually,” Finkel said. “DKR had to be taken apart pretty heavily for its trip from Chicago to Aus-

tin, the Tower had to be slightly taken apart when my wife and I moved. If there was a huge need to take them apart I would, but I am going to try my hardest to keep them together.”

Iron Works had to be taken apart since it is on display at Ironworks BBQ. The stadium is on display at the Student Activities Center on campus.

“The Tower is only two foot by two foot and about four feet tall,” Finkel said. “It fit on top of one of our cabinets pretty easily, so it didn’t really take much space in our old apartment. The stadium on the other hand, well, that is one of the reasons why it is on display at UT. It was four feet by five feet, so, we didn’t have a place to put it.”

Finkel only glues some of his pieces together when creating these masterpieces.

“Sometimes for stability you have to do what you have to do.

The UT Tower is 100 percent glue free though,” Finkel said. “DKR

and Iron Works are both multiple states away, so I figured it would be smart to make sure they stay in one piece.”

Depending on the structure, Finkel may or may not draw out designs for the building he is going to build.

“For the Tower and Stadium, I had general plans on what I was going to need,” Finkel said. “But, for Iron Works and the Sears Tower, I designed them all digital with Lego Digital Designer, so that I knew exactly how big they would be, what pieces I was going to need, and how to assemble them.”

Finkel has a full time job at Bluebeam Software and even created their logo out of Legos for them. Building Legos is just a hobby for him.

“Winter in Chicago can be a bit cold and snowy, so it is a nice hobby,” Finkel said. “This year, winter was pretty mild so I didn’t do too much building. But, when I do have time, it is here and there, whenever I feel like it.”

The media attention he has received came as a great surprise.

“I had no idea I was going to get media attention,” Finkel said. “After I built the tower, I posted it on Reddit and from there local news outlets [Fox, ABC, CBS] reached out and a few major websites did as well. It completely took me by surprise. The biggest media story was by the Alcalde [written by the Texas Exes] who did a story on me and interviewed me for the Longhorn Network.”

Finkel has always had a love for Legos, but it’s a different type of love for them now then it was when he was a child. Finkel said getting a 3D experience on a smaller scale is great for kids, and it’s a great accomplishment.

“I think it is great to be able to see the gigantic structures, in 3D, but at a more manageable size,” Finkel said. “I enjoy being able to ‘take a tour’ or just look at them all at once, rather than only being able to see a part at once or only from a distance.”

11 march 2016

the

shield

Keeping the field l17

Junior captains share their take on what it’s like to be leaders for their teams HANNAH ILAN design editor

The Shield: How long have you been playing softball?

Talina Briceno: Since I was about in sixth grade, maybe fifth grade. My dad, he played baseball [and so] I joined a league, and I actually play with the same girls now as I did when I was little.

TS: So since you’ve been playing with these girls for so long, is it harder to help take control on and off the field if you need to, since you know them as friends so well?

TB: It helps because you know how to approach them since everyone is different. But I mean we all get along pretty well, so it’s good that we all play together.

TS: Do the other teammates listen to you and the senior captain equally, or does one of y’all have more influence than the other one?

TB: She and I really just talk to each other. So like if there’s anything we need to do, we talk to each other and then see what we’re gonna do from there.

TS: On the field, how do you lead the team?

TB: Talking is a major key in softball. Like you have to know what base runners are on, and you have to have a positive attitude the whole time; otherwise, the team will just break apart.

So I guess being vocal is the best way to lead.

TS: How about off the field?

TB: I guess just making sure everyone is smiling. I just

11 march 2016

think that if you’re a lot happier, everything goes a lot better.

TS: What do you bring to the team?

TB: That’s kind of hard because you need everyone on your team. Like you can’t have a weak link on your team because the ball will go anywhere. You have to be able to trust your team and be like, ‘I know that, if it gets hit to her, she’s always going to have it, or if she doesn’t I have her in outfield.’

TS: What qualities do you believe a captain should have?

TB: I guess being able to talk to everyone on the team because you need everyone to get along.

If one girl on our team is having a bad day; if a ball gets hit to her and she misses it; it’s going to bring the entire mood down, but you can’t have that. Like you have to stay up in softball, you have to be all as one.

TS: What’s it like on the team so far?

TB: Well right now, we’re good. We just started our season, and so we’re just trying to get the feel of how we’re going to play since a couple of our players graduated last year.

It’s pretty good, but it’s a lot of responsibility.

TS: How did your family feel about you becoming captain your junior year?

TB: My mom and dad are excited. Baseball and softball are kind of in my family, so they’re excited. They’re just like, ‘You have to take the lead this year.’

Junior left fielder Talina Briceno

The Shield: How long have you been playing soccer for?

Sacco Fernandez: I’ve been playing my whole life, but I’ve been on a team since I was 4 years old. It’s like a family sport. My uncle plays professionally, and my dad gave me a soccer ball as soon as I could walk [so that’s how I got into it].

TS: What was it like when you got chosen as junior captain?

SF: I was very proud of myself and honored because I’ve been a captain on my club team for a while, and I’d always wanted to be a captain at McCallum for two years like my brother had. I’ve seen so many of my friends do it before, so it was such a great feeling to know that I’m in that same group as them.

TS: What’s the difference between being a captain at McCallum and being captain on your club soccer team?

SF: I feel like at McCallum, it’s more like a community thing because you see everyone at school, so it’s more than just 2-3 nights a week when you see them. Like you see them in classes every single day, and you have a responsibility to help them with things and to just be there for them outside of soccer.

TS: What makes you qualified to be a good captain?

SF: I think I lead by example really well. I feel like I understand [Coach Martin’s] drills really well the first time he explains them, so I’m able to help explain not only how to do them but also how they will make us better as a team so I can show them how it’s done I guess.

TS: Have the senior captains been role models to you?

SF: Oh definitely. I love my senior captains. They’re like two of my favorite

people in the world. And not only are they very good soccer players,they’re also two of the best people I’ve ever known.

TS: Do you feel like since you’re a junior captain, the senior captains have more authority, or are y’all equal?

SF: I think they listen to us all pretty equally, but I think it’s nice having three captains because if it was just like me or Hayden or me or Ben, and one of us disagreed with the other, we wouldn’t have a third person to weigh in on something. Like there are some issues where I think one thing and both of them think something else, so they overrule me, but they know that I’ll support their decisions and try to enforce them as well.

TS: How do you lead your team on and off the field?

SF: I feel like I make good decisions off the field. I feel like I treat people well. I mean we have some problems with that on the team where people are getting in trouble by being disrespectful to teachers or referees and stuff like that. I feel like I haven’t done that at all, so people can look around and be like, ‘Oh no one else is talking back to teachers or cursing at refs, so I shouldn’t.’

Junior center mid Sacco Fernandez

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District 26-5A Roundup BEN BROWN staff reporter

Spring sports highlights and previews

Lady Knights Softball Through three district games, the Lady Knights have started fast including a huge 7-4 district win over rival LBJ on March 1.

With the loss of head coach Richard Fidleman to midseason retirement, the team is now under new management from head coach Rachael Matz.

Senior catcher Hannah Smith says the team has to work on believing in themselves.

“As a team we need to work on staying positive and keeping our heads up in the game, especially after we make and error or have a bad at bat,” Smith said.

Smith said while the team could be more upbeat, Smith praised the team’s resilience.

“We tend to start off our games a little slow, which is something we need to fix, but we come back stronger late in games when it’s more difficult to do comeback and win,” Smith said.

Smith said having a new head coach has helped the program.

“We’ve done well adjusting with several new players in key starting positions,” Smith said. “The structure of our practices is different this year. JV and varsity mix for infield and outfield drills, which is good for both teams to be able to work with players of varying skill levels. I think the entire team has been more motivated this year to beat certain teams in our district, which is an exciting way to start our season.”

The Lady Knights next game will be March 15 against Travis at Noack.

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The Lady Knights jump around in a circle and get pumped up and ready for a district game against Crockett Photo by Camille Selis

Lady Knights Soccer

Knights Soccer

The Lady Knights finished their regular season with a 5-3-2 record, good enough for a second-place finish in 26-5A Zone B. After a slew of early season injuries, the team rebounded to qualify for the state playoffs Senior Lily Stuesser said it was a challenge at the beginning of the year because of the injuries and new faces on the team.

“We had a lot of new players this year, so it was completely different than last year’s team,” Stuesser said. “Throughout the season, we have really come together on and off the field as a team and learned how to play well with each other.”

Stuesser said with a playoff spot already clinched the team will be using the last few games as tune-up games where the team will focus on some technical aspects of their game.

“We’re taking these next few games very seriously as a practice for the playoffs and really want to identify what it is we need to work on and improve before our first playoff game,” Stuesser said.

The Lady Knights’ next game will be played Saturday March 12 at 10:45 a.m. against LBJ at Nelson Field.

The Knights have a 6-6-2 record in district play The Knights started slow in district but picked it up to get back into the playoff picture. With two games remaining the Knights must win their final two games and get a little help from Eastside Memorial and Lanier if they want to finish in fourth place in district 26-5A. Senior midfielder Simon Fremgen says he is pleased with the teams play as the season winds down.

“We had a super slow start to district that has been hard to recover from, but we are doing very well right now,” Fremgen said. We are playing well as a unit right now, which is much different than the beginning of the season.”

Fremgen said the team needs to improve its ball movement.

“We need to improve on moving the ball more aggressively,” Fremgen said. “The past we’ve been kind of skittish to go straight to the goal, and we still need to work on that, although it has been better recently, Fremgen said.

They take on the Travis Rebels tonight at Noack at 7:15 p.m.

LEFT: Freshman Julia Crofut throws the ball to second baseman junior Nathalie Munoz. Photo by Zoe Hocker.

RIGHT: Senior Jesse Levy-Rubinett swings at a pitch against district foe Crockett. Photo by Jeff Brown.

Knights Baseball Through the first 12 games of the year, the Knights baseball team stands at a 9-3 record with their only three losses coming in tournament play. After losing to Elgin and Kerrvile Tivy to start the AISD tournament that ran from March 3-5, the Knights rebounded to win their final three games of the tournament, beating Pflugerville Connally, Eagle Pass Winn and Lockhart. The Knights’ district record is 3-0 after a win against Lanier and a sweep of Crockett.

Senior catcher Quintin Reed says the team has played really well at times this year but needs to be more consistent.

“We have to really maintain the same mentality and level of play every single game,” Reed said. “Without consistency, we won’t be able do much beyond district play this year.”

Reed says the team has great potential.

“We returned like nine or 10 guys this year, so we don’t lack experience or anything,” Reed said. “We just have to play within ourselves and play like we know how to if we want to have a great year. So far our pitching and defense has been very solid this year; at times we’ve had some trouble swinging it.”

The Knights face Lanier tonight at Northwest Field at 7 p.m. The Knights will also take on rival LBJ the Monday and Tuesday of Spring Break; first pitch for both games is at 5 p.m.

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Editors predict teams for the NCAA Final Four JULIE ROBERTSON photo editor

Let the madness begin Kansas Xavier

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have a feeling that Kansas will be headed to the Final Four this year. This Jayhawks squad always seems to get job done right. Forward Perry Ellis averages 16.5 points per game, making him the top scorer on the team.

Junior guard Frank Mason leads the team in assists per game with 4.6.

Kansas’ head coach Bill Self has been coaching the Jayhawks for 13 years, and it is an understatement to say that he knows how to coach his boys. He has an outstanding record, and his tournament experience will come in handy tournament time.

o. 5 Xavier is a force to watch out for. with three Sweet Sixteen visits in five tournament apearances, head coach Chris Mack has an impressive tournament resumé. I remember year after year ever since I have started filling out brackets with my family, that I always ask my dad about Xavier. What is really so special about them anyway? Sophomore Trevon Bluiett leads the team in points per game; his 3-pointers are smooth and never hesitated. Myles Davis leads the Musketeers in assists. You’ll often find him in the highlight reels being the one to pass to Bluiett for his flawless 3’s. The team passes consistently and works together so they don’t hesitate when it comes to getting a 3 or driving in for 2. Their flashy talent won’t go unnoticed in the Final Four.

BEN BROWN

sports editor

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don’t know why I have something against North Carolina, but I do. But now, I’ve seen them in a few games, and yes I can see why everyone has been saying that they have the potential to make it all the way this year.

Senior forward, Brice Johnson is always standing out in the highlight reels for the Tar Heels. He powers through and scores an average of 16.9 points per game, while guard Marcus Paige comes in second at 12.4. Paige also averages 3.6 assists per game and hits 40 percent of his field-goal attempts. enzel Valentine. You’ve probably heard that name thrown around, with good reason. The senior guard is on the short list for Player of the Year this year. His stats are impressive. He’s the main reason why I am choosing Michigan State for the 2016 Final Four. Valentine averages almost 20 points per game, his free-throw percentage is an impressive 84.5 percent, and his field-goal percentage is 47.3 percent. Head coach Tom Izzo never fails to impress during tournament time for Michigan State. He knows how to win, and he knows how to win the right way. He just knows how to coach his players in the big moments He can make sure his players are focused and have the ultimate goal in their minds each game.

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only have one team coming out of the powerhouse Big 12 this year. It might finally be the Jayhawks’ year after a long string of early upset exits in the big dance. I can’t see other Big 12 teams like Oklahoma or West Virginia making a run. OU is too dependent on the 3-point shot. Kansas who won their 12th straight Big 12 regular-season title (12!!) is easily the most dominant team in the Big 12.

Lead by 20th -year senior and oldest looking basketball player ever Perry Ellis and normal looking senior Frank Mason Jr., the Jayhawks can attack you in many different ways.

nother historical powerhouse that I think has a great shot (pun intended) at making the Fnal Four is the UNC Tar Heels. With seniors Marcus Paige and Brice Johnson at the helm, they should be a lock for the Final Four. Their only weakness which are fixable have been closing out games and being somewhat lackadaisical on defense. Every UNC loss I’ve seen this year they have choked away leads during the last 10 minutes of regulation. The best examples have come against rival Duke and Texas. What I also like about UNC is that they don’t rely heavily on the 3-point shot, which in tournament time comes in very handy.

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very year you have to have a dark horse in your Final Four; it’s a well-known fact that if you fill out a bracket, you can’t just put all No. 1 and No. 2 seeds. Iowa has already reached its peak as a team during the regular season; in fact, they’re ice cold at the moment. They have lost five out of their last seven games. You may ask, Ben why are you picking an ice-cold team? I’ll tell you. They’re a senior-heavy team with previous tournament experience. They have a scoring machine in senior Jarrod Uthoff who is 6-9 but can attack you off the dribble and beyond the arch.

Right now I just have a good feeling about Iowa’s NCAA tournament aspirations.

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he love child of Nike and the Pac 12 regular-season champion Oregon Ducks are going to enter the tournament as a No. 2 or No. 3 seed in all likelihood.

Oregon has one thing about them that sets them apart from most other schools in the tournament: they go 12 deep, with 11 of those players averaging more than five minutes a game. As a team they also average almost 78 points per game which is good for 54th in the country. They block shots at an alarming rate; senior Chris Boucher blocks just over 3.5 shots per game. Oregon doesn’t really have a name that will jump out at you on paper, and they don’t have someone who can score at will, but they play great team basketball and have great late-game finishing ability.

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Marketing over moviemaking

Hollywood studios are more interested in making money than good movies ZOE HOCKER staff reporter

Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay… and Mockingjay Part 2? Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3… and 4? Is it really necessary for movie franchises to make as many movies as they can possibly get out of the same characters? Personally, I wish there was still such thing as a movie without a sequel.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some great sequels, but in my opinion, the majorities have almost ruined the original movie for me. OK, maybe one movie after the original is OK; a little follow-up on the original to see the characters again is fine and usually does the original justice.

When a film studio makes four movies that are basically the same with a notso-good plot line, however, it is easy to tell they just want to see how much more money they can get from the fans of the originally good movie.

Think about Despicable Me. The original movie featured a large angry man with

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a funny accent, three troublemaking girls, and of course some funny situations with a ridiculous villain.

Then they decided to make a second one, and it wasn’t nearly as good as the first, but it wasn’t horrible. But then they went all the way to horrible by making a movie about just the minions. Now there is a third Despicable Me movie expected to be out in 2017. At this point, it feels like they

don’t want to have to think of a new plot line because they can recycle this one and squeeze a few more pennies out of it.

The problem with criticizing this approach is that it works virtually every time. The more movies, the more money. Why wouldn’t they want to create as many as possible?

It is even more likely they will make a sequel if they can sell merchandise that appeals to

“Think about Despicable Me. The original movie featured a large angry man with a funny accent, three troublemaking girls, and of course some funny situations with a ridiculous villain. Then they decided to make a second one, and it wasn’t nearly as good as the first, but it wasn’t horrible. But then they went all the way to horrible by making a movie about just the minions.”

younger kids. Think about Frozen. You think you saw as many Elsa Halloween costumes or Olaf T-shirts as you can handle? Well that’s all a part of the game that the Frozen franchise is trying to play. I have a 5-yearold little sister, and I know that she asked for all the Frozen dolls and clothing for her birthday. The same thing can be said for Minions. For the quality of the sequels, it’s just not that important to the plan.

This sort of thing has gone on for years.

No franchise stops at one if the movie is the slightest bit successful. Jurassic Park was an outstanding movie: great plot line and good special effects for a movie made in the ’90s. They went on to make three more, and none of them lived up to the first in my opinion. But because of those extra three movies the Jurrassic Park franchise is now worth more than $3 billion. Shouldn’t movies focus on content over money?

I would much rather see a really good movie and never see a sequel than seeing a really good movie and watching a really bad sequel that doesn’t live up to my expectations and unfortunately that doesn’t happen often.

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“...I have to say this. [Marco Rubio] hit my hands. Nobody has ever hit my hands. I have never heard of this. Look at those hands. Are they small hands?” (LAUGHTER) “And he referred to my hands: if they are small, something else must be small. I guarantee you there is no problem. I guarantee.”

- Donald Trump on Marco Rubio’s personal attacks.

“He’s trying to do for the American voter what he did for the people that signed up for this course. He’s making promises he has no intention of keeping, and it won’t be $36,000 that they lose; it’s our country that’s at stake here.”

- Marco Rubio on the lessons of Trump University “I have never tried to go and get into these kind of scrums that we’re seeing here on the stage and people say everywhere I go, ‘You seem to be the adult on the stage.’”

- John Kasich on why he stays “out of the mud” on debate nights

Tell it to ‘em straight Seniors respond to the most memorable quotes from the 11th Republican debate 11 march 2016

“This right here is why I watch these Republican debates. ... I watch these debates purely for entertainment and spectacle, which is exactly what they have been all season long. ...They were only like five minutes in, and the Republican front-runner literally said he had a huge johnson. ... I almost can’t believe he said that.”

- senior Sean Simmons “I gotta say I kinda agree. I would rather be homeless than go to Trump University, even if it was free. Instead of creating a whole new university and naming it after himself (because he’s like a narcissist), maybe Trump should make the already existing schools more affordable.”

-senior Isabella Grossling “This is hilarious. Honestly, the only reason Kasich stays out of the mud is because he’s boring and a coward. He is so bland and uncharismatic that he will never win enough votes to be president. ... Or even the Republican candidate. Let’s be real. Though I don’t support Trump at all, he’s at least taking some shots.”

-senior Griffin McDonald Who knew politicians could be so salty?

On March 3, the 11th Republican presidential debate for the 2016 presidential race was hosted by FOX News, and boy, was it a brawl. Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and John Kasich assembled on stage to discuss their plans for American national and foreign policy if they were elected president. However, their debate imme-

diately launched into deliciously heated personal attacks, quips and insults that shocked audiences around the country.

Many found the childish and crude attacks between candidates to be as startling as they were entertaining. To capture the perspective of the average McCallum student’s reaction to the debate, The Shield asked three seniors who watched the event -Rachel Wolleben

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We get it, already.

Rhetoric for teaching new drivers about distracted driving can be redundant—at best CHARLIE HOLDEN staff reporter

The night before my driver’s test I was scrambling. There were only about 3,000 pieces of paperwork I had to gather and sign before I could go to the DPS the next day, and admittedly, I had put this part of the process off, thinking it wouldn’t be too big of a deal. In a matter of minutes I went from excitedly printing off my driver’s education certificate and copying down my social security number to sheepishly telling my mom that my test would have to be rescheduled. It was the fineprint that got me—an unsuspecting piece of criteria that I had never seen in my life. The ITTD. I asked my mom, what is that? My sister, who had taken her driver’s test a little over a year ago, never had to do a eye-tee-teedee, whatever that was. It turns out the requirement was new, implemented just months before. Although disappointed, I shrugged it off. Surely it was just another piece of paperwork. In a way, I was right— it is just a certificate of completion—but I would have to trudge through a two

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hour video on distracted driving to get it.

Don’t get me wrong, what the ITTD— The Impact Texas Teen Drivers program— stands for is essential. Reducing the number of motorway casualties by educating young people about the dangers of distractions is essential. But let’s be honest. It’s something every one of us has heard before.

The posters hanging in the hallway, commercials during the Super Bowl, our parents, our teachers, they all say the same thing. Most of them even paint the same picture of a teenager, one hand flopped across the wheel and the other texting ‘LOL’ while oncoming traffic brushes by a little too close. That, or we get horrible stories of prom nights gone awry and cars wrapped around trees. It’s as if someone is telling whoever is in charge that, “Hey, these teens just don’t get it.” But that’s not it. We get it. I don’t need stories of unfathomable shock and loss to know that a young death is a tragic one. I don’t need the ITTD to tell me that distracted driving kills.

It’s like that one unit in science class that is taught every other year, and eventually you don’t have the heart to tell the teacher that, “Yes, I know what tectonic plates are, and

please, can you stop talking about them?”

Although I hate to admit it, teens will be teens. Thinking we are invincible is often part of the job description, whether we like to acknowledge it in ourselves or not.

There isn’t a way to stop any of us from dying on the road, just like there isn’t a way to stop us from doing much of anything else.

What we need is a new approach. One that treats each person it reaches with as an individual with their own free will rather than a number that needs to be changed.

One that doesn’t involve preaching texting abstinence over and over and over or simulating the deaths of students in ultra-realistic demonstrations that can lead to very real feelings of panic and loss (I’m looking at you, Shattered Dreams). Scaring people into submission won’t work; it never does.

The only thing that can make a teenager or anyone else do anything is themselves.

Each person understands and reacts to death in different ways. A strategy to prevent distracted and drunk driving may work for one sort of person but may be completely ineffective for another. We need an appeal that is more down-to-earth, so the gap between different people can be bridged.

Something as simple as inviting the relatives of drunk and distracted driving victims to class can be far more effective than putting on a show or delivering a sermon.

Now that I have completed the ITTD I’m on my way to get my license for real this time. When I closed the video, I asked myself, what did I learn from watching this video? I learned that the DPS has a horrible graphics department (imagine a third-grader who’s just been introduced to Microsoft PowerPoint) and not much beyond that. I left my computer resenting the good-natured people who put the video together more than I respected or understood them. I wasn’t more informed.

I wasn’t safer. It gets to the point where a meaningful message is drowned out by people banging pots and pans together, cupping their hands to their mouths and yelling the same warnings until their throats are hoarse. It’s really the ultimate irony: Preaching the dangers of distracted driving using tactics that distract us from the root of the message. Whoever it is that decides how to talk to teens about distracted driving should take their own advice and focus on the problem in front of them.

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Put your money where your morals are

We owe it to ourselves to know where companies stand before we show them the money MEENA ANDERSON staff reporter

There are organizations who support awful causes or have done terrible things.

Many customers aren’t aware of what goes on beyond the storefront of their favorite restaurant or clothing store: why would consumers want to spend their time reading about the organizations and policies that Chick-fil-A supports, when they instead could be enjoying a meal for $5 or less? Does knowing the political causes that businesses support make their chicken less delicious or their clothes less fashionable? Well, no, but once I became aware of the highly questionable causes supported by these establishments, I find it impossible to look at the store, or their products, the same way again.

According to a study done by The Week, Urban Outfitters is a store whose largest customer demographic consists of people aged 18-24, with the under-18 age group coming in second. I have a huge problem with this store because their president and CEO Richard Hayne donated more than $13,000 to Rick Santorum’s campaign in 2008. Even more troublesome, the store sold a faux bloodstain “vintage” Kent State University sweatshirt (claiming it wasn’t meant to be an allusion to the massacre in the ’70s), and sold a Monopoly knockoff called “Ghettopoly” in 2003, angering the black community with cards like “You got yo whole neighborhood addicted to crack.

Collect $50.” There are so many more problematic things that Urban Outfitters sell and do. It makes it even worse that I know people who shop there and enjoy their products. Of course, a lot of people aren’t aware of the terrible things that their favorite clothing store does, and once they know, I’d like to think that they would stop shopping there; however, according to reports by Market Watch, in 2015, Urban Outfitters made $3.32 billion in revenue. Buying a company’s products is essentially endorsing what it does. So if you shop at Urban Outfitters you support the idea that it’s fashionable to wear bindis, a fashion choice that appropriates Hindu culture, or agree with their selling of

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shot and pint glasses in the shape of pills, when overdosing on prescription medication is the second leading cause of accidental death in America. There are people that I know who are fully aware of the problematic things Urban Outfitters does and continue to shop there, and, although I love these people dearly, I really wish that they would spend their money at a retailer whose owners don’t do racist and homophobic things on the regular.

Which brings us to the oh-so-problematic chicken sandwich. When I ask people if they know about the questionable causes that Chick-fil-A supports, I’m usually surprised when I hear that they don’t. Dan Cathy, president and CEO of the Atlantabased chain restaurant made a series of public, homophobic comments in June 2012, including elaborating on his support of “traditional family values,” meaning a man and a woman and some children. To be fair, Chick-fil-A franchises have hired gay employees, and even though Dan Cathy stands by his views on same-sex marriage, he removed some of his homophobic tweets (On June 26, 2015: “Sad day for our nation; founding fathers would be ashamed of our gen. to abandon wisdom of the ages re:

cornerstone of strong societies”) from his Twitter account. A spokesperson told The Huffington Post that, “his views didn’t necessarily represent the views of all customers, restaurant owners and employees.” In July 2012 the restaurant stated that, “Going forward, our intent is to leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena.” In March 2014, tax filings for 2012 showed the group stopped funding organizations like the Winshape Foundation and campaigns that have been seen as hostile to the LGBTQ+ community.

In fact, all donations to such organizations had stopped, except for one.

Although Chick-fil-A does seem to be changing its ways, I still don’t want to support any form of homophobia, and I definitely don’t want my money going to an already rich CEO who believes that people are beneath him because of their sexual orientation. (Plus, my dad’s chicken is a lot better than anything I’ve ever had from Chick-fil-A).

While Chick-fila-A may have softened its stance on gay marriage, the same can’t be said for The Salvation Army, which has pretty much sung the same tune since its establishment in 1865. The Salvation Army has

a lengthy history of discrimination toward the LGBTQ+ community, including turning down a $3.5 million contract with the city of San Francisco in 1998. This refusal led The Salvation Army to stop providing services to homeless and senior citizens of San Francisco. The reason they declined the offer was due to San Francisco’s requirement that city contractors provide benefits to both samesex and opposite-sex spouses of employees.

The tricky thing about The Salvation Army is that they do help people, like the homeless and senior citizens. And that’s great, we do have a problem with homelessness in America, and the fact that they’re trying to ameliorate this crisis is good. Discriminating against LGBTQ+ employees and homeless, however, isn’t OK, especially when 40 percent of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ+ according to the Williams Institute. The Salvation Army claims on its website that it supports the LGBTQ+ community, however, according to a memo that was released internally (which was then leaked on the website Queerty.com), ministers of the SA aren’t allowed to marry samesex couples, and expects their gay employees to remain celibate “in expression of their sexuality”, because, you know, gay sex is sinful, and controlling your employees personal lives isn’t damaging or invasive at all.

All in all, choosing to spend money at Urban Outfitters, Chick-fil-A or The Salvation Army is your choice, not mine. I’m not here to control where people buy things, because I can recognize that not everyone has the same opinions and values as me. But, I choose not to shop at these three stores because I believe that all people deserve to be treated equally regardless of their race, sexual orientation, or gender. And I hope that people would stop supporting these businesses after learning about the things that these businesses spend money on, I can’t stop what people want to buy, but I do wish they would put their money where their morality is. In this world where people can feel so powerless in making change, one of the ways that can be done is deciding where to spend your money, because corporate America influences everyone every day, and being able to influence them, even if it’s on a small scale, can let you make a positive change.

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The Republican dissing contest GOP candiates have taken political rivalries too far

There have been 11 Republican debates since the beginning of this election season, each with its own unique spin on the current political climate. Most recently, the once populous list of candidates on stage has dwindled down to the final four: Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and John Kasich. Each time the GOP candidates take the stage, it seems, a new round of accusations fly from every direction. During the March 3 debate in Detroit, the comments went far past disagreeing on policy and even ended in some candidates making comments about their fellow Republicans’ anatomy.

The level of disrespect for not only each other but also for the voters who are spending valuable time listening to the men who could potentially be the leader of the free world is unacceptable and unprecedented.

It is understandable that as November gets nearer, politicians will become more hostile in their relationships with competitors; however, there is a level of professionalism that American voters have come to expect from those who are vying for their approval. It is an insult to the American public to use time given

assistant editors MARA VANDEGRIFT RACHEL WOLLEBEN

sports editor BEN BROWN

Graphic by Natalie Murphy

A.N. McCallum High School 5600 Sunshine Dr. Austin, TX 78756 (512) 414-7539 fax (512) 453-2599 contact.macshield@gmail.om

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to discuss things that are important to them and turn it into a joke. The American presidency holds such prestige; arguing over who has the biggest…personality is a sign of immaturity and disrespect for the very position they are fighting over.

Though it isn’t the first time politicians have used personal details about their competitors in order to attract more supporters, and it certainly won’t be the last, this new level of absurdity is something that has

never been seen in a presidential election. It would be easy to argue that highly controversial candidate Donald Trump is to blame for this new development in destructive criticism; however, he is not the only one at fault in this decline. Both Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have chosen to combat Trump’s outlandish comments with more provocation and pettiness, therefore bringing about further embarrassment to their entire party.

John Kasich, as he so humbly pointed out during the March 3 debate, has managed to keep his head above the waters, and it has resulted in a significant trail behind the other candidates in every primary election so far. The fact that whoever says the most shocking thing gains the most votes is both concerning and embarrassing as the United States usually sets the tone for democratic elections globally. Even if Donald Trump is finally silenced in November, or hopefully sooner, it may be too late to backtrack on the damage he and his challengers have caused to the electoral system.

editors-in-chief NATALIE MURPHY AND HALEY HEGEFELD design editor HANNAH ILAN

reporters

photo editors

MAYA COPLIN JULIA ROBERTSON

adviser

DAVE WINTER

SYDNEY AMELL, MEENA ANDERSON, JOSEPHINE CLARKE, LAUREN CROSBY, MADDIE DORAN, PAUL GOLD, MILES HANSEN, ZOE HOCKER, BRYNACH HOGAN, CHARLIE HOLDEN, MYA NAJOMO, SOPHIE RYLAND 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 ultimitely determines the content.

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

22 opinion

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

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 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 ad should contact adviser David Winter at (678) 984-8849.

The Shield is a member of the Interscholastic League Press Conference, the Southern Interscholastic Press Association, the National Scholastic Press Association and the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.

11 march 2016

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A ‘TITANIC’ ENTERPRISE

Annual spring musical tells the tragic story of an ill-fated voyage

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1. Senior Ezra Hankin and senior Kendrick Knight reprise their duet, “The Night was Alive/The Proposal” from previously in the musical while the ensemble sings about getting into the lifeboats.

2. Senior Jackson Holtkamp plays a German passenger from third class in “Ladies Maid.”

Holtkamp also plays first class passenger, J. Bruce Ismay, owner of the White Star Line.

3. Senior Arturo Hernandez and sophomore Hannah Young played Charles Clarke and Caroline Neville, a couple who plan to get married once they reach America.

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5. Senior JR Scott plays the captain of the ship. The captain, along with his officers, junior Terin Dailey and sophomore Tryston Davis, contemplate whether they should increase the ship’s speed to 22 knots.

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4. In the second ensemble, the first class passengers lead by sophomore William Magnusson, sophomore Molly Leach, sophomore Megan Hudson and junior Terin Dailey sing “What a Remarkable Age This Is”

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6. Kate Mullins, Kate McGowan and Kate Murphy sing “Ladies Maid,” a song about all they wish to accomplish in America. They are played by sophomore Grace George, junior Riley Simpson and sophomore Megan Hudson.

Photos by Maya Coplin

11 march 2016