Volume 52 Issue 1
Downers Grove South High School
southblueprint.com
@DGSBlueprint
@DGSBlueprint
Oct. 28, 2016
@DGSBlueprint
The 2016 mock election breaks traditional boundaries By Gabrielle Bartkeviciute; Gillian Thomas; Rylan Dreyer; Eileen Tyrrell Print Editor-in-Chief; Copy Editor; Business Manager; Online Entertainment Editor surrounding each candidate, the AP government teachers have put a twist on how students should represent a candidate they do not share beliefs with. “We have been able to spin it where even though you might represent a [candidate you do not agree AP Government teacher Brian Hardy and American Government with] in order to teacher Lauren Berg face off in front of the campaign signs. enhance your own Photo by Gabrielle Bartkeviciute argument you also have to learn and As the 2016 presidential race comes research about your own candidate so to a close, the DGS mock election is that you can be prepared to talk about drawing nearer. Debates between stu- both strengths and weaknesses,” Berg dents representing each candidate will said. By researching all candidates, stube held on Nov. 3 and the entire student body will commence voting on Nov. 4 dents are able to learn about the canfor the represented presidential candi- didate they are representing, and the dates. The presidential race this year candidate they support in real life. Also new to this year, students will has been anything but normal, and this year the AP Government teachers have represent a surrogate of their candidecided to make changes to the mock date, instead of the actual candidate. So instead of saying ‘I am Hillary Clinelection in order to reflect that. “This election has been so controver- ton and I believe...,’ the student will sial that it was an adjustment for stu- say, ‘Clinton believes…,’ in order to dents to say that they will represent a take pressure off of the person repreDemocrat even though you might iden- senting the candidate. Berg explains why the Social Studies tify as a Republican,” Social Studies teacher Lauren Berg said. “The climate teachers decided to use this method. “We were hoping [using surrogates] of the election has changed. It feels a lot more personal to people… It’s been would alleviate stress off our students,” unique in the entire social studies de- Berg said. “That way they don’t feel they are actually representing [their partment...” In order to cope with the controversy
candidate], and then that message [does not] get misinterpreted by other students in the audience,” Berg said. Another way that this mock election has been different than elections in the past is its focus on using digital media in promoting a candidate. Senior Vishal Sorakayala describes this change. “Instead of doing posters and stuff like that, we made some videos, and we haven’t really gone out and talked to the classes,” Sorakayala said. “We’ve been trying to increase our digital outreach instead of talking to people face to face.” Junior Sam Rouzan describes how Twitter will play a key role in the Trump campaign. “We will be retweeting things that Donald Trump says that are less risque, and polls,” Rouzan said. “Just promoting his campaign a bit, trying to keep in touch with other activities going on in the school, trying to get our campaign to pop up on their feed.” Finally, teachers have also decided to include third party candidates Gary Johnson and Jill Stein in the mock election this year. According to the New York Times, Libertarian Gary Johnson is polling at 6%, meaning he “may be on track to win more votes than any third party candidate in 20 years.” Berg explained why this decision was made. “We are going to have [third party candidates] debate for the simple fact that... we have some students interested in these policies and positions. It could be a good conversation in Social Studies classes on why we have third parties if we know that they technically won’t win, and what that means
for an election,” Berg said. With the changes being made both in the mock election and the real presidential race, AP Government teacher Laura Rodey explained the way she thinks this election is different than anyone has seen before. “I think that this election will be one that students remember for kind of the rest of their lives,” Rodey said. “I think there’s tensions and debates that people are having in this country that are just tense, and we haven’t really seen that as much recently. So, it’s just a lot of difficult conversations right now.” However, despite all the changes being made, Sorakayala is confident that the mock election will run just as well as it has in the past. Senior Sayuj Shah, who will be representing Donald Trump’s campaign, explains what Trump’s main agenda is if he gets the presidency. “Trump’s major premise involves cleaning up our deportation problem in this country. The amount of illegals in this country is getting out of hand, and they are stealing millions of jobs from our hard-working Americans,” Shah said. On the other side of the political spectrum, junior Himal Koshi, explained why Hillary Clinton should be elected. “She encourages the right ideals for American citizens and doesn’t just care about reducing government,” Koshi said. There is no ignoring the dramatic contrast this election holds in comparison to others in the past. The polls and people’s opinions are constantly shifting making the wait for Nov. 4 election day that much more anticipated.
Student-led Snowball event aims to teach positivity By Gisselle Cervantes, Copy Editor On Nov. 18, a group of students will be taking a bus to YMCA Camp Duncan to participate in Operation Snowball. Snowball is a two-day overnight event that many schools across the country do to create a positive learning environment. “...Snowball is basically a prevention and education program. So the idea behind Snowball is that you take a portion of students from our population, you educate them about how to be confident, how to make good decisions, how to live a healthy lifestyle and how to be a leader in the school, and then they come back to the general school population and create a snowball effect,” the DGS Student Assistance Coordinator and Snowball sponsor.
Diana Benoist said. “This year dur- nior Matt Campbell, Senior Kim Nothdurft, Senior ing Snowball, we’re Jack Thompson, going to have the Senior Olivia same crazy fun atPandola, Semosphere we have nior Max Davis, every year with Senior Bregin some more great DeMarco and speakers, good Senior Tiarah workshops and Golladay-Muroverall just a fun time,” said senior ry. They choose Matt Campbell, the small group leaders, faone of the student cilitate speakdirectors. ers, coordinate What makes events, brainSnowball unique storm iceis that students Participants from the 2015 fall Snowball breakers and direct and lead the event. The fall take a group photo to mark the memorable plan activities. The directors Snowball directors time they had at Camp Duncan. this year are SePhoto Courtesy Senior Jenna Norwood
choose leadership skills to focus on and issues in our society to address through large group activities and skits. The Snowball weekend starts off with a keynote speaker who incorporates a positive message. Students are then placed into small groups where they meet to reflect upon large group activities or workshops. The small groups also focus on teamwork and team building activities while getting to know each other. The overall purpose of Snowball is to have fun and learn skills that participants can take back to their community. These skills help to promote an ATOD (alcohol, tobacco and other drug) free lifestyle and create leaders within the DGS community. “I recommend you come to at least one Snowball while you’re at DGS,” Campbell said.