The Chronicle, 12.3

the November 14, 2014

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news

T rending N ow

Little Teacher, Big Impact Substitute teacher leaves permanent mark on MHS

View these and other stories and galleries on thecspn.com

Rashika Jaipuriar | Associate Editor

band returns C Marching to Grand Nationals

The Mason marching band is in Indiana this weekend, where they will compete at the national level.

See thecspn.com for a wrap-up of the competition on Monday.

Photo by Erin McElhenny

The marching band performs in their home stadium on November 8.

Ice hockey team takes C on Sycamore

The Comet hockey team at Sports Plus battles the Aviators tomorrow morning at 10:45 a.m. on the ice.

Check thecspn.com for coverage.

Photo by Kylie McCalmont

The ice hockey team plays the Lakota West Firebirds on November 7.

compiled by Gina Deaton

Student teacher and long-term substitute Jamie Button, known for his outgoing personality and love of teaching, passed away on October 23 at the age of 26.

According to Honors World History teacher Ken Whitney, although Button was identified by his stature in the hallways, it was his big personality and passion for teaching that made him stand out in the classroom. Button, born with a form of dwarfism called Achondroplasia, brought a new aspect of diversity to Mason High School, which Whitney said helped him educate kids on subjects beyond the class curriculum.

“Caring about kids was his number one thing,” Whitney said. “I remember many times we would sit here at lunch, and we would talk about some of our students and some of the hardships that they faced...He knew, and with my encouragement I believe, that he had a gift...that man could teach.”

After graduating from Miami University, Button got the breakthrough in his teaching career at MHS, student teaching alongside Whitney and also substitute teaching. Recently he began a long term substitute position at Fairfield High School, although Mason struck a special connection with him.

“According to his father, he felt like he had his career, whether it be long term sub (or) subbing in our district on a regular basis,” Whitney said.

“That was really important to him, and he felt like Mason was home…Most people know I’m very open and loving and caring, and for him (it helped) just being in that environment where he could thrive in my classroom...I work hard and play hard, and I think Mr. Button had that kind of personality too. So I think it was being very inviting where (when he first came), he didn’t know anything about Mason. And when he left here, like his father said at his funeral, he loved being in Mason.”

Button identified himself as a little person, a first impression--whether on paper or in person-that Whitney said naturally evoked curiosity.

But according to Whitney, Button used his lighthearted nature to make students comfortable with him and his condition. Whitney said he remembered two particular anecdotes that especially helped Button open up to kids.

“He would talk about whenever he was at Kroger, and if he saw a canned good like on a top shelf that he needed, he would look to the left and look to the right down the aisle, and he would start climbing the shelf and with his bas-

Photo from The Chronicle archives

Jamie Button teaches in Ken Whitney’s class in September 2012.

ket and grab the canned good that he needed,” Whitney said. “(Or during) the holiday season... if he was ever in a store or a mall and just shopping and little kids were around, they’d stare at (him) because obviously you’d get some stares.

And so he’d just kindly go over and whisper to them, ‘Hey kid, you better be good because I’m gonna tell Santa.’”

This sense of humor among other common interests helped Button and Whitney develop a close friendship over the years. Button will be missed by Whitney and many others, but according to Whitney, his time at Mason was a blessing.

“He lived life to the fullest,” Whitney said.

“Don’t feel sorry for Jamie Button. Kids who first saw him might have made fun of him and stuff like that; don’t feel sorry for him. He never felt sorry for himself. He had a great, loving family…He’s just like you and I, no different. He had all the love in the world, and in the short time he was here, he had a great life. I’m sad, but I don’t feel sorry for him, and I hope nobody (does). He had a great life, and he impacted people, and I believe he really knew that...I hope for...anyone who knew Mr. Button, to not let his story fade away.”

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New camera calculator app solves math problems Meghan Pottle | Staff Writer PhotoMath, a free camera calculator application, might be the solution to students’ problems--mathematically, at least.

After being launched on October 20, PhotoMath quickly made its way to the top of the App Store. Designed as an educational tool, the app has the ability to solve arithmetic expressions, fractions and decimals, powers and roots, and simple linear equations by simply scanning a math equation with a smartphone camera.

Junior Henry Hemmelgarn found out about PhotoMath mainly because at the time, it was #1 in the App Store and other students had been using it.

“A lot of people say that it’s cheating, but really it is scanning the problem,” Hemmelgarn said. “It gives you the steps that it took to get to the answer which is really helpful because if you don’t understand how to solve a problem, it can give you the steps to do it.”

Algebra II teacher Kristi Stephens said she agrees. According to Stephens, students could use PhotoMath for educational purposes.

“For those kids who struggle with retaining the information, (they) could use this app,” Stephens said. “If they are stuck on a problem, they could use it to help them figure out how to get started or how to do the problem.”

Despite the benefits, PhotoMath also has

its limitations. For example, the app can only read printed text, not handwritten equations.

And the red frame that surrounds a certain equation may not be able to capture the equation if it is too long or too close to another equation in a textbook.

Although Stephens said she sees PhotoMath as a helpful study supplement, she says it could be used for cheating as well.

“If you’re relying on it to help you get through your homework, in the end it’s not going to help you learn the material,” Stephens said. “I would encourage the kids to use it as a study tool and still remind them to practice it by themselves.”

Sophomore Scott Vennemeyer said there is the possibility that kids could use PhotoMath to cheat.

“I think that is another reason why people shouldn’t let us use our phones as calculators on tests,” Vennemeyer said. “I understand that could be a good thing to do, but there is a possibility that (cheating) could happen.”

According to Hemmelgarn, he uses PhotoMath every once in a while to help prepare him for tests and understand how to solve problems.

“I use it because sometimes when you are at home, you don’t really have somebody there to ask questions, like a teacher or a parent,” Hemmelgarn said. “It is very helpful to use with your homework.”

Photo by Erin McElhenny

Junior Henry Hemmelgarn uses the PhotoMath application--the new app that has experienced instant popularity in its month of existence--to solve his math questions.

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Hand

Mason family pays it forward by building prosthetic hands

Photo contributed by Renee Palmer

From left: sophomore Justin and freshman Lily Palmer assembling prosthetic hands.

Sheila Raghavendran | Editor-in-Chief

Raising a hand in class, giving a high five and lifting a cup have always been simple tasks. But when the Palmer family realized that these motions are not so easy for everyone, they became determined to make a change.

The Palmers are volunteers working to make prosthetic hands through the company E-Nable.

They heard about the company and learned how to make hands during a conference in September at Johns Hopkins Medicine. The family prints the prosthetic parts on a 3D printer and assembles the hands to distribute to people they are matched with through the website’s system.

According to Renee Palmer, mom of Mason High School sophomore Justin and freshman Lily, seeing kids’ appreciation of the prosthetics at the conference sparked the family’s motivation to build hands.

“For my dad, when we left, three little kids who had been building around him came up and hugged him,” Renee said. “I could see his eyes were welling up. It was amazing. It was everything that I hoped…

I don’t think any of us really appreciated how many kids were like that.”

Renee said that because the hands

they are making are only worth about $50 and distributed to people for free--compared to bionic prosthetics priced at hundreds of thousands of dollars--they are financially practical for many people.

“Insurance companies will only buy one prosthetic for somebody,” Renee said. “Some companies will buy one in a lifetime--so if you get one as a kid and you grow, you’re done…It doesn’t, obviously, have the same kind of utility as a biotic prosthetic would have, but if nothing else, I would say it’s confidence for the kids.”

Justin said that this confidence was paramount at the conference.

He said that he met a 7-year-old boy who, before receiving his prosthetic, kept his hand stuffed in his jacket pocket.

“He was a little shy about showing his hand,” Justin said. “But once he got that prosthetic, he got the confidence back and seemed pretty excited.”

According to Renee, the prosthetic hands are superhero-like, which makes the kids who receive them proud to wear them.

“A lot of the different hands look like superheroes, and it makes the kids, instead of hiding their hand… they want to show people their

Photo contributed by Renee Palmer

Sophomore Justin Palmer builds a prosthetic hand at Johns Hopkins Medicine.

hand,” Renee said.

Renee said that she and her husband told Justin and Lily to post a proposal on GoFundMe.com to raise money to buy a 3D printer. They raised $2700, which was $1200 more than their goal. “(With) all the extra money, we bought enough materials to just keep making hands,” Renee said.

“They basically put this proposal together to put money together to match our seed money and then to buy enough materials to keep making hands. And as part of their proposal, they offered that you can rent (the 3D printers) and basically anybody in the area who needs to have something 3D printed can hit you online and you rent out your printer to them. And with that money we think that they can keep perpetually making hands.”

Lily said that creating the proposal and building hands has been inspiring.

“When I saw the kids, and when they got them, I just thought that was really exciting that we can change people’s lives when we did this,” Lily said. “…I think I’ve always wanted to help, and this was a way to help, which I really enjoy.”

Renee said the hands need some improvement in functionality and design, but that they carry out what she thinks is the most important job: boosting confidence.

“I think it needs a lot of improvement to make it really usable to do a lot of things,” Renee said. “But it’s huge for confidence and you could see that at the conference…

Instead of feeling like an outsider or an outcast, it made them feel special.”

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Never Forget

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Homeroom class raising funds to build MHS war veterans’ memorial Madison Krell | Staff Writer

Social studies teacher Jerry Schrock and his homeroom are standing up to salute fallen soldiers.

Jerry Schrock and his homeroom have already made their mark by starting the kindness campaign back in 2013. This year, they’re starting a new project. They plan on creating a memorial for Mason students who have made the ultimate sacrifice in combat. According to Schrock, he wants this project to be his last hurrah before retiring.

“My homeroom and I talked about coming up with a project before I retire at the end of this year,” Schrock said. “ I have been with them since their freshman year when they were the group that started the idea of the kindness campaign, which was an attempt to reach a kindness goal so that pri-

Pictured: Ted Middleton

vate donors would agree to donate money to a homeless shelter in downtown Cincinnati. That campaign won our school the Kindest School in America Award as given out by the 26 Random Acts of Kindness Campaign.”

Through the week of November 3-7, the social studies department sold American flags for $5 to be put out at the municipal building on Memorial Day. According to Schrock, he had hoped to get donations for 100 flags, but by Wednesday they had already sold 200 flags.

The money from the flags will fund the new memorial, which they hope to dedicate by Memorial Day next year.

“William Mason was the one who built our first school house in Mason,” Schrock said. “That was done 200 years ago. So if you think about it, Mason students may have fought in every American conflict since

Photo contributed by Jerry Schrock

the Spanish-American War. William Mason served in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.

In doing some research, we found that only two of our students who ever attended William Mason High School were killed in Vietnam. We figured that was the place to start.

Now, we are very well aware that there may have been others. So once this memorial is up and displayed, others may come to us and say, ‘Hey, my grandfather should be up there. He graduated from MHS in 1969.’ If that is the case, the memorial is being made so that others could be added in the future if necessary.”

According to Schrock, the versatile design for the memorial is being made by students in digital image design.

“Aaron Roberts’ design class is currently working on what the memorial will look like,” Schrock said.

Pictured: Martin Gruber

“(Martin) Gruber and Ted Middleton’s families were kind enough to give us photos from their school days and also active duty photos. I gave them to the design students to come up with a poster that can be professionally framed, and we will see how it will take shape.”

Different sacrifices were and will be made in order to make this memorial happen, but according to Schrock, he hopes the memorial will bring inspiration and gratefulness to students.

“We hope that this will memorial will motivate our students by showing them that all of us are standing on the shoulders of heroes,” Schrock said. “Those heroes are the students who came before them.

They became heroes for many different reasons. (Martin) Gruber and Ted Middleton became heroes because they gave their lives for our nation.”

Photo contributed by Jerry Schrock

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Opinion

The Chronicle’s Policy The Chronicle is the official student newspaper of William Mason High School.

The Chronicle promises to report the truth and adhere to the journalistic code of ethics through online and print mediums.

The Chronicle is produced by students enrolled in Journalism I, II and III. Editorials reflect the staff ’s opinion but do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the school administration or the Mason City School District.

The Chronicle is published monthly. Call 398-5025 ext. 33103 for information regarding advertising in The Chronicle. The Chronicle reserves the right to refuse advertising it deems inappropriate for a high school publication.

As an open forum for students, letters to the editor are welcome, but are subject to be edited for length, libel, obscenity, clarity and poor taste.

Letters to the editor may be dropped off in room C103 and must be signed.

The Chronicle is a member of The Columbia Scholastic Press Association, The National Scholastic Press Association, Quill and Scroll International Honorary Society for High School Journalists and the Ohio Scholastic Media Association.

Tweets

to the editor

Contact Information The Chronicle William Mason High School 6100 S. Mason Montgomery Rd. Mason, Ohio 45040 (513) 398-5025 The Chronicle Staff Editor-in-Chief Sheila Raghavendran Managing Editor Erin Brush Associate Editor Rashika Jaipuriar Layout and Design Editor Gabrielle Stichweh

Staff Editorial

Online Editor Gina Deaton

‘The Like Generation’ depends on gaining popularity through social media posts

Business Manager Emily Culberson

We often hear “Do it for the Vine,” a phrase powerful enough to resist any questioning or doubt.

Pouring ice water on yourself for the #IceBucketChallenge? Do it for the Vine. Eating a tablespoon of cinnamon for the #CinnamonChallenge?

Do it for the Vine. If it’s “for the Vine,” or for any avenue of boosting social popularity, it’s automatically justified.

This concept actually transcends all social media, from Twitter to Instagram, where more and more people are going to extreme lengths to gain favorites and likes. Whether your tweets regularly pop up as the ‘recommended’ tweet of the day or if you’re still figuring out how hashtags work, there is no denying the fact that we are currently subjects of The Like Generation.

This is a generation overwhelmed with selfies and candids, filter choices and following sprees.

Those who have mastered the economy of likes are heralded with the ultimate prize: recognition.

Photo Editor Madison Krell Staff Writers Arnav Damodhar Juliana Discher Ariel Jones Madison Krell Charlie MacKenzie Duncan MacKenzie Abbey Marshall Matthew Marvar Kylie McCalmont Erin McElhenny Eric Miller Zane Miller Ashton Nichols Kelly Noriega Meghan Pottle Sonia Rayka Jessica Sommerville Morgan Teska Adviser Dale Conner

Now the type of recognition depends on individual goals, ranging from the blue verified check mark on Twitter or scoring over 100 likes on an Instagram post.

But as we casually hit the ‘Post’ button--pretending like we didn’t wait all day for the right timing of optimal likes, pretending like we didn’t spend twenty minutes discussing the right caption with our friends--we have to ask ourselves: Is any of it worth it?

Perhaps we are too busy recording our lives rather than living them. Perhaps social media does have too tight of a grip on our behavior. We certainly don’t gain any monetary or tangible benefits from these cyberspace transactions. But despite knowing all this, maybe that shallow validation and intense gratification coming from a single thumbs up--as insignificant as they appear--are the modern necessities to sustain life.

The Like Generation is upon us. We like it.

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Opinion

All Jokes Aside

Editorial Cartoon

Madison Krell | Staff Writer

The Little Things Gina Deaton | Online Editor

I’m not typically the kind of girl who carries a purse around, but when I decided to break one out last week, I was struck with riches.

That’s right: Inside, hiding behind Chapstick, an old movie ticket, and a tin of mints, I found a ten-dollar bill and some spare change. It wasn’t gold, but hey--who doesn’t love finding extra money lying around? My little discovery had made my day.

One of my favorite phrases (and one that I probably overuse), is “it’s the little things in life that mean the most.”

Whether it is me finding spare change in my purse, acing my quiz, splurging in a buy-one-getone sale, or when the vending machine messes up and gives me two bags of Lay’s instead of one, I can’t help but smile and say, “it’s the little things.”

And that’s because it is exactly these that we must appreciate. In a society where standards and people are constantly weighing us down, it’s important to be able to find joy in small things.

That way, we are invincible. That way, nothing can ruin our day because we have already let it be made by something seemingly miniscule.

Another reason we must appreciate the things that most people overlook is because they are often taken for granted. That A on a quiz? Maybe I

winged it, but someone else might’ve stayed up late studying and not done so hot. That extra bag of chips? Maybe it was just a snack to me, but some people could have run out of lunch money and had to skip lunch that day.

In high school, it is so easy to be pessimistic.

We are all guilty, me included, of letting the bad little things define our day or our mood. These could include: bombing a test, oversleeping and having to rock a bedhead through seven bells, having a pop quiz without being prepared for it, or pushing through a rough practice that we decided to down a candy bar beforehand. These things, while they are inescapable and must be acknowledged as a part of life, cannot be our focus.

When we learn to find pure happiness in the things like a sunny day, no homework in one of our classes, catching up with an old friend, or maybe just a fabulous hair day, we are set for happy days that will become happy weeks and ultimately a happy life.

It was Oscar Wilde who said, “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

Look for the little things, and let them make your day time and time again. They’re everywhere, and they’re waiting to be found--in old purses and beyond.

Every 5 seconds, part of someone’s reputation dies a little because they made an Ebola joke.

I shouldn’t even call it a joke, since joke implies that it is funny in some way, and Ebola is not a funny subject matter. But even so, we all know that one wise guy who screams “Ebola!” after every sentence, trying to generate some kind of laughter. From the “Chad’s sick, he has Ebola!” to the meme of the guy from Monsters, lnc. captioned “this is where Ebola began”. It’s been a little over a month since the first case of Ebola struck American soil, and the Ebola banter has just gotten out of hand. It’s somehow managed to become even less funny now than it was in the beginning, and it wasn’t funny at all in the beginning. Nevertheless, the Ebola cracks will still go on, even without laughs.

It’s actually a fairly simple explanation why.

It’s because the Ebola jokers are scared.

Fear can mess people up good though.

In 6th grade when we went to Camp Joy to experience the Underground Railroad reenactment, I started laughing. I probably sound like an awful human for saying that.

But I was just really scared and had no idea how to handle my fear. So I used humor to cope. Humor definitely wasn’t the best coping mechanism to use, especially because I got in trouble for laughing. But I didn’t do it on purpose. It just kind of happened.

A lot of these people who are making jokes about Ebola are unconsciously just trying to lighten the subject--a lot of their main goals aren’t to be rude or to make fun of the people who are affected with this disease. And I don’t want to give these Ebola jokers an excuse, because I think it’s a topic that shouldn’t be taken lightly, but it’s something that we need to keep in mind. Ebola, and any other disease for that matter, is scary. We all are different and we all express fear differently. Some people panic, laugh, cry, don’t react, remove themselves from the situation--whatever it is they do is just a coping mechanism to control their fear. It’s just that humor as a coping mechanism isn’t always the most accepted, it’s usually considered rude and disrespectful.

But if Chad was sick, we wouldn’t scream, “He has pancreatic cancer!” so, we shouldn’t say the same thing about Ebola.

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Ebola Epidemic

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Local hospital evaluates reality of Ebola scare, takes precautions Gina Deaton | Online Editor The Walking Dead: Season 6, The Ebola Epidemic.

Ebola hemorrhagic fever, commonly referred to as just Ebola, has been spreading fear across America much faster than the epidemic itself. The seriousness of the virus, although incredibly rare, has prompted Cincinnati hospitals including Bethesda North to take precautions in preparation for an Ebola patient to walk through their doors.

Karen Meyers (RN, BSN) works at Bethesda North. According to her, Ebola has been around for awhile but hasn’t come overseas until this year, prompting the scare.

“It’s called the Ebola hemorrhagic fever and so it’s basically one of many different kinds of a viral hemorrhagic fever; hemorrhagic means you bleed, so it is often fatal in humans and in non-human primates: monkeys, gorillas,” Meyers said. “And the first species was discovered in 1976 in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And it

Senior Gabby Halko poses with a surgical mask to represent her fear of contracting Ebola.

was near the Ebola River, so that’s probably how it got its name.”

According to senior Gabby Halko, she relates the spread of Ebola to the television show The Walking Dead, and that has caused her to worry for the worst: Cincinnati becoming infected.

“It does kind of scare me because I’m a germaphobe and my mom and I are always putting on hand sanitizer,” Halko said. “We’re just crazy about it (and) it kind of scares me because I watch The Walking Dead a lot too, so I relate it to that and it’s really weird to think about it being widespread or that anything could happen with it.”

According to Meyers, personal precautions such as constantly using hand sanitizer are often unnecessary because the only way to get the disease would be to come in contact with an infected, symptomatic person.

“It’s transmitted with direct contact with blood or bodily fluids or needles,” Meyers said. “Can it be transmitted through the air? No. Can you get it from contaminated food or water? No. Can you get it from a person who is infected but does not have symptoms?

No. People who are not symptomatic are not contagious.”

Meyers said that, with each patient that comes in, they must ask a set of questions to ensure that there is no chance the patient could be infected with the virus.

If a patient answers ‘yes’ to any of the questions, the nurses are trained in what to do.

“If they said yes to anything but had no symptoms, we are supposed to contact our infection prevention people,” Meyers said. “Now, if they said yes and then they have symptoms, we contact our infectious disease people, immediately put a mask on the patient and yourself, escort them out of the public space into a private room… Anyone who enters that room where the patient is isolated should have a surgical mask… I haven’t personally had anyone say ‘yes’, thankfully, so I haven’t had to go through the whole process.”

There is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding the virus, according to Meyers.

“Symptoms appear anywhere from two to 21 days after exposure; eight to ten days is the most common,” Meyers said. “Some people can recover and some don’t, and they don’t understand why that is. And the people who die usually have not developed a good immune response to the virus for whatever reason, but they don’t understand it.”

Despite the uncertainty, Meyers said that spending time worrying about being infected with Ebola in Cincinnati is pointless because the chances are slim to none.

“Personally, I think it’s a slim, slim chance,” Meyers said. “I’m not too worried about some giant epidemic. I mean, it is contagious but I think they’re taking the proper precautions for it. Personally, I hope and pray that it doesn’t come here, but my opinion is we don’t have too much to worry about.”

Photo by Gina Deaton

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FEATURE

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Skateboarding culture gaining local momentum Arnav Damodhar | Staff Writer

Hard flips and Ollie kicks are rolling into trend.

According to sophomore Jake Bradley, there has recently been an influx of people skateboarding.

“During the past couple years, more people have started to skateboard,” Bradley said. “The group of people who I skateboard with is getting bigger and bigger.”

According to senior Mitch Warren, kids have been gravitating towards skateboarding because it is an addicting sport.

“I skateboard probably about three times a day,” Warren said. “The beauty of skateboarding is that there is always something to perfect. If you have one trick on the lock, you can add the trick on a set, or you can add it down a ramp.”

Although skate parks have their own thrill of ramps and rails, according to Bradley, skateboarding can be done anywhere--even in the suburban streets of Mason, making it a more accessible activity.

“I skateboard in my basement, driveway, on the street,” Bradley said. “Honestly, I just (skateboard) anywhere in Mason. Like downtown Mason, behind shops, basically anywhere.”

According to sophomore Will Lance, he enjoys spreading his passion to the new generation of upcoming skateboarders.

“There are some 4th and 5th graders on my street,” Lance said. “I teach them new tricks. I have helped them out with their skating, and we skate together sometimes.

It is definitely a good way to get them interested to the sport because if they are interested, they can grow up and spread it to other kids.”

Even though the trend might be spreading, not everyone in society views skateboarding as a positive recreational activity. According to Bradley, skateboarders are often stereotyped for the culture associated with skateboarding.

“Sometimes, I will go to a store and I’ll be walking around with my skateboard with me, and the (store employees) will be following me around the store thinking I’m going to steal stuff,” Bradley said. “But in reality, I’m there to buy a drink. There are some people who are like that, but 99% of the people aren’t. Everyone automatically thinks you’re out to destroy stuff, but you’re really not.”

But despite those skater stereotypes, according to Lance, skateboarding won’t always be looked upon as an unacceptable hobby.

“Society has (begun) to change the way it views skateboarding,” Lance said. “Earlier in skateboarding, people would look at it as a negative thing; like all skaters are bad kids. Even though we still get kicked out of public places, especially in Mason, I feel it’s starting to change.

I feel like with its growth and since more people are picking it up, it is being more accepted by society now.”

Photo by Madison Krell

Sophomore Jake Bradley perfects his jump on his skateboard.

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Exchange student records video to document stay in America

Senior Victor Domingo took a wide panoramic shot on his GoPro camera at his first Reds game.

Sonia Rayka | Staff Writer

Senior Victor Domingo is a self-proclaimed memory hoarder.

Exchange student from Barcelona, Spain, Domingo has been documenting his year in America through a GoPro he bought specifically for his trip.

According to Domingo, his decision was based on wanting to share his experience with his friends in Spain and make his memories tangible.

“My friends told me that they wanted to see my experience here and how school is, how the people are, how I am with the environment,” Domingo said. “I think it’s cool because I want to have a good memory about this year in Mason...I’ll probably watch this video when I’m back in Barcelona to remember this time.”

According to Domingo, he is intrigued by typical high school customs such as spirit at football games and Homecoming.

“It’s very weird, but also funny because in Spain we don’t support the sports team like they do here,” Domingo said. “I think it’s cool that everyone goes out to support the team. I also took some pictures at Homecoming with my GoPro which was really fun.”

Domingo’s host brother, senior Elliot Skindzier, said that compared to the other two students his family has hosted, Domingo has taken the opportunity and grabbed it by the horns by documenting life in America.

“This is our third time having an exchange student in our household, but

with Victor here it’s definitely a different experience because our other two exchange students didn’t really document as much,” Skindzier said.

“At home, he’s always documenting everything that’s happening, and he’s more outgoing than the other two.

He’s really taking this experience and making the most of it.”

Skindzier said that Domingo has been documenting nearly everything, however mundane things may seem.

According to Skindzier, there’s an air of excitement that comes with Domingo’s videos.

“He’s putting it all together at the end before he goes back home,” Skindzier said. “I’m excited to see it because I don’t really know what he’s recording. I see him at football games and YoungLife recording things. He might document me at home eating my breakfast and I don’t even know, so I’m excited to see it.”

According to Domingo, the opportunities and experiences he has gathered in his time in America are too important not to document and keep forever.

“It’s a big experience for me and probably this is going to change my life because I’m without my family, my people, my country,” Domingo said. “I miss it, but I’m really enjoying this time. With this year, my English has gotten better, and every day I learn something new about the American culture and I want to remember all of that. It’s like a big memory.”

Photo contributed by Victor Domingo

Photo contributed by Victor Domingo

Senior Victor Domingo captured the student section during a football game.

Photo contributed by Victor Domingo

Senior Victor Domingo pictured in the student section with friends.

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Curtain Raiser

Costume designer brings shows to life unnoticed behind drama club stage Abbey Marshall | Staff Writer

Behind all the bright lights, layers of makeup, and vibrant performances sits one woman and her needle.

Judy Hershner, the costumer of nearly 14 years for the drama club, didn’t originally think she’d be constructing costumes for a high school.

“I started out sewing as a child and always loved it,” Hershner said.

“When I was in high school, I was a student director for a production and found that I was one of the only sewers in our group and so I also put the costumes together for that show. I realized that I liked it and I was good at it, so I went to college for a theatre degree to what did not have a strong theatre program...I left there and moved back to Cincinnati, thinking I would go back to college, then life just started unfolding and the next thing you know, you’re married and you have a kid.”

Raising a family is time-consuming work, according to Hershner, so she spent most of her time sewing things for her friends and church.

Hershner said she didn’t think she would ever get back to costuming until her son expressed an interest in theatre as an 8th grader at Princeton.

“The next year when (my son) was in high school, he decided he was going to continue theatre,” Hershner said. “So, I introduced myself to Mr. Young and told him I had a theatre background, specifically in costuming. They already had a costumer… At the end of that school year that costumer said, ‘I’m ready to turn this needle over to you’.”

Eventually, Hershner and Young transitioned from Princeton to Mason together. “(Young) had been looking for another job and Mason hired him,” Hershner said. “He told me that I was coming with him. So without any questions I did that.”

Hershner said that she considers her current job with the drama club to be her calling.

“I love the creativity,” Hershner said. “I get to use my interest in art and my love of fabric and my love

of theatre. I can combine all those three things to kind of paint a living picture. The actors walking around in these costumes are like living art. I also love working with the students.”

Hershner, in addition to producing the costumes for the show, is a mentor to a crew of students who wish to follow in her footsteps.

“They learn how to cut out patterns, how to assemble things on sewing machines, and how to do handwork,” Hershner said. “I stay at the high school because I love teaching and I love watching people’s eyes light up when they’re learning to sew and something works.”

Hershner’s work with students has earned her the title of the “mom” of the drama department, according to director Allen Young.

“Judy is the stabilizing force of our theatre company,” Young said.

“She is like the rock… She’s the one working one-on-one with not only our costume crew, but our cast members and our crew members as well. She’s the one that takes care of bandages and boo boos and she’s really kind of the mom of our organization.”

Despite working in Mason since 2001, Hershner’s work goes, for the most part, unnoticed.

“At times, I like it a lot because it is a very solitary work, unless a crew is in here working with me,” Hershner said. “I get a lot of work done by myself in the quiet, so I like that, but I would like for our theatre program to be more understood and appreciated by the district. I’m not saying that they don’t, but a lot of people don’t even know I’m here and I’ve been here for almost 14 years.”

According to Young, however, Hershner’s work is well appreciated throughout the entire drama department.

“It’s not a glamorous job and I can’t say it’s a high-paying job, but it’s one that she does out of love,” Young said. “You can tell that in how she interacts with the students and the artistic contribution she makes to our shows. Our costumes are always among the best things about our production.”

The work of drama club’s costume designer and head of props, Judy Hershner, typically goes unnoticed behind the scenes of the productions.

Photo by Sheila Raghavendran

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Public Dismissal

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Affection

Blurred lines emerge for appropriate public displays of affection as hallway intimacy becomes increasingly popular Ariel Jones | Staff Writer

No need to kiss and tell--everyone already knows.

Public displays of affection are the elephant in the room: always seen but rarely acknowledged. Students and teachers are exposed to it daily, and while some approve, others openly discourage it.

According to junior Sam Parsons, PDA should stay out of a school setting and be taken elsewhere.

“Seeing (PDA) just grosses me out,” Parsons said.

“When people take it to the extent of making out in the hallways, it’s something you don’t want to see, especially in a school setting. If people want to do it at home, that’s fine. Just do it somewhere other people don’t have to see it.”

While Parsons believes some students engage in PDA to display the quality of their relationship, he considers

those who keep their affections in privacy to possess the most solid relationships.

“Seeing couples make out and touch each other in the hallways when everybody’s watching is just weird to me,” Parsons said. “The worst thing is probably the groping and feeling each other up in the halls. I mean, I guess the reason some people do it is because it’s a way to show they have a strong relationship. But I think for the really strong relationships, it shouldn’t matter what you do sexually all the time. There’s a time to do it and a time not to do it. School is just not the place.”

Despite many students’ oppositions, freshman Elyse Miller believes that flagrantly expressing love only enhances the level of trust and admiration towards one another.

“I’m happy I do it,” Miller said. “I feel like it makes me and my girlfriend closer. Especially for me because when

English teacher Patricia George reenacts a scenario preventing PDA with participants juniors Alyssa Ramsey and Jake Tracy.

I do it in public, I show that she is mine and mine alone.

She’s the person I cuddle with and hug and hang out with. I’m happy we show our affection publicly.”

According to Miller, engaging in PDA is an aspect of her relationship she finds to be necessary: a way to ward off those who may have a romantic interest in her partner.

“When you love someone, it’s like you have this automatic desire to show that they’re yours and other people should back off romantically,” Miller said. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with (PDA), but I can understand why some people might have a problem with it.”

According to sophomore Jariah Sweeten, there is a defined line to what is publicly acceptable physical behavior and what is downright provocative.

“I feel like to a certain extent, PDA is acceptable,”

Sweeten said. “But making out with someone in the hallway is extremely inappropriate. A peck on the cheek or a peck on the lips is okay. But I always see couples that grope on each other and are attached at the mouth. It’s nasty to see.”

While some couples that engage in PDA consider it to be innocent displays of love, English teacher Patricia George regards it as obscene and irrelevant in a public environment.

“I just don’t think (PDA) is necessary,” George said. “It’s

like you’re trying to convince yourself that you really love this person and that you can’t live without them. If you really do love somebody, you don’t need to demonstrate it for the whole world to see. I think a part of the reason they do it is because they’ve seen enough movies and TV shows that they believe that’s what people in love do. I also can’t discount hormones. They’re acting on impulse instead of thinking about what’s proper behavior and being discreet.”

According to George, confronting students to address inappropriate behavior is worth the battle.

“When I see it, I say something,” George said. “They usually roll their eyes and look at me like I’m crazy, but my goal is to get a reaction out of them so that they will think twice before doing that. If nobody makes a comment, then kids won’t realize that it’s not appropriate behavior in a public space.”

Photo by Madison Krell

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Academic Anxiety

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Teachers bring perspective to high school stress Matthew Marvar | Staff Writer

Advanced Placement Language and Composition teacher Lori Roth was a straight-A student in high school.

But among all of those A’s, she broke her streak with Pre-Calculus during her junior year.

She got a D. “It was really hard,” Roth said. “I don’t like math, for one, because I don’t understand math. I tried real hard at math and even then, my best was not good enough. I didn’t know what I was doing.”

The class was so stressful in fact, that it gave her hives for six months.

Roth said that she was the overachiever, and to have a class that brought her down as much as it did created a lot of strain. Now as an experienced teacher, however, she knows the ins and outs of diluting the stress for students.

“I call it the panic hands,” Roth said.

“The panic hands means that it’s time to be worried about your grade. It’s time to start having that coming-toJesus moment where we really need to have a conversation about the kind of commitment you’re putting into class, whether or not you’re understanding the material.”

The problem is, Roth said, because of the students’ premature stress, the focus turns around from the actual learning directly to the letter grade in the class.

“A lot of kids have that panic moment way too early,” Roth said. “And they become so focused on the panic and the anxiety…they’re not getting out of it what they probably could get out it because they’re focused on the wrong thing.”

But according to junior Megan Slater, it can be frustrating for some students when the amount of effort they put into the class doesn’t reflect their grade.

“Teachers always say that they’re trying to put emphasis on (learning)-you should be focusing on learning instead of what your grade is in the class,” Slater said. “And I think that when you do focus on the learning, your grade will kind of just come to you. But that’s not always the case for some people.”

When a student in distress goes to Roth, she said she calms them down

and focuses on how they can improve rather than focusing simply on the grade.

“With my interpretation of panic hands--it’s still ‘There’s still time to fix that’, not time to be like ‘There’s no hope,’” Roth said. “It’s time to step in, make some adjustments. We need to be concerned, but we’re going to rally, and we’re going to do a better job next time.”

According to Slater, students sometimes value grades over anything else in school because they can be a reflection of character.

“I think it’s showing what kind of person you are and what kind of person you’re going to be,” Slater said.

“Because you’re developing that now in high school and you’re going to carry that on to college or whatever paths you choose.”

Despite this, Roth said the opposite-nothing academic is worth crying over.

“I got a D in (math),” Roth said.

“And I’m pretty sure I got into college, I’m pretty sure I got my undergrad, I’m pretty sure I got my masters, and now credits beyond that. Most people would say that I’m a pretty good teacher, a fairly good friend, and a pretty good wife and mother. So I feel like I’m alright with that D. And that’s not a B. That’s a D. Like dog. D. As in I was a straight-A student and it was the first D I ever got. And it didn’t keep me out of anything.”

She went on to tell a story about two twin students that she had--only one got into an Ivy League school, even though the other had better grades.

The reason for this, according to Roth, was because colleges look not just at the transcript, but at everything to evaluate how a student will fit into the school.

“They know what type of student, what type of learner, will be successful there, and the whole package you put together,” Roth said. “Not just your transcript shows that. They know who can survive at that school. That’s what they look for.”

In the end, she said that it turned out fine for them both. One of them graduated from Yale, and the other from Vanderbilt, now at medical school.

“It wasn’t just the grade,” Roth said.

“That’s why we don’t cry over grades.”

Photo by Matthew Marvar

Junior Megan Slater finds academic pressure stressful and overwhelming.

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The Finish Line Decision to quit not always perceived as failure Kylie McCalmont | Staff Writer

Quitting isn’t giving up.

After six hour practices nearly seven days a week for eight years, junior Allie Evans decided to take off her pointe shoes and breathe-without the suffocation that dance had around her life. According to Evans, by quitting her studio, she wanted to open up her schedule to friends and other activities.

“I was missing so many other opportunities because I was dedicating so much time to dance,” Evans said. “I felt that if I quit dance I would have more time to do things like get more involved in school, join clubs, and work out on my own.”

Senior Olivia Holzmacher had similar opinions about her sport. She earned a spot on the varsity volleyball team her sophomore year, but when her season ended, she decided to quit the sport she had loved since the 3rd grade.

“I witnessed all the girls that were working their butts off and doing 110% effort,” Holzm-

acher said. “And I still gave 110% effort, but I just felt wrong taking someone’s spot the next season if I didn’t really care if I was there or not.”

Quitting can be risky at times, but for senior Alberta Negri, her decision to leave soccer to run cross country paid off as she finished this season in the top 15. According to Negri, her reason to quit her eightyear soccer career was the desire to have an enjoyable senior year.

“I knew I wasn’t going to be playing (soccer) in college, so to me having a fun year with my friends was more important,” Negri said.

According to junior Kevin Liu, he didn’t quit as easily. He stuck with student government for a while and even held a co-chair position for a popular event, Seroogy candy bar sales. According to Liu, he left student government after his sophomore year because of the restrictions that were placed upon him.

“Freshman year, I came into student government in the fall season and because of that I couldn’t chair an event and I couldn’t participate, really all I could do was be a nominal member,” Liu said. “I was really disenchanted with the organization because I couldn’t participate as much as I wanted to.”

Unlike the others, in the end quitting benefited Evans in a different way. According to Evans, being away from the studio allowed her to realize her passion and go back to dance.

“Quitting definitely made me realize that even though it was a commitment, it was what I loved doing,” Evans said. “Losing it was like losing part of myself.”

Although he quit student government, Liu is now involved in other organizations. Despite the negativity associated with quitting, Liu said he doesn’t consider quitting a shame because it’s a choice about how a person focuses his or her time.

Quitting is not so much losing; it’s moving on,” Liu said. “And moving on is important, change is important. There’s nothing wrong with choosing.”

Photo by Erin McElhenny

Junior Allie Evans quit dancing because she felt like it was taking over her life. Spending time away from the sport led her to realize she wasn’t ready to give it up.

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Picture Perfect Turning to friends for senior pictures for convenience, cost Erin McElhenny | Staff Writer

When leaves start falling, cameras start clicking.

A lot goes on behind the scenes of a senior’s threeand-half-by-five-centimeter yearbook picture. Through multiple outfit photo shoots, hundreds of dollars and social media self-promotion, the meaning of taking a senior picture has changed. According to senior Ashleigh Boeres, senior pictures are more popular with girls because they see it as a rite of passage.

“I believe that seniors, mostly girls, take their senior pictures because it’s a tradition,” Boeres said. “You saw the seniors before you do it and you feel like you have to, too. It’s sort of something we look forward to senior year.”

A new twist to this tradition comes in the form of peer photographers. While most seniors are getting their pictures done with professionals, junior Madison Miller has decided to make a business out of it. According to Miller, her hobby-turned-business emerged with support from friends and an aunt who is a senior photographer.

“My aunt and my mom are really into taking pictures, and they used to take pretend senior pictures with me and my sister,” Miller said. “So I started taking some (pictures) of my junior friends because they know I’m into photography and I really liked my photography class. Then some people saw my pictures and were like ‘Whoa, I’d pay you for that.’ So now I just got into taking senior pictures.”

Senior Morgan Land took advantage of the new photographer in town and became Miller’s first model. According to Land, she trusted a peer to take some of her seJunior Madison Miller has turned her interest in photography into a business through taking senior pictures of her friends.

nior pictures because unlike big photography companies, Miller provided her with unlimited pictures and a photographer familiar to her personality.

“I first went to Elite Photography and I loved what they did,” Land said. “But I ended up getting four pictures for a very expensive price, and I wanted more than just that for my senior pictures. So I knew Maddie from soccer and she’s basically like my little sister, and she told me that she wanted to do photography…I definitely went to her because I wanted more than just like four pictures.

We ended up going and taking over 500 pictures, so I’ll get all of those back.”

While some parents and seniors are taking the pictures they pay for very seriously, according to senior Carver Nabb it’s okay to be a bit silly.

Although his parents made him take professional pictures, Nabb said he got some creative control by accessorizing his free Lifetouch picture with an eye patch.

“When all the seniors last year were getting their pictures done, I told myself ‘I’m going to wear an eye patch,’” Nabb said. “So I wore one.

I even had a fake note that said I had cut my cornea and needed to avoid bright lights.”

But according to Land, whether seniors choose a stance of seriousness or nonchalance, the tradition of taking formal pictures is an important one. “(It’s like) a little memento for me (because when) I get older, I’ll want to know what I looked like my senior year of high school,” Land said. “(My senior pictures) will be the reflection of my high school career, and that’s why I want them to look good.”

Photo by Erin McElhenny

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Hoopin’ It Up Hula hooping transforming into outlet for artistic expression Kelly Noriega | Staff Writer

Just because you’ve hula hooped doesn’t mean you’ve really hooped.

Hoop dancing is transforming a childhood pastime to a form of art, according to seniors Stephanie Garcia and Samantha Giesel.

According to Giesel, hula hooping has helped her find another way to express herself artistically.

“Since I’ve been hula hooping it’s (been) like a coping mechanism,” Giesel said. “I call it a hoop dance because you are using your body as an expression, and I’m a very kinesthetic person. I’ve always done dance or ice skating. This is amazing.

I don’t have to join a team I can do it all on my own, whenever I’m happy or wherever I am.”

Following in Giesel’s footsteps, Garcia said she now views the art as a meditative tool.

“I feel more calm since I started hooping,” Garcia said. “I feel like I can control my anxiety more.

Whenever I feel anxious, I hoop or I listen (to the music that I hoop to), and it calms me down. I consider it an art because it’s meditative. Hoopers call it hoop flow when you’re really flowy with it.”

Like most works of art, Giesel said the hoopers’ infusion of their own experiences makes their routines more artistic and genuine.

“You can do tricks and that’s cool,” Giesel said. “I’ve seen a lot of people doing it and they don’t look like they’re having any fun with it.

I haven’t focused on

learning new tricks in so long because I just make up my things and see different things that I can do to make (my hooping) more flowy.”

According to senior Sydney Varner, who was introduced to hula hooping by Garcia, she has found it to be more of a challenge than she first imagined.

“It works your mind out,” Varner said. “You have to be able to focus a lot. It looks so simple, and then even just rolling it around your shoulders is really confusing. Once you get certain tricks down it’s pretty relaxing just to be able to keep doing it with ease without thinking about it.”

Giesel said this new form of art has satisfied her artistic curiosity and given her an outlet to reach people. “(When you hoop) you meet new people with it,” said Giesel. “You feel good doing it, and you express yourself.”

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Scan this QR code with your smartphone to watch videos of the hula hoopers in action.

Photo contributed by Stephanie Garcia

Senior Stephanie Garcia hoops with her LED hula hoop to relax and meditate.

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The Like Generation

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Users go to lengths to achieve social media fame

Photo contributed by Umaize Savani

Junior Umaize Savani posted this photo on his Twitter account of his step-by-step transformation into One Direction’s Zayn Malik and acquired 200 favorites. Savani currently has over 700 followers on the social media site.

Jessica Sommerville | Staff Writer

Do it for the vine, tweet, Snapchat, Instagram pic, tumblr post--Generation Like wants it all.

On May 27, junior Umaize Savani tweeted, “100 rts and I’ll turn in this essay tomorrow.” A picture revealed his essay contained only a popular meme; and after 148 retweets, Savani submitted it as the cover page of his English assignment. The gamble kick started Savani’s media reputation.

“That (was) in the early stages of my media presence,” Savani said. “It was just building a name...that was when I had 300 followers, and now, I’m almost at 750, so I basically doubled.”

Once the initial jump has been taken, Savani said it is easier to be recognized and receive further acclaim.

“I was funny, and I knew that if I could bring it to social media, other people would know around the TriState, so that ups your public relations,” Savani said. “From Twitter, I met a lot of people, made a bunch of friends, so I definitely think it was worth it.”

According to Savani, fresh takes on the latest trends, like Transformation Tuesdays and Throwback Thursdays, are crucial to maintaining popularity.

“You (have) to have variety, and it has to be something new,” Savani said. “A lot of it’s already on the Internet, so you have to reinvent what’s already there. And if there’s a fad, like transformations and stuff, you (have) to hop on that, but do it better than anyone else did.”

Savani said he hopped on to the makeup transformation trend by posting a photo of himself trans-

forming into One Direction’s Zayn Malik for 200 favorites. According to junior Juan Tramontin, who has over 800 Twitter followers, photos like Savani’s are popular because followers can see the humor. Tweets with photos are some of Tramontin’s most favorited, including one concerning Mason City Schools.

“Last winter, during the polar vortex...people thought we were going to get school off because it was too cold to just be outside walking,” Tramontin said. “So, I had a funny tweet toward Mason (City) Schools, and it was a picture of Lord Farquaad from Shrek. And it said, ‘Some of you may die, but that is a risk I’m willing to take.’”

Despite the risk of retribution from the school district, Tramontin hit ‘send’ and attributed this tweet’s success to its relatability.

Even the funniest tweets won’t

receive high numbers of favorites, however, if they aren’t seen by a wide audience. According to sophomore Cameron Schweitzer, students use apps in order to gain followers.

“There (are) a lot of apps that you can get followers for,” Schweitzer said. “You have to go and follow random people, and the app makes them follow you back automatically.”

Despite an increase in followers, Schweitzer said these apps aren’t useful to bolster Twitter fame because the bought followers won’t like your photos. Though not all followers are active, Savani said having a vast Twitter audience comes with perks. “(It’s) having the ability to say something and know that 700 people are going to listen to it,” Savani said. “Having the ability to voice your opinion to a lot of people is pretty cool.”

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HELP WANTED If the Comic Sans above grabbed your attention for its inappropriate use in any situation ever, you may be right for The Chronicle’s Graphic Design and Layout Editor position for the next school year. for more information go to c103 or contact Gabrielle Stichweh at gstichweh.chronicle@gmail.com

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Checkmate “It’s obviously a relief (to win) because you just realized that you might have made some mistakes throughout the game, but that didn’t stop you or lead you to lose.”

“You would have to calculate what your opponent would do, what you would do, and all the different possibilities.”

— Jeffrey Huang

Ashton Nichols | Staff Writer

Checkmate this out: the Mason High School chess team might appear calm, cool and collected on the outside, but on the inside, they have the focus and fire to give it their all on the board.

MHS has won the prized Greater Miami Conference all-sports trophy for three consecutive years, encompassing the most physically grueling and mentally challenging sports. One contributor to this athletic excellence is the MHS chess team. According to chess team head coach Alan Hodge, chess is similar to the other contact sports with the amount of nerves brought to the board.

Chess players strategize, battle for mental victory

“It’s like any competition,” Hodge said. “Any sprinter is going to be nervous before he gets in block. Any football team is going to be nervous before kickoff.

That’s just part of competing. That’s just your body doing what it needs to do to perform at a higher level than just sitting in a rocking chair. It’s a natural part of it.”

In a chess match, freshman Jeffrey Huang strives for the mental mindset to think a lot of different things at once.

“You would have to calculate what your opponent would do, what you would do, and all the different possibilities,” Huang said. “It actually challenges you a lot.”

Hodge said part of that challenge includes being aware of blind spots because not everybody is seeing the same thing in their mind when they play chess. He said the difference of the game depends on what one player sees and another one doesn’t.

“Any chess game is a succession of different positions,” Hodge said. “Each of those positions is a problem to be solved. There’s a right answer, and there are many wrong answers. As you tend to win more frequently, you find the right answer more frequently.”

Senior Kevin Li said he tackles the game by thinking about objectives.

“I’m thinking, ‘In order to win I need to establish

— Kevin Li

a good position first, then try to push my way down the center of the board, instead of the side,’” Li said. “I think more in terms of strategy and ideas than concrete move by moves.”

When it comes to winning, according to Hodge, saying checkmate never comes as a surprise. He said he knows at a point in the game if he has won, and it’s just a matter of executing his moves and reaching the end zone.

“The checkmate is satisfying, but the aha! moment comes earlier than that when you realize, ‘I know how to get to checkmate,’” Hodge said. “It might be three moves. It might be 18 moves. You know how to get there, and you know you’ve

won the game. That’s where the satisfaction comes, but you can’t do a lot. You can’t get up and do a dance and scream and yell, and be foolish because the game is still going on. It’s very subdued.”

Although his court is a chessboard and his strength is all mental, like any other sport, Li said chess comes down to winning. According to Li, once his internal buzzer hits zero, it’s a time of celebration and reflection.

“It’s obviously a relief (to win) because you just realized that you might have made some mistakes throughout the game, but that didn’t stop you or lead you to lose,” Li said. “Even though both sides make mistakes, your opponent made the last one.”

Photo art by Gabrielle Stichweh and Maddie Drabek

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Black

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Standardized testing disregards gray area in ethnicity question Juliana Discher | Staff Writer

For biracial students, filling out the racial category on a standardized test isn’t always black and white.

Many high stakes standardized tests, such as the SAT and ACT, ask students to identify their ethnicities. According to USA Today, test makers ask this question to compare the scores of different races and see how the scores of a particular racial group change over time. And while the answer to this question doesn’t affect the test taker’s score, the pressure to paint an accurate picture for test makers and also stay true to individuality can be a dilemma for students of mixed backgrounds.

Before the test questions are even revealed, these students can sometimes face an internal identity crisis.

Sophomore Jonathan Mccollough, who is half Chinese and half Caucasian, said he has undergone that exact confusion of having to identify his race on a test.

“When I took the PSAT this year, I had trouble filling out the race portion at the beginning of the test,” Mccollough said. “There was an ‘other’ option, which is what I chose, but I wasn’t sure if that was right.”

According to The Cincinnati Enquirer, by the year 2060, 1/7 of Cincinnatians will be biracial. Mccollough said that this makes it even more important for these individuals to be recognized on standardized tests.

“Biracial students should be accounted for because they’re a growing population,” Mccollough said. “It’s becoming more common, so they should

have something to identify themselves on tests.”

Junior Ri Moodie, who is half African American and half Caucasian, said that the ‘other’ option is the best selection for biracial students, but there should be a better choice.

“Mixed races have been around for so long, but they’re still not included,” Moodie said. “The tests have Native American and everything else listed, but they don’t have mixed race or an option to choose multiple races. I think it should be its own category instead of ‘other’.”

According to Mccollough, the ‘other’ option undermines his identity.

“In a way, ‘other’ does have a negative connotation,” Mccollough said.

“It’s like you’re not included with everyone else.”

Rather than feel that isolation, sophomore Jay Singh, who is half African American and half Indian, said he chooses the ethnicity he feels more connected to.

“I think I share more of my mom’s side, so I just put black,” Singh said.

Picking between one of your racial makeups can be emotionally exasperating for biracial students, according to Singh. He said that essentially they have to decide between two very distinct cultures that are a part of them.

“Your racial identity is who you are,” Singh said. “When a biracial student is taking a standardized test and they’re forced to select one race, (the test makers) may not realize it, but they’re making the kid neglect an important part of who they are. It just doesn’t Sophomore Jonathan Mccollough, half-Chinese and half-Caucasian, struggles to answer one of the first questions on standardized tests: the origin of his ethnicity. feel right.”

Photo by Madison Krell

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Sports

FREQUENT FLYERS Photo by Kylie McCalmont

Girls soccer team makes annual state semifinal appearance Erin Brush | Managing Editor

The third time just wasn’t the charm for the girls soccer team.

After two consecutive state final appearances, the bar was set high. The Comets, however, fell just short in the state semifinal round, losing 1-0 to Dublin Coffman. But according to senior Emily Calvani, the closeness of this year’s team made this season one to remember, despite the end result.

“We expected to be good but we tried not to expect anything because we wanted to focus on the moment,” Calvani said. “Our unfinished business was originally aimed toward winning state but I think it kind of changed meaning toward the end of the season. We were always known as the team that fought and had all the drama and I think we finally closed that chapter and became close by the end of the season.”

Head coach Andy Schur said this year’s team seemed to take the pressure from past success in stride as the season continued.

“They compartmentalized things and we all knew it was out there, we weren’t shy to mention it but we didn’t dwell on it,” Schur said. “I don’t think it hindered our play.”

According to senior Jamila Sylves-

ter, the added expectation pushed her team to perform well.

“I think (the pressure) made us want to work even harder, especially all postseason,” Sylvester said. “(State) was our underlying goal.

Last year was more of an underdog thing and proving people wrong, and this year was more about proving ourselves right.”

kind of meshed and it worked well.

Toward the end everybody really gained respect for each other that we didn’t initially have.”

Sylvester said that clicking off the field translated into better on-field chemistry for her team, especially during the postseason games.

“I don’t know if they’ll understand what they’ve accomplished until years from now, but I hope they appreciate what they’ve done.”

—Andy Schur With 14 seniors on this season’s roster, Calvani said there was no shortage of strong personalities on the team, which created problems early on.

“At the beginning, we kind of clashed,” Calvani said. “It was really hard to get everybody to want the same things. But toward the end of the season we had some people step up and take on roles as leaders for the team. Eventually everyone just

“When we didn’t have team chemistry, it was obvious,” Sylvester said.

“You have to have communication and your teammates have to have your back. When there’s not good team chemistry, you can tell.”

According to Schur, there was a noticeable difference in his team’s togetherness as the season progressed.

“Some of that success on the field lends itself to having some chemis-

try to start to come together,” Schur said. “We just try to help guide them along the way to help them in understanding what’s important in life and what isn’t. I think once they figured that out, they realized the journey they were on was a lot more fun if they did it together.”

Calvani said that although they reached the majority of their goals, falling short of a trip to the state championship made it hard to appreciate their postseason success.

“I think because we’ve gotten (to state) the past three years, it didn’t seem like that big of a deal to us,” Calvani said. “We kind of took it for granted and we didn’t appreciate that we were in the state semifinals.

Our goal was to make it to state and we didn’t do that, so that makes it harder, but as a team we definitely grew closer and built friendships that you can’t replace.”

According to Schur, the girls don’t fully understand the magnitude of their achievements yet.

“I don’t know if they’ll understand what they’ve accomplished until years from now, but I hope they appreciate what they’ve done because I don’t think many teams have been to state final four in three consecutive years,” Schur said. “It’s just really hard to do. I hope eventually they see that they’ve set some records.”

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Wrestling team faces tough schedule Zane Miller | Staff Writer

The Comet wrestling team isn’t afraid to face the fire. In fact, head coach Craig Murnan decided to fan the flames this season by scheduling his athletes to wrestle against the toughest teams in the area.

Murnan said that the reason for the tough schedule was to put the team in adverse situations during the season, wrestling against nationally ranked teams such as Graham, Cathedral, and Perrysburg, so they can handle them better at the end of the season.

“We wanted to make sure that our kids get the opportunity to experience both sides of the spectrum prior to going into the championship series,” Murnan said.

“With the type of team that we have and the experienced team that we have, it’s going to be more important that they see some really good competition throughout the year.”

Murnan also said that the tough schedule helps determine the character of wrestlers to help them improve before it’s too late.

“You’d rather question (character) in the season,” Murnan said. “And you have time

to work through that, than to get to the end of the season, you’re at the district tournament, you lose a match, and an hour later you’ve got to come back and win a match to go to the state tournament.”

Senior Patrick Kearney said that he is already prepared for the tough road ahead, both physically and mentally.

“I need to get in shape right now,” Kearney said. “Then I just need to grind it out for the whole season.”

Kearney also said that his confidence will be affected by the schedule, depending on how well he performs throughout this season.

“I’ll have a lot of tough kids that I get to wrestle this year,” Kearney said. “Depending on if I kick their butt or not, my confidence will be one way or the other, but I know I’ll be ready towards the end of the season.”

The Comets already have plenty of confidence going into this season, according to sophomore Zack Donathan. “(I’m looking forward to facing) Graham,” Donathan said. “They’re the best in the division, so we can hopefully hang with them, beat them, and show how good we are.”

The Chronicle Sports

November 14, 2014

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Senior JJ Iroh’s hat trick led the boys soccer team to a 4-0 win over Springboro in the regional semifinals.

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This year, the girls volleyball team advanced to the sweet 16 round of postseason play, but fell to Ursuline Academy. The team finished with a 22-4 season record.

6-3, 6-0

Doubles duo sophomores Lizzy Kong and Isabel Cepeda made it to the second round of the state tournament before a 6-3, 6-0 loss to Upper Arlington.

18:20.90

Junior Maegan Murphy placed fourth overall at the cross country state championships, running an 18:20.90 5K. Results as of November 9.

MVP: Hayden Bruser

Sport: Football Class: 2015 Best thing about football: My teammates; I’ve become like brothers with all of them Worst thing about football: Waking up at 4 for morning workouts in the spring Toughest Opponent: Lakota East Motto: Be a positive influence, no matter what mood you’re in Celebrity Crush: Jessica Alba Embarrassing Moment: I had a clear shot at the Oak Hills quartback and completely whiffed Pregame Meal: Lasagna Netflix Addiction: Sons of Anarchy

Photo contributed by Hayden Bruser

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Cross country teams own podium at state championship meet

The state champion boys team and state runners-up girls teams at the state meet on November 1.

Eric Miller | Staff Writer State Champions. Two of the sweetest words in high school sports. For the boys cross country team, it was even sweeter after a less than satisfying fifth place state finish in the state in 2013. Coach Tom Rapp said the 2013 race was not what his team had been hoping for.

“Last year we were expecting to get on the podium,” Rapp said. “We just had a couple of bad things happen during the race and the whole thing went south. Fifth is still pretty good, but it wasn’t what we were hoping for, it was disappointing.”

Senior runner Nick Grismer said the 2014 campaign wasn’t off to the best start. Struggling at early season invitationals, the Comets didn’t win their first meet until the fifth meet of the year, the Mason Invitational.

Grismer said as the season progressed, the Comets were motivated by the idea of getting on the state podium.

“We were definitely motivated, our first few meets hadn’t been that great,” Grismer said. “The more the season progressed the better we got. The closer we got to being state champions.”

Grismer said some of his personal success came from being one of the leaders of the team.

“There was a little bit of pressure (being a leader),” Grismer said. “I think it was a good kind of pressure. I was influenced to do a lot better than I would have if I

hadn’t had that pressure.”

While the Comets were district, regional, and eventually state champions, the conference championship eluded the Comets. Rapp said the team took it in a positive light and also drew a parallel to Mason’s other state championship team, from 2008.

“When we won our other state championship in 2008, the same thing happened,” Rapp said. “Our guys called it the prophecy. They didn’t take it as a negative. They really dedicated themselves to taking care of themselves better.”

Coming off of a southwest regional championship, the Comets were ready for the state meet in Columbus.

Rapp said he told the team to try and treat the race as business as usual.

“Every year I give the same little speech,” Rapp said.

“I tell them, it’s just another race. Someone is going to shoot a gun off and we’re all going to run as fast as we can and the best team will wind up winning.”

Senior Justin Koehler said he noticed a difference from the 2013 to 2014 race.

“Last year’s race wasn’t pretty for our team,” Koehler said. “I think what happened this year was we got in there more mentally tough. We set our mind to it and every single person on the team wanted to win. Everybody was a part of it.”

The weather for the race was an issue for other com-

Photos contributed by runmason.com

petitors Rapp said, but not his team.

“The guys on this team are not bothered by cold,” Rapp said. “In fact when its 50 degrees outside they all want to take their shirts off and run without their shirts on. I heard other coaches and other athletes complaining about the cold. Our guys never said anything about it. They just embraced it and figured it was an advantage.”

At the state meet, Mason came out on top, scoring just 121 total points to beat Hilliard Davidson by three points. Grismer said his team’s chemistry this year was special.

“Our team chemistry was probably the best out of any team I’ve ever been on,” Grismer said. “We all brought our A-game on the same day.”

Rapp said he enjoyed seeing the jubilation from his runners after such a demanding season. “(I was) just thrilled for the guys, knowing how hard they worked,” Rapp. “We were not a state championship team halfway through the season. To see them rise from that to where they ended up, (I was) just thrilled for them.”

Scan here to see a full wrap-up of the girls cross country team’s state meet on thecspn.com

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November 14, 2014

Photo contributed by Tom Bosticco

Senior Lucas Edwards prepares for a hit in the Comets’ win over Winton Woods.

Photo by Erin McElhenny

Senior Austin Jensen toes the line against Sycamore.

Reborn

Football team concludes season with 7-3 record Charlie MacKenzie | Staff Writer

To call Mason’s 2014 football season a comeback would be the understatement of the fall. The Mason football team was reborn.

Last season, the Comet defense allowed 312 points on the scoreboard.

This season, only 138. Last year, the Comets hung up their helmets with a record of 3-7. This year, they completely turned the tables, finishing 7-3.

According to senior defensive captain Andy Whitney, he attributes the turnaround this season to the senior class.

“The biggest change was the overall leadership throughout the team,” Whitney said. “Not only did the captains do a great job, but the whole senior class. The senior class held each other accountable and we all just wanted to compete and get better.”

This season, the Comets changed

Photo contributed by Tom Bosticco

Sophomore Alex King strips a Winton Woods player of the football.

their offense to the Wing-T, a stark contrast from last season’s prostyle offense. The team faced some struggles early in the season adapting to the new offense, and lost their first game to Springboro 14-6. According to the head football coach Brian Castner, his team overcame the struggles by continuing to have confidence in their offense.

“We just continued to believe in what we were doing,” Castner said.

“We weren’t going to let outside noise distract what we were doing.

You can skin a cat a thousand different ways, and this is the way we decided to go with.”

The offense wasn’t the only thing that changed this season. Defensively, the Comets began to run an even front, as opposed to the hot front they had run for the last four years.

Along with this change, Castner believes the defense drastically improved because of the commitment

from the senior class. “(The new defense) was a big part of (our success), on top of the senior class being so dedicated and wanting to be great,” Castner said. “I think there’s a bunch of great kids, but there are some serious winners in that class. That made a big impact on our success.”

Senior offensive captain Dan Casey said he believes the turning point of the season was when the Comets silenced the Princeton Vikings 35-14.

“The major turning point of the season was the Princeton game after a tough loss to (Lakota) East,” Casey said. “That game was a huge confidence booster and the week of practice was much more focused. That game jump-started the momentum that we needed for the upcoming weeks.”

Although senior leadership was a key component to the season, under-

classman held important roles on the starting line up. Castner said he believes the underclassmen accepted leadership from the seniors and contributed to the team’s success. “(The underclassmen) really enjoyed being led by the senior class and I think they enjoyed being a supporting role,” Castner said. “Our starting quarterback was a sophomore and our defensive end was a sophomore, so there were sophomores in the mix.”

According to Whitney, the high level of preparation and team bonding during this year’s off-season was another big factor leading to the winning record.

“We did change our lifting program and it did help us get stronger and I think it showed in games,” Whitney said. “Besides that just hanging out and how close the whole team became was a big part in our success.”

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